//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Over the River and Through the Woods, to Get Away from the Dragon // Story: Poeni: An Ancient Breed // by DaBeejees //------------------------------// My name is Briar Rose. Yeah, my last name is Rose, laugh it up. Better? Good. I am not like most other ponies...at all, especially considering that most ponies never have to get all worked up about having to run for their lives through the Everfree Forest from a deadly dragon that they just stole from, but that's momentarily beside the point. As for right now, I feel that before I get too into the details of the...unfortunate situation I currently find myself in, I should tell you a little bit - okay, a lot - about myself while I still have the chance. Sound good? Good. First off, it would make sense if I told you about what I look like...no, not to brag; hell, I don't really have anything to brag about! Remember, you're talking to a stallion with the surname 'Rose' over here. But then again, my family has a...history of...fragrances. Yes, that was foreshadowing, well, kinda...sorta...okay no, it really wasn't. But we're beginning to get off on a tangent. Okay, to start off simply - and bluntly - my coat is a light shade of gold; not yellow, gold - light goldenrod, to be specific. Any more specific and I'll be listing off hex triplets. As for my fluid mane and long-and-straight tail, they are a mix of two colors, crimson red and regular goldenrod. There is one thing I feel that I need to specifically point out about my mane, well, several things, actually. First, it is a medium-long to a longish in length, more-so in the back than the front, but it isn't by very much at all. Next, I feel that the consistency and such of my hair is absolutely perfect -- no, I'm not a pansy, pun intended, but just give me a second here, aight? Everything I say I'm saying for a reason...usually. Just don't judge me; I'm quite capable of judging myself. I'm being chased by a dragon, remember? Alright, well, it's silky enough to feel good - yeah, you're right - really good...and that shouldn't be taken out of context - but it's also just greasy enough for my 'bangs' - even though that is what they're called, my stallionliness is making me reluctant to call them such - to stick to each other just enough for them to form and act pretty much just like window blinds, except the 'window' in this case would be my right eye. No, I'm not 'emo'! What did I say about letting me finish? Besides, if I was 'emo', I wouldn't be able to see through my 'blind-bangs', which I am as of right now coining them. Yeah, on the spot - damn straight. Anyway, the point of these 'blind-bangs'...well, I should probably mention that - for reasons I'd rather not talk about, at least not yet - my right eye is extremely sensitive to light, as well as partially multi-colored, but I'll get to those details in a bit. So, these 'blind-bangs' function to serve as a 'light barrier', if you will: not letting in enough light to affect my vision in that eye negatively, while on the other hoof, letting in just enough light to allow me to see through them. Alright, now to talk about my eyes themselves. First off, my left eye is perfectly normal, and I hope it stays that way, too. Ah, and it's also just as ruby red as the eyes of a certain DJ mare you might of heard of before. Anyway, in respect to my right eye...well...you'll be fortunate to come away with anything from the best description I can provide: originally, my right eye was also ruby red - shocker! However, it's now...now what many ponies call a sort of 'silverish-red', although those same ponies also say that they can also distinguish between the two extremely effectively, especially - according to them - when my right eye is hiding behind my 'blind-bangs', as they claim that that causes all of the red in my right iris to...melt away, leaving only silver poking out from between my semi-greasy pillars of mane. Yes, I know that isn't very definitive, but, understandably, I have to simply take their word for it, no? By the way, I just thought you might want to know that many ponies also believe that the silver in my right iris was caused by an injury of some sort. Unfortunately for your patience, though, I ain't saying jack shit about it...yet. Don't worry, that one is definitely foreshadowing. Moving on, one particular thing about my right eye is the difference in the diameter of the dilation of the pupil between whether it is Celestia's sun or Luna's moon that graces the sky above: during the day, my right pupil is only about the size of a pinhead! It's so sensitive to the sun - and thus sensitive to light - that it has actually attracted the attention of some ponies in the past: by this point, I'm completely unphased by random ponies shoving their face into mine in some weird attempt to find where my pupil has run off to. That doesn't make it any less awkward, though. However, on the flip side, when it's nighttime, you could basically say that - to use another pun - my pupil nearly eclipses my iris. In cases when the darkness is overwhelming, my 'blind-bangs' would have basically served as a pirate's eye-patch would - adjusting my eye to the dark so I have night-vision at the ready. I utilize this now, as Luna's moon is starting to make its accent while I am still galloping ahead of the dragon, maintaining my speed as I give a flip of my 'blind-bangs', resulting in near-perfect night vision within a matter of sheer seconds! With this new and improved eyesight - in combination with the dragon's receding eyesight as Celestia's sun itself receded from sight in the sky, I pushed myself further so as to increase the distance between myself and my reptilian-esque pursuer. As I continued galloping, I tried to shake the thought of how neither myself nor the pursuing dragon had either tired out or wiped ou-- Fan-fucking-tastic. I just had to jinx myself, didn't I? By some joke pulled by the threads of fate, one of my hooves snagged on what I admit was a disturbingly well-hidden tree root, causing me to somersault for several yards further, before crashing to a painful halt. Still, I refused to hesitate. I couldn't hesitate; even if the dragon's eyesight was diminishing with the daylight, I didn't exactly crash quietly. I quickly pushed myself up and forcefully managed to push my body weight in such a way that I immediately had hopped off of the path and into the neighboring foliage before the dragon could catch up to the spot where I had fallen. With nothing else to waste, I immediately began taking a route perpendicular to the path I had originally been on, only stopping for a quick status check once I had shortly reached a small clearing. I swear, if only my wings weren't currently unusable due to an injury I suffered on them about a week ago, I would have been long gone; sure, the dragon could fly, too -- which surprised me when it didn't -- but I would've had too much speed and agility for it to have nearly been able catch up. Key word: would've. The very moment that I had reached that small clearing, I dropped to my haunches. I was absolutely exhausted, so much so that my lungs were burning due to how quickly I was forcing deep breaths. Fortunately, those were the only things that were burning - adrenaline had long caused my limbs to go numb. opening up my saddlebag on my right. Inside was my pet, and friend for several lifetimes over, Poeni: an ancient phoenix, for whom I was going through all of these ordeals for. She still looked sickly: her vividly-colored feathers weren't nearly as vibrant as usual - they looked rather dim in fact - her body language and stature was much more sluggish, and the...the feeling you got just from being around her let you know that she was nearing her end...er, beginning, rather; after all, she is a phoenix. But since she is an ancient phoenix, this more specifically meant that she was nearing the time when she would need to light her ritual funeral pyre to be reborn, which actually is the reason for why I am now being hunted down by that dragon; what I had stolen from it was one of the required ingredients for Poeni's ritual pyre. I opened up the saddlebag on the other side to show Poeni a sack - a sack that I had filled earlier with said ingredient, back at the dragon's cave. "One down, Popo!" I cheerfully coo to my avian companion. It turns out that I might had said that a bit too loudly. The next thing I knew, I heard another, closer, dragon roar. My eyes widened. Fuck. Hastily, I threw the sack into the saddlebag that I had taken it out of, literally shoved Poeni into the other, and immediately began hightailing it in the opposite direction of the bloodthirsty roar, barely managing to fling my saddlebags onto my back as I did. I honestly didn't even care which direction I was heading, so long as it was away. However - as I would later discover - the direction I chose was that of the small, homely town of Ponyville...