> Crossing the Divide
>  by RF and AG
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Heads in the Clouds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        “This never gets old!” I yelled as the wind whipped past me, the helmet I was wearing protecting me from any serious harm, or at least that was the idea. My wingsuit as usual was flared open, allowing me to do what no other rider could even dream of accomplishing, which was flying with their dragon. 

Speaking of dragons, out of the corner of my eye I could see the one being that had affected my life the most; my best friend, Toothless the Night Fury. A dragon so fierce it is said that the Night Fury dragons are the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. As usual he was giving me that wide eyed grin which was almost trademark to him, showing nothing but pure unbridled happiness to just be flying about with me. If I could have seen my face, I would have seen an almost exact replica of that look. Even during the middle of the night we could see, the moon was bright enough to pierce the clouds.

“Woohoo!” I yelled again before performing a bank to my right, diving down under the clouds. Being above the clouds was nice but the view wasn’t anything special, all there was was white puffs, nothing interesting or notable. Sure, going as low as I was, was a little risky but as long as I had Toothless by my side, I had confidence that I would be safe. 

As the cloud coverage lessened, the outline of the most beautiful sight filled my vision; Berk. A sight to behold to be sure. With animals, dragons, and of course people, all living in a beautiful harmony among the recently rebuilt town. The grass was various hues of green, as the blades not touched by the light of the moon appeared a darker green than the blades which did get the moon’s light. The sea was a nice tint of blue, with the familiar sound of waves washing and crashing against the shores of the island, crops were blooming, and the animals roamed around. I could never get enough of the sight, and in a way, it was all mine. 

Being the chief of the village was hard work, harder than anything I ever had to do but as the challenges reared their ugly heads, I never backed down, taking them down one at a time. Of course that wasn’t to say I never got help along the way, and I would never be that prideful to not acknowledge all of those that helped me along the way. Whether it be my Mother and her words of wisdom, Astrid and her endless loving support, Gobber and his experience, or Toothless and his … well, honestly the only thing he had was his control of the dragons. 

It was almost as if he knew that I was thinking mean thoughts about him, for without a single second of warning, I was tackled from behind by a massive ball of black scales. I hardly had any time to react before we were tumbling through the air, my entire body clutched closely to his, and I knew why a few seconds later. 

The ground slammed into Toothless with no remorse, but he hardly cared, that dragon could take far worse than a simple attack by the ground. The initial impact was followed by many more, but decreasingly forceful ones, until eventually we came to a complete stop with him straddling my body as I lay on my back. 

He had the typical smug grin on his face, the one that just screamed ‘I won.’ I simply rolled my eyes at him, like I could give any other response to his antics.

I swear that his smirk grew wider before his mouth opened and his massive, saliva coated tongue attacked me in a vicious assault of licks. no matter how I tried to defend, scramble away, or flail, his tongue kept on assaulting me, right in the middle of the village square. 

“Gah! Stop that! You know that doesn’t wash off! How many times do I have to tell you!?” I shouted, trying to push him away from me, but failing horribly at it. 

Eventually Toothless stopped his licking, instead opting to chuckle at my soaking wet body. That dragon would be the death of me, unless he kept saving me. I stood up slowly, using my hands to wipe off the most of the saliva but no doubt there was more hidden somewhere.

I was lucky that there was not a soul around to see the little event or else I would have never lived it down. How could the chief of Berk be defeated so easily and in such a sloppy way? I simply smiled at such a thought, I was pretty sure that everyone already had seen Toothless take me down with such easy force. 

“Alright, Toothless, let’s go see Mom and Astrid before we head out,” I said, starting to walk back to my house, they should be there by now … in fact I was probably late. With a little bounce in my step, Toothless and I moved from the open square to our house. 

It was the largest house in the village and conveniently placed right next to the Great Hall. Father never really told me much about the home, but I could assume that it had to have been built either by his father or his father’s father. I knew he didn’t build the magnificent thing but that didn’t mean he didn’t work on it. 

The moment I reached the door, it swung inwards, revealing my Mother who was standing with her arms folded in front of her, foot tapping and a smug grin on her face. “You must stop being late, Hiccup.”

“Yeah I know, but can you can’t blame me this time, blame this big lug. He decided to assault my face again,” I told her, motioning to Toothless all the while. He on the other hand was currently following a butterfly intently, looking as if he was about to pounce on it and eat it.

“I’m glad to see you, even if you do nag my ear off.” I teased, while embracing my mother, as she hugged me back. 

She simply smiled and shook her head before removing herself from the doorway, allowing me to walk inside. Toothless could never have fit through the door, so instead he had to come in through the door to his roost. The moment he noticed that I was no longer standing outside, he leaped onto the building before scrambling his way inside, dropping his head down from the roost, looking at us upside down, his tongue wagging out as per usual with him. 

I pushed his head slightly to the side, making my way over to a seated Astrid who had a mug of something in her hands, and since there was no smell to it, it most likely wasn’t alcohol. Of course that didn’t mean that she didn’t partake every once and awhile. After all, us Vikings held far too many celebrations to actually stay away from it. 

“Hiccup! Glad you could finally make it home, Odin knows when you ever make enough time to sleep,” she said before leaving her seat and mug to come up to me. 

Slowly she wrapped her arms around me, pushing herself up to me before our lips met. It wasn’t anything long but it still felt amazing, almost incomparable. The reaction from Toothless just made it that much better, since he looked like he was trying to stick his tongue out in disgust but ended up having it flap over his face because he was upside down. 

“I’m glad you're home though, things are rather … bland without a certain duo,” she said, giving me a little punch on the shoulder.

“Ruff and Tuff never leave the village though,” I said, a little smirk crossing my face, while Astrid just rolled her eyes at me. 

“Yeah, yeah … so, where were you two? Goofing off as usual? Don’t you have a village to run, or whatever you call it,” she said, sticking her tongue at me. That of course was mimicked by Toothless who had since returned to ground level, and apparently taking Astrid’s side in the entire thing. 

“Oh, you know … flying, gliding, working on the map … just the basic stuff,” I said, rubbing the back of my head as I glanced around the house. I noticed that despite her quietness, and the fact she was cooking, Mom was staying right up with the conversation.

“I thought you were done with that, Hiccup?” she spoke up, finally breaking her silence. 

“Well we were, but a couple of days ago we came across something rather new, much farther east,” I said, starting to recant the little tale. Toothless, eager to get into the act, hoped deftly over to me and began to nod his head vigorously. “We were moving past a recently catalogued forest, you know, the one that you wanted to name, Astrid, and we came across something rather ... odd.”

“Odd, as in …” Astrid said, rotating her hand in a circular motion indicating for me to continue despite my pause.

“Odd as in a wall of, well … clouds,” I said sheepishly, lacking the ability to describe didn’t really help me in my retelling of what happened.

“A wall of clouds?” Astrid said, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

Toothless murmured a few sounds, trying to fill in the gap of the story, gesturing with his front claws as to how wide it was. It was amusing to see him stretch out his legs to their full distance before he realised they weren’t long enough to describe it. His face fell into a slight frown before his eye lit up, and I knew what he was going to do. Without further pause, his wings snapped open to their full length, inside the house mind you, knocking down multiple decorations, and utensils in the process. He simply held a massive grin as he pointed from wing tip to wing tip, proud of his ‘accurate’ description. 

“Oh, Toothless,” Mom simply said as she moved about to pick up some of the strewn about utensils. “You need to watch where you’re going, or maybe you will have to sleep outside.”

I glanced over to Toothless who looked at my mom in sheer terror before wilting and pulling his tail closer to him. I merely laughed before giving him a few pats on the back.

“Anyway, this wall of clouds was different. They stretched down all the way to the ground, and even past that when it came to cliffs. We tried to fly above it, tried being the key word here,  and failed despite the big lug here  … we had to bail after awhile,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the ebony dragon whose ears just perked up at the slight mention of him.

“So, what do you think is in there?” Astrid said, extremely curious at the prospect of their being something else out there, despite us having not a single clue as to what was in or beyond the veil of clouds. 

Toothless summed up the answer with a little grumble that sounded close to a ‘I don’t know’ before shrugging his shoulders. Of course, his moment of enlightenment was quickly passed by as he spotted mom placing a few fish down beside him. She nearly had to jump out of the way to avoid being tackled by him, while I had to duck to avoid his tail.

Returning to the topic at hand, I continued. “To be honest, I don’t know. I did see a fleet of what looked like Berserker ships go into the cloud. That’s why later tonight, Toothless and I will head back to that cloud and see what we can find, who knows, maybe there is another dragon nest there.”

Astrid protested, “What!? No! Hiccup, you’re the chief now. You have a family, even an entire island to take care of! You can’t just go doing things like you did before you were inducted as Berk’s chief!”

I knelt before her, taking her smaller, feminine hands in mine, looking into her eyes. “I have to do it, Astrid. I’d send you, but you’re nearing the time to give birth, and I’d never be able to forgive myself if something bad should happen to you, or our baby. I can’t trust the Snotlout or the Twins to get the job done, because they’d either get into a fight and forget what their mission was, or they’d take along some mead, or beer, and get drunk. I couldn’t let you go, not now, Astrid, you know that. You’re too close to giving birth. Plus, Mom needs to stay with you. She’s already experienced the whole pregnancy and birthing process and can help you, if I’m not here. If the Berserkers are up to something, then we need to know about it, especially if their activities involve Berk in some way. It’s the only way; please Astrid, I wouldn’t dare to suggest it if I thought that there was a better way.”

I looked over to Mom, who was still cooking over the fire, but still paying attention to the conversation, as I’d see her glance occasionally at me. “Plus, in the event that something should happen to me and I’m not able, to for whatever reason, return; then Mom will have to take up the role of being Berk’s chief. She’s the only one who has the experience to do it until our child is of age. I’m not planning on anything happening to me, but then again, neither was Dad.” 

I came up behind my mother, hugging her from behind as I murmured into her ears, “If I don’t come back, please, take good care of Astrid and our child.” Mom simply nodded, as I began to gather items that I thought I might want for a trip into exploring what was beyond that massive wall of cloud. Basically my cartography kit, which I got from Trader Johan; as well as a wilderness survival kit, and a medical kit, in the event that he might need it.

I placed them into a satchel and proceeded to get into my gliding suit. Once that was done, I called Toothless over, who stood at attention as I placed the saddle on him and tightened the straps securely. I then proceeded to examine the belts, tugging and yanking, looking for weaknesses in the gear. Dragon riders always made sure to have spare gear, in the event that they do find a weakness in their gear, but don’t have the time to fix, or replace it due to circumstances. Usually requiring haste to respond to the many attempts against Berk and its citizenry. 

Once I was satisfied that the the saddle and its belts were safe to use once again, I scritched Toothless’ chin, before lightly smacking him on the back, so that he could leap outside, and wait for me out there, while I bid my family farewell. I leaned over and hugged Astrid, since she was so heavy with child, and frequently found it painful to be on her feet for longer than half an hour. “I love you, and look forward to seeing you soon; the gods willing, Astrid my love.”

“Take care, and please don’t do anything reckless. … Just, come home again safely.”

I turned to Mom. “Take care of her. I love you, Mom. I thank the gods that you’re back in my life and I hold dear each and every day that I get to spend with you.”

“I will. Do what you must, my son, and come home to us safely.” She got up from her chair and hugged me tightly, before I turned to see a drawing of my father. 

“I’m going now, Dad. Watch over and protect Astrid and Mom while I’m gone. I miss you, even though our relationship as father and son was often … more than a little awkward, you were still there for me when I needed you the most. You’ll always be with me.” I caressed the edge of the picture frame, before exiting the home.

Once my satchel was secured to the saddle, and I was satisfied that it wasn’t going to come loose after several test yanks and jerks. I climbed into the saddle. “Ready to go bud?” Toothless gave a happy sounding growl, before launching his powerful body into the air, beating his wings furiously as he tried to gain altitude. Using both stars and the familiar and not so familiar landmarks of the uniquely shaped islands, we retraced our way, returning back to the massive wall of cloud sitting on the ocean.

Even though this was a recon mission, I was hard pressed not to shout in joy, as Toothless and I soared the skies together. There’s just something about flying that is exhilarating, a sense of freedom that can’t be attained anywhere else. Up here, I can release the stress my responsibilities of being Berk’s chief. Up here, I can, if only for a time, lose myself in an illusion that I don’t have the responsibilities that I do. Up here, it can just be a young man and his dragon. Not Berk’s chief, not a son, husband or soon-to-be father.

Once we had arrived at the cloudbank, Toothless looked back at me, while hovering in place, waiting for me to give permission and reassure him about us going into the cloudbank. “It’ll probably be like flying blind, bud. Just fly like you would in a cave and hopefully we’ll see what those Berserkers are up to on the other side of this cloud. While in the cloud, do that thing you do in the caves towards the ground, in case the Berserkers have found land or are using the cloudbank for cover for whatever activities they might be up to.”

Toothless shook his head, not in a no gesture, but more like he was impatient to get on with it. I chuckled and rubbed his cheek. "Alright, let’s go bud, but let’s go slow. Don’t want to be having any rock pillar encounters like we did last time.”

I chuckled at the memory of the scolding I had gotten from both Mom and Astrid, once they had learned of my latest near death experience, as Toothless and I nearly killed ourselves as we were flying fast in a thick fog and nearly killed ourselves on a natural rock tower that is a rather common sight for the seas in which we Vikings call home. It wasn’t fun at the time, but I know they scolded because they cared, and were scared of losing me by getting myself killed, somehow.

We entered the cloud, flying forward slowly as we didn’t want to crash into any stone formations. Time ceased to exist in the cloud. We only knew that the moon was out, because the cloud wasn’t pitch black. I don’t know how long we were in the cloud, flying through it, when the cloud emitted a bright bluish-white flash. Thinking it was possibly lightning, and knowing that it would be really, really bad if Toothless and I were to get hit by it, I shouted, “Let’s get out of here bud!” Leaning close towards Toothless’ body, to make myself the most aerodynamic profile, to make it easier for Toothless to go faster. He closed his wings close to his body, diving to gain speed. It was a dangerous and risky move, but I trusted Toothless to fly through this cloud and get us out. He was able to fly in pitch black caves, after all, so clouds shouldn’t present any problem whatsoever.

I felt the inertia as Toothless snapped open his wings, and we went from a downward spiral to a horizontal one. It felt as though my heart went from my throat to the pit of my stomach. Toothless continued to make the sounds he had in the caves on a fairly frequent basis, as we made extreme haste to exit the cloud. Because I didn’t want us to get hit by any lightning, plus I had vowed to Mom and Astrid to make it back, if at all possible.

We finally shot out of the cloud, and Toothless and I both had to react quickly as we were fast approaching a forest bordering a coastline. A range of mountains rose up in the distance. Was it Norway? I had seen dragons unlike any which I had ever encountered. I patted Toothless on the side of his neck, pointing towards the mountain tops where the unfamiliar dragons were roosting. He nodded, roaring in acknowledgement and happiness, especially since we got out of that cloud and away from the lightning in the cloud. It might have been only that one brief flash, but for Toothless and I, one flash was one flash too many.

Many of the dragons which weren’t sleeping, turned their attention towards Toothless and I, as we approached these dragons which I had never before encountered, I gazed in amazement as I saw dragons eating gems and crystals! The younger ones even appeared to move like us humans do! The older and larger dragons, from what I could see, favored walking on all fours, when they weren’t relying on their wings to move about. The largest and oldest dragon came to the fore of all the dragons and gave a mighty roar. I prepared myself for whatever might happen, as I had no idea if they might do. “Be ready for anything bud.” I instructed Toothless

“What is this abomination that I see before me! A youngling of our proud and noble race stooping so low as to be some dirty beast of burden for some filthy—monkey!?”

I had to scrabble to grasp onto one of the handles on the saddle, due to my surprise that a dragon was actually speaking in my native tongue! In all my encounters with dragons, neither I, nor anybody else that I knew, had ever encountered a species which could talk! “By the lightning of Thor! You can talk!”

The dragon looked affronted at this. “Of course I can talk, We were among the first inhabitants of this world to gain the ability of communication! Honestly, I’m surprised that you can even speak our language. Howbeit, it still doesn’t answer my previous question regarding why that dragon is sullying the honor and dignity of dragons everywhere by allowing you to ride him.”

I scritched beneath Toothless’ chin, as he closed his eyes and growled happily, while the other dragons growled loudly, apparently angered by my display of affection to my buddy. I simply shot them a glare, before straightening up to show them that I wasn’t afraid of their scare tactics.

“Toothless, my dragon friend and I, have been through a lot. At first, we were enemies, because to each other we were unknown and dangerous. It required trust on both of our parts to conquer our fear of the unknown so that both of our species could forge a friendship Toothless is grounded as he can’t fly without me to perform the adjustment to his fake tailfin, so he needs me. Without him, to protect me from the dangers my home often faces, I might have never seen the sunrise this morning. Toothless is my friend, my partner, and my best bud. Through combining our strengths, to cover each others weaknesses, we become stronger and better than what we would alone. Besides, I fail to see how me riding Toothless sullies the honor and dignity of your species. Is dragonriding not done in these lands?”

The elder dragon let out a sooty puff of smoke, causing me to cough, and wave my hands, trying to clear the air. The rest of the dragons followed the example of the elder, so that it required several minutes for me to fan the smoke away. “I should think not! Besides, while I may have seen creatures similar to you, I’ve never seen a creature exactly like you. Nevertheless, it is still an affront to our draconic sensibilities to see you riding one of our brethren. Also, we would not have our younglings tainted, by seeing you riding one of our brethren.” The dragon elder focused upon the dragons that were watching us, as I waited to see how this encounter would turn out. Raising his voice to address the gathered dragons, he shouted; “My fellow dragons, we must destroy this filthy monkey and the sullied dragon which he rides upon. We must erase this example of heresy, these who dare to soil the honor and dignity of our race!” he roared, declaring this conversation over.

The dragons roared, a plume of flame coming out of their mouths as they did so. Then they turned their plumes of fire towards Toothless and I. While I wasn’t too concerned about Toothless being able to survive a brief firefight, neither I, nor our tack would fare too well in a firefight. Plus, the odds weren’t in our favor. I could only hope that Toothless was faster than these dragons.

I hastily scrambled back up into my saddle on my buddy Toothless’ back, and yelled, “Let’s go bud!” grasping upon the grips on the saddle to hoist myself into the saddle, and quickly fanned his fake tail piece out, as we hurried to leave those dragons territory. I could feel the heat as the dragons breathed their plumes of fire at us as we hurried to escape. “Don’t let them escape! Destroy them!” I could hear the elder dragon say in between the furious roars of the dragons attacking us. 

One dragon managed to catch up, and his claw ripped the left shoulder piece of my flying suit. I cried out in pain, feeling the talon cut my shoulder. While it was deeper than a scratch, I could tell he’d not torn any major blood vessels. Fortunately for me, Toothless was able to outfly the other dragons. Not wanting to stop, in case those dragons were still flying after us, I strapped myself into the harness, and began hoisting the first aid satchel that I carried with me, ever since Father died. Old Gothi made sure my pack was freshly restocked prior to any excursions that I would make with Toothless. I selected a smaller bag with the Viking symbols for stopping blood flow, and rubbed it into the wound, crying out because of the pain. Once the herbal powder had been administered, I removed a roll of bandage wrap, and using my small dagger, cut the wrap and secured the loose end, once my wound had been wrapped tightly in a length of bandage strip. 

“That was really something, huh bud? But wasn’t that amazing!? Those dragons could talk! How cool is that!? Let’s gain some altitude, so we can get a sense of the lay of the land. The guys back home are not going to believe this! Dragons talking!”  Once we had attained a great enough height, I could see some scattering of islands in the distance, which led to a larger piece of land. I patted Toothless on the cheek and pointed towards the islands and the larger piece of land beyond. “Let’s go there, bud. But let’s keep an eye out, in case we encounter any more dragons that might attack us.”

Toothless looked back over his shoulder before nodding his head in agreement, yet I could see in his eyes that there was something bothering him. Something else aside from his usual look of self-determination and light-heartedness. For the first time since the incident involving Drago, I saw confusion in his eyes. What that talking dragon had said really hit him hard, not that it didn’t get to me as well but Toothless probably took it far more personal that I did.

“You alright, bud?” I asked, running a hand over the fins on his head. He didn’t look back at me instead opting to keep scanning the horizon. He did let out a series of grunts and grumbles though, which gave me more than I needed. Sure I couldn’t exactly tell what he was saying but we shared a close enough connection for me to guess.

“I’m interested by it too, bud. Those dragons were unlike anything that we have ever seen before. They kind of looked like giant Nightmares… we’ll find out what those dragon’s were protecting,” I said, to which Toothless just nodded in response again. “Alright, bud, let’s head back to Berk but let’s try and keep this quiet. Something this big could cause a lot of trouble among the village.”

Toothless grunted something that sounded like agreement as I clicked the wing paddle into place, and with a quick grin over his shoulder, Toothless shot forward at top speed. We would most likely make it to Berk by dusk, since this was the furthest east we had ever travelled … for now.
	
	

> Chapter 2: Fresh New Faces
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The wind whipped past my helmeted face, just like every other day since Toothless and I had become dragon and rider, respectively. This day was different though, for we had a set purpose. Our early morning flights never had a purpose other than to feel free of being stuck on the ground. The sun was hardly peeking over the horizon in the distant east which was odd considering that the cloud wall that we found had covered up most of the sky in the east. Maybe there was something more to it than a simple set of clouds.

“You ready to find out what is over those mountains, bud?” I asked Toothless. He simply replied with a cocky smile before a short grunt that undoubtedly meant yes. He had a hard time last night, trying to keep his little bit of anxiousness under wraps, even to the point of him having a hard time getting to sleep. Now, though he was more than energetic, for he knew where we were going. 

We were making great time and it was hardly even past day break, we would be at the mountains before evening, especially since we were flying alone. Sure it was fun to fly with the others, but Toothless and I were the fastest when we flew alone.

As proven by the tree that was nearly ripped out of it’s roots because Toothless flew too close.

“Really now?”

        Toothless just gave out a hearty chuckle in response, to which I just smiled. At least he was still acting like himself, I was worried that the contact with those weird dragons had left him a little jaded. 

        I gave him a firm pat on the side of his head, signalling for him to go as he pleased. That was the level of trust we had, far more than any other rider on Berk. It was easy to make the jump from trusting each other with our lives, to trusting each other with flying.

The majestic purple mountains slowly grew in size and detail, the closer we flew towards it. Though it grew slowly, looking down, the trees whipped past in green blurs. We were travelling far faster than a horse could gallop. It was awe inspiring and even a little bit scary, thinking on what a crash at these speeds could do to both Toothless and I. Sure he was a tough dragon, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t be hurt.

Wanting to try something that Toothless and I had been working on, I proceeded to hook myself to the saddle, so I wouldn’t fall off if Toothless moved in some way that I was not prepared for. “Let’s try this out.” I pressed down upon the petal, until I heard the distinct clink of the lock mechanism engaging, thereby enabling Toothless to fly somewhat, should my body not make the correct minute maneuvers while unconscious.

That’s right, I was going to try to ride Toothless and sleep in the saddle. Really, the only things that I could see Toothless really needing me awake; was if we either hit really wild air, or we were under attack by a dragon, or several of them. I patted Toothless cheek to get his attention. “I’m going to try and get some sleep bud, wake me up if you need me.”

He growled in acknowledgement, as I closed my eyes, my foot pressing or easing off the tailfin control pedal. I knew I needed to continue to practice and develop my body reacting to different airborne situations so that even if I was unconscious, my body would be conditioned to react to the airborne problem, even while I was unconscious.



{C          T          D           *     *     *          {Later}          *     *     *           C          T          D}



I awoke some time later, as Toothless jostled his back, as I aroused quickly from my sleep. He pointed to a riverbank, indicating that he wanted to land, and probably rest. The sun was getting lower, and the mountains towered over us, like a majestic giant earthen meat eater’s jawbone. I could see the prickly pine trees, as well as the maple, oak, and birch trees ascending up the mountain, before there came a point where nothing at all grew upon the rocky crags. Adjusting the tailfin, Toothless and I glided our descent, making a spiral downward as we did so.

It amazed me that Toothless has managed to navigate through that wall of clouds; amazed and annoyed me. Sometimes his pride was too much for anyone to handle, though in this situation we were lucky that it hadn’t been to a fault. Still, I had to give him credit for accomplishing that without even waking me at all. No matter how long we’ve been together, he still managed to amaze me.

The moment we landed, I proceeded to remove the hooks and straps securing me into the saddle, and proceeded to remove the saddle and our supplies from off of Toothless’ back. While Toothless went to the river to drink and catch fresh fish to sate his hunger, I went into the nearby wooded area, retrieving broken limbs and branches, in order to start a fire. I had some ingredients for a fine woodland stew, and even gathered fresh ingredients as I gathered wood. For there were wild onions, potatoes, broccoli.

After I had returned to the river, as I didn’t want to wander off too deeply into these woods, both so not to worry Toothless too much, but also because I had no idea what kind of critters I might encounter in these woods after dark, and I’d much rather have Toothless by my side, just in case we did happen upon the animals of these lands.

I smacked my hand upon my exposed neck, as I felt a mosquito bite me. They were just starting to become really active, even before the sun had fully set. I really wish Gothi had included something to keep these bloodsuckers at bay, even if it meant that I smelled like the insides of a yak’s mouth.

I grabbed a wooden bowl and spoon from my pack, seeing the soup was hot and ready, merrily bubbling in a little pot I brought along. It was good, but not as delicious as it might have been, as I didn’t bring a lot of spices in my gear, again, because I didn’t want to weigh Toothless down with too much unnecessary gear. So, I ate my dinner in contentment, laughing as one of Toothless’ swipes, managed to get a fish to land on and bite his nose. I wasn’t worried though, as dragon hides are really tough, so he wasn’t feeling the fish’s teeth. Though the look of annoyance that I was laughing at his rather funny situation, was amusing in itself. Giving a short growl, Toothless snapped his head up, flinging the fish up into the air, and he jumped up, catching it into his mouth, his teeth coming out, as he made short work of that fish.

With dusk truly settled in, I couldn’t see much color, as it became a matter of how black something was, or not, with the clouds glowing with silver haloes with the moon hidden behind them. I repacked my gear, once the utensils and the pot had been washed and cleaned. Toothless was lying on a large boulder, resting after a filling meal of fresh fish and a long flight. Feeling compassion towards my best friend, I checked the position of the moon, and decided to wait until it reached its position in the middle of the sky, before I awoke Toothless from his rest and continued our journey. My hands clutched my daggers, as I unsheathed them, resting them on my lap, my hands loosely gripping the hilts, as my eyes scanned the darkened forests surrounding us.

The night sounds of the nocturnal residents of the forest continued to keep me alert, as I watched over my buddy as he rested. I didn’t know what might lurk in those woods, and honestly, I really hoped that I wouldn’t encounter any of the forest’s nocturnal residents. I mean, if dragon could talk, then Odin only knows what could call the forest home. I was glad that had pretty much died since then, only the glowing embers evidence of a camp here. The glare of the fire’s illumination would have diminished my ability to see into the surrounding woods.

I heaved a sigh of relief, as nothing eventful happened, and now that the moon was at its zenith, it was time to awaken Toothless and get across the mountain to continue our exploration. I began to smack Toothless’ cheek. “Wake up, bud. Let’s get a move on.” After several minutes, Toothless yawned widely, and his mouth made smacking noises, rather like the sound some of us Vikings upon waking up in the morning. “Let’s stick to the valley and try not to attract any unwanted attention.”

Toothless gave me a groan, rolling his eyes at my cautious approach. “I know bud, but I promised Astrid and Mom not to do anything reckless, and we don’t have the firepower to take on a clan of dragons head on. I know it’s boring, but it’s best this way. Because I do not want to face Astrid coming after me, once I died. I’d rather face the worst Niflhel has to offer than face an angry Astrid. That woman is seriously scary when mad, and sometimes even when she wasn’t mad.”

I proceeded to stow my gear back in my rucksack, as I moved to return the saddle to its former position on Toothless’ back, and then hooking the rucksacks onto the saddle. Once that was done, I had gazed at the stars while waiting for Toothless to rest up, to gain a sense of where north, east, south and west might be, respectively. Pointing towards a particular star which had recently ascended into the celestial tapestry from behind the mountain range, I said to my buddy, “let’s go that way, bud.” 

Despite having an extremely fast dragon to ride, there was a risk that the talking dragons we had encountered would still be circling around those mountain tops, so the only other option was to find a path through the mountains on foot, which would be a challenge in its own. If it ever got too much though, I knew I could count on Toothless to help me.

I wish that I could say that the journey through the mountains was a breeze, but let me tell you, as someone who lives in an island with mountainous terrain, it’s not. The sun had risen about a third into the sky since we had started our trek, and I was hot and sweaty, my muscles ached and I was breathing heavily, and had it not been for my gliding suit, I would likely be bearing many minor scratches and cuts, due to the terrain, and the prickly bushes, trees, and vines. Which, while common, weren’t the only plants I had to trek through.

Toothless wasn’t even tired, however, and the only difficulty that the mountains presented for him were the loose stones and pebbles littering the mountain range and making the journey treacherous. And if it weren’t for all the thorny plants that I had to encounter, I’d have probably appreciated the stunning vistas which I saw. The cold streams of water rushing down, in a series of small waterfalls, looking as though someone had draped the rock in burnished bands of silver. The trees which grew in the valleys of the mountain range, the shade making the trek a little more bearable. The morning sun, piercing through the foliage, as though Sól was throwing her lances of light to pierce the forest’s gloom. The sky painted in golden yellows and oranges, transitioning to lighter and lighter colors until it was white, before darkening to the blues of the daytime sky.

Fortunately, what dragons we did see, didn’t gaze into the valleys populating the base of their mountains. Though, whenever I did see a dragon, I would freeze, holding my hand up, signalling to Toothless that he should also remain still. Once their head was no longer visible, only then did I dare to move through what I supposed must surely be the dragon’s nesting grounds.

Near the shore lay a huge boulder, about the size of Berk’s Council Hall, where Toothless and I rested for about an hour from our trek through the mountain range. I retrieved a large waterskin and let Toothless drink, and then I drank from a much smaller water skin. Though, as long as we didn’t venture into any deserts, I didn’t see that obtaining fresh water would be a problem.

Back in the saddle, I pointed towards a gathering of islands. The closest one’s shore had pebbles and small rocks for its shore, more than sand, and farther away from the coastline I could see tall grasses and small bushes growing in the island’s soil. There were no trees, and I could only speculate as to why that was, without further observation. “Let’s follow those islands, bud.

While those islands were not likely to be able to sustain a long stay of weeks and months. They probably made for a great rest stop for those sailing these waters, as well as a nice landmark in their ocean maps to orient themselves in the vastness of the oceans.

The ocean air was always a common thing to smell and feel on Berk, but for the oddest of reason, this place was … different. The air felt crisper, but not in the way of it being colder, and I just couldn’t describe the feeling past that. I had spent all of my life near the ocean, or over the ocean but this place gave off an entirely new feeling, one that I just had to bask in. 

I rose up from the saddle, removing myself from the hunched position that I normally took when riding Toothless. My hands first went to my hips, just resting there as I surveyed the churning ocean, the tides splashing against the rock that the islands were comprised of, and the few birds that hovered around the shores of said islands. Slowly, I removed my helmet, holding it in my right hand for a moment before hooking it onto a little latch in the saddle. 

The feeling of the refreshing ocean air whipping through my hair and against my unprotected face was amazing, even though it was something I felt on a constant basis. Sometimes I forgot to just take a step back and enjoy the little things, and being in the new world gave me the opportunity to actually do that. To bask in the simple joy of feeling free and unburned, all the while riding on top of my best friend, was what it meant to be alive and I think Toothless was feeling the same thing. 

His eyes were temporarily closed while a big toothless grin was plastered on his face, tongue nearly lolling out of his mouth. Luckily we weren’t going overly fast at this point, instead opting to take it slower and enjoy the scenery. Sometimes I forgot that even Toothless enjoys these simple moments where he can just relax and take it slow for moment.

After awhile, we passed the last island and reached a large island or continent. Pointing northward I shouted to Toothless, “let’s follow the coastline for awhile!” Toothless, with me helping make adjustment to his fake tailfin veered as we redirected our flight path to follow the coastal border of the island or continent. 

If this land mass was an island, then this was one big island, far larger than anything I had ever seen before. Approaching from any direction, one could see nearly the entirety of the Isle of Berk, despite it’s size yet this land mass seemed to stretch on and on far beyond what I could see. Perhaps we had indeed found a continent, one that would have who knows what on it.

“Who knows what is over there, bud … imagine what we could find,” I said to Toothless, who gave a small growl of agreement back at me.

Shortly after we started flying along the coastline, I spotted a village with what I must guess was its inhabitants. I patted Toothless’ cheek and pointed to the village. He nodded and roared happily, as we started to fly in circles, as we gradually dropped closer to the ground. Some of the villagers must have spotted us, as their movement became erratic and their pace sped up. Once we drew closer, I could hear the panicked screams and shrieks of the villagers, while the warriors of the village scurried to grab their weapons, shields and armor. From what I could tell the inhabitant of the village was comprised of deer, elk, reindeer and moose. The elk were using some kind of magic to shoot rocks and stones towards Toothless and I.

I cried out, as one stone hit rather hard near my wrist. “Fire warning shots, bud!” I was having to make rapid adjustments to help Toothless as he dodged and weaved, trying to avoid getting hit as much as he could. While dragons had tougher and thicker hides, it would still be really bad if his wing were to be broken, torn, or even bruised. “Stop shooting! We come in peace!” I could only hope that they understood my native tongue, because otherwise, things could either end up really good, or really bad; depending upon the disposition of the villagers, and how benevolent they were feeling at the time. That is, if they weren’t the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ type.

Our landing was much rougher than what I would have liked, as we dropped nearly two stories, before impacting the ground. “Stop! We mean you no harm!” I bellowed, peering from the other side of my personal shield, cautious, as I didn’t want to be hit in the head with a projectile weapon of any sort. 

“Why should we believe you, strange creature? Especially when you’re riding on a fearsome dragon!” 

I swear I saw Toothless gloat, and stood in a ‘noble’ poise, looking skyward, with one leg raised up, and his wings pointing skyward. “You shouldn’t really. But if Toothless and I had meant you any harm, we would have stayed out of your firing range, and attacked you with dragonfire, or used rocks and stones as projectile weapons. I’m not asking you to trust us right away, but I am asking for a chance for us to prove ourselves to you. Sometimes we all deserve a chance, and often enough that is the only way you can get a sense of someone’s character.”

There were murmurings amongst the crowd, as they discussed my proposal among themselves. An elderly reindeer mare stepped forward, and pointed an accusatory hoof in our direction. “We can’t let someone who befriends a dragon be among us! That would be like sticking our head in the mouth of a dragon, and asking that dragon to not bite down! You can spew all the pretty words that you like, so long as you’re with that dragon, or any dragon for that matter, then we shouldn’t let you continue amongst us!”

A young buck stepped forward as he addressed the village and the elderly reindeer mare. “Pah! Hold your tongue you ninny! The times are changing, and we must change with it, if we want our people to not fade into oblivion! Doesn’t everyone deserve a chance to prove themselves? Look at this dragon, he has not behaved like some feral carnivore, a mindless beast of murder, but instead he has been civil, and not one of us has been harmed, even though we attacked them. This dragon and his rider might be useful to our village and might even improve our way of life! I say we let the dragon and his rider stay!”

The crowd renewed its murmurings as Toothless and I waited for the village’s residents to arrive at an agreement, on whether or not Toothless and I will be permitted to stay with them, or not. I was in awe at encountering yet more non-human creatures which are capable of speech, not to mention speaking a language that I could understand. Unless there was some sort of passive magic in the land which enabled communication where otherwise there might have been communication barriers. I held my head in my hands, as I felt a mild headache beginning as I tried to make sense of my being able to communicate with two vastly different cultures, first the dragons and now these deer villagers.

The murmurings finally began to die down, as five of the elders of each of the deer, elks, reindeer and moose stepped forward. “We, the elders of this village of Wandering Hoof have decided that you alone may enter the village, but your dragon is to remain away from the outskirts of the village with a distance of 50 hoofs between the dragon, and our village.”

I shook my head, frowning at the elders before me, and the villagers arrayed behind them. “I’m not going to agree to that. Toothless is my buddy, and I’m not going to go somewhere where he can’t follow. I wouldn’t want him to go someplace that I couldn’t. So I guess Toothless and I will continue our travels.Thank you for your … hospitality.”

I walked over to Toothless, as I swung myself back into the saddle. “Let’s keep going, bud!” I pointed to the coastal shore once again, as I made adjustments to Toothless’ fake tailfin. The loud wooshing sound accompanied us, as dust and dead leaves blew away from our launching point, and I kept a wary eye behind me, just to make sure that they were truly letting us leave in peace. I suppose my encounters with Alvin the Treacherous jaded my attitude towards meeting new people, or in this case intelligent deer, elk, reindeer and moose. Just like I had told them earlier, I wasn’t just going to trust their word, as I had told them that they shouldn’t trust mine, but to let their actions prove their intent, and since they hadn’t launched an attack, I relaxed, grateful for at least one less thing to worry about.

Not wanting there to be bad blood between us and the villagers of Wandering Hoof, I waved my hand to the inhabitants below, as Toothless gave a mighty roar, and launched one of his fire blasts towards the horizon, in an impressive show of power and majesty. Below, I could hear the sound of trumpets and horns being blown, before Toothless and I were too far away to hear the sound.

After travelling along the shoreline for a little while more, I pointed towards a spot near the shore that looked like it had a river which flowed into the sea. “Let’s rest down there bud!” I hollered, patting his cheek to get his attention. He nodded to me, and together, we proceeded to make a spiraling descent towards the banks of the river. Once we were back on the ground, I removed our gear and the saddle.

Toothless sought to go looking for fish in the shallow waters nearby but I stayed back, instead deciding to sit myself down among a group of trees. As I leaned back against one of the trees, my eyes kind of glazed over as my mind went off searching for some explanation as to what I had just encountered. 

There were so many questions that were left unanswered: how did deer, elk, moose, and so on, gain the ability to talk? Was this new land’s inhabitants just sentient versions of all the animals I knew from home? Were dragons as feared here as they used to be on Berk? How had I managed to keep a straight head when talking to species that I hunted down back home? 

Despite all the questions, I truly had no answers, nor did I think I would ever find them in this odd land. For all I knew, this was how it had been for countless years, so how would they be able to answer a question regarding why they are sentient? The only thing I did find out, from this completely crazy encounter, was that if I had found sentient cervids within a few hours of flying in this land, I could only imagine what else there could be. I had to be ready for anything when Toothless and I started flying once more.

Toothless eventually made his way back from fishing, having a rather pleased grin on his face. “I take it you were successful, bud?”

He nodded his head enthusiastically before stopping suddenly. He tilted his head to the side for a second before what looked to be a spark of recognition formed in his eyes. Without any sort of warning, he back to choke some of the fish back up. I lept to my feet, reaching out with my hands to grab his mouth and close it before he could let loose with the half eaten fish. 

“It’s alright, bud … I’m good. No need to share your meal,” I said, with a little waver to my voice. He looked at me quizzically for a moment before shrugging it off and moving to lie down on the grass next to me.

We had been resting for maybe ten minutes when I spotted several dark and light spots against the blue sky. Initially they were flying in an eastward direction. However, suddenly they shifted, and started to move in our direction. I continued to watch, as they drew closer towards Toothless and I. Soon I could make out some detail, as these dots grow closer and more distinct. They were some weird meshing of an eagle and a lion! What’s even more, is that they were wearing some kind of armor!

Getting ready for a possible confrontation, I unsheathed my flame sword, and I shook my buddy’s shoulder to get his attention, and pointed my sword towards the approaching group of lion-eagle creature. I watched the approaching group warily, especially since they were not only armed, but they also had claws on both forelegs and hindlegs, and had a beak which could rip and tear. They had more natural offensive ability than I as a human did. However, I wasn’t going to back down, and Toothless and I were only going to run away if things escalated beyond peaceful talks.

Once the eagle-lion creatures had landed my mind was abuzz with courses of action and plans, just incase the became hostile. There were ten of them and only two of us, but I think our skill even the numbers a bit. I continued to watch them as, what I assumed, was the leader of the eagle-lion creatures continued to look me and my buddy up and down. 

“Do you speak, hairless monkey thing?” it spoke, the voice rough, closer to Snotlout’s voice.

“As well as any Viking can, though I’ve been told that I talk too much,” I replied, trying to ease the tension.

“Ah, good. Well then, ‘Viking,’ I need you to step aside so that we can ‘escort’ this dragon back to where it came from. Its kind is not welcome in this area,” he said, certain words coming across harder than others, but I didn’t need the emphasis to catch onto what they were saying. 

“You’re not going to harm, Toothless!” I yelled at him, making it obvious that we would fight if they forced our hands. “How about we just talk peacefully about this? My name is Hiccup, may I get yours … ?”

“Gryphon, we are gryphons,” he said, waving his … talons towards the other next to him. “You won’t be getting any names though.”

After a brief moment of silence following the leader’s statement, another gryphon, one just off to the leader’s right, spoke up,“You tame that dragon, Hiccup?”

“What? No! Toothless is my friend! There was never any taming involved. We just had to overcome our fear of the unknown that the other represented, and trust each other despite our differences.”

“While it doesn’t sounds as impressive as taming, that’s a rather incredible feat.  Though tell me why doesn’t your dragon speak up for himself?” The leader asked.

“Because where I come from, our dragons don’t talk,” I said simply.

“They don’t … talk? How can you work together if language is not used?” asked the same gryphon to the leader’s right.

“Through body language, and how they present themselves. It takes a little bit of time but once you know how to read what they are trying to say … well, then you are truly friends with a dragon,” I said as I patted Toothless, as well as going as far to give him a little scritch behind his ear. “We had a run in with one of your dragons per se, and we were surprised to find out that those dragons could talk.”

        “Sounds like yours are easier to live with …” muttered a different gryphon, though I didn’t see which one.

        I needed to head this conversation in a direction that could garner me some info, “I noticed that you diverted your flight path, to come to me. Where were you guys heading and what do you guys do?”

        “It is sensitive information, and we are therefore not at liberty to discuss either our destination, or our occupation,” answered the leader.

        “Okay, if it is so sensitive, then why would you jeopardize the security of that information by coming to me?”

        “To assess if you presented a danger to our homeland, and respond as appropriately.”

        “Well, I can assure you that my clans and I have no interest in invading your lands.”

        “Uh-huh.” The gryphon leader replied, his simple response short, and his vocal tone indicated skepticism and disbelief. He turned to another gryphon creature with a necklace of red and black beads, with little pendants of onyx clouds and citrine lightning bolt interspaced between every six beads. “Return to base, and inform those in charge of the creatures that we’ve encountered and that all patrols near home are to keep an eye out and raise the alarm should they exhibit hostilities against the patrols.” The addressed gryphon saluted swiftly before changing his course to return to wherever they had come from.

“Fine, don’t believe me, not like I didn’t try to be peaceful,” I said in a sardonic tone.

“While I’d love to talk more, I’m afraid that we have wasted too much time as it is.” He turned to the remaining eight gryphons. “All right you pussies! We’re resuming the original mission. Hop to it. And if I see any of you hatchlings slacking off, it’s KP duties for a week! Move, out!” 

I had to cover my face, as their takeoff kicked up a lot of dust and sand. Once I noticed that the gusts which had returned to the regular strength of the ocean breezes, I lowered my arms and watched as they became specks in the sky, which kept shrinking until I could no longer see them. That encountered had been something else, though it was extremely close to how those villagers reacted when I landed by them. Maybe this land had some sort of issue with things they never seen before … though I doubt they could match up to a Viking’s fear of the unknown. Though we showed fear in an entirely different way.

I looked to Toothless for the first time since my conversation with the gryphons, and it seemed to phase him little, which surprised me considering how easy it was to get a reaction out of him. I think he might have been more worried about me though, since my eyes met his and I could see that questioning look he always had when he wasn’t sure if I was okay.

“I’m alright, bud. This land is something else, but I think we can brave it together,” I said as I patted him on the head.

We silently decided that now was the best time to keep moving. So I filled up our waterskins, after Toothless and I had drank our fill from the river, before cinching his saddle back on him, and putting our gear back onto the saddle. I clambered back on top of him and leaned over his head. “Ready to keep going, bud?” Toothless gave an excited sounding roar, as his wings beat, and we returned to following the coastline once again.

After soaring along the coastline for a little longer, we had came around a little peninsula to find something astonishing, well at least it looked that way from a distance. Rather far away, there appeared to be a massive cloud system, much like the one we had flown through to get to the mountains but this was different. It wasn’t moving as it hovered right above what appeared to be a town along the coast. 

As I ordered Toothless to hover, I gazed a little farther up at the clouds itself and noticed something even more odd, there seemed to be building shaped clouds on top of it, but I couldn’t get a clear line of sight. If there was somehow a city on those clouds, I needed to take a look  from afar before diving head first in there. Who knows what their reaction could be. 

Over the ocean to my right was surprisingly large group of clouds that were moving at a higher altitude than the city. I smirked before patting Toothless on the top of the head before pointing to the clouds system. He nodded in understanding, knowing my intentions completely. We would use that cloud system to gaze at the top of the ‘city’ before deciding to investigate it up close. So without a moment more of hesitation, Toothless and I bolted towards our new camouflage. 


 

> Chapter 3: When Worlds Collide
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	While nerve-wracking, the flight to the smaller group of clouds had been short and successful. They were perfect cover, being the large fluffy clouds that look like sheep’s wool. Being on the shaded side of the cloud, and with just our heads peering out from the cloud, we could quickly duck into the cloud, if we thought anyone might be looking at us, or in our direction. 

It was chilly up here, and I was glad that I bundle up warmly whenever I go flying with Toothless. My hands were feeling achy in the wet chill and my face was feeling rather numb, and my nose was pretty ruddy due to the prolonged exposure to the cold air that was up here. I love looking at these large puffy clouds, floating high above the earth, removed from the troubles and cares of mortals. And the play of light upon these clouds is awe-inspiring and beautiful, and yet at times fearsome and terrible as well. How the tops glow in whites and cream colors, while it progressively gets darker, until it is like a charcoal, or sometimes even as black as midnight, depending upon the weather and the time of day. The sound of the ocean wind, the cries of seafaring birds such as seagulls greeted my ears, as well as the sound of Toothless’ wings flapping, a constant ‘fwoomf, fwoomf’ that I’ve learned to tune out, due to how familiar with I have become. 

Toothless and I were hovering just on the inside edge of the cloud we had flown towards, though my head was barely poking out of the top so I could catch a glimpse of the city that we were nearing. For once, it was as if the gods were smiling on us, since the cloud group was not only higher than the suspected city, but it was also aiming to pass directly over the city. 

Of course it would take a good while before we were actually above it, so for the meantime, I continued to look at the upcoming city from our current spot. Perhaps there was a chance that we could be accepted as normal beings instead of the previous two encounters. Being treated as a monster, a mistake of nature, each experience scarring my heart and soul. It robbed from the joy of exploration, of encountering new peoples and cultures. 

From what I could see through my spyglass, there were massive building like structures made of clouds, along with what appeared to be roads, and smaller buildings. They looked like someone had taken a large amount of cream and using utensils, carved away the unwanted extra. They had the same appearance and light behavior as untouched clouds, which was why I thought they must be made from clouds, though I’d be very interested to know how they could get them to retain their structure and not become like a natural cloud form. Not only that but there were people walking amongst the clouds! Well … people was a loose term. I could see others that looked extremely similar to the gryphons from before, as well as another type that looked like gryphons but were different. Finally, there seemed to a third type of cloud walking animal, though this type looked closer to the deer that I had seen before except there were a few major distinctions. 

These new ones, looked closer to miniature horses that had wings on their sides, and varied in many different colours. Of course, by many I meant a whole mess of different colours. The deer folk that I had met were mainly the same, hardly ranging in colours outside of browns, greys, and some blacks. These new winged horses were by far the most colourful thing I had ever seen … well outside of a few dragon species. Either these winged horses could easily escape from predator species, or their meat must be really poisonous or something. I could only shake my head at how contrary their coat colorations were from those of the horses and ponies of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I bet if I looked long enough at the city, I would have seen one of each colour imaginable, but something else stole my focus away.

Somewhere in the distance behind us, I heard an extremely loud bang. One that seemed to resonate across the entire ocean, or at least that was how it felt. A sudden shockwave almost pushed me off of Toothless, but my saddle luckily kept me on him. Whatever this bang was, it warranted a little investigation, aside from just spying from the clouds. 

At first we turned to face the direction it came from, my eye still peering through the spyglass. I was about to tell Toothless to take us over to where it came from, but I caught something in the field of my vision, something that should have been completely impossible. 

There was a blue winged horse flying directly at the cloud we were in, not to mention it had a massive rainbow trailing out from her. I couldn’t have dreamt this even if I had tried. 

“Take us into the cloud!” I quickly shouted to Toothless, worried that we would get seen by the winged horse. He nodded immediately before swooping lower until we were completely hidden in the clouds. It became darker, as less light penetrated through where we were. It was eerily quiet, aside from Toothless’ wingbeats and thundering of my own heartbeat in my own ears. With the chilly water in the cloud, I began to regret not bringing anything to protect my hands and face. The cold pierced to the bones, as my hands ached and I gave a mighty sneeze from the chilly cloud tickling my nose. My body was tense, ready to respond to anything that might happen, at least until the blue winged horse passed by. 

Why was I worried about a single winged horse? In reality I wasn’t worried about that single horse, I was more worried about that horse telling the entire city of our presence. The village was isolated enough to be of little risk, and I couldn’t control the encounter with the gryphons, but an entire city, who possibly feared dragons, hunting us down could become a major problem. 

We continued to hover in the clouds, constantly looking in the direction of where that horse was coming from. Toothless was on guard, probably feeling my sense of urgency and worry. I on the other hand was praying that the horse would be smart enough to just fly around the clouds. Though I wasn’t sure exactly who to pray to in this situation, since there wasn’t exactly a god for being passed over by flying horses … maybe Thor and his lightning would work?

        Time seemed to stand still for a brief second as my current worst fear materialised from out of the cloud cover. It was hardly enough time to move and unfortunately the blue horse was currently on a direct flight path with me, not Toothless but me. 

        “Toothl-” was all I managed to get off before the collision knocked me clear off the saddle, despite the belts holding me on. They had snapped completely with the force of the impact, while I was lucky that I couldn’t feel anything broken. Though I still had more important things to worry about, such as falling to my death from the middle of a cloud. The chill of the air whipped by me, as the wind of my plummet greeted my ears. I watched in horrified fascination, as the dark blue, choppy waters of the ocean below rapidly grew larger in my vision. 

        “Toothless!” I shouted out again, hopefully loud enough for him to pick up. Without a second thought, I reached down to place my hands into the wingsuit hooks before flinging my arms out. In theory that should have stabilized me long enough to let Toothless reach me; in theory. In reality, the left wing of the suit had been torn, from what I was not sure but I knew that I could only fix it if I didn’t die. 

Despite the extreme wind whipping past my face, making it hard to concentrate, I forced myself to focus on flipping myself around so that I was looking back up at the cloud that was, without a doubt, slowly growing more and more distant. It was a little bit of a struggle to do so, but I eventually was able to position myself so that I was no longer looking at my impending doom. 

I was about to shout out once more, but my cry would have been unnecessary for the moment I opened my mouth, I saw Toothless break from the clouds, aiming himself downward with wings tucked in to hopefully reach me in time. 

A glimmer of hope in the form of the massive black dragon was all I needed to cease my worries. This had happened before, but as long as Toothless knew where I was, we would both make it out of the peril. Though the worries continued once more when I saw a second thing shoot out of the bottom of the cloud. I couldn’t see it right off the bat, but the more I focused, the better it came into view.

That blue winged horse was trying to catch Toothless and it was actually getting pretty close. 

I reached up an arm to point behind Toothless, hoping to get his attention. While successful initially, the fact that the horse was no longer behind him but instead plummeting side by side with Toothless caused my gesture to be futile. Toothless’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing into a look of pure contempt. 

I don’t know if the horse saw it coming and couldn’t react in time, or Toothless had caught it by surprise, but the moment it was even with Toothless’s wing, my friend shot one of his wings out, smacking the horse out of it’s dive. The horse went flying and I tracked it for all I could before I felt myself land on the solid back of Toothless, knocking the wind completely out of my lungs. 

My eyes quickly glanced to his tail, noticing that it was locked in its open position, giving Toothless the ability to fly on his own. My mind blanked briefly before recalling that I had locked it there when we were hovering. I let out a deep breath, my eyes closing blissfully, before shooting open as I remembered that Toothless had hit that winged horse pretty hard. 

My eyes searched the local area, the crashing waves among the cliffs nearby or the churning open sea proved to have no sign of the horse. Though, along near the edge of the cliffs were what must’ve been anchored rafts about every five vika. They looked like they’d make very useful rescuing platforms, for anyone unfortunate enough to fall into the waters near the steep cliff face. At first I was a little worried that we had killed it, but had to quickly put those thoughts to the back of my mind.  If one of those gryphons had been from that city, and they found out that we had hurt a possible citizen … we had to get out of the local area and into a place to lay low for a bit. 

“Let’s get above land level, Toothless, and find some place to set down, preferably some place that is concealed … .” 

Toothless let out a little bit of a whine, most likely wondering if I was okay. I just patted him on the head, nodding at his worried eyes. He took my answer with a large smile before facing back forward to focus on flying. I was okay and it was all thanks to Toothless, but I still couldn’t help but wonder what happened to that blue horse.

Not to mention how that thing could even be close to as fast as Toothless … though it was during a dive so it was easier for a smaller object to cut through the wind at higher speeds. I bet those small wings couldn’t hold up against a Night Fury during an actual flying competition. I bet that horse found out the hard way that a Night Fury’s wings hold a lot more power than their size shows. 

“Too bad we didn’t make better contact … gryphons, deer, and now horses. Who knows what else there is in this new world,” I said before focusing on finding a place to have Toothless set us down. 



{C         D          T      *     *     *   {Rainbow Dash}   *     *     *      C          D          T}



I had been participating in the 73rd Global Endurance Race, and had been smoking the competition since no other flyers were capable of making Sonic Rainbooms. But when I have this much awesomeness, coolness, and radicalness contained in a single body, sometimes I just have to release it all, otherwise I might burst if I tried to contain this much awesomeness, coolness and radicalness. 

Anyways, it was a lovely day for flying, as the winds were gently blowing in an easterly direction. The large cumulonimbus clouds slowly drifting across the sky, the tops glowing in brilliant whites and gentler cream colors, while the underbelly were darker greys and charcoal blacks. The sensitivity of my wings and feathers provided sensory feedback. I could tell how strong the wind was blowing, which direction it was blowing, barometric pressure, humidity, if there were any possible atmospheric ionic charge, and dew point. The oceanic wind could provide some resistance once a certain speed was reached, which meant that the flyer would have to fight the wind … well, more so than usual, since the race was a mostly westward flight path until some place that is east of 'cloud-land.' I was never that great with geography, I just followed the general instructions.

I never told anypony that I could easily calculate the multiple weather-centric measurements, I didn’t want to look like an egg-head after all. Twilight would have a field day if she knew that I could do all of that off the top of my head.

Anyways, I noticed a group of clouds ahead of my flight path, but because I was an ace at weather manipulation and cloudbusting, I knew that these clouds weren’t going to hinder my pure awesomeness. I pierced the first several clouds, my speed and the resulting sonic boom completely destroying the clouds that I was flying through.

What I wasn’t expecting though was that the next cloud I entered had somepony in it, because I flew head first into something really solid and not at all composed of cloud. I was grateful that the racing management and sponsors required that we wear special flight helmets, in the event that something like this happened. Because at the speeds that I was flying at, I could have knocked myself unconscious, or even died!

Needless to say, I was pissed that the security teams failed to get whoever that pony was in that cloud off the racing track, but that wasn’t the most pressing issue. The collision had stunned me enough that I found myself dropping like a rock. I started flapping my wings, as I took note of my present condition, and that I hadn’t broken any of my wings, or broken any of my primaries. Still, I knew that I was going to have to land and send up a flare, so I could get checked out by the medical teams that were positioned about every checkpoint or so.

As I plunged out of the bottom of the cloud, I spotted a strange creature falling towards the ocean. A black dragon was dive bombing towards the creature, and I just reacted, as I didn’t want the creature to end up that dragon’s meal! I gave up correcting my heading and instead sped up my flapping, as I continued to let gravity aid me in getting closer to the weird creature as it fell. My ears were folded back, but even so, I could hear the rushing of wind as I plummeted towards the dark blue, choppy ocean, as I used my wings to adjust my fall so that I could rescue the odd looking creature. The cool smell of salty ocean air, as well as the tell-tale smell of ozone was a familiar smell for me. The ozone smell, not so much that of the salty ocean air. I was just grateful that ponies couldn’t get drunk off the smell of salty ocean air. Ozone smells more like copper than it does iron, despite that ozone not bonding with any metals whatsoever.

The creature looked nothing like I had ever seen before, but just because it looked funny didn’t mean I was heartless enough to let that black dragon eat it for it’s snack! I gave a few more strong flaps to propel me forward even harder before I did what any smart flyer would do, tuck my wings and keep my body aerodynamic. The distance between me and that dragon was closing quickly, and soon enough I would rescue that strange creature because Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash always wins. 

The moment I had gotten near the dragons wings though, that stupid dragon used its wing to swat me away from it. I frantically flapped, as it had sent me spinning, to steady myself as I pulled out of my dive, gliding towards the large island to my south. I hate to admit it, but that dragon had knocked me silly, and I was going to have to land, so that I didn’t end up dying from pride or being a stupid foal that pushed herself harder than her body was able to handle. 

Although I couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief too quickly, since I still needed to land on the big island, well continent really. But I had seen out of the corner of my eye, the strange creature land on the dragon’s back, which was really strange, since there was no dragon alive that would allow anything to ride on them. I noticed that they were also flying towards the land, but they were flying in a more west-southwest direction, while I was flying straight south. After that, I turned my attention in front of me, since I didn’t care to have any more aerial collisions than the one that I had just been in.

The landing had been a little rough as my head was still spinning a little from being knocked around by that dragon … that and landing was probably the weakest part of my flying. That was always a secret of mine and not a single pony would ever find out about that, not matter how close they were. Speaking of landings, the beach I aimed for was nice and soft so that when my hooves actually touched ground, I quickly fell forward, letting the rather soft sand embrace me quickly. If it weren’t for the last few moments, I would appreciate the dirty golden-brown color of the fine beach sand, the lighter blue of the ocean water once land was nearby, and the occasional warmth whenever the sun would shine upon the earth, in between the large cumulonimbus clouds. I could hear the ‘shh, shh’ sound of the ocean breaking upon the seashore, as well as the sound of the blowing ocean wind, and the raucous cries of seagulls.  For a brief moment it was just nice to lay on that soft sand and let my body take a second to catch up with itself.

Once I finished laying on the beach, I got up and trotted up far enough so that unless there were some freak typhoon or something, I wouldn’t have to worry about the waves washing me away, should I fall asleep before the medical team arrived at my location. I reached into a small pouch that had been hanging from my neck, and assembled the flare. It was just a matter of placing the small supporting cylindrical hole on the flare canister onto the stick, and placing the stick firmly enough into the ground that it wouldn’t topple over from anything. I then pulled the string, as a magical flare shot forth from the canister. It was a really bright red flare, and while I waited for the medical crew to arrive, I proceeded to check my feathers for any cracks or breaks, and assessing the condition of my wings for anything other than the familiar burning sensation and aches of used flight muscles. 

This kind of self-assessment was crucial for any flyer, and any flight school worth their salt made sure that their students had memorized the symptoms for each and every condition that a the wing structure might encounter, before they even began to teach the basics of flight. I don’t even remember how many hundreds of hours I spent memorizing all those conditions and symptoms. But at moments like these, being able to correctly self-assess one’s own body could mean the difference between soaring through the skies, and being as ground bound as the non-pegasi ponies. 

I gave a short, involuntary shudder at the thought of me not being able to fly again. I’d rather give up my chance at being a Wonderbolt, than never being able to ever fly again. I honestly don’t know how the unicorns and earth ponies can live their whole life on the ground. I fervently hoped that I’d never have to find out.

Fortunately, aside from some bruising near my neck, due to my flight helmet getting pushed into my neck muscles from my little aerial accident, I didn’t have hardly any damage. I proceeded to preen my wings, removing loose or broken feathers, as I continued to wait for the medic team to arrive. If they took any longer, I’m going to take a nap. I chuckled to myself as a thought crossed my mind. So much for them being first responders! Sweet Celestia are they slow! 

Was it too much to ask for them to have a little bit of hustle to help one of the top flyers in this race, or to help anypony for that matter? They were lucky that I was tougher than most others for if it had been someone weaker, they could have really been hurt and the slow response time could have hurt them greatly. 

I paused for a second, realising that I couldn’t redirect my anger out on somepony else. No, I was mad that the dragon got the best of me and made off with that strange beast, and yet I was getting mad at the response teams instead of that dragon. I was also disappointed, because this was just like getting to live a page out of the Daring Do series. Getting to encounter strange cultures, and rescuing ancient treasures. It would be nice if it spoke common Equestrian. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before laying down, resting my head on the soft grass that eventually gave way to sand.

After a few minutes of letting my eyelids drift lower and lower, I saw several spots in the sky, as I groaned impatiently. “Well, it’s about time.” Figuring that it would be maybe another half hour, I laid down, resting my head on my forehooves, and resting my eyes for awhile until the medical crew finally arrived. 

Despite a few parts of me wanting to berate them for being so slow to respond, I knew that was not who I was. Everypony gets mad but they should never take out that anger on somepony that doesn’t deserve that anger. I think that had been the subject of one of Twilight’s letters to Princess Celestia, though that hardly mattered.

Once I had informed them regarding the results of my self-assessment, I permitted the  field medics to look me over, the unicorn among the group performing an extremely complex scan. I don’t pretend to understand how unicorns do what they do. It would be akin to trying to use meteorological terminology in a conversation with a foal who has not been taught anything about barometric pressure, dew points, or ionic charges.

Anyways, after the medic’s assessment agreed with mine, they escorted me into the emergency wagon, and after making certain that I was properly secured, the flight crew lifted off, the unicorn belted in, reclining on a bench along the wagon’s side, as I slowly yielded to exhaustion, and slipped into the blessed relief of a restful sleep. I did wonder what that strange dragon riding creature was up to, however, before completely surrendering to the realm of sleep.



{C          D           T       *      *      *     {Hiccup}     *      *      *      C           D           T}



Toothless and I had retraced our flight path a little ways along the coastline of the landmass which we were flying over. I gingerly touched my forehead, feeling a swelling sensation. It was times like these that I wish I had worn the helmet that my father had made for me, from one of Mother’s breastplates. I … don’t remember Mother as an infant, but I have to say that she must’ve been on one hell of a diet to attain her … attributes. I’m still a little weirded out that the inside of my Viking helmet at one time cupped and protected her breasts during the dragon raids of Berk.

I spotted a nice place to land, shrouded slightly by trees as well as being right next to a small stream that fed into the ocean. I patted the top of Toothless’ head before pointing over to the small clearing. He simply nodded before banking to the right and angling downward. I trusted Toothless to fly solo as I recovered from the collision and near death experience.

Once Toothless and I had landed, I removed the saddle, and proceeded to check Toothless for any broken bones in his wing from when he hit that flying pony with his wing. Sure his wing was tough, it had to be in order to support his bodyweight in flight, but that didn’t mean he was invincible. I gave Toothless his much larger waterskin, as he used his wings to hold it up for him to drink. I drank from my skin, still seeing bursts of light and colors in my eyes, as well as feeling dizzy and a pressure in my head. 

I’d seen Vikings with the same symptoms, coming home from a battle, and they were usually alright after taking it easy for several days afterwards. I’m just glad that that pony didn’t take my head clean off my shoulders, or even snap my neck from our little accident during our encounter earlier. 

Without any warning, an extreme pressure made its way all across my head, forcing me to my knees. It was a quick but intense pain that had passed almost as quickly as it had arrived, that didn’t stop me from reaching up and clutching my head as I felt minor aftershocks run through me. Toothless instantly rose and moved over to me to see if I was alright. 

I reassured Toothless when he saw me sink down, as though my head hurt. “I’ll be okay, bud. I just need to rest a little while, and not push myself too much.” He appeared to accept my reassurances with reluctance, and opted to curl up around me, as I reclined against his warm body.

I rummaged about in one of the rucksacks and extracted several new harness straps, to replace the ones that broke. I had encountered similar situations before, and so made sure to keep extras on me, whenever Toothless and I would go adventuring. Unfortunately, the torn gliding membrane on my suit was going to require a larger patch of leather. Considering the number of intelligent races that I’ve encountered, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the cows could talk too! 

That left me with two options; one: I could return to Berk, procure the necessary materials to repair my gliding suit, or two: I could attempt to procure similar or new material with similar properties that my leather glide suit has.

As disappointing, returning back to Berk seemed the surest option. I had become quite fascinated with all the different talking species that I had encountered since our explorations of the lands beyond the wall of clouds. I decided to wait until the cover of night before flying back on the course that we had came from. It should still be in the early, early morning by the time that we traversed back through the dragons’ territories.

I ate some more of my food rations, before turning to Toothless. “I’m going to get some sleep. Feel free to catch some fish from the river. You should probably try and get some sleep too, if you feel like you need it. I’ll wake you when it’s time to go.” With that, I took a strip of soft doeskin leather that I had frequently used to cover my eyes whenever I felt like getting some sleep before the sun had gone down, and covered my eyes with it, smaller strips of leather securing the ribbon to my face by tying it behind my head. With that, and feeling secure with my buddy Toothless at my side, I gradually fell into a deep, restful sleep.



{C          D           T       *      *      *     {Later}     *      *      *      C           D           T}



I awoke, deep into the night, needing to relieve the pressure in my bladder. Going a little bit downstream along the banks of the river, I lowered my pants and undergarments, sighing in relief as I proceeded to empty my bladder. Washing my hands in the water near the riverbank, I shook my hands free of the excess of water, and went over to where Toothless had been sleeping. I’m guessing he must’ve fallen asleep sometimes towards evening, because his forefeet were cupped over his eyes. I should ask him if he wants an eye cover like what I use.

I paused a moment, glancing at the star spangled heavens and the many stars in it, and the glowing clouds and rivers in the sky. The full moon illuminated one of the large poofy clouds, casting a silvery halo about it. Its brothers and sisters were arrayed in a different splendor, the tops glowing in soft whites and silvers, while the underbellies were as dark as the inside of an unlit cave. The nearby river shimmered the reflections of what stars weren’t hidden, as a gentle spring breeze blew through the area, a soft rustling sound coming from the trees, while the river made splashing sounds, as the ocean made the familiar ‘shh, shh’ of the waters breaking upon the beach., the smell of moss, trees, and salty ocean air greeting my sense of smell.

“Come on buddy, time to wake up, time to go.” I murmured to Toothless, as I tried to rouse him out of his slumbers. He groaned sleepily, and one of his forelegs batted about the air, before it hooked behind me, and then he hugged me close to his warm underbelly, as his wings wrapped about me, in a warm cocoon. As nice and pleasant as being Toothless’ snuggle buddy was, we needed to get moving. I smiled, as I started to tickle his sensitive underbelly, causing him to squirm and laugh before launching me off of him, and then pouncing over me, licking the side of my face.

“Ugh! Toothless, you know that doesn’t wash out! This is for how I chose to awaken you, isn’t it?” Toothless just gave me a small smile, and I swear on Odin, that he was giving me a smug look.

After getting Toothless to get off of me, I rose to my feet and surveyed the surrounding area just to make sure nothing had happened during our little nap, and thankfully nothing did, That meant we could just pack up and leave for Berk. I picked up Toothless’ saddle and proceeded to walk over to him.

I got him saddled up, and our gear back on him, the familiar smells of leather and oil soothing me. Our gear was suspended from the saddle, before I mounted back on him. “Let’s go home.” I held onto the saddlehorn, as Toothless slowly ascended into the sky. I tugged on the straps securing me to the saddle, making sure they were snug and secure, as I gazed into the spangled night sky. The moon was just starting to peek over the horizon, like the head of a mischievous child looking to see if his prank was successful. 

I inhaled to cool salty ocean breeze, feeling relaxed. Living on Berk, it was ever a part of our lives, and we Vikings just didn’t feel at peace unless we were near the ocean. We arrived at the mountains we had trekked through earlier, one side lit up in a silvery-grey color, while the shadows appeared as black as soot. The forest top lit up in similar silver colors, the undersides of branches and trunks also like the color of soot. The mountain streams also lit up by the light of the moon, the liquid silver dancing and shaking unceasingly. Even at night, the land was immensely beautiful. I wondered if Asgard was anything like this. I certainly couldn’t imagine how the Asgardian realm could possibly top the beauty of this place. I patted Toothless’ cheek to get his attention, and once I had, I pointed straight up, and then made a gliding motion with my hands. Toothless nodded, flapping furiously to gain altitude to sufficiently clear the mountain range. I clenched my hands around the saddlehorn, grateful that my flight suit protected me from the frigid air often encountered at high heights and lands to the far north, such as Berk is.

We made it across the mountain range, but noticed that the wall of cloud was not there anymore. I patted Toothless’ cheek again, making a spiraling motion which moved from a centered point outward. He nodded, and we slowly started to fly in an spiral, ever expanding our spiraling flight from where we had initially hovered in confusion, since we had fully expected that the massive cloud wall to be immobile. I shrugged my shoulders at first, thinking that I just was wrong in my assumption of the clouds.

I motioned to Toothless to carry on westward in order to clear the mountain range so that we could make decent time back to Berk. Toothless nodded in excitement before shooting off. The initial explosion of power from him sent me back in my seat before I lurched forward and grabbed the handles of the saddle. It was only a few seconds before we crossed the mountains, and I was smiling under my mask … until I noticed something unusual. 

On our initial flight through the clouds had us almost right over top an ocean before a small section of land, followed by the mountains. When we had crossed over to this new land, there was a larger section of landmass that had included a few forests scattered among open plains. The moment Toothless and I cleared the mountain range, we were not met by the ocean but instead found that larger area of land. 

I don’t understand how that happened, how we got turned around so easily but somehow we had been in fact going east again. Toothless was just as baffled as I, since he was the one to initially stop. “I don’t know, either buddy. Whatever happened, we probably just messed up a little is all. Let’s head back again.”

Again we headed westward, across the mountains. aiming to make it to Berk. Just as swiftly, and much to my surprise again, we found ourselves over top of that landmass on the new land’s side. I growled lightly in frustration before signalling Toothless to go back again. 

And again.

And again.

And again.

Once we had flown in this pattern for several hours, I let out a scream in sheer frustration since no matter how many times we tried, we always found ourselves back over the new land. Toothless lowered his ears in a sign of submission or fear, I was too angry to read too far into it. I let out a massive sigh as I fell backwards onto his back. “I’m sorry, Toothless. It’s just … this is too frustrating!”

Toothless let out a few reassuring grunts, probably in an attempt to tell me it was alright. I patted Toothless’ cheek, and pointed upwards, in the hope that maybe gaining height in the air might provide a better vantage point, as greater heights meant that one could see greater distances. He nodded, flapping furiously as we gradually climbed in the air. We went until I could not tolerate it. Toothless, given his draconic build, didn’t have much of a problem even at these heights, but I was breathing as though I had ran all over Berk.

We spun around, looking for the wall of cloud, as the sun peered over the horizon. It was a breathtaking sight, as clouds transitioned from dark blues and blacks to purples, reds, pinks and oranges. I spotted the landmass we had journeyed from and pointed to it, while making the gliding motion. At the heights we were at, I fully believed that we could glide across the mountain range, without being spotted, or if we were, being mistaken for a high flying falcon or hawk.

We flew over the mountain range without mishap, to my mild disappointment. I was hoping that we might be spotted so that Toothless and I might pour on some speed and aerial maneuvers against the dragon clans. But as I’ve found out in adventuring, only a small part of it actually involves danger and action-packed situations. We retraced our flight path, until we spotted the city on the ground, which lay beneath the one in the clouds.

We had nearly flown the exact same path as last time, seeing the exact same small islands, sections of beach, splatterings of trees that eventually formed a forest. It was all the same, except this time we didn’t see the village that was made up of those deer people. We probably just passed it without looking. During the flight, my eyes started to glaze over at having to look at the same stuff, though this was mainly due to my frustration still boiling a little inside of me.

The village looked to be rather open in how it was set up. No walls to guard the city, but there were a few guard towers here and there. It seemed that the city must not have had many issues with hostiles. The buildings got a bit more sparse as the city expanded outwards but there was still a fair amount of density. It wasn’t as crazy as the center of town, and it made Berk look small in how it wa set up. The sheer amount of buildings squished together was outstanding.

I simply filed all this information away, instead focusing on finding a solid landing spot that would ensure we wouldn’t be surrounded immediately or land on someone. I eventually spotted a section beside a dirt road that looked perfect for us to land on before entering the city. I patted Toothless before pointing to the section, to which he nodded before swooping down. The landing was smooth as usual, and thankfully not filled with people surrounding me immediately. There were a few odd looks from some ponies and even a gryphon or two but aside from that we had not been given much attention.

Though that brought up a whole new topic; the sheer diversity of the city. The amount of of intelligent species within the city was amazing! Not only were there gryphons, but also flying ponies, dragons, deer folk, some strange half man-half bull creature, large ferocious looking cats, about the size of the ponies, large snakes, half goat-half man creatures, and fantastical creatures which looked like nature itself had come alive, trees that had taken a pony form, water that appeared like the snake clans, and I had even spotted a few pony shaped mix of rocks, gems and dirt walking casually within the city! This gave me greater hope of not only that Toothless would be allowed to enter the city, but that I might even procure the proper materials to fix my gliding suit.

It was tough to get over the fact that this new area of the world was so brimming with life that was so similar to our own. Vikings had thought for centuries that we were the only ones that were intelligent enough to do what we did; build houses, forge tools, and create a society. Our whole world was shattered when we found out that dragons were nearly on par with us, minus the creation of tools bit. I could only imagine what would happen if the rest back home could see what I was seeing.

I felt a minor pang of anger and fear when i thought of home. The incident above the mountains had worried me more than I had felt since dad’s passing. What if I was never able to get home, to see mom, or Astrid again. I know she wasn’t far along when I left but what if I missed the birth of our child? Could I even live with myself if that were to come to pass? 

I shook my head at that line of thought, for despite my deep rooted fears, I knew that I couldn’t succumb to such ideas. There was always a chance to get home and even if it wasn’t for a while, I would get home. To give up at a mere suggestion was un-viking like and though I wasn’t like the other vikings, I was one none the less. The moment my mind was made, I took a deep breath, holding it in briefly before letting it out. 

The first order of business would be to browse the shops and stalls of the city, especially ones focusing on flight-centric products. Of course finding some basic necessities was also something to look for. That brought up a single question though, how was I going to pay for the materials? There was no doubt that they had a regional currency that would be the main form of trade, or at the very least a bargin system. The latter wouldn’t be overly beneficial to me, unfortunately, for I was lacking any materials that would even be suitable for bargaining. That of course left me with only one option; I’d have to provide a service to exchange for this city’s currency or something of value in order to procure the materials necessary for me to repair my gliding suit. 

With our direction set, Toothless and I ventured into the city, all the while garnering many curious looks from passersby and locals alike. Most of the dragons here, for the few there were, walked on two feet, while the ones at the mountain range mostly walked on four. I wasn’t certain if they were different from the other dragons, or if they walked on two feet until a certain age or stage of life was achieved. It would be a nice way to expand my knowledge on the dragons of this land but if they were anything like the ones that we had encountered before than there would be a problem trying to interact with one.

It seemed that the area we had found ourselves near was actually a place of trade, a commerce if you will. It was a little odd in my mind that it was placed more towards the outskirts of the city but I was hardly one to speak from experience considering there were only a very small handful of towns I had ever been too. This marketplace was by far more impressive than what Berk had to offer, with shop stalls and buildings being lined up down each street. It made for one impressive and a little bit overwhelming experience, but I was no newcomer to seeing fresh sights so I paid it no heed after the initial shock. 

Despite us being in the less dense area of the city, we still found ourselves almost constantly surrounded by others that were going about their day. The crammed streets made it extremely tough for Toothless to even be able to walk without incident. Toothless ended up having to be extra cautious when turning and also mindful of his tail after one of the deer folk took a tumble because they hadn’t noticed his tail. This single accident had brought to my attention the possibilities of damages he could cause to the sales stalls and the products they were offering if he took a single misstep. Poor Toothless, he looked really embarrassed when I used a bit of rope on the end of his tail, where his tailfin begins to jut out and secure it to one of the saddle hooks.

I did sympathize with him, though. Dragon tails are often prominently displayed in courtship and mating. For us Vikings, it would be the equivalent of walking through our villages completely naked. I’ll make it up to him, though how I would do that, I didn’t rightly know. Maybe some exotic tropical fish? I looked about me as I took in the sights of the streets we had been wandering through as I pondered on how I would make this embarrassing moment up to my good buddy.

The marketplace was extremely large in diversity, but of course I hadn’t known of any other except for the very small one in Berk. Though that one had mainly included the smithing shop and a vendor or two. in fact, we hardly saw people selling wares aside from Trader Johan. So to see all of these different creatures, selling so many different wares was something to behold. Hopefully with such a diversity, we could find everything we needed to not only fix the gliding suit but to also something to take back to Berk.

Toothless wasn’t exactly liking the market, since all the creatures among him were making it tough for him to gain any sort of space. The problem with his tail wasn’t helping any either, and my makeshift solution was probably making it just that much worse. His eyes were cast down nearly the entire time, though not enough to stop him from watching his movements. I truly felt bad for him, and even though I had already made up my mind to make it up to him somehow, I felt that I should find a way sooner than later.

“I know Toothless, I know. It’s just until we get back out of the city. Just … bear with it for now.” As I went from prospective stall to prospective stall, I’d get Toothless to flap his wings once, since I needed to test the air resistance properties of the various fabrics, some feeling so strange and exotic I could only wonder at where it came from, or how it was produced. Each time Toothless shook his head, which was a little discouraging to be honest, but it didn’t change that I needed good airtight material to repair my gliding suit.

It was funny to see some of the shopkeepers reacting as they did when I would walk up to their stand and browse their fabrics. Some had been very receptive and not really caring what we looked like, while the others had … reacted a little poorly in comparison. When Toothless made his judgement, that always ended up in a negative decision, and I would put down the fabric and move on, they hardly seemed discouraged. We had been through nearly ten different fabric stalls when a little detour came up unexpectedly.

“Psst, strange creature!” I looked around, noticing a gryphon curling one of his foreclaws at me, beckoning for me to join him in the dark and  dirty-looking alleyway he was in. Considering that such places were prime mugging spots, I was understandably hesitant to join him. Sliding my flame sword out of it’s sheath but not igniting it, I cautiously moved forward, ready to react to any quick movements, real or perceived.

“Put that away, if I had intended to hurt you or rob you, you’d be dead quick as you please.” The gryphon growled, sounding rather displeased. 

I shook my head, “I’ll just keep them out, for you know .... a means of defense, what with those talons. I mean no offense, but I’m also not going to be foolhardy enough to put away any means of defense from a stranger that I know nothing about. No doubt you can tell we aren’t exactly of this area, so I’m not taking a chance here.” 

The gryphon burst out laughing, “You’ve got spunk, fledgeling, I like that!” The gryphon uncovered the wares that he was offering, as he spoke, his back towards me, which was both foolish and touching, since it was a show of trust to a stranger. Because with the less than honorable, it would have been an opportunity to attack him and steal his wares.

When he turned around, I looked at him a little closer, as he had several jars of fireflies to illuminate his humble little shop. On the lion half, the coat was faded and patchy, scars occasionally crossing each other, while the eagle half looked much the same, except with feathers instead of fur. He had a lighter jagged scar arching over the top of his beak, and three scars forming a triangle shape around his right eye. The milky appearance of that eye made it rather clear that he was blind in that eye. His feathers and fur looked rough and unkempt, and a little dirty from the dust and debris scattered through the alleyway. His build also looked smaller than the gryphons I had encountered. I don’t mean that he was shorter than they were, but that his body looked like he had muscles, but not like he must have appeared in his prime.

“So … why me?”

“Because, unlike those other fletchlings, you’re an earth pounder, the wonders of the skies are new, refreshed for you, because you can’t fly unaided. These fletchlings take the sky for granted with all her breathtaking beauty and her shifting moods. They live in her, the sky. They live too close to her, and are therefore blinded by familiarity. For you, however, it will always be like going from the distance of a star to that of the distance of the sun, each time is new, refreshed because you don’t live in the sky, you’re dazzled temporarily, but not blinded.” 

There was a certain truth to what he was saying, despite him not knowing a single thing about Toothless or I. Sure we had flown often and I had even been ‘flying’ next to Toothless for sometime now, it probably wasn’t the same as living with the ability to just take off whenever one wanted. This gryphon had never dealt with a twosome like us, yet he still was able to read us like a book.

I didn’t reply to his words, instead opting to peruse his selection of fabrics and other tools which was supposed to perform some function necessary for flying. I found a fabric that I particularly liked, especially for its ability to capture air. I turned to Toothless who did his little flap test, and I was amazed when he nodded his head in approval at the fabric. “What fabric is this?”

“Ah, ah, ah. Now if I told you that, it would hardly be unique now. The most you’re going to get out of me, fledgling is the name. Teflon.”

 “Interesting, very interesting. How much?” I said as I held up the fabric, mainly to inspect it further. 

“Six bits for 9 hoofs length of the fabric.”

“Okay … as you probably can see, I’m not from around here, and I’m not familiar with the measurements used in this land. How much fabric does one hoof have?”

The gryphon pulled on the bolt of fabric until it was about 1/4th of a foot. “There, that’s about a hoof in length.” he replied.

“I’d buy it, except for one problem. I have none of these ‘bits’ with which to buy them. I don’t suppose I could get you to set aside those six bits worth of fabric until I have earned the necessary bits, would you?”

The gryphon chuckled as he looked about him. “Sure, because I’m totally swamped right now.” He motioned a claw about him, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

I chuckled, feeling somewhat embarrassed, rubbing the back of my head. “Right, so once I find the bits, will I find you here?”

He scribbled something on some parchment, “I’m staying at the Glorious Plumage. You can leave a message for me, once you have the bits and a time and date wherewith to meet you at. ‘Cause I move all over town, so I won’t be back to this particular alley for awhile. Just ask for DuPont.”

“Got it.” I turned about, now pondering how I might acquire these ‘bits’ which were the natives currency. I’ve seen ponies and other various creatures patrolling the city in their armor, the back of it having a stylized image of a sun in bas-relief upon their armor. They were probably my best resource for the information on what I’d need to find some service or good for me to provide.

I wandered about, before I encountered one of the rock and dirt composed ponies. An earth nymph, if I remembered mythology of the ancient Greeks correctly. Having grown up around Vikings, I didn’t want to frighten the creature, as it could provoke it into attacking me, and considering my most un-Vikinglike build, it was probably safe to say that I wouldn’t win in a fight against any trained warrior. 

I hurried to get in front of the armored earth nymph, making sure to give a wide berth at first, so as to give me enough reaction time if it, he, or she should decide to attack first and ask questions later. Given that he was part of some kind of peacekeeping force, I wasn’t too concerned about that, but I would rather be safe than sorry. After all, I had promised Astrid and Mom to come back safely, even though I had no idea where that wall of cloud had gone.

I saw the pony nymph freeze upon seeing me move into its line of sight. I gave a nervous grin, waving at the literal earth pony. “Hi, I’m new around here, and I was wondering where I might go to earn some bits.”

“How do I know you’re not dangerous?”

“You don’t, however, my actions will speak for themselves. Listen, I just want to earn some bits.”

“... You make a good argument. Fine, I’ll take you to a place you can go. Just see to it that you don’t cause me any trouble. I don’t trust you entirely, I will give you the benefit of the doubt, however.”

It was difficult to fully follow my guide, with Toothless in tow, as my eyes and body went from one exotic sight to another. It was overwhelming, really, the sheer diversity of species within this city, and the strange-looking wares and produce that stores and vendors were hawking to prospective buyers. Fabrics, exotically crafted earthenware and china. There were silver, gold, and other metallic goods with a craftsmanship that Vikings could only dream about. There were colorful flowers, and fruits and vegetables, some of which I could not hope to name, without gaining familiarity of the native plants. It was overwhelming, the sheer amount of colors and things. I actually did manage to lose sight of my guide several times, before with an impatient huff; he, it, or she took my hand in his, her, its mouth, guiding to me to a large building before me.

“This here is the Freelancer’s Guild. If there’s a particular job that requires any skill or service that you’re capable of providing, this guild can match you to a particular job … for a nominal fee of course.”

“My thanks, uh …”

“Granite Quartz.”

“Right, I’ve been wondering for a while now but are you male, female, or neither gender?”

“I’m actually capable of being in any of those appearances. I’m an earth nymph, so I can be male, female or neither.”

“So, what about right now?”

“I’ve said too much already. I wish you well, creature. Just don’t cause us any trouble. ‘Cause if you do, I’ll make it so that you wish you had never caused any trouble in the first place.”

With that Granite departed, as Toothless and I entered the building. The insides of the building didn’t appear like it did from the outside. Instead of high arched ceilings, they were about  seven feet high. The floor was of marble, but the ceiling appeared to be made of oak, though they must do something to their wood, because it looked almost like it was wet and coated with something, which gave the wood a warm, golden color.

I went to the desk which sat in the center of the room. A pony that didn’t have either wings or a horn was behind the desk. She was a light purple for her coat, with a pastel yellow mane. On her rear thigh was an image of an open book with the word index at the top of both pages.

“Woah! I’ve never seen a creature like you before!”

I chuckled, rubbing the back of my head. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that a lot lately. Anyways, I was informed that this was the place to come to if I needed a job.”

“That’s right!” her voice sounding cheerful and energetic. She pulled out some forms with her mouth, and placed them on the desk facing towards me. “I’m going to need you to fill out these forms for me before we can get started. Also so you’re aware, we take one-third of your earnings for helping you find the first job, after that, it drops down to one-fifth for each job that we match you up with.”

And I thought Vikings were bad.

An hour and a half later, I turned in the filled out forms, which she then placed in a folder, marking my name on it, before trotting away to one of the rooms behind her with an open door. The mare returned back to her desk. “Please be patient while one of our senior members reviews your information and currently available jobs.”

So, I sat down, retrieving a block of wood from my rucksack, and began to whittle away at it. After a while, the carving started to look like Astrid if she were in the battle armor of the Valkyries. Of course, her figure was her slim, athletic one, before her body changed to accommodate and nurture our child forming within her.

“Mr. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third?”

“Hiccup is fine, miss.”

“Right, if you will please follow me, I shall escort you to Master Portsmouth. She will then inform you of suitable jobs for you, as she has taken into consideration your data and what the job will require.”

“Right, come on bud, let’s get going.”

The mare looked frantically waving her hooves as though to keep us away. “No, no, no, no, no! I’m afraid that the room isn’t big enough for a dragon of his size. Plus, Master Portsmouth has had a terrible experience with dragons. No, the dragon must wait for you in the lobby.”   

“Er … right. Wait here until I get back. Be safe.” I instructed my buddy. “No one is going to attack him if he’s all by himself, will they?” I inquired of the purple-coated mare, as I caressed Toothless’ scaly cheek.

“No, of course not. But just in case, we do have another option!” She took something in her mouth and began to do something on a large whitewashed plank. When she was finished, there was a crude drawing of a sword and Toothless, with a red circle with a diagonal line running through it. She took an awl and bore some holes on either side, and ran a loop of rope around the backside, knotting each end of the rope on the front side of the board, before hanging it around Toothless’ neck.

“Why use pictures?”

“Why, for those who can’t read, of course!”.

It was a strange thought, as all of my friends were literate to varying degrees. Some excelled at it, such as Astrid, Fishlegs and myself, while others would prefer to engage in more … Viking-esque activities. Well, when Ruffnut and Tuffnut weren’t trying to one up each other in who could endure the most painful things in the most visually appealing ways, or Snotlout wasn’t busy singing his own praises, that is.

Once the sign was suspended around Toothless’ neck, I followed the mare as she led me to an office, and sweeping her hoof in a gesture to enter the room. I was greeted by an elderly reindeer female. She had a dark pink wrap, wrapped around her neck, which had white flower petals pointing towards the center of each ‘flower’ interspaced evenly along the entire length of the wrap. Lower down, there was a blue wrap, like the color of the darker blue part of the sky during the day. Her coat was like a cinnamon brown, while her underbelly was a light cream color.

“Hiccup?” the doe inquired, her green calcite-colored eyes looking me all over, as I entered the room.

“Yes, Master Portmouth?”

“Yes, taking into consideration that you’re teamed with a fast and agile dragon, and that you appear to work well together, you have several options that I see. One is as a trader escort, where you will guard them from thieves, brigands and dangerous creatures; another is as a bodyguard for V.I.P. that can fly, or are using aerial means of conveyances: and another is as a guard for the Global Endurance Race that is currently taking place.”

“Well, I think that the one as a guard for the race would be an ideal beginning job for Toothless and I to cut our teeth on.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

“What? Oh no, we aren’t going to actually cut our teeth. It’s more of a saying where I come from. It means that it’s a good task for our level of experience to gain more experience, which can help us be better at our job and make more and different kinds of jobs available as we continue to gain experience.”

“Alright, I shall notify the appropriate authorities regarding your decision to take on the job as a racing guard. What’s the best way for us to get in contact with you?” she inquired.

“Well, having me come to this place would probably be the best, since I’m not all that familiar with the layout of the land, or its landmarks.”

“Right … Then please come back here tomorrow afternoon at around 14 hundred hours so that you can meet up with your employer and begin your duties.”

I looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she meant. “I don’t know what time you’re using.”

She sighed. “What increment is your day divided into?”

“We divide the day into eight segments.”

“So midday would be … ?”

“The fourth part of the day measurement.”

Master Portsmouth calculated and adjusted some things by drawing two representations. One of which was divided a circle into 24 segments, while eight of the lines were emboldened in a black charcoal. “Do you have a name for your fifth part of your day measurement?”

“It’s called Undorn.”

“Okay, so come here about halfway between midday and Undorn.”

“Yes Master Portsmouth.”

She held out her hoof, while I looked at it, before grabbing it in my hand and shaking it. This got me a strange look however, and instantly I knew that I had done something that was not a part of their customs.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Oh! I was just expecting you to curl your paw up into a fist and bump it against the bottom of my hoof. That’s a pretty universal greeting wherever you go, except solely in the Gryphon Kingdoms.”

“Ah, well what I just did is how my people greet each other in my land. As you can probably tell, I’m not from around here.”

The doe snickered at this, “yes, I gathered that. Though I hope in the future you don’t run into others that are … less tolerant of foreigners.”

“I hope so too,” I said before I bumped her hoof in the ‘proper’ way, “until tomorrow, Master Portsmouth.”

“Take care, Hiccup.” She said as I exited the door. Now all there was, was to find a place to hunker down until tomorrow. After gathering Toothless of course; hopefully he wasn’t too displeased with me leaving him behind like that.



{C          D           T       *      *      *     {The Next Morning}     *      *      *      C           D           T}



I had a relatively restful night, though given that I had not yet been paid for taking on a guard job, Toothless and I ended camping some mil outside of town. It wasn’t much but we could easily make do and as long as we were not bothered, then who was I to complain. Besides, I’m a viking, we were made to withstand any cold and this place was hardly cold at all.

Awakening to the sound of birdsong, I got up, and washed my face in a small stream about 1/7th mil away from where I had pitched camp. I hastily washed in the frigid stream, shivering and uttering curses on Helheim, before donning fresh clothes. I soon had one of my makeshift nets stretched across the stream to catch some fish for Toothless and I to have breakfast. What I might have caught probably wouldn’t be enough for feeding a dragon of Toothless’ size of course. 

The only solution would be to get on him and attach the net to a hook on my saddle, and have Toothless drag it through the ocean, to get enough fish for him to fill up on. But I could get started on making my own breakfast though, so as to reduce the time spent between feeding him and I. One bonus is that I wouldn’t have to gut or cook the fish for Toothless.

He took flight shortly after I finished attaching the net and just as quickly he made his way to the ocean. It was nice to have easy access to it, just like back home. I shook my head though, trying not to think about our predicament; I had more important things to worry about, namely breakfast. The fish in front of me was nearly done roasting, over the makeshift fireplace that Toothless lit, when he returned with his own breakfast. I just shook my head as he lazily dumped the fish pile on the ground before going to town on it. 

After Toothless and I ate breakfast, the next order of business was to fashion a crude enough sundial so that I could keep track of the passage of time. It would be bad to be late to meet the ones hiring Toothless and I. A piece of rock that could easily be carved on a dragon’s claws was the easy part of the task … getting Toothless to carve the sundial accurately was a whole different story. It took about six tries before he finally got the idea and made one that was perfect. After adding a few etchings, the sundial was perfect enough to make sure we would never be late.

I then proceeded to pack up camp, and stowing most of it in a couple of large rucksacks which were designed to hang from the hooks of my saddle. Toothless and I amused ourselves for awhile, chasing each other, or playing our version of tag. It was exhausting having to chase him, and even though it might have looked silly to others, it was a great way to stay in shape. Eventually though, I relented and collapsed from the massive exertion.

After recovering somewhat from my exhaustion. I checked the sundial, and it was about 10 o’clock. Toothless and I had lunch, before we went airborne to fly back to the city, to return back to the guild so that we wouldn’t be late meeting the ones hiring our services.So Toothless and I flew over the city, until I recognized the familiar sight of the guild building, whereupon we landed about the distance of a steinkast away from the building so as to not startle anyone just by dropping out of the sky right near the entrance. This time a pony shaped tree nymph sat behind the receptionist’s desk today. I heard the town’s clock sound the 2 o’clock in the afternoon. 

I leaned upon the receptionist’s desk. “Excuse me, I was told to meet someone here at two o’clock? My name is Hiccup, and I spoke with Master Portsmouth yesterday about guarding a global-spanning racing track?” 

The receptionist pulled out a scroll of parchment, checking it over before nodding to me. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to meet the one they sent to fill you in on the finer points of the job.” The receptionist leading me to a different room than the one where I met Master Portsmouth.

“So, do you have a name?”

“Everything has a time and season. In time, even I shall wither and die, though you fleshy types will have come and gone long before I do. We do not give our names to anyone other than our family, and our closest circle of friends. Most nymphs are like that, given our longevity. If you must call me, or any other nymphs by a name, call us based by our appearance.”

I gave the nymph a flat stare, before replying, “I don’t even know what kind of tree you are.”

The nymph turned his/ her/ its head towards me as he/ she/ it raised an eyebrow. “I’m a cherry tree nymph.”

I paused, thinking of possible names. Fortunately, unlike my father, I didn’t believe the typical Viking notion regarding naming someone. Basically that giving a horrible and ferocious sounding name protected them from trolls and ogres. Personally, I think that came about so that parents wouldn’t have to think up imaginative or original names, and to embarrass the Helheim out of their kids. “So … Cherry?”

“Hmmm, well it’s summertime now, so Berry Cherry would be a more accurate description. Do you think so?”

“Helheim, I’m the stranger in a strange land. I don’t know anything about naming ponies, but if it works for you, then it works for me. At least you don’t try to give absolutely horrible names to your young.”

Berry Cherry rolled her/ his/ its eyes. “You might be surprised.” 

I chuckled, feeling amused at her/ his/ its response. “Perhaps. This has been bugging me for awhile, but are you currently male, female or neither? Because I ran into an Earth pony nymph that was in a stallion form, but its harder for me to tell with you nymphs.”

“I’m currently in my female form. Had I been in my male, I would have told you to pick something like ‘Cherry Colt’ and for my non-gendered form I’d have suggested something like ‘Cherry Glee.’”

These ponies and their names, I swear. Before I could be distracted upon pondering the oddity of pony naming sense any further, we arrived at the room where I was to meet the one who was to inform me in greater depths regarding my duties as a guard for a racing track that circled the globe.

Berry Cherry opened the door ushering me into a room very similar to where I had met Master Portsmouth. Inside a female pegasus pony was adorned in a mixture of metal plate armor and some kind of wood. Her chest and belly was protected by metal plate armor, while her sides, back and legs had wooden armor strapped upon them. On the right part of the metal breastpiece was an icon of a cloud sporting wings, and I’m guessing that the lines behind it which ended in curlicues either represented speed, or wind, or perhaps even both. 

The mare rose upon my entrance, her eyes looking me up and down. She looked to Berry Cherry, raising an eyebrow.

“We need fliers, not ground pounders.”

Berry Cherry simply chuckled. “Don’t you worry none, he’s very qualified for the job.” 

The guard shot her an unamused look, her wings ruffling and twitching a little. “Fine, how is a wingless—whatever he is, going to get into the air to guard the flight path from any additional ponies flying into the flight path and causing any additional accidents?”

Berry Cherry looked around, as though she was ensuring that there weren’t any unwanted eavesdroppers. She proceeded to snicker, before waving the armored mare closer. “You’re gonna love this. Mister Hiccup here, is a Dragon Tamer. He has a dragon on which he flies on!”

“—Friend, actually.” I interjected, not liking the implications associated with being called a dragon tamer.

“What’s the difference?” Berry Cherry inquired.

“Tamer implies that dragons aren’t intelligent, and are mere beasts A friend doesn’t do that. A friend will communicate and show trust that a dragon will not hurt him or her. Toothless might not be able to communicate in my native language, but that doesn’t mean that he’s completely incapable of communicating, or that he isn’t intelligent. I won’t treat my buddy and partner like that, nor will I tolerate others treating him any less than how I would.”

I turned my attention towards the guard pegasus. “Before we continue our conversation, might I ask your name? My name is Hiccup.”

“You don’t sound very Hiccup-y.” the guard responded.

I barked a laugh, not only not expecting her to respond like that, but the irony of how closely pony names seem to match up to their special talents. “Of course not! Hiccup is how my culture identifies the runts of our society. Basically their very existence is a source of shame and mocking for the members of my society. Plus our people think that by giving their offspring terrible names scares off monsters back home. So they gave me the gloriously horrible name of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. So, I die a little inside each time my full name is used. At least I never had to hear my mother use it while I was growing up. I cringe just imagining her doing that in her voice, sounding upset and looking at me with disappointment.”

The two ponies giggled at that. I rubbed the back of my head, a gesture of my embarrassment. “Well, it seems that there are some things that are universal, regardless of culture.” The guard mare replied. I grinned sheepishly at her. 

“—So, I still don’t know your name, Miss Guard.”

“Zephyr.”

I saw an opportunity to tease her a little and decided to go with it. “What about the fur?”

“No, Zephyr! Zephyr is my name!”

“The Fur? That’s a strange name for a pony.”

“No, Zephyr, as in the wind?”

“What does the fur have to do with wind?”

“My name doesn’t have anything to do with fur! It’s Zephyr, a word to describe a type of air movement.” 

I chortled, giving a her a large amused grin. “I knew that. I was just teasing you.”

“You—” She then proceeded to voice her frustration in an animalistic growl, glaring at me out of the corner of her eye, as she trotted back and forth before me, with her nose pointed skyward. 

Berry Cherry giggled, before pushing at me with one of her forehooves. “You’re incorrigible. I got to get back to the receptionist desk. You two behave yourselves now.” 

I wasn’t sure if she was implying something, that she was imagining things which weren’t ever going to happen, or what, so I opted to give her a thumbs up, before realizing that to a pony, they might not understand what such a gesture meant. Instead as a parting shot, I replied with a, “yes Mom.”         

Zephyr huffed once more, before ruffling her feathers, once more before doing a few breathing exercises to calm down from the agitated state that I had teased her into. While she was doing this, I took the additional time to observe her further. She had a dark crimson-purple coat, like the crimson-purple in the sky at sunset. Her mane was of a similar color, but a few tints lighter, moving more towards a pastel coloration. Her eyes were a brownish-gold, and made me think of a similar precious stone in my homeland. Tiger’s Eye, Trader Johann called it, I believe. He says that it shimmers like the eye of an enormous jungle cat that it’s named after. Though considering some of his tales, I’m not sure if I’ll believe him or not. I guess I’ll reserve judgement until I ever see the actual eye of a tiger. Though, given my responsibilities as chief of Berk, it’s highly unlikely that I ever will. Unless Trader Johann or another entrepreneuring soul decides to have one in a travelling zoo or something. 

Anyways where was I? Oh right, observing Zephyr. Now I’m no horse whisperer, but she had a slightly more muscular build than Berry Cherry did. But she wasn’t overly muscled. She had the body that balanced speed with strength. She wouldn’t be matching speeds with the blue pegasus with the rainbow colored hair that I had ran into the other day, but she wouldn’t be a pushover for other pegasus ponies, or anything weaker than her earth pony counterparts. I had already taken notes regarding her armor, so I won’t repeat myself here. I don’t know if she was considered an attractive mare, since I lacked knowledge of the pony’s culture and didn’t know what these ponies considered feminine beauty. Not that it mattered, since I was happily married to Astrid. Talking to them was weird though, since if you ignored the bodies they were in, they could have easily passed for humans. 

“So, regarding your duties—” Zephyr resumed, returning my attention back towards her, instead of the inner introspection and silent observations which I had been making mere  moments ago. “Essentially, what you will be doing will be patrolling along a section of the racing track to ensure that no one enters the racing track, either through ignorance, daredevilry, or foolhardiness. We’ve already had one accident yesterday, according to one of our racers, and the one responsible for guarding that section of track has been punished appropriately for her failure to show up for her shift.”

“What if there is an accident? What should I do then?”

“If your dragon is capable of saving the both of them, then try to do so, or save whomever you can. If you need the nearest medic team, you will be provided with a small sack of non-magical flares. We tend to have a combination of aerial guards, and grounded guards, such as earth ponies and unicorns, just in case we need to be ready for whatever possibility. If, in the event that a racer or a flyer, or both become injured, fire off the flare first, and then do your best to protect and comfort them. The grounded team will likely see the flare as well as the medical team, and ought to make their way to the flare’s position. However, I must warn you that you might have to defend the injured, even if the grounded part of your team never shows up. We do try to ensure that such events are highly unlikely to happen, but … well there are bound to be slip-ups and oversights, with an organization as large as ours. I’m telling you this so you can that you won’t be blindsided in the eventuality that your grounded team doesn’t show up. You’ll probably get an unicorn, since you probably fulfill the earth pony qualifications, while your dragon fulfills the aerial support aspect.”

She paused, before continuing. “You’ll likely be outfitted with a wooden shepherd’s crook. Now I want it to be known that violence and force are only to be used as a last resort, when all other attempts fail. If the ones entering or on the racecourse aren’t willing to obey your attempts at persuasion or use of authority, fire a blue flare, and it will indicate that you need additional backup. Do that, if you have the time, otherwise, do what you must, to get them off the track, to prevent any additional accidents.” 

“Sounds simple enough. How much of a stretch will we be patrolling?”

“It’ll be about 3600 hooves for distance.” 

“Can I compare your hoof to my foot?”

Zephyr looked at me looking a little confused, and a bit uncomfortable. “Sure, but shouldn’t you already know our measuring system?”

“I come from far away lands, we use a different measuring system than you ponies do, it would seem.” I replied as I placed my heel to match with the rear of her hoof. Her hoof was out ⅓ the length of my foot, so dividing … It would calculate to about 42 mil. Not a bad stretch to patrol, for a flyer. “Right, I think I have an idea of how far you want me to patrol.”

“Or you could just fly until you met the next patrol before turning around before flying into the next patrol.”

“No, because if they were at the farthest point away from me in their patrols, then that would mean flying both mine and their parts of the track. It could be hazardous seeing as how there could be a significant enough gap in my patrol time for a civilian, or daredevil to get onto the track path. No, just give me some landmarks to go by and Toothless and I will be fine.”

“Right. Well, I think it would be best if I showed you the stretch that you’ll be patrolling, instead of just telling you. That said, why don’t we hit the armory and get you the gear that you’ll need.”

“What about that? I doubt that you have any armor in my size with your insignia.”

“Oh, heh, don’t worry about it, you’re not the first creature that wasn’t a pony, gryphon or dragon that was able to fly, but wouldn’t fit into any of our standard armor. What we do then is simply have the creature that is working for us to cinch some belts over their armor which has our insignia on it. Simple, and then it gives them the authority necessary to execute their jobs, excepting matters wherein the Royal Guard is required, or whatever that nation has as a policing force. Royal Guard acts as both policing force and military for the land of Equestria. I just used it as an example, because my native country is Equestria.”

Needless to say, I was immensely amused at the horse puns which she seemed to be oblivious to. I could feel myself grinning as we exited the room, I holding the door for the lady as my body shook in silent laughter.

“Alright, what is so funny?”

“The nation for ponies is named Equestria?”

“That’s right.” she replied, tilting her head to the side, obviously not understanding my mirth regarding their country’s name.

“The word exist in a modified form and does relate to our activities with horses.”

“Ponies.”

“Equines then. We have knowledge of both horses and ponies in the land from where I come from, though on my island, our major livestock tend to be sheep. At least we don’t have to worry about dragons coming back and carrying off our sheep—usually. So hearing that your nation is called after an activity that we humans do with our equines, I found to be very punny.”

Zephyr groaned, her ears folding back on her head. “Please don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Make pun related jokes. It’s both painful to hear, and thinking about them hurts my head.”

“—Well, you did ask.”

“Well, now I’m sorry for having done so.”

“Don’t be, finding these quirks of yours makes it easier to feel a sense of comradery with you. I mean, If I ignore the fact that you’re in a pony body, I could easily imagine talking with another human.”

“I suppose … . Anyways, if you and your dragon friend will follow me to our barracks, we can get you the gear that you’ll need and then get you to the stretch of the track that you’ll be patrolling, so that you can get started on your job.”

“Alright.” I replied, as I followed her out of the office, waving to Berry Cherry as I passed her. “See you later Berry Cherry.”

“Bye bye, Hiccup. Don’t be a stranger now.”

“Alright. Hey Zephyr! Do you mind waiting for a bit while I get Toothless outfitted again?”

“No, I’m just going to leave you behind, forcing you to choose to either follow me, or leave your things behind.” She leaned slightly against one of the walls, near the doors entrance, but far enough away from the doors that she wouldn’t be hit, should they fly open. She had a slight smile, watching me with obvious interest as my hands worked, as I placed Toothless’ saddle on, and securing the rucksacks that we had brought along with us. After a brief wait, Toothless and I were ready to follow Zephyr wherever she would take us.

“Lead the way.” I told her, as I pushed open one of the doors fully open for Zephyr and Toothless to pass through, before passing through the doorway myself. Once we were on the street, Toothless lowered his body, enabling me to swing myself up into the saddle. Soon we were soaring the brilliant azure skies, as we journeyed towards our next destination. 


> Chapter 4: Shocking Experiences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	During our flight, I was looking all around beneath me, just absolutely amazed, not only at the massive numbers of intelligent species, but exotic sights I might never see on Berk. There were spice merchants, and a perfume merchant, an oil merchant. It was just overwhelming, the murmur of the marketplace, and seeing laundry lines criss-crossing over the streets and alleys.

Suddenly my vision darkened as a velvety and thin fabric obscured my vision, my head and body bending backwards until whatever had been holding onto the cloth gave way. I clawed at the fabric on my face, before gazing shocked at what I held in my hands. I didn’t know what kind of fabric it was, but it smooth like velvet, but had a sheen in the light. I’d never encountered this kind of fabric, even with the exotic wares Trader Johann brought to Berk to trade with the villagers.

For one thing, the fabric was entirely see-through! Why anyone would want clothing to be see-through was beyond me, but I held in my hands what looked like some weird see-through shirt, except it cut off about midway on my stomach, and there were no sleeves, but small ribbons to keep the fabric suspended on my shoulders. Not to mention that it was pink. It was like the pink inside a seashell, but faded. It had to be some female’s garment, but its purpose was beyond me. It wouldn’t protect from cold, weather or sun, three primary reasons why Vikings wore clothes. Well that, and no one wants to see a naked Viking. I’ve been to too many feasts and festivals where some warrior would get drunk and remove his clothes. By Thor’s hammer, I wish I could forget those memories!

I heard a shriek, and looked behind me, to find a white coated Pegasus mare with a light sky blue mane racing towards me in a panic … or anger. It’s still somewhat difficult for me to tell with these ponies. Despite their large expressive eyes, or how their faces are similar to humans. I patted Toothless and pointed behind me, which in hindsight, I probably should have waited until we were over the majority of the buildings. For the next thing I knew, I felt our speed slow, and looked to see a clothesline bending under the weight and speed of Toothless and I. 

“Uh-oh!” I could only exclaim, before feeling Toothless and I being launched in the opposite direction we came. Toothless, however was ready for this and folded his wings as he nosed into a dive, the both of us feeling the rush of air, as the Pegasus mare just barely avoided us colliding with her. I knew what Toothless intended to do as he and I had attempted similar maneuvers back home. First the dive to gain speed and then when Toothless snapped open his wings, our movement would go from heading to the ground, to traveling swiftly over it. Then came obstacle evasion.

I laughed as the gryphons uttered a set of startled squawks, vibrant coats of tawny gold, or mahogany browns, to creams and white, their wings flaring open, and they reared back upon their hind legs for the majority of them and ponies screamed in fear, a great many different colors, as ponies reared back, or dashed to get out of the main part of the street. Pegasi flared their wings, but simply didn’t have enough time to fly in the air, before I sped past them. I should probably feel bad for startling the locals, but I was caught up in the exhilarating rush and excitement as Toothless dodged about street corners, fruit carts, and the occasional guards. Though, after we had dashed past about 10 city blocks or so, he started flapping his wings to regain the altitude we had lost in the dive to avoid the other pegasus.

Toothless and I looked about the sky as we tried to regain our bearings. Which way had the sun been in our initial flight path? Which way had the shadows been falling? While I had been wracking my brain to remember these important details, so that Toothless and I could resume our initial flight direction, I heard an unfamiliar female voice cry out angrily. “Hey, give me back my camisole you perverted thief!”

I saw the white mare from earlier quickly approaching Toothless’ and my position. “Firstly, I’m not a thief. I never intended to take any of your clothes. Is this flimsy see-through shirt yours?”

I raised an eyebrow as I watched in rapt fascination as her cheeks took on a flushed look. 

“Y-yeah. Now give it back!” She yelled before I handed this ‘camisole’ of hers back to her, which she quickly placed it inside one of her saddlebags.

“Why would you want to wear such a flimsy garment as that anyways?” I asked her, genuinely curious. “What purpose does it serve?”

“S-some wear it because it feels nice and comfortable.” She replied, her blush fading only slightly.

“And others?” I asked, catching on that there was more that she had not yet told me.

“Others wear it for sex.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. Others wear it for what now?”

“Sex.” 

“Once more.”

"They wear it to have sex!" 

Multiple ponies around us turned to look at us, hushed whispers from one to another, as the pegasus mare’s blush returned with a vengeance. 

“Gotta go, see ya!” She yelled as she raced off, no doubt to escape the judgmental stares and whispers of the ponies who had just witnessed what had just happened.

I was pretty embarrassed too. Though I had to chuckle, as I imagined someone else going through what I had just gone through. That certainly was an awkward way to expand my knowledge of an entirely different culture.

I yelped, suddenly grateful for the saddle buckles, as Toothless performed several barrel rolls without warning. “Hey! What was that for!?” I cried, watching my buddy look back at me before issuing guttural laughter, and making kissy faces. I could feel my cheeks warm up at the accusation. “It’s not like that!” I watched as Toothless rolled his eyes, and jostled his back, making me grip onto the saddlehorn in a natural reflex, despite the belts that secured me to the saddle.

“Hey! Do you want this job or not? Because I’m sure the guild has others that wouldn’t mind taking this job, if you aren’t serious about it.” Zephyr groused, looking at me irritatedly, once she had flown back to me and was within shouting distance.

“Sorry. This big lug decided to fly me through some laundry, and then we had to avoid the pony who owned the laundry, and dodge and weave through the city’s street level, before getting temporarily lost, and reuniting the laundry with its owner.” I informed her.

Toothless gave me an annoyed sounding grunt, shaking his head in disagreement, before shrugging his shoulders, as though he didn’t understand why I was trying to pin the blame on him. I wasn’t really upset with him, but it did irk me that I nearly got clotheslined by a clothesline. And no, it wasn’t my first time seeing a clothesline clothesline someone. Why? Ruff and Tuff. If they can endure the most amount of pain while making it look epic and awesome, then they’ll definitely try it.



{C]{T}{D}***{15 minutes later}***{C}{T}{D}



Location: Global Endurance Race Guard barracks



I dismounted Toothless and looked towards Zephyr. Toothless wouldn’t fit within the barracks and I noticed some of the other guards acting edgy with Toothless around. Spears lowered a little more, pointing towards Toothless as guards passed by him and swords removed from their scabbard as well.

“They aren’t going to attack Toothless, are they?” I asked Zephyr worriedly.

“He should be fine as long as he doesn’t make any rapid movement, but we can have a sign made up, to indicate that he isn’t to be attacked, except in defense.” Zephyr replied, sounding particularly unconcerned, and not even glancing in Toothless’ direction.

“Yeah. We should do that. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t look after his wellbeing? I’ll be here with him until that sign is finished.” I started scritching beneath his chin, before getting licked by Toothless. I wiped my face, and flung my arms to fling off the dragon saliva. I gave him the stink-eye. “Ugh! You know that doesn’t wash out!” 

He gave another guttural chortle, his mouth parted in a mirthful grin. I proceeded to remove the saddle and tack, and set them off to the side, before tackling Toothless, my arms wrapping around his chest, as I did my best to play-wrestle with my friend.

Zephyr went into the largest looking yurt, and it wasn’t all that long afterwards before I heard someone cry out, “Release that poor creature, foul dragon!” Toothless leaped back, just avoiding a spear, growling at a tannish-brown stallion with a cropped mane that was an orangeish-tan color. His cutie mark was a light brown twister with horns on either side of the twister image, and a thin narrow ribbon about halfway down, which had the shape of a spade. I leaped between the stallion and Toothless, holding up my hands in a placating manner.

“Whoa! Hey, don’t hurt Toothless. We’re just playing with each other!” 

The stallion raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re friends with a—dragon?”

“Yeah, I know that you guys don’t have the best relationship with dragons, but surely not all dragons can be bad. Come on, that would be like saying all ponies jump to conclusions or all gryphons are impatient,” I said with a small snicker, to which he just looked at me blandly. “Sorry, but aside from that, we don’t exactly come from these parts so we aren’t the same you see.”

“Is that why he doesn’t speak for himself?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he’s not intelligent, or that he’s not capable of other forms of communication.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. By Thor’s hammer, do you look for the worst in anything that isn’t a pony?” 

“You can never be too careful around dragons! No dragon can be trusted! I, Dusty shall vanquish this menace!” The stallion threw the spear at my buddy, and I was already withdrawing my sword Inferno from its scabbard. Swinging downward, The spear’s tip embedded into the ground, just at Toothless’ feet. I watched as Toothless bounded over, leaping towards the stallion, toppling him to the ground in a swift tackle before placing a clawed foot on the stallion’s neck. It looked for a brief moment that Toothless was going to do more to the stallion, but instead he just growled at him, all the while pinning him down.

“What in Tartarus is going on here!?” I watched as Zephyr stomped over to where Toothless and the stallion was. She glared at Toothless, pointing a hoof in my direction. “You, off.” I watched Toothless look at me, tilting his head in her direction. 

“Yeah, you can get off of him, Toothless.” I grasped the spear, yanking it out from the ground, and turning it so the point pointed skyward once again.

“Alright, who’s the damn little shit that started this. Besides the stallion, dragon and his rider, who saw what happened?” About fifteen hooves went up. “Alright, line up outside of the Command tent, and come in one at a time.”



{C}{T}{D}***{Three hours later}***{C}{T}{D}
  


“Okay, I’ve heard all the eyewitnesses accounts.” Zephyr turned to the stallion called Dusty. “Dusty, why did you attack the dragon, even when his rider reassured you that the dragon wasn’t dangerous?”

“Because dragons can’t be trusted!” Dusty cried, glaring at Toothless, his eyes mere pinpricks, and his brows furrowed in anger, and with his ears laid back, as he ground his teeth together.

“Even when the dragon’s trainer gives his word that the dragon won’t hurt anybody?” Zephyr retorted, her eyes narrowing, and raising an eyebrow as she glared at the hobbled stallion.

“They killed my family! They killed my friends! We must destroy any dragon that would dare to live within our lands! They must die for the deaths they have caused!”

“You’re going to blame a dragon that wasn’t even there for the ones that did kill your family? Then where would the bloodshed end, huh? What if the dragons decided to attack because we killed one of them? It would only end with the complete annihilation of either us or them. And even if we did take that path, it wouldn’t bring back the slain. It won’t make the ache go away! You have served the G.E.R Guards well, but I’m afraid that I can’t overlook this attempted dragon-slaughter.”

Zephyr turned to a larger, beefier stallion whose coat was a light cerulean, while his mane was several shades darker. “Turbulence! Watch Dusty, while I send a runner to fetch a couple of guards to take Dusty to be processed, and await his trial.”

“Yes Ma’am!” The stallion called Turbulence replied, snapping off a quick salute, before going over to where Dusty was hobbled, and an attached chain was wrapped around what looked to be a pony version of stockades. 

“Swift Wind!” Zephyr shouted.

“Here, Ma’am!” A light gold pegasus mare with a light sap green mane stepped forward. Her wings were slightly larger, but her build was leaner, yet slightly muscled. A runner’s build, built for endurance running and flying.

“Go into Portsville and inform the City Guard that we have a pony to be processed and that a trial needs to set up for him, and that they should send a couple of guards to escort the prisoner to his new home.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Swift Wind also saluted, before rapidly flying in the direction of Portsville. 

Zephyr then came over. “Your dragon wasn’t hurt was he? I’m very sorry about Dusty. I’ve never had any problems with him before today.”

“I don’t know. You mind if I look you over, Toothless?” I smiled, watching him roll his eyes, and open and close his mouth as though he was being mouthy with me. I wasn’t too afraid if he was in high enough spirits to give me lip, but he let me look him over nevertheless.

“I don’t see anything. So I must’ve hit the spear down early enough that the tip of the spear didn’t touch my good buddy.’ I grinned, throwing an arm around Toothless’ neck. Toothless suddenly ducked his head out of my embrace, and licked the side of my face. “Ugh! Toothless!” I exclaimed, my right side of my face covered in his smelly dragon drool. Though I couldn’t be too upset with the big lug, as the other guards laughed at Toothless’ antics with me. The terse atmosphere that had been there earlier dissipated like clouds before the mighty sun.

“Alright, alright. Everyone back to duty. Hiccup, follow me,” Zephyr said promptly once the group had finished chuckling. 

“What about the sign? Doesn’t it still need to be made up?” I asked, not moving an inch from Toothless’ side. He was already attacked once and I would not be gone if it were to happen again.

“It already has and will be delivered shortly. I wouldn’t fret much though, Hiccup, your dragon friend will be looked after by the guards. And unless they want to end up on the wrong side of some rope, they will make sure he doesn’t get harmed,” Zephyr said.

I couldn’t tell if that was a death threat or an imprisonment threat but either way it made me gulp a little just because of how she said it. I smiled uneasily in response to what she said before following her into the building that she had put herself in front of. It didn’t look like anything that I had seen on berk or even in the city but instead it was more like a makeshift building in that it looked quickly put up and would hardly stand up to any harsh weather. 

The structure looked a little flimsy in that the wood that made up the building was thinly cut and held together by some very small nails. This was hardly a safe structure to be in if there was a typhoon or even a large windstorm.

When I had finished scrutinizing the structure of the building, I focused back on Zephyr who was looking through a few sacks and chest that were lined up along the sides of the building. They were aligned in a way that left one major pathway down the middle of the building and a few side paths that branched out in order to access further back items. I looked past Zephyr to see a three more guards farther back doing the same as she was doing, with the only exception being one of the three holding what looked like a flat piece of wood and writing on it. They were all gryphons, which was probably the first time I had seem a non-mixed group.

“Right, Hiccup, there are a few things that you need in order to work as a race guard,” Zephyr said as she continued to dig through the bags and chests. She seemed to be after certain items, but as to what they were, I had no clue and so I had to wait for her to show them to me. 

It felt a little awkward waiting on her to pull out the items needed, what with me just standing there, shifting my weight from side to side. Not to mention making brief eye contact with one of the workers at the end who would look away immediately the moment we made eye contact. 

“Grab one of the empty packs beside you,” Zephyr said, not even shifting her attention from her previous task. “Once you have one, come over here and we are going to fill it up with the needed tools.”

I looked around me a few times before my eyes finally caught sight of what looked like this ‘pack’ that Zephyr had spoken about. It seemed that this pack was designed for ponies or gryphons, since there was actually two large pouches connected by a thick strap that would most likely go over top of a four legged being. It would be impossible for me to utilize the pack without making some major modifications to the pack itself. Though perhaps I could strap it across Toothless … .

“Hey, human, pay attention!” Zephyr snapped causing me to whip my head back to where she was standing. Though instead of giving all of her attention to the sacks and chests, she was now sitting on her back legs while holding some items in her claws. 

“Take these items and just put them in the sacks, what you do afterwards is none of my business. Though a bit of advice; get your head out of the clouds,” she said dryly.

“Hehe, yes, ma’am,” I replied, rubbing the back of my neck before quickly two hand catching a smaller pouch that she threw at me. I briefly peeked inside to find that there were roughly five red tubes and five blue tubes that had a section at the end that looked thicker than the rest of them. It made we wonder what the thicker section was for, so I pulled one out of the satchel, inspecting it carefully. It seemed that Zephyr took notice before I could test out the item.

“That’s a flare, used to signal others from far away. Blue is used to signal for help if something out of your league happens, while red is for medical purposes. All you have to do is twist the larger section before throwing it or holding it. Just don’t hold the other end or you’re going to get burnt rather badly and those claws of yours don’t look all too strong,” she said casually. Not a lot of instruction mind you, but I guess it would do for the time being. At least I had experience handling items that burned. 

“Right, thin side up,” I said before putting the flares back into the pouch. 

“Good, next item,” she said as she tossed the next thing, she was holding in her claws, towards me. This time I was ready for her to toss it and caught it easily enough before examining it with a small bit of amusement. I guess the brief bit of examination I did happened to catch Zephyr’s eye.

“It’s r-” she started before I chuckled.

“I know what a coil of rope is, Zephyr,” I said shortly after I finished my chuckling. 

“Good! Then we can move on, though there isn’t much more,” she said as she moved towards me with another stick in claw. This one looked nothing like the flares that were given earlier, instead it was much longer, closer to the length of a blade but all it had, that was metal, was two little prongs at the end. It looked like a weapon at first, but how could it even hurt someone? Besides, I had my only blade.

“Umm, I won’t exactly need a blade, you see … .“ I said before this time she cut me off. 

“It’s not a blade, human. Let me show you,” she said before turning around. “Hey, Blacky, get over here.”

A certain gryphon came over, one that was completely the opposite of the name she had just called. Yeah, she called for ‘Blacky’ and instead got a gryphon that appeared to be as white as snow. Whether this was some sort of ironic name, or a nickname, I couldn’t tell. 

The gryphon didn’t say a word but the moment he got close, Zephyr whipped out the artificial stick and prodded him. now at first nothing happened, the gryphon just looking down at the point of contact. His eyes stayed down there for a good moment before they slowly looked upwards at Zephyr, pupils decreasing in size until they were little pinpricks, much like Toothless’s were when under control. 

Before he could say a word, his body started convulsing as though he had gotten struck by lighting! I mean, I had seen a few people get light zaps before, but this was far beyond that! It took a few seconds before Zephyr pulled the stick from his body and the gryphon collapsed to the ground, much to the amusement of the other who were taking inventory in the back. At first I was a little concerned with what had happened, but then I noticed Zephyr looking unconcerned. 

“Is he going to be alright?” I asked Zephyr, looking over my shoulder where the twitching gryphon lay.

“Oh, he’ll be alright after awhile. He just needs to recover from having so many volts delivered to his body. And what I just demonstrated is perhaps one of our most important tools to incapacitating any of the more belligerent of the fliers we may encounter. Though, it really isn’t suggested to be used against a group of fliers, unless you’re close to the ground. Others in the antagonistic group would take advantage of your momentary distraction to either hurt you, or maybe even kill you, if they’re angry enough,” Zephyr explained with a giant grin stretched across her beak. “Anyway, this is a stun stick. Powered by magic and able to absorb ambient magic from nearly anywhere, it produces a nice shock that can incapacitate even the hardiest of gryphons or pegasi, who, might I add, are pretty resistant to lighting.”

I merely gave a low whistle before she handed me the stick. I looked it over a little, noticing a small button on one side of the stick. I didn’t even need her to explain to me how to use it, my mind already figuring it out. The button caused some sort of mechanism to allow the magic to travel up the metal prongs and arch in between them, allowing for someone to stun nearly anything. Of course the only way I found out about the arching lighting was by pressing the button a few times in experimentation. 

“Well that’s about it, Hiccup. All that’s left is to give you some rations and a few first aid supplies. I’ll have Blacky gather them while we discuss your coverage areas,” Zephyr said as she began walking out the door, Blacky already grumbling and moving about. 

“Umm, the pack will be on Toothless outside,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck with one hand as I backed up to the door, almost expecting him to attack me out of spite for being shocked. Instead he just continued to mumble all the while scrounging for my other equipment.

As I exited, I noticed one thing that was surprisingly odd … scratch that, extremely odd. Toothless was rolling on his back, swatting up at a toy on the end of a string which was tied to a stick. There was a female pegasus hovering above Toothless, constantly moving the toy which looked much like a firefly. Toothless was constantly rolling this way and that, reaching up with his claws in an attempt to swat the firefly toy out of mid air. With the way his tongue was hanging out and the big goofy grin on his face, it seemed like he was having the time of his life. 

My jaw hung open for a few moments before I forcibly clamped it shut and turned to find Zephyr who was entering another one of their makeshift buildings just to my left. I couldn’t help but grumble at the sheer ridiculousness that Toothless was creating. Well at least he was proving that he was obviously harmless.

Figuring that I might as well follow Zephyr in the meantime, I left Toothless to continue endearing himself to the female pegasus, as I entered the building that Zephyr had entered not long before. I saw scrolls of all kinds, some that looked to be even taller than I was!, while others went as short as the width of my body, well, underneath my arms anyways. I watched as Zephyr went to one of the scroll holdings and removed one that looked relatively less aged, as some of the scrolls were so yellowed and riddled with cracks and tears that it looked like they might crumble into dust if someone were to touch it. 

Zephyr unrolled the scroll and pointed towards the mass of clouds that I had seen earlier, where the cloud city is. “This is where your patrol route begins, the race track runs directly below the Vaporia, which is what this huge cloud mass is called. It actually has several cities on it, but you shouldn’t need to worry about it, as the track runs beneath the cloud, and not over it. The race track runs through the middle of this straight here, pointing to a huge straight that was just several miles smaller than the cloud of Vaporia.and your route will end when you see this small island to the north.” 

The straight looked similar to a clog, but with a strong upward curl of the ‘toe’ region. It was near the bottom of the indentation near where the ‘toe’ started to curl upwards that a small island was seen on the map.

“Sounds like a simple enough route. How long do I work and how do I get paid?” I inquired of Zephyr.

“You’ll work from about an hour just after sunup until just after sunset. We tend to like using Thestrals and Gryphons that have excellent night vision for the night patrols. But you won’t have to worry about that. Anyways, you go to the Freelancer Guild to pick up your pay. Do you have any other questions?” Zephyr asked.

“I can’t think of any at this time, so I’ll go get Toothless geared up and we’ll be off to start our section of the patrols,” I replied.

“Remember, be safe out there,” Zephyr called out, though she was gazing out of an open flap in the tent’s fabric. I smiled, both touched by her concern and because of who she was saying this to. 

“I will,” I responded before closing the door behind me. I gathered both my personal gear and the gear Zephyr had given, which Blacky had apprently dropped off by the tent, as I strode over, slightly struggling with the weight of both packs, my torso bent slightly forward, as I compensated for the weight of the packs on my back.

The pegasus mare was still playing with Toothless, letting him bat at the firefly suspended on a small rope which was attached to a stick that was about the length of her own torso. “Excuse me, miss? I need to get Toothless saddled up so that we can start our work,” I explained to her.

“Aww,” the mare vocalized her disappointment. She flew off in the direction of one of the barrack houses, waving a foreleg at Toothless as she departed.

“Alright, Toothless. We have some work to do,” I declared, as I started placing the saddle blanket over his back, before placing his saddle over top of it. I checked the belts for wear and tear as I cinched each one tightly and securely. I’m going to have to talk to somebody about getting some oil, so that I can keep the leather in good condition. Then I hooked my rucksack behind my saddle and giving it an experimental tug to ensure that it was secure. I placed the saddlebags just behind my saddle, though I had to let the securing straps nearly all the way out, as Toothless had more girth than a pony. I also gave the saddlebags an experimental tug, and satisfied that they were secure, swung my leg over, as I mounted Toothless.

“Remember where the big cloud was, bud?” He just looked at me with an unamused stare. “Yeah, you’re right. Anyways, that’s where we’ll start our patrol, is underneath that huge cloud.”

With Toothless powerfully beating his wings, we began our flight towards Vaporia. 
> Chapter 5: Moving On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a rather uneventful journey to where Toothless and I would begin our patrol. I was kind of hoping that there will be something exciting to liven up our patrol, even if it’s just escorting an elderly flier around the racing track, rather than them trying to cross through the racing track because of bad eyesight or forgetfulness. Toothless performed a few barrel rolls, and if I hadn’t had been strapped to the saddle, I’d have fallen right off of him. Or at least flailing wildly and yelling. Even now I was still working on learning how Toothless moved, and despite years of experience he kept pulling new and surprising acts out of nowhere.

It was one of the most important points that Gobber and I drill into any Dragonrider at the Dragon Academy at Berk. Always be aware of your dragon’s movement and behavior. Though Ruffnut and Tuffnut like to ignore this piece of advice, but they’re Vikings. Fighting and pain are second only to the mead we drink at our festivals and at home.

Toothless and I had flown several patrols before we encountered our first spot of trouble. Underneath the massive cloud continent of Vaporia small clouds floated on the underside of the larger, much more massive cloud above it. Two dark ‘cloud’ rods perched at the edge of the cloud, opposite to each other, blueish-white lightning arcing between the two rods, illuminating the edges of the racecourse. The racecourse avoided the blackish looking holes which appeared every so often in the cloud’s underbelly. There were also smaller clouds scattered beneath the much larger cloud, except where the racetrack was concerned. Sewage poured out of the dark holes in the underbelly of the cloud, making me glad that the racecourse didn’t venture anywhere near the openings in the bottom of the dark bottom of the cloud country.

One of the troublemakers was a dragon that positioned its body in a bipedal position, unlike the much larger four-footed dragons. Its arms were similar to a human, with claws like a gryphon’s, but matching the color of his scales, and not showing much color variation from the color of his body. I couldn’t tell if it was a male or female, at least by the shape of his body. But his voice sounded male, so I’m going to say that he was male. His scales started at a bloody-red color at the edges and gradually changed the closer to the stomach area so that it was a vibrant yellowish-gold color. His eyes were golden, with his pupils slitted like a cats. 

One was a male gryphon, though again, I was basing it off of his voice, since I didn’t know enough about gryphons to determine gender by body shape, fur or feather coloration, plus unlike mares and stallions, their sex wasn’t obvious. Then again, I wasn’t looking all that hard nor did I want to. I know I’d feel uncomfortable if someone was staring at my crotch for an extended length of time. 

He had a pair of yellow goggles resting on his upper brow. His underbelly was a tawny-golden color, while his wings were brown on the smaller feathers, with the medium sized feathers were a light grey color, and his largest feathers were white.

The last was a female pegasus. I’d seen enough ponies to determine that as a general rule, stallions had more ‘square-ish’ and more angular features, while the mares were more curvaceous and lacking the angular features that often serve as visual sexual cues which enable me and anyone else familiar with these ponies in this strange land to determine if the pony was male or female. Her voice was also a determining factor, but it was far easier to tell that this pony was a mare and not a stallion.

“Excuse me? This is the racing track for the Global Endurance race and it’s not safe to be here. Would you mind and take yourselves elsewhere so that both you don’t interfere with the racers. We don’t mind if you watch from off the track though.”

“Huh? And who do you think you are to tell us what we can and can not do, ya bald baboon?” the dragon mocked.

Keeping an eye on the trio, I removed a wooden carved plaque that hung from a cord. On the plaque in bas-relief was the image of a globe, with a small pony and an arc that started from the nose of the pony and wrapped around the ‘back’ of the globe and ended near the tail trailing behind the pony like an unfurled banner. “I am a guard for the Global Endurance Race. All I’m asking is that you vacate the racing track at this point in time.”

“Make us you freak!” the gryphon challenged. 

I pointed at the mare, and gave the thumbs down sign to Toothless, as I retrieved the shock stick from the pouch. Toothless snapped his wings, and whipped his tail, making a cracking sound, like a whip as he closed the distance between the mare and us. He and I maneuvered before any of them could get over the shock of how quickly Toothless went from hovering in the air to closing the gap between us. I made a dipping motion with my hand, as I adjusted his tailfin and he used his tail to fly beneath the pegasus mare as I had asked, I jammed the shock stick into her stomach and pressing the button to stun her. 

I heard her cry out as she jerked and twitched, before starting to plummet towards the ocean below. I used three of my fingers to make a ‘claw’ hand form and clenched the ‘claw.’ Toothless nodded, closing his wings and snapping his tail again as he streaked towards the still twitching mare. I could hear angered cries behind me, but after briefly looking back, I could see they weren’t going to catch up to us, though once we were burdened by the weight and additional air resistance of the mare, that would change.

I didn’t know what to do, once we caught the mare. I might be more logically grounded, but I am still a Viking. Besides, once I’m in the air I tend to be more geared towards reaction and action. Flying by the seat of my pants, as it were. 

Anyways, Toothless caught the mare, and I looked back to see the dragon and gryphon quickly closing the gap between us, now that we had to deal with the the mare. “Toothless!” I cried, pointing towards the dragon and gryphon. I got my stun stick ready to take the assailants on. I saw Toothless give me a tooth-less grin, and I had to scrabble to grip the saddle, as Toothless spun around one, before using his front legs to throw the pegasus mare in the direction of the two other fliers.

The gryphon squawked loudly in surprise and his talons grasped the mare to keep her from plummeting towards the sea. Toothless beat his wings, rising higher and higher, as the dragon roared in indignation at having missed Toothless and I. He had to bank wide and flap vigorously in order to try to attack us again.

I looked towards the gryphon to make sure that he wasn’t going to throw the mare at us, like Toothless had done. So far, he seemed to be watching Toothless, the other dragon, and I as we fought to determine which one would be victorious. The dragon dove towards us again, but breathing fire. Toothless shot off a high speed scorching hot fireball, causing the dragon to roar, and dodge, as his fire didn’t stop Toothless’ attack. Toothless had to lower our position in the sky, to dodge the other dragon’s fiery plume.

 A weak fire like that wouldn’t hurt Toothless, and my gliding suit would protect me for a while, but the straps that secured me wouldn’t last long against a fire based attack. Not with how much oils had soaked into the leather to keep it flexible and retain its strength without becoming brittle. Leather gear did have to get replaced once enough wear and tear had accumulated, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t extend the life of our gear by properly maintaining it. Proper gear maintenance had saved more than one Viking from plummeting out of the skies after falling off their dragon because some strap or belt snapped.

Toothless spun, as I narrowly avoided the dragon’s claws from cutting into my shoulder. I could feel the rush of wind, as the dragon swooped passed us. I heard a whooshing sound, but before Toothless and I could react, a sharp pain shot through my back. The mare had slumped onto Toothless’ back, still having the occasional muscle spasm, but she was showing that she was getting control of her body back through. I was pretty mad that that gryphon had thrown the mare at me like that. Still I did kind of admire that he would attack me like that, even if it put his pegasus friend in danger. 

If I had been more like a traditional Viking, I’d have slit her throat and dump the body into the ocean, but that isn’t the kind of Viking that I was. 

The dragon was diving towards Toothless and I from the front while the gryphon was diving at the same time from the back. I waited until the last moment, before rolling to the side, the belts keeping me secured to the saddle. Both cried out as sharp claws and talons scratched and tore at each other, their wings beating furiously to get each away from the other. 

Not wanting the mare to continue burdening me, I chucked the mare over my head towards the dragon and was surprised when he batted her away from him. Fortunately she had stopped twitching enough to be able to fly under her own power. She, however, started to fly up towards the cloud country above us, leaving her two compatriots and making it easier for Toothless and I. Almost effortlessly, Toothless kept beating his wings furiously and climbing in the air, as the other two also beat their wings to close the gap between them and us. My lips pursed tightly, as I furrowed my brow. Dealing with the dragon and the gryphon would be difficult as it would require getting close.

Groaning, I unsheathed Inferno, waiting for the gryphon to get close enough to me for me to spring my trap attack on him. He closed the gap, as Toothless fired another blue fireball making the other dragon give a rather high-pitched squawk and was forced to dodge the attack. The gryphon’s talons were too close, but I quickly wreathed Inferno in the flames which danced upon its blade, swiping the blade at the gryphon’s wings, seeing the feather’s catching fire. The gryphon dived towards the ocean, taken out of the sky. At least until he could grow replacement feathers. That is, if they can. I’m just glad to have one less foe to deal with.

Toothless and the other dragon used legs and claws to bat at each other, sharp talons raking over their scaly armor. I made a retreating motion with my hand, indicating that Toothless should back up. I released the gas from the hilt of my sword, and when I heard the coughing in the putrid gas cloud, I used the igniting flint in my sword to ignite the explosive gas, I frowned in disappointment as I saw that the other dragon looked like he hadn’t taken any damage from what I thought was a good attack.

Toothless started to fly along the underbelly of the massive cloud, occasionally snapping his tail to gain a burst of speed, as we started to have a rather sizable gap between Toothless and the other dragon. Taking a brief reprieve from dealing with the dragon, I took a split second to shoot a red flare over where the gryphon had landed in the water. Hopefully the medic crews would get to him before he drowned. I could only wonder if I was going to get into trouble for how I handled this issue.

Toothless shot out from the cloud and started climbing. I looked over my shoulder to see the small form of the dragon in the distance. Soon the sun was to our back. Toothless closed his wings, using his tail to maneuver just above the dragon. The dragon didn’t see us, dazzled by the sun in his eyes. However, I heard the mighty roar as Toothless impacted him near the base of his wing joints. I don’t know if they broke or were just badly sprained, as I had wind rushing past my ears, but I didn’t hear any sound of breaking bones.

I hadn’t escaped unscathed either, as one of his claws on his foot went through the dragonscale legging, lacerating my leg in a rather gory triple gash, all parallel. As the dragon fell, I quickly took a belt, and cinched it tightly to keep me from bleeding out before I could get it looked at.

When I was done with my own wound I reached in and fired another medical flare over my current position. “Search, Toothless!” I cried, leaning over slightly to scan the waters for signs of either the dragon, gryphon or both. I didn’t like that they tried to attack me, but I’d feel bad if they died, and I hadn’t done whatever I could to keep them alive. 

I spotted the dragon floundering in the water, I lowered a rope with a loop in it near the end towards the dragon. “Grab on! We’ll get you to land!” Toothless flew the dragon and I towards the shore of the largest piece of land nearby. I saw the gryphon already on the shore, shaking itself of any excess seawater. We got to shore. Toothless landing to rest his wings for awhile, as a couple medic team air balloons drifted our way, a couple of fliers harnessed to the basket, letting them go anywhere they needed to be, rather than drift at the whims of the air.

While the belt helped to slow my blood loss, I still couldn’t stop the bleeding completely, so I for one, was really glad to see a medic team show up. I wanted to keep my promise to Astrid to come back to her in the same condition as I left. She’ll probably tear into me for making her worry like I have, what with not being able to return home immediately after discovering these exotic lands. I truly felt bad for causing her worry, even though the circumstances are out of my control.

I reached into my bag, pulling out flexible metal belt and yelled out, 

“Toothless, Dragon Cradle!” 

As I pointed towards the dragon. Toothless bounded over, tackling the bipedal dragon to the ground, wriggling as the dragon under him struggled to get out from under Toothless’ full body tackle. I held the dragon’s wings down to his side, as I pulled the belt as tight as I could, using a cotter pin to secure the belt in place, in the back. Pulling another belt, also of metal, I leaped upon the back of the gryphon, using my arm to cut off his airway and wait until he was unconscious, before I proceeded to secure the belt around the gryphon’s body and wings, burned though they were.

I pointed towards the unconscious gryphon. “Toothless can you carry the gryphon? I’ll handle the dragon.”

I helped lift the gryphon onto Toothless’ back, while I gripped the belt behind the dragon and started walking with the troublemaker. Toothless walked by my side, eyeing my wounded leg worriedly making a whining sound, laying his ears back on his head.

“Don’t worry too much buddy. I just need to get patched up, but first we need to get these two handed over to the proper authorities,” I tried to reassure Toothless.

Other than the dragon wrenching his body as he fought me every step of the way, until I had enough and knocked him out with the pommel of my sword, before proceeding to carry him on my back, though with his head pointed away from my body, as I didn’t want for him to use his firebreath against me whenever he woke up. I buckled slightly under the weight of the dragon that I was carrying, but considering that I was me, that wasn’t all that surprising. 

This was going to take a very long time if Toothless and I had to carry both of these goons back to the G. E. R. guard headquarters. 

“Let’s take a break, Toothless,” I said as I unceremoniously dumped the dragon onto the ground, Toothless shaking his body, and letting the gryphon slide off of his own body, though he probably didn’t ache as much as I was. I reached into my small pouch and secured one of the blue flares into the ground before twisting the flare like I had been instructed, watching a brilliant blue orb shoot high into the sky, before hovering high over our current location.

I maneuvered behind the knocked out dragon, my sword unsheathed, ready to knock the dragon out if he woke up and tried to breathe fire at me or caused me any trouble. Toothless rested beside the gryphon, keeping his head turned, keeping an eye on the Gryphon should he wake from his unconsciousness. I placed a couple fingers over the dragon’s airway while I scanned the sky for the additional help that was supposed to be coming. I hated waiting and especially when I had two uncooperative captives that I personally had to deal with. Well, I only really had to deal with the one, but it didn’t change that he’d been a particularly uncooperative captive, and I’d be glad to be rid of this troublesome duo.

It was after about an hour when additional reinforcements arrived. A squad of five pegasi touched down. 

“You fired your flare?” the leader of the squadron queried.

“Yeah, The gryphon next to my dragon friend and this here dragon-” I jostled the limp body of my charge.  “-attempted to fight me when they refused to get off of the G. E. R.’s race track. But Toothless, as awesome as he is, can’t fly with three passengers, and walking will take a much longer time to escort these two to have done with them in accordance with the laws of your country. So, if you’d like to pick one or both of them to carry back to HQ then Toothless and I would greatly appreciate it,” I informed the newly arrived ponies.

“Right, Peachy Sweet, Luckette, you two get out the harnesses and start attaching them to the gryphon. I’ll be helping to fly the gryphon, so you’ll need three or four harnesses. Berry Shine and Wing Wishes, you’ll be airlifting the dragon, so you’ll need to get three harnesses out,” the leader, who was a light blue colored pegasus mare with a light green mane commanded.

“I know their names, but what about yours?” I asked the leader.

“My name is Wind Chill,” Wind Chill informed me.

“That’s cool, so you must be a pretty … chill pony to be friend with. I hope you won’t give me the … cold shoulder.” I joked teasingly.

Wind Chill rolled her eyes. “Ha ha,” she deadpanned.

“Wind Chill! Don’t be so cold!” I continued to rib her.

Wind Chill exhaled a loud sigh, “Mister Hiccup, are you done, yet? Your jokes aren’t as funny as you think, and actually kind of hurts my feelings, to be honest.”

“Oh … . Sorry,” I apologized to her.

“I forgive you. I don’t think you’re a bad pony, Hiccup,” she replied.

“I’m not a pony at all.” I replied

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Wind Chill snarked.

“See, there you go! Loosen up, don’t be so uptight. I’m sure you’re lots more fun when you don’t act like you have a stick up your butt,” I cheered.

Wind Chill’s cheeks flushed as she heard the other pegasi snickering at that, she proceeded over to where Peachy Sweet and Luckette were finishing up getting the Gryphon into a harness, and were attaching straps and spring loaded hooks to the gryphon’s harness. 

Peachy Sweet was a light pistachio green colored pegasus mare with a vivid cherry red mane, but several shades lighter than a true cherry red. Luckette, also a pegasus mare, had a light purple-blue coat, but this was much lighter and her mane was a light golden color. Berry Shine was a pale mulberry colored coated pegasus mare with a purple-ish mane that was kind of in the middle on the lightness/darkness scale. Wing Wishes was a powder pink pegasus mare with a purple mane.

“Will you and your dragon be able to get back alright?” Wind Chill asked from over where she was climbing into her harness. There were two harnesses in the front, and one in the rear, and it looked like they were evenly spaced from each other.

“I don’t know. Toothless? Do you feel ready to go back to HQ?”

Toothless roared, flaring his wings and rising slightly off the ground in a brief frontal jump as he shot a blast of plasma into the sky. It was like watching a blueish-white star moving in reverse, instead of impacting the earth like one of the mighty beasts of Ragnarok. 

 “And that’s why you’re best dragon,” I replied as I eased into my saddle, watching as the pegasi flapped their wings hard and fast, as they gradually became airborne.

 Toothless gave a mighty leap, also flapping his wings, as sand was blown in every direction, as Toothless joined the ponies in the sky, his larger wingspan making it immensely easier to get airborne. 

Near the base, as the pegasi were escorting the dragon and gryphon troublemakers to the guard’s jail, a flash of cyan caught the corner of my eye.

“Woah!” I exclaimed, as I waved my hands frantically in front of my face, as the cyan pony with the rainbow mane and tail dashed up in front of my face, looking over me, all of me.

“Hey! You’re the punk that was in that cloud on the racing track weren’t you! Now I’m not going to have as awesome a record as I would have,” she complained bitterly, her brow furrowing and her lips pulled tight in a frown, giving me a glare.

“Hey, it’s not my fault! The race track wasn’t marked, or surrounded by a bunch of winged fliers cheering along the track’s edges. It looked like the rest of the sky,” I retorted, feeling upset at her accusation that our collision had been intentional.

She hummed as if in thought. “So, what weird kind of being are you anyways? I’ve never seen anything like you before.”

Toothless turned around, tackling her onto the ground and licking her face. Rainbow started squirming and headbutted Toothless, who wasn’t phased at all.

“I’m not going to let you eat me, dragon!” she yelled at Toothless.

I chuckled, and scritched Toothless under his chin, and he promptly got off of her and jumped onto me, tackling me to the ground, and slobbering all over my face.

“Augh! Toothless! How many times do I have to tell you, that doesn’t wash out! Now I’m going to smell like you, you big lug!” I cried before engaging him in a little playful wrestling, laughing as I did so. After I ended up ‘losing’ and getting pinned, with Toothless bringing enough of his weight down onto me that I couldn’t wriggle out from underneath him, much to his smug satisfaction, I redirected my attention to the pegasus.

“I’m a Viking, and for your information, Toothless was greeting you, not trying to eat you,” I informed her.

“Weird. Is everyone where you come from as weird looking as you?”

“We come in all shapes and sizes, honestly. I’m hardly the typical example of a human, back where I come from,” I explained.

“Still, how awesome that you managed to tame a dragon!” she exclaimed with her wings unfurled and pointed skyward as she trotted around Toothless, looking him over. “I gotta say, I’ve never seen a dragon like him before.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty rare, even in my own homeland. I hold onto hope that one day we’ll find other dragons like him, so he won’t be alone. That he’ll have friends and maybe a lover of his own. But until then, we have each other, our friends, and my family,” I replied.

“Why are you working for the G. E. R. guards anyways?” the cyan, rainbow maned pegasus inquired.

“My gliding suit got damaged enough to not make it airworthy, so my buddy Toothless and I needed some of the local money in order to buy the things that we need to fix my suit. I’m Hiccup, and this big lug is Toothless.” I pointed towards Toothless, who looked towards the sky, while tilting his head to the right. “Hah, innocent my foot!” I barked a laugh at his charade of him being more angelic than he really was.

“Huh. Name’s Rainbow Dash. How fast can he fly?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I dunno. He’s faster than any dragon I’ve encountered back home, and so far, even faster than the great dragons we’ve encountered. We’ve never really tried to find out how fast he goes, I just know that he’s faster than any dragon that I’ve encountered so far.”

“Really now? I mean, he does look fast … but obviously he couldn’t beat me,” Rainbow bragged while polishing her hoof. 

“Is that a challenge?” I asked before looking to Toothless who also seemed to pick up on Rainbow’s arrogance. “You hear that, Toothless? I think she doesn’t believe how fast we are.”

“Well how about a race then? First one to that cloud? Oh, and I’m not going easy on you,” Rainbow offered, extending her hoof to point to a certain cloud a good ways up there. After a few seconds of pointing she then moved her extended hoof towards me as if asking for me to shake it. 

I grabbed her extended hoof and gave it a shake. “You’re on. Let me hop on Toothless then we’ll count down from three and go on one.”

She simply nodded, still wearing that smug grin of hers as I hopped onto Toothless’ back and began to strap myself in. I double checked the straps before looking over to the rainbow coloured pony. 

“Alright. 3 … 2 … 1!” we said in near unison before taking off.

Without a moment’s hesitation Toothless and I took off, with him pumping his wings as fast as he could while I just held on for the ride. I didn’t bother to look and find Rainbow Dash, instead focusing intently on the cloud that was growing and growing closer by the second. 

“Almost there!” I yelled to Toothless who just seemed to beat his wings harder, and in a blink of an eye we burst through the right side of the cloud, which was surprisingly bigger than what it originally looked like. 

I didn’t say anything at first, but instead instructed Toothless to do a loop and come back around on the cloud. He simply nodded and pulled a nice loop while I awaited the sight of what I assumed a beaten pegasus just making it to the cloud. Instead what I found was her sitting on the cloud clapping her hooves together while still wearing that smug grin.

I groaned in annoyance at this while dragging my hand across my face. “How long have you been there?” 

“Not as long as you think, monkey boy. In fact I’m pretty sure we were close to tying … I still won though.” Of course she did, either way if she did win that meant she was damn fast. 

“So what now?” I asked as Toothless hovered, though I heard a faint rumble coming from under him. “Aside from breakfast, Toothless.”

“While I am the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria, I have to admit that you two are good runners up. Possibly even faster than the Wonderbolts … which gives me an idea. Tell you what, I’ll buy what you need, if you and Toothless help train me, and keep me in top form. I’ll even throw in some bits every time you need them and pay for expenses. What do you say?”

“Train you?” I asked, eyebrow raised in question. How did she expect us to train her when I knew next to nothing about her race let alone her. 

“Oh you know, racing me, making sure I don’t do anything stupid, and all that jazz,” Rainbow said casually at first before she flapped her wings a few times to position herself right in front of Toothless. “Besides, how cool would it be to have a dragon and a … whatever you are again as my trainers! Surely that would get the attention of ponies everywhere, maybe even the Wonderbolts!”

“No doubt! You know what, I think that is probably a better idea than anything else but on one condition.”

“Name it!”

“You need to help me find my way home afterwards,” I offered hopefully.

“Ha, that’s it? I could do that with my eyes close!” she exclaimed proudly at first, “and if by some crazy twist, I can’t, then I know a mare who could definitely help! 

“Then you have a deal. I’ll get what Toothless and I have earned at the Freelance Guild. Do you want to come with, or should I meet you somewhere?” I asked her at first before realizing something. “Wait, don’t you need to stay on the course for the race?”

“Ha! The race hasn’t even started for today. This next portion is a night flight so we’re scheduled to leave later, I was just out flying to stretch wings and keep up my awesomeness. I still have to make sure that my saddlebags have everything that I need, so … . Do you see that building off in the distance?”

“Yeah,” I replied, not knowing why she wanted me to observe the tallest building in town which probably could be seen from much farther away than we were.

“That’s City Hall. I’ll fly over there and meet you there once I’m done with what I need to do. Oh! And just a word of advice, you might want to purchase yourself some flight goggles.”

“Alright. I’ll see you later then, Rainbow Dash.” I watched as Rainbow Dash vanished inside one of the barrack buildings, before turning to my buddy.

“Alrighty, Toothless, I want to let Zephyr know what’s going on. I hope she won’t be too upset.” I removed the plaque with the silhouette of Toothless and the circle and a diagonal slash and underneath the circle was a simple image of a sword. I hung the plaque around Toothless’ neck as a precautionary measure, even though most of the ponies within the guard were fairly relaxed as Toothless really had yet to attack anyone.

So with that in place as a precaution, Toothless and I took off back to the cloud city which luckily wasn’t that long of a flight. In fact it was extremely quick because Toothless was probably eager to get some food. No doubt we could bargain a meal from Zephyr before we left her hire.

I arrived at the barracks where Zephyr had her office in and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I heard Zephyr’s voice respond from the other side of the door.

I entered her office, noticing the pile of paperwork and several scrolls on her desk. Zephyr looked up to me from the cluttered desk.

“Hi, Hiccup. What brings you around?” Zephyr inquired. “I mean I heard about the little fiasco that already happened but it sounded like you guys were still up for patrol.”

“I just wanted to let you know that you’ll want to renew your job posting at the Freelancer guild, if it isn’t still active.”

“What? Why? Has your experience working for us somehow been unsatisfactory? Is it because of the attack on Toothless by one of our own guards?”

I waved my arms frantically in an attempt to dismiss such a notion. “No! No! One of the racers we had run into before we started working here was impressed by Toothless’ speed and wants him and I to go with her as a trainer. I accepted, but I wanted to let you know, so you aren’t unpleasantly surprised when I leave. I wanted to do right by you, since you’ve been so kind to give someone like me a job, when back home you would have been treated with suspicion and fear. Thank you, for letting me work here. Though my time with you has been short, I’ve enjoyed the time we did have together.”

“I see. I can’t say that I’m not disappointed that your tenure with us was so short. Hopefully the Freelancer Guild will have a replacement for me soon. I’ll have to check in with them tomorrow.” She furrowed her brows, and the right side of her swelled as she gave me a sad, crooked smile. “I enjoyed our time together as well, short as it was. Be safe in your journeys. I’m going to miss not having you around, just a little … and only because of your dragon.”

“You take care of yourself as well, Zephyr,” I said as I kneeled down and hugged her goodbye, to which she gave an appreciative hum. “Also, can Toothless have one last meal? Big sap likes the fish here.

“Sure,” she chuckled as we released each other, and I walked to the door, casting one more glance back at Zephyr, seeing her still watching me, her brows still furrowed in a sorrowful look. I waved goodbye to her, and she waved back, before the wooden partition of the door closed behind me and blocking my view of Zephyr.

I went outside and winced as a lance of pain lanced through my leg. Reminding me that I still needed to get my leg properly bandaged. I’m not looking forward to putting whatever they use for alcohol into the wound, but it’s something I’ve seen Old Gotti do, when treating wounded Vikings and while there have been those she couldn’t save, I know that we’d have a lot more graves if it wasn’t for her, well that and my fellow Berkians would see a lot more injured and handicapped Vikings.

I spotted a female pegasus with a pastel sap green coat and a moderate cyan colored mane and she had a tourniquet wrapped around a silhouette of a pony leg, so it was probably safe to say that she was on one of the medical squads. “Excuse me, miss?”

The mare turned to face me before I continued, “Yeah, I was in a tussle earlier and one of the fighters clawed my leg, so I was hoping you’d know where I could go to get it treated.”

“Are you sure you should even be walking?” She inquired, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at me, before tilting her head downward to look at my leg.

“It’s just a bit of a gash. As long as I don’t lose too much blood, I should be fine. Maybe a little weakened, but nothing I couldn’t recover from.”

“That’s not just some wound! Good Celestia above, that must hurt! Don’t move it too much, at least until we get it treated and even then you shouldn’t move that until you’re healed! I’ll go get a wheelchair and take you to Medical so we can have you up and going in no time. Be right back!”

I watched as she flew off. I didn’t even get her name, though to be fair, I hadn’t introduced myself yet. I looked around the grounds until I spotted some mare fawning over Toothless and giving him a belly rub. I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression, as his eyes rolled up and his tongue lolled out and I could even hear happy sounding groans and moans from him. Though I think the nearly empty bucket of fish next to him was more than one reason as to how she got his affection.

I did see a stallion tilting his head, looking at Toothless. I think he was looking at Toothless’ wings as I’d catch the stallion occasionally spreading and moving his own wing in various positions before looking back at Toothless. I just hoped he wouldn’t get wing envy or wing jealousy or whatever it’s called here, and decide to hurt Toothless. I was being a little more cautious, given how one of the guards just attacked Toothless, just because he was a dragon.

As soon as the mare returned with the wheelchair, which looked exactly like the name implied, the whole thing went by in a blur. A blur and a flurry of feathers, fur, and asking questions. Whoever this mare was, she was extremely passionate about her job, almost to the point of it being ridiculous. I remember her wheeling me over to a building that had a large red cross on it before rushing me inside and into a stall of sorts that was only separated by cloth. 

From there she had somehow gotten my pants off, much to my embarrassment, and proceeded to dab something on the wound before bringing a tray had some tools on it. Did I mention that whatever she dabbed ended up feeling as though I was lit on fire by a Monstrous Nightmare? Well it did … luckily I had experienced it before so I didn’t scream too badly. 

Though apparently through the pain, that was my leg being nearly lit on fire, the mare used some sort of thread to shut each slash of the three claw gash shut. I only noticed it once the fire on my leg died down, and was a little bit speechless at how well the mare did her job.

She tried to keep me from not walking on it, offering the wheelchair to me, but I told her that ‘I might not be a normal Viking but I’m still a Viking,’ and then proceeded to limp my way out of the hospital. It wasn’t too bad, even though it was painful and it still felt sore with each step as I made my way back to where I had last seen Toothless. We needed to get going if we were to get everything down that needed to get done. 

That was maybe a quarter of an hour ago, and instead of instantly leaving to do what we needed to do, I have been standing around and watching Toothless roll around in a tussle with a big stallion who apparently needed a wrestling partner. The pony just marched up to Toothless and said he needed to face something that was bigger and tougher than the rest before outright challenging Toothless. So far the pony was able to keep up with him, though I can tell that my good buddy is going easy on him. 

If Toothless really wanted to defeat the stallion in quick work, he would simply - whumpff - lay on him. I merely chuckled as the stallion was laid flat against the ground, on his right side as Toothless’ heavy upper body pinned him. No matter what he tried to do, Toothless just held him there with a small smirk plastered on his face. It seems Toothless finally got bored. 

“Let him go, bud. We need to get going ourselves,” I said as I limped over to my Nightfury who promptly lifted himself up and moved to close the gap. At first I was expecting a tackle but Toothless instead moved to my left side and began to gently poke me, with as claw, near my gash. I forgot for a few moments that the gash had torn right through my suit thus allowing the patched up gash to be put on display. 

Dad would be proud. 

“Don’t worry, boy, it’s just a flesh wound,” I said wrapping an arm around Toothless. “Besides, you’ve done worse to me in the past.”

That earned a loud exhale as he bumped me a little. Even to this day, I continue to bug him about that one incident. Only with mild jokes, though. The big lug is tough but he does have a soft spot for me and I wouldn’t want to take advantage of that. 

With Toothless finally gathered up, we saddled up for the small flight to and through the town. I didn’t bother hooking in since it would only take us a few moments to actually fly our way to a relatively clear away. Said area was a small park that was rather empty for mid day so it was an obvious choice to touch down in. I expected a small commotion over a dragon and a viking landing in the middle of a park but instead we received silence as it was empty.

In fact there wasn’t a soul in sight aside from the mere glimpses I saw of ponies walking past the streets leading to the park. So devoid was the park that it didn’t even feel like apart of the city. Honestly, the silence was a little unnerving so without any hesitation I bound Toothless’ tail again, much to his annoyance, and proceeded to lead him into the city. 

I have to say, I didn’t really enjoy the crowded streets that I encountered when we first arrived, and after returning to them I could say that I didn’t miss them at all. Luckily though I spotted a few stalls that seemed oddly familiar, mainly a flower stall that had the same yellow furred and red maned mare working it. How did I remember her? I couldn’t honestly say for myself but when I spotted the mare I felt a feeling as though I had seen them before. Hmm, we don’t have a name for a such a feeling on Berk, perhaps I could name it Hiccup Sense or something like that. 

Either way, it helped invaluably since just a few buildings away from the mare was the Freelancer’s Guild, the sign made it obvious this time. I patted Toothless on the back before hanging that sign on him once more. It was probably going to be a normal part of our carried gear. The usefulness was endless in my eyes, despite the small amount of humiliation that it brought to Toothless. Either way, I had him sit patiently out front while I moved to the front door of the guild. 

A small feeling of guilt welled up inside of me, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for taking the job only to leave it within the first day. What could I do though? Rainbow’s offer was much more worthwhile since she would not only pay me but pay for expenses. That just made me question how wealthy this multi-colored pegasus was, but that was a question for when she was around. The here and now was all about dealing with the Guild contract. 

I pushed the door open slightly, before hearing a light jingle of a bell. It surprised me a little because I don’t remember there being one before. Perhaps it was there before but for whatever reason I couldn’t remember hearing it. Either way, the bell alerted the front desk mare to my attention and lo and behold it was the same mare as last time. Even better was she recognised me … great, this was going to be awkward. 

“Oh, Hiccup! It’s good to see you!” The purple mare called out.

“Heh, yeah … good to see you too,” I replied to which she smiled. I never got her name! This was just getting worse and worse.

“I didn’t expect you to be back so soon, and I don’t think your contracted job is up if I remember correctly. I’m pretty sure you still have a few more days worth of work under the contract … “ she said as she tapped a hoof against her chin. 

“Yeah about that,” I said as I rubbed the back of my neck, “I’m actually here to cancel my job.”

“Cancel!?” She gasped, “What happened? Was there and issue? Perhaps abuse and mistreatment of your dragon friend?”

“No, no, no, nothing like that,” I said frantically while waving my hands hoping to stop her from writing something down that could hurt Zephyr. “It’s just, I’ve been offered to help train a racer. They offered something that the contract couldn’t …”

“Is that so?” she asked with a perked brow. “I might not be Master Portsmouth but I bet I could tell you if the guild can counter the offer. So what did this racer offer?”

“Help getting home.”

“Oh ... “ she said, not even showing a sign of contemplating countering the offer. Instead she was a little confused, but that was expected. “Wait, you don’t know how to get home?” 

“No,” I said before sighing, “you see I came from across this mountain range to the west but I couldn’t find a way to traverse it and return home.”

“You came from The Echo?!” She nearly yelled, eyes wide. “That’s incredible! No one has ever crossed those mountains before!”

“Great …” I replied. I felt like I had just gotten kicked in the stomach by a dragon nonetheless. 

“Oh I … I didn’t …” she proceeded to stumble on her words before getting up from her desk. “Stay right here, Hiccup.”

With that she proceeded to leave the lobby and walk towards the back of the hall, leaving me standing in front of the desk. Standing in front of the desk, hung up on a single thing the mare said. Not a single person had ever crossed the mountains … what have I gotten myself into? The fact that this mare knew about the mountains meant that most likely many attempts were made. Would I even be able to get back to Berk or would I be forced to live my life out in a world that was not my own? 

I loosely walked over to a chair and flopped down on it. My energy was sapped as the gravity of what she had told me weighed on my mind. The only time I’ve ever felt worse was when Dad died. What was I going to do? Would Rainbow be able to hold up her end of the employment? I wouldn’t get mad at her if she wasn’t able to, for it was probably something less than futile. 

No! That wasn’t how a Haddock thinks, let alone a Viking! I stomped my foot in frustration for letting myself even think those things. I will get home; I will see Astrid and Mom again. I swear on my honour as a Viking that as long as I breath I will try to find my way home. 

“Hiccup?” a voice called out, causing me to nearly jump out of my seat. I was so busy thinking that I didn’t recognise the reindeer and pony enter the room.

“Master Portsmouth? I didn’t realise … ”

“Berry Cherry!”

“Yeah, I didn’t realise Berry Cherry had went to get you,” I said, shuffling a little bit nervously. 

“Indeed, and she informed me of what happened and as to your present situation,” She spoke with a small frown splaying across her face. “While I am displeased to learn that you opting out of your contract, I can see as to why. Normally we don’t bend the rules except in special cases so I need you to do something for me.”

“And that is?” I asked.

“Hold this,” she said before using her hoof to hand me a small, nearly see through, crystal. I picked it out of her hoof before examining it. I was about to ask her what it does but she cut me off. 

“I would like you to tell me where you are from and how you got here. You don’t need to tell me every detail,” she said, while eyeing the crystal. 

“Okay …” I said slowly while looking at her. She probably just wanted to hear the story for herself. “Well my home is Berk, a beautiful place where Vikings and dragons live in perfect harmony. At least as harmonious as living with dragons get. From what I can tell is that Berk is across these mountains that Berry Cherry called The Echo, and as to how we got here, well we flew over the mountains. Toothless and I found something odd and decided to check it out, next thing you know we are over here having this conversation.”

“Thank you, Hiccup,” Master Portsmouth said. “Can I have the crystal back?”

“Oh, sure,” I replied, handing the crystal over. “By the way, what was that for?”

“Don’t worry about it, Hiccup,” she said while smiling serenely. “Now, I have work to do with regards to your contract and filling the spot. I’m sorry to see you leave but it is probably for the best. I wish you luck on finding your way home. Berry Cherry will give you your payment and a little bonus on behalf of the guild; think of it as a gift. Goodbye, and good luck Hiccup.”

She turned and left before I could even reply to what she had said. I was a little shocked at what had just happened, as it defied most social convention that I had been taught … let alone any sensible reason. To just leave like that? 

“Don’t be sorry, Hiccup,” Berry Cherry said, “Master Portsmouth doesn’t like to take too long chatting.”

“I can see that,” I replied before chuckling a little bit. 

“Come, let’s get you some bits,” she said before heading back to her desk. 

For the next few minutes I waited patiently while Berry Cherry sorted through some papers while writing down stuff at times. I didn’t say a word during that time for fear that I would mess her up in some way. In the end it proved to be fortuitous as the moment she was done with the paperwork, she plopped a small sack on the top of the desk. 

“Here is you payment and a little extra, Hiccup,” she said with a large smile. 

“Thank you very much, Berry Cherry” I said while picking up the pouch. “I take it these are ‘bits’?”

“Indeed! Your payment for the single day was one hundred bits since the grand total that you would make was four hundred over a four day period. Now the bonus that Master Portsmouth allowed was another hundred on top of that, as well as a small ticket that you can turn over to any Freelance Guild to ensure you get the veteran bonus,” she explained. 

“Really? All of that?”

“Mhm! Master Portsmouth might act rather stiff but she doesn’t like seeing others in trouble, now shoo! Go find your way home!” she said as she mocked shooing me out.

I simply chuckled as I moved to the door, holding it slightly open as I looked back. “Thanks Berry Cherry and give my thanks to Master Portsmouth for me.”

“I will,” she called back while waving her hoof.

The door softly closed behind me, as I re-entered the bustling city. I looked over to Toothless who immediately perked up at my exit. Somehow he had gotten a hold of a fish which was still partially sticking out of his mouth. After seeing those two mares back at the camp grounds, I figured I shouldn’t ask. Apparently ponies either found dragons fearsome … or in Toothless’ case, adorable. 

I moved over to the big lug and removed the sign from around his neck, which he was more than happy to have happen. Though I think he also thought I was going to unbound his tail but I just shook my head. Of course he pouted at that response but he should know by know that it hardly works on me anymore. Years of having to suffer from such a thing had built up a fortitude at his attempts to sway me from my decision. 

“Well, bud, it seems all we have to do is meet that Rainbow pegasus,” I said as I stowed the bag of bits inside one of the satchels on Toothless’ right side. For a moment I realised something before I proceeded to pack it down at the bottom and in an nearly immovable position. She had promised to pay for the material I needed, so it wouldn’t hurt to just store the bits. Besides, they probably wouldn’t be enough to pay for the materials. 

“Alright, let’s get moving. It might be midday but who knows what could happen next.” 

> Chapter 6: Dash Deals With A Dangerous Dump
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	He was running late, that slowpoke. It was kind of expected. Well, I mean, I did fly off pretty quickly. It sure didn’t take me long to grab up my bit bag from my room, so it only made sense that I would beat him to City Hall. So while I was waiting for the ‘human’ - as he called his own kind - a few ponies, as well as a gryphon, asked why I was waiting out front of the building. Some ventured to ask as to why I was on a cloud so close the ground. I simply told them I was waiting on a slowpoke who couldn’t keep up with me. Besides, I needed to keep up the image which I had made.

Twilight had asked me, maybe a week ago, why I kept boasting even after everything that had happened to me over the past two years. I lied at first about keeping up appearances for others and I didn’t want them to see me being soft. Now, that wasn’t a total lie, but she still stared at me with that disappointed frown she usually had when anypony was just being stupid. Eventually, I just told her the truth.

If I ever wanted to be the best of the best, I needed to have an air of arrogance and awesomeness around me at all times. Athletes of the highest calibre tend to hold this same mindset and that’s what helps them push themselves to be better than the rest. My dad had taught me when I was younger that if I was going to succeed in being a Wonderbolt, I needed to think like a winner. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t teach me not to be a flankhole, but with him being a trainer for Cloudsdale’s hoofball team, he knew the mindset of athletes.

I felt a little bit of relief to finally tell Twilight why I was always so boastful and filled with pride … and she accepted me for it, though that was not to say she didn’t give me a quick scolding for going over the top and not being open enough with my friends. I guess I let the athlete mindset consume me long ago, and only after some choice incidents, which I still try to forget, I had learned to stop acting out that same mentality when I wasn’t participating in some sort of sport.

Yet here I was, being boastful and being prideful towards anypony that asked me a simple question. Dear Celestia, I need help.

I buried my head under a fluff of cloud that I pulled out with my hooves. Argh, too much thinking makes my head hurt. I can’t get cold hooves, especially not here. I’m too far into this race to start questioning myself. Though I guess I could possibly act less like a jerk to Hiccup, not that I had!

Yeah; I definitely hadn’t acted like a jerk. Besides, how could he pass up the chance to work for the fastest pony in Equestria!

At the thought of that, a large grin spread across my face before my hoof instantly slapped the side of my muzzle. Yeah, I definitely needed to work on this boastful thing. 

Dong … Dong … Dong

Three already? Wait … did they even use clocks to signal time here? I mean I tried to listen to the innkeeper at my inn talk about how they measured time but it was far too weird. It was so much simpler to just count it like any sane pony in Equestria did. Whatever.

Either way, from where the sun was I guess it was near three or four in the afternoon. Geez was this human slow … I swear, if his dragon could talk I would have just taken him instead. I just hope he can actually help me out, even a pro flyer like me needs some tips here and then. 

“You know, I’ve seen this a few times now, and it still boggles me how someone can just stand on a cloud without falling through,” a voice behind me said, startling me from my thoughts. 

Well, startling wasn’t the right word. Actually, it was more like me falling through the cloud on my face, rather than getting startled.

“Ow,” I mumbled to the dirt that was currently in my face. No matter how much one got used to crashing into things, face-planting always hurt. 

“Woah, are you okay? Boy, I know how you feel. Toothless here has thrown me into the ground more times than I can count,” Hiccup said from above me.

“I’m fine, just a scratch,” I simply groaned as I picked myself up from the dirt beneath me. Honestly it didn’t hurt, but it had caught me completely off guard. I mean, after waiting nearly an hour for him to be finished, I had pretty low hopes of him actually coming out to meet up with me. As I began dusting myself off, Hiccup spoke up again.

“Hope we didn’t make you wait long, I had to take care of a few things that lasted longer than we wanted …” he said while eyeing his dragon. “Anyway … how long have we kept you waiting?”

“Oh, not too long. I decided to keep it slow so you two could keep up,” I said while shooting them both a cocky a grin. Hiccup just chuckled while it seemed that his dragon was … staring at a butterfly that flew by? Weird.

“Right,” Hiccup said while looking around. I followed his gaze and it seemed we were drawing a crowd. Not that I didn’t mind, but it wasn’t really the best place to talk about business.

“It seems my awesomeness is drawing a crowd,” I said coolly but I could tell that more ponies were looking at Hiccup’s dragon than me. “How about we fly around a little? I’ve had enough down time and need to stretch my wings out.”

“I think Toothless would enjoy that but I still need that material to fix my gliding suit and we’re a little too big to fly through the streets,” Hiccup replied while gesturing at Toothless. Right… new plan!

“Geez, it’s like you've never seen a dragon before!” I yelled out to the crowd, getting their attention. “I mean look! There’s one over there, go bug them!”

Luckily for me, the crowd seemed to get the point I was making. Seriously, it’s cool that they’re interested in Hiccup’s dragon and all, but treating him like some circus sideshow freak is just stupid. “So, do you know where to go to get what you need? I could take you to some of the G. E. R. suppliers. They might have what you’re looking for.”

I watched as Hiccup shook his head. “You see, I met up with this strange gryphon merchant who agreed to sell me some fabric once I had earned enough money. He told me to go to the Glorious Plumage. If he’s not there, then I’m supposed to leave a message of a date and time that I’d want to meet up with him.”

“Well, do you have a map, or do you know the way?” I asked him, hoping that he would in fact know, since I’d never been here before and didn’t know where a lot of places within the city were located.

I watched with irritation as he rubbed the back of his head in a gesture of embarrassment. I hung my head and groaned, my flared wings twitching slightly. “Ugh! Do you know how long it’s gonna take us to locate someone that can take us to this place where this gryphon is located?”

“Only as long as it takes to find a city guard.”

I sighed, prepared to be extremely bored especially since Toothless was effectively grounded within the city limits. If I didn’t have the pressure of performing well in this race, I’d have probably enjoyed the city’s different population and cultures a lot more. It’d be just like Daring Do and the Serpentine Sceptre, where she enters a city with all kinds of ponies and all kinds of cultures! From the thin tall ponies with their aromatic gums and resins from Saddle Arabia, to the slender delicate does with kimonos and hair picks while bucks dressed in business suits and drove nice carriages of Neighpon, to the spiritual zebras of Zebrica, with the mares wearing those huge hoop earrings and all those neck rings, while the male zebras would sit out in the countryside and speak in reverent tones of their lores and legends.

One day, I will travel the world, maybe even as a Wonderbolt! How cool would that be! To perform death defying dives and acrobatic acts of awesomeness for creatures of all kinds all over the world! For Buffalo, Zebra, Gryphon and more! Old, young, the single and the couples and for families also!

        Yep; any day now, I’ll be getting that letter of acceptance into the Wonderbolts. Meanwhile I get to waste my valuable nap time to look for some gryphon whose name I don’t even know, and whom I probably never would have even met if it weren’t for Hiccup and Toothless.

        I wish I could say that our journey began as any epic journey, with intrepid heroes setting out to battle against a great evil, or that a band of unlikely friends had set out on a quest to do what needed to be done for the sake of one of their friends. Or even that it would begin like a Daring Do novel with Daring finding some important or powerful lost artefact and then having to perform amazing fight scenes and acts of acrobatic awesomeness in order to retrieve the artefact from the bad guys.

        But no, we wandered through the streets, bumping into those who lived in the city and those who were just passing through, or even just visiting, either as tourists, or visiting someone they knew that lived within this city. I don’t know how long it must have been, but it was probably about an hour before we encountered one of the city guards. But what really set him apart was that he was an Ibex!

        I had heard of Ibexes from Zecora mentioning them on occasion, whenever she would talk about her home in Zebrica, but it was one thing to hear about them and a whole different matter entirely to see them!

I took notice of all this, since in Daring Do and the Mask of Terror, Daring encounters an Ibex during her totally awesome adventure. I heard Hiccup clear his throat, not that he needed to, because the Guard was already looking warily at Hiccup and Toothless.

“May I help you?” the Ibex, who was decked out in the armor of the city guard armor. 

“My companions and I need to make our way to the Glorious Plumage. But as you probably can tell, Toothless and I aren’t exactly from around here, and my friend Rainbow Dash here isn’t familiar with the town either. Can you help us out?” Hiccup inquired.

“Sure! Follow me. I’ve gotta admit, I’ve never seen a dragon like yours before. I’ve also never seen anything like you before either. Are you a new species of minotaur?” the guard asked, looking Hiccup up and down.

“We might be, are they the headstrong type and would rather bash through a problem than actually think of a solution that doesn’t involve breaking things?” I heard Hiccup chuckle after he responded.

“Eh, they’re a mixed lot. I’ve actually run into some really intelligent minotaurs, but I have run across some like you’ve described,” the guard responded.

Not wanting to be left out of the conversation, I butted in: “Name’s Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in Equestria, maybe even the world, since I could fly circles around these slowpokes in the G. E. R. all day. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”

“Head Bang. I’ve heard about the Young Flyers competition and how you performed a Sonic Rainboom. I really wish I’d have been there. That must have been quite a sight to see,” Head Bang gushed, while I puffed my chest out a little more and ruffled my awesomely cool wings. I definitely wouldn’t be the pony I am today without these sweet babies.

“Hiccup, and the big lug next to me is Toothless. And to answer your question, I’m not a minotaur of any kind. I’m a Viking.”

“Huh. Never met a Viking before. Never met a dragon like Toothless either,” Head Bang mused, peering at Toothless.

“Yeah, you might say that we’re out of this world,” Hiccup responded with a brief chuckle afterwards.

I groaned, facehoofing at what Hiccup had said. He’s just lucky that there’s enough different species that he probably wouldn’t end up being used for alien experiments. It might be entertaining to watch him should he end up getting probed, though.

Fortunately all this small talk had a beneficial side to it, as it seemed like it took very little time at all to arrive at The Glorious Plumage. 

“Well, here you folks are. It’s been nice chatting with you, Hiccup. You folks take care and be safe, wherever you may go,” Head Bang said, before departing down the street, going along the same street we had traveled, likely to return to his patrol route.

Looking at the building before us, it may have lived up to its name when it was brand new, but now? I saw cracked marble, with vines of ivy climbing up walls and pillars, the unkempt looking lawn with various garbage and debris, and the pool filled with a dirty looking liquid. A shame really, this place must’ve really looked glorious in its heyday.

Hiccup led the way, his arms and weird-looking claws curling around the handles of the large wooden doors of the so called ‘Glorious Plumage.’ The door grated and creaked horribly over the marble flooring. Any conversation died as Toothless sauntered into the lobby as well. I could almost feel the stares that seemed to follow our strange group of Viking, his dragon friend, and a pegasus heading towards the reception desk.

Well, the stares were really more focused on Hiccup and Toothless, since they had probably not seen anything like them ever. I mean, there could be more of them, especially if he wants me to help him get home. Still, I was skeptical; I mean I had been all over the world and seen practically everything, so I would know if there was a dragon like Toothless. He couldn’t even talk, like what type of dragon was he even if he couldn’t talk, sheesh. Maybe he’s some new dragon! Heh, I can just imagine Twilight’s face when I walk into the Tree Fortress of Friendship with them in tow! 

I kept my imagination at bay as we proceeded to the front desk. An Earth dryad, with the body of an elk stallion, manned the reception desk.

“‘Elcome, strangers, ta th’ Glorious Plumage. ‘ow might I be o’ service?” the receptionist asked us.

“Yes, Is a gryphon named DuPont here? I was told he would be staying here, and I need to speak with him.” I looked about the room as Hiccup asked the receptionist. Don’t tell anypony, but I was uneasy, looking at the rough looking customers that lounged about the lobby. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I couldn’t help but think that some of them had been giving us strange looks. They certainly looked like they’d seen fights, many of them sporting scars on their faces and bodies, not to mention they looked like the rough type that would find creative ways to torture their victims. Plus, I could smell their stench from way over where I was. Eugh. I’m glad pony eyes have a fairly large range of vision.

Toothless, however, didn’t look too concerned, but I imagine that there’d be very few creatures with either the bravery, or desperation to attempt to harm a dragon, especially since many of them tended to have tough armor-like scales and could breathe fire. Still, I could see Toothless scanning the room as well.

“And does ‘e know yer comin’?” the receptionist inquired.

“Not exactly, but he did say to come here and either meet up with him here, or leave a message for him of when and where we’d like to meet him. If he is here, just tell him that ‘a strange creature and his dragon friend has returned to buy some of his wares.’” Hiccup responded.

I watched as the receptionist left the lobby, hopefully to inform this gryphon merchant that Hiccup had agreed to purchase from. Hiccup leaned against the receptionist desk, while Toothless’ ear fins, I’m guessing, swivelled and raised or lowered as he peered about the lobby, and gave an impressively massive yawn. I didn’t see any teeth, which honestly surprised me, since I had yet to meet a dragon without teeth. It certainly made him appear less menacing. 

“I wonder what he eats,” I mused softly to myself.

We all turned and watched as the receptionist returned to the front desk. “Mister DuPont ‘as agreed ta see ye.”

I watched as the Earth dryad motioned for Hiccup to draw closer, rotating his hoof in a vertical circular motion. Hiccup bent over and then the receptionist must have said something, as I could see his muzzle moving, but it wasn’t loud enough for any of us to hear. I watched as Hiccup nodded in understanding.

I followed Hiccup, since he seemed to know where we needed to go. Toothless followed behind me, as I gave the occasional backward glance to ensure that we weren’t being followed.

I watched as Hiccup knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” a voice called from the other side.

“It’s the strange creature and his strange dragon with a very strange pony.” I heard Hiccup say.

“Hey!” I cried in indignation, glaring at the rude Viking.

I could hear the raucous laughter from the other side of the door, before the sound of a metallic bolt being slid back was heard as the door opened to reveal a scruffy looking gryphon. His fur and feathers looked slightly dirty and unkempt, but it was the scars that framed his eye in a triangle that was the most visually outstanding thing about him, that and the milky appearance of that eye, which likely meant that he was blind in that eye.

“Ho, fletchling! Returned so soon are you?” I heard the gryphon say.

“Yes. Toothless and I got some luck, enough so that I have the bits I need to purchase that Teflon fabric you showed me last time,” Hiccup replied.

“How much are you looking to buy? The six bits worth, or are you be buying more than that?” I heard DuPont inquire as I watched as he rummaged in a sizable travel chest, before extracting a bolt of fabric, turning about as he laid it upon the floor and letting the bolt of fabric roll away a short distance.

“I’d like to buy 24 bits worth, please.” I heard Hiccup say.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the astonished look on the gryphon’s face.  Though I watched with interest as the gryphon measured out the amount of fabric that Hiccup wanted to purchase. I watched as he used his index talon to score a cut along the width of the fabric, before folding the fabric up and handing it over to Hiccup.

“24 bits it is then,” Dupont informed, as he watched Hiccup fish out 24 bits, dropping them into the gryphon’s outstretched talon. Dupont counted the bits, before using a piece of parchment and an inkwell at the desk in his room and drew up a bill of sale.

“Here you go, Fletchling! A pleasure doing business with you. May the skies protect you wherever you go, so long as you show her the proper respect, eh?” DuPont grinned, lightly nudging Hiccup’s shoulder.

“Of course, Mister DuPont. May fortune and protection be upon you. Take care of yourself.” I heard Hiccup respond.

“You as well, fletchling. You as well.” I heard DuPont respond, before closing the door behind us and engaging the bolt to the door once more.

I watched as Hiccup took the fabric and began to pack it into his rucksack.

“Why did you by so much of that fabric?” I asked him.

“Because I want to be ready in case I have to repair my gliding suit, again. When we collided, one of the gliding parts of my suit was damaged, otherwise I could have glided down from the accident, instead of falling,” Hiccup replied.

“Oh. Sorry.” I scuffed my hoof in embarrassment.

“It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Well, maybe the G. E. R.’s for not being properly staffed for the entire race. That and maybe for not having the track marked properly, but I probably wouldn’t have known what purpose they served even if they had, because you know … not from around here,” Hiccup mused aloud.

“I’m just glad you came out of it alive,” I grinned sheepishly at him. “And I’m glad that Toothless managed to save you and not eat you, like I thought he’d do at first.”

“So yeah, it was just a series of unfortunate events. But, we might have never met, if it hadn’t happened,” Hiccup responded.

I laughed as Toothless turned his head and made kissy faces at Hiccup. It was even more amusing as I watched Hiccup’s face flush, before turning his attention to his dragon buddy.

“It’s not like that!” Hiccup protested.

I watched in amazement as I saw Toothless give Hiccup a toothy grin. Seriously, where’d he get those?
“Ugh! You’re full of it,” I heard Hiccup say in exasperation as he proceeded to mount Toothless, turning his attention forward as we flew back to the barracks for the racers participating in the G. E. R.


{C     T     D} *      *      * {C     T     D}


I watched in fascination as Hiccup cut the ruined part of his gliding suit out and cut a new one, his nimble stubby claws nimbly sewing the new fabric in. I continued to watch as his strange appendages pressed against the fabric, I guess to make sure that the fabric would remain secure and that it wouldn’t give under pressure.

He needed a place to do his work so it only made sense to return to the G.E.R designated area, well the one we fliers get. He said he wanted to stay away from the barracks because Toothless was too dangerous, or something like that. Honestly? It made no sense to me but that wasn’t what was important. What was, was napping … I mean there was only like four hours till the race and I hadn’t even had my mid-afternoon nap!

Well, I could start napping while he was doing his thing, but I’m actually a little interested in this ‘gliding suit’ of his. I’ll nap once he’s finished.

“Right, I need some heat, Toothless,” Hiccup said before opening his arm to reveal the gliding suit once more. Toothless nodded before taking in a breath.

Quicker than anypony could see, ‘cause my eyes were obviously top notch, a burst of weird purple stuff shot out from the dragon’s mouth and hit the wing suit. I don’t know what he did, but whatever it was, the spot where the purple stuff had hit looked slightly darker but also melded with the rest of the suit. I couldn’t even see the stitches!

“What was that? That was awesome!” I said as I zipped over to Hiccup, who still had his arm up. I carefully prodded the wing a few times, only to feel that weird fabric he bought.

“You know … come to think of it, we never named that did we, Toothless?” Hiccup asked, to which Toothless gave a small roar in reply.

“Wait, you can talk to him?”

“It’s really one sided,” Hiccup said. “He can understand me, but I need to watch his actions more … anyway! Let’s take this for a test.” 

Before I could get out a response, Hiccup quickly hopped on Toothless’ back, causing me to notice that his legs didn’t end the same, with one having this weird contraption at the end; huh. In the brief moment that it took for me to wonder about Hiccup’s leg, Toothless was already launching himself in the air. The force blew my mane a little bit, but mainly it snapped me out of my thoughts. 

“Hey! Wait for me!” I yelled, probably for the first time ever and flew to catch up.

We slowly climbed, making use of the up-drafts to climb higher and higher until Hiccup began to unhook the straps securing him to the saddle. I watched as he did something to some pedal before rolling off of Toothless and opening his arms wide.

I watched as he didn’t fall like he did when we first met, but instead glided. He wasn’t going anywhere like my top speed, but he was a ground-pounder, so it only made sense that he couldn’t fly as fast as me. Still, I have to admit, that it is pretty awesome that an earth-bound creature like Hiccup could even come up with something that would allow him to soar the skies, even if it wasn’t truly flying.

I watched as Toothless’ mouth glowed. Yikes! Was he going to breathe fire at his friend!?

“Hiccup-!” I began to panic, but it was already too late, and I watched as a blue fireball shot beneath Hiccup. To my relief, I watched as Hiccup climbed back to the height he had started at. It was pretty awesome, as Hiccup and Toothless could fly the skies together as long as Toothless could shoot those fireballs.

“Sorry if we scared you. We usually don’t do that around others, so we didn’t think that you might have seen that as an attack,” I heard him yell at me over the rushing sounds of the wind.

“What? I- I wasn’t scared.” I denied.

“Suuuuure,” he drawled out sounding entirely like he didn’t believe me.

“I wasn’t scared!” I hotly defended, feeling my cheeks warm up in embarrassment.

“Hiccup-!” he mocked, changing his voice to sound more mare-like, grinning at me as he teased me.

“Ugh!” I huffed, flapping my wings faster and leaving the two a little ways behind me as the duo shared a short laugh. I couldn’t hear them, even though I could see Hiccup and Toothless flying behind me.

If anything I felt embarrassed for even worrying in the first place. Why’d I think that Toothless might hurt Hiccup? I mean, they were pretty much best friends. It really reminded me of my bond with Tank. Though Toothless wasn’t a pet, but more like a friend and partner, with Hiccup helping or just paling around with him.

I fell back, flying near Hiccup.

“Sorry if I took it too far,” I heard him apologize.

“Agh! I don’t know why I even worried. Now you’ll probably keep teasing me about it,” I huffed, looking away from him, still feeling embarrassed.

“Not if it really bothers you. Hey, I need you as my friend... Plus, I don’t know who I could turn to who might help me find my way home,” he said.

“Gah! It’s more embarrassing than anything else really. I mean, I have this image I built up of being a cool, awesome, and radical pony, and now you’ve seen through it. It’s fine. But don’t think that I won’t get you back, though!” I grinned at the prospect of getting even, and as long as he was with me, I would have more than one chance for that to happen.

“Heh. Where I live, we’re cool for about a quarter of the year. The rest, we’re absolutely freezing. I do think you’re pretty awesome, especially with how fast I saw you flying when we first met. Though I think we have some different … word there. Would you mind explaining?” I heard him ask.

“You should probably ask Twilight when we see her. I don’t think I could really explain it really well, but an egghead like her should have no problem talking your ear off about what actually is radical. On the other hoof, her long-windedness is anything but radical,” I joked, thinking of just how crazy it would be to just sic Twilight on Hiccup … maybe that’s how I can get him back!

“I take it that’s a friend of yours?” I heard him ask.

“Yeah, me and Sparkle are tight. She’s the one who got me started on the Daring Do books. They’re seriously awesome, you should read them sometime,” I said, grinning at him.

“Maybe I’ll take a copy back to Berk. It sounds like an interesting series,” Hiccup pondered before deciding that he was done flying. Together we slowly made our way back to the ground, almost exactly to where we had taken off. On the way down I peered at the sun which was slowly making its way behind the horizon, which meant I would need to be ready to go.

The beginning of this stretch of the race was a short sprint up to the city of Cumulus which sat on the edge of Vaporia, where the racers would follow a rather quick route through the city before heading off Ursland. Yeah I remembered that country name rather well, only because I wanted to meet an Ursa, well aside from that feral star one from the Everfree. These guys were supposedly different, and I couldn’t wait to see them. 

When we touched down, Hiccup proceeded to look over the suit once more before deciding to stuff the rest of the material and tools into one of the bags that was attached to Toothless. I just remembered that I had to make sure he knew exactly what to do for this next part or this was going to end horribly, and I was lucky enough to be carrying everything that had been given to me at the beginning of the race. Especially the trainer’s identification flag even though I didn’t need it earlier.

“Oh, by the way. As my trainer now, you need to know a few rules that G.E.R has in place. First, attach this to some part of you,” I said as I dug out the flag that he needed. Coincidently, the race officials thought it was funny to give me a rainbow coloured flag … I let them chuckle it up while I slowly died inside. 

He nodded before taking the surprisingly large flag and tying it to Toothless’s tail. Said dragon then began to swish it back and forth, apparently not used to having something flapping like that. Meh, I dunno since he can’t talk. “Next thing is you can’t interfere with the race outside of helping me with basic stuff, like giving me water, or a snack, or first aid. Though I think that’s all common sense.”

        “Kind of makes me wish I had packed more things … “ he said, implying something I quickly picked up on.

“Don’t worry about it too much, I’ve gotten myself this far I don’t think you’ll have to do much. Oh and lastly, though it isn’t a rule as much as something I need you to do for me,” I said before hopping into a hover in front of him. “I need you to challenge me! Push me to go faster and finish quicker! I don’t care how, but I need you to motivate me… without cheating.” 

He simply chuckled at that before giving a quick ‘okay’ at my set guideline. Well, that was really all I had left for him though I gue-

“All racers report to the starting area!” A voice called out from somewhere, causing me to snap my head around quickly. Geeze, even after five days of having to hear that, I still wasn’t ready for the call out. Though it couldn’t match Princess Luna’s Royal Canterlot voice … nothing could match Princess Luna.

“Alright, that’s my cue. We’re going up to Cumulus that is on the edge of Vaporia up there,” I said while pointing to the massive cloud. “Meet me kind of … well kind of straight up from here. You’ll see me, kind of tough not to miss my awesomeness.”

“Will do,” he chuckled before slowly mounting Toothless. “Hope you know what you’re doing, ‘cause me and Toothless here don’t want to be saving you too often.” 

I merely laughed as I flew off to the starting area. This was going to be a piece of cake, I mean, I have a dragon and a Viking to help me, who else could top that awesomeness. Oh, and since I was among one of the first to start tonight, this next stretch was definitely in the bag!
	
> Chapter 7: Ursine Umbrage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: Ursine Umbrage

Being a Viking is great, and even with some of the … uhh … less than great moments, it is still a great thing to be. That is exactly the same as being a Dragon Rider. There are always those moments of splendor that highlight your day and make you want to re-tell them to everyone back in the village. Then there are the moments when you just hope that not a single soul saw your embarrassing or incriminating moment and wouldn’t bring it up in front of the entire village. The latter happened far less often than the former, and generally most moments were just your typical everyday things. 

Flying around, scouting, seeing the scenery, and bonding with your dragon. That would be a typical day for a Dragon Rider. Nothing special unless something came up, and even then it was rare.

Right now, as Toothless flew and I just laid back in my seat, it was a rather dull moment that also happened during a typical day. Don’t get me wrong, flying was great and I love doing it, but sometimes, I wish that I could actually be doing more than just straddling Toothless’ back while we fly. 

Toothless, of course, was having fun, but when he wasn’t he usually tried to do something to distract himself from remembering a lot of those moments. He and Rainbow Dash had been flying at tremendous speeds for the best part of what seemed like hours. During that time, I just hung on and let him take over the flying. He knew better than to interfere with the racers and I made sure he knew. Though that was a while ago, for we hadn’t seen any competition in a while. 

Rainbow explained that each racer set off based on when each racer finished the day before. If a racer finished first then they got a little head start over the rest, while each other one had to play catch up. The positions weren’t hugely unfair or anything, what with first place getting the largest lead, which was only a few minutes. After that they seemed to just appear one after another. Rainbow was … third, I think she said, so she had a small lead over the rest but still had to catch up to a couple of them.

Speaking of talking to Rainbow … I sat up with a thought that hadn’t crossed my mind during the past few hours.

“How are we talking?” I asked in a normal voice. You would think that, with the wind whipping past me, we would have to yell but that was not the case. Instead, during this entire flight, we had been able to have conversations at a normal pitch.

“What do you mean?” She asked, looking over at me with a confused look splayed across her face.

“Well, why don’t we have to yell when flying? I mean, normally the wind would cause some problems with talking.”

“Oh, you mean that,” she said with an exaggerated expression of ‘that’s what I forgot to say.’ I knew the look … I had used it more than enough. “Well, you know that flag tied to Toothless? Well that has a spell or something like that added to it for just this thing. Helps with the trainer and racer when in mid-flight, ya know?”

I nodded a few times, but that didn’t mean I exactly understood. She said spell, right? Yeah, I definitely heard her say spell. What did she mean by that? I could only imagine the possibilities in this world. I mean, I would like to think that whatever she was saying was nonsense, but I couldn’t explain how we were talking and we were in a world full of talking animals… so… 

“Still with me there, big guy?”

I shook my head for a second, before looking back at Rainbow who had flown close enough to poke me, which she did. I took a second to gather my thoughts once more, before answering. “Yeah, yeah … just thinking about something.”

“Home?”

“No … not home,” I said, a little distant as I shifted my gaze back to the open sea below us. It was midnight, yet the sea shone with the bright light that the moon gave off. Just looking at that alone told me I was not in the same land as back home. Here, it was so much more prominent, more amazing, and eye catching. I wouldn’t be able to describe it to everyone back home; they wouldn’t understand unless I could actually show them.

“Huh,” Rainbow Dash said briefly before veering out a little, and then gliding back close to Toothless and I. She was staying just a little above and ahead of Toothless’s wing flaps. My guess was that she knew what a single flap could do, and she wanted to ensure that she wouldn’t be hit again. “Don’t worry, Hiccup. Twilight’ll be able to get you home, or my middle name isn’t ‘Danger’!”

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow for a few seconds, her boasting taking more time than I thought it would. Eventually she saw my look and got a little sheepish.

“What? It is! Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash,” she exclaimed, trying to remain serious despite her stance floundering like Toothless when trying to swim. In shallow water nonetheless.

As if somehow reading my mind, Toothless pulled an impromptu roll, causing me to instantly grip the saddle harder. I don’t know how he knew I was thinking about him, but through whatever means, he had decided to pay me back. 

“Hey, that was uncalled for!” I tried to tell him off sternly, but he just rolled his eyes and gave a little ‘whuff’. “You know I’d never make fun of you, bud.”

He simply chortled, all the while looking straight ahead. 

Rainbow Dash, during this little episode, had been trying to stifle a laugh and maintain her speed at the same time, which was proving quite hard for her to do. Since I was her trainer, I wasn’t going to let her slack on her racing. Especially if that meant showing her that she wasn’t as fast as she thought she was. 

I simply patted Toothless, all the while giving him a smirk. Rainbow was still laughing when Toothless poised his wings for a massive wing beat, for one meant to jolt the pegasus and give us a little more ground. She wouldn’t know what hit her until we had put enough distance on her.

“Now,” I whispered, causing Toothless to wear a rather evil grin. 

Toothless’ wings flung the air down and backward, propelling us forward with a speed that we only used when racing. The wind whipped past us so loud, I thought my ears would pop but thankfully the riding helmet has a little bit of protection there. Toothless knew what he was doing, and I simply put myself in a more aerodynamic position, so he wouldn’t be slowed down. 

“Hey, get back here!” I heard a distant shout from behind us. It seemed that she had been more than a little peeved from our little stunt.

I didn’t reply, instead smirking as I peered behind us, watching the pegasus streak closer and closer. She had been flying at a slow pace for awhile, and if she wanted to win, she needed to speed up a little more or else she would never pass us. 

It would be at least another little bit before she caught up to us, if she ever caught up to us. She was pretty far away after all, and although she might be extremely fast, Toothless isn’t just any dragon. I bet we were actually quicker than her; she probably just has a better way of slowing down and turning. Now that I think of it, that was probably how she beat us to the cloud. 

“I say we go a bi-” I didn’t even finish my sentence before a large boom exploded behind us. 

I hardly a moment to blink before what looked like a rainbow sped past us. Not a rainbow as in the pegasus that we were beating, but as in an actual rainbow. Toothless, all but ground to a halt, was gaping at the sight as much as I was. It took us a few seconds to realise that there was a chance that the rainbow was indeed Rainbow Dash. Toothless figured it out momentarily before me, though.

He must have seen it as a challenge, because he picked up the pace once more. At first I thought we were gaining on her, than she started showboating once more.

She pulled up at an almost ninety degree angle, before turning it into a loop that caused her to come down right beside us. I swear, as she sped past us, I could see that grin on her face. 

Toothless, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t gain any more ground on her than she wanted him to. 

On the bright side, we just passed a rather stunned looking pair of male pegasi. From the quick look I got, they were probably the second place competitor and his trainer. If that was true, than we hadn’t been that far behind the next place competitor. I’d like to think that was all because Toothless and I gave her a nice challenge. 

Of course, it was probably because she decided to all of a sudden do something that shouldn’t actually exist.

I refocused ahead of me to find that the rainbow trail, that had previously been flourishing behind her, was slowly beginning to disappear, and fade into the sky. It seems that whatever she did, she can’t keep it up forever. Though for all I knew, she could be moments from plunging down into the ocean beneath us. So without hesitation, I patted Toothless on his side before pointing at Rainbow.

He got the message before beginning to speed up to his fastest pace … which honestly wasn’t that much of an improvement, but I could tell that he had been holding something back. 

As we approached Dash, I noticed that wide grin on her muzzle once more. She had probably been watching us the entire time since her rainbow thing disappeared. Whatever she had done … well it had put us in our place. There was without a doubt that she was most likely the fastest thing alive, much to Toothless’ chagrin. Of course this then brought up the question of how hadn’t she already won the race, especially if she could have done that all along.

“What took you so long?” She said cockily, her massive grin never wavering. 

“What was that?” I asked, completely skipping her banter.

“Oh, that? That was my Sonic Rainboom, just something only I can do,” she said, casually brushing a hoof against her chest, never missing a beat with her flaps. Though I noticed that they seemed to move much more sluggishly than before her little stunt. 

“A ‘Sonic Rainboom’?”

“Yeah! That’s where I break through the sound barrier and create this massive explosion or rainbows … you know? Like I just did?” She looked at me as though I was more than a little slow. Kind of the face I would give to Ruff and Tuff when trying to explain something. Like trying to get them to understand common sense and why Vikings should exercise it.

“Yeah, I saw … but that doesn’t explain how or what exactly you did …” I all but muttered, though she could probably still hear me with this magic talking thing.

“You should get Twilight to explain it,” she said, sounding a little out of breath, and looking even more tired than a moment ago. “I … would … explain … but …”

Oh no, she was beyond tired from her Rainboom. She might not have seen it right away, but I should have. I reached behind me to dig into the sack, all in hope of finding something that would help. No matter how much I dug, I couldn’t find anything that I had been given that would help jolt her awake.

Wait.

Okay, this was going to be a risky move but hopefully it would wake her up more than it would hurt. “Toothless, I need you to put me above her … you know what I mean.”

With a quick response, Toothless rose up so that he was above Rainbow’s height before angling himself right above her. She hardly noticed, probably too focused on not passing out from exhaustion. I fished the single item out of the sack before sealing it shut, and turning back to Toothless. 

“Half roll!” 

He didn’t even need to respond, instead tucking his wings briefly as he rolled to place me upside down, before letting his wings flare out once more. From there he slowly lowered me until I was within arm’s reach of Rainbow. I prayed to Odin than this would work, and not harm her. 

“Brace yourself, Rainbow Dash!” I shouted, attempting to get her attention.

“Wha-” was all she managed to get out before I prodded her right flank with the stun stick. I pressed the button down for almost no time at all, releasing it as fast as I pushed it down just enough to cause indentations in the flesh of her flank. 

I then pressed the button for as short a time as I could and watched as the shock ran through Rainbow, causing her to briefly spasm, before plummeting downward, but before I could even panic, her wings snapped open and she shot back up. Her entire body’s fur was standing a little on end, but from what it looked like, I had given her just enough of a zap to recharge her.

“What in the name of Luna’s round moon was that for?!” she yelled at me, giving me one mean glare. 

“I was waking you up! You almost passed out,” I said as Toothless rolled back over and moved down back beside Rainbow Dash. 

She opened her mouth of few times, looking to make a snappy comeback of sorts. Eventually she chose to keep herself quiet, eyes moving from glaring at me to instead glaring at the sky in front of her. We flew that way for a few minutes, her not so much as glancing my way, while I had to look at her … it was part of my job after all.

“Thank you … ,” she eventually said, hardly registering above a whisper. I almost didn’t notice it at first but I had been more or less waiting for her to speak.

“You hired me as a trainer … I did what I could,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Though maybe no ‘Sonic Rainboom’ next time, especially if you wear out that quickly.”

“Yeah. usually I end up landing before the exhaustion sets in,” she said, still not looking at me.

“So it happens a lot?” That’s not good to hear, I mean, I don’t know much about how ponies work, but to be that exhausted like that after something is never a good sign.

“Well only recently really. When I won the Best Young Flyer’s competition with it, I hardly felt tired afterwards. The same for the first time I pulled it off when I was a filly,” she said a little dreamily, obviously reminiscing a little over those good moments. “Come to think of it, this started a few years ago, but it was never this bad!”

“I don’t know what to really say, Rainbow Dash. I might be your trainer but I’ve only known about ponies for a few days now, perhaps your friend will know more … until then I suggest we focus on getting to Ursaland. I don’t see any land in sight so we still have some travelling to do,” I said.
Following this world wide racing course, I will say that I think that it makes it so much easier as they were nice enough to position clouds with those orange-yellow beacons to mark where the aerial racing track lay.

I don’t know what they were using for their beacon material, which they were using to outline the track sections, but seeing how long lasting and bright they were, I’d wondered if they’d use magic to explain their beacons’ brightness and how long they glow. I estimated that were located about every hundred miles or so, but couldn’t be entirely sure as distances as seen in the air appear much different than distances seen from the ground. The lights certainly made it fairly easy to know where the racing track was laid.

“Uh Rainbow Dash? Please tell me that I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing down in the waters to our ótta.”

Rainbow tilted her head at me, before grinning and shaking her right forehoof in a threatening manner, her foreleg up as though she’d use her foreleg to block a blow in a brawl. “Why I ótta! But seriously, what’s an ótta? You sound like my eggheaded friend Twilight.”

“Vikings divide their day into eight different segments of about three hours to each segment, which we then assign names. The halfway point in our night is miðnætti. At three in the morning is ótta, at six is miður morgunn, nine is dagmál, high noon is hádegi, three in the afternoon is undorn, six in the evening is miðaftann, and nine in the evening is náttmál. So basically I’m instructing you to look to your right.

Rainbow looked in the direction that I had pointed and despite the seriousness of what may have been taking place, I smiled as Rainbow Dash dropped a couple of feet, before flying back beside me. “What’s with the spiny dragon shadow on their sail? Looks pretty fierce and awesome!” 

The familiar shadow of the Skrill dragon on the single sail of a Viking ship greeted my vision, despite my fervent desires that I was just seeing things.. I yanked on the reigns, getting Toothless’ attention and pointing downward towards the mast which glowed in a soft bluish-white glow as the moon beamed down upon the sturdy canvases we Viking use for the sails on our ships.

Rainbow Dash had flown on the track until she was a speck on the horizon, before she realized that Toothless and I was no longer flying with her. Once she she realized that we weren’t next to her, she flew back, retracing her steps with her eyes narrowed at me and her lips pulled tight. She even huffed, as though just to make sure I knew she was upset with Toothless and I. 

“What the hay, Hiccup!? Why in Tartarus did you stop? Are you going to take your job as my trainer seriously or not? We have to keep moving!”

“I wouldn’t have done that, if I didn’t think this was more important. That ship belongs to a group of sea-roving humans who are nearly always up to no good. Before I came here, I was scouting this huge cloudbank, the same one that led me here, and I saw several Berserker ships going into it. I have no idea how many ships there might be in this world, but even having just one is one too many.

“Toothless, take us up and then go into ‘Watch and Guard’.”

“What are you going to do?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she flew over to a free-floating cloud and laid on it as she awaited my response.

“I’m going to go down and see if I can find out what they’re doing,” I explained to Rainbow Dash. “Toothless, go all out if you see me give the signal,” I instructed my best friend.

I dropped from Toothless, using the pommel of my sword to knock out the Berserker looking around from the top of the mast. I used a short coil of rope to ensure that he didn’t fall off the mast and into the boat and alert the other Berserkers.

I could see really small ponies, foals if I had to guess given their smaller frame. Listening carefully, I could hear one of the Berserker lackeys ask, “Why are we gathering these really small ponies? Wouldn’t the bigger ones be better?”

“And that kind of thinking is why I’m the leader and you’re just a grunt. The smaller ones can either be sold or ransomed for money, used to entertain our men in gladiator fights, or be used as grunts and slave labor,” The man whom I judged to be the leader on this ship patted the other Berserker’s shoulder, before delivering a strong punch with his gauntlet.

“And if you question your orders again, I’ll cut you myself and throw you overboard. At least you’d be good for a dinner and a show!” The ship’s leader cawed raucously. 

I looked skyward and shook my head and crossed my arms in an x, so that Toothless wouldn’t blast the Berserker ship with wild abandon, however much I might’ve wanted for it to happen. The lives of the little ponies came first and Berserkers were wild cards. There were about five other Berserkers on the ship and they had about 10 foals altogether, five little ponies chained on either side of the ship.

I used the flat of my Inferno blade to knock one of the Berserkers into the sea, while one of the Berserkers mysteriously vanished into the darkness of the night. I couldn’t help splashing as I struggled with the flailing body of the panicked Berserker I had knocked into the water with me. One of my eyes felt sore and hot, but since I could still see out of it, despite the swelling and reduced field of vision, I probably had a fairly good shiner.

I’m usually loathe to take a life, but there were more of them than there were of me. But as I looked up, I watched as Toothless took the rest of them by surprise and using tail, wings and for one hapless Berserker, a plasma blast the ship was now free of Berserkers, as I could hear gasps and splashings in the dark and murky water.

After I had climbed back into the boat, I hoisted the anchor they had been using, as Rainbow Dash landed on the bow of the ship, her wings raised and one leg lifted just slightly off the deck, in a rather heroic looking pose.

“Never fear, Rainbow Dash is here!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed to the foals chained to the ship.

“Rainbow Dash? I don’t exactly have the tools to free these little ones from their chains,” I informed her.

“I’m too awesome to let mere steel stop me!” she declared as she glared at the chains.

“Well, it won’t change that we do need to reach Ursland, or that we’ll need to drop these kids off in order to be returned to their parents,” I reasoned. “You and Toothless can use your wings to create wind, and then with me at the rudder, we can make all haste towards a port city on the coastal regions of Ursland.”

Without objection, Toothless landed on the stern of the ship, with Rainbow Dash before him, as both flapped their wings to create a gust of wind. 

I made sure to secure the sail before taking charge of the rudder. The wump-wumping sound of Toothless’ large leathery wings accompanied by Rainbow Dash’s smaller feathered wings was helping to fill our sail. I also trailed my finger in the water as I tested for ocean currents. But given that I didn’t know the major stars and constellations, or had any mappings of the ocean currents, it was virtually impossible for me to tell where we were.

“Rainbow Dash!” I shouted over the sound of the water splashing against the sides of the boat, and of Toothless’ beating wings.

“Yeah?” she called back to me, before leaving her position in front of Toothless and flying next to me.

“I want you to go to the nearest city and notify the city’s authorities that we have recovered a ship full of foals from some slavers and I also want an experienced sea … pony brought back to the ship. A navigator, one who knows the stars and ocean. Because I honestly have no Idea where we are or what direction we want to take the ship,” I instructed.

“I don’t know. I just don’t feel right leaving you or the foals,” she responded.

“Trust me, I don’t like it any better than you do, but it’s either that or wait for a ship of slavers or pirates, or even another ship of Berserkers to claim the foals as booty for their own needs and uses. … Unless you know how to read the stars or ocean currents,” I responded.

“That’s more Twilight’s thing. Now if you need me to do anything with the weather, then I’m your mare. Finding my way in the dark-night waters of the ocean? Not so much,” Rainbow Dash replied as she used her right forehoof to draw circular shapes over the boards of the deck. Her face scrunched up in a look of concentration, her snout wrinkling and baring her teeth, before she stamped her forehoof onto the deck. “Nngh! I don’t like it, but I see your point. I’ll be back as soon as I can with help.” And with that said, she leaped into the night sky until it wasn’t long before I lost sight of her in the vast darkness of the starry skies.

I threw the anchor overboard and watched as Toothless settled on the prow of the Drekkar. He didn’t care much for the Skrill figurehead, since he immediately went about blasting it into smithereens. Then using his leathery wings to splash water to put out the smoldering stump remaining behind, Toothless reared up and placed his forelegs on either side of the place where the prow head had been and swiveled both his head and ear fins as his catlike eyes scanned into the dark murky waters and the slightly overcast skies of whatever ocean or sea we happened to currently occupy.

Satisfied that I could trust Toothless to let me know if he spotted unnatural movement, I began to test the chains, as I did feel really bad for the foals trapped by the chain threading through the loop on their shackles. But looking at the shackles I got to thinking. Why would Berserkers have shackles in the right size for foals? 

Prior to their sailing into the portal which led into this world, they would have only had gear for horses and adult ponies, and that was even questionable at best. So either they had at least one blacksmith with the ships which crossed over prior to the portal’s relocation, or there is either a rich creature supplying them with the gear they need, or there’s a group of natives who are willing to supply the Berserkers with such specialized gear.

I decided to focus on things which I could do in the here and now, and leave any questions regarding the Berserker’s for when, or if I should ever encounter another group of them.

“Toothless, can you get a good aim so as to not blast the ship, or me, but hit this chain?” I asked my best friend.

Toothless looked at the ship, then at me, before he moved his head between my chest and the chain, gripped the chain between his teeth and twisted until he was facing starboard and after I spread my hands as far apart as I could get them, I watched as Toothless blasted the metal chain.

The chain link didn’t do anything spectacular like explode into white hot droplets of molten steel, but he had managed to heat it up enough for me to use Inferno to break the heated link in two, which I quickly chucked into the sea. I didn’t worry too much about the ship catching fire, but I also didn’t want to tempt the gods either. After I helped Toothless with the chain on the other side of the ship, I started to thread the chain link out of the shackles. I smiled as a brave little unicorn filly with a light violet coat, light golden mane and tail and light golden eyes came up and hugged him.

“Thank you, Mister. Thank you too, Mister Dragon!” she called and waved to Toothless, who, true to his name, gave her a toothless grin and a soft growl, nodding his head to her.

There are some things which doesn’t usually get told in stories, such as me having to help hold onto each filly and colt as they had to go poo or pee, or both. Though I did chuckle as the colts would describe their turds in detail, much to the disgust of the fillies. It was amusing that some things remained the same, even in an entirely different world. I put the colts to taking turns shoveling the crap on the ship’s deck overboard, while I had another colt swabbing the deck after it had been shoveled. The Berserker’s had split their benches into two, so that poop could fall between the split in the benches. 

Fortunately the physical activity distracted us for awhile as I made sure that the ship was as clean as we could get it, given we only had seawater and a mop and bucket for cleaning supplies. I started humming a Viking lullabye that I’d heard the mothers hum or sing to their children to lull them to sleep and watched as both colt and filly huddled into groups of five, though I did have to ask some to move around to help balance the boat out, so that we wouldn’t be leaning because of uneven weight distribution.

It wasn’t until near dawn before Rainbow Dash returned with a swarthy looking pegasus mare. She had a pale pastel aquamarine coat with her mane in two long braids, both in a crown bun. Her mane looked like a dark bluish-green, but her eyes were a jade color green. While she didn’t have the muscles of the extreme bodybuilders, the thickness of her legs and the contractions of her muscles under the coarse, scruffy looking coat indicated that this mare knew hard work and wasn’t afraid of it. 

“Al’ight ye landlubber. Pay mind ta what I say, ‘cause I wan’ ‘his ta be da only time I’m called away from me comfy bed in da middle o’ da night,” The swarty looking mare declared as she gave Rainbow Dash and I the stink eye. “Yo’ ‘ee dat star way up dere? Dat star be da Pole star. T’ough many are callin’ it Celestia Lucius, or dey callin’ it Guiding Light.” 

She faced the star she called Guiding Light, and then turned around in the opposite direction. “Now yo’ can’t ‘ee it in dis ‘emisphere, but dere’s a constellation dat looks like a cross. Dey call dat un Luna Lucius, or dey also call it Wayfinder. ‘Cause yo’ can exten’ da length o’ da cross fou’ ta five and make a vertical line down ta figure out where true south is. Once yo’ kno’ yer directions den yo’ can set sail tae wherever yo’ be wantin’ ta go.”

“Er, that’s great and all, but would you have happened to bring the sea maps for these waters?” I inquired of the obviously seasoned seamare.

“Oh aye, landlubber. ‘ere’s da maps fer dese waters. Don’t be losin’ dem, ‘cause I be wantin’ dem back when yer done, ya ‘ear?” The mare informed, while looking me steadily into my eyes.

“Yes ma’am!” I unscrolled the sea map, really desiring some kind of table or something to spread it upon. I then located the Pole star, Guiding Light, and oriented the map to match the northward direction I was facing. Studying the map closely, I then turned to my right, and then divided the eastward direction and the southward direction in half, I then faced the midway point between facing East and East-Southeast. I made note of any particularly bright stars in that direction, especially towards the horizon.

“I think that we want to be heading in that direction.” I finally said to the seamare next to me. I showed her the island I wanted us to aim for and then the direction I thought we would want to head in. 

“Name’s Flying Jib, landlubber.” she informed me, before a crooked grin appeared on her face. “‘ell, don’t let me stop yo’. Da direction yo’ chose will certainly get yo’ dere. So ‘oist anchor and correct yo’ course.”

Flying Jib laid down next to the mast, but was facing my way. I could only speculate that it may be a seapony thing, since the foals hadn’t lain down like she did. I won’t bore you with the boring details of the trip. Really it was Flying Jib, Toothless and I who looked after the foals, while one of us slept. Toothless was our lookout on the prow and he’d also swoop over the sea whenever one of the foals fell overboard and he’d lift them out of the water and back onto the boat.

Thankfully, they seemed to get the idea that playing near the sides of the boat wasn’t safe. That didn’t stop some colts though. I finally punished them with some rowing at the oars.

*                      *                       *

“Who’re you, tellin’ us what to do, ya bald ape?” one of the colts balked.

“Well, since you seem so bent on impressing the fillies, you can impress them by rowing them to land so that they get home faster. Because the next time one of you colts falls in, no one’s going to save you.”

“I don’t believe you!” one of the other colts yelled.

“Fine, jump overboard then. Then you’ll know for sure if I’m telling the truth or not.” I waited for a few minutes, letting the colts chatter amongst themselves. “Any takers? Anyone?”

After a few more minutes of silence, I gave them what I hoped was a stern look. “The way I see it, is you can row the oars, or you can continue playing and find out for yourselves if what I’m saying is true or not, the next time one of you falls into the ocean.”

I got sullen glares from the colts, who sat down on the rowing benches and proceeded to row, though I did have to turn away and smile in amusement as they started arguing who could row the fastest, or dig their oar in the water the deepest. Fortunately the fillies were better behaved, gathered in a small group and looking towards the rowing colts and giggling could be heard. 

*                      *                      *
I clutched a hand over my beating heart and murmured a prayer to Freyja that Astrid and my child was safe. I stared at the star spangled sky. “I miss you terribly my beloved Astrid. I really hope that I can get home before our child is born,” I whisper into the night.

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, and I heaved a sigh upon seeing the portside portion of Bearmingham, one of the largest cities in Ursland.

“Rainbow Dash?’ I called out to her.

I watched as she zipped and landed in front of me. “Yeah?”

“One of us needs to contact the city’s peacekeeping force regarding these foals so that efforts can begin to be made in returning them to their families. I’d prefer that you do it, since you’re more familiar with this world. But I’ll do it, if you really don’t want to. But that’s how things stand right now. We can decide our next course of action after accomplishing that,” I informed Rainbow Dash.

“You’re right, I should go. But will you be okay looking after these foals?” Rainbow asked with her brow furrowed and her large eyes focused upon me.

“I’ll be fine. I mean, how hard can it be to look after a few foals?” I answered, as I gave her a crooked smirk of confidence.

I watched as Rainbow gave me an amused smile, before she soared through the sky to look for whatever passed as the peacekeeping force around here.

{C}  *  {T}  *  {D}  *  *  *  {C}  *  {T}  *  {D}

“H-hey! Y-you can’t climb up that! No, don’t get into that barrel! You get off the edge of that boat right this instant, missy!” I cried to the misbehaving foals as I ran this way and that as I was constantly having to rescue one foal after another from their own recklessness. My muscles ached and burned from all the physical activity I was doing. I’d remember seeing exhausted Viking parents, who would otherwise be the most energetic and fiercest of us Vikings on Berk and my respect and heart went out to any parents who ever has a child. The more children they had, the more I gained an appreciation for what their own parenting experience must’ve been like. 

I heard the raucous laughter of Flying Jib somewhere up above me, and looked up to see the weathered seamare hugging the mast as she watched me chasing after the foals. 

“Help me!” I yelled through gritted teeth. I watched as she shook her head and pointed a hoof at me with a huge grin, clearly taking a perverse pleasure in my frustration as I tried to look after the foals and keep them from getting themselves seriously hurt.

I looked over to Toothless, who was sunning himself near the prow of the ship. The colts would often make a game of trying to pounce the sunbathing dragon, only to be knocked head over hooves by his tailfin. It was almost as if they were trying to challenge each other to see who could get knocked the farthest! I chuckled and shook my head as I watched a particularly tomboyish filly attempt to climb the ropes of the sails, a filly who was soon writhing like a freshly caught fish once I rescued her from the ropes. I wondered to myself if Rainbow Dash would find the proper authorities soon so that we could turn these colts and fillies over to them to get returned back to their parents.

*    *     *      {Rainbow Dash}      *     *    *

I arrived in ten seconds flat at Bearmingham’s City Hall building and I trotted in through the doors like I owned the place. Being as awesome as I am, I naturally had to keep up appearances for my adoring fans. And behaving like Fluttershy was no attitude to have for an awesome pegasus like me!

I followed the signs pointing the direction to the Mayor’s office. I pushed open the door and entered the lobby where the mayor’s secretary’s desk and the waiting room was. I did pause and look, because I was rather surprised by the Mayor’s choice in secretaries. 

She was probably a good head taller than Spike and her body was lithe and slender. Her scales were a whiteish-blue, kind of like snow on a sunny day. Her spines were a red color, like the dark red roses that Roseluck sells with the other flower sisters. Her eyes were a brilliant sapphire hue and I admit that I was strongly tempted to bring her back to Ponyville and show her off to Spike to see what kind of reaction he might have. Since I have no idea what dragons consider pretty.

I strolled up to the secretary’s desk, who had a nameplate of … White Beauty? I wonder how well she and Rarity would get along? If it weren’t for the red spines, you might think that she’s what Rarity might look like if Rarity had a dragon’s body. … Well an young adult dragon’s body.

I rapped upon the wood of the desk with one of my forehooves to get the secretary’s attention. “Yeah, hi! Name’s Rainbow Dash, most awesome flyer in Equestria. Anyways, I have some important stuff to speak to the mayor about.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Uh, no?”

“Then you need to make an appointment. I’ll see when he’s available. Hmmm … . Would next Fourthday at 3 o’clock be fine?”

“No, this is too important to put off! Buck this, I’ll get him myself.”

“No, wait!”

What I saw the mayor doing … . I definitely know is illegal in Equestria, and if the public didn’t manage to kill him, any cellmate he might have definitely would. I froze for just a moment, before I could feel my teeth grinding against each other and if it weren’t for the rep I’d get for killing this scum of society, I wouldn’t have hesitated to do it. I flew out of the room, but I left with a crying soiled filly between my hooves. I slammed the mayor’s office door closed so hard, the entire door frame shook, the resulting bang sounding like a starter’s pistol gunshot. I barreled down the hall as ponies, gryphons and dragons scattered, some shouting curses, as papers flew everywhere. I got out of the building and flew as fast as I could towards the ship with the foals and Hiccup and Toothless.

“Is your mom or dad around?” I tried to sound as caring as I could, but I was still bucking pissed off at what I had seen taking place in the Mayor’s office. Once we got back to Equestria, I was going to make certain that Celestia knew what was going on here. My voice sounded harsh and angry even to me. What I wouldn’t give to have Rarity or Fluttershy with me right now. They’d be way better at consoling the distraught filly between my hooves.

“N-no. Mummy and Daddy … . M-m-mummy and D-d-daddy … .” she managed to get out before dissolving into an inconsolable sobbing fit. I didn’t need to be Twilight to venture a guess that she was probably an orphan now.

“Any aunts or uncles that would be worried about you?”

“I … I don’t know,” the filly choked out, still sobbing fairly hard.

“Well, we can figure that stuff out later. We’re getting out of here and I’m not leaving you in this city.”

I spotted the ship and landed heavily onto the boat. “We gotta get outta here. I’m not letting any foals off in this city.”

{C}  *  {T}  *  {D}  *  *  *  {C}  *  {T}  *  {D}

I hurried over to the anchor and hoisted it up. Given that I knew very little about this world and with Rainbow Dash not giving me any reason not to trust her and even went and befriended two obviously otherworldly visitors, then I was willing to act now and ask questions later. A new filly had been placed upon the deck of the ship and I knew that there was likely a good reason why Rainbow Dash was adding this foal to the numbers we already had on board. 

Rainbow Dash flew up behind the sails and started beating her wings furiously and she was shortly joined by Flying Jib and Toothless, both of them picking up on her frenetic urgency. I steered the ship aiming for the open seas, as I heard the angry shouts of ponies as they stopped at the end of the pier. Whenever a pegasus, gryphon or dragon would try to follow, Rainbow would try to hit their wings with hooves, though Toothless’ fire blasts helped to discourage all but the dragons. Though even they gave up under the combined assaults of Rainbow Dash, Toothless, and Flying Jib.

They all landed on the deck, while Flying Jib consulted her sea maps and star charts, while Toothless returned to the prow of the ship and Rainbow Dash grabbed a piece of cloud and then pressed it against the sea water. I watched in fascination as the cloud swelled and became a dark charcoal color. Rainbow then brought it up over the filly she had brought onto the ship and bounced upon it several times, before a deluge of water washed over the filly.

Flying Jib came up to me pointing at the sea charts for the area around Ursland. “You’re going to want to sail around Ursland until you get to an inlet that has a small peninsula pointing towards you. Once you get there, you want to head due east and sail through a river channel. It’ll open into a larger bay with two islands, one of them being due east of you once you exit the river and into the bay. Between these islands is the port metropolis of Manehattan.”

“Thanks Jib. Feel free to rest with the foals, if you want,” I replied before rotating my wrist and hand to indicate to Rainbow Dash that I wanted her.  

Once she drew near, still holding the filly between her forehooves and running a hoof through the filly’s mane. “Okay, Rainbow Dash, I think that I’d like to know why we had to leave the port as fast as we did and why there was all those ponies, gryphons and dragons coming after you and looking angry.”

“That city is no place to leave a filly, Hiccup. Not while that … that … spawn of Sombra is mayor of it,” She spat as though just mentioning the mayor left a bad taste in her mouth. I also watched as her body trembled and she looked at me with a teary eyed glare. “That bear shames its species. It’s a beast and a monster and needs to be put down. N-no filly should have to go through that!”

“Still not following,” I replied, raising my eyebrow in an unspoken gesture for her to elaborate. “I’m not from around here, just in case my strange body hasn’t made that clear for you. What does bringing a strange filly on board and an angry army of citizens have anything to do with the mayor that you were going to see?”

“Hiccup, your species have foals right? Foals which are neither considered an infant nor a developing young adult right?”

“Yeah,” I said, still not following.

“If an adult was caught mating with one, are there any laws regarding such?” Rainbow Dash asked me.

“It’d be an execution sentence. Wait, surely you can’t mean … .”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”

It was a good thing I was sitting down, as I was reminded that even in this world that appeared to be sunshine and rainbows, even they had their villains and troubles. I looked up to Rainbow Dash, now completely serious. “Will she be okay?”

“No, probably not. I mean, can you even heal from something like that? Can you even recover from the damage it does to your head and self-esteem?”

“I don’t know Rainbow Dash. I truly don’t, but even so, I wish her all the best. No one should have to go through that.” I returned my gaze to the prow, seething silently at what had happened to this poor filly. Needless to say, I stayed awake all that night until we reached the docks of Manehattan shortly before the rising of the sun.

> Chapter 8 The Big Apple: New Yoke
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Eight: The Big Apple: New Yoke


I gawked at the massive stone and brick buildings that rose to heights which even the best mason amongst the Vikings of Berk could only dream of! It was as if the buildings had been chiseled and carved from a massive rock. Or as though some great force from below the ground hammered the bedrock up into great towers of stone and mere mortals hollowed the rock out. Not even our grandest temple to Odin could compare to the towering heights that the builders of Manehattan had built.

I could see thin metal towers rising above the skeletal frames of newer buildings which appeared as though they were trying to outdo each other in regards to height. Thick cables of metal dropped down, some lifting beams of metal, that looked like a cross-section of two walls with another wall dividing the two spaces evenly.

“What manner of sorcery is this?” I breathed as I marveled in an almost reverent awe. I could only imagine the time and effort that must have gone into towards erecting these massive towers. I could spot dark specks of … something in the skies above the city of Manehattan.

“Well, I don’t know if you’d call it sorcery, but a lot of unicorn power, earth pony strength, and pegasi wing power. It’s thanks to the efforts of all different kinds of ponies, that we are able to build these skyscrapers,” Rainbow Dash informed me.

“It’s just … despite all our feats, this makes everything that Vikings have accomplished look small in comparison. Especially when it comes to marvels of building. I mean the Great Hall of Berk doesn’t even compare to these skyscraper buildings. But why are they being built in the first place?”

“Tartarus if I know, if we had the time, I’d tell you to go over and talk to the various ponies and ask them why these buildings are going up. Maybe after the race and if you still want to while looking for that big cloud that brought you to our world, then you can ask them. Right now we need to focus on getting these foals hoofed over to the guards and get back into the race.

“‘ey, yo still gonna give me da ship a’ter we unload da likkle uns und ‘and dem o’er ta da guards, right?” interjected Flying Jib.

“Of course! Besides, I don’t know what use Rainbow Dash or I could possibly need a ship for, once we’ve safely delivered these little ones over to the Royal Guards. Well, that and you’re gonna need a crew to row it when not using the sail,” I reassured and informed Flying Jib.

It was a little while later when we pulled into port. I  was constantly looking around in this exotic environment. There were some familiar sights such as the vegetable markets where merchants would try to sell their goods, some with familiar staples such as potatoes, carrots and corn, while others had vegetables and fruit to which I not only didn’t know the names of, but couldn’t even imagine how they might taste like. Then there were really strange sights like horseless carriages!

I pointed to one of the horseless carriages and asked Rainbow Dash, “What in Odin’s name is that!?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s an automobile,” she explained.

“Is it some kind of magic?”

“Kind of. I know that it’s powered by something called crystallomancy and there’s a wheel you turn on the inside that controls which way it goes and pedals on the floor that you press to make it go and stop,” Rainbow Dash explained somewhat.

“Anyways, I’m going to go talk to the captain of Manehattan’s branch of the Royal Guards. Why don’t you take the foals to play at Central Park?”

I crossed my arms and just stared at her, frowning slightly.  “You want me to take a bunch of foals in a city with that many ponies out on the city’s streets and where I don’t know where anything is, to a place in this city?” I asked, requesting clarification and hoping that she’d realize just how stupid that sounded.

“Oh for the love of Tartarus; you could find a Royal Guard to show you the way!” she cried.

“I have a better idea. How about you find and bring a Royal Guard here first before leaving me in an unfamiliar city with a bunch of little ones to look after.”

“Ugh, fine! I won’t leave you hanging, Hiccup!”

“I’d rather not hang at all. I rather quite enjoy living.” I responded, confused on why she’d leave me to hang if I hadn’t asked her to retrieve a Royal Guard for me.

“No, no, no, no, no! It means that I’m your friend and that I wouldn’t leave you unprepared. It’s a pony thing, I guess.” Rainbow explained.

“Sometimes the words you ponies use confuse me. Irregardless us talking isn’t getting things done. So, I’ll see you at Central Park once you’ve brought back a Guard to lead us to Central Park, right?”

“Right! Back in a flash!” Rainbow cried before zooming off in search of a guard to lead me and the foals to the right place.

* * *  {C}  {T}  {D}  *  *  *  {C}  {T}  {D} * * *

Rainbow Dash returned in about five minutes. “Guard says he’s coming,” she informed me.

“Hmmm. So did you catch the name of the guard that you’re gonna have escort us?”

I watched as Rainbow snickered a bit before replying, “Yeah, her name’s Honeysuckle. I-
I’ll let you find out for yourself what kind of pony she is.”  

I crossed my arms and frowned slightly as Rainbow Dash turned her back to me and continued to snicker into the crook of her right foreleg. I didn’t know why, but I suspected that she was up to something.

“Rainbow, is there something that you’re not telling me?” I heard clopping approaching from behind and I turned around and gaped at the guard. “Good Thor! She’s huge!”

To give you an idea of just how tall this pony was, most ponies backs come up to about middle of my chest. This mare, I was eye level with her back. Plus, she was heavily muscled. She’s what I’d expect our Viking women might look like as a pony, well the warrior types. Astrid and my mom definitely wouldn’t look like that. I’d imagine even less with Tuffnut, though I guess I just don’t see her feminine charm the way Snotlout and Fishlegs views her. I mean, she pretty much acts like a guy, most of the time. It’s like if Tuffnut had a twin double that then got turned into a female.

“Name’s Honeysuckle, stranger. I gotta say, I’ve never seen whatever it is that you’re supposed to be. What are you?”

“I’m a Viking, a proud seafaring people. A Viking has no peer when it comes to sailing the seas. We know her moods and temperaments and we use the night sky as our map and and the sun’s movement to determine direction.”

“If you’re such a seafaring bunch, how come you’re the first Viking I’ve ever seen?” Honeysuckle queried, an eyebrow arching as she asked her question.

“Because even a Viking knows that sailing into a fogbank is a good recipe for sinking your ship, especially with the jagged and jutting rocks in the parts of the seas that we sail in.” I paused for a while, before continuing. “Plus, Vikings don’t change easily or even like change. Vikings used to fear dragons and be enemies with them, but in time Toothless and I were able to eventually convince the other Vikings that dragons weren’t the ruthless, savage beasts that we Vikings had previously considered them to be. The change was slow and gradual, and it wasn’t without its challenges and difficulties, but now Vikings have a friendship with our dragon friends, which very, very few Vikings ever thought possible. So, venturing into magical fogbanks in search of adventure isn’t exactly a Viking norm.” I chuckled, aware of just how special a Viking I was. I am my father’s son, but I certainly didn’t have the muscles that he or even many of the Viking warriors had.

“So, if Vikings usually don’t do that, then why did you? Go into the fogbank, I mean.”

“I had observed some enemy Viking ships go in, but never come out. So I wanted to see if I couldn’t sneak up on them and find out what exactly they were up to. Because those Vikings are always up to no good.”

“So how do I know that you’re not one of these enemy Vikings?” she asked, while looking at me from the corner of her eyes.

“You don’t. Besides, even if I told you I wasn’t one of them, would you believe me? Let my actions speak for themselves. That is how you will know if I am one of them or not. Besides, why would a bad Viking be turning in all these foals? A bad Viking would have sold them to the highest bidders to do whatever it is that their new masters required of them. Or I could have kept them for my own personal slaves. If I was a bad Viking, why would I be turning away a resource from which I could profit from in various and multiple ways?”

“You could be doing it to cast suspicion off of yourself,” Honeysuckle responded.

I chuckled. “Perhaps, but then wouldn’t you hear news of a bad Viking riding on a dragon as black as coal doing bad things? Even if I were to do it to cast suspicion from myself, sooner or later, I would resume doing the bad things from which I could profit from. Which is why I said to let my actions speak for themselves. Because it is by his actions that you can know the kind of Viking he is.”

“You speak as one with many years. But you don’t look that old. How old are you?”

“I’m 21 years old.”

“Many ponies who have attained your age do not speak with such wisdom. Why is it that you speak so?”

“I’ve listened to the wisdom of the ancestors and seen truth in what they speak, be it by my own experience, or seeing it played out in the life of another. Though, I’m a bit of an oddball among Vikings. Like exploring the possibility of dragons being something other than an enemy, a commonly held belief before I started to show to my fellow Vikings that we could be friends with dragons.”

I made sure to walk at a comfortable pace so that even the slowest foal among us could keep up with my pace. I saw what looked like an illusioned play taking place behind a glass screen and light was coming out from it. “What kind of magic is this!” I looked over to see Honeysuckle and some of the colts and fillies laughing at my reaction to the strange magic I was beholding.

Honeysuckle chortled for a short while before finally responding. “That’s not magic! That’s a t.v.!”

“What does t.v. mean?”

“It’s a shortened form for television.”

“How does it work?”

“Tartarus if I know! I’m a guard, not a repair pony. I just know that we like it when it works and hate when it doesn’t.”

I moved over to a rectangular object made of wood and metal with some kind of screen or mesh over the circular holes in the surface of the rectangular object. “What about this? What is it?”

“That’s a radio.”

“What does this radio thing do?”

“All kinds of things! As long as the radio can pick up the signal, then you can listen to all kinds of music, listen to stories, current events, or even whatever topic that’s being discussed in a talk show,” Honeysuckle explained.

I pointed to some weird boxy device with an arch and what looked like a wire. There was also a weird stick thingy attached to a smaller cord. “What is that!?” I exclaimed in fascination, so many strange and amazing magics to be seen in this city!

“That is a telephone.”

“What does this tele-phone thing do?”

“Well, the gist of what I understand is it enables near instantaneous communication across long distances. You just need two ponies to possess a telephone device on each end and for them to be connected to the telephone lines and the right number to dial. The only problem is anyone can listen in on your conversation. That’s still something that the telephone companies are working towards solving.”

“Amazing!” I responded in a breathy murmur.

I looked down at one of the foals, a colt, as he complained at me. He had a dark orangish-brown mane and tail, while his coat was several colors lighter, but his moderate blue eyes really stood out from his orangish coat and mane colors. He was an earth pony of average build, but he still hadn’t gotten his cutie mark.

“Come on! We want to play in the park!”

I chuckled and ruffled his hair, and he tried to return his mane to its pre-mussed form “And your name is … ?”

“Orange Juicer!”

“Alright colts and fillies! Stay close and don’t wander off, while Honeysuckle guides us to the park. Don’t forget to thank her once we’ve arrived,” I instructed them. “I’ll bring up the rear, so Honeysuckle, if you would take the lead, please?”

Now, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that Toothless and I weren’t tempted to ask about all these strange magical devices that we didn’t recognize within the city. Toothless and I did frequently stop to marvel at many wondrous and frightening things. Plenty of windows which held these marvels temporarily misted from our breaths as we peered into window displays.

It took longer than I thought it might as Honeysuckle, Toothless and I seemed to be chasing this foal or that foal, which had gotten distracted by something and wandered off from the group. Plus, there was the fact that the foals would occasionally encounter some foals playing in the streets and it was difficult to separate them from each other and resume our quest to arrive at Central Park. It wasn’t easy, but we all eventually made it to Central Park.

“Alright, here is Central Park. The park is pretty much defined by its greenery, so if you start seeing buildings across the roads, then you’re at the edge of the park,” Honeysuckle informed me. “I got to resume my patrol, but feel free to contact us if you need us.”

“Thanks for showing us how to get here, Honeysuckle.”

“No problem, happy to be able to be of assistance to you folks.”

I eased myself into the grass as I watched the fillies and colts playing on the playground, though some of the colts were wrestling with Toothless, who was enjoying himself immensely from the toothless grin I could see on his face.

{C]  {T}  {D}  (Rainbow Dash)  {C}  {T}  {D}

I left Hiccup and the foals in the hooves of one of the Royal Guards of Manehattan. Since I didn’t know the area as well as a pony that had lived in Manehattan for a long time, I decided that the fastest way for me to locate New Yoke’s Royal Guard Headquarters was to locate one of their pegasus guards and ask them to show me the way. It might not get me there as fast as I’d like to, since I would have to match the guard’s flying speed, but it would definitely be faster than if I flew throughout the entire city of New Yoke as I searched for the New Yoke’s branch of the Royal Guards Headquarters myself.

It wasn’t too long before I spotted a pegasus mare wearing the armor of the Royal Guards. Her coat was a really light green, like that of bleached pistachio, while her hair was a few shades darker, so that it was a more moderate emerald color. Though I wasn’t all that impressed with the armor for the New Yoke division of the Royal Guards. It was just a simple cuirass and four simple greaves. The Canterlot Division had their pegasi in full plate mail, which was a lot more weight than what this fledgeling was carrying. It just makes me wonder about how well these guards would perform in a crisis scenario. Maybe I should bring that up the next time I see Princess Celestia.

“Excuse me! Name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria, winner of the Best Young Flier’s competition and member of the Friendship Council and bearer of the element of Loyalty and a hero to Equestria on several occasions. I need to go to your headquarters to speak with your superiors. Would you lead me to your HQ?”

“Wow! It’s such an honor to meet you, Rainbow Dash! Am I dreaming?” the guard squealed in excitement, fluttering this way and that as she looked at Rainbow Dash from all angles.

I gladly basked in the praise and admiration of a fellow pegasus, pushing my chest a little farther out, and felt my smile grow until it was as big as it could get and I closed my eyes. It wasn’t too long before I was striking poses one after the other. I eventually came down from my ‘hero high’ and realized that I still didn’t know the guard’s name.

“I don’t believe you ever told me your name,” I observed.

“My name is Spring Breeze. Would it be alright to get an autograph from you?”

“Sure thing, lemme just see if I can’t find a photograph here for you,” I replied and began to rummage in my saddlebags to see if I had a photo that I could sign and give her. I usually carried some photos of myself ever since I had helped save Equestria from Nightmare Moon. I found one of me wearing a fake Wonderbolts uniform. I’d only wear the real uniform once I was accepted into their ranks. Well that and authentic Wonderbolt uniforms are imbued with a special magical signature and forging that magic signature is subject to some pretty heavy punishment. Twilight told me that it was the magical equivalent to a coat of arms. I took a permanent marker and signed the photo with my awesome signature and then turned it onto the blank back. On the back I wrote: Keep striving to be the best and one day your efforts will be recognized. I drew an icon of my cutie mark after it and then turned it back over and handed it to her.

“So awesome!” Spring Breeze squealed and with slow and tender care placed the photo into one of her saddlebags. “Follow me, Rainbow Dash!”

Hanging out with fans who admired me and the accomplishments I’ve got under my horseshoes usually makes me feel better and I could feel myself grinning as I flapped my wings and followed Spring Breeze. I just hoped nothing bad would happen before I made sure that the New Yoke division of the Royal Guard would properly see to finding the foals families and reuniting them with their parents. I chuckled to myself softly as the thought that trouble seemed to follow Hiccup and Toothless. Usually trouble would come to me and the girls with some villain wanting to conquer Equestria. And with the girls and I being bearers for the Elements of Harmony and with us generally being our kickflank selves, then usually it was up to the girls and I to restore peace and harmony to our kingdom.

But ever since I’ve bumped into Hiccup and Toothless and hearing about their experiences in this strange new world, I could feel myself being both amused and somewhat sympathetic to all the bad things that had happened to them. Running from murderous dragons, the deer folk’s elders thinking that he was an ill omen, falling out of the sky from hitting yours truly, having to fight against rebellious youths, and then having to kill off other Vikings, even if they were bad, and after all that, then us having to hightail it out of the harbor before the angry mob could swarm us as we made a hasty departure from Bearmingham and the country of Ursland.

Colt, wait until the girls hear what happened on what was supposed to be a regular global race. I’d win of course, but it would have been rather uneventful had I not brought Hiccup and Toothless along as my trainers. Speaking of races, I should check in to one of the checkpoints and figure out by how much I might have fallen behind by. What with Hiccup and I having to sail and stay with the foals until we could safely deliver them into the hooves of authorities whom we knew could be trusted.

I looked around me as I kept pace with Spring Breeze. I had been to this city before with Rarity and the girls when Rarity had been competing in the Fashion Week tournament that was taking place here at the time. But with everything that happened, we didn’t get to see the sights quite so much due to a mare that Rarity knew well stealing her designs and with Rarity presenting after that whorse of a pony, it could look like Rarity had copied that other mare, rather than the other way around. So we all ended up helping with Rarity’s emergency fashion line; Hotel Chic.

Let me tell you, there are a lot of sight to see in a city as big as this. From authentic Istallion pizzerias to huge financial offices on Wall Street to five star hotels where I cringe to think what even a night in one of those must cost! And that’s not to mention the sheer variety of cultures of ponies from all over the world. It’s like a pony-watcher’s pilgrimage site. For those who had any kind of interest in ponies, then this city was the number one vacationing destination, where they tried to make it at least once in their lives.

But we eventually made it to New Yoke’s Royal Guard headquarters. I said eventually, because even the airspace over New Yoke was regulated by patrol ponies and lightning sphere traffic lights.

So, eventually I hovered in front of the main doors to New Yoke’s Royal Guard headquarters.

“Do you think you’ll be alright on your own?” Spring Breeze asked me, sounding hesitant.

“I’m Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash! I don’t think, I know that I’ll be alright now that I’m where I want to go! Thanks, Spring Breeze.” I waved to her watching her fly off to do Celestia knows what. Probably look for troublemakers and help ponies who need help. I opened the door to the front entrance. “Take me to your leader!” Heh, I’ve always wanted an opportunity to say that!

One of the guards was being snarky because he replied with: “But Celestia isn’t even here! Luna isn’t either!”

I laughed, “Ha! Good one! But seriously, I really do need to speak with your head honcho,” I responded.

A dark grey earth mare with a strong azure colored mane and tail with Vivid cerulean eyes limped out of an office with ‘Captain of the Royal Guards; New Yoke division and beneath it was a plaque that read Street Beat. What really caught my attention was a large jagged scar running down the side of her face, from just behind where her eyes were all the way down to the bottom of her muzzzle. There was also an x shaped-scar on the upper part of her right foreleg.

“Ah, the famous Rainbow Dash. What brings you here? Aren’t you currently in the middle of a race?” Street Beat inquired.

“Yes ma’am!” I snorted in amusement at how deeply the Wonderbolts Academy drilled into us the addressing of ponies of captaincy rank. “That’s actually part of the reason why I’m here. Because while we were flying along our course, my coach spotted a ship with a spiky dragon shadow on it. They were engaging in slavery and foal trafficking. My coach and I managed to defeat the bad guys and rescue the foals, but now we, that is my coach and I would like to turn them over to you guys so that the foals can begin being reunited with their families.”

“I see. Well I certainly can understand how that would hinder your ability to race. Alright, I’ll send a squad of guards to bring the foals you rescued back to HQ and we’ll see what we can do to reunite them with their families. Officer Nightstick, front and center!” Street Beat bellowed.

I watched at a cream colored mare with a pastel yellow mane and a moderate magenta colored eyes stood before Street Beat and saluted. “You summoned, ma’am?”

“It has come to my attention that Rainbow Dash and her coach rescued some foals intended to be sold in the black markets or used for labor. I want you to gather nine ponies to go and retrieve these foals and once they’ve arrived at HQ, then you and your squad are to begin to research on these foals’ families. Anything that might help facilitate getting these foals back with their families,” Street Beat ordered. “Also, talk with the foals and find out who’s been with these slavers the longest and use that to narrow your search through the Lost Foals report bulletins.”

“Yes ma’am! I’ll get started right away, ma’am!” Officer Nightstick replied, before hurrying off to assemble her squad.

“Would you like a cider or perhaps some water, Rainbow Dash?” Street Beat asked me as I watched Officer Nightstick scurry off to assemble and prep her squad.

“I would like some cider, if you have the non-alcoholic stuff. I mean, I like the alcoholic stuff, but I’ve learned not to try mixing athletic activities and the hard stuff. Usually doesn’t end well for me. Especially if you crash from high enough up. Alcoholism is one of the leading causes of death among pegasi. That’s why I really like the slogan the pegasus Royal Guard division started spreading on billboards about ‘If you’re drunk, don’t fly, be safe and arrive alive.’”

“Of course. I’m actually happy to hear you say that, since a lot of athletes seem to try to do anything to enhance their performances and beat records, sometimes even trying illegal performance drugs and turning to drugs and alcoholism when they don’t win,” Street Beat said as she poured the cider from a glass gut and into a smaller drinking glass for me.

I chuckled, “Maybe if they spent more time training. I mean, when I’m not working as Ponyville’s head weather mare or hangin’ with my girls, then I’m training. Because I know full well the temptation and consequences the trap of complacency bears, not only to me, but to other ponies as well. I mean, there are few pegasi who can actually give me a challenge. One of them being Lightning Dust.”

“Yes, I’d heard about that. Nasty business, that,” Street Beat replied with wrinkled muzzle as she bared her teeth in a sneer of disdain with her brows furrowed and her eyes narrow as she stared at me. “I’m honestly appalled that she even made it past the screening process, much less was made a wingpony!”

“I honestly don’t think that she’s a bad pony. She just needed to be shown how her disregard for the safety of her fellow Pegasi was alienating her and how her behavior and attitude would have affected any teamwork maneuvers that we would have been practicing later on. … Well, those that were still around that is. She wrote to me about a week before the G.E.R. was supposed to start. She informed me that she’s a wingpony again, but that the coaches are watching her more closely for violations to the new safety regulations. She even wrote that she’s sincerely going about to her fellow pegasi trainees and apologizing for how she’s treated them. To be honest, I think this whole experience has been an eye opener for her and being revoked of her wingpony status showed her that endangering her fellow pegasi wasn’t okay. So I actually have high hopes for her once she joins the ‘bolts,”  I expounded.

“Hmm … well, I certainly don’t know her as well as you do, so I think I’ll just wait to see if her attitude change lasts or not. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that she has decided to change, but it’s so easy to fall back into old habits. Especially when faced with tough times and challenges. But only time will tell, I guess,” Street Beat replied and poured herself a glass of cider and proceeded to drink about 1/3rd of the cider in the glass.

Street Beat and I began to talk about more our friends and the activities we participated with them, the crime rates of New Yoke and what the Royal Guards were doing to bring the rates even lower, and the kind of things we want to do before we get too old to do anything.

However, what happened back in Bearmingham weighed too heavily on my conscience and I wanted to be sure that the Guards here would give her the proper care and hopefully help that that poor filly. I took a sip of the cider, bracing myself to release the ugly and torrid history of that filly that I saved. “Okay, you remember how earlier I told you that we rescued a group of colts and fillies from some slavers, right?”

“Yes,” Street Beat looked intently at me, her obvious experience showing as she patiently waited for me to continue.

“Well, there’s one more pony. Her name’s Lemon Daze … and … and she’s been … sexually abused,” I choked out, my forehooves covering my eyes, as my tears streamed down, before falling into a small puddle, each teardrop shimmering like a fragile crystal, before splattering and joining the larger puddle.

“Is this true, Rainbow Dash?” a calm looking Street Beat asked, as she leaned back in her chair and took a deep draught of cider from her cup.

“I’m no Applejack, I know. But this isn’t something that I’d ever care to lie about. Just the thought of something like that happening to Scootaloo scares the buck out of me and makes my blood boil. There’s a filly out there, that’s probably hurting and questioning her own self-worth right now. I’m asking that you and your guards look properly after her, since I won’t be able to,” I pleaded, looking ashamed.

“What about the scum committing these crimes?” Street Beat asked in a soft voice.

“I certainly intend to let Celestia know when we hit Canterlot. Though I’m not too familiar about Celestia’s policy regarding such despots. She’ll either send the Council of Friendship to deal with the problem, or send a specialized task force of the elites of the Solar and Lunar Guards to address the problem,” I speculated.

“Well, I can’t promise miracles, but we’ll try to do our best by her,” Street Beat swore solemnly.

“I hope that whoever gets sent to deal with that … spawn of Sombra beats him to within an inch of his life, or else I’m not gonna be satisfied.”

“And if Celestia does choose to send you?” Street Beat queried.

“Then I’ll be first to beat that sewer scum within an inch of his life and then we’ll go from there,” I reasoned.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Rainbow Dash. I think you should really let somepony that has years of experience, like Celestia and Luna handle meeting out his punishment. As it stands, I will need to send a report to Celestia about your intentions towards the perpetrator,” Street Beat informed.

“It’s probably for the best. If she sent me, I’d probably pound him into paste just so that another filly wouldn’t have to be his victim. Plus I still have my race to focus on. I just wanted you to know what happened to Lemon Daze so that you can treat her right,” I informed her.

“Of course,” Street Beat replied.    

A short time later, Officer Nightstick came back to the chief and saluted crisply before informing, “The squad is ready to depart, Ma’am!”

“Excellent! Take Rainbow Dash with you and retrieve the little ones so that we can get started on reuniting the little ones with their families,” Street Beat commanded.

I hoofed my empty glass to Street Beat. “Thank you, Ma’am for the cider.” I smiled as she nodded to me and I turned to Officer Nightstick. “They should be somewhere in Central Park. That’s where my trainer said that he’d take them,” I informed Officer Nightstick.

We were now before the assembled squad. Officer Nightstick stood before them before clearing her throat. “Right then, this should be a simple escort and retrieval mission. We have a bunch of foals that we’re going to be bringing back to HQ and then we’ll begin information gathering in order to reunite these foals with their rightful families! Move out!”

I flew beside Officer Nightstick, while the other members of the squad followed the others in a single file. I continued to take in the sights until we got to the first sight of widespread greenery in the midst of the concrete and cobblestones of New Yoke. Being from the village of Ponyville, we frequently encountered natural greenery, so Central Park wasn’t impressing me all that much, but for ponies that lived in the Big Apple, it was probably one of the few places they could go to to enjoy nature. It was kind of a saddening thought, to be honest.

I looked over to Officer Nightstick, “It’ll probably be easiest to find the foals if we look for my trainer. So keep an eye out for something that looks like a tailless monkey in clothes and a black dragon.”

“What!? They let a dragon near the foals!?” Nightstick exclaimed loudly in surprise, the other squad members and ponies walking past her stopping to look at what the commotion was.

“Toothless? He acts like a big foal himself. He wouldn’t hurt them,” I tried to reassure her.

“He must be something else, since all the dragons that I know are grouchy, irritated, and insular. They’re more interested in hoarding gold, gems and jewelry, rather than ‘stooping’ down to play with pony foals.” She turned to face the squad as they gathered around her once again. “Right, so according to Rainbow Dash, we should keep an eye out for a tailless, clothes-wearing monkey and a black dragon, because the foals should be with them!” she informed loudly.

“Yes ma’am!” The squad replied in near perfect unison.

“If you find them, fire a red flare into the air. The rest of you know what to do after that,” Officer Nightstick instructed. “Dismissed!”

The ponies from the squad scattered. I will admit that it was a well diversified squad with three earth ponies, three unicorns and three pegasi. I joined the pegasi in the sky as I looked for Hiccup, Toothless and the foals that inadvertently joined us in our travels.

{C]  {T}  {D}  (Hiccup)  {C}  {T}  {D}

I watched the sun’s gradual movement across the sky as I took a break from playing with the colts and mock-wrestling them. I’m definitely going to be carrying away some fresh bruises, but the colts had difficulty knowing just how hard some of their accidental blows hit. Toothless, on the other hand, was swarmed with the colts as they tried to ‘conquer the ferocious dragon.’ It had been about an hour since we’d arrived, judging by the gradual movement of the shadows. I spotted one of the pegasus Royal Guard ponies looking around for something … or someone. “Hey! Over here!” I called and waved my arms and hands frantically, trying to get his or her attention.

It seemed like several moments before they spotted me and hovered right over my position and shot a red flare into the sky before finding a decent area between the trees to come down to more of my level.

“Are all of the foals here?” I heard the guard ask me.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on them the whole time.” I replied before turning my head back to the playground they had been playing on. The little foals mainly focused on climbing this square shaped stair-like structure and sliding down the slides on it, though there was also what looked to be a small winding snake wall, before it joined a straight section. At even intervals in the stone wall make me think of the gap between merlons, though these were very narrow in width. They were approximately one to two inches in width, while an actual merlon gap could be several feet apart. Apparently some of the older foals would build up speed and approach the straight section and then would try a kick-flip or a spin on the wheeled boards they were riding on. I was rather interested in watching these older foals making use of this apparently useless miniature battlement. Especially one that snaked this way and that, like a mason gone mad part way through the foundation laying. Ponies are weird, sometimes. Though these permanent magical items that the shopkeepers were trying to sell to the ponies of New Yoke were endlessly fascinating.

The guard reached into a satchel he carried around his neck and fired a bright red flare into the sky, watching it a few moments to make sure it stayed lit, I guess. The bright glowing red must have been endlessly fascinating for the foals, as they stopped whatever game they were playing and started to gather around the guard and I, looking upward at the glowing flare.

The guard and I watched as 11 foals gathered around us, chattering with each other excitedly. I clapped my hands, getting their attention. “Right then. This nice pony is going to tell you what’s going to happen.” I made a pushing gesture with my palms facing forward, with my hands pointed downward and moving my arms forward, gesturing for the guard pony to tell the foals before him what’s likely going to happen to them.

“Right then! My name is Swift Wind and I understand that you little ones have been on quite an adventure! So, once my friends arrive, we’re going to escort you to a safe place where we’ll do our best to reunite you with your families.”

It wasn’t too long before eight guards and one Rainbow Dash arrived on the scene. Each guard took a foal under their supervision, while what I would guess was the lead pony took two. I smiled and waved goodbye as the foals waved to me before trotting off with the guard ponies. The filly that Rainbow Dash rescued came trotting back and looked to Rainbow Dash.

“Will you rescue me, if they can’t find me a home?” the filly asked Rainbow Dash with upturned brows, large watery eyes and lightly biting the bottom of her trembling lip. I had to turn my back on the filly because she was tugging on my fatherly urge to protect and reassure made make a promise that I might not keep.

“Sure kid, what’s your name again?” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Lemon Daze,” the foal replied, before trotting back to the guard’s side and both of them heading to wherever the guard pony’s headquarters was located, I think.

{C] {T} {D} (Rainbow Dash) {C} {T} {D}

I watched the foal until I could no longer see her amongst the hoof traffic of New Yoke. My emotions and mind was as tumultuous as a twister. So many questions and doubts raced through my mind faster than even the most awesome Wonderbolt in a race competition. Did she think I would rescue her by adopting her? Was I even ready to bring up a foal? Did I even like foals? I mean, I’m not exactly Cheerilee, surrounding herself with foals for most of the day. I mean, could I even give a foal like that the love and care that she might need? I shook my head as though to rid myself of the questions floating through my head. I can think about that stuff later. Right now, I needed to focus on the here and now.

“Right! Now that we don’t have to look after the foals anymore, then let’s head for the New Yoke checkpoint on the west side of the city, near the city limits and find out what my current ranking is and restock on what we need. Race you there!

I grinned as Hiccup scrambled to get Toothless’s gear on and get in the sky. I zoomed off in the western direction, but at the edge of the park, flew around the perimeter until I was on the opposite point from where I had entered the park, and being as quiet as I could, I landed and tip-hoofed up behind Hiccup. Toothless totally saw me, but from the toothless grin he was giving me, I knew he wouldn’t give me away. Hiccup was busy cinching the belts to his saddle and checking it for any weakness or signs that it might fail, trying to do this as quickly as he could, so he could try to catch up with me.

“Boo.”

Hiccup gave a shout of surprise and from the grunt of displeasure from Toothless, he’d probably cinched one of the securing belts too much.

I couldn’t help but roll in the grass, tears streaming from my eyes as I howled with laughter. “Ha ha! Oh Luna! You should have seen your face! Bwahahahaha!”

“Very funny, Rainbow Dash,” I heard him say, but from the slight upturn in his mouth and soft occasional chuckle, I could tell he found amusement from the little prank I’d played on him.

Once Hiccup had finished with his checking of the straps and belts he climbed into the saddle.

“Alright Toothless, let’s hit the skies!” I could hear him yell, somewhat excitedly.

I once again took the lead and looked about the sky for the bright colored magi-torches which marked the racetrack, or a large gathering of carriages with G.E.R. emblazoned on the side, as that would indicate the checkpoint for the sections of track which went over the lands the track was positioned over. I really wanted to find out what my current ranking is and I wonder what the rest of this race might hold in store for me and Hiccup.



> Chapter 9: Ponyville Panic!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Nine: Ponyville Panic!



{C} {T} {D} (Rainbow Dash) {C} {T} {D}


“Let’s see here. Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash. Hmm. Ah! Here you are! Okay, I’ve got you for this checkpoint. It looks like you fell to the last third of the racers. But a couple of days ago, you were vying for first place with Tornado Alley. What happened?” one of the official checkpoint ponies asked me.

“My coach, his dragon and I rescued a bunch of foals from some slavers and we weren’t about to abandon to fend for themselves after we rescued them. Being number one isn’t worth it if I have to constantly be reminded that I abandoned a bunch of foals who needed us, just so that I could be number one in a race. Besides, this is actually a rather decent handicap for me. I still plan to win, but whether I actually will or not is anypony’s guess at the moment,” I informed the New Yoke checkpoint official, whose badge plaque informed me that her name was Tally Taker.

I rejoined Hiccup and Toothless as we all went to a nice shady place whereupon Hiccup and I started to take inventory of what we had and taking note of what we needed to restock up on. Toothless, the big goof rolled over onto his back in a sunny spot nearby with his tongue hanging out and eyes closed as he basked in the warm sun. 

“Hmm, well it looks like I need to restock up on a couple of flares, a roll of bandages and travelling food and water. What about you Rainbow Dash?” I heard Hiccup ask me.

“Well, I really only need the travelling rations and water. Otherwise, I’m good.”

I led Hiccup to a replenishing station, where wooden crates were piled high with various supplies contained in each box.

A spindly looking stallion looked at Hiccup and ran off screaming something about a monster and yelping help when not screaming about the monster.

“Well, that went swimmingly.” I could hear Hiccup comment, with a slight upturn at the corner of his mouth.

“Well, with your looks, you won’t be winning any Equestrian Beauty contests,” I teased.

I grinned even more as I heard Hiccup laugh. “Heh, Odin, Vili and Ve broke the mold for beauty when they made me!” I heard him joke.

“Who are they?”

“Who? Odin, Vili and Ve? They’re the gods of us Vikings. They’re especially important as they created the first Vikings.” 

“Huh, I’m sure Twilight would try to know everything you know about them and then write a huge book about them. Anyways, wait here and I’ll see if I can’t find somepony that won’t run off at first sight and think you’re a monster. I mean you’d think that even though they’re rare enough, that a pony would have seen a gryphon or minotaur enough to not think anything that isn’t a pony is some kind of monster.”

“Well, it’s better than how a Viking would react to a monster.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because they’d either try to beat it into submission, or kill it.”

“Why didn’t you try to do that when we first met?”

“I’m not exactly your average Viking. Plus, after meeting talking dragons, deer folk and gryphons, I was pretty much ready to accept whatever weird stuff this world has to offer.”

“Huh, okay … well, I’m going to see if I can’t get somepony to help us, otherwise I’ll ask if we can just help ourselves to the supplies.”

I flew off to help find somepony that could either help or answer the questions that I’d be asking, if they weren’t able or willing to help at the restocking stations.


{C} {T} {D} (Hiccup) {C} {T} {D}


I decided to take this time to check my flying gear and look for any obvious signs of wear and tear and to take care of the gear that didn’t need to be swapped out. Toothless was sniffing around the crates and scaring the crap out of the more dragon-shy ponies. He wasn’t even showing any signs of being violent, he’d just look at them and they’d flee as though they were living during the events foretold regarding Ragnarök. I did keep an eye on him, since I didn’t want Toothless to be attacked by anything wanting to hurt him. Not after what happened at the G.E.R. guard post where Zephyr was stationed.

Speaking of Zephyr, I wonder how she’s doing? Sure we might not have left her all that long ago, but she had been pleasant company. I smiled as I remembered me teasing her about her name. I think it might’ve helped with getting her to accept a couple of strange creatures that had appeared before her. 

I mean, I’m sure she probably saw all manner of mysterious and wondrous creatures that she’d probably employed at one point or another and just having another strange creature in front of her was just a daily event. But for Toothless and I, who came from a world where we didn’t have talking dragons, elemental dryads, or strange-looking, intelligent talking ponies, it was wondrous. To see the different forms and their strange cultures as they lived their lives. If you ignored what they looked like and some of their culture, it wouldn’t be all that hard to imagine that I was talking to a fellow Viking. Well, with the exception they wouldn’t try to beat something senseless, or even try to kill it, when encountering something strange and new.

Though now that I think about it, I wonder if the usual Viking response to bash first and ask questions later, after whatever it is they were bashing was either beaten senseless, or dead is a hereditary thing, or if living in a climate where cold rains, ice, and snow year round as a matter of course just makes us Vikings short tempered? To vent their anger and frustration about having to live on an island like Berk, where it seems like the weather is always against us? Maybe I might’ve turned out that way, if I hadn’t been born such a hiccup.

I continued with checking over my flying gear, oiling the leather fabric with a small jar of fish oil that I kept in my travelling bag. Or removing the stuff that was starting to look frayed, cracked or thin. As I took care of my flight gear, I gradually started to become aware of an intense desire to go for a flight with Toothless. To soar the skies high above the world, in all of its breathtaking majesty and just spend some quality time in the air with my best friend. Maybe I’ll ask him if he’s up for it after we stop at the next point wherever Rainbow wants to make camp.

I was suddenly broken from my reverie as Rainbow tapped me on the shoulders. 

“Hey … are you alright, dude?”

“Hmm? Oh! Yeah, I was just thinking.”

“Heh, Luna’s sake, it sounds like you and Twilight would get along well.”

“Perhaps, but I won’t know until I actually meet her.”

“Nah, Twilight’s … not cool, but she’s a great friend. Well, once she got assigned by Princess Celestia to study the magic of friendship. I don’t really fully understand it myself, but me and my girls can punch out some kickass rainbows when facing down bad guys.”

I couldn’t help but snicker when she said that.

“Hey! Don’t laugh!”

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just that I tried to imagine Vikings trying to use rainbows to defeat the bad guys. Rainbows don’t work like that back home, so the whole image of trying to defeat bad guys with rainbows and friendship power is just ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that it can work for you guys like that, but it just wouldn’t work like that back home. I mean friendships back home are wonderful and with it we can accomplish so much more than we could by ourselves. And true friends are to be cherished, since a true friend is worth more than all the money in the world. But we still need our Viking weapons and our dragons to defeat our enemies.

Though I am curious. What does your friendship magic do to your bad guys? Does it gives them a change of heart or something? Why would they stop attacking just because they got hit by some pretty colors?”

“Well, it’s not exactly cut and dry. With Nightmare Moon, it purged her of her jealousy towards her sister, reverting her to who she was before she let her jealousy consume her. With Discord, it turned him into stone so that he couldn’t continue making chaos for the ponies of Equestria. For Sombra, it annihilated him, because of his dark magics endangering the peace and prosperity for the crystal ponies of the Crystal Empire. With-”

I held up a hand and interjected, “Hold up, crystal ponies? Like made with actual crystals and everything?”

“I don’t really understand it myself, but while they’re fully flesh and blood ponies like me, there’s something about the magic that they’re born with that gives them the translucent look and the light makes them look as though they’ve been chiseled out of a larger block of crystals. Though, even ponies not born in the empire can look like a crystal pony once they’ve entered into the realm of the Crystal Empire.

With Tirek, however, it returned all of the magic he stole from the ponies of Equestria and then locked him in a cage and returned him to the pits of Tartarus,” Rainbow explained.

“Tartarus? What’s that?”

“It’s a place where bad guys go to suffer eternal punishment.”

“Hmm … I don’t really know what to say to that. Did you find someone that would help us, or can we help ourselves to the supplies?”

“The G.E.R. must have less strict punishments about abandoning their posts in the face of danger. They told us that we could help ourselves, since none of them wanted to get anywhere near Toothless.”

“You did let them know that Toothless wouldn’t harm them, right? At least not without serious provocation or endangering me or himself. And honestly, given how tough dragon scales are, anyone wanting to hurt him would have to have some serious weapons. Don’t get me wrong. Dragons, even tough ones like Toothless are able to be wounded or killed, but you’d need some serious agility, weapons and not an insignificant amount of luck to harm or kill a dragon.”

“I tried, but I guess with our past experiences with dragons and how irritable and easily provoked they are, there aren’t very many ponies that have had a positive encounter with a dragon. That’s why Spike is so important to us, not only as a friend, but as a pony-raised dragon. Because living as a pony, while yet remaining a dragon shows both ponykind and dragonkind that it is possible for dragons and ponies to live together in harmony.”

Rainbow and I rummaged through the crates looking for the stuff we needed to stock up on until—

“Ah ha! Score!” crowed Rainbow from a crate several crates behind me.

“What’d you find?” I asked, still looking for food for Toothless, replacement flares for me, replacement bandage wraps for me and I was still looking for travelling rations as well as an eye out for fresh water. I did want to top off my canteens and Toothless’ water skin, as I had no idea what kind of terrain we might run into in this foreign country of Equestria. Though if Rainbow had found rations for herself and I, then I figured I could stock up on my travel rations and at least eliminate one thing off of my mental checklist of stuff I needed to stock up on.

I weaved through the clutter of overturned crates and Odin knows what some of that stuff on the ground was. “Find anything good?” I asked her once I drew next to her, peering into the crate at a really strange sight! “What in Helheim is that!?”

“This is the greatest stuff to have as trail rations, Hiccup. We load up on this and we could travel for about a month on this stuff!”

“Yeah, but what is it? It looks like if a Viking had taken gruel and dried it out until it was a complete solid and then cut it into those rectangular bars.”

“What you’re looking at is a mixture of wheat, rice, oats and alfalfa mixed with peanuts, cashews and almonds and then mixed in honey with a powdering of sugar over it all. Do you know how much energy is contained in one bar, Hiccup? A lot, that’s what! Grab as much as you want. Because these are delish!”

I stuffed several handfuls of the sweet treats into my rucksack and once I was satisfied, I checked on Rainbow to see if she needed any help. From the look of it, she definitely did, because she was grabbing each one individually in her teeth and dropping it into her saddlebags. I helped speed things up by scooping a bunch of the bars in my hands and depositing it in her saddlebags.

“What is that stuff wrapped around the bars? It doesn’t look like any paper I’ve ever seen.” I inquired of Rainbow Dash.

“You’ve never seen wax paper before?”

“Is that what that stuff is called? How do they get the wax in the paper?”

“I don’t know! Ask Twilight after the race, she’d probably know.”

“Alright.”

I saw several barrels and used a crowbar to open one. “Toothless! Fish!” 

I watched as Toothless bounded over, knocking the open barrel over and began gorging himself on the fish.

“If you ponies are herbivores, why do you even keep fish?” I asked Rainbow.

“Duh, because we have gryphons, dragons and other fliers in this race. Plus pegasi like fish for easy to replenish energy. Especially the pegasi that live near the ocean, such as Manehattan.”

“What about you?”

“I like fish, but it’s hard to get anything but the farm raised stuff the farther inland you go.”

“Huh. Well, while Toothless is filling himself up on fish, I need to find the flares and bandage wraps, so keep an eye out. Plus fresh water for the canteens and water skins.”

It took a while longer before we found a large barrel filled with blue and red flares, which I grabbed several of each, and found a chest full of bandage rolls, of which I took several. We opened several more barrels before we found barrels of fresh water, which Rainbow and I topped off our canteens and I fully filled Toothless’ water skin.

“Alright, we’re restocked, so let’s fly!” I heard Rainbow exclaim as she hovered over the ground as she was often wont to do.

I ran back to where I had left all my flying gear, while giving a sharp whistle for Toothless to come to where I was. The big lug bounded over barrels and through crates, and making an even bigger mess than when Rainbow and I started looking through the stuff. I put on the flying blanket over Toothless’ back and then placed the saddle over it. It took me a short while to ensure that the belts were cinched securely, and then I started to load Toothless’ water skin, hanging it from a couple of hooks, while the other side I hung my rucksack. I hung my pack about midway behind my saddle, before swinging myself into the saddle. I made sure that the belts on my glidingsuit were securely fastened to the saddle hooks. I called out to Toothless: “Take us on up, buddy!”

“We’re going to have to push ourselves if you’re going to get back to the front of the race!” I informed Rainbow.

“We’ll do that after Canterlot! I want to visit my friends in Ponyville for a day, and then the following day I need to see Princess Celestia and inform her of what’s been going on overseas!”

“How far away to Ponyville!”

“We should get there in about an hour! Just look for a village next to a really thick forest! Also keep an eye out for an apple orchard that ends at the borders of a thinner, neighboring forest. It’s named Whitetail Woods!”

“Got it!”

The flight to Ponyville wasn’t too exciting, well, unless you count the fright a flock of fruit bats gave us when they started flying in the night sky as we soared over the apple orchards. I was impressed with the number of apple trees that one of the farms had, though.

“What are you going to do for a place to sleep for you and Toothless?” I heard Rainbow ask me.

“I did see some G.E.R. tents set up just on the outside of that farm’s fence. I figure that I’ll see if Toothless and I can’t share a tent.”

“Cool! Well I’m gonna go sleep in my bed tonight, ‘cause let me tell you sleeping on a cloud mattress is perhaps the most comfortable mattress in the entirety of existence. Seriously, you don’t know what you’re missing out on, if you’ve never slept on one. See you in the morning!” With that farewell, I watched her zoom off towards this massive cloud palace in the sky. This place looked like it could house anywhere from five hundred to a thousand ponies in that place and still have room to spare!

“Let’s head back to that camp we flew over Toothless, the one next to the farm!” Toothless nodded as I made minute adjustments to his tailfin, so we could bank and head back in the direction where we saw those G.E.R. stuff.

Suddenly I heard what sounded like somebody banging a metal ladle against a frying pan and the panicked yelling of some pony yelling out:

“Dragon! To arms! To arms! Civilians, to the nearest pond or lake!”

Soon there were a bunch of ponies carrying spears and swords, while other ponies were wreaking havoc in the camp as the ponies not part of the G.E.R. Guard were running into each other, tents, supplies and even some of the guard, in their panicked rush to run in any direction other than where Toothless was approaching.

“Hold!” I cried out, not wanting them to hurt Toothless. Sure, he’s a dragon, and his scales make an excellent protective armor, but that didn’t mean that he was completely invulnerable. Plus, what kind of friend would I be, if I didn’t do what I could to keep my best bud from getting hurt?

Toothless hovered just outside of throwing reach of the pony spears, but I could see some of the pegasi start flying with short swords, crossbows and a weird shackle or bracer looking thing around their hoof with a small blade attached to it.

“Ho, dragon! Why are you attacking this camp!” some pony yelled.

“We’ve come seeking shelter and rest! No harm will come to you ponies. Just put down the weapons!” I responded. 

“Ha! So you can do what? Roast the lot of us where we stand and make a meal of us without a fight!?” a pony shrouded in the dark of night called back.

“Fine! Don’t believe me! Can I get you to at least swear on whatever you hold sacred that you won’t start fighting with my dragon without proper provocation? And by that, I mean an actual attack!” I queried the pony shrouded in the dark.

“We swear by Celestia’s sun and Luna’s moon that no harm shall befall you, with the exception of an attack being initiated by you, dragon!” the pony replied.

Toothless started to gradually decrease his altitude, though I noticed about nine pegasi encircling Toothless, looking ready to attack if he even so much as made a hostile looking move.

“Right. Toothless and I are Rainbow Dash’s trainer, and so I’d like to speak with the Quartermaster about getting a tent for my buddy Toothless and I,” I informed as I dismounted from Toothless’ back and started unhooking things from the saddle’s hooks and removing the saddle and saddle blanket and leaving him as naked as the day he was born. Well with the exception of his fake fin, but honestly, it’s pretty much become as much a part of him as my fake leg has for me. Sure it feels strange, not having it, and sometimes it even feels like it’s still there, but now it feels more natural to have the fake leg, than I would feel without it. Plus, hopping to get places would get really, really old after awhile.

A seasoned looking mare stepped into the glow the unicorns were casting from their hooves, while one by one, torches were being set up. Her coat had the brown of an oak tree’s bark, while her mane looked like the dark green of the ferns that grow on the forest floor. But what really marked this mare as experienced, were the various scars riddling her body and face. Some looked smooth, like a clean, straight-bladed cut, while others looked jagged, as if she’d taken a hit by a saw-toothed blade. Her eyes were as the blue of bluebells. I still couldn’t get over how big their eyes were. By Odin’s beard, with eyes like that, they should be able to see in nearly pitch black conditions! How they can tolerate being out in the sunlight, with eyes as big as that, I may never know. Whatever it is, it must work for them, since many of them are awake during the daylight hours.

“I’m going to have to ask that you leave the dragon outside the camp,” came the gravelly sounding voice of the Quartermaster.

“What? Why!? Toothless won’t hurt anybody that isn’t a threat to him!” I tried to explain.

“Our relationship with dragons are … tense at best, and outright bloody at worst. You can vouch for this ‘Toothless’’ being peaceful, but given our history with the draconic races, and because I have to think about the other ponies in the camp, it’ll just be better for everypony involved, if the dragon doesn’t come within the camp,” the Quartermaster pony informed.

“What if he stays in my tent for most of the night? Miss—?”

“Stuffed Pantry. And the dragon stays outside of the camp and that is final! You can stay in the camp, or you can sleep with your dragon, but this ‘Toothless’ stays outside of the camp. He even sets a claw within the camp, then we’ll take it as an act of enmity and will react accordingly.”

She enters one of the few tents still standing, and it looked like it was sturdily built, if it hadn’t gotten knocked over from all the scared ponies running into nearly everything. 

“Here a tent and here’s a sleeping roll,” Stuffed Pantry murmured as she then spat the tent bag handles and the bundled sleeping roll at my feet.

“My thanks for your hospitality,” I replied and picked up the two items, grossed out that some of it had been covered in pony spit. Plus, I was really, really irritated at how these ponies were treating Toothless. I picked up the rest of my gear and whistled for Toothless, who bounded to my side.

“Sorry bud, but it looks like we’ll be camping outside of the camp. They can’t believe me when I tell them that you wouldn’t hurt anyone who isn’t a danger to you!” I spat in disgust and continued storming past the camp’s perimeter, and then throwing everything down once we had gotten about halfway between the camp and Ponyville. 

I picked up some branches and dried grasses and built a smallish conical shape. 

“Light it up, bud?” I asked.

He snorted a brief twin gout of blue flame, which was enough for the tinder to catch, and soon we had a small fire burning merrily, as I used the light of the fire to assemble the tent. I unrolled the bag and chucked the bag into the tent. I used Toothless’ water skin to put out the fire, and held the tent flap open for him.

“Goodnight, Toothless.” I murmured, as I felt him coil himself around me and bringing me into a hug to his really warm underbelly. I heard him sleepily growl in response, smacking his lips several times as we both fell into the blissful embrace of sleep.


{C}   {T}   {D}   *   *   *   {C}   {T}   {D}


“C’mon, Hiccup! Wakey wakey, sleepyhead! You going to sleep all of Celestia’s day away?” I heard the familiar voice of Rainbow as she roused me back to the land of the living. I felt myself as I gave a huge yawn. 

“What time is it?” I managed to get out, though a yawn pervaded my attempt at speaking it plainly.

“It’s nearly eight in the morning, sleepyhead! Put the tent away and the sleeping roll, and let’s get a move on, already! Why are you even sleeping way out here?”

“It would seem that your fellow ponies are really cautious around the dragon-folk.” I replied with a scowl.

“Sounds rough. I’m sorry they gave you guys such a hard time.”

“It’s not your fault. Though I would like to go someplace where dragons aren’t shunned and feared. It’s kind of getting old,” I replied as I rolled and retied the twine bindings which kept the sleeping roll in it’s roll-looking shape. Then I removed the tent cover, chuckling as my sleepy buddy growled and covered his eyes with his forelegs. The tent was soon in its bag as well.

“You mind hanging with Toothless while I return these? Also, what are we going to do about breakfast?” I asked Rainbow.

“I don’t mind. We’re going to meet up with my Ponyville friends and grab a bite at a restaraunt.”

“What’s a restaraunt?”

“Do you have a place that prepares meals for people in exchange for something?”

“You mean like a tavern?”

“Yeah, like a tavern, but more focused on the meals and not getting everypony drop dead drunk.”

“That’s half of the fun of it! Though we usually go through furniture and several people end up getting hurt. Hazards of being a Viking,” I replied, grinning at my rainbow haired companion.

“I kind of want to go to your home with you, just to see that, now that you mention it.”

“We’ll see. Anyways, I’ll be right back!”


{C}   {T}   {D}   *   *   *   {C}   {T}   {D}


After I had returned the tent and Rainbow, Toothless and I were walking towards Ponyville, a thought came to me.

“What about Toothless? Won’t there be a huge panic when there’s a big black dragon entering the city?”

“Toothless? Nah, I mean, yeah there might be the initial panic, but once they see that he’s not razing the village and isn’t eating ponies, then they’ll just go about their lives as usual. See, we already have a resident dragon. He’s not as big or as impressive looking as Toothless here …” 

I watched as it seemed as though Toothless was puffing his chest out, and walking with a strut to his walking, altering it from how he usually walked.

Great! Now he’s going to have a huge, overinflated image of himself and likely be completely insufferable for the next few days! I felt my forehead smack into the palm of my hand, slowly dragging my hand down my face and giving what I hoped was a miffed look to Rainbow.

Then again, Toothless could probably use with some encouragement, given how dragons had been received at the various places we had been. Some were better than others, but the others made up for the acceptance these other places exhibited.

“Sounds great!” I deadpanned, watching as five other ponies, whom I assumed were Rainbows friends, approached us.

“A- a- a- d- d- d- dragon!” I heard a pale yellow pegasus mare with either butterflies or moths on her butt.

Toothless rolled onto his back, completely exposing his underbelly, and a blissful look on his face as his tongue lolled out, like some great big dog. His display definitely helped the mare to be less afraid of him, though she kept her friends constantly between her and him.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle and I’ve never seen anything like you in either Equestria’s Big Bestiary Book or in the various zoological tomes from around the world!” a purple looking unicorn mare greeted, gazing at me intently.

“Twilight, why must you constantly neglect to mention your royal title?” A white unicorn with a deep purple mane done all fancy complained. “My name is Rarity and the lady who just spoke is her Royal Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

I honestly didn’t know how to react to that revelation, though I did manage to flourish a bow, and simply responded with, “a pleasure.” This seemed to please the unicorn mare enough that she tittered and bat her eyelashes in my direction.

An orange mare with a blond ponytail and a strange-looking hat started to shake my hand vigorously, enough that I was concerned that she might wrench my arm out of its socket. “Howdy Pardner! Name’s Applejack. Nice to meet ya!”

Once she released my hand, I gave her a sheepish grin and waved, and then rolled my shoulder to loosen up the muscles and lessen the tension in that shoulder.

Though somehow I had not been paying attention, and suddenly my vision was filled with a ridiculous amount of pink. Bright blue eyes peered into mine, while I started and leaped back from my sudden invasion of personal space. 

“Gah!”

“Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie! Do you like parties? I love parties and since you’re new to Ponyville, I’m going to throw you a party!” I looked to the others for help, as the mare spoke way too fast for me to understand her.

Princess Twilight came to my rescue and interpreted the pink pony’s rapidfire talking for me. “She says her name is Pinkie Pie and she asked if you like parties, because she loves parties and she told you that she’s going to throw you a party because you’re new to Ponyville.”

“Hold that party for after the race, Pinkie,” I heard Rainbow say.

“What? Why? Don’t you want me to make our new friend feel welcome to Ponyville?” Pinkie replied as the strangest thing happened with her hair. It was as if someone had let out the air in a leather ball. That pink mare did things I didn’t even know were possible!

“Of course I want you to make Hiccup and Toothless feel welcome to Ponyville! But once the sun goes down, Toothless, Hiccup and I will be leaving for Canterlot. I’m still in the middle of a race, you know! Plus, I want to be able to be there for their party!”

“Whyever did you decide to spend time in Ponyville if you’re that pressed for time, Rainbow darling?” I heard Rarity ask her rainbow-maned friend.

I still can’t get over how ponies can actually have rainbow-colored manes. The guys back home are never going to believe what happened to me!

“It’s because you guys are my friends and I wanted to hang out with my friends before I hit the track again,” Rainbow replied.

“We miss you too, Rainbow. Life in Ponyville isn’t just the same without having you here to enrich our lives,” I heard Princess Twilight say.

We had arrived at the restaurant, which had a pony with a feedbag over its muzzle. I prepared myself to see a bunch of ponies with feedbags strapped to their faces.

“What’s up, Hiccup? You look like you’re expecting expecting something scarey to pop out at you!” I heard Rainbow ask me.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Rainbow. I-” I was suddenly cut off as one of the pony patrons screamed out; “Dragon!”

Suddenly the entire establishment was completely empty and looked like a raiding had taken place, with overturned chairs, shattered plates and cups, and tablecloths scattered in a haphazard fashion. I looked to see my buddy with his head lowered and his eyes closed tightly.

I hurried over to him and wrapped my arms around his head, burying his face into the my chest. “Hey, hey. It’s not your fault that they’re scared of dragons. Look at me,” I said, as I had to stumble, because he had turned his head, in a gesture that pretty much indicated that he wanted to do anything but look at me. “Look at me,” I demanded, with more firmness in my tone of voice. I looked into the watery eyes of my best friend. “You are my best friend and even if the whole world turns against you, I’ll always be on your side. And if these ponies can’t look past you being a dragon to see the awesome friend that you are, then that’s their loss!”

I continued to maintain my embrace, and felt one of Toothless’ forelegs wrap around my back and pulling me firmly against him, as I felt my shirt get soaked in my best friend’s tears. I could hear a sniffle from behind Toothless and I, and I spared a glance to see that Rainbow and her friends were looking at us with teary eyes.

I turned my attention back to my buddy and gradually, one by one, I could feel Toothless’ grip on me tighten slightly as his balance shifted. I opened my eyes to see Toothless and I embraced by Rainbow and her friends. I don’t know about Toothless, but I know I definitely felt better as Rainbow and her friends showed care and compassion to two, what must’ve been to them two complete strangers.

Eventually though, I felt lighter and lighter, as one pony after another ended the hugfest. I, also ended my hug with Toothless, opting instead to rub his head. I watched in fascination as Rarity and Twilight started magicking the broken plates and cups into large trashcans. Pinkie and Applejack were righting overturned tables and chairs, while Rainbow and Fluttershy removed soiled tablecloths and put fresh ones on. The homely scene was interrupted by Toothless’ and my stomach growling nearly simultaneously. We then went outside to one of the outside tables and sat down, Toothless sitting at the end of one of the tables.

“You really think they’ll come back?” I asked Rainbow, as my doubts about what she had said about Ponyville’s ponies started to grow, the more time had passed.

“Sure! It’ll be the foals first, because of Toothless being a fully grown-up dragon, and colts wanting to be brave in front of their friends. Then it’ll be nervous parents hovering near the edge, ready to grab their foals and dash. Then it’ll be the rest of Ponyville, once they see that Toothless isn’t some rampaging dragon,” I heard Rainbow state with confidence, something she seemed to have no shortage of; confidence, I mean.

Sure enough, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted colts and fillies peering around buildings, as colts shoved each other in Toothless’ direction, as though daring each other to be the one to get close to the ‘big bad dragon.’ The fillies were a little more … hesitant about approaching Toothless, but once they saw that he wasn’t eating one of the colts who had dashed over and touched Toothless’ tail, they too started to draw near as they gazed in awe and wonder at my best friend.

I also saw adult ponies peering around the buildings, most of them biting their hooves in anxiety. Which was honestly a … weird sight to see. Especially, when hoof shavings dropped to the ground. I mean, shouldn’t their hooves be too hard for them to even want to do that? Like I said, weird.

Soon they were drawing near, gathering around the fence and talking amongst themselves, as eventually the crowd swelled with even more ponies, who were the rest of Ponyville’s residents.

I could hear several ponies asking their fellow ponies things to the effect of: ‘why isn’t that dragon attacking us?’ and ‘are we really safe around it?’ I got up and approached the fence, the ponies backing up as I approached them. Though, having Toothless languidly walk up beside me might have had something to do with that.

I cleared my throat as I spoke as loudly as I could without actually yelling. “Yes, Toothless here is a dragon! Yes, you are safe around him, unless you decide to attack him or me! Yes, he can understand what you say! No, he can’t speak like you or I do! No, that doesn’t make him stupid! He just can’t speak as you or I can! And no, he’s not going to eat you, even if you ask him to!”

“How do you know that dragon isn’t deceiving you!?” somepony in the audience called out.

“Toothless and I are best buds! Besides, if he really wanted to make a meal of me, then he missed plenty of opportunities! Besides, trusting is something that friends do! I trust Toothless not do hurt the innocent and undeserving! And he trusts me not to harm his fellow dragons! Because we all have family, friends, feelings and hopes and dreams! Don’t judge him by his looks, but rather let his actions speak for him! Which one of you has he attacked!? Which of your foals has he harmed!? Which of your neighbors has he eaten!? Anyone!? You judged him before you even got to know him! You hurt his feelings, because you couldn’t look past his appearance to see the great friend that he is!” I clamped my mouth shut after that, before I could start saying the hurtful things I so badly wanted to tell those ponies. How their treatment of Toothless made me sick. I stormed back and sat down heavily at the table, Toothless next to me at the end and nuzzling me, sensing my foul mood. I had closed my eyes once I had sat down, trying to release the tension that I was feeling towards these ponies. Aside from the birdsong and the sound of wind and insects, it was utterly quiet.

I felt what felt like pony hooves wrap around me from behind, and I looked down to see that they were a pale yellow. I was honestly surprised that a pony that behaved as timidly as she did, would even dare to hug a strange creature like me. Well, strange to them. She never said anything, but simply held me as I let out a shuddering sigh. It did wonders for my tense state though, and soon I looked up to my tablemates. I looked around and to my surprise, the ponies that had gathered around the fence had dispersed to carry on with their daily lives. Well, excluding the foals, who continued to stare at Toothless in fascination. Even the restaurant was starting to resume its bustling activity.

A cream colored mare with a mane the color of freshly ripened straw and emerald green eyes placed menus in front of each of us, even Toothless. She had a cutie mark of … I guess it was a bird’s-eye view of an empty dinnerplate and a knife on the left of the plate with the fork and spoon to the right of it, in that order. She also looked to be a pony like Pinkie and Applejack, not having either horn, or wing.

“Howdy folks, my name is Delicious Repast and I’ll be serving you folks today! Can I get you started with anything? Coffee, tea, or perhaps juice?”

Twilight ordered something called Colt-lumbian coffee. Rarity wanted an Earl Grey tea, while Fluttershy went with a Chamomile tea. Applejack wanted orange juice, while Rainbow selected spiced cider to drink. Pinkie went with … Colt-a-cola.

“And for you and your dragon?” Delicious Repast asked me.

“We’ll both have water. Serve Toothless’ water in a half-barrel, if you have one. Or a big bowl, if not.

“Alright, I’ll be back with your drinks,” Delicious informed us.

While we were waiting, I continued to watch Toothless twitch his tail, as the colts among the foals dared each other to pounce upon his tail.

“Ponyville ponies are weird,” I commented, and stared at the six ponies who collectively gasped in offense and then entered into various states of protest.

“Why I never! Humph!” I watched Rarity reply as she turned her nose up at me.

“Now just hold on a sec, pardner!” Applejack protested.

“Not cool, Hiccup; not cool!” This came from Rainbow

“Um—that wasn’t a very nice thing to say,” Fluttershy quietly protested, while hiding behind her curtain of mane.

“Don’t be a meanie pants!” Pinkie yelled, somehow suddenly pressing her nose against mine and glaring at me.

“Would you care to clarify on that statement? It just seems odd to me that you would venture such an opinion, when you are the oddity among us,” this came from Twilight, a curious mix of hurt and curiosity in her expression, which were scarily like a human’s.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I meant does no one here find it strange that the very same ponies who fled upon seeing a ‘ferocious’ dragon, is now just going about life as usual?”

“Well, you reassured them that Toothless wouldn’t eat them, right?” Twilight replied.

“Yeah, but that’s the word of a complete stranger. What if I had been lying just to lure the ponies out?” I queried, trying to understand how these ponies could just trust a complete stranger.

“Well, you didn’t attack the little ones,” Fluttershy quietly responded.

“What if that was just an act to lure the rest of you out of hiding?” I shot back.

“Then your actions would prove ya to be a liar and a deceiver,” Applejack replied, looking strangely serene.

“Huh,” I replied, temporarily at a loss for words. “That’s not how it would have played out in Berk, even with me being Chief. Even now, most Vikings wouldn’t trust a new friend until they had fought alongside in battle, with each other and proven themselves in combat.”

“I’m sorry, darling, but that sounds like an absolutely horrid way to live,” Rarity responded.

“I don’t disagree, but changing a society, especially one that has lived a way of life for some time, change just doesn’t happen overnight. I’d like to think that we’re making progress, now that I’m Berk’s chief.” I replied, watching as the waitress brought everyone their drinks. Well, except Toothless, who needed a couple of earth pony stallions to carry his ‘cup.’

Once all of the drinks had been delivered, Delicious stood next to Twilight. 

“Now, have you folks decided on what you want, or do you need more time?” I heard her say.

“Can this place serve Toothless raw uncooked fish?” I asked, not seeing it on the menu.

“Well, normally we aren’t supposed to serve meat raw, but if that is what your dragon will eat, I’ll see what we can do,” Delicious responded.

“Great! Give him a half-barrel of raw fish then!” I ordered, watching in fascination as she wrote down on a small pad of … parchment? She held it in one upturned hoof, while the strange looking writing utensil hung from her mouth, as she moved head and lips as words began to form on the pad.

“And for the rest of you folk?” I heard her ask, once she had finished writing Toothless’ order down, the writing utensil suspended around her neck on a small piece of rope.

“Actually, I have a question. I can’t eat the grasses, hay and flowers that ponies can. How can I tell if something on the menu is edible for me?” I asked Delicious.

She walked over to my side, opening to the inner part of the menu. 

“Right! If you see a fang and flat tooth image next to a menu item, then it means that it is something that somepony who can’t eat what ponies can. If it is just a fang, then it is more for those who can’t eat anything that a pony can,” Delicious informed me.

“Okay, now I’m just confused. If your restaurant serves food for meat eaters, then why did the ponies of Ponyville run away from him when they saw him in the city?” I asked, completely confused on the inner workings of the ponies of Ponyville.

“Well, because he’s a big dragon, and we haven’t exactly had the best of experiences with dragons in the past. We usually have an unspoken agreement that we won’t bother the dragons if they don’t bother us,” I heard Twilight explain.

“What about the dragon who lives in Ponyville?” I asked, still rather confused.

“Heh, you mean Spike? He’s a baby dragon. Tartarus, he acts more like a pony than a dragon! Rarity’s cat is more ferocious than Spike!” I heard Rainbow reply, trying and failing to choke back laughter.

“Hey! Opal is a complete darling!” I heard Rarity protest.

“Well, Opal just requires someone with the know how to properly handle her.” This came from the still quiet Fluttershy, who hid behind her curtain of hair.

“Yes, as Rainbow says, it is probably a mixture of the fact that he’s a baby dragon and was essentially raised by ponies and behaves mostly in accordance with equine sociological norms, that the residents of Ponyville don’t see Spike anything like a ferocious and dangerous dragon,” I heard Twilight further elaborate. 

“Er, would you folks like some more time to decide, or are you ready to order?” Delicious inquired, looking slightly irritated, her voice certainly sounded somewhat impatient.

I looked at the others at the table. 

“Don’t let me hold you up, feel free to go ahead and order. I’ll just look through the menu some more.” I informed Rainbow and her friends.

“Well, I’ll have a Veggie Supreme omelet, with breakfast potatoes and the southern biscuit in the creamy white gravy,” Twilight ordered.

“I do believe that your crumpets with spiced peach preserves and hot raspberry crumble will do for me, darling,” Rarity informed Delicious, repeating the order several times when Delicious asked her to.

“I’ll have the Tropical Delights crepes with extra whipped cream. I’ll also have the Hearty Mare’s flapjack stack, too!” Pinkie ordered, squirming around in her chair. I don’t think I’ve seen Pinkie be still and motionless at all, since Rainbow introduced me to her.

“I’ll have the Ragin’ Cajun quiche with the stuffed peppers and spicy breakfast potatoes,” Applejack ordered.

“I’ll have what Applejack is having,” Rainbow butted in, giving Applejack a challenging look. “Last one to drink wins!”

“I’ll have the Garden Herb Delight omelet with the seasoned hash browns and buttered grits,” I heard Fluttershy order, Delicious also asking her to repeat the order several times before reading it back to verify she had her order written correctly.

“And you, stallion?” Delicious asked me.

“I think I’ll try this—Mexi-colt breakfast goulash with the sour cream potatoes and the pan-fried seasoned Rainbow Trout,” I ordered lastly. Delicious read the order back to make sure she had gotten it correct.

“Alright folks, I’ll bring out your orders as soon as they’re ready,” Delicious informed us, before heading off in the direction of another table where some ponies were sitting.

“Oh, there are so many things I want to ask you! I want to know everything about you and where you come from!” Princess Twilight replied, the varying murmurs of assent from her friends.

“Well, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to answer your questions, but ask away and I’ll try to answer as best as I can,” I responded, rubbing the back of my head, feeling a little embarrassed at all this attention, especially that royalty would want to know anything about me, was, I’ll be honest, a little flattering.

“Well, I think I can speak for everypony here, but why’d your folks name you—Hiccup?” Rainbow Dash asked before anybody else could ask a question.

“Well, because I was considered a runt amongst Vikings, a ‘hiccup’ in normal Viking body-build. My full name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. The reason why we get saddled with such Odin-awful names is because Viking parents believe that the more horrible your child’s name is, the more likely that such a name will frighten off gnomes and trolls,” I expounded to Rainbow and her friends.

I did manage to smile as I saw Twilight furiously scribbling away on a scroll that was floating in the air.

“Darling, what in Celestia’s name is a troll, or a gnome for that matter?” Rarity asked next.

“Well imagine a troll being about half to three-quarters the height that I am. Now make it look as horrible-looking as possible with grotesquely misshapen body parts and give them a love for eating humans. Gnomes on the other hand, are about the same height as the trolls, but less horrid-looking. Imagine me at half my height and with a big beard and a nightcap or stocking frequently adorning their heads. They’re earth-dwelling folk and can move through dirt and rock as easily as I can walk across the land. They’re very protective of the land’s health and a swift punishment can be expected for anyone who they know is polluting the land. They are most famous for causing rockslides or fatal pitfall traps for anyone who is found guilty of tainting or poisoning the land. There is also a saying that they’re famous for collecting precious ores and gems. But I’ve never met one personally, so I can’t tell you if there’s any truth to that.”

“What about Odin? You mentioned his name, so I image that he is very important to you,” Twilight asked as she still continued to scribble furiously on her scroll.

“He’s extremely important to me and Vikings in general, because we believe that he is one of three gods who created the Vikings. Not only that, but we believe that he is the father of all of the Viking gods which we believe in. He’s constantly seeking after wisdom and knowledge. In fact, he even sacrificed one of his eyes to gain some of the wisdom and knowledge he now has! He pays special attention to those who rule over others and also looks out for the outcasts. But yeah, he’s the most important god in Viking faith,” I explained. 

It didn’t cover everything about Odin, but I also didn’t want to overwhelm Rainbow and her friends with too much information. I could see that only Twilight was really listening to me as she continued to furiously scratch away on her scroll. Rainbow and Applejack looked like they were nodding off, while Fluttershy and Rarity were having a hushed discussion. And Pinkie was … staring at a balloon? Weird, sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever get used to Pinkie’s antics.

“What about systems of governance?” Twilight asked as she temporarily finished whatever notes she had been taking.

“Berk has a chief type of society. The chief makes final decision, though on tough matters he may consult with trusted friends or advisors to help him decide the best possible decision. The chief has trusted men to go among the villagers to make sure his decisions are obeyed and to inform of any dissatisfaction or unrest among his people. For us Vikings of the Island of Berk, we rule the entire island, because we are well capable of defending our island. Things did get a bit hairy when the King of Dragons showed up at Berk, but that’s a story best saved for another time,” I explained, still giving a very simplified explanation of how Berk was ruled.  

“Do you have any pets?” This came from Fluttershy.

“Well, we wouldn’t call them pets, but we have a pretty good relationship with all kinds of dragons. We also raise sheep, but I don’t know if we’d call them pets,” I explained.

“What about the Viking fashions, darling?” Rarity inquired.

“Well, a lot of what we wear either tends to be wool or leather. Some of us Vikings will paint on various dyes, or even soak some of our fabrics in a particular dye. Otherwise, whatever we wear is usually whatever the color that it was originally. Black, brown, and white wools. The leathers are usually brown or a tan color,” I disbursed to the fashionable pony.

“What is this leather, you speak of?” Rarity inquired. “I’ve never encountered a fabric by that name.”

“You probably wouldn’t, considering that leather is cured animal skins,” I explained to her.

“Y- you kill the poor cute little animals and then cure their hides!?” This outburst came from Fluttershy.

“Well, yeah. What you must remember Fluttershy, is that animals aren’t smart like you and I are. And because humans eat both veggies and meat, then it is only proper and befitting that we humans not only keep their populations from growing unchecked, but that they provide us with many things, from the nourishment of their meat, to the protection of their hides, and even their bones are used, for needles, fortune telling and even weaponry. We are thankful for the bounty the animals we’ve killed provides. We even hold a special ceremony after successful hunts to send the animals’ spirits back into the Great Beyond, so that their spirits may return when new babies are born. Remember to keep things in order. From the viewpoint of the plants that you guys eat, it might be considered murder, but most ponies likely never think twice about something like that, because it is just the accepted way of life. For humans it is like that, eating meat is simply an accepted way of life for us, so to kill and eat something is no great pang on our conscience, because it is just how it is,” I tried to explain to Fluttershy in a way that she might hopefully see the point I was trying to get across.

“I still don’t like it, I understand why you do it. I- I just don’t like the idea of harming another living creature. I care for several omnivorous critters, but I have never been able to remove the feeling of unease, knowing that I’m feeding them something that was once alive,” Fluttershy replied.

“Let me ask you something. If you stopped giving them the meat that they need, and you watched as they slowly started to grow weaker and sicker, would that make you feel better then? Would not feeding them the meat that they need ease your troubled mind?” I responded.

“Goodness no!” Fluttershy cried out, looking a mix between shocked and appalled.

“Then you need to decide which is the lesser of the two evils. To feed your meat eating critters the meat of other animals so that they can be well fed and healthy, or to deny them meat and watch as they fade away. Or get a gryphon to feed your meat eaters if you still can’t get over the whole meat eater part with some of your animals,” I ventured.

“Hey Twilight?” I called out, watching as she furiously scribbled in her scroll.

“Just a moment please. I need to get this all down while I can,” she replied as she continued to write in the scroll. “And done! Were you going to ask something Hiccup?”

“Yeah, I happen to notice that you have a whole lot more females than males for your pony population. So why is it that the guys don’t seem to have the same or similar rights as you females do? Just kind of struck me as odd while I traveled with Rainbow Dash,” I asked the princess.

“Yeah, we’re still not certain why the gender ratios are so skewed, but on average there is a colt born for every five fillies. As for the reason why stallions don’t have the rights that mares has is—complicated. Legally, the kingdom grants them the rights they enjoy as Equestrian citizens, but there is a lot of social pressure for stallions to ‘follow the system,’ as it were. To adhere to the traditional model of having a mare with the legal powers to execute his estate, assets and represent his interest in regards to legal matters. 

There are also certain companies that a stallion who, for whatever reason, does not want to be herded or have a relationship with a mare, but still is willing to contribute to helping mares who don’t have their own stallion, but want to have a foal, to have those foals. It isn’t viewed as favorably in a matriarchal society like ours, as it appears as though the stallion is unwilling to adhere to the societal norms of herding with one or more mares. However, these stallions are tolerated since they help mares that don’t have their own stallion to still have their own family, to have their own offspring.

The homosexually oriented stallions have it hardest, usually being hired for jobs that nopony else would want to do. Or not being hired at all. They’re ostracized by their neighbors and family. Banks and businesses will refuse loans, services and goods. So because of this, many of them choose to emigrate to other countries that are more willing as a society to tolerate that kind of lifestyle.

There is also a bit of a schism between a lot of pony folk and the homosexuals, since we don’t really understand why they would choose to live that kind of lifestyle, when there are so many mares that would want to find a stallion that will make them happy. By choosing the homosexual lifestyle, it narrows the pool of choices and hurts the chances of colt foals being born.

As with any lifestyle choice or hot button issue, there are your extremists who would as soon kill you instead of adopting a ‘live and let live’ policy. There are others who aren’t shy about being verbally abusive and degrading, but are not as inclined to engaging in physical altercations. There are those who disagree and aren’t shy in explaining why they are against something. There are those who disagree, but are willing to adopt a ‘live and let live’ policy if the ones they’re in opposition to don’t pursue and persecute them. Then there are those who are either indifferent, or they’re not well informed enough on the issue and the pros and cons voiced by either side to really be an effective ally or dissident for either camp. 

The physically violent are naturally booked and processed by Equestria’s legal system and are prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Especially since Princess Celestia desires that Eqestria be a kingdom which accepts beings from all walks of life and differing beliefs. It is for this reason that she has hate crimes prosecuted as harshly as she does.

Despite Princess Celestia’s age and experience, she confides to me that she is at a loss on how to reduce or eliminate the less violent discrimination without the kingdom descending into either a civil war or going into a regicidal mode. She rules by the consent of the citizens. Because even in spite of her wisdom and experience, even she isn’t powerful enough to fight off an entire kingdom’s worth of an armed and angry army of enraged citizens,” Twilight explained while looking ashamed at Princess Celestia’s and her own inability to satisfactorily address this social issue.

It was at this moment that Delicious came carrying a large tray on her back and some weird collapsible table thing, which when she opened it up, slid the tray upon it, making sure it was well centered, before picking up each pony’s dish and setting it before them. Needless to say, conversation fell off while we ate our freshly cooked meals. That Mexi-colt goulash had some kick to it! I must’ve gone through five glasses of water alone just for that part of the meal! I will say that I did get some amusement as watched Rainbow and Applejack make funny faces as they tried to hold out the longest on not drinking from their glass of water. Rainbow won, but she quickly emptied her glass of water once Applejack threw in the towel. Toothless had nearly emptied his half-barrel of fish and ended up curling up to sleep it off while he waited for the rest of us to finish.

We each finished our meal and left a five bit tip for Delicious’ service, as well as going above and beyond, since she not only served us, but saw to it that even Toothless had something to eat.

“Well Hiccup? What do you want to do now?” asked Rainbow.

I furrowed my brow and just stared at her for a good couple of minutes before speaking.

“Uh, I’m a complete stranger in this town, so I don’t know what there is here or even where to go to get there,” I replied, frowning slightly. “Why don’t you choose someplace or something for us to do?”

“Ooh, ooh! We should totally check out Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie suggested.

“Well, it is closest to our current location so, why not?” Twilight responded.

I watched as Pinkie hopped the entire way there. To be honest, I felt a bit jealous of her seemingly boundless energy. Not to mention that I’d hate to get bucked by her at any time! Seriously, her legs must be hard as rocks! The weird thing about it was that thinking about Pinkie’s legs got my mind going in a direction that I’d rather not put down on paper … or tell, for that matter. Needless to say it got very weird, so I shook my head as though doing so would dislodge such thoughts from my mind.

I guess me getting distracted with my inner thoughts caused me to miss the journey to this ‘Sugarcube Corner’ place, because suddenly in front of my eyes I saw the most unbelievable sight! It looked like a giant gingerbread house! I could even see what looked to be bite marks in the building!

“For the love of Thor, please tell me that’s not really food,” I asked, my eyes continuously trying to deceive me and tempting me with the temptation of otherworldly delights. Toothless was pretty much drooling like crazy looking at the building.

“Nope, not food! Believe me, I’ve tried! Tastes nothing like food! Blech!” Pinkie informed.

I decided to ignore that particular stomach churning thought and turned my attention to the Corner’s insides.

I tell you, if sweets could look like they might kill, then Sugarcube Corner was a mass murdering factory. Seriously, I think I gained a couple of pounds just by breathing their air! Too much of a good thing, I tell you!

“Heya, Mr. and Mrs. Cake! Meet Hiccup! He’s a—” Pinkie looked at me as I tried to look at anything but the sweets. “What did you say you are?”

“Viking,” I stated simply, not trusting my ability to speak too much, because all these sweets and sweet aromas was honestly making me nauseated.

“—Right! A Viking!” Pinkie introduced us with sugar-fueled fervor.

“Well It’s nice to meet you Hiccup!” Mrs. Cake greeted me, and extended her hoof to me, which I shook.

“Likewise.” I responded simply. Unable to take the sweetness of the sugary aromas, I excused myself and took deep breaths of the non-sugar laced air.

After a few moments of waiting, Rainbow and her friends came out, though Pinkie’s hair was strangely flattened.

“Didn’t you like Sugarcube Corner? Didn’t you like Mr. and Mrs. Cake?” Pinkie asked, her head so low that I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had gotten dust on her nose.

“I like them both, but Vikings can only handle so much sugar. That’s why I left early, because too much sugar is bad for us,” I explained to Pinkie.

“So, you aren’t mad at me, or hate Sugarcube Corner or the Cakes?” Pinkie asked.

“Nah. Like I said, I left early because smelling all that sugar and seeing all of those sweet treats wasn’t doing me any favors. Friends again?” I asked Pinkie.

“Silly billy! We were never not friends! Unless you’re a big meanie, like grumpy ol’ Gilda!” Pinkie replied, her hair doing this most amazing and disturbing reinflation of her curly hair.

“Who’s Gilda?” I asked. Was she some kind of pony or perhaps even a species I had never met yet?

“Gilda, was an old gryphon friend of mine, back when we were in the Flight Academy. Then after we parted ways after Flight Academy, something happened to where she cared more about looking ‘cool’ in the eyes of others, than about the feelings of my friends and fellow Ponyvillians,” Rainbow explained.

I hummed at this. Without knowing this Gilda character personally, then I really couldn’t draw any conclusions, but what with my encounters with the gryphon patrol and them treating me with suspicion and distrust, or the gryphon youth that had tried to attack me, my opinion regarding gryphons as a race wasn’t very favorable. But hey, at least they were better than Dagur. Then again, just about anything was better than Dagur and his band of Berserkers.

“I’d totally show you my house and workplace, but uh … . Heh, the sky is where I work,” Rainbow Dash boasted.

“Why would your workplace be the sky?” I inquired, clearly not understanding what she meant by her statement.

“What I mean is that I’m Ponyville’s regional weather manager. There is nopony around who can work the weather as well as I can, or do it as fast as I can, either,” She boasted further.

“Or as humbly as you, either,” I joked.

“Nah, when you’re as awesome as I am, well being bumble is so far from awesome that you gotta learn how to leave the humility behind!” Dash continued boasting, striking a ‘heroic’ pose, with head held high, and a foreleg stretched fully out and as far up as she could get it. Both of her wings were extended upward and she was sporting a slight smile that was full of arrogance, or confidence, or smugness. It might’ve even been a combination of the three. It wasn’t a Fluttershy smile, this was a ‘I’m the best and everybody knows it!’ kind of smile.

“Well then, darling, I believe it is high time that I showed you my business, my pièce de résistance! Onwards!” Rarity cried, as she led her friends and Toothless and I to the strangest building that I had ever seen!

It looked like a mix between a really er, girly yurt, meshed with a princess tower! It had all kinds of light and medium purples, light and medium creams, with other parts having dark burnt orange color. There were pinks and light and medium blues. Seriously, it just screamed girly. Evenly spaced on the outside, from what I could see was a pole or column that was alternating medium and light purples. The door, painted in a bluish-purple with the bordering trim being several shades darker, had two diamond shaped windows, one for the foals to look into, I guess, and the other for fully adult ponies to peer through. On either side of the door were two oval windows, with two half-dome awnings on either side. Well, they weren’t truly half-domes, more like 1/8th half-dome or 1/16th half-dome? Right, moving on. So the awnings had alternating light and medium creams in a vertical striped pattern, while the bottom of the awning had a dark burnt-orange half-circle dropping down from the awning. The ones at the edge looked more like ¼ to 1/8th quarter-circle, but that’s enough about that. Moving on! at the bottom of the cylindrical shaped part of the boutique was a light purple base with a darker purple crisscross, creating the shapes of two triangles and then a diamond, and it followed that pattern. Most of the walls were a moderate blue, but near each window there was a light blue motif, like that of a twisting ribbon, one on each side of the window. Over each ‘ribbon’, there was a light blue ribbon, but with a scallop design pointing upwards. Over the highest point of the window was two inward spiraling curls, which met together. Over the peaked entryway, the silhouette of a moderate cream pony decorated the front above the door. It even had a medium pink bridle and saddle! A medium purple pole bisected this pony, and ended towards the top in three different hearts. One was a small medium purple heart, then just above it, it was as if the pole divided with the two smaller poles curling inward to make another heart. At the very apex sat a pink heart. On either side of this cream colored pony were two purple s shapes, which followed the inward angle of the peak-ing part of the roof. All around the edge of the circular awning was a light pink scallop design. The roof was alternating diamonds of light purple and light pink. Near the top, probably where the base of the second floor of the boutique was a band of dark burnt orange color with a medium cream squiggle dividing top from the bottom. The cylinder of the second floor was in a light blue, with surrounding motif being of a more moderate blue. The largest window faced the same direction as the main door and was circular, with a grid of three vertical to four horizontal, squares, that is. Two hearts were over this window, though up higher, a band arced upward and outward, reminiscent of a cross-section of a waterfountain’s vertical spray. On either side of these hearts were three tear shaped ‘drops’ that angled further downward with each ‘drop.’ To either side of the main window were two smaller port windows, the pane only being divided into quarters, given their much smaller size. Above each of these windows was a heart, but it had a line dividing the heart into two halves. At the base of this second story cylinder, at the very front, it looked like a rectangle with an x dividing the insides into four triangles. On either side of this ‘rectangle’ were some lemon shaped ovals, except with each end ending sharp points. Inside the lemon shape was a light blue diamond shape. There was poles all around this level as well, spiraling upwards until it split off into two opposite directions and curling inward and upward. Two had more pony shapes, though these didn’t have bridles or saddles on them. The underside of the roof overhang was a dark burnt orange color. Just above this was an upturned part of the roof. The smaller parts were two horizontal ‘s’ shapes with a five petal flower in the middle. The larger parts looked like two fully extended crab claws melding at the top. Like a shallow, elongated ‘c’ shape. Underneath this was a medium purple heart. Underneath the heart were two inward curling cane shapes and between the heart and the end of the curling cane was three cascading teardrop shapes. To either side of the roof, it looked like windows jutting out, it looked like there was a banner attached to each one. Circle in shape with a stripe of white dividing the blue of the banner and a five pointed star in the middle of the white stripe. Higher up supporting the highest conical roof, were four pillars, though it was probably really eight, since I could only see four in my field of vision. The topmost part of the pillar looked like upside down top, then it widened into a cylinder before transitioning into a spherical shape. Then it widened back out into a smaller cylindrical shape, and ended at the base in a downward pointed arrow shape. Above the supporting pillars was a medium purple border with three darker purple ovals spaced evenly in between each other. Above that, were arches also with a medium purple, but leaning outward, like a crown. In the center of each of these arches were two darker purple ovals which slanted inward until they touched each other near the top. It kind of looked like eyes, but perhaps it was just the way I was looking at it. The conical top was horizontal stripes alternating in a medium cream and a lighter cream color. The pole at the top, looked like a stylized crown with the central pole rising from the center of it. The crown part had four metallic thin cones arching outward and ending with a sphere at the end of each cone. The pole rose about a foot or two higher and ended with a sphere at the top. Halfway up this pole, an orangish-red banner flew in the wind.

I entered the boutique, looking about, seeing about six pony shaped dolls attached to a pole and a flattened dome shaped base. I was honestly impressed with the design and styles, though I thought that she needed to lay off with the sewing of gems into the dress’ fabric. There was a rounded raised platform with several steps encircling the platform. Around this platform arranged in a half-circle, were five large oval shaped mirrors. Behind the platform, arranged in a horseshoe shape, were large purple curtains that reached from ceiling to floor. A couple of u-shaped poles stood on either side of the curtain’s opening with a short horizontal pole with a lighter purple curtain on it. There were three of these kinds of rooms. There was also a curtain dropping from the ceiling to about where my shoulder’s height.

“Hey, Rarity?” I asked, as Rainbows other friends looked around the store at the fashions and accessories.

“Yes, darling?” She turned around, tilting her head slightly upward to look me in the eye.

“How come you have three of these curtained off places, and what’s with the curtain hanging over the open part?”

“Gracious, darling! Those are my changing rooms. And the curtain is to provide additional privacy from any pegasi that might happen to be flying about within my shop,” Rarity explained.

In another section of the store, were three horseshoe shaped desks with a very large mirror attached to each one. Each desk had two drawers on either side and in the middle of the horseshoe shape, each desk had an oval shaped basket. The basket started narrower at the base and gradually grew wider the higher up it went. Each desk was divided with purple curtains on either side of the desk. There was also what looked like a quarter-circle of drape hanging from the ceiling and disappearing in the folds of the curtains it joined into. Attached to each of these quarter-circle shaped drapes were lighter purple half-circles decorating the outer edge of the quarter-circle shaped drape, very frilly looking. At the top were what looked to be some kind of yellow flower design, but the center was a light. I was very curious how it worked, since Berk used torches, candles and fireplaces for light sources after dark.

“So, this is Carousel Boutique, where making you feel fine and fashionable is our aim! What do you think?” Rarity asked me.

“You really want to know what I think?” I responded.

“I wouldn’t have asked, if I didn’t want to know, darling,” Rarity replied.

“Well, I honestly don’t know much about this fashion stuff. I can tell that the outfits are well made, though I strongly suggest trying something other than gems, especially if your dresses might be worn outside. Plus, too many gems on a dress, and it probably not only gets heavy and interfere with movement, but it can look gaudy and convey a bad kind of taste in fashionable things. Or if you absolutely feel that you must have gems in your outfits, cut them very small and use them sparingly. Because sometimes more isn’t better. Sometimes less can be more beautiful than lots of big gems badly worn,” I spoke, giving her my opinion about her shop. Well, more like giving an opinion on the things she sold within the shop, really.

“Well then, I guess it’s my turn,” Twilight stated, turning about and leading everyone out of the shop.

I ended up using a hand to provide some shading for my eyes, as a massive purple … tree castle decorated the town’s landscape.

“Sweet eye of Odin!” I muttered, completely in awe at the amount of crystals that this building had! Whoever lived in this thing must be wildly rich! I couldn’t even imagine how much that much crystal would sell for at market price! Once could probably retire wealthy beyond their wildest dreams!

I watched as Twilight opened the massive doors of the castle and Rainbow and the others entered into the building. Gems which hung from … some kind of black looking rope glowed, though the main light lighting the castle came from lamps attached to the wall. We went down several hallways until we reached a cylindrical shaped library.

“When Tirek blew up Ponyville’s Golden Oaks library … well, suffice it to say that I was upset. Really, really upset. But after we beat Tirek, the Harmony Seed flew off and planted itself into the ground, from which grew this castle. So, while I do have my duties as one of the princesses of Equestria, I still act as the town’s librarian whenever I can. This library is even better, because it’s seventy five percent bigger than the old library! I will admit being a little concerned about how I was going to get the books to properly fill these shelves, but once the libraries in the cities and towns all across Equestria heard about what happened, they donated books and held donation drives for what books they couldn’t donate! Plus, Ponyville had an emergency fund in case events like a library being obliterated into oblivion happened. So, now I have so many books that I haven’t read yet! I’m so excited!” Twilight explained.

“Yeah, aren’t we all,” Rainbow replied in an awkward, yet sarcastic sounding tone of voice.

“So what was with the round table with all the thrones around it? I happened to see that room as we came here. It looked very important,” I commented.

“I, with my five friends make up the Council of Friendship. Though that ‘table’ is no ordinary table, but a real-time holographic map of Equestria and the lands beyond. It’s still a little unclear, but at certain times, one or several of our cutie marks will become active, indicating that that pony with the active cutie mark is needed to solve a problem somewhere in the world. So then it is up to that pony, or ponies, to determine what the problem they were sent to solve is, and then come up with some way to solve the problem. Now that I’m the princess of friendship, then it falls on my friends and I to teach others about being friends,” Twilight explained.

I had no idea what to say in response to that, so instead I redirected their attention elsewhere. “So, who’s next?”

“I reckon that we’ll hit Fluttershy’s place next before finishing up with my place,” reasoned Applejack.

“Does that sound fine to everypony?” Twilight asked her friends, who responded with various words of agreement.

Needless to say, once again, I was surprised. Fluttershy’s roof was green! As though whatever she had used for thatching had rooted itself in the wood and sprouted! I honestly thought it was some kind of small trimmed tree, which had been made to look like a roof, but it was really her roof.

“Uh … . Oh, hey, Fluttershy! How come your home is on the outskirts of Ponyville?” I asked her, at a complete loss for words on how to take her having a thick, green roof.

“Oh, I—I don’t deal well with other ponies, so I live out here because most ponies won’t come out here to visit me unless they’re my friend, or have an injured or sick animal,” she replied.

“You don’t seem to be that bothered by me.” I commented.

“But you aren’t a pony. Plus, I can trust my friends to have my back, so even if you were a pony, while I would be hesitant to be near you, I would be able to do it, because of my friends,” Fluttershy reasoned.

“So about the animal thing, are you an animal whisperer, or something?” I asked her.

“I don’t know what you mean by that, I do care about all kinds of critters, and it just pains me when they’re in pain, or sick. So, I look after the injured and sick animals until they’re better. I also provide pet care services. I even groomed Rarity’s cat Opalescence one time, and she asked me if I had used my ‘Stare’ on Opal!” She exclaimed and then giggled quietly.

“What is this about a stare?” I asked her.

“Oh, goodness! W-well, from what I’ve been told it’s a special ability of mine. The one I use the Stare on, experiences extreme terror and shame. Um, so after a Stare session, the one I stared at is usually willing to see things my way,” Fluttershy explained.

I raised an eyebrow, since that sounded rather incredible, but then I’m in a world of talking pastel ponies, gryphons, nymphs, dryads and things I’d honestly never seen before Toothless and I came into this world.

Fluttershy showed me a bunch of her animals, which looked like a lot a bunch of animals from my world, except they seemed more intelligent. They couldn’t speak in my tongue, but they behaved as if they understood Fluttershy when she talks to them. It was kind of weird really, but then again, this whole world is different than the one I came from. Maybe this kind of thing is normal for them.

“Next stop, Sweet Apple Acres!” Applejack called out, as we all departed from Fluttershy’s extremely unique cottage.

We followed a dusty trail, which joined and went alongside a white picket fence that bordered the orchard. Soon we came to the entrance of the farm, which was a white, wooden archway, and it had some kind of vines growing all over it with what looked like ripe apples growing off of them. It looked rather strange to me, since I’d never heard of an apple growing off of a vine before, but perhaps they could get it to work in this world? The barn which was straight ahead was painted in a reddish-maroon color, while the trim was white. There were various vines and fern-looking plants painted in a darker maroon color on the barn. The two large barn doors were fully swung open, above which was a trapezoid-shaped roof overhanging the barn doors. The roofing was in a medium purplish-grey color. On the left side of the barn was a window with its pane divided in two, and it was open by about a foot. Farther back, it looked like a smaller barn got built into the larger barn, which I thought made it look rather … strange, anyways, moving on! The open window I mentioned earlier, had an overhang, as did the arched window on the smaller barn part. The open window’s overhang was triangular shaped, while the arched window had an arched overhang. The arched window also had a flower box located just beneath the window. The door on the smaller barn attachment was a divider door, the lower part of the door was closed, but the upper part was completely open. Above this door was a small arched window. From the angle that I was looking at, on the second story, were two windows jutting out from the roof, each with a flower box beneath it. There was also a window above the double doors of the front of the barn, also with a hanging flower box. The barn also had a small one story-ish tower. The side facing the double doors had a small arching window, while the window on the side looked like it had a metallic reflector or windbreaker, so a candle or lamp wouldn’t go out, because of the wind. At the very top of this tower was a weathervane with a red apple above the arrow part. Closer to the entrance on the left was a well, while on the other side was a chicken coop. Farther back were a series of four shed-looking buildings. Farther to the left were about seven high piles of hay, while just on the other side of the fence, leading to the smaller barn’s door, were two more high piles of hay, along with three haybales, built in a pyramid shape. There were two additional arches, similar to the one at the front entrance, except the vines covering these were much more sparse and neither had ripe apples hanging from them. One was to the left of the barn, a little farther back than the haybales. The one on the right was just to the left of the leftmost shed. One thing about the front entrance that I forgot to mention was that they had a wide plank of wood with an apple shape carved out of it.

“Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres! We not only have the best apples in Equestria, but we’re the largest apple farm, too! But we don’t just grow apples, but we also grow veggie crops, such as corn, carrots, and tomatoes, among others. We’re probably one of the most successful farms that I know of! Because not only do we care about the quality of our produce, but we also care about the ponies that buy from us. That’s why we always strive to have fair, reasonable prices for what we sell,” Applejack informed me.

I gauged the shadows the trees and other upright objects, like the fencepost, to get me an idea of how late in the day it was getting. From what I could tell, it was about half-way between midday and the next eighth segment that Vikings divided their days into. A loud rumbling occurred coming from Toothless’ belly, It was soon followed by the rumbling of my own stomach.

“I know! We could have a picnic!” Pinkie Pie cried out, sounding rather enthusiastic about the idea.

“Yeah, but Toothless only eats fish, and a lot of it! How are we going to make sure that he doesn’t get left out?” I replied, not wanting him to be neglected in this proposed picnic.

“Well, um, I have a dragnet to help me catch fish for some of the meat eating critters that I take care of. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to feed Toothless, but do you want to come with me and find out, maybe? If you want to, that is,” Fluttershy responded, drawing a circle in the dirt with her right forehoof.

“Sure, why not? Hopefully it’ll be faster than trying to fill his belly by foraging for fish,” I replied, giving a hearty smack to the side of my buddy, causing him to look down at where my hand had landed and then up at me. I saw a glint in his eye as he gave me a toothless grin.

“You better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking!” I warned, feeling nervous.

Toothless whipped around and grabbed me in a bear hug and then proceeded to lick both sides of my face!

“Ugh! Toothless! You know that stuff doesn’t wash off!” I cried, using my sleeves to try and remove his drool from my face, much to the laughter of the other ponies. Especially Rainbow and Pinkie.

I followed Fluttershy with Toothless right beside me as we headed back to her cottage, not only to feed Toothless, but to put together something to bring to the picnic to share and pass around with our friends.

She led us to where she had a dragnet stretching across a small stream. There were four large tree trunks embedded into the ground. Two were on either side of the bank, while two were spaced evenly between each other in the middle of the stream. Then a netting of vines and ivies stretched across the stream, a bunch of big fish splashing about in the water, as they tried to continue swimming farther upstream.

“Alright, Toothless, have at it while I help Fluttershy for a bit,” I told my friend, watching his big toothless grin become even bigger, as he bounded into the stream and started eating the fish that had been caught in her dragnet.

I followed Fluttershy into her cottage, a small, white bunny giving me the stink-eye and pointed at his eyes and then me. He then followed Fluttershy into the kitchen and dining area.

“What’s with the bunny?” I asked her. “And what are we making?”

“Oh, that’s my pet bunny Angel. I saved him when he got sick as a newborn, and he’s been with me ever since. As for what we’ll be bringing, I was thinking of bringing some sweet potato casserole, some potato salad and some deluxe sandwiches. Could you take those two pots and fill them about halfway and then get the stove stoked?” Fluttershy informed me.

“Sure thing,” I replied, grabbing the two large pots and carrying them over to her water pump and filling them as instructed. I sat the pots on the top of the oven and removed a knife, carving into a log and making a pile of wood shavings. I then took her flint and stone and struck them together until the tinder caught, as I added small logs and branches, to make sure that the fire got started correctly. Once it had, I added logs until the firebox couldn’t take anymore. Fluttershy was peeling the sweet potato and cutting them into chunks. I grabbed another knife and started peeling the potatoes and cutting them up. The deluxe sandwiches as Fluttershy called them had something she called spinach on it, along with tomatoes, onion, cucumber slices as well as some sliced vegetable called black and green olives. On one side of the two pieces of sliced bread, she spread some kind of zesty vegetable paste. I might have to get into my jerky reserves, just to have some kind of meat as part of my meal.  After about an hour and a half, Fluttershy’s basket was full and ready. She and I left her cottage, with me carrying her basket. I still don’t understand how they can accomplish some of the stuff that they do.

“Hey Toothless, did you eat your fill?” I called out to my friend as Fluttershy and I waited for him to reach us. 

Toothless grinned, emitting a very loud burp and grinning at me shamelessly. I chuckled and scratched under his chin, I could feel myself smirking as he had this dopey grin on his face. 

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. Thank Miss Fluttershy for her generosity and hospitality,” I told him.

Toothless made a series of growls in his way of saying ‘thank you,’ and even gave her a wing hug. Fluttershy made a squeaking sound and I could see her cheeks flushing.

“O-oh, it was no problem. I’d just feel awful if I didn’t help you out, if I had the means to,” Fluttershy replied in a soft voice, hiding partly behind her cascading hair.

We walked and eventually made it to the place where we had agreed to have the picnic.

“By Celestia’s mane, you are so slow Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash griped, crossing her forehooves and frowning as she hovered over her.

“Well, if you were in such a hurry, why didn’t you come over to help? It would have taken less time if you had helped. Alone, one can only accomplish so much, but if others pitch in to accomplish something, it gets done that much faster and has a higher chance of being done right. So tell me, Rainbow Dash, why didn’t you help Fluttershy?” I berated, upset with how she was treating her friend.

“I, uh, I didn’t think about it,” Rainbow replied, rubbing the back of her mane and looking rather sheepish.

“And?” I continued.

“What?” Rainbow replied, looking at me in confusion.

“Don’t you think that you unjustly came down on Fluttershy and hurt her feelings? Aren’t you going to apologize because of your harsh words?” I responded.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” Rainbow apologized. “I’m also sorry if I hurt your feelings.”

“I forgive you, Rainbow.” Fluttershy smiled slightly.

While all this was going on, I was unloading the picnic basket and placing the tubs of potato salad and sweet potato casserole as well as arranging the sandwiches on a plate. Princess Twilight had brought sandwiches with some kind of flower in it as well as a container of deviled eggs. The other container she had unloaded looked like it had some kind of creamy noodle. Rarity brought what looked like a wrap filled with vegetables, and then cut the wrap up into slices and used a small wooden pick to keep it together. She also set out a bowl filled with some kind of vegetable salad and a small basket with some kind of boomerang shaped bread. Rainbow had set out some kind of really long bread which was cut in half and filled with all kinds of vegetables and sauces. She also had what looked like fried potato sticks as well as a bowl of potato chips. Applejack pulled out a creamy looking apple salad with some other fruit mixed in. She also had a tub of pickled vegetables, if the vinegary aroma was anything to go by. She also had a basket with some triangular shaped pastry. I think that it probably had pieces of apples in it, if I was smelling it right. Pinkie Pie unloaded all kinds of sweet treats, bars, muffins, cupcakes and a weird tire-shaped pastry with a hole in the middle with all kinds of sugary coatings.

We sat down and started filling our plates with whatever we wanted. Since I had helped Fluttershy to make the potato salad, sweet potato casserole, and her deluxe sandwiches, I grabbed those first. 

The five mares started filling Rainbow in on notable events that had happened while she had been away to participate in the G.E.R. I heard one story where Twilight’s assistant had accidentally startled her while she was absorbed in her studies and a misfired spell ended turning some grey pegasus mare named Derpy into an earth pony, until Twilight could find a cancellation spell and return the pegasus’ wings back to her. I couldn’t help but notice that Rainbow looked really uncomfortable hearing that story.

“Something wrong, Rainbow?” I asked her.

“That story just gives me the heebie-jeebies. I’d hate to have my wings taken away from me like that! Especially since I know the thrill and joy of soaring through the skies. It would be like having your hands taken away from you. Life just isn’t the same when taking away something that you were born with,” Rainbow replied, ruffling her feathers and giving several shivers.

Rarity shared a story where her little sister Sweetie Belle came home covered in pine needles and tree sap. Apparently the had been trying to get a … tree scaling cutie mark? Rarity ended up carrying Sweetie Belle in her magic and depositing her in her wash basin to keep Sweetie Belle from tracking pine sap all over the house. The others and I laughed about it, even though I did feel a little bit bad for what Rarity had to go through. I can only wonder if my child will be like that.

Pinkie told a story where Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s foals got into some frosting that they weren’t supposed to and it made them even more hyperactive than usual. Pound Cake was apparently a pegasus colt and he was bumping into all kinds of stuff and knocking them over, some of them breaking. Pumpkin Cake was a unicorn filly and so she was rapidly firing off various magic beams, which added to the chaos and mayhem. It wasn’t until after they exhausted themselves that the mess could be cleaned up and they invited Twilight over to fix the broken stuff. I couldn’t help but chuckle, since it sounded similar to something that happened to me as a child.

Applejack shared a story where she had to put a stop to the Cutie Mark Crusaders from going for their living pony cannonball cutie marks! She still doesn’t understand why a prank and joke shop would lease a cannon to those young fillies, especially since they were fairly infamous for the chaos and destruction those fillies were notoriously known for. Not to mention that they were not only aiming for the bales of hay in the barn, but was going to use something flammable in a barn filled with lots of flammable stuff! Needless to say, Apple Bloom got grounded for a week and had to come straight home after school and couldn’t go cutie mark crusading during that period, and had to help with the chores around the farm.

Fluttershy told a story about how she had been looking after a snake, to help him properly shed his skin, since apparently the atmospheric conditions weren’t right to help him properly shed his skin. Twilight had come over to visit, but because Fluttershy’s body was blocking her view of the snake, she didn’t see it until she was nearly beside Fluttershy. She was afraid of snakes apparently and screamed upon seeing one and accidently let off a magic blast, which bounced around the room before exploding in a large display of sparkles and a loud booming sound. The other critters residing at Fluttershy’s cottage got scared and essentially rioted and caused a lot of mayhem and destruction, before they managed to tear her front door down and get outside. Twilight ended up fixing the damage and the broken door, while frequently apologizing to Fluttershy.

The girls wanted to know how I met Rainbow, so I ended up telling them. Rainbow was blushing and giving me the stink-eye, which amused me greatly for some reason.

When it came to Rainbow’s turn, she told the story of how she and I rescued a bunch of foals from a bad Viking ship. Rainbow tried to make the story sound more grander and heroic than it was, so I ended up giving the ‘less awesome’ version as well as explaining to an extent what Vikings were. Rainbow was miffed with me and gave me a pouty face, turning her head away and slightly upwards. Our friends agreed that Rainbow was still awesome for helping me free the foals, even if the events didn’t play out as she had told them.

We finished the picnic and packed the leftovers away and basically cleaned up the blanket. I had a full belly and was surrounded by good friends, even if I hadn’t known them as long as Rainbow. I laid on my back and closed my eyes, just thinking that I’d relax and digest the wonderful meal.

Wrong! I fell asleep, and when I woke up, my body felt incredibly heavy. It was nearing sunset, and I saw a rather endearing sight. Applejack and Pinkie were laying crossways on my chest and stomach, while Twilight and Rarity was hugging one of my arms to their body. Rainbow and Fluttershy had lain crossways on my legs. Rainbow on the upper part and Fluttershy lower down. My arms and legs were hard asleep, so I anticipated a bad case of pins and needles once they weren’t weighed down by a pony.

My hands were near where Rarity’s and Twilight’s tummies were, and feeling a bit mischievous, well and wanting to get proper circulation restored to my arms and legs, I decided to see if ponies were ticklish at all. I started wriggling my fingers into the soft, fuzzy underbelly of the two ponies on my arms, getting them to snort, giggle and squirm, until they released my arms and sleepily gave me the stink-eye.

“You are evil!” Twilight declared.

I simply continued grinning at her, while I started flexing my wrists and fingers, feeling that familiar tingly feeling, that feeling of pins and needles.

“Twilight’s right, darling. That was simply uncalled for,” Rarity admonished.

“Oh, but waking you up this way was so much more fun!” I chuckled, our conversation causing the others to start awakening. Soon my body was free of the pony pile, and after a little massaging of my legs, I moved into a more, sitting position.

My friends sat beside me, with Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy on my right. On my left was Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Toothless sat behind me as we all gazed at the setting sun. It was a magnificent sight. The sky awash in reds, oranges, yellows, and purples and greyish-blues. The underbelly of the clouds illuminated and painted in similar colors. Then the sky gradually darkened, the lighter colors fading and the darker colors becoming stronger, until the stars came out one by one.

I stood up and dusted myself off. “Well, my friends, I’ve enjoyed my time together with all of you, however short it was. Rainbow and I must continue on to the next leg of the race, however,” I informed them. A chorus of various sounds of disappointment greeted my ears. “So, uh, how do you say goodbye?” I asked them. 

“With hugs!” Pinkie enthused.

I got on my hands and knees and was nearly bowled over by the pink pony, her forehooves curled over my shoulders and her nuzzling my hair. 

“Bye bye, Hiccup! Take care of yourself out there,” Pinkie murmured.

“Bye, Pinkie. You take care of yourself, too, okay?” I murmured back.

Next came Applejack, who hugged me like Pinkie did. “Bye, sugarcube. Don’t let RD push herself too far now,” Applejack murmured.

“Bye, Applejack. But who’s RD?” I asked her.

“It’s my way of shortening her full name. I took the R in Rainbow and D in Dash and combined them together to get RD. It’s a lot faster than saying either Rainbow or Rainbow Dash, you know?” Applejack explained.

“Ah, now it makes sense!” I replied, followed by a brief chuckle.

Next came Rarity, who hugged me next after Applejack. 

“Farewell, darling. Take care of yourself and our dear Rainbow Dash. Oh, and if you happen to come across some exotic fashion, could you do me a favor and make a sketch? I’m always looking for fashion inspiration, and foreign fashions might spark something with my inspiration.”

“If we have time, I will, Rarity,” I murmured, smiling as we parted once again.

Twilight then threw her hooves around me.

“Farewell, Hiccup. Be safe in your travels and though I know Rainbow can look after herself, do keep an eye out for her. She’s sometimes too hotheaded for her own good, and though she’d deny it, she was probably lonely before you joined up with her.”

“I will, Twilight. Though could you do me a favor while I’m in this race with Rainbow?” I asked, a little unsure, since I had no idea what her duties and responsibilities might be like as a princess of Equestria.

“What is is?” Twilight inquired, tilting her head to the side.

“Well, Toothless and I came into this world through a massive bank of clouds. I tried to return home one time, because my gliding suit had gotten torn, and I didn’t want to cause any strife with the local inhabitants by using the materials that I would have normally used. However, it would seem that the cloudbank moved somewhere else. If it’s still acting as a door to my world, then I need to find it and get Toothless and myself back home to my world. Also, I don’t know how many bad Vikings came through, so if they give you or your government any trouble, then I apologize and ask that you don’t think that all Vikings are bad, just because these bad Vikings were stirring up trouble. Rainbow and I took care of one of the ships of Vikings. I just don’t know how many came into your world. Most of the bad Vikings will have a spiky dragon silhouette on their mainsail. Don’t underestimate them, because they won’t hold anything back when in a fight, and I’d rather not have to live with knowing one of you ponies died because you underestimated them.”

“Thanks for the warning, Hiccup. I’ll see what I can find about this cloud phenomenon. Maybe it’s the cause of the occasional missing pegasus reports that the Cloudsdale Weather Bureau get on occasion! Maybe we can eliminate or at least reduce the number of missing pegasi reports, if they know that that cloudbank is really a portal to other worlds!” Twilight enthused.

Next came the shy Fluttershy. She hopped up and gave me a hug.

“Bye bye, Hiccup. Take care of yourself and Rainbow Dash while you guys are gone.”

“Bye, Fluttershy. You take care of yourself too. I know that I haven’t known you long, but I like what little I do know, so have more confidence in yourself and your own self-worth.”

I watched as Rainbow said farewell to her friends. Though I smiled as Toothless gave a growly sound that sounded like an imitation of our ‘bye-bye’ and wing hugged Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy. He pounced after Pinkie, who wasn’t caught, much to our amusement, until she was good and ready. Then they engaged in a playful little wrestle, which ended up with Pinkie being pinned underneath him. He didn’t even bother with Applejack, doing a surprise rush, rather than any attempt at subtlety and the two also engaged in a playful wrestle. There were several times when I thought Applejack would come out victorious, but Toothless would use his wings and tail and regain the upper hand. He eventually won, smugly pinning a panting Applejack to the ground.

“You won this time, you overgrown bat, but you won’t be so lucky next time!” Applejack admonished, shaking a curled and upraised hoof, rather reminiscent of a human shaking an angry fist at someone.

Toothless rolled his eyes and opened and closed his mouth, mocking Applejack. I chuckled as I started to throw the saddle blanket over Toothless before placing the saddle over the top and cinching the belts, checking for any signs of weakness, such as cracking of the leather, or thinness of the straps. Basically, I got Toothless ready to go on the next leg of the journey.

“Ready to go?” I asked Rainbow.

“I was ready in ten seconds flat!” Rainbow boasted.

The two of us launched into the skies as we got back onto the racing track and started flying in the deepening dusk towards our next checkpoint: Canterlot.

> Chapter 10: Nocturnal Encounters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 10



{C} {T} {D} Hiccup {C} {T} {D}


The flight to Canterlot was uneventful and we arrived at the checkpoint soon enough. We landed in front of the main checkpoint booth. A cream colored mare had a very light cream colored mane and tail and she had some kind of mechanical timekeeping device as a cutie mark. She greeted us, though she eyed Toothless warily. In fact, I don’t think her eyes ever left him, like she expected him to go into some bestial carnivorous fury and she didn’t want to be caught unawares.

I just heaved a sigh, honestly sick of ponies expecting the worst from Toothless. 

“It’s okay miss—?” I started, before realizing that I’d never asked her name.

“Timekeep,” she supplied.

“It’s okay, Miss Timekeep. Toothless won’t hurt you as long as you don’t hurt him or me. Otherwise, he’s just a fun-loving goofball,” I informed her, before feeling myself in a standing embrace by Toothless, who also then proceeded to lick the back of my neck, giving me chills up and down my spine.

“Really? Really!? Ugh! Now I’m starting to think that you’re doing this just to spite me!” I shot Toothless an annoyed glare, which was only reinforced as he chuckled in his own dragony way.

Timekeep briefly giggled, raising her … right hoof to try and mask her amusement. I proceeded to play wrestle with Toothless, while Rainbow got checked through the checkpoint booth.

“Okay, Rainbow Dash, I have you written down in the logbook for arriving at this checkpoint, so if I could get your signature here …” She hoofed over a piece of paper attached to a thin, but rectangular plank of wood that was just slightly larger than the piece of paper that was secured to it. Apparently, there was some sort of coiled spring which provided the clamping effect needed to hold the paper down to the clipboard.

Rainbow took some kind of writing tool and signed the paper, hoofing the clipboard back to Timekeep.

“Alright Hiccup, Toothless! Time to see if Princess Luna will see us during her Night Court,” Rainbow informed as she started to fly once again. 

I re-attached Toothless’ flight gear and our bags and climbed back into the saddle, as I felt the wind from Toothless powerful wingbeats kick up all kinds of dust into the air, before we got far enough away from the ground that the wind from Toothless’ wings weren’t kicking up all that stuff. We flew in the direction of this massive fortress-like structure, while having an appearance of regality and an aesthetic appeal. We landed outside of the gate and the guards let Rainbow through, but quickly crossed their spears barring Toothless’ and my own entrance to what I guess was the castle of this kingdom.

“Hey! What gives?” I cried, confused about the reason I was being treated as a threat. 

“We must ask that you relinquish any weapons on you,” one of the guards stated gruffly.

“What if I need to defend myself against an attacker? How am I supposed to do that without my weapons?” I asked, feeling somewhat upset that they were trying to take away the tools that I used to attack my enemies and defend myself from their attacks.

“That’s what we’re here for,” the other guard replied.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’m not just going to leave myself defenseless against an enemy. I don’t care how good you are as guards, I’m the alien in this land, I’m not just going to allow my weapons to be removed, just because you don’t want anyone that isn’t a guard to have a weapon inside the castle. Invaders and assassins wouldn’t obey that rule if they were wanting to get into the castle. Besides, overconfidence can get you dead real quick and I’d rather not die because I decided to trust you guys with my own protection,” I responded, crossing my arms and staring firmly down at these guards. I saw Rainbow watching all of this taking place. If I had to hazard a guess, she looked rather confused.

“Then unless one of the princesses state otherwise, then we can not permit you to enter the castle,” the first guard explained.

“Hey Rainbow! These guys aren’t going to let me pass, so I guess you’ll just have to take care of your business with your princess without me,” I called out to her.

“This is stupid, but alright. Catch you later, Hiccup!” Rainbow called back, as I began to unload the bags from Toothless and remove the flightgear from him, and setting it all beside me, while I reclined against the stones of the castle’s wall.


{C} {T} {D} Rainbow Dash {C} {T} {D}


I flew away, feeling disgusted about the Royal Guard’s inflexibility and refusal to adapt to situations that aren’t covered in their training. I thought that Hiccup had made some good arguments and I honestly thought that the Royal Guards should’ve understood and let Hiccup through, weapons and all. Perhaps I’d have to talk to Princess Luna when I saw her. I made my way through the castle until I stood before the great doors to the royal throne room. I approached Regal Scroll, a mare with a buttercup yellow coat, and an almost golden platinum mane and tail. She was a unicorn mare with a partially unscrolled scroll, but with a miniature copy of Celestia’s sun in the lower righthoof part of the scroll. It was only natural, since she had gotten her cutie mark prior to Luna’s return and Equestria only had Celestia as its sole ruler. However, apparently she had gotten reassigned to be Luna’s herald.

“Heya Regal! I need to see Princess Luna. Hopefully the wait won’t be too long.” 

I couldn’t help but smirk as she scoffed in exasperation at what I had said and watched as she rolled her eyes. 

“Oh yes, Rainbow Dash, the wait shall be excruciatingly long,” Regal responded, before heaving a sigh. “I’ll go let Princess Luna know that you’re here for an audience with her. Just wait here until I return.”

“Sure, sure,” I replied dismissively, my mind wandering over to what had happened earlier with the Royal Guards barring Hiccup’s entrance into the castle and wondering if he was okay. I hoped he wouldn’t think ill of ponies, or even the Royal Guard, even if they were being extremely inflexible regarding things not covered under their protocol training.

The doors opened wide, the royal guards lighting up their horns to magic the doors open. I could hear Regal announcing me as a petitioner to Luna’s Night Court.

“Announcing the Lady Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Hero of Luna’s Purge, Sealer and Reformer of the Chaos god, Hero of the Canterlot Invasion, Hero of Tirek’s Usurpation, Defender against the Equalism Propaganda.”

“Princess Luna! I need to speak to you regarding matters of international importance,” I greeted her.

Yeah, I was being extremely informal with her, but I was one of the few ponies who was her friend and among the few ponies who didn’t fear her for once having been Nightmare Moon. She was as much a victim of the Nightmare as the ponies who lived during her first appearance one thousand years ago.

“Night Court is adjourned for the rest of tonight! Regal, I thank you for your services rendered unto your kingdom and her sovereigns. You are dismissed for tonight,” Princess Luna announced.

“Come, Rainbow Dash, follow me,” Luna instructed as she led the way to a door tall enough and wide enough to comfortably let Princess Celestia through. I followed her through the maze of halls until we arrived at two large doors carved from some kind of black wood. Luna’s cutie mark was engraven into the wood with the moon being painted white while the rest of her cutie mark was painted in a dark purple. Luna’s horn lit up and she opened the doors and ushering me into her room, closing the doors behind the both of us.

“Now that we are alone, inform us of this thing which you believe may cause something of an international problem,” Princess Luna commanded.

“Right, well, Hiccup, Toothless and I rescued a bunch of foals from a slaver’s ship. We sailed to the nearest port after we had overtaken the ship. We had initially intended to turn the foals over to Bearmingham’s local law enforcement, so that efforts could begin with reuniting the rescued foals with their families. I went to inform the Mayor about what was going on and I had left Hiccup and Toothless with the ship and foals. When I went in to see the mayor of Bearmingham, he was—” I choked out, as my tears flowed hot down my face, my ears flat against my skull as I continued, though there were several times where I had choked on a sob. “He—he was sexually abusing a young filly.” It took me about a half-hour to regain my composure. It was seriously uncool, crying like that in front of the princess like that and I felt a little ashamed and embarrassed that Luna saw me lose my cool like that. “We managed to rescue that filly along with the other foals which we had rescued from the slaver’s ship and left Bearmingham as though Cerberus was after us with a vengeance. We hoofed them over to the New Yoke Royal Guard division, where they said that they would do everything in their power to reunite the foalnapped foals with their families. I thought that you and Celestia might want to know about what the Mayor of Bearmingham and his cronies were up to,” I explained.

“I see. You have my thanks, Rainbow Dash, for bringing this to our attention. I shall consult with my sister in the morning about what you have informed me about what is going on in Bearmington and we’ll decide how Equestria will respond to this revelation that you’ve made us aware of. Is there anything else you wish to speak with us about?” Princess Luna asked me.

“Well, I’m travelling with a couple of aliens and when we arrived at the palace gates, the guards refused to let him pass, even though he gave reasonable counterarguments regarding as to why handing his weapons over to them would increase the risk to him, since by doing so he would be dependant upon the guards to defend him, and however long it would take them to get to where he was, should he be attacked. They were being complete mules about their ‘no weapons, no entry’ rule, though. Shouldn’t the Royal Guard be flexible and adaptable to stuff that isn’t covered by their rules and protocol? Maybe I’m just upset that I had to leave my friend outside of the palace gates. It just doesn’t feel right to me. But yeah, that happened with the Royal Guard tonight,” I informed Princess Luna.

“An alien? So is it a gryphon? Or perhaps a young dragon? Though, that doesn’t explain why he’d be so unwilling to part with his weapons,” Princess Luna mused aloud, her right forehoof stroking the underside of her muzzle.

“No, I mean alien as in nothing this world has ever seen. I’m a bit unclear, but there’s apparently a massive cloud somewhere in the world is responsible for bringing him and his dragon here. His dragon is nice, unlike a lot of dragons we’ve encountered. And … well, Hiccup’s appearance is one of those ‘you have to see it for yourself,’ kind of things,” I informed Princess Luna.

“Take us to this ‘Hiccup’ of yours. I’m rather curious about this visitor from another world,” Princess Luna admitted.

I’ll spare you the boring details of finding our way out of the maze-like castle, only that it took awhile and was rather boring. We exited the front gates, the guards inclining their heads in respect and obe- obe- er, it sounds like obey science. Maybe I’ll ask Twilight about it later, if I even remember to ask her. I found Hiccup resting against the Castle wall, Toothless curled up around him. I watched as Toothless’ head shot up and his slitted yellow eyes looked at me and then Princess Luna, before he began to nudge Hiccup in his shoulder, causing the Viking to awaken quickly.

“Hey, Rainbow. Did you finish with whatever you needed to go into the castle for? Who’s your friend?” Hiccup asked as Toothless uncurled, permitting Hiccup to brush himself off and rise to his feet.

“Er, this is Princess Luna, co-ruler of the Equestrian Kingdom. Luna, this is Chieftain Hiccup of Berk. With him is his friend, Toothless,” I introduced the two to each other.

“Welcome to the Kingdom of Equestria, Chieftain Hiccup. We apologize for our guards behavior earlier. They mean no offense, even if they’re a bit … inflexible. But, let us not tarry out here. Come and tell us about your world and what it’s like,” Princess Luna greeted. “Toothless may of course join us, if he would like to.”

“Hey Luna, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but I noticed that you’re not speaking in ye olde Equish anymore. You’re a lot easier to understand, I’ll admit,” I inquired of Princess Luna.

“It pleases us that you have taken notice. It would seem that my linguistic and dictation teacher’s work have paid off. Others among my subject have admitted that they’ve found it much easier to understand me now that I do not speak in the ancient tongue. They still fear me, that I’ll return to being Nightmare Moon and once again plunge the world into eternal night. We … are at a loss as to how to ease or eliminate their fears,” Princess Luna responded.

We entered a moderate sized reading room, Princess Luna casting some kind of spell which caused the logs in a large fireplace to light up and begin burning. Luna used more of her magic to float several large cushions over to Toothless, picking up in her magic and then setting him back down with the cushions beneath him. He, not used to not being groundbound when he wasn’t flying growled in surprise, but calmed down after he’d been set back down on the cushions.

Luna and I settled down on special cloud poufs with a magically imbued slipcover over them to prevent them from falling through the cloud like anything not enchanted with pegasi magic would. Hiccup sat between Luna and I on a pouf stuffed with something soft as he sank about halfway into the cushy cushion.

“Well, to be honest, aside from details such as calling your males, ‘stallions’ and your females, ‘mares,’ there really are a lot of similarities, appearances notwithstanding. Well, and we don’t have magic, or fly without the aid of our dragon friends. That and Berk only has the communal drinking hall and the Mighty Mead tavern, instead of these ‘restaurant things’ that I’ve seen widespread throughout your cities and towns. There may be other cultural/specie differences which I’m overlooking, but I really haven’t been in your nation long enough to discover what those differences are,” Hiccup informed Luna and I.

“The people of Berk have a tribal organization. Each Viking has a purpose, though nearly all of them are combat ready, whether through the brawls that happen in the communal drinking hall, or because of someone or something invading our island and the waters and skies surrounding Berk. We have farmers, ranchers, a blacksmith, tailors, a glass and pottery industry and the fishing industry is perhaps the largest focus as far as Viking job occupations go.

“The governmental system employed by Berk is a Chieftain style of rule. This position is passed down to the firstborn son or any sons which the Chief may have. If the Chief has no sons, then the person best suited for managing the affairs of Berk is promoted to Chief. I became Berk’s chief after my father died protecting me from Toothless after he fell under the control of an Alpha dragon which which we were combating at that time. So if my wife Astrid gives birth to a son, then he’ll be the next to inherit the authority and title of Chieftain of Berk,” Hiccup continued to inform Luna and I. 

I started nodding off, since I was a day pegasus and that is the sleeping cycle to which I’m accustomed to. Soon I surrendered to the siren song of sleep and didn’t know anything until I woke up the next morning.


 {C} {T} {D} Hiccup {C} {T} {D} 


I watched as Rainbow Dash ended up lying belly down on the large cushion she had been sitting on as she gradually surrendered herself to the embrace of sleep. Princess Luna used her magic to pull a blanket over Rainbow Dash. I reclined a little farther back, propping myself up with my elbows as observed Luna for a moment before continuing telling her about what my homeland was like.

“Also, if you ever get the chance to visit Berk, you’ll notice that we’re a tool using society. We’re also willing to tame animals to help us with whatever purpose we set them to. From domesticating horses and oxen to pull plowshares, to befriending dragons to soar through the skies and their various useful abilities. Whether it is using a dragon’s fire to keep a kiln or forge running hotly to using their ‘seeing-ears’ to find where schools of fish swim beneath the surface of the ocean, or to help us navigate in a dark cave without torch or lamplight. We’ll even use tools for multiple purposes. Like a hammer could be used to pound in stakes or hammer in a wedge to split wood, but you can also use it as a weapon and crack skulls and break bones. Prior to my induction as Chief of Berk, I was apprenticed to the island’s blacksmith, Gobber. Thanks to his mentorship, I gained the skill and knowledge that I needed to be able to invent tools which an average Viking would have never thought of. When I first met Toothless, I had used a bola launcher to try and eliminate the dragon’s aerial advantage. But when Toothless crashed to the earth, half of his tail fin had been ripped or shredded off, which rendered him incapable of flight. After I had gained Toothless’ trust, I spent time in the smithy forging a manmade tail fin. Then through a series of trial and error, I would modify the manmade tail fin into what he has on now. And my manmade lower leg and foot was designed and crafted by my smithing mentor, Gobber,” Hiccup told Luna.

“Also, Vikings respond to threats or anything that is causing them trouble or difficulty with brute force. They, depending on their preference of war implement, will either slash or smash their enemies until the object of their anger stops doing whatever is making them angry. This has stayed true even after we’ve befriended dragons. Only now, where the Viking might have used an axe or hammer, they can now use a dragon’s abilities to whatever purpose that the Viking desires. Don’t want to sail around an island? Just get a dragon with an air blasting ability and tunnel through the island. Don’t want to use sticks and wool to get that forge started? Get a dragon with a firey breath to heat that forge up! Don’t want an infestation of vermin? Get one of the little dragons and let them roam freely,” Hiccup informed, and scratched the back of his head with a brief, low-volumed chuckle.

“Also, Vikings have a fascination with things made in far away lands. Whether it’s some kind of jewelry for our females, our women and girls; or a foreign tool that helps accomplish something in someway. Which is why the arrival of Trader Johann is always anticipated to not only see the exotic goods that he brings us from the far away lands to which he travels, but also to hear the stories of the sights that he has seen and the wonders which he has witnessed.

"Also, a typical Viking’s favorite pastime is drinking, fighting, and boasting. Which is why the festivals held by Berk are always anticipated, because then we can do all three at the same time!” Here Hiccup interrupted his speech about information about his homeland and chuckled in a low volume, amused-sounding tone of voice. “We’ll even throw a festival just to do those things. From dragon racing festivals, to heralding in spring, to birthdays!”

Princess Luna looked at the young male with interest. “Indeed? Perhaps our ponies and your species are not so different after all.” Though she noticed that now that Hiccup wasn’t talking about his homeland so much, his head would tilt forward, and then he would jerk and straighten his posture as he too was feeling tired and struggling to stay awake. She giggled in amusement at his efforts against that siren song of slumber. She began to sing a lullabye which had become popular amongst the mares who had foals in this modern age, peering through a slitted eye as she watched Hiccup slowly lose his fight to stay awake a little more with each time he’d temporarily awaken.

She arose from her cushion, once she was satisfied that Hiccup was inexorably embraced by that irresistible seductress called slumber and closed the door gently behind her. She maneuvered to the throne room and summoned one of the royal pages.

“Find Chief Maid Immaculate and inform her that her princess summons her,” Luna ordered.

“It shall be done, your Highness. Do you require anything else?”

“We are feeling somewhat peckish. After you dispense with your primary duty to inform Chief Maid Immaculate of my having summoned her, I order you to head to the royal kitchens and issue an order for baklava to be delivered posthaste unto me.”

“Will that be all, your Highness?”

“For now, you are hereby dismissed to execute my orders.”

“Of course, your Highness,” the page replied, bowing before her with respect and reverence before leaving the royal throne room to execute Luna’s will as he had been ordered to do.


 * * * {C} {T} {D} * * * {C} {T} {D} * * * 


Chief Maid Immaculate, an earth pony mare, with a white coat the hue of the purest, sunlit snow and her mane, which was a hue of the golden straw of ripe fields of wheat, and sapphire blue eyes, entered the royal throne room, approaching the Nocturnal Throne in which Luna presided, watching her chief maid as she approached.  

“You summoned me, your Highness?” Chief Maid Immaculate bowed before her princess at the base of the throne’s dias.

“Please have the maids transfer the guests slumbering in the royal tea room to a vacant ambassadorial suite or best room if no ambassadorial suites are available. There is a dragon, but he shall not harm you. Rainbow Dash is one of the other occupants. The final occupant is a biped. I’m not really sure how to describe his appearance, but he’s the final occupant who isn’t either the dragon or Rainbow Dash. You may resume your normal duties once you have executed my will.”

“I understand, your Highness. Will that be all?”

“Yes, Chief Maid Immaculate, that will be all. You are hereby dismissed.”

“Yes, your Highness,” Chief Maid Immaculate replied and bowed with reverence and respect to her princess before turning about and trotting to summon a squad of maids to execute Luna’s orders.