//------------------------------// // Unpredictable Rescues // Story: Dawn of the First Day // by Miniscule Literary //------------------------------// "I don't know what they did to you down there, but believe me," Rainbow Dash explained, leaping onto the bed. The pegasus lay on her side, one hoof supporting her head. "Its much more fun up here." "Why," Alfonz said bluntly, his eyes still locked on the ceiling. "What do you mean?" "Why do all this?" he asked, finally sitting up. "Dunno," Rainbow responded, shrugging, as she, too, sat up. "I just do what feels right." "How is this 'right'? I'm a totally different species!" Alfonz retorted, growing frustrated. "Doesn't seem like that big of deal to me," the pegasus replied with another shrug. "Besides, we don't get many males around here." "I'm terrified to ask why," the man said, mostly to himself. "I wouldn't be able to tell you, even if you did!" Rainbow assured with a laugh. "They just up and disappeared a long time ago." "Lovely," Alfonz muttered, laying back down onto the floor. "So..." Rainbow Dash began, crawling to the edge of the bed to look at him. "Why don't you join me up here?" "Why can't you take things slow?" he asked, his anger replaced somewhat by curiosity. She gave him a straight answer before, maybe she would clear a few other things up too? "I guess I can understand the whole lack of stallions bit, but why the hell are you all so forceful?" "You're asking me to take it slow?" the pegasus exclaimed, laughing heartily on the bed. "I do everything lightning fast!" she continued, before suddenly becoming serious again. "Though I hope you can't say the same." "Real classy," Alfonz snarled, glaring up at the pony looming above him. "Let's get started, then!" Rainbow insisted, hanging her front hooves over the edge of the bed, with her hindquarters raised behind her, like a lion ready to pounce. "I think I'm going to have to decline." "That's no fun!" the pegasus responded, poking at him with a hoof. Alfonz inched away to evade her touch. "I really don't care," he replied, shifting into a sitting position, away from the bed. "Now can you please return me to the god damn ground?" Rainbow hopped off the bed, landing within a few inches of the man's legs. She slowly advanced toward him, her eyes staring hungrily into his. "What the hell is with you ponies and the word 'no'?!" he growled, pushing Rainbow away from him and getting to his feet in the same motion. The pegasus frowned, staring up at him as he backed away. "You want to do this the hard way?" she said suddenly, glaring at him. "We'll do this the hard way!" Alfonz, knowing that the encounter had just escalated quite a bit, bolted down the stairs to the lower reaches of the house. Rainbow Dash shot after him, gaining on him in seconds, but not before he managed to reach the entrance. As he threw the door open, the rainbow maned pegasus tackled his legs, causing him to fall onto his stomach, his arms outstretched in front of him. With Rainbow still clinging to his legs, he pulled himself outside with his arms, teeth clenched under the strain. "You're not getting away that easy!" the pegasus declared, keeping her front hooves around his legs while her back hooves began digging into the cloud floor. The smaller creature's strength was incredible; Alfonz's progress was almost slowed to a halt. He had just managed to clear the doorway, and it seemed like his escape was all but thwarted. "Fine!" he said at last, keeping his grip on the clouds, but no longer pulled himself forward. Rainbow Dash seemed to stop pulling in her direction as well. "Fine. I give up. Just get the hell off me." The pegasus hesitated, clearly not trusting him, before she relented. "Don't even think about trying anything," she warned, releasing his legs and standing up. "I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria. You won't move an inch before I've got you again!" Alfonz believed her. He slowly stood, eyeing his surroundings warily. It was true that what he said was simply a ruse, but he had little means to take advantage of it. Even if he tried to fling himself off the edge of the clouds, Rainbow would be on him before he ever got near enough to try. He had to think quickly as well; if he hesitated too long, the pegasus would know he was going to try to escape. As he spent the few remaining seconds he had trying to think, Alfonz suddenly found himself aloft once again. The magnificent home of Rainbow Dash disappeared rapidly behind him, as the pressure on his arms returned; though this time, he was gripped by the shoulders, rather than held under the arms. "What the?!" he heard the pegasus cry in the distance, before he even realized what was going on himself. Looking up, Alfonz found himself in the grip of a partially mature dragon, its talons wrapped around his shoulders. It took a moment for his mind to process his new predicament. "Oh please be a male dragon, please be a male dragon!" he pleaded, closing his eyes tightly. "Or at least want to eat me if you aren't!" He did not want to think about the alternative. Alfonz watched as Ponyville appeared beneath them. The dragon was flying at an incredible speed, and it wasn't long before much of Ponyville disappeared behind them. They were also at an incredible altitude; far too high up, Alfonz guessed, for any of the denizens below to see them clearly. That made his chances of rescue, even by crazed, horny mares, fairly slim. Suddenly, however, the dragon began to descend. It aimed not for the imposing mountains in the distance, but rather the outskirts of Ponyville; specifically, a loose group of houses in an even more remote area than Fluttershy's cottage. It swooped down toward the last house on the street; a large, apparently abandoned manor. Had it not been so bright and colorful, Alfonz would've classified it as "that creepy old house" of the town. As they neared the ground, the man was suddenly released from the dragon's grasp. He hit the ground running, almost stumbling and falling as a result; he hadn't expected to be freed so abruptly. Looking around, he noticed that he had landed in some sort of grove behind the manor, lined with large trees and with a sizable, overgrown garden at its center. A loud thud sounded behind him, prompting Alfonz to turn. The dragon had landed not far away, staring hard at him with its reptilian eyes. It seemed much like the adult dragons he had seen in the show, only much smaller, and with a much shorter snout. It was a dirty purple and green in color, which instantly struck him like a blow to the stomach. "...Spike?" he said quietly, unbelieving. He only knew of one dragon with that coloration, but this was a form he had never seen the baby dragon take. However, his use of the name caused the dragon's eyes to widen. "Spike, you're huge!" he exclaimed, gaping in a mix of happiness and horror. "And you have wings! When the hell did this happen?!" "How do you know me?" the dragon growled, its voice deep and throaty, but devoid of anger. It seemed very surprised, if not alarmed. "Uh..." Alfonz began, having completely forgotten the consequences of revealing his knowledge. "Twilight told me about you." This seemed to have a profound effect on the dragon. "She...she talked about me?" he growled, staring blankly at the ground in front of Alfonz. "Yeah...shortly before she tried to force herself on me," Alfonz responded, only partially lying. Spike grimaced. "So I see she hasn't seen sense yet. I should've known." "Is..." Alfonz began, the thought dawning on him. "Is that why you left?" "I'll explain as much as I can," the dragon responded, turning toward the manor. "But we should get inside first." As Alfonz started toward the house, Spike suddenly began to change. With sickening cracks and crunches, the dragon's body began to contort, growing much smaller. His wings disappeared entirely into his back, and his spines became rounded. Before Alfonz's eyes, the sub-adult dragon had transformed back into the baby dragon he had come to expect. "Since when the hell could you do that?!" Alfonz exclaimed, taking a step back from the newly transformed dragon. "Inside, first," Spike insisted, pointing toward the manor. The manor itself was in much better condition on the inside. It seemed to retain the glory of its days in operation, devoid of dust and damage. Small magical lanterns cast a calming glow all throughout the building, whose rooms were extremely large and impressive. Everything seemed to be a reddish brown in color, often mixed with deep golds and yellows. Lavish furniture lay around them as they entered the den area, as well as a crackling fire; the enormous staircase that lead to the upstairs loomed behind them. It almost seemed too good to be true for Alfonz. "What is this place..." he murmured as he entered, staring wide eyed at the area before him. "A place that used to belong to somepony else," Spike explained. His voice, in his present form, was more akin to what Alfonz had come to know, though there was a distinct deepness to it as well. "Abandoned a long time ago." "Who in their right mind would abandon a place like this?" Alfonz replied as he took a seat in one of the large, decorative lounge chairs. Its large size for a pony made it an almost perfect fit for him. "I don't think they had much of a choice," Spike retorted, smirking, as he took a seat on a couch opposite to Alfonz's position. The fire crackled between them, on the wall to their side. "One of the stallions, I take it?" the man asked, frowning. Spike nodded. "And no, I don't know how they all disappeared. They just did." "That's some weird shit," Alfonz said bluntly, stroking his chin with a hand absently. "Was it because of all the mares going crazy, or did they go crazy because they all disappeared?" Spike shrugged. "So this is where you stay now?" "Yep," Spike replied, yawning. "I saw you running out of the library while I was in town. Thought you might've needed some help." "I appreciate it," Alfonz replied, blinking. He had almost forgot how close he had come to his own doom. He paused. "You said you were in town...I didn't see any crowds forming to gawk at you, and you implied you left because of Twilight..." "Oh, that," Spike responded with a wave of his clawed hand. "I just disguise myself and go into town in this form. They usually don't ask, and if I don't get too close, they won't smell me either." "So they can do that," Alfonz replied, frowning. He already knew, but this was confirmation of his suspicions indeed. "I take it that wasn't your first...uh...encounter with one of the mares." "I wish," Alfonz murmured, slouching in his chair. "How long have you been out here?" "Fifteen years." "Fifteen years?!" Alfonz repeated, almost launching himself out of his seat. Spike nodded, his arms folded. The man paused. "Have you ever...?" "With one of the...?" Spike asked, prompting Alfonz to nod slowly, a horrified look on his face. "No, no, none of that. I got out of there as soon as Twilight started getting...pushy." "Thank god," Alfonz breathed, having held his breath before the dragon answered. The thought was quite disturbing, to say the least. But it didn't entirely make sense. "Didn't you have a crush on Rarity?" "How do you know these things?!" Spike exclaimed, gripping the arm of the couch he was sitting on. "You first." "Fine," Spike huffed, calming. "I did, yeah. But when I became of age, I was only interested in other dragons, you know? I never intended to get...intimate with a pony, even Rarity." "You don't know how many lives you have destroyed with that sentence, should I ever get back to my home," Alfonz replied with a chuckle, while laughing hysterically in his mind. Spike looked at him as though he were mad. "So how do you know so much about me?" "Its really complicated, and it could destroy everything, so I'm sticking with 'Twilight told me'," Alfonz explained bluntly, leaning back in the chair. "You're a very strange character. You know my name; can I know yours?" "Alfonz," the man replied, bowing. "Pleased to meet you."