//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Back In Action // Story: Scales the Draconic Oddball // by Kowlickkid //------------------------------// Back In Action Most of the pack took a step back. Some remained where they were. A couple dared to growl at me. "Lena, are you all right?" "Considering we just got abducted by blink hounds, yes. Unless you count the slobber." "Where's my camera when I need it?" Was my intelligent response. Of course, the other 3 ponies were taking this in various manners. The oldest, the white unicorn, was hyperventilating with her eyes popping out of her skull. The yellow filly was trembling and hiding behind Lena. The blue foal was staring on with awe. "Scales, I don't know why the heck I put up with you!" said Lena. I spread my arms apart. "Hey, we're friends, right?" I continued to swing my arms about as a visual aid. "And friends are supposed to stick together, to trust each other, to tolerate each other, all of that. And, I've already saved your life more than once, so that should be something, right?" She sighed and facepalmed. "Just get on with it." Turning back to the dogs, I noticed that a few had some blood on them and I could've sworn I saw some black eyes. I guess those hand gestures were more useful than I thought. A near one leaped for my throat. I dodged to the side and smashed its spine into the ground. "Man, this feels good! Finally, some good exercise without an excess of pain!" I whipped a scale at another on my back-swing, effectively injuring its front left leg, and pierced another jumper with a punch. A clever one tried to blink past me and do some damage to the equines, but it met a harsh opponent in my tail. Blow after blow came to the blink hounds, yet I was nearly uninjured. The training I had been put through in my subconscious had increased my battle ability. I wasn't faster or stronger, but I struck with grim efficiency that had been honed to perfection by the cruel and sadistic other me. Soon I was fending off four or five at once, ripping them off of me and throwing them into the trees or biting savagely, my sharp mouth rending flesh as if it were nothing more than stringy watermelon(which can be disgusting, by the way). The hounds were trying their best, and I commended them for that, but what good can magic resistance be when the force of an explosion made by a fireball tosses you against a tree? And what could shield them from the fists, tail and mouth of an angry dragon? They were doomed to fail, and no amount of ravenous hunger could change that fact. As they found out, it could even be a serious drawback. There was one hound that decided not to go for my throat, and instead bit into my leg, the scales breaking under the great pressure of his jaw. I roared in anger when that happened, and the blinker soon found out that it wasn't good to bite me. First of all, the green blood that spewed from my wound burned his mouth as it boiled. Second of all, my talon rose up, grabbed his neck and crushed him. Third of all, my eyes slitted and turned yellow, and I began to fight even harder against them, becoming a blur in between that sliced legs, flung bodies away, went from their front to their back in a fraction of a second and beat them into the ground. Very soon, all that remained was one extremely cowed hound that shrank from my gaze. I walked to him, picked him up by the scruff of his neck and stared him in the eye. "Tell your wild friends that this is what happens when you confront me or try to harm those under my protection." With those final words, I punted him lightly into the forest, where he landed and ran away, yipping pathetically. I turned around, to the ponies. All three of the young ones were cowering behind Lena, who was apparently grossed out. With good reason, too. I was a mess, to say the least. "Right... Introductions, please?" Lena composed herself. "Scales, this is Moon Pie, Dandelion and Water Drip. You three, this is Scales." "Charmed" I said. "Don't listen to a word he says, he's nuts." she continued. "Now hold on a second here..." I said, pointing a finger at her. A sudden shriek from the bushes caught all of our ears. Standing there, hooves in her mouth, was one of Lena's relatives. I looked at myself. Covered with gore, blood and holding a finger menacingly at Lena, behind whom were cowering the three foals, I could've looked better. We were all speechless. Then Water Drip decided to cry. I hate him already. A squawk of rage came from the mare and she came at me with little more than an umbrella. "You BEAST! Get away from all of us! Begone, foul monster! Go back to the hole which spawned you!" She punctuated each syllable with a hard crack from her umbrella. "Ow! Wai-OW! Stop i-Ow! Ouch! Oi! That's painful! Ow! St-Ow! Will you calm do-Ooooooow!" I retreated into a tree. Getting hit with an umbrella hurt. "Sheesh, lady, you have serious anger management issues!" By this time, the rest of the family had arrived, carrying a couple of swords, an assorted variety of slingshots, some kitchen knives, a massive battle-axe(where the heck did they get that?), a few pitchforks and a rubber ducky. Do not mess with the chosen one who wields the rubber ducky. Of course, they saw the image, the mare bristling with rage, two foals(darn you, Dandelion) crying, and myself rubbing my head in a tree. "Be careful everyone! We don't know what it's capable of!" exclaimed the stallion in front, spreading his front left hoof. "We'll have to drive it off by intimidation. Remember, herd tactics! The group stays alive!" "It didn't do much for those dogs there, did it?" pointed out another stallion. "But we know how to talk and yell. We can scare it off with our superior intellect." replied the first. "I'm beginning to think that you think I'm stupid." I said. "SCATTER!" screamed somepony from the crowd. The crowd obliged, some running around screaming their heads off, others hiding behind trees, and a few coming to the side of the mare who had first found me. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!" "Begone, worm! We shall defeat you!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" "Don't look this way, don't look this way, don't look this way, don't look this way..." As you can imagine, the cacophony was deafening. Lena took some steps forward and stood at the base of my tree. "Uh... everypony..." she said. No one listened. "Everypony..." she said a bit louder. Still, not one pony listened. I handed her a megaphone. "Wait, where the heck did I pull that out of...?" I asked myself. Lena cleared her throat. "WILL YOU JUST SHUUUT UUUUUUP!!!!!!" Immediately everyone froze and stopped making noise. A cricket chirped somewhere. "Honestly, if you're going to act like this, it's no wonder some of the relatives don't come to the jungle. You ponies are NUTS! I mean, come on, do you really think a dragon is going to kill a whole pack of blink hounds while protecting our hides so we don't get a scratch and THEN kill us? What in the name of Rankenstein's sock monster are you thinking! Until you apologize to Scales and properly thank him for saving our crimson life juice, none of you are welcome in my cabin! Come with me, Scales!" She threw away the megaphone and started walking towards her cabin. Now, I was rather good at reading emotions, and judging by the scorch marks her hooves left on the ground, she was a little more than annoyed. Rather than have that mad at me, I scuttled down when she was at a safe distance and crept after her on all fours. Everypony looked on with complete and absolute shock. "Do you seriously want THAT mad at you?" I asked, pointing towards Lena. I continued walking. "Uhh... Not re-" began somepony. "That was a rhetorical question, you moron." I quickly followed after Lena. I did NOT want that mad at me. ______________A Little Later________________ Lena carefully wrapped a bandage around my leg. After discovering that alcohol was useless, always evaporating before it hit my blood, she just slapped it on. Luckily, the heat of my blood didn't burn through the cloth. "So, why do you think it hurt like that and didn't heal real quick? When you stabbed me in the shoulder, it barely even hurt." "Oh, that was because the vine was coated with a painkiller and a healing salve. Very effective." "Oh... Say, why don't you use the vines against the blinkers?" "The vines won't let me. Organic things could hurt them, but the hounds are well attuned to nature, so much so that vines won't attack them in any way. I could throw a boulder at them, but they would just dodge and I would waste power." She gave another tug and somehow affixed the end of the bandage to the rest. Magic. "So, you're not afraid of distancing yourself from your family? You got pretty mad at them." She gave me a deadpan look. "Scales, I live in the middle of a jungle that's outside Equestria. I pretty much hate the get-togethers except for seeing the kids. I openly loathe Pinkie. I can't get much more distant." "Your family went out of Equestria to plan a surprise for you. They love you. Or, at least, they did." "I don't need your advice on this." A pause ensued while Lena cleaned up some garbage. "Do you really think they like me?" she finally asked. I gave a sigh. "Lena, it's obvious they do. To not see that is extremely difficult. Do you not like your family?" "I do, I do, it's just..." She sighed. "I was always the brainiac of the family, and everybody teased me for that. The parents wanted me to do something more 'worthwhile', like designing clothes or being a singer, or some other kind of superstar, rich and famous, loved by everypony. Then, I became a scientist. How could they not be disappointed?" "I might regret this later, but you're acting extremely dense, Lena. Good parents accept what their children do, unless it's something wrong. They didn't force you into sports, did they? They didn't sign you up, take you there and stand by with a whip, did they?" "No..." "You're a scientist. Heck, you got your emblem on it. And no, I am not calling it that other name for it. It's your talent, and your parents would not keep you from it. And, you got rich on it, go figure. Your family loves you, even though you can't see it. Did you see how that wacko attacked me with an umbrella? That was partly for you." "How do you know all these things?" "No idea. Pay no attention to me, I'm NUTS!" "Aaaaaaaaand the moment's ruined." "I try." _______________3rd Person________________ A crowd of ponies clustered around the window, discreetly listening to the conversation between the dragon and their relative. When it was finished, they held a little discussion. "I didn't know she took that teasing so harshly, poor dear." "I had no idea I was pressing her hard for starhood! I-I was just trying to be a good parent." "Well, the dragon helped her like us a bit better, didn't he?" "We were kind of mean to Lena all these years." "I'm sorry I hit that dragon now...*sniff*" They heard Lena's voice inside once more. "I guess I can give them another chance." she said. The relatives beamed with joy. "Does this mean she won't write us out of her will?" expressed a distant relative jubilantly. His head was immediately the target for a multitude of hooves slapping him angrily. ___________Scales' Perspective____________ "I guess I can give them another chance." she said. "That's excellent. You should give everyone a second chance, and more. Everyone deserves one more chance at all times. Also, they've been eavesdropping." "I suppose everypony doe- Wait. What?" She walked stealthily to the window I pointed out to her. "Well, that was some pretty fancy fighting you did back there. I could barely follow you with my eyes." She inched closer, still talking. "I'm not sure what I would've done. Maybe, impale all of them. Perhaps strangle them. Summon a pitchfork and use that. You know, the type of things I do to..." She slammed open the window with a furious disposition. "EAVESDROPPERS!!!" The air was filled with girlish screams before they disappeared, replaced by the sound made when cartoons zip off and leave a cloud of dust. Lena wore a smirk as she turned back to me. "That should learn 'em." "Have I ever mentioned you are exceedingly scary, Lena?" "Not nearly enough times."