A Cog in the Machine

by ManlyDerp

Chapter 7: To Be Heard, Day 4

Scrubscrubscrub…

The sound of dishes being scrubbed clean.

Brushbrushbrush…

The sound of dishes being dried.

…

The silence that hangs heavily over the three stowaways. Two cream colored unicorn stallions, one wearing a pair of black eyes and the other shaking madly. A young girl stands between them, her emerald scales shine in the artificial lighting.

The girl turns her head towards the shaking one. He cowers in fear. This causes the dragon to smile wickedly.

She then turns to the one who lacks a mustache, the one with the black eyes. It’s easy for him to fake it with his damaged face, but he too is fearful of the girl; fearful of the one who scared his brother so and who claimed to be a minion of Discord. “That becomes more and more plausible with each passing day,” he ponders.

Snap!

Time freezes as the three remain frozen in place.

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

A clock ticks away as our performance continues; its pace remaining steadfast and unchanging as we draw closer to a pivotal moment. An event is about to take place that will change the fate of many a creature; dragon, griffon, and pony alike. Cogwill has come far since she escaped… how far she will go remains to be seen.

But…

She is just one of the players on this stage. Hers is the tale we follow, but a single story can be told through the eyes of many.

So… let us turn back the clock once more, but only briefly, as we join our second participant in this grand play.

“Vinyl… I just… sigh. Thank you for looking after Nate tonight and thank you for the book… but I’m afraid I can’t be friends with somepony as flippant as you.”

...

F... f-flippant?! Did she just call me flippant?! B-but that’s the exact word Octy used right before she…

… No.

No! Oh please tell me this isn’t happening again!

“But… Cogy…” I croaked, my voice losing strength as I feared for the worse.

But Cogwill straightened herself up and fought back her tears in response. Oh no, she’s… she’s being serious!

Though she was shaking, her words were fierce. “Real friends do more than buck a few ponies in the face for you; they give you the benefit of the doubt at least. If you refuse to believe my story, i-if you refuse, -sniff-, t-to even so much as consider that ponies hurt me and that my pain was real, -sob-, t-then this is goodbye, Scratch.”

“No! Cogy, wait!”

Slam!

But she had already ran out the door, leaving me to myself and my thoughts.

“I’m… alone again.”

Snap!

The scene freezes as time stops once more. The DJ’s hoof remains outstretch in a desperate attempt to recall the runaway dragon.

The Great DJ Pon-3: party filly extraordinaire. One of Equestria’s most famous faces, one of her ‘national landmarks’ according to Music Weekly Magazine. Where ever she goes, she leads a crowd. Whenever she raises a hoof, it starts a riot. When she hits the stage, everypony listens.

Truly a gifted pony.

Truly a lonely pony.

This is her story as well, one of growing up and redemption. Her meeting with Cogwill will be the turning point of her life and, in time, their friendship will be the beginning of something far greater than themselves. They will both come to touch many lives in their own unique ways, together.

But for now, the young bond has been severed…

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

…

This… this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening again! I’m Vinyl Scratch, the most popular DJ in Equestria! I’m loved the world over and I have a legion of loyal fans! I can’t take one step outside my front door without somepony asking for my autograph!

...

But… now I have no real friends to my name…

… Again…

… For like the sixth time this month.

... Ugh! So pissed at myself!

I give myself a piece of my mind, uncaring if anypony hears me or not. “Well way to go, Scratchy! You finally meet a new girl who doesn’t instantly have a fangasm the moment you say hi and you…!”

I quickly slapped myself across the face with my eggshell white hoof, being careful not to mess up my signature shades.

I yelled at myself some more. “Come on, Vinyl, keep it together! Y-you didn’t cause this! Cogy is just… overreacting, that’s all! She’s just so caught up in making her little lie real and getting pity from everypony that she overplayed herself! Ha! You can do better than her, filly! I mean, if those were real scars then her fur would totally…”

I stopped my self-rant when something dawned on me.

“… Wait. Cogy… Cogy doesn’t have fur. She has scales… S-scars on scales would look different, wouldn’t they? Like… more shiny and dent-y… and like maybe… maybe a little plastic-y. Like… plastic scars for ponies…”

Silence filled the kitchen.

A revelation strikes me. “T-those scars might have been real, now that I think about it…”

And then the revelation strikes me hard. I took a step back as the pieces started falling into place, painting a very disturbing image.

“Oh my Celestia. She… she might have been telling the truth! A-and I… I…”

Another slap across the face from yours truly knocked that weaksauce off. Really glad I didn’t wear horseshoes today...

“Snap out of it, girl! Okay, so she might have been telling me the truth! Maybe! B-but that doesn’t excuse the fact that she yelled at me! I bucked those ponies in the face for her and her coltfriend, hooked her up with a book, and went down into that scary flank cellar without her knowing! I was so ready to stealth kill a freaking dragon for her, had my horn trained on it and glowing and everything! Cogy is just being ungrateful! Bah, I don’t want to think about this anymore! Screw Cogy, I don’t need her…”

…

Cogy’s words echoed in the resulting silence.

‘Real friends do more than buck a few ponies in the face for you…’

I cringed. “… No, conscience, not cool bro.”

‘… They give you the benefit of the doubt at least.’

“Shut up, conscience! I’m not listening! Blah blah blah blah!”

‘… I-if you refuse, -sniff-, to even so much as consider...’

I covered my ears in an attempt to block off what I knew was to come. “Shut up shut up shut up! Don’t take me back there! I don’t need to go back there!”

‘… t-then this is goodbye, Scratch.’

…

A new voice fills in the blank.

‘This is goodbye, Vinyl. I’m sorry, but I can no longer be friends with somepony as flippant as you.’

Lifting my head, I yelled at the phantom. “Octy! Don’t leave me! D-don’t go… Cogy…”

I’m… still talking to myself…

I groaned, however my lips produced a sad grin. “Those two girls… so amazingly similar, like they share the same soul or something… Heh, they even left me the same way."

Thinking back to this afternoon, I remembered what I had told Cogy when we first really met, when I told her she reminded me of Octy. “Hehe, ‘if only she didn’t have that gig in Flillydelphia’, I said... I forgot to add ‘and also if she didn’t hate my guts’...”

This… is totally uncool. I’m the registered party filly of this ship! I’m not supposed to cry or be making somedragon cry!

… But I did just that. I made her leave me like I made my BPFF, Octy, leave me.

Why… why do I keep chasing off my friends? I’ve blamed Octy for so long, thinking that it was her own fault for ending our friendship…

… Yet, here I meet another girl just like her. I find her bored out of her mind in a ballroom like I did with Octy, she speaks politely, civilized, yet slightly snarky like Octy, her mane flows freely like Octy’s, and she laughs and blushes like Octy does whenever I’m just being myself! Perfect friend material, I thought!

… And now she hates me just like Octy hates me.

I did so much for her tonight, yet I was so wrapped up in being full of myself that I wasn’t there when she actually needed me; when she needed a shoulder to cry on, not a fake’s.

And I wasn’t there for Octy when she needed me the most, when she needed somepony to stand by her side and help her not lose hope during what she considered the darkest point in her career.

… And I simply ignored her…

I ignored them both like I did with everypony else who I called my ‘friend’.

I…

I guess I just wasn’t meant to be a good friend…

…

No.

No, I’m… going to put an end to that. I’m going to put an end to this right now. No more Ms. Jerky Pon-3!

I stood up tall and waved my balled up hoof epically in the air. “Cogy, we only just met. Our friendship was young and therefore easily breakable. Logically it shouldn’t be easily repairable as well, but screw logic! Even if it kills me, I’m going to do just that! No more ‘the next one will be different’ excuses!”

Readjusting my shades, I turned towards the door. “I’m not going to loss anypony else. As Celestia is my awesome witness; I’m going to be yours and Octy’s friend again, Cogy, and stay your friend this time. No more lonely nights, no more crying faces, and no more talking to myself. This… I promise!”

A perfect epic life changing vow from a perfe-,er, well awesomely epic mare. With that I galloped out of the kitchen and into the hallways.

I’ve got a friendship to save and a life to finally turn around.

Snap!

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

I…

I don’t even know what to say.

It's day two of the S.S. Luna Returner’s maiden voyage and I’m still running errands for the ship’s crew along with Nate and, disappointingly, Flim and Flam as well. Thankfully, Nate and I have Blue and Red’s friendship protecting us from them both. After seeing for themselves how unbearable these guys are, the two of them vowed to do their all to make sure us ‘kids’ weren’t in any danger while on this ship. Blue has been doing her best to keep me on the opposite side of the ship as those two, and Red has promised me that if they so much as look at Nate funny he’s going to ‘accidentally’ burn off their tails, manes, and fur… in that order.

So besides the harsh break up with Vinyl Scratch (who I’ve thankfully not seen today), things were going well for me for once…

… That is, until I got this room service request for a Mr. Factory. Odd name for a pony, and he had an even odder request. He wanted liquid rainbow to drink.

Da huh?

Well, okay, whatever I thought. Weird named pony has weird tastes. Big deal…

... But then I got to his room and read his name plate. I’ve made it a habit to read these now after the pleasant surprise I got last night with Rarity. This guy, however… well his name plate made me very, very scared. It was a bone chilling fear that coursed through my very soul and it was far worse than anything the Flim Flam bastards could have ever of hoped to conjure in me.

Here’s how it goes. Mr. Factory is the head of the Cloudsdale Rainbow Factory. Makes sense I suppose, I mean, the Cake’s own a bakery and the Apples run farms; factory owning just runs in this guy’s family, I figured. Nothing wrong there… but then there’s the little title he wrote for himself on the door.

‘Keeper of the Secret Ingredient’

Shudder

Even then, that’s not the worst part. The worst part is his last name…

… Dash.

Mr. Factory Dash…

Um.

Er…

L-last’s names have no real meaning here, right? There’s no way these two are related… right?

‘… In the rainbow factory, where the fears and horrors come true~’

…

I decided to leave the drink at the door, knock with my claw, and run for my life.

Awwww that’s better. Flying helps you take your mind off the stupid things in life.

I kept up the mantra that Blue taught me yesterday in my head as I flew along the imaginary track. ‘Monkey, tree, soldier, monkey, tree, soldier…’

Blue herself was shouting words of encouragement as she flew alongside me. “That’s it, sweetheart! Keep those wings steady; keep up your pace, a little higher… a little lower, tilt you head forward… aaaannnnddd now!”

That was my signal to take off. I stopped holding back and allowed myself to hit top speeds. This let me easily over take Mrs. Blue who, despite going top speed herself, couldn’t keep up. Wasn’t quite Rainbow Dash speeds, but it had to be close to 10 wingpower, at least. This felt amazing! The wind whipping through my hair, the sense of boundless freedom, the speed…

Oh God, the speed.

All to die for.

Sure, I’ve felt all these before during the few instances where I glided, but nothing beats feeling like you’re in control of it all, feeling like you have actual power. That seems to be something I’ve been lacking in my life these days… no not power. I’m a freaking fire breathing dragon who can grow massi-… j-just a fire breathing dragon. If that doesn’t qualify as being ‘powerful’ then I don’t know what does. No, what I’ve been missing in my life is control. I’m very grateful to have some control over my actions now and that I have a choice in what happens to me… even if it is still limited. I’ve so missed the feeling of being in charge of my own destiny and I’m enjoying being in full control of my wings now…

… That is, until I lost control on a tight turn and almost wiped out. I really wish there was some automation when it comes to soaring. A quick midair loop-d-loop righted me out just in time and I avoided another cartoonish imprint in the painted moon.

Clapclapclapclap!

Mrs. Blue landed on one of the many clouds here in the ‘Crow’s Nest’ and applauded me. She was beaming. “Wow! You sure got it down, dear! Only the second lesson and you’re already flying splendidly! If we can sneak one last lesson in tomorrow, we could turn you into a magnificent racer yet!”

Blushing in midair, I slowly fluttered down next to her. I quickly felt up my ponytail and my bow with my claws. Both were still in place, despite the abuse I had just put them through. They must have been enchanted, or the likes, to stay on during flight. Maybe they were intended as gifts for Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash? Nah; I don’t think green emeralds would look good on either of them… or on a red bow, for that matter. Color-coding is weird here...

My face was still quite red when I landed. I didn’t think I was that good after all. “T-thank you very much, Mrs. Blue… for everything. I… I guess flying comes more naturally to me when I’m trying to focus my mind on other thin-”

Before I could finish, Blue quickly wrapped me in a tight hug. “Now, dear, stay strong. We’ll be docking tomorrow night in Prance. Princess Luna will be arriving there via royal guard chariot as well, so all the ponies will be too busy trying to get her attention to notice two kids sneaking off. You’ll make it through this, I know you will.”

“I hope you’re not giving the dragon ideas, Mrs. Blue.”

We both jumped as Captain Grey suddenly made himself known to us. He was standing on a cloud and glaring. Mrs. Blue started sweating while I glared right back at him. While moving to the whim of what I assume was either draconic or greed filled instinct, I allowed steam to exit my nostrils and my wings to flare up in a bid to appear more intimidating. I don’t think the wing flare thing works real well on pegasi but I did it anyways, even got on all fours to improve the effectiveness.

Grey repeated himself. “I hope you’re not giving her any ideas, Mrs. Blue. Once we dock, the griffon child will be brought to the authorities so that he can get sorted out, and the dragon here will be returned to her legal guardians.”

Growling at him, I spat out a retort. “Let me guess; by ‘legal guardians’ you mean those two flankholes and not the one who actually called me family, Iron Will, right sir?”

Iron Will had the freaking balls to adopt a potentially dangerous, fire breathing, baby dragon only ten minutes after meeting her. I think that’s reason enough to defend him and call him my… father, brother, uncle? I’ll need to ask him next time I see him… unless he was faking the whole family thing. Not sure what he would have gained in doing so but… meh, can’t think about that at the moment. I have to deal with the captain for now.

I continued my assault. “Hell, sir, I’ll even take Emeraldgrey over those two!”

The bastard captain went and stroked his damn beard again. Note to self: burn it later. “Mr. Apple Flim and Mr. Apple Flam have legal custody of you, whelp. They apparently hatched you from what I've heard? By the Older Order of Unicorns, this marks you as their property.”

Blue spoke up. “I highly doubt, sir, that Celestia would enforce that law if she saw how poorly those two treated her. One look at her wrists and she-”

Grey shot Blue a warning stare, causing her to resume being quiet. I began hissing, allowing my forked tongue to stick out of my mouth while he continued. “Mrs. Blue, it is not your place to say what is to be done with the dragon, and I have already told you that the girl is not here for play. Get back to work, both of you, before I put you on latrine duty for the entire ship.”

I flipped him the bird as he left the ‘Crow’s Nest’ through the exit cloud. Always pleasant talking to that one, it is. I think I can wager a guess as to why he had me meet Emeraldgrey yesterday, it was a warning to not mess with him while on his ship. If it was done so that I might fear him, then I’m sorry to disappoint. I also learned that Blue and Red had no clue that he was even down there! It’s apparently a secret kept by the cooks and the captain’s top men! How can that be allowed?! There are children on this ship being put in danger! I have a feeling that I might have something to share with Luna if I so happen to bump into her tomorrow…

Sighing, I returned to Mrs. Blue. “I’m sorry you got yelled at, Blue.”

Blue waved me off. “Oh he yells at everypony, dear. No reason getting worked up over it now.

“So, like I was saying.” She resumed, somewhat casually. “All the ponies will be too busy trying to get Princess Luna’s attention to notice two kids sneaking off…” She suddenly grinned. “Or, a pegasus and a unicorn sneaking off with two kids in their luggage.”

I gasped, completely surprised by the out of nowhere suggestion. “W-what are you saying, Mrs. Blue?”

Her wings began fluttering as she jumped up and hovered in the air. “What I’m saying, dear, and please excuse the language, is that I’m sick and tired of Captain Grey’s horsecrap! Red and I have been working under him for two years now, on different ships, and both years have been miserable! Red’s been talking about quitting for awhile now...” Blue smacked her chest a couple times with a hoof. “And I’ve decided to quit as well!”

This… this is too good to be true. “B-but what about your job, Mrs. Blue? What about your kids in Cloudsdale?”

She kept up her motherly smile. “Oh don’t you fret about me, dear. I’ll be heading back to Equestria first chance I get and picking up a new job, preferably one closer to home this time. Red’s going to stay in Prance though, something about becoming a cook or the likes… Between you and me, his sandwiches are good, but he still has a long way to go before he should try anything harder!”

I snickered with her. Personally, I thought those sandwiches were the food of the gods! Although I never had grilled cheese before, so I might be a bit biased...

Blue continued. “So, yes dear; forget the adult dragon under our hooves, the way Grey treated you last night was the final straw for the both of us. Yelling at lazy ponies is one thing, but to do that to a little girl like you?! I don’t care if you’re a pony, dragon, or diamond dog, sweetheart, that’s just monstrous!”

I stopped smiling at the ‘monstrous’ remark. I did my best not to show it… but that word hurts me now… a lot.

I’ve kept the growth and flame a secret from everypony so far, as I still don’t know what to think about them. On the one claw, it could turn out to be my new ‘hidden blade’ as I go on this adventure with Nate. The moment somepony tries to touch him, bam! Suddenly they have Godzilla breathing down their necks.

But… I don’t want Nate to see me like that… like a monster. I might hurt him while not in my right mind. I might kill him without realizing it…

I think I’ll just rely on my normal fire, my claws, and my new ability to fly to protect what’s mine for now on… I-I mean my friends! To protect my friends!

… Right?

“So, what do you say, dear?” Blue asked.

I replied by hugging her tightly, both as a show of thanks and to assure myself that I see Blue as the wonderful pony she is, not a thing.

“T-thank you Mrs. Blue! I can never thank you enough for how much you’ve gone out of your way for a complete stranger like me.”

Blue tilted her head and included it in the hug. “Oh you’re no stranger to me, dear. You’re Cog the Baby Dragon and that’s all I need. Like I said, sweetheart, you have a friend in Red and me. Just make sure you write every now and then once we do split up. Heh, shouldn’t be a problem with that breath of yours! Oh, we should probably head back now though... any longer and old Grey Horse might actually follow through with that latrine threat.”

Ah the kindness and generosity of ponies. I had long ago given up hope for finding these elusive beasts while in their realm. I hope I get to meet more ponies like her during the rest of my stay. Nodding to her in acknowledgment, we fluttered back down into the main ballroom. I picked up a broom as soon as we landed and started singing to myself again as I swept. We had our work cut out for us; we needed to get this place set up again for another buff-

Twinkletwinkletwink-

“Tears are gon-~… H-huh?”

I turned my head and the noise vanished. Weird... sounded like a unicorn’s horn glowing, but we should be the only ones here… Are the brothers s-spying on me?!

My question was answered by a cook walking out of the kitchen with a tray in his grey magic grip. Phew, it was nothing, apparently. Guess I’m still a bit twitchy when it comes to unicorn magic. Every time I hear it, I get the sinking feeling that I’m about to get zapped... I hope that feeling disappears in time…

Tick... tock... tick... tock...

With that, the baby dragon and the pegasus resumed their chores; unaware that from the shadows, they were being watched.

Tick... tock... tick... tock...

The DJ watched the dragon closely, keeping track of everything she did. One action in particular caused her to giggle as a plan began hatching within her mind. The events of yesterday lingered in the pony’s mind as well, reminding her of her self-imposed mission.

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

Ugh! Where is this girl?! I’ve been lucky so far in spotting her today, so why can’t I find her when I need to?! With about a thousand different rooms on this ship, it’s going to be impossible to find her unless I can find…

Ah! Speak of the griffon-y devil.

I called out to him. “Natedog, my griff’! How are you doing, ya little stallion?”

The yellow griffon kid with the weird birthmark turned his head while running and tripped over himself, sending him tumbling to the ground. Kid’s kinda klutzy, I’ve noticed. I trot over and give him a helping hoof.

He replies nervously, as he always does. “T-thank you, Ms. Scratch.”

Giving him a hardy smile, I set him standing up right with my magic. “No prob, dude!”

Finally, somepony, griffon, whatever to talk to. I don’t like being by myself. It makes me all introspective and junk.

… Which I actually think I need to do more of. I probably could have avoided this whole mess in the first place if I had thought about these things more.

Speaking of… “Hey, have you seen your fillyfriend around here recently? I’m trying to find her.”

Nate blushes at the ‘fillyfriend’ comment, as he also always does. Kid denied it the first time while in front of Cogy, but he never tries to defend himself when it’s just the two of us! Ha! Oh when will that girl stop being so oblivious?

The kid looks like he’s about to fly the coop… Ah! Vinyl! You promised yourself no bird jokes! “S-she’s going to go speak with the captain, Ms. Scratch.” He replied while shaking. “The two ponies that hurt her somehow made it onboard! She told me to go hide before she ran off in that direction…”

He pointed what I think is called his ‘index’ claw down a hallway. Man claws are awesome! Oh the sweet beats I could make with a pair of those babies on the turntables…

... No! Concentrate, Vinyl! Kid just told you something important. So important, in fact, that he’s starting to shake more than usual.

“I-I-I have to b-b-be strong and try to help her s-somehow!” Gripping himself by the shoulders, he tried to calm down. “I… I just don’t want to h-hear her scream again…”

That… sounds ominous.

“S-scream? What… what exactly happened to her, Nate?”

Kid’s face went somber at the question. I don’t think I’m going to like what I’m about to hear… heck, I didn’t like what I did hear! That’s why I didn’t think it was real at first!

“These… these two unicorns kidnapped her from her adopted family and chained her up to the inside of a traveling cider machine. They w-would shock her with magic so she would breathe fire for them and yell at her when she tried to talk. She was fed o-off... -Sniff-, o-off of rusted bolts, screws, and p-pieces of broken glass. W-when I found her she was missing a lot of scales a-and I could see her ribs and there was filth everywhere and… and…-Sniff-"

Nope nope; don’t want to see anymore waterworks today, thank you very much! Looks like it’s time to pull out what I consider to be the ultimate weapon in a party filly’s arsenal: the ursabear hug.

I gripped him in a full on hug while being careful of his bandaged wing. “Hey hey! Take it easy, kid.”

He tried to push me aside. “B-but I can’t! If those two are here t-than they might take her away again! S-she’s done so much...-Sniff-, f-for me; she saved me from bullies, swore to help me despite me lying to her, and she called me her best friend! I… I…”

Initiating ursabear hug level two. “Nate… Cogy doesn’t know how lucky she is to have a colt like you by her side.”

“T-t-thank y-y-y…”

I ruffled the feathers on his head. “Okay, that’s enough, kid, you can relax now. You’re obviously waaaayyyy too out of it to be of any help to anypony tonight. You just leave this to Auntie Pon-3!”

As soon as I let go, he griped his little chest and finally started breathing again. Poor kid must have been run ragged today and this little incident isn’t helping any. For something to scare a griffon kid so badly… m-maybe evil ponies are a thing?

I mean yeah sure I may have accidentally burned down a hospital, but it was apparently in self-defense according to my hazy memories! I’m not even quite sure how one gets all the way to Canterlot from Manehatten in less than three hours, but somehow that happened to! Obviously I was set up. So sue me… again.

In my awesome little world, the only real evil ponies were Nightmare Moon and maybe Prince Blueblood. Even then, Moony wasn’t evil! She was just misunderstood… at least, that’s what I’ve believed since I was a little filly. I mean, just look at the night sky! How can something that constantly amazing be made by a villain?

Oh, and Blue-ys not evil either! He’s just a major flankhole… and possibly mentally unsound… and possibly raised by timberwolfs… and possibly the spawn of Discord himself.

Regardless, I can’t really picture a truly cackling-madly-demonic-morally-screwed-up evil pony! An evil diamond dog? Not hard to believe. An evil dragon? Sorry Cogy, but those two words go hoof and hoof sometimes. An evil griffon? According to the Daring Do books, they're all evil!

-Gulp-, guess I’m about to find out whose right. Me... or her.

“W-which way did she run off to again, Nate?”

“You d-don’t have to do this, Scratch.”

I ruffled his head feathers even harder, almost knocking off those weird purple feathers in his glasses. “Nate, you should listen to your friends more. Cogy wanted you to go hide, so you should listen to her and wait for her to return. If those guys are the flankholes you say they are, then she’s going to need a shoulder to cry on when she gets back. I, on the other hoof, need to start listening to my friends. I can do that by being there for her starting right now!”

“Ms. Scratch… w-why…?”

I brushed him off with a hoof. “Hard to explain, just know that even though she doesn’t like me right now, I need to do this for her and that’s that.” I pointed my hoof in the direction I think he pointed earlier. “You said this way, right?”

“Y-yes, but she left before I could tell her that the captain was waiting for her in kitchen #2. W-why doesn’t she lik-”

Cutting him off before he could ask, I galloped away. “Alright, thanks! I’ve got to start galloping, Natedog! You go wait for Cogy for me!”

Kid yelled out a quick ‘t-thank you!’ as I raced away. I need to get to the kitchen asap and see what the hay is going on here.

Just one question…

… Where the hay is kitchen #2 anyways?

-Huff-… -huff-… -huff-… "I… I really need to lay off the hayfries!”

Oh what I wouldn’t give to have an earth pony's stamina right now.

I heard screaming. “… Slavery?! Emeraldgray is a criminal, he shouldn’t have tried to…”

Hey! That’s Cogy’s voice! Phew! I finally found her… and she’s yelling? What?

“What the hell did I do to deserve being strung up to a wall and electrocuted…”

Before I could round the corner and get a good look at who she was yelling at, there was a bright flash that illuminated the hallway and created a group of shadows on the wall in front of me. I could tell that one was Cogy (hard to miss that girl’s silhouette) and she appeared to have a pegasus in her grasp. I thought Nate said that they were unicorns? Hmmm…

“Over!” she screamed.

The shadow set appeared again, illustrating Cogy as she moved closer to the pegasus.

Her voice grew in strength. “And over!”

This time the shadows stayed for longer and I could now make out individual features. I think Cogy is breathing fire or something and… so is the pegasus? No, that must be facial hair, like a beard or something...

“And over again!" What the hell did I do to deserve that, sir?!”

Wow. She sounded really pissed off while adding that ‘sir’ title, almost like she was spiting it out in disgust. Why would she call her torturers ‘sir’? No, wait… Nate said that they didn’t let her talk. Sooo, what? Is this some other pony she knows or something?

The other guy finally spoke. “… Dragon, I suggest you get your filthy claws off me if you don’t want to get tossed overboard.”

Oh.

I see now.

Old Grey Horse.

I poked my head around the corner just in time to see Cogy let go of the ‘good’ captain’s shirt. Yeah… I understand perfectly her desire to choke and set this guy on fire, because I share that desire!

Yours truly has had the great displeasure of sailing with this guy before, and every time I would dread it. He’s a control freak, sucks the fun out of everything, micromanages everything to death, is a control freak… oh wait, I already mentioned that. Well… he just doesn’t know how to have fun! End of story! Not evil, just Major Captain Flankhole the Third. I wonder what he did this time to get her to scream like that... I heard him say something about ‘tossing overboard’... maybe he’s on the unicorn’s side? Yikes. So not only does Cogy have to deal with those two, but Grey as well after meeting her rather uptight father... Girl is not having a good night, is she?

“What?!” Yelled Cogy.

Crap! I’m missing what’s going on! Ugh, they’ve stopped yelling and I can’t hear it now. Okay cutie mark! Do your groove thang!

I love this thing~ It represents my talent for music but more importantly, because I’m a unicorn, it represents the range of magic I can use confidently. Sounds my specialty and it’s just mindboggling the amount of spells that you can get out of that field!

Let’s do this.

I started muttering to myself. “Step one…”

Twinkletwinkletwinkle…

Great. I've got the horn ignited. Now, let’s silence it.

Twinkletwinkletw-

Ha! Good. Can’t have a noisy horn ruining… how did that one pony I bucked in the head today say it? We can’t have a noisy horn ruining… The magics! Ah! There we go. Now…

“Step two…” I added quietly.

Time to weave some spells, baby! Let me think, how did that one go? Something like nahdahnahwahcah… no no, that’s that stupid memory spell I can never get right. Maybe it was nahnahdahnahcahwah… yup! There we go! One eavesdropping spell coming right up!

Need to do some more silent twinkling to get the proper magic output going, aaaaannnnddd done! Now I’ve got the sound patched directly to my horn, allowing me to hear everything through my mind. I love this spell so much! I’ve abused it soooo often in the past that it’s not even funny!

“… Same as you. I’ll be expecting you to work with them tomorrow.” There’s the old captain’s voice.

“You… you’re a bastard, sir.” And there’s Cogy. Yeesh, bastard? Harsh, girl... though well earned.

“That’s captain to you, whelp.”

Flapflapflapflap…

With that last, lovely, remark the captain left through the opposite hallway to me. Nice, but I’m very confused now. What was Cogy yelling at him about? And where are these two unicorns who tortured her? Well she’s just standing there right now... maybe I should ask her?

But… will she want to talk to me again?

I wasn’t given the chance to answer that, as Cogy suddenly approached the kitchen door, peaked inside, and then walked through it. Wha? What’s in there?

Silently, I crept up to the entrance and peaked through the door as well.

Snap!

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

“No, no, no! Wear the pink one, Ms. Cog! The pink one!”

I sighed. “Yes ma’am. Right away, ma’am.”

This… is the most frustrating and humiliating thing I have ever done in my entire life. I’m the eldest of five brothers... Brothers! I have no experience in dealing with little girls, let alone spoiled little girls! Yet, that’s exactly what I’m being forced to do right now with surprise Ponyville cameo number two.

“Diamond, dear, don’t abuse the help. She’s the same age as you after all.” Remarked Filthy Rich.

Diamond Tiara continued pouting. “But she’s not wearing the right tiara, daddy! I want her to be perfect like me!”

Yes, Diamond Tiara is here as well on this boat. I guess if there was somepony you didn’t see in the Nightmare Night episode, it was because they were either out of town or on this stinking ship.

Sigh. This room service request should have been the easiest one given to me today. All it said was ‘Entertain my daughter while I write up a tax report’. I ignored the obvious BS of why somepony would be working during a vacation and instead focused on taking on what appeared to be a relatively lax and potentially fun request.

Then I reached the room, read the nameplate, and realized how wrong I was.

Without Silver Spoon by her side, Diamond doesn’t really know what to do with herself. She was awfully quiet when I entered the room earlier and kept looking at me curiously. I guess she just didn’t know what to make of me until Filthy told her that I was going to be playing with her for an hour or two. As soon as she discovered that she was getting a little dragon girl as her playmate, this room suddenly transformed into tea party central.

My masculinity slips away from me with each passing day. Let me set this straight for you, I was perfectly fine with having a bow in my hair and rocking a ponytail. Sure, both were girly accessories but they were also gifts from my favorite pony and made me feel more comfortable in my own scales, which was something I really needed to feel at the time. Nate even said he liked it! That was good enough for me to keep the look.

Diamond’s loaning of a play dress, tiara, and lipstick, however, was seriously pushing it. Why did she even bring a green play dress and ten multicolored tiaras on a trip anyways?! Is this what little girls bring on trips?! I wouldn’t know! My brothers would pack toy swords, toy guns, and knight helmets whenever they went somewhere, but that made sense because they were little boys.

That and they were also preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

Duh.

Returning to the present, I did my best to try not to seem like I was dying inside to the little filly. “More tea, ma’am?”

She coughed. “Ahem.”

I sighed again. “More tea, Lady Tiara?”

Diamond pouted again. “I’m still drinking my first cup, Ms. Cog! See?”

She pointed a hoof at the empty tea cup that was filled with imaginary tea.

“Ah, I see. Truly sorry, milady.” I replied as politely as I could muster.

She pounded her hooves on the table. “No, no, no! Only boys get to say ‘milady’! Don’t they teach you anything in dragon school?”

I blinked. “I was unaware there was such a thing.”

She blinked as well. “I… I actually don’t know if there is. Daddy~? Is there such a thing as dragon school?”

“Hm? Oh... yeah. Sure, dear.” Replied Filthy, not taking his eyes away from whatever it was he was reading. Best father ever!

“Ah! Well there you have it blank flan-, er, Ms. Cog.”

I had to remind her earlier that dragons don’t get cutie marks, so calling me a blank flank wouldn’t make sense. She kept slipping up every now and then though. My mind played a sick and twisted scenario each time; one where I waited until Filthy wasn’t looking, took Diamond by the head, and then whispered something along the lines of ‘I know enough not to piss off a dragon, bland flank’ into her ear.

Then I would burn everything and leave like a Faust.

Unfortunately, I don’t have it in me to scare this kid. Key Lime deserved the mental scaring I gave him, but Diamond is just lonely. I imagine that it’ll still be a few months before she’s the complete bitch she was in Family Appreciation Day and Ponyville Confidential, where she gets her somewhat lackluster commuffins. I might as well just let the universe/karma work itself out for now.

In the meantime, disappointingly…

I took the tea pot in my claws and ‘refilled’ the glass of the doll next to me. A Miss Smarty Pants doll. Why did she have one? Why was it here? I don’t know or really care anymore. Just go with the flow, man.

Knock knock!

Filthy Rich raised his head up from his (not) tax report. “Come in.”

I swore I heard a chorus of angels singing as Nate strutted into the room. He gave me a queer look as I worded to him ‘help me!’

“Is there something I can do for you, young man?” Asked Filthy.

“Um, yes…” Nate turned away from my horrid sight. I don’t blame him. “I was asked to pick up Cog here. There’s another room service order that specifically requested her aid.”

“Ah, I see. Diamond, dear, please say goodbye to your little friend. She has to go now.”

“B-but…”

“I’m sorry, but you have to share her with the rest of the ship, dear.”

Diamond looked genuinely sad. “Yes daddy.” She then… hugged me and gave me an equally genuine smile without the slightest hint of deceitfulness in her eyes?! “Thank you for playing with me, Ms. Cog! This was fun!”

Brain.exe has exploded twice again and the fire is raging throughout the land. Running on auto-pilot, I returned the hug. “It… was no problem at all, Lady Tiara. Um, p-please enjoy the rest of your vacation!”

With that I returned her dress and tiara, returned her friendly wave goodbye, and left with Nate. Huh. For once this world has gifted me with a pleasant curveball instead of the normal demented ones. Sure she might have been faking it, but then why didn’t she keep up that ‘act’ the entire time? I feel really guilty now; was she like that the whole time and I was too absorbed in who I thought she was that I didn’t notice it? I can’t really recall now… well in the end, I’m just glad I wasn’t a complete jerk/bitch to her.

Nate blushed as he walked with me. “S-sorry. Did you want to play a bit longer, Cog?”

“N-no, it’s alright, Nate. I, heh, had more than my fill of pretend tea for today. I’m not a normal little girl after all, as you’ve noticed.”

He muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t quite make out. “That’s what I like about you.”

“What was that, Nate?”

“N-nothing.”

Odd… but whatever. I haven’t had enough chances to talk to Nate lately, so I’m not going to blow this chance by pushing further. I was really starting to miss him…

“So…” I began to ask. “A room order specifically requested me? What’s up with that?”

He turned to look at me while we walked through the hallway. “Well, it requested the both of us, actually.”

I tilted my head. “Really? Did Red or Blue have anything to do with this?

“N-not that I know of. Red is busy in the kitchen…”

“And last I saw of Blue she was cleaning out the ship’s latrines.” I finished for him while looking down in shame. “I… I think that was her punishment for teaching me how to fly…”

“Y-you think it could be the brothers, Cog?”

I waved him off with a claw. “Nah. They’re still working on this ship, the same as us. They don’t have the power to order room servic-… well speak of the pony devil.”

A voice was laughing. “And I said, brother of mine, oatmeal?! Are you cra-”

The hallway went silent as we turned the corner and came face to face with the Flim Flam brothers. They stopped their conversation as well as they brought their attention to us. It was a good old fashioned stare down between the four of us, except Flam was shaking just as badly as Nate usually does. I guess he’s scared of me now.

I’m perfectly okay with this.

Great, the greed flame kicked in. It must be sensing that Nate might be in danger… or I’m sensing it or something. I'm still unsure how this thing actually works. At least my thoughts are still my own right now, and I actually agree with the flame for once. I'm perfectly okay with this.

While skimming over their forms with my eyes, I noticed that Flim was sporting one black eye. It’s probably from when he was forced to head-butt a sink. Again, good. That’s payback for giving me one back in Trottingham, flankhole.

The tension could be cut with a butter knife. Flim was glaring at me and Flam was trying to avoid looking at me. I flared my wings out and he shrank down into a little shaking ball. This brought me oh so much joy while pissing Flim off even more. Nate actually rose to his hind legs and cracked his knuckles. His face still showed that he was scared, but damn was that cool! Slowly, this kid seems to be starting to get over his fear of those bigger than him. I was worried for the longest time that I was being nothing but a bad influence on him, but I guess I’m doing the complete opposite of that and giving him confidence in himself. Good. No kid should have to live in fear of his own shadow.

After a full three minutes of staring at each other, Flim and I took the first steps forward at the same time, followed by Flam and Nate. We made it to the halfway point of the hallway before passing each other. After exchanging nasty looks, both of our groups went their separate ways and the conversations picked up again.

“You okay, Nate?” I asked.

Nate took a second to catch his breath. “Y-yeah. Better than the first time we ran into them back in Manehatten...”

“Hehe, but each time we bump into them you keep surprising me by being a complete flank kicker! The knuckle thing you just pulled off? Awesome~”

Aw, I’m glad I get to make this kid blush again. Two days without seeing it was starting to make me nervous! He’s cute when he’s all flustered.

“M-my father used to do that whenever somegriffon talked badly about him and it would usually shut him up. I was only imitating what he does…” Nate suddenly went quiet.

“… Nate? Are you still worried about your dad?”

“… I worry everyday, Cog. Everyday…”

I patted him on the back, making sure not to disturb the still healing wing. Hopefully he’ll be back up and gliding in a couple more days. “Don’t be, Nate. We’re going to make it to Prance, Red and Blue will help us escape the brothers and Grey Horse, and from there you can tell me what’s going on so that we can help you. Even if Red and Blue can’t help, I promised you that I would.”

He wiped away a tear. “T-thank you. Thank you so much for being there for me, Cog.”

“It’s what friends do, Nate. Hehe, how many more times do I need to say this before it starts clicking for you?”

“… I… I think I owe you the chance to tell me your full name, Cog, when we make it there. It’ll… it’ll be as a show of thanks for teaching me so much.”

I smiled. “I would love that, Nate. For now though, we should probably get this request done. Which room do we need to be in?”

“Oh, this one coming up here.”

“… Nate? Are you talking about the door with the very familiar looking earth pony in front of it?”

We were reunited with the green stallion earth pony who we had attempted to bribe a couple days ago. Crrrraaaapppp…

“Cog… is tha-” Nate started to ask.

“Yes Nate… yes it is.” I replied. “Hehe, um, h-hello, Mister…?”

The stallion only glared at us.

“… Er… spent those bits on anything ni-?”

“Shut up, girly, an’ git inside.” He spat.

-Gulp- “Y-yes sir.”

We entered into what most certainly wasn’t a normal room. This one looked like it was one of the staff rooms scattered throughout the ship, yet covered in music equipment and something that vaguely looked like a bed in the corner. There was enough room here for a large group of ponies to stand around and not bump into each other despite the mess. It was currently empty outside of Nate and I, a pair of familiar looking chests, and two ponies. One of which…

“Hello Cog.”

“… Hi Vinyl.”

DJ Pon-3 was leaning against the back wall while standing on her back legs. Her front hooves were crossed over each other and her glasses once again hid her emotions. For once, she wasn’t smiling… and I don’t blame her. Nate was aware that I wasn’t talking to Vinyl at the moment so he remained quiet. I’m sad that she’s no longer calling me Cogy, but I’m glad she didn’t call me Cogwill either and ruin Nate’s chance of becoming brave enough to ask me himself. I had to be careful not to give him my ‘father’s’ name as well yesterday during my retelling…

The other pony in the room was a light blue pegasus mare with a pink mane and five pink whistles as a cutie mark. Pegasus mare… nuts, this is probably about the dresses I accidentally burned. Oh please don’t let Rarity find out about this!

“… Do you think this is funny, dragon?” asked the mare.

Standing at attention, I did my best to remain oblivious and calm. “Do I find what funny, Miss…?”

The mare stomped her hoof. “Don’t pretend you don’t know me! I...” She flared her wings out and held her head high. “Am Wind Whistler; top singer in Equestria and the pony whose dresses you ruined!”

Wind Whistler? That sounds familiar but I can’t place my claw on it. I shrugged it off and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. “Yeah… sorry about that, Ms. Whistler. I may have burped and maaay have accidentally breathed fire while inside it. You see, this was during one of our early sneaking attempts an-”

“Why were you in it in the first place?!” She interrupted.

Lovely, she has no patience. This should be fun. I groaned. “… Like I was trying to say, it was during one of our early sneak attempts. We bribed the green guy you’ve got guarding the door to let us chill in one of them an-”

“You haven’t answered my question!” She interrupted… again.

My eye twitched as Nate actually snapped and yelled at her. Kid’s full of surprises today. “Ugh! Yes she did, Miss! We tried to sneak aboard…”

She stomped her hoof over and over again against the ground. “I understand that, you stupid kid! I want to know why she burned two of my chests?!”

Nate and I answered together. “Two?!”

Vinyl snickered before returning to her new ‘serious business’ attitude. Why do I have the sudden feeling that she has something to do with this… oh, that’s right, she’s already known for being an arsonist like Red.

Wind Whistler roared. “Yes two you twats! These dresses were made by some of the most famous ponies around the world and you ruined them! Now my collection is dented and I can’t salvage any of it and now I have nothing to wear for the show and… and! Ahhhhhhhhhhh…”

After that little tantrum, Whistler suddenly became mute. It looked like she was trying to yell some more, but nothing came out. Silently, she continued her fit by stomping the ground a bit more, bucking the air, and flapping her wings violently.

Scratch looked like she was holding back a giggle as she returned to all fours and approached the wild mare. She spoke to her in a lazy and droll manner. “Ah no Windy, it looks like you threw out your voice again. What have I told you about your tantrums, young lady? Now I need to do something else for my totally-against-my-will-and-forced show.”

Whistler looked as though she was trying to kill Vinyl with her stare before she stomped her hoofs one last time and exited the room. She shot me one last glare before slamming the door.

Vinyl laughed her off and returned to her normal peppy disposition. “Ah, Windy Windy Windy: so predictable!” She finally turned to us. “Yo! Room service! I’m in need of a singer! Any of you want to hit up the mic tonight?”

I looked away and Nate did as well while rubbing his arm with one of his claws.

The DJ made a buzzing sound and crossed her hooves into an X while somehow remaining standing. “Eh! Wrong answer! Sorry Cogy, but you need to pay off this damage somehow. It’s not like you can’t sing either!”

Wha? She’s calling me Cogy again? I guess that’s nice… but I’m still angry about her shrugging me off like that yesterday and calling my scars fake. I wanted to be her friend, but I’m in no mood for a passive friendship like she wanted. I really don’t have time to hangout or to play around with her while I have Nate’s more pressing matter to attend to.

It bothers me a little that Vinyl’s calling me Cogy again. It’s like she’s trying to sweep the whole incident from yesterday under the rug. Before I could ask her what right she had in being friendly with me again she started humming the tune I was singing earlier today.

“I dig my hole you build a wall… I dig my hole you build a wall… One day that wall is going to fall~! Pretty sick jingle you’ve got there, Cogy! You’ve got to teach me that one sometime, girl!” She smiled coyly at me.

Damn it, Bastion. Why did your soundtrack have to be so addictive?! I grumbled. “God, how much have you actually watched of me so far, Vinyl?”

Vinyl's face suddenly went all gloomy. “I… I’ve watched you the whole trip, Cogy… and seen quite a bit, actually…”

My eyes widened in shock as Nate raised an eyebrow at the statement. He turned to look at me. “What’s she talking about, Cog?”

Gulping, I tried to appear unfazed but I failed miserably. “T-that’s a good question… w-what do you mean by that, Vinyl?”

Scratch turned away. “N-nothing. Nothing at all…” She then took a deep breath before becoming cheerful again. “W-well enough diddle-daddling! I need to get you hooked up and ready to go for tonight’s concert, Cogy, and I know just the pony to help!”

Vinyl’s comment was still lingering in my mind. W-what did she mean by seeing ‘quite a bit’? Did… did she see me when I…-gulp-, oh please no... please don't tell me she saw my greed growth! That's prime blackmail material right there...

Before I could worry about it any further, I was lifted up to Vinyl’s back with her magic and taken out the door. Nate followed on foot, er, on claw and paw.

The DJ turned her head as she trotted. “Huh. This strangely feels cool, having somedragon on your back... I wonder why that is...?”

I know she’s only trying to be friendly to win me back, but I’m still too hurt to be won over by her act that easily. “Probably because in another dimension, ponies are nothing more than domesticated wild animals.”

She laughed. “Oh Cogy. You’re so random!”

“Hehe, right, random…”

As we trotted along, Vinyl kept talking to Nate over random junk that didn’t concern me. It was mostly stuff I already knew like where he’s from and what he was doing in Manehatten. Honestly, I think Vinyl was just doing all she could to avoid talking to me or avoid letting me push any further into her ‘seen quite a bit’ comment. Well, if she was really super pissed at me for breaking up with her she would have used that information on Nate already in order for him to hate me as much as she would have to hate me now. She doesn’t look like she hates me, though... although it’s hard to tell with her. She’s just, well, being Vinyl.

“Here we go!” She suddenly chirped. “Room 661. Here’s where I’ll drop you off for now, Cogy! I hope you don’t mind, but I need to borrow your coltfriend for a while to help set things up. Don’t worry, I won’t steal him from you, girl!”

“Nate is not…!”

But she was already gone, having taken Nate away from me again. Ugh. Let’s just get this over with. Room 661, right? That should be this one right in front of me, the one marked… R-rarity?! W-why am I here?!

The door suddenly swung open with the aid of icy blue magic.

“Come on in, darling~!” Rarity called.

I nervously stepped inside and the door closed behind me.

“It’s so nice to see you again, dear.”

“S-same.” I replied weakly. “A-are you feeling any better today, ma’am?”

She gave me a warm smile. “There’s still a little nausea, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Oh, and please call me Rarity... it’s what my friends call me anyways!”

Oh sweet lord of all that is holy, please tell me I’m not dreaming.

“F-friends? You consider me a friend? B-but this is only the second time we’ve met!”

She suppressed a giggle with her hoof. “And yet you kept the hairstyle and the bow I gave you in perfect condition. I’m actually quite surprised about the former; believe it or not but I have another little dragon friend back home and when I gave him a similar bow, he treated it like a snack only a couple hours later! So again, my little guest, simply keeping good care of my gifts to you is reason enough to call you a friend.”

And now the scales on my cheeks are officially red. Thanks Rarity, just... thanks.

“T-thank you Rarity. That means a lot to me to know that I have a good number of friends on this ship with me.”

“Think nothing of it… oh. Oh dear... I don’t believe I’ve ever received your name, darling.”

“It’s Cogwill.” I replied happily, returning her smile.

“Cogwill… what an interesting name. Well Ms. Cogwill, let’s get down to business, shall we?”

I blinked, realizing that I actually had no idea why I was brought to her. “Um, yes, lets… but could you tell me why I’m here, exactly?”

“Why, so you can look smashing for your concert tonight, of course! You’re singing on stage in the ballroom later, correct?”

“Er, well yes... b-but that was only now decided, like, fifteen minutes ago!”

Rarity titled her head. “Really? But Ms. Vinyl Scratch requested my aid a couple hours ago. I owe her a favor, after all, for playing music at my mock runway. Thankfully I brought enough of my materials to make something on such short notice! I had originally planned to show off my wares to the Canterlot ponies on this ship but, well, you can see how well that’s worked out for me, dear.”

I was still stuck on her earlier statement. “She… she asked for your help hours ago? But Wind Whistler only now lost her voice!” I was curious about it earlier, but now I know for sure that I’ve been set up. What is Vinyl planning…?

“Oh my… do you not want to sing then, dear?”

Blushing, I pressed my clawed fingers together shyly. “Well… I don’t have any gripes with it, I guess.”

She huffed a little. “Then I see no reason as to why you should object to it any longer! I’m sure you’ll do grand… unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll be able to leave this room long enough to see it myself.” She kicked up some dust with a hoof. “I'm truly sorry.”

Finding a chair, I sat down in it. “It’s okay, Rarity. It’s the thought that counts.”

“Oh, but why have the thought when you can do so much more, darling? I think that’s quite enough idle chatter now, Ms. Cogwill. Let’s get down to business and make you look marvelous~! Take off your little shirt, please!”

My smile dropped as I realized what this would entitle. I looked down at my sleeves... or, more specifically, at my wrists.

“… Cog? Are you okay, dear?” Rarity asked.

“I'm f-fine, Rarity, I just…”

I quickly asked myself if showing her my scars would be a good thing or not. She’s bound to notice them and I’m bound to say that two unicorns named Flim and Flam hurt me… but if I tell her that what will happen during apple cider season? Will the episode change because she’ll now have prior knowledge of them being slavers? Am I at risk of changing the future just by talking to my favorite pony?

Wait… I’ve already changed the future. I’m not a part of those bastards’ machine anymore. Unless they hatch another baby dragon (which I really hope they never do) they’re no longer heading to Ponyville. That episode might not even take place anymore and Applejack might not learn nothing about ‘anything’!

...

I made my choice.

“… Okay. I’ll take it off for you, Rarity.”

... Please don’t let this be a bad decision.

Rarity gasped as the uniform came off and my wrists were laid bare for the world to see.

“D-dear! What happened to your arms?!”

I looked down at them. I hate these things so much. J-just looking at them opens up a floodgate of emotions as it brings me back to that damnable room in that damnable machine with those d-damnable brothers and their damnable song and… and…

-Sniff-

Yes Spike, dragons do cry. In my case, they cry a lot.

“P-p-ponies hurt me, Miss… they..." -Sniff- "H-hurt me a lot. I’m… I’m so sorry you had to see t-these…" -Sniff- "These hideous things. I’ll j-just put the shirt back o-”

Glomp

... I must be very huggable.

First Iron Will, then Nate, a half one from Vinyl, Mrs. Blue, Mr. Red when I woke up this morning as sorry for sleeping early, and even Diamond Tiara... Now I can add Rarity to my ever growing ‘hugged by’ list.

“Now, that’s enough tears out of you, Ms. Cogwill. I refuse to see one more drop ruin that pretty face of yours.” She warmly smiled at me. “I thought I gave you the bow to stop all that nonsense, but I guess we’re going to need some heavy duty fashion to turn that frown upside down permanently!”

Being careful not to dirty her with my claws (she’d be tolerant of them, but I know she would appreciate me being watchful) I returned the hug. “T-thank you. Thank you Ms. Rarity. Heh, you seem to have a gift for cheering me up.” ‘Same as when you were just a fictional character.’ I added silently.

“Oh, think nothing of it, dear. A lady can always use a good shoulder to cry on when things get dark. Tell me all about your woes while I make you as pretty as can be.”

Getting down from my chair, I began retelling the tale I had told Nate; Trixie, Iron Will, and changelings in all. The future be damned, this is my world now.

Okay, let me break this down for you again.

Ponytail and Bow? Only slightly girly.

Dress, tiara, and lipstick? Very girly.

Long braided hair combined with my bow, a flowing pink dress with yellow flowers stitched into it, a pair of rubies hanging from my horns like earrings, flowery wristbands covering my scars, curled eyelashes, and about a bucket's full of glitter?

Fabulous~!

Rarity said as much. “Fabulous~! Oh, I’m so glad I was given this chance to work on a dragoness for once! You can only make so many tiny tuxedos before you run out of ideas and the whole process becomes dreary, you see. Well, what do you think?”

Nathan, the guy inside me and not the griffon, was absolutely pissed. If anyone I knew from Earth saw me right now there would be no way in hell that I could ever live this down, even if I lived for over the hundreds of dragon years I’ve been gifted with.

But, you know what? Screw Nathan (again me, not Nate)! I feel pretty! His argument is invalid.

“I-I love it, Rarity! Thank you so much!” I replied honestly.

“Oh I’m so glad, Ms. Cogwill! In all honesty, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to hold back my illness any lon-umbh! … Oh dear, I really should lay down now. You take care, dear, and have fun!”

I nodded to her. “I will, Rarity! Thank you for listening to me… and for not judging me.”

I had told her everything. With Trixie she said, “Humph! Seems like just the thing that showmare would do. She changed my mane green you know! Green! Oh I’m so very sorry she tricked you, dear…”

With Iron Will, “My! This minotaur sounds like a true gentlecolt! I do hope you get to see him again, darling.”

And, with my murdering of Legion she stopped her work and hugged me tightly once again. She didn’t even ask what a changeling was as we sat in silence. It was awhile before I heard her start sniffing back tears. Not wanting to see her cry, I lightened the mood by talking fondly about how Nate saved me. “He sounds like a wonderful friend, Cog.” She stated, to which I replied. “The best.”

About the brothers themselves, though…

“Ohhh! If I ever see those Flim Flam Cretans myself, dear, well... I can assure you that will not be graced by ‘nice’ Rarity! Slaver ponies? Abusing magic?! Tacky fashion sense and show tunes?! Unthinkable, unacceptable, and inexcusable!!”

And with that I’ve changed the future... for better or worst remains to be seen. I lifted my dress up slightly as I bowed to her politely and then lifted it up again over my feet as I exited the room. That was actually very fun. I wonder how those episodes are going to play out now…?

Not even given the time to think about it, I was suddenly lifted up with magic and dropped off on Vinyl’s back while she was in mid-gallop.

DJ Pon-3 sputtered out a quick greeting. “Hey Cogy! Looking good! No time to chat though! You're almost late for your grand entrance!”

I readjusted myself on her back and gripped her fur so I could stay on. “M-my entrance?! But I don’t even know what I’m singing yet!”

Vinyl laughed me off. “Oh don’t you fret! I’ve got everything under control!”

“Yeah… and that’s what worries me.” I deadpanned.

“Oh ha ha! Are you sure you’re not Octy’s long lost dragon sister or something? Seriously; word for word, girl!

"... Word for word…”

Scratch suddenly went silent as we continued to zoom through the hallways. She must have been thinking about something…

When we finally made it, I could clearly see a packed ballroom! Crap... this is who I have to sing to? I-I’m starting to get very nervous…

“Cog!”

Nate came running up to me, but stopped halfway when he got a better look at me.

His face was pure red. “W-whoa…”

I’m sure my face was doing the same thing. “Y-yeah. It’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

“I-its… its great, Cog. You look great!”

“T-thank-”

“Now kiss her.”

Oh for the love of “Damn it, Vinyl!”

Vinyl fell over laughing as she ruined our (totally just friendship) moment. Steam exited my nostrils and Nate buried his face in his claws and good wing.

Out of nowhere, Red came trotting up with a clipboard in his magic grip. “Hey Cog! Looking nice, girl! Ready for your debut?”

I gulped. “N-not really, Red.”

“Oh you’ll do fine!” He reassured me. “Blue’s out there, waiting on the audience, if that makes you feel any better, and I’m going to be watching it as well with Nate! We’ll be cheering you every step of the way!”

“B-but I don’t even know what I’m singing!” I argued.

Vinyl finally got back up on her hooves. “Oh don’t worry, Cogy. Just get into position and you’ll understand soon enough!”

With that she moved me magically onto the stage in front of a box and the still closed curtains.

-Gulp-... I guess this is it.

The white pony walked between the drape and received a few cheers and a tame applause. It was nowhere near as wild as the one she got in Manehatten.

She began the show. “Hello fillies and gentlecolts! Are you ready for some Wind Whistler?!”

Those enthusiastic in the audience shouted “Yes!”

“Well then it sucks to be you!” Replied Scratch cheekily.

I heard grumbling from the same audience.

This didn’t seem to bother Vinyl. “Sorry folks, but Windy blew out her voice… again. They’ll be no concert, but instead they’ll be something even better! Who’s up for a little karaoke?!”

The crowd started murmuring to themselves before they started a slow clap. I turned to look at the box next to me, which had a microphone resting on it. It started glowing with red magic as Red charged it. I picked up the mic just as words began appearing on the screen. Ookkkkaaayyy... they have magic karaoke machines but no telephones.... That makes sense in that it makes no sense.

Vinyl churned the crowd into a frenzy. “That’s right, folks! This is your night to shine above your snooty peers! Even better, we’re kicking this thing off with something incredibly awesome and unique! So, without further ado, please stomp your hooves for the premier showing of Equestria’s newest music star! Let’s hear it for Mic Mama Dr4g0n!”

Mic… what?!

Before I could object, the curtains opened and the spotlights shined on me. Murmurs started circulating in the audience as I started to sweat. Okay okay okay… calm down, Cog. You’ve sung in front of an audience before back when you were Nathan… and failed miserably. No no! That was in the past, don’t need to think about it anymore… so why can’t I stop sweating?!

All of a sudden, I heard a low whistle in the audience. I looked and saw that Mrs. Blue was waving at me with a plate in her wing. She motioned her head towards something behind me. I turned and saw Nate and Red smiling as well. One final turn and my eyes fell on Vinyl trotting up to her turntable set up. Her face was soft and her smile sincere as she started to lift up the needle. She waited for my command, something I was very grateful for.

After a full ten seconds, my sweating stopped and I nodded for her to begin. The music started playing… oh crap, I recognize this song! Oh please not that one! How do they even have that here?! The heavily modified lyrics started flashing on the screen… -gulp-... I guess I don't have a choice now.

I took one final breath…

Gripped the mic in my sweaty claw…

Flared out my wings…

Took a step forward…

... And kissed the last of my manhood goodbye.

“Equestria girls, we’re kinda magical~!”

“Equestria girls, we’re pony-fabulous~”

Damn~! The crowd is eating Cogy up! And she looks so happy doing something she loves… I’m glad I caught her singing when I did!

I'm also glad this plan went off without a hitch! I was a little worried about burning one of Windy’s chests and blaming it on Cogy… but then I discovered that she had already burned one! Ha! Sure, I discovered it beforehoof… but I felt that the other chest needed to be burned as well. Windy had it coming, that spoiled flank…

Oh, here comes the finale… and the crowd goes wild! Hehe! Oh boy, can this girl’s face turn any redder?! Again, ha!

As she bowed and took her leave of the stage, I motioned for one of my hired stallions to take over the turntable. Now that I’ve got her happy again, I need to apologize.

She was chatting with Nate, the kid is probably praising her. I waited for them to finish before I called out to her. “Great job, Cogy! Way to knock them dead!”

Her face was still bright red. “T-thanks Vinyl.”

“Did you have fun out there?”

The green dragoness slowly nodded her head 'yes'.

“Ha! That’s great! Can’t wait to see who else is going to hit up the mic tonight. I heard, that Fancypants actually sings hardcore gangster rap in his spare time!”

Cogy's eyes widened. “Really?!”

“I know, right?! Guess you can’t judge a book by its sparkly and well-mannered gold cover…”

“…”

“…”

We both remained quiet. I’m… not quite sure how to move this forward. Nate was looking back and forth between us and that Red guy had just left to help organize who would be singing when and what.

“… Vinyl?” Cogy finally asked.

“… Yes Cogy?”

“W-what did you mean earlier that you had seen… ‘quite a bit’?”

My smile fell faster than a drunken Wonderbolt (Spitfires crazy man!). Crap… I was hoping she wouldn’t ask about that. Really wish I didn’t let that slip earlier…

I sighed. Looks like I can’t avoid this. “Hey… Nate? Do you mind leaving us for a sec? We need to talk about… girly stuff… yeah.”

After giving Cog a quick glance, to which she nodded her head, he grudgingly agreed to leave. He left to help that Red guy with his work. Cogy crossed her arms as soon as he disappeared. I think she’s just trying to look strong and controlling, but I know she’s just as nervous as I am about this.

“W-well… what did you see, Scratch?”

Gulp. “I saw… everything, Cogy. Everything.”

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

Opening the door only a tiny crack with my silent magic, I placed my head against the frame and peeked inside.

Cogy was slowly tiptoeing up behind these two cream colored unicorns. Both were wearing their own clothes and hats instead of those official staff uniforms I see all the help wearing. Despite not wearing them, the two seemed to be cleaning up dishes… without their magic. Odd… maybe they're being punished?

I can pick up what the one with the sick ‘stache (as in it makes me sick just by looking at it) is saying. “Well we didn’t, Flim, so now we just have to put up with this humiliation for now. At least we can try to figure out where the dragon sleeps in the meantime.”

Flim? Okay, so the one on the left is Flim, and the mustached one must be his brother, Flam. These two are the ones who hurt Cogy, apparently. They don’t seem bad, but that comment about finding out where she sleeps is giving me bad vibes… I mean, yeah sure I tried to figure out where she slept myself on the first night by sneaking into rooms, but that was only because I had just met her and wanted to talk to her some more! So I potentially mentally scarred a few snooty ponies and their kids... big whoop.

Flim answered Flam. “Ah yes! Than all we need to do is secure a lifeboat and enough food and we can make it back to Equestria in time for the running of the leaves!”

Secure a lifeboat and get enough food? They want to return to Equestria… after finding out where Cogy sleeps… and before we make it to shore… okay, I'm getting major bad vibes now. The evil ponies thing is starting to seem realer and realer by the second.

Unexpectedly, I heard Cogy’s voice add to the conversation. “Yes, we can’t have a machine missing a cog or two, can we boys?”

What? Why is she talking to them? I thought she hated their guts! The Flim guy doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to her either. Everything’s calm in there for now… well good. I guess this means the whole torture thing really was just a li-

Sweet, Merciful, Celestia!

C-Cogy… Cogy just bashed Flim’s head into the sink! Daaammmnn! I did not think she could pull something like that off!

… Just another thing that makes her similar to Octy, it seems. Calm, polite, and possibly crying one moment, the next she pulls something like this off on somepony’s (mostly Blueblood’s) face! S-scary…

The one named Flam turned to fight Cogy, but he stopped as she lifted Flim up by his horn and placed her claw at his throat! D-damn! She’s not messing around! Girls not going to kill him… is she?

Flam’s horn stopped glowing. “Damn… dragon.”

Cogy readjusted her hold on Flim. “The name’s Cogwill now, not 'dragon'. You will address me as such for now on… well go on… say it.”

D-d-damn! Cogy’s scary! I used humor to try to calm myself. “A-a fierce showdown is taking place in the kitchen, folks! P-place your bets!”

Flam remained silent. “…”

“Aww, what’s the matter, Flam? Dragon got your brother’s throat?” Cogy snarled.

I… I think Cogy is just faking it though. Yeah… I can see it now... her legs are shaking wildly and she’s sweating a literal river. Her voice remains strong, but her body is breaking down on her. I think Flam sees this too.

“… I refuse to call you by that name, dragon.” he responded.

She pressed her claw against the skin a little harder. I think she drew blood. “And why not, Flam?”

Flam’s face was doing a perfect impression of ‘captain’ Grey’s usual stoneface-ness. “… We don’t speak to our seat cushions nor do we name our tubes. We don’t grow our apples and we don’t kiss our gramophone goodnight. Don’t think of yourself as any more important than any other piece of our machine, dragon. You are our battery and will never be anything more or less than that.”

...

I…

I can’t believe I just heard that.

T-that came from a pony’s mouth?!

B-b-but what about love and tolerance?! T-the fire of friendship that lives in our hearts? All of Celestia’s teachings and lessons that were grinded (sometimes literally in my case) into us as foals?! How… how can something so soul crushing and, and malicious come from another unicorn?!

It seems Cogy lost the last of her courage after that little heartfelt speech. “… You’re not worthy of my time either, you flankholes. Stay the hell away from me, o-or else.”

Poor Cogy… this is what she had to deal with? To be treated like a thing... I… I think I can see these two being as evil as she claims they are now. I know I sure as hell don’t want to hang with them, at least! I can’t even imagine what she must have had to put up with. Well, at least she stood up for herself, even if it looks like she didn’t get through to them.

... Oh no! She’s heading my way now. Better…

My horn picked up Flam talking again. “Don’t think you can hide behind talkers forever, dragon! When we find that griffon kid of yours…”

Talkers?! Did he seriously just drop the T word?! Noponies used that term for centuries! And… and did they just threaten Nate?! W-what the hell are they going to do-

Slam!

“Ah!” Whoa! That caused me to jump! Something just knocked the door I was peeking through wide open! Good thing I stepped to the side when I did or else I would have been smacked in the face! What the hell caused that?

The thing in the doorway looks like… something long and green… and scaly… with red spines, a-and it’s forked… T-this is Cogy’s tail! H-how…?

Being careful not to touch the thing, I peeked through the door again…

And did not like what I saw.

“What in the name wub is that?!” I shrieked, secretly enjoying the beast of pure metal that laid before me.

Cogy halted my retelling. “Vinyl, p-please stop.”

The ballroom was empty now as the show had ended a while ago. It was just me and Cogy talking now.

“But I haven’t got to th-” I started to say, but I stopped when I saw that she was crying. “Cogy…”

She tried to wipe away her tears. “T-t-that’s not me… that monster wasn’t me! P-p-please... -Sniff-... D-don’t tell a soul, Vinyl… please…”

Oh… oh wow! I can use this to be friends with her again! I didn’t even need to go through with my pla-

…

No… that would have been underhoofeded. I can’t base an entire friendship around keeping somedragon’s secret. It’s because of junk like that that most of my relationships crumble within the first month. No… what this girl needs right now is assurance that I’m not going to hurt her again.

I crossed my heart with a hoof, flapped my arms like wings, and then magically raised my shades sideways so I could place a hoof over my eye.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Your secret’s safe with me, girl!”

She blinked blankly at my odd ceremony. Yeah, that’s the usual response I get when I do that.

“Hehe, that was a super powerful promise thingy this other party filly taught me once. It’s called a ‘Pinkie Promise’, I think, and its super-duper intense, filly! Don’t you fret… I, I don’t want to hurt you again, Cogy.”

Cogy was just as surprised at my show of weakness as my Pinkie Promise. I sighed again and removed my glasses, showing off my purple irises. The few ponies who know me personally know that when the shades come off, it’s time to get serious. Oddly, Cogy looked a little disappointed when I took them off, almost like she was expecting something else. Weird.

I placed my shades on a nearby table. “Cogy… I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I know now that your weren’t lying. Your scars… are real. Your pain was real. And boy, were you right about evil ponies! If last night didn’t convince me that those two were evil, then that Flim guy hitting on me, like, an hour ago sure did!”

“He… he hit on you?!” Cogy asked, fairly surprised.

I puffed out my chest proudly. “Hehe, yup! Poor guy thought he stood a chance with the Pon-3! Even if he wasn’t rockin' a shiner, guy wouldn’t have lasted ten seconds with me! He has the manners of an Ursa Major! Let’s just say I ‘hit’ him back after his act of pretending to be a gentlecolt involved calling me ‘babe’.”

We shared a laugh. This is going well so far, but I can’t give up yet.

“So… Cogy." I resumed. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry again. I stupidly didn’t listen to your cries for help and ignored you… like I ignored Octy.”

“Like… Octavia?” Cogy asked.

At first I was surprised that she knew her full name, as I wasn’t sure if I told her what Octy stood for or not, but then I figured that she had simply heard about her like everypony else does. Girl is just as famous as me, after all! I nodded my head. “Yeah, like Octavia. She was my BPFF, and I chased her away as well with my showboating and my damn big head… we haven’t talked to each other in months and I don’t think that that’s going to change anytime soon.”

“I’m… sorry, Vinyl.”

“No… no it was all my fault. She was given a once in a lifetime offer that I thought she wanted, but it turned out she didn’t as it would prevent her from playing her music her way: professionally but fun. Even though she begged me to ignore it, I thought it was all she wanted so I signed the contract behind her back. She accused me of never listening to her… and she was right. Heh. I guess I was a monster in my own right, wasn’t I, Cogy?”

Cogy cringed at the word ‘monster’. Oh horseapples, poor word choice.

I quickly backpedaled. “S-sorry… but you know, you weren’t that bad of a monster. If I was still acting all cool and amazing, well like myself really, then I would have told you by now that you looked really bucking awesome… but that’s not what you want to hear, is it?”

She slowly shook her head from side to side. Her tears were still falling.

“… You did the same thing back then too.”

Her head rose at my comment. “W-wha?”

I placed a hoof on her shoulder. “When you transformed, you cried the entire time, Cogy. The entire time. Even when you were threatening to turn those two flankholes into your dinner, your eyes were moist. Heh... my little dragon was shining through that monster in the end and it was her who avoided doing something stupid. If this makes any sense, I know how you felt; to be stuck behind a, oh how did Octy describe it? To be stuck behind… a ‘mask’ that hides who you really are."

"... That doesn't really make sense, Scratch."

"Heh, give me a break! I'm not used to being all thinky and junk... anyways, where my ‘mask’ is my Celestia-may-care-attitude, yours is an actual monster… but you overcame yourself while I didn’t. I respect you for that, girl.”

“R-really, Vinyl?”

“Really, Cogy. I need to start focusing on others instead of just myself... I never listen to anypony but myself! I’ve been like this for years, which explains why I didn't have any real friends until Octy came along and stayed with me for so long. The ones I would make after her were always so artificial...

"Losing you made me realize… that I really need to clean up my act. Sure I could have easily tried again with some other filly, but then I wouldn't be learning anything and the results would have, without a doubt, been the same. So,” I sat on my haunches so I could at least attempt to be at her eye level. “Please... can we please be friends again? Its, heh, very lonely at the top.”

Cogy was silent. I started sweating. Oh no, did I ask too soon? Too late? Oh please oh please oh please say…

She suddenly hugged me tightly. “… Yes Vinyl, we can be friends again. Despite your claims of being egotistical and self-absorbed, you cared about me enough tonight to do everything in your power to make me happy. Let me guess; after my little transformation you followed me and saw how happy I was after meeting Rarity, right?”

“Hehe, guilty as charged. Didn’t really picture you as the makeover type, Cogy!”

The little dragon blushed a second time. “Y-yeah, neither did I. Still... thank you for taking me back to her and thank you for letting me sing. This was really fun. Heh, but seriously... Mic Mama Dragon?”

“Hey! It’s dragon plus 40, and I thought it was cool!”

“Dragon plus… so Mic Mama Dr4g0n?”

“There you go!”

“… Heh, okay, it is kinda cool, Pon-3. I’ll give you that... can’t say the same about the song choice though!”

I rubbed a hoof behind my head. “Okay, yeah, I’ll admit that I probably should have gone with something a bit better from my backcatalogue, but you sang it better then Windy herself! That girl always sounds like she’s in a wind tunnel to me…”

We laughed again before Cogy looked down depressingly.

“… A-and, and I want to thank you, Vinyl, for another thing.”

“Hm? What would that be, Cogy?”

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “T-thank you. Thank you for seeing me at my worst, as that monster, and still treating me as, well, me. Everyday I have to question if I still am me anymore... and everyday I become a little less sure...”

I finally returned her hug. “Not a problem. I promise you that I'll never see that monster and the awesome little dragon I know as the same person. Never. You have my word on my honor as a party filly. We never make you frown… except in that one instance where I was a flankhole and made you cry, that is. W-we can forget that ever happened now, right?”

She tightened her hold on me, wrinkling her dress. She seems to have about as much experience with those things as I do. “It never did, BPFF. It never did…”

I gripped her tightly, probably wrinkling this dress. Sorry Rare, I just don’t have enough experience to keep this thing looking nice. “It never did, BPFF. It never did…”

With that I felt a... a glowing in my chest, along with this warm fuzzy feeling. I think it’s my greed fire, but it doesn’t feel as sinister as it normally does. I’ll wager a guess and state that this is how it feels when a piece of one’s ‘hoard’ returns to them. When she left I felt pain, when she returned I felt… love. I… I love it. I love the feeling of being complete, and I no longer have this sickly feeling in the back of my mind that I’m missing something. I never felt like this on Earth… and I never did have this many real friends there either.

Red…

Mrs. Blue…

Vinyl…

Rarity…

Nathan De La Griffon…

I can even feel Iron Will and his goats in my, for lack of a better term, heart. Although his presence feels faint, when I think about him it seems to shimmer and glow again slightly. It’s… really hard to explain. It’s like I can feel the ties that bind us all together and it makes me feel warm inside.

... But, I can feel ties connecting me to Earth as well... to my family.

Dylan, Caleb, Ben, Sam… just like Iron Will, I can feel them as well but only faintly. It doesn’t feed my flame like the friends currently around me do.

... My God. Is this what it feels like to be a changeling? Have I become some sort of Changeling/Dragon hybrid?!

No… that would be stupid. You’re stupid. I just have a weird hoard...

Anyhow, yes; I can feel my Earth friends and family alongside my Equestria friends and ‘family’ inside my tiny body. Hazarding another guess, I think the ties that connect me to those not with me only appears if I have someone near me in person. Like… my hoard can’t be empty if I want to include certain people in it, or something else totally contrived and stupid that would explain why Nate was the kickstarter to the flame's birth.

My thoughts keep running one question by me though...

... What happens when I go back home?

...

... Please… oh please, God, never make me have to choose. I’ve wanted nothing more than to go home since I made it here and had to deal with Flim and Flam... But, in the span of four days I’ve been gifted with so many reasons to stay.

What… what will happen to my brothers if I stay, and what will happen to me if I do? I’m not like normal dragons, my hoard isn't not going to last forever…

… Yet I can.

I gripped Vinyl a tad harder as the subject I’ve been trying to avoid for so long suddenly struck me. I’ve joked about it and made jabs at it, but it’s nonetheless true and scary.

Dragons can live for a long time… a loooonnnggg time...

B-but I don’t want a life that lasts for centuries! Who the hell wants to live forever?!

To stand over your friend’s graves.

To watch as the land changes before your eyes.

To watch as the world moves on without you.

To be so very lonely forever.

Celestia and Luna (Maybe Cadence) have each other at least... but who will I have?

… I have a goal now.

I’ve used him as an example, never really enjoyed him in the show, and thought he was a bit of a wimp until one episode highlighted how much he reveres family and friends. I can’t believe I’m saying this but…

I will do my best to become Spike’s friend.

Bleh! That left a bad taste in my mental mouth… but it’s still a good idea. If I am forced to stay here, if I can’t return home for some reason, I will stand by someone like me. I will stand by someone who can stay with me through the generations as everyone around us crumbles away. He may be young now, but if worse comes to worst we can be there for each other when the inevitable happens.

This idea makes me nervous though. Now that I have experience being around normal sized ponies (and especially Rarity), I can confidently state that despite me being thinner, Spike and I are the same size and the same age.

Same race.

Same species.

Different genders.

Whatever the hell brought me here, or whoever brought me here, seems to have made me a perfect square block for the square hole that is Spike. I’d actually hazard a guess and say that we’re, -gulp-, m-made for each other.

If that’s true, then I think I need to have some words with the universe.

Clipclop...

Two ponies suddenly trotted awkwardly into the ballroom, reminding me of another thing this universe did to tick me off.

He or she made these two flankholes hatch me.

Flim and Flam were silently standing away from us, yet they were clearly glaring. Vinyl instantly started proving her loyalty to me by trying to get in between us, but I found the strength to defend myself.

“Let me guess,“ I began. “Grey Horse is pissed that we haven’t done any work together yet today, right?”

Flim (now with two black eyes) glared at me the best he could while Flam nodded slowly.

“Beat it, you two!” Demanded Vinyl. “We had a good thing going for us right now until you ruined it!”

Flam shrank under Vinyl glasses-less glare. Flim took a step back as well. Despite her having these two on the ropes by herself, I had a better idea.

“… Vinyl? It’s okay. I’m going with them.”

She was taken aback and the brother’s looked equally confused.

I explained. “If I don’t work with them now, then Grey’s going to punish Mrs. Blue again…” I winked at Vinyl before shooting the boys a mischievously evil smile. “She’s part of my ‘hoard’, boys. Do you know what that means?”

I jumped down from the stage and approached Flam. He started cowering.

“G-get back!” He squeaked.

Flim stepped in between us. I allowed my tongue to slither about as I actually started purring. Finally, sweet sweet revenge.

I jabbed the center of Flim’s chest with a claw as I continued. “It means, flankholes, that if somepony messes with her…” I tilted my head so I could glare at Flam. “Well… it’ll result in the same thing that happened to you, Flam...”

To seal the deal, I brought my Legion impression back from the grave.

“It releasesss the beassst!”

Flam started hyperventilating as I walked away, my point being made.

Vinyl was stomping her hooves in applause. “Whoo! You go girl! Who’s a badflank?”

I laughed embarrassingly. “I guess that would be me, wouldn’t it?”

She raised a hoof towards me expectantly. “You know it!”

Oh

My

God

Shaking with anticipation, I balled up my claw and completed my first brohoof in Equestria with the Vinyl Scratch.

... Okay, that’s it, the adventures over. There’s no way in hell anything’s going to top what I’m feeling right now.

Carefully, I removed my dress and earrings (they were clip-ons) and fixed my hair up into my ponytail and bow combo. “Can you return these to Rarity, Vinyl? I don’t want to damage them while scaring the crap out of these two some more.”

“Hehe. Sure thing, Cogy! You have fun now! Take care!”

I waved to her as well. “You too! Don’t worry... I’ll leave Flam’s face clean for you!”

Flam yelped as Vinyl trotted off in a laughing fit. Her smile seemed more genuine then anything I had seen so far. Looks like she got just what she wanted today... I hope she’ll be able to help Nate and me in Prance. I'd hate for her to return to being as lonely as she said she was.

With Vinyl’s departure I was left with my two former tormenters. I cracked my knuckles threateningly. “Okay, boys... let’s have some fun.”

The looks on their faces were priceless.

Scrubscrubscrub…

The sound of dishes being scrubbed clean.

Brushbrushbrush…

The sound of dishes being dried.

…

The silence that hangs heavily over the three of us. Flims still fuming while Flams shaking madly. I stood in-between them, with my emerald scales shining in the artificial lighting.

I turned my head towards Flam. As I did he cowered in fear. This caused me to smile wickedly.

I then turned to Flim. It’s easy for him to fake it with his damaged face, but I can tell that he’s also scared of me. Maybe he’s thinking that the ‘Minion of Discord’ comment was starting to make sense. Man, I hope so! Oh the fun I can have if I get to talk like Discord!

I started humming to myself as we cleaned. “Chocolate rain~”

They cringed. Ah, psychological torture. My Favorite!

"Yawn~"

I also hope I get to go to sleep soon... How is it that I had to deal with a dragon, a break up, Captain Grey’s flankholery, and becoming a monster yesterday, yet just singing and hugging has worn me out twice as badly?

“Hello you three.”

We jumped at the voice. Probably Grey again... has that guy showed up yet without causing me to jump? I turned around and saw the pony himself and Red standing in the doorway. Grey’s face was just as stony as ever, but Red looked on edge. What’s going on?

I didn’t have time to ask, as I was suddenly brought to his back via magic and taken out the door.

“R-red?” I tried to ask. “What’s going on?”

Red kept focusing on galloping. The captain was flying next to us as we zoomed through the hallways. He was the one who answered me.

“Keep quiet until we’re outside, whelp. Something has come up that’s highly confidential. All the guests have been ordered to stay in their rooms and not leave under any circumstances until we get this sorted.”

It was then that I noticed that the captain was sweating madly, so I decided to comply. W-what the hell is going on?

As we exited the hallway and went out onto the main deck, I quickly discovered what was wrong.

“T-the water. Why’s it so choppy?” I asked fearfully.

The weather was clear yet powerful waves were crashing against out hull. Even in the dead of night, I could make out an assortment of crew members running around, trying to get things under control as things went flying every which way in the abnormal winds. Windows were also being covered up in order to keep whatever was going on a secret. I couldn’t spot Nate or Blue in this mess and Red was still not talking to me. Come on; we may have not talked as much but he said he was my friend, why can’t he tell me anythin-

Suddenly, something in the distance caught my attention, and I quickly understood the severity of the situation.

“Grey… Red… i-is that…?”

“Yes whelp, it is... sea serpents...” The captain replied grimly. “At least three massive ones in the front, three teen sized ones in the back, and children on the sides. Unsure how many there are in all... They popped up out of nowhere and started silently leading the ship off course. We don’t have any record of there being a nest around here so they must have traveled a long way for this.”

Sea serpents... sworn enemies of dragons, according to Emeraldgrey. What… what does the captain need me for?

“W-why did you bring me here, Grey?”

He took his gaze off the distant trio of adults and looked at me. “We need you to talk to them.”

... What?! “What?! B-but sea serpents hate dragons!

"… So I’m told.”

Grey returned to glaring ahead. “I’m aware, but you're still apart of the same race ‘family’ as them. They’ll be more willing to talk to a dragon then a pony, at least. Emeraldgrey is out of the question so that just leaves you.”

“You can do it, Cog.” Red finally started talking again, but his normal cheeriness was gone. What remained was a very scared pony. -Gulp-, w-well, at least Rarity is on this ship. That alone proves that they can’t be hostile… doesn’t mean I can’t die, but at least Nate should be okay if he stays on the ship. Heh, maybe these guys will turn out to be related to the one in the Everfree, and that all this is just for a mustache convention or something else ridiculous and silly like that.

Grey continued. “I’ve already sent a flier out in an attempt to form a dialogue with them. In a few moments, I’ll be expecting you to make use of those flight lessons you were given and mee-”

Sploosh!

Before he could finish, something came crashed down on the deck, hard. It was something solid, heavy, and made a squishing sound on impact. It also made Red let go of his magic grip on me. He took a fearful step forward, his eyes twitching rapidly. Regaining my footing, I walked around him in order to get a better look at the object. What is this thi-?

Then I started recognizing features.

A pair of hooves.

Broken wings.

A snapped neck.

And the whole thing was boiled beyond recognition. That’s right, boiled, not burned. There was no color left on this creature... only boiled, red, flesh.

It was a corpse.

I fell backwards on to my tail. N-no. Oh please no, n-not again. “W-why… why would the-?!”

That’s when I took notice of two features that had escaped me on my first fearful scan.

... A single scar... and a feather.

A long since healed scar, running through the side of her body, and a single cyan blue colored feather.

...

It was Mrs. Blue.

Mrs. Blue… was dead.

She was dead…

My friend was dead…

…

White.

Nothing but white.

A land of white as far as I could comprehend.

Buzzing.

A sterile buzzing engulfed my world.

It went on.

And on.

And on…

Just as the world went on.

And on.

And on…

Forever.

The world went on.

I went on.

… But she didn’t, and never will.

...

I felt twin fires burn within me. The flame of greed roared out in pain I could never hope to describe in words. The voice within my head was nothing but the snarling of a beast... its words unrecognizable. I returned to the waking world, but it was like a dream, no, a nightmare. From this nightmare I felt the second flame burn. It was a fire I knew too well, for it was the flame I breathed. Every pained breath I took caused it to escape my throat in my ever growing anger.

Only one word echoed throughout my shattered, grief filled mind. One single word drove me forward past the brink.

Mine.

Miiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

I dropped to all fours and started charging ‘Revenge’, it would once more live up to its name. My anger overtook my shock and lead me to take up mindless action. Pain escaped me and my tears were blinding.

Red roared in anger; his pain I shared and his words my own if my mouth was not preoccupied with justice. “T-those bastards… you bastards!”

His horn began glowing bright crimson, a giant mini-sun formed above his head. The heat from his blaze was unbearable, but bare it I did as an even hotter inferno formed in my throat.

I trained my eyes on the largest serpent in front of us, most likely the leader.

The thief.

The murderer.

My target.

Throughout my charge, my greed flame flickered images into my minds eyes, feeding my rage. It was Mrs. Blue in her entirety. Every little moment we shared, from the large to the insignificant. Working with her, laughing with her, flying with her, hugging her.

Not getting to thank her.

Bones began to snap and pop as my muzzle grew with the heat of my greed, it becoming long enough to launch my ‘Revenge’ in succession. My claws dug into the deck of the ship as they too grew in length and held me in place. My form had become like that of a cannon: soulless and destructive.

I’ll kill them.

I will kill them.

I will kill them all.

Mrs. Blue…

Mrs. Bl-

My flame was abruptly cut off as a grey colored wing wrapped around my face and dragged me backwards. My greed flame flickered and my form returned to normal, muzzle snapping back into place and my claws retracting. Eight holes remained in the deck of the ship.

I kicked and scream. “Let me go, Grey! They killed Blue! They killed-”

“Stand down, whelp!” He bellowed. “Mr. Red! Cut off that flame now! That’s a direct order!”

“Cram it ‘captain’!” Retorted Red with tear stained eyes. “They killed my sister! I'm going to bucking kill them all!”

"Stand down, damn it!”

“Buck you Captain,” and with that Red launched his giant ball of mad flames. It swirled with a mixture of colors and almost rivaled ‘Revenge’ in size. Time slowed down as the ball of death flew through the air towards the trio ahead of us. After what felt like an eternity, the strike made contact against the back of the one next to the center’s head and engulfed it in fire. The creature screamed out in pain and floundered around, trying to shake off the blaze, but he dropped dead into the sea before he could properly douse it. The other two wailed out in soul crushing sorrow.

“Take that, you bastard!” Red continued to roar. I kept up my struggle; I have no gripes with killing monsters.

“Let me go, damn it!” I demanded.

Grey’s eyes were wide in shock as he watched the scene unfold. “Mother of Celestia… Mr. Red! Get back inside right now!”

Red didn’t listen as he began forming another ball. “Screw off, Grey. I’m not stopping until they're all de-”

But Grey only roared in response. “GET BACK INSIDE, FOAL, BEFORE-”

Red never got the rest of Grey’s warning.

Just as the words escaped the captains lips, a torrent of steaming water exited the lead serpent’s mouth. The boiling funnel traveled such a great distance just to strike down Red. I heard a gargled cry of pain before… nothing. When the stream ended, the only thing that made Red distinguishable from Blue was the charred and smoking horn.

My greed flame burst into a mighty blaze as my voice boomed. “RRREEEEEEEDDDDDD!!!”

“Damn it damn it damn it!” Screamed Grey, the situation getting more out of hoof by the second. “Whelp, calm down!”

My voice warped on its own. “@#$% you, sir! @#$% you to hell and back! I’m going to kill them with my own damn claws! LET ME GO!!”

“Damn it! Ugh! Cog! Calm yourself before you end up like Red and Blue! You’ll do nopony good being a corpse as well, so calm yourself before you get yourself killed!”

...

They have taken what is mine. They have no more right to their lives.

... M-mrs. Blue, Red…

They were mine and they stole them from me.

W-why is this happening...?

My hoard has been tampered with. Kill all who oppose you, starting with Captain Grey. He stands between you and your kill, what is rightfully m-

S-shut up, damn it. Shut up. M-my friends are gone... my friends, not my things!

...

With that the greed flame froze over and my mind returned to me. Just as it did, the reality around me finally sank in.

The first thing I did with my restored mind was to break down into tears and mourn the loss of the mother of two and the aspiring cook. Captain Grey, however, didn’t give me the chance as he quickly scooped me up with a wing and deposited me on his back. He rocketed inside the ship.

I tried to stop him through my tears. “W-w-we need to go back! They could still be…”

“They’re dead, whelp, get over it. We’ll all be dead too unless we send out an emergency scroll to the coast guards this instant.”

... How…?

How can this be happening?

T-those things could kill us all.

They might kill us all.

But that can’t be right, right?

Rarity, Vinyl Scratch, Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara, Fancypants, and all the other celebrities on this ship were alive in the future! I saw it! Especially Rarity... she can’t die, she’s a main character! There are still so many episodes that haven’t taken place yet! How…?

‘My! This minotaur sounds like a true gentlecolt! I do hope you get to see him again, darling… Ohhh! If I ever see those Flim Flam Cretans myself, dear, well... I can assure you that will not be graced by ‘nice’ Rarity!’

!!!

...

… I...

I changed the future.

I-I caused all of this.

I… I killed Red and Blue…

Before that train of thought could chug along any further, Grey stopped in midflight. The stop was so abrupt that is caused me to fall off. I quickly correct myself with my own wings and hovered right up next to him.

“W-why did you stop, Grey?… Grey…!”

W-what…?!

What the hell is going on now?!

Grey’s pupils were missing, leaving behind nothing but white. I waved a shaking claw in front of this face. “G-g-grey Horse?”

He muttered something in a monotone voice. “… The… the music…”

He remained flapping in midair, not moving from his spot. It took me a second to realize but I noticed something else; his cutie mark was flashing in and out of existence with a strong light. I… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this befor-

“The music.”

I surged upwards in mid-hover as Vinyl, of all ponies, appeared out of nowhere like she normally does.

Landing next to her, I gripped her in an embrace. “Vinyl! V-vinyl, Blue and Red are… Vinyl? C-can you hear me?”

Was unable to see right away, but her mark was glowing as well. Fearfully, I took her shades off... her eyes were pure white, the same as Grey's. What… what the hell?! Why is this happening?!

“The music… the music…”

Ponies… there were ponies everywhere. Leaving their rooms and standing outside of them. Pegasi were flouting in midair and unicorn horns were beaming. All their marks were glowing, and even the children who lacked marks were chanting as well.

It was the same thing every time.

“The music. The music. The music.”

Taking a step back, I almost bumped into the Flim Flam brothers. They too were caught in this spell. A-all the ponies were being controlled by something… Nate!

Unfolding my wings I flew through the hallways, being careful not to bump into anypony. I did my best to remember the mantra without thinking about how I learned it. ‘M-m-monkey, t-tree…’

Once I made it, I practically knocked the staff room’s door off its hinges and spotted…

“Nate!”

Nate was holding his head with a claw and wincing in pain. His eye’s iris kept appearing and disappearing… and his ‘birthmark’ was glowing as well.

“C-cog…”

I quickly hugged him. “Nate! Oh Nate, please tell me you're still you! I-I can’t lose anyone else after... a-after..." -Sniff- "O-oh G-god, please just be you!”

Nate did his best to talk, but he was obviously in pain. “Lose? Who… never mind. I… I t-think I’m still me, but all the ponies have gone into some kind of trance and…”

I finished for him. “A-and they're chanting about some music. Y-you seem fine though.”

“Yeah. L-looks like it only affects ponies. Heh, lucky me.”

“Y-yeah. L-l-lucky y-y-o…" -Sniff-

I gripped the young griffon harder than ever before as everything finally started plummeting around me. I-it all happened so quickly! Nate, ever loyal, returned the hug without question. I-I’ll have to tell him soon, but please just grant me these few moments of normalcy, universe… please... thank you.

It wasn’t to be, as Nate started humming a tune.

“N-nate? That’s… kinda inappropriate right now.”

His voice was raspy. “I’m sorry Cog, but I can’t control it… t-the music…”

I gulped. “Can… can you hear it, Nate?”

Nate slowly shook his head ‘yes’.

This might be the key. “C-can you repeat it for me?”

He nodded again and closed his eyes.

“… Shoo, be doo. Shoo shoo, be doo~”

...

... I take it back.

I take it aaaaaallllll back.

This universe has never done anything for me and it never will. It does nothing but hurt me and throw weirder and weirder curveballs my way.

Emeraldgrey’s words echoed in my mind. ‘The serpents serve their mortal gods…’

I uttered the most powerful three syllable word I had ever uttered in my entire life. My words were worn down and my voice brittle as I spoke the name of the ones who had taken my friends away from me and threatened to take away everything else.

“Seaponies.”