Chapter 12: A Train Trip to Canterlot
The next day, Fluttershy introduced Fireball to the significant others, family, and children of her friends. Naturally, there was a bit of odd stares at the start, but they all soon warmed up to the new whatever he was. The first ones to greet him were the Apple Twins, with usual childlike wonder.
"Hello, I'm Lil Macintosh," the little red unicorn began.
"I'm Shimmer," the little pink earth pony followed. "Our mama helped take care of you."
"Is aunt Fluttershy your mama?" asked Lil Macintosh.
The silence that followed was impossible to describe. Fireball didn't have a response, although as far as anypony knew he wasn't able to speak.
"Um..." squeaked Fluttershy. "I don't think...he can speak...and I doubt he'd understand what mama meant..."
"How come?" asked Lil Macintosh. "He's a pony too, right?"
"He looks like a pony," said Shimmer.
"He doesn't look...odd to you?" asked Rainbow Dash, everypony gave her a slight stare. "What?"
"I think he's a mighty cute feller!" exclaimed Braeburn. "Them horns are awfully nifty too! Can he use magic?"
"Um...I don't know," said Fluttershy. "He can breathe fire though."
"Eeyup, Pinkie told me that little tidbit when she got home yesterday," said Braeburn. "He does kinda look like a dragon."
"He's not like any dragon I've seen," quipped Spike. "He has hooves like a pony, any dragon I've seen has claws."
"Them wings remind me of a dragon," said Hayseed. "Or a bat."
"Can he get a cutie mark?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I highly doubt it," replied Twilight. "He's not a pony."
"How do you know?" asked Scootaloo.
"Because we're ponies," Twilight pointed out. "You ever see a pony that looked like him?"
"Nopony's seen anything like him," Apple Bloom pointed out. "Maybe he's some kinda ancient pony?"
Nopony had any real response to that.
"Ok, everypony," said Applejack, breaking the silence. "We all better get home and get ourselves ready for the journey in the mornin. I think this little fella's had enough excitement for one day."
"So, who gets to go on this trip?" asked Apple Bloom.
"Ya'll still got school," replied Applejack, causing Apple Bloom and her friends to groan. "Ah figure Fluttershy'll want all her friends with her, Twilight'll bring her little ones along to show em Canterlot, guessin Rainbow Dash wants to bring Sprinter along too."
"You bet!" exclaimed Dash.
It was decided that the Mane Six, the kids, and Bookworm would take this trip. Everypony else had regular jobs they had to attend to. The night before the trip, Fluttershy wasn't sure where Fireball was going to sleep; she hadn't had the time to make a proper bed for him. She decided to sleep on her couch with him, Snowball thought she'd be too uncomfortable for the trip in the morning, but she didn't seem to mind. She and Fireball laid awake for a bit, with him curled up next to her.
"I hope you're not too nervous for your trip tomorrow, Fireball. You haven't really been outside the house since you hatched. So much is already happening for you. You've got a home, you've made some new friends, you have me and Snowflake to take care of you. I'm not sure how you see us, but we'll take care of you the best we can."
Fireball began to stir and make some noise. He looked up Fluttershy with great affection, smiled, and then began to open his mouth.
"Mmmm," he began to say something.
"You are able to talk?"
"Mmmmaaaaa..."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Maaamaa!"
Fluttershy's pupils went wide with amazement.
"Did you just call me Mama?"
"Mama!" he simply exclaimed. Fluttershy teared up and embraced Fireball and the two fell asleep smiling big.
That morning, Fluttershy made her way to the train station to prepare for her trip to Canterlot with her friends. Along the way, Fireball received some perplexed looks from the various citizens of Ponyville. He didn't seem to notice, but of course Fluttershy did. Pinkie Pie came hopping their way with the usual big smile on her face.
"Good Moooorning, Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed in her usual happy tone. "Nice to see you too, Fireball!"
"Oh...morning, Pinkie," Fluttershy said timidly.
"Why the long face, Flutters?" Pinkie asked her friend with genuine concern.
"Oh...um...it's nothing," Fluttershy replied.
The puffy maned pink pony arched an eyebrow, scanned the area around them, including a 180 degree head turn, and was able to understand what was going on.
"Why doesn't everypony take a picture!" Pinkie Exclaimed. "It'll last longer!"
Everypony who was staring began to blush brightly and simply went along their way. Fluttershy didn't thank Pinkie, but she knew she didn't have to. When they got to the train station, the rest of their friends were there waiting to board.
"Finally!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "Everypony's here! We've been waiting forever!"
"It's been 10 minutes, Dashie," said Bookworm.
"Well, it felt longer," retorted Rainbow Dash.
"I hope the walk over wasn't too bad," Twilight said to Fluttershy.
"Oh, it wasn't too bad," Fluttershy said, looking down at the floorboards of the station.
"Except everypony was giving Fireball funny looks," said Pinkie Pie. "They act as if they'd never seen anything like him."
"They haven't, Pinkie," quipped Rainbow Dash. "We hadn't seen anything like him till yesterday."
"Even so," said Pinkie. "We've seen plenty of strange things over the years that I don't what the big deal is."
"Certainly a valid argument, deary," said Rarity. "But some ponies just have adverse reactions to things they aren't familiar with."
"We should be prepared to get some odd looks in Canterlot as well," Twilight pointed out.
"How's the little guy handing the attention?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"No...um...at least I haven't noticed," replied Fluttershy. "He's just been looking at everything around him."
"He may not have the cognition to understand what's going on," Twilight pointed out.
"Oh no, he does," said Fluttershy. "In fact, last night...he...called me mama..."
"HE DID!?" All of her friends exclaimed.
"Mama!" Fireball exclaimed.
"Oh wow!" exclaimed Pinkie. "I knew he wasn't just some simple creature! The Pinkie Sense is never wrong!"
"You had a Pinkie Sense about this?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"I don't announce every Pinkie Sense," said Pinkie.
"Based on the circumference of his skull, I'm not surprised he would have some level of intelligence," stated Bookworm.
"I guess I just didn't expect him to be talking so early," said Twilight.
"He is bigger than the average newborn critter," Applejack pointed out.
"Very true," agreed Twilight.
"ALL ABOARD THE TRAIN TO CANTERLOT!" exclaimed the conductor.
While riding on the train, Fireball barely took his attention away from the window, seeing all the landscapes there were to see along the way.
"Must be quite a sight to see, little one," Fluttershy said, patting his head. "There's a lot out there in the world. We're going to the city of Canterlot; it's the most important city in all of Equestria. Our ruler, Princess Celestia lives there, she was a teacher to Twilight."
Fireball then looked at Twilight, showing he knew who Fluttershy was talking about.
"Twi-light," Fireball uttered.
"He said your name, mama!" exclaimed Shimmer.
"Looks like he's a fast learner," said Rainbow Dash. "Bet he'll be flying real soon too!"
"I can see the castle!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "We're almost there!"
Fluttershy drew Fireball's attention to the castle on the side of the mountain, he seemed excited to see it. The train finally stopped at the Canterlot station and everypony got off and headed to the castle. As in Ponyville, the Canterlot citizens were giving strange looks towards Fireball. The others decided to walk around him and make it harder for others to see him, mostly for Fluttershy's sake, as at this point Fireball still didn't seem to notice the odd looks.
"Jeez, you think they'll ever stop staring?" asked Spike. "Hey Twi, can you just teleport us to the Canterlot Library?"
"I've never teleported that many at once, Spike," answered Twilight. "If we keep up a good pace, it won't take us long to get there."
"Can't say ah blame Spike," said Applejack. "All these looks are makin me nervous."
"Why is everypony looking at Fireball funny, Mama?" asked Lil Macintosh.
"Some ponies don't always know how to react to things they've never seen before," answered Twilight.
"But, he's just a pony," said Shimmer.
"That's right!" exclaimed Pinkie.
"Well, he clearly ain't just a regular pony," said Applejack.
"So he looks different!" exclaimed Pinkie. "That doesn't mean he's not a pony. He's shaped like a pony, he has hooves like a pony, a snout like a pony..."
"He hatched from an egg, sugar cube," Applejack interrupted.
"Ok, so he's not what you might call a normal pony," said Pinkie, rolling her eyes. "But, none of us could be considered normal! We're the Elements of Harmony, and we've saved Equestria how many times? You call that normal?"
None of them could really argue with this logic. They finally made it to the Canterlot Library, home to the oldest texts in all of Equestria. If this didn't have the answers they were looking for, nothing would.
"Princess Celestia knows we're coming, right?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Of course she does," said Twilight. "Spike sent a message yesterday. She said she would meet us here when she's able. Till then, we'll just go in and look through as many ancient texts as we can."
"Oh boy," groaned Rainbow Dash.
"What about the little ones?" asked Applejack. "There a kid friendly part of the library for em?"
"I'm pretty sure there's a spot in there they can play," said Twilight. "I've never really looked."
"Don't worry, they got a spot," said Spike. "I've traversed every inch of this place, helping Twilight do research."
The library didn't have a lot of traffic today, something Twilight and her friends were honestly relieved by. This would make things significantly easier to go around and collect as many books as possible. Rainbow Dash, Flutterhsy, and Applejack agreed to keep an eye on the kids while the rest searched through the books. Twilight Rarity, and Bookworm has their magic to levitate books around, Spike had years of experience as Twilight’s assistant in his side, and Pinkie Pie had her ildefined abilities to use to their advantage.
“These are some of the oldest texts I could find on ancient creature,” said Bookworm. “Many predating Srarswirl the Bearded.”
“Pre Equestrian History seems the best rout to go,” added Twilight.
“I found some stuff in the kid section,” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
“Darling, what on earth are we going to do with children’s books?” asked Rarity.
“Duh! Fireball could be from some old ponies tale written to scare foals,” explained Pinkie Pie.
“Many of those old stories are based in some truths,” Twilight responded. “At this point we need as much information as we can get.”
Meanwhile, in the kid friendly section of the library, the rest of the gang were looking after the little ones.
“Fireball seems to be gettin along mighty fine with all the other little ones,” said Applejack.
“I’m really glad he is,” said Fluttershy. “I was so nervous they’d be afraid of him.”
“Kids are way more pure than grownups, said Rainbow Dash. “They don’t see a new thing and automatically think it’s a threat.”
“Mighty fine observation comin from you of all ponies,” quipped Applejack.
“I got some smarts up here ya know!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“Maybe Princess Celestia will have the answers we need quicker than the books do,” said Fluttershy. “I hope she can see us soon.”
As if ok cue, Princess Celestia came walking into the library. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack immediately bowed in the presence of their ruler; the children weren’t doing so as to be expected from ones so young.
“Greetings my little ponies,” began Celestia. “I understand you have a new companion you wish too...”
The princess trailed off upon seeing Fireball; her pupils shrunk to the size of pins.
“WHAT IS A DRAQUINEAN DOING IN MY KINGDOM!?”
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i can think of a couple of names that might be better then draquenion but over all nice job
8862095
I mainly went with that because of the simplicity, most creature names in MLP are.
8862244
i would of just made a pokemon reference like zubation or noivernion
Aunt Fluttershy? She is not their aunt, so why?
8862769
Because she’s close to Twilight so she’s like family. I myself have non blood relatives I grew up with who were called aunt and uncle because of how close they were to my family.