NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales

by Fluttercheer

Day 12: The Dragon of the Whitetail Woods -Part 2-

As Dinky and Pinkie couldn't eat any more cupcakes, Pinkie closed the box, that was still half full, and placed it carefully under a tree. Then she trotted back to the shore where Dinky was waiting for her. “Are you ready?”, she asked her.

“Yes!”, Dinky answered. “Let's go!” She turned around to the lake, took a run and jumped into the clear water.

Pinkie smiled and then she followed after her, hitting the water besides the filly.

“I don't know where the entrance to the cave is, so we have to dive down and search for it!”, Pinkie said as she came up again.

Pinkie dived down and Dinky eagerly followed her.

One could think that the cave should be easily recognizeable from the surface, with the lake's clear water, but this was not the case. The lake was much deeper than Dinky and Pinkie thought. They could not see it's ground and every time after they dived down without finding the entrance to the cave, they had to swim up again to get fresh air.

After some attempts without any results, Dinky saw something and pointed forward to make Pinkie aware of it. Pinkie nodded and they swam closer. A big opening gaped there, so big that it stretched over the wall of the lake and the ground alike. They could not fathom how far deep it went. Pinkie and Dinky shared a quick nod and then they returned to the surface. Dinky and Pinkie looked happily at each other. “Found it!” They gave each other a high-hoof.

“We don't know how long we will have to hold our breaths, so we must breathe in as deep as we can!”, Pinkie explained.

Dinky nodded reverently, understanding the importance of what Pinkie said.

Pinkie Pie counted to three, then they took a deep breath and dived down to the entrance again. They passed the gaping hole and were now under the earth. Everything became dark around them immediately. Dinky lit up her horn again. The bright, yellow light filled the water around them and reached down to the bottom of the water tunnel.
Orienting on the ground underneath them Pinkie and Dinky made their way through the tunnel.

It led them deeper and deeper down into the earth. After a few meters, the downwards grade turned into an even, horizontal path that led straight into one direction. Pinkie could see a light in the far distance, but she was not sure if the exit of the water tunnel was there or if it was just the water reflecting the light from Dinky's horn. She hoped that it was the exit, though, because she could already feel that she wouldn't be able to hold her breath much longer. And a little filly like Dinky, she knew, could hold her breath only a shorter period of time than a grown-up mare like her.

Like on cue, Dinky grimaced after they followed the tunnel over a few more meters and pressed a hoof against her mouth. She looked at Pinkie, a worried expression on her face. Dinky and Pinkie quickened their pace, steadily swimming to the light Pinkie noticed in the distance and of which she still not knew if it meant that the exit of the water tunnel was there. As the tunnel pointed upwards suddenly, Dinky couldn't hold it anymore. Running out of breath, she opened her mouth and could feel water streaming into it. She threw her hooves around in panic and her magic vanished from her horn. She couldn't keep the concentration on it anymore. Pinkie grabbed one of her hooves and swam up fast into the new direction. She could see a light above her head and it came closer with every inch they left behind them. Dinky's swimming movements stopped suddenly and she only got dragged by Pinkie up to the light now. As her eyes began to shut close and she had almost passed out, they finally broke through the surface of the water into a wide and extensive cavern.

Dinky spilled out some water. Pinkie dragged her across the surface of the water as she suddenly reached firm ground. She lifted Dinky out of the water and put her on the ground in front of her. Then she climbed out of the water. Dinky lied on her back. She coughed and splurted out water every few seconds, but aside from that she seemed to be fine, Pinkie noticed.

“Hey, are you okay?”, she asked the little filly. Dinky nodded, then splurted out some more water. “I'm okay”, she said then.

Pinkie helped her getting up. The filly turned around, still a bit wonky on her legs, and looked fascinated at the light shining through the cave. Most of the rocks of which the walls, the ceiling and the ground under their hooves consisted of were the usual, grey rocks a pony would expect in a cave, but between them were some stones that radiated a blue, pulsating light. Those stones were it where the light in the cave came from. They also reached further into the cave, away from the water that Pinkie and Dinky just left. “So it's really existing!”, Dinky said in awe, with bright, sparkling eyes over the beauty around her.

The light of the stones was bright enough to shine their way and so Dinky refrained from lighting up her horn again. Instead, she immediately trotted into the corridor that led them deeper into the cave. Pinkie was surprised about the energy Dinky had. She just almost drowned and yet she was already fit enough to explore this cave again.

As Dinky noticed that Pinkie wasn't following her, she turned around. “Hey, what are you waiting for?”, she answered impatiently. “Let's go and search for the dragon!” She hopped up a little from all her excitement.

Pinkie Pie smiled and then she followed her. As she had catched up with the little filly, Dinky began to move again and they began with their exploration of the deep cave. Even if Pinkie trusted her granny completely, she was surprised about it that the cave actually really existed. Unlike with the mirror pool, her granny was never here and only heard about this cave from other ponies she met on her travels. Would they really meet an imprisoned sea dragon here? Was the story Granny told her true or was that just a cave, with nothing in it than rocks? The answer on these questions came earlier for Pinkie than she expected.

“We must stop!” The voice of Dinky suddenly interrupted her thoughts and pulled her back into the reality of the cave again.

Pinkie stopped and looked forward. In front of her, just a few inches away, a cluster of red light rays was floating between the ceiling, the ground and the walls of the cave. They were arranged in a confusing way, every single ray pointing into a different direction and having a different angle or shape. The only things that all of them had in common were that they filled the complete space between the walls of the corridor and that they stretched themselves out over several meters down the cave's corridor. They were completely blocking the way. Some of them reached even up to the ceiling of the cave!

Pinkie was an earth pony, but she knew what these rays were. Somepony had created a magical trap to prevent ponies who came into this cave from going further! Pinkie trotted up close to the trap and held one of her hooves at the magical rays, just near enough that she was not touching it. She could feel the heat emerging from them. If she would touch them, she would probably burn her hoof. Or worse.

Dinky stepped at her side. “What happens if we touch them?”, she asked the pink mare.

“I don't know”, Pinkie answered. “But these rays are hot, we should not try it out!”

Dinky lifted up a small pebble. She made a few steps back, bringing some distance between her and the magical trap, and then threw the stone at the rays.

A little cloud of steam rose up as the pebble hit one of the rays and when it landed at the other side, Dinky and Pinkie could see that it was split in half. They shuddered. Now they knew what would happen to them, if they should accidentally touch one of the magical rays. The filly and the mare gulped. If the story of the evil unicorn was true then it was clear that it did take it seriously to prevent other ponies from exploring the cave.

“Is it even possible to get behind these rays?”, Dinky asked intimidated.

Pinkie began to examine the rays. They were obviously arranged so confusingly to keep others away, but Pinkie noticed that the different arrangement of the rays also left gaps between them that a pony could use to make it's way through to the other side. It was like a big, floating labyrinth consisting of magical rays that could cut a pony into pieces if it would make a wrong move. It was risky, but if they were careful and worked their way through the rays slowly, they could try it. Pinkie looked around and searched for a spot to enter the dangerous trap. To the right of her, one of the rays was floating high enough to crawl behind it. And at the other side, there was enough space to stand.

“I think we can try it here!” Pinkie trotted to the right and showed Dinky the spot she found. “I will lead the way”, Pinkie said. “Stay close behind me and don't try other directions than the ones I choose!”

Dinky assured her to listen to her and then Pinkie crawled under the deadly ray. As she had reached the other side, she checked the rays around her. The rays in front of her were too close together and made it impossible to get behind them without getting hurt. It was the same with the rays to her right. The rays to her left were floating very close to the floor and the space behind them was free. Pinkie looked up. There were no rays floating above them either. If she aimed precisely she could jump over them to the other side.

Pinkie turned to the left and trotted back as far as she could without touching the rays behind her. Then she jumped. She was almost sure that the distance was too long, but she made it safely to the other side. After she jumped, Dinky crawled under the ray to the spot were Pinkie just stood. There she turned left and watched Pinkie how she examined the next set of rays in front of her.

Four rays built a square that was floating slightly above the ground. The opening between the rays was not very big, so Pinkie had no other choice then to move beyond the rays slowly. She set the first hoof over the ray that marked the bottom of the square. Then she lowered her head and set the second hoof over the ray and to the other side. Keeping her head low, she slowly inched forward with her front hooves, until her back hooves had almost reached the ray. She carefully pulled one of them over the ray and set it down on the other side. Then she did the same with the other one. As she stood completely on the other side, she made a step forward and sighed relieved.
Then she turned around and looked back to Dinky, who hesitated to jump over the rays in front of her, a fearful expression gracing her face. “Don't worry, it's not very far!”, she motivated her.

Dinky trotted back as she watched Pinkie doing it before and gulped. Then she lowered her body a little and jumped. As she had almost reached the other side, she noticed that her jump was not far enough. Her front hooves and the most of her body were aimed at the safe ground on the other side, but her back hooves were still above the rays!

Pinkie let out a scream and Dinky closed her eyes while preparing for the inevitable pain, not wanting to see how the rays would cut into her hooves any second. Pinkie covered her eyes with her hooves. But the pain did not come. Shaking from fear, Dinky slowely opened her eyes and looked down at her. Her back hooves were positioned in the tiny gap between the middle and the last one of the rays. Unlike Pinkie's hooves, her's were tiny enough to fit into this gap. Pinkie removed her hooves from her eyes and looked over to Dinky. She could not see Dinky's hooves from her position and terror and anxiety were adorning her usually so cheerful face. Before she could say anything, Dinky told her that she was fine. Then she stepped over the last ray.

As Pinkie had crossed the next rays, to her left this time, Dinky trotted through the square of rays. It was a lot easier for her, since she was smaller than Pinkie, and so she just stepped over the bottom ray without having to duck her head to avoid to touch the upper one.

In this way, Dinky and Pinkie made their way through the labyrinth of rays. Sometimes they turned left, then right and sometimes they even had to go back a little into the direction they came from to be able to go ahead later on. Dinky stayed always close behind Pinkie and proceeded to move beyond a set of rays as soon as Pinkie had left the empty spot in front of them. After about twenty minutes, they had both managed it to reach the other side of the barrier of magical rays.

They collapsed to the ground, breaving heavily, and stayed there, all limbs stretched out, while the tension slowly left them and their bodies relaxed again. After a few minutes of recovering, they slowly rose to their feet, ready to continue their path.

They could see that the corridor became wider in front of them and after a few steps, they stood in a big room. Big holes gaped in the outer side of the room, seven in total, everyone of them giving way to a different corridor. They could see that, after some meters, all of them led into a different direction, making it unclear which way they should take. And the entrance of all of them looked the same.

Having no indication which way was the right one, Dinky and Pinkie just headed through the entrance in the middle. They trotted along the new corridor and after making a turn, they suddenly saw the magical barrier they just passed through in front of them again. The corridor brought them back to where they were before entering it! They quickly realized that this was another spell by the evil unicorn that should stop them from going further. Dinky and Pinkie turned around, facing the entrances again. Apparently, only one of them was the right one that led to the other side.

Having a sudden idea, Pinkie Pie lifted up a little stone and threw it against the entrance they just entered. Instead of falling into the corridor behind it, the stone hit a solid rock surface. The entrance flickered a little and almost disappeared, showing that there was really nothing more than a wall. Pinkie walked up alone to the entrance this time. Them something strange happened. Dinky saw how Pinkie stopped as she couldn't go further. Then she turned around, a sudden, glazed expression in her eyes. She made a few steps forward and then the expression disappeared.

“The entrance is just an illusion”, Pinkie said. “We never walked through it and if we try, we get hypnotized somehow to make us think we walked through it.”

“Then it's easy!”, Dinky answered, earning a nod from Pinkie who knew what she meant.

They lifted up more stones and threw them against the other six entrances, one after another, to find out which one was real. As Dinky threw the last one against the entrance on the far left, it did not hit a wall and flew into the corridor that the entrance showed instead. Grinning satisfiedly, they made their way into the new corridor. This trap was an easy one.

As they were trotting through this corridor, Pinkie Pie began to think about it what she should wish from the dragon if the story was true and they should really find him there. She had everything she wanted actually. She had her friends, she had a job that was fun and everypony in Ponyville loved her for her cheerful attitude and her talent for making others happy again. There was really nothing she could wish for. She had everything she needed. Instead of continuing to ponder about it, she asked Dinky what wish she had.

The filly put a hoof to her chin and thought about this question. Similar to Pinkie, she had a quite happy life. Sure, school was annoying sometimes, but she had many friends, she lived a happy life with her mom and there were no real problems in her life she wanted to get rid of. The only thing that came to her mind right now was that she did not get much pocket money, like she told Pinkie earlier this day, but this was nothing that bothered the little filly too much. She did not buy many things anyway. Maybe she should just wish for something simple, like a bucket of ice cream or getting a new toy?

Dinky shrugged. “I don't know, there is not really anything I need”, she answered Pinkie's question. “I'm just in for the adventure!”, she added.

As Pinkie wanted to answer something, she and Dinky suddenly hit their heads on something. “Ow!”, they simultaneously cried out in pain and stumbled back.
As the pain on their foreheads subsided, they looked what caused the impact. But there was nothing. The corridor was leading further into the direction they headed and in front of them was nothing more than air. They trotted a few steps forward again, slower this time, and ran again into something. It felt like there was a wall of solid rock in front of them. They touched around the invisible wall with their hooves to find a spot where they could slip through but there was nothing.

“It's a magical barrier. And there's nothing we can do to surpass it”, Dinky said. She turned around and hung her head. “I guess that's the end of our adventure then. We won't find the dragon.” Dinky sniffled and wiped over her eyes with one hoof.

“Hey come on, we have a dragon to find!”, Pinkie's voice sounded behind her suddenly.

Thinking of a joke, Dinky turned around and stared unbelievingly at what she saw. Pinkie stood at the other side of the barrier, bouncing up and down happily.

“What? How did you.....”, Dinky began to ask her completely baffled. Then she noticed a hole in the ground right from her. It led directly to the other side. But that was impossible! The ground consisted of rocks! Pinkie could not just have digged a hole through it! Dinky shook her head. It was probably really right what the ponies in Ponyville said, you should not question Pinkie Pie too much. She shook her head again and then climbed through the hole to the other side, still awe-struck. Arrived there, Pinkie started to bouncing ahead, further down the cave. Dinky followed her closely.

After another few turns, they heard a painful outcry sounding in front of them. It came from right around the corner. They took the next turn and then they saw where the outcry came from. In front of them, in the middle of another big room, sat a beautiful, blue dragon.

His body was long and thin, akin to the body of a snake, and countless green scales adorned his body. At the end of his tail were two big fins, one at each side. Pinkie and Dinky just stood there for a moment, with open eyes, upon realizing that the legend was true.

Having noticed them, the dragon cried out in despair.

Pinkie and Dinky rushed up to him. “There's no reason to cry anymore!”, Pinkie announced happily. “We are here to free you!” But the reaction Pinkie had reckoned with did not happen. Instead, the dragon cried out even more.

“You are not the first ones who try this! There were so many ponies over the hundreds of years who tried to free me, but nopony can!”, he wailed.

Confusion appeared on the faces of Pinkie and Dinky. “Why not?”, Dinky asked him.

The dragon sighed and dried his tears. “It's because of the curse”, he answered, a bit more calmly now.

“Curse?”, Dinky and Pinkie answered both.

“Yes, the curse. The unicorn that imprisoned me here was casting a curse on me that prevents me from leaving this cave. Even if a mighty unicorn would come and destroy the magical traps that were built here, it could not get me out of this cave.” He sighed again and then continued. “But it makes me still happy about it that you tried it. I don't get much company anymore since I was imprisoned here and I want to thank you for this by fulfilling you a wish, no matter what it is, like I did with everypony that came here to free me from this prison.”

“So, it's true that you grant ponies a wish. But why can't you just wish yourself out of this cave?”, Dinky asked him perplexed. “When your magic is strong enough to grant others a wish, shouldn't it also be strong enough to wish yourself out?”

“It's not so easy. This is not the way how it works”, the sea dragon answered her sadly. “I can only fulfill the wishes of others, but not my own.”

Dinky looked helplessly to the ground. Then her face lit up. Now she knew what she could wish for! Looking at Pinkie, she saw at the grin in her face that she had the same idea. “I wish that the curse of the unicorn will get broken!”, she said.

“And I wish that the traps in the cave disappear!”, Pinkie added.

The dragon looked up, disbelief in his face. “Are you sure? You really want to use your wishes for me?”

Pinkie and Dinky nodded. “Sure. There is not really anything we need anyway. We're happy with our lifes as they are. But you're not happy with yours so we wish you free!”, Pinkie explained.

The eyes of the dragon became watery. This was the first time that this happened. All the other ponies that came to him did not even consider this possibility for a second. He nodded thankfully at them and then he concentrated on their desires. His body began to glow in a bright, blinding blue. As the light vanished, the dragon looked at them with a smile on his face, his first real smile after hundreds of years.

“Our wishes have been fulfilled!”, he said. “Thanks to you I will be able to leave this cave now!”

Not wasting anymore time, he lifted up his massive body and walked past the ponies. Dinky and Pinkie followed him. As they had arrived at the magical barrier, they got confimed that their wishes really worked. Instead of having to use Pinkie's hole, that she digged so mysteriously, again, they could just walk through. The trap of magic rays was gone too and so they reached the water tunnel, that marked the entrance of the cave, soon.

As the sea dragon touched the water with his body, he began to cry tears from joy. “I was imprisoned here for 500 years and now I can finally swim in the water again!”, he shouted out happily.

With one swoop, he lifted Pinkie and Dinky on his back and then he dived into the water and made his way through the tunnel. His speed was enormous, Pinkie and Dinky noticed, and so they barely needed a minute to leave the tunnel and to dive out of the lake. Having arrived there, the dragon brought them to the shore.

“Where are you going now?”, Pinkie asked the dragon. “Nowhere” the dragon answered. “This lake was always my home and now it will be my home again!”

Dinky looked up into the sky and noticed that the sun stood already deep, having taken on an orange glow. She jumped. “Oh no! It's already evening. I'm sure mommy is already waiting for me!”, she said worried. “I'm sorry, I must go now!”, she said to the dragon.

He wordlessly bowed down before Dinky and Pinkie to express his gratitude again and then Dinky dashed off.

Pinkie looked behind her. “We will visit you sometimes and we will tell the other ponies in Ponyville about you! I'm sure you can need a lot of visitors now!”, Pinkie told him.

The dragon nodded. “Thank you!”, he said.

Then Pinkie ran up to the tree where she left the box with the cupcakes. She lifted it up and put it on her back. She waved a last time at the dragon. He waved back at her and then Pinkie followed Dinky out of the woods.