Chapter 3: Strange town, stranger faces
Mark flew high above the canopy scanning the horizon for any visible landmarks. Recalling the map, he stared eastward towards a large mountain jutting out of the earth. The rough shape of a city perched half way up the cliff could be seen, large waterfalls poured down its sides sparkling in the evening sun like diamonds. "Talk about location." He thought as he flew off towards his goal. He wasn't sure what his next plan of action was but one thing was for certain, he needed to find answers.
The forest stopped quiet suddenly replaced by plains and rolling hills. Despite constant flying for the last ten minutes he didn't feel tired. He slowed to a hover, carefully taking in the new sensory around him. As he did so, he observed something that could only be described as mystical, and out of fantasy. He watched as winged ponies flew about, moving the clouds as if they were balls of cotton. He blinked a few times stunned at what he saw, "Well, now I know I must be dreaming." He kept watching for some time, the pegasi moving on once done their task. His attention returned to the task at hand as he watched the pegasi fly into town. Looking down towards the marketplace he saw more ponies walking about. The ground was as a sea of colours as they went about their business, selling goods, and socializing.
Mark jaw dropped as he connected the dots. "Okay, intelligent ponies, I was not expecting that," He stared down at his own dragon body. "Nor was waking up as dragon." He face palmed when a sudden realization came to him "Ponyville, really, they named their town after their species. What next, Hoofer dam?" He thought to himself, taking a few moments to observe the area. After deciding now was as good as a time as any, he soared down toward the market.
--- --- ---
Applejack let out a breath, wiping the sweat off her brow. She had just loaded up the last of her baskets into her cart, ready for the trip back home. It had been a great day of sales, and she felt proud of it. Slipping on her saddle bag she went up to the front and prepped to leave. As she adjusts the straps, she spotted her good friend Twilight strolling through the market, a grin across her face. "Oh hi, Twilight."
"Hi AJ, finished for the evening already?” Twilight asks stopping next to her orange friend. She hummed a cheery tune, a white saddlebag with purple trim sat on her back.
Applejack nodded, “Yep, I'm going back to the farm early today. Big Mac is making his famous vegetable stew and I agreed to lend him a hoof." As she explained she noticed the large grin on Twilight’s face, "So, what has you in such a happy mood?”
Twilight levitated out a pocket watch and stared at it as she replied, “Oh I'm just in a great mood that's all. Although, I did find this interesting book a few hours ago.”
“Let me guess, new spells to try,” she said sarcastically.
Twilight let out a chuckle, “Hey, I'm not always looking up new spells. If you must know, it was about the energy properties of magic and such. It was quite the fascinating read and-" She froze as her gaze moved passed AJ, to the sky behind her.
"Twilight?" Turning to see what twilight was so fixated on AJ gasped, “Twilight, is that a dragon, or am I seeing things?” She says watching the figure fly towards the market.
--- --- ---
Mark descended to land, his focus on not crashing like so many times before. Unfortunately he realized that he was going way too fast. Before he had time to slow the sound of splintering wood echoed through the market as he came to a halt, his face planted into the dirt.
Pulling his head out of the ground, he heard someone talking to him. "Hey, watch where you're flying," a very annoyed pony said staring.
Mark spat out clump of dirt and immerged from the now wrecked stall. "Oops, hehe sorry I'm still not used to flying it seems." The mare looked up at him now towering over her. She screamed, bolting down the street in a panic. Several ponies stopped dead in their tracks and were now looking at Mark. He smiled feeling a little shy at the sudden attention. "Oh dear, this can't end well." He thought to himself as he watched the mare run away.
"Hey dragon." Mark jumped as a blue pegasus mare with a rainbow mane flew up and stared him in the face. "What makes you think you can just come into Ponyville and cause trouble?"
He shook his head in defense, raising his hands up, "L-look I'm not here to cause trouble really," he blinked at what was happening before him, "Wait did you just talk?"
The mare stared at him as if he was crazy, "What is that supposes to mean? Of course I can talk. What are you drunk or something?"
"No, it just I've never heard a horse talk before."
"What?" the mare pointed her hoof at him annoyed, "You sure? You're talking nonsense right now."
Mark watched as the rather defensive mare was yanked away from him, "Rainbow, leave him alone. Can't you see you're scaring him half to death?" Applejack said spitting out her tail.
Rainbow turns to look at Applejack grumbling, "Wish you would stop doing that," She huffs staring back at Mark with her usual cautious gaze.
The wheels in Marks head kept turning as he watch the scene unfold, on the one hand it was a good thing they spoke English, what mythical creature didn't. On the other hand, he hadn't really been expecting talking ponies at all. Before he could get lost in thoughts again, a sudden flash of pink popped up in front of him shouting, "Hi” The sudden appearance scared the living daylights out of him, causing him to backpedal and trip over a rock. Falling to the ground with a thump, he reached his hand to his chest, his heart racing. "Will you ponies please stop invading my personal space?"
The pink pony bounced in excitement. “Oh wow a dragon, of course I’ve seen dragons but never one your size. Usually they are big and mean,” She let out a grrr and kept talking, “Except for spike-”
Mark wasn't given a moment to interrupt as Pinkie kept rambling on about this Spike fellow, and then other topics. She swapped topics at such a rate that Mark couldn’t keep up.
After what felt like forever Mark backed up from the babbling pony, looking over at Twilight a tad creeped out “Does she ever stop talking?”
Twilight gave Pinkie a nudge to get her back to reality. “Pinkie, you can stop now.”
Pinkie let out a giggle "Oh sorry, got lost in my own head again." She says offering a hoof to Mark, "i'm Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you."
Mark took her hoof in his claw and gave a light shake, "Uh, nice to meet you too, name's Mark." He replied still a bit in shock from the sudden attention. The crowd had long since moved on about their business, now satisfied that the visitor wasn't a threat. Mark took another look at twilight and noticed the horn, “Hey you’re a unicorn.” Mark excitedly said.
Twilight nodded, “Yes I am, why?” she asks
Mark rubbed the back of his head "Just never seen one in real life before."
Rainbow rolled her eyes "Right, real life, you sure you didn't knock your brain loose on impact?" she asks hovering by the others
"Rainbow you're not helping." Twilight replied as she saw the confusion in Marks eyes. "So you have never seen unicorns before, don't know how that is even possible unless you're from far away land."
Mark nods "You could say that." He was quickly interrupted as his stomach rumbled. “Do you know of a place where I can get a bite to eat?”
Applejack reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a spare apple with her teeth. With a quick flick of her neck she tossed it at Mark.
Mark snatched it from the air and bite into it, “Mmm, Thanks.”
Applejack gave a warm smile towards him, "Don't mention it, plenty more were those came from."
As Mark chewed on the apple he found It was better than any store bought apple he had ever tasted, these were defiantly freshly picked. He finished the apple in no time a grin on his face. "I'm really sorry for the cart but I could really use some help to find some answers to a few questions." He says after some time.
Twilight had remained, the others having gone off to do other things. Twilight nods "Well I'm sure I can help with whatever it is that is troubling you."
"Really well that's nice, I wasn't so sure of where to start myself to be honest." He lets out a breath and relaxed a bit. The fact that he had just rushed to get here without any other sort of plan was kind of unsettling, he still had little to no idea on his next plan of action, but at least someone was willing to offer assistance.
Twilight shrugs, "It's no problem really. I live in town's library so I have all sort of knowledge to help." She says as Mark follows her down the street.
Mark couldn't help but smile at the cute pony leading the way "I was just thinking that, well there be more panic and such, it's not every day a dragon flies into a town." He says
"You be surprised, around here, we can't go a week without something going awry." Twilight explains
"Sounds exciting," he said with a smile, "at least it's never dull." Following her for some time he spots a strange building that look a lot like gingerbread "Is that place made of candy?"
Twilight let out a smile chuckle, "No, don't silly, building can't be made of candy, they be too weak to last very long." She says "That's Ponyville's bakery, Sugercube Corner."
"That's pretty cute name for a bakery." Mark replied, staring at it and getting hungry "I don't have any currency on me, could I perhaps borrow some?"
"Oh well if you're still hungry you could join me for dinner back at the library." She suggests
"That's nice to offer, but I hate to intrude."
"Nonsense, Spike won't mind making a few more flapjacks." She says, "Besides, we are heading there anyway saves time."
Mark grinned yet again "This is going better than I had thought, maybe this won't be so bad after all."