//------------------------------// // For I hug ponies! // Story: Short stories about ponies and whatnot // by shutaro //------------------------------// Garble looked down on the whelp before him. “Look what we have here, guys!” He waved the rest of his gang of teenage dragons to him. “Little Spike is back!” He blew a stream of black smoke into Spike’s face and sneered. “You must be a glutton for punishment to show your face around here again.” The crater wasn’t as crowded with dragons as it had been during the migration, but an adult red one snored in the lava pool. He seemed to be asleep, but as Spike looked at the giant beast, he saw one eye move under a half-closed lid. Spike swallowed but didn’t back down. “You think I’m afraid of you? Do you? Well you’re wrong! I’m here to challenge you!” With each sentence Spike took another step closer to the older (albeit only teenage) dragon, until he had to look directly up. Garble closed a claw around Spike’s head and lifted the dragon whelp up until he could look him in the eye. “You? You want to challenge me? At what? Tail-wrestling? Firebreathing? Come at me, whelp, I’ll take you on at anything!” He released Spike from his hold, and the smaller dragon tumbled into the dust. “Maybe you want to challenge be to a dragon-flight in the sky?” The sneer on Garble’s face turned even more cruel. “Oh, still no wings? Poor little Spike, now you’ll never grow a pair.” “Maybe you should have grown a pair of braincells instead,” Spike gave the insult right back. He drew a breath and called out as loud as he could. “I challenge you to hug a pony!” Garble’s eyes grew wide, in disbelief first, then in rage. “You dare mock me, you pathetic whelp?” He tried to grab Spike again, but the smaller dragon evaded him. “I’ll throw you into the deepest pit I can find, you little —” He was about to try another grab when a huge claw picked him of the ground. A voice so loud and deep that it was more felt than heard rumbled “You have been justly challenged, young one. You agreed to meet the whelp at anything, and now you try to wiggle out of it?” The gang hadn’t even noticed the giant Red behind them; for such an ancient being, this dragon sure moved silently. “But to hug a pony? What kind of a challenge is that? It’s not like a pony would even dare to come out here just to get a hug?” Garble protested. The elder dragon looked down at Spike. “What say you, tiny one?” he thundered. “I happen to know a few ponies, and there is one that will surely help me with this.” Spike produced a scroll and unrolled it. The elder dragon hissed through his teeth as he scanned the document. “Are you sure she will answer your call?” Spike rolled the scroll back up and blew his flame on it. All eyes followed the waft of smoke as it disappeared into the sky. He beamed a predatory smile at the assembled group of dragons. “I’m reasonably sure.” Garble finally managed to wriggle free from the elder dragon’s claw. “Who is he calling? Let me guess: It’s your pony-princess. Oh, it’s your namby-pamby pony-princess! I’m shaking in my skin.” The sound of hooves on gravel made him turn around. “Oh no, no one sneaks up on me again —” his voice turned into a whisper as he saw who was stepping out of a portal behind him, ”— today.” Princess Celestia looked around the crater for a bit and finally spotted Spike. “I see this is as urgent as you wrote, Spike. But I‘ve come prepared.” She held a toilet plunger up in her magic. All dragons took a step back. There were rumors about that plunger, after all. “Greetings Celestia Equestris,” the huge red dragon hurried to say. “I’m Thorntail, master of this mountain. Let me tell you, there is no need for that. I harbour no ill will towards you or your ponies.” His eyes stayed on the plunger the whole time. “Do you now?” The smile never left Celestia’s face. “Well, I don’t want to use it either. It’s always such a mess.” She set the plunger down on the ground, and all dragons relaxed visibly. “So, Spike, what is this about?” The whelp pointed at Garble. “I challenged him to hug a pony.” Celestia raised an eyebrow and looked at Thorntail. “And he agreed to this? Makes you feel old, doesn’t it?” The giant Red only rolled his eyes. “Don’t think I’ll go easy on you younglings,” Celestia said and unleashed a storm of fire on the two adolescent dragons. Neither Spike nor Garble were injured by the flames, dragons are fireproof after all, but both were pushed back, step by step. Spike drove both his fore- and back-claws into the ground and held his ground only seconds before the wind got caught in Garble’s wings, and he was pushed all the way back into the lava pool. Celestia stopped her flames, Spike walked up to her and the Princess lifted him on a hoof so he could hug her muzzle. All dragons looked at this with awe and disbelief, except for Garble who had a face full of  molten rock. Thorntail picked him out of the pool and set him down unceremoniously before Celestia. “I declare this challenge over, Spike is victorious. According to the ancient dragon code Garble’s hoard is now Spike’s.” The teenage dragon looked like he was about to cry. Spike jumped down from Celestia’s raised leg “Thanks, but this wasn’t about his hoard. I just wanted to proof that I’m just as much of a dragon as this jerk. So long!” He turned to Celestia, “Uhm Princess, can I hitch a ride with you? I promised Twilight to be back by sundown.” Celestia waited by her portal and stepped through after the whelp had jumped in before her. She waved one last time with her plunger at the silent group of dragons back in the crater, then the portal closed with a small pop. Spike hugged the Princess’s mane as she set him on her back again. Together they walked all the way to Canterlot station so Spike could catch a train back to Ponyville. “You know Princess, I still haven’t worked this thing out completely. I’m not a pony obviously, and I surely don’t feel like a dragon. But as long as I can give you or Twilight or anypony a hug like this, I don’t feel that is really so important.”