//------------------------------//
// Scribbles 
// Story: Hollow Shades 
// by Dilos1 
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	"So let me see if I've got this straight," Quartz said as she rested her hooves against each other on her polished desk, looking at the ponies and griffon gathered before her with concealed worry in her eyes and an air of disbelief in her voice. "Your telling me that this "monster" is some sort of deformed dragon? You were attacked, and then you were saved by some sort of ninja mare? Because that's what it sounds like your trying say." 

To be completely honest Quartz was not entirely sure if either Harp or Gerald were entirely in their right minds when they described the creature that had attacked them. They were both worn out and exhausted when they had arrived at Hollow Shades gates, and the griffon had even been injured with a wing that looked bent at an awkward angle. The injury was one that Quartz could sympathize with, as she had once broken her wings when she was a little older than the average filly. She remembered how painful it had been, and wondered if Gerald was just putting on a show until it cold be addressed. She had tried to convince him to go see a doctor, but he had insisted that he and Harp speak with her first.

When he had finished his tale, with Harp offering the occasional comment, Quartz felt inclined to believe that perhaps they had imagined some of their ordeal. That was not to say however that she thought that they were outright making their story up; it was obvious that something had happened to them out there. She was simply under the impression that perhaps given the danger they were in, their subconscious minds had overblown the monster they had seen to impossible proportions. To hear them talk about how fearsome the creature supposedly was Quartz would have thought that they had been attacked by Tirek himself. She honestly did not know what part of their story to believe. Especially the part where this "Miss Drops" as Gerald called came in a saved them. 

To her it almost sounded more like the plot line for a campy horror movie.

"That is correct ma'am," Gerald replied, his thick accent causing Quartz's ears to lay back against her head. "It is a dangerous beast, a monster unlike any other. The only reason we are here now is because of Miss Drops."

"And where is this Miss Drops now?" Quartz questioned. "No one on the wall saw another pony with you. It was just you two."

At this, both Gerald's and Harp's faces fell slightly, and Quartz noticed that there was a look in their eyes that the mare knew meant something bad. Harp turned away, seemingly unable to look her in the eye. The griffon next to him was the only one able to speak.

"Miss Drops. . . she. . ." he said, a slight stutter in his voice. Taking a steadying breath he finally said, "The beast was too strong for mere traps to take down. Miss Drops saw that the only way to let us live was to draw it away on her own."

Quartz was not quite sure what to say to that. If she was being honest with herself she actually doubted the existence of Miss Drops. She knew of nopony that was able to do the things Gerald claimed, but the way Gerald spoke of her, like he had known this mysterious pony for most of his life, left her wondering about it. Either way, she was not about to start saying that Gerald may have been stretching the truth. Nor was she about to start doubting the fact that something had attacked them, or at least was provoked into attacking. 

"Alright," Quartz said as she brought out a piece of paper and a quill, setting both items on her desk. "Can you describe this creature to me again? In detail?"

"What for? We already told you what it looks like," Harp stated.

"Yes, but only a general description," Quartz replied, shooting the young stallion a reprimanding glare. "Since it seems that hiring hunters is not going to help any of us against this thing-" Gerald huffed slightly, but Quartz decided to ignore his injured pride and continued explaining. "As I was saying, I need something to send to Canterlot to see if there's anything in their archives that might match its description. From there we can figure out what it is and how to deal with it."

"A good plan!" Gerald exclaimed before he surprised Quartz by taking the the quill and parchment from her, and began scribbling something down on it. It looked like he was drawing. Very poorly she might add. When Quartz had asked them to describe the creature to her, she had actually meant for them to give her a list of features and traits, but she supposed this would work too. Leaning over, she tried to see what Gerald had drawn so far, only for the griffin to give her an odd look and block her view with a clawed foreleg. Quartz rolled her eyes and resigned herself to waiting. It would seem that she was in the presence of an artist after all, one who did not want show his work until it was finished. 

After a number of minutes had passed, Gerald was eventually done. Setting the quill down he proceeded to push the drawing towards her. Quartz thanked him, not sure why she was doing so, before looking down at the picture on the parchment. However when she saw it, he was not sure if the picture was upside down or if she had somehow missed the seizure that Gerald must have had as he was drawing. She tilted her head to see if it would help, but that only made the image look that much more convoluted. To her it almost looked like some sort of squid contortionist with a bad case of the trots. 

"Um, are you sure this is what you saw?" she asked as she presented the picture to him. Gerald nodded with a satisfied grin. Harp on the other hoof surprised them all by bursting into laughter the second he saw it, earning a glare from Gerald.

"Uh, I'm sorry you old bird," he said between breaths, "but I don't remember it looking quite like that."

"What do you mean?" Gerald questioned incredulously. "It is good picture!" 

Harp shook his head however as he stepped over. "May I have another piece of paper?" he asked the mayor. Quartz shrugged, not wanting to start an argument over paper as she hoofed him another parchment. Harp proceeded to take the tip of the quill in his teeth as he set to work. Almost immediately Quartz was able to tell that he was much better at it than Gerald, despite the griffin having opposable digits to aid him. Where Gerald's movements were jerky and sharp, Harp's were much smoother in comparison. After a short wait he was done, and he slid the parchment back to Quartz, which had been turned over to hide the image. She was not quite sure, but she could have sworn she saw a blush in his blue coat.

Putting it out of her mind for the moment Quartz proceeded to turn the parchment over and inspect the drawing. When she saw the creature that he had recreated, she honestly was not sure whether to praise Harp for his skill, or pale at the very sight of the thing she was looking at. Never in all her life had she ever seen, or even heard of something even remotely resembling the the creature on the parchment. It was completely alien to her, and was somehow both terrifying and, oddly enough, rather beautiful to look at. The fact that it had a rather feminine build, aside from the extra arms and sleek eyeless head, made Quartz wonder if Harp had taken some artistic license with the drawing. Whatever the case, looking at the picture almost made her want to see the creature herself.

Almost. It did not take very much imagination for Quartz to guess that it was what killed the bug bear, but still she remembered that it had also attacked ponies. And even if had been provoked into the act, the very existence of a creature willing to do so was enough for Quartz to want to find a way to deal with it. 

Looking up at the pony and griffon she said, "Alright then. I'll write up a letter and it along with this to Canterlot. I've lost a lot of faith in that place in the last couple of weeks, but hopefully somepony there will know what to do."

Quartz was just about to dismiss the two and pull out another parchment when Gerald held up a talon and said, "If I may ma'am, I believe that I have solution." After his statement the griffon reached into one of the many pockets before procuring a dark green bottle with some sort of liquid inside before placing it on her desk with a loud thunk. A satisfied smile crossed his beak, while Quartz and Harp only looked at the object incredulously.

"And. . . what exactly is this?" Quartz asked as she inspected the bottle, a quizzical look in her eye. "How does this help us?"

Rolling his eyes, Gerald proceeded to explain. "This is a very rare, and very expensive way to send letters. It belonged to Miss Drops, until she gave to us so that we could send a message for assistance straight to the Princesses."

"Okay," Quartz replied, nodding her head. "What is it?"

Gerald sighed. "It is bottle of dragon fire. Very hard to come by, but very useful to have. I can only guess as to how Miss Drops got her hooves on it, but right now it does not matter. With this we can send letter to Princess, and she will send reinforcements. And then, we can finally be done with this beast, and I can back home to Griffinstone." Sighing again, Gerald adopted a tired look in his eyes that Quartz felt she could relate to on some personal level. "I'm done with this monster business," he said. "Getting too old."

"Well then," Quartz replied as she brought the bottle over to herself and retrieving another parchment. "Let's get this over with. The sooner we get this message sent, the sooner we can all get back to our lives." 

Within a few minutes Quartz had the entire letter detailing the situation they were written up. She briefly went over it to spot any errors she might have made before she slid it over to Gerald, who proceeded to uncork the bottle. The minute the cork was off an acrid smell filled the office that reminded Quartz somewhat of burnt hair, causing her to gag slightly in response. Holding up the letter and Harps drawing in one claw, Gerald careful tilted the bottle over them, apparently trying to be very careful not to spill. Soon enough a small drop came out and splattered on the pages, and before long both began to burn up in a green flame. Gerald held onto the pages until the fire had almost reached his talons, at which point he quickly let go of them just as they were consumed. The papers were evaporated in a small of sparkling smoke, which twisted in the air for a moment before disappearing entirely from sight.

"So," Quartz said suddenly. "You say that will go directly to the Princesses? As in, it will appear right in front of one of them, not just sit on a pile to be addressed later?"

Gerald nodded and replied, "Messages sent by dragon fire are always top priority for the Princesses. Help will come, probably in a day or so."

Quartz sighed, unsure if it was from relief or worry. She sagged into her seat as she felt the events of the past few days begin to take their effect on her, and all she wanted to do at that moment was have a drink and go to sleep. However there were still things that needed to be done in the meantime. She looked at Gerald, and at the wing hanging at his side. She wondered how he was able to shrug off the pain that he was undoubtedly feeling.

"You should probably go and have that looked at," she stated. 

Gerald glanced at his injured appendage, giving it a gentle prod before wincing from the contact. "Right you are," he said as he turned around exited the room, leaving the two ponies alone. Appearing uncertain as to what he was supposed to do, Harp also began to make his departure, until the sound of Quartz clearing her throat stopped him.

"Harp," she said, an odd tone in her voice that was hard for the young stallion to miss, although he could not discern the meaning behind it. 

"Yes ma'am?" he replied, wondering what she wanted to say to him.

"I just wanted to ask you something." For a moment Quartz was silent as she mulled over her thoughts. Then, clearing her throat a second time she asked, "You've seen this creature up close, right? Saw what it was capable of?" Harp nodded. " But so far I have yet to hear what you think of it. You've told me what it looks like, and I have heard quite a bit from Gerald, but I want to know what you think of it?" 

For a moment Harp was silent as he considered how best to answer Quartz's question. "To be honest ma'am," he finally replied, "I don't know what to make of it. I mean, I get that this thing is dangerous and all. In fact I think a lot of ponies would go so far as to say it's even worse than the bug bear." 

Quartz felt herself stiffen when he said that. That was a lot coming from him, as he was one of the few ponies to have seen first hoof what the bug bear had done. This only made his next statement that much more surprising. 

"But if I'm telling the truth ma'am, I'm not entirely sure that's the case. I mean, as far as we know it had not done anything to harm ponies until we provoked it. After all, if something that strong has been living just a few miles away, wouldn't you think it would have already done something? In fact, if it's what killed the bug bear then it's actually helped us." Harp fell silent as gaze his gaze drifted to the wood flooring beneath his hooves. "And earlier, when I was telling you about how it started chasing me, I forgot to mention that it actually pushed me out of the way of a trap our griffon friend set up for it. Now, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but if hadn't done that, then I don't think I would even be here to tell you about it."

Quartz remained silent as she took in Harp's words, going over them in the confines of her skull. 

"That's my two bits anyway," Harp said in finality as he turned to exit her office, and this time Quartz did stop him. She watched as he left her sight, and the sound of her front opening and closing echoed throughout her household. And Quartz just sat there at her desk, wondering just what she was going to do when whatever help the Princesses sent finally arrived. 

Her thoughts were interrupted when a small spout of emerald flame erupted from the still open bottle that Gerald had left on her desk, startling her slightly. She calmed down when she saw the flames morph into a rolled up scroll, bound a seal indicating it was indeed from the Princess herself. Using her hoof to break the seal, Quartz careful rolled the scroll open and began to read its contents. 

Addressed to: Rose Quartz, Mayor of Hollow Shades

Sender: Princess Celestia of Equestria

Dear Mayor, your message has been received, and I have arranged for a division of Royal Guards to be dispatched to the town of Hollow Shades as soon as possible. They should arrive in no less than one day. Until then, I advise that you and the ponies living there stay in their homes until the situation has been resolved. 

I wish you the best of the luck.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia of Equestria

P.S.: Please thank the pony responsible for the drawing. Luna finds it quite lovely.