Chapter 8
Slatescale tapped his fingers on the ground, creating small grooves. He looked up at the sun. It was already late in the afternoon, and Cirrus wasn’t here yet. She said she’d visit him today, and she wasn’t one to arrive late. Where could she be?
Maybe she was already here, and Slatescale just hadn’t noticed her. He stood up and turned in a circle, scanning the clearing, but there was no little blue pegasus around. With a disappointed sigh, he sat back down.
Cirrus was probably just working. She said she obtained a whole bunch of clouds yesterday, so she might have forgotten about the time. That wasn’t very likely, though, Slatescale reckoned. Going from what Cirrus told him, she got very upset over failing to deliver on a promise, so she would get upset if she failed to show up on time.
No, it must’ve been something else. Maybe she got hold up by one of her new friends. That sounded plausible, though Slatescale couldn’t imagine what any pony would want from Cirrus right now. And even then, that’d only take a few minutes, and Cirrus was already hours late.
Maybe some sort of freak accident happened. Cirrus had been so eager to visit him that she forgot to look both ways when she crossed the street, and got hit by a cart, or something.
No, that sounded silly. Cirrus was more careful than that.
Or perhaps Cirrus was really the immortal protector of Equestria, and she didn’t really make cloud sculptures, but created and guarded incredibly important artifacts, and they were stolen from her by aliens disguised as ponies, and she had embarked on a quest to—
No, that sounded silly. Slatescale really needed to overthink things less. Then again, suddenly feeling lonely does that to a dragon. He’d spent years upon years all alone before, but now that he’d spent a few days in the company of Cirrus, it was actually quite nice to have a friend around.
Well, if Cirrus wasn’t coming to Slatescale, then maybe Slatescale could go to Cirrus! That wouldn’t be too hard. He knew where she lived: in Ponyville. Somewhere. It’d be hard to maneuver in between the small buildings, but he’d take care of that detail once he got there.
Slatescale got up and headed in the direction of Ponyville. What he thought was the direction of Ponyville, at least. He’d never been there, but Cirrus always went this way when she left. Once there, he’d have to ask some pony to help him find Cirrus’ house.
It didn’t take Slatescale very long to reach the small town, only a couple of minutes. Distances don’t matter very much when you’re a large dragon, after all. Now came the hard part: actually finding Cirrus’ house, as Slatescale had no idea where that was. Cirrus never mentioned on what street she lived.
Looking down, Slatescale could see a few ponies looking up at him and muttering against each other. Cirrus wasn’t among them, though. Since Slatescale had to get started somehow, he might as well ask these ponies if they knew where Cirrus lived. He gave the ponies below a short wave.
The ponies all screamed and ran away.
Slatescale rolled his eyes. Okay, he should’ve seen that coming. On the bright side, causing a ruckus was sure to attract at least one pony willing to talk to him.
It didn’t take very long for a blue pegasus to fly up to his face. But it wasn’t Cirrus. This one had a rainbow-coloured mane, so this was probably Rainbow Dash, a pony Cirrus told Slatescale about. “Hey big guy, what’re you doing here?” she asked.
Slatescale looked around for some suitable ground to write on, but there wasn’t any nearby. He could raze a few houses, but he got the feeling that the residents of said houses wouldn’t appreciate it. That left only one means of communication: sign language.
Sadly, Slatescale barely knew any. He’d only gone through two sessions together with Cirrus and Spike, so he only knew a few gestures, none of which were helpful right now. Well, except for one.
Slatescale briefly waved at Rainbow Dash. Now, he just had to answer her question, which was easier said than done. He scratched himself on the head, trying to think of a way to properly communicate.
“Uh, you don’t know?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You just came here while taking a walk?”
Slatescale shook his head. Okay, he just had to use the alphabet, then. He knew how to make an A, a claw with fingers closed, and B, an outstretched claw... but just when he needed it most, he couldn’t remember how to illustrate the letter C.
Slatescale scratched himself on the head again, this time touching one of his spines. That gave him an idea, so it was time for some improv. He grabbed two of his spines with his claws and bent them down, one on each side of his face.
Rainbow Dash gave him an incredibly confused look. “I have no idea what you’re trying to say.” She looked around, but as far as she could see, all other ponies were in hiding. “Look, I’ll just get Cirrus for you, okay?”
She immediately took off, heading straight into Ponyville. Eagerly, yet making sure he was putting his claws down where there was enough space, Slatescale followed after her.
After a few seconds, Rainbow looked back. “Whoa, hey!” she shouted, turning around. “You can’t just stomp through town like that. You’re gonna get stuck!”
She was right, Slatescale noticed as he looked down. It was quite difficult to fit himself in one street without knocking anything down, and turning around would be even harder. Carefully, Slatescale walked in reverse, back to the edge of town.
Rainbow Dash followed him, occasionally helping him find a good place to put a claw down. When the two of them were back where they started, she flew up to Slatescale’s head again. “Just stay put right here, okay? I’ll get Cirrus to come with me.”
Slatescale shook his head. No, he wanted to see Cirrus as quickly as possible, so he wanted to visit her house. He pointed along the edge of town, drawing half a circle in the air.
“Fine,” Rainbow Dash said with a groan. “I’ll take you to her house. But be careful, okay? And watch the tail.” She flew off again, this time following Ponyville’s border.
Slatescale nodded and followed her. Rainbow Dash kept up with his pace surprisingly well, able to fly at a decent speed without any trouble. It took the two of them barely a minute to get a quarter of the way around Ponyville, where Rainbow Dash landed.
“Okay, here it is,” she said, walking up to a house on the very edge of the town. The house itself was rather small, but there was some sort of extra building connected on the side, and a rather large shed out back.
Rainbow Dash knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She tried knocking again, and again, but the door never opened. “Huh. Is she even home?” Rainbow knocked again, this time very loudly, but still nothing.
Slatescale bent down, looking inside the house via one of the windows on the top floor. There was a simple bed, a closet, a mirror with some grooming essentials on a table next to it, and some random decorations. Mostly small paintings of the countryside and pictures of cloud sculptures.
Looking through one of the windows on the lower floor, Slatescale could see a couch, a dining table, a few doors leading somewhere else, and pretty much the same knickknacks as the top floor. But no Cirrus.
“I don’t think she’s here,” Rainbow Dash said. “Weird. She almost never leaves her house.”
Slatescale gave a short shrug and frantically looked from side to side. Cirrus had to be somewhere nearby, right? She couldn’t have just disappeared! Where could she possibly be?
Rainbow Dash flew up to Slatescale’s face, holding his nose with her hooves. “Whoa, buddy, chill out. You don’t have to panic because she’s not at home. Maybe somepony else knows where she is.”
Panic? Slatescale didn’t feel like he was panicking. He was merely really, really concerned. The thought to take off and do an aerial sweep of the area did occur to him, though. Rainbow Dash’s idea seemed far better, since the list of ponies Cirrus knew was quite limited. She mentioned a Pinkie Pie, and Rarity joined Slatescale and her when they were looking for gems, and that was pretty much it.
But it wasn’t just limited to ponies, since Cirrus was also friends with Spike. And Spike went back to Ponyville together with her just the day before, so he was likely the last one to have seen her! He was probably Slatescale’s best bet to find Cirrus.
He just had to find out how to tell Rainbow Dash about this. Again, he had no idea how to express himself in sign language, so he had to improvise. He pulled his head back a little, pointed at himself, then brought his index finger and thumb close to one another.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “You... Tiny? I don’t follow.”
Slatescale sighed and grabbed one of his spines again, arching it and holding the tip against the back of his head.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Hey, that makes you look like Spike! But I didn’t ask you to make a silly face.” She stared at Slatescale for a while, waiting for him to answer her question. After a few seconds, she said, “Oh! You mean Spike might know where she is?”
Slatescale nodded. Yes, yes, he got through to her, finally! When Cirrus was back, he had to remember to step it up on learning sign language.
“Okay, follow me!” Rainbow Dash said, flying along the town’s border again. Slatescale followed after her.
After a minute, they reached a large treehouse. Or, not really a treehouse, but a tree house. It was fairly large, with a lot of oddly-placed windows and even a balcony, which Rainbow Dash landed on. She went up to the door and knocked while Slatescale waited nearby.
A few seconds later, a purple pony with both wings and a horn opened the door. Her mane was purple with purple and pink highlights, and her eyes were purple as well. A very, very purple pony. “Hello, Rainbow!” she said. As her eyes drifted towards Slatescale, she gasped. “You must be Slatescale! What’re you doing here?”
“Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said. “He’s looking for Cirrus Cloud. She’s his friend, and he came to town looking for her. Almost trampled a few houses.”
Slatescale gave an apologetic grin. It might not have been the best idea to just waltz into town like that.
“He said Spike might know where she is,” Rainbow Dash said. “Is he home right now?”
“Uh, sure,” Twilight said, briefly turning back inside. “Spike!” she shouted. “There’s somepony on the balcony for you!”
“Just a second!” came Spike’s voice from inside. A moment later, he joined the three of them. “Hey Rainbow! Twilight said you needed me?”
“Uh, no,” Rainbow Dash said, and pointed at Slatescale. “He does. He’s looking for Cirrus Cloud.”
Spike looked up, his eyes going wide with surprise. “Slatescale?!”
Slatescale gave a meek wave.
“Uh, right,” Spike said, taking a few seconds to compose himself. “I don’t know where she is. Sorry.”
Slatescale sighed and slumped forward. A dead end. Great. Now he’d never find Cirrus.
“She did say something yesterday about getting supplies,” Spike said. “But I don’t know what for. She said it was for cloud sculpting, but it sounded kinda fishy. It was after we talked about her promise. You know, about your cave?”
Hmmm. Cirrus was pretty interested about Slatescale’s home yesterday. It made sense for her to ask about it, wanting to know more about him. But why would she need supplies? Such an odd way to put it. ‘Groceries’ would be a more fitting word, but supplies implied something work-related, or a trip. Or...
An expedition into the mountains.
As soon as he realized this, Slatescale stepped backwards and frantically beat his wings, flying away from the town as fast as possible and towards the one place he never wanted to visit again, leaving the two ponies and baby dragon behind.
He could only hope he was fast enough.
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Dude, this is AWESOME!
2879753 I second that!!!!!
Nice, MOAR!
fight alduin and get your freind back
also the dragonborn will help
Helpful Dash is helpful. Nice job Dash.
I wonder if Twilight and Dash will be shortly behind Slatescale as reinforcements, if there's a semi-hostile dragon in the area it's probably something the local Princess ought to be aware of.
Now he will defeat the evil dragon, rescue his princess and live happily ever after!
2880498Dat profile pic....hehe.
2880498 except at the end he will find out the princess is in another mountain
damnit you fucking tease! cliffh nger to chapter leading up to cliffhanger!!??!!
are ya trying to give me a stroke?
story...too...good
pain in...left arm.
out of......smokes.
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH need more story now damnit.
this is KILLING me.
2881867 CLIFFHANGER, HE'S HANGING ON A CLIFF
AND THAT'S NOT WHY WE CALL HIM CLIFFHANGER
need the next chapter damnit.
this is literally kILLING me.
slatescale is about to bust some caps in some ho's ass.