Decontamination
Harmony…
Harmony…
“Harmony!”
“Huh? What?” Harmony finally heard that somepony was calling for him pulling him out of his daze. His eyes refocused and he could see that it was Fluttershy that had been trying to get his attention. Twilight must have left the room and Garble was obvious still unconscious.
“Are you alright? It seems that you have something on your mind… I mean if it’s not too intrusive to ask.”
“Memories…” Harmony sighed heavily before turning to take a look at Garble.
“Do you want to talk about them…I mean if that is okay…” She hid behind her mane a slight blush apparent.
Harmony had to resist the urge to roll his eyes before responding, “Bearer of Kindness you really need to stop ending every sentence with an apology.”
“I’m sorry.” Fluttershy again tried to hide behind her mane.
Harmony inwardly chuckled at her behavior she was calm enough to allow her shyness to come out. He was kind of glad that Garble was out for the count as he did not want to have to deal with her fear of dragons at the moment. He was not looking forward to when Garble regained consciousness.
“Please stop apologizing for non existent faults… As for talking about the memories… I would rather not speak about them… I… No…” Harmony trailed off and his eyes glazed over.
“Um... Hello?” Rarity called out into the library’s main hall. Her voice echoed strangely through the halls. It did nothing to calm her jittering nerves. If any it only made them worse.
“He of Hourglass,” Rarity tentatively stepped though the threshold, “Are you here?”
The main door to the library suddenly slammed shut behind her. She let out a scream before recovering herself. A few long cleansing breaths later and she lit her horn and walked down the center hall. If she remembered correctly this was the hall that led to where the dragon slept.
Rarity slowly opened the door at the end of the hall. “Hello? He of Hourglass?” She peek in and could see that everything was like last time except no dragon and the gem pile was a bit larger. She could see some scrolls rolled out on the desk. Maybe I should leave a note for him.
She had just finished writing a note when a voice spoke, “Didn’t He of Harmony tell you not to enter a dragon’s hoard without permission?”
Rarity nearly jumped out of her fur at the sudden sound of He of Hourglass’ voice. “I… Well that is…”
He of Hourglass walk up towards her. Rarity backed away trying to stay calm. He shifted some papers and scrolls on the desk putting them some into drawers and others he just neatly stacked up on one corner of the desk. He then finally picked up the written note. He seemed to be dwelling on it far longer than was necessary.
He finally placed it down. He looked to see that Rarity was visibly starting to sweat her nerves were so great. ”You know...” He started, “I find that working on my hoard is calming…” He of Hourglass began walking towards a door in the back of the room, “Now I know that ponies don’t hoard but I think you may have some expertise in dealing with what I’m about to show you.”
Suddenly he stopped and looked back over his shoulder, “You coming?”
“Of course, yes, coming!” Rarity exclaimed quickly trotting to catch up to He of Hourglass. She hoped that she wasn’t walking into a death trap.
Harmony…
Harmony…
“Yes?” Harmony refocused again. He saw that Fluttershy currently was examining Garble. She tentatively pressed against some of the bandages which appeared darkened by the infectious looking ooze that was upon some of his more grievous injuries.
“Harmony I think the bandages need to be redone and with Twilight out and about at the moment I was wondering…”
“I doubt he will awaken, but I shall assist.”
Fluttershy began to slowly cut away bandages that had been soaked in a mixture of blood and the dark ooze. As she went she whispered her usual apologizes along with soothing words. Harmony grabbed some fresh wet cloths and help cleaned the wounds as they were revealed.
“Harmony I’m not terribly familiar with dragon anatomy but these injuries are not healing like they should.”
Harmony eyed the injuries. He could see the faint dark substance still oozing from some of the injuries and the dark smokiness still lingered around Garble. “I agree.”
Harmony went into a deep thought for a while muttering nonsense. Fluttershy used that time to rebind Garble’s injuries. Soon Garble was rebandaged leaving her to worriedly look at both him and Harmony. Suddenly Harmony went silent. Fluttershy noticed this and look up at him to see that he was gazing thoughtfully at her. She hid behind her mane unsure of what the sudden silence could mean. He gaze wasn’t one that would concern a normal pony but she hardly knew Harmony and was still shy around him.
“Bearer of Kindness I think I can fix that. The dark magic seems to have inhibited his ability to heal. It definitely was quite powerful to linger on a dragon for this long. I must wait for the Bearer of Magic to return before doing anything. Removing dark magic is dangerous and I do not know the reaction his body will have during that process.”
“These are gorgeous!” Rarity gushed trying not to squeal in delight or faint from the excitement.
“Yes… they are.” The dragon smiled brightly for a moment before letting a neutral face creep back into his features. ”But as you can see there is some deterioration and fading. Also there is some contamination on some of them. Any suggestions for restoration?”
Rarity gently ran the material through her hoofs before answering, “I would have to examine the tapestries more closely to see what was use to weave them as well as find out what contaminated them to determine the best way to clean them.”
“So let me get this right...”Twilight mused running Harmony’s plan in her head for the twentieth time, ” You are going to draw out the dark magic from Garble and into yourself!?! ARE YOU CRAZY!??”
“Yes.”
“I rest my case: crazy.”
“Bearer of Magic this type of dark magic can’t be just simply dispelled…”
“Why can’t we use the Elements?”
“What part of can’t be dispelled did you not get?”
“Then at least let me help.” Twilight moved forward closer to Garble.
Harmony put a hoof out to block Twilight. “No, Bearer of Magic, the mark forbids others other than myself helping him. So he is my responsibility not yours.”
“Gah dragons and their codes!”
“You have no idea…” Harmony rubbed his temples. You have no idea...
Not giving Twilight another moment to protest Harmony lit his horn and began to slowly tug at a tendril of dark magic. As soon as he pulled it off he quickly neutralized it. He would then take a breath and begin to pull another one off.
Garble started to thrash about the reaction to the change in his magic field. His strength was so great that he broke all of the leather straps holding him down. Twilight’s horn shined brightly as she attempted to get the limbs to stay down magically.
Fluttershy cowered in the corner from fear from the sight of one of her best friends and Harmony struggling. Twilight tried to block another blow but was hit from behind by the whelp’s tail. The fur started to redden from blood from the welt nearly five inches long.
“Hold him still.” Harmony gritted through a clenched jaw from the strain.
“I’m trying!!!” Twilight ducked as Garble’s left arm swung at her. She grunted hard and managed to get her magic around the loose arm and forced it back down.
Harmony could feel his magic straining to its limit. There was still a bit more dark magic to pull and neutralize. He just had to hold one a bit longer. So again he took a breath and once more pulled. Harmony’s horn momentarily sputtered out before he redoubled his effort. Come on don’t fail me now… Just a bit more… He pulled his head back in an attempt to try and get the final magic tendril to snap off. In agonising slow motion the final tendril clinging to Garble finally lifted off.
“I… I… Think that will do...” Harmony’s world went dark as he collapsed.
“Harmony!”
Fluttershy quickly rushed over to examine Harmony, ”He’s breathing.”
“Overdid, you have.” Discord smirked.
“Where have you been?!” Twilight nearly yelled before Fluttershy put a hoof on her.
Discord rubbed his face in exasperation,” What have part of me being a Keeper and not needing supervision did you not get?”
“Discord have you been eavesdropping again?” Fluttershy asked sounding disappointed.
“Flutters I don’t need to eavesdrop to assume that Harmony gave you the whole ‘he can take care of himself and dragon problem’ speech blah, blah, blah…”
“And how is dark magic only a dragon problem?” Twilight countered.
“Dark magic?” Discord looked at Garble then back at Harmony who was still passed out and then literally lost all of his color going completely white. “I… I… I... need to go.”
Twilight looked at Fluttershy who eeped in response.
“Um, He of Hourglass…”
The dragon in question turned to face her. His gaze was light and curious but it didn't make Rarity any more comfortable. The tapestry mending gave her an excuse for stalling. But it also reminded her of when Spike would help her in her shop. That of course brought back what Harmony had recently revealed. She could no longer stand the conflicted emotions running through her head. Given that she couldn’t talk about the memories of her and Spike she could at least get rid of the feelings of shame for her outburst against He of Hourglass.
“Yes?”
“I want to apologize for my earlier uncouth behavior.”
“Uncouth?” He of Hourglass smirked. He then snorted which got Rarity to snort in anger. Her reaction only got him to laugh louder. “ Un. Couth?! You thought your behavior was ‘uncouth’!! That… that is the funniest thing…” He stopped there the laughter overriding his ability to speak. I said it once and I’ll say it again. You really have some interesting Bearers He of Harmony.
After a few moments of wheezing, coughing, and relapses into laughter he got serious. “Bearer of Generosity in all serious your behavior two days ago wasn't ‘uncouth’ to me. The rage I had was never directed at you or the other bearers. If you need to apologize for ‘uncouth’ behaviour you will need to talk to He of Harmony. However try to keep your outbursts in front of dragons to an extreme minimum. Most will not be as understanding as I.”
To prove his point he pointed out an earlier incident, “I called that pegasus ‘a pony with spunk’ and she was about to call me a lizard for ‘attacking’ He of Harmony. You were about to call out that the killing of another with the mark of dishonor as barbaric.”
“I… um…” Rarity stammered out an embarrassed blush forming.
If He of Hourglass noticed this he made no indication of it as he continued, “There are probably things that are acceptable and expected in your culture that I would find barbaric.”
At that he went silent and went back to cleaning some dirt off of a silk tapestry. Rarity couldn’t think of a response so she too went back to work trying to identify a mysterious bluish green stain on a tapestry depicting the Spiral Spire.
After a moment though He of Hourglass stopped and looked out one of the windows, “Interesting… The dark magic as lifted.”
“What does that mean?” Rarity looked up herself a bit confused at He of Hourglass’ remark.
“No idea. But I think you best get back to the others.”
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The memories don't need to be painful for Harmony not to talk about, just important. Without fail he's going to leave out the important bits.
He's basically dramatic revelation delay: the character.
And I'm glad that at least Golden understands that maybe not everyone would support the kill-on-sight nature of someone who was given a dishonor mark for... well Rarity doesn't even know why, but if she knew, then "disobeying Harmony" would probably be pretty low on her list of "things you should die for."
5487509
I literally laughed so hard that it started to hurt...
The kill on sight is nearly instinctual... more on that in the next GJ
unless you are RD nearly getting Fluttershy killed...
I think I can risk this: Remember that each Keeper has traits of the magic of harmony that they manifest.... I dropped a hint on one of GH's in this chapter (don't worry I'll drop another hint soon....)
5487563
Well, the thing is... from what I see: Dragons try to kill others all the time. Over all kinds of minor, unimportant slights. So even if Garble was explicitly trying to attack and kill Spike, (who had basically insulted Garble, was accepted into Garble's group and then shunned it when they let him do what they considered the best part. Given the feelings dragons have about honor and acceptance, that might have felt like a pretty major betrayal) that might only be an offense if there was something else.
Instead, the mark was given by Harmony pretty much because Garble disobeyed his orders. That he didn't leave Spike alone, when he was ordered to, not that he ultimately wound up attacking Spike. That was his "dragon rationalization" for this mark.
In a twisted way I guess it makes sense, given that stuff like intruding on their home or calling them the wrong title is death-worthy, that if normally attacking a younger kid in anger, and failing, would involve some form of severe punishment, Juvenile detention, reform school, long-term punishments. So if something that would be disrespectful and involve a lecture normally is punishable by death, something that would require a real punishment is fate-worse-than-death worthy.
... But I suspect that this is more about the unusual mores that dragons have, not that they have similar mores just more severe.
5487595
Finally somepony is starting to think! not that everything you said is correct.....
Remember that the dragons are the last to get their harmony back. The Nameless One curse them... the question is what was in that curse? Could it be that GH has sensibilities to what dragons used to be? MAAAAAAYBE............... He is the Dragon Keeper it wouldn't be a stretch for that to be the case... all i have to say is keep watching and reading and as also read between the lines with Harmony... though you might have to do that a bit with GH given the somewhat secretive nature of dragons or maybe you wont need to...DISCORD STAY OUT OF THE COMMENTS!!!!
5489185 correction Golden Heart... not Spike