Mizuko vs. Oddluck - by Mizuko's Author
Being one of the most densely populated cities in Equestria, Manehattan was no stranger to heavy rush hour traffic. Every day the metropolis' sidewalks and streets would be obscured by thousands of business ponies, school children, and shoppers going about their daily activities, tightly packed as they traversed the concrete jungle that was their home.
Mizuko hated being here.
The blue earth mare stood waiting among a group of ponies at a street crossing, hanging her head down so her raven black mane obscured her brown eyes. A small brown saddlebag was strapped to her barrel, holding various utilities, as well as a sizable collection of pearls she'd retrieved from her latest dive. Had it not been for the fact that the nearest jeweler was here in Manehattan, she wouldn't have set hoof in such a heavily populated city. But she did, and if one were to peek under her mane they'd see the resulting discomfort present in her eyes. As soon as she finished her business here, she'd be out of the city in a heartbeat.
At last the signal turned white and the crowd marched across the street. Mizuko took a spot against the corner building once she reached the other sidewalk, taking a deep, relaxing breath as some of her discomfort evaporated now that she was out of the crowd. She then opened up her saddlebag and fished out both a bottle of water and a map of Manehattan. Laying the map in front of her, out of the passing commuters' way, she began pouring over it while taking a large swig from her bottle.
Okay... Rock Tumbler's Jewel Emporium is on the other side of this block, so... that alleyway could be a good shortcut. She looked up from the map and to her right, easily spying the entrance a couple of buildings down from the street corner. Nodding to herself, she packed up her map and made her way down the sidewalk and into the entrance.
Newspapers and other such trash were littered throughout the alleyway, with cardboard boxes and trash cans stacked alongside each other next to every stoop. Everything was dull and gray and grimy, and an awful stench of unknown origin assaulted Mizuko's nostrils as she stepped deeper into the alley. She felt a little bile rise in her mouth in response, but quickly swallowed it back down. Taking a deep breath, she plunged onward.
She'd only made it halfway through the alley when she heard a heavy thump right behind her, followed by a scaly hand clamping around her neck and lifting her up off the ground. She instinctively thrashed her body in a futile attempt to break free, weakly pounding her front hooves against her attacker's hand. All she got for struggling was a tighter grip around her neck, making her wheeze and gasp for air.
"Now now, miss," came a gravelly, masculine voice from behind her, "let's not do anything stupid."
The alleyway's scenery shifted as Mizuko felt herself being turned around, eventually facing her attacker, and the sight of him would've made her shriek and whimper if he didn't have her in a choke hold. The blue-scaled dragon that held her in his clawed hand looked at her with piercing red eyes devoid of visible pupils, his predatory grin baring sight of his razor sharp, carnivorous teeth. A trio of horns sprouted from his head, shaped like a trident, while another one each sprouted from his cheekbones. The way he was holding Mizuko made it impossible for her to get a good look at the rest of his body, but she could see more horns peeking over his head from his back, every bit as menacing as the rest of him.
The dragon pulled Mizuko closer so the end of his long, rounded snout was just a few inches from hers. She continued to thrash and squirm against his grip, to which he only snorted. "You're only making things harder for yourself," he said. His eyes fell on her saddlebag, which swung erratically back and forth in response to her struggling. "Pretty little mare like you's gotta have some treats. How's about you gimme 'em and I'll leave you alone?" His grin widened all the way up to his cheek's horns. "Wouldn't want things to get messy, now would we?"
Mizuko said and did nothing in response other than continue to struggle against his grip, her brows furrowed and teeth gritted as she furiously pounded away at his tough hide with her front hooves. The dragon ignored her and reached for the saddlebag with his free hand.
"Unhand her you monster!"
The dragon had no time to react to the sudden exclamation before he felt something hard smash against the back of his head. Dropping Mizuko, he let out a great howl of pain as he clutched the spot where he'd been struck with both hands, stumbling a few paces forward. Mizuko fell to the ground on her haunches, cringing a little at the impact before slowly rising to all fours. After taking a moment to get her bearings, she turned around to see her rescuer.
Standing a few paces away was a green unicorn mare with a blue mane and tail, both styled in a very non-distinctive fashion. Strapped to her barrel was a saddlebag the same brand as Mizuko's, but colored beige instead of pure brown like hers. Her cutie mark was of a four leaf clover, but colored pitch black instead of green, likely so it would easily contrast against her green coat. Held in her telekinesis was a small, rust-colored box adorned with golden markings of unknown origin and a wooden lever on one side.
The mare's muzzle was set in an angry frown as she kept her gaze focused entirely on the dragon while he recovered from his injury. Her stance became guarded and her teeth gritted as a low hiss escaped through them. Wordlessly, Mizuko hid behind a nearby trashcan, peeking her head over to view the ensuing confrontation. Soon the dragon finished nursing his head and turned around to face them, balling his claws into fists while snorting a puff of steam through his nostrils.
"You shouldn't have done that," he said, harshly.
The mare furrowed her brows. "I beg to differ."
The dragon suddenly charged forward, roaring as he stuck his claws out, aiming straight for the mare's head. Mizuko ducked behind the trashcan on impulse.
The mare only smiled and raised her box up to the dragon's eye level. When he was just a few paces away she pulled the lever on the box's side. The top opened, and a boxing glove on a spring shot out straight at the dragon's face. It struck right on his snout with a sickening crunch, sending him tumbling backward a few paces before falling flat on his tail.
"I'll do it again if I have to!" the mare called, glaring daggers at him.
Slowly, the dragon stood up while rubbing his snout, glaring daggers back at her. "You'll be sorry!" he shouted, and unfolded his wings. He quickly took to the air, flying up between the buildings before disappearing over one's roof.
The mare watched him retreat with a satisfied smile before her ears flicked in response to hoofsteps approaching from behind her. Turning around she saw Mizuko approaching, her mouth set into a neutral line, while her rigid leg movements made clear her caution. The other mare just smiled as she helped close the distance between them. "Are you all right?" she asked. "He didn't hurt you?"
Mizuko shook her head. "No, I'm fine."
"Good to hear." The other mare held out her hoof. "I'm Oddluck, nice to meet you!"
Mizuko shook her hoof, slowly and with no vigor. "Mizuko," she said.
"Oooh, you're from Neighpon?" Oddluck asked, but continued before Mizuko could answer. "Never met too many foreign ponies here in Manehattan while I was growing up, but I've met a lot on my various travels. I've also gotten a lot of neat stuff while traveling, usually by fortunate happenstance. For example, I found this punch box-" she waggled the object in her telekinesis a bit, "-buried halfway under a creek bed in the Minotaur Nation just the other day, and it'll fetch me a decent coin at the right pawn shop. Good thing I had it with me, and that I happened to be visiting my mom here in Manehattan, and that I happened to notice you left your water bottle out on the sidewalk, cause otherwise I-"
Oddluck ceased talking in response to Mizuko's hoof pressed softly against her muzzle. Looking up, she saw Mizuko looking at her with tired eyes and brows furrowed slightly. She breathed in and out once before speaking to Oddluck.
"Listen Oddluck, believe me when I say I'm beyond grateful you saved me just now. Truly, I am." Her expression became more wistful as she continued, retracting her hoof. "But I'm in a hurry to get somewhere right now and don't have time to chat. So can I just have my water bottle back, please?" she finished.
"Oh... well, sure," Oddluck said, sounding a little disappointed. Stowing the punch box into her saddlebag, she retrieved Mizuko's water bottle and passed it to her. "So, where are you heading?" she asked. "I know Manehattan like the bottom of my hoof, so I can help you get where you're going if you want?"
Mizuko shook her head while stuffing her water bottle into her saddlebag. "It's alright, I know the way," she replied. "But thanks for the offer."
She turned around and began walking down the alley, but didn't get very far before Oddluck said, "Wait!"
Mizuko closed her eyes as an annoyed sigh, too soft to be heard by Oddluck, escaped through her lips. Slowly, she turned around to face the other mare with a deadpanned expression. "Yes, what is it?" she asked.
"Do you think we could maybe meet up sometime and just, you know, hang out?" Oddluck asked. A large, almost comical smile crossed her lips as she walked forward. "You seem like a cool girl; it'd be a shame if we never saw each other again after now." She closed the distance between them and held out a hoof. "What d'ya say? You up for it?"
Mizuko looked down at the proffered hoof, her face unreadable as she silently contemplated her answer. Eventually, she scuffed a hoof across the ground as her expression faltered. "Er, well... maybe?" she stuttered, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. "Where would we meet?"
Oddluck shrugged. "Wherever you want. Like I said, I travel a lot, so any place you want to go is fine by me," she said with a cheery smile.
Mizuko looked aside for a few moments, lost in thought over whether having Oddluck for a companion would turn out to be a good idea. She knew almost nothing about the mare aside from a few little tidbits. The fact that she saved Mizuko from being mugged made it clear she was a good pony, but if she had the audacity to take on a dragon, there was no telling all of what trouble she could potentially land them in.
Then again, if I chose someplace where I was in total control...
"Sooo?" Oddluck asked, staring expectantly at her.
Mizuko returned her gaze. "I'm going to be swimming at Horseshoe Bay this Friday night from six to ten, so come by there if you want to hang out."
"Consider me there!" Oddluck promised, making a saluting gesture with her hoof. "I'll even bring my own flippers and snorkel!"
Please don't let this be a mistake. Mizuko nodded, and turned around to walk off again.
"Can I ask one more question before you go?" Oddluck asked.
...Pretty please? Mizuko looked over her shoulder to see Oddluck staring curiously at her backside. "...Um, Oddluck?" she asked, a little worry creeping into her voice.
Oddluck pointed at her flank. "What does your cutie mark mean?"
Mizuko glanced down at her cutie mark: a light blue water droplet with angel wings and a halo. "It means water's my safe haven," she said, neutrally.
"Oooh, so that's why you wanna meet at Horseshoe Bay." Oddluck flashed another cheery smile. "Can't wait to meet you there! Bye until then!"
"Yeah, sure. Bye," Mizuko replied, letting out a sheepish chuckle.
The two mares both waved a hoof goodbye as they headed down opposite ends of the alley, Oddluck with an excited spring in her step while Mizuko bowed her head, feeling overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the past few minutes.
Oddluck and Mizuko - by Oddluck's Author
"HELP!" odd luck screamed. Hoping some pony will come to pull her out. Restraining her from drowning in the water.
"HELP!" She tried again. Maybe this time she will get lucky and someone hears her. She knew it was a bad idea from the start to try and cross the river even though she was hauling a humongous cart. She tried to swim up as the cart attached to her touched the bottom of the river.
If it was any deeper than she would never be able to make it out. She hardly had her head sticking out of the water. She continued thrashing. All the moving around was making things worse for her. She felt as the cart began to tilt from its rear end to its opened top. Not good.
The cart started to pull her down. With all of her might, and some magic she tried to remain above the water. Close to the air. With as much on concentration as possible she undid the straps keeping her held back.
She managed to get one off, but some left over from the cart had a whole lot of her lower body tangled. Preventing her from escaping. She needed help.
"SOMEPONY PLEASE HELP ME!" She cried. She couldn't tell if she was sobbing or having a seizure. She was going to die here and she knew very well.
From the distance she could spot another mare. The most that she could make out of the pony was that she was blue. Oddluck couldn't spot anything else about her due to her shear less amount of concentration keeping herself afloat.
"HEY," She called out to the mare. "HELP ME!" She wanted to say please, but she was afraid that if she said anything else water would get in her mouth.
Oddluck notice that the pony was gone before she could look away. She was just going to leave her here to die! She looked right at her!
Before she knew it, the strange blue pony was in the water right next to her. Oddluck tried to say something to her, but the pony went underneath.
She felt herself slowly being untangled by the mare. Without notice, she was being dragged back to shore.
The mare set Oddluck gently on ground as she started to cough up water from her lungs.
"Hi," The mare said with a smile on her face. "I'm Mizuko."
What she really wanted to do right now was shake Mizuko's hoof, and thank her greatly for saving her life. Instead, out of exhaustion, she decided to thank her.
"Thank Celestia..." she was having trouble with her breathing. "Thank you so much."
Mizuko stared at Oddluck in curiosity. "Why were you attached to a cart in the river?"
Oddluck couldn't help but blush in embarrassment. "He heh... I kind of tried to cross it while still hauling that thing."
She knew it wasn't a very smart idea. She could of avoided all of this trouble if she just took the time to go around.
But she has been hiking for so long, she kind of got tired of taking the main trail. It took drowning to teach her about the danger of detours.
"Th-thank you..." Oddluck said. She was exhausted, but happy someone was there to save her.
"What's your name?" Mizuko asked. Suddenly looking puzzled on who this green mare was.
"Oddluck."