Fighting Freedom

Feeling returned to my body, but I didn't open my eyes. There was an unfamiliar weight on my chest, and it was making sleep evasive. The only thing I have ever slept with before is a stuffed plushie that might’ve weighed a pound, max. So when I felt this heavy weight on my body while I was only half awake, I did the only reasonable thing. I pushed it off of me. Of course unbeknownst to me, that meant that Rose fell off the bed and onto the floor.

I dutifully ignored the cry of surprise from the floor, and turned on my side. The deep void had almost reclaimed me, when I felt something tugging at my tail. I wasn't fully awake until I was falling to the ground to join Rose. After shrugging off a rather feisty blanket, I managed to get a clear view of Rose. She was holding a hoof over her mouth, suppressing a laugh.

Once again the instincts of a dragon took over as my pride was wounded. Looking at the offending object, I let out a snort of fire. Rose stopped laughing and panicked as she tried to stomp out the fire. Part of me felt satisfied, and another part was asking why the hell I just did that. In either case when Rose had succeeded in putting out the fire, I just apologized and claimed it was a mistake. She seemed to accept this answer, and once again, I felt a bit satisfied knowing I had been successful. Rose bundled up what was left of the blanket and threw it in a bin.

After doing so, she said,

"Well at least the room smells like ash now."

I chuckled inside my head, the retort almost instant,

"As opposed to a.."

Rose silenced me with a look, which quickly formed into a fit of giggles.

"I guess we don't exactly smell that great."

Once again, a retort was ready before even I was,

"Certainly not like a batch of roses."

Rose let out one small giggle and said,

"That was just bad."

I folded my arms, and my tail swung lowly, moving in a slow motion that would quickly become a habit. When I didn't say anything, Rose looked me up and down before saying,

"Well, we should do something about the smell. A shower would do wonders."

Rose didn't exactly look great, a few nights of no showers, and then a rough night makes a pony look a tad crazy. Her tail and mane were sticking out in all sorts of directions, and her body was rather poofed out too. As a scaley dragon, I still looked perfectly fine. My scales might not have had as much sheen as they used too, but there was no grime.

"Maybe for you, but I still look just as dangerous as ever."

"Dangerous?"

"Something like that."

As we talked, Rose led me down the stairs and to her bathroom. She opened the door, revealing the shower.

"Besides, I was thinking that the shower could be for more than just getting clean."

She gave me a wink, and a small shake of her rear. I eyed her warily and said,

"What are you a teenager?"

"Actually I'm 18, so yeah I guess I am."

"Wow… Well there goes all my arguments against doing so."

Rose whipped her tail against my leg, which I felt dully, and stepped into the shower. It wasn't really big enough for both of us to fit comfortably, but I doubt she cared about that. Whether it was out of control hormones or some magical core related thing, Rose was being very raunchy.

When I didn't immediately step inside, Rose reached out with one hoof, and wrapped it around my waist. I was brought into the shower and roughly pulled up against Rose's body. She was leaning against the wall on her back legs. Her front hooves were wrapped around me, and were moving slowly. The water had yet to be turned on, and I wasn't sure how long it would take.

Before anything serious could take place, a loud knock on the door was heard.

Rose sighed and said,

"Maybe they'll go away."

After last night, I wasn't too reluctant to engage in such activities again, but that didn't mean I wanted to live every teenagers dream. I mean constant sex could be appealing… to be frank, it’s very appealing, but I can't just descend into that. Don't want my life to amount to a dirty fan fiction or something.

The knock came again, and I pushed Rose off of me a bit.

"I'll just go get the door."

Rose just got down on all fours and waived me off. I made sure I was decent looking, the disadvantages of not wearing pants, and went to the door. After opening said object, I saw Rarity on the other side.

"Oh my… So you spent the night then?"

I looked at Rarity suspiciously,

"Is this something important?"

"Not as important as what happened between you and Rose last night. Don't try to deny it darling, I can smell it."

I sighed and said,

"Look Rarity, I'm busy, can this wait?"

"Oh come on! Just give me some small details, please!"

Rarity's voice almost descended into a wine, and I wanted to get away from her.

"No. Now I'm going back…"

"Okay, okay. Just make sure you talk to the rest of the girls at some point today. It will be easier to convince Twilight if everyone else believes you. I tried to convince her, but she just said I was tired. She said that if Celestia said it, then it had to be true. Now go back to… having fun."

Rarity closed the door and I could hear her laughing as she walked away. Shaking my head, I walked back to the shower. Rose had started the water and I could hear it hitting the tile of the shower floor. I assumed she would gladly let me join, but I restrained myself. After last night, I was starting to see Rose as a bit more physically appealing, and I assumed that feeling would continue to grow, but I didn't want to push it.

Rose got out of the shower, steam dried, and gave me the evil eye. I shrugged her off and stepped in the shower after her. I might not need to get clean, but I needed to get the smell off of me. My human memories recalled me hating being covered in sticky sweat (ha ha ha), and as a dragon thing, it was unbearable, seeing as dragons don't actually sweat. Felt like I was covered in dirt or something. If I haven't mentioned it before, having the mind of a dragon was very, very weird. It didn't feel weird, but I knew it wasn't how it always used to be. Bah! Whatever, if you get it, you'll get it.

Rose seemed to be a little upset with me, or had just forgotten about me, and did not interfere with my shower. After my green scales shone light back at the walls, I was satisfied. Strange, because back when I was a huge dragon, water was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. Now that I was much smaller, I had no problem with it. It was something to ask Morkar about later.

I stepped out of the bathroom, feeling a bit odd at not putting on clothes, and saw Rose preparing her flower cart.

"Going out to work?"

"Well at least one of us has a job, besides I don't consider it work. Work is something that makes you money, what I do makes people smile."

"Sure it does. Listen I got to go tell other people that I'm not dead."

Rose turned around to look at me with a giggle.

"You make it sound so normal."

I gave her a serious look and said,

"Would you believe me if I said this wasn't the first time?"

She just shook her head at me and pushed her cart out the door. It was almost like we had been together for months now. I'd have to watch it, or I might lose myself in her routine.

Well whether she believed me or not, I had to go out and do it. I decided to follow Rarity's advice, and convince Twilights friends that I wasn't dead first.

Some of you may wonder why I even bothered to do so, and normally, I would be with you on that. I mean yeah, it's like, THE mane six, but they don't need to know everything. I hadn't even really spoken to half of the group. Stick with me though.

If I convince them, it'll be easier to convince Twilight. If Twilight believes me, then it'll be easier to convince Celestia that I'm not evil. If Celestia believes me, then she won't try and make life extremely hard for me. If she found out somehow that I was here, she might think I still have the core. Therefore she would try to get it back, and possibly send me to the moon again.

If that happened while I was still a dragon, then getting out of the situation might be a bit difficult. I didn't know how to teleport, last time had been a fluke. Being stuck on the moon for 1000 years didn't really sound fun, especially all because of a mistake. So a few days here, might save me 1000 years later.

I decided to start with Applejack, seeing as I had actually talked to her more than once. I opened the front door and walked outside. The morning sun greeted me, as did the view of the town. I saw Rose pulling her cart to the fountain.

I began walking towards the farm, following the path. I walked under the archway proclaiming to lead to Sweet Apple Acres, and started walking through apple trees. My feet dug into the ground, due to my clawed feet. However, I wasn't too worried about the ground, to be honest.

The barn was in sight when I was apprehended by someone. I jumped a bit when they called me out, as I had been distracted by my own feet.

"Now who are y'all?"

I looked around myself, and finally spotted Applebloom. She was beside one of the trees next to the path. Actually made me kind of glad to see her. Children are much more likely to believe the truth then adults. Of course they are also much more likely to believe lies, but in this case I was telling the truth.

"Is that the way ponies greet people around here?"

Applebloom checked herself and then said,

"Nah, but y'all aren't people."

Huh… hadn't thought about that.

"Well… I guess I'm not. In that case my name is Silver."

"Now that's funny, Ah know somepony named Silver. Except he isn't a pony, mah sis says he's a who-man."

I rolled my eyes and said,

"Well isn't that just a coincidence. Did he also happen to be really good at climbing trees and picking apples?"

Applebloom nodded excitedly and said,

"Well… ya!"

"I'll also wager a guess that you helped him one time, and even offered to carry the baskets. However, he refused because that wouldn't be right."

"Now how did y’all know that?"

"In fact, I bet he was incredibly handsome and dashing. A real hero."

"Well ah don't know about that stuff."

"I'll even put 5 bits down that he's standing right in front of you."

Applebloom actually looked around before turning to me and saying,

"No he's not."

I crouched down on the ground to get on Applebloom's level and said,

"Funnily enough, he is."

"No, he ain't."

I sat down on the ground, letting my tail curl around me.

"I can do this all day."

"Do what all day?"

I sighed and said,

"Obviously you aren't getting the message here."

"What message?"

"That I'm Silver."

"Well y'all already told me that."

"No see I'm the other Silver too."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm the Silver you knew before, just different looking now."

"Mah Sis said he wasn't around no more."

"Well that's because I had to go do something."

"But she said that you wouldn't be back for a long time."

"Well something came up and I came back."

"Well that's great! Have ya told anypony else?"

I got off the ground and stood up.

"A few, but not your sister, which is who I'm here to talk too."

Applebloom looked back to the barn and said,

"Well Applejack is up at the barn with Caramel. Ah think Big Mac was setting up the plow."

I started walking towards the barn, and Applebloom quickly caught up to me and followed. When I got close I managed to spot Big Mac who was indeed setting up the plow. I walked up to him and got his attention.

"Ey Mac."

Big Mac just nodded at me, and continued to adjust the straps on the plow. Applebloom whispered something in his ear, and he looked at me again. He once again said nothing, and went back to the plow.

"So uhh… Mac, gotta second?"

Big Mac finally stopped messing with the plow and turned to face me. I didn't have to tell him, but he was there, and I always liked Big Mac regardless of whether he was mostly made up in my head, or actually real right here.

"Just thought I should let you know, I'm Silver, the guy who worked here before, and I'm not dead. So… yeah."

Big Mac just nodded at me, and turned back to the plow.

"So that's it? You believe me?"

"Eeyup."

Should've known it was going to be that easy. After all it is Big Mac.

"Well hopefully your sister will be this easy to convince. You know where she's at?"

Mac left the plow, and headed towards the barn. The large door was open enough for us to slip through and we did so. Mac wasn't the type to call out names, and I didn't want to be rude. However, it may have been better if one of us had. We found Applejack, laying on one of the haystacks, along with Caramel. They were in flagrante so to speak, and I saw a bit more than I ever wanted to.

Although now that I know; it actually takes a bit of work to peek at a pony's private parts. I mean, they aren't hidden, but they aren't in plain sight either. Just mentioning it so you know that you aren't going to be staring at such things all day. Unless of course you’ve already dealt with ponies.

Before Applebloom could round the corner with us, I managed to cover her eyes before she could see anything. She gave an indignant cry, which startled AJ and Caramel, and they hid behind the hay stack. After they fell I looked over to Big Mac to see if he was going to kill something. In case I had to run away of course.

Big Mac however, just shrugged and walked back outside the barn. Probably to work with the plow again. He always seemed more than just a typical farm brother to me. As if he actually had some intelligence, which he does.

After a few minutes, Applejack walked out from behind the haystack, looking somewhat decent. She took a look at me, and then Applebloom. When she saw the latter, her face turned to worry.

"Applebloom? Oh no, what did ya see girl?"

I interrupter her by saying,

"Don't worry, she didn't see a thing. So you aren't screwed, but you already know that."

I laughed hard after that statement, and Applebloom just gave me a confused look.

"And who the hay are you? If ah didn't know any better, I'd say…"

"That you already know me? Well you kinda do. I worked here for a little bit, Silver's the name. Just got a little make over, which you could use yourself."

AJ fumed at me before saying,

"If Ah hadn't already known you weren't dead Silver, Ah'd believe it now."

I did a sort of double take and said,

"Wha?"

AJ shook her head at me, and started walking outside.

"Ponies… Ah mean people… Ah mean whatever y'all are, like you don't go so easily."

"Like me?"

"Insufferable like, self-centered and egotistical."

"I'm not egotistical…"

AJ ignored my protest and said,

"Now if y'all needed something, let it out. Ah got to get to work."

I pointed at her with a claw while saying,

"Because you were working really hard earlier. I guess Big Mac wasn't the only one working the plow."

AJ was suddenly in my face and said,

"Ah don't want you breathing a word of that ta anypony. If ya do… well recently alive or not, y'all won't be happy."

The implied threat wasn't really all that credible, but I let the subject drop. Obviously her brother didn't care, but someone else would if they knew. I wasn't going to rat her out though, assuming there was something to rat her about.

I left AJ alone and started to head back to town. Applebloom followed me to the archway, asking constant questions about where I was. I answered them as best I could, unless it was a bit sensitive. That meant two of the three ponies out of the mane six I’d previously spoken to, already knew. The third one had to wait until the end. I guess that meant Pinkie, being the closest was next. I had a feeling she wouldn't be that hard to convince.

I was just really assuming that they were the only ones who were invited to my "funeral". I really had this feeling that there was no ceremony or anything. I would have to ask Pinkie, or another pony. Rose was at her stall, talking to some colt that had come up to chat with her. I ignored them, and as a human I can honestly say I felt no jealousy. At least the memories I have of me being human told me that. However, as a dragon, I wanted to bash their heads together.

I resisted the temptation, and walked past Rose's cart. Thankfully she didn't turn around and see me. Once again, I was kind of surprised no pony pointed me out and screamed in terror. I guess you get one too many aliens, and you just give up on that sort of thing.

I found myself at Sugarcube Corner, and for once in my life, I wasn't really interested in treats. Not even the greatest of all great cheesecakes sounded that good. Neither did cheese pie for that matter. I opened the door, since it was a store, and a bell rang.

Mr. Cake was the pony to greet me from behind the counter, and he sounded rather chipper.

"Welcome to Sugarcube corner!"

I looked him up and down, feeling an unprecedented annoyance at his perkiness. He seemed to get just a teensy bit nervous as I stared him up and down. Then I remembered that I did look sort of intimidating these days. I smiled nervously at him before saying,

"Hi, I was just wondering if Pinkie Pie was around."

I then remembered that my smile was full of razor teeth, and looked much more threatening than calming. Cake looked at me suspiciously before saying,

"Who wants to know?"

"Well you might not believe this, but I'm Silver."

Cake just gave me a confused look as he searched his memories for something. Eventually he just shrugged and said,

"I've never heard of you."

It was at that point that I just decided to give it to him straight.

"Alright Mr. Cake here's how it goes. Princess Celestia thinks I have something very important, which I don't, but she doesn't know I'm here. If she were to find out I was here, she would tear me apart, so I need to convince her that I don't have what she wants. In order to do that, I need to convince Twilight, her faithful student. In order to convince Twilight, I need to convince all her best friends. Kind of like one of those really annoying roundabout quests."

When I finished talking Mr. Cake just stared at me blankly for a few seconds. Then he said,

"Alright, well I actually don't really know where Pinkie is."

Basically, he just wasted my time, and made me make a bad impression. Not that making a good impression is easy in the first place. I mean if a dragon came up to me, I might be a bit prejudiced toward it.

"Well thanks anyways I guess."

I walked out the door and looked around myself. My best guess was that Pinkie was with Rainbow Dash. But that left me with no clue where Rainbow Dash was. I would just have to get lucky to see either one. Therefore I would just have to go with Fluttershy.

I once again started walking outside of the town, past the large watermill. It actually took me a little bit to spot Fluttershy's hut next to the forest. Eventually I did manage to find it, and I went up to the door. I didn't knock though, because I heard singing. Before I could investigate I heard something behind me.

"Déjà vu man."

I turned around quickly, but nothing was there. I scanned the forest line carefully, before finally accepting that I was just losing my mind a little. A small part of me wanted to burn the forest down just to find whoever said that, but I reasoned that would be a bit extreme.

I stepped around the small hut, to examine the back yard. I saw Fluttershy singing to some small critters. At one point in time, I might have thought it beautiful, but at the moment it sounded rather lame. I stepped towards Fluttershy, and the small critters went berserk when they saw me. They ran in all directions, and I watched with mild amusement as they ran into each other.

Fluttershy turned around in a panic as all her critters fled. When she saw me, her eyes went huge. She hovered in the air, maybe an inch off the ground and stuttered,

"D-d-dragon!"

Her voice was almost impossible to hear, and after she finished, she fell to the ground. She lay on her back, one of her legs twitching. When she didn't move for a few minutes, I just sighed and picked her up. I threw her over my shoulder and started to walk back to town.

I rounded the house when I was accosted by a small army. By small army, I literally mean small. All assortments of small animals had gathered in front of me. A bunny that I assumed was Angel stood in front of them.

I shrugged to put Fluttershy in a better position and said,

"I just need to borrow her for a second. I promise I won't hurt her."

Angel didn't back down, and he started to pound his tiny foot.

"I'm guessing a dragon's word doesn't mean much to you."

Angel shook his head and pointed at me.

I bent down towards him and smiled at him. After doing so I said,

"Look, I just want to talk to her and her friends. I'm betting that if I walk around town like this, one of them will accost me fairly quickly."

After I had smiled, almost all the animals had run in terror. It was only then that I remembered that my smile was just as friendly as a lions. Angel still stood defiant, and I sighed. I put down Fluttershy in front of him, and he tried to drag her back to the hut. Even if she only weighed like 25 pounds, that bunny wasn't budging her.

Angel finally jumped on top of her, and began pounding his foot on her body. She woke up in just a few seconds and looked around wildly. When she saw me she just repeated her earlier actions. When she fell unconscious again, Angel face-palmed and proceeded to jump in front of her. He waved at me and pointed behind Fluttershy.

I obeyed him, and walked around the body. I waited for him, and he proceeded to kick Fluttershy's nose several times. She woke up again, and tried to look around. Angel grabbed her face, and it was enough to calm her down.

"Oh Angel it was horrible. There was a dragon at my house. Why am I out here?"

Angel started to play charades with her as he bounced around. First he took one side, and mimed a monster.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin and said,

"A monster… the dragon?"

Angel nodded and then moved to the other side of Fluttershy's head. He pointed at himself, and then waved to the other him. He took the position of the monster (me), and waved back. Angel then turned to Fluttershy and pointed at me.

Fluttershy saw me and screamed again. She fainted once more, and Angel threw his hands in the air. He left her laying there and hopped back to the hut. I shrugged, and threw Fluttershy over my shoulder again.

I headed back to town, my burden a lot heavier on the way, and entered the town. A lot of ponies gave me stares now, but none acted. I guess no one wanted to question a dragon. It only took a few minutes for what I wanted to happen, to, well… happen.

I got to the third ring of the town when my vision was blurred by a rainbow of colors. I gripped Fluttershy hard, just in case, and waited. Rainbow Dash landed in front of me, looking rather annoyed.

"And what do you think you’re doing with my friend?"

I put Fluttershy on the ground and said,

"Looking for you… well, and Pinkie Pie."

Dash dropped her guard and just looked confused,

"What?"

I brushed my hands together while looking at Fluttershy,

"Just needed to tell you that I, Silver, am still alive. I just happen to look different now."

Once again Dash just gave me a confused look and I said,

"You know, Silver the human? I'm just Silver the Dragon now."

Dash shook her head and then said,

"I get the dragon thing, but why would I think you were dead?"

It was my turn to look confused and say,

"But there was a funeral and stuff."

Dash shrugged her shoulders and said,

"This is the first I'm hearing of it. I know Princess Luna came by to tell Twilight, AJ, and some other pony something."

I crossed my arms and said,

"I'm not even worth a funeral. Whatever, you happen to know where Pinkie Pie is?"

So the whole funeral thing was a ploy the entire time. Celestia told Rarity that she was hosting one so Rarity would tell me. Celestia was smart, but then again that should've been obvious.

Dash shook her head and said,

"I haven't seen her all day."

"Oh well, 4 out of 5 is good. Mind telling Fluttershy what I just told you? Well about being a dragon anyways. And if she remembers anything, tell her I'm sorry too."

Dash looked at Fluttershy and said,

"Wait, you can't leave her with me. Besides, what did you do?"

I waved a hand and said,

"Nothing to worry about. Just make sure she knows about me. Maybe next time she won't faint."

I began walking away, ignoring Dash's cries. I headed to the only place I could think of. I wasn't too worried about Twilight spotting me, seeing as she didn't know anything yet. Besides even if she did. I would try to convince her right there of who I was.

I would wager a guess that the time was around 2 or 3, but without a watch, a guess was all I could manage. I knocked on the door in front of me, and it opened in only a few seconds. A much higher voice than I expected said,

"Welcome to the Carousel Boutique."

I had to look below where I expected Rarity's head to be and looked down at Sweetie Bell. She stared back up at me, apparently just now seeing me. She didn't scream, but she didn't do ‘nothing’ either. She bolted from the door, and out of view.

I ignored the response, and let myself inside the building. I patiently waited, and eventually Rarity came from the back door.

"Oh Sweetie Bell dear, this is Silver. There's nothing to be worried about. What do you need dear?"

At the last sentence Rarity turned to face me. Sweetie Bell looked out from behind her sister while she was talking. I looked directly at Sweetie Bell and said,

"I got to admit kid, I've never seen anything run that fast. Well besides your sister when she saw some slime."

Sweetie Bell chuckled a bit, and Rarity stomped a hoof.

"I did no such thing. Now seriously Silver, what do you need?"

I looked at her and said,

"Calm down, it was a joke. I don't actually need anything, but I don't have anything else to do."

"So you came here?"

I shrugged and said,

"I guess I did, imagine that."

Rarity huffed and said,

"Well I'm sorry, but I'm a bit busy at the moment. I'll talk to Twilight later for you. Now I have to get back to work. Watch the shop Sweetie Bell."

Rarity walked back through the door, and I was left alone with Sweetie Bell.

"Well I wonder how she gets any customers acting like that."

Sweetie Bell just stared at me, saying nothing.

I pointed behind me, saying,

"Right… well I'm going to go now."

Sweetie Bell still said nothing, but managed to nod at me. I left through the front door and looked around myself. Now that I didn't have a goal in front of me, I felt like some tension left my body. Seemed like I had less stress tolerance as a dragon, or I was finally taking things seriously.

With nothing to do, my mind wandered to something I hadn't done in a long time. I needed to go play with magic, assuming I still could. So I once again walked down a path, towards my favorite spot. I took the third out of four roads, and walked at a leisurely pace.

When I arrived at my destination, I was greeted by the same waterfall as always. When I reached the edge of the water, I instinctively tried to pull up a ball of water. Imagine my surprise when nothing happened.

It didn't take me to long to reason that being a dragon might affect me a little. After all, it was something I had thought about before. So obviously, as a dragon, fire must be my natural element. I had lost my book for the moment, and it was likely still sitting in an ancient city somewhere. However, I remembered enough to try and fail at doing something with fire.

At first I tried controlling my inner temperature and breath to focus on heat, but every time I did, fire would just come out of my mouth. After a few minutes of failing, I gave up on trying to use my breath as a focus. At this moment I felt my head to see if I still had the bracelet. I was happy when I felt the wooden circle around one of the horns on my head. At least I knew I had a medium.

I felt like I was learning from the start all over again. I tried so many different things to move the fire that came out of my mouth, but nothing did it. At the end I gave a small hiss and a tiny gout of flame came out. I then started breathing upwards, and the flame moved upwards. It wasn't all that shocking, as it made sense to me. If I breathed up, then the fire would go up.

However, after making the fire circle around me by directing it with my breath, I decided that I had accomplished something. It might not even be magic, but it was something. It didn't look the best either, as fire would always be coming out my mouth. Then there was the fact that I could only control it as long as I had breath. I had to stop at some point.

Satisfied that I hadn't wasted my time, I headed back to town. I'd say the time was about 5 now, but once again that was a guess. The rest of the day seemed to go by pretty fast, almost as if I wasn't there but watching it from the side.

I saw Rose on the way to the center of town and helped her pull the cart back to her place. I set it inside and sat down on the couch.

Rose pretty much demanded I let her make something, and I complied. After some time she brought out a salad. I was starting to get sick of plants, and was starting to crave a gem or two. I ate it anyways, and smiled at Rose as I did so.

After dinner, Rose dragged me upstairs, and behind closed doors. The rest of the night passed fairly quickly as well, but for very different reasons.

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AN: Just a few things to say.

1. First of all, a shout out to FrieD195 (Hope I got that right) for picking up the task of prereader. He did an excellent job, and everyone should give him praise for being awesome and stuff.

2. Comment more damn you!