//------------------------------// // Too much drama! // Story: Tales of a Gallant Knight of Equestria // by SoloBrony //------------------------------// What do you mean, there wasn't enough action? Well, I guess I did tell you it would be an adventure story. Alright, then, let's just cut to the chase! Specifically, Sir Talon was being chased. As he wove between buildings, he considered that this was not precisely the glorious first day he had imagined. Still, as he ducked under a fireblast and laughed at his pursuer, he imagined he was putting on a good enough show for the locals. "STOP... RUNNING!" Talon heard the buzzing behind him intensify, and dove to the side just in time for the dragonfly chasing him to overshoot, flying straight into an alleyway and banging its wings on the adjacent buildings. Nasty things, dragonflies; they're flies as big as a pony, and they breathe fire. Scales, too. This one was a particularly foul specimen; twice as big as Talon, and with a spiked tail to boot! Still, that proved to be its undoing, as it got itself properly stuck in that alleyway, and Talon simply walked up behind it, laughing. "Alright, I've stopped running. What do I win?" The beast struggled, roaring and spewing fire as it wriggled between the two buildings. "STUPID LITTLE PONY, WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE—yeeek!" Sir Talon smirked as he poked the beast in the rear with his rapier gently, right under a scale. "See, you were supposed to say 'the fight', since that's what I've won—whoop!" Talon had to roll under a swing of the beast's tail as it struggled, its voice having raised to a sort of whiny, colt-ish pitch. "Let me go~! This isn't fair! Let me out let me out let me HEY!" Talon had taken the opportunity to tie his adversary's tail to one of their rear legs and wings. When the rope was cinched, it put them in rather comical pose – you'll just have to imagine it. There was wriggling and flopping around, I assure you! "Alright, there. Now, are you ready to settle down, Tommy? You promise not to steal any more roofing tiles?" Tommy – that was the dragonfly's name – sighed, sagging down. "Fi~ne, I guess." Tommy grumbled as Talon hooked the rope over a nearby stablepost and bit down on it. It took a few pulls, but Tommy popped out of the alleyway. As soon as he did, he whipped around and burnt the rope with his fire-breath, and then stood tall, laughing in his deep, booming voice. "FOOLISH PONY! NOW THAT I AM FREE, THERE IS NOTHING TO STOP ME FROM TAKING ALL OF THE TILES I WANT!" "Uh huh." Talon was idly polishing his rapier while Tommy spoke, which irritated the dragonfly greatly. He jumped to take flight, only to collapse to the ground, and realize one of his wings had been clipped short! "HEY! What did you do?!" "I told you that if you chased me I'd have to ground you." "That's not cool, man! How am I supposed to get home, now?!" "I guess you'll just have to hang out down here with the pony folk until it heals up, won't you? Maybe help them fix their roofs or something." Talon smirked at the dragonfly as he sheathed his rapier, slinging it over his back. Tommy just gaped at him. "You have to be kidding! I can't do that, I need to get home!" Talon smugly propped himself up against a wall on his hind hooves, folding his forelegs and glaring at Tommy from under his hat. "Why should anypony care about what you need? They needed their roofing tiles, y'know. You didn't care about that when you stole them." Tommy shuffled at that, his head drooping. Talon had some trouble reading the expression – I mean, Tom's face wasn't much like a pony's – but figured it looked sort of remorseful. "It's not about what I need. Ponies have plenty of roofing tiles, right? I mean, you guys use'm all over this town! What's the big deal if I take a few?" Right on cue, another dragonfly came around the corner of the building Talon had been leaning against. This one was far smaller, only a little bigger than Talon, and spoke in a high-pitched squeak. "Tommy! You lied to me!" "Wha—Billy?! This is where you've been these past two days?!" "Yeah, and the ponies have been real nice to me! You shouldn't be stealing their stuff!" Talon smirked to himself and began walking away as Billy chewed out his elder sibling; this had been his real trap all along. The hard part had been getting Tommy to come down off of the mountain and admit to his crime, but it was nothing a little taunting couldn't manage. Talon met up with the mayor in the town square, as planned; they could still hear Billy's squeaky voice echoing to them from across town. "So, that's it? It's resolved, then?" "Did you even think about the damage that fire could have done?!" "Looks that way. Billy will keep Tom in line; besides, I think he'll lighten up after spending some time around here. I'm pretty sure he just does the tough bully thing because the Everfree is so dangerous; he's just trying to protect his brother." "Did you see what he did to my wing?! I mean—" "You burnt his hat, you know!" The mayor nodded, and frowned, looking in the direction of the ongoing argument. "Can we really trust those two not to cause more problems?" Talon almost didn't hear the mayor, as he realized his beautiful hat had been damaged by the near-miss fireblast. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, I think you will be fine." "What makes you so sure? Actually... what gave you the idea for this plan at all?! We expected you to find the tile thief and run them out of town, not invite a monster or two into town!" Talon paused for a few moments, frowning. When he responded, his voice was very level and measured. "You know, they may look like monsters, but appearances aren't everything. They're just a pair of brothers, living up in a cave in the Everfree. Tom only swiped those tiles because Billy liked them; they don't really have much going for themselves out there. Maybe you should think about that, instead of jumping to conclusions. And just so you know—" Talon prodded the mayor in the chest with his hat for emphasis as he spoke. "—what gave me the idea was going to their home and watching them for a while. You know, trying to actually understand what kind of people they were, and I realized that we had a lot in common." Talon started to trot away irritably, putting his hat back on with a frown; the mayor stammered something indignant at his back as he went. Before Talon left the town square entirely, he glanced back over his shoulder for one last comment. "Y'know, having a monster in your midst might be more helpful than you think – if you can bring yourself to look past appearances."