I could feel myself getting conscious again, as my dulled senses seemed to slowly restore. From the talking in the background and the fact that I was still lying on the floor I concluded that only a few minutes must have passed, max. A good thing considering they wouldn’t have found out about this new form yet as they seemed to animatedly chatter about some kind of jewelry and how the rainbow annoyances snout seems to have reformed itself.
Well, it only means I can break it again once I got into a better position.
Anyway, it seemed like an eternity before I could groggily open my eyes, my head pounding with a rather vicious headache while the rest of my body still seemed to burn. A feeling of helplessness made itself known as I could barely move any of my muscles. With force I tried to open my eyes, blinking slowly. The voices that reached my ears were still slightly muffled. My eyes needed a moment to adjust themselves, but as they did I was greeted with a pair of soft cyan eyes.
Out of reflex I tried to get into an offensive stance, but winced slightly as my sore muscles reminded me of my rather poor condition.
I heard a soft shooing noise as suddenly a pair of soft hands engulfed me, as this being pressed me softly into her warm chest…
Something was terribly wrong. This pony, I recognized her from the group. She was smaller than me, but now seemed so huge for some mysterious reason…
I shook my head. This wasn’t important right now! I need to see if Princess Nightmare Moon is alright! I could never forgive me if something happened to her. Not again!
So I immediately struggled against the buttery-yellow confines that were trying to keep me confined.
The hold seemed to be stronger than I thought, but I eventually fought the yellow menace of and landed with a soft thud on my four…paws?
Rather shocked I looked down and around, inspecting every part of my body. I was completely engulfed in a silver coat. Instead of hands and feet, I now had paws, a completely unexpected turn of events. A snout replaced my usual graceful features. A sudden realization dawned on me.
I was a wolf puppy.
It is said that the Elements function in the most mysterious ways… even though I never would have guessed that they would regress me into such a helpless state. Personally I think it would be more accurate to say that they love to play a cruel joke on the ones who are on the receiving end of this orbital rainbow cannon. For example, Princess Nightmare Moon was banished in the very celestial body she embodies. The prankster and chaos entity Discord was cursed to a boring and dull life as a lawn ornament and I, the powerful lycanthrope…was turned into a harmless wolf puppy. It is kind of reminiscent of poison joke, really. It also makes me question how anyone could perceive this magical prank weapon as harmonious.
Before I could contemplate any further a soft voice reached my ears.
“Shhhh. You don’t have to be afraid, boy.”
Boy? Insolent ponies! But maybe I could take this to my advantage, as to have the element of surprise on my side.
So I slowly turned around to the six damnable ponies, trying to act as natural as possible. It might have been demeaning, but it was necessary. I had to gauge the situation and find out in what state the Princess was.
“Aww, he is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!” said the voice of the crazy pony as she suddenly appeared in front of me, making annoying baby noises all the while. And yes, she did really stretch that word out like that. But maybe that made her easier to fool too, so I didn’t mind…for the moment.
“Never mind that!” came the brash voice of the rainbow-maned anthro pony.
I still couldn’t comprehend how that could be a legitimate mane color, since it was even more ridiculous than the traditional ones, but this was not of my concern now. I had a few ponies to fool.
“There is that ugly monkey-thing Nightmare was dragging around?”
Twilight answered her not-all-too-bright compatriot.
“We don’t really know what he is, Rainbow. He wasn’t too keen on giving us ANY information after all. Not to mention that Celestia only always taught me that he was a demon, but never got into depth in which category he belonged. But I think I can help with your question to his whereabouts. Remember that we all saw that he was engulfed in the Element’s magic just like Nightmare Moon?”
The others nodded.
“After the Elements were done exactly two beings came out of the process, and since the little filly there has to be Nightmare Moon…”
And that I took as my cue. I quickly jumped on the yellow mares shoulder, this being possible as she was kneeling down and patting me, making her eep, as I used her as a launching pad to catapult me straight at the lead mare.
I whisked directly overhead her, as I snapped her crown in my jaws and landed on the ground, before making my escape to where I could see the frail form of the Princess lying. She was just starting to get up.
I dropped the crown in front of her, before bringing myself between her and the mares, preparing my speech, which only purpose was to gain me some time to formulate an escape plan.
For some incomprehensible reason no one ever thinks about stopping a villain that is monologuing, but I might use this oddity to my advantage as well.
Those easy to fool ponies!
“I applaud you to your conclu-“
I stopped for a moment as I noticed something…drastic. My voice sounded younger and… more squeakish… Like some wolf puppy on helium. Or that old-hag-turned-cat from Emperor’s New Groove.
How utterly degrading.
“Aww! That is even cuter! Does the wittle doggy want a tweat?” asked the annoying pink pony as she suddenly stood in front of me, holding a cupcake in her hand.
She was rather fast and took me by surprise. A sign that my senses seem to be still dulled, if I couldn’t even see a simple pony getting close to me in such a short time.
I snarled, holding my ground.
“Hold your tongue, or you are going to lose it!”
“Oh yeah! Come on here! I’m not afraid of you!” said the rainbow pony as she suddenly flew straight into my face, narrowing her eyes dangerously. Seems like this one was still angry over her broken snout.
But the moment was broken up by the cheerful voice of that bright pink mare.
“Silly! You don’t have to be so aggressive if you want some tongues!”
We both stared at her with cocked eyebrow before she reached into a mane to pull out…Cat’s Tongues. Huh. Didn’t realize they had this sweet here.
I could hear the rainbow annoyance groan, as she started to scold her friend who only shrugged as if not understanding why she was not satisfied with her truly ridiculous actions.
Well, the confusion she placed might be of use. With that I turned around to the little filly that was once the most feared being on Equus. It definitely hurt to see the Princess in such a weak and degrading state.
As I neared her, she looked at me with big questioning eyes, clearly having problems to grab the situation. As I came within reach I urgently whispered to her.
“Princess! You have to take the Element and get out of here quickly, while you still can! I will hold these ponies off!”
She looked at me before a look of recognition lit up in her eyes, telling me she just now recognized me in my rather…miniscule form. She furrowed her brow for a moment, before frowning, and then an unsure look entered her eyes, as she looked at the ponies that were currently standing behind me.
“Don’t let your mind be consumed by worries Princess. I doubt some puny little ponies will do me in. You have to put trust in me being able to find you after this is over.”
Her eyes started to glisten at my words.
“But-“
“Go,” I said before I turned around to charge at the ponies.
This will buy her some time to get away. Of course it would have been better if the Timberwolves hadn’t run off during the rainbow light show, but if push comes to shove, I can still take a few measly pony civilians. It is quite the fortune that the witch didn’t show u-
*CRACK*
And suddenly my world was pain.