//------------------------------// // XXV - Infestsation // Story: Flames // by Olakaan Peliik //------------------------------// Apparently, ponies go bananas over celebrity marriages. Especially if that marriage is between a Princess and a Captain of the Royal Guard. I could hardly go anywhere without seeing Shining Armor and Princess Cadence's face in some shop window. I also found myself annoyed with the stench that only us dragons seemed to smell, ponies seemed completely oblivious to it. I checked; Dwiin, Algae, Niirah, and several guards at the embassy smelt it too. I was on my way to a quick meeting with Luna. Just to approve the movement of troops through the ports, so we could help out our new allies. It would take maybe ten minutes to go over the agreement, approve it, and get out. I didn't want to spend any more time here than I needed to. Getting the meeting approved for today was difficult since today was also the wedding. I hurried through all of the necessary checkpoints and made it to Luna’s Office in what I thought was a new record time for me. I knocked politely and waited for a response. “Come in,” I heard her say kinda loudly. I opened the door, bowed, and waited for Luna to say something. “You look well Speaker. How can I help you today?” “I need a stamp of approval,” I got out the document detailing what we'd be doing. “A deployment of Dragon Soldiers will be traveling by air-ship to the Everfree forest to assist King Aspen with a Wyvern problem.” “‘Wyvern problem?’” Luna asked. “Three nests, three alpha Wyverns, and an unknown number of drones. We are trying to contain the infestation before it spreads.” Luna seemed to think hard about it. “If this is not contained, what is the danger to the pony population?” “Right now the threat is medium to high for ponies. However, if we do not start containing them now it won't be a question of ‘if there are casualties’ but a question of ‘how many’.” I said putting it in perspective. “I see,” she took a little stamper and pressed it to the paper. “You have your permission. Do let us know ahead of time if we need to prepare for an outbreak of large monstrous lizards.” “Will do.” I bowed and left her office. As I left her office I bumped into the bride-to-be I was about to congratulate her, but the smell came back stronger than before. “Something the matter Ambassador?” Princess Cadance asked. There was something off about her, other than the stench, and I didn’t like it, my instincts didn’t like it. Doing my best to not instinctively growl at her. “No, nothing. Congratulations.” I hurried out and away from the castle. With that bit of awkwardness out of the way, and being that was the only meeting I needed to attend today. I headed for the embassy to put the paper in my office, and then home. I was already tired of the word “wedding”. Everypony was just throwing it around and overexcited about the idea. I mean yeah, marriage, wedding, royalty, great, but can we talk about something else? I was done with my work today so I decided to go home and read and make sure Kii behaved. She was still grounded, so it was important to keep an eye on her. Not that I was worried, but that I have to follow through with what I say. A knocking on the door interrupted me right when I was getting to a good part of the chapter. Shrugging off my annoyance, I stood and went to answer the door. “Thank the Spirits you’re home! I had to get away,” Niirah said, barging past me again. “Good to see you too,” I said loud enough for her to hear me. “Oh right, hi. Anyway. Your sister and her new partner are so smitten with each other, Nikta is just too happy with it and is asking them all these different questions.” “What we can't be happy for our sister?” I asked going to the couch. “Well, of course, you can. I'm happy for her too, but with this wedding, Dwiin and Algae going on their first date today, and--” Wait, what? “Hold on! Back up. Dwiin and Algae are on a date?” “Yeah, you didn't know that?” Niirah, said, cocking her head. “I was just thinking that is was about time.” “I know right? Anyway, I just want some quiet from the love-plague that seems to be happening out there.” “Well then care to keep me company? I'm just making sure Kii behaves today.” “She do something wrong?” Niirah asked. “Sit down and I'll tell you about it.” I motioned my claw toward another seat. We sat and talked. I filled her in on what Kii did in school to get in trouble. Surprisingly, Niirah agreed that my punishment for her was fair. Soon we got onto other topics such as my brother and when he might be home. “I hope he gets back soon,” I said, trying not to tap my claws against each other. I really needed to work on my nervous habits. “He's been gone a long time. No mail or anything?” Niirah asked. “Every once in a while. But not for a long time now.” Niirah perked her head up. “Do you hear that?” “Hear what?” I asked trying to hear what she hears. “It's coming from outside...” she stood and started toward the window “...buzzing, and screaming.” She moved the blind enough for us both to see. The magical barrier was gone from the sky, and what looked like green bursts of flame were rocketing down from the sky. One of them crashed into the street in front of our house, sending ponies scattering. What I thought was a meteor began to move within the crater. To my shock, I saw that it wasn’t a rock; it was a... pony-sized bug? Whatever it was, it hissed and started chasing after the other ponies on the street. “Kii! Get down here!” I shouted. “I didn't do anything!” she yelled back. “I know that just get down here please!” I yelled louder. She came down the stairs in a hurry. “What’s the matter?” she asked, looking out the window too. “Stay with me,” I instructed. Within minutes our street was swarming with those things. I watched as several of them transformed in a flash of light to mimic ponies running in the streets. Some of the creatures noticed the three of us watching from the window. “Back up,” I instructed, carrying Kii away from the window. Niirah backed up as well. Moments later I heard glass shattering from the kitchen, they had broken through the sliding door. I let Kii hide under me, and Niirah was beside me. These black insects were disgusting looking, hideous, and smelled absolutely rancid. At least I knew what that smell was from now. One of them opened its maw and hacked up a green slime and spat it at us. It hit Niirah’s hind foot and glued it to the ground. “Ew! What is this?” she said trying to get her foot free to no avail. I needed to go on the offensive. I shot a small gout of fire at the insects and they scurried off. I clawed at the slime and eventually got it off of her. Know the expression “that went south fast”? Well, that is what happened. Those things smashed through the front window as a swarm, and the returned from the back door. They spat their slime at us before we could react, gluing Niirah and me to the floor. “Kii use your magic! Run!” I shouted before they hit me in the face and wings with the slime. I was completely immobile. I, however, watched them corner Kii. My heart was racing. And I tried my hardest to move toward her, to protect her. One of the insects spoke in a hissing voice. “I wonder how dragon would taste?” That was that last thing I needed, I couldn't hold it back anymore. My scales heated up, rapidly drying the slime and making it fragile. “Uh...that one looks pissed,” one of them pointed at me, looking slightly panic-stricken. Just as they were about to hit me with more slime, I broke free and set my scales aflame. I swiped my burning claws at the bug things; they were sent scattering away, screeching in pain and fear. I shot fire at them not caring where it landed. One of the bugs was caught in the flame; it barely had time to scream before it was turned into ashes. Once they were away from Kii, I turned my attention to the ones still piling the slime on Niirah. “Get away from her!” I roared and grabbed one of them and threw it at another. Both of them slammed into the wall with a splat and didn’t move again. The ones that escaped my wrath started pelting me with slime, trying to subdue me. But to be honest it was just pissing me off more. Everything went red; I don’t really remember what happened next, but I do remember a lot of screeching and screaming, and the smell of fire and blood. The next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of the room. There were creatures laying all around me, none of them moving, and there was blood on my claws. Kii was still huddled up in the corner, her claws over her head. Niirah was trying to get out of the slime. I reached over and clawed it off her. “We’re fine,” I growled. “Those things will—” “KREIN!” I heard Niirah shouting. I looked at her and realized there were flames around us. The entire house was on fire. Oh, yeah...I may have gotten carried away. I grabbed Kii and Niirah and we hurried out of the house into the backyard. There were still more of those bug things flying around outside, sending blasts of green energy everywhere. “Now what?” Niirah said, trying to wiggle out of my grasp. Kii had buried her face in my side. Just as I was trying to think up a plan, a wave of purple magic suddenly washed over us. It left us unharmed, but the bug things were sent flying. The little black specks flew off into the distance and disappeared. Instantly, all the chaos and screaming became quiet again. I still had another problem though. I just burnt down a large part of our house.