DRAGONBOND HEADS TOWARDS HIS NEXT DESTINATION AND FINDS A NEW COMPANION TO LIGHT HIS WAY

Onward With the Light

Twilight was still sleeping as the sun began to rise. Just as she was about ready to awaken from her slumber, the doors to her room slammed open with Fluttershy in a panicking mess. "TWILIGHT!" The freaked out pegasus shouted in a voice of emergency.

Twilight yelped and tumbled out of bed in a tangle of sheets. She proceeded to fall down the flight of stairs from her bed room space to the lower floor and crashed into a book case with a few books falling on top of her. Spike just jumped out of his bedside his bed basket.

Twilight popped her head out of her tangle of sheets with eyes rolling and a mane a mess. She shook her head to wonder what was happening. "Fluttershy, what are you doing here so early?" Twilight yawned rubbing her throbbing head from the fall.

"One of my mocking bird friends came back last night! I fainted after what he told me and it was just horrible!" Fluttershy shouted in a fearful tremble.

Twilight used her magic to hold Fluttershy still to calm her down. "Fluttershy please, just take a breath and calmly tell me what happened." Her magic then slowly released Fluttershy.

The yellow pegasus did as instructed to take a long deep breath before releasing it to calm her nerves. She began the news she received from her fowl friend of an incident that happened in a far-off town to the western part of the land. Some ponies had been brutally beaten at a bar fight. The fact that they were brutally beaten wasn't the case, it was what was witnessed about the one that had beaten them.

The bird that had spoken to other birds of that area had said that the green pegasus roared like a great beast and his pupils had turned to slits for a time. Some had thought he was bat pony, but his wings were far from relating to anything from a bat. Also, his set of teeth had been described as something similar of those of a carnivore. Once more, they were not described as bat pony fangs as the pegasus had a set of serrated teeth on the top and bottom of his jaws.

The bird also had reported of other birds seeing a green pegasus and a golden colored dragon hunting down animals to eat for their meal. The pegasus was described like a eagle swooping down on it's prey and used its teeth to bite into the neck of the animal that fell victim to its hunt.

Twilight was shocked at this news. Could it be the same creature? There was no information from the bird's message that this monstrous pony could breathe fire like the creature that fought the diamond dogs. "We can't be sure this is the same creature. This might be some changeling deception top try and start a panic in Equestria." Twilight said thinking that it was impossible for this creature to arrive and travel across Equestria so quickly without stopping to take a break from the long journey. "But we should still investigate this town." Twilight decided it was best to find out as much information about this mystery as they could. If this creature it the same and it could have the strength and energy to travel non-stop, then this was going to be harder to track down this creature.

Should we tell Princess Celestia about this?" Spike suggested feeling they should know about this discovery.

Twilight shook her head. "Not just yet. We should confirm what we find in this town before reporting it to them." Twilight figured. It was best to get concrete evidence that it was a fire breathing pegasus that had a hunger for flesh. Otherwise this would start a massive panic around Equestria to know a pony among them ate flesh and breathed fire.

"Well I guess I should let you get ready for the trip." Fluttershy said taking her leave.

"Our trip." Twilight corrected Fluttershy to let her know she was coming along too.

"M-Me!? Why me?" Fluttershy shrieked in terror of the thought of heading to where an animal eating fire breathing pony had been seen. She sped across the room to hide under the nearest shelter, which was a rug. Her rear and tail were sticking out as she trembled with absolute fear. "No, take Rainbow Dash! She can fight this monster since she is strong! I don't want to get eaten!"

Twilight walked over to the shaking pegasus under the rug. "It's because you are able to talk to animals." Twilight said lifting the rug up off Fluttershy. She would only zip across to hide under a table and held tight to the leg of it. Since she was still shaking, she was making the contents on the table tumble off onto the floor. Twilight followed her and tried pulling her out and talked after every yank she gave. "Also… you need too… talk to the animals… to know more… About the creature."

With one last pull, Twilight yank Fluttershy out and she was flung back in the air. Twilight looked around to see where Fluttershy went and spotted her tail peeking out from behind a curtain until it was pulled behind it. "I… I can't. I'm too scared." She whimpered from behind the curtain.

Twilight cautiously walked towards the curtain. "But you have talked a full-grown dragon before." She tried to reason with the hidden pegasus.

"That was because it was something natural. This creature is a fire breathing pegasus that eats meat! What he likes to eat ponies too?" Fluttershy said with a voice clearly shaken in fear.

Twilight didn't want to accept that it was a pony doing this, but she continued to reason with Fluttershy and sighed. "But if you don't come, think of all those animals that might get eaten by this creature."

There was a brief pause of silence. Fluttershy slowly came out from behind the curtain with watery eyes. "O-okay. I'll go… for the animals' sake."

Twilight was relieved that she got through to her. "Don't worry, we'll do the rest to deal with this creature. You just handle speaking to the animals and helping them out."

Just then the rest of their friends, minus Rainbow Dash, came into the room. "What in tarnation is goin' on here? We all heard Fluttershy running and screamin' all the way ta this here library." Applejack asked wondering what had happened to spread such a panic in the frightened pegasus.

"It had better be urgent. I hadn't had my full rest of beauty sleep. I was awaken hearing the poor dear shouting for you, darling" Rarity told Twilight.

"Just probably got startled by an ol' shadow or Angel messin' with her again." Applejack guessed the reason for Fluttershy's panic attack.

"Sorry to say, Fluttershy's panic is legit. The po… err, I mean the creature has been spotted near a town towards the west of Equestria. It attacked some ponies and was seen… how do I say this, hunting other creatures." Twilight explained.

"Wait, you mean actually hunting to eat other creatures? Sounds bad." Applejack said now nervous about this thing they are going up against.

"Those other ponies weren't…" Rarity hesitated to say if the news about them were grim.

"They are alive, but they are severely injured. I don't know how severe, but if we can find these victims, we can get better information about this monster." Twilight said feeling this would answer all their suspicions on this creature. She wanted to prove it was not some kind of abnormal hybrid or mutant.

"B-but Mr. Mocking Bird said it was…" Fluttershy tried to explain.

Twilight placed a hoof on her back. "Don't worry Fluttershy. I suspect that your bird friends thought it was a pony because it's hard to tell what big creatures are compared to their size. The world would seem big and scary to them. They would probably think Sweetie Belle would be a fire breathing pony." Twilight said disregarding the word, or tweet of a bird.

"But… but I…" Fluttershy still tried to tell them her opinion on the matter.

Twilight interrupted her with a task. "Fluttershy, we need you to go get Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale and bring her back here. We will get everything we need to go to this town where this creature was first spotted and then find any clues to what this thing is."

Fluttershy was not one to argue much when given an important task. "Oh, okay then." She acknowledged. She still wanted to speak her mind, nut was too afraid from their new quest to find this creature.

"Now girls, you all go back hoe to get everything you will need and meet up at the open field. I'll send Spike to go get us a travel balloon to ride in. Make sure you only bring the essentials that you may need to use against this kind of creature. It may be anything, so try and decide what would be important to bring. Fluttershy, be sure to tell this to Rainbow Dash as well." Twilight told her so Rainbow Dash wouldn't be left out of the plan.

"Will do, sugar cube. Ah best take my special gear if this thing is uh meat eatin' varmint." Applejack said before turning to leave for her farm.

"I might have to bring special grooming supplies if we do happen to get in a fight with this thing." Rarity said fearing that in a worse case scenario, a fight would leave her looking dirty and in a mess. She trotted out the library to her boutique.

"And I better take my party cannon. As they say; you can't have a quest without a party cannon." Pinkie Pie quoted.

"Pinkie, no pony says that." Twilight tried to reason with her.

"Well duh, silly. No pony says that, but a party pony does." Pinkie giggled followed by a snort before hopping out to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight only sighed hoof-facing herself.

"I… I'll go get Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy said flying out to head to Cloudsdale.

Spike sighed. "I guess I'll go get the balloon. It's not like I already planned for a day to relax." He pouted.

Twilight chuckled. "Oh Spike, I'll be sure to give you the day off after we finish this quest." She promised her dragon friend.

"With a triple decker gem cake?" Spike asked raising his side of the deal.

Twilight rolled her eyes but agreed since it might take a long time to complete the quest. "Fine, a triple decker gem cake." Twilight nodded and placed a hoof out to make the deal.

Spike shook her hoof. "Oh, and a new comic book?" He tried to add another request to the deal.

Twilight gave a frustrated frown. "Don't push it." She warned.

Spike took back his hand and chuckled nervously. "Uh, right. It's fine, I needed to finish reading my other comics anyways." He said before bouncing out in a run to find a travel balloon to rent out.

Twilight was left alone to pack all the things she thought she would need. First of all, she brought a few books of every creature known to ask the ponies of the town which creature they may have seen. Also, some blank books to take notes of what this creature might be if it was a new mythical creature they hadn't seen before. Then, some ink, quills, and camera to take photos of this creature. She wanted to be the first to publish a book of something that had never been seen before. She imagined how proud Celestia would be of not only stopping this creature, but discovering it as a newly discovery to science.

With everything ready, she made one last stop to the kitchen before finding some snacks to take and headed out the door to meet everyone at their meeting point. "I'll show them all it is just the imagination of others to believe in abnormal monsters."

Over the lake of a vacant spot in the western wilderness of Equestria, Dragonbond splashed out of the water with a mouthful of large salmon. He flapped his wings as he paddled to gain some speed to start running on the water to lift off and out of the frigid morning water and back to his hoard. One that had yet to be filled.

Dragonbond soon returned to his hoard. Claw was out getting his own breakfast. This gave Dragonbond to rethink his plan to find a treasure to claim. Not knowing how to find another dragon's cave since they would be far apart from each other, it would take a long time to locate one. But then there was the land of the cyclops. Surely there would be much treasure there for the taking, but still there is the matter of finding a great treasure. He would have to check more places for that kind of information. Maybe there are archaeological sites where many stories or fabled places where treasures could be found.

That would have to be for another time after taking a trip to the land of the cyclops. It was heard that the cyclops died years ago. That is not to say they were extinct in this land. For all he could expect, there could be a whole hidden lot of them in that land.

Since Dragonbond needed to get this treasure on his own, he figured he could leave without waiting for Claw. He would carve a message in the wall of the cave for his brother to know where he would be heading. Last he remembered; the land was a bit of a straight shot to the south east of his location. It was said that the land was easy to find with its towering mountains surrounded by a jungle. Dragonbond was sure he wouldn't be able to miss it. With it being out in the middle of nowhere and no creature would make a settlement nearby such danger, he would be safe to fly high and spot it from above.

Dragonbond did as planned to make a carved message in the wall to his brother on where he would be going. Next came the harness that held his special fused gem close to his chest. Then he put on his clothing to cover his blank flanks and the marks on his shoulders. He placed his cloak in a bag of his that would later hide his scaly wings. Finally, a quick meal of his fish before beginning his journey to the land of the cyclops. He flew out of the cave and made straight for the direction of his next destination.

As Dragonbond flew, he surveyed the ground to beware of any settlements that may spot him. He flew as low as he could to keep a low profile and to fly high enough to spot any settlements. His dragon sense of sight allowed him to spot any movement from afar. His pupils turned to slits and expanded to zoom in his sight. Then they started to glow a bit brighter to look for heat signatures. He could see the birds and some animals through the gaps of trees on the ground. Nothing resembling ponies of any kind that would see him. His eyes changed back to normal to resume his natural sight.

For a moment, there was a small light shining from the side of him. He turned to look but saw nothing. Was it the reflection of some nearby water source that reflected the sunlight? He turned to face forward and saw the small light shining from the other side. He tried to turn quickly, but once again it vanished before he had a good look at it. He looked at the sun's direction, but it was not in the position to have any light that would reflect back at him like that. He looked back forward only to have a small ball of light rise up in front of his face. Dragonbond yelped and missed a beat of his wing to throw him off and begin to fall. Flailing his limbs around trying to regain control. He quickly managed to recover and pull up before hitting the ground.

Dragonbond looked around to try and find out what it was that seemed to attack him. He landed on the ground waiting for anything out of the ordinary. Then across from him and down from above came a small ball of light. Startled from thinking it attacked him earlier, Dragonbond blew fire at it. It only managed to go passed and through it to start burning the bushes and trees behind it. The light seemed to look panicked as it flew frantically over the fire as it was helpless to try and put it out. Dragonbond also knew if he didn't put it out, it would bring unwanted attention. He quickly used his scaly wings to snuff the flames out and kick dirt onto the fire.

Soon the fires went out and the smoke ceased. Dragonbond looked back at the floating light as it hovered next to him. It didn't seem hostile and appeared to have calmed down. That just raised questions to why it acted the way it did around him while he was flying. Now that he had a better look at it, the small light looked familiar. Like the ones he saw in the Elder Dragon's cave. Dragonbond didn't think that was possible as it could only stay inside the cave where the crystals were. "Where… how are you out here?" He asked the ball of light. He didn't expect an answer as he was just speaking out loud rather to the ball of light. But it did respond.

The light circled around his chest, Dragonbond sat back to lift his shirt to reveal his fused gem on the harness. The ball of light would enter inside and exit out of the fused gem to explain where it came from and how it was able to travel around with him. "Huh, a stowaway, I guess. I wonder what spirit you are." He asked it now knowing it had some sorts of replies. The light hovered next to him on his side. Dragonbond remembered that was what one specific ball of light always did in the cave. "Oh, it's you then. Well at least I won't feel like I'm alone without my brother." Dragonbond said giving an amused chuckle.

Dragonbond then went to a stream to wash his wings and hooves from the soot and smoke. "Well At least I know now that you have a sense of humor to scare me out of the sky like that. Shame I won't be able to come up with a counter prank since I don't know how to prank a spirit or be able to tell if you can have any reaction to one at all." Dragonbond said as he finished cleaning himself. "Well then, we should get going. If we are to travel together, you'll need a name."

Dragonbond walked over to a large patch of long grass to wipe his wings and hooves on as he started thinking of a name. Remembering back to how he thought the light was just reflecting the sun's rays. "Ray. That's you name now. Ray. Does that sound good enough?" He asked the light. It's only response was a bobble. "I guess that is a yes." Dragonbond said as he prepared to fly. "Now let's continue on our journey." With that, the light flew up alongside Dragonbond to continue the travel in the sky.

They once again flew low enough to keep a low profile but high enough to look over the land for any signs of the cyclops' land or any settlements. Once they reached the Jungle surrounding the cyclops territory, they could fly higher since no sane pony would make a settlement near something that belonged to a titanic monster. First, they had to avoid certain locations on the way. After crossing the river, they had to take the pass over the mountains and over a desert between Somnambula and a Rock Farm. There they would find a river and follow it upstream to reach the split and head downstream of the southeast river that would lead straight to the cyclops territory. At least that is what the map said. Once reaching the surrounding forest, they would be able to fly high and spot their destination. If all goes according to plan, this would be an easy and quick trip. He wouldn't have to fear his new companion from being harmed since it was a spirit.

Elsewhere, the traveling balloon had reached its destination of the small town where the incident had occurred. Thanks to the blue pegasus, she was able to save a lot of daylight by pulling the balloon. Now she needed to stretch out her wings after all that flying. The first thing they did was ask some pony about the incident. Twilight walked to the nearest pony.

"Excuse me, can you tell me anything about a fight that happened recently?" She asked the stallion.

The stallion seemed to have frozen from the question as his eyes grew a bit wider. "Are you here to capture and contain the monster?" he asked in a hushed tone as if he didn't want to be heard by any pony around.

"Well… sort of, but we are investigating what it was that came through here. Did you see what it was?" Twilight asked for any clues.

The stallion shook his head. "Only a few had seen the beast, but the ones you would want to speak to are still in the hospital." The stallion said pointing in the direction of the town's infirmary.

Twilight was hoping for more proof that it was not something unnatural, but at least she was getting closer to a reliable source. At least she hoped it was still reliable. "Thank you for you help." She said. The stallion only turned and trotted off in a hurry with no reply.

"Ah, how rude." Rarity said not appreciating the Stallion's manner of leaving.

"Well at least we are close enough to the truth. Let's head for the hospital." Twilight said leading the way.

On their walk, they noticed the tavern that was still under repair. Ponies, around the area, still looked spooked about the incident. "Land sakes. This here town look's more shaken than uh rattle snake's tale." Applejack said seeing the uneasiness of the town's folk.

"Are you sure this wasn't some weird pony beast?" Rainbow Dash asked Twilight.

"How did you hear about that?" Twilight asked knowing she didn't tell her about that.

Rainbow Dash pointed to Fluttershy. "Flutters told me on the way back to meet you guys up back in Ponyville."

Twilight roiled her eyes with a sigh. "It's not some hybrid fire breathing pegasus. The logic of any pony breathing natural fire is impossible without some magical enchantment. Even then, a pony would burn from the intense heat. And the thing about having wings made of long scales to look like feathers is impossible as well. No pony ever recorded in history or even in mythology had wings like that. I feel this whole thing is a hoax to scare all these ponies for some reason to gain something." Twilight refused to acknowledge that there was a chance that this thing was as Fluttershy said it was.

"Ah hope yer right sugar cube." Applejack said hoping it was a hoax. The thought that this creature was indeed a fire breathing pony rattled her nerves.

Soon they entered the hospital and were led to the ponies that fell victim the creature. Fluttershy had her bag of extra medical supplies in case she could help the injured ponies. It was a terrible sight to see some of their legs still broken and covered in bandages. They still looked as if the fear was still in their eyes since that day. Rarity looked away unable to take in the sight. Fluttershy sat on the side of one of their beds with her bag. Applejack took off her hat in respect for them.

Twilight attempted to speak to them. "Hello? Can you hear me?" She asked checking if they were responsive to her voice. The one in the center bed slowly looked over to her. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, pupil of Princess Celestia of Canterlot Castle. We came here to investigate what happened involving a creature that attack you." She enlightened him on their sudden visit to his room with the other victims. Fluttershy started to help them in any way she could with her medical supplies.

The stallion's expression sparked with terror having been reminded of that traumatizing moment. "It was no creature. This was a demon." He began as best as he could remember. "It moved like no pegasus or pony I have ever met or even hear of. We thought it was some kind of bat pony, but found out it was something far worse that we could even begin to understand." He continued to describe it as best he could to the girls. Spike was hiding behind Twilight feeling this was getting scarier than he anticipated.

"Sir, you might be mistaken. Those injuries must be affecting your memory to…" Twilight started to rationalize the injured stallion.

The stallion rose from his bed and grabbed Twilight by her horn to pull her closer to his face. "Look into my eyes! I know what I saw! I'll never forget those eyes!" He said making her stare into his eyes to see he had no reason to make it all up. "Those eyes that burned with the flames of the underworld! Those razor, sharp teeth made for tearing through flesh like a knife on butter! A growl that would make a timberwolf shake every twig in its body. Then that roar, I'll never forget that roar that can make every bone in your body tremble." The girls started holding onto each other in fright feeling that this stallion was telling the complete truth. The fear that gripped his eyes told that every word he spoke was his truth. Fluttershy was hiding under the bed with her hind quarters sticking out.

Twilight was starting to think he was telling the truth, but she needed him to be sure if that was what he really saw. "Are you sure this is what you saw? A pony pegasus that is as you described?" she questioned him.

"Fraid so." Said the town sheriff who was standing at the door. He was a grey unicorn with a mustache, hat, and vest with a star on it. "I questioned each of them when they were well enough to speak. Though they all were still scared out of their wits, their stories never changed and all of them were the same as the other's story. First, we thought they were talkin' about a changeling, but from what witnesses said, his eyes glowed red and his strength was too great to be a changeling. Even in a pony's form, no changeling could roar that long and loud." The sheriff said backing up their stories.

"B-b-but that's impossible." Twilight said in disbelief. "I've read through every bestiary and encyclopedia of both animal and mythical creature. There is nothing relating to anything that can be what this creature is." Twilight said feeling at a loss and slowly losing a grip on reality when science, logic, and knowledge was failing to prove what she knew about what this creature was. She remembered Celestia dream about it having to do with dragons, but it was impossible since every dragon she heard about were cruel savage creatures.

"Can ya tell us what he or it looked like?" Applejack asked since twilight wasn't mentally fit at the moment to speak.

"From what I gather from the town's folk, this supposed pegasus was two shades of greens. Darker green on his legs and he had some sort of dark green diamond shape on his head. His mane and tail were long. Red on top and black on bottom. His eyes were as red as the color on his mane and his wings could have been the size of the princess' wings. He wore pants and a shirt so no pony could see his cutie mark. But what some could see, he had a line of a dark shade of green that ran down from under his chin and down underneath his shirt. It was longer than the rest of his coat. That last thing some said about him was that the feathers on his wings looked like they were long scales than feathers." The sheriff described the pegasus creature.

This puzzled the girls greatly. It sounded like a pegasus for the most part, but there were some features of the description that was off about what kind of pony or creature they were dealing with. With the diamond dogs saying it was a pegasus breathing fire and this town witnessing that this pegasus more of a monster than a pony, it was far beyond a doubt that this unknown type of pony could hold the traits of a dragon. That meant Celestia's dream was telling them that this was some kind of dragon pony.

Spike could hardly believe it. After his encounter with the dragons, none of them told about a story of a pony living among them. That would be a hard subject even for them not to bring up. There must have been a group of dragons none have ever heard about outside the land of Equestria. A group of them that had managed to fly here and take a foal back with them as one of their own to raise among them.

"Thank ya kindly. We'll find the one responsible fer all of this." Applejack said giving them their gratitude for their search for this dragon pony.

As they were leaving, Twilight was still trying to make logical sense of it all on how a pony could act and acquire the traits of a dragon. "You alright there, egghead?" Rainbow Dash asked flying next to her.

"It just doesn't make any sense. A pegasus raised by dragons and breathing fire? How could this thing eat meat? Ponies can't eat meat. It would make us sick." Twilight continued to rant to herself.

"Ew, eating meat just sounds like a yucky ducky." Pinkie Pie said sticking her tongue out with a gaging expression.

Some nearby ducks quacked at them with sour faces. "Oh, she meant no offense. We're sorry if we offended you" Fluttershy told them. The ducks nodded and waddled away.

"We have to find out where this dragon pony is staying. Fluttershy, you ask these here critters if they have seen the dragon pony and where he might be stayin'." Applejack said.

As Fluttershy went to talk to the animals around the area, the other girls tended to Twilight's mental breakdown. Rarity had taken a nearby bag for Twilight to breathe in. "Just take deep breaths dear. Calm and relax." She assisted her friend.

Twilight did just that to ease her nerves and mind and think more clearly. "Thanks." Twilight said feeling a bit better from her panic attack. "Okay, somehow, there is a fire breathing dragon running around causing all this trouble and is able to travel fast and avoid detection. So far, we have a description of what he looks like. Now they said that he fought at the tavern. We should go there and find out what he was doing there and where he is going." Twilight said letting them know the entire scenario of their updated mission.

"Tavern, right. I could really use a drink." Rainbow Dash said taking out a bag of bits.

"Rainbow Dash, we are here ta find uh dragon pony and where he is goin'. Not start havin' uh good time at every tavern we come to." Applejack scolded.

Rainbow Dash clutched the bag of bits close to her. "Hey, it's my bits to spend. Besides, I pulled the balloon all the way here. I deserve the break." Rainbow Dash said flying a head start to the tavern.

Twilight sighed. "Just let her do it. There is no reasoning with her." She said feeling it was pointless and a waste of time to argue with the pegasus.

Fluttershy caught up with them with urgent news. "Twilight! I found out where he is living!"