The best story idea I've had in quite some time · 6:52pm Apr 26th, 2016

Hey everyone,

So I've been mulling over a story idea and decided I'd share it with you all for a couple of reasons, the primary one being that I probably wouldn't get to actually writing it. There are a couple of other reasons why this particular idea I've come to like, though. Unlike most of the ideas I've shared, this one actually comes to a conclusion, and also, this one isn't very long. I feel like this idea would fit snugly inside the constraints of an actual episode, which is something I've been trying to do for a while. I have a tendency to overcomplicate things and expand the ideas on the unimportant stuff a bit too much, usually because I tend to throw in a lot of original ideas. But this one, this one's different. So, without further ado:

The story begins a few weeks after the events of the episode of where we met Princess (now Dragon Lord) Ember (who's an awesome character, by the way), the name of which I don't remember. We start with Spike receiving a summon from the Dragon Lord while at the same time Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie are called by the map to go to [insert canonical name of the place where the goats and minotaurs live]. I don't know if there's even a canonical name for it, so I'm going to call it Labrynthia. So, as they do, the summoned ponies go there, and Spike is brought along too, since the timing of his call seemed just a bit too coincidental to not be connected.

They get to Labrynthia, finding that the train station is at the outer edge of a forest which is led through only by a narrow dirt path. In other words, it's unusually isolated (and this is a place I'd go wrong in most other ideas, trying to thoroughly explain this odd choice and going so off track that it's difficult to get back to the original point. In this case, the explanation is as simple as they didn't want to bring the tacks through the forest and have to cut down all those trees; they want to keep the trees to use for other things). The ticket booth for the station is right at the edge of the tree line and is manned by a young minotaur who flees, screaming in terror as a dragon breaks through the trees.

This dragon, coincidentally enough, is Garble, and he wants revenge for Spike revenging Garble for being a jerk. Garble manages to grab Fluttershy and Pinkie by the neck and uses them a meat shields as he taunts/insults/declares some sort of ultimatum to Spike for a few moments. It's short lived, though, as someone approaches Garble from behind and grabs him by the neck and lifts him off the ground. Unsurprisingly, that fellow is Iron Will. Iron Will says something threatening to Garble, prompting him to drop the ponies and retreat.

After confirming that the ponies are unharmed (should mention that I feel that Iron Will is really a nice guy, but he just acted mean and stuff before as a part of his performance and business scheme. Think of Rainbow Dash but less confrontational and buffer, and that's about how I think Iron Will's actual personality is, and thus that's going to be his portrayal here), Iron Will asks why they're there, to which he gets the answer that they're there to fix some sort of friendship problem, and they voice suspicions about Iron Will having the problem, as it was Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity who dealt with Iron Will before and it's those three who are there now. Iron Will report that he has no issues that he's aware of, but that perhaps they could help with a larger problem. He informs them that, over the past few weeks, the number of raids by dragons had spiked significantly for undetermined reasons.

The ponies agree to investigate, and they coerce Iron Will into bringing them before the Labrynthian king to hear what he knows of the situation. Don't worry, he's the only OC in this story. The ponies are brought before the king, King Midas, who is...well, I'd make him a centaur, but I feel like if this were an episode, he'd just be a really big minotaur. It's not import, really, since Midas isn't going to do anything. Midas informs the ponies that dragon raid have been frequently occurring at villages and townships near the country's borders, but it's been small and more defenseless places that have been targets. He tells them that he suspects the dragons are targeting them because the dragons have finally realized that the minotaurs actually have a substantial amount of gold and other wealth, as many minotaurs are businessmen (of varying sliminess), and they're kind of hoarders like gryphons are. Finally, he tells them that they're on the verge of war with the dragons, but he'd be willing to give the ponies time to try and find a non-violent resolution, and that if they do, he's got a bargaining chip that should help them secure such a resolution.

Taking the king's word, the ponies and Iron Will (who's been dragged along by Fluttershy) make their way to a town suspecting of being a target. Sure enough, some time later, a trio of dragons come in to raid...at first glance, anyway. While the goats and minotaurs of the town flee, team good guys try to trap one of the dragons to hear the dragons' side of things. The first dragon they run into happens to be the purple one with the yellow mop cut (don't know his name), but instead of taking stuff, they find him doing damage control. The ponies split up; Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike stick with the dragon to help him out and hear his explanation, while Pinkie pulls a contraption out from nowhere that Iron Will wears the lets him carry Pinkie and her party cannon on his back, the cannon being used as a fire hose. The image is much more clear in my head, trust me.

So the dragon does some more exposition, explaining that Ember attempted to outlaw raiding as a whole, but most dragons simply ignored her, and that a lot of dragons, with the excitement of Torch stepping down, don't care to acknowledge Ember as Dragon Lord. But the dragons also began to realize that the minotaurs were just as good of targets as ponies were, having still a lot of gold to steal while also not having flight or magic to defend themselves, and also being closer. So dragons began raiding Labrynthia en masse. He goes on to say that Ember tried approaching Midas to inform him of her situation, but that only led to Midas capturing her, which in turn led to dragons that did acknowledge her authority coming to help, and dragons who were already raiding using it as an excuse to justify their actions.

Meanwhile, team IronPie run into one of the dragons that was actually raiding the town, and Iron Will commences to thrash it around for a bit, enough to scare it into grabbing his buddies and retreating. This, in turn, keeps a good portion of the town untouched by the dragons. What a hero he is. Anyway, the two groups reconvene and return to Midas, a little mad that he didn't outright say he'd captured Ember. At the ponies' prompting, he releases Ember to their custody, admitting that he didn't believe her when she'd told him she was the Dragon Lord, but he still recognized her as Princess Ember, and as such she would make a useful bargaining tool regardless.

They converse for a small while longer, and eventually Midas says something along the lines of him being unwilling to recognize the authority of someone who claims to be a leader but can't assert their authority over their own subjects, which is exactly what's happened with Ember (the idea is that, now that things have had time to settle, most dragons aren't happy with her as Dragon Lord since she's weak and pathetic compared to Torch, but she's also really passive for a dragon, which doesn't help).

So they all leave, and the conversation that follows can be boiled down to this:
Spike: "All you need to do is assert yourself, Ember."
Ember: "That's the problem. I just don't know if I can."
Fluttershy: *Looks to Iron Will* "I think I know somepony who can help with that."

After a brief assertiveness training montage, Ember has developed a "stare" of her own, and they go back to Midas so she can tell him that the dragons will cease to raid Labrynthia, and that everything that was stolen and more will be returned. And with her new tools and air of confidence, Midas actually believes her this time.

They all than go to another town suspected of being attacked, and sure enough, it is. But this time, Ember is there to confront the assailing dragons, and she gets them to back down. Word spreads throughout the dragons, and eventually, the raids cease and the stolen goods begin making their way back to Labrynthia.

So...yeah, that's about it. If you've got anything to say on this idea, feel free to share, and also feel free to steal this idea if you want to do something with it; I'm not going to. Anyway, until next time,

Keep being awesome,
-Lego

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