//------------------------------// // 2 -A Picnic Interupted // Story: The Sword in the Stone: Courage to be King // by Flutters Is Shy //------------------------------// And the day had started off so well. Twilight had woken up at the break of dawn, refreshed and raring to face the day. It was an eternal detriment to Spike, who would have rathered spend the extra hour or so with his scales swaddled in his blanket. Twilight giggled, the silliness of her “little dragon” causing her mirth. ”I don’t really see the point of getting up so early, Twilight…” Spike was packing various foods from the larder into a wicker basket, “We’re meeting the others around NOON, right?” His question was punctuated by a long yawn, causing Twilight to let out another laugh. “It never hurts to be ready BEFORE you have to go do something, you know. Better safe than sorry!” Twilight trilled, sifting between several books she intended to bring to the picnic, one even titled 101 Rules For Your Picnic Of Prolific Partying And Perfection! Spike glared at her over a hay sandwich he was stuffing into the basket. “You aren’t going to actually bring those, are you?” Twilight glared right back at Spike, a look of incredulousness at even suggesting leaving her precious reference material behind. “A proper picnic requires proper reference material!” Twilight said with a hoof over her heart, "says so right here on page nineteen!" “Bah...only you could take the fun out of a picnic,” Spike mumbled. “A dull blade can make an excellent hammer,” Pinkie Pie intoned, causing Spike to jerk away from the basket, out of which Pinkie Pies head was now poking. “Seriously Pinkie? As if I wasn’t scared enough you were going to pop out of random shrubbery?” Spike was usually amused by her antics, but he had just got finished packing, and now he found all the supplies lying on the ground, needing to be packed once more.“What was with the creepy quote, anyway? Is this creepy quote day or something?” Spike pulled on her head, causing her to burst from the basket with a loud pop. “No silly, Creepy Quote Day isn’t for another week or so!” With this Pinkie picked one of the sandwiches off of the floor, popping it into her mouth, eliciting a snort of dismissiveness from Spike, “The Author just got bored and heard it from a show he was watching!” Spike looked at Pinkie with renewed confusion, He had heard her say some weird things, but every so often there was something new. “Author...riiiiiiight, can you excuse me?” he gestured to the side, and Pinkie -realizing she was still standing with one hoof inside the wicker basket- stepped to the side. “Want any help there Spike?” Spike looked from her back to the mess she had left on the floor, and with a simple shake of his head said “Nah, I got it, so why are you here so early, exactly?” With this he started stuffing various goods back in the basket “Oh, I just wanted to come and see if the new ponies were over here! I feel new ponies. I just can’t FIND THEM!” With this she bugged her eyes out a few inches, causing Spike to shudder slightly. If there was a new pony in town, that meant Pinkie Pie was going to throw them a “welcome to Ponyville” party, and nothing in Equestria would stop her. -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- Arthur found himself slightly hanging face-down, with his upper half stuck in some sort of bush. A branch was sticking into his nose painfully, and as he brushed it aside, he noticed something quite odd. “My...arm?” The offending appendage stuck out in front of him, thick and devoid of any familiar digits. His hand had turned into a hoof! “Wart? Wart where are you?” from beyond the foliage, Arthur heard the familiar voice of the wizard Merlin. “I’m over here, I’m stuck in a bush!” Walking over to Arthur, Merlin chuckled at the youngsters antics as he struggled to get himself free, his newly formed back legs flailing freely. “Er, aheh, gimmie a minute lad, just have to remember how to...AHA!” Arthur found himself yanked upwards, suspended in midair and surrounded by a field of yellow tinged sparkles. Standing before him, Arthur beheld a most odd sight indeed. An old, weathered pony with an ash grey coat, and a spiraled horn sticking from its brow! Arthur started, momentarily confused. He had been privy to a front row seat when the mad mad mad Madam Mim had challenged Merlin to a wizard duel, and the plethora of animal forms Merlin had taken to defeat her. And he had only seen one other transformation of his hold any kind of beard, that of a goat. But even that was subdued, the tuft of hair not even halfway down his chest. But this...His beard was a match to that of its true form, long and silken, its length carrying it down and pooling upon the ground. “Merlin?” Arthur was pretty sure it was the venerable old wizard, but it never hurt to be completely sure. Especially how, now that he looked closer, Merlin appeared to be standing upside down on the ceiling...of the forest...Oh. Arthur was upside down, his forelegs dangling out “above” his head. “Er...can you put me down?” As he was lowered to the ground, Arthur took stock of his new form. He was a horse...or as close to a horse as a childs drawing could get. His coat was a sharp color of brown, and his hair was far more like his own than any horses mane he had ever seen. The swords sling had changed once more, now draping almost completely horizontal across his left side, but still accessible and out of the way. His tail was akin to his normal hair, but long and flowing, almost the length of one of his new legs. A noise sounded from out of the brush, and as Merlin and Arthur turned to meet this new surprise... -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- "A gigantic explosion! Boom boom BOOM! Everypony fleeing in terror, the mighty Dragon...er...uh..." Pinkie Pie stammered for a couple seconds trying to find a way to tie the tale she had been weaving together. "He was blown back by the brave and powerful unicorn, and with a last parting word , Bet you don't think THATS too hot!, the dragon flew away, cursing the day he had ever thought to steal the villages water! The end!" She ended by biting into another cupcake, of which she had already eaten 5. "Oh, but that doesn't sound like something a dragon would do," This was uttered meekly by a yellow pegasus, her pink mane drooping over her eye, shading it from the sun. "Its a STORY, Fluttershy, 'aint meant to be true, just meant to be entertainin', an I dare say it was, if my vote is anything for it!" This was drawled by an orange coated earth pony mare, a stetson perched upon her sandy colored mane. With this said. she joined Pinkie Pie in chowing down on assorted "eats". "A shame SOMEPONY missed the start, isn't it?" This was directed from a pure white unicorn with a stylized purple mane, towards a brusque cyan shaded pegasus, with a technicolor rainbow of a mane. "I wouldn't have missed the start if SOMPONY," With this, she glared at the unicorn, anger on the tips of her words, "hadn't made me MISS it to fly all the way back to Ponyville just to get a PILLOW." She gestured towards the object in question, a rather large pillow with a case of silk. "It is a lounge pillow, thank you very much, and if you think I'm going to get a crick in my neck when such a thing could be easily avoided, well,"she harrumphed, "you have got another thing coming missy!" This said, she recline back into said pillow, and whipping out the mirrored board that had lain beside her on the grass, commenced sunning herself. "Well," Twilight started, having just finished a small glass of juice,"This has been really great-" "AWWWWW" cried out Spike, knowing where this line of topic was heading. An evening of re-shelving books. And he had been having such a relaxing time so far. "I'm sorry Spike, but you know as well as I do, the way we currently have our system organized is simply inefficient, plus you knew this was coming, We've been saying we'll do it for over a week now!" "YOU'VE been saying that for the last week, as I recall, I've been saying its fine as is for the last week." He had of course been AVOIDING it, but he knew as well as any of their friends that it was inevitable for Twilight, and that the sooner he got it done, the sooner he could collapse into his little bed and sleep the disappointing end of the day away. GWAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! They all turned towards the forest, the echoing cries of a Hydra still heavy in the air. "Oh my.......does that sound.......close, to you?" Rarity asked, peering over her manifold. If she had to move after getting properly situated....... well that would be THE ..... WORST ..... POSSIBLE .....THI- "GANGWAAAAAAAY!" Out of the forest practically flew three ponies, an old codger followed closely by a filly and a colt. That's when the giant Hydra, one of its heads bleeding from a long gash in its cheek, came rumbling close behind them out of the forest, throwing broken tree trunks in its wake.