//------------------------------// // 2. Into the Mall // Story: A Trip Through the Mirror // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Smolder had recently come to terms with the fact that despite being a dragon, she had a very un-draconic love of cute and silly things, evinced by the occasional secret tea party with Ocellus in their dorm room where Smolder would try out dresses that she’d secretly had made at Rarity’s boutique for herself. She wasn’t ready to shout it out to the world yet, but she did accept that it was part of her, and was comfortable with it. That part of her existing, and reminding herself how cute and fluffy she looked as a little sheltie dog, was the sole thing keeping her from breathing fire on everything around her. Well, that, and the fact that since she was a sheltie she couldn’t breathe fire. Smolder spent most of the bus ride tuning out the conversation between Gallus, Ocellus, and Cozy Glow, as well as trying to ignore the stares that some of the other humans on the bus were giving the four of them. She guessed that they weren’t the best at blending in, but she really didn’t care, she just tried to focus on all the positive things about being a dog. Like…well, the fact that she was pretty cute, at least nominally, though given that she occasionally let out a slight growl she imagined she didn’t exactly look all that cute at the moment. It was a relief when the bus finally stopped at their destination, the “mall”, as the bus’ pilot had called it. The four disembarked the bus and took a moment to look over the mall, which was a large building covered in signs and surrounded by a vast plaza full of the miniature rubber-wheeled trains. The main entrance was up ahead, and the four made their way towards it. “I still think we should have gone to the other Cash-4-Gold place first,” Gallus said as they approached. “We were clearly grifted back there.” Smolder couldn’t stop herself from flinching at the word, and Ocellus and Cozy did as well, the latter two casting mortified looks at the griffon-turned-bird (the only other upside; as bad as Smolder’s transformation was, at least Gallus had it even worse). Gallus met their stares with one of his own. “What?” he asked. “I can say ‘grifted’, I’m a griffon.” “If you say so,” Smolder grumbled as the four entered the mall through a set of glass-and-metal double doors, used by a gaggle of real humans as both entrance and exit. They were immediately assaulted by sights and sounds and smells – especially smells, Smolder’s current nose was powerful – galore within causing all four to pause in surprise, eyes wide. Dozens of storefronts were contained within the building just from what the four could see, selling jewelry, food, clothing, toys, and other items and services that the four had no immediate words for. The sheer number of choices would have been overwhelming enough, but besides the plethora of stores there was a massive crush of creatures. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of humans in the “mall” moving to and fro, most carrying bags laden with purchased goods. Smolder couldn’t stop herself from growling at the sight of so many unfamiliar creatures, and Cozy took a step back and towards a wall with wide-eyes. Ocellus, meanwhile, had a wide smile split her features as her eyes glided over the multitude. “It’s like the Hive!” she exclaimed, pulling back the brim of the hat she appeared to be wearing – Smolder wondered how that worked since the hat was actually Ocellus herself, wasn’t it? The changeling in disguise turned around to look back at her friends. “So many creatures all together in such a small space, all of them moving around doing their own thing but it’s all part of a greater whole…” “There this many shops in the Badlands?” Gallus asked. “Oh, no, actually commerce is still new to changelings and we’re still trying to, well, create an economy from nothing. But what I mean is, every creature is here with the same unity of purpose.” She looked to Gallus, then turned around to Smolder and Cozy. “Do you think humans are like changelings in other ways?” “I dunno,” Cozy said, looking around, getting over her nervousness. Smolder forced herself to follow suite. “But really, this looks a lot like a pony market, too! Just, y’know, inside. And there’s a lot of humans, but maybe that’s just because they put so many stores in such a small area…” “It’s an efficient way to part creatures from their money, I’ll give them that,” Gallus said. “Whoa!” A passing-by human exclaimed. “Did that bird talk?” Ocellus turned rapidly even as she backed away from the noise, and Gallus had to flap his wings to maintain his balance. Smolder reacted quickly to the unexpected attention, putting herself between her three friends and the human who’d spoken. He was a male, with orange skin and swept-back red hair, looking about as old as Ocellus’ assumed form. “Hi!” Cozy said quickly, stepping forward. “And, uh…yup! Gallus can talk! Most birds can’t,” she shot Gallus a meaningful look, “but Gallus can! But not like a pon – a human, of course!” “Far out,” the human said by way of response, not noticing Cozy’s expression. “Can I pet him?” “No,” Gallus answered. “Sure!” Cozy countered. Gallus looked to her, eyes wide, but she returned the look and mouthed “play along” to him. Then she returned her attentions to the human. “Heehee, Gallus just says that sometimes. He’d love to be petted, since he is a pet, after all.” She held out her arm and pointed at it. Gallus sighed, rolled his eyes, and fluttered from Ocellus’ shoulder down to land on Cozy’s outstretched arm. Smolder, meanwhile, felt herself bristling for some reason. Pet the bird, when there was a dog right here? Then she reminded herself that she didn’t want to be petted. Or be a dog. It took some surprising effort to convince herself. “He’s really well trained,” the human said, slowly reaching out his hand to Gallus. Gallus just sighed again, slumping and letting the human run a hand over his head-crest. “Seems kinda’ bummed out, though.” “Th…that’s why we’re here,” Ocellus said, stepping forward. She knelt down next to Smolder and gently put a hand on the dragon-turned-sheltie’s back, rubbing at the back of her neck. Smolder couldn’t stop herself from leaning into it, tail wagging at finally getting some attention. “We’re, uh…we’re taking him to a vet.” The human looked strangely at her. “I didn’t know the pet store here had a vet.” “W-well, um – ” “We were in the area, so we thought we’d check just in case!” Cozy said quickly. “And Gallus’ favorite crackers are here! Right, Gallus? Gallus want a cracker?” Gallus glared at Cozy. She shot him an imploring look, and he let out another sigh. “Gallus want a cracker,” he droned. “Raaawk, raaawk, I’m a cockatoo.” “Ha!” Four sets of eyes were on Smolder, while her front paws were at her mouth, trying to keep clamp it closed – she was pretty sure dogs couldn’t laugh. She had, at least, finally drawn the attention of the human. “Your dog okay?” He asked. Gallus, meanwhile, was glaring at Smolder. “Raaawk, laugh it up, fuzzy,” he intoned. The fact that he was so annoyed, though, and trying to get one over on Smolder when he looked like that…Smolder felt herself shivering, tail wagging. She let herself fall to her stomach, paws still over her muzzle to try and keep it closed, though half-laughs, half-barks kept escaping from her. “She’s, um…jealous about not getting enough attention,” Ocellus answered quickly. “That’s how she shows it.” “Shouldn’t she have a collar? Or be on a leash?” “Also why we want to go to the pet store!” Cozy and Ocellus said at the same time. Smolder needed another moment to process what the human and two pseudo-humans had just said – but when she did, her eyes widened, and suddenly it became easier to her to stop laughing. “Raaawk raaawk raaawk raaawk!” Gallus, meanwhile had no such limitation, throwing his head back and disguising his laughter as bird sounds. He used his wings to mime having a collar around his neck. Smolder growled up at him, but the human misinterpreted and backed away. “Whoa, uh…yeah, you should definitely get her something quick,” he said, stepping away. “She seems kind of…mean.” “N-no, she’s just…” Ocellus said, grabbing Smolder quickly and picking her up. Smolder let out a yelp at the sudden motion and altitude, squirming at first to try and get her wings out before she remembered that she didn’t have any, and at her size even Ocellus’ short-for-a-human height put her fairly high off the ground…with no wings to catch her…she fell silent, using her paws to grab on to Ocellus as tight as she could. Ocellus fidgeted with her. “Um, she’s…she’s not really mean, once you get to know her.” “Actually come to think of it shouldn’t your bird have a leash or – ” “Look, we should be going,” Cozy said, pulling her arm closer to herself so that she could make a show of petting Gallus herself. “But it was nice talking to you! We learned a lot.” She hurried off, Ocellus close in tow with Smolder still in her own arms. The two faux-human girls looked at each other. “Okay, so, animals here sound like animals in Equestria, normally,” Ocellus said once they’d put some distance between themselves and the human. “They can’t talk.” “Except cockatoos,” Cozy confirmed. “Probably just like Equestrian parrots, though, they’re not really talking, just repeating sounds they’ve heard.” She looked to Gallus, still clutched close to her. “You’ll have to pretend to be a parrot, okay?” Gallus shifted in Cozy’s grasp, squirming until she relented and let him land up on her shoulder rather than be carried around. “I better get crackers, at least,” he insisted. “Yeah, of course you think with your stomach first…” Smolder drawled at him. Ocellus’ grip tightened on Smolder, and she pulled her away so she could look Smolder in the eyes – giving Smolder a very unfamiliar sense of vertigo at being held off the ground with no way to catch herself if she fell. “You have to pretend to be a dog, okay?” she asked. “Dogs can’t talk.” Smolder huffed, a sound that her current from was pretty good at. “I make no promises,” she insisted. “I am not a dog, I’m a dragon, even if I am tiny and cute right now. I’ll keep my mouth shut but there is no way that I will ever act like a dog – ” “Arf arf arf arf arf!” Ocellus watched Smolder bark ecstatically as she chased the squeaky ball across the small play-area that the pet store had. She leaped into the air and pounced on the ball, grabbing it in her mouth and shaking it back and forth. When it slipped out and went flying, she charged after it again. Ocellus did everything she could to stifle a giggle, and failed miserably. Smolder didn’t seem to care, at least. In just a few seconds she’d lost interest in the ball and instead turned her attentions to a rope toy, chewing on it relentlessly. Ocellus wished she could drop her disguise for just a few minutes so she could be a changeling again and sample the ecstatic joy that Smolder was displaying. It would certainly calm her nerves at what the four of them were doing. They’d found the pet store easily enough, and while the pets it sold were mostly restricted to insects and small rodents and fish, it did have a section for dog collars and leashes. Waving a hundred-dollar bill at a clerk had gotten him started on making a collar and tag for Smolder, while Ocellus had taken Smolder over to the play-area in the store to cool off. She’d expected it would take convincing, but all it had taken was tossing the ball just once, and Smolder had shot off after it. “Done!” Cozy said as she returned, holding aloft a leash and leather collar with a heart-shaped brass tag on it. One side read Smolder, while the other had a series of numbers on it. “They asked for something called a phone number. I just made up numbers until they said I had enough.” Ocellus took the collar and leash. Gallus himself, still on Cozy’s shoulder, had a much smaller leash around one of his legs, attached in a loop around Cozy’s wrist. “They also wanted to know if we were up to date on our shots,” Gallus said in a low voice. “I said yes.” “I don’t think we could convince Smolder to get stuck with a needle,” Ocellus agreed, proceeding into the play area and heading over to Smolder. The dragon-turned sheltie didn’t stop chewing on the rope toy, though she did look at Ocellus as she approached. “I got your collar and leash,” Ocellus said, kneeling down next to her friend. When she reached out, Smolder growled and bit down harder on the rope. Ocellus paid it little mind, however, knowing that her friend would never hurt her. “I’m not taking anything! I’m giving you something, see?” She held out the collar. Smolder stared at the collar, blinking a few times. Her eyes seemed to come back into focus as she let go of the rope, lifting her head up. “I was just acting like a stupid puppy, wasn’t I?” She asked. A passing human froze. “Did that dog just – ” “No!” Ocellus, Cozy, and Gallus all exclaimed. Cozy looked to Gallus, who looked back, then added “Raaawk!” The human stared a moment at the four of them, then shook her head and moved on. Ocellus quickly put the collar around Smolder’s neck and attached the leash to it, then escorted her out of the play area and store as quickly as possible with Cozy and Gallus in tow. “We need to focus,” Ocellus said at last, looking to Smolder, then Gallus, then Cozy Glow. “We’re here for a reason, we have to remember that. We’re supposed to be learning about human magic.” “Golly, I’m not sure humans have any magic,” Cozy said. The four made their way over to a corner of the mall, away from the crush of human traffic. “I’ve been looking around, but I haven’t seen any sign of anything like unicorn telekinesis, or pegasus flying, or earth pony strength.” “But they have to have magic,” Gallus insisted. “Every race has some kind of magic. Even us griffins have heirlooms like the Idol of Boreas.” “I thought you guys didn’t have the Idol anymore,” Smolder said. “You know what I mean.” Ocellus fidgeted, looking around, trying to get past the sheer multitude of humans and take in individual details. She noticed a lot of humans were carrying around small, rectangular blocks, looking at them or putting them to their ears and listening to them, or talking into one end of them. The objects had shining screens on the front that displayed a variety of moving pictures that seemed to respond to the humans’ commands. “Maybe it’s those things?” She asked. Steeling herself, she identified a likely target, a human female ambling by herself with her eyes focused on her block. She passed Smolder’s leash over to Cozy, then walked up to the human. “Excuse me?” she asked, getting the human’s attention. When she had it, she pointed at the block the human held. “This is gonna sound stupid, but…where did you get that?” The woman looked to her block, then to Ocellus. “This? Oh, it’s actually a little out-of-date, I keep meaning to upgrade it…” she pointed up to the mall’s second level, at a store that looked like it was almost totally made out of glass. “The Pomme store’s up there.” Ocellus nodded and thanked her, then went back over to Cozy and Gallus, the latter of whom had procured crackers and was munching on one. Cozy didn’t seem to mind the crumbs. “It’s called a Pomme,” Ocellus told the two as she took Smolder’s leash back – and did her best to ignore the laugh from Gallus and the growl from Smolder that the action produced. “There’s a store for them right above us.” “Right, let’s go!” Getting to the second level of the mall was easy – there were stairs everywhere, some of which moved up or down under their own power. On their way over to the Pomme store they passed a small store selling sugar-coated pretzels and other confections and purchased a few, sampling human food and finding it to be basically like pony food – hardly a letdown, though, since pony culinary skill was well-regarded across their world. The Pomme store was one of the strangest places that Ocellus had ever seen. While only its front was made of glass, the store itself consisted of nothing but four long tables, with evenly-spaced Pommes on either side of them. A few humans in smart black pants, shoes, and collared shirts staffed the store – and one held up a hand as the four tried to enter. “Sorry, girls, no food or pets.” “Aww…” Cozy said, folding her hands together and smiling up at the human with a bright grin. “But Smolder and Gallus are my very best friends!” “Sorry, but rules are rules,” the human countered, pointing to a sign on the glass door of the store which, indeed, showed a picture of a dog in a circle with a line through it and proclaimed No Pets. Cozy’s smile didn’t falter. “Pleaaase? I don’t go anywhere without them, and Smolder’s so fluffy and Gallus is so handsome and cool and – ” “No pets, no exceptions,” the human repeated. “Look, customers don’t want fur all over the new phones and…” he trailed off, looking at Gallus. “Okay, I’ve got to admit that a bird is new, but still: no pets.” The pegasus-turned-human’s eye twitched just slightly. “But – ” “Cozy, it’s okay,” Ocellus said. “Why don’t I take Gallus and Smolder and so somewhere else, and you check out the Pommes?” She looked around, and smiled. “There, that dress store. We’ll just be over there until you get some Pommes for us.” “Dresses? Ugh…” Gallus groaned, then added “raaawk.” The human looked Ocellus up and down, taking in the clothing she was wearing. “Um…I think some place like Burnt Matter might suit you better than Elusive’s Confidence.” Ocellus looked down at the outfit she’d created for herself, then back to the human. “Why?” “Nothing, forget it. If they let you in, cool.” Cozy, meanwhile, had slipped the loop of Gallus’ own leash off her wrist, passing it over to Ocellus. “Okay,” she said, though she shot a small glare at the store clerk. “I’ll meet up with you over there as soon as I can! I’ll get these Pomme things for all of us.” Ocellus nodded. “Come on, you two,” she said, setting off with her mini-menagerie. Of all the many and varied things Gallus had expected to do when traveling through a magical mirror to an entirely different world, going to a store that sold dresses was somewhere far, far down on the list. Though so too had been being turned into a cockatoo. And to be honest he probably should have expected it out of Ocellus… “What are you even getting out of this?” Gallus asked as Ocellus moved through the store, looking over the clothing. “You’re not gonna buy any of this, are you? Even if it fits you on the other side of the mirror, you don’t need it.” He used a wing to flick Ocellus’ false hat. Ocellus glanced up at her hat, then back to Gallus. “I-it’s inspiration,” she said, stopping in front of a rack of some kind of thin, lacy garment consisting of two cups, or something. A piece of cardboard attached to each one with a thin piece of plastic called them bras. She picked up one of them, staring at it with hands outstretched. “What…where is this supposed to be worn?” “I dunno,” Smolder said. They were relatively away from any other humans, though she did keep her voice low. Her head tilted to the side. “Maybe it’s a hat?” Ocellus glanced around, then pointed. “No, look, there’s a picture of a human wearing one…oh!” Ocellus walked up to the picture, holding up the bra to compare it to what she was looking at. “I guess it’s for…these,” she pointed at her chest and the fact that it seemed to jut out on human females. “I think they’re teats, or something? I don’t know, my magic lets me make myself a human without necessarily knowing any of the anatomy. But yeah,” she grabbed at the lumps on her chest. “These are mammaries.” “Ugh,” Gallus and Smolder said at the same time, making a face that Ocellus joined in on. The three interlopers looked between each other, grinning. “Mammals,” they droned as one, and laughed. Mammals were weird and kind of gross, though Gallus didn’t let it stop him being friends with Yona and Sandbar. Although something occurred to Gallus. “Wait, but changelings have all that ooze…” “We don’t eat it,” Ocellus objected. She went back over to the bras and put the one she’d picked up back, considered, then knelt down and out of human sight. Gallus felt a slight tingle in his feet as a little flash of changing fire danced over Ocellus, then she stood and smiled. “There. Now I have a bra too, and that tiny…whatever she’s wearing around her waist.” She pointed at the mostly-naked woman in the picture and the fact that she had something at her midsection. Smolder gave a slight huff. “Don’t see the point of wearing clothes no creature can even see. C’mon, let’s see what the dresses are like.” Gallus blinked, looking down at the dragon-turned-sheltie as Ocellus took off, following Smolder’s lead. “Why do you even care?” He asked. “We don’t even normally wear clothes at all.” Smolder bristled, stumbling a little over her four legs. “M-maybe Ocellus will see something she likes?” She said quickly. “Or…or what if the School has some kind of dance and we’re all expected to dress up?” “Honestly I’d still expect you to go skyclad. But hey, you wanna look pretty, that’s fine.” Smolder growled up at him. “You saying I don’t look pretty normally?” She demanded, then froze, paws shooting to her mouth. “I mean – that is – not that I care or…” Gallus’s beak slowly opened as his eyes grew wide. “Grover’s ghost, you want to look at the dresses! You want a dress!” Smolder let out a sharp bark. “No I don’t!” Gallus was vaguely aware of Ocellus trying to get his attention, but he was too busy laughing, wings flapping as he did. “Oh wow! Hey, in seriousness, I bet you’d look great in one.” He was serious about that, but it was at least partially because he knew how much it would nettle Smolder to hear him say that. If Smolder had still been a dragon, there was little doubt that a miasma of smoke would have been pouring from her mouth, and probably licks of flame as well. As it was, she turned around, shivering a little in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. Ocellus tugged on Gallus’ leash before he could needle Smolder any further, shooting him a meaningful glare. “I want a dress,” she said firmly, starting forward. For the first time, Smolder followed rather than lead, head downcast, tail between her legs. Gallus blinked at the sight, then let out a long sigh. He tugged at the leash himself. “Let me loose a second,” he said. Ocellus did so, and Gallus took wing and flew over to Smolder, hovering near her. “Hey, I’m sorry, okay? It doesn’t matter if you want a dress.” Smolder growled. “Mattered enough for you,” she insisted, barring her fangs. “You are so lucky I’m not gnawing on one of your legs right now.” Gallus fluttered over to the other side of Smolder – hovering was oddly harder for him as a cockatoo then it was as a griffon. “Okay…yeah, and I’d deserve it. Not that I’m giving permission or anything. Look, you wanna wear a dress and pretty yourself up, there’s nothing wrong with that.” “Name one thing weirder than a dragon in a dress.” “Silverstream.” Smolder let out a bark-laugh, and Gallus grinned as well. “Ha! You laughed, you agree. Can you imagine if we’d brought her along? She’d probably lose her mind over those escalator things. ‘Oh my gawk! Stairs that MOVE!’ She’d still be stuck there with them.” Smolder laughed again. “If she were with us she wouldn’t even mind us saying that.” “Of course not, ‘cause she’d still be stuck there with them.” The two laughed. Gallus settled down on Smolder’s back, looking down at her. “Plus,” he said, looking at Ocellus, “we have, like, the best creature around for trying stuff on. Right, ‘Cel?” Ocellus had stopped her own walk, looking back at her friends and smiling at the fact that they’d made up. “Right!” She agreed. It was pretty simple, really. Ocellus didn’t need to worry about sizes or fittings since she could adjust those on a whim, so Smolder and Gallus moved through the dresses, skirts, and other outfits, getting Ocellus to pick out the ones Smolder liked by the armful and then taking them back to the fitting rooms. The shop’s clerks were nonplussed by the two non-human animals, but none of the three paid them much mind as they went to the rearmost fitting rooms. Time flew by, Ocellus trying on outfit after outfit and showing them off to the two other interlopers – and also duplicating Smolder’s form so that Smolder could see what she’d look like in them. She wasn’t quite as adept at adapting the human clothing directly, but that was where Smolder came in, telling her what and where to shorten, lengthen, or widen. They also had to make adjustments for the tail and wings. Gallus was surprised at how, well, frilly Smolder seemed to prefer her dresses to be; he’d imagined her in relatively slim and understated clothing, but instead she frequently seemed to want the most ostentatious ones available. Although in hindsight, she was still a dragon, so maybe that made sense. All in all, they went through more than a dozen different styles of clothing, the only recurring theme between all of them being an odd piece of plastic magnetically clamped onto all of them. At length, Ocellus called for a break, taking a few minutes to be in her true form inside the changing rooms and breathing a little heavily at the expenditure of magic/love. Once she’d caught her breath – as well as graciously taken some of Gallus’ and Smolder’s offered feelings of friendship as a meal to fill the small void she’d opened in her heart – she turned back into her human form, albeit sans any clothes for the moment. “We should go check up on Cozy Glow,” she said. “She has to have gotten those Pomme things for us and figured them out, right? If you two are going to do a report on human magic we should actually get some human magic at some point.” “Yeah, I guess,” Smolder said, looking longingly at a few dresses, though she knew that Ocellus would be able to show them off to Rarity to get them made back in Equestria. “See anything you like, Ocellus?” “No,” Gallus answered for Ocellus, “because she’s a changeling. You like something, you better use your magic rather than waste your money.” Ocellus looked like she might almost argue the point, but Gallus fixed her with as intense a stare as he’d ever given any creature. She relented, using her magic to put on a pink one-piece dress she’d personally liked, complete with the odd block of plastic at the bottom, matching with a pair of black shoes and white, tall socks. She started putting the human money into her dress. “I don’t even know why we got all of this if we’re not going to spend it…” she said. Gallus shook his head. “We’re gonna spend money, we should spend it on something that we can’t get in Equestria.” He noticed Ocellus still looking unsure, and grinned. “Maybe a bookstore?” That did the trick. Ocellus’ eyes widened as she finished filling her pockets with money and took up Smolder and Gallus’ leashes. “Books! I didn’t even think about that! This is an entire universe with books nocreature in Equestria has ever read before!” She exclaimed, gathering up the human clothing in one hand and rushing from the dressing room, dropping off the clothing with a store clerk – who looked unhappy with her. “Come on, let’s go!” She made straight for the exit with Gallus on her shoulder and Smolder at her side, but was stopped at it by a pair of white-and-black clothed humans, along with a store clerk. “Hang on a minute, miss,” the taller of the pair commanded, holding out her hand. Ocellus skidded to a halt, blinking. “You have to pay for that.” “Huh?” Ocellus asked, then looked down at herself, the dress she was simulating. “Oh! Um…th-this, this is mine.” “No, it’s not,” the store clerk said. He pointed down at the little block of plastic at the bottom. “It’s still got the security tag on it. Look, girl, you wandered around the store in that crime-against-fashion outfit for more than an hour talking to yourself and making voices, scaring other customers, then disappeared into the fitting rooms for another hour and talked more to yourself…” Ocellus fidgeted. “O-okay,” she said. “Okay, sorry, I’ll pay for this – ” “Plus you’ve got those animals stinking up the store, there’s fur and feathers everywhere,” the clerk added. Gallus’ grip on Ocellus tightened, while Smolder started growling. Ocellus looked between them. “L-look, I’ll pay for the dress and leave,” she said, reaching into her pockets and pulling out several stacks of hundred-dollar bills. “I’ve got plenty of – what?” The humans had all backed away at the sight. “Where did you get all that cash?” One of the white-and-black clad humans asked. “Cash-4-gold. We were grifted,” Gallus said. “Raaawk,” he added. The humans started again at Gallus’ informing them, while Ocellus tugged a little at his leash. “S-sorry, but, um, Gallus is right. We traded in some gold we had – ” “Yeah, no way,” the lead uniformed human said. “Miss, you’re coming with us and we’ll call your parents – ” He reached out, grabbing Ocellus by the shoulder, the one without Gallus on it. She let out a gasp at the unexpected touch. And maybe it was the gasp, or maybe it was just the pent-up frustrations that she was feeling at being a tiny dog, or maybe it was natural protectiveness towards her friends – but the end result was that Smolder didn’t care for the action at all. She let out a short bark as she lunged forward, teeth closing around the human’s leg. The human let out a pained shout, stumbling away from Ocellus with Smolder still latched on. The other uniformed human reached down to grab Smolder, but that only gave the dragon-turned-sheltie a new target as she let go of her first victim and lunged for the human. Gallus, meanwhile, had taken to the air the moment he saw the first uniformed human recover and move his leg back – like he was about to kick Smolder. No way was he going to let some overgrown mammal biped hurt his friend. He dove in with a screech, small claws going for the human’s face and driving him back. “Thanks!” Smolder called out. “No problem!” Gallus responed. “Did that dog just talk?!” About a dozen nearby humans all demanded. Gallus had no time to react further, however, as the human he was holding at bay drew a long, black metal rod tipped with glass and swung it at him. He avoided the first swing, but the second clipped him. Pain raced through his wing where the blow had landed, and he let out a cry as he fell backwards and landed at Ocellus’ feet. The changeling stared in shock at her struck friend as she knelt, picking him up gingerly. “B-but I hadn’t…we hadn’t done anything…” she murmured. She looked back up at the humans…and hissed, blue fire racing across her as she returned to her natural form. “Zzztay away from my friendzzz!” That was when the three learned that human screams sounded almost exactly like pony ones.