Turning on the charm
"H-hello? Anybody in there?"
Spike the dragon gently tiptoed towards the mouth of the cave, peering in at the dark and gloom. The small dragon was starting to have second thoughts about this whole plan, as he had never encountered a female dragon under these circumstances before. But as he thought of all the ponies who were counting on him, Spike forced himself to keep going.
"WHO DARES CLIMB MY MOUTIAN?!?" A loud female voice boomed from the cave. Spike was immediately hit by a blast of cold, icy air... then by a wave of hot summer's heat. The small dragon both shivered and sweated at the same time.
"Great, a weather wyrm!" Spike groaned to himself, remembering what he had read in Storybelle's library about the draconic subspecies. Much as the Pegasus controlled the weather in Equestria, weather wyrms changed the seasons for dragon societies in regions where it was needed. With a name like Whimsy Weatherbee, Spike really should have been surprised he was dealing with one of these winged reptiles.
"I-it is I! Spike the dragon... of Ponyville!" The scaled saurian shouted. “I seek an audience with you, lady Weatherbee!"
"Lady Weatherbee!?!" The voice inside the cave suddenly grew excited. "Is that a boy dragon I hear? Gimme a second!" He then could hear her mutterings from outside the cave. "Omigosh! A boy! I'm not gonna be alone anymore! How did he get under the dome? Are my scales straight? I hope I don't blow this!"
Outside the cave, Spike merely rolled his eyes. Clearly, this girl was a scatterbrained chatterbox, with a 'Bucklin' accent to boot. Winning her over shouldn't be that hard, the small dragon reasoned. All he had to do was play his cards right. Straightening his scales, Spike walked into Whimsy's cave.
It was a homey looking place, with lights hanging from the ceiling, and a few pieces of comfortable furniture. Clothes of every color and description were scattered all over the cave- Whimsy's item of choice to build her dragon hoard out of, Spike guessed. It was then that Whimsy herself stepped into the light.
In all of his years of life, Spike believed he would never see a vision of loveliness as beautiful to his eyes as the fair Rarity. But when the small dragon first set eyes upon Whimsy Weatherbee, the image of the white unicorn mare was blown clean out of his mind, and forgotten. The bright orange sheen of her scales... the alluring slopes and curves of her graceful reptilian figure... the silky smoothness of her soft brown hair. Unable to form a single coherent thought, Spike could only gawk and stare at this magnifcent creature before him.
"Oh hello there Spike!" Whismy greeted him, walking up to the slightly taller male. "So nice ta meetchya!"
"Umm...I... errr... that is..." Master Heathspike sputtered out, his face turning a deep blushing red.
"Can think of somthin's ta say to a lady?" The dragoness replied alluringly, turing and waving her large tail at him. "Or am I just makin ya noivous?"
"Errr... Lady Weatherbee, allow me to introduce myself." The male dragon replied nervously, quickly regaining his composure. "My name is Master Kengrowth Gilspottum Heathspike. And I've come here, to speak to you on behalf of the Ponies of Ponyville!"
"Oh, my new friends?" Whimsy asked in a puzzled tone. "But I already gave dem their star back! What do they want now?"
"No, not those little freaks of nature! They're imposters, created by Twinkle Wish!" Spike replied. "The real ponies of Ponyville were driven out of their homes, to the land of Unicornia! We all need your help!"
"Huh, so's dat's why they were smaller than I remembah." Whimsy chuckled. "But why should I help them? They haven't exactly been very kind to me!"
"What exactly do you mean?" The bewildered Spike asked. "What did the equines of Ponyville ever do to you?"
"For years I've lived up here on this mountain, after I got lost under that stupid sky dome the ponies made! But did those ponies ever come up here ta make friends? NO! " The weather wyrm scowled. "The only time I ever saw them was when a few fillies got lost up here one Christmas, and I helped guide them back home. But did I eveah see them again? Nope! The mountain was 'too scary' ta climb! So's I wuz still alone!"
"So when Twinkle Wish offered you friendship, in exchange for acting her little scenarios out, you jumped at the chance." Spike realized.
Whimsy nodded. "I wuz plannin' on grabbing her for my hoard, but I just couldn't turn down her deal to finally make friends! So whrn the artificial ponies showed up looking for her, I played along with the script."
"So you're not under Twinkle Wish's control!" A surprise Spike exclaimed.
Whimsy nodded. "Now, why don't we forget all about ponies, and I'll get you something nice ta eat?" The dragoness pulled a tray of freshly baked ruby-flavored pastries out of the oven. "What to try some of these? My mother always said the way ta a man's heart is through his stomach!"
Spike was about to protest, but the sight of the gemstone pies made the dragon's mouth begin to water. "Sooo delicious..." Spike muttered, as he began to devour the mineral flavored desserts.
...
"Uh oh! -tweet!- That nasty sky up there doesn't look very -tweet!- good!"
As Thistle Whistle and Starcatcher flew across the Ponyville skies, they could see the zigzag pattern cracks and lines forming and spreading across the surface of the dome. The unicorn spells from a day earlier had done thier work, and the great barrier between Ponyville and Equestria was about to come down.
"Well, it looks like the goal we sought after so badly is about to be accomplished." Queen Starcatcher sighed. "Now, I almost wish we could undo what we have done."
"But Starcatcher -Tweet!- won't the falling pieces of the dome hit ponies on the head? -Tweet!-" Thistle Whistle worried. "Somebody might get -tweet!- hurt!"
"The dome is a magical construct, Thistle. It's maintained by a spell." Starcatcher explained. "When each of the pieces breaks loose and falls, it will dissolve before it can hit the ground."
The two Pegasus flew on towards Ponyville, while staying high enough so that the bait ponies would not notice them. They were conducting a scouting mission, before the two teams divided up, and set the plan to reclaim Ponyville into motion. It was when they got to the rainbow waterfall, however, that the two ponies saw things were much worse than they had previously thought.
"Starcatcher, Look! -TWEET!-" Thistle exclaimed excitedly.
There, They saw two of the baits- Toola Rula and Starsong- placing some of Spearklework's firecrackers over the waterfall cave that served as the entrance to the Butterfly Island portal. The two baits ran off, and the Pegasus ponies saw, to their horror, that a lit fuse was near the large pile of stacked fireworks.
"They're going to destroy it!" Starcatcher shrieked. "They're going to cut us off from our home forever!"
"We gotta -Tweet- Stop them!" The blue Pegasus shrieked.
"No time!" Starcatcher cried. "make for the portal Thistle- NOW!"
The two ponies raced for the portal, but Starcatcher was just a little bit quicker than her friend. The white Pegasus flew though the portal mere seconds before the explosives went BOOM!, collapsing the top of the waterfall down on the cave, and destroying the portal to Butterfly island forever.
"Aieeee!" Thisle Whistle screamed, as the explosion threw her backwards. Lading in the river with a loud SPLASH!, the blue Pegasus quickly swam her way to the shore. "Oh no oh no on no! STAR CATCHER!" The Pegasus wailed in anguish, even as the bait ponies galloped towards the shore, eager to devour her.
Seeing the little cannibals approaching, Thistle quickly shook her wings dry, and took off into the sky. Tears rolled down the distraught mare's face, as she flew back towards unicornia.
On the other Side of the portal, Star Catcher landed on butterfly island, staring back up at the flash of light that had been the passage to Ponyville.
"Blast it! Why didn't it ever occur to me that they might try to take the Pegasus ponies out of the equation! Now the earth and unicorn ponies are on thier own!" Starcastcher lowered her head, trying to hold back her tears. "Goodbye forever, Thistle Whistle! You are now the last Pegasus of Ponyville..."
...
"Those ruby cakes were amazing! And so were the emerald shakes!" Spike told Whimsy, as he drak the last drop in his cup. "You really are an amazing cook!"
"Glad you like it." Whimsy said coyly. Stepping out from behind a folded par terre, she was now wearing a pink sun hat, and a long white dress
"So whaddya think?" She asked, posing in front of Spike. "You like my summer outfit?"
"I-it's lovely." Spike muttered, turning a deep shade of red again. "So Whimsy, you said you're from the eastern mountains?"
Whimsy nodded. "My parents were year-round weather changers." The dragoness replied. "We stayed on in the nesting grounds, even when the other dragons joined the great migration every year!"
"Then how'd you end up here?" Spike asked, puzzled.
"I decided to be the family rebel, and be the only weather wyrm to join the migration." Whimsy shrugged. "When we were crossing the Equestria valley, I decided to land and explore the weird looking dome, while the other dragons flew on. " She flashed a toothy grin. "Needless to say, I found my way into this trap, and never caught up with the others."
"Whimsy, I really feel for you... and I think I might even like you a little bit." Spike looked up at her. "But I can't let you do this to the Ponyville ponies."
Throwing down the hat she had been holding, Whimsy stormed right up to Spike, and angrily stuck a claw in his face.
"You're not one of them, Spike! They will never know the sweet taste of a gemstone under their tongues, or the feeling of lying in the sun as it warms your cold blood!" The dragoness snapped at him in annoyance, snorting ice out of her nostrils. "They will never know the raw power of breathing a stream of fire from their mouths, or the sheer joy of amassing a hoard, or the sense of security possessions brings to our kind! You're not one of them, Spike! You'll never be one of them!"
"They raised me, Whimsy! They taught me everything I know!" The small dragon protested. "You want me to betray my friends for you?"
"Well, you want me to betray my new friends for you!" Whimsy countered, flapping her purple wings reflexively.
"Those baits aren't you friends, they only act the part!" Spike snorted angrily. "This isn't right, Whimsy- and you know it! And if you help the ponies get their homes back, you'll have lots and lots of real friends who care about you, instead of a bunch of programmed baits!"
The dragoness turned away for several minutes, then looked back at Spike, and smiled. "You're right Spike! Of course I'll help them!" She walked back over to the male dragon. "We'll show that fake star who's boss... together."
She began to gently stroke Spike's scales, which sent shivers up the dragon's spine.
"Ummm, aren't you getting a little too friendly Miss Weatherbee?" Spike asked nervously, sitting down on her big easy chair. "No pony ever gets this ...close... after just meeting somebody!"
"But we're not ponies, Spike..." Whimsy told him, cuddling up is his lap. "...we are dragons ."
As her scaly lips pressed against his, the two dragon's bodies instinctively pushed up against each other. In the back of Spike's mind, the memory of a lovely white unicorn, pleading with him not to do this, faded away into an echo.