• Published 23rd Dec 2012
  • 12,977 Views, 333 Comments

The Hero of Altomare - Borsuq



Ponyville (unknowingly) finds itself to become a home to another dragon.

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3. First contact

Latios hovered above the small town, taking a deep breath before he would land.

Well, here goes nothing.” he thought as he took the last glance at his body, to make sure he looked like one of those ponies, and swiftly descended, figuring it would be best to get this part over with.

He chose some free spot near the market place for his landing. As he neared the ground, Latios spread his wings wider to stop himself, and waving them few times, put his hooves firmly on the ground. He looked around as he folded his wings, still feeling a bit uncomfortable being seen by so many creatures, even if he shape-shifted into a form that shouldn’t arouse any suspicions. However, none of the ponies seemed to take any notice of him, safe a few glances thrown his way. Latios sighed in relief and began trotting through Ponyville.

I have to admit, this town has a much nicer feeling to it that Alto mare.” the Eon Dragon thought as he observed as a fuchsia pony was chatting friendly with an orange pony, wearing a hat, that was selling apples. “There was much more noise back there, much more creatures... although, it had also more water.

Latios smiled, recalling his swims underwater, through the city’s canals. While he liked flying as much, he couldn’t swim in the nearby river, with it being so shallow. Latios wondered as he continued to trot if he should try looking for a sea, not paying attention as to where he was going, when he suddenly felt that he bumped into something... or, judging by the surprised and scared shriek that followed afterword, somepony. As Latios, who was thrown slightly back by the force of the impact, rubbed his head, he glanced at whom he bumped into.

About a meter in front of him, to his great surprise, was the first pony he saw after he woke up on the meadow. Together with her were two other ponies, which both had horns, and, if his guess was correct, were females like this one. His nose caught a weird, but pleasant scent coming from them, as if they all rubbed some ointment into their fur.

“Fluttershy, dear, are you alright?” the white unicorn asked her friend, helping her to her hooves.

“Yes, I’m okay.” the one called Fluttershy whispered quietly, and looked into Latios eyes. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to this colt, he walked into you!” her white friend snapped at her, sounding annoyed, and then turned to him. “You there, say you’re sorry!”

It took Latios a whole second to turn his head to regard this angry female. He was starring into the pale gold pony’s cyan eyes, trying to figure out why they seemed so... enchanting. Regretfully, he broke the eye contact, knowing despite his great lack of social skills, that prolonging this situation would make it uncomfortable. As his sight shifted to the white pony, noticing that the other one, a lavender unicorn, was looking at him curiously; he wondered how well this was going to work.

Latios shook his head.

“What?!” the white unicorn stared at him in disbelieve. “How rude!”

“It’s okay, Rarity, he doesn’t need to...” Fluttershy started to say timidly.

“Hush, darling!” Rarity interrupted her, and glared back at Latios. “I may be a lady, but that doesn’t mean I will tolerate such uncouth stallion bumping into my friend and not apologizing to her!”

As the angry unicorn continued to yell at him, she was also advancing on him, causing Latios to back away. He also noticed, to his great discomfort, that they began to attract the attention of other ponies.

This is bad.” Latios thought as he considered to run away and to try again later in some other form, but quickly decided that thinking off another form he could assume would be too bothersome. “Pull yourself together.

He stopped backing away, and looking into Rarity’s eyes; he opened his mouth few times, with no sound coming out of them, and then he shook his head and pointed at his throat.

“Wait a moment.” Rarity said, more calmly, as she begun to understand what he was trying to explain. “Are you saying that you are... mute?”

Latios nodded, wondering how come shape-shifting didn’t grant the ability to speak. It would have saved him from such problems if it could.

“Oh my!” the white unicorn exclaimed, appearing... terrified? “I am so sorry, I didn’t know... please, forgive me!”

He shrugged, trying to show that he didn’t mind, but...

“No, I am beyond forgiveness!” Rarity continued to rant, lifting her foreleg to her forehead, to pose a dramatic style. “How could I be so rude, while berating you about behavior, no less!”

Latios glanced at Fluttershy and the other unicorn, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t worry about Rarity, she can be a bit dramatic sometimes.” the lavender pony said, trotting closer to him. “She’s really sorry, though. I hope you’re not going to hold that against her.”

He shook his head, grateful that this conversation finally turned into something normal; loosely speaking.

“Great!” the lavender unicorn beamed up, but quickly blushed, embarrassed. ”Oh, sorry, where are my manners. My name is Twilight Sparkle, this is Rarity, and that is Fluttershy.”

Latios bowed his head in greeting to them.

“Um... hi.” the pegasi said, coming closer.

“Oh yes, hello.” Rarity, who calmed herself, greeted him as well. “Once again, I apologize for earlier.”

The Eon Dragon nodded to her, hoping she would understand that he wasn’t offended. He then turned his attention to Fluttershy. Latios noticed that she was rubbing her head beneath her longer pink fur, where his eyes spotted a little bruise.

She must still feel pain after I bumped into her.” he realized, ashamed that he wasn’t paying attention earlier.

Latios pointed at her, then at his own forehead, and made a sorrowful expression.

“Oh, don’t worry about it!” Fluttershy quickly said. ”I’m fine, really.”

He blinked and tilted his head, not convinced.

“Anyway...” Twilight interjected. “Do you mind telling us your name?” the lavender pony asked and immediately brought a hoof to her mouth as she realized what she just said. ”Sorry, I mean...” she fought to compose herself, while Latios smirked, amused by this. “... could you write it down?”

To emphasize her words, Twilight levitated some sort of notebook and a pen from her bag. Regretfully, Latios shook his head.

“Y-you don’t know how to write?!? Or read!?!” Twilight exclaimed, as if the thought scarred her to death. ”Then... how do you communicate with other ponies?!?”

Not being able to answer this question, even if he could speak to them, he resorted to shrug with both his forelegs and wings.

“Perhaps I could teach you later?” Twilight asked, seeming excited at the idea. “It would help you communicate, and reading is really fun! Oh, wait… seeing as you must be new here, maybe you would like to first explore Ponyville?”

Latios was about to nod, when suddenly, he sensed something approaching them, fast.

…Very fast.

He quickly turned his head towards whatever or whoever was approaching them, and realized that the latter was correct. Before him stood a pink female earth pony, that had a very wide smile on her muzzle. Noticing it, Latios recalled that during his spying on the small town the past week, a few times this very pony often turned to look directly at him, despite her not being able to see him while he was cloaked. At first, he thought that it was just an accident, but after seventh time...

What does she want?” Latios wondered, fearing that she know who he was and was about to tell the other ponies, which would probably caused them to fear him.

However, what the pink pony said didn’t quite match that scenario.

“Did I hear somepony say there’s a new pony in Ponyville?”