• Published 1st Oct 2011
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Autumn - canonkiller

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"Mom! Mom, I've found you!" Tigerjay purred, butting his head into his sleeping mother's flank. "Mom! Wake up! I'll get us out of here, and we'll save everyone!" He lifted his head, picking up her splayed wing in his beak and moving it to a more relaxed position on her flank. "I agree, you should sleep for a little while longer. You've been through a lot."

He started grooming her wing, careful not to look back at the gaping wound covering half of her face. It wasn't there. She was sleeping, and he was keeping her safe, and her face was perfect.

His pupils shrank slightly. Everything was perfect. Just perfect.

Obsidian tapped a claw against the cold stone. He had flown up to the higer reaches of the Everrise, the large mountian that had been known to house sleeping dragons and greedy ones. He had found the cave with ease, but it had been cleared out long ago, either by the previous owner or magpies.

The bleached draconequus didn't care for the riches, but for the minerals in the walls. Dragon smoke, when trapped in a single area, eventually cools and hardens into a black stone that looks somewhat like ice. When used as a weapon, it explodes on impact, and is very hard to mold into arrowheads and the like because of that. When ground carefully, it can be used as a medicine that heals even the worst diseases in seconds. But, due to the rapid migration and extinction of the dragon species, this rare stone was becoming harder and harder to find.

It's Har'threin to them. The dragons. Ponies can't say Har'threin. I can. Obsidian was mildly proud of this fact, in the primitive state his mind had shrunk to.

And this was when his even grimmer side came out. Har'threin's base element, the smoke's essence, had the magic of the dragon bearer. It only cooled once the dragon had died. Which made it even rarer. In fact, the rock was warm to the touch for millenia after it's owner's death, while the smoke layer holding the stone in place stayed hellfire hot.

With a forgein touch, all of it would shatter, impaling the harvesters and bystanders. It was a last-second protection for the dead dragon's hoard, as any non-dragon or well-educated pony would avoid the precious stone in choice of the hoard. Anything else would go for the rock first, because no matter what a dragon hoarded, the stone was thousands of times more expensive. And they would touch it, and it would kill them.

Dragons were truly greedy creatures.

H'rhanath! Obsidian yelled back out of the doorway. H'rhanath, Red Blossom!

The twisted Pegasus in question stumbled on her back hooves into the cave, front hooves ending in mantis-like claws that were too fragile to put weight on. She fluttered her surprisingly intact wings and looked at him, waiting for further command.

Looking over the battle-ready scythe hands of his most loyal underling, he sighed and rolled his eyes. Summon Reed Blower. I'm not killing you.

The pony nodded enthusiastically and flapped her wings, slowly lifting herself towards the entrance once again. On one of her upbeats, a single white feather came loose, floating merrily up and brushing against the shining ceiling.

A spiderweb of fracture lines spread out quicky, small shards already beginning to shake loose. Red Blossom had cleared the cave entrance, leaving Obsidian under the largest ceiling of Har'threin in Equestria.

He lowered his eyebrows in a deadpan glare, matching it with a disapproving scowl. Damn.

Red Blossom, oblivious of what had happened, returned shortly with a smaller, weaker Alicorn; pitifully weak, actually. Seeing the cave entrance closed by massive shards of black glass, she galloped ahead, trying to push the massive panes aside with brute strength, even trying to slice them with her claws.

The tiny Alicorn chuffed, silently reminding her of this missions... explosive properties... and how their leader was quite strong - a firm nod - and that he could have survived this, but probably not a contained nuclear-level fireball.

Red Blossom fearfully stepped away from the glassy stone.

With a tiny, sickly green halo of magic, the Alicorn expended a massive effort, sweating and trembling. The stone shifted, and he collapsed to the ground, hyperventilating in exhaustion. Red Blossom looked at the pebble of glass he had moved, no bigger than the tip of her claw.

Her quizzical, sarcastic glare was cut off by the glassy barrier trembling, eruptive edges grinding dangerously together. The Pegasus leaped behind Reed Blower, holding him up in front of her, and impaling him through the chest - twice - with her bladed arms.

A sudden red bubble of magic appeared around her, definately not from the dying Reed Blower, that coincidied with the massive explsoion perfectly, deflecting all debris and hellfire shrapnel. As soon as the fiery chaos was over, the bubble flickered before disappaiting, the thick black smoke rushing away from the mountain in a whirlwind of magic. As the Pegasus lowered her spasming sheild, her gaze locked onto her creator, standing in the entrance of the cave, not a single mark on him. Instead, he padded past the two, ignoring Reed's pain, and scowling down at the last few explosions down the side of the mountian as the shrapnel collided with ancient stone.

He took a deep breath, trying to keep from getting too angry.

Splendid mess. That was our armoury you just destroyed. Not to mention our bank to take over financially run countries. He tore his eyes away from the devastation of his safety deposits, to fix them angrily on his minions. It's now your job to personally search for gemstones and gold in the Everfree, you worthless hunks of glue! His voice raised in volume as his constricted anger grew. Get out there and don't come back unless you've replaced that entire value, or your limp carcass is being dragged by a deranged manticore! Understand?!

Red Blossom backed up, hanging her head in shame. "I understand, master." Reed Blower nodded, not having been blessed with a throat, mouth or vocal chords.

Get out of my sight! And make sure nopony else comes up here unless they have GOOD NEWS!

He slammed his hoof down, splintering off a large section of stone and sending it plummeting downwards, the two ponies clinging to the top. The conversation ended, Obsidian leaned back in an invisble hammock, putting two of his claws to his temples.

I'm surrounded by such imbeciles...