My Little Pony: Sora's Misadventures in Equestria

by Codex92

Sweet and Smokey

In the teacher's lounge at the School of Friendship, Twilight, Fluttershy, Spike, Riku, and Sora were taking a small break from teaching. Twilight was going over some paperwork with the curriculum for the current school year while the others sat around. Since Silverstream's discover of an old and quite powerful magic spell, the wielders practiced learning how to cast it. It wasn't like the other spells, which could easily be avoided, but it does hone in on a target more easily with its slower speed. And it had a good amount of stagger power to stun an opponent for a good second, leaving them open for a strike or another spell. The weaker version unleashes a smaller explosion of magic energy, but the massive Ruinga spell Silverstream launched has a much bigger force to launch a target in the air and leave them far more vulnerable.

Smolder opened the door and poked her head inside. "Uhh, Headmare Twilight?" she called out, getting the ponies and baby dragon's attention. "Sorry to bug you, but is it alright if I miss class?"

"Better be a good excuse to miss a day," Riku said. "You've also got training with us, too."

"Actually, I'll be gone for a week," Smolder explained further, surprising the others.

"Wait, a week? The heck are you gonna be doing for a week?" Sora asked.

"Well, my brother's been having a rough time since I left for school," she said. "I just want to make sure he's doing ok. He's a really sweet guy, and his friends can be a bit on the rough side."

Sora and Riku glanced at each other, then back to Smolder, finding her claim about the dragons hard to believe. "...Sweet. Right. Dragons are known for being cuddly and affectionate," Riku mumbled.

"He is," Smolder assured. "He's just like Spike."

"Really?" Spike asked. "I didn't know there were other nicer dragons when I've been in the Dragon Lands a few times...Actually, I didn't even know you were around until school opened up last year."

"I wasn't called by Dragon Lord Torch to compete in the Gauntlet of Fire," Smolder said. "My brother did, and he almost got it, but Dragon Lord Ember got it instead. I think he was upset because he went and gave me a hug when he lost. He must have looked forward to being the next Dragon Lord."

"Aww. I think I should meet him and show him he's not the only nice dragon around," Spike said.

"Spike, we can't let Smolder miss a whole week of classes," Twilight interjected. "Even if she makes up her missing assignments to check on her family, I'll have to run it through with Aqua as well for her training. The Young Six haven't gone through Ruin practice."

"Maybe this can be a little field trip in kindness studies?" Fluttershy suggested. "Smolder can still get school credit, and she can help express a little more kindness between the other dragons to make them nicer."

"Hmm. That's...actually a great idea," Twilight agreed.

"And after last time we were there, Wyverns showed up during the Gauntlet of Fire and tried to attack us," Riku added. "There could be more lurking around from the behavior these dragons have that could lure more in. That can add to her training against some more tougher Heartless."

"Yes!" Smolder cheered. "Thanks, guys! It's a little rough going on in the Dragon Lands right now with Dragon Lord Ember dealing with baby dragon hatching season this generation."

Fluttershy gasped, quickly snapping her head in the dragoness' direction. "Did you say...baby...dragon...hatching season???"

The slowly growing glee on Fluttershy's face made the other ponies and Spike smirk. "Oh boy. You said the secret word," Sora teased.

"All those cute little snouts poking out of those adorable little shells!? And their teeny, tiny, twitchy tails!?" Fluttershy squeaked, looking over at Twilight with a pleading gaze.

Rolling her eyes, the alicorn relented. "Alright, Fluttershy. You can go with Smolder. But I expect a full report."

"How many pages?" Smolder asked.

"Actually, I was talking about the hatching season," Twilight corrected, then looked at Spike. "I used my magic to hatch Spike many years ago. With the new knowledge about dragons, this is definitely a fascinating experience."

"Then let's head off before we miss the dragon hatchlings," Sora said.

Fluttershy was already zipping off, squealing with glee. The others laughed at her enthusiasm and hurried after her before she got too far ahead.

---

With packs packed up, Sora, Riku, Fluttershy, Spike, and Smolder flew toward the craggy mountains of the Dragon Lands. They landed where the grasslands faded to rough, course earthy lands, the temperature growing warmer and muggy from the flows of lava around the dangerous land. With the dragons no longer a threat to Equestria thanks to the friendly unity with Dragon Lord Ember, ponies no longer have to worry about them causing trouble throughout the kingdom. They were still adamant on being friendly toward other creatures, but with Smolder's studies in friendship, they hoped the lessons she learned can help change their minds, even if it may take longer than expected.

"So, Smolder, you talked about your brother here and there, but there isn't much you told us about him," Riku said, sparking a little conversation as they trekked the lands on foot.

"Yeah. If he's as nice as Spike, how come we haven't seen him when we were around the Dragon Lands?" Sora added curiously.

"Maybe he's shy," Spike pondered. "But, not to worry. I've made a list of what cheers me up when I'm down. He'll love them just as much as I do!" Spike pulled out a small scroll holding his little list. "What would be a good first start? The Smile Song? A sharing circle? Friendship bracelet weaving?"

"Eh, I don't think my brother might be into those things," Smolder said.

"Well, what WOULD make your brother happy?" Fluttershy asked.

"Just having me and Spike accept him for who he is will make a huge difference," Smolder said. "Dragons who appreciate his more sensitive side."

"Maybe if Riku and I were turned into dragons for a while, we'd add a couple more to the tally," Sora said.

"I think I had my fun being a dragon," Riku said. "Last time I stayed like that for longer than you or Kairi, I almost felt like I was turning feral." He heard Sora let out a cheeky giggle, catching that smug, know-it-all grin on his muzzle. Riku shoved his friend with an annoyed grunt. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I know Twilight overdid it with my transformation when I fought those Wyverns back then."

The group reached the center of the Dragon Lands, avoiding the nearby lava pits and rivers on their path. Fluttershy grimaced, scrunching her snout at the thick smell of sulfur from the active volcanic mountains.

"Oh...That's an interesting smell," Fluttershy mumbled, covering her nostrils with a wing.

While she and the two Key bearers didn't enjoy the poisonous gasses, Smolder took in a deep breath and let out a long, contented sigh. "The stink of sulfur. Sharp rocks under my toes. It always feels so good to be back home."

"I can't wait to meet your brother, Smolder," Spike said. "We're gonna be the best of buddies. I know it!"

"Kinda wished there were some younger dragons around Spike's age," Sora said.

"Hmm. He usually hangs out around here," Smolder mumbled curiously. There were no sign of any dragons, though to the visiting group, it was hard to tell with how similar much of the terrain looked. "I'll go try to find him."

Smolder flew off to search for her brother, leaving Fluttershy, Sora, Riku, and Spike to themselves. "Boys, do you mind if I go take a peek at the cute little baby eggs?" Fluttershy asked.

The boys knew it would be inevitable before Fluttershy couldn't contain her eager excitement meeting some baby dragons. "Knock yourself out," Riku said. Fluttershy squealed, then flew off to find the nests of dragon eggs. "She's not gonna have any time to write anything about the hatching season."

"Nope. She's gonna be cuddling those baby dragons to death," Sora laughed. "The dragon population dwindled, all thanks to an excited pegasus mare who loves baby animals far too much." Riku lightly punched Sora's shoulder over his silly, world-breaking story. The two stallions looked at Spike, watching him pull out a pink blanket with hearts on it. "...What is that, Spike?"

"It's a comfort blanket," Spike said. "I'm gonna finish it and give it to Smolder's brother. It'll be like a hug every time he wraps it around himself."

"Uhh...Spike, I don't think he's going to like that," Riku warned the baby dragon. "Just because her brother's a bit more sensitive than the other dragons around here, he's probably not THAT sensitive to like a...comfort blanket."

"He'll love it. I'm sure," Spike confidently said.

"Well, look who's come to stomp around our territory!" Immediately, the air grew stale with the stench of an all too familiar dragon they knew and loathed. Landing in front of them were Garble and a few of his friends. "If it isn't our little pony friend Spike, and his lanky pegasus kiss-ups!"

"Of course. It was only a matter of time until we saw you again, Garble," Riku grumbled.

"That's Equestria's official friendship ambassador to the Dragon Lands to you," Spike grunted back. "And I'm not little! I had the molt. See?"

Spike turned and showed his wings to the bully dragons, but they weren't impressed and laughed at him. "The runt's got wings now!" Garble mocked. "Now you can fly fancy loops with these two namby pamby ponies!"

"Want me to fly those fancy loops around you nitwits!?" Sora challenged.

Hearing Sora's voice, Garble stared at the tan stallion. "Wait a minute. Where did I hear that voice?" He looked at Riku, recognizing him as the pony who tricked him into dropping his "lavaboard", and revealed that he had been the black dragon who accompanied the other two new dragons that appeared around the Dragon Lands. Squinting his eyes at Sora, the spikey mane and blue eyes looked familiar as well. Finally using his brain, his eyes shot open, shocked and bewildered. "Wait! You! You're Spike's brother! But you're a pony, just like the white one!"

"The 'white one' has a name," Riku grumbled. "It's Riku. And yes, this was the dragon who pretended to be Spike's older brother. We have more magic than you think we do as mere pegasi. And his name's Sora, not Ventus."

"Someone at least found their brain inside that empty skull," Sora said aloud, making Garble snarl.

"You wanna say that again?" Garble goaded angrily.

Sora held out his hoof and summoned his Keyblade, proving to the other dragons that the new dragon they met some time ago wielded the same exact weapon. "You want another beatdown like before? Just because we aren't dragons, doesn't mean we can't kick your butts again."

Garble grunted, knowing better than to pick a fight he wasn't going to win. Even if he wanted to, Ember's laws involving a dragon harming a pony wasn't allowed, which only made it that much more humiliating for him to obey. Ignoring the pegasi, he brought his attention back to Spike, doing a double-take when he spotted the blanket Spike was trying to hide behind his back.

"What's that supposed to be?" he questioned.

"N-Nothing?" Spike answered sheepishly.

Without warning, Garble snatched the comfort blanket and yanked it out of the smaller dragon's claws. "Looks like a little baby blanket to me," he mocked. "Did your little pony friends make that for you with friendship and gumdrops?"

"No, I made it. And knitting's a lot harder than it looks!" Spike exclaimed.

Sora and Riku facehooved at Spike admitting something that embarrassing for a boy, and the dragons all began laughing harder, their flame breath pouring out from their maws. "I think Spike needs to stay away from his duties as an assistant for a while," Sora groaned.

The dragons started playing keep away, tossing the blanket back and forth while Spike chased after it, trying to grab it, but his smaller size made him a pushover with the teenage dragons. As they continued poking fun at Spike, Sora and Riku were going to help take it back, but their laughing kept them constantly breathing fire. They were going to risk getting their fur singed, but they froze when they noticed their flames going from orange to pink, and they could feel the heat from their flames intensifying as they laughed harder and harder.

"Give that back!" Spike demanded. "That's for my friend!"

"Sora...I'm not imagining things, am I?" Riku asked.

"You mean the color of their fire is changing, and getting dangerously hotter to where we can actually FEEL the heat from this far back?" Sora answered with his own question. The flames then turned blue, the teen dragons cackling like mad hyenas, and the wild flames caught the blanket on fire, burning it to a crisp. They eventually stopped laughing, barely needing time to catch their breaths. "...Uhh, you know, Riku, maybe we should just waltz right on back to Ponyville and ask the girls to transform us so we don't actually get fifth degree burns all over our bodies."

"Garble!" The two ponies winced as they heard Smolder coming back.

"Smolder! What are you doing here!?" Garble greeted the dragoness, sounding incredibly excited, to the stallions' and Spike's surprise.

Garble smacked the blanket in Spike's face and shoved him out of his way, meeting Smolder halfway. The trio watched the bully dragon and the Key bearing dragoness perform a special handshake greeting. The two bumped their fists, then their elbows, followed by a couple high and low fives, and ending with their tails smacking together. Garble's friends greeted Smolder as well, but there wasn't any sign of her older brother if she managed to find him.

"Great. She's friends with him," Sora grumbled. Avoiding Garble, he grasped Smolder's wrist and dragged her away from him. "Come on, Smolder! Let's go and find your brother, now! Your brother probably wouldn't be hanging around with Garble or his buddies!"

Smolder yanked her arm back, startling Sora. "Garble IS my brother," she stated.

Shocked, Sora, Riku, and Spike gawked at her, then at Garble, who smirked at their stunned stupor. "...No. You...can't be serious," Riku muttered.

"Ha! Funny joke, Smolder!" Sora said, sarcastically laughing in disbelief. "But, seriously, where's your sensitive older brother at?"

"I AM Smolder's brother, Spike Number 2!" Garble confirmed, grabbing Smolder's shoulder and pulled her back to him, giving her a rough noogie. "And I'm NOT sensitive."

Spike gulped nervously, Sora was still dumbfounded, and Riku couldn't believe the brother Smolder looked up to was Garble. They knew he was in no way sensitive or reclusive after seeing what he and his arrogant friends have done in the past. They didn't know what Smolder saw in him, but Garble must have hidden his more cruel tendencies while she wasn't around.

"I've missed you, bro," Smolder said. "We've got so much catching up to do. There's no lava diving at school."

"Good luck getting Garble to do anything," one of Garble's friends said.

"Yeah. He's gotten so weird since you left for that dumb pony school," another added. "Hiding and moping around-"

"I have not!" Garble snarled.

"Have so!" the other dragons argued.

Garble clenched his fists, ready to throw down with his friends, but Smolder stepped in before they wound up in a fight. "Easy, guys. I learned at Twilight's school ganging up on each other isn't half as cool as you think."

The dragons seemed disappointed by the moral lesson the younger dragoness was teaching them. "Pony school made you soft," one of the teens complained.

Smolder scowled, stomping over to the one who thought she'd gone too soft. "Want to try me and find out?" she challenged. He didn't back down and tried to grapple the dragoness. With her smaller size and her training, she swiftly ducked, making him fumble, and she retaliated with a headbutt right in the chest. Knocked back, but not winded, he tried to go after her again, but she smirked and decided to show her brother's friends not to mess with her. Leaping back, tapping into her mana, she blew out frozen dragon breath and created an puddle of ice beneath them. The moment the dragon's foot stepped on the ice, he scrambled wildly, trying to keep his balance, all the while forgetting he had wings and could hover over the obvious ice trap. Completely defenseless, Smolder got a running start and dove into a bent-leg slide, kicking his legs out beneath him and flopping his stomach to the ground. She got back up and leapt onto her defeated opponent's back, relishing the stunned look on her brother's friends' faces. "Think I've gone soft now?"

The other two teens disagreed and admitted they were wrong. Sora and Riku were impressed by utilizing her unique skills without needing to use her Keyblade. She definitely left the other dragons dumbstruck, but seeing Garble's reaction, he seemed to look either annoyed or frustrated.

"So, uh, how about that lava diving?" Spike pipe up sheepishly. "We gonna go do that or what?"

"You better stay here, shrimp," one dragon teen said, still treating Spike with little respect. "Lava might ruin your blankey-wankey!"

"It's been burned to a crisp," Sora reminded them. "You're weird laughing fit turned it to char."

"Let the wimp tag along," Garble said. "Then we'll have somedragon to dunk!"

He began to laugh and gave Spike a hard smack across the back. Smolder leered at her brother, zipping over to stand between them and stared him down.

"Hey. I'm only gonna warn you once," Smolder said. "Spike is my friend. And Master Sora and Master Riku are my teachers. You mess with them, then you mess with me. Besides, Spike wanted to come out all this way to hang out with YOU, Garble."

Disturbed, Garble balked at the thought of hanging out with Spike, his friends suddenly bursting into uproarious, fire-bellowing laughter. They mocked Garble along with Spike before they left their friend to hang out with the baby dragon. Snarling angrily in embarrassment, he glared at Spike, then at Sora and Riku.

"Smolder, are you crazy!?" Garble exclaimed. "This is so lame! I'm not going to hang out with them!"

"Come on, Gar-Gar, it won't be that bad," Smolder assured.

Hearing Smolder's nickname for Gar-Gar, Sora and Riku snorted, but the former burst out laughing, dropping to the ground while the latter tried, and failed to hold his back. "'Gar-Gar'?" Riku repeated. "Your baby sister calls you 'Gar-Gar'?"

"Hahahahahaha! Oh! Oh, that's so f-funny!" Sora chortled as he clutched his side. "Screams menacing to a puppy!"

Garble grunted, humiliated by his sister's nickname. "Smolder! Not in public!" he complained.

"It's not that bad having a nickname," Spike assured. "Sometimes I'm called Spikey-Wikey."

"...Seriously? You're admitting that?" Garble questioned Spike.

"Come on, Garble, give him a chance," Smolder pleaded. "You two have a lot in common." Garble grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest with a grunt. "And maybe you can get to learn about my masters. They taught me everything about my Keyblade. How else do you think I got so good overpowering your friends?"

Sora tried to catch his breath, catching a case of the giggles with the added fuel Smolder gave them to further tease the rough and tough Garble. "I think I've got all I need, 'Gar-Gar'," Sora teased.

Fuming, Garble glanced at his sister, at Spike, and the two stallions with their impish smirks before he caved in. "Fine. Race you to the lava pit."

Flapping his wings, Garble sped off further into the center of the Dragon Lands. Even with Smolder talking down Garble and having given him the funniest nickname they never would have expected her to call him, the boys were still bewildered that Garble really was Smolder's "sensitive" older brother.

"Ohhh...I can't feel my ribs," Sora breathed. "That made up for being such a jerk."

"When did you meet him?" Smolder said. "Garble never mentioned either you or Master Riku."

"Remember Sora mentioning if we turned into dragons to help make him feel appreciated?" Riku asked. "Sora and Kairi met with him the first time during the dragon migration thing a few years ago. I joined them during the Gauntlet of Fire."

"...Ohhhh. But, he wasn't THAT bad, right?" Smolder asked with a shrug.

"If he became the Dragon Lord instead of Ember, he was going to gather all the dragons to raze Equestria to nothing but a burning wasteland and steal all the kingdom's valuables," Sora said, making Smolder wince in shock. "Yeah. If that happened, you would have never gone to the School of Friendship or became a Key Bearer. And if you claim that's Garble's 'sensitive' side, it's about as sensitive as sliding down a water slide made out of course sandpaper."

"...Ok, that is...kinda bad," Smolder admitted.

"But when you mentioned him telling you about losing the competition to be the next leader, I still can't believe that first order when Spike grabbed that scepter still worked," Riku added.

"Huh? Spike touched the bloodstone scepter first?" Smolder asked, slowly glancing toward the baby dragon. "But...shouldn't you be the Dragon Lord instead of Ember?"

"I didn't want to be away from home to lead the dragons," Spike admitted. "Ember was the best choice anyway. But, when I had it, I commanded Garble to hug every dragon he sees, but not tell anyone why."

Smolder blinked, slowly putting the pieces of the newly discovered puzzle together. "Huh. I did think it was a little weird that he gave me a hug that quickly. But, trust me, that tough guy thing is just an act. He's a big marshmallow."

"Not seeing it," the boys simultaneously answered.

"Ok, maybe a burnt marshmallow; smoky on the outside, but squishy inside," Smolder rephrased. "He just needs friends who appreciate that part of him. You guys might like him if he summons the courage to show it." She looked at Sora and pointed at him. "And knowing you, Master Sora, you'll definitely change how you think about him and give him another chance."

"Huh!? Me!?" Sora exclaimed. "Smolder, he almost hurt Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and, something I know I'll regret mentioning, Maleficent while Spike wanted to figure out what it was like to be a real dragon. During the Gauntlet of Fire, he thought the Wyvern Heartless were fighting us WITH him so he could try to take that scepter. And when we searched for the Pillars of Equestria's artifacts, he was using the Netitus shield as a lavaboard and refused to give back what was meant to be an important part of Equestrian history!"

"You hated the changelings for a long while until you finally dropped it." After mentioning his grudge toward the changelings, moreso at Chrysalis than the kingdom she was leading to ruin, Sora winced at the reminder. He began to explain, but Riku cut him off. "Don't make the excuse that it was only toward Chrysalis you hated the changelings. We saw what they did in that alternate timeline you and Twilight jumped into when you were stopping Starlight. You never, ever hold a grudge toward anyone unless you know why they did the things they did. Smolder knows Garble better than us, so if you're able to warm up to someone like Discord after a while, you can do the same for him."

Grimacing, Sora's eyes shifted between his friend and the two dragons. "...Ugh...Why am I cursed to be this trustworthy?" Sora questioned. His ears perked up, hiding a faint, sneaky grin as he glanced further out toward the Dragon Lands. "...But, to really, TRULY like Garble, I wanna hear some second opinions from two other great pals of mine getting to know him."

"But...Donald and Goofy are back in Ponyville," Spike mentioned.

"Great! Thanks, Riku and Spike!" Sora said, ignoring the startled expressions on their faces. "Hey, I'm gonna check in on Fluttershy and the baby dragons! Gotta make sure someone's keeping tabs on her to make that report for Twilight! Okgottagobye!"

Sora swiftly leapt and flew off, baffling the two males. "H-Hey! Sora, get back here!" Riku shouted, but he was already long gone. Growling, Riku dragged a hoof down his face in frustration. "Trustworthy, the darkest side of my heart. If I'm forced to give Garble a chance, he needs to drag his sorry butt back here and suffer with me."

"I don't understand," Smolder grumbled. "I thought Sora would want to understand Garble more, but he doesn't want to believe he can be nicer? He trusted Cozy Glow, and he was stubborn trying to prove she could change, but she clearly didn't!"

"Yeah...but, there were others Sora knew full well didn't deserve a second chance," Riku said with a sigh. He turned back to Smolder, ignoring his traitorous friend until he bumped into him again with Fluttershy. "You guys remember that stunt show held by The Washouts several months back?"

"With all those deadly obstacles and stunts? I thought that was pretty cool," Smolder said. "Not like facing a giant Heartless, but still cool."

"We knew the leader of that group," Riku said, surprising Smolder. "Her name is Lightning Dust. Sora and I met her before years ago when she and Dash were at the Wonderbolts Academy as new trainees in the reserves. She had the flight skills, but her ego and reckless antics injured or almost killed others around her. Spitfire was blinded by her performance and ignored important safety regulations that any team needs to have, whether they fly hundreds of feet in the air or even in a sport on the ground."

"Oh yeah. Twilight told me about that when Pinkie began to panic and thought you, Rainbow Dash, and Sora would forget about them," Spike mentioned. "You guys were only be gone for a week."

"And from her cocky attitude, I had a good feeling Sora knew there wasn't a chance in hell she would change her ways," Riku added. "...The last stunt that we saw with Scootaloo being part of the team...She's definitely on his most wanted list of people he would hate for the rest of his life. And that's a slim list. I know we all left after that rocket blew up and almost took Scootaloo out with it if he didn't intervene at the last second, he was beyond furious with her."

Smolder gulped nervously. She knew exactly how deadly Sora looked when he was enraged. But if what he did to Lightning Dust was more tame than what he did to Cozy Glow, she didn't know which level of anger she wanted to see him in.

"...But...are you saying Sora won't accept my brother at all?" she asked nervously.

"I know I don't," Spike muttered under his breath.

"If there's something about him that Sora can see while ignoring his horrible attitude, and if Garble's willing to be a bit nicer to us, he might help make a better example for the other dragons along with you to learn about friendship," Riku assured. Smolder trusted him, though she hoped Garble will be a bit more open with them for her. "Let's find him and begin trying to find some common bond."

---

Sora breathed a sigh of relief, not looking back to see if Riku was chasing after him. "I don't think Garble's even got it in him to be likeable," he said to himself. "He lost respect in me for defending the girls at the migration, he didn't care about the Heartless trying to attack us in that dangerous volcano hunting down that scepter, and he's probably going to be a jerk even with his little sister in his presence. Aside from Smolder and Ember, all these other teenage dragons act more like law-breaking delinquents who bully others like a big, scaly five-year-old."

Flying over the mountain range, he finally found what looked like the nesting grounds. Stunned, Sora stared at the dozens of dug-in nests filled with around a hundred baby dragon eggs. Spotting Fluttershy down near a clutch, he swooped down and landed beside her. He was going to ask how they were doing, but he paused when he watched her reading the eggs a story.

"'...And they all lived happily ever after.'" She closed the book and hoped for them to start hatching so they could hear more. Sora could see the eggs were shaking, but he didn't hear any cracking or see them shifting from tiny dragon claws or muzzles breaking out. "Maybe you'd like a song?"

"What kind of songs would dragons even like?" Sora questioned.

Looking behind her, Fluttershy stood and turned to face Sora. "Did you meet Smolder's brother?" she asked.

"Heh. Uhh...Oh, yeah. We met him," Sora answered nervously. "...Way before Smolder introduced us."

"Oh? You met him before?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "When?"

"...During the Dragon Migration...and he's the same dragon who picked on Spike and almost killed Maleficent when she was around to recruit new Heartless," Sora said with an awkward grin.

"...Oh...You mean the rude dragon, Garble?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yup. That's the dragon." Fluttershy was a little surprised Smolder's older brother was Garble as well. Sora groaned, flopping to the ground. "Smolder wants me to find some kind of friendly bond with him. How can I when all I know about him is that he's stubborn, can't come up with better insults, and he had plans to harm ponies and all of Equestria? I don't even know if there IS anything about him that'll make me give him a chance and give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Well, if Smolder believes Garble is nicer than you think, maybe you should try to give him that chance," Fluttershy said. Sora grumbled and rolled his eyes. "You can find a friend in someone unlikely to be one. If you were born in our world, you would have been the king of friendship instead of Twilight."

"The only thing sensitive about Garble is his ego," Sora grunted. Wanting to change the topic, he crawled over to the nearest egg nest. "So, any of these babies gonna hatch yet?"

"They're shaking, but they don't seem ready to come out yet," Fluttershy said. "I think a song will help them poke their teeny widdle heads out."

She took in a deep breath and was about to sing, but she was interrupted again, this time by Ember landing beside them, looking like a nervous wreck. "Hey, Ember!" Sora greeted.

"Huh? Oh! Uhh...You're Riku, right?" Ember asked.

"No. Sora," Sora corrected.

Blinking, Ember groaned, pinching the bridge of her snout in frustration. "Ok. I seriously cannot tell the difference between ponies. You guys were so much easier to tell when you two were dragons."

Sora was glad he was already low to the ground, otherwise he would have stumbled over and fallen into the nest and hurt the eggs. "How is it hard to tell the difference between me and Riku!? We have different fur colors! I get how you can mistake Starlight and Twilight because those two look more alike! I have spiky brown hair and tan fur!"

"...I think it's the weird extra coat of fur that's throwing me off. They're both dark colors." Sora sighed and focused on the trembling eggs, wanting to see something cute and cuddly to help lighten his sour mood. Ember sighed and sat down, overly stressed. "I don't have it in me to argue. I'm already freaking out enough as it is with these eggs."

"Why's that?" Sora asked, confused and curious by her strange behavior. It had been a while since he'd last seen Ember, not since their apprentices up and ran away from their homes and scared the daylights out of their chosen charges to attend the School of Friendship. "...Are all these eggs yours?"

"N-No!" Ember exclaimed, blushing slightly as she stood up and became a bit more aggressive. "I do not have a mate, nor do I even have the time for any of that! As the Dragon Lord, I'm in charge of watching over all these eggs! But they should have hatched by now, and I don't know why!"

"They should have hatched now?" Sora asked. Looking down at the trembling eggs, they were definitely shaking, but not a single one of them wanted to break out. "That's weird. Why don't they want to come out?...Unless they can tell it's too dangerous to be born when their Dragon Lord is angry and upset over her freaking out about her job."

"Everything was fine when my dad was the Dragon Lord," Ember grumbled. "He didn't even tell me what to expect. It's more of a 'burn or be burned' kind of thing, and I feel like I'm getting burnt big time. So, in desperation, I asked Apple Dash to help me."

"Fluttershy," Fluttershy corrected.

"Ugh. Right. Flutterdash," Ember said, still getting her name wrong.

Ignoring how dragons could possibly confuse ponies between one another, Sora stared at the eggs. Sadly, his mind drifted to Smolder believing he was able to like Garble. He had no clue what made Garble nicer than the other dragons. He wasn't even sure if Smolder knew of his plans earlier to raze Equestria, stealing anything valuable and harming the defenseless ponies across the kingdom. As much as he wanted to warn her what her brother had originally planned to do first as the new Dragon Lord, he didn't want Smolder to lose any respect for him if she cares about him that deeply.

Despising the internal debate going on in his head, he stood up and walked around the nest toward Ember. "Hey, Ember, I've got a question to ask you."

"As long as it has nothing to do with eggs, I could use a distraction," Ember groaned.

"It's...actually about Garble," he said.

"Great. What did that moron do this time?" Ember questioned.

"Besides being his usual annoying and aggravating self, I had no idea that he was Smolder's older brother," Sora said, expressing his bafflement to the Dragon Lord.

"Well, obviously they're brother and sister," Ember said. "Every dragon can tell those two are related."

Sora yelled and fell over, more confused and frazzled by her nonchalant response. "WHAT!? HOW!? Those two look nothing alike!" Sora exclaimed. "Smolder's not as aggressive as Garble, either! And that's before she embraced friendship when the school opened!"

"So now you see my issues trying to figure out which pony is which," Ember said.

Sora's jaw hung open, wanting to find an argument, but he didn't know what to say to express his frustration. "I can see your point," Fluttershy chimed in.

The stallion let out a heavy sigh and slumped his shoulders. He wasn't going to bother, and Fluttershy being the middle pony didn't help his own baffling confusion.

"I don't care anymore," Sora groaned, sitting back up with a scowl. "Anyways, Smolder mentioned Garble was not like other dragons, and he had a sensitive side. Please agree with me that he doesn't have a sensitive bone in his body that doesn't start with 'funny'."

"Pth. Yeah, right. Garble? Sensitive?" Ember chuckled. "If a dragon was sensitive before we befriended the ponies, they would not be living in the Dragon Lands."

"But now that the dragons are learning about friendship from ponies?" Fluttershy asked.

"...Well, I guess it's not really that bad anymore," Ember said after some thought. "Thanks to Spike, I've learned to be...a little nicer. But not too much to show I'm too weak as a Dragon Lord. Even with this new change, a lot of dragons are still...uhhh..."

"Indifferent to the knowledge of friendship in your kingdom?" Fluttershy suggested.

"Pretty much. Although, if dragons are still considered weak, they'll be poked fun at unless they prove to them that they're not as weak as they say," Ember added. "Smolder's definitely a lot different since this friendship school thing started last year. But each dragon who tried to insult her pride, she proved she was still tough with this change...Kinda like how I did when Spike and I became friends. Without him or you guys, I wouldn't have managed to overpower Garble on my own."

"Exactly. True friendship like that prevails every time," Sora agreed.

"But Garble has been acting...really weird the last year," Ember added, startling Sora. "Usually, he'd be hanging out with the other dragons and doing usual dragon stuff. Ever since I picked Smolder to go to the school, he has been more mopey and keeps to himself. He likes to brag about how tough he is around his friends, but now, it's like he's...uhh, what's the word?"

"He's isolated himself from the other dragons?" Fluttershy said. Ember nodded her head silently. The pegasus grinned, having a good feeling what Garble's problem is. "I think Garble just missed his little sister that badly. They must have been inseparable growing up."

Sora wanted to highly disagree and blow off whatever Garble's bout of depression stemmed from, but that sadly gave him a reason to understand the dragon more. He didn't like it, but if Smolder thought Sora, Riku, and Spike could be friends with him, he was going to try, despite Garble's stubbornness.

"Why do I have to be the nice guy?" Sora grumbled to himself. He was going to fly off, but he paused when he remembered something else he wanted to ask Ember. "Oh, by the way. About a dragon's fire. While Garble and his dumb friends were picking on Spike, when they were laughing like hyenas on laughing gas, their flames burned far more intensely and changed colors...Is that normal?"

"Yeah. We release flames when we belch, sneeze, and laugh," Ember confirmed. "But when we find something hilarious, that's where our breath becomes its most intense heat. Before embracing friendship, if we were to express enjoyment laughing as we razed a town, we'd be far more dangerous, but silly. How can a dragon be intimidating if we always laugh?"

"I've seen Spike laugh before, but I've never seen him laugh and breath fire at the same time," Fluttershy said.

"I'm sure if he did, he'd end up accidentally burning down Twilight's home in Canterlot or the library in Ponyville," Sora said. "He's got a bit more restraint with his dragon prowess. Something Garble and his friends should learn." He let out a heavy sigh, dreading putting his differences with Garble aside. "I'm sure Riku will forgive me, right?"

---

"I am going to kill Sora," Riku grumbled to himself.

After Sora left, Riku and Spike were left with Garble, his friends, and Smolder to try to see the sensitive side in her older brother. Sadly, they couldn't see it. As the dragons went lava diving, Riku stood on the sidelines to avoid immediate death, which Garble made fun of without realizing how deadly liquid hot magma can be on creatures without lavaproof scales. They didn't insult Kairi when she was an aquatic dragon from what he heard, but Garble still didn't know Kairi was also like him and Sora.

Spike had flopped on his belly into the lava pool after Garble smacked him in. Smolder and Riku winced, feeling the pain from such a loud-slapping belly flop. And if getting lava up his nose wasn't bad enough, Garble splashing in and Spike accidentally swallowing some was probably the worst.

Outside of swimming in lava, Spike's ideas of bonding with Garble in friendlier ways didn't work either. They raced around the Dragon Lands in the air with Riku flying circles around the bigger teens. Garble got a bit aggressive, slapping Spike out of the air to try to win and at least beat him while playing unfairly. Then there was a little appreciation circle where they said something nice about someone. Smolder complimented Spike for trying to cheer up her brother, but when Spike gave Garble one about expressing his feelings while accidentally calling him her sister nicknamed him, Garble blew his dragon fire in Spike's face.

Nothing was working, even when they managed to get some alone time from Garble's other friends just to spare him from feeling "embarrassed". The dragons were now messing around with some huge pools of lava on the higher recesses of the mountain range, breaking down the walls and draining them out to form lava flows for their lavaboarding sport. Riku didn't see much a point in surfing on lava with how slow and thick it was. Unpredictable waves out on the ocean were much more exciting, and less painful if he were to bail.

"This isn't gonna work," Spike mumbled, watching the dragons surfing down the lava on their makeshift stone boards.

"There's really nothing redeemable about Garble or his dumb friends," Riku said. "This might hurt Smolder's feelings, but we can't keep trying if he doesn't show any sign of sympathy or sincerity. What I'm worried about more is how she'll react when she learns what Garble planned to do to Equestria if he was the Dragon Lord instead of Ember."

"Hey, guys!" Swooping down and landing next to them, Sora gave Riku and Spike a wave. "So, any luck?"

Immediately, Riku grabbed Sora by his jacket collar, pulling him and nearly headbutting him while giving his friend a snarl. "No. And thanks for ditching us, 'friendliest guy in the universe,'" he said.

"...It was a tactical retreat for optional intelligence?" Sora reasoned with a sheepish grin.

"That doesn't make any sense," Spike noted.

"No. No, it doesn't," Riku agreed.

Riku let Sora go, too mentally exhausted to deal with his best friend's abandonment. "Well, I did get a little confirmation from Ember about Garble's 'behavior' being strange," Sora explained. "And a little update on the dragon eggs."

"I bet you and Fluttershy had all sorts of fun tickling baby dragon bellies," Riku grumbled.

"...I didn't say there was any good news," Sora said. "They haven't hatched yet. And Ember said it's been a few days since they were expected to hatch. If they're too afraid of coming out to meet their dangerous 'elders', then I probably don't blame them."

"That's not right. If they were supposed to hatch by now..." Riku pondered what was going on. "Is there something possibly more dangerous that they can tell? Heartless?"

"I didn't see any around while I was there," Sora said.

"I'm gonna take another good look around," Riku said. "Spike, you come with me. We're tagging out so Sora can try to get Garble to like him."

Spike nodded and the two flew off, leaving Sora hanging his head. "Yeah. That's fair," he mumbled, then yelped and leapt back when a glob of lava splashed by his hooves and almost burned him. The dragons got into a lavaball fight and were throwing lava at each other. Sora was going to bash their heads in with his Keyblade after they almost hit him with one, but as he counted the many dragon heads, two of them were missing. "Wait a minute. Where did Garble and Smolder go?"

---

Ember grunted, watching Fluttershy trying to baby talk the dragon hatchlings out of their eggs. She let out a huff and began to worry about the future of their kind. If she can't figure out how to get these babies to hatch, she wasn't going to hear the end of the backlash from the other dragons if their children weren't being born. As she glanced up at the sky, she spotted Riku and Spike descending and landing beside them.

"Sora and Spike!" Ember called out with a wave of relief.

"I'm Riku," Riku corrected.

"Oh. Right." Ember shook her head and focused on the issue. "Did Sora tell you what was happening? I feel like my heart's going to explode!"

"You're that anxious about the dragon eggs?" Spike asked.

"Terrified!" Ember exclaimed. "I don't know what to do! And Butterfly doesn't know how to get them to break out of their shells!"

"Close. I'm Fluttershy," Fluttershy corrected.

"Whatever! My first overseeing newborn dragon hatchlings, and I'm going to lost any credibility as the Dragon Lord!" Ember said.

"Well, we're here to help however we can," Spike assured as he went over to hug the panicking dragoness. Still awkward about the hugs, Ember did feel a little bit better and patted the baby dragon's head. As he let go, Spike inspected the ground and the egg nests with the trembling eggs. "They really are shaking. Did any Heartless appear while you were watching them?"

"Like those weird dragon things? None," Ember said.

Riku hummed in thought, staring at the numerous eggs scattered about in the many dug out nests. "Do the parents just leave their eggs like this?" he asked curiously. "No laying or sitting on them to keep them warm?"

"We're not like chickens," Ember said. "The hatching grounds have a lake of molten lava underground that heats the ground enough for them to hatch."

Glancing down at the ground, Riku pat his hoof against the earth. If these grounds were meant to be heated, they sure didn't feel warm. He then glanced at the trembling eggs, leaning down into one of the small nest pits and felt the ground where they were resting. There wasn't a hint of warmth, not even a small bit that's a bit too intense for his hoof to pull away.

"The ground is literally stone cold," Riku pointed out. "They're not scared; they're freezing."

Confused, Ember knelt down and touched the earth of one of the nests. "You're right. But...how's that possible?" she questioned. "This area's the perfect spot to keep them warm!"

While they pondered what the cause was, Riku's eyes widened, then furrowed into a scowl. "Ember, are there lava pools around this area where the lava flows underground and fills up those pools?"

"Yeah...Why?" Ember questioned.

"I think I know what's on," he said. "And it's been a huge problem for far too long. Come on!"

Riku launched himself high in the air and sped off back to where the teenage dragons were horsing around. Spike seemed to have an idea as to what, or who, was responsible, he, Fluttershy and Ember leaving the eggs and hurrying after the wielder.

---

"There should be landmarks or something in this region to distinguish what's what," Sora muttered to himself. He began his search for Smolder and Garble, trekking the landscape for any sign of the siblings. While climbing over some rough terrain, his ears twitched when he heard the sound of bongos playing around a rock formation. "Bongos? Who the heck is playing bongos around here?"

Sora got closer, peeking around the corner, his jaw dropping at something he had least expected to find. He managed to find Smolder and Garble, however, the older brother bully was the one tapping on a pair of bongos made of stone, and he was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, a gray-blue ascot, and a similarly colored beret on his head. As Garble made a beat tapping his claws against the stone drums, Smolder was snapping her claws to the beat.

"Fire, dragon. Wig and waggin'," Garble rhymed, baffling Sora even more that the jerk of a dragon was making a poem while tapping on his bongos. "Feelin' like I be saggin'."

"Oh, yeah. I dig that," Smolder praised, continuing snapping in time as she listened to her brother's poetry.

Slowly, Sora came out from his hiding spot, plopping his rump on the ground, and continued staring in a dazed stupor at Garble. Neither dragon noticed the additional audience member listening to Garble's poem.

"Ragin' lava. Balacla-AHH!" When Garble opened his eyes, he shrieked when he finally noticed Sora sitting in front of him and staring at him.

He peeled off his artistic costume, trying to act like he wasn't doing anything weird. "...You were...making poems...and banging on a pair of bongo drums," Sora uttered. Garble was incredibly flustered and embarrassed, but Smolder nodded her head at her master. After an awkward silence, Sora grabbed a sizable rock next to him and held it out. "Can either of you just bash my head in with this rock? I think my brain just broke."

"I'll do more than that, you sneaking...whatever the heck you're supposed to be!" Garble tossed his bongos and stomped toward Sora, but Smolder grabbed his tail, stopping him.

"Garble, he was just kidding!" Smolder said.

"No. I'm dead serious," Sora said. "As hard as either of you possibly can."

"I swear, you tell anyone about this, I will hunt you down and make sure you're turned into charcoal!" Garble roared.

"Gar-Gar, cut it out!" Smolder begged, keeping a firm grasp on Garble's tail and keeping him away from Sora, even though he was more than able to defend himself from her brother.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!" Garble shouted, yanking his tail back. "All day, my friends have been making fun of me because you forced that pony-loving twerp and these two not dragon shapeshifting guys to hang out with me! You guys have been embarrassing me, and I'm sick of it!"

"That's why I asked them to hang out and accept a part of you I know you're afraid to show the other dragons!" Smolder argued. "I can already tell Master Sora's thinking twice about who you are!"

"Uhh, not in the way you think, Smolder," Sora said. "I still find it weird that Garble's a poet."

"I'm a BEAT poet! Not a namby-pamby poet!" Garble corrected.

"Does it matter if you showed him you're not as bad as he thinks you are?" Smolder questioned. Garble grumbled and crossed his arms with a pout. Ignoring him sulking like a baby, Smolder looked at Sora. "He only performs and recites his poems for me. He hasn't written any since I left to learn at the School of Friendship. Even during winter and summer break, he didn't write much before I returned."

"...I...see," Sora uttered.

Growling, Garble huffed smoke from his nostrils, not trusting Sora to keep his secret like his sister. "I'm not trusting him! Not even if you tie me together with him!" he said. "Ever since this jerk came around with that wimp Spike, he's caused me nothing but trouble! He cost me the chance to be the Dragon Lord with his stupid friend!"

"So you can order the other dragons to attack Equestria, kill everyone, and steal all their treasures like a monster?" Smolder asked. Garble winced, gawking in surprise at his little sister. "Master Sora and Master Riku told me what happened during the Gauntlet of Fire."

"...S-So what?" Garble questioned weakly.

"So if you did that, then I would have never gone to school and made friends with other creatures there!" Smolder exclaimed, summoning her Keyblade and held it out in front of him. "I would have never known I was a chosen Key Bearer and learned all these magic spells and powers! My life has changed because of them, and if you followed through if you became the next Dragon Lord..."

She couldn't bear to say what she wanted to. Her gaze lowered as she looked down at Dragon's Fury, her muzzle scrunching up as the painful memory she experienced at the mall with all the toy friends in that world. Sora could tell what she was thinking, recalling the horrible mess she left when she chased after Young Xehanort. And from Garble's shock, he never even told her what he planned to do at all.

"Smolder, would it even matter?" Garble questioned, his response startling Sora while Smolder's fists clenched tightly. "Those dumb ponies don't care about us. Even if Dragon Lord Ember wants this stupid friendship thing to work, the others don't. Neither do I."

"...Because you're afraid of them making fun of you? Like you keep doing to Spike?" Smolder asked, her tone low and filled with dread. She looked back up at him with a uncaring glare, stunning Garble, like he'd never seen her get this peeved at him. "...After the Gauntlet of Fire, when you came back, you hugged me. Were you upset you didn't win...or did you do it because you were forced to?" Garble stammered, his eyes shifting back and forth. He wanted to explain, but because of that specific order Spike gave that still lingered within his subconscious, he was unable to utter a single word why. Smolder took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled through her nostrils, dismissing her Keyblade, disappointed. "...So it wasn't real after all...Spike did give you that order before he gave it to Ember."

"Smolder, I couldn't even tell you! He ordered me to not say anything as well!" Garble explained. "The stupid runt teamed up with Ember and ruined everything! If they didn't help each other, I could have been Dragon Lord and-!"

"And we'd keep being a bunch of heartless monsters doing whatever we want!?" Smolder shouted, causing Garble to stagger back in shock when he saw tears begin to well in his sister's eyes. "Before Ember accepted the ponies as allies, we WERE monsters to every single creature in this world. We terrified everyone when we fly around. We can burn them, smash them, tear down everything like mindless animals, and we wouldn't give a single bit of remorse for taking innocent lives! Would that make you proud knowing we're the kind of species that strikes fear in everyone's hearts if they so much as hear a single flap of our wings as we fly over them!? Because when I went to school, I never thought about that until I became friends with the creatures who went there! When Master Aqua was miserable and upset about her past, how she felt like the worst person for her mistakes! When I destroyed a model of Ponyville and killed toys that looked like my friends and teachers!

"I didn't care until I realized what I did! Even though it wasn't real, if it was, I would never forgive myself for being a monster who destroyed everything I touched!" Her tears began to trickle down her cheeks, leaving herself vulnerable in front of her brother and master. Garble was speechless, never once seeing Smolder shed a tear. A part of Garble wanted to scold her for showing weakness like this, tell her that dragons aren't supposed to cry, but her outburst told him a fear he didn't know she had kept bottled up inside of her, and didn't trust in telling him. "I want to change every dragon's mind. And I knew you were different from your friends because you love to do something you're too scared to tell them because of being embarrassed...Or weak."

"...I-I..." Garble mumbled, unable to find the right words to say to his distraught sibling.

Smolder wiped her eyes with her forearm, but she still clearly felt hurt as she looked at Garble. "I thought that too, but I'm not weak; I'm stronger with my friends by my side. And they accept me for who I am, not what I am. And if those other dragons are supposed to be your friends, they aren't your true friends if they make fun of you for making poetry." Smolder started to walk forward, forcefully nudging her shoulder against Garble, weakly shoving him out of her way. As she was about to walk past Sora, she paused, stared at her teacher, then looked over her shoulder. "By the way; I like cute, silly pony tea parties and dressing up like a princess."

"H-Huh!?" Garble exclaimed.

Smolder frowned at his reaction, expressing a disturbed shock that wasn't at all what she expected from the dragon who was supposed to be her supportive older brother. "Go ahead and laugh if you think it's funny. I don't care what you say. At least I'm not hiding who I really am from everyone."

She continued on, walking past a slightly surprised Sora as he awkwardly watched her leave. Sora did not expect Smolder to like anything like that, though that did explain her odd behavior in Babies and Toddlers in the mall when she wandered off to look at the dolls in that store. As proud as he is to hear her say that to him and Garble, he was a little disappointed that Garble was completely in shock at the startling revelation about his sister he did not expect. Though confused, he didn't laugh at her. Sora could see he wanted to support her, but at the same time, he was afraid to. Garble shared a similar dynamic with Big Macintosh; he was a kind and caring older brother to his little sister, but he was also scared of admitting how he felt when she's getting older and no longer around.

Finding that reason to find some sort of connection with the dragon bully, Sora approached Garble. "She really looks up to you, you know?" he said.

"Hmph. I don't need your dumb pity," Garble grunted.

"Whether you like it or not, you're getting it," Sora said. "I still can't believe you were able to have another side of you that was nicer than you've been toward myself, Spike, or my friends, but it is there."

"Because I make poems and play my bongos?" Garble snarled.

"No. Because you are a loving older brother who cares about Smolder a whole lot more than being just another one of your dragon buddies," Sora stated. While Garble fumed, confused and frustrated, Sora pulled out his memory ornament. "I want to see more of that Garble than the one I met years ago."

"And you think knowing about me will make us friends?" Garble questioned skeptically.

"It'd be a start," the stallion said.

Grumbling, Garble eyed Sora, then gazed at the ornament he was holding out to him. "...Bribing me with a snack won't do you any good."

"I doubt dragons can eat a plastic ornament," Sora said. "And this isn't some ordinary faux bauble. This has an enchantment that'll let others see your memories when you hold it. Whatever you remember, it'll show up in that."

Grumbling some more, Garble gave in with an annoyed sigh. "This is so stupid..."

Turning himself to fully face Sora, Garble snatched the ornament out of his hoof. Doing as the wielder instructed, Garble thought back to his moments with Smolder, surprising himself when he began remembering when he first met his little sister. A young Garble who was probably the same as Spike currently is eyed a small nest with a dragon egg resting inside it. The egg began to shake as cracks rang out, surprising Garble as he continued watching his new sibling being born. One swift kick caused a piece of the eggshell to smack into young Garble's snout, making him yelp and rub his nose in surprise.

Several more pushes and cracks finally made the shell crumble apart, revealing a baby Smolder comically sitting on her head as she was born. She flopped over on her back with a little grunt, then stared up at Garble with big, curious eyes. Sora thought that Spike was adorable through the memories of the Mane Six getting their cutie marks, but Smolder was definitely much more adorable as a newborn. He continued watching, unaware how entranced the older dragon beside him was staring at the fond memory.

"Hello, little one." Out of view from the memory was Garble and Smolder's mother. "Garble, you look out for your sister while your father and I search for gems."

"Ok." Young Garble crawled closer as baby Smolder flailed her little claws trying to roll herself over. "Hi, little sis. I'm Garble."

"...Ga-Ga?" the infant babbled.

"No. Gar-ble," the young drake repeated slowly.

"Ga-ga!" Sora couldn't help but snicker, prompting the present Garble to scowl at him.

"Sorry, but it's kinda cute," Sora admitted. "I can see why she calls you 'Gar-Gar' now."

"S-Shut up! She always kept getting my name wrong!" Garble argued.

"And you didn't mind it," Sora slyly added.

Grumble grunted, then looked back at the memory as he watched himself play with Smolder. Another memory took place, where Garble was a bit taller and older, and was beginning to go through his Dragon Molt. He was scratching at a scaly blemish on his left cheek when he came over to see his parents, but when they saw the first stone scale, the much taller dragon, being his father, nudged his son toward the entrance to their den.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Garble asked, confused.

"You're Molting, Garble," a deep voice reverberated from the father. "Time for you to go off on your own."

Unlike Spike, Garble wasn't all that concerned or worried. He must have known it would happen eventually, though he was a bit nervous about the dangers around involving a young dragon's Molt. Smolder was only a few years old when she came running over to Garble after hearing her parents say her brother had to leave.

"No! Gar-Gar, no go!" Smolder begged, but their father gently grasped her tail in his maw and tried to pull her back. "Gar-Gar stay!"

"No, Smolder. You don't want to be around your brother right now," he warned, which only made the young dragon upset.

"Don't worry, sis. I'll come back when this Molt thing is done," Garble promised.

As sad as Smolder was, she trusted him to come back soon. Then days had passed, and Garble's Molt ended with him growing his new wings. He returned home, Smolder immediately running up to him and hugging him, then noticed his webbed wings. To make up for lost time, he flapped his new appendages, picking up his baby sister in his arms, then began flying around the den as Smolder giggled and cheered at her first experience with flight.

More years passed, this time with Smolder possibly being a few years younger than she currently was, and now it was her turn going through the Molting phase. Standing near the entrance of a different den than the one she and Garble grew up in, she had a nasty stone scale on her forehead. She was unable to hide it, knowing she was going to have to be kicked out until it passes over.

"Got your first stone scale, Smolder?" Garble asked. Smolder looked at him worriedly, showing him the dark purple scale contrasting her orange scales. "Egh. That's a bad one."

"W-What am I supposed to do?" Smolder asked nervously.

"Well, it's not exactly easy, but you'll get yourself a pair of these babies," Garble assured, showing his sister his wings. "You're gonna get more stone scales, which are really gonna itch badly. Then there's a problem with your voice being high or low, your stomach will get upset and uncontrollably belch fire, and then there's...the smell."

"Smell?" Smolder questioned.

"Ugh. It is horrible...And it also alerts predators that will eat you as a snack." Garble began to list the different types of predators that will eat a Molting dragon, which only made Smolder panic more and more. "But don't worry. You've got this, sis." Smolder didn't feel so sure about herself, but Garble knew what would give her the encouragement she needed. He walked further in the den, then came back with the very same stone bongos the present Garble was playing earlier. Sitting with his legs crossed, Garble cleared his throat, then began tapping on the hollow drums. "Scales of stone, to be thrown, out to the unknown. But survive, you can fly, fly farther than you've ever flown. Wyrms and Rocs, you can sock. Dragons don't lose, because we rock."

Smolder relaxed, hearing her brother's poems helping assuage her fears about what the Molt would do to her. Through the time skips, Sora had no idea when Garble even picked up this hobby he clearly enjoyed, or how he made himself those bongos. He probably won't get an answer, but he continued watching in silence. After his motivational poetry, Smolder was ready to face the Dragon Lands on her own. She left with a stride in her step, but as Garble watched her leave, he started to grow concerned for his sister's safety.

What Sora saw next proved Garble really was a caring older brother. Even though Smolder was on her own, surviving with the Molt, she was attacked by a Roc that caught her nasty scent. It cawed and alerted her, forcing her to flee and find cover to avoid getting eaten. It just missed her as she ducked under a small opening in a crevice for her to squeeze through. But as the Roc began to steer itself for another go, Garble roared and charged into the massive bird of prey. Despite the size difference, Garble was able to push the Roc and send them hurtling down to the ground far from where Smolder was hiding. He pummeled and slashed at its chest, barely making a scratch in the thicker skin of the giant avian, then flew up to avoid its wings swatting it aside.

"Hey, ugly! You don't recognize me!?" Garble goaded. "Why don't you try to eat me now!?" The Roc squawked and flew toward Garble. He avoided its beak, then latched onto its head. While clinging on tightly, he took in a deep breath, then blew fire in the bird's face. It let out a painful caw, unable to see as it flapped its wings wildly, blinded by the flames to see which direction it was going. Garble kicked off the back of its head as it descended in its panic, sending it crashing headfirst into the craggy earth below. Garble watched as it squirmed, shaking off its daze, but knew when it was beaten as it flapped off to the sky, away from the Dragon Lands. "Yeah! Nothing's gonna eat my sister! Especially not you, you stupid birdbrain!"

While Garble mocked the Roc, he wasn't aware that his intervention caused Smolder to peek out from her hiding spot. Idly scratching her numerous stone scales, she was surprised knowing her brother had been looking out for her, and scared off the Roc that was going to eat her. Sora was even astonished by Garble's brute strength, wondering where that kind of ferocity was when they first fought. Sora would still whoop Garble with his experience dealing with all sorts of foes, but still, to face down a Roc was an impressive feat.

More memories passed between the two siblings, Garble spouting more poems and hanging out with the other dragons, but his hobby was always kept a secret from his friends. Then came the day where Ember picked Smolder to be their chosen dragon to be enrolled in the School of Friendship.

"Ugh. This is so lame," Smolder complained. "I don't get why I have to go to this dumb school thing."

"Better you than me," Garble said. "I don't get what Ember's doing being friends with those ponies. Dragons don't do friendship."

"Hey, if it doesn't work, I'll just come right back." The two then winced when they heard Ember calling out Smolder's name, making the two groan. "Welp, gotta go. See ya later, bro."

Garble and Smolder did their special handshake before Smolder left with Ember to Ponyville. Sora thought that was the end of what Garble wanted to show, but there was more. He sat by himself, wearing his artistic attire Sora caught him in earlier, his bongos sitting in his lap. It was like Garble expected his sister to come back in a few days and forcefully get herself kicked out of Twilight's school. He probably wasn't aware Smolder was missing when she and her friends accidentally caused trouble, forcing Neighsay to shut down the school and kick the delegates and their charges out. Garble numbly tapped one of his bongos, but he didn't have it in him to make up anything poetic. Losing his inspiration, the dragon let out a depressed sigh, sitting by himself for a while longer before he stripped out of his clothing, tossing them without a care, then headed out to hang out with his friends.

Seeing enough, Sora took the ornament back, noting the thousand yard stare Garble had. "Garble?" Sora called out, snapping the dragon out of his daze.

Remembering why they were looking back at his memories, Garble went back to being grumpy. "Ok, you got what you wanted," he grunted. "Happy now?"

"It was a lot more than I expected," Sora admitted with a small laugh. He pocketed the ornament and held his hoof out to Garble. "I'm a whole lot willing to start over if you are."

Garble glanced at Sora, looking down at his hoof, then back to the stallion's friendly grin. "...I don't get it," he said. "You hated my guts. You overpower me and do everything you can to make me feel like a loser. And now...you like me???"

"I have more respect for you and believe you can be a decent guy to hang out with, if anything," Sora said. "When every dragon's supposed to fend for themselves in this world, you looked out for Smolder far more than your folks did. And she was right all along; you do have a sensitive side. For her."

"She doesn't seem to see that anymore," Garble grunted. "After you jerks screwed me over getting that scepter, I went back to my home after being forced to hug every dragon I came across. I'm glad I only had to do it once for every dragon, but it was so embarrassing!...Then I saw Smolder, and she asked me how it went..." Garble let out a sigh, sitting himself down, his elbows resting on his knees as he held his head in his claws. "...I couldn't tell her why I hugged her...Stupid, dumb Spike and that stupid order he gave me..."

Sora lowered his hoof, seeing the internal struggle etched in Garble's face. "Even though you couldn't tell her...did you see that as a bad thing with Smolder?"

"No," he answered. "I couldn't tell her, but she thought that I did that because I was mad I didn't become the Dragon Lord...She wasn't wrong, but still..." Sora silently nodded his head, fully understanding Garble's plight. He was brave enough to share with his sister his favorite hobby, something that's looked down upon by the other teenage dragons to being ridiculed as weak, and he must have shared other feelings with her that his friends would mock him for having. "...Does Smolder really hate who she is? Who we are?"

"She wasn't lying," Sora said. "I was there to witness the aftermath of a furious dragon dead set on hunting her prey. She was up against someone she was not ready to fight, but she didn't heed my warning. All a dragon has when they're challenged is their pride, and she kept fighting until she lost. The worst part; he didn't even need to lift a finger to do any damage. She really did do that all on her own, without a care."

"But dragons can't-" Sora immediately stopped Garble from finishing whatever denial he was going to spout.

"No. I'm not hearing anymore of your dumb excuses," Sora said with a serious glare. "'Dragons don't do friendship.' 'Dragons don't help.' 'Dragons can't be nice.' Dragons CAN be friendly, but for generations, you're seen as the most terrifying and dangerous creatures in the world and have that mentality ingrained in your minds that you don't even give friendship a chance. You think being nice or doing something others think is silly makes you weak, but that's not what makes you weak; hiding who you choose to be in front of others does. Your sister was given this opportunity to learn, even if she was forced to, but she is so much stronger with her friends, TRUE friends who think nothing differently about her as a dragon and look at her as Smolder. And picking on me, Riku, or even Spike doesn't make you stronger. All that makes you and your 'friends' out to be is a bunch of bullies with far more insecurities than any normal bully elsewhere in this world.

"Smolder struggled to express herself and be more nicer and compassionate toward others. And it took a vicious rampage and a painful humbling from someone so much stronger than she is to open her eyes to see just what she would become if she kept going down a path that makes what everyone else sees in a dragon as a monster. I thought that in the past, too, but what I saw in your memories? Would a monster just abandon his little sister and keep her happy? Would a monster just stay put when his baby sister has to face dangers on her own as she starts to grow up?" Garble gave no response, stunned by the lecture Sora was giving him, but the look in his eyes told Sora that he would never abandon Smolder. "What you showed me was more than enough to convince me to change my mind about you. Smolder may be learning about friendship to help the rest of the Dragon Lands understand it and be much friendlier creatures than what history deemed you as, but don't you dare tell me that dragons can't be friends because it's not in your nature.

"EVERY creature, in this world and beyond, can. Be. Friendly. You cannot hold onto that fear of being weak, because you will never change for the better. For yourself. Or even for Smolder." Garble bit his lower lip, his eyes glancing over at his discarded bongos and his attire. He looked back at Sora, watching him hold his hoof out to him again. "Despite you messing with me and my friends, for attempting to hurt them when they stood no chance against you, I am willing to put the past behind us and be your first non-dragon friend. A real friend, who may be a little weirded out that you like to make poetry, but I do not find that as a fault in what makes you Garble."

Garble stared at Sora's hoof for a long moment. He didn't know if the pony was joking or about to pull a prank on him, but the look in his gaze expressed a sign of trust in him. He wasn't as nice as Spike, but his actions and behavior in the past should have left him as a hostile brute who didn't care about anyone but himself. Garble questioned what was going on in Sora's head to completely change his mind about him. Slowly, cautiously, Garble raised one of his hands and hesitated as he extended it toward Sora.

"ALL DRAGONS, HEAD TO THE HATCHING GROUNDS IMMEDIATELY!" Garble winced as they heard Ember bellowing her announcement throughout the land.

Garble pulled his claw back with a groan in disdain, forced to obey his Dragon Lord's commands. "Great. Now what does she want?"

"She said at the hatching grounds," Sora uttered. "Oh no. Did something happen to the dragon eggs!?"

"I swear, if she's ordering us to babysit a bunch of babies..." Garble sighed, having no choice if he had to look after the newborn dragons.

He and Sora flapped their wings and hurried off to the hatching grounds.

---

Riku scanned the area where he last saw Garble's friends. He was beyond done tolerating their entitled attitudes, not to mention their selfish actions in the past. Fluttershy, Spike, and Ember followed him until he spotted the reckless teenage dragons lounging in a pool of lava like it was a hot tub. One of the dragons flew up to the edge of a pool higher up, breaking away part of the wall and forcing the lava to drain out and trickle down into their own tub down below. They could see the lava being drained out from the upper pit, which was also draining out the underground river meant to keep the hatching grounds warm enough for the newborn dragons to hatch.

"These selfish, stupid...!" Watching the one dragon plop back down in the lava, Riku had enough. He dove down, slamming to the ground near the edge of their lava tub. "HEY! IDIOTS!"

The delinquent dragons lazily gazed at Riku. "What do you want, pony?" one of them questioned.

"I don't know! Maybe you can tell your Dragon Lord what the hell you're doing with the lava!" he shouted.

"We're taking a lava bath. Buzz off!" one of them exclaimed, splashing lava at the stallion.

Riku leapt back, growling angrily as he summoned his Keyblade. Taking aim, he cast several Waterga spells, swiftly cooling the magma, startling the dragons and trapping them in the hardened, cooled magma.

"Hey! What gives!?" the last of the trio shouted angrily.

"Nuh uh! You morons have no right to question just how completely irresponsible you are!" Riku scolded. "All day, we've been watching you moving boulders or chipping away those lava pools to make those stupid lava flows for your dumb lavaboarding, or a stupid lava bath! You barely have any brain cells that clump together to realize you're going to be the winners of a Darwin award!"

"...Who the heck is 'Darwin'?" they dumbly asked, oblivious to their actions.

"You guys are going to be the death of your kind, because you're diverting all the lava from the river underneath the hatching grounds for your stupid games!" Riku explained, loud and clear in their faces.

"They're the reason why the grounds are cold!?" Ember exclaimed. Hearing the dragoness getting angry, the teenage dragons finally realized they screwed up and winced. "How long have you been doing this!?"

"...Uhh...a few days?" one of them answered sheepishly.

"That's around the same time the baby dragons were supposed to be born," Fluttershy said.

"All this time...you dunderheads have been making me panic and worry over those eggs, because you used the lava for your own fun!?" Ember exclaimed. The dragons tried to apologize, but she was hearing none of it. She flew over to them, grabbing each of them by their horns or snouts, forcefully yanking them out of the hardened lava rock. "Because of you, those eggs aren't staying warm! You are going to kill dozens of hatchlings, and you all only care about yourselves and not the future of our kind!"

"W-We can...try to put it back," one of them suggested.

"That's not going to work!" Riku added. "You've drained far too much out and the underground river won't fill back up for weeks! If other creatures were worried about being wiped out by you guys, they won't need to fear when you single-handedly take yourselves out!"

"Maybe we can try to move the eggs somewhere else that's warm enough for them to hatch," Spike suggested.

"We can't," Ember said. "At this point, those eggs are incredibly fragile. And there's far too many for us to carry somewhere else."

"We can move them?" one of the teens offered.

"After you brought me a lot of stress!? I can't trust you all to do a simple task as obey my commands without me knocking your skulls around!" Ember yelled, making the dragons wince at her fury. Ember let out a groan as she rubbed her forehead. "We need to create the heat ourselves at this point." With her staff in hand, Ember flew up and took in a deep breath. "ALL DRAGONS, HEAD TO THE HATCHING GROUNDS IMMEDIATELY!"

She then flew back to the hatching grounds, the reckless dragons obeying her orders as they flapped their wings and slowly followed. Riku, Fluttershy, and Spike followed behind them, Riku glaring angrily at the teens responsible for almost wiping out their own kind. If Ember didn't terrify them enough, she would have gladly thrown her fists and clobbered each and every one of them until the realization finally got into their incredibly thick skulls.

They soon landed with several other teen dragons heeding the call around the nests. Ember explained to the others the issue, along with verbally lashing out at their selfish antics being the leading cause of the eggs not hatching, then ordered them to use their dragon fire to heat the eggs enough for them to hatch. They did as instructed and blew their flames around the nests to heat them up. While Ember, Riku, Spike, and Fluttershy watched the nests, they grew more worried as their fire breath isn't doing anything.

"Come on, eggs, heat up," Riku uttered.

"Hey, what's going on?" Landing beside them, Smolder watched the other dragons breathing fire around the nests.

"The eggs aren't hatching because they're not warm enough," Spike said. "Garble's friends messed with the lava pools around the area and drained too much out to keep the hatching grounds heated."

"What!? Why would they do that!?" Smolder exclaimed.

"Because they weren't thinking about the eggs and only for themselves," Riku said with a scowl. "And where the hell is your brother? He was hanging out with you."

Smolder furrowed her brow and looked away. "...I don't wanna talk about it," she grumbled.

A moment later, Sora and Garble swooped down, landing beside Ember, Smolder, Spike, Riku, and Fluttershy. "What is going on?" Sora asked as he looked at the teen dragons breathing their fire over the nests.

"Well, why don't you ask Garble and his friends?" Riku said. "They had so much fun playing in the lava, they drained too much from the underground river beneath these grounds to heat the eggs at the proper temperature."

Sora looked back at Garble, who was also just as stunned. "What? I didn't do anything!"

"Your friends kept draining out the lava for your fun activities! Who's to say you also joined in diverting the lava flow because you're bored out of your mind like they always are!?" Riku accused.

"Hey, I didn't mess with anything! I haven't hung out with them for weeks because-" Garble froze, glancing back at his friends, who were far too busy heating up the eggs, then back to Smolder, who kept her gaze to the ground. "...Because I...didn't want to hang out with them. T-That's all."

"Are you sure that's why?" Sora asked. "It wasn't because you missed a certain dragon?"

Garble bit his tongue, still hesitant to express his feelings. The question didn't escape Smolder as she shifted her gaze to stare at her brother for a brief moment.

"Oh no. I don't think it's working," Fluttershy said. "Their flames don't seem to give off enough heat."

"We can't just give up! There's gotta be something we can do!" Spike said.

"How about we wrap the eggs in a bunch of baby bwankets!?" one of the teens mocked, the insult causing Garble's other friends to start laughing, changing and intensifying the heat of their flames.

"Hey, watch the laughing! You're gonna burn us!" Sora exclaimed. He, Riku, and Fluttershy backed away to avoid getting singed, but from their laughter, Sora suddenly got an idea. "Wait. That's it! We gotta make these dragons laugh harder!"

"Sora, are you nuts!?" Riku questioned. "Did you forget how dangerous their laughing fire breaths get!?"

"...No. He's right," Garble said.

His agreement shocked Riku and Spike, even Smolder was a little surprised. "...Did he just...agree with Sora?" Spike questioned.

"WHY did he agree with Sora?" Riku added.

"If we can get the dragons to laugh more, their fire breaths should get hot enough to warm the eggs up and get the baby dragons to finally hatch," Sora said.

"So, do we just tell jokes?" Fluttershy asked.

Garble tapped his chin, getting himself an idea, but he didn't like it. He wasn't willing to go through with it until he looked back at his sister. After all he did for her since she was born, he ruined that trust she had in him for being too prideful for showing any weakness. She knew of his reputation and kept his secret hobby from his friends to avoid humiliating him. But when she believed he could show the other, more gentle side of him to her friends and mentors, his refusal and stubbornness, along with his selfish desires from their reputation as a species broke that bond. Not once had he thought they were monsters, but seeing his little sister upset about who she was as a dragon made him question himself.

His eyes shifted to Sora, his words still clear from their conversation earlier. He should have felt embarrassed for showing Sora his precious memories, but Sora held no judgement against him. With just words, without needing to beat him into submission to get his point across, he was shown a new light from those memories of him looking out for Smolder and being her support when she was nervous or anxious. She needed him, and he needed her.

Steeling himself, he made up his mind. "I'll be right back," he said, then flew off.

"Where does he think he's going!?" Ember exclaimed.

"...I think I know what he's getting," Sora said with a grin.

A moment later, Garble returned, landing at the edge of the hatching grounds in full view of every dragon and pony present. All but Sora and Smolder were startled by Garble's shirt, ascot, and beret, along with the bongos under his arm. The dragons were dumbfounded by his getup and the portable drums he held. Grabbing both drums in his claws, Garble took in a deep breath through his nostrils, sat himself down, and with an exhale, he began tapping on his bongos in a poetic rhythm.

"Eggs, come. Burst into that light. Break through shells that bind," Garble said, getting into the groove of his beat poetry. Riku and Spike questioned what happened to Garble before their attention was distracted by the sound of snapping next to them. Sora used his primary feathers like fingers, snapping in time while Garble banged on his bongos to a tempo in his head. "Break free, explore. Stuck!...Between rock and...hard place."

"...What...the hell...?" Riku uttered, begging Sora to answer what he was witnessing right now.

"I think we should back up just a tiny bit," Sora advised, dragging his stunned friends back while Fluttershy backed up with him, continuing to snap to Garble's bongo beats. "This beat is gonna get hot."

On cue, the dragons all began laughing at Garble. He ignored them and continued spouting his unique rhymes, getting his friends to laugh harder at him. Their flame breaths turned pink, then blue, their hotter flames spewing around the nests and heating up the eggs. They began to shake and crack as the babies are finally coming out.

"Freedom, come! Don't be shy!" Garble continued. "Look those others in the eye! Stake your claim! Don't stop! Just do! Be the one and only...you!" Through the blue flames and his guffawing friends, Garble could see his sister looking proud of him for expressing his poetic creativity around the others. "Come to light! Proud to be! Open up! Bam! Be...free!"

With another few rapid taps on his bongos, Garble ended his poem right as the baby dragons fully broke out of their shells. Thankfully fireproof as the flames from the teenage dragons died down, the assortment of curious baby dragons looked around their environment. Fluttershy squealed at the cute little infants, desperate to swoop down and gather as many as possible in her hooves to cuddle with them. Ember was stunned by Garble's hobby, but him enduring the embarrassment of being laughed at saved the day, seeing each egg was fully hatched.

"...This is...the weirdest thing I've ever seen," Riku finally uttered. "Garble...likes poetry?"

"Not too bad for a rough and tough dragon, huh?" Sora said.

"...Sora, please bash my head in with a rock," Riku begged.

Sora laughed, ignoring the request. Smolder approached Garble, the older dragon feeling a little sheepish after his performance.

"You actually performed in front of everydragon," Smolder said.

"And it was super lame!" one of Garble's friends laughed. "What kind of weakling likes poetry!?"

Ember flew over to the offending dragon and whacked him upside the head with her scepter. "The hero of the Dragon Lands! That's who!" she scolded.

"Yeah! Garble just saved all these eggs because he's strong enough to be who he is!" Smolder said, backing up her older brother. "You think it's funny to make fun of someone who likes something dumb or for 'namby-pamby ponies', but it's not! If it weren't for him, we would have lost these hatchlings because of our selfishness and lack of empathy! Other creatures think we've been dangerous monsters for generations, and we're even monsters toward each other! I didn't want to think making friends was cool, but I've made so many friends who accepted me for who I want to be, not what I am or what they believe our natures truly are." She then surprised Garble by embracing him, holding onto him tightly as she glared at the other teen dragons. "And if any of you want to pick on my brother, then you'll have to go through me first."

The other dragons were shocked watching Smolder hugging Garble like that. What startled them more, especially to Smolder, was when he returned the embrace, pulling his little sister closer with one arm wrapped around her. He had a genuine smile on his toothy muzzle, happy to be forgiven by his baby sister. His friends were speechless, wanting to make fun of both of them, but because of Ember in their presence and knowing how much more powerful Smolder was compared to them, they had no objections or heckles to make.

"And that's why I chose Smolder to be the very dragon to learn about friendship," Ember added, all eyes now focused on the Dragon Lord. "It's time for us dragons to embrace this change. We will show the world that we are not monsters to be feared, but creatures who can be more than who were are on the outside. I learned to be a little bit nicer with all of you, unless you get under my scales like the lot of you who almost got these dragon hatchlings killed." She glared at Garble's friends, who all winced and shied away nervously. "I bet there's some of you out who likes something that everyone else thinks isn't cool or dumb. Anyone else brave enough like Garble to admit that?"

The air was filled with silence as the dragons looked among each other. "...Umm...I-I like...hugs." Everyone soon turned to the dragon who spoke up. It had been a while, but Sora and Riku recognized the dragon when Spike took possession of the bloodstone scepter. He was one of the dragons who Garble hugged in the deadly volcano before trudging off and was overjoyed to be hugged by the grumpy dragon back then. He flashed a toothy grin, feeling bashful. "Uhh, remember when Garble was hugging all of us after Ember became the new Dragon Lord? I felt all...warm and fuzzy inside."

"...Uhh, ok," one of Garble's friends uttered. "Why did he do that anyway?"

"Well, I'm not telling," Garble said.

His response made Spike, Sora, and Ember laugh, knowing full well why.

---

After the fiasco involving the unhatched baby dragon eggs, the dragons were slowly accustoming themselves to accepting each other and their favorite things they like they kept secret. It was a slow process, but thanks to Smolder and Garble sparking that positive change for their kingdom, it would gradually grow in time. Ember was even curious about learning some poetry from Garble, which prompted his friends to want to learn, too. Part of him expected his friends to keep making fun of him, but whether it was because of Ember's presence or they legitimately wanted to learn, he rolled with it. If they didn't, he'd slug them and find better friends who appreciated his artistic craft.

While Ember was busy watching the hatchlings so their parents could grab them, Garble saw his sister, her teachers, and Spike off. "So, uhh...I guess I'm sorry about all the...bullying and teasing you and stuff," Garble apologized to Spike.

"Wow. Sincere," Riku mumbled.

"Well, it's a start," Spike shrugged. "But I didn't know you made poems."

"It's beat poetry! There's a big difference!" Garble exclaimed.

"Uhh, ok. Whatever," Spike mumbled.

"Come on, Gar-Gar. Don't get all huffy," Smolder said, nudging her brother's side with her elbow. "I really am glad you opened up. Takes a lot of guts to show others what you enjoy doing."

"Do you really have to go back again?" Garble asked.

"Sorry, bro. I got a lot of studying to do," Smolder said. "And lots more training. I'll be back during the breaks."

"Yeah, I know...I just...worry about you," Garble said.

Smolder smiled, giving her brother another, gentler hug. "I know," she said. "I did catch you chasing off that Roc that came after me during my Molt. You always look out for me, but that doesn't mean I can't look out for you."

Garble glanced at Sora, Riku, and Spike, then back down to Smolder. He was hesitant, but he hugged his sister back.

"You know? I think I'm starting to get used to this hugging thing," Garble admitted. He then let go of Smolder, then leered at the boys. "Don't tell any other dragon I said that."

"Eh. Gotta take those baby steps, but at least we're on better footing now," Sora said as he approached Garble, holding out his hoof to the dragon once more. "Right, 'Gar-Gar'?"

"Hey, only my sister can call me that," Garble growled, pointing his claw at Sora. After a few tense seconds, Garble gave Sora a sincere grin, then grabbed the pegasus's hoof and shook it. "But yeah. We're cool."

"See? I knew you two would get along," Smolder teased.

Riku sighed and shook his head. "I have no idea what happened, but I am ready to go home, take a shower, and relax after all this madness." Before they took off, he noticed someone missing. "Wait. What happened to Fluttershy?"

"H-Here I am!" Fluttershy came galloping toward them, panting slightly as she was fashionably late. "Ready to go?"

As she grinned innocently, the stallions and dragons noticed Fluttershy's saddlebags were a bit stuffed compared to what they packed for the trip. "...Fluttershy, what's in the bags?" Spike asked.

"...Umm...All the notes Twilight wanted about the dragon hatching season?" she replied, her smile faltering when her bags began to shift and squirm around.

The wielders and baby dragon glanced at each other, then back to Fluttershy with a knowing smirk. "That's funny. I don't think papers are supposed to move around that much when stuffed in something," Sora said.

"T-They're...chaotically-infused living origami paper Discord gave me?" Fluttershy reasoned with a squeak.

Her ploy was ruined when a baby dragon head poked out of one of her bags, letting out a small giggle. They had a hunch Fluttershy just couldn't stay away from those baby dragons, and she intended to "adopt" more than one from how stuffed both her bags were.

"Fluttershy, put them back," Riku playfully chided. "They're not yours."

Fluttershy whimpered, slowly pulling out each baby dragon one by one, holding them tightly to her chest. "But they're sooooooo cute," she whined. "I want all of them."

"You realize you're kidnapping the children of large, ferocious dragon parents who are probably gonna go on a rampage if they realize their newborns have gone missing, right?" Sora asked.

Fluttershy wanted to argue, but she sighed, seeing his point. She lowered the adorable baby dragons, tearing up as she was forced to be separated from the cute infants that had recently hatched. She gave them all a little pat on their heads, forcing herself to step away from them while Garble came over to pick the infants up in his arms.

"Definitely not a good idea snatching dragon parents' kids," Garble advised. "If you thought a dragon taking over territory's bad, you don't mess with an angry dragon mom looking for her runt."

"Duly noted. Right, Fluttershy?" Riku reminded the pegasus mare, who was too busy trying not to sob as she waved goodbye to the baby dragons.

Spike stared at Garble, mulling over his warning about a dragon parent and their missing young. "H-Hey, Garble?" he said. "...Is that really true? About...dragon moms?"

"Yeah. Mom gave me a scolding when I took Smolder on a little adventure in the Dragon Lands and didn't come back on time," he said. "Why?"

"W-Well, I was born in Equestria, obviously," Spike said. "My egg was in Canterlot with Princess Celestia, and Twilight hatched me with her magic...I don't know how long I was in my egg for, but...if my real mom was distressed and scoured the world to find me...she would have razed all of Equestria to find me...right?"

"...Yeah...That's true." Garble glanced at Smolder, who seemed just as concerned as he was. Spike frowned as he wilted slightly. Even though he was part of the Sparkle family, he'd wanted to know who his real parents were. When Sludge appeared, he actually believed that dragon was his father, only to realize he had been lied to by a lazy dragon who only wanted to use him to live in the lap of luxury. "...Something wrong?"

"Several months ago, we met a dragon who crashed into Ponyville and claimed he was Spike's dad," Smolder explained. "It was a lazy, useless dragon named Sludge...Thankfully, he wasn't Spike's real dad, but he got turned into a deadly Heartless."

"Sludge? That fat slob?" Garble questioned. "Ember banished that waste of space when he tried to steal her gems instead of finding his own."

"I guess that explains why he looked so badly beat up and crash landed in town," Sora pondered.

Spike kept getting so many questions and barely any answers around his origins. "...So...either something happened with my real parents...or they didn't want me if Princess Celestia found my egg," he mumbled miserably.

Garble grunted, deep in thought. "...I can ask some of the older dragons if they recognize what your egg looked like," he offered.

"R-Really?" Spike asked.

"If you still have a decent chunk of your eggshell that has enough of whatever pattern it was," the older dragon said.

"I-I'll have to ask the princess or Twilight if they did!" Spike rushed over and hugged Garble's leg, startling him. "Thanks, Garble! You're a real pal!"

"Ok, the hugging thing only feels better when it's just Smolder," he grumbled, making Smolder giggle cheekily. Lightly shaking Spike off of him while not wanting to drop the infants, he succeeded and flapped his wings, taking flight. "Consider it making up for treating you like a namby-pamby pony."

"I'll see ya winter break, Gar-Gar!" Smolder called out.

Once Garble disappeared beyond the mountain range, Sora, Riku, Smolder, Spike, and Fluttershy took their leave and headed back to Ponyville. Fluttershy couldn't help but gush at the adorable dragons she planned on taking and raising for herself, hoping she'll come back when she's free to see them again. Spike felt a bit more hopeful to learn more about his birth parents, even if it was from other dragons who knew them. He prayed Twilight or Celestia kept a piece of his eggshell.

---

Somewhere in a distant world, a small city was left in ruin as the buildings crumbled in the stormy night. Not a soul was seen or heard in the desolated city, almost as if it had been abandoned by its residents. As thunder clapped in the distance and lightning lit up the empty city, a loud crash echoed as a building crumbled from a destructive force. Flying through the dust and rubble was a High Soldier, its armored helm, gauntlets, and boots cracked from the beating it took. It shook as it struggled to stand back up, only for a long, sharp object in the dark sky to fly down and stab it through its chest into the ground. Seconds later, a figure dropped down with a yell, slamming their foot into its face, shattering the helmet as the Heartless poofed out of existence from the fatal blow.

"...These damn monsters," a low, feminine voice snarled, fueled with rage with a hint of sorrow. Without looking around for anymore threats, the warrior grabbed her weapon by the hilt with her left hand, slowly pulling it out of the ground, the impact leaving a decently-sized crater despite its slender shape. She ignored how soaked she was in the pouring rain, clutching her weapon tightly, choking back a sob. Lightning flashed in the distance, partially revealing her attire veiling all but her legs, a reptilian tail, and a pair of webbed wings on her back. She wore a long, red coat and a similar-colored hat with a pair of horns curved and shaped slightly like a pair of dragon wings through the holes in the brim. While the wide brim concealed most of her face, a bright green reptilian eye peered through the veil shrouding her face, tears flowing under the guise of the pouring rain. "You took my home...My love...Separated me from my child..."

Clenching her teeth, bearing sharp fangs, she slammed her tail harshly to the ground, cracking the concrete beneath her with tremendous force. At the tip of her spade-tip tail was an orange ribbon tied to it, soaked like her clothing, yet unharmed by her furious slam of her appendage. With no more Heartless around to quench her anguished rage, she tossed her weapon high into the sky, her body shimmering as her outfit transformed into full-plate, bright silver and paleish-green armor. It even covered her arms and legs, even her hat had formed into a knight's helm that concealed her head. She leapt high into the air in a single bound, a small flash through the darkened skies twinkling before a pair of large wings swooped down to meet with her. Landing as soft as a feather on a small board connecting the wings, she left the world, speeding off to the next to find her missing child, and slay more of the monsters who took everything away from her.

Comments

[HarryBuilder]

I guessing that Dragon at the end might be Spike's Birth Mother.

[Postwarmonkey50]

Sora yelled and fell over, more confused and frazzled by her nonchalant response. "WHAT!? HOW!? Those two look nothing alike!" Sora exclaimed. "Smolder's not as aggressive as Garble, either! And that's before she embraced friendship when the school opened!"

"So now you see my issues trying to figure out which pony is which," Ember said.

*Snicker* She's kind of got you there, Sora.

[ArlynntheDragon]

11881644
AND SHE'S A KEYBLADE WEILDER TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Dragon Warlock]

The ending is very interesting. It seems Spike is from another world and it's very well possible his mom or dad are fighting the Heartless. It makes me wonder though if they're a Keyblade warrior and Spike possibly be one as well. It would be good to see him finally earn one since the other Mane 6 just got theirs and hey can help out.

I do wish Spike got to contribute more in this chapter. In the original episode, he did do more, including solving thr mystery of why the eggs weren't hatching. Here, he was just sidelined and was there for the ride while Riku and Sora took over his role.

I do hope the end of the chapter implies soem greater stuff is in store for Spike and can finally show what he's capable of instead of being brushed to the side so much.

[The Dragon Warlock]

11881678
It makes me wonder, and hope, Spike can be one too.

[Princespeedywhooves]

I believe so
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[Postwarmonkey50]

Fluttershy whimpered, slowly pulling out each baby dragon one by one, holding them tightly to her chest. "But they're sooooooo cute," she whined. "I want all of them."

You know, in a way, it kind of reminds me of Ed and his addiction to Chickens for some reason.

[Postwarmonkey50]

"Duly noted. Right, Fluttershy?" Riku reminded the pegasus mare, who was too busy trying not to sob as she waved goodbye to the baby dragons.

Aw, for some reason I think I wanted Fluttershy just to keep one baby dragon to raise.

[nightshroud96]

11792935
Gluttony is also the sin of overindulgence of something too irrc
And it's more than than food I think

[nightshroud96]

11881678
If that really is his mom
I hope that means he will become a Keyblade bearer too.
Doesn't make sense that if his mom is one too but he still isn't allowed to be one.

(To the author, I just saw the message at last but I haven't got to reply back to it since I am on my phone and about to go to work.)

[BenictheHedgehog]

No lie, I got a lot I got to say since this has both pros & cons with how it was done.

Pros
1. Sora helping us understand Garbles reason for redemption was a lot more clean.
2. Diving into more of how Smolder & Garble act as siblings with them knowing what they have been through.
3. Smolder knowing that what Garble would have done if he became Dragon lord. Because seeing her react & be upset about that was something I feel like they forgot to mention in the original, but glad it got brought up here.
4. Revealing Spikes mom! That feels like something that was needed & I have a feeling she will be dropping by Equestria much sooner than anyone would think.

Cons
1. Riku coming along felt a bit forced with him only here to deal with the bully dragons that garble calls his friends when Kairi could have come instead to do the job & be a better help with the dragon eggs.

2. How Fluttershy & Spike were used. With it being a kindness field trip, I would have expected Fluttershy to help out with getting Garble to open up with Sora like how she did in the original. As for Spike, he just felt like he was just there compare to the original and being left forgotten alongside Fluttershy with Sora & Riku replace their roles of how to help.

3. How Sora ditches Riku & Spike to help Smolder cheer up Garble. It felt like he regress here and needed to be given a reason to even try to help for how he felt about other dragons like how he did with the changelings.

4. How twilight didn’t react. I added this cause I was surprised she was not the one to question Smolder of needing a week away from classes & keyblade training in the middle of a semester. But it is just a nitpick.

But overall, this was a good job even with some of the stuff that felt off.

[The Dragon Warlock]

11882969
Yeah, I didn't like how Spike just got shafted in particular in this chapter. In the original episode, he did far more. He solved the mystery of the eggs and put together what Garble's crew did. Here, Riku basically took over that spot while Spike is just...there and doesn't serve much of a purpose.

Hopefully, the end of the chapter implies there's greater stuff in store for Spike and with his mom a keyblade warrior, it's very likely Spike can become one too.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Hmm... seems we have a new character arriving soon...

But who is she? And how does Spike tie into her? Guess we're going to have to wait and see...

Although... wait, wasn't there a Final Fantasy character that was dragon themed?

[SoraFan23]

I guess Sora is still feeling skeptical after the whole Cozy Glow Fiasco so he was right to not give Garble a chance, but it was nice of him to use the memory ornament to see what happened with Garble when he was younger to get full understanding why he was the way he is and why he was so aggressive towards him. Glad that Sora gave Garble a chance and he knows now he sees the good in him. He didn't like lash out in anger and didn't jump to conclusions. Its showing real character growth.

[castroedgar316]

11881724
While there is a chance, there could also be the possibility that Spike's Mother wouldn't want him to become a keyblade weilder.

"...These damn monsters,"

"You took my home...My love...Separated me from my child..."

Those lines implies that she's basically lost everything, and if she were to discover Spike, odds are she'd refuse to allow him to weild a keyblade, probably saying that it's far too dangerous for him to do so.

[Solar_Wolf]

It follows the storyline with a small twist to it

[MLPFanForever]

Ohhhhh! What an ending!