//------------------------------// // Sunrise // Story: Steamlord // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Fortunately for Steamlord, the little dragon had rolled over to Twilight's side, so the first thing she would see when waking up was that pony and not him in his...unfortunate state. His arm was still being repaired, twitching every now and then as the wiring and gearing was replaced or repaired. As the little dragon struggled to open her eyes, Twilight took the spoon and filled it with the little pieces of gems in the bowl and placed it near the nose of the baby. A quick sniff and she was chomping down on this haven of flavor. "Careful! You don't want to bit the spoon do you?" said Twilight in a caring voice. "Watch it. Only give her five spoonfulls." "Why? She hasn't eaten for five days. I think that's a proper reason to give her the whole bowl." "There's a thing called "eating yourself out". Her body isn't used to eating anymore, so her stomach might collapse if too much food is introduced." "Oh." After the fifth spoon was empty, Twilight removed it from the tired dragon's mouth. She started to move like she was begging to have more, but the pony tried to reassure the little one that she couldn't have anymore. This baby still looked dazed and was breathing heavily as the lights shone brightly in her face. Nothing but muffled sounds reached her ears, and something bright and purple was moving in front of her eyes. The little dragon couldn't make out what it was. As her eyes started to readjust themselves to the brightness of the room, she realized she wasn't in the cave next to her father anymore. She quickly hopped up and started to panic, her "teck" flinging in every direction as she looked around frantically, trying to figure out where she was. Twilight Sparkle was the first to try and calm her. "It's okay! It's okay now. You're safe. At least I hope so." "Where's my dad? Where is he?!" Twilight couldn't say anything, even though her mouth opened up to tell the baby the inevitable. "Where is he? And where am I?! DAD! DAAAAD!" she screamed as she tore the medical tubes out from her arm and ran out the door. "Shit! Crusader Knights, catch her!" The robots immediately sprang out of the room to chase after the running baby dragon. Steamlord's arm repairs had just finished, and he was, once again, wearing his shirt, coat, and glove. The man was already standing tall and stomped out of the medical room, Twilight following anxiously behind. "Don't be too rough on her! I don't think you need to use violence to keep her in...this place." "They won't be rough. I only told them to catch her. She can't leave the ship right now. She's too weak, and she would only try and find the corpse of her father." "But how are you going to tell her that he is gone?" "The same way I ever did anything...directly and without detours." "But-" "If a castle is just missing one stone in its foundation, it will constantly crumble. But if you place that missing piece, it will stay stable for the rest of its existence. It might take some to place the stone, but when it's finally in there, the castle becomes a sturdy structure of strength and fortitude." It took the lavender unicorn a few seconds to understand the metaphor Steamlord employed, but it had finally reached her. It's true that, if the baby dragon was never told that her father was dead, then she would constantly try and escape to rejoin him, but.......announcing such a thing to an infant could keep her will to live from continuing. It seemed that Steamlord had something in mind if he was going to say that sort of thing directly. The Knights returned with the dragon in Teutonic's arms. The little dragon had obviously regained a bit of her strength as she was frantically fighting to get out. Steamlord grew tired and grabbed her arms and looked her directly in the eyes. She had fury in them as she stared at this strange creature with a frown. "Listen to me and listen closely. Your father is DEAD!" "No! NO he isn't! He's just sleeping!" "Oh really? For how long?" "..." "FOR HOW LONG?!" "..." "He's dead. For you to look forward, you must know this. He isn't coming back. You were in there for five days. He is long since gone." "...N-n-no! You're lying! He's just really tired is all. He'll come find me and he'll bash you." she said as her voice started to crack and her eyes started to water up. "There is nothing you can do but give him your respect and continue your own life." "He isn't-" "HE'S GONE! ACCEPT THISS TURN OF FATE! You may be just a child now, but you'll understand later on. SS, seal the exit. Teutonic, you can let her go." The robot nodded and placed the little dragon on the ground. She looked like she was fighting back her tears for some reason, not sure what she could believe anymore. And she tightened her fists and her breathing started to "stutter", Steamlord lowered himself and put his left hand on her shoulder. "Don't keep them in. Just let them out. Trust me, you'll feel much better after." The baby dragon looked up at him with watery eyes. She looked furious, but she finally let go, and started "flooding" the area with tears and the echoing of her cries of denial. She hung onto Steamlord's leg while she cried. He didn't know what to do and just soot there like an idiot. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, walked around the man and started to rub the little dragon's head in compassion. "....It seems I did more harm than good..." "No. You did the right thing. What are you going to do with her now?" "She's still too weak, so she needs to stay here under the watchful...uh...monitors of Security System." "Then what? You're going to dump her back in the forest?" "No. I'll have to take care of her. It's the least I can do." Twilight leaned over a bit more towards the crying dragon and asked her as she started to calm down: "Do you have a name?" asked Twilight. The dragon shook her head. "I thought dragons had names." "They must call each other by nicknames or receive them later on. I'm guessing her parents would call her by a specifically rhythmic roar. I suppose that we should name her?" "Well, I did name Spike." "...Let's try something creative." Twilight threw an angry look at Steamlord who seemed to care about as much as he would care for a rash."Let's see...she's a bright, beautiful yellow...perhaps we can call her Sunrise?" "That sounds perfect." "Now, I would ask you to leave, but you would know where I am, so, Teutonic, blind-fo-" "There's no need for that. I can teleport back home." "Teleport? That's preposterous. There's no such thing as-" Not wanting to hear the rest of his speech, Twilight disappeared from the ship of Steamlord in a bright pink flash, leaving him stumped. The man was now stuck. He didn't know what to do. Taking care of semi-sentient robots and machines were one thing, but a truly living creature? This would be hard. "Now, I'm not asking you to call me "father" or anything of the like, but I just want you to stay here while you heal up. Are you okay with that?" The little dragon nodded. "Good. I'm sure you need some alone time now, so I'll show you where you'll sleep. Come on..." the dragon would not budge now that she let go of Steamlord's leg."Ugh. Fine, I'll carry you there then." Back to his room, the man asked SS to hand him a large cushion, which Steamlord placed at the foot of his bed. He lowered the little dragon on it, who felt the comfy spot and stared at this strange creature whom she felt hatred and thanks towards. "What? It's yours. It's a soft cushion. You can sleep on it. I will poke you with the soft cushion if you don't like it, and I'll take out something even worse if it isn't comfortable enough for you." Steamlord gave out a creepy aura." I will have to take out... THE COMFY CHAIR!" The dragon just looked at him strangely. Steamlord simply straightened his jacket and left the room, needing to tend to other things. Sunrise was left on the cushion to think things through as she was now alone. Her mother was long gone before. She had hoped that the same ailment wouldn't have affected her father, but he was now dead. She was sure that she would catch whatever it was that they had and that, she too, was going to leave this world. Meanwhile, looking over the data come from the biological scans in the medical room, Steamlord was intrigued by the specific genetic make-up of this dragon. She apparently had the same dna assembly as the giant who had perished, but she a little added something. Apparently, her generation had grown a resistance towards a type of infectious bacteria. "Hmm. I didn't think I would be able to see the marvels of evolution anymore. Quite intriguing. I wonder if there are other types of dragons in this world? Or maybe she's just a female of "Spike's" species." The human lowered his sheets and stared at the pile of gems on the floor and thought of several things while looking at them. Out of curiosity, he started fumbling through the multiple crystals in the pile and found one that was the exact same color as Sunrise's scales, although it was beat up. "Hospitaller, could you carve this into the shape of a sun with several wavy "arms"? You know, kind of like a non-lethal, eight-branched ninja-star." Hospitaller took its claymore and started to cut off pieces gently while holding the tip of the weapon. "Now what to do with these 'rations'...meh. I'll just have them placed within storage. Templar, Teutonic, help me get these gems into the food and liquid storage room. We'll just place these in a pile until I can figure out how to properly organize them." Some annoying back-tracking later, Hospitaller was still waiting in the Medical room with a rather small carving in hand while his two "brothers" were already in the engine room. "What's this?" said Steamlord as he looked at the carving. It was beautifully carved and, for some reason, looked the symbol of the sun that was depicted in the books to represent the one supposedly capable of moving the sun. It wasn't what he had imagined exactly, but it was very close. He turned the gem around for a bit, and noticed that it had a tiny hole drilled into one of the arms . Through this hole was a small sturdy string made for placing around the neck. As he stared at it, Steamlord lift his head to stare at Hospitaller for a long, silent moment. Their creativity and abilities sometimes scared him. "Thank you Hospitaller. This is a true work of art. I'm sure it will please her." Upon closer inspection, Steamlord noticed that the face of the "father" had been mysteriously "carved" on the inside of the jewel. His head showing proudly like a three dimensional image. " How did you...? Hmph. Impressive! You are a true artist Hospitaller! Now go back with the others. While you work on the engine, I'll work on the scanning equipment as well as the isolation of the exterior energy fluctuations...and on the mind and soul of that little dragon..." Hospitaller punched its chest with a strong release of steam and headed out towards the rear of the damaged ship, leaving Steamlord alone in the Medical room. Looking one last time at the sun jewel, he headed back to his room, only to see that the Sunrise had cried herself to sleep. Instead of waking her up, he gently placed the jewel on the floor right in front of her cushion, and quietly left the room. Despite his best efforts, he had still managed to wake the little dragon. Sunrise looked at the door than at the jewel and brought it near her. Upon seeing the face of her father, tears slid down her cheeks and she held it close to her before putting the "necklace" around her neck and going back to sleep. Today was too much for her to deal with. It had already been two days since Sunrise was rescued from the cavern, but she wasn't doing too well...mentally. She may have been eating and drinking, but she did few of both. Steamlord and SS had noticed this. With an annoyed sigh and a face palm, Steamlord equipped his things and called upon the crusader knights. He was going to bring Sunrise to that lavender-colored unicorn, but, this time, his arrival would be different. Instead of going in under cloak, he and his bodyguards would go in fully revealed. He couldn't hide any longer as it seemed that he would be staying in Equestria for a long time. And the needs for him to contact the local population were starting to increase, so he might as well reveal himself fully to the general public. The door to the outside opened as Sunrise took in a huge waft of cold, fresh-air to the face. She still felt...empty, but found some comfort in the jewel that dangled gently around her neck. She was picked up by Steamlord as the group jumped out of the ship to land hard on the ground. Even when she looked back, the little dragon still could not see what they jumped out of, but she was gently placed on the dirt. This feeling of the soft ground underneath her toes was a sensation she hadn't felt for so long, and she enjoyed it. However, there was no real time to stay in the forest, and Steamlord pressed forward. This part of the forest of the forest was so new to Sunrise, yet it seemed heavily damaged and traces of skid marks on the dirt hinted to the possibility of something big falling down here. The only creature big enough that she knew who was capable of doing this was a dragon. This mystery started to intrigue her evermore. Out of the forest from another angle to avoid startling that yellow pegasus again, the slightly larger group decided to pass by the school again. This was trading one sense of panic to the possibility of children dying from a heart attack. As they got closer and closer to it, Sunrise tried to hide behind the legs of Teutonic, who paid absolutely no attention to her. It made the inventor why the dragon wasn't afraid of his creations despite the ponies being easily frightened...well...almost easily. Checking his pocket watch again, he saw that it was around ten a.m. again, and this meant that the children were in the playground again. Upon seeing the four giants, they immediately stopped everything they were doing. Those near the swing sets were less fortunate with the stopping...The two fillies that Steamlord had warned awhile ago were at it again, even though the Cutie Mark Crusaders were staring at the four giants figures with their mouths open. The man walked near the short fence with his hands in his jacket's pockets, and Templar right next to him. "Hey!. Hey you two! The one wearing the plastic tiara and the other one who looks like she's a fifty year old midget." "What? Like, who saiii...oh no!" "Oh yes! What'd I say last time I saw you two, hmm?" A huge grin adorned the face of Steamlord as the other ponies turned around to face the two terrified bullies. "Don't remember? Then allow me to refresh your memories. I believe I said that my pal here would shorten you of a head if you were making anyone again. And now I see that you didn't heed my cal. So. I'm going to. Have to. Stick to my words. Templar?" the man said casually Following his orders, Templar unsheathed his sword and slammed it into the ground, causing the two bullies to both turn as white as Celestia and flee back into the school. After seeing this, Steamlord burst into laughter while Templar brushed the dirt off its sword and put it back into its resting place. "Pahahaha! Hi girls. Pfffphth" "Hi Steamlord! Hi Templar." the three fillies said in unison as Steamlord's group started walking towards the town. The human could easily hear the others starting to gossip about how those three knew him and his creations. Sunrise was slightly terrified by what the man said and stayed behind Teutonic's leg. The inventor caught sight of her terrified face and tried to explain himself: "Pfff. You don't need to worry. As if I'd ever do THAT to anyone. Besides, the Knights will never...well...you know...do THAT to anything without my permission. And I was only teasing those two ponies you saw not two seconds ago. This isn't helping is it? Oh well. Eventually you'll understand. And look! We're in the town now!" he yelled with joy. Sunrise looked in awe at these tall structures that were so varied and full of color. One of them looked like it was made of...something she didn't know about, but something in her mind was telling her that whatever those thing were, they were delicious. However, something wasn't right. Even though she had no trouble with the ponies, they all seemed to run away screaming whenever she got near. She didn't understand that it wasn't her scaring off everypony, and she started to feel bad. "Heh. You'd think seeing monsters worse than the way I look would get them used to my presence in their town. Don't worry Sunrise, we're almost at destination." The little dragon felt slightly better at this remark, knowing that she wasn't the source of the screaming, but she was even more stunned to see the giant tree that they were in front of. It looked very much alive despite the strange things on it. Steamlord pushed the doors open and entered the library like if he had always done this and yelled: "TWILIGHT! I'M BACK!" To his surprise, she was having some tea made by a sparkly white pony with a well groomed purple mane. Spike was too enchanted by Rarity to notice anything unusual happening in his center of existence.