The Daughter of Drakensdale Hollow

by Resurgent Wanderer

So an Alicorn and a half Dragon walk into a club...

It didn't take Twilight long to get ready at all. While she herself wasn't the most 'club acclimated' pony, Rainbow and Pinkie had managed to haul her off to plenty of raves and nightclubs. A sprinkle of sparkling purple eyeshadow later, as well as ditching her crown, Twilight was on her way downstairs on the assumption Lithe was already down there waiting for her.

Moving down the stairs Twilight was surprised to find that Lithe was not in fact waiting for her in the main lobby. Curious of where the mare was, and somewhat sure that she would have already come down stairs Twilight checked the kitchen but couldn't find Lithe there either. It was when Twilight was heading back to the main room that the alicorn found Lithe, who had just made it to the bottom of the stairs.

The draken-pony's mane was out of its usual braid and now hung elegantly down the side of her face and neck in a flowing and gentle wavy curtain of copper. This contrasted her tail, which was now braided masterfully. Lithe was bare of make-up, but her coat now had a sheen with a lustre on-par to that of her scales which made the light dance off of it playfully, reminiscent of a disco ball only much less gaudy.

"Wow..." mumbled Twilight, who only just now realised she was holding her breath, "You look absolutely amazing..."

At this Lithe blushed profusely and ducked her head down in an attempt to hide behind her mane. Twilight found it very similar to what Fluttershy usually does when embarrassed, but found that on Lithe it was about 20% cuter. As Lithe slowly peeked out from behind her mane her honed eyes were quick to pick up on the eyeshadow and the other light hints of makeup that accented the lavender alicorn magnificently.

"You look really pretty too, Twilight." Lithe replied with a blush bright enough to rival dragonfire. Lithe was quick to preoccupy herself with the floor after her comment as Twilight turned and gave her a grateful smile. It was also about the time Twilight realised that if Lithe stayed as insecure as she was already being then nothing fun would come of the night.

It actually caused Twilight to give pause and think about why such a usually exuberant and inquisitive mare would find herself so hesitant and shy at times. Still, now wasn't the time to ask, but Twilight could still reassure.

"You know you don't have to worry about what I think, right?" As she spoke, Twilight moved forward until she stood right in front of Lithe and lifted the draken-pony's chin until their eyes met, "You are no different than you were two days ago, and I am no different than I was two days ago. I want you to be able to enjoy the night tonight without being worried or embarrassed about what I think of you every second. Just smile and enjoy the night, I'm the same Twilight as always."

Lithe nodded and took a deep breath and swallowed.
"Same as every other day, okay...I think I can do that."

"Good," Twilight smiled, "Now, let's go catch our train to Manehatten."

Suddenly Lithe's eyes lit up as she bounded towards the door.
"Oh, I've never seen the train before!"

M\(>^<)/M

Twilight couldn't help but smile at Lithe's childish excitement as the mare bounced in her seat while watching the trees and occasional rocky outcrops flash past them. This, after all, was the Lithe that Twilight had come to enjoy the most. Perhaps it was just seeing the huge smile plastered across Lithe's face or maybe it was because, much like herself, Lithe was so eager to learn new things. Either way, Twilight was most definitely already enjoying the trip.

W/(>V<)\W

"Dartani, where is this Ponyville I sent my daughter to anyway?" rumbled a deep, gravelly voice, "Since the feud between those two fools solved itself I know have free time, and if Lithe is still in Ponyville I would very much wish to meet the friends that she should have met by now."

Dartani, a slight dragon dark brown dragon of medium build, nodded to his king and set off to find the maps.

M\(>^<)/M

Though generally a lot more calm in new places, both Twilight and Lithe were excited to see Manehatten, Lithe because she had never been to such a place before, and Twilight due to the length of time since she had last seen her cousin. To make things even more exciting and new was that the entirety of the city had had speakers put up to play the music from the premiering club throughout the streets. This meant that even though the pair hadn't even arrived, they already had a beat to go off of.

As Lithe bounded along the streetways whilst investigating the many wonders of the big city, such as the fire hydrants and the automated lighting, and even a blue police call box that a strange bowtie wearing stallion disappeared into, Twilight followed after her at a slight jog. While not the biggest on working out, even Twilight couldn't deny the fun she was having at the moment and they hadn't even reached the club yet!

At the speed that Lithe was going, even with all the distractions, it didn't take her more than twenty minutes to find herself frozen outside an extremely large building that's very walls seemed to shake with the beat of the music. Staring at the pulsing lights and the crowded line in the front was enough to immediately set Lithe on a nervous edge akin to what she would feel while out hunting. The draken-pony's pulse quickened while her eyes narrowed to slits. Her nostrils flared as she took in the smells around her, namely of sweat from the heated crowds. There was also a hint of blood, but not enough to signify anything more than a bloody nose. Ears swiveling as if on pivots, there was no conversation with in the first thirty hooves that Lithe could not listen in on.

This was not normal, and Lithe knew so. The only other time she had ever gotten worked up like this before was when she had met one of the Thestral, Luna's guard, who were semi-undead beings and unnatural and unnerving for her to be near. Snapping her eyes around quickly, Lithe took note that there were no Thestral in her sight lines, but there was a mare walking up casually behind Twilight. A mare whose hooves made far too little noise on the cobblestone street, and who bore no identifying smells save for one very light scent drifting from the mare's mouth. The smell of blood...

Throwing her wings wide Lithe snapped them down to the ground while her finely toned and muscled hindlegs uncoiled, both launching the draken-pony into the white mare just as she made to lunge onto Twilight's back. There was a short tumble followed by two fangs snapping close to her face, and act that Lithe responded to by baring her own six fangs back coupled with an angry growl. The response was enough to cause the white mare to falter just as both Twilight and a second unknown mare came in between Lithe and the unnatural pony.

"What was that? You...that wasn't like you at all?!" Twilight balked, noticing that her date's hackles were still up, and didn't look like they would be going down until the situation was explained.

Lithe just fixed the white mare a glare past Twilight before responding.
"The white one has no smell like the Thestrals, and she lept at your unprotected back."

Twilight stood still for a minute or so, thinking over all that Lithe had said and also taking into account Lithe's sudden demeanour change. Never before gad Twilight seen Lithe react in such a way that she had openly attacked somepony. Not even with the Thestral guard, where Lithe had instead just stared at him. No, this was something new that Twilight didn't quite know how to handle. Then again, there were many things she had yet to learn how to handle, but if Ponyville taught her anything, it was that friendship is a never ending process.

"Eh-heh, yes, well, Lithe, meet Vinyl Scratch, my cousin on my dad's side. Next to Vinyl is Octavia Philharmonica, my Vinyl's mare friend," Twilight established, "Vinyl, meet Lithe, part dragon part pony, and can not smell you, which bothers her. So then Vinyl...shall we head into your club and maybe get to know each other better?"

Giving a somewhat annoyed look to Lithe Vinyl nodded and turned to walk off. As Lithe and Twilight followed Lithe leaned close to Twilight.
"I don't like her so far, but her friend smells nice."

W/(>V<)\W

Twilight was happy for a number of reasons, but the first and foremost being that Lithe was now sitting nervously on the couch, a faint blue blush gracing her cheeks as she half hid behind her wing. This was the a side of Lithe she knew how to deal with. Not her favourite mind you, but again, she knew what to do with this Lithe. Moving to her date's side Twilight wrapped a wing around Lithe's shoulder and gave her a quick nuzzle.

"I should probably thank you by the way."

Turning her draconic visage to face Twilight, Lithe couldn't help but give the mare an incredulous look as the draken-pony thought over how she'd attacked Vinyl, Twilight's cousin, so viciously.

Twilight smiled gently as she continued.
"You saw some random pony leap at me and the first thing you do is tackle them. Kind of dashing in a way, but why exactly did you go after Vinyl anyway?"

It wasn't until now that Lithe truly looked towards Twilight, and Twilight could see the tears building up in Lithe's eyes.
"I...she 'felt' dangerous, and then she jumped at you and I thought you were in trouble...I'm sorry I almost hurt your cousin Twilight."

It was true sorrow that Lithe felt for a number of reasons. First and foremost was due to the fact that she had almost hurt an innocent pony, but that led to one of Lithe's greatest fears. Regardless of how Lithe was the size of a pony, or was more akin in features to a pony than a dragon, Lithe still had dragon blood flowing through her veins. In a sense, she was part predator, and there was little that scared Lithe more than to delve into that side of her that she feared so much.

As her eyes threatened to overflow Lithe felt Twilight wrap her hooves around her neck.
"Hey, don't worry about it. Besides, it would only make sense for you to have a negative reaction to Vinyl, she has a condition. My cousin contracted a Thestral disease, nothing more than a flu for the Thestrals, two years back. Very rare, very unlikely, one-in-a-billion chances. Regardless Vinyl contracted the disease and it causes an somewhat undocumented disease in ponies commonly regarded in popular culture as Vampirism. Not anything special, just the lack of a smell, and the ability to move more quietly much like the Thestrals and the lack of ability to produce her own blood cells, a unique phenomenon only found in the ponies. Anyway, Vinyl promised to go put on some perfume to make you feel better around her, and she also wants me to apologise for her for both scaring you and snapping at you. Oh, and we can head through that door anytime we want and go enjoy the club."

Nodding Lithe started feeling a thousand time better. It was common knowledge for Dragons that the Thestrals were created well over five thousand years ago by Celestia and Luna's predecessors during a war between the two species specifically to fight the dragons. It was only natural for one such as herself to have a slight fear or aversion for anything Thestral related.
"So, you're not angry with me then?"

Booping the tip of the scales on Lithe's nose, the alicorn gave her a grin.
"Of course not, now, you want to go enjoy the party?"

Nodding, both Twilight and Lithe got up from the couch and moved out through the door.

W/(>V<)\W

Dartani skittered quickly out of the way as a tree came sailing past his head. True, it had been a fair point to acknowledge that, Lithe, being part predator, could have adverse affects on her relations. And even truer was the point that Luna, the newly returned princess of the night, now used Thestrals as guards. This fact in particular did not sit well with the High King.

Little known to the Dragon public was that their High King had been alive for just over 210 years as the war between the ponies and Dragons came to a close, and he had a particular distaste for the Thestrals. He didn't really want them dead, just far, far, far away from his family. And now he was faced with the knowledge that he had unknowingly sent his daughter into the awaiting hooves of a species originally bred to kill dragons.

Needless to say he was absolutely furious.
"How did no drake know this?! I swear on the eggs of our species, if any harm has befallen my daughter due to this oversight, there will be blood!"

M\(>^<)/M

It had taken some doing, but two hours post arrival and meeting Vinyl, Lithe was starting to really enjoy herself, even going so far as to have had a couple of drinks despite swearing them off after the Guinness incident with Twilight. Another thing that Lithe had gotten used to was the loud music. Her ears were far more sensitive than the average ponies, but after a bit of magical genius Twilight had managed to create a way to block out some of the noise.

Twilight, the very mare that Lithe hadn't really removed her eyes from since they'd arrived. It wasn't just the nervousness from the crowd or the fact that she'd successfully noticed that there were four ponies other than Vinyl that had vampirism or the twenty or so Thestrals hanging out in the far corner. No, it was how amazingly different Twilight was when she had loosened up and how beautiful she managed to look in the lighting. And maybe a little because of the Thestrals in the far corner.

So caught up in her thoughts as she was, Lithe didn't even notice Twilight saunter up to her until the alicorn nuzzled against her.
"You okay there Lithe? You seemed a little caught up in thought or something."

Shaking her head and returning the nuzzle Lithe couldn't help but smile at the affectionate interaction.
"Mm, just thinking that I was really lucky to have you of all ponies as my friend."

Flushing red Twilight was about to deny it when Lithe nudged her.

"No denying it either. I know I'm a little off compared to most ponies, and a little clunky when it comes to interpony connections, but you've stuck by me, even when I messed up after my party. You know, I over heard a few ponies back in Ponyville say they felt sorry for me once...because I looked so different, they said no pony would ever want to be with me. I don't think they thought I could hear them, but I could...But then you decided to be here any way, and come on a date with me and all."

Struck by those odd words that seemed so inherently mature and grown up from Lithe, it called up a question that the alicorn realised she never asked. Just how old was Lithe? Sure most of the time Lithe was either shy or somewhat introverted, only really getting excitable when learning new things, but then there were times like this when Lithe acted very mature, but that hadn't happened too often, and finally there were both the incident with the Thestral and the one hours ago with Vinyl where Lithe acted near battle hardened. It was now that Twilight realised she was overcome with a near overpowering urge, one that could not be denied.

"I, uh, I'll be right back, I need to run to the fillies room."

Lithe just nodded her head and watched Twilight run off towards the lavatories. It was about a minute into waiting when a strange stallion walked up to Lithe and offered a drink.

"You look lonely here by yourself missy."

"Oh, um, no, just waiting for a friend to come back is all. And you didn't have to get me a drink, but that was nice of you."

The strange stallion just nodded and watched as Lithe downed the glass in one go.

"So, where's this friend you're waiting for?"

Lithe wanted to answer, and she swore up and down that she knew who her friend was, but her head was starting to feel fuzzy.

"Oh, you don't look good, here, I know somewhere where you can just lay on back and take a nap."

"But...Twi-"

Giving a slight nudge towards a door at the back of the club the stallion grinned oddly.
"Oh don't you worry about your friend. Once I have you taken care of I'll come back for her."

Stumbling slightly, Lithe could only nod, not understanding why she suddenly felt so tired. It wasn't until the stallion reached the back door and opened it that she realised something was off. The door led to the alley, why was he taking her to the alley?
"I don't...I don't think I should...go back there...Twil-"

Receiving a second nudge Lithe tripped towards the door. She turned to say something but froze up at the cruel looking expression suddenly plastered across the stallion face.
"Haven't you ever heard not to take drinks from strangers."

Suddenly the stallion's mane was wrapped in a violet glow as he was dragged backward until he was spun face to face with a seething alicorn.
"Haven't you ever heard that you don't touch my friends?"
Before the terrified stallion could respond he found himself personally learning that an earth pony skull was hard enough to shatter a table. Dropping the disgusting wretch, Twilight rushed to Lithe's side to find that she was merely asleep, most likely due to a drug such as Rohoofnol. As Twilight lifted Lithe in her magic, she turned to see Vinyl hauling off a very angry Octavia from the unconscious stallion.

"That disgusting, dirt dwelling, disgusting, despicable piece of slime! I'm ashamed to be of the same subspecies as him! Stallions like him should be gelded for such acts!"

"Easy, easy Tavi, the guard are on their way to pick him up now, and we don't need you getting in trouble for beating him." Vinyl soothed, "And I'm sure he won't be getting off easy since my cousin, the freakin Princess of the Stars, was the one that caught him in the act with her own marefriend! Oh, and you said disgusting twice Tavi."

Once satisfied that Octavia was calm, Vinyl turned to her cousin.
"Hey, Twi, here's the key to my apartment above the club. Head up there for the night. You can get some rest, and Lithe can sleep off whatever that ass gave her. Tavi and I will probably head up there later, but feel free to take our bed."

Nodding, Twilight walked towards the back room that led upstairs, the suddenly quiet night club-goers clearing far to make a path for the princess.

M\(>^<)/M

Lithe awoke with the distinct feeling of her mouth feeling kind of fuzzy. Finding the sensation odd Lithe yawned wide, only to find that it caused her mouth to grow even fuzzier still. Growling in annoyance Lithe made to move, but found she was wrapped up in Twilight's hooves and wings, and inadvertently figured out why her mouth was so fuzzy. On a further note, Twilight's mane, while odd in texture, tasted strongly of lavender.

Nudging Twilight a few times until she groaned at the morning light Lithe noted, with a large blush, what was obvious.
"We wound up like this again...and I can't remember what happened last night...I'm sorry, I swear I didn't mean for this."

Rather than respond adversely Lithe felt Twilight's hooves wrap tighter around her body as the alicorn's breath tickled at her ear.
"Yep, I know."

"Oh."

That was all Lithe knew how to respond with. She wasn't sure what to do exactly, and Twilight seemed to recognise this, and coupled with Lithe having been drugged worried her.
"Are you alright Lithe?"

Nodding, the draken-pony attempted to figure out exactly how to convey her feelings.
"Uh, well, you were annoyed last time we woke up like this. Or, I woke up like this and slipped out of your hooves, you're just holding me tighter this time."

"I know." responded Twilight.

"So....?"

Rolling her eyes and suppressing the urge to snort Twilight explained what she was doing.
"I woke up, I'm comfy, you're warm and safe, I don't really want to move. I figured we could cuddle."

"Oh." replied Lithe, "I like cuddling."

It was said as if it was the simplest thing in the world, but for Twilight, who was accustomed to Lithe's tones, managed to pin it to the draken-pony being somewhat embarrassed and being too insecure to say more. Before Twilight could chuckle at this she felt Lithe wriggle further against her chest before slowly falling asleep again. It was but minutes before Twilight rejoined Lithe in slumber.

W/(>V<)\W

The High King glared at the small orange mare that had dared strike him with a stone on the nose. Lowering his head down close to the mare, he saw her eye's were bloodshot and puffy, most likely a reaction from crying, though he did not understand why she would have been crying.

"Hey, Ah don' know what yer doin' here, but iffen yer here to make trouble, Ah'll have ya know, this is sure as sugar the one time Ah won't have a problem hospitalisin' ya!"

Resisting the urge to give a snort of laughter, as he recognised that something was bothering the mare, the High King simply did his best to smile.
"I am but seeking my daughter, Lithe. But please tell me, whatever is the problem?"

At this the orange mare's eyes teared up even more than before and it looked like she was carrying a heavy weight.
"Oh shoot, Ah forgot about Lithe...listen, sir, Lithe is like family to me'n'mah kin, but she's out for the day, won't be back 'till evenin'. That's only part of the problem though. You see, her an' mah Grannie were thick as thieves, but...well...Granny Smith passed away last night."

Author's Note:

And there it is, that is why people hate me, cause of that bullshit I pull out my ass right there ^^^

So, reaching the end of the Ponyville Arc, which is, in this tale, the story arc of Lithe's time in Ponyville. That's right, Granny Smith's death brings an end for Lithe's visit to Ponyville, and I don't plan on making it too pretty. Granted this isn't a tragedy either so...

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and don't go pissing off alicorns in clubs, I hear it is detrimental to your face.(You guys didn't really think I'd let something like that happen to my favourite self made OC, did you?)

Comments

[Iron Nebula]

NOT GRANNY SMITH!!! WHY, CRUEL WORLD?!

[Killer_Dash]

why cant you just pull normal shit out of your ass COME ON MAN

[Resurgent Wanderer]

2496676 Because then I can't make good story conflict.