“Let’s see here from this map from the last mayor says,” Max started. “This village is under attack from, pig snakes. One pair of fangs for one gold. They spew acid so be careful.” I unhooked and took in a breath.
“Lunch.” I said smiling as I ran disappearing to Max and Cord.
The pig snakes made a loud screech as I ripped into them eating their tasty meat, they had way more than the spiders had. I saved over three thousand fangs completely wiping out the forest and any nests. I sighed looking at the cloudy sky. It was sprinkling a little, but not bad, it always rained so hard in the desert, but it was never this cool.
I picked up my large bag of fangs, then a bag of meat and trotted back to Max and Cord which were talking to a light green earth pony with a bowtie. I walked over to them and he looked at me. I set the bag of fangs down in front of Cord and went to Max.
“I brought good meat, cook it please.”
“Okay.” He picked it up and walked off. The pony in the bowtie looked into the bag, his eyes went wide. “Give me a moment, I'll be back.” He walked off with the bag and Cord looked at me.
“How many?”
“Well in total there were about six thousand one hundred and thirteen of them.” His jaw dropped. Two ponies came a while later with a large bag full of gold bits setting it onto the cart with a heavy thud. “More fishy.” I smiled.
“Wow, we can’t thank you enough.” The pony with a bowtie said.
“It’s no problem, she’s probably still hungry, we were just stopping by villages to feed her, the bounties are just a plus.”
“Okay.” Max came back a while later with a grill on his back and he opened the sack of meat letting a sweet smell float into the air. I jumped digging in to it quickly. It was so good to have cooked meat! Having him cook it was wonderful.
“That’s a lot of gold.” He said looking into the bag, I don’t think we can fit this in your pack much less carry it ourselves.”
“I'll pull.” I said as I gulped down the last bit of meat. “Get on.” They got on and we went village after village, and it was never enough. Max would cook as much as he could for me, but I kept running out of food to eat.
“YOU THERE!” I stopped looking at three masked unicorn fillies with poky sticks pointed at me. “Give us all your gold!” I looked at Max as he hopped off a three bit high wall of gold bags. We had to move to a much larger cart with sides for how much gold we had.
“Get back.” Another said.
“Are you guys like tax collects or something?” I asked.
“We’re bandits!” The leader said and Cord started laughing being trapped on top of the bags.
“Thank Celestia,” Max said cracking his back. “That cart is so uncomfortable. Do you mind if we give them a bit of the excessive gold? I’ve had to hold onto bags, we simply have too much gold for this cart.”
“But the fish.”
“You’ll have enough to fill even your hunger.”
“Alright.” Cord tossed him a few bags and he walked over to the now confused fillies setting them on their backs making one of them fall to the ground from the weight.
“What in the world!” One of them said falling to his knees.
“I think I’m going to walk a with you.” Max said coming over to me and I smiled. We started walking. “You know we can’t hold any more gold, I mean seriously this is a bit ridiculous in so many ways. I think we’re actually the only bounty hunters in the land. We’ve done over three hundred villages and each at least had a thousand to spend, which is crazy.”
“Can’t we just get a larger cart?” He looked at it.
“No this is getting ridiculous.”
“Fine, we won’t have to stop at the next village.”
“No we can if you like, I don’t mind cooking for you, but we just won’t be able to take any more bounty.”
“Okay.” He pet me a little bit.
“Also isn’t today the last day before you sleep?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” I looked up seeing another village and I smiled.
“We’ll stay at this village till you wake up.”
“Alright.” We walked into the village and ponies were doing business as normal. A gray stallion with a bowtie came over to us.
“You’re the bounty hunters right?” He asked making Max and me stop.
“Ah, yeah, how did you know?”
“All the villages on the king’s road were notified from earlier villages of your coming and that we should be ready.”
“Oh, well I guess we don’t need to introduce ourselves.”
“That’s a lot of luggage.” He said looked at the cart.
“Oh that’s not luggage,” Max said. “That’s the bounties we’ve collected, we just didn’t realize we would collect so much.” Ponies from all around us stared at the cart.
“All of that’s gold?”
“Yeah, apparently no one else has been even trying to collect bounties, so they were able to pay us, or more her.” He rubbed my head. “She’s the one doing it, does a town in five minutes to half an hour. Mostly because it takes a while to cook.”
“Right I heard she eats meat, well we have fully stocked fish if you would like to buy from us.”
“Fish!” I said looking at Max and he smiled.
“That sounds great, show me to your kitchen and I'll get started. Hey you alright up there Cord?”
“Yeah, just, can’t move too much, or this gold is going to fall off, thanks for remembering that I’m alive up here.” Max chuckled. “Can you bring me something to eat to, I’m a little hungry.”
“Sure, so the kitchen.”
“Right this way.” I parked the cart and helped Cord get off the top so he could take care of his personal business. I sat on top staring at the sky. It was still a bit cloudy, it felt nice to be so cool.
“Excuse me?” I looked down at the stallion in a bowtie without turning over.
“Yes?”
“Um, are you going to go hunt the monsters?”
“I’m a little, tried right now. I'll deal with it later.”
“But the dragons.” I paused.
“Dragons?”
“Yes there are three of them, we have a bounty of ten thousand per head.” I sighed and rolled over. “They said they would destroy the town if we don’t pay them gems today, but there aren’t any gems for miles and it would take us at least a week, they won’t take gold. Please before nightfall.”
“Fine.” I jumped off stretching a little. I pulled out a small ruby and ate it to give me a small boost of energy, I was getting tired, but three dragons wouldn’t be hard. “Where are they so I don’t have to go searching?” He pointed at a large cave in a small mountain.
“There, but you can handle dragons right?”
“Yeah.” I started walking getting to the cave after an hour. I just didn’t want to do this right now. Dragons were very tasty, but that’s about it. I walked into the cave and I looked at three dragons as they woke up lifting their heads. They were each a different color, blue being a female, red being the only male, and white also being a female, which made them look a bit odd being so close to each other.
“Oh look, a pony.” The red one said and I tripped over a rock rolling a little, I got up a little dizzy. I hated being tired.
“I think it’s drunk.” The blue one said.
“No just tired.” I said falling into a pile of treasure, I yawned rolling around a little finding a nice spot.
“Pony why are you here?” The white one asked.
“Well I came here to slay you before night fall, but I might fall asleep, your piles of treasure are always so comfortable.” I buried my face into the gems smelling them. They were wonderful.
“Slay us?” The red one asked with a laugh making the blue one laugh as well. The white one looked at me serious, and frowned.
“Yep,” I said closing my eyes. “Just, don’t leave the cave, I don’t want your meat to go to waste.”
“Really now.”
“Come here little pony, you interest me.” The white dragon moved the pile closer to her belly and I rolled over snuggling into her belly. She was fluffy having short fur on her belly, it was really nice.
“You are so fluffy, I’m going to keep you as a pet.” She chuckled lightly.
“So if we leave the cave you’re going to kill us?” The blue one asked. The red one got up making me frown. He walked over to the entrance and stepped outside. The blue one laughed but stopped when the red dragon wasn’t moving.
“Hey, that’s not funny.” The blue one said frowning after a minute. The dragon’s body fell over, his head rolled to the feet of the blue one making her stand up shocked. “AAA WHAT, HOW!” She shouted pushing it away standing up scared and the white one looked at me with a bit of fear.
“Oh your fluffy I’m keeping you.” I said smiling smelling her. “His meat is going to go to waste, I’m glad the blue one isn’t. I would be sad.”
“Wait you don’t have kill me.” She said sitting down. “I’m fluffy to.” I chuckled.
“I know, I’m going to make clothes out of you, you have a nice hide, but I can only keep the white, she’s the smartest one of you three. I will sleep, don’t move my new pet. I don’t want to have to beat you to make you understand, blue one if you try to leave I'll cut off your legs and let you bleed out. Now be quiet.” I fell asleep.
The dragon was nice and warm making sleeping very pleasant. I woke up and sun light lit the cave nicely. I yawned getting up and stretching. The white dragon looked at me and the blue one was asleep.
“You’re awake I see.” She said and I smiled cracking a few bones.
“Yep.” I looked at the red dragon, a lot of the meat was already rotting away, I looked down sad, I had wasted a lot of mean. He was going to go eat ponies though, so I didn’t feel too bad about it. I moved skinning him, and cutting any good pieces of meat I could save, putting them in a pile. I appeared on top of the white dragons head and the blue dragons head rolled off making her gasp a little.
“Darn.”
“Grab heads and blue dragon body, as well as the hide and safe meat, I will cook her!” I shouted and the white one picked up both heads, tears went down her face as she picked up the body, and hide with the rest of the meat, and I laid down. “To the village please.” She walked to the village and ponies looked in a bit of horror as she set the heads down and the body.
“Max!” I shouted and he came out, his eyes went wide.
“Dragon to cook! And are my fish ready?”
“Yes.” I jumped off the white dragon’s head, ran inside and piles of cooked fish were ready. I ate them quickly and went outside, the blue dragon’s hide was cut into nice sheets, along with the red dragon’s. Large pieces of meat were cooking over a large open fire making me appear on top of the white dragon’s head.
“Oh I can’t wait!” I shouted and every pony looked at me surprised. “Max come up here!” He landed next to me sitting down.
“Hi.” He said a little nervous.
“Hello.” The white dragon said.
“Dragon this is Max, my other pet, Max say hi.”
“Hi dragon.”
“My name is Fiona.”
“You did good in cooking other dragon meat, you earned your name. I can’t wait for the meat to be ready.” I said excited.
“It’s almost done.”
“I love dragon meat!” I licked Fiona and smiled at the taste.
“Did you know her?” Max asked.
“She was my mates second mate, I liked her.”
“Fiona, would you like a leg?” I asked looking at her and she stared at the cooking meat intently. “You should have a leg, you will enjoy it!” I said excited.
“I-I suppose.” She said.
“You don’t have to.” Max said.
“I don’t?” She asked.
“Of course not!” I said a little mad. “I would not waste the meat on you if you did not want to eat it, I will eat it all!” I smiled as my stomach gurgled telling me it was empty. “I am always hungriest when I wake up, we will have to do ten more villages to fill my belly today, I am very hungry!”
“How can she eat so much?” Fiona asked.
“I don’t know, she has a bottomless pit down her throat, she’s easily eaten over three hundred times your dragon’s weight in food over the last three days, and she never once got competely full. I haven’t been able to cook most of it, she’s ravenous.”
“Are you hungry Fiona?” I asked.
“A little, but I don’t want to eat her.”
“I'll be right back.” I jumped off of her head landing on the ground cracking it. I started to dig going down a bit and digging out a large ruby the size of her head bringing it up and throwing it onto the ground next to her making her stare.
“Whoa.” Max said as I landed next to him.
“There we go, a good treat for my pet.” I rubbed her head a little bit and she brushed off the dirt from the gem, and ponies all around stared.
“Such a huge ruby.” Fiona said.
“Yep, enjoy.” She bit into it.
“It’s great, may I go get my treasure?” She asked looking at me.
“Sure, but do not make me hunt you, you will not make it off the ground.” I jumped off landing softly. She walked away and Max landed next to me. “I hope she doesn’t run, I don’t want to have to hunt her down.”
“It’s ready by the way.” I sucked in some air and blew out sending a very powerful wind stopping the fires. I moved as fast as I could enjoying every bite. I finished laying on top of still hot coals yawning. Fiona landed with a large sack on her back. She swallowed seeing just bones from the large dragon. She was the smallest of the three, around twenty yards high.
“Oh the gold.” Max said and she put the cart full of gold into her bag, the mayor brought out two small carts and she poured the gold inside the bag.
“Don’t forget Cord!” I said and she put Cord next to me on a saddle cart that I had made for her, so we could comfortably fly on her back. It was just like the train cart from the train, but this one was made by all of the village folk as a way of saying thanks. It was nice. I rolled around in gold and gems smiling.
“Enjoying yourself?” Max asked sitting in a seat next to a stove.
“Yep.” I said grinning.
Thanks to Cord we made it so rather Fiona was sitting standing or flat we were always even and stable. It was nice, she didn’t send me rolling every time she sat or laid down, and even then there was a very little amount of shaking. So long as she didn’t turn on her side or upside down, we wouldn’t feel any different than on the ground.
“We’re almost to the capital.” Fiona said. I appeared on her head, she had gotten used to me just appearing. I looked out at the capital, it was huge, taking miles of land. There were probably millions of ponies living here.
Even with the hundred villages after the one with Fiona, I was still hungry, it had been over to two days of her flying. It was meant to be a three day walk, but we stopped at every single village.
Fiona’s pack was giving her back problems from all the gold, gems and other things I harvested, and Max told me this would be a good place to unload some of it, we could probably buy the city if we used it all, and that was after me making armor for Fiona.
I smiled at her armor, she helped me a lot in hunting large beasts and she enjoyed the meat with me which made me happy, and not feel so much like a pig snake. I ate a lot, and my hunger was only growing large and larger each day. Though she was lucky I made her the armor, or she would have been killed several times.
“Look at that!” I shouted and Max came out going next to me smiling.
“Wow.” We landed in a large open plot of land. I looked around smiling. I jumped off and ponies looked at Fiona a little scared.
“Finally!” Cord shouted and I looked at him appearing next to him.
“What?”
“I figured out a shrinking spell.”
“Why?” I asked. He got off Fiona and Max landed next to us. Cord’s horn lit up burning with bright white magic. He shot at Fiona and her eyes went big before she shrunk down to normal pony height. As tall at me. I appeared next to her looking around her and she looked around confused.
“Now she can come with us.” He said smiling and she went up to him.
“This better not be permanent pony.”
“It will last as long as I want, of course when we leave I'll change you back. I like flying on your back. Also you should put away your back cart.” She took it off, stuffing it into the pack with the rest of the stuff. It was made of dragon hide so it could take a real thrashing before breaking or anything.
“This is great!” I said pinning Fiona making her nervous. “Now I can have a small dragon, I was worried that I was going to have to make you compact when we got you to the city, to fit you through the streets. That’s too bad, I guess you get to keep your legs.” She swallowed scared.
“Yeah, that’s too bad.” She looked at Cord. “Thank you.” She said with a knot in her throat. I went over to Max and he tossed me a fish, I ate it mid air.
“Now to find the king.” I said with a smile.
“Come here.” Cord gave us all some papers.
“What’s this?” Max asked. Cord ripped one and fire appeared before our faces saying, Cord found the king. An arrow pointed at him with directions.
“You rip it and the magic will do the rest.” He handed a few pieces to each of us. “If you find him rip it.” I took a few and smiled putting them away. “Now splitting up will cover the most ground, but what do you think?” Cord asked looking at me.
“I don’t mind, we don’t have a set limit to how long we have to spend looking or anything like that. I would rather stay together.”
“Then we’ll use these if we get separated.” I smiled. “Oh I almost forgot.” He jumped and Fiona went to move but he shrunk going into her pack. He jumped off growing to his real size with a pack on his back and three more in his hooves.
“You could have said something!” She hit him lightly.
“Sorry, I wanted to surprise you.” He handed a pack to Max and hooked another one onto Fiona. “This will allow us to get gold bits to buy things, when we need them.” He put the last pack on me and I paused smelling him. I pinned him to the ground staring at him. He swallowed nervous.
“Roma, what is it?” Max asked.
“He.” I blushed a little backing up. “I, I’m sorry, that came over me rather quickly, you smell good.” I nuzzled his chest a little. “But not in a, I want to eat you way.”
“Okay.” He said unsure. I appeared next to a large stallion and smelled him. He looked at me weird. I appeared next to Cord. “Oh no.” He got up. “Do not tell me you, just.” I looked at him a little unsure. He swallowed growing a little pale.
“What?” Max asked.
“Well she’s in that age, if you know what I mean.” Both of them blushed a little. “I just hope for which ever stallion she finds, that she doesn’t mix pleasure with hunger.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked and they looked at me.
“Nothing, just don’t smell me alright.” I went up to him and smelled him. He smelled really good, but I didn’t quite understand why. “I said don’t!” He backed up.
“But you smell so good.”
“Stop!” I stepped back.
“What is it?”
“Okay I think you may be hitting puberty.”
“What do you mean?” He swallowed.
“Do you feel hot?” I paused backing up blushing.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if you could keep that and eating separate. You can barely control your eating habits, so I can only imagine how that would turn out.” I backed up. “So let’s go find that king.”