It was a few days after the last Unity Quest had ended, and the Mane 6 made a remarkable discovery-- the map they had been given was a map to the Isle of Scaly, aka… the Dragon Lands!
And since Opaline was no longer a threat, they decided to take a little sky trip (basically the same thing as a road trip, but in the Marestream) to the Isle of Scaly to let the dragons know that they were no longer in danger.
It took a few days to get all the materials they needed (extra food, blankets, entertainment), and once they had everything they needed, they said goodbye to their friends and families before setting off on their journey.
XXXXXXXX
Only a few hours after setting off, the Mane 6 and Sparky were flying high in the sky in the Marestream with music loudly playing while Pipp is singing to pass the time. “Can you turn that down, Pipp?” Zipp asked her singing sister with an annoyed tone. “I can barely hear myself navigate!”
“What?” Pipp called out. “I can't hear you over this intense music for our ‘Trip to the Dragonlands’ playlist I made!”
Luckily, Sunny turned off the radio, much to Zipp’s relief. “Thank you.”
“Hey!” Pipp pouted. “I was just trying to keep the mood light. It’s so tense in here…”
“That’s because none of us have ever been to the Isle of Scaly,” Hitch pointed out. “Who knows what we’ll find when we’re there.”
“But we have to let the dragons know about Opaline’s defeat,” Misty said. “They’ve been hiding for so long, and now they can repopulate the world again!”
Zipp sighed worriedly. “At least… let’s hope they aren’t too hostile.”
Soon the Marestream came through some clouds and were approaching a cliffside with a large hole in the middle. The ponies gasped at seeing this, but Zipp steered the Marestream through the whole where everyone saw a huge tunnel filled with multi-colored lights.
As the group gazed around in wonder, Zipp saw the map Sparky restored fading as the dragon fire magic wore off. “Spark-alert! We have a map situation again!”
“Step back! Step back! Dragon magic incoming!” Izzy called with a smile as Sparky burped dragon fire into the map, restoring it as it showed the path to the Dragon Lands again. But then, the Marestream was coming up on an intersection, which made them panic. “Whoops!” Zipp exclaimed with wide eyes. “It’s gonna be a hard left!”
“Hold onto your cutie marks!!” Sunny cried out as Zipp made the turn, making Sunny and Misty slam into each other as the group screamed. Moving through the tunnels, the Mane 6 finally came out in the Dragon Lands, making them gasp. “We made it!” Izzy cheered with her cheeks on the windshield. “All right, Zipp, let’s land this thing!” Sunny smiled. “We have some dragons to see!”
Zipp did as she asked and landed the Marestream on the ground, allowing the group, except for Sparky, who was sleepy and wanted to take a nap, to hop out. “Let’s not pat ourselves on the back too much,” Hitch spoke up. “These dragons have been asleep for ages. They still could be.”
That’s when Izzy got an idea, a cheerful grin on her face. “Let’s wake ‘em up!”
”We’re heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere, yeah!!!!” Pipp sang cheerfully, flying up into the air a good ways, but... the group was then met with a rather unfriendly voice.
”But why… are you here?”
The voice belonged to a large female dragon who was indeed four-legged with hot pink tinted horns, underbelly and scales, and a short aquamarine mane, with orange and aquamarine in her wings.
A yellow dragon, an orangish-colored dragon, a white dragon, a red dragon, a blue dragon and a green dragon were behind the pink one, just as the pink dragon spread her wings as she advanced towards Sunny, and the earth pony mare backed away a bit. “You are trespassing on the Isle of Scaly,” the dragon said suspiciously. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sunny,” Sunny started nervously. “This is Hitch… Izzy… Pipp…”
Pipp waved nervously. “Hi.”
“Zipp…”
Zipp tried to smile. “Hi.”
“...and Misty.”
Misty let through a nervous squeak, ears pinned. But even with these introductions, the pink dragon still gave a firm suspicious look. “Okay. Why are you here?”
“We… uh…” Sunny tried to find her wording. “We have a message for all of you.”
But before she could explain, Izzy stepped forward to all the dragons. “Hi, nice to meet you! I’m Izzy. We flew over here in the Marestream, which might be broken. I wanted to make a good first impression so I made these charms for you. They have our names so you can remember your new friends,” Izzy revealed the friendship bracelets, putting them on the dragons’ paws before she gasped, realizing she had not let them say their names. “What are your names?”
“I’m Luxxe,” the yellow dragon with the purple, orange, and yellow tinted wings and membranes smiled. “You made this? I love it!”
“Hoof to heart, Luxxe!” Izzy offered her hoof. The yellow dragon accepted the gesture, but ended up pushing Izzy away by accident.
The other dragon next to Luxxe, a green one, licked the bracelet out of curiosity before letting out a 'bleh' in disgust. “Leaf, be nice to them. They brought presents,” said the orange dragon with blue tinted horns and white and blue wing membranes advised. “I want a good one. Are they all the same, Tumble?” Leaf addressed Tumble before Luxxe happily jumped onto him before flying off with his bracelet. “Hey!”
The blue dragon came near Pipp, landing on the Marestream. “I'm Fountain. What are you doing?”
“Hi, I’m Pipp,” Pipp greeted quickly before she looked back at her phone. “I'm just trying to find a signal. Ugh! My phone is really acting up.”
“Um, signal?” Fountain asked in confusion before giving an uncertain look. “Uh… I don’t know if we have that here. Also, what is a phone?”
Pipp gasped multiple times, making several shocked expressions before finally responding. “What did you just say to me?!”
The dragon just stood there in place, having no idea what all of that was.
At the same time, Misty carefully approached the remaining three dragons. “Uh… hi there. I’m Misty. What are your names?”
“I’m Jade,” the white dragon smiled. “The red dragon is Lava, and that’s Blaize.”
“Jade, I don’t think we need to be talking to them,” Lava spoke with uncertainty. “What if they’re with the evil pony who tried to take our fire all those moons ago?”
“You mean Opaline?” Sunny asked. “That’s why we wanted to talk to you.”
Just then, the group heard babbling sounds as they all turned to the Marestream as the door opened as the dragons gasped in shock when they saw Sparky coming out with a yawn, having just woken up from his nap as he walked up to Hitch and climbed on his back. “A hatchling?!” Luxxe cooed landing on Blaize before said dragon tossed her off. “If you aren't with the dragon-napper pony,” Blaize started in anger, “then why do you have a baby dragon?!”
Izzy then decided to clear the air. “That’s Sparky. Hitch found his egg back in Equestria and took care of him! He’s sort of Sparky’s dad now.”
Blaize stomped her foot in front of Hitch and glared at him dangerously as she snorted at him while Hitch flinched and gave a nervous look. “His pony dad!” he quickly corrected. “But really he’s my best friend and little deputy and… so much more!”
“Fry my tail! There hasn't been any baby dragons here in a volcano's age!” Tumble exclaimed. “What?!”
“It’s like a miracle!” Leaf said as he shook Tumble. “The Dragon Lord told us that a hatchling being born within the world of ponies would let us know that it was safe to go back into the world again!”
“Do you think we can talk to the Dragon Lord?” Zipp asked. “We have something really important to tell him... tell all of you, actually.”
The dragons seemed unsure, looking at one another for a moment… until Luxxe looked over at Blaize with a gentle smile. “I don’t think these ponies are our enemies.”
Blaize sighed with the shake of her head. “You’re too quick to trust, Luxxe. I still don't understand why they came all the way out here.”
“Well… the best way to find out would be to take them to the Dragon Lord… right?” Jade asked. “That way, they can tell all of us at the same time.”
Eventually, Blaize sighed, relenting. “...fine. Follow us little ponies. We will lead you to our ancient, much larger, much wiser and much more secretive leader.”
The ponies and Sparky eagerly followed the dragons away, and Sunny found herself walking between Fountain and Blaize. “I really appreciate this,” Sunny said to Blaize with a smile. “I know it can be difficult to trust newcomers, but I want to assure you that we are on your team.”
Blaize gave a chuckle from that. “And we will see when we meet the leader, if we are on yours.”
“I hope you are, because I just know we’ll be better together. I can feel it!”
Fountain then leaned down to Sunny, “So what are you, the leader of the ponies?”
“No, um… I just like to plan what we do and support my friends and be an ally for anypony who needs it!” Sunny explained with a smile. “Whatever,” Blaize said as she shook her head. “Here’s the thing: When we meet the leader of dragons, you are the leader of ponies. Got it?”
Sunny nodded at this, and the three continued to follow their friends, old and new. “So all dragons have different kinds of magic?” Hitch asked Tumble, who nodded. “That's right. Watch this dude!”
Tumble blasted out his blue fire, which revealed to create wind magic as it made branches swirl around in a sphere. “Whoa-ho-ho-ho! Is that why they call you--” Hitch tried to ask with Tumble interjected. “Tumble? Ha-ha! You got it!” he said with a smile. “Luxxe can illuminate with her light magic. Fountain can bend and spray water with her fire! Oh! It's so cool!”
They soon walked up to a clearing where they saw a cave with two green flames on the side and a huge, medieval horn in front of it. “This must be where the Dragon Lord lives?” Sunny asked. “Where he hibernates,” Fountain clarified before Blaire blew into the horn, which made them all cringe from the loud sound as the group looked in curiosity and soon a roar sounded before a very familiar-looking dragon came out with a yawn.
The dragons and Zipp bowed immediately, and Zipp turned to look at the others. “It's probably a good time to bow.”
The others did so, but as she did, Sunny looked up while looking at the dragon in wonder. “Hmm… he looks familiar. Right?”
“Ponies of Equestria, our exulted leader of Dragons. Dragon Lord Spike!” Blaize introduced as Spike yawned again, and Sunny's eyes went wide in surprise. “SPIKE?!”
Spike looked at the ponies and creatures for a moment before he flew down to them and gave another yawn, which released his familiar green flames before he chuckled. “Whoa, heh. Excuse my breath. Just woke up.”
“We are honored to meet such a legend as ‘the’ Spike!” Sunny squeaked in excitement. “Is it okay if I call you Spike?”
“It would be weird if you called me Fred or something, because that’s not my name!” Spike laughed while nudging Blaire, who raised a brow at this. “I just want you to know that I’m a big fan,” Sunny said with a huge smile. “When I was a foal, my father told me stories of you, of legends of Equestria’s past!”
“Legend, huh?” Spike asked with an interesting smirk. “I don’t know about that. Seriously, I don’t know about that. My memory is a little foggy after all these centuries of magical hibernation. What moon is this?”
“I know how that is,” Hitch said with a small smile. “I can’t remember anything when I wake up. It’s a miracle I can remember to put my badge on in the morning.”
“You're not wearing a badge,” Jade pointed out. Hitch looked down only to look back up to see Sparky giggling while holding his badge. “Your Spike-ness, they have...a hatchling!” Tumble informed. Spike lowered his head down to get closer to Sparky, who hugged him in response. “So this is why you came to find us.”
“Well... not entirely,” Zipp then spoke. “You know how there was this evil alicorn named Opaline that tried to strip you all of your dragon fire?”
“Yes… her insatiable thirst for magic is why I had to part ways with Twilight and my friends,” Spike growled. “Why do you ask?”
“Well… it took quite a long time,” said Misty, “but… she’s defeated now! The Together Trees in the mortal world imprisoned her in their roots, and she won’t be bothering anyone else again!”
The dragons gasped at this, some of them smiling… while Blaize just looked more skeptical than ever. “Do you really expect us to believe that and walk right into your trap?”
“Well… if that’s not enough to convince you,” said Hitch as Sunny got the dragonstone out from her bag, “will this convince you?”
Spike gasped at this. “The dragonstone! It was stolen from us, and… I-I thought that it was gone forever! You got it back?”
“We did, and we wanted to bring it back where it belongs,” said Sunny. “And… we’re hoping that you could accept this as a friendship offering? I have a feeling that whatever threats come our way, we could handle it together.”
“...your Spikeness, I think we should trust them,” Luxxe said. “They wouldn’t have come all this way if they didn’t care.”
“...I’m still not sure,” Blaize sighed. “How can we be sure that they can be trusted? We don’t know anything about ponies.”
Spike turned to her with a firm look. “Well I do, Blaize. My whole life was centered with my pony friends, and I would be happy to be friends with ponies again.”
But before anything else could be said, the ponies' cutie marks began to glow brightly, and the magic from them formed a portal not too far away. “Wow,” Fountain gasped. “What is that?”
“A Unity Quest portal!” Sunny exclaimed. “Somepony must need our help!”
“But do we really have to go?” Zipp asked. “I feel like we’re finally making some progress!”
“We do, Zipp. Spike, we should be back soon,” said Sunny. “You and your dragons can discuss about us once we’re gone.”
“Be back soon!” Izzy promised as the ponies went through the portal, letting it close behind them. “Uh…” Leaf blinked. “Did that just happen?”
“Apparently, we missed out on more than I realized…” Spike said to himself. “Dragons, I want to hear from all of you… this is going to be a discussion that could effect our future, and it isn’t to be taken lightly.”