Chapter 10
So continues the adventurous tale of a hormonal blue stallion and his self-proclaimed little brother as they trek across the dirt roads of Ponyville. The odd stares were given to him just like yesterday during the Summer Sun Celebration when Connor was trotting around with his gar shades. In this case it’s the same thing but now Spike is on his back, seeming to enjoy the ride to Sweet Apple Acres.
It was a fairly long and silent trot but after a few minutes they could see the old red barn house of Applejack’s current home and family business. At the sight of house the blue stallion galloped into the premises of the barn yard, with Spike holding on for dear life onto Connor’s mane. “This again?!” asked Spike.
“Yes sir!” exclaimed Connor. He galloped as far as he could around the barn yard, not being able to see Applejack anywhere. Every turn he made going around the huge orchard he wasn’t able to see Applejack or anypony else in the whole place. Step by step the irritation of Connor began to grow and grow as his unable to find Applejack plight grew tiresome by the minute. “Dammit all! Where is she?”
“You don’t have to swear…” said Spike. The gar-shade wearing stallion immediately stopped where he was running as Spike nearly flew over his head but was able to hold onto Connor’s mane right before he stopped.
“I can swear if I want to!” exclaimed Connor.
“Not ‘ere you can’t” The gar-wearing stallion turned his body around to come face to face to the familiar orange cow-pony, Applejack. What he just barely noticed was just a little filly with a red, bushy mane and tail right next to the orange cow pony.
“Applejack?” asked the young filly. Her voice was sweet and innocent, so sweet it dared to challenge Fluttershy on the “d’aww” scale. Her eyes were huge and her irises nearly took up all of her eyes, they were red, redder then all the other apples in the family orchard. “What does that word that big pony said mean sis?” Connor nearly grimaced when he heard the adorableness drip from the voice of the filly’s words. It nearly made his heart explode.
“Oh…it means nothin’ Applebloom, why don’t yah see what Granny Smith is doin’?” asked Applejack. Her eyes darted over to Applebloom over to Connor, hoping her little sister wouldn’t push her further on the topic.
“Please big sister?” asked Applebloom. They moment of weakness was at hoof, it seemed impossible but her irises got bigger as the small red mane filly gave Applejack the puppy dog eyes. Applejack felt sweat on her face come up as she looked angrily over to Connor for a bit, and back to her younger sister.
“Now Applebloom, what I saw you have to do alright?” asked Applejack. The serious look was gone from the orange cow pony’s face as she saw her little sister looking down to the ground, looking on the urge of tears. The blue stallion hatched up a brilliant plan.
“Spike…bro…play with the filly.” said Connor.
“What?” asked Spike. The next thing that happened, Spike was tackled by a yellow and red blur took Spike off the back of Connor and into the hard, dirt ground. He landed with a big grunt and a sore head, seeing the little filly eye to eye was one shocking experience, she took up his entire vision too.
“Do you play wrestlin’?” asked Applebloom with a big smile on her face. Spike would smile if not the fact that he was tackled so maliciously by her, but he tried to be nice.
“Well um…not really…” said the small purple dragon. Those words to Applebloom meant nothing, and began to start throwing around Spike like a rag doll. “Bro! Help me!” His cries of plea were drowned out by the sounds of pounding ground. As Spike was being cartoonishly thrown around by the small filly, Applejack took the time to scowl at Connor and begin lecturing him.
“Now listen ‘ere buster, now that kind of mouth may be suitable for them fancy Canterlot folk up there, but in this ‘ere barn, we ain’t having none of that. This is our home, and our rules, alright?” asked Applejack. The over confidant stallion just smiled like a guilty child as he started laughing to himself, Applejack looked up at Connor’s grin with worry and confusion. “Now Connor, what’s goin’ through that big ‘ol head of yours?”
“Oh nothing, I just thought of a joke. Nothing important.” said Connor. Applejack raised an eyebrow but just shrugged it off. “Well…guess we better break up those two huh?” He trotted over to the two young ones as he took a moment to see what has transpired. Applebloom had Spike by the tail as she was flailing around Spike in the air. Surprisingly not seeming to not mess up and fall to her knees she kept swinging the purple dragon around by his tail and never stopped. She finally slammed Spike to the ground, pasting grimaces onto the two adult ponies from the sound of the impact, hearing scales pound dirt was probably the most painful sound Applejack ever heard. Connor would be feeling sick but getting stabbed by an alicorn horn repeatedly the night before the last one made him loose the feeling of pain.
The moment the small bundle of scales hit the ground, everything felt sore, pretty pained but just sore. Despite all the cartoonish violence put into this wrestling play, nothing hurt, but being slammed face first to the hard ground defiantly did. He felt dizzy, woozy, and felt a tight feeling in his gut, and a tight feeling of the back of his left palm being held against his head forcibly. At that point Spike started yelping like a little bitch. “Oh sweet Celestia, Charlie Horse, Charlie Horse!”
“Quit all the yappin’, ya’ll are sounding like Winona!” said Applebloom. The bundle of adorableness had Spike Connor took the time to see again what he was seeing, his little brother having his ass handed to by a little adorable filly. This was nothing that he could stand seeing, he had to take action.
“Good lord Spike! Throw a haymaker at her or something!” exclaimed Connor. Spike looked up to his older brother in disbelief of what he had heard; Applebloom just looked up confused at the old stallion. At that point, the stallion with the odd orange shades noticed the small filly’s grip on Spike weaken. “She’s loosen her grip little bro, this is your chance!”
Spike felt his arm feel loose, a bit numb from being held against him by the surprisingly strong filly, and that was the moment to strike. Using his tail, he grabbed a hold of Applebloom’s rear leg and threw her off of him. The small apple filly just skidded along the ground a good couple of feet before getting back up. Spike picked himself up from the ground as well, smirking at Connor, who smiled back upon his little brother. “Thanks bro!” said Spike.
Without another second to lose, the baby dragon was once again viciously tackled to the ground by Applebloom. With a couple more seconds of a friendly beat down, the young filly had Spike in the same position again with the back of his hand behind his head. Connor just sat on his flanks, and face hoofed for all it was worth of that moment. “That boy ain’t right…” thought Connor.
“…Anyways. What did ya’ll need Connor?” asked Applejack. The large stallion looked down to Applejack who gave off a smile and her attention towards said stallion.
“Oh yeah! I remember now…so I wanted to ask,” said Connor. He got close to Applejack, closer then she’d like but even at this borderline distance, she’d still talk to the now awkward pony. “if I could um…buck your apples?” The orange coated cow pony just stood on all fours as she blushed from the question. She looked up to the blue pony, who had his eyes half open and a smile so sly it nearly erased all hopes of what Applejack thought he meant.
Seemingly out of nowhere from the apple orchard, a large, red coated stallion with a long flowing blonde mane and half of a green apple for a cutie mark jumped right next to Connor, and kicked him in the face with a rear leg. To the stallion’s surprise it hurt more than it should have, and was blown back by the sheer force of the red pony’s kick. Applejack couldn’t help but have a worried expression, this was just…her mind was blank and now she’s overreacting a bit.
“Macintosh!” shouted the orange coated cow pony to the larger red coated stallion. Macintosh just had a serious expression with eyes of fire and irritation; this was something that he had been familiar with doing before, and something he would gladly repeat if the situation required it. Like now. “I don’t believe he meant THAT kind of bucking!”
“I dun think so sis, so pardon my OWN form of bucking.” said Macintosh. “The colt didn’t look like he had a ring on ‘em either, so I did what I did.” They could hear the sound of hoof against ground as Connor calmly and casually trotted up to brother and sister like the recent kick to the face was nothing. The bruise was there, nice and shining just below his glasses but to him this kind of thing was nothing. Applebloom and Spike completely ignored their recent wrestling match and introduced into the shouting of the young one’s siblings arguing. For the dragon it was worst, seeing the purple bruise on his older brother’s face made him worry half to death.
“Bro!” exclaimed Spike. Connor could hear the worry drip from his younger brother’s voice when he spoke those words, and smiled as warm as he could for the young one. The baby dragon ran up to him and gave him a hug with his arms wrapped around his neck like a little kid in worry. The gar-wearing shades pony grabbed Spike by the…spikes on his head and threw him over his shoulders almost cartoonishly and had him sit nice and comfortable on his back.
“I’m fine little bro, this ain’t nothin’!” exclaimed Connor, pointing at his new, shinning bruise with a front hoof. “Besides,” He switched his attention over to the red coated pony that only raised an eyebrow at him; awaiting a reaction from the stallion he sent flying. “That sir was a pretty nice kick there!” The Apple siblings just looked at Connor with confusion, Big Mac the most surprised.
“Wait…so you’re not mad?” asked Macintosh in disbelief, scratching the top of his head with a hoof.
“Eeyup!” exclaimed Connor. “How did you do that? I mean what drives you to such an awesome kick? That hurt like…” He looked over to Applebloom, and then remembered what Applejack had said before. Even noticing her glare at him with an eyebrow sticking up so far up her head it nearly was concealed underneath her straw hat. “…like a kick that hurt a lot…yeah. Exactly that.” The orange cow pony just tipped her head with a hoof towards Connor, and smiled her trademark smile.
“Thank you Connor.” said Applejack. Said pony just smiled goofily with closed eyes. Shifting his attention back to Macintosh, they both had a couple of seconds of awkward eye contact until the red farm pony spoke.
“Well yah see now, I dun like it when mah sis’ gets talked to like that by some colt who thinks they can get any mare with some words dripping in foal’s gold.” said Macintosh.
“Whoa there buddy, that’s where I have to stop you right there.” said Connor. The red stallion looked over to the blue one and just grew an annoyed expression.
“And why’s that now, Mr. Connor?” asked Macintosh. Applejack knew it was coming, the one thing she didn’t feel like seeing today, nor anypony in that matter but Spike. Everyone in the apple orchard saw this coming, but the big red stallion and his youngest sister didn’t. Spike jumped off Connor’s back as the big stallion got on his rear hooves and stood on them as he pointed a front hoof to the sky, dramatically in Applejack’s words, but to Spike this was cool.
“You see, I’m no normal male pony, I’m the pinnacle of manliness, the perfect image of a stallion, the pony your mare wants you to be! I am the one and only Connor Stronghooves!” exclaimed Connor as loud as he could. The baby dragon looked up to his older brother in awe while everypony else was just looked at him with a tired expression, even young Applebloom gave this look to the rambunctious stallion.
“Is he always like this?” whispered Big Mac to his orange coated sister.
“Eeyup.” said Applejack.
“Also Macintosh, I did not wish to make sweet love to your sister, I have only wishes to buck the apples!” exclaimed Connor. “What did you think I mean?”
The red farm pony looked dumbfounded towards the taller, bigger blue stallion with embarrassment. He was getting strange looks from everybody around him, the only one wearing shades in between the five of them with an irritated look, awaiting a reply from him. All Big Mac could do was just sigh, feeling defeated and like a mule, he trotted up to the bigger pony and held out a front hoof.
“Ah’m sorry for the kick, it’s just that ah wouldn’t want anypony with the get up like yours doing sumtin’ unfit for conversation to my lil’ sister.” said Macintosh. With a pang of guilt, Connor took the hoof with his hoof and shook it, taking on his gesture with a smirk.
“Well it’s all good bro, and besides, you already told me that remember?” asked Connor. “No need to repeat yourself a second time right?”
Big Mac just smiled back and nodded, responding with an “Eeyup.”
“Now c’mon, let’s go apple bucking before I have to return the favor now.”
Hours have passed since Big Mac’s misunderstanding with Connor went down and the two, alongside Spike had seemed to get along. The hot blooded stallion’s work on the orchard was something out of extraordinary, by the red farm pony’s standards it was, but Applejack was fully aware with what the stallion was capable of so this was a little under exciting. However, the extra help for the farm did make her gleefully delighted none the less.
Noon crept its head in slowly; two sweaty bodies and a baby dragon on the back of one of them were trotting through the orchard, with wagons attached to the saddles on the backs of Big Mac and Connor. Alongside the saddles, the saddle bags themselves were FILLED with apples, green, red, yellow, all kinds the apple orchard could grow. The stallions had pleased expressions on their faces for the wagons themselves were filled to the brim like their saddle bags.
They finally got to the barn house, with a bored filly lying on her back on top of a hay barrel, looking at the sky with furled eyebrows. When she noticed her older brother trot over to the barn house, she leapt up from her back and to the ground, landing on all fours and galloping to her older brother. “Macintosh!” shouted the small filly. Her little voice was just beyond cute to Connor, and it made him bite his lower lip from the cute levels flooding above the max. Seeing her run up and giving her brother a big hug with front legs around his neck was just more than the manly stallion could take, and bit on his lip even harder.
“Big Mac, Ah’m bored.” whined Applebloom.
“So?” asked Macintosh. He looked down to see his sister’s irises grow larger then he remembered them being. Her big, bright orange eyes and her lower lip quivering was almost more then Connor could bare.
“Oh sweet mother of god! Your little sister is adorable!!” screamed Connor. Everyone around the hot blooded stallion just stared at him in initial shock, Spike with his irises smaller in his form of shock. The gar-shade wearing pony looked extremely creepy at the moment, his sweaty body helping out with that look, and Applebloom look very scarred of the stallion. Connor’s face was flushing red as it was painfully clear on his blue coat that he was embarrassed of the outburst, regretting to have done it.
“Anyways…no Applebloom, me an’ Connor here are workin’, we don’t have time to do what ya’ll want at the moment. Maybe later okay?” asked Macintosh. His voice was sincere, but without his younger sister’s knowing was mostly just to get her away. None the less, she nodded and trotted with a bored expression on her face again to anypony knows where.
“Hope she’s just gunna be with Granny Smith, or bother Applejack…” said Big Mac.
“Why are you hoping that?” asked Connor. “Another question too…why didn’t YOU of all creatures in the world do something about it?” Eyeing his little brother who seemed pretty relaxed sitting on his back, tensed up from the question.
“Are you kidding me? I’d like it better when my limbs weren’t in uncomfortable places you know!” exclaimed Spike. The small dragon stood up on to his butt and folded his arms in defiance, knowing what his older brother was gonna say next he didn’t even bother looking at him, just to whatever was on his left side.
“C’mon little stallion, you’ve done nothing either, lazy...err…mule.” Connor looked over to Macintosh who just gave him a raised eyebrow, then a solemn nod for stopping himself from breaking rule number one of the Apple’s family orchard.
“Look I don’t care okay? I’ll play with her when she goes easier…” said Spike bitterly. The pony, for which the small dragon was riding, just turned his head over and scowled at him.
“That’s the point, you have to prove your superior in this “wrestling” game by your own will and strength, not because some filly can make you cry Charlie Horse.” said Connor. “You would need to win through the me that believes in you, not the you that believes in a fair fight.”
“Connor, what does that even mean?” asked Spike irritated.
“It means don’t lose, knuckle head.” said Connor. Big Macintosh couldn’t help but at least chuckle from that one comment, the blue coated stallion did the same but his little brother wouldn’t take it. Instead he just turned his head to wherever no one was facing and stared intensely into that direction.
What the three heard next was the sound of hoof against ground going at a fast pace, when they turned to see who was making the sound, it was just Applejack galloping towards them. It wouldn’t surprise them so much to see her gallop the way she was, however the thing unsettling about it was that she had a look of worry on her face. The stallions unhooked their harnesses and set down their saddle bags nice and easy on a bale of hay and trotted towards her.
“What’s goin’ on AJ?” asked Big Mac.
“Well, Big Mac, this news goes to Connor ‘ere.” stated Applejack. The cowpony looked towards said pony and he looked back. “The princesses are ‘ere, and they don’t look happy, not one bit.”
In the apple orchards of the Apple Family, a blue stallion could be seen from the skies galloping as fast as he could without having a purple baby dragon tumble off. If he didn’t have to worry about that, he would have been where he should have been by now.
Even despite the challenge of not being able to go faster, Connor still galloped as fast as no pony should towards the direction of his destination. A trail of dirt and dust flew into the sky by the hard hoof steps of said stallion as he trekked the dirt roads of the orchard. The pony with the gar shades didn’t feel guilty about leaving Big Mac and his sister behind; he already did plenty of work that day. The evidence was present around him as most of the trees he was passing by had no apples in their branches. But this wasn’t about apples; it was about royal duty now.
In a few minutes, he and Spike were able to see the main house of Applejack and her little family. The old wooden house, despite looking like it saw better days still stood strong where it was, looking like it wouldn’t need some repairs sometime soon, something that was good to see. Through the windows he could faintly see a flowing mane, two sets of them with different colors. Though it was hard to make out the colors seeing how most of his vision is orange but he could tell from the two sets that one was more lightly colored, while the other was completely dark. At the sight of this, despite the pleas of his little brother, Connor galloped faster to the old wooden house.
“Do we really need to go this fast?” asked Spike.
“C’mon bro, where’s the fun of TROTTING for goodness sake?” countered Connor. Without another word, he picked up his pace, with the baby dragon holding on to his brother’s brown mane.
In a matter of half a minute, Connor was already at the front door of the Apple Family house. Without knocking, he went right in and entered, seeing his mother and aunt sitting on their flanks and drinking some tea. They didn’t look at him at first when Connor first entered having to already down another cup of tea, but after they were done, serious faces stared at the stallion in worry. “Good to see you son.” said Princess Luna. Despite her warm, motherly smile towards her own son, her eyes speak of a lot of worry under the skin.
“Hey mom,” said Connor. “What are you guys doing here?” The sisters set down their cups on a night stand just next to them; Princess Celestia took a deep breath, and exhale, and then began to speak. Her poker face still held strong but nervousness wracked her body like she was a piñata.
“James had a nightmare, Famine still haunts him.” said Princess Celestia.
“Well that shouldn’t come off as a surprise, I mean, not that I don’t believe in James or nothing but being as we are, I’m surprised myself that I had a decent dream.” said Connor.
“Yes but, this wasn’t an ordinary nightmare, there was something else in there.” The room grew quiet, it was almost awkward quiet but the room just didn’t have any noise to it and it all hung heavy on the shoulders of the baby dragon.
“Uhm, if anypony needs me I’ll be outside…waiting.” said Spike.
“Yeah, it’s probably for the best right now, bro.” said Connor. Spike jumped off his brother’s back without any real grace to it, landed with a grunt, and ran off outside. After the door closed behind the purple dragon, the room felt less stuffy.
“Bro?” asked Princess Celestia.
“Yeah, the little stallion seemed pretty cool, so why not?” asked Connor. The royal sisters just looked at each other with a bit of worry, nodding then turning back to their hot blooded relative.
“I know he’s a dragon but, you think you can keep…IT from him for so long?” asked Princess Luna. Connor looked hurt at that question, gulping and exhaling he continued to talk.
“Look, none of them know, Twilight doesn’t know, but if they want to find out they’ll have to find out themselves, I won’t tell them willingly.” said Connor.
“Connor, they’re going to know one way or another, and with your condition they might find out sooner then you’d like…”
“God dammit mom, you don’t think I know this!?” snapped Connor. Upon seeing the hurt face of his mother, he just sighed and rubbed a temple with a hoof before continuing. “…I’m sorry, just tell me what you wanted then I’ll be off doing god knows what in this town...okay?” His aunt looked pained at that moment but trotted up to the stallion either way.
“Here…its best if you see it for yourself.” said Princess Celestia. And with that, Celestia’s horn touched her nephew’s forehead, and the dream commenced.
Connor opened his eyes to see himself in a spectral state, though rather odd despite being in a dream and the necessity of such to happen, but whatever had his aunt do this, it must have been important to have to need to enter a spectral form in somepony’s dream. He didn’t question out loud the whys of which things were happening at the moment but he figured it would be better off to ask for later.
He was floating in mid-air, still seeming like he was on all fours and standing straight and tall alongside his aunt who floated the same way. Looking down he saw a stage, ponies of all races gathered to see the perfectly woven red fabric of a stage curtain in front of them, awaiting the main performance. Noticing a little green colt take a small peek from the curtains, the hot blooded stallion couldn’t help but smile a bit; he could recognize the little colt anywhere as young James Plantgrower, a bit of nostalgia pinching at his mind.
Everything seemed to move in fast motion; everything went into a faster pace than it should, seeing Celestia’s horn glow and looking back to the dream moving fast erased his questions. “We don’t need to see this part of the dream.” said Princess Celestia.
But when the curtains were raised, and colt James with wings spread out and standing dramatically on all fours, that’s when things went at a slower pace till it was natural. Connor looked up to his aunt again who seemed to not break out of her warm, smiling gaze upon her son in the dream. He’d ask why we’re stopping to see this but then he realized it wasn’t much of a good idea.
“If you’re wondering why we’re stopping to see this part, it’ll be something that we’ll have to keep watching to find out.” said Princess Celestia. “Besides, what’s the rush?” All the stallion did was raise an eyebrow at his aunt and went back to watching colt James do his thing.
For what seemed to be five minutes the young form of Celestia’s child had done fancy maneuvers, with cat-like agility and the grace of a swan he flew around in the sky of the stage happy and free. During the even fancier looking moves he had a big wide grin on his face that no pony couldn’t look upon and not smile at. He looked over to Celestia with a worrying look to see that her face held a warm smile. She only broke her gaze that was fixated on the performance to give Connor a face that read “I’m fine”. He knew it was otherwise though.
Then the moment of truth came. James flew high into the air, as high as he’d be able to go and then began a nose dive maneuver. Though with each foot he had fallen his wings seem to loose feather by feather until he wasn’t able to properly fly with them anymore. He was no expert on wings but he knew non-functional ones when he saw them, and James had them at the moment.
He fell, his wings lost all the feathers on them during his free fall so he wasn’t able to flap them and great good air anymore. All the young colt could do was just fall and hope the landing wouldn’t hurt as much, or at the least, a quick death. Connor looked over to his aunt again to see her reaction but all he had was just a blank expressionless face.
Little to no surprise to the two ponies, a black hole appeared at the floor of the stage, and the colt James went right in. The royal ponies flew right in to the black hole before it closed and saw James fall down further and further into the empty and black abyss. They could even hear the same voices that echoed through the emptiness, all from the other three stallions as they continued to verbally assault the young green colt.
He hit the ground head first, which to the look on the young green alicorn’s face seemed to not as hurt as he was expecting it to be. Then, the mirror appeared, changing form from young colt to adult stallion with their cutie mark, and then…Famine. Connor flinched a little looking at the form but he held a firm strong face in the eyes of the deathly ill sight of Famine. Then he heard him speak.
“Don’t cry James… It’s just something we all go through…now…join us James…” said Famine. It took everything it could for the blue coated stallion from gritting his teeth in anger of this sight. Seeing his cousin bawling and whimpering was more than his heart could bear and he felt an urge coming up. Watching his cousin reach out to the mirror desperately, leg shaking as it came up and touched the mirror with a hoof made it worse for him to see. As much as he wanted to look away, he became fixated on the actions happening in front of him.
He saw the dragon hand reach out from the now-enlarged mirror and immediately flew right ahead into the mirror alongside the young colt James to find the surprise of the nightmare. Before him, and his aunt, stood on its hind legs was the giant dragon Connor could hardly recognize, nor one he felt was friendly at all. At this, the pony with the gar shades did indeed grit his teeth in fear and anger of the ginormous black dragon in front of them. Hearing his cousin’s attempt at shouting the dragon away made him angrier as the black monstrosity didn’t even so much as change its blank expressionless face, not even slightly twitching. All it did was just look at the colt James and never broke its deathly gaze.
Noticing the scales glisten in the darkness it made him realize something, there was no light in the darkness they were in, otherwise it wouldn’t be known AS a darkness, and James seemed to reflect off of the scales of the beast. The one thing he managed to piece together was that whatever it was, it was something very unnatural. A heartbeat could be heard from the dragon but it sounded smaller then it should have been. It should have been at least just a little louder, but it was as if the being of something at his size was there and not one of a giant beast.
“Aunt Celestia, that dragon isn’t natural, it’s a fake.” said Connor.
“I thought the same but look.” The dragon opened up its maw and let out a blood curdling roar that shook down James to the very core, and admittedly, Connor and Princess Celestia as well. Then, it began to speak.
“aaN BahLok Fah HIN LeIN NaaL AlDuIn, DRaaL Fah FIN NOROK DOVahKiin Wah MeyZ, Fah FIN KRUziik DOVah DO VED VOKUN STaaDNAU WIN KeIN ahRK HIN LeIN!!” shouted the dragon.
Though its lips weren’t in synch with what it was saying, the earth pony stallion understood what it was saying, while being blown back by the pure force of the dragon’s voice. One thing was certain though, this dragon wasn’t real, nothing about it was natural yet it could perfectly imitate the force and strength of the voice of a dragon, if not that then even stronger. He did not like this one bit.
“What did it say?” asked Princess Celestia.
“Whatever it is, it WILL rage war on us, that’s all I can say.” said Connor. Then finally, the moment Celestia was waiting for to happen.
“YOOR TOOR SHUL!!!” shouted the dragon. From the mouth of the dragon the stallion could see it all, instead of a moist, fleshy inside of a mouth, all he saw was just an empty blackness that shined just as bright as the outside. Whatever it was, it was no dragon. However the confusing part was how it was able to perfectly imitate dragon’s fire, the fire brought about by the voice of a dragon. But when the moment the nightmare ended SHOULD have ended¸ he felt the flames wash over him.
“This isn’t dragon’s fire…” thought Connor. That was the moment his aunt’s horn flared and they no longer floated in the dreamscape of a dream gone wrong.
Connor opened up his eyes to see himself standing where he remembered standing in the living room of the Apple family house, taking a bit in of his surroundings he realized no time went by. He could recognize everything in his surroundings as they all were where they were before his aunt touched his forehead with her horn. His mother stood there, just behind Princess Celestia as she looked at him with a face of worry.
“Well, what did it really say Connor?” asked Princess Celestia. “There’s more to it than what you told me.”
The obnoxious stallion just looked down with a serious face, then back up to the face of his aunt. He took a sigh before continuing and began to speak.
“All it said was that a dragon named Alduin will attack or something, then next was “prepare for the strongest dragon born to come”, like its some sort of villain.” began Connor. “Alduin, I advise looking into some sort of history on dragons on that name. But dragon born, back in some old mythology a dragon born is something, or somepony rather, that fights and slay dragons.”
Little did Connor knew, his little brother had his ear pressed up against the wooden door, hearing it all. He felt his heart sink at the moment of hearing what a dragon born was, whoever this dragon born would end up being he’d just hope that he wouldn’t even lay a hoof on him.
“Well, what else did it say?” asked Princess Celestia.
“That dragon, Alduin, would eat the world.” said Connor, ending the sentence on an ominous note. “And with it, the righteous fury of its black wings and might. However…that black dragon...the one in the nightmare, I think that the dragon might have been Alduin.” The royal sisters looked at each other with ill expressions, they’ve seen the dragon for themselves, and they did not like it one bit.
“This dragon, it wasn’t natural, it was as if it was CREATED.”
“Aren’t we all?” asked Princess Luna.
“No, hoof made or…well…just created by something, point is, that was not a dragon, and the fire it breathed was not real dragon’s fire.” stated Connor. “It’s just an imposter with the face of a dragon for a mask.”
“Well we can’t formulate conclusions like that, this was all from what James had seen, not what we had.” said Princess Celestia. Connor just grunted, stomped a hoof on the ground, and made his way to the door, only to stopping to say one thing to his mother and his aunt.
“You got what you wanted; now I’ll take my leave, thank you.”
“Connor wait…” said Princess Luna. The night princess’s son looked over his shoulder he gave her an empty, faceless expression as he waited for his mother to say something. “While you were working we were looking, well Celestia was, we just stood around for a bit until she came back, and she had found this.”
With the white alicorn’s horn flaring, she telekinetically picked up an object from behind her, what she had kept hidden from her nephew this whole time and set it in mid-air in front of him. He couldn’t believe his eyes, a piece of his old life came back to him just like a lot of them had lately, and though this time it was something on a smaller scale. What was in mid-air before him was a drill-bit, it had the necklace loop with it as it had a long thread going through it to form a necklace. The drill of the necklace shone brilliantly white within the glow of Celestia’s magic, it was truly a sight to behold for anypony.
“Your old drill-bit necklace, remember?” asked Princess Celestia, her face had a large smile on it, hoping to have surprised Connor with such a precious object to him. “I preserved it after all this time you were gone, I hope it’s as good as you remember it.”
The blue coated stallion just looked down with sadness, to him this was the last thing he needed, but he knew it was for him to enjoy, not hurting him. Regardless of such, he grabbed it with his teeth and set on his hoof. “I thank you guys for this, but I can’t really accept it.” said Connor. Once again the royal sisters had looks of worry on them towards their relative.
“You don’t like it? We just thought…” said Princess Luna. A hoof placed on her mouth shut her up by her son, his look of depression was changed from a sad one to a happy one as he smiled warmly at his own mother.
“I appreciate the gesture,” said Connor, he looked at the door a good few seconds, smiled again and faced his mother, grinning, “but there’s someone waiting for me that deserve it more than I do.” He slung the necklace over on to his back and trotted back to the front door, only to have been stopped again.
“But why do you think that?” asked Princess Celestia. Her face was one of confusion until she looked upon the face of her hot blooded nephew. All she saw was the picture that spoke a thousand words, a face to tell her why, and it was a blank expressionless one. She could see the eyes that gave her all the answers to her questions despite the orange that stood in the way of his eyes and hers but even through the gar shades, she could know. She gave him a solemn nod and he opened the door to take his leave.
When he came out, he saw Spike standing on the porch of the home, leaning his head on to the railing of the porch as he looked out on the apple orchard. Realizing it, Connor trotted off to his little brother’s side, and laid a front leg around his shoulders. The baby dragon didn’t seem to mind for he just ignored it.
“You know, it’s not like I can’t tell you eavesdropped on us.” said Connor. That was when Spike faced his older brother with a look of shocked surprise on his face. His irises grew small and his eyes bigger as he backed up from the stallion.
“Y-you err…know about that?” asked Spike. The old stallion just raised an eyebrow and his smirk got even wider as his shades shined in the afternoon sun.
“Little stallion, you and I aren’t much different, at least from what I saw so far being here.” said Connor. He gave his little brother a nod, whom of which the dragon returned it with the same. “I know you heard about the dragon born thing, do not worry, and whoever it’ll be I’ll make sure he or she won’t even touch you.”
“Thanks bro.” said Spike. The two just went back to looking up at the orchard, just enjoying the view as the rays of Celestia’s sun shined off of the apples and leaves; it was truly a sight to behold. After two minutes the large stallion started scratching his head with a hoof in irritation. “Anything wrong bro?”
“Hmm? Oh I’m just trying to remember something…good lord what did I want…OH YEAH!!” exclaimed Connor. “Look to see something on my back, I have something for you, but I’m too lazy to bring it to you.” Spike just rolled his eyes and walked over to Connor’s side and saw the necklace on his back, sitting nice and right perched on his shoulder blades.
To the baby dragon he stared at it in awe, he never seen a drill before, nor knew the use of one but seeing the drill bit made his eyes sparkle. “I can have it?” asked Spike. The gar wearing stallion just gave him an affirmative nod and the baby dragon reached for the necklace that amused him so. He held it by the string and looked on to the necklace in wonder. It made the stallion smile that it brought the same kind of amusement to him as it did for him. The small dragon brought a finger to it and made it spin around, spinning around and watching the twenty helixes spin around in a spiral. “What is this thing?”
“Well, aside from a necklace, that’s supposed to be called a “drill”. Or well, that’s what Aunt Celestia told Me.” began Connor. He took the necklace from Spike and held it by the string too and started to spin it around and continued. “She said that ponies didn’t invent the drill, we just took it from something else, whatever it was.” The baby dragon paid careful attention to his older brother as he kept on explaining. “But she said that whomever or whatever invented the drill believed that it could bring itself to the heavens themselves.”
“Why did she think that?” asked Spike. The blue coated stallion just smiled warmly down onto the baby dragon and shook his head with a free hoof.
“I don’t really know, but she said that whatever image they had when they invented the drill that it was for a good cause.” continued Connor. “She told me that she saw the drill as my kind, the ponies, that with the dreams of the followers and the dreams of those who fell for a greater goal are weaved into the drill, creating the twenty helixes on it. She saw both things follow one greater goal, or well, a leader far as she was implying at the time.” The purple dragon nodded to show he got all that, and with that the stallion brought the necklace around his neck and looked out to the orchard again.
“Though, for the longest time thinking about it, a drill is a lot of things, it can weave from two sets of things, or heck, maybe three if you want to go about and REALLY claim a drill is like ponies. But no, I believe it’s what you make of it, where you dig with it and how you use a drill, for the greater good, for personal game or just to serve the side of evil. A drill could be a lot of things, but breaking it all down it can go from either tool or weapon and seemingly no exceptions.”
“Well what do you really think of a drill bro?” asked Spike. He held onto the railing of the wooden porch and looked up to his older brother who didn’t do nothing but continue looking out to the apple orchard. Connor closed his eyes and continued talking.
“Well, for a time I thought it was just to dig, dig to where you want to go, dig to where you need to go. To me, I aimed for the heavens!” He then dramatically pointed a hoof towards the sky while standing on his hind legs, the sight of his older brother being melodramatic with his poses gave off a feeling of wonder within the baby dragon.
“If you think you need to go higher use the drill and never stop digging! That’s the way I think a drill works!”
“But what should I think of mine bro?”
“Whatever you want it to be; it’s your drill now, from brother to brother.”
At that moment, the little dragon’s eyes went wide as Connor gave back his necklace. He put it on and started to dramatically pose with it, proud to death of his new jewelry. Without warning the blue coated stallion grabbed Spike by the…spike on his head and threw him on to his back where he sat peacefully.
“Alright little brother, its time to do some more apple bucking for today.”