//------------------------------// // The filly and the egg // Story: The Dragon and the Magician // by Captain_Cringe //------------------------------// It was a fine summer's day afternoon, in a city called Canterlot, a young blue filly was walking around the nearby park. Her parents have brought her here for a few hours to let her play and interact with the other foals. Instead, she wandered around looking for a place to practice her magic. Now, she could practice her magic at her house and make some friends while at the park, but she might as well use the extra space. She stopped in a small clearing near some trees and bushes. 'This is the perfect place for Trixie to practice her magic' the filly thought. She attempted to try a smokescreen spell that she saw in a spellbook at home. It required condensing small amounts of magic in a small area and then igniting it just enough to explode in a puff of smoke. Then, lighting up her horn with a pink aura, she started to practice. On her first attempt, she condensed the magic but didn't have a good grasp on it and lost her grip on it before she could ignite it. Her second attempt ended with her not putting in the amount of magic she desired and only got a little puff of smoke. She saw it as a small victory but desired a greater result and tried again. Her third attempt had her putting in more magic. It was hard to condense and keep it in place long enough for her to ignite it. She once again lost her grip on the magic, and it all slipped away like grains of sand. On her fourth attempt, she managed to put in the exact amount of magic she wanted. She had managed to ignite the magic before she lost grip. The magic exploded in a beautiful smoke cloud with magical sparkles mixed in. "Trixie did it!" Trixie exclaimed. She pranced around in happiness. She cast the spell repeatedly, memorizing the way the spell felt and how she did it. She failed it again a few times by putting a tad too much magic or letting go too early, but she got it down in the end. When she finished mastering her new smokescreen spell, about an hour had passed. Realizing that she still had time to practice other magic and work on tricks, she decided to use her new spell to perform a vanishing trick. The plan was to cast the spell closer to her, so she was just outside the cloud when it went off. Then, while the cloud was still there, she would run behind one of the nearby trees. This would make it look like she vanished to any onlookers. She focused and cast the spell just like she did many times previously and brought it closer as she planned. But, unfortunately, when the spell went off, she failed to factor in the spread from the smoke and got a faceful of smoke. Eyes shut and coughing from the surprise to her face. She slowly backs up in an attempt to escape the cause of her plight. While she backed up, she bumped into something flank first. It didn't feel like anything like the trees or bushes that were nearby. Trixie let out a small 'eep' and, in a panic, opened her eyes. While she was finished up clearing her lungs of the smoke, she turned around. What she bumped into was a blue egg with a red bottom half. It was about her size, if only slightly smaller. "Trixie? Sweetie? are you all right?" The filly's mother called out from her bench. "There was a lot of smoke, and you sounded like you were coughing." "Trixie is fine, Mom! Trixie was practicing that smokescreen spell from your spellbook!" "Were you now? Well, be careful!" "Trixie will be careful!" she then turned her attention back to the egg. Where could it have come from? Was there a nest for it somewhere nearby? She looked around for any signs of a nest, any in the trees? There were some, but they are too small for an egg of this size. Any on the ground? She couldn't see any when she looked through the nearby bushes. So she wondered what to do with this egg. Then, a brilliant thought came to her. She heard that the entrance exam for the School for Gifted Unicorns has the applicants try and hatch a dragon egg with magic. So what if she had some practice before she applied? She grabbed the egg with her magic and tried to find a way to hatch it. She did not know what spell to use or how it is done at the exam, but she tried regardless. If she could do this before she took that exam, then she would be a shoo-in! She started by seeing if she could heat the egg enough to hatch it, a common requirement for hatching an egg. The result was a warm and unhatched egg. However, she had forgotten that just heating the egg won't hatch it right away. Disappointed in the result, she tried to think of other ways to hatch the egg. She tried spinning the egg, showing off a few of her card tricks and few other ideas. She even tried to play Go Fish with it. Okay, that last one didn't use magic like the requirement in the exam, but she got bored. It's been twenty minutes. She had just one more idea before she would throw in the towel. She hugged the egg. It was still warm from when she cast that warmth spell on it earlier. Just as she was about to let go, the egg moved. She gasped and let go of the egg, and backed away as it wobbled in place. A small crack appears on the top of the egg. The crack got bigger and bigger until finally, the egg hatched. What came out of the egg was odd, to say the least. It was primarily blue and had a red underbelly. It had what looked like a dorsal fin on the top of its head with a small notch in it, two spherical things on the side of its head, which have a light blue stripe on the middle of them, and a large mouth filled with sharp teeth. It has no neck and has two short arms and two short legs. "Gible?" It said, tilting its head, or rather its whole body since its head is its body. The filly only stared in surprise and backed away some more. "Gible!" The small creature jumped onto its feet and excitedly ran towards the filly. Chanting "Gible" the entire time. Before Trixie could get the chance to run, the creature had reached her and... hugged her. The round beast nuzzled her and made a sound akin to purring. Trixie had let out a small squeak in response. 'What has Trixie gotten herself into?'