Living in Equestria

As Mason was chasing after Ashley in Dodge City, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had been out in the clubhouse, talking over some long overdue Cutie Mark Crusaders business. By the time they left the small tree house, they realized that so much had happened since Mason's arrival at the end of Spring, they had somehow grown up a lot.

The day they found him seemed like it had happened to three different fillies instead of the young mares that were gathered in a circle, talking. Scootaloo was now expecting a foal, Sweetie Bell had gotten her mark, and only Apple Bloom seemed to be lacking a major life change but that didn't bother her as much as she thought it would. She was a part of their friendship and felt the change in life's momentum just as much as the other two did. While they eventually decided adventuring for Cutie Marks might not be a high priority anymore, (especially for Sweetie Belle, she was quick to point out) none of them wanted to abandon the clubhouse or the spirit of what their little club had meant to them.

Scootaloo had found she could ride her Mark V comfortably enough as long as they didn't go too fast and it was on the way back to the farm that Apple Bloom made another observation at just how much their lives were changing.

"I think ya got a foal bump startin', Scootaloo! Well... either that or Granny's ice cream is startin ta catch up with ya!" Apple Bloom joked and pointed to the small pegasus's orange belly as the three friends traveled together through the orchard in the deep shade of the trees overhead.

"Huh?!" Scootaloo looked down and noticed for the first time that when she stood up on her scooter like this, her belly did seem to pooch out a bit more. A powerful wave of anxiety rolled through her at the visible sign of what was happening to her body. She had also begun to feel different over the last week or so, like a small kernel of warmth was burning pleasantly inside that made her feel happy, sad, scared, and excited all at the same time.

"Oh, yeah... heh heh..." Scootaloo laughed nervously and gently rubbed her belly.

"I can't believe ya'll didn't want to know if it's gonna be a filly or a colt! What kinda crazy, hair brained idea is that!" Apple Bloom gestured.

"I dunno..." Scootaloo shrugged with indifference. "Seemed like it would be more exciting to not know until it was born, that's all!"

"Hey, have you guys come up with any names yet?" Sweetie asked.

"We... we haven't thought of any..." Scootaloo's ears flattened.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at each other with excited grins before shouting in unison "Cutie Mark Crusader Foal Name Choosers, YAY!"

The three friends broke out in a good laugh together at the new use of their old cheer. The bright sound rang out in the trees, startling birds into flight that protested with irritated squawks at the disturbance of their peaceful afternoon. As they flew off, the birds flapped over another pony that was in the orchard with them, watching the three young mares from a hidden distance as they moved through the trees.

The thin, dark blue pegasus with a silver mane stayed just out of sight, it's violet eyes fixed on them with a burning inquisitiveness as it drifted from tree to tree. It had been following them ever since the three had left the clubhouse after listening in on their conversations below an open windows all morning long. It had been a long journey to get here, but now that it had found the young mares...it wasn't quite sure it could quite go through with it's plan.

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The problem we discovered with The Dragon Wing of the hospital in Dodge City, was it was for dragons only. Twilight and I had argued companionably for a while about how a hospital could exist that serviced dragons yet no documented evidence of medical science existed to support it. But finding the building had been no challenge at least, it was the biggest damn thing around.

Easily forty stories tall and probably that again as wide, it dwarfed the surrounding brick buildings of the city and stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a massive structure unlike anything I'd ever seen in Equestria before, covered in what looked like brilliant gold and green metal that shone in the sunlight like a beacon and could probably be seen for miles around. Ornate spires and buttresses arranged in patterns high up on the sheer sides were connected together with long heavy beams before yawning, dark entrances. I realized that those must be perches for the dragons to land on.

The city around us was filled with the sights and sounds of a place I hadn't experienced in a long time. It was a heavily populated area that reminded me of the downtown section of the city I was from. Most of the buildings here were three or four stories tall and fashioned from the same sun-worn red brick that gave each structure a well worn appearance. The smell of so many bodies living together, the rancid garbage that sat in trashcans along the street... even the sounds of the constant talking and moving all gave me a strange sense of nostalgia as we weaved through the throngs of ponies and other beings. I couldn't understand Applejack's earlier statement about there being nothing worth while here, unless the idea of a busy, exciting city was something she wasn't interested in.

"You sure your muzzle's OK?" I asked Twilight as we turned the corner towards the large hospital that now lay straight ahead of us.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Ashley's fire wasn't hot... just a few singed mane hairs is all." she looked up with a goofy cross eyed expression at the curled dark strands above her brow.

"I noticed she kind of looked like Spike..."

"Well of course she did. She's the same race of dragon as him, after all."

"Wait, there's more than one kind of dragon?" I asked. I wasn't really surprised to learn this but was intrigued by the idea.

"According to Starswirl the Bearded, he knew of three different races. Spike's kind is the most common, apparently."

"But Spike doesn't have wings... or even wing buds!"

"Ashley is probably a bit older than Spike, but I'm sure he's due to start growing them soon, especially if he's going through the changes he is now. In fact, I've been checking his back recently when he isn't looking!"

We arrived at the large doors of the smaller, ground level entrance of the hospital and entered the waiting room inside. A wall of impatient voices and young, foalish crying assaulted my ears. The place was packed full and as Twilight and I stood in the doorway, awestruck by the chaos saw, a bright flash of fire erupted from our right accompanied by a painful screeching noise. A massive bird perched on the edge of a chair was burning with intense, hot flames just as if somepony had poured gasoline on it and set it alight.

Recoiling in horror, I looked at Twilight with panic. "Holy shit! Someone just set that bird on fire!" I pointed.

Twilight casually regarded the flaming bird and twisted her head in the way that passed for a nonchalant shrug. "Nah... that's a Phoenix, Mason. They sometimes burst into flames like that when they become agitated. I bet the poor guy has just been waiting here for so long that he lost his temper... I mean, look at this place! Oh, what I wouldn't give for a day to organize this with a checklist!" she ignored the bird who's flames had died down to a small inferno and surveyed the room.

"I don't think we're gonna get any help in here, Mason. This place is crazy..." she frowned. "Maybe we should just head up to the dragon entrances instead and see about getting some information there?"

"I think that's a great idea, come on." I said, stepping away from the phoenix as the chair it was perched on began to catch fire.

We took to our wings outside and climbed up the sheer walls of the large structure immediately behind the smaller building we had just been in. My earlier assumption of the large openings were true and they served as a radiating tunnels to the outside from a massive interior chamber. As Twilight and I were swallowed by one of the large entrances, the decor of scorched rock lit by dim, floating globes along the walls struck me as very un-hospital like and foreboding. The place was deserted of patients as far as I could tell and silence echoed around us broken only by the clopping sound of Twilight's hooves on rock as we landed on the floor of the central chamber.

When I was a kid, I had read The Lord of the Rings books and the description of the underground dwarf mine described in them had always captured my imagination with it's size and scope. While this massive room in the center of the hospital's dragon wing didn't quite duplicate that, the feeling of it was definitely along those lines.

I couldn't see the ceiling or the opposite walls through the gloom and hazy, bone dry warm air that hung like a blanket filled with the smell of sulfur and charcoal. Grey, rock-like support columns marched away in every direction with precision straight lines every forty feet or so, each carved with reliefs depicting dragons and serpents coiling up into the misty darkness above my head. Even though we had flown in here within a short time, the atmosphere of this place lead me to believe that we were far away from the bright exterior we had just left.

The only clear source of light in here was from a towering circular desk in the middle of this chamber lit by a floating overhead globe of yellow light. Even from a distance it looked huge and that was probably by design... for the dragon that sat in the middle of the desk easily dwarfed any living creature I'd ever seen in my entire life.

Thickly built and stocky, it sat squat in the center of it's round workspace lit at a severe angle from the light above casting angular shadows over the dragon's face. It's body was similar in shape to Spike's... if he were twenty feet tall with a menacing snout full of fangs. The yellow scales along it's body shifted to white on it's underbelly and the black spines on it's head contrasted sharply with their color. Golden eyes regarded us with a slightly annoyed expression as we first approached on foot and hoof, before abandoning the ground to hover in the air so we could be seen over the lip of the counter. I was awestruck to be looking at such a creature and it wasn't until Twilight's hoof prodded me in the side that I remembered this was my part as her 'wingpony'.

"Hello!" I tried to say as casually as I could while speaking to big goddam dragon. My small voiced echoed back at me several times.

The dragon blinked lazily at us before it rolled it's eyes and sighed with impatience, rearranging it's head in a slightly different annoyed angle as it did. I felt incredibly awkward.

"Umm... I was wondering if we could get some help with our friend... Ehh.. you see... he's got Feracity and we need to find a dragon to..."

The dragon snorted, chuffed, and then began to laugh. The sound was like two large boulders being ground together that echoed wildly on the stone around us. When it spoke, that grinding noise simply shifted to form syllables I could understand, causing my bowels to dance the tango somewhere near my asshole.

"And why would you be bothered with such a thing? More importantly... why are you bothering me with it?" it grimaced a mouthful of fangs at us. "This is a dragon hospital not a massage parlor..."

"Be... cause he's our friend?" I said, cautiously, not understanding what it meant.

The dragon looked at us skeptically, drumming it's large talons on the desk, making a sound similar to bullets hitting a rock wall. "Go away and take your friend's bone problem somewhere else, creature... can't you see I'm busy?" it waved it's clawed hand sarcastically around the vacant expanse.

"Bone problem? Maybe you don't understand..." Twilight explained pleadingly. "Our friend Spike is really messed up right now and if we don't..."

Her plea was cut off by a deafening roar that filled the chamber and shook my chest from within. It didn't come from the dragon in front of us, though. That one simply perked it's ear flaps up at the cacophonous noise and turned towards one of the invisible entrances concealed in the gloom. When the sound quieted down, it turned it's head back to us, speaking over it's shoulder.

"You should probably leave now, unless getting burned alive sounds enjoyable to you. But who knows..." It shrugged and turned away again."...you two may be into a kinky way to die. I don't care either way."

"What?!" Twilight and I yelled seconds before the entrance on the far side of the room became visibly outlined through the darkness. A red glow appeared and quickly brightened into a harsh, yellow light just before flames began to lick the tunnel's edges.

"Mason!" Twilight screamed and I felt her hooves wrap around my neck, pulling me down to the ground and shoving my face into the stone floor seconds after a fireball had erupted like a volcano from the end of the tunnel. I had no idea how hot lava was in reality, but the heat I felt on my body is what I imagined standing a couple feet away from a river of the stuff would feel like.

It only lasted a moment and when it was gone, Twilight removed her hoof from my head and I looked up to see her horn glowing a brilliant pink color that faded quickly, letting the bubble around us dissipate. The smell of sulfur was cloying now, causing me to gag with it's acrid intensity. But I quickly forgot all about the smell because the tango my bowels had been doing earlier at the sight of a fully grown dragon just turned into a full on fox-trot with the dance partner named Fear.

Another dragon was here, only it was every bit like the creature I imagined from every fairy tale in existence. Blood red scales shone in the overhead light above along it's thin, serpentine neck attached to a massive quadrupedal body with black, leathery wings. A long tail tipped with deadly looking spikes that were as big as my body thrashed against the ground restlessly causing the air to reverberate with each impact.

It was in clear distress and it didn't take a doctor to understand why, either. Along it's snout was a horrific gash that leaked a viscous fluid down it's face and onto the floor below in a steady, dripping stream of dark ichor. Twilight and I watched as the receptionist spoke quickly with the other dragon in a language I couldn't even begin to comprehend before the room began to tremble as if an earthquake was happening.

A slit of white light appeared against the gloom along another wall, sliding quickly open to reveal a wide entrance to a clean and cavernous, brightly lit hallway with two dragons waiting just inside. They rushed out, not waiting for the massive doors to open fully and escorted the injured dragon, with the receptionist in tow, into this new location with them. As the group left, they passed under a large sign hanging that was painted in bright yellow and black letters just beyond the door's threshold. NO FLAMES BEYOND THIS POINT! it read. Twilight and I stood alone in the massive chamber, watching what I now knew were blast doors close against the bright light on the other side, plunging us into the dark once again.

"Errrgh!" Twilight stamped her hoof in frustration. "Not only will the not help us here, but they didn't even understand what we were talking about!"

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Applejack knocked only once before opening the door of Rarity's boutique into the combination workspace and shop floor where she did her craft. Beside a large rack of dresses the fashionista was bent over her sewing machine that rattled a noisy tattoo against the fabric sliding through it's footpad.

"Rarity?" Applejack said loudly enough for the unicorn to hear her.

The sewing machine turned off with a snap and she turned around, her glasses perched on the edge of her snout attached with a delicate chain that magnified her brilliant blue eyes.

"Oh hello, AJ! I wasn't expecting you here today at all! Is everything alright? How's Spike doing?" she asked with genuine but happy concern.

"Yeah... that's kinda why I'm here, sugar. Spike woke up this afternoon and got all waterworks like when I mentioned yer name... he made it sound kinda like something happened between ya'll. Is there... anything I should know about?"

Her posture deflated with a guilty look. "Well... there may have been a tinsey, tiny detail I forgot to tell you all last night." she looked down at the ground rubbed her hoof against it sheepishly.

"Go on..." Applejack's face grew stern.

Rarity sighed. "Applejack, I... I do believe I may be falling in love with somepony again."

The blond farmer blinked at her friend. "Yer kiddin, right? That Wilson stallion I seen ya with a couple o times?"

"Yes... Applejack I know I've told you a little about my past, but you truly have no idea how big something like this is for me. Unfortunately, little Spike may have accidentally witnessed a small display of affection that took place between he and I the other night, the first I've experienced... or allowed... in a long time. I suppose he didn't react to well and now I'm not sure how much of his current condition is related to this Feracity business... or from a badly broken heart."

It took the love dumb Applejack a few moments to connect the dots. While she may be the most honest and trustworthy friend anypony could ever have, as well as a terrific apple farmer... matters of the heart were not her strong suit.

"Wait, back that up for me a second. Yer sayin' Spike's cryin' fit this afternoon is on account a ya'll smootchin with Wilson? Now I knew the little lizard had a thing fer ya, but I never thought it was that big a deal..."

"Neither did I, I'm afraid. Oh Applejack! I feel just dreadful about the whole thing! Spike is such a nice dragon and I'm sure his intentions are good but I could never return the type of affection he was looking for. I quite honestly hoped it was just something he would grow out of!"

"So that's it, huh? Spike's heartbroken that ya found somepony other than him? "Whooeee! When it rains, it pours sometimes, don't it." Applejack rubbed a hoof along her neck and then whistled in awe.

"Heartbroken and suffering from whatever the Feractiy does to him. I wish I knew what to do to make him feel better. You know I care about him, right? I feel so guilty..." she sagged against the sewing machine table in misery.

"Well... all I kin say is what I feel and what I feel is that ya should go talk ta him." she nodded encouragingly. "I don't know if it's the right thing ta do... but it's what I'd do."

"You really think it will help?"

Applejack put a comforting hoof around her neck and hugged her. "I dunno, but Sugarcube... if you got a chance at findin a new love with Wilson, I don't think ya should go inta it feelin' bad about a darn thing!"