Prologue | Glint of a Fang

Hear Me, Please, Dear Fluttershy
B_25

It'd been the tales of dragons sending her under the bed, cowering beneath the frame with forehooves of lemon to cover her face. Stories of the night about the golden fires so bright. Heaved and breathed to villages aflame—fables of rich caves and the adventurers who dared them.

Luckiest were those who bathed in the sudden flames. Worst had been the lot that were plucked by the tails. Yanked up and held at a dangle. Jaws below. Large and monstrous. Opening wide, as they fell inside, forever disappeared in the dragon's stomach.

"I'm tellin' you. At the first sign of trouble? Buck 'em on the nose."

And six friends, unarmed but verbally dangerous, thought it wise to take one on.

"That's sharks, you hollowed pear!" Applejack's muzzle scrunched into itself as she bashed her hips into Dash. The latter hopped and stepped aside, frowning, and bearing an expression of cute defeat. "Tough their snout if they ever beef you one. That ain't dragons. Too big for a kick to do anything."

Rainbow cocked her head and walked the fine line of the stone trail. It oversaw the valley below—tops of trees a blurred green and a mess of blotches. The winding path around the mountain would leave them to the top. The view, beyond, teasing all the other stone peaks.

"But aren't sharks pretty big? Five times our size." Rainbow's head bounced in the dance with her thoughts. "Doesn't make any sense they would let us go. Especially in water. That's, like, their territory."

Applejack flinched. She didn't have the knowledge for the situation. However, she had the good sense to figure it out on the fly. One still had to act like they had the information all along in cases like these. That. And it was an obvious fact known by all.

"That's because it overloads their senses. Knocks their mind into a rumble. Must make their snout ache, or sore, or somethin' on top of it."

"Now, how is that possible? Punches are slower in water—hardly does anything." Rainbow nodded. "Especially to a shark."

"It's 'cause the contact alone is enough."

"Why?"

"'Cause, it clocks their senses!"

"What senses!?"

"How in tarnation would I know 'what senses', sugarcube!? The important part is they get overloaded! Not whatever fancy name Twilight would pluck for her rump for that."

Twilight had led the pack from ahead and, without turning her head, grumbled to the crew.

"Afraid my backside possesses zero vocabulary on the matter."

There was silence for a second as the six followed the curve around the back of the mountain; it swept back in, no doubt, leading to the next level of flooring. The entrance of the cave would be there. Fluttershy's heart caught in her chest.

"So wouldn't that contact alone be enough for a dragon as well?"

"SHUT IT!"

Fluttershy thought about offering a lot of things. That maybe kicking a dragon on the snout wouldn't be the best idea. That checking out a possible threat of a beast should have been left to a powerful princess or an array of royal guards.

Or that she should have been allowed to stay home so that, if none returned, someone knew to write for a search party to be sent out. Yet no excuses worked, and her speaking produced only stutters. Every step of hoof into stone was a jolt to the heart.

The wind came to a close as the six rounded the corner of rock—land spreading out into the expanse that laid before the cave. Nothing was here. Vast and sweeping and littered with a few boulders. Everyone spread over the area. Searching the ground for clues.

"Something about this isn't right." Rarity had been the first to speak up and drew attention to herself. "Where are the scratches? Claws carved through stone? No mess of gems or, dare I say, a carcass or skeleton of sorts?"

From behind a boulder, Pinkie hopped as she did the same toward and around another. "Nothing over here! Or over there! Nothing everywhere!" She sprang to the centre that was the circle of mares and looked to each one. "Suuuure this is the right place? Not the mountain to our left? Maybe our right? Or the one out over there? Or the one right theeeere?"

“This one, Pinkie.” Twilight turned her head and bit on the scroll from her saddle, a yank and a release, it unfurling in the air. The map was unrolled on the ground. A purple hoof jabbed the drawn, red circle. "Here. This one. The attached sketches even match the overlook over there."

Her hoof struck out to the edge to where, sure enough, everything from the depiction of the boulders, to the mountainous range on the horizon, was identical to the sketch tucked to the corner of the map in a paperclip.

Their focus returned to the page.

"The princess normally wouldn't send us on matters she didn't think we could handle." Twilight closed her eyes and sighed a second longer than usual. "Though in the case of dragons... even I'm finding this to be a bit much. They're animals. Beasts. Unable to be spoken to or reason with."

Rainbow squinted her eyes. "Yaaaaaa. I never got that part either." She flicked over to Fluttershy. "Apparently, Shy's able to speak in roars or somethin'? I dunno."

Fluttershy meeped at that and stumbled back. Hiding beneath her mane to escape the eyes on her. That wasn't enough to deter the current interest. The poor mare was forced to speak up. "I-It's not quite like that. I-I'm just more emphatic on d-delicate matters."

"Yet you speak to the animals—and they understand you."

"That... well... um..."

"Princess Celestia has taken an interest in that." Twilight raised from the page to look at Shy, examining her with a squint—before returning to the map. Tracing a hoof over the scroll in hopes of a feeling. "Dragons are incapable of speech. Never needed to evolve that far." She chuckled. "Could say it's the power and curse of might."

Fluttershy didn't like that last word.

"But hikers on the edge of Ponyville have been quoted as saying of a dragon that lives around here." Her hoof bounced from cave to cave, hoping for a spark, even embers for a direction to begin within. "Still small. Bigger than us, of course. Appearing wounded."

"Appearing?" Rarity said with a blink. "Cannot say I like the sounds of that."

"Don't you worry, princess," Rainbow chided in. "We'll knock him around to make sure he's actually wounded."

"Though if the fella were hurtin'... he'd probably be in this cave here... or the one up there."

"I agree. The multiple sightings state this as his current home. Doubtful he'd make a trip to the other ridges in his current state."

"Oooh! Hey! The map's getting dark! Who's stepping it way too close?"

Before the rest could recognize the shadows, the darkness was already upon them, three blurs from the sky. None could look up as the pressure on their necks forced them down. The rest of their bodies slammed into the ground as the mass of a palm crushed into their shoulders.

Bodies pelted the floor to horrible sounds—groans of stone and unkind thuds. The dust settled as quickly as it rose. Six friends, pinned apart, two caught by the hulking masses between them.

Fluttershy didn't have time to yelp as the bottom of her muzzle smacked into the ground. The impact should have been harder, but even then, it was a smack on the jaw. She didn't try to struggle. No whimpers of the end. Rather her eyes rose from the shadows on the ground.

Her cheek squished onto the stone as she looked across the ground. Over to where Rarity and Pinkie were smacked into the ground. No hope for a wiggle as the mighty claws pinned them so. Hardly could they look up—heads locked by claws.

Yet Fluttershy was able to inch hers and look left.

Rainbow and Applejack struggled against the dragon between them. They bucked his claw away. But the red beast had enough. His knee stomped into Rainbow's back, while his claw, its sharpness glinting in the sunlight, set into Applejack's throat. Blood trickled out.

So this is it then.

The end.

Why had she been so calm? No whimpers or croaks or the call for tears. Rainbow was hyperventilating as a nick on the throat drew a slice of blood. Applejack struggled to breathe from the weight of the knee. Pinkie and Rarity were underneath the weight of carriages from the heft of the dragon between them.

And Twilight's eyes speedily scanned the surroundings for a plan of escape. She wiggled faster to the speed of her panic. Hyperventilating at the lack of a solution. Her horn glowed, casting sparks on her captor. Those sparks bounced off his scales.

The purple dragon growled at the one on top of Twilight, nudging his chin upward.

In the next second, that dragon grabbed her horn, squeezing it. Twilight cried as her hooves smacked the stone as magic ceased from her horn.

Fluttershy rolled beneath the immense weight, feeling like only a fraction of the dragon was being pressed down on her. Her pink mane laid across her neck and pooled on the ground next to it. She looked up at the dragon on top of her.

Had his grab of her horn been a mark of intelligence? Or the mere stopping of something shiny?

Her view ascended the frame of purple scales to the beast that encompassed them. Ash covered him. His spines, rugged though rounded, weren't as sharp as the others. His emerald frills were rich in colour; his snout, solid and perceptive.

He stared forward at the other two from high above. Eyes glared... although they shone. Enough to glow. They were commanding in a way unexpected of a beast. That he was something more than primal.

The corner of his face twitched in feeling the contact. He glanced at Fluttershy from his perch. Looking down and looking down with an expression... not of disgust—but something close to it. Like seeing a foe but confused by them. He kept looking into her eye amidst the sea of pooling mane.

Then the dragons started to growl.

And that's when Fluttershy became scared.

Rarity and Pinkie were the first to wiggle in hearing their dragon speak. Growls and roars, slow and sinister, their language, dripping in gruelling tone, as drool smacked in globs from the corners of its mouth.

Its voice vibrated in an unsteady fashion throughout its body, the shivers it sent from its claws and their bodies, a tingle, unsettling, that crept underneath the skin. Its talking was more than audible. It attacked every sense. Wafting breath inhaling poison into their snouts.

Fluttershy had been the most scared of the dragons because, unlike the rest of her friends, all in a worse spot than herself, she, for whatever reason, could understand them.

Beyond the implications of their voices.

To actually understand what was said.

"...white one... big stew... creamy milk..."

Fluttershy's eye widened in shock. She shook, not in escape from the claw—but in a flush of panic. She expected the force on her neck to double—but the dragon didn't do anything at all.

The silent beast raised an eyebrow before watching his brothers. Watching them speak, then glancing at her.

“...Blue one... Orange One... Feisty...”

It slurped its foaming drool.

“...Better had... while alive... juicy... juicy juicy juicy!”

Fluttershy cried in a yelp and rocked back and forth in a desperate bid to escape. The pressure on her neck doubled as the claw pinned into her spine. Fluttershy wobbled and kicked and whimpered. Outright screaming and crying with a mouth that could not close. Someone else was shouting—a voice of a pony. Twilight called for him to leave her alone. To focus on her instead. Anything to be brave.

But the dragon lowered himself to the freaking girl, with puffs of smoke trailing from his snout, examining Fluttershy's face closely, as his breath flared back her furs. Little marks of snoot tinged their tips. His talon stabbed into her mane and swept it off her face—exposing it. Exposing her.

The pressure on her back and the crushing of her chest into stone caused it harder for her to breathe. Fluttershy squeezed at every breath. They came smaller and faster as the corners of her vision started to darken. Blood pumped in her veins, feeling cold and numb, throughout her body, as the effect echoed in her ears.

Fluttershy glanced at her wings. Unable to feel them—but seeing them flare. Twitching uncontrollably as they limply beat onto the ground. Spreading and shrinking. Weakly trying to take flight.

Yet her eye flew back to look at his face, the intimidation it stroked in coming close, the amplification of the bearded spines dotting across his jaw with a few above his lip—scales flexing to the angle of his head. Lips parting. Fangs showing. White and piercing. Long with a forked tongue behind.

Maw able to devour meat.

It should have overloaded her into an endless sleep.

Yet those eyes were captivating.

Green with the glow of the moon behind it. Fierce, yet not malicious. Concentrated on making a discovery. It stole her into a calm, a hitched breath, peaceful to whatever happened next. Even if all this was to snag an ear for an appetizer.

"...That one... ANNOYING... Eat Now! NOW!"

The purple dragon was slow in turning over his gaze, as though the others were not worth his time, pests that he barely put up with. He rose from his kneel on the yellow pony. Then his expression changed. Everything Fluttershy feared to see.

Lips raised and fangs bared. Choke of a growl that was only a growl. No words had come from him. No attempt at speech. Maybe he was beyond the rest in that. Unable to speak even in their language of accentuated roars.

“.......SMAAAAALLLL...........ONLY NEEEEEEDS OOOOOOONEEE!.......YOU GIVE THE REST......."

The other dragon raised his knee from Applejack and stomped it into the ground, creating a crater with the impact, slamming his other claw back into the mare. He snarled at the purple dragon. Both growled at him.

The purple beast looked down at Shy one more time. Enough to see the horror in her expression—one different from the rest. Others were fearing the unknown. But not her. And that difference could be felt.

"Please."

The crackled cry escaped her. Both of her eyes looked up to him. Foolish and stupid to attempt to talk to a dragon. And yet she did. Placing all of her faith in him. She swallowed, moving her head in his palm, going to speak again.

"Please don't let them do it."

The dragon's face exploded in a series of blinks as his features lightened. His lips opened a little to no hope of close. He returned to looking at the rest of the crew, which were busy in the domestic dispute for more food.

The rest of the girls saw this.

"Shy! Are ya crazy! You... you can't plead with these things to do anything! They'll—"

The dragon had dived his muzzle into Fluttershy throat, the moral of the lesson, felt instead of heard, in feeling his snout brush into her coat. Within seconds those fangs would bear into her throat. Tearing it out. Either having understood her with rage or truly being a brute.

Or maybe he would do worse than kill as all the dragons were male.

Those long and repeated sniffs on her neck ignited that fear.

Then on a final sniff...

...the claw freed from her neck.

The dragon charged forward without warning, roaring without words, bearing his claws and his fangs, launching himself into the other two. He bolted at them and clasped at their throats, screaming louder and rising them higher into the air—before slamming them down.

Their claws released the mares on reflex as their weight, born from the momentum of the claws, crashed into the ground. Each of the girls rolled onto their hooves and stumbled around in a panic as, behind them, the dragon was hunched over the other two.

In the seconds of confusion, he lifted the fat one, picking him up and pummeling him into a boulder—slamming his back into stone. The fat of green roared for a return in stepping off the rock. Yet a purple fist charged into his belly, causing him to lurch back and his head to lean forward, which met the spin of the other claw.

The purple dragon entered a spin after his first punch, the second knocked into the fatty's face and, as the injured dragon crashed into the boulder again—a palm covered his face and, with a pull, was then smacked into the rock with the full might of a dragon.

Once. Twice.

Saved from the third time.

By the rising of the other dragon. Taller and bulkier than the rest. Coming behind the purple one, boring its jaw into his shoulder and neck. Biting through the sheet of scales to the flesh behind. A burst of blood curved from the torn flesh.

"G-Girls!" called a voice from behind. "O-On me! Quickly!"

Fluttershy was stumbling back as she was watching the fight, the smaller dragon, sweeping his foot into the leg behind him, twisting as he did so, able to throw the bulk of the beat overhead. He slammed him into the ground, the impact releasing the jaw's grip on his throat—revealing the gap to open flesh.

The tissue beneath was red and bleeding like raw meat. The plump muscles pulsating, squirting blood. Fluttershy could hardly swallow at the sight. Much less take her eyes away from the life beneath a dragon's scales.

"Q-Quick! Let's get out of here!" Rainbow called as the gang huddled into a circle, watching the brutality ahead. The purple dragon kept slamming his fist into the face of the blue dragon. Meanwhile, behind, the fat one wobbled off from the boulder. "Winner of this gets to have all six of us!"

Magic sizzled. "Nopony move! I d-don't where this will take us—but it'll take us away from here!"

Fluttershy's chest closed at hearing that. Around them drew the glow of a circle that blew minuscule currents. In the distance, the dragon turned, over his shoulder, side of his face bloody, his eye on her.

"T-The right!"

The dragon looked right as the fist bore in time to feel the force of a punch, the green dragon, winding up from around the boulder, clocking him in surprise. The purple predator fell on his back, rocking to get up—until the fat one fell over him.

"Ha! Purple one's going down! Enjoy being dinner for a change!"

Fluttershy's pupils shrank at that implication. Wanting to cry out whoever said it in the pack. Yet she couldn't break the gaze shared between her and him. Swallowing and shivering in being unable to say or do anything. He looked back at her, even as the other drag dug into him, with a gaze, not mad or sad, but rather, intense on her.

The blast of magic singled its completion. The third dragon rose and stood over the fallen one. There was nothing that could be done. Nothing could be said to stop any of this. Fluttershy didn't know why it happened. What use there was in it.

But silently.

She mouthed the words.

'Find me.'

Then the third dragon fell onto him.

And everything flashed to white.

The bubble dissipated over the winding path, the six dropped onto dirt, surrounded by grass and hills, the view of buildings on the horizon. None rose to their hooves as all had lost the strength to do so. Escaping death had exhausted them of everything.

"We lived," Rainbow said, lying on Applejack's back, the pair stacked. “We lived. Holy Celestia! We're alive! Talking and breathing and all of that. Oh, mom and dad! Oh, clouds in the sky! We're alive! We're alive."

Rarity had rolled onto her back, uncaring for the patch of mud, white coat and violet mane, no longer meaning that much. She breathed even in the splash of filth. "Oh, darling. How much I share that sentiment. That was insanity. How close we came... how close we were... had those brutes not gotten greedy."

Applejack breathed the hardest. "Ya... ya think that was it? Their snarls over who got what?"

"Had to be! Did you see how they both looked at that purple one? Think they wanted to steal both Twilight and Fluttershy!" Pinkie attempted to sit up, barely able to do that, resting on her rump. She looked over to Shy, who, at the moment, laid back on a rise of a grassy hill. "He was looking at you like something special too! I-I was so worried that... that..."

"I saw it the closest." Twilight was the first to reach her hooves, falling left and right, barely able to stand. "He definitely had an interest in her. Don't know in what capacity. But he would have done her differently than the rest."

But Fluttershy could say nothing to the rest. Only for tears to break in the corners of her eyes. She cried and curled into herself. Turning onto her side and tearing up for all of the past events. Due to the feeling of surviving it all.

"Least we know that one's dead for sure."

Fluttershy choked a little bit harder on that. A rise in her lungs to voice opposition. To state a feeling different from the rest. Yet she couldn't. All she could do was cry and cry, even on the walk home and all throughout the night.

Unable to manage more than a sniffle.

Moonlight shone through the window above the bed. Fluttershy laid underneath the covers. Eyes never able to stay shut. Cabin empty for once. The one night she would take the company in anyone or anything.

The event played back in her mind. Not the surge of fear or all the repressed feelings from it. Only that dragon. Seeming like he knew that she could understand. Yet he'd said nothing—no words or attempt at speech. Not attempting any means of communication.

Even at the end there, that sniff and that charge, what was that for? No shout or claim or anything. Was it for their sake or the mere summoning of rage? There was no answer, no matter the tossing and the turning. Mane frizzled, and her coat a mess.

She struggled to sleep to get to sleep.

Until there came a knock at the door. Slow and dead in sound. Tapping with long intervals in-between. It roused her from whatever miniature comatose state she'd been in. Enough to roll out of bed, landing on weak hooves. A stumble, wobble of the body, out the bedroom and into the hall.

Where the glow of fire existed at its end. It glinted into the glass of the second-floor window. It looked over the bridge and to the forest in the distance. Guards travelled outside, silhouettes due to the distance, holding up torches as they stormed all over.

And the dull knocking did not stop.

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. So very not well.

She rushed down the steps and paused on the final few. A figure blocked the light coming through the door's window. Imposing and featureless. Merely leaning back and falling forward. Those knocks.

They lightly pounded.

Fluttershy looked back up the stairs to the hall. Knowing the bedroom door was still open. That she could snuggle underneath the covers, clench her eyes, and hope for everything to be okay in the morning. Yet the figure kept its knocking.

Escape out through the back? Find friends or anyone for help? Wise choices.

Maybe even enlist the friendly animals, any who would wake up for her, to ensure she could do the former.

None of that happened. Logic and self-preservation lost after today. Trembling hooves took her toward the door—a strip of pink mane falling over the left of her face. With a shivering gulp, her hooves reached for the handle, unlocking it, not needing to pull back the frame.

And the dragon fell in.

He crashed onto the ground and covered the floor like a scaly rug.

Rain pelted the entrance of the home and clattered on wood. It pelted against the glass and drench dirt into the beginnings of mud. Grass darkened and froze with the enrichment of a freezing sea. Beyond marched the stomping of hooves and the series of torches coming from the forest.

Fluttershy quivered in place and seized up. Looking down with an upturned muzzle at the lying dragon. Something wet licked at the bottom of her hooves. Warm instead of cold. She looked down to see bright red staining soft yellow.

She yelped.

And then.

"I heard something from over here! Quick! Follow me to the cottage!"

Another sound escaped her at seeing the distant troops winding the path to her home. Darkness thick enough to hide both sides. Though the clattering of armour was somehow louder than the howling winds. Everything felt so frozen from the biting cold.

Fluttershy's gaze jumped from the troops and the dragon, stunned from fear of it all, thrown into a nightmare. Frozen from the cold and the dark. Of the intruder in her home. Blood warming her soles.

W-What... what do I... I...

A groan from him and a yelp from her. Dragon turning on the ground, if only a little, the side of his face lifting from the ground. Again it had been him. Purple scales, chipped and removed, cuts and slashes outnumbering them. Then there was that eye. Always tense, even when opened wide. Death's door narrowed it, and yet, it never lost the vibrancy of its colour.

How it shone in looking up at her. Its intensity wasn't backed by anything. No qualm or expectation. It merely looked at her. If she acted or didn't. What she did or didn't do. It was trained on her. Concentrated. But possessed nothing more behind it.

"Careful! That beast utilizes the dark! Don't let its wounds or smaller size fool you."

"Watch for the grass! It could be prone and waiting to pick us off."

"Certainly more crafty than the usual dragon."

"Have to be if you're weak."

"Harhar!"

"EVERYONE SHUT IT!"

They were hunting for the dragon—no doubt to kill him. Do what dragons had done to ponies. Fluttershy backed away from the body, shaking and wanting to cry, yet unable to do the latter.

Indeed, she could have cried and run away and known she would have been in no harm.

Rather, it's because there was a choice to be made.

And she was scared to make it.

As the dragon watched on, dying, speechless.

Looking into his eye had flooded her with calm. Its glow steadied her nerves. Granting the calmness that allowed for direction. The call to action that the poor mare invested herself into. She steeled herself with a nod and stepped forward.

She stepped closer to the dragon, her hooves splashing into a pool of his blood.

"I-I'm going to h-help you now." Fluttershy dropped her muzzled next to his cheek, looking into his eyes as warm red washed across the underside of her muzzle. His expression didn't change. Though there was a fluttering in his eye due to their proximity. "But I'll need you to do as I say, okay? I'm going to lay next to you now. Try to hold me the best you can. I'll drag you out of view."

The mare backed to his side and then dropped to her knees. A little splash rang out. She wiggled underneath the bulk of his mass, the jolt of frost shaking her away in how cold he was. The dragon saw this. Before he could take offence—black smoke flared from his snout.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you—"

Fluttershy swallowed those words as she wiggled underneath his body again, the previous cold, no more, as the sheet of scales warmed her like a heated blanket. Something burned beneath his coat. Fire held to warm himself up. Not that he could feel it.

Fluttershy shook her head when she heard the hoofsteps coming closer. Something significant fell over the extent of her barrel. An arm without strength. Large, though slender and lacking the muscle to support itself. It laid over her side and grabbed at her stomach tightly. The tip of his talons cut at her skin.

Her body rose, and her eyes shut, as she bunted the pain and the weight. Legs wobbling intensely as they fought to advance even a step. She fought with a whimper and the lazy sound of a body being dragged. Taking him from the door, far from it, around a corner to the living room.

They reached the carpet out of view from the door and, on arrival, her legs buckled into the ground. The two laid together for a moment. Weak and stuck with the horde soon upon them. There was a sickly feeling in the air—everything, warm and freezing, simultaneously.

I... have to get up now... o-or... or else... or else they'll come in...

The arm slipped off from her barrel and clattered on the ground. Fluttershy rose in a panic and looked at him. His eye closed. The expression of a dead pet. Blood leaking down his body. She wanted to do something for him. Yet she had to deal with the door.

Hoof on the wall for support as she limped across the wall. Bloody hoof marks left on the wood as the fire was at the entrance of her door. Steel on stone as guards crossed the bridges. Ones dressed in gold armour.

Darkness still bathed the entrance and, as the mare got to the door, she fell on it, the last action she could do. It closed and clicked shut. Her rump slid down the bark until crashing on the ground. Once more, her body had given up. Due to emotions this time.

Made weak by every little thing.

Oh dear... dear, oh dear... why me... please not me...

The rattle of armour was louder than the storm.

Hoofsteps sounded closer than the beating of her heart.

The bottoms of spears struck and stuck into the dirt.

"Hello? Is anyone home? By order of the Royal Guard of Princess Celestia herself," the guard gave a final call, "please, anyone here, make yourself apparent at the door! We know someone is here! Please answer!"

Fluttershy whimpered. Seconds to prepare.

"Y-Yes?" Fluttershy lifted her muzzle to let her voice carry out better, slunk behind the door still, praying that they didn't know that. "I-I-I'm F-Fluttershy. H-How can I—"

"Did you close your door only recently?"

"I-I u-um... s-saw ponies coming and I... I..."

"Hey, captain? Easy on the poor girl."

"Private. This is not—"

“This is Fluttershy, the element. Part of the report that sent us out here today. Victim of the attack?"

Fluttershy swallowed. "I-Is that why y-you're here?"

Three figures loomed above the frame of the door, the embodiment of blackness, seeming like blackened foes in a nightmare. They would keep looking like that even on opening the door. Featureless always as they came to devour.

"Princess Celestia has ordered a few detachments of the guard to scout the area for today's assailants. Two were found nearly dead on the spot of the initial attack." The tallest figure in the middle bent forward, coming into the wood, his muzzle and her back, a foot apart, only wood in the way. "There was a reported third we've nearly caught. Lost him in the Everfree. He's suffering from a previous wound that'll likely kill him—as though we'd let him go so easily."

Fluttershy knew it was better not to speak. She would have croaked. And something in that would have let everything out. The captain was still on the other side of the door. His energy phasing through the wood.

"There appears to be blood on your door."

The mare silently squealed.

"Do you think you could open it up for us? Let us take a look at you? We know the storm is terrible... perhaps you could invite us inside?"

Hyperventilation. Chest closing and never opening. Heat biting in dots across the skin, setting it aflame. Breaths longer and harder but pulling less oxygen. The hall closed. Shrunk. Crunching into itself. Removing the air needed to breathe in this cramped spot.

"Are you nuts, captain!? The poor mare just went through a near-death experience, and you're—"

"Why is there blood on the door private!?"

Fluttershy spoke without knowing. "I-I! Um! I-I run a vet! A-And sometimes... critters... t-they come and they... they..."

"Any of those critters happen to be a dragon?"

"Captain! You're out of line! There's no reason for this!" The left figure turned on the one in the middle. "She nearly died from one today! Report even says she hasn't left her home because they were still out there! The dragon isn't here!"

The captain drove his muzzle into that of the private. "All paths lead here! Those soaked prints match his! He needs to be here!"

"He isn't here! He's already fooled us once with his tracks—what if he's doing it again to buy time in the hunt? You said it yourself." The private shook the face off his. "He's a crafty one! Enough to grasp basic concepts. We'll lose him in the darkness at this point.

The captain was still and silent. Eye narrowing until his hoof smacked into the mud.

That attack scared her more than the roar of a dragon.

"Forgive us for the disturbance, ma'am." The figure turned away. The other two slumped with an exhale. "We'll be here tomorrow to check for an update. Keep your doors and windows locked. Report anything you see as suspicious."

Fluttershy didn't reply because she couldn't. Still, she sat on the ground, leaning against the door, the shadows in the glass frame leaving. Hoofs stomping in mud, fading, as the glow of their torches did the same. Soon it was just the wind. Pouring of moonlight. Darkness and silence returning to the hall.

Not even the sound of breathing ruining the scene.

Oh no.

Fluttershy rose forward, only to fall onto her chest. Crawling the same until she could reach her legs again. Walking across the blood, now lukewarm, around the corner to the dragon lying there. He'd flipped onto his back, face looking at the window at the wall, up and out, to the darkened clouds in the sky.

There'd been a gap in the clouds as though it were a last wish. Revealing the blue glow around the moon to the whiteness that radiated from its surface. So cold. So distant. Yet calming in a sickly way.

His eyes dimmed as well in looking into the final goodnight.

"N-No! You stay with me now! On me now!" Fluttershy collapsed next to him and guided his face over with a hoof, coming to stroke his cheek, feeling the smoothness of his scales—and the unfortunate gaps between them. She pulled his eyes onto hers as she brought her muzzle in close. "You're going to be okay! Y-You have a lot of blood loss. Wounds cold and maybe infected.”

Her lips drove into the bridge between his eyes, kissing the spot, keeping there, as to bring about calm. Her mane pooled onto his chest and draped over its side. The dragon blinked. Coughing, his first hint at breathing again. His gaze flicked over to the mane, barely lifting a claw to collect the bubblegum strands, running a digit over the silk, the delicate feeling of smoothness.

And then his head fell back, and he choked another breath, barely able to wheeze.

Steady yourself. He'll die if you don't. Ignore everything else now. A bloody critter has knocked on your door for help. Fluttershy breathed, in and out, in a premeditated rhythm. Looking to the sofa meant for bears, she dashed toward it, biting its corner and yanking it back. Now do what you normally would. Help him. It's all that matters now.

The cushion hit the ground, and the mare continued pulling it back. Getting it next to the dragon with the other side back into the wall. Then she came next to his side, nudging him, groaning greatly to roll him. Part of his unconscious followed with the movement as he rolled onto the cushion.

And laid on it limply.

Now go and get your kit. This is going to be a long night.

But it's better than being his last night.

I | Claw and Horn

View Online

~ I ~

Claws and Horns

The nightmares had come. That house on the burning hill. A family of canaries before it. Into their view entered the massive claw. Falling and closing and collapsing into the structure. The whole and the home. Crunch into an explosion: nothing but jutted walls sprouting from the ground.

The little yellow filly shivered behind the tall leg of her father. Barely seeing out from underneath his barrel. Blocking her sight but not protecting her from it. That screech and roar. Loud and rolling around. The brewing of fires swirling in a throat.

"Feast feast! The delight... deeeliiight! Burn... burn... BURN!"

She shivered from the voice.

They rattled from the roars.

Until the filly couldn't take it anymore.

She sprinted out from her father's legs up the hill in the blackened night. It rained—coldness pelting her coat. A yucky, draining feeling, extinguishing the will to live. The ingrained prayer for closed eyes to be followed by the end.

Fluttershy's mane whipped behind her head, staring up at the dragon, unable to tell his figure from the rest of the night. Strikes of lighting teased only his floating silhouette. Pouring of fire leaving the corners of his jaw.

"P-Please! Please... don't do this.” Whimpers followed by a choked-back cry. "Please don't do this."

In the lightning flashed two more devils of the mountains. Hovering to the sides as hell itself circled around. Frozen winds struck the scene—chilling skin with an icy lick. Enough to make one desire to charge into the dragon's fires for warmth.

"Cowardly... cowardly! Coward... COWARD!"

Fluttershy shivered. "M-Maybe! B-But please.”

It stopped. Lava came from its lips. Everything froze for a second. Then enraged was it as fire blasted from the backward-tilt of its head. Rolling around... until it would come down. The poor little filly couldn't only shiver as her father rushed in front of her.

Before the flames could sweep across them, however, something swung in the darkness. Flash of a claw as its purple motion had blurred in the lightning. It socked into the underside of the jaw shooting fire. The second dragon clambered onto the first as it fell to the ground.

The back of its head rose, roaring a cry, a usual assertion for dominance.

Except.

"Run... Little One... Run.."

Fluttershy felt a hoof sweep over her chest and lift her onto her father's back. Her family turned and ran at once from home. Limp was she, splayed over the barrel, fighting to rise, weak in lifting—falling easily.

She looked behind her into the blaze of their previous home. It was swallowed beneath the giant dragon as he fell into it. Wood exploded from underneath him as he wiggled to rise.

The two other giants pounced on him. The following tussle rocked the land. Their fight dipped beneath the hill as more joined into the pile.

The murder of a traitor.

The family escaped.

"Ack!" Fluttershy launched out of her chair, groaning in so doing, needing to collapse into her seat from the sore back. Twisting her neck, slowly, in persevering over the aching muscles. Wooden chairs were lousy beds. "O-Oooh. Mmmhmmm. Oh no"

Settling back into the wood eased the soreness of her spine. She rolled her head on the rocking chair, looking over the side of her mane, through the waterfall, to the bed consumed underneath a mass of scales.

From the window on the wall came the pouring of sunlight. Washing across his body and hopefully warming it from the cold night. She looked across the bulk in the blanket. Letting her view travel to his head.

Which was on the pillow, on its side, eyes open, set on her.

Fluttershy blushed and wiggled into herself, crossing forehooves over her chest, blinking, needing to look away. Taking a few heavy breaths to steady her heart. She looked back again. He hadn't looked elsewhere. Maybe not even blink.

Her forehooves pushed on the rests of the chair to rise, coming to groan and ache again, fighting through it—to a shifting on fabric. Looking to the dragon to see his head shaking. An eye narrowed in the view of her pain.

Fluttershy stopped. Not sure what to do. Though pain urged for her to rest back.

Which she did.

The two looked at each other: the intense dragon and the shy mare. Not saying anything. Nothing to be done. Awkwardness was a forgotten concept in their stare. There wasn't feeling to it. A mood that could be assigned.

It was like seeing a foreign creature one saw in paintings alone. Given a chance to see them for real. Watch them breathe and the little things they did. Amazed they could exist. That they were here one. Eyes examining the other.

Until Fluttershy broke the silence.

"Um... hi?"

Her eyes shut tight in the sudden disdain. Smiling through the pain that was not caused by her sore body. Sometimes the shy girl could hate herself—even more for her massive blush. Dear oh dear! Out of ALL the things I could have said! I should have... should have.. said what I don't know what I should have said!

Was she supposed to be scared at this moment? That the most dangerous creature in the land was alone in her bed? The poor girl had been a recluse without her friends. Not even a stallion entered her home.

Much less this place. Fluttershy's bedroom. Dragons were known for atrocities that could scarcely be comprehended. But Fluttershy felt no such fear. At least not in danger for her life. Just nervousness. Being scared. Just in finding out not what, but who this dragon could be.

Her eyes reopened to the side of the bed and the side of the dragon in it. His slightly confused expression, partly blocked, in a raised claw. It waved. Waving to a pinch in the nerves. So much told from the wince at the side of his eyes.

"N-No! Not now. Try not to move your claw around—the muscle is still torn underneath."

His explosion in blinking told the amazement in being in communication with another.

It was one, too, as his claw slipped into the blanket.

"You... you understood me there." Fluttershy heaved a breath of subtle and bubble elation. "Understood what I said—didn't you? Think you could do it again? Can you hear what I'm saying?"

The dragon blinked only once this time. He nodded. But it also looked like a shake.

"A-Are you saying you can understand me? Or are you shaking your head saying you can't?"

His wince hadn't been born from pain.

"I... uh, d-don't think a normal pony would have understood me there." Fluttershy sighed and slumped from the seat. "P-Please give me a moment here. I'll think of something. S-So long as you can understand me, of course."

The dragon smiled. Enough to expose a fang. She shook and squeaked. He stopped smiling and slumped at once. Expression drowning in sadness as he rolled beneath the blanket, wrinkling it, turning his back to her.

Fluttershy kept still and silently hated herself.

T-That fang. It was so long and so... sharp. Ugh! But that was no reason to squeak like that! I've seen worse on bears and tigers and even that manticore! Why did I do that to him? Oh. That was so awfully terrible of me. I can't believe myself.

There was no letting that stand. Not when the mare could still do the same. She rose, enduring the soreness, wiggling out her hips, kicking out a kick for a stretch. She walked out of the room, each step a pronounced clop, none drawing a turn from the dragon.

The door squeaked open, and the mare left, time passing, that was, until the door creaked on her return. The dragon laid back onto his pillow, looking out the window. Sunlight washed across him as he sniffed. His eyes blinked. Grabbing the sheets, he raised it to his snout, sniffing, catching the flowery scent.

"I-I'm back!"

The dragon wiggled back onto the pillow and looked to the approaching mare. Fluttershy smiled down at him with a platter resting on a wing. The other pulled a wooden, pull-out table from the corner, stretching it out and putting it before him.

"S-Sorry I took so long! But I got to thinking that you mustn't have had a meal in a while! Especially after late last night." Fluttershy set the platter on the table and pushed it forward. She took the seat next to the bed. Leaning forward, hooves together, smiling at him. "I-I don't know what dragons usually eat. So I prepared what I use for some of my other... predator friends."

His eyebrow quivered while checking the plate. Eggs and hash browns. Few other things were unable to be made out. He looked down at his arm as if watching to see if it could even move. It did. Pulling out from underneath the blanket and reaching forward to the fork.

He managed to grab it... by the metal prongs.

"Oops! N-No! Not quite like that!” Fluttershy giggled into her hoof. At once, he dropped the fork, and it clattered onto the plate. He huffed. "Oh, please! I didn't mean anything by that! It's hard to know something you've never used before—I couldn't really use one myself." She smiled sweetly, and his tension deflated. "At least on the first time around."

Her wingtip wrapped around the fork and stabbed its prongs into an egg. Scooping a piece with a cover of a wing beneath it. She brought it open to his mouth, and his eyes looked at her, with a head turned away, a suspicion arose.

"It's, um, safe."

He blinked.

"I can take the first bite?"

His eyes squeezed without closing and, in a nod, opened his mouth.

Fluttershy exploded in mirth with a sway of mane over her shoulder. She guided the spoon into his mouth and poured the contents. Her mouth was adorably wide-open. Then she closed it. Cheeks puffed. Lips tightly pressed.

The dragon did the same—even puffing his cheeks—and his lips closed on the fork. Fluttershy it back with a smile over her bubbled cheeks. Then she snorted a laugh when she saw him start to chew. His eyes rolled back in pleasure. He even moaned at every bite.

His head leaned back as he swallowed. She squeaked at watching a lump pass down his scaly throat. Her nightmare and the memory of yesterday fused together. Giant dragons. Small homes. Ponies disappearing in maws. Fluttershy's smile vanished as his eyes closed.

Able to return it on their reopening.

And he looked to her, smiling, holding out his arm, claw open for that fork. Fluttershy passed it, and he went for the food. Scooping it instead of stabbing at it. Vacuuming the plate without manners. That didn't matter. So long as the dragon could finally eat.

And Fluttershy was content to keep like that for a while. Watching the dragon woof down the food. Lack of meat... didn't seem to deter him from the meal. That flinched at the eyes. There should have been more of a fight. Maybe issues with digestion.

Though a starving dragon, or a hungry anyone, usually set aside their taste.

It wasn't before long the plate was clean, and the dragon was lying on his back. Looking to the ceiling, still, without talking. No sound or attempt at speech. Was it because he couldn't? Torn vocal cords? Here was a dragon, so far, not dangerous, able to hear, to understand.

But not being able to talk.

Fluttershy looked to the ceiling as well. Clues as to what to do. She slumped into herself. There wasn't anything to be done. Those guards might stop here again. But they would be easy to talk off. Though so many stallions in one room... it made her shiver.

The cooler weather affected the room. Shivers actually from the cold. Her hooves rubbed at her shoulders to warm her coat. There was a snort from afar. Seconds later, a wave of heat rolled over her.

Enough to melt the ice starting on her fur.

Fluttershy looked over to the dragon to find him like a furnace now. Her mouth opened a little with an emerald glow brewing from fire in his chest. She curled into herself again. Though the heat rolling from his body was a comfort. Enough, a little, to lose some of her fear.

"A-Are you... are you warming yourself right now?" Fluttershy blinked, raising from the seat and resting her hooves on the ground. Carefully she approached the bed. Bringing a foreleg to his shoulder. He stared at it—but did nothing more. "Never knew dragons could even do that. You're like your own fireplace! Your own furnace."

Her furs brushed on the smooth scales and pressed in harder. It was a heated sheet. Warmed all over. Spreading flames beneath the current, spreading, that searched her hoof around. Following the roll of his shoulder, over the curve of his arm, mindful of the cuts and wounds, feeling the changes in the different spots of heat.

And the whole time.

His eyes were on her.

"W-Whoops! I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..." She shook her head and tried again. "It's just a neat ability you have there. But is the bed cold? Holes in the blanket?"

His eyes kept on her even in shaking his head.

"If you're not cold, then why did you... oh."

Fluttershy's snout bathed in a blush as she took a step back. She looked around and under her own leg. Needing the cover of her own barrel for a bit of a reprieve. It seemed there was a kindness about him.

And he's not to the only dragon to be so.

Her shoulders dropped and peace washed over her.

Until there was a knock at the door.

The dragon pushed into the bed to rise, but the girl turned and ushered him down with a hoof, striding to the door. She pulled back the handle and stepped through—not without looking back at him.

"Rest. Try to keep still." Fluttershy smiled from underneath her mane. "I'll take care of this. It's time for me to help you now." She shook her head. "I won't let any of those ponies touch you. That's my promise."

The dragon was hesitant... but there wasn't anything he could do. He fell back into his bed and laid still. He wouldn't be a problem. Besides, he was too big and too weak to sneak through that window. Fluttershy left the room and through the hall and down the stairs.

Looking to the door from the steps.

Familiar faces gathered at the window.

Fluttershy's body nearly gave out from underneath her in freedom from stress. She went to the door and opened it. Flash of light to the three joined friends. Twilight Sparkle middle. Rarity and Rainbow at the sides.

"Darling, oh darling! You're safe! Safest and sound!" Rarity squeezed through the side of the door and did the same into Fluttershy. Nuzzling her cheek and one that Fluttershy returned. "We heard about the awfulness of that captain! Coming to you during a dreadful hunt, in the middle of the night, and accusing you of such terrible things."

Fluttershy did her best to smile and look at the rest of her friends. "T-Thanks girls... but how did you—"

"Find out? Easy." Rainbow grinned in choosing to lean into the frame of the door. "Someone from the guard wrote to Twilight." Her hoof whirled in the air. "And of course I go through her mail if the library hasn't opened up yet." Twilight perked, but Rainbow focused on Rarity. "And that one has a floating third ear for gossip."

Rarity cooed away from Fluttershy. "Indeed I doooo! And you know that I wrote a dastardly letter to Princes Celestia on the matter."

"Hey!" Twilight stepped through the door. "I was the one that wrote and sent it!"

"And I assisted in all the matters that were dastardly! Do try to pay attention, darling."

Twilight decided to save that verbal battle for later. She turned to Fluttershy instead. "We came right after that to make sure you're okay. There was news of blood on your door. And, w-well..." She pointed a hoof to a dried spray of red on the wood. "It looks like it's still here."

"A-And... some still on yourself." Rarity touched a hoof to her cheek and leaped into a gasp. "And a dot on myseeeeelf! A napkin!" She landed on her hooves and dashed to the kitchen; distant sounds of drawers being pulled. "I must simply have a napkin! Where are they? Where are they!? WHERE ARE... oh!"

A long sigh.

"Found them!"

"Celestia Fluttershy... I didn't even notice it either." Rainbow had leaned on the door with crossed forehooves but, at the first instance of hurt on a friend: dropped the act. Dropping to her hooves and strolling to her friend. “You're bloody. Never seen this much on you before. D-Did someone..."

Fluttershy swallowed as she didn't know how she looked. Glancing to the left at the mirror at the wall solved that problem. Her mane was high over her head. Frizzled in patches with blotches of red. Same on her cheek. Little splatters on her muzzle.

Looking down revealed the rest—puffed tuft of yellow and scarlet with the same travelling down her legs. There shouldn't have been too much on her belly. Yet she looked like a mess. Closest to a surgeon she'd been in all her life.

And looking this way before concerned friends.

Without any concern on the same matter herself.

"Need someone to hold onto? Doesn't look like you knew you had all that on you." Dash talked like she should have been scared. Which she should be. Fluttershy never squealed in such matters. In the blood that came from helping. But even this extent should have pushed her over the edge. "Easy now. Try not to fall. You can hold onto me."

But Fluttershy shook her head, swaying from it, a little light-headed. "N-No. I'll be fine."

Fluttershy was left in the middle of an abyss in how to act. Suddenly on the other side of glass between them. Soaked in blood as though it were a murder. Relaxed and calm. Two things she shouldn't be.

The only tension.

Being the one upstairs.

"A-Are you... are you sure about that?" Twilight coughed and took a step closer, the glass, cracking. “You might still be in shock. How much sleep did you have? Were you attacked at all? Did you—"

A thud crashed from the floor above.

The three friends paused in place, looking up after the impact. Then there was a rustling sound. The hearing of something large crawling across the ground. Smooth in its grind across the floor. Each then looked at Fluttershy.

Who was frozen.

T-Think... lie... don't lie!... help... them or him... d-do... do...

"F-Fluttershy? What is—"

"M-My patient! Oh dear, my patient!" Fluttershy stepped back from them as Rarity rejoined the rest who, on every step the bloody girl took—they covered. Approaching like a guard to a paranoid crook. "I'm sorry, girls. But I'm afraid I must go. I think he rolled out of bed."

Walking back and walking back until the back of her hooves touched the base of the steps. Her rump crashed onto the first one. Leaned back as her friends neared. "Please come visit another time, though! We can talk this over—"

"Is that a bear you have up there?"

Rainbow and Rarity stopped in their trance to stare at Twilight. She had stopped, her muzzle tilted up, her eyes looking down from over it. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Most likely a predator from the sound of that impact. Explains the amount of blood as well. Must be a creature close to that—right?"

It wasn't a friend before Fluttershy anymore. Not with her tallness or the coldness in her tone. Each word was like a snare that built into a coming accusation. Twilight did not need to take this approach, however.

For Fluttershy could hardly lie to anyone.

"Something like that." She nodded. "Yes."

"Like a dragon, perhaps?"

The world ended on its own.

"Dragon! You kiddin' me? Shy's scared to death of them!"

"Twilight! How could you ever be so insensitive?! How could you accuse dear Fluttershy after yesterday's—"

There was a flash of light and a steal of a mare inside of it. Twilight was gone with the lavender bubble. Horror dragged at the bottom of Fluttershy's eyes. She flipped onto her stomach at once, on weak legs and an aching back, dashing up the steps, banging into the wall, to steal herself down the hall.

Hoofsteps thundered behind her, although they did not matter. Only whipping back that door to reveal the horrific scene. The dragon laid forward on the ground, a claw dug into the wood, having dragged himself, and he, glaring up, at the towering mare before him.

Only the side of her face could be seen: her narrowed eyes and an uncaring expression. No thought. No remorse. No anything. She looked down without pity and with a stance of power.

Something that was taken away from her yesterday.

Then the tip of her horn bloomed in a ball of powerful violet. Fluttershy's eyes widened at feeling the winds from the teleportation. Shaking her head and dashing forward, she threw herself behind and into the side of Twilight.

"No! Don't you dare!"

Twilight had been taken into shock at turning, the spell blasting from her horn, its angle changed to the movement of her head—looking at Fluttershy. She panicked and ceased the beam. The start, however, caught the mare and hurdled her back.

The dragon watched, powerless, lying on the ground. Looking into the magical swirl that fizzed with the elements that would be his death. Killed by the ponies that he previously saved. It felt right to him. Expected. No hatred rose within him.

Until the wonderful collection of yellow came in a throw, one shoving aside the threat and, who turned at that—shooting the essence of kindness. The yellow one flew through the air before breaking into the wall. Her back, already sore, done worse, by them.

Lava thickened his blood as steam exhausted out his snout. He lurched up and grabbed the purple one in a stumble, whose eyes were devastated by the act, not knowing of the digits tight around her throat—until she was thrust into the ceiling.

The strain on his spine had threatened to snap the bone.

Yet some pains hurt more than others.

There was a blur of blue coming toward him, and, without hesitance, he caught it with a claw and slammed into the right of the door frame. His dim eyes had ignited to life in a flare of swirling green. The same, building at the back of his throat, in fires being summoned.

"I-I... w-won't... l-let you... l-live.." the purple one said above, not kicking like the other, although her horn started to glow. "Not... after yesterday... not... after my brother... not... e-ever...”

Her horn glowed.

His fire flared.

And the kind one whimpered.

The dragon's eyes widened, and, at once, he whipped the mares behind him—enough to buy a few seconds. Both rolled and would be on their hooves in seconds as the third was still unaccounted for. He dashed at once to the fallen mare, laid back against the wall, her head leaned into her shoulder.

His expression dropped into sorrow, and his shoulders did the same. Snagging his claws beneath her body, he lifted the girl, raising her chest to the side of his head. Still breathing. Strained. Although her heartbeat was strong.

He carried the girl in his arms over to the bed and, casting aside the blankets, gently laid her on it. Brushing aside her mane to check around her head. His eyes narrowed at every mark, cut, and bruise.

Then he blinked at seeing the struggle of her chest to rise.

There wasn't much time as hooves stumbled on the ground and would soon be upon him. Turning his head and licking his palm, he rubbed the latter across the mare's front, as it was a sea of blood—removing his stains from her coat.

Beneath, though, were cuts, ones that, even at the removal of blood, some of her own poured.

Knowing he had not even a second as hooves were behind him, he used one claw to hold down the mare at her collar and, with his other claw, he blew precise flames onto his digit. Little flames burned from the blood.

The hooves stopped in surprise. Only one broke from it quickly enough to do anything. Just as the dragon was about to bring the fire to a wound, a hoof tapped on his claw, holding it. He blinked and looked right and was ready to throw the threat aside.

Until he looked at her face.

There was hatred. Burning in the eyes that would melt him, unlike lava. Yet on their surface was a gleam. One reflected in her friend. Her muzzle shook. Everything else shivered. But she was shaking her head.

The dragon clenched his face until that hoof lifted, tentatively, to see if his arm would move. It did not. Once assured, the hoof lowered to his chest, then came to his arm, tapping on the bandages. Still, he was confused. Yet the girl took a chance in pressing on a wound and, although it hurt, a roar erupting to a rise of magic from her horn.

Neither fired.

The dragon rolled his head and closed his mouth, and looked to his arm. There was a wound there—yet no blood. Not much of a feeling beneath the cover of bandages. His shoulders dropped as he looked to the purple one.

And in seeing how she looked to her bedridden friend. The summoning of tears at hearing the wheezed breathing... he backed away. To the pillow, where he sat on the ground, and leaned against the wall.

He looked at her sleeping face to see the strain on it. His gaze dropped to her hoof and, although he had no reason to, a feeling within compelled him to hold it. He took it into his claw, tracing its rim with a digit. Her sleeping face lessened from the pain.

While the purple one floated over a white box and removed several instruments, going to work on wounds now worsened—another threat blocked the view. The blue one strode close and glared down at him. Like he was a restrained beast that was seconds from being unleashed.

He could feel the fire inside this one.

A fire born in her concern for the yellow one.

The dragon opened his mouth as he could not understand it. These... feelings. Bed and bandages. Homes and furniture. Books and teacups. Or these girls that stuck together. They cared for one another. To get mad when one got hurt.

Such alien concepts.

But the mare sat in front of him, ending her glare to look at the kind girl who, on rolled to them, had both of her hooves out. She took the other one with a soft smile. Then, on turning back to him, with herself leaned into the bed—she glared at him.

And then the blue one asked.

"ِقث غخع ثرهم؟" ط"

The various pounding of hooves composed the hallway's air as the squad burst into the room, coming to spread out to fill it, all with Rarity behind the leader. The kind colt from yesterday took the lead in the absence of their captain.

First to step in, with a spear aimed forward, although, his shoulders dropped at the view.

There was a mare in the bed, unconscious and in a horrible dream, laying back. Twilight Sparkle leaned over her, with alcoholic wipes, dashing at the tiny cuts. Rainbow sat facing a dragon—who was leaned against the wall, patched up, and holding a hoof in his claw.

The rookie blinked with a mouth only the tiniest bit opened. He blinked to his fellow troops to a series of expressions. Raised eyebrows. Exposed fangs. Lowered weapons. None, however, could act before his word.

Twilight turned her head enough only to glare at the troops.

Before she returned to work.

Rainbow Dash continued to stare at the dragon.

Refusing to break eye contact.

The dragon looked to the lot with a hostile look,

Before glancing back, softly, at the mare.

"S-Sir?" echoed a voice from the side of the rookie. "What do we do here?"

"Kill him, of course!"

"But he's not doing anything."

"Dragon's a dragon! Can't be trusted!"

"But this one—"

"What of Captain Shining Armour? Whole group gone because of the silly bastard! Trusting a dragon about a cave to—"

An explosion of violet magic scattered across the room in dots. The dragon did not wrestle from the unknown and possible threat—either uncaring or suddenly trusting. He kept sitting as the rest of the guard stepped back.

"Next one to talk about my brother won't have to worry about the dragon."

The problem guard stepped forward. "But you then should be the greatest supporter of—"

"My friends." Twilight tossed aside a wipe and, on the cleaned cut, rolled a bandage over it. “Anything after comes after.”

The guard was silent.

Though another spoke as the wing of troops filled the width of the room. "Sir! We must do something about this now. More detachments will be issued at the sighting of a dragon. We have to—"

"What dragon?"

The question silenced the room. The rookie looked side to side at his troops, sliding the shaft of his spear into the side hole in his armour. Tucked beneath his wing as he turned. "All I see is one big misunderstanding."

"Sir!"

"An injured mare, scarred by nightmares, talks about a dragon." The rookie exhaled heavily and looked sweetly as he passed Rarity. "This one, out of tremendous concern, races to summon us. Turns out the poor girl never looked after herself during the previous encounter. Overloaded herself with work."

He nodded at reaching the door frame. "Thankfully, her friends are there for her."

The rest of the guard stepped back, unsure of what to say or do, under such a weak command, for such a half-baked lie. Yet the rookie looked back to Twilight—who finally looked back in return.

"Your brother was a good stallion." He lowered his muzzle. "Lead and fought well. Believed in what he did and what he was trying to do." His hoof twisted into the wood. "Which led him into trusting a dragon." His eyes narrowed through the younger mare. "Can you tell me, why, on my return, why I won't be returning to a bloody room of half-eaten corpses?"

Twilight closed the medical box and left it on the ground. She stared at the bed and thought. "I don't trust him. Don't even like him. Not... especially not after the day before yesterday." Fire flared within her chest as the room warmed from it. "I still haven't attacked Celestia for sending us on that. What... what came so close to happening."

She closed her eyes and exhaled. "And the nightmares still from it."

The rookie turned back to the room and, on instinct, braced a hoof over the metal of the weapon.

“My hatred for those creatures is unrivalled by every guard here.” Twilight shivered into herself at the explosion of the feeling inside. "Leaving me without a family. T-Those years I spent alone because of them."

Her hoof struck the bed. "How'd they laugh while eating the deceased!"

Purple electricity broke from the tip of her horn.

Until the anger cooled.

And the sizzles stopped.

"Yet Princess Celestia finally guided me from the darkness of a library and into the brightness of friendship." Even a mare could exhale steam as Twilight had done so. "Before that, hatred would have been the only thing. The only thing. And it came when I saw him lying on the ground."

Her shoulders dropped. "Yet that anger vanished in seeing how he gave us up to help her."

Her eyes looked down. "The only thing that rivals my hatred is my love for my friends. I thought, maybe, that he only let us go then due to the usual greed of dragons sparking. But now I... I..."

The rookie shook his head. "Smaller dragons are more treacherous than the bigger ones."

"He came to her door last night."

"What if to be saved and then devour her once done?" Rookie closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "It's easy treachery to cite. But Twilight Sparkle. Your brother. Betrayed by the trust of a fellow into a cave believed to be containing wounded, he..."

Twilight closed her eyes tightly. Enough of a barricade to stop tears from passing.

From brother to breakfast.

"O-One... one way." Twilight breathed away the weight of her sorrow and opened her eyes again. "One way to be sure." She looked over to her friends. "Rainbow Dash? Move aside."

Finally, the mare looked back. "But—"

“Move aside.”

Rainbow stood and did as she was told.

The rookie blinked and moved closer with his troops as Twilight Sparkle stepped before the leaned-back dragon. He was wheezing. Sweating with closed eyes. He cracked them open to squint at the imposing mare.

There was a purple glow on his chest, which impressed onto his scales, pinning him to the wall. The same glow surrounded his claws. They rose, lethargically, and one snapped to the wall behind him.

"Twilight Sparkle! Are you—"

Twilight lifted his other claw to his throat. His talon sunk into the bed of scales, tearing a cut through them, drawing a trickle of blood. The magic relented, and the bloodied talon pulled back.

Twilight then looked at the sleeping mare, with the dragon following her gaze.

Then the two looked at each other.

Then his claw floated to the sleeping girl, with its sharpness bared, ready to set onto her.

"Twilight! Twilight!" Rainbow at once launched from the floor at her friend. "What the heck are you doing!"

Yet a shield manifested and shot the friend back. The rest of the guards went to act but, at the raise of a foreleg from the rookie—they stopped. All watched. The rookie started to sweat, heart hammering, if this was a good choice, bad choice, as both were currently unknown.

All eyes were on the dragon as he watched his claw pass over the one holding her hoof and, though his body leaned to allow the movement—he was yanking back against it. Each more frantic than the last as he did not have much strength in the tank. Breaking back and back as the strong magic guided him forward.

Would it rest on her cheek or go for her throat?

Twilight would never allow harm to come to a friend, even on a bet, and yet, the dragon had no way of knowing this. Only seeing that his claw that had slashed at his throat was about to slice at hers. That these crazy ponies, despite their care, after helping their friend, was about to let this happen.

The dragon stopped yanking when it would do no good. Hunched more over the bed as to allow his worried expression to look down at the sleeping mare. Now serene. Pink mane layered over the side of her face—those breaths, slow and low, so beautiful to hear.

The dragon looked at the arm being pulled, and, with his eyes closing tight, he opened his mouth. He took the side of his arm into his maw, the force of his jaw, biting to supply pleasure. Then he yanked the arm away, uncaring for the flare of stings, the stems of blood beneath the bandage, earning a stake in the tug of war.

Until the magic ceased.

Twilight seemed dumbfounded for a moment as well. Then she shook herself out from feeling and looked to the guards. "Have you ever met a dragon that would tear off its own arm rather than harm a mare?"

The guards looked at each other. Then they looked to their leader, despite his surprise.

He smiled.

"Shining always told us his little sister was the littlest bit crazy." The rookie smiled and turned around, the rest of his crew, slowly, doing the same. "We'll file our report and check back again tomorrow. You have until then to work all of this out. Don't... let me return to any more blood."

Twilight deflated. Speaking... in a small voice. "Thank you."

The guards filed out of the room.