50 The Coming Storm, Part Two
“And then the dragon just… flew away?” Doug asks, staring at Fluttershy. “Really?”
“Really!” says Fluttershy, ecstatically nodding. “And after apologizing profusely, he said he would make sure to take his naps far away from where ponies live!”
“What was he doing out here in the first place?” Doug says, shaking his head. “I mean, the napping for a hundred years I can buy, being a dragon or something-”
“Actually,” Twilight Sparkle says, cutting Doug off, “Princess Celestia’s letter merely stated that Equestria would be covered in smoke for a hundred years if he continued napping there.”
Doug deadpan stares at Twilight Sparkle for a few seconds before looking up at the sky. A few dozen pegasi are congregating around, chatting amongst themselves. Rainbow Dash flies up to a few flying over, a brief conversation before Rainbow Dash drops back down.
“Yeah, with the source of the smoke gone, we should be able to clear this up in an hour, two tops.” Rainbow Dash shrugs as she glances to Twilight Sparkle, “I mean, maybe if he had kept up that snoring it would have been a problem, but I think the Princess might have been overstating the problem just a little.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight Sparkle exclaims, glaring at the blue pegasus hovering just above the ground, “The Princess would never do such a thing!”
“Wua?” Rainbow Dash says, motioning towards the mountain to the north, then towards Twilight Sparkle, and then towards Sweet Apple Acres. “Are we talking about the same Princess here? She’s a total prankster!”
Twilight Sparkle stomps a hoof as she whirls to face Rainbow Dash, “Name one time Princess Celestia has acted out of line or done anything unbefitting of a Princess!”
Rainbow Dash looks between Doug, and then Pinkie Pie, then to Pinkie Pie’s flank, “Well, there was this one time with some cake…”
Pinkie Pie continues, “And then the second time with the cakes - the delicious pastries of course, not the Cakes’ cakes.”
Twilight Sparkle rolls her eyes, “Princess Celestia has a well documented history with her cakes. She can get very defensive around them! Not that I personally have anything to do with that!” Twilight Sparkle’s grin is so fake that Applejack doesn’t even need to tell everypony how orange she is.
“Trixie is inclined to agree with Rainbow Dash. After all, Twilight Sparkle accused the Great and Powerful Trixie! of being Princess Celestia for purposes beyond her. Though she is flattered at the comparison.”
Twilight Sparkle huffs, “I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student! We write letters to each other at least every week! If anypony here knows the Princess, then it’s me!”
Applejack glances at Doug, “Well-” before she cuts herself off, coughing to try to hide what she had just said. When Twilight Sparkle glares at her she stammers, “Well, um, Ah mean, you do have a relationship with Princess Celestia, and it might not be the same as some of the other relationships that, um, some of us here have with her, and-”
Doug elbows Applejack in the side, whispering loudly, “Stop digging.”
Applejack shuts her mouth, pulling her hat off and fanning herself. She can’t help but say, “Whew! Getting hot out here.”
“Anyway,” Doug says, mashing Applejack’s hat onto and completely covering her mouth and face, “my original question was, ‘why is a dragon out here in the first place.’ Is that just, like, a common thing with them? Or could this have sparked some sort of, I don’t know, international incident?”
Everypony turns to look at Spike, the dragon stopping mid throw of a ball to Winona. He stares back at them, turning his claws up and saying, “Sorry, I got nothing. I’ve been raised by ponies, so I really don’t know why he’d be out here.” He turns, throwing the ball and watching the dog chase after it.
“Hey, doesn’t Dragonfarce have some big concert they are playing in Vanhoover?” Scootaloo says, now fully on her scooter and slowly pushing it along.
Everypony turns to look at Trixie. She blankly stares back at them, “What? It’s not like they’re my favorite band. Besides, those big concert venues are expensive, and Trixie does not know of any in the Vanhoover area.” An odd look comes over Trixie’s eyes as she glances up towards the smoky mountain, one hoof tapping against her chin.
Doug offers, “So, maybe they’re building something out there. Or they need to prepare a bunch of, I don’t know, food stores. Dragons probably eat different stuff than ponies, right?”
Applejack nods, “Well, we did get a big order for as many pigs as we could raise.” She hastily covers her mouth, glancing between Fluttershy and Hedge. “Ah’m sorry, Ah-”
“It’s okay, Applejack,” Fluttershy says with a smile, Hedge sighing as she stares down at the ground, a tear forming in the filly’s eye. “We, um… we know.”
“Right.” Applejack shakes a hoof, “Ah better be careful with these, pretty soon Ah’m gonna knock a tooth loose.”
Doug ruffles Applejack’s mane as he says, “I guess what I’m getting at, is, that’s expensive, right? And the dragon had a big hoard.”
“Positively monstrous,” confirms Rarity. “He had this one diamond, it was nearly as large as me! And plenty of other jewels, and chests of gold on top of his mounds of gold!”
“Right.” Doug motions towards Sweet Apple Acres, “And, granted, I was only able to watch the dragon fly off from here using that telescope Rarity got, but I didn’t see any gold or jewels on him.”
The ponies all glance at each other, turn to look at the mountain, then back to each other.
Fluttershy says, “Um, I did tell him to go pack his things. But he left in an awful hurry.” She shudders, “You don’t think he forgot his hoard, do you?”
Rarity shakes her head, “He was able to swipe the entirety of it away from me when I tried to get that diamond, I mean, for him to leave, but I don’t recall seeing any of it on him when he left.”
“His tail was a lot bigger than when he was sitting down and talking to Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash looks over at Spike, “Hey, Spike, can you store anything in your tail?”
“Pretty sure Pinkie Pie is the only creature I know of that does that,” Spike says, shaking his head. He turns to look at his purple tail, “Besides, isn’t that more of, I don’t know, an adult thing?”
“What does-” Rainbow Dash says as she turns to look at her own prismatic tail. It lifts up, then drops back down, then lifts up again. One of her eyes twitches, the mare desperately trying to hold in her laughter before she flops to the ground, giggling hysterically.
“Yeah, I don’t think any cocaine smuggling is going on,” Doug says, holding a hand to his face and covering his smile. “But, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to check on that. Just in case, and to keep any… entrepreneurial individuals from taking advance of his absence.” Doug glances over at the blue unicorn sitting next to him.
The two crudely stuffed blue pillows with a hastily scribbled face and cardboard horn stares back at him before the head falls off, rolling a few feet on the ground.
“Seriously?” Applejack shouts as all eyes turn to see Trixie running towards her wagon. The blue unicorn turns at the loud voice, a sheepish smile as she slowly walks back to the group. “What, did ya think you’d just, Ah don’t know, walk up that mountain and help yourself to whatever you could drag out?”
“No!” Trixie exclaims, nervously looking at her wagon. “Trixie was just, um, going to check when Dragonfarce would be performing. If they have some sort of schedule published that far in advance. And if we could, perhaps, contact them about any sort of reward for helping them with their lost goods.”
“We ain’t extorting them out of their money!” Applejack says, stomping a hoof on the ground.
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to turn down a reward if they happened to be generous enough to thank us,” Rarity says, a far off look in her eye. “I would finally be able to get my hooves on that diamond!”
“We ain’t accepting any sort of reward for doing the right thing!” Applejack states, “And that’s final! Now, Rainbow Dash, can you fly up to the mountain and go check?”
“I mean, I can, but we’re going to have to start clearing out this smoke really soon. The sulphur is going to mess with the lightning storm we have coming up if we don’t take it out right. And we really don’t want any complications happening with that.” Rainbow Dash shrugs as Applejack grumbles. But when the earth pony looks over to Fluttershy and then towards Ponyville, Rainbow Dash quickly adds, “But, I mean, I guess I could let everypony know what to do. Since we don’t want to get anypony else involved.”
Fluttershy whispers, “Thanks.”
Rainbow Dash continues, “But, what if he did leave his stuff there? Are we just going to leave it, too? Or tell the royal guard to post some sentries or something? There were probably a million bits in there!”
“Closer to two million, but enough to make removing it difficult,” Twilight Sparkle says.
Applejack grunts, “That’s probably, um, about fifty wagon loads. And that’s starting from nice, level ground, not up at the top of a mountain.”
“Could you fly it down?” Doug asks, looking between Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.
Rainbow Dash snorts, “You’re foaling, right? You have to be.”
Doug shakes his head, “Hear me out. So, I’ve seen two pegasi pull around a chariot with Princess Celestia on it. And she’s, what, half a ton?”
Rarity nods, “Yes, about as much as ten of those chests of gold.”
Rainbow Dash points a hoof towards the mountain, “And there are, what, a thousand chests worth of gold up there? That’s a lot of trips up and down, so unless you plan on inviting all of the pegasi in Ponyville and having a few of those chests fly away, then you’re out of luck.”
“Wait wait wait,” Applejack says, staring at Rainbow Dash. “We could have hired a pegasus team to take us up the mountain, and saved all that time it took me going around the long way with Fluttershy? And all that wear and tear on Rarity’s precious hooves?”
“Hey!” Rarity says indignantly.
Rainbow Dash shakes her head, “I doubt it. These aren’t trained royal guards we’re talking about, these are ponies only slightly less panicky than Fluttershy when you’re talking about actually going towards a nasty dragon instead of away from it. One bad snore, not to mention if you’re suddenly surrounded by smoke.”
“Well, you were pretty gung ho about flying up there,” Applejack says. “Coulda saved us a lot of trouble. And didn’t Princess Celestia herself give us the assignment?”
Rainbow Dash flexes a wing, posing with a cocky grin, “Yup, and we totally took care of it on our own! As for the flying thing? If I’m primed I can stop on a bit, though I’ll grant you that the Wonderbolt’s fog course isn’t done with sulphuric ash clouds. So you’d need to go a little slower, since you don’t have as much of a heads up.” Her confident attitude fades slightly, “But still, I’d have a hard time dragging a chariot up there with just one pony, and forget about any sort of maneuvering through smoke then.”
Doug finally breaks back in, “I was actually thinking that Twilight Sparkle would be the one flying around, levitating the bits down the mountain.” Doug shrugs, “But, I don’t know how draining that would be. Or if it would even be possible.”
Twilight Sparkle scratches her hoof against her chin, “It’s theoretically sound, but I would much prefer to be in something a little more stable, like a hot air balloon.”
“Oh, pegasi aren’t good enough for the unicorn now, huh?” Rainbow Dash exclaims, stomping a hoof. “What’s wrong, you don’t trust us? Or you just trust a small piece of cloth more?”
“No!” Twilight Sparkle exclaims, shaking her head, “It’s not that, it’s just, um, well, first, it’s pretty rare that I take a chariot anywhere.”
“You arrived in Ponyville on a chariot!”
Twilight Sparkle groans, “And it was horribly bumpy! And they kept flapping up and down!”
Rainbow Dash snarls, “Duh, it’s called flying! It kinda happens when you, I don’t know, use wings to fly!”
Doug snaps his fingers, “Rainbow Dash, that’s enough. Go do whatever coordination you need to do with the weather team, then go check the mountain.”
Rainbow Dash spins, opening her mouth to spit something out, stopping at Doug’s harsh glare. She glances at Applejack, sighing loudly as she takes to the air.
“Aww,” Twilight Sparkle says as Rainbow Dash flies away, “I didn’t mean to belittle pegasi and their flying abilities. It’s just, it’s hard to keep your concentration when you’re flying and constantly moving up and down, and you have to compensate for that! I should apologize to her, I didn’t mean to come off that harshly!”
“Once she gets back, sure. Until then, maybe we can see about getting a hot air balloon if the treasure is still up there.” Doug turns to Miss Cheerilee, “Thanks for watching the foals and all.”
“Of course, and please pass along my thanks to Rainbow Dash for all your hard work,” Miss Cheerilee says with a smile. “Have a good day, everypony!”
“Good day, Miss Cheerilee!” the fillies chorus, many waving as their teacher leaves.
Doug says as he gets up, “Twilight, Trixie, you’re both welcome to join us for dinner. I’ll make a little extra to commemorate such a momentous occasion.” Doug smirks to himself, shaking his head, “After all, how often do you get to save Equestria from such an imminent threat?”
“I’d be happy to!” says Twilight Sparkle, smiling as everypony begins walking towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Rainbow Dash returns, the round trip only taking two minutes for the pegasus eager to prove herself to Twilight. “Well, cave is empty, so I guess he either came back for it after we left or he took it in the first place.” Rainbow Dash snuggles up to Doug, “So, you gonna help me relax my sore wings? They could use some tending to after all that flying.”
“Sure,” Doug says with a wink, flexing his hands before he turns to Sweetie Belle, “So, anything interesting happen at school today? Who won the election?”
“You’re never going to believe it, but Diamond Tiara won for school pony president! And, she got her cutie mark in leadershipping!” Sweetie Belle grins before sighing, “I was kinda hoping I’d be able to vote for Scootaloo, but she dropped out.”
Apple Bloom snorts, “If only to see what it would be like living under somepony with absolutely no leadership experience or ability.”
“Hey!” exclaims Scootaloo. “I’m just glad it didn’t turn into a Apple versus Rich mud slinging fight.”
Doug shakes his head, “Now, Apple Bloom, I’m sure Scootaloo would have done a fine job. She could always ask you for advice, right?”
“Or she could ask the birds when they are all atwitter,” Fluttershy says with a sly smile. “There’s always something interesting they’re chirping about!”
Doug mutters under his breath, “Somehow I doubt that,” as they enter Sweet Apple Acres.
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I am loving this so far. Can't wait to see what you have in store for Doug. Also, have a mustache.
9410592
Thanks! I would recommend checking out the Alternate Beginnings series as well, if you haven't already!
Seeing this chapter makes me wonder what will happen when(during and after) Tirek breaks out.
9761007
The events of My Little Pony: The Movie. Oh, wait, spoiler alert.
9761053
So, basically I know nothing about the movies other than the 1st of the EQG universe (Sunset stealing the crown leading to Rainbow Rocks)
Meaning: I have NO FUCKING IDEA!!!
9761314
The Storm King one. The non-EQG movie.
9761320
Edited the old msg -- It'll make more sense now.
Imma go watch those eventually-ish.
9761327
Well, then you'll just have to keep reading and find out! Mua-ha-ha-ha!
9761341
NOOOOO! THE SUFFERING!
Hashtag topical. Though it would be fun to see opposing armies of twittering birds slinging mud at each other as they tried to advise the Student Body President of Ponyville Schoolhouse.
yaknow, I think your the first one to mention the dragon hoard
What is this “sly smile” about? And it seems a touch out of place that Doug would make that remark against Fluttershy. I’d have guessed he’d ask her about their conversations rather than to doubt…
That’s funny and they ended up saving equestria more times than I can count on one hand