How to Befriend a Dragon

by Dragonbond

How To Fix A Dragon

Chapter 3

Scootaloo had been in her room thinking about Toothless. After coming back and telling every pony she was alright, some cried with joy while some scolded her of even going off on her own like that. She didn’t tell them where exactly she was lost during the past day so they wouldn’t discover Toothless. She just told them she fell down a hole and was unconscious until the next day before waking up and coming back home. There was nothing to really punish her on since it wasn’t really her fault. Accidents just seemed to happen like that and there was nothing a pony could do to prevent them. So, they all put this incident behind them and told her to really look where she would be walking next time.

She had rose early in the morning to draw a sketch of Toothless’ tail. She had to draw and redraw his tail until she got it right. She made sure to find a piece of paper long enough to how she remembered the length and width of the tail. She would even use multiple pieces of paper if the paper she found wasn’t big enough to draw on. At least the part of his tail that wasn’t damaged. She just needed help on what she planned to do next. She had been practicing a lot to rebuild and build scooters. Going through blueprints and books, but she felt she needed professional assistance for her project. She knew exactly who to go to. Of course, not Twilight. She would quickly get suspicious on why she was making what she wanted. She had to go to some pony that wouldn’t get wise to her. After finishing her sketches, she rolled them up and placed them in her saddle bags to leave the house.

Scootaloo was making her way into town. She saw some of the bullies she knew. But she didn’t care since something else was on her mind more important than their presence.

“Hey look, it’s the flightless chicken.” One of the bullies said.

Scootaloo just passed by not even listening to their insults. “Sorry can’t talk, I’m busy” She said bluntly and continued her way without even a glance at them. The bullies just stared after her confused.

Scootaloo had finally made it to her destination. The home of Doctor Whooves. She knew he loved to invent things and hoped he could help her with her task. He was the kind not to ask about some pony’s inventions if he could get the chance to make something if it intrigued him as a challenge. She just planned to tell him it was a science project of flight. She hoped he was home or more importantly, interested in her project. She walked to his front door and knock. She waited for a moment as she heard nothing. She knocked again. “Hello? Dr. Whooves?” Scootaloo called. She then heard some crashing and sounds of metal banging around. She hoped he wasn’t in the middle of something big.

The door soon opened revealing Dr. Whooves as he was surprised to see a filly at his house. “Oh, hello young filly. Can I help you with something?”

Scootaloo inhaled readying herself to do this. “I have a science project I am working on and need your help. You are the only pony I know that invents things.” She said.

Dr. Whooves became curious and intrigued about the assistance she needed for her project. “Well you have come to the right pony for the job? What kind of project is it?” He asked.

She pulled out the sketches of the tail. “It is about flight. I wanted to do a project on how a dragon could fly with a tail like this.” He looked over the sketches as she explained her problem. “As you can see, I could only draw half of it. I really need help to learn about how this half of the tail would make a dragon fly and build a life size functional model for it.” She said. “Can you help?”

Dr. Whooves looked over the design. “I see. This is similar to some of my recent models and the mechanism of the wing functions are pretty basic.” He said inspecting her sketches.

“Also, can you teach me how to make it? I really need to know everything about it.” Scootaloo added to her request.

Dr. Whooves found this as a challenge not only to build the dragon’s tail design, but to pass its knowledge to a filly. “I think I can help. Follow me to my lab.” He said letting her inside the house.

Scootaloo looked all around the room of his home to see all kinds of inventions and models. She wondered where he had the time and bits to make all this. She wondered if he could ever build some mechanical wings to help her fly. But that shouldn’t be her focus. She shook her head from those thoughts and focused on the one she was here for. He brought her to her desk and moved all his other invention ideas out of the way. He then started explaining the basic mechanism functions of the tail fin and how it was vital for certain dragons to fly with a tail like this. This worried Scootaloo about Toothless. If his tail was damaged like this, that means he couldn’t fly. She knew what it was like not to fly. She didn’t want Toothless to go through the same thing. Scootaloo made sure to listen and remember everything. This was important for her idea to help with the dragon to repair his tail. She would make sure to ask what certain words meant that he said that seemed too scientific for her to remember or understand. If ever she needed to repair the tail, she would know what to do in order to repair it. She had Dr. Whooves guide her with making the tail model. Using what was in his workshop to tinker and create the tail with. Also using a material that was strong enough not to tear that was like strong leather. It was taking hours and they would break for lunch before going back to work. Scootaloo was focused on making and finishing this tail. Dr. Whooves was impressed with her dedication to this project and her effort to learning all about her project. It filled him with hope and pride for future foals to start taking an interest in inventing new technology.

With the passing of time, they finally finished the model. Scootaloo looked at it and was satisfied. They had both tested its durability to make sure that it would not break if overly used and tested if they used a big fan. After finishing, the Doctor helped strap it on Scootaloo to carry back to her home. “Thanks for everything Doc. I’m sure this will work.” Scootaloo said grateful for his assistance.

“Anytime err…” Dr. Whooves paused from not knowing her name.

“Scootaloo.” She said almost forgetting about introducing herself.

“Right, Miss Scootaloo. Good luck on your project.” He said as he showed her to the door.

“Bye Doc.” Scootaloo called while she rushed off with the Doctor waving her goodbye.

Scootaloo only made it look as if she was running in the direction of her house until she was out of sight. Then she turned into another direction to find her way out of town and head for the spot where she last saw Toothless. She was just about to head to the edge of town until she heard her name being called.

“Scootaloo!” Scootaloo stopped startled by her name being called out. For a second, she thought she was caught by an older pony, but she only saw it was Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. They finally caught up to her curious about two things. “Where have ya been all day Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked. “We haven’t seen ya all day.”

“Yeah, and where are you going with that thing on your back.” Sweetie Belle asked pointing to the tail device on her back.

“Oh, well I was… going to try a new… Kite. Yeah, I made a kite and wanted to try it.” She said hoping they bought it.

“Awesome, can we come help fly it too?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“NO!” Scootaloo shouted in fear. She also scared her friends from the sudden outburst. Scootaloo cleared her throat. “I mean, I can take care of it myself. It’s a… personal project. I have to do it myself to… study. For something important.” She said.

Apple Bloom gave a confused look to wonder what kind of project this was and who gave it to her. “Personal project?”

“Look, I’ll see you girls tomorrow. I just really have to get this done.” She said as she ran off leaving her two confused friends behind. She didn’t want to lie to them, but she couldn’t risk them finding Toothless and either them alerting other ponies or getting set on fire by the dragon. Too make sure she wasn’t followed; she took different routes around the area to lose any pony that might be following her. Later when she finally ended her attempt to lose any following ponies, she headed straight to where she last saw Toothless.

Toothless was still where he was before. He had been planning to head back home to the dragon lands until a dark thought entered his mind. What would the other dragons do when they learned he couldn’t fly anymore? Would they cast him out or leave him to fend for himself? Would they even accept him anymore? He had been one of the most popular dragons for his firepower, his expert flying, and his ferocity. Now he would be no better than a fire breathing lizard that was stuck on the ground. He couldn’t go back to be met with all the shame. He couldn’t go anywhere. His new life was to wander the world a flightless reptile. Worse was that he couldn’t cross the ocean, so he was stuck in this pony land. He sighed in only guessing was that he would have to hide out in a cave somewhere for the rest of his life. A lonely hermit dragon. “How could it get anymore worse than this?” he asked himself.

Then there was the sound of rustling bushes. Toothless stood up quick and was on alert to what was coming his way. The sounds kept coming closer and he prepared to attack. No doubt that whatever it was, it was coming straight for him. He would give it no chance to attack as he began to breath in to ready a fire blast. Right when he saw it come out, he was about to blast the creature until he saw it was Scootaloo. At the last moment, he turned his head only just enough to have the plasma shot just miss her and pass right her head and blasting over a tree with a loud crash.

Scootaloo had ducked and covered when she heard and felt the explosion behind her. She then peeked up from her hooves that was covering her face. She looked behind her to see the burning stump of the tree and the rest of the fallen tree on the ground. She then turned back to Toothless who had multiple expressions of shock and anger. “What is wrong with you?! It was just me coming to visit!” Scootaloo shouted as she was just as shocked and angry as toothless.

“Me?! What about you?! How was I supposed to tell if it was you or some creature trying to attack me? You could have called out or something!” Toothless argued back. It made him more outraged to being yelled at by a young pony.

“Well you could have called out who was coming! I come back trying to help you and this is what I get?!” Scootaloo shot back.

“Why would I need your help? We’re already even. You don’t need to bother me anymore.” Toothless said before turning around facing his backside to her and plopping on the ground in a pout.

Scootaloo just took a breath to calm down. She guessed he was acting like this because of his tail and being unable to fly. “You can’t go home, can you?” She asked Toothless. Toothless only made a snort as his answer. “Don’t worry, I know what it is like.” She confessed. Toothless head dorsal fins perked up when he heard this. “I was never able to fly, and I don’t think I ever will.” She then pulled the prosthetic tail from her back. “I made this for you. I was hoping it could help you to fly again.”

Toothless turned around and came over cautiously. His pupils turned to slits as he was on alert to look at anything suspicious. Scootaloo was shrinking back a bit still a bit frightened of the dragon’s size and appearance. He came close to sniff the prosthetic. “How does this thing work?” Toothless asked curiously as his eyes returned to normal.

“Oh, let me show you.” She said as she ran behind him to his tail. Toothless turned still feeling uneasy at her approach. He kept his tail away from her.

Scootaloo frustratedly chased after his tail. “Will you just stand still? I’m not going to eat your tail or anything.”

“How do I know you won’t cut off the rest of my tail when I’m not looking?” Toothless said accusingly.

“Then you can eat me if I do!” She said still trying to catch his tail. “I sure hope he doesn’t.” Scootaloo thought to herself.

Toothless reluctantly stopped moving for Scootaloo to catch his tail. “Sounds like a deal.” Toothless said for something to go wrong.

“Gee, thanks.” Scootaloo grumbled as she got to work on fixing on his new tail fin. Toothless moved his tail a bit feeling like his tail had been restored by feeling the weight return to his damaged tail fin. “Alright, it seems to work. Nice and tight. All we have to do is… YAHH!” Scootaloo shrieked when she was forced to cling to his tail and watch herself leave the ground and start being lifted into the air riding backwards on the dragon’s tail. “What’s going on?! What are you doing?!” she shouted in fear.

“I’m going to fly!” Toothless called back.

“But I didn’t test it yet!” Scootaloo said. Just then, they both began to feel gravity pull the down.

Toothless screamed as he fell seeing that they were heading into a pile of stone. Scootaloo then saw the prosthetic closed and flailing in the wind. She then reached out and pulled the fin open. Toothless was able to fly up from the pile of stone and up into the sky.

“I can fly again!” Toothless shouted with joy to be in the air again.

Scootaloo was just as excited to know that the new fin was working. “I think it’s working!” She said then pulling on the fin up to force Toothless to make a sharp turn. He flew back down towards the lake. “I did it! I fixed it!” Scootaloo shouted happily and proud of herself.

“Yes, you did and now I can go home. Goodbye.” Toothless said before making a sudden U-turn and sending Scootaloo screaming into the water. “Now I am home free.” Toothless said as he tried to fly off but felt that he wasn’t in control anymore. He looked back to see the new fin flail once again into the wind as he fell into the water as well. After emerging from the water, Toothless looked back at the filly with a disappointed frown.

“What?” Scootaloo shrugged as she treaded water. “I see this as a win.”

“You mean a win of getting my hopes up?” Toothless said swimming towards the shore.

Scootaloo started to make her way to land as well. “Oh don’t be such a baby. I’ll fix it when I get back. I think I know how to fix it.” She said unsure.

“What do you mean you think you can? You are the one who built it, right?” Toothless said concerned.

“Yeah… sort of… I had somepony else to help me make it.” She admitted embarrassment showing on her cheeks.

“That is it then. I’m a grounded dragon.” Toothless whined.

“Hey, I did most of the work to build the tail! I can fix it, just you wait and see.” Scootaloo said walking over to his tail and taking the fin off. Toothless didn’t make a fuss this time, but when she turned around from the tail, Toothless swatted his tail fin on her flank as punishment. “Ow! What was that for?!” Scootaloo shouted angrily at him. She rubbed her reddening flank.

“That is for getting my hopes up.” Toothless said pouting.

“You sure are grateful, you useless reptile.” Scootaloo said sarcastically.

“Make sure it works this time, you flightless chicken.” Toothless demanded. He then walked over to a spot where he could sleep in the shadows.

Scootaloo headed back home to Ponyville. Despite her rude reward from Toothless, she couldn’t help but feel a bit better and excited from having a short flight on a dragon’s tail. The speed and the power of his wings were much different than a pony’s wings. Each beat was so powerful. Pony’s had feathered wings, so they didn’t beat as loud as a dragon’s. Maybe if she tried harder to earn his friendship, he would let her fly with him or better yet, ride on his back. That gave her an idea. She would first make the fin more functional to help him fly. To do that, she would need to also make something else for Toothless. A saddle.

Author's Note:

If anyone is interested, I have another fanfic on Fanfiction.net called Dragonbond. just a suggestion. I don't think it would be accepted on this site according to the rules.