Previous Chapters
Close
(1) Stranger Danger2,237 words
(2) A New Addition2,785 words
(3) Exposition, Exposition Everywhere1,368 words
(4) A Normal Day2,858 words

(4) A Normal Day

The Tale of the Opal Serpent

By: LunarEclipse77

I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or any characters contained within. My Little Pony: FiM is copyright of Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I do, however, retain copyright of my own characters.

Chapter 4: A Normal Day

I awoke to the sensation of powder, all around me. I could feel a few flecks of heat, but they were fading quickly. I opened my eyes to see a wall of grey, shot through with the very occasional speck of orange. Mostly, I did that just because it was incredibly cool that I felt no pain anymore, and because I probably would never get used to that. I heaved upwards, scattering ash everywhere. Looking around, I saw that the remains of last night’s were frosted over, as usual. I also saw that Raze still hadn’t gotten up – again, as usual. I chuckled to myself. I may have only had to sleep a minimal 6 hours, due to my new species, but Raze was a griffin, and a teenage one at that.

I went off to get Raze some breakfast, in the form of a squirrel or rabbit. I slithered off, setting magical wards around the boundary of our camp to alert me if any intruders larger than a mouse entered.

After a while of using a very simple form of detection – using a fan of wind magic as I flew in a method fairly similar to echolocation and then waiting to see what the disturbances felt like – I found a surprisingly juicy squirrel. You might be wondering how I managed to kill it and bring it back whole, due to the potent liquid spell that is known as my venom. Or not, considering the vast potential that my magic has to offer me. In any case, all it took was a simple compression spell around the brain, coupled with a few other spells to prevent anything…messy, to get rid of parasites, and to preserve the meat and fur. It was a very short trip, but hey – anything could happen, and I wanted to be prepared.

In order to have some more fun, I dove back to the earth, slamming into it. As I righted myself, I heard a few scrabbles in the soil below me, and felt some small vibrations. My eyes widened. Diamond Dogs! How did they find us? Does it matter? Is Raze safe? All of these thoughts flew through my head in that break in time, the moment after the last second passes, but before the next can rush in to fill the void left behind.

As soon as that second hit, and it hit it did, huge arms covered in dirt burst from the soil, grabbing in all directions blindly. Then it hit me: They couldn’t see me. The only reason they knew anything was there was because I had hit the dense earth, causing vibrations to go down, and ito wherever their tunnel had been.

One of the flailing limbs at last found me and grabbed on. Soon, its brethren found me and began to pull me down into their dark tunnels. I extended my wings in order to present resistance, but their pull was irresistible. As I burst through the roof of their tunnel (which was only a little bit below the surface, as there were small roots poking in here and there. I estimated perhaps five feet below.), they all snatched their paws back and whimpered.

“Cold snakey-thing.” The one that spoke was apparently the first to grab me. His comment was not out of place – usually things that can frost over your fur in a matter of seconds are either avoided or things that are talked about, but never seen or experienced.

I cocked an eyebrow. “Wimp.” I then calmly wrenched my body from their grasp and gazed down the tunnel. It appeared they had come from my right, which meant the South, Gem Fido. Wait, Diamond Dogs, Gem Fido, duh. Anyways, I looked back to the other side – left and North. This end of the tunnel pointed straight to...Raze. I spoke in a low, menacing voice, causing the very walls of the tunnel to hum with it. “Are there any dogs up ahead? Answer carefully, swiftly, and honestly. Your lives depend on the answer.”

Immediately the one who grabbed me – the leader, by the vials he had – spoke up. “Sent three others up ahead when we felt snakey thing fall. Stayed to get thing.”

I smiled. Just three. Good. I could take several times the amount of dogs surrounding me – seven or so – with just my body and fangs alone, but I didn’t have to take the slow way. I had magic.

I created a small stream of white hot Fire. Not enough to manifest, but some, nonetheless. I then dammed it up, causing it to pool up and create a small, intense flame that danced in mid air and sent flickering, mysterious shadows across the wall. I then mixed in a bit of my own fog, changing the pure white flame to a bluish one. I added a bit of a mixture I call ‘explosion’ to the brew, let it mix nicely, and then poured massive amounts of magic into it. An enormous, ghostly fireball raged out from what had once been a silent, serene flame. As soon as it had appeared, I withdrew all magical streams from it, leaving the fireball contained. After it reached its climax of about twenty feet in diameter, it imploded, bringing all of the newly formed Soul Marbles with it. They all flew directly to me, and entered my body.

I turned from the scene and charged blindly down the rough tunnel, eventually slamming into the end not even thirty feet from where I was. I looked around for the other three dogs, but didn’t see them. Frustrated, I used a seeker spell, but nothing happened except it focused on me. Since I was pretty sure that I wasn’t a Diamond Dog (about 93% sure), I figured it must not’ve worked.

Have you thought of counting those Soul Spheres? Sapphires voice rang out through my head. I slammed my head into a wall – something that I am rather fond of doing, both now and back on Earth – I proceeded to count them. Five from the first hunting party, the seven that I had encountered and incinerated…and three more that were unaccounted for. I mentally poked a finger into each and confirmed that they were indeed Diamond Dogs from the same party. I also learned that they were in fact two different hunting partied that had met and converged a while back, as well as that they didn’t have a very high opinion of me or their fellow dogs. Good, I could use that to my advantage later, somehow.

After retreating back to the hole in the tunnel, I resolved to close it so that more hunting parties could not follow them. Next time, if I were not paying attention or gone, they would actually take Raze, whom I had grown quite attached to over the last month. He was like a brother (that I never had), cousin (that I had several of that mutually despised me, whereas he liked me), a nephew (only child), and a son (I really hope it goes without saying that I’ve never had one of those).

I closed my eyes and reached out with a flood of Earth, coming in all different shades, from the darkest of browns, for hard granite, to the palest of beige, for gems, and simply lifted up the earth, for as long as my magic would reach down the tunnel – several miles, if I had to guess. It was an impressive feat of magic, if I do say so myself. I also lifted myself out of the tunnel and flew to our campsite.

I landed (this time somewhat more softly) in the campfire ash. I quickly recovered, as landing in a snake's body is somewhat different then landing as, say, a pegasus or griffin. You have to get about a foot from the ground, and parallel to it, and then slowly descend, eventually sliding to a halt. Apparently, my propensity to forgo this and simply slam into the earth was an approach favoured by the military and younglings. And, even after you've landed, the landing itself is more of a skid, so you have to find your bearings and occasionally turn yourself right side up.

I shook the ash off of me and slithered over to Raze's crag in the remains in the boulder. I poked my head in (as that's all of me that'd fit) to hear him snoring on his pile of skins taken from prey. Huh. I thought. Must be pretty comfortable, for him to still be awake. Unfortunately for him, my presence had cooled down the area, and he started to wake up, even beneath his furs. He blearily cracked an eye open and quickly closed it due to the light. I guesstimated that I had woken up at six or so, and had been active for an hour or so. So that made it...seven o'clock. Right.

He groaned and tried to snuggle back into his blankets, but was wrapped in Air and dragged outside. "Wake up and...seize the day! Somehow, after I started singing, Raze (and a number of suspicious disembodied voices) joined in.

Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Arise and seize the day

Now is the time to seize the day
Send out the call and join the fray

Wrongs will be righted
If we're united

Let us seize the day

Friends of the friendless, seize the day
Raise up the torch and light the way
Proud and defiant
We'll slay the giant
Let us seize the day

Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one

Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away

Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one!

The vigorous song and dance/choreography, whichever (which I was somehow able to perform - don't ask me how) served to effectively wake him up, at which point I threw the squirrel at his talons/feet/whatever. "Dig in." I told him. I had no intention of telling him how close he came to being recaptured by Diamond Dogs - it'd just scare him unnecessarily.

Although...now that I'm thinking about it... I mused, and expanded my wards set around camp about a hundred yards out - now underground and in the air, instead of just above ground, no higher than the treetops. It pays to be prepared.

After Raze had scarfed down his squirrel (seriously, that kid can eat. Pound for pound, he was probably a match for me when I had been on Earth - and I was semi-legendary for my ability to do that), he decided that he was hungry, so we went to the nearest stream, about half a mile away.

Now, if you're curious as to why I didn't just magic up some water - we're still technically in the Dragon Badlands. So, very little water, even less...anything, except for dragons. And if I just transfigured some clay - well, a transfiguration spell will eventually wear off, and even if I threw enough power into the spell to make it semi-permanent, it won't get rid of the taste of cracked, burned, and generally abused dirt. Eww.

However, something I would do with my magic was pull enough water to wherever Raze decided to drink from so that he had enough, as well as filter it and add a bit of magic to it to make it better.

After I had dragged enough together, Raze walked down the gentle slope to the riverbed and lowered his beak into the water, opening it as he did so so that I could create the filter spell - a combination predominantly made of Water, with some Earth at the edges to attract whatever was in the water. Another two streams of pure Magic fed directly into the water right as he drank it. The two were very small, but easily the two hardest, as I couldn't mentally "lock" them into place - I had to concentrate on their location, and the location that I needed them to flow into, otherwise they'd snap into whatever - it could be something as dangerous as turning the water to neurotoxin, or as benign as forming a bit into a goldfish. You could never tell with wild magic.

While he was drinking, I felt several of my wards break. Initially I was quite startled by this - Had the Diamond Dogs already sent forces to retaliate? However, I quickly relaxed as I felt the wards close back around whatever had broken them. Based on the time and amount of wards broken, I'd assume one creature, slightly smaller than a D-Dog. My knee-jerk reaction was to check it out, but I realized that we weren't in the camp. Whatever had broken the wards was too small to be a threat, and there was only one besides.

After Raze finished drinking I told him about the intruder, and about how they hadn't left yet, making sure to keep my voice calm.

And then he surprised me, by asking me with sincere curiosity, and nothing else: "Is it a mutt?"

. "No. Unless it's a runt, it's build is too slim to be a dog." Raze actually looked a bit disappointed.

....A bit of sneakiness later...

I saw what looked to be a cross between a fox, cat and human laying down in front of Raze's crag. It looked like enough of a diamond dog to be confused as one, but they were dissimilar enough to tell the difference.

[i.]Wait. Sapphire spoke up suddenly. Are you really going to....

Terrify it, just for the lulz? You bet I am.

His (for the sake of humanizing the thing, let's call it an arbitrary gender) eyes suddenly snapped open. He lay there for a second, and then got up and inspected himself for a bit. Then he stood up and started to pop his back. Figuring this was as good a time as any, I leaped straight for him, jaws open.

He leaned backwards, limbo/twister-style, then began to run as fast as he could away. I, however, had wings and flew after him. After I was withing range, I shot off a bolt of Acid at a tree right next to him and "threw" the source of my voice to be around him, and him only. It wasn't a ventriloquist trick - I actually moved the source of my voice, and said "Don't move."

Then, figuring I'd continue with the ruse, I slithered in front of him and stared straight in to his startled eyes that were giving me the classic "deer-in-headlights" look. I asked him a question as menacingly as I could. "Where's the rest of your hunting party?"

Wh-what?" He asked, clearly shaken. On the outside, I was oozing malice. On the inside, I was positively bursting with laughter. This was hilarious! Oh, yeah, did I mention that I can be a bit sadistic, like most humans can?

"Don't play dumb!" I snapped. "Where's the rest of your party?!"

“I have no idea what you're talking about. And, wow, those are some really nice fangs I might add, and your eyes, they're so…purple. And your skin is just drop dead gorgeous.” He said. What? Was this his version of a blue-screen of death? Did his brain just turn off? Whatever. Aiming for the finale, I hurled myself at him, wings outstretched. I could feel Raze hang on for dear life.

“One, I’m not a Diamond Dog. Two, I have a name. And three, if you kill me now, I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine.” I just lay on top of him for a moment, dumbstruck. How in the-

"How did you learn that phrase?" I asked, perplexed. unless he was being sincere (in which case I had either run in to this world's Obi Wan or some lunatic) or he was...the possibility was too strange to consider.

"How'd YOUknow that phrase?!" He asked. We both stared for a moment, before my suspicion was confirmed by the spark in his eye.

"YOU'RE HUMAN?!" We both exclamed.

Author's Note:

Sorry about that "false" publish! I have no idea what happened.

It was fun to write Fox's character. And yes, I know that the wording is slightly different. Deal with it. (I wish I had sunglasses right now...)

This is a crossover with Red Fox's story, Hi-Jinx

I do actually hit my head on walls sometimes.

2,042 views

105

Previous Chapters