//------------------------------// // CMC Dragon Tamers // Story: How To Ponify Your Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "How did you manage to talk me into this?" Hiccup asked his girlfriend with crossed arms while he glanced down at the three fillies that were barely able to sit still. "Teaching three...children how to train dragons? Don't you think it might be a bit much for them? He shifted his weight onto his new (and slightly improved) peg leg as he said this, leaving Astrid to shrug with a smile. "Because I know you," she replied with a proud smile while she patted Stormfly beside her, who was watching a number of butterflies float past. A warm breeze caressed her face, and with a sigh of contentment she looked out across Sweet Apple Acres, the only place that Applejack had agreed to let the two "train" the CMC. "A better question is, how did she manage to talk ME into coming here?" Spike asked with a snarl as he crossed his arms and pouted. Toothless barked from beside the small dragon, getting him to jump slightly, before he picked a fallen branch off of the ground and dropped it at Spike's feet while wagging his tail with large eyes. "Hiccup, your dragon's staring at me again," Spike pointed out while he slowly backed away from Toothless. "He just wants you to play with him. Toss the stick," Hiccup replied as he turned back to the fillies, who had ceased to bounce in place due to the stare of Applejack, who sat beside Rarity and Twilight off to the side. Spike picked up the small branch and gave it a good chuck, smiling as Toothless bolted after it with Stormfly in hot pursuit. "Wow, they act more like pets than actual dragons," Spike noticed as the two began to fight over the small branch, neither gaining much ground on the other. "That's...weird. I mean, I haven't met many dragons, but to see yours acting like this is..." "Well, how do you think we felt when we heard you talk?" Hiccup retaliated as he pulled out his notes on how to train dragons for beginners and glanced over them. "None of our dragons could and then when we ended up here, the first dragon we meet speaks to us. THAT was bizarre. Darn, I think I'm missing a few pages." "Oh sure, you remember your notebook but you forget something as crucial as your spare leg," Astrid chided from beside him. "You'd forget that big head of yours if it wasn't attached to your body." "Thank you for saying that in front of the class, Astrid," Hiccup replied with a sigh. "Always great to show your students you know what you're doing." As he said this he looked up at the three fillies again, who were now talking amongst themselves while waiting with bored expressions. "Okay class," Hiccup began as he closed the book loudly, gaining the undivided attention of all three fillies...for about half a second before the orange and white one looked past their teacher at the two dragons who were racing back to the group. "Oh great, Stormfly tore down a different branch," Hiccup noticed immediately when both dragons dropped their branches at Spike's feet, each waiting for him to throw the branches again. Astrid made a motion with her hand and the dragons walked away from Spike to rejoin the humans. "Okay Sweetie, Scootaloo and Applebloom, you are here today because you want to train dragons for some reason, and your sister wants you to stay out of trouble," Hiccup brought up with a nod to AJ, who was watching the dragons carefully as they started to mock fight with each other. "Actually, we don't want to just train them. We want to see if our cutie marks are somehow related to dragons in any way," Sweetie clarified for Hiccup, who raised an eyebrow at the word "Cutie mark," but made no remark before he continued. "Well the first step to interacting with a dragon is to bond with one and train them to trust you," Hiccup began as he turned to face Toothless, who had gone through Hiccup's demonstration enough times to know what to do. Hiccup held out his hand and slowly began to walk forward while Toothless extended his head slightly and pressed his forehead gently into Hiccup's palm. For a brief moment the two stayed like that in complete silence, before Hiccup retracted his hand and looked back at the fillies, expecting awe or praise. "Is that it? You just put your hoof on their head? Lame," Scootaloo scoffed. Hiccup sighed in frustration as Astrid giggled slightly, motioning for Toothless to walk up beside him before he focused on the three. "There was much more to what you just saw than me putting my hand on Toothless' head. There was body language, how I made sure not to unnerve him and that I made sure that I didn't come across as a threat," Hiccup further explained. "Without those tools, some dragons will either back away or straight up attack you." Toothless cemented this point by lashing out with his tongue and giving Hiccup's head a quick bath. "Or they might do that," Astrid added while Hiccup wiped the slime out of his hair, ignoring those who were laughing at his expense. "Come on, Teach! Show us something cool!" Applebloom called out. Hiccup opened his mouth to argue with them, but then he sighed and cast a quick glance to Astrid, who shrugged before nodding. "Alright, you kids want to see something cool? Then feast your eyes on this," Hiccup began as he placed one hand on top of Toothless' head and scratched it once, before scratching him with the other hand under his frills. Toothless let out one loud sigh before he collapsed to the ground, his eyes lazily rolling back in his head as he sighed once more happily. Hiccup turned around with his head held high only to find that the fillies were only moderately curious and not impressed in the least. "So what did ya do, knock him out?" Applebloom asked as she and her friends approached the Night Fury, who cracked an eye open to gaze at the three. "Every dragon has a spot or two that can be used to help them to relax," Hiccup explained once again as he walked over to Spike, who was eyeing Hiccup cautiously after the trick he just pulled. "At first they can be really hard to find, but after you've been at it for a while." He turned and scratched Spike right under the chin, smiling as the dragon collapsed without another sound. "All dragons have these spots, though how effective they are vary from species to species." "That's neat and all, but there's a problem," Sweetie began as she held up her hoof. "We don't have nails like you. So this is a bit useless." Hiccup grumbled something under his breath as Toothless let out a sigh and rose back up, but fortunately for the dragon master, Astrid chose that moment to intervene. "Alright, enough making fun of the instructor. Scootaloo with me, Sweetie with Toothless and Applebloom, you can either partner with Spike or wait for one of your friends to practice first. Hurry up." Under her command the three fillies quickly split into groups, with AB opting to wait on her friends instead of bothering Spike, who was fast asleep on the ground. "Now then, you're all going to practice calmly approaching our dragons with your hands-er, hooves outstretched," Astrid ordered with glances at all the fillies to make sure they obeyed. "Now our dragons won't attack you, but if you don't get it right, they will most likely back off or ignore you, so try and get it right. Let's go ponies." With a little grumbling, but genuine interest shining in their eyes, the fillies broke into groups and each faced their dragons. Applebloom went with Sweetie Belle to practice with Toothless, since she still hadn't fully recovered from Stormfly scaring her the previous day. "Now comes the fun part," Hiccup muttered under his breath as he, and the mares, watched while Scootaloo held out a hoof and took a step forward towards Stormfly. Yet, she had barely gone a couple of steps before Stormfly let out a bark and began to walk away from her, ignoring Scootaloo's cries of protest. "Get back here, you overgrown lizard!" Scootaloo roared as she began to chase Stormfly, who let out another bark while she began to sprint away from the orange pony who struggled to keep up. "Now, how did I know that was going to happen?" Astrid asked with a smirk as Scootaloo roared in frustration, before both she and Hiccup turned their attentions to Sweetie Belle, who, despite having hints of fear on her face, slowly began to walk towards Toothless with her hoof outstretched. All it took, though, was one look at the Night Fury's face for the two masters to know that Toothless wasn't impressed, and to the surprise of neither when Sweetie got close, Toothless simply stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "W-what am I doing wrong?" she squeaked over at Hiccup nervously while she slowly lowered her hoof. "Toothless knows that your heart's not in this," Hiccup explained before jumping back as Stormfly came racing by with an orange filly attached to her tail. "I'll take care of that," Astrid muttered before whistling and chasing after the two. "Okay, I'm a bit afraid of him. I've never seen a dragon like him before," Sweetie Belle admitted, but Hiccup's smile in response to her words confused her for a moment. "It's okay to be afraid. Dragons don't judge you for being afraid of them. Heck, I was pretty scared of Toothless the first time I tried this, and he still accepted me," Hiccup recalled for the filly, whose eyes went wide at his words. "But you have to be willing to push past that fear. That's what the dragons are looking for, at least that's what Toothless does. Now give it another try." Sweetie Belle took in a deep breath before sticking out her hoof once again towards Toothless, who glanced down at it again before glancing at Sweetie with a look. She turned her face slightly away from him, but with another deep breath she ventured a step forward, gaining another eye raise out of the dragon. But then, to her surprise--and the surprise of the mares watching closely--Toothless moved his nose forward and bumped it against her hoof. "I did it!" she squealed happily as she began to bounce around, laughing to herself as Hiccup smiled and shook his head slightly. "Well, it's a start," he muttered before looking at Applebloom. "Alright Applebloom, it's your turn." Applebloom nodded as she steeled her courage, taking in a deep breath like Sweetie Belle had done before holding out her hoof and walking towards Toothless, who turned his attention from the still skipping Sweetie to the new pony. Without flinching and without breaking eye contact, AB walked right up to Toothless and extended her hoof, staring into his eyes while waiting for him to move. Toothless looked the pony up and down for a moment before looking into Applebloom eyes while tilting his head. They both stared each other down for a moment, before Toothless let out a snort and rested his head upon his legs as he turned away from the pony. "Hey! What are you waiting for?" Applebloom asked Toothless, but the dragon let out a yawn as he curled up tightly and ignored the filly completely. "But...you...Hiccup, what did I do wrong?" "Um...I'm not sure," Hiccup muttered as he walked over and placed a hand on Toothless shoulder, trying to budge the stubborn dragon to no avail. "I've only seen him act like this once or twice before...I guess he just doesn't like you. Um, sorry?" Applebloom's response was cut off when Astrid walked back to the group, holding Scootaloo under one arm while keeping her other hand on Stormfly's nose. "Well, it seems that you're cutie mark isn't making friends with dragons," Astrid said to the pouting pony who crossed her arms and looked away from Astrid. "You do any better?" Astrid asked once she had placed Scootaloo next to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, though all it took was a look at the pair's faces to know what happened. "So, he didn't accept Applebloom huh? Weird, I thought for sure she could do it." "He just didn't seem to like her for some reason. Maybe it's just Toothless though," Hiccup muttered before an idea came to him. "Hey Applebloom, try again but this time work with Stormfly instead of Toothless. Maybe that will make a difference." Applebloom did as Hiccup instructed and approached the Deadly Nadder with her hoof outstretched, though this time she tried to be a bit more slow in her approach. Stormfly tilted her head to the side slightly, just as Toothless had done, before she closed her eyes and gently bumped her nose against Applebloom's hoof. A smile spread across the filly's face as excitement grabbed ahold of her heart, and she began to cheer loudly as she pranced around. "Weird. Why was Stormfly accepting of Applebloom when Toothless wasn't?" Hiccup muttered to himself as Sweetie and Applebloom discussed what happened with one another, while Scootaloo glared from the pair off to the side with a less-than-thrilled expression. "Well ,Stormfly has always been an excellent judge of character. That's why she allowed me to be her rider," Astrid reminded Hiccup, but Hiccup wasn't satisfied with the answer and continued to ponder, before telling the fillies that was all for the day with a sigh. "Well, that was certainly interesting," Rarity finally managed to say after letting out a long held sigh of relief, waving at her sister as she raced off with her friends. "However, it doesn't seem that befriending dragons is any of their special talents, something I'm sure we all saw coming." "Yes it most certainly was," Twilight agreed absentmindedly, while she closed the notebook in which she had been writing down everything that she had watched before glancing over at where Spike still lay. Her horn glowed and a moment later she dragged the baby dragon over to her, poking him once to wake him up. "Spike, are you actually asleep? Wow, whatever Hiccup did to you sure was-" "Are they gone?" Twilight rolled her eyes with a chuckle as she placed Spike beside her, who let out a groan while he stretched his back and grumbled something about the short end of the stick. "While that was something to behold, ah'm going to sleep easier at night knowing that mah baby sister won't be chasing dragons no more," Applejack said with confidence before her face fell slightly. "At least, ah hope she won't. Maybe ah should go check up on her and her friends one last time..." "So, what was it like watching Hiccup at the forge?" Rarity whispered to Twilight once Applejack had raced off after the fillies. The question immediately snapped Twilight out of her thoughts and she whipped her head around to look right at Rarity's smile with indignation. "It was interesting seeing how he forged his peg leg, and it clarified that he and Astrid are indeed from a time period that is technologically behind ours," Twilight replied calmly, getting a "hmph" out of Rarity as she made a duck face. "But what he lacks in technology, he certainly more than makes up for with creativity. I've only seen a few ponies work with metal the same way he did. He crafted that new peg leg in half a day without any magic," Twilight continued, gaining Rarity's interest once again. "Quite impressive, wouldn't you say darling?" Rarity asked with a coy smile. "Skilled, handy and a inventor. It seems almost too good to be true that he was the one you pulled in from across all of space, hmm?" "Not this again," Twilight muttered in reply, but without much defiance. The two were interrupted as the dragon masters and their dragons walked over to the two ponies, both Astrid and Hiccup looking up at the sky with baffled looks. "Uh, not to sound crazy or anything, but I think I see ponies pushing a number of clouds over here," Astrid said as she and Hiccup stared at the sky. Both Rarity and Twilight turned to see a large number of black clouds that were flashing lightning being pushed towards the town of Ponyville. Twilight looked from the clouds to the faces of the humans, an idea crossing her mind, and despite herself she clapped her hooves excitedly. "Actually Astrid, the pegasi ponies here are responsible for pushing the clouds into position," Twilight informed the pair, smiling as their jaws dropped in disbelief before she dropped the hook. "Do you want to see how they do it?" From the look of amazement on both their faces, Twilight knew she didn't need to wait for an answer.