Chapter 1: A new found hope.
A cold, calm night, this was the only time Raven could go out anywhere near a town or city, he was a drake you see (A pony-sized dragon,) and if anypony saw him it would just end with said pony running away in fear. So walking on desolate streets was the closest thing he would ever get to a “Casual Strole down the block,” now and then he would see a pony, but he would hide from them and having dark Navy Blue scales helped with that, he knew the best that could come from him trying to interact with a pony would be a scared pony running away from him and telling the guards, and that would stop him from doing what little he could do. Maybe one day he could have a conversion with pony longer than “Hello,” from him with the pony running off.
He walked with his head pointed at the ground, he couldn't even bear to raise his head with all the emotions he had stirring in him, hope, fear, excitement, anxiety, these were common to him, yet he never seemed to get used to them.
His thoughts were cut off by the sound of hoofs walking quietly along, he quickly ducked in between the two closest houses and stood silently like a statue, this silence was punctuated with a sobbing that made Raven want to spring into action, but waiting and listening seemed like a better option,
‘Crying?’ He listen for a moment more,
‘Is that a foal?’ He crept closer to the corner still silent, he poked just the front of his muzzle out
and wait for a gasp or scream that didn't come, he took a step forward and looked out and saw an earth pony foal with cyan coat and yellow mane standing there, with their head looking off to their right weeping softly, his instinct to help kicked in and he stepped out,
“Hey,” he said with as soft and kind a tone he could do, the foal instantly turned their head to face him and gasped
“Please, don't hurt me,” the foal was a she, and she was clearly scared,
this was almost painful for Raven to hear her beg to not “be hurt,” with what he had been through as a child himself,
“It's ok, I won't hurt you,” he laid down to be as close to the ground and non-thearting as he could be,
“I want to help, I heard you crying from my cave and I wanted to help,” a white lie to maybe make her believe him better,
“Really?” She asked still weary of him, “are you a nice dragon?”
“Yes, One of the few,” he knew that most dragons wouldn't be too helpful in this situation as most dragons expect their offspring to be very self-serving, thankfully for this foal Ravens parents weren't like that,
“now, what seems to be your problem?”
“I don’t know where my mommy and daddy are,” but apparently his parents were more attentive then this ponies parent's where.
“Oh no, it's alright sweetheart, we’ll find them,” he was willing to be outed to help this filly, he didn't care about consequences as long as he help her find her parents,
“You will!?!” she spoke with excitement in her voice,
“You bet your candy I will.”
“Oh thank you! thank you!” now that's what Raven liked to see, A happy and excited foal.
”Right, now, where was the last place you were with your mommy and daddy?”
“I think mommy called it “Bizzare,”” the bizarre in the middle of the town, that's where she got lost, from what little Raven saw of it in the day it was always packed, with vendors selling everything from fruit and apples to clothes from what looked like tables with signs and roofs over then,
“Right, we will start there,” he stood up and turned left, “can you please back up?” she backed up a bit and Raven opened his right wing and lowered it to the ground making a ramp up to his back,
“hop on my back,” she walked up to his wing a put her hoof on it cautiously “It's ok, I won't bite” she put her other hoof on his wing and gauged his response which was remarkable calm, she took a step forward onto his wing, she paused for a moment and made the rest of the walk up and lay down on his back with her facing the same way Raven was, with his wing in between her foreleg and hindleg with his collapsed wing completely hiding her hind leg, once he felt that she had a good grip on him he collapsed his wing back into position and started to walk slowly right to the middle of town.
It was about 5 minutes until they got to the bizarre, it's not like he hadn't seen what it looked like before but he always paused and thought what it would be like to be here while it was open, all of the ponies talking to the vendors, to each other, but he quickly jarred himself from the daze that he put himself in and turned his head to talk to the foal,
“How many time have you been here little one?”
“A few times,” her eyes looked like they were having trouble staying open,
“Do you know which way you came to get here?”
She looked in front of her and behind her trying to see a land mark to use to get her bearings, but it was in vain, there was nothing that she could use, it was just a cobblestone street that was about 40 feet in each direction and 10 feet wide with houses lining it, and stalls lining them,
“I don't know,” she was starting to get flustered,
“It's all right,” he said trying to calm her, “when you would come here with your parents, did go in between the houses, or did you follow the streets?”
“Daddie always wanted to go in between the houses, but mommy always made us walk through the streets,” she stopped for a moment and gasped
“Whats wrong?” Raven asked
“I remember, we always passed by a red stall.”
“That's just what I needed to know,” Raven paused for a moment, “Little one?”
“Yes?” she responded
“How would you like to fly?” Raven wasn't going to go high, just high enough to see to the end of the row of the stalls, and he knew he could move fast enough to catch her if in the off chance she was to fall,
“But I don't have wings”
“But guess who does” Raven with a hint of cocky-ness in his voice, to which she gave a slight whimper in response,
“You don't have to fly up with me, I can just set you down if you’re scared of heights,”
She stopped to think,
“do you promise not to drop me?”
“I promise not to let you fall.”
She stopped and weighed her options
“Ooook.”
Raven nodded his head and said, “hold on, I’ll go really slow,” Raven felt her grip tighten around his abdomen as he unfolded his wings,
he straightened them out and slowly start to flap picking up speed with each flap, help felt himself lifting off the ground only by inches and her grip tightened even more, they where ascending about 2 inches ever flap or so, until he got to about 10 feet up.
Raven turned his head and said to her “Do you like the view?”
“It's cold,” Raven noticed that she was shivering,
“Then I just have to work faster,” he turned back to look ahead to find said “Red Stall,” and at the end of the left row of the stalls was a speck of red, ‘There you are.’ Raven thought to himself.
He started to go back down, knowing that she could not stand a flight with how cold it was,
“Let's hoof it then,” he started at a what was a good running pace for most ponies, but was like a jog for him, and it was not long until he hit the end with the red stall he had seen before,
“Ok little one, when you came here, which direction did you come from?” Raven hoped she still had enough in her to tell him where to go,
“That way,” she raised her right hoof and pointed,
“Just keep pointing me in which direction to go in,” he said before he started to run down the street,
“Left,” she said “right,” “left,” “strait,” “left,” “stop!” she said as loud as she could and it was barely a shout, “this is my house.”
Raven paused to look at the house for a moment, it was a standard house, it was clean and looked well keep, while that didn't always represent a good place for a foal, it was the best Raven could do to make sure where she was going was safe.
Raven unfolded his wing again to make a ramp, she tried to stand but was so tired she could hardly do it, Raven reached behind him and carefully slide his claws under her and lifted her off him, he quickly stood up on his hind legs and cradled her in his arms and started to walked to the door
“Dragon?” she asked
“Yes, little one?”
“Thank you for helping me find my way home.”
“You’re welcome little one, next time you’re out, stay close to you mother. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes. And Dragon?”
“Hmm?” Raven gave as his simple response.
“Please stop calling me “Little One,”” at this point he was at the door, but he thought he would take a moment to say his goodbyes
“Ok, then what would you have me call you?” Raven asked.
“Lyris,”
“Lyris, that's a nice name,” he replied, “and you can call me Raven.”
“You have a nice name too,”
“Thank you Lyris,” he paused for a moment trying to think about what to say “alright Lyris, I have to go now,” he started to put her down on the porch
“Can I see you again?” That question really touched Ravens heart.
“Maybe one day, maybe one day.”
He set her down on the porch and brushed a little bit of dirt off her head, and knocked on the door.
“Goodbye Lyris.”
“Goodbye Raven.”
Raven quickly ran off and went in between the house next door and the house next to it to convince Lyris that he left, but in reality, he just went there to hide to make sure that somepony came to the door, and somepony did,
“Lyris!” a mares voice yell out with pure joy and relief in her voice,
“Mommy!” Lyris yelled out in reply,
“Oh thank Celestia, I’m glad you’re safe,”
“Mommy a dragon helped me find my home,”
‘Crap,’ Raven thought to himself
“A Dragon!?!” The mare said with a hint of fear in her voice.
“It’s okay Mommy, He was a nice dragon, he's named Raven,”
“Raven, huh?”
‘And now's she's terrified,’ Raven thought as it was clear that she was scared.
“Don’t ever do this again, please, Mommy can’t handle it.”
“I won’t mom, I’ll stay close to you.”
‘Welp, I've don’t all I can do,’ Raven thought before starting to creep away
“Do you want to me him Mommy?-”
‘awww, crap baskets.’
“He went just down there.”
They both paused and the silence was so thick that it could be used to hide in,
“Come on Honey.” she was terrified at this point
“But Mom”
“NOW!”
This little back and forth was followed by a door slamming.
‘Time to go,’Raven started to run to the quickest way out to town which would take him past the town's library.
.