//------------------------------// // A Cold Welcome // Story: Scaly Elements // by SweatyFaggot //------------------------------// ... Thus, cake was not a cake, the cake was a lie... "GAH!" The sudden outburst from Spike interrupted Twilight's reading, and you looked up at the frightened dragon. "Spike, what's wrong? I'm trying to read here." Spike is wide-eyed and seems to be looking at something behind her. Twilight turns her head to see... A dragon!? A comical scene ensues as Twilight scrambles to stand up, turn around, and get in a fighting stance. Spike jumps behind her, peeking around her hind leg. As the dragon still approaches, Twilight studies the creature. The dragon is light green in color, and lacked wings. It seemed to have a black nose with white shielding on it, which went up to turn into a small horn. From this horn, it splits into white hair, going down the back of it's neck. Between this hair is teal spikes, which matched the long goatee which hung from it's chin. It has green and black markings all over it's body. it has teal spikes going all down it's upper body, along the tail where it meets a strangely silky looking bunch of black hair at the end of the tail. On the underbelly of the dragon was white fur, and went to the end of the tail much like the teal spikes did. The end of the dragon's legs ends with black, what looks like a strange & natural torn pair of black socks on each limb. At the end of these limbs are very white claws. Not to mention, there were black whiskers on the sides of the dragon's face. The dragon got close enough to where Twilight could see the creature clearly. The eyes are surrounded by black marks much like the limbs. The eyes of this dragon look... Very strange. The what would be whites of the eyes are black instead, as is the pupil. The iris of the dragon is light brown, a sort of clay color. The dragon's expression is hard to place. It doesn't look happy, but it's unpleasant aura is overshadowed by a stronger emotion; confusion. "You... Want to fight me?," The dragon bellows, seeming to tense up in case he would be attacked. Twilight's horn glows, a crimson aura surrounding the dragon's claws. The dragon looks down, confused as to what was going on. A short while later, the dragon's feet are completely covered in ice. Twilight pants a bit, before sighing in relief. "Um... Alright? I was just wondering about that baby there," the dragon stated as he broke the ice on the left foreclaw. After a long silence, Twilight manages to speak. "Y-... You mean Spike?" "If that is the name of the child, yes. I was wondering why it would be left in the attendance of a pony. Normally, dragon parents are very protective of their young." "Well, Spike is my assistant," Twilight says, matter-of-factly, "he is in my care. What do you think you're doing, approaching ponies anyway? Dragons aren't welcome here." The dragon, now free from the ice, moves too quick for Twilight. As soon as he is free, he zooms behind her and picks up the baby in both of his claws, holding it to himself like Spike was a baby (which he was). Twilight is too shocked by the dragon's quickness to move, and Spike is trembling in the dragon's arms. "There, there, child; there is no need to fret," cooed the dragon as he rubbed Spike's belly. "H-hey, stop!," Spike almost screamed, panicking. Calming down a bit, Twilight decides to take the diplomatic approach. Time to act friendly. "Tell me, dragon, who are you and why are you here? I'm curious," She said, forcing a smile. "My name is Dunite. I recently moved into the Everfree, and I figured i'd come into town to check out the scene. That's when I saw this baby here without it's mother," The dragon said, shushing the baby dragon that was squirming in his arms, trying desperately to escape. ___________________________________________________________________ After a short (er, well, long) explanation from Dunite, Twilight led the odd dragon back to her library, as it was getting late and Dunite had explained that his home had caved in, and she figured she would be generous enough to accommodate him. Apparently, Dunite was from a far-away land where dragon & pony relations where more acceptable in recent years. Twilight sighs on the way to the library; it had been a long day, after all. Dunite followed behind her, awkwardly walking on his hindclaws in order to continue holding Spike, who long since tired of trying to escape and passed out from exhaustion. Twilight herself was exhausted; trying to figure out Dunite had really worn her down. Not that what he was saying wasn't interesting, it's just... Well, it's like trying to solve a milk puzzle, or a puzzle with no picture. It takes longer because you want to piece it together, and for a nerd like Twilight, it's fun. However, it takes lots of work after a while, you start to wonder whether you should be doing something more productive or fun. Twilight walked into the library, headed up the stairs, and crawled into bed, almost immediately falling asleep. Dunite follows afterwards. He looks around, and notices a small dog bed with a blanket. He frowns somewhat, figuring that this is Spike's bed. Well... It could be worse. He gently sets Spike onto the bed, covers him up, and curls up around the bed in order to keep Spike warm. A short while later, he falls asleep as well.