69 - Reparations
"She's waking up," noted Red Heart.
Like a magic spell, the larger dragon was in the room in an instant, scrambling to her lady's side in time to be there when those reptilian eyes blinked open slowly.
Ember focused on her newfound dragon friend and dared a little smile. "Why do I feel worse in some ways? Did they mess up?"
"Glad to see you awake." The she-dragon bobbed her head. "You were... um... hurt a little--" She held up a hand, two claws ever so close together. "--a tiny bit more than we thought. They... said it would take a while to recover. Stupid pony medicine--" She laughed nervously. "--right?"
Ember pulled herself slowly into a more upright position, using the head of the bed for support. "Look, it's... just us two. I... mighta been hurt more than I was letting on."
"No!" gasped out the dragoness as if genuinely surprised. "You looked fine!"
"Stop that." Ember smirked at the dragoness. "Hey, Nurse!"
Red Heart poked her head in. "Do you need anything?"
"Yeah, a cup of water would be really nice, and, uh, tell that doctor I said thanks."
As the nurse fled, the dragoness looked at Ember with clear confusion.
"It's how ponies work. They like being told 'please' and 'thank you'." She made quotes in the air in the proper parts, rolling her eyes. "They get all warm and happy when you baby them. Hey, what's going on? Besides me, obviously."
"Your father brought other dragons." She rubbed behind her head. "They're all being seen. Some of them just got big bandaids and stuff. Some of them are resting, you know, like you are. A few... aren't moving at all."
Ember cocked a brow. "What, like they're still asleep?"
"Forever asleep," sighed out the dragoness. The somber moment was utterly ruined when a belch rose from within her and she burst into a little laugh. "Remember when I wanted burps to be the official greeting?"
Ember smiled faintly, but it was soon lost. "How many were lost?"
"O-oh, four." She held up as many fingers, wriggling her claws. "Torch said that wasn't so bad for a real fight. He blames it on the ponies for making the whole thing soft."
Ember suddenly brought down a fist on the end table that rested beside her bed. She had meant to be forceful, but it was more of a dull thump in her weakened state. "This is my fault."
"You didn't hurt them." The dragoness shrugged softly. "How can it be your fault?"
"I waited." Ember let out a slow breath. "I waited and I denied and hoped it would all go away, and instead of the problem going away, we lost people. Who knows how many of them could have been saved, here. If even one of them could have been treated, I am their killer."
"No!" She said the word with much more feeling. "No! Stop that! You're a good leader!"
"I could be better." Ember slowly turned herself, her feet dangling off the bed. "I will be better. Tell the lazy jerks waiting outside to get back to the dragonlands. I want to see a hospital by the time I get back. Ask the ponies for help in how to build one, take one, if the pony agrees to go."
The dragoness imagined a pony living with dragons long enough to build a hospital even half as nice as the one they were in. "That'll be tough for them... Ponies are so soft and... delicate?"
"I don't care... This can't happen again, ever. If someone's hurt, they get treated, end of story!"
"As you wish it, Dragon Lord." She dipped her head respectfully, then pointed. "Your scepter." It was lying on the same end table Ember had lightly bumped. "I'll be right back."
"Hey."
"Yeah?" She aborted her departure to look over her shoulder.
"Thanks." Ember began to settle back on the bed, lying down about as slowly as she had first risen up. "For being a friend and a good person in general."
"Not a problem, Ember." She rubbed behind her head a little. "I never had a friend before."
"Get used to it." She yawned widely. "We're gonna do all kinds of friend stuff, once I'm better."
"Is... that good?"
"Ask Spike, he's an expert on friend stuff." She closed her eyes, the discussion over as far as she was concerned.
Torch was watching each figure that came and went from the hospital, diminishing traffic somewhat with his imposing presence. "So how are you going to pay us back. You did mention that."
Gregor gestured to the hospital. "That will be decided by your dragon lord. That is the title, is it not?"
"Yeah..." He watched another pony scurry past into the hospital. "She better be satisfied..."
Gregor took note of something, looking distracted a moment. "I'm afraid the blessing that allows me to speak your tongue is fading. It was a kindness on his part that it persisted as long as it did. I will return to our ship, but remain available. Send word when she has awoken and is available for visitors, that I may tend her wounds."
"Yeah yeah." Torch waved him off, barely paying attention as he saw a dragon emerge from the building. A purple-pink one, bipedal but showing signs of maturing into a heavier quadruped frame in some ways. He ignored the withdrawing humans. She had his focus. "Any news?"
She jumped at his booming voice. "Oh, hey... Torch... She's awake, and she gave an order."
Torch snorted, smoke escaping his nostrils. "That's my girl. What'd she demand?"
The dragoness waved at the motley group of dragons. "She said to go home. She also said to make a hospital." She rubbed behind her head. "She said to take a pony if you can find one that's willing to help."
Garble raised a brow. "A namby pamby hospital? Why would we do that?"
"Because she said so?" proposed the dragoness with a shrug. "She's the dragon lord."
"Pfft, whatever. I can stack a few rocks if it'll make her happy." He took to the air, flying off with his bandaged hand and no seeming appreciation for the skill that allowed it.
Other dragons grumbled and muttered, many joining Garble in departing for the dragon lands. Torch shrugged softly. "I'm not afraid to admit I have no clue how to do that. A dragon hospital shouldn't be like this anyway." He waved at the pony hospital. "Give us a nice big cave with some warm lava pits to relax in... Now that sounds like a good place to recover."
Of the dragons left, they nodded in agreement. That sounded like a nice place. The dragoness friend of Ember raised a claw. "Well, she didn't say what kind of hospital exactly, why not make that?"
Torch squinted at the little dragon. "You may have a point... Let's do that. She'll be so impressed by it when we're done she'll forget all about this..." He put a hand on the roof of the little building that couldn't hope to treat half the dragon populace. "C'mon, we've wasted enough time, and she's good enough to give orders." Which meant she'd be fine, it seemed. He lifted into the air and soon led the other dragons away, leaving Ember's friend behind.
Left alone, she realized there was still a missing step... Dragons didn't know how to... do whatever it is doctors and nurses did... "Hmm..." She hadn't been ordered to fix that, but she dared to step away from the hospital anyway. She fixed eyes on the gleaming, and delicious looking, castle. That was where the Pony Lord lived, er, princess. Right, they had princesses, not lords. Silly ponies. She snorted a giggle to herself as she took flight towards it.
Laud was just in front of the same castle. Spike was with him. "How do dragons vary so... wildly in size?"
Spike shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. If it helps, I think Torch is one of a kind. Can you imagine if Ember ever got that big?"
Laud thought of the slender she-dragon becoming a huge craggy beast with horns bigger than his entire body. "I would prefer not to. She is his... daughter? The resemblance is difficult to see."
Spike laughed merrily at that. "Yeah, I thought the same thing. You know, maybe she's adopted?" He put a hand behind his head. "I mean, I don't dare suggest the idea, or ask... or imply to much anyone..."
"You just did to me," noted Laud with a raised brow.
"Yeah, because I trust you to keep your mouth closed, and to protect me if it came to that." He gave a double thumbs up at his human friend. "Still, I guess, it doesn't change much one way or the other."
"You are right on that count. Were I to accept someone as my child, then that is that. By blood or oath, they would be my child and woe be unto any that would question it. A lord can bequeath their title and land to an adopted son or daughter, I fail to see how it can be considered lesser in most cases." He tapped one arm with the fingers of the opposing hand. "But enough of that."
"Yeah, that's a dead end." He shrugged lightly. "You think the dragons are behaving themselves? Should I have left?"
"They didn't seem eager to cause trouble." He shrugged lightly and gestured in the vague direction of the hospital. "They may be aggressive warriors, but even those will be slow to attack a place that is treating others of their tribe. I would not have joined you if I had less than full faith in that. I would worry more for anyone else that dared to interrupt the peace there."
Spike snorted a chuckle at that. "You have a point. Hey, here comes one." He pointed to the incoming dragoness. "Hey, I remember her. She was there at the dragon lord challenge, uh, I mean, basically all the dragons were, but I saw her."
Laud considered the purple-pink form of the dragon that landed just in front of them. "Good day," he greeted. "If you're looking for your lord, she's over there." He pointed the way to the hospital.
"No, I just came from there." She smiled awkwardly. "Hey, Spike. You know lots of ponies, right?"
Spike nodded quickly. "Yeah sure, tons of 'em. Are you looking for a specific one?"
She shrugged lightly. "Yeah sorta. We need a pony that can teach a dragon how to be a nurse or a doctor."
Spike stiffened at the idea. "Oh... wow. First you'd need a dragon that wanted to be a nurse or a doctor."
"You have a point," she admitted dejectedly, sighing. Suddenly she perked. "What if I started? Ember wants to get back, I know it. If I became a nurse, I could watch her and help while she recovers."
Spike blinked at the large young-adult dragoness. "You'd do that?! That's really big of you."
She puffed out her chest, looking down at Spike. "I am pretty big compared to you," she half-giggled. "So of course it is. How do I start?"
Laud smiled at the awkward but genuine efforts being put forward. "I commend your loyalty. Your lord should be proud to have such a faithful subject. Follow me. Twilight has innumerable books."
The dragoness stuck out her tongue, belching out a grunt of displeasure. "I have to read?! Nurses have to read too?!"
Laud held up a hand, not willing to see that good thing put to rest so easily. "Come forward. I'll read to you. To see this advance, that is the least I could do."
"That sounds better." She followed him into the crystal castle. "Coming, Spike?"
He waved them off. "Hm? Nah! I'm already an ambassador, no time for being a nurse. Good luck though! I'm sure you'll be the best dragon nurse ever."
That wouldn't be a high bar to reach.
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Name: "Flaring Sparks Against the Night Sky Horizon".
Hell, my mother's name is Marion, and that basically means "Dawn Star of the War God".
Lavender. Or just 'Lav' or 'Lava' to dragons-who-don't-want-to-get-punched (that's what friends are, right?). Not her fault her parents had the creativity of a rock and named her after a namby-pamby colour. Even if it is the colour of her scales. Which it isn't! They're totally purple!
9357953 Flaring Sparks is a pretty good dragon name...
9357965
Okay, wow. That last bit just sounds so tsundere in my head. I don’t even know if it could be called tsundere since that’s a romance trope, but just the abrupt denial there seems very like it. Is that weird?
9357965
She's pink though. And isn't lavender a shade of purple?
And a begins dragon civilization, through an hospital cave and a pink nurse to be.
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Pink? Oh wait, I thought we were talking about 'I'm gonna make burping a mandatory greeting' dragon, which was this one I thought.
It's good that Ember wants to improve things. Derpibooru claims that the pink dragon's name is Prominance but that's not official since Gameloft doesn't name her either.
9358074
I think the author did an oopsie then, she was described as pink multiple times.
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9358147
What color is she again? I may have forgotten?
9358176
Well, there is a pink dragon (this one, who is apparently called Cinders in the card game) and the purple one, who is miss 'I'll make burps an official greeting' in Gauntlet of Fire, and is called Maar in the card game.
9358198
There she is, pink-purple? Colors, they confuse me, but that is her. Maar it is.
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I was going to suggest "Calamine" which is a mixture of zinc oxide and iron oxide. It's pink, it is used as a medicine for burns and abbrasions. We could call her Cala for short.
"It was laying on the same end"
"It was lying on the same end"?
"She aborted her flee to look over"
"She aborted her flight to look over"?
"bed, laying down about as slowly as she had first rose up"
"bed, lying down about as slowly as she had first risen up"?
"at the awkard but genuine"
"at the awkward but genuine"?
Well at least Ember isn't so ingrained to save face that she will refuse change. All for the better, if slowly...
It will look good that the Dragon forces are "retreating". They can even spin it!
Keep going! ;)
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Gregor told us the spell was fading! We should have listened.
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Hah! :D
Pity they cant get Fluttershy to help with the overall design, due to Dragons. So much research staff needed to work out which molten materials work best for dragon healing etc?
This chapter is miss named. There were no reparations made yet! We demand mountains of gold and gems! Maybe even a princess captive in a tower and some would-be heroes to slap around.
A better name would be "Recovery", some derivation of change, or maybe even "Dragon or the Egg" because which came first, the Dragon hospital or the Dragon nurse to run it?
Will Discord show up in this at all? Seems like the kind of thing hed have a say in with aliens and all that.
this is going to be a vary good thing.
You, Ember's new dragon friend, I like you.
This would be proof enough for me, an agnostic atheist, to start following the faith. This is absolute evidence of something happening - something that defies scientific explanation. One does not learn an alien language and speak it fluently within minutes. Especially when the sounds used to produce the language are also alien.
As these people have a legitimate reason to follow their God, I will stop looking at their religion with contempt.
The pink dragon is called Cinders.