//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Dragons About Town // Story: Ponyville goes to the...dragons?? // by Freelancer //------------------------------// Prior Note: If you haven’t noticed from previous chapters, or played any of the games which feature Ember (I think there’s two), before you read this chapter... I should let you know she is VERY open about her feelings. ................................................................................................................................................................................ Chapter 5: Dragons about Town The citizens of Ponyville had seen and endured strange events before, so odd occurrences were nothing new to them. In the last year alone their sleepy little town had been submerged in the smoke of a sleeping adult dragon, eaten out of house, home, and everything else by parasprites, literally turned upside down and inside out by Discord. More recently, upon undergoing a sudden bout of greed-growth, it'd even been rampaged by the local librarian’s scaly assistant. However, despite their prior experiences with all things strange, the local populous still couldn’t, in Spike’s opinion anyway, help staring at him and his new friends as they wandered behind Twilight’s lead; he understood that ponies in general saw very few dragons up close in their lifetimes, let alone those ponies who lived in a small town like Ponyville, but it still made him feel a little uncomfortable, and perhaps even slightly annoyed, at having everypony constantly staring at them. The tour so far had led them from the library to the town hall, through the bustling market district, and now to the slightly quieter eastern side of town. Rainbow had earlier left the group for cloud clearing duty, whilst Big Macintosh had returned to his family’s apple stand, leaving Cherilee, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight to continue the dragon tourists’ tour of all things Ponyville. Twilight gladly explained everything, and anything, that they came across, even down to the tiniest detail; Spike also quietly explained to the three newcomer dragons, under his breath of course, that it was no secret that Twilight loved dumping her extensive knowledge on anypony willing to listen. If they could stay awake through it, that was. The three dragons responses to Ponyville widely varied; Ember practically soaked in everything around her with the uttermost glee as she walked beside Spike, Spyro would ask the occasional question, but was otherwise locked in conversation with Cherilee about how Equestria was like Avalar, and Cynder mostly just grumbled or bared her fangs at anypony who made eye contact with her, while also trying not to groan at the sights that filled her view. The colour she hated about all was bright pink, for rather obvious reasons, and for some reason just about everything they came across had some amount of bright pink in it, usually, to her utter annoyance, in the form of love hearts like the one Ember wore around her neck. The reactions to their appearances in the end varied greatly from pony to pony as well; some simply shrugged and returned to whatever they had been doing prior, while others either gaped, moved a little further across the road, or in the case of a few actually hurried away in apparent terror. “Are they… always like this?” Ember asked with a shake of her head, turning to Spike for answers after she witnessed a mare hastily pull her curious filly inside their home, and then slam the door shut, the pink dragoness feeling a little hurt at their apparent fear. “I mean... they haven’t even met us, but their already acting like they’re terrified.” “They’re kind of like that,” Spike sighed with an unknowing shrug of his shoulders. “Zecora got the same reaction when she first moved here, since she’s a zebra and all, but they got over it, and now everypony really likes her… so just give them time to get to know you.” "Zebra?" "Zebra's are... eh, ponies who've got black and white stripes." Spike explained simply. "I guess you could generally say Ponyville doesn't always take anything 'new' or 'different' very well." “Was it the same for you?” Ember asked quietly as she nodded her head to a couple of pink and brown houses, her blue eyes focusing on their shut doors and curtain drawn windows that they walked past. “Since you’re a dragon too.” “I moved here with Twilight, and on the personal decree of Princess Celestia, so no, it wasn’t the same for me… but if it’s any consolation, I trust you, and I know eventually everypony else will too, I mean I like you and apparently I’m a great judge of character.” The young dragoness quickly perked up at his words, and couldn't help but giggled a little as a toothy smile spread across her maw; she had met very few dragons in her life that shared a caring and compassionate personality like Spike’s own, and silently wondered to herself if it was actually him, or that fact that he was raised by ponies. “Hehe, thanks Spike,” she sighed happily, the pink dragoness leaning forward and giving him an affectionate nuzzle on the cheek, prompting his purple scales to glow bright red as he shied away. Neither dragon realized though that both Fluttershy and Applejack were walking relatively close behind them, and had easily seen the gesture. Both mares shared sly grins beneath their pink manes and hat brims respectively; neither could deny that if couple cuteness had any gauge in a successful relationship, then the two dragons were practically meant for each other. After another quarter of an hour walking, and an extensive lecturing by Twilight, the all too familiar building that was the group's destination came into view. The sight of it made Spike a little uneasy since he knew exactly who would be unexpectedly waiting inside, and to a greater extent, her presumable and well known reaction to the towns three new scaly residents. “Just whatever you do… don’t freak out,” Spike cautioned with a slight grimace as he glanced back, drawing a slightly confused look from Ember as Twilight pushed the door open and beckoned the group inwards, the pink dragoness warily following her purple counterpart inside. The moment Ember stepped inside, and her talons touched the wooden floor, she literally found her nostrils flooded with sweet scents that made her tastebuds tingle and mouth water. The delicious smells were so strong and potent that she had to keep her mouth shut to stop herself from drooling like a hatchling. The building Twilight had led them into resembled some kind of giant frosted and decorated confectionary, both inside and out, and was according to Twilight somewhat ironically known as Sugercube Corner, the building that Spike had mentioned to her earlier in the library kitchen. In every directed Ember’s view was greeted by glass fronted presentations of the most amazingly decorated sweets, cakes, chocolates, pastries and other delights, the smell of each and every one drifting into the dragoness’s awaiting snout. The only thing that gladdened Ember more than the displayed treats was the fact they had the entire place to themselves, for the countless tables and chairs seemed to be for some strange reason void of ponies as was the counter. “I… just… wow.” “I take it ya’ll like what you’re seeing ha sugercube? Heh, trust me when I say Pinkie’s cooking tastes as darn good as it looks,” Applejack chuckled as she trotted up and gave Ember a soft nudge in the shoulder, everypony and dragon else disbanding around the room. “It’s the main reason this here’s where we have our get togethers now and then.” “It’s really nice,” Ember replied happily, walking over to examine a presentation of multi-coloured cupcakes, when she recalled Spike had also mentioned something about the sugar-based eatery and its head chef. “By the way, who’s Pinkie?” A fraction of a second after Ember said the name ‘Pinkie’, the kitchen doors crashed open, and a bright pink blur shot across the room. Said blur quickly materialized into a pony beside Ember, before either the dragoness or anypony else knew what had happened. “I AM!” came the sing song bubbly voice. “Well actually I’m Pinkie Pi…” The moment Pinkie realized who and what she was staring at, she gasped, her jaw slackened and her eyes bludged to the rough size of the cakes she made. The sudden change in expression caused the equally bright pink dragoness to take a nervous step backward towards the door. “Um…hi?” It was then Ember, Spyro, and Cynder witnessed a lung capacity that would put an adult male dragon to shame. “OH MY GOSH YOU’RE NEW AND YOU’RE A DRAGON AND YOU’RE PINK AND I DON’T MEAN A LITTLE PINK BUT REALLY REALLY PINK AND THAT’S REALLY COOL BECAUSE I’M REALLY PINK TOO AND I THINK THAT’S WHY THEY CALL ME PINKIE PIE BUT YOU ALREADY KNEW MY NAME SO WHAT YOURS?” More than a few equine eyebrows twitched, and ears flattened slightly at the unstoppable volley of words that shot from the party pony’s mouth; very few ponies could go through one of Pinkie’s whirlwind introductions, and come out with their minds not overheating. Ember on the other hoof, to their utter amazement, simply sat back on her tail and went into a burst of giggling, with her pink pony doppelganger quickly doing the same thing... whilst somehow floating in mid-air. Twilight guessed that if anypony watching hadn’t met the two before, and had judged by appearance and personality, they would have sworn the two were somehow twins. It was more than obvious the two of them would be getting along just fine. “I’m Ember,” the dragoness replied with a mischievous grin once her fits of giggling departed, a grin that matched Pinkie’s own. “And these are my friends Spyro and Cynder…” Spyro gave a smile and inclined his head, while Cynder seemed to just stand there with an utterly horrified expression on her face when Pinkie looked and beamed in their directions; here she was thinking Ember was the only annoying bright pink creature in existence, and now not only had she been proven wrong, but the additional pink pain in the tail was even worse than the first one. “…and sorry about startling you,” Ember said with a touch of embarrassment, her words only drawing more giggles from Pinkie Pie. “Oh you didn’t startle me silly filly…or silly dragon in your case,” Pinkie said happily as she bounced circles around Ember. “I was just really surprised and happy to see a new face because that means I can throw one of my super-duper awesome ‘welcome to Ponyville’ parties! Anyway, would you like a cupcake?” As everypony knew, Pinkie's ability to shoot off on random tangents was only matched by her ability to utterly decimate the established laws of physics, this particular case being the sudden pulling of a cupcake out of thin air and holding it on her hoof before Ember’s nose. For a moment Ember eyed the treat suspiciously, before flicking her tongue out, quickly pulling it into her maw, and devouring it, the dragoness using her tongue to clean any icing that remained on her lips. If Rarity had been present, she would have fainted at the show of such a total ‘un-ladylike’ behaviour. “That was amazing!” Ember began, only to look around the room along with everypony else, and find the pink mare had somehow disappeared. “Huh?” “Where the-GHAAA!” Cynder just about jumped out of her scales when she felt something put its weight against her shoulder, and upon looking beside her, realized Pinkie Pie was using her as leaning post while pushing her face up so they were millimetres apart, the mare's breath layered with the scent of sugar and chocolate. Everypony, including Spyro and Ember, tried their hide their amusement at the dragoness’s fright; to actually see Cynder startled was a very rare and amusing occurrence indeed. “How… what… you… there… how did you get over here?!” the violet dragoness gaped, rapidly looking between where Ember was sitting at the far end of the room, and the pink mare beside her. “I have no idea,” Pinkie giggled with a shake of her head, producing yet another cupcake seemingly out of thin air. “Cupcake?” The dragoness just stood perfectly still and stared for a few moments as her brained tried, and eventually failed, to make sense of what had just happened. “Umm, no thanks,” Cynder replied dryly as she pulled her head back, looking uneasily between the logic defying pink creature before her, and the cupcake that sat perched on her hoof. “Okie-doki-loki!” Pinkie replied before once again disappearing and reappearing beside Spyro, and offering him the same cupcake, much to the purple dragon’s mirth. The violet dragoness continued to just stand there as her mind slowly pulled itself back together, exactly what had just happened she wasn’t entirely sure. “If I can give you some advice, Cynder,” Twilight said as she came up beside the still confused dragoness, the studious mare knowing full well how she was feeling. “Don’t try and make any sense of anything Pinkie does, she’s a good pony, but there are just things neither you or anypony else will ever understand about her… trust me, I’ve tried.” “I’ll... take your word for it,” Cynder replied quietly as she watched her mate dig into the cupcake the puff of pure pink energy had given him, Pinkie, Ember, and Spike all grinning as he admitted it was delicious. “By the way, was she serious when she said she’d be throwing us a ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party?” “Cynder, the only time Pinkie IS serious is when she’s making a Pinkie promise, or says she’ll be throwing a party for somepony.” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… “Pinkie’s really energetic isn’t she?” Ember smiled as she walked, casting a curious glance down at Spike, who was walking beside her, and carrying a box assorted confectionaries Pinkie had decided to give them. “In all honesty, she’s never NOT energetic as far I know; personally, I swear it’s all the sugar in her diet that does it.” “Yeah, but her cupcakes are really good; does she always offer them to her customers?” “Only to new ones,” Spike chuckled, putting a claw over his chest. “One does not simply walk into Sugercube corner without being offered a cupcake.” Ember giggled as she remembered the high-speed introduction and welcome she had received from the mare, and found it a little strange that some ponies were afraid of her while others, like Pinkie, were all too happy to make friends. Unlike Cynder, she liked the later of the two groups a lot more. It was currently mid-afternoon, and Celestia’s sun was beginning to sink into the far horizon while igniting the sky with reddish hues, and as such the small group had disbanded in order to show the three dragons as much of Ponyville as possible while there was still daylight; Twilight and Applejack had taken charge of Cynder, Cherilee and Fluttershy had taken Spyro in order to show him the local school and Fluttershy’s cottage, and Spike had decided to lead Ember around, while he told her about the interesting situations he had encountered during his life in Ponyville. His current mental plan being to head over to Carousel Boutique, and introduce the dragoness to Rarity. “Rarity,” he thought dreamily, rolling the name over in his mind as images of the elegant white unicorn filled his thoughts. And yet strangely, those alabaster white images quickly warped, swirled, and eventually turned a familiar shade of pink for some reason, forcing Spike to shake his head free of them before he found himself confused; it was as if his mind had decided that it would fun to make the moment between him and Ember awkward. By now the local ponies were a little more relaxed, and would usually just cast a curious glance at the pair of brightly coloured dragons. Some ponies who Spike knew personally were even smiling and wolf whistling in their direction as they walked past, much to the two’s embarrassment. Although quietly Ember was more than glad at the attention. Her day spent with Spike had only served to cement her thoughts of him; his stories revealed he was fine example of a male, willing to go out of his way to help and protect his friends, and always ready to make the tough decisions to do what was right, such as in the case of his pet phoenix Peewee. Just like Spyro in some ways. “Uh, just ignore them,” Spike said as he stuck his tongue out and pretended to gag in response to a wolf whistle from a nearby stallion, causing Ember to laugh behind a concealing wing. Ember just smiled and shook her head. “Its ok, I’m just glad they’re not running away from me anymore.” “Yeah, I’m sorry that you had to put up with that this morning… but like I said, everypony’s warming up to you now…heh, next thing you know they’ll be wanting to take photos with you.” “I really don’t mind if they do Spike, in truth I think that’s kind of cute… kind of like you.” “Ye…wait, what?” Ember immediately stopped walking as soon as her brain realized what her maw had just let slip, and despite the fact that the scales were already bright pink, an obvious blush spread across her face a moment later, a blush which only deepened when she found Spike looking at her slack jawed like she had just slapped him. “I just said that out loud... didn’t I?” Ember cringed as she hid her face even further behind her wing, a few passing ponies now looking at them oddly. “Well… yeah… you did,” Spike replied with a slightly confused expression, his thoughts currently shooting of in random directions like confetti from Pinkie’s party canon. The redness in Ember’s cheeks apparently somehow managed to double. “I’m sorry Spike, I… I didn’t mean it… well I meant it when I said you were cute… but I… I didn’t mean to say it aloud,” the pink dragoness stuttered as she stepped back and stared at her claws, looking above all downright embarrassed at her lack of tongue control, which had now dug her into an even deeper hole. “I guess I’ve ruined everything haven’t I?” “Why by Celestia would you say that?” Spike almost laughed, putting a claw down gently on Ember’s shoulder, before his mind suddenly put together the puzzle of what she had said, and the various behaviours she had exhibited over the day. “Wait… when you say you think I’m cute, are you saying that you… have a crush on me?” A few moments of awkward silence reigned before the dragoness sighed, shook her head in frustration, and returned her eyes to him, gently lowering her wings so her face was once again in full view. He could see that despite her firm expression, Ember’s sparkling blue eyes were just about in tears. “I… I am Spike… I know it sound’s crazy since we’ve only known each other for a day, but you’re one of the most caring dragon I’ve ever met, and you’ve gone out of your way to make me feel safe and comfortable here. And I… I was afraid that I’d ruined everything and made a fool of myself, because you’d only wanted to be friends like the last dragon I really liked... and I don’t expect you to understand my feelings but…” Before she could say another word Spike gingerly reached up, and put a claw over her mouth, silencing her as he leant in and met her sapphire eyes with his own green ones; he knew exactly what she was saying, because he had been there before with Rarity. Still, however, Spike’s mind was spinning in circles like carnival prize wheel; for so long he had pinned his hopes and dreams on one day gaining the heart of the alabaster unicorn who filled his day at every spare moment, and yet now here he was, standing in the middle of the street, before a dragoness his own age, who was openly offering her heart to him. Rarity had always been his goal, his shining trophy gem he had desired since the moment he had laid eyes on her, but the revelations of Ember’s feelings had shaken him and his desires to the very core. And then there was the fact he couldn’t get that bright shade of pink out of his mind, the same shade of pink as it were that glistened across Ember’s scales. “Listen Ember, if there is ANYONE who knows how you feel it’s me, I’ve fallen for somepony at first sight before just like you have.” The dragoness’s expression shrank into one of further unease at his words. “Did they… like you back?” Ember sighed in a defeated tone, one that matched with her sad expression made Spike’s inside’s curl up. “If you don’t mind me asking.” Spike sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought, Ember’s words and his own instincts had now not only scattered any idea of what he truly wanted, but also put in question the relationship he had with Rarity; he knew she liked his company, and adored his efforts to help her, but the unicorn had never truly shown him the emotion he had for so long desired in return from her, love. Would she ever? And now here Ember was, openly confessing she really liked him, and giving him a chance to have a special somedragon of his own, and no matter how he tried he couldn’t deny he found her attractive one way or another; the only question now was whether or not he felt the same way for her as she did for him. Was the certainty of an amethyst now worth forsaking the chance of a future diamond? Was giving up on Rarity for a chance with another dragon worth it? Even though they knew very little about each other. So far, Ember was the nicest dragoness he could ever imagine meeting, rather attractive if he said so himself, and had a bubbly personality that he couldn’t help but admire. She openly said she had feelings for him, a crush perhaps but feelings nonetheless, feelings which Rarity had never offered him in the slightest. Yes, the trade-off was more then worth it. And after all this time he’d be damned if he’d wait any longer for Rarity to come around, especially when he had a chance like this literally staring him in the face. “Well… not really, as far as I know she only ever wanted to be friends… but that doesn’t matter anymore, she had her chance…" The words stung and stabbed at his heart as they left his maw. Still, they were the truth, as painful as the truth might've been, and there was now no longer any going back. "And the truth, Ember... is that I kind of like you as well.” For moment his young dragon mind collapsed into a smouldering heap of illogical thoughts and feelings, but they quickly pulled themselves together when the overjoyed dragoness leapt forward, and wrapped her forelegs around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug, causing him to blush when everypony in the immediate area grinned at the pair, and he almost dropped the box of confectionaries he was still holding. Still, he savoured the warm feeling that blossomed in his chest as the prior pain resided. “You have no idea how happy I am, Spike!” Ember giggled as her tail thrashed with excitement, leaning back a little and running her tongue across his cheek scales. “Aww, it’s ok,” he blushed, ignoring the amused chuckles of a pair of passing unicorns who had seen the affectionate action. “Say… uh, how about we go check out the park and enjoy these treats while we still have some daylight?” “Ok,” Ember giggled, draping her wing across Spike as he led her back through Ponyville, the two of them laughing and enjoying the knowledge they both finally had someone special in their lives. Rarity, for once, was just going to have to wait. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Notes: Chances of Rarity taking this well given her prior experience with dragons…zero to none. Anyway next chapter will be focused on Spyro and Cynder’s day one adventures, including Spyro receiving an odd offer from Cherilee and Cynder meeting the CMC.