COLD

by Shadow Spector

Episode 3: One for the Road

“Now what Jewell learned?” Droll asked, staring down at the cyan-colored non-pony.
The reptilian-creature said nothing. Even though he could not speak yet, he was still at the age of understanding. The dragon pointed to the cup of water that was set on the table right beside him. 
“Yes,” Droll said, nodding his head in approval.
The baby dragon inched a lone claw closer to the cup, causing Droll’s face to lose his smile.
“No,” Droll gently said.
Jewell smirked at him, before pushing his claw forward and knocking the cup over, spilling its contents on the floor.
Instead of anger, Droll just lifted up his cloven-hoof so he could rest his forehead in it. The yak could only hear the soft giggling of the dragon that was on the table in front of him, causing the brown non-pony to be incapable of anger.
“Dragon and yak will work on it,” Droll said as a sympathetic smile approached his face.
He walked away from the table and approached the features of his kitchen, looking for something to clean up the small mess made by the mischievous dragon. After locating a rag, he used only a partial amount of it to soak up the mess, making sure to leave a perfectly sanitary section on the other side in case of future messes. It was when he passed the cupboard that the thought materialized in his head.
He turned back to the little dragon who was still staring at him, observing and imitating Droll’s every move. “Jewell hungry?” 
Droll hovered his cloven-hoof away from his mouth and began chomping his mouth down softly on the air, causing a high-pitched uproar from the cyan non-pony. Droll softly chuckled at the little creature’s answer, and he went to the opposite side of the room to begin preparing something edible by dragon standards. Although he was hungry too, he was never going to feed himself before others. 
He quickly returned with a small, homemade jar and a spoon. Inside the jar was a mix of colorful liquid in it, all mixing and unmixing at the same time as Droll brought it over. 
The cyan dragon gave Droll a confused look, but Droll nodded in approval. 
“This what dragon eats.” The yak smiled at the creature, but Jewell was still not trusting it. “Ugh, dragon do this every time. Yak eat some to prove it safe.”
Droll took out a spoonful and brought it closer to his mouth, trying his best not to gag. Instead, he turned his face to his left as he brought the spoon against his left cheek, just out of sight of the baby dragon. “Mmm, liquid gems.” 
After a couple of seconds of suspicious looks, the baby finally agreed and opened his mouth to intake the food.
Droll sighed at his accomplishment. “Yak still not know how dragons eat this.”
As if he understood, the dragon looked up in confusion, but Droll nervously smiled back at him with his eyes widened.
“Nothing. Eat up.”
After Jewell was finished with the food, he belched loudly, causing Droll to dart his eyes around the room in extreme caution.
“Shhh,” Droll hushed quietly.
The dragon mimicked the noise back to the yak in a clumsy manner, sounding more like a hissy exhale than a shush.
Droll snorted in amusement, forgetting his concern for a moment. “Jewell must stay quiet. Community no know about dragon.”
Droll used the clean side of the rag to clean up the dragon’s face of the leftover food. When he was done, he gave Jewell a bright smile. “All better.”
The dragon beamed at Droll before putting on a look of concern. Within a moment, he was pointing up to the left side of Droll’s face.
“What?” the yak asked in curiosity. “Droll have thing on face?”
The brown non-pony wiped off from his left cheek some remaining residue of the liquid gems from earlier. “Perfect.”
He lifted the baby dragon off of the table to take him to the separate part of the house, bringing him to his own room before he began to tuck him into a small bed that matched his size. The room was big enough for a fully-grown stallion, but the yak was considerate in giving all of this to such a tiny creature. Jewell’s comfort was way more important to Droll than his own.
“Droll build this room long ago,” the older non-pony stated. “When yak got here, yak no have shelter. Leader no care about yak.”
Droll continued tucking in the cyan dragon as he tried continuing his story. “Leader unfair to yak, but leader still gave enough freedom for yak to do most things. Droll still get supplies to build this. Poor other creatures no have as much skills as yak to make their home. Yaks best at building.”
He finished wrapping the dragon in the sheets completely. “Leader not here anymore. Unicorn no longer hurt no one. Only good thing that came of pegasus . . .”
The brown non-pony looked away in sadness as a memory assimilated into his mind, causing an audible sigh. “Droll miss friend. Yak sorry dragon never got to meet her. Pony was amazing.”
Droll sat back at the edge of the bed to watch and see if his little friend was comfortable. He would’ve sat there until the cyan non-pony was fully asleep had it not been for the knock at his door. 
Instantly, Droll was on edge. He could not let the dragon be seen. Frantically, but as quietly as he could manage, he traveled out of the room, making sure to close the door and turn off the lights before he left. 
He stumbled throughout his residence, trying to get to his door quickly so as to not cause anyone to be suspicious of him. Droll felt bad that he had to leave his friend on such short notice, but in the long-run, it would be beneficial since his continued secrecy would guarantee that Droll could continue to protect him.
The loud knocking sounded again, arriving in triples before Droll opened the door mid-cycle. Immediately, the last knock finished on Droll’s sharp horn, causing a slicing sound to appear. 
“Ow!” a feminine yelp cried out.
Droll gasped as he looked out at the dark figure that was dressed in a dark red hood outside his door, holding her right hoof. “Yak so sorry!” 
He reached his cloven hooves out to the pony’s hooves, gently grabbing them and pulling them closer to inspect them. Through the dark of the night and from the maroon color of the hoof, Droll found it difficult to locate exactly where the blood was coming from, but he eventually found the source and applied pressure as if he were a hospital pony.
The yak chuckled as he remembered something. “Droll had friend who was nurse.” He was trying to lighten the mood when he began feeling a slight sting in his jaw again, causing him to lose his smile. “Droll-Droll think he know what to do.”
Finally, the brown non-pony looked up at the maroon face of the pony in front of him. Even though it was in the dark of night, he was still able to make out an expression that slowly began to get more and more impatient. 
“Yak sorry,” Droll said again as he tried to hold her hoof to stop the bleeding.
“It’s okay,” the maroon pony said back in the gentlest of voices, causing Droll to blush uncomfortably.
Droll felt the blood flow decrease, causing him to let go of the pony’s hoof. “Um, keep pressure. Stop blood.”
The maroon pony chuckled. “My savior.”
Droll froze uncomfortably at the tender sound of the pony’s voice. “Um, what pony doing here?”
“Bleeding, thank you very much,” she launched back at him in a playful tone.
Droll smiled awkwardly as the mare continued.
“But before that, I was coming to report something.”
A faint magical aura sounded as a teal membrane began to wrap around the pony’s injured hoof that was still stretched out. Eventually, the bleeding came to a complete stop.
“I came to report that-,” she stopped herself as she stared at Droll before regarding him in concern. “Um, you got a little something on your cheek there.”
“What?” Droll rubbed his cheek to find more of the liquid gems still there, causing the yak to growl in anger.
“What even is that?” the pony asked.
“Nothing!” Droll immediately launched back. “It - yak just hungry.” Droll wiped his cheek again.
“It's still -, you know, never mind. Not what I came here for. That griffon that saved the community earlier today: you know him, right?”
Droll was stunned. “What Candid do now?”
“Which time? Because I just saw him sneaking into the community tavern about ten minutes ago.”
The yak reached up his cloven-hoof to his face to cover it in embarrassment for his friend. “Okay, thank you.”
“You better hurry. I have a feeling it’s important that nothing bad happens to him.”
Droll was about to leave before he stopped himself, looking back at the pony who aided him out of the blue. “Why pony say that?”
The pony smiled slightly, looking away as if trying to think of a way to talk. “Well, because the two of us have a history . . . or rather a future.”
Droll narrowed his eyes in confusion. He had never seen this pony before, and he knew as a fact that his friend hadn’t either.
“I . . . I don’t think I can tell anymore,” she continued. “He was under strict orders not to change anything.”
Droll’s confused expression was too obvious to the pony, causing her to smile uncomfortably.
“You know what? I think I’m going to stop talking now.” The maroon equine gave a respectful nod before trotting away towards the rest of the neighborhood.
Droll didn’t know what to make of that, but he instead decided not to waste his time trying to think about it. He had to make sure his stubborn friend didn’t get himself into trouble.
The yak began traveling down the sidewalk carefully, passing by houses everywhere. It was passed dark, and he had been used to the curfew set out by the original leader, calling for the absence of all non-ponies after the night. But if the risk he was making meant making sure his friend didn’t get in trouble, then there was no question that he would go through with it. Besides, he was optimistic that with the new change in leadership, the new ponies in charge would be lenient with the non-ponies now.
As Droll traveled, he finally felt the dripping of blood fall on the top of his head. He was shocked at first before reaching up to feel the sharp horn that had caused the incision to the stranger’s hoof. While feeling around the horn, his cloven-hoof slid across some form of bump, confusing the yak to explore more. He felt it over and over again, trying to figure out the purpose for the inconsistency in this blade-like horn. After a couple more rubs on the left horn, he finally applied enough force to push the bump in, hearing a CLICK as he did it. Stunned at the unexpected sound, he pulled his cloven-hoof away, but immediately as his arm left the horn, the weighted object fell from his cranium onto the ground.
Instantly, Droll felt the familiar weight of his right horn pulling his head down to the right side, but he was quick to compensate for the new change with his neck muscles. He began breathing heavier as he looked down on the ground where the sharp horn had fallen. Carefully, the yak picked up the pale object at the bottom where it wasn’t as sharp, using the base as its own handle. He turned it over in his cloven-hooves, trying to figure out what had happened until he located the miniature silver button. Fascinated, he pressed it down to where it was leveled with the rest of the horn, and as he pressed the button, he noticed the moving gears turning on the inside of the hollowed-out horn. It was nothing but metal at the opening of the base, which he assumed was the reason for its weight, but he couldn’t tell what it was for.
Curiosity overtook him as he lifted the dangerous horn closer to his head, clenching the base where it wasn’t sharp. Slowly, he tried to fit the horn back on the severed piece of the original horn. After failing the first time, he turned it around where it finally clicked back into place, and instantly everything was back to the way it was. 
“. . . Cool,” Droll said to no one in particular before continuing his walk to the community tavern.
It wasn’t much longer before he arrived at the tavern, its features appearing almost abandoned in the dark of the night. It seemed as though the presence of creatures would be as absent as the warm feeling Droll wasn’t getting from the sight, but he knew that this would be something Candid would do. With a breath and a brief look around, he went to work.
The obvious solution inside was denied to him when he tried opening the front door. Instantly the sound of rattling chains caught his gaze, and he noticed the lock that kept the door secure. Droll looked at it hopelessly before he got a solution. 
He didn’t expect the tool to come in handy so quickly, but he was already reaching up to his horn to click the button again. He was careful to grab the part that wasn’t sharp, but when he heard the clicking sound again, his head went sideways. The brown non-pony really didn’t appreciate having to remove his horn again, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be for too long. Carefully, he placed the pointed section of the horn into the lock, twisting and turning it to see if it would work. 
It didn’t. He tried again, but he still got the same result. Instead of working, it only created a grinding noise that made the yak shudder. Droll persisted though, getting more and more frustrated with having to hear the scraping noise. After several failed attempts, he pressed the horn inside the lock with great force, causing the blade to slip through his cloven-hoof and cut him.
The pain seared through Droll and he couldn’t hold his tongue.
“FLOCK!” he bellowed.
Before he could even register what he did, he took the horn out and slashed at the chains in fury, not caring for a solution anymore. Immediately afterwards though, the chains fell down to the ground, cut through the middle by the sharpened tool. 
The yak looked around at no one before smiling and putting the horn back in its place. He then gazed down at the location of the cut on his cloven-hoof, realizing that it was only surface-level. Nothing compared to the accidental cut to the pony earlier that night.
The door opened with relative ease as Droll stepped through the entrance. It only took one glance around the illuminated room for Droll to recognize it as the tavern that the two had gone to earlier that day, and it was even faster for the yak to realize what his friend would be doing here.
“Candid,” Droll began in an annoyed manner, “What griffon up to now?”
“Getting a drink,” a voice sounded back from above.
Droll jumped through the air at the realization that he wasn’t the only one in the room. After a look above his head, he saw the dark-orange griffon emerging from the shadows on the ceiling, perfectly blending in with the darkness. His movements were the only thing giving him away.
“What in Contume’s Community are you doing here?” Candid asked with no hint of cordiality in his voice.
The yak opened his mouth to explain but stopped himself cold in confusion. He looked back at the door that he massively struggled to get through before looking back at the griffon who was already inside.
“How griffon get in?” Droll asked. “Chain was on door still.”
“A key isn’t the only thing strong enough to break a window,” he said.
Droll lowered his eyebrows closer to his eyes in horrified glare before he looked around the room to find light peeking in through a broken-in window. He hit his forehead with his cloven hoof as his jaw dropped. “Yak gonna have to fix it now . . .”
“Come on. You fix things all the time. The ponies aren’t paying you to just look for places that might need fixing.”
Droll regarded Candid in unamusement, letting his eyes do the talking.
“Ugh, don’t blame me for destroying something. You just broke those chains outside.”
Droll raised his cloven-hoof as if to make an objection but froze, realizing he had nothing to defend himself from that. 
Candid gave a condescending smirk before it shifted into confusion. “Uh, Droll, you got a little something on your cheek.”
Droll widened his eyes, seething in rage before he furiously rubbed his left cheek, trying so desperately to remove the liquid gems from the side of his face.
Candid just exhaled and shook his head before he turned around to walk behind the counter. He gazed up at the drinks on the shelf before turning back to face his friend. “Did you want anything here, Droll?”
“What Droll want is griffon to leave. Candid no have to get in trouble.”
Instantly, the faint shuffling of armor mixed with the clops of hooves sounded from outside, getting louder and louder as it came closer to the closed doors 
“Yes, I heard the sound from right here,” a voice from outside said.
Candid widened his eye in annoyance. “It seems a bit too late for not getting in trouble now, doesn’t it?”
Instantly, Candid dropped down behind the counter, and Droll rushed around as well, ducking behind it with his friend to hide himself as well. 
A different voice sounded from directly outside. “The chains have been destroyed. What kind of blade could be strong enough to do this?”
“Probably the same kind of material the lock is made from,” the first voice assumed.
“Ponies check here,” Droll panicked.
“Yeah, no duh,” Candid whispered back.
Droll looked around to find a doorway that stood right beside the shelves of cider, its presence almost completely hidden in the dark.
“Right there,” Droll said in between gasps.
The yak began to quietly crawl through the opening, but Candid didn’t follow, immediately causing the brown non-pony to look back at him. Instead, Candid reached up one talon to grab a bottle of cider off the shelf to which Droll instantly slapped his arm as if scolding him. 
“Hey!” he quietly snapped.
Droll blushed uncomfortably. He had been too used to resorting to that whenever someone misbehaved. Rather than saying anything, he just turned back to continue crawling through the darkness of the room, listening to the barely audible sounds of Candid following him from behind.
“Griffon know where to go?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I can see in the dark.”
Droll kept on shuffling on the floor into the darkness, but his slowness was apparent to Candid, causing the griffon to huff impatiently and speed around Droll. The burst of wind did nothing to increase Droll’s speed, and the yak was left at his slow pace. The brown non-pony continued to try and not make a noise, but he was too big to go slowly. After a couple of seconds, the familiar sounds of wing flutters came back to him.
“There is an empty room back here where we can wait,” Candid said. “Just stay in your own personal place away from me, and we can wait out the guards.”
Droll invisibly nodded in the dark as he followed the sound of wings slicing through the air. He kept at his slow pace of walking until he heard the sounds of quiet echoes bounce back to him. Instantly, Droll knew he was in the room that Candid had mentioned, allowing for him to feel comfortable enough to lean against a wall and sit down quietly.
From the entrance of the room, Candid shut the door in order to help the two of them remain as quiet as possible. Finally, after a couple of seconds, the griffon sighed. “What were you thinking coming here, Droll?”
The yak regarded the griffon in the dark with even more unamusement than before. He turned to the direction where he heard the door close. “Yak make sure Candid no get in trouble.”
“Droll, don't be stupid,” Candid said from a different corner of the room apart from where Droll was looking. “I would be fine with or without you coming here.”
The yak turned to the new direction of the sound. “Droll know Candid. Candid no think through things.”
“You don’t know this Candid,” the griffon said from another new location.
Droll growled in annoyance at the changes in Candid’s location. “Quit that.”
“I mean it, Droll,” Candid said confidently. “Say goodbye to the old Candid.”
Droll stared into the darkness wherever his friend was. “No more insults too?”
“Don’t be an idiot. That’s not what I meant.” 
The sounds of wings soared throughout the room until it ended right beside Droll.
“All these moments of that tyrant grabbing us by the throats . . . Every single time it happened, I wanted to do something about it. Feeling as helpless as I had when the community’s leader was bullying me? It’s affected me horribly. Then when he went away, I thought maybe things would be different. That I would get a chance to be in control of my life. But then even after that unicorn was no more, back in that same throneroom, there was someone else who was there to subdue me entirely.”
Droll heard the gruesome CRUNCH in his mind again, and he shook his head rapidly to lose the memory as quickly as he could. He wasn’t alone in his trauma since he felt Candid shivering from right beside him as well.
“But nevertheless, she was -.” Candid stopped himself, unable to finish that thought. “It still isn’t the end of feeling helpless. Radiance had to put restrictions on us immediately after we felt safe again. It didn’t feel as though it would be too much by the new leaders, but I got here and was still rejected again.”
“Griffon’s request against rules,” Droll said.
“It doesn’t matter if it was,” Candid immediately launched back. “All I wanted was to be able to do something for myself again after feeling as though I didn’t have anything in control. And that stallion had the audacity to tell me no. I don’t even think I got my water.”
“Griffon got yak’s cup of water though,” Droll chuckled.
Droll could feel Candid’s glare in the dark, telling him to shutup. Immediately, the yak was silent and the only thing heard was the sound of the guards searching the tavern through the walls. Finally Candid continued.
“I just feel that there is nothing that I can do to even have a say in anything anymore.” Candid paused. “No, I felt as though there wasn’t anything to be done. Not anymore. I’m not going to feel helpless anymore. I won’t be life’s pawn.”
Droll gritted his teeth. “No . . . no say pawn, please.”
The griffon sighed. “Something big just ended in my life. A new change has happened, as if it’s entering another chapter. It’s the perfect time for me to make a difference now. I refuse to feel this way. I’m stronger than that.”
Droll blindly tried to place a cloven-hoof on Candid affectionately; he was lucky to get his shoulder. “Candid right. Griffon no should want to feel that way. But griffon still strong. Candid strongest creature Droll ever met. Griffon stronger than all yaks Droll ever knew. Candid has choice in what happens.” 
Droll paused for a moment to figure out what his next words should be. “But griffon wrong for doing this.”
“What?!” Candid snapped, backing away off Droll’s touch.
From the other side of the walls, one of the guards spoke up. “Hey! I heard something.”
Droll clenched his teeth nervously as he and Candid froze in silence, completely stationary in the darkness.
“I don’t hear anything,” another voice finally spoke up. 
Within a few seconds, more noises were heard through the walls as the sounds of searching continued, causing Droll to sigh quietly in relief.
The yak decided to treat his next words even more carefully, but he still wanted to get his point across. “Griffon right for wanting to be stronger. Candid wrong for not thinking. There ways to do this. What Candid doing will end bad. Candid better than this. Griffon no need to prove anything.” 
Candid breathed harder, trying to fight off his frustration. “How would I even know that I’m actually not as helpless as I’m being treated then?”
Droll smiled. “Candid no be afraid of where griffon is going. Candid been through way worse and come out on top. Candid more than capable of anything thrown at griffon.”
The brown non-pony decided to leave it off on that note for the words to sink in. He knew that it might take a while for Candid to fully realize what he said, so for a few minutes, nothing was spoken. The only thing that was heard were the guards from the other room who luckily hadn’t noticed the doorway that would end up leading to the hiding place of the two non-ponies.
After some time of silence, Droll decided to scooch closer to his friend. If Candid was going to conquer the fear he had, there was no way it would be better for him if he went through it alone. It was obvious to Droll that loneliness would cause a poor creature to submit to the darkness. No creature in Equestria deserved such a fate.
Right when Droll opened his mouth to speak, a familiar voice sounded through the walls, catching the two non-ponies off guard.
“What are you ponies doing?” the sweet-sounding voice asked. “The fugitives have already long escaped! Just look at that hole in the wall right there. They’ve sneaked out while you all were searching here for non-ponies. You need to pursue them before you lose track of them altogether.”
“Well, we heard a noise arise from this location, Miss,” one voice said.
“Well it was probably that window breaking, creating the escape route. I’m sure if you hurry, you can still catch them. The longer you wait, the further they'll get.”
“Guards, move out!” the other voice ordered.
Droll and Candid waited as they listened to the sounds of ponies exiting through the tavern, the hoof-steps getting quieter and quieter as the guards left. The yak was speechless, but Candid freely sounded his thoughts.
“Radiance just wants to nail me for anything I do.”
Immediately, Droll shot up to rush out of the room, using the light from the doorframe to guide his path. The yak traveled through the tavern to get to the doors to the exit where he watched the guards that were trotting away, each of which had armor on except for one small mare in the back of the squad.
Droll attempted to get closer to identify the mysterious mare, but upon first step, he rattled the chain on the ground that he had broken earlier. Instantly, Droll could see the mare’s ear twitch, causing for the pony to turn her head back to face Droll and allow for the yak to get a steady look.
Within the short distance away was a maroon pony that stood within the light of a street lamp post. From the top of her head, Droll could see the blue and red hair that flickered like fire. It would’ve been beautiful had it not been for the horn that stuck out in the center of her forehead just below her hair. 
For a moment, Droll was uncomfortable at the sight of a unicorn, but a quick beam of the mare followed by a wink made Droll swoon to the ground, sighing affectionately as he blushed. After a couple of seconds, he looked back up to see the mare return to following the guards, and his last view of her for the night was her cutiemark: a clear vial filled with some potion-like liquid.
The yak would’ve kept staring until she was completely out of sight down the street had it not been for the crash from inside the tavern. Immediately, Droll was on guard, and he turned to look inside the building again to see Candid climbing the shelves, reaching out his talon to get to a bottle.
“What griffon doing now?” Droll scolded.
“Getting a drink,” Candid said back without hesitation, grunting with his arm outstretched.
“Griffon have wings.”
Candid froze, looked up, and then looked at his back in confusion to see his folded wings, causing Droll to rest his face in his cloven-hoof. 
“I knew that,” Candid said. “I just didn’t think about it.”
“Griffon learn nothing from what yak said?”
Candid grabbed a bottle in his talons before looking at it apprehensively.
Drolled drooped his eyes. “Griffon no need prove anything.”
The orange non-pony regarded the bottle in hesitance before sighing and taking it further from the shelf. Droll opened his mouth to speak in frustration but was cut off by Candid throwing the bottle on the ground, shattering its contents all over the floor and letting the liquid cover more ground with each passing second. Droll was speechless, leaving Candid to speak instead.
“You’re right. If I’m going to be strong, it’ll be because of the bravery I do and not because of the rules I break.” Candid flew down from his elevated surface to meet Droll on the ground. “Now can we get out of here before the guards return?”
Droll smiled at his friend before leading the way back to civilization.