A soul to spare

Darkness, everything was swallowed by darkness. A single house was the only thing that was untouched by the never ending shadow. I knew this house; I knew it all too well. A scream shattered the silence as I opened the front door. I ran upstairs to find whoever was screaming. It was a girl, a little girl. She was standing outside a room, crying.

“W-w-why” she sobbed out.

I leaned down to comfort her, embracing her in a tight hug.

“Why didn’t you save them? W-why did they leave”

“I’m sorry, I tried. But I couldn’t, I wasn’t strong enough. Don’t you worry though, I will never leave you. I will keep you safe.” I said as I held her tight, I too had started to cry at this point.

Suddenly she pushed me away, and looked up to me with a sad expression.

“But you did. You did leave, you abandoned me. Why did you leave me brother?”

Her colors and features were returning, it was Charlie, my little Charlotte.

I tried to speak, to say anything. But I couldn’t. The shadows was closing in, slowly covering her, slowly taking her away. I wanted to reach out but my arms would not move, nor would my legs.

No. Not her too.

Beep.

I promised that I would keep her safe. To never leave her.

Beep.

I am a failure

*********************

I awoke to the sound of an annoying sound, and a familiar smell.

Beep~Beep~Beep

I slowly opened my eyes, to see where I was. I was in a bed, chained to a bed if you want to be technical. The room had an egg white color to it, and a couple of machines were put on the side of the bed with wires going up and into me. I tried to remember what happened in the torture room before I blacked out. I could remember several figures storming into the room, and one of them talking to me.

Was I saved?

I looked down to my chained arms and feet and let out a sigh

Or was I simply captured again

Lifting up the blanket that covered me, I could that I had been heavily bandaged. I didn’t really feel any pain either, just a tingly numbing feeling through my body. It was a feeling that I recognized as the sweet, sweet nectar known as painkillers.

If they bothered to treat my wounds I would put my money on the fact that I was saved. Still doesn’t explain the chains though.

The chains that bound my arms were fairly long, barely restricting their range of movement at all. I could reach forward and bite them off, but decided against it. The last time I escaped it did not end well for me. So I waited.

After a while, a pony came into the room. No horn or wings. I guess he must me one of those and I quote “dirty low class earth ponies” that he cursed oh so often. She had a soft blue coat and a completely white mane. She glanced up from the clipboard she was holding, and saw that I was wake, and staring at her. She let out a loud gasp and ran out again before I had a chance to speak.

Once again I played the waiting game. I didn’t have to wait long this time though.

The door opened and a Pegasus decked in full armor stepped trough. He was dark grey with a deep purple mane, couldn’t see the mark on his flank because the armor was in the way.

“Good to see that you are awake. Now let’s get right into things, who are you” he spoke with a firm almost commanding tone.

I remembered back to the laboratory and the monster of a unicorn. `He cast the same spell on every single one of us before giving his little speech. “Your names have no value here, and therefore I had them removed. You are nothing but my test subjects, and your names should fit so” he took us away from out homes and then he tore out what little we had left`

“My name, or at least what I was called is Subject 217.”

He scribbled down something on a scroll; guess it was information on me or something.

“I see. I am captain Razor Dash. I was leading the attack on the diamond dog cave where we found and rescued you. We brought you here to tend to your wounds as I am sure you have noticed. But the nurse will be back later to give you further information on that.”

He said something else but I let my mind wander. Diamond dogs eh? So that’s what they are called. If I ever see one again I won’t make the same mistake as last time. This time around I will tear out his throat on sight. The captain was still speaking to I guess I should continue to listen.

“– and on that note princess Celestia will come to see you personally in two days, to judge you herself.” And with that he left. I think he mentioned something about my chains, but I wasn’t really paying attention. This wasn’t so bad after all, I got saved and this Celestia I was seeking out is coming here. Looks like things are looking up for once

The nurse returned after a little while, still cautious while in my presence though. She gave me a rundown on my condition. I had been out cold for almost an entire week, thankfully that had given them enough time to mostly heal me. I was technically healthy enough to be walking around, if I was allowed to that was. The burned wound in my shoulder would heal nicely, only leaving a scale less scar. Most of my claws would apparently grow back, with the exception of one where soft tissue and nerves had been too severely damaged. My wings could not be saved. While their magic was able to reattach a severed limb, there were multiple requirements for it to be possible. Firstly the cut had to be as clean as possible, and it needed to be treated as fast as possible after it had been severed. I failed on both of those requirements. The wounds were in to bad a shape to even attempt to reattach them, and it had taken quite some time to move me to this location. I would however receive two badass scars in their place.

Hehe chicks love scars

The rest of the two days I had to wait to meet Celestia went along quietly. The boredom of just lying there staring at the ceiling was only interrupted by the small conversations I had with the nurses when they came by to feed me and “gulp” when I had to go to the bathroom. I have never been so embarrassed in my life.

After waking up on the day that I was supposed to finally meet this Celestia, I decided to mess with the guards a little. I bit off the chains that were holding my arms, making sure to eat every last piece of it. Removing the evidence of that they had ever been there.

It was captain Dash that came to get me; apparently I was going to meet the princess in another room. He was unlocking the chains on my legs but came to a stop when he saw my arms.

“What did you do? Where are the chains that were on your arms? SPEAK CREATURE!” he was not too happy about this.

“Whatever do you mean? I never had any chains of sorts on my arms. And if I did, what would it benefit me to remove them while leaving my feet chained?” I replied with the straightest face I could muster.

This seemed to dazzle him for a few seconds before he shook his head “Whatever, I will deal with that later.” He shook his head. “Now get up and let’s go.”

Yea, get up and let’s go. There was only one problem with that. I looked down at my legs. “Give me my pants and I’m good to go.” I said. Hoping he would not push further on the subject already had some embarrassing situations with one of the nurses when she had to wash me. In my defense, the sponge felt really nice on my parts.

He just looked at me with an irritated look. “Listen here. You are not in any position to demand or ask for anything, so quit stalling and let’s GO”

I just sighed as I threw off the blanket that was covering me and stood in all my glory. “Now do you see why I wanted my pants?” I said with a grin as I saw the shocked expression on the captain’s face.

“I w-will go get them for you. Be right back.” He stammered out before he rushed out. I wondered if it was the fact that I couldn’t hide my junk like them or my size that shocked him. I would like to think it was a little bit of both. He returned rather fast with the hole infested joke I called pants, the same ones that I came in with. I really needed to get some new clothes but my thought process was occupied elsewhere.

My mind had been focused on whenever or not she could help me, and what was going to happen on the off chance that she couldn’t, but I was now distracted by the sight as we walked to our destination. The hallways looked like it was made from pure white granite. Banners of every color hung down from the walls and the mosaic that I saw told a little story itself, it was breathtaking.

After walking for about 10 minutes in silence, I started to feel something strange. It reminded me of the same feeling when I was scuba diving, pressure slowly started to build up in my ears and a slight headache followed. The normal methods I used like yawning or holding my nose and blowing did nothing to even the pressure, no this was something else entirely and it was getting worse for every step. After a minute of two more we stood in front of a rather fancy door. Looking down at the captain I noticed that he looked completely fine, how could he not feel this.

“The princess is waiting for you inside this meeting room. She has ordered me to stand guard outside as she wanted to meet you alone but don’t you think of trying something because of that, she could disintegrate you in an instant if she felt like it. So for your own sake, behave.” With that said he motioned me towards the door while he took guard at the side.

Slowly I opened the door and gazed in. the room had a small table in the middle and several pillows was covering the floor. In the middle sitting close to the table on one of the pillows was what I presumed was Princess Celestia.

She had a pure white coat and a mane and tail had a flowing motion to them despite the absence of wind, it also had a beautiful set of different colors. On her flank was the mark of the sun, which was fitting if what I had been hearing about her was true *doubt it though*. She also had this aura too her, she visibly was radiating with power and I felt the pressure getting worse for every step.

“Please sit” she spoke with a neutral tone and wore a leveled expression. She motioned towards one of the pillows on the floor, opposite from the table where she sat.

As I was about to sit down the pressure was insane, I was getting a nose bleed at this point and held up my hand to stop it.

Celestia had a puzzled expression as she saw this, but quickly caught on as the pressure simply vanished. “My deepest apologies. I did not expect it to have that effect on you” she said with a soft and caring tone. Hear horn shimmered slightly as a handkerchief floated down to me.

I simply waved my hand dismissively. “Oh it’s nothing” I sat down. “You couldn’t have known” I said as I wiped off the blood.

She simply smiled and nodded. “As I am sure you have already been informed off, I am Princess Celestia, Sole ruler over the land of Equestria. Who might you be?”

I gave her the same answer as I had given the captain earlier. “My real name was taken, stolen away by a spell. Was only called 217 after that, Subject 217. I have tried to come up with a new name in the past two days I have been here, but to no avail.”

“I see, well that is no good now is it? What would you prefer that I call you in the meantime?”

I thought about this for a few seconds. I needed to find a new name whenever I got back or not. “I heard the diamond dogs call me dragon when I was captured by them. It’s as good as anything else so may as well call me that until I can come up with something else.” I did not really care for what she called me. If all went well, I wouldn’t be in this world long enough for it to matter anyway.

“So be it. But on to other matters. You said that your name was taken by a spell, by whom if I may ask.”

“It was that unicorn, never revealed his name. He took all of our names. We wouldn’t need them anymore he said. It was he that brought me here, he that turned me into… this.” I gestured at me as a whole. “What he did in that lab. What he did to all of us. We were nothing more but experiments for him. I remember the screams of my neighbor as a drill slowly bore into his head, it was a pegasus. After he had made a hole he inserted the horn he had taken from some other poor bastard.” I had started to shiver at this point. Tears were slowly building up. “He was making an Alicorn he said. After he had put the horn in he cast some sort of spell on it. I could only watch as light started to shine from every opening on that poor soul. It was short lived though, as the light died he started to bleed furiously from his eyes, his mouth, his ears, and then he simply fell down. The entire time that cruel bastard WAS ONLY STANDING THERE TAKING NOTES. The next day the body was gone, and we got fresh meat to eat. I knew him. He had been in the cage next to me for weeks. Of course I couldn’t eat it, eat him. I would rather starve. But he would have nothing of that, so the others and I who refused were force-fed. After all, we weren’t allowed to die before he allowed it.” Celestia had moved over and was now sitting next to me, it was… comforting. Why was I opening up to her? I had been talking with the nurses and some of the guards earlier but never like this, why did I trust her like this.

A brief flash came as her horn gloved and two cups of hot tea was now resting on the table. “And what happened to you?” she asked gently as she handed hoofed? me one of the cups of tea.

I couldn’t say it. I did want to remember the things he did to me, so I skipped ahead. “He did a lot of things, mostly to figure out how my body worked and what was inside. But one day he was ecstatic, happily screaming that he finally had found someone that was compatible. He got a jar containing a floating ball of grey energy. I had seen it before; he used it on other prisoners whatever it was. As soon as it had touched their skin it would pulse red and completely destroy the person he was using it on. I was chained up for this so I couldn’t resist, not that I actually wanted to at that point. I just wanted it to end. But as you can see, it did not. As it touched me it hummed and glowed with a gentle white light as it moved into my body. That was the last thing that happened to me before I woke up and escaped with this new body of mine. You know the rest I guess.”

I felt something brushing against my back and flinched, because I was surprised and because of the wounds I had. A glance in her direction showed that she had draped one of her wings across my back, a sign of comfort I guess. Why is she doing all this?

“It’s alright” she spoke in her usual soft tone. “The unicorn you spoke of is long gone. When you escaped, my scientists had taken over the old lab, mostly because of you. You were incased in a magical egg. It had most likely formed to protect you during your transformation. We found the lab over 200 years ago, it was abandoned. You were the only thing that remained.”

I smiled at this. At least that bastard was dead. “From what little I have heard of you, I get the impression that you have powerful magic. Can you possibly send me back to my own world and change me back to my own form?” I asked hopefully. This was what I had been waiting for; I had to get back to her.

Celestia slowly pulled her wing back and looked upon me with a sad expression. “I’m sorry, but no. I can’t change you back to your old self because of the type of magic that was used on you. I had my assumptions, and those assumptions were confirmed the moment you walked into this room. The type of magic that was used on you is an old and forbidden one, namely soul magic. In your case your soul has been merged with another one, a silver dragon by the looks of it. Trying to turn you back to normal would result in your soul being ripped apart. This would also happen if I was to send you back to your own world. A soul needs to be in its original body to be able to handle the pressure of a spell like that; they would be forcibly ripped apart. It would be certain death to even try.” She hung her head. “I’m sorry.”

*********************

I just started at her with an empty expression. nonononnoNONONONONONONONONONONO. I-I’m stuck here? No I can’t be. I have to get back to Charlie, back home.

After I little while I managed to croak out some words. “P-please, I… I just need some time alone to think.” My tears were flowing freely at this point.

Celestia took a glance at the window before looking back at me. “Very well.” Hear horn shimmered and the doors to the room opened. “Captain, please show our guest to his room. It’s soon time for me to raise the moon so we will continue this tomorrow.”

Raise the moon!?!? Whatever I don’t even care at this point.

The walk too my guestroom, was rather uneventful. Captain asshat, yes that’s his new nickname. Something about the guy rubs me the wrong way tried to strike up a conversation a couple of times. I didn’t really listen just throwing out a set of, “yea, mmh, and interesting” Every now and then, seriously the guy just would not shut up. However I picked up on one sentence he muttered as we walked past a rather well curved castle maid, one that stopped me dead in my tracks.

“Ooh, I'd suck a fart out of her ass.”

That sentence caught me completely off guard. He took a couple of more steps before he noticed that I weren’t following him anymore. I was simply standing there giving him the best What. The. Fuck?! look I could manage. My brain could simply not deal with the words that had come out of his mouth. It had shocked me to my very core in such a way that I dont think that anything had, or ever would come close to.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The awkward silence lasted for a minute before I could actually muster up a reply.

“I don’t think I would”

The rest of the walk was done without talking. Thank God for that

I was told not to leave the room, not that they gave me the opportunity to do so anyway with the guards what was posted outside. The room was all in all quite pleasant. It had, I guess, a king size bed for ponies. But it was just the right size for me. I had a bathroom with a bathtub “squeee”. I have a never ending love towards baths, but this was no time for baths, I had my mind set on other things. Aside from that I also had a window with a lovely view of the town below. A barred view. It would do little to stop me and my teeth though.

*********************

The setting sun was making its way down behind the mountains, giving off one final lightshow as a hue of orange filled the horizon. The ponies in the city of Canterlot were enjoying the pleasant end of the day. Many were making their way home after a tiring day at work; some was spending quality time with their friends and loved ones. One specific couple was enjoying a lovely picnic in the royal gardens. The stallion was holding the mare in a romantic pose and going in for the kiss just as he saw something; he simply stared at the strange creature and in the confusion dropped the mare to the ground. It was a bipedal beast covered in scaled, it kind of resembled a dragon on some aspects. It was walking with heavy steps down the road towards the town, the look in its eyes revealed that it was on a mission and that nothing would steer it off its path.

*********************

I need a drink

Chewing through the bars had been easy, tasted a little funny though wonder what kind of metal it was. After all that had happened today I just wanted to get wasted beyond belief, to forget this whole thing, like I ever could. There was no guards posted outside the window and I didn’t see anyone on my way down to the town, either they are very overconfident or I have simply been beyond lucky. Most of the ponies I came along on my way down simply stared, some in awe, some in curiosity, and some in fear. The fact that almost none of them ran along screaming for their life made me guess that dragons weren’t too rare among these parts.

The closer I got to the town, the angrier I started to get. I was angry towards the unicorn that put me in this situation, angry at the fact that he was DEAD so that I couldn’t get my revenge, and angry at myself for allowing it to happen. There wasn’t really anything I could have done to change the situation but that didn’t change my anger towards myself, I wasn’t really thinking clearly anyway.

A nostalgic smell filled the air. It was weak at first but as I continued to walk down the street it became stronger. It was close to driving me mad as I rounded a corner and saw the building from which the smell originated in front of me. I could hear voices coming from inside along with the sound of someone desperately trying to murder a piano. Over the doors was a weather worn sign that gave it a certain charm. The Stumble In, it said.

I let out a long sigh.

“Finally” with a toothy grin I walked inside the old bar.

*********************

Captain dash was making his last round of the day, checking up on the guards as he went along. The last couple of days had been hectic too say the least. The raid on the diamond dog compound had been successful, they had found several ponies that was held captive there and rescued them along with the *dragon*.

He was a curious individual. His looks aside, the captain thought back to where he had seen his *entire* physique as he asked for his pants. A goofy grin made its way onto the captains face and he almost started too drool a little. Shaking his head he removed these thoughts business now, pleasure later. He had a joking, careless notion about him one minute but after he returned from his meeting with the princess he seemed different. The life was gone from his eyes, I even tried to cheer up the poor bastard a little. Making small talk and jokes and such. Ooh but that smoking hot maid, the things I would, aaarg bad brain, BAD.

Captain Dash was making his way towards the barracks but stopped as he heard somepony calling out to him. It was a unicorn guard, one of the new recruits Storm Caller I believe her name was. This was also one of the guards that he had posted to guard the new guest, or rather to ensure that he didn’t escape.

“At ease soldier. What do you have to report and more importantly, WHY did you leave your POST” anger was evident in his voice.

Her eyes widened in fear and her ears laid flat against her head as she was addressed by her superior. While he was rather laid back at times he was well known for being strict towards his subordinates, brutally so. She did not want to get on his bad side.

“W-we have a situation captain. After a while we thought that the fact that he was being so quiet was a little suspicious so we went in to check up on him. He’s escaped sir.” She gave a salute and waiter for the captain’s reply.

His eye slowly started to twitch as he muttered something too himself. “We were supposed to keep him under wraps from the public. DAMMIT! How did he get out, you were guarding the door and all other exits were barred.”

“When we entered we found saw that the window had been opened he must have escaped through there, and on the bars we found” small sweat drops were visible on her forehead as she gulped before continuing, “bite marks, sir.”

Captain dash stood there stunned. Those bars were made of Celestial steel; it was heavily infused with magic and the strongest metal known. Nothing should be able to break it, much less, simply chew through it.

“Private, quickly alert the other guards and start searching the surrounding area. We need to find him as soon as possible.” The earlier anger was completely gone, and in its place was now a sense of professionalism. Time for damage control.

*********************

Razor Dash was flying down towards the city of Canterlot. Most of the guards were scouring the castle grounds for him, but would make no sense for him to stay there. From his room he had a clear view of the city, away from all the guards. As he was closing in he spotted a brown earth pony with a black mane waving him down. As he got closer he realized that he knew this stallion, it was Half Full the owner of one of the local watering holes.

When he landed Full was rambling, he was in full hysteria and it was impossible to make heads or tails of what he was talking about.

“Hey calm down Full, what’s going on?” Razor asked, but to no avail. The rambling continued. Razor sighed; he did not have time for this. So he decided to end this quickly and slapped Full with one of his wings, effectively silencing him and snapping him out of his little episode. “Now, tell me what’s wrong Full.”

He took a few slow, calming breaths before he spoke. “y-you got to help me captain. There’s a monster in mah bar, I will be ruined.”

“A monster? It doesn’t happen to be covered in scales with its chest bandaged?” it was probably him. Monsters don’t usually wander the streets of Canterlot.

“Yea, yea that’s him. He came barging into the bar, scaring out most of mah guests while doing so and started drinking. It was slow at first, I thought he would be calm if ah just gave him what he wanted. But after a bottle of two of some of my stronger spirits he started shouting something on the lines of, “what is this weak goat piss” and started to wreck the place, drinking whatever was within his range. Ah got scared and he seemed to ignore me so ah ran. That bar is all ah got.”

*Celestia damn it dragon, you couldn’t just have taken a walk in the park. Nooo you had to go on a little rampage.* Razor gave off a sigh, Full would be okay, the throne would pay for any damage he may have done anyway.

“Don’t you worry; I will head down and take care of it, just sit tight.” And with that he took off into the air, speeding towards, The Stumble In.

*********************

The bar was a mess. Shattered glass was covering most of the floor, and many a table had been turned. All ponies had fled this bar, scared for the beast that had entered a while ago. Scared of the beast that now sat on top of one of the few tables that still stood, a bottle in each hand. He was drinking like his life depended on it and doing something that could be closely resembled to singing.

Tis half past three and the chill is gone It's the longest binge I've ever been on had so many pints, my mind's stupefied

But through all the haze I still hear the cry! Drink, motherfucker, drink, motherfucker, drink! A curse to you lads, a curse on your head, Drinking pint after pint until I am dead I just keep drinking and I don't know why, But tonight is the night that I drink 'til I die!

The singing was rudely interrupted by the bar doors swinging open and smacking against the wall.

*********************

I spun around to identify whoever that rudely interrupted my, oh so beautiful song. But the table I was sitting on decided that it was sick of me and my bullshit and tipped over. I had my priorities straight and managed to save both of my bottles of booze from the fall. Lying back down on the floor I thought back a few seconds where I selflessly scarified myself to save my liquid buddies and decided that I had earned another drink. But before I could take said victory drink, the bottle I was raising to my mouth was slapped out of my hand don’t worry my dear friend you will never be forgotten. I looked up to see whoever had the audacity to spill my drink, I was preparing myself to give said person a good trashing. That was until I saw the furious pegasi that was standing over me with a glare so intense that it could slay a lesser man. Thankfully I’m not a man *I’m a dragon*, so I just stared at him with a silly smile on my face.

“Hey captain. What are you doing here budd…” the hoof that was smashed into the floor right next to my head effectively silenced me.

“No, you shut your mouth and get up.” he said, barely able to contain his anger. “I said GET UP, NOW.”

He did not have to tell me thrice, so I made a feeble attempt to get standing. Who knew a dry wooden floor could be so slippery. It took a little while but I managed to get into a semi upright state.

“What were you thinking? There was a reason that we told you not to leave. But no, you had to go explore didn’t you. Not only did you scare the locals you also completely trashed…” as he was scolding me, a thought struck. He looks so grumpy, you know what I think? I think he needs a hug.

Unfortunately the captain did share my enthusiasm for hugs and immediately pushed me away. “Get off me dragon”

“Hey. Even if you’re going to be rude. At least you can use my… my… the thing I am known as” there was a word that managed to slip my tongue, that sneaky bastard.

“You mean name? You don’t have a name, you said so yourself” I proceeded to take a swig of my remaining bottle of booze before shoving into his face. “Read” I said. The liquid pouring out of my mouth and onto the floor, it seemed I forgot to swallow.

He took a step backwards to get a look at the label on the bottle. “What does a bottle of Jake Daniel's have to do with any of this?”

I threw both of my arms outwards, the bottle I had held onto slipped and smashed against the wall. “Don’t you get it?” I grabbed his head, pulling it up to mine. “I’M JAKE”

My stomach thought that this would be a good time to rebel, and as a result I puked all over captain Dash.