I was walking steadily towards the mountain range. I would have run, but I didn't want to exhaust myself further before fighting the dragon.

"Still, something isn't right... Why would a dragon only attack black smiths? What's stranger, it only burnt down the buildings then flew off... It might have made more sense if it flew down and stole some gems or metal..." The entire walk, I had been debating why the dragon attacks seemed strange. "Maybe it's a dragon black smith. I've read about those in books back on Earth, supposed to be legendary. Maybe it's upset by the ponies poor quality comparison work? Maybe, it's threatened by their finesse with the craft. Yeah, maybe it's eliminating competition. That would explain why it only attacked one building at a time... but then why wouldn't it just fry the town? Maybe it's a nice dragon... but if it were nice, it wouldn't attack in the first place. Actually, scratch all of that. If it were maddened by competition, it would need to be bringing in buisiness. Something tells me a dragon isn't the first thing ponies would go to for a black smithing job..."

"You're right, they wouldn't." I whipped around, searching for the source of the voice. I scanned the landscape, seeing only a few thin trees, Stalliongrad off in the distance, and the mountains nearby. The voice seemed to come from all directions at once, and had the volume of a person whispering in my ear.

"Who's there?!" I yelled wildly. The voice laughed.

"You've no need to know me hero. Just be warned, do not interfere with our plans..." The voice gradually faded as it spoke. I kept searching wildly.

"Wait! What plans?! There are more of you?!" I recieved no response from the strange voice. "Hey! HEY!" Still no response. I sighed. "Well... that was weird. Maybe I'm finally going insane. Well, coming from the OTHER voice that only exists in your head, I have to disagree. I heard it too." I shrugged and continued to walk towards the mountains.

Well... Might as well think this out rather than talk to myself... I don't want to drive myself insane... Well, according to the voice... that may or may not have been real, the ponies wouldn't go to a dragon. That means it can't be trying to eliminate competition. That almost rules out it being a black smith all together... I sighed again. I had reached the base of the mountains.

"Well... What to do from here..." The mountains were not huge, but there were tons of them in a line as far as the eye could see. I had no idea where to start my search. "Ugh... Well... I think it flew to that mountain..." I chose a mountian slightly off to the right that I thought I might have seen the dragon fly to when I first arrived here. The sun had finally come up, and as I approached the mountain I had chosen, I saw a cave way up, almost at the top of the mountain. I never would have seen it at night, but there were twin trails of light smoke drifting out of the mouth of the cave. "Jackpot." I mumbled to myself. Now there was only the question of how to climb the mountain. It wasn't enormously tall, but it was very narrow, almost like a spike.

Ok... unlike ponies, I don't think I have the ability to walk up impossible angles... Guess that means old-fashioned rock climbing for me... I sighed again. This was turning out to be far more of a hassle than I had imagined. I walked over to a nearby sapling, and used my sword to relieve it of a few long flexible branches. I tied the braches together into a small series of loops. I slipped it onto my shoulders like a backpack, leaving only one loop on my back. I slipped the Buster Sword into the final loop, and the the impromptu sheath held. The Buster Sword was now secured firmly on my back. I turned back to the mountain. I flipped my hands around so that my palms faced me, and stabbed the shark blades into the side of the mountain. I started scaling the side of the mountian using my blades to keep me attached to the wall of ice. I was on my way to face the dragon.

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"Ah... ha... ha..." I gasped for breath as I pulled myself up onto the ledge next to the cave. I pulled myself up and rolled onto the ledge. I was laying on my back, breathing heavily, when I heard voices coming from in the cave.

"N-no! You can't make me!" A deep, rumbling, but somehow femenine voice said. It sounded like it was almost begging. Another deep, but much smaller voice replied. It was a male's.

"On the contrary Esmerelda, I can make you do whatever I want! You belong to me now!"

"B-but... I don't want to hurt them! They never did anything to me!"

"I don't care! It doesn't matter if they did anything to you. What matters is that you destroy my competition!" I frowned deeply. Something was definitely not right here. I slowly crawled over to the mouth of the cave. I moved in quietly and peeked my head around the stone wall to see what was going on. Inside the cave, a black stallion unicorn with a red mane was yelling at the gigantic blue dragon. His horn was glowing, and there was a black magic chain wrapped around the dragon's neck like a collar.

"Why?! Why would you do this? Why do you make me kill them?!"

"Because it will get me loads of bits! With me being the last remaning blacksmith of Stalliongrad, I'll be legendary! Ponies will come from all corners of the world for my services! I'll make fortunes! The best part is, when that hero I asked Luna to send gets here, he'll kill you and destroy the only evidence!" He cackled evilly.

"This isn't right! Please stop this! You weren't like this when I met you! What happened to my friend?" The black unicorn seemed to become angry.

"He's gone! He died when I lost everything! Now you're going to help me get it back! Now, burning the wooden buildings has worked for now, but we need to do better! I want you to fly down to the city and destroy the stone workshops! I don't care how and I don't care who gets hurt! Just do it!"

"I... I don't want to!" The chain around the dragon's neck started flashing.

"You dare to disobey me?!" The collar crackled with black lightning and the dragon cried out in pain.

"Ahhh!" It fell to the floor in a quivering heap.

"Now, do as I say!" The dragon got back to her feet.

"Y-yes Forge... I... I'll do it..." I stepped out from behind the cave mouth and un-sheathed the Buster Sword.

"Well, it seems Luna was a bit wrong about my mission!" I shouted. The dragon and the unicorn both jumped. "I thought I had to save the ponies from a dragon, but it seems I'm saving a dragon from a pony!"

"You! What are you!?" The unicorn shouted.

"Me? I'm the Lunar Knight, Sharky White! Your worst nightmare." I charged at the unicorn, sword raised and ready to end him.

"Esmerelda! Protect me!" The gigantic blue dragon rushed in front of me, quickly covering the short distance of the cave. Up close, I could see that she was very tall and thin. Her body had curves similar to a human female. The spines along her head were short and non-threatening. Her talons were long and pointy, but from the way they shone I could assume that she never used them for violence. Her scales were a rich, deep sapphire, but the ones on her chest and underbody were a pale white. Her eyes were large, turquoise orbs with a normal pupil instead of a slit. She looked at me with a miserable expression of sadness on her face.

"Help me..." She begged before she sent a giant blast of fire at me. I jumped to my right and rolled on the ground as the blast flew by my shoulder.

"Kill it Esmerelda! I won't have it ruining my plans!" Esmerelda turned to follow me as I scrambled back to my feet. She blew another blast of flame at me, but I blocked it with the Buster Sword. The flame split on the sword and flew off to either side of me. The blast of flame ended, but she followed up by swinging at me with her right talon. The blow hit me on my right arm and the force threw me into the wall at the back of the cave. The unicorn was near the right wall of the cave, and Esmerelda was now blocking the exit. I fell away from the wall and landed on my feet.

"Let her go! I will mount your skull on my wall!" I yelled as I charged at the unicorn again. This time I started focusing my void on his magic. I could feel it begin to run into me, but it was slow and felt wrong. Like it was tainted. I ignored the odd feel of his magic and continued my rush.

"No! She is my ticket to fortune! Get him Esmerelda!" Right before I got into swinging range of the unicorn, another talon came towards me. I ducked and rolled forward, sliding under the talon. I stood back up and reared back my sword to end the unicorn, but then Esmerelda's tail wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from him. She lifted me up and moved me towards her face. A tear fell out of her right eye as she looked at me.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered. Then she opened her mouth and threw me forward towards her maw. I fell forward, but in a last-ditch effort, I threw the Buster Sword at the top of her mouth. In suprise, she clamped her mouth shut. I smacked into her jaw and fell to the ground.

"No! Esmerelda you idiot! Kill him quickly!" The Buster Sword clattered to the ground next to me noisily. I quickly grabbed it right as Esmerelda lifted a huge, dainty foreleg to crush me. With no time to move, I crossed my arms above me protectively. Her forelegs smashed into my arms, but she immediately pulled it away with a cry of pain. I was splattered with warm, dark red blood. I ignored the blood and hoisted my sword as I charged at the stallion again.

"God damn you have so earned this death!" Esmerelda's tail flew at me again, but I got to Forge before she reached me. His eyes widened and he cowered below me. At the last moment, I lost my resolve to kill him. No matter what he did, I couldn't find it in my heart to cut him open in front of my own eyes. Then, my arms swung down of their own accord. "I'll kill him then!" The Buster Sword plunged through his chest. The glow on his horn stopped and he gave a dying gasp. He looked at me, and for a moment, I could swear his eyes were orange. Then he blinked, and they were brown. He opened his mouth and whispered one last thing. I had to lean in to hear him.

"Thank... You..." With that, he coughed once, then the light faded from his eyes as his head rolled back. I heard a shattering sound, and when I turned to look at Esmerelda, the chain around her neck was gone. Her tail still charged me, and I was wrapped up and lifted again. My sword was left behind, still in the stallion's dead body. I felt true fear grip me as I was once again held in front of the dragon's face. Tears were flowing freely from her eyes. I closed my eyes, and prepared to die... again.

Instead, I felt a warm, firm, scaly snout press up against my face.

*mwah* The snout clicked with a small kissing noise as it pulled away from my face. I opened my eyes and looked at the dragon. She pulled me forward an held me to her breast.

"Uhh... you aren't going to kill me?" I asked hesitantly. "Steven, keep quiet. We can make it out alive if you don't piss her off!" I whispered quietly. Just barely loud enough for me to hear. "Don't have to tell me twice." Esmerelda's chest was shaking with sobs.

"K-kill you?! You saved me! Thank you hero! Thank you so much!" She wailed as she hugged me.

"Well... This is not what I expected to happen today at all." Her sobs steadily slowed to a halt and she started sniffling. She extended her tail a short distance and set me down. She was wiping her eyes with the back of her left talon.

"I'm so sorry for attacking you... I had no choice..." She whimpered.

"No, I understand. Now... I've got a very interesting report to make... Nice to meet you by the way." She sniffled a few more times before sending me a gentle smile.

"My name is Esmerelda... Thank you..."

"No problem. It's very nice to meet you Esmerelda... despite the circumstances."

"Yes... thank you for not killing me..."

"Bwahahahahaha! You are worried about me killing you?! Do you realize how much weaker I am than you? I'm happy you aren't killing me!" I pulled out my phone and called Luna.

"Ah, greetings Sharky! Hath thou slain the dragon?"

"Uhh... not exactly... Luna, meet my new friend. Esmerelda."