Dragon in the Burning Woods
Morning light flooded the hills and plains of Equestria. The sun was brighter than ever, the clouds were fluffy and white as snow, and nothing but the sounds of songbirds and buzzing honeybees broke the silence of the morn.
In her tree house, Twilight Sparkle awoke from a restful night of slumber, eager to face the day. Spike, on the other hand, kept snoring and mumbling to himself. The baby dragon could have slept through a hurricane. Yawning and rubbing her eyes, Twilight stepped out onto her balcony overlooking Ponyville. Below, the townsponies were already out and about. Twilight took a deep breath and sniffed the air. The scent of cinnamon and daisies curled in her nostrils, and she took another breath.
“Good morning, Equestria. What’ve you got for me today?”
She hadn’t expected an answer.
As she turned on her hooves to go in and wake Spike, a low rumbling noise met her ears. She turned around again, but there was nothing in sight that would have made such a sound. The rumbling grew louder, followed by a high-pitched whine, and she felt the ground beneath her hooves shake. Her eyes went in all directions as she looked for the source of the sound.
Then somepony screamed. Twilight looked up.
The light blinded her, but for a fraction of a second, a dark shape stood out against the fiery sun. It was huge, black, and had wings and a tail. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished, but Twilight caught sight of it moments later, her vision no longer hindered by the sun.
It was the strangest creature she had ever seen. It appeared to be a dragon, buts its claws were absent, replaced by giant cups, and the whole thing was encased in white steel.
An armored dragon.
Twilight was about to sound the alarm when the dragon entered a nosedive. She was no pegasus, but even she knew something as big as a dragon wouldn’t have been able to pull out of a dive like that in time. Horrified, she watched as the armored dragon slammed into the Everfree Forest, and the ground beneath her shook again. As she looked on, however, she saw a giant fireball ascend into the sky, followed closely by a huge column of smoke. The dragon was still alive, and if somepony didn’t do something, it was going to burn the whole forest down.
Twilight acted. Bursting through the balcony doors, she woke Spike with an unceremonious kick.
“OUCH!” the baby dragon cried, sitting up and rubbing his scales. “What was that for?”
“We have an emergency on our hooves, Spike! A dragon just crashed into the Everfree Forest!”
“A dragon? But the migration doesn’t begin for months!”
“I don’t know what it’s doing here, but we need to investigate!”
She jumped down and started for the door. “Get the mayor to organize a search party! Get Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi to do a flyby over the forest! And take a letter to the Princess detailing the…”
“Slow down! Slow down!” Spike cried, trying to process the information. “You’re giving me a headache!”
“This is important, Spike! That dragon will burn the whole forest down if we don’t hurry!”
“Okay, okay.” The dragon scribbled messages onto three different pieces of parchment and sent them all off with his dragon breath. By the time the smoke had cleared from his last burst, Twilight was already gone.
About ten minutes later, everypony in Ponyville was gathered in the main square, chattering away and looking uneasily at the sky. The smoke from the crashed dragon was easily visible over the town rooftops. Twilight stood with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity, discussing the dragon. Suddenly Rainbow Dash spiraled down to meet her friends. Her expression was grave.
“Well?” everypony said.
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Whatever that thing was, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a dragon. I think this situation calls for the Pony Brigade.”
Everypony except Twilight gasped. The Pony Brigade was a group that consisted of only the best ponies: the strongest (Big Macintosh,) the fastest (Rainbow Dash,) and the most magical (Twilight.)
“Right!” Twilight exclaimed. “Dash, could you get Big Macintosh and Spike?”
“You got it!” the pegasus answered, speeding off. The dragon’s smoke was beginning to curl around the edges of Ponyville. Twilight stepped over a shaking Fluttershy and bypassed Rarity and Applejack, the latter of whom looked ready to protest, but ultimately decided against it. Seconds later, Big Macintosh trotted to Twilight’s side with Spike on his back.
“Everypony ready?” she asked as Dash flew up beside her.
“Eeyup.”
“Alright, let’s go see this dragon.”
The heat from the fire pressed on their faces. In the trees above, the birds were chirping sorrowfully, lamenting the loss of their trees. The Pony Brigade moved on, and Spike began a discussion with Twilight.
"I mean, it's possible a dragon could have migrated early, but I don't see why."
"I don't know either, Spike, but by the looks of things the fire's getting worse."
"Don't worry!" Rainbow Dash cried out. "If it gets too bad I'll just whip up a storm and put the fire out!"
"That's the idea, Rainbow Dash."
"Eeyup."
They continued on, each offering his and her own answer for why the dragon had appeared. The smoke was now so thick that it was choking them, so Twilight cast a protective spell over her group as Dash beat her wings to fan away the smog.
"We must be close," Spike said.
"Don't worry, if the dragon gives us any trouble, Big Macintosh will handle him, right?"
"Uhhh..."
The stallion looked uncomfortable, and Twilight realized that he would be no match for a fully-grown dragon. She laughed nervously. "Heh, heh, well, let's hope the dragon doesn't give us any trouble."
Suddenly Spike hiccuped, and out popped a letter from the Princess. It was short and to the point.
My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,
That is no dragon.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia.
"Huh?!" they all gasped.
"What does she mean, it's not a dragon? What else could it be?"
"A giant griffon?" Rainbow Dash suggested.
"Some kinda bird?" Big Mac offered.
"What if was...zombies?"
"Really, Spike?" Twilight replied, rolling her eyes. "Zombies?"
"Well, what if it was..."
Then suddenly, they were in front of it.
Twilight knew immediately that the Princess was right. This wasn't a dragon. It wasn't even an animal. The thing had lodged itself in a small clearing and was leaking fire onto the forest ground. The Pony Brigade found itself dumbstruck by the thing that lay before them.
It was in the shape of a dragon, but it had no mouth, only a circular, blue-dotted nose. Its eyes were translucent and they wrapped around its cone-shaped face. Along its burning body it had several more eyes, each translucent like...
"Glass," Big Mac said, stepping forward. "That's glass in its eyes."
"Holy cow."
As they stepped closer, more of the thing became visible through the smoke. The cups that Twilight had seen earlier were precisely that, cups, only they had weird-shaped fans inside them. The fire was coming from the cups. The thing's tail was straight like an arrow but bulky like a giant log, and on its end stood three fins, one pointing up and two pointing sideways like an upside-down T. Strange writing lay etched across the thing's flank, and Twilight saw that it had plowed through several hundred feet of forest before coming to rest in the clearing.
"In the name of Celestia," she said as she moved closer. "What is this thing?"
Rainbow Dash flew up and around the burning hulk, returning a few seconds later. "Guys, you should see this. It has a door."
"A what?!" Spike cried, sliding off Big Macintosh's back.
"It's got some kinda door thingy that's open on the other side. This isn't an animal!"
"Nnope, it ain't," Big Mac summed up.
They followed Rainbow Dash as she showed them a path around the steel dragon-thing, and sure enough, on the other side lay an open door, embedded in the middle of its neck. A orange, tonguelike thing was drooping from the doorway.
"Should we go up?"
"Can that tongue thing hold us all?"
"I'll go up first," Big Macintosh said, stepping forward. Before anypony could protest, the crimson stallion trotted up the orange tongue and through the doorway.
Nothing happened for several long minutes, and just as Rainbow Dash was about to fly in, a red fetlocked head popped out of the door.
"Nothin' in here but chairs."
"Chairs?!"
"Eeyup."
They all went up the orange tongue and looked for themselves. Sure enough, only rows of chairs lay inside the beast's belly. Another door stood right next to Big Macintosh, but it was sealed shut, and from the stallion's look and the hoofmarks in the door, Twilight could tell that it wouldn't budge.
"This ain't a dragon, Twilight," he said simply, looking around. The interior was dusty and smoky, and for some reason Twilight felt like there was something missing, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it.
Eventually, all of Ponyville went out to see the steel dragon, which Pinkie Pie had dubbed "Mr. Clanky." Rainbow Dash had put out the fires in a jiffy, and eventually a coalition of unicorns, including Twilight, managed to disintegrate the iron hulk and restore the forest to its natural state.
But unbeknownst to the others, Twilight kept a small fragment of the thing in her cabinet. It was tiny, no bigger than a filly's hoof, but it reminded her every day and night of the mystery of the steel dragon, the mystery that would never be solved.
