Bound by Scales

by FrostTheWolf

27- Gone, but not Forgotten

        It took almost all day in order for Tiny Tina to settle down, but by the time that it was a few hours until midnight, she soon passed out and fell asleep after her sugar rush had died out. I didn’t want to fall asleep, only to wake up to the sound of explosions startling everyone inside the hollow as Tina tried working on some late night project that involved blowing something up into very tiny pieces. Hell, probably a lot of people, including mom, Aaron, AJ, Pinkis and everyone else can possibly agree with me on that statement.

        However, when I was getting ready to retire for the night, something felt… off. I couldn’t really explain it, but there was first a bit of pain in the same shoulder that I had my bite mark from Zinnia on, but then nothing… like it hadn’t been but before. Which to me is just weird since I know for a fact that it did happen. Maybe I’m just a bit exhausted because of Tina running around and causing chaos earlier today. Applejack herself was just as surprised as I was on how long she could keep this up for.

        Just as I was starting to finally get comfortable and closed my eyes so I can fall asleep, something… strange happened. Honestly, I could not tell what it was at first because everything around me soon looked like a pitch black void. I was only able to see myself and yet, I felt as if I wasn’t able to have my feet on the ground. I was floating in the middle of this empty void. There was nothing around for me to see… but I was still able to hear something. It started out light… but once it got closer, what I was hearing was not good at all.

        I was hearing fires burning and people screaming as the blackness around me slowly took form into that of a broken and ruined world. One where the world and it’s people had perished. Destroyed and torn to pieces by some unknown force… but why did this relate to me somehow? As I was looking though, I soon noticed a torn cloth on the ground and started to walk towards it. But as I got closer, my heart began to race as I recognized who it belonged to.

        These were Zinnia’s clothes… and they were drenched in blood. “Oh no…” This was bad. I was here, unarmed might I add, and Zinnia was either badly hurt or worse. I looked around, trying to see if I can find her or anyone else and praying that I make it there in time.

        However, when I did find her… I was too late. I found her body on the front steps to what looked like a castle and the stairs were painted red with blood. Whatever got to her tore her apart like a chew toy due the extravagant amount of scars on her body. Especially with the puncture wounds to the chest. My god, this can’t be real… Is this just some f*cked up nightmare or what? Please, whatever this is, just make it stop already!

        It did not end the way I thought it would, for when I closed my eyes just a few moments ago… I was now in the same place as before… but not on my own. Because when I turned around, I was seeing myself in front of Coryena… who had a very… saddened yet stunned look on her face. “Ken, are you alright?”

        “P-please… please tell me that what I just saw was a nightmare…” I said to her. The dragoness sighed to me and by her facial expression, I could tell that something was affecting how to share what was on her mind with me. “Coryena?”

        “Ken, please listen…” She told me, trying to have me calm myself down despite what I have just witnessed. “What you were in was a Nightmare yes… but there is always truth to dreams… That Nightmare that you were in was based on something that had already happened… I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but… your friend is gone… Her world, everyone on that world that knew her and everything about it was consumed by the ravenous void…”

        No… Then that means… “Is Z-zinnia… dead?” That was when I saw her close her eyes and she gave me a painful nod of the head. The second she did, many thoughts raced through my mind. How could something like this happen? What could’ve done this? More importantly, if she knew that she was in trouble, why didn’t she ask for us to help her? I promised to her that if she needed help with anything at all, she could call on us… but… why?

        “Ken, I want to help you… Because I don’t want you to be in the same state that Revaan was in when I died all those years ago,” The dragoness told me, now changing the tone in her voice a little. “Whatever it was that did this to her, she would not want to put you or anyone else in the position to where your world could be in the same state as hers… She may be gone, but your memory of her will never be forgotten… Do you understand me?”

        “Y-yeah…” I said, having some self doubt. “But… Zinnia helped me build everything that I have here… She was a big part of it. We joined her hoard because she wanted us too.”

        “Then carry on in her place…” I heard her tell me, catching me by surprise by how quickly she interjected after I was done speaking. “Continue her legacy… don’t let everything she did be in vain because the Ken that she knew would not let her dream, nor everything the two of you built, die and fade away to ash.” Those words… were beyond powerful to me. Originally, I felt sad and depressed… but Coryena was able to lift me up and get me back on my feet. Though, I still had one other question for her.

        “I will… but… how should I preserve the memory of her so I don’t forget?” Normally, if one were to pass on, someone would have something or come up with someway to remember them. I wanted to ask her for help in coming up with something… special in order for me to not forget about Zinnia and how important she was to everything that both Revaan and I have here in the Hollow.

        “I believe you will find what you’re looking for in the same place that you kept her token,” Coryena replied to me. “The Anklet may be no more… but her keystone that represents her, like your will, is unbroken. Do what you believe is right… I know you will… Because no matter how many times that Nightmare will attempt to weaken you, whether through her Aspects or through nightmares like these… you will overcome any and all challenges you come across.” Her words were soon followed by a bright light glowing behind her as it covered the whole room, making me close my eyes as I felt myself drift away once more.

        When I woke up again, I found myself back in my room. Applejack herself was still resting in bed, but from the way that the sheets were, something must’ve woke her up in the middle of the night too. Did she have a nightmare as well? Or did she wake up because she was concerned about me? Honestly, I did not know and I think the best thing to do right now is to let her get the rest she deserves and not disturb her.

        As for me, I took the advice that Coryena gave me, putting on a new set of clothes first before I walked out of my room and over to the armory, leaving a note just in case if Applejack did happen to wake up and wanted to know where I was. Upon entering the armory, I noticed that it looked like Fizzle was asleep on the floor while I happen to notice one of the changelings in the hollow named Zektor in the back room by the anvil and forge. To be honest, he looked surprised to see me at first. “Ken! Why, isn’t it a pleasure to see you. I never got the chance to thank you for helping Maple and Holly a few weeks ago.”

        “It’s alright, Zektor. Things have been a bit busy for me on my end, so I haven’t had the time to check on everyone as of lately,” I replied, looking around a little bit. “So what are you doing here this late? The sun’s going to rise in a few hours.”

        “Ehh, been trying to learn how to forge some of the things in these designs that both Fizzle and I found. Only catch though is that their in draconic and I can’t decipher it at all. He was helping me with the directions and everything until he got too tired and then passed out.” Hearing Zektor say that got me a little bit curious. Not about Fizzle, but about in what the two of them found.

        “May I have a look at them?” I asked, walking over to the section of the room that had the shelf where I kept my tokens. “I have deciphered Draconic before, so maybe I can help you for the time being.”

        Looking over everything, I soon glanced over at where I last had Zinnia’s old token. There was a specific section where I kept the tokens that belonged to the other Hoard members. Crystal’s Scarf, Jason’s Cylinder and so on. But like what Coryena told me, the anklet that once belonged to the draconid was nothing more then a pile of ash… and the only thing that remained was the keystone that the Anklet held.

        Taking the gem, I turned around just as Zektor himself walked over with a couple of scrolls he was carrying and a gemstone that he was using like a miniature light in order to see what was inscribed on the scrolls. “That could work… But then again, it depends on what the specifics are for the designs.” That part caught me by surprise, but before I could get the chance to ask the question that formed in my mind, he soon answered. “If these schematics were made by dragons, then that would mean that they were for dragon only equipment. Back in the day, dragons weren’t as… cooperative with ponykind like they are nowadays, so some of the weapons and armor that are on here could be either too big in size or too heavy in weight for a normal pony to carry around.”

        “What about if you used different materials?” I asked, trying to think about if there were alternatives to the normal types of materials they would use.

        “If I did that, then what I would forge would easily break under immense pressure… nopony would want a weapon if it can’t even last through one battle.” He replied, shortly before noticing what I had in my left hand. “Say, where did you get that crystal from? I haven’t seen anything like it before.”

        To be fair… I didn’t have a response for him at first since I was still having to come to terms with one of my best friends being gone in an instant… but afterwards, I mustered up the courage to say something to him. “From a friend…… I want to come up with something in order to honor her. Do you think you can help me with that, Zektor?”

        “Oh, I see…” He said in response to the first part of the question and not asking for anymore information as he looked over some of the blueprints that were spread out across the table. “You know, I think there’s one particular piece that may work for something like this. It’s not a weapon or a armor piece… but I think it may work.”

        Right around now, I was a little bit curious to see what he had in mind. “What is it?”

        “There’s a recipe for what looks like some kind of bracelet. I can’t read the name, but I would think that you could wear it on your left hand since your right arm is that of a dragon.” He explained, pointing out the design to me as I decided to take a look at it for myself. Right away, the symbols soon formed letters for me to translate and I could read it’s name.

        Vahlok Sil… Guardian’s Soul. A fitting name. “How long would it take to make this?”

        Zektor took a moment to look at what kind of materials he had on hand first before coming back to me with the time estimate I requested. “Given that I have the materials here already and the mold to put it in, It would roughly take me a little over half an hour. I can let you put in the stone yourself, but first the piece needs to be forged by me.”

        That I can understand, “Alright, do I need to pay you or-.”

        “No need,” The Changeling insisted. “Consider this as my thank you for helping Maple and Holly. I’ll have it ready as soon as I can.” That… surprised me. But in turn, I was glad for him lending me a hoof and helping me out. “Oh and would you happen to know a little girl in here with blond hair and a mask on the side of her head?”

        Raising an eyebrow, I looked back at him with a look of confusion on my face. “Yeah, that’s my cousin Tina… Why, did she come in here?” My question was followed by a nod along with me noticing Zektor’s eyes drift to where I kept some of my own equipment in the back of the room… and right away, I could immediately tell that the arrow quiver that I had for my bow was now empty.

        “She took the arrows, saying that she was going to find a way to make them more… dependable to be discreet.” Zektor them replied back to me. “It would be best for you to find her before she somehow hurts herself… or somepony else.” I didn’t have to be told twice on that one as I immediately left the forge to go and find Tina. If she was messing around with my arrows, there was the chance that she may accidentally break them… and I still needed to use those for when I needed to use my bow!

        However, when I did find her… that was when I realized that what she was doing… was not what I expected. Originally, he was lead to believe that Tina was going to end up breaking them… But, as it turned out, she was doing something WAY different.

        Tina was actually making them better. She set some of the regular and incendiary ones off to the side, but now she was figuring out how to strap something around where the arrowheads were… and from the looks of things, it did not affect the weight of the arrows or cause them to bend and break whatsoever. What that something was though was one question that I needed to ask her.

        Yet, as I was standing there, it did not take Tina long to notice I was there. “Oh haiii, Kenny!! Whatcha doin’ this morning?”

        “Nothing much… I was stopping by the forge to check on something and Zektor told me that you took my arrows.” I told her simply.

        “Zekky told ya? Aww man, I was wanting for this to be a surprise!” She pouted, before her mood changing only a few seconds later as she went back to her normal self. “Nah, just playin! I was going to put these back when I was done, but I wanted you to look for yourself at the fine craftsmanship that was put into this.” Instead of replying immediately, I just didn’t question what she was saying and took the chance to see how she modified my arrows. The arrowheads were the same, but this time around, it looked as if she added something that looked like… putty where the end of the shaft met the arrowhead.

        “This is… very well done, but what exactly did you do?” I asked her in confusion, trying to look down the length of the arrow  and also replicate if I were actually using it with my bow.

        “Well I just did some adjusting and then I thought that these babies would be better if they had a bit more POW! So I used some extra Composition C-4 clay in order to make it so they can go boom!!” Wait… hang on a minute… I’ve heard that somewhere before… Composition C… made of clay… harsh chemical smell… Then, it hit me.

        Composition C-4 meant another name back on earth and one that anyone could know what it was right away… C4. Oh god, how the hell did Tina get her freaking hands on C4!? I mean, dynamite itself is one thing, but C4?! That’s military grade explosives right there! “Soooo… since you did not have a lot of arrow types on hand, I thought I would try to spice things up while still blowing stuff up! Whatcha think?!”

        Despite it sounding bad originally… I did have to admit that having explosive arrows could be helpful in the near future. “I like it, Tina. But how about we go to the training grounds and set up a target range to see if these arrows work.” She definitely agreed with me on this. In fact, she had gone through the liberty of taking some of the old wooden training dummies that were in the barracks and decorating them to prepare for this ‘momentous occasion’. Kind of a weird thing to say… but who cares? It’s Tina for crying out loud.

        Just as we were about to get started with target practice though, I soon heard something that caught my attention. “Hey Ken, whatcha doing there?” I turned to see none other than Tianhuo herself soon trot over to where Tina and I were. The Longma had been spending a lot of time with Rainbow and Aaron as of recently and this was the first time I have seen her in… honestly a few weeks.

        Yet, before I could say anything though… Tina got to her first. “Oh my god! She’s so cute!!” She said, tackling her and hugging her around the neck. “Can we keep her, Ken? Can we pleeeeeease!?” The longma herself looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a partially worried facial expression. One that read ‘help me!’ in a way that made Tianhuo look like she was afraid of her.

        “Tina, Tianhuo is not a pet-.”

        “Wait a minute… Ken, how does this… girl know you?” Tianhuo asked me, even though her expression was unchanged. So, taking a moment to pry Tina off of the Longma’s neck, I set her down and gave my friend to catch her breath for a moment.

        “Tina, this is my friend Tianhuo… Tianhuo, this is my cousin, Tiny Tina,” For a moment, I thought I heard her snicker at the name. But that was when I told her the second part of my sentence. “And don’t let the name fool you… she can be a bit… odd, but she’s pretty gifted. Piece of advice though… don’t do any sudden movements around her.”

        “Uh… should I even ask why?” In response to that question, all I did was take my bow, notch one of Tina’s arrows onto it, drew back the weapon and release it. Letting the arrow fly in the wind as it exploded on contact the moment that it made solid contact on the target. There was nothing left of the dummy afterwards as I turned back to Tianhuo.

        “Let’s just say that Tina really likes making things blow up. Case in point, these new explosive arrows that she just made for me.” Yet, the part that really convinced Tianhuo was what happened a few seconds after that.

        “The moment I saw that arrow detonate, I was all like daaaaaaaaamn!!” Tina proclaimed in awe of the masterpiece that was a pile of burnt wood, smoldering splinters and a completely annihilated training dummy that was intact just a moment ago. That had Tianhuo sigh a little as she looked back at me for a moment… with a mixture of different expressions on her face as she tried to form the words to change the subject.

        “I… honestly did not expect that… like at all.” The Longma spoke before looking back at me. “Is there… anything else I should be aware of?”

        “Well, that depends on if Rainbow and Aaron told you about Tina’s parents the other day,” I told her as I took a deep breath and began to explain. “My uncle now goes by the name of Mr. Torgue “high five” Flexington… and yes, high five is his middle name. Some of his favorite things and hobbies include air guitar solo’s, things are as ‘badass’ as he is, being shirtless wherever he goes, flexing his muscles, shouting his head off and explosions. Lots… and lots of explosions. Only thing he doesn’t like is the fact that he can’t curse.”

        I gave her a few seconds to process all of that information, before she finally asked me something. “Wait, why can’t he curse?”

        “He’s got a digital censor installed in his voice box to where if he tries swearing major cuss words, it gets blocked out by a beeping sound… Tina, do you have an example for Tianhuo?” I asked, thinking that she might have something that could be helpful right around now. As it turns out, she had her own ECHO device almost like the one that Athena gave to me shortly after we first met… and the clip she chose was from when Mr. Torgue first saw Revaan.

        “HOLY F**KS**T!!! IS IT JUST ME OR IS THERE A GIANT F**KING DRAGON RIGHT THERE!?!”

        “Oh… wow… that was… unexpected.” Tianhuo said before looking back at me. “Was there anyone else that I should know about?”

        “The only other person that I’ve met recently is my aunt. She now goes by the name Moxxi now, has a bar in Manehattan, lives with Mr. Torgue and almost everything… and yes, everything is… in one form or another, an innuendo.” That had Tina giggling… and the Longma I was talking too sigh in relief.

        “Well, thankfully we don’t need to be seeing them anytime soon.” She replied back to me… for a moment, I thought I saw Tianhuo with a sad expression on her face before shaking her head and looking back at me… Something definitely seemed off with her right now. Tianhuo, like with Rainbow Dash, is normally talkative and brash. Two things that I’m not seeing right now for sure.

        “Tianhuo, is something on your mind?” I asked her, confused and thinking that by talking to her for a bit, I can help her out somehow.

        “Y-yeah… I have only been with you guys for a few weeks and I… well… miss my home,” The Longma sighed as she looked back at me. “I had sent a letter to my empress, telling her that I found you in hopes of receiving a letter with further orders as to what I need to do next… but I haven’t gotten anything in days. It makes me worried about if the empress of my home kingdom is safe or not. Especially with the aspects that you have been having to go up against. I’m worried that one of them will attack my home.”

        Now I was starting to understand why she was acting this way. “Hey… nothing’s happened yet so don’t be so worried about it.” I said originally to try and calm her a little… before coming up with an idea inside my head. “Besides… if something were to happen to your home, I’ll be able to lend a hand to you and your kind however I can.”

        That… caught her by surprise. I would personally bet that she did not expect that kind of response from me. Especially since I have only got the chance to talk to her a few times over the course of her stay. “Y-you really mean that?”

        I nodded back in response, giving her time to process everything inside her head. By the time she finally could think straight, she soon threw herself in my direction as she wrapped her front hooves around my waist and pulled me in for a hug. “T-thank you so much…… Y-you have… no idea how much this means to me.”

        “I’m going to guess a lot?” I said, only for her to playfully hit me in response… if you consider a punch in the ribcage playful instead of painful. Hopefully that did not somehow break my ribs somehow.

        “Ken, this means a LOT more to me then you actually realize,” Tianhuo told me, chuckling a little bit. “Back where I’m from in the kingdom of Huoshan, many other Longma’s like yourself see you as a legend that you would tell to kids as a bedtime story. But my Empress believes that you exist… and now I do as well.” She soon let go of my waist as she walked back up the stairs to the temple's courtyard before looking back at both Tina and I. “Thank you… for everything.”

        With that, she soon left both of us alone as Tina looked back at me for a moment before I went back to practicing with the rest of the arrows I had. Each one of them were quick and accurate while also packing an explosive punch to it as well. For convenience sake, I decided to call these “blast arrows” because of the explosive blast that occurs the moment it makes contact with a target. By the time I was done though, I found that someone else was watching me this time… and it wasn’t quite Tianhuo.

        “Nice shooting if I do say so myself,” Both of us turned to see Zektor trotting down the stairs towards us as he walked up to Tina and I. “I was coming by to deliver the trinket you requested. I had finished forging it recently.” That… surprised me a bit. I honestly thought it would take a lot longer to forge a circlet such as the one that I asked for. Guess I was wrong.

        He handed me the silver band as I took the chance to put it around my left wrist. The band itself, strangely enough, looked almost exactly like the wristband I originally bought that lead to my displacement. Only difference was that the trinket looked like two dragon heads about to collide with one another rather than the original band that had a dragon looping in a circle. All that was left a space in the middle for me to put in the keystone. Taking the crystal out of my pocket, I took a moment to slip the stone inside and have it lock into place.

        When the stone was set in though, it began to glow a little as I felt as if something… connected in a sense. I stretched my fingers a little and moved my hand a little bit as looked back at Zektor for a second. I’ll worry about the minor details with this later. Right now, I just need to thank the changeling for this.

        Because even if Zinnia is gone… the impact she had on me will never be forgotten… And I’m thankful for that.

        “Do you like the final product?” He then asked me in response.

        “Definitely-.” I said to him before noticing Tina race up the stairs unexpectedly. “Tina, where are you going?” I didn’t hear a response from her right away. Just some giggles and hear singing to herself.

        “I’mma running! I’m running over here! Run, run, run run run!”

        Well, I better check on her before she does anything too crazy. As Zektor and I finally joined up with her, it turned out that Applejack, Rainbow, Twilight and also Tianhuo was up in the courtyard while it looked like Aaron was using his finger to write a series of numbers on a fogged up window. Heck, as I was arriving, even Princess Luna showed up too.

        “Hey, what exactly is going on?” I asked everyone as Applejack and Luna turned towards me the second I got closer to the group.

        “Your friend Aaron said that he was going to have to make a call to someone, but when we asked who it was, he said it would be better for us to-.” Luna’s sentence was interrupted the moment both she and I realized that Tina was now on her back and hugging her where her brooch would be.

        “BEST DAY EVAAAA!!!”

        “... Who is this… little one?” Luna then asked me, confused and partially startled by the outburst.

        “That’s my cousin Tina…” I told her as Tina decided to hop off and let go of Luna’s neck as I noticed what exactly he was writing now… and that was a number sequence. Seven numbers in a sequence that seemed… familiar, but I can’t remember what exactly it meant.

        As I watched Aaron, both of his gauntlets reverted to their pony forms as I heard him say something that sounded like a rhyme. One that was based on the numbers that was on the window. “42-42-564, whenever you want to knock upon death’s door…” Wait a minute… I feel like I have heard that somewhere before, but from where? “Lord Death, are you there?”

        The last sentence had everyone looking at each other with a puzzled expression on their face. “Hang on… did he say ‘Lord Death’? How does that make any-?”

        “Hello!!” The moment we heard that, everyone jumped and when I looked back at the window now, everything was coming back to me now as I say the figure that was in the reflection. It made sense because Aaron was a Meister after all… but I just honestly did not expect to see… him.

        Aaron though… wasn’t phased by it at all as he said one sentence to the person in the mirror. “It’s good to see you again… Lord Death.”