It took me about half an hour to get there as it was near the outskirts of the city, but I did get everything he would need.

Next stop, the Petit Royal bakery! They had the best pastries and amazing flavor combinations, I felt my mouth water at the thought, as I headed back to upper Canterlot where the store was, I suddenly felt someone walking behind me, I ignored that pony because it was a pretty big city ponies walked here and while they often preferred to be out during the morning and day than at nightfall, a lot of them.

This streets were further away from the upper portion of the city and therefore much less guarded, patrols didn't come out this far, and were only at the gates, I decided to take a side alley to go to a street that would be closer to my destination.

I heard flapping of wings from above and getting closer, I turned to look up, and the pony walking behind me earlier took that opportunity to run into the alley and get behind me and jump on top of me, pinning me down and pressing a steel dagger to my throat, the pegasus mare landed in front of me and using her wing, pulled out a short sword and aimed at my eye, I was confused and shocked, so I stood still, thinking what I could do.

"Make a noise and I plunge the dagger right into your neck, you'll bleed out before you can even scream." The earth pony stallion said with the dagger handle in his mouth muffling his voice, but he was right next to me, his body pressing me down against the ground, earth ponies were damn strong!

"We've seen you spend a lot of bits at the market, and those bits belong to ponies, not you, you are hoarding something you stole, so we will steal it right back, now give us your saddlebag and we will let you go, try anything and I will drive my sword through your eye and right into your little brain!"

I sighed, annoyed to having to deal with thieves now of all things, I was too hungry for this!

"Fuck off you two, you messed with the wrong guy!" I teleported a few steps ahead of them, making the guy that was pinning me down to land on the ground with a small 'oomph'.
I stored my saddlebag on my inventory to keep it from getting the dish soap bottle smashed.

I grabbed the steel warhammer from the inventory and stood on two legs, holding the hammer in one hand.

This time I was gonna limit myself from using magic, I have no experience in melee combat but this was a good time as any to learn, and very safe too.

I bet my opponents have no combat experience either, they probably never had anyone who fought back, probably.

"So, what are you two waiting for? Come at me, I will do my best to not kill neither of you, but I can promise you'll end up very much bruised." They hesitated at my words, probably not expecting me to resist or fight back, but then they steeled themselves and approached slowly, holding their weapons, one on her wing and the other on his mouth.

"You'll regret that hatchling! We are going to make you suffer for that." She held her short sword up and licked it with a sadistic smile.

The stallion simply snarled and rushed me first, aiming to stab at my chest, considering how strong earth ponies could be I decided to stop him, he was fast, and strong, but he was predictable and didn't try to use any feints.

Brute strength is scary when it came rushing at you like an angry bull, but I had a warhammer, with longer range, I had much better reflexes too.

As he came by I stood still until the last second, then sidestepped and brought my warhammer up as he ran past, I lifted the hammer up with a light amount of force, hitting him right on his belly, making him fall to the ground after he slowed down enough, and hold his belly in pain, a pained groan escaped him and he started to recover, the hit was intended to just cause pain but not hurt him, mom told me to not hurt stallions unless my life was actually in danger, it was guard policy too, there aren't enough stallions so even the bad ones deserve a chance.

Meanwhile the pegasus rushed at me too, flying fast and attacking right at my back with the sword on her wing, I didn't bother turning, as pegasus wings were nowhere as strong as earth ponies using their weapons, sure it would have pierced right through a pony's skin, but I wasn't a pony and i had very good natural armor.

The short sword bounced off and fell off her grasp and the pegasus hit my back with her wing, causing her to wince in pain, but before she could pull it back I grabbed said wing and held it firmly.

She let out a cry of pain and tried to pull her wing back, hard. "Let me go you bucking monster! You're hurting me!" She yelled but I ignored her and kept feeling her wing.

It felt almost exactly like a bird's wings, just much bigger and the feathers were soft on one direction but also seemed like they could apply pressure like fingers, she was trying to push me off with her feathers, they still were nice to the touch, I could feel the limb itself, it was like an arm, it was muscular but also felt vulnerable, not as sturdy as a leg, I wonder if my future wings will be like this?

The earth pony had recovered now and was back for more, he got up with the dagger at the ready and tried to lunge at me, seemingly furious that I was touching the mare, he aimed at my neck, swinging his dagger in an erratic manner, trying to catch me in one of the swings.

I dodged most of them but still got a few cuts on my arms and chest, that just left scratches on my scales, slashing was not effective against dragons, had no one explained that to this guy? Piercing, yes it can work, bludgeoning was a good choice too, but slashing was as effective as slashing at metal.

I decided to put a stop to the slashing, and swung my warhammer from the side, the earth pony actually dodged with the blow, making him not take any damage from it, and then rushed me and tried to stab me again, actually stab and not slash this time, my eyes widened as I let go of the mare's wing and grabbed the head of the stallion right as the dagger was about to stab into my left eye, it became a battle of raw strength as he and I both tried to push the other back, i had to store the hammer as I needed both arms to be able to push against him effectively, I was slowly gaining ground, but then the mare recovered and kicked my legs in the right angle to make them slip out from under me.

And I was overpowered, he pushed me over and I was pinned to the ground beneath a furious and very large stallion and a murderous mare who had gotten her shortsword back, they were glaring at me with murderous intent, I had my forelegs folded on front of my chest and the stallion was stepping over my hind legs, preventing me from close them to kick or attack with them.

"Uhh... C-can we talk about this? You won, soo you can have my saddlebag, if you want?" I said shakily, I knew I could do better but I was not so experienced with fighting multiple opponents on melee, against one of them probably I could win, but I was taking on two at the same time, one of them very strong, and scary, the pegasus mare wasn't that scary, she was more of a nuisance than a real threat.

"No, we already gave you a chance to give us your saddlebag, but you decided to insult us and fight, and you hurt my coltfriend!" Oh, so... They were a couple, it made sense I guess.

"Wait... You're together? That's pretty sweet! Partners in crime~ hehe how very... Romantic! How about we... We say you won, you beat me fair and square and we leave it at that?" I tried to give them the ol' reliable puppy eyes.

"What are you doing?! You think you'll just... Talk us out of kicking your ass just because you are adorable? Hmph, okay maybe we won't kill you, but we still owe you a good stomping, least we can do after what you did!" The stallion said with a snort, but he was still looking angry, just maybe not murderous.

"No way hun! He hit you on the belly with a hammer! I saw it, how much you were hurting, you're not saying we will spare his life, are you?!" The mare asked furious.

"Stop Wind, he could have done much worse, I think he was just playing with us, he still is, I feel something ain't right about this situation, you know he could have gone right for my chest and break my ribs, or he could have gone for a far more tender spot." Oh, he figured out, they both looked at me expectantly.

"Do you want to talk to the nearest guard patrol or should I take you to the castle's door so you can turn yourself in?" While I was talking, I grabbed the weapons from their respective holds in telekinesis and slid them over to me, where I stored them both in my inventory, they didn't expect it so they didn't react until it was too late.

"W-whu?! How? Where are our weapons?! We're gonna stomp on you then! Get him Sharp!" I knew it was dumb but I decided to fight for a bit longer, with no weapons on the field it was much less dangerous as ponies main weapons we their hooves, they could do a lot of damage with them yes, but they couldn't just take an eye out or something like that.

I hoped.

As they tried to stop me, I dodged the stallion by rolling onto my belly and grabbed the mare's leg that just stomped on my chest, pushing her up harshly and forcing her to either fly up or fall down and land on her back, she chose to fly up.

The stallion rushed me and turned around, prepared to kick me with his rear legs like a whip, but I just jumped back a few meters and let him kick the air, he groaned at having wasted so much force on that kick, then I rushed him while he was turning, this time catching him on the side and tackling him to the ground.

I started punching him on the muzzle a few times, but he pushed me off with his hind hooves, sending me into the air where the pegasus was waiting for me and I was kicked down right on my midsection, pushed full speed where I crashed into a dumpster, landing in a pile of trash.

I couldn't help but make a disgusted noise as the stench made me gag, I couldn't believe this, they actually knew how to fight unarmed better than they did with weapons, and I was learning that the hard way.

I was light enough to be thrown like a ragdoll by the stallion, the mare was much weaker than me but now she kept to the air and didn't try to fight up close, just came by to help her stallion when he was in trouble.

I got up and jumped out of the trashcan, only to get bucked right in the top of the head by the mare, making me wince as it hurts to get kicked there, she laughed at me from above, the stallion was about to kick me too, but this time I was ready, as his legs kicked, I moved in and grabbed them at the end of their momentum, then bracing myself with my tail I stood on two legs, i lifted him over my head and swung him down to the ground, making him land on his back with a pained cry, then I swung him again this time on his front, he used his hooves to stabilize himself and i jumped on top and started to hit his head from behind with my open palm, i was of course going easy, I want him to just give up, not cause brain damage.

The mare was furious at this and tried to kick me again but I jumped forward and went over his head, landing in front of him.

Sharp Blade has taken 20 damage! 180/200

Her kick was too late and she just kicked him in the head instead, at this point he was in a lot of pain from the hits, I could tell he has lost his will to fight.

"You give up?" I asked plainly, the mare was furious and started to insult me from above nonstop, but was too afraid to come down, I was ready to catch her if she tried to run.

"Yes, I don't want to get more of a concussion, I give up, you heard that Wind Shear? Come down here and surrender." He said in a calm tone, but he was still glaring at me.

"No way, I didn't take you for a coward Sharp Blade! You're surrendering to a little dragon, probably not even half your age! You are weak and pathetic, prove me you aren't right now or I'll go find another stallion." He grew furious, a snarl on his face, as he looked up at her, then at me, he directed his anger to me, I wasn't ready when he punched me in the face much stronger than I thought he could.

Onyx has taken 25 damage!

He punched me again and again but I covered my face with my forelegs, backing away from him.

I located both of them with my eyes closed using my blindsight, my magic flared bright indigo and both were wrapped in my telekinetic field, I pushed the pegasus to the ground and the furious earth pony, I forced him the hardest, forcing his head against the concrete, the mare I only restrained her from moving but she wasn't trying so it took almost no effort.

I uncovered my face as the punches of course were stopped by him being pinned down with hundreds of kilograms of pressure on his body.

He was still breathing, but struggling to do it. My nose was bleeding and my eyelid was swollen and I could barely see out of that eye because of his powerful punch, I wanted to stomp this guy to pulp, but...

A tired sigh left me, I promised to not do that, it would be very hypocritical of me.

"Playtime is over, you said you had given up, Wind Shear is right, you're a fucking coward that attacks after having surrendered.
You are a cheater and ruined our game just because of your pathetic marefriend's words, have you no honour?
You disgust me, fucking trash."

I insulted him while casting a spell that will cause him psychic damage, making him wince and cry out in agony as his mind was lashed by Vicious Mockery.

Critical hit! Sharp Blade has taken 30 psychic damage! 150/200
Sharp Blade has been weakened by the spell and lost his will to attack.

Wind Shear looked on in fear, I release both of them from the telekinesis, he wouldn't be bothering me anymore for now, as he was in pain, and would be too weak to attack, must be feeling like a strong sudden migraine from that huh? Well he had probably given me a concussion too, so an eye for an eye.

"And you, do you want to suffer like him too? Do you give up? Answer correctly and you will be comfortable in the castle dungeons, answer wrong and I'll make you suffer worse than him." My voice was soft, almost a whisper, but in the dark alleyway it reached far, as the stallion had stopped screaming and was just holding his head while curling up in pain.

"I surrender! Please don't hurt me!"

"Good answer, now stay still."

I took their weapons out of my inventory and placed them back on them, a teleport later I appeared in front of the castle doors with a flash of magic, the thieves not far from me, and guards came running to investigate the commotion.

I was the one to answer, this guards knew mom and they know who I was too, as mom talked about me a lot, she is very proud of me.

Time to put on a bit of an act.

"Miss guardmare, mister guard, please help! This ponies tried to steal my saddlebag and when I didn't want to give it to them, they hit me!"

"They tried to kill me! I... I didn't know what else to do so I teleported here but accidentally brought them too!" I said with tears running down my face, my face was sore and in pain, so the tears weren't fake, I ran towards the guard and they saw my scales normally pristine now full of scratches from blade attacks.

The thieves had their weapons still on their person, the dagger and shortsword had wooden sheaths and metal handles and the magic light from the lamps here made it clear, the guard quickly swarmed them and forced them to throw their weapons on the ground, and arrested them, the stallion was fully recovered from my spell by then so he couldn't say anything, and the mare was fine. Both of them were taken away.

I was starving at this point, I asked a guard if I could go but she told me I needed to wait for the medic to check up on me, and to go into the barracks.

"But...I need to buy things for mom, and I want to eat... I haven't eaten anything since lunch! It's almost dinner time, would you be able to get someone to go to Le Petit Royal and get me a kg of assorted pastries and eclairs?" One of the stallions nodded and I handed him the bag of bits.

"Sure, I'll go and get you that, it's not far from here and it would be unfair to let you go hungry for so long, just go in and talk to the doctor, he will make the report on your behalf."

"Oh thank you so much! You can get something for you too to eat if youre hungry, there should be enough money, you can even get a few to share with your friends, as a thank you for doing this favor to me, just make sure you don't skimp on the eclairs because Sylf wants them.," he seemed to get a serious face at this and made a small salute to me before leaving, I could tell he was playing, but I liked the guard for this exact reason, they were supposed to be extra stoic and serious but they did have emotions and they showed them, it was just more discrete than the everyday pony, which made for an interesting interaction when they were in a more relaxed environment like now.

Mom told me they were a lot of fun to hang out with too, and I believe her.

"Come this way please, the doctor is ready for you." A guardmare said as she approached, I nodded and walked alongside her, my face was slightly swollen and very sore, I tried to caress it but it was a bad idea, as it hurt a lot.

"Oh little one, don't touch the wound, it can get infected, just hang on, the doctor will help and you'll be back to normal in a few days."

"S-sorry, Its just... It hurts."

The castle grounds are beautiful, flowers in nicely decorated pots, statues, fountains and it was like... The ideal place to take a picture, everywhere, I was tempted to do just that but I was here just to get checked up, and I doubt the mare guiding me would want to be wasting her time.

Slowly we approached to a small clinic that was on the side of the castle, technically part of the castle, we entered the building, going right into a waiting room, then to the receptionist area, and a bend to the left where the different specialists had their rooms, one for each specialization.

Generalist, magic scan room, emergency room, surgery room, and others.

I headed to the emergency room, since what I had was considered an emergency, even if it wasn't for me, for most ponies after being a victim of an attack, a serious fight or any of that, they were considered to be in an emergency, specially when they had gotten hurt.

I was escorted to the door where a doctor waited for me inside.

"Come in, you're Onyx right? Come in and close the door behind you." The soft voice of an older stallion was heard from inside, I nodded to the guardmare and she left , I went in and closed the door as he told me, inside it was the typical doctors room, with a few low chairs and a place to lay down, I went and sat on the chair in front of his desk.

"I'm here doctor, yes I'm Onyx, what is your name?"

"Oh how impolite of me, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Minty, I'm the doctor today and I had a brief report on what you said earlier but I would prefer if you go into detail, and where they hurt you and how they did it, I'd also like if you would let me examine your body for any wounds and trauma, is that okay?" He asked politely and I assented.

"Okay then please go lay down on there, and then I'll take a look." I laid down and I wanted to rub my face but I remembered that it was in pain, and what the guard said, while I wouldn't get infected I could still hurt myself further by disturbing the swelled area.

"My eyelid and face is what hurts the most, it stings and my eyelid is blocking my view which is annoying, I also think I have cut myself with my fangs in the inside of my maw, but that's not as bad." He approached and I just looked up, not feeling like doing anything, my stomach made a loud growling sound of intense hunger, followed by a pang of hunger that hurt badly, I just let out a sad sigh.

"Wow, you must be really hungry, when was the last time you ate something?"

"Lunch, I should have had an afternoon snack but I got too chatty at the market and then I got too busy walking to the other side of the city to look for some cleaning supplies, and when I was going back I was mugged and beaten up." He looked at me in the eyes and shook his head.

"Those two are going to pay for what they did, no one hurts foals here and get away with it, and I know, technically you are not a foal but youre still under the same protections by the law as they are."

"Thank you, I just hope they stop being criminals and are somehow recovered as functioning adults members of society and not criminals, I don't want them to suffer, just maybe become better ponies." That was... Both true and a lie, I did make them suffer because they went over the line, I had gotten extremely pissed off after that punch, but I do hope they stop being criminals, maybe I scared them out of that life? I hope so.

"That's noble of you, but they still will spend time behind bars and then be given help to find a better path, that is how it's usually done." I could see on his face he was grossed out by my smell, yes I was too.

"Sorry about that doc, they kicked me into a trash can, I should have told you that before I laid on here, shouldn't I?"

"It's okay, you can shower here later, there's a shower in the bathroom here I'll take you to after I finish this paperwork, for now take this pill and drink some water, it's gonna help get the swelling down and calm your pain, then you can go shower."

An hour later, outside the Canterlot Castle medical ward.

I was showered and fully clean, the doctor had finished examining me and I finally had everything I needed done, I was free to go home.

I trotted out of the property and I saw the guard near the door, waiting for me with the bag of pastries and my bit pouch.

I almost run into him, as I rush to get to the delicious food inside, looking at his bag like an tiger about to pounce on it's prey.

"Yeees! Please give me I'm staaarrving! Rhaaaa!"

I pounce and grab the back from him, holding it in my paws carefully and hugging it.

"My precious! My beautiful pastries, come to daddy! I'm going to make love to you in my mouth, or you to me, with that succulent flavor that gives the highest of pleasurable experiences!" I ignore the shocked and somewhat traumatized stares that the guardponies are giving me and get my claws inside there, having dusted them off on my chest, and I grab one.

Almond cream filling, very flaky pastry, i eat it slowly, savoring every bite, at least for the first few seconds until the flavor hits my tongue and I lose all sense of morality and devour in a few bites, but take my time chewing to really get those flavors out, my eyes are filled with tears of happiness.

I try my best not to moan as I swallow my first pastry, feeling the void in my stomach be filled with food for the first time in I don't know how many hours is heavenly.

I grab another and I can tell right away it's apple flavor, made with delicious apples, I wonder if this came from the Apple's farm in Ponyville.

The egg yolk cream, pastry cream, however you want to call it, one of my favorite for this sweets, but I liked too many sweets to really tell if this was my favorite or not, I enjoyed every bite and every crunch of the buttery goodness almost dissolving in my maw.

"H-hey Onyx, you're acting a bit weird, the ponies are getting a bit concerned that you have said those things, where did you even learn those words?" The guard who went to buy me the pastries asked me softly.

"I just read a whole lot of books, romance books speak a lot about things like making love and pleasure and all that, why?" It sounded like the most plausible explanation.

"You should not read those books, they're for older ponies, where do you even get them?" Oh that was easy, and true, tho I never really read romance novels but I know where they are.

"You know at the public library, you can go and pick a book and read it, there is no restrictions, why do you ask mister?" I asked, growing impatiently with his line of questioning and grabbing another pasty, this time an eclair, filled with banana cream and covered with salted caramel glaze.

Whoever made all of this... I need to praise them and make a statue in their honor.

"Well, I don't know, it's just really weird seeing a colt say all of those things is all, but it's fine, you didn't really do anything wrong, just maybe don't say that out loud in public in the future, people may make assumptions and think you haven't been raised properly." Oh, thinking about it, I guess that made sense.

Well now I wasn't starving, so time to go home.

"Okay thank you for the warning sir, am I free to go home now?" I was feeling better, not just because I wasn't starving anymore but also because my eye inflammation was going down, and it was much less itchy and painful, I could completely normal again.

"Yes you are, do you need help getting home? I can accompany you if you want." He offered but I shook my head, I could teleport there right now, the teleportation circle made it easy and fast.

"No need mister guard, I'm gonna teleport there, once I'm outside of the castle, but thank you for your help bringing me this beauties and for being such a cool dude, and letting me know I was causing a scene, I just got too excited for this... Well, see ya!

He smiled and waved at me, I just waved back and left the castle grounds, they had an anti teleportation area inside, and only those authorized could teleport in, honestly good for them, I would do something similar at home if I knew how, but I had no idea, maybe it was powered by an artifact or a spell I had no knowledge off.

At the end of the day, mom has grounded me for being stupid and trying to fight criminals in melee without practice, dad has gotten caught having messed up the kitchen and was punished as well, I don't want to ask how, and mom... Well she is enjoying the Eclairs, and she shortened my sentence a few months when I gave her the ceramic and clay plates I bought and also after eating the pastries, she shared with me too and with dad, she was not so mean as to not share, even if we both had messed up.

We had a basic dinner of omelette with cheese after eating all those sweets, something I can agree with.

Author's Note

Seems like fighting melee isn't as easy as Sylf makes it out to be, and Onyx learns it the hard way.