Lance and I competed for leadership as we made our way along the base of the mountains south, the swamps on our left had given way to jungle terrain a while ago. I did it out of guilt for having the group to gallop on foot rather than fly, despite my protests. I felt it was my responsibility because of the handicap I imposed on them. I think he did it out of some duty of leadership, or male bravado. It was all the same to me. As thoughts of my father weighed on me, I found I had time for none of it, which furthered my grumpiness with Lance. So we were nearly out of breath after a couple of hours travel, the moon high in the sky when I came to an abrupt halt, looking due east. Lance had pulled ahead a few minutes earlier and eventually circled around back to us, the others starting to catch up from the other direction. "You feel we should head in from here?" he said.

I looked at Lance and nodded slightly. I was unsure though, the fires had been widespread. This was literally a shot in the dark, our night vision notwithstanding. "If you could hop up there and eyeball it, that would help."

Lance grinned and shot up into the sky. The other thestrals took a moment to catch their breath. It occurred to me that they were not used to running on all fours versus their normal mode of travel. Even with them alternating between running and flying, this was new to them. They were not as quick to look at me with disdain as when we first met. Once or twice I caught a look of grudging respect.

Flapping wings signaled Lance's return as he alighted onto the hard cold ground. "This looks good. In fact, we are just south of the fire line. There doesn't seem to be any activity right now, which makes sense. Dragons are daytime creatures." I huffed my dissent.

"They are NOT dragons, they live across the sea. There is no reason for them to be on this part of the continent." Lance frowned and turned towards the jungle. The rest of us followed. The jungle was very dark under the canopy, the moon almost completely obscured. There was a host of different sounds, other animals. Normally the night was our time to move about, the darkness a boon to us. In the jungle, all bets were off.

I whispered, "Just because there is fire does not mean there is a dragon. It could have been started by anything, cracks in the earth erupting lava, terrible camping habits, lightning." It was a balance to whisper loud enough for him to hear and not too loud to attract unwanted predators. The others could fly, I was grounded.

He flicked an ear and glanced sidelong at me, "What is your thing about dragon denial? It's as though you would have an Ursa Major on your tail rather than a fire-breathing lizard." My eyes met his and I could see that tell-tale jolt of intelligence flash through his brain. "Woh, are you afraid of dragons?"

"I am absolutely not afraid of dragons. They can go spit acid for all I care about dragons!" The local fauna in the area had quieted down, either from fear or the need to listen in on our loud conversation. Both reactions did not bode well. "Dammit, could we not have this discussion right now, when we have to keep quiet," I whispered harshly. Lance refrained from pointing out who was loud and we picked our way through the jungle, trying to keep the moon at the same bearing whenever it peeked through the trees. After a while I spoke up, "My parents used to tell me bedtime stories about dragons wandering around in the caves that ate little thestrals who did not go to sleep and were playing outside past bedtime during the day. If little thestrals ran and hid, they would breathe fire in the nooks and crannies, cooking us alive. That kind of stuff wears on a foal after a while."

Gheist came up from behind and muttered, "They do live in caves."

Swift Shade followed up on the other side of me, "And they breathe fire, apparently." I shuddered and picked up my pace. They matched it.

Sanguine shouldered Swift out of the way and said quietly, "Give over, you two. My parents told the same stories, along with other disturbing things that supposedly haunt the world. Now we will find them to be true or false and each of us will have to face our enemies sooner or later." She nodded at me and caught up to speak with Lance softly. The other two males grumbled about being told what to do by somepony with the word 'Silence' in her name. I was inwardly grateful for the intervention, though I was still concerned about what we would find.

It was another few hours of moving through the jungle undergrowth before we began to smell burned foliage and see ash deposits. We were getting close. I took the lead as Lance stepped aside and I began looking more intensely at the dirt, the tree trunks and branches. Even the lay of the vines could tell me if something or somepony came through here. It was awhile before I found tracks. A lot of tracks. I sat on my haunches and stared at them as the others gathered around. After a while, Lance looked up at me, "For the record, I was hoping it would be something else. That settles it."

On the ground was a nice paw print for all to see, similar to a chicken's. But vastly larger, definitely reptilian. I furrowed my brow and looked around. "I had a feeling they would be here, whatever I said. I'm seeing a lot of other prints, too. Over there are more dragons, different sizes, and there, looks to be thestrals. That has to be the scouting party." The others looked at the markings, tilting their heads. All they saw were scuffs in the ground.

Lance was the first to admit he had no idea what he was looking at. "Alright, since you have the skills, which way did they go." I pointed with a hoof eastward. I told him that if we kept in that direction, we would eventually reach the coastline. He nodded, "They could have a coastal cave there...still doesn't make sense why they would come inland to burn trees. Jen, you have the lead. The rest of you let's give her some space on either side and keep a lookout for anything moving." As we formed up I continued outlining one print with the tip of my hoof. Lance came over and looked at what I was doing. "Um, what are you doing?"

I raised my head and shook it slowly, "This shouldn't be here. These prints are bipedal." I pointed them out to him, but it was no use. He shrugged, waiting for me to explain. "While we've been out tonight I glanced around from time to time, just curious to see what left tracks. Occasionally I would see some animal prints here and there. A few times I saw cat prints." I pointed at the markings. "These are cat prints."

Lance nodded and started to walk away, "So they are cat prints. We will keep a look out for large jungle cats while you follow the thestral tracks." I followed and bumped Lance on the shoulder.

"You are not listening. Bipedal. Jungle cats do not walk on their hind legs. These prints indicate cats that do." Lance stopped and looked at me. The others also had confused expressions, except for Swift Shade, who spoke up.

"Ridge cats? From the Badlands?"

We looked at him and he lifted his eyebrow. "What?"

Gheist voiced our thoughts, "We haven't seen ridge cats in a century, Swift. They either stay west of the mountains or further south. They don't like water or moist areas."

Swift shrugged and pointed southwest, "The mountains dip down to low lying hills not too far that way. It wouldn't be a stretch for them to come out here. I have no idea why, was just a thought."

Lance stepped up and clopped a hoof against the ground, "Okay, we have established there are dragons, thestrals, and ridge cats in here with us. Let's avoid pissing off the first, find the second, and not get scratched or eaten by the third. Or the first for that matter. Jen, you ready?" I nodded and wandered the area for a time until I got a good bead on which way way we had to travel. The rest set up a circle around me as I moved.

We passed several trees that had been burned earlier in the week, or some more recently. While this was a dense area where the cocoa trees grew, they were not the only ones ravaged by fire. It looked like whole swaths of trees were destroyed. It made no sense, unless a dragon was trying to flush out prey hiding in the bushes. I shuddered and continued searching for more prints. Occasionally dragon and cat prints crossed paths, but I stayed on the thestral trail. At one point we got to a clearing where several dragon and thestral prints mingled, some violently. I expressed my concerns to the others. Sanguine was visibly shaken, as was Swift Shade. Lance and Gheist remained calm and had a brief discussion before Lance pulled out his blade from his pack and slipped the handle into his mouth. When I looked at him questioningly he spoke around the handle, "Better to have it and not need it." He must have been practicing doing that ever since he got it because he enunciated perfectly.

We continued on, Lance close by my side with the others noticeably in a tighter circle than before. The jungle ground started showing signs of sand and shells, as though washed by the ocean a long time ago. I could smell the sea air and knew we were getting close to the coast. There were some rocky formations just on the edge of the jungle before the sand took over, and from here I could see a dark entrance among those rocks. We crouched down in the bushes. Lance looked to us and said, "Go ahead and get out some food and water. We should watch the entrance for a bit to make sure they are sleeping." He looked up at the moon. It was getting late, though it was still an hour or two before midnight. He got close to me and whispered, "You saw something else in those tracks, didn't you?"

Listening to the soft crashing of the waves had a soothing effect on me, the opposite of what the jungle had been doing to my nerves. Aside from the jungle itself, the tracks had been bothering me, a detail Lance had picked up on. Yes, I had spotted something in the tracks. He had waited until the others were preoccupied before asking me. I replied, "You and I should not spend so much time together. You are getting to know me too well and I like my solitude."

He smirked and replied, "Garbage. You're just used to being alone. Nopony likes solitude. And don't try to change the subject, by the way. Care to talk about the tracks?"

I sighed and picked through a fish sandwich before speaking. "Back where it looked like there was fighting, there were scorch marks on the ground. Afterward, it looked like one or two thestrals were being dragged by the others. They were forced to come this way, else they would have retreated back toward the mountains where we would have found them." Lance listened and sat back. He put his dagger down and drank some water from a canteen as he pondered what I had said. Also what I had not said. The thestrals had not scattered, even though they could fly. They had stayed together and helped some of the injured toward what appeared to be the dragon's lair. Whether by threat or choice, they had stayed long past when they were supposed to return home.

After a while the others put away their food and canteens and appeared ready to move again. Lance leaned in close and said, "They were alive when they came this way. If the dragons had wanted to eat them, they would have been carried off. This feels like something else." After thinking over his words, they made sense and I nodded silently. Lance touched my shoulder and got up. "This next part is the tricky one. Assuming we get to the cave and we are not attacked, we will go in and try to find our family members. If anything happens, fly out as fast as possible and make your way back to the mountains. That spot where we had turned east I saw a large fissure going right up to the peaks. The closer you go west from here the easier it is to see, so meet at the base of it. Stay as long as you can and then head home to at least tell the others what happened. So far, we know the scouting party is alive. Beyond that...well we will get to that shortly. Let's get going."

The trek to the rock formations was straight forward. The local wildlife had vacated the area a while ago, most likely from the dragons moving in. As we approached the cave entrance, I could smell something slithery, as if scent and sound could mingle into a single sensation. My childhood nightmares of dragons lurking in dark corners of the tunnel networks back home came back to haunt my logical thinking. The tunnel led down underground and spiraled back into the mainland as we crept forward into the lair. The bore of the cave was smooth as though lava had once flowed through it. Gheist whispered about dragon fire capable of melting rock and carving deep into the earth, possibly winding its way under our home as well. We told him to shut up. The tunnel was also large enough to accommodate several full size dragons. Nobody commented on that detail as we stared in awe of the vast space.

Swift Shade occasionally made small clicking sounds and paused to listen before moving on. Gheist finally sidled up next to him and whispered, "By the time you hear a good return, they will have heard it too." Swift gave him a muted glare but refrained from clicking further.

The tunnel finally opened up to a vast cavern, its ceiling lost in darkness. There were small pools dotting the cavern floor, some of which were on fire with blue flames. Sanguine stepped over to an unlit pool and dipped her hoof tip in it. A thin clear oily liquid dripped from her hoof and she shook it off in disgust. "Fire water. Bubbles up from below ground. Very flammable."

As she rejoined us, Lance sat back and squinted at the other end of the cavern. "The fires are messing with my night vision. I can just make out another tunnel over there. Dragons are day creatures, so hopefully they are sleeping in some side cave." Some of us were
more hopeful than he was.

We resumed finding a path through the pools and reached the other end of the cavern. Upon entering this new tunnel we could hear soft rumbling echo from its depths. Knowing that they were asleep did not assuage my fears. As we cautiously crept forward, my heart leapt every time the long snores would end and felt relief when the snores began again.

The tunnel terminated into a u-turn, with a cylindrical throne room just around the corner. There was a circular raised dais in the center of the room. Several medium sized dragons of varying color lounged around the dais while a particularly large red drake lay curled at the top of the dais. Its body was wrapped around a gilded cage that held a group of thestrals. A quiet tsk sound from Lance drew us away from the entrance and back into the tunnel. Each of us stared at each other trying to think of what to do. Gheist spoke up first, whispering, "There are a few more than I thought would be here." We gave him irritated looks. He continued, "This is not some wandering dragon that settled in. It looks like the beginning of a colony."

The others were visibly unsettled. Having a dragon several hours from your home was not a good thing, let alone several dragons that already showed open hostility like burning forests and taking prisoners. I voiced my thoughts and Lance countered, "The important thing is they are alive. First we get them out of here. Then they can go back home and deal with this later." He glanced back inside and sat, thinking. "Our options are limited. Sneak in and avoid waking up the lizards, open the cage, sneak out and run. Or create a diversion. There is plenty of that fire water back up the tunnel. We could pour it down here, maybe douse the dragons with it." Gheist shook his head.

"They are immune to fire. More likely they swim in those pools to help regulate their body heat"

Lance eyed him and said, "You don't know the difference between mitosis and my toes in Biology. Where is all this coming from?"

Gheist snorted softly and replied, "I read other books that are more interesting."

Lance flicked his hoof and said, "Fine, ye drakonus artifex. Any other wisps of information we should know?" We stared at him until he replied, "Yeah I know some things, too."

Gheist looked down and furrowed his brow, "The larger ones eat meat and sometimes fish, hence the coastal adaptation. Fire you know about...they are very partial to treasure, valuables and gifts...and they are immune to earthly forged weapons."

Lance nearly did a dance as he pulled out his blade and held it up, "Sweet! This was made from ore not found on this world. This could hurt them." I glanced back into the chamber, at the cage, the dragons and their size. That dagger would only piss them off. Like I was getting now.

"No." The other thestrals looked at me. Lance's dagger dipped down as he sat back. "They are just bullies."

Lance said, "Come again?"

Swift Shade raised his hoof, "I would say they are massive bullies. They outnumber us and are far stronger." Gheist stayed quiet and nodded.

Sanguine watched me with a knowing expression. She was thinking of her sister in that cage and felt my ire at the situation.

I shook my head, "So what? So were all of you not that long ago."

The other thestrals looked embarrassed. Swift spoke up, "About that, we were just having a go at you because it got to you so much. We didn't mean anything by it at the time."

Lance waved his hoof at them, "She knows that, I told her a while back not to get so offended. She has been coming along nicely-"

I put my hoof on his muzzle which earned a surprised look from him. "That part I knew about and coped with in my own time and way. This part I just figured out." I thought back to what Nighmare Moon had said. About fear. "A bully can hurt you, break your things. He can even kill you." Sanguine and Gheist were somber as I spoke. Swift looked embarrassed still, along with Lance as they must have been remembering all the 'good' times they had at my expense. "For all his strengths, he has no power over you. He cannot make you feel unless you want him to, make you fear unless you let it into your heart. I have run from bullies and monsters, real and imagined since I was little." I stared at each of them. "No more."

There was a minute of silence. Lance stepped forward and handed me his dagger. "Okay, what do you propose?" I held the blade in my hoof, turned it to admire the detailed lines and grooves in the blade. Straight, resolute, unearthly.

"Hold here, wait until all of us come out, or not. Either way, fly back home and if things went bad, gather an army. Hire a bunch of unicorns and bury this place." They were a little taken aback. It occurred to me they had no clue how far I was willing to go to spit in a bully's eye. Lance may have known, he seemed the least fazed of the four. I slid the blade into a side pocket of my pack and walked to the entrance. I glanced at them and said, "Sit tight. Time to go talk to some bullies."

I walked past the sleeping wyrms, not bothering to cover my steps. The kestrals in the cage stirred from hearing the steady taps of my hooves and stood up to see. A couple of them whispered my name and looked at somepony out of sight. Some of the dragons started to wake and sat up slowly, watching me in surprise as though morsels of food did not simply enter a dragon's abode. I reached the dais and looked up. Some of the thestrals helped another to stand. It was my father. He appeared burned down one flank, his right wing ruined. He saw me and tried to speak but shuddered from pain. I had to look away lest I lost the nerve I had just built up. I waited.

The loud snoring had ceased the moment I entered the chamber. I only just noticed its absence. The red dragon was still curled up around the cage, its head to the side. It inhaled and spoke in an ominous rumbling, "I can hear you, little night crawler, pretentious and persnickety in approach." The head lifted up, its eyelids opening to reveal large golden orbs. The sinuous neck unwound in coils around the cage until it moved the head next to me, vast near my small form. "And now I see you....you are different than the others."

I flicked my head and replied, "My hair perhaps. I should brush it more, maybe grow it out."

The dragon lifted its head and gave a hearty laugh, nearly deafening my sensitive thestral ears. "And has wit! To ignore the obvious while we both know what the subject is, a true delight! Much more entertaining than these others." It lowered its head and voice, the rank heat of its breath flowing over me, "Much more treasured, indeed."

I stared back at the dragon and replied, "This treasure is flawed and short-lived, like those you caged. Why not release them, let us all go so we leave each other alone."

The dragon thrummed and shifted its body, holding onto the cage tighter. "The fragile nature of a treasure makes it more valuable, its lifespan an inverse to its rarity. I find their cowering delightful, a treasure that reflects my greatness as a silver mirror might." The head slipped closer to me, "Why do you not so reflect my aura?"

I stiffened and replied, "My father used to tell me stories of dragons and I cowered from shadows back then. Now I see you are larger than I had imagined, more terrible than any fable can describe. But you do not rule my heart. Burn me where I stand, I will not cower."

The dragon turned its head and gazed at me with its other eye, then inhaled the scent of my hair, nearly pulling me over with gale force winds. "It does indeed smell that way. Were your father here to see you now, he might be proud."

I pointed my hoof at the cage, "He does see me now. And I want him back, along with the others."

The dragon's head whipped around to look at the cage, then back at me and laughed, exclaiming, "Truly you are pure bravery stuffed in a morsel of night creature skin. Or pure foolishness. You foul things persist in disturbing that which can destroy you. I wonder if you are truly addled by the moonlight."

I slowly started walking up the dais steps while maintaining my gaze. "I have no idea what you are talking about. I only came to get my fellow thestrals back. They came to investigate why the cocoa trees were burning."

As I reached the cage, I recognized several of the adults, including those that held up my father. I could see fear for me in his eyes. The dragon's head hovered on the other side of the cage from me, watching us through the bars. It spoke, "They came armed to fight, like the other creatures before them. I did not start this conflict, this cocoa war."

As best I could I ignored the dragon and spoke to the prisoners. The local baker, Pumpernickel Pastryllious was nearest to me. Back home we called him Nick. "What is he talking about, Nick?"

The gruff thestral growled, "Those blasted ridge cats have been harassing these dragons ever since they moved into this cave system. All the tree burning was because of their feud."

I blinked and asked, "A feud caused the tree burning? Wait, did the dragons not make these tunnels?"

Nick shook his head, "Not the whole system, just the main entrance. Apparently the cats were collecting fire water on a regular basis over the years, accessing the cavern from a small side tunnel that comes up in the jungles and then running it back to the Badlands. The dragons sniffed out the cavern and bore in. Since then, the cats have been attacking the dragons."

The dragon stayed still, watching our exchange with interest, so I decided to ask, "But why burn the trees, or bother capturing you?" I must have hit a nerve because the dragon rumbled and slowly lifted its head. Nick and the others watched it in terror. Nick continued, "Those crafty cats were taking cocoa beans, hardening them through some chemical and firing process to use as arrow heads."

I frowned and watched the dragon, "Arrow heads. Why use cocoa beans?"

The dragon moved its head down to me, washing me in its breath, "Because we are allergic to them, so we remove the threat when we can."

I stepped back and pointed my hoof at the cage and yelled, "Do they look like cats to you? Do I? We are not a threat"

By now all the dragons had encircled the dais completely, and I was losing this verbal fight. I had to come up with something. The dragon replied, "Night creatures are all the same. They sneak around and take, never giving, never letting go what they treasure." The red drake started to curl around the cage, "So why should I?"

Then I had a flash of brilliance, a very slim chance. I tore off my pack and dug through it. The dragon looked on in mild interest. I found what I was looking for and drew it out with both hooves. The present my parents gave me. I held it up and said, "We are not the same. Some of us are very very different. I offer you this gift. My parents gave it to me and now I give it to you, to buy their release." I motioned to the cage.

My father became very agitated and tried to speak but the others hushed him, worried he might ruin the exchange. The dragon uncoiled completely, the cage ignored. He eyed the box covetously. "Intriguing. What is in the box?"

I pull it back, causing the dragon to nearly chase after it, "I don't know. Had you not taken my father hostage, I would have opened it tonight for Hearth's Warming in front of him. Now I might never know."

I had to dodge several coils of dragon as it undulated with excitement, "Truly a vexing decision, a gift on top of that, plus a Hearth's Warming gift of unknown contents, unknown portents. Truly-" He cut off as I began putting the box back into my pack. The dragon roared, "Wait! Desist! Hold that tittilatingly tiny triop of treasure before you while I pontificate this perilously precarious predicament ..." He droned on into feats of vaulted vocabulary even I was unable to follow. I waited until he calmed down and became silent.

Placing the present on the stonework, I toed it with a hoof and said, "Somepony has to open it come midnight. I guess it will have to be-" The dragon snarled and twisted a bar near the top of the cage with its claw and the side bars opened up like a clamshell. I thanked the heavens we didn't choose the sneak approach, it would have been impossible to open otherwise.

The thestrals swiftly left the cage, some helping to carry my father along as the dragon drew in the present and placed it in its palm, preparing to open it. I raised my hoof and said, "It's not midnight yet. You will spoil the surprise." I began backing my way down the dais, putting my pack on.

The great wyrm snarled and spoke to one of the smaller dragons, "What time is it now?"

The smaller dragon presented an elaborate water clock and replied, "Twenty minutes until midnight, Great One." The larger dragon chortled and remained focused on the tiny thing in its palm. I hurried to the exit and met up with the others.

Everypony took several minutes to congratulate me for my success. My father's agitation caught my attention and I asked, "How bad is he, can he walk?"

The others gave various answers to include possible recovery of his wing, burns that were not so deep. He could not fly, though. None of the adults were strong enough to carry him past the jungle, either. Lance stepped forward and said, "Jen, that rope you packed might work. We can strap two packs together as an undersling, slip each of his legs through a shoulder strap and tie rope to each one of us." He indicated to Gheist, Swift and Sanguine. They had reunited with their relatives and stepped over to Lance, nodding approval. I nodded as well and began measuring out lengths of rope while Lance set his pack down. Swift donated his and they started tying them together.

My father insisted on speaking to me, according to Nick. I bent down close to hear him, his speech barely a whisper, "You have to hurry, Jen. Before they open your gift." I began to get a bad feeling, pleading inwardly he was wrong.

"Father, tell me the most favorite thing I love is not in that box." He did not say anything, did not have to. I saw it in his eyes. I moved back to the work in progress with fanatical speed, catching the others off guard. "Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit..."

I kept repeating swear words over and over until Lance touched my shoulder, "Jen, not that sitting in a dragon nest is scary enough...but you are scaring us. What gives?"

I slapped his hoof away and started throwing rope ends to each of my fellow school mates, "We have to get out of here NOW! I just found out I gave that ill-tempered lizard chocolate cake, and he is going to find out real soon, too!"

All the thestrals nearly went white with terror. Lance quickly recovered and spun around to the adults, "Fly, now! We'll take care of her father. All of you head west to the mountain slopes below the double peak fissure. Meet up there, hide if you see any non-thestrals. Go!" They swiftly took to the air and flew up the tunnel as my group settled the sling under my father. He winced from his burns, yet was silent. Once the ropes and sling were all attached to their respective thestrals and the sling was snug under him, his legs protruding through the shoulder straps, the four kestrals spread out to take up the slack. Lance looked back to me with concern.

I gritted my teeth and ran past him, "I can outrun you on a bad day or night. Just get him out of here!" The group lifted off as one and hovered up the tunnel, moving faster as they got used to the restrained flight. I easily kept up and found myself winding my way through the pools in no time. It was when I was making my way up the entrance tunnel to the surface when I heard a blood curdling roar echo up from the depths of the lair, bits of rock and grit floating down from above. I ran harder than I ever had before, outpacing the flight of thestrals with my father. We made the surface in no time and bee-lined it for the trees. Sanguine yelled to the group to stay below the tree tops or the dragon would see them and merely outfly them. I pulled the dagger out of my pack and ran in a different direction away from the group, posting up near the tree line as I watched the five disappear into the jungle. I looked at the cave. If I had to, I would fight this thing by myself.

A sharpened cocoa bean tipped arrow slowly moved up next to my head, pointing at the cave mouth. It was so close to my ear I froze, afraid that whatever had drawn it might angle it into my head instead. My attention drew back to the cave as fire exploded from it, followed by a very angry red dragon. The arrow leapt forward, the head slicing a few hairs from my ear. It flew like a nightingale and slammed into the belly of the dragon, causing it to twist around roaring while protecting its soft underbelly. The head snapped about independently, a snake seeking to strike back.

I spun around to encounter a tan and white mottled male feline standing on hind legs and shouldering his ebon wood bow. He spoke with a lilting baritone, "That should distract him from your friends. That also means run, you slow bat pony." With that he bolted like nothing I had ever seen before. Our movements gave away our position and the dragon roared. I ran.

It felt like ages as I crashed through the jungle in panic. The feline rejoined me from his hiding place in the trees and ran alongside me, mewling, "You are leading him right to you with all that noise and debris you are leaving behind." I endeavored to get a hold of my emotions and remembered my training. As my steps became silent without slowing or disturbing the undergrowth, the cat's visage took on an approving look.

After a minute I shot the cat a glare and demanded, "Why did you cats start this fight with the dragons?!"

The cat scoffed and jumped over me to the other side, looking back, "You ponies always pick the wrong moments to air out your tails." I wrinkled my nose in disgust and was about to reply when the cat did an odd stagger step to slow down, grabbed me by the neck and yanked me to the side behind a large tree trunk.

A wall of red scales plowed through the underbrush where I was a moment ago, large teeth like swords snapping in different directions. The ridge cat pulled me slowly around the trunk, keeping us always on the opposite side of the tree as the large dragon lumbered about, knocking over trees and snarling.

The cat quietly pointed straight up and covered his eyes, indicating the overhead canopy was limiting the dragon's eyesight in the night with an otherwise full moon. He pointed to his nose and tilted his head. Great, the dragon will smell us out. I silently drew Lance's dagger. The cat placed a paw on my hoof, made a split motion with his paw and drew another arrow back. I nodded and readied the dagger.

In a split second he leaned out, let loose and hid back behind the tree. The arrow clacked against hardened top scales and shattered. The dragon roared and dove for the direction the arrow came from. The cat hissed and ran up the tree we were behind. As the dragon's neck snaked up following the cat, I ran around the opposite direction of the large tree trunk and came up to the dragon's hind quarter. I aimed for the largest muscle group and jumped up, thrusting the blade deep. The dragon's body jerked as it roared and the head came around the tree to bite me. I used the motion of the dragon's flinch and the dagger handle to vault up and over the spiked lower back, yanking the dagger out as I fell to the other side and landed on all four hooves in a dead run, the dagger handle in my mouth. The cat jumped off the tree in the opposite direction, firing off a series of arrows to distract the dragon as I made my escape. The dragon was so wrapped up on the tree and in pain it could not choose which way to go. It began to inhale.

The woods in front of me stood out as if in broad daylight with stark shadows as the hell fire put off a horribly red light, threatening to singe me. I ran with the dagger clenched in my teeth, dragon's blood flying off the blade. I could feel a tingly, almost burning sensation on my flanks as I twisted around to see if I was being followed, blood drops going everywhere. I didn't have time to see if it was the blood or fire that caused the sensations. I was alive and I was going to stay that way.

The sensations passed and soon I slowed down to listen. It wasn't long before a shadowy form resolved into a cat loping up to me...and passing me. He turned his head and said, "That isn't the only dragon hunting tonight." I gasped and followed.

After several minutes of running together, he yanked me behind another tree and clamped a paw over my muzzle. Not again! I held my breath this time. I could hear several large forms move quickly through the underbrush, snapping saplings and low hanging vines and branches. The younger dragons slowed several paces away and began to mill about. I gripped the dagger in my hooves and made ready to fight again when I noticed the cat shake his head no. He stepped back and tapped his ear with an arrow, then knocked it. In one fluid motion he leaned out, shot the arrow and stepped close to me, listening.

The arrow flew a few seconds before making a resounding crack against a tree deep in the jungle, the sound echoing. The dragons whipped their heads around at the sound, several rumbling in their gut, then slowly made their way in that direction, apparently to stalk us as prey. The cat waited a few minutes before motioning in a right angle direction to the arrow's path.

After a time of silent walking we eventually turned west. We stepped lightly for at least an hour before the cat started relaxing, though his two ears kept swiveling independently of each other. He shifted from his four legged quiet gate to the more relaxed and noisier two legged stance. It felt like we could talk now. "Alright. Who started it?"

The cat chuckled and shook his head. "The age-old question of righteousness? You might be young, but you should know by now it is never that simple." He glanced at me to see my reaction, nodding as I kept my mouth shut. "It started off as a territorial dispute. The liquids we were farming fueled our economy in the Badlands. It was already a long trip, so any hindrance in our supply line would have been disastrous. We tried to talk to them, negotiate a trade. The dragons would have none of it. They insisted their superiority as sun children gave them divine right to it all, so we resorted to raiding the cavern when we could. You were lucky tonight. I suspect having your fellow thestrals taken prisoner caused the dragons to be complacent. Usually the cavern is guarded. It will be more so now." I shuddered at his words. I was glad the others made it out. Had i known all of this, I'm not sure if i would have done it all over again.

"What I don't understand is the chocolate allergy. Where did you learn that from?"

The cat's face took on a regretful look. "That is the simple part. It is also the worst because it was accidental. One of our sisters had successfully siphoned a few gallons of fire water and was on her way back when she came across some cocoa trees. We had set up small refining camps here and there to process the beans in order to avoid carrying the whole pods back. Each trip had to maximize its return given the shortages. Cocoa beans and powder worked well for you thestrals on the east side, why not for us western neighbors? She had just processed some pods for the next raiders and was collecting the powder form of cocoa from a previous group of tribal warriors when one of the cavern guards found her. It must have been searching all night for her, so it was very aggressive when it made contact. She threw a handful of powder into its face to distract it so she could escape. It choked and died." I felt horrified. All of this from day and night not getting along, both making mistakes. I already knew how the rest of the story played out, listening half-heartedly. The dragons retaliated out of fear and outrage, going on the offensive. The cats trying to protect their livelihood and developing better means to drive off the dragons. The tree burning was the dragons attempting to eliminate the weapon supply and the alternative resource to make trips out into the jungle more costly for the ridge cats.

When the cat fell silent, I spoke up, "We had no idea this was going on. It only got noticed when we saw the fires from a distance and investigated. When the scouting party did not return, some friends and I came to find them."

The cat nodded and smiled, "They should be grateful you did. I doubt the big red would have allowed them to live for very long. It likes to toy with its prey." He glanced at the handle of the blade poking out of the side pocket on my pack. "A very nice weapon you have. As young as you are, your tribe chose well their guardian, slicer of dragons."

I gave him a confused look, "What are you talking about? I only borrowed that blade tonight and I intend to give it back. I felt horrible stabbing that creature, no matter what its intentions were."

He looked further back at my flank, then at my face with a confused expression, "You are not a weapon master? It is tattooed on your pelt."

I stopped and twisted around to look at my rump. There in the moonlight, bold as could be, was the image of a silver dagger, the wired handle nestled between my cutie-mark blue wings with the blade pointed down. The same blade in my pack. There was still some dragon blood streaked along my sides, starting to flake off. I stood there in shock, staring at the mark. I had felt that prior to tonight there had always been a hole where my cutie-mark resided. Now it was filled with a weapon that felt very natural in my hooves, thinking back to how I used it. The cat patiently waited until I started walking again before saying to me, "I noticed it was just wings before. Is it a sign you can turn off and on to indicate when you are fleeing and when you are fighting?"

The absurdity of the question went amiss as I walked numbly. "The cutie-mark defines our destiny, helps us to find who we are. Until now I thought it was some cosmic joke, wings without wings."

The cat nodded and replied, "Our shaman taught us this. That is why I was surprised to see the change and thought there were things in the world we were misinformed of. There probably are, but this is not one of them. Congratulations in finding your way, young one." I stumbled a step and stayed quiet. I could not argue with him. Several of the other students had begun to get theirs, Lance included. His was a streak of silver striking down from a group of smaller silver streaks near a gray cloud. He felt it was him leading the way, hence why he kept taking charge. When I had first seen it, I told him some errant Canterlot pony had parked a storm cloud on his butt. That week had been a vicious series of pranks and name calling because of that. I was not anticipating meeting up with him now. We continued on until we finally left the jungle and approached the base of the mountain slope and the meeting place.

Lance and Sanguine stepped out from behind some rocks. Sanguine was the first to trot up and hug me, quietly thanking me for helping to get her older sister back home. I told her she didn't have to give me her hair and she laughed, promising we would get to do something with mine. I took it as friendly help and not an insult for how I wore it. Lance was visibly more impressed, staring at the blood on me. "You look like you kicked serious tail out there!"

The cat stepped by lightly, saying, "Your slicer of dragons fought the big red and held her own. I would gladly invite her to my lands where she can learn more of her craft from my people, assuming her elders deem her of age to do so. As it is, she is aware of her destiny now. " With that he unshouldered his bow and pointed it at my cutie-mark. Lance's eyes widened. Sanguine inhaled sharply as they both looked at it.

"Jen, that's incredible! It looks just like my dagger!" That reminded me that I still had it. I reached around and slipped it out of the pocket, flipped it over so I was holding it by the blade and offered it to him. He stepped back, waving his hoof, "Heh, actually, it suits you better than it does me. Granted it is an amazing piece, I'd just as soon not break the set. Happy Hearth's Warming, Jen." For a moment I did not understand him, until I looked between the weapon and the mark. A matched set. "Slicer of dragons. Did you really slice up dragons?"

I shook my head and said, "I stabbed one dragon. This cat has decided to call me slicer of dragons. I don't intend to do any more dragon slicing...wait, what is your name?"

The cat looked at me and Lance. Then he replied, "Jen.....nothing else, just Jen? Well met, Jen, Slicer of Dragons. That sounds better, does it not? It is time I head back and inform my tribe what has transpired. I suspect we may be sending envoys to your settlement before too long. We have hurt the flying lizards. The have long memories and you will need allies." He went back to all fours, the bow settled on his back and started his way south toward the mountain gap in the distance which led to the Badlands.

I yelled after him, "You know my name, what about yours!?"

He responded without losing his stride, "My name is Velvet, of the Low Steppes clan."

With a spark of mischief I yelled back, "Velvet? Velvet what? Paws, fur, jones?" I heard a chuff as he rounded some rocks and disappeared. Well met indeed. I suspected I would be sparring with him again and he was well armed. I placed the dagger back into my pocket and looked to the other two. They waited, seeing me in a new light. I wasn't sure I was used to this. There were a lot of things that had changed tonight. As we began to walk north Lance repeated the title Velvet had bestowed upon me. He even tried different combinations like Jen of the Slicer. Slice-o-matic. It's time for the slice. I told Lance, "You know what, you can stuff it, none of that is going to stick...and...um, thankyou for the gift. I'm sorry I didn't give you one. I will try to find something when we get back."

He waved a hoof and said, "That's quite alright. Less likely to have something blow up in my face, hit me, make me fall, get me dirty, stab my hoof with a needle, make me smell for a month, stain my fur, stain my skin, stain my hair...." As he rattled on the list of things I had done, Sanguine looked askance.

"You two are messed up."

I defended myself, "Lance has done just as much. He's just less creative. Too busy trying to play town leader." I ducked as he went to tap me on the head. The movement was second nature to me. I felt it was time to add to it, glancing back at the dagger in my cutie-mark. It wouldn't be that difficult to find the dream mare now. Without bringing it up to the others, I already knew I had inadvertently dragged our community into a war between species, between the children of night and day. I dreaded what the true costs would be, chocolate and fire water be damned. Along the way home, Lance mentioned two of the adults were able to take his and Sanguine's place in the flying litter so they could stay behind for me. The others wanted to stay but that wasn't possible with the state the adults were in, weak and thirsty from their captivity.

As we journeyed north, I recounted what happened in the jungle. Lance listened and occasionally muttered 'Slicer Jen' which caused me to say something mean to him and Sanguine to giggle softly. I hadn't deciphered what exactly my cutie-mark meant, but there was no way I was going to be tagged as a serial killer knife pony, I was different enough without that.

No way.

Author's Notes:

If you notice any references from other movies or stories, sometimes they are intentional, other times they are accidental. House of Flying Daggers was very accidental, in reference to her cutie-mark, as it hit me last minute. If fits though, from my perspective. I think the beauty of writing is that there could be any number of discoveries for the reader to find, without it being a straight up easter egg hunt or pokemon race where you gotta catch em all. You may even see stuff that I have not. I wouldn't dwell on the references. In the end, they are there for seasoning and are not the main ingredient.