The Red Dragon of Change

I tapped my claws on the floor of the cave, my stomach growling reminding that I had eaten the rest of the dragon yesterday. Ugh, when will he be back? I bet he got lost and can’t find his way back. I looked over at the bones and patches of scale left over, trying to find a scrap of meat that I had missed. Nope, nothing on them. Just like the last few times I checked.

My mood fell as I thought again about this whole situation. I could still feel my wounds, I could feel the dried blood between my scales and how sticky it was.... I shuddered as I remembered how much the dragon’s claws hurt as they dug into my hide. The helmets are hard coded to reduce the pain the wearers feel while in a VR. But this.... This isn’t a VR, it hurts far too much.

Then there was this... boy who had helped me - is helping me. It rankled my pride to think that I actually needed help from anyone, but that’s the price you pay for not thinking you’d lose your very first fight. He stitched up the wounds I had gotten from the fight, and had flown off to get us some more food.

I looked outside and saw that the sun was higher in the sky then before. My stomach growled again and I growled with it.

“Fuck it! He knows I’m almost recovered enough to travel, he’s probably left me here to fend for myself,” I said as I stood shakily and walked out of the cave, yelping when I fell and slid down the side of the mountain. When I finally stopped sliding, the ground was rocky and I could feel new pain from my wounds. “Dammiiiit....”

I stood again and looked around me, I looked up to see the entrance of the cave, and noted the slope I had fallen down. Along the drag marks I made I saw spots of blood and looked down at where I had landed finding more blood. “Fuck, the fall must’ve broken some of the stitches. Oh well, not much I can do until Cyril gets back to the cave. And this time, I’ll make sure he wraps them.”

I turned to face down the mountainside, trying to find which way Cyril had flown off to. As I was looking around, I saw something that looked like a bridge over a gorge in the mountains. I doubt he went towards that, I thought as I looked around a bit more, my gaze wandering back to the strange bridge after a while. It... wouldn’t hurt to check it out, though.

The sun had made a noticeable shift towards the west, and the sky was starting to darken. It was still bright enough for me to see, but I found the slowly fading light aggravating, but after three hours of walking I had finally made it to the base of the mountain. Several times I had almost lost my footing in the steep snow, and slippery ice. VR’s had prepared me for the sudden shift in form, but it couldn’t match it exactly.

Once at the base of the mountain, I turned to see the strange bridge in front of me. I moved closer to get a better look. The appeared to be two extremely long pieces of metal, with wooden planks underneath them. The wooden planks weren’t even pressed against each other, which left several gaps in between. If this was a bridge, it was a poorly constructed one.

Something similar to a loud whistling blow drew my attention. Lifting my head and turning it to my left I watched as one of those old train things came around a bend far down the metal rails.

“.... What the fuck am I looking at?”

There in front of me was something out of one of those very old little girl shows. The train engine was mostly a soft shade of pink and there were hearts all over it - even the windshield was heart-shaped!

The screeching of metal on metal filled the air as the train slowed, stopping completely not even four inches from me. No sooner had the train stopped, did one of the doors open. Turning to peer around the trains engine, I watched as the pinkest fluffiest pony I had ever seen jumped out, of course she was the only pink pony I had ever seen but still I’m sure she set the standards. Following the pink pony out of the train was a blue pony who had wings and a rainbow mane and tail.

I raised an eyebrow and said, “Someone sure loves their gay pride.”

I watched as the rainbow pony, who looked pissed to begin with, scrunched her face. “I’m not gay!” She screeched as she took to the air and hovered above me. “and what are you doing on the train tracks? Hoping to collect something shiny for your hoard!” she accused pointing her hoof so close to my face I could bite it.

“Already getting into the specist slurs, I see.” I took two steps back, pulling my head and neck out from above the tracks. “I was investigating because I didn’t know what they were.-”

“They’re tracks silly! You’ve never seen train tracks?” The pink one asked, her voice unusually high.

“Not personally. I’d heard of trains and their iron tracks, but haven’t seen any until now.”

“Yeah well just because they shine don’t get any ideas,” The rainbow one replied still sounding pissed, I thought she needed to get laid.

“Just because I’m a dragon, doesn’t mea-” I look off to the side, my eyes wide. “OOOOH! Shiny thing!”

I heard the pink one snort in laughter while the rainbow one just huffed. “She told you Dashie,” the pink one said pointing to the rainbow mare.

I looked back at Rainbitch and gave her a smile. “What? Don’t like my humor? Maybe you just need a good lay. That’ll help you relax.”

The sounds of anger and speechlessness that followed were too funny. Laughing at her expression, I grunted in pain. I felt another stitch in my stomach pop, and I could feel the fresh drips of blood that escaped and fell onto the barely melted snow. The pink one seemed to spot my discomfort first as she stopped laughing herself.

“Well, it was fun messing with you two, but I need to continue looking for someone,” I said as I turned to leave.

“Yea good riddance, lous- ow Pinkie!” She shouted in pain as the pink pony jabbed a hoof in the rainbow mare’s side, before she could say anything, Pinkie pointed to me and then to the blood I had left behind.

“We can’t leave her Dashie, she’s hurt,” Pinkie said causing Dash to sigh in frustration.

“She’s a dragon, it’ll take more than that to kill her.”

“Plus my... companion is around somewhere,” I said. “I’ll find him sometime today.”

“See Pinkie Pie, there's another dragon around here to help her, let's go.”

“Hah! As if that green-skinned goblin could ever be a dragon,” I exclaimed as I picked a random direction and started walking.

I didn’t hear them say anything for a while, it seemed they were confused. “Green skin? You mean green scales...right?” Dash asked flying into my field of view.

I stopped and gave her a deadpan look. “Naw, I meant green fur. Of course I mean skin! I know the difference between scales and skin.”

Both Pinkie and Dash looked at each other a look passing between them before Pinkie Pie spoke up. “Tall, wears a black and purple outfit, has really long pointy ears and a tooth sticking out from his bottom jaw, really loves cupcakes and eating out of the trash?” Pinkie asked getting really specific

“Don’t know about that last one, but yeah. That’s Cyril.”

“Cyril?” Rainbitch asked “That’s his name? Anyways when you see him...tell him we said...thanks,” She mumbled the last word as if it physically hurt her.

“And let him know that if he’s ever in Ponyville again, I’ll throw him a ‘welcome to Ponyville/thanks for helping us get our cutiemarks back’ party.”

“Sure, I’ll also tell him the fairy king was looking for him to give him a giant cock,” I said as I stepped around Rainbitch and continued walking.

“Hey we’re serious!” Dash yelled as she tried to fly back in my path. “He really helped us out there, we might never have gotten our cutiemarks back if he hadn’t busted us out of that room!”

I gave her my most apathetic look. “And he already knows that. I’m not going to tell him something he knows, especially if it’s about him doing something good.”

“Rainbow, we can’t let her just walk off,” Pinkie Pie whispered rather loudly. “She might not find him in time.”

I sighed and lifted myself up onto my hind legs, showing them the stitches. “I’m not that badly hurt. A few stitches popped when I tried to exit the cave, yes, but I came looking for him because I was hungry and he was taking too long.”

I heard the rainbow one sigh before grabbed something from the train. Returning I saw she held a first aid kit with her. “Stitches or no stitches, that’ll get infected if you leave it like that. I’ll disinfect it, and wrap it and we can go our separate ways without me feeling like a jerk, okay?”

“Okay,” I said as I went back onto all fours. “I’d rather be helped by someone who knows what they’re doing than him.”

Dash shook her head. “I can’t stitch, but I can at least stop your bleeding,” She said though she sounded like she wasn’t happy with the idea.

A frown crossed my face, I was going to have to rely on that shape shifter again. “I guess I could have Cyril redo them then.” Ugh.... Wait, he had to get his supplies from somewhere. I could just try to find the town he found them in. I might not be trusted right away due to the reactions of these two mares, but I’m certain I can at least ask for help. With that thought, I settled down some and lay still for the blue mare.

The blue mare, or Dashie as her name was, approached me. Looking over the stitches she gave a curious grunt. “Seems you only popped a few stitches. You should be fine, but I’m going to disinfect this wound and wrap it.” She said, all business like. She didn’t even look up at me when she said it.

“He isn’t my friend. I’m forced to rely on him for help because a dragon attacked me,” I growled. Shit, I guess I have to keep a tighter lid on that.

“So if you’re not friends why’s he helping you? If he didn’t consider the two of you friends he’d have just left you alone,” Pinkie Pie asked. Tilting her head like a dog in confusion.

“I don’t know, why did he help you?” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “As far as I can tell he puts on a show of being tough when in reality he has a soft heart and wants to help everyone.”

“So why aren’t you friends then?” Pinkie Pie asked smiling. “If he wants to help everyone why wouldn’t you want a friend like him? It’s better to have someone you can count on then do things on your own,”

I gave the pink mare a withering glare and said, “Because I hate males. I know they are necessary to bring new life into the universe, but I hate every last one of them.” With that, I turned my head away from them.

I heard hushed whispers between the two mares, but I tried to ignore it, already they were getting on my nerves. I would let the blue mare finish and then I’d be gone. “So you like other mares?” I heard Dashie say.

“What else could you get from that?” I said, trying to make my voice sound less annoyed than it already was. “‘S not like there’s a third gender or anything.”

There was silence for several long minutes, but as the blue mare worked on my wounds, I grew bored. I tried to take in my surroundings hoping to find something interesting to watch, but all I saw was mountains, the two mares, the train and what looked like a stallion who peered over the edge of the door to the engine of the train.

“There, I think I’m done,” Dashie said as she stood up and looked at her work. I looked down as well and saw the white bandages stick out from my red scales.

I nodded in approval and looked at the mare. “Thanks. I take it these will hold while I search for Cyril?”

I watched her give me a hesitant look. “I wouldn’t say that, but if you walk, instead of flying you’ll be fine.”

I chuckled softly. “Telling a dragon that doesn’t know how to fly not to.” I shook my head and turned to face the mountain away from the tracks. “There’s a joke there somewhere.” I started walking away before they could ask what I meant. Let them keep their questions. They’re lucky I told them as much as I did.