Well one thing was for sure. Trot was…unique. When Lightning told me about the situation outside of Equestria I expected that diamond dogs and ponies would be at each other’s throat at every given chance. But when I arrived at the town just an hour or two before sunset I had a pleasant surprise. For the small town had not only ponies as its residents, but griffins and D-Dogs as well.
Ponies of different colors (and so bright that it nearly hurt my eyes just to look at them) and griffins walked together like old friends or diamond dogs selling their different wares at shops or generally anything that you would expect in a peaceful little town.
While griffins were just as I expected, half lion and half eagle, the D-Dogs were a bit unexpected. They looked like large bipedal dogs with overgrown, muscular forelegs. Out of the three different kinds of residents in Trot only the D-Dogs wore clothes, and even then they only vests. But whatever, I had much more important things to worry about now. Namely the fifteen or so guard that surrounded me and had their spears or horns pointed at me. Talk about a warm welcome.
“Halt, beast!” shouted a white colored unicorn with short deep-green mane whom seemed to be the leader of these guards. He stepped in front of me and looked at me from top to bottom. Here, I would like to say that before I became a Dreamkeeper he would only reach up to just under my chest but after my transformation I grew so now he was at my stomach level, so he had to look up to see me properly. For minutes he just looked at me and I was getting ticked off by this,
“You know,” I spoke up getting their attention and scaring them by the fact that I could speak (duh) “I don’t really swing that way.” I finished and watched as his face lit up a bright red color in embarrassment. He got humiliated further as some of the guards started to snicker. Should I mention that the guard captain (I guess) was getting really pissed off so I decided to push his buttons a little bit more. “So if you want some action then you are looking at the wrong guy.” this had done it. The other guards were on the floor now all laughing at the unfortunate and throughout humiliated unicorn.
In hindsight, pissing off a unicorn guard was maybe not one of my brightest ideas, right? So when the guy picked me up with his what I presumed was his magic I was quite nervous. He smiled smugly when he saw the obvious distress on my face.
“Scared, beast? You should be. We do not like monsters like you running around in our town causing chaos.” Every ounce of fear disappeared from me when I heard this. He needs a boot to the head fast.
“Really mosshead, really? I caused chaos? With what, may I ask? Because as far as I know I just walked into town and you guys have already pegged me as some sort of monster out of your deepest nightmares.” I could see that he was getting pissed off again by the mosshead remark but I could care less. He treated me like a criminal from the beginning so don’t expect me to be nice with him.
“Silence! Now, what to do with you…” here he trailed off and I felt that this was the time to try something out that I could never do back on earth I spoke up in my best alien voice.
“Take me to your leader.” mosshead just stopped and looked at me “What? Can’t a guy have a simple wish here?” I asked in mock hurt voice.
“No.” was the quick and merciless reply from him. “Now beast…”
“Jack.” I cut in and he did a double take.
“What?”
“My name is Jack Daniel, not beast. Remember it well, mosshead.” he seethed in anger but kept it check, good he has a level head…somewhat.
“And my name is not mosshead. It’s Iron Law. You should remember it as well ‘Jack’. Now, what do you want from us?” he asked me sternly and I smirked.
“Would you believe if I said that a simple shop run?” now this sent every guard in a loop. All of them just stared at me like I had sprouted a second head. “What? Lightning sent me because she needs her restock in some stuff.” somehow mentioning the mare eased them as Iron Law lowered me a little and the other guards were not as tense as they were before. “Sooooooo…” I drawled it as I gestured to my body to let the unicorn know that I would like to be released. But he just pulled me to eye level and glared at me.
“You may do what you wanted to do ‘Jack’…but be aware that I WILL be watching you. If you do anything that endangers the townsfolk. I WILL find you and you WILL be sorry for that. AM, I, CLEAR?” wow, this guy really needs to get laid.
“Yeah, yeah I got it. Now, can you release me from your hold and let me be on my way?” I asked him and he just let me fall flat on my stomach as he ended his magic. I looked up to see him smirking but I still didn’t finish my speech.
“Hey Lawn & Order!” I called and he grit his teeth at my, admittedly, bad pun.
“Yes?” he asked straining the words through his teeth.
“Is there an inn or something here? I just wanna crash for the night right now so would you kindly give me the directions for the next place where a tired man can sleep? Oh and is there a place where I can get a temporary job? I will need some extra bits.” the guy was looking at me, considering that should he tell me or no. In the end he gave in and pointed down the street.
“There is a small tavern down the street. I’m sure that Ms. Marshmallow” I had to repress my snickers at the name “could use some paying customer. And as for the job? There is a bulletin board on the market square. Now, go. And remember what I said.” and with that, the whole Troupe walked away, leaving me in the dust. I stood up and dusted myself off meanwhile looking around. ponies, griffins and diamond dogs were watching me with curiosity and a bit of fear. I waved at them as I started to walk down the street in the given direction to the inn.
After around ten minutes of walking I found the aforementioned building and went into it. The inside was cozy and had a homey feeling to it. There was a small fireplace with a pony-sized couch in front of it. There was a desk behind which there were several key holders (you know, those things in small motels from which the guy/girl picks a key and stuff). I walked up to the desk and saw a small ring on it but no innkeeper. So with nothing better to do I rang the bell and soon an old but friendly sounding voice spoke from somewhere behind a door.
“I’m coming dearie, I’m coming.” and true to her words, and old white furred but pink maned mare came out and stood behind the counter. “Now, what can I do fo-“ but she stopped when she looked up to me and saw that I was no pony, griffin or even diamond dog. “Now what manner of creature are you?” she asked me quite calmly, like it was a daily occurrence that a never before seen being just waltzes into your inn.
“You can call me Jack.” I evaded the straight answer as I was not comfortable telling her what I was. “And you are Ms. Marshmallow am I right?” I asked her and she nodded.
“Then in that case I would like to rent a room for the night. Can that be arranged?” she nodded again.
“Of course my dear. Single room I presume?” a nod was her answer. “Then that will be ten bits.” I said nothing in response just took off my bag and opened the holding place. I put my hand in it but did not find the bag of bits in it so I had to go deeper in it. I had my whole lower arm in it up to the elbows but still nothing.
“Wow, this stuff is really deep.” I said as I had my arm in the bag nearly up to the armpit when my hand hit something that felt like a small bag. I quickly caught it and pulled it out. “HA! I knew I would find you.” with my victory cry I pulled out the required number of coins and put it down the counter for the old mare to take it. She passed me the keys for my room and told me where it is. I thanked her and went up to my room, which was a nice attic room with a good view on the small town. I looked out to find that the sun was already going down, making way for the moon to come up and make its course. Huh, time flies fast when you are threatened by overzealous guards and to be frank, I was quite tired too after the whole walking and being magicked (is that even a word?) stuff and wanted nothing more than crash in the bed and sleep. I decided to just do that as I walked towards the strangely human-sized bed but first I went to the window to close in the curtains as I didn’t want to wake up to the sun. I glanced outside and saw that the moon was already up.
“Dafuq! How is that possible? It was just coming up before! Wait, didn’t Lightning mention something about a Princess raising the moon? Meh, I’m too tired for this shit now.” but I also noticed that the moon was a full moon. “Come to think about it, isn’t it always full-moon here? Eh, who cares? Tomorrow I’m gonna watch it but now….sleep”
In an unknown place:
A hooded equine figure was watching the night sky with malicious expectations when another hooded one walked next to the first.
“Tomorrow is the night right?” asked the newcomer from the watcher whom nodded.
“Indeed. Tomorrow our dreams plans shall come true and we will be finally done. Tell the others to begin the preparations. For tomorrow, when the conditions are met… Equestria will be finally…. Clean.” the hooded pony said to the second one who immediately went back to wherever he came from while the first just turned back to watching the moon.
I decided to cut this chapter into three parts since it was so long, so here is the first part.