Night Terror

"It's not one big dragon, it's tons of little ones!"

- Hiccup discovering the Night Terror flock

The Night Terror is a small Stoker Class dragon that first appeared in Dragons: Race to the Edge.

Official Description
"While these nocturnal, bat-like dragons may not seem menacing on their own, Night Terrors are a formidable force to be reckoned with when united. Night Terrors are incredible fast and strong fliers and their ability to take the form of a larger dragon makes them a great threat to potential predators. As a result, they are quite useful as sentries of Dragon's Edge. Similar to other dragons who travel in packs, the Night Terrors respond to an alpha, a slightly larger white dragon who is leader of all the others. Without the alpha, the strength of the Night Terrors is lost and they become easy prey."

"Tuffnut and Ruffnut were out in the forest looking for twigs for their next prank. When they heard a crunching noise behind them, turning slowly and preparing for a huge dragon, they were surprised to find a Night Terror instead. However, it was no regular Night Terror, this Stoker Class dragon happened to be Smidvarg, who seemed excited to see his old friends. Wondering what he was doing so far from The Edge, and if the other Night Terrors were with him, Tuff and Ruff began leading him towards campus and Hiccup. However, Smidvarg would not move and began roaring, as soon as he did this the rest of his pack showed up. The twins, deciding they couldn’t move one dragon much less an entire flock, so the twins made their way towards Hiccup. After trudging back to campus and searching all over for Hiccup, the three of them- along with Astrid, Fishlegs, and Snotlout - were making their way back to these nocturnal dragons. When they arrived, Smidvarg led them to a small cave nearby and encouraged all six of the trainers to enter. Trusting in their friend, the dragon trainers walked in and were taken aback by what they saw. Inside the caves were tens of nest eggs, Night terror nests to be specific! It seemed, Smidvarg and the others had flown all the way to school to hatch their eggs and leave some extra protection to their dear friends! Will you dare and train this night-loving dragon?"

"These elusive Stoker Class Dragons can be a handful! But if properly trained, they remain loyal and excellent guard dragons. The Night Terror prefers to fight alongside other dragons. Keeping their opponents at a distance, keeps their size a mystery."

Egg
Night Terror eggs are small and dark in color in Rise of Berk. They have a wavy, thick, dark green fin surrounding the egg and it resembles the shape of the Night Terror's tail. They have patterns similar to its fin on its shell. The purpose of this fin is unknown. Alpha Terrors' eggs are white in color. In School of Dragons, however, they are completely white, with rough scales.

Hatchling to Adult
Night Terrors are small dragons that are slightly larger than the Smothering Smokebreaths and the Terrible Terrors. Each individual Night Terror is black in color, except for the Alpha. When they group together, especially at night, they appear to be all black in color and they form the shape of any large dragon. They have small teeth and a rounded tongue. They have two small horn-like ledges on top of their nose. They also appear to have a short tail with four, short, thin spikes attatched at the ends.

The Alpha is white and slightly larger than the others. It appears as an eye of the large dragon shape in the swarm of themselves or other dragons. It is currently unknown if Fire Terrors (below) have an Alpha, and if they do, it is unknown what color the Alpha posesses.

Titan Wing
Titan Wing Night Terrors are larger and their main body remains black while the horns and the end of their tail become blue. The ledges on top of their snout is longer and more wrinkly. Blue horn-like structures grow out of their neck and head and their claws grow sharper. Also, their whole tail is longer and appears to be sharper.

Flying Together
Night Terrors are able to fly closer together in order to form the shapes of larger, more terrifying dragons for protection. This behavior resembles that of European starling or certain schools of fish, who fly or swim together in order to appear larger so as to scare off predators. Also, each swarm has an Alpha. The Alpha is able to control its fellow dragons and instruct them to form certain formations and often takes the spot of the dragon's eyes.

Their formations don't only show remarkable space awareness, but also incredible coordination as larger forms are able to do certain actions like flapping their wings, move body parts etc., reflecting the Night Terrors' ability to move collectively. They have been shown forming a Night Fury, Fireworm Queen, Rumblehorn and a larger Night Terror.

Speed
Night Terrors are incredibly fast and strong fliers, especially when they are together in a swarm. This makes sense as moving in swarms, especially that of the shape of a dragon, which as a streamlined body, reduces air resistance and allows these dragons that form the body instead of the head, to travel faster.

Dragon Controlling
The Alpha Night Terror can lead smaller Night Terrors, organizing them into a formidable flock that appears to be a larger dragon when posed with the threat of oncoming predators. Without the Alpha, these Terrors are susceptible to other dragons like Changewings as they cannot function as a team.

Fire Breathing
A single Night Terror breathes an admittedly small blast of fire. However, when a swarm of these dragons fires, the little shots can turn into a massive fireball.

Intelligence
They are able to form the shape of other dragons, making themselves look bigger. They even figured out their own way to get rid of the Fireworms by forming themselves into the shape of a Fireworm Queen. It is possible they had never seen a Fireworm Queen before, but they had the idea to make themselves look like a large Fireworm, hoping they would be followed by the smaller Fireworms.

Behavior and Personality
Because Night Terrors have a bit of the personality of bats, they fly as a colony and are nocturnal. They also have a great respect for their Alpha.

Albino Night Terrors could become very possessive as seen with Fishlegs Ingerman. These albino Night Terrors have shown to be cave dwellers as they lived in the dark cave to avoid daylight and come out at dark. ("Follow the Leader")

Fire Terrors live inside the volcano of Caldera Cay, and they are very protective of Eruptodon eggs and will do anything to make sure that they hatch.

Weaknesses
Night Terrors are incredibly weak on their own, as they have very small fire blasts, not much strength and are very scatty and jumpy without their leader, so by capturing the Alpha Night Terror you could probably take down the whole flock.

The Night Terror's disguise as a larger dragon would easily fail during the day, as a predator could see the white of the Alpha and the outlines of all of the other Night Terrors in the daylight. This is why Night Terrors are nocturnal.

Albino Night Terrors are afraid of the sunlight as they are cave dwellers. They were also unable to withstand clanging sounds until they got used to them.

Training
Night Terrors are highly trainable dragons both individually or in a group. Throughout the Dragons: Race to the Edge series, Night Terrors are seen being trained to do simple tricks like fetch, trained to utilize their natural alarm instincts to protect the island, and trained to form various shapes in a group. In School of Dragons, the player can train a Night Terror to carry a rider. In Dragons: Riders of Berk, Night Terrors, like all dragons in the game, are trained to fish or collect wood resources for the player. In the episode "Dire Straits", Fishlegs discovers that Night Terrors respond well to whistle commands.

Season 1
In "When Darkness Falls", the gang found a new island to call their own outpost. That night, Tuffnut wakes up in the middle of the night to see a gigantic dragon. They decide to chase down this mysterious dragon and eventually, find out that the dragon is not a single dragon but multiple dragons, tiny ones forming the shape of a larger one. They capture the leader and named it Smidvarg and the species Night Terrors. That night, Changewings attack the Night Terrors. They quickly release Smidvarg so that he can command the Terrors to form a larger dragon to scare off the Changewings. Eventually, the Riders decide to share their island with the Terrors.

In "Gone Gustav Gone", Gustav Larson was harassing Smidvarg and the gang. When Hiccup settled them down and sent Gustav off, Smidvarg roared angrily at him.

In "Reign of Fireworms", The Terrors saved the island from migrating Fireworms burning it to ash. The Terrors form the shape of the Fireworm Queen to draw the Fireworms away onto a barren island, where they have nothing to burn.

Season 2
In "Team Astrid", Astrid and Hiccup caught the Twins playing with Night Terrors even though they were supposed to be on duty. Tuffnut taught them to fetch sticks, which Hiccup failed to understand how that skill served in battle.

In "Edge of Disaster, Part 2", Ryker shot down Smidvarg with a Dragon Root arrow to disperse the flock, but they retaliated by attacking the Dragon Hunters.

Season 3
In "Follow the Leader", Fishlegs found a colony of Albino Night Terrors in a cave at the Edge. They were living in isolation, making use of the supplies left behind by an ancient civilization. Thus, they were very scared of light. They treated Fishlegs as their leader and refused to let him leave. However, one Night Terror, Darkvarg, treated Fishlegs with respect and allowed him to leave by stopping the other Terrors. Though it seems likely that many years ago before it was discovered by Fishlegs this cave belonged to someone else that was the original leader of the Albino Night Terrors as they found ancient language and sword with writing on it which Fishlegs was unable to read it.

Season 4
In "Gruff Around the Edges", a Night Terror named Peggy freed Tuffnut who has been tied up by his conniving cousin Gruffnut.

In "Dire Straits", Fishlegs showed Hiccup that he was able to train Smidvarg and his flock to respond to voice commands.

In "Blindsided", Astrid freed the Night Terrors from the stables during a massive thunderstorm.

Season 5
In "Living on the Edge", a few Night Terror sentries get scared by the erupting volcano.

In "No Dragon Left Behind", two Night Terrors are playing just outside the stables until they are interrupted by a falling piece of wood.

In "Searching for Oswald... and Chicken", when Chicken disappears, Ruffnut and Tuffnut interogate four other chickens and a Night Terror. The dragon licks its lips at the sight of prey and the birds slowly walk away.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
Night Terrors became available in Rise of Berk promptly after the episode aired. The individuals Smidvarg, Darkvarg, Nightwatch, Hotshot, Night Swarm, the Sacred Terror and Heartwarmer also became available and were given unique personalities.

School of Dragons
The Night Terrors appeared in School of Dragons in December 2015. They were designed to be just big enough for the player to ride.

Trivia

 * Originally, Tuffnut wanted to call the dragons "Smidvarg and the Gang".
 * Their ability to fly in a large group is similar to Scarers.
 * Night Terrors are often used as sentries on the Dragon's Edge because, although they can be quite stubborn, if properly trained, they remain loyal and excellent guard dragons. They can swarm together in order to scare off either predators or villains away from the Dragon's Edge.
 * According to Rise of Berk, Night Terrors are extremely elusive. This may be because of their skittish tendencies and the fact that many a Viking could be scared off by them while thinking they were a larger dragon.
 * The Night Terror is the third black dragon to be seen in the franchise after the Night Fury and the Sword Stealer.
 * Night Terrors are very similar to Speed Stingers.
 * Both hunt in packs.
 * Both are led by a leader.
 * Only the lead dragon has a distinct appearance.
 * They are both nocturnal.
 * Both can move extremely quick.
 * Both don't know what to do without the leader.
 * The Red Death's roar was reused in one of the Night Terror's roar.
 * The Night Terror’s tail is quite similar to that of a coelacanth.
 * The design of the Night Terror’s head (not counting the horns) resembles the head of a parrot.
 * The Night Terror is the second dragon to have "night" in his name, the first being the Night Fury.
 * Ryker Grimborn called these dragons Night Terrors in "Edge of Disaster, Part 2" even though it was Fishlegs that had come up with the name.
 * It is possible that Heather told him about the name in order to gain his trust after spending some time on Dragon’s Edge.