I'LL BE PLANNING TO TRY AND MAKE THESE CHAPTERS SHORTER IN ORDER TO POST THEM UP MORE.
i do not own MLP
Things are Heating Up
Twilight woke up from her study desk. She realized she fell asleep trying to find any lead on any sighting of the creature they were searching for. She rubbed her eyes and yawned as she noticed the sun had already risen over the horizon. Sliding off her chair, she started stretching her back, legs, and wings before making her way to the kitchen. She saw Spike lying on the sofa with a face of cream and crumbs of a cupcake and gems. She was confused on where he had found gems to eat. She knew they were fresh out of any kind of gems. With a frustrated look expression on her face, she walked over to shake him awake. "Spike, you know you're not supposed to be eating gems before bed. Where did you even get those gems?" She asked wanting to solve this little mystery.
Spike had woken up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He could feel he was starting to have an upset stomach from last night's big dessert. "Ugh, maybe I ate too much of those gems." He said holding his stomach.
"Spike!" Twilight said raising her voice to get his attention. When she did, he jumped a bit from his seat. "Where did you get those gems?" She asked again with a scolding tone.
Spike swallowed cursing that he left the evidence clear on his face of the gems he had received yesterday. He tried to think of something to say. "Uh… I just… happen to find them when I was sweeping around, yeah." Spike said lying to keep the secret he promised not to tell.
Twilight wasn't buying any of it. "Spike?" She scolded with a raised brow of disbelief.
Spike swallowed harder this time. "Okay, I got them from some pony. I helped them out with something, and he gave me some gems." Spike said telling only part of the truth.
Twilight wasn't satisfied. What was it that Spike did to be given gems? A normal simple task would have been rewarded with bits or something less. But to be given gems would something of great importance or… Twilight's eyes widened as the thought that some pony was trying to hide something and paid Spike for his silence. "Spike, who gave you those gems? Why did they give them to you?" She asked with worry in her voice.
Spike didn't see why she was starting to act like this, but he wanted to try and calm her down. "Look, some stallion came in with some guy in a weird costume. He made me promise not to tell anypony where he was going." Spike said explaining why he was not telling her everything.
Twilight didn't think much of the stallion he spoke of, but the one he said with a costume sounded too suspicious. "Spike, that could have been the creature we were looking for." She said fearing that the creature had crossed into their land undetected.
"What?!" Spike said in fear knowing that he not only aided the creature, but it was there right in front of him. Now he knew he had to confess everything. "They came in and asked for a map of the land and where the location of the diamond dogs!" He told Twilight.
Twilight ran to gather her saddle bags and things she thought she would need. "We need to gather our friends and head to the diamond dogs' mines." She said. "How could we have been so blinded to not see him cross our lands."
"I told you that could have been him at the door." Spike said pointing out what he said yesterday in paranoia.
Twilight gave a glare at him. "Now isn't the best time for this, Spike. Let's go get everypony to the mines." She said finally packing everything she needed headed out the door. Twilight was now haunted by the fear of what the creature was going to plan to do with the map it had and why a stallion was with him to help it gain the map and the location of the diamond dogs. Twilight had Spike ride on her back as they raced to gather all their friends.
A buck was wandering through the woods far in the wilds. The rays of morning light shown down through the trees. Small pollen was floating around the area as leaves would fall from the trees at a slow rate. The buck was rummaging through the ground to find the freshest grass to eat. It's ears then perked up and eyes widened at a faint sound. It looked around in high alert. It smelled the air and twitched its ears from one direction to the next. Passing it off as just a sound of nature, the buck continued to eat from the ground.
A great weight pounced on the buck from above. It felt the sharp fangs of a predator on the back of its neck as it growled and locked its jaws on it. The buck shrieked and wailed in pain as it struggled to get up and shake the predator off. But the predator was too strong as it held the buck's head down to the ground. Even as the rest of the body was trying to stand and pull away, the grip of the predator's teeth clenched tighter. The buck looked back. Through the corner of its eye it saw the attacker to be a green pegasus.
The Dragonbond then yanked the buck's head up by the back of its neck and then back down again with a twist to snap the spinal cord of the buck. The buck then fell limp to the ground. It was a clean and painless death as an act of mercy to his prey. Afterwards, Dragonbond held it by the neck to fly his meal back to the cave. Once inside, he brought his kill to a fire pit. He placed some logs inside and pat out flammable saliva onto the wood as a fire starter. He then blew a small spark of flame to ignite the wood. He soon heard his brother enter the cave with his own kill for his morning breakfast. He had caught himself a wild boar and brought it over to the fire. They began to tear pieces of the flesh from their own kill to cook over the fire. They could have done it with their own breath, but this way would allow them to speak in a conversation.
"So, where is our next destination?" Claw asked as he placed his meal on the fire to cook.
Dragonbond did the same with his own meal. "We'll head back east towards that last town. There was a range of mountains over there. We may find a dragon cave there since they would live near a settlement to try to take their riches." Dragonbond said.
"Last I saw, that town had no trace of warriors of any kind. It was just weak defenseless ponies. No honor among dumb animals, is there?" Claw said about the Equestrian dragons. He turned his meal over in the fire as Dragonbond did the same.
"Well we… I mean I will be able to deliver some justice and at the same time gain a lot of gold from the beast." Dragonbond said. They both then picked their meal out of the fire to place another torn piece of meat into the fire.
They both started to eat their first piece of cooked meat and continued to speak to each other. "Damn it. I would have loved to get in on some of that action. Perhaps I can later find another dragon's cave to beat the crap out of it. Also taking a little bit of his treasure for myself." Claw said before taking another piece of his cooked meal and turning over the other one in the fire.
Dragonbond turned over his meal in the fire as well. "I guess I can help you with that. You may not be able to help me with my treasure hunt, but there was nothing about helping you with yours if you decided to go on your own." He pointed out as he took another bite from his cooked meal.
Claw realized that as well. He swallowed the food in his mouth before speaking. "Yeah, that is if we are going to be able to find another dragon cave." Claw said.
They both took their next cooked pieces of meat out from the fire. "Let us hope fortune is on our side." Dragonbond said. They continued to eat until there were only bones of their prey. "Well, let us get going." Dragonbond said as he stretched and shook himself to prepare for their flight.
"And let us hope our misfortune doesn't aid ponies to discover us." Claw said knowing that one day they would be found out.
"Let us hope today is not that day." Dragonbond said before running out the cave and leaping out high from the cliff wall and into the air. Claw followed right behind him as they soared in the winds. They set their course for the mountains eastward near the pony village.
Twilight had gathered her friends to the library. She hadn't told them anything yet except to meet there. She didn't want to risk them accidentally telling some pony. Her friends were very concerned about this sudden meeting that would usually happen if something wrong had happened.
Applejack was the first to speak out. "So, what is wrong fer us ta all be here?" Applejack asked looking at Twilight as did the rest of her friends.
"Ooh! Ooh! Is it "Meet your friends in a library" day?" Pinkie Pie asked as she hopped with a raised off in the air. She pulls a tray of cupcakes from behind her back. "I happened to have some cupcakes in case we were on some special day to celebrate!"
Twilight shook her head. "I have reason to believe that the creature has already entered Equestria undetected." Twilight said in a grim tone.
The other girls gasped in horror at this unfortunate news. "Aw, it's not a special day anymore. I made these cupcakes for nothing." Pinkie said sadly holding up the tray of cupcakes. "Oh well, can't let them go to waste." She said before tilting the tray for the pastries to slide into her mouth to eat.
"Pinkie this here is serious. Try ta stay focused." Applejack scolded.
"How did it get inside? I thought we covered the spot it was going to come from." Rainbow Dash asked in disbelief.
"I suppose it either saw the outposts we set up and entered another unguarded way in. I had Spike go ahead to send a message to the princesses about the situation. In the meantime, we are going to have to dig deep in our own sources." Twilight said to begin explaining their next course of action.
"How are we ever going to find this horrid monster? We don't have long range connections to anypony that could help us." Rarity pointed out.
"I know, but I also know another pony that does have long range connections. Fluttershy." Twilight said pointing her hoof to Fluttershy. Unfortunately, Fluttershy was not present from where she last sat. "Where did she go?"
They all looked around until Rainbow Dash saw her ducked behind some books on one of the high spots here the window was. She was covering her head with her hooves and wings shaking in fear. "Found her." Rainbow Dash said exasperated.
"I say, how did she get up there so fast and without us knowing?" Rarity asked out loud.
Twilight moved the ladder over to reach up to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, we are going to need your help to find this thing."
Fluttershy peeked out from her hooves and wings still shaking a bit. "Uh, oh. I don't know if I can help. Maybe we can leave it alone and it will leave." Fluttershy suggested another option.
"We can't take that chance. If some pony tries ta hurt this creature, it might mean the end of this land." Applejack said reminding Fluttershy the severity of the situation.
"Fluttershy, you can ask the animals to keep a watch and an ear to anything about anything out of the ordinary." Twilight said urging Fluttershy for her help.
"B-but I don't have to look for the creature myself?" She asked hoping that wouldn't be the case.
"Well we are going to investigate the diamond dog territory. Spike said that it headed over there first. Also, the creature is in disguise and has a stallion helping him out with whatever it is doing." Twilight said patting Fluttershy's back to try and ease her nerves.
Fluttershy was still uneasy about going into diamond dog territory, but at least it was far better than going straight after the creature for now. "Um, okay. I'll try." She agreed to talking to the animals to spread the word about finding the creature.
"Right, we should all bring whatever we can to go investigate these diamond dogs. Meet back here when you are all ready to leave." Twilight said.
"Right." They all said agreeing to the plan.
"Um, okay… I think." Fluttershy said soft and nervously.
They all headed back to their home to get what they needed for their trip to the diamond dog territory. They didn't know exactly what to bring, but one thing they were sure of to bring was some weapons for if the diamond dogs tried to put up a fight. Other than that, they had no idea what else to prepare for.
Dragonbond and Claw had flown along the mountain range that stretched eastward. They kept their noses open to any scent that would hint to the dragon's cave of treasure. They flew low and along the roots of the mountains. Staying out of plain sight and being closer to the ground in case they pass by a cave in the mountain if a dragon was occupying a cave filled with gold. Dragonbond knew they were close. There seemed to be no disturbance of any pony for a long distance in every direction. That meant that something was scaring them away from drawing near to these parts of the mountain. The birds were also silent as there was no sound of creature of nature making a sound. Dragonbond was becoming very excited of the tension building up to finding a dragon's cave and entering a battle against it by himself. Dragonbond had never gone on a one on one fight with another dragon before. This would surely test out his combat abilities.
Then it happened. Claw took in a familiar scent. "I think I picked up a scent." He said halting to flap in place.
Dragonbond flew back around to fly next to Claw to sniff the air. He could then smell it for himself. It was the mixture scents of ashes, scales, and gold. "We are close. Let's find this cave." He said as they descended to the ground.
They walked as they followed the scent as it was becoming stronger as they drew near. The trees of the forest were becoming thicker. This dragon was clever to pick a place where it was dark in the forest. A forest this deep would put any pony on edge or scare them off. They didn't need to hide themselves much. It was known that Equestrian dragons were not as keen in some of their senses to detect the brothers. However, they needed to watch where they stepped to not make a sound. When they ventured deep enough inside, they saw the dragon sleeping on his treasure hoard. It was a large adult dragon as large as it would grow for the rest of its life. Disappointingly to the brothers, it looks as the same as most dragons of Equestria. The only difference was its color, a grey color. It was a useful color against the untrained eye. It could blend in with the stones around it. The gold it lay on was massive. What boiled their blood was the sight of skeletons of creatures in a pile of the cave. The brothers weren't so much bothered by them if it wasn't for the fact that they saw the skulls that were smaller than the adult pony skulls. This dragon had taken the lives of children. This was beyond redemption or forgiveness in the eyes of the brothers.
Claw stood back knowing Dragonbond had to fight alone to claim the gold. But then Dragonbond looked back to his brother. "What are you waiting for?" he asked Claw.
"You have to face this dragon alone." Claw reminded him of the rules of his treasure hunt.
"This is no longer about the treasure. This dragon needs to die." Dragonbond said in a cold hard tone.
Claw walked beside him. "What about the treasure? We can't take it all without some creature finding this cave before we empty it."
"That is why we are going to take as much as we can and leave a map to this place for the families that lost their children." Dragonbond said. He then glared at the sleeping dragon. "But first we deal with this dragon disgrace. Come brother."
With that, they walked up in front of the sleeping dragon. "Dragon!" Dragonbond shouted in a loud voice that rattled the cave.
This awoke the dragon as he blinked his eyes in surprise. He then became confused to see a small dragon and a pegasus with him. He growled as he was only concerned for his treasure. "What are you doing here with a pony?" The dragon growled demanding an explanation for this intrusion.
"This is my brother and we have come for a personal matter." Claw said glaring up at the dragon.
The dragon began to recognize Claw as to what type of dragon he was. He looked far different than any ordinary Equestrian dragon. "Wait a second, you are one of those dragons of the old ways. The ones that follow that Draco god." The dragon mocked.
"Draco is no god. He just happened to be the first of our kind. Our kind that yours had failed and betrayed for magic." Claw said with his temper growing and his urge to kill this dragon.
"You have dishonored all dragon kind by attacking and killing helpless children." Dragonbond said pointing to the pile of bones that held the remains of foals. "Your punishment will not be quick or painless."
The dragon became puzzled and outraged by the pegasus with his concern for the honor of dragons and his claim to deliver him judgement. The dragon rose to his full height feeling insulted by being threatened by a couple of smaller creatures. "Who are you to care about dragon honor? How dare you threaten me, you small fuzzy worthless pony! You think you can come to my cave and insult me for simply rooting out the weak for their riches? This is our way as dragon, you tiny insect!"
Dragonbond then shot a fireball to explode in the dragon's face. The impact blew his head back as the dragon stumbled into a wall. The dragon was completely unprepared for any kind of attack by this Pegasus. Now he wasn't so sure this was a pony at all. "You are going to regret what you just said." Dragonbond growled before both brothers began roaring at the dragon with their wings expanded to show they were ready to fight the dragon. Dragonbond now was going to use what was in his pack for this fight. It was a weaponized metal tail with saw like blades running along the top. It was supposed to cling onto his flesh tail under the hair.
The dragon shook its head before regaining its senses. His face was scorched on the side where the fireball had hit him. Enraged by the sucker hit, the dragon slammed his fists into the ground and began to roar back at them to engage in the fight to the death.
The mane six had finally arrived at the lair of the diamond dogs. Twilight had brought a white flag to let them know that they had come in peace. She waved it as she saw the two diamond dogs guarding the entrance. "Hello! We come in peace! We just want to talk!" She called to the diamond dogs hoping they would be reasonable.
"Are ya sure this is uh good idea, sugar cube?" Applejack asked having many doubts about this plan.
"We have to know if that creature came by already and what it wanted with these diamond dogs." Twilight explained to Applejack in order to know what was going on between the creature and the diamond dogs. "Maybe they can also tell us about why that stallion was with him if they saw the stallion still tagging along with the creature." She added.
The diamond dogs had their spears at the ready when they saw the group of ponies walking in their direction. They saw Twilight waving the white flag, but they were much too unsure about if they could trust these ponies without underestimating them like they did the last one. One of them howled into the cave. Soon the three lead diamond dogs came to see what was going on. Fortunately, they recognized Rarity and came running over… relieved it looked like to the girls. This was a strange behavior coming from them.
"Oh miss Rarity, we are glad it is you!" the small diamond dog said groveling with the other two did.
"We were just attacked by a monster. It killed a lot of us all by itself. Barely survived, we did." The big diamond dog said
"Wait, you were attacked by it? What did it want?" Twilight asked shocked.
"Gems, lots of gems from us." The mid-sized diamond dog said placing his paws on his cheeks. "It fought like a demon. It was a demon. It breathed fire and its eyes glowed like fire!" The mid-sized diamond dog said shivering in fear of the memory of the creature.
"It had powerful razor-sharp teeth and roared loud. It was far stronger than our strongest dog." The big diamond dog said whimpering.
"We were being slaughtered. It was a nightmare, a nightmare!" The small diamond dog cried in his paws.
Fluttershy flew over to them to pet their heads. "Oh, you poor things." She said becoming teary eyed herself. "I'm sorry you had to be terrorized by that monster." She did her best to comfort them and calm them down.
"Listen, we are trying to track this creature down. We saw a stallion tagging along with it." Twilight said assuring them they would capture this beast.
"It was a stallion!" The small dog exclaimed.
Now the girls were confused. It had to be a mistake. There was no pony alive that could breathe fire. It had to be in a costume to disguise itself somehow. Twilight figured that was the only logical explanation. "Come on. We now it wore a disguise. It probably was dressed as a stallion to confuse you." She said believing that was the only logical answer.
But these diamond dogs had a close enough view to know what they saw. "Oh no, this was a real stallion demon. It was no costume." Said the small dog shivering.
"This monster had wings made of long scales. No feathers." The big dog added also shivering from fear. The girls saw there was no lie to their words or their eyes. Fluttershy knew fear all too well to know they were truly afraid of what they saw.
Fluttershy vouched for what they were saying. "They are not lying. Whatever they saw was real." She said petting one of them to calm their nerves.
Twilight was at a loss for logic on how a pony could breathe fire and overpower a group of overgrown diamond dogs in such small space inside the mines. "Can we see where this all took place? We may find clues to what this creature is and how to find it." Twilight requested of them.
Without hesitation, the diamond dogs nodded in agreement. "This way, ponies. Hurry!" the small one said leading them into the minds to the place where the battle was fought.
They continued down the tunnels deeper into the mines. One question came to Applejack's mind. "We heard that this thing had a pardner with it. Did ya see what kind of feller it was?" She asked hoping they did.
The mid-sized dog spoke up. "Yes, hat pony. It was a dragon. The fire pony called the dragon over. He even called him his brother."
Twilight was now even more confused. In all the history of Equestria, no dragon would even speak peacefully to a pony. It was even more impossible for a dragon to call a pony a brother. She had no idea how that even worked. How would two opposite creatures call each other brothers? How could they be brothers at all? That would mean this pony had been living with dragons. That even raised more confusing questions she had no time or the lack of information to ask and answer.
Soon they entered the room where the fight had been. They saw some scorched marks in the room from an intense fire. They cringed and some of them felt nauseated from the sight of blood stains around the room. Some of the dogs were doing their best to wash out the stains from the room. They did not like to see the blood of their fallen comrades. "This where fight was." The small dog said waving a paw around the room to show them exactly where it all happened.
Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat and took a breath. "Alright, let's look for any little clue to what was in here." She said having her friends begin to search around for any little thing. The dogs voluntarily helped their search trying to sniff around for any trace of the creature.
Flames exchanged between the two sides of the dragon brothers and the Equestrian dragon. The two brothers kept the dragon between them in the fight to distract and attract the dragon's attention. This way the dragon hard an extremely hard time to focus on one of his attackers. This greatly annoyed and angered the dragon as it swiped and shot flames wildly hoping for a luck hit. The dragon brothers could tell there was no real skill in combat as it lashed out like a rabid animal. They only kept their distance as they provoked the beast so they could observe its skill in a battle.
Dragonbond looked around the cave for a way to kill the dragon with one lethal strike. He looked around to see a large stalactite on the ceiling of the cave. "Keep the useless reptile on you!" Dragonbond called out to his brother.
Claw just nearly missed the swipe of the dragon's claws. "Yeah don't worry about me. I can make due if I lose half my body." Claw said frustrated having to become the bait. But he trusted his brother had a plan.
Dragonbond had flown up to the stalactite and used his hoof to chip away a line around the hanging stone. He made sure to do it quickly to weaken the structure at the line he was making. "Claw!" Dragonbond called out. Claw looked up to see his brother near the stalactite on the ceiling and knew what he was planning. Claw turned to the dragon started blowing as much fire as he could at the face of the dragon using his flame thrower breath.
The dragon roared in rage greatly irritated from having its face burned. Claw knew he had its full attention and turned around to fly straight for the waiting trap. Dragonbond readied his hind legs as he faced away from the large stalactite. While his brother had been fighting the dragon, he had also chipped away at the bottom tip to sharpen the point. Dragonbond timed the distance it would take for the giant stone to fall on the spot where the dragon would run into.
Then he kicked the stalactite with all his might on the line of the weakened area he made. The force instantly snapped the great rock from the ceiling and it started to drop. The dragon was hot on Claw's tail until it saw some small rocks fall where Claw had flown by. When the dragon looked up to where the stones had fallen from, it was already too late. The main body of the dragon was right under the pointed falling rock and plunged down into the back and straight through to the bottom and sinking into the floor. The dragon was stuck into the ground and coughed out a gush of blood. It felt its insides and lung crushed and filling with its own blood as it felt its vision quickly starting to fade. It had no more breath to speak. Its last moments of life was looking in front of its snout to see the dragon pony staring right back at him. They looked into each other's eyes. And for that one brief moment, the dragon acknowledged Dragonbond as a force to be reckoned with and held one last moment of respect for the dragon pony before the life left its eyes and released its last breath before remaining still.
Dragonbond gave a sigh as he walked over to the dragon and closed its eyes as a sign of respect after seeing the respect the dragon showed in his eyes for Dragonbond. "Be at peace." Dragonbond said.
Dragonbond walked past his silent brother until he spoke. "What should we do know?" Claw asked Dragonbond.
Dragonbond then looked to the bone pile. He wanted to give the foal remains a proper burial, but it seemed like a shame to not give the rest of the skeletal remains a proper burial as well. They would later set the dragon's corpse on fire as well.
Twilight and her friends had searched around this whole time with nothing to show for. Until one dog barked has it believed to have found something. They all came around to find that it had found a hair.
"That's it?! Just one little hair?" Rainbow Dash said irritated that they found a single hair was important.
Clearly Twilight saw more importance in the hair than her rainbow friend did. "Hold on Rainbow. It may just be a hair, but with my equipment, we can have a better way to find out where and what this thing is." Twilight said holding back her friend.
"Purple pony knows how to find monster?" the small dog asked.
"Yes thank you for your help. We'll be able to track down and capture this thing and bring it to justice." Twilight said thanking the diamond dogs.
"Thank you, Miss Rarity and ponies. Make sure you really squash the monster." The mid-sized dog said.
"Ah, you all know I will." Rainbow Dash said with her usual cocky attitude. Her friends also gave their usual eye roll at her.
"Let's just go." Applejack said not wanting to hear anymore of Rainbow Dash's ego.
Rarity stopped to ask one more thing of the diamond dogs. "You wouldn't happen to have a rare sapphire gem, do you?" She asked them batting her eyes.
"Ah said we're leavin!" Applejack said coming back to drag Rarity back with them.
"Ah! Un-hoof me this instant. A lady can ask for a little something for our efforts to help." Rarity complained at the rudeness of her farming friend.
"We have more important things ta worry about than snazzy stones." Applejack said making sure her posh friend would stick with them as they left the cave.
"Ah! Snazzy stones indeed. They are very important gems and deserve proper respect to be called by their rightful names…" Rarity began to explain the importance of the gems she needed until Rainbow Dash rudely interjected.
"Yawn, boring! Save it for your clients." Rainbow Dash mocked.
"Hmph! Well I never." Rarity said facing away with her head tilted up as she was offended by Rainbow Dash's rudeness.
Twilight sighed exasperated at the arguing between her friends. "Can we just please focus on the situation?" She pleaded for the sake of her own sanity. Once they were back in the basement of her library, they would have all the tools they needed to find out where and what this creature is. A part of her was afraid to find out after hearing how deadly it was when outnumbered by diamond dogs in their own element.
After Dragonbond and Claw were done burying the remains of the skeletal remains of creatures and the burning of the dragon's corpse to ash, they headed back into the cave to wonder what to do with the treasure since this was not a proper raid to claim treasure. They could just leave it for ponies to find, but Dragonbond wondered if he could go into a nearby town to ask if there were ponies that were victimized by recent dragon attacks.
"So, what do you want to do with this treasure?" Claw asked his brother.
Dragonbond thought about his idea for a while. "It would be wrong to just let any pony to take it and it wouldn't be right for us to take it. I could go into a nearby town to hear if there were pony families affected by this dragon's tyranny." He said as he held some of the treasure in his hoof.
Claw wasn't sure about this at the risk of being found out about what he was and why he was here. "You are really pushing it on being found out." Claw said in concern.
Dragonbond rolled his eyes feeling he was capable to keep his secret safe. "You lack faith in your own brother?" he said with an amused smirk. "Oh, you of little faith. I would think from all this time you would be more confident in your brother's abilities."
"You mean after all those times you got into a fight with a gang of ogres and had three of your legs broken?" Claw said raising a point along with his scaled brow.
Dragonbond shrugged. "I made it out alive, didn't I? Besides, I heal quickly even from broken bones. What is the big deal with getting some temporary injuries? They only make you stronger when they heal." Dragonbond said disregarding his past blunders.
"That is beside the point. You are very reckless and easy to trouble." Claw said slightly frustrate in his brother's crazy antics.
"That is what makes life more interesting to me. But if you wish, I will do my best to keep under the radar." Dragonbond promised.
Claw sighed, but he knew Dragonbond was one to keep his word. "I am holding you to that word." Claw said feeling a bit uneasy, but still felt a bit relieved that he would stay out of trouble… this time. "Be careful out there."
Dragonbond made a smirk. "Since when have I ever done that?" Dragonbond said before leaving for the closest town. Claw sighed heading to the cave entrance to make sure no creature would enter to take the treasure.
In the next town, Dragonbond did as he said to keep a low profile. He had asked around about if any ponies were affected by a recent dragon attack. He took the disguise of a young new investigator looking into the dragon attack. Asking the right questions to lead to the victimized family.
He soon came to the first house of the victimized family. He took a long breath. "Well I hope my communication skills with ponies are up to the task." He said before knocking on the door.
It was half a minute until mare opened the door. She looked a bit timid and saddened. "Y-yes sir? Can I help you?" She asked the stranger.
"Excuse my interruption of you time, but I am here to ask you a few questions about a recent dragon attack nearby." Dragonbond said getting to the point. "I know this may be a hard time to ask but I think I can make it worth your while."
The mare was caught off guard by this and was hesitant to allow some pony to bring up such a tragic moment. But she allowed him in anyways and led him into the living room where she sat on her sofa. Dragonbond sat on a small chair. "What did you want to ask?" the mare asked.
"You lost a family to this dragon?" He asked his first question. The mare didn't say anything but nodded with a downcast look. "Were they ever recovered to give a proper burial?" he asked his second question.
The mare shook her head feeling tears welling up in her eyes before wiping them away. "Why are you asking me these questions? I have suffered enough after what had happened and don't want to dwell on it anymore." She said in an emotionally upset tone.
Dragonbond nodded and decided to get to the point. "I have come to tell you that the dragon has been found slain near his cave and we had found some remains of ponies inside. I have come to tell you that the dragon's treasure was also left behind and that I have been searching for the victimized families of this incident." Dragonbond informed her. She was in a state of shock to hear that the dragon was dead and that she would be able to finally find closure with the death of her family. "If you can get in touch with your ruler, have them come help you retrieve the remains of your deceased loved ones and a share of the treasure to pay for a proper burial and help you get back on your hooves again."
The mare's mouth was agape still in shock of this recent discovery. "A-a-are you telling me truly? Is the dragon dead? Did you find my family's remains?" She asked almost choking on her breath.
Dragonbond nodded. "The cave will be sealed by a mark of a dragon on a rock blocking the entrance. The cave is north from here at the base of the mountain." He then got up having completed what he came to do. "I hope you find your closure with all this. As of who killed the dragon, there is no telling by any pony who it was. Just be satisfied that justice has been served. No thanks will be needed." He then made his way to the door. He guessed she needed time to let this all sink in.
Then he heard the clopping of hooves running towards him. He turned to find the mare wrapping her hooves around his neck and weeping into him. He rolled his eyes knowing what was coming next. "Thank you. Thank you so much." She sobbed in both sadness and relief as she felt a heavy burden being lifted off her.
Dragonbond sighed as he had hoped telling her no thanks was needed would keep her from thanking him. Ponies were just so emotional in his opinion. "Just live life to the fullest as a way to thank us." Dragonbond said patting her back.
Soon he left the house as the mare waved goodbye to him. Dragonbond walked out from the town to move out of sight before flying away.
Claw had finished blocking the cave and placing a symbol of a dragon as planned. Dragonbond was a bit upset that he had to let this treasure go, but it was for a noble cause. He stared at the concealed cave entrance. "Damn these dragons. There is a line between fighting those that fight back, but taking the life of a child for treasure is just unforgivable." Dragonbond said still feeling his anger towards Equestrian dragons.
Claw sighed feeling the same way. "It is how far they had fallen. They will continue to fall further since they don't live by honor." He looked at the sun to see the time of day. "It is after noon. Dusk will soon be upon us."
"Well at least we will have a full day tomorrow to search for more treasure. I say we head for a nearby city. They must have some corrupt ponies with all kinds of gems and gold." Dragonbond suggested. There was no harm from raiding from the corrupt.
"But you still need some kind of high prized treasure. Something of greater worth than just as and gold." Claw reminded his brother of his true goal.
Dragonbond sighed. "I guess we still need some rumored stories of any great treasure. Come on, let's go hunt our meal and head back." Dragonbond said taking flight once more with his brother as they headed back towards the west.
They searched the wild life below to find their prey. They soon flew over a herd of deer running across the plains. They both picked their targeted prey and descended into a dive. Both brothers roared out to scare and scatter the herd so that their targeted prey would be singled out as the others panicked and fled. The two bucks that were hunted stood no chance of escape in the open field. The two brothers soon landed on their prey and dug their teeth into the backs of the deer's necks. Sinking into the nervous system to quickly kill their prey. Once they were sure they had made their kill, they grabbed onto their meal and flew off back to their home.
Twilight and the others were back at the tree library just when dusk came. They were trying to figure out what they knew already. "Okay, we have the identities of these two foreigners. One is a dragon and the other seems to be a fire breathing monstrous pegasus by their description. They only seemed to want the gems from the diamond dogs and resorted to violence to get it."
"Don't forget to mention that it was just one of them against the whole army of dogs. In a confined space even!" Rainbow Dash said conflicted of being in awe or feeling nervous about what they were dealing with and possibly had to confront sooner or later.
Applejack was confident that they would be fine. "That won't matter none. We'll have ol Twilight ta hold him down with her magic like a tired down bull."
"Let's just focus on finding this thing first. It might have been too confusing for the diamond dogs to know what they were facing in that dark cave. It might not even be a pony at all." Twilight said thinking that was the only logical sense to make out of all of this. The thought of any pony living or becoming more like a dragon was just nonsense to her and her dedication to science, magic and the laws of nature.
"But Twilight, what if it is what they saw?" Fluttershy asked fearfully believing what the diamond dogs saw was true. Her constant fear of the unknown made her gullible to believe in anything that was horrifying.
"Now let's not start believing in every little thing that some creature thinks they saw. We don't have any real proof that this is indeed a fire breathing pony. There has never been one ever heard or seen ever before. Logically, this must be some kind of dragon that looks similar to a pony." Twilight said trying to debunk the whole notion of there being a real life fire breathing pony.
"Fer our sake, Ah hope yer right bout this, Twi." Applejack said a bit worried as well about this possibility of a fire breathing pony.
"Oh, I do hope as well. The thought that a pony would live with such horrid creatures and pick up their bad habits." Rarity said shuddering at the thought.
"Hey!" Spike said offended being a dragon himself.
Rarity placed a hoof over her mouth apologetically. "Oh, I am sorry dear Spike. You are nothing like them in the least." She patted his head affectionately.
Spike let the offense go since it was Rarity pampering him. "Aw shucks, I know you didn't mean anything by it." He said automatically forgiving her.
Twilight rolled her eyes shaking her head. She knew he wouldn't hold a grudge against the fashion mare even for a minute.
"So, I guess we are just waiting for the time being? I say we go hunt down whatever this thing is!" Rainbow Dash demanded impatiently flying around in the air.
"And where do you even think we begin to search in this entire land?" Twilight pointed out the flaw in the speedy mare's plan.
"Well… uh, I thought we could… um." She slumped back to the ground irritably. "Hmph, fine. We'll just wait." She crossed her forelegs and huffed in a pout.
"Are we going to try and give him a welcome greeting to show we are friendly?" Pinkie asked thinking that was the goal of the plan.
"Be practical, Pinkie. This creature had taken out a group of diamond dogs alone. Ah figure this thing isn't in the mood fer friendly greetings." Applejack said assuming what they were after wanted to be friendly at all.
"Applejack's right. We can't just leap in and do something out of the ordinary." Twilight agreed with the farm pony.
"Oh, come on, why not?" Rainbow Dash asked wanting to get it done with after they found the creature.
"Remember how that played out last time with a certain dragon?" Twilight reminded her impatient friend.
Rainbow Dash blushed and chuckled nervously. "Oh, right." She said remembering kicking the snout of a dragon over a hundred times her size and strength.
"So, let's go home and sleep for the night and see what tomorrow brings." Twilight said. They all said their farewells to each other and leaving the tree house to head back to their own homes.
Twilight was had gotten herself ready for bed with Spike following alongside her. "Do you really think it isn't a fire breathing pony?" Spike asked her.
Twilight was almost confident she was right. "It is basically impossible for any pony to have any way to naturally breath fire. Also, a pegasus would not be able to have magic to enchant them to breath fire at all." Twilight said following the rules of logic and magic to not believe in such a possibility.
Spike climbed into his little bed basket and curled himself up in his sheets to sleep. "Well, I hope you are right." He said with a yawn and fell to sleep.
Twilight looked outside her window trying to stay confident she was right. but there was a small lingering sense of doubt in her mind. "I hope I am too." She rested back in her bed coving herself in her sheets trying to shake off the sense of doubt in her mind. After a while, sleep found her as the night continued claim the sky in its silent song of dreams.
Fluttershy had just placed her last animal friend to sleep and was yawning on her way to her own bed. She was just about to sleep until she heard the small flapping of a bird enter through her open window. She quickly lit a lamp to first make sure it wasn't a hostile creature. "Oh, Hello Mr. Sparrow. What brings you here this late?" She asked feeling better that it was a bird she knew.
The bird began to chirp and twitter to tell the gentle pony some news. "Oh, you have some news about the creature? I hope it's not serious." Said Fluttershy, a bit of worry in her tone as well. The bird continued to chirp his message to her. Then her eyes grew wide with fear. "He did what?!" The bird twittered a bit more. Fluttershy then felt dizzy and fainted back in her bed.
The bird flapped up next to her head and waved its wing in front of her face and fanned it a bit. The bird made a sighing whistle. He knew he had to just wait until morning for her to wake up.