Author's Note

In Loving Memory of

Joan Plowright

1929 - 2025

VII

Back at the empty area, the herd have finally finished fighting and had enough water to keep them going, but it was almost getting dark by the time the fighting ended, so Kron decided they should rest before they continue on.

Aladar, the three lemurs, the old dinosaurs and Url were asleep together with the Equestrians sleeping with them as well.

Fluttershy was sleeping against Baylene’s tail with Lightning sleeping in her hooves and his head resting on her chest while Smolder, Capper and Silverstream was sleeping next to the two.

Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes and looked down at her sleeping son. She smiled and giggled softly as she watched him sleeping peacefully in her embrace with no nightmares or fears ruining his sleep.

Before she could continue watching Lightning sleep, she heard Suri’s voice as it woke Aladar up. He then looked at where Suri’s voice was coming from which was at the top of a hill with a mini cave.

“Now, you come out on three. One, two, three!” Suri said at the cave.

Aladar got up and went to see what was going on and who was Suri talking to. Fluttershy decided to check it out, too. But she wanted her child to continue sleeping. So she gently placed him underneath Silverstream’s wing, without waking them both up.

Lightning slowly woke up a bit while stirring before saying, “Momma?”

Fluttershy gently stroked Lightning’s mane while softly saying, “Shh…I’ll be back. Go back to sleep.” Lightning went back to sleep as he nuzzled underneath the hippogriff’s wing. Fluttershy smiled softly at him and carefully kissed him on the forehead before flying off to where Aladar was heading.

Inside the cave was the two baby Iguanodons, who were scared of coming out and were thirsty, especially after the fight for the small water. Suri was trying to get them come out, but nothing worked so far.

“Come on. Come on out. No one’s gonna hurt you.”

Aladar and Fluttershy, which made the Iguanodons scared a little more, as Aladar said, “Hey, hey. What’s going on?”

“The little Aladars haven’t had anything to drink. I think they’re scared of me.”

“Well, they haven’t seen anything like us or you before. And after what Kron has been doing, they probably think we’re the same as him,” said Fluttershy.

“Who wouldn’t be? Both Kron and Suri are pretty scary,” said Aladar.

Suri made a pretend scary growl at the Iguanodons which made Fluttershy shook her head unamused.

Aladar chuckled before saying, “Come on over, guys.” The baby Iguanodons grunted in fear while backing up a bit. “Take it easy. Don’t worry. She’s just a hair ball.” Fluttershy chuckled before the two walked to a spot where the babies can have water.

“And proud of it,” said Suri, “Come on. They’re gonna find you some water.” Suri leaped to catch up with Aladar and Fluttershy. The Iguanodons decided to trust them and came out to catch up with them.

Neera was still awake as she saw Aladar digging a hole with the two babies approaching him. She made her way down to see what he was doing.

Aladar finished digging a dip hole as he said, “Here. Now, you just take a foot and press.” Aladar pressed his foot down as water came out from the ground. The babies were impressed by this and wanted to have a go. They both started fighting on who was gonna press their foot down first.

“Whoa.”

“Hey, come on, you two. There’s no need to fight,” said Fluttershy.

“Hey, hey, hey. Come on. Come on. Knock it off,” said Aladar, as the two stopped fighting. “Let’s work together here, huh? A little teamwork. Ready?” Neera got a little closer and saw Aladar was helping the children get water. She was still surprised by this as she never saw a dinosaur help another dinosaur out.

“One, two, three. Press!” Aladar and the two Iguanodons pressed their foot into the hole as a lot of water filled up the entire hold. The Iguanodons were now happy and started drinking the water.

“Good job, Suri,” said Aladar as Suri smiled before watching the babies drink. “So, where are your parents, anyway?”

“Yeah, I’m wondering the same thing,” said Fluttershy.

“A lot of us are on our own now,” said Neera while approaching them. Aladar and Fluttershy started to understand that the babies don’t have any parents. Fluttershy felt bad for them, the same way when she found out Lightning lost his mother and how his abusive father blamed him for her death.

“You both like kids, I see,” said Neera.

“Well, the skinny ones can be a little chewy,” said Aladar which made Neera chuckle.

“And I have a child of my own. He’s adopted, but I still love him with all my heart,” said Fluttershy.

“That’s nice,” said Neera.

“I’m Aladar…the “jerkasaurus”.”

That made Neera remember what she called him yesterday as she said, “Ohh. Sorry about that.”

Aladar laughed. “You’re probably right.”

Fluttershy chuckled lightly before saying to herself, “Best leave them be. I promised Lightning I’ll be back, anyway.” She flew back to her friends as Plio saw what was happening with Aladar. She shook her father to wake up while whispering, “Dad, wake up.”

Yar snorted before waking up. “Huh?” He then saw Aladar with Neera.

“Why did you help that old one?” Neera was on about Aladar helping Eema out during the fighting herd. “What else could we do? Leave her behind?” Neera looked down as Aladar saw why she asked. “Oh. You mean, you actually…”

“Well, that happens all the time. You don’t survive if you’re not…”

“Strong enough.”

“Well…yeah.”

“Is that you talking, or your brother?” Aladar jokingly asked. Neera was about to glare at him, but instead, she sighed and said, “Everything’s so different. I-I don’t know what to think anymore.” Neera walked away as Aladar followed her. “Look, Neera, we watch out for each other, we all stand a chance of getting to your nesting grounds.”

Neera stopped before saying, “You sound so sure.”

“I’m not, but it’s all I know.” Neera smiled at Aladar before he said, “So, um… Oh, water. I’ll, uh, get you some water.” He started digging a hole for her. Neera chuckled, “Can I try it?”

“Sure. Just press.”

Aladar placed his foot down in the hole. Neera did the same as both their foot pressed against each other. Neera gasped. “Hmm.” Aladar chuckled before both him and Neera bumped their heads together.

“Oops.”

Neera chuckled, “Sorry.”

“No. You-You first.”

Yar and Plio watched the two get along with smiles on their faces as Zini woke up. “One down… and, well, one down,” Yar said, much to Zini’s disappointment.

Aladar and Neera drank the water in the hole together. The two were starting to get along with each together, without even knowing they were starting to feel love inside of them.

Kron, however, saw his sister was with Aladar. He wasn’t too happy that Neera was talking to someone. He was planning on going over to stop them, until he heard the voice of Bruton.

“Kron!” Kron turned and saw Bruton walking to him, and saw he had cuts on his sides. “Carnotaurs!”

“What? They never come this far north,” said Kron in fear.

“The fireball must’ve driven them out.” Bruton grunted from the pain from the cuts he had gotten from his fight with the Carnotaurs. Suddenly, they heard the Carnotaurs howling from the distance. Kron knew they were coming right this way, and knew they have been following Bruton.

“You led them right to us! Maybe you can feed them with your hide! Move the herd out, double-time!”

Kron walked off as Bruton bellowed to wake the herd up. Kron bellowed to tell the herd to move out. They all got up and started heading out of the area. Aladar and Neera saw the herd moving out.

“What’s happening?”

“My brother’s moving the herd,” said Neera as they began to walk over to her brother. Kron was making sure every dinosaur was moving out as he then heard his sister’s voice, “Kron, what’s going on?”

“Carnotaurs. If we don’t keep moving, they’ll catch up to us.”

“But the others in the back…They’ll never make it,” said Aladar.

“They’ll slow down the predators,” said Kron, showing he doesn’t care about the old dinosaurs or leaving any weak dinosaurs behind.

“You can’t sacrifice them like this!” Aladar ran up to where Kron was standing, “Hold it! That could be you back there! Or you!”

Kron was getting by Aladar’s interference as he snarls and pushed Aladar to the ground. He got close to his face and said, “If you ever interfere again, I’ll kill you.” Kron snarls and headed off. Aladar breathed heavily. Neera went over to him, but Kron saw this and shouted, “Stay away from him!”

Kron snarls at Aladar and made Neera walked away from him as he smacked Aladar in the face with his tail.

“Ooh.” Aladar growled at Kron and was about to go at him as Neera said, “Aladar, no. You just-just go. I’ll be okay.”

Aladar sighed and ran back to the old dinosaurs and the Equestrians as Neera watched him go.

The Equestrians and the old dinosaurs were waking up as they saw the herd moving out, which made them all confuse.

“Why are they moving out at this time?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know,” said Rarity.

Suddenly, they heard Flurry’s voice calling from the distance.

“Mama! Auntie Twily!”

They turned and saw Shining and Flurry Heart running towards them. Flurry jumped onto Twilight and hugged her tightly.

“Hey, hey, hey. What’s wrong? What happened?” Twilight asked while hugging her niece.

Shining was about to answer, but heard Aladar’s voice as they saw him running to them while saying, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Carnotaurs!”

“Not sure if that’s what we saw attack Bruton earlier, but that’s what’s happened,” said Shining.

“Carno-what?” Yar asked.

“Carnotaur. A mouthful of teeth with a bad attitude. Let’s go,” said Eema as she got up.

“Wait, is that why they’re moving? How do we know they are even coming? We don’t even know what they are,” said Rainbow.

“No time for guessing who’s right or wrong, Rainbow. If they say they’re bad news, then they’re bad news,” said Sunset, “And the herd’s already leave, so we might as well just go.”

“Come on, you guys! Get on! Get on! We’re gonna get left behind,” said Aladar as the lemurs quickly got onto his back. Aladar made a run to it to the herd while the old dinosaurs were getting up slowly as they were old. The Equestrians stayed to help them before noticing Aladar was heading off.

“Aladar, wait!” Lighting called.

“Let’s go! Hurry up! We’re losing them!”

“Aladar, slow down,” said Plio, which he did before seeing the old dinosaurs walking slowly due to them being old with the Equestrians walking beside them. Aladar breathed heavily and saw the herd were now gone and too far to catch up to, along with Neera who was still being moved by her brother.

Aladar sighed before looking back at his friends. He knew he can’t leave them behind or make them go faster or get the herd to actually stop, to which will lead to Kron killing him.

So Aladar decided to stay with them and help them.

Baylene and Eema were breathing heavily as they were struggling to catch up to Aladar.

Nighttime came, and the Carnotaurs were now in the area where the herd were once at. The male one growled before drinking some water from the water hole. The female one came over and drank some water, too.

Thunder started to rumble while the male Carnotaur spotted the footprints made by the herd. It growled as it can their meals weren’t far behind.