//------------------------------// // To the Races // Story: How To Ponify Your Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Heh, you never were that good at this," Hiccup chuckled before biting his lip while Astrid placed the towel against his face again, pain and regret written clearly on her face as Hiccup winced again. "But I appreciate it, nonetheless. If you want though, I can do it myself." "No. I...need to do this. It's my fault after all," Astrid muttered with a pained voice while she tried once again, being as gentle as she could be while she pressed the towel against his face--and doing her best not to look at the blood that was staining it. Hiccup sighed as she said this, and reached up with his hand to gently grab hers, yet when he tried to look into her eyes, Astrid suddenly became fascinated with the crystal floor of Twilight's palace. "It wasn't your fault," Hiccup tried to convince her yet again, but he didn't need a response to see that she wasn't listening to his words. "Wijida threw you off a cliff and messed with your head. None of this is your fault, and you shouldn't blame yourself for what happened. I knew full well what I was doing when I fought her...you...you know what I mean." "I hurt you, Hiccup. Wijida made me hurt you," Astrid whispered through gritted teeth as her sorrow slowly shifted into rage at herself. "All because I wasn't strong enough to fight her. Because I let her get inside my mind. And it could have been worse...I could have..." Hiccup reached out with his other hand and grabbed hold of Astrid's, giving her a small smile before gently placing his forehead against hers. "No, Astrid. Wijida tried to kill me. And I believe the only reason she didn't was because you fought back. You saved my life back there," Hiccup said in a comforting tone while he tightened his grip on her hands. "And I would endure far worse to get you back safe and sound. So, these wounds are my fault, not yours." Astrid didn't say anything, but she leaned forward a bit into Hiccup and closed her eyes as well. "I can still hear her voice in my head slightly. Still see...what she made me do," Astrid whispered with full on rage in every word. "She used me to hurt everything I care about. Stormfly, you...you still didn't tell me what they did with her." "She's being kept in Canterlot, in a special chamber that the princesses developed to combat her mental powers. She won't be hurting anypony or dragon ever again," Hiccup explained to Astrid, who sighed slightly as she sat up straight again and opened her eyes. Hiccup opened his eyes as well, but before he sat up he gently pressed his lips to hers with a small smile. "So please don't blame yourself for what happened. For me?" Hiccup gave her his puppy dog eyes as he said this, getting a small laugh out of Astrid before she sighed and nodded while standing up. "Alright Hiccup, I won't blame myself. Not much anyway," she muttered to herself. Hiccup sighed with relief as he stood up as well, but the relief turned to fear when he saw Astrid grasp the handle of her axe with thunder flashing in her eyes. "Astrid...what are you going to do?" "Nothing much. Just going to pay that pony a visit," she seethed as she swung the axe at the edge of a bedpost in the room, cleaving the top of it off with a single strike. She hefted the axe onto her shoulder while she turned to leave, but before she could escape the room Hiccup had lunged forward and grabbed the handle of the axe as well. "Let go, Hiccup," Astrid demanded. "Actually, I just remembered--you should probably go talk with Twilight," Hiccup quickly stammered out as he tried to wrench the axe from his girlfriend's grasp, but despite pulling with all of his might, Astrid kept a death grip on her weapon. "She did save your life when Wijida brought that cliff down around you. The healers did say that if she hadn't helped you out, you wouldn't be alive right now." "And if she hadn't, none of this would have happened," Astrid muttered. "Astrid." "Fine, Hiccup, I'll go talk to Twilight," Astrid resigned with a sigh as she freed the axe from his grasp and swung it onto her shoulder, before looking back at Hiccup with a dangerous glare. "But I will see Wijida sooner or later. And whether it be from me or the princesses...she will pay for what she's done." And with that last line that caused fear to slowly fill Hiccup's heart, Astrid walked out of the room, leaving the Berkian chief to let out a long sigh as he sat back down again. He rested his head against the wall before a bark could be heard out his window, which he opened to reveal the smiling Night Fury who was trying to claw his way inside. "Hey, Bud. How ya doing?" Hiccup asked while he slipped out of the window and landed on the back of the Night Fury, who looked up at him with concerned eyes before turning his head in the direction where Astrid had left. "She's hurting, Bud...and she's slightly afraid. She's trying to hide it with anger, but...this...Wijida taking control of her...it scared her. I want to talk to her about it, but...she doesn't want to be around me right now." Toothless let out another bark before flapping his wings twice, signaling his intentions to Hiccup as his tongued rolled out of his mouth. "You want to go flying? Sure, I could use a break right about now," Hiccup said as he crouched down on Toothless. The Night Fury let out a loud bark before flapping his wings and quickly ascending into the sky, gaining altitude with each powerful wing-beat. Within moments, the pair of them burst through the cloud cover and soared into the bright sunlight, which seemed to melt away the worry and pain that had hung over the rider. 'We did it. Now all we have to do is keep the gem out of any one else's hands until the chance to resurrect Thanatos has passed,' Hiccup planned as Toothless twirled to the side and dove down, looping over each cloud that he passed. At the top of a loop, Toothless spotted a group of pegasi flying by, and he let out a bark before diving towards them with incredible momentum. He blew past them in a burst of speed, nearly knocking them out of the sky and snapping Hiccup back into reality. "Whoa there, Bud, stop scaring the locals!" Hiccup called out to his dragon, who let out a laugh as Hiccup reigned him back in. Hiccup was about to give Toothless a talking to before the sky shattered around them as a rainbow blur rocketed past. Toothless had to spread his wings to steady the both of them as the blur came to a stop in front of them, a smirk on its face as it watched Toothless regain his balance. "Sorry, I guess I should stop scaring the tourists," Rainbow Dash said with a laugh before zipping around the two a few times, making Toothless dizzy while he struggled to keep up with her. "What's up, Hiccup? Haven't seen much of the two of you since everything around here got so dangerous. What happened to your face?" "Just enjoying the day, now that Wijida's finally been stopped," Hiccup said with a relaxed smile as Rainbow raised both eyesbrows in surprise. "So, you finally caught her, huh? And without inviting me to kick her flank as well? What kind of friend are you?" Dash asked while pretending to sound hurt. "Trust me, there was no 'flank kicking' as you put it," Hiccup clarified as he urged Toothless forward, the two of them soaring through the clouds with Rainbow Dash right beside them. "that's how I got this. The only reason we managed to beat her was because we took advantage of her arrogance and got in a cheap shot." "Hey, whatever it takes to win," Rainbow Dash laughed before a devious thought came to her mind, and she looked towards the dragon and rider with a sinister smile. "Hey dragon master, we never did get around to seeing which of us was faster--the fastest in Equestria or the Nighty Fury. How about we finally put that question to rest?" Hiccup took a moment to ponder his answer, before he and Toothless looked at each other with the same expression on their faces. Then, the both of them smiled together. They both looked at Rainbow Dash with the same competitive fire in their eyes. "Alright. We're not too far from where the pegasi race, so we can have this little competition there," Rainbow instructed before bolting ahead in a flash of rainbow. "I'll show you the way, that is, if you can keep up! Come on slowpokes!" "You heard her, Bud. She wants us to keep up," Hiccup chuckled as he reached behind him and grabbed hold of his helmet, which he slid over his face. Toothless twisted his neck side to side before flexing the spines along his back, his eyes narrowing before, with a mighty flap, her hurled both of them forward and sliced through the sky. The pair caught up to Dash standing on a cloud top, a cloud top that had numerous rainbow-colored hoops all along it. "Here we are, soon to be losers of the race!" Dash exclaimed as she motioned to the track, while Hiccup and Toothless hovered in the air above the clouds. "This is where pegasi come to practice for the big events, but seeing as nopony is here today, I figured that we could use it for our own purposes. Look good to the both of you?" "I'm just wondering why you picked a place so close to your home," Hiccup began as he placed a hand on his chin. "I mean, any number of pegasi could fly by and see you lose this race. Are you sure this is the place that you want to do this?" "Finally, we get to hear some smack talk from the dragon master!" Rainbow laughed before walking to the starting line and crouching down with fire in her eyes. Toothless let out a small burst of fire as he flapped above the clouds beside her, his eyes narrowing while he began to work out how the track ran. "Let's just hope you can give me something that remotely resembles a challenge. Now then, on the count of three." "Come on Bud, you've got this," Hiccup muttered as he placed a hand on top of his dragon's head, the both of them closing their eyes as they began to synch up. "One...two...three!" Both racers rocketed forward in a burst of speed, with Rainbow Dash taking the early lead from her experience with the course. With ease she weaved and sped past or through the hoops, laughing aloud when she turned to see how far she was ahead. Yet, the moment she turned a burst of black hurled past her and Toothless stole the lead, smirking back at Dash as he did so. "Come on Dash, try to give us a challenge!" Hiccup called back before laying down flat against his dragon as they continued to speed ahead. The smile fell from Dash's face and was replaced by a scowl while she forced herself to go even faster, becoming a blur that whipped past the hoops as she tried to catch up with the Night Fury. Toothless saw the pony coming out of the corner of his eye and forced himself to go even faster as well, before opening the spines on his back so that he could perfectly take a sharp turn. Happy with how precise his turn had been, Toothless let out a small laugh and fired a bolt of plasma into the sky above him. "Don't get cocky Bud, she's right behind us." Toothless glanced behind him to find that indeed Rainbow Dash was still right behind them and was somehow catching up fast. With a snarl of his own he flapped his wings with all of his might, screaming ahead as Hiccup clutched onto his saddle for dear life. The duo faced another sharp turn ahead, and in preparation Hiccup slammed his pegleg down before reeling it back to spread the tail fin as far as it could go, giving Toothless the perfect angle to speed around the corner without losing any velocity. "Come on Bud, we're nearly there!" Hiccup called out while Toothless managed to pick up even more speed, straining with all of his might to go even faster. The pair smiled at the same time as the finish line came into sight and Hiccup threw his arms up to begin celebrating...before he was nearly blasted off the back of Toothless by a blur of speed that shattered the air around them. Toothless let out a bark of both confusion and fear when the shockwave nearly knocked him out of the sky, forcing the dragon to strain his wings to keep the two from going into a death spin. When they had recovered, both dragon and rider looked up to see a massive ring of rainbow that was still spreading across the sky...along with a pony doing a victory dance at the finish line. "No way..." Hiccup whispered while Toothless gazed at the rainbow with his jaw slack, taking in what had happened, before finally managing to regain enough of their senses to lower themselves to the stable ground below. The moment Toothless landed Hiccup slid out of his seat and collapsed to the ground, still feeling the shockwave in his legs, while Toothless looked back up at the rainbow before turning his head towards the pony that made it. "Well, I will admit that you gave me more of a challenge than most, but the result was the same as it's always been!" Dash bragged with a laugh as she descended from above and landed next to Hiccup, who was leaning against Toothless to keep from falling over while he removed his helmet. "So, what did the two of you think of my Sonic Rainbow? Isn't it just the coolest thing that you've ever seen?" "It...might actually be!" Hiccup exclaimed with amazement as he shot to his feet, hands in his hair as he tried to process what he had just witnessed. "Not only did you do what I thought only Toothless could do and break the speed of sound, you somehow managed to create a rainbow...ring while doing so! I've never seen anything go so fast to be able to do that! Even Thor would be impressed!" "Oh...well...but yeah, I know I'm awesome. And I guess we all now know which of us is the fastest being in Equestria," Dash bragged as she gave Toothless a smug look. The dragon responded by narrowing his eyes to slits before he let out a grunt and laid his head down onto his paws in the direction away from the pony. "Don't feel too bad, Hiccup, everypony loses to me when it comes to speed. You guys just took longer than most." "I'm not going to lie Dash, that was probably one of the most incredible things I've ever seen," Hiccup admitted before glancing back at Toothless with a large smile on his face. "Hey Toothless, you know what this means? This means that we finally have a rival that can keep up with you." Toothless lifted his head back up and glanced back over at the both of them, looking Rainbow Dash up and down with a look before spitting out a bit of fire at Rainbow Dash's hooves. "Sorry about that, he doesn't like to lose," Hiccup apologized for his dragon after Dash stomped out the flames. The Chief of Berk looked at the pegasus with an interested expression. "You know, you pulled off some incredible stunts back up there, some tricks that I wouldn't mind teaching Toothless. Think you could give us flying lessons sometime?" The moment Hiccup asked this, Toothless quickly rose to his feet and walked over to his rider, glaring him in the eyes before swiping him off his feet with his tail. The moment Hiccup was down, Toothless grabbed hold of his leg and began to drag him away from the pony, but with his new perspective Hiccup saw another pony that surprised him. "Wait a moment...is that Luna?" Hiccup asked, just as the princess descended next to the three of them. "Greetings Princess, what...let go of my leg, Toothless!" Hiccup grunted as he slid his leg out of the dragon's grasp and quickly rose to his feet, brushing the grass off his outfit as the princess walked up to him. "What are you doing here?" "Oh nothing much, just came by to give both of you this," the Princess of the Night said before levitating two envelopes to the pair, who grabbed them with interest before looking back to the princess...to find that she was gone. "Huh, wonder what that was about?" Rainbow asked while she and Hiccup both opened their envelopes...and went wide eyed at what was inside.