To Save our Legacy

Apathy is what I would describe as the most characteristic symptom of a Soul Drain.

A higher creature’s soul, higher in the sense of rational thinking, true emotions, and all that neat stuff that makes sapience what it is, possesses a tremendous amount of energy. This is extremely important when that energy has to be converted into other forms of energy, such as raw magic.

The use of one’s life energy to cast magic, not to mention any form of soul manipulation, has always been a veryrestricted, and frequently forbidden school of magic. I had had the displeasure of delving into such magic before, a last resort of seeking desperate answers in desperate times.

Not my proudest moment, to be honest.

Something I learned at the beginning of my studies in the field was that it was practically impossible for any creature to completely drain their soul energy voluntarily through spellcasting. The toll on the body would most likely make one pass out or outright perish before their soul suffered any permanent damage. It would take time and rest to heal, but heal it would. Your soul would heal, that is. Your physical body? Now, that’s another topic entirely. The damage my body sustained each time I overdid it with any form of spellcasting was more than enough proof of the potential damage that could be inflicted, imagine using one’s life energy to achieve it.

Many believed the body and soul to be two completely different things, with the soul always shrouded in a veil of mysticism and make-believe. This was especially true for most of my human brothers and sisters back home, but I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when learning that the very same thing, that was considered part of the core of most, if not all religions that ever existed on Earth was, in fact, very much real.

Measurable, reachable, malleable. Shaped by our very thoughts and feelings, and nurtured by our experiences and knowledge. Only separated from the body when your time had come. Without it? Nothing more than a ball of raw energy without purpose.

Soul magic was the embodiment of risk-return tradeoff, capable of immeasurable wonders as well as the most dreadful of horrors…

And then you have me, calling to it to fuel my magical output without any thought or consideration, putting my body under a strain I wasn’t fully convinced I would have been able to endure. I was lucky it had only been barely over half a minute of uninterrupted flow. If Sunny had taken longer than she had, I would have, for sure, paid the ultimate price.

But, why would any of that matter to me, right? After all, Harmony could have just brought me back again. Her little plaything, pretending to be the hero destined to save her little ponies from themselves. Isn’t she just a ray of sunshine?

She could suck it and weep. I’d managed to escape the reapers’ scythe, if only barely, leaving behind my broken body and damaged soul, forcing me into a prison of my own concoction, trapped within my mind.

It was hard to tell the passage of time while I was in that in-between state. Time itself seemed to blend into shades of monotony, uniformity, and mediocrity, of pure emptiness of thought, will and desire. I wasn’t in a coma, but I was drained of life, not dissimilar to the aftereffect of a changeling feeding off of you, at least before their ‘re-hatching’. Apathetic, unresponsive, uncaring. Until, that is, my soul had had the chance to heal and properly reconnect with my body.

Imagine my surprise that it was only a week that was needed, far less than I would have thought, but I was surely NOT going to protest. The strain on my body hadn’t been as grave as I’d predicted, but my injuries had still been extremely severe.

Still, it had been a long week of shifting visions and memories. There were brief moments of lucidity where I could tell I was being rushed to a hospital, where I could hear my friends’ panicked wails begging the doctors to save me, and where I could feel the blinding pain of burned and charred skin being poked with instruments and pricked with needles, all combined with a cacophony of voices from the medical team, who were hurriedly barking orders to one another.

During my days working there, I’d had the foresight to file an extensive report with all my relevant medical info, especially where my biology differed significantly from a pony’s. I’d left this report with the doctors there in case something were to happen to me.

I was right to have been that meticulous, to the surprise of nocreature. Still, looking back, I think it was my experiences in visiting hospitals and clinics back in the day after our numerous adventures and misadventures that inspired me this time around to put my biology to paper. Knowing how things worked in Equestria, I was surprised it had taken me this long for me to fall back into old habits.

My memories became blurry after those small fragments of consciousness, instead filled with confusing dreams, which in truth more resembled nightmares. However, in my catatonic state, they mostly washed over me without much resistance or mental acknowledgment. It was a small relief, but you take those wins where you can.

When I finally opened my eyes and regained the feeling of, well, being alive, the intense midday light, filtering through the window of a room, whose aroma I had integrated into my memory over the last month, awaited my awakening to drill painful throbs deep into my skull.

‘Ow ow and OW again!! Faust, it’s just like the morning after my twenty-fifth birthday!’

The sharp sting from the blinding light was enough to jumpstart my uncooperative body all the way up, which in turn sent a message to inform my drowsy brain describing in full detail how incredibly sore the rest of my body was. As in, every nerve-terminal in my body tag teaming to make sure to let me know how much they disagreed with my little stunt. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting a different awakening, but gosh darn it, it didn’t make it any smoother

“Come on, Alex! We were joking about you being seven hundred years old, don’t start acting like one!”

With pained efforts, I struggled to at least raise my upper body to a more befitting position, balancing myself with my arms against the soft bedding I was resting on. That was totally the wrong move to make as, at that moment, I hadn’t remembered that I had burned my hands all the way to my wrists during the casting. Thank goodness the sharp stinging coming from under the wraps that completely covered them knocked it into my brain for me.

“OUCH!! Okay, okay! Bad idea, very much bad idea!!”

What little progress I had made changing my arrangements was for naught, since I immediately flopped back onto the bed with a little bounce. I decided that it was in my best interests to just lay there for the moment and collect myself, at least until the painful throbbing receded. If the familiar scent hadn’t been enough, the sight of the same ceiling that accompanied me every morning I woke up to another glorious day revealed the place I was left to recover.

‘I’m… in my room?’

I had expected to still be in the hospital with a flurry of nurses fussing all over me, but it seemed that that was no longer the case. A low beeping sound brought my attention to the right side of the bed. Near the wall was an IV bag attached to a collapsible pole, dripping a clear fluid I suspected was just normal saline through a needle directly into my bloodstream. On the nightstand, a small heart monitor showed my current vitals. I noticed then the electrodes all over my chest and upper belly.

If I had been transferred to my room, that meant that the damage to my body wasn’t as severe as I’d thought or, at least, that my recovery had truly been a speedy maneuver. I found myself appreciating the gesture since I had kinda grown tired of hospital stays by that point, ironic considering I was working in one at the time, but I’m sure you can relate.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised that they had permitted me to recover in the comfort of my own room. It would be leagues better at improving my mood, no doubt, but the damage my body sustained after pushing my casting too far usually still left my insides particularly… wonky. Nothing a bunch of healing spells couldn’t fix if applied in the heat of the moment but, considering almost ninety percent of unicorns back then barely learned anything more complex than levitation, I sincerely doubted that in this age unicorns were any better equipped at learning advanced healing magic for clinical use.

Not that I’d needed it much, since my natural healing, as well as other assets, had been somewhat boosted after Harmony’s interference with my… passing. Another gift from my most ‘cherished’ friend to make sure I got the job done, eh?

I couldn’t have cared less.

‘Welp, let’s see… apart from the fact that I feel as if I’ve just enjoyed a detailed tour around the complete length of a Manticore’s digestive system, everything seems to be in place. I’ve gotta find the gauntlets and use the LIMstones to boost this burn wound’s healing. I would very much like to be able to pick those promised cookies up without screaming in pain, thank-you-very-much…’

“Grrr?”

“Shit!”

The sound of soft growling caught me off-handed, making me jump in the bed, causing another wave of sharp stinging all over my body as a reward for my careless efforts. Darting my head around as best as I could, trying to follow the sound that had scared the shit out of me, I was rewarded with a sight both overwhelmingly relieving as well as deeply confusing.

Sitting at the corner of my bed was a baby dragon. Not a baby like Spike was when I first met him. No, this was a genuinely baby dragon, ogling me with innocent eyes full of hatchling curiosity. As I later learned, that dragon was as he, which is not at all obvious when it comes to reptiles. His scales were of a grassy-green color, turning into a lighter shade over his belly and lower muzzle. He had four horns, two smaller ones near his ears and two bigger ones in a more typical position, which were of the same shade as his scales, if not a bit darker reaching the tips. They were slightly spiraled inwards and sported a set of peculiar markings I remembered only seeing in one particular subspecies of dragons, but I couldn't be one hundred percent sure. The inner of his tiny ears as well as the inner membrane of his wings was a dark shade of pink. Yeah, he had wings while still a hatchling, an unusual occurrence amongst dragonkind, whose all have to suffer through the ass pain that is the ‘molting’ to gain their wings.

An awkward silence fell over the room, as my slowly waking mind struggled to process what was in front of me.

“A-A dragon?... A dragon!!”

FInding my surprise amusing, the tiny reptile released a few excited gurgles as he raised himself on his stubby claws, bouncing over the sheets until he reached my upper body. Nearing my head, he continued roaming his eyes all over my form, curiously reaching out with his tiny foreclaws to gently grab my nose. I stood completely still, letting him explore as he pleased.

I had seen baby dragons before during one of the few trips I’d made to the Dragonlands in their ancestral hatching grounds, but never before had I dealt with a baby dragon personally. I wasn’t sure that any general knowledge I possessed about dragons could be applied to a baby one, since babies tended to be excitable and ever-curious about all species they come across.

The surprise and elation I felt at seeing the little guy playing with my nose was almost the same as the one I felt when I first learned of the mere existence of dragons, which was when I had met Spike, shortly after my arrival… Not my best moment, although I could apply that to anything I did or said for the entirety of that first day.

Faust, the memories…

The fate of the other intelligent species of Equus had been on my ‘checking over’ list since I first learned of the state Equestria had found itself in after all those centuries. Not a single sighting, not a single mention from anypony as far as I had pried, joined by a complete and utter silence from the ‘outside world’, as ponies liked to effer.

Argyle’s notes had been vague on the subject as far as I’d read, as they mostly focused on the fact that, aside from a small zebra family that lived on the outskirts of Maretime Bay, not a single pony had laid their eyes on any of the other races that populated Equus, causing most of them to fall into the realm of myths and legends. It was quite infuriating how easily ponies forget things from the past and paint them in a halo of mysticism. Just as it had happened with almost half of the villains the Element Bearers had to face, whomever or whatever happened more than half a millennium or so ago was categorically considered a legend by most, regardless of how much actual evidence there was on the subject.

Very annoying, and not helpful in the slightest.

However, the sight of one dragon, even if it was a baby, rekindled the spark of hope in my chest that our efforts to bring about the ‘globalization’ of Equus had at least allowed some to survive and prosper until that day, and renewed my hope that one day, I’d find more of their kind. One purple dragon in particular.

“Er, hello there, little guy. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my years here, it’s that baby dragons don’t pop up from nothing like that, soooo… I’m guessing I’ve missed quite a lot these past few days, huh?”

“Grrra!” Was his energetic answer.

“Heh. Very well. Let’s see if we can’t find anypony around, shall we? I fear there’s gonna be quite a bit of tongue-lashing reserved exclusively for me. Ain’t I lucky?” I lamented playfully while gently removing his claw from my nose. The little dragon was more than happy to get a move on, since he immediately growled in excitement, his little tail wagging back and forth behind him excitedly. Without wasting a second, he jumped down from the bed and made a beeline for the door, which I then noticed was slightly ajar.

Feeling the urgent need to stretch my limbs, I followed the baby dragon, carefully removing the IV from my wrist and the electrodes from my chest, remembering to shut down the heart monitor first, so I wouldn’t alarm whoever was monitoring my vitals that I had gone in a sudden and terminal cardiac shutdown.

With pained groans, I soldiered through the pain. It took me three attempts to get my ass out of bed, cursing under my breath at my poor condition. I had to give my legs a good shake to wake them up fully, otherwise I’d end up falling flat on my face… again.

With childlike impatience, the little dragon ushered me out of the room. His wings, still too small to properly lift him, flapped energetically as he softly growled for me to move my caboose.

“Yes, yes, I’m coming, don’t get your tail in a knot, little guy.”

Once in reach, I gently grabbed him and secured his back against my chest, fearing he would start scampering off as soon as we left my room. I couldn’t hope to keep up with the energy of a young dragon at the time, perhaps never; and the brighthouse wasn’t lacking in places to hide.

The little guy looked around dumbfounded, unaccustomed to the height once secured in my arm.

“Ah, I guess everything looks different from up here, huh?” I asked, amused at his adorable reaction.

“Brrahgr!”

With the baby dragon distracted and enjoying the scenery, I made my way out of my room, my sorry state barely allowing me to start on a proper gate, my movement speed restricted to that of a brisk snail on a sunday morning.

Was it even Sunday? I couldn't tell for sure.

I was progressively getting better as my body woke up more with each step and my muscles warmed up. I was able to move slightly faster and less like a ragdoll. Still, I decided to take it slow and not strain myself… more than I already had.

“I guess this is as good a moment as any other. I’m Alex. What about you, little dude? Do you have a name?”

Needless to say, the only answer I got was more incoherent babbling, but it was the polite thing to do, after all.

“Okay then. I knew a few dragons back in the day, and practically all of them had names related to fire, magma, volcanoes, or the apocalypse. Not very original, if you ask me, but I guess it’s kinda fitting, considering where dragons live. So, mmmmm… what about…”

“Sparky?! Sparky, where are you?!”

The panicked calls from my buddy Hitch halted my progress on the footbridge as well as my train of thought. As if a demon from Tartarus was on his tail, the sheriff zoomed up the right side ramp, looking all around frantically in search of what I guessed was the baby dragon currently resting in my arms.

“Come on, Sparky, work with me a little! I can’t waste all day looking for y-”

The moment our eyes met, Hitch’s movements ceased, his amber eyes full of surprise at finding me standing near the railing.

“A-Alex?” He stuttered out.

“Alex? No, I’m Francis, nice t’ mee’cha.” I answered in a southern accent AJ would be proud of... or tearing her ears off from second-hoof embarrassment, most likely.

His surprise promptly morphed into a dry scoff. “At least your sense of humor is intact, huraaay.” He droned with a sarcastic wave of his forehoof to which Sparky, oblivious to the sheriff’s sarcasm, enthusiastically reciprocated with an energetic wave of his arms.

I chuckled at my friend’s sass and crossed the distance to kneel in front of him, reaching for a hug he was quick to reciprocate. Grabbing him with my free arm, careful not to squeeze too hard with my hand to prevent harming myself further, I pulled him closer, enjoying the closeness I rarely found myself experiencing when it came to stallions compared to mares. Another similarity with my home world.

“It’s great to see you up and running, Alex. It’s been over a week already.” He softly whispered after pulling back. “I have to say though, the girls aren’t thrilled with the stunt you pulled. I’m afraid you're getting quite a verbal lashing once they find out you’re up.” He said with a sympathetic smile.

“Let me guess. Some angry screaming, followed by tearful promises, and then a lot of cuddling?”

“That’s… oddly specific.” He mused with a lopsided smile.

“Ha! If I only got a bit for every single time that exact same scenario played out…” I fondly remembered some of the few occasions I had found myself embroiled in arguments that eventually devolved into cuddles with my old friends.

“So,” I pressed a bit more. “Care to explain why I am currently holding a baby dragon in my arms?”

Hitch suddenly grew very nervous. “U-Uh? Oh, um… heh. You see, I…” He tried and failed to summon an explanation, tripping over his own words.

“Is this about why you were acting so weirdduring the festival?” I inquired, already guessing the answer.

My suspicions were well funded, since after a nervous gulp, he set out to explain himself. “Y-Yes. I, um, found an egg all alone on the beach after I responded to the fight involving the foals and the sandcastle. I-I couldn’t just leave it there!”

“Relax, Hitch. You did a good thing.” I patted him on his withers to prevent a gout of hyperventilation. “It’s just… I’m surprised to see a baby dragon here. Their hatching grounds are in the middle of the Dragonlands, across the Celestial Sea. That was quite a journey you made, you little devil!” I softly nuzzled my nose against his snout, electing an adorable giggle from him.

“Any clues as to how his egg could’ve ended up there?” I returned to the sheriff, to which he answered with a negative shake of his head. “Hmph, well, at least I now know that dragons still inhabit this world, even if it is just him at the moment.” I took a moment to mull over some possibilities, from which one thought became the most prominent.

“How did you manage to hatch him in the first place?” I inquired Hitch with no small amount of curiosity. As far as I knew, dragon eggs required careful surveillance while being subjected to a constant source of heat. Volcanic heat, to be more accurate. It took their eggs a while to hatch, and sometimes even then, not all the eggs in a clutch did bear an adorable bundle of scales and burps.

“It wasn’t me per se.” Hitch replied. “He hatched in my forelegs after that wave of magic engulfed the town. I felt a small rush which disappeared almost instantly and… his egg just began shaking and cracking until he came out. I don’t know what else to tell you.” He finished with a concerned frown directed towards the little drake.

“What wave of magic?” I pried further. It seemed I had indeed missed quite a lot.

“Y-You didn’t see it?” He asked with a confused tilt of his head.

“No, Hitch, I was busy bleeding out through all of my orifices. I’m sure you can understand that I was a little preoccupied dying to notice!” I answered a bit harshly, which made him wince and take on a guilty look.

“O-Oh, yeah, sorry about that…” His ears pressed against his scalp in shame. “Um, after Sunny emerged from the… whatever that thing was, a beam of rainbow energy followed her, flew aaaall the way to the brighthouse, and… it did something, I guess? I couldn’t see it clearly from where I was trapped. But shortly after, a loud boom, like the one which happened after we rejoined the Pegasus Crystal, yes?”

I nodded, following his retelling of the events.

“Yeah, like that one. That and some kind of wave of magic bathed the entire town. I swear I could almost taste it in the air, it was very weird. B-But then, those glowing vines you and Zipp claimed to have seen started spreading all over town too. Like, the ground and the walls and everything else. It kinda tickled for a second, but I also felt a small rush of magic inside me, almost like… something awakening. I don’t really know how to describe it. And then…”

He lowered his gaze towards the small dragon patiently listening to our conversation with those big, curious eyes of his, reaching with his stubby claws for the stallion. “I was holding his egg at that moment. I had rushed towards the station where his egg was hidden after the lightning had begun, and I feared for its safety. And then… he just… hatched, right into my forelegs.”

‘A dragon hatched as a byproduct of a huge release of magic? Now where have I heard that before…?’

I mulled over the coincidence to myself while looking into the dragon’s innocent eyes, pleasantly surprised at knowing the particular reason behind his hatching. The last dragon to be born that way became my adopted brother and one of the best examples of his kind I ever met. I could only wonder what this little one would achieve in his lifetime.

“It just… it all happened so fast! I can’t tell you more, Alex, I’m sorry. The girls were rushing you to the hospital while all this was going on. I had to catch up with them later after I, you know, stopped freaking out and made sure everypony was safe.” Hitch finished his retelling with an uncertain tone.

“He hatched while the egg was in your care?” I questioned, to which Hitch once again nodded. “In that case, congratulations! You’re now a father.” I informed him plainly while passing Sparky to him.

“E-E-Excuse me?!” Was his shocked answer, carefully tucking Sparky in the crook of his foreleg.

“Yeah. I mean, he hatched to you. You’ve imprinted on him, that’s how it works for reptiles, sooo… congrats.” I clarified with a pat on his mane, giving Sparky one last tickle under his chin and making my way to the ramp, mentally preparing for the scolding I was about to receive from the girls. Mares tend to be very vocal in this scenarios.

“No! Nonononono, no no! I am under NO circumstances ready to be a father, much less to a dragon!” With a hasty trot, Hitch overtook me and positioned himself in front of me before I could reach the ramp. “Y-You know more about them than me! You should take care of him! I-I-I don’t even know where I would start…” He was now in full-panic mode, the prospect of having to care for the newest arrival in the brighthouse making him go weak at the knees.

“Hitch…” I softly called him.

“… and what is he supposed to eat? I-I could poison him without even realizing! A-And at what time is he supposed to go to bed? O-Or…”

“Hitch Trailblazer!” This time, my voice was sharp enough to halt his panicked ranting. “What have you done with him this last week?” I asked with a hike of my eyebrow.

“W-Well…” He thought about it for a moment. “I've been feeding him whatever I had in my fridge back home. He seemed to like everything as far as I could tell. Uh... I’ve also been making sure he stays out of trouble, cleaning after him, keeping an eye on him while I’m at the office, playing with him when he gets antsy, tiring him out so he can take a nap and give me a bit of a rest, ummm… yeah that’s more or less it.”

“And how is that any different from being a parent?” I offered with a knowing grin.

My question caught him by surprise, understanding slowly growing on his visage. He gazed down towards Sparky, who was beaming at him with innocence, flashing him an adorable smile with his little fangs sticking out from his muzzle. I saw the realization hit his eyes, finally understanding that, willingly or not, he had already become a dragon dad.

“I’m… I’m not ready…” He muttered under his breath, unsure of the tremendous task ahead of him.

I could understand his hesitation. Twilight had undergone a similar process when it came her turn to raise Sparky with the help of her parents. “No parent is ever ready, Hitch. I’ll help you with what I can. I mean, I lived with a dragon for the entirety of the time I spent at Twilight’s castle, and I like to think I learned a thing or two about taking care of one. But that part of being a parent? That’s yours to deal with.”

He released a deep breath, his features softening at the sight of the baby dragon reaching with his claw for his snout, playfully grabbing his nostrils with an adorable babble.

“… Very well, little guy. I’ll be the best dragon dad I can, I hope it’ll be enough.” He tenderly nuzzled him, Sparky eagerly returning the gesture.

Once he pulled away, he signaled me to accompany him down to the ground floor while placing Sparky onto his back in a similar way Twilight used to do with Spike, unearthing fond memories from days long past. “I’m not sure where the girls are at the moment, though. I’ve been chasing after him for the better part of the morning.” He puffed out a tired sigh. “Also, are you sure you should be out of bed? The nurse told us you needed plenty of rest.”

“I’m fine, Hitch. This isn’t the first time I've gone through this… well, for the most part at least. I’m just incredibly sore and still a bit weak, but it’ll pass. Moving around actually helps with that.” I reassured him, reaching for the handrail in case I lost my footing as I felt my body regaining most of its motility. I didn’t want my heroic entrance to consist of me rolling down the ramp like a cartoon character. I did not possess plot armor, after all.

“Hmmm, if you say so… In any case, Nurse Tenderhoof should come by this afternoon to check up on you. They permitted us to transfer you to your room here only two days ago, citing the familiar surroundings were something that might help with your recovery. They weren’t sure what was wrong with you. I mean, you weren’t in a coma, but you weren’t entirely all there either.”

Familiar symptoms, just as I had expected. “I know, Hitch. It’s supposed to be like that, I’ll explain later.”

Once down, I made a beeline for the kitchen, to the confusion of my friend. “Where are you going?”

“To get my five well-earned cookies! And a muffin! Because I earned it!” I answered without stopping. I was a man on a mission.

A quick search around the kitchen ended with me putting my well-deserved prizes on a plate. I decided it was best to wait for the girls to get back from the relative comfort of the living room. My back was screaming for me to lay down, as did the rest of my body, even after just a short while on the move. There was still some serious recovery to be undergone.

The stinging from the burns was progressively getting better as I grew accustomed to it, like a constant, annoying buzz; but they still hurt like Tartarus when I tried to grab anything with my hands. However, I wasn’t going to start babying about it, I’d been through waaaay worse.

I wanted to let the girls know I was at least up and functioning, but patting my pants’ pockets made me aware I wasn’t carrying my phone.

“Hitch… where’s my phone?”

The stallion froze in thought. “Oh, uh… I think Izzy was holding it for you, along with your gauntlets. It should be in their room. You just get comfortable, I’ll be back in a second.” He passed me Sparky, and with a parting ‘be nice’ targeted for the mischievous drake, he returned upstairs to search for it.

With the baby dragon once again in my arms, I lay back on the couch, releasing a sigh of relief worthy of an octogenarian. I was about to munch on one of my victory cookies when I caught Sparky out of the corner of my eye, giving me the puppy look of a hatchling, eyes drifting from the cookie in my hand, and then to me, and then back to the cookie as his muzzle began salivating.

“Come on, Sparky. I won them fair and square.” I whined, which he ignored and continued with his lovely pout, reaching with his claws for what was meant to be my first true meal in over a week.

“Are you really gonna do this to me?”

“Aggrr!” He answered without shame.

“Sigh. Fiiine… here you go, you little rascal.” I passed him the cookie, receiving a bright smile in return, his world now revolving around enjoying his treat as we waited for Hitch’s return.

“You know, Sparky,” I began out of nowhere, my sight drifting towards the white emptiness of the ceiling above me. “Most dragons that I met were a bunch of jackasses. You aren’t going to be like them, right?” I inquired, only to receive more incoherent gurgles as he finished his snack.

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” I finished a cookie for myself this time, chuckling to myself at our little exchange.

The sound of incoming hoof steps alerted me to my friend’s return. “Hah, here it is. Nothing broken, as far as I can tell.” He threw my phone at me from the entrance as he made his way over to sit on the other couch with Sparky hopping off my couch to join him.

Said phone ended up bouncing on my chest and down my lap. At my lack of reaching to catch it, Hitch gave me a puzzled look. Showing him my bandaged hands with a deep frown made him quickly understand, muttering an embarrassed apology.

“Okay, let’s see...”

Since those gauntlets didn’t cover the tips of my fingers, they had been spared from the worst of the burns, which allowed me to navigate through the screen without too much issue.

13:06 Hey girls, I’m up and ready, just hanging in the living room with Buttercup.

With the message sent, I waited for what would undoubtedly be an intense afternoon, but I felt like I deserved it. In hindsight, it had been a very risky move, but as Rainbow Dash would have said: ‘it’s all part of the job!’

‘Not for my job, it isn’t! The only pain I’m supposed to live through is having to wait hours for the antibodies to bind and having the IP breathe down my neck for the paper’s deadline. Fuck, and no Candy Crush Saga rip-off to help me pass the time…’

“Who’s Buttercup?” Hitch wondered after reading the message on the group chat. I only returned a flat look. It took him a full minute to click, making him both embarrassed and offended. Somehow Sparky had managed to catch on, and he started laughing at Hitch’s leer sent for me as I professed my innocence.

A few minutes of peaceful silence went by, only interrupted by Sparky’s happy munching on the cookies, although I was quick to snatch one before he had devoured them all. Hitch and I spent those moments in a narrowed-eyed staring contest which I, unfortunately, lost, since I couldn’t hold back my blinking past the forty-second mark, a winning smirk adorning his muzzle afterward.

“So,” I took on a more serious tone. “What was the diagnosis?”

Hitch took a moment to process my request, fumbling with the dragon on his lap. “Um, okay, just so you know, I’m terrible with medical terminology, but I’ll try to explain as best I can. Let’s see… The doctor told us you’d lost a considerable amount of blood by doing… whatever it was that you did. He said you’d burst a lot of blood vessels, especially the smaller ones near the surface of soft inner tissue like your, uh, nose, mouth, eyes, ears, those sorts of places. But also more ‘inner tissues’ like the lungs and such.”

He looked a bit queasy with the explanations, but he still managed to continue. “He said you were a big fella, so the blood loss wasn’t an immediate risk to your life, but they treated you with coagulation boosters and… uh, some kind of ‘bone marrow potentiator’, or something.”

“Marrow root.” I clarified for him. By his somewhat lacking description, the damage ended up being what I was expecting. It was what always happened to me when I overdid it, just this time it was a bit more serious than a bout of wet cough and jelly legs.

“Uh, I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”

“Nah, it might be another thing. Marrow root was what Zecora used for her potions to bolster blood synthesis in the bone marrow. Please, continue.”

Hitch did not pry further. “Fine. Uh… they treated you with that as well as, you know, the usual: saline, painkillers, that sort of thing. You had nothing broken, so no casts were needed… Oh, and they had to put you on a ventilator initially since your lungs were damaged, but you began to start breathing normally again around the third day, so then they just replaced the ventilator with regular supplementary oxygen supply until you were moved here, so… yeah.”

“What else?” I ushered him, reaching for another cookie only for Sparky to steal it from my fingers, having somehow teleported from the sheriff’s lap to my side on the couch. “Oh ho, you’re so going to get it, you little imp.” I playfully warned him, electing another mischievous giggle.

“Well, the doctors were kinda baffled. You were completely unresponsive, but you weren't in a coma. Like, sleeping, I guess? I know they tried the, uh… the thing with the eyes.” He pointed at his eyes for emphasis.

“The pupil reflex test?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. And, it worked, which meant that you didn’t have a traumatic brain injury, and that you weren’t in a coma or suffering from a deep concussion or something, just… you weren’t in there.”

‘Exactly what you would expect from a soul drain. At least nothing weird came out of it. It could have been MUCH worse, although I’m not in a hurry to try again, mind you.’

“After the sixth day, you were doing fine, like, way better than the doctors had predicted, so seeing that you were out of the danger zone, they thought a familiar place would help escape from whatever ailment you were suffering from. Similar to what they would do for a comatose patient, but they really didn’t know how to better handle it. They said they’d never seen anything similar before.”

A reasonable deduction. I’d congratulate them for the initiative when I reincorporated. “They did well. They really couldn’t have done much more than they did with the available means.”

He gave me a quizzical look. “So, do you know what all this was about?”

I felt he had enough on his plate for the time being. “Nothing you should concern yourself with, Hitch. I’ll take special care from now on. Nothing I wasn’t expecting, I assure you. It’s always the same deal with me when I overdo it with magic.”

“… If you say so.” He didn’t look convinced in the slightest, but relented, nonetheless. “In any case, the nurse will come later this afternoon. She’ll explain things better than me, for sure.”

We fell back into comfortable silence, patiently waiting for the girls to arrive. I felt bad about pulling them from their daily routines just to check up on me, but knowing how ponies worked, they would be here any moment now to severely scold me and then hug me as if I would disappear at any given moment. The latter I was looking forward to, the former not so much…

“The girls were very worried.” Hitch trailed once again. “I mean, we were all worried about you. But Sunny and Izzy…”

“What about them?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“… For the first two days, neither one of them would leave your side. We had to bring them something to eat since they refused to go to the canteen or even use one of the vending machines. They, um… well, there was a considerable amount of tears involved, I’m afraid. Uh… only after the doctors told them that you were doing fine did they return home. We were all taking turns visiting you frequently, until you were transferred here, of course… But, they both took it especially hard. They’re very fond of you, you know that?”

The familiar guilt born from needlessly worrying my friends was once again rearing its ugly presence in my chest. “Yes, Hitch. I know.” I droned with a knot in my stomach.

Before any of us could continue, the windows opposite our resting arrangements were violently opened, followed by a rush of wind that blew in some leaves from the surrounding trees. In the middle of it stood a frazzled Zipp after some impressive landing skills. It seemed the urgency was too much to use the front door as any other pony would have done.

She zeroed on me with the skill of a hawk. “Alex! Oh my wingfeathers, you’re awake!”

It took her two flaps of her multicolored wings to cross the distance that separated us, landing on her rear hooves against the floor, with her front hooves over my thighs as her worried eyes searched mine.

“It’s great to see you too, Princess Daredevil.” I warmly greeted the snowy pegasus, pulling her closer for a friendly nuzzle which she was eager to reciprocate.

“Are you feeling well? Actually, should you even be up?! The nurse said…”

“Zipp, I’m fine.” I stopped her worried ranting with a hand on her muzzle. “It’s not my first rodeo, trust me. Aside from this terrible soreness, I should be fine, I’m just taking it niiiice and slow.”

My words weren’t enough to ease her concerns. “Are you sure? You looked really beaten up back there.” Her muzzle scrunched further. “What am I saying? You were barely breathing! And bleeding all over!!”

I reached and gently lowered her flared wings, neatly resting them back against her barrel with a few scratches over her feathers. “I know, Zipp. I know it wasn’t pretty. But please, I assure you that I’m okay. I know better than anycreature to not listen to doctors’ orders.”

Still a bit reluctant, she calmed herself and stepped back to take a seat near Hitch on the other couch, but not before sharing a tender nuzzle with the baby dragon who was mesmerized at the sight of her multicolored wings, which Zipp allowed the baby drake to play with as she shared a concerned look with Hitch.

Shortly after, the sound of the front doors opening and closing in a hurry signaled the arrival of another of our friends, since I only discerned a single set of hooves clopping against the marble floor, a sound that only tightened the knot in my tummy.

There she was, standing just past the rim of the door that led to the living room, the mare whose beautiful visage I had grown to adore seeing every day, only now her image filled me with a sense of bone-chilling dread.

It took only a second for Sunny’s muzzle to morph from relieved surprise to an angry scowl.

“YOU!!”

“M-Me?” I innocently pointed at myself.

Sunny was in no mood for games. “Yes! You! Do you know how much of a scare you’ve given us?! I’ve barely been able to sleep for the past week!” Her angry stomping quickly shortened the distance between us. I’m ashamed to admit I flinched away from her piercing glare, silently cursing the tall pillows of the couch for depriving me of a quick escape route.

“C-Come on, Sunny, yo-”

“Don’t ‘Sunny’ me! What the buck were you thinking?! How could you put yourself in danger like that?!!” The mare seethed with the fury of the sun.

The answer was as plain as day, however. “For the same reason you jumped into that null void.” I offered in short.

Whatever resolve she had promptly evaporated as my carefully chosen words cut rather deep in her tantrum. Her scowl morphed into confusion and guilt, and then pained relief. With her ears hallway down, and her advance halted, she tried to rebut me.

“That’s… n-not the same!”

“It’s exactly the same reason, Sunny.” I settled, knowing I was right. As I said before, this wasn’t my first rodeo.

“B-But, y-you could have died!”

“No, Sunny. I wouldn’t have, remember?” I answered a bit more harshly than I intended, but it would never stop being a sore spot for me.

It seemed I had managed to escape her ire for the time being, but my words left behind a teary-eyed pony who struggled not to crumble where she was standing.

Seeing her in that state broke my heart, making me feel even more like shit. Opening my arms, I invited her to finish crossing the distance. She did so in earnest, accepting my embrace, pulling herself into my lap, and squeezing me as if I was going to turn into smoke if she blinked too hard.

She cleared her running nose with a sniff and tried to wipe away a tear that had formed in her eye, only for countless more to follow suit. “… I was so s-scared. Y-You weren’t responding, a-and I thought…”

“Shhh, it’s okay, Sunny, it’s okay. I know it wasn’t a pretty thing to witness, and for that, I’m deeply sorry.” I pulled her deeper into my embrace, feeling her soaked muzzle buried into my neck. “But you understand why I did it, right?”

I had a hunch she knew, but the outcome was far from the desired one. “… Is this…” She cleared her nose with an audible sniff. “... Is this really what it takes?” Her muffled question reached my ears.

What was I supposed to answer? The harsh truth was that, indeed, sometimes ponies get hurt in the line of duty.

“Not always, but… as hard as we might try, yes, sometimes this is what it takes.”

Not a word was spoken for several minutes, as Sunny finished shedding her tears while I gently rocked her back and forth. Hitch and Zipp respectfully waited for her to finish, only being able to give us sympathetic looks. However, I glimpsed a spark of understanding shining in Hitch’s eyes. His experience of being a sheriff surely would provide him with a similar idea as to what I was implying.

Occupational hazards and all.

I removed my arms from her back when I felt her slightly pulling away, her tearful eyes fixed on mine, searching for something. Pressing her forehooves over my chest, she shuffled a bit to find a more comfortable position over my lap. On any other day, my mind would have started to go places where it shouldn’t have, but the mood couldn’t have been worse at the time.

“I… I understand.” She finally admitted with a saddened tone. “But… I don’t like it one bit.”

“Nopony said you had to, Sunny. It’s the less glamorous part of being a Guardian of Harmony.” I scratched behind an ear in appreciation for her understanding.

She sighed as she realized that I was right. “... Heh, it always seems so easy in the stories.” She half-chuckled.

“As a guy who has lived those stories, yes, it always sounds easier than it is. But that’s why we have friends at our side, Tangerine. To make it easier for us to pull through in the end. If there’s anything that I’ve learned in all my years here, is that somehow, for some absurd reason or another, it always works.”

Extremely corny, but deadly effective. The things you learn in the School of Friendship… even while being a teacher, mind you, can be quite eye-opening.

“How have you guys been these days?” I tried to change the subject, allowing her to continue resting against me while tenderly scratching over her scalp and between her ears in an attempt to lift her mood, even if just a little.

Sunny drank me my tender caressing with gusto. “Mmmmwell, if you mean us, you can imagine. Dead worried about you, but other than that, nothing important, aside from Sparky’s hatching, of course. I’m sure you’ve already met him.” She looked to the side where Sparky had moved to rest on Hitch’s lap yet again, visibly confused at the heated scene unraveling in front of him.

“Yeah, I found him in my room, exploring my face just as I was waking up. Very charming fella. What about the townsponies? The festival?”

Sunny shook her head dejectedly. “Nopony was in the mood to continue with the celebrations after that weird phenomena. They were happy that it was over, but most of them were too afraid to leave their homes anyway for a day or two. We all headed over to the main square the other day when things had calmed down a little and we gave the earth ponies a good scolding for their behavior. Posey was very sorry, and she wanted to apologize to you personally. Dahlia too. The unicorns and pegasi are still a bit hesitant to visit Maretime Bay again… But I doubt that sentiment will persist for long. We’ll think of something.” She poked at me with a hoof to emphasize her enthusiasm.

“That’s my Sunny. Teaching those numbskulls who’s boss.” I playfully congratulated her with a more vigorous scritching, making her groan and close her eyes in bliss. Very cute indeed.

“Totally addicted.” I side-whispered to my friends sitting on the other couch with a chuckle.

“You said it.” Zipp answered with a smirk of her own, eliciting an annoyed ‘Hey!’ from my earth pony friend.

My legs were starting to fall asleep from supporting her weight, so I asked her to please get off my lap. She did so with a bit of reluctance, switching instead to sit at my right side, still pressing herself against me, her hoof coming to rest over the scar on my chest. I didn’t mind her closeness, so I allowed her to do as she pleased.

While waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive, we passed the time with small talk, which came dandy for me since I started to learn of the events that had transpired while I was out of commission. Most of them involved our new buddy Sparky, whose foal-like curiosity and endless energy had gotten him and his caretaker in a fair amount of trouble already. Fortunately, the townsfolk didn’t seem alarmed at the prospect of having a dragon now living amongst them. Perhaps my arrival had softened them a little when it came to other creatures sharing their little town, or the fact that the bay drake was irresistibly adorable. Either way, one less problem to worry about.

The sound of the front doors once again brought our attention back to the hall, from which a positively fuming unicorn stormed in to glare at me in a similar way Sunny had just a couple of minutes prior.

My survival instincts went on overdrive. “H-Hey there, Izzy. Uh… you’re looking… outstanding today?”

My pathetic attempt to buy me some levity was met with bone-chilling silence as she slowly stalked her way towards my trembling form, with her ears pressed against her scalp, a frown on her muzzle, and murder in her eyes.

Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but just as with Sunny, Izzy could also be scary when she put her mind to it.

“Oh colt…” Hitch’s muttering only worsened my dread. I would have preferred for her to shout at me, making her displeasure known loudly and vocally. Instead, she just continued with the silent treatment.

When she was within reach, I extended my hand toward her muzzle to accompany my pleas with some friendly scritches. “Come on, Izzy. It wasn’t that ba-OWCH!!”

She had bitten me. That, I hadn’t seen coming. It was obvious she was mad, but still…

“Hey, what was that abo-OWCH! Stop it!”

Again, she lunged with her muzzle to bite on my hand. It seemed she had chosen to voice her frustration with me in a more physical way, but I was having none of it, especially since the pain from her nipping was accented by the burns covering the entirety of my hands to the brink of making me pass out.

“Why you little…”

A short and messy scuffle later found us in a… peculiar position, with her sprawled over my lap, my right hand trapped between her jaws, mine clamped over the scruff of her withers, pulling up like a mother cat would do to her kittens.

“Uh, guys?” Zipp’s bemused look was mirrored by all our friends, making us stop our fight momentarily to realize the ridiculousness of the situation in which we found ourselves.

“Iffy, leff fgo!” I demanded from within a mouthful of fur.

“Ggou figgst!”

“Iffy! Leff! Fgo!”

“Ggo!”

“IFFY!”

“GGO!”

Finding her resolve unwavering, I decided to be the bigger man and let go first, even if just to escape the astonished looks from the ponies and dragon alike. That, and my mouth was getting full of pony fur.

“Pfff!... Blegh, you hairy ponies… agh.” I tried to clean my tongue from lavender-colored fur with little success. Thankfully, Izzy followed my example after winning our little contest. Sadly, that small victory wasn’t enough to erase the scowl from her features.

“Is this really necessary, Izzy?” I asked, a bit tired of her behavior.

“You’re an idiot!” Was her sharp response.

“I’m perfectly aware of that, but that doesn’t explain the need to go and bite me all of a sudden.”

Her eyes narrowed further. “I ought to do more to you than just biting you! Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been about you?! Huh?! My eyes are still sore from all the crying! And for what?!”

“I knew what I was doing. It w-”

“Reeeally? You knew what you were doing, huh?” Izzy’s question dripped with sticky sarcasm. She reached with her forelegs and grabbed both my cheeks. “Look at me in the eyes and swear to me you pulled that stunt knowing you would get out unharmed!”

I wasn’t going to lie to her face, so instead I avoided her piercing gaze, or at least tried since her hooves held my head in place. “Izzy, please understand…”

“No!” She shoved me back with her hoof. “You could have died, Alex! I mean, you looked like you were actually DEAD when we dragged you to the hospital!” She pushed herself further in my lap to match the height of my eyes. “What! In the world! Were you thinking?!”

My silent pleadings were unheard by our friends, who seemed surprised at Izzy’s strong behavior. Again, I was calling for something like this to happen, considering how close we had grown such a short time, but it had also caught me by surprise a little with just how forceful she had become.

“You.” I answered with a calmer tone. “All of you.”

She was taken aback by my response, her harsh glare morphing into confusion. “T-That’s not…”

“Yes, Izzy, it is,” I continued, now addressing the rest of the ponies. “Guys, you are all I have now. You’re… my new family.” I pointed towards the door. “And those ponies down there, here, and in the other cities… They’re my subjects to project, whether I like it or not.”

I shifted back to Izzy, petting her sides lovingly. “I’ve given my life for them once, and I’m willing to do so again, and again, and again, as many times as it takes. You deserve everything you were denied because of me, and I’ll do anything to ensure that. What are you willing to do for your family, Izzy?”

Tears now began to mat her cheeks. It was a terrible question to ask. I couldn’t blame the conflict in her beautiful eyes, but after a moment of hesitation, the obvious answer escaped her lips.

“… Anything. I w-would do anything f-for them.”

I loathed to see her in a slump, the same loathing for what I had done with Sunny earlier translating to Izzy’s sorry state. I pulled her into a warm, yak-approved embrace, whispering soothing words and apologies for having asked her such a complicated question and put her through so much worry while I recovered.

I needed them to understand. It was part of who we were now, part of what I became when I accepted my role as Prince of Knowledge. I preferred my battles to be fought in the lab, in boring conference meetings, in harsh trade negotiations and peace summits, whatever was necessary to further my work and help everycreature I could.

But sometimes… sometimes we don’t get what we wish for, and creatures get hurt… or worse.

Sunny was quick to be there for her best friend, moving from her place at my side to embrace the now sobbing unicorn in a warm hug of her own. Zipp and Hitch did similarly with a distraught-looking Sparky who, not fully understanding the situation, suffered from the somber mood that permeated the room.

Once she got everything out, she lightly tapped me to release her. Doing so, she pushed herself back a bit, her reddened eyes searching mine.

“I don’t want you to pull a stunt like that ever again, do you hear me?” She feebly shoved me again with what little energy she could muster.

“You know I can’t promise you that, Izzy.” Once again, I wasn’t going to lie to her. That would only bring more pain afterward.

Seeing her distraught plea, I reached and placed a small peck on the tip of her snout. “But I’ll do my best to try not to, deal?”

A shy smile broke out from her saddened features, accompanied by a blush and a tiny nod.

A sharp sting reminded me of my lingering injuries, the pain from my hands being the most bothersome.

“Ouch!” I blew into my throbbing hands in an attempt to soothe the burning sensation. “Ugh. Sorry guys, I’m still a bit sore from all that. Better if I use a bit of magic and get it solved, no biggie. Hitch told me you were taking care of my gauntlets, right Izzy?”

Izzy, who had extracted herself from my lap, answered by running her eyes everywhere except my questioning ones. The rest of the ponies’ demeanor also changed drastically at the mention of my tools. Their strange behavior was setting off all the alarms.

“Izzy… where are my gauntlets?”