"Thou hath befriended the dragon?! Sharky! This borders on betrayal!" Luna looked pissed as I showed her Esmerelda.

"Whoa! Calm down! It wasn't her fault that the houses were being burnt down!" Luna blinked at me a few times.

"So, this is not the dragon responsible for the attacks on Stalliongrad?" I frowned.

"Well... I didn't say that... She did attack, bu--"

"Then she is an enemy Sharky! Thou should be slaying her!"

"Wait! It wasn't her fault! A unicorn blacksmith was making her do it!" Luna snorted.

"Tis impossible! The only spell strong enough to hold a dragon must be cast with the dragon's cooperation!"

"Yes... it's true... I let him cast the spell that bound me to him..." Esmerelda confessed. I gave her a confused look.

"You let him control you?"

"No! It wasn't like that... You see, Forge had been my friend... I found him wandering all alone in the mountains, starving and dying of thirst. I took him in... saved him..."

"Well... then how did this 'Forge' manage to control you?" Luna asked.

"We became good friends... He... he started taking small trips out of the cave one day... each time he came back, he seemed more angry... he talked about becoming rich... Then, one day when he came back... he asked me if I trusted him... I said yes. He asked me if he could preform a small spell on me... he wouldn't tell me what it did or why... but he kept asking me if I trusted him... He tricked me. I ended up bound to him and unable to keep from attacking the town..." Esmerelda broke down into sobs as she finished her tale. Luna looked upset as well.

"Oh... I apologize for thine troubles... Sharky, it appears you have surpassed expectation once again."

"No problem Luna. If you could just inform the train of the defeated dragon, that'd be fantastic. I don't want to spend more time away from my friends than necessary." Luna nodded.

"Very well Sharky... Again, I apologize for thine troubles..." Esmerelda nodded to Luna.

"Thank you miss. That means a lot to me..." Luna opened her mouth again, but no words came out. She simply nodded then hung up. Esmerelda sniffled a few times before wiping her eyes. She gave me a small apologetic smile. "I cry too much don't I?" She gave a short laugh. I walked over to her and patted the talons on her right foreleg gently.

"No, it's fine. You've been through a lot it sounds like..." She nodded.

"I have..."

"Now... I have a question... You look different from any adult dragon I've seen. Why is that?" She swallowed audibly to cut off a few sobs.

"Oh... that's an easy one... You see, dragons can grow with extreme feelings, or with age." She turned her head to look down at me. "I'm willing to bet that you've seen masculine-looking dragons with huge spines that walk on all fours, right?" I nodded. "Yes... those dragons are either greed, rage, or aged dragons. They are so common, and they give the rest of our race a bad name."

"Oh, so those dragons are the only bad ones?" She nodded.

"Only those, and the rare case of an unordinarily grown dragon, cause anypony trouble." She sniffled a few times. "I, am a compassion dragon. I love being nice and helping ponies... but they usually run away from me screaming... I didn't have any friends until I met Forge..."

"Aww... I'm sorry Esmerelda... What about other dragons? Don't you have any dragon friends?" She shook her head.

"Nice dragons like me are hard to find, and it's impossible to befriend those greedy, crotchety dragons..." She unconsciously lifted me up with the foreleg I had been patting and held me to he chest. The blood on the bottom of her talon was dried.

"Huh... this is what it feels like when I lift the girls..." I mumbled to myself. It was nice. Warm. I could get used to it.

"So, you said something about getting back to some friends? What are they like?"

"Oh! You'd really like them! Let's see... There's Twilight, she's a unicorn. She really good with magic..." I droned on about my friends. Esmerelda seemed really interested, She asked plenty of questions, and always wanted to know more about them. She seemed very interested in Blaze.

"A dragon-pony?! That's amazing! How was he concived?!" I blushed deep red.

"Ah... I never really asked that... neither did he I think..." Esmerelda seemed disappointed.

"Huh... Well darn. Oh, sorry... That question must have been akward for you, wasn't it?" I shook my head.

"No, it's alright. I wonder that myself sometimes... Oh well, not too important I guess. Anyway, the last friend of mine is Spike. He's a baby dragon."

"Ooooh! You know a baby dragon?! How?"

"Well, my friend Twilight magically hatched him from an egg." Esmerelda gave me a confused look.

"The unicorn? How did she get an egg?"

"She had to hatch it to get into some magic school or something like that. Celestia let her keep the baby dragon."

"Celestia! That old girl's still kicking huh? How is she?" I gave her a confused look.

"You know Celestia?"

"Why of course! I met her about... 300 years ago was it? She was one of my best friends!"

"... You were friends with Celestia while Luna was imprisoned?"

"Who's Luna?"

"Celestia's sister." Esmerelda blinked at me blankly. "Nightmare Moon?"

"Oh! That one! Yeah, Celestia was always upset about her... I didn't know she was her sister..."

"Yeah, Luna is the mare I just talked to actually."

"Ah, it all makes sense now..."

"So, you said something earlier about greed and age dragons walking on all fours... Don't all dragons do that?"

"Why of course not! Most of the nice dragons like me walk on two legs. Like you!"

"Then why are you on all fours right now?" She laughed.

"Does this cave look tall enough for me to stand in?" She pointed to the ceiling and accidentaly hit it with her talons. "See? Can't even raise my talon in here..." She looked down at me. "So... you said you wanted to get back to your friends soon yes?"

"Yeah, I do. Sadly, the train won''t be here for almost two days. It still has to finish it's trip back to the town behind Rutville, then come here..."

"Well... umm... If... if you think it's ok... I think I would like to meet these friends of yours..."

"Of course! I don't think you can get on the train though!" I joked. Esmerelda gave a short laugh.

"Actually... I was going to offer to fly you back..."

"YES! I mean *ehm* Uh... sure. He was wondering what it would be like to ride a dragon this whole time." Esmerelda frowned at me.

"What was that?"

"Oh... just excited about riding a dragon... sorry."

"No, not that, the voice. Why did you change your voice?"

"Ohhhh... Sorry... That voice is my other personality. I have two people in my head, normal me, then Steven. Steven is a prick, don't listen to him if he talks."

"So... the deep scary voice is really another person?"

"Well... kinda. Anyway... about flying..."

"Oh yes! Please, come with me." She set me back down on the ground and walked out of the cave. As soon as she was out, she stood up on her back legs and stretched out her arms. If she had been tall on all fours, she was TALL now. She stretched out two huge, translucent blue wings. I could see faint violet lines running through them, and the light of the sun passed through them. It cast eerie, but pretty shadows across the floor of the cave. She leapt off the ledge, flapped her wings, and flew off. I ran out to the ledge.

"Hey! What about me!?" Esmerelda circled the mountaintop and came back around.

"Jump off the ledge!" She shouted as she flew by.

"Are you insane? No way bitch! Ok!" I went back to Forge, removed my sword from his chest, and strapped it to my back. Then I sprinted forward and leapt off the ledge. I was falling freely for a few seconds, then Esmerelda appeard below me. I feel right on her neck, inbetween two spines. I immediately groaned in pain from the racking I had just recieved, but then grabbed the spine in front of me.

"You holding on tight?" Esmerelda asked excitedly.

"Yeah!"

"Good! Where is this Ponyville?"

"It's just a little distance away from Canter--"

"Ooooh! I haven't seen Canterlot in ages! Let's go there first!" With a mightly flap of her wings, we blasted off into the sky.

Well, let's face the facts here. I'm a physically enhanced badass that rides a dragon and can cast magic. Face it. I'm Eragon!

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Esmerelda was fast. Not rainboom fast, but near it. What was even more impressive, we had been flying for several hours, but she didn't even seem to be winded. We had left all the iceland behind, and she was flying relatively low to the ground so that I could breathe. I couldn't help but laugh every time we flew over a town and ponies scattered everywhere.

"So, you know where Canterlot is?" I asked. I was trying not to talk too much while we had been flying. I had to strain my voice to be heard over the sound of the wind rushing by us.

"Why of course! I used to visit Celestia all the time!"

"Why don't you visit her anymore?"

"There was a huge war between dragons and ponies about a century and a half ago! Celestia told me to go into hiding! Say, that war isn't still going on is it?"

"No, no war. Why didn't you check sooner?"

"Well, I would have, but I knew it was still going for the first 40 years! After that, I had to take my first century nap! When I woke up, I was too scared to check! Forge told me though! I was going to check after he was fully healed and went back to his town... that won't be happening now..."

"Right... I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault... well, it is your fault, but you did the right thing..."

"Ok... so, how long until we reach Canterlot?"

"Right abooooout... now." She flew around a mountain we had been heading towards. On the side of the mountain, was Canterlot.

"Oh... I guess I should've seen that! Well, lets... land in the royal gardens!" Esmerelda nodded and started a gentle descent towards the castle. We passed the many towers of Canterlot castle, then touched down next to the hedge maze. Esmerelda leaned down and came to a rest on all fours. Guards came pouring out of the castle and rushed into the gardens. One of them, brandishing a spear threateningly, approached Esmerelda. He was a white pegasus dressed in gold armor. Like the rest of the guards I had seen in the show.

"What are you doing here dragon?! You know your kind are not allowed near our land! Leave or die!" I stood up on Esmerelda's neck and ran up to the top of her head. I stood up just over her eyes.

"Well! That's quite the greeting to my new friend!" The guards that had gathered in a small semi-circle around Esmerelda all gasped.

"Sharky?! Are you mad? Is this some kind of attempt to attack the castle?!

"What? No! Do I look like an idiot to you? Esmerelda is nice! She's a compassion dragon!"

"... I don't know what that means, and I don't care! Bringing a dragon into Canterlot is forbidden!" The guard yelled at me. I leapt off of Esmerelda's head and landed in front of of him. He gasped and almost fell backwards. He ended up dropping his spear harmlessly to the side.

"I don't see why! I heard there was some dragon war a long time ago or something, but it should be fine now."

"Yes, but they are still considered enemies! Get her out of here! Celestia's going to--" Celestia dropped out of nowhere and landed next to me with a boom. She was facing Esmerelda.

"Greet my old friend!" She said with a smile.