A Short Tale

Chapter 17: Toying With Fire

A roar came from the top of the mountain. Travian, however, was not intimidated. Seriously, it was just a roar. It could be loud, and so could he. Why was he so concerned about not being intimidated? It was because every other group member was terrified due to the roar. "What was that?" asked the rainbow-haired should-be-blonde.

"That is what it sounds like when a dragon snores." This dragon was pretty big then. Fluttershy had cowered behind Applejack, and poked her head out.

"It's s-so high..." The insensitive rainbow flew into the opportunity to be informative.

"Well it is a mountain. I'm gonna fly up there and check it ou-" Travian grabbed her tail, which Applejack was about to do anyways.

"No. I scout ahead, you stay with the group. After all, safety in numbers for ponies, safety in solitude for me." That was a true statement, but also a false statement. While he was safer by himself, with that much help against a single dragon it would most certainly be safer.

"Now hold on now, Ah think we should all stick tog-"

"No, Applejack. Ponies stick together, I'll go alone. Such is the way of things." He ran away towards the mountain. It wasn't too steep, so he could go up it relatively fast. The ponies were arguing among each other, but they eventually decided on going up the mountain. They were extremely slow at climbing, though. He continued climbing up, sometimes having to dig his claws into the mountain, which was not fun. He may have broken a finger or two, but he was sure he could break it back to fix it.

As he was climbing, he certainly wasn't expecting his hand to fall into the rock. He really didn't expect it so much, and as such was rewarrded with his entire body falling inward. He was flopped down onto his back. He raised his head to try and see where he was. He could only identify it as some sort of cave. His eyes were rapidly adjusting to the darkness.

Eventually pulled himself up. He walked slowly through the cave, hoping not to fall into a chasm. That was the least he needed. He looked deeper into the cave, which was flowing up very subtly. There was a small glimmer in the darkness, possibly being a deposit of metal. He started running in that general direction, hoping for no traps or creatures to get to him while he was running. Thankfully, nothing did.

He found the glimmer to actually be a pile of gold. There were a few gems in it, but he was uninterested in gold. Sure, it was an expensive commodity, but he was not a looter. It was simply against his code. Of course, he would collect ammo and weaponry, but not actual money or items. He looked further upward, seeing larger piles of gold and gems. Then he saw something rather peculiar.

He ran up to the strange object. He tried being silent and sneaky as this was supposedly a dragon's cave, but it was asleep, right? The strange object was a long spear. It poked out from the pile and was quite undamaged. In fact, not a single speck of dust or piece of damage was located on it. It was as if this dragon really loved this thing, or it was magical. He added the spear to his mental artifact list. He had several pieces of cloth on his clothes that were specifically for holding different weapons. He spent a few moments strapping his spear onto his back.

He then heard some sound from a little bit further on in the cave. It sounded like... Large and heavy footsteps. They were getting a little bit louder, signalling for Travian to get a single arrow ready. He crouched down, causing the spear to obscure a long bar of his vision. He attempted to stay near the wall, moving slowly towards the footsteps in a hope that he would find the exit.

After several long minutes, Travian's eye beheld a rough shape of a large, winged beast. He kept moving while it stood there and looked around. As it happens, that wasn't the best idea as it actually noticed him. "You thief!" the dragon roared. Actual dragons that weren't Spike could talk on this planet. What was next, a walking and talking mixture of ponies, dragons, and griffons?

The dragon then breathed fire. Travian had to roll out of the way to avoid the flames. He didn't feel particularly magic resistant as he normally was when flames appeared. While magical flames were moderately feared by him, real dragon fire was possibly the most horrifying thing ever. Well, besides his brother being angry, but what could top that? Travian got up from his crouched position and proceeded to try to run up. The dragon started stomping after him, clearly faster. It was cheating, though, because it had wings.

Travian turned around for a quick second and fired his arrow he had ready. It bounced off the dragon's scales. "That's cheating!" he yelled before turning and promptly trying to find the exit. He finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. There was also light from fire behind him. He tried sprinting for great justice, trying to out speed the flames. He was too slow though, He had to go through the fire and flames. It was very hot, but the spear he had on his back was actually creating some sort of spinning vortex of air around him, keeping all the flames away. He was cheating the cheater, and it was glorious.

He brought out another arrow, and nocked it quickly. He turned around and fired an arrow aimed at its head. Something terribly strange happened. Something was incredibly magic with the wind in that cave because that arrow should have hit. Everything was perfect. Suddenly, a gust of wind deflected the arrow. It caused him to miss. Extremely enraged, Longshot turned around and shouted, "That was a warning shot!" It wasn't a warning shot at all. It was just that cheater cheating his cheats.

When he turned around, he found himself outside. He was rapidly speeding towards a cliff. He stopped himself and turned around. There was a gigantic dragon standing on it's hind legs, ready to destroy Travian. He prepared his bow to fire another arrow, but a giant hand came down and knocked the bow out of his hands. The bow actually went over the edge. He turned his head to face the dragon. "Leave the spear and the arrows, and you may live, thief." This dragon was actually going to reason with him. Of course, his quiver was important to him.

"Ha ha ha ha! Good joke!" He pulled out the spear, which he had no experience with. Not once had he used a spear or even a pole arm. Now he knew how to handle a sword: pointy end goes into other man. He thought that rule applied with spears as well. The dragon let loose a stream of fire, so Travian poked his spear forward, expecting something amazing. Unlike last time, something amazing happened when he tried to save himself. The flames were flying around the spear and Travian instead of burninating him.

With his utter destruction prevented, he let loose a roar of war. He pulled the spear back, and prepared another thrust. He started charging towards the dragon, expecting a glorious result. He would stab the dragon's leg, causing it to fall down. He would then jump onto it and stab it through the heart, and behold in awe as he was blessed by the Old Ones to win this battle. The ponies would celebrate and venerate him. His victory would be written as legend!

The large hand of the dragon came down and knocked him aside, and promptly caused him to fall off the edge of the cliff. His painful grunts kept repeating themselves as he kept bouncing on and off the rock. It wasn't incredibly steep, so it was more like falling down stairs. He could feel multiple bones probably breaking as he kept rolling down. It seemed like an eternity of pain before he finally reached the ground. It was a painless collision as he had gone numb.

And so he lied there on the ground. He was defeated, bloodied, and badly broken. He had gotten a single magical weapon, and that was what he had to show for it all. "Why universe... Why..." It was kind of pathetic, really. He should have known not to blindly charge ahead with his spear like that! Then again, he had a long pointy stick. What else was he supposed to do? When he was able to finally move his head, he looked around his crash. He found his bow just a little distance away from where he fell, so that was convenient. He rested his head on the ground and prepared for a horrible nap of shame.

When he awoke from his nap, he found himself in the same place. It was just darker. Well actually, it was night time. He really hoped he was forgotten. He would rather not want to explain his failure. A little zapping noise made itself heard by him. He looked around and found his brother walking towards him rather slowly. "So. How'd your date go?" Travian tried sighing, but it only hurt. "Ah. That bad, huh? Well, from the look of things, it was pretty bad. So where do I drop you off at?" Travian tried speaking, but again it hurt. "Huh. Where's this cottage?" He tried speaking painese. "I see. Alright, I'll take you there."

His brother lifted him up over his shoulders. "You bought her breakfast instead of dinner, didn't you? Or did you not include the wine?" He grunted. "No wine huh? Shame that." Travian really did not like how his brother always teased him like this. He was supposed to be the older one! "So. Magic. It's everywhere. I'd rather not be surrounded by it, but here you are with your everything plus one broken." Plus one? What plus one? "Oh, trust me. Your helmet has been on a few times, and I've been able to see everything I needed from that. That plus one... The yellow one. She's rather shy, I'll admit, but I suppose that's a given for you."

The trip to Fluttershy's cottage was long. In fact, it was way too long for Travian. His brother, while sometimes fun or useful, is annoying at times. They got there, though, and he was dropped in front of the bridge. "While I'd love to chat, I have to find and guide my ship here, and to be honest that needs my attention more. However, I will have you know I should be here within a few months. Don't get too settled in, Longshot, because I will come and take you no matter what." He tried grunting something. "No. You don't get to bring one. Too much magic to tempt me. I'd kill it before we got in to space. Anyways, I bid you farewell, cousin." He zapped away.

That was a thing about him. If he wanted a loud entrance, he would get one. If he wanted a quiet entrance or exit, he would just zap away like that. So there he was again. Left alone on the front step of Fluttershy's cottage. Broken, bloodied, and breathing. There was a small zap again. "Oh, I suppose you want someone to know you're here. Allow me to help." His brother disappeared yet again, but this time leaving a loud warping sound. Dozens of animals were freaking out because of it. The door to the cottage also opened.

From out of the cottage, he saw an extremely tired Fluttershy who clearly wanted to be in bed. She woke up suddenly when she saw all the animals in an uproar. She tried to calm them, and mildly succeeded. She herself calmed down rapidly as well when the animals all went back to sleep. At least she was calm when she for a short period. Then she saw a heavily injured Travian who's condition was not getting any better.

Travian would like to have said she didn't freak out. He would have liked to have said a certain bunny had not noticed her freaking out and then investigate said thing that was freaking her out. In fact, he would have love to have said this bunny wasn't freaking out as well. Such things, however, he could not say at all. He could have said that opposite, though. His sense of hearing was dulled by the incredibly loud sounds before, so he really could hear anything in particular. His sense of sight was also kind of damaged as everything was a blur at that point.

What he did know was that he effectively blacked out at a moment he didn't want to deal with. When he woke up on a familiar couch, he was slightly relieved. When he saw a purple unicorn with an inquisitive look on her face, he was slightly terrified. Only slightly, however. "How did you get so hurt?" Truth be told, it could have been avoided had he not grabbed a thing.

"I grabbed a thing, then suddenly dragon." His brain was probably a little broken at this point too. "So then it flung me off a cliff. Wasn't fun." She stared at him.

"That's not something normal ponies survive."

"Do I look like a pony? Seriously, girl, get some glasses." It was strange, though. How did he survive that fall? He looked down to see the rest of his body and he found a bunny on him. "Oh hey look, fuzzy thing. Hi fuzzy thing, my name's Longshot. How you doing?" The little bunny hugged him a little bit. "That's good, I guess. I suppose it's great to find some sort of love in another. Now don't you jump straight into what bunnies do, now, you hear? That stuff is unsanitary and creates too many rabbits bouncing around." The bunny had some sort of expression saying 'ew'. "Don't you be saying that to me now! I know what you little buggers do."

Twilight was looking at him like he was insane. "Right so... I think I hear my-"

"Laundry calling? Yeah, I can hear it too. It's saying 'quick Twilight, escape! We need you!'" He smiled as she back pedaled out of the room. It was fun reminding her of her excuses. He focused back on the bunny who then changed into a strangeling. "Hola, senorita. Como estas?"

The strangeling looked at him strangely. "I'm sorry what? Oh yeah... I missed having you around. All the animals are boring here, and Spike didn't help at all." Who could have seen that coming?

"So. How was your date with Angel? Was it fun?" He almost got a little bonk on the nose, but Mayella halted when she realized how injured he was. "Oh go ahead. It's not gonna hurt me any worse."

"But it'd hurt me by making me feel guilty!"

"Guilt? Wow, didn't know you guys had that. Or maybe it's because you're a strangeling." There was the bonk he was looking for. It was great to not be fighting a dragon and possibly dying. He looked across the room while they were laughing and saw his spear propped up against the wall. How fun that thing would be.