eighteen
It had been three days since the night of the egg stealers. Two days of sitting on my hoard and ruminating on Steelskin’s fear of me followed by an angry visit by Twilight telling me to go talk to him. Now, after an entire day of circling Ponyville, I was no closer to figuring out what to say to him. The nebulous smell of donkey still permeated the edge of the forest.
I landed near the forest edge, trying to get myself to turn around and find him when a pebble hit me in the side of the head.
I felt a burst of lightning lance through my head and body as I fell, twitching, to the ground. As I hit the grass, I swore vengeance on that traitorous human.
Since I wasn’t allowed to go to Tallic’s cave and he didn’t want to see me anymore, I was visiting Scootaloo. We were playing with Dino and I was almost able to forget about how much I missed Tallic and worried about if he was okay..
"I can't believe how hard it was to convince my mom and dad," Scootaloo sighed as she smiled that pretty smile of hers, "to let you come over."
I suddenly got a bad feeling just before I heard his scream of pain. I left my friend standing there as I galloped towards the edge of town.
“Ha! You are no match for Oté the dragon slayer!” An armored donkey stepped into my field of vision, carrying a diamond tipped spear.
My relief at the fact that it was not one of the humans was surprising. Nevertheless, I was angered by this donkey attacking me without provocation. I swung the back of my claw at him, but between his speed and the electrical current continuing to dance through my muscles, I was unable to connect.
I forced the electricity out just in time to deflect his spear from its intended target and successfully sent him flying.
I rose up and bellowed my rage at where he was extricating himself from a shattered tree trunk. I did not wait for him to free himself before grabbing him in one claw and squeezing. His armor erupted in spikes that cut through the softer skin of my palm. I snarled in pain and flung him into the middle of the field. I continued my attack by hurling a spike at him.
It was deflected by a shimmering barrier.
I ran straight into Miss Sweetheart.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Buck the consequences!
"Tallic's in trouble, I can feel it! I don't care what you say or do to me, I'm gonna find him and help!" I pushed past Miss Sweetheart, almost knocking her over as I started galloping again.
As I ran, dodging ponies left and right, I saw Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Sapphire. The sound of Tallic’s roar startled them and gave me a burst of panic fueled speed. They seemed to understand and I heard their hooves on the cobblestones as they ran behind me along with a familiar buzzing.
“What’s wrong?” They were shouting to me, trying to find out why I was in a hurry. I just now realized that Scootaloo had been yelling to me ever since I pushed past Miss Sweetheart.
Did you miss me? Sapphire’s mental question almost made me stop.
“Tallic!” I gasped as I ran, “Gotta get to Tallic.”
I finally got to him in the field, fighting an armored donkey with a large spear. Tallic had just launched one of his own spears at him, but he had some sort of barrier protecting him. The spear that the donkey had was enchanted with a magic that tasted horrible and dangerous.
I backwinged to gain the proper distance and breathed a cloud of razor sharp blades at him, causing one of the gems around his neck to shatter.
“Don’t hurt him!” Steelskin was charging between the two of us.
“You’re siding with the dragon? You traitorous foal of a nag!”
“Steelskin, stay back! This is my fight!” I saw the donkey ready his spear. The membrane of my wings strained against the air as I flew towards them with all my might.
He ignored my command and continued charging towards Oté. I landed between the two, attempting to knock the donkey’s spear out of his grip, but he dodged and rammed it into my side. I let out a howl of pain and brought my claw down where he was standing. It had been a long time since a weapon had pierced my scales and I had forgotten how painful it was.
He rolled to the side and I took to the air, grabbing Steelskin and carrying him towards the crowd of ponies that had gathered. The pain was dizzying as I felt the tip of the spear work its way further into my side.
I dropped him near Miss Sweetheart just as I noticed a gem flying through the air at us. I started to dodge before I realised it would land right in the middle of the crowd. If I had time, I would have sighed in regret as I surged forwards and grabbed it in my talons. Unsurprisingly, another wave of magical lightning coursed through my muscles. The pain was nothing compared to the spear, but I had lost control of my twitching body. Dazedly, I saw him pull out a sword. Mustering the last of my magic, I forced the electricity from my body yet again, but I knew it was too late. As he was about to bring the sword down on my neck, he was tackled by no less than five ponies.
I never thought I would see ponies bum rushing a hunter to defend a carnivore.
With the last of my strength, I took to the air before crash landing in the middle of the field.
I charged at the donkey in rage. All I could think about was the scream of pain I had heard before.
“Steelskin, stay back! This is my fight!”
I ignored Tallic’s order as I got ready to beat this horrible donkey into the ground.
Before I could get close enough to attack, Tallic landed in front of me and tried to smash the donkey. I saw the horrible spear go up and Tallic screamed again. Tallic grabbed me and flew me over to the watching ponies.
Why won’t they help Tallic?
As he set me down near Miss Sweetheart, I saw the donkey throw something at Tallic. I yelled out a warning, but Tallic caught it instead of dodging and fell to the ground with lightning arcing across his body. The donkey galloped over and pulled out a sword. I struggled against Miss Sweetheart’s grip as I tasted the vile enchantments on that sword.
Both the spear and that sword were so full of horrible magics that I could taste them even from this distance. Fear gave me strength as I pulled away from Miss Sweetheart.
As I was running around to try again to buck up the donkey, I saw a rainbow streak hit him followed by a purple teleport bubble, an orange and red blur side by side, and a party canon cake batter charge. Soon, the donkey was tied up and being dragged into town, his weapons and armor floating in a purple aura further away from Twilight than I had ever seen a unicorn carry something.
A tan pony approached me, heading right towards the spear. I growled and swiped at his neck just as a purple glow pulled him back. The pain of moving almost caused me to black out.
“Glad I came back early.” I turned my head to see the green unicorn and the one who tried to enthrall Steelskin. “May I dull the pain, Tallic?”
I nodded assent, wincing at the slight jostling of the spear. I was now certain that it had some sort of torture enchantment on it, as this was far beyond what I remembered stab wounds felt like.
I saw the irritating green unicorn light up his horn and I felt mind control magic try to force itself on me. I sent a wave of anger at him, knocking him back and causing him to clutch his head.
“I was trying to dull the pain.” I heard him say through gritted teeth.
“Tallic, we’re here to help.” I snarled in response to the purple unicorn while moving my injury away from them. Shards, this pain is blinding.
“Oh, no! The spear!” A grey pony ran towards me and I brought my claw up to squish him.
I hesitated just long enough to recognize him to be Steelskin. He nuzzled my chest and looked me in the eye before walking carefully around to see the spear.
“Steelskin, that needs to come out, I can feel magic driving it deeper with each movement Tallic makes.” Twilight walked up to me cautiously. “Are you okay? We need to get that out so we can heal up your wound.”
I closed my eyes and shifted my side to give her a better angle, the pain causing me to hiss.
“On the count of three, I’m going to pull this out nice and quick.”
I took a deep, painful breath in preparation.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
No, this time, the pain was literally blinding. The agony radiated from my side and through my entire body. For the first half second, I could barely breathe. The next moment was spent gathering my breath as my eyes snapped open.
I bellowed. I felt the echoes of my roar through the ground itself. My head swung around to glare death at the one who caused my pain. Suddenly, an ice knight jumped between us and I brought my claw down on them.
Thankfully, an ice shield tinged with purple stopped me from repaying my healer with death.
Needless to say, they both collapsed as they dropped the shield.
The green one started to speak, but was silenced by my growl.
“Tallic, please, it looks really bad, we need to get you healed.” Steelskin’s voice snapped me out of my dragon rage.
I took a few moments to weigh my options and calm my urge to slaughter everything.
Twilight-no good, she is out cold after I almost shattered their mage shield.
Doc Pulse-earth pony, no magic. I could get it bandaged, though.
Emerald-No.
“Steelskin, I have not taught you this yet, but please put your hooves on either side of the wound.”
“Okay.”
“Now focus on the wound and tell my scales to cover it over.”
“...Okay” He let out a grunt of effort and I felt the sin and scales cover it over and stop the bleeding.
“Lastly, look inside the wound and see if there is anything besides muscle that has been severed.”
“But how-oh yeah... Nope, just missed some... stuff... but there’s some...”
As I let myself pass into unconsciousness, I saw Miss Sweetheart looking at me with tears in her eyes.
Tallic was just lying there as they carried the donkey off. I watched in fear as he swiped at Doc Pulse and did something to Doctor Emerald.
Pushing down the ball of panic in my chest that was threatening to explode, I walked over to him and nuzzled him, hoping to calm him down and let him know he had friends to help him.
I think it helped, because Twilight Sparkle was able to get him to let her pull the spear out, but he ended up trying to squish her and Mister Reinhart..
“Please put your hooves on either side of the wound.” I stared first at him, then at the horrible gaping hole in his side. I did what he asked and then let him guide me as I asked the wound to close, noticing the veins that were cut and getting them to close up too. I was about to start on the muscles when I felt a wave of dizziness and realized that neither of us had any magic left to heal with.
I sat, trying to pull some magic back into my body when he asked me to look into the wound. I started to tell him I didn’t know how when I remembered his training on looking out at the magic fields surrounding us. As I did so, I was horrified at how much muscle had been cut through and how close it was to stuff that felt important. I also felt chaos magic swirling around in the wound, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything. I tried to tell him, but only got to the part about missing that important stuff before he passed out.
I sat there watching Tallic as he lay there in the field. The pool of silvery blood on the ground was a constant reminder of how close I came to losing him. I sat there, trying to remind myself that I had seen with my own mind that he didn’t have any life threatening injuries.
I saw Miss Sweetheart.
“I’m not leaving him!” I shouted at her. I was angry. I was more angry than when I beat up Rocky. I wanted to hit her for taking Tallic away from me.
She took a step back before opening her mouth to respond.
“Steelskin...”
“No! I can’t take it anymore! I’m sick of you not even giving him a chance! He’s so nice to me and takes good care of me and I wouldn’t even be alive without him! He’s also the closest thing to a father I have left and I can’t...”
“I can’t...”
I couldn’t go on. I sank to my belly and cried harder than I ever had before. Not even when I woke up in the hospital and had to listen to them tell me my parents were dead and I’d be stuck in an orphanage in a town where I didn’t know anypony.
“I can’t believe I was so wrong about him,” Miss Sweetheart said. “I’m so sorry, Steelskin... Yes, you may stay with him as long as you two need.” I looked up to see Miss Sweetheart crying. “That is what I came to say to you.”
I heard somepony breathing hard and looked to see Misters Roberts and Brennan come to a stop by us. Mister Roberts was bent over, panting hard.
“What...” Mister Roberts gasped, “Did I miss?”
“This spear...” Twilight was examining the magic surrounding the diamond head of the spear with a look of utter horror. “I can understand the sharpness charm, but who would put an enchantment that made it dig itself towards somepony’s heart? ...And pain enhancement? What kind of monster makes a weapon cause even more pain?”
Trace spat a curse in elven, dropping the blade he was examining back onto the table. “Just be glad he didn’t get to use this sword,” Trace replied, looking at the weapon with revulsion. “This thing has five different poisons on the blade plus two different spells that would keep a wound from being able to heal. Not even the dark knights would use weapons as foul as these.”
Twilight put her hoof to her mouth as her face turned green. “Who would make weapons like this? I’m sure these have to be illegal.” She picked up a scroll, unwilling to make Spike write what she had to report on the weapons. “The insane amount of chaos magic swirling around them only warrants a side note compared to the brutality of the enchantments.”
She shook her head, wishing she could disbelieve it all as she started writing her official report. She was grateful that the questioning of the donkey over why he did it and how he acquired these powerful and evil weapons would be done by somepony else.
“Sounds pretty typical for high end weapons where magic is just another form of technology.” Alex gave a grim smile as he leaned against the doorframe of the library. “And where there are lots of humans.”
The smile vanished, but the grimness remained. “I’d like to know where he got them from, ‘cause these are still some nasty pieces of work.”
“I have come before you to announce that proceedings have been started for the adoption of one Steelskin, earth pony orphan, by one Tallic, dragon, jumper, and resident of the mountain just outside town. As precedent has been set with a Mister Alex Roberts, three affidavits will be needed. I suggest Twilight Sparkle, Alex Roberts, and myself. Twilight Sparkle is the most knowledgeable about dragons in town, Alex Roberts, being a jumper and adoptive father of another species, and, of course, you know my history with dragons.” Miss Sweetheart’s tone was completely professional and coldly clinical as she dropped this bombshell on the adoption committee. She wasn’t sure how most of them would react, but she felt sure that she could defend her reasoning on the names chosen.
She sat down with a face that was carefully neutral, reaching into her saddlebags to touch the stack of affidavits as she waited for all the arguing to calm down.
’I hope that this can make up for my speciesism,’ Miss Sweetheart thought to herself.
After much debate, everypony agreed on her choice.
“Well then, let us review the affidavits and determine any points of concern.” Miss Sweetheart took hold of the stack of affidavits and laid them on the table to the shock of everypony else. “Would you like to review the additional affidavits that have been filed on his behalf?”
After a full minute of stunned silence, Miss Introspective spoke up. “Y-yes, but we should probably start with the ones we decided on first... Did you mean to imply that you already have Twilight Sparkle, Alex Roberts, and your own ready for us?”
“Yes,” Miss Sweetheart replied, separating out the stacks of copies and hoofing each of them their own set. “The summary is located on the top page and basically states that everypony is in agreement that Tallic, while violent, greedy, and short tempered, has a high view of the value of sentient life. He struggles against the character traits that define dragons and, with proper coaching, should be able to be a decent role model for steelskin. Among the things that need to be addressed are the suitability of his cave when it comes to basic housing needs, anger management issues, and intensive training in the norms of pony society. While I would not have chosen her to provide input, even Fluttershy has given her blessing on this adoption and has stated that the adoption should be approved before this training as Steelskin will be one of the best teachers for him.”
She tried to keep from smiling as she noted the shocked expressions on their faces. Some took the time to read the stack, others immediately started spluttering in rage, claiming that they had been tricked and demanding somepony else to replace her affidavit.
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As always, an amazing chapter!
Well done.
3603550
Thanks, couldn't have done it without you, both as the author of the original idea and as a prereader.
*winces at the enchantments described* yeesh even most demons would pause slightly berore useing those.