//------------------------------// // Chapter Fünf // Story: Rough Edges // by NahB //------------------------------// “Zwei?” I started upon hearing my new name. Blinking, I looked over at Robin, who was rubbing sleep out of her eyes. I grunted noncommittally. “Have you been up all night?” I wasn’t really sure. I think I’d gone into one of my ‘dazes’, where I just think myself into a state somewhere between sleep and consciousness, both too far off to call it either. It usually happens when something is particularly bothering me. “No,” I responded. I really felt a little more rested. Maybe not as much as if I had actually been in dream-land, but still. Robin looked like she doubted me, but let it go. “About last night…” I shook my head. There was nothing to say. “Chaos taunted me. I let it get to me. The end.” She frowned, like she had more to say, but too bad. “I don’t want to talk about it, Robin.” I set myself to gathering our scattered things up, noting that Geoff had his eyes open. He’d heard the exchange. “C’mon, Geoff, we gotta get going.” The zebra rolled over and got to his hooves, looking around. I was glad nothing had attacked us in the night – I wasn’t sure I could protect us at this point. I needed something to take my mind off of brooding. “I’m going to try to fly,” I announced loudly. It seemed like a good idea. “That’s a terrible idea,” Robin responded to my announcement. “Why?” “You haven’t eaten in days, except for a little knife. You need some food in you before you do something like that.” “Yeah, and if I fly around, I can find some food.” She stared at me a moment, and begrudgingly nodded. “Fine.” Both equines sauntered off to watch me in the middle of the clearing. What do I do? Do I just flap my wings? I extended them, relishing the feeling, finding them extremely stiff after several days of neglect. I moved them slowly, flexing the muscles and finding out what they felt like. I started fanning myself as the wings moved faster and faster, wind buffeting the clearing. Feeling giddy, I pumped my wings as hard as I could. Over and over, huge gusts of air hit the ground. Feeling it in my bones, I jumped into the air as I pumped. Slowly, I began to ascend. Jeebus, this felt amazing! A grin popping onto my before-somber face, I felt on instinct what I had to do. I tipped myself slightly backwards, and I shot off into the air. I was flying. Truly, truly flying. Not being assisted by an airplane, not being lifted by another creature – flying all on my own. I felt the wind passing across my scales, and it felt wonderful. I soared around, wondering at the feeling. I could see Hoofington in the far distance, along the horizon. I saw little specks walk out of their houses in Crescentville and stop in the middle of the street. I assumed the ponies were staring at me. With a grin, I finally descended, that giddy feeling not leaving me. I found the clearing where I had left my companions and descended. I slowed down my wings, letting myself down to the ground slowly. With finality, I dropped the last couple feet to the ground and folded my wings to my sides. Geoff and Robin looked at me expectantly. I looked at them and gave a big, toothy grin. “That was amazing!” “See anything?” Robin asked. Oops. My original purpose. “Well,” I started. “No… but, I have an idea. Why don’t you two start along the path while I fly above, looking for stuff? I can see trouble long before it arrives, and I could possibly see any interesting things, or maybe even Sam or Chrissie.” “It’s a good idea,” Geoff said, looking at Robin. It looked like she wanted to disagree, but nodded. “Alright.” They gathered up their packs, and the three of us walked back to the dirt road that marked our passage north. After a short while, I stepped back and launched myself into the air. As soon as I was above my companions’ heads and soaring through the air, that giddy feeling came back. It’s probably because I’m nervous about heights. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? I don’t like heights, but I’ve always wanted to fly. It’s illogical, but it’s the way it is. I’ve thought it through, but it still doesn’t make sense. I just leave it as it is – I’m confusing enough to myself as it is. My eyes scanned the road forward and back, looking for travelers. Occasionally, I would spot a group, but after looking closer, they appeared to be normal travelers, nothing I’d need to attend to. However, a couple hours later, my eyes spotted some movement in the forest that wasn’t normal. I squinted, focusing, and found myself staring at a wounded deer prancing around a bear. Realizing the creature was in some trouble, I put myself in a dive to the pair. As I fell, I tried to aim myself right at the bear, hoping to get there in time to stop it. Unfortunately, even as the leaves on the trees began to become distinct things, the bear’s claws found their target, sinking into the deer’s neck and tearing its throat out. Not even a moment later, I slammed into the ground with enough force to knock the bear off of its feet and make the trees nearby lose some of their leaves. It turned to me and roared, preparing to charge me. I didn’t want more violence – the deer was dead, and there was no longer any reason to fight the bear. I roared nearly three times as loud as the bear and flared out my wings, trying to look as ferocious as possible. It worked. The creature’s eyes took on a look of fear, and the bear loped into the forest. Once it was out of sight, I folded my wings and looked at the deer on the ground. The thing was dead. Blood was leaking out of the wound the bear had created, and its eyes had become completely glassy. Dammit. Didn’t make it in time to save one measly deer. How could I save my friends if they got into trouble like that? I had to find some way to get to the ground faster than just falling. Speaking of them, the pair burst into view a few moments later. “Zwei! Whats – Oh. Oh dear.” Robin looked like she wanted to be sick at the sight of the corpse. Geoff just looked angrily at me. Why was he angry? It’s not like I – oooohhhhh, they didn’t know why I’d dived. “A bear was attacking the deer. I tried to save it, but the bear killed it before I could hit the ground.” Geoff’s scowl became a frown, but took on a thoughtful look. “Well…” he began, putting a hoof to his chin. “I guess that solves that problem.” “What problem?” What? What was he talking about? “Well, the deer’s dead. Nothing we can do about it. You need food.” Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that. I looked back at the carcass. The deer really was dead, and eating it would preserve my life. Leaving the body would disrespect the creature’s life. “You’re right,” I said. I walked over to the deer and picked it up. However much I was hungry, I was not going to eat this thing whole. Disgusting. “If you’re squeamish, I suggest you look away.” Robin walked away as I proceeded to make the deer edible to my… refined… palate. Soon, the skin was buried and I held in front of me a large chunk of meat. I coughed out a fireball, and found that I had burned it. “Damn. Oh well,” I grumbled as I took a bite. It tasted like… well, venison. A little charred, but still venison. I surprised myself by going through the entire buck, leaving nothing behind. I was able to eat the bones, but found that I still didn’t like marrow. Yech. Marrow. I looked at the two equines who were chewing on some grass. They’d told me that grass tasted sort of like oatmeal, but dry, and not unpleasant. I looked back at the rack the buck had left, and thought another moment. “Hey, Geoff, can you come over here a moment?” He complied, careful to avoid the little patch of blood where the deer had fallen. I picked up the rack and held it against his foreleg. It MIGHT work. I looked at it, and snapped off a larger piece of the horn, one with a very pointy end. I held that little piece up to Geoff’s foreleg, and smiled. I looked at his face, and found that he had realized what I was doing. He nodded. I unwrapped the gauze around his neck (the wound had stopped bleeding the night before, but we felt it prudent to leave the gauze on in case some night-crawlers got curious), and cut the bit with the blood off. I then used the rest of it to tie the horn against his leg. I stepped back. “Try a jab,” I said. Geoff tensed up, and then stuck a hoof out in front of him. The point of the horn shot forward with it, and looked quite dangerous. “Now you can protect yourself,” I said, smiling. “Yep. It’s not very heavy, and we might want to make something specifically for this later, but I’m liking it. Can you put one on my other leg too?” Robin watched as I wrapped another pointy bit of horn on Geoff’s other leg, and asked if she could try it. Since she was slightly shorter, I had to put it higher up on her leg. Unfortunately, that was the last pointy end we had, so she had to settle with just one. “What should we call them, then?” Geoff mused. He looked at his leg, swishing the point around. I thought a moment. Stabbers? Pointy-antler-things? Jabbers? Oh. Ooooooh. “Hoof-hooks,” I suggested. Robin’s eyebrow rose. “I like it,” she responded, testing the point on her hard hoof. “Hoof-hooks it is, then,” Geoff said. “We’d better get going.” The two equines returned to the road and I launched back into the air, continuing my “patrol.” The rest of the day passed quite uneventfully, with my friends encountering only a few travelers going south towards Hoofington. “What news?” I asked as I prepped a fire in the clearing we had stopped in. The sun had set, and the last vesties of the great ball of light were creating great streaks of fiery red light in the sky. “Nothing of note, really. I did, however,” Geoff said, reaching over and grabbing a piece of parchment in his mouth. I reached out and grabbed it when it was offered. “I bought a map of Equestria off a pegasus.” I immediately grinned. Ooooh, I was finally going to get to see how big this place really was. I didn’t doubt it was going to be damn big, judging from the size of Hoofington. However, my anticipation didn’t prepare me for the sheer… “Damn.” Equestria was huge. After a short search, I found ‘Hoofington County’ marked in the east. The map centered around Canterlot, which was very nearly in the heart of Equestria. To the south of the country was a body of water, to the east was a great desert named ‘Zebrica’, and to the west lied a land similar to Equestria called Predatalia. However, to the far north of Equestria was a great mass of white labeled the arctic, with a small demarcation about ‘Crystal Empire’ or something. I vaguely recalled something about crystal ponies having something to do with season three of the show. But, more on the size of the place. From the look of the map, Hoofington County was one of eleven counties, and was the smallest one of them all. Canterlot county was, of course, the biggest, with a mountain range going through its western territory. Basing my knowledge on what little we had travelled, I figured it would take the better part of two or three months to go from one end of Equestria to the other on hoof. “I’m not sure we should deviate from our course,” I said, frowning. We had no idea of knowing what we would run into, nor what would happen if we changed direction. “You’re probably right. According to the map, Manehattan is to the north, and appears to be a major hub. We could get some information there,” Geoff suggested. \ It made sense. If there was any parallel at all to Earth, Manehattan was bound to be a huge population center. We could get some news, some directions, and maybe even some work. Robin was nodding. “I agree. We can’t really know where Sam or Chrissie are, so we might as well get ourselves set up for a search.” The fire ready, I set it aflame. The two equines immediately scooted closer to it, hooves held out towards the fire’s silvery glow. I sat back, wondering exactly how we were going to make it to Manehattan County, let alone Manehattan itself. The Hoof was huge, and it would likely be another day until we reached the next settlement on the map, a little place named Ridgeburg. That brought another thing to mind. As a dragon, it was likely that I would have trouble interacting with the ponies. Dragons weren’t treated with outright hostility, apparently(discounting the gang that we’d beat up), but it was obvious I made the equines uncomfortable with my presence. What could I do about it? I really didn’t want to have to sit out in the wilderness every time my companions entered a city or town. My thoughts drifted back towards my power. Was it really the Will and the Word? I mean, it was very much like it, but it didn’t seem to be the same thing. For example, the characters in the books with it could send out their minds to probe things, or speak with their minds with only thoughts. I’d tried during the past day, but found I could do none of that. But I could manipulate things. I’d messed with some of the things on the road the day before. Could I… could I possibly disguise myself when we entered city limits? Only one way to find out. In my mind, I pictured a pony. It was the one I had always pictured, a vilet pegasus with a shock of white and purple hair. I found it difficult to maintain, because my mind kept wanting to wander. Angry a little, I poured my thoughts into the image. I Looked at every little detail, adding in the things I had noticed since coming to this world. After a few moments, I found myself looking at the image, making sure it was all right. I began to gather up my will, experiencing that strange feeling build within me. With finality, I imagined myself being poured into the image, simultaneously breathing “change.” I felt the strangest sensation. For a moment, I felt as if I was being torn into a million pieces and being reconstructed from the ground up. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t the greatest feeling, either. After a short moment, I felt completely different. I explored the sensations that I felt. I had four legs, but I no longer felt the sensations provided me by my claws. I opened my eyes and found myself staring at my friends. They were staring back at me. “Did it work?” I asked, finding my voice the same as it had been as a dragon. I looked around, marveling at the feeling of being just as tall as my friends. “Did WHAT work?” Geoff asked, still staring. “I didn’t want to alarm the ponies every time we went to a population center, so I was seeing if I could disguise myself.” I raised a hoof up to my face, amazed. So weird! It felt like instead of a shoulder and elbow, the pony leg had two wrist-like joints, allowing for a huge range of motion. “Well…” Robin started, then looked away. I looked at her, alarmed. Was something wrong? “Well, what?” “Mostly, yeah, it worked. Buuuut… there’s two things that didn’t seem to change.” I blinked, worried. Was something really wrong? I opened my mouth, but was interrupted by Geoff. “Your wings and your eyes,” he blurted. “Your eyes… well, they’re still slitted. Like a dragon’s. And… your wings.” Frowning, I opened a wing, finding the muscles much the same as a dragon’s. Looking to the side, I was shocked to find that I lacked feathers like a normal pegasus. My wings had stayed as they were when I was a dragon, all leathery and such. “Well, then. Let’s fix this.” I brought up the image of the pony again, paying special attention to the eyes and wings. Focusing on them, I gathered my will. “Fix'd,” I said. I had the changing feeling again, and stared at my companions. “Well?” I inquired. Geoff shook his head, and I frowned. It appeared that I would never be able to hide my species completely. The best I could do is make myself seem less threatening. Oh, well. I changed myself into my dragon form, finding that I didn’t even need to visualize it, I settled down, ready for a nice night of sleep.