//------------------------------// // Perfect trade off // Story: Lily and the Dragons // by Hyper44 //------------------------------// Hooves pounded rhythmically on the ground and her heart pounded in her ears as Lily wished that she had super speed as well. At the same time, she was glad for time to think about just what she was going to do when she found Flim and Flam. Super strength couldn’t stop a teleporting pony. At least she was pretty sure that she knew where they were. The those silly little ‘magic’ trinkets that they had tried to sell were made of a red wood. It was little surprise that Flim and Flam would choose it because it gave the crude carvings a glossy look but best of all it narrowed down where they might be. The only type of trees with such red wood around Ponyville grew only in a few places just inside the Everfree. They never grew deep in the forest. At least that was what Mrs. Cheerlee taught in forestry lessons. Lily hoped that there were no exceptions. With the large load the two brothers had had, it would have taken a long time and they likely would have set up a camp there.   “Oh, please let me be right,” Lily pleaded as she entered the forest. Dappled sunlight flashed across her face as she wove in deeper and then swung off the right to begin her search. She kept alert for the first sign of a red trunked tree, the two brothers or any sign of wood carving. Instead of any of that Lily was surprised by the sudden appearance of bright colors standing out in the forest. Lily skidded to a stop. Panting, Lily peered through the foliage to see the dragons. Some were balancing in the trees with their wings hanging down as they looked around while others stood on the ground talking in hushed voices. She could see Green Claw’s back ash he looked up calling to Midnight Flight and Lemon Jade near the edge of the groups seeming to argue with eveydragon.   Of course! They would be out looking for Leftfang too and she could help. Even if they didn’t want her around she could tell them where he was likely at, not that they could stop her from looking on her own. Cautiously, Lily trotted through the trees towards them. At the sound of her hoofsteps the mini dragons spun around and she was met with a hoard of hostile eyes.     “What are you doing here!?” Green Claw snarled stomping forward.     Lily cringed at all the angry glares but managed to reply evenly. “I think I know where Flim and Flam took Leftfang.”       Green Claw scoffed, “Of course! You were in on it! But so far it looks like your plan left your entire village trapped!”   “What! How can you not understand what happened?!” Lily cried. “Flim and Flam stirred up trouble and then they took advantage of it! Now Leftfang is in danger and the longer we stand here, the less chance we have of finding him!”     “Leftfang!” Green Claw snapped. “Oh, poor Leftfang. If it weren’t for him befriending a pony and luring us to your town to save his magic this would have never happened!”   “It’s not his fault!” Lily yelled.     “Like none of us would haven’t gone for help if we were in his position,”  Lemon Jade interrupted. “It’s obvious that the ones who went around telling us that ponies were greedy and would use us are the greedy ones looking to benefit.”     Before Lily could breathe a sigh of relief at having a ally Lemon Jade was drowned out by growls of the others.   “Shut up!” Green Claw snapped a her. “You’ve always been to gullible for your own good. As for the pony,” He motioned to the dragon beside him. The dragon opened his palm, a burst of light flashed in his claws and a medallion appeared. It dangled from a thin woven rope with the plain metal disc showing a pair of devious looking eyes. “This is the mark of a greedy and tricky being. Once placed on a pony’s neck a spell will keep you from ever removing. It’s no less than you deserve since you tricked us to come to a trap in your village.”     ‘Wait!” Lily said quickly, “Give me two!” The dragons stared at her blankly. “You’re right, we’re all greedy ponies but I can help make things right and you will never have to deal with us again.”     “I’m listening,” Green Claw replied slowly.     “Soon two delegates will be coming to see you to talk about what happened in Ponyville. Being greedy ponies they may ask you for wishes. If you don’t make me wear the medallion I’ll take the two to the delegates and convince them to wear them, even if I have to do so by trickery. However, you must promise me one thing. If they ask you for wishes you must not torment them by tricking to preform foolish tasks to ‘make the magic work.’ I know dragons used to do this to greedy ponies in the past so please promise me that you won’t do so to them and I’ll get them to wear those medallions of shame.”     “Of course,” Green Claw said with a cough and a wide grin. Behind him there was much snorting, winking and efforts to cover up laughter. “We won’t do anything like that if you give them the medallions, and one for your ‘friendship princess’ too,” he nodded at the dragon beside him and two more appeared in his claws. "Just keep your end of the deal and we won't do anything mean to those important ponies, we promise." Green Claw struggled to keep a straight face as he spoke.     “Fine!" Lily said snatching the medallions by the ropes and took off into the forest. After a while she glanced back making sure that no dragon was following. Seeing none she snorted in contempt. “Even if no one else will choose to see what’s really going on I am not going to give up.” She slung the third medallion to the ground and stomped on the metal, crushing it to pieces beneath her hoof. With the other two dangling from her mouth Lily continued her search. She found several patches of the trees but each one had no sign of a camp. Just as she was feeling despair rising in her Lily heard voices up ahead. She slowed and stalked forward.   “Nodragon or pony will be coming,” A taunting voice said. “It was easy to stir up trouble between them and even if they’re not still fighting there is no way that they’re going to work together.”   “All we want is one wish. Just make everypony believe everything that we say,”     “I am not granting you any wishes and even if I did I couldn’t grant such a wish.”     “Why not!”     “Because you can’t wish things on other or for others if they’re not present to agree to it.”     “But you can grant a wish for us that will affect others. So, just let us wish for a spell to be on us that will affect anypony we talk to, a spell that will make whatever we say sound like the most believable thing that they’ve ever heard. That’s all we want.”    “Sure, but first you must retrieve the whisker off a manticore.”   “HA! We know that those are just tricks and there no tasks or items needed to unlock your wish magic.”     “Oh, it’s very real,” Lily said stepping out of the trees where Flim and Flam stood in a makeshift camp. There were bits of wood everywhere and in the center Leftfang was trapped in what looked like a bear cadge. “I had to go on a quest in the Everfree for my super strength.”     Flim and Flam jumped at her voice but quickly recovered. Flim quickly lit up his horn. “Well, your super strength won’t help you here,” He said, “We can simply teleport somewhere else before you try to free Leftfang.”     “Oh, I’m going to try to break him out or fight since that will likely lead nowhere,” Lily assured them. “I’m to make a trade with something that you will find even more valuable than a single wish.”     “Oh?” said Flam.     “Just what could be more valuable than a wish for whatever you want?” Flim asked.     Lily pulled out the two medallions that she had hidden in her mane. “These are scared metals to the mini dragons. Whoever is given them will be regarded with respect and trust for they mark you as a friend of dragons. They were given to me when I proved myself by saving Leftfang, why do you think that they trusted me enough to come to the village? I will trade these to you in exchange for Leftfang’s freedom, if and only if you promise me one thing.”     “And what would that be?” Flam asked as he and his brother stared greedily at the medallions.   “You must promise that you will never use them to trick or use any dragon,” Lily stated looking over her shoulder in the direction that Green Claw and the others were, “There are many dragons out in the Everfree who wish to speak with delegates from Ponyville. They will be very eager to see a trustworthy pony right now. You must promise me that you won’t use these metals against them to trick them into giving you unearned wishes."   Flim and Flam both looked at her each other a moment and then a wink passed between them. “Of course, we promise that we won’t use it against any dragon and we’ll let Leftfang go. It’s a deal.”   Lily held out the medallions and the two brothers quickly snatched them up, put them around their necks and headed off into the forest.     “That was so easy, children are so gullible.” Flam hissed to his brother and they hurried off to find the dragons that Lily had mentioned.   “I know, and now that we have these was can get a wish whenever we need on.” Flim whispered back.   Lily waited until their whispering voices faded and then hurried over to the cage and ripped the door off. Leftfang leapt out and glared in the direction that they had gone. “I love to see what happens when they walk up to a mini dragon wearing those and ask for wishes. If they believe that they have to complete quest for items then any dragon who finds them is going to have a fun time with them. Where did you get those?”   “From Green Claw. They covered Ponyville with a spell after Flim and Flam kidnapped you. I ran into them in the forest when I came searching. No one wanted to listen to me and come help me find you. Except Lemon Jade that is. The only thing that Green Claw wanted was revenge and tried to make me wear one of those things. I convinced them that I could make important delegates were them instead. Now those two are walking into a trap and Green Claw thinks he got one over on me.”   “That’s fitting,” Leftfang snorted. “Though I’m still stuck without my magic!” He growled.     “We can still help with that,” Lily said, “Come back and help us remove the spell on the town and the-“   “Why would I go back!” Leftfang snapped. “I went to your pony town and I got kidnapped by greedy ponies looking to use my wish magic at my expense. It was just what I expected to happen but I didn’t listen to myself! Why would I want to go back!”     “Leftfang! They are not like that!” Lily pleaded, “You were there with them! They tried to help you and-“     “And I got kidnapped!” Leftfang snapped. “let’s face it, there can be no peace between dragons and ponies,” He snarled and leapt into the air. He flew off rapidly ignoring Lily who was calling after him. Exiting the trees he gained altitude before making a circling away from the Everfree. “The only thing I want to do is see what spell Green Claw had them cast on those ponies.”   It wasn’t long before Ponyville came into sight. He laughed seeing the ponies floundering around the mess and Pegasus trying to fly.     “Good one,” He snorted and hovered on the town watching with glee. “Serves them right for what they did.”   I don’t see Flim and Flam down there. Leffang growled, hating that inner voice that always came at the wort time. Then he slowed and watched a pony who he recognized as one of Lily’s friends struggling in the ooze. What had she done to him? He looked over at Princess Twilight and Starlight sitting at the table where they had researched how to help him with his magic. What had they done beside help him?     Leftfang hovered and circled over Ponyville for some time as he relived the past days he had spent interacting with ponies. He debated with himself, circled and pondered as he considred Green Claw, Flim, Flam and everyone involved. He finally stopped and looked at Twilight who yelled in frustration as she struggled to turn another oozed page in the book in front of her. A flash of indignation jolted through him and he was on the table in a flash. Twilight yelped and jumped, or would have if she hadn’t been glued to the table by the ooze.     ‘Leftfang!” She exclaimed. “You escaped!”     “Lily helped me,” He replied looking around. “She told me what happened.”     “Can you help us?” Twilight pleaded, “I can’t figure it out. I cast a cancellation spell but nothing changed.”     “That’s because many dragons cast the same spell at once. All those spells support each other and if you cancel out just one at once the rest will hold up and even rebuild the cancelled spell if it can,” Leftfang explained, “I could probably work through it if I had my magic intact. However, I still can help so long as you wish for the spells to be gone.”   “What? Of course I wish they were gone…” Only then did Twilight notice that Leftfang’s claws were aglow. In that moment light flashed out from his claws and washed over the town. Ponies closed their eyes against the light as a strange sensation washed over them making their coats crackle like static. When they opened their eyes the spell had vanished as if it never had been. When the stunned silence faded cheers erupted.     “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Twilight cried hugging Leftfang tight.     “AKKKk! Ok!” Leftfang gasped squirming away. “No need for that! I just figured that even if you can’t help me get my regular magic back you don’t deserve this.”     “Uh, Leftfang,” Starlight said walking up with a smile on her face. “You do realize that you teleported down to the table.     “What?” Leftfang looked up to where he had been hovering and the back down to the table as he thought back. He had been reacting on emotion when he had come down from the sky so he hadn’t thought about it.   “I went and talked to Zecora,” Starlight Glimmer said. “She explained to me that the reason for your regular magic failing had nothing to do with granting wishes or anything like that. You see, mini dragons are creatures of fate, just like us ponies. When we ponies don’t follow our fate and choose bad things instead there are always consequences. Think of Flim and Flam, they could be great business ponies but instead they choose to follow dishonest methods and quick fixes. Because of this, they will never achieve their full potential. Many ponies can never find their mark and purpose until our minds and hearts are in the right place.”     “Zecora said that mini dragons are similar. She said a lot of mini dragons are not as great as they should be because of this. The bitterness and anger held for years by many has created a weakness and then there is a certain point where it becomes more evident than ever. You see, magic and fate is so tightly interwoven and because of the way it exists in mini dragons your magic is most evidently affected. Your magic began to really falter after you met Lily because a part of you began to realize that ponies were not what you thought they were. Despite this, you never changed your mind and still hated us. Your magic and anger could not exist side by side anymore. So, because one would not fade, the other did.”     Leftfang stood silently pondering for a while. Then he vanished in a flash of light to appear a few feet away. “Well, my magic is back,” he stated somewhat skeptically. "It's sounds weird but I'm just glad to have my magic back."     “Leftfang?” Lily’s voice suddenly interrupted. She came walking down the street looking around at the town that no longer had any trace of the dragon spell. ‘You did come back.”     He shrugged, “Yeah. I granted a wish to free your town but my magic seems to be back anyways.”     “I’m glad to hear it,” Lily said with a smile. “You’ll have to explain it to me but now, I mostly want to know what changed your mind.”   “I realized that If Green Claw struck me I wouldn’t go kick Midnight Fight,” He said simply. Lily as well as Twilight and Starlight blinked at him in confusion. “I’ll be back. I have some dragons to talk to.” He suddenly vanished and reappeared in the sky where he made a beeline for the Everfree Forest.   Lily sat in the street watching him go. “Things nearly ended up with even Leftfang turning his back on us again. Do you think that there is any real chance for others to accept a hoof of friendship? There has been a rift for so long.”     “I don’t know but I do know friendships that seem impossible can happen,” Twilight said glancing at Starlight Glimmer.     “Wow! You ponies know your magic. I thought that I was going to have to spend the rest of the day trying to unweave those spells.” The trio looked down the street in surprise as Lemon Jade strode down it. “If everything is fine, are there any more of the lemon heart cookies left?”