"So you are leaving us?" Tender Heart asked me as I was packing my rucksack.
"I am, Stalliongrad has been good to me for the past few months, but now that winter is over and the tracks have been cleared, I have a new world to explore." I replied as I opened the case that my Materia.
The little glowing marbles that were arrayed in the case, were a boon that I could not believe. Over the past few weeks, I had spent several hours a day practicing with them and experimenting with different combinations to see the various effects. My specialty had quickly become the Lightning Materia. I had a Lightning in both of my bracers, the song of the magic contained within the stones a gentle crackling of a live circuit. The one on my left arm was linked to an All Materia while the one on my right was in a single slot. A Fire, Ice, Cure, all linked, a Haste, a Barrier-M Barrier pair, and a pair of summons that I was able to use rounded out the Materia on my bracers. Moving to the buster sword, I slotted another Lightning that had recently been birthed and paired it with an All, a Comet-All pairing rounded out the magic that I wanted for my blade.
Taking the blade in my hand and flicking my wrist, the sword vanished into my subspace pocket.
"I am so glad I figured out that trick, I have enough to worry about without a sword that size sitting on my back." I said with a grin.
"Yes, some ponies might think you're compensating for something." Tender said as I placed the case into my ruck.
"I think we can agree that I don't have anything to worry about in that department." I replied with a slight warming of my cheeks.
About two weeks after I had moved in with Tender, a blizzard had rolled through overnight, causing the building to be snowed in. Fortunately we had plenty of food and water to last us for a few days. Unfortunately however, was that happened to be the week when Tender started her estrus. Ordinarily the mare was able to get some medication from the clinic to help ease the symptoms, but had not been able to acquire it before hand. This lead to some tension, before I finally offered to help the poor mare with her suffering.
Needless to say, by the time the snow had been cleared a couple of days later, both of us had a distinct wobble to our step once we finally left the mare's flat. Since then we have enjoyed a casual relationship for the past five or six weeks.
"This is true. I will miss your company on those long cold nights." She said with a sultry grin.
"And I shall miss yours. But I think we both know that if I stayed here, I would go mad." I replied as I walked up to her and placed my hands on her hips.
"Yes, that would be a bad thing I would imagine. Things getting lit on fire or fried from electrical surges." She said with a smirk.
"Yeah, as it would turn out the council dislikes casual destruction of property." I replied with a chuckle.
"Well, you should get going my friend. You wouldn't want to miss your train now would you?" Tender said after a moment.
Soon enough I was at the train station and saying my goodbyes and gathering gifts from the various residents, general in the form of care packages that contained some local dishes and some clothing or other random trinkets that the residents of Stalliongrad wanted to pass on. There were also several bottles of what I was assured were top shelf vodka, straight from the distillery in town.
Shaking my head at the embracing of the old Russian stereotype by the ponies of Stalliongrad, I waved good bye to everyone and boarded the train.
Settling down in one of the passenger cars, I leaned against the window to look outside. Soon the train began moving and I looked around the car once we had pulled out of the station.
The train was something that one would have seen in Europe during the 19th century. Lavishly appointed with lots of lacquered hardwood and dark colors for the fabric and sconces with early electric lights. There was a gentle rocking motion as the train gathered speed. My ticket was going to a city called Las Pegasus. The locals in Stalliongrad did not know much about the city, but with the similarity to Las Vegas, I could almost imagine that the town was a place that never slept and was a city of lights and casinos.
Three days later, the train was finally pulling into the Las Pegasus station.
Standing up and stretching, feeling the vertebrae in my back popping back into alignment, I grabbed my ruck and headed for the exit.
Stepping out, I was glad I had slotted the Ice Materia as the wave of heat slapped me in the face. Channeling just enough energy to chill the air around me, I headed into town, shielding my eyes from the sun.
'I so need to buy a hate.' I thought as I moved my way through the crowd.
Soon enough I had reached what appeared to be a western clothing store. Looking at it and the wares in the window displays, I shrugged my shoulders and went in.
Twenty minutes later, I walked out with a dark brown stetson and a tan duster, as well as a hundred and fifty bits lighter. Impulse purchase done, I set off to look for some employment.
As I walked along, I began to smell smoke. Ordinarily not anything I would pay attention, but I also caught the smell of burning insulation and wiring. Switching to a sprint, I rounded the corner and saw a business ablaze.
There was a crowd out front, with a pair of ponies that were being held back from going back into the business.
Hurrying up to the front of the crowd, I asked a stallion what was going on.
"The business caught fire and it spread quickly. The owners live above the shop and apparently their colt is still upstairs." He said hurriedly.
"Where's the fire department?" I asked as I shrugged off my ruck and duster.
"On their way, but they might not get here in time for the colt." He said sadly.
Taking off my hat, I increased the power flowing to my ice materia.
"Okay, I'll be back in a minute." I said before flinging a Blizzraga at the entrance before charging in,
Several more Blizzragas and I was upstairs and checking all the rooms.
Finally, in a room towards the front of the store, I found a small colt of the floor, thankfully still conscious.
Picking him up and cradling him in my arms, I flung a Lightning at the window, shattering it and taking most of the frame out.
"Hang on, we'll be safe in a moment." I told the colt over the sound of flames.
I charged forward and leapt, curling around the colt, reflexes honed by running across the icy roofs of Stalliongrad allowing me to twist so I landed on the ground, albeit a little rougher than I had intended, but I was able to roll and land on my back.
I uncurled from around the colt and he opened his eyes and coughed a little.
"Thank you mister." He said hoarsely, throat raw from the smoke.
"No problem, little guy." I replied as his parents quickly came over and took him into their arms.
"Thank you so much. I don't think we can ever repay you for this." The father choked out as he held his family.
"No need sir. Just doing the right thing. I had the abilities and I would rather make use of them to help people." I replied as I stood up.
"All the same. Thank you." He replied gratefully.
"Any idea what could have caused it? Did you not have any kind of fire suppression?" I asked, knowing that resturants back on Earth had to have some kind of fire suppression over cooking areas for just such a reason.
"We did, but for some reason it didn't work. I even pulled the manual release. As for what happened, something caused the grease in the fryer to splash up and hit the burners which lit the rest of the kitchen up. It moved too quickly to have been accidental as well." The stallion replied.
I considered the stallion's words. The setup sounded like something out of a mob movie when someone stopped paying the 'protection' money to the local mafioso. Looking around the area, I saw a couple of stallions glaring at the crowd from an alleyway.
"Sir, were you having to pay 'protection' money to someone?" I said emphasising the word.
The stallion looked at me and sighed. "Yes I was. The Don of Las Pegasus has a tight grip on the area. I finally got tired of being threatened and extorted and refused to pay anymore. The next day this happens." He sighed again. "Looks like we will have to leave town."
I looked around at the crowd. Whoever, and whatever this Don was had the people of this town so downtrodden that they were being bullied into paying to have their businesses and if they didn't he wasn't above destruction of property and outright murder to make his point.
"No, if you do that you let him win. Do you have someplace you can stay until your business gets rebuilt?" I asked as the fireponies did their work and extinguished the rest of the inferno.
"We do have some family just outside of town. Why?" He asked.
"I'm going to look into a few things. Maybe right a few wrongs." I replied as I swung my duster on and donned my hat. Picking up my ruck, I nodded to the family. "Nothing gets to me more than people putting kids in danger." I finished as I walked off, stopping briefly to talk to the fire chief to find out where the local police office was.
With directions to the Sheriff's office I headed across town.
"So you want to do something about the Don of Las Pegasus, huh?" The Sheriff asked from across his desk.
"Sheriff, something has to be done. Property damage is one thing, buildings and material possessions can be replaced. But when lives are placed in jeopardy, something has to be done." I said, eyes narrowing.
The Sheriff sighed. "That is easier said than done. The Don is a five hundred year old dragon that is absolutely massive. He has been operating in the area for the better part of four centuries. Even the Princess hasn't had any luck with this. Hay, a couple of days ago, a team of WonderBolts went out and they lost one of their guys. He got shot out of the sky and the others couldn't get close enough to get him out of there."
"Have they tried to mount a rescue attempt since?" I asked.
"No, and I doubt that they are. Too dangerous they said, not worth the life of one stallion to send in a team to assault the place and risk their lives."
I shook my head. "You know, where I come from Sheriff, we were constantly at war. One of our Tier 1 operators was listed as Missing in Action, and after an exhaustive search, was listed as Killed in Action. However several years later, completely across the country we were fighting in, they found a symbol carved into the wall of a shack that this operator was known to use when in distress or when he was isolated. His status was returned to MIA and they have continued the search. We always make every effort to bring all of our people home. Hell, even seventy years later we are finding remains from the Second World War and bringing them home." I said.
"It's not that simple. Dragons really don't have a central government. Add in the age of the Don, and you get a situation that even the Princess would have trouble avoiding collateral damage. I don't see what you can do." The Sheriff replied.
"That is what I aim to find out. But, in my experience, not many things can withstand getting hit by a chunk of metal going several times the speed of sound." I said with a smirk.
The Sheriff sighed. "Looks like I'm not going to talk you out of this. What do you need from me?"
"I need a vehicle to get me out there and any captives that I find and myself back to town. Something with armour would be nice as well." I replied.
"I'll see what I can find for you." He said.