The Dragon Law

General disclaimer: I do not own MLP, characters or otherwise, it belongs to Hasbro and such. Aside from the occasional original character I own nothing but the love of the show and its fanbase.

The Dragon Law

07.        Whereabout Walkabout

So close, I was so close to the exit It was unbearable. I was stuck in a wheelchair of  the hospital lobby doing paperwork, I wasn’t even the one doing it, Maritime Gold was filling out the forms for me. Not that I would compaine (besides bureaucrats, who likes paperwork), but seriously I could have done it myself. I’m not going back to being treated like a child (oops, that sounded like a challenge and everyone knows the universe doesn't like being challenged). I understood back when I was in the cast and couldn't write or anything, but now I’m being treated like a child again.

 I’ve been living on my own for three years now, well actually with one or two roommates but the point is I don’t live in my parents house any more. I have (had) a job, paid rent on time, did the shopping, and made enough for fun every now and again. I admit that I’m incredibly naive and the universe has plenty of chances to show me how independ I really am. But I can walk myself, feed myself, and fill out my own paperwork, I’m not one of those who need looking after like a small child (wait, actually I might, who knows what kind of hell I could accidently raise wandering around alone. That was sarcasm if you couldn’t tell.) But seriously, with my luck I’m liable to burn down a city block figuring out dragon fire.

Mardi once asked me what breathing fire was like, again I was confronted with questions I couldn’t answer. I luckily got away with some BS about it being a big responsibility when in cities and when sick or injured its best not experiment. In reality I’m as much of a firebug everyone else who doesn't have pyrophobia. As soon as got to a clear area, preferably by one of the many lakes this city is known for, I was going to go through a few exercises I had thought of. First, figure out how to make fire (you’d think it would be easy, but you’d be wrong). Second, measure how long I can sustain a continuous flow. Third, find different ways to manipulate the fire; fireballs, cones, gouts, that sort of thing. And lastly, if I can find a way, measure how hot I can get the flame. I may not be the best at Science but I don’t see a reason why I shouldn't find out what this body is capable of. Although the reason this wasn’t done under dr. Beard’s care was because supposedly I’m still magically drained, whatever, Imma burn stuff!

I was brought out of my thinking by someone tapping me on the shoulder.

“Are you Okay Mr. Law? You seemed kind of out of it for a bit there,” nurse Gold asked.

“I’m fine, was just thinking. So, everything in order?” I responded.

“Yes, you're ready to go at any time, although,” she started tapping her hoof on the ground and had a mildly frustrated look about her, “Mardi Gras said that she would be here to give you a tour, seeing that this is your first time in town and traveling alone.”

“Huh, I wonder what's keeping her. If you think it best, I could wait in the lobby, I don’t really want to bother anyone.”

“It’s a waiting area for a reason, go right ahead. I’m sure she won’t be much longer.”

And with that I got up from my wheelchair, stretched, said farewell to nurse Gold, went to one of the many benches along the wall, pulled up an old magazine that waiting areas are notorious for, and began reading. Equestrian Inquirer, probably not the best source of news, but it was definitely entertaining. Not knowing where canon ended and fanon began made telling truth from fiction plenty hard, one story stated that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony were actually all the children of Princess Celestia, another that parasprites were actually aliens from another planet that crashed here on a meteor and could very well spell the end of us all (that one I’m apt to believe). Speaking of end times, the story from the front cover foretells that the escape of Discord is just the beginning of a series of catastrophes one after another gradually increasing until all of Equestria is nothing but a barren wasteland (pleasant read).

After going through the tabloid and a few other magazines almost an hour had passed and still no Mardi Gras, It probably wasn’t the best idea to leave on my own, in a town I knew nothing about, in the middle of a strange fantasy land; (I’m sure I’ve had stupider ideas) I decided to go for a walk. I left a message for nurse Gold and Mardi Gras at the receptionist, who luckily for me had a small map in her desk. I thanked her for the map and was on my way (to where you ask?), I had no idea where I was going. It was shortly after I had left the sterile confines of the hospital that I remembered why I was never the navigator when my friends went out, I took all of five steps and was lost. Seriously, I was looking at the map and walking doing my best not to bump into anyone (not hard since most everybody kept well away from me, like I was some fierce beast or something), next thing I knew I was in the middle of some street with the hospital nowhere in sight.

I did what I normally do when lost like this (was not the first, nor will it be the last) I spun around and started walking the way I came, and kept going till I was blocked, usually by a highway, but in this case where highways likely didn’t exist I stopped short of a body of water. I can work with that, I took a left and went with the flow as it were. After about a half an hour or so (though without a timepiece it was kinda hard to tell) I stopped at a bench opened the gray burlap satchel I was given to hold the few belongings I had acquired and had lunch.

While crunching on peach flavored gem I was thinking about the the architecture of the town, a lot of brick and wood, it was nice though. Most of the building in this area looked to be warehouses, that made sense seeing how this was a trade city easily accessed by land, air (they have airships, hell yeah!), and water. One thing that stood out to me was how close the buildings were to each other, I’m sure that was a fire hazard or something. Maybe it’s justified because of the proximity of numerous bodies of water? Past the warehouses were taller building, none over five or six stories, which could have been apartment buildings or businesses, it was hard to tell from here.

Turning around I looked across the river, there were docks spaced about every mile or so along the river leading to more specialized looking buildings, what I thought was a lumber mill had a few barges close by unloading the shipment of logs. What I took notice of was the diversity of the dock workers. Instead of cranes there were pegasi and griffin lifting teams transferring bundles of logs to teams of minotaurs and earth ponies and the odd diamond dog that carried the package to and fro. Unicorns assisted in keeping the packages stable or were writing on clipboards. As a whistle blew somewhere in the distance the workers finished their current task and started to head into the buildings, guess that was the lunch break. Now back to the business at hand.

I got up and went back to walking along the cobblestone streets of Maneapolis, lost or not I was having a good time, not unlike the few times I had walked along Bardstown Road with my roommates while in college, except now I was alone and catching the eye of just about everyone (I’m not going to say everypony, deal with it). After about three blocks I took a left heading back into the city.

The further in I got the more crowded the streets became, it wasn't a problem for me seeing how everyone just quickly made their way to the other side of the street or turned around and went back the way they came. It didn’t take long for this to get to me. Not long after I noticed them avoiding me I started noticing the looks, they either turned their head as if pretending I wasn’t there or faces of worry or anger (worry from most of the ponies and anger from the few griffins on the ground).

Why did they have to keep staring at me? I had quickened my pace going from one street to the next, slowly becoming more lost and disoriented. The map had been forgotten, I was going on pure instinct, heading to where the crowd was thinner. I had a thought, standing on two legs I’m almost nine feet tall, maybe I started on all fours it would make me less noticeable.

It didn’t work. But being lower to the ground kept me from noticing how much attention I was actually attracting. None of the Ponies had started to panic outright, which was odd seeing how they usually did at the drop of a hat (three mares in particular), that thought did little to ease my steadily building tension.

Why am I so afraid of being the center of attention, not just here where I actually look like a monster but ever since I can remember. I had near crippling anxiety attacks when dealing with crowds. I thought I was doing well up until now. I need to do go somewhere, anywhere. Someplace where it doesn't feel like everyone is judging me (too late by the looks on everyone's faces). I turned a corner and entered the first building that had the signs of being a shop.

As I entered the shop a bell rang signaling potential customers. A wave of relief hit me, even if there were customers here there would definitely be less than out there. I needed to pull myself together.

“Welcome, welcome. I’ll be right with you In a sec,” came a soft but deep, feminine voice from somewhere behind a large pile of bolts of fabric.

I had entered a tailoring shop it had seemed. As weird as it sounded I had no problem walking around in nothing but my scales, but some clothes to look classy would be nice. And a nice hat, everyone needs a good hat.