> The adventures of Dread Wing the Kirin
>  by Vediccio
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope that you will like what i've written, please leave some comments down below. also, i dont own My little pony friendship is magic, hasbro and lauren faust has that honour. most of the things that i've written down in this story is fictional, and comes fom my own mind, so please dont question it.

***
This story starts in an town a long time ago, far, far away from little Ponyville. This town was, and still is, Stalliongrad. In this town lives the most curious creature yet presented in to world, a Kirin. Kirins are half-breeds between dragons and ponies, and most are very unique, since there are almost no kirin around. What makes this kirin special is that he is the spawn of a mighty, and ancient, dragon called Dark Flame, renowned for his mysterious purple flames, and Stalliongrads most successful scholar and expert when it comes to dragons, Fairy Tale the Unicorn. How these curious creatures met is an story for another time, right now this story is about their son, Dread Wing. The first two decades he stayed in his father’s lair, being tutored by his mother in the basics of school. When he turned twenty one, he wanted to explore the world, but his father wanted him to grow up a little more, but Dread Wings mother had other plans…
She advised Dread Wing to start in an school in Stalliongrad as a first stop in exploring the world, since going to school might teach him a little more about the world he wants to explore. And so he followed his mother to Stalliongrad, but she stopped right outside the gates, said that she cannot enter. Dread Wing asked her many times why she couldn’t enter, and she just answered <There is som bad memories here, and I’d rather skip them>. So she gave him the directions to the Office of education, and from there search for an school that he could study at.
The moment he entered Stalliongrad, he felt uneasy and quesy, maybe because everypony was looking at him. He thought that they were disgusted of the half-breed, but the truth was that they were amazed, enchanted even. The Mares and stallions were watching him all the way to the office of education, and when he entered, he felt the same aura as before. But in the OE, the aura was something different. Everypony looked up, wanting to find out of whom could the the one with this magical aura that just entered the OE. They all the spotted the most magnificent sight, one that has never been seen before. Dread Wing hated the attention of course, but he had to stand with it.  After hours of trying to choose a university (he was twenty one after all), he finally found a university that he could enjoy. “The University of Archeology” sounded perfect for him. 

After a few weeks, plus an audition, he entered without many difficulties. He would study there for five years, and later study as an apprentice with an archeologist to spread his knowledge in the area. During those five years of studying, he accidentally bumped into somepony when he was deep in his books. This was the moment that would affect the future very much, but not in this story for a little while. As he apologized he noticed that the pony, or unicorn, that he bumped into was no other than the renowned Dr. Healing Potion, known for his knowledge of old healing magic and his mastery of alchemy. Dread Wing offered to buy Dr. Potion lunch to compensate for his foolishness. During the lunch, they discussed diverse topics, and soon they became friends. After a year Dr. Potion left to continue his journey, and this pressed Dread Wing to wanting to explore the world even more. When he graduated, he sought apprenticeship with an local archeologist. Dread Wing spent five years with the archeologist, and he left when the apprenticeship ended, and during the time he spent with the archeologist, he started to interest himself in minerals, especially jewels. He went back to the university to study more about minerals. After another five years, he sought apprenticeship with a miner. After three hard years, he finally earned two things. First, he completed his apprenticeship; he was now a master in the area. Second, he earned his cutie mark. Yes, you might find it strange that a half-breed could have a cutie mark, but he is half pony after all. The cutie mark is a book that symbolizes his thirst for knowledge, a mining pick(that lays across the book) that symbolizes his love for archeology and mining, plus an purple flame that serves as an background(because I can). He thought it strange to, you know, and he took it as a sign that he was finished with his studies, and he was ready to explore the world. He left Stalliongrad with an carriage full with his equipment, all from mineral books, mining picks and history books to tents and building equipment. He’s gotta excavate properly somehow!

Dread Wing started his journey to the north, towards Germaney. A long the way he met many a passerby, camped with travelers, even vagabonds who shared stories of their youths and of their travels. He used his magic to survey the lands around him to locate minerals and jewels, but without much luck. On one faithful night, he met the most curious character. It was a pony that had mastered the craft called jewel crafting. He taught the basics to the “young” Dread Wing, who was, eager wouldn’t be enough to explain, to learn it all. After the lessons, they parted ways to continue their own journeys. After a week of traveling, Dread Wing finally reached Marelin in Germaney. Fortunately, he arrived at the yearly event called “Oktoberfest”, an event where ponies drink cider in the galleons! The event lasted from the middle of the day, all the way through midnight! During the evening, Dread met an old adventurer who told of his old adventures when he was an young stallion. Many of the older ponies discarded them as pass time stories told by an old drunk who couldn't even find his own tail, but these very stories inspired Dread Wing, believing that his exploration expedition could be more than just excavating and digging holes in the ground, it could be one of the epic adventures the old stallion told about. When morning dawned, Dread Wing woke up with the worst hangover of the century! <I knew I shouldn't have drunk so much with the old stallion yesterday!> Dread Wing moaned. At that very moment somepony bashed on the door.

"I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE, HALF-BREED! COME OUT AND ACCOUNT FOR YOURSELF!", somepony yelled while bashing on the door.

Dread Wing jumped out of the bed full of dread, fearing of what could have happened last night. <Dear Celestia, please don't let it be something bad!> he prayed, for his life, I might add.

He opened the door, and there stood a large and angry stallion. "You dare flirt with my daughter when her coltfriend is right beside her?!" The large, intimidating stallion spat out quite loudly. "Don’t you know how to behave in civilized society, you savage?!"

Dread Wing was very, very scared now. He didn’t remember anything from last night… Oh, NOW he remembers of what this stallion is talking about. Dread had a little too much cider, and he accidently flirted with somepony, but he didn’t think that it was this bad! And this large and angry pony just happened to the town mayor, Tankard Mane, and his daughter was the victim of his drunkenness.

"Meet us in front of the tavern, and account for yourself! And if you don’t come out, we will make you come out!", the large and angry pony said angrily.

Now Dread Wing was real scared. “us”? Was it just the father, daughter and her coltfriend, or was it much more serious? He looked out the window, and oh colt was it bad. He counted them up to ten ponies, excluding the daughter and her coltfriend, who was standing on the sidelines. <I have to get out of here!> Dread Wing thought to himself. The idea of getting into trouble because of such a small mistake didn’t really seem worth it.

****

Ten minutes had passed, and Tankard Mane was more displeased than he already was. <Drag him out!> he ordered the other nine stallions. After a couple of seconds, somepony opened the window leading to the perverted half-breed’s room. <He’s not here! Cider Keg shouted out the window, but there is a note and a bag!> Tankard Mane rushed up to the room, opening the letter.

>>Dear sir, or madam, I apologize for the trouble that I have caused you and your daughter, and to compensate for the trouble I have left something in the bag in front of you that I think that you would appreciate this apology. Yours sincerely, Dread Wing. <<

Tankard Mane drew his look to the bag. He opened it and found to his surprise that the contents really were something he would appreciate. Jewels. Of many colours and shapes. A smile began to take shape on his mouth. This savage might have been rude, but he sure knew a lot of fancy words, and he certainly knew how to make an good apology.

****

<That was close!> Dread Wing thought to himself. Fortunately he had strategically left his cart behind the tavern, close to the backdoor. Now, after this dramatic incident, he was ready to embark on his epic adventure, wherever it may take him, and he would have lots of stories to tell the foals when he becomes old and settles down. But that won’t happen in a long time, hopefully. And next time, drop down on the number of cider tankards upon the next festival.

> Chapter 1; The unexpected Companion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has gone one day since I left Marelin in a hurry, and I’ve yet to escape Germaney. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that the mayor of Marelin is hunting me, maybe because I’ve hurt his feelings to much or maybe something else. I’m soon out of Germaney anyway, and then my real adventure can begin, if it hasn’t already. 
I stopped in a clearing in the forest, because I’m avoiding the main roads, and I unpacked my bedroll and prepared a fire. When I got the fire started I heard a crack, like something stepped on an branch, and I froze. 

“Who’s there!” I asked out loud, still not moving. Fearing for my life, I should shake, but I am a Half-Dragon, and my father would discipline severely me if he ever found out that I trembled like some newborn whelp. “Not” fearing for my life, I entered some sort of combat position that I read about in some book at the university. When something emerged from the bushes I was pretty prepared to leap out on the emerging thing, but instead I lowered my guard, lifted my brows and tried to get a reading of what just happened. 

From the bushes a filly emerged, teenage i would guess, bruised and trembling. I could do nothing but act on my instincts, and that was to quickly catch the falling wounded filly and put her by the fire, wrapping a blanket around her. 
I was quite inexperienced with treating wounds, but it seemed that these could easily be treated with magic. The filly was sleeping at the moment, and so I cast a simple healing spell. After healing the bruises, and making sure that the filly was being comfortable, I went to sleep with the thought "Where did she come from, and who gave her these bruises?".
****
It hurts. Well, it did hurt, but not anymore. Now it just feels sour. I think my wing took some damage, but I have no idea of how it all happened. It’s warm now, and not cold like last night. Since it’s so bright I guess that it’s morning. And… why am I wrapped in a blanket? Why is there a campfire in front of me? What happened last night? I hear heavy wing beats above me, and I looked up. My blood froze. What in Celestia’s name is that thing up there? My mind soon became clear. Whatever it that thing was, its intent was simple; it wants to eat me! I mean, c’mon! The campfire? The blanket! It was warming me up so that I wouldn’t be cold when it started feasting on my carcass! Oh no, its coming down. IM GOING TO DIE!

****
I wonder why that filly is panicking for? Maybe I scared her? Anyhow, I’ve got to calm her down somehow. I wonder if she likes chocolate. 

****
ItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloser ItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloserItscomigcloser!

****

She’s starting to sweat now, and her eyes are widening. Am I really that frightening? I have to calm her down somehow…

****
I AM GOING TO DIE!

****
I touched down beside her. “Do you like chocolate?” I said while trying to keep a smile.
She fainted.

****
What the buck was THAT!? What in the holy name of Celestia was THAT!? I thought that it was going to eat me, and then it politely asked me if I liked chocolate!? Am I dreaming? And if I am, im going to be as angry as I can possibly be! I’m waking up now, and when I do I’m going to lie in my bed at my house and realize that it was all just a horribly made nightmare. It was not. I Screamed.

****
My ears are hurting. The pain is beginning to become unbearable! Finally putting my hand on her mouth to silence her, my ears are much relieved. “Why did you scream? And most of all, why did you panic?” I asked her as gentle as I could, removing my hoof from her mouth. 

“I thought that you were going to eat me!” she answered sobbingly. 

“Really?” I asked her, “why in Celestias name did you think that?” 

“Because it all made sense at the moment!” she shouted, ”Wrapped in a blanket, put beside a campfire? It all pointed out that you wanted me to be warm when you started eating!”

“That explains why you fainted when I asked if you liked chocolate,” I murmured, “well?”

“Well what?” she asked surprised.

“Do you like chocolate?” I asked her

“Well duh, what pony doesn’t?” she said, as if it was a fact that everypony liked chocolate.

“The ones that’s allergic”, I answered factly.

“Well, that’s sad for them” she answered back.

I brought out the chocolate from my snack bag and gave it to her, and the results were more satisfactory. It looked like she hasn’t had chocolate in a long time. You could say that she had a snackgasm. If you can’t figure out what that means, it means that she liked it. Very, very much.
While she was enjoying the snack, I started packing the stuff into my cart again. I really have to create a pocket dimension where I can stash the cart, so that I don’t have to drive it around all the time. “Note to self; Create pocket dimension” I murmured to myself while attaching the cart onto myself. 

“What’s a pocket diemention?” the young filly of whom I have yet to ask the name of asked.

“A pocket “Dimension” is an alternate reality that you create to store different things”, I lectured her, “but it’s all just an theory 

right now, but it should be possible to create one if given enough focus and enough magical power.”
“Sounds cool to me,” the young filly said, still snacking on the chocolate. “And why do you talk so funny?” she asked me.

“Funny?” I asked, “I don’t talk funny.”

“Yeah, you do!” she claimed, laughing.

“Well, if it keeps you from screaming and fainting, I guess that it’s okay for you to think that I talk funny” I said calmly to her. 

“By the way, what’s your name? I refuse to believe that you have forgotten your name” I finally asked her.

“Daisy”, Daisy said, “and yours?”

“Dread Wing,” I answered her, “and what brought you all the way out here, I wonder? And you were pretty beat up.”

“I…” Daisy tried to remember, “I don’t know.”

“Well, that’s a shame, it would be pretty helpful to know of what caused your bruises”, I said, disappointed that he could not 
hunt down the ones responsible for hurting a foal, “Do you remember where your family lives?

“Yes, but only vaguely”, Daisy said, trying to get a read of where she was now.

“Would it be easier if we went to the main road?” I asked her.

“I think so” Daisy replied. 
With that, we went out of the forest to locate the main road, which sounds easier than it really was. Summarized; We were lost.
Since I’ve avoided the main road for the time I’ve travelled here, I have lost track of where the road is. And Daisy’s awful local sense isn’t making it any better. A Right turn there, a left turn there and a lot of “ehm”s and “um”s at each turn.

“I think that we are lost” I stated when we reached the clearing that we started from.

“No, we’re not” Daisy replied, “we’re just…” she bit her lips. “I ADMIT DEFEAT!” she cried out, “we’re totally lost, and it’s all my fault!” she continued to cry. Lying on the ground crying rivers of tears, I couldn’t resist kneeling down and hugging her and trying to comfort her.

“It’s all my fault” she sobbed, still crying a little.

“It’s not all your fault” I tried to reassure her, “You did what you could, and there is nopony that can blame you for trying.” I 
told her, using a rather motherly tone.

She looked up at me, “Really?” she was still crying, but by tartarus, she was so sad that I started crying to.
“Really”
That moment was the most saddest moment of my immortal life. It wasn’t the only one, but it was one of the saddest, topping the top ten lists of my saddest moments. 

“I will help you find your parents, even if it will be the death of me!” I promised her with tears in my eyes. 
Sure, we found out of the forest and we found her house, but... it wasn't exactly as we liked.

It took us all day to find the cottage. Through thorns and sneaking past a bears den, which could have gone terribly wrong but didn’t, we then fell down a slope. At the end of that slope we found the cottage at last! 
Well, what was left of it anyway.

Both jaw dropping, we watched the burned down cottage. Daisy started crying, and she dashed towards her burned down home. When she reached it, she fell down and started crying even harder than before. Well, her home has been destroyed, so who’s to blame her?

I slowly approached the wreckage, and I entered it in hope of finding something that could calm her down. Something like, finding her parents alive, and that they have been down in some underground shelter. As I looked around I saw something most vile. Two burned carcasses. “Do… Did you have a basement, or something leading underground?” I asked Daisy.

“No…” she had some problems trying to talk, since she’s crying hard.

“Tartarus bucking stinking hellfire hole sad excuse for an armpit” I murmured to myself. I dared not turn around when she asked why i asked if they had a basement. I wished I could, but every nerve in my being told me to not turn around to meet her already tear filled eyes that could melt the cruelest dragon heart. Against my instincts, I turned around, with small tears in my eyes. Not for the dead, but for little Daisy. Small Daisy, who has just lost her parents. How I know? I compared their DNA (don’t argue with me, this is my story, my rules), and they matched. 
When I turned around, I tried beyond my powers to not make eye contact with Daisy, but to no avail. 
Her eyes, that could melt the heart of the cruelest and greediest of dragons. Hell, even Nightmare Moon would be converted into princess Luna by just staring into those innocent, tear filled-to-the-brink, hurt, sad eyes. Those were the eyes that could make whole armies of minotaurs to cry. Those eyes scarred me for my immortal life, etching themselves into my brain.
I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t think. I could only cry.



****

My home. My burnt down home. Why? Why? WHY!? 

Why did this happen to me!? Why not somepony else? Why me? Who in tartarus did this to me? Where is papa and moma? Are they okay? Mr. Wing just went inside the ruins. He’s asking something. “Do… Did you have a basement, or something leading down?” he asked. I answered no. it was very hard to answer him, since my mouth is trembling from this shock. He murmured something. Have he found them? I’m feeling something deep inside. Is it hope? Hope so. Why isn’t he turning around to share the good news. Wait, is that sobbing? Is he crying? He’s turning around now.

He is crying. Why is he crying? Is it happy tears? It must be happy tears. It have to be. He coming closer now. It doesn’t sound or look like happy tears…


****
How am I supposed to tell her? *Hey, your parents are dead, and there is absolutely nopony to take care of you now, so I’m just going to continue my adventure. Good luck!*

No, she must know the truth now, or else it will be traumatic later.

“Daisy?” I’m trembling, it’s hard to say it. So bucking hard. I have to, it’s my duty to tell her. She must hear it from me. Those eyes are now gleaming of hope. “I’m so sorry”, and with that, despair burst free from those innocent eyes that was gleaming of hope seconds ago.

As I knelt down to caress the poor filly, she flew into me, hugging me. Even as I tried to calm her down, and all that you tell them to calm them down, she continued to cry. It was all understandable, but the fact that she cursed herself for their deaths was the most horrific. Cursing herself, that if she was a little faster and didn’t get us lost in the forest, she could’ve saved them.

“There was nothing we could have done”, I said, trying to sooth her, “and you weren’t responsible for getting us lost.”

“It’s still my fault!” she screamed, “I should’ve stayed! Not run away from whatever happened that night!”

“If you were running from whatever ki… did this, your parents must have sent you away to save from the same fate they suffered!” I said fatherly to her, “And if it is so, don’t disturb their spirits by cursing yourself!”

“But…” she sobbed, “This was my home! What am I supposed to do now?”

“Have got any relatives nearby?” I asked.

“Nopony that would take me in” she sobbed.
“Whys that?”

“Both my parent’s families were against the marriage, and they swore to never have any contact with ever again” she continued sobbingly. 

“That complicates everything…” I murmured.

Something sparked in me. Reminding myself that she didn’t have any relatives to take her in, and nopony that could be trusted to take in an orphaned filly, I took the biggest step in my immortal life up till now.

“I will take care of you”, I whispered in her ear, “I will raise you to become a fine mare, and when you are ready, you will take care of yourself, but until then, I will take care of you!” I shouted into the air.

“Really?” she sobbed, looking at me with those tear filled eyes that were flooding seconds ago, now filled with hope.

“Yes, really”

We hugged each other tightly and hard, like it was our last moments in life. We went to the clearing we first met, and made camp. It was almost midnight. When I lied on my bedroll and she in her blanket, she started talking.

“What happens now?”

“I’ll be taking care of you now, I told you this before”

“No, what I meant was, what happens now? As in what will we do?”

“Well, I’ve still got my journey to go continue. And there seems to be no other way than to take you with me”

“What is this “journey” you always talk ‘bout anyway?

“It’s an adventure I’ve been starting. You could call it a “quest-that-involves-travelling-around-the-world”, and you’ve just been invited young Daisy”

“Wait, let me get this straight… were about to travel the world, unprepared for what lies ahead?”

“Yep” I answered merrily.

“Well, it sounds better than this atleast”

“Yes it does, young Daisy Blank-Flank, it does…”

“Wait, my new name is Blank-Flank? That’s so lame!”

“Well, what epic name would rather have then?” 

“Daisy the Daring! Daisy the Brave! Daisy the Spectacular!” she almost shouted out.

“Let’s keep to Daisy for now”, I sighed, “Besides, I’m the spectacular one here!” I pointed out, letting my inner dragon ego take grasp of me.

“You are just some pony that looks like a dragon” she undermined me.

“You just hurt the dragon in me…” I said sobbingly (joke of course)

“You are such a foal!”

“The only foal here is you, Daisy Blank-Flank!” I replied with extra force, “and we should get some rest, we’ve got a long journey in front of us in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah” replied with mock voice, “G’night Dready” 

“Good night young Daisy”

> Chapter 2: Good Dreams, Bad Deeds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my longest chapter yet, and im mighty proud of it! i hope you will enjoy it, and please leave a comment, or like the story if you like it. dont hide your feelings!
As always, My little pony friendship is magic is owned by Hasbro and Lauren Faust, but i own this fanfiction.

***

As morning dawned I opened my eyes, yawned and got up. The fire had gone out during the night, and Daisy was still sleeping. “She deserves the rest” I thought to myself, reviewing the past day. The traumatic event that occurred was the stuff of nightmares, not fit for fillies her age. Speaking of age, I never asked for her age. I just guessed what age she was.  There wasn’t much I could do with her sleeping, so I started this epic adventure morning by packing mah stuff into the wagon. When I was finished packing, I started the fire again by breathing some fire unto the dead, burnt wood, making it burn with splendid purple flames. The fire show woke young Daisy up, and she looked horrified. I quickly molded my wings to my body, as not to scare her to much.

“Who are you and where am I!?” she shrieked. 

Ah.

It seems like that the traumatic event last night was more traumatic than I realized, but she was fine (I thought) when she went to sleep. Could it have happened overnight? Anyway, I must come up with an explanation before she shrieks again.

“I am your uncle, and we are in a forest, on one of my journeys”, I came up with. Seriously, uncle?

“I… I don’t quite remember…” she said thoughtfully.

“of course you don’t, because you were so sleepy last night, and I think that you became too accustomed to  the tavern bed, and it must be an nightmare to suddenly wake up in the middle of an forest, bedded in an bedroll.” I hated lying to her, but it was for her own best.

“I want back to mama and papa!” she said sobbing.

Ouch, now I have to be creative. “But… don’t you remember?, I asked, your mother and father died long ago, and I had to take you in since there was nopony else who would.” I finished. So much for creativity, stealing the scene of crime and mixing it with a green pile o’ lies. “I think that you just had an small amnesia, poor filly”.

“Maybe… but why are we in the middle of a forest?”, she asked, ”And why is the campfire purple?” 

“I said before; we are on one of my journeys, and the fire is purple because I used magic on it.”

“But… you’re an unicorn” she replied suspiciously.

“Well… I’m special.” *Special*, seriously?

“Uh huh, But where are we going?” she asked curiously. I think the hard part is over, for now at least.

“I dunno, somewhere, someplace.” I answered mysteriously.

“And I take it that we are lost?” she said with an hint of cold hard irony in her voice. She truly was his newly-adopted-niece.

“Absolutely not, for I have been following a map!” I said proudly.

“Where is it?”

“Why, it’s in my pack of course!” I answered proudly yet again. But as I searched through the pack, I couldn’t find the map I had ‘borrowed’ from my old jewelcrafting master. I think he might be out for retaliation too! Have to be careful from now on.

“Ehm, I harked, it seems like I have misplaced my map…” I gave out, admitting defeat.

“So, we are lost?”

“Yes, young Daisy, it seems like we are…”


After marching through the woods blindly and following my own little miniature of the map inside my head, we reached an cave, and it had started raining, and thunder could be heard from a distance. It was also becoming late, in which the cave discovery was very appreciated.
And as casually suspected, the cave was deep and dark. We went as far in as we dared, not wanting to wake up whatever was making this cave its lair. Well, we didn’t know if it was being used, we just assumed because caves like this one does not stay unoccupied for long. While Daisy was unpacking, went on ahead to scout the cave. The cave went much farther in than I expected, and I couldn’t dally for long, because I couldn’t leave Daisy all alone for too long. After a couple of minutes, I entered an huge room in the cave, and it also seemed unoccupied. “Why is the cave unoccupied?” I thought. While I was pondering about of what could’ve kept the cave clear for large critters, I noticed something glimmering at the back of the cave. Well, thinking of what could’ve scared big critters was important, but I’ve always been weak for shiny things. I closed up on what was glimmering, only to find an large stone wall with strange markings on it. The symbols on the cave wall looked strangely much like unicorns shooting beams at an alicorn. The Alicorn looked a bit twisted, as if it was half….

“Oh my gosh.” 

The carving was picturing the battle between the Kirin hunters and the twisted kirin Gold Burn, the first Alicorn-Dragon. Nopoy knew what alicorn could’ve possibly sired this monstrosity, but her father was very well known. The golden terror Gold Doom, he was called, for he was an golden dragon, the most greediest and cruelest of them all. The golden dragons are far more rare than even the kirins, and this particular child of his was the most evil creature Equestria had ever seen. Her temper was more liable to kill somepony who just looked at her wrong, and her powers devastating, almost overpowering Celestia herself. The Kirin Hunters, an small group of dragon hunters with the goal of destroying Gold Burn, barely managed to bring her down, and they were the most powerful of the unicorns of that time, along with the fastest pegasi and strongest earth ponies. With devastating casualties, they disbanded directly after, hoping that the threat was gone for good. Which it was, after they tracked down and destroyed Gold Doom as an last act of service. But that was over a thousand years ago! Could it be… Could it be that this was their old base of operations? If so, this could be the first most historical archeological find I would ever find! Maybe some things were left after they disbanded? Who knows, until we open the gate. Before I did anything, I went back to get Daisy and move the camp further into the cave, since it was abandoned. 
After we set up camp, I started immediately to examine the carving. Maybe it was the hidden lair, maybe not, but it was worth a try!
I spent hours trying to find out how to open the door. I looked everywhere, and no signs of any lever or hidden mechanism, but if I needed an command word I was bucked. Daisy grew bored just watching me trying to open an old cave wall, but when I told her of the historical value this place had, she immediately shone up, listening to the story behind it. And of course did she have questions, and I tried my best to answer them while still trying to figure out the locking mechanism. 

“Why don’t you just blast open the wall?” Daisy asked, tired of watching me run around.

“Hmm, I’ve thought about it, but something could break from the blast.”

“But if you can’t find a way to open it, you just have to blast it anyway.” She replied, sure of that her plan was better than mine.

“Well, it couldn’t hurt to try…” 

I charged up an large force spell, enough to push an dragon back a couple of feet. As I released the spell, I saw the same glimmering as before, and the spell got consumed. By the cave wall. The whole thing. With no impact whatsoever. And the door opened, revealing its treasures. And I tell you, the results was something my weakness to shiny things would explode over.

There it was, the scales of Gold Doom the Golden Terror. Nopony knew if the Kirin hunters succeded, since they never returned to report to princess Celestia. Now I found out the results that had been hidden for a millennia. Gold Doom was dead, and the Kirin hunters succeded. And of what I could read out, this also seemed like an old tomb, dedicated to the hunters. Well, that’s what the tombstones inscriptions said, anyway. Sure, it was old equeish, but I could still read it. The graves were decorated with their old equipment, but the one that caught my eyes were the big one. The very one the Scales were hanging over, the guildmaster’s grave; Lasercorn the Valiant. Lasercorn the Valiant was well known  for his warcry, “Aim at the balls!”. The writing on his tombstone was similar, “I took his golden balls with me!” filling me with shivers, and then realized that he took out the balls before he died.

Whoever put them to rest wanted this to be kept a secret, for reasons unknown. Maybe it was their last wish, or something else. Then something else caught my eyes, something that filled me with disgust so foul I vomited. The Bones of Gold Doom, put together with magic to make it look like some sick statue. Sure, the scales would have filled me with disgust to, hadn’t I been very attracted to gold and such things. I was baffled. I was standing in one of Equestrias most historical valued places, the final resting place of the Kirin Hunters, and all I could think of was how much bits I could make off the whole grave…
Daisy was numbstruck at the golden scales. All she could was to watch it, and she was drooling a bit. 

“Daisy”

“Uh?”

“You are drooling.” I stated.

“Oh” she quickly slurped up the drool, blushing with embarrassment. “How do we haul all this?”

“We don’t.”

“What? Why?” she asked me, very surprised.

“We couldn’t possibly haul all this in my cart without attracting too much attention.”

“But…”, Daisy asked, still looking at the scales, “Couldn’t you just put an invisibility spell on it?”

“And try to explain the large bump under the tarpaulin that doesn’t exist? No, we’ll have to return later when we know we can transport it safely.”

Daisy’s eyes were now widening. “But, what if somepony else finds this place before we manage to move the scales?”
Hmmm… how to figure this out… Aha!

“We could cause a cave-in…”

“WHAT!?” she shriek at me, “How stupid could you be, uncle? Wouldn’t the cave-in damage the grave?”

“I didn’t mean to crash it all here, but at the entrance”

“Well, wouldn’t the shake damage the whole cave?”

“Not if we’re careful”

“You are anything but careful, uncle”

“Well, you haven’t seen enough of me to judge, young Daisy.”
Daisy sighed a defeat, started unpacking her things, and then turned to me.

“We are sleeping here first, right?”

“Why, of course!”, I reassured her, “Cant cause a cave-in without some sleep, and I’m pretty sure that it’s still raining outside.” Daisy sighed of relief, finally going to sleep in her blanket that she had claimed for her own. “Well, thing couldn’t get any bad, right?” I asked myself before I went to sleep and let the night guide my dreams away. Well, let’s just say, I had a bad dream…

“Wake up young immortal.” The voice echoed through the forest… wait, forest? The hay is this? I was in a cave… oh, dream. The voiced continued. “Alone and feared, shunned and pushed away, I know, for I was the same.” The voice was mare-like, but still robust, like some kind of regal pony.

“Well, you got wrong on the alone part.” I chuckled.

“But when she sees through your deception? What will she see you like then? Deceiver, liar, monster…” It but more emotion to the monster part, making sure that the message was clear. 

“Well, I’ll have to be more careful, then.”

“But it won’t last forever.”

It was right. My deception wouldn’t last forever, and if Daisy found out that I lied to her, she would most definitely hate me, 
thinking of me as some kind of creep, calling himself her uncle.

“What do you want.”

“Well, there art many things thine wants, but few that may be obtained.”

“Well, I’m guessing that this is some kind of demon contract, so I won’t make any deals before I meet you face-to-face.” “Very well, thou shalt have thine wish.”

The view shocked me, making me jaw drop.  I thought that this was some kind of dream demon wit horns and twisted body, but this was unexpected. Before me, another kind of demon appeared, perhaps the most well known, Nightmare Moon.

“Nightmare Moon” I grumbled.

“Well, thou art the first to recognize mine visage” Nightmare Moon replied, most proud of this creature she met. “Art thou a scholar?”

“Well, kind of.” True, I am a scholar, but not in any of the more popular areas, such as lore and other things to do with history, but when it came to minerals and ruins, I was the boss.

“Well, it’s refreshing to see such potential unwasted”, the nightmare said, “but thou art still feared and shunned by other ponykind, and mayhaps by the rest of the world.”

“That may be so, but I still don’t do contracts for such things. Besides, I got Daisy with me, so I won’t be alone in this journey.” I replied, proud of resisting the demon.

“But when you reveal yourself, what will the rest of Equestria think? Not everypony is as accepting as the ones you met in Stalliongrad, and the glares when you traveled to Germaney, and don’t count in the old crafter, thou know that he was blind.” She was telling the truth. The old jewelcrafter was indeed blind, bust still the best there was. “And don’t forget Marelin, were you was called degenerating names, and run out for what you were, and if it had been a pony, things would have been different.”
Somehow, I knew she was telling the truth. Other ponys would see me as an abomination, monster, demon, half-breed… the list could go on for a while, and I knew the nightmare was right. 

“What would you ask of me?” I sighed out.

Nightmare Moon smiled demon like. “Free me from this prison that mine sister put me in, and thine reward shalt be grand.”
It was an very tempting offer, but could I really free her? “But how could I break Princess Celestia’s spell?”

“With thine already powerful magic, of course” she said while still grinning, “it is both alien and destructive enough to break the peaceful spell.”

“But… the prophecy tells that you will be released on the thousandth sun celebration, and that’s only a couple of years away.”

“Perhaps, but not every prophecy is telling the truth, but unlike everypony else, you listen to me willingly, and with hunger in thine eyes.” True, the reward was very tempting, *Thine reward will be grand*, was very tempting to me as an dragon, but my pony side had its doubts. I knew she was telling the truth about what will happen when I reveal myself, but my pony side was still resisting. 

“What does this ‘reward’ contain?” I asked curiously.

“Freedom to roam mine domain without being discriminated, a hill-full jewel hoard, and your own patch of land, for you to rule as my first vassal and right hand.”

After some minutes of deep thinking, I replied.

“What would you have of me, my queen?”

Nightmare Moon was grinning demonically. “We command thee to assemble powerful artifacts that will be critical in my freeing. When thou combine these artifacts with thine magic, the powerful prison spell will be broken and I will be freed, thine reward due.”

“And what artifacts will these be, your majesty?”

“The first object will be the sword of Lasercorn the Valiant, Ballsbane.” Her voice still echoed. 

“That will be easy, since I am in his very tomb.”

“Ah yes, so I haft seen, but his grave is protected by powerful magic, of which I have no doubt thou can dispel.”

“Not to worry, my queen, I will handle it.”

“I know thou will, mine agent of Darkness.” She was still grinning demonically.

“But after I retrieve the sword, how will I find the other artifacts?” I asked her.

“I will contact thou, with locations and warnings.” And with that, she stopped grinning. “But if thou shalt fail me, be wary of the consequences.” She warned me with the most serious look I’ve ever seen since my mother warned me of doing mischievous deeds. 

“Fret not, my queen, for I won’t fail. Not as long as my name is Dread Wing.”
And with that, Nightmare Moon disappeared and something was shaking me and pulling me out of my dream. It was just Daisy being worried.

“Uncle!”, she almost shouted in my ear, “Wake up.”

“But I don’t wanna!” I complained, teasing her with her own behavior.

“Uncle Dready, I was worried about you, and here you tease me!” she was angry now.

“Sorry Daisy, but I was just joking with you”, I replied, “and why were you so worried?”

“Well, let’s see… first; you were oversleeping, and second; you were talking in your dreams, something about artifacts, a sword with a strange name, and *my queen*.”

Let’s just say that I was a little pale. I didn’t know of how to tell this young pony of how I made a deal with Nightmare Moon to free her sing different artifacts and my magic. And that I was now calling her my queen. “Ehm… I might have met a demon…” I said shyly. “What?” she replied, with some shock in her face, and she was very confused. “wha… wjah… what? What the hay is a demon?” she asked me. Luck was on my side today, since this is my chance to give her another perspective on demons, so that what I did was justified.

“Demons are powerful entities living in the dream realm, offering rewards to those who do them favors and little other things, and they really like compliments, hence why I called Night… The demon *My queen*.”

Daisy was looking at me strangely, with curiousity filled eyes. “And you took an offer from it?”

“Yes” I replied simply.

“What did it want?”

“Artifacts scattered around Equestria” Daisy looked worried, “But it promised a grand reward if I helped it”. I reassured her. 
The young filly looked more excited than ever. “Them what are we waiting for?” she almost shouted out, “We have arti… arfti… arty something to find!” if I wasn’t mistaken, she was almost giggling. 

“Well, it just happened to be our lucky day, since the first thing on the list is right ‘ere, in the tomb.”
Daisy was slowly losing her giddiness. “Wait, what? Are we grave robbing!?” she was a little angry now, but not much. “Isn’t it against the law?”

“Well, as long as nopony knows about it, it isn’t bad. Besides, I’ll just call it *Archeology research*.”

Daisy loosened up a little. “But, isn’t It very immoral to rob graves?”

“Well, the ones six feet under doesn’t really need the items, right?”

“I guess you are right…” Daisy sighed.

“Of course I am, I am your uncle after all!” I said proudly. 

After a quick breakfast I started trying to dispel the protection magic around Lasercorns grave. After a couple ‘o hours I got really frustrated and I might have gotten a little rough. I accidently shaped my fore hoofs into giant dragon claws and smashed the grave open, revealing the skeleton of Lasercorn the Valiant, and his sword lying on top of him, held tight by his hooves. The armor donning him was also spectacular, and if my metal sense was telling me the truth, this was pure mithril, unbreakable except by the most powerful dragons and magic. It was invaluable, since pure mithril was almost too rare to find. I was practically drooling, and the feeling only got more powered up when I found the sword. “Oh my gosh” was all I could say. 

The sword, Ballsbane, was THE most powerful weapon in Equestria, maybe even the world, and it had slain hundreds of dragons, its last victim being Gold Terror. But it was the sword itself that I was drooling over. The metal, if I recall my metals right, was pure meteorite. Meteorite is an metal only excavated from meteors, which makes it more rare than mithril, and the steel formed from it is more durable than the mithril, making it unbreakable and too invaluable to sell. The craftsmanship clearly spoke out that it was an master smith that made these treasures that saved Lasercorns much endangered life. There were a few scratches, but nothing serious enough to lower the value. “Must have been in the fight with Gold Terror.” I mumbled to myself. Well, I was the only one drooling, since Daisy had no idea of what she was looking at except some really old skeleton wearing a shiny armor and a sword. “Uncle, you are drooling.”

“Oh, ‘scuse me” I said embarrassed and slurping up the drool. Taking a final look at the armor, I grabbed the sword with my claws and put it in the wagon. Daisy, on the other hoof, was dead pale.

“Uncle!” she shrieked, “What happened to your hands!?”

Uh oh.

“Ehm… it’s a weird transformation spell… that I learned in some dusty old tome during my other journeys…”

“Ehm… well, if you just said so in the beginning I wouldn’t have freaked out!” she blamed me, clearly angry.

“I’m so sorry Daisy, I was just so mad and enthralled by the treasure, that I forgot to warn you.” Said calmly, trying to calm her down.

“Just… Just warn me next time. Anyway, where to next?” she asked curiously.

“Well, Night… the demon will contact me tonight when I sleep, with new instructions.”

“Aww… why tonight? Why not now?”

“Well, demons only come to you in your sleep, and this one only comes out at night.”

“Awww, but it’s far ‘till its night!” she whined.

“Well, you’ll just have to be patient, and a filly your age must learn to be patient.”

“hey, I’m not just a little filly, I am 14 years old!”

“Ow…  well, you still need to have patience. It is very useful in this business we just got ourselves in.”

“But what to do until night? I am bored!” she continued to whine.

“Go and try to open the other graves, who knows what they contain.” I ordered her, “And they might contain more treasure!”

“Alright, as long as it keeps me busy.” She complained as she entered the tomb once again, looking for treasure. 



Daisy went into the tomb to dig up the rest of the graves, in hope of finding treasures or something that was worth the effort. There were eight graves, excluding Lasercorns. 

She started at the far end of the tomb, to the tombstone marked with the name *Ice Blood, Enough said*, and the name sent shivers through her. She attempted to push the lit of the grave, but it was too heavy. She pushed harder and harder, slowly pushing the lid of the grave, and was amazed by what was lying in there. Sure, the skeleton was horrifying, but the rest… worth it. At the head, a steel helmet with icy looking horns, one broken, was placed, and by the side of the main corpse was a gigantic hammer, which was made by something ice looking, the same as the helmet. Now, Daisy wasn’t some armor knower, but she knew that this find had to be good.
She left Ice Bloods grave and went to the next. The next said *Morbid Plague, Master Plaguemancer*, and Daisy left the grave and hurried to the next.

The second script Said *Thunder Blast, Master Elementalist, only of his kind*, and Daisy opened it in the same manner as with Ice Bloods grave. Beneath, she found a robed skeleton with a strange looking rod in his grasp, and his eyes were hidden by some kind of eye band. “Maybe he was blind” She mumbled to herself. Pleased with this find, she went to the next grave.

The fourth grave said *Sir Prancealot, a knight of Chivalry and bulwark of justice*, and Daisy giggled. “Sir Prancealot… ahahah” she continued to giggle as she forced the lid open, and revealed the inside. Well, first she was disappointed at just finding san rusted armor, sword and sh… wait, the shield wasn’t rusted… Daisy went for a closer and noticed that the shield was glimmering a little and almost shined brightly. How could she have missed it? Anyway, she took up the shield and put it on the floor, and then she got an idea. She went to the two other graves she had opened and put the items of interest in the pile together with the shield. Satisfied with the treasure pile, she went to the fifth grave.

At the fifth grave, she noticed that there was some kind of aura emitting from the grave. “Whatever could that be?” she looked at the script, and she was very confused at the name. *Marelin, Greatest Wizard in Equestria, next to nopony but Starswirl the Bearded* But, she had never heard of him before, and they would have taught them his name if he was second only to Starswirl… Daisy didn’t have time to think right now, she had to open the lid, and find this resonance. As she pushed and pushed, and finally opening the grave, and was found the source. The skeleton was wearing some old wizard robe, but in his grasp was an old looking book that emitted this strange feeling, so it had to be valuable. She put the book beside the loot hoard, being extra careful. She then went to the sixth grave.

The following script on the sixth tombstone said *Dusk Mane, Master Assassin* Hmmm, this seemed interesting. When she opened the grave, she heard a click, and then a bolt flew past her, nearly piercing her heart. Flying away from the grave, she tried catching her breath, and then she sighed. “This had better be worth the near death moment.” She grumbled. And oh colt, was it worth it. There was the skeleton, but the clothes were intact for some reason or the other. But what caught her eyes were the twin daggers at her sides. They had the same design, but the patterns and coloring was different. One was onyx black, while the other was ivory white. Both had some kind of text on them, but it wasn’t any equuish she had ever seen. She took the daggers and put them in the loot pile, and then she turned to the black suit. She neared it, then she touched it. It felt like silk, but it should have broken down during the time they were lying here. “They must be of some special fabric” Daisy thought out loud. She took off the suit, but not without great effort. It was all very complicated. So we skip it. Well, she put the weird suit in the pile, and then hurried to the seventh grave.

The script on the seventh grave said *Dead Eye, Ranger of the Everfree*. Daisy felt weird. Isn’t the Everfree forest dangerous and hostile? Well, maybe things were different a thousand years ago. She opened the grave, and lying there was a bow. Nothing else. Honest. The bow sure looked special, but where is the corpse? Well, got to put the bow in the pile, but she wanted to test it. As she pulled the string, an arrow appeared magically in between the bow and the string, ready to be shot away. Daisy was so fascinated by this, she fired the arrow away, into the stone wall. And, well… I was being literal there… into the stone wall the arrow stuck, much to Daisys amazement. The arrow disappeared into a mist of green. She thought that she would keep it for herself, so she hung it over her back, hurrying to the eighth grave.

The script on the eighth grave said *Angel Touch the Fair, Cleric and beloved wife of Lasercorn the Valiant*. “hmmm” Daisy hmmm;ed, “The only female, it seems.” And then she opened the grave, and lying there was the skeleton of a mare, with the most strangest necklace Daisy had ever seen. When she touched the necklace, she felt refreshed, and calm for some reason. It felt impossible to be angry, while she was holding it. She put it around her neck, and them she called out to Uncle Dready, who was rushing in, to find that Daisy had rounded quite the treasure pile.

“Good job Daisy!” Dread Wing cheered her.

“Well, maybe you should give me some kind of reward for my most awesomly done job?”

“Well, it seems like you already have taken your reward, or rewards, already.” Dread Wing said smiling.
Daisy looked at her bow, and at the necklace, and blushed. She had completely forgotten about them. “Well, otherwise you’ve done an amazing job.”

Dread Wing looked over the pile of treasure, putting It all over the floor for a better view.

“Now Daisy, speak of what you have found.” 

“First up, a helmet with horns of ice, though one seems to be broken, lies together with a gigantic hammer thing made of the same ice as the horns.” Dread Wing looked at the find with interest. 

“That’s true ice…”

“True what?”

“True Ice. Ice that never melts. Ice Blood brought these from his homeland in the far north, but nopony bothered to send an expedition to explore it.”

“Well, enough history for now, and take a look at this” Daisy said, and brought forth the rod.

“Wow” Was all Dread Wing could say.  

The item lying in front of Dread Wing was nothing else than the Rod of Thunder, the namesake of Thunder Blast, the only Elementalist Equestria has ever known. The rod allowed him to shoot thunder at his enemies, and well, the concept is quite simple, for you know what thunder does. If you don’t, go back to school.

The next item on the floor was the strange book that emitted some strange aura… wait, this is Marelins spellbook! The book itself is an national treasure, but now it was all his! Think of the secrets that Marelin put in it! It wasn’t that weird that Daisy didn’t know about Marelin, since the only records of him is kept by a collector of ancient lore, and he wasn’t all that happy to share his secrets. Anyway, to the next set.

The next set was some strange black suit and twin daggers, one black and the other white… hmmm, this needed investigating. As for the suit… this was all alien to him. Daisy explained that this all came from Dusk Manes grave, and that she almost died opening it. Well, since almost all the records of the nine Kirin slayers was destroyed when the palace of the Royal Sisters was destroyed, and the only records that was saved was Lasercorns and Ice Bloods, which was a shame really, since there was almost nothing on Ice Blood.

Dread Wing noticed that there was one unopened grave, and gave Daisy an stern look.

“Why is there an unopened grave?”

“It was too suspicious, plus the name gave me shivers.”

“Whose is it?”

“Morbid Plague, or something”, she said with disgust in her voice, “Master Plaguemancer“

“Hmmm… well, you are right that it sounds very suspicious, and I think we will do the world a service if we leave the grave unopened.”

Daisy sighed of relief, going out from the tomb, since she had spent the whole day in there and she was quite hungry, and called out to Dread Wing to coo something. “Cook something yourself!” he yelled back. “But I don’t know how to cook!”

“Then it’s high time you started!”

“Come on!”, she yelled, “I’ve been working all day while you were sitting on your flank and drooled over that sword!”

“Excuse me for studying the artifacts that we are collecting!”

“Well, if you want me to starve, you will find yourself winning!” she whined.
***
Letting out a sigh of defeat, I walked out to the makeshift camp, took out the kettle and filled it with water, put some logs under it and started a fire. While it started to boil, I took out some vegetables and started hacking the, throwing them in the boiling water. I threw a look in Daisys’ direction, clearing my throat. “If you don’t know how to cook, now is the greatest of times to learn!” I shouted at her. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever” she said lazily. I sighed heavily, ignoring her complains and continued with my cooking. 

“By the way uncle, why do you have two horns?” Daisy asked suddenly, freezing me still, “And why are a little scaly? I noticed the scales just now, but I’ve been wondering about the horns for a while.”
I was in deep trouble now, as I wanted to hold the kirin thing from her for atleast a bit longer than this. Now I had to explain it ALL to her. I just hope it doesn’t go wrong.

“Well, it’s all… a little hard to explain…” I forced up, hoping for something I don’t remember anymore. 

“Well, I want to hear it!” she insisted.

“Well, first of, I’m a kirin…” I said before Daisy interrupted me.

“A What?” 

“A kirin”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously” 

“You mean, like that Gold Burn chic?” she asked with curiosity mixed with fear.

“No, nothing like her” I explained, “She was a monstrosity, I am just greedy.”

“But, why didn’t you tell me before?” She asked as if she had been betrayed, of which she had a little.

“I was afraid that it would frighten you, that you would see me as a monster that’s not supposed to exist.” I managed to pull up while I was sobbing.

“Well, if you had just told me in the beginning, I would have been easier than it is now! I can’t believe that my own uncle doesn’t believe that I could handle such a small thing! You are my uncle, right?” She threw me a suspicious look.

“Of course I am, but I didn’t tell you the kirin part because I thought it would frighten you!”

“Well, now I want to know how the hay my uncle could be a kirin!”

“Well, you see… our father had some strange tastes…”

“Now I don’t want to know anymore…” 

“Well, that makes it all that much easier” I said with a grin.

“But don’t think that you get away that easy, mister!”

“Would never think of it”

“Good, now I want some food!” she finished.

And it seems that in just that moment, the food was actually finished.
After the simple but rather tasty dinner, we both went to sleep. And as expected, I got contacted by Nightmare Moon.

“Hast thou retrieved the sword?” her voice echoed.

“Yes, m’lady” I bowed.

“Good, then the first artifact is retrieved, for thou shalt need it in thou search for the artifact thou was supposed to find” the nightmare grinned demonically, “Now the real artifact, is none other than the Rod of Elements”

“THE Rod of Elements? The one that lets you control the elements and bend them to your will?” I asked her, surprised.

“Yes, I thought I was clear” her voice echoed (It will continue to echo, so don’t get confused if I don’t write it down).   

“My apologies your majesty, I was just surprised!”

She stared down at me. “Apology accepted. Now, to obtain the rod, thou needst to assemble the four pieces that hast been scattered in the different corners of southern Equestria.”

“And I guess that these four pieces resemble the four elements?” I asked.

“Yes, that is most correct”, she grinned, “Thou art most gifted in observation, Dread Wing.” I blushed, getting complimented by Nightmare Moon is not something that happens every day, or more correctly, every night. But I’m pretty sure she was playing with me. “The locations of these pieces are secret, but I know of their hiding places”, she grinned, “but some are more dangerous to obtain than others…”

“Tell of how to get them, and tell me of these dangers.”

“Thou may obtain them in what order thou wants, as long as thee obtains all without warning Princess Celestia of thee plans.” She got a more serious look, “The Element of Wind is located in the depths of the pegasi city of Cloudsdale. 

The Element of Water is located in an hidden temple on an island off the coast of Stableside, thou will know where. 

The Element of Fire is located inside Dragon Mountain, guarded by a dragon. 

The last piece, the Element of Earth, is located in the heart of the Everfree Forest, deep inside our old palace.” She echoed out, sending down shivers in me when she mentioned the Everfree forest.

“And what danger awaits me at the temple island?”

“We… we don’t know, for we were not there when they built it.” She frowned. “But we do know that it is hidden by magic, and that it won’t be easy to find, but we have faith in that thee will find the island.”

Well, these are very well protected places, but the most weary place is Cloudsdale. How the buck am I supposed to infiltrate that place? Sure, I could disguise my horns, hide my scales and look more Pegasus like, but how am I supposed to get deeper inside Cloudsdale without alerting the guards? I’ll have to wait with that one till last. 
With that last sentence, the nightmare faded, and so did the dream. When I woke up, Daisy was, surprisingly, cooking breakfast.

“So, any new orders uncle?” Daisy asked.

“We’re going treasure hunting” I said while grinning greedily.

> Chapter 3; Part 1: A Heart of Fire
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was an early morning, followed by a hasty breakfast. We wanted to get on the way as soon as possible, because we were both very anxious to get this adventure going. Loading the last artifacts in the cart, with a lot of complains from Daisy of what we’ll do with the golden scales, of which we sealed in by putting a large chunk of rock in front of the opening, we continued our journey out of the forest. And yes, I’m pulling the cart, ‘cause I’m just that great . It was a long way to civilization, and we are most likely to get beset by the dangers of this almost tranquil forest. But we aren’t going to civilization. We are going to Dragon Mountain to obtain the element of fire, and after that… well, we’ll just have to plan it after we get the element of fire. 

We’ve been walking for a couple hours through the forest now and, I might just be paranoid, I think that there is somepony watching us from a far. It might be bandits, but that is just to cliché…

*THUMP*

And there the bandits surrounded our cart, but I just sighed at the cliché.

“Hand oer’ yer shinies, an’ ye might keep yer head!” said the bandit with the most armor. He must be the leader, I thought to myself. In this sort of hierarchy, the leaders always gets the best stuff.

“Well, we aren’t too keen on giving you s**t, you poor excuse for a highwayman.” I kindly said to him.

“That’s the signal lads!” the supposed leader called out before my fist met his face. That ignited the fight.

The bandits leaped towards us, but since we didn’t really have time for this kind of delay, I just finished them off with a casual force blast that sent them flying through the forest. After giving their supposed leader another punch to the face, we continued our journey. Successful fight, finished just before hitting twenty seconds. I’m quite proud of myself, but Daisy was amazed.

“What was that?” she asked, “Was that some wicked dragon magic?”

“No, just common unicorn magic.” I replied.

“But, isn’t unicorn magic supposed to be friendly?”

“If handled right, unicorn magic can be devastating,” I explained, “But if I really wanted them dead, they would be dead.”

“Whatever, but shouldn’t we finish them off?” the question surprised me.

“Why? They weren’t really in any condition to follow us, not to mention fight us!”

“But what if they rob some other traveler that might just happen to travel here?”

“And maybe there’s a reward for rooting them out…” I finished.

“They might hurt… what?” she asked, looking at me strangely.

“I said, that there might be a bounty on their heads.”

“So, you agree on that we should go back and finish them off?” she asked.

“Maybe, maybe not. But if it doesn’t turn out to be as rewarding as I thought it would, I will be minimizing your share of the profits.”

“Sounds reasonable enough, but shouldn’t you do this for the better of the travelers, instead for profit?” she asked me.

“Daisy, Daisy. I’m a half dragon, I’m greedy, selfish and cruel, not some charitable old man. But since you are asking me so nicely, I am willing to consider this arrangement.”

“But…” she managed out before I put my hand on her mouth.

“Shhh, they’re listening.” I whispered.

Daisy nodded, closing her mouth. It was true though, they were listening, readying themselves to ambushing us. Seems like they learned a lesson last time, but they underestimated our hearing. It seems like one of them was getting restless, since he jumped down ahead of the main group, only to be the first to kiss my sword. 

It was quick. It was lethal. It was bloody.

His head left his body midair, earning the anger of his friends. When they jumped down, I blasted them with some force, knocking them down in midair. One by one, they got up and threw themselves at me, only to be cut by Ballsbane, which was moving faster and faster with each hit. There were eight of them, or rather, WAS eight of them. All cut down by Ballsbane. All bloodied down, I turned around to see if Daisy was okay… and in some way, she most definitely wasn’t. Those were the kind of eyes that had never seen anything violent in their entire life, only knowing the kindness of her parents and their home. This was all alien to her. This was reality. To think that people could do this to another. Well, I wasn’t a killer myself, but they did try to kill us. I leaned down and hugged Daisy.

“It’s okay, it’s over now.” I tried to reassure her.

“You… you killed them all.” She whispered, as if talking loudly would kill her.

“Yes, I did. But it was either us or them, remember that Daisy. Us or them.” I looked her in her eyes when I said it, to make sure that she understood the seriousness in it all.

All Daisy could do was nod, since she was pretty shaken up. After a long reconsideration, we continued out of the forest, since she wouldn’t be able to handle what would be coming if we chased the bandits. Call me greedy, selfish and cruel, but don’t you dare call me heartless. Well, as far as she knew they were rooted out, but I knew better. When they tried to rob us, they were four. And at the ambush they had doubled their numbers, so they must have gathered reinforcements from somewhere. But enough of that, now we had to make it through this blasted forest.

“Will the bandits be chasing us?” I could hear whisper.

“Nah, I think they got the message.” I replied.

“Yeah, it was pretty clear.”

“Yep, and I think we got all of them, and now it’s just a matter of time before we pass through the Gryphonian border, and from there into Equestria. And then it’s just straight on ahead to Dragon Mountain.”

*Thump*

And now we were surrounded again, this time with even more bandits, a total of sixteen of them, if my senses told me right. And there was a nasty looking gryphon with scars and an eyepatch, wielding a massive battleaxe. And he didn’t look very happy.

“Well well well, what do we have ‘ere? A filthy monster and the Maple girl.” The large gryphon growled. “Was wonderin’ when we’d find ye, little brat.”

“Wait, you know who I am?” Daisy asked, with much surprise in her voice.

The large gryphon lifted an eyebrow. “What? Little girlie don’t know who I am?” he laughed, ”This is just hilarious! We thought you dead in the woods, but it seems that we’ll get the pleasure of finishing up the business personally.”

“Wait… are you the one that burned my home to the ground?” Daisy asked with a certain poison in her voice, and I could feel the stare she was giving him.

“O’ course it was us! Hahaha! You should have seen the faces your pa an ma did, screaming out to you to run. Then we locked them inside the house and started burning that old shack up, and the screams! The screams of stupid ponys that’s burnin’ alive! Ha! Pricele…” he never got to finish that sentence.

Faster than anypony could react to, Daisy drew her bow, summoned forth three arrows, and fired them straight at him. One in the eye patch, one in the heart, and one in the groin. And after that, she fired an additional three arrows and did so two times, faster than anypony could have done without years of training, filling the massive gryphon with arrows. And as the former bandit hit the ground, the rest of them roared at while preparing to charge, but then a hail of arrows stopped any such thought. I’ve never seen Daisy like this, killing without regret, mercy or after thought. Just simple relentless, merciless and brutal death by arrows. By now she had felled six of them, but the rest charged us to avoid getting hit from afar. Not that they stood a chance either way. Ballsbane cut right through them, painting the ground with crimson liquid. And as I cut them through, I could feel the bones crunching beneath my slash. Somehow Daisy had gotten the twin daggers from the cart, and started cutting relentlessly, covering the bandits with cuts.

When the last of the bandits fell, we lowered our guard and looked at each other. This was not Daisy.

Hateful, bloodthirsty eyes that could pierce dragon scales like you could cut warm butter. She pulled up the ice hammer from the cart, barely managing to drag it to the gryphon corpse, trying to lift up.

“What are you thinking?” I asked her.

“Oh nothing, I’m just gonna smash his skull in so hard that his brain will splatter all across the field!” she shouted.

“Daisy, this is not you.”

“How do you know!? Maybe this is my real self! And this shit pile isn’t worth anything else than this hammer splattering his head!”

“Daisy…”

“No! Don’t you dare say another word! You have no idea of what he has done to me!” she screamed.

“No, I don’t. But I do know that this isn’t what the real you would do.” I said with calm in my voice, “Besides, you’ve already killed him times over. And I don’t think that a hammer to the face will bring back your parents.”

“Shu-shut up!” she screamed sobbing. “You don’t know of what it means to find your home burnt down, with your only family locked inside to be burnt to a crisp! Just because some shit pile felt for it! And then wake up only to have forgotten everything.” She ended with tears in her eyes.

I reached out and hugged her tightly. She hugged me back, hard.

“Now, now… I know this isn’t easy, but remember… you still have me.” I reassured her, still hugging her tightly, bordering to crying.

“I- I know… but what if you decide to just leave me somewhere? Because I’m a burden?.” She was sobbing now.

“Daisy… We’ve been talking about this, and I wouldn’t leave you even if the throne of the world was the reward. It’s you and me against the world, right?”

“Yeah, guess so…” she’s felling tears now.

“I can’t replace your parents, but I will do anything to keep you happy and alive, even if it risks my life.”

“You would?” she looked up, eyes tear filled.

“Yeah, I would. I might be greedy, selfish and cruel, but never when your safety is at stake. And a promise is a promise.” I said with a motherly tone. 

We both shared a moment of a great emotional hug, then wiped our eyes and stood up. I walked over to the gryphon corpse and pulled out the arrow that hit the eye patch. “What’re you doing?” I heard Daisy ask from behind me.

“Well, if we come across a town, they’ve got to have a bounty on this bandit, and we’ve got to have some proof of the deed.” I smiled greedily now.”

“Oh, right.” Daisy replied.


We cleared the field of corpses, looting them for what little they had, which was just a couple of bits. But there was something about the medallion I found on the gryphon, since it looked like it belonged to an high placed soldier. Maybe he was, maybe not. But who knows? Maybe it will catch a fine price somewhere.

When nightfall came we entered a village lying on the border between Gryphonia and Equestria, and fortunately for us, they had a tavern. Inside the tavern, well, let’s just say it wasn’t your typical café. Scruffy looking gryphons and stern looking ponies dominated the inside, but we managed to reach the tavernkeep. “What’ll ye have?” he asked.

“A room would, if any are available.” I replied.

“We’ve got plenty o’ those, since there ain’t many travelers about.”

“Good” I replied him, bringing up my pouch, “How much?”

“Ten bits a night.” The tavernkeep replied.

I brought out ten bits, handing them over the counter. “Which room?”

“The one to the far left. Can’t miss it.”

“Thanks. Daisy, take your things to the room and get some rest, I’ll be there shortly.” I said to her.

Daisy nodded and went up the stairs to the inn floor. I leaned over the counter. “An ale please.”

The Tavernkeep filled a tankard with ale, putting it down on the counter. “That yer mare?”

“No, more like a daughter if you ask me, but I’m actually her uncle.” I replied.

“An’, don’t mind me askin’, are ye doin’ out here? Not actually the most ideal family vacation spot.”

“Well, were just traveling, and happened to cross a band of bandits. Know anything ‘bout them?” I asked.

“Wait, you mean the broken beak gang? Sure, I’ve heard of ‘em. Been making all kinds of problems round these parts. Why? Been victim to their *Toll*?” he asked, giving me a worried look.

“Nah, more like that they won’t be doing banditry ever again.” I said with a smile.

“Wait, did I just hear right? You took care o’ them?” the tavenkeep asked with surprise.

“Yeah. By the way, is there a bounty for the leader?”

“Sure is! Ye just have to give the police chief a proper proof and he’ll set ye right up!”

“Nice.” I finished, finally getting to drink up my ale.


I ordered a couple of ales before heading up to the room, a little tipsy. Ok, I was drunk. Daisy was sleeping in the bed, which left me with the floor. Well, let’s just say that I got a hard landing. But we did get a good night’s sleep, even though I crashed to the floor. The next morning came with bird song, which was kinda irritating. I left Daisy sleeping, locked the door, and went to the police office to cash out the bounty and get more information on this medallion.

The police station looked like all police stations, tall and boring. When I entered the station I viewed the reception as any other police station reception, wide and boring. As I closed in on the reception, the pony secretary didn’t even look up. I tried to get her attention through many ways, like *excuse me* and *hello*, and they proved ineffective. After a hard bash to the counter she finally looked up, unplugging her ear earplugs, revealing the loud music she was listening to. “Oh, didn’t see you there!”

No shit.

“I would like to see the Chief of Police, if he’s not too busy.” I said with venomous sarcasm.

“Oh, he just got in. Should I call him?”

What. The. Hay. Are all police secretaries this slow?

“Yes, that’s what I was asking.” I said coldly.

“Ok, gimme a minute.” She picked up the phone and dialed his office. “Chief Buckle? Yeah, somepony wants to talk to you, should I send him in? Ok, bye.” She put down the phone. “You can enter his office which lies just down the hall, up the stairs and then to the far right.”

“Thanks.” I said while walking towards the stairs.

“No problem!” she said merrily, putting back the earplugs. I sighed.

I walked up the stairs, went to the far right and stood outside the Chiefs office. I knocked. “Enter.” When I entered I noticed a big gryphon sitting by the desk, obviously the Chief of Police.

“So, you’re the one that wants to talk to me, right?”

“Yeah, about the bounty on the huge gryphon bandit.”

“Wait… you mean that you’ve put Iron Beak out of business?” he asked with surprise in his voice.

“Yeah, and I even brought some souvenirs.” I brought out the eye patch and the medallion and put them on the desk. “Will these suffice?”

The police’s eyes began to widen. “This is more than sufficient! What about the rest of the gang?”

“Dead.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard for months! Finally someone actually went out there and put those highwaymen out of business!” he sounded very pleased, to say the least.

“Well, with that out of the way, let’s talk reward!” I said with a smile.

“Of course! A reward for ridding us of this nuisance! How does a thousand bits sound?”

I gulped. “A thousand?”

“Yep, a thousand bits for ridding us of this nuisance that has been harassing us for six months, charged for arson, destruction of property and robbery.”

“Well, I’d say that you should heighten the price a little, since he’s also charged for murder.” I said coldly.

Chief Buckle stopped smiling. “What?”

“He burned down a small cottage with its inhabitants within. The only survivor was their daughter, of whom I have taken care of ‘till this moment, and I tend to keep it that way.”

“Well, that changes everything… how about thousand and fivehundred?”

“Well, that sounds better… But the important thing is that the girl got her vengeance personally.” I finished.

“Well, if you take this note down to the bank, the director will give you your reward.”  Chief buckle leaned back, clearly finished talking.

“Good day to you, Chief.”

Buckle stayed silent.

I left the station and straight to the bank, cashed out, left and then walked straight back to the tavern. Daisy had already woken up, and was eating the breakfast I ordered before I went to the police station. After breakfast, we left town and continued our journey to Dragon Mountain. It wasn’t very far now, for I could see the mountain in the distance. When we reached the base of the mountain we were tired and it was evening, so we made camp. We skipped the campfire because it wasn’t cold outside this time of year, and then we rolled up in our bedrolls to get some sleep. Well, let’s just say that my dreams weren’t sweet, happy ones.


I was in the dream realm, seeing the textures of Nightmare Moon appear.

“Thou hast reached Dragon Mountain, and now thou must heed our warning.” And as always, her voice echoes.

“What be this warning, my queen?” I humbly asked.

“At the peak of this mountain rests a dragon, with the task to guard the Element of Fire from those who seeks its power. Thou must get past the dragon in order to reach the element.”

“And how will I get past it?”

“With thine imagination, my agent of darkness.” She humbly echoed.

“Well, that’s good enough. I think we can handle getting past the dragon, if it is sleeping.” I replied with hubris in my voice.

“Oh, but the dragon is not sleeping, but keeping watch. Be not fooled by its charade, for it will devour thee.”

“Thank you for your warning.” I bowed.

And with that, the dream washed away and I woke up to find Daisy, still surprisingly, cooking breakfast. Her cooking had improved somehow. “Have you been learning to cook, young Daisy?”

“Well, since you were away to the police office, the tavernkeeper taught how to cook properly.” She smiled proudly. “Well, better than I already did, anyway.”

“Don’t overestimate yourself Daisy, we still have to somehow sneak past a dragon and then snatch the element.”

Daisy stopped smiling. “A dragon?”

“A dragon.”

“A DRAGON!?” she almost shouted worriedly.

“Yes, and if you listened to me when I reviewed the mission, you wouldn’t get this hung up on me for bringing up the dragon.” I stated.

“Well, if you just warned me a little before we got here, I wouldn’t have freaked out now!” she said loudly.

“Well, you still should have listened to the review.”

“But-you-Agh!” She went and sat down by a nearby tree, clearly looking angry.

While she was busy being angry, I packed a rucksack, checked my armor and sword, and then started climbing.

“Where are you going?” she asked, still with the angry tone.

“Well, I figured that you were too busy being mad at me, so I started climbing.” I replied, looking down at her.

“Oh, don’t you dare start without me!” she shouted, readying her things and started climbing. Half way up, I remembered that I hadn’t even taken a look inside Marelins spellbook. So I stopped and rested on a large rock, opened my pack and brought up the book.

“What are you doing?” Daisy asked.

“Reading.” I stated.

“We don’t have time for reading right now!” she replied. “We have to get that element thingy!”

“Well, I like to be prepared, so I thought consulting Marelins spellbook was a good idea. But if you want to face that dragon head on, be my guest.” I said venomously.

“Agh! Fine!” 

“Thank you.” And with that, I returned to reading the index, to find something effective against dragons. Then I found something else that caught my eyes. *Kirin 101: All you need to know about Kirins*. I quickly turned to page 783, and started reading that chapter. Being a Kirin doesn’t include that you know everything about kirins.

*Kirins have the ability to shapeshift* that one I already knew, but here is one note I paid close attention to, *All kirins have a special ability, unique to them alone*. What could be my special ability? Anyway, back to work.

After skipping through five hundred pages, I finally found some notes on dragon slaying. 

*All dragons are weak to meteorite it seems, since Lasercorn could slash them all with ease while Sir Prancealot always busted his swords, having to get new ones after every encounter. Ice Bloods True ice hammer seems to work wonderfully too, since dragons roar out in pain each time he hits them really hard. Most spells are worthless, but if you aim precisely, one can inflict massive damage to them. As far as we know, these spots are a dragons weak spots. Dead Eye’s arrows seems to work miracles against their scales to, but he aims for the weak spots to inflict maximum damage, not that he has any problems for that.*

The next page showed a picture of a dragon with cross circles at different locations on its body. I guess these are the weak spots. I wonder why Dead Eye’s magic arrows are so effective against dragon scales. Perhaps it’s something only he knew about. This should make this suicide mission a whole lot easier. Thank you Marelin for writing this wonderful book! I closed the book, but it down in my pack and then turned to Daisy. She was humming a tune, which one? I didn’t know.

“Ready to head out?” I asked merrily.

“Sure am! You sure took your sweet time!” she replied, also merrily.

“Well, research takes time, but the results are worth the time.”

And with that we continued to climb up to the top, which took the whole a couple of hours. We had to avoid avalanches, walk carefully over steep roads. After half the day passed we finally reached the top, and oh colt was it a relief. As we closed in on the cavern entrance, we readied our weapons, made a final check on our equipment, and then peeked over the corner. There it was, this huge monstrosity just lying there sleeping. But I knew better.

“He’s playing a trick on us.”

“Wha? How do you know?”

“Because Night… The demon told me.” I sighed.

“So, the demon took the time to warn us, did she?”

I nodded, noticing that the dragon’s right eye twitched. Busted.

I calmly entered the cave, seeing that stealth will be worthless. The dragon’s eyes lit up, stood up and roared. “Who dares enter the lair of fire!?” Well, dragons aren’t the most welcoming of creatures.

“Dread Wing!” I shouted back.

“Dread Wing who?” the dragon roared.

“Dread Wing, Son of Dark Flame and Fairy Tale!” 

“Son of Dark Flame…” the dragon muttered. “Lies!” he then shouted back.

“I am many things, but I am not a liar!” Well, not at this particular occasion, but the dragon doesn’t have to know.

“Dark Flame would never mate with a pony, much less let the offspring live!”

“And I presume that you know my father?”

“We were once friends, but our duties teared us apart. But he would never retire, it’s not in his nature!” the dragon roared.

“Oh, but he did. And I am his son and heir to his legacy! Hand over the Element of Fire, and I will let you live!”

“Never! I would rather live in anguish than break my pact, and you being the son of my best friend doesn’t change that!”

“Well, then we’ll have to do this the hard way!” I shouted to him.

“With pleasure!”

“Daisy!” I shouted, earning a surprised look from the dragon.

From the entrance Daisy popped up, sending a rain of arrows towards the dragon, penetrating his scales, forcing out painful roars. Meanwhile, I focused my magic and formed a lightning bolt and sent it flying towards his breast weak spot. The dragon gasped for air, throwing himself forward and slammed me into the cavern wall. He lunged towards Daisy, who was frozen in place by fear. 

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” I screamed to her, but she didn’t respond. I felt useless. Daisy was about to get smashed by a dragon, and there wasn’t a bucking thing I could do about it! I Screamed in rage and reached out in my mind, reaching a dark and distant place that was filled with complete darkness. “Use me…” echoed a replicated voice of me, only much darker, scarier and terrifying. I acted out of instinct and reached out to the darkness, which was much more like a dark mist. Before I came to my senses, I held Daisy in my arms and hovered over the cavern roof, further inside. I looked at my legs, and fear filled me. My lower body was nothing more than a dark mist, like the one that called out to me in my subconscious. “Amazing” was all I could think at the moment, before touching down on the cavern floor. The dragon turned around, extremely confused. “What kind of sorcery is this!?” he roared out in anger. “How could you teleport all the way from there to the kid!? Answer me, freak!”

“Never call me freak again…” I said coldly, but somehow it echoed throughout the cavern. “And don’t you dare lay a claw on Daisy again.”

“Ha! And what are you going to do about it? Sure, you can move a few shadows, but that is not enough to destroy me!”

I smiled devilish. “That’s where you are wrong, my scaly friend. It’s exactly what I need to destroy you.” I didn’t need to shout, because my words echoed through the cave.

And before the dragon could charge, shadows sprout out from the walls, grasping the dragon. “What sorcery is this!?” he roared. “Answer me!”

“Kirin magic.”

His eyes widened, and the shadows started to pull the dragon apart, stretching his limbs. I lowered Daisy down to the floor, leaving her on the floor while I slowly walked towards the dragon. 

“What are you planning, you freak!?” The dragon roared.

“Your imminent and painful death.” I replied him coldly. I drew Ballsbane, it’s light shimmering as if it hungered for the dragons blood. The dragons eyes widened even more, now filled with dread. “No, don’t you dare put that thing in me!” He shrieked in fear. “Do you even know of what you have in your hands!?”

“Your doom.”

Before the dragon could say anything more, I hovered up towards the dragons heart, penetrating it with Ballsbane. The dragon roared in pain, and blood sprouted out from his heart, drenching me with his blood. I penetrated the sword further in, feeling something hard at the tip of the sword. “So, the Element of Fire is you heart, eh?”

“WAIT!” he screamed, only to be forced into a scream of pain when I reached in with y hand, grasping the element. He screamed even louder when I pulled it out, slowly rotting away.

“You fool…” he panted.

“No, you are the fool for underestimating me.”

“No, you are! Do you have any idea of what awaits you in the end of your road!? Only death and destruction will be waiting you on the end of your road! And Celestia will hunt you to the ends of the world to get it back!” he shouted.

“Oh, but I will just be dodging her, in the shadows where she doesn’t have any power.” I smiled devilishly.

“You fool…” he said, turning to ash. It was a once in a life time experience, seeing the guardian of fire turn into ash.

“One Down, Three more to go.” I said while turning around only to find Daisy looking at me. It was a look of fear.

“You…” she whispered.

“Daisy…”

“You killed him, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“But how?”

“I stabbed him, wasn’t that quite obvious?” I asked.

“No no, the shadow thingy. How did you do that?

“Oh, that.” I scratched my chin, entering deep thinker mode. “Well, let’s see… I just happened to go into my subconscious after thinking that I was useless for not being able to save you, talked to a dark mist, touched the mist, and then suddenly BAM, there I was, carrying you to safety.”

Daisy gave me a confused look. 

“You don’t really have to understand it all, it’s kind of a kirin thing.”

“Ah.” She loosened up, and tried to stand up with her still shaky legs.

“Let me help you.” I said while lifting her up with both my hands, like a knight carrying the damsel in distress.

“Is this really necessary?” she asked irritated. 

“Why yes! Have you seen your legs lately? They’re shaking like an earthshake!”

Daisy gave out a sigh of defeat, relaxing in my grasp. “Did you get it?”

“Yes, but we’re gonna be here for a while.” I said, smiling greedily. Daisy looked confused, but when she looked at what I looked at, her eyes widened. 

Mount Jewel, I shall call it. Since its exactly what I saw in that lair. Hills upon hills of jewels, all flawed and ready to become flaweless. Sure, the dragon was the guardian of the Element of Fire, but he was also a dragon, and old dragons always had large hoards.

“We’re gonna be here for a while.”

> Chapter 3; part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What is this strange feeling?” A tall, majestic white Alicorn thought out loud. She felt uneasy, as if something terrible had happened. She walked out of her bedroom, out into the grand halls of Canterlot Castle, heading down. She had to pass a lot of stairs, and she always wondered why she put that secret study in the depths of the castle, instead of her own room. Twenty minutes later, after passing patrolling guards, greeting them and the occasional servant, she had now reached the depths of the castle, standing right before a quite large runed, ornamental door. She muttered a couple of magic words, opening the stone door and entering the medium sized room. 

The room looked like your average royalty study, filled with paper. In the middle of the room stood a pedestal with a map over Equestria on it, decorated with four different gemstones on it, marking four different notable locations.  But there was something wrong. The red gemstone, The Ruby, that marked dragon mountain was cracked. “Oh no” the white Alicorn murmured. She quickly walked out of the study, closed the door and teleported to the office of the captain of the royal guard. There was somepony sleeping by the desk.  “Captain Valiant!” she shouted out.
The pony sleeping on the desk quickly rose at attention, clearly looking tired. “Captain Valiant reporting for… Oh my, Princess Celestia! What are you doing here during this hour?”
“The Element of Fire has been stolen!”
“What? Are you sure?” he looked skeptical. 
“Of course! How could you doubt me Captain?”
“I’m so sorry, your majesty” Valiant stammered, “It’s just that… how is it possible that somepony killed the dragon?”
“I don’t think it’s a pony, but a monster…”

[Over at the cave] “What?”

“What what?” Daisy asked while putting a couple of jewels in her bag.

“Nothing, I just got this feeling that somepony said something insulting about me…”

[Back at Castle] 

“Well, if this thing is this dangerous, we have to stop it immediately!” Valiant Shield said out loud, “Tell me where it is heading, and I will send a battalion of guards to the location!”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know where it is heading next, so to be on the safe side, send a battalion to the ruins of the Palace of the royal sisters and make sure that the Temple of the Tides is secured. Oh, and prepare a squad of guards to wait for me in the courtyard in the morning, I wish to see how the dragon died.” Celestia ordered Captain Valiant.

“But, what about Cloudsdale?” Valiant asked, “Shouldn’t we reinforce the security there?”
Celestia shook her head. “No, that would just keep them away, and if we can’t get them In the other locations I atleast want to lure them into a trap. And an increase in security would cause weariness amongst the citizens.”
Valiant nodded, and Princess Celestia disappeared in a puff of white smoke. She had obviously teleported back to her chambers.

“What is the world coming to?” The royal guard captain asked himself before returning to sleep on his desk.

[Aaaaand back to the cave!]

The sun shone bright and hot, since it was in the middle of the summer. We have left the cave, only taking a small bit of the jewel treasure with us. I stopped a moment at the entrance to the cave. I stopped a moment to take in the fresh air that you could only fin at this altitude. It is a wonderful feeling, the cold morning breeze softly caressing my face, sending shivers down my spine(positive shivers). I also took the moment to look out upon southern Equestria. It was a beautiful sight, well, except the Everfree Forest, but it was an minor detail. In the distance I could spot our next destination, and it was not a vacation spot that I would recommend to my friends. 
The Palace of the Royal Sisters could easily be spotted from here, and just looking at it gave me the creeps, but I knew that I had to go on, for somewhere in the old forgotten depths of the ruins lies my objective, the Element of Earth. Daisy is shouting at me to hurry up, eager to continue, but I think that eagerness will vaporize when I tell her our destination. Awell, enough poetry for today, we’ve got an element to retrieve!
*****
When we reached the borders of the Everfree Forest, Daisy got second thoughts.
“Are you sure that the element of earth is in there?”
“Of course I am!” I reassured her. “The demon herself told me that it would be there!”
“Are you sure that you didn’t mishear her?” 
I raised an eyebrow. “Well, I am quite sure that I didn’t mishear her, and *The Everfree Forest* isn’t a line that you mishear easily.”
“Well, do we even know of where to look?” Daisy asked full of unenthusiasm.
“Why, in the Palace of the Royal Sisters of course!” I said full of enthusiasm.
“Wait… What and where is that?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.
I sighed heavily. History lesson incoming.
“It’s the old Palace that the Royal Sisters Luna and Celestia lived in a millennia ago, before Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon.”
“So you mean that the place could be haunted?” Daisy asked.
“Well, since I don’t believe in ghosts, I would say that it’s not haunted, but if you want to believe it, then go on ahead.”
Daisy crossed her arms. “You seem awfully sure of yourself.”
“Well, I’ve got a self-confidence the size of a mountain.” I said with my chin up, looking proud.
“You sure got a greediness the size of a mountain.” Daisy said with venom in her voice, smirking.
“Well, that’s because I’m half dragon, young one…” I sounded like an old man when I said young one, hilarious. 
“Which means your only half the dragon you suppose yourself to be.” She replied with even more venom, smirking widely. 
“Well, I’m not the one sleeping with my thumb in my mouth…” I was the one smirking now.
“Hey! I do not sleep with my thumb in my mouth!” she replied loudly, totally collapsing the smirk.
“Do too!” I replied with a childish voice.
“You know what? I’m not having this argument with you!” she said and barged right into the forest, completely ignoring the timber wolves that were waiting nearby, obviously attracted by our arguing.
I drew my sword and molded with the shadows, rushing towards the leaping timber wolves. With a quick swing, I sliced the first two timber wolves that leapt from the sides like a hot knife through butter, gaining a surprised face from Daisy. With the element of surprise blown, the rest of the timber wolves, five in a total, leapt out from cover. It would have worked, and would probably have killed at least one of us, but lucky for us, I just shadow stepped out of there, causing them to crash into each other. While they were disorientated, I charged in and started slashing. I took at least two of them before they regained their composure, and Daisy regained her own as well. As quickly as the deadly viper she is, she drew her bow and filled the air around me with arrows. If I’m not mistaken, and I hope that isn’t the case, she’s actually trying to kill me! Sure, she’s not the best assassin in the world, but she is very fast. Remind me not to get on her bad side.
After that volley of deadly arrows, which by the way almost hit me at multiple times, the timber wolves lay dead as dead timber wolves can be. We had just barely entered the forest when Daisy asked: “Do we have to walk all the way?”
“Yes”
“Why?”
“Why, you ask. Well, maybe because that’s the whole meaning of this little adventure of ours!” I replied enthusiastically.
“But… Can’t you just shadow step, or whatever to call it, us there? Isn’t that much faster, not to mention safer?” 
“Well, there are three reasons why we aren’t shadow stepping. One: It totally destroys the whole adventure theme. Two: It’s very far away, and the ‘Shadow stepping’ takes more energy the further I step. Three: It’s always fun to live a little dangerous!” Daisy gives out a sigh of defeat and starts walking into the forest. True, it is a lot safer, and would like nothing more than to shadow step there to keep Daisy safe, but I can’t be all overprotective of her. Besides, she needs to learn how to take care of herself, and learning in how to use that bow and those daggers is a step towards that goal. Awell, time to move on.
*****
The squad stood ready in the courtyard, ten handpicked royal guards with the mission to protect their princess while she was inspecting some place only the superiors know about. It was quite the thrill really, and maybe this was one step in the direction towards a promotion, if things go smoothly. They started to sense something in the air, feeling calm and soothed. That’s when they realized that their princess just stepped out into the courtyard. Quickly they rose up and stood in attention, awaiting orders.
“Who is your commanding officer?” Princess Celestia asked calmly, but still with a hint of authority.
The pegasi guardspony to the far right stepped forward. “I am, your majesty.” She spoke with an deep and authorative voice. And like all royal guards, her golden armor was enchanted to make her fur become white.
“What is your name, soldier?”
“Leftenant Moira Thundercloud, milady.” She said with a Trottingham accent.
“Very well lieutenant, I hope that Captain Valiant have already told you the situation?” princess Celestia asked. 
Moira nodded. “Yes, he did.”
“Very well, let us be off!” princess Celestia said while taking off into the night, towards Dragon Mountain. After her flew lieutenant Moira, and after her the other guardsponies went off into the night sky.
The flight to D.M. went rather smoothly, and it was a rather nice morning. The fact that the guardian of fire might have been killed for the element of fire would confirm her suspicions, but nothing could be for certain until she had confirmed anything. They were getting closer to Dragon Mountain now, and the air started to feel strange, an aura of death, something wrong. The feeling got stronger the closer to the cavern they got. They were standing right outside the cavern now, and the feeling could literary be smelled from there. There was something very wrong her to, maybe because the cavern entrance was literarily covered in shadows, hiding harmony knows what. The Lieutenant stepped slowly forward, almost afraid of what could give of such an foul aura. After a couple of meters in, she released a sigh. “It’s safe to go in!” she shouted out. 
With the remaining retinue of nine guards, Celestia stepped inside and lit her horn, illuminating the darkness of the cavern. She immediately regretted it.
Lying just a few meters ahead of her, the old dragon’s lifeless body lied rotting, almost decayed. How it could have decayed on such short notice was something the princess couldn’t explain. The guardsponies, even lieutenant Moira, vomited to both the sight and the smell. The smell was the most horrible part of it all. There were even maggots eating away the carcass. But the princess came here for an answer, and an answer she would get. Her horn lit up, and she motioned her arms to slowly turn the dragon corpse to lie on its side, and she gasped at the sight it revealed. A rather large cut had been made straight into the heart, and that cut seemed to have been followed by something cylinder like object, most likely  the killers harm reaching in to rip the element from its resting place. On top of that, the dragons limbs were all mesed up, as if something had been trying to rip them from their original places. Whatever this monster could have been, it must have been either rather big and strong, or just very powerful in magic. But the most alluring is the cut. Not every blade could cut through dragon skin, much less dragon scales. The blade must have been either special enchanted with an old spell, special made or… no, that’s not even possible. Lasercorn’s sword was lost with him, and surely this monster wasn’t Lasercorn. Or is it? No, it couldn’t be him. He wasn’t gifted with immortality, and much less would he want to go after the element of fire. No, this monster must have found Lasercorns remains and taken the sword from his corpse. Disgusting. But the most curious thing is… Why is the body still here? It should have turned to ash when the element was removed… maybe this foul magic has something to do with it? If so… this foul sorcery  must be stopped.
“Milady, if it wouldn’t be too much to ask, but could we go back to Canterlot?” Lieutenant Moira asked princess Celestia. “The men are getting unnerved.”
Celestia looked over to the other ponies, and they were indeed getting rather unnerved.
“Alright, let’s return. I am done here anyway.” 
Moira nodded and called out to the other guardsponies that they were leaving, and they all sighed of relief. They all stepped out into the warming sunlight and very welcomed chilling breeze. They lifted and flew back to Canterlot, eager to just forget what they just saw and felt.
*****
Finally. After hours of cutting, dodging and running, they were finally here. Daisy was not very impressed. “THIS is what we were risking life and limb for!?” she shouted at me, clearly not amused.
“Yes.” I simply replied.
Her face became red, and not in a good way. “YEAS!?” she screamed at me, completely ignoring the environment we were currently standing in. “THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY!?”
“Yes.”
Before I knew what was happening, she tackled me and performing an very strong choking grip around my throat. It was not very comfortable. Oh, did I mention that we are currently lying in the middle of the hall? Awell, now you know. As she choked me, my senses went numb, and now she was pounding me against the floor. Hard. And clearly she didn’t notice that the hard pounding was now causing cracks in the floor, which clearly indicated that the area under the floor was clearly hollow, much likely a very deep pit, leading down to the very depths of the palace. But no, she was too busy trying to kill me to notice that we were going to fall to our most certain death. Awell, you know what they say: Karmas a bitch. And with that, the floor finally cracked and collapsed, and we went down, fast. Well, atleast the face of somepony who clearly was enjoying hurting me had disappeared, and was now replaced by a face born of pure fear. Lovely, really.
“HELP ME!” she screamed.
“Why should i?” I simply asked, wanting to take the moment to agonize her.
She was not very amused by my answer. Perfect.
“What do you mean ‘why should I’!?”
“Exactly what I meant.”
“AREN’T YOU GOING TO HELP ME!?”
“Well, after that quite forceful display of sadistic might, I don’t really feel like saving your life.” I replied plainly, and she shifted her expression to something that was afraid for her own life. All according to plan.
“I’M SORRY!” 	she screamed, but I wanted more than just a ‘I’m sorry’. I want her to beg. Oh goodness, I’m starting to sound like an sadistic maniac. Awell.
“Not good enough.”
“PLEASE, I’M SORRY I TRIED TO KILL YOU! HELP ME!” she cried desperately.
Well, she was getting rather depressed now, and besides, I got my revenge. Grabbing on to her, I   forged a net of shadows that caught us one meter from the floor. Daisy was now crying full out. 
“What the actual buck were you DOING!?” she screamed out that last word straight into my ear. It was painful.
“Oh, nothing really, I just wanted some revenge after you tried to KILL ME!” I replied, and I just had to shout out that last word. You know those father daughter moments? This was not one of them. Far from it actually.
“Oh you can’t be serious! You would actually risk my… OUR lives, for some petty misunderstanding?”
“Petty misunderstanding? PETTY MISUNDERSTANDING!? YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!” I was less than amused by her reply, and I was not impressed.
“Well, I was just getting a bit carried away! I mean, we had been risking our lives just to reach some old, barely standing ruins in the middle of nowhere!” she snapped.
“Do I need to remind you that these ruins are more than just some old, barely standing ruins in the middle of nowhere? This is the very palace that the two royal pony sisters had their seat two thousand years ago! It’s archeological and historic importance and value is worth more than almost anything you can find in Equestria today!” the archeologist in me snapped at her. Let’s just say that he doesn’t take kindly to people disregarding old and historic monuments as some pile of rocks.
“Hey, take it easy! You don’t need to snap at me!”
“Well, sometimes youngsters like you need to learn some little manners on how to treat relics of old!”
“Oh please, not this talk again! Just because I tried to find out what more my bow could do, you had to give me hours of lecturing on ‘that bow is of historic importance, be careful with it, and PLEASE don’t hit manticores on the head with it’!”
“Because manticore heads are very hard and that piece of historic importance is made of wood. Sure, it’s very hard wood, but still!”
“I don’t see the problem. I killed the manticore didn’t i?”
“Yeah, after you pierced it in the eye with that bow!” 
“The bow held! Besides, I don’t see why exploring the further use of the daggers might be such a big problem, anyway.”
I gave her the evil eye. “You smashed them right down on the petrification the cockatrice inflicted on you! Several times if I might add!”
“Hey! I broke the petri… petry… the stonifying thing spell stuff! I don’t see the problem.”
“Cockatrice petrification creates some of the strongest rock in the world, damn near close to bedrock, and you just SMASHED the daggers TIPS against it!” I snapped.
“It worked! I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
It could be called an understatement to say that Dread Wing was angry, so no need to go into any details.  Let’s just say that mistreating old relics is like sacrilege to Dready. 

Too angry to continue lecturing Daisy, Dread Wing went out to explore the cave they fell down in. it was quite dark and damp, but it was dark enough to have problems to see. With a snap of his fingers, he conjured up some fire in his hand. Sure, his draconic heritage allowed him night vision(however would they had survived in caves, if hundreds of years of living in caves didn’t develop some sort of night vision?), but Daisy needed to see too. The ruins were astonishing. There were carvings and statues all over the cave. It seems as if they had fallen down into some sort of pony made chamber, and it looked like some kind of antechamber. Intrigued, Dread Wing gave Daisy the torch and continued inwards, towards the carvings. 
Daisy was about to say something that involved ‘What? Are you just gonna leave me here?’, but quickly closed her mouth when she figured that he wouldn’t hear her through his mental shield called *Quest for Knowledge*. Instead, she had a look around, to see if there was something for her to do while uncle Dready did his thing. And unsurprisingly, there was absolutely NOTHING to do! Only a history freak like Dready would love this place, but for her, it was like time stood still in an empty room. A very large and spacey room, but an empty room nonetheless. Sure, she could play tic tac toe with herself on the gray sand… wait, since when was there gray sand? I know normal sand, but that was way brighter than this, besides, it felt strangely light…
“Uncle Dready! There is some kind of strange sand over here!” I shouted at him in hopes that he could explain this to me. And as I suspected, he came jogging over.
****
These wall carvings are simply amazing! I have never seen anything like it! It looks as if the carvings are telling either a story, or an prophesy, but I think it’s the latter. Any translating would take time, but I think that in the end, it will all be worth it! I wonder what that dragon like figure is…
“Uncle Dready! There is some kind of strange sand over here!” Daisy shouted from the other side of the antechamber. I jogged there to investigate this weird ‘Strange sand’, and the results was not anywhere near a happy result.
“Daisy, that is not sand” she looked strangely at me, “That is ash.”
****
How I feel? Awfully confused. What the hay is ash? “What is ash?” I asked uncle.
He looked at me, seemingly troubled. This ash thing must be something awfull.
“Ash is what remains of a creature when it has been completely burned.”
How do I feel? Terrified, disgusted and curiously curious. Terrified and disgusted, because its ashes! The remains of somepony who’ve been burned alive from the looks of this place. And curious, where the hay did the fire come from?
****
While Daisy is investigating the ashes, I decided to continue my translation of the tablets. They are quite interesting to say the least. The tablets tell of a story, that many creatures would come here and seek an artifact called the Element of Earth(probably the same one that we are seeking). It also tells of a creature of terrible power that would one day come and seek the element, and wether this creature would be successful was not mentioned, but the picture of this *creature of terrible power* was quite interesting. It was a pony standing in some sort of victory pose above a pile of corpses, with some kind of dragon shadow towering behind it. What could it mean? By the look of it, the pony could be a Kirin, or just somepony with a dragon friend(or slave). It was all interesting to read, but there was something else that caught my eyes, something very peculiar. This was so unexpected, so strange, so weird and so very… fanboyish.
*Gold is best pony*
I swear, this is true. It is carved straight into the tablet, right under the pony… dragon…
Could it be? No, it can’t be. This is where the tablets end, and then comes what I call, *The door*. Quite unimaginary iknow, but I had an lack of imagination. We can call him Sesame if you want.
Awell, anyway, what I think is that the dragon/pony on the tablet could, but only could, be Gold Burn, the Kirin that wreaked havoc across Equestria and various other nations. But why would she be pictured in a place like this? I could only imagine that she would come here and try to get the Element of Earth, but without evidence I can’t confirm it. What did she do here, if she even went here? I’d better look it up in Marelin’s tome.
****
Seriously, how long time could it be to just read a couple of wall paintings, say what they mean, and then go on looking for that Celestia damned element. But no, lets drag on and take a read in my GIGANTIC BOOK, and waste even more of our time. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some monster down here that’s been watching us for a long time, and wants to kill us…
How right could a mere mare of 14 have been so right?
****
“Hmmm” I hmmm:d, “it says nothing about Gold Burn ever going here, but she did disappear after they had mortally wounded her with Ballsbane.” I said to myself. I sat down and leaned on one of the pillars, and oh colt was it a bad idea…
****
The whole world shook, dust falling down from the cracks in the ceiling, and I swear that the world was falling down upon us. Please Celestia, don’t let us die…
****
The shaking stopped, and where there had been a wall, there was now a hole…

A small breeze swept out through the hole, releasing the dread stench of dead.

Inside, a beast of solid stone rose from its slumber…
****
“What is that stench?” an armored Pegasus said with an Trottingham accent. “Sergeant, status report?”
“We’ve confirmed two life forms down there, but they don’t really fit the whole *Monster of Terrible Power* description, ma’am” a white(magic effect from the royal guard armor) Pegasus said, with a bit more of an Canterlot accent.
Lieutenant Moira gruffed back at the sergeant. “And what about the hole? I’m quite sure that it isn’t supposed to be here” She replied, “And ready the men, we’re going down.”
Sergeant Shining Armor stood silent, and then went to round up the men. He knew better than to question his superiors, but sometimes they were just wrong. As was this whole goose chase. But, if they were still here, and he had guessed that this *monster* had come before them, because of the hole in the middle of the old throne room. And they just couldn’t ignore the threat this monster posed to Equestria. It had to be stopped.
****
It was dark.
It was damp.
It was the perfect place to place this goddamned Element of Earth!
The torch that I gave to Daisy went out when the doorway opened, and she panicked. And while trying to calm her down and say that everything is alright, I tried to peek into the new room. I also took note of the voices from the above. They sounded military… probably the royal guard coming to secure the element. One of them sounded Trottinghamish… can’t say I liked them very much. There was this one time… meh, don’t really have time for stories now, do we? My first priority, get Daisy away from the guards, and second to get that element!
I *dragged* her into the hole in the wall, fully knowing that doing so would probably risk her wellbeing… but it’s better than to have the royal guards pull her away.
It was surprisingly cool in here… not counting the mysterious breeze. It was a VERY spacious cave, even bigger than the dragons lair. Only thing missing is the gigantic hoard.
Wait… is that something sparkly I see over there? Need to look a little closer…
****
During this same time, in some mysterious pub in some mysterious place there sat an mysterious stallion playing a mysterious card game with some other mysterious stallions and one mysterious mare. He said something mysterious, but we won’t know what it is, because it was so mysteriously mysterious that we won’t know what he mysteriously said about something mysterious.
His eye twitched.
****
So long… it has been sleeping for so long… two milleniums has passed since something has disturbed its sleep… it doesn’t have the celestial aura of Celestia, and not the Soothing aura of Luna, but of something dark and twisted… of grief and sorrow… of greed and violence… this thing has come for the Element of Earth… it must not have it… at any cost…
****
“oh bucking hell….” Daisy said when the gigantic stone monster rose up from the center of the ginormus cave. To say that she was scare was an understatement. She was scared shitless. To use the bow would be completely useless against stone, but she wasn’t so sure about the daggers… maybe, but it wasn’t really worth the risk of dying. When she turned around to run out of the cave, the door slammed into place, blocking the only way out. As quick as the wind, she darted across the cave, hopefully out of the monstrosity’s view. All it did was drawing its attention.
****
Crap! This isn’t good! The door is closed, and we’re locked inside with an stone golem. Think! What could ever be good against rock? I could try to levitate it… Just reach out my hands and focus my horns…
The golem was suddenly shrouded in an black aura, slowly lifting up into the air.
HA! It works! And now to the slamming… And with that, Dread Wing slammed the golem into the cavern floor. Worst. Idea. Ever.
The cave started to shake, obviously it was unstable, but at least it didn’t focus on Daisy anymore.
Now it was all focused on me.
*****
That was close! Lucky me that uncle Dready had powerful magic. My back feels weird... 
Daisy slowly rose up and turned around, and was greeted by a sight that made her sick a long time ago… the skeleton of a dragon.
****
“… The hell is going on in there?” Lieutenant Moira asked nopony in particular. They had been so close to capturing them, and then suddenly that damned stone door closed shut, not moving an inch when they tried to push it open. Some minutes after that, the earthquake came. The men were quite happy that they were on this side of the door. The sergeant has been whining on about how dangerous it is down here, that this room might collapse. Stuff it, Moira had said, and the sergeant has been quiet since. This is not going to look good for him in my report.
*This thing is an high priority target, don’t let him escape* Captain Valiant Shield had told me, and letting him escape would be like an death sentence. Both for me, and Equestria. And I will not fall back and risk the thing escaping because of some old chamber, the cost is too much, and if we stay here, we have the element of surprise. It’s going to come out, and when it does, we will be ready.
****
It’s bucking bedrock! How in tartarus couldn’t I recognize it!? And I’m supposed to be the mineral expert… some expert I am. Of course slamming it against the floor was the worst idea of the century, since it didn’t do shit.
How the hay do I counter bedrock!? The most hardest and sturdiest stone in the world, and it’s alive and moving. Telekinesis sucks… punching worthless… hacking? Nah, probably wouldn’t work. Think Dready, think! Everything went black.
****
The mysteriously mysterious Stallion twitched his other eye mysteriously mysteriously.
****
Daisy quickly turned her gaze from the dead dragon to where she thought she heard somepony get hit.
The golem moved its hand from the wall, revealing a smashed Dread Wing falling to the floor.
****
“Why?” Dread Wing thought to himself. Why didn’t I think of that? If I did, I could’ve found it while it was rising from the telesmash, and this would all be allot easier. And now I’m falling towards the floor, all smashed up and powered down. *Thump* I hit the floor. It wasn’t nice.
Wait. I turned my gaze upwards. There! The very thing I should’ve looked for at the beginning. The magical power source! Almost all golems have those, and I was stupid enough not to look for it.
And it is situated right below the waistline… 
I feel a quote coming…
****
The look on uncle’s face… Defeat, shame and the most painful of all… hopelessness.
*Thump*
That triggered Daisy.
She drew her bow and repeatedly fired shots at the golem, even though the arrows bounced right off of the hard rock.
If she could just distract the golem for a couple of seconds, maybe uncle Dready can find some sort of weakness?
****
I felt two things about Daisy shooting the golem. First: Pride. Pride because she dared to shoot it in the first place to save me from a second slam that would have definitely killed me. Second: Anger. She’s risking her life just to save me! She should be finding a way out of here. But I’m still proud of her, because I found the magic source.
Under the waistline…
A well, time to muster up what little strength I have left for one last thrust.
“AIM FOR THE BALLS!” I shouted while thrusting Ballsbane towards… the golems crotch… 
For some weird reason, the blade shone bright as day. Huh, interesting.
The golem turned its gaze towards me, clearly wondering why I was making so much noise. Well, prepare for the worst surprise ever. It shines so bright… Hit!
****
“AIM FOR THE BALLS!”
Daisy froze.
“What in tartarus did he just scream?” she thought to herself. Seconds later, Dread Wing was thrusting his whole body forward, with a shining sword… “Wait, where’d he get that?” Daisy said to herself. It’s so bright… and then there was a bright explosion.
****
The Mysteriously Mysterious Stallion Mysteriously plays his Mysterious hand. Royal straight flush. He Mysteriously grabs the chips around the Mysterious table.
****
There was nothing other than bright white. Uncle Dready was saying something, but I couldn’t hear it. The bright white won’t go away. Could it be that…
“I’M BLIND!!”
****	
As the light faded away, Dread Wing could see more clearly. He scratched his eyes, and then turned his gaze towards the former golem.
There, levitating in the air above the rubble, was the Element of Earth, his prize.
“Phew! That was close. Don’t you think so too Daisy?” He asked Daisy while grabbing the element. No response.
Then came the scream. “I’M BLIND!!”
Ah crap.
****
“Phew, I am glad that it’s over” Celestia said to herself, sitting in her study, enjoying a nice cup of tea. Today was a very bright day, and very nice. It was one of those days that felt like nothing could go wrong. The weather was just terrific, with a small breeze coming in through her open balcony door, and the sound of running feet… wait, running feet?
And faster than she could react, a brown pegasi stormed through the door, with a clearly obvious face that screamed *something terrible has happened!*. He was panting.
“Slow down captain Valiant, take slow deep breaths” she said with her trademark motherly voice. Valiant was taking slow, deep breaths, and soon enough he stopped panting. He cleared his throat.
“The Element of Earth has been stolen!” he shouted.
And there went the *day were nothing could go wrong* out the window and exploded.
“WHAT!?” Celestia shouted in the royal canterlot voice. Yes, shouted. To say that she was frustrated would be an understatement. Things were not going according to plan! Lieutenant Moira was supposed to have intercepted the *collector* as she had named it, since she didn’t know it’s real name. It seems like that the intercept mission didn’t go as planned, and the collector is one step ahead of everypony. Hopefully, Moira is still able to stop it…
****
When the earthquake stopped, everything calmed down, but the ruins are crying. The stones… oh the bastards, finally something took initiative and hurt you! I would if I could, but you hide so well… Argh!
But I feel a presence… no wait, several… Quite flamboyant and stupid, but still… but one sticks out from the rest… it feels like the one the dark one told me about… the dragon…
****
“Blink damnit, blink!” I keep shouting at her, but she. Just. Won’t! It was just a flashbang, and the effects wear of if one keeps blinking, but so far she has been neglecting my help. She is still screaming, and clearly she’s scared, but there have to be something that I can do… Well, there might be one thing…
*SLAP*
Daisy stopped screaming, but she still sobbed. “Can you hear me?” I asked. She nodded. “Good, now listen. You have just witnessed a flashbang, and its effects are blindness, but it can easily be removed by blinking, do that now please.” And fortunately, she started blinking.
After what felt like hours of blinking(it was actually just one minute, but still), she stopped blinking and looked at me. Then she started crying again and hugged me, hard. I put my hand on the back of her head and stroked, trying to calm her down. “Shhh… it’s over now…”
****
“How much longer do we have to wait, Lieutenant?” Sergeant Armor asked his commanding officer, who seemed to have no intention of leaving the clearly unstable chamber. 
“Until the collector comes out and is captured.” She answered plainly. Shining Armor faceslapped himself. “Are you daft?” Moira turned her head to look at the sergeant, whose face now was all red and furious, “If we don’t leave soon, the ruins will fall down on our heads!” Shining shouted at his superior officer, not giving a shit about the consequences. 
“I thinks that’s a really, really good idea!”
Every one jumped in shock. How the hell did that guy sneak up on us?
Moira broke the silence, “Who the hay are you and where did you come from!?” she shouted, obviously shocked.
“Well, first I was walking down the hall looking for that caznarn stone that’s always watching me, and then I heard shouting, and since no one has been here for over six months, I started to wonder who it could be that suddenly comes to visit ol’ Meerow, and then I sneaked up here to listen more closely, and I think this young colt”, the strange stallion tapped Shining Armor on the shoulder,” is absolutely right. You all should really get out of here before the stones retaliate!” he said, now sounding scared and angry at the same time.
“Sir, I don’t know what you’ve eaten or whatever, but we’re here on a mission, and we won’t leave until we have captured that monster!” Lieutenant Moira shouted, clearly not wanting to move.
“So… you’re the ones trying to stop the dragon, ey?” the madstallion  adapted a new tone, the like that you hear when someone addressing someone he’s about to kill.
“If he is the collector, then yes. But how do you…” she never finished the line.
*ZAP*
The madstallion shot a lightning bolt at the lieutenant, sending her across the room, straight into a pillar.  
*ZAP*
Another guardsman was sent across the room.
*ZAP*
Another one.
*ZAP*
And another one.
“HIDE!” Shining Armor screamed.
*ZAP*
Another one. The intercept squad of 15 Guardsmen had been reduced to 10, and with the commanding officer out of duty, as the highest ranking member, Sergeant Shining Armor took the initiative. The madstallion was still throwing lightning bolts around, almost sending the room into a total collapse. With no other plan, he leapt the stallion, tackled him and punched him, hard.
The stallion seemed to be quite weak, since one punch knocked him out cold. “It’s safe now!” he…
*ZAP*
Shining Armor was sent into the ceiling.
The door rumbled.
****
Well, it seems like we’re done here, no time to loiter. We need to get out of here before the guard tries to capture us, and find a safe place to rest. And as the door rumbled open, I could hear zap sounds, as if someone was throwing around lightning bolts…
As I stepped out from the large cave, something was out of place… There were black dots her and there, guardsmen littered the room, and they too had black dots on them. I couldn’t sense any aura from them, which meant that they were dead… but there was one moving…
His suit had some nicer ornaments, and from what I remember from the guards in Stalliongrad, he must be a sergeant. Yeah, I was real popular over there… Story for another time!
As I moved closer to him, he tensed up. “So, ready to finish me off?  After all, you did kill off the rest of my squad, why wait with me? What’s so important that you let me be the last?”
I stood there, silently watching the half dead guardsman. 
“Well? Are you going to tell me, or will I die not knowing?”
“That depends, which one do you prefer?” I asked him with a darker voice, adding to the scene.
The guardsman tensed up, and then turned around. His eyes went wide when he saw me. “Who the hay are you?”
“Well, I go by many names. Freak, monster, pest, abomination and hybrid, but you know me as *Collector*” His eyes went wider and his jaw dropped. “But you may call me Dread Wing, Son of Dark Flame the Scarred, The shadow of the East. Or just Dready, whichever takes your fancy.”
I understood that he was left speechless, probably scared shitless for knowing that the one they were hunting was standing right in front of him, without his squad to back him up. Now, to unmask that crazy looking fellow behind the rubble. “Hey, crazy looking guy, get out here!” 
And sure enough, that crazy looking guy came out, and sure enough, he readied a spell.
“If you’re going to zap him, don’t even think about it, I want him alive.” I sneered at the crazy looking guy.
“But… They are working with the stone! They have to be punished!” he almost pleaded.
The hay? What’s this with a Stone? Crazy guy. “The reason for him being alive, is that what fun is a hunt without a hunter?” 
“Ah, you mean it like that!” he almost sounded excited.
“Yes, and what do we do then?”
“Zap him!”
“NO!”
Crazy stopped and looked at me confused.
“We DON’T zap him!”
“Why?”
“if you zap him, who is going to report back to the princess?”
“Ah, you mean it like that!”
“Yes, and what do we do then?”
“ZAP HIM!”
*Smack*
Crazy was sent across the room, landing on the floor.
“WE DON’T ZAP HIM, YOU CRAZY IDIOT!” I shouted at him. I face slapped myself, then I wrapped everybody in shadows and flew us all up, not wanting to waste another second down there.
Daisy was somewhat used to the shadow walk, the others weren’t. The guard puked, and crazy… started acting all crazy again. “BOOOYAAA!” he screamed, “The dragon saves the day!” he proceeded to the chasm where me and Daisy fell down, “Suck on that, Stone! I’m on the surface, away from your evil schemings and whispering!” He jumped and punched the air in some sort of victory act, and then proceeded to lie down on the stone floor. Oh, and it seems like the guard have stopped puking.
I flared my wings and my two horns, dispelling the illusion. His eyes widened.
“Now, why don’t we get a little more… civilized” I closed in on the guardsman’s face, “you know my name, but I don’t know yours… Awfully rude, don’t you think?”
His eyes burned with hate, probably because of the loss of his squad. He mumbled something.
“I didn’t catch that, say it again please.” I said with a calm tone.
“Fuck you monster!” he shouted.
“Well, that wasn’t very nice. Here I was trying to be civilized and what did I get in return? The same bullshit I’ve gotten all my life outside the lair.” I said, hurt pretty badly. I turned my head. “No offense.”
“None taken.” The bull said, and then he walked away into the sunrise.
“Besides, why can’t people be somewhat civilized with me? What is so wrong that no one can have just ONE polite reply? Awell, I understand your situation, that you are looking at a monster, and that he deserves to die for what he has done.” I glared at him. “But know this, I am not responsible for the deaths of your brothers-in-arms, and know that I am doing this for a good reason. A well, suns almost up now, time to go. Hey, crazy!” I shouted at the crazy guy still lying on the floor.
“Yeah?”
“Get up, we’re moving on.”
“Nice.”
“Alright, Daisy…” I looked around. “Where’s Daisy?”
“YOU BASTARDS! I’M GONNA SKIN YOU ALIVE IF YOU DON’T GET ME UP FROM HERE!”
“Ah, there she is!”
*cough*
I turned. “Oh, yeah. Lets erase that last part…” I clicked my fingers, and a shade of black enveloped  the nameless guardsman’s head, and then disappeared in a flash of grey. “That does it! Let’s get moving!” I said, wrapping myself in shadows and went down in the chasm and picked up Daisy, flying her up.
She was clearly angry. “Why in tartarus did you leave me down there!? You know I hate dark, damp places!”
“No, but I do now!” I said with a smile. Big mistake.
*phow*
The good old feeling of a flying fist colliding with ones face is… so nostalgic. Reminds me of my university years, all the brawls I got into for both fun and honour’s sake. Honour. It’s shit if you can’t keep it. Honour is shit regardless, since it brings nothing but trouble. Lives have been lost due to honour’s sake. Well, the ones that didn’t have anything to do with it anyway. But, there are some aspects about it that are good, like keeping you from doing nasty things, I don’t know. All I ever learned about honour is that it gets you into trouble.
*Thump*
Oh, I just hit the ground. My cheeks sour, the impact hurt my back, and it hurts like hell. Anyway, guess I deserved it. Oh, forgot the guardsman.
I jumped back up, despite the pains in my back. “Well, let’s get going then!” I said merrily.
*Gasp*
“What happened to that man?” Daisy asked, worriedly. Troubling. Now I have to explain stuff, and I hope that she didn’t see the massacre downstairs. 
“Ehm…” I turned around and looked at the guardsman. Hmmm, seems like Crazy knocked him out when I went to get Daisy… Aha!
“He was injured, but don’t worry, I called for help.” Phew…
“But… there aren’t any ponies for miles! How can you be sure that anyone even heard you?” she looked both worriedly and suspiciously at me.
“Dear, he is a soldier, they always have some sort of emergency team in the area.”
“Okay, but what if they don’t understand the signal?”
“Trust me Daisy, they will.” I said with a more serious voice.
“Okay, if you say so…” she then proceeded to lean on a nearby wall.
I walked to the chasm, looked up and pointed my right index finger towards the sky, pointed out my thumb and then tilted it towards my index finger, firing a red flare into the sky. 
“Bang”
I wrapped everyone into my shadows, and turned my gaze to Crazy. “By the way, what’s your name crazy?”
“Meerow” he said, and then we flew out of the ruins, heading south of the forest, towards our next objective. But first, let’s find a place to make camp, ‘cause I’m pretty worn out…

The mysteriously mysterious Stallion cashed out.



> Chapter 3 part 3, Throne of the Tides part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3 part 3

Throne of the Tides part 1

The glooming mists of the dream realm greeted me yet again, for they knew why I was here. But there was something… off. And by off, I mean that instead of being greeted by laughter, or at least some sort of greeting, there was crying. Gloomy crying, mind you. The sort that reach into your soul and overpowers your emotions and makes you all mushy. The thing is, when I located the crying was coming from, I was baffled. Nightmare Moon, the nightmare, bringer of the night, the queen of darkness, was sitting, yes sitting, in front of me, crying.

Now kids, there are several ways to approach a mare that is crying. You can either be a douche and just stand there and clear your throat, or you can just stand there and watch like a creep, or you can just do the right bucking thing and try to cheer her up. Well, I did neither of those things. 

I pulled her up and hugged her. No hesitations, no regrets and certainly no thoughts of the consequences. Strangely enough, she hugged me back. We stood there for quite some time, and mind you kids, the mare decides when the hug breaks. That way you know that she’s had enough hug time. And trust me, they need that hug time.

“We thank thee, Dread Wing, for this small gesture of cheer, for it means the world for me that there is someone would be brave enough to *cheer me up*.” She said has she stepped away to her usual distance.

“So, there have been other chosen people like me?” I asked.

“Yes, but they had always treated like some sort of otherworldly entity, of which I am thanks to my sister, and has always kept their distance.” She said with a frown, “But no one hast ever been like thee, Sir Wing.”

“Like me?”

“Yes, doing this quest for the sake of another, and not just for thine own greed, and for approaching us in our most vulnerable form. All other had just stood there, looking like the idiots they were.” She said with a sneer.

“Well, what can I say? I’m a sucker for mares in need.” I said with a shrug.

“In need?” Nightmare Moon asked, tilting her head.

“Well, either depressed and crying, or just *in need*” I said, adding a little extra voice on the last part.

“Oh” she said simply.

“Yeah, oh.”

“Well, we thank thee outmost for thine interruption, but now onto matters at hand. We assume that thee has the element of earth, and have taken contact with poor Meerow?” she asked.

“Yeah, but I could’ve used the information about Meerow, or at least that he was crazy.”

“’Tis not  be his fault that he is mad, for he had no other choice.”

“What choice?”

“He was cast away and broken by the very ponies that he once called friends, and was forced to eat Discord’s Blood to survive.”

I flinched. “Discord’s Blood?”

“Yes, we think that we were quite clear.”

“But… isn’t Discord locked into a stone?” I asked,  narrowing my eyes.

“Yes, but he left behind hideous creations before we, Celestia and we, captured him. We had wounded him in battle, and his blood ran down into the ruins of Everfree Castle, leaving behind his most foul creation.”

“Which is?”

“A rare type of flower that only grows in the depths of the ruins. They have both positive and negative effects on a person’s mind. And sadly, he has gotten the worst of it all.”

“And why is that?” I asked.

“Because, while the flower boosts ones magical power, increasing their mana pool significantly, it also drives one mad. And that’s from the first two to three flowers… Meerow has been living on them for six months.” Nightmare Moon, who now looked a little less intimidating and demonical, and instead looked… extraordinarily beautiful. This must be the other side… this must be Luna. I snapped back into reality when she continued to speak. “Well, along with insects and other nutrients.”

“Uh huh…” I simply agreed while being weirdly hexed by her looks. Her smooth silver plated dark blue dress, matched with her curves, oh hot *dayum!* them curves! And those matched with those breasts… have to be d-cups.  And that skin… it looks, must feel like, smooth silk. And then we have the hair. That flowing, star filled hair that floats around in the air even without wind. To say that she is beautiful would be an understatement. Oh, looks like I got sidetracked, hehe…

“…Giant sea serpent that guards it. And that’s all, now run along!” she chirped. Chirped! But it feels like I missed something very important. But I bet it was worth it!

****

I woke to the most disturbing scene I have ever woken up to since I studied with that old jewelcrafter. Meerow was crouching above me, staring me straight into my eyes. His eyes were bloodshot, and slightly worn out, probably because of the flowers. But that didn’t excuse the psychotic look he was giving me.

“Good morning” I said.

“What’s so perticularily good about this morning? It just like any other morning, and every other morning just as gray and boring like the next one. So what gives this morning the special treatment? That hardly seems fair to the other mornings!” he exclaimed, adapting a more serious look.

“I was wishing you a good morning, but it seems like you don’t want it…”

“Oh.” He now looked confused. “Can someone wish someone else a good morning? What sorcery be this!?” he shouted.

“It’s a normal morning greeting! There is nothing magical about it!” I exclaimed.

Meerow leaned in closely. “Are you sure?” he whispered.

“Yes!” I shouted.

“Shhhh! Not so loud!” he whispered.

“Why are we whispering?” I asked the crazy stallion.

Meerow leaned in even closer, his mouth very close to my ear. “Because the stones might me listening” he whispered softly.

“Oh for the love of!” I shouted as I got up, only to have my head crash into the cave roof. It hurt. Badly.

“Watch out, the roof is quite low in this stone cursed place.” Meerow warned.

“Oh, no shit, I hadn’t a fucking clue!” I shouted at him. Crashing ones head into a cave roof brings out the worst in people.

“Shh, there’s children present!” Meerow hissed.

I turned around to see Daisy slowly rising up from her bedroll, apparently very tired.

“What time is it?” she asked tiredly, scratching her eyes.

Now that is a good question. I walked toward the exit, only to end up falling to my doom.

*Thump*

That. Hurt. Apparently, someone tied my shoelaces when I wasn’t looking… but I was pretty sure they weren’t when I rose up from my bedroll…

“MEEROW!” I yelled.

“Shhh, you’ll wake up the bear!” he spoke in a loud whisper.

“A wha…”

*ROAR*

I rose up, scratched my nose. Further inside the cave I could see stars… moving… oh uh.

“PACK AND RUN!”  I shouted as I threw down my bedroll in my wagon, and dragged it out, running for dear life.

The Ursa Minor’s roar was terrifying.

Sure, my powers were awesome, but they were unrefined, not practiced, so they would be pretty useless against something like a ursa minor. One does not simply go up against an ursa minor unprepared.

As we closed in on the exit, Daisy started to pant, not used to sprint for her life. Besides, we never really had a reason to run before.

When we exited the cave, Meerow stopped. A quick halt. 

“Meerow, what are you doing!?” I screamed at him. He just smiled.

“Watch” he said with that psychotic smile on his face, and then turned around.

The ursa rushed after us, closing in on the exit. That’s when Meerow yelled out "Taste my lightning, bucker!” and shoot lightning at the ursa, the impact sending it deep back into the cave. The show left Daisy with her jaw open, while I was shocked. i then remembered that he was still high on those damn flowers.

He shrugged “It felt good.” And then he smiled.

That Luna damned smile… now that I think about it, he haven’t really brushed his teeth for a long while. New mission objective, see to that Meerow brushes his teeth.

But well… we should focus on getting the hell out of here.

As I looked around, I noticed how open the forest was, as if we were reaching an exit.
Already that much south, eh?

If we’re lucky, the soldiers haven’t put up wanted posters yet.

“Alrighty then, lets head on to Hoofington and resupply, and then continue.” I said and started dragging my cart towards Hoofington.

*Meanwhile, in the Canterlot Castle Infirmary*

“He’s waking up! Call on princess Celestia, quickly!” some one said with a high voice, sounding female. “Can you open your eyes?” the female voice asked.

I opened my eyes, but closed then as fast again, for they burned like the hellfires of tartarus themselves, blinding me beyond comprehension. 

“Damn hospital lights…” I muttered.

“Oh, sorry, let me just get them.” She said hastily.

When the lights lowered, not turned out, just lowered, I finally opened my eyes, looking straight into the eyes of Doctor Blue Cross, the only female doctor I know of. And the interior I was familiar with, it was the infirmary in the palace. What happened? Why was I knocked out? 

And then, like a brick flying at mach five straight into my face, the images came back, storming my brain. My head hurt so much that I got a headache. And obviously, the doctor noticed.

“Are you okay? Do need some aspirin?” she asked. I nodded.

She then hurried out of the room without a word, leaving me with my images. I doubt that the aspirin will make the images disappear, but hopefully the headache will calm down.

And just in that moment, a bright, blinding light filled the room. We all know that it is princess Celestia, but right now she was a demon from tartarus coming to shove the brightest of hellfires into my eyes, making me scream, “MY EYES, MY BEAUTIFUL EYES!”

“Why are you screaming Sergeant?” she asked, completely clueless. 

“The lights, you daft idiot!” I yelled. I then gulped.

I just yelled at princess Celestia.

I just yelled at the beloved goddess.

Please say that this is some kind of nightmare.

I tried pinching myself. Still there.

I punched myself in my face. Hurt very much. Still there.

It’s not some kind of dream, this is reality. This is reality.

“Damn it” I muttered to myself. “Princess, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you, it’s just, the light took me by surprise.” I apologized.

She just smiled. “No need to apologize, Sergeant Armor. I just thought that teleporting would be the best move, and did not think that you would be in such a sensitive situation.”

“Well… I still shouldn’t have yelled, you couldn’t have known that I’d be sensitive.” I frowned. “Does my sister know?”

“Twilight is not yet aware that you are hospitalized, not before I know more of what happened at the ruins.” She said with a serious face.

So… now I was supposed to tell of what happened that disastrous night? Oh the joy.

“It all started as planned, we came to the ruins and found the collector by the entrance.“ I started.

*Back to le fellowship of the Rod, some hours later on the outskirts of Hoofington*

“Ah, Hoofington! a backwater town with almost nothing to offer in the way of entertainment or any tourist attractions!” I exclaimed.
Well, I wasn’t wrong. Hoofington is one of the towns in Equestria that have fallen on hard times, and the economy isn’t the best, and since nearly no one passes through here since the railroad came, they had to shut down many businesses that people just couldn’t afford to keep. Quite sad, really.

Hoofington.

Sure, it might be a backwater town out on the country side, but it’s the only town where we can resupply until we reach Stableside, where we will commission a ship to take us to the island temple.

“Have you been here before uncle?” Daisy asked me.

“Never, but you tend to hear these things by those who have visited these places.”

For a backwater town, Hoofington is still standing and not looking to bad, although soon enough poverty will hit this place like a brick to the face. The town itself is still in good shape, but that will end soon. If the princess is as benevolent and loving as all ponies tell me she would, no, SHOULD, change things around here, before it all escalates and before the damage becomes permanent. But well, what do I know?

The town center, which is also the market, is still well looking, with a couple of market stalls still standing, but the large empty space between most of them tells that there should be a lot more, or at least were a lot more. The town feels… nice. The aura of the town is an aura of goodwill, happiness… even though they are in decline, people still feel happy and content. That’s pony spirit for you.
As we walked through the town, we noticed several stares, all directed towards us. Was it a mistake to go into town? What if they already had wanted posters? But really, how would they be able to set out wanted posters if they didn’t have any pictures of me? 
There’d be no way to identify us if there was an eye witness from then, which would be hard. Well, since Meerow blasted everyone either senseless or near dead… or dead. I mean, some must have died and some lived, but either way, none would be able to be here and have to lie in a hospital. Those damn armors are protected by powerful enchantments that’s supposed to repress hostile energy, but they’re not foolproof. I know, because I was a guard for a day, once in Stalliongrad. A long story for another time…

Anyway, back to reality. It seems like those were only curious stares, since they looked like them, and no one ran for a guard. It seems like we’ll have at least today free before the guards start searching.

The town itself was very… casual. Like a normal town, but a little downtrodden. The buildings were something you could usually find in Trottingham, since Hoofington has some inspirations from there. Suffice to say, it was not at all like Stalliongrad. Stalliongrad was full of brick houses, while Hoofington was full with tree houses, much like Trottingham. Sure, there were a few brick houses, but since bricks weren’t such a large commodity among the rest of Equestria, since the brick factories were located in Stalliongrad, not many towns have brick buildings. Might also be because bricks were invented just five to ten years ago, and it haven’t really spread  across the country.

Anyway.

What we were looking for was a shop that could sell us some supplies, and there should be a shop somewhere near the town market, called *Cruster’s, You want it, we have it!*. And according to some rumors I overheard once in my time as a student in Stalliongrad, was that Cruster had a lot, and I mean, a lot of daughters. Not that any of it was bad, it was just weird for one stallion to have so many daughters. Now, I don’t know the exact amount, but lets not worry about that.

Anyway.

The town market was quite empty, might be because it’s still early morning and no one but shopkeepers are up and about this time of day. And thankfully, Crusters You want it, we have it store was opening, or maybe it was already opened… anyway, that means we can leave earlier than expected, which was quite a relief, since I don’t want to attract too much attention, especially if the royal guard decides to put up posters or something.

The shop looked quite… spacy, even from outside, and I could imagine that it was even more spacy inside. The sweet smell of good old oak filled my nostrils when I entered the shop, and it was a sweet and welcoming smell. I closed my eyes and just… filled my nostrils and then breathed out.

*Ahem*

My eyes shut up and tried to locate the source of the sound, and it ended up at some pony behind a counter. It was a mature, little-older-than-your-average-storekeeper pony, with glasses hanging from his neck. As for the shop… let’s just say that it was a little more than spacy. To say spacy would be an understatement. The shop was enormous! It wasn’t a shop, it was a bucking warehouse!

“Be d’ere anythin’ ye be lookin’ fer?” The pony that was obviously Cruster asked.

“Yes, we are looking to resupply our food storage.” I replied.

“An’ what be ye lookin’ too resupply?”

“You know, the average vegetables and vegetarian ingredients.”

“Aye, me know that. That be mer common dan ye think.” He said with a light sigh. “SUNFLOWER, MAPLE, DUSTY!” he suddenly shouted.

“Yes daddy.” Three voices said in perfect symphony somewhere behind us. And as people usually act, we, specifically Me, Daisy and Meerow, no wait, scratch him away, since he was obviously not here anymore. Where in tartarus did he go? Anyway, as we looked back, we heard giggles from above us, and as true as the arrow hit the target, up there were a lot of mares. More specifically, Cruster’s daughters. And let me tell you, they were many. Almost all shapes and sizes, mature and young. Although, the older ones, couldn’t be more than twenty five, looked very appealing…

“Touch me daughters an’ yer a eunuch.”

I gulped, turned back to Cruster and gave him a smile and a nod. He smiled back, knowing that I understood. While the daughters gathered our supplies,I leaned in towards Cruster, and he leaned in towards me.

“Dey be not fer sale.” He said flatly.

“What? no, that’s not what I wanted to ask!” I whispered loudly.

“Oh” was all he said before he leaned in.

I leaned back in and whispered. “No, what I wanted to ask is if you got… meat.”

He just looked casual. “That’s not a problem. My griffin contacts keeps me well stocked, in case there is someone that has such… exotic taste.” He smiled at the last part.

(Oh yeah, think I should explain that a majority, more specifically the whole south Equestria and some stragglers in the north and east, are vegetarians, but then there are the extremists called vegans, because they always had all of their food delivered to them, while the rest of us had to find… inventive ways to find what couldn’t be delivered by wagon, or grown. And that’s when the taste for meat came upon the ones in the north, since after the griffin/pony wars, Stalliongrad and some of the other cities in the north has had a small influence from the griffins that left Gryffonia to live in peace, and with them came the meat. And now meat is an exotic ware from the north, not always looked upon with glee by the local southern population. End of history lesson.)

And with that, he went through a back door that I hadn’t noticed before, closing it behind him. Something was weird though, since there came a small chill from that room. I don’t know if it was just cold in there, or if there is something  wrong with the room. Anyway, a minute later Cruster came back, all smiling and in his hands was a large package. A large package. 

“This here’s some real quality bacon, all tucked up and packed by the greatest griffin butcher, the imperial butcher.” He said proudly, slowly and carefully placing the large package of divine goodness on the counter, because bacon is the food of gods, and deserving of the best of respect and care. Why, you ask?

Because nothing is ever complete without bacon.

I grabbed the package carefully, slowly lifting it up and cradled it. I took in an deep breath, taking in all the glory of the cold bacon that I held in my arms. “Why is the bacon cold?” I asked Cruster.

“Because it was lying in an experimental freeze room that keeps everything cold, so that they age slower and keeps them eatable for a longer time than usual. And remember, no word of this freezer to anyone, because I don’t want people snoopin’ around dese ‘ere parts, demanding blueprints and what not. Bloody wankers, can’t even make their own ideas.” He replied, with some obvious poison when he mention the last part.

“Don’t worry, as long as this bacon really is imperial bacon, your freezer is safe from the claws of the demonic entities called ‘inventors’.” I said with a smile.

He smiled back and nodded. 

The daughters that were assigned to stuff the wagon came in through the door, telling us that the wagon was loaded.

“Well, then it’s just the payment, and I hope you take something more inventive other than bits?” I asked with a smile.

“Well, that’s dependin’ on ‘yere offer, laddie.” He replied.

I put a small pouch on the counter, slowly pushing it in his direction. Cruster slowly pulled the pouch towards him, seemingly suspicious of this whole affair. When he opened the pouch, he gasped. The three daughters ran to his side, trying to calm him down to prevent any sort of cardiac arrest. When they looked in the pouch, they gasped. I sighed and left the store, quite confident that they accepted the payment, and found my wagon filled with all necessary supplies and ready to go. Daisy was leaning on a wooden pillar outside, seemingly bored out of her mind by waiting.

But there was something missing though…

Ah shit.

“MEEROW!” I called out, wondering of where he could’ve possibly wandered off. And I am quite sure that he was in the store not long ago. He came around a corner from an alley, followed by some mare, both looking quite pleased with themselves. The mare entered the store, and Meerow approached me.

“Meerow, where have you been?” I asked him.

“Oh, a bit here and there, in dark places and bright places, where no one has ever dared step foot in thousands of years, seeing things in the darkness that would drive any one insane by just hearing it.”

I sighed. “I asked where you went, not for your life story.”

He rolled his eyes, groaning. And not in the sexy way. “Oh, I’ve just to heaven and back, tainting innocences and purging corrupted influences. Oh, and that mare, Cherry Pop?” he asked, waiting for some kind of answer.

I might regret this. “Yes?”

He smiled. “I popped her cherry.” His smile just grew.
“…”
“What”

He dropped his grin a little. “I popped…” he couldn’t continue due to a fist caressing to his face.

“You bloody idiot! We have to get out of here, before Cruster…” I got interrupted by a *WHAT DID YOU JUST TELL ME!?* from inside the store/warehouse.

“Time to go!” I said as I quickly grabbed my wagon and ran out of the city. I know, it was all Meerows fault, but I wasn’t about to get burned from his fuck up (literarly). 

Finally, we were on the road again, onwards towards Stableside. But I seem to get this feeling, that something is going to happen there, good or bad, that I might not like. But who knows? Maybe it will be something I will like, but whatever it is, it will not stop the quest. And that wasn’t an option. 

That said, we were outside Stableside now, and somehow just felt like we were getting started. Maybe thinking to oneself might be a perfect way to pass time.

Stableside. It’s just as I remember it. A sinkhole with a modernity complex, saying, that everything that was new, they wanted it.
It was modern in more ways than one, and some aren’t particularly good.  Lets just say that there are three parts of town. The bad side, the somewhat normal side and the “good” side. And because Meerow might be a drug addict, we are gonna keep him the blazes away from the bad side of the city.

Why’s it called “the bad side”? take a ghetto, slam it together with a criminal network glued together with a junkie haven. That’s the bad side for you. And nothings being done about it, since the Stableside mentality is “What pony with a brain would go near that place?”, but I think it is because the government is corrupt and being paid off by the criminal network to stop them from kicking in doors. Does the princess know?

No, because her appearance is always in the “good” side of the city. I don’t even know if the “bad city siders” even know how she looks like.

And there might be someone I know that still lives there, depending on if she’s in shit or have moved on to greener pastures.
As we walked down the street of downtown Stableside, Daisy looked amazed by the neon lights (probably imported from Neighpon) that lit up the evening, and would the night when the sun is down. The casinos, bars and different clubs light up, open up and get ready for a wild night. I know I had when I was here last.

You would think that all my time here was a happy go lucky rainbow fart. It wasn’t.
It seems like I drifted a little, for now we stood on the brink to the bad side. I’m not kidding, since we were actually standing on the brink of some light and instant dark and depression. This place brought back bad memories.

“Uncle, what is that place?” I heard Daisy whisper.

“That Daisy” I said, sad voice, “is Tartarus.”

She didn’t speak for the rest of the walk to the hotel.

Said hotel was in the normal side, also called the party quarter, because it’s where all the nightclubs where located. It’s also where I stayed when I lived here years ago, when I was fresh out of Stalliongrads university years, partying the night away.
Our(me and Daisy, Meerow got his own room) room was quite simple, two beds, two nightstands and a bathroom. The one window we had gave us vision over party quarter square, revealing all the different clubs and casinos and bars. It was all nice.

Except for the stone that flew right through the window, hitting me in the head.
I held my head, sitting down on my bed, and cursed. 

“************************************************”
Daisy looked unamused. “That’s probably the longest curse I have ever heard.”

“Shut up, you’re not helping!” I replied loudly, still clutching my head.

Daisy picked the rock up and looked at it. “Hey, there’s a message on it!” she said gleefully, as if the thing never hit me in the first place.

I stood up, took the stone and ripped the letter from it. It stunk of cigarette smoke and booze, and a cyclone of nostalgia swept me away. I opened the letter slowly and carefully, as if it was fragile.
And out from it I pulled a card, the back of it turned up to my face, and the front to the floor.
The mark of the card was a bottle, backed by a sword, axe and the mythical horse. There was only one place in the whole of Equestria that the card could be collected from.

I flipped the card, dreading (heh, pun) what I would see. And, as fate would have it, the front showed an ace of spades. And there is only one person in Equestria that let rocks flow through windows, envelope tied to it containing an ace of spades.

(somewhere else)

The mysterious stallion smiled menacingly, the cigarette flicking slightly in his mouth, his mysterious hand containing three aces, missing an ace of spades.