• Published 19th Aug 2017
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The Land Before Hooves - Moon Flame



Twilight Sparkle and her pony friends enbarks on a journey through the The Land Before Time, both to find their way back to Equestria and to help Littlefoot find friendship again.

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Chapter 13. Tensions Rising

The wind stirred beneath her feathers once again, her rainbow mane blowing with the currents once again. She was flying, once...

“Oah.” The sudden drop almost sent the pegasus plummeting. She managed to angle her wings to the odd draft.

Rainbow Dash was still trying to perfect her flying in this foreign world with completely different gravity and weather patterns. Her friends were nothing but a line of dots against the land below. The barren trees in front of the red sun made the landscape look like a aquarelle painting. The great circle, which was what the habitants called the sun Dashie recalled, casted its light ahead. Or was it the bright circle? Either way, they needed to follow it until they reached the mountain shaped like a longneck past the mountain that burn. Dashie thought she saw the latter in the distance. It was at least eight days away she calculated.

“Its good up here. Isn’t it?” She was flanked by her company.

Rainbow Dash looked at the creature she had come to consider a friend. “Its different from Equestria, thats’ for sure. Its rough and tough. And to be here.” Dashie spread her blue wings extra. “I like it!”

“Me glad you’re getting something out of your stay. You home world sounded wonderful, the way your princess put it.”

“No, I mean THIS! Flying! Without you.” Dashies’ sincerity glimmered inside her magenta eyes. “Without your help, I might have never experienced it again!”

Petri hadn’t been accommodated like this since he learned how to fly above the jaws of the Sharptooth that killed Littlefoots’ mother. His answer came out modest. “Thanks.”

“I’m the element of loyalty, loyal to my friends, and you are my friend Petri. - From now on, until the end of time!”

“Wow! Me always wanted to have an element.” Petri smiled. “Oh yes, me am your element to.”

“Hora!” Dashie high-fived the flyer, who was to late in on Dashies’ gesture and hesitantly high-fived the air.

“Oh, yes. Me your hora to.”

“You up for a race!?”

“Race?” Petri grinned. That was a word he understood. “Oh yea, me up for it!”

The two fliers raced a couple of minutes. Most of the time Petri won. Navigating the sky was just as much about coordination as flying. Much like wandering, if one knew the layout and patterns of the land one could go almost anywhere. Dashie also needed to learn resting in flight, since she couldn’t stand on the clouds in the land before time.

Dashie caught up with her breath. “Wow, you’re fast Petri!”

“You’re not bad yourself! You go faster each round.”

“You know. In Equestria I can fly so fast I break the sound barrier.”

“Sound barrier?”

“Yes! And then, if I do that, I will create a sonic rainboom!”

“Wooooooow! Me have no idea what you just said, but me must see it! Maybe if I visit Equestria you can teach me how to sonic Petriboom.”

And here Rainbow Dash had just caught up with her breath. Her stomach turned inside out. Her eyes filled with tears. “Hhhhhhhhhhha... Oh, Sonic Petribooooohhhhhhhhaa...”


Below the recon party the wandering continued. Littlefoot and Twilight had taken point. Littlefoot turned his neck around and looked wondrously at the pony princess from Equestria. How she was able to walk without limping was a wonder, and lucky that was. The sharptooths usually singled out the weakest individuals in a herd before making their move.

“I can’t believe how well your spell worked Twilight.”

“It only eases the pain. My hoof can still turn bad by overusing it.”

It was like Twilights’ own words had a life of their own. She felt a sudden sting inside her hoof. A dotted reptile surface appeared underneath her belly. Twilight felt herself rise.

Littlefoot used his tail to carry the pony girl onto his back.

“Thanks Littlefoot.”

“You’re welcome. Tell me if I should walk slower.”

“Don’t slow down because of me. Its a long road.”

Littlefoots’ eyes filled with curiosity. “I talked to Fluttershy the other day.” Littlefoot focused deep into her eyes while asking his question. “Am I a dinosaur?”

Twilight studied the longneck. Her violet streaked mane made her purple eyes look like glimmering diamonds of pure knowledge “Its an interesting question, haven't thought about it. The data on how they looked is incomplete but we know they were a combination of lizard and birds. Equestrian historians say they existed million of a million years before us, long before the phenomenon that we know as the element of harmony evolved. I’m not sure about the correlation between our dimension and yours, but I guess there is a possibility that our timelines are different to a degree that correlates with that amount of time. If that’s the case it is possible that you are dinosaurs, in the way you would have looked if our universes had been the same.”

“So they existed before ponies? Does that mean your dinosaurs...?” Littlefoot continued asking his question using his eyes.

“...That they could do magic?” Twilight ended. They both looked down at Littlefoots’ cutie mark. Twilight squinted her eyes while her mouth formed a smile. “You know, Littlefoot? For all your random questions, once in a while you ask a reeeeeealy good one.”

The pony princess and the longneck kept exchanging knowledge. Eventually they started talking about more personal matters.

“Tell me about Spike.” Littlefoot said.

“Spike?”

“Yes, the one you mistook for our Spike when I mentioned Duckys’ brother.”

“I am...” Twilight smiled nervously. “...impressed you picked that up. Yes, Spike is my baby dragon.”

“Dragon?”

“A fire breathing dragon. Yes.”

“Fire breathing? You mean the dragons you told me about earlier breathes fire!?”

“All dragons do. I have extensive knowledge of the dragon kingdom myself...”

Dragon? Kingdom? The questions spun so fast inside his head they made Littlefoot dissy. The spinning stopped on an image of Spike the spiketail burping out a ball of flame in front of a exited Ducky. Littlefoot laughed to himself, feeling his curiosity turn to longing while the pony princess kept spouting information like someone was listening.

Before heading out the dinosaurs talked about the last one of their ensemble. They all came together around the fact that Spike was probably an entirely different spiketail at this point. In fact, Ducky herself had been the bearer of the conclusion, it was probably better they didn’t look for him. Much like the case how Petri missed his siblings, she would always remember him as a part of her family.

Still, Ducky would always hope that one day, where the sunlight patches through the border, his silhouette would be. And then, whenever that day arrived, they would finally be together again. But that would be another adventure. - Ducky had new friends now. The swimmer stopped jumping.

“How... Huh... How can you jump so long in the sand, Pinkie?” Ducky asked out of breath. “Do your... Heh... energy ever... huh... run out?”

The other ponies caught up with Ducky. Apple Jack chuckled.

“Trying to be Pinkie Pie, heh Ducky?”

“Its not unusual she keeps this up entire wanderings.” Fluttershy sounded like she was talking about one of her animals.

“Its a mystery!” Rarity dramatized.

“Say THAT again!”

“OAH!” Ducky gasped when the rainbow pegasus blurred centimeters front of her.

Cera grumped. “Is it just me, or have Rainbow Dash become more obnoxious after she learned how to fly?”

“Learned? Hah!” Dashie hovered down in front of Cera. “I ALWAYS knew! I only needed to be reminded how totally awesome i was!” She leaned close to Ceras’ ears and grinned. “Spoiler alert: Ehe, I am.”

Dashie was up above the clouds before Cera was able to open her mouth.

“You gotta hand it to her. She is pretty good at flying.” Littlefoot awed.

Cera smiled. “That’s good! We need good flyers.”

“Wait! Hold on.” Rainbow Dash came down again.

“How do you even hear us up there?!” Littlefoot asked incredulously.

“Hear you? You’re practically speaking in my face!” She put on a confident grin. “I am pretty good at hearing things from the air.”

“That’s pretty useful to.” Cera replied sincerely. The grin of Rainbow Dash turned static. Cera lifted her eyebrows. “What?! You believe I considered it my business you forgot you could fly? I didn’t mean to hurt you, I only meant to wind you up. Its not my fault you made it too easy by putting yourself on a pedestal.” Cera showed no sign of either sarcasm nor lying, and Rainbow Dash was pretty good at spotting either. The wandering continued but Rainbow Dash remained still, wondering what in Celestia just happened.

Back in Ponyville, Apple Jack and Dashie had in common their love for sport and their rivalry was legendary, and right now the country pony felt she had been blessed with an extra harvest season. She trotted up to Dashie, gave her a nudge with the hoof and comforted teasingly.

“There, there. We all still think you’re amazing, hehe.”

Littlefoot looked toward the bright circle. It shouldn’t be far now. Soon he would see the place to where he once swore he would never return. He only hoped that it was green again, otherwise they would need to share the food.

He felt his face frown, or was it his soul that lost hope?

“What’s with the wondering?” Petri landed on his back next to resting Twilight.

“Wondering? I... I’m not.”

“Not thinking about us?” Petri asked.

“No. I mean yes... I just wondered.” Littlefoot sighed.

“Listen, Littlefoot. Everything that has been is all in the past.”

Littlefoot looked back at Cera, then at Petri again. “It doesn’t feel that way.”

“You wonder about Cera and her father.”

“Yes.”

Petri looked blankly at Littlefoot a couple of seconds. “Me not sure either, me never knew my father.”

“But you knew your uncle.”

“Oh, me know him. Me met him several times after me left the valley.”

“You have?!”

“Yes. He taught me how to survive outside of it.”

Littlefoot sighed. “I still can’t believe we banished him.”

“Me not sure how his banishment apply now after the drought.”

Ahead laid a pound with trees growing around it, just as Littlefoot had predicted. The time had come for the group to rest. The ponies started making themselves comfortable. Petri leaned his head forward, seemingly focusing on something. He spread his wings and lifted from Littlefoots’ back. “Hold on.”

Littlefoot watched Petri rocket toward the water. He dove so rapidly into it that he was almost able to go under. He lifted from it with a splash. The longneck and threehorn watched in bewilderment the flyer return with something in his mouth.

“What is that?!” Cera asked disgusted.

Littlefoots’ eyes widened in a ‘aha!’ manner. “Its a fish!”

Cera looking sideways at him in a ‘duh’ manner.

“Ith sfure ith!” Petri blurted and swallowed the wiggling thing whole.

Littlefoot subdued his desire to throw up. “Your kind eat meat!?”

Cera made a gagging sound.

Petri frowned. “Thanks for treating me equal.”

Littlefoot panicked. “No, don’t take it like that! I didn’t mean...”

“No, me understand you’re surprised, me as surprised as you after my uncle showed me. It turns out that my mother only ate green to fit in with you guys, us fliers have always been hunters.”

“Raptor species!” Fluttershy lectured from afar.

Littlefoot subdued his disbelief. There was a time he would have pushed his friend away, but then he remembered Chomper.

Chomper was a sharptooth that was born in the valley after they found his egg. Littlefoot was the one that helped him through the hatching. The experience taught Littlefoot the hardship of parenthood and the wonder of being a child. It also taught him that meat eaters were individuals too with feelings and desire for company. Still...

Littlefoot looked nervously at all the vegetarian ponies. He leaned closer to Petri and whispered. “For me and Cera, its alright. But listen. if it’s ok to you, can you do this when these ponies aren’t watching?”

Petris’ eyes filled with shame. “Oh, me sorry.”

“Hey, its ok. Maybe now when you're a Sharptooth you can chase them away?” Cera joked.

Littlefoot shot the threehorn an angry glare.

“It’s ok, me won’t be a mean Sharptooth, me will be a nice Sharptooth." Petri illustrated bt growling his small teeth. The three old friends laughed. "Enough about me and my uncle, what about your father?” Petri asked Littlefoot.

“My father?” Littlefoots smile lowered.

“Yea, about Bron?”

The face of the longneck turned sully. “I haven’t seen him.”

“You... You haven’t?”

“That’s the reaction he gave me.” Cera said.

“Are we talking about Littlefoots’ father? Where is he?” Ducky joined in.

“I don’t know where he is, and I don’t wanna know.”

“Why not?” Ducky asked.

“Its just...” Littlefoot bit his lips in a contemplating manner. “I just don’t want to disturb him. He has his herd to think about and I don’t want to be in the way.”

“That wasn’t what you said a second ago.”

“Well, I guess I made up my mind then!”

Silence fell over the dinosaurs. Happy memories from long ago was flushed away by Littlefoots’ passive aggressive behavior. Petri gave him a studying look while the threehorn raised her tail high.

“Well. Fathers remain fathers, and daughters remain daughters. I’m for one am glad to be alone. I don’t need my father now, and didn’t need him then.”

Petri felt the tension growing like the wind under his wings. Did Ducky and Littlefoot avoid eye contact?

“He was always mean and cruel to everyone around him, I’m actually glad he...”

“SHUT UP CERA!” Petri raked.

The anger split the silent air, now even devoid of pony noises. They had all stopped what they were doing and was looking at them from a distance. Littlefoot suddenly realized his back felt oddly free. Feeling her presence, he turned to Twilight Sparkle. She appeared to be sneaking away. She had her right hoof halfway to the ground as she laughed nervously. “Eh heheheh. Friends! Remember, friendship isn’t always easy, but there is no doubt it is worth fighting for.”

The dinosaurs shared confused looks. Petris’ eyes sparkled with bewilderment. “You wan’t us to brawl?”

Twilight frowned.


The silence was almost vacuum, vacuum like death. Suddenly there was a stir in the air. The breeze gained speed. Whispering winds called.

Littlefoot... Littlefoot...

The sand around the hole started to form circles. The whispers gained a strong thrust. Out of the sharptooth track sailed an undamaged leaf. The tree star continued its journey.

Littlefoot.