Imbalanced: Legacy of Light

by Nameless Narrator

3: Innocent victim

This little remote town sitting peacefully on the northeastern edge of the Griffon Empire was nothing special. Its name was Windy, and it took after a mountain range further north of it called, unsurprisingly, Windy Mountains. The town had few things going for it, though. First, it was warm for most of the year, being on the western edge of another magically dessicated desert separating the Empire from the lands further east. Second, its name showed in the constant flow of air, a gentle breeze almost never stopping and cooling feathers and hair of its inhabitants from the sunlight. Third, it had just the right balance of position, allowing it to let through some traffic coming from the heart of the Empire to the eastern border fortresses and back, which brought much needed information and cash, while still being remote enough not to turn into a tourist attraction. And finally, the town had its own dragon. He didn’t exactly count as an inhabitant, but he’d protected the place from bandits and occasional raiders for decades, who had always been a problem for remote settlements within the Griffon Empire.

The dragon’s name was Hazaren, and while he usually didn’t bother much with the affairs of the snacks- ehm, griffons and the occasional pony living in the town underneath his mountain, he’d been staying in Windy a lot these years for two particular reasons. The original one was a pegasus mare by the name Red Wind whom Hazaren had met in the Dragon Lands thirty years ago. The second reason’s name was Harriet, his and Red Wind’s daughter.

No, this isn’t the place to describe pony and dragon love mechanics. Let’s just say Red Wind had been very determined at the right time.

This year, Harriet had turned twenty-two years old, and was currently slowly walking forward with a heavy plow on her back, leaving a proper groove in the field. Sweat was dripping from her forehead covered in wet, purple mane, down her brown coat, and into her amber eyes which she promptly wiped with the clean part of her foreleg not previously digging through soil. Harriet grunted when the gesture proved ineffective due to the fact that all her four legs were, from her lower thighs down, covered in red dragon scales like high boots, so she simply shook her head and hoped for the best. After taking a short breather and realizing that she was almost done with the plowing, Harriet dug the hooves of her hind legs into the ground, and pushed again.

The plow clearly heavier than she was moved as Harriet’s powerful and thick hind thighs forced her to move, and the young mare gasped for breath. It was always easier to keep the heavy instrument moving than to get it to move in the first place, so breaks like this one were barely more help than hindrance, but she had needed it. The feat of strength rivaling that of an adult earthpony worker was a bit marred by Harriet’s slightly pudgy belly, and the fact that her butt squished in a not only muscular fashion with each push. In short, Harriet was very strong despite being slightly chubby, which covered the corresponding muscles.

Why is the fat so important? Harriet knew about it, and didn’t like it one bit.

Few minutes and a small river of sweat later, the field was done, much to the pleasure of a watching elderly griffon lady wearing a straw hat, and relief of Harriet who put the plow away into a tool shed nearby. The dragonpony saw the griffoness approach, but was in no shape to do more than gasp for breath and blink the sweat away until everything stopped swaying.

“Well done, Harriet,” the griffoness patted her back, careful to avoid the hard scales along the big girl's spine, “The late sowing season is always a pain in the butt, but thanks to you I’ll make it this year even without my Wilhelm.”

“No problem, miss Dane,” Harriet gave Dane an exhausted smile, “Hopefully your son will come back from his Legion tour soon.”

“May the Emperor bless him,” Dane nodded, and pulled several gold coins out of the pouch hanging from her belt, “Now, since you did such a great job on short notice, I’ve got something special for you.”

Harriet blinked, taken aback. Ten gold coins was quite something for two days of work. She usually helped around the town for food, and did some waitressing at the tavern during the evenings for a gold coin per day. Her mom’s birthday was coming up, though, so maybe she could buy her something nice. Granted, her mom could wear pretty much anything from her dad’s hoard whenever she wanted, but deep down it was part of the hoard, not something belonging to her. It’s a dragon thing. Anyway, a small necklace or something would look much better on Red Wind than on Harriet herself. Unlike her, her mom had the figure to show it off.

“Thank you, miss Dane,” Harriet bowed.

“No, thank you, dear. Get something at the inn for yourself. Nothing too strong, though, young lady. Heheh, or maybe someONE strong, you know...” she nudged Harriet in the side.

The dark blush on Harriet’s face reached the colour of the scales covering the top of her muzzle. She looked at the ground, pocketing the coins into her backpack lying by the shed’s door for safety.

“I’m not… you know… the type to get, umm, someone strong… easy. Not, ehm, thin enough… like stallions see in their magazines...”

“Oh nonsense!” Dane lightly poked Harriet’s butt and watched it jiggle. The fact that the mass of muscle underneath could propel the dragonpony’s hind legs so hard she would kick through an oak door only made the smile on her beak grow, “If I had treasure like that when I was young, griffons would have been all over me,” Dane chuckled at an old memory, “Well, they were anyway. Griffons love a chick, or a mare, with some meat on her bones.”

“Meat, not fat- ow!” muttered Harriet, putting the backpack on, when Dane smacked the back of her head.

“You’re strong like a dragon, obviously, Harriet. Remember Jenny? She used to be fat and flabby. Now she has a young one on the way, and she’s like a blob. You’re nothing of that sort. Don’t tell her I said that, she’s a nice girl. Now scoot, I’ve got crops to prepare for tomorrow.”

With her heart lifted a little, Harriet set out on the road home. She had just enough time to jump into a pool, and then run off to the inn for the evening. If only the guests didn’t always pinch, slap, or poke her backside under the waitress skirt far to short for a pony of her size just to make fun of her.

No, she really had no idea how attractive she was in the exotic full-bodied amazon kind of way.

Anyway, Harriet enjoyed living in Windy despite the mundanity, but what she really loved were stories about interesting places far away, and to hear those she would survive any pinchy or pokey embarrassment from the patrons and visitors.

***

As mentioned before, Windy was situated underneath a tall hill size-wise bordering on mountain with a cavern near its top, the first step towards the main mountain range. There was only one steep path leading from the town up there, and walking up and down such obstacle multiple times every day was one of the main reasons responsible for Harriet’s biggest asset. The reason why she had to walk was a rather strange one - despite being the offspring of a dragon and a pegasus, both flying species, Harriet had been born wingless. Why? No one knew. Hybrids like her were extremely rare, and she was otherwise a healthy pony so there wasn’t much reason for concern.

Anyway, backsides with their own gravitational pull aside, Harriet’s slow but steady trot soon brought her to a simple wooden door near the cavern mouth, and she entered what on the looked like an absolutely normal inside of a house none of the griffons down in Windy would bat an eyelid at. From what Harriet had heard, her mother refused to sleep inside a drafty cavern every day, so her father had paid for the excavation of a suite connected to both the outside and the cavern itself. Thanks to Hazaren’s painful, to a dragon, sacrifice of gold, Harriet had her own albeit small room which she kept neat and clean. It even had a window carved into the mountainside, much to her delight. Her mother didn’t mind that the living room didn’t get one as a result, since she spent most of her time in the kitchen anyway. Red Wind was a self-made cook, uneducated, amateurish, but enthusiastic. Having a dragon husband certainly helped her self-esteem, since he’d eat absolutely everything including the failed experiments ending up as charcoal.

As Harriet realized the sun was a lot lower than she’d expected, she ditched any idea of a pool, and just splashed some water on her face instead. Few minutes later, her legs were clean even between her claws. She’d heard yesterday evening that a group of armed ponies arrived from distant Equestria, and the thought filled her with excitement. Stories from foreign parts!

“No!” Hazaren’s sudden roar reached Harriet. Her dad sounded… angry? Harriet’s ears drooped, and she darted out of her room, sneaking down the hall towards the back entrance to the big cavern.

Normally, an angry male voice wouldn’t be a reason for concern, but as far as Harriet could remember, Hazaren had never been angry. He got annoyed rather easily, dragons were notoriously short-tempered. However, they were also immensely powerful, and situations which made ponies and griffons angry or frustrated were completely beneath them. If a dragon had a problem, he or she devoured or incinerated it. No reason for shouting.

The door to the main cavern was slightly ajar, and Harriet peeked through the crack. She saw Hazaren towering over a group of five ponies wearing armors, and Red Wind hiding behind the hoarded pile of gold, clutching something with her forelegs.

“Look, you’re a smart dragon, Hazaren, and the key isn’t exactly a thing to hoard-”

“I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT!” Hazaren let out a burst of flames from his mouth, making the… intruders back off several steps.

“Well,” the speaking pony shrugged, his horn flashing with blue light, “we gave it a shot. You know what to do.”

A pegasus next to him took to the air with a thunderclap, immediately firing three shots at Hazaren’s head from a long rifle in his forelegs. The projectiles got incinerated mid-air as Hazaren let out a cloud of fire from his mouth. The pegasus tumbled mid-flight from the hot air, but looked otherwise untouched. More importantly, Hazaren was distracted.

The leading robed unicorn stood still, the glow of his horn forming protective bubbles around his comrades. An earthpony, the biggest member of the group, raised a massive metal shield, and walked in front of the mage.

The second unicorn wearing the least amount of protection simply vanished, while the second earthpony with a large backpack pulled out a vial and threw it at Hazaren’s closest leg.

The dragon roared as he felt his scales burn. Whatever chemical concoction the earthpony had tossed at him was incredibly corrosive. The bigger problem, though, was the unicorn casting protection spells. With that in mind, he swiped at the earthpony protecting the leader. As expected, the blow which would have razed a house didn’t cause any damage thanks to the magic, but the force of the impact tossed the earthpony away like a doll.

The flying pegasus fired another salvo, finally hitting Hazaren’s eyelid. Thankfully, whatever the long rifle-like weapon was, it took quite a while to reload after the burst.

Harriet felt wind pass by, but didn’t see anything. A moment later her mother yelled as the disappeared unicorn showed up next to her, and punched her in the face. To her credit, Red Wind didn’t let go of whatever she was holding, and tried to back off on three legs.

“Give it here!” he growled.

Like an accelerating train, Harriet charged from her hiding place.

She was too slow. Her scream wasn’t, though, as a curved dagger flew from the unicorn’s belt and buried itself into Red Wind’s neck.

“MOM?!”

“HONEY!” roared Hazaren.

The unicorn grabbed what to Harriet looked like a necklace with a cube covered in writing that Red Wind had been hiding, and disappeared again. A second later Harriet’s world exploded in pain.

Her ears were ringing, and nose bleeding. She felt sick. She was a strong girl, though, and managed to stand up on her shaky legs, stumbling towards her gurgling mother. Harriet collapsed into a rapidly expanding pool of blood under the red pegasus, trying in vain to close the horrifying wound.

“You’re such a... lovely girl... both inside and outside. Don’t let anypony... tell you... otherwise...” Red Wind choked, touching her daughter's face with weakening forelegs.

“Don’t speak, mom. It’ll be alright. It’ll be alright,” Harriet repeated. She had no idea whether she was trying to persuade her mother or herself.

Talons were far better than hooves for a task like this, and after a moment it looked like the blood flow slowed down, and then stopped.

Unfortunately, it was for the completely wrong reason.

Harriet couldn’t move or speak. She could only stare into her mother’s glassy eyes, completely catatonic.

***

“Harriet. Harriet!” an incessant voice finally broke through the grim and cold veil of Harriet’s shock.

“-” tears shot from her eyes as she finally looked away from her mom’s corpse, clamping her claws over her muzzle, and whimpering.

“Shh, shh,” much larger set of crimson claws wrapped around her. Hazaren picked her up, and brought her to his muzzle, which she hugged immediately, “It’ll be okay, Harriet,” he mumbled as quietly as a dragon can, “They ran off.”

“M-M-M-Mom...”

Hazaren nodded, letting out a sigh. This wasn’t the first time in his long life that his partner had been killed in cold blood, and Red Wind was by far not the first lover Hazaren had outlived. However, there was one big reason Red Wind’s death hit him harder than that of any of his mates before, and said reason was now sobbing all over his nostril. He’d brought many dragon clutches into this world during over the years, but a dragon pony like Harriet was a unique experience. She was strong, inside and outside, but in comparison to a dragon? He always had to be so careful not to squish the little thing that loved him more than any creature ever… just like her mother.

Despite all that, Hazaren was a dragon, not the winner of “father of the year” award, and the same was true for its husband counterpart. He would try his claws at such contests if they existed, but only if there was a golden trophy for his hoard to gain.

After a while, he put Harriet back down, and patted her head with one claw. She looked up at him, having no idea what to do next. That made two of them.

“Harriet, the best thing to do right now is to keep going,” he scooped Red Wind from the floor, “And I’m going to do what I’ve done many times before. Your mother deserves a proper dragon burial if she managed to tame an overgrown lizard like myself, and I intend for her to get all the honors. You’re a big, smart girl, you’ll be fine for a while, will you?” he looked Harrier in the eyes, “I’ll be gone only few weeks.”

He kept staring and patting her until she gave him a weak nod.

“Don’t worry. They got what they wanted,” he tried to calm his trembling daughter down, “They won’t come back.”

“Mhmm...” Harriet nodded. That was all she could do.

Hazaren sighed again. This was… parenting territory, which for dragons consisted of throwing their hatchlings into a manticore den, taking those who survived back home, and repeating the process the next day.

“You’ll be fine,” he rubbed his muzzle against Harriet’s side, got up, and with one last look back, he spread his wings and flew out of the cave.

“Dad…?” Harriet looked at her bloody hooves, whimpering again, then at the red pool where Red Wind had been lying, “Eeep!” she shuffled away. She needed help, somepony to talk to. Anypony would do…

Dad said to keep going. That means to work. There are griffons there. Raymond will listen, right? He’ll know what to do. He’s been in Windy for decades, and has dealt with raiders...

Strangely, there was something other than fear growing in Harriet as she, forcing herself to breathe deeply, did her best to wash off the blood from herself. She was getting angry. That’s what dragons did, right? They didn’t cry or hide, they schemed, and that part of her took over. That’s why she didn’t leave empty-clawed, instead wearing a straw hat, a backpack, and a heavy cast iron pan. As she galloped down the mountain path towards Windy, her blood was nothing but boiling. She’d also taken few gold pieces from her dad’s hoard along with her own savings. Not much, though. It wasn’t her gold, and she intended to use it wisely… whatever that meant.

Her determined trot brought her to Windy tavern. It didn’t need much of a name, because it was the only one in town. It shared the tavern look of most throughout the world, not that she would know it. A common room full of tables taking majority of the ground floor with a bar counter on one side, and a wide hearth on the other. The rest of the floor was for the kitchen and some utility rooms. Harriet knew the place like the back of her forelegs.

Few griffons already sitting and chatting at the tables waved at Harriet. She quickly nodded back, rushing towards the counter where a chubby griffon in his fifties was filling glasses with practiced ease.

“Harriet!” Raymond cracked a friendly smile, giving her a fake shake of his raised talon, “You’re late,” he stopped himself when he took in Harriet’s desperate expression, “Girl, what’s going on?”

“S-Some ponies… they hurt dad and… m-mom is… mom is… gone...”

Raymond dropped his glass as his head caught up with what Harriet had just said.

“Damn it!” he kicked the shards away, hopping over the counter with a flap of his wings, and giving the dragonpony a hug, “I’m so sorry, Harriet. I should have realized what the ponies were about sooner.”

The fire inside her dwarfed the warm hug of a griffon she’d thought of as her uncle for as long as she remembered, and she gradually pushed Raymond away.

“I take it you saw them, then? Two unicorns, two earthponies, and a pegasus, all in some weird armors.”

Raymond caught on quickly. As an ex-Legion soldier, mainly a still alive one, he knew reckless behaviour when he saw it.

“Yes, I have. They were the guys who arrived yesterday. It didn't click to me they could be… dragonslayers. Damn, their scale armors should have tipped me off. How is Hazaren? You said they hurt him. Does he need help?”

Harriet shook her head.

“Dad’s okay. Mom… isn’t,” she looked at the floor, “They… they stole something from dad’s hoard. He didn’t want to give it to them and mom was hiding it. Some sort of necklace.”

“Harriet, they checked out about half an hour ago with everything they brought along on their cart. Then they teleported away. It was quite a spectacle.”

“Where?” Harriet raised her voice, stomping the floor.

“Look, Harriet. Go home, and go to bed. Hug your dad-”

“Where did they go, Raymond? Dad’s gone. He flew off to the Dragon Lands to give mom a dragon burial. There’s no one home for me.”

“Harriet, I know that look. Those ponies are the kind you don’t want to mess with. In case it hasn’t sunk in yet, they attacked a DRAGON, and from what you’re saying, they got away with it.”

Harriet took a long breath to calm down with at least partial success. Raymond was smart, and he liked Harriet like his own daughter. He wouldn’t want her to get in harm’s way. BUT he also liked Red Wind, and he wouldn’t let her killers go unpunished.

“I don’t want to fight them, I’m not crazy, Raymond. I just want to find them and where they came from. Then I can tell dad where they’re hiding when he comes back,” a blatant lie which in its scale shamed even Harriet’s muscular cushions.

Seeing the determination her eyes, Raymond gave in. It was better to share as much safe knowledge as he could than to let her run off somewhere blindly. He reached under the counter, and gave Harriet a small pouch.

“First, promise me that if you get in trouble, you’ll buy a place on the first caravan here, no matter how expensive,” he patted the pouch. When she nodded, he continued, recalling his training and experience from the Legion, “Teleport spells without static components like pre-built gates can only carry you so far. My guess is they just got out of town. They’ll have to take main road west, because it’s the easiest one to pull their cart on anyway. Look,” he grabbed her by her shoulders, “I can’t stress this enough. Don’t do anything stupid. They might be hauling ass now in fear of being followed by your dad, but if you get near them on your own-”

“I already promised, don’t worry. The west main road, got it,” she rushed off to the kitchen, and stuffed her bag with leftovers from lunchtime.

Well, she hadn’t exactly promised anything. A quick nod wasn’t a binding contract, right?

Harriet hoped that was the case, because she wasn’t about to do something stupid. What she was about to do was downright crazy.

Comments

[TheDerpyBarnOwl]

Young Harriet is a dragonpony living on the eastern edge of the Griffon Empire. Her peace is shattered when dragonslayers attack her father, and her mother gets killed in the crossfire. Filled with grief, Harriet wows revenge.

I'm surprised that no one has yet to mention the "Harriet wows revenge". Normally I ignore these minor errors, but it's part of your short summary.

[ProjectRabbid]

hooked so hard on her right away.
i wonder who the first person narrator will be