Azure Edge

by Leaf Blade

106. The Dragons of the Everfree

Pinkie Pie’s breath hitched as she and her friends crossed the threshold into the Everfree Forest. This was the place that she couldn’t stop thinking about after she visited it— and its lovely Spirit— the first time, but it sure seemed a lot less inviting now.

Cuz before, there were always cute squirrels and birds in the trees, and other delightful critters roaming all about, but this time there were no cute animals to be found, and the distant howling of timberwolves rang through the air like a haunting chorus.

Pinkie stayed as close to Applejack as possible, wanting to jump at every shadow she saw. Timberwolves were scary— she still wasn’t entirely over the trauma of dealing with them the last time— but there was something else that lived and breathed through this forest that was even scarier.

The Spirit of the Everfree, or rather, the dragon of the Everfree.

Rarity took the lead of the party, and Rainbow was walking right behind her. Neither had weapons drawn, but Pinkie knew both of them would be ready to fight—even kill—at a moment’s notice. Applejack stayed behind the two with Pinkie nearly glued to her, even though she politely declined Applejack’s offer to carry her. She was definitely scared, but she wanted to walk this road with her own two legs.

The group came to a snowy clearing; probably not the exact same one where Rarity had nearly been killed by a King Timberwolf, or the one where Pinkie, Fluttershy and Twilight held their picnic, or even the one where Pinkie overheard Twilight and Fluttershy’s conversation that led to her to discover that her friends were dragons, but it looked enough like all of them for Pinkie to start feeling panic welling up inside her.

Even her good memories of the Everfree were tainted by everything that had happened. She always had her doubts about whether Fluttershy liked her or not, and now that she knew that Fluttershy was a dragon, that fear was magnified by like a million.

Dragons hated ponies. That’s what Pinkie had been told her entire life, and seeing the dragon tearing through her hometown, burning and maiming and killing and eating every pony in its path, what conclusion could Pinkie come to other than that?

Yet Twilight kinda threw a wrench into that whole thing by being the nicest, friendliest, most compassionate person Pinkie’d ever met, and nothing about Fluttershy struck Pinkie as anything other than sweet and kind either. Maybe Pinkie was just a really bad judge of character.

Rainbow stopped suddenly and grabbed Rarity’s arm, and that was reason enough for her and Applejack to halt instantly, and Pinkie didn’t know what else to do but to hide behind Applejack. She wasn’t helpless, she’d brought her enchanted crossbow with her just in case, but the last thing—the very last thing—Pinkie wanted was to have a fight inside the Everfree.

But something was coming. Even Pinkie could now hear the rustling of leaves nearby. Something big was approaching the group from their left—no, from behind them!—wait, wait, it was to their right!

Oh.

Pinkie held her breath. The creature moved all around them in a circle, and the three other mares formed a circle around Pinkie, though none of them drew a weapon, to Pinkie’s relief. The dragon that was watching them, it was moving fast, and Pinkie had a good feeling that it wasn’t Twilight.

Then, like a bolt of lightning, a golden, serpentine dragon jumped out from the trees and into the clearing, rearing back and spreading its wings out to their full length, staring down silently at four ponies that must’ve looked like ants to her.

Her wings were golden like her, but hued pink at the tips of her feathers, and she had a flowing pink mane that nearly reached the ground even at her impressive stature.

She was a dragon; the very first Pinkie had seen since that fateful day.

The four ponies turned to face her, and not even Pinkie was deterred by her presence. But before anypony could start feeling too confident, an earsplitting crack of magic resounded through the clearing, and suddenly the number of dragons were double.

Standing tall next to Fluttershy, was a great lavender dragon, its wings holding the shapes of galaxies and constellations in them as they were spread wide alongside Fluttershy’s. Pinkie got what they were doing; they were showing the group just how terrifying dragons could be, just in case any of them had an urge to fight.

And they were terrifying. Pinkie swore her heart stopped for at least a second as she stared up at the massive, towering beasts before her, who did nothing but stare silently back at her and her friends. Standing in front of Pinkie were two monsters who could destroy whole cities on their own if they wanted to, who Pinkie had lived in fear of her entire life, and whose memory still gave her nightmares.

But all she saw were two of her best friends, and she couldn’t think of anything she wanted to do more than to run up and greet them.

So she did just that.

Ignoring the protests of her pony friends, Pinkie ran up in front of Fluttershy, arms held open.

“Fluttershy! It’s me, Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie jumped up and down, ignoring Rarity’s and Applejack’s frantic calls for her to come back. “I missed you!”

“Y-you— you missed me?” Fluttershy put a paw up to her muzzle, and Pinkie Pie gasped. She still moved, talked, and acted just like the friend that she knew, even in this new, scary form.

“I did! I really, really did!” Pinkie beamed and waved at Twilight, who responded by just blinking. “And Twilight too!”

“You’re not…” Fluttershy leaned her head down to Pinkie’s level, and Pinkie froze up immediately, causing Fluttershy to recoil, but when Pinkie reached out her hand, Fluttershy lowered herself once more, allowing her cheek to gently graze Pinkie’s waiting hand, and a chill went up Pinkie’s spine as she made contact with the warm fur on Fluttershy’s face.

“You’re not afraid of me?” Fluttershy asked, and Pinkie felt tears stinging her eyes as she saw Fluttershy’s shimmering teal eyes glistening with tears.

“How could I be afraid of my best friends?” Pinkie said tearfully, throwing herself against Fluttershy’s muzzle and hugging her as best as her tiny body allowed.

Fluttershy let her wings settle against her body and tentatively, hesitantly, reeeeeeally slowly, put a paw on Pinkie’s back. And while Pinkie flinched at the touch, she responded by burying herself deeper in Fluttershy’s fur, nuzzling her friend to show her that she wasn’t afraid.

Pinkie looked up at Twilight and motioned for her to come down, and while Twilight looked uncomfortable at first, she got on all fours and lowered her head to meet Pinkie, who put a hand on Twilight’s snout in an attempt to group hug the two dragons.

Pinkie’s entire family was together finally, and all felt right in her world.

Author's Note:

as someone who struggles with depression, writing angst can be rly hard for me, so it's nice to get back to writing some warm fuzzies instead

btw! a wee update on my upcoming break! it's actually gonna start after chapter 111 (not 110 like i thought), which will conveniently go up on new year's eve! very serendipitous that.

i'll have more info on how long my break will be when i publish that chapter, but i'm thinking i'll probably be back with more azured edge in late january

Anyhoo, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

Comments

[AppleTank]

*tearful sobbing noises*