The Ponyville Market was bustling in the cool early morning; most of the town was already out and about to get their shopping done for the day. The regular storeowners were hawking their goods to the mob, including Rarity who had some fancy new saddles on display. Applejacks apple stand was also drawing her usual crowd, but today she was getting some unwanted competition.
“Cake for breakfast, cake for lunch, cake for dinner, cake for brunch! It’s time to wake up and smell the sugar everypony so step rriiiiiiiiiight up to the Sugarcube Staaaaand!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie who boisterously threw some streamers in the air. The normally unassuming wooden stand the Cakes ran was now painted a multi-colored swirl of bright colors and had so many balloons tied on it was practically floating.
“Pinkie Pie, why are ya runnin’ the stand today? Does Mr. Cake even know yer out here sellin’ this stuff?” asked Applejack, giving Pinkie an exasperated look.
“Of course silly! Mr and Mrs. Cake were both super duper busy on the biggest birthday cake ever last night. It was so extra important that they spent all night working on one of the top layers I did and they let me bake almost everything else and since they were up so late I got to run the stand this morning and it’s my first time running the stand and when I saw it I was like borrrriiiiing so I spruced it all up and now it looks just FANTASTIC doesn’t it Applejack?”
“Yeah…it’s great, jus’ keep yer volume low will ya? It’s still bright an’ early in the mornin’ Pinks and nopony else is yellin’ an’ hollerin’ their heads off. So quiet yerself please?” pleaded Applejack.
“Okey-dokey, I’ll lower my voice just an eensy bit so that everyone can still hear me but not so much that that I’m still too loud without shouting so they can notice me so I can make some bits for the Cakes and-“
Applejack rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her own stand. She wasn’t losing that many to customers to Pinkie but the Cakes usually brought out only breads and pies in the morning, not cakes and sweets. They all smelled freshly baked too and were drawing the hungrier ponies away from her apples. She sighed, At least it’s just for this morning.
“Applejack! Applejaaaaack!”
Fluttershy was galloping towards her stand remarkably fast, practically tripping over herself.
“What’s goin’ on Sugarcube? Somethin’ up with the animals?” she asked as Fluttershy stopped at her stand.
“It’s a….I …..saw it….coming from…”
“Catch yer breath first before ya bust a lung!”
Fluttershy heaved and huffed, trying to steady her breathing as fast as she could.
“So whatcha see then?”
“I saw...a….dragon.”
A shadow darkened the stand for a split-second and Applejack shot her head to the sky. There was no mistaking that outline. Sure enough, a dragon was circling overhead and descending in a leisurely corkscrew onto the market.
“Applejack what should we do? Should we, um, call for help or…run away?”
“We should see what he wants, dangit Fluttershy ya gotta stop bein’ so darned panicky all the time. Did that dragon do anything to ya?”
“Um….no,”
“Did he eat one of yer animals?”
“No…he didn’t,”
“So nothin’ happened, yet ya saw him and got yourself all wound up then didn’t cha?
“Yes…I guess I kind of did…”
The market crowd was ooh-ing at the dragon lazily circling overhead, it was banking in wider and wider spirals as it got closer to the ground. Applejack figured most of Ponyville hadn’t ever seen one up close before.
“Shucks, he ain’t even that huge neither.”
The dragon landed at the far end of the market, skidding to a stop before folding its wings and walking over to the stands. It wasn’t particularly big at all, maybe ten to twelve feet squatting on its hind legs. Applejack grew trees taller than that dragon and with his wings folded he didn’t look nearly as imposing as Fluttershy made him out to be.
“What do you think he’s doing here Applejack?” asked Fluttershy fearfully as she backed up behind her.
“I dunno, it is an early market morning, he’s prolly gonna shop for somethin’. ‘Sides, we can jus’ ask him anyways. Ya’ll know dragons can talk. Spike talks and he’s just a baby ‘imself! Nothings gone wrong Fluttershy, ya gotta stop fearin’ the worst all the time. Now, let’s all go and say hi!”
Not even ten minutes later Applejack was bolting over to Twilights library fast as her hooves could carry her. Everything had gone wrong.
***
“Spike! Be careful! Those are really old texts and I don’t want missing pages because you think you can carry nine at a time.”
Twilight had spent the last night trying to unlock the secrets of a strange machine Pinkie Pie had found in the woods. None of the books in her library had been any help in transcribing what the thing did. She wasn’t even aware that it still worked until Spike turned a hand crank on its side and it buzzed to life. Twisting the knobs on the front only yielded varying levels of static except for one which produced a series of repeating beeps. It was this code that she had been tearing her library apart in her attempt to decipher it.
“How would we figure out if this thing even does anything? Jeez Twilight for all you know it’s just random space noises or something,” he said climbing the ladder to the upstairs portion of the library, “besides none of our books had anything so it’s kind of a waste of ti-”
“Uh uh uh, the pursuits of knowledge into the unknown are never a waste of time,” interrupted Twilight tossing one more book onto his pile “So although our efforts are fruitless at the moment we’ll figure it out eventually.”
“Yeah and have some other library to mess up…” he muttered.
“What was that Spike?”
“Nothing! I’ll be up here sorting!”
Twilight watched as Spike disappeared upstairs with the towering pile of tomes and shook her head when she heard a yelp and books hitting the floor.
“Spike you are one funny little dragon…” she said with a chuckle.
Twilight was turning her attention back to the mysterious device when Applejack and Pinkie Pie burst into the library.
“GOOD! YER HERE! Come with us Twilight! Hurry!”
“Huh!? What’s going on AJ?” she asked quickly.
Applejack grabbed her tail and yanked her to the door “No time to explain! Let’s go!”
“SPIIIIKE! I’ll be right back! Stay put okay!?” she yelled as Applejack dragged her outside.
“Why can’t I come?” he called out pitifully, but Twilight was gone.
***
“Alright girls…where are we going?” asked Twilight in between breaths. She was still tired from lack of sleep as she galloped with her friends.
“We need to go back to early morning market! You should come to the market more often Twilight it’s a totally fun place to be in the morning and I sold lotsa yummy stuff today and-”
“-and the more pressin’ matter at hand is the dragon that stopped by,” interrupted Applejack “Honestly I don’t know where ya keep yer head Pinks.”
“A…dragon?” breathed Twilight, her eyes widening “What’s it…doing here?”
“Shopping!” yelled Pinkie Pie bouncing over a rock.
“Oh…well…shoppings not…such a big deal you know,” she panted “Why the urgency?”
“Our good ol’ friend Rainbow Dash gone and picked a fight with ‘im,”
Twilight groaned “That’s just great. Over what?”
“Somethin’ stupid.”
Twilight shook her head. Rainbow Dash had a habit of not knowing when to shut her mouth in an argument and dragons were temperamental creatures. She looked up ahead at the Ponyville Market. Most of the stands were unattended and there were a ring of ponies surrounding the culprits.
The dragon crouching in the middle was not as big as Twilight feared. Its scales gleamed a muted burnt orange in the morning light and its black wings were neatly folded to its sides. Small curled horns sat on his forehead and linked to a jagged row of dark blue pointed spikes traveling down his spine, ending in a black hook whipping back and forth in the air. The black chain wrapped around his neck ended in a silver hook dangling just above his bright orange chest.
As Pinkie, Twilight and Applejack drew closer they could hear the heated conversation taking place.
“-telling you to leave! I’m NOT telling you again got it?!” seethed Dash hovering in front of the dragon.
“I’m not goin’ anywhere until I get some recognition here! What kinda welcome wagon is this huh? I come in here, want to get some things, poke around a bit and your givin’ me flak ‘cause I’m a dragon?” he snorted furiously. The dragons deep voice was cut by how hoarse it sounded, giving it a low raspy quality.
“-um can we please talk civilly about this?” peeped Fluttershy ineffectively trying to diffuse the situation. The dragon threw a threatening glance her way.
“Stay outta this Squeaky! I’m not talkin’ to you here.”
“HEY!” yelled Dash as the dragon turned back to her “For your information Fluttershy down there was the one who PERSONALLY kicked the last dragon out of town and he was ten times the size of you!”
“That a fact? What he look like Squeaky?” sneered the dragon.
Fluttershy shrank to the ground “Well, he was, um, big and red, with great big horns and, um, orange wings…”
“HAH! You kicked ol’ Firespines outta your town? That giant red wuss just collects treasure and sleeps on it all day, whadja do anyway huh? Yell at him until he burst into tears?” he threw his head back in a creaky laugh, like sawblades cutting through wood.
Twilight was walking up to the circle now, trying to push her way through the throng watching this spectacle unfold.
“Where’s the head chump in this dump anyhow? I’m through talkin’ to you,” said the dragon gruffly.
“DUMP!?” shouted Dash angrily “Our town isn’t a dump and you are DEFINITELY not welcome here anymore. GET. OUT!”
Dash turned and gave the dragon a fierce kick to his face. He stumbled backwards and nearly fell, but righted himself and snatched Dash in his claw.
“AGH, lemme go!” she complained struggling in his grip. His hand was just big enough to pin her wings to her sides and keep her from escaping. He moved his thumb over her mouth and muffled her cries for help.
“STOP!” shouted Twilight as she finally broke through the ring of ponies. “There’s no need for violence, everyone just be calm and we’ll sort this out.”
“Calm? I’m being calm. Look at what’s happenin’ here and you’re tellin’ me to be calm? I just got kicked in the face by this angry little horsefly here and I’m the one who’s not calm? What is this here, and you are miss…?
“Twilight Sparkle, I’m a student studying under Princess Celestia,” she said proudly looking up at the dragon.
“Well, Miss Spackle under Princess Celestia, you mind tellin’ me why I gotta deal with ponies like this one here on a simple visit to your town?” he said motioning to Dash, who was pointlessly biting his thumb.
“Sparkle,” corrected Twilight “We, uh, have had a bad time with the last dragon we had come through here and I suppose that she just assumed that it would be a repeat event. I’m terribly sorry that your intentions were misinterpreted and we apologize for the trouble,” she said giving him a slight bow.
“Yeah, next time I’d appreciate a better response than this.”
“You will get one! I can guarantee that!” chuckled Twilight nervously
The dragon looked at Dash, who had stopped squirming in his hand and was limply watching Twilight.
“I bet you’d assume I’m gonna let go of loudmouth here right?”
Twilight looked at him timidly “Uhh….right?”
“Wrong. I’m gonna eat her.”
Gasps erupted from the ring of ponies surrounding them, Rarity fainted in the crowd.
“WHAT!? WAIT YOU CAN’T EAT HER!” pleaded Twilight
“Why can’t I huh? This one gave me all this guff and ruined my appetite for jewels in the process. You ponies don’t even carry gemstones in your dinky little market anyways. This horsefly makes such a show of being tough, let’s see if the talk matches the taste.”
He opened his jaw wide, revealing many curved teeth gleaming in the morning light. Dash could smell his acrid breath on her face as she was slowly brought up to his mouth, getting an eyeful of those shiny fangs as she struggled helplessly in his iron grip. Somepony screeched in the background as warm blackness clouded her vision. Dash shut her eyes and screamed. This was the end. This was it.
“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!”
She was suddenly yanked out of his mouth; Dash blinked and looked around. The dragon was craning his neck to find the source of the yelling, silver eyes rapidly darting around the crowd.
“HEEEEEEY! HOOOOOOOOOK! OVEEEER HEEEEERE!”
The throng of ponies spread itself apart as Spike sprinted as fast as he could over to the circle.
“SPIKE! Hey Spike is that really you there? HAH! What’s up little dude? Come ‘ere and gimme some scale!”
Twilight watched mouth agape as Spike ran over to the orange dragon and gave him an enthusiastic high-five.
“Spike…you know this dragon?”
“Of course Twilight! This is my old friend from Canterlot! We go back before I got assigned to you! I haven’t seen you in forever, what have you been up to Hook?”
“Flarehook now Spike,” he said proudly stretching his right wing “I got these beauties just last year. Sweet huh?”
“Those are awesome! Was the climb to get them hard?” he said giving the wing a tug.
“Naaaah, I’ve been up and down that mountain so many times I know it like the back of my claw. I didn’t know ya got sent up here though! I stopped by your place in Canterlot once but you’d already moved out. Ya didn’t even leave a note! What’s up with that huh? Ya dodgin’ me you little sack a’ scales?” he laughed giving Spike a playful shove.
“Mmmpfmpfmmff!”
Spike gasped “Hook, can you open up your hand and let that pony go? She’s a friend of mine.”
“This is a she? I almost wasn’t sure, heh, her voice is even raspier than mine!” he said with a gravelly laugh. He relaxed his hand and let Rainbow Dash fall to the dirt. She immediately sprang up and lunged at him, cheeks burning red from the insult.
“No! Rainbow Dash yer only gonna get yer sorry self in a heap ‘o more trouble,” ordered Applejack grabbing her tail and yanking her to the ground.
“Yeesh Spike all your friends a buncha hotheads around here or what?” Flarehook rumbled.
Spike rubbed his shoulder nervously, “Not really no, some of them are but it’s not a big deal most of the time. What brings you to Ponyville anyway?”
“….I think we should get out of the marketplace Spike before we attract more unnecessary attention,” said Twilight fretfully.
Spike immediately took note and jumped on her back “Hey Hook! Come with us to the library!”
“Flarehook,” he added in annoyance, awkwardly following Twilight and Spike out of the market. The crowd of ponies was slowly dispersing as the intensity died from the scene. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were trying their best at shaking Rarity awake and Applejack was attempting to comfort a very sore looking Rainbow Dash, who sat on the ground silently glaring at the retreating dragon.
***
Twilight was still cataloguing what just took place only a few moments ago. This dragon just flew down from who knows where and attempted to eat her friend. Dragons and ponies tended to get along, or at least unicorns did. He was one chomp away from breaking that treaty and that scared her. At least he listened to me when I chimed in she thought glancing up at her horn for a little bit
The two dragons were laughing and having a good time catching up. Apparently Flarehook was traveling Equestria looking to earn his title and had drifted into Ponyville while swerving past a heavy storm. Right now they were talking about that and other aspects of dragon culture Twilight wasn’t aware of.
“But if you wanted it to be really really cool you would’ve picked something like Flameball, or Spitfire right?” Spike said eagerly “I would totally have gone with something like that myself.”
“Nah, nope, no way buddy,” Flarehook waved his claw away at those suggestions “It’s gotta mesh just right ya know? ‘Hook’ doesn’t flow off the tongue when you put Spitfire or something like that right in front. Besides, a better title could be right around the corner, I just gotta find something to top it. Flare works for me ‘cause when I breathe fire it flares out in a ball at the end. A good name for you prolly won’t be so difficult. Think of a tough guy name like say Spikeslice or Thunderspike. Ya know what…I don’t even remember what color your embers burned. Spike, make a flame.”
Spike inhaled and blew out a weak jet of green flame, which disappeared in a small wisp.
“Six feet? That’s all ya got in ya?”
Spike coughed “Well, I don’t really practice fire-breathing much. I kind of live in a tree...full of paper.”
“You are my assistant in my studies Spike; you don’t breathe fire unless I tell you to. Or on your own time outside the library,” said Twilight firmly.
“Twiliiiight I hardly ever get any ME time,” he whined.
“Yeah Miss Twinkle, Spike doesn’t get any time to himself. Which is not fair for him ya know? Ya gotta be fair to us dragons since we’re so nice to you ponies.”
“Twi-light,” she said shooting the orange dragon a look “Also, being fair?! You practically ATE my friend back at the marketplace!”
“She was askin’ for it,” he said casually looking away “Someday she’ll open her big mouth and end up inside somebody elses. Besides, I didn’t eat her, so stop complainin’ about it.”
They finally reached the library and Twilight threw the door open roughly. “Come in Flarehook and make yourself comfortable,” she said with a smirk.
“You got a backdoor or cellar door or somethin’?” he said poking his head around the entrance.
“You’re just going to have to squeeze in here for the time being,” responded Twilight cooly.
“Never mind right now, hey Spike, can I grab ya for a sec?”
“Yeah sure,” Spike hopped off of Twilights back and followed Flarehook out the door “Be right back Twi!”
She trotted over in a huff and shut the door. This…Flarehook had already given her a lot of grief and now she just wanted him out of her hair. He was rude, had no respect for regular ponies and little for her. Twilight was heading upstairs when she heard more knocking at the door.
“Ugh, what do you need now?” she said magically pulling it open “Applejack! What’s up?”
“I’ve got a lot on mah mind Sugarcube, and it’s all roundin’ back to that rowdy dragon friend of Spikes,” Applejack noted crossly walking into the library “Ya don’t even wanna know how riled up Dash is right now. If I didn’t keep a keen eye on that girl I swear she woulda been kicking the tar outta that dragon this very moment.”
“I don’t blame her because it was a very mean thing to do. It doesn’t matter who did what or why a situation went bad. When it comes to ponies and dragons there shouldn’t be that kind of animosity and carefree threats. What Flarehook did out there was wrong and he doesn’t feel the slightest care for what almost took place.”
“Darn tootin’!” agreed Applejack nodding her head, “What didja have in mind ‘bout him stickin’ around town? I tell ya what I certainly do NOT want him here. ‘specially if I turn my back for one sec’ and see him makin’ a move to snack on Applebloom or somethin’.”
Twilight’s ears fell flat. She didn’t want him to be here anymore than Applejack did. Spike seemed so happy about having a dragon friend to talk to though and she was already feeling bad about her decision.
“Alright AJ, I’m going to tell him to leave next time I see him. Then we can talk to Rainb-”
Spike suddenly burst through the door “TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT! I need to ask a HUUUGE favor of you”
“What kind of a favor did you have in min-“
There was a smash as Flarehook attempted to enter the library. He managed to fit hit his head and front legs through the front door but his wings were getting caught on the frame. He backed up and extended his right wing into the library, a good fifteen feet of veiny leather branching out from his form, and pulled himself inside where he stood wheezing from the exhausting process.
“Is it okay if Hook here stays the night with us please? He’s only stopping by for a little bit and it’s been forever since we got to hang out. It would be really really cool if you let him stay pleeeeaaase!” he pleaded looking into her purple eyes.
Applejack glanced at Twilight worriedly, both a bit nervous knowing her answer. Flarehook looked enormous in the cramped library, with the already low tables and chairs making him seem twice as imposing.
“I’d really appreciate your hospitality Miss Trinkle,” said Flarehook scratching his neck.
“One night?” she murmered looking up at him.
Spike gave her a sincere smile “One night.”
Twilight hung her head in defeat “….fine.”
“WHOOO! Alright yeah! You’re the BEST Twilight!” he cried giving her a big hug.
Twilight waited with bated breath for the disapproving comment she’d surely get from her friend. Applejack threw a hoof to her forehead but didn’t say anything as the two dragons celebrated.
“Sorry AJ, I’ll talk to you later,” Twilight said dejectedly.
“Alrighty Twi, I’m goin’ to head back to my farm.”
Flarehook and Spike gave Applejack a little wave as she exited the doorway. Balking right in front of her friend like that almost immediately after making a final decision was going to be hard to live down. She was now stuck with this dragon for the rest of the day and it was still only morning. If only she had a bit more backbone this whole mess she brought upon herself wouldn't have happened.
“So what we havin’ for lunch?”