Guitar Strings and Dragon Wings

Chapter 26

Twilight hurdled out of her bed, woken by a loud wailing of some far off creature.

"Whoa!...Oof!" she hit the floor with a dull thud, landing on her back.

Rainbow Dash, who was soundly asleep in her sleeping bag, came to.

"Ugh…yawn*… what's going on Twilight?" she asked while rubbing her eyes.

"You didn't hear that?" she replied. "That was… the creepiest thing I've ever heard."

Twilight looked around her bed but Rarity and Pinkie Pie were still off in dreamland, wrapped up tight in their sleeping bags. "Those two could sleep through a hurricane." She mumbled.

Luna's moon was still high in the sky outside her window, beams of moonlight kept her bedroom illuminated. She looked over at her grandfather clock; 12:57 was the time.

"What did you hear?" whispered Rainbow.

"That's just it… I don't know. It sounded like no animal I've ever heard." She put her hoof under her chin in thought.

"Well… maybe it's just the wind." Said Rainbow. With a casual twist of her body she found a comfortable position and dug down into her sleeping bag, resting her eyes.

Twilight carefully crawled back into her bed, trying her best not to make a sound, and laid her head down back on her pillow. Finding it hard to go back to sleep, she stared up at her ceiling for a few minutes.

"Yeah maybe just the wind…" she started to close her eyes, "still creepy…though…"

After a while she returned to dreamland with her friends, feeling safe in the fact that the guards were taking shifts on watch outside.

Off to the side Pinkie stirred, sleep talking to herself.

"Snore*…snore* watch out… snore*…Wally…werewolf…snore*…bop em in the nose…snore*…for me."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile, far away…

The colossal red dragon slammed a fist against a thick icy wall.

CRASH!

Shards of ice broke free from the impact site and littered the floor of the snowy cave.

"I gave you a simple task, Fletch. Find any pony of importance and report back immediately." He bellowed.

The dragon king lurched away from the wall in anger, opposing his shorter statured subordinate. His patience was being put on trial. A bead of sweat ran down the smaller white dragon's head. Fletch had thought his quick thinking would be praised, not shunned.

"But sire, the pony I brought back here… she is a possessor of one of the elements of harmony."

"That is beside the point."

"But my king, please hear me out! I heard the ponies talking. These elements could've been used against us. Plus, now we have leverage against the princess, a hostage!" Fletch could feel his pride welling up inside him.

"The information you bring back is valuable…" Fletch was relieved to hear his approval.

"However, we did not need hostages. This is something that needed to be planned in advance. What about the human? The one that gave you those scars?" The king lumbered towards him, inspecting his wounds from the corner of his eye.

"I killed him." He stated. "The human had been given some kind of enhancement from the princess, and he put up a decent fight. But I struck him with my flame and he plummeted at least a hundred feet to the earth below. There is no possible way he could have survived."

The great red beast reared his head, leveling his gaze with his subordinate's. He leaned forward slightly so he wouldn't have to speak as forcefully.

"I pray you are right…for your sake. Another break from my command and I'll tie you down and let the human rip you apart again."

Fletch clutched his side where Packie had brutally maimed him, still somewhat bloody.

"Understood… my king." He responded hesitantly.

"Good. Now, tell me about these other humans. What can they do?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fluttershy stirred awake, struggling to break free from her daze. Her eyes had difficulty focusing as all she could see were mostly white surroundings. She had something hanging around her neck, something heavy and metallic. As she tried to stand up the collar around her neck kept her from moving forward. Her feet kept slipping out from under her as she tried to stand up. She heard a clanking noise and looked behind her to see the collar was tied to a chain, and the chain embedded deep in an icy wall.

The ice… all of a sudden it hit her.

The whitish blue room she was in was positively frigid, and composed chiefly of ice. Every breath she gave took the form of a white haze. It was unbearably cold and she felt the icy air penetrating her yellow coat. She began to shiver uncontrollably and her teeth began to chatter.

At one end of the room was a large hole in the ice about ten feet high with a giant boulder placed in front of it. She was completely sealed in an icy circular room, about thirty feet in diameter and half that amount high.

With the cold starting to seep into her skin and thoughts of her friends escaping her mind, she began to curl up into a tight ball and weep gently. Her shivering would not cease and the pain inside wasn't going away.

Creak.

The boulder that was blocking off the room began to budge slightly, pushed by some unseen force. It groaned deeply as it slid across the surface of the ice. The stone had been moved clearly out of the way when a yellow-scaled dragon entered.

Not even bothering to acknowledge whoever had just entered, Fluttershy continued to cry, preparing for the worst.

She was caught off guard when she heard a deep yet feminine voice from behind her. The voice very closely resembled that of Princess Celestia's.

"Oh no, are you cold little pony?" the voice asked with concern.

Weakly Fluttershy turned to her guest, who towered above her. This dragon had slightly less menacing features than the one who had abducted her. She was roughly ten feet tall and had a very sleek, streamlined build. Fluttershy noticed that her claws were dulled somewhat as though she had a habit of biting them.

Normally she would have been absolutely terrified of seeing the comparatively huge yellow dragon, but the mind-numbing cold and feeling of isolation had left her physically and emotionally defeated.

All Fluttershy could do was look up at dragon with frozen tears clinging to her face, and shiver.

"Here. I've got something that might help that." She said.

The yellow dragoness held one of her talons in front of her mouth and blew on it slightly. She conjured a light green flame which projected itself upon her claw and enveloped it. Her claw maintained the flame at its tip, just a candle might.

She slowly lowered her outstretched appendage, down to Fluttershy's shivering face. Fluttershy didn't seem to care, she could only focus on the cold.

"Now hold still, right there." The dragoness said.

Fluttershy let her head fall to the icy floor, her mane falling to the side. The female dragon could plainly see she was in great suffering.

Delicately she placed her burning talon on Fluttershy's collar and let the flame seep down into the metal. She started saying some draconic chant in a dialect Fluttershy did not understand.

Once the green flame had been fully transferred inside of the collar the dragon stood back up.

All at once Fluttershy could feel this warmth engulf her face and travel down her neck. It felt so wonderful. She felt her skin begin to open up and take in the heat as it made its way down the length of her back, into her chest, and down through her legs. She gasped as she took in a glorious gulp of air, feeling life returning to her.

Fluttershy leaned up, opening her eyes fully now and taking in the sight around her. As she peered up at the tall sunflower colored dragon she knew there was nothing to be afraid of.

She smiled faintly. "T-thank you, so much. I feel a lot better now."

The dragoness smirked in satisfaction. "I should hope so, little pony. For a second there, I thought you were gonna die on me."

"I…I thought I was too." She frightfully admitted. "Y-you're not going to eat me, are you?"

The dragon belly-laughed. "Hahahaha! That depends… you aren't made of rubies and sapphires are you?"

"Um… no. I'm not." Fluttershy replied hesitantly.

"Then I'd say you're in the clear." The dragoness said smugly.

Fluttershy firmly planted her butt on the icy floor, but the collar's spell was keeping her from feeling the cold. She could tell she wasn't going anywhere soon.

"So, what's your name?" the yellow beast asked.

"My name is Fluttershy, what's yours?" she asked innocently.

"Well… I probably shouldn't be telling you, but my name's Allele."

She reached a scaly clawed hand toward Fluttershy in a friendly sort of way.

In return she gave her a hoof, which Allele shook amicably.

"I don't suppose you could let me go…" mentioned Fluttershy.

Allele felt strangely sad for the lost little pony, but she knew that to release her would mean certain death.

"I'm sorry…Fluttershy, but I have orders to keep you here and if I disobey my king then it's curtains for me. Until my king changes his mind I'm afraid you have to stay here."

Fluttershy felt her heart sink, and then she remembered something. "Ok then, but can you please tell me where my friend is?"

Allele felt a lump in her throat. She had an idea of what 'friend' she was talking about, most likely the human that attacked Fletch.

"He wouldn't happen to be the human, would he?" she asked lightly.

"Yes, that's him. Is he okay?" she pleaded.

Allele drooped her head a little to show sympathy. Perhaps she wouldn't tell her the exact truth.

"He attacked the dragon who took you and badly injured him. But from what my comrade tells me, he fell into the forest below. He… doesn't know if the human survived or not."

Allele felt strange, as if she shouldn't be conversing with the enemy. But was this kind little pony really an enemy?

Fluttershy collapsed in grief, falling down onto her stomach. She wrapped her legs around her face trying to conceal her tears. She began to sob and hyperventilate bitterly, desperately trying to cling onto the fact that Packie could still be alive.

"I'm sorry… Fluttershy. I'll come back later." Said Allele.

After a few long strides towards the exit the dragoness turned to move the giant boulder back to its original position. With several heaves and some grinding against the ice, the massive stone now once again sealed Fluttershy inside her cold white prison.

Now alone and an emotional wreck, she silently contemplated how to convince the dragons to let her go, as the minutes began to tick by.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The golden wolf-beast bobbed and weaved in and out of the way of incoming trees. He jumped over colossal stones in a single leap. Every time some loose foliage or a low hanging branch got in his way, he would quickly decimate the obstacle with a clean swipe of his claws.

He felt so primal and unrestrained, running at top speed through the dense thicket. The taste of the blood in his mouth was still thick and heavy as he ran. The dragon, his enemy, had left a trail of it leading southward. Each drop of blood was left further and further apart, sometimes he would go for miles without catching a scent, but there was clearly only one direction to keep going.

After running for hours and following the stench of blood, he came upon a stream.

It was but a small moving body of water, about a yard in width and very shallow. However, as the night wore on the wolf-beast felt himself get increasingly dehydrated. He was suddenly overcome with an incredible craving for water.

The beast fell to his hands and knees and began to take in large gulps of the divine liquid. Each drink was better than the last.

After a few moments he raised his head and looked at his distorted reflection in the water. He no longer saw a wolf's face, just a blurry mess. But the color of his golden hair reminded himself that he probably didn't always look like this.

Who am I? He asked himself.

'Sorry I'm not such a good teacher.' A female voice said.

That voice, he had heard that voice before. It must've been Fluttershy's, the pony he was looking for.

'No one here is a bad teacher.' The other voice, who did it belong to?

He continued to stare at his garbled reflection in the stream, hearing these two voices go back and forth, inside the confines of his mind.

'Maybe I can help you.' She said.

'I'd like that.' The male voice replied.

'NOOOOOO!' she screamed.

'AAHHHHH!' he cried out in agony.

'I'm so sorry, Patrick…" she whispered.

The other voice; that must've been me. That must be my name, Patrick! Yes, it sounds so familiar now.

He stood up from the water and bolted off again for the mountain, getting close to his target.

With one of his questions answered he was filled with a new confidence and an even stronger desire to save Fluttershy. Each step forward he dug in his claws further, propelling himself faster with each stride.

Before long he broke through the edge of the forest, coming upon a colossal icy mountain that reached for the heavens.

He found the steepest cliff on its northern face, dug in his claws, and began pulling himself skyward.

He reached ever higher and grabbed onto every large rock he could find, embedding his talons deep into each stone. The work of climbing was starting to become very taxing on his limbs. His bushy tail swung from side to side with every thrust upwards.

He began to pant very heavily.

In just several minutes he had climbed a few hundred feet.

I'm coming for you Fluttershy. He thought. Just hang on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"There's been a change in plans." Said the dragon king. "Instead of hitting our original targets, we are going directly to this pony settlement." He paused for a moment, letting his crew take in the new information. "Fletch tells me the princess and two other humans will be there. He also told me the humans have been given enhanced abilities from the princess, and I know she will be severely weakened."

His officers had gathered around him a large rocky den. The only source of light was a bonfire at the center of the room giving off a faint orange glow.

Fletch sat in one corner, still holding his silvery bloody side. Allele stood off to the sides with her arms crossed, listening intently.

Greyl, the largest dragon of the group and the king's second in command stood near his side. Directly across the king stood Blood, his draconic magic specialist, and Blood's assistant whose name the king never bothered to learn.

"How do you know she'll be weakened?" asked Allele.

"Every time a pony uses a potent spell such as this, its drains their magic reserves greatly. She has most likely wasted the remainder of her power on the humans." He grumbled.

"And what if she hasn't?" she asked.

"Then I will take whatever she has left." He replied coldly.

The towering behemoth Greyl cleared his throat and spoke in a low rumble. "What team do you wish to take with you, my king?"

"Only those who are able bodied. I'm sorry Blood, but you and your friend have to stay here. Seeing as Fletch is in no condition for any more fighting, I want you to try your best to heal him." He ordered.

"Yes, of course my king." Blood responded.

"Which leaves just you Greyl, and Allele. We take off in an hour… Now leave me be." The king waved them off with a swipe of his arm. Within a minute or two the rest of his clan had dispersed further into the icy cavern, to either look for gems or in Allele's case, check on the prisoner.

The last one to stay behind at the bonfire was Fletch, who had one last thing to tell the king before he left.

"My king, one more thing…" he said. The silver dragon stumbled over to him.

The king towered over him, at least twice his size. "Go on." He answered bluntly.

"When I was spying on the ponies' activity I noticed they had with them a baby dragon. He had to be but only several years old."

Fletch half-expected to be punished for not telling him this information earlier. But rather than receive anger, his king only showed intrigue.

"You don't say."

"Yes it's true. He seemed to be particularly friendly with the purple unicorn. I would bet that he lives with her."

The king paused for a moment, absorbing this new information. Then he began to laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHA!... Very well. This is a most interesting development indeed. Here we have a potential sympathizer with our cause."

The king turned back to Fletch.

"We must bring him to our side…" His voice slightly above a whisper.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

BEEP-BEEP*

Jiggs' mp3 starting buzzing in his hand. Without opening his eyes he lazily prodded his thumb around looking for the off button.

BEEP-BEEP*

"Yeah I hear ya, I'm getting up…" He mumbled.

He twisted over on his side and pressed a button on the top of the device, promptly silencing it. The screen brightly displayed the time, 5:15.

Jiggs flipped the covers off of him and walked over to the window. The sun was just about to peak its head over some distant mountain.

Taking a few minutes to stretch and situate himself he began to throw on some clothes, his green tennis shoes, black loose fitting jeans, a dark navy blue V-neck, and finally his trademark black hoody.

He walked over to the bedroom door and pushed it open as silently as possible. "Everyone must be still asleep." He whispered to himself.

The stairway leading down to the kitchen was dark, and starting to show signs of sunlight being let in. He delicately placed each step on his way down, careful not to make any loud "creaks" in the wood.

Jiggs made his way into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, though inside there were only vegetables and various dishes comprised primarily of apples.

Disappointed he closed the fridge and turned to find a glass of juice on the counter. Without really thinking he grabbed the cold glass and took a few generous gulps. It was apple juice.

"Why am I not surprised?" he asked the glass.

He finished the drink and ran some water over it in the sink, rinsing it out quickly. Once the house returned to quiet again he walked over towards the front door. With another twist of the handle and a gentle push he went outside.

"Oh good, I thought I was gonna have ta come get you myself." Said Applejack.

She had her hind end planted firmly on the steps of her porch. At the sight of Jiggs she stood up.

"Nope. Just like I said. I'm here." He muttered to her.

"Follow me." She ordered.

They started walking side by side across the field and past the barn. They passed by the apple orchard and walked along the length of the wooden fence surrounding the property. She was taking him up a large grassy hill, to some other field.

The sun was about halfway over the mountains now, coating everything in its orange glow.

"Wow, it's so… pretty here." He said.

"Yeah, it's my pride and joy." Applejack responded. "Most days you'll find me out in the orchard, collecting apples obviously. There's nothin' I'd rather be doing."

Jiggs scratched his chin. "How do you get em down if you don't have hands to pick with?"

"Oh that's easy! I just buck the trees and they fall right off. Nothin' could be simpler." She said confidently.

"Are you the one in charge around here?" he asked.

"Absolutely. My brother Big Macintosh does the heavy lifting and pulling, but I do just as much. We make sure we pull the same weight around here, otherwise there's no telling what would happen to this place."

There was a long silence that followed between them, before she finally spoke up.

"So what do you do for a living, besides play fancy instruments in your spare time?"

Jiggs laughed. "Ha, well… you could say I was a bit of a pool boy."

"Pool boy?" she interjected. "Like you shoot billiards?"

"Oh no, no. I worked on swimming pools for a few years, commercially and locally."

"Swimming pools? What's wrong with a good old lake?" she asked.

"Well not every human wants to travel to a lake, or run the risk of getting dirty. On my world we don't exactly have the cleanest sources of fresh water." He admitted. "This place is much better."

"It sure sounds like it." She agreed.

They passed over the hill and came upon a fenced in herd of cattle. Jiggs had enjoyed their nice little stroll.

Applejack walked over to the enclosure and opened a white gate. "I'm gonna let the cows out to graze. They shouldn't run off too far but while they eat we can do some other things."

"Oh I get you. 'Other things.'" He quoted deceptively.

"Ugh. You're such a cheeky ass." she noted playfully.

As the cattle flooded the open grass field she turned to head back to the barn.

"Wait that's all you had to do?" he asked.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "For now. Don't worry we got some real work to do, I promise."

After another stroll back to the giant red barn she instructed him to carry a large of bag of chicken feed. With little effort he slung the bag over his shoulder.

Seeing that he was more than ready to help Applejack opened up the barn door to let him in. He found a long set of trays where the chickens could reach their heads out and gently emptied the bag's contents.

"Man, I love that smell." He said.

"You do? Huh, well that's a good thing I guess. I kinda had to get used to it." She admitted.

The chickens squawked with joy as their breakfast arrived.

"Now normally, I'd get Big Mac to help with this next one." She pulled a bag out of a cupboard that was three times larger than the previous one. "This one's for the pigs and the sheep."

"Pigs? I thought you were vegetarian? What's the point of having pigs around?" he asked.

"Trust me, you don't wanna know." She assured him.

He let out a long sigh and gripped either side of the bag. It probably weighed over 200 pounds but thanks to his strength it was as light as a feather.

With a great heave he slung the huge bag over his shoulder just like the last one.

"C'mon it's this way." She said with a wave of her hoof.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TINK*

Something tapped on Twilight's window, disturbing her from sleep. She drowsily checked the clock again. It was 6:32.

"Mmm…" moaned Pinkie, "…just five more minutes."

TINK*

"There's that tap again." Said Twilight. She got up from her bed and walked over to her window, careful to step over her sleeping friends. Slowly she looked out trying to get a glimpse of anything, but the sun was starting to bleed through and leaving a glare across the glass pane.

TINK*

"Oh, it's a bird." She noted.

On her windowsill sat a little blue jay and it seemed to be jumping about in a great panic. Twilight undid the latch and carefully opened her window, letting in a warm morning breeze. The blue jay hopped into Twilight's hoof.

"Aww what's the matter little guy?" she asked concernedly.

The blue jay unfurled a wing, pointing back outside the window. It began to chirp in great distress, desperately trying to tell her something.

"What's out there?"

"CHEEP-CHEEP!"

Twilight calmly stuck her head out to view whatever the bird fiercely wanted her to see.

"I don't see anything." Said Twilight.

The bird in her hoof pointed downward with his wing. Twilight obeyed and lowered her gaze to Ponyville's street level, just out front of her treehouse.

What she saw frightened her, hundreds of woodland creatures, large and small, and they were all staring up at her.

"WAHH!" she pushed away from the wall and fell on her back. The blue jay harmlessly flew out of her grasp and planted itself on her windowsill again.

The sudden commotion stirred Rainbow Dash awake. "Alright, what is it this time?" she asked somewhat agitated.

"L-l-look outside." Stammered Twilight.

Much in the same way she had, Rainbow stumbled over to the window and peered her head over slowly.

"WOAH!" she cried out. "What are they all doing here?"

Rarity slowly came to, awoken by the loud noise. "Ugh… why can't you let me get my beauty sleep?" she mumbled. "It's still sooo early."

"Sorry Rarity." Twilight apologized. "But there's something weird happening outside."

With her purple mane still messy Rarity got up and out of her sleeping bag and went over to Rainbow Dash, who was still looking outside.

"Alright what's all the fuss about—WHAAA?!" The unicorn could not take her eyes off the enormous congregation of animals.

"Wait I've seen this before! Whenever Fluttershy is feeling sick… t-the animals come to me so I know to go help her. But why today?" she asked.

"So this has happened before?" asked Twilight.

"Oh it's been ages." Replied Rarity, "Which makes this even more strange."

"Well Celestia said something about the elements glowing if one of us was in danger." Said Twilight.

In a great hurry Twilight rushed over to her bed and pulled the hidden treasure chest from under it. The night before they had all placed their elements inside of it for safe keeping. When she opened the chest the four remaining pieces of jewelry were indeed glowing, constantly fluctuating in brightness.

"No…" muttered Twilight, "I think Fluttershy's in trouble."

"NOOOOO!"Cried out Pinkie Pie.

The three other ponies in the room jumped in terror at her sudden outburst.

"Pinkie!" they all yelled angrily.

"Snore*…snore*… that's my coffee… Wally…snore*" She was still fast asleep.

"I take back what I said." Said Twilight. "The end of the world couldn't wake her up."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Celestia was having trouble sleeping. She had been allowed to use the only other bed Twilight had, which she herself had moved to the guest room.

At the moment she was up and looking over Ponyville from her circular window. After raising the sun hundreds of thousands of times, she found it came to her quite effortlessly now. While lost in thought she heard a knocking at her door.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's me Twilight." Said a familiar voice. "Fluttershy's in trouble!"

"Oh no." whispered Celestia.

In a flash she was clear to the other side of the room and hurled open the door using what little magic she had left.

Twilight looked up at her with fear in her eyes. "Princess, the elements are glowing… a-and there's a large herd of woodland critters outside. Fluttershy has to be in trouble."

"I see. Twilight, please take Nova with you to her cottage. He may not be as gifted as you are but he is still a powerful ally." She assured.

"Are you going to stay here?" asked Twilight.

"I'm afraid I would only slow you down. I will tell Wallace what's going on, but please take the other elements with you." Celestia pleaded.

"Way ahead of you, Princess." Announced Rainbow Dash behind Twilight. "I'm already on my way!" With a quick bound down the hallway and into Twilight's room, she made her way to the open window and took off for Fluttershy's.

"Wait! Dash!" cried Twilight. However it was too late, as she could hear Rainbow's wings flapping off into the distance.

"Come on Twilight." Said Rarity. "We have to leave this instant."

"Ugh…" grumbled Pinkie as she lumbered out of Twilight's room. "Where was Dashie… going?" she moaned.

Celestia put her right hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Hurry and grab Nova, Twilight. You shouldn't waste any more time here. Rainbow could need your help."

"Alright girls," asserted Twilight, "Let's get going!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"How is the prisoner holding up?" asked the king.

The yellow dragoness shrugged her shoulders. "She's doing fine I suppose. Better than before, anyway."

"Good." He grumbled. His first officer, a colossal beast, was following behind him down the icy cavern. "Greyl, are you ready to leave?"

"Yes king. I am ready." The colossus of a dragon lurched forward with every step, crushing beds of solid ice and rock beneath his feet.

"Allele, should any unicorn try something foolish against us, you know what to do." He warned.

"Of course. Have I ever failed you before?" she asked.

"Not yet. But I don't want there to be any 'accidents.' These ponies are extremely treacherous and you must be aware at all times."

They approached the entrance to the icy cave. The orange sun was about eye-level to them now, considering their high altitude. A frigid breeze was blowing swiftly across the mountain's peak, sending a few snowy flurries into their faces.

The blood red dragon opened and displayed his wings grandly, preparing for takeoff.

"And what if something goes wrong?!" Allele's voice was barely audible in the heavy wind.

"Nothing will go wrong." The king bellowed. "Just stay in triangle formation… Now, let us be off!"

With a supreme heave of his wings the red dragon blasted off skyward.

Wordlessly, his towering first officer opened his wings and took off much in the same way as his commander.

Allele faltered for a moment and then unfurled her membranous wings as well. "I hope you're right…" she mumbled to herself.

With a swift down sweep motion of her wings, she gave chase after her comrades.