Chapter 4
One of the problems about a hybrid society was that wyrm and pony culture each had a small mountain’s worth of innuendos, and both sets had survived remarkably well in Everfree Village. ‘Sharing a private meal,’ for example, carried a drastically different meaning here than in the rest of Equestria. Unfortunately, Fluttershy preferred to eat breakfast and lunch, and sometimes dinner, in the privacy of their home, rather than face the buffet-style madness of the Village’s main kitchen, which gave a lot of villagers the wrong idea about how the yellow mare and her husband spent those parts of the day.
Cliff didn’t really care what they thought, although the constant teasing from Spirit and Sky Painter, their father, did get old sometimes. He focused on preparing breakfast rather than dwell on that, smiling happily as he recalled the look on Scootaloo’s face when Rainbow announced that she’d personally teach her how to fly.
The haybrowns were just about ready, when Cliff heard Fluttershy come in. “Hey there, dear.” He flipped another pancake. “The most amazing thing happened at the lab today.”
“Oh, uh, that’s nice,” Fluttershy muttered.
Her tone made Cliff look up. Her cheeks were a little flushed, and she was avoiding eye contact for some reason. There was also a small brown package held under one of her wings. “What happened?”
She blushed a bit more. “Nothing, just a tiny misunderstanding about, well, these.” She held out the package to him.
Cliff took it and looked inside. Edible underwear. He really couldn’t understand how ponies even came up with these things. Dragons were the ones that associated food with intimacy, after all, but at least their weirdness was rather tasty. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Fluttershy still refused to meet his gaze. “Um, I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” he assured her. “Would you mind grabbing the utensils? Breakfast is about ready.”
As she did so, Cliff idly took out a strawberry-flavored pair of panties and began to nibble on them. He flipped out the last two pancakes, loaded up a plate for each of them, and joined his wife at the table.
Most of the houses in Everfree had similar floor plans, but individual touches marked the house as uniquely their own. The family-size nest in the living room had numerous pet toys scattered among the blankets, in case any of Fluttershy’s animal friends stopped by for a visit; the counter separating the kitchen from the living room was covered in lesson plans for Cliff’s job as a schoolteacher; and knitted items, ranging from blankets to murals to hot pads, were everywhere.
He set Fluttershy’s plate down on the place mat in front of her. Like nearly everything else that she had knitted, it bore the symbol of a butterfly with a wyrm’s slitted eye on each wing. “You know that I’m always here for you,” Cliff whispered into her ear, “right?”
She finally met his gaze, smiling as she did. “Yes. I just don’t want to dwell on what happened.”
“I understand.” Cliff shoved what was left of the edible underwear into his mouth and poured them both a drink out of the enchanted tea pot Celestia had given them as a wedding present. “By the way,” he took his seat next to Fluttershy, “Scoots was finally able to fly today.”
“Really?” Her mood lifted immediately. “That’s so wonderful! What happened?”
Cliff pressed one of the unicorn runes on the side of his cup, part of the same set as the tea pot, transforming the contents into hot cocoa. “Apparently they’ve worked out enough kinks with the magic batteries that they want to give them a test run …”
They spent most of the meal going over what had happened and wondering what Twilight and the Crusaders would do with their latest invention. As brilliant as those five could be, they didn’t seem to think much about who would want to buy the things they developed. That job fell to Rarity and Autumn.
“Twilight said she wants to use the profit from the batteries to fund an expedition to the southwest,” Cliff said, gathering up their empty plates to be washed. “One of the new wyrms in town says she’s heard of a small island where drakes and ponies live together in peace.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked. “Where is it?”
“That’s the problem,” Cliff sighed, turning on the water to rinse off their dishes. “She didn’t know either. She just heard it from somedragon that was visiting from another coven, who heard it from a drake.” He shook his head. “You know, one of those wild rumors.”
“Why would Twilight want to investigate it?” Fluttershy asked. “She normally prefers to stay in the lab.”
The young dragon cleared his throat. “Actually, she was thinking about us. If other dragons have been living with ponies for longer than us, and if there are at least a couple of unicorns among them …”
“Then maybe one of them has developed a spell that would let dragons and ponies have children,” Fluttershy whispered, her eyes widening.
“Or at least there could be something that will help Twilight in her research.” Cliff took a deep breath. “But we shouldn’t get our hopes up in case it really is just a rumor.”
Fluttershy nodded slowly. “Still, it’s nice of her to look into it for us. Maybe we could go look into it ourselves after … uh, after my heat passes.”
That’s right, Cliff thought. She goes into heat next month. While she would still be able to go about her day-to-day life during that week, she would get tired easily and feel a little on edge and uncomfortable most of the time. Certainly not something either of them would want to deal with out in the wilderness. “Are you sure you want to go? We haven’t traveled much since we got married.”
She nodded, more firmly this time. “If it’s to help the two of us, it would be rude to make somepony else go. Besides, it was nice to spend all that time together.”
Cliff smiled as he thought back on their months spent going from coven to coven, getting volunteers to follow them back to Everfree. “Yeah, it was kind of fun, wasn’t it? Well, in spite of all the bug bites, and your sunburns, and the stale food, and the aching feet.”
Fluttershy giggled. “Yes, in spite of that.” She paused, and her expression became more thoughtful. “Cliff, do you like it when we’re intimate?”
“I- wha?" Cliff sputtered. "Yes. I mean, of course I do!” He flushed. “What under the Stars would make you doubt that?”
“I know you don’t want to feel like you’re pressuring me,” Fluttershy looked down, her own cheeks a little red, “but I realized that you’ve never asked for it, and it made me worry that you don’t really like it very much.”
Cliff left the dishes in the sink and wrapped his arms around Fluttershy’s chair, enveloping her in a hug. “I suppose I heard too many stories about guys tormenting their wives for sex. I didn’t want to be one of them, but I never realized it would make you feel this way. I’m sorry.”
She returned his embrace. “Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “Will you tell me, when you want to be intimate, that is?”
“You won’t feel pressured if I do?”
Fluttershy shook her head against his scales. “No, but it would be nice to hear. I sometimes worry that I’m not romantic for you anymore.”
“You’re extremely romantic,” Cliff assured her. It was true. The yellow pegasus rarely tried to be seductive in the traditional sense, and when she did it came out as more adorably silly than anything, but when she wasn’t sabotaging herself by trying too hard, she had a talent for innocent, almost-unintentional-seeming seduction.
Cliff checked the clock. They still had plenty of time before he had to get to his class, and Angel could run the pet store on his own if he needed to. “Uh,” he cleared his throat, “maybe we could, um … you know …” Come on, brain, think of a romantic way to say it! “Uh …” He sank his face into her mane. “I’m bad at this.”
Fluttershy giggled softly, but her hooves tightened around his arms. “Okay.” She pulled away and twisted around to look at him. Cliff noticed that she was still a little flushed, but the warmth and love of her smile made it very clear that she was happy. “Thank you.”
In an attempt to recover from his abysmal attempt at being romantic, Cliff gently lifted Fluttershy into his arms. “Nest chamber?”
She wrapped her forelegs around his neck and buried her face just below his chin. “If you don’t mind, then, yes, please.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
It has been three days since they met the drakes, and Talon Wind still didn’t know what to make of them. Apparently they had gathered from all over the world for some sort of a giant tournament between clans, but there weren’t any rankings, or scheduled matches, or anything of that sort. Instead, they all seemed to wander around the valley challenging other drakes to fights. When they weren’t fighting, they were usually sleeping, relaxing in those lava pits, or watching somedragon else fight.
Talon had once asked a passing drake why every match was a one-on-one duel. The drake just blinked at her and asked what it would prove to have two or more drakes fight a single opponent.
“No, I mean fights where there are an equal number of dragons on both sides.”
“Just have that many duels,” the drake said, “or better yet, have each side select a champion, and let those two duel.” Then he had shrugged and walked away.
Talon was still trying to make sense of the drake’s answers. Did he really not understand that teamwork and coordination meant much more in a battle than having a single powerful soldier?
The younger drakes were even worse. They couldn't compete in duels yet, and so they spent all of their time watching the older dragons fight or engaging in petty competitions of their own. Talon had lost count of the number of times they’d tried to talk her into joining them. According to them, she should be honored at the chance to hang out with ‘real dragons.’ At least they were easy to spot, and thus to avoid. Only young drakes still walked on their back legs.
Talon glanced around, there were a couple of juvenile drakes in the valley below her, but none seemed to have noticed that she was sitting at the top of a small cliff nearby. More importantly, two drakes were squaring off in the valley, and Talon had a front-row seat.
One of the combatants was Silver Tail, the dragon responsible for their new alliance. The other was a female drake with white scales about the same color as Silver Tail’s. However, this female had gray horns poking out of her head in place of the usual head spikes. Talon didn’t recognize her, but she was probably important, if the crowd that had gathered to watch the match was any indication.
Silver Tail shrank again. From overheard conversations, Talon knew that drakes could switch between huge and normal size at will. The thinking form was when they were smaller and the battle form was what they walked around in most of the time, but she couldn’t imagine why Silver Tail would choose to fight in his thinking form.
The dragoness closed her eyes for a moment and was suddenly covered in a golden aura.
That was new. Talon had seen drakes do minor changes with their battle forms, like making claws or fangs grow suddenly, but nothing like this.
A nod passed between the two drakes, and then they charged.
Drake combat had none of the tactics or finesse that Talon was accustomed to, but there was a certain brute ferocity that kept things interesting. She tossed a gemstone into her mouth, part of her lunch rations, and settled in to enjoy the show.
Silver Tail’s smaller form was paired with unbelievable agility, allowing him to dodge his opponent’s claws, teeth, and tail with ease. A single flap of his wings shot him well over his opponent to land on her other side. His foreleg swiped at the dragoness’s side, falling short by at least a dozen feet … or so Talon thought. She must have missed something, somehow, because the dragoness was knocked onto her side.
Seizing the advantage, Silver Tail launched into a flurry of attacks. All of them missed, yet impossibly, they were connecting anyway. Talon stared more intently and was just able to make out small flashes of movement between Silver Tail and his opponent each time he swung, followed immediately by a solid thump. Her jaw nearly dropped when she realized that Silver Tail was growing his forelegs up to full size for a split second with each swipe.
Her mind boggled at the implications. Silver Tail was as small and as agile as a wyvern, but could hit as hard as a drake. No wonder he was one of the top contenders in this tournament.
“Hey, Talon.”
“Hey, Thunderfang.” She glanced up at her squad leader. He was looking a little annoyed, but that was hardly new. “Come to watch the fight? It’s a good one.”
Down below them, the dragoness somehow released a beam of energy from her golden aura, forcing Silver Tail to dodge and buying her a moment to get back on her feet.
“No. I’m actually here to talk about some changes to Squad Five.” He paused for a moment. “You’re getting a new partner.”
“What?” Talon dropped a gem she had been about to eat. “Crystal and I have been together since before we even went to basic training. Why would the Hurricanes want to split us up?”
“You’ll see when you meet your new partner.” Thunderfang turned and spread his wings. “Don’t forget that gem. There aren’t many to spare.”
“I know.” Talon crunched down her final gemstone, sparing one more glance for the battling drakes. Silver Tail was unquestionably landing more blows, but the strange light around his opponent seemed to double as a type of armor. She barely even looked winded after taking enough hits to knock out any three normal drakes.
“Alright.” Talon sighed. “Let’s go.”
Jumping into the air, the two wyverns made their way to the camp.
Most drake clans had a cave to stay in during the tournament, but understandably, not even the largest cave had enough room for several thousand wyvern refugees. Instead, the wyverns had set up camp in the same field where they initially landed. It wasn’t ideal, but at least Silver Tail had been generous with his clan’s limited food supply. With rationing, they had enough food to last for another eight months or so. They needed to conquer the Crystal Empire before then or they’d all starve to death.
Talon shook her head to clear out the depressing thought. “Who’s Crystal’s new partner?”
“Cloud Breaker,” Thunderfang replied.
Talon grudgingly admitted to herself that he would be a good match for her timid friend. Cloud Breaker was a venom wyvern as well. He didn’t speak often, the result of a throat injury when he was a hatchling, but he gave off a sense of tranquility like there wasn’t anything that needed to be said anyway. It would certainly help him deal with Crystal’s occasional nervous ramblings.
They landed near the edge of camp, where a golden drake with brown spikes was resting. He was young by the looks of it, probably still able to walk on his back legs without trouble. The fact that he was in his thinking form set off a couple of warning calls in Talon’s head. Drakes usually preferred their battle form unless there was something that they needed to discuss.
Her suspicions were confirmed as soon as they landed. Thunderfang gestured to the drake, who had risen to all fours to greet them. “Talon Wind, meet your new battle partner, Tornado Wings.” Her squad leader must have seen the dismay his statement caused, because he smirked.
Talon scowled back, resisting the urge to slap him with her tail. “Why am I being paired up with a drake? They’re basically fire wyverns.” She turned to the other dragon. “No offense, but your abilities could be put to better use as part of one of our fire squadrons.”
Tornado Wings, who was nearly as tall as she was in spite of being on all fours, gave her a flat look. “You should trust your leaders. My talent is creating and controlling wind currents, which I am told is vital to how your kind fights.”
“Oh.” Talon cleared her throat. None of the drakes she had seen fight had used their wings for much other than flying. “You’re right. That’s going to be very useful for us.”
He nodded but remained silent.
“Each squad is getting at least two drakes,” Thunderfang explained. “You’ve probably noticed that they don’t normally fight in groups, so it’s up to us to teach them how. In fact, the Hurricanes are going to make most of the strategic and tactical decisions for this entire war.”
The golden dragon shrugged. “To a drake, disputes should be settled honorably, with a duel, but ponies are like wyrms.” He sneered at the word. “They fight as a whole clan, so we will too. Our survival demands it.”
Talon was still trying to piece together the full story behind this war, and it didn’t help that there were at least a dozen versions of it floating around, but they all had a few things in common. Nearly a year after the warriors of the northern drake clans arrived at the tournament, a messenger came from their home with dire news. Seemingly overnight, the ponies had built a vast city on top of the gem mines where the northern clans got most of their food. Several drakes had tried to challenge the ponies for control of the land, but each time the ponies had just sent an army to drive the challenger off.
The news had arrived four years ago. Since then, the northern clans had been living off their stockpiled gems while Silver Tail and the other clan lords used the Great Tournament to gather allies so that they could take back the mines they needed to survive.
“No wonder you asked for our help,” Talon said. “None of you have ever fought in a full-scale war.”
Tornado shrugged again. “It’s a waste to let hundreds die on each side of a disagreement when two champions could as easily settle the matter.”
Talon could see a certain amount of logic to what the drake was saying, but that kind of arrangement really only worked if both sides agreed to it, which these ponies clearly had not.
“Yeah, anyway,” Thunderfang turned to face Talon, “I’m getting the other drake as my new partner. The Hurricanes figure it should free up enough wind wyverns for a small team to deal with those flying ponies we’ve been hearing about.”
“Probably a good idea,” Talon conceded. “Any other surprises I should know about?”
Thunderfang nodded glumly. “Drakes don’t have a wind sense unless they develop one through training.”
Talon’s mood, already low, plummeted. “You’re kidding.” Sensing the rest of their squad through air pressure and wind movement was fundamental to wyvern tactics on the battlefield, easily as important as sight or hearing.
The thunder wyvern shook his head.
“How do they even fly in formation without crashing into each other?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Luckily, Tornado here,” he gestured at the golden drake, “already has the beginnings of a decent wind sense, so you can focus on teaching him basic gas tactics. We only have a few weeks before the Hurricanes want to head out, so you’d better move quickly.” Thunderfang nodded to them both before taking off once more.
Talon returned the gesture then shifted her attention back to the golden drake. Except for his head spikes and lack of horns, he looked almost like a wyvern from the neck up. Now that she was looking more closely, she also noticed that his eyes were the same fresh-earth brown as his spikes. “Okay, what do you prefer to be called?” She hoped he had some sort of nickname. Both ‘Tornado’ and ‘Wing’ were military ranks.
He returned her gaze calmly, seemingly neither upset nor excited by his new position in life. “Tornado is fine.”
Maybe I’ll get used to it in time. Talon shifted her weight a little uncomfortably. “Well, Tornado, what sort of group combat experience do you have?”
“None. I have only fought in duels.”
Talon frowned. “Haven’t you at least seen a group fight?”
He thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “Not that I can recall.”
The venom wyvern couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Have you ever worked together with other dragons for anything?”
“We often compete to see who can bring in the most meat or gemstones while hunting, if that is what you mean.”
“Not exactly.” Talon took a deep breath. “Okay, Tornado, what do you think the benefit of teamwork is?”
“The benefit?” The drake sat down with his back legs, but kept his front ones straight. Talon had seen other quadrupeds do that in the past, but it still looked weird. “I am sorry, but I do not see one, other than it allows dragons to accomplish tasks more quickly.”
Talon facewinged.
“Did I say something to upset you?” He actually sounded a little concerned.
“No, it’s fine.” Talon took another deep breath and let it out slowly. “Let’s start with the basics. Assuming it would take a team of seven wyverns to defeat one drake, how large of a team would be required to defeat two?”
Tornado arched an eyebrow. “I know how to do math.”
“I never suggested that you couldn’t.” She met his gaze calmly. “Just tell me what you think the answer is.”
“Fourteen.”
Talon shook her head. “Actually, the answer is ten, maybe eleven. As you pointed out, drakes don’t know how to work as a group, so two drakes is just that, two drakes. They wouldn’t be any more powerful than if they were fighting on their own. They might even get in the way of each other. Two wyverns fighting together, however, will support and protect each other. They will coordinate their attacks to be much more effective than anything they could have managed alone. Together, they could have much more of an impact on a battle than even three lone wyverns. Do you understand?”
Tornado was silent for a moment. “What you are saying is that a team is more powerful than the dragons that form it, correct?”
“Exactly.” Talon nodded. Maybe Tornado wasn’t going to be a lost cause after all. “Now that you can see why this is important, I’ll need to know what you’re capable of as an individual, so we can figure out how to apply your skills to the rest of Squad Five’s venom team.”
Over the next hour, Talon got a better feel for her new partner’s abilities, both in and out of his battle form. Getting huge was a useful power to be sure, except that rookies like Tornado became as dumb as rocks when when they transformed.
She was starting to understand why drakes weren’t very big on tactics. Any instruction more complicated than, ‘Kill the thing,’ had to be explained while Tornado was in his smaller form, otherwise it went right over his head. Unfortunately for them both, wyvern tactics involved a lot of complex maneuvers and techniques.
“No,” Talon sighed, flying in close to the larger dragon. “The breeze has to be more even and gentle.”
“Gentle breezes won’t hurt ponies,” Tornado objected. Volume control was yet another thing that seemed to escape him while in his battle form. The noise was beginning to give Talon a headache.
She groaned. “We’ve been over this twice already. The breeze isn’t supposed to hurt. All it’s supposed to do is carry our poison down to the enemy before it can dissipate. Otherwise, we’d have to be right on top of them.”
He frowned. “Wind hurts more than poison.”
They had been over that several times as well. “You’re forcing me to do this,” Talon grumbled. “Land.”
Once they were back on the ground, she approached the larger dragon and spat a cloud of poison into his face.
Tornado reared back, coughing violently with his eyes clenched shut.
Talon stepped back, in case he tried to swing at her, but kept her expression neutral.
Moments passed, and the coughing slowly transformed into more of a gasping wheeze. His eyes were still closed, but tears ran freely down his cheeks.
“Whatever you do, don’t change back,” Talon advised. “You inhaled enough toxin to completely paralyze the lungs of a smaller creature.”
He didn’t change back, but gave no other sign that he had heard her. Granted, the toxin’s paralyzing and numbing effects might have been affecting his vocal cords. He wouldn’t have had the extra air to waste on talking anyway.
As the minutes started to blend together, Tornado’s breathing very slowly began to deepen. Blood was beginning to leak from his nostrils by then, and smaller droplets of it seeped from his eyes to mix with the endless stream of tears. When he finally opened his eyes, they were both bright red. He immediately clenched them shut again.
Talon approached him and rested a wing across his snout. “I’m sorry that I had to do that, but imagine being able to do that to dozens of ponies every time you flap your wings. Can you understand how effective of a weapon that will be?”
Tornado nodded weakly.
“Do you see why I want you to learn how to do it?”
Another nod. “I’ll try … to learn.”
“That’s all I can ask.” Talon brushed some of his tears away with her wing. “I know it seems odd to you, but teamwork and coordination like this are going to be vital to this war. Trust me, once you get this down, those ponies won’t know what hit them.”
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It seems that I was mistaken in thinking that the main character was going to be Spike (aka Spirit) , like most of the prequel, but, instead, it's actually an OC story (Cliff)
The poisonous gas would be a viciously effective waepon and I strongly get the feeling that a great many civilians are going to be the targets.
hopefully we get to see the Crystal Empire. Good chapter
7635117 I'd say it's about 50/50 overall. Spirit/Spike and Fluttershy are both central point of view characters, but so are Cliff and Talon.
7635139 Thanks for the constructive criticism, and I'll do my best to improve my fight scenes in the future.
7635273 I'm glad you liked it. I'm really enjoying your own story, by the way.
7635304 Yeah, sorry about the wait. They'll get to the Crystal Empire soon. I just needed to spend some time getting everything set up.
You know, I almost wish that those magic batteries would work by making pony magic into dragon magic. I mean, imagine Rainbow Dash training to use it. A simple defensive spell could turn her into a living, armor piercing projectile moving at Mach 20. She could probably fly even faster with the right spells.
7635508 That would be pretty awesome, but they can still have dragons cast protective spells on Rainbow, achieving mostly the same effects.
7635433 I was just noticing that so far, Spike/Spirit's only been a small part of one chapter, with only one other mention in any of the other chapters... I was expecting HIM to be the one defending/taking charge, since it looked a LOT like him in the picture (then again, his brother WOULD look a lot like him, too) , plus, he's already the crystal savior and all... but then again, I kinda have a bias towards having Spike in the lead, since he's my favorite character, and I don't see him as much, or as well, as I'd like...
7635442 It makes me so happy to hear that, good sir!
7635757 No worries, he's more of an equal-opportunity jerk.
7636138 Understood. That is Spike/Spirit's brother in the cover art, and you're right that there isn't much of Spike/Spirit in the first few chapters. He'll start getting more time and attention as the story progresses.
7636148 Then I'm glad I could brighten your day a bit. Speak of which, I need to go read another chapter of your story.
Gee, I can't imagine where the drakes got the idea that sending one powerful champion to handle disputes was more efficient than sending an army. And even if this one drake I'm unaware of isn't the one who came up with the idea, he's not changing any drake's minds any time soon.
So it has been around two years since the end of the last story, correct? In that case, Celestia must be Very good at using dragon magic by now, considering how fast she progressed in the previous story. She could be a one pony army by now. Also, is the whole immortality and dragon magic thing addressed? If it is, I don't want to know how it turns out, I just want to know if you addressed it.
7637154 I can think of one particular powerful drake that could settle a lot of disputes better than your average army
7637224 Yes, it's been about two years since the last story ended. Celestia has gotten very good at dragon magic, as has Luna. The issue of Celestia using dragon magic to make people immortal isn't brought up, mostly because I always figured Celestia would spend at least a decade performing experiments, studying effects, weighing options, etc.
What's kind of amusing is the fact that Shining Armor could probably take a drake one on one. Cadance might, too.