A few ponies turned their heads at the blue pegasus galloping through the streets of the town. The pegasus in question took another sharp turn into an alley and finally stopped for a moment to catch his breath. Running on four legs was new, but by now it was already as easy to him as running on two legs had been. He didn’t know if he should be thankful for that or rather be concerned about it.
The pegasus was known in most parts of the world as “Black Leg Sanji”. He was also known as a human, which was probably the only thing the marines had gotten right about him on the “wanted” poster. Now he couldn’t even say that anymore.
Sanji carefully moved to the next corner of the alley, checking if the coast outside was clear. Pony, horse or whatever else he was now, he had still managed to outrun the group of crazy mares. Thinking about them sent a pain right through his heart; The poor girls didn’t even seem to realize the terrible fate they had been afflicted with.
He was now walking – trotting, he corrected himself – through a mostly empty street, trying not to draw any attention. A few steps ahead he noticed a tree house – an actual tree with windows in its sides and even a small balcony… By far not the strangest building Sanji had seen on his journey. What really caught his attention were the bookshelves he could spot through every window. The tree seemed to be a library or something of that sort.
Sanji trembled a little as painful memories of a beautiful woman with black hair shot through his head. He had to find a way off of this island and back to the Shabondy Archipelago. But there was still one other necessity he had to take care of.
Spike was busy reshelving books when he heard the knock at the door. At least that’s what he was going to tell Twilight. Twilight saw him taking naps often enough whenever she was around, he wouldn’t just tell her that he was even less motivated to work when she wasn’t keeping an eye on him.
“Can I help you?” The pegasus outside was no pony Spike had seen before in Ponyville, he was pretty sure of that. Still, he didn’t even flinch when Spike opened the door. Maybe they had dragons wherever he came from, too.
“Is this the local library?” the blue stallion asked. Yup, definitely from out of town.
“As a matter of fact, it is. Do you need a certain book or--?”
The stallion cut him off. “Actually, I just wanted to ask if you had any cigarettes.”
Spike gave him a slightly confused look. “`Cigarettes´? What are those supposed to be?”
The stallion frowned for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. “Nevermind. Could you maybe give me a few pieces of paper? I don’t have any money on me, though.”
“I don’t think that’s a problem. Twilight usually scraps more paper in a day than you could carry.” Spike collected a few crumpled notes and straightened them out before walking back over to the door. “These are mainly unused. I’ll just rip the top part off–“ his claws performed a mix of cutting and ripping and the top parts of the paper sheets came right off. “–there you go. They’re a little small now, I hope that’s not a problem.”
“They’re perfect, actually,” the stallion replied. “Thank you. Now if you excuse me, I really need to hurry.” With that he turned around and galloped off through the street.
“Hey! That way is the Everfree Forest!” Spike shouted after him, but the stallion didn’t seem to hear him. “What a strange pony,” he muttered to himself. “Travelling through town without any money. I wonder if he already met Pinkie Pie…”
A few streets away Twilight and her friends had stopped in front of Sugarcube Corner.
“Wow, he’s fast!” Rainbow Dash commented. “Almost as fast as I am.”
“If he’s `almost as fast´, why didn’t y’all catch him?” Applejack asked
“Well, you’re only a little slower than me, so why didn’t you catch him?” Rainbow Dash shot back.
Twilight quickly intervened. “Girls, focus! There’s a very confused pony running around and we have to find him before he gets in trouble! Besides,” she jokingly added, “I think I’ve got a small trophy somewhere that says I’m faster than both of you.”
Oh, I remember!” Pinkie chimed in. “Me and Spike got to play commentators and fly in a balloon. Ooh, I should be the commentator for more of our adventures! That would be– Whoaa!” Pinkie mane suddenly jumped to the right, pulling her head along. “My Pinkie Sense! There’s a new pony at the library!” Without another word she ran off in the direction her mane had pointed.
Twilight blankly stared after her for a moment before turning back to her other friends. “That must be him. We better follow Pinkie.”
Sanji scanned the surrounding forest for anything suspicious. Now that he was away from the town he could finally relax a little. Whatever this jungle would throw at him couldn’t be half as bad as the nightmare he had just escaped from. Nightmare. Even the word itself seemed to mock him.
Still, the situation was not completely hopeless. Maybe that town was just an exception and the rest of the island was not completely inhabited by horses – or small dragons for that matter. The one at the library had been quite polite and helpful, but Sanji could only hope that the curse of this island didn’t turn some girls into dragons as well. He might not survive hearing a voice like that of the poor Rarity out of such a scaly body.
He also had some paper now, to make some makeshift cigarettes if he couldn’t find any. Finding tobacco in this forest was not very likely, but maybe he could find some sort of substitute.
He spread his wings a little and bit into the corner of the pieces of paper they had carried. He had found that they could work surprisingly similar to hands if he wanted, at least a lot better than his hooves would. He tried to flap them again, still holding the paper with his mouth, and managed to lift himself off the ground. He then set his hind legs back on the ground and tried to stand like he normally would, his wings still slowly beating to keep his balance. Maybe he could still fight.
He thought about that for a moment. His forelegs felt like actual legs just as much as they still felt like his arms, which was confusing to say the least. If he could use his wings as some kind of hands, though, and cook with them on the same level he had before – without a doubt he would need some practice first – then he had four actual legs free to use in a fight. It would take some getting used to, but the possibilities where there.
He set his forelegs back to the ground and took the paper back up with his wing. He glanced around once more as he started to move into a faster trot. Deeper into the forest, off the path, a shimmer caught his attention.
Rarity carefully stepped over roots and around muddy spots as she made her way deeper into the Everfree. Spike had told them that the stallion had left in this direction and the six of them had split up to cover more ground. Rarity wasn’t exactly happy with the arrangements.
She carefully made her way around a larger bramble, trying to keep her mane away from the thorns, twigs and vines, and found herself at the entrance to a cave. A scared and confused pony would probably try to find some shelter. Sure enough, some light reflected from the walls deeper inside the cave. Maybe he had made himself a fire.
Rarity rounded the corner further down the cave and was greeted not by the light of a campfire, but the glimmer of gold, gemstones and jewelry. A dragon’s hoard. That must belong to the dragon Spike and Twilight told us about. Rarity was about to turn around when she saw something lying at one side of the hoard. She let out a small gasp.
“Diamonds! A whole collection of them! Those are exactly what I need.” In a second she was at the edge of the hoard, singling out the best ones and floating them into her saddlebags. “Well, this adventure certainly is a success already.” Her eyes moved a little to the side. “Hmm. I’m sure he wouldn’t miss a ruby or two.”
“I’m pretty sure I would,” said a dark voice behind her.
Rarity’s pupils shrank rapidly. She slowly turned around and came face to face with a huge green dragon with yellow eyes. “Why, hello,” she nervously began. “This must be your hoard. I’ve heard a lot about you. A friend told me about you.”
The dragon blew a cloud of smoke at her. “Did he tell you that I don’t like ponies stealing my gems?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t even think about taking anything.” Rarity slowly levitated one of the diamonds out of her saddlebag. “I was simply admiring the way they– Catch!” She threw the diamond right over the dragon’s head and sprinted for the exit. The dragon’s surprise wore off faster than she would have liked and he started chasing after her. She made it out of the cave and around the bramble just in time to dodge a stream of flames emanating from the cave entrance. She felt a short pull and looked back to see a tuft of her mane stuck on a few thorns.
She let out a high-pitched scream as she continued running.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash had both followed the scream and almost simultaneously burst out of the forest into a clearing. They had barely enough time to notice each other’s presence before Rarity came galloping out of the forest on the other side of the clearing. A small tree flew over her head and landed in front of her, momentarily cutting her off from her two friends.
Before either of them could react a green dragon burst into the clearing, knocking over another tree. The dragon let out a loud roar and turned his gaze back to Rarity. “You won’t get away this time, pony.”
“Hey! Leave her alone!” Rainbow Dash had already made his way over the tree and was now flying at the dragon’s head, ready to give him a good buck. “You’re not the first dragon I’ve fought.”
The dragon sent a jet of flames right over Rainbow Dash’s head, forcing her down to avoid the heat. He brought one of his clawed hands down on Rainbow Dash who could only pull her wings in and try to avoid the claws to reduce the damage. She hit the ground a couple of feet away, which added more bruises to the ones she already had. Meanwhile Twilight had made her way around the tree and now immediately rushed to her side to check her for serious injuries.
“And now to you, pony.” The dragon looked down on Rarity, who was still trapped between him and the tree. He took a deep breath and got ready to let loose another jet of flames.
“No!” Rainbow Dash had already taken to the air again and flew towards Rarity, but had to stop and shield her head with her hooves as flames shot out of the dragon’s mouth and towards Rarity. She and Twilight could only watch as the blaze consumed everything for what seemed like minutes. When the fire died down the earth where Rarity had been was scorched and the tree had been burned to a stump.
“Rarity,” whispered Twilight. Beside her, Rainbow Dash had not landed but simply let herself fall to the ground. They just stared at the big scorch mark where their friend had been. It took Twilight a moment to notice a movement at the edge of the forest, several feet away from the burned earth.
A powder blue pegasus with a blond mane stood on his hind legs with his back turned to them, his wings slowly beating to keep him in balance. Smoke was rising from his head. The pegasus slowly turned around and Twilight could that he was looking at a shivering white unicorn lying in his forelegs. His hooves were deep red and reflected the sunlight, as if he was wearing horseshoes entirely made out of ruby.
The pegasus raised his head and stared at the dragon, then turned his head to Twilight and Rainbow Dash. In his eyes was a determination that Twilight had never seen on anypony before. She could hear the hooves of other ponies as Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy entered the clearing and made their way to Rainbow Dash and her.
“It doesn’t matter what you look like or why I am suddenly a horse,” the pegasus declared. “I WILL NEVER IGNORE A LADY’S CALL FOR HELP!”