Chapter 11
“Flitter! Get your feathering rump out of bed!”
To give her credit, Flitter did manage to let something akin to a groggy ‘huh?’ in the second or so between hearing her sister’s voice, and feeling her blankets be unceremoniously torn off her bed.
What was perhaps less deserving of credit was what she did next, which was to yelp and shoot up in surprise at the feeling of cold morning air suddenly meeting her fur. This in turn, thanks to one of her hooves still being tangled up in the mass of sheets, led to Flitter being pulled off the bed with the rest of her blankets.
There were days when she questioned why her bedroom had timber flooring; today was one of those days.
“So did you actually manage to set the house on fire or something?” she snipped as she rubbed her sore head and began untangling herself, her words directed at her sister as she left the room.
“Rainbow Dash flew by a few minutes ago,” was the reply from Cloudchaser, accompanied by the distinct ding of the toaster being done from downstairs. “Apparently there’s a storm brewing over the Everfree Forest or something and she wants the entire weather team ready to act at the drop of a feather if we have to.”
“But I was on shift yesterday and it’s my day off!”
“Well the entire weather team includes you, so too bad!”
Flitter huffed and rubbed her eyes with her hooves. So much for getting a day to sleep in it seemed… still, at least it was just a storm and not some ancient terror come to wreak havoc.
It was actually kind of funny when she thought about it. When she and Cloudchaser had left Cloudsdale and moved to Ponyville together, they’d done so believing that it would be a nice, quiet place to live, away from all the ‘rush-rush’ that dominated the big cities of Equestria. Truth be told, it actually had been like that for the first few years, when the worst things they’d had to worry about actually had been the occasional storm rolling in from the Everfree. But after a certain celebration involving Twilight, Spike, Nightmare Moon, and the Elements of Harmony, heh, yeah, since then little things like unpleasant weather barely ruffled her feathers...
Without warning, her thoughts decided to dramatically change flight paths, and she felt a slight sting in her cheeks; well, there was one little thing that had been ruffling her feathers lately, that thing being a stallion she’d recently become friends with.
She huffed and shook her head. “No, bad brain. It’s too early for this.”
It wasn’t like she’d fallen head-over-hooves for him or anything; she’d thankfully grown out of doing that once her teenaged years had passed. But there was something about him that had piqued her interest when they’d first met, and having gotten to know him over the two weeks he’d been living in Ponyville that interest had started forming into… something else. She wasn’t sure if she could call it attraction just yet, but she did enjoy his company.
And honestly, compared to most pegasus stallions, he was like a breath a fresh air. Ugh, she swore they all had clouds between their ears, or at least the ones she knew did anyway.
Alright, maybe that was a bit unkind, but not completely unwarranted. For example, the pegasus stallion she knew best in Ponyville was undoubtedly Thunderlane, what with them being on the same weather team shift and Cloudchaser being Rumble’s foalsitter. He was kind of handsome, she wouldn’t deny him that, not to mention a decent flyer as well, but his cocky attitude and never-his-fault way of thinking rubbed her all the wrong ways…
...And then there was the fact that he could, at times, be a ripe pain in the flank.
She glanced over at her clock, stifling a yawn as she did so. It was five thirty, meaning that nothing in town would be open for quite a while. Great.
At last accepting the fact that she wasn’t going to get anymore sleep, Flitter struggled free of her blankets, and after remaking her bed went about engaging in her usual daily routine; a quick shower, followed by the brushing of her mane and tail, the straightening of her feathers, and finally the tedious task of getting her bow in place.
Despite her best efforts though, her brain simply refused to allow the subject of Ice Fire to disappear all through her routine. The thoughts were like a bird that had been let out of its cage and now didn’t want to go back in, instead preferring to fly around the room that was her head with no restraint or care.
Once she’d at last finished doing up her bow, Flitter exhaled and rubbed her temples. What to do about this?
If she did like him, then the most obvious answer was to ask him on a date and see how it went, which likely would’ve been what Cloudchaser would do in the same situation, but she wasn’t her sister. She liked to be a bit more certain when it came to dates and stallions, knowing that the water was actually warm before sticking her hoof in, so to speak. The question was how to best find that out?
“I guess… just spend time with him and get to know him,” she murmured to herself, before biting her tongue.
It was, however, too late. With such a thought more followed, each of those followed by two more. Did he find her attractive at all? Would he be open to the idea of having a marefriend? Was their somepony else after him? Was there a proper way to court where he came from? What would her friends think if they did get together? What would her family think about it? What would his family think about it?
She shook her head. Maybe for now the best idea was just to go and ask him if he wanted to hang out later, and go from there.
Besides, she had sent him into the Everfree Forest the day before, and there was nothing wrong with wanting to make sure he’d made it back alright.
“Flitter! Breakfast is ready so get your flank down here!” Cloudchaser suddenly called from the kitchen, the sudden interjection a welcome sound. “I didn’t make you cheesy scrambled eggs to watch them go cold.”
Flitter couldn’t help but giggle, and once she was happy with the reflection she saw in her mirror went to join her sister for breakfast, now a little less angry at the world for intruding on her day off.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
“Ugh, just five more minutes, Celestia,” Xarzith yawned as he felt the first rays of sunlight run across his face.
Celestia, however, was as usual not intent on listening to him, as the barrage of light coming in through the window didn’t relent in slightest, eventually forcing Xarzith to groggily throw back the covers and roll out of bed.
Quietly, or as quietly as he could with the wooden floorboards, he went about stretching out and limbering up his still half-asleep body, each stretch causing another of his joints giving the occasional crack or groan of protest before obeying his command. A filly named Cotton Twine he’d known once had asked him why he did it every morning, and his response had been that it made his muscles feel good after a long sleep.
He smirked to himself. Despite everything, there had been ponies through his travels that had rubbed off on him, of which Cotton was one. Now and then such ponies would pop into his head, and he couldn’t help but wonder how they were going with and what they were doing.
Plus it reminded him that there were good ponies out there.
That happy feeling soon departed though, as once his stretching was done, the stallion immediately went and retrieved his saddle bags from under his bed, still trying to keep his movements as quiet as possible to avoid making excess noise.
Just like every other morning, he found his hoof pausing on the clip when he went to open it. Part of him seriously wanted to just take the bag and throw it out the window there and then, vial, reagents, and all.
But also just like every other morning, the logical part of him told him not to, and in turn decided to throw up mental images and memories of how well... what he actually looked like had been received in the past.
“Hopefully I won’t be doing this for much longer,” he muttered sourly at last, unclipping and the opening the bag... only to have his breath catch in his throat.
The small glass vial he was looking for was there, but was it was now completely empty, not a single drop of blue liquid remained.
Swallowing, he hastily emptied out everything else onto the bed. Parchment, quills, a bottle of ink, papers and forms for his house, even a few ice diamonds that he didn’t know he still had come tumbling out, but not one drop of potion. Had he not corked it properly and it’d leaked? That didn’t make any sense, because otherwise the bag and everything else would be stained blue.
He scratched his head and cursed under his breath. The most likely possibility then was that he’d mistakenly thought there was some left when he’d actually drank it all, but at the same time that didn’t make any sense either. He’d made sure there would’ve been enough before coming to Ponyville to begin with, that way a situation just like this couldn’t arise.
“Okay, okay, calm down,” he huffed, closing the door to his room. Taking deep breaths, he began pacing back and forth. He needed to think.
No potion meant he had two choices... or technically three, but the third was instantly discarded before he even considered it. The first was to creep out of the house and make a run for the Everfree Forest now, while everypony was hopefully still asleep. There he could wait it out until the frost rose petals he needed arrived, mix up some more potion, and then return to the farm in the afternoon.
The second option was to risk it, hang around Applejack and her family for a few hours and act like everything was good and normal, and then say he had to go pick something up from Zecora.
The first option would no doubt cause some suspicion if he was spotted, especially if it was Applejack or Macintosh who spotted him, but the second hinged on what potion he had left in his system lasting until mid-morning, and there was virtually a snowball’s chance in Tartarus of that happening.
“I guess I better get this all packed up again then,” he groaned, looking at his mismatched pile of belongings.
Fate, however, didn’t seem to like the idea of a solution being so easy.
Just as he finished stuffing the last few things back into this bag and clipping it shut, and without any sort of warning, his body suddenly seized up, and then a heartbeat later it erupted with pure agony.
Despite his best efforts, a sound akin to a dragon’s snarl left Xarzith as the potion’s effects failed, and the frost dragon magic in him broke free of its suppression, starting in his chest and then quickly spreading through the rest of his body.
The feeling was best described as having a chunk of ice melt in his chest, and then having the freezing water flowing around inside him.
Without any input from Xarzith, it forcefully began driving out any lingering magic from the potions that had previously held it at bay. This in turn caused the temperature in the room plummet as that magic left his body the only way it could; the stallion’s horn erupted with blue magical energy, and his maw spewed tongues of blue frost fire, painting the walls with splashes and streaks of ice.
It barely lasted fifteen seconds, but by the end of it he found himself lying in a heap on the floor, clutching his chest and panting like he’d just outrun death itself.
“B-buck I hate it when that happens,” he wheezed out at last, allowing the pain to subside before slowly rolling over and looking down at himself.
To say he looked different then before would’ve been an understatement, and a big one at that. His hooves had been replaced by claws, the front two having toes ending with razor sharp talons, while his blue mane was now much longer than it previously had been, a testament to the snow and ice climate of the northern parts of Equestria.
Dotted across his body were clusters of blue scales or varying sizes, and against his sides were now two white wings with sapphire blue membranes, each easily measuring the length of a pony across. On a pegasus they would’ve looked disproportionately big, but that was the nature of dragon wings - they were built for gliding and soaring, not for being flapped repeatedly.
Growling to himself, Xarzith slowly raised himself from the floor, the action revealing two more distinctive changes to his appearance. There was still a tail where the ponies of Ponyville were used to seeing one, but now it was a white dragon’s tail, his snow coloured fur covering its length on top while dark blue scales ran underneath it, a tuft of sky blue fur marking the end where most dragons would have a barb or spade.
The other change, surprisingly, brought a sense of something close to loathing to Xarzith as he stared at it. Where his snow white flanks had always been bare was now a cutie mark, his cutie mark, a tongue of blue frost fire with an alchemist's flask within it, symbolizing his talents with elixirs and potions. What was harder to see against the marked fur were faint scar lines where he’d once, some time ago, angrily run his claws across it.
“Can’t call myself a pony or a dragon,” he snorted, taking a few steps and trying not to fall over...
...Only to snap his head up when he heard one of the floorboards creak, and upon seeing what had caused it mentally kick himself.
Standing with a hoof on the now open door and looking squarely at him, the same door he’d bucking forgotten to lock, was a wide eyed and slack jawed Big Macintosh. The early to rise farmpony having no doubt heard something when the potion’s magic had worn off and come to investigate.
Despite having his heart thundering in his chest, Xarzith didn’t move a muscle as they silently traded looks. It was obvious that the red stallion wasn’t entirely sure what to make of situation, or how it was possible, but there wasn’t any obvious indication of hostility, which was both a good thing and truth be told kind of surprising.
What was even more surprising however was that, after another few moments spent wordlessly staring at each other from opposite sides of the room, Macintosh swallowed and spoke.
“So your pa’s a dragon then, huh?”
“My mother’s the dragon, actually,” Xarzith replied, his words carrying an edge of a growl. He didn’t want to scare the stallion, but he wanted to make it abundantly clear that doing anything hostile wasn’t a smart idea.
Macintosh didn’t say or do anything for a moment, as if weighing up what he’d seen and now knew in his head… and then he did the last thing Xarzith that had expected him to do, which was to quickly and quietly enter the room and shut the door behind him.
“Ah ain’t gonna lie to ya, ya’ve really gone and stuck your hoof deep in it now,” he said, locking the door in place, before turning around and pointing a red hoof at Xarzith’s muzzle. “Do ya know how mad Applejack’s gonna be when she finds out about this? She’s been chompin’ at her darn bit about ya hidin’ something from us all week, and this… well this here is a might more than ya just hiding somethin’ from us, if ah do say so ma’self.”
A snarl left Xarzith’s muzzle, and he flattened his ears back, prompting an uncharacteristic flinch from the other stallion.
“Okay, first off, do you actually think I like lying about this to you and your sister, after all you two have done for me?” Xarzith snapped back angrily as he swatted the hoof away, not missing the other stallion’s tone. “Because trust me, I really and truly don’t.”
“Then why in the darn hay have ya been?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because looking like this,” he gestured to himself with a claw. “Has a habit of getting me into trouble with ponies, to say the absolute least. So I don’t really have a lot of choice.”
Macintosh snorted. “Last ah heard, ponies didn’t go gettin’ into trouble ‘cuz they looked a bit odd,” he said flatly.
Xarzith rolled his eyes; that was a nice thought. “Like you just heard, I’m half dragon. And dragons, unlike ponies, have a slight reputation of eating things and burning down entire villages when they’re angry. See why that could be a problem when trying to live in mainstream pony society?”
A look of annoyance crossed Macintosh’s face for a moment, before the Apple stallion huffed and shook his head, the sounding giving the impression he wished he was still in bed.
“Alright, alright, ya made your point. Sorry about bitin’ at ya like that,” he exhaled and rubbed his temple with hoof. “Tch, if ah’ didn’t know better, I’d say either Discord or the Crusaders had a hoof in this.”
Xarzith wasn’t entirely sure what that was supposed to mean, but he still breathed a silent sigh of relief at the red pony’s ability to be reasonable and understanding; the thought of having to do battle with Applejack’s back hooves made him nervous, let alone her older brother’s.
After another moment of silence between them, he tilted his head. “You know, for somepony who just found out their houseguest is half dragon, you’re taking this surprisingly well. Amazingly well in fact.”
Mac let out a dry chuckle. “Crazy as it sounds, what with ya givin’ ma’ sister the jitters an all ah was kinda prepared for somethin’ like… well, not exactly somethin' like this, but somethin’ a bit unusual from ya,” he said, smirking and shrugging. “Plus ah’ ain’t the kinda pony to kick first and ask questions later when ah’ can avoid it,” he grimaced. “AJ on the other hoof…”
“She’s probably going to start throwing hooves the moment she sees me, isn’t she?”
Groaning and face-hoofing, Macintosh nodded. “Eeyup, so ya might wanna come up with a plan on how to deal with her, and quick. She’ll be up and about pretty soon.”
“I have a plan. Go to the Everfree Forest and come back looking like a unicorn again,” Macintosh gave him a look somewhere between been confused and concerned. Xarzith held up a hoof. “Yeah, yeah. I know it sounds crazy and all, but I have my ways and my reasons. My advice, don’t ask.”
Mac seemed to consider the words for a moment, before shrugging. “Well alright, but ya know, ya could just tell her what ya told me; she’ll be a might angry at ya for lyin’, but ah’d reckon that she’d at least understand why ya did it.”
“Tch, I would love to be able to do that, but I just don’t think that she’s ready to see me like this; or Ponyville for that matter,” he glanced back at himself. “And honestly, I’m not ready for Ponyville to see me like this eit-”
Crash!
Two sounds that were somewhere cries of alarm and yelps of surprise filled the room as the door, which had previously been locked in place, was suddenly and violently torn from its hinges, the heavy timber crashing to the floor barely a few hooves from where they were standing.
Looking over, both males backed up and swallowed in fear at what they saw, though for very different reasons. Standing in the doorway was a very angry looking Applejack, her head lowered, front hooves pawing, and eyes burning with enough fury to melt a glacier.
Said eyes of burning fury being focused squarely on Xarzith.
“You get the hay away from ma’ brother!” she said angrily, snorting before charging straight at him.
Macintosh barely enough time to blink, if even that, before his sister had crossed the room and spun around in front of Xarzith, let alone enough time to either stop her or push him out of the way. By the time he’d fully realized just how close she’d gotten, she’d already hit the brakes and spun her back legs around, each hoof cocked back and lined up squarely with his friend’s muzzle…
...Only to kick nothing but thin air.
To Mac’s utter amazement, having seen Xarzith stumbling around in apparent pain only minutes earlier, the half-dragon had managed to jump upwards just in the nick of time, his sister’s back legs missing him by the width of a hoof.
If that was amazing, then what he did next would’ve made Rainbow Dash green with envy.
With a single wing-beat he sailed over both of them, landing squarely on the bed where his saddlebags lay abandoned, grabbed them up in his mouth, and then used his back legs to catapult himself out the open window and from sight, all before Applejack even had time to lower her back hooves to the floor.
Apparently the idea that dragons were heavy and slow flyers was a bunch of horse apples.
Once she had all four hooves down again, Applejack was at the window in an instant. “Come back here ya varmit, you and ah need to have a talk!” when no reply to her shouting came, she snorted and marched for the doorway. “C’mon Mac, that critter can’t ‘ave gotten far, and ah’ want some answers outta him.”
And then she crumpling as a blur of red slammed down on the back of her head, sending her to the floor and knocking her out cold.
“Sorry sis, but ah reckon ya kinda needed that,” Macintosh winced, rubbing his now sore hoof as his eyes went to the open window.
Why did he get the feeling that this was not going to end well?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“I hope you know that this is going to end badly.”
“Spike, nothing is going to go wrong,” Twilight said, huffing at the words of the dragon on her back, and now silently relieved that Sweet Apple Acres was finally coming into view. “I promised you that I wouldn’t go asking Xarzith any personal questions, didn’t I? Isn’t that enough to satisfy you?”
“Twilight, this is you that we’re talking about,” Spike shot back, folding his claws across his chest. “Given your track record of going nutty when you don’t understand something, forgive me for not completely believing you.”
Twilight groaned but held her tongue, deciding it best not to reply to Spike’s accusations, and instead redirecting her attention to the approaching farm gate. As much as she wanted to deny what he’d said was true… well, her little outburst the afternoon before kind of made that impossible.
Bar perhaps a lingering edge of tiredness, and Spike’s current apprehension, Twilight would say that this particular morning was pretty close to perfect. She’d woken up to find Spike cooking them a double batch of blueberry pancakes, a rare treat even with his love of cooking, and a much appreciated cup of coffee already waiting for her on the kitchen table.
She wasn’t sure if he’d actually known that she’d slept badly or not, but either way it had been absolute blessing.
What was more was that they’d discussed Xarzith as they’d sat down over breakfast, and after some… mildly heated debate, Spike had finally given her a little ground in his thinking, and together they’d tried to figure out the best way to encourage him to show his true colors, so to speak, without the risk of their efforts quite literally blowing up in their faces.
If her theory that Xarzith was half dragon was correct, then in Twilight’s mind the issue was mostly likely this; for whatever reason, probably due to either past emotional turmoil or negative subconscious programming, Xarzith felt the need to hide his dragon half in order to avoid confrontation or conflict with those ponies around him. Therefore, what she, Spike, and those around him needed to do, if this was indeed the case, was to make it known that there would be no such conflict if he were to be honest and open up to them, and knowing that would hopefully give him the confidence to come clean with them.
To her it was a foolproof plan, even if Spike didn’t quite share her enthusiasm, which he’d made abundantly clear he didn’t.
“I just don’t get why you think you need to do this, Twi,” Spike said, stifling a yawn; unlike her he flat out refused to drink coffee in the morning. Something about it tasting like dirt that had been flavored with more dirt.
“Because sometimes we all need a little push to get things moving Spike,” she said, smiling as she pushed the Apples’ gate open, the squeak it gave off sounding almost annoyed. “It’s a simple fact that we can all become either too comfortable or too afraid to change things by ourselves, even if we know that change can make us happier in the long term,” unbeknown to Spike, Twilight’s cheeks suddenly took on a pink hue, and she found herself glancing at her hooves. “I guess you could say I’m a great example of that. Remember how I was about making friends before we moved to Ponyville?”
“Yeah, I was pretty certain you were going to marry one of Stablea Maner’s books for a while the-Woah! Alright, alright, my bad. That was uncalled for,” he said, apparently forgetting that it was her back he was riding on.
“Good, and for your information… I might’ve had a slight crush on one of the characters,” she admitted, her cheeks stinging as Spike burst into laughter. “Alright you, now it’s my turn to ask you something.”
“Ugh, what is it with you and wanting to know things?” he replied as his laughter died down, smirking as she rolled her eyes. “I’m just kidding, Twi. What’s on your mind?”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday, about how you know it’s okay for you to eat meat, but that you’d still like to keep it to myself,” she said, slowing her pace to take in the surrounding orchards. “What I don’t understand is why you feel you need to keep it to yourself if you know it’s okay.
She heard Spike ‘hmm’ for a moment. “Honestly, it’s not so much that I have a problem with everypony knowing. More that I just don’t need the added complication,” Twilight stopped and looked back at him with a perplexed look, drawing a shrug from the dragon. “You might not notice it, Twi, but living in Ponyville means that I’m constantly walking the fine line between being me, a dragon,” he pointed to himself. “And trying to fit in with everypony else around me by acting like a pony. Everypony knowing that I eat meat would probably only complicate that.”
“So it’s like you have this… image of yourself that you want everypony see you as, and you think that the knowledge that you eat meat would distort it? Make you look… more dragon then pony?”
Spike smiled and scratched a claw behind her ear. “Smart pony. I always knew there was a reason Celestia chose you as her student.”
“Hmhm, I might be smart, but you’re the one who keeps me sane,” she said, smiling and trying not to giggle at the sensation. “And I won’t try to tell you to do otherwise, but I don’t think you need to act like anyone other than yourself.”
The smile on her face widened as the trees around the two of them parted, and the Apple family farmhouse rose up in front of them like a red mountain in a valley. Truth be told, she was very much looking forward to putting this short saga behind her, even if it meant not being able to tell anypony what she’d found out.
Between the headaches, general annoyance, nights of restless sleep, snooping, and flaring tempers… yeah, the last two weeks hadn’t been the most enjoyable.
She grinned as she trotted up towards the house. “Well Spike, Looks like we’re here. Now we just need to see if we can track down…” her words trailed off.
Twilight blinked as she looked around the Apple family homestead and the surrounding barn and fields. For whatever reason the farm was… surprisingly quiet for a weekday morning. As in, unusually quiet.
Maybe it was because she enjoyed observing things as part of her research, or maybe it just because she’d spent so much time with Applejack on her farm, but either way, Twilight knew that on Sweet Apple Acres there were certain things that were constant no matter what. Big Macintosh, for example, would always be up and loading his cart with apples by six in the morning for the stall in town… as in, he would be doing it come rain, hail, snow, or shine, and usually with Winona racing about his hooves while he worked.
Today though, his cart lay abandoned by the barn doors and the red stallion himself was nowhere to be found, as was Winona.
“Where... is everypony?”
“You really think that I know?” Spike said as he peered around with her, unease in his voice. “I hate to say it Twilight, but this is a little too much like the day we first encountered Zecora.”
“And here I was thinking Cloudchaser had an overactive imagination.”
Naturally, the sudden and unexpected intrusion of a new voice, coupled with the fact that she’d already been unsettled by the lack of anypony, prompted Twilight to yelp and spin around, unintentionally throwing Spike from her back in the process...
...Only to see Flitter as she landed a few meters behind them, the younger pegasus giving the two a look that virtually said ‘seriously, what is wrong with you both?’, or something to that effect.
“Eesh. Flitter, do me a favor and don’t do that when Twi’s freaking out,” Spike said, standing up and dusting himself off.
Twilight gave the dragon a flat look, which he replied to by clearing his throat and staring at a nearby tree, before turning to the other mare. “What are you doing here this early in the morning?” she asked, tilting her head. “Not that there’s a problem or anything, but I’ve never really known you to be a regular around here.”
Flitter huffed as she trotted over. “Well, long story short is that there’s a storm brewing over the Everfree Forest or something, and Rainbow Dash decided to put the entire weather team on notice just to be safe,” she said, before snorting. “Basically, Cloudchaser decided to drag me out of bed at O’dark thirty...”
Twilight’s eyebrow arched as all of a sudden Flitter paused, and her light colored cheeks quickly went crimson, her expression changing to one of... embarrassment?
“A-and since there wasn’t a lot else to do, I was going to see if Xarzith wanted to hang out later, b-but then I spotted you two,” she said, scraping at the ground with a hoof. “Why are you sneaking around then here for then?”
Spike and Twilight shared a knowing look.
“We weren’t sneaking around,” Twilight said as she turned back, sighing and flattening her own ears. “Kind of like you we wanted to discuss something with Xarzith, but as you can see we just got here and haven’t seen hair or hide of him… or anypony else for that matter.”
“Maybe zombie ponies got them all,” Spike suggested, shrugging.
Flitter giggled while Twilight rolled her eyes. “Ugh, Spik-”
“Come back here ya varmit, you and ah need to have a talk!”
In almost perfect unison, Twilight ducked, Spike cried out, and Flitter squealed and shot for the nearest tree, as the prior silence was shattered by the sound of Applejack’s voice, though whether their reactions were caused by the volume or the anger in it none of them were really sure.
And then all three of them jumped again as there was a loud bang, said loud bang followed only a few seconds later by a familiar white blue came racing out from behind the farmhouse. The stallion was running at a breakneck pace with his saddlebags swinging along beside him, just behind them were…
Twilight blinked and shook her head at the sight, momentarily thinking that she was dreaming or seeing things; where she was used to seeing bare white fur on Xarzith’s side, when it wasn’t covered by his cloak, were now wings, honest to Celestia wings.
What was more was that they were nothing like those of a pegasus pony, as in nothing whatsoever. With his speed she couldn’t get a particularly good look at them, but they were definitely more like those of a batpony judging from the shape and the way they hung. Although on a batpony, they quite frankly would’ve looked ridiculously oversized.
There was no question about it. The only creature they could’ve belonged to was a dragon.
Despite having either seen or studied just about every oddity Equestria had, Twilight swallowed and took nervous step back. She’d guessed that her thoughts on him being part-dragon had been right, but to physically see his dragon heritage was something else entirely.
“Xarzith, wait!” Flitter called as she dropped from her tree, the pegasus spreading her wings as if to chase him.
He’d either not heard her or ignored her, as if anything his running pace picked up after she’d yelled out.
Within moments his white form had reached the edge of the southern orchard and disappeared into the foliage, a faint rising trail of dust where his hooves had hit the ground being the only thing left to see.
“What… what the hay just happened?” Spike asked after a moment.
Before Twilight could get a word out to answer, Flitter snorted and stamped a hoof. “I’m not sure, but I’m sure going to find out.”
She went to take to the air, and then yelped as she found herself suddenly being pulled down by a magical grip around her tail.
“Flitter... you should probably take Spike with you,” Twilight said with surprising calmness, nodding to the suddenly uneasy dragon. “I’ll catch up with you both once I’m sure everything’s alright with Applejack and her family.”
Despite the hectic nature of the situation, and the fact she’d just seen a very different looking Xarzith gallop away from the Apple family homestead, Flitter’s face still warped into an expression of utter confusion.
“Why exactly?” she asked.
“Flitter, just… just trust me on this one,” Twilight said, flicking her gaze between the distant Everfree Forest and her little brother. “I know it sounds crazy, but Spike’s probably the only one out of the three of us who can talk some sense into Xarzith right now.”
“Twilight, what are you thin-hey!” Spike started; only to suddenly find himself with a wing in his face.
“Less talking and more getting on,” Flitter snapped, her expression telling him she was not in the mood for joking around.
Truth be told, she wasn’t entirely sure which emotion she was feeling more, panic, fear, or anger. What she was sure of however was that something was very wrong with Xarzith, and catching up with him was as such her number one priority.
The dragon shot Twilight a glare, who offered a sorry look in return, before grumbling and climbing onto the agitated pegasus’s back. “Only in Ponyville,” he muttered sourly.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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oh look, another mary sue oc, my favorite
6976650 How is my OC in any way a Mary Sue?
Well this got interesting. I wonder what will happen next?
6976650 Really?
6976677 Good chapter, can't wait for the next one.
It's alive! Big Mac was right to knock his sister out.
Ooh I'm seeing lot of long started fics being updated today.
Keep on the good work I love stories involving Kirin's. Also, are still going on with "A Strange New World", no pressure at all.
6977059 Yes there will still be updates for "A Strange New World" I'm just stuck at the moment and cant get out of it. I need to make speech lines for Zecora and I suck at rhyming. What is worse is that I can find anypony to help with said problem.
6977245 This fic is not updated often as life is a bit harsh right now not just for me but for the other writers Freelancer and Alticron. We get what we can done when we get the chance for this I am sorry but we will be putting out chapters as we can. We work hard on the chapters and try to make them the best we can for your enjoyment.
IT LIVES!!!
6977513
Ah ok, yeah I see your predicament. Zecora is a mouthful to handle. Isn't there a dedicated forum here with tips to construct her speech patterns?
The only way that AJ could get more OOC in this chapter is if she planted orange trees and sold Granny Smith to the Flim Flam brothers.
6981519 Not really. She's always acting without thinking. She bucked a manticore in the two part premiere of season 1, vilified zecora as well as buffalo without listening to reason, and many more examples, both she and Rainbow lack ANY tact. I agree there's a little ooc parts but she's not so ooc as you're making her out to be.
6999176
Yes, but she didn't break into Zecora's cottage and pour her medicine down the drain.
6999200 She actually, in a way, did when she and the girls broke into Zecora's house and knocked over her cauldron. True, the knock over was accidental, since they thought Zecora was making Applebloom stew she more than likely would have bucked it over.
7000041
AJ generally voices her opinion/issue and doesn't act in deceitful ways. Sneaking into someones room and rifling through their things is somewhat deceitful.
7000125 But there are times that she does, rare as they are. The Flim Flam brothers episode shows she can be deceitful.
When's the next chapter coming out?
When's the next chapter?
Will you be continuing with this story?
8790864
Yes I will be continuing with this story at some point we lost one of the writers for the story freelancer and I've been having a hard time trying to get the next chapter the way I like it plus I started working on a new story which didn't help in the end but I am still going to continue this
Aw when it was just getting good.
I hope you update this soon! This is a great story.
judging by the last update date this story is what i refer to as a dead story isn't it
9661425
No the story is not dead one of the writers has quit and I was working on a new project. Now do to things in my life taking a very bad turn writing is on the back burner and only done on my free time. I will finish this story at some point. I am glad you like my work enough to comment. Thank you!
9663654
well then i will wait patiently for the next chapter
Love the story. Keep up the good work.
You know that feeling where you want a story that you’ve never read to continue? That’s what I’m feeling right now
Oh Buck I guess we will never know what happened
Story is quite interesting so far. Do you expect it to stay on hiatus for much longer? It's been quite a few years now.
11386304
I have no idea when I will start writing on this story again my life is still a mess and my new house is currently still being worked on due to this I have not had much time for writing I am sorry I do plan to finish the story at some point