DragonHeart

When the small group had arrived at the town, the two mares had turned to each other and Rainbow had said something about hitting the hay and she flew off into the distance.

“Well welcome to Ponyville!! I want to start ya off with a word of advice; If ya want some R&R today, stay away from a pink pony”

“Duly noted” Dragoon had replied, his usual calm not breaking.

“So anything interesting happening in town?” Drayga asked, ignoring his brother, “There have got to be some people....ponies to meet and events to attend right?”

AppleJack had looked at him, surprised by his enthusiasm, “Well, we’ve got our Summer Sun Celebration happening in a few days so everypony is getting ready for that.” She then pondered a little, raising her hoof to her chin, “As I know, Rainbow is in charge of the weather, Fluttershy is in for music and Rarity has decorations. If ya want some new duds, talk to her. But anyhow, I gotta run back to the barn to get the house ready for our reunion.” She started trotting off in the other direction and yelled a farewell.

“As informative as that was, she didn’t tell us about an inn or a place for food.” Dragoon stated. At the sound of the word ‘food’ Drayga’s ears pricked

“Ahhh I could go for that…..” His body relaxed and drool started to ooze out his mouth at the thought. Then his stomach let a large growl out “Mr. Tummikins agrees.” He said, patting his empty gullet as he sat down on the ground with a smile. Dragoon looked at him with an odd stare, then mumbled something about being adopted.

They went and asked ponies about a place for food and the number one recommendation was for a place called Sugercube corner. When they arrived at the place marked on their ‘Map’ (A piece of paper) Drayga looked at the Building itself. “I could just eat the building and be satisfied…” The building modeled after a large gingerbread house. Entering the building, Drayga had taken a large sniff of the air and seemed satisfied. Dragoon looked around and seemed pleased with the smell in the room.

As they approached the main desk, Drayga had rushed to the bell and rung it multiple times before a voice called from the back, “Pinkie, can you get that!!” The voice was male and seemed barely masked by the clatter of the kitchen.

“Okie doki loki!” a female voice replied from the back. Sensing danger, Dragoon quickly leapt out of the room. The pony that emerged was a pink pony with blue eyes and a fluffy mane and tail. Her mark on her flank was three balloons. When she met eyes with Drayga, she gasped, slightly floating in the air, and ran through the door. Dragoon entered after a few minutes, “Did I stare death in the face?” He asked sarcastically. Minutes later the owner of the male voice entered from the kitchen, “Pinkie? Where is she?” He then noticed the costumers, “Oh, hello, sorry about the wait.”

“No problem dear sir” Drayga replied. The stallion was of a lankier build and had studied his costumers carefully, “Are you new here?”

“Yes, why?”

“Pinkie runs off and throws a party to every new pony so if you came for food, you might want to wait”  “Hmm this intrigues me” Drayga said, raising his hoof to his chin. Dragoon looked around and asked “Where can I hide?” Drayga and the owner had looked at him and the owner laughed, “There’s no hiding from Pinkie” Dragoon looked distraught at this comment, which made the owner and Drayga laugh.

“I’m the owner of SugarCube Corner and everypony calls me Mr. Cake” he said as he extended his hoof to Drayga. He followed and they shook, “The names Drayga and this here is my brother Dragoon.”

“Well, I need to check on the food so you should keep an eye out for Pinkie” Mr. Cake said, moving to the back. Drayga’s stomach growled loudly after words and Drayga patted his stomach and said, “Don’t worry oh tummy of mine, you’ll be full soon” Dragoon left the room questioning his relation once more.

Leaving the bakery had left the two heroes with nothing noteworthy to think of. “Didn’t AppleJack say something about other ponies to talk to?” Drayga asked.

“Yeah” Dragoon started, now mimicking Applejack’s southern accent, “Ya’ll should meet Rarity, Fluttershy and RainbowDash.”

“Well I think we should go meet Rarity” Drayga started “Why?” Dragoon asked. “Have you seen our clothes?” Looking down, Dragoon saw that his trench coat was in tatters along with Drayga’s vest “Maybe we should look nice if we stay here”

“Fine, Let’s get going”

Drayga moved to the first pony he saw and asked for directions. Dragoon sat where he was looking at his surroundings. The town was nice enough, everything looked sweet and innocent though he couldn’t shake the feeling he was forgetting something. With a jolt, he recognized what it was. “OUR SWORDS!!!” he yelled. Noticing what he did, he looked around, seeing everypony was watching him with a queer look. “*ahem* I.. uh…..I’ll go now” and he slunk off to Drayga, already on his way to their destination.

Arriving at the Boutique, They stopped to marvel at the building. It was called Carousel Boutique from what Drayga had learned. It was a tall, decorated, circular building. They had moved closer to enter but when Drayga entered the building, he saw a white pony running around the main room looking for something.

“Oh dear, oh dear, where is that ribbon?” She said, turning to the stairs, “Sweetie! Have you seen the ribbons! I need them to decorate the main hall!!” Turning to the door, she saw her guests and gasped.

“What are you wearing!” she said, looking over the clothes condition. “Bad outfits on my guess” Dragoon said sarcastically. Looking at him, she said “Obviously.” She looked Drayga over and appeared to be studying his flank. Turning a cherry red, he turned, “Wh..is this how you serve customers?!”

“No, your Cutie Mark is intriguing” She said.

“My….Cutie mark??” He asked. She looked at him with an odd look, “How do you not know what a cutie mark is?” His face grew to an even darker shade of red, “Uhh………..i don’t really know how to respond”

She sighed and began to explain, “A Cutie Mark is a symbol of a ponies special talent. Yours doesn’t look like any I’ve seen.” Dragoon saw where she looked and saw a mark. It had a sun shooting a beam of light down with a sword going down the light. “It’s the Paladin corps symbol” he said. Drayga looked and replied, “So it is, and I can guess yours is the Dark Knight Insignia.” After lifting his tattered trenchcoat, he saw that he was right, for he had a picture of clashing swords and a beam of moonlight hit where they met.

The mare looked confused but looked as if she remembered something, “Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Rarity” Drayga bowed, “I am Drayga and this is my brother Dragoon.” Rarity was a beautiful mare with her purple mane in curls. Her cutie mark showed three diamonds, glistening slightly.  She looked pleased at Drayga, “So what is a strapping young stallion like you doing here?” She asked, flitting her eyes, smiling jokingly. Dragoon gagged. Drayga instantly turned red again, “Uh..we came to see if we could get new clothes.”

“Ah..of course.” She said surprised. She turned around and went to grab something out of the back, Turning to Dragoon, Drayga started “She..uh..works fast”

Dragoon couldn’t help but snicker. “You’re a ladies man, in human form or pony” She later came back with a vest and a trenchcoat in similar colors and handed them to the two brothers. Drayga started out as soon as possible, but Dragoon lagged behind, walking towards Rarity. “Anything else darling?” She asked, her accent clearly flowing.

“Were you serious about him being ‘handsome’?” He asked, a slight smile appearing on his face. She looked him in the eye and replied, “He is handsome, but I was joking with him. It was fun seeing him turn from white to red” Dragoon snickered and replied “Thanks for the clothes.” With that he left. Now empty, except for Rarity, the Boutique was now silent. She turned to her rolls of ribbon and then looked up slowly. “They forgot to pay…”

Leaving the Boutique, Dragoon ran to catch up to his brother. When he caught up to him he saw that he was a little red from their encounter with Rarity.

“That was interesting. I think I found a good weapon against you.” He joked, the grin still on his face. Drayga turned to his brother and said, “What are you talking about?” “I could just mind control miss Rarity into embarrassing the shit out of you.”

“That won’t work.” Before Dragoon replied, they heard a noise from behind them. Turning, they saw that Rarity was running to them, with a saddle bag strapped on.

“Wait!” She yelled, “You forgot to pay!” when she got closer she slowed her pace, “You need to pay for those clothes.” Drayga looked at Dragoon skeptically and returned his gaze to Rarity then looked down, “We has no moneys.” Drayga joked. Dragoon slapped his hoof to his forehead and Rarity had looked at him skeptically. “I beg your pardon?” “We’re broke” “O---h that’s what you meant.” She replied, “Well seeing as you’re broke, you can make it up by bringing this to Applejack.”

She then pulled a rolled up banner from her bag and handed it to Drayga. He looked at it and back to Rarity then back to it. “What’s the matter?” She asked. He then focused and a blue aura enveloped the Banner and lifted it into the air. She looked pleased and trotted off. Dragoon looked at Drayga and asked, “Do you know how you’re doing that?” Without breaking focus, He looked at his brother and said “No. I just tried and succeeded. Now let’s go before my focus breaks”

As they moved, Drayga found it easier to carry the banner and soon found no trouble in it. He went and asked the other ponies where AppleJack lived as Dragoon stood back and watched. He looked irritated, slowly thinking to himself. The town’s ponies had directed them towards Sweet Apple Acres. Upon arriving to the farmstead, Drayga looked at the vast rows of apple trees.

“So many, how do you think they pick them if they don’t have hands?” He asked. “We don’t pick’em, we Buck’em.” Both of them turned to see AJ standing behind them, along with another pony, much smaller than the other.

“Oh, this here is mah sister, AppleBloom” She said, introducing the little filly. AppleBloom was a smaller pony with a red mane along with a similar bow. She was yellow and didn’t have a cutie mark, which left Drayga confused.

“Sorry if this is an odd question, but why doesn’t she have her cutie mark?” This made AppleBloom look down momentarily but then AJ intervened, “A pony has to find what they’re good at and she’s not just there yet.” She looked down at her sister then back to their guests and A.B. looked at them and studied the two newcomers.

“What are your Cutie marks?” She asked, sharing the same accent as her sister. The Brothers had paused momentarily and Drayga had replied first,

“Mine means I’m a defender of justice and a seeker of Truths. I fend for the weak and help anyone in need. That is the job of the Paladin” He finished and looked at his Brother, who somehow had been put into a mean mood since Rarity’s. He looked back and scowled.

“My abilities mean nothing to them, let them keep their questions.” With that he had walked of, his unusual anger fuming as he walked.

“Ah don’t like him.” AppleBloom said, turning to her sister, “This guy is all right.” She finished with a smile. She then walked off towards the barn, leaving Drayga and Applejack alone at the entrance. “Soooo….Why did ya’ll come along here?” She asked in the silence. “Rarity asked me to deliver this Banner you commissioned.” He replied. He handed her the rolled up banner and looked at her. “I’m sorry about Dragoon, He’s usually like this”

“It’s fine, you should let him stew on it.”

“Well I need to go find him” He then turned and ran off in the direction of his Brother. “Them are some weird ponies” she mumbled to herself as she headed to the barn.