Waking up to the sound of knocking on the door, Axton groaned and thought to himself ‘Why in the hay are my parents always out when something needs doing?’.Dragging himself to his hooves, he sluggishly made his way to the door. Opening it, he saw the CMC standing there looking at him with giant grins on their faces and saddlebags on their backs, which by the looks of it, were full to the brim with camping gear. Along with the saddlebags, each of the girls had what looked like a tent on their backs. Scootaloo looked at him accusingly.
“Uh... Ax, you ready to get going? I know it’s early, but that ain’t an excuse, dude! This is an exploration!” While she said this, she paced back and forth in front of the door, reminding Axton of a drill sergeant. Before she could carry on, Apple Bloom cut her off.
“Look Scoots, nopony’s perfect. Got your gear Axton?” Axton nodded and before he headed inside to get his gear, he gave Apple Bloom a thankful smile, making her blush slightly, hiding again behind her mane. As Axton walked out of ear shot and into the house to gather his stuff, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other before bursting out in a sing song voice “~Axton and Apple Bloom, sitting in a tree...~” Causing Apple Bloom’s cheeks to go from a blushing scarlet to a flushed crimson in embarrassment.
Meanwhile, back in the house, Axton had gone up to his room to gather the supplies from his room. Of course his parents did not know about his venture and he had already prepared a note just in case they weren’t there (Axton’s parents were Ultra-Strict). Opening a small hatch in the side of his room after moving his bed slightly, he accessed what was his medium sized, but nonetheless precious vault in which he kept his essential items and other stuff that he had kept over the years. Grabbing his saddlebags, he checked through them.
The left saddlebag was packed to the brim with items such as water, bread and other food items; these items made sure he would not get hungry or thirsty. The saddlebag on his right contained the more practical tools; the grappling hooks, a small extendable shovel and some rock pickaxes, to aid in climbing. Securing these along with his tent upon his back, he grabbed the final item he needed; his mech goggles. These would be essential, as sometimes maybe the finer details would need to be looked at if they found anything of interest, although he kind of liked to wear them just because they made him feel cool.
Securing the goggles in their usual position around his neck, he made sure his note was on the table before shutting the house door and locking it with his spare key that he always kept with him (he had made one after a rather unfortunate of getting locked out of the house on a late night excursion, forcing him to sleep in a nearby hay bale. To make it all worse, he had woken up sodden and freezing), and set off towards a cave, nearby the Everfree forest with the other three.
Reaching the cave within a few hours, the four young ponies stood at the entrance to the cave which they had planned to visit the day before. Looking at each other and venturing into the cave, they found the cave to be pitch- black. Lighting up the cave with his magic, Axton decided to get a good look around the cave, placing his mech goggles over his eyes. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, minus a few gems that were pointed out by small glimmers in the lenses of his goggles. Scootaloo asked if anything was up and why he was wearing his goggles and what they did.
Axton was obliged to tell what his goggles did, and gladly explained “These goggles were given to me by my Pen Pal, Iris Sapphire, who currently lives in Manehatten. Described in the schematic that came with the letter, these goggles can do many things at will of the Unicorn wearing them. These are magic goggles, but can be worn by other species of pony like pegasi and earth ponies, however have a lesser effect. Unicorns are enabled the ability to see in the dark, and notice the tiniest details with these goggles on, which helps if you’re making something or working on a project. The same goes to Pegasi and Earth Ponies to a lesser extent.”
Sated by the explanation, the group Carried onward, where Axton pointed out to where the gems were to be found within the cave, and Scootaloo and Apple Bloom got to work on cracking them open with some small pickaxes that they had stashed with them. Sweetie Belle refused to mine away at any of the rocks as she stated it was “Un-becoming of a young filly” and refused to get her hooves dirty. While Scootaloo worked, she muttered something about Sweetie Belle being “Too much like her sister”. Once both of the two fillies had finished (Axton was still looking around for anything out of the ordinary), and placing the gems into a sack they had dubbed ‘the loot sack’, the four ventured further into the cave, only to stumble upon a giant blue being, similar looking to a giant blue grizzly bear, which had a giant white star upon its head. Everyone looked terrified by this great blue titan, and ran for it.
Before they could react, a blue blur zoomed past them, headed straight for its face and delivered a swift uppercut towards the jaw of the great beast, enraging it. While the others were hiding at the entrance, motioning for him to run away with them, Axton got a look at the creature that was delivering a swift beating to the Ursa Minor. It was a colt, quite like Axton, but had small green horns protruding from his head. His tail looked like it was made out of crystals, and glimmered in the light. As well as this, the pupils of the pony’s eyes were knife like slits, sharp and piercing. When the pony had flown past Axton and the others, he had thought the colt was a Pegasus with a gift for flying, but Axton now saw the Colt had leathery wings, like that of a dragon which, although didn’t seem too big, seemed to carry the young colt effortlessly. Another strange thing was that the young colt had an unnatural amount of strength. All these differences caused Axton to think ‘Maybe it’s a hybrid pony. I’ve read about them in the libraries of Oatsralia, but I’ve never seen one. From what I can gather, he looks something like a half dragon, half pony hybrid. Strange.’
Coming to his senses, he had seen that the fight was swiftly over; leaving the Ursa Minor whimpering like a wounded cub, limping back into the depths of the cave it lived in. Turning back to them, the young colt flew with a surprising speed over to where the four had gathered at the entrance of the cave. Axton spoke up first.
“On behalf of me and my friends here, thanks for saving our flanks from that Ursa. Although I didn’t catch your name. What was it?”
The hybrid pony spoke, while he observed the others one by one “The name’s Defensive Flight, but that was nothing, the brute had it coming to him.”
Conversing more, Axton finally asked “By the way, how did you find us? Also, are you a hybrid pony?”
Defensive Flight looked worriedly at his wings, but replied in a steady voice “Yes and.... Yes. Half-dragon. And by means of finding you, you left tracks in the path AND I even saw you entering the cave, from my cave up there, hence I decided to help. And as to means as to seeing in the cave, I can see in the dark. Any other questions, or are you gonna stare at how weird I am?”
Raising an eyebrow, Axton replied in a surprised tone “Honestly? I don’t think you’re weird. But why live in a cave? Y’know, coming to think about it, you could crash at my place for a while, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind.”
The young colt looked at the Dragon-pony, eventually receiving a reply “...Really? You... don’t think I’m a freak?” The young dragon-pony broke into a grin and looked at the others with the same grin plastered on his face before his eyes teared up a little “T-thanks!”
The rest of them replied with an encouraging nod, and looked at their flanks before sighing, looking at each other and laughed it off as the now-group of five ponies made their way back home for the night, Defensive Flight flying above the rest with a smile coming across his face as he flew above as a single thought flashed through his mind.
‘I am accepted for who I am’.