Chapter one - The Blue Visitor
Peter’s life was forever changed by that one moment. That one moment where he swore he heard a sonic boom within his own bedroom. It wasn’t something like Exploding Head Syndrome that he had read about. After all, Exploding Head Syndrome only made you think there was a sonic boom next to your ears. It didn’t send rattles through your furniture, gusts of wind sending papers flying into the air, or bits of plaster onto the floor.
“What the hell?” Peter asked, immediately turning around. It looked like something had flown into his room. Something much much bigger than a simple bird that might have flown in through the window. (Funny, it wasn’t even open...at least, as far as he knew)
His eyesight was eventually guided to the wall, where he spotted her. Or more appropriately, it. At first, he saw a rather large dent on the wall that looked big enough to have been made by a person practically. He looked towards the floor, where he finally saw the creature that made the dent in the wall.
It was what could only be described as a pegasus. However, it seemed smaller than a conventional pegasus - something that he probably couldn’t ride on for sure. The creature did not look natural at all, yet there it was right in front of him.
Sky blue fur with matching feathers. A matching rainbow mane and tail. And unusually enough, a rainbow mark on its flank. The creature looked to have been knocked out. He looked back and forth at the dent in the wall, and then at the stunned creature. That must have been why. Maybe it was like a parrot and stunned easily.
Finally, the creature came to, standing on all of its four legs and shaking bits of plaster from her fur. (At least, he didn’t know the creature was female at the time.) Much to his surprise, rather than attack him or cause further property damage, the creature spoke.
“Ugh! Whose bright idea was it to put a wall right there?!” The creature complained, stamping a hoof on the carpet, “Sheesh, everything is so small in here...how do they stand it...”
“Er.... well if the wall wasn’t there, I’d be having strong breezes blowing through the house and the occasional patch of rain making everything damp.” Peter said, still not quite believing what was going on, or what he was seeing. The creature still seemed a little fazed from hitting the wall, some of the items that lined his shelves knocked out of place, and of course the aforementioned dent that would require a bit of plastering. “That aside though, are you ok?” He knelt down beside the pegasus. “If that was anyone else hitting the wall at that speed, they’d either have the mother of all concussions or be stone dead.”
“I’ll be fine... you should really redesign the place, or at least put a window into avoid more accidents like this.” She shook her head, her rainbow mane flapping about.
“Er yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.” He said. “Anyway... one, I should really be asking you where you came from - it’s not everyday that a rainbow pegasus comes crashing into my house. It sounds like the weird dreams my friend has... although in all fairness he’s most probably dreamt of a whole lot weirder - I still can’t get over the dream he told me about the other day, Mexican vampires taking on Scottish werewolves whilst on board a spaceship that was hovering close to the sun - how would the werewolves even be werewolves, and how would the vampires not be burning to death... oh great, now he’s got me questioning his logic!” He cursed under his breath. “Let me start again... what’s your name?”
She laughed at the description - if only because of how silly these foreign words sounded to her. The pegasus proudly stood up to Peter and spoke.
“Name’s Rainbow Dash. What’s yours?” She asked.
“Rainbow Dash? That sounds rather weird. I’m Peter,” he answered.
“Weird names? Ha! You’re one to talk!” Rainbow Dash responded, laughing, “I’ve never heard anything like THAT before, and I’ve met gryphons with names more like yours, too!”
“Eh? Gryphons? They exist too?”
“Half eagle, half lion, all awesome!” Rainbow Dash said, holding a hoof up and waving it the way one would pump a fist. She looked at Peter a bit weirdly - he had held his hand out to her, thinking she might have wanted to shake hooves.
“Huh?” She looked at Peter’s hand, “What? Is there something in there?”
“I thought you wanted to shake hands-err hooves!” Peter noticed she didn’t actually have hands. “It’s..normally traditional to shake hands when you meet somebody for the first time.”
“Seems rather odd,” Rainbow Dash said, turning to her side and holding a wing out for Peter’s hand, “See? How’s this work?”
“I guess that’ll do, I half expected you to shake hooves with me.”
“That’s rather odd after all!” Rainbow Dash said, retracting her wing.
“You’re telling me.” Peter said under his breath as he looked at the pegasus. “So... if you don’t mind me asking, what brought you crashing into my home? I really wasn’t expecting company today, and even when I get company it’s usually human... sheesh, it’s almost like something from the stories I write.”
“Stories?” She cocked her head. “You don’t look like much of a writer. There’d be some sort of indication if you were.”
“Indication? Like what?”
“Like this!” She showed him the rainbow lightning bolt and cloud mark that adorned her flank. “Though I guess humans wouldn’t have it in the same place.”
“Well normal people wouldn’t go around looking at other peoples butts to see if they had some kind of tattoo.” Peter responded.
“I have no idea what a ‘tattoo’ is - this is a cutie mark!” She said, tapping the mark.
“Ok... but yeah, I do a fair bit of writing. Usually stuff in which a person usually gets turned into an animal of some sort.”
“Transformation? Wouldn’t you need to know a whole lot of magic to do something like that?”
“It’s fiction, I don’t really change the person. I mean it would be amazing if I really could turn someone into a dragon or a gryphon or a Pokémon or a Sergal...”
“Woah woah woah.” She interrupted him. “Dragons and gryphons I know, but I’ve never heard of a Pokémon or a Sergal. What do they look like?”
“Hoo boy... well a Pokémon isn’t just one creature - there’s over 640 of them...”
“Over 640?! Then why have I never seen any of them? I bet some of them must be pretty cool looking!”
“That’s because they don’t exist outside of video games, anime and fan art. And yes, some of the Pokémon designs are pretty badass.” He said, motioning over to a poster that had a Lucario on it.
“That thing does look pretty sweet. And what about Sergals?”
“They aren’t real either - they’re a species made up by an online artist. They’re otherworldly creatures which can only really be described as being based upon several real world animals. I’ve got a couple of pictures laying around.” He motioned to those as well - one of them having what could only be described as a rape face. Rainbow couldn’t help but shudder a little at that sight.
“Brr... that thing looks worse than Pinkie Pie after she’s guzzled down seven bags of sugar!”
“Who’s Pinkie Pie?” Peter asked
“My friend!” Rainbow Dash said, “One of them, at least.”
“Who’re your other friends, then?” Peter asked, sitting down on his chair. This was becoming rather intriguing.
“There’s Pinkie Pie, the hyperactive one who loves to party. Twilight Sparkle who knows everything when it comes to magic. Rarity, a bit of a drama queen but she has a heart of gold for sure.”
As Rainbow Dash spoke, she paced side to side a little. Peter couldn’t help but watch her - intrigued still.
“...Applejack who works on the apple farm and works hard providing apples for all of Equestria and Ponyville. Then Fluttershy who is another pegasus like me. She’s shy but not if you threaten her.”
“Then what, does she go psycho?” Peter asked, imagining one of his characters making a Dilandau-face and going psycho on someone.
“What’s a Psycho?”
“Someone who is crazy!” Peter said, “And Violent! Uh...like this!” he tried to make the best Dilandau face he could, forming a crazy smile and looking at her.
Rather than take several steps out of fear, Rainbow Dash simply laughed.
“That’s the silliest face I’ve ever seen! Even more than what Pinkie Pie did!”
“Well you can’t blame a guy for trying, can you.” He smirked. “But in all fairness, I can’t imagine anyone making a face worse than that thing.” He pointed back to the picture of the Sergal. “Only in art and anime could anyone make a face that freaky.”
“Oh you’d be surprised - you haven’t seen Twilight when she gets mad. There was one time she got so ticked off where she literally turned white, and her mane and tail set on fire!”
“White, and a mane and tail on fire?” Peter couldn’t help but think of something else. “So for that brief moment, Twilight evolved into a Rapidash?”
“Rapidash? That sounds like some kind of bad nickname someone would come up with for me!” She said defensively.
“Hold on...” Peter grabbed his 3DS, loading up the Pokédex 3D Pro as he searched through it. “This is what I’m talking about!” He showed her a picture of the equine Pokémon.
“Woah, that’s uncanny!” Her jaw dropped as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves. “How long has this Rapidash thing been around for?”
“If you lived in Japan, 17 years. If you live in the UK like I do, 13.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind, if Twilight saw something like that she’d flip - that’s if she wasn’t busy taking that thing apart. She goes cuckoo over doodads like that.”
“If she was to tamper with it and break it, she’d be getting the repair bill.” He chuckled.
“This is a little easier than I thought,” Rainbow Dash thought to herself.
“Say you wanna-”
“You want to see the rest of the place?” Peter interrupted her.
“What? Well sure!” Rainbow Dash said, “I do hope it’s bigger than this room.”
“Well, you’ll have to deal with claustrophobia for a little,” Peter said, “We don’t exactly design our houses to be something you can fly around at over a zillion kilos an hour.”
“What?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Never mind.”
* * *
Chapter two- Humans through Pony eyes
“Well this is the front room!” Peter said as he walked ahead of the pegasus, the two going down the stairs in unison as she looked over the room. It was around three times the size of his bedroom, so there was more room for her to move about in.
“I gotta admit, you’ve got some pretty cool stuff here.” She looked at the TV set-up he had, a couple of consoles set up nearby as the shelf underneath was loaded with various games, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. “Must have cost a fortune - yet you really don’t look like the type of guy that has a job.”
“Eh, I pay for some of these things with what I make from my writing. My parents and my friends usually help me out in that respect too, so I’m nothing special.”
“I’m guessing this is one of those TV things?” She tapped the edge of the 32” screen with her forehoof. “A pony I know is always going on about these kinds of things - she’s crazy obsessed with humans, she claims that people ‘watch us’ or something.”
“Heh, a pony who obsesses over humans? If I ever met her, I could always tease her with all the stuff I’ve written... though in all fairness, I usually write stories of people into animals, animals into humans isn’t my thing.” He smirked. “And yeah, this is a TV - you might want to hover back a little.” He told her as he grabbed the remote control, turning it on. Almost immediately sound blared through the speakers, the cyan pegasus thrown back by the sound that was being emitted.
The TV was showing something that could only be called “Most Annoying Sound”. It was someone dressed up like a stereotypical opera singer chasing people while singing.
“GO COMPARE!!! GO COMPARE!!!!”
“What is this thing?” Rainbow Dash shouted, “Why is he chasing them?”
“GO COMPARE!!! GO COMPARE!!!”
“...Perhaps that was the most awkward thing to turn the telly on to,” Peter said, several beads of sweat forming around his neck.
Thankfully for the both of them, the next few ads were something a little less annoying. Rainbow Dash stopped to watch these advertisements, cocking her head a little bit when one of the ad showed a person riding a horse.
Peter looked back and forth at the pegasus and the ad. That was most definitely an awkward scene, Peter thought. He could only imagine what kind of thoughts were going through Rainbow Dash’s head when she saw some stereotypical cowboy riding a horse. She was about to say something, only for an ad about a Spaghetti Western to come up next, once again showing people riding on horses firing guns at people.
“Wow, these ponies...look so weird,” Rainbow Dash finally said when the TV cut back to the normal programming, “And why is it so sudden, too? This is like something Pinkie Pie would create.”
“Well, we call those advertisements, and yeah, they’re obnoxious. They’re designed to be, to get your attention. Like that Go Compare guy.”
“How has he not been kicked?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I should show you the more recent stuff.”
Peter and Rainbow Dash watched the TV for a little while. After another few minutes of programming, the TV turned back to the advertisements. Rainbow Dash started laughing when another ad showed up.
This one was an ad for potato crisps, but it was a repeat of an ad from 20 years prior. While Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell, Peter just raised an eyebrow at it, and then started laughing at how ridiculous it was. The bag was quite obviously photoshopped - very very poorly at that.
“Oh my god, did you see that?” Peter said.
“What the heck is up with that thing?” Rainbow Dash laughed.
“It’s...well, lemme explain it, it’s some re-run of an ad they ran twenty years ago, and that paint job is...it’s horrible!” He laughed again.
“What about paint?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Well you’d have to have a look at it very closely - you should be able to see at the very least that the advert itself is old, you can see some film grain here and there, and the picture’s a little more blurry compared to modern stuff.”
“I’m following ya...” She said.
“And if you have a look at the product they’re advertising in question, you can see that the paint job makes it stand out like a sore thumb - it’s like the brightest thing in the damn advert!”
“Still not quite getting it, I mean I can see it stands out from everything else...”
“Hold on, this might help.” He pressed a button on the remote that brought up Youtube - with a quick search he was able to bring up the original version of the advert that some person had preserved on an old VHS tape.
“Ah yeah, I see now!” She couldn’t help but laugh again. “I guess attention to detail isn’t their strong point, is it?”
“Indeed. And if you’re curious to what this is, it’s a video sharing site called Youtube. You can search for videos on there, but the majority of the stuff you’re gonna come across is old adverts, fail compilations, music videos and episodes of TV shows - the latter two usually either get region blocked or removed as quickly as they’re put up. They don’t really understand what fair use means.”
“Huh, usually whenever we wanna watch something, we have to go to the cinema - I guess that’s one thing you guys have over us, better entertainment.”
“It’s nothing special, it took years for people to make this up.”
“What else ya got around here?” Rainbow Dash asked, after Peter shut the TV off.
“Actually....that’s pretty much it,” Peter said.
“What do you do in the clouds?”
Peter gave Rainbow Dash a really weirded out look.
“Wha?” He asked.
“The clouds. What do you do out there?”
“...Nothing?” Peter asked, “How could I do anything up there?”
“Awww man no wonder you guys live in houses so small!” Rainbow Dash responded.
“Well it’s bigger outside but I’m afraid people might look at you a bit weirdly.” Peter walked to the door, wondering what might happen if his neighbours saw a pegasus flying around the neighbourhood. He doubted there was a weirdness filter out where he lived strong enough people wouldn’t think anything of it.
“Don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash said as she followed Peter out the back door, “They won’t even see me!”
She seemed to take off at the speed of light. Peter blinked and missed her takeoff. He rubbed his eyes, then looked up towards the skies. Where the heck did Rainbow Dash go? Within a few minutes, he received his answer.
He could spot several rainbows appearing in the sky, seemingly painting themselves into the blue above. Peter squinted his eyes and nodded. It looked like Rainbow Dash was right there, leaving a trail of Rainbow right behind her. Peter looked around even more, expecting for some of the people living nearby to come out with cameras and cell phones to photograph the unusual occurrence outside. Especially when Rainbow Dash made a double rainbow appear right in Peter’s eyesight.
Just as soon as the rainbow appeared, they seemed to vanish. However, Peter could tell Rainbow Dash wasn’t done flying quite yet. She seemed to be flying higher and higher, rainbow trails eventually getting more and more narrow. Then, Peter spotted it.
At first, it looked a little like a plane was flying past. But then, the cloud of smoke seemed to get bigger. Bigger still. The thick cloud was headed towards Peter’s yard, like he was sucking it up with a vacuum cleaner.
Instinctively, he covered his eyes with his hands as the cloud seemed to engulf half of his house. He started to feel a bit dampened from the vapour, opening his eyes to what looked like pea soup fog. Except he could tell it wasn’t.
“How’s that?” He heard Rainbow Dash’s voice.
“Where are you?” Peter asked.
“Up here! Can’t you just climb up?” She asked.
“Uh, no?” Peter said.
“Boy! You really are weird!”
The fog started to vanish, however, it looked like something was ripping it apart like a piece of paper. The seam finally hit Peter, who looked up at the sky and saw Rainbow Dash right there, not one meter above him. She seemed to have pushed the cloud apart where he could see through the fog.
“Wow, I thought you could climb up the cloud,” Rainbow Dash said, “You’re like a unicorn or an earth pony.”
“I’m guessing aside from your prowess at clearing and controlling clouds, you can actually walk on them.” He asked as she kicked the last of the cloud vapor away. “If I wanted to walk on clouds, I’d have to bring a jetpack or something.”
“Are you sure you’re not able to walk on clouds? I can take you up to the sky and give you some pointers.”
“If you were to do that, you’d be sending me to a pretty nasty death.” He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Aw man... times like this make me wish Twilight was here, she’d be able to use her magic to let you walk on air. She can also magic up some wings, but that spell was pretty exhausting... not to mention it made Rarity around ten times more vain.”
“How would gaining a pair of wings make you vain?” He tilted his head.
“Well they were like giant butterfly wings - and she’s SUPER obsessed with keeping herself looking pretty. Take her anywhere near mud and she’s all ‘Oh my heavens, you expect me to go through that? My little hoovesies would get ruined!’” She said in a posh, prissy sort of voice, even flipping her mane mid-sentence.
“Hehaha - I’ll take your word for it then!” He grinned.
“Still, that was a nice workout! You have to let your wings stretch every now and then.” She finished ripping the cloud in half and landed on the ground in front of Peter, “What else you got?”
“Uhm...what about those clouds? Are you going to just leave them there?” Peter asked.
“No prob!” Rainbow Dash simply stood on her hind legs and then jump-kicked one of the clouds away, sending it back into the sky where it belonged. She did the same to the other cloud, while Peter watched, impressed. He clapped his hands when Rainbow Dash landed back on all fours again.
* * *
Nobody seemed to believe Peter at all when he described his strange new friend on Skype. All the time when he described Rainbow Dash, they just laughed and assumed he was talking about a stuffed animal or some kind of toy he found. It started to frustrate him a tad - it was that situation where he knew something was real but nobody would believe him.
Rainbow Dash seemed to find Peter’s habit of talking to people over skype intriguing. At one point, he went to get himself a snack, and Rainbow Dash hopped up to the desk. She looked over at the strange symbols on the keyboard. They looked so tiny, yet Peter seemed to be pushing the buttons with such great ease.
However, she didn’t have much luck with the buttons at all. When Rainbow Dash tried to hit some of the buttons, she realized just how big her hooves were compared to Peter’s minotaur-like fingers. She tried to hit an “R” to spell her name only to hit a dozen different keys at once.
She looked over this a few times. Darn, her name started with an “R”, not “ert”. She kept trying to start over, only to get a bunch of really really weird combinations. Rainbow Dash grunted, finally just hopping out of the chair after hitting a few more buttons.
“What was that?” Peter asked as he walked back in.
“Oh, your little writing tool doesn’t work very well. I have NO clue how you do it.”
“What?” Peter looked at the computer screen.
He noticed that Rainbow Dash had sent a message over Skype to someone, after hitting nearly every button on the keyboard. In the process of trying to type...something, Rainbow Dash had also hit the “Enter” key on something.
The person he was talking with even saw what she wrote, too. Peter couldn’t help but laugh a little at what Rainbow Dash apparently made him say.
“ert nnbcvcvbxnm,bxcvsdxcgv bv xc./m,n n”
“What the hell?” Peter laughed. He could only imagine what the person on the other side was thinking at seeing several messages pop up.
“Yeah! Your thing even started sending me messages too!” Rainbow Dash answered, “How the heck do you manage to write with that?”
“Well having fingers helps with that.” He snerked, sitting back down at the desk as he had to explain what just happened - he basically told his friend that he was grabbing something from his shelf and it fell on the keyboard, hitting a few dozen keys in the process.
“Looking from the design, I can guess Spike’d be able to use this with ease, it’s no bigger than he is. I could imagine that Gilda might be able to use it, but with those claws of hers I’d be surprised if she didn’t end up putting them through it!”
“So it sounds like that if you did have keyboards, you’d need to have other creatures doing the typing for you, or at least try to learn some fancy unicorn magic.” He said to her as he typed another message to a friend. As he did, he couldn’t help but notice that Rainbow was looking at him with a look of amazement.
“Woah, how are you doing that?” She asked.
“Doing what?” He looked at her confused.
“That - typing without looking at the keyboard thing!”
“Oh that? It’s called touch typing. I actually taught myself how to do so, considering I usually do a fair amount of multitasking. Means I can watch a video or play a game without having to spend my time looking at the keys to type.”
“That’s pretty awesome!” She grinned wide.
“It’s nothing that special, trust me.” He responded. “As said, it just helps me considering I end up doing a few dozen things at once, like talking to a pegasus whilst talking with a friend of mine.” He winked.
“Cool that you can talk to someone without having to be there.” Rainbow Dash watched Peter type a few messages over Skype.
“It’s like sending a letter, except you do it instantly,” he said.
“Spike does that EASY!” Rainbow Dash said, “He just breathes fire on it and sends it right to Princess Celestia.”
“...Shouldn’t that burn it instead of sending letters?” Peter asked.
“Nope! Not if you want to send a letter,” Rainbow Dash said.
“I didn’t think you could write letters...well, no offense.”
“Actually, I do it easily.” Rainbow Dash said as she seemed to dash off to another part of the room and picked up a pen. She flashed over to the computer and looked at the keyboard, gesturing for Peter to move aside. He slid to his left and Rainbow Dash started pressing letters on the keyboard.
“Huh, how do you erase?” She asked through clenched teeth.
“Hit the ‘Delete’ key.” Peter said.
“Delete? What’s that mean?”
“Uh...just press it.”
Rainbow Dash pressed the button labeled “Delete” and the incorrect letter vanished. Rainbow Dash smiled a bit and experimented with the keys a few times, deleting several words just to try retyping them in again.
“This is fun!” She said.
“You’re not going to actually send it, are you?” Peter asked.
“So what sends this letter?”
“Uh...you’re not going to send it to this...Princess Celestia that way.” Peter looked over her message.
* * *
Peter only meant to spend a little time on the computer, but he lost track of time - he got carried away showing Rainbow Dash a few fail compilation videos which had the two of them laughing themselves stupid (As well as having Rainbow question how people can be that stupid, and how they can shrug off some of the injuries they sustained). He knew that Rainbow was eager to take him to her world, but he wanted to show her at least one more thing from his world before the two of them left.
“So what’s this that you want to show me?” She asked, sitting on the bed as she idly looked over the pile of Pokémon plushes that sat on the side of his bed. She kept on looking at the Victini plush, wondering how a creature with such a small body could support a giant head.
“Just thought I’d show you a couple of the things I do to keep myself busy from time to time.” He said as he pulled out a large box, opening it up. Inside of it were what looked like several decks of cards.
“Cards?” She cocked her head quizzically. “From how many you have, you seem to have the same level of obsession as Twilight does with books.”
“Heh, well for these games you do need lots and lots of cards to do deck building and collecting. if you think that’s impressive though, look over there.” He pointed to a small stack of folders that sat next to his TV. “That’s pretty much every holofoil card I have that isn’t decked.”
“Woah, you’ve gotta be kidding me!” She gazed at the folder pile, counting at least six big folders. “How much money do you spend on these things?”
“Eh, it’s down to luck. Most of the times I’ll get good pulls from packs, whilst other times it’s down to trading. Anyway, which of these two do you want to try out?” He pulled out two smaller deck boxes from the large box, one labelled ‘Pokémon’ and the other labelled ‘Cardfight!! Vanguard’. “I’d suggest going with Pokémon, as it’s a bit easier to understand. Not that I’m trying to say that Vanguard’s hard either, but it might take you a few games to properly understand it.”
“How many games did it take you to understand that Vanguard one then?”
“Two. Then again I did watch a lot of the anime, so that helped.” He laughed.
“Hrm... let’s stick with Pokémon then. Just tell me what I gotta do.”
“Well first you need a deck, so here.” He handed her a deck, placing it on her upturned hoof. “I’ve got the feeling I might need to do your drawing and everything, unless you want to try yourself.”
“Might as well try myself to start - I can imagine it’d be easier if I had some magic to go with.” She said as she put it down. “So what do I do first?”
“First you’d normally have to shuffle the deck, but I usually shuffle them after every game so they’re ready for the next one.” He said as he chose his own deck, his own personal favourite deck. “Next you have to draw seven cards from the top of your deck. In that opening hand, you need to make sure you’ve got at least one Pokémon card with the word ‘Basic’ at the top.”
Rainbow Dash put her hoof on top of the deck and promptly knocked it over, as every card slid off into one small line of cards. She grabbed the cards between her hooves and stood them back up, only to knock them back over when she tried to draw seven cards again.
“Err, maybe I need to help with that,” Peter said, sliding seven cards off, keeping them face down, “Don’t worry, I didn’t see them.“
Rainbow Dash wound up sliding the cards around the floor for several minutes before somehow managing to get all seven face up. Peter looked away when she started to flip her cards face-up. He wasn’t supposed to see what was in her hand - that would be cheating.
“What, why’re you looking away?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I’m not supposed to see what’s in your hand.”
“I can’t exactly hold these easily,” Rainbow Dash said, “Can I prop these against something?”
Peter set his own cards face-down on the floor and walked back with a book. Rainbow Dash spent a good minute trying to flip one of the cards up before Peter sweatdropped, and then propped the cards against the book. He did so at an angle so he couldn’t see what hand she had been dealt.
“This is a little frustrating for someone who doesn’t have fingers,” Rainbow Dash said, “So what do we do now?”
“I’ll go first, just to show what you’re sort of supposed to do,” Peter said. “First you need to play a Pokémon. Search your hand for a Pokémon card with ‘Basic’ at the top of it and place it down here face down to begin.” He said as he placed one of his cards down. “If you’ve got additional Pokémon you can play, put them on the bench zone.” He added, playing two cards down.
“Ok, I gotya.” She nodded. “Let’s see if I can try something like this.” She extended a wing, scooping one of the cards up between the feathers as she placed it down, putting three other Pokémon down as well.
“With that done, you’ve gotta set your Prize Cards down. Normally you play with six, but I know you’re in a hurry so we’ll play with four.” He told her as he placed the top four cards from his deck into the Prize Card zone, doing the same for Rainbow Dash to help her out. “Normally we’d decide who goes first with a coin flip or a dice roll, but for the sake of this tutorial, I’ll start us off. First, we flip all our Pokémon face up.” He revealed his active to be a Zorua, with a Deino and a Darkrai-EX on the bench. Rainbow flipped her cards up, revealing a Houndour, Deino, Gothita and Golett.
“When you start your turn, you draw one card from your deck and add it to your hand.” He said, doing just that. “Once per turn, if you have an Energy card in your hand, you can equip it to one of your Pokémon. I’ll start by playing this Darkness Energy on my Zorua.” He placed the Energy card under the Pokémon. “Next I’m gonna play this Supporter card, Cheren.” He revealed the card to her. “This allows me to draw three cards from my deck.” He said as he did so. “You can only play one Supporter per turn, so make sure it’s something you can use.”
“Ok, I’m following you so far.” She nodded.
“Now I’m going to use one of Zorua’s attacks - I’ve only got enough energy equipped to use Ascension, so I’ll do that.” He began searching his deck. “This attack’s effect allows me to evolve my Zorua to a Zoroark, as long as I have a copy of the latter in my deck. Which I do.” He smirked as he pulled it out from the middle of his deck, placing it on top of the Zorua. “That’s my turn done.”
Rainbow Dash moved a Houndour card down with a wing, finally starting to get the hand out of moving the cards with her wing. She placed another one of her cards over, equipping the Houndour with a dark energy that she had.
“So what do I do now?” She asked Peter, “Do we have the creatures attack each other?” She was envisioning throwing the cards at Peter. Already, this wasn’t a game that Fluttershy would be a fan of for sure. Not only was it condoning violence against other animals, but some of the creatures might have just scared her. Houndour certainly would have made Fluttershy a bit nervous for sure - if only because it couldn’t be affected by her stare at all.
“You can do that, but before you make your attack, see if you have a Trainer or a Supporter card that you can play. Making an attack is basically the same as ending your turn, so you might as well do everything that you can before you use one of your Pokémon’s attacks.”
“Oh, I got this guy here,” She took out another card that she didn’t flip out. This one was Cilan, “I have to search my deck for Energy cards, show them to you, and then shuffle it again.”
She tried to grab the deck with her wings again only to find it felt a bit awkward. She tried supporting it with a hoof and then started taking the deck apart. Unfortunately, she tilted her hoof just a tad and then slid the deck right onto the floor, creating a small pile of cards.
“Uh, whoops,” She said.
“Let me do that for you,” Peter said. As amusing as this was, it was probably going to frustrate her to make a mess every single time she tried to shuffle the deck or do anything. “How about every time you play a card that requires deck searching, I’ll do it for you.” He shuffled her deck after taking three Energy cards, one Dark and two Psychic, handing them to her.
“Thanks.” She placed them in her hand before looking at the cards again, ““So I guess all I can do is use this guy’s Bite attack, huh?”
“Pretty much, and that does 10 damage to my Zoroark.” He placed a dice on the card, the one dot side showing that it had taken 10 damage. “And with that your turn is over. I start my turn now by drawing one card. “Ok, I’m going to evolve my Deino into a Zweilous.” He placed the new card on top of the Basic Pokémon. “Next I’m going to equip this Double Colorless Energy to Zweilous. To end my turn, I’ll use Zoroark’s Nasty Plot attack - it does no damage, but it allows me to search my deck for any one card and add it to my hand.” He browsed his deck for the card he was after. “I’ll add this Hydreigon to my hand, shuffle my deck, and end my turn.”
“I think I can do this,” She said as she drew a card out of the deck with a wing. Thankfully, she didn’t topple it over and create another mess. She was getting good at this. She transferred it over to where her hand was and looked at the card, which was a Golurk.
This creature looked even more alien to her than the Houndour and the Gothita did. However, it looked very similar to the Golurk, so at least she could identify that it was an evolution or whatever it was called.
“Can I put down another creature?” She asked, looking towards her Golett.
“Yup - as many times as you like during your turn, you can evolve a Pokémon, however you can only evolve that Pokémon once per turn, and you can’t evolve it the same turn you’ve played it from your hand.”
“Ok, well I’ll guess I’ll put this bad boy into play!” She slapped the card over the Golett.
“Good move, the only thing is that Pokémon will need a fair bit of Energy on it before you can use it to attack, so you better start charging it up.”
“I’m on it!” She placed a Psychic Energy under it. “I’ve got nothing else to use right now, so I’ll have Houndour use Bite again.”
“Ok, I’m now on 20 damage.” He turned the dice. “And now it’s my turn to draw.” He drew the top card from his deck, smirking as he saw it. “This card could come in handy for the both of us - I’ll play the Stadium card Battle City.” He placed it sideways a few inches away from the active Pokémon.
“So what’s this card do exactly?” She asked.
“Once during our turns, the player can flip a coin. If they get a heads, they can draw one card from their deck. And I’m gonna try my luck with that right now.” He pulled out a coin, one side having the colored image of a Pokémon on it and the other side having nothing but a Poké Ball design and the logo on it, flipping it. It landed in the middle of them, the Pokémon side face up. “Alright, I get to draw one card!” He grinned.
“How often do you get lucky with that?”
“Kind of hit and miss - I usually tend not to use too many cards with coin flip effects.” He shrugged. “Ok, next I’m evolving my Zweilous into Hydreigon.” He placed the Stage 2 card onto the Zweilous. “Then I’ll equip a Darkness Energy to Zoroark, and use it’s Foul Play attack - it allows me to use one of your Pokémon’s attacks as it’s own, and I’m going to use Darkness Fang, hitting your Houndour for 30 damage!” He placed a dice with the 3 side face up onto the Houndour card. “That’s my turn done, but if I hit it with that attack next turn, it’ll be knocked out.”
The match didn’t last too long. Rainbow Dash didn’t knock the deck over after her initial attempts at shuffling. Although Peter always had the game in control. Eventually, he had his Hydreigon and Darkrai EX all charged up, which won the game. However, the pony did get lucky with her Golurk.
“This is confusing,” Rainbow Dash said, after her final shot at victory went up in smoke in front of her. She wasn’t a poor loser by any means, but Peter could see the frustration in her voice when she said the game was confusing.
Still, she was much better than some of the opponents that Peter had played against. Some of them just would not accept a loss at all, or would try to take it away from him. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash at least had the excuse of being new to the game.
“Whatever,” She said, “Try beating me in a race, that’s something I’m good at.”
“Oh come on,” Peter said, “I saw how fast you flew...and how much of an impact you left on my wall when you came in. Besides which, I’d say you did pretty good for your first game. The first time I played against someone when I was new to this I got utterly thrashed, never got the chance to knock out an opponent’s Pokémon.”
“I guess there is that at the least.” She lightened up.
“Besides, if I had tried to teach you how to play Vanguard you might have been trying to tear your mane out!” He laughed.
“Hehe... anyway, I don’t think we should keep the others waiting too much longer. I know how Pinkie Pie gets when I’ve been away for too long. After three days of me not being around, she was worrying that I’d have forgotten her name or what she looks like!”
“It’s not that bad - it just shows that your friends care about you.” He smiled. “Just give me a few minutes to get some stuff together and we’ll go - I might as well take some of my tech stuff so your friend Twilight can examine it.” He went to pull a bag out from his wardrobe, starting to put some things in it.
Chapter three - Equestria
“So how do we get to Equestria from here?” Peter asked, having put some essentials in his bag. If Rainbow Dash came so easily, it probably couldn’t have been far, he thought. He could have always just come back easily. Although if it turned out to be right next to him, he would have felt epically stupid for not figuring it out easily.
“You’re not going to want to bring too much,” Rainbow Dash said when she looked over Peter packing his bag.
“What, border patrol?” Peter asked.
“Border patrol? What?”
“Never mind, never mind...” He closed his bag up, “Alright, so back to what I said, how do we get to Equestria from here?”
“Same way I came in,” Rainbow Dash said, “Through the window.”
Peter walked up to the window and looked over it. As far as he knew, it was just the window he always knew. He turned his head to face Rainbow Dash, and then looked back and forth between her and the window.
“Really? You want me to crash through the window and kill myself?” Peter asked.
“You’re going through it, of course!” Rainbow Dash laughed as she spread her wings and hovered a bit.
“Are you going to kick me through?” He asked, “Or do I have to be holding onto you to head through?”
“If I was to kick you through, it could cause some damage. Though my kicks are nothing compared to Applejack’s - one kick with either of her hind legs would most probably send you flying all the way across Ponyville! And you can hold onto me if you want, but just try going through it yourself.”
“Hrm... well could you give me a demonstration? Just so I know I’m not suffering from some kind of mental head trauma?”
“No probs, just watch what I do!” She beamed as she zoomed towards the window. Peter was expecting her to just go through the window as normal, but she vanished into thin air, the space between the window frame rippling slightly.
“What...the...” His eyes went wide as Rainbow Dash flew back a couple of seconds later.
“There, see how simple it is?”
“Y...yeah...” He approached the window. “I’m gonna take it with a little bit more caution though, just in case the same physics don’t apply to me.” He extended his right arm, poking it through the window. Part of him just expected the normal to happen, that his arm would go through the window and he’d be greeted with a cool breeze. Instead of that happening, he saw his arm sink into nothingness, the space around his arm distorting and rippling. He pulled it back a second later, the rippling stopping.
“See, nothing to be afraid of at all. If it helps, I’ll take this from you!” She scooped his bag up in her forelegs. “See you on the other side!” She dashed through the window once more, not returning this time around.
“Well... I guess I can’t leave her hanging now...” He took a few steps back. “Here I go!” He got a run up, jumping through the window.
Rather than crashing through the glass or getting a headache from hell, he seemed to hop right through. He didn’t even land outside the window into the yard like he expected. Instead, he seemed to land in a different room entirely.
It was still room temperature, just like he expected. That was strange. And instead of his shoes clapping onto the ground, he heard something that sounded more like horseshoes clopping against hard tile or stone. He couldn’t get a good look at what this room was until he seemed to lose his balance. All of a sudden, he felt top heavy.
“AGH!” he shouted as he fell forward, onto the floor, faceplanting. However, he felt more than just his nose against the ground. It felt like half his face smacked the hard stone floor before the rest of his face followed. Of course, he couldn’t see the floor - he had shut his eyes.
At the same time, he felt another bit of pain from something at his forehead. What the heck? He opened his eyes, just in time to lose his balance and fall to his right side. For some strange reason, he felt the cold stone floor against his body. But there was still a layer separating his bare skin from the floor. It felt suspiciously like fur.
Wait, Fur?
Peter now got a good look at his left arm. And then his jaw practically dropped. He was breathless. When he moved his left arm, all he could see was something red, much thicker, and completely without fingers. Much like....like...
A horse’s foreleg.
“Gagh!” Peter gasped, shaking it a few times before trying to throw himself back onto his two legs again. Once again he didn’t seem to be able to stand for very long before falling back down onto all fours. He remembered playing some games of pretending to be an animal and walking on four legs, but it was nothing like this. He could still bend his knees on his feet - rear legs now - and not have to lift a leg up.
As Peter looked around the room, he could feel something on his neck and his head. His hair seemed to have grown much much longer. Not unlike a horse’s mane. He tried to take several steps on his new legs to get a look at whatever the heck that was he came through. As he turned around, he also felt something swishing behind him.
Behind him wasn’t a window, but it looked to be something like a mirror. Taking a deep breath he slowly turned around, hooves clopping against the floor as he faced himself in the mirror, his eyes going wide.
“Oh my God...” He looked at himself in a sense of shock and awe - where he had been a human being just before going through the portal, he was staring back at the reflection of a crimson-furred pony, standing a foot or so shorter than he was as a human, yet if he was to guess he appeared larger than Rainbow Dash. His hair had grown longer, resting against his neck, still silver albeit a deeper shade of, just like the tail that was swishing behind him. As for his eyes, they had grown larger, the yellow coloration having spread all over, his pupils slightly slitted - he questioned this slightly, as they gave him a more intimidating look, not to mention pupils like this were not normally found on horses. Between his larger eyes stood a large, slightly curving horn, and on his back were a pair of feathery wings. Looking at his side, he saw an image on his flank - a pair of yellow eyes just like his, but only narrower, more cruel looking.
“Well I can’t say I was expecting this!” Rainbow said as she landed beside him, showing that Peter indeed did have a bit of a size advantage over her. “I was just expecting you to turn into an earth pony or a unicorn - that or a pegasus like myself, of course.”
“What do you mean?” He asked, still looking over himself. “Aren’t alicorns normal ponies too?”
“I’ve seen a lot of different ponies on ground and cruising through the skies, but I’ve only seen three alicorns: Celestia, Luna and Cadance. And they’re all princesses!”
“So alicorns are usually related to royalty then... I can see why this is causing some concern then.” He looked at his wings, gently unfurling them as he gave them a test flap.
Surprisingly, his wings felt completely normal. It almost unsettled him with how natural these wings felt. He flapped a few times, eventually getting some lift off the ground. He flapped his wings harder and harder, hooves floating off the ground. His eyes widened as he looked on the floor several centimeters below.
“I can fly!” He shouted, “Wow!”
Unfortunately, he stretched his right wing in surprise, while his left wing kept flapping. This caused him to lose his balance, flying towards his left. He stretched his wing out and landed right down on his side.
“Careful there!” Rainbow Dash said, walking over to Peter.
“I...I can float a little better,” Peter said, “So...what do we do now?”
“Well, I’ll have to tell Celestia and Luna!”
“And my bag?” He looked over at his bag. Strange - it seemed to have changed too. It still looked the same, but its colours changed. It looked practically like it was made with pastel fabric.
“We’ll...take that with us!” Rainbow Dash said, “Come on, let’s go upstairs now!”
She nudged Peter and pushed him towards the door of this chamber. Surprisingly she didn’t seem to take much effort - and he slid on the floor easily. He just looked at the ground, seeing his hooves sliding on the ground easily. Well, he hoped he didn’t fall down at all.
“Err...can I just fly up these?” Peter asked when he looked through the doorway. There was a large set of stairs looming over him, “Just cause I wanna try it out more!”
“As long as you don’t fly into the wall.”
* * *
Chapter four - The Princesses
Not once did Peter fly into any walls as he flew up the stairway, his forehooves clasping his bag close to him. Rainbow looked at him quizzically, wondering why he didn’t use magic to just levitate the bag above him, but figured out that he didn’t know yet of any magic - she knew the princesses would be able to help him learn some magic to begin with. Whilst they were flying, she kept looking at his cutie mark.
“I wonder what your special talent is?” She asked him.
“Special talent?” He tilted his head.
“Yeah - once a pony learns what they’re good at, they get their cutie mark. Looking at yours though, I have no idea what it’s meant to mean or what your talent is.”
“Maybe the princesses will be able to shed some light on it - that and everything else too, I mean there has to be some reason why you came to my world in the first place.”
“We’ll know soon enough!” She grinned, zooming on ahead.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash lead Peter to an impossibly large hall. He looked over the giant thing, surprised. He had seen pictures of castles that were huge halls, but this was ridiculous. He could practically put a two story house inside this room itself and it would still be too small. How on earth did they decorate this, he had to think to himself.
Then his wings twitched, as if answering. Oh, right. They probably had pegasi or alicorns like himself floating up and finishing it. Even then, what’s the point behind an impossibly huge room like this? Rainbow Dash nudged on his “shoulder”. She wanted his attention.
Peter looked towards the shorter pegasus, who gestured ahead of her. Peter turned his head ninety degrees to look ahead of him. This must have been the throne room of some kind. Or...at least a meeting hall, maybe. He could see several guards standing around in rather romanesque armour, looking almost like statues. But at the same time, he could see something dark purple, and another that was white. Upon closer inspection, he could see that they were alicorns - just like him. They looked...more otherworldly, too. (As otherworldly as this situation was in itself) Their manes looked to be flowing constantly, like there was a breeze nearby. Rather than investigate the source of the breeze, Peter set down his bag and just looked at Rainbow Dash, wondering what he should have said.
“They’re the princesses,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Should I be bowing?”
“It’d make for a good first impression.” She told him. “Just keep calm, you’ve nothing to worry about.”
He nodded, looking back towards the two princesses as he bowed down before them, his head tilted down and his wings outstretched. “Greetings, princesses. It’s an honor to be here before you.”
“You don’t need to be THAT formal.” She chuckled.
“I know that, but first impressions are usually quite important.” He said under his breath.
“Rainbow Dash is right though, there’s no need to be so formal.” The white alicorn said in a soft, gentle voice, one of her wings outstretched as she placed it softly on his shoulder. “I can sense that you’re slightly nervous as well.”
“I’ve never been in the presence of royalty before, so it’s natural to be slightly nervous.” He admitted, looking a little shaky, trying to think of something else to say. “And... I really like your manes.” He blurted before pausing, his eyes going wide as he placed a forehoof on his head. “Aw man, I said that aloud didn’t I?”
The two princesses couldn’t help but chuckle at his comment.
“Well thank you, young pony.” She smiled.
Peter would have blushed a bit, if it was possible for someone who was red to blush at all. Maybe if anything, it meant they couldn’t see anything.
“So you have completed your mission, I see,” The purple Alicorn said to Rainbow Dash.
“Yep, this is him! He brought a few things with him but that’s no problem - I know Twilight might like to study some of them.”
“As long as I get them back,” Peter turned towards Rainbow Dash, “And that she doesn’t destroy them!”
“Well, yeah, you said yourself that if Twilight Sparkle destroyed your 3DS.”
“Never mind that now,” The darker alicorn said, “I notice that you are...a little different from what we expected.”
“Is it because I am an Alicorn?”
“Yes, and you happen to have a rather distinct cutie mark. What do you think it might mean, sister?” The darker alicorn said.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Celestia said.
“Does it mean I’m good at staring at someone?” Peter hazarded a guess.
“Then your cutie mark would be a few butterflies and you would be like a stallion version of Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash laughed.
Celestia seemed to chuckle at that comment as well. Luna, the darker alicorn, seemed to be stifling the laughter a little more. Already he could tell which one was the more casual one, and which was the more...by the books ruler.
“Well, what are we doing next?” Peter asked.
“You will stay here until we think you are ready to go to Ponyville,” Luna said, “You will have to...be a little trained in certain things. Not just flight, but also magic. Ponies think it is unusual for a unicorn to have no knowledge of magic when they are not a filly.”
“Do they know about me at all?”
“No, that is why you must be ‘trained’ as Luna calls it,” Celestia explained, “Only some of us happen to know about this other side. That mirror you came through was a recent discovery.”
“Then why’d you take me through? Why did Rainbow Dash come in?”
“This will take a little explaining,” Luna said, “You may wish to sit.”
Peter sat down, finding it a bit strange, but oddly comfortable.
“That mirror happens to show visions of another world - with rather odd creatures who don’t look like anypony or any creature we had seen in the world at all,” Celestia begun to speak, “At first, some of our ponies were intrigued in trying to learn about the world. But then we spotted things we don’t wish to see.”
Peter felt very tempted to mention something about what kinds of things you could find on the internet, but he didn’t wish to interrupt the princesses at all.
“We spotted someponies who weren’t in a good situation. We saw someponies - wait, you call them people, right?” Celestia continued.
Peter nodded, shaking his mane a little bit as he nodded.
“We saw some-people,” Celestia seemed to have a little bit of trouble saying that word, “Who were in...bad situations. You were one of these -people- that we spotted. We could not help but be intrigued upon seeing those who did not appear to fit in in this other world.”
Luna took this opportunity to speak up.
“It was then that I discovered that it was not merely a window into this world, but it can act as a scrying device that someponies use. It was able to show us events that did not happen in the present. At first, we used this to learn a little about the history of your world.”
Peter half felt tempted to speak up and say they could have used it to discover what happened to Jimmy Hoffa or whether or not the moon landings were real. But they wouldn’t have known about those conspiracy theories. He continued to listen to Luna, either way.
“Then we looked at some of these poni-People who did not seem to fit in. At first, it was a gruesome horror - we could only watch. We could not step in when they were abused, bullied, exiled, or what have you. It was then that one of our ponies discovered the mirror also acted as a method of travel between your reality and this.”
“We thankfully did not lose her,” Luna continued, “She also discovered that there was a way back, through a similar mirror or a window. Or some other way - in one case, a simple door would suffice. That was when we decided to intervene.”
“Well, don’t I feel lucky,” Peter said, “Out of all the people you chose me.”
“You were one of the poni-People that we decided to intervene in. If you could not find a decent fate on your side, you would have on ours.”
“So...why am I an alicorn?”
“As for an Alicorn, we don’t know. However, we learned quickly that these realities have their own laws.” Celestia said.
“I don’t know why myself!” Rainbow Dash finally spoke up, “Just ask Twilight. That’s her field!”
“People do not exist here,” Celestia said, “The reality changes you. Like water being poured into a different shaped bucket.”
“How come Rainbow Dash wasn’t different? I know we do have horses but they don’t talk or fly or...have magical powers.”
“Those who happen to represent an Element of Harmony, or who have represented it in the past act as a loophole to this strange reality bending,” Luna continued, “Thus they do not turn into a people when they go through to your side. Does this make sense?”
“Actually, they mean turning into a human,” He corrected, “Err...sorry!”
“So we have given you a chance. If you would like to stay here and have a different opportunity to change your fate,” Luna continued.
“It does sound awfully tempting.” He thought, looking over himself, once again looking at his cutie mark. “Plus it would also give me a chance to figure out just what my talent is meant to be.”
“Then it is settled.” Celestia told him. “Once your training in flight and magic has been completed, you’ll be allowed to travel to Ponyville. It is there that you’ll meet the other five Elements of Harmony - I’m sure that Rainbow Dash has filled you in on their names.”
“Yup, all memorised!” He tapped his head with his forehoof. “So how long will this training take?”
“That depends on how quickly you’re able to pick up and master what we teach you.” Luna responded. “If you’re lucky, you might be able to get through training in a few short days.”
“And if I’m not lucky, I’m guessing I could be here for a few weeks?”
“Failing that, months or even years - that has happened before.”
Peter gulped at the thought of being stuck here for several years without being able to set foot outside. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly.... I hope.”
Chapter five - Nightshade
Thankfully for Peter, it did not take too long for him to pick up some of the basics. He had tried to play a few games of cards with Rainbow Dash at first, but that didn’t last very long when he accidentally made a mess of his deck. Until he managed to learn to levitate things with magic - that made moving the cards around a lot easier.
Learning to walk up stairs was a little harder than he thought. It seemed obvious, but coordinating four legs up and down the staircase wasn’t easy. Several times he fell down the stairs, causing someone to laugh at him. Peter simply took it in stride and started laughing, so instead they were laughing with him. He knew that “We’re laughing with you” was just a way to dodge saying “We’re laughing at you”.
Peter found flight to be a little more comfortable when it came to flying around the stairs. Eventually, he had been permitted to fly outside the fancy palace, where he could get a good view of Equestria from there. (He had still done so after dark. Just to be safe.)
Rainbow Dash was thankfully there to support him when he was flying. There were actually a lot of ponies who had been willing to help him out, or at least tutor him in some of the basics. He became used to being quizzed over what a cutie mark meant, or what other bits of pony knowledge were. There were also a few times where he got some questions wrong...and was promptly punished by being practically thrown into the wall with what Luna called her “royal voice”.
Peter was also invited to explore the Canterlot Palace at his leisure. It seemed to be some kind of opportunity to meet other ponies and socialize with them. The guards weren’t usually much for small talk, though.
Peter did get some bit of curiosity, though. He had to wonder just how that mirror thing worked. There were some areas of the palace he knew that he wasn’t permitted to enter (He assumed it was mostly out of common courtesy anyways) but as far as he knew, the mirror chamber wasn’t one of them. One time when Peter was allowed to explore the palace, or fly outside and watch the Wonderbolt’s practice, he decided to instead try and look at that mirror again.
He was alone, and Rainbow Dash had some kind of other commitment. (In fact, she did invite him to watch her at the Wonderbolts Academy some time later, but he figured that had to wait until he knew he wouldn’t be stepping out of bounds.) So it had to have been the perfect opportunity. Peter managed to sneak back down to the room where that mirror was.
Just as it was before, it loomed over him. The alicorn looked over the mirror blinked a few times. Nothing seemed to happen. How did it work at all. He wasn’t wanting to return at all (He was having a tad too much fun and was really really wanting to see ponyville!) but maybe just a little look wouldn’t have hurt...maybe he could have had some questions answered.
“Oh great mirror or...whatever the hell you are. Show me something from the other world. Show me uh...myself? And I don’t mean as a pony.”
Finally he managed to see something in the mirror. He could see the familiar figure on the other side - it was himself. He wondered what would have been going on. Then, he managed to make out a scene. At first he was wondering where the scene was taking place, but soon found that it was the college that he had attended in the UK a couple of years ago. The first few months he was there he was fine, albeit awkward as he had a good four or five years on the other students, but he was happy to be able to continue on his education for a little longer... then as it got near the summer, things had started to go downhill. What the mirror was showing him were events from the last week or two he had spent at the place, before the summer holidays.
He couldn’t walk down a hallway without someone calling out his name in a teasing tone, drawing his attention almost every time. He was visibly trying to ignore it, but it was drawing on his last nerves. There were people there that made fun of his interests - many people made fun of him just because he was a fan of Pokémon. Obviously they didn’t know that there were people of his age that still liked it, but that too got upsetting - even more so when he was out in town one day having lunch when a group of students came into the place just to make fun of him, leaving soon after.
The people in his class were also jerks too - they never really spoke to him much, if not at all, and always found some way to rip on him. It got worse in the later months, when they’d start playing games in groups - at first they’d let him play along, but soon after they stopped this, even going as far as kicking him from a game they were playing a second before it had started.
The college also had a forum that people could talk on - all the topics he had posted on though started to attract unpleasant company, leaving either spam messages or constantly teasing him. One time he had left a message asking if anyone played card games there, and he got the attention of one person who invited him to a group they were running, telling him to bring all his stuff on a certain day - he did so, carrying bags of gaming equipment with him (No easy task considering the train station was a good 15 or 20 minute walk away), waiting where he was meant to meet them, only to be told by someone half an hour later that no such club existed.
Peter tried to look away from viewing these horrible scenes, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Just remembering all this was causing him a great deal of emotional pain, his lip trembling as his eyes started to water.
Then one day it pretty much went to hell - he was teased horribly all day, unable to get a break for even a second. By the day’s end he was a complete and total wreck, just wanting to get home before something else happened.
But it did.
As he left the building, hoping he could leave without anyone noticing, he heard people calling his name again in that same mocking tone - he couldn’t hold back any more, tears flowing as he turned towards them, his voice breaking as he screamed “SHUT UP!!!” to them, running on ahead. This didn’t stop them from continuing though, a group of them passing by in a car doing the same thing.
By the time he had reached the train station he had cried himself hoarse, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at the train times, wanting his train to show up and get him home, but it was going to be a while. The next train that was due to come by was one that wouldn’t stop at the station, just passing through as it continued on his journey. As he saw it in the distance, he let out a sigh, taking a couple of steps towards the edge of the platform. He saw it getting closer still, waiting for it. He was about to lean over the edge of the platform and welcome the cold embrace of death as he suddenly stopped - he knew that this wouldn’t solve anything at all. He pulled back before the train passed through, zooming by him as he turned away, heading over to sit on the bench with his head held low.
Peter turned his head away from the mirror, tears streaming down his muzzle as he sobbed. “I don’t want to see anymore... I don’t want to see anymore...” He cried, burying his head in his hooves, his crying drawing attention from something nearby.
“So, you weren’t told about how dangerous that is, huh?” A feminine voice nearby said.
Peter looked over at whoever this was. He did not need to hear anything like that right now. Already what he wanted to do was fly back up to his room and just cry himself to sleep. Of all the things to show him, why did it have to show him those?
This voice seemed to belong to a pony who he didn’t recognize. At least, not immediately. Several times, he had spotted her in the palace. She stuck out a little like a sore thumb. A dark teal-ish pegasus with somewhat of a short spiky or punk-ish looking mane, dark indigo with some pink highlights of some kind. He couldn’t see her cutie mark, but right now, he didn’t care.
“I don’t need to hear about that now,” He finally said, tears still falling down his muzzle.
“Listen, I’m not here to taunt you at all,” The pegasus said, “I actually know how you feel.”
“How could you...” Peter said, “I shouldn’t have asked the mirror to show me that. It just kept going on.”
The pegasus walked up to the mirror, which had once again shown Peter’s rather horrid past. She simply looked at it, at first looking ready to whether a storm. She simply glared at the mirror, before saying something.
“Show me the time I was sledding,” she said, “You know me.”
The mirror started to cloud over a bit, showing a scene of a snow-covered hill. Peter didn’t know exactly how this was going to help at all. After seeing the time he hit the despair event horizon, the only thing that could have helped him was seeing just retribution against the people who wronged him. He could start to make out something. It looked like a family was taking their kids sledding.
“That’s me right there,” the pegasus said, “See, the one wearing a blue coat.”
Peter looked for a girl wearing a blue coat. He started to see her sledding down a hill, on an innertube. At first it looked a little bit routine, she bounced up and down a few times when she hit the ramp, but then she started to go out of control. She eventually slid right into someone who was standing up, causing them to flip and land on her. The girl in the blue coat made a silly face as the wind was knocked out of her.
Peter...had to chuckle a little bit at the silly face. It seemed to know he would have laughed at it. The scene then seemed to fade, showing both of their reflections once more. He at least looked a little less sad.
“You’re not the only one to have considered something that irrational,” The pegasus said, “As well as not the only one to have come through. I used to be named Zoë, but I left that behind when I came through about two years ago. I left behind a lot more, too.”
At least he had somewhat of a feeling of belonging. He wasn’t the only one to have gone through the mirror, but also not the only one who had been in such an emotional mess to have gone through.
“You’d...best not ask that mirror to show you something, it will show you everything about you. Whether it’s flattering or not,” the pegasus named Zoë said, “You have to ask it for something specific. Otherwise, you have just as much of a chance of it bringing up something embarrassing as it would show something funny, like that.”
Peter started to feel a tad better now. At least he knew that he wasn’t alone.
“Why did...you come through, Zoë?” Peter asked.
“I’ve actually changed my name here - it’s now Nightshade,” Nightshade corrected him, “But let’s say...it’s not anything quite as epically depressing as yours. If anything. I chose to stay because I would be saved from myself, as well as my ailing health.”
“You’ve already seen my horrid past, just let me see yours...or would it be just as bad for you as it was for me?”
“Then fine, you better promise not to mock me,” Nightshade said, “Show me...how I was back when I was Zoë. Before I came here.”
The mirror once again faded, showing a different scene. Peter could identify the woman was in some kind of hospital - it had to have been Zoë, the same girl that he saw get squished by someone while she was on an inner tube. In fact, the only way he could have identified her was the fact that her black hair had pink highlights. Otherwise, she looked almost skeletally thin.
The scenes seemed to shift numerous times, where this Zoë would be taken to the cafeteria, and flat out told to eat by someone in a medical uniform. It wasn’t always pretty. He immediately figured out what exactly her problem was - apparently she developed some kind of anorexia. He spotted her trying to build up muscle mass through various kinds of exercises but all the time, she seemed to resist. She must have been too tired to do anything but lie down on a bench or in her room.
“I don’t want to show anymore, stop,” Nightshade said. But just like when Peter tried to command the mirror to stop, it didn’t. It kept going on and on, showing something that Peter really wish he hadn’t seen. He didn’t know eating disorders could be that bad.
But at least, the vision in the mirror seemed to show something a little better. Zoë seemed to be woken up by something entering her room in the mental hospital. It looked to be a rather orange looking pony with a yellow (Blonde?) mane and a cowboy hat. Zoë seemed to immediately wake up and look towards the pony, before the vision faded.
“...This damn thing doesn’t stop at all when you want it too,” Nightshade complained to the mirror, “Well, you can see why...you can also see why I don’t want to talk about it that much.”
“No kidding,” Peter said, “Who was that, by the way?”
“She lives in Ponyville, and is named Applejack. I...really need to pay her a bit of a visit. I’ve not been there for ah, months. You can say I’m...a little more interested in helping study this mirror and what can happen. I know what it’s like, trust me. What’s your name, by the way?”
Peter had now realized something - he hadn’t actually taken the time to consider what a pony name that was fitting would have been. He had been so busy trying to follow some of the basics, he hadn’t considered whether or not he should have had a better name.
“I’m Peter but...I actually don’t know what my Pony name is.”
“Well it doesn’t always have to be something that fits what you’re good at. I’m good at partying and dancing, see?” She lifted her wing, showing her Cutie Mark to be a kind of like a silver iron cross, but with two musical notes slashed through it the way swords might have been.
“What’s that mean?” Peter asked.
“It’s supposed to mean I’m good at partying and dancing.” She stood up on her hind legs, spread her wings, and then made some dances around, “Ha cha cha! See? I used to be a dancer and whatever!”
He had to admit this seemed to be good. Maybe he should introduce her to Rainbow Dash. They might have gotten along very well.
“Can we leave, though? I don’t want that mirror to show something bad.”
“Oh, sure,” Nightshade said, falling onto all fours again, “For future reference...you don’t want to come down here. The only reason the guards weren’t keeping you from entering was because I was already down here. I wanted to write down some stuff from human culture for the princesses, see?” She pointed to a notebook as well as a set of quills that was nearby. How the heck she was writing with no fingers was beyond Peter’s guess.
“I should give this to the princesses anyways.”
With that, Nightshade and Peter walked out of the chamber with the mirror. He now noticed that there was a rather large door behind him when the Pegasus stopped to close it. Strange, why did she leave something so dangerous open like that...oh well.
Nightshade walked into the throne room where Celestia and Luna awaited. They looked at Peter, both suddenly making a nervous gulp. They hadn’t seen him for a little while - and being with someone who was helping them learn about human culture, especially one looking around the mirror itself - wasn’t a good sign.
“You...didn’t look into the mirror, did you?” Celestia spoke, looking right at the red alicorn.
He looked to the side, squeezing his eyes shut. That was the absolute last thing he wanted to talk about.
“Yes,” He admitted, voice cracking a tad.
Chapter six- I am Draco Scales
Peter didn’t feel like flying out later that night. He just wanted to be alone. Looking through that mirror showed him the last thing he wanted to see. It opened up old wounds. At the same time, some part of him was in horror that he wasn’t the only one who saw it. He knew for sure that Nightshade had seen it - but who else? It was Fridge Horror at its finest.
His guest room was inside a tower in Canterlot palace. The doors had been kept open, to encourage him to explore around the palace, as well as the door to the balcony. He preferred the breeze in the morning, and to be able to fly around the tower at will. But right now, he didn’t feel like it. All day, he had been feeling rather off - after all, who wouldn’t be when they saw something that had, in the past, almost driven them to suicide? He simply curled up in the bed to hang by himself. He was so out of it, he didn’t even notice that somepony had flown to his tower, and walked into his room.
“Pssst! Hey! Peter!” A familiar voice said.
Peter’s ear twitched, and he looked out of the bed, where the source of the voice was. It was Rainbow Dash! She must have had some time off from that Wonderbolts Academy. Rather than walk out and talk to her, he simply pulled his face back in. He certainly didn’t want to consider the possibility of Rainbow Dash talking to him about that, of all things. Or any other things she might have seen before flying through that mirror into his bedroom. That was without a doubt the worst, but there were other scenes that he would not have liked others to see.
“Err... are you okay, Peter?”
Peter didn’t respond, as Rainbow Dash walked closer to the bed.
“Peter, it’s okay - Nightshade told me everything.”
“What?” Peter finally took his head up from the curled heap.
He heard somepony else inside the room. He recognized the mane immediately - it was Nightshade. She must have flown in from outside with Rainbow Dash.
“How much did you tell her?” Peter asked.
“Only that you looked in the mirror and saw something you didn’t wish to see.”
“How much of me have you seen before?” Peter turned towards Rainbow Dash.
“Nothing! Only what you did a few days before I entered the scene. If anything, I saw more of what Nightshade wanted to hide.”
He felt a wave of relief wash over him. At least Rainbow Dash hadn’t seen it.
“That’s...just not something I want to relive at all,” Peter said, “Seeing that...was probably the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
“Look, I’m sorry that happened, I should have warned you. If anything, you helped me out too,” Nightshade said.
He finally climbed out of the bed, walking over to the other ponies so he could talk to them. He hadn’t noticed before, but Nightshade was somehow slightly taller than Rainbow Dash. It must have looked a bit awkward to have a taller alicorn as an emotional wreck in front of two smaller ponies.
“What did I do? It better not have been seeing me get pushed to the despair event horizon,” Peter said.
“It wasn’t that - I’ve been so caught up in well, amateur anthropology that I was reminded of how I...haven’t really been a good friend to Applejack and the others. I mean, I was the first - and as far as I know only - human that Applejack ever met, and she practically saved my life by taking me in here, and I’ve been so caught up in trying to teach the princesses and unicorns here about humans that I’ve sort of neglected her. So I’ll be heading to Ponyville tomorrow. And I want to say...thanks for helping to make me realize that.”
“Err...you’re welcome? I don’t know what I really did.”
“Hey! Maybe you should come with, too!” Rainbow Dash said, “After all, you’re almost ready to be moved to Ponyville. I heard Luna and Celestia wondering if you were ready, especially after your little...uhm....emotional trouble! You do need a fitting name, after all.”
“That is right...how’d you pick yours again?” He asked, looking at Nightshade. After all, she did tell him that her name used to be Zoë, and that she chose another one.
“Well...it doesn’t have to be something you’re good at like Rainbow Dash. I just picked Nightshade because I liked how it sounded. Besides...I do have a dark colour after all.”
“Hrm... it’s still hard to decide...” He said, trying to think of something. The two of them could see that he was still affected by reliving those memories earlier if those bloodshot yellow eyes were anything to go by.
“Why don’t you try going with a name that sounds cool?” Nightshade suggested. “Ya know, something that you yourself would like - as long as it doesn’t make ponies burst out laughing at you, then-” She stopped when he turned his head away, sniffling slightly. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that!”
“He’s most probably going to be like this for a while until we can find something to put him back in the right mindset.” Rainbow sighed. “We should arrange a Pinkie Pie party - that never fails to make anypony happy!”
“I hope so... after that, the poor guy looks a bit broken.” Nightshade looked back towards Peter.
“I think... I think I might have a name to go by.” He spoke.
“Oh?” They both moved closer.
“Given how I look, and the cutie mark I have.... how about Draco....Scales?”
“Draco Scales? What kind of name is-” Rainbow started before being hushed by Nightshade, the pegasus nudging her in the side with a hoof. “I mean, that sounds like an awesome name!”
Peter smiled a little, the first time he had smiled properly since seeing those events in the mirror. “Then Draco Scales it is!”
“We’ll have to tell the princesses tomorrow!” Rainbow Dash said, “I think you may need to get some sleep.”
“You sure you don’t wanna hang out a little outside?” Draco Scales said, “I mean, after all I CAN fly without crashing - and both of you are pegasi, so...”
Rainbow Dash smiled. Anything to help Draco Scales out of his little emotional funk.
* * *
The next morning, Draco Scales was brought down into the throne room. Maybe Celestia and Luna wanted to see how he was doing. It was somewhat of a traumatic experience yesterday, and he never seemed to recover. That, and Draco Scales had something to tell them - that he selected an appropriate Pony name.
“Peter, are you emotionally well?” Luna asked upon the Alicorn’s entry.
“Better. Well...I have something to tell you. I don’t know if Rainbow Dash or Nightshade came in and told you earlier.”
“They told us that you had something to tell us, yes,” Celestia said, “What is it?”
He finally smiled for the first time since yesterday, and stood up proudly.
“I have chosen a Pony name I think is appropriate!” He said.
“What have you decided?” Luna asked.
“Draco Scales,” Draco Scales said.
He expected somewhat of a silly look from the two - but instead, Luna simply nodded. Celestia seemed a little more neutral on the matter.
“Indeed, your cutie mark does look somewhat like a pair of draconic eyes. Sister, do you think this fits?”
“Well, if you don’t have anything better, then so shall it be. I name you, Draco Scales.”
Draco Scales smiled again.
“Thank you, princesses,” He bowed again. He half expected for there to be a sword touching his shoulder, but how could anypony use a sword when they didn’t have fingers?
“Rainbow Dash has also informed us that you might be ready to move to Ponyville. Are you sure about this?” Celestia said.
“Positive - Rainbow Dash has said she was going to prepare a Pinkie Party.”
For the first time, since he came here, Luna cracked a smile. It was different than the previous times he had seen her smile - rather than a smile of amusement, like when she nearly threw Draco Scales across the room with the Royal Voice, it looked to be a smile of hope. He had gotten a lot better at identifying pony facial expressions since he came - for some reason, their equine muzzles seemed to be much easier to read than simple human faces.
“If that is the case,” Luna said, “Then you should leave as soon as possible. I know for a fact that Nightshade will be on the next train to Ponyville. So will Rainbow Dash, even if she could fly from here to Ponyville faster than the train.”
“Can I bring my bag with me too?” Draco Scales asked.
“Yes, just be careful,” Celestia said, “Remember that not everyone is in the know of that secret. As far as everyone else knows, you’re from Wiltshire.”
“Really? That’s here too?” Draco Scales said.
“Yes - it’s across the ocean from here,” Celestia continued, “It is a very convenient coincidence that there are some places from your world with similar names to ours.”
“It’s almost too good to be true,” Draco Scales laughed, “So what, is there a Worcestershire, too?”
“Wor-chester...what?” Luna asked.
Celestia looked just as confused at Luna was.
“Never mind then,” Draco Scales sweatdropped.
Chapter Seven - The train to Ponyville
Draco Scales did have to admit that the trains in Equestria were surprisingly familiar to what he was used to. He was shown pictures of the trains and had seen them taking off in the night a few times.
His bag was pulled alongside him with his own magic. His horn glowed a crimson colour, aura surrounding the suitcase. He looked around at some of the platforms, wondering which was the train bound for Ponyville.
“Hey Draco! Over here!” He heard a familiar voice say.
He spotted Rainbow Dash and Nightshade right next to a train that was boarding for Ponyville. Wow, they waited for him - that was considerate. He rushed over, suitcase following him.
Unfortunately, he had forgotten to consider momentum when running over. When he came to a stop in front of the pegasi, his suitcase didn’t. It kept on going, until he pulled it to a stop, right in front of Nightshade’s face.
“Sorry about that!” He said, pulling the suitcase away, “Accident!”
“I hope this doesn’t happen again,” Nightshade said, while Rainbow Dash was stifling a laugh. That was something that Gilda would have done - at least, some of her more harmless pranks.
“This the train to Ponyville?”
“Yeah, we’re all going together. Wait until you meet everypony there! We’ll have a Pinkie Party for you.”
“And it’s been awhile since I’ve been to one - wonder if Vinyl Scratch is playing music there as well,” Nightshade said, “Let’s get on!”
The three boarded the train bound for Ponyville.
* * *
“So tell me about your other friends,” Draco Scales said to Rainbow Dash, while they were riding in the train to Ponyville.
She finally turned towards Peter. She definitely looked a bit bored - she could have outsped that train any day of the week, and being on it was probably driving her crazy.
“Well I think I told you a little about them when we were in your world, but I guess I can go into a little more detail about them. Anything to take my mind off of this crushing boredom!” She sat up. “If I knew the journey would take this long, I would have brought a Daring Do book along. Anyway.” She cleared her throat as Draco looked on at her. “First of all you know myself - I don’t think I need to re-explain my awesomeness to you. Second there’s Fluttershy. She’s a pegasus like me, but she’s really, REALLY shy. That and she scares easily - I’ve never known a pony to be so afraid of their own shadow. She’s a good flyer when she needs to be, otherwise she just stays on the ground - the thought of her being too high up causes her wings to lock up.”
“You mentioned that she can get mad though?”
“That would be an understatement. If she sees any of her friends, animal or pony, getting hurt, she flat out snaps at them. Truth be told, seeing Fluttershy mad is as awesome as it is scary.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Next?”
“Next would be Applejack - she works down at Sweet Apple Acres with the other members of her family. Pretty much all of the apples you’ll find being sold in Ponyville comes from her farm. She can be a bit stubborn sometimes though. Also she’s not the type of pony to lie to anyone, completely honest to the point of being blunt.”
“Ok, I’m keeping with you so far.” Draco nodded his head.
“Next is Pinkie Pie - I think I’ve told you a fair bit about her already. She’s basically a living, breathing ball of energy who is always super happy and smiley and everything. She loves to throw parties for any reason, even if it’s something silly. I won’t forget the time she threw somepony a party for winning their first game of chess.”
“Hehe, that does sound totally random.” He chuckled.
“Also she has a tendency to break into song - it’s always something that’ll get stuck in your head for weeks. AND somehow she’s able to break the rules of physics. Nopony knows just how she manages to do it, but she does it. You can never be prepared for what she does.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind then.”
“Now we move onto Twilight Sparkle - she’s studying magic under the princesses, and is capable of pulling off some pretty powerful spells. Nopony else can pull off what Twilight’s able to do!”
“I guess it helps to have such powerful magical abilities then?”
“In most cases, yeah. Aside from her magic, she’s TOTALLY got some serious OCD. That unicorn loves making lists that can stretch from one end of Ponyville to the other, and don’t get me started on if she thinks something is wrong or if she’s forgotten or lost something. Also, it’s a good idea to never tell her that she’s overreacting over something when she’s stressed. Last time somepony did that she launched the library a good fifty feet into the air!”
“Yeah, I’d really not want to be on the receiving end of THAT kind of magic...” He chuckled nervously.
“Last is Rarity - she’s Ponyville’s resident fashionista and dressmaker. She works and lives at the Carousel Boutique.”
“I didn’t think that ponies usually wore clothes or dresses...” He cocked his head. “I mean you don’t.”
“Usually what she makes is for special occasions like social meetings, weddings and, of course, the Grand Galloping Gala. She does some awesome work on her dresses.”
“Anything else I need to know about her?”
“Yeah, she can be a real drama queen sometimes. She’ll practically have a heart attack if you were to undermine the quality of her work or anything she likes, and if she loses anything she’ll go into a strop, saying that what happened is the ‘WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!’”
“Yeesh, sounds worse than some of the people I knew online - they’d go off on anything if you pressed the right buttons. Is there anyone else I need to be aware of?”
“Yeah, only a couple more I need to tell you about. If you bump into Twilight, she should be followed around by Spike. He’s a baby dragon and her assistant. Awfully cute too. And the other ponies I should at the least give you a little bit of info about for now are Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, aka the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They’re a trio of little fillies who are trying to find what their special talents are so they can get their cutie marks. It’s kind of funny to see what they come up with. You’ll normally find Apple Bloom around Applejack, Sweetie Belle around Rarity, and Scootaloo often hangs out around me. We’re not related, but I’ve taken her under my wing as she sees me as a big sister.”
“So that’s everything I’m gonna need to know about the other ponies for now. What about Ponyville, I don’t think you told me anything about that place.”
“Ah yeah. Ponyville is where all my friends live. There’s the Golden Oaks Library where you’ll usually find Twilight, Sugarcube Corner is where you’ll find Pinkie when she’s working and/or stuffing her face full of sweet stuff. Fluttershy has a nice little cottage just outside of town. Rarity as I told you lives in the Carousel Boutique, and Applejack lives outside of town at Sweet Apple Acres. There are plenty of nice shops there, and you shouldn’t have to worry about money for a while - I think the princesses gave you a fair amount of bits to last you awhile.”
“So do you not live in Ponyville?” He asked.
“Nah, I got my own little place up in Cloudsdale. Pretty much every pegasus lives there. After you’ve met everypony I can always take you there to check it out.”
“Do any other ponies live up there?”
“Nope, just pegasi.” She nodded her head. “Earth ponies and unicorns can’t walk on clouds unless they’re under the effect of a spell that allows them to do so.”
“I guess I’m safe then thanks to these.” He chuckled, flapping his wings a little.
“Yeah, it’s pretty much made for pegasi or alicorns,” Nightshade finally spoke up.
Draco Scales almost forgot that she was there. She didn’t say anything, content to simply listen. Maybe she had already known everything - especially how bored and anxious Rainbow Dash was inside a slow moving train.
“Say, what was it like when you first came to Ponyville?” Draco Scales asked, “Were you around for that, Rainbow Dash?”
“Boy, that was awhile ago,” Nightshade said, “I...well spent about a year inside Canterlot, for obvious reasons.”
Draco Scales remembered what he saw on the mirror about Nightshade back when she was Zoë. He assumed by Rainbow Dash’s silence that she had also seen it, or at least knew about what had happened. Applejack had possibly told her, if she hadn’t seen it.
“But I remember what it was like heading there. I remember some pegasus accidentally hopped on a raincloud and zapped me with lightning.”
Rainbow Dash started to hold back a few laughs. She remembered that very well - the look on Nightshade’s face when that happened. It wasn’t even intentional - just something meant to give her a little Cloudsdale welcome. Course, she should have known it better than to leave something like that to a clumsy pegasus...
“Was that all that happened?” Draco Scales chuckled.
“Well no, my mane got really spiky and I turned all black. We had a little fun welcome celebration and I got to meet almost everypony around. Heck, Ponyville is sure to have changed in the last few months...I mean, I still have a house around Cloudsdale and...yeah.”
“What made you decide to study that mirror a little more?”
“More curiosity, pretty much - that and well, I can really compare and contrast how pony and human society is. You can say I got too wrapped up in it - I know, unusual for my kind of pony, right?” She said.
“Also, where was it you’re from, according to your...cover story?”
“Casabalearic,” Nightshade said, “I guess you can say we were all from other countries, too.”
“What about uhm...in the other side?”
“I wish I could say Casablanca, but it was a nowhere town in the middle of Saskatchewan. I’ve heard bad things happen to people named Zoë that live in Casablanca.”
“Oh, I see...” Draco Scales said, “Wait, what do you mean by that?”
Rainbow Dash suddenly perked up.
“Woo hoo! We’re finally nearby Ponyville!”
Chapter Eight - Welcome to Ponyville
“Oh man, I can’t tell you how good it feels to be off of that thing!” Rainbow Dash stretched herself, flapping her wings a few times as she hovered a few feet away from the train, Draco and Nightshade following her off. Draco was double checking that he had everything again, his big bag floating a few inches from his face.
“Any longer on that and you would have been bored to death I imagine?” the crimson alicorn snickered as he looked around him. The train station looked just like the one that was opposite the game shop in his world that ran the card game club he took part in, just a simple walk in place with no lifts and escalators. “So Ponyville is just on the other side of these doors?”
“Indeed it is!” Rainbow Dash said, “Let’s head on through!”
“Hey, let’s walk side by side,” Nightshade suggested, “I bet you anything there’s a small group of ponies waiting for us.”
All three walked out of the train as the door opened. Just as the blue pegasus predicted, there were quite a few ponies there waiting for them - including a rather small purple and green looking dragon.
“WELCOME HOME RAINBOW DASH!” a high pitched voice shouted.
Before Draco Scales could react, the pink horse hopped right on up and seemed to glide towards all three. Unfortunately, the alicorn was in the centre, and she went right towards him first. He tried to take a few steps back, only to be pancaked by a smaller earth pony who glomped him, sandwiched between his bag and the floor.
“AGGH! CAN’T...BREATHE!!!” Draco Scales shouted, making a very silly face as he was squashed into the floor by the earth pony.
“Hey! You’re not Rainbow Dash!” The horse said, hopping on top of Draco Scales’s bag a few more times before finally getting off.
“Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie...” several of the ponies sighed.
“HEY PONIES!” Rainbow Dash announced, “This is our new friend Draco Scales.”
Draco Scales wasn’t in any state to respond. He was seeing his bag and pink galloping horses flying in orbit around his head. Both his eyes started moving clockwise and counterclockwise.
“Pinkie Dahling, please look before you glomp,” the white unicorn said, “I hope he’s not hurt.”
“Three suns and four moons....I’d love to have the cake too...” Draco Scales said in a weird sounding voice.
“Yeah, he’ll be fine! They’re all fine!” Pinkie Pie shouted, “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!”
Suddenly, Draco Scales hopped right back up, shaking his head. It sounded just like Luna’s royal voice - just as much force behind it as well.
“Uh! I’m here! I’m sorry!” He said, “You squished me.”
“It’s all in good fun!” The pink horse said, “I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? Are you the new alicorn? What’s in your bag? Ohey! You brought a friend with you! You’re quite tall. Wow! I didn’t know there were male alicorns too!”
Applejack seemed to be distracted a bit. Her eyes at first went to the Alicorn turned pancake, but then she noticed that slightly behind him was a rather familiar pegasus. Both of them made eye contact with each other and smiled.
“Sure has been awhile, hasn’t it Nightshade?” Applejack broke the ice first.
“Hey, I’m...sorry for not being such a good friend and doing something with you,” Nightshade said, taking several steps forward to face Applejack, “I’ve...been too caught up in studies.”
“LIKE TWILIGHT USED TO!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she hopped in between them.
She was surrounded in a rather white looking aura as the horse was levitated away.
“Pinkie! Don’t be so RUDE!” The white unicorn said, “Of all the nerve! How do you not drive everypony crazy!”
Draco Scales simply leaned close to Rainbow Dash and whispered something.
“Is she always like this?”
“Yeah...she is...” Rainbow Dash whispered back, “I think she had a little too much sugar to eat. Come on! Lemme introduce you to everypony now!”
“I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie Pie introduced, still being constrained by Rarity, “Rarity can you put me down?”
The aura vanished, and Pinkie Pie landed right on the ground, bouncing like rubber. Rarity took this moment to step up. Draco Scales immediately got the sense that she thought high of herself. Given that she had came to the little welcoming party wearing purple “dress”, a sunhat tied with a fitting purple cloth, and sunglasses covering her eyes.
“My name is Rarity,” She said, smiling to Draco Scales, “I’m sure you’ll fit right on in.”
Meanwhile, Nightshade quit held up a hoof to Applejack and smiled. She nodded to the earth pony, gesturing for her to go introduce herself to Draco Scales. They could have caught up a little later - introductions were a once in a lifetime event.
“And ahm Applejack!” She introduced herself to Draco Scales, “I reckon you’ll get along quite abit if you can keep up with Rainbow Dash.”
Draco Scales remembered a few more friends that needed to introduce themselves to him - he looked over towards the other group that hadn’t spoken up. Namely that purple and green dragon. The unicorn nearby seemed to be gesturing for the dragon to join in - as well as somepony else who didn’t seem as outgoing.
“She’ll be with you in a moment.” The dragon spoke to Draco. “Fluttershy can be a bit hard to work with at gatherings like this.”
“Maybe she’s just nervous meeting somepony new?” He asked.
“Yeah, you don’t know the half of it!” Rainbow said under her breath.
“The name’s Spike. Nice to meetcha!” He extended a small, clawed hand to the red alicorn. Draco extended his hoof, letting the dragon grip it. “Hrm...”
“What, is something wrong? I don’t have something stuck to my hooves, do I?” He asked.
“No, it’s just... something about you doesn’t seem right.” Spike said as he released his grip.
“Not right?” Draco spoke, sounding confused.
“It’s like something about you... isn’t 100% pony... maybe it’s just me though.”
“...huh.” He tilted his head. “Well I feel 100% pony.” He told him. He knew that now wasn’t the best time to tell anyone that he used to be a human. Maybe that’s why Spike said that, but there was nothing human about him anymore.
“Anyways, I think Twilight’s about ready to meet you now. I’ll try to finish trying to get Fluttershy to pluck up.” He chuckled as he walked back towards the purple unicorn who approached Draco.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She extended a hoof to him, which he responded to, the tips meeting with a soft clop. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. What part of Equestria did you live in before you came here?”
“Well I spent most of my time in Wiltshire, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve been up in Canterlot doing a few things to get myself ready to move here.”
“Canterlot? Have you met the princesses?”
“Oh yeah, I had the honor of being in their presence a few times.” He smiled.
“Did they say anything about me? I’m always curious to hear if they’ve said anything about my talents!”
“Celestia brought your name up a couple of times - she said you’d be among the first ponies I’d meet here, and she wasn’t wrong about that!”
“You’ll have to fill me in on what you did with the princesses when we have more time. Oh, did you bump into Cadence or Shining Armor whilst you were there?”
“I can’t say I did.” He swung his head in a ‘no’ fashion.
“It’s ok, I just like to hear updates on how my favourite foalsitter turned princess and my big brother are doing up there after all.” She smiled.
“Well if I’m down there again and I bump into either of them, I’ll let ya know.” He winked.
“Thank you!” She said with a squeak in her voice. “Anyways, there’s one more pony you need to meet for now. I think she might be ready for you...” She turned to face that pony, only to find Spike tugging at the pegasus’s bright pink tail, the yellow colored pony trying to keep herself hidden behind her large mane. “Ugh..” She placed her hoof against her face. “You’d think by now she’d be less shy at these things!” She said in an exasperated tone as she went to try to comfort the pegasus.
“Come on Fluttershy, you’ll love meeting this guy! You don’t have to worry about saying anything bad in front of him, it’s not like he’s loyalty or anything!” Spike kept tugging on her tail.
“But what if I say something to insult him, or something that might make him feel out of place?” A shrill voice answered from behind all that hair. “I just know I’ll mess up!”
“Trust me, you’ll do fine. Just think of it as trying to do something for one of your animal friends!” Twilight spoke, trying to use her magic to budge the pegasus.
“Yeah, think of it as trying to talk to Angel!” Rainbow suggested. This just made the yellow pegasus whimper more - that bunny wasn’t the easiest animal to work with after all. “Or just an animal, whatever makes you feel more confident!”
“Maybe if she was to see me face to face it might put her at ease...” Draco thought as he walked over towards the pegasus, standing directly in front of her.
“He’s standing right in front of you, Fluttershy!” Spike chimed in. “At least take a look at the guy!”
“...ok...” She stammered, a pair of green eyes peeking out through her mane as she slowly tilted her head up towards him. Nothing bad at first, just a pair of red legs and all. She calmed a little, only to become more nervous when she noticed that he was taller than the other ponies. She wanted to get back into her cowering position, but Twilight had used this drop in her guard to lift her up with her magic, her eyes soon meeting up with Draco’s almost feral stare, the rounded slits staring back at her.
“Hi there!” He smiled sweetly to her.
“Eep!” She brought her forehooves up to her face, cowering again.
“Seriously?” Draco thought, his eye twitching a little as he used his magic, Twilight releasing her hold on Fluttershy as he lowered her back to the ground, putting her back onto all fours just about so he could get a good look at her. He smiled again when he got a look at the shy pegasus - as cute as all the other ponies were, she was the cutest one here, at least in his eyes.
“Trust me, I’m not going to hurt you or anything.” He said in a soft tone, extending his right forehoof outwards towards her.
“Th-Thanks,” Fluttershy said, slowly extending her own forehoof towards Draco Scale’s. It felt like an eternity before they finally touched. Boy, they weren’t kidding when they said that Fluttershy really was shy. She couldn’t have had a more fitting name.
“It’s okay,” Nightshade spoke up, “Just try not to scare her.”
* * *
Ponyville was a lot more beautiful than Draco Scales had thought. It reminded him of some of the villages at home. Well, those villages if they’d been subjected to a few buckets of paint. Everypony there seemed so friendly as well, the red alicorn being greeted with a smile. The party was still ongoing, the proper celebrations going on whilst everypony parted. He saw that Pinkie Pie was preparing something from just out of view, heading back and forth between Sugarcube Corner as she left the shop with bags of ingredients.
“I wonder just what she’s making...” He thought to himself. “Whatever it is, hopefully it’ll be good. I’d ask if I could lick the beaters afterwards, if there’d be anything left to lick.”
Given how hyperactive Pinkie Pie seemed to be, there might not have been anything left to lick the batter. Draco Scales’s ears twitched when he heard some music being played. He could see a white pony with a rather colourful mane - even moreso than Nightshade’s - acting as the DJ. It must have been the Vinyl Scratch that Nightshade mentioned.
In fact, he could even see her dancing, attracting somewhat of a crowd when she hopped onto her hind legs, spread her wings, and managed to dance. Course, she wasn’t the only one who could have done it - she seemed to be a little more adapt at it. The laws of physics seemed to take a break inside this world.
“Wow, quite a party, huh?” Draco Scales said.
“I’m quite surprised that Nightshade is so energetic. Why, you should have seen her when she first came - Applejack had to practically stand her up!” He recognized Rarity speaking behind him, “It’s okay - I know.”
“R-Right,” He said to Rarity. She seemed a little out of place, wearing something that wouldn’t have looked out of place inside a fancy ball of some kind. Rarity must have had a different idea of what party clothes would have been.
Rarity jumped a bit, as Draco Scales moved her to the side with his magic. He saw it - someone was pushing a cart of punch, and accidentally slipped, causing the bowl of punch to spill a bit. He didn’t even want to imagine what kind of fit Rarity would have thrown if there was a punch stain on her dress - especially from what Rainbow Dash had told him about her.
“Sorry Rarity!” A pony said, “I slipped - did I stain your dress?”
“No, not at all, Draco Scales here is quite the gentleman - thank you so much!”
“I-It’s nothing!” Draco Scales said. He was quite surprised how ponies were anxious to thank him for things he thought were pretty minor. Of course, from what he knew about Rarity, that might have been something to expect.
“Well I still thank you - I only just finished this dress a few minutes before you arrived, after all.” She smiled.
“Good thing I was here to help you then.” He chuckled nervously. “If that really was the case, you might have thrown the mother of all hissy fits here and now.”
“I do not throw hissy fits!” She said with a raised voice. “Well, except when it’s under justifiable circumstances.”
“I’ll... keep that in mind...” He blinked.
“I better get moving - I might find some customers in this crowd yet. Nice meeting you, darling!” The white unicorn smiled as she walked away from him a few moments later after the path was made clear.
“Whew... crisis averted!” He wiped the sweat from his brow.
He noticed another pegasus who seemed to be hanging in a corner, away from it all. He immediately recognized her - Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was right - she really wasn’t one for social gatherings. The alicorn smiled and walked towards her - thankfully they did get off on the right hoof, but he couldn’t help but feel that he and Fluttershy weren’t on common ground. (Or clouds - depending on whether or not Pegasi insisted on using a different phrase to describe such things.
He remembered being quite shy, hanging away from groups just because he wasn’t fitting in. At least, this wasn’t a hostile group at all - ponies were far from it, as far as he had known. (Even that other white unicorn who allegedly treated others with disdain...he never bothered to remember his name.)
“So, are you having fun?” He asked Fluttershy, nearing her.
She jumped upon hearing Draco Scales’s voice - shying away a tad, before looking towards him. She still looked on the ground a bit, trying to find something to say. It took a few seconds of awkward silence before she spoke up.
“Uh...yes...I’m sorry, you scared me...” Fluttershy said.
“You know, you’re...kind of like me, actually,” Draco Scales said, “Just not good in large groups?”
“I...prefer the comp-company of the animals.”
“Heh. Back where I came from, I usually retreated into the company of Pokémon. Sadly those aren’t real, so the closest I got was playing the game, watching the anime and being with my plushes.”
“Are...are they cute? These Pokémon?”
“Well some of them are. There are quite a few that I think would have you running for the hills, whilst a bunch of them would have you wanting to cuddle them. Trust me, you haven’t seen cute till you’ve laid eyes on something like a Pikachu or a Mew.”
“I’ll um...take your word for it, I guess... But why have I never heard of them?””
“Wiltshire’s one of those really walled-in places. Not much gets in and out of there, so they usually have to make their own entertainment up.” He said - he knew he was lying through his teeth, but he didn’t want to arouse suspicion, not yet. “I’ve got some things that I can show you, so you’ll be able to tell me what ones are cute or not.”
She just nodded slowly in response to him. He smiled a little as he moved closer.
“You really are just like how I used to be.” He unfurled a wing, wrapping it slowly around her back.
“R-Really?” Fluttershy asked.
“Of course,” Draco Scales said, “There’s nothing wrong with being shy. I’d love to meet your animal friends sometime - if they’re not afraid of me.”
“R-Really?” Fluttershy said again, “I’m sure they’ll like you if you’re...not too scary.”
“Not that I intend to!” He said.
* * *
“That was such a cool party, wasn’t it?” Rainbow Dash said, after the party had ended. Twilight Sparkle even had Spike with her, who had curled up like a cute little baby when it was time for for him to leave.
“You actually don’t live too far from me, at least, according to the letter,” Twilight said, “Here, I’ll show you.”
Twilight carried Spike on her back, who was cutely sucking on his claw.
“I can carry him if you want,” Rainbow Dash offered.
“Well since you’re offering.” She levitated the baby dragon with her magic, Rainbow holding him close to her chest as she waited for them to make a move. “I think we can go now, just follow me and I’ll show you your new home.” She walked on ahead, Draco walking close to her as Rainbow Dash flew on overhead. “So what made you come here from Wiltshire?”
“Well as I said to Fluttershy, it’s a really walled-in town. Not much gets in or leaves, so we’re usually behind on all the big stuff.” Draco said. “It was getting really boring there, so I wanted to head to a place that was a little more lively.”
“There’s never a dull moment in Ponyville.” Twilight chuckled. “Not a day goes by without something wacky happening here or there. I just hope you’ll be prepared for it.”
“Do I look like somepony who’s never prepared for anything?” Draco beamed.
“Not at all. You’re just like Rainbow Dash, always ready for some kind of adventure!”
“Yup, that sounds like the two of us in a nutshell!” Rainbow butted in, grinning from ear to ear.
“Also from what I was told, you’ve brought some things from Wiltshire for me to have a look over?” Twilight asked, a hint of eagerness in her voice.
“Yeah, I got a few gizmos in my bag that you might enjoy. Just be careful with them, any breakages will result in me asking you to pay for compensation.”
“Don’t worry, I’m always careful with other ponies’ possessions.”
“Then I’ll show you what I’ve got when we’ve reached my place. I’m starting to wonder what kind of house I’ll be staying in whilst I’m here - the houses in Wiltshire were fairly simple, no-frills types of things.”
“Many of the cottages here are sort of the same. Here’s where it is.”
Draco Scales looked over the house. At first, he was expecting something like one of those simple spartan homes, or like a lot of other cottages in ponyville. He was instead greeted with something that looked to be a strange mixture like two buildings were spliced together.
The top looked to be somewhat cloudy, or at least, artificially cloudy. Sort of greco-looking in terms of style, too. The bottom meanwhile seemed to be something more like a standard cottage, though he could see a few columns supporting one of the cloud balconies. That did give it a bit of an interesting look, after all. If not rather awkward or a tad chaotic.
“Wooow,” Draco Scales looked over it, “that’s like...a strange mixture. I didn’t know you ponies made mix-and-match houses.”
“Well, we’re not entirely one for conformity here in Ponyville!” Twilight smiled.
“You should see the Carousel Boutique or Fluttershy’s place!” Rainbow Dash said.
Spike of course was still asleep just as any other cute dragon would be this late.
“I wouldn’t doubt it - I already saw some of those houses in the dark, “So how does it open?”
“Well I’d imagine you’re supposed to push the door open,” Rainbow Dash said.
Draco Scales promptly fell flat on his back, hooves facing the air and twitching a tad.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said.
“I’m sorry, but he set me up for that!” She laughed wildly, holding her gut. “Here... here, let me show you.” She calmed down a few seconds later, flying up to the door. As she was still holding Spike, she couldn’t use her front hooves, so she hovered in place, gently kicking the door open with one of her rear hooves. “Alternatively, as you’re an alicorn, you’d be able to fly through the door.”
“That’s good to know...” Draco said as he got back to all fours. “I wonder what it’s gonna be like inside - if there’s any cloud platforms, will earth ponies or unicorns be able to stand on them?”
“The houses in Cloudsdale are made with very dense clouds, so hopefully they’d be able to support a non-pegasus.” Rainbow told him. “Of course Twilight’s here, so we’ll be able to test that out!”
“Well, let’s try!” Draco Scales said as he spread his wings, and then took a flight. He floated towards the cloud and landed right on it. It seemed to hold his weight just fine. “Well, your turn, Twilight. Want me to help you up?”
“No problem,” Twilight said, “I can move myself up.” She surrounded herself in her aura and lifted herself up a bit. She seemed to be doing so slowly - he never thought that might have been a problem for unicorns. But then again, he never actually tried that. It seemed to be easy to move other ponies around with magic.
Several minutes later, she dropped down on the clouds. Draco Scales was expecting her to fall through the clouds onto the ground, but he instead heard nothing. She didn’t fall through at all - that was a relief. Guess that meant if he was having visitors they wouldn’t have to worry about falling right through the cloud onto the ground.
“Does that take a little bit of effort?” Draco Scales asked, much relieved to know his house wasn’t a pony deathtrap.
“Yeah, it does,” She said, “I can help myself down.”
“No, lemme do it,” Draco Scales said, as his own magical aura surrounded Twilight, lifting her up and guiding her down to the ground.
“Can you give me a head’s up before you do that, please?” Twilight said.
Draco Scales looked over the small cloud balcony, seeing Twilight on her back. Oops.
“Err, sorry!” He said.
“I have to put Spike to bed, shall we see you in the morning?”
“Bright and earl-” Twilight gave a small glare at Rainbow Dash, “Bright and early.” She said, a lot more quiet than before. Didn’t want to wake up Spike after all.
“Good night, Twilight and Rainbow! You too Spike - even if you’re asleep.”
Spike quietly snoozed, while Rainbow and Twilight waved, heading off to the library to put Spike to bed. Draco Scales then took this as an opportunity to explore his new home.
He wanted to get a little used to his new home before falling asleep. There was a lot of room to go around, a few lights here and there that alternated between electric lights and fire lights. There weren’t any TVs in the house, so he knew that he’d have to keep himself entertained for the most part, but there were a few electrical sockets here and there, so he’d be able to use his laptop. Well, once he figured out how to type via magic. There was a small kitchen with a few shelves full of food and the like, a fridge stocked up with various drinks and consumables.
Going up to check on his room, it was quite spacious compared to the room he had in his world. There were a couple of cupboards (Though what he’d store in them was anypony’s guess) and a desktop, as well as a pair of lights and a lamp above the bed. Speaking of his bed, it consisted entirely of a very large cloud floating in place, big enough to hold a few ponies. Next to his bed was a bookshelf which had one row full up, namely a couple of gifts left by his new friends. Among the books he saw there were a selection of Daring Do titles, a book that detailed creatures around Equestria (Titled ‘Equestrian Bestiary - Everything You Needed To Know, From Changelings to Timberwolves’), a couple of magic-themed books (Either left there by Twilight or the princesses), and some light reading.
“Looks like a comfy little place... I’ll give it a full look over tomorrow, but for now...” He yawned, leaping onto the cloud bed as he sprawled out all over it. “Tomorrow I’ll get to know everypony else in detail... suppose I better show Twilight all that stuff, and see if I can figure out my cutie mark.” He said to himself as he turned off the lights, drifting into a peaceful sleep.
Chapter Nine - A Sudden Change
The next morning, Draco Scales walked down the stairs, and found something on the table. He walked over to investigate this object on the table. How cute - it was a welcome basket with his name on it. He saw various fruits and treats from a lot of people in ponyville. He smiled, already knowing what he was going to have for breakfast - Applejack had given him at least three kinds of apples to find what kind he liked.
He looked over all the other gifts - fruits, a coupon for a free game of bowling (should check that out later), some sweets from the Sugarcube Corner, a cute little thing that must have been made by Spike. (How cute! A painted rock.) He also noticed a small vial of something with a note attached. He pulled off the note and levitated it in front of his face to read.
“This is a remedy for poison joke, by the Everfree forest you will see.” There was also a small drawing on the note, detailing how many leaves were on this poison joke. He wondered who this was from. Maybe he should have asked Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash.
After eating a Red Delicious and a Granny Smith apple for breakfast, Draco Scales walked out of his home into the Equestrian morning. Boy, was it different than what he was used to. Where could he have gone first, he thought to himself. He figured he would just explore Equestria - maybe he’ll see some people from the party, or those who weren’t there. (He heard Twilight Sparkle namedropping somepony named Zecora, and Rarity left early so she could put somepony named “Sweetie Belle” to bed. He didn’t see anypony going by that name. Maybe they liked to hang by their friends.)
Eventually, he walked by what looked to be the schoolhouse, where he could see fillies and colts playing around. One was playing with something that looked like a hula hoop, tossing it to another colt who caught it, then tossed it to another one. How cute, Draco Scales thought.
The kids seemed to be so happy. Maybe there weren’t any bullies in Equestria. After seeing those visions of what those people did to him back home, the last thing he wanted to see were bullies beating colts and fillies up and getting away with it. Or even teasing him.
His ear twitched, upon hearing a familiar word. “Crybaby”. What? He turned his head towards the source of this sound. He noticed two fillies - one of which was wearing some kind of a tiara. (Pony Boo Boo?) They looked to be insulting three other fillies - an orange pegasus, a yellow and red earth pony, and a white unicorn that looked somewhat like Rarity.”I’m guessing that must be the ‘Sweetie Belle’ that Rarity mentioned...” he thought as he got closer to them. From what he could see, the duo who was doing the name calling were both earth ponies, the pink pony wearing the tiara had a tiara as her cutie mark, and the grey-furred pony next to her had a silver spoon as their cutie mark. “Pretty fancy looking... but they seem to be as snobbish as their cutie marks...” He turned his gaze towards the trio.
“We’re not crybabies!” The orange pegasus protested angrily, glaring at the duo.
“But I thought that’s what you named your little group, the Cutie Mark Crybabies!” The pink pony said with a nasty chuckle. None of them had noticed the alicorn standing behind them, but if they had saw him, they would have noted the look of irritation across his muzzle.
The three fillies didn’t even seem to notice the rather irritated looking alicorn at first. They must have had an anger-induced tunnel vision. However, one of them looked up and spotted the rather angry looking alicorn. Rather than say anything, they let the fillies continue to tease them.
“I hear that ponies who don’t have cutie marks still wet the bed!” the pink one said.
“I do NOT wet the bed!” the white unicorn said, “I bet YOU did recently!”
“Only bed-wetters deny doing it!” The tiara-wearing pony said.
To say it wasn’t pushing Draco Scales near the breaking point was an understatement. He was right there, and they didn’t even notice that they were standing in his shadow, and continuing to insult the fillies to their faces?
Already he wanted to roar and scare them. Wait, why roar?
“Ghh...” He gritted his teeth, trying to suppress his rage, but it was doing little to nothing to help him. The way these two were acting, it was amazing that somepony hadn’t tried to strangle them in the past, or at least try to put them in their place - they were acting worse than the people he remembered from the living hell he went through a few years back.
“You’re just jealous of our own cutie marks! I bet yours is going to be a diaper or a safety pin because you cry so much.”
That did it. There seemed to be a small “Snap”ing noise, like someone who had been bending a stick in half. Several sparks popped out of his ears, followed by bursts of steam. He started to shake a little, as steam seemed to emerge from his nose. A small thermometer inside his head seemed to explode - metaphorically speaking of course.
Now the other three fillies noticed him, and started to back up nervously. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara didn’t seem to notice - thinking they might have scared the other fillies. But then they noticed a shadow that seemed to cover the fillies. The one that they were standing in.
“Gruhaahh...” A low hiss emerged from his muzzle that quickly turned into a monstrous roar. The two fillies jumped slightly as they turned around, looking at the crimson alicorn.
“What in Equestria is this pony doing here?” Silver Spoon had to ask.
“He probably thinks he’s trying to intimidate us with those noises - nopony with sense would stand up for those three losers!” Diamond Tiara said in a bold tone of voice.
“GUHRAAHHHHH!!!” He roared again, a small burst of flame emerging from his mouth. The two girls moved away, knowing that there was no way a pony could do that - unless they were using some kind of weird magic, but this seemed to be something beyond magic. The alicorn growled as he started to slowly grow, the fur growing thicker around his body as he gained in size. Under the fur, a barely visible layer of scales started forming around him.
“You two...” He hissed, his tongue darting from his muzzle as it grew longer, forking at the tip. His broad, flat teeth were growing bigger and longer, shifting into serrated fangs, new ones growing in the spaces that his growing muzzle provided. “Need to be put in your place...”
By now the three fillies were huddling against each other, looking on in a mixture of fear and awe as Draco kept growing bigger, the two tormentors frozen in place as they looked at the changing alicorn. His wings spread wider, growing more as the feathers were replaced with a thick layer of fur, the limbs becoming more bat-like in appearance as he spread them out fully, his shadow now larger.
“Where do you think that pony...thing came from?” Sweetie Belle said quietly to her friends.
“No idea... but I sure hope it’s on our side!” the orange pegasus, Scootaloo, said with a gulp.
The alicorn rose up on his hind legs as his forelegs grew longer, the limbs altering as his hooves split apart, four massive claws emerging from them as his rear hooves did the same thing, talons digging into the ground. His tail thrashed angrily against the ground as it grew longer, some of the hair shedding as it grew to a bladed tip.
Finally, the alicorn started to look more and more reptilian, but at the same time, still ponyeseque. His ears seemed to grow a little more, still remaining horse-like. A few more fangs appeared as his muzzle lengthened. His eyes retained their yellow colour, but almost seemed to glow ominously. In addition, his pupils seemed to shrink a bit - they were turning more slitted. Just like a dragon’s pupils. He finally looked down over the two fillies and gave a vicious sounding roar.
Even the three Cutie Mark Crusaders were scared of this. They were too scared to even laugh about the other two now losing their cool seeing the dragon roar. It was even worse that time Princess Luna visited, and shouted loud enough to send them into the floor. They got a good whiff of the dragon’s breath, too - strangely it smelled like apples. Better apples than ponies, though.
“Ssssoooo...” He said in a deep, distorted variation of his normal voice, looking at the two fillies with a look of pure malice. “Not so tough when you’re dealing with something that could flat-out kill you, are you?” He chuckled. His mind had been clouded over with rage, but he had enough control over himself to not attack the wrong ponies - he saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders cowering, a soft smile crossing his maw as if to say ‘Don’t worry, none of you are on the menu’.
“H...H...H...” Diamond Tiara tried to say something in protest, but she couldn’t bring herself to saying anything that had more than one syllable. He could tell that she was trying to regain her composure, but it was failing miserably. A smirk crossed his face when he saw the colours draining from them.
“I’m sssorry, what was that?” His smirk widened into a grin. “If I didn’t know any better, it sounds like you’re ssscared...” He ran a claw between them, making a gesture that almost seemed to suggest that he was planning on skinning them alive. “Jusst like you scare these three with your taunting... it doesssn’t feel nice to be on the receiving end, doesss it?”
After a few seconds of scared silence, the two fillies finally started screaming. This seemed to get the attention of the other fillies and colts. Some of them saw the draconic pony standing over the five fillies and simply ran. So many of them remembered when Spike got greedy and grew into a huge monster. This didn’t look like somepony interested in collecting as many things (or ponies) as it could...it looked like it wanted lunch! And those fillies were on the menu. Of course, they would have known better had they heard what he said.
“Run!” Silver Spoon shouted, staring wide-eyed at the claw.
“I would sssugesst you do that, if you don’t wisssh to be lunch! I only had some applesss for breakfassst, and thosse are not very filling! And I sssugesst that you don’t torment thesse poniess again!”
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon ran right off in different directions, not even bothering to say anything to acknowledge that they were listening to the dragon. They simply left the three Cutie Mark Crusaders to the dragon - course they didn’t know that he didn’t have any beef with them. Too scared to even pay attention that he “suggested” leaving them alone.
There were still a few ponies scattered around, but they were hiding away, waiting to see just what the dragon was going to do. With the two bullies gone for the time being, Draco turned towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders, growling softly as he looked down at them. “There... hopefully now they’ll think twice before crosssing your paths again...”
“Hopefully...” Scootaloo said as she moved closer towards the dragon, looking up at him. “But what are you? When we noticed you before all this, you were just another pony.”
“In all honesty, your guesss is as good as mine!” Draco looked over himself, standing at least a good fifty or more feet above everypony else. “I just felt something break insssside me, and then I turned into thisss!” He then paused. “Huh... maybe that might explain the cutie mark I had...” He looked down towards his hind quarters, amazed to find that his cutie mark was still visible against the muscular reptilian legs.
“You really were something though!” Sweetie Belle spoke up, looking at the dragon. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard those two scream like that before, well unless you count last Nightmare Night.”
“I guess I just happened to be in the right place at the right...” He stopped when he saw the three of them hugging close to his right foot, smiles spread across their muzzles.
“Draco Scales? Is that you?” A familiar voice said, further interrupting his thoughts on top of the cute sight of the fillies he ‘saved’ from bullies. He looked over at where this voice was, immediately recognizing Rainbow Dash flying towards him.
“Yeah! It iss! I don’t know what happened!”
Now it hit him - he was probably was causing a bit of a scene, standing over all the other ponies. Draco Scales had such tunnel vision, he didn’t even notice someponies running away upon seeing a large creature by the schoolyard.
“Watch out - Spike’s down by your foot.”
Wait, when did Spike get here? He looked down, noticing the baby dragon looking up at the larger dragon with a stunned look on his face. That must have explained that sense that Spike had when he first came to Ponyville - that he wasn’t entirely pony.
“Wait until Twilight hears about this!” He said, wagging his tail somewhat.
“Well thisss iss great and all...but how do I turn back now?”
“Maybe Twilight knows something? All that studying in that library’s got to be good for something.” Rainbow Dash said.
Chapter Ten - The Dragon Outside
Draco Scales sat outside the Golden Oaks Library, waiting around as the unicorn sat outside with her friends, skimming through a few pages of one of her larger books as she tried to look for a solution to all this. All the other element bearers (bar Fluttershy, who must have been elsewhere at this point) were around her, talking amongst themselves as they looked up at Draco.
“Well it seems he does have self-control over himself, that’s got tah be some sort of plus...” Applejack thought as the dragon idly scoffed on some apples - they weren’t really as filling as they were before, but that could be blamed on his bigger stomach. “The last thing we’d need around here is a repeat of the situation with Spike!”
“And compared to other dragons, he does seem quite polite, almost like a gentlestallion!” Rarity commented, drawing a look of ire from Spike. “Of course he’s nowhere near as cute as our Spikey-Wikey!”
“Have you found anything yet?” Rainbow asked Twilight, the purple unicorn tossing the book she had finished aside.
“Ugh, I can’t find anything in these books! Such a thing like this has never been recorded or witnessed in Equestrian history! Maybe it’s another Wiltshire thing?” She asked Draco.
“Trusssst me, if anypony else from there could turn into a dragon like this, everypony would know about the place! Besssidesss which, this is the first time this has ever happened to me!”
“That’s true... maybe I could try a couple of spells on you, see if that’ll turn you back into your natural alicorn state?”
“I’ve got nothing to lossse, ssso you might as well!” He nodded.
Twilight attempted a spell to turn him back to a pony. At first, he didn’t notice anything, but the looked down to see if it even went off. He noticed he seemed to have turned a solid black.
“Nope, all that did was make me black. I’d rather like to return to my old colour sscheme - ass nice asss black isss.”
Twilight undid that colour-changing spell, attempting to use another spell to turn him back to normal. Maybe it was going to poof him back to normal, he assumed when he saw himself surrounded by clouds. But he didn’t see anything else - other than clouds. That didn’t work at all. He shook the clouds away, while Twilight tried another one. He couldn’t sense anything else immediately happening. Draco Scales looked down at his arm and surprisingly saw nothing.
“I think you turned me invisible,” He said.
“Why isn’t it working?” Twilight asked, furiously turning pages, tossing one book aside as she took another one out, “Ugh, I wish the pony who ran the magic shop didn’t retire to Las Heygas...we could have asked him for help.”
“Can you at least undo the invisibility?” Draco Scales asked.
“Ah think she’s still a bit absorbed into her books,” Applejack said, noticing Twilight continuing to look through the spellbooks. Maybe she was looking for some kind of invisibility undo spell.
“Just hold on tight - Twilight will find something,” Rarity said.
Course, Draco Scales wasn’t tempted to do anything weird with invisibility. He was more annoyed, if anything. What fun was being a dragon if nobody could see you as one, after all.
“Say! Applejack!” He heard a familiar voice say. He looked towards this voice - immediately recognizing the dark teal peagasus flying towards him.
“Look out! Land right now!” Several of the ground-bound ponies said. Of course, it was too late, as Draco Scales felt Nightshade flying face-first into his side, not having seen the invisible dragon. She fell right to the ground, stars orbiting her head.
“You alright Nightsshade?” Draco Scales said.
“Draco Scales, is that you? I hit something...” Nightshade said from the ground. The other ponies walked over to see if she was alright.
“I do hope you find something that can help undo thisss- ssoon. Before I inconvenience ssomepony elssse!”
“Found it!” Twilight said, “This might undo that last one. Don’t move - I know where you are.”
Draco Scales didn’t move a muscle, as Twilight tried to cast the spell to hopefully get him back to normal. Nightshade was beginning to come around, still wondering what on earth it was she hit, and where Draco Scales was. Before the other ponies could explain, they were interrupted by another pony walking up to them.
“Twilight...” Fluttershy said, before noticing Twilight was absorbed in a book. It wasn’t polite to interrupt.
“Fluttershy, you might want to look away,” Rainbow Dash warned.
“Why?” Fluttershy tilted her head.
“There we go!” Twilight said, as the invisibility spell was dispelled from Draco Scales, revealing the dragon to Fluttershy and Nightshade.
Fluttershy looked up at the dragon, and before she could make any noise, fainted and fell right on her side.
“Well.... thisss is awkward...” He chuckled a little, looking at the unconscious pegasus. “Is she always like thissss around big creatures?”
“Not usually, but she’s not a big fan of dragons. Unless your name is Spike.” Rainbow Dash said to him as she picked up Fluttershy in her forehooves. “I guess seeing a giant dragon in the middle of Ponyville must have been too much for her to cope with.”
“Hopefully she’ll be ok. Once she wakesss up, I’ll explain it. Of course it’ll be harder if I’m ssstill in dragon form, but I’ll find a way to tell her.” He turned his head towards Twilight. “Any luck finding a ssspell?”
“Nope, I can’t find anything, and I’ve gone through pretty much every book I have!” She said in a defeated tone of voice. “Even every book I have on dragons doesn’t mention anything like this... it’s just not scientifically possible! You’re not scientifically possible!”
“This is Equestria,” Nightshade spoke up, “Science doesn’t exactly apply here. Remember the Timberwolves?”
“Oh boy doh ah remember them...all too well.” Applejack spoke up.
* * *
Fluttershy came to about ten minutes later. She had thankfully been moved from the scene - where the dragon couldn’t scare her back into fainting. Instead, everypony’s favourite dragon was there instead.
“You alright, Fluttershy?” Spike asked.
“Oh, I’m...fine,” She said, “I thought for a minute there, I saw a giant dragon by the Golden Oaks library.”
Spike didn’t say anything, sweatdropping as he looked at something behind her.
“...There is one?” She seemed to curl up a little, “Oh no! What does he want? Does he want to scare us?”
“No, he’s...He’s Draco Scales.”
“What?”
“He’s Draco Scales,” Spike said.
“But Draco Scales was an Alicorn! I don’t remember him being a dragon!” She finally found the courage to stand up, looking towards the library. Of course, she couldn’t see anything but wood - they must have moved Fluttershy to the back.
“Something happened, and he turned into a large dragon!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Uh...I think I’ll talk to Twilight another time!” Fluttershy said. It still wasn’t easy for her to approach large dragons. Especially since all he did was just stand there and appear out of nowhere.
Chapter Eleven - The Pegasus and the Dragon
Because he couldn’t exactly fit into his house without crushing it, Draco Scales was forced to find something a little more fitting. He couldn’t have hung around the Everfree Forest, he didn’t want to risk Poison Joke at all.
Thankfully, Rainbow Dash knew a place on a mountain where a dragon once took a nap, and was persuaded to leave with the help of Fluttershy. It looked just fitting for a dragon as large as he was.
“So...think he’ll have to stay here until we find some way to undo this?” Nightshade asked.
“I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash said, “Spike’s already writing a letter to Celestia and Luna talking about this.”
“Well thanksss for coming. Ssseemss quite lonely in the dragon’ss den,” Draco Scales said.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get over that ‘sss’-ing thing you do,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Hey, he has a forked tongue, can you blame him?” Nightshade said, “Strange that there’s nothing else in here though.”
“After that dragon left, he took everything. Maybe we can let Spike move in here when he gets big enough,” Rainbow Dash added.
“No wonder, it’ss quite comfy in here,” Draco Scales said, curling up against a wall. “I guess dragons know a thing or two about accommodationsss!”
“Well it’s mainly until this wears off, then hopefully you’ll be able to get back to Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash said as she sat by him. “Makes me wonder though - when you do turn back to normal, will any of these traits remain? And what if you turned into a dragon again?”
“If I was to turn into a dragon again, hopefully it won’t lasssst as long. I’ve been like thisss since this morning! Although I can see a few perks to being a dragon, and if I wasss able to turn into one at will, that’d be even better!”
“I’ve always wondered if there’s any other pegasus or creature that’d be able to keep up with me in the air - maybe you might be able to give me a challenge!” Rainbow grinned to him.
“Um... hello?” A familiar voice called from outside the lair.
“Wait a moment, is that?” Nightshade asked as she turned towards the entrance to the cave, catching sight of Fluttershy.
“Were you here? Oh, good,” Fluttershy said, noticing Draco Scales inside the cave, “I was...was...uh...going to apologize for earlier. You scared me.”
“I didn’t mean to ssscare you!” Draco Scales said. Fluttershy backed up a little upon hearing a hiss, “Sssorry.”
“Uh...it’s...it’s alright!” She said, finally taking a few steps in, “I uh...wanted to ask if you wanted to see the animals. Maybe when you change back?”
“That sssoundss lovely!” Draco Scales said.
“Bout time you’re becoming a little more brave,” Rainbow Dash said, “Maybe some day you can get your wing power up too.”
Nightshade shot Rainbow Dash a small glare - that wasn’t going to help at all. Fluttershy ignored them and walked closer to the dragon. It was slow, but she still kept going either way. Draco tried not to make any sudden movements - he didn’t want to scare her again.
“As soon as I turn back, it’s a promise,” Draco Scales said, setting his head on the floor.
“I-It is a promise, yes,” Fluttershy shied back a little bit, but after a few seconds, took a few steps closer. Both of the other pegasi watched curiously. She leaned her cheek against his scaly muzzle, keeping her eyes closed. She must have been thinking “He won’t bite, he won’t bite.”
Then all of a sudden, the dragon seemed to shrink almost instantaneously, losing almost 90% of his height. He felt a lot smaller, and fuzzier. Fluttershy hopped back a meter, then looked at the dragon. Although he didn’t look very draconic anymore - he looked like he had just turned back into an alicorn. A rather confused alicorn at that.
“Uh...I guess I’ll be going there right now?” Draco Scales said sheepishly.
“Well blow me down!” Nightshade laughed, looking back at Draco. “Seems he just needed to be shown a little bit of kindness to turn back to normal... well, mostly normal.” She commented. Whilst he was back in his normal form, they noticed that his horn had grown a little longer, his eyes having a sort of perma-glow to them to accompany the now slitted pupils. On top of that, he had a pair of fangs poking out from his upper lip, his other teeth having slight points to them.
“Indeed - I need to thank you for this!” He smiled as he wrapped a wing gently around the yellow pegasus, holding her close to him as he gently nuzzled her.
“Say guys, wanna race down?” Rainbow Dash said, spreading her wings.
“Oh, no...I don’t think we should-”
“Nonsense! Come on Fluttershy, let’s see how better you are at flying now!” She ran behind Fluttershy and started nudging her out of the cave, her hooves sliding on the ground.
Draco Scales and Nightshade just looked at each other, then gave the other two pegasi a weird look.
* * *
Rainbow Dash seemed to have almost infinite stamina. Draco Scales swore that she could fly at top speed for hours and still not be fatigued at all. He stopped racing and flying around when Fluttershy started to get tired. Rainbow Dash insisted she was just making it up, but he and Nightshade were able to override the other pegasus, who simply said Fluttershy was never going to catch up to her if she got tired from “Simple flying”. As simple as that was, they kept trying to follow Rainbow Dash as she was forming all sorts of complex patterns, bobbing and weaving and corkscrewing around clouds. Hard to say, what she called “simple”.
Draco Scales was so tired after keeping up with the fast-flying pegasus that he practically passed out the second he got home. Maybe going dragon burned a lot of energy, but he didn’t think so. If there was any reason he was dead tired at the end of the day, it was because of Rainbow Dash’s acrobatics, not because of dragoning out.
It was already bright out when he woke up, and went downstairs. Thankfully he had a few apples left from Applejack. He grabbed a Gala and quickly chomped it down. He seemed to cut through it like it was almost nothing with his fangs, even biting through the core. He felt something weird on one of his fangs when he bit down. He poked it with his tongue, knocking it loose. Least it wasn’t part of his teeth - it was a seed.
“E-E-E-Ew! Seeds,” Draco said, spitting the seed out on the table, “Looks like I’ll have to be careful with apples from now on.”
Then, he heard a small knock on his door.
“Um...hello?” Fluttershy called from outside, her eyes visible as he saw her peeking through his mail box. “I’m not disturbing you, am I?”
“Not at all.” Draco smiled as he looked back at the basket - maybe later on he’d find a way to de-core or de-seed the apples later on to avoid an incident like that again. “Here, let me get that for you.” His horn glowed, the door glowing in turn as it swung open. “How are you this morning?” He grinned.
Fluttershy squeaked a little bit - that smile of his was a little more intimidating now he had a set of fangs.
“Ah, sorry. That might take some getting used to.” He rubbed the back of his head.
“Y..yeah...” She blushed as she approached the alicorn - at least when his mouth was closed, all he had were the cute little fangs poking out past his lower jaw. “You don’t have anything planned, do you? I don’t want to intrude...”
“Trust me, I’ve got nothing planned. In all fairness, it’s a nice change to see somepony actually come to visit me instead of the other way around.”
“E-everypony has things to do sometimes. I-I wanted to show you the animals like we promised,” Fluttershy said, “And I couldn’t yesterday because...” She seemed to stop.
“Yeah yeah, I know that, Rainbow Dash must have wanted to race everypony. Oh! Can I show you something?” He did have his bag in the house after all, “Come on in.”
Fluttershy took a few very slow steps in, as if she was afraid to enter. What, nothing would happen if she did, after all he invited her in. It wasn’t like she spontaneously appeared out of nowhere like a certain pink pony could do sometimes.
“I should probably keep this a little private, away from a lot of other ponies. I was told about how not everypony knew about, uh, Wiltshire.”
Fluttershy finally got all four hooves into Draco Scales’s house. He pulled the door closed behind her, making sure not to accidentally bump her at all. He gestured for Fluttershy to follow him upstairs, and she seemed to resist.
“Err...lemme bring it down then,” He said, walking to the stairs, then up to his room. His bag opened up as he surrounded it in his aura, digging around for his Pokémon cards. Finally, he pulled them out and levitated them, leaving his bag open. He’ll close it later, he thought to himself.
“Here,” He said, bringing his Pokémon cards down, putting them on the table.
“Wh-What are these?” Fluttershy asked.
“It’s a game some ponies made up in Wiltshire...the other one” He said as he used his magic to open one of the deck boxes. “This is the Pokémon card game.”
“P...pokémon?”
“Yeah, it’s something they made up. There’s around 649 of them, all of them based on different creatures and everything.” He pulled a couple of cards out from the deck. “They can range from cute little guys like this.” He showed her a Zorua and a Deino, which she started fawning over instantaneously.
“Aww, they look so adorable!” She said without her usual stammer, gushing over the cards - had they had been real creatures, she would more or less be trying to hug them.
“Indeed they are, but a general rule of thumb is that the more cute a Pokémon is, the more badass looking their evolutions are, like so.” He pulled another two cards out from the deck, a Zoroark and a Hydreigon. Whilst she didn’t seem to have too big a reaction to the Zoroark (She had dealt with bears before), she covered her eyes when she saw the hydra-like Pokémon.
“H-h-hydra!” She whimpered. “Just like the one from the Froggy Bottom Bog!”
“...ok, I’ll have to keep that in mind too...” He put it away. “Let’s see if I can remedy this!” He searched through his pile of favourite cards, showing her a pair of Pokémon called Joltik. A squeaking noise emanated from her muzzle as she looked at the fuzzy spider on the card.
“Seems you really like all the cute Pokémon... what about this one then?” He pulled one more card out, showing her a creature called a Rapidash.
“Oooh... I swear I saw Twilight turn into that one once!”
Draco snickered a little - Rainbow Dash had said the same thing to him when she was in his world. “You don’t say? Your friend Rainbow thought the exact same thing!”
“Here’s a different one,” Draco Scales continued, taking a Golett and a Golurk. He knew for sure that Fluttershy wouldn’t have seen something like that before. Rainbow Dash certainly didn’t say anything about it when she saw it. Fluttershy looked over the cards, completely unfamiliar to her.
“What are these creatures?” Fluttershy asked, “Th-They look like Iron Will...”
“Who was Iron Will?” Draco Scales asked.
“He’s a minotaur. They stand on two legs and are like cows.”
“Huh...interesting! I got a Tauros card in my collection too, maybe they’re like that.”
“T-Tauros? That sounds scary!”
“Nah, it isn’t.”
She looked through a few more of his cards, her reactions alternating from fear to adoration. When she was done with them, she gave them back to the alicorn, Draco storing them away.
“I’ve got some more cards from a different game that I could show you if you want, but all I can say is that most of the creatures involved in that game have more emphasis on ferociousness over cuteness. Plus they have an odd fixation on making cards based around these things called ‘humans’.” He told her - he felt odd having to talk about humans like that, but he was enjoying life as a pony more than when he was human. “Rainbow Dash told me a unicorn she knows seems to be obsessed with humans, so I should really show her them.” He chuckled.
“Well if there’s nothing else to do...” She started, swinging her right foreleg a little. “Can we go see my animal friends now?”
“Just lead the way.” He smiled sweetly, his fangs showing. Fluttershy recoiled a little, but not as much as the first time. “Here.” He picked up one of the apples from the basket, giving it to her.
“Aww...th-thank you,” She said, taking the apple in her hoof. Surprising how she could hold it - guess ponies did need something without the use of magic after all.
Chapter Twelve - Angel
Fluttershy definitely had a rather interesting house. There were a lot of hidey-holes and tunnels for her animals to go in and out of. Birds sat on perches, animals rolled on the ground, just about everything you could have expected from the equine beastmaster.
Draco Scales was also impressed with what he saw on her roof. It was all completely grass. Not just a straw roof like some of the cottages in Ponyville, green living grass. There were even animals hanging out on the roof, some vanishing into a hidey hole. How on earth could that have been possible.
“Wait...is that actual grass?” Draco Scales asked.
Fluttershy nodded, “The animals like it better.”
“Woooow...and I thought my house had all sorts of unusual things!”
“L-Lemme show you some of the animals. They shouldn’t be afraid if you’re with me.”
“Like what?”
He was surprised when he noticed of all things, an eagle landed in front of them. The same Eagle at one point almost “won” the right to be Rainbow Dash’s pet, but had returned to Fluttershy’s house.
“Like him. See?”
“Well hey there.” Draco extended a wing forwards, presenting it to the eagle. It responded by outstretching one of its own wings, the feathery limbs ‘grasping’ each other as they shook wings. “He looks like a nice pet.” He said whilst mentally thinking that they’d be trickier to take care of in his world, mainly because people didn’t normally keep eagles as pets. Hell, some people had enough trouble trying to keep cockatoos.
“I’ve got loads of other little friends.” Fluttershy told him. “Pretty much everything you could think of... well um, that’s if they’re cute things.”
“Yeah, I could totally imagine you trying to take care of a full grown dragon.” He laughed as he looked around, seeing a chicken coop filled with a couple dozen hens. It was amazing in a small way - Equestria, a land populated by colorful ponies, had pretty much the same animals his world had, and even more to boot. Growing up, he always had the weird dream of finding a pet dragon one day, and in this world, he technically was a half dragon.
“T...t...that would be a bit too much for me!” She responded.
“Well it took a fair amount of courage to nuzzle against me when I was in my dragon form.” He said with a soft purr.
“I-I’ve been trying to be a bit...more...brave...I keep getting thrusted into the spotlight...and there was this one time a dragon had taken a nap and...”
“You don’t need to continue if it’s scaring you,” Draco Scales said.
“Th-Thanks...I’ve also been having help from my friends.”
“Yeah, I imagine so!” Draco Scales said, “So, who else do you have here?”
“There’s my pet Angel.” Fluttershy lead him over to a rabbit hutch. If it could be called one for sure. It looked almost like a dog house with a small ramp leading up to it. A white rabbit poked its face out, looking over at the Alicorn and the yellow and pink pegasus.
“She’s cute! What’s she like?” Draco Scales said.
“Well, she’s really...really...”
Angel just frowned a bit at Fluttershy and hopped up, giving her a small nudge with her head. Fluttershy and Draco Scales jumped back a little bit, while Angel fell to the ground, crossing her arms. She tapped the foot on the ground, giving Fluttershy a bit of a glare.
“Y-Yes I know, you’re really nice. You sort of are...in charge here.”
Angel pulled out a pocket watch and pointed to it. Draco Scales resisted an urge to ask if the rabbit was late for a very important date. She certainly wouldn’t have heard anything about that story at all - it’d have been one of many things lost in translation.
“Oh! It’s time to feed some - do you want to help?” She asked.
“Why not, it’ll get you done faster!” Draco said as he went over to the field, picking out a couple of fresh carrots with his magic. All the while he couldn’t help but think that Angel was a little bit on the bossy side - it really did show how little confidence Fluttershy had in herself if she was being bossed around by a rabbit.
“If I had a rabbit like that, I’d teach it a lesson or two.” He thought to himself as he dropped the carrots in front of the rabbit. “I bet he’d be nice barbecued.” He chuckled inwardly at that thought, knowing that he would have the means to do so should he get too out of place.
Whilst he thought about how Angel would taste in a stew, he didn’t notice that the carrots didn’t even touch the ground - he’d snapped them up, eating one of them whole before scarfing down on the second one.
“You shouldn’t eat that fast... you’ll give yourself indigestion...” Fluttershy stammered, trying to get the bunny to listen to her. He just ignored her though as he finished it off, tossing the discarded top of the carrot at her head.
Draco Scales suddenly felt his anger boiling up a tad, seeing the rabbit ignoring everything Fluttershy had told him. He wasn’t aware of the amount of times Angel had helped out Fluttershy - to him, Angel just came off as a rather spoiled bossy brat, biting the hoof that fed him.
“Don’t...disssressspect her!” Draco found himself hissing, spreading his wings.
“D-Draco, what’re you doing?” Fluttershy asked.
He was already turning rather scaly, eyes glowing at the rabbit.
“Sshe isss the one who is feeding you and housssing you! And you jussst throw a carrot on her head, not taking into conssideration that sshe has a guesst here!” The rabbit started to get smaller and smaller, fleeing into his hutch.
Before he could follow the rabbit in, Fluttershy hopped right in front of him. Rather than a look of fear, she had a look of anger on her face. It looked about as intimidating as he did. His own eyes widened - was he feeling fear? No, it couldn’t have been. It was just common sense.
Fluttershy seemed to grow a little taller, as she got closer to the draconic muzzle. Or maybe he was just growing shorter. Eventually, she seemed to be on even hoofing with him - if only because she was stretching her neck to look into his own.
“Angel is my pet - he was having a bad morning!” Fluttershy stated, not even stuttering out of shyness, “He helps all the time - he has near perfect timing! That’s why!”
He smirked back - at least he wasn’t ready to barbeque the rabbit, or at least scare him any further. Fluttershy seemed to almost instantly revert to her normal self, after Draco Scales had completely turned back into an alicorn.
“So she does have a spine,” he thought to himself.
“Got that? Angel should apologize to you. I don’t tolerate bullies!” Fluttershy said.
She walked over to the hutch and nudged it with a hoof. Angel poked his head out, shaking a little bit. The dragon seemed to be gone, at least.
“Apologize to Draco Scales for your behaviour,” She said.
The rabbit hopped out and ran over to the alicorn, holding out his front forepaw.
“‘Ey, sorry for that,” Draco Scales said, holding his hoof to the rabbit, gently touching it. Angel seemed to smile a little bit, then turned to Fluttershy. Draco shot him a small glare, before Angel gestured towards one of the bird’s perches.
“Oh, he’s not bossing me,” Fluttershy said, “He’s just reminding me that the blue jay was feeling a little under the weather, and to make sure he eats. Angel also helps take care of the other animals here.”
She walked off towards the perch with the blue jay resting on it.
* * *
After showing him the animals, Fluttershy felt it was a good idea to walk over to the Golden Oaks Library. She had to tell Twilight what had happened at the animals. After all, Draco Scales thought it was a good idea as well.
Just like yesterday, he had started to transform when he got angry. At least it wasn’t like the Incredible Hulk from his own homeworld - at least he was able to control it. It would have been horrible if he went on an unstoppable rampage whenever he got mad. Equestria was beautiful - not something to be destroyed.
“It was a lot of fun seeing all your animal friends.” Draco said to her. “I’d love to see them again sometime, if you’re fine with that.”
“Um, sure...” She blushed a little. “Nopony usually asks me... about seeing my friends.”
“Well I think they should.” He continued as they walked along. “Sorry about almost going dragon though - I guess anger would be one of my triggers... makes me wonder if anything else would set something like that off?”
“No idea...”
“Yeah... also, thinking about what you said earlier about not tolerating bullies...” He took in a short breath. “That’s a good thing. You wouldn’t have been able to put up with it for too long around where I lived.”
“Hrm?” She stopped, looking at him. “Why do you say that?”
“Everypony always teased me because they thought I wasn’t normal - of course this is true, but yesterday was the first time I transformed - and for that they branded me a freak. They always made fun of me, and not just for that.”
“Oh... I’m sorry...” She frowned a little, ears drooping.
“It got really bad...” He closed his eyes - he didn’t want to go in depth about it, especially after sitting through all the bad stuff a few days ago. “It got to the point where I... where I...” He stammered. “..where I nearly took my own life.” He spat out with a pained expression - it was never easy telling anyone that you nearly committed suicide.
“Wh...why... that’s just....” She spluttered in response, eyes wide with shock. Had those bullies been around right now, she most probably would have made them all retreat and flee.
“But I didn’t - I knew that someday I’d meet some friendly ponies. When I was given the chance to spend a little bit at Canterlot before moving onto Ponyville, I took it and didn’t look back one bit. And now that I’m here... I can honestly say my life is infinitely better. I know it’s a stretch as I’ve only been here for two and a quarter days so far, but I do mean it! This has been the first time in a great while that I’ve been genuinely happy, and it’s all thanks to you and everypony else.” He smiled.
“W-Well I’m glad that we can at least make your life better this way,” Fluttershy said, getting closer to Draco Scales. He stopped a little bit, as she gradually nuzzled her head to his own. However, it was more against his neck - he was that much taller than she was.
“Oh wow, thanks!” He said, smiling.
“Well, it’s th-the least I could do,” She said.
Chapter thirteen - Humans through more Pony Eyes
“Didn’t you want to show her something else you brought with you?” Fluttershy said.
“Oh! That’s right, thanks. My bag!”
Draco Scales stopped to look around in the direction of his house. He was still figuring out where everything was in Ponyville. Thankfully, he had a very distinctive house - that made it much easier.
“Here! Just lemme get my things together then.” He spread his wings, took off, then flew towards his house. His bag was still as he left it earlier. Thankfully cleaning everything up only took a little bit of magic to move it all into the bag. He closed it back up, then flew out, carrying the bag with his own magic. He was able to bring his cards around, but even then, Draco scales would have wanted to be careful to reveal that he was from another world.
Fluttershy was just where she was before.
“Okay, here we go,” He said, “To the library.”
* * *
Spike seemed to be quite intrigued with the bag, after Draco Scales and Fluttershy had brought it into the Golden Oaks library. Twilight had been finishing something up, leaving Spike to look over it at first. He seemed to figure out how to open it really quickly.
“Be careful, Spike, those’re Draco’s.” Fluttershy said.
“Hey, I promise to be more careful than I was in Applejack’s house.”
“What do you mean?” He sounded confused.
“Well a few days ago, Applejack saved him from some Timberwolves, and swore to do anything for her in return... it was, um... less than successful.” She told the alicorn.
“Seriously? But he looks quite competent for his size and age.” Draco rubbed his head with his hoof. “I guess acting on rash decisions must make you do crazy things...” He was about to continue that statement when he remembered that he almost went full dragon on Angel earlier on.
“Just trust me, I’ve got - WOAH!” Spike yelped as he tripped over his own feet, Draco’s bag going flying. Draco gasped as he acted quickly, using his magic to catch the bag mid-fall. “Ok... that was an accident, I promise!”
“It’s ok... I can tell you that you REALLY don’t want to be stuck with the repair bill for this stuff!” Draco said calmly as he lowered the bag back down into the dragon’s claws.
Spike took out a binder in his claws and opened it up. He thought it was a book, except inside, he couldn’t see pages full of words. He could see pages of illustrations, but they didn’t look like anything he was familiar with. There were creatures of the likes he had never seen - and some that looked somewhat familiar to him, from reading the bestiaries of Equestria.
“A-Are these more of those Pokémon creatures?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yep. These are ones I didn’t show you.”
“Is this a dragon?” Spike pointed to a Charizard.
“Yep - that’s one of my favourites.”
“He has red fire,” Spike said, “Mine’s green.”
“Yeah. You don’t wanna get on his bad side.”
Spike turned the page again, right as the door opened up. Twilight Sparkle walked into the main room, where Spike was looking over the Pokémon card binder. She also had a letter with her.
“Oh! Hello. Spike, can you send this to Celestia and Luna really quick?”
“My pleasure!” Spike said, hopping right over and taking the letter from the air. He then took a deep breath and covered the letter in his green flames. The letter seemed to vanish immediately.
“How does that send it to Celestia and Luna?” Draco Scales asked.
“That’s a faster way to send it,” Spike said, “Twilight! You have to see these pictures Draco has.”
“Sending letters through your fire? I’m pretty sure mine would just burn things...not send letters.”
“It took awhile to get it right - Whoa! Hey Twilight! Look at this one!”
All three equines walked right over to the binder, to see what Spike was pointing to. Draco immediately rolled his eyes when he saw Spike’s small claw against a picture of a Rapidash.
“That looks like you that one time!”
“It does not!” Twilight said, “This...Rapid...ash thing doesn’t look like me.”
“Well so far I’ve been told by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy that you did briefly evolve into a Rapidash for a few short seconds. Neither of them told me why that happened though.”
“Well, um... She was trying to figure out a ‘doozie’ that Pinkie Pie had predicted with her Pinkie Sense... it turned out that Twilight was that ‘doozie’, and um...well..”
“RGGHH!” Twilight exploded for a few brief seconds upon being reminded of that wild goose chase through the Froggy Bottom Bog that almost resulted with all of them being a Hydra’s dinner. In that short period of time she turned a pale white, her mane and tail on fire as her eyes shone crimson.
Spike backed away from this as Fluttershy cowered, hiding behind Draco. Draco, however, just burst out laughing at this sight. “Oh sweet Celestia, that’s just perfect!” He fell down to the floor, holding his side. “You...you...you really ARE identical!” He laughed more, tears dripping down his face.
“Ooohhh..” Twilight calmed down, back to normal with a few patches of burnt fur here and there - they’d regrow pretty quickly.
Spike poked his head out, and then got back to the binder. Thankfully, Twilight didn’t incinerate that at all. He turned the page to where Draco Scales had kept the Water Pokémon cards.
“These look like fish of some kind. Hey, what’s that? A snake?” He pointed to a Milotic.
“Kinda sorta,” Draco scales said, “That’s a Milotic.”
“It’s sooo beautiful...” Fluttershy stared at it with total and utter adoration.
“Do you have these creatures back home?” Twilight asked. Spike continued to look through every single card.
“I wish!” Draco Scales said.
“That dragon looks scary....but this one looks...wow...hey! Twilight! It’s me!” Spike pointed to a Dragonite.
All three equines looked at the Dragonite and then at Spike. It didn’t look anything like him - certainly not with the colouration, or the antennae.
“Not quite,” Twilight pointed out, “You’re purple...and I’m sure Rarity would say you’re a lot more cute.”
“But if I looked like that when I grew up, I’d still be cute. I’d be able to protect Rarity from everything. Cockatrices, Timber Wolves, Ursa Majors, YOU NAME IT!” Spike hopped back, making a few comical martial arts moves.
“Hehe, you’ve got a lot of big dreams for such a little guy.” Draco smiled, rubbing Spike’s forehead gently with a forehoof. “I’m sure Rarity’s lucky to have a dragon like you looking out for her.”
“Aww, come on now...” He blushed a little bit. “I really would do anything for her!”
“Yeah, I know that feeling.” He looked towards a certain yellow pegasus.
“What else have you got in here?” Spike asked as he went back to looking at the binder. He looked through the Psychic types, noticing that he had a couple of pages dedicated to Nidoran and their evolutions - even if they weren’t Psychic type, he kept all the Nidoking and Nidoqueen together. “There’s so many of them - you must really like these Pokémon!” He chuckled before turning the page, finding it split between Psychic and Darkness Pokémon. “Huh... These two remind me of the princesses.” He pointed to two cards - a Cresselia and a Darkrai. Next to those two were two cards that formed one, featuring those two Pokémon again.
“Yeah, I can see why.” Twilight smirked - although the Darkrai reminded her more of Nightmare Moon rather than Luna.
“This one’s actually more associated with the moon, though,” Draco Scales said, gesturing to Cresselia, “And this one’s more associated with nightmares.”
“N-N-N...N-N-...N-Nightmare Moon?!” Fluttershy asked, taking several steps back.
“...Wudge?” Draco Scales asked.
“....This is going to take a little while to explain,” Twilight said, “But well, that’s when we found out that we represented the Elements of Harmony.”
“Who’s Nightmare Moon?” Draco Scales said.
“Well, you know of Luna, the twin to Celestia, right?” Twilight said.
“Yes...I met her...why?”
“Well, a very long while ago, Luna...went a little crazy, and Celestia sealed her up inside the moon. A few years ago, she was prophesied to escape. When I tried to warn the princess about it, she didn’t believe me and sent me here, because I was spending too much time studying and not making friends.”
“You mean kind of like Nightshade?” Draco Scales asked.
“Yes, a little like that, so I’m told. But I was right - Nightmare Moon wanted to cover the world in eternal night. And then me, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash went to stop her - after all, everypony else was too scared.”
“So is Luna Nightmare Moon?”
“Yes.”
If Nightmare Moon scared Fluttershy that much, it was a good thing he never got on Luna’s bad side. She always seemed so nice to him. Maybe she had a dual nature - like how he turned dragon whenever he got really mad.
“But...was she mad about being sealed away in the moon?” Draco Scales asked.
“Yes. But we purified her with the Elements of Harmony. That’s when we found out that we represented them. Of course, that’s not to say she hasn’t acted like Nightmare Moon. There was the time she came to Ponyville as Nightmare Moon. You’ve probably seen her back at the palace - that’s what she looked like.”
“I...see...I’ll probably have to avoid getting on her bad side,” Draco Scales said, “Did she throw you with her voice?.”
“Th-that’s the Royal voice. It’s scary.” Fluttershy spoke up.
“It’s not really as scary as it is painfully loud. If she was to speak any louder, she’d be able to move mountains - kind of like whenever Pinkie Pie shouts into a megaphone... hrm... now you’ve got me thinking about who of the two would outshout each other!” Spike added in.
“I’d be surprised if she’s ever deafened anyone with her voice.” Draco chuckled.
“Well it didn’t help her out too much when she returned to Ponyville.” Twilight told him. “It took a little bit of help from Fluttershy here to help her speak in a normal tone of voice, although it took a little bit of coaxing to get her help.”
“Ummm....” Fluttershy shrank away a little, meeping.
“There’s no need to be so shy about it.” Draco moved closer to her. “I think you did a good job if you got Luna to control her voice. There’s a few ponies I know that would benefit from your help.”
“You... you think so?” She straightened up a little bit.
“I know so.” He smiled sweetly.
“Glad to see you’re fitting in quite well,” Twilight said, “I didn’t fit in at first. I thought I was the only sane pony here.”
“Oh! That reminds me...do you want to see some of the things I brought, other than the Pokémon cards?”
“I-I’d like to,” Fluttershy said.
“Of course. I only have a few things that Nightshade gave me - Maybe I can show you a bit later?”
“Oh of course - here, this is my laptop. I think it still works here. I was able to charge it.”
All three gave him a weird look, as Draco pulled his laptop out of his bag, setting it on a desk and opening it up with magic. It was a little harder to turn on without fingers, unfortunately. Thankfully, he was still able to hit the on button.
The other three jumped as soon as the laptop turned on and made a foreign noise. He chuckled to himself. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Spike crowded around him to see the laptop boot up. It looked like a scrying device - but it seemed to operate without the help of magic.
The keyboard also looked strange to them. All three could identify the letters, and some of the other symbols, but the rest of it looked foreign. How the heck did this thing work? Draco looked over at his hooves - unfortunately, it was a little harder to work without fingers. He managed to poke type with a quill a few times, but it was better than nothing. He used a small stick at one point, but that didn’t work either.
He checked the small symbol - still no internet, but he honestly had expected that Ponyville didn’t have free Wi-Fi. Shame, he wasn’t able to show them all the stuff he had, since that would require the internet, but that was okay. At least he had managed to save most of the images that he had collected from the internet.
“Given that there’s no logic here, I thought I would have picked up a wireless signal.”
“What?” All three were confused.
“It allows me to connect to the internet - it’s this thing that lets you access files and...yeah, lots of stuff. It’s like how you can send letters, Spike. Just with no fire.”
“Huh... well maybe there’s something I’d be able to do to get it working?” Twilight stepped forwards. “It gives me an excuse to tinker with your device for a little bit!”
“Well... as long as you’re extra careful with it, and don’t break anything. You don’t want to know how many bits these things cost.”
“Can you give me a value at the least?”
“Hrm.... something like this is around the triple to quadruple digits.”
Twilight gulped slightly at that comment, chuckling nervously.”Don’t worry... it’s in good hooves, honest!” Twilight turned back to the computer with a slight look of worry, starting to work her magic.
Draco Scales watched her look over at the device. She raised her hoof a little bit in front of the keyboard, but then shook her head. She walked off to the back of the library, then came back with a quill pen from her other assistant, the owl. Levitating it with magic, she poked a few keys on the keyboard.
“Okay! This should work a bit...so what is it I’m trying to do?” She asked.
“Try to connect it to the internet. Okay, lemme try to explain how I do it,” Draco Scales mentioned.
While Draco Scales explained how the computer worked to Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike just looked at each other, eyes starting to spiral a bit. It was like they were speaking another language entirely.
“Okay, so how do I move that cursor or whatever you called it?” Twilight asked.
“Use this thing - it’s a touch pad. Also, that button’s broken.”
“Why is it broken?” Twilight asked, trying to move the cursor around with the quill.
“Don’t know, but it’s not working.”
“Hmm....so how does the computer-laptop work again?”
After Draco Scales explained with visual aides (least his overly loquacious friend was good at explaining things to him so he could relay it to a pony before), he was interrupted by a small snoring sound. Both looked over and found Fluttershy curled up on the ground, all around the baby dragon using her as a pillow.
“Awwww, cute!” Draco Scales said, “They look so adorable that way.”
“Err...we don’t want to interrupt them. So, this is how it works?” Twilight asked as she covered the entire laptop in her aura. Draco Scales widened his eyes a bit, before she put it down.
Twilight didn’t say anything else, just pushing the left button. He wasn’t expecting it to work, yet it did. The browser opened up as it should have. It then displayed the “Cannot connect to the internet” message.
“So, this thing does work,” She said, “I close it by hitting that really small button, right?”
“Yes.”
Twilight clicked on the “X”, surprisingly the left click button worked again.
“Wow...you fixed it!” Draco Scales said.
“It’s not that hard. When you told me that this laptop uses a lot of parts that are working in synchronization with each other, it was simply a matter of examining what wasn’t working with the other pieces, and then fixing it with magic. You explained something about electricity, right? Well, that wasn’t working - so the device wasn’t knowing if you clicked it.”
“Wow...you picked this up fast.”
“You’re the first to have brought an actual laptop with you. Even Nightshade didn’t have much to say about how a computer worked. Just how to use it. So, what else do we need to do to connect to the internet? You don’t need to be...entertaining for Spike and Fluttershy. I think you may have bored them to sleep.”
“A rather cute slumber at that,” Draco Scales looked over at the pegasus and the dragon. Fluttershy even had her wing draped over the cutely snoring dragon.
“Anyway, the only way we’d be able to get connected to the internet is to have something that can receive a signal. And usually these things have a little something inside them that allows it to pick up wireless signals too. Hrm... I wonder if I should have tried this in Canterlot, though I can imagine it would have been the same thing.”
“Hm...so what are we supposed to be looking for?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it’s a signal.”
They spent a good twenty minutes trying different things, but no matter what, they couldn’t find a wireless signal at all. Darn. At least he could have tried skyping one of his friends to tell them he was alright.
“Well, maybe we can try and run a game at least. We can work on that later.”
“What kind of a game? You can play games on this?” Twilight asked.
“Yep. Here, let’s try this one. It’s called Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.”
He then loaded the game up, hoping the laptop wouldn’t crash. A few moments later the title screen came up, and he chuckled. “Ok, that’s a good sign. Now then, this laptop can’t really handle when more than two keys are pressed at once, so I had to bring this with me too!” He used his magic to pull a gamepad out from his bag, plugging it into the side of the laptop.
“What’s that for?” Twilight asked.
“It’s so you can play games - some people prefer using the keyboard to play, but on laptops it’s quite bothersome due to the touchpad mouse. Some of these older models though can’t cope with more than two keys pressed down, so that means I wouldn’t be able to jump and do a turn.” He scrolled through the menu, going to the level select. “I’ll show you the first level, but don’t get your hopes up too much - this laptop can’t handle it despite this game being around 12 years old. I guess that’s what happens when you give everything HD textures...” He started the level up, waited a few seconds, and got into the level. To his rather pleasant surprise, it was working at normal speed.
“Huh.... normally when I play this he’s moving at like a few inches a second...” He blinked as he moved the thumbsticks with his magic, maneuvering every curve perfectly. “Did you do anything with this aside from fixing the broken mouse button?”
“I think I might have tweaked with some of the internal settings a little bit, giving it a bit of a tune up. Why, did you not want me to?”
“I’m not complaining, am I?” He laughed as he reached the first checkpoint on the level - by this time when he was normally running the game on the laptop, the song that played in the background had played at least one and a half times.
Twilight just looked on transfixed as he went further through the level, timing every jump perfectly. “How are you able to do that? You must have this game memorised or something!”
“Hehe, I spent a good few hours on this game when I was a colt.” He grinned. “I know this particular level like the back of my hoof!”
They played for what seemed like a few hours, before the sounds woke up Fluttershy and Spike, who had been bored to sleep by the technical talk. Now, it was making all sorts of weird noises. The two walked over to see Draco Scales playing the game.
“Whoa, what is this?” Spike asked, looking over the graphics on the screen.
“It’s a game. See?”
He continued to play the game. Fluttershy didn’t seem to catch up to it at first, but video games aren't for everyone. Maybe he could have shown her something that was a little more slow-paced.
They stopped when the door opened to the library. All four looked to the door. It just then dawned on him that he had something that wasn’t from Equestria displayed in the open. And not everypony was in on the know-how. Instinctively, Twilight walked to the door to see who was coming in.
A small wave of relief washed over them when it was Rarity who entered. She was in the know - she represented an Element of Harmony. The second she saw something she didn’t recognize, she hastily stepped in and closed the door behind her.
“You are quite brave to be holding something like that out in the open,” Rarity said, walking over, “What is this device from the other world?”
“Awww, how’d you guess?” Draco said.
“I’ve never seen something like that before in my life. And if you happen to be playing that...what IS this?” She now saw the screen.
“It’s a computer game.” He chuckled, the white unicorn watching as he was in the middle of a boss battle, trying to beat the tar out of something that looked identical to the main character.
“Ugh, how vulgar!” Rarity winced. “Don’t you have any games that aren’t so... violent?”
“Violent? This game’s rated 7+, it’s just fantasy violence. If you want to see something really violent, I should get one of the games I have with an 18+ rating.”
“Are those... worse?”
“Well let’s see... those kinds of games usually consist of bloody violence, lots of profane language, lots of death and murder... and let’s just say the birds and the bees can be found in those games too.” He chuckled to the unicorn - if it was possible for her to turn a paler shade of white, she likely would have right now.
“But in answer to your question, I do have some games that don’t have violence... but in fairness, most all games that are made do contain some kind of violence. At the least it’ll be all comical, like you’ll take a few hits and be covered in big cartoony bruises and plasters, or you’ll wind up with limbs in plaster casts that vanish a scene or two later.”
“That still sounds quite vulgar, you do some strange things in....” She looked around, “The other Wiltshire, right?”
“Not always,” Draco Scales said, “They were like every other place - there were someponies who liked to do this, but there were other ponies who were like you and liked to sew, or were interested in playing other games, like football where the goal is to just knock the ball in the goal.”
“That sounds a little more civilized,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, well, it’s different, too. But uh...yeah. I’m showing Twilight how these things from Wiltshire work.”
“You’re quiiiite brave,” Rarity said, “When I looked over some of those clothing from the other side, Nightshade asked me to keep them in Canterlot. I will admit, it WAS all rather weird, but still quite amazing either way.”
Draco Scales remembered what he saw of Nightshade, back when she was Zoë. Probably wasn’t a good idea to mention what he knew about her as a human - could have been a sensitive issue.
“Well, this is a little different!”
“Anyways, to what I came for. Twilight, do you happen to have a book on Saddle Arabian fashions? Sweetie Belle needs help for school, and I know a perfect idea for her assignment.”
“Saddle Arabia? Wow...Equestria’s more like home than I thought sometimes,” he thought.
Chapter Fourteen - A Contagious Rhyme will get you all the time.
“Why does she live out here so far away from everypony else?” Draco Scales asked as he wandered through the everfree forest with Twilight.
“Zecora just likes her privacy. At first, everypony thought she was a...rather scary witch but she wasn’t like that at all. She really taught us not to judge by appearance.”
“Yeah, I’m sure I learned that...so what’s she like?”
“She knows a lot of stuff - some things even I don’t know. Here it is.”
She eventually brought Draco Scales towards a home that definitely looked rather foreign. He could recognize African looking masks that were hung for decorations, and finally a figure walking around. This had to have been Zecora.
Zecora was definitely not from around Ponyville at all. For one, she was a Zebra. One wearing a stack of golden rings on her neck, as well as several other golden bracelets on her legs. He didn’t want to even think how she got them on.
She now noticed Twilight leading Draco Scales over to them, looking over the Alicorn. This had to have been Draco Scales - the one who she had sent a remedy to Poison Joke to. She was even invited to his welcome party, but didn’t feel like attending. Even despite that the ponies of Ponyville didn’t think she was weird anymore after learning about her, she still preferred her alone time.
“Twilight Sparkle, I see you there, who do you bring and they come from where?” She said in a rhyme.
“Zecora, this is Draco Scales - and Draco Scales, this is Zecora.”
Zecora got a closer look at Draco Scales, who politely waved to her.
“An Alicorn, you are quite an unusual sight.” She once again rhymed.
“Yeah...but uh, here’s why Twilight wanted me to meet you. You see my fangs?”
“I would like to get a closer look, open your mouth and do not breathe, I don’t want to know what you cook.”
He opened his mouth, holding his breath and trying not to give Zecora a bit of dragon-horse breath. She took several steps closer, taking a close look at the alicorn’s mouth.
“You can close your jaw, you don’t need to look like you will chomp me raw.”
“Why do you rhyme all the time?” Draco Scales asked.
“From the homelands from where I come, this is always where we speak, different from where you are from,” Zecora said.
“Err...okay...so what do you have to say about my mouth at least?”
“It looks quite draconic, giving you a strong looking bite,” Zecora rhymed again, “but I must ask why, is there a pony in my eye?”
“Because I’m not a dragon...yet. When I got mad at some ponies bullying these three fillies, I turned into a dragon. And then I started to transform yesterday when Fluttershy’s pet Angel started disrespecting her....rude creature.”
“Was your change brought about by anger and rage?” Zecora said, “A magic from the homelands at which you would stare agape, was of ponies who could focus themselves and change their shape.”
Draco Scales half wanted to smack Zecora on the head - some of those rhymes were starting to sound contrived. But even then, there was finally a pony who knew something about his draconic habit.
“Forcing a change on you, that is very easy to do. I would need you two, to gather some ingredients for a brew.” Zecora gestured to both Draco Scales and Twilight Sparkle, “One of the reasons this is where I make my home, is the materials that grow in the loam. Allow me a minute please, to get a list of conditions to appease.”
She walked into her hut, and vanished for a few minutes.
“It can...take a little to get used to her rhyming at times,” Twilight blushed, chuckled a bit.
“No kidding, I knew somepony who loved to rhyme just to get on my nerves all the time-AGGH! Now I’M doing it!”
Before he could rhyme any further, Zecora walked back out, carrying a small list on a piece of paper. Twilight looked over the list, levitating it with magic.
“You happen to be in luck, that I have some, even the feather of a duck. From you all that I need will be a sample of a Prickleweed.
“It’s the prickleweed, isn’t it?” Twilight said.
Zecora nodded.
“Let’s go find it,” Draco Scales said, “Where does it grow?”
“Down by the brook, underneath the leafy hook.”
“Thanks Zecora.”
* * *
“The Leafy hook, is that it?” Draco Scales asked.
“I think so, it doesn’t look like we’ll find anything else that looks like a hook.”
Right by a stream, where Zecora told them, there was what looked to be some kind of hook, much like a hanging fishing hook, covered in leaves.
“Well if this is what she needs, then let’s see if we can bring her back as much as we can.” He used his magic to pick it off carefully, Twilight assisting him by levitating a pouch in front of him to lower the Prickleweed into it. “There we go - that should do her for a good few mixes. Now let’s go back and see if I can avoid any twitches... HOLY FRICKING CELESTIA!” He held his hooves to his face. “That rhyming stuff is infectious!”
“Indeed it is - it’s a good thing that Pinkie Pie doesn’t hang out around her, otherwise I think she would have sent everypony crazy by now!” Twilight chuckled.
“Seriously though, if I burst out into a rhyme whilst I’m dragonised, somepony’s going to have their flank fried... GAH, IN THE NAME OF LUNA!”
* * *
“We have it back!” Draco Scales called as he walked towards the hut, “Hey, where are you?”
“What reason do I have to hide, I am here in my hut, inside,” Zecora called out.
The two ponies walked into Zecora’s hut, where she was working on her brew.
“Hand me the Prickleweed, that is the last thing for the brew that I need,” she said.
The pouch was hovered over to the Zebra, who took it in her hooves. She opened it up, and then poured a few of the stems in.
“Thank you for bringing a little more, you have saved me time for another chore.”
Zecora continued to stir the cauldron, smacking something on the bottom, possibly to squish the stems of the prickleweed. Draco Scales did not have anything to say about it, finding it somewhat intriguing. Although after a little while, that brew started to smell rather pungent. Sort of like what happened if you used too much garlic or horseradish on something.
“My brew is now fully prepared, now Draco Scales, don’t be scared. It may taste rather odd, but if you don’t complain I will applaud.”
She took out a large ladle and poured some of this foul smelling brew into a bowl, sliding it over to the alicorn. He gulped, getting a good whiff of this rather sour and bitter smelling substance.
“E-E-E-EW...this smells gross.”
Zecora just glared at him. He figured, might as well bite the bullet after all. He lifted the bowl up, carefully. (with how bad it smelled, he thought it might have eaten a hole through the floor) and moved it to his lips. He took a small sip of the brew, and then turned the bowl up.
It took a massive amount of willpower to not cough it up. He could only swallow a small mouthful, before putting that bowl of the foul smelling liquid down. It tasted just as bad as it smelled - it tasted worse than that Powermalt that he tried at school one time!
“Do I have to drink the whole thing?” He coughed.
Zecora nodded her head. Draco Scales gulped hard, and then lifted the bowl back up to try draining it again. It tasted worse than that disgusting strawberry lollipop DIPPED in the Powermalt! He finally drained it, then set the bowl down, resisting the urge to talk about how gross it was.
“That was disgusting...” He said.
Strange though, he started to feel rather calm. As gross as that brew was, there must have been something to calm him down in there. But then, he started to feel weird.
Twilight and Zecora took a few steps back as they noticed the alicorn starting to grow larger. Unlike the other day when his growth was rather explosive, he didn’t get that much bigger - if anything, he looked like he had grown just slightly larger than Celestia. The fur along his body stiffened, bunching together as they formed into hard scales, solid scutes forming along his underside as the color of the scutes turned a lighter shade of red.
“Huh.. this actually does feel different...” He looked at his forelegs as they stretched to fit his larger size, his hooves diffusing just like before as they split into four curving talons, sharp enough to slice through anything. He wriggled his fingers with a smirk, his hind legs altering as the hooves split into taloned claws, heels stretching further upwards as a pair of vestigial wings formed near the back of his hindpaws.
He arched his back, growling a little as dark spikes, a bloody red in color, emerged up and down his spine, his tail growing longer as the hairs remained, spreading around the tip of the now serpentine tail. He wagged it around behind him, brushing it against his chest. He could feel a few tweaks in his shoulders and hips, the bone structure adjusting slightly to allow for some bipedal movement whilst his base form remained quadrupedal. Turning towards his flank, his cutie mark was still there, the colors more vibrant against the coat of scales.
“Grrrraahhh....” He hissed as he stretched his wings wide, the feathers being shed at an alarming speed, the limbs altering as they became bat-like, growing larger as they arched proudly behind him.
The final changes came to his head as his muzzle grew a little longer, his teeth growing even sharper as more fangs filled in the new space, his ears stretching longer, retaining a slight amount of fuzz as they fanned behind him. A small pair of horns emerged on his browline, a large set of horns growing out from the back of his head, through and around his mane, the color of the horns the same blood color as his spikes. Once more his pupils pulled into thinner slits, a forked tongue darting from between his fangs.
“It seems the transformation is complete. Draco Scales, how does it feel, will you speak?” Zecora asked.
“Well... I feel a lot more calm and in control of my emotionsss...” He said with the usual hiss, his voice only slightly deeper than before rather than being a monstrous snarl. “Nor am I a towering beasssst like the last time. Though it seemsss that I still have this hisssss, only it’s not as aggresssssive as it wassss before!” He looked over himself, flapping his wings and raising himself off the ground. “I gotta say... not bad!”
“Being forcefully transformed like this should help you become informed,” Zecora continued, “This way you should master your form, or else you will change in an emotional storm.”
“So...what else should I know about this? Did you make me able to change into a...normal sized dragon at will?”
“All that was accomplished by that brew was nothing that you could not already do,” Zecora said.
“Transformative magic...that’s nothing I’ve tried on myself...do you think I could try it too?” Twilight said.
Zecora simply nodded and smiled.
“It is an applied magical use, but one that very few ponies choose. Like the unicorn Trixie, who came to Ponyville to attempt to bring you shame.”
“You’ll have to tell me about this,” Draco said.
“I am not versed in the arts of changing yourself, and Twilight, I do believe you may have a book on your shelf?”
“What book?” Twilight asked, “I have a lot.”
“The one that happens to come written from the Homelands, the one with the diagram of the drum.” Zecora seemed ready to facehoof. She remembered when Twilight managed to obtain it...for once the spells and magic from her homelands were written right in front of her. She was so excited to see it.
“Oh! Err....well back to my home, it seems?”
“Remember that you will have to train, so you do not have another bowl to drain.”
That was perfect motivation to train. Zecora almost always seemed to know everything.
“Yes, back to the library - may I ask you if I need some help, too?” The dragon asked.
Zecora nodded, apparently not having a rhyme to every single thing.
* * *
“Alright...practice shifting...” Draco Scales said to himself, trying to focus on transforming. Twilight had loaned the book to him. He had walked to the Everfree Forest, slightly behind Fluttershy’s house so he could practice. Didn’t want to be scaring ponies by doing it in plain sight after all.
He tried to focus to transform - after all, it was a dream of his back when he was a human. To be able to transform at will. Not just when he was mad - controlling the transformation was much different than being able to do it and being unable to do it.
Draco started to feel the scales forming. He finally got it! He practiced this several times - Dragon, Alicorn. Dragon, Alicorn. Dragon, Alicon, Dragon-
“Uh...Draco?” He heard a small voice say.
He jumped, and hopped behind him. He hoped it wasn’t a Slenderpony. But Slenderman didn’t talk...
“Oh, hello Fluttershy.”
“Y-You’re smaller,” She said. “And not as....fluffy scaly...”
“I’ve got Twilight and Zecora to thank for thisss.” He smiled. “The two of them have helped me to unlock the full potential of this transsssformation. Now I’m not just limited to turning when angered, although I can imagine if I was to turn under those circumstancessss, I’d turn back into the towering dragon from the other day. Hopefully that won’t happen for a while, although Zecora did express interest in sssseeing my enraged state.”
“Well you do s-seem more approachable this way.” She moved closer.
“I’m still curious to see if there are other thingsss that would trigger a forced transformation though. We know anger sets me off, but what would happen if I wasss to turn when upset or excccccited?” He paused when he realised that he somehow hissed on a ‘c’. “Either way it has piqued my curiosity.” He brought up the book up again as he browsed through the pages intently. Fluttershy smiled a little - with his muzzle in a book and his primary horn glowing, he looked like he was emulating Twilight.
“I...don’t know what might happen. You’re...kinda scary but...not like this.”
“I’m glad you think that way,” He said, “Let’sss try this.” He shifted back to normal, “I wonder what other emotions can trigger a change.”
“Uh...I don’t know...maybe we can try that some other time? Maybe you’d...maybe you’d...” Fluttershy still seemed to stutter on something.
“What?”
“MaybeYoudLikeToGoForAWalkWithMe?” She finally spoke.
“Can you say that again?” He asked.
“Maybe you’d like to go for a walk with me?” She spoke, much more slowly.
“Sure! Beats studying.”
“O-Okay...and don’t go over there. That’s Poison Joke.”
The two begun to walk off through the Everfree Forest, side by side. He hadn’t taken too much of an opportunity to explore it - he had only gone through to speak to Zecora, and to gather a prickleweed. That was pretty much it. At least he knew to avoid Poison Joke - whatever that was.
They didn’t go too deep into the forest, though. It wasn’t like Fluttershy was a stranger to the fauna around the forest, after all. Draco Scales had to wonder just what it was like in the moonlight - that would have been romantic for sure.
“This place nice at night?” He asked.
“S-Sometimes,” Fluttershy said.
“What, there are monsters like Timber wolves coming out here?” Draco Scales said.
“Y-Yes, sometimes. Like...worse. Cockatrices too.”
“What, you don’t need to worry - if one of them came by, I can just go all dragon and scare them!”
Fluttershy stopped walking. Draco Scales then looked at the yellow pegasus.
“Y-You’d really do that?”
“Of course, you’re my friend aren’t you?” He said.
“Th-Thanks,” She said.
Draco Scales came closer to her, “Well, what are friends for after all?”
The two stared at each other for a few minutes. Then, all of a sudden, she closed her eyes and started to bring her face closer to Draco. He brought his own closer to hers. They were going to kiss, it seemed. Their lips made contact with each other.
Was this was it was like to kiss in Equestria? It felt quite...warm. It was the same warm-buzzing sensation he felt when he was transforming into a dragon. If that was the case, maybe he should have kissed more.
“That wasss beauti-” He clamped his mouth shut, when Fluttershy hopped back.
“Uh...ca-can that cause a transformation?”
He looked at himself, seeing draconic scales and bat-like wings on his back. That explained a lot.
“Ok, I guesssss that means any exxxcccitement or feelings of love can trigger a transssformation...” He chuckled, noticing that Fluttershy hadn’t backed away as far as usual, just a couple of inches if anything. “I’m really learning a lot about myself today, aren’t I?”
“It’s still a little...um....shocking, to say the least.” She blushed as she moved closer to him again. “But I guess that’s just who you are after all... um, if you don’t mind being like that anyway...” she pawed at the ground with her right forehoof.
“It’s these little quirkssss that makesss us so special, after all...” He gently purred as they got closer again. “Maybe we could try that again, I doubt it’s going to turn me any further.”
“Well....um...” She was about to answer when he leant in again, muzzles meeting as they shared a soft, tender kiss. Draco purred throughout the whole thing, his tail wagging just like a dogs. They just spent the duration staring into each others eyes before they broke the kiss around a minute later.
“We should do this more,” He said, “I mean, you’re not afraid of me after all.”
“I-I’m getting better.”
Chapter Fifteen - The Bubble Flood
Several days later, Draco Scales stopped by Fluttershy’s house to see if she was up to anything. She didn’t seem to be outside the house tending to the animals at all, nor did she seem to be anywhere around the house, either. He walked around the grounds, thinking she was around before finally walking to the door to knock on it with a hoof. Strange, no answer.
“Guess she isn’t home,” Draco Scales shrugged. As he turned to leave, he spotted the familiar rabbit hopping into his path. He watched the cute creature stand on his hind legs and make several gestures. At first, he didn’t understand what they meant - then he started to try guessing. It was like a game of charades.
“Okay, Fluttershy.” He noticed Angel miming a flapping wing pattern with his hands. The rabbit then opened his mouth and pulled his lips back, showing his buck teeth.
“Something with her teeth...no...wait...” He noticed Angel picking up a carrot and then gently biting it. “She’s eating a carrot?” Angel bit the carrot into an almost perfect cylindrical formation, then took out another one, biting it down into another looking dot.
“She’s eating sticks?” He asked.
Angel gestured to the sticks he put up, and then made more gestures. Something like a sweeping motion.
“She’s at a beaver’s dam?”
Angel nodded, then jumped back and forth rapidly. At one spot, he stood on his front legs and kicked the air.
“She’s kicking a dam? No wait! That’s Applejack, right? She and Applejack are kicking a dam?”
The rabbit nodded, then seemed to float in the air and took off, flying around in circles around him.
“Rainbow Dash?” He hazarded a guess.
The rabbit stopped and immediately nodded...falling to the ground.
“So Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are kicking a dam? No wait - they’re AT a dam, right?”
Angel nodded, then picked up the carrots and walked off.
“Wait! Where IS the da-ah forget about it. Least you told me that much,” He said, walking off of Fluttershy’s property. “Wonder where the dam is...dam rabbit doesn’t know.”
He felt something small nicking at his ear. He twitched it and looked down at the ground, spotting the tip of a carrot with the leafy greens attached on the ground. Draco Scales looked towards Angel’s hutch just in time to see the rabbit duck in out of sight with the other carrot stick.
“...How does she deal with that rude...” He just rolled his eyes and walked off, wondering where this dam was. Draco Scales had the idea to try asking around in town. Almost immediately, he saw something familiar pink moving towards the soap stand.
Draco Scales walked to the soap stand, noticing Pinkie Pie buying a few bars of soap and a bottle of something. He thought that was curious - what did she need them for? Well, other than the obvious cleanliness.
“Hey Draco!” Pinkie Pie hopped over to him, “There’s a huge bath at Sweet Apple Acres! I got some soap! Head over!”
“...What?” Draco asked.
“I was over there and there was all sorts of water there! Come on! You have to see!”
She hopped off faster than he could follow. Draco immediately spread his wings and flew after Pinkie Pie. Seriously, what was this water at Sweet Apple Acres...and why did Pinkie Pie need soap and a bottle of something?
Draco was amazed at just how fast Pinkie Pie was going, the peppy pink pony running with the speed of a motorcycle. At this speed, she’d be able to keep up with Rainbow Dash without even blinking an eye. He was even more amazed that he was able to keep up with her without falling short of breath - perhaps all that practising with his dragon form was paying off.
“You know... I’m sure there’s got to be a perfectly good reason why you’re taking a bunch of soap with you to try to combat a FLOOD!” He said, trying to think of his words carefully - he had learned in his short time in Ponyville that it wasn’t the best thing to question Pinkie Pie’s logic. Twilight even warned him that trying to dwell on it could be bad for his health.
“What, it’s the perfect opportunity to have a great big bath with friends!” She giggled. “I just hope they haven’t drained it all!”
“Errrr....” Draco just stared at Pinkie, his right eye twitching of its own accord. “I’m going to stop asking about this until we get to Sweet Apple Acres if that’s all the same with you.” He tried to chuckle. A part of him was now wondering if a transformation into his dragon form could be triggered by a nervous aneurysm.
* * *
To say the least, Sweet Apple Acres was a mess. He had only been there a few times before, enough to know that there was an unnatural amount of water on the orchard. He didn’t see the source of it - but after what Angel said, he could have guessed a beaver dammed the river that was used to irrigate it.
“What in the heck happened here?!” Draco Scales asked, hovering over the water, “It’s a complete mess!”
“I don’t know! It flooded!” Pinkie Pie said, taking that bottle, “I got juuuust enough!”
Draco Scales looked over at the pink horse, who somehow managed to uncap the bottle without fingers, and turned it bottom up at the water. As soon as it touched, bubbles and foam seemed to immediately spread up.
“Oops! I used a little too much!” Pinkie giggled.
Draco’s eyes twitched as the cloud of bubbles started to cover the flooded orchard. Rather than hop into the water like Pinkie, he flew off to find where the others were. He had to warn them about the impending wall of bubbles as a result of Pinkie Pie.
He managed to outfly it enough to find the dry riverbed, along with three other ponies - Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash seemed to be fine just relaxing on a cloud, while Applejack and Fluttershy seemed to be busy exchanging something back and forth with a beaver. That must have been the dam Angel was talking about.
“They’re busy, don’t speak to them,” Rainbow Dash said, holding one hoof out to Draco Scales as he flew over.
“Er-this isn’t about that! It’s Pinkie Pie.”
“Urgent business, no time for her antics.”
“That’s what I came to warn you about!” Draco Scales said, “Pinkie pie has-”
While Fluttershy was trying to talk to the beaver, its eyes widened. Fluttershy and Applejack’s backs were turned to the flood.
“What is it?” Fluttershy asked.
The beaver pointed right behind them. Applejack and Fluttershy turned in the direction of the beaver’s webbed paw. Just in time to spot a tsunami of bubbles and foam headed right towards them.
“What in tarnation?!” Applejack shouted.
They didn’t have time to escape as the wall of bubbles covered them up, sweeping them off their hooves with the force, while the bubbles completely covered Sweet Apple Acres.
“What in the heck?” Rainbow Dash asked, still resting atop her cloud.
“That’s what I was trying to warn them about,” Draco said, “Pinkie Pie poured an entire bottle of bubble bath into the flood!”
“She poured WHAT?!” Applejack’s head emerged from the foam, bubbles forming a rather funny Santa Claus beard around her face.
Fluttershy’s head emerged next, bubbles forming into a cowboy hat just like Applejack’s.”W...why would she do that?” She yelped.
“You guys, this is PINKIE PIE we’re talking about!” Rainbow groaned, looking over at the sea of bubbles. “For once I just wish she’d think something like this over!”
Draco emerged from the bubble wave, bubbles surrounding his head and front, giving him a Fluttershy-like mane. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but giggle a little, her eyes watering as she tried to suppress her laughter. A few bubbles gathered around his sides too, giving him bubble wings. “I’m guessing this is stuff you have to put up with on a daily basis when Pinkie Pie is involved?” He flapped his wings, blowing the bubble wings away.
“Yeah, this is par for the course when she’s involved, sugarcube!” Applejack wiped the bubbles from her muzzle.
“A part of me could put up with it... the other part...” He lifted his hoof up, a couple of claws sprouting as he popped some of the bubbles that floated in front of him before withdrawing.
“I wouldn’t get worried about it.” Rainbow told him. “If it wasn’t for her, life in Ponyville would be pretty boring!”
“There is that I suppose.” He smirked. “But we better get back to serious matters - how are we going to take care of the water and all these bubbles?”
The Beaver then managed to pop his head out, making angry chatters. Fluttershy turned to face the beaver.
“Okay, slow down,” She said, “Say it again.”
The beaver made several more noises.
“What’d she say?” Draco and Applejack asked.
“She said she won’t build the dam anywhere else if she can’t even find it in all these bubbles.
“You mean THIS dam?” Pinkie Pie’s voice said as she emerged from the bubbles, pulling up a large chunk of wood.
The Beaver made a lot of frantic chattering noises.
“P-Pinkie? D-Did you pull that off of the dam?”
“Yes!” She said.
All of a sudden, the mass of bubbles started moving, as the water beneath it gushed through the dam to refill the riverbed, taking all ponies, rodents, and bubbles with it. Rainbow Dash put her hoof to her mouth to stifle laughter as all the ponies started to get pulled down the river with the bubbles.
“PINKIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!” Draco shouted.
“Errrr... whoopsie.” Pinkie looked on with a nervous smile as she raced alongside the water. It started to spill out along the side and, as a further display of her amazing ability to break any and all laws of physics, she began to run on top of it, trying to look for her friends. She could hear spluttering from nearby as the waters crashed against a group of trees.
“Blurb... well...that could have been a heck of alot worse!” Applejack spluttered, wringing out her ponytail as she reached for her Stetson.
“Ghhh...” Draco growled, getting to his feet as the water subsided. “Trust me, if something like that happens again...” He went to give a threatening snort, but instead of smoke emerging from his nostrils, a couple of small plumes of flame shot forth. Applejack jumped back a little bit when she saw that Draco was standing in his dragon form. The small dragon form at the very least. Fluttershy also noticed this too as soon as she could wipe her wet mane from her eyes, but her reaction was calmer than the other times it had happened. Perhaps she had gotten used to his draconic metamorphosis. As for the other ponies, they hadn’t really seen his smaller dragon form up close - they were more familiar with the giant towering beast that he had turned into a few days before.
“Oh thank Celestia you’re all ok!” Pinkie approached the group, looking at Applejack and Fluttershy with concern, not noticing that Draco had changed again. “For a moment I thought you might have been pushed all the way to the ocean, or even drowned!”
“We’re fine, don’t y’all go worrying about us!” Applejack said sincerely.
“Yeah...um...if there’s anypony you should be talking to right now, it’d be Draco.” Fluttershy said in her usual calm tone.
“Draco? Where is he?” She looked around.
“Pinkie Pie...” Draco hissed, a clawed hand resting on her head as he spun her around to face him.
“Ooooooooh! A dragon! A squeaky clean dragon at that!” She rubbed her head against Draco’s hand, making squeaking noises as she did so.
“...I’ll never understand her,” Draco said.
“Well you really are a lot more shiny....” PInkie Pie said, producing a pair of sunglasses out of nowhere.
Chapter Sixteen - Half Eagle, Half Lion, all vicious.
Several days after the flood, Draco Scales was in town again. Things had become a little more mundane after Pinkie turned the river into soap. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, he knew something was going to happen sooner or later. Though to what, and to whom.
Twilight seemed to be too busy reading some of her books to do anything. Celestia assigned more reading in one day than one friend of his was assigned in an entire semester. Fluttershy had a rather sick animal that needed extra attention. Rainbow Dash seemed to be off practicing her flying skills or something. Last time he spoke to Applejack, she was talking about how the apples needed to be harvested. And as for Pinkie...she seemed to vanish without a trace at times. (Only to randomly teleport behind him whenever she left their sights. How did she do that?)
That seemed to leave only Rarity. Draco Scales admittedly hadn’t spoken to her much. She only seemed to wander in whenever she wanted, or was too busy doing something at the Carousel Boutique. He never seemed to go there himself - not that it was too pish-posh for him or anything, but he knew from the three fillies that Rarity didn’t like to be disturbed when she was working.
Though maybe she needed someone to come by and say hi to her. After all, things could get incredibly boring. When he was on his way, he spotted something peculiar. It looked to be half eagle, half-lion, and all awesome - Gilda. She was sitting on the grass not far from the Carousel Boutique pondering to herself.
“Whoa, hey, are you Gilda?” He asked.
The gryphon looked over at the alicorn.
“Who wants to know?” She said.
“I’m Draco Scales - I’m told you’re a friend of Rainbow Dash?”
“What do you know about her?” She asked.
“...That you’re her friend? And she’s mine too?”
Gilda seemed to lighten up a little bit at that mention.
“Perfect, any friend of Rainbow Dash’s is a friend of mine,” she said.
“I’ve always wanted to meet a gryphon in person - you look just as majestic as I thought you would.”
“What, don’t have gryphons where you’re from? Where the heck were you from?”
“Wiltshire,” He immediately spoke up, “We...didn’t have any gryphons nearby. At least, none that really lived in town at all.”
“Wow, boring. You guys must never have any fun.”
“Oh believe me!” He said, “We have lots of it!”
“What about like this? Ever do fun pranks to others?”
“Sometimes...as long as they’re fun.” He remembered something one of his friends online described, where they secretly emptied half the salt shaker on his popcorn at the movie theatre. When he took a few pieces out, he nearly threw up because it was so salty, and then spent three minutes at the drinking fountain nearly sucking on the faucet. It might have been funny, but all he could think about was how disgustingly salty that must have been.
“Oh I promise you, this is fun!” Gilda said, leading the alicorn over to the Carousel Boutique’s grounds. It seemed Rarity had some pieces of clothing hung out on the laundry line to dry.
“I don’t like the looks of that,” Draco said, “Are you going to destroy her clothing?”
“Hey, I’m not going to do anything she won’t laugh at,” Gilda said, “I think it’d be kind of funny if we put some water out here and made her step in mud.”
He just looked at her.
“I said step in mud - not throw her in the mud!” Gilda said, “Sides, you ever got a little mud on your paw-Err, I mean hoof? It’s harmless. You can just clean it off as soon as you come in.”
“Well, I suppose if it’s harmless...”
“Perfect!” Gilda said, walking towards a bucket full of water. She then emptied it on the ground, stomping around a few times until mud begun to cling to her paws.
“Think she’ll laugh at that?” Draco said.
“Course, it’s a bit of fun. Come on! She’s coming!”
Gilda walked off to the bushes, while Draco followed. She gestured for him to kneel down so Rarity wouldn’t see him down there. He kept an eye on the unicorn as she exited the boutique to check on her laundry that she had outside.
“Oh, Opalesence...did you knock down the laundry bucket again?” Rarity said to nobody when she saw the overturned laundry bucket. She took a few steps towards the mud puddle. Draco was hoping she’d only take one mild step in.
“I do hope you’re not wet. Oh Opal, where are you? I know you ha-AAAAAAAAAA!” She stepped in the mud puddle and her front hoof immediately slipped in it, as she fell down on her right side, mud immediately covering her mane.
Draco suddenly found himself chuckling a bit - she didn’t seem in pain. Gilda was also laughing - holding a talon to her beak to keep it closed. It was actually kind of funny. Maybe the soap inside the bucket made it soft.
Rarity managed to slide herself out of the mud puddle and looked over her mane.
“I JUST took a bath one hour ago!” She whined, “Now I’ll have to take three baths today instead of the normal two.” She then looked at her hoof, the one that stepped in the mud. It was, of course, caked in the wet mud, with a thin soapy film over it.
“I JUST cleaned that! What kind of....Now I have to clean myself AGAIN!” She stamped her hoof angrily and then pulled a cloth over with her magic, wiping the mud off of her hoof, as she walked back inside the house, closing the door behind her.
Gilda now burst out in laughter, emerging from the bush.
“I didn’t think she’d fall down like THAT!” She laughed, “Did you see her? She was like - AAAGGGGH!” Gilda comically fell to the ground on her side. “And then after she got up, she was like ‘oh I JUST had this done! Now I have to clean myself again!”
“Okay,” Draco said, “That actually IS pretty funny there...just as long as she wasn’t hurt.”
“Come on, let’s go prank somepony else,” Gilda said.
“Sure, that didn’t seem too bad,” Draco Scales said.
* * *
For some reason, most ponies seemed to walk the other way when they spotted Gilda walking around. Draco Scales actually didn’t know why - maybe they just weren’t used to seeing gryphons around here. Or maybe Gilda’s appearance frightened them. Or maybe they didn’t want to get in her way. Nopony seemed to say anything about why they were avoiding Gilda.
At first he simply shrugged it off and then decided to continue on his way. Nopony was saying anything bad about him or Gilda - and Gilda hadn’t done anything to him personally. So what wasn’t to like? She didn’t seem to come across any ideas, until they walked by Sweet Apple Acres.
“Didn’t Pinkie Pie flood this the other day?” She asked, looking around.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly Pinkie Pie...but she certainly was the one who flooded it with bubbles.”
“Hmm...” Gilda looked around, walking towards something that looked like a treehouse. At first, Draco wondered how the heck somepony could build a treehouse without hands. Then he remembered that they substituted magic or just clever old use of pulleys and ropes.
“Well what’s this thing?” He asked, looking over the treehouse.
“It’s a soapbox - no seriously what do you think it is?” She said back.
“I meant what is this house used for!” He said back.
“Must be some young fillies or colts playhouse....oh! I got an idea! We should put something up there so that if they open the door it falls on them.”
“Nothing hard,” He said, “I don’t want to imagine what’d happen if someone got an apple stuck on their horn.”
Gilda seemed to stifle a few laughs at the thought of that.
“Well let’s take a look at the quality we’re dealing with here!” She flew up to the wooden house, placing her taloned hand against the window pane. Instead of doing something like giving it a gentle tap, she pretty much put her fist through it, shattering the window. “Heh, I think I’ve found one problem already!”
Draco just looked at the gryphon, slightly annoyed. A prank would have consisted of painting over the window, or maybe sticking some kind of scary image on it, but smashing it like that was really uncalled for.
“We’ve got low-quality windows for one, what else is there...” She spotted the stairway that acted as the entrance to the house, stomping against it. Draco thought she was trying to give it a simple stress test, but that stopped after she kicked out one of the support columns, causing the stairway to fall apart.
“Ok, I think you’re taking it a bit too far!” Draco said firmly. “The kids who own this place are going to be really upset!”
“Who cares, it’s not my problem if they’re gonna take my pranks too seriously!” She sneered back at the crimson alicorn. “Why, are you saying you wouldn’t be doing the same thing?”
“No, I wouldn’t! A prank would be trying to scare somepony, or doing something like going into a restaurant and swapping ponies food around! What you’re doing right now is flat-out property damage, and it’s kids who have to deal with it!”
“Hey hey. Look at it this way, I’m also helping them because of such shoddy construction.”
“No, you’re not,” Draco said ,”That’s just wantonly destroying their clubhouse. Whoever’s clubhouse this is!”
“Sheesh, you’re such a stickler,” Gilda said, “Oh, quick, I think I see someponies coming.”
Gilda quickly flew off the clubhouse before Draco could kick her. Just in time for three fillies to enter the scene. He looked towards them - uh oh. It didn’t look good at all. There he was standing in front of a treehouse with property damage. Anypony in their horseshoes would have assumed that he did it.
“What?!” Scootaloo said when she saw some of the damage inflicted by the gryphon.
“It’s not what it looks like!” Draco Scales said, “It was her - Gilda did it.”
“Gilda?” Applebloom said, “Who?”
He heard her laughing from the bushes. Right now, Draco assumed Gilda was thinking that it would have been a little more funny if they thought Draco made the mess out of the clubhouse. Good thing for him she couldn’t keep her beak shut sometimes.
“Her,” Draco said, stomping over to the bushes where Gilda was chuckling out loud.
“So she did this to our clubhouse?” Scootaloo asked as the gryphons laughter got louder.
“I swear to Celestia!” He told the trio. “I protected the three of you when you were having those problems with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, so why would I do something like this to you so soon after that?”
“Yah know, he kinduh has a point there.” Apple Bloom said in his defence. “Besides, I’ve seen him helping everypony else, so he couldn’t be responsible for this!”
“You might as well come on out, they know it’s you!” Draco literally barked at the gryphon.
“Aw man, you are SO lame!” She snapped at him as she came out of hiding, the three little fillies hiding behind Draco. “What are you going to do, make me apologise to them?”
“Well I won’t make you apologise to them if you yourself are willing to apologise for the damage you’ve caused, Gilda!” He told her sternly.
“Well sorry that you took a prank too seriously,” She simply huffed back at him.
“Alright, sseerioussly?” Steam started to rise out of Draco’s ears, “That’ss what you have to ssay for yoursself?”
“Uh oh, back up,” Sweetie Belle said, as the small ponies started to back off from the alicorn.
“Do you WANT to be Kentucky Fried Gryphon?” He asked.
“What’s Kentucky?” Gilda simply said.
“WHAT’S KENTUCKY?! WHAT ISS...” He cooled off for a brief moment, “Well actually okay you wouldn’t know about that...but...DO YOU THINK THAT ISSS FUNNY?” He started to heat back up again.
He was already starting to look more and more scaly, horsetail starting to thicken and curl behind him powerfully. He gritted his teeth as scales started to cover his face entirely. Gilda widened her eyes a bit, spreading her wings.
The feathers off of Draco’s wings seemed to vanish into a rather fleshy membrane connected by “fingers”. Just like a draconic wing. He even started to grow bigger. Something like this was more than justifiable given the attitude Gilda was giving him.
“If you think THAT isss funny, then I’ll sshow you sssomething that IS funny! It sstartss with rude gryphonsss getting burned or crussshed underrr my claw!” he held up his own clawed hand to Gilda to prove a point, then held the expanding appendage over her. By now he was a good two times the gryphon’s size. Smoke blew out of his nostrils - and it wasn’t the fire that would send her gift-wrapped to Celestia, either.
“H...holy...” She squawked, backing away slightly as he soon reached his final size, roaring as he loomed over the gryphon. “This has....this has got to be some kind of prank, right?” She tried to regain her composure. “You’re just using your fancy alicorn magic to try to mess with my mind, aren’t you?!”
“Fancy alicorn magic... none of thisss wassss brought on by magic!” He snarled, lowering himself to the creature. His head was now roughly her size, and given the way that long, forked tongue was running across his fangs, he was quite hungry. “Thisss isss sssomething that getssss brought on by any creature that getssss on my bad sssside!” He walked closer, his footsteps causing the ground to shake. “Now tell me... are you going to be a good little gryphon and apologisssse to my friendsss...” He reached forward with a clawed hand, gripping a couple of feathers on her wing as he yanked them out, causing her to yelp in pain. “... or am I going to have to pluck you like a chicken?”
She rubbed the area where her feathers had been plucked, eyes watering a little from the pain as she looked at him. She looked like she was about to turn tail and run.
“Don’t be sssstupid!” He snarled, a burst of flame leaving his maw. “I don’t easssily forgive creaturessss like you, and I will have no problem with chasssing you down and forcing an apology from that beak of yoursssss!”
She simply seemed to gulp a bit. At first, she tried to turn tail and run, only for Draco to immediately catch said tail and send her to the ground. With his other hand, he grabbed the creature’s back and turned her around to face him, leaving claw-marks on the ground as her feet dug into the ground. He thankfully let go of her tail so he wouldn’t accidentally tangle his arms together.
“Well?” He asked, “You going to apologize for ruining their clubhoussse?”
Gilda at first said nothing. All it took was for Draco to breathe some more smoke and steam out before she finally got some kind of squawk out of her beak.
“Sorry!” She said.
“For what?” He asked.
“For ruining your clubhouse.”
“And what elssse?”
“And for trying to prank you?”
“No, what elssse?”
“What else do you want me to apologize for?” Her eyeridge frumpled a bit.
“How about trying to play a mean prank at somepony’s else's expenssse? Essspecially if it causesss property damage or injury?”
“What, it was-” She was interrupted, “Then I’m sorry.”
“Now apologize to the girlss, too!” Draco Scales said.
“Well I’d love to, but-”
“BUT WHAT?” He asked again.
“But I can’t if they’re not around here and you’re busy holding me, can I?”
“True, true...” He picked her up, dangling her by her tail as he dangled her in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “How about now? The way I’m holding you up, you’re kinda like a pinata!” He chuckled, imagining the trio of fillies trying to crack her open with a wooden beam.
“Ok ok! I’m sorry for trying to destroy your dweebish little -” She was stopped when Draco shook her about, snarling. “Gah Ok! I’m sorry for what I did, are you happy now?”
“Now are you going to behave?” He asked.
“Yes!” She snapped.
“Ssstand back,” Draco ordered the fillies.
“Why?” Scootaloo tilted her head.
The pegasus quickly got her answer when a pile of gryphon landed right in front of her, stars orbiting her head.
“That’sss why,” He said.
Chapter Seventeen - Half Pony, Half Dragon, All Nice.
“That was really nice of you to help them put their clubhouse back together,” Fluttershy said to Draco.
“What, after what that gryphon did it was the least I could do.”
“Gilda was....not very nice,” Fluttershy said, “I do wish she came by here though.”
He looked at her rather oddly.
“Uhm...what for?” He asked.
She seemed to be silent for a few minutes.
“Remember Iron Will?” She asked.
“What about him? Draco asked her.
“He wanted to make me more assertive but that only made everypony run....and...I can think of one who was worth it...”
“Oh, you mean her?” Draco asked.
“Yeah...Gilda’s mean. she’s just a bully.”
“Couldnt you have given her the stare?” He asked.
“That’s for cockatrices or bullies...okay I could have.”
“I bet with that you would have sent her running all the way back to your nest!” He grinned wide. “I doubt she’ll show her face around here again anytime soon though, I must have scared the stuffing out of her!”
“With that dragon form you have, you’d send anypony who wronged you running away.” She responded softly. “Besides, I think it’s safe to say she got what she deserved.”
Draco just nodded. “Yup. She tries anything like that in front of me again and I might have to make flambeed gryphon!”
Fluttershy seemed to shudder a little bit at the thought of that. He remembered - probably wasn’t the best pony to be mentioning violence to.
“Well I don’t actually mean it myself,” Draco Scales said, “Unless she really deserves it.”
“Even then...”
Angel then hopped by. Draco Scales kept his eyes on the rabbit, who started making random motions and gestures. Both of them watched the lapine miming several things. At first, they couldn’t make sense of what the rabbit was saying.
“I think it’s...the moon?” Draco asked.
“He means the sun and the moon are coming...Oh? Do you mean Celestia and Luna are coming?”
Angel nodded.
“When are they going to arrive?”
Angel just pointed behind the crimson alicorn, the pony turning around and being greeted by the two princesses. “Ah, I see they’re here right now!”
“Greetings, Draco. How has your time in Ponyville been so far?” Celestia asked him, her flowing mane shimmering in the sunlight.
“It’s been going quite well, bar one or two hiccups.” Draco chuckled.
“We assume by ‘hiccups’, you’re referring to your form becoming more draconic in nature?” Luna asked.
“Wait, how did you?” Draco started. “Wait, I’m asking a stupid question. The two of you do rule over Equestria after all, so it’s only natural that you’d know about those incidents.”
“Whilst I will admit that it is quite peculiar to be able to turn into a dragon like that, you’ve managed to show that you’ve got a lot of control over your transformation, my little pony.”
“Thanks...” He blushed a little, kicking his right foreleg bashfully.
“Plus in the short time you’ve been here, it seems that you’ve become enamoured with Fluttershy, am I right to guess?” Celestia smirked slyly. Both Draco and Fluttershy blushed in response. “I think that answers it!”
“Dearest sister, We think it might be best to ask Draco what we came here for before we get too far into this talk.” Luna reminded the white alicorn.
“Indeed.” Celestia nodded as she turned back to face Draco. “The time has come for you to make one last decision.”
“I believe I know what that decision is,” Draco said, “I’m assuming that there’s no way back, right? Once I agree, there’s no way back...right?”
Surprisingly, Luna shook her head. Draco’s ears twitched again.
“It’s not a one-way trip?” He asked.
“Did you assume that we would have taken you here, and not given you a choice to return home, should you not find a place in Equestria or Ponyville? That in itself would be a cruel way to change your own fate in the way we have offered. Everypony is unique in their own ways.” Luna said. She looked around, making sure there weren’t any other ponies listening around. They did have quite the audacity to make a secret appearance in public like this.
Once she made sure there were no other ponies were around, she continued to speak again.
“In your case, you have that option. After all, what you had learned about yourself here is important. There have been a few who did decide to return to their own home. This is a major decision akin to moving away, and not everypony is willing to go to such lengths to change. But we can confirm that their experience had changed them for the better. You were not in a life-threatening situation like Nightshade was. If you so choose, you can return, all the wiser with your own experiences from Rainbow Dash’s meeting with you, and your own experiences in Ponyville. Does this make sense?”
Draco Scales was silent for a minute, before speaking back up again.
“Not...entirely what I was getting at,” Draco Scales said, “Can I at least return home just to say goodbye to my friends? They must be worried - I don’t have internet here after all. Not even Twilight Sparkle could fix that.”
The two sisters looked at each other and nodded.
“We will grant you that. Does that mean you have decided to stay?”
“Most definitely,” He said, “I can’t just leave all my friends here behind, can I? Especially not you, Fluttershy.” He looked towards the pegasus, who started to shy away a bit as he placed her into the spotlight so much.
“D-Do you really think that way?”
“Of course,” Draco Scales walked over to her, “I’ll...be back soon.”
“D-Don’t take too long,” She said.
The two looked at each other for a moment.
“One for the road?” He said.
Fluttershy at first did nothing. Then she nodded, bringing her own muzzle over to Draco’s, giving him a small peck on the lips. He felt his heart rate increasing a bit, as well as a weight washing over his body. Especially around his tail. Fluttershy seemed to shrink a little bit.
“Huh?” He looked down at himself, noticing a pair of draconic paws instead of his forehooves. He stifled a laugh, until he felt something around at his tail. Draco looked to his left around at his tail, spotting Angel pinned under his tail, looking not too pleased with him.
“Oh whoops!” He took his tail off, releasing the bunny.
Angel angrily hopped over to Fluttershy and clung to her forehoof a little, shooting a glare at Draco. He lowered his eyeridge in a little glare at the rabbit, who promptly vanished behind the leg, away from his own little stare.
“I’m still gonna have to get used to this sudden draconification. Guess it shows how much love I have to show for you though if it gets this reaction, doesn’t it?” He smiled sweetly to the yellow pegasus. She smiled back, blushing a little.
Chapter Eighteen - The Final Goodbye.
Draco stepped back through the portal in the Canterlot Palace, instantly returning to his human form as he went through it. It was quite odd having his human body back, even if it was for a few brief moments. Looking back towards it, he could see Celestia and Luna watching on, waiting ready to close the portal when he stepped back through it. Everything was back as he had left it, untouched.
“Well, this is it...” He went to boot up his computer, looking around him as he waited for it to start up. “This is going to be really hard to do...”
After a couple of minutes his PC was ready to use, some of his friends instantly bombarding him with messages. He wish he could have a bit more time to talk to them, but he had to tell them that he had to do something important. Loading up his internet browser he logged into his blogging account and his account on an art and writing website. He was going to spread what he said around the sites he was on, just so everyone knew.
“Dear friends whom I have come to know online, as well as my familiars... The time has come for me to move on with my life, and after today you will no longer see or hear from me. This isn’t anything serious, I’m not going to do anything stupid like take my life, but I feel that it’s best that I leave of my own accord. I’ve been offered a chance to start a new life for myself, to meet new friends and everything, and I’m going to take it. It’s sad that I’m having to say goodbye to all of you, especially after I’ve known you all for several years, but I feel this is for the best. Not to mention that with my moving on, I will finally be rid of a few major pains.”
The two princesses watched on as he typed his goodbye message to his friends, both sharing a look of sadness.
“I know this is incredibly sad news, but I don’t want any of you to mourn my leaving. As I said, this is my decision entirely, and it’s a move I’m willing and happy to take. I know I’m going to miss all my old friends dearly, and I know I’m really going to miss listening to the crazy dreams that Dominic comes up with - seriously, every time I think of the whole ‘microwaveable goldfish on stilts who can shoot daggers from their mouths whilst singing Cry Thunder’ I’m reduced to a fit of giggles!” And indeed he had to stop typing for a moment as he tried to contain his laughter.
“Anyway, I better cut this short before I go off on a long ramble. Thank you all for the years of friendship you’ve given me, as well as all the moral support. Thanks for being at my side through the hard times, and making me laugh through the good times.
Maybe one day in the future we might meet up again. Until then, I’ll keep you all close to my heart.
Farewell
Peter/Draco Scales.”
He copied and pasted the message across the journals and blogs, sending it in emails and messages as he posted it. He got up from his chair, sniffling a little as he wiped a few tears from his eyes.
He looked at the timestamps of his emails. Strange...he was gone a little less than he thought. Maybe time flowed a little slower. He shrugged, not really his call after all. He looked around his room one last time. There were a few things that he didn’t bring back, but upon further thought, he most definitely should have.
Peter went to gather some additional goodies he couldn’t live without. At first, Rainbow Dash once mentioned that they didn’t have plushies in Ponyville, but now he knew that was a lie. He saw fillies carrying stuffed bears around or other stuffed animals. And he knew a certain somepony would love some of these plushies of his too. After all, they certainly were unique - unlike any other you could get in Ponyville.
“Now what else shall I bring back with me too,” He said out loud, looking around at his room again. Thankfully he already had many of the essentials with him already. He gathered some of his cards that he left behind, then looked towards some video game consoles. And Rarity said that those were barbaric.
“Well, bye world!” He said, getting ready to finally leave. Then, he just stepped back through the mirror, immediately dropping a few models to the ground when his hands solidified back into hooves. Thankfully he didn’t break everything.
“Well, are you ready to go back home now?” Luna asked.
“I may need a little bit of help, but....yes. I am.” Draco Scales said.
* * *
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you decided to stay,” Nightshade said to him.
“Well, why wouldn’t I?” Draco said, relaxed on the train seat, “It’s awesome here after all. Better than I could have been at home, probably!”
“Well, you still brought more than I did, that’s for sure,” Nightshade nudged a box next to her, “I don’t even know what half of those cards even were...Vanguard? Last I recall everyone played Magic or whatever that thing was.”
“Hey, thanks for helping me move these things in, too,” Draco said, “Means a lot.”
“No prob, again, I know what you’re going through. You had stuff to bring here, more than I can say about myself.”
Nightshade hadn’t told the entire story about her, Draco Scales had to admit. Ponyville was still a little ways away. Might as well just try and ask, just as long as it wasn’t painful. He knew what that mirror showed...it wasn’t always good.
“So...why did you stay?” Draco Scales asked.
“Same reason you did,” Nightshade said, “It was better here. I could stay at home and deal with the whole anorexia thing, or I could just stay here...and help the ponies learn about humans while getting a second chance at life. I owe it to them. The least I could do is help them out, and be a friend to people like Applejack. After all, she was the one who helped me out. She literally pushed me through the window and I was like ‘ooooh my god no what if I die!’.”
Nightshade laughed at this. Draco Scales still remembered what he saw back then. He didn’t know if he should laugh at it or not. It was somewhat of a serious thing - probably even more, given what Celestia and Luna had told him. But had they told her at all? It could have either offended her, or had no effect.
“But hey, that was then. This is now. I’m not Zoë anymore, I’m NIghtshade. Just as you’re not Peter anymore, you’re Draco Scales. It’s not something you should forget entirely - either way, you altered your own fate with their help. And you can be a better pony for it.”
He smiled a bit. It was still nice to know about somepony who had gone through what he did.
“Did you...see what might have happened if you stayed?” Draco asked, “Did you meet some kind of weird guy in a green suit saying that you have met with a terrible fate?”
Nightshade just gave him a weird look. Draco wanted to smack himself for that reference - of course, she was here longer than he was. She wouldn’t have known about that little thing.
“Never mind, never mind,” He said, “Something my friend joked about.”
* * *
Shortly after his move, he walked to find where Fluttershy was. He couldn’t wait to tell Rainbow Dash the news that he decided to stay, but she was once again too busy practicing flight. He felt she deserved to hear the news first of all, but there was somepony more important.
Surprisingly, when Draco Scales walked to Fluttershy’s house, he found a bear visiting. The ursine looked to be fighting her, but it wasn’t vicious at all. Not two seconds after he walked in on this scene, the ursine quickly relaxed, as Fluttershy kneaded its back.
“You really needed to relieve that tension,” She said to the ursine.
He smiled and waited for a few seconds, letting Fluttershy massage the bear. She didn’t notice him at first, but then spotted him when the Ursine had practically melted on the ground, tongue lolling out.
“Oh! Draco! You’re back,” She said.
“Yeah! I wanted to tell you first, I’m here for the long-run.”
“You are?” She stammered a little, her voice cracking just louder than her normal tone. “You really mean it?”
“Yup! The portal’s closed, all my stuff is over here now, and Pinkie Pie is setting up a massive party to celebrate. Although I have the feeling this time around only you, Pinkie and the others will know the true intention of all this. Oh, and before I forget, this is for you!” He used his magic to bring out something he had been keeping behind him, placing it softly on the ground in front of Fluttershy. It was a small plush of a black and blue draconic creature. “I thought about what one I could give you, and this one just seemed to stand out.”
“What is it of?” She asked as she picked it up.
“It’s a Shadow Lugia. Basically it’s a Lugia who was corrupted to the point where its heart was supposedly sealed off. It has a different appearance to a standard Lugia, and I thought it might remind you of me a little bit, considering how my appearance can change on a whim.”
“But your heart wasn’t sealed...um...at least I think it wasn’t... I’m sorry if it is...”
He smiled, brushing the side of her muzzle with a hoof. “Well I guess I can say that my heart was closed to pure love before this.”
Fluttershy blushed again, squeaking a little. “It’s absolutely adorable... surprising since you said it’s corrupted.”
“With plushies you can make anything cute. Speaking of cute, you should have seen Twilight’s reaction when I gave her a plush. It was a Chocobo reading a big book - I thought it fit her perfectly!”
“Yup, that’s her.” She placed the small plush atop her head, letting it rest on her mane as she approached Draco. “Thank you so much for this lovely gift... and...um... thank you so much for staying on...” She leant in close and put a soft kiss on his lips.
The soft sigh that Draco emitted from his maw turned into a low purr within the course of a few seconds as he was once more brought back into his draconic form. Fluttershy smirked a little as she broke the kiss.
“Hey, I see this doesn’t scare you any more!” He grinned wide.
“You helped me get used to it.” She told him, a ridiculously adorable squeaking sound leaving her mouth as she grinned.
Draco Scales smiled once more. He even brought his lips back into a draconic looking smile. Fluttershy once more did not jump away in fear - she smiled back. Finally, he had truly moved onto a better place, with better people - or rather, ponies.
“So, are you busy at all? Want to go for a fly?”
Fluttershy looked at the sleeping bear, then towards a white rabbit who hopped out of his hutch. Angel started to mime at the bear, then put his hands over his eyes, forming glasses.
“Sure - Angel will take care of things here!”
She stretched her wings, one at a time. and then flapped. Draco himself spread his own wings, and took flight.