This story is a sequel to My Little Sister is a Dragon - Nightmare Moon Arc
Nightwatch and Buttercream come across a lost little dragon named Lily who claims to be from the land of Ester Dracos, where the serpentine Eastern Drakes live. They embark on an adventure to return Lily to her homeland and end up coming face to face with the powerful Emperor Antirrhinum, who may have knowledge about Buttercream's species. While Nightwatch does some research, Buttercream ends up in a huge predicament that could endanger Ester Dracos and all the new friends she's made!
This arc takes place not long after Nightmare Moon's return and the rest of the story runs alongside the events of the official show. It will eventually cross over with the plot of Flurry Heart's Story. Click here to start reading Flurry Heart's Story: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/465425/flurry-hearts-story-elements-assemble
Great first introduction to the Eastern Dragons with Lili here, also glad Butter was able to get some early info about her dragon heritage! (Wished the show had shown the same courtesy to a certain cool purple dragon
)
Looking forward to see Nightwatch/Buttercream get into & out of trouble during this trip Alex!
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It's not all we're going to find out about Butter's heritage, but it might be the extent of what she will learn for now. Nightwatch is still curious about it and wants to learn more, but it doesn't go exactly as he plans.
Oh you have no idea! It's gonna get crazy in time!
The start to another adventure, and another dragon friend is made.
Oh you have no idea Butter.
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A sign of things to come! :3
A new adventure awaits in Ester Dracos! It's lucky that Nightwatch and his family were there to find Lily, not just for saving her from the storm, but also getting to learn the sort of dragon Buttercream will grow up to be. Of course, we know that already, lol. Just the fact that Buttercream is excited to grow up big and fat just so she can be the best hugger in the world is just precious. XD
So Princess Luna's returns means the return of the Eastern Dragons, huh? Very interesting.
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And it's going to set up how eager Butter is to learn more.
It'll be explained more how that relates to the Eastern Drakes. Remember how Nightwatch said in the last story how the Nightmare Moon thing caused a rift between the ponies and dragons?
Well... it seems Nightwatch and Buttercream found themselves in an adventure that had a rather stormy beginning, if I may say so.
Bad opening joke aside, it's good to see them again. :) I liked following their latest adventure, and look forward to following this one also.
The family keeps being nice to see, and the children's interest in watching the storm is really endearing and cute, even as one of the children is an adult. That said, I admit I worried for them both that they could catch a cold, even if it may be more difficult for Buttercream than for Nightwatch (though clearly not impossible, as we know Spike can get sick).
That said, it's definitely a good thing that they were outside, because if they hadn't been, God knows (or Harmony or Fausticorn knows, depending on which is the deity in this version of Equestria) what could have happened to Lily. So it was definitely fortuitous they stayed outside. And on that front, Nightwatch was very brave by rushing out into the storm... and surprisingly resourceful with magic too, considering the shield spell he knows. Considering who it's been stated he'll end up with later on, he and his future marefriend definitely have something else in common.
And on this front, it's also a good thing that Buttercream's so far only having good experiences with her kind (considering that her first one was technically with Steven Magnet in the prequel). Lily is adorable, and I liked the way in which she gave that info about Buttercream - and her reaction upon learning what she'll grow up to be is both hilarious and really sweet.
That said, I confess I worry Lily is being too hasty when she says that it's alright if Nightwatch and Buttercream go on as ambassadors, given that their Emperor is specifically seeking out Princess Luna. Granted, given it's not been so long since Luna returned and she still may not be 'fully adjusted' to the modern world, it may not be the best idea to send her. And on that front, it might not be a good idea for Celestia to go either, considering Equestria at large probably would want her close by for the time being until they're absolutely sure that Luna is not Nightmare Moon. So in that regard, Nightwatch and Buttercream may indeed be the next best alternative. I only hope the Emperor and the other elder dragons will indeed understand that.
If nothing else, at least Midnight and Aurora aren't putting a lot of barriers to their children going. They're still worried parents, but they're not being restrictive, and I do think it's nice of them that they're willing to trust Lily, especially considering the general anti-dragon sentiment that Equestria was shown to have at this point in time. It really shows how they're just nice people.
On a slightly unrelated note, I like your lore around Eastern Drakes, both in terms of their general appearance and magic and in terms of their cultural history. They feel very markedly different from the migrating dragons we've seen in the show and from the Northern Drakes we've seen in Flurry Heart's Story. Looking forward to seeing more of them.
All in all, a great begining to this story in the My Little Sister is a Dragon series. Eager to see to what comes next! :)
Wow, this is an awesome first chapter! Lily is very cute in terms of design and personality, she's almost as cute as Butter. I say 'almost' because, well, come on, NO ONE can rival Butter in the cuteness department!!
Also, that cover art is just epic! I love how your OCs and backgrounds just become more and more detailed! Especially the details you added to the water, and that grass looks so real I feel like I could reach out and touch it. Better than any of the canon backgrounds we got in MLP. Brilliant!!
I also have a feeling I'm going to like the little wyrm on the cover, it looks like an excited puppy. That's Pansy, right? I take it the wyrms can fly/levitate as well?
We definitely should have gotten to see eastern dragons in the show. Huge wasted opportunity there. Loving what we got so far! Certainly looking forward to the next chapter!!!
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Oh man. I apologize if I can't reply to all of this, but I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
I did the thing with Luna having a rough time cuz we all know she must have in that first year of being back as she did not show up publicly until Luna Eclipsed. In this story, she finds comfort in training and talking to Nightwatch, and there is actually a story I have planned that touches on that. of course the other reason is for the plot to go along with Nighty and Butter being the ones to go to Ester Dracos. Talking with Antirrhinum about the relations with the ponies is important, but there's also something else he must look into which really has an affect on him for a while and could lead to some issues, but how Butter takes it remains to be seen. Butter will have her own issue she has to overcome in this story as well. I am having a lot of fun making the lore for these different societies in the MLPFIM universe. We got a lot from the dragons in the show, but I go a little deeper with the four tribes and their ways. We saw a lot about Northern Drakes in "Go North Young Dragon" and now we get to know about the Easterns. Chinese dragons have always been amazing in my opinion, and I feel great designing them and writing this lore!
If you're enjoying it now, wait till we get further into the story! :D
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I definitely wanted to give Lily a cuteness factor, and it sure worked! The shape of her upper lip gives her a kind of "Pikachu mouth" which only adds to the cuteness and I really need to draw more pics of her! :3
Yeah, that turned out better than I planned! The buildings are kinda simplistic, but I like how the bushes around that one building to the left urned out. I used special leaf-shaped brushes in Photoshop for those and that's how I did the grass in the foreground hill too. I just clicked and dragged and it generated random little grass blades. It's kinda cheating I guess, but it would take me hours to just draw them all individually.
Yup, that's Pansy! Wyrms can fly too and they're kinda like dogs in this story. I thought the idea of having a dog-like character would be cute and when I looked up references for 'wyrm' dragons, I figured that would work.
Well we did see Steven Magnet who I consider to be one, but even more obvious were the spells that Mistmane and Sable Spirit were casting when they were fighting. I guess that means they do exist in MLPFIM, they were just never shown.
I'm starting to think Rainbow Dash would like Nightwatch. He's as daring as Doo.
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Lol, well Nightwatch is meant for somepony else.
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Yes I know, but I didn't mean in a romantic way.
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Oh. Well she might. Nighty still has yet to meet the Mane Six. He could have met him all these years during the events of FiM, but there's a reason he didn't.
Oh my pony, I just realized something! Not sure whether this was planned or not, but I was taking another look at the dragon description cards on DeviantArt, and I noticed some of the dragons on the cards perfectly resemble characters we've already been introduced to! In other words, the dragon on the western drake card looks just like Calida, and the dragon on the eastern drake card looks almost exactly like Emperor Antirrhinum! Seriously, the resemblance is uncanny! Does this mean the dragons on the other 2 cards could be potential future characters of those same species? For the green northern drake, I predict that's one of Spike's grandparents, and for the blue southern, I'm gonna go with one of Ember's, Smolder's, or Billow's relatives. But who am I to say?
I know I may be way off base, so feel free to correct me. Either way, looking forward to what else you have in store!
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It's alright. :) I understand I can leave pretty big comments. Also, my apologies for taking so long to reply to yours.
Thank you for the further details about Luna, as well as for the hints of what's to come regarding the Dragon Emperor, Buttercream and dragon-pony relations in general.
And well... I can wait, but I'm definitely still eager to see what comes next. :) Good luck to you for the remainder of this story.
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Most of that is kind of coincidence. Antirrhinum was originally going to be aqua green with red hair, but I wanted to avoid making too many long OCs that were shades of green, so I switched the colors and he looked like that red long in those pictures. As for Calida: I always saw her being a dark brownish yellow with dark brown spikes and I think I forgot about the original pic of the wyvern I drew. I have yet to do anything with the green Northern and the blue Southern.
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Yeah, I figured as much. I had read the description of Antirrhinum and was like "Yeah, it's probably just a coincidence..." But then I saw Calida and was all "Hmmm..."
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Heehee, sorry, too good an opportunity to not use that quote. Anyway, I saw a pattern and thought maybe you were planning something. Guess I was wrong in this instance. If you were ever to use the Northern and Southern, however, I think they would be good Easter eggs hinting at what's yet to come!
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Maybe I'll do something with it, I dunno. The green Northern and blue Southern do sound like they'd make good designs I could use someday. Those original 4 dragons were supposed to be samples for what the species tend to look like.
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Okey dokey loki!
Yeeeeeee!!! I'm so glad you posted this today, perfect timing!! Happy Year of the Dragon, Alex!!
🐉🐲And, le gasp...
I just realized Princess Luna kinda plays an important part in this story, and it's Lunar New Year! What are the odds!?🦄🌙
Pansy is even more adorable and Aster even more hilarious than I thought they'd be! Nice job with their characterizations; I could totally picture Aster with Williams' voice in my head! Genius on your part!
I got deja vu from the scene when Smolder was telling Spike about rocs...
I have a bad feeling about this...
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Lol I hadn’t thought of that about Luna! XD
I’m so happy to finally use Aster and Pansy! Aster is going to be very fun and interesting to write for obviously and i hope to give Pansy enough character despite not having the ability to talk.
Good observations there. I actually didn’t think of Smolder explaining rocs, though it does work as a callback.
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I know, right? Weirdly enough, the trailer for Kung Fu Panda 4 recently dropped, and I was like, dang! First the Ester Dracos arc, now this: the next major life transition for the Dragon Warrior! Crazy coinky-dink, right? A lotta awesome stuff to look forward to in the Year of the Dragon!
Aster seems like a fun guy. A nice tribute to Robin Williams.
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Thanks! Wait till you see more of him in later chapters (and possibly in FHS?)
Really love Aster, fitting tribute to a great comedian!
Hope we see more of him not only in this story but on future FHS chapters Alex!
Also yeah as someone else pointed out good callback to Molt Down when Smolder was explaining what Rocs were to Spike, nice happy accident Alex!
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Maybe he will appear soon in FHS! Either way, he’s gonna be a lot of fun!
Yeah it’s funny when I accidentally do a reference/callback to the original show. XD
I won't lie to you, the idea of waking up in the middle of the night to find that a huge snake is prowling around would probably give me a heart attack. Thank goodness Pansy's a tame pupper of a wyrm, cuz that sequence of going through the house to track her down was pretty tense and foreboding.
I like Aster a lot already, and reading his dialogue with Robin Williams' voice in my head really added that extra spark to it. You chose a perfect sound-alike for him, I'd say.
And now, Nightwatch and Buttercream are Ester Dracos-bound! Can't wait! =)
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Yeah, it went from horror to comedy rather quickly, didn't it? XD
I know, I'm so happy I can finally start writing for him cuz I've been itching to do it! I already saw plenty of films with Robin's voice, but looked at a couple clips of him on YouTube from various films to get into practice. It's kinda hard emulating his speech in text format, but it worked out surprisingly well with Aster!
And it's gonna get interesting! :D
Did you mean 'she?'
Kinda surprised no one else has pointed this out, but is that an Aladdin reference? XD
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Yup! Genie talking to the magic carpet reference! XD
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Haha!!! Genie is so iconic!
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There might be more references to the Genie or other Robin Williams characters!
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Ooh, can't wait!!
Heard of the Longma?
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2
what makes you bring them up?
Looks like Buttercream is starting to get a little greedy.
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And you know what that means...
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https://manebooru.art/images/1579906
"SPIKE WANT!!!" Or in the case it will be, "BUTTERCREAM WANT!!!" Not good either way.
For half a minute, I thought Buttercream had her eye on a different game when you said 'desire to collect them all.'
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Hehe. Well Tendonin is a parody of Nintendo, so I'm guessing the parody of Pokemon is somewhere in that collection. XD
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Maybe Sonic the Puckwudgie is somewhere in there too? XD
Another Genie reference, I presume?
Uh-oh, it looks like Buttercream's going through her "greedy phase", just like her brother Spike did once. I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise since it was previously explained that all dragons need to go through it at some point.
Trust me, your dad's going to be even better.
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It’s going to be a big problem for her later. And thankfully it’s something only pure bred Northerns go through in my story.
Indeed, but you’ll soon see why she goes for so long without seeing him.
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Lol, maybe. XD
You’re good at this! XD
Sweet tour of some Eastern Dragon culture, loved every detail shown in there Alex!
Course we also got a glimpse of *greed* coming off Butter, like his purple big bro went though! Hopefully it won't be too destructive!
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It was fun describing all of it and I'm glad it painted a picture for you! :)
Lol, I think you mean "her purple big bro." XD
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Oops yeah her, my bad!
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It probably came out as "him" since you were talking about Spike. I think I've made that mistake with my writing before.
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Yeeees!! Genie is too good!
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