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Weirdest Dream Ever2,554 words
That Really Stings You Know2,200 words
The Gingerbread Man1,730 words
First Job3,205 words
Slavers.2,837 words
This is Going to be Either Extremely Fun, or Extremely Painful (Probably Both)1,977 words
Surrender1,644 words
Please Let Those Be Animal Bones3,831 words
Attack and Escape 2,542 words
They Have Gunpowder?!1,760 words

They Have Gunpowder?!

I tried to open my eyes to see where I was but couldn't see or feel anything. 'So, this is what it's like when someone dies.' I thought to myself.

'Not quite.' came something more akin to a thought than a voice from the inside of my head.

'Who's there?' I called out in my head.

'Forgive me if I don't show myself; just know I'm the one who brought you to this world.' it said.

'A lot of good that did.' I replied.

'I wouldn't say that, after all I am going to send you back.' answered my benefactor.

'what?' I asked in disbelief

'You haven't accomplished the task I sent you here for.' whoever this was said.

'And what would that be?' I asked with peeked interest.

"You'll find out, soon enough." the voice said in a deep audible voice.

_________________

When I started to come to, I heard the sound of steel colliding and realized Howling Wind was still fighting the diamond dog chief.

"Get up; I have to get up. I'm going... I'm going to beat you!"

"Still alive? That's surprising; I'll make sure to aim for your head next time." the chieftain said as he knocked Howling Wind away and turned to face me. "Wh- What are you?" he said as he moved into a defensive posture.

"What do you mean?"I asked with a slight shrug. "I'm no dif-" I stopped mid sentence to look at my arms. They were covered in orange-ish red scales on top and smooth yet tough beige skin on the undersides of them.

"I'm...not quite sure; but I think I might be part dragon now." I said as I continued looking at my new form. In addition to the scales; I now had a tail that, while I could move it, it wouldn't be much use for anything that required finesse. And while I still had a pair of wings they were leathery and batlike.

"You, a dragon? Hah! Don't make me laugh; you're no more a dragon then you are a diamond dog. Not that it really matters, as I'm going to take your head off this time." The chief said as he prepared to attack.

"Not if I have any say on it; hey Wind, can you still fight?" I asked the battered pegasus who had made his way to my side.

"Yeah, that last attack dislocated my shoulder, but as long as I can hold one weapon, I can fight." He replied.

"I'll distract him; while I'm doing that, you roll onto it an pop it back into place." I said as I got ready to defend myself.

"You're going to fight me without a weapon? My, you are a dumb one aren't you?" The chieftain said as he charged me.

One of the bonuses to having a 6" 3' hokey player as a friend was when he wanted to roughhouse I got to practice my Aikido on a large opponent; so when he charged me I simply moved out of the way and gave him a little push to knock him off balance and tried to sweep his legs out from under him. As my leg moved however, a trail of fire followed it; causing him to not only fall, but gave me an idea as well.

"Still think I'm wrong about being part dragon now?" I asked the diamond dog as he got up.

"I'll admit, I'm starting to believe you, but I'd rather die to you than to an equestrian noose." he said as he coughed up a fair amount of blood.

"That's fine, but your armor's going to act like an oven unless you take it off, but that would leave you open to our swords; not that I really care either way." I answered as Howling Wind handed me my sword back.

"Heh, I think I'll take my chances with my armor; it'll take a while for you to heat it up before it becomes any sort of threat." The Chieftain said as Howling Wind got back up; shoulder back where it belonged.

"Suite yourself." I said as Howling wind and I charged him at the same time. Howling Wind was the first to reach him; going for a thrust to the head, The chief dodged it and got away with only a cut to the cheek. I followed right behind with a swipe at the eyes, fire trailing behind the attack. He dodged my attack as well, but was off balance from the attacks and easily knocked off his feet by Howling wind.

I quickly tried to finish him while he was down, but only managed to get him in the side before he knocked me away. Instead of getting up however he threw his axe to the side and began to dig into the floor. "What's he trying to do?" I asked, not expecting a reply.

"I don't know, but I have a bad fea-" Howling Wind was interrupted by a strong rumbling followed by an explosion of stone and dirt from the floor. "Blasting powder! He's trying to bring the whole mountain down on our heads!" Howling Wind shouted.

"Then let's get going." I replied as another explosion caused a small portion of the room to collapse. We started to make our way towards the exit,but I went over to the pile of riches almost without thinking, grabbed the still uncut gem I dug up and ran back to catch up with Howling Wind,; nearly getting killed by some rocks in the process.

"You really had to risk your life for that gem?" he asked in an unsurprised voice.

"What can I say? I must have gotten some of a dragon's greed too." I said with a laugh. As we ran we joined up with a group of diamond dogs; most of them weren't soldiers however, they were women and children. We decided to ignore them and focus on more pressing matters; Like dodging rocks that would flatten us, given the chance.

We were soon in sight of an exit and raced towards it as fast as we could; just before we could reach it however, a giant boulder fell blocking it off. We were about to lose hope when the diamond dogs stepped in and turned it to rubble in a matter of minutes. As we made it through the mouth of the cave and into the light we were met with an unexpected situation: a large number of armored ponies with weapons drawn and pointed at us.

---END MUSIC---

"WAIT! We're friendly, don't kill us!" I shouted, raising my hands to protect my face.

"Lower your weapons! we wouldn't have escaped without them." Silver stronghold yelled as he and the others raced over to surround us.

The soldiers, who I now noticed were wearing gold armor instead of iron; listened and took the diamond dogs to a group of other ones surrounded by many more soldiers and told us we better see their leader, commanding officer who was in the second largest tent. When we arrived, there were four guards outside the tent standing watch who opened the tent flap for us.

"Ah, good you're here; I take it you're Howling wind and Aeren?" asked a slightly aged earth pony with a large gash across his forehead.

"Yes sir." Howling Wind said, standing at attention.

"Aeren; you look different than how the freed captives described you." the old soldier said with an inquisitive look.

"Yeah, I'll explain everything later but first I need you to explain a few things; like what should I call you?" I replied.

"Colonel Steel Targe." he answered.

"Alright then Colonel, how many of the ponies survived there were sixty-seven when we made our escape." I told him.

"We have forty-four accounted for and from what they've told us we have fifteen confirmed dead and eight still missing and presumed dead." he replied without much expression one way or the other. "Now it's my turn for a few questions. First: how were you captured?"

"There were just too many of them; Howling wind, myself and five others were sent to rescue the ponies who had been kidnapped from Mountainview; we underestimated their number and Burning Impact died because of that, though we killed around fifty of their soldiers before we were forced to surrender. It's probably what allowed us to escape." I replied, reliving the fight in my head.

"Is this True?" he asked turning to Howling Wind for an answer after he wrote down what I said who merely nodded in reply. "Ah, that explains all the blood and the few diamond dog corpses that were left when we arrived; would you please tell me what happened from that point until you arrived out here?" he asked.

We explained what had happened from the whipping, the mining and how they rewarded and punished the slaves, to our escape and our fight against the chieftain, and even how I died and came back; I did leave out the part about me being sent by some unknown power. "After that he dug into the floor and ignited some blasting powder to destroy the caves with everything in it, we wouldn't have made it without those diamond dogs who destroyed the rock in our way." I finished.

"Well, that sums things up; thank you for your time, but now I have some other matters to attend to." the colonel said as he stood up from his chair.

"Wait! what's going to happen to the remaining diamond dogs now that their caves have collapsed?" I asked honestly feeling sorry for the survivors who lost their homes.

"Ah, that; they're all to be executed tomorrow morning." The colonel answered as he left us in the tent by ourselves.

Author's Note:

Finally finished this chapter!

Here's his new powers

pyrokinetic combat i.e. fire bending
peak human healing not wolverine level healing, but if you break his spine he'll be ready to fight again in about a month (assuming he's still alive)
schrodinger embodiment I am everywhere and I am nowhere (unless someone sees his injury it doesn't exist and will heal without any danger this includes a decapitation or getting squashed by a boulder)
dragonborn physiology Fus Roh Dah!