Chapter 7: The Many Growths of Dragons
My Life as a Hybrid
By: ChaosDoomscythe/Doomscythe01
Chapter 7: The Many Growths of Dragons.
So, here I am, in the mess hall, surrounded by about twenty-some guards, the girls, and Shining. After receiving an almost deadly amount of joy accompanied by a near-life ending hug from pink with poof (dammit, Pinkie, my ribs still hurt), I was immediately, if not reluctantly, looked at by the castle’s medical staff. To their own surprise, they really didn’t have to do much. They simply cleaned the blood and disinfected the wound- which, I might add, stung like a bitch- after which, they discovered the wound itself was already healing. I explained that that’s what the joy was for. Aside from emotions feeding changelings, they can also have other effects. Joy increases the healing process, which is why I needed it in the first place. However, due to the sped up process, it also increased my metabolism. Which is why I needed a ton of food.
After wrapping me up in gauze, much like Rainbow Dash and Shining were, we were relocated to the guard barracks and into their mess hall. Along the way, I got looks of contempt from almost every guard there, the injured and uninjured ones. I could feel the hate and dislike radiating off of them. As we continued walking, many of the still able guards peeled off from whatever they were doing and joined our little entourage. Shining was about to tell them to return to their posts, but I stopped him by telling him I don’t mind. I found their anger refreshing, and I didn’t want to risk anything happening should I somehow lose myself again. After a few moments, he relented. What I didn’t tell him, however, was that anger had the effect of strengthening changelings, but it had a more pronounced effect on me due to my draconic nature.
Pretty soon, we were all in the mess hall. When they asked me what I would like to eat, I specifically told them one of everything. They looked at me as though I was crazy. Then I gave a twisted little grin and told them to give me two of everything instead. Cue looks of disbelief and insanity. Then, when my grin couldn’t get any bigger, I told them to make sure there was some cooked meat in there, too. Cue grand looks of disgust from everypony not named Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Luna. Cue me collapsing on the floor laughing along with Rainbow. She caught on to the joke quick. When we finally stopped laughing, I got serious and told them to seriously make me two of everything. While still looking at me in disbelief, they acquiesced at the behest of Luna, and soon, I was sitting at a long table surrounded by everypony present, with a good three hundred and twenty-six dishes food laid out in front of me. Nopony expected me to be able to eat even a tenth of that… except for Pinkie, who was smiling the entire time.
About six and a half minutes later, to the great disbelief of everyone aside the aforementioned pink mare, there were only eight dishes left. I wasn’t even close to full.
……What? I love to eat. Sue me.
When I finished my hefty, hefty meal, Applejack was the first one to pick her jaw up off the floor, though she still stumbled over her words. “Whoa, nelly! Shadow, that wus… I ain’t never… how did ya...”
“To this day, I am the only creature on the planet who can beat- not match, not tie- but beat Pinkamena Diane Pie in any eating contest.” Everypony turned towards the pink mare, who nodded her head in conformation. Then back to me in further disbelief. I must say, very satisfying to make ponies jaws drop. “For your own sake, and the integrity of your own stomachs, do not ever challenge me.” They nodded dumbly as Rarity trotted back in, still looking a little green. After about the first fifteen seconds of absolutely gorging myself, she couldn’t take the display and quickly trotted to the little mare’s room.
After several ponies came in and cleared the table- after glaring ruefully at me for the number of dishes they now had to clean- the girls and Shining all gathered around me for the continuation of my explanation. Instead of beginning, however, I turned towards Luna and Shining instead.
“Okay, I need two more things before I continue. The first thing: In the cell you have appointed me for my stay, there was a pile of pony bones in there. I need you to retrieve them and bring them here for me.”
The dubious looks I got from everyone were actually kinda funny. You had to see the faces these ponies made when they were confused. It was hilarious.
“Why in the world would you need bones?” asked Shining.
“Aside from being good company, I intended to use them as a visual aide.”
Applejack immediately jumped in. “Half’a what ya just said was a lie.”
I looked at her with a grin. “Now the question is, which half was the lie, and which half was the truth?”
She scratched her head. “Well, ah recon it’d be tha part where ya said it was good company.”
“Right you are, AJ.” And the she shook her head and looked at me in complete and utter disbelief. Living lie detector detected the lie. “So, I’m going to need those bones. Immediately after that, the second thing is that I want you to assign me to another cell- preferably one where I can see the moon at night- and immediately seal off the old cell, or destroy it.”
“Why would we-“
“BECAUSE THAT CELL IS A PIT OF DEATH!” I cut off Shining. “Seriously, Shining, you probably don’t know about it, but I’m assuming one of your guards did which is why they threw me down there. Inside of that Cell is a hole in the ground. The fumes that came out of that hole are literally – LITERALLY – enough to kill somepony. If I hadn’t turned off my sense of smell, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you right now. There’s a reason there’s a pile of pony bones down there. Haven’t you noticed how your guards always wear gas masks before they go down there? One of your guards tried to have me killed, dude. Can’t blame them, but still. You really need to destroy that cell.”
“.....He’s tellin’ the truth, sugarcube.” THANK. YOU. LIE DETECTOR.
Shining looked to his guards for confirmation. While some of them looked at each other in confusion, several of them were pointedly looking at anything that was not one of the ponies in my little group. Shining looked at each of said ponies, narrowed his eyes, and called each one by name. “All of you go retrieve the bones from the cell, destroy it, and then report back here for punishment detail.”
Um…. What would be a good word to describe the looks on their faces?
Flabbergasted?
A good seven guards trudged off with their heads hung low and grumbling under their breath. While that was going on, I decided I would go ahead and finish my explanation.
“Okay, so like I was saying before my pet manticore gave me a hug, in order for dragons to mature, they go through seven phases of intense emotional overload, each one causes growths. Each emotional growth is analogous to what are known as seven sins back on Earth- that’s my original home world, Twilight. Those sins, and in essence the growth phases, are as follows:
Greed.
Gluttony.
Sloth.
Lust.
Envy.
Pride.
And Wrath.
“As you’ve seen from the greed growth Spike experienced, his greed consumed him, and it caused his mind to deteriorate into a mindless collector of trinkets, as well as increasing his physical size to ensure nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted.
“With gluttony, it causes the dragon in question to gain an immense and unending appetite, and it all but forces them to continue to consume everything they can get their hands on. They gain an immense amount of weight making them look unsightly, but surprisingly, only half of the weight they gain is fat.
“With sloth, the dragon becomes unbearably lazy, and won’t even bother waking up if they don’t have to. They lose the drive to do anything, to the point where they can actually die from starvation, or in extreme situations, asphyxiation. For those of you who don’t understand big words *coughDashcough* (Hey!), that means being deprived of oxygen, or having stopped breathing.
“For envy, they become jealous of the things others have, be they random objects or even friends, or even specific species of friends. They may even lash out at people they come to dislike as a result of this, or even go so far as ponynapping or stealing what the other creature has that they don’t.
“I’m fairly certain pride speaks for itself. They become so arrogant and prideful that they absolutely refuse to accept anything from anyone, believing themselves to be above most everything, and they gain an ego to match it. Dragons will berate those they think below them, begin to make boastful claims that more often than not tends to horribly backfire upon them. Pride is actually the cause of quite a few dragon deaths because they think themselves capable great feats that they prove woefully insufficient at.”
I paused at this part, thinking deeply about this one. When I spoke again, the girls noticed I had less of an intellectual tone, and more of a somber one.
“Then there’s wrath. This growth causes the greatest change, right after greed. A dragon’s anger and fury begins to consume them, and it happens slowly over time. It sneaks up on them, and you’ll notice that they’ll start having random bouts of anger at random times. It will continue to happen more frequently, until they’re angry most all of the time. But it only grows from there. They begin to randomly attack things, be they inanimate objects, or living beings. Ally or enemy… Family or friends…
“And that’s not all. With the wrath growth, the dragon’s physical strength and stamina increase tenfold, and it makes them nearly impossible to stop. It’s worse if they can actively control the magic within their flames. The only way for a dragon to be stopped during their wrath growth is to literally beat them into submission.” I let out a long sigh and bowed my head, thinking back to the times my wrath took control of me. Then shook my head to try to clear it, but it barely did anything. I shoved my thought towards the back of my head, figuring I'd go over these traitorous emotions of mine later.
“What about lust? You’ve explained every dragon growth except that one.”
I blinked and looked up. Twilight was staring intently at me, with a quill, inkwell, and piece of parchment floating next to her, poised to continue writing. I blinked again.
The fuck did she get those fro- right. Right. Magic ain’t gotta explain shit because magic.
“Twilight Sparkle.” She blinked at my use of her full name. “I will never, ever, under any circumstance, explain to you, or anyone else, the…”I shivered, “the lust growth. That is something that every dragon must deal with on their own, and it is something that no creature that is not at least part dragon will ever be privy to. Twilight, I will tell you this though. You WILL recognize the signs of a lust growth. If that happens to Spike, you come and get me immediately. Am I understood?”
Everypony balked at the deadly serious tone I had been using when I spoke. I’m guessing they understood how serious that one was. I was being more serious about that one than I was about wrath. What a dragon goes through during their lust growth is something that should never be shared outside of the dragon species.
Ever.
Ev. Er.
Twilight gulped at the end of my last question, seemingly remembering what happened in the void when I asked that, and nodded at me immediately afterwards. I nodded back to her, before continuing.
“Anyway, that’s how a dragon matures. They’ll go through each phase over the course of their long lived lives, usually before they reach two hundred or so, and once they’ve mastered those growths, they’ll be considered full-fledged adult dragons. Not only will the growths never happen again, but a dragon will be able to control their own physical aspects. Speaking of, you guys have that silly rumor that a dragon’s size is equivalent to the size of their hoard?” They all nodded their heads. “Yeah, pardon my language, but that’s a load of bullshit.” As predicted, Rarity gasped at my ‘uncouth’ language and looked cross at me. Granted, I don’t really like to curse around ponies, especially Fluttershy, but I felt the need to there, so I went with it. I continued on before white prissy could even say anything about it, though.
“Yeah, after a dragon fully matures, they don’t actually have to have a hoard. It’s more about tradition than it is necessity. Dragon only have hoards because it's tradition to prove yourself on the battlefield, and by the size of your hoard. That’s how they gain respect. The more battles you win and the bigger your hoard, the more respect you get. They can also willingly control their size, they can be as big as they want up to a small mountain, or about the size of Lu-Princess Luna if they want to scale it down.”
I looked over to Twilight again to see her furiously scribbling down on that piece of parchment. Shining and Cadence were also looking at her, smirking and shaking their heads. But I felt the love they had for the mare. That was a type of familial love I myself would never be able to experience again, and that saddened me greatly. I took my mind off of that quickly; I didn’t need to go down that road right now.
I was about to say something snarky to the purple librarian about her rather OCD habits, but a soft spoken question was heard before I could even open my mouth.
“What about you?” We all looked over to Fluttershy, who immediately ‘eep’ed in her usual fashion, but to my own surprise, she didn’t hide behind her mane. She continued to stare right at me, while I continued to pointedly stare in her direction. Not her eyes though. I would likely never be staring into her eyes again for several years. “Um… What I mean is, um… have you matured as a dragon?”
I sat there silent for some time. Everypony looked at me, waiting patiently for an answer as I stared down at the table. I suddenly felt sympathy, and looked up to see who it as coming from. It wasn’t a surprise to see it was coming from Luna. I gather she probably figured out why I went silent. The memories that flooded my mind were really all the answer I would ever need to know if I had matured or not.
“…No. No Fluttershy, I haven’t.” I sighed again. “Well, I mean, it’s different for me. Remember how I told you that a dragon usually fully matures over the course of about two hundred years? Well I went through six of the seven growths over the course of four years.” You know, it gets kind of tiring hearing everypony gasp at every revelation you release. “I had my dad there to help me through all of them… well, except for *shudder* lust. I dealt with that one on my own.” I can see Twilight desperately wanted to question it, her thirst for knowledge was obvious. However, she remembered what I said and kept her mouth shut. “I have mastered and overcome six of the seven growths.”
“Your wrath is the one you have never been able to overcome.” Luna. Hit the nail on the head with that one.
“Considering the only one capable of actually beating me into submission never could, and is currently no longer on this plane of existence, no, I have never been able to overcome it. I have been able to temper it though. But like I said, the growths were all marginally different for me due to my unique heritage. Anger and hatred has the effect of physically strengthening a changeling. Because that effect is already gained by being angry, instead of further increasing my strength, my wrath growth instead increases my magic.” I looked at Twilight and then at Applejack for this one. “If you want a rough estimate, I’d say in a full-blown blind rage, I’d become about two times as physically strong as Big Macintosh, and four times as magically powerful as you on your best day Twilight.”
I do, however, love it when I cause jaws to drop.
“At that point, the only creatures capable of stopping me would be Luna, as she has already shown, Discord, Celestia, or a changeling queen who has spent weeks gorging on love. That, however, all depends on if they can actually gain the upper hand on me. As I’ve shown in our previous altercation, while simple-minded, I’m highly unpredictable.”
Before I could continue any further, the doors to the mess hall opened up, and the guards from before carried in a rather large sack. Each guard looked green in the face, and one of them looked like he was having trouble holding his lunch in- ….and now he’s not.
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” The guard looked at me, and nodded his head. The others did as well. One of the guards, the one carrying the sack, walked up to me and placed it before me. He then turned towards Shining. “Captain Armor. For the love of our princesses and all of Equestria, please destroy that cell.”
I burst out laughing, rolling on my back at the look on Shining’s face when the guard pleaded to him. It was just far too funny not to. I felt an ungodly chilling sensation up my spine and I shot up immediately. Luna’s icy cold glare was directly on me, and I felt like I shriveled into a raisin at the sight of it.
She then turned her sights on the guard who spoke. “Is it truly as terrible as you are making it out to be?”
“All due respect, Princess, but what lies in that cell is more than likely far worse than any punishment your or Captain Amor can dish out.”
Okay, that got my eyes to open wide. Guard saying Luna’s punishments ain’t worth shit in comparison to the death pit in that cell?
…
Okay, yeah, he’s right.
"And why, pray tell, didn't you destroy it as you were ordered?"
"Because the cell itself nullifies magic, which is part of the reason he was placed in it in the first place."
"You mean it nullifies pony magic."
The ponies turned and looked at me in confusion. "The cell. It only nullifies pony magic. I doubt it was designed to nullify changeling or dragon magic. if it was, i never would've been able to use my magic to contact Princess Luna via telepathy."
"'Tis indeed most likely. Very wrell, I shall deal with it myself at a later time, Captain Armor, would you kindly find a more suitable cell for our prisoner? It would be most welcome."
"Yup. Be real helpful there, buddy. thanks."
Shining glared at me as I turned my attention to the sack, while the guards began looking over their ill comrade. I upturned it, dumping its contents on the floor. Well looks like they’re all here. I coughed to get everyone’s attention.
“Bones, I’m going to need you to reform. It’s story time. I’m fairly certain you’d like to hear about my pet manticore.”
The skeleton didn’t move.
At all.
“Bones?” I poked at the pile of sticks in front of me. No movement at all. I looked to the guard. “You sure this came from the same cell I was assigned?”
“The guard that retrieved them is in the infirmary. Yes, I am positive.”
Well, shit. Sucks to be that guy. I then turned back to the pile of bones. “Yo, Bones. Stop being a prick and reanimate.” No response. I glared at his apparent lifeless self while the others looked at me and each other as if I had lost my mind. I paid them little mind, however, instead opting to continue glaring at Bones. “You. Have. Five. Seconds.” Nothing. I smiled devilishly.
“Very well. You’ve made your decision. Of course…
“…This means war.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“*HUUUURRRRRRRRRRGH*”
“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!”
“OH MY- *hurk*! YOU TASTE SO HORRIBLE! *hng* *BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGH*”
Ok, when I said ‘this means war’ the plan was to bite one of the bones and snap them in half with my razor sharp fangs. Incidentally, my tongue sometimes has a mind of its own, and when something is put into my jaw, it has a tendency to lick things automatically.
The instant my tongue touched that bone, and my brain registered the incredibly foul taste that permeated off of it, my stomach heaved on me. I mean, I actually felt the thing move as it shuddered and contracted, forcing me to upchuck anything that hadn’t already been digested. Luckily for me, it really wasn’t much.
Unluckily for me, it hurt like a bitch.
Imagine having your stomach being squeezed by Superman’s hand.
Ok, now imagined your balls being squeezed by Superman’s hand.
Now imagine both happening at the same time.
THAT’S how painful it was.
So I moved as fast as my crippling stomach pain would allow over to the nearest trash can and let loose the contents of my stomach. It sucked because after the first two, I was dry heaving.
The ponies in the room, though. If I wasn’t puking all over this can, I’d probably be doing the same thing Bones is doing. That would be rolling on the floor laughing my ass off. As it stood, they all looked pretty freaked out to see an alicorn skeleton suddenly reanimate itself and begin laughing at my misfortune.
Well, everypony except Fluttershy, who was busy rubbing my back trying to make me feel better.
It didn’t, but it’s the thought that counts and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Anyway…..
“*GASP* You taste like deeeeaaaaeath!” That was not an exaggeration, by the way. I sat there panting, a little drool and stomach acids falling from the corners of my chin while Bones kept laughing away. I think my stomach was finally done killing me-
Oh wait, no it’s not.
“*HUUUUUUUUUUUUURGH*”
Fuck. You. Bones.
“ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!”
“EEP!”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
“OH SHIT! MANTLE, NO!”
CRUNCH!
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
785 users online
738,183 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
“ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!”
“EEP!”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
“OH SHIT! MANTLE, NO!”
CRUNCH!
what?
3697498 Mantle showed back up and bit him again I'm guessing.
SUCKS to be Shadow right now XDXDXD
Other than that, it's a good chapter XD
If this is your first fic, do something simple, not some romance tragedy...comedy? based on the tags. Both romance and tragedy are hard to pull off well, and your premise is very cliched. A human dying and being sent to equestria? Go and join the ones that take up like 30% of the total website (Hyperbole, I know). Something like this is too ambitious for a first-time author. Start with a few simple slice-of-life stories before trying to come back to this concept, hopefully with enough writing experience to make it an interesting read.
3697498 What Zaleros said... or is it?
3697533 You're half right, there buddy.
3697560 Tell me about it.
3697576 Don't mean to sound like a jerk when i say this, but what premise isn't cliched these days? Also, the romance thing is a maybe at this point. Not entirely sure there will actually be any romance in this story, and if there is, i guarantee it wont be with any of the mane six, or any of the princesses. I will think about your other idea, though. Slice of life stories are always good. I'd have to wait until i can get more free time though.
3697647
I know most have been done before, but this kind of concept usually screams self-insert wish- fulfillment, and the premise has been completely beaten to death, moreso than other kinds of stories. I'm not saying to give up, but you're treading on paper-this ice making a HiE like this, and you have to be extremely careful not to fall into the abyss of mediocrity. It takes a very skilled author to pull this kind of story off well.
3697677 Yeah, i know. not all HiE stories are bad, but they have basically been beaten to death by now. For now, i just going to continue this and see where it takes me. I'll probably branch out into something else later on though. By the way, thanks a lot for giving your honest opinion on this, and for giving me advice too. a lot of people on here dont even give new authors like me the time of day, so thanks for that.
3697533 whos mantle?
3703912 Mantle is his pet manticore, we sorta met it in chapter 6 right after they came out of that dream thing. He's actually the reason they left it so abruptly.