Prologue: Terrorizing a Medium Sized Population
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Prologue: Terrorizing a Medium Sized Population
The town of Driftleigh was ordinary. Boats came and left. Ponies stayed with ponies. Griffins with griffins. Minotaurs with minotaurs, et cetera. Tensions were low among the species, but this didn't keep violence from breeding. Most kept to themselves solely to prevent an encounter with a less than favorable person. While these less than favorables made up very little of the population of Driftleigh, the fear kept anyone from really intermingling, which was rather sad.
It may have been a simple port town, but it was not without the occasional hiccup. It just so happened that today's hiccup was flying over a herd of sheep. None noticed at first, they complacently ate the grass as a dark and looming shadow of a great winged beast passed overherd. One of the sheep look up just in time to see the basic shape of the shadow. He blanched before running over to a nearby bell, ringing it with all his might.
"DRAGON!" he bleated in terror. The rest of the herd had heard his cry and scattered to the safety of the treeline. Dragons never came to Driftleigh for good drink and a seaside adventure. No, when a dragon came to the simple, simple Driftleigh, it cared only for gems, meat, and mass destruction. Dragon attacks were rare enough to make a Dragonslayer unwarranted (and expensive) but common enough that most of the populace had a damage control plan. Said plan was rapidly taking affect, with mixed results.
"Leave the Jewels Honey, the dragon will take them from us regardless. But with them on the road he'll hopefully just leave without destroying our home," the mare seemed hesitant to leave the jewel, but relented as she valued her life over the trinket. The small family poured into their home while leaving most of their valuables on the porch.
They sat there with baited breath. The dragon would hit the town in moments, as it had just been spotted by the fields. Moments turned to minutes and minutes into hours.
"Maybe he passed us already?" the mare said hopefully. As if to defy her, a loud thud of something big landing was felt inside the house, to the ponies inside they would have sworn the foundation was about to give out. They heard shuffling as something rummaged through their stuff, and just as soon as it began, it ended. Mighty wings beat rhythmically, loudly at first but quickly growing quiet with distance.
The stallion walked out to asses the losses, and was surprised to see all his belongings pretty much where they had been when he placed them. With a shock he realized only one item had been taken. An empty teapot that his wife had forgotten to bring in from the porch was gone.
Another citizen, a minotaur, laid in a fetal position in her apartment. She had come to Driftleigh to escape the political backlash of banishing dragons from her tribe. In her eyes there was no way the dragon was here for any reason but revenge.
It felt like her heart was pumping glass through her veins. She was crying because she didn't know what to do. She couldn't bring himself to stand from fear. She brought her head up to look out the window only to realize she had left it wide open.
Before she could work up the will to close it, she heard the soul wrenching sound of dragon wings beating.
It was a sound she was familiar with, as it had been in her nightmares for a long while. She tucked her head into her arms as she heard the drake stick its head in. A moment passed before the full dragon slithered in. The dragon must have been younger to be able to fit in, but even a young dragon was as large as a minotaur. She squeezed her head in closer as the smell of dragon smoke filled the air. She waited for the release of death. She felt she deserved it, she had forced dragons from house and home simply to give her tribe an enemy. She was a monster in her eyes, and deserved to die like this
She was shocked when after about ten minutes, a pot whistled as it boiled and a cup on the table next to her being filled with something. She sat for another minute or so until she realized the dragon had left. Next to the cup that was now filled with tea was a note.
The note read simply "For Your Anxiety."
"Your plans are usually pretty crazy but this takes the cake," a griffin said to a pegasus. They were one of the few interspecies relationships in the town, so almost no one messed with them, out of fear of pissing off two species.
The griffin was named Thorn. He was an average sized griffin though bulky and his feathers were a strange shade of green. Cloud Fox, the pegasus pony, was very small with a fiery orange coat and white mane. Cloud was moving storm clouds around into the skyline.
"Dragons won't fly during storms, it's instinctual since they can't move clouds like you and me. If we put enough clouds in the sky he'll be forced to land or just straight up leave!" Cloud seemed confident in his plan.
Silence fell over the two as Cloud worked
"Hey Fox, I got something to say," Thorn seemed apprehensive.
"Well then say it, I'm all ears," Cloud wasn't fully paying attention
"You love me, right?" Cloud Fox stopped working, "If I left this Solaris forsaken place, would you follow?"
Cloud turned towards his significant other, "That's a big question. I love you with all my heart but we can't just pack up and leave. Where would we even go?"
"Equestria," he said without hesitation, "it's gonna be the safest place to adopt a foal and live in peace. No more dragon attacks, no more pirate invasions, no more anything but calm."
"You've thought this out, huh? Well, let's look into it. I guess I'm indifferent to the idea right now," he leaned in close, "but if it's what you want, I'll follow you."
"That's everything I wanted to hear and more, Cloud Fox," the two embraced in a hug. They both felt a chill run down there spines as a very draconic giggle echoed through the sky.
"Let's talk more later, in our home where it's safe."
Cloud Fox kicked a cloud to start the lightning, "Agreed."
To be fair to the town, it wasn't a true panic that was overtaking it, just a precaution. The town had underestimated dragons in the past and it had bit them were it hurts. All in all the town was handling the dragon differently, though none expected what the dragons true motives were, but who could? No dragon had or would ever request what he wanted, at least not in this generation.
Two mares conversed by a fruit stall. The acidic smell of orange peels permeated around them like the flies drawn to it.
"I'm telling you Teach, this storms gonna work wonders on my crop!" The inaptly named earth pony mare Mango said. Her cutie mark was an orange slice, her coat and mane the same shade of Orange.
It had been a day since the last report of the dragon. No one had gotten a good look at it, but it definitely existed. The only oddity was its behavior. It made no attempt to hide itself yet it was never seen, and when it took things it never took anything of value. Teapots, scrolls, a bottomless ink well, even garbage, but no gold, gems, or anything of value to a dragon.
"Either way we should head home. The storm is about to start again and I don't want to get wet," Teach lied. Her true reason for leaving was the eyes she felt on her. Her old profession had left her with a good sense of direction and a gut feeling when she was being watched. As she made her way home, she took a detour that put her in an alley. Whoever was watching her would probably show themselves...
"Hello!" A cheery young voice said.
Standing in front of her was a teenage drake. His scales were a grassy green everywhere but his underbelly, which was a daisy colored yellow. He was lanky and bordering on underweight for a dragon his age. A crest of rosy pink fur sat on his head with a similar shade of fur sprouting from his ears. Tiny horns sprouted from his head between his ears, seeming out of place with the rest of his appearance.
"Who the heck are you?"
"Spring," he said it kindly, but to Teach it felt rehearsed. She could tell he had more control of this conversation than she did.
Spring pulled a scroll from the bindle Teach only just noticed he had, "I wrote a bit of a prose piece, in the event that when we met you didn't immediately try to kill me. It's a bit of a biography, written with a fictitious twist. Maybe more fact than... never mind that, actually. May I read it to you? It was a step from my comfort zone," he paused, and began reading when no response was given "Teach was a plain mare. As beige as buffed leather, a black tail and mane, and a pudgy body of someone who lives comfortably, only the town of Driftleigh itself could match her simplicity. As her cutie mark had foretold, she was an unembellished helmsmare. This is all what she would wish for you to believe. In a past life, she pillaged the seas, stealing from Equestrian merchants and Royal guard alike. None were safe from Blackmane..." before he could finish, a knife dug itself into the wall next to his head, "Did I hit a nerve?"
"Not many can say that name anymore and live to tell. How'd you guess?"
He thought for a moment, "Call it an educated guess of sorts."
"Well why don't you just educate me? I need to cover my tracts better, if anypony comes back with a vengeance, I'm plum out of my livelihood," she moved to pull the knife from the wall.
"I offer a proposition of sorts, in two parts: I'll tell you my train of thought that lead to your identity, and I'll tell nary a soul."
She played with the knife in her hooves, "The catch?"
"I'll explain the catch by answering another question, 'what does a dragon want from the simple Driftleigh?' you may ask yourself, 'when a Dragon comes to the simple, simple Driftleigh, it cares only for gems, meat, and mass destruction' you may say" he flourished his tail, "But me? I have come to Driftleigh for good drink and a seaside adventure. Sadly, I'm not a sailor, so I was hoping I could find a skilled sailor to show me the ropes."