The Mysterious Tale of the Man Who Didn't Do Much

Chapter 11: That's a Really Nice Dragon

I trembled in silence as one hand held my mouth as my other hand gently stroked Rainbow's mane... One year... It had been one year since the accident. My sister. I used to have a sister. I was riding shotgun and a truck... ran a red light. Into the back of our sedan. My sister was gone. The car tore in half. The last thing I did before we left... was brush her hair... I was now crying silently into the night, remembering standing up and carrying my sister out of the wreckage. She died in the hospital but managed to choke out, "It's okay, bubby... God won't let me die." I lost it. I couldn't hold it back. I was sobbing into the floor now. That's why I'm an atheist... So before you point and laugh, just remember. It isn't funny when I soldier cries.

I woke no one. None of them heard me. Rainbow had fallen asleep. Twilight was asleep too. Her assistant, however, wasn't. I hadn't woken him because he was already awake. He saw the whole thing. I had no idea until I went outside to go for a walk. It looked to be about 1am. I walked down the road, straight out. No ponies were out at this time. This time era hadn't quite induced any reason to WANT to stay up or out late. I finally wanted to stop and I laid down. It was cold out. It was like the day of the funeral. No wind. No noise. No movement. That is, of course, true except for the unnoticed pitter-patter of dragon feet coming down the cobblestone road. "Hey..." he said, quietly. I jolted up and turned to see him. He was just standing. Staring at me. "What uh... What happened? Back there..." I opened up. For the first time in my life... I told someone how I really felt about these kinds of things. Then I finished on a particularly awkward question. "Have ponies ever... EVER liked anyone in... that certain way... outside their species?" I got a nod from the dragon. "Hmph..." I huffed, "so it's normal for her..."

"Wait, what!?"

"Oops... I guess you were all in shock.. never really... explained... did I?"

"Never. But I think I know. I saw... back in the library..."

"It's not like that... you see, earlier, I made a joke about sleep with rainbow, I wound up finding that her wings were sensitive. So I fell asleep like that. Scratching a wing. Then... she was still there when I woke up, and I guess I had a dream about my sister... which brings us back to my story." I lied about the dreaming part. I was fully in a right state of mind, and I was having a hard time being mad at myself over what I had done. Spike bought it, and that's all the mattered to me for the time being. Or at least the rest of the night. When night was almost ready to be extinguished by the sun, I decided to go home, but when Spike didn't follow, I used the same silly technique as I did on Twilight. A tickle threaten. "Come on!"

"Ugh... No, I'm too tired!"

I'm tired too! C'mon! Don't make me tickle you!

"Inch thick skin... Try me." I crouched down and patted his shoulder, arm, and back. "Right, right... seems legit. But if you eat a lot, you can't have a padded belly, or you'll explode." I poked his belly. He laughed and laid down. "I'm not getting up!" Ugh... I'm getting bad at this persuasion thing. Come on! "Please? Twilight would miss you?"

"Nope!" That's it. I rolled him over, and scratched his belly. That got him to comply. "Ahahaha! Okay! Fine!"  We walked back to the library as the moon started to fade away. I hopped into my makeshift sleeping bag right next to a certain Rainbow Dash that hugged the cloth like it was her lifeline. Not sure if that's a good thing. Oh well, I laid down, after getting her to move her hooves a little bit without waking her. As I was drifting off to sleep, Rainbow's sub-conscience took note of me being close and she hugged me in her sleep. That sight was enough to cause a "D'aaaaawwww..." from across the room. Twilight woke up. I didn't care. My last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were, "That's a really nice dragon."