With teeth
"—since I'm being so accommodating, the least you can do is be civil."
This suggestion caused Sundance to bristle in the worst possible way. It just rubbed him wrong. "Accommodating, you say?" He needed a big inhale for what came next. "Accommodating. You no doubt knew of my arrival, but told none of your staff. There were no plans in place to welcome me. Because nopony knew what to do, I had to inconvenience your employees just to get the bare minimum of cooperation, which none of them wanted to provide."
It was at this point that Autumn Allium began to grind her teeth.
"All of which could have been avoided if you'd prepared for my arrival. Please, do tell me how I've been accommodated. Write me a list. Offer me proof of your preparedness. You didn't tell your underlings of my arrival because you hoped that I'd get frustrated, or angry, or impatient, or whatever it is that you hoped for, and you wanted me to go away. Well… I've got bad news for you, Mrs. Allium… I'm a bureaucrat to the bone. A creature of infinite patience when it is necessary. I cannot be made to just go away."
Autumn Allium's face was now a convention for a variety of facial tics. In fact, she seemed right on the verge of having a stroke, or perhaps an aneurysm. As for Sundance, he had himself a bit of a better understanding of his place in the world. It wasn't glamorous, or glorious, and it wasn't the sort of thing that one dreamt about becoming when one was still a small, precious foal. He was an Administrator, of a take-no-shit sort. His mother was Officer Mom, a born policemare. A dedicated public servant. And so was he. So, serve the public he would. Until his last, final gasp.
But before he went, he would finish his paperwork, because that was expected.
Having discovered himself, and feeling quite comfortable in his own skin, Sundance found himself more than prepared to sort this out. He would see this through somehow. This was a job, and he was the right pony for this task. All the pieces slipped and fell into place. Sundance knew that he would spend the rest of his life doing the very thing that he did right now.
Saving others.
Sure, he wasn't a knight, or a wizard—he lacked a horn, which was a basic requirement for that particular job—he wasn't a soldier, or a suave, sophisticated spy. He wasn't a police officer, like his mom, a mare doing her own part to save the world. Sundance was a pencil pusher. A paper filer. He was a battler of triplicate, a manager of managers. And this was fine. This made him content. For somepony to reach for the stars, another pony had to reach for the filing cabinet to make that possible. Such was the way of things, and in this moment, this glorious moment, Sundance understood this with perfect clarity.
"I still don't understand how you got her name," Autumn Allium said to Sundance.
"That bothers you, doesn't it?" he replied. "So, where is she and why am I kept waiting?"
"It takes time to prepare her for presentation," the bitter middle-aged mare returned.
"Presentation is unnecessary. I am taking her home."
When Autumn Allium muttered something beneath her breath, Sundance failed to hear what it was. He let it slide, because he saw no reason to be upset about it. Fear still lurked in the darkened corners of his mind, but for now, he was in control of himself. And as long as he kept control of himself, he would have his wits, a vital ally of utmost importance. All things considered, he felt pretty good about himself right now.
"For your safety as well as the safety of others, she must be prepared for presentation. Sparrowhawk is a violent psychopath, an aggressive urinator, and a serial biter. Out of all of our young, incurable patients, she is the worst. She's practically feral. I do hope that you have the necessary facilities to contain her, and a hospital to treat her victims."
This rattled Sundance a good deal more than he cared to admit, but he showed no outward signs.
"A serial urinator?"
"Yes." Her head nodded once, and then was still. "With uncanny aim. Eye protection is highly recommended, as is full body armor. She bites as a means of saying hello. In fact, biting and urination happens to be her primary forms of communication."
Disturbed somewhat, Sundance thought of his interview at Cactus Creek, specifically the question about what he would do if a foal bit him. Surely patience would win over the troubled tyke. Even though some of his confidence was now diminished, he remained steadfast. Twilight Velvet had sent him here for a reason, and surely, surely she wouldn't burden him with such a dangerous foal. There had to be more going on here than he understood. Perhaps things would be made clear after the fact. But to reach that point, he had to stay the course. He had to trust.
"Some of her bites, it takes a team of trained surgeons to make the bleeding stop," Autumn Allium remarked. "Many of my staff are missing ears because of her."
Corduroy was good at stitching, Sundance reminded himself, but this did not make him feel better.
A number of ponies in the room were missing ears, but Sundance barely noticed. His attention was squarely focused upon the masked filly who sat on a wooden chair. She was muzzled, which disturbed him greatly. Something about her seemed off; she was sickly in appearance, her wings were unpreened, and there was something about her colour that just seemed off somehow. She was bronze, but her pelt had no shine, no gloss. Her copper mane was dull, stringy, and limp. Looking at her, he felt a distinct and noticeable ache on each hip where his marks were located.
"Is this really happening?" somepony murmured, and Sundance barely heard it.
Both infuriated and stricken by what he saw, he tried to reason with himself on how or why this might be necessary, but he could reach no satisfying conclusion. One of the armored orderlies near the chair coughed, and when he did, he fogged up his clear plastic face shield. When Sundance took a step closer, both of the armored orderlies clanked and clattered as they adopted a stern, commanding posture. But Sundance was not at all deterred by this authoritative display. In this room, he was the authority, and he made himself remember that.
"Take that off," he commanded.
"We can't—"
"I am telling you to take it off, or else." Every muscle in Sundance's body contracted, his guts knotted, and for the first time, his hackles began to rise. Just a few hanks of hair stood up, an early warning sign that he was angered. "Fine. If you won't do it, I will."
"Sir, that is ill-advised," an earth pony mare said.
More of Sundance's hackles rose to the occasion.
Autumn Allium stood in the corner, silent, almost smirking.
There were no windows, no means of escape. No way to fly away. There was no reassuring sunlight here, only oppressive darkness, which somehow manifested itself in the overbright room lit by powerful electric lights. Sundance was no warrior; this particular fact stood out in his mind. The two armored guards were earth ponies with powerful builds. There was a single unicorn, who stood near Autumn Allium. A half a dozen ponies were also in the room, two pegasus ponies, and four earth ponies. Instinct told him that there was no way that he would win this fight, if it came to a fight.
Which meant that he had to keep his head. He had to keep his cool. Somehow, he had to get himself back out into daylight, and he had to do so with the filly. He'd already made up his mind that leaving her behind was not an option, and come Tartarus or high water, he was leaving with her. The two guards wore menacing scowls behind their plastic face shields. So this was what being in over your head felt like, Sundance realised.
"Surely you must be a pony of reason," Autumn Allium said. "By now, you must have realised the seriousness of the situation. If you want to do what is best for her, you will leave her here in our care. Just leave, and forget about her. We have the means and the resources to care for her and to look after her special needs. You don't. You will quickly find yourself in over your head, and you—"
"Take that off, or else there will be trouble," Sundance said whilst he eyeballed the two guards.
"If we take that off, there will be trouble," one of the pegasus ponies said. "Polenta, I think the sedative is already wearing off. Look, she stirs!"
Everypony stepped back, including the guards, and when they did, Sundance moved closer. Sparrowhawk's eyes were crazed, manic, and her pupils contorted and contracted in odd ways. Her eyes were absolutely fearless and were terrifying to behold. Confused by what he saw, Sundance began to doubt himself—but his moment of doubt was his breaking point. The daredevil in him chose rash action, and before his rational mind could object, the daredevil had already taken over. Now a passenger, the rational part of his brain peered out through Sundance's eyeballs, and sent out a flood of thoughts that pleaded for a restoration of rationality before absolute insanity took hold.
But it was too late; Sundance's eyes were every bit as manic as the filly's.
Oh no, Rationality said to whoever might be listening.
Oh yes, the Id replied. If we can't get laid, at least we can have action. Blood or semen, release the demon!
The only moral action is a fine and proper kicking of the ass, the Super-Ego said as Sundance strode confidently, fearlessly forward.
Can't we just have a vote? the Ego asked.
This is not a democracy, the Id replied. This is a morally-mandated murder-spree.
But the filly might be traumatised if we dance upon their guts, the Super-Ego said to all the others, but also to the Id in particular. For her sake, we must show restraint.
The filly stank strongly of urine and filth. It made Sundance's skin crawl just to be near her, and he shuddered with revulsion as his lips brushed up against her mane. She was damp—moist—and smelt of urine. He was quick to put two and two together. At some point, quite recently no doubt, she'd been drenched. Almost trembling, he got his teeth on the strap behind her head, and gave it a powerful yank to undo the brass snaps. She yelped when some stray hairs in her mane got tugged, and there were cries of alarm as the mask tumbled away from her face.
For a moment, nothing happened. All of the ponies in the room, including the two armored guards, pressed up against the walls, as if they feared for their lives. Sparrowhawk just sat there for a time, unmoving, and her small, thin wings were limp against her sides. Sundance looked down at her, and she up at him, and he had himself a very hopeful moment. But his hopes were dashed when her lips puckered; suddenly, and without warning, his face was drenched and he was almost blinded by some foul liquid that was squirted right into his eyes.
It was piss; the filly somehow had a mouthful of piss.
Eyes burning, half blinded, he backed away and shook his head to clear his vision. His nostrils were thoroughly violated by the powerful stench of urine, some of which had gone up his nose. But his ears still worked, and he heard a wildcat sound, a sort of screech that was also a shriek, but also had a good bit of yowl mixed in. Dizzy, on the verge of stomach-churning queasiness, and unable to see much of anything, Sundance was quite vulnerable.
"Argh, piss!" Sundance somehow managed to say as some of the vile liquid dribbled from his contorted lips that convulsed from his revulsion.
"They gave me an enema a while ago," the filly said as she lunged, "otherwise you'd get brownies too!"
And then, without further ado, the tiny terror chomped Sundance's left front leg, just above his fetlock. Her vorpal teeth went snicker-snack, cleaved through thin skin, and sank right down to the bone with an ominous clompity-crunch. A thousand thoughts went through Sundance's mind, with one of them being his interview with Gleeful Gambol, who had asked him, "A foal bites you. What do you do?"
At the time, he had replied, "Well, I don't bite them back." But those were the halcyon days before the shark filly had introduced her teeth to him. Those were days that Sundance would miss. They were days that he would never get back. The future, and all the coming days would be spent dealing with the electric agony that went shooting up and down his left leg, a highly mobile agony that somehow worked its way into his left wing, and went dancing up and down his left side.
Sundance, in a fit of nostalgia, longed for the days that came before.
The most primal, most pegasusy part of Sundance responded in a language unique to pegasus ponies: He bit her back. It didn't matter that she was soaked and filthy, or that she was little and vulnerable. His head darted down, and in a moment of sheer horsitude, he bit her in the most tender of places, right between the wings. With a good nip of skin held betwixt his teeth, he lifted her from the floor, whipped his head to his left, the side where all the pain was, and then, just as she began to squeal, he dropped her.
"You bit me!" she cried. "It hurt! Nopony has ever bitten me before!"
And then, before he could respond, she darted between his front legs, and stood beneath his belly. Raw frozen terror gripped Sundance when he realised all of the tender places he had beneath him, a smorgasbord of soft bits, all of which were quite vulnerable to biting. But no bites happened. The confusion stretched out for several long seconds and Sundance desperately tried to recover his senses.
Then, he heard the filly say, "Alright, you're in charge! Just don't bite me again, that really hurts! Now come on! We can take them!"
"What?" he asked, more confused now than at any other moment in his life.
"We can take them!" she cried as the crowd began to recover. "Let's bite our way to freedom!"
This is how friendships start. With teeth. So remember, care for your teeth. You need them for friendships. 
Stats
Page generated in 0.07 seconds
Total duration
1,001 users online
60,854 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Huh.
I like her!
I wonder if Sundance needs to update his answer with Gleeful Gambol...
This threw me for such a loop!
They better let them walk out if they know what's good for them!
Oh dear, so many many questions.
Dear God, that urine-seasoned bite must've tasted rank.That was wonderfully bizzare and the reason, why i love reading your stories.
But i don' t think anything tops your Bucky and Twilight riding on the doom train.
Talk about edge of my seat, I really need to see how this proceeds.
Filly nibbles. Build character. It really hurts to get bitten by a horse. Belle used to bite Christine on the rump whenever she could.
This is what happens when you have a horse moment but roll a natural 20.
Truly, a battlecry for the ages.
O Sparrowhawk is going to be fun.
The wardens really need to pay that place a very unscheduled visit
I remember watching a sparrow hawk plucking a live pigeon. To this day I don’t know why it kept just pulling out feathers without actually killing it. Went on for ages. There’s something of her namesake in this filly.
I mean, if she knew their Truenames, then biting wouldn't be needed.
But perhaps she isn't his namesake.
10186688
Just imagine Ghost Rider (please, not Cage´s version) walking around that place...
I think I know what’s going on with sparrow. She’s feral but she’s not “feral”, she’s a natural sharpshooter that’s more in touch with her primative Pegasus heritage than most these days. Hence the strong reaction to a primitive dominance asserting display. This plays well into a part of my comments last chapter. She will make a great daughter for river raider
That's kind of poetic.
I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction of Rationality, Id, Super-Ego, and Ego. XD Sparrowhawk is probably going to thrive at Sunfire. And however did Twilight Velvet learn of her?
We! We will resist and bite! Bite hard! Cause we are all in sight! We! We take up arms and fight! Fight hard! Resist and do what’s right!
10186777
Not much was shown of him but I think that Sam Elliott's Ghost Rider would work well
Little bit of a story flashback in this chapter. Long-time readers should recognize a similar scene from another story.
10186480
If it was just a question of revenue per "client", I doubt it would be worth the legal trouble to resist someone with the authority to claim one of the residents. Given the size of the complex, it's likely they have a large enough "client" population that 1 more or less wont make much of a difference.
10186946
Considering that then, something unethical might be going on. Though if that’s the case, I’d imagine they will try very hard to keep Sparrowhawk in so she won’t be able to get that secret out, possibly through violent means. I’ll just have to wait and see on that.
Oh Corduroy is going to have fun with this one.
Huh, so the orderlies just used the wrong kind of violence.
Well it kind of makes sense if she have gone more or less feral, she would react to instinctive, horsey behaviour.
I am starting to think that maybe Sundances cutiemark, is giving him some kind of emphatic instinct on how to connect with other ponies, what kind of approach works the best.
I wonder how Sparrowhawk will react, when she finds out that several inhabitants of the barony have more, and sharper, teeth than her.
10185663
*Fart noise*
... 'She's practically feral'. No, she IS feral. You have to show her who's boss and then act to keep her safe, so she understands the alpha. Alpha's stronger than you and will take care of you.
Ohh this reminds me of a scene from The Chase. It seems she too needs to know there’s someone willing to protect her.
Bite the oppressor!
It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read that last bit. I almost passed out laughing so hard at the "let's bite our way to freedom" line lol. Dangit Kudz, you're a mess.
I'm liking Sparrowhawks attitude
Revolución
Nice
10186688 I hope for Dim ... 💀
10188466
Doable but I think that that's like using a 20MT city buster because you have mice.
10188466
Dim is busy.
In his spare time...
He is still trying to split the thaumaton.
10188511
Uh - oh ... that sounds dangerous. 😨
10188471
Quick, effective, messy, with the added bonus of repurposing the area afterwards?
10189546
Messy?
Glass is easy to clean.
Huh. So, not ferral, just absolutely medieval. Wonderful
I think this shows the difference between punishment and correction pretty well. Punishments are based in anger and meant to cause pain or discomfort as a form of revenge. Corrections are meant to stop unwanted behavior and only involve pain or discomfort if necessary. A correction is never applied in anger.
What Sundance meant when he said he wouldn't bite a foal if they bit him was that he wouldn't punish a foal. Of course it's easy to claim the moral high-ground when you aren't stuck in the trenches.
Yes, teeth are for friendship. Whether you are smiling or biting for friendship to win new friend.
Having read the Chase, I was kind of expecting something like this too happen when she bit him.
Okay, now that was NOT what I expected! I thought the bite would just make her all calm and stuff, but NOPE! Instead it just makes her see Sundance as her BOSS and ALLY, ready to take on the ENTIRE Asylum.
Though this makes sense. She's FERAL and so she speaks the FERAL LANGUAGE of Pegasus Ponies, ie biting.
This ending is WILD and I am LOVING IT!! <3