Lily and the Dragons

by Hyper44

What did Zecora say?

A short time later Lily found herself flipping through aged books alongside a princess. Many old tales and descriptions of kingdoms and legendary creatures set her imagination roaming in to the distant past. She found it so hard to keep searching for specific answers rather than just reading everything that caught her eye. Without her realizing it hours passed.

All around the room books were being sorted through. They were arranged into three piles, not useful, related subjects and useful. The last pile was a rather small one. Lily was lost in another ancient tale when Rainbow Dash suddenly broke the silence as she slammed a book shut.

“Auugh!” We’ve been here forever and haven’t found anything. Not anything that could help anyway.”

Twilight looked up from her book. “Don’t give up. There are still plenty more to go though so we may find something yet.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the untouched books and groaned.

“Why don’t we take a break and go see how Starlight is doing,” Rarity stated. They headed into the next room to find it aglow with magic. Leftfang stood on a table as light swirled around him. Starlight Glimmer was staring at open books that were laid out in front of her while her face was scrunched up in concentration.

“Find anything that can help us figure out a solution?” Twilight asked.

The swirling magic faded as Starlight looked up. “I’m not sure. We have to keep in mind that there are many things that magic can’t tell us. I’ve used every detection and scanning spell that I know and while it can reveal that his spell magic is being badly hindered, it can’t show me why.”

Leftfang snorted. “It revealed that it’s being badly hindered? I already know that! You can’t reveal something that is already known. Basically, you just said that all those spells that you tried were useless.”

Starlight scowled at him a moment before replying, “Did you know that you have two separate sets of magic?” When Leftfang just looked confused she lit up her horn again. Above his head two lights appeared. One was a greenish glow, it was very weak and quivering as if it was about to be snuffed out. The second was a reddish/blue glow that flickered like a strong flame. Twilight instantly whipped out parchment and a quill.

“One is your spell magic, the same kind that unicorns have,” Starlight Glimmer explained as she indicated the weak green light. Then she pointed her hoof at the bright light. “This magic is a kind that I have never seen before. It must be your wish magic and it appears to be fine. Whatever is affecting your spell magic hasn’t touched it so you could probably still grant wishes if you want to.”

“Well I’m not going to grant any!” Leftfang snapped.

“We’re not going to ask you too,” Twilight assured him. “We’re here to help you.”

Leftfang still looked suspicious so Lily changed the subject. “So isn’t princess Celestia going to send us more scrolls to help us out?

“That’s true,” Twilight said. “Strange they should be here by now. I’ll send her another letter. Spike! Spike!” She called back into the library. The only response she got was Spikes muffled sleep mumbles. Twilight groaned and shook her head as she smiled at the others. “He was up late last night. It was ‘guys’ night’ with Big Mac and Discord. I guess I can’t blame him for being tired.”

Lily shrugged, “There’s always tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!” Leftfang exclaimed. “Why does it have to take so long!? I’m starting to think that that Zecora pony lied to me.”

“Zecora is not liar,” Applejack stated, “Sometimes things just take longer than expected, Sugar Cube. I’m going to have to git’ back to my farm soon and I know that others here have things to attend to but don’t worry. We’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll keep coming back until we’ve solved this.”

Leftfang snorted and crossed his forelegs.

“What exactly did Zecora say,” Twilight asked, “You stated that she told you to come her for help but did she say anything else. She usually says more than go here or do that. She always gives many hits in whatever she says so was there anything else?”

The red dragon shrugged. “I don’t know. She was talking in crazy riddles. She said something about all creatures having some kind of magic and hooves of friendship. Something about rage and fate, bitter heavy loads going down a road. Fate, hate and magic and… something else. With her talking in rhyming riddles it’s hard for me to remember what she said. I personally think that she was just rambling on with no idea what she was talking about.

Twilight however, wasn’t listening to his last sentence. She was pacing back and forth, while tapping on her chin and squinting at the swirling thoughts that only she could see. “Rage, hate, a heavy load and a changed fate,” she muttered under her breath over and over. She paused looking down at a book that had been left on a chair from that morning. The title read, The tragic tale of Francois Tourte and Maestro. She studied it a moment and then kept pacing and muttering. Then she smiled and looked up at the ponies and one dragon announcing, “I think that I have it.”

“Well what is it?!” Leftfang demanded and the ears of all the gathered ponies perked up eager for the answer.

“You have a friendship problem.” Twilight stated.

“What! It’s my magic that is messed up! What does friendship have to do with magic?”

Twilight smiled at him. “You’d be surprised. Now, do you know any more mini dragons nearby that are having problems with their magic?”

“There aren’t any that I know of but I usually keep to myself,” Leftfang replied.

Twilight started pacing again. “Ok… do you think that you can invite as many dragons as you can to visit Ponyville?”

“What? What for?” Leftfang asked almost roaring with surprise.

“Because we, all of us in Ponyville, are going to welcome them to our village and offer them our hooves in friendship.”

Bewildered Leftfang struggled for a reply. “They won’t come and how will this help with my magic?” He finally stated.

Twilight stopped pacing. “You may find this hard to believe but it is likely that your trouble with your magic is due to a friendship problem.”

“You’re right, I do find it hard to believe,” Leftfang interrupted glaring at her through narrow eyes.

“Look, I know that this may seem very strange to you but I have a lot of experience in magic and friendship. Those two things are closely related. Everything about this screams friendship problem. I am certain of it but even if it isn’t, having more mini dragons around will help up out more than books… I can’t believe that I just said that.” Twilight looked stunned for a moment and then shook it off. “Because of the long years of separation we really don’t know much about mini dragon magic so having more dragons around should help us out a lot. For all we know one of them may have gone through the same thing. Either way it can’t hurt to try.”

Leftfang snorted. “I’m willing to try almost anything but I’m telling you that they won’t come. If I go around asking them to visit a pony village they’ll think that I’m crazy or some kind of imposter.”

“There has to be some way to get at least a few dragons to come.” Twilight said encouragingly. “Do you know anything that might help?”

Leftfang scratched his chin as he pondered the idea. The he glanced down at Lily. “Well, because of our history one thing that most will respect is a quick wit and a clever mind. If a pony could impress them in a battle of minds they may be intrigued enough to come and there is a pony who I think can do it.”

* * *

As the sun sank further into the horizon the groups headed to the main doors of the castle. They were surprised to find Flim and Flam still there and polishing everything in sight.

“What in tarnation are you doing?” Applejack demanded, “Did Ya’ll spill something… an’ I told you to head back to the farm anyway?”

“We’re just trying to be helpful,” Flam replied with a wide smile.

“Yes,” Flim added, “We’re going to prove ourselves no matter what.”

Applejack groaned. “You can prove yourselves tomorrows’ apple picking in the north orchard. Big Mac will be busy fixing the bran so you’ll need to pull the carts.”

The brothers’ grinds turned to dismay. “You mean all those heavy carts?”

“Why don’t we do all the apple picking and you can have that super strong filly pull all the carts?”

“You ain’t never going to achieve much if you always get others to do your work for you, even if they are stronger than you,” Applejack stated. “Now come on, if you really want to prove yourselves you’ll work hard in the orchard with your own hooves.”

Miserly the two stallions followed her out and the rest of the ponies scatted their separate ways. As Twilight waived goodbye, Leftfang left with Lily towards the edge of town where her home was. Closing the door behind her Twilight headed back to the libraries.

“Spike! Spike!” She called as she looked around. “I need to send another letter to Princess Celestia. I don’t know why she didn’t rely back but I-“ She stopped mid-sentence as she spotted the little purple dragon sleeping behind the pile of not useful books. In front of him were a few old scrolls and a letter from the head princess neatly wrapped in a red ribbon and bearing her seal on the front.

“Spiiiiike! Why didn’t you tell me that you received a reply!”

Spike’s eyes snapped open but gradually began to slide shut again. “Oh yeah! She sent it… it (yawn)… when merumh…”

Twilight rolled her eyes and picked up the letter first. She neatly unrolled it and began to read as a little pink filly reach the edge of Ponyville. Beyond stretched the Everfree Forest.

“Remember, meet me here about midday tomorrow,” Leftfang said before he flew to the trees. Lily nodded and watched him fly away before turning and heading for her house. Just an innocent little pink filly born many years after the catalyst who did not know what she was getting into.

Comments

[Trump]

Leftfang went with Lily to the edge of two where he home was as Twilight waived goodbye.

That looks seriously garbled.

[Hyper44]

7824076 Oops! A few typos there. Thank you for pointing it out.