There was a slight morning drizzle as we headed back out to the gem deposit. It certainly wasn’t enough to be oppressing, but you could still hear the pattering of raindrops against any surfaces nearby. It would have been calming, I’m sure the mellow atmosphere could do wonders for a stressed conscience.

And yes, it was making the dirt roads muddy, slowing down our pace quite a bit

I myself haven’t experienced rain in a long time. My hospital room didn’t have a window, so the last time I actually saw raindrops and felt them landing on me was probably all the way back in elementary school. If I remember correctly, it was quite a nasty storm, it knocked our power out for a few days, right after school had gotten out for the summer as well.

What was going on this morning was a far cry from that, but try as I might, I couldn’t get myself to enjoy it. Not when what we were doing later today loomed on the horizon.

Though things were looking up. Rain was probably a good deterrent for dragons, I doubt a fire-breathing reptile would linger in a place where everything was slightly damp. If the rain today prevented a dragon from showing up at the deposit, then all the more to it. Just because we were heading out to fight dragons didn’t mean we were actually going to be able to. There was no way of telling for sure where or when they would show up, we were just ready for them today.

I assumed if we didn’t have another job already lined up, then Sir Manuscript would just pay our retainer again and have us go out the next day, then the next, and the next until we actually encountered the dragons. Apparently the mercenaries were the best fighting force in the immediate area. Besides the military, we were the best equipped to fight dragons, so Sir Manuscript was probably going to use us until he couldn’t anymore. If he knew that we were planning on leaving tomorrow…

Well, I think there’s a reason we haven’t told him about this next job.

“So,” I began, looking up from my thoughts, “How exactly does one fight a dragon?”

Indigo glanced over to me from the other side of the cart, then pulled her hood forward to cover more of her face. I actually wasn’t wearing my cloak; the rain was really good for my disguise. All the other ponies were layered up though.

“Depends on what you want to do with it.” Indigo said,

“What do you mean?” I asked,

She just nodded over to Captain Morningstar.

He grunted and stepped closer to the cart, “If you’re looking to drive it off, you want to surround it, keep it off its feet and apply pressure.”

I nodded, that was exactly what they did the last time.

“To kill a dragon though, you need to keep it down, don’t let it move, and wear it down with attacks until you can deal a killing blow.”

“It also depends on the size of the dragon.” Dr. Duck added,

“Oh?” I looked over to him.

“If it’s a small one, then that’s easy enough, just don’t let it get into the air. A medium size dragon changes based on its type, and for a large one.” Dr. Duck pursed his lips, “You best hope you have enough ponies to take it down.”

I grimaced, then tilted my head, “What types of dragons are there?”

“Quadrupedal or bipedal,” Indigo answered, “Like you, Phos.”

There were dragons that stood on two legs? Like a T-rex? How scary.

“So how do you deal with each type?”

“If it stands upright, go for the legs. If it’s on all fours, go for the head.” Rusty recited.

I patted the handle of my knife on my belt. “How tough are dragons?”

“Very.” Rusty followed my motions with his eyes, “If you’re wondering, your knife isn’t going to do much against their scales. You’d probably do best aiming for something softer, like the eyes or underbelly.”

“R-Right.” I nodded slightly,

That meant I was going to have to get up close and personal with something that could eat me. If this were any other fight, I might not be so nervous. Getting broken was scary, sure, but those pieces would still exist, it was plausible to get them back. When training, and maybe even when in a fight, it was just an annoyance, but with dragons…

Those pieces would be destroyed, digested, gone for good, along with all the memories that were stored in them.

I did not want that to happen, which is why I was really hoping that this morning rain would mean there weren’t any dragons at the deposit.

♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦ ♥ ♦

If only things could be so nice.

Partway through the forest, the rain eased up, and the sky started to clear. By the time we got to the deposit, it was dry as a bone. The rain might not have even reached here in the first place.

To make matters worse, there were large footprints in the sand. Ones that I recognized.

“Eyes open and ears alert.” Captain Morningstar ordered, “Keep an eye on the sky and shout if you see something.”

“Sir yes sir.” The mercenaries responded,

“S-Sir yes sir.” I stuttered out,

“You heard him,” Sir Manuscript addressed another group of ponies.

That’s right, Sir Manuscript was joining us on this job as well. I guess he really wanted to see me in action, enough to drag another troop of private soldiers out with him. Sir Manuscript was even armored up himself, though it looked much more ornamental than functional. He also had a sword of his own, some gold encrusted sabre that looked like it cost more than all the gear of his companions combined. As much as I appreciated the extra help, I would prefer to do this with ponies I trusted.

It wasn’t like he was actually going to fight though, as he looked much more content hanging out by the edge of the forest. So was the rest of his group for that matter, they were probably only here for his protection, so they wouldn’t actually be helping unless the fighting took a turn towards them.

…

I might just have to try that. Especially if it would stop him from observing me so closely.

“Captain!” Fletch called out, pointing across the deposit.

We all looked over, just in time to see a flash of red slip between a few boulders.

Captain Morningstar growled, “Form up.”

All the mercenaries quickly got into position behind him, and I scrambled to get behind them.

“Let’s get this over with.”

We started moving forward, and with a quick look back at Sir Manuscript, I could see his smug smile as he lifted up a spyglass from underneath the shade of the trees.

Bastard.

Once we reached the deposit proper, there was no dragon in sight, so we huddled up by the base of the cliff.

“We’re going to try to ambush it,” Captain Morningstar began, gazing around the area. “We’ll bait it into the open, push it up against the wall, and kill it, understood?”

“Sir yes sir.” I actually managed to be on time with that one.

Captain Morningstar nodded, then looked around again, “Fletch, hole up in that alcove. Rusty, go with her. Duck, you’re with Dagger, find somewhere to hide on the other side. Maul, go stand out in the open.” He pointed to a spot in the sand,

Wow, what a sucky job.

“Phos, you’re with him.”

I froze, and looked at Captain Morningstar. His normally serious face was replaced with a deep scowl. I don’t think he would be taking any questions right now.

“Indigo, you’re with me, prepare something big.”

“Got it.” She replied, flipping open her spellbook and stepping to the side as Captain Morningstar walked off,

I stared at her for a moment, only for Maul to nudge me hard in the opposite direction. I stumbled forward, then quickly shuffled over to the spot pointed out.

Standing out in the open, waiting for a dragon was not high on the list of things I wanted to do. At least I was with Maul, I knew firsthand what he could do. Out of all of the mercenaries, I think he was probably the worst one to go up against in a fight, which made me glad he was on my side this time. But this was a dragon we were talking about…

Wait, if we were waiting out in the open, does that mean we’re the bait?

Glancing around, I could see the rest of the mercenaries slip into their respective hiding spots, waiting. There was still no dragon though, and despite being right next to where we saw it earlier, there was no trace of it.

I didn’t really want to follow it. Despite being the bait, an ambush was a really good decision, much better than trying to track down a dragon. I don’t know what it would even be doing. Wandering? I guess? Picking at gems in the deposit? If so, since it just left this area, it might take a while for it to come back.

I didn’t mind not having to fight the dragon, but now that we knew it was in the area, we couldn’t exactly leave now, especially with Sir Manuscript watching our every move. Every second spent waiting was a second wasted, and a second of anxiety for me.

“S-So… uh…” I began uneasily, “H-Have you fought many dragons b-before?”

Maul nodded, “Too many to count.”

Coming from him, that could actually be a pretty low number. Still, fighting ten different dragons on ten different occasions and living to tell the tale is probably nothing to scoff at.

“And have you f-fought any like this one?”

“Hmmm…” Maul thought for a moment, “Yes.”

“W-What was it like?”

“Easy to hit, hard to kill.”

“Oh…” If Maul said that, then this thing was going to be a tank.

I was going to have to fight a tank with a knife.

How do you knife fight a tank?

Aim for the vitals, I guess. Like Rusty said. I feel like it would be much easier with a sword though, I’ve actually seen someone beat a tank with a sword.

Not in real life, mind you.

Still, no dragon.

“Um… Should we try to get its attention or something?” I asked hesitantly.

“Good idea.” Maul proceeded to drop his weapon and start rattling his armor.

It was decently loud, a cacophony of bangs and clanks, like a bunch of pots and pans. He definitely wouldn’t be sneaking up on anyone, but I don’t think you would notice it unless you were pretty close. I’m not sure that sort of noise would even attract an animal in the first place.

Did I have a way of attracting a dragon? I mean despite being made of apparently delicious crystal. A dragon would have to see me first to know that though, and I still don’t believe I produced a scent of any kind. So why did the dragon show up in the deposit before? Was it just wandering around and just happened to find me? Maybe, or maybe it wasn’t a coincidence. I hadn’t done anything attention grabbing though, I had just fallen and…

Oh.

I screamed.

I haven’t really gotten the opportunity to raise my new voice much. Not that I was worried to, I didn’t have vocal cords, so I couldn’t really wear it out. It’s just that the situation never called for it, I didn’t want to just scream for no reason. It wasn’t special or anything either, just your regular, run of the mill scream, maybe on the higher pitched side, but so was my regular voice.

Maul stopped shaking his armor before I even finished, allowing me to hear my scream echo back to me. Yeah, it was pretty loud, if the dragon didn’t hear that, then it either wasn’t nearby, or was completely deaf.

“Loud…” Maul muttered, banging the side of his helmet with a hoof.

I winced, “Sorry, I should’ve warned you.”

Maul stiffened, and hurriedly clutched his weapon, “Next time.” He said quickly.

I really didn’t want to follow his gaze, but I did so, immediately locking eyes with the red dragon.

“Phos?” Maul asked in surprise,

Not from the dragon, I had crouched down behind him and was now clutching the armor around his haunches tightly. I thought I was ready for a fight, but one look at that dragon made me feel like my legs had shattered. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to get behind a horse and surprise it, and I also knew it wasn’t a good idea to stay in one place while a dragon was approaching you.

Yet I was frozen to the ground.

Could I even freeze? I didn’t have any moisture inside of me. Ice was a crystal, does that mean I could use ice for replacement parts? I would need to stay somewhere very cold to do that though-

“Get up!” Maul ordered, “Move!”

That jolted me out of my thoughts, and I shook my head as I backed away. “Where?!”

“Away!”

“O-Okay!” I took a few more steps back, then stopped,

Right, we were bait, we were trying to lure the dragon into the middle of an ambush. At the moment it had just entered the area, and looked more curious than anything, just like the first time. It was hesitant to take too many steps forward, but as Maul joined me in backing away, it started to follow.

“Good, good.” He muttered, keeping his pace steady.

It was like he was a completely different person. The almost blank stare he had most of the time was replaced with a cold gaze. He knew what he was doing. He had fought dragons more times than he could count.

The dragon continued to approach, but Maul held his ground. I did not, only to realize this a second later and rush back behind Maul. The dragon immediately noticed this and paused, but at that point it was too late, it was already in the clearing.

In a great flash of light, a wave of frost shot out from the bushes where Indigo was hiding, freezing the ground underneath it as it impacted the dragon. A moment later giant ice spikes speared up from the sand, piercing into its claws and forcing it to rear up.

It roared, only to be cut short as two arrows impacted each side of its face at the same time.

Shouts rang out as Rusty, Dr. Duck, and Captain Morningstar all came charging out, quickly joining Maul as they rushed the dragon.

Wow, they all knew what they were doing.

“Keep up!” Rusty glanced back at me.

“Huh? What? Oh!” My hand flew to my knife, and I quickly drew it, right as another spell flew out from Indigo’s position.

This one was also ice based, as when it splattered across the dragon’s scales it left behind a patch of frost. Were there elemental match ups here? Or was it just common sense? Were dragons cold blooded? I guess ice would do well against fire in any case.

I shook my head, then charged forward with a battlecry of my own.

“Gwaaah!”

It was… much less intimidating than the others, enough to the point that several of them looked over to me in confusion. Even the dragon.

That just allowed Captain Morningstar to land a nasty uppercut on it with his morningstar, causing it to stumble back in a daze. It was already working, we were pushing the dragon up against the wall. The others started to move up from their positions as well, with Dagger and Fletch coming around from the sides, and Indigo moving forward from the bush.

What was I doing? Standing somewhere in between. The melee mercenaries were surrounding the dragon, and holding the line pretty well, while the ranged ones closed in steadily, keeping up the suppressive fire. I wouldn’t be able to do much with my knife at any range, and if I got hit once, then I would go down. I didn’t really have any ranged options either. Sure, I could throw rocks, but I couldn’t count on my aim, especially with only my left hand.

It was starting to get a little crowded at that point, and I didn’t really know what to do. I had been training in combat well enough, but I knew nothing about tactics or trying to fight in a team. I guess it was a good thing that the dragon didn’t have any escape routes, and the mercenaries weren’t letting it focus on a single pony for too long. With its back against the cliff, it couldn’t easily fly away either.

This was still a dragon though, and I feel like there might be a better way of doing this. Couldn’t we tie it down with something? I guess it would just burn through the ropes.

Chains then? But metal was expensive…

I feel like there’s still something missing though.

The dragon’s head snapped up, and it puffed smoke, causing all the mercenaries to jump back in preparation. No fire came though, and instead the dragon bellowed a deep roar. It wasn’t some powerful blast of sound, nor was it a bone-rattling threat. No, it was the type of roar to be heard, and the type of roar that gets a response.

Something flew in front of the sun, quickly followed by a second. The brief flashes of shadow caused us all to look up, where two forms circled in the air, before touching down on the opposite side of the clearing.

The moment of confusion was quickly shattered as Captain Morningstar dove out of the way, dodging a claw swipe from the dragon. With the line now broken, it pushed past the encirclement, then bounded over to its brethren.

There had been mention of multiple dragons. This place was even described as prime dragon territory. I knew nothing of dragon behavior, so I don’t know why I expected there to be only one.

At least the other two were somewhat smaller compared to the first. To the left was a scrawny-looking blue one. It never actually touched the ground when it descended, and remained hovering a few feet in the air. In the center was big red, who looked the same as last time, albeit with a few new nicks in its scales.

To the right was a kind of ‘in between’ dragon, although it stood taller, it wasn’t as big as the red one, but it was considerably larger than the blue one. It stood on two legs, and had bright yellow scales. Claws and teeth were the first impression I got from it, and it looked like it was itching to put them to use.

How are we supposed to fight three dragons?!

At least the blue one looked easy. Maul could probably handle that one on his own, maybe even Rusty. In fact, it looked like that’s what he was going to do right now.

“Now this is more like it!” Rusty exclaimed, stepping to the side.

The red dragon gazed across the group, then made eye contact with me. It licked its lips.

How nice of it to recognize me. I guess my disguise doesn’t work on something that’s seen me without it.

Captain Morningstar growled, “Change of plans, focus on the yellow one.” He signaled with his hoof, “Rusty, take care of the blue one. Fletch, help him.”

I didn’t need to count on my fingers to know that didn’t account for all the dragons.

“Phos,” Captain Morningstar turned to me, “Distract the red one until we’re done.”

“What?! Why me?!” I demanded,

“It wants you.” Dagger said simply, “Run.”

“You’re good at dodging, right?” Indigo added, “It should be no problem.”

The mercenaries split, each going to their respective tasks, leaving a straight shot between me and the red dragon. It took a step forward, focused solely on me, then another, and another as it started to pick up speed.

I immediately turned tail and ran.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note

Some of you might draw parallels with being eaten by a dragon to a certain admirable sea slug. I'll put it this way, dragons can seemingly eat gems for energy, meaning they have a way to metabolize them. That means the atomic structure of the crystal will be broken down completely, it's not just dissolved in acid, it's full on digested. Unfortunately, that is something the gems cannot come back from.

Beating a tank with a sword? That's Full Metal Alchemist for you.

What does Phos's scream sound like? The fall from the cliff would probably be similar to when he fell from the roof, and I'd say the one in the clearing was similar to Amethyst. If you've seen the anime, you'll know what I'm talking about. What about the battlecry? That's Marcille from Delicious in Dungeon, episode 15 to be exact.