• Published 19th Mar 2016
  • 5,137 Views, 109 Comments

The Last Healing Dragon - Gearsmash King



Dragons might be very big, terrifying, and very greedy. But not all of them were like this.

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Chapter 12: Shocked Awakening

Fluttershy looked out of her kitchen window and saw Lazarus.

"I hope you wake up soon." She said, trying to will him awake.

It had been three days and he still hadn't moved, except for the rise and fall of his breathing. Some of the dragon's wounds had been cleaned and bandaged as best as they could've been, but the ponies only focused on the bigger wounds, along his neck and arms. The wounds on his back and sides, however, were fairly easy to fix because they weren't as bad. Even after Twilight used a spell that she knew, Lazarus wouldn't wake. And it made Fluttershy worry about him.

"How could a Healing Dragon not be healed by now?" Fluttershy asked, staring at the bandaged arms and neck, "Surely, they could've fixed those wounds in a matter of seconds, from what I've seen."

Knock, knock, knock!

A knock on her door pulled Fluttershy's gaze away from the sleeping dragon and she left her kitchen. Reaching for the door, Fluttershy heard the voices of Applejack and Twilight.

"I'm tellin' ya Twi," Applejack's voice said, "that Changeling sounded mighty serious about what he said."

"I know," Twilight's voice replied, "but we're not going to panic about it, right now."

"Then when should we start worryin'?"

"After we help Lazarus."

"I hope it'll be a quick recovery. I mean, did ya see what those monsters did to him?"

Fluttershy opened the door and saw Applejack wearing her saddlebags, loaded with some of her zap-apples. Twilight was levitating several books, one of them being: "Creatures of Equestria's Past."

"Hello, girls." She greeted with a small smile.

"What are those for?" Fluttershy asked, pointing a hoof at Applejack's rainbow striped apples.

"I figured we could try somethin'." Applejack replied, "If I'm right, then our big dragon friend should be up and healthy as a mornin' sunrise."

Fluttershy made a puzzled face, but quickly caught onto what Applejack meant.

"Is he awake?" Twilight asked, setting the books on a small table.

"No, he's still sleeping. And I'm kind of worried because he hasn't healed his injuries."

"But he said that he was a Healing Dragon. Wouldn't have he been up and about by now?"

"That's what worries me."

Applejack reached into her saddlebags and presented a zap-apple. Putting it in her hoof, she went towards the back door of Fluttershy's cottage. Twilight and Fluttershy followed closely as the farm pony approached the dragon's mouth.

"Open his mouth, Twilight." Applejack said, "He has to eat this, if we wanna see if this'll even work."

Twilight's horn lit up and she lifted the upper jaw of the dragon, revealing his sharp teeth. Applejack stepped forward and tossed the zap-apple into Lazarus' mouth, before signaling Twilight to close it. Patiently, they waited for anything that would tell them if the zap-apple was helping.

Then Twilight saw a twitch from one of Lazarus' claws. It wasn't a big movement, but it was enough to show that the zap-apples worked.

"Give him two more, Applejack." She said, using her magic to open his jaws again.

Applejack fed the dragon two more and waited. Then they saw one of his clawed hands slowly move.

"Let's take it up a little. Give him the rest of them." Twilight said, feeling confident in Applejack's idea.

"Um, Twilight, I don't think that's a good idea." Fluttershy protested softly, "What if he's angry at us?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'd appreciate how helpful we're trying to be."

Applejack emptied her saddle bags into Lazarus' mouth and Twilight closed it. But the reaction they received was more than they expected.

Bzzzzzzzzzz! Whip! CRACK!!

Suddenly, Lazarus' tail cracked loudly and his eyes shot open, revealing two very big, black eyes. Lifting his head and rising to his hind legs, the dragon didn't appear to be in a cheerful mood as he whipped his head around as if searching for something.

"WHERE ARE YOU, COWARD?!" Lazarus boomed, "COME OUT AND FACE ME!!!"

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

The ponies ducked as they saw his tail swing towards them, as if Lazarus was unaware that they were there. Wildly, the dragon reeled and twisted about, looking for a potential threat.

"What's he doin'?!" Applejack asked, ducking again.

"I think he believes that he's being attacked." Twilight replied, "But there's no one else around, but us."

Then Fluttershy flew up to Lazarus' head, hoping to stop his rampage before it got out of control. Or before somepony got hurt.

"LAZARUS! STOP!" Fluttershy shouted, surprising herself.

The dragon stopped and looked at her with the darkest gaze that Fluttershy had ever seen. Blue flames seeped from his mouth as he drew closer.

Fluttershy hovered bravely in front of him, trying to show him that there wasn't anything that would harm him.

Sniff! Sniff!

"Fluttershy." Lazarus rumbled as his eyes slowly faded to the frosty white that she recognized.

The dragon lowered himself back to a four legged stance, feeling pain shoot through his arms. Lazarus winced a little, but stood strong against the throbbing in his arms.

"Are you... alright?" Twilight asked, cautiously approaching him, "You seemed a little... edgy."

"Yes." Lazarus replied, before adding, "Just a bad dream."

"That musta been some dream to make ya act like that." Applejack said, putting her saddle bags over her back, "Was it the zap-apples?"

Lazarus focused his gaze on her and lowered his head.

"You fed me zap-apples?"

"Don't be angry at her, Lazarus." Fluttershy murmured, "Applejack was only trying to help."

"I never said I was angry. In fact, if you mix zap-apple juice, fire fern leaves, and rain flower roots, you'll get a medicine that'll cure a fever in minutes."

The ponies exchanged looks, before turning their eyes back to the dragon.

"How did you know that they would wake me up, Applejack?"

"To be perfectly honest, I didn't." Applejack replied, tipping her hat, "I just figured, since zap-apples have such a hard kick on their own, they might do somethin'. But I wasn't expectin' ya to go crazy like that."

"What was in your dream that made you so angry?" Twilight asked, feeling less worried.

Lazarus hung his head in shame, before holding out his clawed fist and opening it. In his palm, a black gem with the image of another dragon laid in his grasp.

"Watch this and you'll understand."

Twilight wrapped it in her magic and took it to Fluttershy's pond. Holding it just above the water, Twilight released it and the pond changed.

The memory they were watching showed the other dragon flying through the clouds. Lazarus chased him as the dragon disappeared into the black storm clouds that hung above a city. The dragon reappeared and charged at Lazarus, knocking him out of the sky and into the city. The dragon that Lazarus was fighting was dark grey with large wings, a spiked tail, black claws, yellow eyes with slit pupils, long neck, and no crest.

CRASH!!!

Lazarus hit the ground and watched as the dragon dove at him again. He quickly rolled to avoid being crushed as the dragon slammed into the ground where Lazarus was laying.

"Pity, I thought you'd put up more of a fight." The grey dragon sneered in a low masculine voice, "Clearly, I was mistaken."

Lazarus whipped his tail at the dragon, only to miss as he dodged the attack. As soon as Lazarus turned back to face his opponent, five black claws slashed down on his face. Making Lazarus reel and fall back to the ground.

"Your family would be so disappointed in you, if they could see you now." The dragon laughed menacingly, "But don't worry, you'll be reunited with them soon."

The grey dragon raised his claws again, before disappearing into darkness.

The water returned to it's original form and Twilight retrieved the gem. Levitating it back to Lazarus, the ponies had worried and pained expressions on their faces.

"Was that... him?" Fluttershy asked, shuddering at who she believed it was, "The Dragon Lord from your time."

"Yes. And I've only ever met him once."

The gem disappeared in his palm and Lazarus lowered his head to the ground with a sad expression on his face.

"He's out there somewhere and waiting for the right moment to strike. I just hope that when he does, I'll be able to keep that dream from becoming a reality."

Now the ponies knew what Lazarus was both after and afraid of. But what really had their attention was the city that they were fighting above, looked very familiar. They hoped it was a dream and not a vision into the future.

"Now, I believe I owe you two gems, yes?" Lazarus said, pushing the dream away and trying to ease the tension.

The ponies nodded and Lazarus slowly lifted himself back to a normal stance, only to fall back down from sharp pain.

"We'll get them later." Twilight said, using her magic to unwrap the bloody bandages, "Right now, let's get you back to proper health."

"I admire your hospitality. All of you." Lazarus replied, "Most ponies would've left me. But you didn't, which makes one wonder, why?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why would ponies like you help an old monster like me? You know I'm dangerous. Yet, you went and brought me here."

Fluttershy stepped forward and put a hoof under his eye.

"Because we don't see the monster." She smiled, "We see the good hearted spirit within."

Twilight removed the bandages and saw that the wounds were nearly healed, but they would leave big scars in their wake.

"Ya must be hungry." Applejack said, realizing that they never brought him a proper meal, "What do ya normally eat?"

"Sandstones, large fish, and, on occasion, quartz rocks."

"There's a quartz deposit not far away." Twilight said, happy to know that he didn't always eat meat, "I could get you some if you want."

"That would be nice." The dragon smiled, "Thank you."

With that, Twilight flew away leaving Lazarus with Applejack and Fluttershy.

"You seem to know a bit about medicine." Lazarus said, "Care to learn a few special recipes?"

Fluttershy and Applejack looked at each other, before looking back at him and nodding their heads.

Author's Note:

This is a chapter that I just slapped together on last minute. But it wasn't badly planned out. I know that most stories are hit or miss, but I don't care. I'm having too much fun with this.