The Crystal Dragon

by Brass Polish

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Comedy, Fluttershy, Adventure, Flash Sentry, Random, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 5187

The Crystal Heart has been losing momentum on and off for a while, and Fluttershy discovers that the cause is a Crystal Dragon with an appalling sense of greed.

The Crystal Heart has been losing momentum on and off for a while and Ponyville’s Royal Taskforce is on hand to find out why. During a study on crystal wildlife, Fluttershy discovers the source of the Crystal Heart’s lagging; a crystal dragon with an appalling sense of greed. Fluttershy is torn between living up to the Element of Harmony she controls, and keeping this dragon happy to prevent her from crippling the Crystal Heart…

Published 2014-11-21 16:40:05 UTC
Last updated 2014-11-21 16:40:05 UTC

1 Crystal Wildlife

As the Crystal Empire had been gone for hundreds of years, there were gaps in its long and affluent history. So members of the Royal Family and their partners were taking it in turns to study various areas of its culture and geography. Each pony studied things that were in his or her area or expertise. For example, Applejack spent two days in the crystal cornfields and crystalberry patches helping the local farmers with their harvests. And Pinkie Pie had made excellent use of the collected crops with some of the best baked goods the crystal ponies ever had. The two Ponyvillians had learned a lot and Princess Cadance was happy with their contribution to the morale of her subjects. She told them that the Crystal Heart had picked up speed after their visit, which meant the love and hope in the community had never wavered since the announcement about the Equestria Games.

Weeks after that fruitful visit, Rarity and Rainbow Dash arrived for their “field trip”, as Spike had put it. They were greeted at the station by Princess Cadance.

“How are things, Princess?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Well,” said Cadance, “nothing bad has happened, but I’ve noticed that lately, the Crystal Heart has been spinning a bit… this may sound strange coming from a princess, but it’s been spinning a bit… jerkily.”

Rarity was bemused. “Applejack and Pinkie Pie told us that it had been perfect since their visit. Whatever could the matter be?”

“I don’t know,” replied Cadance. “None of the crystal ponies seem disturbed or anything.”

“It could be one or two crystal ponies having trouble with something,” suggested Rainbow Dash. “That shouldn’t cause the Crystal Heart to stop, should it? I mean, as long as the majority of them are happy…”

“You could be right,” said Cadance. “But if either of you see a sign of trouble, please let me know. Shining Armour and I will be on the lookout as well.”

Rainbow Dash was to be working in the sky above the empire setting up rainclouds for the berry patches. Crystalberries do not require nearly as much water as ordinary berry plants or fruit plants in general, so Rainbow Dash was going to be working on the only downpour scheduled for that month. Meanwhile, Rarity was going to see if she could find some jewels, as crystals evidently didn’t qualify. If they had, Rarity’s horn would have gone amok every time she went there.

Rarity’s gem-finding spell took her nearly everywhere in the Crystal Empire over the next two days. Gradually, the cart she was towing behind her got heavier and heavier as she loaded it with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Near the end of the second day, her magic had led her to the hills outside the empire close to the snowy northern territory. As she made her way up the slope following her horn to some more jewels, she saw something drift down towards the rocks. Suddenly, her horn made her change course so sharply that she broke her harness.

“Oh, what could this be?!” she exclaimed, following her horn’s influence.

She quickly found out that the thing that had drifted down from the sky was a cloud. And her horn seemed to be leading her there. As she approached the cloud sitting on the ground, Rainbow Dash flew down looking hot and bothered.

“The clouds are way heavier here,” she panted. “I’ll bet anypony can walk on them. Go on. Give it a try. I’ll bet you.”

Rarity wasn’t the only who thought so. “I think I detect some gems in that cloud.”

She walked up to the cloud and jumped on it. Her hooves hit something hard.

“Eureka!”

Rarity reached into the cloud and pulled out a small pile of rubies.

“I think I know what’s been weighing this cloud down,” she smiled.

She began digging into the cloud like a dog uncovering more rubies.

Then Rainbow Dash jumped up. “Hey, your wagon’s rolling away!”

Rarity looked back at the hill. There in the distance was her cart rolling backwards towards the city. Rainbow Dash flew after it, but lost sight of it when it entered the public roads. Then when she caught up to it, she found it was empty. She looked around. There were some puzzled crystal ponies looking at her and the cart.

“Did anyone see somepony run off with a bunch of jewels?!” asked Rainbow Dash.

No one did. Rainbow Dash started flying around looking for a possible thief. None of the crystal ponies appeared to be carrying hundreds of gems or acting suspicious in any way, but Rainbow Dash noticed that the Crystal Heart was spinning faster and smoother than it had been the last time she saw it that morning.

“I think there’s one or more thieves here,” Rainbow Dash told Cadance and Shining Armour that evening. “Stealing all of Rarity’s jewels would have made them happy enough to feed the Crystal Heart.”

“Hmm,” pondered Shining Armour. “I did worry about some of the crystal ponies abusing the system. Give them an inch, they’ll want to whole foot.”

But Cadance had her doubts. “They couldn’t have gotten away with all those jewels without being seen.”

“Pardon me, but our train is leaving in a few minutes,” Rarity interrupted. “May we be excused?”

“Yes, you can leave,” said Cadance. “Shining Armour and I will investigate this tomorrow morning.”

Over the next two weeks, Cadance and Shining Armour had a hard job of finding out what happened to the missing jewels without letting the crystal ponies know that there may be thieves in the empire. If they thought any one of them might be up to something criminal, their morale would sink and the Crystal Heart would lose power. However, it became clear that this was happening anyway. The steadiness of the spinning relic began to diminish again and neither Cadance nor Shining Armour knew why.

Soon, it was time for Twilight and Fluttershy’s two day visit. Once again, Cadance met the taskforce members at the station. As always, Twilight was delighted to see Cadance. They began their reminiscent routine at once.

“♪Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!♫”

As soon as they finished, Twilight turned bright red. She hadn’t noticed Flash Sentry standing next to Cadance on the platform.

“Um, it’s just… something we used to do when I was young,” she said sheepishly.

Flash grinned, doing his best not to chuckle at a pair of princesses.

He cleared his throat. “Princess Cadance wants me to work with you today.”

“Yes,” Cadance nodded. “I’d like you two to continue Rainbow Dash’s study of the clouds in the Crystal Empire. I’m sure she and Rarity told you about their discovery, and I’ve heard you know Rarity’s gem finding spell.”

“That’s right,” said Twilight.

“But I also want you to keep a lookout for suspicious activity in the city,” Cadance added. “We still haven’t found out what happened to those missing jewels.”

Twilight and Flash nodded.

Cadance turned to Fluttershy. “You can stick with studying the crystal wildlife, but if you happen to see something, please let us know.”

“I will, your highness.”

Fluttershy had been looking forward to this for a while. She hadn’t had a chance to spend time with any of the animals in the Crystal Empire since their first Crystal Fair in a thousand years. She spent the morning learning how to shear the crystal ewes. Like the clouds, the wool was a lot heavier than she was used to. But her ability to communicate with animals made the job a million times easier and the crystal ewes adored her. The same went for the crystal squirrels she met that afternoon. It was great fun watching them scurry up and down the trees outside of town collecting crystal acorns of all colours. Some of the squirrels offered Fluttershy some acorns, but one of them walked up to her and presented a diamond.

“Where did you get this?” she asked, hoping the answer wasn’t what she thought it was.

She noticed that this squirrel looked strangely ruffled. It pointed to the rocks close to the boarder.

“Could that be where the thief hid Rarity’s gems?” Fluttershy asked herself.

She decided to investigate the rocks. She didn’t see the squirrel that brought her the diamond shake with fright as she walked up the hill.

When Fluttershy got to the top of the slope, there was no sign of stolen gems. She began to circle the cluster of rocks looking for something like a cave or a pit. It wasn’t long before she found one, but that wasn’t all she found. She froze in place when she realised there was a pair of shiny violet eyes gazing at her from the cave entrance. The outline of a dragon was dimly lit by the sunshine outside. Fluttershy watched, unable to move, as the creature stepped slowly out into the open. She was expecting this dragon to be huge, but it turned out to be only a few inches taller than her. And it didn’t look like it would attack at all. Fluttershy’s fear ebbed away when she saw that the dragon had a distressed looking face.

“H-hello,” Fluttershy said softly.

“Hello,” the dragon replied. “Are you friends with those squirrels over there?”

Fluttershy looked back at the bottom of the hill where the squirrels were. She could see they were watching her with fearful expressions.

She turned back to the dragon. “Yes, I am.”

“So… you’re good at talking to other creatures?” asked the dragon.

“Yes,” Fluttershy was still nervous.

The dragon appeared to be trying to smile, but couldn’t quite manage it. “Maybe you can help me. My name is Impulsoria and I’m a crystal dragon.”

She stepped further out of the cave. Fluttershy was stunned to see she was sparkling. She’d never heard of a crystal dragon before.

“My, um…” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves. “My name is… Fluttershy.”

“Fluttershy, is it?” asked Impulsoria.

Fluttershy nodded.

Impulsoria cleared her throat. “I think one of those squirrels stole a diamond from me.”

Fluttershy remembered the jewel she had tucked under her wing. She took out it and showed it to Impulsoria. “Is this it?”

Impulsoria’s face glowed. “That’s the one!”

Fluttershy flinched when Impulsoria began to walk towards her out of the cave, but almost at once, the dragon receded back into the cave looking just as nervous as Fluttershy.

“Could I have it back please?” asked Impulsoria. “I don’t want any of the crystal ponies to see me. I don’t think they’d be too happy if they knew I was here.”

Fluttershy gulped, and tiptoed cautiously towards the dragon holding out the diamond. Impulsoria’s smile when she took the jewel from Fluttershy was enormous.

“Thanks, Fluttershy,” she said. “I’ve been deprived of gems for a while. I haven’t gotten new ones in weeks.”

Fluttershy now knew that it had been this dragon who took Rarity’s gems. Suddenly, Impulsoria backed further into her cave. She was looking past Fluttershy towards the sky. The nervous pegasus looked back and saw a streak of purple and yellow heading down from the sky towards the center of town. She knew it was Twilight and Flash Sentry.

“Um, Fluttershy,” said Impulsoria in a whisper, “Do you think you could bring me some more gems? I’d really appreciate it.”

Fluttershy gulped again. “I’ll… I’ll see what I can do.”

Impulsoria smiled faintly. “Thanks a lot.”

Fluttershy made her way to the center of the Crystal Empire where she’d seen Twilight and Flash. She found them standing beside the Crystal Heart, which was noticeably healthier than it had been that morning. It dawned on Fluttershy that Impulsoria’s deprivation of jewels might have been what was causing the Heart to lag.

Twilight spotted Fluttershy and beckoned her towards her and Flash Sentry.

“We tried to find out if there was a thief here by dropping a ruby from the sky,” she told her. “But the crystal pony who found it looked up and waved to us. She wanted to return it.”

“She seemed awfully upset when she found out we thought she might try to steal it,” said Flash. “Do you know what she said? She said only a dragon would steal jewels.”

Fluttershy shuddered.

“Uh, Flash,” said Twilight, “try not to mention dragons in front of Fluttershy. She’s really scared of them.”

Flash snorted. “No one here wants her hear about dragons. That book you showed me said that whenever anything went missing in the Crystal Empire, the crystal ponies always blamed those monsters… even though none have ever lived here.”

“But surely they’ve softened on dragons after Spike brought them the Crystal Heart,” insisted Twilight.

“Hmm, well I have heard a rumour about plans to erect a statue to him,” Flash replied.

Fluttershy looked around. There were crystal ponies all around and now that the Crystal Heart was gaining health, she didn’t want to cause panic by telling them that there was a dragon in their homeland. That was a sure-fire way to shatter their morale and cripple the Heart.

Fluttershy woke up very early the following morning. She looked out of her window and spotted the Crystal Heart spinning jerkily again.

“Impulsoria’s getting upset again,” she grimaced. “Maybe I should bring her some more gems.”

So she left her accommodation and when Flash Sentry saw her and asked what she was doing, she said she wanted to study the crystal owls before they went to sleep for the day.

“Alright, go ahead,” said Flash. “And just to fill you in, Princess Twilight and I are gonna try and lure out the thief again. We’ll be by the library if you need us. Twilight tells me you’re the world champion at being quiet. Try not to draw attention to us if you come by.”

“I will, sir,” said Fluttershy.

“Please, call me Flash,” smiled the guard.

Fluttershy left the castle and inspected the Crystal Heart. It looked like a spinning top that was about to overbalance. She flew up to the sky and started tapping the light pink clouds feeling for gems. Before long, some emeralds had dropped out of one and she’d scooped them up.

“This should be enough for her,” she said to herself.

She heard a high screech which startled her causing her to almost drop the emeralds. She turned around and saw a crystal screech owl flying nearby.

“Oh, hello,” smiled Fluttershy. “Can you help me with something?”

Minutes later, Fluttershy found herself in front of Impulsoria’s cave again. The crystal dragon was nowhere in sight, and Fluttershy had to shout (if you can call it shouting) seven times before there was any sign of movement.

“Fluttershy?” came the voice.

“Yes, it’s me,” said Fluttershy softly. “I had some emeralds for you.”

Fluttershy was almost knocked to the ground as Impulsoria stormed out of the cave and snatched up the bright green jewels.

“They’re wonderful!” beamed the dragon.

Fluttershy looked back at the Crystal Empire and strained her ears. After a few seconds, she heard the screech of the crystal owl she’d met in the sky. She had asked him to fly down to the Crystal Heart and screech to her if it started to spin faster.

So Impulsoria DOES have an effect on the Heart, she thought.

All of a sudden, she found herself in the tightest hugging grip she’d ever been in.

“Thank you so much, Fluttershy,” said Impulsoria.

Being hugged by a dragon was enough to make Fluttershy utterly uncomfortable, but the very tense pegasus noticed that Impulsoria was at least three feet taller now.

Oh, no, thought Fluttershy, remembering what happened to Spike once. She’s maturing.

Now Fluttershy was worried sick.

Author's Note

Inspired by the only scene from Trainspotting anyone ever talks about.

2 Quarantine

Impulsoria stopped hugging Fluttershy and suddenly looked blue again.

“Um, could you possibly bring some more jewels later?” she asked.

Fluttershy broke a few sweats. She knew that if Impulsoria kept getting more gems, her sense of greed would only get stronger. But now that she knew that this dragon’s sadness would cause power to drain from the Crystal Heart, she felt she had no choice but to agree.

“I’ll… I… sure.”

Impulsoria smiled her half-hearted smile again. “Thanks.”

And with that, she carried her emeralds into the depths of her cave.

Despite the awkward position she was in, Fluttershy managed to forget about Impulsoria for about three hours. She spent the morning learning how to milk crystal cows. By the time she was done, she’d gotten four buckets of sparkling silver milk. But her lunch break was cut short when she passed by the Crystal Heart and saw it was just the way it was that morning.

I have to get her more jewels, she thought. Just a few. Then maybe she won’t mature too fast.

So she flew up to the clouds and started fishing for gems. Eventually, she found two amethysts.

“Oh, I hope it’ll be enough for today,” she breathed, looking at the purple gemstones and remembering Impulsoria’s pleading, voracious eyes.

The happiness Fluttershy felt when she was milking the crystal cows was more or less squeezed out of her when Impulsoria had her in a one armed hug for several minutes. And the whole time she was hugging her, she was gazing lovingly at the amethysts. She hadn’t gotten bigger as far as Fluttershy could see, but she certainly was enraptured by these gems. So much so, that she forgot all about the pegasus pony she had pinned to her side as she took the amethysts into her cave. Fluttershy tried to tell her to let go, but she could hardly breathe under the dragon’s arm. And her breathing didn’t get any better because being carried into a dragon’s cave was on her top 5 list of fears. It got darker and darker, and then it started to get light again. Fluttershy watched as the tunnel widened and the cave ceiling went higher and higher. Then she saw something that made her eyes pop. There was barely any room in here for any creature because there were diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and gems of all varieties and sizes everywhere.

Impulsoria added the two amethysts to the gargantuan mound of jewels and remembered that she was still holding Fluttershy.

“Oops. Sorry.”

She set Fluttershy down on the cave floor, which had several gemstones on it.

“Um… I th-thought you said you were… d-deprived,” said Fluttershy delicately.

“Yeah, I am,” Impulsoria replied. “Could you bring me some more gems, please?”

“Uh…”

Fluttershy knew that she couldn’t keep this up. Impulsoria had clearly succumbed to congenital dragon greed and would always want more no matter how many gemstones she got.

“I’ll be back soon,” she told the dragon.

And before Impulsoria could say or do anything else, Fluttershy flew out of the cave and headed to the Crystal Empire as quickly as she could. She decided to tell Twilight and Flash about the dragon.

In a matter of minutes, Fluttershy spotted Twilight and Flash Sentry peering around the library at a large ruby on the front steps. She certainly lived up to her reputation of being the best at not making a sound because Twilight was so startled to see her appear in the corner of her eye, she backed right into Flash making him jump. Luckily, none of the crystal ponies noticed.

“What is it, Fluttershy?” asked Twilight.

“I know who stole Rarity’s gems,” Fluttershy told them. “I know what’s causing the Crystal Heart to lag.”

“Uh, let’s go into the library,” suggested Flash Sentry.

And once they were absolutely alone, Fluttershy told Twilight and Flash all about Impulsoria the crystal dragon. None of them quite knew what to say for a while after the whole story had come out.

“We gotta cut her off from the Crystal Empire,” said Flash at last.

“But she never leaves the cave,” insisted Fluttershy. “She knows the crystal ponies would drive her out if they knew about her.”

“Fluttershy, don’t you remember when we tried to get Spike under control?” asked Twilight.

“Oh, yeah. He took the cake,” Fluttershy recalled. “And everything else we threw at him.”

“Right. So we need to make sure Impulsoria can’t get a hold of anything,” said Twilight.

“I’d hate to be cruel,” moaned Fluttershy. “Even to a dragon.”

“Well, Fluttershy,” said Flash Sentry, “there are times when you gotta be cruel to be kind. Trust me. If she’s not too far along, I’m sure she won’t be completely miserable when we cut her off. Besides, the Equestria Games are coming soon. The crystal ponies’ excitement will be enough to overpower that dragon’s influence on the Crystal Heart.”

So the three of them flew to the hills. When they reached the rocks, Fluttershy spotted the bright, violet eyes in the darkness of the cave.

“Fluttershy!” called Impulsoria. “You got me more…!”

The dragon hadn’t noticed that Fluttershy wasn’t alone until Twilight’s horn lit up like a torch. Then before she knew it, the entrance to her cave was sealed by a wall of stone.

“What’s going on?!” came Impulsoria’s voice from within the cluster of rocks. “I can’t get my gems!”

“Listen, Impulsoria!” Twilight called. “You’re in danger of losing control of your gemstone craving! We can’t let you become a threat to the safety and the morale of the crystal ponies!”

“Forget the crystal ponies!” shrieked Impulsoria. “I need more gems!”

“Fluttershy tells me you have tons of gemstones in your cave!”

“It’s not enough! I need more! More gemstones!”

“No more gemstones!” said Twilight firmly. “You’re in quarantine for a year!”

“Fluttershy, don’t leave me here with no gems!” the dragon almost screamed.

Fluttershy took a deep breath and flew up to the blocked up cave.

“You’ll be fine, Impulsoria. Trust me,” she said a little shakily.

“How about one more gem?! Huh?! Just one more?!”

“Come on, you two,” said Flash Sentry. “We better tell Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour about this.”

“You ponies are evil!” roared Impulsoria. “I won’t survive! You’re gonna…!”

The sound of Impulsoria’s despairing voice stopped abruptly, causing the trio of flying ponies to stop in puzzlement.

Inside the cave, Impulsoria had bolted into the heart of her dwelling and began goggling at her pile of gemstones as if they’d just been dumped into her home.

“Oh! Thank goodness! I’m saved! I’ve got more gems!”

She started looking left and right, and every time she saw a pile of jewels, she deluded herself into believing that it had just been brought to her. And for each “new” pile of gems she spotted, she got bigger and bigger. And the more she “gained”, the more she wanted.

“Could she really have gotten over it that fast?” asked Flash.

“Or did she completely break down?” worried Fluttershy.

“Flash, you better go check on the Crystal Heart,” said Twilight.

“Yes, your highness.”

“Please, call me Twilight,” said the blushing alicorn.

Her face wasn’t the only thing going red. Before Flash Sentry turned to leave, steam began to rise from the rock cluster where the cave opening used to be. The three ponies felt as if the temperature outside had gone up.

“Surely she’s not trying to burn her way out!” Fluttershy was horrified.

“But she’s not big enough!” Twilight insisted.

The rock face began to crumble and the steam began to turn to smoke.

“Flash, go get Shining Armour!” cried Twilight. “Tell him to make a force field around the city!”

As Flash took off towards the castle, bright blue flames began to erupt from the cracks in the crumbling rocks, which were now white hot.

“Stand back, Fluttershy! I’ll hold her off until Shining Armour’s ready!”

But as Fluttershy drew away, the rock face was smashed by a great, red tail and white hot stones rocketed towards them.

“Ouch!”

“Twilight! Are you alright?!”

“No! I got burned!”

A massive cloud of smoke rose from the smashed barrier, and when it cleared, there was Impulsoria. Fluttershy gasped when she saw how much that small dragon had grown in just a few minutes. She no longer looked sad and pleading. Now her large violet eyes were brimming with mindless avarice. From where she stood in her insane state, the Crystal Empire looked like a heap of jewels the likes of which a dragon would do anything to get its claws on. She began to walk towards the city.

Fluttershy started to carry the injured princess away.

“No, Fluttershy! I have to stop her!”

Twilight cast a freezing spell on Impulsoria’s legs, but dragons that size are not easy to stop by magic. The spell quickly began to wear off. Twilight tried to back up to give her more room to cast another spell, but the burns on her legs and wings prevented her.

“Fluttershy, move me back! Hurry!”

But the freezing spell subsided before Fluttershy had gotten Twilight very far. Twilight made a force field right before Impulsoria shot her blue flames at the two of them. The two ponies felt like they’d been thrown into a boiling kettle. The force field began to wane. Twilight strained to keep it going. At last, Impulsoria’s fire stopped.

“More gemstones!” roared the mad crystal dragon.

“Impulsoria, you’ve got to listen to me!” cried Fluttershy. “You can’t have any more gems!”

Impulsoria’s mouth began to smoke.

“Trust me! It’s for your own good! Honest, we’re doing you a favour!”

Twilight thought Fluttershy was trying to convince herself more than Impulsoria, but either way, it was not working. Twilight conjured another force field just in time to repel another fire attack. But this one was diminishing faster than the first.

“I can’t keep this up!” cried Twilight.

“Stop, Impulsoria! We’re not trying to hurt you! We’re trying to help you!”

The stream of fire got hotter and hotter, and Twilight began to shake with the effort of shielding them. Neither she nor Impulsoria noticed that something shiny and pink was flying towards them from the distance. As soon as Fluttershy spotted it, it zoomed right to her and latched itself onto her neck. She looked down at it and thought she was seeing things. It was her element of harmony, the Element of Kindness.

Twilight began to whimper. The force field was barely there. Impulsoria’s fire wasn’t relenting. Fluttershy’s element glowed brighter and brighter, and just when Twilight’s shield diminished, a beam of rosy light shot from the Element of Kindness like a round shot from a canon. Twilight could not believe what she was seeing when she looked back to see where that beam was coming from. Not only was Fluttershy’s element holding off Impulsoria’s fire, it was even pushing it away. The crystal dragon didn’t stop attacking, but her fire wasn’t beating them anymore. The element’s beam grew longer and longer, and before any of them knew it, the fire was gone and Impulsoria was enveloped in a ball of light.

A minute later, the beam and the ball of light disappeared. Fluttershy and Twilight were both panting heavily, Fluttershy’s element still attached to her. They looked at each other for a second, and then stepped cautiously towards Impulsoria, who was lying on the ground. She appeared to be unconscious.

“Could you give her a tap?” asked Twilight, indicating her singed hooves.

Fluttershy took a deep breath, but before she approached the dragon, a burst of cheering sounded from behind them. Twilight looked back and could make out the image of crystal ponies standing just outside the city. Shining Armour, Flash Sentry and the rest of the guards were making their way towards them cheering along with the crystal ponies.

“That was amazing, Twily!” exclaimed Shining Armour.

“It wasn’t me,” said Twilight. “It was Fluttershy. She took that dragon down with her element of harmony.”

“That,” said one of the guards, “was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen. You know…”

Suddenly, Impulsoria’s eyes shot open and she stood up sharply. She rubbed her forehead and looked around at everyone. There was a pause.

“I… I feel a lot better now,” said Impulsoria slowly. “I, uh, I haven’t hurt anyone, have I?”

Fluttershy pointed to Twilight’s burns.

“Oh.” Impulsoria gulped. “I’m very sorry. I guess I lost my mind.”

She began to look at herself taking in how big she’d become.

“Do you…” Fluttershy stammered. “Um, do you still feel deprived?”

“No,” smiled Impulsoria. “No, I was being stupid. I’ve got plenty of gemstones in my cave… um, unless I don’t fit in it anymore.”

Fluttershy sighed. “I’m so happy I could help.”

“See, Fluttershy?” asked Twilight. “You definitely were doing her a kindness. If you hadn’t, your element wouldn’t have come to you.”

“Here, here,” smiled Flash Sentry.

The guard who had spoken earlier approached Impulsoria and cleared his throat.

“Hello, miss dragon.”

“Um, excuse me, but her name is Impulsoria,” cut in Fluttershy politely.

“Ah,” nodded the guard. “Miss Impulsoria. My name is High Jump and I’m on the Equestria Games Committee. I have a proposition for you.”

About an hour later, the crystal ponies who had seen what had happened from the city were surprised to see the crystal dragon making her way towards the empire along with Twilight, Fluttershy, Shining Armour, Flash Sentry, High Jump and the other guards.

“May I have your attention please?!” said Shining Armour. “I have an announcement! This is Impulsoria, the crystal dragon. She had a bit of a mental episode earlier, but thanks to Fluttershy, she’s perfectly level-headed now. So, we have asked her to play a part in the upcoming Equestria Games.”

There was intrigued murmuring among the crystal ponies. Impulsoria did her best to not look intimidating.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard of the legendary sport of dragon riding,” High Jump announced. “Something that ponykind hasn’t seen or done in over a millennium. Well, Miss Impulsoria here has kindly consented to be our bucking dragon!”

The fears and concerns the crystal ponies had about a dragon in their home vanished completely. Cheering and applauding echoed all around the Crystal Empire, and right before everyone’s eyes, the Crystal Heart glowed with the light and love of everyone around, and spun like a weathervane in a tornado.

The following morning, Twilight and Fluttershy bade Impulsoria, Flash Sentry, Shining Armour and Cadance farewell and made their way to the station.

“I thought we got lucky when Spike managed to beat his genetics,” said Twilight, “But I guess any dragon can overcome their greed.”

“Yes. Impulsoria didn’t even ask for more when High Jump offered her twenty gemstones a game as payment,” smiled Fluttershy. “She really does know she’s got plenty.”

“I guess she won’t be getting much bigger any time soon,” Twilight said. “Unless she eats all her gems in one sitting.”

Author's Note

Since I got the idea for this story from Trainspotting, I named Impulsoria after an old locomotive that literally ran on horse power.