//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: A Challenge Ahead // Story: Sweetie Belle & Bubblegum // by NinjaMare //------------------------------// Rarity was just staring down at her little sister, and the small squishy slug-like creature perched on her back. when the pair entered the boutique, the fashionista was honestly a little confused on what her little had brought home, in fact she was still unsure what the little creature was. It was generally rather cute looking, but the unicorn was still unsure what to fully make of the small creature. “…Sweetie Belle. Where did you find this little thing?” the little filly looked a little nervous to answer, but she broke her silence and spoke. “F-from the, Everfree.” “WHAT?!” Rarity said in alarm, causing both Sweetie Belle and Bubblegum to recoil from the older ponies sudden pitch in volume. “And what were you doing going to the Everfree Sweetie Belle! It’s dangerous!” “I know, but I found Bubblegum hurt and—” “Bubblegum?” Rarity questioned. “Yeah. I decided to call it Bubblegum because, well, he’s colored like gum.” Rarity looked towards the little creature, who garbled and waved with one of its antenna. “Be that as it may, Sweetie Belle you know better than to go that forest. What if some kind of monster attacked you.” “I’m sorry.” The filly said as she lowered her head. Rarity just releases a sigh as she rubs a hoof against her temple. “So long as you promise to never go there, then everything fine. But you’re still in trouble filly, so for the rest of day, consider yourself grounded.” “…okay.” Sweetie said as she made her way to the stairs. “Hold on Sweetie Belle.” Rarity said as she stopped her sister. “Before you go to your room, you have to let Bubblegum go.” “But Rarity—” “No buts!” the mare said. “We don’t know what it is, and if it’s dangerous.” “Bubblegum isn’t dangerous, I took him to Fluttershy’s cottage, and he was a good creature the whole time.” Bubblegum gargled as he then nuzzled up to Sweetie, and wrapped his antenna as much as he could around the fillies forehead. Rarity gave the little creature one last scrutinizing look before giving out another small sigh. “Very well, so long as Fluttershy said its safe. But if he causes a mess—” “I promise to look after him!” With her word of being a dutiful caretaker for Bubblegum, and ensuring that she will keep him out of trouble, the filly made her way up to the second floor of the boutique, and headed towards her room. upon entering the room, Bubblegum hopped off Sweetie’s back, and started to explore everything in the room. While Sweetie seems to be thinking about something. “If I’m going to keep you, you’ll need someplace to sleep.” Sweetie muttered to herself as she looked around the room, and seeing Bubblegum looking at the toys that Sweetie has scattered around. “But there’s nothing I can use to make a little bed for you.” the filly just shrugged as she trotted over to Bubblegum. “I guess you’ll just have to sleep with me in my bed.” jut as Sweetie said that Bubblegum’s stomach started to grumble. “Oh you must be hungry, especially after what happened in the Everfree.” Sweetie then left her room, and headed back down stairs and trotted to the kitchen, looking for something to feed her new friend. The little creature seemed to like cookies, but the filly didn’t just want to feed it pony food, Bubblegum could get sick. So the unicorn foal began gathering some fruits that she thought Bubblegum might like, and once she got everything, including a glass of water to give her friend, Sweetie made her way backup to her room, where she found Bubblegum wrestling around with one of her old dolls. Once the little wrestling match was over, Sweetie Belle offered the little creature a victory meal of fruits and veggies, which the little creature ate with glee. “Sweetie Belle.” Rarity’s voice called out from the other side of the door. “Yes Rarity?” the filly replied, signaling her sister to enter the room. “I’ll be heading out to get some supplies, now remember, you’re temporally grounded so no leaving the boutique. Understand?” “Yes Rarity.” The foal said, getting a small smile and a kiss from her sister. The older sibling then left the pair and headed off to do her errands. ~~~~~ Far off to the west of the Everfree forest, if any pony was flying in that area they would see a trio of adolescent dragons flying at great speed. After a few more minutes of flying the trio land on the roof of a crumbling ruins, where the red dragon of the group—Garble—brought out the piece of fabric he was carrying and giving it a few sniffs, before smelling the air itself. And then gaining a big grin on his muzzle. “We’re close boys!” the dragon says as he tosses the piece of fabric up into the air, and blast’s it with a gust of fire. “How close are we this time, I’m starting to lose steam from all this flying.” The hefty brown dragon, Smog, grumbled as rubs at his back. “It just past this forest.” Garble said. “Alright!” Flask, the skinny purple dragon, said happily. “So what do we do first, torch the town, or make that runt of a dragon pay first?” “First off we torch the town to flush Spike out, and then we make him watch us burn everything else down!” Garble explained as he lets loose a belch of fire to pump himself up. “And once we burned everything down, then, we’ll take care Spike.” The other two dragons belched flames to get themselves pumped up, before all three of them took to the sky, and fly towards the east of the forest. And as they flew over the vast expanse of woodland, the three dragons could smell the scent of ponies wafting on the wind, and as they closed in on the edge of the forest they all could see the outline of a town. Once the three dragons reached the town, they all gave each other wicked grins, before flying off into different directions—and began unleashing gouts of fire all over the place! Ponies began screaming and panicking as the dragons set fire to the town! ~~~~~ Sweetie Belle was in the middle playing with Bubblegum when she, and her little friend, started to hear ponies starting to scream outside of the boutique. When the pair ventured to one window, they both saw the town slowly being engulfed in fire! After seeing the flames spreading across the town, Sweetie Belle rushed outside her room, and out the boutique and went off to go and search for her sister. As the filly left the boutique she was quickly followed by Bubblegum, however the little creature wasn’t able to keep up with the filly as she disappears amongst the panicking crowed. But the little fella did his darndest to try and keep up with his friend. As the foul galloped as fast as her little legs would carry her, the filly would occasional see either a red, purple, or brown dragon fly overhead, and launching waves of fire at anything. Sweetie did see Rainbow Dash try and stop the dragons, but they just ganged up on the mare, and nearly roasted the pegasus with their fire breathes. “Rarity!” Sweetie screamed as she looked for her sister, dodging burning debris, and ponies that were galloping in fright and terror. “Rarity! Where are you?!” “Sweetie Belle?!” the filly heard her sisters voice cry out through the screams and wails of the other ponies. And when she looked to where her sisters voice came from, and found the mare galloping towards her. “What are you doing out here, it’s dangerous?!” “I came to see if your alright.” The filly said worriedly as she nuzzled into her sisters legs. “It’s alright Sweetie I’m fine, but we need to—AGH!” Rarity screamed as a gust of fire struck the ground close to her, and her sister, scaring both ponies as they collapsed to their side. Recovering from their sudden collapse the two sisters looked to where the fire struck the ground, only to see a tall red dragon stand before them. “AH-HA! I thought I recognized you!” the dragon said in a gravely voice. “You were one of three ponies that managed to give me the slip with Spike.” “Your that ruffian that was going to attack Spike when he wouldn’t smash that phoenix egg.” “That’s right, and now I get to get some sweet revenge!” The dragon reared back and readied to unleash a flurry of fire. Rarity quickly threw herself over her sister to block the incoming fire that would surely roast her alive, but the fire never came, instead, both ponies heard the dragon grunt in annoyance. When they looked towards the dragon they saw a few bubbles splash into his face, before seeing Bubblegum come darting out of the corner of their view, and tackle the red dragon. And actually managed to stumble the red dragon. Before the dragon could retaliate, after recovering from the tackle, Bubblegum unleashed another barrage of bubbles at the dragon, causing him to block the attack with his wings. “Cut that out you little slug!” the dragon roared as he used his tail to smack Bubblegum away, sending the small creature flying a few feet. “Bubblegum!” Sweet cried out as the small creature got back up from the throw, but the red dragon unleashed a gout of fire at Bubblegum to try and roast the little creature, but he countered the fiery attack with another barrage of bubbles. “Hey Garble, what you doing?” the sisters looked up and saw the other two dragons touch down a few feet from them. the red dragon ceased his fire breathing, and used his wing to block the bubbles as he spoke. “This little thing is getting in my way, help me roast it!” “No!” Sweetie screamed as the other two dragons joined Garble into trying to burn Bubblegum. And with all three dragons unleashing their fire breaths at once, they burned through the bubbles and just bathed the poor creature in fire! “Bubblegum!” the filly cried out as she was about to run over to her friend, but was stopped by her sister. “No Sweetie, there’s nothing you can do!” Rarity said as she held her sister. “Alright, now that little slug is taken care of, time to pick up where we started. Garbled turned towards Rarity and Sweetie, where he and his two buds readied to blast them with fire. But they stopped when they, and the sisters noticed something out of the corner of their eyes. Looking towards where Bubblegum was burned, all of them saw that the little creature was alive! Burnt fairly well, but still alive, and had this red glow outlining his body while the fire swirled around him. turning their attention back to the creature, the three dragons unleashed another flurry of fire streams at Bubblegum, who seemed to be enduring the scorching flames as the red glow outlining him grew intensity. “UGH! Forget the fire, just rip the thing to shreds!” Garble roared as he and the other two dragons readied their claws. But just as the dragons readied their claws, and before the sisters could try and do anything themselves, they watched as Bubblegum garbled to itself before opening his mouth…where a glowing white sphere appeared. Then as the dragons were about to hack and slash at the poor creature, Rarity and Sweetie Belle watched as the ball of light in Bubblegum’s mouth exploded, and turned into a massive beam of white energy! The blast was so powerful that the ponies, and any nearby debris was knocked to the closest buildings, while three dragons were engulfed in the white blast and sent flying through the air, and far off into the vast distance. After the blast of energy had died down, the two unicorns turned to look at Bubblegum seeing the poor thing pant, before it collapsed to its side. “Bubblegum!” Sweetie said as she rushed over to her brave little friend, and wrapped him into her hooves. “Rarity, he’s hurt really bad, we have to do something.” The filly said as she started to tear up. “Don’t worry Sweetie, we’ll get him to the hospital so they can look after him.” And with that, the older mare wrapped up her sister and Bubblegum in her magical aura, and placed the two on her back and began galloping through the burning town. Which thankfully was being taken care of by the pegasi after returning with a bunch of rain clouds, and started to create a massive downpour to put out the fires, while other ponies grabbed buckets and filled them with water to aide in extinguishing the fire. Hopefully Ponyville has seen the last of those three dragons, and that Bubblegum wasn’t to badly hurt while saving his friend and her sister.