Chapter 6

Fresh, Clean, and Ready for Ponyville

Part 3

“Alright, next on the list is Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said as she lead the way to Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Wouldn’t it be simple if we went to Rarity’s place then Fluttershy’s? I mean we are close to her place anyway and we don’t need to track back into town.” Applejack suggested as it caused the pegasus to stop and look back at the farm pony.

“Because we’ll be at Rarity’s for hours, and I don’t trust her alone with you or her. Who knows what kind of magic she could do on you girls.”

“Sugarcube, what did I tell you about judging other ponies before you got to know them.”

“Yeah, but she’s not a pony. She’s a dragon. So that doesn’t count.” The pegasus said as both Applejack and Arisen deadpan upon hearing that.

“She really doesn’t like me does she?” Arisen asked as the farm pony shook her head.

“She means well, but sometimes she can be a bit much. Sorry for the way she’s acting towards you by the way.”

“It’s fine. Wouldn’t be the first time I've been treated like this.”

“Really? What other times has this happen to you?” Applejack asked as Arisen pointed over to the chattering ponies looking away or hiding from Arisen. “Oh….um…..give the folks here some time. They aren’t that use to seeing somepony like you in town.”

“Yeah, because there aren’t any other dragons that come to Ponyville other then Spike. And everypony likes him.” Rainbow said as she noticed a stern look coming from Applejack. “What? It’s true.”

“You are not good at being subtle.”

“Whatever, let’s just go and get this over with.” Rainbow said as she took the lead.

“Like I said. Try not to let her get to you kid.” Applejack said as the Arisen simply nods and continues to follow after Rainbow Dash and Applejack. They continue to make their way through town as the dragon noticed the ponies still staring at her with a mix a of fear or disgust.

“Guess I can’t really blame them for being like that. I mean, I am a foreign person in a different country.” Arisen thought as she began to drift into her thoughts. “Still having a hard time believing that in a country full colorful talking horses….or ponies in this case. Am I still dreaming? Or is this the afterlife that the gods have sent me to?” The Arisen slowly pulled her face to her cheek and pinched herself for a moment before letting go. “Nope, not a dream. And not the afterlife if I can feel pain like this….Guess the gods must really like me if they’re willing to give me a second chance like this. Though they could’ve given me my body back or something along the lines of it-.”

“Okay, we’re here.” Arisen was brought out of her train of thought as she looked in front of her to see what appears to be a cottage on top of a hill.

“I’m guessing this is Fluttershy’s home?” The dragon asked as Applejack nodded her head. “A bit odd don’t you think?”

“What makes you say that?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew in front of Arisen.

“Well she lives in that house near the forest. Wouldn’t that be a dangerous place to live seeing how they’re dangerous animals that could come out and attack her?”

“Fluttershy has ways on dealing with wild creatures from the Everfree Forest. You should see the way she handle them.” Applejack said as she walked over to the front door of the cottage and knocks on the front door of it. “Fluttershy! It’s me AJ! Ya’ll in there!?” The farm pony asked as there was a moment of silence before the front door opens up. Standing in the doorway of the slowly opened door was a cream colored pegasus with a long pink mane & tail and was wearing a long sleeve turtleneck shirt, and a white color dress with butterflies on her dress.

“Oh, hello Applejack. What brings you here to my home today?” The pegasus asked as she looked behind the farm pony to see Rainbow Dash and Arisen behind her. “Um, not to sound rude or anything, but who’s the dragon next to Rainbow Dash?”

“The kid behind me is named Arisen. Rainbow Dash said that Twilight wanted all of us to meet up at her place so we can introduce ourselves to her or something along those lines.”

“Oh, okay….um, why is Rainbow Dash staring at, um...Arisen?” Applejack looked over at Arisen as she noticed Rainbow Dash getting face to face with the dragon, who was trying to back away from the cyan pegasus. But each time she took a step back, Rainbow Dash took a step forward.

“Rainbow Dash….”

“What? We’re just...um.”

“Having a staring contest.” Arisen said quickly before Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, what she said. We’re just having a friendly staring contest.” She said as Applejack and Fluttershy deadpan at the lie that Arisen said.

“Sugarcube. I know you want to make sure Rainbow Dash doesn’t blame you for her getting in trouble, but lying won’t solve her issue in trusting other ponies. Or in this case, other dragons.” Applejack stated before walking over to the two and push Rainbow Dash away from the dragon girl.

“I’m really sorry about how Rainbow Dash is acting. I’m sure she’ll come around to trusting you as time goes by.” Fluttershy said as she heard a snort coming from Rainbow Dash. “My name is Fluttershy, it’s nice to meet you Arisen.” The mare said as she extends a hand towards Arisen. In turn Arisen shook her hand as she smiled.

“Pleasure to meet you Fluttershy. This is a lovely place you have here.” She said as Fluttershy smiled to Arisen’s compliment.

“It’s kinda rare to see another dragon here in Ponyville, other then Spike of course. What brings you to our town if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Honestly….No clue. A group of kids found me in an abandoned castle when I woke up and brought me here to Ponyville...still a weird name for a town to be called like that. But when I guess seeing how ponies live here, I’m not surprise that it’s named like this.”

“Oh my. Are you okay? You aren’t hurt are you?” Fluttershy asked, looking around the dragon’s body to make sure she was okay.

“No need to worry about me ma’am. I’m fine, really.” Arisen said as she puts her hands up in defence as AJ pulled the cream colored pegasus away from her. “So how many of your friends do we need to find again?”

“Two more. Rarity and Pinkie Pie. We’re going to get Pinkie Pie next.” AJ said which caused the Arisen to tense up a bit.

“Why not your other friend Rarity? Surely she’s closer then Pinkie Pie...right?”

“Aw, what’s the matter dragon? Scared of pink party mare~?” Rainbow Dash asked in a teasing tone.

“I’m not...just not that...comfortable for a pony to appear out of thin air like it’s nothing.”

“Bad experience sugarcube?” Applejack asked as she notice the Arisen shiver and wincing.

“Never camp out during the night. Especially when you’re in the forest in Gransys.”

“Why is that? It’s not like there’s some kind of monster that can steal your soul.” Rainbow Dash said, chuckling as she noticed a stern expression on the dragon’s face.

“....Let’s just go get your friend Pinkie Pie.” Arisen said as she begins to walk back into town...only to stop and looked back at the group of ponies with a awkward smile on her face. “Um...could one of you lead the way? I’m still kinda new to this town and I don’t have a very good layout of this place.”

(Canterlot Castle)

The doors to the throne room open as a familiar looking alicorn princess of the sun walks out with a tired expression on her face. As she was walking down the hall to make her way to the kitchen, a familiar alicorn princess of the moon appeared next to her with a smirk on her face while trying not to bust out laughing.

“If you’re going to laugh Luna, then I suggest you be careful about doing that.” Celestia said, not looking at her little sister while still walking to the kitchen.

“Come now dear sister. You have to admit, it was kinda funny.” Luna said which caused Celestia to quickly turn her head at her with an angry/flustered expression on her face.

“Drawing on my face while I’m asleep, scaring the nobles with your pranks, and flooding most of the castle with a fast acting bubble foam. I can let that slide seeing how you’re my sister. But you putting a whoopee cushion under my seat while I was discussing the treaty between the Kirin Nation and Equestria. That’s going to far.”

“How is that going to far. Nopony got hurt or anything, right?”

“You could’ve caused a war or something with that! Just be glad that they took to your joke well then how most leaders do.”

“I only did that one time with the leader of Yakyakistan 500 years ago.”

“And it’s because of that, they closed off their country for this long. We don’t even know when they’ll open their gates for us to try and make peace with them. Look I know you love to play around and all, but you need to learn when to do it, and when not to do it. Everything isn’t how it is when-”

“You mean when you sealed me away in the moon….right.” Luna said as there was an air of awkward silence for a moment before Celestia cleared her throat.

“Yes….that….” Celestia took notice to Luna’s sadden expression as she walked over to the dark blue alicorn, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know you’re still trying to get well adjusted to how things are now, but you have to remember that you’re still a princess. You have to stop being like how you were back then, and learn to grow up and take up more responsibilities.”

“So pretty much just be like how you are. Up tight and no fun as always.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of fun. But you have to learn to do it in moderation...and timing.” The solar princess replied back, before the two of them began to head towards the kitchen. But just as Luna was about to open the door, she turned to see that a scroll appeared in front of her sister.

But as she watched her sister read it… she soon was a little puzzled because Celestia seemed… surprised and caught off guard. “Sister? Is something wrong?”

“It would appear that Twilight is summoning us to meet a new friend of theirs that they just found in our old castle.”

That surprised Luna for a moment, before she asked something. “What would somepony be doing in there? That old place has been abandoned for a long time now.”

“Apparently, Applejack’s sister and her friends found her unconscious in the armory part of the castle.”

Luna blinked for a minute, trying to picture what her sister was saying before asking something else. “Are you sure that it wasn’t somepony who just stumbled in on accident?”

“Well she’s not a pony for starters. She’s a dragon… which is rare to see one outside of where they live.” Again, Luna blinked for a moment. This time, she was trying to picture the possibility of a dragon… something that could be the size of a mountain… in a place as small as the old castle of the twin sisters.

“How big of a dragon are they talking about? Matter of fact, does it have a name?”

“Twilight said her name is Arisen.” She said before showing the letter to Luna with a drawn picture of the dragon in question. “This is what she looks like. She might be taller then Spike.”

“Hunh…” Luna said, before looking back at the picture. “That’s a lot different than what I originally thought it would be.”

“Indeed. We will go and meet this Arisen dragon and get her side of the story. We’ll have to cancel both day and night court for today.” At the sounds of that, Luna let out a rather audible sigh of relief, which lead to her sister glaring directly at her.

“What? I know that Night Court is important, but you can only handle so many ponies complaining to me about Blueblood for so long before you want to shout at somepony.”

“F-Fair point. We’ll go to Twilight’s home after lunch.”

Her sister nodded her head in response, before making one comment just as they were going into the kitchen. “When were we ever going to show him that his behavior is completely vile and unhelpful? I’ve had to handle several different defamation suits against him because he openly called several mares ‘Commoner whores’.” The Alicorn asked her. “Say what you want about the joke during the kirin meeting, but his behavior is no laughing matter. Especially if he talks like that to foreign leaders.”

“To be fair he hasn’t done that yet. Mostly due to how you and I are still rulers of Equestria and the fact that he wants to get on our good sides if he were to screw something up by accident when we’re away on diplomatic duties. And I hate to say it, but he does a better job at dealing with important matters then you are.”

That last part was said just as Luna was moving some of the leftover cake out of the fridge… but when her sister said that, it made her lose her concentration and glare directly at Celestia. Not even paying attention to the fact that the cake was now splattered on the floor. “Excuse me?!”

“Not insulting you or anything, but given your… past stunts with your playful pranks. He has been doing most of your stuff that I kinda had him do for the most part...mostly parts that you blow off or not finish. Blueblood may be a crude and rude pony, but he does get the work done that needs to be done.”

Luna rolled her eyes at that, deeply sighing for a moment before slipping on the cake that was on the floor, stumbling forward and the worst part of all, getting some of the chocolate cake on Celestia’s white dress.

“Um...need help cleaning up sister?”

“P-please…”

Author's Note

Sorry for the six month wait. Been busy with college and dealing with a grandma with Alzhimer's. Now that College is almost over and I finish with the work that needs to be done, I can focus more on writing with the free time I have open now.