Chapter 22: Minion.
Dusk grunted, sweat beading down his muzzle, muscles aching with effort as he dug in his hooves into the ground. He growled "oh no you don't your coming out you stubborn little..." he clamped his jaws, and gave one last mighty pull.
Then was sent promptly sailing into the bushes as the root of the Grip Thistle finally loosened its hold.
Dusk groaned, spitting out the muzzle guard made especially for ponies who had to handle things that were potentially damaging to a vulnerable mouth, and rubbed his jaws. He hated that bloody weed, but the annoying foliage was popular for brews that dealt with headaches, canker sores, vertigo, jaundice, and was popular for hair growth potions.
Unfortunately for Dusk, it had to be harvested without direct magic to be the most effective.
He shoved the plant into his saddle bag, tossed it over his back, and levitated the rest of the baskets and bags with other, more magic friendly, harvested ingredients.
A solid week in the Everfree Forest to restock his supplies…ah yes, there was nothing better then the peace and quiet of a good ingredient hunt and bringing home a large haul for his reward.
Dusk smiled when he remembered how Soarin had pouted at the mention that he would be away for a week while his employees covered for him, but Dusk had encouraged Soarin that he would likely be to busy dealing with his week on the Apple farm to miss him.
Soarin had growled and grandly promised that it was highly unlikely.
Macintosh when told had not been pleased either,though the Earth Pony was used to his friend disappearing at odd times for undisclosed days at a time to gather ingredients.
Fluttershy had as usual been quite nervous for him.
Living so close to the forest, she was well aware what sort of horrors the forest held, but he had reassured her that he could handle himself.
He had regaled to her once during one of their lessons of the story of the time that Brew Bag had dragged him along, during his first few months as his apprentice, to the very heart of a dormant volcano in Saddle Arabia to get a rare ingredient. while it didn't help her blood-pressure any for some reason, he had at least made her forget the dangerousness of his trips into Everfree.
He hummed as he walked through the shadows, casually ducking a grasping vine, whistling as he casually sent a dead tree branch flying onto the noggin of a stalking chimera moments away from pouncing, which cursed and ran off, vowing revenge(which he didn't hear as he was some distance off).
Dusk was nearing a small gorge when he spotted the unusual sight of a hot air balloon, oddly empty of anypony, landing in the Everfree.
Then he had a sudden worrying thought that something could have happened to Cherry Berry, the pink Earth Pony that ran the hot air balloon, she could be lying unconscious in the basket for all he knew.
Resolved to at least check it out, he began galloping in the direction of the landing site, not to far from where he was currently.
He skidded to a halt however when he heard the familiar howls of timber wolves and and a certain familiar yell of terror not to far away.
He skidded to a halt and veered back towards the sounds of distress. He broke out on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the stoney gorge and beheld the sight of Spike of all beings, all alone and being backed into a corner by the wooden canines whose bark was as equally bad as their bite.
He didn’t even pause as he leaped down into the thick of the pack, directly in front of the dragon, and with a blaze of silvery magic blazing from his horn, snaked out in all different directions and ripped up a a few surrounding trees, lifting them into the air and wielding them like so many threatening clubs.
There was a moment of perfect stillness, as two powerful forces regarded each other, before things sped up drastically as the large trees he was wielding began to spin like a top, smacking a devastating trail through the entire foul-breathed pack, sending them into the air in a wave of yelps and the sounds of cracking wood.
When the creatures were swiftly dealt with, he tossed aside the trees, and grabbed Spike with his magic, galloping away with all his might. The last thing they needed was to deal with timber wolves after they had been mulched and dismembered. If that had been the entire pack, they would be in deep trouble when the predators pulled themselves together.
Dusk didn’t relax until they hit the outskirts of Ponyville and were nearing his shop.
He met Cherry Berry along the way and handed off the rope that he had grabbed on his hasty retreat (as luck having it, stumbling into the roped off balloon along the way, and for whatever reason, grabbed it), who thanked him shortly, giving Spike, who was on his back, a brief annoyed glance before marching her balloon back into town.
Spike remained quiet until they reached his shop, his talons wrapped tightly in Dusk's mane, and they were soon indoors and in the basement where he unceremoniously dumped his supply (having held onto most of it throughout the episode).
Spike slid off his back and looked up at him with big watery green eyes, then unceremoniously wrapped his small arms around one of Dusk's Front legs, burying his face against the soft silvery pelt.
Dusk paused and looked down at the green spiky head, his smaller body was shaking. Harry rested a hoof on the younger’s back comfortingly as the dragon clung to him, mumbling, “you saved me, you saved my life.”
Dusk let him continue to cling to him, after all, being chased through the Everfree Forest by timber wolves would terrify anypony.
When Spike had manged to collect himself, he asked if he could help Dusk unpack his harvest.
“Oh, well, I suppose,” Dusk replied, grateful for the assist. There was nothing overly sensitive or dangerous within the goods, so he allowed the young dragon to help him unpack and store the materials, patiently explaining the proper process when it looked like Spike was going to botch something up. After all, he couldn’t expect the young dragon to know how to properly store tea ingredients.
When they were done, he took the young dragon to the kitchens, poured them both a cool cup of iced apple tea (grabbing the marble dust for Spike to put into his) and sat them down at the table and began grilling the young dragon on why he had been all alone in the most dangerous parts of the forest.
He didn’t buy the investigating the empty balloon claim. Judging by Cherry’s annoyance, he was likely somehow involved in the runaway balloon, but Dusk let it go given the circumstances.
“Let me get this straight,” Dusk said finally once he got the whole story, “your basically on your own this weekend while Twilight studies?”
The young dragon nodded, “though I’m not alone anymore since I’m going to be helping you out now,” he declared happily.
Dusk frowned thoughtfully. Well, he supposed it was a good way to keep the young dragon out of trouble.
“Alright, I suppose an extra hoof around the place can always be of use.”
The Dragon perked up, “oh you wont regret it! I’ll be the best servant you’ve ever had!”
Dusk was confused at the small spurt of foreign pleasure that the word "servant" caused and he hastily shook it away and corrected “no, I mean, you don’t have to be my servant! I just meant that a bit of help is appreciated, you don’t have to spend the entire weekend working for Celestia’s sake!”
Spike frowned now, “but of course I’m your servant, you saved my life.”
Dusk shook his head “no, you don’t have to be my servant for the weekend just because I saved your life, it was the right thing to do, nothing more, I meant just a bit of a helping hoof here and there, maybe a game of Yahtzee or something.”
“Actually I meant for the rest of my days for as long as you live,” Spike corrected helpfully.
“Right well, that either…wait…wait! What?”
“Oh, I forgot about that, its part of my dragon code here,” Spike belched out a crudely drawn card and held it up, “it's part of my code of honor as a noble dragon." he stuck his chest out proudly, "If somepony saves my life I am required to serve them for the rest of their life.”
Dusk slumped back in his seat, his mind whirling as he tried to figure out some sort of way to deal with...this.
He knew about the conventions of honor. Brew Bag had lectured him about this. Honor was an important edict that somepony based their entire perception of life around. While it was likely that this dragon code was something made up by Spike himself and not something that was particular to all dragons (given the...unique presentation of the card) that still didn’t make it any less important to Spike himself.
He sighed, catching the large puppy dog eyes, no, there would be no outright refusal here, as much as he was loathed to admit.
Then Dusk's more sly mentality kicked in as it occurred to him that there maybe a way to appease Spike’s dragon code, but keep him from underhoof most of the time, he wasn’t delusional enough to think that he could escape having a "servant" *shutter* completely.
Again he felt that strange thrill at the notion. He rubbed his forehead, he needed to keep a better eye on what he touched in that forest, it was giving him strange ideas.
Meanwhile in the deepest recesses of Harry’s subconscious...
Voldemort was pleased!
Finally! After so long! He had a minion! Not just some piddling little friend that belonged to his Precious, though he was sure that the sentimental boy would consider it more as a friendship *shutter* then anything, but Voldemort saw the servant/master connection there, and he was going to focus on that part.
Not only that, but this minion was a dragon! Granted he was a relatively young dragon, but still a dragon! Who had connections to royalty!
Even Voldemort's main soul could not boast of that! Hah!
He rubbed his dark hooves together and cackled.
Back outside Harry’s head…
When he was sure he had mentally sorted out his plan, he addressed Spike seriously.
“I understand that your code is important to you, so I wont dismiss this notion of you...helping me out, but you must understand that my life has no room for a full time servant, so in this one and only time that i address you as my servant, I’m ordering you to continue as you are, being the best assistant to Twilight, that would be very helpful to me.”
Spike frowned, rubbing the back of his spikes and asked, “how is me continuing to be Twilight’s assistant, and me not doing anything else for you, helping you?”
Good question, but Dusk had a ready reply.
“Well,” he took a sip, “Twilight Sparkle is my friend, and it would make me feel bad if I took away someone so dear to her.”
To give Spike credit, he did look conflicted at the idea, deeply conflicted, and Dusk took advantage of that.
“And lets face it Spike, you love her dearly, she’s practically raised you. You would be miserable, even if you are following your code, and you are my friend to, so I would just be hurting both of you and that would make me feel doubly worse.”
He sat back and took another sip, hiding his smirk when he noticed that he had struck home as the young dragon nodded slowly.
“Well, I don’t want to cause anypony to be upset, and if it would distress you more to have me by your side all the time, then....then that isn’t serving you properly I guess…you really consider me your friend?”
Dusk hummed in his drink and nodded. He supposed he couldn’t blame the question. They didn’t normally hang out after all, but the two did hang out from time to time when they both got dragged into some Mane 6 incident, and with what had recently happened, nopony could walk away from something like that and not form some kind of attachment, code or not.
“Sure,” Dusk agreed.
The dragon gave him a big smile and then insisted “well, I’ll do what you ask, but I still think I should come around once in awhile to help you out, or else it wouldn't be completely fair.”
Dusk grunted, but conceded to the compromise.
The two of them returned upstairs to find Fruit Salad ponying the cash register, looking bored. It was a quiet afternoon apparently.
Then the door jangled and in staggered Soarin and Mac, leaning against each other, bruised, missing patches of pelt, mussed up manes and tails and covered in bandages, particularly Soarin, who was sporting a hoofcast.
“Hi Dusk,” they both greeted him at the same time raggedly, “welcome back!.”
"Holy Celestia! What in Tartarus happened?!"
Going out of order are we? Last chapter had someone that occurred before Discord canonically (yet if that was true here, Voldemort wouldn't have been able to intervene), while this chapter has something that should occur in season 3 after the wedding and the return of the Crystal Empire and thus Sombra.
Mmm... Sombra. I'm sorta expecting a Voldemort possessed Dusk vs Sombra confrontation.
By the way, Cherry Berry is an Earth Pony, not a Unicorn.
just put in the thing about out of order chaps in the story description. just to make sure everypony knows.
I've already finished all the chapters so far....but...what am I supposed to do now?
5814948 Yes, i can see why you get that impression, but actually, he is touchy with his female friends, he just responds to them differently. Fluttershy for example, they cuddle together in a few chaps for comfort, though more for Fluttershy then for Dusk.
Rarity and Dusk touch in a fashion in that she manhandles him for the sake of fashion, but Rarity is not the cuddly type in my opinion, and Dusk respects that.
Twilight, its more of an intellectual relationship between those two, and her closeness with royalty is likely to make it difficult to get closer to her.
And Pinky...well, she's Pinky and in certain ways the complete opposite of Dusk. They are friends, but not likely to ever be close friends (from his perspective anyway).
Applejack, well, its more along the lines of buisness friends and her being the sister of his best friend, Mac. Why would they cuddle?
Finally the stallions.
Harry cuddles alot with Big Mac because any physical barriers between the two was abolished during his stint in trying to raise the sun. Mac was the first to initiate touch between them by taking care of Dusk, and comforting him as a fellow pony who was doing something amazing, but horrendously painful to keep other ponies safe. Something like that can give any ponies an excuse to cuddle if they want.
Soarin, well, Soarin is the initiator at first, but its because that yes, he is interested in Dusk so that comes out in thier interactions, but after growing a friendship with others, in particular Mac, Dusk responds to this on a subconscious level and takes i as permission to be more tactile.
Also one must remember that in his old world, he was starved for affection, was never hugged or allowed to hug. Even in the Wizarding World there was a sense of distance because of his fame, even with Ron and Hermione in his first year, so this is likely also a large part in influencing his reactions with other ponies.
One can even argue he is tapping into a bit of Voldemort's personality as well, as Voldemort, interestingly enough, was rather tactile in the cannon, though more in the movies then the books.
5814378 glad your enjoying it, but if your interested, i do have another fic that is also a hp/mlp corssover up here called The Journey.
5817489 I think you mean the Sphinx, Yes, he's sort of a MLP Lockheart version that was also inspired by the Sphinx from the Aladdin animated series.
5817536 No, its more along the lines that Opal is good at charades. think Angel bunny style.
5817600 heh. yeah. i love voldie.
Okay that was funny, i can see voldemord laugh, like the grinch in the cartoon version right now.
5815270 i just noticed this comment right now.
I guess this is one way to see it, and i guess i can more than accept your reasoning.
I didn´t only meant that he should cuddle with everyone, but i don´t remembered, that he was nearly as.....physically? with the Mares in any way, as he was with the Stallions, i guess i just thought, that if he wasnt into Males befor, that he would be a bit shy or anything if he noticed how he act around them. Then again, even if i am sure, that i could find reasons against it, i think your reason why he is acting that way is good enough.
I don´t know what i should say for Rarity in this matter, but i could see Applejack, giving him a good hug or anything at least, that means if he had done something nice for her, i guess it depens on how close they are.
I guess your right, i mean since you Harry don´t want to meet Celestia, he doesn´t tried to get that close to Twilight.
I already said something about this, but i wanted to do it again. I don´t exactly see, how her being the sister of Harrys best friend, would make her unable to get a little bit closer to Dusk, since he helped her with one of her problems. I know it is maybe a bit overstated, but right now it nearly sounds, like he would not have one normal friend in the little group of the main six, beside Fluttershy maybe.
I would actually enjoy to hear something about one of his employee, it doesn´t seems to be necessary, but i would like to see them doing something together, if he was trough about being at least Derpys friend.
To make sure that you get the main thing i want to say, since there are always reasons, to agree with something, or reasons against said things, i choose to agree with your reasoning, since it sounds good enough.
While i prefer some things in a different style of writing, i have to say, that your story is very good in its own way.
I guess i didn´t liked it at first, that you skipped some things in the story, and just gave us a short description about what happened, but it is really not bad.
Well that's just wonderful. I marathon the whole story in one night then get smacked in the face with a cliff-hanger Can't wait for more
5817722
I believe the first part refers to the apples Harry/Dusk would buy to make any apple based tea he would sell
as for the second in my opinion it would get kind of awkward at times I guess?
5892444 Harry/Neville?....not sure, but i think i saw something that went in this direction, but i didn´t remembered it.
5892863 i think i remember what i meant right there, well....for me it would probably akward with both of them, Applejack and Big Mac. Because of that, and because Harry can´t stop to cuddle, hug or whatever to the Stallions, i guess it makes as much sense, as it does not.
I have no special argument, i just don´t see why Harry should have a problem with that, or why Applejack would have a problem with the cuddling, well the friendly cuddling. I just think it is already clear, that Harry probably get a Stallion as his special somepony, because of how much affection he shows them.
5815270 the way I see it, I'm lot more touchy with my guy friends than my female friends. I practically cuddle with all my guy friends but tend to avoid physical contact with my female friends. And yet, I'm straighter than the displacement line from my house to yours. I just feel more confortable around my guy friends because there is no romantic possibilities or implications there. What would be awesome, I think, would be to have Soarin' and Mac end up together and Dusk with fluttershy. Evidence to this being planned is that he admits flutterhy is beautiful and then blushes at the comment. This implies that he was embarrassed to say it, like how telling a your crush she's beautiful would be nerve wracking and embarrassing, but I would have no problem telling my guy friends they look nice.
I do hope this updates again soon.
just read through all the chapters today and so far enjoying it, except for maybe the possibility of same sex relationships, while i have nothing against it, it makes me uncomfortable >.>
i am having evil thoughts of dusk getting a marefriend despite mac and soarins attempts and their reactions to that happening
I do hope this story will continue to be updated though
So is it going to be a three sum or is dusk going to pick. I think the three some would work beacouse saorin seams like the type to be both submisive and dominate
Hey there! Just finished rereading this story second time (first was on FF.net).
Too bad that it is not updating for more than year. ..
6998018 its been awhile since i have touched base on this fic, so i came across your rather long statement.
i like yaoi. i like writing yaoi. i like exploring possibilities and not being stuck forever in the hedgemonic hetrosexual world view, particularly with something i enjoy such as fanfiction.
when you said this: "I don't want to persecute this particular freedom, but something about two male characters that are surrounded with gorgeous girls and could have any pick of them relationship-wise would instead choose each other is not only mind-boggling to me, but clearly rubs me the wrong way. "
That does sound homophobic, and if you were to say that to someone who is not heterosexual in real life it would be taken as such, and i do take it as such.
In regards to the Harry Potter comment, what is the appeal to writing him into a heterosexual one?
second, While i don't like to give away to much on personal identity, i am not a horny teenage girl. I am an Asexual aromantic male who is 34. There are just as many grown males who enjoy writing and reading yaoi as there is women of whatever age buddy.
If you don't like these types of fics, don't read them, tis as simple as that. there is a lot more hetero non-cannon pony fics then there are same sex ones, or even non-relationship ones in general. please stop hating on other writers like me simpley because you have a different view.
new chapter please
5911453
At this one line makes it clear that you have never read any of Aliengirlguy's other stories. Implying that Aliengirlguy is planning a hetro MC ship is like implying JK was planning a Remus/Umbridge ship. For Merlin's sake the description of this story says; "Warning: A few mentions of straight ponies, but don't worry they arn't a big part of the story."
With Aliengirlguy the probability of a character being straight is inversely proportional to their relevance and/or screen time.
7102473
No it doesn't. Homophobic means fear of homosexuals, fear is absolutely not required to be prejudiced against something and persecute it. Few if any members of the Ku Klux Klan have a phobia(irrational fear) about dark skin and it never stopped them from commiting hate crimes. His comment, despite every single statement being prejudiced and insulting, had no signs that he feared yaoi... in fact the constantly stating that he wasn't homophobic was also insulting and offensive. Personally I'm a "Harknessexual", if it can give consent and is mature for its species it's viable potential partner... unless it is a neuter, because then it physically isn't capable and psychologically isn't interested.
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You have no idea how long I just wasted looking for a HP version.
You know, now that I think about it "homo" means same... so couldn't you make an argument for a sexual attraction to another member of your own species being 'homosexual'? Homo also means 'human' so could you not then say that Lyra the unicorn is 'homosexual' for being sexually attracted to a human, a 'homo'?
Labels! They actually mean very little!!
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... WELP, I FOUND DOBBY!