//------------------------------// // The Hidden Resistance – Changelings and Campfire Stories // Story: My Little Pirates: Set Adrift - Sanji in Equestria // by River Road //------------------------------// Sanji shivered as he trotted through the small forest. Slowly the cold was starting to get to him, but he was getting closer. Hopefully that last lead would turn out to be the final one. He looked around the forest. The Timberwolves still didn’t dare to come to close to him and no other animals were around. Everything was unnaturally quiet. “We didn’t expect any visitors today. What brings you here?” Sanji looked in the direction the voice had come from. Something white moved between the trees and a pony turned to face him, revealing itself. The pony was a pegasus stallion. His right side – mane, fur and feathers – was completely white and the reason Sanji hadn’t noticed him before. His left side was bright orange and stood out from the snow as much as the white side blended in with it. He was wearing a pair of glasses with the same color scheme and his cutie mark showed a pair of orange and white scissors, half of which was barely visible on against the fur on either flank. “I’m looking for my captain. He wears a straw hat.” Sanji didn’t even flinch at the pony’s appearance. So far the stallion didn’t look like a guard, at least. The other pony raised an eyebrow. “That’s not a very detailed description. This is a prison, how do you know if he’s even still wearing it?” “I'm not sure what he looks like as a pony,” Sanji replied, “but if he’s still alive he is wearing that straw hat. Have you seen him or not? I heard that he has been poisoned, and I want to find him as soon as possible.” The pony stared at him for a moment – or maybe he didn’t, it was hard to tell with those glasses. Then he turned around and started walking away through the forest. “Follow me.” “Gyahaha, what did I say? We have a warm and safe spot just to ourselves.” The earth pony with the weird nose who had introduced himself as ´Captain Buggy´ let out another deep laugh, mouth wide open. “At least as long as those horses don’t come back,” muttered the other stallion, who was apparently called ´Mister Three´. Clutterstep looked at him more closely. He seemed like a normal earth pony, despite his unusual manestyle, but apparently he could shoot wax from his hooves, just like the other pony could split off parts of his body. They had called it ´Devil Fruit Powers´ and it seemed like it was the only explanation they would give for now. Maybe it really didn’t make more sense than that, Clutterstep wouldn’t be surprised. “They are called Windigos,” the unicorn, ´Trixie´ spoke up. At least Clutterstep knew that she was a normal pony… As normal as one could consider a pony like her, anyway. “Trixie agrees with you, but as long as we don’t start arguing again, there should be nothing to worry about.” “Then it’s good that I have these…” Buggy pulled two bottles seemingly out of nowhere. “Swiped them from the guard’s room on Level Two when we went through. We’re going to form an alliance to get out of this prison, and we can’t do that properly without some good old sake.” He took a long swig from the bottle and let out a content sigh; then he handed the bottle over to Clutterstep. Clutterstep took a sip and immediately had to cough from the strong alcohol. Trixie had the same problem, but Mr. 3 seemed used to it. “Gyahaha! Looks like we have some lightweights here. I won’t complain, though, if that means you leave more for us.” Buggy left the bottle with Mr. 3 and opened the second one for himself. “Well, what now? We have some time to waste and nothing to do.” “Ah, this is good” Mr. 3 said, setting the bottle down next to him. He turned his head to look at Buggy. “I’m still curious. How do you know the Straw Hat?” “That’s right, you’ve met him before, too, haven’t you?” The fire and the alcohol seemed to considerably lift Buggy’s spirits. “Well then, I’ll tell you my story if you tell yours.” He let out his loud laugh again. “Gyahaha! I could get used to this! I’m almost forgetting we’re inside a prison!” The two-colored pegasus led Sanji to a secret entrance and down a row of corridors. In the end they stopped at a large doorway. Inside dozens of black, insect-like ponies were sitting around tables in a large room, laughing and cheering at a group of insect-ponies that was dancing a Cancan on the stage. From what Sanji had learned in Equestria, he concluded that they were probably part of the Changeling Ponies Twilight had mentioned – or more likely, pirates that had the appearance of changelings. As soon as they entered the room the cheering and laughing stopped and the Changelings left the stage. Everypony went quiet except for one big changeling with a strangely big and poofy purple mane. He was still dancing with his back to the crowd, completely oblivious and humming the tact to himself. Sanji stopped next to the pegasus that had led him here and who was now staring up at the changeling on stage, with no visible emotion. “Are you the leader of this place?” The changeling on stage completely ignored him and kept humming and dancing, which looked ridiculous without anyone else on the stage. Sanji carefully stepped closer to the stage. “Excuse m–“ “WELCOME!” The changeling spun around without a warning and struck a pose, standing on his hind legs. His head seemed too big for his body, his mane seemed too big for his head, and he was wearing more makeup than could be considered reasonable. Unlike the rest of the changelings in the room he also had a horn. Sanji waited for him to say something else, but the changeling seemed content to just hold the pose he was standing in, mouth still open in a strange grin. After a few seconds he slowly tipped over and fell face first to the ground. Sanji continued to watch him, but he didn’t move at all. After a minute Sanji decided to jump up onto the stage and reached out with a hoof to poke the changeling’s mane. “I’M OKAY! HEE-HAW!” The changeling was suddenly standing on his hind legs again, in the same pose he had taken earlier. Sanji hadn’t even seen him move. All around the room the changelings burst into laughter and threw their forelegs in the air, shouting in unison, “You got us, Iva-sama!” Sanji ignored the noise around them. “Look, if you could tell me where my captain is…” The changeling seemed to notice him only now. “You! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on– …Eh? What was I talking about?” he said. “Have you heard of me already?” Sanji wondered who would recognize him as a pony. Because of his stupid wanted poster, people wouldn’t even recognize him as a human. The changeling took a closer look at Sanji’s face and walked around him to examine him from all sides. When he was back in front of Sanji he paused for a moment and cleared his throat loudly to make sure he had the attention of everyone. “I HAVE NO IDEA! HEE-HAW!” “You got us again, Iva-sama!”