The Other Draconiquus - Story 1: Imaginary Friend

Twilight Sparkle jumped in surprise, and let out a yelp of fright. “Warn me next time you do something like that!” she yelled at him.

“I didn’t do that,” responded L.

“Then what was it?”

“Dunno. Shall we investigate?”

“No. Mother told me that whenever you hear a strange noise outside, or even in the house, don’t go out and investigate it alone.”

“But you won’t be alone, Twilight. I’ll be right there with you, I’ll even go first if you wish.”

“Really?”

“Really. Now, come on.”

He led her to the stairs, up to the library tower. It is strange to know that, just like in her days in Ponyville, when she was a filly in Canterlot, she lived in the town library as well. Seems like it’s true what they say: “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

When they got inside, they saw the devastation that had just occurred. There was a huge hole blown into a wall with a bookcase, spreading wood, books, pages and other debris all over the room, and a strange pod, which is apparently what had blast through the wall, had crashed landed onto the floor, making it bend downward. It was hot.

“What in Equestria did you do to this place!??!” exclaimed Twilight.

“I didn’t!” responded L, on the defensive.

“Did you at least know this was going to happen?”

“No.”

“Great! You have a time machine, know so much about my future, and yet you didn’t even know that my library was going to be destroyed on this night!”

“I’m sorry. But I didn’t.” He took a closer look, being careful not to get too close to it. “It looks like there’s something inside it. Twilight, fetch me a bucket of water. Make it about eight buckets. I’m gonna cool this sucker off and get it open.”

Twilight did as she was told, but she could only find one bucket, so she filled it, brought it up, had L splash the pod with it, and brought it back down, and repeated seven more times. It let out quite a lot of steam, but finally, it was cool enough to touch.

L pulled out a strange short silver rod with a blue tip from his inner coat pocket. He held it out to the door of the pod, and pressed a button. A high-pitched humming noise came from the rod, as he held it to a panel on the side. The door opened up with a soft hiss as pressure was released.

“What is that thing?” asked Twilight, referring to the rod that L was just about to re-pocket.

“A Sonic Screwdriver,” he stated, more focused on what was inside the pod at the time. “And this looks like it is an egg. A dragon egg to be precise.” He pulled a large light purple egg with darker purple polka-dots out of the pod. He took a moment to thoroughly investigate it. “I wonder,” he said to himself.

He then noticed something else inside the cockpit. He gently set the egg down on the ground, and pulled the other object out of it. It was an envelope made of parchment paper with a single letter “L”, written with a feather pen. He opened the envelope and read the single piece of parchment paper inside of it. Twilight never found out what was written in that letter, but whatever it was, it was making L on the verge of tears. When he was done reading it, he held the parchment paper to his chest, and a single tear fell from his left eye.

“What does it say?” asked Twilight, curiously.

L turned to her and simply said, “Spoilers.”

"That again?"

"It's not good for one to know too much about their own destiny, Twilight. But, I will say this, I think you should keep that egg. Your whole future depends on it."

"How am I supposed to keep a dragon egg? What do I do when it hatches? How can I possibly take care of a giant, fire-breathing dragon?"

"He will start out as a baby, and it will take him hundreds of years for him to get to the size that you're thinking of. Also, they're only mean and dangerous because they're normally brought up not to know any better. You can bring him up to be less dragon-like and more pony-like. Your own mother did the same."

"What happened to her dragon?"

"It died in an accident. A terrible, stupid, chaotic accident. Which I had no part in." He added for good measure. "It will be different with him."

"You keep saying 'him', as though you know it's going to be a boy."

"I do." He stopped himself before he ended up giving an even bigger spoiler. "Don't ask me any more about it. Now let me get this library fixed up. He snapped his fingers, and the entire crash event happened in reverse. Every book, page, every splinter of wood and other debris went back to their proper place, while the pod flew back to wherever it came from. The only sign of it ever having been there was the egg still lying on the ground near Twilight's hooves.

Twilight was now going around, investigating the room, disbelieving that everything could have gone back exactly the way it was.

"I'll go find something for you to carry that egg downstairs with. I know you don't know levitation just yet, and it would be impossible for you to walk on two legs while holding onto something as delicate as an egg with the others. I'll be right back." He paused before going downstairs. "I'm certainly glad that this isn't a Grim Dark fic, otherwise those would have been terrible last words," he said to reader. The Narrator reminded him that he was not allowed under any circumstances to break the fourth wall like that. "Shut up, Narrator! I'll say whatever the hay I want!"

"Who are you talking to?" asked Twilight.

"Nopony important. See you in a few minutes." He went downstairs.

He came back up a few minutes later with a wicker basket, with a handle and a few cloths and a pillow inside, so as to form a sort of carrying nest. He set the basket next to the egg, picked up the egg, and placed it inside, resting the tip of the egg on the pillow, and wrapping a cloth on top of the base. "There you go, little guy," he said. "All nice and snug."

"He's an egg. He can't hear you."

"And how would you know? Have you ever been an egg?"

"Of course not!"

"I rest my case."

He picked up the basket, and led Twilight down the stairs, back to her living room. "You know, there were these scientists in some other planet who were doing these brainwave scans on an egg once. As the egg rolled of the table and fell to the ground, they managed to decipher a very clear thought out of its mind. The thought was: 'Oh, no. Not again.'... No, wait, that was bowl of petunias. Never mind."

"You're off your rocker!"

"And loving every minute of it!" He paused in front of the door. "Although the actual seconds are a bit dull." He opened the door and brought himself, the egg, and Twilight inside. "Now, um, I forgot to ask. What time are you supposed to be in bed tonight?"

"8:30."

L looked at the clock. It read 8:25. "Looks like we're going to be cutting it a bit close. It's time that you started getting ready for bed. Go on, brush your teeth, and whatever else you have to do, and get in it. But first, show me where your room is, so I can set this down on a desk or something."

They did all of this.

L went into Twilight's room, and tucked her in. He kissed her on the forehead. "Good night, Twilight Sparkle," he said, softly. She closed her eyes, as he walked to the light switch and switched it off. "And goodbye, my love," he added, under his breath, not realizing that Twilight had heard him, and would fall asleep pondering over these last four words.

This was only the first time Twilight had ever seen L. But it was the last time L would ever see her.