Jonathan finds out that his girlfriend has just died, and after a drinking binge wakes up in Equestria, AS A DRAGON!
Jonathan (a human) gets a call from his best friend to let him know that his girlfriend has just passed away from a heart attack. He spends that night drowning his sorrows at their favorite bar to the point he doesn't remember going home. The last thing he remembers is looking up into the night sky and thinking, "She would have loved this night. I wish I was anywhere but here," just as a shooting star streaks across the full moon. He wakes up in a field somewhere in Equestria not as himself but as an amethyst colored dragon with wings the color of the aurora. Can he find peace with the loss of both his love and his home?
Jonathan was excited, tonight was the night! He had a date with his longtime girlfriend, Beth and he was going to pop the question. He had a stunning ring, a white gold band with a heart shaped amethyst surrounded by 1 carat diamonds. It had cost him a small fortune but she was worth so much more. They were going to meet at the bar where they first met and have a few drinks, and then he would propose. The bar staff was in on it too, and he had the corner booth reserved. This was going to be the best night of his life!
He got out of the shower, toweled off and wrapped his long hair in the towel, then trimmed his beard, put on some cologne. Pulling on a purple polo and black jeans, he checked the clock, "Shit! I'm going to be late!". He grabbed his keys, bolted out the door and jumped in his car.
Jonathan's favorite bartender, Keelie, looked up and grinned as he walked through the door. "Well if it isn't the man of the night. I've got your booth ready for you." she said and waved Jonathan over to the corner booth. Which was set up with a candle and a single red rose in a small vase. As he sat down on one of the chairs that wobbled slightly with age Keelie came over with his usual; an Angel's Envy served neat. "This one's on me, for your lucky night. Let me be the first to say welcome to the engaged life."
"Thanks, I'm going to need this." he said as he took a swig from his drink. "The nerves are starting to hit. It's about time this bachelor settled down. I can't imagine being with anyone else. Want to see the ring?"
"Most definitely!" she exclaimed and leaned in to get a better look. He pulled out the purple crushed velvet box and popped it open. "Ooh, she's a lucky one! I wish my boyfriend would get me one that beautiful," she said, shooting a glare at one of the guys sitting at the far end of the bar. If he noticed, he didn't show any signs of it.
"Yeah, it cost me a fortune. It's about time for her to show up and it looks like you have a few patrons trying to get your attention. So shoo." Jonathan said as he gave her a playful wave and took another sip of his drink while he waited for his soon to be fiancee to arrive.
Three drinks and two unanswered phone calls later he was starting to worry. She had a habit of running late, but always called to let him know. It wasn't until after his fourth drink and an hour past their agreed upon time did his phone finally ring. He fumbled to answer, but the name that he read wasn't hers, it was his best friend Nate. “Why would he be calling me? He knows I’m popping the question tonight. Must be important."
Jonathan shrugged as he answered, "Hey man what's up, you know I'm supposed to be on a date right now."
"Yeah, about that... Are you sitting down?" Nate said in an uncharacteristically serious voice.
"Um, yeah. What's up man?"
"She's not going to make it. I went to pick her up like we agreed, but when I got there there was an ambulance." There was a long pause and a deep sigh from the other end. "I'm at the coroners right now. She had a heart attack. I'm so sorry."
Jonathan dropped his glass and it fell off the table and shattered on the floor, spilling what was left of the drink. "You're joking! You have to be joking!"
"Trust me bro, I wish I was." Nate said. "You going to be okay?"
Jonathan didn't answer, he just stared at his phone for about thirty seconds before hanging up and staring vacantly into space.
Keelie walked over at that point and asked, "Hey is everything okay? You look a little pale."
Jonathan turned his thousand mile stare towards her and said simply, "She's dead," before slumping into his chair, all his joy having been sucked from him in that instant.
"What do you mean, 'she's dead'? She was in here just last night and seemed fine."
"That was Nate on the phone just now. He was going to pick her up but the paramedics were there and had pronounced her dead on the scene. Apparently she had a heart attack or something. Sorry about the glass."
"Fuck, I'm so sorry man. Here come over to the bar, I'm not going to have you sulking over here in the corner all alone. Your tab’s on me tonight." Keelie said as she half helped, half forcefully dragged Jonathan over to the bar. After putting him on a bar stool she went back around the bar and poured a full glass of Angel's Envy for him and set the bottle in front of him as well. "Drink up man, I'll take you home tonight. Still on 18th Street?"
"Yeah. Thanks, Keelie."
Some time and more than half a bottle later he waved keelie over, "Hey got a smoke? I know I quit like a year ago, it was for her. But I really need one right about now."
"Sure sweetie, just a sec." She disappeared into the supply closet and came back with a pack of smokes and a lighter. "Here, I take it you need a lighter as well? Keep the pack and I can send my boyfriend for more." Jonathan nodded and scooped up both the pack and lighter before pulling one out and lighting it. "Hey, not inside the bar! You know the rules!"
Jonathan sighed and walked outside with the cigarettes and bottle. Outside he took a long drag off the cigarette burning down about a quarter of it before exhaling a large cloud of smoke, the full moon illuminating the cloud as it drifted upwards. Taking a gulp straight from the bottle he let out a heavy sigh and followed the smoke with his eyes as it crossed the moon. "She would have loved this night. She always said the full moons were her favorite. I wish I was anywhere but here." At that moment a shooting star streaked across the full moon and he could have sworn he saw the shadow of a unicorn on the surface of the moon but he brushed it off as just being drunk.
The next morning Jonathan woke to the sounds of birds chirping and a pleasant if slightly brisk breeze. “Huh, must have left the window open last night,” he thought, eyes still closed. He rolled over to get some more sleep, but that's when he noticed he wasn't in his bed, he was laying on the ground. Slowly opening his eyes, he blinked a few times, and looked around. This wasn't his house. Hell, it wasn't even a park that he recognized. It was some sort of orchard, and he was laying at the end of a moderately sized rut. "How the hell did I get here? And where is here?"
Looking around he saw that the top of one of the trees near the start of the rut had been snapped off. “Must have come in pretty hot to do that.” He tried to stand up only to fall back over as his body was way heavier than he remembered. Looking down at himself, he blinked in confusion as what greeted him was a scaley amethyst hide and a tail.
"Well that's different." he said aloud, only to freak out as his voice deeper baritone than usual. Letting out a scream of surprise, a jet of flame erupting from his maw, which he belatedly realized had turned into a muzzle. Jonathan hiccupped a cloud of smoke, as his eyes rolled upwards and he passed out.
Meanwhile in Ponyville, the Pegasus weather team was scrambled with reports of a fire in the abandoned pear orchard. Rainbow Dash assembled her crack team to take care of the blaze before she flew ahead to assess the situation. Upon getting there the billowing smoke was too thick for her to see anything on the ground except for the orange glow of the fire. “What could have caused this?” She wondered. “Well no time to think on that right now. First we need to put out that blaze.”
Rainbow Dash ordered her team to condense any clouds they could get their hooves on. She was interrupted by a ferocious roar. “Shit! You guys make with the rain. I’m going to get the other Elements.” She shouted before exploding towards the castle with her trademark sonic rainboom.
*******
Down on the ground Jonathan had come to, and the first thing he noticed was being in the middle of an out of control blaze. He screamed in panic but it came out as a deep bellowing roar. That snapped him out of it and he realized that he wasn’t burning. In fact he wasn’t even feeling hot. “Wait... if I’m a dragon then this fire shouldn’t hurt me, right?” he thought as he sat down on his haunches. Taking a moment to assess the situation, he focused on what he might have on hand to deal with it. He gave himself a better look. “Well I appear to be a western dragon, and wow would you look at those wings!” he thought as he flexed them experimentally and admired how they shifted in color from purple to blue to green.
“Just like an aurora borealis, cool. Well Jonathan doesn’t fit for a dragon, guess I should call myself something different. Might as well go with Aurora. Fits with the wings and all, plus I prefer descriptive names anyways. Now, how to get out of here and figure out where the fuck I am.”
He spread his wings and gave them a powerful flap, then another as he only got a few feet off the ground. “Oof, this flying thing is harder than they make it look in the movies.” He grunted as he strained to take flight. He got as high as the treetops before a gust of wind and rain sent him careening into them and back to the ground. He roared in pain as he felt a branch pierce one of his wings. The pain was so intense that it caused him to pass out a second time.
*******
Rainbow Dash crashed through one of the windows of Friendship Castle in her rush to find Twilight. Coming to a skidding halt, she looked around and spotted Spike. “Spike, I need Twilight! It’s an emergency! There’s a monster burning the abandoned pear orchard!”
“I’ll go get her. Wait right here and try not to break anything else.” Spike said as he hurried down one of the hallways out of sight.
Rainbow Dash pranced in place trying to reign in her nerves as she waited impatiently for Twilight. About five minutes later with the telltale pop of teleportation Twilight was standing before her. “Spike said something about a monster burning the orchard?”
“Yeah, we need to get the others and take care of it before it gets to the town! Come on, we need to hurry!”
“Oh my, this does sound serious. Wait here, I’ll collect the others.” Twilight lit up her horn and teleported away, leaving a fuming Rainbow Dash behind.
A few minutes later she was back with the rest of the group. “So what kind of monster is it this time, Dash?” Apple Jack deadpanned.
“It’s um… Well I don’t know exactly. I just heard it roar and left the weather team to put out the blaze while I came to get you gals.” Rainbow said, rubbing her neck sheepishly. “It sounded big though.”
“ Are you sure you need all of us?” Fluttershy nervously whispered.
“Darling, we’re a team. If we need to use the elements we need to all be there.” Rarity admonished.
“Alright it will be faster if I teleport all of us there.” Twilight said as she turned to Rainbow Dash. “Where exactly did you say this monster was?”
“At the abandoned pear orchard. Sweet Celestia! I left the weather team there by themselves! I hope they're okay.” Rainbow replied.
“Okay, no time to lose. Ready girls?” Twilight said as she powered up her horn and teleported their group to the edge of the orchard in question.
By the time they got there most of the fire had been put out by the weather team and they were starting to break up the rain clouds. Thunderlane landed next to the group and took a second to catch his breath. “It’s a dragon, but it seems to have knocked itself out somehow. It's just a little ways into the orchard, that-a-way.” He said, raising his hoof to point the way.
The girls looked at each other for a second and Fluttershy said, “Oh my, I hope it isn’t terribly hurt” causing the other girls to look at her funny.
“Well we won't know till we get a look at it. Come on girls, we got a job to do.” Apple Jack said as she led the group into the orchard.
As the six mares came upon the dragon, Twilight addressed the group, “Careful girls, we don’t know if it's just faking or not. Be prepared for anything.”
They were slowly circling it when Fluttershy let out an uncharacteristically loud gasp and rushed forward. “Oh you poor, poor thing. Whatever happened to you?”
As the others came around and got a better look, they all saw a large tree branch pierced through the right wing of this dragon, rendering it incapable of flight. A pool of blood was slowly collecting below the wing.
Fluttershy turned to the group and in an authoritative manner began giving them orders. “AJ, I’m going to need your help pulling that branch out. Rainbow, make sure there aren’t anymore branches lying around for him to injure himself further on. Twi, if you can keep his muzzle closed with your magic, that should keep him from breathing fire. Pinkie, balloons, lots of balloons. Rarity, we’ll need something to clean and dress the wound.” The mares all just stared at her in shock. “Hurry girls! Before this poor thing bleeds out.” That got the others moving and before long Fluttershy had Pinkie tying balloons to the unconscious dragon and Rainbow had reported back that she had a path cleared to the barn at Sweet Apple Acres. Then it was up to Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy to guide the softly floating dragon out of the pear orchard so they could treat the wounds properly.
Rarity met them at the Apple’s barn with a large trunk of cotton cloth. “I was saving this for my summer line, but this is more important.” she said as she set the trunk down in front of Fluttershy.
“Thank you Rarity these will do perfectly. Now, Twilight I need you to hold him still while AJ and I remove that branch.”
“Him? How do you know that?” Rainbow interrupted.
Fluttershy sighed and pointed a hoof at the dragon’s horns. "The horns are less curvy and he doesn’t have a cloaca.”
“A what now?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy blushed and refused to answer so AJ took over. “The female parts for an egg layer.”
Rainbow Dash went bright red with embarrassment as she realized what she had been asking about.
“Rarity if you would hold his injured wing still while we work on it.”
“What can I do?!” Pinkie asked excitedly.
“Um, you can go plan the welcome party. He should be able to move around after we are done here.” Fluttershy responded, giving a sigh of relief when Pinkie left.
Twilight came over to Fluttershy and put a hoof around her withers. “That was good thinking. She’ll be busy for at least an hour, maybe two.” She put her hoof down and lit her horn as she said, “Ready when you are.” As the dragon was enveloped in a purple and blue aura.
Fluttershy looked to Applejack, “Okay, on the count of three give that banch a strong yank towards the rafters. Rainbow you catch it if it slips. One, two, three.”
Applejack gave a hard yank, the branch coming free and rocketing towards the rafters. If it weren’t for Rainbow it would have gone straight through the roof. Fluttershy immediately grabbed some of the cloth from Rarity’s trunk and started soaking up the blood while cleaning the wound.
After about five minutes she looked to AJ with worry on her face. “Do you have any sinew and a hooked needle? I’m going to have to sew this hole shut.”
On hearing this Rarity let out a gasp and fainted. While Applejack just shook her head. Luckily, Rainbow Dash came to the rescue. After setting the branch down outside, she had come back in to watch. “I’ll fly as fast as I can and bring back Nurse Red Heart.” She said, just before taking off at breakneck speed. It was about two minutes later that she and a teary eyed Nurse Red Heart were back.
Upon seeing the dragon, Nurse Red Heart began to panic , before Fluttershy came over and politely but firmly told the nurse that she needed help stitching up a hole in the wing or this dragon would forever be unable to fly. “Move aside, I have this.” Red Heart hesitated a bit before shaking her head and stepping up to sew the wing back together.
By the time Rainbow had returned again She was halfway through stitching up the gaping wound. That’s when the dragon started to stir.
Jonathan slowly started to come to. The first thing he noticed was a sharp pain in his right wing as well as a tugging sensation. He tried to flex the wing and realized that he couldn’t move it, something was holding it in place. That caused him to snap awake and jerk his wing as he tried to roll over, but a purple light seemed to be holding not only his wing, but all of him in place.
“He’s awake!” He heard a strained voice off to his left, followed by an urgent if quiet voice on his right.
“Keep him still. I’m almost done. Aaand, there. Okay just let me leave and then you can let him go.” A steady if a bit quick clip-clop echoed briefly before all was quiet.
The purple light that was holding him in place faded and he lurched to his feet. This was a mistake as his head immediately swam, resulting in a hard face plant into the ground.
“Oooww.” he groaned, and blinked the spots away, before noticing five ponies, of different colors, staring at him with mixed expressions.
The orange and cyan ones wore a guarded look, while the yellow one had a look of concern. The white one looked like it was about to flee, while the purple one had a look of academic curiosity.
After a few moments of blinking his eyes and just staring, the first words out of his mouth were, “Where’s the pink one?” The statement got all the ponies to look at each other then back at the dragon with very confused expressions.
“Um, she went back to town to plan your welcome party.” the purple pony said. “May I ask what your name is?”
“It’s Jon… ah *cough* Aurora. Aurora Flight.” Jonathan said as he stretched his wings in an attempt to show off before wincing as a bolt of pain stabbed through his right wing.
The yellow pegasus whispered, “Um you should probably rest your wing for a week or two.”
“What? I didn't catch that, can you speak up please?” he responded.
“You should rest your wing for a week or so before trying to move it too much,” she repeated.
“Oh? Why?” he asked. Stretching it into his field of view, his eyes boggling as he saw the stitches. “OH, ya maybe I should do that. Are you a doctor or something?”
The cyan pegasus spoke up at this point, “Na, she just likes to take care of animals. My name’s Rainbow Dash by the way. Fastest flier in Equestria.”
“And Ah’m Apple Jack, best apple bucker this side of Canterlot.” The orange pony said.
“Hold your horses. If you’re Rainbow Dash and you’re Apple Jack, then that makes the others Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, who’s not here at the moment, and Fluttershy. Whom I apparently owe a great debt to for saving my wing.” Jonathan says before taking a bow to the yellow pegasus.
He sat back on his haunches and looked at the five that were in front of him. “There is a lot I need to tell you all, but that can wait until after Pinkie’s party. Don’t want the premier party planner of all of Equestria to think I was blowing off one of her parties now do we? Will you ladies lead the way to Sugar Cube Corner?”
The five all look between themselves before looking back at me and AJ says, “Have we met before?”
Jonathan sighs, “It’s a long story and you probably won’t believe half of it but I’ll tell you how I got here after the party. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cup-cake in my eye.”
The mares all look at each other for a moment before Twilight speaks up. “Well we better get back to Ponyville then.”