//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Family Matters // Story: Scales the Draconic Oddball // by Kowlickkid //------------------------------// Family Matters Perhaps I overdid it back there. In fact, I'm fairly certain I did. I put a life in danger, though I knew it was going to be saved, and made even more enemies. But it was justified, right? I was sure the ponies would understand. Unless my side of the story wasn't told. And I was made to look like a monster that attacked the Wonderbolts. And the news was spread all over Equestria. And there were wanted posters with me on them. ... Well, that didn't bode too well. Perhaps it would've done me well to think about what I had done. Unfortunately, my brain couldn't work past the pink unicorn currently freaking out in a way that was rather painful... to MY body. "Ohmygosh, why would you do that?!", she screamed as she scampered from one end of my body to the next. I had to commend her for being able to do that while we were in the air. "The whole nation of Equestria is going to be SO mad at us... at you... I mean... THIS IS SO BAD!!!", she continued, stretching my face in ways I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to stretch. She then resorted to curling up on my back and thinking about ways that that could've gone wrong. 'I think she's taking this rather well' ------------------------------ I landed on the other side of a mountain, and removed Lena from my back. "Why are we stopping?", she asked, suddenly calm. "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I have no idea where we are and I gotta go to the bathroom. Do I need more excuses?" She rolled her eyes. "I suppose not.", she huffed. "But make it quick." Yeah. Quick... ----------Not a short time later---------- Lena managed to whip up what I can only call the food of all evil. I can only call it that because calling it by it's true name might summon its wrath. Writing it down is a grave mistake. What's that? You wanna know what it is? Are you sure? You're serious? I don't dare... WAIT, PUT DOWN THE CHAINSAW!!! Okay, I'll do it. But don't say I didn't warn you. Are you ready? No, noone is ever ready. Brussel sprouts. Not so bad, you say? I beg to differ. Harshly. Lena said I'd never taste anything like them. And she was right. I've never tasted anything similar. GOING DOWN!!! Brussel sprouts are the unholy offspring of cauliflower and broccoli! The demons of all food! Innocent chicken and stromboli tremble and draw back in fear of this abomination of nature! AM I GETTING TO ANYONE!? *pant, pant* Anywho... "I'm not eating that." "Yes, you are, Scales." "I'm not eating that." "Shut up and eat." "Sorry, I'd rather live a long and happy life without tasting those things." "We are not going anywhere until your portion of brussel sprouts are gone!" I raised an eyebrow. "Fine." FWOOOOOOOM!!! A large orange fireball engulfed the horrid green vegetables, burning them to cinders and transfering their existence into oblivion. And all of foodkind rejoiced. ------------------------------------------- After getting some real food, and establishing our position, we set off for Lena's home. Through blistering winds and scorching deserts we traveled... okay, that's not what happened. I ran and ran on, dodging all trees except for the occasional cheater. The journey hadn't much exciting stuff. I conversed with Lena through telepathy and told her about what happened to me, and she told me that she was now one of the most well-known scientists in Equestria. Go figure. She wrote up a thesis for radia root and raked in the dough. Just a few hours later, it started to darken. 'I hope we get back soon.' 'I think we're nearly there. Look, there's an imprint of me on that tree, that's like a trailmarker.' And sure enough, we ended up in the clearing. "See, I told ya we were going the right way." "Alright fine, now get me down." I let her down off my back and suddenly froze. Cupping a hand over her mouth, I flopped down into the grass. Lena wasn't amused. She slapped my hand off and glared at me. I put a finger over my mouth. She rolled her eyes. "There's a lot of ponies inside there.", I whispered. Her eyes suddenly widened before she facehoofed. "Of course, tomorrow is the family reunion! And they have to do it in my house, don't they?!" She suddenly grabbed my face and put our foreheads together. "Who is there!?" "Uuuh, quite a few ponies..." "Change of question, is Pinkamena Diane Pie there!?" "What!? Pinkie Pie? Why would she be there?" She groaned, turned her head away and rubbed her forehead. "You remember I told you an annoying cousin of mine got me that trip to Canterlot?" "...Oh no." "Yup, she's my cousin. Pinkie Pie, the annoying party pony. Whoop. De. Doo." -------------------------------- Luckily, Pinkie Pie was not there. Her family was there, but not her. Dodged a bullet on that one. We decided that Lena should go in, and I should just hang myself up in a tree and sleep. I guess you can't get all the action. _____________3rd Person_______________ Lena didn't bother knocking. She just swung the door open, not violently, but not quietly either. She stood in the doorway and stared at the grand variety of ponies from her family all frozen in place, staring at her. "Oh my goodness, I am so surprised. Why on earth would my family be here a day before the family reunion?", she said without much conviction. The way her relatives reacted, you woulda thought she had given a speech. They erupted into smiles and cheers, welcoming her back, giving her hugs, patting her on the back... some of the older ones even gave her kisses. "Lena, dear, we didn't expect you back till tomorrow!", said one of her aunts. "I got home early, Aunt Pudding. So why are you all here exactly?", she responded. "Whyever not?", replied her Uncle Rice. "We decided to hold the reunion here to not only celebrate our family, but to also celebrate your success!" Lena nervously laughed. "Ha, ha, right... So why hasn't Pinkamena ruptured my spine and talked my ear off yet?" "Oh, she was called away on urgent business in Canterlot. You know, something about the Elements of Harmony.", responded some obscure relative who she couldn't identify. 'ALL RIGHT! was what she was thinking, but she merely smiled wryly. "I guess she can't be at every party." At that moment, two pegasus foals galloped up to her. "Lena! Lena! Lena! Didja miss us? Huh? Huh?" She smiled at the blue foal and the slightly older yellow filly. "Of course I did, you two. Remember to be careful around here." She nudged the two cousins along. "Uh, hey, Lena.", called a teenage filly's voice. Said filly was standing akwardly a few paces in front. "Oh, hi, Moon. How's it going." "It's all right. Excuse me, I need to make sure Water Drip and Dandelion don't burn down your house." "Oh, now we wouldn't want that, would we?", Lena giggled. Moon Pie walked off to join her younger cousins, while Lena advanced. Surprisingly, there were fewer ponies than normal. Much fewer. Lena approached her parents. "Mom, Dad, how come there's so few ponies here?" Their parents exchanged nervous looks. "Well...", began her mother, "I don't know if you've noticed this, dear, but you live in the jungle." "Buh- Wha- That's no excuse!" "Unfortunately, it's true, dear," continued her father. "Most of our relatives just don't trust the jungle." "But it's a perfectly clean and perfectly organized jungle!" "That's just it," responded her father. "Most of our relatives don't like jungles, however clean and organized they may be." Lena sighed. Well, at least she didn't have a veritable horde in her house. "Now I'm kinda disappointed. So, what's for lunch?" ______________________Scales' POV_________________________ 5 hours. 5 long hours. You'd think that she'd have the decency to answer the knocks on her mental door for a status report, but nooooooo. She just had to give me a headache. 5 and a half hours. It gets boring, counting individual grass blades. Especially when you lose count. Finally, there was a bit of something. Two children, and one medium-grown mare, came out and started romping in the grass. It was obvious that the white mare wasn't too thrilled about watching them. "Hey, Dandelion, let's climb that tree!" "Yeah!" 'No. Don't. I will maul you. Stay away from this tree. You're not listening. WHY ARE YOU NOT LISTENING!' The children had almost reached my tree when the voice of the teenager came floating over. "Don't do that, kids. You could hurt yourself." 'Listen to her. Listen to her. Listen to her' "You're not the boss of us, Moon Pie!" 'Have you noticed that children seem to be getting more disobedient every day?' Thankfully, before they could get too close, a telekinetic aura surrounded them and brought them back towards the mare, who was sitting in the middle of the clearing now. "Actually, as of this moment, I am the boss of you two. And I say no climbing trees." The foals pouted, but stayed by their caretaker, who decided to doze off. Soon, the children nodded off too, and I followed their example. ------------------------------------------------ I was awoken by a loud scream. Startled, I opened my talons and collapsed on the ground. They didn't notice me for one reason: they were currently surrounded by blink hounds. 'Is that another pack, or remnants of that one from six months ago? You'd think the word would spread: Don't attack ponies, bad stuff can happen. Must be dumber than I thought.' Why I was wasting time thinking about that, I don't know, but the screams had attracted the attention of those inside the house, who quickly rushed out. Upon seeing the situation, Lena got mad. "What the hay do you think you're doing!?!? Get away from them, you mangy mutts!!", she said, beginning to charge them. Evidently, she didn't have a plan, so when the dogs surrounded her, she sat back and whimpered. The white teenage unicorn, for her part, rolled her eyes. "Our hero.", she muttered. The blink hounds had now noticed the family now looking at them with fear and rage and decided that discretion was the better part of valour. They grabbed the four ponies they had and ran off into the woods. I could see that there were roughly thirty of them. As they disappeared into the jungle, I heard a very familiar voice screaming. "SCALES, IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR SCALY HIND END OVER HERE WITHIN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES I WILL PERSONALLY KILL YOU AND USE YOUR BODY FOR EXPERIMENTS!!!" That really made me want to rescue her. I ran into the foliage, intent on finding them. Unfortunately, they had disappeared. I ran further, roaring as I went, and for good measure, slicing up the vegetation I encountered. Needless to say, I was mad. The area that the hounds had chosen to go into was thick with ferns and pine trees, which made it take FOREVER to get a trace on them. After following some imprints in the ground of paws I had found, they suddenly disappeared. Then I realized I was going at it the wrong way. I began to sniff them out. Hey, you in the back, you think that's funny? I can smell your lameness from a whole other dimension. I followed a trail that was a mix of Lena's scent and wet dog. "I am so going to need some nostril bleach after this." ------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, I found them! They were huddled against a rock wall, surrounded by the beastly canines. Just as I burst through the foliage, one of them had leaped towards the small group. I ran towards him. Time slowed down. A metallic sound filled the air as my knuckle spikes extended. I wasn't going to make it. The hound got closer to one of the foals' neck. His jaws began to prepare themselves to bite. I wasn't nearly close enough, but I punched a fist through the air anyways. It didn't hit. Instead, the canine was tossed to the side slightly and curled up on the ground, lifeless... With two large black spikes sticking out of it's chests. Another metallic ringing sounded as more spikes grew out of my hand. I stood firmly on the ground. "You dogs have some things that don't belong to you."