The Time I was Reincarnated as a Dragon

With every flap of my wings, I find myself getting closer and closer to my destination. After heading back to Ponyville to pack and let Fluttershy know where I would be, I took off for the griffon empire. I had departed well over an hour ago, with a newly custom-made saddle attached to my back. Before, when I rushed over from Griffonstone to Canterlot, it had only taken me around two hours, but that was when I was flying at top speed. Right now, I’m on a leisurely flight, mostly to give myself some time on what I would say to Glenda. I know she must be worried, but at the same time, I’m sure she must be angry with me for taking so long to say anything to her. Of course, she has every right to be, she must have been worried sick. Meanwhile, I was acting like I didn’t have a care in the world.

I kept wondering what I would say to her. “Should I just apologize and tell her that I didn’t mean to worry her? Or should I see if she’s even mad?” I was so lost in thought that I failed to notice my wings had begun to pick up the pace and I was now flying over some mountains. My body seems to be able to navigate without me being fully aware, as though I have a built-in compass that is guiding me on where I need to go.

There is still much about my body that I’m still learning about and getting used to. I may have watched the movies and shows for How to Train your Dragon, but that doesn’t really compare to having the literal physical body of an actual Night Fury. Almost all my senses have been enhanced compared to my human body. Before, my eyesight was so bad, I needed contact lenses, and though I wasn’t a couch potato, my stamina and endurance are astronomical. Then there is my sense of smell. Before, I could smell a pizza and guess what toppings were on it, and maybe where it was. Now, I can tell exactly what ingredients were used and follow the trail of the scent with pinpoint accuracy. “And speaking of sense of smell.”

My nostrils flared as I caught a familiar scent: wet fur and feathers. Immediately, I turned my attention upwards. While I couldn’t see anything but clouds, the scent was definitely coming from straight above me. Smiling, I gave my tail a hard flick downwards, pulled my arms and legs into my body as I darted for one cloud. I let out a roar before speeding through the cloud and watched as three bodies quickly shot out before I could hit it.

There were three griffons in total, and all of them looked fairly young. One had the body of a lion, but the head of a golden yellow and black finch. Another had a panther body, but the head of a blue jay. And the last one had the body of a tiger, but had the head of a pink Galah bird.

Before I could analyze these griffons further, the one with the yellow feathers dove straight down toward me, wings pulled in and talons poised to strike. “You’re mine, dragon!”

While this young griffon was moving at a rather fast speed, the distance between us was far enough for me to prepare my next move. Just as his talons would soon graze my scales, I quickly folded in my right wing and gave my left wing a hard flap as I rolled right under him, pushed my feet out, and kicked him in the underbelly, causing him to wince as he grabbed his belly.

No sooner had I unflared my wing, the other two griffons dove down on me, their bodies not making a sound before striking. I felt one grab onto my tail while the other was latched onto my back, trying to hold my wings down. Due to this, I wasn’t able to keep my body in the air, and we began to plummet downwards. “We got you now,” the pink griffon said as she made sure my tail fins were closed.

“Surrender or die, those are your options!” the dark blue griffon shouted as his claws and talons dug into my back, holding onto my wings tightly with all his might. Soon, we could see a group of hills closing in on us as we continued to fall.

If any other creature was in my shoes-er, not that I had shoes, they would panic and try to bargain with the enemy. But I wasn’t like any other creature. “Well, if those are my only options, then I chose death.” With a flex of my wings, I wrapped the blue griffon around him, pinning him against my back. And with a flick of my tail, I wrapped it around one of the pink griffon’s legs. “But if I’m gonna die, then I’ll be taking you two with me into the afterlife!”

“Are you insane?!” the pink griffon squawked as she tried to pull away, but not making any effort with my tail firmly wrapped around one leg. “Just surrender and leave our territory and no creature has to die!”

“What she said!” the blue griffon called out as he tried to scratch and claw his way out of my wings’ grip. “You dragons need to stop hunting in our territory! We’re only protecting it, so just give up and fly away!”

“See, I would do that, but you guys made the mistake of grabbing onto me and giving me those two options.” The ground was quickly approaching. It was only a matter of minutes before we crashed into the ground. “The way I see it, you should never threaten another life if you are not ready to give your own.”

Soon, our bodies were casting a shadow over the ground, meaning within seconds, we would make a very messy touchdown. “Okay! Okay! We’re sorry! Please let us go and we can talk this out!” the griffon with the Galah head screamed in panic as she could see the ground closing in.

Both griffons braced for impact and their death before I released my grip on them and carefully grabbed them by the scruffs of their necks, flared my wings out like makeshift parachutes, and immediately stopped our freefall mere inches from the ground. With a gentle flick of my paws, I carefully tossed the two griffons onto the ground, watching as they tumbled and rolled before jumping onto their paws, ready to fight. “Wow, not two seconds after letting you go, and already set to fight?” I folded my wings in and touched down onto the ground.

Both griffons looked like they were getting ready to pounce, but I could only smile as I heard feathers ruffling loudly from behind me, followed by a yell. “I got you this time, dragon!” Taking a quick sidestep, I watched as the griffon with the yellow feathers zoomed past me and crashed into his teammates, the trio rolling down the hill together in a bundle of fur and feather.

“Gah! You idiot! Why in Tartarus would you give away your position?!…Again?!”

“Ouch! Hey, it’s not my fault he had super-fast reflexes!”

“You dummy, if you had just kept your big beak shut, you might have had him!”

I listened to the three of them squabble for a bit before lunging forward, knocking them all onto their backs and pinned them down with my paws. All three of them stared up at me in horror as I opened my mouth as I prepared to unleash a plasma blast on them. I watched them all shake with fright before stopping and chuckling. “You three really need to work on your teamwork if you ever plan to take on any creature like me.” I turn my head upwards to a lone cloud. “Isn’t that right, Gallus?”

We all watched as the cloud slowly lowered down to us before a griffon with light blue fur and feathers came flying out wearing some light armor. “So, how long did you know I was here?” he asked casually as he landed next to me, and I got off the griffon trio.

“From the start. Along with the smell of wet fur and feathers, I caught a subtle hint of metal too. When I saw none of these youngsters wearing any, I figured you were hiding somewhere watching them.”

“Hang on!” the yellow finch griffon called out. “Captain Gallus, you know this dragon?!”

Gallus, who had a smug look on his face, draped a wing over my back as he nudged me with his elbow. “This dragon here is none other than the queen’s best friend and savior of Griffonstone, Noir.”

Immediately, their collective beaks dropped as they stared at me in awe. “Nice to meet you guys. Sorry for not introducing myself sooner, but I wanted to see what kind of students Gallus has taken under his wing.”

“Noir, meet squad seven. They are fairly new, so you can see why their teamwork still needs some improvement.” Gallus gestured to the three young griffons. “I’ll have them as royal guards in no time, but for now.” Gallus moved away from me and moved to stand in front of the squad. “Squad seven, report back to the capital. And I want you guys to do twelve of our usual drills, on the double.” They all groaned and whined before taking off, leaving me and Gallus alone.

“So, are they new? I don’t remember seeing any of them before I left the last time,” I asked curiously

“Actually, yes they are.” Both of us began to walk along the hills as we talked. “See, once we could announce that Griffonstone was back up and running, word spread to the other small towns and villages in the griffon kingdom. Soon, new griffons came to see the idol and wanted to enlist in the royal guard.”

“I see. But why were there only three of them? You called them squad seven, which I imagine means there are other squads?”

He nodded his head. “Yep. The griffons who had flocked over to the capital were still stuck in the old ways of thinking. Some of them didn’t take to changing their attitudes as quickly as we did when you and the queen brought the idol back. Same goes for those who wanted to join the guard. So we came up with the idea to start them off in squads of three, so they can get used to working together rather on their own.”

“Seems like this squad still has a long way to go,” I joked as I watched Gallus groan. “So, um…how has, well, you-know-who been doing?” I asked, feeling guilty.

Gallus looked at me with a confused look, before he started to laugh. “Oh, that? Hey, don’t worry about that. I promise you have nothing to worry about.” He gave my back a few pats as he spread his wings and began to take off. I joined him as we took to the sky. “After you left, Glenda was in a right tiff, she was. But not because she was mad at you; she was upset with herself.”

I listened with great intent as Gallus filled me in during our flight. Apparently, Glenda was afraid that she had ruined our friendship and talked to Gallus since he was a good friend of both of us. For a good while, she wondered if what she did was either her feelings or just something in the heat of the moment. She had been locked in her room freaking out and going crazy till she finally calmed down and took some time to relax and get her thoughts together. She came to the conclusion that I needed some space. “So finally, she figured enough time had passed that she could try and reach out,” Gallus finished. I honestly felt a weight lifted off my chest and had a bit more confidence that things might be okay now. “Hey look, we’re here.”

Looking up, I could see the magnificent city that is Griffonstone, and how it looked even better than when I had left it. The roads were paved with bright white cobblestone, the houses were clean and fully built, and the castle looked bigger and a shining example of what a castle should look like. “Welcome back to Griffonstone.”