//------------------------------// // Act I: Chapter 6: Coal Scorcher // Story: Unlikely Heroes // by Raptor //------------------------------// Day VIII Hearth's Blaze Company, Canterlot, Equestria Midnight Coal. The number one non-magical source of heat and fuel across the world. Ever since Earth ponies learned to mine, coal has warmed the homes and cooked the food of ponies everywhere. It was also the second major good traded between the tribes back when they were divided-- the first being food. It's cheap, abundant, and a little goes a long way. Especially in Mr. Scorcher's case. He could get a crackling fire going with no more than flint, tinder, some twigs and a pebble of coal. This is what he did for a living. Some may find it hard to believe, but his job is starting fires. While he may be a large, quiet, gruff, hardworking stallion, he has been known to be very outgoing and cheerful once you get to know him. He owned a business in Canterlot, the Hearth's Blaze Company, after settling down from a nomadic travel-based business, in which he provided... well... fire. One section of his small stone complex was dedicated to providing a warm place for the homeless to stay. There was a large roaring fire in the center of the room, surrounded by wool-covered benches. This section was mostly popular during autumn and winter. Another section was the storage room for coal, tinder, lumber, flint, and other fire-related materials. It even had a large window that opened up at street level for Scorcher to sell the supplies to anyone who needed them. He'd even give complimentary advice to any young lad learning how to survive in the wilderness. His large coal shipment contracts made up the majority of his business. The third section was the furnace room, home to the second biggest furnace in Canterlot, the first being the Royal Forge in Canterlot Keep. He would smelt metals brought to him by customers, mainly from mining quartermasters or independent miners-- which also happened to be where he got most of his coal. Needless to say, Coal Scorcher had a wide grasp on the business of a rather obscure field. One could claim that he was a middle man when it came to the coal business, but honestly, the mining companies just wanted it off of their hooves, and Coal needed something more to sell at a convenient location for customers. Unfortunately, some ponies didn't understand that. Fortunately, Coal didn't give a flying feather. "They went out of stock a week ago," he would say to a close-minded 'customer'. "I can't give any more. Try coming back tomorrow. I might have some to give then, but honestly, I don't think I will." Coal's life was pretty good. He wasn't a rich stallion by any means, and he lived at the place he worked, but he wasn't struggling. He had four wonderful ponies working under him, who each did their job well. His life was pretty good. And yet, he could never seem to sleep at night. So there he was, wide awake in the furnace room, smelting some iron he was delivered to pass the time. His expression was cold and stern. Under normal circumstances, he would have a rather positive attitude. These were no normal circumstances. The dragon incident aroused... thoughts. Rather distracting thoughts. Thoughts that brought insomnia with them. Thoughts that changed his very personality... Thoughts that were interrupted by a tapping noise on the window shutter. the brown earth pony looked up from the furnace he was tending and raised an eyebrow at said shutter. Who would want their metal smelted in the middle of the night...? he thought. Then he looked down at what he was doing right then and there, and rolled his eyes. He set down the metal poker he was holding and trotted over to the vending window and raised the shutter slightly. Outside was a gray stallion, an earth pony, with a black mane and a brown saddlebag. He looked at Coal. "Coal Scorcher," he said. "Yes...?" Scorcher replied. "I have something to discuss with you," the pony explained. "May I come in...?" Coal grunted. He couldn't sleep anyway. What the hay. "I suppose," he replied. "Entrance is around front." He motioned his head to the left, and the gray stallion nodded. Coal closed the shutter and stretched out his legs before walking towards a door. Wonder what this is about... he thought. He opened the door and entered the small, carpeted, stone lobby of his "office" complex. He shut the door behind him and walked past a wooden desk, normally sat at by Shifty Waft, the young blank-flank intern. When he opened the door, the gray stallion was already there. Scorcher stepped aside and motioned for him to come in, still wearing a blank and tired expression. The stallion nodded in thanks, but was also wearing a similar expression. Coal closed the door behind him and walked around the desk. "How can I help you?" he asked. "Allow me to introduce myself first," the stallion said. "My name is Silver Mine." "A pleasure, Mr. Mine." "Likewise. I have a proposition for you..." "You work for Golden Quill, don't you?" Coal asked, wiping his hooves with a dirty rag. Silver blinked. "Uh... yes," he said, confused. "How did you know...?" "Pickaxe," Coal said simply. "I'm sorry?" "Your cutie mark," Coal nodded to Silver's flank. "It's a pickaxe. Not to mention your name is Silver Mine. I figured you were a miner." "That's not true," Silver objected, earning a raised eyebrow from Scorcher. "I'm well over eighteen." He smirked. Coal rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Anyway, I figured the only reason a miner would be up here in Canterlot is for the big excavation project, run by none other than Mr. Quill." He turned to fully face Silver. "Am I wrong...?" Silver chuckled and shook his head. "Nope," he said. "Spot on. But how do you know Mr. Quill?" Coal motioned to the door on his right, which read "FURNACE ROOM". "He comes by along with the quartermaster sometimes, when she brings me metal to smelt. He's a very nice stallion, isn't he?" Silver smiled and bobbed his head. "Yes, he's very nice." Coal dropped the rag on the desk and started walking back towards the furnace room door. "Anyway, what was this proposition you mentioned...?" "You're insane," Coal replied finally. "Am I...?" "Yes, you are." "That must make you insane, too," Silver pointed out. "Because you applied for this mission." Coal sighed. The miner had a point. He looked back at the letter on the metal table behind him. Not only did it have his signature, but it was smudged with coal dust and stains, a common consistency among documents he signed. There was almost no doubt in his mind that he had written that letter. He turned back to the furnace he was tending to. "There's no way you can reason with dragons," he said. "They're mindless, evil, corrupt animals that seek nothing but wealth and power. If anything gets in the way of that, they'll kill it." "Then why did you apply?" "How am I supposed to know?! Maybe I wasn't thinking right. Maybe I was led to believe something else." Coal paused and turned to Silver slightly. "Maybe you're lying to me." "I can assure you I'm not," Silver replied, remaining calm and collected. "You wrote this letter, and you know it." Scorcher sighed once more. "Just because I signed up for something then doesn't mean I'll agree to follow through now if the reason for signing up is unknown to me." "Sounds like you don't trust yourself." "I don't trust somepony..." "Seems to me like you need a good motive, hm...?" "Among other things," Coal said, "but yes, motive is probably the biggest factor here." He stopped for a moment to look behind him at Silver. "And so far, I haven't gotten a good one." Silver said nothing as Scorcher turned back to the furnace. He was quiet for a bit. Finally, he sighed. "Look... I know about how you feel about dragons, Coal." No response. "I know what kind of experience you've had with them." Scorcher paused. There was silence. "...What do you mean...?" "...I know what happened to your family." Coal spun around and looked at Silver with a look of confusion and concern. "How did you know about that?" He asked lowly. "You included it in your letter." Coal looked at the letter on the table and snatched it before quickly reading it over. "Why would I tell a stranger about something like that!?" "Because you wanted to be picked, Coal." Scorcher looked up at him. "You want revenge." "How do you know-" "-This is the same dragon?" Silver finished. "I don't. But you thought it was. Deep down, you could feel that it was. And that was reason enough for you to sign up. You desperately wanted to be picked, so you gave me a good motive for yourself. And guess what, Coal...?" He leaned forward. "It worked." Scorcher looked down at the parchment in his hooves. "Is that a good enough motive for you...?" Coal looked up at the miner, then back down at the parchment. Then he looked over at the crackling fire in the furnace. He stared deep into the inferno... he saw his home in the wood, burned to the ground. He saw the image of his family flicker in the flames. He heard their screams. And he heard the unmistakable dragon's roar. He narrowed his eyes. He looked back at Silver and nodded. "I'm in." "Good." Silver turned and started walking toward the door. "Gather your things. We're leaving now." "What should I bring?" "A bedroll, saddlebags, plus whatever else you need. I've taken care of food and water. Don't pack more than you can carry. I'll be waiting outside." Coal nodded and turned towards the stairs. "And, Coal...?" He turned back to Silver, who had the lobby door open, and was looking back at him. "The rest of the team thinks this is a diplomatic mission. What I've told you about getting revenge will be our secret. Clear?" Coal nodded again. "Clear." Silver nodded back and walked out, closing the door behind him. Coal turned back to the furnace and finished tending to the fire. Once he did, he reached up to his messy mane and pulled out a small splinter of slightly-burnt wood. He looked at it for a moment. He sighed, and his gaze drifted into the flames as his mind wandered back to his memories... Many years ago Haysead Forest, Equestria First stage of Rising Moon The young Coal Scorcher was hauling a wagon full of lumber through the forest. And he wasn't enjoying it. He grumbled to himself about how unfair it was that his siblings made him do lumber work. Again. He wanted to do the bonfire tonight... but instead he was out here hauling this stupid wagon through this practically uncharted forest. His thoughts were interrupted by the unmistakable smell of wood burning. His pouting only grew. Great, they started it without me, he thought. Looks like they didn't need that extra lumber after all... He shifted the axe on his back and continued a little faster, not wanting to miss any more than he already had. As he grew closer to the edge of the forest it grew less dense. The skies were eerily null of their night blue hue, and were covered by a thick layer of smokey- gray clouds. Even so, Coal could see a tall pillar of smoke coming from the direction of his house. Coal's eyes widened. He figured it must've been a big bonfire. He continued through the forest until he saw the orange haze of fire from the same direction. Coal was awestruck. They must've really sparked a big one. He broke into an excited trot, eager to get home- until he heard a blood-curdling noise that made him stop dead in his tracks. There was a scream. Not a surprised scream, not even a scream of terror-- it was a scream of sheer, immense, unrelenting pain and agony. And it was his mother's. Coal's heart dropped and he remained frozen for a moment. Suddenly he shook his head and broke out into a full gallop. Or he would've, if the wagon weren't weighing him down. He cursed and tore the harness off of his back before resuming his sprint. When he exited the forest, he gasped. Off in the near distance, where he would normally see the blurred shape of his lone family cottage, he saw a bright orange light, spouting smoke above it. Coal ran as fast as he could to the cottage, as fast as his legs could carry him, and faster than his lungs recommended. When he could finally see the cottage clearly, he came to a halt. The cottage-- his home-- was on fire. Flames and smoke bellowed out of the windows, the roof was collapsing plank by plank, and the family inside-- Coal's family... his parents... the only two who really loved him... the family inside refused to go quietly. Coal wanted to shout out to them, but he didn't know what to say. He couldn't speak. He couldn't scream. He couldn't even cry. He was frozen. That's when he heard a second sound. A sound that struck fear into all kinds of creatures everywhere... A dragon's roar. Coal's head snapped up just in time to see the winged shape of a dragon fly overhead. Its red scales were illuminated by the orange glow as it soared over the flames, through the smoke, and land behind the cottage. Coal remained frozen. Slowly, the dragon rose, now facing Coal and looking straight at him, his blazing glare piercing through the flames. They remained staring at each other for a moment, one with a look of hatred, the other sheer trauma. The red dragon's face was rough and spiny, and he had a triplet of parallel scars across the right side of his snout. The roof of the cottage was fully collapsed now, and the screams had died down to horrible wails. Ash and stray flames scorched the ground around the burning structure, giving the area the feeling of a wasteland. The sky was still gray, the clouds more smokey, now lit up by the fire, showing the movements of smoke and air alike in fine detail. And Coal Scorcher thought to himself... This... this is Tartarus... Coal was about to collapse to the ground and cry until agonizing death would be brought upon him as well, but the dragon spoke up, in a loud, booming voice: "Hio krii zu fron, zu krii hin fron." It spoke in dragon tongue, which was completely unknown to ponykind, much less Coal. But before the colt could react, the dragon took off into the skies, roaring. Coal remained there, looking at the still-collapsing home in front of him, motionless. Then, finally, a lone tear trickled down his face, and fell. The wails and screams had ceased. There was nothing left. No one left... Something large and wet hit coal on the back of the neck hard, and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Many years ago Near Haysead Forest, Equestria Third stage of Rising Sun Coal awoke to the smell of burnt lumber. He looked up and remembered everything immediately. He wasn't sure what had knocked him out, but he didn't care. It was a beautiful day out. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were singing, the sky was blue, and the clouds were white. It was the calm after the storm. But it didn't change the fact that the dead were still dead. Slowly, he crawled to the black and white ghost of a structure that used to be called his home. When he came to the edge of the giant ash pile, he spotted a splinter of wood sticking out of it. It was a light brown, the original color of the wooden house, slightly burned around the edges. He plucked it out of the pile and held it close to him. Then he curled up into a ball, sobbing. That went rather quickly. "Well, it wasn't that hard to convince him, considering." "Convince?" You lied to him. "Not necessarily." You really like to get technical, don't you? "I guess I do. But nevertheless, I didn't lie at all." You told him he would have revenge. This is a diplomatic mission. "...Well..." Either way, you're lying to somepony. "Either way, the goal is the same." It doesn't matter. How do you think they'll react when they find out that they each believed in different agendas? "If they find out." When. "They won't care that much, honestly." Really...? Scorcher sure seemed to care. He seemed to have a very strong feeling towards dragons. "Scorcher will have his revenge." So you are going to kill a dragon. "I didn't say anything about killing." Silver... What. Are. You. Planning!? "You want to know what my plan is...?" YES! "...Well, you and me both."