Chapter 2
The ghostly green glow that surrounded Ryoga grew brighter in the instant before it leapt into the sky, even as his shoulders slumped and his eyes took on a dead and lifeless stare. The malevolent ball of energy flying high before stopping and then crashing down, ruining the technicolor town he stood in, smashing it to pieces and blowing houses, pony’s homes, to rubble.
One small house at the edge of the town had escaped from the destruction, but only for a second as Ryoga raised his hand and let loose another Shishi Hokodan — this one didn’t need to be the perfect form, just enough to rend the house to pieces around the few ponies huddling inside.
Things were deathly quiet for a few seconds before a breeze picked up and whistled across the wreckage before the relative stillness, too, was broken by a deep and ominous laughter.
Ryoga lifted his head, raising his arms to the skies and laughed in a manner that was not altogether sane.
“I AM YOUR DOOM!” He cried to the now-dead ponies, who would never to torment him again, crushed beneath the overwhelming power of his depression-fueled Shishi Hokodan.
That’s when Ryoga woke in a cold sweat. What a horrible nightmare, he shuddered at the memory. It was one thing to fight back against your oppressors, or when someone attacked you, or when that jerk Ranma provoked you… but it was quite another to go around destroying people’s houses without regard.
Being eternally lost, Ryoga had a special place in his heart for his home, and indeed the idea of home in general — he would never intentionally destroy someone’s home, it was just too sacred a place. The very idea was what made the nightmare so disturbing… oh, and the murders, that made it disturbing too.
It was almost as disturbing as the throw-rug in his hooves — how the heck had that gotten there?
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Spike jumped at the part-snort/part-grunt that Porkchop gave as he bolted awake. It was almost as if the little black piglet had a nightmare — but that was ridiculous… or was it? He vaguely remembered Applejack laughing with Twilight and the others about Winona’s legs twitching as she slept.
‘I wonder what a pig would dream about…’ Spike absently thought, ‘and what would a pig have nightmares about?’
It was one of those odd questions that made you laugh at its absurdity, but still tickled the back of your mind wanting an answer, and indeed it did even as Spike plucked the poor piglet from the basket.
“It’s ok, Porkchop.” Spike said, rocking the piglet in his arms (a funny sight, because the piglet was not all that much smaller than Spike), “I’ve got you, and I won’t let anything bad happen to you… I mean what sort of dragon would I be if I did?”
Ryoga was comforted by this, oddly enough… though it was pretty discouraging that even here more people cared about him when he was a pig than when he was a human. (Forget, for the moment, that he hasn’t been a human at all since he got to Equestria.)
“I was coming to get you anyway, Porkchop.” Spike said, slipping the leash onto the collar underneath the yellow-and-black bandana — it really was a nice, stylish bandana. Spike made a mental note to thank Fluttershy for it, and Rarity too. “Today’s a Pony Pet Playdate! So I’ll get to show you off to everybody.”
— — — — —
Ryoga was led across the town to a fairly large park where there were several more of the ponies gathered, each with another pet of their own: an orange one with a dog, a pink one with an alligator (Ryoga suppressed a shudder as he remembered Kodachi Kuno and her pet alligator), a yellow one with a rabbit, a blue one with a turtle that had some crazy variant of the helicopter-hat that allowed it to fly, a white one with a cat, and lastly Twilight had an owl.
“Let’s go meet everypony; ok, Porkchop?” Spike asked, before half-dragging the piglet to the first introduction: the white unicorn and with her white cat.
“Hi, Rarity! This is Porkchop, my new pet!” Spike said with a goofy smile, a smile that Ryoga knew all too well. “Porkchop, this is Rarity and her cat Opalescence.”
The white cat glared at the pig for a minute before taking a swipe, which Ryoga dodged expertly, preparing to go on the offensive when the unicorn spoke up.
“Opal! You be good, Porkchop hasn’t done anything.” Rarity turned to Spike, “I’m so sorry, Opal’s been in a bad mood all day today.”
“Ah, that’s ok Rarity.” Spike said in a tone of voice that Ryoga identified as utterly accepting… the poor kid had it bad. “I still have to introduce him to everypony else.”
The young dragon moved on to the next pony, the soft-spoken yellow pegasus that Ryoga had seen yesterday and seemed to be arguing with a small rabbit.
“Hey Fluttershy!” Spike greeted, “Did you ever introduce Angel to Porkchop?”
“Oh, you named him Porkchop? That’s... interesting.” Fluttershy responded, “No, I don’t think I ever did… Angel doesn’t like going near the piggies, he doesn’t like it when they get mud on his fur.”
“Ah, I see.” Spike replied, “Anyway, this is Fluttershy’s rabbit, Angel.”
At this point the pink pony jumped in all smiles and excitement, bombarding Spike with questions:
“Oh, a new pet! What’s his name? Does he like cake? How about pickles? I hear they’re great for pig’s feet! Do you think that she’ll get along with Gummy? Oh, is it a girl, or a boy? Does it like lollipops?”
“Hi Pinkie, this is Porkchop.” Spike said, then began to answer the rest of the questions as best as he could, “I don’t know about cake, or pickles; I don’t see why Porkchop wouldn’t, he’s really well behaved; Porkchop is a boy-pig; and I have no idea if he likes lollipops.”
“Hm, I see…” Pinky said, rubbing her chin in a manner that suggested she was planning something. “I’ll be back… just you wait.”
With that Pinky trotted off, but Ryoga felt like something was missing… that that would have been the perfect spot for a maniacal laugh.
Spike on the other hand took it as a matter of course and led Ryoga to an orange pony playing rambunctiously with a brown dog.
“This is Applejack and Winona,” Spike said gesturing to the two as they rolled around on the grass.
Applejack paused the play-session as she became aware of the new audience, “Hey there partner, what’s up now?”
“I just wanted to introduce you to Porkchop.” Spike replied, proudly showing off the black piglet.
“That’s a right-nice piglet, ya got there.” Applejack said, nodding toward Ryoga, “He’s cute enough ta win ya a blue ribbon in the next state-fair.”
That’s when the final pony that he hadn’t met, a light-blue one with an eye-catching multi-colored mane made an appearance swooping in on the scene followed by what appeared to be a turtle strapped in an odd helicopter-contraption.
“Rainbow Dash!” Spike called, getting her attention, “This is my new pet, Porkchop!”
“Well, that’s awesome!” She replied — unknown to Ryoga, Rainbow Dash had been Spike’s main advocate when the pet thing came up with Twilight, she knew Spike was loyal and responsible certainly considering his age.
“Thanks for sticking up for me, by the way.” Spike said, genuinely grateful that somepony had, “I don’t think Twilight would have let me get Porkchop if you hadn’t.”
“Hey, it’s no big deal… I’m just awesome like that!” Rainbow Dash replied.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Spike indicated the strangely flying turtle, “This is Tank.”
Having introduced Porkchop to all of the rest of the pets, Spike made his way over to Twilight who was playing with Owlicious.
“Oh, Spike… did you introduce Porkchop to everyone?” she asked when she saw him.
“Yep, we just finished.” Spike said with a satisfied nod just as something struck him, “Hey, have we introduced him to Owlicious?”
“I don’t think so.” Twilight shook her head.
“Well then, Porkchop,” Spike indicated the owl, who was performing some interesting areal maneuvers, “that is Owlicious… he’s also Twilight’s number two assistant.”
Ryoga nodded… he’d never remember everybody’s names.
This was when his reverie was broken by an explosion — an explosion of cake, confetti, and a cacophony of party-music.
“I realized that we haven’t thrown Porkchop a Welcome to Our Group of Pets Party!” Pinky Pie explained as Ryoga squirmed out of the cake that had landed on him. She continued on, frowning “I think I need to get my party cannon fixed.”
Ryoga coughed up what was probably a lungful of confetti. ‘Yeah, any more force on that thing and you’ll send someone to the moon!’ Ryoga though.
“Let me try again.” Pinkie tweaked some things with the cannon, aiming it at the piglet.
“I think he had enough cake though, Pinkie!” Spike said quickly, hoping that she’d listen to him.
“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie Said, all smiles and happiness before suddenly glaring at Ryoga — “I’m watching you…”
Ryoga was caught flat footed, this pink pony was definitely strange.