//------------------------------// // thirteen // Story: Jump of the Iron Dragon // by tosety //------------------------------// It was three days after the ‘cave warming party’ and I was sitting outside the schoolyard watching Steel and his friends play. Trace had finished my security system the next day and Steelskin was also released from the hospital and was back living at the orphanage. I had just gotten news from Twilight that Miss Sweetheart had given up on her delaying tactics and had grudgingly accepted my request to be Steelskin’s 'big brother'. I caught a whiff of pony from behind me. Turning my head, I saw a cream colored earth pony and light green unicorn sitting in some shrubbery. They were wearing helmets with branches taped to the top, but their entire forequarters were sticking out of the top of the too-small bush. “The subject seems to be guarding his charge from his vantage point above the playground,” The earth pony dictated to her unicorn accomplice. “What do you ponies think you are doing?” I growled at them. “Eep!” Both of them ducked down into the bush, pushing their hindquarters out the back. Why do creatures refuse to talk to me? Oh yes, I am a big scary dragon that eats them for dinner. “Just get out of there. I would be glad to answer any questions you might have, but I find spying to be highly annoying,” I said, suppressing my natural desire to squish the two stalkers. “H-how could you see us?” The unicorn asked as they nervously extracted themselves from the shrub. I stared at them in utter confusion. Did they really think that was a decent camouflage? “Are you telling me that you were properly hidden?” “Of course! This is top of the line military issue and is the best in Equestria,” The green one replied. “I told you dragons have better senses than humans,” The cream one whispered to her friend. “You have a branch stuck to a helmet.” I shook my head, trying to figure out if I were dreaming or hallucinating. They stared at me for a minute before climbing out of the bushes. “Greetings, ponies, I am Tallic. Who might you be?” I said, hoping to get them to stop acting like stalkers. “I’m Bon Bon, and this is Lyra,” The cream colored one said. “It is a pleasure to meet you. Now please tell me, do you really consider that” I pointed to their helmets. “Proper camouflage?” I asked incredulously. “Yes it is. I have been using this military grade equipment for years and nopony has yet been able to notice me,” Lyra replied indignantly. This is just too much. I lost my battle to stay respectful and plucked a bush up by the roots. “Are you telling me that the height of camouflage technology is putting a branch on your head?” With that, I placed the shrub on my head. “Am I invisible now?” I asked sarcastically. The crazy ponies startled and looked around everywhere. “Dragon? Where did you go?” The one called Bon Bon called out. I let out a deep rolling laugh. Their joke was quite comical and I was prepared to offer them the right to visit me any time due to their impressive sense of humor. They jumped a full body length into the air at the sound of my laugh. “You cannot be serious,” I stated. Their response was to look around even more frantically. The smell of their fear finally convinced me that it was not an act and I removed the camouflage from my head. I was walking down the street, hoping to find some of the crusaders. After school, I found out Miss Sweetheart finally gave Tallic permission to be my big brother and I wanted to spread the news. Sadly, she’s also reminded Rocky and the other kids that they’re not allowed to hang around with Tallic. ”Get outta my head, you narwhal!” I heard an angry stallion yelling. Narwhal ~~~ “Why can’t earth ponies do cool stuff like flying and magic?” I said as I hugged mom. “Why do you say that, hon?” She whispered, stroking my mane with a wing. “Golden Star called me a mud pony and said we’re useless in a hoofball match.” I sniffed back my tears. “She said we only have mud ponies because the rules say we have to.” “That brat!” My dad growled. “If I had a say, I’d replace all the narwhals with earth ponies and we’d kick every team’s flank!” “Toughstuff! I cannot believe you of all ponies would be so tribist!” Mom’s voice was full to the brim with outrage. “I am ashamed of you. You’re as bad as them! We need to teach our son that nopony is better than anypony else.” Turning to me, she went back to a gentle voice. “I understand how you must feel. Earth ponies tend to be looked down on because of those things you mentioned, but what they don’t know is that earth ponies have been given a stronger magic than unicorns and pegasi combined. What you lack in flashiness is more than made up for with your strength, durability, and a connection to the earth that even the scientists at Canterlot have yet to fully understand, or even,” Mom’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, “find the limits of.” “Ahem?” Dad looked at mom with a grin. “What were you just saying? Just because you’re a pegasus doesn’t mean you can go putting earth ponies above everypony else. I myself would give up most of my earth pony magic to have your pegasus abilities.” He tried to adopt a serious voice, but he couldn’t quite wipe the grin off his face. ~~~ I came around the corner to see a pegasus stallion a couple years older than me screaming at Sapphire. He had Sapphire backed up against a wall and she was shaking in fright. The stallion was almost twice as big as me. I looked around for somepony who could rescue her. Nopony. Not one stallion nearby. I looked down at the ground in despair and noticed the chestplate Tallic gave me sitting on my chest. “You freaky bucking narwhal with your freaky bucking magic! Talk normally and get the buck out of my bucking head!” I looked back at my cutie mark. Remember, defending others is the most rewarding of all actions. My dad’s words rang in my head. The feel of them holding me during the train crash came suddenly to my mind, followed by the feel of my hooves pushing Scootaloo and Rocky out of the way. You know, that tree hurt me a whole lot more than anything that pegasus ever could do. “Yo, featherduster!” I sauntered up to him, pushing aside the fear of the beating I’d most likely face. “Why not pick on a mudpony!” “Get outta here, my beef’s with this narwhal.” He snarled. “No? Then how ‘bout a half-wing? My mom left Cloudsdale to be with a dirty mudpony.” I sneered at him, desperately hoping that Sapphire would take the opportunity and run. “And I’m his colt through and through.” He responded by cuffing me across the jaw. I was knocked back pretty bad, but was surprised at how little it hurt. Meanwhile, Sapphire was still cowering against the side of the building. He turned back to Sapphire. “You’ll have to try harder than that.” I set myself, getting ready for him to turn. Finally, he decided I was a threat. He turned towards me, rose up, and got a flying start to stomp me into the pavement. I waited for him to get close and tried to turn and buck him in the face, but I waited just a little too long. He got me in the side as my legs flew through empty air. Satisfied that I wasn’t likely to get up from that, he turned back to Sapphire, who was still frozen in place. This time, I was going to try stealth. I dusted myself off quickly and snuck up behind him, hoping to buck him in the head as he turned to face me, but he noticed Sapphire looking at me before I got close enough. He caught me with both rear hooves to my face, then spun around, grabbed my head, and proceeded to bash it against the cobblestone street. I flailed my legs trying to catch a piece of him and knock his hooves off my head, but his longer legs meant I couldn’t even come close. I hoped Sapphire had finally broken free of her freeze, but was afraid to look in case he’d notice and remember he was still angry with her. Suddenly, I heard Tallic roar. The pegasus let go and I saw Tallic land almost on top of me. The pegasus was stumbling backward and flapping crazily, tripping over his hooves and wings in his desperate attempt to run away. I looked over and saw Sapphire watching his panicked flight with a look of awe. She realized what happened and ran over to me as I was picking myself up off the street and taking stock of my injuries. You were awesome! Thanks so much for protecting me. Sapphire nuzzled up against me in gratitude, and that snapped me out of my reverie. I understand now! I thought to myself. I was ecstatic, I was barely even hurt! I had a bruise on my jaw and my head hurt a little from getting bashed against the street, but I didn’t feel anything from the aerial attack. “Hey, Saph, go get the CMC together, have them meet me at the clubhouse, I was so wrong about my cutie mark!” I rubbed my hoof along my foreleg absentmindedly. It felt prickly and hard. Looking down, I saw scales shimmering along the length of my leg. I looked up at Tallic in excited confusion. “Scales of the Iron Dragon,” Tallic responded. “How?” I asked after finally getting my mouth to work properly. “You were so badly injured that they had little hope of your recovery, so I decided to give you a test.” My mind whirled as everything started fitting into place. Finally, I looked into his eyes and said “The scale?” “Yes,” He smiled at me proudly. “I poured magical energy into it so that if you resonated properly, you would be able to heal yourself... and more.” He suddenly grew serious. “Go to your friends now, and tomorrow I need to teach you how to fight properly. That pegasus should not have been a match for you.” I sauntered down the middle of the main street in Ponyville with the shrub perched on my head. I cannot believe that none of the ponies notice me. “Nice camouflage, Tallic.” I looked to find Pinkie Pie grinning at me. Of course that one can see me. “You know, you might want to put that in a pot rather than leave the dirt falling all over your head.” I chuckled at her parting words as she turned down a side street. A little way further on, I heard voices. “How ‘bout a halfwing?” From the way Steelskin said that, I could only assume it was an insult. I quietly crept close so I could see what was going on. It was almost comical. Steelskin was going up against a pegasus at least a head taller than him. He was also getting his tail handed to him. I inwardly groaned at every attempt he made to hit the pegasus. I will have to teach him how to fight. Finally, the fight was over and I was slightly concerned at how hard the pegasus was smashing his head against the cobblestones. I launched myself into the air and landed on top of Steelskin’s prone body, scaring the pegasus off. A unicorn filly that smelled like she was related to Emerald ran up to Steelskin, obviously enamoured with him. He obviously had something important to tell his friends since he sent her to gather the other hatchlings, so I told him to meet me tomorrow. I was glad that this was the last day of school for the week, so I should be able to have most of the morning to correct some of his more egregious mistakes. I decided to seek out either Alex or Matt and see what they knew about pony fighting styles. I would prefer to ask a pony, but from what I gathered, there was no one in this town with a decent fighting mindset apart from the humans. I started galloping towards the library. Library? Why would I be going there? I should go to their clubhouse. No, I don’t know why, but I knew Sapphire wanted me to meet her at the library. I took a moment to catch my breath as I sat on Twilight Sparkle’s doorstep. I heard familiar voices inside as I reached my hoof up to knock. The scales had disappeared, but my coat was shinier than I remembered it. “Hey, Steelskin, come on in, Sapphire said you were coming.” Spike opened the door and ushered me inside before I even had the chance to knock. There’s my knight in shining armor. Sapphire ran up to me and wrapped her forelegs around my neck. I already told them about how you chased away that pegasus bully. “But I didn’t chase him away, Tallic did. All I did was distract him so you could get away.” I argued. “He actually kicked my flank quite thoroughly.” “Excuse me? I’d rather you not use that kind of language here.” Twilight said with a disapproving frown. “Oh, no! Your chestplate is broken!” I looked down to see a crack in the top right of my chestplate. “Hey! That crack looks just like the one on your cutie mark!” Sweetie Belle pointed at my cutie mark. “Hey, your chestplate and cutie mark are exactly the same.” “Is that what you meant when ya said you were wrong about your cutie mark? Is it a chestplate and not a shield?” Apple Bloom asked. “Oh, yeah, it is my chestplate.” I said as her question distracted me. “Wait, no, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t even notice that till you guys saw it. What I wanted to tell you is what I realized after I lost the fight with that pegasus-” “Pffth! How can you have lost if you’re not even beat up? All I see is a bruise on your cheek.” Scootaloo said as she smiled at me. Everypony else nodded in agreement. Well, I think they did, I wasn’t really looking at them. Boy is Scootaloo pretty... Tell them how you saved me. Sapphire was looking kinda annoyed. “Oh. Well, Apparently, Tallic helped me get even tougher so all those hits I took barely even hurt.” I smiled nervously. “But that wasn’t my special talent, just something that helped me with it. What my cutie mark means is...” I remembered back to the train ride as I recited my dad’s words. ”Defending others is the most rewarding of all actions.” Just saying it filled me with quiet strength. I found Alex working on a teleport pad near the town’s theatre. “Greetings, Alex.” “Hey there, Tallic, how goes?” “Both I and Steelskin are well, though Steel did have a little dust up a few moments ago.” “Oh?” Alex looked at me with concern. “Yes, he was defending a little filly against a pegasus larger than himself. It is actually why I have come to see you today.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Sweetie Belle looked at me in confusion. I sat there, trying to figure out another way to say it. I also noticed Fei sitting off near the back with a smile that told me she knew exactly what I meant. The hoofball game when I stopped that tackle... My mom’s look after the train wreck when she knew I wa safe... Seeing Scootaloo and Rocky safely out of the way when the tree fell... That’s it! I took a deep breath as a smile filled my face. “Okay... it means that my special talent is protecting others. It’s the most important thing to me and...” I took a moment to savor the strength and courage I was feeling just thinking about what I was about to say. “I have the strength to do it.” I was really starting to get tired of how Saph kept staring at me in adoration. Okay, why did she get all pouty all of a sudden? I was sure I kept a smile on my face. “So, what’s the crack mean?” Twilight Sparkle sat looking at me with a knowing smile. I smiled at the set up. “It means that I don’t mind getting hurt a little if it means my friends stay safe.” I noticed Fei had a smug look on her face. “What?” "I was wondering when you'd figure it out," Fei said, her smile never leaving her face. I went from annoyance to confusion. “What?” She just shrugged, "Wasn't that hard to figure out, to be both the sole survivor in a wreck, and manage to live through getting crushed by a tree, but your borderline insane level of devotion to protecting those you care about made it easy to find the answer." “You sound like an adult.” Fei just sat back and smiled irritatingly. As I thought about my cutie mark, I got a little sad again... I also remembered something my dad told me. “Y’know, don’t worry too much about getting your cutie marks. My dad told me that the reason some ponies get their cutie marks late is because what they’re best at is so big that it’s not something foals like us have a chance to do.” I looked down at the ground to try to keep them from seeing the tears in my eyes. “Basically, the later you get your cutie mark, the more important your special talent is.” I secretly hoped none of them remembered I had gotten mine almost a year early. Dear Princess Luna, I received the message of your dream loud and clear, but I find it offensive that you would even suggest that I of all ponies should accept a dragon as a caregiver of any kind for a colt. You know for a fact that the very first orphans I cared for had their parents crushed to death by a couple of brawling dragons. You have seen my nightmares and witnessed through my eyes how the dragons never even noticed or cared about the lives they ended. Your faithful subject, Sweetheart