//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Not alone // Story: Boy or Beast // by AstralFlame //------------------------------// Walking out of the caves in the mountains that separated Starlight’s village and Rainbow falls, Cyril stretched and turned to the north. He’d spent the past week stuck in in those mountain caves due to a snowstorm that had come out of nowhere. Even as an animal Cyril found it hard to navigate through the blinding whitewash and cold. He didn’t even dare attempt such an act. Even now that the storm had passed, he could barely stand outside without shivering. Walking without hesitation, Cyril headed for Rainbow Falls. Despite the small settlements close proximity to the northern Crystal Empire, Cyril had witnessed a lack of snow, which led him to believe that despite the frozen wastelands at both the Northern and Southern fronts of the town, Rainbow Falls enjoyed a pleasantly warm atmosphere.It was the perfect town for Cyril to live in for awhile, at least that’s what he thought. “Ugh, put that thing away before you lose it, you damn Hentai reject!” someone suddenly shouted, causing Cyril to look around for the source of the voice. “Besides, I’ve taken down bosses bigger than little minion NPCs like you,” the voice continued. “NPC?” Cyril thought, he had only heard that term used back home. “Could someone else from home have ended up here?”  he asked himself. “And if so how could they have mistaken this for a game?” No it didn’t matter to Cyril what the other person thought. What mattered to him was that someone was in trouble. Cyril knew this world better than anyone else from back home, both from the show and from having lived in it. No matter how peaceful this world looked, no matter how nice the ponies seemed,  danger was always right around the corner. It wouldn’t take long for some monster or mythical creature to pop up and ruin a perfectly good day. Rushing towards the sound of the voice, Cyril stopped as he came rushed over the side of a large snow bank, only to spot two dragons, both fighting. One of them was a large green male, in fact Cyril remembered seeing him from the show, it was the dragon who had chased Spike when the young drake had eaten his gems. The other was a red female. She was different than the green dragon though. She was smaller and she resembled more of a wyvern than a dragon. She had no front legs, but rather he wings served as her front legs. It was clearly the red dragon who he had heard before, as Cyril heard her threatening the dragon once again. The thought of rushing in to help the dragoness popped into his mind, but it was quickly squashed, when he saw her jump up and latch onto one of his spines before flipping him onto his back. Cyril watched her pull her tail back, it’s point reminding him of a scorpion, and readied to lunge it into the green dragons throat. The dragon however caught her tail and threw her into into the boulders that lined the valley they were in. Cyril heard the green dragon growl something at the green as he stalked toward her. His tail lashed out and hit the thin membranes of one of her wings, causing her to scream in pain. Cyril couldn’t help but feel bad for the red dragon. He wasn’t sure how long she’d been here in    Equestria, but it was clear she wasn’t taking thing seriously, and she was going to- Cyril saw something as the green dragon now pinned the red underneath him. He watched the red dragon struggle, fear now evident on her face, and the first thing Cyril had heard the red dragon say now made sense to him. What was happening was wrong. Cyril knew that Equestria was dangerous, but the place was suppose to be rated G, what was about to happen broke that concept. Hey asshole!” he shouted without thinking, his anger now taking over again as he changed into a Rhino  and charged the green dragon. Lowering his head, Cyril’s horn punctured the side of the green dragon. A large hole now bleeding profusely, as he tried to stand. Cyril quickly returned to his human form and allowed his anger to simmer off, believing he had now won. “I’m not in a VR, am I?” the red dragoness asked, causing Cyril too turn to her in surprise. “I don’t know what that is, but I’d say no,” he replied still staring at the green dragon, as he slowly got back up. “Need help?” he asked. Cyril watched as her eyes opened wide then narrowed “I don’t need help from a boy such as you!” She struggled a bit before she quickly righted herself. “I have this under control.” she growled. Cyril didn’t believe it for a second, she had easily been subdued by the dragon before and if he didn’t intervene again, she’d lose again, but before Cyril could stop her, the green dragon roared and charged. The red dragoness reared back and opened her maw to shoot fire at the green dragon, but he quickly clamped his jaws around her throat, cutting the charged fire off before it could be released. The red dragon began to struggle and in doing so, blood spilled from around the green dragons mouth. Again the anger boiled up inside of Cyril. He had no notion as to why, but it was as if he mind was finding any excuse to get angry. Transforming into a T-Rex Cyril charged yet again at the green dragon, roaring as his head connected to the male dragons head. Not letting up Cyril’s teeth dug into the dragon's wing and he twisted, making the dragon lift his head and roar in pain. In an instant Cyril returned to normal and jumped back, barely avoiding a torrent of fire. Cyril prepared to make his next transformation but the red dragoness lunged forward and clamped her own teeth around his throat. The dragon tried to say something but she quickly tore his throat out, spewing blood against her and staining the white snow. She turned to Cyril, before spitting out the chunk of flesh. “I told you I had this under control.” 00000 To say that Cyril was having a strange day was an understatement. Fighting off a dragon usually left someone in bad shape, had it not been for his weeks of dodging the creatures of the Everfree forest, Cyril was sure he would have been dead by now, but he wasn’t and he was thankful for that. When the battle was all done and said, Cyril couldn’t help but feel a bit bad. Seeing the wounds on the red dragoness neck and stomach quickly made him realize the consequences of his anger. The dragon had her by the throat with his teeth, and while she was already bleeding at the time, Cyril was sure he had made it worse. he was thankful that he had convinced her to return to his cave with him. The promise of treating her wounds and giving her the answers she needed had helped greatly, but she had bitched at him the whole way. It had incited his anger some, but remembering he was the cause for her wounds had helped him subdue his anger. It seemed his guilt was far stronger than his anger. When he came to his cave he told the dragoness to sit and wait for him to return with medical supplies to treat her wounds. She had told him to ‘hurry the hell up,’ but he let it slide, she was after all in pain, quickly leaving the Cyril turn into a bird and was on his way to the closest town he knew of. Cyril now found himself flying towards Rainbow Falls, his original destination, however he wasn’t headed there for sightseeing. The show didn’t really give any indication that a settlement was at Rainbow Falls, but Cyril was positive he’d find something. Soaring through the air as a falcon, Cyril rose above a mountain range to find his view filled with color. Needless to say Rainbow falls did indeed have a settlement. The town was thriving and ponies walked the streets much like how the ponies of Ponyville did, in fact if it wasn’t for the large rainbow that hung above the town, Cyril might have mistaken it for Ponyville. Not allowing himself the luxury of being distracted Cyril circled the town his eyes glued to the ground hoping to spot some building that gave indication that it was a hospital, or at the very least some kind of clinic. It took Cyril five times to circle around the village before he finally spotted the large white two storied building. The only indication he had from above was it’s sterile white walls, however he thankfully spotted a pony leaving in a wheelchair. Landing on the sign just outside Cyril looked the building up and down and noted, with irritation, the large red cross painted at the top of the building. Cyril circled the building trying to find an open window, but considering most of the ponies inside were probably sick, it wasn’t good practice to keep the window open thankfully one of them was open, and Cyril took advantage of it immediately. The room looked like it was for doctors and nurses, the multiple couches, the fridge, and even the coffee maker all pointed to this being a staff lounge, and Cyril couldn’t help but notice that the door to the lounge was opened slightly. Turning into a mouse and slipping through the crack was easy, maneuvering through the empty hallways even easier, trying to find a supply closet was hard. The stench of cleaning supplies was messing with Cyril's sense of smell, making it nearly impossible to sniff out what he needed. It was hard to find disinfectant and bandages when everything smelled like disinfectant. His hearing though was still perfect. Down the hall to his left he could hear ponies talking. Creeping around the corner, Cyril watched as a cream white mare moved back and forth between rooms, a cart with some of the supplies he needed stacked on them. It was a lucky break for him but he saw that not everything was there. Looking both left and right to make sure nopony was watching Cyril quickly scurried towards the cart and hopped on the bottom platform. Hopefully the nurse would be done with her rounds quickly and she’d return the cart to the storage closet. 00000 2 Hours. Cyril waited on that Cart for 2 hours before the nurse finally put the cart back in the storage closet. He found the supplies he needed rather quickly, everything was organized and in bins with labels on them, Cyril even found a spare sheet that he used to carry all the supplies back to his cave. Landing just outside of his cave he took the sheet and slung it over his shoulder before stepping inside. Cyril was glad to find that the dragon wasn’t dead, though she was lying in a puddle of her own blood. He was thankful to see that she had built a fire, it would help considerably when he started wrapping her wounds. Setting the sheet down Cyril undid the knot at the top and let it’s contents spill out. “I’m back, are you still alive?” “You sure took your sweet time getting back,” the dragon said. “I’m surprised you didn’t just leave me here.” Cyril scuffed at her remark before he grabbed several bandages, a bottle of disinfectant and stitches. “You’re already a pain in my ass, but I wasn’t going to let you die,” he replied moving closer to get a better look at her wounds. “Besides I’ve got questions.” “As do I.” She shifted some to let Cyril get at the marks on her neck. “Where are we? And how did I get here?” “Were in the magical land of talking candy colored ponies, A.K.A Equestria,” he said before he headed back to his supplies and grabbed a clean rag. “As for how you got here, I don’t know, I’ve been here for a month and a half and I still don’t know how I got here,” As he spoke he soaked the rag in disinfectant and pressed it to the wound on her neck and wiped away the blood. The dragon stiffened, but Cyril could see her clenching her jaws. A bit of worry worked it’s way into his soul, she was still a dragon after all and if so was so inclined Cyril had no doubts she’d be able to kill him. “I’ve never heard of this ‘Equestria’ before now.” She glanced around a bit and not finding what it was she was looking for said, “Where is the box you brought here for me?” Cyril didn’t look up instead he pointed near the cave’s entrance. Focusing on her wound, Cyril grabbed the stitches and began to “sew” her wounds up. Even as he did this though, his mind wandered to the box she had wanted him to bring. It was a simple wooden box filled with coins that held an odd symbol on them. The coins were too big to be currency so what were they, and why did she want them? Was it some kind of dragon thing? “I take it you weren’t always a dragon were you,” he said more as a statement rather than a question. “No, I wasn’t. How did you know that?” The dragon reached over and pulled the case close to her with her left wing, her eyes flashing dangerously at Cyril. “Are you part of why I was sent here?” Cyril laughed, not even bothering to look up at her face. “You seemed pretty off balance when you fought that dragon, now that could have been because of several reason, but the only one that makes sense to me, is that you weren’t used to your body,” he sounded confident in his assessment of the situation, his smug smirk all the indication anyone would need. “As for me being a part of you coming here…”he shook his head. “Do I look like I have the magic or skill required to rip someone from their universe? No I’m like you, I don’t belong here.” Her eyes narrowed and a low growl worked its way from her throat. “Then you are some sort of Beast Boy ripoff.” Cyril remained quiet for a moment as his hands stopped stitching her wounds. “No…” he whispered. “This was suppose to be a fun costume…” with that he continued to stitch her wounds, his hands working slower than before. “And I was supposed to only get those coins as a prize.” She coughed and pulled her head up so Cyril could have better access to her wounds. “I had just won a RTS tournament and was just receiving the prize; a set of collector’s edition coins with each of the character’s marks on them.” “Yea and I only wanted to have a fun time, then I fall through the ground and now I have to hide from ponies,” he said bitterly. She smirked at Cyril and turned her head. “And here I thought dragons would be the toughest thing on the planet.” Cyril gave her a deadpan look. “Try being strapped down onto a table and being stuck with a rubber needle.” All the dragoness did was stare at Cyril for a few seconds before looking away. Conflict apparent in her eyes. Cyril ended the conversation there and instead stood up and inspected his work. It wasn’t perfect and it certainly wasn’t the stitch pattern they used in hospitals, but it would hold. “Where else are you hurt,” he asked, not wanting to continue their conversation and instead opting for a serious tone. She turned over onto her back, revealing the dozens of scratches on her chest and stomach. “Don’t get any ideas. I’m only doing this because I need my wounds tended to.” Cyril didn’t respond, instead he opted for cleaning her wounds. Applying more disinfectant to the rag, Cyril gently wiped the wounds down, taking care not to press down to hard. Again he felt her tense up and he could hear her holding back sounds of pain, but he paid little attention to her and instead wanted to work in silence. Grabbing the stitches, Cyril worked on her wounds. The silence allowed him to work quickly, and soon he found himself looking over the wounds on her chest and stomach. Again they weren’t as good as what a doctor could do, but they would hold. “How do you feel?” he asked as he headed for the entrance of the cave and used the snow to wash the blood off his hands. The dragoness flipped back onto her stomach and said, “Other than a need for a good bath, I’m fine.” She leaned over and pulled the green dragon’s body over, tearing a chunk out of it. Cyril watched a bit in disgust, the show of cannibalism, as he only now just remembered the dead carcass of the dragon he had helped defeat. He had forgotten about the other dragon, but he remembered as the dragoness had gone to great lengths to drag it back to his cave. He had been unaware of what her intentions had been for the dead dragon, and now he wished he’d never known. Without a word Cyril moved farther back into the cave, away from the dragoness, and regrettably away from the fire. It would be colder the farther he went, but he’d prefer not to watch her eat. The cold proved too much for his normal form, as such he chose the form of a wolf, before he circled a spot and laid down. “So you don’t want some of this?” The dragoness asked. Cyril lifted his head and stared at the dragoness before he eyed the dead dragon. He shook his head and closed his eyes hoping for rest. “As much as I hate to admit it, this dragon is half yours. Are you saying I may have your share?” Cyril heard a wet tearing sound and a gulp. Sighing, Cyril lifted his head and returned to his normal form and moved back towards the fire. He sat across from the dragoness and eyed her. “I’m not really into eating anything that talks,” The dragoness shrugs and takes another bite from the corpse. “More fo’ me thn. I guessh not ev’ryone played VRs where you had to-” she swallows her mouthful “had to kill other players in order to survive.” “Well this isn’t a VR, whatever that is. I only eat animals and whatever food I can find,” Cyril shook his head and avoided looking at the dragon as she ate. He wasn’t sure his stomach could handle it. For a few minutes Cyril didn’t hear anything else from the dragoness. “Yeah, I know. The pain I feel reminds me of that fact every second.” The dragoness shuffled some and when he looked over at her, he saw that she had put her head under her left wing. Cyril hesitated for a second, he just wanted to sleep and let her heal so he could be leave, but he recognized her tone of voice. He heard it every time he spoke about being in Equestria. “You have a family back home?” Her tone changed to one of distaste as she said, “Only my dad and he’s busy with the company. All I have back there are games and VRs.” “Sorry to hear that. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve got people I miss too,” he replied, before laying down and facing away from the fire. “By the way... I’m Cyril.” The dragoness lifted her wing just enough so that she could see Cyril. “.... Angelus Martin, but you will call me Ms. Martin.” She let her wing fall back down and sighed. “You’re wrong if you think I have anyone I miss back there.” Cyril gave no indication that he heard her, instead he was focused on trying to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t long ago that he lost his home, and now he wasn’t alone. He wondered if they were the only two, or if more people were suffering like they were. Angelus didn’t seem like a someone he could express his feelings to, and that was fine by him, but he at least took some comfort in knowing he wasn’t alone.