//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: My Little Pony: Dawn of the Half-blood Dragon // by Crimson Sol //------------------------------// Chapter Three Crimson briskly trotted out of the hotel with the cyan unicorn following. Remembering that Ponyville was a good ways away from here, he raised an eyebrow and swiveled around. "Wait a sec. Trixie?" He called, snapping said mare out of her musings. "Did you actually walk all the way here? From Ponyville?" He asked, turning around on the sidewalk. Trixie blinked, as the gears in her head were turning, before she produced an answer; "Errr...Somewhat? I left without the train from Canterlot, but then I got her stuff t-taken a bit after passing the Foal Mountains... Trixie didn't have much else, so she headed her way down here... With dignity!" The unicorn explained, gathering momentum until she ended up with a proud exclamation. It was now Crimson's turn to blink. "By the Sun and Moon! She walked all the way here, with a wagon attached to her?" It seems that the female has strong legs. That is good in a mate. Strong legs lead to foal-bearing- "Shut up, you buck-crazed lizard! Why must that be the important thing here?!" But is it a lie, Halfblood? Raising an eyebrow, he walked around the unicorn, who craned her neck to follow him. When he stopped and started staring at her hind legs intensely... Well, let's just say that it was an awkward feeling for her. She cleared her throat; he was still staring. She shifted her weight a bit, but he was still staring! "E-err..." She began with a stutter, realizing that she did, in fact, not know the name of the stallion who had saved her. "Huh?" Crimson said, looking up into the slightly flushed unicorn's face, before he remembered were he was. On a sidewalk. In Manehattan. Staring at a mare's legs. Resisting the urge to face hoof at his own lack of social ethics, he briskly continued walking towards their best bet for now; the train station. He looked back to see that Trixie still had this look on her face that frankly made him feel a little bit embarrassed, before stopping again and letting out a sigh. "Trixie, if this is about me staring at you... Think nothing of it, I guess. Just an impulse. Sorry. Now would you please stop giving me that look?" The former showmare blinked a it before nodding and taking a breath. Satisfied, the Halfblood just kept on walking at a leisurely pace; he had all the time in the world to acquire the pieces that he was looking for. "Now, Trixie has a... few questions." She started as they continued on their way down the block. "Go on, I'm listening." "Trixie never got your name." "Crimson Flare." "Aaaand... Where you're from?" "Somewhere."Crimson answered readily, feeling like this was about to be a game of twenty questions. He heard her huff in slight annoyance, and just to spook her, he turned his head on a dime, looking at the mare with a flash of magic in his blood red eyes. " What was that?" He asked sweetly, cocking his head. "N-nothing!" She sputtered, shaking her head vigorously which earned her a lighthearted chuckle from Crimson. They kept on walking in relative silence as Manehattan buzzed with life and noise around them, but after a while, it began to get a bit monotonous to Crimson, and he didn't do monotonous. "You can keep asking me questions, you know. We're going to be traveling together for at least a day, so it's best that we get familiar now. You don't have to be afraid of me either, okay?" "Er, Trixie understands. But first, Trixie wants to know why we are not going to the train station?" She muttered, shrinking back a little and eyeing him intently for his response. "Uh, train station? Why would we need the station?" Crimson Flare asked, stopping in his tracks beside an alley. "Trixie thought we were going to use the train to get to Ponyville." This, coupled with the realization that the unicorn could not fly made him facehoof. He had forgotten about that... Crimson dug around in one of his black saddlebags for his remaining bits, and he grabbed the brown sack of holding before pulling out a purple purse that quivered and clinked with the sound of several hundred bits. "Honestly, I haven't taken the train with somepony for quite a while. I just got around by... Other means. Will this be enough for tickets?" He dropped the purse in front of the astonished mare, who had quite obviously not seen this many bits at somepony's disposal for a while. She was even more surprised that he didn't know how much the tickets cost! There was a little traitorous whisper in the back of her head that told her that she would very well be able to make off with this pony's bits without his knowledge, but that voice was quickly hushed when Trixie remembered the powerful magic that the supposed Earth Pony wielded last night, and the other fact that he protected her. "Equus to unicorn. Trixie. Is this enough?" Crimson repeated, snapping the mare out of her musing. "Er, yes! Trixie thinks this is enough bits. Honestly, she thinks that this is more than enough." "Ya sure, the last time I took a train, it was a little more than this... Waaaaiiiittt... That BASTARD! He swindled me so HARD!" Crimson growled, feeling the fire in his chest flare up in anger. Trixie snickered at her saviour's apparent lack of knowledge concerning monetary value, before levitating the purse and walking back towards the train station with a swish of her tail. "Come on, follow the Great and Amused Trixie!" She boomed, leading the grumbling and silently fuming stallion onwards. When they finally arrived at the station, Crimson Flare's annoyance had calmed down to a low smolder, but Trixie's mirth was as lofty as the time they began their walk. Approaching the ticketmare, she took a look at the prices and levitated a the few bits it actually took from the purse that held at least 20 times that value, reveling in the wide-eyed look that he was giving her as she paid for both of their tickets. The ticketmare in question looked up from her work with wide eyes as she felt the heat radiating off the stallion with a twitchy left eye and grinding teeth. She whimpered as he stomped past her into the train, passing Trixie, who was now actually a bit worried about not just the safety of her and everypony else on the train, but also for the life of whoever had actually scammed the powerful pony. With a grunt, he sat and continued fuming; muttering curses under his breath at his old friend. Trixie sat down next to him, and decided that this was as good a time as any to continue her questions. "So, Trixie wants to know... Who scammed you?" She asked, leaning forward to look at him better. "An old friend of mine; his name's Moonlight Digger. He helped us with... Tunnels. Yeah, tunnels. He helped dig tunnels in between our... Home? I guess? And where we wanted to go a lot. Loved bits to bits, the foolish Earth Pony. Probably why he and those diamond dogs were as thick as thieves; they once stole from him, and he chased after them at night. That was probably the worst mistake of their lives. Picture this, Trixie; Full moon, Diamond dog lair entrance, you start hearing howls and yelps. Obviously something's wrong, right? Well, they probably thought that they had the upper hand underground, but well, it was a Full Moon. What did they expect?" "Huh. What's so special about the Full Moon and your friend?" Trixie asked, cutely tilting her head to the side. Crimson was about to continue, but when he remembered what Moonlight actually was? The entire story had to be changed. "I'm not really meant to talk about his furry tenant..." Just like you are not meant to mention myself, Half-Blood? Why do you containers loathe us so? "You'll understand when your older, my dear firebreathing lizard." I will not dignify that with a proper response. Crimson shut out the dragon's internal silence and focused on how best to say what he wanted to. "You see, Moonlight can see in the dark really well, and he also has the talent for digging underground. At night, yeah. A Full moon's really bright, yeah? Well, according to him it was like daytime to his eyes whenever he was underground. So, he used his talents to... Confuse the diamond dogs and nearly brought their whole den on top of their heads. Imagine my surprise when I see diamond dogs running like bats being chased out of Tartarus!" Trixie giggled at the way Crimson Flare was gesticulating with his hooves as they sat, but then the train lurched a bit, and his face promptly went green. "By the bucking sun... Now I remember why I hated trains..." The stallion groaned, clearly motion-sick. "Uh... There, there?" Trixie said as she sat beside him and started rubbing his back. She really had no idea that he was this susceptible to motion sickness, so Trixie kept rubbing his back for quite a while as they travelled, until the Half-Blood was fine enough for more talk. "Now... Where was I? Digger? Ah, right. He was the only pony that I and my friends actually trusted with money, so he was the one that dealt with any of the odd times we needed transportation and we couldn't get around by normal means. That means the bastard's been sucking us all dry! Well, I knew he was gonna do it, the stingy bit-biter, but he didn't actually have to do it!" Crimson finished, fuming once again at the end and glaring at some unseen for as he wished in his head to be able to burn someoony just by thinking of them hard enough. Our powers do not work that way, Crimson Flare. "Can't blame a pony for trying, though. Would've made things so easy back then, too!" Trixie flinched and scooted away a bit when Crimson started radiating a bit of heat, which quicky snuffed out when he saw her do so. The stallion sighed and patted the space next to him again, and she complied. "Sorry about that, Trixie. Now, anything else you wanna know?" Trixie put a good under her chin, clearly thinking hard, before raising a hoof and asking the million-bit question... "H-How can you use magic?" "Hard pass. Next question." He deadpanned. "Oh, sorry. Uh... No. That's all, Trixie guesses." She said, not wanting to push her luck. "Fine then, then I'm going to ask you a question; after Ponyville, what next?" Trixie's slightly good mood deflated as he reminded her of why they were on a train in the first place; so she could go back to Ponyville and... Apologize. With lowered ears and a whimper, she thought about how she was meant to even go forward from something like that. "I-I don't know. I really don't know..." She whispered, tearing up a bit. Crimson took one look at the sniffling mare, cursed his own moral compass and turned to her. "You said you had a wagon, and that it was stolen. Maybe I can help you find it before we even get to Ponyville? I mean, unless they were really hard pressed, they wouldn't have gotten that far." He ground out, knowing that he was about to get himself into quite some trouble for this. His hesitation was offset by the way the unicorn's eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked up at her savior again with a smile. "Really? You'll help Trixie look?" She asked, beaming even wider when he grunted in affirmation. With a short squeal, she briefly hugged Crimson, who locked up, before taking down the small map of Equestria that hung in the booth they were staying in. The train they were on had to pass by an unmarked patch of forest that Crimson remembered to be Hollow Shades, and while he was actually quite tempted to get off there, he held himself, and remembered where Trixie said she was robbed. He did try to pinpoint the place with the mare, and he realized that they would probably pass by the thieves because the train was going to stop in Canterlot before it got to Ponyville, and he couldn't just hop out. Well, he could, but that would raise too many questions; questions he did not want or need to answer. "Uh, Trixie?" He started, wondering how he was going to break this to the so far dramatic mare, without resorting to intimidation or pressure. "Yes, Crimson Flare?" She answered, turning her head from when she was staring at the map with concentration. "Uh, did you arrange for us to get to either Ponyville or Canterlot?" "Yes? The Great and... subdued Trixie would like to know what's wrong." Trixie asked sheepishly, catching herself before she could fall back into old habits. "You were robbed... After Canterlot. Right?" "Yes, what does that have to do with-OH. Oh no... They'll be gone before we even set hoof in Canterlot..." She realized, head drooping. With a huff of heated air, the Half-Blood Pony made a decision to save himself all this extra stress. "Let's jump outta the train." He said, waiting for the reaction- "WHAT." -before taking a quick glance outside the metal deathtrap called a 'train'. The view of the steadily passing ground didn't bode well for him, but he forced himself to look and realized that they were about to reach the bridge connecting Manehattan to the mainland. "We're going to jump out after the bridge, and then hoof it down to Canterlot-" "W-Wait! You're serious?!" Trixie blurted out, half-thinking he was still pulling her leg. After his sure nod, the unicorn had an eyebrow raised, but actually began thinking about it. It wouldn't be horribly debilitating if she times it just right, not unlike some of her amazing magic(tricks)... "Trust me, Trixie. It'll be fiiiiine." Welp. He jinxed it. The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to go splat...