ബഐബഐബഐ Twilight ബഐബഐബഐ
"What do you mean?" I questioned. Outside the shoulder injury he didn't look for wear.
"She merely delayed my death. I probably will not last another month..." I raised an eyebrow. H.K. just merely shrugged at my disbelief. "You got me on a good day... I am quite ill without Zecora and my own skills I would look much worse...but enough of that, I want to know how you found me."
"When did you create the potion spell?" H.K. narrowed his eyes as I asked the question.
"Four days ago..."
"Well then, Garble noticed your potion spell."
"Odd... Garble is too young to be able to utilize his magic... unless... " The necklace that Garble had been wearing since the Crystal Empire lifted off of him in a green and purple aura. Odd, I had never seen or heard of a two tone magic aura from one pony before. H.K. turned over the necklace a few times before levitated it back around Garble's neck. "Hmm interesting... I see how now..."
I didn't it looked like a normal clear unenchanted gem... It should be glowing if it was active... If Garble explained it to me right the feeling of being watched was constant, something that zebraian potion spells could do, then the gem should have glowed the entire time.
"But..." Garble protesting, trying to give back the necklace. "I shouldn't have this... you only gave it to me if something happened and... what of your oath?"
"Keep it. It has decided that you are to be its guardian until its given to its true master. As for my oath it remains unbroken. I only need to make sure he gets it when he is ready... and, from what I can see, he is not. It will let you know when it's time..."
At that, my frustration over the strange not working as it should gem boiled over. "'It?' 'True Master'!??! 'When it's time'? What are you talking about?"
"Nothing you need to be concerned about."
"'Nothing I need to be concerned about...'" I roared in anger. I was Spike's caretaker. And clearly they where talking about him as I hadn't forgotten that Garble was given the gem H.K. to give to Spike if something would happened to him. Why would I not need to know?! "'NOTHING I NEED TO BE'...GAH!"
"You may be his guardian and hatcher but you are NOT a dragon nor his family!"
I was about to retort when H.K. hobbled to the cauldron and and threw up.
"Than what Discord said... Was it... true?" Garble took this time to ask a question. A question that was only mildly shocking given the source of it. I personally know that Discord only spoke warped truths or outright lies. The few times he ever told the truth has so buried under those two that it was impossible to see that it had spoken the truth.
"Your going to have to tell me what he said." H.K. mumbled, shaking a bit. "The scrying potion spell doesn't allow me to hear what's being said and is too crude to use to read lips..."
"Are you Spike's brother?"
"Yes."
"What!?" I exclaimed in shock. "You're Spike's brother?!"
H.K threw up again before answering very weakly. "Yes I am, but under no circumstances are you to tell him I'm alive..."
"What?!" I snapped once again, not caring that H.K. had suddenly take a turn for the worse. "Do you know how devastated he was when..."
"I do, more then you will ever know, I do..." H.K. whispered sadly. "All the more reason to not tell him... Let me ask you a question. How do you think he will handle finding out the one he thought died somehow survived only to learn he merely has only a month to live?!"
I stood there in silence over H.K. question and not because he was vomiting some more but because there was no clear answer that was good. When did raising a dragon become such a minefield?!
"Why..." Garble whispered breaking my inner thoughts and the silence that had fallen over us. "Why did you let me live?"
"Who said I did Garble?" H.K. looked up from the cauldron smirking.
"Huh?" Garble and I uttered. H.K. was more confusing then Discord ever was; Garble was clearly alive and I don't detect any necromancy taint on him either.
Then it hit me there was more the one type of 'death.' I examined Garble again. When I first saw his scared body I was mildly curious about how he got them but held my tongue as I felt it was probably not something I should pry into. But now, those scars... they didn't look like scars that were caused by an accident or fighting. They almost looked like... "YOU! YOU MONSTER! YOU TORTURED HIM!"
"Ladies and Gentlecolts I present the shining example of ponies: a bucking idiotic narrow minded pacifist herbivore who's is so stuck up her muzzle is permanently brown!" H.K. snarked.
I blistered at the implication of his insult. I was so angry that I could even smell my mane burning. My fury went ice cold, though, the moment that H.K. hobbled right into my face. The powerful flame of hate in his slitted eyes pierce me right to my core. "Get your shitty head out of you pretentious ass! The world has NEVER revolved around you damn ponies!"
Just as fast as before the hate was replaced with his more neutral expression. "Time I guess for your limited world view to shatter then... Dragon nature, unlike ponies, are ruled by the emotional instinctual heart not the cold rational logic of the brain. As such, they can and will take things to the extreme whether they 'want to or not'. What's more, their magic is tied to their heart. Now, as a student of magic, tell me something... how does one determine the power a pony will have?"
"Mental acuity." I said without missing a beat. Most ponies thought smarts equaled power but it was not. The reason why most ponies could only do telekinesis and magic related to their cutiemark well is because most spent a lot of time honing skills related to their cutiemarks to the exclusion of others, and, there by, their mental acuity for those spells and ones like it was stronger.
"So, tell me,'O Smart One' using what I said about dragons and tell me how one determines a dragons magic power?"
I went wide eyed at that. Dragons were already resistant to pony magic but to have it increase with emotion... How are we ever going to win much less survive against the dragons?!
"So she can be taught to think." H.K. smirked. "The power of ONE elder dragon can eclipse Oathbreaker or Luna... As such one can not play cutesy wootsy with a dragon..."
"Now, back to Garble... Dragon Lord Torch wanted to end him to make an example of him to deter any other dragon from ever thinking of doing what he did. I, on the other hand, thought differently..."
"What could he have possibly have done to deserve anything like that?"
"Phoenixes are living flame and are sacred to dragons killing one is a capital offense..." H.K. rubbed his chin in thought. "Let me ask you a hypothetical question. What kind of punishment do you think you ponies will clamber for if, Oathbreaker, let's say, was not only killed by cut into pieces and put on public display?"
A slow painful death...
"And now, thinking on that, what did Garble try to get Spike to do?"
"But why? I also tried to... You know..." Garble whispered.
"Because until you tried to goad Spike on to smash that egg I had concerns that Spike would struggle handling dragon culture after being among only ponies... and their stories that claim dragon as monsters that..." H.K. voice faded away for a moment though I couldn't tell if it was from sadness or the fact that he was vomiting again. "...but after the rocky start, when you insulted the ponies for being 'weak bunch of namby-pambies,' he warmed up especially to you... I had hoped then that through you... I saw you as worthy to be friends or even... brothers... I had also seen... the potential for you... to become a greater dragon warrior then I..."
Garble stood there in shock for a moment before collapsed, crying. If I hadn't seen him cry at the 'death' of H.K. I would have been shocked at the tears that where flowing down Garble's face. H.K. slowly hobbled over to Garble, it was clear that he was struggling to do even that as his strength had clearly been sapped from all the vomiting.
He stopped when he got to Garble, leaned down as much as he could, and then lifted the dragon's head with his horn. "Rise, Garble... and know that you are dragon."
"But Dragon Lord..."
"Is Dragon Lord of the Wasteland Dragons, not all dragons."
"Oh..."
"Now, Garble there is a zebra shaman living in the forest by the name of Zecora... Use your nose to find her and tell her 'The shield has blacken, the sword nicked.' She will know what that means... I need some time alone with Spike's caretaker."
Garble nodded and then quickly scurry off.
"H.K. what..."
Faster then I though possible H.K. whipped out a sword and rushed towards the far wall. But instead of slamming into the wall he stopped mere inches in front the wall. I didn't understand why he would do that until the air between the wall and H.K. shimmered for a second before revealing Princess Celestia. H.K., without seeing her, had stopped with the sword pressed up against her neck.
"Do you think I can't tell when you are hiding Oathbreaker!" H.K. hissed at her.