//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Dragon Fire // Story: A Lampent's Lament in Equestria // by Iridescence T Wind //------------------------------// “Speak politely to an enraged dragon.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien ---∞∞∞---∞∞∞---∞∞∞--- [So just how strong is a dragon to an Ursa Major?] Soul asked his wooden companion leaning on the bridge he called home for now. [A dragon is easily dwarfed in size by a Ursa, but a dragon has fire which could even out the odds I guess.] Was Night lily's response, [Never actually seen the two fight each other. Why?] It had been three days since the Ursa Minor had come to town, Soul had assisted in the reconstruction of the destroyed property for the rest finally coming back into the forest to rest his tired frame. Now he saw smoke coming from a mountain but none of them were labeled volcanos on the map. Which lead to his questions about dragons here, [Smoke from the mountain a few miles west. Heard they were smart and sentient but that smoke cloud its causing looks like it could cause problems.] Lily lost interest, obvious from how she was cleaning herself with her teeth rather than responding. Soul sighed, [Guess since it is a fire breathing dragon you don't want anything to do with him or her?] Lily nodded. Soul Sighed after a minute or so of watching lily not give further comment, [I am going to explore a bit, and I will try to be back by tomorrow if something happens along the way] Lily ignored him as Soul left and he floated through the woods further down the path. He could see the mountain covered in smoke and he assumed that the town in ponyville could as well. Following the path deeper Soul found that the path had lead directly onto a side path up the mountain. A plan formed in his mind, "Let’s just see how bad this could possibly be..." Off he went around the mountain to go up. ---∞∞∞---∞∞∞---∞∞∞--- In contrast to Soul's ambient wandering along the same path not even a half mile ahead Applejack was dragging Fluttershy up the mountain along the same route. Twilight had stated that the smoke being caused by the dragon would be a potential problem, what with it covering Equestria in smoke that would choke it for a hundred years. Princess Celestia had assigned the bearers of the elements of harmony a mission to get the dragon to nap elsewhere. While Applejack didn't like the notion of simply pushing off the problem to another nation, she really didn't see another way to deal with it. This lead her to her current state, dragging her timid friend who was still scared stiff, literally. Fluttershy was in the same state some goats Applejack had once seen were. Fainting goats, she recalled. They froze up and fell over much like how her friend had when scared. Applejack dragged her friend another yard pausing for breath before continuing again. This was a lot like dragging a fragile plow through the dirt, it was a miracle that her friend wasn't covered in dirt and stains at this point. Looking behind her Applejack could see the past hundred yards of the miniature trench right for planting, She sighed and stared at her friend, "Sugar cube, you sure you don't want to walk? It would be a might bit easier than being dragged through the ground like is." No response from Fluttershy, Applejack sighed and grabbed her friend by the tail again and resumed dragging. Half hour later applejack had covered another half mile with the stiff pony. It had impressed her that Fluttershy had managed to maintain the entire time. There was a roar and Applejack saw her eyes dilate to even smaller pinpricks of fear and she face hoofed, "I should have brought earplugs." ---∞∞∞---∞∞∞---∞∞∞--- Soul was curious, there was a trench in the middle of the path coming off from another route that started not far away for any reason. unable to recognize the miniature trenches purpose he floated up the path at a moderate pace. In less than half an hour he spotted why. Applejack was dragging Fluttershy up the mountain, curiously he watched for a minute as Applejack pulled on the stiff pony groaning all the while for the effort. Soul floated up behind them for a time curious, wondering briefly if Fluttershy was dead or comatose, neither of which was evident as she was still full of life. A few yards further and Soul decided to speak up, "Need some help there Applejack?" soul thought the earth pony somehow learned to fly at how high she jumped, Fluttershy likewise came out of her stiff position screaming in a high pitched but quiet squeak. similarly running in the air but not going anywhere but down. Both ran into a tree, "Relax it's just me." "Celestias' beard, Soul light, you scared the apple out of me." Applejack stated bluntly looking rather annoyed while fixing her hat, "Not funny, now how is I to get Flutters here over to Twi and the others?" "Twi who now?" Soul asked, "I don't think I know a Twi." "Twilight." Applejack stated getting back up, "Flutters and I were going to head up the mountain and meet Twilight and the others so we could take care of that dragon that’s causing a smoke problem." "Ah, I see. Why do you need a timid pony as Fluttershy for this? She looks scared stiff before I even arrived," Soul spoke aloud politely trying to inquire why they would need the towns' most timid pony for such a thing as a giant dragon. "She is good with animals, I've seen her walk up to a manticore like it was nothing as well as other various dangerous creatures." Soul noticed Fluttershy's lips move when applejack mentioned that, but no words came out. "Sorry, how about this, tell me where your meeting up? I'll bring Fluttershy for you Applejack. I think Fluttershy needs a talk if that’s okay." Applejack pointed at the summit barely half a mile up with a hoof, "up there. Though I don't think you’re strong enough to drag that pony with those stick arms of yours." Applejack commented. "Who said I was going to use my arms? Want a demonstration?" Applejack raised an eyebrow, "Sure though I don't see how you’re going to." "Telekinesis." Soul stated and he lifted applejack into the air with the ability. "Whoa nelly!" Applejack exclaimed before she was launched up onto the alcove she had pointed at. Soul turned towards Fluttershy after he let go of his grip. He gently tugged Fluttershy out of the tree she was hanging from, "Fluttershy, would you like to talk about what’s scaring you?" He waited as the timid Pegasus quietly worked up the voice to reply. Quietly just on the edge of his hearing spectrum he heard her, "I'm afraid of dragons..." "Understandable fear." Soul started earning a slightly relieved look from Fluttershy, "Though your friends are depending on you it seems. Do you wish to let them down?" Fluttershy struggled for a response looking torn two ways and Soul waited for a few second before patting her on the head, "A fear is hard to deal with yet your depended on at the same time. The experience can be pushing I know but you may find pushing onwards more rewarding than running from your fear." Fluttershy squeaked out slightly louder, "I...don't know..." "Hmm..." I paused to consider what would get her moving, "What would happen to your animals if smoke clouded the skies? That can hardly be healthy right?" Fluttershy stood up suddenly, a reaction I wasn't expecting from the normally timid mare, "M-my animals?" "Yep. wouldn't the smoke cause drastic harm to nature?" I recalled the city pokemon, where grass types and plant pokemon tended to get sick from the smog if they stayed there too long if they originally came from a smog free environment. Fluttershy stood still for a few moments before letting out a pent up breath, "fine..." she whispered. "Jolly good, and don't worry we will all be there every step of the way. Now then, Telekinesis." With that Soul carried Fluttershy up to the edge that he had taken applejack to not five minutes before, floating alongside her himself in the process. When they landed he took in everypony was waiting for them, Rainbow hovered down and stated quietly enough that Soul almost missed it, "Told you it would take forever." Soul's yellow orbs of eyes narrowed slightly at that rude comment, but cheered right up as he greeted everypony and was greeted back. They took off again at a steady pace, Soul occasionally doubling back to pick Fluttershy back up whenever the sound of the dragons loud snoring filled the air. They came across the first obstruction faster than if Applejack had just simply head-butted Fluttershy there. A small gap. Rainbow leapt over it easily enough as well as Applejack, Pinkie and Twilight soon after. That left soul who could only float in the air, and Fluttershy who was cowering behind a rock from the most recent snores of the beast above. I watched her inch to the edge and prevented my yellow orbs from rolling. That would be too rude for this. But at least she was trying. I muted the next sound by the use of a safeguard and she prepared herself to jump. Albeit a bit slowly enough to make Twilight to comment, "We don't have time for this... Come on Fluttershy." Fluttershy jumped, at the same moment Twilight smiled and stated, "Now don't look down and your fine." Soul face palmed with the edge of his stick like metal limbs, of course when told to not look down the first reaction is to actually look down. Soul Light sighed as Fluttershy squeaked in terror and her limbs spread out in an attempt to catch herself. Causing her to get stuck on the two sides of the cliff as her rear hooves met the first side and the front met the side with her friends. Soul nudged her to safety with rainbow dash and we continued onwards. As we walked on eventually we ended up in what Twilight called 'the avalanche zone' it looked no different than any other part of the mountain and both soul and Fluttershy made to comment but was interrupted with her Shushing us and the rest of her friends. Soul sighed resigning himself to simply floating behind Fluttershy. Rainbow brushed through a tree branch halfway there causing two leaves to fall slowly towards Fluttershys' flank. Soul noticed this and knocked them away with a small burst of heat pushing the leaves away. Considering how easy this pony is to scare... Soul thought grimly only for Twilight to trip with a loud, "Oomph." that echoed throughout the canyon. Soul sighed as rocks started falling down, "Avalanche!" Everypony screamed causing more rocks to start falling. I looked at the incoming storm of rocks. As the rock descended I charged a familiar ball of energy that dark and ghost type pokemon were infamous for, shouting out as I started the move my body had started, "Dark Pulse!" with that soul sent a scattering of explosive darkness into the rocks pulverizing the first wave of it into a dust cloud but it wasn't enough to but buy a few seconds of time. soul spun drawing more energy into his claws before firing off his next move, "Hidden Power!" using the next wave of rocks to destroy the ones behind it and shatter the wave behind that with residue energy. He noticed everypony was clear at that point and he himself floated hurriedly out of the way, counting everypony he saw he sighed relieved that everypony had made it and they watched as the rest of the rocks tumbled down flooding their path with dirt and stone. Occasionally Soul would deflect a stray rock back into the fall but it mostly just flooded the path where they had been rather than where they were now. Soon it came to a halt and Twilight was able to speak no longer silenced by the sound of the avalanche, "That was a close one." "No kidding, what the hay was that Twilight." Was Rainbow, flapping her wings and shaking off the dust and dirt that had collected on her during the fall. Soul copied the motion, spinning off a layer of dirt that had formed on him. Rarity spoke up taking out a bright pink and white striped scarf, "Lost my scarf but luckily a lady always packs extra Accessories, oh please tell me I have the tiara that goes with this." Rainbow rolled her eyes and flew up to her, "I think we have bigger problems than seeing if our hair bows match our horseshoes." she stated voice thick with sarcasm for her friend as she gestured to the large rock and dirt pile. Soul looked up, the smoke was getting awfully close, which meant that the cave was nearby this height, "Actually." he began loud enough to be heard, "I have a solution to this problem judging if the height is right." "Oh do you now?" Rainbow stated, her voice challenging. "Ever seen an Earth pony or unicorn fly?" Soul asked and Applejack grinned in understanding and Fluttershy even looked a tiny bit smug as she knew where this was going. "Hey Rainbow." Applejack stated, "Bet ya twenty bits that soul can get us up there by the count o' a hundred." Applejack stated pointing up towards the cliff above the group. "Heh, you’re on!" Rainbow stated. "Great. now everypony mind standing close together before we start this timer, Rainbow is exempted of course since your flying. “Soul stated and Rainbow flew up to the next cliff face to watch. Soul sighed as they lined up side to side and collected the energy that would be needed, he shouted out, "Start Timer!" and Rainbow began counting slowly, thinking that there was no way that he could move five ponies one by one up to her. Well that was swell, since Soul hadn't been planning to do that. Instead, he said quietly, "Calm Mind, Telekinesis." His special attack and special defense went up and he grabbed all five of the ponies and heaved them into the air, in the distance he saw Rainbows' eyes bug out at the sight of five flying ponies who weren't moving to fly and Soul heaved the five upwards into the air depositing all five right next to Rainbow in ten seconds flat. When they had regained their bearings on the ground Applejack stated smugly, "Seems somepony owes me twenty bits. Rainbows' jaw was still dropped open and Twilight moved closer to shut it, only for it to come open in speech a second later, "How in the hay?! How did you do that." Soul spoke without hesitation, "In my world some races of pokemon have mastery of the mind to the point that they are able to interact Psychically with the world and cause differences in the physical spectrum. Unicorns here seem to operate on the same way albeit on the smaller scale than most psychic pokemon, Twilight exempted of course." A loud snore from the cave with smoke coming out of it interrupted their conversation. Twilight took the opportunity to restore order while Applejack collected her bits from Rainbow, "Alright girls. This is it, now we confront this dragon." Twilight turned pacing in pace in front of them, everypony else and Soul Light lined up at this militaristic voice Twilight was using, "Rainbow Dash, I want you to scout out the cave from the smoke." Rainbow bolted off into the smoke layer after it was ordered as Twilight continued, "Applejack, I want you ready with your apple bucking skills in case the situation gets violent." Applejack tossed two apples from her bag into the air with her mouth and kicked them into the tree breaking the apples, Soul's left eye twitched in disbelief at this...weak offensive. That would stun smaller pokemon for sure but something producing that much smoke would be much larger than apples could do to harm. Twilight turned towards Pinkie pie and Rarity, "Pinkie pie, Rarity I want you two to serve as distractions in case negotiations break down." Pinkie started shaking a rubber chicken to and fro while rarity stared at Pinkie then at Twilight before giving a confused and disgruntled look while pointing at herself as if saying without words, "me and her, really now?" Twilight looked at soul and Fluttershy, " you two will be coming with me to confront the dragon. Soul I need your light to light the cave as we go in and Fluttershy your skills with animals will prove handy." Fluttershy squeaked and Soul started, "About that Twiligh-" "Now with rolls assigned lets go." Twilight marched in. A minute later after realizing that neither Soul nor Fluttershy had followed her in she came back looking annoyed as Rainbow came back out of the smoke layer, "Come on Fluttershy." she stated pulling her by the wings out of the ground she had buried her face in. The amount of dirt this pony was avoiding despite having been dragged through a mile of it and pressing her face in it was amazing to say the least, "Every second we waste is another acre of Equestria covered in smoke!" Fluttershy dug her hooves in as Twilight tried pushing her. Soon joined by the other ponies as they pushed her, Soul tried commenting but was drowned out as the friends tried encouraging her to go on. Soon as they had stopped talking, all of them crunched together behind Fluttershy she said quietly, "I...I can't..." All five of them dived out from different directions with the same word groaned, "Ughh...." "Why the hay not?" Twilight asked in frustration. Fluttershy spoke inaudibly. "What was that Sugar cube?" Applejack asked. She spoke inaudibly again. "Huh?" both rarity and Pinkie stated. Soul sighed and floated over to Fluttershy, touching her shoulder with a Metal arm in an attempt of comfort, she looked at him with an expression completely close to tears and begging for help, he nodded and said the words for her, "She is afraid of dragons." Soul stated for her. "Fluttershy, I've seen you walk up to a full grown enraged manticore like it was nothing." Rainbow stated from the air face hoofing in the process. Fluttershy turned and looked at him, "That’s because he was not a dragon." "But Fluttershy," Twilight reasoned, "You have skills dealing with all kinds of animals." "Because they aren't dragons." Was Fluttershys’ logic speaking again. "But Spike is a dragon and you’re not afraid of him." Pinkie pointed out hopping to and fro bouncing. "yes, because," Fluttershy began taking a deep breath in before saying out quickly, “he is not a huge, gigantic, terrifying, enormous, teeth-gnashing, sharp-scale having, horn-wearing, smoke-snoring, could-eat-a-pony-in-one-bite, totally all grown-up dragon!" The dragon snored and Fluttershy whimpered an adorable sound while grabbing soul from his floating position and hiding behind him. He was shocked momentarily by the sudden action but didn't move away seeing as she was using him as cover. Twilight sparkle raced around to look at her before exclaiming, "But, if you're so afraid of dragons, why didn't you say something before we came all the way up here?" Fluttershy whimpered and stated quietly, "I was afraid to." Rainbow dash made an 'Augh' sound in disbelief in the air and the earth bound ponies face hoofed. "Listen here sugar cube." Applejack stated calmly, recovering first by far, "We are all afraid of that dragon." "I’m not!" Rainbow stated. Applejack rolled her eyes, "Well most of us anyway, but we've got a job to do. So, get in there with Twilight and soul and show them what you're made of." "I..." Fluttershy began cringing behind soul a bit more as her friends leaned in, "I..." they started to smile encouragingly, "I...Just can't..." All of them face hoofed at the same time. "Oh Fluttershy..." they heard Twilight murmur, "I Guess... I'll go in... Maybe he just doesn’t know what he is doing in his sleep." Soul shook his head in disagreement moving Fluttershy to behind a boulder for safety. It took less than two minutes for Twilight to come out coughing, "No luck." Rainbow Dash flapped once landing next to Twilight, "So much for persuading him." Applejack joined in Rainbows' statement baffled, "Now what?" Luckily Rarity had an idea, "Obviously, this situation just calls for a little 'pony charm'. Allow me, girls." It took one minute before an angry roar was heard and Rarity sprinted out of the cave diving behind an rock half the size she was. Twilight went to confront her as Pinkie pie ran past a tree momentarily hiding herself and coming out the other side in a completely ridiculous costume. Everyone stopped to stare at her. "What is that supposed to be?" Rainbow asked looking confused at the gift wrapped flipper wearing balloon totting pony with sunglasses and a party blower. "Well I was thinking to get him to laugh. Getting somepony to laugh always gets them on your side." Pinkie pie stated before going into the cave. less than five seconds had passed before she came back out her costume a wreck, "He didn't want to laugh." she stated disappointed and earning a face hoof from Rarity. Rainbow yelled out stomping a hoof before taking to the air, "We tried Negotiations, we tried charm, and we tried whatever pinkie pie did. Now it comes to force!" Rainbow rocketed into the cave. I went to watch and was in time to see her kick a giant red dragon in the nose only causing it to sneeze once before it roared. The roar alone knocked Rainbow into the rest of the group knocking them over not stopping until everypony but Fluttershy(who was still behind the boulder) was knocked over. Vaguely I recalled a bowling game term, "strike!" I said to nopony in particular a bit woozy from the recent ram. Before we could even recover We were all knocked into a boulder by a large force of smoke. pushing him and everypony into a rock. Rather hard. breaking the rock Fluttershy had been hiding ignorant of the scene unfolding. The following video unfolded. Soul just looked at what had just happened, his response was mainly consisting of the same four letter word being repeatedly stated in slowly increasing tones of disbelief at what had just happened, "What?!" the expressions he had taken with his body had also slowly slouched by the end of the crying he was slumped over holding his front in both his frames. He dimly recalled a quote he heard once whispering it to himself, "Always the quiet ones you need to watch. For they are the real threat in the group four times out of five. No matter what they show outwardly, hurt their friends and you’re a dead man." Soul wondered what the Pegasus pony had done to terrify a full groan dragon to tears, but then again he didn't want to know. It worked he guessed as the dragon flew off a large bag of jewels and gold around the dragon. He realized something then and there, "Hey wouldn't that dragon's snoring now be another nations problem?" "Oh i'm sure everything is going to be completely fine." Twilight assured Soul, she was too busy thinking of her latest friendship report to send to Celestia. ---∞∞∞---∞∞∞---∞∞∞--- Meanwhile in the land of the griffon empire. The king was a very busy man, constantly sorting out new treaties with the various griffon tribes and uniting them under his rule, the entire operation was extremely fragile and one wrong move could start a large war within its own borders. The last thing he needed was the dragon to land in the cave next to his castle which refused to move stating that the equestrian ponies were a lot scarier and going back to sleep. Covering the griffon kingdom with what would be smoke for a hundred years. Many griffons would come and try to stop the dragon and it's nap but none would succeed in beating the giant beast. It was truly a glum hundred years from then on. ---∞∞∞---∞∞∞---∞∞∞--- Dear Princess Celestia, I am happy to report that the dragon has departed our fair country, and that it was my good friend, Fluttershy, who convinced him to go. This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears. Always your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.