//------------------------------//
// When Fates Meets 
// Story: How to Befriend a Dragon 
// by Dragonbond 
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Every week or so, Scootaloo has her up and down days like every other pony. Some had their downsides of having a bad day at work, some had bad days with family and friends, some just had bad days where nothing seemed to go right. For Scootaloo, hers in particular had to do with the fact she can't fly. The years are coming when she will no longer be a little filly anymore and what excuse or hope will she have to wait on to know if she can be able to fly at all. Bulk Biceps and Pound Cake had been known to fly when one had wings as small as hers and the other was just an infant. Life never seemed to be fair to her when it came to fight. It was great to have Rainbow Dash fly her around, but it was a little less of a thrill to know she had to be carried around. Bullies didn't make her days any better. She would be picked on that she was the weakest pegasus as the rest of them could fly at a young age. This brought her to tears as she couldn't find any words to defend her disability. This made her downsides come more often than less. Her friends would be there to defend her, but even that wasn't enough to help her face her cold truth. Every time it pained her heart as if she had been ripped in two. She would then run wanting to be alone, even from her friends. Away from every pony.

When she felt at her worst, she walked off alone into the wilderness near a lake in the woods. Of course, it was far from the Everfree. She knew better even in her most depressed state not to go there. She would always just stare into her reflection of the water and dipped her hoof in the water just splashing it around a little as she dwelled on her flightless wings. Every time she was here, she always made a desperate wish to fly and every time it never came true. Her friends would always remind her how swimming like a sea pony was like flying, repeating her own words. Even then, it was just nothing like the real thing. Scootaloo sighed just staring into the water letting several tears dip in the lake.

That was until she heard something in the woods. It sounded like tree branches shaking. It was followed by some kind of sounds of groans and growls followed by an occasional small roar. Her heart and mind told her to flee for her life, but curiosity made her continue to walk cautiously deeper into the woods towards the sound. She made sure to crawl low through the bushes to avoid being seen from this creature, whatever it was. It was still hard to see through her cover. She would start to see vines from a tree moving and whipping as if something had been caught in them. Something either big or heavy. When she was close enough, Scootaloo peeked out from the bushes just enough that she could look at what was in the trees making so much strange sounds. Shocked and surprised, it was a young dragon tangled and hanging in the vines. It looked like a fish caught in a net when it's wings, limbs, and head was tangled down in the vines. It must have been struggling so much that it got even more tangled in the vines for who knows how long.

The dragon appeared to have a round head with some sort of scaled fins on the back of its head. It was all black except for its eyes that were different shades of green. It also had slender legs. It had more fins down on the tail. Two, closer to the main body and… one on the end. Scootaloo figured something might have happened to it. Something might have ripped it off. It looked far stranger and much more different from the other dragons she had heard about. She wondered if it could talk. Although, it could still be a hostile dragon that would eat her as soon as it got the chance. Then there was the fact that she couldn't leave something behind when it clearly needed help to be freed. Who knows what kind of creature would come to eat the helpless dragon. Sighing, she slowly walked out into the open.

The dragon heard her coming out of the bush and turned its head at her. It snarled in hostility despite having vines tying its mouth shut. It could not bite or breath at her to scare her off. It seemed to trust no creature, but it had little options on deciding who would be at who's mercy. Scootaloo had been frozen in place when it snarled at her with it's green piercing eyes with its slit pupils. Its eyes locked solely on her watching her every move. Swallowing and taking a breath, she attempted to speak to it. "Um… H-hello. M-my name is Scootaloo." She started with a nervous smile. But the dragon didn't change his reaction towards her. "Um, I heard something over here and found you. Uh, it looks like you need help, so I came to try and… give you… a helping hoof?" Still the dragon made no reaction other than glaring at her still growling. Her smile then fell seeing it wasn't going to react any differently. "Right." She said knowing talking wasn't going to change the situation.

Scootaloo then observed the trees and the vines it had been caught in. She looked around for a sharp stone before heading to one of the trees the dragon was hanging from. Not having any other choice, she would have to flap her wings as hard as she could to give her some support to climb the tree. It had been a while of falling or sliding down off the tree when she lost her grip, but she pressed on to make it to the top. This intrigued the dragon to watch her try to flap and climb the tree. It assumed that she couldn't fly for some odd reason. But it still didn't like seeing her hold a sharp object in her mouth as she tried to climb the tree.

Finally, Scootaloo made it to the first branch almost out of breath. She would then continue to make her way to the vines by crossing over branches to reach them. The closer she got, the more the branch become more unstable and would wobble around. She held on tight to the branch and crawled closer to the vines. She looked down to see the dragon still glaring at her. "Give me a break." Scootaloo thought to herself. When she reached it, she tried talking thought her mouth still holding the rock in it. "I'm going to get you down, so don't eat me." She tried to say and hoped the dragon understood.

Scootaloo began sawing through the vines slowly with the rock. It took a while before she cut through one of them and then the next and finally the last one. Unfortunately, she didn't consider that the branch she was on was bending from the weight before she cut the last vine. *snap* "Whoa!" The dragon then fell to the ground still tangled and giving a painful yowl from hitting the ground. Scootaloo was flung into the air before crashing through the branches and leaves. "Oof, ow, oh, ooh eek ow!" finally hitting the ground. "Awh!" Luckily there was a bush to break her fall, but it still hurt on the crash landing. "That could have gone better." She said getting up and looking for any broken bones. She managed to sprain her front hoof and hissed at the pain. She then looked over at the Dragon's body lying still. She became afraid that she killed it in the fall. She limped over to try and see if the dragon was alright. On closer inspection, she saw it still breathing. It gave her a breath of relief and figured it had been knocked out.

It seemed to still be tangled up in the vines. She saw the rock across from them and went to retrieve it. As she limped over, one of the dragon's eyes opened up to watch her head for the sharp stone. When she bent to grab the stone, it closed its eye to pretend to remain unconscious. Scootaloo came over to the dragon looking at the vines still tying the dragon down. The dragon could feel her standing over it knowing she had the stone in her mouth. If it planned it out right, it figured it could wait until she cut him loose. Then it would attack not trusting she had some other plan for it. The dragon trusted no pony by thinking she would double cross it. It heard her cutting the vines, but it felt her do it slowly and carefully. It puzzled the dragon to why she would be cautious to not cut it in the process of cutting the vines off. *snap* It began to feel the vines come loose. Some other vines were still tied tight to the dragon. It only had to wait for more vines to cut. *snap* It could feel more of its body become free. Its wings still felt tied together. It felt the pony climb on the dragon to reach the last main vine to set it free. *snap*

"There now. You can… AHH!" Scootaloo screamed as she was pushed off and pinned to the ground as the dragon had lunged from under her and pressed its foot on her with its claws near her neck. Scootaloo's eyes were wide with terror as she stared straight into the slit green eyes of the dragon looking down on her a growling with every breath. She was breathing fast as her heart raced and felt like it would pound out from her chest.

"What else did you have planned for me pony?" The dragon finally spoke. It had an accusing tone when speaking to her. Scootaloo guessed that the vines had kept it from speaking in the first place. "Is this some game to plan a bigger trap?" the Dragon spoke slightly gripping its claws harder on her.

Scootaloo tried to find the breath to talk. "N-n-no… I-I just c-couldn't leave y-you like th-that." She stuttered in fear. She wished she could close her eyes from seeing the jet-black reptile, but the fear it sent through her made it impossible to even blink.

The dragon looked for any sign of a lie in her face. He only saw terror. Then he saw a tear fall from her eye. "Don't you ever come after me, pony." He said before starting to breath in. Scootaloo's eyes started to shut feeling that this was the end for her. The dragon only gave a piercing roar in her face before dashing off into the woods. Scootaloo was panting rapidly when realization kicked in that she was still alive. She peeked from her fetal position to see the shadow of the dragon fading deeper into the woods roaring and crashing through the bushes and oddly making ground thumping noise. It barely mattered to her why he was making those sounds. She was still reeling in from the near-death experience. She started to get up and walk back to Ponyville, until she made a weary groan and falls forward on the ground and passes out.