It was a dark an lonely night. As Backfire flew through the forest a roar was heard behind him, but he didn’t look back he knew he had to find somewhere safe to hide. Flying low and fast, he spotted a small familiar cave he would often play at as a filly; he quickly flew, landed and ran into the cave hoping he hadn’t been spotted by the dragon. He trotted to the back of the cave and quickly hid behind and boulder that had always been there, and waited. It was several seconds before he heard the sounds of giant wings flapping and then a “thud” against the ground, then he smelt the smell of smoke and burnt meat in the cave, the dragons head was snaking its way into the cave. Backfire froze, he didn’t even breathe, hoping that the dragon would not notice him behind the boulder, seconds passed but they felt like hours to him. Finally the dragons head retreated, and he flew away into the darkness.
Backfire breathed a sigh of relief, as the dragon was leaving he decided to search the cave, it had been years since he had been there. Then a glimmer in the back of the cave caught his attention, “what is that?” he said. As he was walking towards it, it moved, he froze, unsure if it was dangerous or just his imagination. “Hello?” he called. It moved again, he took a step forward, “hello?” he asked again, getting closer. Once he was a few yards away, the thing woke up and started growling, alarmed backfire froze and stretched his wings out, and got low to the ground. “Who are you?” he called, the shadow responded with a low growl and said, “why did you come here!? To hurt me and shun me like the rest of them?” Backfire looked at the mysterious shadow and said, “What? No, I would never do that to someone who I don’t even know!” The shadow moved into the glow of the crystals in the cave, its shape draconic, “you’re a dragon!?” backfire exclaimed. The dragon popped its small head up, “yeah I’m a dragon what of it?” the dragon said as lying down on the floor of the cave. “I just escaped from one, he was chasing me”
“Hah why was he doing that?” the dragon said.
“Because I stole some gems from his cave” Backfire said with a grin. “By the way, what’s your name? I’m Backfire, Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Crystal, nice to meet you too” she said, “So how did you get those gems from that dragon?” she asked.
“Oh that’s easy all I did was…wait what time is it?” he asked.
“Uhm I’m not sure, let’s go see” she said walking towards the cave entrance.
Backfire gazed as she walked by, her scales were a beautiful shade of blue, and her wings were a lighter shade of her scales. As he continued on he noticed that her tail had small spikes at the end of it, he couldn’t help but wonder why she lived in this cave and why she didn’t have any parents with her. When they exited the cave Backfire noticed that it was morning and he was probably late for breakfast. He said to Crystal, “I’ve got to get back to my home; my parents must be worried sick.” He started to fly upwards, “O-oh wait!” Crystal said, he stopped mid-flight and turned around to face her. “Y-you’ll come back right?” she asked looking towards the ground, “it’s quite lonely here and I’d still like to know how you got those gems.” Backfire responded, “Of course I’ll come back, I wouldn’t miss a chance to make a friend.” And with that he flew back home.
As Backfire was flying home he couldn’t help but think of how lucky he was to meet a real dragon, one that didn’t wanna kill and eat him for food. As he got closer to the town he noticed a dark form floating from the ground, getting a worried feeling he started flying faster. The sight he beheld when he got to the town was of horror and surprise, half the houses had been destroyed, the other half burned or half way destroyed. Feeling sick he flew down and ran to the nearest pony he saw, “what happened here!?” he exclaimed. “A dragon attacked, he was furious and we couldn’t do anything to stop him”, the pony said. Quickly Backfire ran towards his house, when he got there he couldn’t even recognize the house anymore, it was so destroyed, so ravaged he couldn’t make out the front door. Backfire panicked and started shout for his parents, but they were nowhere to be found. He ran to the neighbor who was just coming out of his wrecked house, “Have you seen my parents!?” Backfire yelled. Before the hurt and scared pony could reply Backfire heard his name, he turned and called, “Mom? Is that you!?” he listened. From under the rubble he heard his name again, “Mother, father!!!” he shouted and ran for the destroyed house. Running towards the house he noticed part of the ruble move, franticly he ran to the spot and began digging, throwing the debris away. As he dug deeper he began to see blood smeared on the debris, even more scared now he dug faster and fast, until at last, he got to where his parents were. What he thought was a call of his name was just the debris settling. His parent both lay at his hooves, lifeless and unmoving. The last thing he remembered from the day before was telling his mom he’d see them for dinner, he wasn’t able to say anything to his father because he had left for work. Panic set in, Backfire broke down right there and then. Nothing else in the world mattered anymore, he had lost everything, his family, friends, neighbors, house, everything! He snapped, he ran out of the town and back into the forest, he ran until he couldn’t run anymore, then he collapsed and wept. “Mom and Dad, what have I done!” he cried out loudly. After what seemed like days he finally remembered the only place he could go now, Crystal’s cave. He would be safe there right? She wouldn’t kick him out right away, would she? “Agh this is all so confusing!!” Backfire yelled starting to fly towards the cave. Maybe just maybe, she wouldn’t care and would welcome him there. He hoped…
