Hatching in Equestria as a Silver Dragon

Traveling by wagon was slow, but comfortable, I hadn't had this experience since back when I was a human, I simply loafed like a cat on the corner of the vehicle, while mom laid next to me, and sometimes she left to pull the wagon, since she was the strongest and biggest of us, I asked her to volunteer her help, and she agreed with me, in return, I gave her massages when she rested.

'Ohhh dear Onyx your massages truly are amazing! I've never felt this way before, it's like my muscles are melting under your claws, in a very good way~ the tension I had since that horrible dungeon incident is going away each time you massage my neck and back, please keep going for a little more?' she asks pleadingly, now her own puppy face is used against me, and as a former human, I gotta say it's extremely effective...

I kept massaging her for half an hour more, she eventually fell asleep, and I had a nap myself, when I woke up, the ponies were playing card games, and honestly the only game I remembered from my previous life was uno, and this didn't look like uno, so I just sat and watched, hoping to learn at least one of the games, once that got old and i still had no idea, i started to check my menus and inventory, i had some items we weren't using, but taking items out here would for sure bring unnecessary attention to myself, I liked this saddlebags made of leather, I suppose they could provide some protection while allowing one of us to carry items physically, without having to worry about someone discovering our inventory ability.

We would definitively need saddlebags once we could buy them, but to buy them we needed... Money, and I have several ideas on how to get money, first of all of course is to sell the gems I have stockpiled in my inventory, there is the gems at the cave walls and floor I broke off after hatching, and then there's the other gems, that we found at the abandoned temple where the... Horrible spider, damn those memories, I feel like breaking down crying, i-in front of all these ponies...? My mind is a mess, I couldn't help myself, tears started to run down my face as I went and hid my head against mom's side, silently crying and trying to calm down, something was wrong with me, I felt really really bad emotionally about what happened, was I... Yeah I probably was suffering from ptsd, at least I had mom with me, and we were going to be safe now!

Oh right, once we arrive and have a place to stay, we will need to take all the valuable stuff out of your inventory, and have a real way to store it, so that we can sell it and earn equestrian money, then we will be able to buy food, saddlebags, maybe even some armor for mom, I wonder if they also sell spellbooks, but considering it would be weird for a nation to sell offensive spells to civilians,I doubt the spells they would sell are more than utility, practical spells for everyday use.

I need to go back, despite my fear, I have to go back and get rid of the spider's corpse, it's too heavy and it takes like 95% of our inventory, it's nasty to even imagine! I wish I could burn it to ashes, but there is no way to do that, I would need to go there, after browsing the menus I found a way to travel back to completed dungeons, but I can't do it here with everyone looking... I'll just have to wait, plus if I were to leave now, when I teleported back, I would be in the middle of nowhere.

A week has passed, occasionally we stop to go to the bathroom, drink water and wash ourselves in the river, of course the... Going to the bathroom part is not done in the river, and yes even if washing us is technically contaminating the water, the grime and dirt is just dissolved and filtered by the rocks and plants in the river quickly, and we always drink upstream from where we shower, common sense really, the ponies are also not used to see someone eat fish, we have to hunt fish and gut it in front of them so they don't ask too many questions as to why we make frozen pre portioned and pre processed fish appear out of nowhere, I don't want them to know about my powers, after all I would prefer if they don't put me in a cage and experiment on me until I either die or they get bored.

The ponies talk to us often and share their food and tell us about Equestria, and how peaceful and beautiful it is, and how the princess is so kind and good looking, I simply smile and nod, to be fair, they are probably completely right, the ponies are kind, but they seem to have a bit too much faith in their princess, I would never say that out loud, but it's like they worship her, more than respect her, and they also tell me how adorable of a foal i am, and I found out that colts and stallions, are about a 20% of the population, which is crazy, how do they even find a partner, it feels like as a human, it was the other way around sometimes.

As we traveled south, the land became more green and warmer, large coniferous forest extended in front of us the first few days, but now there are plenty of birch and oak forests, and some variety of trees I don't recognize, I'm not a tree scientist, sorry.

We also started to see much more animals, mostly common animals you would see back on earth on the wilderness, but it was oddly... Less diverse, much less diverse, and there was a disturbing lack of predatory species, which only one grizzly bear at a distance, which was munching on berries from a bush, didn't even turn to look at us.

I even used my inspect skill a whole lot, and leveled it up to level 5, now I can see even their stats, their likes and dislikes,the spells they have ready, their elemental affinities and how dangerous they are, all of the ponies in the expedition are harmless to us, except for the guard ponies, they have more levels than the rest, as well as having more skills in combat, like proficiencies with sword, knowing some lethal spells and Azure specially has many nonlethal spells to stun and restrain.

Seems like earth ponies naturally have higher STR and CON stats, pegasi have high DEX and CON, and unicorns have high INT and WIS, all of the races seem to have somewhat high CHA, which makes sense, ponies are social creatures and charisma is very important from an evolutionary point of view, there is also non combat skills and the other ponies that arent guards, all have non combat skills, mostly related to their field of interest, I didn't care to remember them all, only Soft Hoof, who offered to even house me and mom, so i had to make sure i did right by her, as well as mom who I owe my life to, if it wasn't for mom, id be a sour candy flavored purple slurpee for that nasty monster. Heh seems humor is a decent way to cope with truma.

After much traveling and thinking to myself every day, I decided I wasn't going to just rage and swear revenge on the gods that gave me new life, even if the surprise death dungeon was kind of a dick move, I will forgive and NOT forget, I have to be ready because knowing now what I know, it's inevitable that there will be more...

For now I hoped there would be time to prepare, grow stronger and learn magic, my biggest limitation now was my age, holding a blade with my stubby arms is gonna be next to impossible, a dagger at most I could learn to use, so i must focus on magic, magic doesn't requiere proper body height, tho it does help to aim but it's not a deal breaker, armor as well would be useless, I'm already naturally armored, and having armor on top wouldn't work, because I'm bloody tiny, I'm like, a border collie sized lizard, i may be a cool lizard, and adorable to the extreme, but im just a lizard until i reach adolescence.

I saw a beautiful mountain city in the distance, far far away, but in view, it looked like someone built the city to give people with anxiety a heart attack, yes, it was Canterlot, I recognized it, despite it being so beautiful it's placement is just as anxiety inducing as in the show, I wouldn't want to fall of the edge... Oh come on stupid brain don't go there! Agh... Nevermind, the city is very pretty, and we are on a road now, not just across unmarked path, the road is made of dirt and a bit muddy, but it's a road, I gently shake mom awake, with a genuine smile as I point to the distant city.

'Look mom! That is the city of Canterlot, it's built right on the side of a mountain, and it's made of the most expensive rock they could find, that castle is where the biggest pony to ever live, resides, and a few other rich and probably unpleasant ponies live!'
I say cheerfully in her mind, making happy baby noises while pointing at the city, gesturing to the other ponies, who smile at my reaction with pride, while mom rolls her eyes good naturedly at my shameless act.

'Little Onyx, you have to give this ponies a chance, even the... Rich ones, maybe they're nice ponies and you haven't met them yet, so please don't ever say that out loud, remember we aren't ponies, and giving them reason to hate us is just going to come back to bite us on the tail, and your tail, unlike mine, is far easier to bite, remember that...' I giggled at her literal expression, seems my mannerisms are rubbing off on her, even if literally.

'Thats not how that goes mooom... But yeah I see your point, and yes you are right about my tail, I could even nom on it if I really wanted to, but I still haven't ran out of fish!' I stuck my tongue out at her and she gave me a little slap to the top of the head with her paw, of course in a playful manner.

Two hours later, Canterlot gate.

Captain Azure was walking forward from the wagon, and announcing the arrival of the expedition, the guards at the gate allowed them in, and one went to inform their higher ups while the wagon was pulled up the path, an earth pony guard has joined them to help pull them up, the streets were wide and ponies of all colors walked back and forth, a few carriages as well went by.

I was inside the closed vehicle, laying down and half asleep, I would have to look at the city another day, as I didn't have energy for that, all this traveling left me exhausted, and mom was in the same boat, we eventually stopped at what seemed like a college, and that's where the professor explained to us.

"This is the Canterlot university of Biological studies, where I have my own extra quarters and accomodations, I will guide you both there, we have a bed for each, a bathroom with hot water and many facilities for you to explore at your leisure, I will guide you there and then go explain to the chancellor that you two are guests and to have the staff and students informed as soon as possible, so for a while stay here, until I can come back, by then you will be free to go where you want okay?." She explains as we walk inside and go into the building, up the stairs into a room that has a large bed and an adjacent bathroom, the ponies who saw us coming in seemed concerned at first but Soft Hoof made a reassuring gesture and everyone seemed to calm down.

Sylf nods and smiles warmly at Soft Hoof, then approaches and nuzzles the older pony on the neck affectionately, who nuzzles back and after a few seconds we part ways, and we are left alone in the room, the door closing behind us, I go straight to the bathroom to freshen up and empty my bladder, and then wash my hands and head to bed, Sylf does the same and soon after, we both fall asleep cuddling together, feeling safe and warm in a bed, i dont care if it's too soft, i feel safe, and i know a day, likely adventure awaits us tomorrow.