Dawn Before Twilight

by Dawn Darkness

Chapter 7: Dragonshy, Pt. 1

It was yet another beautiful day in Ponyville. It has been a couple of days since Trixie had been in Ponyville and showed off her magic tricks, along with the Ursa Minor incident that followed.

Currently, I was helping out Fluttershy with feeding her many animal friends.

It was not easy, when your special talent does NOT involve animals.

“Not too fast,” Fluttershy spoke. It turns out, she was feeding her pet rabbit, Angel Bunny. “You don’t wanna get a tummy ache,” she continued. Strangely, Angel only ate half of his carrot, before dropping it, clarifying that he was done eating. Fluttershy was simply surprised by that. “You really should eat more than that, don’t you think?” she told the rabbit.

However, Angel had other plans, as he was hopping off, presumably to play around somewhere. “It’s not playtime yet,” said Fluttershy, flying after Angel. She landed before him, placing the half-eaten carrot before him. “I know you want to run,” she said, continuing to reason with him, “but…just three more bites.” Angel stubbornly shook his head. “Two more bites?” suggested Fluttershy. Angel stubbornly shook his head again. She then pushed the carrot in front of Angel and pleaded, “One more bite? Pretty please?”

I sighed. “It looks like he isn’t going to eat more, Fluttershy. He is a stubborn, little rabbit, that’s for certain.” My statement was confirmed, as Angel kicked away the carrot before him and hopped off. Just then, we both heard a cough coming from Angel. “What’s happening?” I asked. “Why does he do that? Is there something wrong?”

There definitely was something strange going on. Why does Angel cough like that? Fluttershy seemed to share my question with me.

“Oh goodness,” gasped Fluttershy. “Are you okay?”

The bunny continued to cough.

“Are you coughing because there’s a carrot stuck in your throat?”

“I…don’t think it’s that, Flutters,” I shook my head while Angel coughed in agreement, as he pointed to the sky.

Fluttershy gasped as she looked up to the sky. “Because of that giant cloud of scary black smoke?”

Angel threw his carrot at her.

“I will take that as a…yes,” Fluttershy finished while I sighed.

“We should get our friends,” I said.

“Good idea, Dawn,” Fluttershy agreed.

(Later)

We galloped through Ponyville, where ponies were conversing with each other and not noticed the giant, black smoke that’s literally trying to threaten us. I was hoofpalming while the ponies did not hear Fluttershy’s plea.

“Help. Help! Please?” she called weakly. “There’s—there’s a horrible cloud of smoke. It’s headed this way, and—”

Did she just shriek as Rainbow dashed forward with a ball bouncing from her nose. I trotted over to Fluttershy to comfort her. “Relax,” I told her. “It’s just Rainbow.”

“Yeah,” she added. “Don’t be such a scaredy-pony. It’s just me, future Equestria ball-bouncing record holder.”

I blinked as she counted her number up, such as “Three forty six” and “Three forty seven” while the ball was bouncing from her head.

“This calls for a celebration!” Pinkie’s voice called.

I saw Crimson was together beside the party pony. While we stared for a moment, we broke the contact as Fluttershy spoke in her low voice.

“Oh no, Pinkie Pie, this is no time for celebration. This is a time for panic, for—”

As for me, I trotted over to Crimson, who asked me, “Time for panic? Why? It’s a clear, blue sky today.”

I sighed, pointing my hoof upward. Crim followed my direction, with an “Oh” escaping her.

“Ooo!” Pinkie continued, not hearing Fluttershy. “I’m going to need balloons! One for every pony in Ponyville!”

“There’s—there’s smoke,” Fluttershy tried again. “And—and where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And—”

“Let’s see…that’s one,” Pinkie counted, clearly having not heard Fluttershy. “Two, three, four…”

“Three hundred fifty four…” Rainbow counted as Pinkie Pie continued her own counting.

“Five, six.”

“Three hundred fifty six, no…wait…” Rainbow realized, after Pinkie pointed at her belly. “Pinkie Pie! Now I have to start over.”

I shook my head fondly at my friends. They, especially Pinkie, sure can be oblivious to the current situation when they don’t count it in their day, such as today with the coming smoke.

“We’re all going to have to start over, in a new village,” continued Fluttershy in her low voice. “‘Cause ours is gonna be—”

Rainbow flew away from Pinkie, who called out, “Hey, Rainbow Dash, wait up!”

Crimson and I looked at each other. We both knew the situation, thanks to us spotting it quicker than the other ponies. Though, I had to say that Rainbow and Pinkie surely can’t keep this up with being so oblivious to their friend’s plea, and this is from my good friend Fluttershy, who tried again.

“Oh, please, this is an emergency. I—I need everypony to—”

“Listen up!” On cue, the heroine Twilight Sparkle comes to the rescue! Or would that be…to frightening everypony with what she is going to say? “Smoke is spreading over all of Equestria.”

“What?” Everypony gasped in unison. “Oh no! That’s awful!”

I hoofpalmed again, shaking my head in disappointment. Crim looked apologetically to either me or Fluttershy.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to—” Fluttershy started, but Twilight spoke up again.

“But don’t worry,” Twilight continued. “I’ve just received a letter from Princess Celestia informing me that it is not coming from a fire.”

I raised a brow at the statement. I could only guess what it would be coming from, and Twilight affirmed it to me, after Fluttershy uttered, “Oh thank goodness.”

“It’s coming from a dragon,” Twilight finished.

Everypony gasped.

“A…a d—dragon?” Fluttershy repeated in worry.

(Later)

We were gathered in the Golden Oak Library, where Twilight had assembled the rest of our gang. I was standing beside Crim while figuring out why a dragon would be causing the smoke. If it is a dragon, I might have a guess about what it could be doing in Equestria, but the question is, who could it be?

Smaug the Terrible? Or something else?

The question remained in my mind while Applejack echoed my first question. “What in the name of all things cinnamon swirled is a full-grown dragon doing here in Equestria?”

Good question, Applejack.

“Sleeping,” was Twilight’s response.

We all blinked. “Huh?” We spoke in confused unison.

Why would a dragon be sleeping in Equestria and cause the smoke to all but threaten us and our town? It makes little sense, if you ask me.

“According to Princess Celestia,” continued Twilight, “he’s taking a nap.”

“Oh, that figures,” I said, mimicking the voice of a character from the video game I enjoyed playing in my childhood called The Legend of Spyro.

The girls looked at me with a shush.

“His snoring is what’s causing all this smoke,” Twilight finished after my sudden interruption.

“He should really see a doctor,” Pinkie Pie said. “That doesn’t sound healthy at all.”

I shook my head at the pink pony, fondly, as Rarity pointed out, “Well, at least he’s not snoring fire. What are we meant to do about it?”

Even I wonder about that same question. If we were to fight the dragon, I’m all up for a challenge, since my friend Solar Eclipse had taught me some of his kung-fu skills in my one year of living in Bloodonia.

Rainbow said, “I’ll tell you what we’re meant to do. Give him the boot!” She made some fighting motions as she kicked a statue in front of Twilight, who repositioned it on the table. “Take that. And that!” Aaand…she crashed when Twilight raised the statue in the air.

However, Twilight firmly said, “We need to encourage him to take a nap somewhere else.”

“And how, exactly, are we going to, Twi?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Princess Celestia has given us this mission, and we must not fail,” she continued. “If we do, Equestria will be covered in smoke for the next one hundred years.”

I blinked. One hundred years of a smoking Equestria? That doesn’t sound good.

Fluttershy agreed with me, as she gasped.

“Hmph,” Rarity huffed. “Talk about getting your beauty sleep.”

Crim and I looked at each other, while Twilight finished her speech, “All right everypony, I need you to gather supplies quickly. We've got a long journey ahead of us. Let's meet back here in less than an hour.”

Rainbow smiled. “Okay, girls and boy, you heard her. The fate of Equestria is in our hooves. Do we have what it takes?”

The girls and I nodded in affirmations.

However, Fluttershy remained quietly, as she whispered, “Um, actually…”

(Later)

Once we were ready with getting our supplies, we met back at the Golden Oak Library, where Twilight was basically acting like a military general with how she was pacing back and forth in front of us.

I mean, sure, Fluttershy might be afraid to go up against a wild dragon, but what if we need to have some backup? Not to fight, rest assured, but to encourage the dragon somewhere else to nap.

“All right, girls, Dawn, listen up,” Twilight started as she paced. “I’m mapping out the fastest route, but we’ve all got to keep up a good pace if we expect to make it up to the mountain by nightfall.”

This is getting exciting. I was all up and ready for some adventure with these girls!

Fluttershy, however, didn’t agree with my inner thoughts. “M—m—mountain?” she whispered in fear.

I felt empathetic towards her. She was not ready at all to go up a mountain and come face-to-face with a dragon. However, Twilight continued speaking.

“The dragon is in that cave at the very top.”

We looked up to the mountain, where the smoke was coming from, with Applejack stating, “Looks pretty cold up there.”

“You bet it is,” Rainbow added in agreement. “The higher you go, the chillier it gets.”

“Good thing I brought my scarf,” Rarity noted.

“Same here,” Crim added with Rarity.

Now that I was sure of it, before we gathered, Crimson had a purplish scarf around her neck.

“Ooo! Pretty!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Heh, yeah, that’ll keep you nice and cozy,” Rainbow stated sarcastically to Rarity..

I heard Fluttershy’s nervous gulp as she trotted up to Twilight. I don’t mean to state the obvious, but she is seriously not going to trot up there, help us encourage the dragon, and be home by tonight.

“Um, excuse me, Twilight?” Fluttershy started to say with her low voice, while Twilight was mapping out the route on her map. “I know you’re busy, but…”

“Uh-huh, well, we can go this way,” Twilight spoke, not hearing Fluttershy.

“But if I could just have a second…”

“Uh-huh,” Twilight hummed. “No, we want to avoid that.”

Meanwhile, I was rolling my eyes while Crimson looked at me, whispering, “Do you think she’ll be up to the task?”

I shrugged.

“So, um, I was thinking that, um,” Fluttershy continued, “maybe I could stay here in Ponyville.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Oh!” Fluttershy smiled. “Good. I’ll stay here and—”

Twilight realized as she looked at Fluttershy. “Wait! You have to come!” she insisted. “Your way with the wild animals will surely come in handy.”

“I don’t think I—” Fluttershy spoke.

“Twilight, if I may?” I spoke.

She nodded to me.

I turned to Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, if I may say my opinion on the situation, then if you can come along with us, then we might be able to get that dragon out of Equestria and have everypony safe from the smoke. Do you really want to avoid Equestria being covered in smoke for one hundred years?” I asked softly.

“Um…” she started.

“Dawn’s got a point,” Twilight added. “And don’t worry about your little friends in the meadow. Spike’s got it covered while you’re gone.”

“You can count on me!” Lo and behold, the dragon in question spoke up! However, Angel was kicking on his head a couple of times before hopping off. “Hey! Hey! Wait!”

I chuckled at that.

Fluttershy was uncertain about it. “I don’t think he’s up to the task. Maybe…but…but…” she gave a squeak.

Twilight was met with Rainbow, who whispered to tell her, “Are you sure you want Fluttershy to come along? I mean, that pony’s afraid of her own shadow. She’s just going to slow us down.”

“Oh, she’s just a little nervous,” Twilight replied. “Once we get going, she’ll be fine.”

And…we heard a squeal from the pony in question. As pointed out by Rainbow, she was indeed scared of her own shadow.

I sighed in exaggeration. “God…this is going to be a loooong trip…”

Crim looked at me with a kind smile. “Don’t worry about Fluttershy. I will be staying with her.”

I blinked. “You will?”

“Sure. I mean she is going to need some encouragement once we get going.”

I then smiled at her statement and nodded.

“All right, everypony, move out!” commanded Twilight.

“But…but…” Then Fluttershy gave a scream as the girls grabbed her with them while Crim and I galloped along.

Author's Note:

A new chapter! This is the first part of Dragonshy. The next part will be written as the rest of the episode.

I hope you guys have been excited about this chapter. My decision to split this chapter up is quite simple; it's so I have an easier time to think of the situation with the dragon and how to play it out.

I know it was a long gap for this chapter (almost a full year), but it was due to me having lack of inspiration and enthusiasm for the story, and with my interest in writing original books being the priority (which it still is, I'll add).

Now that the wait is over, let me hear what you guys and girls have to say about the first part of the seventh chapter! Any improvements of the writing from the previous chapters?

-Dawn (owner of Dawn Before Twilight)