//------------------------------// // Magic is Friendship // Story: Nothing Ever Truly Fades... // by Archmage Ansrit //------------------------------// "Bravo!" A grey mare clapped her hooves as the performer bowed to her audience. "Thank you, aunt Sue." The other mare, a grey ('goldish gray' her dad insisted) earth pony with a treble clef cutie mark, smiled warmly at her relatives. Her cello supporting her weight, standing on her hind legs, a loving audience, the deep notes coursing through her body... it was a fantastic feeling. "It was so kind of you to drop by, Octavia." A brown earth pony stallion said. "You must be very busy." "Nonsense, uncle Clyde!" The mare waved a hoof, still holding her bow, dismissively. "One can never be too busy for family. I was making my way back home, so it isn't any trouble." "Well, what about your friend?" Aunt Sue looked past the window to where a white unicorn mare was petting the... huge wolf-like creature Inkie and Blinkie found around the farm, attracted (or so it seemed) by the deep music of Octavia's cello. Octavia said it was as large as a stallion named "Big Macintosh - and he honors the name" from Ponyville. "She insisted, actually, once I told her you lived here." Octavia replied, seeing her flatmate play around with the brown-furred wolf. "And I don't think she minds too much, in any case." Outside, Vinyl waved a small stick around with her magic, but didn't actually throw it. For some odd reason, the hound was transfixed by the glowing stick, even its tail stopped wagging. "You like magic, eh?" She said, amused at seeing such a large creature utterly mesmerized by something so simple. "Arf!" The dog barked its response and licked the unicorn, making her drop the stick; the hound quickly picked it up in its jaws. "So... not only you have skin tough as a rock, you show up with what looks like a turtle made of rocks, but you also have tastes?" She asked, and the wolf barked in response, throwing the stick. Vinyl picked it up. "Well, remind me that I have to show you this one unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, she's got some impressive magic!" To her surprise, the hound shook its head and bumped its nose against her head, above her shades. "You... like me?" She asked, and got another bark, then the hound turned and barked towards the house. "And you like Octy as well?" She got another bark. "OK, first, that other unicorn here falls ill out of the blue, you show up and your friend starts following Tavi's cousins, and now you want to follow us." She got nuzzled by the wolf. "This is shaping up to be an interesting day." "I'm going to call you... Treble!" She said, feeling the wolf's tough skin against hers. "Strange, once I said that, I got the idea that you'd look wicked awesome in purple!" ***** Zecora poured some soup on a bowl, then presented it to her guests. One of the guests, a walking mushroom, shook its head, accidentally sprinkling some spores on the floor of the hut. The second guest, a large, black bat with its head vaguely in the shape of a "Y", declined as well. The bat had a bandage wrapped around its head from where the zebra had given it a good whack. That was what it got for going right at her like that; Zecora had been living in the forest for a long time now, and expertly hit it right in the middle of its eyes with her staff. The zebra looked at the bat... wondering why a creature of magic had appeared like so, and where had it come from. It was odd, and the way it submitted like it never had attacked in the first place... she couldn't help but feel like it was linked to the new presence permeating the forest. It was just there, doing nothing but feed these creatures. Wait, now it IS doing something - it's being pulled! It was being desperately pulled by two other... uh oh, that felt like whoever it is is trying something in a 'do-or-die' mentality. And then there was an echoing pair of roars. ***** The rush of blood in her ears somehow didn't drown out the sound of her friends' hooves pounding the ground besides her. Twilight knew - somehow- that what they had just seen was important, that she just had to investigate it without delay! The group of ponies plus one black-purple aura creature bonded to Fluttershy approached the cliff that had fallen during the Nightmare Moon incident. At the bottom, through the trees and bushes, she could make out two small lights, one golden, the other purple. They were too small and dim. Swallowing a lump, she noted that, while they were pony-shaped, they were of a defined color instead of the rainbow-flecked white of the ponies she had seen until now. She nevertheless pushed her sprint a little further, ignoring the small scratches from the greenery around her to the best of her ability, before jumping through the last one and into the clearing. Then another light burst from the bushes in the opposite direction. Before them stood a dragon, standing taller than Celestia, with gleaming red scales and all thick muscles and sinew and snake-sleek curves. How did she miss that she didn't know, even if she had discovered the ability to partially see creatures through some objects less than an hour ago and had yet to get used to the idea. What she didn't miss was the dragon standing on edge and giving a quick glance to the ponies- Rarity screamed, and Fluttershy gasped in surprise. The smell of blood wafted over them and Twilight finally realized that the sinking feeling in her gut was justified. A colt and a stallion lying in pools of blood. Then, the dragon was over the pair. "Hey! Stay away from them!" Rainbow Dash yelled, shooting forwards to tackle the creature. Unfortunately for her, it proved as effective as the last time she had attacked a dragon. The ancient creature met Dash's hooves with claws -oddly enough, sporting five digits- and a small flare of red coursed through the dragon's frame as the collision happened; the arms took the impact like it was nothing, then pushed the pegasus back with enough force to toss her clear over the treeline. Applejack was the next to react, unfortunately in the same way Dash had. This time the dragon was more prepared, and sucked in a large breath; Applejack darted to the side in anticipation... but the dragon was older and more experienced, and was ready for that, blowing the fireball in such a way that it hit the ground in front of Applejack in an explosion of dirt and smoke. Leonard opened his eyes, seeing little more than a blur of colors around the unmistakable presence of his mother... the blurs were dodging fireballs. He was not going to let anyone hurt her. His foreleg twitched once, then twice, then rose to scratch the dirt in a well-practiced combination, while trying to gather what power he could from the environment. His horn was surrounded by a black aura and focused on the largest of the foreign presences. Twilight felt the magic shift, and dropped to the ground a second before an orb of shadows streaked past her - it wouldn't have hit her anyways, but there was no mistaking it was aimed at her. She hopped back on all fours, before jumping to the side as another ball shot at her - this one falling short of the right distance. Then Applejack and Rainbow Dash found their attack interrupted when four rock pillars shot up between them and the dragon. Twilight and Rarity saw that they were constructs of brown energy, rather than completely-solid rock. The injured ponies struggled to stand, and the colors around the purple-clad one began to swirl. "Stay... away... from my mother!" He shouted, what energy he had left moved violently before abruptly stopping with his collapse. "You're going to have to get past us first." The yellow stallion's tone was severe, despite -or perhaps, because- of his condition. "What!?" The ponies were shocked, and looked at the panting dragon in disbelief. She, for her part, fell on all fours and tried to catch her breath seeing the ponies back down. With a trembling hand, she ripped open the remains of Leonard's robe... The wing below hung limply, a hole could be seen, bleeding, and some very obviously broken bones. The colorful equines gasped in surprise yet again, whispering among themselves - though she could still understand things like 'he has wings too' and 'how is it possible?'. She snorted in anger, but retained enough sense to know that the ones that attacked her didn't have anything to do with it - it was hard to make claw marks with hooves or use flat teeth as fangs, after all. She didn't have to like the idea she just had, but options were rather limited. "They need help." She slid her arms gently around her son, and carefully stood with him on her grasp. "Hurry!" They looked at her warily, but the orange one supported Russell while the white one tore his robe and levitated some sticks for a makeshift splint for his leg. The Sage-turned-pony grunted as it was applied, but it was either that, or having it hang and be a torment while moving. The rest of the formerly-white garment became bandages to keep pressure on his chest wound. Even if she was exhausted, she couldn't help but notice... Leonard was light... so very, very light. In spite of her tiredness, she felt she could keep carrying him forever... was it because of his new body? Her strength? She could hardly recall a time Leonard had felt that delicate that didn't involve him being small enough to fit in her hand. It took her a second to notice that the purple unicorn and the yellow pegasus were apologizing, but she just grunted and told them to start moving. The wraith floating next to the pink-haired mare was a surprise, if only because it hadn't attacked at all, which meant that either she never saw them as enemies, or she was so scared she commanded it to stay near her for protection. She would take what she could. Apparently, a friend of theirs lives somewhere near, and should be able to provide help. "Save the talk for later." She grunted once more, partially because the muscles in her legs felt as if on fire. "I didn't survive all this just to lose my son." Rainbow Dash cringed, guilt evident on her face. She could only swallow it down for now and keep going. Some of the forest's inhabitants made noise in the distance. The aged dragon in the group took no chances; she roared with the barely-contained rage of an angry mother with an injured child, and everything fell quiet around them. Fluttershy barely reacted, much to her own surprise; there had been many parallels between that roar and that of a mother bear protecting her cub... heck, it even made her feel an odd sense of security. A dragon and a mother at the same time; nothing was foolish enough to pick a fight like that. Except maybe Rainbow and Applejack.