//------------------------------//
// The Portal 
// Story: The Lion, The Pony, and the Draconequus 
// by misskoifishpony 
//------------------------------//

Lion, Cat Steven, and Pumpkin cuddled beside one another along the warm Beach City beach. They were several feet away from the Temple, positioned somewhere closer to the main town. They were utterly immersed in their slumber by the lulling sounds of rising and falling tides, the soft sand underneath them, and the peaceful rays of sunlight. 

For Lion specially, it was nice to have a break from it all: heroic battles with giant women from the sky, having your owner fly into space and disappear for too long, having your owner come back as a watermelon, then disappearing again, then coming back as himself but this time bringing back the giant women they fought with in the first place. After all that was done, things have seemed go to back to normal. Or at least, their version of normal. Because of this, life seems to be calm and allowing the three pets to finally have a serene nap.

However, their nap was soon interrupted by a sudden, purple, magical portal tearing through the air on the left side of their group by a mysterious talon of an eagle. Lion’s ears perked up at this sound, and he lifted his head to see where the sound was coming from. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of this strange new portal floating in the air beside him. As for Cat Steven and Pumpkin, well, Cat Steven hissed in fear at the sound of the portal and ran away immediately; while Pumpkin took this as a sign of Cat Steven wanting to play tag with her, so she ran after Cat Steven happily and barked with each step she took.

Now, Lion has seen many unusual things in his life ever since he had met the tall, beautiful human like woman with the large and pink curly hair. He had seen things grown instantly at her touch, he had seen her heal him and other creatures in ways that he never thought it was possibly, he had seen himself perform acts beyond his own comprehension like making portals for example, he had met so many beings far stranger than the tall pink hair woman, he had met creatures far more monstrous than he can imagine and more, and he was a lion that was living far past his own expiration date. But, for some reason, he had a feeling coming from his deep, animalistic, sixth sense that this portal from different from the usual unusual things he gets to see from hanging out with the Crystal Gems. Not only did this new portal smell different, but it looked different from the portals that he and the other Crystal Gems would make. 

As he was curiously sniffing the new purple portal, Lion quickly took a small step back as he saw a lion paw come out of the magical entrance. Then, the lion paw became attached to a brown, furry arm. After that, the brown and furry arm became attached to a body. The weirdest body that Lion had ever witnessed. Lion had thought he had seen the most monstrous of things. Well, today he was wrong. It was a horned, serpent looking creature standing on two legs with two mismatched wings, two different looking paws and claws, a long scaly looking tail, a goat like face, and red and yellow eyes. The new creature came out of the portal smiling, holding something with his eagle talon. Lion couldn’t believe that there was another strange creature accompanying this one. It...it looked like a horse. Yet not. It was horse, but smaller and...it had wings. It was yellow, and pink. 

However, because of the pink in her mane, she was more comforting to look at because it reminded him of his first owner’s hair color and of his own fur color. In fact, his animalistic sixth sense was telling him immediately to trust this horse like creature. As for the serpent like creature, his animalistic sixth sense was telling him to be wary of him. It’s funny though, before Lion had met his first owner, he use to eat prey animals like horses. However, now and days, Lion felt too lazy to chase after such prey anymore. Easier prey like sparkly lizards, fish, sushi, and Lion Lickers, were more of his speed these days. Because of this, Lion had no urge to eat or hunt or hurt this little horse creature. 

As the two new beings landed gracefully to the sand, the serpent like creature proclaimed, “Alright Fluttershy, here we are! Beach City! Home to the most adorable looking lion you’ll ever see! Not to mention, the most unique.”

Lion remained still and wary as the serpent like creature pointed towards him with his unusual claws. However, Lion slowly became eased as he witnessed the stars and hearts that formed in the teal eyes of the horse like creature. This stare reminded him so much of his current owner because the little boy would often show this kind of expression to him to show his love for the big cat. 

Fluttershy, the horse like creature, gasped loudly before replying in an awe struck, “D-Discord?! I-It’s a lion! A real lion! And...and it’s pink! It’s pink and it’s a lion!”

Then, she screamed happily and danced around, “Aahh! Oh Discord, I’ve never met a real lion before! I’ve only seen pictures of them and read books about them.”

“Ha! And this is coming from a pony who conquered the likes of a mighty Manticore?” Discord said with a gleeful smirk, playing teasing his dear friend. 

Just then, Fluttershy took notice of how hesitant the pink lion was of them. And based on Fluttershy’s knowledge and experience with wild predatory animals, whenever wild predatory animals get scared or cautious and hesitant from other creatures, they usually act out and attack them. So, this prompted her to ask her friend, “Um, Discord? Maybe we should-”

“Oh relax, this pink fluff of lion is totally domicile,” Discord reassured her, “especially in comparison to a certain bunny we know.” 

Fluttershy responded to Discord’s teasing remark about Angel and his smirk by giving an un-amused deadpan stare. 

This didn’t make Discord’s smirk fade in the slightest, “Anyway, the biggest thing that this kitty eats is a gecko, so this lion isn’t your typical lion. That’s why I brought you here. This thing is practically a lamb. Why are you so afraid?”

“I’m not afraid of it, I mean him,” Fluttershy explained, “I just don’t want to scare him.”

“You? Scare him? Ha!” 

“Discord, this is a new dimension. We may not be the norm here. When animals get scared, sometimes they attack. I just don’t want him to get hurt while we’re trying defend ourselves.” 

The way that this horse like creature talked, the tone of her voice, the aura of warm kindness that surrounded her, it reminded Lion of his first owner and his current owner. She had the sweet innocence of the boy he cares for, while the motherly gentleness of the unusual human women he met so long ago. Plus, the way she was handling this serpent like creature, Lion could see that he wouldn’t be at least hurt by this chaotic creature. That he could be protected from him by this horse like creature.

And so, Lion softly walked over to Fluttershy; immediately catching her attention when his shadow loomed over her. She stared at him and blinked a couple of times before giving him a smile, “Oh! Why, hello. What’s your name, sweetheart?” 

Lion brought his head down, signifying to the mare to let her pet him. She instantly took to this gesture, and much like his first owner, Fluttershy petted the top and to the side of his head smoothly and carefully. It was as if she was petting the petals of a precious flower or a fragile piece of stone. Lion closed his eyes, leaned slightly into her touch, and purred a little in his throat. 

“Awww, he he,” Fluttershy cooed and giggled at the same time, “well, it looks like you’re no longer afraid of us, huh?” 

“I think I was the source of fear here, my dear.” Discord pointed out; he tested this assumption by having his talon reach towards Lion’s back. Without turning his his head, Lion was able to stop Discord by smacking his talon with the quick whip tip of the tail.

“Ow! See?” Discord finished with a grin. 

Fluttershy chuckled while shaking her head. Then, she turned her soft gaze to the lion before her and comforted him with, “There there. It’s okay. Discord won’t hurt you.”

Lion completely ignored Fluttershy’s comment about her friend, and continued to purr at the soothing feel of her touch. 

“Oh, I almost forget,” Discord quickly added, “his mane opens to another world!”

“What?!”

“Go on, go on, try it! It’s in the middle of the his mane towards his chest!”

This urged Fluttershy to ask Lion, “Umm, sorry to ask you this, but would you mind if I…?”

Lion nodded his head, let out a complying growling-like sound, lifted his head and revealed his chest to her. Including all the fluffy, light pink mane that covered it. Fluttershy slowly reached her front hoof towards the center of the giant feline’s chest, and when the tip of her hoof reached that center...nothing. Nothing happened. Her hoof was greeted by a texture even softer than a cashmere goat.

“Oh my goodness,” Fluttershy said in sweet awe, “you’re softer down here.”

“Huh?” Discord commented, cocking his head to the side and looking down at the nothing remarkable chest of the pink lion. “I guess it only works whenever the boy is around.”

“The boy?”

“This lion is a pet to a young creature that’s the dominant species in this dimension.”

“Oh, no wonder you’re so gentle and patient,” Fluttershy applauded Lion kindly, “you have a sweet little owner you have to take care of.”

Oh, you have no idea, Lion agreed with her inside his mind. 

Speaking of his current owner, Lion could faintly but hear him calling for him in the distance. Getting slowly closer and closer to him and the two inter-dimensional creatures with him. Lion’s head perked up as his ears perked up towards the direction of the Crystal Gem Temple.

“What are you looking at, boy?” Fluttershy asked Lion.

“It sounds like his owner is coming our way,” said Discord, having his eyes narrowing to the short and stout human running towards their part of the beach, “We better get going.”
“How come? I want to compliment him on well he is raising this wonderful and sweet lion.”

“I know you do, but like you said earlier, we’re not exactly the norm here. While weird things do happen in this dimension, but nothing weird like us unfortunately.”

“Oh good point.”

As Discord ripped a new purple portal in the air heading back to her cottage, Fluttershy gave Lion one last time scratch under his chin and whispered, “It was so nice to meet you Mr. Lion. Thank you for being so sweet.”

“Ready to go?” said Discord as he offered his lion paw for her to take.

Fluttershy happily took it and replied, “I am.”

She turned back slightly to Lion and waved her open hoof to him, “Good bye!”

Before she and the draconequus exited out of Beach City, she whispered to him in a grateful tone, “Thank you for bringing me here, Discord.”

With a soft smile and blush, Discord answered, “You’re welcome Fluttershy.”

As sudden and quick as they came, the two strange creatures were gone in a flash of light. Leaving the Lion questions on what they were truly, where they came from, and where they were going to. 

However, Lion had no time to process all these questions to himself as his owner, Steven, came up from behind with Cat Steven in his arms and Pumpkin happily following along barking. 

“Hey Lion,” Steven asked, “is everything okay? Cat Steven ran back to the house as if he saw a ghost or something. He dragged me out here to see what was going on. Did something happen?”

Lion looked back to where the portal used to be before turning back to Steven and shaking his head no.