Chapter 10:

Monsters and Glass

Amber ran through the streets of town, tears blurring her vision. She didn’t know what to think, what to do. Briefly, she hoped that she would wake up from this terrible nightmare, that her Daddy would hold her in his arms and tell her everything was alright. No matter how hard she wished, though, nothing changed. Her Daddy wasn’t really her daddy. He was just...

The filly had no idea what to call him now. Soon, though, she began to grow tired and cold from the rain that poured down on her. All she wanted to do now was find a quiet, dry spot to curl up in. Exhausted, she found herself collapsing onto a bundle of newspapers behind a large building. Her eyelids suddenly became very, very heavy, and they sank down ever so slowly.

In almost no time at all, she was asleep on the ground, with tears unconsciously leaking out of her eyes.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

A unicorn leered at the sight of the child sleeping in the ally. His heart didn’t care that she was alone in the rain, nor did it care that her “parent” was nowhere in sight.

All that mattered to him was the profit he could make off of her.

He just needed to call in a few favors…

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Something warm and furry rubbed against the small filly’s head as she felt herself lifted into the air. Cracking her eyes open, she looked at the dark, hulking creature that had found her.

“D…daddy?” she hoarsely asked.

The figure passed underneath the light of a dim lantern, momentarily casting his face into great detail.

It wasn’t her father. The muzzle was longer, the teeth were sharper, and its eyes…they lacked the spark of laughter that was always present.

She knew what this thing was. They had learned about them in school the other day, and she’d seen them exchanging jewels for tools at the store. Diamond dogs…

The dog let out a grating laugh, and said, “Gruff! Little pony call me Daddy!”

Another figure leaned over her and chuckled loudly at that. His breath stank horribly to the young pony. “HA! And Money Pony think she would be a problem!” a second voice cackled.

A third voice growled out threateningly, “Be quiet! We take pony to bigger pony, get paid. End story.”

All that Amber understood was that these dogs were taking her somewhere away from her home, and that she needed to get away from them. With a burst of energy born from fear, she struggled against the dog, quickly freeing herself from the vicious brute. Unfortunately, one of the other dogs, a mean looking thug, snatched her back up just as quickly. She screamed in terror, before her captor slapped a foul smelling paw over her mouth.

“Ach! Little pony think she can run!” the smallest of them growled out. He cracked his knuckles menacingly, and gave the frightened filly a terrifying glare. “Maybe we take pony, make her work in mines.”

Amber closed her eyes, tears once again falling out of them. Her heart raced in her chest, as she prayed to Celestia for someone to help her. She prayed that her Daddy would find her and make things better again…

“Awww, look!” the small one cooed mockingly. “Little baby is scared! Does the wittle baby w-”

A loud roar cut off what he was about to say. The sound of a fist crashing into someone’s skull, followed by the harsh crackle of fire singing another one reached Amber’s ears, as she felt herself fall to the ground. She kept her eyes firmly shut, now more terrified than ever. While the sounds of fighting kept battering against her ears, she cried her heart out on the ground...

Until she heard a familiar voice yell, “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU SUNUVABITCH!”

Amber’s eyes shot open, and she beheld the sight of her father picking up the largest of the diamond dogs, and hurling him away from her. Next to him, Scorch was puffing out fireball after fireball at the other two, sending all of them fleeing away, their tails between their legs.

“AND DON’T COME BACK!” he roared again, his fur bristled, eyes burning with an inner fire.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

I shook my head, snapping myself out of my battle lust. There wasn’t any point in going after them. Not when my …when my friend’s daughter was still in danger. Slowly, somewhat hesitantly even, I knelt onto the ground next to her, and whispered, “Amber?”

She leaped from the ground and attempted to wrap her hooves around me, her tiny body still shaking in fear. “D-daddy, I’m sorry!” she sobbed, burying her face in my fur.

“Shh…it’s okay,” I reassured her in a soothing voice. It took me a few seconds to register that she had called me ‘Daddy’...I lifted her into my arms, and looked at Scorch with a smile.

“Let’s go home.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“WHAT?!” the unicorn shouted, making the two smaller dogs cower before him.

The leader repeated, “We not find pony girl in time. Battleclaw find her first.”

Silver Bars fell back into his seat, shock and rage filling his mind. He had come so close to getting his hooves on that little girl, and the money that was behind her name. Words failed him utterly. His mind attempted to wrap itself around this new turn of events. The only consolation was that he knew that there was no way the dogs could be traced to him.

Cursing, he tossed a bag of jewels onto his desk, and spat at the dogs, “Get out of my sight.”

Now, he would have to wait until another opportunity presented itself…

He just had to be patient, once again.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

I guess everything that happened that night was for the better. Amber didn’t get hurt, I was able to let Sky know that dogs had somehow found their way into town, and our bond just became stronger because of all of that. Truly, I was grateful for everything that fate had let me achieve.

Look, as a Traveler, there are two things that are a kind of double-edged sword. For one thing, I have no alternate universe selves. There might be fakers, or some other people trying to imitate me, but there’s no replacing the real deal me. Why is that a bad thing? Well, I’ll bring it back up in a second. First, the other thing:

I can’t have children. At all. It’s something to do with me being the Traveler, but there’s no magic, science, or anything that will allow it. I don’t exactly know why, but I have a theory behind it. See, if there’s no alternate universe self for me, then that helps prevent confusion for whenever I go to a universe. But if I left a kid in that world? BAM.

My enemies can use them against me, I’d have several alternate universe versions of kids that I had, but didn’t have, and minds everywhere would be blown!

Here in Equestria though, no one knew about my true identity. My enemies didn’t know that I was there, minus Torrentican…and he hadn’t been seen in years.

Most importantly though, I was free to raise my adopted daughter in peace. I was actually able to HAVE a daughter. After years, and years, of seeing other families, I had finally gained my own.

For once, things were actually looking up.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Another year had passed since then, marking the longest amount of time I had spent on Equestria without Traveling. Amber was still growing, and she had quickly started to learn how to use levitation.  She still hadn’t gotten her cutie-mark, but she was persistent. I’d help her try different things when I could. We must’ve tried about a hundred things a month, like baking, cooking, carving, building, sculpting, drawing, the works.

She was good at drawing, but other things seemed to elude her grasp. Even then, she wasn’t happy with her drawings. Every time she finished one, she would let out an aggravated sigh, and toss it into the garbage, saying, “It just doesn’t feel right.”

Scorch, on the other hand, was…mixed. The teenage dragon didn’t change once physically over the years, which raised a few questions. Why hadn’t her wings grown back yet? From what I’ve studied, and from what Scorch herself has told me, black dragons are similar enough to lizards to be able to grow back amputated limbs.

That day, I finally decided it was time to ask her about some personal questions.

Amber Heart had just left for school, leaving me and Scorch home alone. Just before the dragon left to work on her garden, I told her, “Hold a sec, Scorch. I wanna talk to you.”

I led her into the living room, and motioned for her to sit down on the couch, while I took the armchair. She shifted nervously under my gaze, and asked me, “Is something wrong?”

“No, no…”  I reassured her. “It’s just that…we’ve known each other for a few years now, right?” She nodded, and I continued. “Well…you know that you can trust me, right? That if there’s anything you need to tell me, you can. I know you’re entitled to your own secrets and privacy, but…well, yeah.”

The kind hearted dragon shifted uneasily in her seat, but nodded.

“Alright. Now, I just have one question I need to ask you,” I slowly said. “If it’s too much, you don’t have to answer it. Okay?”

“Okay,” she meekly replied.

I took a deep breath, and asked her, “What happened to your wings? And why haven’t they grown back?”

Remembered pain flashed across Scorch’s eyes, and tears welled up in them as well. I instantly felt guilty for asking her that, but I had to know. Not only because of the insatiable curiosity, but because her answer would tell me just how much she DID trust me.

The moment of truth…Scorch sighed, and said in a quiet voice, “I should have told you earlier…but…when I was a hatchling, I told you about the sparring matches Quartz put us through, correct?”

I nodded in reply.

“Omnius…I…I didn’t tell you the whole story. You see, those battles weren’t for any type of training…they were for entertainment. Quartz used to own an entire gang of diamond dogs that would work for him, and to make sure that they didn’t rebel against him, he started stealing hatchlings, so he could train them to be his guard.”

“And one of them was you,” I whispered.

She cringed, her mind replaying horrifying scenes from her past. “Yes. When…when we acted against him, he would punish us by forcing us to fight in the games.”

“How did you end up landing in them?” I asked her gently, trying to mask the shock I felt at all of that.

A tear slid out of her eye, and she whispered, “There…there was a diamond dog pup that he wanted me to kill. He said it would toughen us up, and make the dogs stop trying to resist us.”

“You couldn’t do it though,” I stated, pride welling up in me. Scorch had become a sort of…niece to me, by this point. She was just as much my family as Amber was, and to hear that she would be merciful really warmed my heart.

“I helped him and his family escape,” Scorch continued, barely taking notice of what I said. “They almost made it too…but one of the other hatchlings caught us. From there, they were executed, and I was put in his games. I fought the same hatchling who caught me, Scratch, and he…he ripped my wings out.”

Tears were really pouring out of her eyes now. Still, she continued in a quavering voice. It was something that she needed to say. I couldn’t interrupt her. I’d been there too many times.

“After that…he b-burned the wounds closed with his breath. That burned the nerves, and now…they won’t ever grow back. I snapped. And I tore out his throat…” she sobbed. She curled up into a ball, and cried, “I killed him. I killed him, and I killed those poor dogs.”

Once again, I thanked whatever Gods or Goddesses of Good that might have been listening that Quartz was dead. I hope he rots in Tartarus for an eternity for the crimes he committed against this sweet, broken girl.  Gently, I sat down next to her on the couch, and wrapped my arms around her. She sobbed into my fur, the trauma of the last few years of her life finally catching up to her.

Finally, she managed to hiccup, “I-I didn’t want to kill them. I didn’t mean to kill them.”

“I know, darlin’,” I whispered. “You did the only thing you could’ve done. No one blames you for that.”

I cradled her in my arms, constantly reassuring her that she was still Scorch. She wasn’t a monster. She just couldn’t ever catch a break. You know, she still hasn’t said why she trusts me so much, after how terrible her life was before. But with how honest she was, I was just glad to know that she even DID trust me. It means that whatever secrets she has, they won’t affect us badly in the future. So, for now, I’ll let it be.

After all. She’s been through enough, hasn’t she?

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

One more year…how does time slip by us so easily? Scorch didn’t have any more breakdowns, and was a bit more confident in the things she did.

Now that her crisis had been averted, we were free to move onto the next one: Amber’s cutie-mark. Ye Gods, but she was starting to get worried. Apparently, she was the only one in her school without one. Some of her stunts were getting…extreme.

Let’s just say that I will never let her go into the pawn shop by herself. She’s pretty good friends with the mare who runs the place, Cheap Skates. Despite her name, she’s a fair and kind pony, always willing to make a good deal.For Amber though, she’s willing to give away merchandise for her to use in her misadventures.

She tried over a million things to try and get her cutie-mark.

And I still remember how happy she was when she finally got it.

The unicorn filly had been practicing her magic, trying to work on her levitation. She did great when it was just small objects, or stuff that needed precision, but when it was something larger?

CRASH!

I sighed, and shook my head at the shattered glass jar that had fallen onto the floor. Amber winced at the mess, while I went off to grab a broom to sweep it up. She knew that I wouldn’t ever get mad at her for breaking stuff, as long as I had told her she could practice with it, but that didn’t stop her from feeling guilty.

As it was, by the time I had gotten back, the shards were…gone? I looked around on the floor, searching for them, when Amber cried out, “Daddy! Look what I made!”

There, on the table, Amber had arranged the pieces of glass into a small mosaic that looked remarkably like the head of a dragon.

“Amber…you made that?” I asked in awe of the detail she had put into it, and the short amount of time it had taken for her to even make it.

“Yeah! I got all the pieces picked up, but they looked like one of my jigsaw puzzles, so I tried putting it back together! But then I started seeing something else in them, and I made this instead!” she happily explained. She then gasped and looked towards her flank to find-

“Nothing!?” she cried. “Oh, I was sure I had it this time...”

That started turning some gears in my head though. My mind started to connect the dots with everything that she was good at, until I finally said, “Amber, I have an idea.”

Quickly, I rummaged through some nearby cabinets, until I came up with a large box filled with small scrap bits of metal. I called Scorch into the room, and asked Amber if she remembered that color changing spell that she had learned once in school.

When she answered yes, I bent a few pieces of metal to fit carefully around the shards. After I told Amber to start changing the colors of the glass to her liking, Scorch asked me, “What are you planning?”

In answer, I smiled at her. “Nothing. I’m making this up as I go along! Now, when Amber’s done with the glass, I need you to torch it all. See where I’m going with this?”

Scorch’s eyes widened, and she nodded enthusiastically. As soon as Amber said she had finished, the black dragon took a deep breath, before blowing a steady stream of fire over the arrangement.

When the flames disappeared, I gestured at them to wait for it to cool. Amber’s eyes were alight with excitement and wonder. She didn’t know much about what she was doing, but it seemed like she already had an idea of what to expect. Patiently, we all watched the glass cool…

And there, sitting on the evidently fireproof table, was a stained glass portrait of a black dragon with kind, golden eyes, wreathed in navy blue flames. It should have been lopsided. There should have been obvious flaws in the material, but…it was perfect.

Carefully, I picked up Amber’s creation, and let out a long whistle. “Amber…I think we’ve just discovered your special talent.”

“What makes you say that?” Amber asked, confused.

I pointed at her flank, and gave her a wide smile. She turned her head, and gasped in excitement. There, as real as the sun in the sky, was her cutie-mark: six triangular shapes, all of them a different color of the rainbow, arranged in a circle, with the tips pointed outwards.

Amber Heart had finally found her special talent.

And I couldn’t be more proud.

Next Chapter: 11) Broken Hearted Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes