Lily and the Dragons

by Hyper44

Find a solution

Lily was completely lost for words as she stared at the stallion sized dragon slumped in the road in front of her. She looked up at Prickles who shrugged and then at her friends who were also staring wide eyed. Then Pip broke the silence.

“Is that the dragon from the Everfree that you told us about?” Lily nodded. The response was instantaneous.

“I want super strength too!”

“Me too!”

“I want super speed! Can you do that!”

Leftfang snarled and they quickly fell silent. “Ponies!” He growled before continuing. “I just came to see Lily because… it’s a secret that only she can hear. Lily follow me!”

With that Leftfang scurried down the street. Lily glanced back at her friends. Their expressions were as bewildered as hers. Lily shrugged, I guess I’ll go see what he wants. I’ll meet you later,” she said before following after the dragon. He hurried down a few turns until he found a street that was nearly deserted. There were a few ponies about but they were far enough away that he wouldn’t be overheard.

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked as she caught up.

Leftfang glanced around again before replying. “Something is wrong with my magic.”

“Curr? Asked Prickles.

Leftfang glared at him. “My magic doesn’t work right if at all,” he explained to Lily, “If I try to teleport I end up in the wrong place or nothing happens. Most of the time it just does the opposite of what I want it to do.”

Lily sat down scratching her chin. “I can try to help but I really don’t know much about magic. I don’t even know what it is like to use magic.”

“You don’t have too,” Leftfang replied. “You see after I granted you a wish my magic has been going downhill ever since. It was really nothing at first but now it has gotten so bad that I can’t use it at all and a mini dragon who can’t use magic is an easy target.” He looked around again to ensure that no one was creeping up. “I know that you didn’t cast any spell on me because you can’t cast spells but it has to be related somehow. I’ve never had any problem with magic before, not ever. After I granted you a wish, something that I have never done for any creature before, it starts going haywire.” Leftfang scratched his chin as he pondered. “It’s not like we grant wishes often but I’ve never heard of something like this happening before. Maybe ponies have some curse disease or something. Whatever it is I really need my magic back.”

“Well,” Lily started reluctantly, “I suppose that you could try to take the wish back and see if that helps.”

Leftfang shook his head. “No, it doesn’t work like that. A wish can’t be taken back, you can only wish for the first wish to be undone. With my magic not working there is no way that I can grant a wish and even if I could that would be two wishes instead of one. I don’t even want to know what would happen then.”

“Ok,” Lily replied glad that she didn’t have to give up her super strength, “So what do you think we should do?”

Leftfang slumped into a sitting position on the path and held his head in his claws. “I don’t know,” he groaned. “All I know is that there is some connection between the wish and my magic messing up but I don’t know how. I talked to that Zecora creature and she told me that I would only find the answer in the ‘pony town’. Since that’s all that I have to go on I came here.” He sighed. “I’m beginning to think that it’s a lost cause.”

“You can’t call something a lost cause until you’ve tried everything,” Lily replied. “Besides I have an idea. While I may know nothing about magic, there are two ponies in Ponyville who are experts. One of them is even a princess.”

“And they can be trusted?” Leftfang asked cautiously.

“Of course. If anypony can help they’ll have the best shot at it. Follow me.” With that Lily headed down the street motioning for him to follow. “Their more than trustworthy and will be glad to help. You’ll like them.”

Leftfang grumbled under his breath as he followed her. “Well I guess if two more ponies can be likeable then anything is possible I guess.”

* * *

Soon the Pony and mini dragon were heading down a broad path that lead to the castle of the Princess of Friendship. Leftfang stared up at the architecture as they approached.

“Why is this castle so weird? Or you sure that these ponies aren’t extra weird?”

Lily laughed. “No their fine.”

“Alright, but if any pony starts spontaneously singing or turns whatever I do into a dance I’m out.”

“What?” Lily asked as she reached the door.

“Nothing!” Leftfang growled.

Lily pounded on the doors. Crystals in the gem like structure reverberated together creating a musical sound echoing inside the castle. Lily had to pound a few more times before they heard an irritated voice call out, “I’m coming, quit pounding. Hun, visitors right in the middle of my nap.”

The doors creaked open revealing a sleepy-eyed spike in the middle of a cavernous yawn. He looked back and forth between the two guests.

“Sorry to wake you,” Lily started and then pointed at Leftfang, “But he needs to see Princess Twilight and Miss-“

“Oh, no!” Spike interrupted. “The position of dragon assistant is already filled!”

“What! I’m not here to try to be the assistant of some moldy old pony princess!” Leftfang roared. “I don’t even want to be here!”

Spike’s claws clenched, “You better take back what you said about Twilight Right now or-“

“Stop!” Lily yelled over them. “This is just a big misunderstanding! He’s just here because he needs some help. Please show us where Princess Twilight is.”

Both dragons glared at each other a moment before Spike turned and led them into the castle. After a couple of turns they entered a large library. Every inch of wall was lined with shelves. Most of them were already filled with neatly arranged books while others had volumes piled up in front of them. Standing next to one of the stacks was Princess Twilight who was sorting through them.

“Who was it Spike?” Twilight asked without looking up from the books.

“It’s Lily with some friend of hers who need help.” Spike grumbled before walking over to a stack of books and flopping down.

“Hey Princess Twilight, I…” Lily started.

“Just Twilight if you please,” The alicorn replied, “I get enough of the princess title when I’m away. Anyway, what can I do for you?” She asked turning around.

“I brought my friend who needs help with his magic,” Lily replied gesturing towards Leftfang. “This is…” Lily’s voice trailed off as she realized that they had never actually introduced themselves to each other.

“Leftfang.” Her companion stated. “My left fang was broken off in a battle with a large Timberwolf and I was dubbed Leftfang after that.”

“Oh, that’s kinda’ cool,” Lily replied. “By the way my name is Lily.”

Twilight studied the pair with a bewildered expression. “Your friends but you don’t know each other’s names?”

“Ua… it’s a bit complicated,” Lily explained. “This is the dragon that I met in the Everfree who gave me my super strength. With all that happened we never told each other our names and we hadn’t seen each other since. He came because he’s having some unexplained issue with his magic so I figured that you and Miss Glimmer could fix it if anypony could.”

“We’ll definitely give it our best shot,” Twilight replied. “I’ll go get Starlight and you can tell us everything that has been going on with your magic in the second library. It has books and scrolls that are much older,” She explained as she led them into the hallway. She suddenly did a hop-skip flapping her wings as a realization hit her. “And I’ll get to learn about a magic and a dragonkind that hasn’t been encountered by ponies for generations! Yes, Yes, Yes! Spike! Spike, I need parchment and quills!”

Leftfang looked at Lily with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged and smiled. “She loves to learn about everything, especially when she finds knowledge that is hard to get.”

* * *

A short time later Leftfang told his story in the Library with Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle sitting across from them. Twilight was constantly scrawling down notes and often interrupting with questions. Starlight simply sat quietly as she listened and Lily mainly occupied herself with the oatcakes that were on the able.

“So, all in all, everything comes back to that wish,” Leftfang finished. “Somehow it slowly began to mess up my magic.”

“No necessarily,” Twilight replied as she sorted through her notes.

“What do you mean?” Leftfang snorted. “I’ve never had this happen before and I’ve never granted a wish before. I grant a wish and suddenly this happens.”

“Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Correlation does not always mean causation?’” Twilight asked.

“No,” The dragon huffed.

“Basically it means to remember that while two things may seem to go together it doesn’t mean that one of them caused the other,” Twilight explained. “I mean Rainbow Dash gets really excited every spring, without fail. It’s not because she really likes spring or that her getting excited causes spring. Neither have anything to do with each other. It’s simply due to the fact that that is when the next Daring Do book is released. Without that knowledge, anyone would assume that she simply loves spring. It would even seem like the obvious conclusion when it is actually incorrect. Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s possible that you granting a wish and the failing of your magic may have nothing to do with each other.”

“So what do you think it is then?” Leftfang growled.

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know but I think that we should keep our minds open to other possibilities.” She turned and gestured at the neatly shelved books around them. “I keep my most ancient tomes here. Some even date back to the time of Nightmare Moon. It may take some time but we should be able to find useful information. I’ll also send a letter to Princess Celestia requesting copies of ancient writings from the royal library.”

Leftfang stared at shelves containing rows upon rows of books and ten imagined even more being piled up. “We’re going to stay in here and go through all that!” he exclaimed. “That will take forever!”

“Some I have already read so we won’t have to go through all,” Twilight replied, “And I recruited some help. Ah, right on time,” Twilight said as voices began to faintly echo in from the hall. Soon five mares and two stallions walked in led by Spike.

“We’re here darling,” Rarity called as she pranced in ahead of the rest.

She was directly followed by a hopping Pinkie Pie. “I brought cupcakes to help us study. Sugar gives you lots of energy.” She announced. “After that awesome party that he threw earlier, I have to help.”

Lily looked over at Leftfang. “You threw a party?”

“No!” The dragon snorted. “I tried asking for help finding you and a bunch of ponies just started singing and dancing.”

“Awww,” Don’t be modest,” Pinkie Pie said as she skidded up to the dragon nearly spilling her tray of cupcakes on the floor. “Hey! Do you want to help me plan my next party?! There’s a birthday coming up in a few days.”

Leftfang quickly hid behind the chair that Lily was sitting in. “Keep her away from me. She’s crazy!”

At the door to the library Applejack was trying to shoo her new farmhands, Flim and Flam away.

“Are you sure that you don’t want us to help out?” Flam asked.

“Yes, we could carry your saddlebag back to the farm for you,” Flim added.

“I didn’t bring any saddlebags,” Applejack replied waiving a hoof at the door. “Twilight and the rest of us will try to sort out whatever this is. You two go on back to the farm an se if Granny Smith has any more chores for you to do. If not, you can retire for the day.”

“We just want to be helpful.”

“Yes, we’re not going to ruin the second chance that your giving us.”

“After the mishap with the orders you’ve done well but you go on back to the farm now. There’s plenty more work to do tomorrow and you’ll need your rest.”

“Alright then,” Flam finally replied and they left closing the door behind them.

“Phew, their getting a might too helpful.” Applejack said after they’ve gone. She turned to Leftfang. “Fancy meeting you again. So you’re having some kind of trouble with your magic.”

Leftfang stepped out from his hiding place giving Pinkie Pie a wide birth. “So you really think that all of you can help me with this? I mean I’m not going to be giving out wishes for you all.”

“Oh darling,” Rarity replied lightly, “We have all that we need and we don’t need a reward in order to help another creature out.”

Leftfang had a little trouble believing it but he needed help badly. He turned to Twilight. “Back when I told you about how my magic messing up you said that ponies understand almost nothing about greed dragons, let alone mini dragon magic. Are you sure that you can figure it out?”

“Of course.” Twilight said with a smile. “We’ll find a solution, if we each make a contribution!” She sang out with a hoof on her chest.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, “There’s always a way, with good friends who will stay…”

“By your side.” The others sang in unison.

Leftfang stared at the ponies through narrowed eyes as the song unfolded. He groaned and slapped his claws over his face. “I’ll wait in the other library until your done,” He grumbled and headed for the door. “Ponies are WEIRD!”

Comments

[Blewfire]

Ponies are weird. Yes, yes they are.