"A dragon. Yer kiddin me."
It was a marked point to the absurdity of Applejack's life that the revelation came only as an oddity to her.
"Yep. Dragon. Dra-gun. Which is why I'm not to fond of it... when you put your hands on me. I'm 17, sister." Smolder batted away with a paw the hand that had come again to instinctively try and scritch behind her ears.
The novelty of talking dogs had long since worn off, but Applejack still found herself unsure of how 'human' they were to be treated. Spike loved himself a belly rub and squirrel chase, but in his defense, he had been a dog his whole life. The newest circus act on holiday from Equestrian school- one run by Twilight, she had been surprised to discover- seemed significantly more uppity in that regard.
Ain't never heard of a dog that won't take food from a human's hands. Applejack thought to herself, glancing down at the plate she had brought out for her conversation with the orange huskie. Smolder was significantly larger than Spike, but held herself with the demeanor of a smoking teenage delinquent. Never heard of a dog that slouches this much either.
Sprawled out on the grass outside CHS, Applejack conducted vigorous scientific research, like asking what was up with that.
"Right, right, my bad." Applejack conceded the hand. "I reckon I wouldn't like much to be touched back there either. Shoot, the exchange rate tween worlds is a weird one, huh? Humans to ponies, dogs to dragons- How's the new body treating you?"
"Fit for a king." Smolder grunted. "I like the legs, like the fur." She scratched behind a floppy orange ear- with her foreleg. "Don't like having animal control called on me for not wearing a collar. You win some, you lose some."
"Sheesh, can't imagine being treated like a pet by the whole world over. What's bein' a dragon like?"
Smolder stood up finally, holding her chin high. "Strong, proud, regal. Which is great for every situation but friendship school." And slouched back to laying on her side. "But it had to be me- after all, I fit through the door. Dragons have a very slim range in their lives where that's possible."
"Generally a mite bigger?"
"Many mites."
Applejack's eyes glazed over as she chewed a blade of grass sticking out her lips. "Smolder... I doubt you know much about the portal, but I hope you don't mind theorizing with me a tad."
"Shoot- it'll be another twenty minutes before they realized I ditched class to get here." Smolder waved her on with a paw.
"See, we got ourselves a Twilight here too- and she's got herself a Spike. If I remember correctly, yours does too, right?"
"Hell yeah, he's a cool little dude. Why?"
"And you suppose you've got yourself another Smolder here too, right?" Applejack jabbed a thumb in her direction.
"Sure, that sounds right."
Applejack chewed contemplatively, bracing herself with her arm as she craned her neck to look at the statue.
"...How many layers down ya think that goes?"
For 7 days after, Applejack walked Equestria.
Plains became hills became woods became the harsh, unforgiving ashy landscapes that told her she had made it to the Dragon Lands. She stopped sporadically, generally grabbing the fruits of the land as sustenance, but otherwise made her path firm and true, streamlining it after the rumors she fished around for in the towns she visited that only became less frequent as she approached the edge of the map. Every other hour was walking, first a forced necessity to get herself used to a new four legged form, (1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, repeating in her head to prevent slipping until she could hum any song to that rhythm) then just to keep her eyes on the long road ahead. It felt right and natural in this form- her hooves hardened and sometimes cracked, but they were built to carry her over the rough terrain, nothing like her soft human soles. She found herself fond of them, almost wishing there was a compromise.
Walking was a dangerous matter. Ponies had learned to tame the natural, but not the supernatural- more than a few creatures figured her for a good meal. Applejack, for her part, was well versed by this point to fighting off the Equestrian, helped in no small part by her tenfold earth pony strength.
And it was lonely. She found herself missing her siblings and friends, and wondering just how much longer she had left on her path- wondering if the rumors she was following were true at all. She was looking for a needle in a haystack, after all.
And one day, she found it.
Face wrapped in rags, boots worn and dusty, Applejack trekked up the steep rock face, leaning in against the slope and freezing every time the ash and soot built up on it started to slide down. When finally she reached the top, pulling herself over and looking out from the peak of the mountain she had spent the better part of her day scaling, she found herself at the pitch black mouth mouth of a great cave.
Inwards she trekked, feeling how close she was to her goal on the back of her neck- because with each low grumble emanating from inside, a gust of hot air strong enough to blow a lesser woman off her feet blasted out, exhales from a beast that filled the room top to bottom with its scales.
And Applejack's outstretched hooves met it at the end of its snout, and two eyes amber as flame opened with a stare that pierced through to her bones.
It raised its head, skyrocketing above her and sneezing a gust of flame that briefly illuminated its clay brown scales and shining white underbelly. Its wings spread to span the entire cave, dwarfing the pony with barely a flick of its muscles. And from deep in its belly, the dragon whose full length she could not witness chuckled to itself.
"Whatever you have come for, you will not find it here." It boomed. "Whatever your quest may have been, my spotting you has rendered it so futile surely even you can find the humor in it. Let us not waste another second on this frivolity. Goodbye, Pony."
It didn't even bother to use its entire hand- two fingers crushed the air out of her lungs, long talons rubbing dangerously at her soft belly as she was spirited off the ground. Her head span from the heat and force as she crossed the distance to the dragon's slowly opening mouth, its forked tongue darting back and forth in its jaws, all lit by the bright orange light at the back of its throat.
Applejack scratched its chin.
The dragon froze, suddenly feeling tiny hooves rubbing the scales of its lower jaw. Its eyes jolted open.
"Attagirl, Winona." Applejack calmly approved. "Set me down."
Diligently, obediently, she was set back down on the floor, and the dragon's head sank to her level again. No longer towering imposingly, some part of it saw the pony that could reach its itches as deserving of a respect even it didn't understand.
Applejack moved her hooves, coming from the chin up to the end of the nose and then to just under the lips, scratching and stroking kindly and lovingly. She was no longer afraid of it- she knew how her pet ticked.
"Good girl, Winona." Applejack murmured, leaning in to set her head on the dragon's nose. "Who's a good girl?"
"Is it... me?" Winona's voice boomed.
"It's you."
The dragon grumbled, pleased with herself.