//------------------------------// // On the Backs of Dragons // Story: How To Ponify Your Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// The setting sun shined through the multicolored glass of one of the many crystal windows that adorned the crystal palace, yet for a certain human he found the multitude of colors that the light created annoying and distracting. His reason was sound, as the light got in his eyes and prevented him from fixing his slightly damaged armor. Twilight had been nice enough to give him a room where he could repair his suit and take refuge for the night, but while Hiccup was too busy to take advantage of the soft bed in the corner, Toothless lay upon the soft mattress with his tongue out and legs up, smiling with content. "There we go, Bud, that should keep the shoulder plate from falling off," Hiccup triumphantly informed his friend as he lifted the now repaired shoulder guard and placed it back upon his armor, too happy with his work to notice that the dragon was passed out happily. Hiccup moved his shoulder a few times to make sure that the repairs would hold up, yet his attention was drawn away from the armor when he heard hooves walking into the room. "Good evening, Princess," Hiccup greeted Twilight as he turned in his chair to meet the smiling face of Twilight. "Thanks for loaning me this...well, incredible room! Sure is nicer than the wooden house that I live in." "After what you did for us, this is the least I can do," Twilight said with a smile before looking over at the snoring Night Fury, a small laugh escaping her lips as Toothless twitched in his sleep. Twilight's gaze then shifted over to the crystal table at which Hiccup sat, where his notebook, knife and a strange baton of sorts rested upon it next to a number of tools. "So, how is the dragon that Toothless freed?" Hiccup asked as he turned back to the items. "Been cooped up in here since we got back and I haven't been able to make anything out through those doors of yours." "Celestia and Luna took the dragon to Canterlot, our most important city, to interrogate while healing him," Twilight informed Hiccup while walking beside the table, tilting her head with curiosity as she looked upon the baton. "Yet, they haven't been able to get much out of him. According to their report, the last thing the dragon remembered was sleeping in his cave when a strange pony in a cloak walked up to him. He roared at them to go away, but then their eyes flashed white and the next thing he knew he was in Ponyville." "Hmm, I don't like that. Whoever this pony is, if they can control dragons just by making eye contact, then they will definitely be a problem," Hiccup muttered as he flipped open his notebook to a page that Twilight noticed had a drawing of the dragon they just battled. He made a few additions to the page, before catching Twilight out of the corner of his eye looking up at him with slight admiration. "What?" "Just...thanks. For saving me," Twilight said while avoiding Hiccup's curious eyes. "And for saving all of Ponyville, of course! If you hadn't shown up when you did, I'm not sure if the town would have survived that dragon attack. So, since I brought you here you've saved a princess, a town--and freed a dragon from mind control. Not bad for a first day on the job." "Now I understand why you ponies brought me here. No dragon should be forced against its will to be evil," Hiccup said with a quiet fire in his voice that brought out the strength in his features. He then looked down to catch Twilight looking at the items he had strewn across the table, smiling as she reached out for his sword. "Like it? I invented it myself," Hiccup boasted slightly as the collapsed blade shot out into its full glory, getting Twilight's eyes to widen. "Yep, it's a retractable sword. Took me months to figure out how to compact it without sacrificing its ability to give and take hits. But that's not its only cool feature." As he said this he pushed another button, causing the blade to erupt into a torrent of fire. Twilight jumped back slightly as Hiccup began to swing the sword around, explaining how he made it. "The blade is coated in Nightmare saliva, making it resemble a dragon's fire when lit. This way I can convince them that I'm one of their own. It's also good for scaring away any people who want to mess with me." "And you built this yourself?" Twilight questioned as Hiccup motioned for her to take it. She examined every inch of the weapon while holding it with her magic, amazed but also confused at the same time. Hiccup noticed the confusion and asked her what was wrong. "I'm just having a hard time placing you. You ride around on dragons and are human, yet your weapons and armor seem almost...primitive. Just a quick question, do you have electricity where you come from?" Hiccup lowered his head for a minute as he thought about her strange question, not sure what she was asking. "Yeah we have lightning, but since it's nearly impossible to capture lightning without somebody getting really hurt, we try to avoid it." Twilight's face had turned into a frown while Hiccup had explained, because the fact that he confused electricity for raw lightning meant that he was farther back in human history than she had originally thought. "Hey Hiccup, what was the most important invention or discovery that you've had recently?" Twilight asked, determined to place his era. Hiccup had to think about his answer for a moment. "Well, a few years ago we discovered that if a Gronkle, a kind of dragon, eats a special kind of rock it will belch up a new kind of metal," Hiccup explained as he reached over to Toothless, messing with the saddle for a moment before he drew out a long metal rod. "This new metal is far stronger and lighter than the old ones we used, but unfortunately it's really hard to come by. That was really important, since it helped reduce the weight of Toothless' saddle. But other than that...have to think about it." As Hiccup reattached the rod onto Toothless' saddle, Twilight had managed to place Hiccup and she was concerned about the era from which he came. 'From what I've learned about humans through history books, Hiccup would have to be from an earlier part of human civilization. Maybe around the time of the Vikings or such, but that means the only skill he has--that we don't--is his ability to train and work with dragons. Aside from that, I'm certain we could replicate most of this stuff. Did I make the right choice in bringing him here?' Her thoughts were broken when Toothless let out a loud yawn, before rolling off of the bed and to the floor with a loud THWUMP! He shook himself once as he rose to his feet, before walking over to Hiccup and biting the back of his armor, dragging the human out of his chair. Toothless nearly made it out the door before Twilight freed Hiccup with her magic. "What's wrong with him?" Twilight asked cautiously as she helped Hiccup up, not liking that the dragon was running back and forth while bounding off of the bed and walls. "He's just excited that the sun's setting," Hiccup explained as he scratched Toothless under the chin, not seeming to realize that his explanation just made Twilight all the more confused. Hiccup caught her confused look and elaborated. "Sunset means that we are going to go flying one last time before we call it a day. It's probably his favorite time to fly because the stars are starting to come out. And if Toothless doesn't get his flight, then I don't get any sleep. Best to take him now." "I did not realize that flying your dragon was like walking him. I thought you only did it when you needed to travel," Twilight muttered. "Are you kidding? Riding Toothless while he's flying is just as much fun for me as it is for him," Hiccup informed Twilight, while Toothless nearly broke down the door to the room. "You should try it. Once you've ridden on the back of a dragon, you'll wonder how you managed to live without doing so." "No thanks, I can fly fine on my own," Twilight reminded him as she flapped her wings. "Yeah, but that's not flying on a DRAGON!" Hiccup reminded her. She gave him a look and with a sigh he gave up, opening the door for Toothless and allowing the dragon to tear through the castle before bursting through the front doors. Hiccup sprinted after him with an apology to Twilight, catching up to his friend out in the sun soaked field that lay in front of the castle. "Alright alright, just calm down long enough so that I can get on your back," Hiccup grumbled as he struggled to fight through Toothless' excitement in order to mount up. Hiccup had just sat down on Toothless' back and hooked his foot in when he heard a cough behind him, both dragon and rider turning to see the Princess of Friendship looking up at him with a nervous smile. "Change your mind?" Hiccup asked with a smile. "Well, not many ponies can say they've ridden on the backs of dragons without being torched, so I thought this would be a great experience," Twilight muttered quickly. Hiccup patted the spot behind where he was sitting and helped pull Twilight onto the seat, yet when he told her to wrap her hooves around his waist it took a minute before she did so. "Just so you know, I'm doing this just so I know what it's like to ride on a dragon. Nothing else." "You say that now, but just wait till we start flying," Hiccup warned her with a smile before turning forward and patting Toothless on the head. "Okay Bud, let's start out slow for her. Nice and gently now..." With a roar Toothless shot off into the crimson sky, forcing Twilight to hang onto Hiccup for dear life. He flapped his wings hard and let out a roar that scared away all the birds in the nearby vicinity, while Hiccup struggled to regain control of him. In a few seconds after lift off, Toothless had already broken through the small cloud cover that hung over the town, where he slowed down and leveled out. "Sorry about that, he's just really excited," Hiccup apologized over his shoulder, but Twilight had him in a death grip while she shook slightly. "I said gently Toothless!" Toothless groaned an apology before he began to fly more gracefully. With a flick of his foot Hiccup helped Toothless spin swiftly while keeping the bumpiness of the flight to a minimum, occasionally glancing back over his shoulder at Twilight. At first, Twilight hung on to Hiccup for dear life, but after getting used to the movements of the dragon (and remembering that even if she fell she had wings) she began to look around more, her eyes growing wide with awe when she saw the sky around them. The clouds shone softly in the dying light of the sun while the amber skies relaxed her, seeming to melt the stress that the dragon problem had created within her. She looked straight up to see that just as Hiccup had said, the stars themselves were coming out to play. Thousands of lights began to twinkle overhead as the Nighty Fury rolled, spun and looped his way across the sky, flying in a way with such precision and grace that Twilight had to question the very way she had been flying before. Once she had gotten more comfortable with how Toothless sailed across the skies, she eventually let go of Hiccup and spread her arms, closing her eyes so that the wind could embrace her whole being in a way she had never felt before. Hiccup lowered himself down to get out of her way, trying to allow Twilight to feel the full experience. "Amazing, isn't it?" Hiccup eventually asked her when the sun had fully set, allowing the night moon to gently shine its glow upon the three as they glided through the soft, white clouds. Twilight simply nodded her head in response as Toothless started to fly straight up, making Twilight feel for a moment that she could reach out and touch the stars before Toothless fell backwards. The three dove straight down through a number of the clouds before bursting out of them above the City of Canterlot, which shone with a thousand lights that created a soft glow in the dark. 'I don't get it. I've flown plenty of times before but this is the first time that I've felt like...I've truly experienced what it means to be one with the sky,' Twilight thought to herself as she let out a sigh and sat back a bit, looking over the city of Canterlot before glancing at the lights of Ponyville that was rapidly approaching the three. 'But why is this time so different? What is Toothless doing in his flight pattern that I never did?' Her answer came when Toothless let out a happy groan, his voice echoing across the night sky. She looked past Hiccup at the face of the dragon, who turned his head back slightly so that one of his green eyes was peeking at her. The eyes were practically smiling, seeming to tell Twilight that this is how one truly flew. 'It's all Toothless. The way he moves, the way he seems to become one with the very sky itself. Toothless truly is a master of the sky,' Twilight thought to herself as she gently petted the dragon beneath her, before realizing that a small rope connected the false fin on Toothless' tail to the stirrup. She realized that the stirrup was the same one where Hiccup's false foot was and, after watching how Hiccup moved his foot in conjunction with the movements of the dragon, realize that it wasn't just Toothless who was a master of the sky. 'So you two work together then, using your combined skills to make up for what you've lost,' Twilight deduced with a large smile, her opinion of both Toothless and Hiccup changing for the better. No longer was Toothless just some dragon that Hiccup had brought with him; he was now a master of the skies, a dragon that flew in a way no Pegasus could match. And then there was Hiccup, the human who only a half hour ago, Twilight thought was only useful for his dragon training skills. But now she could see that he and Toothless were essentially one, each of them working together in near perfect unison to arch across the skies in a way that no Pegasus had ever attempted. He was truly a master of the dragons. 'They're incredible,' Twilight thought to herself with a slight warm face as she looked from the dragon to the rider. 'The both of them.' "So what do you think now? Still think that there's any other way to fly?" Hiccup asked with a knowing smile, forcing Twilight to hide her face as Toothless started to descend into Ponyville. "Okay, you were right...I've never experienced any sort of flying like that. It's like...the two of you were one with the very sky itself," Twilight blurted out right before she was forced to grab hold of Hiccup again, needing to hold onto him as Toothless came to a screeching halt on the ground outside of the castle. Hiccup smiled as Twilight pried her hooves off of him and hopped off the back of Toothless, who let out a loud yawn before he moved up the steps to the castle. Hiccup went to follow him before Twilight let out another cough to gain his attention. "That...was actually really fun. Would you mind if we did it again sometime?" "Sure. I bet when Spike gets older he wouldn't mind flying you around himself," Hiccup said before the both of them entered into the castle again, Twilight using her magic to close the doors while Hiccup joined Toothless in their rooms. Twilight peeked in on them a few minutes later to see Toothless curled up in the corner with Hiccup laying against him, the both of them already asleep. "Thanks...for today," she whispered before following their example and heading to her own chambers. She brushed her teeth, organized her books and finally set herself down in her bed. But sleep did not come easily for Twilight, as her thoughts were back in the air where she remembered flying as if she were a free spirit. But when sleep finally did come and take her off to never land, she found that her dreams were hardly any different than the thoughts she had before bed...thoughts of sailing through the air on the back of a dragon while holding onto a certain human, perfectly happy.