//------------------------------// // Ewww... // Story: The Smokeless Flame // by BIGBLACKINTOSH //------------------------------// Mastodon’s POV My morning started great. Woke up, snapped on arm, made breakfast, went to work. Got swindled out of dozens of my supposed friends and teammates, found my best friend nailed to a wall, also found out he had been sitting on a damn treasure for almost a year and oh yeah, find my apartment (along with the town it was in) on fucking fire. “I hate my life,” I said to myself, flatly as we ran through the burning streets. “What you say dude?” asked that damned pony, Gh0st. I shook my head. “Nothing, lets keep moving,” I replied, rushing ahead. What was once a manageably filthy town was now in flames. Every corner I turned, I was met with a familiar, yet frightening sight. Market stalls where I always got my fruit? Burned to ashes. Doctors office where I got my painkillers? Currently in the process of burning down. One thing that was new, other than the fact that everything was on fire, were a few citizens I never seen in town before. There were four of them; two pegasi, a griffon, and a minotaur. The minotaur's legs were trapped under a burning beam and the pegasi were trying to put out the fire with their wings, while the griffon was trying to lift up the beam. The pegasi were both red and had green manes. One was a stallion that had a mohawk and a egg-timer cutiemark, while the other was a mare had a really short mane that was shaved on one side and had a ball of flames for a cutiemark. The griffon was had green fur and red feathers. The minotaur was black and had white dreadlocks tied in a ponytail. I also noticed that he was slightly more portly than the average minotaur as I could barely see the beam that was on his legs. The pegasi were working hard to blow out the flames on the beam. The was griffon holding onto the beam, flying up in an effort to lift it, but didn't have the strength. They needed help and I’d be damned if I was going to ignore them.  “Herpy’s going to have to wait,” I said, running towards the trapped group, leaving the griffon and pony to follow. “Wait up man! We don't know where we’re going!” shouted the pony. I heard the griffon groan shortly after. We came up behind the pegasi hard at work. They hadn't noticed us, putting all their attention on the trapped minotaur. The griffon lifted once more, groaning in effort. “Almost got it amigo!” The colorful griffon strained. The fatty minotaur put an effort into pushing off the beam but didn't have the strength either. “Ain't no use bredren. Just put out de fire and go on ahead,” he said, pained. The fire was finally out, and the pegasus mare shook her head. “No, no,no!” she urged simply. I stepped in, pushing past the pegasi forcefully. “How about I settle this argument?” I suggested suavely. I placed my mechanical hand on the beam and got a grip so tight, I made indents on the wood. In one movement, I lifted the beam and flipped it into the burning building we were next to. The fatty minotaur rubbed his legs, trying to knead out the pain in his aching muscles. The griffon offered a hand and helped him up, the whole group smiling at me gratefully. It was then the wall of a burning building fell to bring me back to the situation at hand. “Look, if you're feeling grateful, head to the docks and hop on the ship with lion figurehead. I know it sounds crazy, but the figurehead will tell you how to work the weapons. When someone calls for the ship, be ready,” I explained and ordered quickly. The group looked at each other, nodded, and ran past us, towards the docks. “Come on man, lets move!” The pony shouted. I nodded and rushed past him, leading the way to Herpy’s forge. Contrary to what I thought earlier, my building wasn't on fire. Turns out sharing a building with a mad scientist had its benefits, as it  was completely untouched by the dragons flames. Not one board was even scorched. “Huh, well I guess there was nothing to worry about. Lets hurry up and-,” the black griffon started saying to me but was interrupted by the front door to the building exploding in a puff of splinters as a pony flew out of the building and landed in front of us. “Well that escalated quickly,” the griffon finished flatly.  The pony was a stark white unicorn with a blood red wavy mane. From the way her body was curved, I could tell it was a mare. She got to her hooves and shook her head. Her eyes were as red as her hair, irises and all and it was at that point I noticed stitches encompassing her eye lids. There was also a gold square hanging on her ear. She was another Abomination. I couldn't remember her name, but from the weird stitches, I recognized her as one of the Abominations from Kitty’s group. I was about to put a bolt on her face, but was beat to the punch when a even longer bolt appeared in her chest. She cried out in pain but held her ground, standing straight up. Herpy appeared in the shattered door way, looking furious with some sort of upside down crossbow hooked to his undercarriage. “And you can tell Jill thats my counter offer!” he yelled to the mare. The mare bared her teeth and the bolt in her chest lit up with a red glow, slowly pulling itself out. When the bolt was fully out, the wound started gushing with blood, but that didn't last long. The blood started to harden around the wound, crystallizing. I looked to the pony and griffon standing next to me and their mouths hung open in awe. Oh please, they should have seen the installation of my arm, I thought. The super dried blood fell chipped off the mare, leaving nothing but new white fur. The mare silently ran past us, catching me off guard. I drew my bow and fired two quick bolts at her, but she was gone in the burning streets. Herpy breath a sigh of relief and finally noticed us. “Oh, hello Mastodon. Here to pay me back?” he asked coyly. I shook my head in disbelief. “About that... We’ll discuss it after we deal with this dragon,” I said. “After that we’re leaving, I’m going on a trip with that thing you saw earlier. I’m gonna need someone else I can trust and she needs a blacksmith. What do ya say Herpy?” I asked offering my hand. Herpy tapped his beak in thought and shrugged. “I say we discuss my pay after I get my boat,” he replied. That was when we heard a earth shattering roar in the distance. “That can't be good,” said the pony. *                                        *                                        * Idilah’s pov Okay, so stabbing the dragon in the snout wasn't a good idea. As soon as the dragon started blowing fire again, Vito took flight and took Kitty with him, while Nightheart leaped incredibly high and both of them landed on a relatively stable looking building. Considering I woke up in a damn pool of lava, I didn't move. All three of them stared at me in a mix a scold and awe. “That was your plan?!” They all yelled at the same time as the dragon curiosity breathed more fire at me. I smiled and dodged the flames, doing a barrel roll to get out of the way. I honestly had no idea how I was going to kill the thing. Like, at all. From the pot shots I took at it earlier, the scales were hard as hell. It also kept its eyes in narrow slits, so its eyes were out of the question. The only target would be its mouth but it only shot fire when it knew it would hit. I need something to weaken this thing and fast, I thought. I might be able to help with that, a thought that was not mine popped in my head. I narrowly avoided a claw swipe, the dragon almost taking some of my duster with it. Um, who the hell is this?, I asked in my head. The voice chuckled. One of your betters and your apparent warship. There are more creatures here to man the weapons and I have something to help with that lizard. Just get close to the docks and I’ll handle it from there, Sheytan explained. I shook my head dumbfounded and got slapped by a claw, into a burning building. At that moment I was extremely grateful for my hardened skin as I quickly got up from the rubble and ran back into the middle of the street. Conveniently, my team was on top of the building I just crawled out of. “Come on! We have to get to the docks! Now!” I shouted to them. They quickly nodded and dodged a fireball.  The dragon did another earth shattering roar from what I suspected was because of the lack of attention. We ran down the main street, Nightheart was jumping building to building like a damn shinobi, while Vito carried Kitty like the freaking Stork as he flew. The dragon kept up our pace as it kept roaring and tearing through any building we passed. We stopped running at the docks, but there was no sight of She. Nightheart and company landed next to me and all frowned. “Well we’re screwed,” he said flatly. The damn dragon knocking down a building behind us, making us turn around to see its piercing red eyes, its claws getting ready to strike us. “Well...At least I say I can say, I’ll see you soon bro,” I whispered to myself weakly. And that was when more hell broke loose. Sheytan roose from out from under the docks and opened her mouth to reveal a giant green ball of magic. MOVE! she yelled at me telepathically. I repeated the order to the others and we dived in opposite direction. The dragon looked absolutely dumbfounded, raising what would be his eyebrows in confusion. The ball of heat in Sheytans mouth launched and hit the dragon square in the forehead, making it shuffle backwards. The blast left no marks, at all. The scales were still intact and it looked pissed. I turned to the warship and bared my teeth. “What the fuck was that?! It did nothing!” I yelled at her. She telepathically chuckled. Ask you're hybrid mate to hit it now, she mused. Well if we're dying, we might as well die kicking and screaming, I thought, turning to Nightheart. “Nighty, smash that thing before it gets organized!” I ordered. Fortunately, Nightheart lepted after the dragon the moment I said smash. He launched into the air and held his hammer in both hands. “THIS IS FOR GETTING ME BURNED YOU BASTARD! AHHH!” he yelled at the top of his lungs as he came down. The dragon didn't even get a chance to look up. The hammer connected with the dragons face and hard.The hammer went through the scales like soft butter and connected with the softer flesh of the dragon’s grey matter. The dragon’s head exploded and scattered all over the place, coating all of us on the platform with brains. Vito started to immediately shake the flesh off. “Disgusting!” he yelled. Kitty started to dance in what was basically a puddle of brains. “Yay! Its braining! Its pouring!” she sang. I stood there completely still, udderly, silently, disgusted. All I could think was, I really need some new clothes. Nightheart stepped out of the dragon’s nearly empty head cavity. “Ah, I’ve always wanted to do that. So satisfying,” he said with a sigh. Sheytan docked and laughed hysterically. “You should have seen your face Jann. I haven't seen such a look since last I killed a family in front of a child!” she yelled, laughing. I frowned. “You're a sick bitch, you know that?” “Well that was a short adventure. I was hoping I’d be shooting more,” said a hispanic sounding voice coming from behind a cannon. “No boom boom?” asked another. “I feel ya bredren. I was hoping to show me new teeth,” said a deep voice. A few new creatures showed themselves as the gangplank lowered to the dock. There was a set of twin pegasi, a brightly colored griffon, and a chubby minotaur. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “As I said before, my life isn't going to get any simpler is it?” I asked myself. Gh0st and Crow jumped off the gangplank, getting ahead of the new guys. “Oh my gosh that was so awesome! She just went ‘boom!’ and then Nightheart-” Gh0st was interrupted by Crow covering his mouth. “Please shut up. I.D. we saw one of the Abominations at Herpy’s,” Crow said hurriedly. Kitty appeared next to Crow, making him jump in surprise. “Who was it?! Was it Gatuar? Was it Mimi? Was it-” Kitty, like Gh0st, got a claw on her mouth. “Thank you. Now who was she and where was she going?” I asked the strained griffon. Crow was now standing on his hind legs, trying to keep his balance. “I don't know. You can ask Mastodon, he’s in the forge with Herpy talking shop,” he replied in a strained voice. Finally the two annoying maws were too much and Crow collapsed, exhausted. The pair of idiots kept moving their mouths with their eyes closed, completely oblivious to Crow’s hand not being there. I left that mess to Crow and moved on to the new guys. All four them kept staring at me, not taking thier eyes off my face. I audibly cleared my throat. “Alright, who are you guys?” I asked. They all looked at each other and nodded. The pegasus colt spoke first. “The names Tick-tick honey and this,” he said pointing to his twin. “Is Boom-bewn.” “Boom!” she yelled, jumping in the air. The minotaur spoke next, flexing what I could have been his muscles at one point. “Name be Ule rude girl,” he said proudly. The griffon stretched his arm, flexing his fingers. “My names Terk, nice to meet ya amigo,” his said suavely. I shook my head and remembered that we had a pony to follow. “Alrighty then people and ponies, I have a ship that needs a crew and you clearly need a place to stay. What do ya say?” I asked. The group huddled together and started whispering. All I could hear was Boom saying ‘boom’ all the damn time. I can tell thats going to be annoying really fast, I thought as they came out of their huddle. “Eh, we got nothing better to do,” said the pony twin. “Boom, boom!” You know who said that by now. “I got no problems with it, tequila,” said the colorful griffon. “Oh, I’ll join ye little boat, but on one condition,” said Ule. I shrugged. “Okay what is it, we’re kind of on the clock,” I replied. “We got ta rescue me village. They were taken to a rasclot diamond den in de north and need saving,” he said sadly. I raised my eyebrow at this and Vito came up behind me, smiling. “This is perfect! We’ll talk payment on the way there!” he suggested. I about to protest, but he started pushing me to the gangplank, making me drag my feet. I turned around and stared at him. “What the hell are you doing?” I asked, angrily. Vito smiled wider and rubbed his claws together. “Don't you see? This our chance to replenish my numbers!” My threatening stare hardened. “I mean our numbers,” he corrected. I sighed. “Alright, this can't be that bad. Lets do it,” I said walking up the gangplank, turning around at the top. “Alright people, Dustown’s done. Lets salvage what scales we can off that dragon and set sail! We got a tribe to free and a mystery to solve!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. Everybody oddly cheered and went to work on breaking down the debrained dragon corpse. And Asad said I could never be a leader, I thought to myself.