//------------------------------// // Chapter 3. My hero // Story: Tales Of An Outcast // by PrismStrike //------------------------------// Its now been a week since I arrived in Ponyville, much of my time has been spent learning to talk with Twilight. I can now confidently say over 50 words. I have spent time with Rarity and her little sister Sweetie Belle learning manners and fashion. Thanks to her I now have a blue pair of pants exactly TWO shades darker than my scales or so she says, I cant really tell the difference but they are comfortable and feel so soft against my scales. Which is what the little dragon Spike told me is what the layer that covers me is called. Pinkie has decided to wait on my party as her first attempt didn't go so well. I really didn't mean to light that poor mares mane on fire I was just so surprised when they all jumped out of the dark and yelled that I just reacted by sending out a plume of flames from my mouth. Today is the first day that I'm showing my face in town since, even though its almost time for Luna's night to start. There are a few ponies around as I wander the town each of them regards me warily my actions at the party still fresh in their minds. If it hadn't been for Twilight being there with me I think these ponies may have done some truly horrible things to me. As I walk I take notice of everything, through every scent as my forked tongue flicks from my mouth periodically. Very little detail is able to escape my sharp draconic eyes, as I can see perfectly even in the gloom, every sound within twenty yards of myself is heard even without a visible set of ears, my body meant to be a top predator a truly lethal hunting and killing machine. Suddenly I pick up the faintest of cries in the air. A single word I know, Twilight having made sure to teach it to me right after the Equestrian alphabet "Help" The single word enough to send all of my senses towards the direction of the tiny sound. Twilight had told me that should I ever hear that word it would mean that somepony is in trouble and that as a citizen of Equestria it is now my duty to help. So without a second thought I go off towards it. It takes me only a few minutes to find the source once I take to the air. A dark alley, another cry for help brings me quickly to circling overhead. I can smell 2 ponies one stallion and one mare....no wait I can smell a filly and its the small voice calling out. I drop down into the alley my eyes quickly adjusting to the much denser darkness there allowing me to see as Luna's moon creeps into the sky overhead. The stallion I land behind turns looking up at me as I'm tall enough to look Celestia straight in the eyes. "Who the buck are you" the stallion says I ignore him looking down at the obviously terrified filly her back legs spread as she lies on her back sobbing and begging for help. Taking in this sight my blood boils. A memory trickles through my mind of a similar situation I found myself in while living in my forest. Of a mare being chased by a group of stallions of what they had started to do to the poor creature. How her cries had awoken something in me and how I had nearly killed each of her attackers leaving them only just barely alive. That same instinct comes up now and without a single word I grab the stallion by the throat in my scaled hand. I snarl peppering the now frightened stallions face with spittle. The color of my eyes turns red and the last thing this stallion ever does is scream before I crush his throat in my hand, the beating of his hooves against my scales not even felt until long after. Once the stallions body stops twitching in my grasp I drop him to the ground with a thud. Turning to the filly I can see her face once more filled with horror and fear. Seeing her all the rage and fire boiling through my blood dies in an instant being replaced by ice. I freeze just looking at this frightened filly who is now cowering away from me "Pl..please...don't hurt me" the filly cries aa a ray of moonlight suddenly illuminates the alley fully showing the filly to be an orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail. I kneel slowly extending a scaled hand out towards her and say a few more words I know "Me friend. No hurt you." As I say this the filly seems to calm looking me over from my smile to the claws adorning the tips of my fingers. Before realization dawns upon her face. "I know you" she says "Your Prism aren't you. The one Princess Twilight took into her castle" A nod and a smile is her response and suddenly without fear she moves over to me. She throws her hooves around me and begins to cry in relief from having been spared from what was going to happen to her at the hooves of that stallion. Instincts I didn't even know I had kick in and I begin to softly stroke the filly's mane as I pick her up in my arms. Holding her close to my chest I spread my wings taking off into the sky with the moon and stars above us, I leave the stallions corpse there to rot. After about a minute of flying, during which the filly had seemed to forget everything that had happened, having climbed up onto my back to spread's tiny wings of her own "WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO" She nearly screams out the sound of the wind rushing past us blocking out her words from all but my ears. I smile at her innocence and push myself a little harder wanting to hear more of her happiness it making a large warm spot grow in my otherwise cold heart. I start to slow down as we reach the castle reaching around to pull the filly from my back and into my arms as I come in for a landing at the big front doors to Twilight's castle. I walk through the halls still holding the filly securely she having fallen asleep only a moment after landing. I take her right to Twilight without hesitation. I find her of course in her study surrounded by books many of them floating around the room. She doesn't notice me at first so I let out a short growl to get her attention. She spins around so fast at my growl that I can't help but chuckle before recognition appears on her face "Oh hello Prism sorry I didn't notice you come in." she looks down at the filly I am carrying "Wait...why are you holding Scootaloo?" Twilight asks curiously I do my best to relay what happen but having such a limited vocabulary really doesn't help "Me help filly. Danger. Stallion tried hurt filly. Me hurt stallion. Stop stallion hurt filly" I say my words barely a sentence but hoping that it conveys what I want it to Twilights eyes widen and she looks from me to the one she had called Scootaloo "Are you trying to say you saved her from some kinda danger. Danger that another stallion had or was putting her in" I nod vigorously a happy smile upon my face Twilight's eyes turn to pinpricks and I can tell that she is angry but in the next moment she is smiling at me and patting my back. "You did good Prism I am really proud that you saved Scootaloo." She takes the orange filly from my grasp with her magic. Her words though send something coursing through me a feeling of warmth and worth. It is in that moment that I decide that I would do whatever it took no matter what to keep having this feeling. inside me and to see that same look I had seen on Twilight face of pride on the faces of every pony in town no on the face of every pony in Equestria.