//------------------------------// // Who You Trust // Story: How To Ponify Your Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Now that everything is more or less back to normal, I'd like to talk to you all about what happened back there with Wijida," Twilight began in a regal tone while she and the others entered into her castle, with even the dragons managing to fit through the large twin doors. Twilight immediately brought them into the room with the map of the land and sat down in her chair, constructing other chairs for Astrid and Hiccup with her magic. "Because I, for one, can't figure out why she attacked that town." "Maybe because she's crazy and just wants to mess things up as badly as she can?" Rainbow Dash reminded the group as she leaned back in her chair, most of whom agreed with her except for the princess who shook her head with a frown. "She may be crazy Rainbow Dash, but it's the calculated kind of crazy. Wijida's not the type of pony to just attack a place with no reason," Twilight discerned, furrowing her brow while she lost herself in thought for a minute or two before snapping back into reality. "Even if her plan was to draw us out, what was the point? Yes, she hurt Astrid, but killing her couldn't have been the reason for her attack. There's something else going on here, something that I'm not seeing." "Are you feeling alright?" Hiccup whispered to Astrid while the ponies continued to discuss what Wijida might be after. "You just got out of their hospital after all, and I was just wondering..." "Thanks for the concern, Hiccup, but whatever magic they used on me in there really patched me up well," Astrid responded with a small smile before a large, blue nose stuck itself in-between the two of them, getting Astrid to slightly jumped back while Hiccup smiled up at Stormfly. Stormfly pressed her nose against Astrid before tilting her head slightly as if in confusion, before she started to sniff the human with slightly narrowed eyes. "You probably smell like ponies now, since you've been sleeping in one of their beds for so long," Hiccup said with a laugh as Stormfly practically rammed her nose into Astrid's face, forcing Astrid to push against her dragon to keep her back. It seemed that Stormfly wouldn't stop sniffing until the doors to the chamber opened and a small purple dragon peeked his head in, immediately gaining the attention of Stormfly, who finally lost interest in her rider. "Yes Spike, what's the matter?" Twilight asked upon seeing her assistant, who slipped into the room with a note clutched in his claws. "The princesses sent you a letter, Twilight," Spike informed the princess while he took a step forward before glancing at everyone in the room, slightly flinching when he caught Astrid's gaze. Then, clearing his throat, he looked down at the scroll. CRACK! The dragon and ponies had just enough time to register the sound of something breaking before Stormfly threw herself over Spike, just in time to catch the shattered crystals--that had been a part of the ceiling--with her body. The Nadder let out a cry of pain as a particularly sharp piece caught her in the wing, but further harm was prevented when Twilight used her magic to gather up the rest of the falling shards. "What in the name of Faust happened?" Rarity asked, as Hiccup and Astrid raced over to Stormfly's side, Hiccup grimacing at the gash in the Nadder's wing. Astrid placed a hand on Stormfly's wing, but the dragon whipped it away from her grasp with a growl. "It looks like the ceiling collapsed," Twilight said with confusion while she looked up at the cracked crystal in the roof of her palace. "But how could that happen? This castle is far stronger than any other building, and nothing short of powerful magic could...are you okay, Spike?" Twilight asked the baby dragon as he crawled out from beneath Stormfly, breathing heavily while he glanced up at the Deadly Nadder with a confused look. "Twilight, can you get me some bandages?" Hiccup asked, placing his hand on Stormfly's wing, calming her down as he examined the injury further while Twilight left the room. She returned a moment later and Hiccup applied the bandages to the dragon, who gingerly moved her wing while Hiccup coxed her to her feet. "Is Stormfly going to be alright?" Fluttershy asked. "Yeah, but she's going to need to rest for a few days," Hiccup said as he glanced back at Fluttershy. "Do you mind if she stays at your cottage? Astrid or I can show you how to take care of her." "Oh, of course you can. I'd love to get to know Stormfly a little better," Fluttershy nodded as she smiled up at the Nadder. "Is that alright with you, Astrid?" Hiccup asked Astrid, who shook her head slightly before nodding. "Sure, Stormfly will be well taken care of with Fluttershy," Astrid agreed as Hiccup handed his notebook to Fluttershy, opening the page to Nadder care. "I'll take her to my place right now so I can get started on her care," Fluttershy said as she walked alongside Stormfly and escorted her out of the room, where the dragon looked back at Hiccup and Astrid one last time before leaving. "You're not going to go with her?" Hiccup asked. "No, I need to be here so we can plan out our next move against Wijida," Astrid said with a shake of her head before looking to Twilight. "You think that the attack may have been her trying to take the Draconis Gem from us?" "I'm almost certain that was the case," Twilight agreed as she flew up to the ceiling, examining the crystals while trying to determine what caused them to break. "Fortunately for us, the princesses left guarding the gem up to Hiccup." "You've still got the gem, right Hiccup?" Astrid asked Hiccup, who stared at her for a second before nodding. "...Yeah, I'm fairly certain that she hasn't gotten the gem yet, but that will only make her more desperate," Hiccup began, gaining him a few looks. "Wijida said that we were getting close to the end of our adventure, which means that she'll need the gem soon. Is there a curse or something, along with that gem, that will allow it to raise Thanatos only on a certain day?" The look Twilight gave Hiccup as he asked this question was one of complete bafflement, but Hiccup then motioned for her to speak and from the looks her friends were giving her, the princess knew that she had no choice. "Yes, there is a condition that requires Thanatos to be resurrected," Twilight admitted with a sigh. "Once every thousand years, the portal to the afterlife can be opened, and whoever wields the Draconis Gem will be able to draw forth one dragon back from the dead and into the land of the living. And that thousand years is almost up." "Why is it always a thousand years with this end of the world thing?" Applejack asked with an eyebrow raised. "Well, technically it's nine hundred and seventy two years, but Celestia told me that a thousand sounds more ominous," Twilight admitted with a slight blush. "So, the time for the portal is almost here, so that means that Wijida is going to have to try even harder to steal the gem from us," Astrid recapped, getting a nod from Twilight. "Meaning, we'll have to be at our best to guard it from her. You should let me hold onto the gem Hiccup. She'd never see that coming." "Maybe you're right. She wouldn't see it coming," Hiccup quietly said before looking out the window at the sun, which was just starting to sink behind the horizon. "It's getting late. I'm going to fly Toothless around, and then we should go check up on Stormfly to make sure that she's doing alright." "You want me to come with you?" Astrid asked. For a long moment, Hiccup stared at her before shaking his head. In one quick motion he hopped onto the back of his dragon before Toothless bounded through the doors, bursting into the front yard of Twilight's castle, then kicking off of the ground with one mighty flap of his wings. The dragon and rider sliced through the sky as they climbed higher and higher, before Toothless leveled off and glided in the glow of the setting sun. "What do you think about all of this, Bud?" Hiccup asked, getting a soft growl from Toothless in response as the dragon looked up at him with his emerald eyes. "Yeah Bud, it's all strange to me too. Don't worry, I have a plan, but if it doesn't work...then I get to go to Valhalla early." \\\\\\ ============ ////// Sunlight beamed down on the town of Ponyville, casting a calm and warming glow upon the citizens and guests. Having been raised under the freezing winds and nearly inhospitable conditions of Berk, the two Vikings and Night Fury were drinking in as much of the warm weather as they could on the way to see Stormfly. "What a beautiful day!" Astrid practically sang with happiness while she walked down the street with Hiccup and Twilight, hands clasped behind her back as she slightly squinted under the bright rays of the sun. "On a day like this, you'd almost forget that there's a crazy pony waging war with mind-controlled dragons, wouldn't you?" "Don't worry, I'm never going to forget what Wijida did," Twilight promised. "Neither will I. I've seen plenty of madmen use dragons against their wills for power or glory, but the way she does it...somehow it seems even more sickening than before," Hiccup snarled before looking down at Twilight. "By the way Twilight, did you figure out when Wijida would need to use the gem to revive Thanatos from Hel?" "Yes actually, that's why I was up all night...well, that and your dragon's snoring," Twilight teased before reaching back into her saddle bag and drawing forth a large book, which she cracked open to reveal pages filled to the brim with different dragons and creatures. "A week from tomorrow, is when Wijida will have to use the gem to unlock the gate to the afterlife and rip Thanatos' soul from the grave. If she misses that window, then she'll have to wait another thousand years until she can try again." "Don't you mean nine hundred and seventy two years?" Astrid poked with fun, getting Twilight to roll her eyes in response. The three chatted, though mostly it was Twilight and Hiccup who talked, until the group spotted Fluttershy's cottage on the edge of the field...as well as the yellow pegasi chasing around the Deadly Nadder, who was chasing all of her chickens. "Oh boy, Stormfly's at it again," Hiccup laughed before racing forward and placing himself between the Nadder and her prey. "No Stormfly, you can't just eat all of-oh no!" Hiccup yelled as Stormfly raced right by him, barking her head off while she glanced at the numerous chickens that fled in fear, trying to decide which of them to go after first. "Astrid, she's not listening to me again! Calm her down!" "Um...sure. Stormfly, over here!" Astrid called out to the dragon. For a moment, Stormfly snapped out of her chicken craze and glanced over at Astrid, but then the dragon narrowed her eyes before turning back to the chickens and continuing the chase. "She's not listening to me either! What do we do?" "Odd, Stormfly always listens to Astrid," Hiccup muttered as he decided what to do next, but the answer came when a streak of black raced by him and threw himself in-between Stormfly and the chickens, barking at the Nadder. For a brief moment, it looked as if Stormfly was going to contest Toothless' decree, but Toothless' eyes narrowed into slits and Stormfly quickly found herself stopping the chase. "Oh...thank goodness...I thought...she was going to...oh I'm tired," Fluttershy panted as she collapsed to the ground in front of Twilight and Astrid, sucking in as much air as she could while she shakily stood back up. "That injury sure hasn't sapped any of her energy. I've never seen a dragon run around so fast." "To be fair Fluttershy, you only really know Spike, and Celestia knows that dragon is the laziest being I've ever met," Twilight giggled as Toothless walked Stormfly back over to the group, where Stormfly stood next to the Night Fury instead of listening to Astrid's calls. "She really isn't listening to anypony today. Good thing we have the Alpha dragon here or else those poor chickens wouldn't stand a chance." "I'm just surprised that you didn't try to wrestle Stormfly back under your control. This kind of reminds me of the time she accidentally ate a spiny eel and spent nearly three days terrorizing the village. You eventually had to lasso her, and rode her around for ten minutes trying to wrestle her back under control," Hiccup reminisced with a smile, his smile shrinking slightly when Astrid chuckled as well. "Oh yeah, I remember that. I was sore for days after that incident," Astrid recalled as well, though she did glance over at Stormfly while she said this and noticed that the dragon continued to ignore her. "I'm surprised that you were so willing to let Stormfly come here to recover Fluttershy. From what Hiccup and Twilight told me about you, I thought you would have hid under a table instead of dealing with her." "Oh no, I love all animals, but I especially love to learn more about ones that I know little about, like dragons," Fluttershy disagreed with a shake of her head before walking over to Stormfly and scratching her under the chin. "But your dragon is one of a kind, just like Hiccup's. We don't have any dragons like them here, so being able to observe them up close is a real treat. Though I will admit that I may have bitten off more than I could chew with Stormfly here." "Well, aren't you just the brave little pony?" Astrid asked with a smirk. Twilight chuckled at the line along with Fluttershy, before she cast a quick glance over at Hiccup...and immediately realized that something was up with him. His face was turned up towards the sky with both eyes closed and hands clasped together, almost as if he were praying--or saying his farewells to the world. Then he opened his eyes and, after taking in the deepest breath Twilight had ever seen, turned towards Astrid with a smile on her face. "Fluttershy is indeed brave, isn't she. Not like that uncle of yours, that our entire village calls the shame of the Hofferson family," Hiccup laughed while elbowing Astrid in the ribs slightly, catching the Viking off guard as Hiccup looked at the ponies. "The village once called him Fearless Finn Hofferson, but after facing down the Flightmare and after being frozen in fear by the creature, everybody on Berk called him Frozen Finn. Man, you're family sure hates talking about him, don't they?" For a long minute Astrid just looked at Hiccup with a blank expression on her face, yet while she remained expressionless, Hiccup's face began to fill more and more with terror. And upon seeing the unnerved expression of Hiccup, the ponies silently watched with baited breath to see what would happen next. Then, a smile crossed Astrid's face and she let out a laugh that made the ponies sigh in relief, though no one saw Hiccup's face harden. "You're right about that Hiccup, Uncle Finn definitely was a stain on the family name. We're almost glad that the Flightmare got him," Astrid laughed as she crossed her arms and thought back. "Yeah, having him in the family sure put a blot on our name, but after a while we-" Faster than any of the ponies could react, Hiccup spun and slammed his shoulder into Astrid's stomach, knocking the wind out of her and nearly doubling her over from the impact. Stormfly let out a roar of rage and took a step forward, only for Toothless to slam into her side and tackle her to the ground while pinning her at the same time. Astrid had just enough time to look up in confusion at Hiccup before the Viking went low and sweeped Astrid's feet, knocking her right to her back where she landed hard. "Hiccup, what in Faust's name are you doing?!" Twilight screamed at him as she took a step forward, but before either pony could move, a bolt of plasma erupted at their hooves and pushed them back. Astrid was about to ask Hiccup the same question before the singing sound of metal sliding on metal could be heard, and she looked up to see that the tip of Hiccup's sword was right in front of her face. "Hiccup, what are you doing?" Astrid gasped as Hiccup placed his peg leg on her chest, looking at him with pleading eyes that were met only with a stare as cold as the steel in Hiccup's blade. "Something that I should have done back at the hospital," Hiccup whispered in a dangerous tone that was unlike him, while he reached down and placed a hand around Astrid's chain to pull her up slighty. "Now answer me this. Where. Is. Astrid?"