//------------------------------//
// Adventures in Ponyville: There's Treasure Everywhere 
// Story: Courage 
// by scion 
//------------------------------//

Equestria was a curious place compared to the world that Link knew. Having observed the town for some time now, he had seen many incredible or even downright impossible things that to the ponies were completely normal. 

Example: ponies of the pegasus kind were capable of walking on clouds. 

And sleeping on clouds. And causing rain to fall from clouds. And causing thunderstorms. Rainbow Dash was the most visible, her tail hanging over a cloud near the race line, but he hadn't really seen the full extent of their control over the clouds until he had broken the treeline one day to find himself in a thunderstorm.

Important distinction there. It was completely sunny in the Everfree forest, but the moment he had stepped across the invisible line that separated the forest from the edge of the town, he had become absolutely soaked. He'd even tested it by standing halfway across the invisible line; his rear half was being rained on, his front half was drying as the sun beat down upon his fur.

Then a bolt of lightning had struck nearby, causing him to jump out of his fur. Midna had laughed at him for that one, but he'd gotten revenge by shaking all the water out with her right next to him. Deciding that he didn't fancy walking through an artificial lightning storm to visit the town or Epona, Link had decided to come back another day.

Today was another day, and while he had been quietly walking his way through the forest on his way to Ponyville, he had found something... curious. A cloud, floating above the forest, that had a very distinct wooden object on top of it. A treasure chest. 

After several minutes of watching the cloud float around the sky with a wooden chest that likely weighed nearly eighty pounds on top of it, Link finally thought of a way to get to it. Flying was, unfortunately, out of the question in this area. But, there were other clouds in the sky; most seemed to drift in a pattern, and from his view on the ground it did not look too far to jump from one cloud to the other. It would take careful timing and patience, but if he could get to the clouds... 

It took a few minutes of searching, but Link eventually managed to find a cloud that was at at a height that he could jump to, floating peacefully next to a large cliff face that had recently suffered a rockfall. 

Link turned his head back to see his mount and whined. Midna conjured his pack and, after a moment's' search inside the magical bag, found what she was looking for, a bottle with blue sparkling liquid inside. She held it out for him to inspect, and asked him a question.

He chuffed in response. With a bright and cheery demeanor, Midna used the orange tentacle arm that sprouted from her head opened the bottle, then carefully held it to Link's lips for him to drink. He drank carefully, attempting not to spill a single precious drop of the liquid. After several slurping gulps, the potion was gone, and Midna put the empty bottle away for later use.

Link gave himself a quick look over, to confirm the potion had worked. His paws were now glowing with a rosy red light, and the white sections of his fur had gone from white to cyan. On his back, Midna giggled, then conjured a mirror for him to see himself. His shaggy 'mane' of hair had gone from black to all colors of the rainbow, just like a certain rainbow-haired pegasus that he had recently managed to beat. He looked rather ridiculous, a black wolf with a blue underbelly and a rainbow 'mane'. 

Well, it seemed like the potion was working, no matter the way he looked; the last time, when he had used the potion made from Fluttershy's feather, he had gained a yellow belly, bluish/green glowing paws, and a pink 'mane'. It seemed as though the potion results were affected by the identity of the pegasus feather donor. No doubt Zecora would wish to know, he would have to see if he could make it to her hut after he got this treasure chest.

Confident the potion was working, Link stepped onto the cloud. The water vapor, which normally would have simply parted and sent him plummeting to the ground at least a hundred feet below the cliff face, held his weight. It was semi-soft, wet, and cool to the touch as he stepped fully onto the little cloud, and held his weight with no problem. 

Link was standing on a cloud.

From there, it was just a matter of timing and careful jumps between the patches of cloud in the sky. With Midna floating around spotting for him, the process was relatively simple, if a little time consuming. In fact, he had nearly made it to the chest when he managed to disturb something.

It squawked like a bird, but it was nothing nearly so simple. It was feathered like a bird, true, and resembled one in some aspects, like the wings, but the long undulating body was covered in scales, and beyond the wings there were no feathers, or even other limbs. It also sported a pair of vicious looking fangs, and the way that it bared them as it turned around and headed back for him made it clear that it whatever the thing was, it wasn't friendly. With a hiss, it launched itself at the wolf and his rider. 

Link was quick with the dodge, jumping to another section of cloud to dodge the incoming coatl. It had forced him back a cloud, and as long as that thing was flying around, there was no way he would be able to get the precise timing he would need to get to the treasure chest. He would have to handle this threat if he was to continue forward.

His rainbow hackles rose as he bared his teeth at the flying feathery snake, and between the hairs one could see small jolts of electricity. His tail too began to spark as he stood in one place, charging up for what was next. On his back, Midna grinned a menacing snaggletooth grin as the orange tentacle hand extended, like a finger pointing, in front of him; a few small shuffles, and Link aligned the finger to his opponent.

The coatl gave a hissing screech as it turned back for another pass, coming straight for Link.

The sparking tail dropped, sending the built up electricity flowing from his body and into the cloud he was standing on. The cloud turned black and spat a bolt of lightning, directly where Midna was pointing, and right into the face of the flying snake/bird. 

The creature convulsed as the lightning struck it head on, letting out a hiss/squawk of pain. Then the lightning bolt was gone, leaving behind an unhappy and slightly smoking coatl. The look it shot Link was murderous, but unfortunately for it, all its flight feathers had been burnt off. The coatl hissed at them as it began a slow and only slightly controlled descent towards the ground below.

On his back, Midna retracted her tentacle hand and clapped her hands together in the manner of a worker solving a particularly annoying problem. Link merely padded to the edge of the cloud and looked down, allowing him to see the particularly incensed snake/bird as it hissed up at him from a tree partway down the cliff face. 

Satisfied that their opponent was taken care of, Link returned his attention to getting to the chest. A few more minutes of carefully timed jumps, and he was standing on the cloud with the chest.

Midna flicked her hands, and the lock on the chest broke and fell to the ground before cantilevering open. Link sat and watched as a clear heart-shaped container floated out; inside, a pink gem took up approximately one fifth of the volume of the heart container. He stared at it for a few moments, examining it for traps, and for the beauty of what it was, before Midna giggled. A snap of her fingers and the heart was gone, and something in Link felt... heartier, tougher. 

A few moments later, the feeling was gone. Link stood, and after a careful judgement of the ground relative to his height, jumped off the cloud. It was approximately a three story fall, high enough that he had to be careful where he landed but not too high that he was worried about major injury. 

He landed back on the path he had been on earlier perfectly. With a shake of his head, he headed back down the trail into the Everfree, the only evidence of the jaunt one irritated coatl and a rainbow hairdo.