Chapter 9
Smolder was anxious to get back on the road, especially since she and Fluttershy had already lost so many days at the Diamond Dog settlement. But once again, much to her annoyance, they ended up staying in place for a few days.
Still, she couldn’t argue that she really had no other choice. It wasn’t like she could go anywhere with all the dangerous creatures running around, and the only way to fix that would be to work with the Metallics.
She had to admit she was already starting to get used to being around them. The next morning, the two of them were served breakfast. Smolder got the usual ration of strips of meat and a few gems. Fluttershy, however, was served some dry fruits that Xieru had managed to scavenge; after eating them, she excused herself to go graze to supplement her nutrition.
Despite some of the looks Smolder was getting (and returning), the hospitality was about as good as she could expect, given the circumstances. Still, when she saw Jaden coming, she knew to put up her guard. Most of the dragons were content to leave their disapproval to glares, but she knew he would pick a fight.
“Enjoying eating our resources?” he asked.
“As a matter of fact, I am,” she said. She immediately regretted letting those words leave her mouth. Fluttershy wasn’t there, but the knowledge thatvery fact that she knew she wouldn’t approve was enough to make her feel guilty.
Jaden opened his mouth to say something, but an older dragon nearby cleared his throat. Jaden looked at him, and seemed to shrink under the older dragon’s look: not necessarily a glare, but more of a warning to behave himself.
Jaden glared at Smolder one more time before stomping off. Smolder resisted the urge to throw a taunt his way and returned to his meal. As she did, she wondered if the elder dragon would have stepped in if it was another dragon, or if Jaden had a bad enough reputation among them as a hot head that no one wanted to put up with him.
Not long after that, Fluttershy returned from her graze. The two sat apart from the Metallics, and it was during this time that Fluttershy finally asked the question that had been on her mind since last night:
“Smolder... why are you being so hostile? I know there are differences between the two of you, but this feels like more than that.”
Smolder didn’t answer for a bit, instead taking a bite of her last gemstone. After a few loud chews, she swallowed. “It’s a bit more complicated than that,” she said. “We had a pleasant split at first, but things didn’t stay that way.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we’ve been to war,” she explained. “It took a war just to get the treaty for the First Flame. Happened because some Metallics attacked the Chromatic making the journey and the High Priest refused to pay compensation.”
“What? But... why?”
“Because Metallics see us as barbarians,” Smolder said. “They hate us because we don’t keep things nice and orderly like they do.”
Fluttershy bit her lip. That wasn’t the impression she got through their interactions last night, but now didn’t seem to be the best time to say that.
“And then there are the wars over territory,” Smolder continued.
That confused Fluttershy. “What do you mean? I thought the Metallics were determined to stay in one place.”
“They are, but there’s been population growth. Eventually they needed more land. And it doesn’t matter if you’re Chromatic or Metallic, dragons need a lot of living space. The Dragon Lord at the time started off negotiating, but when they started demanding too much, they declared war.
“Dragons died because of their desires. Instead of just moving around like we do, they demand others move to accommodate them. And they’ve won every single battle. We’ve lost a lot to them.”
Two thoughts entered Fluttershy’s head.
First, she wondered how much of what Smolder believed was heavily biased. She remembered the Diamond Dogs in their underground city and wondered if something similar was going on here.
Then a more disturbing thought hit her: what were the ponies getting into, making diplomatic relationships with a race that was always going to war?
She resolved to watch her tongue on whatever she had to say for the remainder of her time here. And here she thought that she couldn’t get any more nervous around dragons.
Fluttershy took a deep breath. “Smolder... remember what Headmaster Twilight always says? About creatures you haven’t met yet?”
Smolder bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying that Twilight says a lot of things, and instead said what she knew Fluttershy was talking about: “‘Rumors aren’t always true. History can get muddled. Keep those things in mind before you judge anyone.’”
Smolder didn’t have to say it; Fluttershy could tell she was remembering the Diamond Dogs.
“Smolder...”
Smolder grit her teeth, something that got Fluttershy to reconsider speaking. Still, she remembered that she was Smolder’s teacher and needed to do what was best for her. “I think that this might be a good opportunity to put those words into practice...”
“No.”
It wasn’t a loud statement, but there was enough force behind it to get Fluttershy to stop speaking.
“I’m not playing friendship lessons with the Metallics.”
Again, it was a simple statement that was spoken without adding anything to the volume. But there was a force about it that made it clear she wasn’t going to argue about it.
Fluttershy searched her mind, trying to figure out what to say to make her change her mind. The only thing that she could think of was something Twilight had once said in the middle of a frustrated fit over Chancellor Neighsay:
You can give a pony all the knowledge you have, but you can’t make him use it.
She sighed. “Fine. If that’s your decision. But try to remember what you’re in the School of Friendship for.”
They didn’t say much afterward.
After breakfast, they met with the group and were assigned tasks to do that morning. They were basic chores: gathering firewood for Fluttershy and helping move supplies for Smolder. Much to Fluttershy’s surprise, Smolder did her assignment without being difficult.
It was midmorning when the chores were done. Not having anything else prepared, Xieru invited them into his tent.
“Alright, I believe this is a longshot, but maybe the two of you could help me. I understand that you’re both confidants of Princess Celestia?”
“I am,” Fluttershy said.
“I’ve only met her once,” Smolder said.
“Then maybe you can be good consultants. The traitor I told you about yesterday... where do you think he’ll try and run off to?”
Fluttershy thought for a moment, trying to remember if anything Twilight had said could help them. It was a hard thought process, as Twilight tended to ramble about magic when you got her going, but finally something came up that she thought could be useful.
“I think I remember Twi... Princess Twilight telling me once that after performing great spells, creatures without innate magic have to seek out a place of high magical energy or focus.”
It was a slim chance. Unlike Unicorns, who cast magic from their internal well, dragons and others who used spells needed to find a way to recharge.
“Now that you mention it,” Xieru said, “I think I might know a place to look. But it would involve going into cyclops territory.”
No one in the tent relished the prospect of doing so; not only because of the cyclops, but because of whatever had been slaughtering them.
“What’s in there?” Fluttershy asked.
He took a deep breath. “The Sacrifice Pit.”
Fluttershy felt her chest tighten. Sacrifice? It was a dirty act that had never entered pony practice.
“Yes. The cyclops make frequent sacrifices to their god, Argos. He demands a portion of their sheep every year. It might be a barbaric practice, but it is still a passageway into the Other Realm. It would be a place for him to go and recharge.”
“Are we really taking the word of a pony?”
The group jumped. Then they all looked annoyed when Jaden came in. The quiet copper dragon trailed behind him, having a seemingly permanent look of annoyance on his face.
“Jaden,” Xieru began. As much as Smolder hated him, she had to admire the seemingly inexhaustible patience that Xieru seemed to have with his charge. “I know she is an outsider, but can you say she has any reason to lie to us?”
“The scorpion didn’t need any excuse to sting the frog.” (Smolder rolled her eyes. She never liked that fable.)
“Dragons aren’t animals, Jaden. We can make our own decisions. That being said, maybe you should stay at the camp for the time being.”
That actually got a reaction from Jaden. “What? Please, Elder... I can’t be left behind!”
“Then quit acting like a child,” Xieru said. “I don’t have time to nurture you right now. I’ll allow you to air your grievances with everything at a later date, but right now we’re in the middle of an emergency, and I can’t humor you.”
Xieru’s tone never changed, but everyone in the tent could sense the power behind it.
Jaden looked angry. But after shifting his eyes between the outsiders and Xieru, he took a deep breath. “Yes, Edler.”
“Excellent,” Xieru said. “We’ll go in a group of six. Between all of us, we should be able to find what we’re looking for.”
Jadon spoke up again. This time, his tone sounded legitimately concerned, rather than childishly angry. “Sir, are you sure we should go in that small of a group?”
Smolder hated that she shared that worry.
“The bigger the group, the more likely the trouble,” Xieru said simply. “We aren’t trying to fight just yet. This is a simple recon mission. We go in, find out what we need, and get out. I want us all ready to go within ten minutes.”
The copper dragon signaled something in sign language.
“Oh, don’t worry. I can take care of myself,” Fluttershy replied.
Everyone looked at Fluttershy in awe. The yellow Pegasus merely shrugged. “I took a few classes on sign language.”
The copper dragon smiled and then gave a few more signals. <Impressive. I am Oasis. It’s nice to meet you, Fluttershy>
“Nice to me you too, Oasis,” Fluttershy replied back with a smile.
“...Yes, well, let’s not linger any longer. The longer this conflict goes on, the more lives are lost.”
They were indeed off quickly. The party of six flew in silence, only broken up by Sykir’s humming of a bouncy tune. She seemed to be the only one who wasn’t carrying a load of anxiety about what was coming up.
Fluttershy flew in the back, slow as ever. Sykir eventually fell back, flying next to her.
“Is it true that ponies control the weather?”
“Well, yes. We create our own weather in Equestria.”
“Doesn’t that get boring?” Sykir said.
“Not really. It’s safer, and nopony gets hurt.”
“But aren’t you a great adventurer? Shouldn’t you like things to be exciting?”
“Oh, I’m no adventurer,” Fluttershy said.
Sykir looked more confused than ever. “But... you tangled with Nightmare Moon and Discord! How can a non-adventurer get caught up with them?”
“I was chosen by the Element of Kindness,” Fluttershy said. “I had to become a hero because I was chosen.”
“And you haven’t become a warrior?”
There was a moment of silence. “Well, I never wanted to be a hero. But I was chosen, and seeing Princess Celestia and Princess Luna get reunited made me appreciate what I was doing. And even if I didn’t like it, I couldn’t let Discord or Tirek run around Equestria. Even here, I couldn’t allow anyone to get hurt, even if I could just move on.”
“You’re weird, Fluttershy,” Sykir said.
At that point, they both noticed Oasis falling back until he was at their side. He moved his hands in sign language.
<I must concur. How would a pony learn sign language? From my understanding, some ponies don’t even know what hands are called.>
She remembered Rainbow Dash asking that very question. “Well, I heard that the Minotaur Homelands had some of the most exotic animals around. I wanted to visit them one day. I took the time to learn anything I might need for being there.”
<You are a mare of many surprises> Oasis signed.
“Oh, does that mean you don’t have tornados in Equestria?” Sykir said, suddenly bringing the conversation back to the weather.
Smolder was getting annoyed. She just wanted to talk to Fluttershy, and these Metallics were starting to take her. Not to mention that Sykir was reminding her far too much of Professor Pinkie.
“Well, not usually,” Fluttershy said. “We make them whenever we move water up to Cloudsdale to make rain clouds.”
“What’s wrong with evaporation?” Sykir asked.
“It spreads the clouds out too much. It’s easier to simply collect it all at once.”
“Why do you ponies even control the weather?”
Smolder had to admit that was an obvious question. She had wondered that at first.
“Centuries ago, the Pegasi only used them in combat tactics,” Fluttershy said. She’d left out the part where they also used it to extort food out of the Earth Ponies, but Smolder figured now wasn’t the time to get into the weeds about that. “But then Discord came along. He broke everything in Equestria so badly that they needed to do everything manually. Things are more stable now, but... I guess ponies just got used to doing them. A lot actually find weather by itself a little odd.”
Smolder really had to bite back a laugh. Hearing Sandbar talk about the weather in the Everfree Forest, you’d think it was an eldritch horror.
Oasis signed something else. Fluttershy laughed. Smolder fumed.
“Do you think that the Metallics are going to get an invite to this School of Harmony?”
Smolder’s eyes widened. That would be the ultimate nightmare. Metallics? At the School of Friendship? Her home away from home?”
“Most undoubtedly. Princess Twilight will send out invitations as soon as I tell her. But there are ponies in our government that might not like that.”
Smolder tuned her teacher out. She felt the growing dread in her heart. There were going to be Metallics, she just knew it. It didn’t matter how much Neighsay kicked and wailed, it would happen. The head of the EEA would twist it to Celestia giving her pampered brat of a protege whatever she wanted, but she knew that Headmaster Twilight had a habit of getting things done.
When she had taught Spike how to fly, he’d told her all about how Twilight had bent over backwards to make sure he got educated in spite of Neighsay’s bans, pushed so much of her agenda through after getting her crown, and taken down so many threats to Equestria in the process. She had a hand in getting a Dragon Lord that her adopted son had ties to on the throne, after all.
She would undoubtedly want to set up ties with the Metallics, and Smolder would have to live with it. Whoever got sent would undoubtedly work their way into her friend group. They’d all accept them without a second thought. Only Gallus might hesitate, but not for long.
“Aw, falling behind?”
She jolted up. Jaden had flown up to her with a sneer. To make matters worse, she had fallen behind.
“Back off,” she warned.
“Make me,” he said. He turned, making sure his tail smacked her in the face.
Professor Fluttershy had once taught their class that, when somepony angers you, to take the time and consider what to do before you retaliate. She took that advice and thought about how she could retaliate.
The first thought was simply to ignore him and put it out of her mind.
The second was to set it aside for now and have a word with Xieru later. The elder dragon seemed to be the only one to keep a leash on him.
The third was to keep going for now, wait for a chance to really show him what she was made of when the inevitable battle against their foes occurred.
She considered these for a few moments, then went with a fourth option: speed ahead of him and show him how fast she really was.
This turned out to be the wrong move, because it was the one Jaden had anticipated. He stuck out a wing, causing Smolder to run face first into it. As she stumbled, Jaden laughed and flew off. Smolder, already not the best at keeping her anger in check, chased after him.
“Smolder, stop!” Fluttershy said.
It actually got Smolder to stop. Fluttershy rarely rose her voice, so her yelling was more than enough.
Sadly, it happened too late.
Before anyone knew what was going on, the first shadow demon struck. Its claws reached out and cut Jaden, its claws sinking into his side. Jaden let out a roar of pain.
What happened next was a mess of violence.
Shadow demons jumped up from everywhere. The remaining dragons all managed to dodge. Fluttershy squealed as a set of claws grabbed her tail and yanked. Xieru unleashed a breath of flame in the creature's face, causing an unnatural cry of pain as it let go.
Fluttershy flew straight up, as did almost everyone else.
Jaden, however, fell to the ground.
Smolder, who saw this, did something that confused her in hindsight, something she could never understand why she was able to do it so unhesitantly.
She stopped flying up and flew toward him.
She unleashed fire in all directions, hitting the shadow demons and keeping them at bay. She reached Jaden and grabbed his arm, pulling him up and slowing his descent.
By this time, Jaden had regained his bearing and was flapping his wings, getting stable. Unfortunately, the overwhelming mess of shadows had blocked the view of the others.
“Keep breathing fire! Head in one direction. Just try to get away!”
For once, Smolder didn’t argue with him. The two kept breathing fire, searing any demon they could.
But it wasn’t enough, the claws were scratching at their scales. They would be ripped apart soon.
Sheer panic is a great stimulant, and they found themselves barreling through the mess until they saw daylight. They broke through the shadows, the daylight never looking so sweet. They flew in the same direction, going fast and not caring about a destination, as long as it was away from danger.
When they finally stopped to catch their breath, they looked around. Smolder didn’t recognize anything in the area.
“Please tell me you know where we are,” Smolder asked.
“I don’t...”
“I said please. Couldn’t you humor me?”
Jaden took a deep breath. “Alright, just give me a minute... I need to catch my breath.”
Smolder nodded, then began looking around. She had only spent a few moments doing so before she remembered that the first shadow demon had hit Jaden in the side.
She turned back. It hadn’t been a simple wound. That demon had taken a chunk out of him. Blood was dripping down. Jaden was leaning over, clutching his side. Sweat covered his face. Gasps of pain escaped his mouth.
“Oh my gosh... Jaden, you need to lie down!”
“Save it. I don’t need your...”
Jaden couldn’t finish that sentence. He fell to his knees, crying in pain.
“We need to get that bandaged,” Smolder said.
“No, we need to get...”
“We need to stay put,” Smolder said. “We’ll be a burden if we try to go after them. Fluttershy and the dragons won’t just let us die, they’ll want to protect us. We’re a weak link now.”
Jaden gritted his teeth. Smolder knew his common sense was warring with his desire to disagree with anything she said.
“We shouldn’t stay put. We should try and get back to camp.”
“No. Fluttershy taught us survival skills. If you’re ever lost, hunker down and wait for rescue. They’ll send a search party.”
“...Will they? I have no doubt they’d want to, but we’re in a war. Finding us might not be worth the resources.”
Smolder felt a chill. There wasn’t any of Jaden’s usual fire in it. It was logical, and worrying. Especially since she found she agreed.
“...We’ll worry about that in a minute. At any rate, we need to fix that wound. We’ll be in an even worse situation if it gets infected.” She looked around. “I don’t suppose there’s anything that naturally grows that we can use like bandages?”
“No... nothing practically.”
“Then... we’re going to do this the hard way.” She looked around, eventually finding a rock she hoped would last long enough. She passed it to him. “Put this in your mouth, between your teeth.”
Jaden blinked. “Why?”
“Because, unless my brother lied to me, this is going to feel like Tartarus.”
Feeling nervous, Jaden took the rock in his teeth.
“Lie down, and try to hold still.”
Jaden obeyed again. He looked nervous.
Taking a deep breath, Smolder blew a small, concentrated burst of fire onto the wound. On his normal scales, it would have been nothing. On an open wound, it was agony. He bit the rock in half, his teeth grinding against each other. It sadly hadn’t been hard enough. Still, Smolder finished cauterizing the wound quickly.”
“Okay... that’ll stop the bleeding. Come on, we better find a cave.”
Jaden, too wiped out to argue, slowly got up. Leaning on Smolder, he let her lead him to a place to rest.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
933 users online
1,211,542 hits today, 2,004,447 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.®
Is Darth Link 22 really dead?
11257169
Yes, I'm sad to say. He passed away in Feb.
The copper dragon signaled something in sign language.
“Oh, don’t worry. I can take care of myself,” Fluttershy replied.
Everyone looked at Fluttershy in awe. The yellow Pegasus merely shrugged. “I took a few classes on sign language.”
Wow Fluttershy that's actually pretty cool
Kind of reminds me how Pinkie Pie despite how things are getting difficult she always finds a way to look at the bright side well sometimes
I just said that just a few minutes ago how this character reminds me of Pinkie Pie and something tells me she's getting very jealous of those dragons oh boy 😥
Oh wow this is not good at all okay so it looks like smolder journey is on hold again because now Fluttershy and her are helping the Metallics which she wasn't too happy about it and Fluttershy ask her what is the deal with them smolder explain about that her clan and Metallics we're at war against each other and basically they had bad blood between them Fluttershy try to convince her that maybe some things may not be what it seems but smolder so think she couldn't do it working with them and it didn't make anything easier for her when this Dragon named Jayden taunting at smolder and Fluttershy but the leader Xieru told him to stand down and despite that he obeyed that so they need to figure out what are those Shadow creatures doing and what are they going to attack so he decided to grab six dragons including smolder and Fluttershy but there was another dragon who cannot speak name Oasis how Fluttershy can understand his language which that's actually pretty impressive for Fluttershy to learn something and while they were flying to the location Sykir was asking Fluttershy how ponies control the weather which it's always been an interesting history but smolder is getting a little jealous that these dragons are hovering over her and what she was afraid of that some of these dragons we'll probably be going to the Friendship School and once again Jayden is still taunting her and probably this would be their downfall because the shadow creatures attack them and injured Jayden the other dragons and Fluttershy flew up away from the shadow creatures but smolder saw Jayden falling and despite how much she hates him she flew towards him and saved him from the other Shadow creatures attacking him once they reach the ground smolder try to help him to attend his wound which he was surprised why did she saved him but that's a lot of questions needs to be saved because they need to find somewhere so the other dragons and Fluttershy finds them hopefully they will get to them well I guess we'll find out next time
It's definitely a valid thought, particularly as long-time enemies like this tend to veer towards such biases in their hatred for each other. But one should also forewarn Fluttershy that this thought is in of itself bias--she just left a situation where such biases had been exploited nefariously, so she's naturally going to be somewhat hypersensitive to any situation that might appear, to any degree, to be a similar case and want to cast doubt upon it. And fact of the matter is that we just don't know one way or another yet. It could just as easily be the situation is exactly as Smolder describes it (especially Smolder just left the same situation and would surely be just as hypersensitive to like scenarios herself).
That said, if there are excessive biases at play here, I'm almost positive Smolder picked them up subconsciously from the other dragons she grew up with, all probably older than she--that's typically how that works in long-term feuds such as this.
And you really shouldn't try to force them to if they don't want to--that's liable to just further heighten tensions and ultimately make things worse.
For the moment, the best thing you can do is just try to be the good example and voice of reason Fluttershy, and hope your words won't simply be falling on deaf ears.
And once again, Smolder and Fluttershy have gotten split up, not knowing whether or not the other is even still alive. This really is starting to feel like history repeating itself for them, isn't it?
Well, Fluttershy certainly continues to show some impressive talents. Knowing sign language is really cool, especially for a creature that doesn't have hands.
Meanwhile though, Smolder struggles with getting along with the Metallics, and she just happened to be separated from the rest of the group with Jayden, the one she dislikes the most. Now the two are in a classic scenario where the only way the two of them can survive is by working together.
Yeah, just like the Mane 5 did when Zecora first appeared. They made it sound completely unnatural when that's how it works in the real world.
That is a clever idea, using dragon fire to cauterize a wound. I probably wouldn't have considered that since dragons are usually immune to fire, but I guess any injured parts of their body would be weakened and vulnerable to even flames, even from themselves.
Well... in what may be a bit of an understatement to make, it seems the ordeals keep coming up.
I will admit, it's overall nice to see the Metallics being overall cordial towards Fluttershy and Smolder, but between the history that Smolder shared and Jaden's semi-open hostility, clearly there are tensions brewing, and it's not too difficult to imagine ways they could simply burst out into the open even if one tries to keep them in check. That said, kudos to Xieru for trying to do that, and with a relatively big degree of success too. As tense as things are now, it's not difficult to imagine they could have been worse. And I fully feel for Fluttershy regarding her unease about treaties with a race that's actually going to war. The biggest hope there is that ponies can show them the magic of friendship, and that both groups of dragons prove willing to use it.
That said... Jaden and Smolder certainly had a rough start there, what with their small scuffle. At least they knew when to end it, for lack of a better term (though if they didn't, they would have been more stupid than the scorpion in that fable) but the way their conflict was interrupted by the fly-in with those shadow creatures and the fact it led to the two of them getting separated from the main group just pushed the situation from nasty into dangerous. Though, at least the two of them seem to be willing to work together to survive, so there's that. Even if it's forced temporary friendship, it's better than nothing.
Hopefully it will grow into something better, and over time they will see to it so that the conflict between their two groups will finally end.