//------------------------------// // Ch.6 - You're Kidding, Right? // Story: The Witching Hour // by Chaotic Ink //------------------------------// Midnight was having a good day so far. She’d finally caught up on her work, no thanks to Rainbow and Pinkie. The first tree of the day had come down quickly and it even looked like a thunderstorm was heading their way. She shivered with excitement; she loved thunderstorms. Something about the raw power they held just made her giddy. That said, she was also careful around them. She never went outside during one because she didn’t particularly like the idea of being struck by lightning. Kinda kills your day, your mood, and… well… you. With her ears wide open listening for the sound of thunder, she easily heard Twilight Sparkle calling for her from the house. Figuring the storm would be on her soon anyway, she dropped the tree she was carrying and headed for home. ------------------------- She fervently wished she was back with the tree. “So, let me get this straight: those aren’t storm clouds, they’re smoke from a dragon?” “Yep.” “Who’s sleeping on a mountain outside of town?” “Uh-huh.” “And a student/librarian, a farmer, a weather pony, a party planner, a fashion designer, and an animal caregiver, NOT a platoon a soldiers OR the princess herself, are to go up there and get him to leave?” “You got it. Oh, and the princess asked if you could come along as well.” Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Okay, two things: how does the princess know about me and what have you been huffing?” Twilight frowned at her. “Midnight, Princess Celestia trusts that we can get this done, and as her faithful student I won’t let her down. And she knows about you because I told her.” Midnight’s eye twitched. “When and if you survive this suicide mission, I’m going to find a manticore and feed you to it.” “It’s NOT a suicide mission, and you ARE coming!” “It IS and I’m NOT” “Yes you ARE!” “No I’m NOT!” “YES!” “NO!” “YES!” “MAKE ME!” ------------------------- “I honestly and truly hate you and I will find that manticore.” Midnight fumed at Twilight. The purple unicorn had threatened that if Midnight didn’t come with them she’d send a letter to the princess asking her to convince Midnight in pony. She’d finally agreed to come along. “Oh, come on Midnight; it won’t be that bad.” AJ told her. “Yeah!” Rainbow agreed from above them. “We’ll just go up there and kick’em out!” Midnight considered the future snack the same way one considers a pony that says a tarantula is just like a puppy: like a complete moron. “Eh-hem.” They turned their attention back to Twilight. “Alright girls, listen up! I’ve mapped out the fastest route, but we’ve all got to keep a good pace if we’re to make it to the top by nightfall.” “M-Mountain?” Fluttershy squeaked. “The dragon is in that cave at the top.” “Looks pretty cold up there.” AJ noted. “You bet it is!” Rainbow said proudly. “The higher you go, the colder it gets!” While the others discussed keeping warm Midnight rolled her eyes. Cold wasn’t the problem; the giant, flying, fire-breathing reptile in the cave was. It was then that she overheard Twilight and Fluttershy speaking. “Um, excuse me, Twilight? I know you’re busy, but-” “Uh-huh. Well, we could go this way.” Twilight said into the map. “If I could just have a second-” “Uh-huh. We want to avoid that!” It was quite clear Twilight wasn’t hearing the meek mare. “So, um, I was thinking that, um, maybe I should just stay here at home.” “Uh-huh.” "Oh! Good, I’ll just stay here and-” “And I’ll join her!” In a flash Midnight was next to Fluttershy, pulling her into a wing-hug. “You know, to keep her and the town’s morale up!” Fluttershy recoiled slight at the touch; she was still pretty scared of Midnight. Twilight’s head finally emerged from the map. “Wait, you have to come! Your way with wild animals will surely come in handy, and you’re not getting out of this Midnight.” Midnight frowned and dropped the yellow pegasus. She had half a mind to bill the princess for the work she had fallen behind on. Again. If they made it back that is. ------------------------- They made it to the base of the mountain before stopping, courtesy of the booming noise coming from the mountain top. “Whoa, what was that!?” Rainbow asked. “THAT would be what a dragon snoring sounds like,” Twilight told them, looking up the mountain. “I’m going to fly up there and check it out!” With the confidence of a suicide pilot, Rainbow began flying up towards the cave, but was thankfully stopped by a more realistic Applejack. “I think we should all go up together. Safety in numbers and all.” The others nodded, and Midnight had to agree that it was the second smartest thing said today (the first was Fluttershy opting to go home). “Oh, alright.” Rainbow huffed. As they made their way up the mountain, Twilight realized that somepony in their party was missing. “Fluttershy?” They all began to search for the missing mare, then Rainbow called back down to where they had begun their climb. “Hey, what are you waiting for!? An invitation!?” “Ooo, I think I got one in my bag!” A second later Pinkie came back out of her saddle bags, confetti exploding out as she did so, nearly causing Rarity, AJ, and Twilight to lose their footing and scaring Rainbow and Midnight. “It… it… it’s so… steep.” “Well, it IS a cliff.” Rainbow huffed. “You could, oh, I don’t know, fly up here!?” “Come on Fluttershy, you can do it! Flap those wings!” Pinkie called down. Her words of encouragement convinced the shy pegasus to start flapping, and in a moment she was airborne and heading towards the group. *SNORE!* Fluttershy’s wings snapped into her body and she fell back to where she started. “Uh! We don’t have time for this!” Midnight had had enough. She swooped down, grabbed the pegasus with all four legs, and began to fly back up. “If carrying you all the way up this mountain gets this insanity done sooner, I’ll do it.” She warned her. Another loud snore and Fluttershy continued to be dead weight. ------------------------- Thankfully they were able to convince Fluttershy to stay conscious when they reached a place to rest for a minute. Getting her to move forward, however, took a bit more. Mainly, Applejack began to push her forwards until they reached a small gorge. It was small enough that the four non-flyers could just hop across. Of course, Fluttershy refused to move. “But… it’s so… wide!” Another snore assured her unwillingness to move. “There’s nothing to be afraid of!” Pinkie told her. “It’s just a hop, skip, and jump!” With that, she began to sing a little tune, and it actually began to work. In a few moments Fluttershy was jumping across the gap. “Just don’t look down!” Twilight called out. Midnight could have strangled both of them. At the words, Fluttershy, of course, looked down, freaked, and planted her front hooves on their side and her back hooves on the side they were just on. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity pushed/pulled her the rest of the way. “I hate my life; I really do.” Midnight moaned. ------------------------- A short while later they were away from the gorge and Fluttershy was FINALY moving under her own power. “Let’s keep it down.” Twilight whispered to them as they passed a tree. “My map says we’re entering an avalanche zone. The smallest peep could cause a huge rock slide!” Before Fluttershy could freak out both Midnight and Twilight shooshed her. As the group made its way through the area, Midnight flew a bit further out over the drop, just in case there was an avalanche. They passed another tree and all seemed to be going well, until… “AVALAN-!” Why Fluttershy freaked out they had no idea, but thankfully AJ had managed to stuff her hoof in the pegasus’ mouth before she could complete her scream. For a second, it seemed like no harm done, but then the ground started to rumble and again Midnight lamented her lot in life. As rocks came hurtling down, the rest of the group began running around, doing their best to avoid becoming pony pancakes. Rainbow flew in between the falling boulders (a mystery to Midnight as she could have just flew away from the side of the mountain) and Midnight used her fire to blow the smaller rocks out of the way and to change, at least somewhat, the direction of the bigger ones. Thankfully the ordeal lasted only a few seconds, and everypony made it out okay. “Sorry.” Fluttershy mumbled. “Aw, that’s alright Sugarcube.” “Yeah, we’ll just… climb over it.” Twilight said, annoyance creeping into her voice. The group began climbing up when Midnight picked Rarity up and began to fly her over the debris pile. “Midnight, what are you doing!? I can walk perfectly fine!” “And add you complaining about your hooficure to Fluttershy’s… everything else? No thank you.” “I am NOT going to complain!” “So you’re saying that after walking through dust and rocks, you’re not going to say anything?” Rarity looked down at the debris. “I’ll admit I may say something, but you don’t have to be so rude!” “Sorry! My nice-o-meter ran dry over a half hour ago.” Midnight deposited the unicorn on the other side of the hill as the others made it down as well. ------------------------- Finally, much to everypony’s’ relief, they made it to the top. “Still think it was a good idea to bring Fluttershy along?” Rainbow asked Twilight, a sentiment Midnight agreed with. “We’ll find out soon enough.” The group found itself in front of a giant cave. “We’re here.” She turned back to the group. “Rainbow Dash, you use your wings to clear the smoke.” Rainbow nodded, and then flew into the smoke cloud. “Rarity and Pinkie Pie, you’ll distract the dragon in case things get a little hairy in there.” They nodded, and Pinkie began swinging a rubber chicken, much to everypony’s’ confusion. “Applejack, you’re ready with the apples in case he decides to attack.” AJ bucked a couple into a nearby tree to show she was ready. Midnight silently scoffed. ‘Oh yes, apples, a dragon’s only weakness.’ “But it shouldn’t come to that, because Fluttershy and Midnight will do what they need to do to wake him up. And, between the three of us, we should be able to make him understand why he needs to go. Is everypony ready?” While the rest nodded, Midnight raised a hoof. “Yes?” “What’s this ‘Fluttershy and Midnight’ and ‘between the three of us’ stuff you’re talking about?” Twilight frowned. “Midnight, you and Fluttershy are our best chance! She knows how to handle wild animals, and you’re part dragon, so there’s a better chance he’ll see reason if you help explain.” Midnight snorted. “Okay,” Twilight turned towards the cave, “we’re going in!” Midnight begrudgingly followed the unicorn inside. “So,” Twilight asked when they were inside. “What is the best way to wake up a sleeping dragon without upsetting him?” “Not wake him up?” Midnight offered. Twilight turned to make a rebuttal when she noticed somepony missing. “Fluttershy?” Noticing their lack of a pegasus, Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on!” Outside they found the butter-yellow flyer with her face in the dirt in a poor attempt to hide. “Come on! We HAVE to do this!” Twilight pulled her out by the wing and began pushing her. Soon everypony but Midnight was trying, and failing, to push Fluttershy towards the cave entrance. “I… I CAN’T go in the cave.” With that everypony dropped in defeat. “Great, she’s scared of CAVES now too!” Rainbow moaned. “I’m NOT scared of caves, I’m scared of *mumbles*.” “What’s that Sugarcube?” “I’m scared of *mumbles*.” “What?” “I’M SCARED OF DRAGONS!” *SNORE!* “Eep!” “But Fluttershy, you have a wonderful talent dealing with all kinds of animals!” “Yes, because they’re not DRAGONS.” Well, that at least explained why she always avoided Midnight. “Oh, come on!” Rainbow yelled. “We’ve seen you walk right up to a horrible manticore like it was nothing!” “Yes, because he wasn’t a DRAGON.” “Spike is a dragon, and you’re not scared of him!” Pinkie offered. “Yes, because he’s not a huge, gigantic, terrifying, enormous, teeth nashing, sharp scale having, horn wearing, smoke snoring, could eat a pony in one bite, totally all grown up dragon!” *SNORE!* Twilight looked from her friend to the cave and back again. “But, if you’re so afraid of dragons, why didn’t you say anything before we got up here!?” “I was afraid to.” Fluttershy said sheepishly. “All of us are scared of that dragon.” AJ said, trying to help out. “Not me.” Rainbow told them proudly. “Almost all of us are scared of that dragon.” AJ corrected. “The non-suicidal ones.” Midnight mumbled. “But we’ve got a job to do. So, get in there with Twilight and show’em what you’re made of!” AJ and the others looked at her hopefully; praying the little speech had helped the pegasus. “I… I… I just… can’t.” “Oh, Fluttershy… I guess it’s just you and me Midnight.” Twilight said, turning back to the cave. “Any chance I can join Flutters?” They all gave her damning stares. “Didn’t think so.” With that Midnight followed Twilight back inside. “He… probably just doesn’t know what he’s doing… right?” Midnight nodded and the ones left outside agreed. Walking further in, Twilight called out “mister dragon,” then hit her head on his snout. Both she and Midnight backed up. He was huge and Midnight guessed that if he stood up fully he’d hit his head on the high ceiling. He was blood red with a golden-yellow stomach, and smoke was pouring out of his nose. His giant spines looked about as long as his head. Twilight took a moment to compose herself, then continued. “Ex-excuse me, mister dragon.” The beast scratched itself, then its eyes flew open, focusing on the cause of the disturbance. “Oh, good, you’re awake. Please allow me to introduce myself; my name is Twilight-” The dragon gave a massive yawn, spewing out the worst case of morning breath any of the mares, including Midnight, had ever smelled. “-Sparkle, and my friends and I are residence here in Equestria, Ponyville to be exact.” The dragon eyed the unicorn, then the ponies standing just outside the cave, then Midnight. He lingered longer on her than the black mare liked, but then turned his attention back to the purple unicorn. “We’ve come here to ask that you please find another spot to take your nap. It’s just, you seem to be doing an awful lot of snoring, and every time you do you send out a terrible cloud of smoke.” He snorted more smoke on her. “*cough* Equestria simply can’t survive a hundred years in a dark haze. You understand, don’t you?” The dragon got up, stretched, and scratched. ‘I honestly cannot believe that worked’ Midnight thought, relieved this crazy mission would actually be over with all limbs and lives intact. “So, you’ll find another place to sleep?” With that, the dragon flopped back down, causing the entire cave to shake, and blew another cloud of smoke into Twilight’s face. As she left the cave coughing, Midnight cautiously made her way forward. “So, if, uh, you’re not going to leave, can I ask you a question then?” The dragon opened its eyes again and focused them on the Kirin. “You wouldn’t happen to know a dragon, well, wyvern,” the dragon’s eyes narrowed at this, “by the name of Windstorm, do you?” The dragon contemplated her for a minute, then gave her the same treatment as Twilight. Figuring any more attempts would be in vain, Midnight left the cave, and was passed by Rarity on her way inside. ‘And now we just pester him until he decides to eat us. How lovely!’ ------------------------- “You know, being right surprisingly doesn’t make me feel any better!” “Now’s not the time Midnight!” AJ yelled as they scurried away from the enraged reptile. Rarity had been close, but failed at the last second. Midnight had silently contemplated that her generosity could be replaced with another, more appropriate, G-word. Pinkie had gone next, saying that giving him a laugh would make him more reasonable. It had not. Finally, Rainbow had lost her cool, flew into the cave, and bucked the dragon square on the nose. Try telling Midnight now that the cyan pegasus didn’t have a death wish. That had also been the dragon’s last straw, and now he was emerging from the cave with a vengeance. With a roar, he was able to blast everypony, except Midnight who wasn’t frozen in fear, back into a rocky outcropping. This was not good. All the way up here she’d warned them this would end badly, but of course nopony believed her, and now they were paying for it. But, as much as Midnight wanted to leave them to their self-inflicted fate… she just couldn’t. ‘There’s only one thing I can do, and I’d sooner let them find out I eat meat than do this… but… oh, BUCK IT!’ Steadying herself, Midnight concentrated, and blue flames began to lick around her hooves. Just as she was about to fully commit though, she heard a yell from off to her side. “HOW DARE YOU!” Stopping whatever she was doing, Midnight looked to her left, and was amazed to see FLUTTERSHY staring down the dragon BY HERSELF. “LISTEN HERE, MISTER!” The pegasus flew up and landed on his nose. “JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE BIG DOESN’T MEAN YOU GET TO BE A BULLY!” Now she was right in his eye. Midnight could feel her jaw almost hitting the ground. “YOU MAY HAVE HUGE TEETH AND SHARP SCALES AND SNORE SMOKE AND BREATH FIRE, BUT YOU DO NOT, I REPEAT, YOU DO NOT! HURT! MY! FRIENDS!!! You got that?” Midnight just knew her jaw had not only hit the ground, but it was now currently burrowing through the mountain, and it only kept going when the dragon cringed in submission. A quick looked showed the others were slack-jawed in awe as well. “Well!?” “But… that rainbow one kicked me.” The dragon said in a deep, gravelly voice. And, like an idiot, Rainbow Dash nodded as if she was proud. “I’m very sorry about that.” Fluttershy told him. “But you’re bigger than she is and you should know better! You should also know it’s bad to sleep were it could become a health hazard to other creatures!” “But I-” “Don’t you ‘but I’ me, mister! Now, what do you have to say for yourself?” *pause* “I said, what do you have to say for yourself!?” There was a pause, and then the dragon started CRYING. Midnight was sure… yep, her jaw had just hit the center of the earth and was still going. “There, there; no need to cry,” Fluttershy told him when he was done. “You’re not a bad dragon, you just made a bad decision. Now, go pack your things. You just need to find a new place to sleep.” Midnight registered nothing. Not everypony congratulating Fluttershy, not the dragon leaving, not a single thing. “Uh, Midnight? You okay there pard’ner?” As Applejack poked her, she simply fell over. “Ugh! Please don’t tell me we need to carry her down now!” Rainbow moaned. ------------------------- Derpy had been part of the pegasi group in charge of clearing the skies of smoke, but now that it was done she could go back home and enjoy some muffins with her little muffin. As she turned a corner though she saw Midnight walking by with a dazed look about her. “Hey Midnight! How you doin’?” “Fluttershy… dragon… crying…” was all the answer she got as Midnight kept walking.