Rainbow Dash Rides a Dragon
The Flashback
Inside Twilight’s room in Canterlot, Rainbow and her friend resumed their talk. Twilight was seeing hardly any sign of getting through to the thick headed pegasus. “Look Rainbow Dash, I know you think it’s easy to do whatever you want, and really, anything you want, but there’s no way you’ll be able to pull this off. Ride a dragon? Look, everypony has their limits. I’m sorry, but that includes you.”
For the past several hours, the two had been debating whether it was possible for a pony to catch and actually ride a dragon. Of course, this was spawned upon by Rainbow reading an entry of Daring Do. The tale told of the adventurer trying to do just what they were bickering over. Though Daring came close to succession, she unfortunately failed. However, this sparked some thoughts within Rainbow’s mind, which lead her to ask Twilight if it was possible. They chatted for a bit, and finally, it came to Twilight showing she had little faith in Rainbow’s abilities. “How can you be against me on this?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight sighed and said, “Think about it. Why would I encourage you to basically put your life on the line?”
“Because you know I won’t die.”
Twilight stared at Rainbow, then glanced to the bed with uncertainty clearly visible in her eyes. “Why would you want to try this in the first place? Because it’s never been done before?”
Not answering her question, but instead changing the subject, the pegasus asked, “Why not have a friendly wager? You’re so unbelieving of me, I bet I can deliver a dragon to Canterlot Central Station just outside by riding it over. If I win...” She leaned in and whispered into Twilight’s ear quietly. The second the alicorn realized what sort of scheme Rainbow was actually up to, she gasped and brought her hoof up to hide her blushing cheeks. Rainbow resumed, “And you have to do it in front of everypony there, even if the princesses are watching!”
“R-Rainbow... I don’t know if I can do that...”
“Aww, c’mon Twi... I know what it is. You’re just too scared because you know I’ll win this easy.”
Rolling her eyes, Twilight looked out the window to see all the smiling ponies down below. After a moment of thought, she nodded her head. “Alright, it’s a bet...”
All Rainbow could give was a satisfied, though cocky grin. She trotted to the princess and wrapped her hoof around her neck to ask, “And even though this isn’t going to happen, what do you want if I fail?”
Twilight looked into her friend’s eyes for a moment, then said, “If it’s not too much trouble, your promise to never try this again.” Her gaze lowered to the grassy plains down below. “I hate it when you go doing these things... You know how much you make me worry sometimes, Rainbow?”
Tugging her tightly, the cerulean mare smiled. “It’s a deal.”
Soon after that, Rainbow returned to Ponyville on a train, then went straight to Fluttershy’s house. If there was anypony who knew just how to deal with dragons, she was her best hope. After all, while Twilight was in Canterlot, Fluttershy was all too willing to babysit Spike. The dragon, though being just what Rainbow wanted to briefly study probably didn’t know much about his own kind. The mare arrived at Fluttershy’s house during the afternoon, just as the sun started to sink into the distance. The butter-yellow mare sat in the grass, right in front of a stump that acted as a table for her drawing board. A pretty little blue jay rested on a bush branch with its talons digging into the wood. It kept perfectly still for Fluttershy, and she was nearly done drawing its image with excellence. All that was left was the beak. Then Rainbow landed right next to Fluttershy, scaring her friend away and ruining the piece of art Fluttershy had spent all day drawing. Huffing at the unfortunate timing, Fluttershy lowered her head and muttered with the pencil still in her mouth, “I was so close to finishing this...”
“Uh, what’s up?” Rainbow asked. “I didn’t interrupt anything too important did I?” She glanced to the picture only to get a guilty feeling in her stomach. “Oh...”
Fluttershy put the writing utensil down and stood to say, “It’s alright. You didn’t mean to, and besides, she’ll be back... Was there something you needed, Rainbow Dash?”
The mare looked around before stating, “I kinda was wondering if you knew anything about... how I could ride a dragon...” Fluttershy blinked with a blank expression while Rainbow attempted to explain further in detail on why exactly she wished to gain such knowledge. “You see, me and Twilight had a bet. If I win, well... I’ll leave the details out for now... All I need is to ride a dragon into Canterlot, but I haven’t the slightest idea how I’m supposed to pull that off.”
Sighing and turning towards her house, Fluttershy instructed Rainbow to follow her. As they entered, Fluttershy explained, “I’ve only read about this possibly being true. Dragons are said to have extremely delicate pressure points in their necks where you might be able to stick your hooves, and disable them from fighting. After you do this, the book said it’s very likely they’ll bend to your command and even become surprisingly loyal towards you, assuming you don’t abuse them.” She looked under the couch and in the basket for Spike, but he wasn’t found. “Spike? Are you in here?” She returned her sights to Rainbow. “I guess he must be at Rarity’s...”
“No, here I am,” he said from around the stares. “Sorry, I was dusting your room. Hope I did a good job.”
Fluttershy blushed at his kindness. “I only asked you to tidy up down here.”
Spike said, “I like to go that extra mile.”
“Ahem.” Rainbow looked at the two with growing anticipation and asked, “Those pressure points, Flutters?”
Her friend looked at Spike with worry before asking him, “Please turn around and stay perfectly still...” As he did so, he looked at Rainbow wondering what they planned to do with him. Fluttershy rose her hooves up to rest them upon his shoulders, then she moved slightly towards his back. Once she stopped and held herself in what appeared to be the correct place, she told the dragon, “Now, Spike, this is going to hurt. Just bear with it for now. I promise, tonight, I’ll treat you to crystal ice cream for being such a well behaved helper.”
She nudged the summits of her hooves through his thick scales making Spike’s vision blur for some reason. His mouth dropped and numbness overtook his legs. Searing pain shot through his body, not just from his neck, but through his very claw tips as well. Soon, he couldn’t take it much more and pleaded, “S-stop it! This hurts way too much!”
All Fluttershy could do was continue applying pressure while saying, “I’m sorry, just keep yourself together and kneel down.”
Spike immediately did as he was told, and collapsed to the hard wood. With her releasing him from the terribly uncomfortable grip she had, Spike muttered with a shaky voice, “I c-can’t move... I can’t stand. What’d you do to me?”
Right away, the caring mare hugged him while apologizing many times. “I just had to show Rainbow exactly where she needed to place herself.”
“What? I don’t understand...” Spike laid down on the floor with a small tear escaping. He looked over to Rainbow and asked, “What’re you p-planning on doing?”
Clearing her throat, she explained, “I’m gonna try and ride a dragon...”
Fluttershy stood after pecking Spike’s worried head and said, “You saw where I grabbed him, right?” She put Spike in his bed and continued, “Not too close to the head, but not on the lower neck either. Right in between...” She turned and headed towards a saddlebag that laid on the table. Lifting it and sitting the thing up right, she started filling it with traveling supplies and food. The last thing she added was an extremely long and leather rope with two loops tied at both ends. She pulled out a piece of paper from a drawer and laid it out. It was a drawing of a dragon skull. To Rainbow’s surprise, way in the back if its toothy gums were a pair of extra fangs. She would’ve never guessed those to be there without Fluttershy’s assistance. “These,” she said while pointing them out. “These are your targets. Rumor has it that the only way to catch a dragon is by wrapping a very durable thread around those two fangs. After that, you need to prepare yourself. This actually has been attempted before. Unfortunately...”
Fluttershy trailed off and trotted back to the drawer while her friend asked, “What happened? Tell me.”
She dug up an old, tattered book and sat it along side the picture. The title read, “The Theory of Dragon Riding, by the Late Dark Sight.” Rainbow’s jaw dropped, and Fluttershy admitted, “He died during practice... Shortly after, his colleagues gathered his findings and published them into one book. According to their comments, he came pretty close to achieving his goal. The biggest flaws, though, was him being a unicorn, the type of rope he decided to use, and the knowledge he needed. It snapped in two, and he was sent plummeting to his death because of an unpredictable occurrence. Once a dragon knows it’s been leashed, it apparently takes a final dive...”
All Rainbow could muster was, “Crud...”
Fluttershy gulped and said, “I know where a dragon is... You’ve heard of the one towards the south entrance of the Everfree Forest, just beyond the lake, right?”
“...Yeah,” Rainbow nervously said. Her gaze was almost unbreakable from the book.
“It’s said that this dragon can be found high in the mountains, and is the only one that’s within flying distance, but just barely... Rainbow?” The mare tilted her head and perked her ear up to listen. “I think you can do it... Just...”
Rainbow looked at Fluttershy and nervously asked, “Hmm?”
The yellow pegasus offered a worried smile and said, “Just promise me you’ll come back in one piece, alright?”
Rainbow smirked, grabbed the saddleback and tightened it around the lower spacing of her wings before boasting, “No worries. That dragon’s as good as mine!” As she flew off over the Everfree Forest, she reminded herself of how she was to capture the dragon. All she and Fluttershy could do at that point, though, was to hope.