Ancient Wings, New Soul

by Kowlickkid

Chapter 4: Mangy Mutts Meet Their Maker

Mangy Mutts Meet Their Maker

My eyes cracked open and a cup was immediately thrust into my line of vision. I took it and downed the contents, which had the effect of me standing up and wheezing. It felt like a fire had been lit in my stomach. Jangara approached me.

"It is good to see you have returned to the land of consciousness. What you accomplished was no small feat."

I held my forehead, which was throbbing.

"Wh-why am I hurting so much?"

"You cast a spell that ripped through the chest scales of a dragon. It is no wonder that you have magic backlash."

I coughed again and took a bite out of a fruit that she handed me.

"Thank you again for taking care of me."

She shook her head.

"Nay, it is not you who should be thanking us. You have saved our village, as well as many lives that would otherwise have been lost."

"It does not change the fact that I am still grateful to you for your assistance."

"Come, step outside for a while. I believe that the others would like to see you conscious for once."

I followed her outside the door and a great many cheers erupted from the throats of the inhabitants. Almost a fraction of a second after I stepped out, I felt a soft bundle gripping onto my neck with a great amount of force. Upon closer inspection, it was defined to be a little zebra filly. She said a short phrase in zebrican many times. I turned to Jangara, who translated for me.

"She is thanking you for saving her life from the dragon."

I smiled warmly down at the child, still clinging to my feathers, and ruffled her mane gently. Looking up, I saw a pair of zebras that were smiling farther than I could have thought possible without breaking their face, both having slightly red and puffy eyes. The child detached herself from me and ran back to her parents, giggling and laughing, and they both embraced her and said their thanks to me in zebrican.

'My heart... has exploded... twice.'

I saw a few zebras part, and from the opening emerged Ok-Rena and a male zebra carrying a small sack. The old crone approached me and bowed her head in respect. I did the same, to the apparent consternation of the crowd. She spoke in her crackled voice, and Jangara translated.

"Mighty ventolian, you have slain the dragon which had begun to plague our village, and for this feat, you have our greatest respect. Due to tradition, none of the creature shall be disposed of if it can be used. From examining a number of ancient tablets from before our time, I have discovered that the tradition of the ventolian was that after the rite of passage, consisting in slaying a dangerous creature which meant cruel harm to another less potent being, a weapon should be made from the remains of said creature and given to the slayer, as proof of his victory and to determine that the slayer is not a mere child anymore, but a grown ventolian. Therefore, we have fashioned you a weapon made from the hide of the dragon and a rod of ironwood we found in the stomach of the beast."

The elder reached inside the sack and brought out a magnificent spear-like weapon, clearly dangerous. It was a long rod, appearing to be covered in a coating of purple, while at one end there rested the blade, one of the chief scales of the dragon, being rounded at the area in which it was connected to the staff and diminishing to a deadly sharp point. She offered it to me and I gingerly took it in one of my claws.

"It is with great honor that we crafted this and enchanted it, so as to repay you of saving our families and friends."

A flat rope with a sheath was next presented to me, and I strapped it around my waist, beneath my wings, and put my new lance-sword into it, with the blunt end of the rod showing slightly above my right shoulder. A couple of purple dragonskin(the durable skin below a dragon's scales) bags were put on my back.

"Bear your weapon as your ancestors would have wished. Make them proud."

I nodded. I noticed that the crowd had begun to drift apart, and few were left, now that I had been examined. I noticed that the pegasus guard Whiplash was standing by himself and made a mental note to converse with him sometime. Jangara walked up to me and asked a question that made me facepalm.

"I almost forgot that I don't know your name. Could you tell it to me?"

My mind began racing.

'Smooth, Tyler, real smooth. You've saved their town from a dragon and they've made you an awesome weapon out of it, and they still don't know your name. What should I call myself? Tyler is out of the question. Tyler the ventolian. Not really impressive. Look out, bad guys, here comes Tyler! Uh, drawing a blank here. What name? I got it! No I don't. Wait, how about...'

"Truenis. Simply call me Truenis."

'Well, not the best name, but not really bad. I bet somebody's stuck with a really bad name.'

"Truenis. A strong name. It suits you."

"So Jangara, how was this made?"

"We took a few minor scales and melted them in a special potion, and soaked the ironwood in it until it was coated. Then, we affixed the blade using a very strong glue found in the bodies of dragons. The rope on your sheath is made from woven tendon, and the sheath itself is a strong pocket of muscle. You will find it difficult to break either, especially with the enforcing enchantment that was put on it."

"Well, I am grateful for it. Thank you."

She waved it away.

"Consider it a type of payment for assisting us."

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I approached the pegasus quietly. He was reading a newspaper and sighed. Upon seeing me, he put away the paper and shuffled nervously. It was obvious I intimidated him a bit, maybe because of my size, maybe because I just took down something that was 30 times my size. I flashed him a grin, or the best I could do. Sometimes it's hard looking friendly when your eyes perpetually make me look like I'm gonna rip something apart.

"Anything new in the paper?"

He brought it out and tossed it to me.

"Take a look at it."

I unfolded it and stared at the writing. It was practically egyptian heiroglyphics.

"This may come as a surprise to you, but I can't read this."

He looked at me in confusion.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Where I come from, we have different writing. A lot different."

I handed the paper back to him, noticing that he had livened up a little bit.

"Then I suppose I'll just read this front article to you. *ahem* The Grand Galloping Gala is Coming Soon. The gathering to end all gatherings is about to come into existence once again in the castle of Princess Celestia-"

"One sec, who's Princess Celestia?"

His jaw dropped.

"You don't know who Celestia is?"

I shook my head.

"She's the grand enchilada, the big cheese, the leader of all Equestria. She raises the sun every day using her alicorn powers and at night, she lets her sister Princess Luna raise the moon."

"Okay, so, the Princesses are rulers of Equestria, big-time important people, and power packs. Please continue."

"Okay. In the castle of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Many nobles have already announced that they're not going to go due to the disastrous results of the previous gala, when the six element bearers made a grand galloping mess. However, others have decided that the six mares would not repeat the event, and have still decided to go. Yet there continues to be a certain amount of anomality as to how it will turn out, as the infamous Griffin the Griffin of the Griffin Pirates is thought to be coming, and there is also a rumor of a musical changeling under the protection of the princesses that will be in charge of the music."

He folded the newspaper and put it into his saddlebag.

"Sounds like quite a party, huh?"

"I don't think I'd like it much. Balls and galas reek of boredom to me. I prefer a certain amount of action. But who is this Griffin?"

He sighed and scuffed a hoof in the dirt.

"Griffin the Griffin is quite possibly the most bizarre creature to set foot in Equestria, besides Discord the draconequus, but you wouldn't know about him. If you're wondering, he's the lord of chaos, currently encased in stone."

'Hold the phone? There's a dude named Discord here? This is just freaky. But then again, he's probably one of the entities that are sending the players here, and Chaos showed up afterwards.'

"Anyways, Griffin has this crazy plot to take over the Dominion and lead the griffins, and the diamond dogs who accept, into a better life. He stopped by here a while ago. One of his soldiers took out a cockatrice without barely batting an eyelash. The surprising thing is that he's driven by hate. He says that compassion and love won't win battles for you."

"That's pretty true. If you tell your enemy that you love him, he'll break your heart... with his giant hammer."

"It's just strange that he's breaking the law to complete his goal."

"Well, it is for the greater good. If someone has the ability to do something for the greater good, then that person should have the responsibility of doing it. Perhaps we will meet someday. He seems like an interesting character."

'And he's causing a certain amount of chaos. Chalk that up to the fact that the ultimate goal of the game is chaos, there's a good chance that he wasn't always a griffin.'

"Maybe you will. He's slayed dragons too, you know."

"Hey Whiplash?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could teach me how to read a little bit?"

He shrugged.

"Sure. It's not like I've got much else to do."

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Me and Whiplash were at it for an hour, and I had already gotten the basics of the language down. He was amazed at how quickly I was catching on, but hey, they didn't call me The Sponge for nothing. Eventually, he excused himself and went off to do some paperwork or something. I walked outside the village to the edge of a small cliff and sat, looking at the horizon and thinking. My mind had a mental debate referring to the weapon on my back.

I just killed a living creature. Granted, I've killed things like insects and things before, but never anything sentient. Should I feel bad about this?

No, it was going to kill you. You did it in self-defense.

You should feel bad. Even though it was nasty, you shouldn't have killed it. Only restrained it.

No, if something is that cruel, it must have an end.

Even if that was true, wouldn't making a weapon out of it be barbaric?

It is called not wasting useful material.

But it's wrong.

No it's not.

Yes it-

My thoughts were cut off courtesy of a large airship that flew over my head. I didn't even know they existed. Using my eagle eyesight, I looked at the flag, and was greeted with an image of a dog-like face breathing fire over a base of rubies.

'What the heck? Are those supposed to be diamond dogs?'

I darted back to the village to notify Jangara, but as I entered, I saw large bipedal furry mutts holding zebras in large nets while others looked around huts for others. One of them saw me and grinned evilly.

"Looky! Not only do we get striped ponies, we also get big griffin! Gammas! Catch him!"

Four dogs, smaller than some of the others, started loping towards me gorilla-style. My blood boiled. I gave a loud screech and prepared for battle. As one of the dogs came close to me, I scratched him across the chest. He gave a loud howl and fell to the ground, clutching his ribcage. The three others got to me and I learned the definition of the word dog-pile. I spread my two front wings and threw the dogs off, punching one in the throat in the process, leaving him gasping in the grass. I heard a whistling sound and dropped just in time to avoid a net that was hurtling across the sky. I looked downwards and both of the Gammas that were left had a sort of primitive net gun. The two fired at the same time and without thinking, I withdrew my new weapon and sliced them to ribbons. I landed and gave another swing, effectively decapitating the two that were left. The dog that had first seen me growled.

"Attention to the bird! Catch the bird! He is strong, and will make a good slave!"

I froze. These dogs were taking slaves? Okay, that did it. I flew towards the dog and punched him at a high speed, sending him flying back. A great many dogs started coming after me with huge spears. I took my lance-sword and started wildly charging them, using the length of my weapon to my advantage, slicing off their spears before darting in and slicing them in vital areaas. All around me, blood started to spill. I was in a craze. I kept on attacking for who knows how long when suddenly I felt something well up inside me. The feeling of power. It built up and built up until it finally exploded out of my body. Two words escaped my beak in great volume.

"Razor Wind"

White smoke seemed to come out of nowhere, and blew around until it found a diamond dog, when it would cut open a mutt's body. The nets holding the zebras were similarly afflicted, but fortunately, none of the zebras were hurt. I realized I was floating in the air and landed on the ground, now exhausted, but still with enough energy to remain awake. The silver wind died down, and out of an alleyway came the first diamond dog, who observed the carnage with murderous eyes.

"You must die, griffin."

He threw a vial at me, but I beat my wing and sent it right back at him. Before he blew up, I said these words:

"You made me mad. And I'm not a mad griffin. I'm a mad ventolian."

I had a lot of time, okay? I also spoke a bit fast, but hey, you take what ya got, right? Then, I collapsed.

'Why am I fainting so much these days?'

Well, there's not going to be updates for at least three days, as I'm going to a beach in France, but I'll get back on it when I come back. I don't have much else to say, except for the usual. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Comments

[Diabolic Gnome]

BUT.....
WHO
WAS

PHONE

[Kowlickkid]

770613 What Was Lost

[Cystenian Remir Rhys]

And yet another Game Piece gets a dragonscale weapon, I like it!

[Ravenlord]

"Well, not the best name, but not really bad. I bet somebody's stuck with a really bad name."
...
...
...
Mango Jack? dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Scootaloo_lolface.png

[Chewed Pencil]

1043993

Or your favorite Wooden Lupine Druid
>.>
<.<

[Phobos]

1043993 mango jack is best name for bast.