A True Home

The next morning was much like the one before. I looked out the window because something seemed off. Other than the sun being low in the sky, which meant that it was way too early for me to be awake, there was black smoke coming from a nearby mountain.

You have got to be kidding me! I thought I had more time than this. Don’t I get a break? I mean first the ursa, and now this? I sighed and walked down the stairs, maybe Twilight will know what to do. I sure don’t. I really don’t want to have to climb that mountain, that thing is steep. Wow, look at me, im more scared of a steep hill than a dragon.

I had my sights set on the library when I saw that it looked like the whole town was in panick by the bridge that Twilight was standing on. Why is everypony up this early?  Within the chaos, were my guards in a huddle to discuss what they should do next. I landed next to them first so I could give them orders for the day.

When I landed, Star Light was the one to bring me up to speed. “Sir, if you didn’t know, the smoke is being caused by a ….”

“Dragon.” I cut her off to make this quick. “I know what it is, and I know that Twilight and her friends are going up to stop it. I want you guys to keep the ponies from panicking by patrolling the town. I want one in the market, two in the sky, and two in the suburbs. You can take your pick of where you wish to go.” I told them. They all nodded and took off to which ever post they wanted. I was going to find Twilight to inform her that I would be her escort up the mountain.

I waited at the library for everyone to show up. The first to come out was Twilight. “Hey Twilight, I was wondering if I could come with you.”

“oh, okay that’s fine. Sparky is coming too, speaking of which, hey AJ.” I turned around and saw the Applejack and Sparky were coming this way. Applejack was wearing a set of green saddle bags with a red apple on the side. Sparky had a set that was black with green accents.

“Hey Sparky, are you ready to climb that mountain? I’m sure as hell not. It looks way to steep for my taste.” I told him. He smiled and laughed.

“Hell no! I don’t want to get eaten today.” He said.

“Speaking of eating, you got any food? I missed breakfast again.” As if on cue, my stomach let out a menacing growl. With a role of his eyes he reached behind him and produced a shiny red apple. It shined bright in the sun light, creating a mirror effect. There I saw an image of a pony salivating over an apple. Without a second thought, I took the apple and proceeded to munch contently on it.

In this short span of time, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity had shown up and formed a line, standing at attention. “Alright everypony, I’m mapping out the quickest route. But we will all need to keep a good pace if we’re going to make it to the top of the mountain by nightfall ” Came Twilight’s voice form in front of me, momentarily making me forget about my apple that was already half way gone.

Next to me sat Fluttershy, or rather laid, shaking with fear. “Ma- mountain?” she asked

“The dragon is in that cave at the very top.” She continued, failing to notice her friend that was quivering on the ground next to me.

“Looks pretty cold up there.” Said Applejack.

“You bet it is. The higher you go, the chillier it gets.” Rainbow said, adding a shiver when she said chillier.

“Good thing I brought my scarf.” Came the swift reply from Rarity, pulling out a white and pink striped scarf from her saddle bags. Her saddle bags where pink, and had a large blue diamond on the side.

“”Ohhhohh, pretty.” Pinkie said, entranced by the way the scarf blew in the breeze.

When hearing this, my brony instincts kicked in. Sparky’s must have as well because we both said it at the same time. Also being the one to originally say it, Rainbow said it along with us.

“Yeah, that will keep you nice and cozy.” Without looking I reached my hoof out to Sparky to give him a brohoof. He touched his to mine, making in addible clack in the silence that fallowed. Either worried it was her fault, or not wanting to remain in silence, Fluttershy walked up to Twilight who was a good twenty feet away. Twenty hooves? It doesn’t matter; she was out of ear shot for her small voice.

I turned to talk to Sparky, wanting to make more conversation with the only thing that I could really call a friend here. But he was currently engaged in a conversation with Applejack. My next choice was Rainbow, but she and Rarity were also engaged in conversation. That left Pinkie. I was hesitant to talk to her because of this fanfic that I read awhile back. Cupcakes.

I swallowed up my fear and attempted to make small talk with the pink mare. “Soooo, Pinkie. What was it like when you throw your first party?” I asked. I immediately regretted my mistake as she began to launch into a story about how she used to live on a farm an how boring her life was. I was attempting to look like I was lessening when I heard the cutest sound I have ever heard.

I turned my head to see Twilight walking back while Rainbow was trying to convince her to leave Fluttershy here. “That pony is afraid of her own shadow.” She said. “She’s just going to slow us down.”

Twilight, being new at the whole friend thing was oblivious to what her friend was trying to tell her. “Oh, she’s just a little nervous. Once we get going, I’m sure she will be fine.” A small yelp called both their attention. The yelp came from Fluttershy, she was trying to push away her shadow, and when that failed, she jumped into a bush to hide from it. Seeing how right Rainbow was didn’t deter her at all. “Alright girls.” I felt a little insulted by being called that, but got off my rump anyways. “Move out!”

As one, we all started running towards the mountain which, coincidentally, was also right on course with Fluttershy. We just picked her up and carried her the whole way to the base of the mountain.

Sometime later, after Fluttershy panicked trying to go up the Mountain…

“thank you for carrying me, Midnight.” Came the small, embarrassed voice from my back. The map I got from Twilight showed that I was only half way to the agreed upon meeting place on the mountain.

It’s not your fault you’re afraid of dragons, Fluttershy.” I replied. This was why I volunteered to take her up the mountain; I wanted to know why she was scared of dragons.

Her voice seemed to get smaller before she answered. “H-how did you know that?” she asked.

“I really don’t believe that you’re afraid of high things, Fluttershy. I’m not upset; in fact, I think you have a good reason for being scared. Would you mind telling me? If that’s alright with you.” I said.

She let out a sigh. When I looked back at her, I saw a war raging inside of her, a war she seemed to be losing. “M-my parents were killed by a dragon.” That was not what I was expecting. Her eyes were swelling with tears. I pulled her off my back and set her in front of me.

She gave me this knowledge about her that I didn’t think anypony else knew. Maybe I should tell her something about me too. I let out a sigh, the same sigh that Fluttershy let out only moments ago. “When I was a kid, only about thirteen years old, my parents died and I couldn’t do a thing about it. I was sleeping at a friend’s house and when I woke up to a man shaking my shoulder, I found out my mom and dad had died in a house fire. They didn’t deserve that, they were good people.” I had closed my eyes when I started the story, and when I opened them, Fluttershy had stopped crying and was now looking at me like I was a hurt animal. I was about to say that we should keep moving, but she reached over and brought me into a tight embrace.

I was at a loss. Everything I knew about Fluttershy was that she was shy and slow to trust. But here she was, hugging me. While my momentary pause was unnoticed as I put my arms around her and returned the embrace. We sat there for maybe a minute before I broke the embrace, silently I lifted her back onto my back and we continued up the mountain.

So I was right, Fluttershy really did have a good reason for being scared of the dragon. But I never expected it to be for this reason. It explains a few things though. Like why she is so quiet or why she is so attached to Angle Bunny. He is probably the only thing she has left of them.

As we continued our way up the mountain, I noticed that instead of shaking violently on my back, Fluttershy was now hugging my neck as if I made her feel safer. My thoughts were soon confirmed when we arrived at the rendezvous half way up the mountain. When we got there, Fluttershy insisted that she walk the rest of the way. I let her down and walked over to Twilight. “This was I bad idea. I mean bringing Fluttershy that is.”

Rainbow floated down from somewhere and hovered right next to my head. “At least somepony agrees with me.” She said with a smirk. I didn’t know if she knew that much about Fluttershy, or if she just assumed she was being unreasonably scared. Either way she was right. Without a word she turned around and kept on walking.

We all fallowed her as she lead us to a gap in the path she had chosen. Rainbow Dash was the first to leap over gleefully. The way she made it look while jumping made the gap look so much farther than it really was. It was shorter than a pony is long, making it easy for me to just hop to the other side. Next came Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack fallowed by sparky. The only pony left to make the jump was Fluttershy.

“Your turn Fluttershy.” Twilight said.

Fluttershy looked over the ledge, gadging the possibility of her falling. She must have desided that the risk was too great because she jumped up against the side of the mountain. “But it’s so wide.” Came her response.

“Come on Fluttershy, we should be much farther along by now.”

Apple jack tried to help in coaxing her over the gap. “You could just, leap on over.”

As if to think about it, Fluttershy looked over the ledge again. “I…” a roar rippled through the air causing her to leap back in fright. “I don’t know.”

Suddenly, Pinkie got the idea that this matter could be solved with a song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7A7myjLxr4

Where ever she came up with that song, I’ll never know. But it must have worked because Fluttershy stood up and took the jump in steps. “A hop.” She hoped forward. “A skip.” She skipped. The girls and Sparky gave her cheers of encouragement. Then without saying the third step, she jumped. But her jump looked more like her putting her front hooves forward without leaving the ground. Her front hooves caught the other side of the jump, but another roar, louder this time caused her to freeze up. She lost her balance by doing so tipping over and falling.

I was the first to act. I jumped off the side of a mountain and began plummeting to the ground. Fluttershy was not much farther down than me. A few good flaps gave me the needed push to catch up and grab her. I wrapped my hooves around her mid-section and started to pull up. This was a lot harder than it looked. Ponies may look cute and cuddly, but underneath they are all muscle. While not impossible, I still had some difficulty flying her back up to the cliff the other girls were stopped on. I set Fluttershy down next to Twilight, but then I fell flat on my face, exhausted. While the girls all made sure Fluttershy was alright, Sparky sat down next to me.

“It’s a good thing you wanted to be a pegasus. Otherwise you might not have been able to fly her back up here.” He said.

“I would have jumped either way.” I said. He pondered what I said for a moment before he smiled down at me and extended a hoof. I reached up and bumped his hoof for the second time today.

The next part of the mountain was on a cliff with a steep overhang. There was a wall that I couldn’t see the top of because of the billowing black smoke. There was a few trees that daggled dangerously over the edge as well. “Okay everypony, the map says we’re entering an avalanche zone. Even the smallest peep could cause a huge rock slide.” Twilight informed us from the front. Nopony made a noise. The only sound that could be heard was the light clip-clop of hooves. We remained that way for a good while until the silence was broken by a piercing scream from behind me.

“AVALAN….!” I turned around to see Applejack with her hoof in Fluttershy’s mouth, silencing her. We all remained still, Listening to the echo of Fluttershy’s scream. Once it died out, everypony let out a collective sigh. The sigh set of the avalanche.

Once the ground started shaking, everypony panicked and ran for whatever direction they saw as the safest. I ran for the end of the avalanche zone, hoping to avoid being crushed. As I was running, rocks fell, getting larger and larger as time went by. One rock, one bigger than all the rest, started falling. Twilight was running right for where it was going to land. I didn’t even hesitate, I ran for her, hopping that I could push her out of the way. Before I could jump at her, I tripped and crashed into Twilight instead of pushing her. She was knocked out of the way but I skidded to a halt just before I was out of harm’s way. The rock fell, kicking dust up everywhere.

It was dark and I felt as if I was being pushed on in every direction at once. My mind was groggy and I tried to move, but I could only move about a foot before I hit something. I was trapped and it was dark. Great. There was something else too. A noise I could not quite place, it almost sounded like digging. After maybe a  minute of being in the dark, I was meet with a blast of sunshine. I felt something pulling my hoof, but whatever was holding me wasn’t going to let go. I had to wiggle around some until I was released and pulled out of a hole.

“oh thank goodness we found you. I thought you were hurt.” That was Fluttershy’s voice. All the pieces snapped into place. I was just crushed by rocks. Great.

I looked up to see a smiling face greet me. “I’m okay. Just need a second.” Everypony gave me space. But Fluttershy seemed to stick close to me. Once I felt that I was ready to get up, I stood without a problem. Twilight, seeing that I was ready to move on got up and started to climb the mound of dirt that now stood in our way. We managed to climb the mound without trouble, but going down, Fluttershy slipped and caused everypony to go down it like a water slide.

The rest of the walk up was uneventful. Once we reach the cave though, Twilight gave us all directions. “Rainbow Dash, you’ll use your wings to clear the smoke.” Rainbow flew into the sky with a nod. “Rarity and Pinkie Pie, you’ll create a diversion to distract the dragon if things get a little hairy in there.” Pinkie started playing with a rubber chicken. “Applejack, you’re ready with the apples in case he decides to attack.” She tossed two apples into the air and bucked them into a nearby tree. “But it shouldn’t come to that because Fluttershy will do what she needs to do to wake him up. Between the two of us, I’m sure we get him to understand why he needs to go. Is everypony ready?” I raised my hoof. “Yes?”

“what are apples going to do against a dragon?” I asked. she just rolled her eyes at me and walked into the cave. Fluttershy however did not fallow her. Soon after realizing this Twilight came out to retrieve her from the hole in the ground she buried her face into.

“Come on, we have to do this.” Twilight started pushing her, but failed miserably. “Every second we waste, an acre of Equestria is covered in smoke.” Rainbow Dash joined in to help her push. Then Applejack joined in fallowed by Pinkie. I was impressed that she could hold back that much force.

“I-I-I can’t go into that cave.” The pushing ceased as everypony pushing feel to the ground with a sigh.

“Oh great, she’s scared of caves now too.” Cut in Rainbow.

“I’m not scared of caves, I’m scared of …..” whatever she was saying was too quiet for me to hear.

While everypony’s attention was directed to Fluttershy, I grabbed Sparky and walk into the cave. “What are you doing?” he asked once we were inside the cave.

“We are going to deal with this. If we can’t, then we just have to sit and wait for the others to fail and for Fluttershy to do the stare.” I said in a matter of fact tone.

The cave was dark, providing little in the way of light, I could barely see ten feet in front of me. Once my eyes adjusted I saw something that should not have been there. Sitting on a pile of gold and gems, was indeed a dragon. But unlike on the show, it was almost twice the size, and black. I was hesitant to try and wake this monster up, but I did it anyways.

Much like with the ursa, I bopped it on the nose causing It to open its eyes, which were a deep purple with black cat-like slits in them, to stare at us. He let out a grumble that rumbled throughout the whole cave. “Umm…  Sparky you want to take this one?”

“Hell no! You made this mess so you can clean it.”

“Well umm … I’m Midnight Rain, this is Sparky. We were wondering what it would take to get you to leave this cave and move.”

It narrowed its eyes at me before it made a move. He pushed himself up and faced us. He was almost to the top of the cave, much taller than I was expecting. I also wasn’t expecting when he sucked in a breath, puffing out his chest. When he exhaled, a jet of fire came out with it. I rolled to the side to avoid it.

“Okay! We’ll leave!” he stopped the flaming gout that was coming from his mouth. As I was backing out, a shiny light caught my eye. When I took a closer look, I saw that it was a golden sword. While his eyes were closed as he went back to napping, I grabbed it and proceeded out of the cave.

“What were you thinking!?” asked an enraged Applejack. It was not directed at me, but at Sparky. “You could have been hurt. I don’t want to lose you too…” she was hugging him. I was relived to see that he was unharmed.

I saw that my input wasn’t needed, so I walked over to the side of the cliff and hoped that the girls could solve this issue.  If Rainbow Dash attacked him, I don’t think we could calm him down. I looked at the sword I grabbed when he wasn’t looking. While the blade was gold, the hilt was silver. At the end of the hilt, there was a finely cut ruby that sparkled in the sun.

During my examination of the sword, Fluttershy had seated herself next to me. She seemed content to just sit there so I didn’t say anything. I looked back to see that Pinkie was emerging from the cave in a disheveled party outfit. She was wearing a present, flippers, and funky looking sunglasses. She also had one of those party things that you blow into to make noise.

Rainbow’s voice cut off my train of thought. “Alright, I have had just about enough of this. I’m going in there and teaching that guy a lesson.” She said. This wasn’t going to end well. Before I or Twilight could stop her, she flew into the cave. I watched in horror as she turned in mid-flight and kicked it square in the nose. He didn’t react at first. He seemed puzzled by the rainbow colored pony in front of him. Then he sneezed smoke, clearing his mind. He roared at her, sending her flying back like a canon ball.

By now everypony, minus Fluttershy, was standing at the mouth of the cave. I turned to Sparky, knowing what was coming. “Should we duck?” I asked.

He looked at me. “We shall.” Together we ducked as Rainbow Dash came flying out knocking everypony else over like bowling pins. The dragon began to make his way out, showing how truly big he was. He was easily twice asbig as the one on the show. I also got a good look at him for the first time. He was mainly black, but had a purple under belly the same shade as his eyes. His back spines were a shimmering grey that reflected sunlight into my eyes.

Everypony was in panic mode now. The dragon was standing at his full hight when he let out a roar that sent us all into a collision course with a rock. Once we all hit, the top half of the rock crumbled revealing a cowering Fluttershy. As soon as she saw us all laying on the ground groaning in pain, she started to get mad.

“How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?!” she flew up and landed on the dragon’s nose. “listen here mister. Just because you’re big doesn’t mean you get to be a bully. You may have huge teeth and sharp sca…” before the stare could take full effect, the dragon flicked her off his nose. She came skyrocketing at the rock he put us into. When she hit, there was a muffled thump as she lay limp on the ground.

This wasn’t happening. This was supposed to be a world filled with sun shine and rainbows. Not the demonic world that does this. I was ready to snap, I didn’t care about the rules anymore. No one hurts Fluttershy.

The sword I had landed on the ground next to me. I picked it up, already formulating a plan, I had to kill him. But I couldn’t risk somepony else getting hurt. “Twilight, I want you to teleport everypony as close to town as you can get, I should be back before dark.” I told her.

“What? Why would you want me to …”

“Just do it.” I told her. She began charging magic as I turned to face the dragon that was looking at me with an amused expression on its face. With sword in hoof I took flight, I wanted to be face to face when I killed him. I heard the discharge of magic telling me they were gone. “Now dragon, I am going to kill you.” He started laughing at me, but I had a plan.

.

“YOU? A LITTLE PONY? IS GOING TO KILL ME?” he asked in a deep and rumbling voice. I was now right in front of his face. I could smell his ghastly breath from here.  I was just waiting for him to make the first move so I make mine. The plan was to stab him in the eye. That was the only non-armored part of his body so that made it my only target. “SO I’M GOING TO ASSUME THAT YOU DON’T LIKE BANANAS” he said. What did bananas? What did that have to do with ….. oh you have got to be kidding me?

“I know where you can go bananas.”

“ON THE MOON BIIITTTTCCCHHH!” we said as one, but my voice was drowned out by his.

“RIGHT THEN. I’LL BE GOING NOW.” He said turning to leave.

“Wait. You’re just going to leave?” I asked.

“THAT’S THE PLAN. LOOK, IF YOU NEED ME, GO TO THE DRAGON KINGDOM AND ASK FOR BLADE.” With like that he took flight. I turned to Pony vile to do the same. I slide the sword into a slot on my back and took flight.

My flight home was silent, even Stan left me alone. He was from home and he wanted nothing to do with me. How did he even get here? Did Discord send him, and if so, why wasn’t he there in the white void? There were to many unanswered questions revolving around us being here. Why us and not someone else? I’ll have to think about this later.

I landed in Pony vile after the sun had set, right outside of the library. I knocked at the door hopping somepony was home. The door was opened by a small purple dragon with green spikes. “Umm… your Midnight right?”

“Yeah that’s me. Is Sparky and the girls here?” I asked.

“Yeah, just come on in.” He gestured for me to enter, stepping aside to allow me entrance. When I walked in, I noticed two things right away. First, Fluttershy was crying, and second Sparky was staring at me, wide eyed.

“Your alive.” It wasn’t a question but I felt that it needed to be answered.

“Of course I’m alive. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked. but the others had noticed my presence, and before I could even say ‘hello’ I was assaulted by a hug from Fluttershy.

“You’re alright! I thought you weren’t coming back.” I hugged her back without hesitation this time. I looked at Sparky looking for an answer, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

“Spike, take a letter. Dear princess Celestia, I am happy to report that the dragon has left our fair country, and that it was my good friend, Midnight, who convinced him to go. This adventure has thought me that a true friend can come from anywhere, and even new ones can help you overcome anything. Always your fateful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

Her letter made me smile. I had made more friends here than I ever had back home. Fluttershy let me go, leaving me feeling cold inside.  I got up and walked up to Sparky.

“He knew were to go bananas. He was from home.” I was blunt, yes, but I felt he should know.

“That’s not possible. Did you kill him?” his eyes had narrowed when he asked this.

“No, Of course not. He left of his own free will.” I told him. He let out a breath and relaxed. “I don’t want you to worry about this yet okay? Let’s just see if any more of us pop up.” He nodded his approval. If any more of us do pop up, then we might have a problem. But if not then there is no need to worry.

He coughed, pulling me out of my mind. “It looks like somepony want to talk to you.” He said and walked away whistling a merry tune.

I turned around to see Fluttershy hoofing at the floor behind me, biting her lower lip. “Yes Fluttershy?” I asked.

“Oh, umm… I was wondering if you, that is if you don’t mind. If you would …..” her voice dropped off again, making it impossible for me to hear her.

“What was that?” she motioned for me to move closer. I stepped closer and she pulled my head down so my ear was even with her mouth.

“I was wondering if you would stay the night with me.” She said. She released my head so I could look at her. She was still biting her bottom lip, but now she had a blush on her face too.

“Yeah sure, I’ll stay with you.” She smiled and hugged me again. When she let go, she grabbed my hoof and pulled me out the door.

Fluttershy’s house was a short five minute walk away. It looked just like it had on the show too. It looked warm even with the pale light of the moon shining on it. Fluttershy lead me into her home and up a flight of stairs into her bedroom. From what I knew of Fluttershy, this was like Rarity going to the market and kissing some random stallion. She was becoming rather fond of me.

In her room there was a round bed that had two pillows and a green blanket. Fluttershy hopped on and snuggled under the covers. I joined her and let her cuddle into me as she drifted off to sleep.

I was laying there thinking to myself when a disturbing thought hit me.

I am a monster.