> Lily and the Dragons
>  by Hyper44
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Unbelievable Sale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  As the sun reached the center of the sky the door to a humble little house swung open. A young filly with a pink coat and purple mane stepped out. On her back was a pair of saddle bags with a cute little hedgehog sitting between them.

“Ready to save the world again, Prickles?” The filly, Lily Longsocks asked her spiky companion. The little hedgehog saluted. Lily laughed and began trotting down the street. The young filly took in a deep breath as she walked. It was a beautiful day to play in the fields outside Ponyville. The wind blew just gently enough to ruffle your mane and carried the scent of trees and green grass with it. The vast sky above was a gorgeous hue while small, pleasantly fluffy clouds floated lazily across the expanse. The birds sang cheery tunes and the streets were pretty much empty which was how she liked it. Lily stopped and looked around. It was a little too empty. Just where was everypony? While she had gotten to like empty streets after her fame this was too empty. Forgetting about going to play for a moment Lily began wondering the streets with her ears perked up. She soon did hear something, singing. While that was not unusual in Ponyville, it did often mean that something was up. 

Following the sound Lily soon came upon a huge crowd gathered in in Ponyville square. Their backs were turned to her as they stared in the direction of two voices singing lyrics in turns. 

“Yes siree! There’s nothing like it in all the world!”

“Take one, take two, and watch your talent be unfurled!”

“Don’t just stand there gawking!” 

“Step on up and let the magic do the talking.”

“What?” Lily said aloud. Prickles just shrugged. Lily wriggled into the crowd and began squeezing around and between legs towards the voices. When ponies show who it was they shuffled to make some room for her. Emerging out of the crowd she found herself among the majority of her classmates who had probably squeezed through as well. The crowd was wrapped around in a circle with everypony facing a decorated cart as two stallions danced and sang in front of it. They both had yellow coats with red and white streaked manes. If they couldn’t look any more like brothers, then their matching cutie marks gave it away.

“Has your talent ever let you down?”

“Well then step right up, you’ll never find a charm more profound!”

“Just take one and you will see…”

“That all your dreams can come true, I guarantee.”

Despite their cherry voices and big smiles their audience looked on with expressions of either bored irritation or outright scorn. The stallions put on brave faces but Lily could see little beads of sweat running down their brows as they held up their products with their magic.

“Can you believe these two?” A voice beside Lily grumbled to her. She looked over to see Silver Spoon crossing her hooves and glaring at the two stallions.

“If I understand what their trying to sell, then no,” Lily replied.

“Before your family moved here these two tried swindling the grow-ups, twice,” Silver Spoon said. “First they tried to take the Apple farm from the Apple family and then they came back selling a fake ‘magic’ potion. Now they’re here trying to convince everypony that those ugly charms will make you talent increase.”

“Well,” Lily replied, “I don’t think that their getting away with anything this time.”

“That is enough!” The voice of Mayor Mare called out as she wove through the crowd finally bringing the song to a sudden stop. She marched up to the brothers and pointed a hoof at them. “I will not have you selling bogus items to the ponies of this town again!”

“My dearest lady,” Flim said with a flaunting bow, “These are not fake items. They the most amazing charms that we have ever obtained.”

“As amazing as your cure-all potion!” A stallion called out. Murmurs of agreement followed.

“It did make you feel better, didn’t it?” Flam called back.

“But it didn’t make us better!” A mare called back. “I was nearly hospitalized because I quite taking my medicine in favor of your ‘amazing’ cure!”

“Me too!” The voice of a stallion yelled, “Only I was hospitalized!” More voices joined in and they soon dissolved into a cacophony of anger and scorn. 

“Everypony calm down!” Mayor Mare called out. The ponies fell into irritated silence. “I am not going to argue with you,” The mayor stated looking back at the brothers. “We know better this time. You may have fooled us before but this time we are not falling for it again.”

Both Flim and Flam showed expressions of indignation. “I know that we may have not be the most… upfront about everything but can’t one get a second chance?” Flam scanned the gathered ponies until he found one face that was not looking at them with angry eyes. He quickly swept Lily Longsocks out of the crowd. “Little filly, you look like an induvial with unbiased insight.” As he spoke Flam picked up one of the charm in his magic and held in in front of Lilly like a carrot being dangled in front of a rabbit. “I know that it sounds like a fantastic but don’t you think that such a thing can be at least possible?”

“If you would like, we can give you one for free” Flim whispered, “It will increase… whatever your talent is beyond your wildest dream.””

Lily cringed at being drugged into this but everypony tipped their ears forward to hear what she had to say. “Well,” She started, “I do know that there is magic within completely unexpected sources and that sometimes the most outrageous claims can actually be true.”

“Yes, go on.” Flam prompted.

“To look at it simply and fairly,” Lily went on.  “Well, your main talent is being sales ponies, right?” Lily asked.

“Well, yes.” He replied sounding a little confused at the off subject question.

“Then with all those enhancing trinkets why can’t you convince anypony to buy a single thing?” Lily finished.

The crowd roared with laughter as Flim and Flam shrank back and Mayor Mayer tried to regain order again. “Everypony, please!” She shouted while stomping a hoof though she obviously was restraining her own mirth. 

*                    *                    *

As the crowd focused on the sales ponies a pair of eyes watched from a distance. Out in the Everfree forest one tree stood like a king above the foliage. Near the top of its swaying branches a small red dragon sat with his gaze on the town. He was just big enough to look an average stallion in the eyes when standing on his hind legs. Sharp, jet black spikes ran down his back and thin, but strong wings hung half folded behind him. In the branches around him were numerous claw marks denoting the fact that he had been here a few times before.

“I know that you’re in there somewhere,” he muttered to himself as he squinted even harder despite the fact that he had no hope of singling out the right pony. From this distance a crowd looked to be nothing more than a mash of colors. Mentally he willed himself to fly to the little and find the pony that he was looking for but as always, his wings refused to budge. It was no wonder, what mini dragon in his right mind would want to go near, selfish, arrogant ponies? No dragon or any other creature would. They all knew what ponies were like.

“Except one pony,” He muttered, “But why did she have to be a pony?!” He groaned and rubbed his forehead.  “And why did things have to go wrong so that I would need her help?!” Life was so unfair. 

> Low blow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  “But despite the gestures of his former friend, Maestro and his immediate family were still very angry,” Twilight read aloud to the young fillies and colts. They stared up at her with wide eyes. Some were possibly a little too young to understand the story and were much more interested in staring at those big wings. Still, some would and nothing delighted Twilight more than sharing stories with others. 

“It was after all, a very terrible crime that Francois Tourte had done to Maestro in the final act of their family feud. His sabotage of Maestro’s instruments had cost him the highest award in music. Francois Tourte tried to make amends for many years until he realized that it was to no avail. Maestro would never be appeased because he would never let go of the past. So, it was with a heavy heart that Francois Tourte walked away and the two sides of the family would forever be split-“

The creak of a door startled Twilight and she looked up. Spike came walking in with one of Mayor Mare’s assistants walking behind him. “I’m sorry to interrupt Princess,” He said with a bow, “But the Flim Flam brothers are back selling a scam again. After being ordered to leave they started demanding… or really begging to see you.”

Twilight groaned. “Not those two again. “Spike can you read the last of the book to the foals,” She asked before winging out the door.

Spike sighed and headed over to the book. It was already near the end so he just decided to read the last two sentences. 

“Despite their amazing music talent Maestro and his family were never the same again. The weight of a grudge was too heavy for them and everything, including their music showed it.”

*                        *                          *

Lily was not the only pony who as cringing in embarrassment for Mayor Mare. A large part of the crowd was doing so; the rest were rolling their eyes or calling for them to escorted out of town. Everything quieted down a few notices when Twilight landed beside Mayor Mare. The Flim Flam brothers reacted instantly. They threw themselves at Twilight’s feet and wailed all the louder.

“Oh dear Princess of Friendships, I know that we have made out bad choices in the past, but let us move past that.” Flam wailed as Twilight cringed and stepped back. 

“We are deeply remorseful of our past mistakes,” Flim added as he put on the pitiful face. “Let us now live among the citizens of Ponyville, teach us your ways so that we may learn to be honest and respectful ponies. I promise that we will work hard and the among the finest members of your lovely community.”   

“Please, O’ beautiful Princess of Friendship! Surely you can find it in your heart to give us a second chance!”

“After all the Princess of Friendship, such an amazing title to achieve that only an extraordinary pony would ever obtain, would know how to forgive and forget.” 

Twilight groaned and faced hoofed, (not for the first time during their pleas) before replying. “Yes, a major part of friendship is forgiveness,” she said. “But, this is not just a matter between me and you. I have all of Ponyville to think about. Your track record here, as well as in other towns, is swindling ponies in one scheme after another. It is not about forgiveness. It’s about using wisdom in the matter.”

“But should we not have a chance to redeem ourselves? Have you not given others who have done much worse a second chance? I have heard on the grapevine that you welcomed into your home a mare who recently enslaved an entire village and not only stole their cutie marks but took yours by force. Is that not true?” 

Lily and everypony cringed at the low blow. Twilight’s mouth hung open as she was lost for an answer.

“The Princess of Friendship would not be unfair, would she?” Flam intoned. “After all, our actions do not compare with what your new student has done.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she glared angrily at the two. “You want a chance to work among us and learn to be honest? Fine!” She stated in a flat and stern tone. “I’ll give you that chance and I know just the pony who you can ask. Come with me.” 

As the princess lead the two stallions away the crowd began to grumble over the issue and Lily slipped away through the crowd lest she be asked to step up and give her opinion again.  After being Little Mare Do Well for a short time and finally fulfilling her dream of becoming a mysterious hero she realized what she really wanted to be. Just a kid with Little Mare Do Well just being a game. One who could take off and play leaving the grown-ups to take care of things. After all, with the whole town now heroes in their own right what need did they have of a filly, even one with super strength? 

*                          *                             *

When Lily reached the edge of town she was wearing her Mare Do Well costume except for the mask and Prickles was sitting atop her mane. Up ahead she could see that some of her school friends were already gathered.

“Do you think that the Flim Flam brothers really want to straighten up?” Twist asked aloud.

“I doubt it,” another filly replied and received nods of agreement. “Though forget that. I really don’t feel like playing Mare Do Well games again. It’s getting kinda’ boring. Anypony want to... Oh, hi Lily. I… uh…”

Lily just smiled and shrugged, “That’s fine,” She said simply. “Besides, I’m not Mare Do Well.” Lily suddenly swept her cape around so that it covered most of her face. She peered overtop the fabric and spoke in the most mysterious voice that she could muster. “I am the start of every end, the end of space and time, and the beginning of eternity. What am I?” 

> Option two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  As riddles were told a red dragon sat moodily at the top of a tree. He glared at the village, angry that it had to be a pony village. A faint sound carried to his ears and he stood up. Leaning out he spotted a group of foals scampering just beyond the buildings. He scanned each one carefully. They were all alike yet different, but all alike to him. Some wore hats or clothing and one was even wearing some ridiculous looking costume. The little dragon snorted. Just his luck. They would probably know the pony that he was looking for but to find out he would have to go talk to them. He could just fly into it on his own but either way, he had to deal with ponies. There was another option but it was almost as distasteful as going into a village full of ponies.

“Well, I’m not getting anywhere just sitting here.” He growled. The dragon let himself fall from the branch as he spread his wings and he vanished swiftly into the trees. 

*                        *                       *

Lily’s hooves suddenly came to a stop. She pulled off her mask and squinted at the distant tree line. She could have sworn that she had seen something red move in one of the trees. When she thought of red and the Everfree she thought of only one creature. Naa, it couldn’t be. Lily turned back to her friends as Twist called out, “What do you have to keep after you’ve given it to somepony?”

“It’s a promise,” Featherweight called back.

“How about this one?” Diamond Tiara announced. “What can travel around the world while it stays in a corner?” 

“Oh, oh I know!” Dinky called back as the foals continued their canter around Ponyville. Lily soon forgot the sighting as the riddle war continued. 

*                                  *                            *

Winging through the forest the red dragon continued towards his destination. It wasn’t too far but far enough to a creature who was used to teleporting. After debating it a moment he pictured his destination in his mind. Nothing happened.

“AAA! Come on!” He yelled focusing harder.  He vanished in a flash of light only to reappear five feet to the left where he slammed into a tree. 

“GAAA!” He flew back and tried again. He vanished and reappeared in the same spot. He roared in frustration as he was forced to continue his journey on wing. When he neared his destination he flew up into the canopy and continued on through the branches. Soon he reached his destination and peered down through the leaves at the odd little house built into a tree. Outside was the strange pony like creature planting something in the ground. Every creature in Everfree knew her or rather knew of her and few ever dared mess with her. She had been known to help a few of the forest residents if they asked politely and those who demanded rudely never did so again.  

The red dragon stayed up the branches awhile as he worked up his courage and pondered just whether or not she was a pony. She looked like a pony but yet not so much. As he pondered Zecora suddenly looked up and squinted at the canopy. “Who is that watching me? Is that a little dragon that I see?” The dragon cringed at being spotted.

“Come on down and you can tell me what you want, on the ground,” Zecora intoned pointing at the earth. “If your friendly then you have no reason to feel fright, I can promise you, that I do not bite.”

The dragon shot down from the branches and landed in front of her. “I’m am not frightened!” He growled. 

“I see,” Zecora laughed, “Now what is it that you want of me?” 

“Well first, are you a pony?” 

“Well, no but for me, the best inference is that really there is not too much a difference.”  Zecora replied.

“What? Whatever, I’ll just go with not a pony,” The dragon replied. “I need some help.”

“For now let’s put that on the shelf and you introduce yourself?”

“My name is Leftfang,” The red dragon replied, “I’m a mini dragon, if you know what that is?” He eyed her suspiciously as he waited for a reaction.  Perhaps that would tell him if she was truly a pony or not.

“Of mini dracos I know, but of your story I do not. Come inside and tell it to me while the tea is still hot.” 

Leftfang hung back a moment but then reluctantly followed Zecora. His mind told him that this was a trick meant to lead him inside where he could not teleport, she seemed pony enough after all, but it wasn’t like his teleporting was working anyway. 

Once inside he stood in the center of the room and blinked at all the masks that seemed to be staring at him. Zecora poured out two cups of tea and slid one across the table towards him. Leftfang eyed the liquid and sniffed it before taking a sip. It wasn’t bad.

“So then my dear, what reason do you have for coming here?” Zecora asked.

“Dear?! Don’t call me dear.” Leftfang growled. “Anyway, the issue is that my magic has gone haywire. I try to teleport and it rarely works. I try conduction energy to my claws, it doesn’t work. Every time that I try to use my magic, something goes wrong and I know that it has to do with that pony! Regardless, I need you to make some potion to fix it.”  

“Before I can help there are more answers that I must seek. Who is this pony of which you speak?”

“She… ua…” Leftfang scratched the back of his neck, “A little pink pony, half your size.”

“Are you trying to play some game? Just start with her name,” Zecora said. 

“I don’t know her name! All I know is that I ran into her in the forest and a few days later my magic started acting funny. It wasn’t much at first but over time it kept getting worse. This has never happened before I ran into her and nothing else has happened between then and when my magic started acting up. I don’t know how or why but I know that encounter has to be the cause… do ponies just naturally taint the magic of others?”  

Zecora shook her head, “Of hasty conclusions you’ll have halt and explain to me why you think that it is her fault.”

“I don’t think that it is her fault as in she meant to do it but it has to have something to do with her.”

“Then tell the story and leave nothing out, then perhaps we’ll find what this is all about.”


> Magic and fate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

   On Sweet Apple Acers Applejack paused to wipe her brow, adjusted her hat, then returned to sorting red delicious from sour green. Upon hearing the creak of cart wheels coming from behind the barn she looked up. “Are you still giving those youngins’ hay rides, Big Mac?”

“Nope,” The large red pony replied as the hay cart rolled around the corner. Big Mac was sitting in the cart among servals foals and waived at her as they rolled up. Pulling them along with ease was one little pink pony. Applejack laughed. “I think that I should hire her to work on the farm. Chores will be done in no time- Hey you two, the longer you stand there gawking, the longer we’re going to be out here,” She called to the Flim Flam brothers. They were both standing open mouthed next to the basket of apples that that they had just dropped. 

“How is that little foal pulling that big cart?” Flim asked

“And how can we get whatever magic potion that she’s taking?” Flam added.

“She ain’t taking no magic potion. She’s just special, that’s all,” Applejack replied, “Now Twilight sent you out here to learn how to do honest work hard and taking breaks every ten minutes ain’t it.”

“Oh come on Applejack, we’ve already been out here for hours gathering apples for your orders,” Flam groaned. 

“And mixed them together instead of putting them into two separate carts like I told you. Filthy Rich ordered sour green and the Cakes ordered red delicious and I can’t send them their orders in a mess like this. If you two put the same effort that you put into swindling into actual honest work, you two could go far.”

“I can help,” Lily said as she trotted up beside Applejack.

“No youngin’, this is their chance to redeem themselves and they ani’t going to learn to work fer’ themselves if somepony does it for them.”  

“Then how about you take a break,” Lily said nodding to the cart. “Everypony knows that you work your tail off.” 

“Naw, I if go off on a hay ride how am I going to keep an eye on these two and make sure that they do their chores?” Applejack replied.

“That’s simple,” Big Mac replied. “If nothing has been done by the time you get back then you’ll know if they are working or not.”

“I don’t know…”

“Awww, come on Applejack,” Apple Bloom called and the other fillies joined it. 

“Alright then,” Applejack sighed, “Just one trip around the farm.” She climbed in and gave one last look at the Flim Flam brothers. “Remember now, this is your chance to redeem yourselves. If you really want it, don’t blow it.”

“Of course ma’am,” Flim said with a bow. “I promise you that we are grateful for your generosity and we will work hard to learn honest ways.” 

As Lily started off Applejack settled down in the hay. “Just one quick little trip around the orchard yougnin’,” Applejack repeated. “I still have lots ta’ do.”

“Quick you say?” Lily replied with a grin. Little pink hooves pounded the earth as she bolted across the orchard with the cart rolling and bouncing along behind her. Fillies, colts and one Big Mac clung the sides cheering and laughing. Applejack clung to her hat to keep it from blowing off.

“Don’t worry, big sis,” Apple Bloom called into the wind, “It’ll be fine. You can’t spend all day frettin’ about those two.”

“Yeah,” Twist called, “and we need help with riddles. We’ve been trying to stump Lily but we can’t. Do you know any?”

“Well I know a few,” Applejack replied, “But their all about apples.”

“Awww, then you just told her the answer to them.”

*                       *                     *

Flam snorted as he glared at the receding cart. “These ponies! If it weren’t for them word of our business practices would have never gotten known all over Equestria.”

“Relax brother,” Flim said calmly. “They may have been the start of the problem but they will also solve it. Just stick to the plan. Once we can convince Applejack and her friends that we’ve turned over a new leaf, others will believe it. We’ll play it honest for a while and once we have the trust of most ponies back we can continue with our old tricks. Don’t you remember how ponies were scrambling for our tonic after Applejack said one halfhearted phrase about it? Just imagine how things will be if we get all six of them and maybe even most of Ponyville to agree that we’ve changed.”         

“Hrumph,” Snorted Flam as he went back to sorting apples. “It’s a good enough plan but a long term one. The faster a reward comes, the better. Hopefully we’ll find another way out of this mess.” 

*                            *                         *

“Hmmm, that is quite tell, my friend of scale. She sounds like one clever pony, but one that is good and no phony.”

Leftfang shrugged.  “She saved my life though she did make a fool of me.”

“Who made a fool of who? You made a fool of you,” Zecora replied.

“Ua… well… humph. So do you have any idea how to fix my magic?” 

“I think that I do know the reason for your trouble but it cannot be fixed on the double,” Zecora replied.

“What! Why not?!” Leftfang exclaimed, “… but it can be fixed right?!”

“Yes, but only by you, once your heart and mind is thoroughly true.”  

Leftfang blinked at her lost somewhere between anger and being confused to the point of astonishment.  “What?! What does that mean?! That sounds like gibberish! Can you please stop speaking in riddles?!”

“I do not mean it to be a riddle but let me explain a little, all magic within any creature, is not a simple feature. All creatures have it, whether they can manipulate it or not, but of those who can, they must be careful how they trot. You have much rage and hate and that has changed your fate. Fate is connected with magic and for you, this has become quite tragic. Bitterness is a heavy load and it will direct you even further down this road. You have now met a friend who is true, yet you have still not let the idea through. Further you have pulled this split, while they can hold out a hoof for friendship, you still have to take it. Only then can there be kinship.”

Leftfang stared at her as he tried to decode what Zecora had told him. “I still don’t get it. Can’t you just create some potion for me?”

Zecora shook her head. “No potion will solve this, it’s no simple thing that is amiss. Go the home of the Ponyfolk for it to end, your task is simple, make some friends.” 

“What?! How is making friends with PONIES going to help?! I need my magic fixed, what I do not need is ponies in my social life! Was that meant to be a joke?!”

“The magic issues are the symptoms, not the cause, from your rant you must pause, for this is no joke, it is true the words I spoke. As crazy as it may sound, you will only find your answer in the pony town.”

“But… their ponies! Surely you know how all ponies are like?!” Left fang growled.

“All ponies the same is unreality, they come in every personality, as do all kinds, just like yours and just like mine.”

But all ponies are greedy!”

“All ponies are?”

Don’t you know that ponies used to hunt us down for wishes?!”

“All ponies did?” Zecora repeated.

“Uggh! Let’s just try a potion!”

“There is nothing that I can do for you, your path you must follow thru,” Zecora replied. “It will either lead to peace or a rage increase. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to choose a good fate.” 

Leftfang angrily flew out of the hut and thru the canopy. Flapping his wings hard he zig-zagged over the trees muttering to himself. He started to fly home and the suddenly back towards the hut. Changing his mind again he flew in circles as he debated his options aloud. Finally, he tipped his wings in the one direction that he had been avoiding and flew towards Ponyville where a little pink foal lived.

> What's wrong with ponies?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Inside Ponyville Lily trotted to Sugarcube Corner with a group of foals who all had milkshakes on their mind. Outside of Ponyville Leftfang hesitated with turmoil on his mind. He could just see it. The moment he was spotted those ponies would be after him. Everyone knew that ponies were greedy and would demand wishes the moment that they saw him. Or maybe they would be angry that he dared enter pony territory. Everyone knew that ponies only got along with other ponies and you couldn’t just waltz into their towns.  He didn’t have his magic for a quick escape. He still had his wings for a getaway but so did some ponies. 

“Well, I’m still smarter than most ponies and if that doesn’t work I can still flame them,” He muttered to himself. “Or perhaps my magic can work for me just this once.” He closed his eyes and envisioned himself as invisible. At first he seemed to begin to fade but quickly he began to glow like a beacon instead of vanishing. Leftfang opened his eyes and yelped. He clasped his head in his claws and focused hard until finally the spell was shut down.  He quickly looked around worried that he had been spotted but not a single pony face was peaking around the buildings at him. 

Leftfang took a deep breath, growled and resolutely stomped towards the town. When he reached the buildings he felt like a soldier who had stepped into enemy territory.  There was no pony in the alleyway that he strolled down but her could hear random chatter mingled with hoof steps echoing around the buildings. He stepped around the corner onto a street and found himself looking at a small crowd various ponies going about their business. They were all kinds of colors and different shades of those hues, tall short, think and fat, male and female, young and old moved back and forth between buildings and streets.

Leftfang just stood there awhile as he watched them not sure what to do and just waited for them to react. Oddly, not much happened. They noticed him, this was evident from the curious glances that came his way. Yet none lasted for more than a few seconds and ponies simply continued to go about their day. Leftfang scratched his head trying to figure out if it was a trap or something. Then the creaking of trolley wheels caught his attention. He looked over to see of all things a griffin walking down the street ahead of a cart pushed by two stallions. Curling his mustache, he alternately shooed ponies out of the way and called back instructions to the ponies moving the cart which was loaded with pastries stacked in the design of a tree or castle. Leftfang wasn’t sure which. 

“Make way, make way please. My masterpiece must make it to the competition. Tread easy please, so you do not shake the cart. I did not come all this way and craft my pastries in the design of the princesses’ castle only for it to splatter on the ground.”

Leftfang watched in astonishment as they passed. It wasn’t just the pastry castle tree and the fact that there was a castle that looked like that, it was the griffin. Why was a griffin in a pony village? He sat down next to a building and watched pondering this as well as the unexpected reaction of the ponies. Some seemed curious for sure but that was about it.

A few minutes after the griffin passed he spotted another pair of creatures who stood out in the crowd. Two donkeys trotted through the passing ponies while they chatted with a mare. The mare was a light tan with white/grey mane and tail and wore a white and green collar around her neck.    

Somewhat confused, Leftfang scratched the back of his head as he watched. Why were there donkeys and griffins here? Ponies were for ponies. Everyone knew that. He shrugged deciding that maybe they kept them around for to do work or something. Either way he had sat there long enough.

Taking a deep breath Leftfang strolled out across the street keeping an eye out for a little pink pony with purple mane and a hedgehog cutie mark. Once again ponies glanced at him with curious expressions but left him alone. It wasn’t what he expected. Going around a turn he found himself walking down a street that was lined with venders selling various items. A few waived at him and he snorted. Did they expect him to come buy something from them?

“You’re a new face around here,” A mare said suddenly stepping up next to him. She was such a faint shade of yellow that she was almost white. Her mane and tail was both pink and purple. Leftfang scowled at her as she pointed back to a booth where festively wrapped candies stood on display. “Would you like to try a free sample of my new orange and walnut bonbons? So far everypony loves them.”

“I don’t eat pony food!” Leftfang snapped. “I'm a dragon! I eat gems!” With that he hurriedly walked away before she could demand wishes or something.

“Humph!” Said the mare as she stomped back to her booth. “Spike doesn’t mind eating pony food.”

Leftfang kept moving at a quick pace hoping to spot Lily so he could quickly get out of here. In his rush he nearly collided with a pink mare with a diamond ring cutie mark who was walking down the street. It was just as much her fault since she was prancing along with her nose in the air.

“Humph! Watch your step!” She snapped huffily stalking past him. 

Leftfang glared back at her and growled back, “Sorry, you’re so broad that it was hard to get around you!”

The mare paused and stiffened with anger. The she snorted and continued walking. “Wrenched little beast. Not worth exchanging words with, not for a pony of my status.” She stated both to herself and Leftfang. 

The dragon glared after her wondering if it would cause too much of a commotion if he burned off her tail with a fireball. She wouldn’t be strutting so proudly then. He thought better of it and stomped down the street angrily growling. 

“Stupid ponies! Arrogant, full of themselves, selfish little-oof!” He had been so focoused on his grumbling that he bumped into a mare who was pulling a cart and muttering something about mixed up apples. She didn’t seem the least bit irritated. “Oh, well Howdy,” She said adjusting her hat which had nearly fallen off. “Sorry about that. I was a might lost in thought over a couple issues back at my farm. I’m Applejack.” She stated and held out a hoof.

“Uh, hi,” Leftfang replied suspiciously refusing to take the hoof.

Applejack didn't seem to mind. “We don’t get many dragons around here except just flyin' over when the migration happens. Are you one of Spike’s friends that he met at the Dragon Lord’s meeting or just traveling?” She asked.

“Dragon Lord’s meeting? You mean as in greed dragons!?”

“Ua, I guess,” Applejack replied.

“I’m no greed dragon!” Leftfang stated. 

“Oh, uh, sorry. I didn’t know. What exactly is a greed-“

Leftfang did wait for her to finish for he had spotted a glimpse of pastel pink through an alleyway. He hurried off hoping that it was Lily. The sooner that he found her, the sooner he could get away from ponies. Passing through the alleyway he skidded out into the street to find himself looking at a full grown pink pony. The mare turned around at the sound of him rushing up. She blinked at the disappointed face of the dragon and suddenly gasped. “Oh, no!” she cried and took off in a pink streak leaving a cloud of dust behind. Leftfang stood there stunned as he watched the dust settle.

“Ponies are weird.” He grumbled and turned to walk away. He paused when he heard the sound of cart wheels and running hooves closing in behind him. He turned around again to see the pink pony scampering back down the street and pulling a painted little cart behind her. The mare skidded to a stop, spun around and pushed a button on the cart. The top opened and instantly flags and trumpets popped out and waived wildly. 

Leftfang could only stare in stunned silence as the pink mare pranced back and forth singing, “Welcome, welcome, welcome! A fine welcome to you! Welcome, welcome, welcome! I say how do you do?!”

Leftfang looked at various ponies in the street but they carried on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Except for one of the donkeys from earlier. He looked back at the dragon with a sympatric expression and mouthed, “I feel your pain.”

“Welcome, welcome, welcome to Ponyville tooooo-dayyyyyy!” The mare finished throwing her hooves in the air. “Wait for it!” This was followed by a small Ding and confetti blasted both pony and dragon. Shaking bits of paper off his face Leftfang glared at the mare. A second later another explosion sounded from the cart contraption and Leftfang hopped nimbly aside as cake batter splattered all over the pony and ground. The mare then simply fell backwards laughing hysterically.

“Hahahaha, I-hahahaha I mixed them hahaha up again. Hahahaha! Of course I hahaha, might not be doing it entirely by accident. Hahaha!” 

Leftfang just stood back staring at the laughing pony as he tried to figure out what to think. Before he could decide the mare popped up from the and darted over, clutched a claw in both hooves and began shaking it up and down rapidly as she babbles away.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie and I know everyone around her and since I don’t know you I know that your new. It’s my job to welcome everyone and I saw your face and you just looked so sad so I figured that you were lonely or maybe nopony had welcomed you to Ponyville yet and that left you disappointed so I grabbed my welcome wagon and hurried back as fast as I could. It’s my job to cheer up everyone who’s sad or blue so do you feel better. If not I could throw you a party or-“

“I feel better!” Leftfang declared yanking his claw away, “But, uh, there’s a really blue pony on the street back there. I just saw him.” Leftfang pointed through the buildings towards the street that he had just come from.

“Oh, No!” Pinkie Pie cried.  She shot over to the cart and slammed the lid shut. Then she shot off across the street pushing it ahead of her and yelling, “Everypony out of the way! This is an emergency!” 

Leftfang at the same time was running in the other direction. He shot down serval streets before coming to a stop and looked around to make sure that she had not come after him. He groaned and sat down. Just how was he going to find the one pony he was looking for at this rate? He couldn’t stand ponies at all and how many crazies was he going to run into? He snorted and looked around. The street was mostly empty save on one end. A large number of ponies were filtering out of a building. Above the doors hung a banner reading Ponyville concert and musicians’ jammin convention; come and enjoy the traditional and classy to the wild and new made up on the spot. The ponies walking out were both young and old, some were dressed in classy style while others dressed loud, such as a pink mare with her mane separated into two huge ponytails sticking out on either side of her head and a bib hanging around her neck. Last thing Leftfang wanted to deal with was pink ponies again. He continued to study the crowd deciding whether or not he should ask one of them if they knew where he could find the pony that he was looking for. Soon he spotted a mare walking out who had an interesting color pattern, a white coat with a mane streaked two different shades of blue. Most importantly though she seemed to be by herself as she walked down the street bobbing her head with a beat that only she could hear in her headphones. Leftfang stepped in front of her and she stopped still bobbing her head to the beat as she looked at him.

“Look I don’t really want to talk to you but I need to know where I can find somepony. She’s pink and short with a purple mane and a hedgehog cutie mark.” He stated holding up his claws to indicate size. The mare continued to bob her head and just stare at him. “Are you listing?!” Leftfang growled. “Look, I don’t want to be here but I have to!” He said waiving his claws and flapping his wings in frustration. “I can’t stand being surrounded by ponies,” He swept his claws wide to indicate the nearby ponies. “Especially the extra insane ones! I just escaped from one who started randomly singing and dancing in the street!” He said mimicking Pinkie pie’s dance.

Vinyl Scratch watched the animated dragon as she continued to bob her head to the beat in her headphones. As far as she could tell, he was dancing to some tune that must be blocked out by her headphones and wanted her to join in. She had no desire to stop listening to her own music so she started to follow the dragon’s movements to keep to the beat of whatever he was listing to. 

Not far away a grey mare with a jet black mane spotted the two “dancing” creatures as she was putting away her cello. She couldn’t make out what the dragon was saying but it looked like they were making up some kind of funny dance. She tapped her chin a moment and then picked up her musical instrument and began to play a tune to keep up with the quirky movements of the pair. Nearby other ponies who were carrying instruments turned their way, intrigued at the sound of her music. In seconds cymbals, drums, guitars and other various instruments joined in completely drowning out Leftfang. Departing ponies stopped to listen to the impromptu jamming. Soon ponies started stomping their hooves to the beat while other joined in the goofy dance.

Leftfang stopped and stared in shocked bewilderment at the dancing ponies around him. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes to ensure that he was really seeing this. The surrounding ponies did the same. He stared at them a moment then began hopping and flapping his forelimbs as if to fly with them. The ponies added that movement to the dance. Leftfang blinked at the crowd once again not knowing what to  think. He started swinging his tail back and forth and waiving his claws in the air and the ponies swished their tails and waived their hooves in unison. 

Leftfang stood slack jawed as he watched the ponies mix up the movements he had made into some kind of crazy dance. He threw his claws up into the air and roared at the top of his lungs, “What’s wrong with ponies?!”

“What’s wrong with ponies?! What’s wrong with ponies?!” The crowd began to chant and then add their own lines to the “song” taking turns shooting lines back and forth.

“What’s wrong with ponies?”

“We just like to have fun!”

“What’s wrong with ponies!?”

“And we like to dance under the sun!”

“What’s wrong with ponies!?”

“We love music in the air!”

“What’s wrong with ponies!?”

“Join in if you dare!”

Leftfang sat on the ground and continued to stare, completely lost for words as ponies sang and danced around him. His reprieve was broken as Pinkie Pie came pushing through the crowds pulling after her, of all things, a blue pony.

“This is some awesome party you started!” Pinkie called over the crowd. “You should have told me that you were planning one but it’s ok. I really just wanted to thank you for letting me know that somepony was blue so I could go cheer him up. Look at him grin, aww. He’s just so happy after I sang the welcome song to him. Now that we’re all happy let’s just Parrr-tay!”

Pinkie Pie spun away into the crowd calling out,” Hey everypony everywhere!”

‘What’s wrong with ponies!?” The crowd chorused back.

“Put your hooves in the air!”

“What’s wrong with ponies!? What’s wrong with ponies!?”

As Pinkie Pie took the lead in the dance Leftfang slipped out of the crowd before any of the ponies could focus back on him. He hurried, taking serval turns to get out of sight before he was spotted. He was so focused on looking over his shoulder that he nearly collided with a group of foals who were coming to investigate the noise. The dragon and the ponies skidded to a stop kicking up dust. Leftfang sighed with grateful relief when he spotted a pink filly with purple mane among them. A little hedgehog sitting in her mane blinked at the dragon and asked, "currr?"


> Find a solution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Lily was completely lost for words as she stared at the stallion sized dragon slumped in the road in front of her. She looked up at Prickles who shrugged and then at her friends who were also staring wide eyed.  Then Pip broke the silence.

“Is that the dragon from the Everfree that you told us about?” Lily nodded. The response was instantaneous. 

“I want super strength too!”

“Me too!”

“I want super speed! Can you do that!”

Leftfang snarled and they quickly fell silent. “Ponies!” He growled before continuing. “I just came to see Lily because… it’s a secret that only she can hear. Lily follow me!” 

With that Leftfang scurried down the street. Lily glanced back at her friends. Their expressions were as bewildered as hers. Lily shrugged, I guess I’ll go see what he wants. I’ll meet you later,” she said before following after the dragon. He hurried down a few turns until he found a street that was nearly deserted. There were a few ponies about but they were far enough away that he wouldn’t be overheard.   

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked as she caught up. 

Leftfang glanced around again before replying. “Something is wrong with my magic.”

“Curr? Asked Prickles.

Leftfang glared at him. “My magic doesn’t work right if at all,” he explained to Lily, “If I try to teleport I end up in the wrong place or nothing happens. Most of the time it just does the opposite of what I want it to do.”

Lily sat down scratching her chin. “I can try to help but I really don’t know much about magic. I don’t even know what it is like to use magic.”

“You don’t have too,” Leftfang replied. “You see after I granted you a wish my magic has been going downhill ever since. It was really nothing at first but now it has gotten so bad that I can’t use it at all and a mini dragon who can’t use magic is an easy target.” He looked around again to ensure that no one was creeping up. “I know that you didn’t cast any spell on me because you can’t cast spells but it has to be related somehow. I’ve never had any problem with magic before, not ever. After I granted you a wish, something that I have never done for any creature before, it starts going haywire.” Leftfang scratched his chin as he pondered. “It’s not like we grant wishes often but I’ve never heard of something like this happening before. Maybe ponies have some curse disease or something. Whatever it is I really need my magic back.”

“Well,” Lily started reluctantly, “I suppose that you could try to take the wish back and see if that helps.”

Leftfang shook his head. “No, it doesn’t work like that. A wish can’t be taken back, you can only wish for the first wish to be undone. With my magic not working there is no way that I can grant a wish and even if I could that would be two wishes instead of one. I don’t even want to know what would happen then.”

“Ok,” Lily replied glad that she didn’t have to give up her super strength, “So what do you think we should do?”

Leftfang slumped into a sitting position on the path and held his head in his claws. “I don’t know,” he groaned. “All I know is that there is some connection between the wish and my magic messing up but I don’t know how. I talked to that Zecora creature and she told me that I would only find the answer in the ‘pony town’. Since that’s all that I have to go on I came here.” He sighed. “I’m beginning to think that it’s a lost cause.”  

“You can’t call something a lost cause until you’ve tried everything,” Lily replied. “Besides I have an idea. While I may know nothing about magic, there are two ponies in Ponyville who are experts. One of them is even a princess.”

“And they can be trusted?” Leftfang asked cautiously. 

“Of course. If anypony can help they’ll have the best shot at it. Follow me.” With that Lily headed down the street motioning for him to follow. “Their more than trustworthy and will be glad to help. You’ll like them.”

Leftfang grumbled under his breath as he followed her. “Well I guess if two more ponies can be likeable then anything is possible I guess.”


*                    *                    * 


Soon the Pony and mini dragon were heading down a broad path that lead to the castle of the Princess of Friendship. Leftfang stared up at the architecture as they approached.

“Why is this castle so weird? Or you sure that these ponies aren’t extra weird?”   

Lily laughed. “No their fine.”

“Alright, but if any pony starts spontaneously singing or turns whatever I do into a dance I’m out.”

“What?” Lily asked as she reached the door.

“Nothing!” Leftfang growled.

Lily pounded on the doors. Crystals in the gem like structure reverberated together creating a musical sound echoing inside the castle. Lily had to pound a few more times before they heard an irritated voice call out, “I’m coming, quit pounding. Hun, visitors right in the middle of my nap.”

The doors creaked open revealing a sleepy-eyed spike in the middle of a cavernous yawn. He looked back and forth between the two guests. 

“Sorry to wake you,” Lily started and then pointed at Leftfang, “But he needs to see Princess Twilight and Miss-“

“Oh, no!” Spike interrupted. “The position of dragon assistant is already filled!”

“What! I’m not here to try to be the assistant of some moldy old pony princess!” Leftfang roared. “I don’t even want to be here!”

Spike’s claws clenched, “You better take back what you said about Twilight Right now or-“

“Stop!” Lily yelled over them. “This is just a big misunderstanding! He’s just here because he needs some help. Please show us where Princess Twilight is.”

Both dragons glared at each other a moment before Spike turned and led them into the castle. After a couple of turns they entered a large library. Every inch of wall was lined with shelves. Most of them were already filled with neatly arranged books while others had volumes piled up in front of them. Standing next to one of the stacks was Princess Twilight who was sorting through them.

“Who was it Spike?” Twilight asked without looking up from the books.

“It’s Lily with some friend of hers who need help.” Spike grumbled before walking over to a stack of books and flopping down.   

“Hey Princess Twilight, I…” Lily started.

“Just Twilight if you please,” The alicorn replied, “I get enough of the princess title when I’m away. Anyway, what can I do for you?” She asked turning around.

“I brought my friend who needs help with his magic,” Lily replied gesturing towards Leftfang. “This is…” Lily’s voice trailed off as she realized that they had never actually introduced themselves to each other.

“Leftfang.” Her companion stated. “My left fang was broken off in a battle with a large Timberwolf and I was dubbed Leftfang after that.”

“Oh, that’s kinda’ cool,” Lily replied. “By the way my name is Lily.”  

Twilight studied the pair with a bewildered expression. “Your friends but you don’t know each other’s names?”

“Ua… it’s a bit complicated,” Lily explained. “This is the dragon that I met in the Everfree who gave me my super strength. With all that happened we never told each other our names and we hadn’t seen each other since. He came because he’s having some unexplained issue with his magic so I figured that you and Miss Glimmer could fix it if anypony could.”

“We’ll definitely give it our best shot,” Twilight replied. “I’ll go get Starlight and you can tell us everything that has been going on with your magic in the second library. It has books and scrolls that are much older,” She explained as she led them into the hallway. She suddenly did a hop-skip flapping her wings as a realization hit her. “And I’ll get to learn about a magic and a dragonkind that hasn’t been encountered by ponies for generations! Yes, Yes, Yes! Spike! Spike, I need parchment and quills!” 

Leftfang looked at Lily with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged and smiled. “She loves to learn about everything, especially when she finds knowledge that is hard to get.” 


*                    *               *


A short time later Leftfang told his story in the Library with Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle sitting across from them. Twilight was constantly scrawling down notes and often interrupting with questions. Starlight simply sat quietly as she listened and Lily mainly occupied herself with the oatcakes that were on the able.

“So, all in all, everything comes back to that wish,” Leftfang finished. “Somehow it slowly began to mess up my magic.”

“No necessarily,” Twilight replied as she sorted through her notes. 

“What do you mean?” Leftfang snorted. “I’ve never had this happen before and I’ve never granted a wish before. I grant a wish and suddenly this happens.”

“Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Correlation does not always mean causation?’” Twilight asked.   

“No,” The dragon huffed.

“Basically it means to remember that while two things may seem to go together it doesn’t mean that one of them caused the other,” Twilight explained. “I mean Rainbow Dash gets really excited every spring, without fail. It’s not because she really likes spring or that her getting excited causes spring. Neither have anything to do with each other. It’s simply due to the fact that that is when the next Daring Do book is released. Without that knowledge, anyone would assume that she simply loves spring. It would even seem like the obvious conclusion when it is actually incorrect. Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s possible that you granting a wish and the failing of your magic may have nothing to do with each other.”

“So what do you think it is then?” Leftfang growled.

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know but I think that we should keep our minds open to other possibilities.” She turned and gestured at the neatly shelved books around them. “I keep my most ancient tomes here. Some even date back to the time of Nightmare Moon. It may take some time but we should be able to find useful information. I’ll also send a letter to Princess Celestia requesting copies of ancient writings from the royal library.”

Leftfang stared at shelves containing rows upon rows of books and ten imagined even more being piled up. “We’re going to stay in here and go through all that!” he exclaimed. “That will take forever!”

“Some I have already read so we won’t have to go through all,” Twilight replied, “And I recruited some help.  Ah, right on time,” Twilight said as voices began to faintly echo in from the hall. Soon five mares and two stallions walked in led by Spike. 

“We’re here darling,” Rarity called as she pranced in ahead of the rest. 

She was directly followed by a hopping Pinkie Pie. “I brought cupcakes to help us study. Sugar gives you lots of energy.” She announced. “After that awesome party that he threw earlier, I have to help.”

Lily looked over at Leftfang. “You threw a party?”

“No!” The dragon snorted. “I tried asking for help finding you and a bunch of ponies just started singing and dancing.” 

“Awww,” Don’t be modest,” Pinkie Pie said as she skidded up to the dragon nearly spilling her tray of cupcakes on the floor. “Hey! Do you want to help me plan my next party?! There’s a birthday coming up in a few days.” 

Leftfang quickly hid behind the chair that Lily was sitting in. “Keep her away from me. She’s crazy!”

At the door to the library Applejack was trying to shoo her new farmhands, Flim and Flam away.

“Are you sure that you don’t want us to help out?” Flam asked.

“Yes, we could carry your saddlebag back to the farm for you,” Flim added. 

“I didn’t bring any saddlebags,” Applejack replied waiving a hoof at the door. “Twilight and the rest of us will try to sort out whatever this is. You two go on back to the farm an se if Granny Smith has any more chores for you to do. If not, you can retire for the day.”

“We just want to be helpful.” 

“Yes, we’re not going to ruin the second chance that your giving us.” 

“After the mishap with the orders you’ve done well but you go on back to the farm now. There’s plenty more work to do tomorrow and you’ll need your rest.”

“Alright then,” Flam finally replied and they left closing the door behind them. 

“Phew, their getting a might too helpful.” Applejack said after they’ve gone. She turned to Leftfang. “Fancy meeting you again. So you’re having some kind of trouble with your magic.” 

Leftfang stepped out from his hiding place giving Pinkie Pie a wide birth. “So you really think that all of you can help me with this? I mean I’m not going to be giving out wishes for you all.”

“Oh darling,” Rarity replied lightly, “We have all that we need and we don’t need a reward in order to help another creature out.”

Leftfang had a little trouble believing it but he needed help badly. He turned to Twilight. “Back when I told you about how my magic messing up you said that ponies understand almost nothing about greed dragons, let alone mini dragon magic. Are you sure that you can figure it out?”

“Of course.” Twilight said with a smile. “We’ll find a solution, if we each make a contribution!” She sang out with a hoof on her chest.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, “There’s always a way, with good friends who will stay…”

“By your side.” The others sang in unison.

Leftfang stared at the ponies through narrowed eyes as the song unfolded. He groaned and slapped his claws over his face. “I’ll wait in the other library until your done,” He grumbled and headed for the door. “Ponies are WEIRD!”  

> What did Zecora say?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  A short time later Lily found herself flipping through aged books alongside a princess. Many old tales and descriptions of kingdoms and legendary creatures set her imagination roaming in to the distant past. She found it so hard to keep searching for specific answers rather than just reading everything that caught her eye. Without her realizing it hours passed. 

All around the room books were being sorted through. They were arranged into three piles, not useful, related subjects and useful. The last pile was a rather small one. Lily was lost in another ancient tale when Rainbow Dash suddenly broke the silence as she slammed a book shut.

“Auugh!” We’ve been here forever and haven’t found anything. Not anything that could help anyway.”

Twilight looked up from her book. “Don’t give up. There are still plenty more to go though so we may find something yet.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the untouched books and groaned. 

“Why don’t we take a break and go see how Starlight is doing,” Rarity stated. They headed into the next room to find it aglow with magic. Leftfang stood on a table as light swirled around him. Starlight Glimmer was staring at open books that were laid out in front of her while her face was scrunched up in concentration. 

“Find anything that can help us figure out a solution?” Twilight asked.

The swirling magic faded as Starlight looked up. “I’m not sure. We have to keep in mind that there are many things that magic can’t tell us. I’ve used every detection and scanning spell that I know and while it can reveal that his spell magic is being badly hindered, it can’t show me why.”

Leftfang snorted. “It revealed that it’s being badly hindered? I already know that! You can’t reveal something that is already known. Basically, you just said that all those spells that you tried were useless.” 

Starlight scowled at him a moment before replying, “Did you know that you have two separate sets of magic?” When Leftfang just looked confused she lit up her horn again. Above his head two lights appeared. One was a greenish glow, it was very weak and quivering as if it was about to be snuffed out. The second was a reddish/blue glow that flickered like a strong flame. Twilight instantly whipped out parchment and a quill. 

“One is your spell magic, the same kind that unicorns have,” Starlight Glimmer explained as she indicated the weak green light. Then she pointed her hoof at the bright light. “This magic is a kind that I have never seen before. It must be your wish magic and it appears to be fine. Whatever is affecting your spell magic hasn’t touched it so you could probably still grant wishes if you want to.” 

“Well I’m not going to grant any!” Leftfang snapped. 

“We’re not going to ask you too,” Twilight assured him. “We’re here to help you.”

Leftfang still looked suspicious so Lily changed the subject. “So isn’t princess Celestia going to send us more scrolls to help us out?

“That’s true,” Twilight said. “Strange they should be here by now. I’ll send her another letter. Spike! Spike!” She called back into the library. The only response she got was Spikes muffled sleep mumbles. Twilight groaned and shook her head as she smiled at the others. “He was up late last night. It was ‘guys’ night’ with Big Mac and Discord. I guess I can’t blame him for being tired.”

Lily shrugged, “There’s always tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!” Leftfang exclaimed. “Why does it have to take so long!? I’m starting to think that that Zecora pony lied to me.”

“Zecora is not liar,” Applejack stated, “Sometimes things just take longer than expected, Sugar Cube. I’m going to have to git’ back to my farm soon and I know that others here have things to attend to but don’t worry. We’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll keep coming back until we’ve solved this.”  

Leftfang snorted and crossed his forelegs. 

“What exactly did Zecora say,” Twilight asked, “You stated that she told you to come her for help but did she say anything else. She usually says more than go here or do that. She always gives many hits in whatever she says so was there anything else?”

The red dragon shrugged. “I don’t know. She was talking in crazy riddles. She said something about all creatures having some kind of magic and hooves of friendship. Something about rage and fate, bitter heavy loads going down a road. Fate, hate and magic and… something else. With her talking in rhyming riddles it’s hard for me to remember what she said. I personally think that she was just rambling on with no idea what she was talking about. 

Twilight however, wasn’t listening to his last sentence. She was pacing back and forth, while tapping on her chin and squinting at the swirling thoughts that only she could see. “Rage, hate, a heavy load and a changed fate,” she muttered under her breath over and over. She paused looking down at a book that had been left on a chair from that morning. The title read, The tragic tale of Francois Tourte and Maestro. She studied it a moment and then kept pacing and muttering. Then she smiled and looked up at the ponies and one dragon announcing, “I think that I have it.”

“Well what is it?!” Leftfang demanded and the ears of all the gathered ponies perked up eager for the answer. 

“You have a friendship problem.” Twilight stated.

“What! It’s my magic that is messed up!  What does friendship have to do with magic?”

Twilight smiled at him. “You’d be surprised. Now, do you know any more mini dragons nearby that are having problems with their magic?”

“There aren’t any that I know of but I usually keep to myself,” Leftfang replied.

Twilight started pacing again. “Ok… do you think that you can invite as many dragons as you can to visit Ponyville?”

“What? What for?” Leftfang asked almost roaring with surprise.

“Because we, all of us in Ponyville, are going to welcome them to our village and offer them our hooves in friendship.”

Bewildered Leftfang struggled for a reply. “They won’t come and how will this help with my magic?” He finally stated. 

Twilight stopped pacing. “You may find this hard to believe but it is likely that your trouble with your magic is due to a friendship problem.”

“You’re right, I do find it hard to believe,” Leftfang interrupted glaring at her through narrow eyes.

“Look, I know that this may seem very strange to you but I have a lot of experience in magic and friendship. Those two things are closely related. Everything about this screams friendship problem. I am certain of it but even if it isn’t, having more mini dragons around will help up out more than books… I can’t believe that I just said that.” Twilight looked stunned for a moment and then shook it off. “Because of the long years of separation we really don’t know much about mini dragon magic so having more dragons around should help us out a lot. For all we know one of them may have gone through the same thing. Either way it can’t hurt to try.”

Leftfang snorted. “I’m willing to try almost anything but I’m telling you that they won’t come. If I go around asking them to visit a pony village they’ll think that I’m crazy or some kind of imposter.”

“There has to be some way to get at least a few dragons to come.” Twilight said encouragingly. “Do you know anything that might help?”

Leftfang scratched his chin as he pondered the idea. The he glanced down at Lily. “Well, because of our history one thing that most will respect is a quick wit and a clever mind. If a pony could impress them in a battle of minds they may be intrigued enough to come and there is a pony who I think can do it.”

*                        *                           *

As the sun sank further into the horizon the groups headed to the main doors of the castle. They were surprised to find Flim and Flam still there and polishing everything in sight.

“What in tarnation are you doing?” Applejack demanded, “Did Ya’ll spill something… an’ I told you to head back to the farm anyway?”    

“We’re just trying to be helpful,” Flam replied with a wide smile.

“Yes,” Flim added, “We’re going to prove ourselves no matter what.”

Applejack groaned. “You can prove yourselves tomorrows’ apple picking in the north orchard. Big Mac will be busy fixing the bran so you’ll need to pull the carts.”

The brothers’ grinds turned to dismay. “You mean all those heavy carts?”

“Why don’t we do all the apple picking and you can have that super strong filly pull all the carts?”

“You ain’t never going to achieve much if you always get others to do your work for you, even if they are stronger than you,” Applejack stated. “Now come on, if you really want to prove yourselves you’ll work hard in the orchard with your own hooves.”

Miserly the two stallions followed her out and the rest of the ponies scatted their separate ways. As Twilight waived goodbye, Leftfang left with Lily towards the edge of town where her home was. Closing the door behind her Twilight headed back to the libraries.

“Spike! Spike!” She called as she looked around. “I need to send another letter to Princess Celestia. I don’t know why she didn’t rely back but I-“ She stopped mid-sentence as she spotted the little purple dragon sleeping behind the pile of not useful books. In front of him were a few old scrolls and a letter from the head princess neatly wrapped in a red ribbon and bearing her seal on the front. 

“Spiiiiike! Why didn’t you tell me that you received a reply!”

Spike’s eyes snapped open but gradually began to slide shut again. “Oh yeah! She sent it… it (yawn)… when merumh…” 

Twilight rolled her eyes and picked up the letter first. She neatly unrolled it and began to read as a little pink filly reach the edge of Ponyville. Beyond stretched the Everfree Forest.

“Remember, meet me here about midday tomorrow,” Leftfang said before he flew to the trees. Lily nodded and watched him fly away before turning and heading for her house. Just an innocent little pink filly born many years after the catalyst who did not know what she was getting into. 

> The Letter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Dear Twilight,

I’m afraid that I can’t guess what might be wrong with Leftfangs’ magic. Mini dragons have chosen to live separately from ponies for many generations now and even before that choice their magic was not well understood. I can however, tell you of what I do know. Our history with them dates back to the time when Hearths Warming Eve was still a new holiday and our kingdom had just begun to form. It is also intertwined with the effort to make Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasus to put aside their differences.  While many ponies of the three tribes had learned to live in harmony, things like this is unfortunately a long process. There were still ponies who harbored ill feelings and distrust for those of other tribes. If they could not respect fellow ponies why would they have respect for other creatures? But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Those problems aside things were going well. Equestria was becoming a thriving country. As is expected, ponies began to explore beyond their lands in order to make friends with creatures and civilizations lived outside their new home. It wasn’t long before they traveled beyond the place where the Crystal Empire would eventually stand. Past the Crystal Mountains, then called the Blue Mountains a community of small dragons were encountered.    

At first it was just a typical fascination between two different cultures that suddenly collide. For the ponies these small dragons were so unlike known dragons and the mini dragons had never encountered ponies before. The Mini dragons began traveling to Equestria and ponies began to travel to the mountains. It wasn’t long before the wish magic was discovered and many ponies considered it an honor and a blessing when a dragon offered to grant a wish. However, there are always ponies in any tribe who feel greed and they sought to abuse it. As I said, if they would not trust and respect ponies because of wings, horns or lack thereof why would they respect the dragons? Especially when they could gain so much from it. 

For earth ponies, who did not trust pegasus or unicorns, why ask them for good weather to grow crops in when you could just wish for it? For unicorns, why depend on the earth ponies for food when you could just wish for it to grow on its own at your home? For the Pegasus, why depend on the two other tribes for anything when you could just wish for it? From their view, having mini dragons were completely necessary for survival. Even if they knew better, who wanted to give up the comfort? When they found out that mini dragons could not teleport out of enclosed building or containers they took advantage of this and made dragons trade wishes for freedom. Sometimes many wishes. Many mini dragons found ways of deterring them or making escapes. Most notable was convincing ponies that they had to accomplish some sort of task for their magic to work. Despite this, many dragons were captured.     

Many ponies protested this as they wanted friendship or had friendships with mini dragons. Ponies on the other side of the issue couldn’t care less what they thought and quite often fights broke out. Ponies began to form groups to fight against the practice and other ponies formed groups to fight back. But overall ponies could not stop it. Luna and I had not been given authority over the new kingdom yet so we only had influence but not power.

‘Wait! What!” Twilight exclaimed, “I’m going to have to ask her about that.” 

  To make a really long story short, more ponies began to rise up against exploiting dragons as they learned to trust beyond their tribe and once Equestria became an official kingdom we finally able to put a finally stop to it. Time began to heal old wounds and the past was becoming nothing more than a dark memory. Soon there would no longer be three tribes, just one Equestria. The Crystal Empire was created and transformed by love and towns grew into cities. New generations that only knew a world in which all three tribes lived together began to come. It was a glorious time but as always, nothing is ever perfect. Most mini dragons wanted no part in friendship with ponies, not even the ones who they stood alongside with when the true kingdom was formed since that would mean a connection with ponies in general. Most went back to the lands beyond the Crystal mountains while others found new places to live where few ponies ever traveled. 

Years went by with mini dragons and ponies completely separated. Soon ponies began to forget or doubt that they ever existed. Generations upon generations have come and gone and now most documents and memory of them is almost completely gone. I have included a copy of the oldest writings that we have on them. The originals are too ancient to move or be handled often. Please keep me updated on how things go. It is great to see a mini dragon and a pony find friendship after all this time. Perhaps she can finally bridge the gap between us.  

*                                   *                                     *   

Leaves rustled in the canopy above her as Lily stepped into the Everfree Forest. She glanced around remembering the first time she had come here. Prickles sat in her mane peering out at the trees. He leaned out and looked at Lily’s eyes. “Curr?”

“You stay up there, ok? Don’t you dare wander off.” Lily instructed.  Prickles nodded.

The soft whoosh of leathery wings in the air caught their attention.  Red flashed through the trees as Leftfang flew towards them. He landed in front of Lily and folded his wings with a sigh.

“It sucks not being able to teleport,” he panted, “I had to fly half the night. Anyway, four dragons agreed to meet us.”

“Only four?” Lily asked though she was somewhat relived that it was a small number. “I think that Twilight was hoping for more.”

Leftfang shrugged. “More may come if you can impress these four. Remember, they may not respect or trust you but they will respect a clever mind. If you can impress them, which will be hard they MIGHT come. Huh, don’t even know why that princess thought this was a good idea. Probably won’t work and I still don’t think that it will help me. Make me the laughing stock of dragons more like it,” Leftfang grumbled more to himself than Lily.

“Princess Twilight knows what she is doing,” Lily assured him. “Anyway, it’s not like we have much to go on.”

Leftfang snorted. “Well it is too late to go back now. I guess I’m stuck with it. Anyway, whatever you do don’t underestimate your opponent. Green Claw will be there and if I know anything about him, he has appointed himself spokesdragon. I’ll tell you about him on the way.” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll do my best,” Lily replied as she followed him through the trees. One Little pony to take the first step in bridging a gap.



> Battle of wits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The meeting point turned out to be deeper in the forest that she expected but then Lily realized that they probably wouldn’t want to be close to a pony dwelling. She heard them before she saw them. Their voices carried through the trees as the laughed and chatted.

As the trees thinned she spotted the other mini dragons. They were all about the same size and shape as an adult stallion just like Leftfang. One was an earthy colored brown with a thick heavyset body. Another dragon who was perching on a low hanging branch on the far side of the clearing was a dark, twilight blue. She was surprisingly delicate looking, the spines running down her back seemed more decorative than anything. Her wings were somewhat transparent and even created a slight blue shadow where the sun shone through them. Another female dragon was sitting below picking dirt out of her claws. She was yellow with red spikes. The fourth dragon was sitting regally atop a boulder. He was a solid bright red with green claws. It was easy to guess that he was Green Claw and her likely opponent. He watched with hooded eyes and apparent disdain as the other dragons gossiped. 

“I swear,” The blue dragon said, “That this manticore insisted that some monster sneaks around in the Everfree berry patch. He even said that it bit him on the paw once. Ha! It looked like thorn scratched him to me.”

“I don’t know,” The yellow dragon chimed it, “I heard about it too and when I went out there something hit my tail.”

“Yeah, you hit your tail on a rock when you swung it around like you always do.” The brown dragon laughed.

“I do not!” She snapped as her tail switched angrily back and forth behind her.

“Oh, of course not just-Hey! He actually showed up and really did bring a pony!”        

At the announcement of the earthy brown dragon every eye turned towards them. For moment, all was silence as the two parties stared at each other. Then Green Claw spoke up.

“Woah, you were serious! Truthfully, I was expecting this to be some kind of prank,” He jumped down from the boulder and faced the mini dragon and pony who were standing side by side. 

“Why would I pull a prank when my magic is messed up?!” Leftfang snapped. 

Green Claw shrugged. “Well, we would like to help you out Leftfang but going to make friends with ponies to fix your magic makes no sense. Besides, didn’t you lose your magic by hanging around them?”

“It’s not so simple as that!” Leftfang snorted.

“Sounds like it,” Green Claw replied before turning to Lily. “And what do you want out of it? One wish not good enough?”

Lily refused to be baited. “I’m here because I don’t want Leftfang to be left without magic. We can’t figure out the problem so we need help. I am also here because love and friendship between kinds is very important to Equestria, our society was even founded on it. Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princes of Friendship wishes to extend a welcoming hoof to you.” 

Green Claw burst out laughing and the other dragons quickly joined in. Lily couldn’t help but cringe at the derisive laughter. Leftfang wasn’t surprised but he still glared at them. 

“You want to convince me that ponies are all about friendship and love!” Green Claw chortled. “Sure, they’re creatures of love alright, they love themselves. It’s how ponies are.”

“We are not!” Lily snapped.

“Little pony,” Green Claw started in a patronizing tone, “You are young and naïve. I have lived much longer and have observed many ponies without their knowing. I hate to break it to you but your kind tends to be dull as well as selfish. When one only has regard for themselves they are easily manipulated. That is why we dragons were able to lead so many ponies on. Hold on,” He stated when Lily opened her mouth to speak, “Are you going to tell me that there are no selfish ponies?” 

“There are dull and selfish one just as there are sharp-witted and kind ones!” Lily snapped stomping her hoof. 

“If ponies aren’t not so selfish then why are they no easily manipulated!” 

Lily glared back at Green Claw and managed to stop an exasperated sigh. While Leftfang had told her more than once that the only way to win them over was to find a way to start a battle of wits she had hoped simply to win them over as friends. However, it was now very obvious that that was a doomed plan from the start. Unless they happened to need sudden saving from falling rocks there was no chance. 

Lily shrugged off her personal irritation and took her opportunity. With snickers ringing in her ears she smiled sweetly and stepped forward until she was only a couple of hoof steps away. “Would you change your mind about that if I, a young, naïve pony could beat you in a battle of wits?” The chuckling stopped instantly and every dragon looked at Green Claw expectantly. 

Green Claw snorted. “Nodragon is a match for me. Why would a pony be?”

Lily shrugged. “Oh. I understand,” she said halfway turning her back as she sat down and wrapped her tail around her hooves. “It would be too embarrassing to lose to a pony in front of others, especially a little stupid one. You’d never live that down. It’s fine if you don’t want to take a risk. I mean there is no reason to turn down a challenge like this unless you feared losing.” 

There was a sharp intake of breath from the surrounding dragon and Green Claw’s red face turned even redder. He snorted and smoke puffed out of his mouth and nostrils as he bit back a fireball. Lily felt Leftfang tense up beside her ready to tackle Green Claw if necessary.

“No dragon and especially NO PONY can best me in a battle of wits.” Green Claw snarled.

Lily fought not to lose her nerve under those glaring green eyes. Or to look like she was losing any nerve.  “Typical riddle battle then?”

Green Claw glowered at her and the three other dragons stared intently as they eagerly awaited the challenge to begin. Finally, Green Claw replied. “Fine! But each of us only has five minutes to think of an answer. I don’t want to be here all day while you try to think.” 

Lily nodded. She didn’t really have much choice. Green Claw nodded at the blue dragon. Her claws lit up and after a flash of light a translucent hourglass appeared in front of her.  

“Two fathers and two sons went fishing one day. They were there the whole day and only caught 3 fish. One father said, that is enough for all of us, we will have one each. How can this be possible?” Green Claw began and the blue dragon instantly flipped the hourglass over. 

This was an easy one but Lily knew that he was only testing the waters. It would get harder. “It was a father, his son and his grandson, or his son’s son. This makes two fathers and two sons,” She replied and Green Claw snorted. 

Lily shot off a more simple one herself saving the best for last. “I am the first on Earth, the second in Heaven, I appear two times in a week but you can only see me once in a year. What am I?”

“The letter E,” Green Claw snorted in the same second that the blue dragon reset the hourglass. “Imagine that you are in a room with no exits, ponies would know about putting creatures in that, how do you get out?”

Lily ignored the gibe, “You imagine a door. What gets bigger the more you take away from it and what can be put into a box to make it lighter?”

“Holes!” Green Claw growled. “You’re not even trying if you’re really that smart. Let’s step it up a bit. You are trapped in a cave and can choose between doors, each with a sign above it. You are told that one may can lead to an escape and one may lead to a starving manticore who will devour you instantly. However, there is no guarantee. They may both be escapes and they may both lead to the manticore. You don’t know. All that you know is that one sign will lie and the other tells the truth. The sign above the first door reads, this room leads to freedom, the other has the manticore. The second door states, One room has a manticore and one leads to freedom. What should you choose a door and if so, which one?”

Lily pondered only a few seconds before replying, “You should choose door two.”

“Lucky guess,” Green Claw snorted.

“No, if one sign has to be false and one has to be true then the sign above the first door can’t be anything but false,” Lily replied calmly, “Now here is one for you. ‘Let’s say the king of a foreign land is angry at you and wants to feed you to a sea monster. By law though, he must give you some kind of chance. So, he announces to his people that his guards will bring forth a bowl with two folded up pieces of paper. One will read fish food and the other will read full pardon.  The problem is, you find out that the devious king made sure that both pieces of paper read fish food. Don’t bother trying to tell anyone because they won’t believe you. It doesn’t matter though. His trick can be used to ensure that you do survive. What can you do to make that happen?”

Lily saw flicker of worry in his eyes as the hourglass was reset. He emitted a low growl as he thought. She could almost see the gears turning rapidly in his mind. A minuet passed and the worry increased along with irritation. Another minute ticked by and the three other dragons also started to look worried at first. Then they began to look a Lily with new interest. Leftfang began pawing at the ground eager for the minutes to end and the contest to finally be won in his favor. Then Green Claw smirked just as the third minute passed.

“You snatch one paper out and eat it, or in my case burn it before any of the guards have a chance to take it from you,” Green Claw stated. “With the first paper gone they will be forced to read the second one. When they see that it states fish food they will assume that you selected the paper that pardons you.” He stared triumphantly at Lily and then stated his riddle. “You need a password to get into a certain part of the forest but this password changes every month. To get past the guard you will need to know both the last password and the new one. A dragon approaches the guard and asks, Is the old password out of date? The guard nods and replies, Yes, the new password is different but you should be able to guess. Four of the letters are the same and it has the exact same number of letters as the old one. What are both passwords?” 

Lily blinked at him certain that this was an unfair riddle. How could she figure out one password by comparing it to the other when she was not allowed to know what either one of them was? The same numbers of letters and some of the same letters would make it easy but she had no idea what letters and how many numbers. She stared at the hour glass draining as she alternated between pondering the riddle and debating whether or not she should call him out for an impossible question. As three minutes passed and the next one began to drain she closed her eyes willing herself to think harder. Then her eyes snapped open and she nearly laughed. She had been way over thinking it.

“The old password is out of date and the new one is the word different!”

Murmurs came from the on looking dragons but they sounded like voices of approval. Glancing at them Lily could see new respect in the eyes that had only held contempt before. 

Green Fang was glaring at her. He didn’t look back but he had obviously heard them. “Hurry up! What’s your next riddle?”

Lily looked calmly back and replied, “An old king has just passed away. It was his wish that either one clever and thoughtful person will take over after him or a council of both near and distant relatives. So he devises a test that will ensure either an intelligent ruler or a council if that fails. You and 99 other relatives are brought to the castle. The instructions are this, “The crown is locked in a safe. All of you will be brought to a puzzle and if you solve it together all you will form a council of equal power for each person. However, if one of you is able to solve the riddle without going through the steps you will be made king.

“Sadly, the old king didn’t realize how rotten most of his relatives were and if they were to be in charge with the majority of the council things would not go well for the people. So, you have to solve the riddle first without going through any of the steps.

“All of you are brought to a room with 100 boxes each numbered 1 through 100. All of you will be assigned your own number and must follow these instructions, relative one will open every box. Relative two will close every second box and relative three will change the status of every third box. If it’s closed, he will open it and if it’s open he will close it. Each of you must follow this pattern until all 100 of you have taken a turn. The boxes left open at the end will give you the code for the safe. Before they begin the steward askes if any of you already know which boxes will remain open. Can you step forward and claim the code before the steps are to begin?”

Silence rained in the forest when Lily finished. The blue mini dragon emitted a low whistle as she restarted the hourglass. Green Claw looked at her in horror and then with anger. He quickly shook it off and set his mind to work. Tension hung think in the air as Lily and every dragon watched him think. It was hard to tell what the three new dragons were thinking. Green Claw’s tail began to lash back and forth as he stared off at nothing.  

Green Claw’s tail began to lash back and forth as he stared off at nothing. Watching him Lily realized that he must be trying to visualize each of the steps in his head. Her hope of winning grew stronger. That was not the way. There were too many steps and no one could not keep track of every imagined box. Green Claw must have realized this as he growled at her and closed his eyes. The hourglass slowly drained and the tension increased. The bottom filled with more sand and the top grew smaller and smaller. Green Claw stomped with irritation but continued to ponder the riddle.  

Lily could feel her hear beating faster and faster in her chest as the sand began running out. So close! As small of an amount that was left the sand seemed to take forever. The suddenly the last grain fell. The three dragons blinked at it for a moment as if they could hardly comprehend what had happened. Then dark blue dragon spoke up, “Uh, Green Claw..”

The red dragon opened his eyes and looked at the hourglass with what looked like horror. Her snapped his head back around and glared at Lily. “You cheated! There is no way to guess without trying to go through all the steps which no beast can do in five minutes!” 

Lily shook her head. “Yes, you can. You don’t need to go through any of the steps.”

“How!” Green Claw demanded.

“It has to do with the amount of factors in each box number.” Lily explained. “There are 100 boxes with 100 relatives going in a pattern that will alternately open and close them. If a box number has an even number of factors then it will be closed at the end. Those with an odd number of factors will have their status changed an odd number of times leaving them open. The majority of the boxes have an even amount of factors but there are ten with an odd number of factors between 1 and 100. They are1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81 and 100.”

“She beat you!” Leftfang snapped at Green Claw. ‘She proved you wrong. Now you have to-“

“No, she didn’t!” The bright red dragon snapped thrashing his tail back and forth. 

“Uh, Green Claw… she did best you in a fair riddle contest…”  The yellow dragon started.

“NO!” Green Claw snapped turning to glare at her.

“You know that she did.” Leftfang growled as he stomped forward. 

“No,” Green Claw stated again. “To beat me she has to answer one more riddle.”

“That isn’t how the contest work and it isn’t fair!” 

“That the way it is going to be take it or leave it,” Snapped Green Claw before turning back to Lily. 

The little pony looked back and forth between the bright red dragon and the dark red one. Leftfang was right, it wasn’t fair. Yet she knew that you can’t always expect fairness. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and overcome it. 

“What is this last riddle?” Lily asked.

Green Claw smirked than began. “Let’s say that you and six other ponies were captured by dragons for once. To gain your freedom you must solve an impossible riddle. All of you will be lined up facing the same direction according to size. The tallest at the back and the shortest at the front. This way each pony can see the head of every pony in front of them. A magic spell will be cast over you so you can’t move at all, not even to turn you head. Then a small jewel that will either be blue or red will be placed on your heads. You will only be able to see the color of the gems in front of you but not the one on your own head or the ones behind you. Your job is to guess what is the color of the one on your own head.

“Now, if any of you try to say anything extra to let the others know what kind of jewel was place on their heads, all of you will lose instantly. Each of you can only say blue or red once. There will be no other communication or looking around. Out of the seven of you, there can be no more than one wrong answer. So, if less than six of you get it right you lose. Keep in mind, all of you can only say red or blue, once. Is it possible for at least six of you to guess right every time? If so, how?” 

Green Claw then turned and nodded to the blue dragon. She stared at him critically for a moment but then started the hourglass. Green Claw smirked and turned back to Lily who was already pondering critically. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at his smug grin. This must have been a grand riddle that he had been saving for later and was angry that he lost before he could use it. That, and he just angry that he lost to a pony. He may not be playing fair but at least he couldn’t keep stretching the rules without looking stupid in front of the others. 

“Time is running out,” Green Claw taunted.

Lily ignored him and focused on the question. She wanted to just tell him that it was an impossible riddle, which it did seem to be but she knew better. She began to grow frantic as she listened to the ever-present sound of the hourglass draining away. Then, as looked over the imaginary heads of the ponies of the riddle a sudden realization flashed through her mind. She opened her eyes and Green Claw’s smug grin vanished as she smiled confidently back. 

  

> Triumphant Return 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  As evening approached a jubilant Lily walked out of the forest towards Ponyville with Leftfang flying slowly behind. Walking with a high stepping prance, she aimed for her house so elated in her victory that she won for both Leftfang and for friendship that she didn’t notice the gathering that awaited her.

“So it worked!?” An excited voice interrupted her thoughts. Lily paused mid prance to see Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie standing in front of a small crowd. The Princess of Friendship help a long list that rolled out of sight and Pinkie Pie was clutching her party cannon as if it was a dear. Long lost friend.   
Lily nodded, “Yes they-“

“Alllllllright!” Pinkie Pie yelled and confetti exploded out of her cannon showering everypony nearby. “Streamers! Banners! Oh! And balloons! You never forget the ballons! We have to get ready everypony!” She yelled as she dashed into town. As her shouts faded and balloons began floating up above the buildings Twilight stepped forward, her face beaming. “I’m so proud of you!” The princess exclaimed and hugged lily. “A new chapter is going to begin where two long separated groups find friendship together.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Leftfang grumbled. “I’ll be back in the morning.” With that he flapped off back towards the forest. 

“Why is he so pessimistic?” Twilight asked. “Did something go wrong?”

Lily shook her head. “No, I don’t think do. He’s probably just still worried about his magic.”

“Any unicorn can relate,” Twilight replied.

“So what happened!?” A high-pitched voice demanded. 

Lily looked to see fellow school ponies squeezing out of the crowd.  “Well,” Lily began, “Like Leftfang told me, a dragon named Green Claw had taken charge and he certainly wasn’t encouraging any dragon to come. The three other dragons were pretty hostile too but when I proved that I could hold my own in a riddle battle that started to change. One was a dark blue dragon named Night Fight. She’s very fierce looking but was pretty nice after I won.  There was a yellow dragon with red claws named Lemon Jade and she’s a little goofy but I like her. The fourth was a stocky looking dragon named Rock. They were all weren’t friendly at first, especially Green Claw but they warmed up after I proves that I could hold my own in a wits battle. Even Green Claw.” 

“Of course, no one could beat you in a wits battle.” Rumble said with a dismissive waive of his hoof.

“I’m so proud of you.” Twilight said giving Lily a hug. “Now I have lots of things to do to make everything is ready for our first diplomatic encounter with mini dragons in centuries.” The there was a whoosh as she rolled up her massive scroll and hurried off into town.  

After a flurry of coagulations and question the crowd of ponies began to disperse either to help with the preparations or to head home for the night. With a yawn Lily began to make her own way home. As she neared her house she spotted an elderly pony standing outside of the neighboring home.

“Hi Mrs. Crumpet.” Lily called with a waive and headed over.

“I heard that you’ve had quite the important mission Little Mare Do Well,” Elderly pony said. 

Lily shrugged and grinned. ‘I guess so. I really just want to help Left Fang get his magic back and also help Ponyville make some new friends. It would be nice if we could get along with each other instead of always divided.”

“Yes it would,” Crumpet agreed. “Maybe you can tell me all about your adventure over a cup of tea,” She said levitating a kettle in her magic. 

The filly and elderly pony sat on the front steps sipping as the sun began to sink below the distant rooftops. Crumpet listened quietly as Lily told of her encounter with the group of dragons and the long riddle battle. 

“So, while they were pretty hostile at first, that attitude seemed to fade even before I actually won. It was like Leftfang said, they value wits in their culture and simply proving that I could hold my own against a champion riddler caught their attention. Even Green Claw who was he most hostile of all seemed almost friendly after I won the challenge.” Lily paused a moment pondering. “Though, Leftfang seemed to find it worrying that he would act friendly… He said that Green Claw isn’t going to accept being beaten and is just waiting for an opportunity to turn things back in his favor.”

“He could be.” Crumpet commented. “What do you think?”

“Well, it does seem odd that after how he acted throughout the meeting and riddle battle that he would suddenly lose all that hostility. But maybe he was just surprised like the others that a pony take him on in a riddle battle. Even if it’s not the case I’m sure that we can win him over with friendship. No one knows friendship like Princess Twilight and her friends. Not only that friendship had been important to Equestria for a long time. Not all ponies are good of course but soon he’ll see that there are many good ponies worth knowing.”     

“Perhaps,” Crumpet said slowly, “Lily one thing to keep in mind is that not all creatures find value in friendship, even when they see how amazing it is.” Lily looked up from her tea trying to process that thought. Crumpet went on, “Just remember if he is determined to hate you and forever blame you then he will, no matter what you prove or how well you treat him. In that case, it will not be worth your efforts to make friends. The only thing to do then is to move on and not let his hatred drag you down.”

Lily stared down at her dim reflection in her tea. Suddenly her hope seemed as dim as the watery image.

Crumpet laughed ruffling her mane. ‘Don’t worry, there still may be hope for him. Even if not there will always be others whose minds you can change and are willing to be friends.”  

“That’s true.” Lily said perking up. “Green Claw is only one out of five mini dragons that I’ve met. Anyway, I’ve got to get going. My mom will be wondering why I’m out after dark.” 

“I wouldn’t fret about worrying her too much. Your only next door and she did let you go into the Everfree by yourself again.” Crumpet commented.

Lily shrugged and shuffled her hooves. “Well, she is more relaxed no that she knows about my super strength but she doesn’t actually know that I went into the Everfree.” 

Crumpet laughed, “Well I didn’t know so at least she can’t blame me this time.” 

“I’ll see you tomorrow and hopefully Leftfang will get his magic back and Ponykind will make some new friends,” Lily called walking to her house her mind abuzz with the possibilities of the following day. Things could go bad but they could also make an awesome future. One could only hope and see. 

> They really won't come
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The sun rose over Equestria as the Princess of the Day reached out to it from the royal city. Even then her thoughts were not on the rising orb but on a small town that would soon be touched by its rays. So badly she wanted to be there but she knew it best to let her subjects act rather than do for them.

As the sun illumined Ponyville it revealed the festive streamers, banners and balloons that were displayed everywhere. The entire town was decked out to the fullest extent for the unprecedented event. All along the main street and around town hall booths stood covered with pony cuisine and gem studded dragon delicacies. Spike roamed among the booths taking a ruby cupcake here, a bowl of sapphires there. Just taste tasting to make sure everything was made right he insisted. The mayor stood on a platform in the town square editing her speech. On the end of town closest to the Everfree Forest Pinkie Pie snored in her party cannon still clutching a list of supplies with her disheveled mane hanging out of the barrel. Rarity carefully strutted about wearing her best diplomatic attire while Rainbow Dash darted about the skies making sure no cloud dared interfere with the perfect sunny day. Fluttershy was directing her bird choir while Apple Jack directed last minute preparations. School ponies ran helter-skelter through the streets causing much worry for Mr. and Mrs. Cake with their five-tiered confection wobbling on it’s platter. 

Just outside of town a small crowd was gathered to wait for the guests to arrive. Princess Twilight Sparkle stood next to her student, Starlight Glimmer. Twilight was sorting through the books that Celestia had sent in while excitedly explaining all that she had learned to a group of Lily’s classmates. As much as they enjoyed listening they couldn’t help but keep glancing at the forest eager for the dragons to appear. Lily and Leftfang sat nearby with the dragon alternately muttering and glancing at the forest.

“I still don’t like it.” He grumbled “Sure, they may be able to help your princess and her friend come up with a solution but more likely I’ll have my reputation messed up along with my magic.”

“Or you could end up being a hero,” Lily replied determined to remain optimistic. Leftfang just snorted in response. 

“So, smaller dragons were granted a magic more powerful than the ones who gained power through greed. The greedy dragons were forever cursed to have their minds and size linked to greed.”

“What about Spike, he’s not greedy,” A foal prompted.

“Being cursed does not mean you have to give into it. Spike chose something better,” Twilight replied. 

“What about that one time? He destroyed half of Ponyville. I may have been young but I remember.” Another foal stated.

Twilight turned red and scratched the back of her mane as she floundered for an answer. Fortunately for her Starlight Glimmer stepped in. “Is that a usual thing for him to do instead of helping other ponies?” The foal shook her head. “Good, are there any other questions?”  

“How about when are we going to stop listening to stories and stuff.” A colt snorted. 

“Yes when? We’ve been waiting for some time now.” The ponied looked towards the new voice to where Flim and Flam were standing in the crowd. “We worked hard all night for this. What if they don’t even show up?” Flim asked. “I thought hard work was supposed to get you something?” He added with a raised eyebrow.

“They’ll be here,” Lily insisted. 

“Or they might now,” Leftfang mumbles ruefully beside her but Lily ignored him. “If not we’ll just try again.”

Flim and Flam snorted, “I’m beginning to think that this whole thing is a waste. I doubt that even the first four will show up let alone others.” Twilight opened her mouth to reply but a loud crackling sound suddenly cut through the air. Flashes of light exploded in the field in front of the Everfree Forest. Ponies shut their eyes to the bright lights and when they opened their eyes blinking against the sports floating on their vision twenty-one dragons stood outside Ponyville. Lily had to resist smirking at Flim and Flam and a really nervous Leftfang shifted beside her.

A wind blew across the field ruffling pony manes and breezing over dragon scales while everyone stood still. After all the eagerness, from the ponies at least, both groups stood nervously staring at one another unsure just how to start. Ponies shifted on their hooves while the small dragons shifted on their claws. Lily could see Green Claw standing near the front of the crowd. He seemed to have no expression but Lily could see and angry glint in his eyes. She knew that he wouldn’t initiate the meeting. Lily realized that she should probably be the one to start things because she had been the one to invite them but that didn’t make her any less nervous than any other pony.     

Suddenly a familiar yellow dragon with red spikes she wove through to the front of the crowd. She glanced left and right at the faces of the dragons standing around her then mumbled under her breath. With a snort she strode out of the crowd and smiled at Lily. “Hello, riddle master. Why don’t you introduce me to your friends?” She asked. 

Lily smiled, “Everyone, this is Lemon Jade. She was there during my riddle battle.” A few dragons rolled their eyes as Lemon Jade eagerly waived at the crowd of ponies but tension began to break down.

“Ah-hem!” Twilight coughed, “As princess of Ponyville I am honored to welcome you to this gathering that celebrates new friendship that I hope will grow between us. Now that we have gathered together I hope that we can-“

 BOOOM! “Parrrrty!” As the cannon echoed through the buildings Pinkie came skidding through the crowd of ponies in a shower of cupcake scented confetti. “Come on every pony and dragon! Did we come here to party or what!?” Ripples of laughter came from both ponies and dragons. After a moment’s hesitation, mini dragons slowly began following began following their hosts to the party.

> The party and smiling faces 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

     It wasn’t the grandest party in the history of Ponyville, it wasn’t the wildest and it wasn’t even the funniest (Especially considering that Pinkie Pie had set it up) but it was still among the most memorable. Slowly the group of dragons began to break up and mingle among the ponies, albeit some still a little suspiciously but the party went on.

“Well now, I never had any idea that you could grow gems like you do plants. I always thought that you just dug them up,” Applejack said as she walked among the booths with a bright green dragon. “Do you think that you could teach me how?” 

“Sure,” he replied. “You first have to find a cave with enough minerals…”  

“Hi. I’m Lemon Jade.” The red spiked and yellow scaled dragon said offering a claw to a blue maned yellow unicorn. The mare laughed. “I’m Lemon Hearts and my specialty is making lemon heart cookies. Would you like to try some?”     

“Of course,” Lemon Jade replied following the mare to her table. 

Rock, the earthy brown dragon stood in front of the booth that Mr. and Mrs. Cake ran. He scratched his chin as he eyed the slices of carrot cake covering the table. “I was always told that eating pony food would make me less a dragon.”    

Mr. Cake responded by reaching over to the booth beside him and selecting a bowl of sapphire soup. He flinched as he crunched on the gems then replied, “Am I any less a pony or am I more dragon?” 

Rock shrugged and selected a slice of cake. After a few experimental bites he took another then another. 

Above the mingling dragons and ponies Rainbow Dash eyed the dark midnight blue dragon that hovered in front of her.

‘So, Midnight Fight, is it?” She asked.

“That’s right, Rainbow Dash. Midnight Fight the best fighter and flyer in the Everfree,” she replied proudly. 

“Well, I’m the fastest and best flyer in all of Equestria.” Rainbow Dash stated with a hoof on her chest.

“Well maybe you haven’t competed against every flyer in Equestria,” Midnight Fight challenged as her wings beat faster thrumming in the air.  

“I’ll compete with any pony, griffin, dragon or anything that can fly!” The blue pony’s wings pounded harder making gusts swirl below her. 

“I’ll beat you to the mountain!” The dragon roared and tool off like an arrow from a bow.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed dashing after her. 

On the ground below Leftfang and Lily watched the two blue streaks heading towards the mountain where the royal city stood. “At least some of them are making friends.”

“You could be too,” Lily replied. “I’m not the only pony here.”  Leftfang just snorted. “Stop worrying, it’s going well,” Lily said giving him a slight nudge.  

“But what about my magic!” Leftfang growled. “This isn’t just about some friend party!”

“Twilight and Starlight are already talking with the two scholarly dragons from the Crystal mountains, or as you call them, The Blue mountains,” A new voice interrupted. They looked to see Spike standing nearby. He pointed across the town square to where the two ponies and two dragons had set up a table away from the crowds. “You couldn’t have a better team working on it so why don’t you relax and join in the fun. The ruby cupcakes are delicious!”   

Leftfang sneered at Spike. “Why would a greed dragon want to share? Buzz off and go swallow the whole lot.” 

“Hey!” Spoke snapped. “I don’t know what your problem is but you are one of the biggest jerks that I’ve met and I’ve met a few.”

“Funny coming from a greed dragon,” Leftfang retorted.

‘What does that have to do with who I am. You-“

“Excuse me!” Lily pushed her way in between them. “Spike please excuse him a minute.” Without another word Lily picked Leftfang up over her head and walked away. She walked over to a table and deposited the kicking dragon into a seat. “Leftfang, what was that about?”

Leftfang blinked at her in surprise for a moment then he snorted. “You saw what he did.”

“What? What did he do to you!” Lily demanded. 

Leftfang opened his mouth but had to pause a moment. “He was arguing with me.”

“You started it.”

Leftfang shrugged “Why would I want to get along with him anyway? You don’t know how greed dragons look at us.”

“As of yet, the only one judging others is you. Even if they did, you can’t have such a toxic attitude towards others and then complain when they see you in a negative way.” 

Leftfang just snorted. 

“Leftfang this party has hardly started and you’ve started a fight with two ponies and now Spike. You do realize that one of the main focused of this party is to help you with your magic. If you’re going to be this way about it you might as well tell them to forget it.” Leftfang shifted around and grumbled. Lily sighed, “Lets, go see what they’ve learned so far.” 

They headed across the street weaving among the ponies and dragons towards the book and scroll covered table. Princess Twilight eyes flickered rapidly back and forth as she hovered a book in front of her. The tile was written in draconic and the image of a dragon casting a spell through his claws. A bright green dragon stood beside her holding a book titles Unicorn Magic with the image of a unicorn with a lighted horn. Starlight Glimmer and an ice blue dragon were staring down at a scroll that was rolled out across the table. All four were too engrossed to notice Lily and Leftfang walking up. 

“Find anything?” Leftfang asked bluntly. All four ponies looked up.

“Oh yes, a lot.” Princess Twilight replied excitedly. 

Leftfang nearly jumped into the air. “So you can fix my magic!”

“Oh, no… not yet,” Twilight stammered. “But we have found out lots of things that may-“

“Arrguh! I need my magic fixed!”

“Their working on it,” Lily said giving him a nudge. “What have you found out?” Lily asked the researchers politely. 

“A lot and there is so much more to learn,” Twilight said spreading out more scrolls in front of Lily. “I wish that we’d made friends long ago. “Did you know that mini dragons can earn marks similar to cutie marks! This opens up a whole new chapter in the science of cutie mark magic!” Twilight barely contained herself from jumping up and down.

“Did you know who knew that? Me!” Leftfang grumbled. “How does facts like that help?”  

“For one thing, it lets us know how closely your magic and fate is related,” Starlight Glimmer interrupted. 

“We have studied the relationship between magic and fate but as you know it is something nearly impossible to pin down scientifically,” The ice blue dragon stated adjusting a pair of crystal spectacles on his nose. “It seems like the more I try the less possible it becomes.  

“Yes, perhaps things like that are better understood as they are.” The other dragon added.

“But it doesn’t help my magic now,” Leftfang replied. 

“I think that it just might,” Starlight Glimmer said. “My mind keeps coming back to what Zecora said about magic and fate. Please, just tell me exactly what she said.”

Leftfang just shrugged. “I don’t remember and how could she really know more about it than another dragon? You can go ask her yourself if you want.”

“Leftfang. Don’t be so rude,” Lily hissed. Starlight Glimmer sat back scratching her chin for a moment. “Hey, I’ll be right back,” she said suddenly and vanished in a flash of light.

The ice blue dragon looked over the top pf the book that he was reading, “You know, you’d be surprised at what others may understand,” He said to Leftfang. “The things that we often think of as being our differences are often the things that are the same between us.”

“Like a dragon from the Blue Mountains thinks he knows about Everfree business. Don’t you ever take your nose out of a book?”

Both dragons glared at him. “I’m thinking that it’s not much point in helping you and instead just spend our time studying about ponies.”

Lily sighed and walked away from the table to take a seat closer to the party. It seemed like he would never learn. At least the party was going well. Ponies and dragons were mingling without hesitation now. The only dragon who didn’t seem genuinely happy was green Claw. He mostly wove through the crowds not really interacting with others unless they tried to engage conversation. When that happened, he would smile in their face whether it be dragon or pony. He would only talk long enough to not appear rude before he excused himself and began prowling again. On the outside he seemed content but his eyes told a different story. As they looked about the crowd you it was obvious that he was not happy about all this. 

Lily watched him as he continued roaming around wondering what he may be looking for it certainly seemed that he was looking for something. New voices behind her drew Lily’s attention away from the glowering dragon. Flim and Flam were now standing next to the table with Twilight and the Blue Mountain dragons. Both wore big smiles that looked very out of place. What did they want?     

> Greedy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Lily quickly decided that she didn’t like their smiles since they were very much like Green Claw's smile.  She slipped out of her chair and walked back to the research table. 

“Yes, it horrible that a pony would try to take wishes that they haven’t earned.” Flam was saying.

“Very greedy of them.” Flim agreed. “Especially since it halves their magic for a while.” 

“Well the biggest issue is damage to wish magic,” The ice blue dragon explained. “Wish magic is a gift to us to us to give as a gift to others, dragon or otherwise. When a dragon grants wishes frivolously or to pointless causes their wish magic will grow weaker and this will be permanent. One or two silly or excessive wishes granted won’t harm anything but if it becomes a habit then the effectiveness of wishes will go down.”

“How terribly greedy of those ponies to not care what happened to their magic.” Flam said with a glance at his brother. "No dragon would be able to trust them at all."

“At least now we can study a brand-new field,” the green dragon stated burying his nose in a book again.

“Yes, good idea,” Leftfang interrupted waiving Flim and Flam away. “They can study better when you aren’t bombarding them with questions.”

Lily started to follow them with suspicion nagging at her mind, but Leftfang called her name.

“What is it with ponies and singing at random? Your princess just took off hopping around the streets singing about learning new things. How is anything going to get done about my magic?” He grumbled.

Lily sighed, “Don’t dragons sing?”

Leftfang snorted, “Not by bursting out lyrics from nowhere and dancing through public. Do you see any dragons doing that?” 

The words had hardly left his mouth when two yellow figures, Lemon Jade and Lemon Hearts came prancing by singing out the joys of new friendship. Leftfang glared at Lily who couldn’t keep a smirk off her face. “Well, there has always been something wrong with her,” He snorted. Then Rock came prancing by singing.

*                 *                     * 

Slipping through the crowds Flim and Flam wore big smiles as they carefully searched the dragons of the gathering. They sidled up next to a red and blue dragon who had stepped away from a table to munch on a ruby cupcake. 

“Enjoying the party?” Flam asked him. The dragon nodded.

“We just wanted to comment on how brave dragons are. You and your companions have certainly proved it.” The dragon looked at him blankly.  

“Well, because mini dragons understand how greedy ponies can be as a species.” Flim replied, “Ready to take advantage at any point. It’s very brave to try to be friends with them and reform them.” 

The dragon narrowed is eyes, “Aren’t you ‘them’?” 

“Well no,” Flam responded with a tone that indicated the question was entirely absurd. “You see, we’ve matured to the point that we can admit we’re greedy. Admission is the first step to recovery you know.”

Flim smiled and nodded. “Ponies who admit their nature can overcome it. Sadly, some ponies just can’t.” 

Flam shook his head with concern and sorrow plastered all over his face. “It’s such a terrible problem with the pony race. You just can never trust a pony until they can admit it.well, at least we have you to help us.”

As they walked away the dragon watched scratching his chin with his brow furrowed with deep thought. The he began eyeing the ponies moving around him.

“I say, I must thank you for coming to help reform us ponies.” Flam said shaking the claws of a female dragon who was tasting various pony dishes.

She blinked back in confusion. “Came to help what? I thought this was some friendship party.” 

“Oh, it is, of course,” he replied still smiling wide, “but it also to help us ponies…” He trailed on as Flim as targeted Rock who had just finished his song about the joys of cake.

Panting with exhaustion, Rainbow Dash and Midnight Fight landed clumsily on town square.

“I’m off to get some cider and then we can have that aerial acrobatics contest,” Rainbow Dash wheezed. “Do you want some?” 

“Sure, I’ll try it.” Midnight Fight panted. “Do you need some time to rest?”

“Not if you don’t. I’m perfectly fine.” Rainbow breathlessly declared before dashing clumsily crashing into a cupcake table.

“It’s great to see ponies and dragons becoming friends.” Flam commented trotting up to stand beside Midnight.

“It is great to finally compete with someone who is on my level.” She replied. 

“I’m just glad that you can help reform her. After all her talents, she need help like any other pony.”

“What are you talking about?” She snorted glaring up at Flam. 

“Well I’m sure growing up as a min dragon you’ve heard about the nature of ponies…”

When Rainbow Dash came staggering back balancing a tray with cider cups on her back she was too tired to notice the odd look Midnight Fight gave her. The blue dragon said noting but just took the cup and studied the mare over the rim.

“Enjoying the party?” A voice interrupted Green Claw’s silent brooding as he smiled at the crowd. He jumped and spun around to see Flim standing next to him.

“Of course,” he replied returning the same smile as the pony. “I’m glad that we could be here.”

“I so glad that you and your friends are here too,” Flim said. “Perhaps one day, with your help, we can admit our tendency towards greed and finally recover.”

“Um… sure. We are happy to help you,” Green Claw replied though eyes showed his confusion. Despite this, fake smile still returned fake smile. “How exactly we’re we supposed to help you. I forgot.” 

“Well you know how we ponies have greedy tendencies. Can’t really help it you know but at least you can trust a pony that admits it. You have to be very careful of the ones who don’t.” 

“I see,” Green Claw replied slowly. He watched as Flim walked away into the crowd with his fake smile. The dragon scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment. Then, with a real smile headed off in the opposite direction. 

*                     *                      *

A tension began to build in the atmosphere of the party. It prickled in the air and disturbed the atmosphere of the party. The hosts couldn’t quite place their hoof on what it was but something was amiss. All carried on hoping that it was nothing. Then a sudden explosion voices made every dragon and pony jump and gawk wide eyed ae the indignant and angry voices echoed through the streets. All, except two ponies who sat calmly just outside of the gathering.   


“No one likes being accused of being greedy out of the blue, do they brother?” Flam asked as he sipped his cider.

“They certainly don’t,” Flim replied looking over his own cup. “I’d say it’s probably enough to stop a new friendship.”

“Definitely, and no one wants to be friends with any creature if they don’t believe that that can trust them anyway.”

“Certainly, not and how terrible for them but the more they fight is all the better for us,” Flim commented casually.

Flam nodded. “And we can’t exactly be greedy when just one wish is all we need.” 

> Disaster 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the yelling started, Lily tripped over Leftfang’s tail and just managed to stop herself from crashing into a table. She too had felt the tension but staying with Leftfang near the study table she had had no way to investigate. She quickly lifted the table out of her way and charged in the direction of the voices. She wove between the gathering circle of dragons and ponies and skidded into the center. To her dismay she saw Rainbow Dash and Midnight Fight standing nose to nose with teeth bared in angry sneers.

“You want to call me that again you moron!” Rainbow snapped furiously.

Midnight Fight snorted, “Better said by you. You can’t overcome it if you wont admit it.”

“Admit what?!” Rainbow Dash yelled throwing her hooves in the air. “What did I do! We were getting along fine when all of the sudden you start accusing me of being greedy. What did I do that was greedy?!”

“Not now but you would. We dragons have something that ponies want and-Hey!” Midnight Fight snapped and Lily pushed the two apart. 

“Just hold on for a minute!”  Lily demanded. “You two were becoming good friends moment ago. How can you suddenly start arguing and making accusations like this?” 

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Green Claw interjected before either could reply. “With the type of magic we dragons have we have to know if we can trust any ponies before we hang around them.”

“Yeah, another dragon cut in, “Didn’t we come here to reform you.” Ponies stared back at him blankly.

“Reform us?” Twilight Sparkle asked walking into the middle of the circle. “What are you talking about? We invited you here to help with Leftfang’s magic and to build a bond of friendship. Friendship is very important to us.”

“But how can you have friendship when one side wont own up to their nature?” Green Claw asked.

“Yeah,” another dragon spoke up turning to Rarity who was standing next to her. “Can you admit your greedy nature?”

“Whaaaaattt?!” Everyone flinched at the at the high pitched indignant wail. “M-me! Greedy! Wh-what?!”

“Everypony and dragon calm down!” Twilight said flying above the head of the crowd. “I believe that there has been a huge misunderstanding.” 

Green Claw snorted, “Perhaps on the ponies side. We just don’t want anypony stealing out magic.”

“Please just listen a moment.” Twilight pleaded. "We are not out to take your magic!"

A ways from the crowd Leftfang stood perched on a table as he watched the gathering. “What in Draco is this about?” He growled. “It’s definitely not going to help my magic.”  

“Such a nuisance isn’t it,” Flam commented walking up on one side of the table.

“I know, I wonder what got into them,” Flim added walking up on the other side. 

“I think that they’re worried that ponies may get greedy and wanting wishes,” Flam said with a sideways glance at his brother.

Leftfang missed the look as he kept watching the crowd. “Certainly a possibility with ponies but if they haven’t pulled anything by now then-“

Leftfang never finished. He and the two unicorns vanished in a flash of magic. Both ponies and dragons on the opposite of the crowd saw them disappear.  

“They kidnapped Leftfang!”

“It was a trap!”

“No!” Twilight tried to yell over the uproar of angry dragon and a number of confused ponies who hadn’t seen what had happened. 

“That wasn’t us!” Rainbow Dash, yelled flying above the crowd.  “And we’ll get him back from those jerks.” 

“Yeah right,” Midnight Flight snapped. “We never should have trusted you!”

“It wasn’t us that took him!” 

“I saw ponies clear as day take him.”

“I say that we get out of here and make sure that they don’t follow to take any more of us!” Green Claw roared flying above the crowd and signaling to the dragons below. In union the claws of every other dragon lit up.

“Wait!” Twilight yelled desperately. “If we help each other to stop Flim and-“ Heedlessly the dragons vanished in a blinding flash of light. When ponies opened their eyes they saw that not only was their entire town covered in a sticky ooze but a strange magnetic force pulled the Pegasus to the earth.

“What is this!” Rainbow Dash yelled floundering on the ground. 

“I don’t know!” Twilight yelled. Her horn flashed sending out a pulse of magic only for the light to wash over the town with no effect. “What! That should have cancelled any spell.” Desperately looking around Twilight spotted the only two dragons left. The dragon scholars from the mountains were standing in the center of a protective bubble while looking around wide eyed. 

“Please help us. I don’t understand how to counter dragon magic,” Twilight cried. The two dragons just looked back with suspicion and uncertainty in their clouding their eyes. ‘Please! We never wanted anything from you except friendship.” The two stared at her a moment before vanishing. 

“AAARRRUUUUGGG!” Twilight cried. A second later another burst of light flashed and Starlight Glimmer appeared next to her. She gasped at what greeted her and formed a protective bubble around herself only to have it drug down by the sticky goo that covered the ground. “What happened?!”

“Flim and Flam kidnapped Leftfang and the other dragons turned on us and not them!” Twilight yelled.

“What! That's horrible! Perhaps if I had only been a bit quicker,” Starlight said, “I know what is wrong with Leftfang’s magic. Zecora told him, he simply didn’t listen.”

“We can’t help that now. We have to save Ponyville. Help me figure out this magic.”

Standing back and wishing that she had never won a riddle contest Lily watched everything. She watched ponies struggling to walk in the sticky ooze that drug them down and Pegasus trying to fly only to have a mysterious force pull the back. Even Twilight and Starlight couldn’t teleport away from the force. Teleporting to it was apparently no problem but once in Starlight as trapped as the rest of them.

Lily could feel the suction of the ooze and the pull of the pony magnetic force pinning her hooves to the ground. She looked down and easily pulled a hoof free. She had no magic to counter a spell but she had her super strength. She easily ran across the street, picked up Twilight and Starlight and carried them over to the table where books on dragon magic lay. 

“I’m going to go find where Flim and Flam took Leftfang,” She said setting them down. Without waiting for an answer Lily took off down the street easily pulling her feet out of the goo with each step. Near the edge of town she felt the strange force pulling at her, trying to drag her back. A moment later she felt it fade and then disappear. Once clear of the town she headed for the Everfree certain that she knew were Leftfang was. As her hooves pounded the ground she couldn’t stop the anger burning inside her. So much was ruined because of two selfish ponies and one selfish dragon. She hadn't missed the triumphant grin on Green Claw's face nor the evidence that Flim and Flam had stirred up the trouble in the first place. Now because of them, Leftfang was kidnapped,  her town was a disaster and a mending rift had been torn wide open.     

  

> Perfect trade off
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hooves pounded rhythmically on the ground and her heart pounded in her ears as Lily wished that she had super speed as well. At the same time, she was glad for time to think about just what she was going to do when she found Flim and Flam. Super strength couldn’t stop a teleporting pony. At least she was pretty sure that she knew where they were. The those silly little ‘magic’ trinkets that they had tried to sell were made of a red wood. It was little surprise that Flim and Flam would choose it because it gave the crude carvings a glossy look but best of all it narrowed down where they might be. The only type of trees with such red wood around Ponyville grew only in a few places just inside the Everfree. They never grew deep in the forest. At least that was what Mrs. Cheerlee taught in forestry lessons. Lily hoped that there were no exceptions. With the large load the two brothers had had, it would have taken a long time and they likely would have set up a camp there. 

  “Oh, please let me be right,” Lily pleaded as she entered the forest. Dappled sunlight flashed across her face as she wove in deeper and then swung off the right to begin her search. She kept alert for the first sign of a red trunked tree, the two brothers or any sign of wood carving. Instead of any of that Lily was surprised by the sudden appearance of bright colors standing out in the forest. Lily skidded to a stop. Panting, Lily peered through the foliage to see the dragons. Some were balancing in the trees with their wings hanging down as they looked around while others stood on the ground talking in hushed voices. She could see Green Claw’s back ash he looked up calling to Midnight Flight and Lemon Jade near the edge of the groups seeming to argue with eveydragon.  


  Of course! They would be out looking for Leftfang too and she could help. Even if they didn’t want her around she could tell them where he was likely at, not that they could stop her from looking on her own. Cautiously, Lily trotted through the trees towards them. At the sound of her hoofsteps the mini dragons spun around and she was met with a hoard of hostile eyes. 

  
  “What are you doing here!?” Green Claw snarled stomping forward.  

  
  Lily cringed at all the angry glares but managed to reply evenly. “I think I know where Flim and Flam took Leftfang.”    

  
  Green Claw scoffed, “Of course! You were in on it! But so far it looks like your plan left your entire village trapped!” 


  “What! How can you not understand what happened?!” Lily cried. “Flim and Flam stirred up trouble and then they took advantage of it! Now Leftfang is in danger and the longer we stand here, the less chance we have of finding him!” 

  
  “Leftfang!” Green Claw snapped. “Oh, poor Leftfang. If it weren’t for him befriending a pony and luring us to your town to save his magic this would have never happened!” 


  “It’s not his fault!” Lily yelled. 

  
  “Like none of us would haven’t gone for help if we were in his position,”  Lemon Jade interrupted. “It’s obvious that the ones who went around telling us that ponies were greedy and would use us are the greedy ones looking to benefit.” 

  
  Before Lily could breathe a sigh of relief at having a ally Lemon Jade was drowned out by growls of the others.  


  “Shut up!” Green Claw snapped a her. “You’ve always been to gullible for your own good. As for the pony,” He motioned to the dragon beside him. The dragon opened his palm, a burst of light flashed in his claws and a medallion appeared. It dangled from a thin woven rope with the plain metal disc showing a pair of devious looking eyes. “This is the mark of a greedy and tricky being. Once placed on a pony’s neck a spell will keep you from ever removing. It’s no less than you deserve since you tricked us to come to a trap in your village.” 

  
  ‘Wait!” Lily said quickly, “Give me two!” The dragons stared at her blankly. “You’re right, we’re all greedy ponies but I can help make things right and you will never have to deal with us again.” 

  
  “I’m listening,” Green Claw replied slowly. 
  

  “Soon two delegates will be coming to see you to talk about what happened in Ponyville. Being greedy ponies they may ask you for wishes. If you don’t make me wear the medallion I’ll take the two to the delegates and convince them to wear them, even if I have to do so by trickery. However, you must promise me one thing. If they ask you for wishes you must not torment them by tricking to preform foolish tasks to ‘make the magic work.’ I know dragons used to do this to greedy ponies in the past so please promise me that you won’t do so to them and I’ll get them to wear those medallions of shame.” 

  
  “Of course,” Green Claw said with a cough and a wide grin. Behind him there was much snorting, winking and efforts to cover up laughter. “We won’t do anything like that if you give them the medallions, and one for your ‘friendship princess’ too,” he nodded at the dragon beside him and two more appeared in his claws. "Just keep your end of the deal and we won't do anything mean to those important ponies, we promise." Green Claw struggled to keep a straight face as he spoke.

  
  “Fine!" Lily said snatching the medallions by the ropes and took off into the forest. After a while she glanced back making sure that no dragon was following. Seeing none she snorted in contempt. “Even if no one else will choose to see what’s really going on I am not going to give up.” She slung the third medallion to the ground and stomped on the metal, crushing it to pieces beneath her hoof. With the other two dangling from her mouth Lily continued her search. She found several patches of the trees but each one had no sign of a camp. Just as she was feeling despair rising in her Lily heard voices up ahead. She slowed and stalked forward.  


  “Nodragon or pony will be coming,” A taunting voice said. “It was easy to stir up trouble between them and even if they’re not still fighting there is no way that they’re going to work together.” 


  “All we want is one wish. Just make everypony believe everything that we say,” 

  
  “I am not granting you any wishes and even if I did I couldn’t grant such a wish.” 

  
  “Why not!” 

  
  “Because you can’t wish things on other or for others if they’re not present to agree to it.” 

  
  “But you can grant a wish for us that will affect others. So, just let us wish for a spell to be on us that will affect anypony we talk to, a spell that will make whatever we say sound like the most believable thing that they’ve ever heard. That’s all we want.” 

  
 “Sure, but first you must retrieve the whisker off a manticore.” 


  “HA! We know that those are just tricks and there no tasks or items needed to unlock your wish magic.” 

  
  “Oh, it’s very real,” Lily said stepping out of the trees where Flim and Flam stood in a makeshift camp. There were bits of wood everywhere and in the center Leftfang was trapped in what looked like a bear cadge. “I had to go on a quest in the Everfree for my super strength.” 

  
  Flim and Flam jumped at her voice but quickly recovered. Flim quickly lit up his horn. “Well, your super strength won’t help you here,” He said, “We can simply teleport somewhere else before you try to free Leftfang.” 
  

  “Oh, I’m going to try to break him out or fight since that will likely lead nowhere,” Lily assured them. “I’m to make a trade with something that you will find even more valuable than a single wish.” 

  
  “Oh?” said Flam. 

  
  “Just what could be more valuable than a wish for whatever you want?” Flim asked. 

  
  Lily pulled out the two medallions that she had hidden in her mane. “These are scared metals to the mini dragons. Whoever is given them will be regarded with respect and trust for they mark you as a friend of dragons. They were given to me when I proved myself by saving Leftfang, why do you think that they trusted me enough to come to the village? I will trade these to you in exchange for Leftfang’s freedom, if and only if you promise me one thing.” 

  
  “And what would that be?” Flam asked as he and his brother stared greedily at the medallions. 


  “You must promise that you will never use them to trick or use any dragon,” Lily stated looking over her shoulder in the direction that Green Claw and the others were, “There are many dragons out in the Everfree who wish to speak with delegates from Ponyville. They will be very eager to see a trustworthy pony right now. You must promise me that you won’t use these metals against them to trick them into giving you unearned wishes."


  Flim and Flam both looked at her each other a moment and then a wink passed between them. “Of course, we promise that we won’t use it against any dragon and we’ll let Leftfang go. It’s a deal.” 


  Lily held out the medallions and the two brothers quickly snatched them up, put them around their necks and headed off into the forest. 
  

  “That was so easy, children are so gullible.” Flam hissed to his brother and they hurried off to find the dragons that Lily had mentioned. 


  “I know, and now that we have these was can get a wish whenever we need on.” Flim whispered back.  


  Lily waited until their whispering voices faded and then hurried over to the cage and ripped the door off. Leftfang leapt out and glared in the direction that they had gone. “I love to see what happens when they walk up to a mini dragon wearing those and ask for wishes. If they believe that they have to complete quest for items then any dragon who finds them is going to have a fun time with them. Where did you get those?” 


  “From Green Claw. They covered Ponyville with a spell after Flim and Flam kidnapped you. I ran into them in the forest when I came searching. No one wanted to listen to me and come help me find you. Except Lemon Jade that is. The only thing that Green Claw wanted was revenge and tried to make me wear one of those things. I convinced them that I could make important delegates were them instead. Now those two are walking into a trap and Green Claw thinks he got one over on me.”  


  “That’s fitting,” Leftfang snorted. “Though I’m still stuck without my magic!” He growled. 
  

  “We can still help with that,” Lily said, “Come back and help us remove the spell on the town and the-“ 


  “Why would I go back!” Leftfang snapped. “I went to your pony town and I got kidnapped by greedy ponies looking to use my wish magic at my expense. It was just what I expected to happen but I didn’t listen to myself! Why would I want to go back!” 

  
  “Leftfang! They are not like that!” Lily pleaded, “You were there with them! They tried to help you and-“ 
  

  “And I got kidnapped!” Leftfang snapped. “let’s face it, there can be no peace between dragons and ponies,” He snarled and leapt into the air. He flew off rapidly ignoring Lily who was calling after him. Exiting the trees he gained altitude before making a circling away from the Everfree. “The only thing I want to do is see what spell Green Claw had them cast on those ponies.” 


  It wasn’t long before Ponyville came into sight. He laughed seeing the ponies floundering around the mess and Pegasus trying to fly. 
  

  “Good one,” He snorted and hovered on the town watching with glee. “Serves them right for what they did.” 


  I don’t see Flim and Flam down there. 


Leffang growled, hating that inner voice that always came at the wort time. Then he slowed and watched a pony who he recognized as one of Lily’s friends struggling in the ooze. What had she done to him? He looked over at Princess Twilight and Starlight sitting at the table where they had researched how to help him with his magic. What had they done beside help him? 

  
  Leftfang hovered and circled over Ponyville for some time as he relived the past days he had spent interacting with ponies. He debated with himself, circled and pondered as he considred Green Claw, Flim, Flam and everyone involved. He finally stopped and looked at Twilight who yelled in frustration as she struggled to turn another oozed page in the book in front of her. A flash of indignation jolted through him and he was on the table in a flash. Twilight yelped and jumped, or would have if she hadn’t been glued to the table by the ooze. 

  
  ‘Leftfang!” She exclaimed. “You escaped!” 

  
  “Lily helped me,” He replied looking around. “She told me what happened.” 

  
  “Can you help us?” Twilight pleaded, “I can’t figure it out. I cast a cancellation spell but nothing changed.” 
  

  “That’s because many dragons cast the same spell at once. All those spells support each other and if you cancel out just one at once the rest will hold up and even rebuild the cancelled spell if it can,” Leftfang explained, “I could probably work through it if I had my magic intact. However, I still can help so long as you wish for the spells to be gone.” 
  

“What? Of course I wish they were gone…” Only then did Twilight notice that Leftfang’s claws were aglow. In that moment light flashed out from his claws and washed over the town. Ponies closed their eyes against the light as a strange sensation washed over them making their coats crackle like static. When they opened their eyes the spell had vanished as if it never had been. When the stunned silence faded cheers erupted.  

  
  “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Twilight cried hugging Leftfang tight.  
  

  “AKKKk! Ok!” Leftfang gasped squirming away. “No need for that! I just figured that even if you can’t help me get my regular magic back you don’t deserve this.” 
  

  “Uh, Leftfang,” Starlight said walking up with a smile on her face. “You do realize that you teleported down to the table. 

  
  “What?” Leftfang looked up to where he had been hovering and the back down to the table as he thought back. He had been reacting on emotion when he had come down from the sky so he hadn’t thought about it.  


  “I went and talked to Zecora,” Starlight Glimmer said. “She explained to me that the reason for your regular magic failing had nothing to do with granting wishes or anything like that. You see, mini dragons are creatures of fate, just like us ponies. When we ponies don’t follow our fate and choose bad things instead there are always consequences. Think of Flim and Flam, they could be great business ponies but instead they choose to follow dishonest methods and quick fixes. Because of this, they will never achieve their full potential. Many ponies can never find their mark and purpose until our minds and hearts are in the right place.”  

  
  “Zecora said that mini dragons are similar. She said a lot of mini dragons are not as great as they should be because of this. The bitterness and anger held for years by many has created a weakness and then there is a certain point where it becomes more evident than ever. You see, magic and fate is so tightly interwoven and because of the way it exists in mini dragons your magic is most evidently affected. Your magic began to really falter after you met Lily because a part of you began to realize that ponies were not what you thought they were. Despite this, you never changed your mind and still hated us. Your magic and anger could not exist side by side anymore. So, because one would not fade, the other did.” 
  

  Leftfang stood silently pondering for a while. Then he vanished in a flash of light to appear a few feet away. “Well, my magic is back,” he stated somewhat skeptically. "It's sounds weird but I'm just glad to have my magic back."
  

  “Leftfang?” Lily’s voice suddenly interrupted. She came walking down the street looking around at the town that no longer had any trace of the dragon spell. ‘You did come back.” 
  

  He shrugged, “Yeah. I granted a wish to free your town but my magic seems to be back anyways.” 
  

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Lily said with a smile. “You’ll have to explain it to me but now, I mostly want to know what changed your mind.” 


  “I realized that If Green Claw struck me I wouldn’t go kick Midnight Fight,” He said simply. Lily as well as Twilight and Starlight blinked at him in confusion. “I’ll be back. I have some dragons to talk to.” He suddenly vanished and reappeared in the sky where he made a beeline for the Everfree Forest.  


  Lily sat in the street watching him go. “Things nearly ended up with even Leftfang turning his back on us again. Do you think that there is any real chance for others to accept a hoof of friendship? There has been a rift for so long.” 
  

  “I don’t know but I do know friendships that seem impossible can happen,” Twilight said glancing at Starlight Glimmer. 
  

  “Wow! You ponies know your magic. I thought that I was going to have to spend the rest of the day trying to unweave those spells.” The trio looked down the street in surprise as Lemon Jade strode down it. “If everything is fine, are there any more of the lemon heart cookies left?”
> Nonsence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Leftfang flew swiftly away from Ponyville and quickly reached the trees of the Everfree. His keen dragon eyes quickly spotted the others gathered in the trees waiting for the “important delegates” from Ponyville to find them. He shut his wings and dropped to the earth like a stone. The surrounding dragons jumped in surprise as he landed hard on the ground. Leftfang folded his wings on his back and looked around at the surprised eyes staring at him.

   “So are we going to stop this foolishness?” He asked calmly. It was obvious from their blank stares that they did not understand.

  “Great, you escaped!” Green Claw finally responded walking up with a fake smile and slapping Leftfang heartily on the back.

  Leftfang shrugged him off. “I escaped no thanks to you. No thanks to any dragon. You seemed more focused on revenge then rescuing the one who you were taking revenge for. Do you even know what you are trying to stand for?”

   He was met with blank stares. Green Claw snorted, “Leftfang, buddy, you’re making this all about you. This is about standing against greedy ponies who want to use us. We made a mistake accepting that invitation for Friendship. Bah! Ponies know nothing about friendship.”

  “We made a mistake by ignoring the good ponies and only believing the ones who really wanted to use us for their own gain!” Leftfang snapped. “Ponies are just creatures like us. With the good and bad just as we are. Can you really not see that?”

    Green Claw growled, “What is wrong with you?”

   Leftfang ignored him, “Do you really want to solve problems or do you just want to be angry and hate ponies? That is what it comes down to and your hate and anger will hurt you much more than it will hurt them.”

   “Leftfang!” Green Claw roared shoving him away from the group. “We need to talk.” He directed the bright red dragon away from the eyes of everyone. Once out of ear shot he spun around and snarled at Leftfang. “What is wrong with you? Do you like ponies now?”

  “I like some of them better than I like some dragons,” Leftfang replied curtly.

   “Then you are stupid,” Green Claw growled. “Ponies are disgusting. How can you stand looking at those faces? No matter what they are going to treat you like a tool to grant wishes and never like a living being.”

  “How would you know? You’ve never given them a real chance. You’re judging every one of them by the worst among them. Would you like them to do so with us? I mean if others took met you and then judged us by that standard well...”

   “What is wrong with you?” Green Claw snorted contemptuously. “You lost your magic by hanging around with ponies.”

   ‘Did I?” Leftfang asked before suddenly vanishing in a burst of light. He reappeared behind Green Claw. “I lost my magic because I met a friend but still decide to still hate her and all those like her. I was confronted with reality but refused it. Don’t you realize that we are hurting ourselves? Keeping this heavy burden is hurting our magic and likely a lot more.”

   “If you think that any pony can be a better friend than a dragon then you’ve gone mad.”

   Leftfang nearly laughed, “If compared to you, Nightmare Moon could have been a better friend.”

   Green Claw snarled and instinctively went into a fighting stance.

  “Well catch then,” Leftfang snorted filling his claws with energy and casting it at him. Then he surrounded himself with a protective shield. To his surprise Green Claw did not catch the magic or send an blast of his own. He simply sidestepped and then stood there glaring at him. Leftfang slung another orb of energy and again Green Claw sidestepped.

  “Stop being stupid,” Green Claw growled.

  “What’s wrong?” Leftfang asked, “You know how our magic duels work.” He dropped his shield and crouched into a fighting stance, “I’ve heard that you were a master of magic duels. Let's battle.”

  “You’re stupid. It’s a waste of my time,” Green Claw snorted and turned to walk away. Leftfang teleported in front of him.

   “I know that you’re not afraid of me,” He said tossing another ball of magic energy. Again, Green Claw just sidestepped letting it crash into the ground and snarled, “Knock it off.”

   Leftfang stared at him critically a moment. “You don’t have your magic, do you?” He asked finally. Green Claw didn’t answer. “You've lost it just like I did.”

  “I lost it due being around ponies. They must carry some disease.” Green Claw replied.

   “Since when have you hung around ponies?” Leftfang almost laughed. Then his face became more serious. “Though at some time you must have reached a point where you would have realized or should have realized…”

   “Realized that ponies are a greedy plague which I have known all of my life,” Green Claw retorted.

   “It is it really worth losing you magic?” Leftfang asked.

   Green Claw glared darkly at him. “I hate ponies.”

   “Can you not see how you are viewing everything through that anger? They could offer you a mine of endless gems and you would still hate them. You could probably slap one of their princesses and then complain if they got even a little angry. No matter what you will always see ponies as evil. Most of the greed evil on ponies comes through your eyes and not from the ponies themselves.”

   “Are you saying that no pony is evil and greedy after you got kidnapped?!” Green Claw roared.

   Leftfang blinked Green Claw for a moment. “You really can’t see, can you? And you are going to drag every dragon with you that you can.” Green Claw just snorted in reply. Leftfang turned his back on him and spread his wings. “Film and Flam will find you soon with “medals of dragon friendship.” I suppose you will have fun. It’s probably the only way that you can be happy.” With a final angry snort Leftfang flew off back to Ponyvile.

 “Stupid dragon!” Green Claw roared after him. “Stupid Pony friend. Let’s see how well you last hanging around them! You’ll come crawling back!”

  He turned around seeing many draconic eyes staring at him through the foliage. “What are you staring at?! Eavesdroppers!”

  Before any dragon could reply voices echoed from the forest. “Hello, trusted friends of dragons here.”

    “Yes, we have the medals to prove it.”

*                     *                     *


     Angrily Leftfang flew back to Ponyville. Down below ponies were gathering in and around the town hall. Spotting the lavender coat of Twilight and pastel pink of Lily he swooped in through the doors. To his surprise he was greeted by a cheery waive from a yellow dragon.

   “Lemon Jade? What are you doing here?” He asked.

  “Eating lemon drop cookies,” She replied as if he had asked a ridiculous question. “So how did it go?”

   “Not well,” He replied. “You know how Green Claw is and how every dragon listens to him.”

   “Is no one else coming back?” Lily asked.

   Leftfang shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He turned to Lemon Jade. “You know that you will be treated as an outcast when the others find out.”

  Lemon Jade just laughed. “Why in Draco would I pick bad friends over good friends just because the bad friends happen to look like me? Why should I care what they think either? They don’t care about me they just care to make sure that I believe what they believe.”

   “That’s true. Still, it’s still rather infuriating that no other dragon will listen.”

   “Hey, are the Cakes here?” A deep voice suddenly interrupted. Every pony and dragon turned to see Rock standing in the doorway. “I need to learn how to throw together those recipes.”

   “I’d be happy to help,” Mr. Cake called from the back of the crowd and motioned for him to follow.

   “Has anyone seen that rainbow-colored pony? We have some unfinished races.” A second voice called from outside.

   “You mean unfinished races for me to win!” Rainbow Dash called back flying above the heads of everypony and dashing out the doors in a gust of wind.

  Lily hurried outside with Twilight right behind her. More mini dragons were joining the crowd and the party was soon going as if nothing had never happened. Twilight smiled and leaned down to whisper to Lily. “This wasn’t such a fail after all. The impossible can happen.” Lily just nodded as she watched dragons and ponies mingling again. It wasn’t all of the dragons from before, after all you can’t win over everyone but you can build friendships with the ones that you do.