Prequel - A Lump of Coal and A Frozen Crash
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It was a cold, freezing night on the Dragon Lair Island. Up about halfway on the North side of the Mountain, a dragon by the name of Crosswinds was putting quills, an assortment of parchment papers, and a blue and white plaid scarf in the bag. Crosswinds is only a youthful sized Dragon, with green scales, blue sky eyes, and some mighty long wings for flying. The young dragon didn't seemed phased at all as he walked past the Window and briefly glimpsing at the snow outside amd grabbing a book off the shelf and putting it in his launch pack. He is an elemental wind Dragon, so it shouldn't be too hard for him to fly, but then he stopped and remembered what his dad said about the elements. "Sometimes trying to combine your elements with nature or other's elements may weaken or do a great deal of harm to you."
He shook his head and didn't stress anymore as he picked up a tiny necklace with a scroll on it where a pendant would normally be. As he walked towards the door, small clicking of nails, and a loud "Stop!" Caught the dragon just as he was about to put a claw on the door knob.
Crosswinds looked over to see his friend Smokey Coal. Who as usual looked covered in smokey coal.
"You sneaking out again? For holy wingin' scales! You could die out there!"
"Smokey, I have to do this. This book on my haunch is the only thing that is sending me on this mission."
"Come on it's just a boring old book, nothing will happen if I try and burn it" Smokey took a deep inhale for his fire and before Crosswinds could stop him, he released his flame towards the dusty old cover.
"Smokey, No!!" Shouted his friend.
Within seconds of the first bit of hot fire hitting the cover, the book reacted and shot a beam of light right into Smokey's chest, and before he could gasp for air, the light beam flickered and exploded in a shower of silver dust particles, knocking Smokey into a coffee table. Crosswinds was hiding behind a table for the commotion to calm down. He got up and preceeded to his, now pure black as coal, dazed friend on the ground.
"What in the fairy magic is that book?" Exploded a now coherant Smokey.
"I told you it is the reason I have to go." Explained a rather annoyed Crosswinds as he used his mouth and picked up the book off the floor, and put it back in his bag. "Don't touch things that don't belong to you." He finished, looking around at the now messy study room.
"Dude, your book shot me!" A nervous Smokey said panicing looking for any sign of a wound on his body.
"Well, you peeved it off, now off I go and I want this spotless by the time I return home." Demanded Crosswinds, as Smokey groaned the young green dragon opened the door, and the cold wind and air blew onto his legs and across his back, and into his study. He spread his wings and with one mighty jump up, flapped his wings and sped off over the Ocean.
About 45 minutes into the flight, the cold started to freeze up his movement scales for flight, and the snow was so thick, he had no idea where he was headed or what was in front of him, 'I must be nearly to their land by now,' a desperate Dragon thought. He could feel the cold pushing against him and more tired from exhaustion the harder he tried to flap. He tried to turn a little, but his wing was stiff from being frozen, and a big gust of wind sent him spiraling out of control, all Crosswinds could think about is just landing on land, as he shieled his face with his wings and yelled as he fell from the stormy sky above.
He fell straight into a tree and hit his head on a rock, which knocked the dragon out. His right wing had suffered a big wound right next to his body and was broken.
About 20 Trots to the South, Mayor Mare was walking towards her office in the wintry town of Ponyville, when Twilight teleported, and looking as normal as ever with anxiety on her face, looked right at Mayor Mare and said "The Dragon has fallen, he seems hurt in some way due to the storm, I can tell you he did not land softly either." Mayor Mare called for a Pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash and instructed her to fly towards the site of the fallen dragon. Without any hesitation, Dash flew off in a flurry of snow dust and a rainbow trail.
"How far South is he?" Mayor Mare asked over the trotting of Twilight and her friends.
"He is roughly 20 trots South of us. That would put him just on the other side if not right into Sweet Apple Acres itself." Twilight explained.
"Aw Shoot, well hopin' he's alright! Come on gals, yee-haw!" And all of them tore up the deep snowy path, as the wind blew. The cold didn't stop the ponies at all, Dash landed in front of Twilight and pointed to a broken bush and Tree branches that looked snapped and broken off. Twilight told the other ponies to wait outside while she went and looked at the creature. She slowly trotted over to assess more of the damage to him, she could see now that he had crashed head first into a tree, his wing was ripped open by his body on his right side, and his packs, papers, and quills were spread all over.
"Wh---who---- are you?" To the Princess's surprise, the dragon was barely alert.
"Do not worry help is on the way!" It sounded like a female to him, and before he blacked out again, he got a glimpse of 5 different colors and a large set of purple wings above him.
A week had passed since the Crosswinds had fallen into a rock head on. His wing was repaired within a couple of days and the gash was not noticeable at all. Ponyville was bright, warm, with a comfortable breeze blowing. All the ponies were trotting about doing their daily business while Crosswinds just examined under the shade of an oak tree next to the Theater.
"I'm not understanding how this town and the Princess and her friends can smile and always walk around happy." Crosswinds mumbled quietly to himself. Dragon's do not really associate with other Dragon's or even other creatures, and Crosswinds was examining the emotions of the ponies through body language. He was so far into a daydream that he almost nipped a yellow hoof that touched his shoulder. It was Fluttershy, not frightened but carrying that wonderful smile she normally has.
"Sorry, we dragon's don't often get touched or liked to be touched. Kind of a behavioral, pride, insecure feeling..." He stopped when Fluttershy started giggling. "What?" He asked bewildered at her laughing.
"Most dragons also are in the sky flying around, or collecting gems, not sitting trying to hide under a tree." Said the mare Pegasus.
"Fluttershy... How do you all remain friends, even during the times of
Darkness?" He asked the question too quickly, but it didn't seem to disturb her thoughts. "Well there is really not much to it. Other than just be your own self. I know dragons don't have cutie marks, so really maybe your destiny can change and so can you?" The last question was rhetorical and made Crosswinds think about things deeply.
"The power of friendship is what I believed called me over here through this book in my satchel bag. I cannot confirm it, and Twilight is always doing something of her own thing anyways." He stood up and stretched out his legs and wings. After he folded them back up and saw Fluttershy grinning at him.
"Okay what this time?"
"You really need to learn about the ponies around here. Twilight likes books, she takes books wherever she can, heck we lost a ton of books due to a pumpkin being fired at me and her. Hoofields and McColts, hope the feud hasn't started back up..."
"Who?" Said the dragon confused.
"Oh um, nopony of importance, follow me to the castle" and they began walking in the direction of the castle.
"Woah, now that's a castle."
Both pony and dragon came to a stop out front of the castle, where Crosswinds had to admire the structure and beauty of it.
"Yeah don't be fooled like me either, it does look bigger from the outside." A rather stout unicorn mare trotted past both of them, up the stairs and through the doors. Fluttershy disregarded the behavior and started walking up the stairs with Crosswinds right behind her.
"It's a good thing you are about as big as us ponies." Fluttershy stated, as they squeezed through a narrow passage way. They walked through the doors and into the great throne hall. Where all of the ponies, except for Fluttershy, were sitting. Fluttershy hopped into her chair and immediately the table in front of the 7 ponies, began to glow and a map appeared within seconds of Equestria. Crosswinds could not believe his eyes, he walked around, every town and village and city all right at claw and hoof tips.
"That is amazing! You ponies do have some cool tricks even if you aren't the magical breed."
"Ha! Don't tempt me with a great time" said Rainbow Dash lounging lazily in her chair.
"Any how we do have an objective at hoof to figure out. Our Dragon friend here says a book that he has called him here. May I see the book please, Crosswinds?" He held the satchel out and she picked the book up with her magic and set it on her chair and flipped it open, but it was blank, nothing was written on any of the pages. "Where are all the words, and mysterious tongue language at?"
"Right there in front of yo...wait you cannot see them? Can any of you see them?" Am the ponies shook there heads unanimously. Twilight shot a reveal spell at the book, and all it did was snap itself shut on her hoof, and boy don't want to listen to an Alicorn yell out like that again. Crosswinds had not heard that amount of foul language out of royalties mouth before.
They all just sat and looked at the empty pages, while Crosswinds was having a headache over the confusion of the ponies not being able to see words. Could it possibly be that maybe only certain ponies or oother creatures? Or maybe it is just dragons who can? But, even then, Crosswinds wondered in that case why he would have been sent here with a book that called him.
After what felt more like an intense library session with Twilight, more or less her now just trying to find all the information on it, Crosswinds stood up, stretched, and headed out the door to explore the vast castle. He could not believe how big it was, but it also distracted him from seeing the same unicorn, who passed him and Fluttershy earlier.
"It is a very beautiful structure that's for sure." She said standing next to him.
"Pardon? Oh yeah. Out of my curiosity, I have not caught your name yet." He said with a small smile.
"Oh yeah, sorry. I'm Starlight Glimmer. But if you want to, you can call me Glimmy, or Glim-Glam." She stated.
"Nick names?" Asked the dragon, intrigued.
"Oh yeah, Twilight also goes by Purple Smart, Book Horse, or just Twily. Same for all the other ponies in the town, we all have nick names." Starlight glanced at the shiny emerald green scales of the dragon. "So, a dragon in Ponyville... What's next in this crazy town I wonder."
"Granted, but even if it is crazy, the friendship is powerful here." He said.
"Of course, by the way I can see the words in the book."
All of a sudden, Crosswinds looked at her intently. "You can?" He asked, with extra curiosity. "How is it one pony, out of 6 others cannot? And are you able to read the ancient language in the last 5 pages?"
"Yes. I do not know exactly why I can see this, and why the other ladies cannot, I've only seen the first 10 pages. As far as the ancient language? I can only read two of the symbols, The, and the word fear." She finished up.
"What dialect or creature writes in this language?" He asked, Hoping for more clues.
"I do not know, sorry. However, if you want to see a mighty castle, bigger than this with a city below it on a mountain side, I know two very powerful ponies in Canterlot that ca---"
"CANTERLOT! AHHHH!" An excited shout from behind them down the hall, turned them both to face Rarity and the others coming down the hall. "Oh I just never get enough of that city, it would give me a chance to visit my shop!" She stopped as Twilight passed the book back over in front of him. He took it in his claws, and returned it to the shoulder bag.
"I do not know where a book like that came from, but it does have some tough magic." Twilight looked and sounded exhausted. "Were you talking about Canterlot, Starlight?" She turned to Starlight.
"I believe your mentors may have some more knowledge about the book and language." She said to Twilight.
"Yep, sounds about time for another train trip. Besides I could use some time away from home to reorganize my Canterlot Library room."
"If not an issue I'd like to be able to fly above the train and follow, we dragons prefer it." He spread out his left wing halfway
Twilight nodded. "Okay, girls go pack your things, we leave on the first morning train."