Harmony pawed the ground a few times. From the way the soil looked and felt he was sure that an ent grove was nearby. He was glad for this as he was getting tired of Quartermaster breathing over his shoulder. Even though it was still quite early in the morning the dragon was already in a foul mood.
Harmony suddenly stopped to examine to what Quartermaster figures was just an ordinary jungle tree. He circled the tree three times looking up and down it. Quartermaster resisted giving an insult as he was too busy trying not to chuckle at his amusement of what he thought was Harmony losing his mind.
*May the sun give strength and the dew refresh your spirit.* Harmony spoke in a raspy tongue before he took a seat. Quartermaster was about to ask what in the world was the strange noise he was making when Harmony waved a hoof and shook his head to silence Quartermaster.
For a while nothing happened. Quartermaster was getting antsy and annoyed and he was about to complain. Some knots in the trunk high above Harmony moved. Harmony smiled when he saw that. He got it on the first try. Ents were very good at hiding amongst regular trees.
Quartermaster looked up as well and noticed the movement as well. So he found tree that moves… He rolled his eyes at the whole thing. Great…
*Not… Not many know that greeting…much less our language... Who are you?* Quartermaster blinked, he could hear the same strange raspy noise that Harmony made earlier from somewhere above.
*Harmony the Alicorn Keeper of Harmony.*
*A Keeper?! Here?!*
*Yes… Where is your Eldertree? I need to speak with her.*
*How… As a Keeper of course you would know… But your firebreather companion will need to stay outside of the grove.*
Harmony sighed. He wasn’t surprised. At least this would give Quartermaster time to cool his jets while looking for dragons in the nearby mountains. “Quartermaster, this is going to be boring and will take some time. There are three mountains to the northeast of here. If I remember correctly there should be a dragon or two that you could speak to.”
“Gladly.” Quartermaster was glad for the excuse and he didn’t even care it was under the direction of the outsider. These talking matchsticks… if they were even talking were just too much for him.
Quartermaster took off and soon could spot the mountains that Harmony mentioned not too far away. The cool morning air was nice on his scales. The oppressive heat and mugginess of the jungle below was quickly forgotten as he jubilantly soared higher catching an early morning thermal.
The sun was high in the sky as he began his second circle around the mountains. Quartermaster was getting frustrated and tired. I think the outsider was wrong I don’t sense any dragon wards nearby.
Quartermaster landed on a plateau halfway up one of the mountains to rest. He barely had time to fold his wings to his back when he heard what is usually described as a roar mixed with gurgle. That type of roar could only mean one thing! Before Quartermaster could do anything something slammed hard into him knocking him head of heels for several feet.
Harmony sat down in front what to the uninitiated would have thought would be a gnarled old tree. Still, he could see that this Eldertree was quite old. The grove may have a new Eldertree before too long. *Greetings, Eldertree, my name is Harmony and I am the Alicorn Keeper of Harmony.*
*Then, what the wind said was true…*
*Yes. I am here to check for issues that may be attributed to either ‘Eldersbane’ or someone like minded.*
The Eldertree shuddered as if there was a breeze. *We are not sure if his influence is here but we have been having an issue with a firebreather recently.*
*I might be able to help… what is the issue?*
*A firebreather at random times will come down from the mountains burning and slashing everything in sight. We usually only have a very short warning in roar that sounds like a bubbling creek.*
Harmony nodded trying to figure out why a dragon would do such a thing. It would spook prey too much and make it harder to hunt. His eyes then jerked open wide, something that the Eldertree said got his full attention. *Wait, did you say a roar like a bubbling creek!?*
*Yes…* Harmony shot off into the sky at full spend panic written on his face.
Quartermaster hang in there I am coming!
Quartermaster winced as a fresh wave of pain coursed through him as he was slammed into a large boulder. He tried getting up but he couldn’t get his body to obey his commands. He growled feebly as the dark blue dragon stalked closer.
He was exhausted after trying to fight off the Rage Growth dragon for the past hour. His small frame had given him the advantage of speed and agility but his stamina was not as strong as the much older dragon. Now, he was sure that his life was now measured in less than a minute. He sighed as he felt like he failed. Failed as a dragon and failed as a dragon of the Hourglass Clan.
NO ONE. HURTS. MY FAMILY! Came a voice filled with power and rage from above.
Both Quartermaster and the dragon looked up to see Harmony diving toward them. Quartermaster could see a cone of air forming around the alicorn. As Harmony slammed into the dragon a rainbow shockwave shot out in all direction kicking of dust and other debris. Quartermaster painfully raised an arm to block some of the dust and dirt from getting into his eyes and mouth.
Quartermaster didn’t like the alicorn but if He of Hourglass found out that the outsider died on his watch he would be lucky to not be killed by him. “Outsider… the dragon is Raged! Get out of here while you still can…”
OH, SHUT UP! Harmony yelled at Quartermaster who immediately shut up. The look on Harmony was the same as He of Hourglass when he berated Quartermaster's treatment of the alicorn right after He of Music’s Choosing. “What part of ‘I consider you a “hatchmate”’ did you not get yesterday?”
Harmony turned to the recovering rage dragon. I WILL DEFEND THE DRAGONS OF HOURGLASS! TO. Quartermaster could feel the mana in the air build MY. His horn began to glow brightly. LAST. Six swords each a slightly different color of the rainbow appeared around Harmony. BREATH! With that Harmony gave what Quartermaster was sure was the roar of a challenging dragon and as he watched for a less than second Harmony was gone and a dragon was there instead.
Quartermaster blinked, hard. That rage dragon must have taken more out of me than I thought…
I will never back down Harmony kicked the red sword which flew in the air and slammed into the raging dragons left, yellow wing. A scream of pain echoed across the battlefield.
I will never give up The green sword spun until it looked like a round shield. The dragon roared a stream of black flames which the green sword shield blocked.
I will keep up the fight A blue sword sliced at the right wing.
Harmony took a short breather before the next stanza. If he was in the middle of a battle he might have face hoofed over his use of a heartsong. It seems that after so long I’m starting to use heartsongs in battle again… I blame He of Music…
My life may end The yellow sword waved erratically in front of the dragon both irritating and distracting the dragon.
But I shall stand As the rage dragon tried to melt the yellow sword a purple sword whacked the front legs.
Even to the end With a roar of pain the dragon tried to back up but ended up tripping over its own tail trying to get away from the painful swords. An orange sword stabbed at the now exposed softer belly scales.
Quartermaster looked downward in shame. This alicorn was going up against a rage dragon to protect him. Him. A dragon that had accused him by virtue of being an alicorn of being a danger to the clan. But he was no alicorn. No. He was not. Quartermaster knew he could no longer think of this alicorn as an outsider. It was more than that to him. He of Harmony was never an outsider. He was a dragon. A dragon as far as he was concern that should be in the Hourglass Clan. Sadly, even he knew this was impossible… at least by the code. His heart on the other hand told him otherwise. Truly, he now understood He of Hourglass’ lament.
A scream jolted him out of his inner thoughts. He looked up to see that Harmony was on the ground the rage dragon rushing him. Quartermaster tried calling out a warning but before he could Harmony’s sword formed a barrier that blocked the charging dragon.
Harmony pushed himself, slowly, to his feet then roared. Again he seemed to disappear for a second and was replaced by a dragon. But it was so fast that Quartermaster again thought it must be a trick of the alicorn’s magic. After that, the fight began in earnest.
The rage dragon made the first move and roared a jet of black flames at Harmony. Harmony rolled to the side. Harmony shot out a magically compressed air missile at one of the dragons feet. The dragon shrugged off the attack swinging his tail around to try and whack Harmony. But Harmony quickly flew up avoiding the tail by inches. He sliced at the tail with two of his swords.
The fight kept up for nearly another hour with neither getting many hits in. While Harmony was slashing with his swords the dragon was so large along with his naturally hard scales that the swords usually only made small cuts if they managed to connect. Harmony desperately attempted to get an opening to stab the swords straight as that would be the only way to get a death blow in. However, the dragon was not letting Harmony have his opening.
Quartermaster gasped when one of Harmony’s knees gave out nearly taking him down. It was then that he noticed that the rage dragon was panting. It was clear that both were wearing out. The dragon’s flame was not as strong or lasted as long. Harmony was clearly straining trying to hold the six swords in the air.
I need to end this now! Harmony dropped three of the swords. He didn’t want to desummoned them just yet, just in case. Hopefully, with less swords in his levitation field he would able to control them a bit better. He summoned some parasprites near the dragon’s eyes. The dragon roared then reared up to swat at them blindly. Harmony took this opening to slam the three swords as deep as he could into the softer belly scales near where the dragon's heart would be.
The dragon wheezed then collapsed to the ground. Harmony watched the lights in the eyes of the dragon fade to black. He let go of a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. The battle was finally over.
Harmony nearly collapsed from exhaustion letting his swords disappear. He could feel every muscle in his body ache and he was sure he may have a few cracked ribs from when the dragon had side swiped him. He grabbed an ash cure vial and drown it down hoping it would be enough to keep him stable for a few minutes longer. Even with that vial he knew that he was going to go critical any moment. He had spent more alicorn mana then when he fought Sombra, and he nearly died after that battle. Right now, though, he was more concern about Quartermaster. He looked over to see Quartermaster looking downcast.
“Are you okay Quartermaster?” Harmony asked as he walked over to examine him closely. He could see various cuts and scrapes and few bruises becoming visible. Other than that, Quartermaster didn’t look any worse for wear. It was clear that he had only just exhausted himself out. Rage dragons are difficult to defeat and Quartermaster did not have the necessary battle experience or training to have a chance.
“My name is Metal Claws, brother.”
“W-W-What!?” Harmony spurted out not sure he just heard what he heard. He thought he just heard Quartermaster give him his name and called him brother.
“Metal Claws.” Metal Claws looked straight into the confused eyes of Harmony. “That is my name.”
Harmony fell to his hunches in total shock. I heard their Hoard Names!!