//------------------------------// // Old Sayings // Story: How To Ponify Your Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Sickening horror tore apart Hiccup's heart as he hurled himself and Toothless down the cliff face towards the bottom, where a single Viking lay next to a large pile of boulders that had made up the top of the cliff. Toothless practically slammed into the ground before he rushed over to the motionless Astrid, barely stopping long enough for Hiccup to dismount before he was sniffing her body. "No. Oh gods, no," Hiccup whispered as he gently picked up Astrid into his shaking arms, eyes brimming with terror when he saw the way her arm was bent. Hiccup didn't register that the ponies were also down with him until Twilight was at his side, scanning Astrid with her magic before Stormfly practically ran over the princess to get to Astrid. "Is...is she okay?" Fluttershy dared to ask from beside Hiccup, as he placed an ear to Astrid's chest, holding his breath for a brief moment before he let out a small sigh. "No, she's not okay...but she's alive," Hiccup whispered with relief in every word before he looked over to Twilight, who had just pulled herself out of the mud and started to scan Astrid again. "She's in bad shape. Multiple broken bones, internal damage and some severe trauma," Twilight informed Hiccup, whose rage was building while she uncovered the full extent of the damage. "She may be alive for now, but I don't know if she'll live much longer! Back up!" The ponies did so, but Hiccup refused to budge an inch, getting a small smile out of Twilight before her eyes glowed with a violet light while her magic flowed from her horn into Astrid. For a few tense minutes, all watched as Twilight bathed Astrid in her magic, before eventually the pony let out a sigh and the light faded from both her eyes and the Viking. "My magic ensured that she won't die on us now, but if we don't get her to a hospital, it's just a temporary fix," Twilight explained as Hiccup looked down at Astrid, who had slightly more color in her face and was breathing easier than before. "We need to go now." Hiccup nodded as Twilight cast a spell around Astrid, allowing her to aid Hiccup in lifting the broken and bleeding Viking onto the back of Toothless. "My spell will hopefully allow us to move her without inflicting further harm, but I can't be certain," Twilight explained to Hiccup as the rider clutched Astrid tightly before telling Toothless to take off. "Rainbow, lead them to the hospital." Rainbow nodded before she shot off after Toothless and Stormfly, who hadn't wasted a moment in following the black Night Fury who held her rider. Twilight and the remaining four ponies watched the dragons vanish into the dark, cloudy sky with fear clawing at each of them, none of them daring to speak until the dragons and Dash were completely out of sight. Twilight then turned away and walked towards the rock pile, scanning it with her magic with rage flashing in her soul. "What are you doing, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked when Twilight used her magic to rip Astrid's axe from the rock pile with a sigh of frustration. "Scanning for Wijida," Twilight seethed while she drove the blade of the axe into the ground before turning her magic to the surrounding area. "That monster of a pony fell along with Astrid, yet there's no body. And that can only mean she survived." "Unless she's buried under the rock pile," Applejack pointed out as she slammed a hoof into the pile, displacing some of the rocks slightly. "No, I just scanned it and there's no trace of her in there," Twilight began in a tone that gained her the others' attention. "What's the matter, Twilight?" Pinkie asked in a slightly happy tone, which meant that she was really upset with what had happened. "I sense Wijida's magic all over the place, if I can even call it magic, but there's no trail," Twilight muttered while she scanned the ground with a violet light that revealed patches of black energy that resided in the ground. "I have no idea where she's gotten to! And she can't teleport...at least I think she can't, so where did she get to?" "Well wherever she got to, ah can guarantee you that she'll be back," Applejack said with complete honesty. "But ah also know that right now Astrid needs us. Forget about Wijida for now. She didn't get the gem. She can wait." Twilight gritted her teeth for a moment before letting the rage out with a sigh as she nodded to Applejack. She then encased herself and her friends in a magic bubble that took off into the sky after the dragon riders, turning their attention away from the crazy witch pony and to their wounded friend. \\\\\\\ ============= /////// At first, Hiccup had found the constant beeping of the strange machine that Twilight had informed him was a heart monitor annoying, but after the third day of having to sit beside it he found it was much easier to tune out. What wasn't as easy to get rid of as he sat beside Astrid's bedside, was the sense of fear and worry, despite the doctors telling the group that the magic had healed most of Astrid's injuries and that she would be fine in a few weeks. 'I'm going to get you for this, Wijida,' Hiccup silently thought to himself as he rested his arms on the bed, gazing down at the sleeping face of Astrid. A small smile crossed Hiccup's face before he extended his hand and gently took Astrid's in his. "Thank Thor that you're going to be alright. For these past three days, I was afraid that...after Dad...I can't lose you as well." The first few days at the hospital had been the hardest, and not even Twilight's magic had been able to pry Hiccup from Astrid's side. Despite being in a place filled with technology and medical equipment the likes of which Hiccup had never seen, his eyes remained glued to one person, day and night, until the doctors informed him she was fine. A loud bark from behind Hiccup nearly got him to jump out of his chair, but with a sigh he turned around to see the tip of Stormfly's nose poking through the open window, worry in her eyes as she glanced from Hiccup to Astrid. Another bark came from below the window, telling Hiccup that Toothless was down there as well. "No guys, she hasn't woken up yet. Trust me, the moment she does I'll let the both of you know," Hiccup said to them right before the door to the room was opened and a number of ponies walked inside. "Hi Hiccup. Any change?" Twilight asked as she, Fluttershy and Rarity walked into the room, each of them placing flowers beside Astrid's bedside while they passed by it. "As I was just telling these two, nothing has changed," Hiccup repeated as he motioned to the dragon nose sticking in the window, which started to sniff harder at the arrival of the new entrants. The ponies nodded as they pulled up seats and sat down beside Hiccup, before Twilight caught Hiccup looking at her with a strange expression. "What's the matter, Hiccup?" Twilight asked. "It's just...the healers told me that if you hadn't used your magic on her back at the bottom of the cliff, they wouldn't have been able to save her life," Hiccup began quietly before giving Twilight the most grateful and genuine smile she had ever seen. "Thank you, Twilight. Thank you so much. Astrid...means a lot to me." "Oh. You're welcome," Twilight replied with a small smile and a nod of her head. "How did you and Astrid meet, if you don't mind me asking," Rarity asked the moment Twilight had finished, giving a strange look to both Hiccup and Astrid...almost as if she was seeing the two for the first time. "I mean, the two of you are incredibly close and you seem to be able to work with one another perfectly. I was just curious, that's all." The ponies all looked to Hiccup with interest, their expression telling him that they were all curious to hear the story as well. "Well, believe it or not we weren't always this close," Hiccup began as he rested his chin on his knuckles as his mind flashed back to years ago. "As a matter of fact, for the longest time Astrid hated me, along with every other Viking on Berk. Man, those were some days." "You were hated by the people of your home?" Fluttershy asked with surprise. "Oh yeah, aside from the dragons that attacked us, I was probably the most hated thing in the village," Hiccup added with a bitter laugh. "Then again, back then the Vikings of Berk didn't like you if you couldn't swing a sword or throw an axe or take off a Gronkles head with a single strike." The collective gasp of the ponies snapped Hiccup out of his flashback, and he glanced over at them to see horrified looks on their faces. "Right, you didn't know what Berk used to be like. Until about five years ago, Vikings on Berk killed dragons instead of training and living in peace with them," Hiccup revealed, gaining him ever more gasps from the ponies. "Yep, for generations the dragons and Vikings battled to the bloody death. The dragons would attack, we would repel. We would then go on the offensive, but they managed to avoid us. That's how I was raised by my Dad, by the way, to kill dragons." "You...killed dragons?" Fluttershy asked in a horrified voice. "No, I haven't killed any. Unless the Red Death counts. But no, I was too weak to lift an axe, let alone kill a dragon," Hiccup clarified before continuing. "Instead, I created a contraption that would knock dragons out of the skies and make them easy targets. And it worked. I caught a dragon with the bolas and downed it." "What happened to that dragon?" Twilight dared to ask. Hiccup's answer was to smile before leaning towards the window and letting out a whistle that was quickly answered by a bark the ponies knew well. "Toothless was that dragon?" "Remember his missing tail? My fault," Hiccup admitted before motioning to his leg. "He got me back for that one though. But yeah, Toothless was the dragon I downed. And despite having him captured, I saw myself in his eyes. Scared, in pain and desperate. So I let him go. And in return he didn't tear my head off of my shoulders." "So you started to learn about dragons from Toothless," Fluttershy guessed, getting a smile from Hiccup as he nodded. "After a few months of studying Toothless, I started to realize that dragons weren't the fire breathing monsters of destruction that my father said they were. That they could be reasoned with...and that they could be trained," Hiccup flashbacked. "I developed his tail, his saddle and helped him to fly again despite the missing fin. We became a team of sorts." "So, where does Astrid come into this?" Rarity asked, trying to get the story back on track. "She was the first one to discover that I had been training Toothless, and at first she wasn't too happy about it. Toothless had to drop her off at the top of a tree to keep her from running off to the village," Hiccup recalled with a small smile. "I bet that made you really popular with her," Twilight ribbed. "She was upset at first, but after flying on Toothless for a while she came around to the idea that dragons weren't evil. The real task was trying to convince the rest of the village about that," Hiccup recalled with a far more somber face than before. "To make a long story short, Toothless saved me from a dragon, my Dad got furious with me and I was left alone on the island of Berk, disowned and watching as my Dad took Toothless off to find the nest of dragons. Not my best moment." "So how'd you fix that mess?" Rarity asked, fully engrossed into the story at this point. "Well...Astrid was the one who forced me to get back up," Hiccup admitted. "She supported me and refused to let me give up. If it hadn't been for her...I may have given up then and there. Heh, now that I think about it, she's probably the main reason we managed to make peace with the dragons for the most part." "Wait...so you convinced your entire island to stop their war with the dragons and they listened?" Fluttershy asked, deducing what happened next. "Well...yes...but there's a bit more that happened before that," Hiccup continued. "So, me and the rest of the dragon-slaying class hopped onto the backs of the dragons that we had and-" "Ugh, I hurt. What in the name of heaven happened to me?" All heads swung around to the hospital bed, where Astrid was slowly starting to move. In an instant Hiccup and the ponies were beside her, Hiccup helping her to sit up as she blinked her eyes and looked around at all of the faces in the hospital room. "Where am I?" "You're in a hospital, Astrid. Don't worry, you're safe," Hiccup explained to Astrid, who turned her head towards Hiccup with a confused look on her face. "Right, don't know what that is. A hospital is where the ponies' healers tend to the sick and wounded. And you've been here for three days." "Three days? Has it been three days already?" Astrid asked before her eyes went wide and she looked around the room, fully alert. "Where's Wijida? The last thing I remember was the ground collapsing and then I was falling...and then..." "Wijida's gone for now, but we're certain she'll show up again," Twilight explained, her voice turning Astrid's head towards her. For a brief moment Astrid stared at Twilight with a strange look before she blinked again and nodded. "But at the moment our biggest concern was getting you to safety and getting you all patched up." "And good thing we did darling, you wouldn't have lasted much longer without Twilight's aid," Rarity stated as she walked beside the bed with a smile. "Seems you owe Twilight one." "Yeah...sure..." Astrid muttered as she pushed the sheets back and slowly moved her legs to the side of the bed, gritting her teeth as pain flooded through her body. "Okay, that hurt." "You need to take it easy. Your life might not be in danger any more, but you're still in no shape to be moving around on your own," Twilight ordered as Astrid stood up and leaned against Hiccup for support, shaking her head a few times as she tried to focus. "Focus, darn it. Focus," Astrid muttered to herself before a loud bark at the window was heard, right before Stormfly started to jump up at the window to try and get a glimpse at Astrid. "It's okay, Stormfly, she's fine!" Hiccup called out the window to the dragon, who let out another happy cry before she tried to fit her head through the window and failed miserably. "I'll use my magic to make sure that she doesn't destroy the window," Twilight smiled as she walked over to the window, leaving the other ponies to approach Astrid, who sat back down on the bed again while letting out a pained sigh. "I'm glad to see that you're alright," Fluttershy said with a small smile, but Astrid ignored her as she clenched and unclenched her fists while continuing to blink, struggling to grow accustomed to the light. "Where's the gem...did Wijida...?" Astrid began, but Hiccup sat down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder with a shake of his head. "No. We've still got it," Hiccup said with a smile, yet Astrid only nodded slightly as she closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths. "I've got your axe back at the castle, just in case you're wondering," Twilight added as she walked back over. "Once we get the doctors to take a look at you and make sure that you're fine, you can reunite with it." Twilight jested with that last bit, but Astrid just shook her head, then nodded once again. "Er...thanks...do you all mind if I have a moment alone? I need...to regain my senses." The ponies and Hiccup all looked at each other before each of them stood up and left the room, with Hiccup taking a moment to kiss her on the cheek before he left. When they were gone, Astrid took in a few deep breaths before, with a grunt of pain, she pushed herself to her feet. She staggered forward and had to catch herself on the sink by the bed, where she panted heavily while she looked up at the mirror. "I can do this," she grunted as she pushed herself off and forced herself away from the sink, her legs shaking as they struggled to keep her upright. Yet by sheer force of will she kept herself standing, despite the shaking of her legs. Astrid then looked up at the mirror and took in the image of herself before a large smile crossed her face and she nodded with approval. "Okay everyone, I'm ready to go. Let's go home."