Lily and the Dragons

by Hyper44

The Unbelievable Sale

As the sun reached the center of the sky the door to a humble little house swung open. A young filly with a pink coat and purple mane stepped out. On her back was a pair of saddle bags with a cute little hedgehog sitting between them.

“Ready to save the world again, Prickles?” The filly, Lily Longsocks asked her spiky companion. The little hedgehog saluted. Lily laughed and began trotting down the street. The young filly took in a deep breath as she walked. It was a beautiful day to play in the fields outside Ponyville. The wind blew just gently enough to ruffle your mane and carried the scent of trees and green grass with it. The vast sky above was a gorgeous hue while small, pleasantly fluffy clouds floated lazily across the expanse. The birds sang cheery tunes and the streets were pretty much empty which was how she liked it. Lily stopped and looked around. It was a little too empty. Just where was everypony? While she had gotten to like empty streets after her fame this was too empty. Forgetting about going to play for a moment Lily began wondering the streets with her ears perked up. She soon did hear something, singing. While that was not unusual in Ponyville, it did often mean that something was up.

Following the sound Lily soon came upon a huge crowd gathered in in Ponyville square. Their backs were turned to her as they stared in the direction of two voices singing lyrics in turns.

“Yes siree! There’s nothing like it in all the world!”

“Take one, take two, and watch your talent be unfurled!”

“Don’t just stand there gawking!”

“Step on up and let the magic do the talking.”

“What?” Lily said aloud. Prickles just shrugged. Lily wriggled into the crowd and began squeezing around and between legs towards the voices. When ponies show who it was they shuffled to make some room for her. Emerging out of the crowd she found herself among the majority of her classmates who had probably squeezed through as well. The crowd was wrapped around in a circle with everypony facing a decorated cart as two stallions danced and sang in front of it. They both had yellow coats with red and white streaked manes. If they couldn’t look any more like brothers, then their matching cutie marks gave it away.

“Has your talent ever let you down?”

“Well then step right up, you’ll never find a charm more profound!”

“Just take one and you will see…”

“That all your dreams can come true, I guarantee.”

Despite their cherry voices and big smiles their audience looked on with expressions of either bored irritation or outright scorn. The stallions put on brave faces but Lily could see little beads of sweat running down their brows as they held up their products with their magic.

“Can you believe these two?” A voice beside Lily grumbled to her. She looked over to see Silver Spoon crossing her hooves and glaring at the two stallions.

“If I understand what their trying to sell, then no,” Lily replied.

“Before your family moved here these two tried swindling the grow-ups, twice,” Silver Spoon said. “First they tried to take the Apple farm from the Apple family and then they came back selling a fake ‘magic’ potion. Now they’re here trying to convince everypony that those ugly charms will make you talent increase.”

“Well,” Lily replied, “I don’t think that their getting away with anything this time.”

“That is enough!” The voice of Mayor Mare called out as she wove through the crowd finally bringing the song to a sudden stop. She marched up to the brothers and pointed a hoof at them. “I will not have you selling bogus items to the ponies of this town again!”

“My dearest lady,” Flim said with a flaunting bow, “These are not fake items. They the most amazing charms that we have ever obtained.”

“As amazing as your cure-all potion!” A stallion called out. Murmurs of agreement followed.

“It did make you feel better, didn’t it?” Flam called back.

“But it didn’t make us better!” A mare called back. “I was nearly hospitalized because I quite taking my medicine in favor of your ‘amazing’ cure!”

“Me too!” The voice of a stallion yelled, “Only I was hospitalized!” More voices joined in and they soon dissolved into a cacophony of anger and scorn.

“Everypony calm down!” Mayor Mare called out. The ponies fell into irritated silence. “I am not going to argue with you,” The mayor stated looking back at the brothers. “We know better this time. You may have fooled us before but this time we are not falling for it again.”

Both Flim and Flam showed expressions of indignation. “I know that we may have not be the most… upfront about everything but can’t one get a second chance?” Flam scanned the gathered ponies until he found one face that was not looking at them with angry eyes. He quickly swept Lily Longsocks out of the crowd. “Little filly, you look like an induvial with unbiased insight.” As he spoke Flam picked up one of the charm in his magic and held in in front of Lilly like a carrot being dangled in front of a rabbit. “I know that it sounds like a fantastic but don’t you think that such a thing can be at least possible?”

“If you would like, we can give you one for free” Flim whispered, “It will increase… whatever your talent is beyond your wildest dream.””

Lily cringed at being drugged into this but everypony tipped their ears forward to hear what she had to say. “Well,” She started, “I do know that there is magic within completely unexpected sources and that sometimes the most outrageous claims can actually be true.”

“Yes, go on.” Flam prompted.

“To look at it simply and fairly,” Lily went on. “Well, your main talent is being sales ponies, right?” Lily asked.

“Well, yes.” He replied sounding a little confused at the off subject question.

“Then with all those enhancing trinkets why can’t you convince anypony to buy a single thing?” Lily finished.

The crowd roared with laughter as Flim and Flam shrank back and Mayor Mayer tried to regain order again. “Everypony, please!” She shouted while stomping a hoof though she obviously was restraining her own mirth.

* * *

As the crowd focused on the sales ponies a pair of eyes watched from a distance. Out in the Everfree forest one tree stood like a king above the foliage. Near the top of its swaying branches a small red dragon sat with his gaze on the town. He was just big enough to look an average stallion in the eyes when standing on his hind legs. Sharp, jet black spikes ran down his back and thin, but strong wings hung half folded behind him. In the branches around him were numerous claw marks denoting the fact that he had been here a few times before.

“I know that you’re in there somewhere,” he muttered to himself as he squinted even harder despite the fact that he had no hope of singling out the right pony. From this distance a crowd looked to be nothing more than a mash of colors. Mentally he willed himself to fly to the little and find the pony that he was looking for but as always, his wings refused to budge. It was no wonder, what mini dragon in his right mind would want to go near, selfish, arrogant ponies? No dragon or any other creature would. They all knew what ponies were like.

“Except one pony,” He muttered, “But why did she have to be a pony?!” He groaned and rubbed his forehead. “And why did things have to go wrong so that I would need her help?!” Life was so unfair.