How to Train Your Pony Chapter 1

A/N A small, cute, accident-prone visitor has appeared in the skies over Berk. How will she get home, will Berk still be standing after she leaves, and why is Hiccup so willing to overlook the calamities she's causing?

o

Sometimes, it felt so good to get away from everyone and just fly!

Toothless probably felt that way all the time, but he wasn't capable of saying so. He never made any objection when they had to fly on official business, like delivering messages or helping Hiccup on his missions with the Dragon Training Academy. But there could be no question, his favorite thing of all was just to get saddled up and drill holes in the clouds for an hour or two. Hiccup couldn't think of anything he liked better, either. Well, maybe a kiss from Astrid, but not much else.

Sometimes he'd suggest moves or aerial tricks he'd like to try, and sometimes he'd just let the dragon do whatever he wanted. This morning was one of the latter. Toothless was in a crazy mood, and he was re-enacting the first time he'd ever flown with Astrid on his back. Except for dunking Hiccup in the ocean, he was recreating that wild flight in perfect detail. Hiccup just hung on for the ride. He'd be a little dizzy and disoriented by the time he was done, for sure. But most of it was fun, it wasn't anything he hadn't endured before, and anything was better than getting stuck on the ground, putting up decorations for Bork Week, like the rest of the teens were doing. Sometimes it was handy to have a dragon that had to have his help or it couldn't fly.

They were plunging earthward in a flat spin. Hiccup held his breath and counted to five. When he got to five, the dragon spread his wings and their descent stopped instantly. Hiccup nodded; he knew every detail of that flight, right down to the timing, because that flight had changed his life, Astrid's life, and eventually the life of every Viking on Berk. Now they should slowly soar upwards until they were just below the cloud layer. That was the part where Astrid would have reached up and run her hand through a cloud for the first time.

Sure enough, up they went. The dragon had this flight memorized, too. But before they got within touching distance of the clouds, Toothless suddenly jerked to the side. A flash of lighting shot by them; the thunderclap came almost immediately. Dragon and rider both looked upward, surprised – there weren't any storm clouds in sight!

All he could see was one darker spot in the cloud layer that was visibly pulsating. Pulsating? That was strange! The dragon noticed it at the same time, and growled. "Let's check that out, bud." Toothless had barely begun climbing when another lightning bolt flashed out of that pulsating cloud. This one went straight down and didn't pass near them, but enough was enough. "Toothless, I think we want to get above that cloud." The dragon snorted his agreement. He flapped hard, and they rose up through the murk until they broke through the top and could see again.

What they could see... made no sense. Some kind of flying creature was bouncing up and down on the clouds!

It wasn't a dragon; Hiccup was sure of that much. It looked something like an ordinary Viking pony, except it had feathered wings like a bird. It was gray, with white markings on its flank and a bright yellow mane and tail. There was something unusual about its eyes, but Hiccup couldn't quite figure out what. As it jumped up and down on that one patch of cloud, it made odd springy noises, and every few seconds, another lighting bolt would flash downward, as though the pony was dislodging the lightning from the clouds by bouncing on them.

As Hiccup and Toothless circled closer, the pony finally noticed them. It looked up with a smile.

"Derp," it said.

o

The six teens and their dragons stood in a circle in the dragon training ring, staring at the gray-and-yellow pony. The pony smiled back at them; she didn't seem to mind being the center of attention.

"Okay, we'll start at the beginning," Hiccup said. "What did you say your name was?"

"Derpy," said the pony in a childlike voice. "Derpy Hooves." She hung her head sadly. "Well, that used to be my name. Some mean people want me to change it because they don't like it."

"Huh," said Hiccup. "I guess the real questions are, where are you from, how did you get here, and how can we help you get home?"

"Where am I from? Everybody knows that! Ponies all come from Equestria."

Hiccup glanced at Fishlegs, who looked thoughtful. "I've read about all the islands and villages around here, and I never heard of that one. Is it a long ways away?"

"I don't know; I've never been away from there," the pony said. "Isn't this part of Equestria?"

"No, this is Berk, and I think you're a long way from home," Hiccup said. "We've never seen anybody like you before. Our ponies don't talk, or fly, or jump on thunderclouds."

Derpy started to answer, but Tuffnut cut her off. "Jump on thunderclouds? How does that work?"

"That's easy! I'll show you," said the pony. She flew out of the ring and found a small cloud that was floating above the village. "This is what you do!" she called down, and began bouncing up and down on the cloud.

With her first bounce, a lightning bolt flashed down and hit one of the Bork Week banners, setting it ablaze. The second bounce caused lightning to strike a house; the family inside ran out screaming. With the third bounce, the lightning bolt connected with the mast of a ship in the harbor, blackening it and giving its crew a nasty shock. On the fourth bounce, the lightning backfired and blackened the pony, who stopped bouncing. "Derp," she said, surprised.

The twins looked at the destruction, then at the smoldering pony, then at each other. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Ruffnut grinned.

"We have got to try that!" Tuff nodded. They jumped onto their dragon's necks. "Barf! Belch! We need to find a cloud!" They flapped heavily out of the ring.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "That'll keep them occupied for a few hours," he shrugged. "Derpy! Can you come back down here, please, before you level the whole town?"

"Okay," she called, a bit sadly. She swooped back into the ring and skidded across the floor, finally crashing into a sleeping Meatlug. The Gronckle awoke and gave the pony an irritated look.

"That's quite some power you've got," Astrid commented. "You were starting to tell us how you got here?"

"I don't know," she said. "I think Twilight was trying something new she read in a book, and maybe she didn't get it quite right. I remember lots of swirly colors, and a big bang noise, and then I was here."

"How did twilight do that?" Snotlout asked. "It's not even close to sunset yet."

"Sunset Shimmer is close by?" The pony was looking wildly all around her, suddenly very afraid.

"I think we're having a problem communicating," Hiccup sighed. "I know there's nothing dangerous around here, so you don't have to be afraid, little pony. But maybe you should tell us more about twilight and how it got you here."

"Twilight Sparkle isn't an 'it,' she's a 'she'," Derpy said indignantly. "She's my friend. She reads books and does great tricks."

"Is Twilight another pony like you?" Astrid asked.

"Well, yeah!" replied Derpy. "Everybody knows that!"

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere," Hiccup said. "We've got a faraway land, we've got a bunch of talking, flying ponies, and we probably have some kind of magic at work. Sure, why not?" He rolled his eyes. "Do all ponies have strong powers, like you and this Twilight?"

"Only the unicorns have powers," Derpy answered. "The land ponies and the ones like me, the pe-ga-sus-es... pe-ga-sus-es... I always have trouble saying that."

"If it's from the Latin, then the plural might be 'pegasi'," Fishlegs suggested.

"We don't have powers," the pony went on.

"You seemed pretty powerful a minute ago," Astrid said. "You and that thundercloud were a one-pony wrecking crew."

"I just like to bounce on clouds," Derpy replied. "We pe-ga-sus-es... pe-ga-sus-es... we can do that. It's fun."

"Maybe you could take a break from bouncing on clouds for a while?" Hiccup asked. "We'd like to help you get home, but we'd also like it if you didn't burn down the town around us."

The pony hung her head. "Did I do something bad?"

"No, no, you just... maybe you need something to eat? Ponies eat grass, right?"

"If we have to," Derpy replied. "What I really like is muffins."

"I... don't think our baker has made any muffins lately," Hiccup said slowly. "But we've got plenty of grass. If you fly out of here and look to your left, you'll see the sheep pastures. I think that would be a nice, safe place for you."

"Okay!" Derpy exclaimed. "I love little lambs!" She flew out of the ring, changed direction by bouncing off a rocky promontory, and glided down to the lower pastures.

"I think we need to keep an eye on that one," Astrid began. "She's dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Hiccup scoffed. "I don't think she even realizes what she's done. She's obviously a child!"

"She's a dangerous child, then," Astrid went on. "Remember that lightning storm we had, back when we had metal all over the village? Remember how bad that was? Now imagine what would happen if that 'child,' and five or six more just like her, all started jumping on clouds at once. They could burn this town to ashes in a day! This pony looks innocent, but she might be Alvin's latest scheme to attack Berk."

"Alvin's –" Hiccup broke up laughing. "Oh, please! Can you imagine Alvin trying to work with someone as small and innocent as her? He'd terrorize her! He'd get nowhere."

"Okay, then what if these ponies are trying to invade Berk themselves?" she went on. "They control lightning, they have magic... what could we do against them?"

"We have our dragons," Hiccup said. "Don't we, bud?" Toothless growled in agreement, and Stormfly also let out a dragony noise.

"That's another thing that was weird," Fishlegs cut in. "That little pony was surrounded by our big, scary dragons, and she wasn't afraid of them, even a little."

"That is strange," Hiccup agreed. "I think we need to talk to this Derpy some more, and find out more about her and where she's from. But let's stop assuming the worst about her, okay?"

"Hiccup," Astrid growled, "do you remember the last time a cute female appeared out of nowhere in Berk? You're acting the same way you acted towards Heather – you're making excuses for her and ignoring the potential for trouble. I seem to recall warning you last time, and being right, and getting ignored, and not liking it."

Hiccup hung his head. "Point taken. You're right. If you want to keep an eye on Derpy, go right ahead, and if you see anything suspicious, I want to know about it."

"Now you're talking sense." She picked up her axe and headed for the exit.

"Astrid, wait a second! There's something else I remember from the past," Hiccup exclaimed as he ran to block her way. "Remember the baby Typhoomerang, and how angry its mother was when she found us? I don't want a repeat of that situation, either. This pony might have parents who jump on clouds too, or her friend with the magic might show up. If they come looking for her, we don't want them to find us terrorizing the little one. Like you said, they could be powerful enemies.

"Try not to antagonize her, Astrid. Leave the axe here. Try to be subtle."

"Subtle?" Astrid smirked. "I'm a Viking! I don't know what that word means."

"Then fake it," Hiccup said. "Until we have a better idea of what's going on, let's keep our eyes open, but no declaration of war, not yet. Astrid, I know where you'll be. Fishlegs, talk to Gothi and see if she's ever heard of talking ponies, or Equestria, or anything that might help us figure this thing out. Lout, take Hookfang and make sure the twins haven't electrocuted themselves."

"What will you be doing, Hiccup?" she asked.

"Oh, I've got the fun job. I get to explain to my dad about those lightning strikes, and why we can't punish the one who's responsible."