What Could Have Happened
Chapter 15: What Could Have Happened
It was another peaceful day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was not a care in the world. Even the normally timid Fluttershy couldn’t find anything to be afraid of. Instead, she was humming to herself as she went around feeding all of her animals.
With a flick of her wing, she tossed various nuts and berries into a bowl. Harry the bear growled his thanks before delicately picking up a raspberry and eating it. “You’re welcome Harry,” she said, giving the lovable bear a pat on the side. “Eat up.”
Resuming her song, she moved over to the various squirrels, birds, and other assorted seed eaters. Here she delivered a large helping of various seeds she gathered from along the forest’s edge. A cacophony of chitters, whistles, and squeaks assaulted her ears, but she just smiled at them all.
Finally, all that was left were here chickens over in the coop. Grabbing the bag of chicken feed, Fluttershy fretted. “Oh, I do hope Elizabeak and the others aren’t upset that I left them for last. They’re just kept so much farther away from the others.”
However, even that little worry wasn’t enough to dampen her good mood. With the bag slung over her back and balanced between her wings, she went around the house and towards the coop. There, she saw something that she’d honestly never seen before.
In front of her coop, and staring at her chickens, was... something. She couldn’t identify it. It stood on four legs, each leg seemingly ending in claws not unlike Spike’s. It also had wings, and two curved horns jutted out from its head. Its mouth was elongated, and numerous sharp teeth could be seen as it hissed at her chickens. Following the hiss, it flared its wings and roared at them.
Fluttershy wasn’t quite sure what to make of the roar. It sounded like what she imagined Mr. Squeakers, her mouse, would sound like if he tried to roar. The voice was high pitched and if the thing was trying to be intimidating, it had the opposite effect on the pegasus. Indeed, even the chickens seemed to pay it no mind.
However, despite it having no effect, Fluttershy wouldn’t let this thing try and intimidate her animals. Approaching the thing, which hadn’t noticed her, she called out to it. “Excuse me, mister!”
The thing, the closest Fluttershy could peg it would be a dragon of some kind, though none that she was familiar with, stopped roaring and turned to look at her. Its slitted eyes stared her down. Or tried to. It was hard when the thing was half her size and had to look up at her. Even Elizabeak was slightly taller than it.
“Please don’t try and scare the chickens. They really are delicate creatures and don’t appreciate that.” Fluttershy matched its stare. Despite its similarities to a dragon, she didn’t feel the usual incapacitating fear filling her. There was something different about this dragon.
The thing roared at her again, but she paid it no mind. At least, until the thing spoke. “Why should they not fear me?” it asked. Its voice was the same as its roar: high pitched and almost squeaky in nature. “For I am a mighty conqueror, here to dominate and enslave you all!” It capped this off with another roar, long neck stretched up as if trying to drown out the heavens with its voice.
Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to say, or do. She had originally assumed the thing to be an animal not unlike one of the many others around her. The fact that it spoke Equestrian was different. Yes she could communicate with her animals, but it wasn’t the words said more than it was the unspoken language they shared. This thing was a bit more intelligent than most of her animals.
The dragon continued its tirade. “You are all beneath me. You will bow and scrape and slave away for your pathetic, pitiful lives. And when you look up at me and beg me to spare you, I shall turn away and say ‘no.’”
The pegasus frowned, looking at the dragon. “Now that was very mean. You shouldn’t say things like that about your fellow creatures.”
The thing let out an odd squeaking sound that took Fluttershy a moment to realize was laughter. “Fellow creatures? I have travelled the vast distances between stars, conquering world after world. And now I am here. Tremble and fear me.” It stomped one of its feet on the ground, a small puff of dust the only response, and even that lazily floated back to the ground after a moment.
Fluttershy came to the only conclusion that made sense: this was some sort of hybrid dragon that had hit its head and was suffering from some sort of delusion. Without even looking, she used her wings to tilt the feed bag, pouring out some food for her chickens, who proceeded to eat, ignoring what was going on outside the coop.
“You poor dear,” she said, setting the bag down. Her caretakers instincts took over, overriding anything else. “You must have suffered greatly, wandering the forest. Here, let me take care of you.” She reached out, picking up the dragon.
“What!?” it cried. “What are you doing? Put me down this instant! I did not command you to carry me anywhere!”
She ignored it, using a hoof to gently pat its head, being mindful of the wildly snapping jaws. Its teeth wouldn’t hurt very much, but it would be annoying, and she wasn’t sure if it didn’t have anything like a natural poison as a defense mechanism. Spreading her wings, she flapped over to the front door of her cottage, which had been left open. The dragon was protesting the entire way, and even managed to hit her with its tail a few times, none of which bothered her.
Once inside, she set the thing on her kitchen table. With how wildly it was protesting, she didn’t want to leave it alone to go get her medkit. “Angel, would you be a dear and go get me my medkit?” she asked the bunny, who had just finished eating his special salad. The rabbit stared at her, patting his belly. “Please? I’ll make you carrot cake tonight,” she promised.
Angel seemed to think it over for a moment, before nodding. Slowly he got to his paws and hopped away. With that taken care of, Fluttershy turned back to the dragon. It was currently trying to claw at her table in protest, its tiny claws leaving small marks in the wooden surface.
“I will start my conquest with you,” it said to her. “You shall be my first slave and suffer the most.”
The pegasus pursed her lips, her tongue clicking against the roof of her mouth. Whatever had affected this dragon had really hit it hard. It could be poison joke, perhaps? That would explain its tiny size. Or maybe it had some sort of disease affecting its brain, which would explain the delusions of being from another planet.
She watched the dragon until Angel came back, dragging the red box with the white cross on it. Thanking the bunny, she set the box on the table. Instantly the dragon stopped ranting and stared at it.
“What is this?” it asked. “Some weapon with which to challenge me? You are a fool. I will defeat any weapon you have!”
Popping the latches, Fluttershy opened the box, pulling out her tools. “Oh no, these aren’t weapons,” she explained. “They will allow me to examine you and see what’s wrong.”
“Wrong? There is nothing wrong here, other than that you are not my slave and this place is not a burning ruin. Something I will correct shortly.” The dragon stopping thrashing about and looked as it it was concentrating.
To the pegasus’ surprise, between the dragon’s horns a small, crackling ball appeared. It looked to be made of fire. She dropped the tool she was holding, a wing coming up to cover her muzzle as she gasped. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised, dragons have a magic all their own, just like ponies. It was just surprising to see it here.
The ball grew in size until it was the diameter of the thing’s horns. Once there, smaller balls fizzled into existence around it. It was only at the last moment that Fluttershy realized what was about to happen.
Taking a step back, she pulsed her wings, sending a blast of air at the dragon on her table. She would be the first to admit that her wingpower was weak, but even what she conjured was enough to knock the fireballs aside. They impacted around the kitchen, each one vanishing in a puff of smoke and leaving a scorch mark. Fortunately, nothing caught fire.
Stepping back up the the table, Fluttershy fixed the dragon with her fiercest glare. “That was not very nice,” she admonished. “Somepony could have been hurt.”
“You were supposed to be incinerated,” the thing cried. “I am the strongest. This is merely a setback” It concentrated again, the ball between its horns growing brighter and more intense.
The pegasus took drastic measures. With a wing, she slapped the dragon across the cheek. It pained her to do something like that, but she had learned that some animals responded better to those measures. Harry had been downright rude until she had beaten him in a wrestling contest. Now that bear was a staunch friend.
The ball vanished with a pop as the dragon raised a claw to hold its cheek where she’d struck it. It had a look of disbelief on its face, eyes wide.
“I’m sorry to do that,” Fluttershy said. “But I will not tolerate violence in my house. Now, are you going to let me examine you, or do I have to get forceful?”
When the thing didn’t answer her, still seemingly in shock, she decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Picking up a tool, she proceeded to give the dragon a check up.
Halfway through her check up, the dragon snapped out of whatever stupor it had been put in. Turning its head, the look of shock changed to one of pure anger. “You dare to strike me? Your master? I was going to play with you then grant you a swift death, but now I shall leave you alive and in perpetual agony until you beg me to kill you.”
It tried to struggle, but Fluttershy held it down. Using her hooves, she pinned down its legs, and her wings to secure its head. That only left its tail to thrash about, which it took advantage of, trying to beat her like it was a club. It didn’t feel any different than when Angel was throwing a tantrum, so she ignored the tail, using her mouth to manipulate the tools.
The dragon continued to rant and yell at her, all kinds of epithets about what it would do to her. Fluttershy couldn’t help but be worried about how graphic some of them were. While she didn’t fear the dragon, its words still upset her. Whatever this thing was suffering from, it had affected it deeply.
As the examination continued, the frown on her muzzle only grew deeper. By the time it was over, she had come to her conclusion. There was nothing wrong that she could tell with this dragon. While her knowledge of dragon physiology was limited, she couldn’t find a single thing to explain what was going on with it.
This was beyond the scope of her knowledge. It was time to involve another pony, the only pony who would be able to help in this situation. It was time to pay Twilight Sparkle a visit.
Of course, that left the issue of how to get the dragon there. She could just restrain it and carry it there much like how she’d gotten it from her chicken coop to her cottage. Though the idea of doing that didn’t sit well with her. As the dragon continued to rant and rave, an idea came to her mind.
“Excuse me, mister dragon,” she said. The thing didn’t stop in detailing just how it was going to wear her skin and roast her alive. “Excuse me,” she said with more force. Still the thing continued. She didn’t want to let it go just yet, afraid it would attack her, but she needed to get its attention.
With one wing, she moved it down to its exposed belly and lightly trailed her feather across the scales there. This was a trick that worked on most of her animals.
Sure enough, the dragon stopped ranting and instead sealed its mouth shut. Its cheeks puffed out and its eyes bulged as it tried to not laugh at the tickling sensation on its stomach. Satisfied she had its attention, Fluttershy ceased her assault and spoke again.
“Would you really like to conquer us all?” she asked it.
The dragon nodded. “It is my right, my destiny to stand atop a mountain made of your corpses while your world burns around me!”
The graphic imagery made the pegasus’ stomach churn, but she kept the smile on her face. “In that case, would you like to go meet our leader?”
Finally, the dragon stopped even its thrashing about. “You would take me to your leader so I may kill him?”
“Her,” Fluttershy corrected. “And yes, I would take you to see our leader, Princess Twilight.” Sensing that she was getting somewhere, she removed herself from the dragon, giving it control over its limbs again.
The dragon rubbed its two front claws together. “Excellent. Perhaps you are worthy of being my slave after all. If you deliver me to your leader, I shall make you first amongst the slaves.”
“Oh, of course. I would love that,” she agreed. This dragon was mostly harmless, and if playing into its delusions helped get it to Twilight where it could be cured, then she’d play along.
“Very well. You shall take me to your leader,” the dragon declared.
Fluttershy got down from the table, standing on the floor again. Giving a slight bow, she asked the dragon. “Would you like me to carry you, master?”
Tapping a claw on its chin, the dragon thought for a moment. “Yes. You will be a good slave and ferry me.” It stood up, hopping onto her back from the table. Its claws dug slightly into her back, but she ignored it.
“Let us go to meet Princess Twilight,” she said.
The dragon made itself comfortable. “Excellent. Maybe I won’t pluck off your wings and make you fan me with them now.”
Ignoring that comment, Fluttershy left her cottage, the delusional dragon riding on her back.
* * *
Twilight Sparkle was engrossed in one of her many books. The library was quiet today, which suited her just fine. Spike was off helping Rarity collect more gems, and the two of them would be gone all day.
The unicorn smiled as she flipped to the next page. It was just getting to the good part, where the stallion in distress was about to be saved by the dashing heroine.
Unfortunately, her bliss wasn’t to last long. There was a knock on her door. “It’s open,” she called.
The door opened, admitting Fluttershy. Twilight opened her mouth to greet her friend, when she spotted the thing riding on her back. It looked like some kind of dragon, though not one that she was familiar with.
The dragon was staring at her. “This is your leader?” it asked.
If Twilight was a lesser mare, she would have cracked up laughing at the thing’s voice. As it was, a snort left her muzzle, one she quickly covered up with a cough, using a hoof to smack herself in the chest.
Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, this is Princess Twilight.”
The unicorn tilted her head at the princess part. “Fluttershy?” she questioned.
Her friend turned to look at the dragon. “If it would please you, would you wait here a moment so that I may properly introduce you to the Princess?”
The little creature nodded. “Very well, slave. Prepare your Princess for her doom. It matters not.” It hopped off of her back, looking around the library. Using a claw, it poked at a book that Twilight had left sitting on the floor.
Fluttershy made her way over to Twilight, who was looking at her friend with a thoroughly confused look. “What’s going on?’ she asked.
The pegasus started whispering to her. “I found this dragon by my cottage. It seems to be suffering from some sort of delusion and thinks it’s from another world and wants to conquer us all. I examined it and could find nothing physically wrong, so I brought it to you to see if you know something.”
That made sense, but something else needed explaining. “What about the whole Princess thing? You know I’m not a princess,” Twilight said. “Why would I want to be a princess? I’m happy just being me.”
“I told it that I was taking it to see our leader. I thought that would get it to behave long enough to get here.”
Twilight glanced over at the dragon, who was now shredding the book apart gleefully. She winced at the destruction of knowledge. “I guess I can take a look at it,” she said. “If it’ll keep it from destroying any more books.”
Fluttershy hugged her. “Oh, thank you. I just can’t stand the poor dear suffering under whatever ails him.” Releasing her friend, the pegasus headed into the kitchen. “I’ll go make some tea.”
Now alone with a tiny dragon that seemingly wanted to destroy her library a book at a time, Twilight sighed. And it had been such a peaceful day, too. Closing the book on her desk, she headed over to the dragon.
Clearing her throat, she got its attention. Little scraps of paper fluttered down around it. “You wished to see me?” she asked. If playing along got it to come here with Fluttershy, then perhaps she could humor it until such time as she could properly scan it. Already she was casting several spells across it, trying to determine just what it was.
“Yes. I am here to conquer your world and enslave all of you. I’ll start by killing you and parading your headless corpse around this town.”
Well, at least it was blunt in its desires. “I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Perhaps we can come to some sort of agreement?”
The dragon blinked. “You wish to voluntarily surrender?”
“Why... Yes...?” Twilight wasn’t really sure what to do in this situation. She had thought her tutelage under Princess Celestia had prepared her for anything. Though she could forgive her mentor for not thinking that a genocidal dragon no larger than a foal would wander into her library one day. “I mean, from what your, erm, slave has told me, you are mighty and powerful.”
The dragon smiled, showing off its fangs. “Yes. Yes I am. It is good that slave recognizes its true place under my claws. And if you wish to turn over your entire world to me, then I will allow this.”
Twilight glanced over towards the kitchen. “Right. But in order to make it official, we must bind this in a ceremony.”
“What ceremony is this?” the dragon asked.
“Uh, teatime?” Twilight tried her best to smile at the dragon, though she wasn’t sure how convincing it was.
“Very well. I will participate in this... teatime. Then after that, you will call your citizens to bow before me. I will then take ten percent of them hostage, kill ten percent of them, and put the remaining eighty percent to work. I require another means of leaving this planet behind.”
The dragon laughed, a very odd sound that took all of Twilight’s willpower to not laugh at. It rubbed its claws together, looking gleeful. “Yes, soon another world shall fall before me,” it crowed.
A whistling sound from the kitchen drew both of their attention. “That would be the tea for teatime,” Twilight said. She moved over to the door into the kitchen, bowing low like she’d seen guards do in the presence of Princess Celestia. “In here.”
The dragon walked past her, Twilight rolling her eyes. Fluttershy may be able to put up with something like this, but Twilight wasn’t going to last much longer in this game. Already she was over halfway through her spells, her horn constantly alight. And so far, she’d not found anything wrong with the little dragon.
Entering the kitchen, she could see Fluttershy setting the teapot on the table, three teacups and saucers set in front of the three chairs. The dragon approached a chair, looking up at it. “Slave.”
Fluttershy seemed to know what it wanted, as she lifted it up, placing it in the chair, before taking one herself. Twilight sat in the final chair, across from the dragon.
“How does this ceremony go?” it asked.
Twilight looked to Fluttershy. She was too busy casting spells on the dragon to pour the tea. Within a moment, they each had a steaming cup in front of them. Using her hooves for once, Twilight took a sip of the brew, hoping it would calm her frustration.
The dragon watched the two of them, before taking a sip from its own cup. Immediately, it spit the liquid out. “What? What is this slave? What do you dare serve me? I will pluck out your feathers one by one and use them to stuff the pillow I’ll sleep on tonight!”
Twilight was a little shocked at the graphic quality of the threat. But before she could say anything, Fluttershy beat her to the punch. “I’m sorry,” the pegasus stated. “It’s just jasmine tea.”
“It is vile and foul. Your screams for this insult shall serve to sow terror in the hearts of all those who hear them. I will make your suffering long and slow. You will—” The dragon was cut off as Twilight held its mouth shut with her magic.
“Okay, I can’t do this anymore.” She ignored the dragon, who was thrashing and clawing at the magenta band around its mouth. “Fluttershy, so far, I can’t find anything wrong with this dragon either. The only things I have left to scan for are so rare, and the symptoms wouldn’t be anything like this.”
Seeming to realize that its struggles were futile, the dragon had taken to glaring at her. Curiously, a ball of magic had formed between its horns, several smaller balls appearing around it. The balls launched at her, but she just put up a shield, blocking them. She was used to things like this. When Spike was little, every sneeze called for a shield as he spit flames.
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said. “Are you sure?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes.”
“Well, what do you suggest?”
Twilight took another sip of her tea, calmly blocking more fireballs. “I could write to Princess Celestia, but I’m not sure what she’d do other than what I just did. Probably send the thing back to the Dragonlands and let them take care of it.”
“Um, Twilight?” The pegasus was pawing at the table.
“Yes?”
The blue eyes of her friend met her own. “Do you think you could let it go? It seems to not like what you’re doing.”
Twilight looked over, seeing that the dragon was giving her a glare most fierce. If looks could kill, then this dragon would get its wish of killing her right now. Letting out a sigh, she released the magic on its mouth.
The first thing it did was flare its wings and roar at her. “You dare silence me? I will rip off your head and feast on your brains! The streets of this town shall flow with blood as I reduce it to ash! Your world will—”
Once more, Twilight silenced it. She fixed the dragon with her own glare. “Listen here. I will not tolerate that kind of talk in my library. If you cannot behave yourself, then I will keep your mouth sealed. Understand?”
Its response was to try and leap across the table at her. However, she used her magic to keep it in the chair. “And no attacking me, either. Or Fluttershy. You are going to sit there, and we are going to talk in a civil manner.”
The glare she got in response would have been frightening, if the thing giving it wasn’t currently under her total control. “Nod if you understand,” she said.
It continued to glare at her, until finally it gave a nod. Satisfied, she released her hold on it. Surprisingly, it didn’t try to attack her, or spout epithets. Instead, it sat there shaking with what she suspected was barely contained rage.
Twilight took another sip of her tea, refilling the cup. “Now then,” she said. “What are we to do with you?”
The dragon opened its mouth, then promptly shut it. A second later, it opened it again. “You will fear me. You will bow before me and become my slave.”
“That’s nice. Anything else?”
“I am the rightful ruler of this and all worlds. There is no world I’ve failed to conquer yet, and I will not let this one stop me. I will kill you and all you hold dear.”
“Mmhmm,” she said, taking another sip of her tea, before turning her attention to Fluttershy. “Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything we can do. We should just get the Princess to take it to the Dragonlands. Its fellow dragons would know what to do.”
The pegasus looked distraught. “You can’t do that, Twilight!”
“What? Why not?”
“Because dragons are mean and scary,” she whispered. “Look at it, its so small and helpless. The other dragons will just bully it and make fun of it.”
Twilight sighed. “But what else are we going to do?”
“Submit to my will!” the dragon roared. “Release yourselves and submit to an eternity of servitude.”
“Besides that,” the unicorn said.
Fluttershy tapped her hooves together. “Um, well, it could, um, come stay at my place and I’ll take care of it?”
“What?” Twilight asked, her voice deadpan. Even the dragon was looking at the pegasus, a look of confusion on its face.
“I can’t help it, Twilight. It’s so tiny and defenseless.” Twilight resisted the urge to point out that it had sharp teeth, sharp claws, and offensive, if weak, magic. “I could take care of it and even help it to get over these delusions.”
“Delusions?” the dragon spat out. “These are no delusions but a portent of your future! A future in which you are all corpses upon which I will rest. A future in which the ash from your civilization will choke the very air.”
Twilight pointed a hoof at the dragon. “See?”
“Oh, but Twilight. It doesn’t mean that.” The unicorn was actually very certain it did mean those threats. It just lacked the power to carry them out in an almost laughable manner. “I promise that I’ll take good care of it and that it won’t bother anypony. Just think of all the good that socializing with others will do for it.” The pegasus capped this off with her best smile.
Twilight sighed again, drawing a hoof down her muzzle. There was a headache forming that had nothing to do with all of the scanning spells she had cast. “Are you sure?” she asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “Oh yes. I’m certain that I can get him adjusted to living in Equestria in no time. Why, just look at Discord. He’s a regular model citizen now.”
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Twilight didn’t respond to that. No sense in upsetting her friend. “Alright, fine. It’s your problem now.”
With a squee, Fluttershy sprang out of her seat, diving over the table and hugging Twilight. “Oh, thank you! I promise that it won’t cause any trouble.”
“I’m still going to write to the Princess about this, but I don’t think she’ll do anything.”
The pegasus then launched herself at the unsuspecting dragon, wrapping it up in a hug. “Oh I’m going to take such good care of you. You’re going to live with me now, and it’ll be so much fun.”
Twilight would never admit it, but the look of horror on the dragon’s face cheered her up immensely. The thing glanced around frantically, as if seeking escape. Upon finding none from the grip of its new pegasus caretaker, it did the next best thing.
The scream of horror that echoed out from the library could be heard all across Ponyville. Ponies stopped what they were doing and looked over at the tree. After a moment, they shrugged and went about their business. Whatever it was, nothing was exploding so it didn’t concern them.
... And thus was the greatest foe to ever threaten Equestria defeated by the power of love and tolerance.
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"Were it so easy..."
Been a while since this was updated. Hope all is well.
I really like how, in your story, the plot features the Main 6 and how they react and deal with such a world ending threat and tragic losses. It feels very close to a cannon from the show and almost like it could be a script for the upcoming MLP movie. lol
This was the first long fic I had ever read. Since then, having recently finished Fallout Equestria...and just heard about the finishing if the side story FoE: Project Horzions which is 2x as long...I can certainly understand the enormity and dedication it takes to just to read through long stories...let alone write one.
At the current pace this fic is written in, I forsee it being very long with many more chapters...perhaps reaching or surpassing FoE in length. Understandably, a huge undertaking. It is a really good story and adventure so far, one that certainly deserves the chance to be rated up there along side of FoE for being "epic".
I really hope that this story continues to completion.....but its quite understandable that life and other things get in the way. It truly would be a shame to see this awesome project never finished or outright canceled, (as I have seen happen with a few other large fan projects and fics I have been following, sometimes simply because it became far more extensive and involved work then the creator/team had originally intended it to be and thus was no longer able to pursue it to completion.)
Best wishes!
I didn't realize I was at the end of the current posted chapters. I gotta have more. This is like crack cocaine of stories. I really hope there will be more. Keep up the fantastic work.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/25569/dominant-species
Same name, totally different stories.
So, this is how this story dies, huh? What a shame. It has been pretty good, I have definetly enjoyed it.
I miss this story....
7295041
I imagine it literally happened "on screen", matey. :-)
It's just that I began reading and arrived at the moment where the Mane 6 are at SB's cottage/farm,
and SB says that she will go to the nearest town to buy or collect supplies.
After that, I went straight to the last pages, and I found that SB's daughter (can't remember her name at the moment) was then an orphan.
So yes, I did miss SB's death. :-S
Oh, and thanks fer yer answer, ol' chap. ;-)
I miss this story....it deserves a re-read at some point.
So....this story is dead then?...i guess. Been nearly 2 years since last chapter. Really wanted to find out how things ended up. Was a excellent story so far. Still very much memorable.
This chapter is ironically the most consistent with show canon