//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Trial Run // Story: Flammen Woofer // by Croabadrake //------------------------------// "Oh my, it even sorts them by name..." he said, panning through the list. "Yes... I can't remember if the one back home did that or not," he continued with a shrug. "In any case, let's jump to a random point and..." He dragged his finger quickly upwards on the list, sending it scrolling in that direction quickly. He closed his eyes as it continued to scroll, not losing speed. A moment passed... and then he slammed his finger back onto the screen to stop it. "...Ow," he said, shaking his hand from having hurt his finger a bit with the exaggerated action. "...where have I wound up? Hm... the W's. Perfect! Now let's see.... hm... Willimena... no... Wimpy... that's a good one, but no... Winona?" He paused for a second to think to himself again before smiling. "Well it doesn't really matter, now does it? We'll go with Winona..." A few seconds later, he had a visual up: a transparent representation of the currently selected subject and its surroundings, floating in the air above the panel. The subject, a dog known as Winona, was happily walking along next to her owner, an orange pony named Applejack. "Perfect..." He split off a copy of his custom fire breath element with his hand, and lowered it into the image of Winona... -------------------------------------------------------------- Applejack was enjoying a beautiful summer day in Sweet Apple Acres with her dog and best friend, Winona. She happily trotted along one of the many paths through the acres of apple trees on her family's farm, humming to herself. She was currently on her way to the next section to be bucked, having just finished taking the last two baskets full of apples from the previous one into storage. "...You okay there, Winona?" Applejack asked, looking down to her friend who had suddenly gained an odd expression. Winona stopped walking and shook her head for a second. It apparently didn't help, since she looked like she still had a bad taste in her mouth or something. She shook her head a second time, which seemed to clear it up. Applejack chuckled. "Don't tell me fleas are gettin' to ya' now, we still got plenty a' work to do today," she said as the two resumed walking. A few moments later, they arrived at their destination: Big Mac was already here beginning the work. As Applejack joined him in bucking the trees, Winona set about her job: pest control. It was her duty to chase out anything that might endanger the fields, such as fruit bats. As Applejack and her brother bucked apples, Winona wound herself through the nearby trees sniffing at the ground. It was not long before she caught a familiar scent... she growled as soon as she confirmed it. Fruit bats. Winona quickly began to follow the scent, winding between the trees and making her way away from her owners. A moment later, her ears picked up a sound: munching. Winona growled, her focus on the matter at hand causing her to miss the small smoketrails that emitted from her nose... she followed the trail around another tree and stopped: there it was! The fruit bat sat on the ground with its back to her, happily gorging itself on an apple from a nearby tree. Winona assumed an intimidating position and barked. ARFOOM -------------------------------------------------------------- Applejack dropped the apple she was picking up with her tail in surprise. "What the heck was that?" she asked, looking off in the direction of the odd noise. It sounded like an explosion of some kind... her eyes trailed upwards as she saw something fly out of the trees some ways away. It looked like a fruit bat but... was it trailing smoke? It looked panicked... the smoke trail and panicking wouldn't be odd if it were Zap Apple season, but it wasn't. Applejack's attention was suddenly snapped back down to ground level as she heard an alarming sound: yelping. "WINONA!" she cried, knocking over a nearby basket of apples as she bolted in the direction of her friend's distressed cries. It sounded like she was heading this way too -- was something chasing her? What could be chasing Winona out here!? Her question was answered as Winona rounded a tree up ahead, running towards her in a panic. Winona's mouth appeared to be on fire. "WOOOAAH NELLY!" Applejack yelled, turning and running from her flaming dog. Her fur wasn't on fire, but another burst of flame seemed to erupt from her teeth with every yelp. Applejack passed Big Mac, who must have been following some ways behind her. He seemed puzzled at first by her sudden change of direction before he too spotted Winona's distress. "NNNNOPE." -------------------------------------------------------------- The stranger in the control room nearly fell backwards laughing. He didn't, though, managing to regain his balance at the last moment and standing straight again. "Oh my, my my my...... my," he said, nearly crying. "I haven't seen entertainment like this in ages!" "Don't worry, Winona!" Applejack yelled over her shoulder as she ran. "We're gonna' figure this out! Just hang in there!" "EEYUP!" Big Mac added without turning to look. The stranger calmed down a bit. "...hm... that is a lot of trees... maybe this dog wasn't the best choice." He paused for a second. "...though it doesn't seem to be lighting any up, either...... maybe I should've used more mumbles." He flinched at the thought of spending more time making a new version of the fire breath element. "No... no, I'll keep it like this. As for this poor dog Winona..." He reached into the image and took out the fire breath element before dispelling it, as he didn't need more than one copy to work with. The image of Winona indicated success: flames ceased erupting from her mouth and her running slowed, along with her owners once they noticed the problem's disappearance. As Applejack and Big Mac cautiously approached Winona to check on her, the stranger sighed. "...well, that was a good first try. Fate still doesn't seem to be coming back anytime soon... I should have time for another experiment or two!" With this, he closed down the image and went back to the species screen, scrolling through to look for a new subject to apply his fire breath template to. It was not long before he found an interesting new subject, and in the same general region too......!