//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: A Slight Misunderstanding // Story: My red eyed Friend // by Freelancer //------------------------------// Chapter 6: A Slight Misunderstanding “Uh… and I thought Sunset was a slow flyer,” Thane thought dryly to himself, casting his eyes over his shoulder again to see Ash, flying still at least four miles behind him, his friend a tiny black dot on the southern blue skyline. “Come on Ash, I’m flying as slow as I possibly can… any slower I’ll probably fall out of the sky.” Naturally of course, Thane couldn’t blame Ash for falling behind; he was, after all, trying to keep up with perhaps the fastest dragon to ever come out of the mountains of Equestria’s south. The difference between himself and Ash, and most dragons for that matter, was his shape; whereas Ash and Titan were thickly built with muscle like mountains, Thane was slender like a tree trunk, which gave him amazing flying speed. Thane didn’t like to boast about his flying ability, but he knew it was there; for years he had honed his speed and skill by dropping rocks from cliff tops, and racing down to catch them before they hit the ground below. Eventually, however, Thane had become bored with that, as well as racing his friends around the mountains, no other dragon had ever come close to beating him in a race before, and he personally doubted there were any that could. Grumbling to himself, Thane once again returned his attention to the sky in front of him, before casting his green eyes to the thick forest below in an attempt to withstand his boredom. When nothing interesting among the trees caught his attention he sighed and returned them to the blue sky around him, which was dotted with white clouds, which in an effort to entertain himself he began to strike with his tail as he flew by. “Why did I even decide to come with Ash?” Thane muttered to himself, his eyes flashing downward for a moment, as he saw the seemingly endless dark green forest at last finish, and shift to a rolling light green plain. “I mean… Titan’s a good friend and all, but this is so bor…WOAH!” Thane frantically flared his wings massive wings open and came to a stop just in time; his green chest scales stopping a grass blade width away from a large white cloud, on which, to his surprise, a cyan blue pegasus pony was laying on her stomach and apparently sound asleep. Looking around, and seeing there was no one else watching, he allowed his green eyes to run over her tiny form, admiring the sky blue coat, and to his utter amazement, a tail and mane consisting of all the colours of the rainbow. He also noticed a strange mark on her flank, which resembled a storm cloud with multi-coloured lightning. Captivated by the beauty of the tiny creature, and wanting to know more he lowered his head to her, inhaling a strange scent from her coat which reminded him somewhat of rainwater. He had seen ponies before but never up close; to him they were a strange race, and yet not apparently bad by any means that were obvious to him. “I wonder if Titan meant his female friend was a pony when he said she wasn’t a dragon?” Thane thought to himself, hovering gently above the sleeping pegasus with shallow beats of his mighty green wings. “But… Titan and a pony… I just can’t imagine that… actually I don’t even want to imagine that.” Thane shook the strange images his mind had created from his head as fast as possible, he was a joker and all, but there were certain things even he didn’t want to laugh at. His head suddenly snapped back when the pegasus yawned and readjusted herself, her tail giving a single flick in the action which ended up brushing against Thane’s chest scales. He was amazed she hadn’t realized he was there yet, but for some reason he didn’t really want her to wake, Thane would never admit it to anyone, but the sight of seeing a pegasus happily asleep on a cloud he found strangely cute in a way. And that was coming from the mouth of a dragon. Still wanting to know more, as gently as he could, he lowered his snout even closer so her cyan fur was just touching his warm scales as he nuzzled her, hoping to his ancestors that she wouldn’t freak when she saw him. She gave a gentle sigh when Thane’s scales toucher her soft back, a moment later however her eyes flared open and she spun around with a speed that surprised even Thane, an angry snarl on her face as she glared at him. “WHAT THE HAY YOU WEIRD…oh,” Half way through her rage, it seemed she finally realized that she wasn’t looking at another pony; her magenta eyes widened to the size to Thane’s green scales, and her jaw went slack as she looked at him in shock and realization of what he was. “Yes… I know…” Thane shrugged, giving her the best smile he could. “I’m a…” “DRAGON!” She cried, spinning around on the cloud and attempting to bolt. She didn’t get very far though before Thane’s tail snapped out like a lightning bolt, and swiftly grabbed her from the air, the pegasus struggling and fighting his grip as he folded his forelegs, and brought her up in his tail to his own eye level. To any onlookers it would have been a strange sight to see a hovering green dragon, with a cyan pegasus in his tail, simply occupying a chunk of the sky, then again, judging by her reaction, Thane guessed dragons were a rare occurrence around these parts. “Are you going to listen or am I just going to have to eat you?” He asked the pegasus with a smile, realizing a moment later as she burst into tears that he probably shouldn’t have said that. “Ok… relax… look I was just joking about the eating you thing… I would never eat something as cute as you.” “CUTE!” She snapped angrily, sounding to Thane almost insulted as her expression went from afraid to enraged. “I AM NOT CUTE! What do I look like, some fluffy kitten or something you overgrown flying lizard?” “Well that’s not very nice… I was just trying to be polite,” Thane chuckled, the cyan pegasus still struggling to free herself from the embrace of his huge green tail which only made him more amused. “Look… I’m Thane, and I’m looking for a friend of mine who would have come this way yesterday afternoon... he’s a red dragon, who looks more like a mountain…” “You mean Titan?” She asked oddly, her struggling stopping in an instant. “He’s over at Fluttershy’s apologizing… why?” “Well…” Thane shrugged, casting his eyes over his should to see Ash was still catching up with him, before turning back to the pegasus. “Two of us came out here to give him some support… we know that he really wants to put things right, but we weren’t sure this… Fluttershy… would believe him… so would you mind terribly much showing me the way there?” “Only if you let me go,” She snorted, her magenta eyes looking down at the coil around her that was Thane’s tail. “Then I’ll take you there.” Thane eyed the pegasus pony for a moment, like he was unsure of whether or not he could trust her, then again in his mind he highly doubted that she’d be able to get away given his speed even if she tried to, hence at last he looked down at her and nodded. “Ok…” He grinned. “But before I do what is your name?” “Huh… oh, Rainbow Dash… why?” “Because I prefer to call my friends by name,” Thane grinned, raising his tail away from his face and at last gently releasing her from her green scales chains. “And just for the record Rainbow Dash, I do think you’re cute.” “Uh… you dragons are so weird,” Rainbow Dash grinned, shaking her head and face-hoofing herself to show she was embarrassed, while Thane simply laughed. “Come on… I’ll take you to Fluttershy’s place… but just try and keep up with me.” “You should try keeping up with me,” Thane grinned, spreading his wings fully and surging through the sky with Rainbow Dash right beside him. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… “Wow… he is fast,” Dash thought to herself, still a little unaccepting of the fact that she was hurtling through the sky, directly above Ponyville, at high speed, and with a green dragon who was easily the size of her house. “I mean he’s not as fast as m… oh to hay with it, he is as fast as I am.” Dash had to admit that she had been a little unnerved at being nuzzled by him while she was asleep, but to her Thane seemed nice enough, and his sense of humour matched hers almost perfectly. She had wondered to herself at first, when Titan had appeared, why Fluttershy would want to have anything to do with dragons, but now she had met Thane she understood, even if she had only known him for half an hour. “Do all pegasi fly as fast as you do?” Thane asked, drifting over in the sky a little so he could speak with Dash as they flew. “Because you truly are fast if you can match me.” “I’m the fastest flyer around here by far,” Dash smiled in reply, going into a double loop before coming out strait on the opposite side of Thane’s head, a grin appearing on the green dragon’s face as he watched her. “Think you can beat that?” “Nope,” He grinned, slowing down a little so he was just behind her, as a wicked grin spread across his face. “But I’m pretty sure I could roar and make the earth shake.” “There is no way you could roar that loud.” “Bet I could,” Thane replied, folding his massive forelegs across his chest. “Prove it,” Dash challenged, grinning and turning over to watch the spectacle. With that Thane just about stopped in mid-air and spread his jaws as wide as he could, inhaling so much air Dash swore the clouds started moving towards him as he did. Once his lungs were apparently full, his chest pushed out and his head went back; it was then however Dash heard something below her, and looked down in horror and realized exactly where they were hovering, directly above the main square of Ponyville, with everypony in town watching them. It had been a beautiful day outside which only meant everypony would be out and enjoying themselves, which in turn meant that just about every pony in Ponyville now had their eyes on the green dragon. Dash frantically turned back to Thane, but it was already too late, a moment later the dragon's jaws opened, and from the darkness of his throat came a roar, one that Dash was absolutely certain made not only the ground, but every building in Ponyville shake on its foundations. Dash looked down to see everypony run for cover before turning back to Thane as he finished, it was then the green dragon realized what had just happened. “Ah… my bad,” he shrugged, looking down at the town as doors slammed shut and windows were closed in response to his roar. “I guess I over did it a little.” “I shouldn’t have told you to do it,” Dash blushed, fluttering over to the embarrassed green dragon and smiling at him. “So if anypony needs to take the blame it should be me… besides that was really cool anyway,” “Thanks… but can I ask why you aren’t scared of me like all the other ponies?” Thane chuckled, beating his wings and heading a little higher into the sky with Dash just above him. “No offense, but I just roared my lungs out, and sent your town running for cover.” “Well…” Dash shrugged with a silly smile on her face, her rainbow tail flicking as she looked down at her new friend. “I guess in a way I’m like you… you’re funny and a little bit out there to say the least... and you seem gentle as well. I’ll admit the whole nuzzling me while I was asleep was a little bit weird though.” “Maybe we shouldn’t go talking about that,” Thane grinned as Dash swore he blushed, shaking his head as his eyes flicked back down to Ponyville. “Titan would…” “THANE!” “Huh… what… GHAA?!” What happened next, Dash couldn’t believe despite it happening right in front of her eyes, but seemingly out of nowhere a huge red scaled blur slammed into Thane with a mighty thud. The ball of red and green scales hurtled downwards, and a moment later made contact with the hard ground below that was the Mane Street. Before Dash could do anything the situation became a mass of slashing claws and snapping fangs. “OH CELESTIA!” Dash thought in horror, without another thought shooting downwards to where the two dragons were fighting right in the middle of Ponyville. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Titan’s mind was full of one thing, and that was anger; Thane was one of his best long-time friends, but there was no way in the known world that he would let him hurt anypony, even if it meant beating him within a scale width of his life in the middle of Ponyville. Luckily for Titan, he didn’t think he would need to do that, the crash landing seemed to have knocked most of the air from Thane’s lungs, and after a few decently heavy hits he used his massive strength to pin Thane to the gravel road, one claw on the side of Thane’s face and the other on his chest, while the green dragons tail continued to thrash wildly. Titan knew the kind of blows the two of them were landing on each other would have looked brutal to anypony watching, but after years of play fighting, Titan knew the difference between a hit that could subdue, and one that could really hurt. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, THANE?” Titan snarled, pushing his red claw harder into the green dragons chest until he could feel the pressure on Thane’s ribcage. “Are you trying to make the ponies of Equestria fear us even more than they already do?! And what were you thinking chasing Rainbow Dash like that… can you not control your stomach you waste of scale?” “Titan, what are you going on about?” Thane snapped as best he could in his position, his scaled green tail flicking and giving Titan a none to gentle strike in the side. “Dash asked me to roar… and I wasn’t chasing her, I was following her… she was taking me to Fluttershy’s where she said you were.” “I swear Thane, if you are lying to me… I will beat you so hard you’ll leave a perfect imprint in the ground for the next thousand years!” Titan snapped with his eyes burning, pushing a little harder on Thane’s chest so he could feel the rib begin to bend slightly. “TITAN! LET HIM GO!” Both dragons looked up from each other, to see Dash standing a short distance away, her cyan face set in horror at what was happening in front of her. Taking a final angry glare at Thane, Titan got off his friends chest and backed away down the street a little; Thane got to his claws and let out an angry growl while he bore his fangs at Titan, obviously furious with his red scaled comrade. For a few moments the two dragons just stood and glared at each other in the middle of the street, not doing anything but growling and showing their fangs. At last however Rainbow Dash decided to at least try and break the tension between the two of them, knowing after all she had been responsible. “Ah… look you two… we just had a slight misunderstanding there ok,” Dash said gently as she flew in front of Thane’s face, so Titan’s red eyes were on her. “Titan, I did ask him to roar, but when I asked him I didn’t know we were right over the top of Ponyville… so if you want somepony to blame for what just happened, it should be me.” All of Titan’s anger died in a flash and was replaced by a strange sense of curiosity; slowly he replaced his fangs and flicked his gaze between the cyan form of Rainbow Dash and the massive green shape of Thane. “So let me get this straight… you two know each other?” “Uh… in a way” Dash blushed as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof, turning back to Thane who smiled at gently her in reply. “I guess you could say we’re… friends,” “And by the sounds of things, you have a few friends out here too Titan,” Thane grinned as a smile at last replaced his snarl, looking over behind Titan as Ash landed with a thud a short distance away, a very confused expression on his black scaled face. “So would you care to tell me what exactly is going on with you and this… Fluttershy?” “You mean me?” Titan’s head flicked around, and sure enough Fluttershy was standing right beside his massive red front claw, her yellow coat a striking contrast to the dark red scales that covered him. Looking over her saw Twilight, Spike, Rarity and Applejack all watching the scene from the covered of an ally way; they all looked a little unnerved, and seemed even more so when Ash came over and lowered his head to them. The black dragon flicked his eyes over each of them before turning his attention to Titan and Fluttershy, a youthful smile spreading on his black scales face as he did. “It seems you didn’t need our support after all Titan,” Ash chuckled as he walked over and lowered his head to Fluttershy, his dark eyes the same size as Fluttershy’s face. “But I am glad that you have put things right all the same.” “Me too,” Thane chuckled as he stepped forward beside Dash, tilting his head a little as he grinned and laughed. “But would you care to explain to me what you were apologizing for… Ash has told me nothing less of nothing about what happened between you and Fluttershy.” “I will old friend,” Titan smiled, his own red eyes looking down at Fluttershy, who smiled back at him. “But first I believe it is only right to introduce ourselves to the citizens of Ponyville, before I do.” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Notes: Bit of a weird chapter I know…just for those of you who thought Titan would beat the $#!T out of Thane remember this is a teen rated story…sorry 1) Chapter 7: Meeting of Worlds will be out around Monday or Tuesday next week…I’m getting assignments thrown at me from every direction so time is a little tight right now.