//------------------------------// // To Fly With Dragons // Story: From Lands Apart (FiM / Dragon Tales) // by Yosh-E-O //------------------------------// Due to her recent size decrease, Cassie felt lucky that she was a bit smaller than baby Spike The Dragon. The diaper he put on her was loose and it allowed her access to her pouch pocket. “Look!” she announced while removing a purple berry that was bean-like in shape. “Who wants a squishy?” Spike’s toddler, along with draconic, nature immediately demanded he go for what was now being presented for him. “Me!” he cried while raising his hands up to take hold of the ‘squishy’. “Here you go,” Cassie said in a mothering tone while lowering the fruit into Spike’s hands. If he was anything like Kiki, Spike would take the fruit, feel its softness, and curl himself up around it. This would give her time to fly up into the crib, grab the dragon scale, and speak the rhyme that would take her back to Dragon Land. SQUOOSH SWISH-SWISH Spike awed at the squishy texture of the juice-filled berry. It was like how he felt when he got out of the warm bubble baths Twi, dad, or mom would give him. “Okay…,” the pink dragon said anxiously. “Now to get home before he notices I’m gone.” FLAP-FLAP CHIME-TING SHIMMER-DING “Huh?” wondered Spike upon hearing the sound of Cassie’s magical little wings starting to lift her off the ground. The colorful sparkles left him in awe and distracted him from the squishy fruit. CLASP “Hey!” cried Cassie as she felt herself being grabbed around the leg. It didn’t impact her ability to fly but it did pose the problem that the baby dragon was now on to her and that there was no way to kindly evade him if he was still attached. Not to forget that contact with her as she spoke the rhyme would bring the purple dragon back with her to Dragon Land. “Whee!” squeed Spike. We fly!” Cassie was surprised at the little dragon’s strength. Usually one of her siblings would be struggling to hold on if they did such a thing. This would force her to land and comfort whomever had latched on while letting them know they will be able to fly soon enough. “Wait,” she thought aloud when she realized that Spike had no wings. “What happened to your wings?” The pink dragon landed in a way that allowed Spike to properly position himself for the diaper he wore to cushion the short fall to the floor. “Maybe these are your wings?” she asked while observing Spike’s ear-fins. “Though I never saw a dragon whose wings were on their head.” PAWUMP! Spike admired how the pink dragon grew to his size. However his true interest went back to the blue jewel around her neck. “Candy!” he cried while reaching out. “Want candy!” “No, no, no!” corrected Cassie with a wave of her finger as her other hand clasped around her Dragon Badge. “This is not food!” Spike started to sniffle upon being ‘corrected’ by the experienced dragon-sitter. Cassie knew a tantrum could bring back whatever may be on the other side of the door, so she quickly reached into her ‘hoard’ and pulled out as many dragon berries as she could. “Here!” she panicked. “These are far better than my dragon badge.” Spike moved so his nose was by the berries. SNIFF-SNIFF SNATCH SPLAT Cassie sighed with relief as the purple dragon happily chewed the tasty fruits she had. “Okay,” she said nervously. “You like dragon berries. So…,” The pink dragon went about searching her entire pouch for all the dragon berries she may have had. Since Ord was usually hungry for them this meant she had a lot to offer. Of her group of friends, Ord was the biggest and stood over two-times her size even at being the same age as herself. Spike smiled as berry juice dripped from his mouth and tiny fangs. “More please,” he stated more than asked while he scooted his padded rump closer to Cassie. “Yummy!” BOOF Cassie found herself backed against the nursery wall. “Okay, little guy,” she said while reaching into her pouch yet again. SNAG “Ooh!” awed Spike as his hand took hold of the kangaroo-like pouch that fought against the form-fitting diaper Spike had put on her when she was smaller. “Toy box!” This wasn’t good for Cassie. So she decided to not worry about finding something and just went with the first thing she could find. FWIP SNAP-CRINKLE The feather-winged dragon pulled a book from within her pouch before letting it just snap back in. This kind of stung a bit but was better than having the emerald-eyed dragon begin to dig through what she kept within. “Hehe,” Spike giggled as he plopped back on his backside and clapped his hands and kicked his little feet. “Book! Read book!” Cassie had yet to realize she had removed one of the few books she kept in her hoard for reading to pass the time. It was one that she was borrowing from her teacher, Quetzal. As such it had magical properties that just may be of help to get her back home. “You like stories?” she asked cheerfully. “How about we go back into your crib and I’ll read it to you?” Spike grew puppy-dog eyes as he put forth his most adorable look. “Please?” he pleaded while shuffling about. “Read me story!” SHWIP “Whah?” Cassie wondered as the diaper she was put in by Spike seemed to fight back against her returning to normal size. It was very tight and a quick attempt to try and take off the tapes resulted in some sort of magical resistance that always made her miss getting the right hold to do so. “No take dipper off,” corrected baby Spike as he shook his head and wiggled a finger towards Cassie. “No make mess that make Twili unhappy.” The pink dragon shrugged and giggled nervously. “Okay,” she said. “Then how about I read this book to you?” “Whee!” cheered the young dragon as he went to latch onto cassie. “Here we go!” she announced while taking flight with Spike held firmly against her torso. PLOP-CRINKLE PIT-PAT BOOF Spike sat on the crib mattress before Cassie completed her landing and sat down in front of the little dragon. “You’ll love this one!” she announced. “It’s about a little baby dragon who needs to sleep.” Cassie, being known for her above-average intelligence, knew how to get the story within the book to activate its special effect. TING-TI-TING SHOOM Some wiggling of her fingers caused a gentle cascade of sparkles to fall upon the pages in the book. This made the tome give off a light-purple glow that filled the room with a strong scent of soothing lavender. Spike found himself pulling his tail up to his mouth as his body grew calm and drowsy. “Once upon a time…,” Cassie read as the ethereal-purple light formed into a baby dragon who slowly bounded around Spike as she read the tale of the fussy dragon who sought a way to get the best night’s sleep. This made the effect of the book focus on Spike and not Cassie and, after barely getting halfway through the story, the baby dragon was off to slumber land. DING! Cassie couldn’t help but feel proud as her dragon badge glowed a most vibrant shade of blue. This was definitely a difficult time for her to get through but she did it and her dragon badge acknowledged it. “Okay,” she grinned while covering the baby dragon with his blanket. “Sweet dreams.” Once Cassie was sure Spike was not going to wake up she took hold of the dragon scale. “I wish. I wish. With all my heart,” she said cheerfully. “To fly with dragons in a land apart.” The young pink dragon found herself suddenly lifted in the air as rainbow-colored streams of light surrounded her. They quickly gained speed as magical twinkles appeared and… POOF …She was gone. *** EPILOGUE: Twilight came in to check on Spike. However he was fast asleep and clutching onto the magical dragon scale. He was in a very deep slumber and suckling on the scale. “Hmm,” shrugged Twilight. “I don’t remember giving that to Spike. However, if he is still asleep, I can work on that extra credit project!” Twilight giddily clapped her front hooves together before leaving the room. This would be the last time the enchanted scale would be seen as, upon waking, Spike would be quite hungry and his appetite for gems would make him quickly gobble down the whole thing. Cassie reappeared in Dragon Land with a crinkly thud. “How do Max and Emmy do this?” she wondered while knowing how the two pre-school siblings always seemed to arrive without falling on their backsides. “Cassie!” a tall blue dragon with a sun-shaped dragon badge cried out. “We were looking everywhere for you!” “You had us really worried,” stated the right-head of a two-headed dragon. “We were just about to go and get Quetzal to help us find you!” “What’s with the diaper?” asked the purple-colored left-head of the two-headed dragon. Each head had its own dragon badge featuring musical notes. Cassie brought herself to her feet. “Ord!” she merrily cried while rushing to give her tall friend a hug. “It’s so good to be home!” “Home?” wondered Ord. “Where did you go?” “And where did you get the diaper?” asked the sister-head of the twin dragon. “Better yet,” scoffed the brother-head. “Why are you even in a diaper!” Cassie blushed as she faced the pair. “It’s a long story,” she replied as she tried, without success, to unfasten the diaper that tightly hugged itself around her waist. “Though I think I need to see Quetzal about this as I can’t get it off.” “But, Cassie,” cooed Ord. “You look so cute!” The green head of the twin dragon put his hand over his face. “You’re not going to use it, are you?” he groaned. The purple head laughed obnoxiously before letting out a snort. “Oh, Zaky!” she dismissed. “You were the one that held us up on getting potty trained.” Zak squeezed his eyes shut as his face burned red. “The potty was scary and the dark is scary, too!” he tried to argue back. “And, if I remember, you didn’t want to wake up, Wheezie!” “You got me there,” Wheezie replied. “Though Cassie needs our help and I’m sure Quetzal can get her out of that magic diaper.” “Magic diaper,” giggled Ord. “That’s funny.” The group of friends then took flight off to The School In The Sky to seek the advice of their teacher while sharing the story of a land that would never be visited again as all the magic of the scale was now making its way through a baby dragon’s digestive system.