ബഐബഐബഐ Twilight ബഐബഐബഐ
I suddenly stopped and suppressed a gulp as I noticed something that set my fur on edge. Unlike in the rest of the city where we saw pockets of jubilation and partying from the crystal ponies here it was eerily quiet. As we walked further into the path of destruction the more uneasy both Spike and I got.
"I don't like this..."
"Neither do... EEEP!"
Spike slipped off my back when I back up in horror. I was glad I hadn't had anything to eat in a while as I suddenly felt very nauseated at the sight before me. A very large puddle of blood. Judging from the amount of it... I doubt... The source couldn't have gotten far.
As I was looking around I noticed there was also several pools of something... black. What is this stuff? I wondered as I carefully examined the goo. Could this be the remains of Sombra? I'd better take a sample to study just encase.
"Is... is he is really gone?" The sound of a stuttering and clearly spook mare echo across the street, or what was left of it anyway.
I looked around found a crystal pony cowering in a bush nearby. " You mean Sombra? Yes. By chance did you see what happened here?"
"Yes..." The mare squeaked out before hiding further in the bush.
"Relax..." I softly advised, mimicking the relaxation technique taught to me by Cadence. "and take a few deep breaths."
I watched as the mare repeated my actions a few time, smiling as the mare visibly relaxed.
"Now let's try again. What did you see?"
"A stallion fighting against Sombra."
"Okay... Do you know who this stallion was?"
"No... Whoever he was he sure wasn't from the Empire..."
That surprised me. As far as I knew the only ponies that where here from outside the Empire was the girls, Shiny, Cadence, and myself. "And how do you know that?"
"He was an alicorn... I thought male alicorns were myths..."
"A male alicorn!?"
"Well that explains that." Spike spoke up as he joined me, brushing off his scales from my earlier dumping.
"Spike, not now." I was not in the mood for his snark. Not now while I was still angry and we had an injured pony to find.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE, WILL YOU LISTEN!" Spike furiously roared at me, shocking me to silence. He had never yelled at me like that before even during some of my worse episodes... Want it need it *shutter*.
"Did he have a fiery rainbow mane?" I blinked in confusion as Spike asked the mare the very specific question.
"Yes." My jaw dropped when the mare answered with a shocked yes. How could Spike's very specific question be right!?
"And his horn... was it purple and green?"
"Yes..."
"Spike..." I began. Now I was getting a bit worried over this line of oddly specific and correct questioning. This was strangeness on par with Pinkie Pie.
"Twi you remember those letters? The ones sent to me?"
"Yes..." I slowly enunciated. I was pretty sure I knew where this was going and something told me I really wasn't going to like it.
"H.K. is the male alicorn."
"Dragon..." A gravelly voice complained. A voice I was sure I had heard, before but could not place just yet. "'H.K.' is dragon."
I spun to correct the pony as there was no way an alicorn could be a dragon... one could be either a pony or a dragon not both otherwise he or she would be kirin. I gasped in shock before readying my horn. There standing before me and looking down in irritation at me was a very familiar red and orange teenaged dragon. I remembered this dragon from the Migration and I was not going to be caught off guard by him again. I was about verbally confront him when I saw something that turned my stomach. All across his body were vicious scars. Some looked not only very painful but very recent. What happened to him?!
"What are you doing here Garble?"
"He is with me and you are to leave him alone." Spike stepped between me and Garble, giving me the look that I would have no say in this.
I raised an eyebrow at Spike. It appears I'm going to have to have an even longer talk with Spike after this was all over. For now we had to find out what happened to H.K. and find him before his injuries... Plus I had questions for H.K. about dragons.
"Twi, is right though, what are you doing here Garble?" Spike re-asked my question. "I thought you were going to stay out of sight."
"I was..." Garble looked around, whistling. "Wish I had seen this... I'm sure it was amazing!"
I groaned. Leave it to a dragon to wish to see a bloody battle like it was a Wonderbolt show!
"Pony what happened to him?" Garble growled out causing the mare to flinch back in fear. Both Spike and I facehoof in unison. Growling at a pony, and a scared one at that, was only going to scared the pony even more... I guess I should be glad it didn't prefaced it with 'namby-pamby.'
"It's aright miss he won't hurt you." I shot the dragon look to make him know that I was not going to suffer any funny business from him.
"Just before the Crystal Heart activated Sombra... Sombra had..." The mare turned green for just a moment. I glanced back at the blood and could guess at what could had happened in those final moments. "Slashed his shoulder nearly clean off.... the blood, oh the blood I... urk... I last saw him limping off in that direction."
I looked off in the direction the mare was pointing, trying to not also join the pony in throwing up. I could see a faint trail of blood going in that same direction. This is bad, this bad, bad, bad! That was away from the Empire and into the vast Frozen North. There was nothing out there! He have must have wandered off delirious due to blood loss!
I was about to call out for Shiny so we could gallop off to find H.K. before it was too late when I had to drop to the ground and cover my ears with my hooves. There was a loud piercing cry echoing about the street. I looked up and over to see that it was Garble causing it. A bit of orange flame erupted from his open maw. Luckily he was screaming into the sky. What in Celestia's name was going on!? The cry soon turned to a full fledged roar that almost sounded... sad.
"Garble what is wrong!?" Spike worriedly walked up to Garble as he fell to his knees as his roar ended.
Garble said nothing. But as I watched my eyes widen in shock. This dragon that had been a jerk and called us ponies weak and namby-pamby was crying. What could have reduced him to such a state? Please tell me it's not related to those scars...
"Garble?" Spike tried one again to get the dragon's attention.
"He's gone..." Garble whispered out barely loud enough for me to hear.
"What do you mean?" Spike questioned.
"The Eternal Flames shall burn brighter with his fire." Garble spoke mechanically as he rose back to his full height. His eyes now dry.
"Garble, I don't understand." Neither did I.
"If he is not already dead he is in the final throes of death."
"How can you possibly know that?" Spike asked the question I was going to ask. "He could still be alive! We need to go after him!"
"No, don't. When a dragon knows he is dying he wanders off to die alone. We must not follow or try to save him."
"But he's a pony, an alicorn stallion for that matter, not a dragon!" I protested.
"Yeah, I don't get it either..." Spike deadpanned.
"Ignorant namby-pamby ponies and pony raised dragon! He. is. dragon!"
"Fine. He's dragon!" Spike exclaimed in clear frustration. "Whatever!"
My mind was now buzzing with so many questions but the only one that I wanted answered right now was "But why would a dragon wander off to die?"
"A dragon's flame sometimes becomes uncontrollable after death and can caused the body to...uh... explode... or at least that's what I have been told."
I dry heaved at a mental picture of a dragon exploding in a mass of blood and guts. I think I prefer the pool of blood... Note for future Twilight: There are some questions that are not worth the answers.
"Spike...here..." Garble knelt down and pulled off a necklace with a shield cut gem attached from his neck and held it out to Spike who took it reluctantly. "H.K. said that if anything happened to him that you were to have this."
"I don't want nothing from that villainous jerk! I'm glad he is gone! I have no idea why you of all dragons are sad over it!" Spike yelled as he threw the necklace away before stomping away. I flinched back at the venom in Spike's words. This was not the Spike I knew. Could it just be anger over H.K. dying? I knew that each pony handled grief differently. At least according to all the research that I did on the subject when the topic of Spike's agelessness came up.
"Garble?" I asked as I could see that what Spike had said hurt him.
Garble said nothing as he walked over to were Spike had thrown the necklace and slowly picked it up. I really needed to know what is going on but I wasn't going to pry just yet. It was clear that both Spike and Garble were upset over the death of this H.K.. Maybe Celestia knows something about this H.K. pony. I mean a male alicorn!? This is big! This changes everything!