Ponies are dangerous. At least, that's what everydragon says. They even stole his brother's egg years ago. So why are these ponies being so nice to him?
Expect elements of Comedy, Adventure, and Sad from time to time.
Sex tag added for somewhat blunt discussions about the birds and the bees.
Featured: 5/25/2014
Reason: Smeg knows. Love you anyway though!
Don't feel like reading this before jumping to the sequel? No worries, this blog post will catch you up to speed in about 2 minutes.
Now with a Spanish Translation: https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Un-nuevo-dragon-1-11-923167089
Chapters (34)
I'm your biggest fan!
These seems interesting and I can't wait to see how Spike and everyone react to the new addition to Spike's family. I see there is a romance tag I hope Runner doesn't take Rarity or Twilight from him. That would put him on the fast track to Spike's 'fuck you' list lol.
Okay, lets see where you go with this.
interesting, lets see where you run with this
First thing I have to ask: Cliff is 20 years old. Apparently Spike's egg was stolen close to 30 years ago. I wonder how many years was his egg in hibernation?
And my second question is in realation to the first: Is Spike truly Cliff's older brother, or we are to believe that his age would be relative to when he was hatched---in essence, is Spike's age is younger than Cliff? The fact that it is apparently showing Spike as a baby could make him the "younger" brother.
Maybe there is something to dragon magic that would make Spike his true size/age, better tuned to his older brother role.
4442059 Actually, Cliff is going to spend a fair amount of time trying to help Spike with Rarity. Unfortunately, he's even less experienced in romance than Spike.
4442248 I figured a race that can live for centuries wouldn't really care about an age difference of a decade or two. Cliff kind of registers that Spike is technically older, even if he's physically younger, but that's it. I'll refer to Spike as the younger brother though, to clear up confusion.
Since I don't know Spike's exact age, I left things a bit vague. Pretend he's about 10 when the story picks up.
That was funny how he kinda has a fear of Shy not that I blame him tho lol. I do find it funny how much affection Rarity has for Spike. I wonder how deep does it go? It will be interesting when Runner sees Spike doing all the chores in the house while Twi just sits there. It would be great if he can do something to help Spike win over Rarity lol. Spike learning about his kind might make him want to leave so he can be what she should be.
If i may say something?
I imagine that, when the issue of needing meat of some form comes up...
Fluttershy will be one of the only ponies NOT to freak out.
Logical, considering that she often handles carnivores.
And Dash, to a lesser extent. (Gilda is, at the very least, a fish-eater.) She won't help him with it, but won't judge him for it.
Cliff should have a dragoness friend or dragoness version of a mare-friend
4442510
Based on the fact that a lot of ponies have carnivorous pets (Winona, Owlowiscious, opal, etc), I'm working under the assumption that they have some sort of special store that sells meat as pet food. Fluttershy would be a frequent customer there, because of all the carnivorous animals she cares for. That's where she got the fish.
As for ponies freaking out over his diet, it's mostly going to be a 'don't ask, don't tell' situation. Yeah, Twilight and Spike have been buying a lot of extra 'pet food' lately, but the town would rather not think about where it's going.
4443252
The rest of Cliff's friends and family will come up later. In the next chapter, he'll mention Fire Eyes, a dragoness that's his best friend and rival, kind of like AJ and Rainbow Dash.
4443327 ok cool can't wait for the next chapter
4443304 Owloysius is basically an assistant that doubles as pest control, and feeds himself. The other pets....Winona/Gummy/Opal don't really seem to passively serve a function via feeding themselves...And Opal is a brat, probably gets expensive canned stuff.
4443304 Well, i think that the two of them will be more accepting and not immediately jump from cooked strips of meat to live foals.
4443453 Quite right!
They'll gradually make the change with cooked foals as an intermediate step.
4443453
Yeah, Fluttershy is pretty accepting of it. Rainbow is okay with the theory, but will get a bit nauseous at one point when she sees him actually eating meat.
I like it so far and I look forward to more.
4443582
If anything I would expect Dash to at least be accustomed to it - it's pretty widely assumed that griffins are carnivores, and, well, Gilda.
Cliff is turning out to be quite adorable, and the narrative itself juicy in several little aspects, such as the long-lasting distrust of Cliff towards Fluttershy.
I'm eager to read more.
4443687 Good point. I guess I kind of spaced that. I'll go through that upcoming scene and revise it so Dash's reaction is more moderate. Thanks to you and ParadigmShift for the reminder!
I'm liking the stuff you're coming up with for dragons! I love me some lore!
Commented: 5/25/2014
4444060
Responded: also 5/25/2014.
(I swear, this was funny before I stopped and thought about it. Blame the fact that it's 1:50 AM where I live.)
Your judgement of Cliff is ridiculously far-fetched, author. If anything, someone should remark that it's Fluttershy who is being unusually clingy. This is a three-dimensional situation, any shallow judgments are completely void.
Well, his first meeting with Fluttershy was definitely traumatic. Of course, Fluttershy, being the kind mare that she is, desperately wants to make things up to him. It must be as bizarre as it is saddening for her to find something that's afraid of her in the same way that she's often afraid of other things.
Looks like you need Dark tag here.
4444366
Not really. It looks like that practice in the context of this fic is both rare and rarely referenced. It is just used as a framing for the main character's initial impressions of ponies.
4442248
Spikes egg was laid before Cliffs, so Spike should be about 27 years old and be Cliffs older brother by around 7 years. But Spikes egg was dormant for the 20 years before it hatched which would make him only 7 (or so)years old while cliff is 20…
actually, that isn't true, when twilight was a filly and she had first hatched spike, the sonic rainboom amplified her power and she was able to cast an age spell on spike and he grew to a large size. the only other spell that would have done that would be a growth spell, but it just would have made him larger and not mature.
I don't think you've shown Spike eating any gems around Cliff yet or his baking them into other food
4442286
4444682
Thanks for clearing that up....it clarifies a bunch of things from chapter 1. I still have a nagging feeling that his actual age will come into play at some point, but I know that is well into the future, so I like that it focuses on their reunion. I Love stories that show that Spike isn't all alone in the world.
This fic is so amazing, it's just like wow... I need more
4444706
He didn't seem very mature to me. He just seemed like a giant baby. I think it probably was just a growth spell.
If he really was mature, wouldn't he have had a mustache? Everyone knows mustaches are a symbol of adulthood.
Prediction;
Rarity will take Spike and Cliff gem hunting and Cliff will see why Rarity is so appealing to Spike and then love triangle
It was actually the four of them (Twilight, Cadance, Spike, and Shining, in order of importance) who saved the Crystal Empire. Doncha think Cliff would've appreciated hearing that his brother is hailed as a hero up there?
Great premise, loving how you characterised Cliff. I think Fluttershy may have overreacted a bit at the end there, though.
Excellent!
No wonder that rabbit is such a little shit.
I'm loving the story. Just one question...when are they going hunting!
We all know that meat can't be beat, and Spike probably needs to eat some or risk stunted development anyway. Ponies will be squeamish, but that's the best part!
4444888
+
+ Spike's brother =
Nope
Beat that shippingnews.oceanhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ocean-shipping.jpg
4444366
Actually, that's more because dragons are as clueless about ponies as ponies are about dragons. Cliff honestly thinks they're violent by nature, even though he's totally wrong. Hmmm... Can you suggest any ways that I could reword things to make that more clear?
4444912
. Thanks for not hating me for the mess up.
True. The problem is, I'm really not sure how Fluttershy would react in this situation. I did my best to keep her in character, but I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't perfect
4444908
Good point. I can't believe I forgot about that! I'll see what I can do about revising it.
4445233 Meh, it's not really a problem. I think you did pretty well for your first time writing something that you've published tbh. At the end it seemed like she liked him a bit, though I'm not sure if that was intentional.
Also, congrats on getting featured.
4445215
To make things clearer you could add a sentence such as; "That is what all the other dragons say so it must be true, right?"
I've gotta say the way Cliff interacts with the ponies is a little different then what I expected based on the stories summery.
There is some hints to it, like how he noticed Spike sleeps in whats basically a pets bed and so on so I'm guessing its being built up slowly and he's being a little timid because of his opinions and the run in with the princesses.
But this should be good.
4444238
I'm going to sound stupid for asking this, but how is my judgement of Cliff far-fetched? I honestly don't know, and I'd like to try and fix whatever I screwed up, if possible. As for Fluttershy's behavior, in the next chapter, Rarity will reveal that she encouraged Flutters to be extra attentive as a way of making up for their rocky first meeting.
4445249
Perfect!
4445261 This paragraph of your AN:
You're implying that he made Fluttershy cry out of being blunt and that it's under all circumstances something to burn characters at the stake for, when he actually was extremely reasonable and tactful even by pony standards and she was being ridiculously clingy and not taking a non-outright 'no' for an answer. That's what I meant.
More like it was your judgment of our reaction to him that was far-fetched, but same difference.
An interesting idea with a good sense for branching out beyond it. Most writers I see make the mistake of either focusing too much on the original idea or throwing it out completely after the scene is established. You've found a good middle ground to travel on. This isn't an easy thing to pull off.
Cliff Runner is a decent overall character. He prefers staying quiet when he can but is completely blunt when he does need to speak up. I find it odd that my favorite Original Characters recently have followed this pattern, but I'm not complaining.
I'm honestly surprised that nopony down here has started screaming at Cliff for making Fluttershy start crying, but I'm also not going to be the one to start it. I will say that if he doesn't help calm her down in the near future, he's going straight to Tartarus on the shockwaves of the yelling from any Fluttershy fans who catch wind of this. All I can say is that he should either get working on that immediately or pray that Discord is in a forgiving mood today.
I look forward to further installments. I'll just sit in this corner here and polish my camera for the inevitable Discord rage that's sure to happen when he hears about this little incident.