Author's Notes:

Okay, this is a slower chapter. I wanted to establish a bit more for you guys by answering more questions and showing more of Draigo's abilities. If this leaves you with questions, please ask them. It'll help with developing Draigo even further.

Hope you enjoy this latest installment.

Draigo’s dreams were filled with bipedal creatures that seemed familiar, but he could not recall what they were called. They had no fur and wore a wide variety of clothing in just as many colors and designs. Some even wore armor and weapons.

He looked around to try to assess where he was. He was in what seemed to be a castle’s common area. There were signs and these creatures everywhere. Draigo was about to go ask one what was going on and where they were when he noticed his own form.

He was bipedal and armored in iridescent plates that formed something similar to his scales. Draigo reached up and felt a helmet as well. Looking down he saw a sword in its scabbard strapped to his waist. Bringing the sword out a bit revealed it wasn't made of metal but some material that was far too smooth and light to have been smithed. His legs were covered in the same armor as his arms and torso. The only thing standing out was the piece of jewelry around his neck. It seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

He awoke with to the sound of a multitude of hooves coming closer to him. Thankfully it wasn't an army, just a really big herd of ponies. It didn’t take him long to realize that Twilight and her friends must have organized this so the town could come and meet him as he'd suggested. Before the group got too close Draigo rose up and stretched, joints popping could probably be heard by all of the ponies even at this distance. He didn’t want to startle them with his size quite yet, but his limbs were a bit stiff from sleep. After his nice stretch, Draigo laid back down and folded his wings in while assuming the least threatening posture a dragon his size could manage.

Once the group got close enough, he could see that it was indeed Twilight and her friends leading the herd of ponies towards him. It seemed like every single citizen came out to see what/who had flown overhead and scared them yesterday evening. Draigo even noticed a small purple and green dragon whelp among them. Huh, I didn’t expect to see a dragon living among ponies like this. There’s usually a big commotion about it and none of these ponies even flinch when they’re so close to the whelp.

Soon enough the group stopped and the girls and the purple whelp continued forward. Figures that they are still a little nervous since there’s an unknown dragon around. One can hope, but no one can change the instincts that a natural prey item has around an apex predator. You can only let them get used to one being around.

“Good morning, girls. Good morning, little whelp. I did not expect to see a dragon in this town," Draigo said when the group was close enough that he didn’t need to shout to be heard.

“Hey, don’t call him names!” Rainbow said coming to the defense of the young dragon.

“What name? Whelp or wyrmling is what we call dragons of his apparent age," he explained.

“Oh, sorry," Rainbow apologized.

“It’s alright. I'm sure this town doesn’t get dragon visitors very often, if at all. So, most ponies wouldn’t be familiar with the terminology that dragons use. Anyway, did you girls have a plan or was this going to be a spontaneous Q&A session?” he said while looking at the nervous group of ponies in the distance.

“It’s basically going to be a Q&A session. You are free to answer or not answer a question though we’d appreciate you answering as many as you can," Twilight said.

“Ah, I see. It seems like the adults are the most cautious. So, would you mind if I made a request?” he asked.

“As long as it’s reasonable," Twilight

“I'd like you, girls, to get some foals to come over with you to break the ice. It doesn’t have to be many. I just know that if everyone here sees that I'm not going to do anything to the foals that the adults will relax more and come forward with their own questions," Draigo explained while trying to assess the overall feeling of the crowd of ponies.

“We know just the ones for the job," Applejack said.

“Good, please bring them over.”

With that Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack went into the crowd and returned shortly with three fillies in tow. Rainbow had an orange and purple pegasus, Rarity had a white unicorn with a curly purple and pink mane, and Applejack had a yellow and red Earth pony. The last two he assumed were siblings of their older counterparts. Draigo did notice that all three fillies were missing their cutie mark, though. Huh, thought by now they’d have them. Well, all things in time.

“Draigo, this is ma sister Applebloom," Applejack said introducing her charge.

“This is my sister Sweetie Belle," Rarity intoned.

“And this is Scootaloo," Rainbow said introducing the last of the three.

“It’s nice to meet all three of you," Draigo said laying his head on the ground so the ponies didn’t have to get cricks in their necks from looking too far up all the time.

The three fillies spoke at the same time, with different accents and variations, but the message was the same 'Hi, Mr. Draigo'. It's amazing how many accents are in this one town.

"I'd like you to choose one question each, for now. Choose whichever question you'd like me to answer the most. You'll be able to ask more questions afterward," he said hoping that with three questions the rest of the ponies would feel more comfortable to approach him. He was prepared for it to take many more, though.

"Could ya help us get our cutie marks?" Applebloom asked.

"How old are you?" Sweetie Belle followed up right behind.

"Can you do tricks like Rainbow Dash?" asked an expectant Scootaloo.

A deep chuckle escaped his lips. Ah, the innocence of children. He did his best to show as little of his fearsome teeth as possible while he smiled so as to not frighten them.

"Yes, I can help you discover what your cutie mark is. The last count I had on my age put me at 13.8 billion twenty-six, give or take a few hundred million years. I can do some tricks that Rainbow Dash can and some she can't do. Would you like to see one?" Draigo said nonchalantly. He hoped that they would forget about his age so they wouldn’t freak out any more than necessary.

"Yes, please."

"Uh huh"

"What's it going to be? Some aerial maneuver? Breaking the sound barrier?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.

"No, I'll perform a trick right here. Pick one kind of jewelry. Earrings, a bracelet, a necklace, etc. I'll then make that for each of you." Draigo said as they grew very eager. The two with sisters looked at them before receiving a small nod each. Looks like it went as I hoped.

The three fillies huddled together to figure out what they wanted. It didn't take them long, though. They broke their huddle with wide smiles on their faces.

"A necklace!" the three said in unison.

"Okay, a necklace it is," Draigo said as he summoned three crystals from the ground.

"Hold still for a few moments please."

Once they'd done so he levitated the three crystals close to their necks. Draigo then wrapped each crystal around until it made a custom fit necklace for each filly. He let the crystals sit and settle for a second and then enhanced them. Draigo decided to make them hard as diamond and as tough as steel.

"There, those necklaces will survive almost anything. I've left them as plain crystal but once you get a cutie mark. I can put that into them if you'd like." Draigo said, figuring they'd love the customizable and durable but pretty jewelry.

He wasn't sure what their reaction would be, but a giant gasp and then glomping as much of his face as possible was really surprising. There hadn't been many who were comfortable enough to give him physical affection while he was in this form. Draigo smiled and returned the gesture by putting a single claw around them as they clung to his face.

After they separated everyone seemed to relax a bit. It was at this time that he remembered another youngster whom he had forgotten to meet.

"Now, before I forget again. What is your name, little wyrmling?" Draigo asked the small dragon standing next to Twilight.

"My name's Spike Solaris," Spike answered.

"It's good to meet you, Spike. My name is Draigo," he said as he looked over at him.

"Is there anything that you would like to ask me, Spike?"

"Well, I've always wanted to know who my parents were. I doubt you'd know though so it's okay," Spike said in a bit of a depressed way.

"I may not know who your biological parents are, but I created the dragons on this planet. So Spike, how's it feel to meet your maker?" Draigo said while trying to hold back a chuckle. His joke was horrible, but he couldn't help but laugh a bit.

This little revelation had shocked not only Spike but everyone else as well. Hopefully they didn't hear that bad joke then. He waited until someone, anyone, shook off their shock enough to say something. While he waited he decided to exercise his powers a bit and create a copy of Spike, out of earth, in front of him. It didn't take long to do since he didn't go into the greatest of detail, but you'd have a hard time telling the difference at a glance.

The revelation must have been more shocking than he thought though since they were still shocked to the point of not being able to talk or give any other reaction after a few minutes. Maybe I shouldn't have told them that? Oh well, it's already been said. Maybe if I dropped some water on them they’d come out of it. Draigo tapped back into his power and brought all the water from their town water tower. He separated the water into two blobs to get the two groups of shock victims at the same time. He brought the blobs of water over each group's heads and let it fall on them. If that didn't bring them out of their shocked state, he doesn't know what would.

The ponies gasped and then looked at him with irritated expressions. So, he once again manipulated the water to condense back into one big blob and back into the water tower. This left the ponies dry once more but staring at him.

"I can manipulate all of the elements," Draigo said in explanation to the unspoken question they were obviously wanting the answer to.

"Now, Twilight. I know that you want to ask me a lot of questions right now. I'm going to limit you to three questions, though. The reason being that if I answered every question your nerd brain could think of we'd be here for years," he said to preemptively cut off Twilight. Draigo had assumed from her enthusiastic response yesterday as well as going silent while obviously still thinking things over that Twilight was a nerd.

"Argh, fine but I'll be asking more questions later on," Twilight.

"That’s fine. Go ahead and ask once you've figured out which three you'd like answered right now," he said.

"Why is there another me here now?" Spike asked.

"Ah, I decided to make a copy of you out of earth, to practice my dragon creation power, while you were all just standing there," Draigo explained.

"Okay, here are my questions. Did you know Starswirl the Bearded? What should I know about raising dragons? How does your magic work?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, I knew Starswirl but he didn't know me in this form. Dragons need lots of high-calorie food for them to grow properly. Gems are an excellent source of calories, but they are needed in a high number if eaten by themselves. Also, plenty of exercise for when his wings grow in. Eventually, he'll need a bigger living area than he has right now. Spike's going to get to be very big, eventually. Nowhere near my size but bigger than any building I can see in this town. If you build him something that is big enough for my size then he should be fine. He'll also have to develop his own 'hoard' sometime. It doesn't have to be items or anything physical just something he values. Finally, be ready to help him practice his fire breathing and other normal skills as he grows. His fire breath will get more potent and his size changes will make him seem clumsy because he's not used to being that size. My magic works according to my will. I think of what I want to happen and it happens. I don't have to move a muscle if I don't want to. With each form I take, my magic changes a bit. When I'm in a smaller form I have a lot more detail and precision. While I'm like this I can move a lot of mass at one time but I'm not as precise," Draigo expounded upon all those who were listening. "Spike, have you eaten any meat since you were hatched?" he asked.

“No, meat isn’t something ponies are comfortable preparing or procuring,” Spike answered.

“We’ll be changing that sometime in the future. Now, does anyone else have any questions?” Draigo called out.

"Why are you here?" asked a random pony from the crowd.

"Were you the one making all that smoke yesterday?"

"How long are you staying?"

"Where are you staying at?"

"What's your favorite music and favorite color?"

"Do you have a special somedragon?"

"Where do you normally live?" the last pony said then the questions died down while they waited for his answers.

"I came here to drop off Twilight and her friends. I did cause the smoke yesterday and it should dissipate sometime today. I'm going to be staying, now, to visit some old friends that live in Equestria and keep an eye on a few interesting developments. I'll be staying for an indefinite amount of time and I'm not sure where I'll be staying, that's still to be determined. My favorite music depends on my mood, but I listen to rock more often than others. My favorite color? Well, I don't really have a favorite color. No, I don't have a special somedragon because no dragon lives as long as I do and it'd be too easy to make them do something that they don't necessarily want to do. I'm normally moving between different caves, but I did hide my nontraditional hoard inside one of them. As such, I have many places to call home but I don’t have a place to stay near here."

"Well, y'all are welcome to come stay with my family and I at Sweet Apple Acres. It's the only place in town that somedragon your size would be able to fit. Course, you'll have ta meet the rest of ma family. They're still at the farm workin’ the orchards," Applejack piped in.

"Thank you, Applejack. That's very kind of you," Draigo replied while standing up.

"Well, let's get a move on then. We're burning daylight," Applejack says as she began to trot off towards home.

"Everyone, if you see me around town don't be afraid to come ask me more questions. I look forward to getting to know each of you better," Draigo said as he began following Applejack while turning the copy of Spike into dust.

It was difficult walking through town at full size so Draigo decided to shrink down to about the size of a house. It was much easier, but he still had to mind his tail. If he wasn't careful it would cause a lot of damage to his surroundings.

They were both quiet as they walked through town. Draigo was taking in the buildings and businesses that they passed and Applejack was concentrating on getting back home.

After a while of walking the buildings grew sparse and a wooden fence with a sign above an opening appeared. The sign read 'Sweet Apple Acres' and the space between it and the buildings was just big enough that Draigo could go back to his full size, his tail was still between two buildings, though.

"Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Draigo. We grow the best apples in all of Equestria," Applejack said with an excited tone.

"Thank you again for letting me stay with you and your family, Applejack," Draigo said as he walked over the fence since the sign was too low for him to walk under.

"Well, I'm afraid that the biggest room that we have is out in our barn and even that's not gonna be big enough for you. We'll think of somethin’, though. Now, I'll be introducin’ ya ta ma two other family members, Big Mac, and Granny Smith. Granny is, of course, ma granny and Big Mac is ma older brother," Applejack explained.

"Well, I can always either shrink my size or change into another form. If that'd be less of a hassle for you," he commented idly while looking the property.

"Can ya really do that? You said so earlier, but none of us were sure you were serious. If'n ya could, that'd be mighty helpful," Applejack responded.

So, right before Applejack's eyes he shrunk down to about a head more than Celestia's height. He remained on all four legs since it's still a more comfortable posture, unlike teenage dragons nowadays. Her expression while he did this was priceless.

"I can shrink and change form, but I really do appreciate the ability to be at full size if needed. So, thank you once again for your hospitality," he said once he was done shrinking and by her side.

"Well, if that don't beat all. The others are gonna be mighty surprised when they see ya like this," Applejack commented.

"I'm sure they will be and that Twilight will have even more questions for me because of it," he responded.

"Yep, that's Twilight for ya. Always trying to learn somethin' new," Applejack said with a cheerful tone.

"Is there anything I should know about before meeting your family?"

"Well, Big Mac doesn't talk a lot and Granny tends to forget things but they're mainly just regular ol ponies. Though Granny will probably put ya ta work since y'all are stayin' with us."

"Ah, that does make sense since you live on a farm," Draigo said as a large wooden building appeared over the hill. It was much larger than the houses were back in town. Out on the porch in a rocking chair sat an old green pony with her mane up in a bun. She was peacefully rocking back and forth until she spotted the pair walking towards her.

"Well, it took ya long enough with that meetin' ya had ta go ta. Now ya come back with some young dragon in tow. He yer new special somepony there Applejack?" Granny Smith said curiously.

"Hay no! He's new in town and don't have a place to stay. I offered ta let him stay here since before jus' recently he was bigger than our house," Applejack quickly responded with a slight blush of embarrassment.

"Hello, my name's Draigo. It's nice to meet you, Granny Smith. Just so you know, I’m much older than you think I am. You have a lovely home with lovely scenery," he said while gesturing to the house and fields around it.

"Why, thankee Dago. We're simple apple folk, but we do what we can. Now if'n yer stayin' with us then I'd like y'all ta help out with some chores," Granny said.

"Of course, I'll help out as I can. There will be times that I won't be able to help, but hopefully those are far between each other," he said letting the name mistake slide since she's probably hard of hearing.

"Well, even Applejack has those days. Speakin' of which, Applejack, why don't you go introduce our new resident to Big Mac. You two can then help out until lunch is ready," Granny said while pointing in the direction we should go to find Big Mac.

With that, they headed off to find Big Mac. It didn't take long to find him since he stood out from everything else. He was a large, red earth pony with a straw colored mane and tail. He was busy bucking apples from trees then putting the baskets full of apples into a nearby cart.

"Hey, Big Mac. This here is Draigo. He'll be stayin' with us fer a while," Applejack said introducing him.

"Howdy, Draigo. It's nice ta meet ya," Big Mac said in his deep voice.

"It's nice to meet you too, Big Mac. What can I do to help?" Draigo asked.

"Ya look strong enough, even at this size, ta buck apples. So, why don't ya try that. Jus go over to a tree and kick it as hard as you can," Applejack suggested.

"Alright, let's give it a shot," he replied.

Draigo stepped up to a tree that still had its apples, turned around and kicked it. He ignored what Applejack told him and used about a quarter of his strength, he knew his full strength would've been too much. The tree was whole but completely uprooted and lying on the ground as a result. He quickly went over and picked the tree up. He put it back in place and manipulated the earth so it seemed like nothing happened.

Applejack and Big Mac had both seen what happened. They came rushing over to see if the tree was damaged. They both let it out a relieved breath when they noticed no lasting damage was done.

"I think I'll just use my powers to get the apples down for now," Draigo said as he looked at the two relieved siblings.

"That might be a good idea, Sugarcube. Was that your full strength?" Applejack asked before going back to work.

"No, that was about a quarter of my strength at this size. At my full size, I’ve yet to find a challenge for my strength. Now, how many trees do you want to do before the day is done? I know lunch is going to be soon, but I'm wondering the end goal for today," Draigo asked as he readied his magic.

"That was only a quarter of yer strength?! Remind me never to get on your bad side. As for the apple trees, well, we usually don't keep track. I'd say we'd want at least fifty trees done before dinner this evening," Applejack said over her withers as she bucked a tree after recovering from his newest revelation.

"Okay, fifty it is then," he replied as he applied his abilities to fifty trees within his sight.

A few minutes passed before an army of apples came floating over to the two Apple siblings. They stared in amazement at the amount of apples before them. Draigo walked over to them and sat down. He let them stare for a moment longer.

"You said fifty trees. This is fifty trees worth of apples. Now, where do you want these?" he asked.

"Uh, huh? How'd you do that? I thought you manipulated the elements?" Applejack asked in amazement.

"There's water in apples, right?" he asked.

"Eeyup"

"I simply manipulated the water inside the apples. At this size, I'm limited on the amount I can manipulate but I'm much more precise. This isn't even my limit. I think I could get about triple this amount and still be fine. I’d have to be really careful, though," he replied.

"Well, alright then. Put those apples over in the barn then come back and do some more. We've got about 2500 apple trees and they all need to be harvested within the next three weeks."

"Okay, I'll be back. This'll be done within the week if I keep to just one trip per day at this capacity," he called over his shoulder as he walk towards their barn.

Granny Smith apparently saw the mass of apples floating through the air because she was at the barn by the time he got there.

"Hello, Ms. Smith. Is there a certain place you'd like me to put these apples?" he asked as he approached the barn.

"What in tarnation? How're those apples floating in the air?"

"Oh, right. That's me. I'm using my magic to help out since I'm a tad too strong to buck the apples out of the trees," he replied.

"Okay, then. How many trees is this anyway?"

"This is fifty trees worth."

"Well, lansakes. It usually takes all day to get that many bucked, gathered, and put away. If'n ya can do this multiple times a day then we'll get this harvest done in record time," Granny replied in astonishment.

"I'll do his best, ma'am," he said as he put away the apples with the others he saw inside their barn.

Granny was walking back to the house when he exited the barn. Draigo walked back to the where Applejack was and continued the same pattern as before. This continued for another couple of hours when they heard ringing coming from the house. Applejack and Big Mac set down their baskets and brought the cart back to the barn to unload it. They then headed to the house for lunch.

Lunch was a simple fare of sandwiches, apple juice, hay fries, and some gems for him. It was nice being able to sit and talk during a meal, it's something Draigo’s missed over the years. The first time this happened was with Celestia and Luna. That meal had a different atmosphere due to them still getting used to ruling a nation, though. This one was relaxed and easygoing, a dragon could get used to this.

Shortly after lunch was done they could hear somepony singing. As the singing got closer they saw that it was Pinkie Pie singing while bouncing towards the house. Once she saw them on the porch she waved and headed in our direction.

"Awwww, you shrunk. I even made a super-duper huge cake for you," Pinkie said once she got close enough to see it was truly Draigo next to Applejack and not some other dragon.

"Don't worry Pinkie I can increase my size very quickly. Now, is there something you came here for?" he asked the pink party pony.

"I came to officially invite you to your 'Welcome to Ponyville' party. It's going to be at eight at the public park and everypony is going to be there. Don't be late!" Pinkie said as she hopped in circles then left just as she came, singing a different song. Draigo could make out the words 'Dragon, dragon. Rock the dragon. Dragonball Z.'

Those words stirred something inside of him. They seemed so familiar yet he couldn't recall where or when he'd heard them. It would come back to him sometime, hopefully.

*********************************************

It was time to leave for the party. They had gotten a lot of work done so everyone was able to go at the same time. Pinkie had said that she made a 'super-duper huge cake' for him. Knowing this Draigo grew back to his full size in front of the house and extended a wing to the ground. This made the two members of the Apple family who hadn't seen his full-size freeze until they saw Applebloom and Applejack walking up his wing and onto his back.

Once everyone was on he gently ascended into the sky and took off toward the park. Draigo set a leisurely pace so that those who weren't used to flying could enjoy the ride. Especially since his body is wide enough that they don't have to look at the passing ground below them.

It didn't take him long to spot the park since it was a huge open area with party decorations galore. There was plenty of space for him to land and to stay at his current size. Pinkie had taken into consideration both his size and the space that the ponies would take up so no one felt crowded.

After a gentle descent and landing, he let his passengers off. They were greeted by Pinkie and went down to the main party area. There were a lot of ponies and there were quite a few who seemed at ease around him, but a lot were still uneasy. Heh, it’s their loss if they either aren’t comfortable around me or just plain don’t like me. Either way, fine by me.

In the middle of everything was a three tier cake that was just the right size for him to eat like a single slice. There were other cakes around that one for the ponies to cut up and distribute. There were also multiple punch bowls, candy, pinatas, pin the tail on the pony, and a dancing area. A white unicorn with purple sunglasses was at a mix table keeping the music going.

Draigo took his cake and went to an area where he could watch all that was going on, without getting in the way. He would have joined them, but he was afraid of ruining their fun. Besides, he enjoys people watching, well ponies in this case. He munched on his cake as he watched them party. The cake was a nice rich devil's food cake with chocolate buttercream icing, one of his favorites.

A few ponies walked up to him to welcome him to town. He thanked them and wished them well. There were others who came over to take a picture with him. He enjoyed posing for those photos, especially the ones who asked me to look fearsome. Throughout the night he enjoyed watching the antics of the ponies, especially when it involved Pinkie.

As the time progressed the ponies started to filter back into town. Draigo had finished his cake awhile ago and was now just watching the ponies and chatting with those who wanted to talk.

Eventually, the Apple family came over and he extended his wing so they could climb on. He followed the same routine as before. Making sure to be gentle and smooth with every movement.

They arrived back at their house with an uneventful flight back. He shrunk back down so he could fit through the barn doors and was shown where he'd be sleeping.

The hay loft of the barn was fairly clean and had some blankets and a pillow set out for his use. It's not as bad as it seemed at first, though. They'd given him a nice pillow and blanket, they seemed fairly new. There's also plenty of straw that he could use as a mattress. Compared to caves and their stone floors this was great. He’d have to find a better solution eventually, though. Maybe create his own place on the outskirts of town or just commission his own place. For now, he’s got a comfortable situation. He can even practice with his magic in practical situations instead of his own created ones.

There is one thing that he noted. The night feels better than they have for quite awhile. It feels safe. The moon and stars are more lively and inviting. He decided to spend a little while gazing at the night sky before retiring for the night. I'll have to thank Luna for her beautiful night when I see her again.