The Equestrian Wildcards: Doughnut mess with the baker.

by JitteryDragon

5: The one with another gingerbread dragon.

Sparky muttered under her breath. ‘This was a stupid idea.’

The rain had cleared, leaving about half of the sun to peek over the thinning clouds, but that didn’t magically change the fact all around her was a muddy mess. The aftermath of her favorite kind of weather had slowed the wheelchair down to a crawl, and she might as well have been crawling at this rate.

Sparky had already run out of hooves to count how many times she had become stuck. When she said her wheelchair was not built for all terrain, she had meant it.

‘Of all the stupid ideas in my history of stupid ideas, this is possibly the stupidest,’ she said to herself, with head resting on her front legs, eyes staring at nothing in particular in the distance. Though, admittedly, that one time she went cave climbing was probably a dumber idea. ‘Go on Sparky, go have an adventure, it’ll be fun... they said. No need to be paranoid... they said.’

Better still, it was getting cold. Sparky had packed for the end of the world, but for some reason that had failed to include a blanket. She remembered back to a few hours ago, when packing for this most exciting trip to Ponyville, to forgo the old patterned quilt her mother had made back when Sparky was only a little filly, out of some personal regard for its sentimental value. Such thoughts made her wonder if she was qualified to ever leave her house at all.

Thankfully, something brought her out of her self depressive thinking. Her ears raised from the sound of rustling just over a small bushy hill in the distance.

Sparky raised herself in the chair. ‘Cookie, is that you? Please be you.’

It wasn’t. A crumbly clawed wing of gingerbread reached out of the bush, and pulled along with it a grinning beast of delectable deadliness, smaller than the one the unicorn had met with before, thought that didn’t help her morale much.

‘Well great,’ she sighed, ‘there just had to be more of you ugly things.’

The draconic mound of baked goods, about three times the size of Sparky, faced her with a sneering gaze of buttoned candy eyes.

‘What? Did I offend you?’ Then but a few seconds later, it hit her like a brick. ‘Oh... right,’ she gritted her teeth, ‘can only follow by sound, I should probably shut up right abo-’

The dragon threw itself at Sparky with wings open to stabilize itself in its charge. The unicorn threw her arms up at the creature with instinct. Her magic kicked in just in the nick of time, and a large shimmer of energy formed in front of her.

Suddenly and painfully halted by a translucent green wall, the dragon screeched in frustration. Sparky too felt like she had been pushed back as the energy of her force field rebounded from the impact, thank goodness for wheels.

A small crackle of pain emerged from the tip of her horn down to the skull, but disappeared with her concentration of keeping something magical between herself and the thing that wanted to make a meal out of Sparky. Even though it was a spur of the moment, she reassured herself it was a better idea than teleporting, considering how she could only make short jumps, and it was noisy enough to wake ponies from the next town up in the middle of the night (perhaps a slight exaggeration), which wouldn't help her against a creature that relied heavily on sound.

The delicious monster reared its head, candy ears shooting forward. The shimmering force field was certainly not quiet, but It gave her time to think of a plan.

Well, it would have, if she hadn't needed to concentrate on the spell so much.

Then there was the sudden problem of the dragon throwing itself against the field. Not bright enough to try and go around (though Sparky would likely adjust accordingly), the creature simple used old fashioned brute force, and also the occasional swipe of its confectionery claws, which was worse, as it made a terrible song of high pitched squealing like scratching a blackboard.

Sparky could feel herself losing hold on her magic, like a heavy stone slipping slowly out of your hoof... slipping... falling... just like she did.

It flashed by so fast, the memories of falling, and then the impact and the pain and the tears. She froze in shock, the field collapsed.

Claws latched onto her wheelchair, and she stared wide eyed into the maw of the terrible dragon as both of them rolled onto the muddy ground backwards. She slid a few paces, the gingerbread monster pinning the pony with its sheer mass.

'Well,' she began with bitterness in her voice, 'what are you waiting for, big fella? Savoring the moment?' Sparky raised her front hooves in a fighting motion. ‘Come on, you fat load of cake, I can still fight.’

The dragon stopped for a moment, raising its head as if looking into the distance. Sparkys own ears picked up, the sound of whistling in the distance. Whistling that was getting closer.

A sudden blur, and the dragon disappeared from in front of the grey unicorn as if it were never there at all. It took Sparky a moment for her brain to catch up, but when her eyes looked to the right, she saw the creature buried halfway into the ground with its legs sticking up into the air, and a fluffy brown pegasus standing on top.

Cookie Crumble looked quite pleased with himself, right up until one of the monster legs kicked in retaliation, throwing him off. He rolled a few times in the mud, clumsily regaining his balance and circling over to Sparky looking worried. ‘You okay, miss sparkster?’

Sparky looked up to the cloudy sky from where she lay. ‘Oh, I am fine. Just stargazing... in the middle of the day... with clouds blocking my view, and a giant cake dragon thing trying to eat me. The usual problems, you know?’

‘We’ve gotta get moving,’ Cookie replied, ‘here, let me help-’

‘Nah, it’s alright. That’s twice now, and I should make myself useful. Not that I don’t appreciate the offer.’

A pillar of wet dirt was thrown into the air like a gooey geyser, bathing a large area around where the dragon now stood in a rain of mud. Roaring, the dragon stepped out of the crater looking mildly displeased about the whole thing.

Sparky grumbled. ‘Well, they certainly are tougher then they look.’

Cookie turned to face the monster. ‘And tougher, too.'

'That's what I just said, Cookie.'

Cookie turned back to Sparky. 'Oh, sorry.'

The dragon, meanwhile, had decided the best course of action was to charge the chatty pegasus. At this, Sparky pointed with a hoof, ‘uh, Cookie...’

He faced the dragon, who sped towards him carving a path in the mud, with more of the stuff flying in all directions. He then let out a girlish scream, wings beating, and falling backwards into Sparky.

‘COOKIE!’

Sparky threw herself around Cookie as best she could, and in her mind was only the thought of the not being in this spot at this time.

When she could still feel the breeze on her hair, there was a sigh of relief as the world came back into existence. Opening her eyes, she could see her legs dangling limply, and the ground about a hundred paces below her, which immediately prompted her to start screaming.

‘OH WHAT THE HAY!’ She cried.

‘I got ya,’ Cookie said from about her. She flicked her head around to see Cookie was now carrying her with his front legs linked around hers like a chain.

That didn't comfort her at all. ‘I’M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!’

‘Roger that, captain. Down we go.’

When she looked down again, the dragon stared back up at her. The shouting had pinpointed their location, and the creature snapped at the air with it’s sharp tasty teeth.

‘NO, BACK UP! TAKE US BACK UP!’

Cookie groaned. ‘You’re so heeeavy,’ he complained.

Sparkys brain was in overdrive, which is what happened when she started to go into panic mode. ‘Back, fly backwards!’

Her helpful pair of wings did just that, bringing them above and in front of the dragon.

The gingerbread dragon made its move, and leapt into the air towards them, throwing wings wide open.

Sparky made her move, and fired a beam of green energy strait at the dragon, which struck it in the head. Then it kept going, as the dragons upper head came off in pieces, button eyes flying both ways. Stumbling sideways, a leg found the edge of the cliff and slipped off as part of the rock broke off under the weight, and the rest of the dragon went with it.

Five second later a crumbly thud echoed back up to the two flying ponies. ‘Oh, that was a really good shot, miss Sparky.’

She didn’t reply, instead breathing in and out heavily.

‘Did we get it? Is it still alive?’ he asked.

She, rather dumbly, looked down. ‘AAAAHHHHHH!’

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Cookie replied.

- - -

Cookie trotted nervously up to Sparky as she lay beside her wheelchair, ‘Y... You sure you’re okay?’ He asked, with a little bit of stutter.

‘I’m fine, Cookie,’ she replied with exhaustion in her voice, raising a hoof as if to ease his conscience. ‘She placed it on her head, which reminded her it was covered in mud. 'Well... except for the whole nearly having a heart attack, because I’m deathly afraid of heights.’ This whole time, her other hoof was pressed tightly against her chest.

This hadn't reassured Cookie one bit. 'Well... um... at least we got the dragon thingy.'

Sparky gave a halfhearted nod, having become more interested in removing pieces of drying mud from her hair, which had become absolutely frayed with the stuff. ‘There was that part where you darn well struck it like a missile!’

‘He he, I know right?’ Cookie paused for a moment, looking directly at Sparky. ‘By the way, what’s a missile?’

Sparky ignored him and continued to play with her hair. ‘Great, I’m never going to get all this out. I suppose it’s like what my mother always said, that trying to look pretty only got you so far.‘ She glanced over to Cookie, who just stood there with his eyes staring back at hers. ‘What are you even doing back here? I thought I told you to go ahead of me and find Oracle?’

‘Oh, I found her. She’s being held in that cottage house I went to the other day. But, there’s all these scary dragons out the front, and I can’t get past them on my own.’

‘I see. You sure she’s alright though?’

‘I’m positive. Sunny Nights and Oracle were just kinda... talking, I think. I couldn’t really see too well, cause the windows were really small, and I didn’t want to get nipped by the scary dragons if I hung around too long. So, I left back the way I came, then I looked down and saw that dragon and you on the ground.'

‘I’m glad you did, Cookie.' She stopped playing with her hair. 'It wasn’t looking good for a moment there, and I didn’t really want “eaten by animated cake monster” on my tombstone anyway.’

Cookie's face brightened with a slight shade of red. ‘He he, it’s okay miss Sparky. It’s what I do.’

‘What, beat up monsters?’

Cookie nodded playfully.

‘Uh huh... whatever you say.’

The two ponies fell silent, but this time Cookie wasn't one for silence. ‘Um... why did you put us in the air, exactly?’ He asked curiously.

Sparky closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. ‘I panicked, okay?.’ She replied bitterly.

Cookie looked towards the ground, kicking some mud with a hoof.

Sparky sighed. ‘I’m sorry Cookie, I’m not usually this jumpy.' She took in a deep breath, and tried to exhale her frustrated thoughts. 'Usually I know exactly where I want to go, but ever since we came out here. Well, I’m really out of my comfort zone.’ She placed the tip of her front hooves together and ground them. ‘I knew... I knew I should have just said no to this whole idea.’

‘It’s okay miss Sparky, I won’t let anything happen to you.’

‘I... appreciate you saying that, Cookie. But, you have to understand, I’m a loner by heart. Being like... well, this,’ she waved over her whole body, ‘it makes a pony self sufficient, and it’s a bit of a shock to the system when you suddenly need another ponies help.’

Cookies tail wagged. ‘I understand.’

‘Do you?’

Cookie paused. ‘Nope, not really.’

She rolled her eyes, then her body. Facing the wheelchair, she flipped it over so that the bottom was facing her. ‘Then I'll explain it like you're five. Imagine for a moment that you couldn’t use you rear legs, not since you were a little filly.’

‘Okay,’ Cookie quickly replied, and sat his rear onto the ground. ‘Can’t move, check.’

‘Then pretend your friends and family suddenly helped you all the time, because you couldn’t do even the most simplest task without the help of another pony.’

‘Like, for example, I can’t put on my scarfy?’

‘Close enough.’ Poking around underneath the workings of her chair, she found the problem. ‘Okay, so now every day and night some other pony has to come and help you put on your... scarfy, right?’

‘Uh huh.’

‘Except if you want to go somewhere, say... your friends house.’

‘But my friend is in the room next to mine.’

‘Well, lets pretend they live several houses away, a long distance. But you can only go if somepony comes with you, because you can’t put on your scarfy.’

‘Okay.’

‘Are you getting where I’m going yet?’

‘I think so. So, if I go somewhere another pony always has to come with me because I can’t put on my scarfy cause I can’t move my legs.’

'Getting warmer.'

Cookie tapped his chin, gears in his head grinding hard. Then a light in his head lit up brightly... well, more like a candle, but you get what I'm saying. 'Oh! Oh, I think I get it. You didn't like needing help, because you never got any alone time, right?'

She turned her head and faced Cookie. ‘Bingo! I guess we are getting somewhere after all. Uh, what are you doing?’

‘I’m sitting down because I can’t use my legs.’

‘Oh, right, of course. Makes complete sense.’ She had to chuckle to herself, this pegasus really was quite unusual. She returned to working on her wheelchair. ‘So that’s what it used to be like for me. Always had to be some other pony with me at all times to look after me, especially if I wanted to do something fun, then suddenly it was every ponies problem, and it started to annoy me.’

Poking one of the hinges that held the main wheels axle in place, she quickly concluded she had found her problem. A few too many hard knocks had caused some of the screws to come loose and eventually fall out, which in turn was making the whole center of the wheelchair wobble. It probably didn't help that the last time she had bothered to actually check underneath her chair was several months ago, though she could have sworn she had done the once-over just before boarding the train to Ponyville.

‘So I decided to do the only thing I thought was right to do... to learn to do things all by myself. I'll admit, it took time and a lot of effort, but it payed off. I learned to teleport, taught myself how to move about without having to use my rear legs, and I adapted all the cool little tricks the doctors had taught me in rehab. Heck, I even put on the skulls on my wheels without help... or,’ she chuckled, 'without permission.'

Cookie looked pleased with himself. 'Okay, now I understand.'

‘Hm, could you make yourself useful and grab the screwdriver from my bag?’

‘Sure, okay!’ Cookie immediately rose to all fours and happily trotted over to the bag which lay beside the chair, and then stuck his head into it. 'But, miss Sparky, how did wanting to do things yourself make you a loner?' His voice echoed from inside the bag.

'I guess the problem is, even though you've become independent, that hasn't stopped other ponies from assuming you can't look after yourself... because Celestia forbid losing use of everything from the waist down suddenly renders you as capable as a brick.' She said the last part mostly to herself. 'I turned down help whenever it was offered, and eventually other ponies just stopped asking, I always assumed it was because they finally realized they didn't need to interfere with every little thing I tried to do.'

Cookie raised his head from the bag, with a screwdriver in his mouth. 'Ohm, knshta lshk thsk tme mhr cmpranrion-'

'Might want to drop the tool there, buddy.'

Cookie opened his mouth, and said tool dropped onto the ground, covered with a nice clear globule of spit. 'Okay!'

Sparky grimaced. 'Ew.' She made a note to thank whoever invented telekinesis later.

With Sparky proceeding to get to work with her hack job, Cookie repeated what he had said, this time without a screwdriver shoved into his gob. 'Kinda reminds me of this one time, when my companion broke one of his wings. They got really sad not being able to fly, and because I had to carry him every place, and then carry him back to home.'

'Hm, yes... I guess that is kinda close. That's how I used to feel. Sad, I suppose. Also, sometimes angry.' She quieted for a moment, stopping what she was doing. 'Not that I really meant it, I mean... it wasn't my fault, or any other ponies. I couldn't help but get frustrated whenever another pony offered to help me.' Turning to Cookie, she shrugged, 'it seemed they got the point, or at least understood. My mother was the one who said to try living by myself instead of with my parents. She even payed for the ticket to Ponyville, and the first months rent for the house.'

'Do you like it here?'

'Ponyville? Yes. It's... quiet. I've always liked quiet. Not being well known is a big plus, I was kinda famous back in my hometown as that one unicorn in the wheelchair. A bit of a rarity, you'd think.'

'Well, I've never even seen a chair thingy before.'

'It's pretty cool. I've had her for the last two years, an up-sized version my old one from when I was a filly. Same look, but that one was much smaller, and cuter, even kept the skulls.' She sighed, 'it has seen better days, you may have noticed. Considering bits are starting to fall off, there's all those tears in the seat cover. Not to mention the tires are worn out pretty badly.'

She looked up into the sky, making a note in her head that she wasn’t trying to tempt fate.

Cookie didn't know what half the big words coming out of the unicorns mouth meant, so he just smiled and nodded at (hopefully) appropriate moments. 'Well, it's still pretty neato. I wish I had something cool to show off.'

'What about your scarf? That's... well, different.'

'Oh... well, not as cool as a big metal wheel thingy with skulls on it.'

'Heh, thanks.' She had to at least smile politely in return, it wasn't often she received a compliment for her strange taste in decoration. However, the topic of strange decoration had got her curious. 'I have to ask, what's with the scarf, anyway?'

'Oh, I always get in on backwards.'

'No, silly. Why do you wear it?'

'Um, I found it when I was little in a hallway. Was kinda dirty though, so I washed it. Thought it looked kinda silly first but then Butterscotch said I should wear it... because it looked nice on me.'

'Who's Butterscotch?'

'Oh, that was my companion... um, special friend pony, I think that's the word ponies use for it, right?'

'Yes, I see. So you wear it just because you think it looks nice?'

'I think so. Does... does it not look nice?'

'It looks fine, buddy. I'm not judging your fashion sense, I mean... come on, I like skulls. Lots of ponies have found that strange.'

'Many ponies find me strange, I don't really know why.'

'Me neither,' Sparky replied, somewhat jokingly.

'I think it's because I always get my scarfy on backwards.'

'You already said that, and I might as well break the news to you, but I think you are wearing it the wrong way right now.'

'Oh no! Am I?' He reached underneath the red scarf and pulled it upwards, trying to get eyes on the question mark. Sparky raised a brow, her own eyes quickly spotting a large deep scar on Cookies chest. Dark pink skin opposed his light fluffy brown coat, it looked almost as if some pony had ran him through with a lance something fierce. A thousand questions jumped into her brain right at that moment, but she decided for her own sanity not to attempt to delve any deeper than she already had.

Cookie looked relieved. 'Nope, it's on the right way... I think.'

To help her not ask anymore questions, Sparky had returned to fixing her wheelchair. Cookie sided up to her and watched with interest, despite having no idea what was actually being done. With half the screws from the good hinge placed into the damaged hinge, she checked the tightness of the axle once again. Significantly less give, at least enough to not break off. That was assuming she didn't suffer any more knocks by angry gingerbread dragons.

'There,' she said, wiping forehead with hoof, and realizing a few seconds too late she smeared her face with grease. 'I moved a few bits from one side to the other, and it should hold until we actually have some time where I can sit down and fix it proper. Shame I didn't bring actual spare parts for under the chair, but that's the way the world works.'

'You're pretty good at fixing things.' Cookie said. 'I couldn't do anything like that.'

'That's one benefit of wanting to do things by yourself,' Sparky replied, 'you get a lot of practice on all sort of stuff you normally wouldn't try. I can’t use real fancy magic to save my life, but I can fix nearly anything, even without the right parts.' Pulling herself back into her chair, she gave a quick rock back and forth to double check. The wobble was much less noticeable, and it helped to renew a bit of confidence in Sparky. 'Right, we should get moving, I've already wasted enough time getting this poor thing back into somewhat working order.'

Cookie gave a deep nod. 'Okay, miss Sparky. What should I do?'

Sparky looked puzzled. 'Do I look like some sort of leader to you?'

Cookie replied by tilting his head sideways.

'Just... do what you do best, which I'm supposing is flying.'

'Okay miss Sparkster. I'll fly up above you and keep you posted on any scary dragon sightings!'

With that, he shot into the air with remarkable speed, Sparky could almost swear she could see an outline where Cookie had been seconds ago.

She shook her head, and rolled forward. 'No pony has called me Sparkster in years.'