The Massacre of Princess Luna's School for Gifted Unicorns set ablaze the coals of war with the zebras, bringing out the near end of the world.
That is not to say however, that everything in the school died in the pink mist.
[This is yet another spin off of KKat's Fallout Equestria.
I have only read FO:E, Duck and Cover!, and Starlight[ to chapter 15 any way.] So if i upset some ones plot it's not intentional. Despite this being a FO:E story it has connections with my Stories in Stone alternate verse. Thankfully since there is so little on Littlehorn valley this story is possibly canon with FO:E itself....... or at least the wiki..... ]
Once upon a time, far from the magical land of Equestria.
Death came to collect a group of souls. This loss could have easily been prevented if cooler heads had prevailed in the situation, instead a moment of panic and a bad choice ended a host of lives.
Death was not through with his appointed round and later that night collected another batch of souls including one that escaped his first harvest.
It was then that the pale horse turned it's sightless gaze to the larger stage and his fellows rode with him.
The Massacre at Littlehorn sparked off what would be known as the bloodiest conflict in the history of Equus. The war that followed raged and flared as stronger and stronger weapons were brought to bear. Mega spells and Balefire bombs wiped out millions of lives across Equss embroiling more than just Equestria and the Zebras. The war raged until the destruction of all life seemed inevitable.
It was not however, as many feared, the end of the world. Only the beginning of a new chapter in Equus's history.
Many were spared the horrors of the wastes by seeking shelter in great underground structures called Stables. Generations passed within these sheltering, but when the doors finally opened again, they only had the horrors of the wastes to greet them.
Despite the horrors, life continued on, despite the hardships and trails, the monsters and roving gangs, the very air and land itself seeking to destroy them. Pony’s and Zebras survived.
Even in this harsh land there were heroes, those who sought to make the world better, striving to save every one they could. Set on fighting the Good Fight.
Most failed, either fading into obscurity, or becoming worse monsters than they sought to defeat.
In time, one such figure rose to the challenge the waste offered. Against all odds she survived everything that could be thrown at her, things that would cause the most hardened warrior to succumb, but the mare known across the wastes as everything from the Stable Dweller, to the Destroyer, persevered. Though all her struggles this mare and her friends managed to spark something in ponies hearts that the wastes had torn from them long ago.
Hope.
Not all the lands however, were so blessed with the presence of such a hero. Far to the south, nestled in the mountains between the remains of Equestria and the Zebra lands, a great valley lay untouched by things such as hope and peace.
The destruction of Princess Luna's School for Gifted Unicorns was not the only death that Littlehorn Valley would see. Both the zebra's and the ponies built massive bases at either end of the valley and waged a violent land battle in the forests, swamps and trails dotting the huge swath of no ponies land between the two countries.
Despite the fall of the spells and the end of the war in clouds of taint filled death the battle for the valley raged on. Generations passed and foals grew up to die in a battle that had no purpose any more.
Eventually even this battle too fizzled down to a cold war as the two sides turned to raising their families rather than killing others. They spread out around the bases forming small communities of tight families, still remaining segregated from each other. The distrust and fear fed with tales of the horrors the other side committed in the war, ensuring that the hatred between zebra and pony remained even after the cause was long forgotten.
It was the discovery of the school that set the spark to rekindle the war. Not all that dwelt there were killed by the pink cloud that started the war. The first explorers of that place found the cloud all but gone, and in a long forgotten catacomb under the main building they discovered a Stable.
The Stable had no number and the great door only had the word Platinum etched onto it. Within the Vault amid the bones the explorers found some of the most volatile and rare artifacts, items used to test the skill and power of the schools students.
Dragon eggs.
Sealed in the Stable the wall of eggs survived the pink mist and remained frozen in time in their cold tomb.
The discovery in the school set the land ablaze with conflict once more, as the tribes took up arms again and fought over the eggs. Each seeking the power that would come from having an army of dragons on their side. Old battle lines were redrawn and and the killing began again. A centuries old battle rekindled by greed and lust for power.
It did not go as planned however. Even with the violence and killing, both sides acquired many of the eggs and after constant failed attempts they realized that the eggs could not be awoken. No Zebra magic known could rose the eggs into hatching, and no unicorn's spells could stir the sleeping creatures within. A great many of these eggs were destroyed in the attempts before the cause was written off as lost.
Despite this, the eggs that remained were still horded and fought over for years, eventually even the battles for them ceased and the conflict eased once more. In several generations even the reason for collecting them was lost, though the tradition of testing young unicorns by trying to hatch them remained in some villages. A uneasy peace once again fell on the warring tribes, but the lands history shows that peace, never lasts forever.
One of the tribes eventually birthed a unicorn filly who would change everything. A frail girl named Lily. Nothing was expected of her and if the wars had been ongoing she likely would have been left to die at birth rather than be cared for and coddled. But when the time came for her to test herself on the “relic stone” of the tribe, the touch of her magic succeeded where no others had. The cracked and split open, spilling forth a blue scaled lizard.
The beast seemed almost as shocked as those present for the test and it immediately started crying. The small creature only stopped when Lily moved to it, feeling a connection with the tiny dragon. She calmed it treating it as she would a younger brother. The young filly named the newborn dragonling Beryl, after the color of his scales.
From such innocent beginnings the flame of conflict sparked again. Before the blue baby dragon burped his first flame, the bloodshed and death in the lands was sparked again. Tribes rallied and tried again to hatch the eggs they had fighting one another for their possession.
That was sixteen years ago, the conflict between the races has started again, only now with a young mare and dragonling in the middle of it all.
Because in the Zebra Lands, war. War never changes.
The rock struck the side of my head with a resounding thwack. I felt the stone shatter as it hit crumbling and knocking loose a scale. I ignored it, my focus was soly on the thin, dark blue coated mare on the ground before me. I ran my claws up along her side pushing lightly, shaking her lightly trying to get her to wake up despite my knowing she wouldn't. Another rock sailed past me striking the remains of the wooden wall I was kneeing in front of, punching a hole in the burning paneling freeing a wash of heat and smoke from the burning building.
I reached up running my blue claws though her scarlet mane, pausing briefly to run my claw down to wipe the blood from her lips. I couldn't stifle a whimper, tears running down my face as I looked down at her. Another stone struck my back glancing off a spine and possibly cracking it from the sudden stab of pain I felt. I barely noticed it either way, I could hear more angry screams and the sound of more hooves scraping on rock as another few stones rained down around me. I could hear their cries, hear what they were yelling, but at that point I simply didn't care.
The village of Crystal Grotto was gone, the outer walls destroyed, all of the new wooden buildings and several of the old prewar structures were on fire or leveled completely. The place resembled the burnt out prewar town that it had been when the settlers had first found it.
Nearly all the townsfolk were missing or dead. The two conflicting sides had one thing in common, they tended to foal-nap any one they found useful. Mostly young foals, though often a number of mares were taken as well for breeding purposes, unless they resisted to much. The foals could be brainwashed and made child soldiers or worse, in time they might not think they ever had a life before the armies they were in. All that was left in the town were a few elderly and sick that were not considered to be worth the time to kill, and a hoof full of cowards who hid. There were also the mass of dead, and the ones who wished they were dead, like me.
Another rock struck the side of of my head impacting my temple and forcing my gaze away from the lifeless mare on the burning building's porch. More rocks flew, though most crashed to the ground around me. One rock sailed though the air and struck the flank of the the mare on the ground tearing her skin and marring the cutie mark of a delicate glass lily flower.
I whipped my head around I could feel rage run though me for a brief moment , I could taste the lightning on my breath feel it crackle around my fangs as I glared at the gathered ponies looking for any sign of the one who threw that particular rock. The glare was enough for the small mob of ponies to collectively take a step back a few of them running off completely, at the very least none of them seemed to want to throw any more rocks. I turned back to the mare with another small whimper, my ear fins twitching as some one screamed out for some pony to get a gun.
They had come here for Lily and me, the town knew that and the wretched few who were left were not strong enough to take revenge on the ones who attacked. So they found another scape goat to blame, or in this case a scape dragon.
I never considered myself much to look at, even by dragon standards I was was small. I was still considered a baby even though i was fifteen and already going through an of a awkward growth spurt. At best I was only three feet tall, with thin limbs that almost didn't seem capable of supporting my weight, that ended in wide claws that looked much to big for the res of me. I was covered with faded royal blue scales with a row of dull spines running from the back of my head down to the tip of my long snake like tail. A small pair of horns rose up from my temples sticking upward and curled slightly back over my head. It made me think I looked kinda like those cartoon devil's horns you could find on some of the old bottles of prewar alcohol the occasional peddler had on their carts. A tiny pair of wings pressed against my back, no good for flying or even gliding, most of the time they simply got in the way or fluttered patheticly when I got flustered. I thought I looked like some weird gangly monster, something most ponies were quick to note.
Lily had always thought I looked cute.
The mare raised me since i hatched, she claimed she was my sister as she was only four years older than i was, but she acted like she was my mother. And despite her claims to the contrary that was how I viewed her. Every other pony viewed me as a weapon, something that could help them fight or be used as means to an end. I mean how could they not think like that, I was a dragon one of the monsters that supposedly lived outside the valley, devouring any who came into their territory with extreme prejudices.
Ever since I could walk on my own the guards or tribes ponies tried to teach me to fight. I picked up a few things here and there , but I did everything I could to hide or avoid such sessions. I can take a lot of punishment, but getting hit even with training weapons still hurts. None of them were ever happy with my progress, and it didn't help that I didn't care to even listen to half of them. I really only listened to and obeyed Lily, and Lily wanted nothing to do with teaching me how to fight. Of course it's not like I was old enough or big enough to do much of anything any way. I was as intimidating as a box of prewar candies, lanky and smaller than even some of the young fillies.
Granted I was smart, at least Lily told me I was, I often would argue the point, but she was certain that dragons grew quicker on the inside than the out. She claimed I was far more mature than any pony at my age.
She had a point there despite how much time I argued it. I had been helping her since I was six, I had to. Lily was never a strong mare, she was born weak and sickly and often couldn't even get out of bed to take care of her self. He had heard a lot of ponies blame her mother for her condition,saying something about radiation poisoning and such. I never met her mother or her father so I didn't know. Lily couldn't remember them either, she just knew her father died before she was born and her mother not long after that. If the war in the valley had been going on she would have probably been left for dead or simply put out of her misery. But in the current lull she was raised with some other orphans if nothing else then to try and bolster the numbers in the village.
She never got much stronger than that and I quickly learned how to make the medicine she needed and how to read so I could read to her when she was too weak to even lift her head.
She had her better days of course. Where she would go out and watch the village leaders try to make me a warrior, or to trade with a passing caravan. I much preferred staying in with her, helping her gather what she needed to make little glass flowers or work on her sewing. I did my best to copy her and learn to do the same as she did, though my claws were not meant for the delicate shaping of the glass that she could do with her horn I did learn how to melt the glass with my breath though, it was never constant, but lily thought it mad interesting designs in the glass and had me make the flower stems or any of the bigger requests she was asked as a glass maker. I also learned how to sew a little, though again, while I was no where near Lily's skill, i could patch materials easily enough to fix most of the things that were brought in for repairs..
The pair of us had moved or been traded by several villages in the valley, sometimes we were asked if we wanted to go , other times we were just told to go. The leaders of the new villages always tried and teach me to fight, how to be a dragon that could protect every pony or zebra in the village. But we were often were forced to move when it was found I was too young and too disinterested to be of any use in fighting. Eventually we came to Crystal Grotto, a fair sized post war town build in the ruins of an old Equestrian border city.
The large river that ran right through the middle of the valley was called Imbrium. It provided a natural border between the Zebralands and Equestria. Crystal Grotto was built along side the river on Equestria's side and prewar it was supposedly a neutral trading village between the two countries. Even during the war it continued to be a hub for trade, though once the conflict began in earnest the city was abandoned by both sides after the fortresses on either end of the valley were built.
The river water was polluted of course, though the fallout was enough that unless you gorged yourself you wouldn't been too bad off.
Lily had made a deal with one of the merchants and had been given a building with a small work shop that she could sew and make glassware for their room and board. I did what i could, though I often found a few caps could be made by selling the scales I shed, often this was enough to pay for any thing extra we needed, or any medicine that Lily might require. I never really ventured out of the house unless Lily went, and it was getting rarer and rarer that she did. And though even the leaders of Crystal Grotto wanted to use me, they at least were more patient about it than the other villages had been. They evidently were smart enough to recognize I was still too young to be effective.
As gangly as I was, I was no good at fighting any way. While most blows bounced off my scales and I had enough strength to do quite a bit of damage, I was uncoordinated, undisciplined, and uninterested in fighting.
The villagers of Crystal Grotto mostly allowed my reluctance, but they also tried to hide the fact that I was in the village. Despite this my selling of scales and a few outsider ponies spotting me had leaked the word, and just like always it brought unwanted attention to the village.
Smaller tribes, bandits and the occasional solo wanna be warlord came after the village intent on claiming the dragon within. Some of them wanted them both, others wanted Lily and no matter how many were taken out more still came. It was the same as it had been with the other villages and by this point Lily and I had come to expect it and were preparing to move once again.
Still most of the raiders were easily driven off Crystal Grotto had a number of skilled defenders, ex mercenaries or just skilled guard . Lily and I were never asked to leave, but more pressure was placed on training me after every attack. That all changed when the two largest tribes sent a zebra and a pegasus into town
Each of them claimed Lily and I were needed for their war effort and demanded that we be handed over or the consequences would be dire.
The elders of the village refused, not wanting anything to do with the fight between the two groups and denied I was even in the town before sending both on their before they killed each other.
The next time the pair came, each was at the head of a small army. The only reason the town was not wiped out immediately is that both sides seemed more intent on taking out each other, than the small town between them. Still the barricades around Crystal Grotto were quickly destroyed and the defenders killed as the town was sacked and looted by both sides in the middle of fighting.
When the battle started Lily had not been having one of her better days, though just before the town's walls fell, she rose from her bed as if everything was fine and set about with me preparing to flee. It was when we were gathering the last of our things that she paused to look out the window and noted the remains of the wall as well as something that caused her to shudder.
“Lily? What's wrong?” I asked only for the her to turn to me and give me a quick hug before her horn flared blasting me with a paralysis spell freezing me in place. She moved quickly pulling open the door to her glass blowing kiln and pushing me inside with her magic, burying me under the hot coals. The heat didn't bother me, but I desperately wanted to know what she was doing. I hadn't seen her cast that spell since I was little more than a misbehaving toddler. She shut the kiln door, though I could still see partially out into the room though a gap in on the bottom of the blast door. Even with the crackling of coals around me I could still hear everything with a faint echo. As I watched as a pegasus, two griffons, a pair of unicorns and a earth pony stormed in. Lily moved up against the far wall backed into the rooms corner as the group stormed in, coming into my view as they walked past the kiln towards her.
One of the griffons looked like he was rotted, gray feathers dangling from his greenish gangrenous body, a light green glow could be seen in the sunken sockets of his eyes. He wore armor that was painted up a strange shade of pink with a number of multi colored balls on the flank part of the armor with what looked like strings or fuses hanging from their undersides. He had a pair of rather long daggers in a belt around his waist and a chunk of wood with several nails jutting from it resting between his tattered wings.
The other griffon was dressed in the same style of leather armor, but his fur and feathers were a simple cream color and he didn't look like a zombie. His armor however was a deep orange and had three red circles with stems on his breast plate. He was bigger than all the others, even the earth pony, he had a long rifle slung over his shoulder with a number of multicolored feathers decorating the end of the barrel and what looked like a sawn off shotgun on his belt.
The two unicorns were the exact same shade of sea green, the stallion had black hair and the mare had white. Both were covered in light armor like the griffons though the stallion wore white armor with a trio of gems drawn onto the breast plate and had a small pistol at his side and a pair of rather large saddle bags that were covered with various patches and symbols. The mare wore yellow armor with pink splotches on the flank covering, that might have been birds or bugs of some kind. Her horn glowed a soft blue as she held up a scroll looking over something as if she wasn't even aware the group had broken into some ones house in the middle of a battle. Neither of their cutie marks were visible under the armor.
The earth pony was a brownish red coloration, with a golden mane, but no tail. He wore a battle saddle and what looked like some sort of steel armor haphazardly painted purple with a star painted over was seemed like another symbol under the shoddy paint that appeared to be gears and a apple that was etched in the armor itself.
The pegasus was the only one who did not wear armor. He had a black cap that had most of his sky blue hair tucked into it. The cutie mark on his bone white colored his side looked like it had been burned off as it was unidentifiable. He had a simple pale blue vest on that had a multicolored lightning bolt on the chest flap.
“Well there's one. See like I said, easy. Split up find the dragon.” the pegasus orders, the others moved off out of my view from in the kiln, however I could hear them yanking open doors and cabinets flipping over furniture. One rather harsh toss sent Lily's sewing supplies skittering across the floor between the cornered mare and the pegasus. The griffon ghoul opened the door to the kiln to look in, rearing back from the immense heat and shut the door quickly without seeing me buried in the coals.
“Where is he?” the pegasus questions.
“Where is who? I don't know what you are talking about.” Lily stammered pressing back against the wall as the pegasus moves closer.
“Don't play coy Miss Lily, we know you're the beasts keeper, and the pair of you are worth an ungodly amount of caps. In case you hadn't noticed the rather large collection of armed and armored ponies and zebra's outside. Both sides of this conflict are quite intent to snatch you two up, or take you out to make sure the other side doesn't get you. A dragon fighting for either side would tip the scales enough that victory would be assured.” the pegasus states.
“Beryl is not a weapon.” Lily responds.
“That's where you are wrong. He is a weapon simply due to what he is. A tame dragon? You can't get within sight of a wild one with out winding up dead. Still, if he can't be talked into it perhaps he could be coerced.” the pegasus grins lifting his wing and running his feathers under Lily's chin lifting her head up to meet his gaze. “ Delicate flower like you miss? Probably wouldn't even take much to make you scream and get him to jump through hoops to get it to stop. I wouldn't put it past the Star Hunters and the Lunar Guard to do just that. Now see, I can prevent that you know, I can help you both, but only if you help me.”
“And who are you?” Lily questions yanking her head away from his feathers.
“Ahh yes, how rude of me, my name is Mad Dash, I'm the leader of this merry little band. We're called the Element's of Harmony. I'm sure you have heard of us.” the pegasus grins.
“I have. A group of thugs willing to do anything for caps. Kidnappings, assassinations, theft. “Lily mutters.” Everything the Elements of Harmony were supposed to be against.”
“Ah, then you have heard of us, quite well informed. And as for the latter well keep in mind how we wound up in this day and age before you go defending the old hags. Still knowing that then you also know we also have a success rate on our missions of a hundred percent. So you will be coming with us, whether you like it or not.”
Time seemed to slow as I watched Lily's horn glow, I felt the spell holding me weaken slightly, though not enough to allow me to move yet. I watched her lips move eyes looking past the pegasus at the kiln, seeming to silently apologize to me. I saw her horn glow brighter to the point were even the pegasus noticed the pale white glow.
“I am not going any where with any one who thinks Beryl is a weapon to be used!” Lily snarls something I had never heard from her before.
The pegasus was going to answer, though that was cut off by his scream as one of Lily's sewing needles was lifted from the floor by her magic and slammed up ward stabbing into the pegasus's eye. The others moved to react though the pegasus was faster and his hooves connected with the side of her head at least twice before the large griffon tackled him and held him down as Lily collapses top the ground.
“GODDESS DAMN IT “screams Mad dash. The unicorn male moves over to the flailing pair his magic griped the pegasus's head holding it steady as he pulled the needle out of his eye. The unicorn regards the other stallion a moment before his horn glows casting a healing spell over the eye stopping the blood flow and deadening the pain some.
The yellow painted unicorn mare moves over to Lily She leans down her horn glowing with a yellow and blue striped aura that circles Lily's head lifting it lightly as the unicorn runs a hoof along her neck a frown forming on her face before her magic fades and Lily's head drops to the floor with a thud.
“Brilliant Dash, she's dead.” the mare snorts in annoyance standing back up and glaring at the pegasus as the healing magic was finally settling in. “We're not getting paid now, this was a waste of time.”
“There's still the dragon Minx.” utters a voice that sounded like a wood chipper. the ghoulish griffon moves around helping the other griffon up off the heavily panting pegasus.
“ Dragons no good without the trainer Slough.” the earth pony snorts. “Prolly even less useful now that the mares dead, don't even have any leverage.“
“Dust, set the place on fire. “growls Dash as the earth pony nods. “We can still get the kill bounty.”
“That's not even enough caps to resupply what we wasted here in intel and manipulation.” Minx snaps.
“It is if we collect from both sides, better to only break even then have a tarnish on our rep. Slough, Quarrel, see if you can find some of the beasts scales, damn things supposedly shed a lot of them growing up. “ Dash orders
The two griffons nod searching the house again as the unicorn Minx cuts off some of Lily's mane.
“So whats the damage on the eye Doc?” Dash grumbles.
“Gone, you are lucky she did not have the strength to drive it all the way into your brain. “ the male unicorn states with a monotone that is usually heard from the occasional robot around the waste.
“Can you fix it?”
“No.”
“Consider it the cost of screwing up our perfect job.” Minx snaps. “ We could have retired from this if you hadn't lost your head.”
“ Let's see how sensible you are with a bucking needle in your eye Minx.....” Dash snaps turning his whole head looking down at the bloodied sewing needle with the chunk of his ruptured eye laying on the floor. He reaches down with a wing trying to pick it up a few times before succeeding.
I lay in the kiln still, no longer held in place with magic, but still frozen solid in shock as i stared at Lily's body.
“Impaired depth perception. You will need training again to compensate.” Doc states.
“Yeah I spect so. “Dash mutters staring at the bloodied bit of meat.
“Found some scales Dash. We set to go then? “ the large griffon Quarrel states holding up a claw full of blue scales.
“Right take those and some hair to the Zebras, Slough do the same for the Lunar Guard. Doc, Minx set this place on fire. Head back to base after wards, we'll talk more there, see how this plays out. Dragons got to be somewhere ,but without the mare if he shows up again he might be thought one of the ferals.” Dash growls biting down on the ruptured eye pulling it off the needle to chew it up and then swallow it before tucking the bloody needle in his saddlebags.” Bleh salty. Still keep an eye out if he pops up we need to make sure he's dead so we stay golden with our rep, it's their own fault for giving a dead or alive reward for them.”
I wasn't sure how far I had run, nor even why. It had not taken long for some one to find a gun and start taking shots at me. I didn't even notice the first few shots nor the screaming, I couldn't do anything but stare at her body. When the mercenaries left I had all but torn myself free of the kiln, likely making the fire worse as i hauled her body outside to the porch. I had wanted to get help, but i could tell she was dead, her body was already cold, her gold eyes lifeless. I stayed there next to her for a long time through rocks and gunfire until a shot finally hit me glancing off the thick spikes of my shoulder that I even took notice of the gunner. Of course that was mostly as I was bowled over in pain from the impact of the shot, the .22 shot was not enough to penetrate my scale, but it was more than enough to hurt.
At that point I went from feeling ready to die to something urging me to run, to flee this place and live despite wanting to die there with Lily. Something in the back of my mind wouldn't let me stop, it pushed me to my feet. Another shot from the gun misses but it catches my attention and with a speed I didn't even know I had I was on top of the old unicorn with the gun, yanking the weapon from his magic with one claw the other pinning his face to the ground by his horn.
I leaned down, growling in the old stallions face again feeling the lightning crackle over my fangs, fighting the urge to let it go and fry this old stallion, though I held back tears flowing from my eyes.
“You make sure she has a proper burial.... or I’ll be back for you.” I half sobbed between growls. I grabbed the rifle and darted off to half run, half lope down the street out of town into the woods.
That had been hours ago, and night had fallen while I ran.
I had no idea where that threat had come from, I had never done anything like that, and even now I was not sure if I even meant it. Part of me still wanted to lay down and die to be with Lily, but I couldn't. Something was driving me on, why did she even do it? She must have know what would happen if she attacked them, why did she hide me and then stab that pegasus.
Those thoughts and others roiled about in my mind, thankfully the pain I felt every where deadened me to anything aside from simply putting one foot in front of the other. I had no idea what to do , or where to go at this point, so I just kept walking.
Every step caused my shoulder to throb where I had been hit, a glance at the scale showed blood had seeped up from around it and dried hinting it had done more than just crack my scale. I still had the rifle in my hand, but my claws had carved grooves and wandering through the swamp had clogged it with mud and water and I doubted it was useful as anything else but a club, id didn't even know if there were any bullets in it, guns were not something any one had shown me.
All these thoughts crossed my mind and I tried to keep them there. Anything to distract me from what happened. Any slight bit of distraction so I didn't have to think, cause if I started to think about it I'd probably just lay down in the swamp and let it swallow me.
I saw a few bloat sprites , though they steered clear of me, the scent of blood usually attracted them, but evidently their survival instincts kicked in over their hunger when it was dragon blood as the moment they came into my sight they went the other way.
I was knocked out of my distraction by tripping over something and crashing down face first onto something hard under a thin layer of mud and stagnant water. I lay there a moment one hand still clutching the rifle, the other sliding up to run my claws through the mud feeling stone underneath
I groaned slowly pushing myself up scraping the rifle against the object, clearing off some of the mud and finding stone. I groaned rolling over onto my back with a faint wince as my damaged spines were pressed against the rock, still the cool mud was rather soothing against the pain. I stared up at the sky, the constant partial cloud cover of the mountains hid the sky and the stars from my view, though the bright glow of the moon could be seen through the clouds as well as the occasional glimpse of the stars through the breaks. A few years ago the cloud cover was a permanent oppressive thing, now it was still there but sunlight, and glimpses of the stars could be seen in greater quantities every year. I never thought much of it , I was too young to remember the constant cloud cover very well, or even when it started breaking up, but Lily talked about it some times.....
I jerked upright as my wandering thoughts circled around to Lily again making me want to do nothing but curl up in a ball and cry. I fought against it and rose to my feet not even sure any more why I was bothering. I wasn't running too or from anything, I was just running. I looked down at the stone I was on bending over to pick up the rifle again before I noticed the stone I cleared was a perfect square. I blinked a little tapping it before clearing off a bit more mud, glad for a distraction . I found a number of other stones just like it packed together. A road?
Looking up I noticed a few things I didn't when I was trudging forward. The remains of a bridge arched across the river, the wood rotted and collapsed from age and weather, though stone and metal struts still jutted up from the water all the way to the other side of the river. What was still standing looked ornate as if it was supposed to be fancy. There was a old sign hanging from a post near the bridge marking this place as freedom crossing. There was a sign on the far side of the bridge propped up against a half fallen pole stating 'Welcome to the Zebralands'.
I turned from the bridge looking at the road that lead up into the woods, the brick worked poked through in a few spots, though the lack of any big plants and the row of cypress trees and pine on either side of the road marked it's boundries well enough
I clamored up onto the road out of the muck, starting to walk along it for no other reason then it was the easier path, and I could again simply focus on putting a foot in front of the other, instead of what I should have done to try and save Lily.
I slowly started to take more notice of my surroundings as trees gave way to stone columns that rose up through the mud. Some sagged , beaten down by weather or destroyed by the valley's conflicts. Some remained intact though and were topped with statues of ponies in various poses. Past them off in the swamps I saw ruins of the occasional ruined camp or settlement, nearly all of them looked destroyed or abandoned, though I didn't bother to check. The swamp gave way to higher ground and more of the stone path was exposed allowing me to trace the path with my eyes, at least as far as I could see in the dim light given by the hidden moon.
The clouds shifted in the sky parting to allow a ray of silvery moon light shown down from the sky before me. I winced a little at the strangely bright beam before glancing up at the face of the full moon with a bit of awe. I never remembered seeing it this clearly before, my gaze fell down the shaft of light it cast to the land before me and the massive gate and black stone wall that rose out of the ground before me.
Massive wooden doors had once adorned the gate, though now their remains hung rotted from large iron hinges seized by rust. I moved over the rotted remains of the fallen door stepping under the arches and onto the clean stone of a worked path inside of the walls.
The place was lit by the unearthly glow of the moon, the walls seeming to house a small city with towering building in the distance in the middle of the walled enclosure. A number of smaller buildings and structures dotted the rest of the walled in compound with a multitude of what might have once been gardens along the walking paths that criss crossed every where, now all over grown. Few of the buildings seemed damaged, though all seemed weathered and very old.
Near the gate in the center of the path was a raised dais. I could easily see the five figures atop of it bathed in the bright moonlight.
On one side of the dais to my left was a proud looking pegasus mare. She was dressed in some sort of bat styled armor with a pair of goggles on her head and two swords tucked under her wings. Her gaze was straight ahead, looking down at those who were entering the compound, as if silently judging any one who walked through the gates.
Next to her was a tall regal looking earth pony stallion that towered over the others on the dais. He was dressed in some sort of formal robe with his long mane seemingly expertly styled, something apparent even in the carved stone. A sly smirk was carved on his face as he too looked at the gate. His expression seemed to hint that he knew things that no one else did and he was teasing who ever met his gaze to try and figure out what he knew.
The pony in the middle was a rough maned unicorn with a single double blade on his side. He wore a ancient set of armor that reminded Beryl of the kind worn by knights in some of the picture books he had seen. This pony had an expression that I thought the artist wanted to look stern and commanding as he watched over the gate, but to me he looked more sad than anything else.
The next was not a pony at all, but a zebra mare, her stripes carefully carved into the stone, her mane was a mass of curly hair, her tail the same. She had two large saddle bags on her side that were adorned with a multitude of marks. I winced at the sight of those bags, they were the same sort of bags that were on the unicorn that Mad Dash called Doc. The one that had helped kill Lily. Unlike Doc, the zebra's expression was some how soft and caring, something I had never seen on any ones face but Lily's.
The last figure was a surprise to me though. It was of a dragon, a female I guessed, her wings spread wide as she sat back on her haunches, a grin plastered across her muzzle as she looked at the entrance. A smiling dragon would likely unsettle most, but it was almost calming on this one, she looked happy, to see any one coming in the gate, not threatening at all.
The detail on all of them was such that they could easily be confused for living breathing ponies. Neither they nor the pedestal had any sort of wear or weathering at all. As I looked it over the moon light glimmered off a plaque on the front of the dais half hidden by the over grown weeds in the planter around the base.
Curiosity got the better of me and i moved forward pushing the plants aside looking over the delicately etched writing on the metal plate.
“All is forgiven, I simply hope you can forgive me when we next meet.”
~Luna
------------------------------------
I ran my claw over the last part in the names wondering why the tag was blank in what I expected was the dragons spot. What did this mean? Was this unfinished? What was this place even doing out here in the middle of the valley? Who were these five that they had a statue dedicated to them? Where did that Sparkle Cola sign come from?
It took me a second to rethink the last, though in that time the massive flickering, magic lit sign advertizing Sparkle Cola had completed it's arc and smashed into the uninjured side of my head sending me flying out of the planter to crash and tumble across the stone path, the rifle clattering across the street as I came to a stop near the destroyed door.
I groaned pushing myself up on my hands and knees with a whimper. The gun shot had not even been that painful, I barely manage to lift my head at the sound of hooves clicking on stone.
Towering over me was a massive red form of a mare. Her mane and tail were the same color red has her fur, though a purple and a pale blue streak ran through them as they whipped about around her form. The rather lithe figure was taller than any pony I had ever seen, her horn glowed with a strange spiral of dark red and pinkish hued magic. She sneered as I tried to rise to attempt to run, a pair of great feathered wings fluttering open before snapping down to rest against her back once more.
“Well now, you are quite the tough intruder.” the alicorn states bringing the Sparkle Cola sign down on my head again, turning the world black..
Sewing: Be it patching a hole in your favorite pants, or making sure some pony's insides stay inside, you have the makings of a proper tailor.
Glass Blowing: You have a rare skill of creating glass sculptures and objects out of a hoof full of sand, and some high heat.
Medicine: You have quite a bit of experience making potions and other chems to aid ponies, with a little practice you could be a proper doctor.
Traits
Dragon hide: You are tough, almost supernaturally so. You barely notice small arms fire and can take a great deal of punishment. You also take no damage and are unhindered by fire or any natural heat source.
Dragon Breath: Level 1 / You breath lightning. While you cannot yet use this at range, it does extra damage if you decide to bite some one. You are also immune to non magical electricity. What a shocking ability.
“Ummm Lily what's going on?” I ask sheepishly as my world was nothing but darkness and stumbling steps forward as I tried not to trip over anything in our small home. “I can't see anything....”
I hear her small chuckle behind me and she pushes her hoof against my shoulder urging me forward with a small giggle.
“That's the point silly, and if I told you what was going on, it wouldn't be much of a surprise now would it Beryl?” she mutters lightly, amusement at my plight, one she had put me in, evident in her voice.
After a few more steps forward I bumped into the back of a chair, my claws closing about it like a life line though I still nearly fell. I feel her hoof leave my shoulder and hear the clicking of hooves as she moves away from me. I smile despite myself turning my head trying to hear where she had gone. The ramshackle hut we stayed in was not much, but The Republic of Fred was willing to take us in after our last village asked us to leave. I wasn't sure of the exact reasons for our leaving or our acceptance, but as always I expected it had to do with me. Lily had not been doing well at all for the first few weeks here, she never did when we had to move, the exertion of it all made her sick and it took her a few weeks to recover.
I heard her laugh lightly again and I grumbled a bit to myself wondering what she was doing. I heard some rustling and then there was the acid scent of sulfur that sent Lily coughing. I reached up to pull off my blindfold, intent on trying to help her though I felt her magic push my hands down as she fought to control her coughing.
“It's okay Beryl, I'm alright, just sit there a moment.” she said though her coughing. I tensed up not liking any sort of surprises, let alone letting Lily do anything that would cause her to go into a coughing fit. I moved to sit down in the chair I had been holding sitting down with a small sigh.” Are you sure you are okay?”
“Yes Beryl. Okay, you can take the blindfold off now.” she said. I could still smell burning and I quickly yanked off the blind fold, finding the room dark with the curtains drawn. In the middle of the table was a small circular object, it looked like a biscuit of some kind though there was a white goo on the top that looked half melted. In the middle of it was a single candle burning slowly, threatening to spill wax on the object below it.
“What.... What is this?” I stammer looking down at the candle.
“Happy birthday Beryl.” Lily giggles. “I don't have to tell you how special this day is do I? It;s been ten years since you hatched. That's important to every one, so I dipped into the savings caps a little and got a cake for you.”
“But … we needed those caps to pay a doctor to help you....” I complained wincing at how hard it was for a sickly mare and a little dragon to save money.
“You're only ten once Beryl, now go on and make a wish and blow out the candle. “ Lily smiles.
I looked up to see her smile, not able to stop a grin from crossing my features as well. I shook my head a bit thinking of pulling a few of my loose scales out to sell and slipping some caps back into the savings. I leaned up over the table inhaling deeply and letting a breath of air out to blow out the candle plunging the room into darkness to the sound of Lily's cheers.
I awoke to screaming, I thrashed crying out loudly, jerking up right and falling over myself as something held me down. As I flailed I could hear ripping and another scream. I jerked up right and fell back over my own tail with a crash hitting the ground and sending a lance of pain through my head. I whimpered clutching at my head as I curled up on the floor.
The scream sounded again though I was caught in a haze of pain, I was much more awake and it sounded less like some one screaming as it was some pony shouting for some one. I sat up slowly reaching up to my head, my hand finding it wrapped in bandages. I winced as I sat up, I looked like I had been cleaned and bandaged, if a bit badly judging by how many bandages had been used. I also smelled like I had been dipped in rubbing alcohol. It was like some one had read about treating an injury in a book and got a little overzealous when it was their turn to try it out.
The room I was in was odd. It didn't have the usual look of a wasteland hovel. It was clean and excessively neat even though it was clear some of the things that made up the room shouldn't have been here. There was a section that looked like a door and another part that seemed to be metal of some kind that made up a wall. What seemed to be an airplane wing made a ceiling along with a section of a cement pond. All of it had been mashed together and shaped into something new. There was a great deal more wood than any other material all placed to look like the room was built in a tree. I was at the foot of a well made bed in what looked like a over sized dog basket. I would have been insulted if I hadn't noticed I had ripped the basket apart along with the blanket in my struggles. Some one clearly knew what I might do to the bed when I woke and the basket was probably easier to replace.
I heard the cry again and slowly, if shakily rose to my feet heading towards the source. I pushed open a door looking down a set of stairs that opened into something I had never seen before. Walls covered in shelves filled with books of every kind. Some of them looked like they were almost brand new, and others were little more than garbage. But there were so many, I didn't even think this many books existed in the entire world, let alone in one place.
Lily had two books she loved and a magazine or two but...... I froze in place on the stairs closing my eyes and trying to push away the memory, trying to focus on what was going on now and where I was.
“SPIIIIIIKE! WAKE UP ALREADY!” shouts the voice.
Granted the screaming voice didn't tell me anything about where I was, just that I needed to hurry. I paused on the stairs looking out a small window at the landing. Outside the ruins of the place I had found before lay exactly as I had seen them in my brief glimpse. I wasn't that far from the statue I was looking at before unless there were two of them. Also it was raining. Not exactly a rare occurrence this time of year, though the water was mostly tainted and was unhealthy to be out in for very long. Given my injury and the bandage around my head who ever was here evidently didn't want me dead which made me wonder if it was that red mare from before. She had clearly been trying to kill me.
I wasn't sure if I was releaved at some one wanting me alive or not.
“Spike you're going to miss breakfast!” the voice calls again. It sounded like a mare.
Pushing down my rising depression at the reminder of Lily I looked around for a weapon. There was very little in the room that could be used as such. Aside from some books and a mess of candles there wasn't anything readily available, not even a stick or fireplace poker.
“Spike get your scaly butt in here already. Jeez I've got a busy day ahead and you're lollygagging.”
I wasn't sure who Spike was, but I also didn't want whoever patched me up to get angry. Who ever this was evidently knew a dragon, either that or she had named me Spike for some reason. In either case she was starting to get annoyed and I didn't really want to upset some one who was at least trying to help. With a last glance to the room I pushed open a door along the same wall as the stair case stepping into the kitchen.
The kitchen smelled of burnt eggs and charred metal. The walls and floor seemed to be of the same odd blend of magic worked materials. There were a number of cabinets, a like new set of appliances and a dinner table with seven chairs, one with a booster seat, arranged around it. One chair and the one with the booster seat had plates before them. There appeared to be some sort of egg and a glass of what I assumed might be multifruit juice already placed before the chair with the booster seat. The dishes looked clean, another oddity about this place.
Despite that, it was not the strangest thing in the room.
That title was given to the tall lavender colored mare fiddling with the stove. Her fur was a light shade of purple, her mane and tail were darker purple with a light blue streak and a dark red streak running through them. She had no cutie mark, but like the one that attacked me earlier she had both wings and a horn.
I back peddled against the door as she looked over at me. The tall mare blinked as she stared seeming to freeze in place a second with a spark or two glittering from her horn as she watched me with unblinking lavender eyes that seemed some what out of focus, looking through me to something far away behind me. She suddenly snapped back into motion and resumed her cooking.
“Ahh, there you are Spike. Eat up before breakfast gets cold.” The mare states, her horn glowing a little picking me up off the ground and dropping me into the booster seat with a thud. I froze in panic though nothing else seemed to be forthe coming in the magic department. I looked down at the booster seat pushing it out from under me to the floor. I was easily tall enough to sit at the table like normal, I hadn't needed a booster seat in years. I spared a glance down at the eggs, not entirely certain what sort of animal they even came from, and at this point I was far to afraid to ask. Still I had not eaten for a while and if this mare wanted to kill me she likely could do so with magic and wouldn't need to poison me.
“My name's Beryl not Spike. Who.. what are you?” I manage to correct and ask shoveling the eggs into my mouth as I did so. They were horrid, burnt and greasy and quite likely to be Cockatrice or even rad roach eggs. I really didn't want to know.
The mare freezes again, a moment or two longer than before, dropping the spatula she was making eggs with , her horn sparking a little as she scrunches her face up a bit before reverting to how she was a before. The odd thing was that the light blue section in her hair seemed to get bigger, spreading to other strands.
“Alright eat fast Spike, I want to get started on the dissertation of Gygax the Spellmaster as soon as possible. We have a lot to cover today if that list I made yesterday is any indication......” The purple unicorn continued to ramble on about some sort of theory or another. Honestly Beryl had no clue what anything she was saying was but he wasn't sure it was wise to argue with a mad mare. Still Lilly had named him Beryl and he was going to make sure that this mare used his name and stopped calling him Spike.
“I already said Miss... my names Beryl, not Spike.... like my scales color. “ I comment noting the sudden freezing and another few sparks from her horn.
“Yes, purple scales right... with green.....” her voice cracked a little as if strained.
“Are you colorblind?” I ask curiously”... Umm my scales are dark blue and Lily called my spines color teal....”
“Purple scales....” The mare growls clutching her head with a wince the sparks of her horn growing brighter.
I flinch, slipping from my chair and moving away from the table. Something was very wrong with this mare, maybe I could get out of here before she did something to me. I still wasn't sure why I was trying so hard to live when I really didn't want to. The light around the purple mares horn grew brighter, the blue and red in her mane growing more pronounced.
“It's not right... none of this is right..... the spell fire, death, the experiment... Trixie... Spike, my friends.......... RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” The alicorn screams out, a wave of magic blasting from her horn ripping apart the table and the room itself, blowing the walls off the building and sending me crashing back across the library, tumbling into a bookcase.
As tough as dragons are I had already been hurt and being flung into a book case by a blast of magic stung more than a little. I managed to push myself up onto my elbows, the smell of burning wood and steel meeting my nostrils. I watched as the kitchen and slowly a good portion of the rest of the building was turned into a whirling mass of shrapnel and white energy as the alicorn continued screaming. A loud crack behind me made me turn enough to look up, only for the book case that had popped free of the wall to meet my curious gaze head on. And for the second time I succumbed to the darkness with a head injury.
=============================================
“He's waking up.”
“…..”
“No you can't kill him we need his help.”
“…..”
“Yes Trixie understands he screwed up but that cannot be helped we didn't have a chance to tell him anything before she took over.”
“…..”
“Oh stuff it little miss hit things first and then check to see if they were important later. Trixie doesn't want to hear your complaints now. If you hadn't smashed him with that stupid sign of yours Trixie might have managed to speak with him before she woke up. This time it was fully your fault. Trixie is trying to help and you are not making it easy.”
I groan, slowly sitting up and shielding my eyes from the light as I take stock of my surroundings with one eye. I didn't seem any more battered than I was before. And I seemed to be in the same room as I was before, though on the bed this time instead of a basket.
“No the kitchen is a total waste. We need to pull more from the buildings to replace it. Trixie doesn't know where, you're the scavenger here.”
“................”
“Just look in the student housing they were bound to have some toasters or something left.”
Looking around I spotted the source of the voice. A tall light blue mare stood on the far side of the room looking out one of the windows into the wastes beyond. Her long white mane and tail had purple and red streaks running through them and a long curled horn sprouting from her forehead. Her mane fell down over her shoulders partially covering a pair of wings pressed firmly against her back. Like the purple mare this one had no cutie mark, she also appeared to be talking to herself.
I remained still a moment half expecting something else to hit me, though the mare closed her mouth and turned to look over at me.
“Hmm, how's your head? Trixie must admit she is not very skilled at bandaging, though she has had to make due lately quite often lately. Your name was Beryl was it?” the mare asks not approaching though she did look him over as she cocks an ear looking off to her right side as if some one was there. ”Fine Trixie will skip to the point.”
“ Yes umm whats going on who and what are you?”
“Trixie is Trixie. An alicorn, though that's not important right now. What is important is that my associate and Trixie need your assistance.”
“What?”
The mare rubs her hoof against her forehead her ears flattening to her head. “Shut up a moment.”
“Ummm.”
“Not you Beryl.... arrgh.... Alright you remember the purple alicorn and the red one. Both of those are sort of Trixie. Or maybe Trixie is sort of them.... The red one might be the real one.... “
“Huh?”
“Yes Scarlet, Trixie is very much aware he has no idea what Trixie is talking about.” Trixie growls to herself. “ Look Beryl. You know when the purple one called you Spike. We need you to act like Spike or at least not break her perversion of reality or well.... you saw what happened.”
“Umm, what why? And what's a Spike?”
“The purple one is called Sparkle. She is more a fragment of a memory than anything else but she is very strong. Spike is Sparkle's familiar or companion or little brother Trixie is not really sure. The point is Sparkle is the most powerful of the three of us and she's stuck on a loop of the same three days of her life in the past. Every time she emerges she goes through the motions of these three days and if she completes them the time between her three days of control lengthens. If something disrupts it the time between these bouts shortens and the pair of us have less time to be free. This 'Spike' has never been an issue before, we always left a note saying he went out or something though by the end of the day she loses it as the reality breaks when he's not there. We managed a few complete three day runs with a radbunny painted purple, but when it died things went down hill quickly and she didn't accept another purple radbunny. After all the failures we went from months to ourselves to perhaps a few hours at most. We need you to play along with Sparkle or we might vanish entirely.”
I slowly blink looking up at the blue alicorn. Understanding not a bit of that.” There's three of you?”
“You are rather slow on the uptake.”
“Head trauma.....”
“Right okay Trixie gets that and understands. Look basically we just need you to pretend to be another dragon for a while when Sparkle is in charge. Yes three of us inhabit This body. It... it's complicated, but we don't have the time to explain as we need to restore this place fully in the few hours we have. Know that you will not be in any danger unless she starts doubting the reality that we are setting up, you will be fed and cared for. We are some what lucky that the three days she relives were only spent studying inside and not saving the world or whatever else she did.”
“ Why all this why not just tell her what's going on, you seem to know and it seemed to me she thinks she's some where else?” I ask.
“Again a long story and if you stick around you might hear it but we are down to two hours now at best and we have a kitchen to rebuild. Sparkle does not know about us and our attempt to contact her made her have a break down. We've been out here since The Destroyer killed the Goddess, our instability has been getting worse. Sparkle is very powerful and the last thing we want is some one killing her and us after she snaps and accidentally murders someone. Alicorns are still not well liked in most places.”
I stare a little at them still not grasping heads or tails of the story, but in truth I didn't want to get involved at all. I didn't want to be cared for or tended I just wanted to curl up somewhere and die.
“Look I'm sorry but I don't think I can do this....... I just want to be left alone......” I state climbing out of the bed shakily.
Trixie flattens her ears wincing a little, the red streak in her white hair getting wider.
“What? What could you have to say? Trixie is not telling him that, Trixie doubts that's the issue any way...... seriously? No Trixie is..... yes Trixie knows... Trixie is sorry …. Don't hurt him. Trixie says that because you already did, do not threaten him we will find another way...... Torture is a threat Scarlet...... please.... fine.... Trixie was going to give you control any way, you needn't remind Trixie of what she did to your body...”
The blue alicorn sighs as her eyes change color from lavender to green, a grin that was far from pleasant crossing her muzzle. Her horn flashes briefly and the white mane turns solid black as the rest of her fur turns a shimmering crimson coloration. A cutiemark forms on her flank depicting an open book with a dagger dripping something green from it onto the page.
“There we are. Always pays to look presentable.” the now red alicorn chuckles.
I couldn't help but back away at the predatory grin that the mare was giving me This one I recognized as the one who clubbed me with the Sparkle cola sign. The fear became worse when she sauntered over to me, pacing around me and rubbing herself against me like she was a cat , I could have sworn she was purring too.
“So what is it you want? I suppose there's some sort of deal we can make... Perhaps Gems? I know where a cache is located. Caps? Same answer. “ She smiles leaning down and nipping one of my fins causing me to turn a bit more purple as I blush. “ Perhaps a bed companion? I am quite desperate for help. I can do that too if you like.... I've not had a dragon before, could be fun for both of us and I can teach you some tricks.......”
I yelp rolling away from her and falling over the basket with a wince and a crash. The red mare tilts her head a little, her smile still making me feel like I was being watched by an overly large cat who thought I was a mouse.
“Oh? You are rather hesitant. Still untarnished sexually, or was that Lily you mumbled about in your sleep the only girl for you?”
“What no! Lily wasn't like that..... She raised me like I was her son not.... not.. that......oh whatever, it doesn't matter any more.......” I sigh flopping down in the remains of the basket.
The red mares ears perked up and I swore her grin got more evil looking to the point she made me feel like I was going to wet myself.
“So she's dead? I take from the fact you are wandering the swamp alone it was not natural causes?”
I dipped my head a bit eyes closing. The red alicorn was only making me feel worse.
“Let me guess. Raiders? Another dragon? It was clearly something beyond your control? You wish you could have done more, but you're cursing your own lack of strength?” there was a slight chuckle at this. “You feel like a failure, not even able to protect the one you cared for and too weak to even seek justice for her death?”
I winced at that a small bit of anger welling up inside me.
“I'm right aren't I? You want to be left alone so you can try and die with her. How quaint, and pathetic.”
I snapped at that. “What the buck do you know!? She was all I had and she's gone! You don't know what that's like!” I snarl whipping my head around to have the mare's nose right near mine as she was stretched out on the bed behind me.
“You are right. I have no idea what loss is. I've killed everyone I ever cared for the moment I was required too. I know little to nothing about caring for any one other than myself. I can fake it of course, but not feel it.“ She looked sad for a moment before that dark grin returned. “But revenge? Oh now my little dragon, that I know a LOT about.”
I look up at her blinking, not having he slightest doubt in my mind that she was dangerous... and probably nuts.
“I'll tell you what. You help me keep Sparkle happy so I can actually spend time in my body in peace, and yes it is my body those other two are annoying tag alongs. Do that and I will train you in between shifts with her. How's that for payment? Helping you get strong enough for revenge?”
“That's nice and all but I can't use magic.....”
“My dear, magic isn't my thing either, before the blue git had her way, I was a rather attractive earth pony if I do say so myself, and I do. I've been around for a long while and I've learned quite a great deal. I've also trained a number of ponies including one of the followers of the Night herself. You might have seen his statue out front. I keep it around to let me know that he's dead and I'm not, I've a bit of a ego you see. So what do you say? Will you wither and die? Or show them how wrong they were to hurt you?”
The creepy smile did nothing to add to her suggestion, but her words were enough. The images of those six were burned into my mind. I knew they were far stronger than me as I was. But could I let Lily go unavenged? Part of me wanted to be the better dragon like Lily wanted. To forgive them or at the very least move on with my life, not continue the cycle of killing.
Another part of me was like fire, like death itself. It's teeth like swords, claws like spears as it winged around my heart like a hurricane. It fought back when I tried to suppress it burning even brighter within me like stoked coals.
It wasn't long before I fully regretted my agreement.
The time I spent with Twilight was stressful enough. Everything I said had the potential to set off another break down and subsequent explosion of power. Still I quickly learned to notice the tell tale signs that I was going off script, though it proved harder to correct myself when that I thought it would. Particularly since I wasn't even away what the script was. Still I managed to keep a disastrous breakdown from happening like I did the first time. And after a few cycles it steadily got easier. The first three days however were a nightmare of my tip toeing through a minefield.
The first day wasn't so bad, it was mostly her ordering me to help her move things and complaining about some one named Rainbow Dash when my injuries forced me to stop. Evidently who ever Rainbow Dash was, they caused enough random injuries that mine fit the scene.
There were a few points where I said something that made her twitch, though I quickly changed what I was saying or just muttered something random weakly and she seemed to accept it. Seemed spike was often grumbling under his breath about things and when I did it it made me more like him. Most of the rest of the day was spent both praising and complaining about the Apple Family and their cooking at reunions. I just smiled and nodded like I knew what she was talking about. I was completely clueless..
The next day was probably the easiest of the three. She woke me up, ate breakfast.....which wasn't much more than some old cereal Trixie had found did a few morning chores then said something about researching the past.
Evidently this involved her getting a stick out of a box and staring at it for most of the day while writing in a little notebook.
I took a look at the note book , reading after her as she wrote. I knew how to read thanks to Lily, but the mares hoof writing or magic writing or what ever , was atrocious. It took me some time to figure out what she was writing.
It seemed to be the story of some Guard pony in training named Jer'rahd Kaisur. Not any one I had ever heard of before, so I didn't think he was that important. It wasn't even very interesting, granted it was pretty cool when he managed to cut the drill Sergeant's hat, but after wards it was just training. Still there were a few things in there that she was writing about I thought to try myself, of course I would have to lean how to use a sword or a knife. What ever this story was about seemed to be a long long time ago before guns.
After she came out of her trance she made a number of corrections to it and then had me look it over. Aside from her atrocious writing there wasn't anything of note, but my saying it was fine made her twitch so I complained about the writing and she seemed to take that better. Still she started reworking it and stayed up long into the night to work on it before she finally went to bed.
The third day, yeah that was the most stressful one. Definitely the worst. Evidently part of the third day was her teaching this 'Spike', who I was supposed to be, a school lesson. I had no idea where the alicorn had gotten a teachers outfit, but with her body she looked like one of those mares in a magazine I found once that lily had gotten quite mad about me looking at. It was kinda a boring magazine too, just pictures of mares posing for the camera in odd clothing. Playcolt or something it was called.
Still Twilight hit me with something called a 'pop quiz. The way she said it nearly made me have a heart attack. Then I remembered that a rad bunny had filled in for Spike for a good while and I relaxed. Particularly since rad bunnies normally don't even talk.
Turns out a pop quiz is just a bunch of random questions about history, math science and a few other subjects. None of which I really knew anything about.
The math ones were easy, I did most of the finances for Lily and I. Who ever Spike was judging by the questions he didn't have a decent grasp of numbers.
Science was a good deal harder except for the parts about gemstones and rocks. I knew about those from helping Lily with some of her projects and because of a book Lily gave me once, showing the common types of gemstones in Equestria. I thanked her of course, but the book was a great big tease as I doubted I would ever have any thing shown save the occasional rough quartz or geode found in the river.
History I had no idea about. I was mostly guessing at that point. Still the story she was writing gave me a couple of names I used. Maybe one of them was right?
Modern economics and current events I had absolutely no clue what so ever on. So that was mostly guessing.
In the end I kept a close watch on her as she graded the test. Every twitch and shift of her features sent me on edge and I found myself looking for the nearest place to take cover if she exploded again. Still evidently my look of worry and panic was mistaken as worry and panic about the test.
“Spike did you just mark down answers for this at random?” She asked finally.
“Um maybe.... just a little.” I admitted not figuring I could make this any worse given her look.
“What did I tell you about that?”
“Ummm not too?”
“Right a educated guess is still better than relying on luck. I figured you would be mature enough by now to know that. We are going to take this again until you take it seriously.”
The rest of the day was more of the same test after test until dinner. And the mare didn't give me the same ones over and over again, oh no. It seemed Twilight had countless random test questions lined up for me. And every time she graded them I felt the panic rise with every twitch and scrunch of her nose.
=========================================
Did I say the third day with Twilight was the worst? Yeah no. Not by a long shot. Any time I spent with Scarlet was the absolute worst. She started training me the moment she was freed from Twilight. And by training I mean knocking me around like a rag doll and yelling at me to dodge as she threw things at me that were bigger and heavier than I was.
The injuries I had from when we first met were reopened and added to, the mare didn't hold back in the slightest. This mare was crazy, claiming I needed to unlearn everything and then she could start teaching me. Given I didn't even have a firm grasp of the basics thanks to my skipping most of the military training most villages tried to drill into me. I barely knew which end of a gun to point at some one, there wasn't much for me to unlearn.
The training lasted until Twilight came back into control which usually was only a few hours, and I didn't see much sign of the Trixie side of her unless there was scavenging to be done. Scarlet seemed to think such menial work was beneath her attention and usually went to sleep or just gave Trixie full control of the body to let the blue mare go digging through the ruins. I followed when I wasn't too sore just to learn anything Trixie might point out as well. Trixie seemed grateful for the company and showed me some of the signs of radiation, and what food might still be good or not. I was also shown how to pick locks and access a computer, though I caught on more to the latter than the former. Oddly many of the computers we found seemed designed for something with fingers rather than hooves.
Trixie pointed out that this place used to be a school for foals and dragonlings that worked with them. She didn't know much more than that as much of this place was ransacked. The only parts that were not were the spots filled with a eerie billowing pink mist. Trixie told me to stay away from it as it was some sort of horrid aftermath of the attack on this place. Evidently it wouldn't hurt her, but it could be deadly to me. Again she wasn't really sure as she had never subjected a dragon to it, but she had no desire to start now. She talked to me about odd things. Like the way the world used to be and morality. She always seemed sad no matter what and she always seemed apologetic and submissive to Scarlet. I suppose that had to do with her feeling bad that Scarlet had to share the body, but that couldn't have been her fault, she seemed far too nice to cause something like this odd tri personality thing.
Things continued like this for what felt like months. Three days with Twilight then a few hours with the others. A time that was growing by hours every three days. Eventually Scarlet and Trixie were around for three days as well.
There were slim pickings around the surface of the school, though deeper down in the corridors where the pink cloud still lingered there was a much bigger bounty for Trixie to find and since the Pink cloud did little to her, she could easily retrieve them.
There was one corridor that she didn't go down however. There was no pink mist, but occasionally we would see rad roaches or bloat sprites skitter away from the light of her horn and scuttle down the corridor back into the darkness. The hall seemed to absorb Trixie's light as if something down there was eating it. She professed the area gave her a head ache for some reason and it made it hard to concentrate on her spells when she was near it. The blue alicorn stated she planned to send me down there to look around when Scarlet had finished training me, just to see what might be the cause of it and if it could be removed.
Something about that sounded like a lie to me, but I wasn't sure what it was or why she would bother to lie.
Scarlet didn't like the area either when I brought it up to her later, though the idea of me seeing what was down there after training seemed to change the mares tactics. She went from simply torturing me to actually adding some training in with my pain. Some of it I could even use.
Still after her training sessions when Twilight saw the state I was in she blamed Rainbow Dash all over again for my injuries. At least the pattern was consistent like that.
Even though Trixie and Scarlet were gaining more and more time with each successful Twilight loop that didn't mean they were all perfect. I did screw up a few times before I simply decided to keep my mouth shut.
After a few loops I memorized the first pop quiz answers and got them all correct. Evidently that was something Spike never did. Luckily the desk I was sitting at made a pretty shield from the magic burst. Scarlet cussing me out as she worked to repair the remains of the tree house in the short time she had didn't help matters.
The second time Twilight blew up because I decided to sate my curiosity and ask her about the stick she stared at.
Evidently this was a no no as Spike evidently was supposed to know exactly what it was because she didn't even give a twitch or a scrunch before she lost it. Still not sure how I survived that one, though I woke up with Trixie trying to pull me out of the wall I was embedded in.
Scarlet was less than pleased both times and my training showed that with heaps more abuse.
Still I endured everything because of what the red alicorn had told me. Lily's killers needed to be brought to justice, they needed to pay for their crime one way or another. No one else was going to do it for Lily and who knew how many others. So I had to.
After about a year of training and Twilight cycles there were about three weeks between Twilight times. Scarlet and Trixie both decided that they would test me themselves by sending me down the corridor.
While I wasn't sure I was ready for anything. I figured I could handle a few bloat flies and rad roaches. Scarlet had me practice with some she had found after all. They might be little, but their bites and stingers hurt.
I supposed I had changed a little. I was heavier and I had shed and regrown a bunch of my scales, mostly the damaged ones from Training and failed Twilight times. I had a bit of muscle as well. Scarlet had given me an old bent machete thing she had called a kukuri that Trixie had found in one of the gardening sheds. The only fire arms practice I had was with an old hunting rifle that was mostly rust. There was only the one box of ammo we found too, so after seventeen shots, gun practice was over.
My aim was crap any way, I could barely hit anything at range, though the guns kick didn't bother me at all. Scarlet complained that I was better suited to a blunderbuss what ever that was.
I still felt gangly, though I had lost my baby fat finally, though I didn't seem to have put on any real muscle as I couldn't left Scarlet's Sparkle Cola sign. My wings were still just decoration though if I jumped off something high enough I could glide for a little while.
Scarlet's training was more focused on agility and taking abuse rather than strength, so I didn't expect I'd be dead lifting rusted wagons any time soon. Scarlet's training was odd sure she was teaching me how to fight and kill, but her way didn't seem like any of the warriors I read about in books. What I was learning seemed more like what most of the bad guys knew in those books. When I asked Scarlet laughed creepily for a while before telling me ' bad; and 'good' all depended on what side you were on in a fight. The ones who killed Lily probably are considered heroes by some ponies.
I didn't like how she put it, but I couldn't argue.
Still despite her malicious way of teaching I was picking up a number of things from her that I thought would be useful. How to hide was a good one, you could blink and Scarlet would be gone, without using magic either.
Trixie oddly was even better at vanishing, you could be looking right at her and something would cause you to blink or she would pass behind something and simply vanish. Scarlet called it magic, Trixie called it stage magic that didn't require any real magic to do. But in either case Trixie didn't offer to explain how she did it to either of us.
What the blue alicorn did do however was teach me how to talk to ponies. She claimed 'ninety percent of most conversations were all about how confidant you were, the remaining ten percent was what you said, though to her confidence was key.'
As I stood at the start of that dark path, a torch in one claw and my kukuri in the other I shuddered softly hearing all the skittering and sickly chirps from down the corridor. I glanced back at Trixie who stood their waiting. Scarlet hated to be near this place because of how it made her feel so she had retreated in the alicorn's mind leaving Trixie to suffer the headache alone.
“This is it Beryl. Trixie goes no further. It is up to you to see what wonders or horrors are below. Trixie would like very much if you came back however.” the blue alicorn smiled softly.
“Alright so a final test then?” I muttered thinking of Twilight.
“Something like that.” Trixie tilted her head as if listening to some one talk , or listening for them. “Seems Scarlet does not wish to say anything. But here..”
A small scroll and a metal rod were floated over to me. The rod had a button on on side and when I pushed it a beam of light shown out of one end lighting up the corridor much better than my torch.
“Oh wow, where'd this come from?” I asked amazed at the prewar tech.
“Trixie found that scavenging in one of the guard outpost ruins she had missed before. The batteries for it were a bit harder to find, but that is called a flashlight. The scroll just has some information on it and a small map. Trixie went this way once when we first came here before she was forced to turn back. It is not much , but it may be useful to you Beryl.”
“Thanks, dunno how I'm gonna pay you guys back for all you've done.” I stated flatly. That sort of thing had been worrying me for a while. Scarlet didn't seem the sort to take my dealing with Twilight as full payment for her training.
“You are not done yet Beryl. Survive and bring back what you find and Trixie might have one lest task for you before you go off for your revenge.” Trixie nodded with a small sigh.
I blinked looking up at the blue mare as her expression turned dark. I didn't think I was going any where for a while yet. Twilight still appeared and needed to be placated. It should have been maybe another year or longer before she was gone completely if she would be gone at all. Maybe it was nothing , but Trixie looked … odd. It was an expression I had not seen on the blue alicorn before. Sadness, small scraps of joy and even annoyance I had seen, but never this.... what ever that brief look meant it reminded me of Scarlet for some reason.
Still it was something I would worry about later. Right now I had a mission. While it might have been stupid, at the very least it would let me prove to myself whether or not I was ready to go after the ones who killed Lily.
I took a step forward heading down the darkened corridor. I had to do this, for Lily.
================================================== You've left the starting area! LEVEL UP! Level 2! ================================================= S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes gained.
Strength: 3 [ We are here to pump 'clap' you up!] Perception: 4 [ young age and stupid questions have not helped] Endurance: 8 [ Evidently there is some benefit to getting your tail kicked constantly] Charisma : 1 [ Dragons are not well accepted in polite society, or impolite society] Intelligence: 4 [ Well you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, but neither are you the dullest. Agility: 6 [ Constantly dodging thrown wrenches seems to have paid off.] Luck: 3 [ You could easily win the lotto... just like everyone else. ]
PERKS
Toughness rank 2 [ 1 for Dragon hide perk , 1 for the abuse you've sustained.] Sneak Rank 1 [ You are impossible to spot, at night, when no one knows you're hiding.]
Free Racial Perks
Dragon Hide[ + 1 to tougness 20% damage resistance] Dragon Breath Rank 1 [ You breath lightning. While you cannot yet use this at range, it does extra damage if you decide to bite some one. You are also immune to non magical electricity.What a shocking ability.]
