• Published 22nd Feb 2012
  • 2,953 Views, 45 Comments

The Fire of a Spartan - FIREDRA6ON



Spartan L030 destroys a corvette on its way to Equestria. He ends up with more than he thought.

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A Sudden Change (Again)

Twilight Sparkle slams open her front door; Spike made a small squeal releasing his grip on the books he was putting on the shelf. Twilight quickly noticed him and walked over. She watched him regain his balance before speaking.

"Hey Spike!"

The small purple dragon walked down the ladder he was on,

"Yeah?"

"Is Dragon still here?"

"Yeah, he's still sleeping. So is the leathery dinosaur guy," Spike walked in a small circle bending over to pick up the books he had dropped. He continued when he had them all in his claws, “both of them are still downstairs if you want to talk to them. Although, the dino guy seems to make a lot of noise when he sleeps," he climbs back up the ladder as he continues talking about Twilight’s guests and how long the “Dino guy’s” fingers are and how he has no jaw. Twilight rolls her eyes and walks away as Spike continues his rant. She canters down the steps over to where there are two guest beds that she had pulled out the night before.

Sleeping in one of the beds was a big alien who Twilight had come to know as Grte Deseti, and an orange pegasus she knew as Dragon in the other. She walked over to the one with the pegasus. She noticed something off about Dragon's face. She studied it closer and saw some differences than how it appeared yesterday. It looked... smaller, curvier, and all around more feminine than the day before.

"Hey Dragon," Twilight softly pokes the pony.

A quiet moan came from Dragon, opening one eye he sleepily looks at the violet equine. "Is that you Twilight?"

"Uh... Yeah, you look and sound different."

Dragon opens his other eye and sits up, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Twilight started, "for starters, your voice is higher, and you’re noticeably smaller than yesterday."

"Huh?" Dragon brought his hooves up to his face. Looking them over, he notices how much thinner they are than before. He tests his voice to hear a sound of a higher octave than his usual speech. "Hey, my voice is higher! What’s happened to me?!" Dragon drops his/her hooves down then looks up at Twilight.

"I-I'm not sure but somehow you turned into a mare!" She stared back at Dragon; she was just as confused as he/she was.

"How did this happen?"

"I'm not sure, but maybe somepony in town knows. Come on, let’s go!"

"Wait, go outside? Like this?!" Dragon lifted a hoof to refer to him... Er herself.

"Yes, that might be the only way to change back," Twilight replied calmly. Dragon swung his back legs to the edge of the bed. He quickly dropped on all fours onto the floor, "Can't you just use a spell from one of the tons of books you have upstairs?" He points to the ceiling gesturing toward the many books above them.

"I might be able to come up with something, but we don't even know how this happened yet. If we find out how, then I can find a cure," Twilight starts up the stairs; she turns her head, "let's go."

Dragon didn't want to go outside with his... her appearance, but wanted to revert back more, well back into a human, but that seems less likely at this point. She grabbed the saddlebags that were hung on the back of the bed. Within it were two items, Dragon's TAC pad and the energy sword.

"Fine," Dragon followed Twilight up the stairs. When they get into the main room, Twilight sees that Spike isn't there and makes an assumption that he’s most likely taking a nap upstairs.

"Spike, we'll be going out," Twilight calls up at where she assumes Spike is at.

"I'll be here, taking a nap." Spike groggily calls out followed by a yawn.
Twilight opens the door and they walked out of the house; Twilight closes the door behind them.

Dragon's POV

We exited Twilight’s tree library and began walking into town. I still don't understand how or why I became a female. Staring down at the ground, I began to ponder my circumstances. In under one day I've destroyed a Covenant corvette, crashed on an unknown planet run by magical ponies, been turned into one of these creatures and even have been given wings, met other talking ponies and some of their friends, and have swapped my gender to go along with the whole flying pony appearance. Now how are-

"I think we should start at Rarity's," Twilight stopped my train of thought. I shot my head back up.

"Huh?" Before she could say anything, a light blue pegasus swiftly flew up in front of us. She landed on the ground with a small thump, picking up some dust that quickly faded.

"Hey Twilight!"

"Rainbow Dash! What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be clearing the sky? You are captain of the weather team and all."

"Well,” she rubbed the back of her head, “the weather schedule for today is clear skies and there are already no clouds in the sky today.” She raises her hooves to direct our attention to the large blue sky above us without a single white puff drifting in the wind. She drops her hooves down after a few moments. “So while I was resting in that tree over there, I saw you walking around and came down to say hi. Also," Rainbow Dash looked at me, "who is she?"

"Um... That's Dragon."

"You mean the alien guy from yesterday? But wasn't she a he?"

"Yeah, Dragon was a stallion yesterday but now he is a mare."

Rainbow burst out into a fit of laughter.

"This isn't funny!" I shouted at her. I could feel a hint of irritation toward her.

"Even his voice changed!" She pointed with one hoof at me before falling onto the ground from laughing so hard.

"Rainbow Dash! Don't laugh at him... er, her." Twilight attempted to help.

After about a minute or two later, Rainbow Dash got back up on her hooves and let out one final chuckle, "That's just too funny!"

"Rainbow, be serious now. Dragon and I are looking around to see if anypony knows how he turned into a mare. Do you happen to know anything? Have you seen any mysterious or suspicious looking ponies around town?" Rainbow Dash put her hoof to her chin and thought about Twilight's question.

"Well now that I think about it, I think I saw Trixie when I was on my way back home after I left your house last night."

"Trixie? What was she doing out this late? And why is she back in Ponyville?"

"I'm not too sure Twi, but I have to go help Fluttershy." The pegasus flew off before anypony could say anything else. A few moments after the rainbow blur was out of site, I asked a question that had formed during Twilight and Rainbow’s exchange about this mysterious “Trixie” character.

“Hey Twilight, who’s Trixie and what did you mean by ‘back in Ponyville’?” Twilight turned back to me and sighed slightly.

“Around a year ago, a unicorn magic show traveler that called herself, The Great and Powerful Trixie, had come to Ponyville. She wore a purple hat and cape that were covered in many stars of quite a few different colors. She was ever so full of herself and thought she was better than anypony and even made up a lie that she had vanquished an Ursa Major,” I stared at her blankly as to show confusion. “An Ursa Major is a giant see through bear that is made of stars. Anyway, she challenged everypony in town to see if any of them could defeat her. She was able to beat everypony that challenged her, but when some school kids provoked an Ursa Minor,” She shot me a quick glance and continued.

“An Ursa Minor is like a much smaller, but still incredibly large version of an Ursa Major. But when the kids brought the Ursa Minor, Trixie told everypony that she hadn't defeated an Ursa Major before, that she had made the story up. I stepped in and used my knowledge that I have gathered over the years of magic to safely send the Ursa Minor back to its home. This had made Trixie look like a fool, so she ran from Ponyville and no pony has seen her since then.”
After Twilight’s little speech, we began our way to her friend Rarity’s house.

“Do you think she came back to get revenge on you?”

“If she wanted to get revenge on me, then why would she turn YOU into a mare instead of turning me into a stallion? Oh, we’re here, we can talk about why later.” I looked up at the building in front of me. The structure was quite colorful and fancy. Upon the top of it were what looked like iron ponies that were set up like they would be on a carousel. Twilight entered first and I followed behind her.

Over by a small table a white unicorn with a styled purple mane sat threading some kind of fabric together. When she heard us enter, her ears perked up and she hit the side of sewing machine turning it off. She got off of her chair and turned toward us, "Hello and welcome to, oh Twilight! What brings you here? And who's your friend?" she lifts a hoof in my direction.

"This is Dragon and-" Rarity cut Twilight off.

"Dragon? That's a peculiar name for a mare."

"Actually Rarity," Twilight started, "Just yesterday Dragon was a colt. His appearance had changed somehow overnight and we’re not sure why or how this happened. Up to this point, the only fact that has come to us that is within some sort of relevance is that Trixie was out late last night for reasons we don’t know of."

Rarity pondered for a few minutes before saying, "Well stallion or not, one must not go out looking like that." She was directing this to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked taking a tiny step back from this sudden surprise of a question.

"Oh Darling, have you seen your mane yet?"

"No, why?" Rarity quickly grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me over to one of her mirror on the small stage of hers. I haven't seen myself since I came to Equestria. I stared into the mirror to see a slight light orange pony staring right back at me with the same intensity. My mane was a darker shade of orange and was very messy and tangled. I could tell that my mane was longer than before mainly because I could see some of it lying lazily along my forehead out of the upper and side edges of my eyes unlike I had before.

"See what I mean? Your mane is all tangled and uneven!" she paused and took a quick whiff of my mane, "and darling, when was the last time you took a bath?"

Come to think of it, I hadn't bathed in a while, "um... I'm not all that sure the last time I-" Rarity cut me off,

"A lady shouldn't do that!"

"Uh, Rarity," Twilight who was quietly watching from afar walked over to her.

"Yes Twilight?"

"Dragon's still a male, even if his body isn't."

"I know that, but I was getting into the zone, dear. Like I said, stallion or not, one must not go out looking all messy." Rarity looked back at me, "so Dragon, how about I fix you up?"

"I'm sure it won't hurt to, so okay."

"Good, first we're going to need to wash you up." she walked me to a bathtub that was surprisingly already filled with soap and water. I took a quick glance at the fashion pony before crawling into it. Rarity took out a sponge-like object and started scrubbing off all the dirt that covered my coat and hair. An awkward silence was over our heads as I sat there with Rarity washing every part of my body. After about fifteen minutes, Rarity said she was done and that I could get out of the tub. I quickly got out of the bathtub, Rarity gave me a towel and I dried myself off.

"Now can you sit here for me?" Rarity placed her hoof on a chair in front of another mirror. I put the towel down and walked over. I sat down in the seat. Rarity used her magic to levitate a hairbrush and began to brush my mostly dried off mane. Since it was so tangled, the brush kept pulling at knots. After a few minutes, I could feel the brush lift off of my mane.

"Okay!" she put down the hairbrush on the table, "I'm done." I had been looking down the entire time, so when I looked back up, what I saw in the mirror shocked me. I’m a Spartan; I am barely ever shocked by anything.

"This is me?"

"Why darling it sure is!" I had stared straight at the mirror to see an almost different pony look back at me with the same dazed look. My coat was shiny and was a little lighter than it had first appeared. But the main thing that caught my attention was my mane. It was a cleaner dark orange that matched my coat; also it was much straighter than before making it look more natural. Something I'v never seen as a Spartan is myself this groomed, even though I am now a pony.

"So what do you think?" Rarity snapped me back to reality.

"Um... I..."

"Speechless! Just what I was looking for! Now for the dress!" Wait, what was that last part? She pulled me behind a curtain. I closed my eyes not wanting to know what was happening. Rarity pushed me back out,

"Ta Da!" I first opened one of my eyes to see Twilight try to hold back laughter. I opened my other eye and looked in the mirror to the right. I then saw myself in a frilly orange dress. I let out an unmanly squeak of surprise. I returned my gaze back to Twilight.

"Okay Rarity, heh, we had better get going," Twilight said trying not to laugh at me.
"Although I think Dragon doesn't want to keep the dress."

"That's fine dear; I just wanted to see her in a dress." Rarity replied. I gently took the dress off and gave it to her. I took a glance at Rarity and could see a hint of laughter in her eyes. Twilight trotted out of Rarity’s doorway. I followed behind and as I took one step out her door, I looked back to see Rarity placing the frilly dress I wore on a nearby table. I turned back around and gently and silently close the door behind me. I trotted up to Twilight and we walked away from Rarity’s house.

"Dragon, I think we should ask Applejack if she saw anything on her way home last night." I nodded and we headed toward Sweet Apple Acres. The walk there was relatively uninteresting. When we reached the fences surrounding the apple farm, I could see a faint figure near the barn.

We walked upon the dirt road leading up to the barn. When we reached the barn, we saw Applejack about to enter the big red building carrying apples on her back.

"Hey Applejack!" Twilight waved her hoof to get AJ's attention. Applejack stopped in front of the barn door and looked over to us.

“‘Ey Twilight! What's up? Also, Dragon, y'all look a bit different taday." we walked over to her. She turned to face us and she had a gentle smile as she waited for some kind of response.

"Applejack, the reason Dragon that looks different than yesterday, to put it bluntly, is because he turned into a mare… somehow," Applejack's eyes became wide and her jaw dropped into a look of confusion.

"Hold up right there, what yer sayin' is he became a she?" She moved her hoof around in a seemingly random pattern. Based on what she had just said, she probably was making the symbols for the male and female genders.

"Yeah, we came here to ask you if you saw anything last night. Like anything that would be out of place, or somepony that is mysterious or suspicious in appearance. For example, when we asked Rainbow Dash earlier, she had said that she saw Trixie on her way home."

Applejack pondered Twilight's question obviously rethinking last night; trying to remember if she saw anything noticeably strange.

"Well now that ah think about it, ah did see somepony," AJ exclaimed.

"Was that pony Trixie?" Twilight asked.

"Nah, ah had never seen this guy before, ah don't think that pony's from 'round here."

"What did the pony look like?"

"Well, 'e had a mighty bright white coat and a dark blue mane. And, 'e had a very strange cutie mark. It looked like some kinda green and yello' spiky circle." Wait, if his cutie mark is what I think it is...

"Where did you see him?" I asked without thinking; catching AJ off guard. She turned her head slightly to look at me. She took a quick moment to think about my question.

"Ah remember seein' 'im somewhere in Ponyville just walkin’ in, what seemed ta me, all sortsa random directions. Although, ah also heard 'im say somethin' to 'imself."

"What did he say?" Twilight asked. Turning back to Twilight, Applejack thought for a second.

"Ah think 'e said somethin' 'bout some kinda transformation thing or was it ‘bout turning somethin’? He also talked about Dragon 'ere. Ah’m not really sure what those two relate to each otha though."

"Hm... how would he know Dragon? Dragon’s only been here for a day." Twilight thought out-loud while staring at the ground. She flicked her gaze over to AJ. "Applejack, could you make out the general idea of his self conversation? do you know any of his exact words?"

"Well 'e said somethin' like 'once Trixie is done wit'… uh... somethin'… 'Dragon will be turned into a... well... that's all ah remember 'im sayin'."

"That's strange; we better keep an eye out for him. Applejack did you see anything else?"

"Nah, not really, although, ah think 'e was a unicorn."

"Thanks Applejack, we're going to ask other ponies if they know anything."

"Yer welcome Twilight, see ya later!" Twilight and turned back around. Applejack went back to the apple trees. We silently walked out of the apple orchard and headed back toward town. The canter back was uneventful but once we entered the outskirts of Ponyville, Twilight broke our silence that we had kept for the last fifteen minutes or so.

"We should ask Fluttershy next." Twilight said. I nodded and by this time we had passed two buildings as we headed to, well, where ever Twilight decided we should go. Before Twilight or I could say anything else, I heard somepony's voice in the distance.

"Let's ask her!" said a voice from behind us.

"Excuse me," I looked to my right to see three small ponies staring back at me. The one in the middle was closest to me and had a yellow coat with a red mane. She didn't have a mark like I’ve noticed the other ponies have, and had a huge pink bow in her hair. The one to the right of her was white with a curly pink and lavender mane. I could tell she was a unicorn for she had a small horn at the center of her forehead. The final one of the group of fillies was a pegasus with pretty tiny looking wings and her coat was orange with a messy purple mane.

"Hello girls! How are you three?" Twilight asked the group.

The yellow pony talked first, "Hi Twilight, we were just wonderin' how yer friend got her cutie mark," they looked back at me with big pleading eyes.

"Um... I...Uh," I can't just tell them that I came from space and was magically turned into a pony from being a human.

Twilight began one of her attempts to cover my true identity, "Well Dragon here has lost some of her memory..." As Twilight stated her excuse, I looked into the larger crowd of ponies and right across the street from us, I saw a unicorn that looked very familiar. Without thinking I galloped straight at him and before he could react, I tackled him to the ground.

The mysterious pony lay under me with my hooves forcing into his shoulders, pinning him down into the dirt road. For some odd reason, I could feel a strange sense of anger and betrayal rise up inside the longer I looked at the stallion below my grasp. He had shut his eyes as to protect them from injury.

"Hey what was that fo...?” he opened his eyes and stared straight into mine, “Oh, hello Dragon," the mysterious pony smiled at me. Twilight and the group of fillies were surprised by my sudden action. They walked over to me.

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"That is a secret, but I'm sure you know me. Don't you remember? I'm Eric," he said while continuing to keep his slightly creepy smile on, which only added to my irritation. All that anger I felt made sense now that I know who he is.

"You’re a traitor!" I shouted.

"Now now miss, you shouldn't yell, you're attracting a lot of attention." I looked up from him and glanced around to see the many ponies staring at me. Before I could look back down at Eric, he lifted me off of him with levitation. This brought more rage to my usually emotionless self.

"Put me down!" I began flailing my legs uselessly. He waited until I got tired and stopped flailing around before putting me back down. He dusted himself off, "you should try adjusting to the public better; you attract a whole lot of unnecessary attention. You don't want to let your secret out, do you?"

Twilight stepped up, "Who are you?"

"I am just a simple bystander who was attacked by this here pegasus I've never seen before," he lied.

"Then why did Dragon call you a traitor? Did you betray hi... her?" Twilight seemed determined to know.

"I'm not sure, maybe she meant someone else," he began to get nervous and I could see his eyes shift around.

"No I didn't, I meant you," I added.

"Alright I'll tell you," he whispered the next part, "but meet me at the entrance of the Everfree forest." He then trotted away. Everyone that saw me tackle Eric was now looking straight at me. And apparently others heard our conversation because a pretty large crowd had formed.

"Um...eh...hehe...oh," I tried to come up with an explanation for what just happened. Thankfully, most of the ponies went back to what they were doing before.

"So who was that Dragon?" Twilight asked me.

"That was an old ally of mine who had gone against my squad."

"Hey!" A voice came from behind me, "we're still here you know!" I turned around to see the three fillies standing in front of me.

"Why did ya attack him?"

"Well, um... I'm not really sure."

"Anyways, you said yer name was Dragon right?"

"Yeah."

"That's kind-of a strange name fer a mare, ma’am. Mah name's Applebloom and these are my best friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle," She explained.

The orange one spoke up, "That was pretty cool how you took him down before he knew what hit him!" She punched a hoof in the air.

"Scootaloo! You should know that she shouldn't have done that," Twilight told her off. Scootaloo pouted but didn’t say anything else. Instead, Applebloom decided to change the subject.

"Okay, well now we would like ta ask ya somethin'."

"What do you want to ask me?" I asked.

"How did ya get yer cutie mark?" Applebloom asked me.

"My what?" Twilight pulled me over and whispered, "A cutie mark is the mark on your flank. Yours is two blue lightning bolts, I'm going to guess that you pretty agile, right?"

"Yeah," I whispered back.

"Well every pony gets their cutie mark after finding out what they're best at," Twilight explained. Well that explains why everyone has a mark on their flanks. I just thought that they were some sort of tattoos.

"They asked about how I got my cutie mark, what do I tell them?"

"Hmm... We should say that you got lost in the Everfree forest and you avoided the creatures in it and when you got out, it appeared." I turn back to the pleading trio and told them Twilight's story that she made up.

"Why were you in the Everfree forest?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Um... Well I was young and I wanted to see what it’s like there," I made this up.

"What did ya see?" Applebloom asked me.

"Oh well I saw uh... Some trees and plants and a lot of monsters and a lion... thing. I had to dodge them all." I stuttered. I am a bad liar; the UNSC should have taught us how to tell lies like this. Then I wouldn’t look like such a fool in front of children.

"Ya mean a Manticore?" Applebloom corrected me.

"Um... Yeah."

Scootaloo flapped her small wings furiously and jumped in front of Applebloom right up to my face. I backed up slightly because her nose was almost touching mine.

"Did the Manticore attack you!?" Scootaloo smiled waiting for my answer.

"Y-yeah, it did," I tried looking away from her.

"Did you fight back at it with some kinda sweet ninja-like karate moves or something?!" She hopped back some to kick her hooves around pretending to do karate.

"A soldier's got to fight back when attacked," after saying this, I realized I might have said a real stupid thing, and had given my real identity away. I just hope they didn't notice my slip up. Unfortunately, they did and Scootaloo looked back at me in awe.

"You’re a royal guard?!" Her face lit up with excitement, "Whoa! So mares can become guards! I thought only stallions could; now you prove me wrong! Yay!" She hopped around in a circle. I decided to go along with her story and be a "royal guard". Applebloom looked up at me,

"Wait, if yer a royal guard, where's yer armor?"

"I'm on break, so my armor's stored someplace safe." Sweetie belle asked the next question,

"Can we see your armor sometime?"

"Maybe in the future, it's pretty far from here-" Twilight cut me off, and put on a fake smile,

"And we need to leave now, so see you later girls!" we turned around to leave when Sweetie Belle spoke up,

"Wait! Why are you with Twilight?"

"I'm... protecting her because I am a 'royal guard'."

"What are you protecting her from?"

Twilight spoke first in a slightly rushed manner, "She's guarding me from monsters when I go to Zecora's and from other ponies that might what to hurt me. Bye now!"

"Oh ok, bye!" Twilight and I walked away from the trio as they waved at us with huge grins on their faces. Once we went rounded the corner, Twilight spoke, "Ok, what just happened was weird, who was that guy?"

I looked around to see is anypony was nearby, "That was a teammate of mine when we were in training to become Spartans-" Twilight cut me off,

"Hold on, what's a spartan?"

"A spartan is a genetically enhanced human soldier with many years of training. They were originally created to remove rebel alliances, but became essential when an alien force, the Covenant, arrived. In my case, I was a prototype Spartan so I had gone... You could say, mad. The scientists didn't know what happened, but I was destroying almost anything in my way. I don't remember much, but there were reports that when I spoke… it was different, it didn't sound like me," I paused to gather some more thoughts.

"When I spoke, there was a different voice, almost as if spoken by the devil as some of the scientists had said. After I had fallen unconscious a few hours later, the medical scientists, whatever their official names were, found out that what had happened was that the augmentations to enhance me had created a demon version of me out of the emotions of anger, sadness, loneliness, depression, pain, loss, and believe it or not, joy. I can be happy, just that he creates much of our joy when he destroys and kills things. The scientists did some sort of heavy neural surgery in my brain to trap my emotions and memories deep into the back of my mind."

Twilight stared at me with a look of horror, "I had no idea that is what your life was like! I'm so sorry that I brought up this subject..." her face changed from horror to remorse.

"Don't worry Twilight, it was I who started talking about my past, my fault, you just asked what a Spartan is." Twilight looked up at me and wiped away a tear from her cheek.

"Despite that, every once in a while, a negative emotion sparks, and the demon appears. For some reason, instead of using my name, he goes by the name, the Black Star."

"Why Black Star? That's a very odd name for somepo- I mean someone to have."

"I'm not sure; I can never ask him because whenever he appears, I go unconscious while he is in control of my body. And no one else has asked him because he attacks anything that annoys him. Anyways, back to your first question, that pony I tackled earlier, his name is Eric. Years ago he left mysteriously and wasn't heard from for many months. Then a marine reported that he joined the Covenant to fight against us. That is also why I yelled at him quite loudly calling him a traitor." I waited for her reply.

"So, he was like your friend?"

"Not really, Spartans never had friends because if that friend disappeared, the Spartan would most likely grieve over them and their skills would drop and make them more vulnerable." Twilight seemed surprised by my answer.

"I'm so sorry, that must be hard not having any friends, before I came to Ponyville, I thought that I wouldn't need any friends, but now I have a few."

"It’s fine; I've been a soldier ever since I was very young. I never had time for friends, just allies and teammates."

"Oh, well I could be your friend if you want."

"Wait, huh?"

"Well I just wanted to know if you wanted to be friends with me..."

"Oh, um, ok I never had a friend before."

"You don't have to worry about me, I know how to defend myself, and don't forget I can use magic." Twilight's horn glowed as she levitated me as a demonstration.

"Ok, now we should ask Fluttershy if she knows anything, follow me." Twilight must have forgotten that she was levitating me. I wasn't able to move as I was pulled along with her. On our way to where I believe Fluttershy lives, there were quite a few ponies staring at me. Eric was right; I do attract a lot of attention. Although this time it is Twilight's fault.

Twilight stopped, "We're here! Ok Dragon... Hey, where are you?" She looked around.

"I'm above you, you never put me down."

She looked up at me, "Oh sorry," she lowered me to the ground.
She turned back and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" said a sweet soft voice. The door opened to reveal a yellow pegasus with long light pink hair.

"Oh! Hello Twilight, what do you need?" She smiled slightly.

"Hi Fluttershy, we came by to ask you something."

"We? I-is there somepony else with you?" I walked forward into her view. When she saw me, she gave a small squeak and tried hiding behind her long hair. Twilight noticed her shyness, "Fluttershy, this is Dragon, she is, uh, new to Ponyville. May we come inside?"

"U-um... s-sure," she said meekly. She walked back into her house and stood facing us. Twilight and I followed close behind into Fluttershy's hut. Upon entering, I could see many small animals all over. There were birds resting on a variety of objects. There were also some four-legged creatures every which way. One snow white bunny in particular was staring at me in an irritated way, had a frown, and was standing right next to Fluttershy.

"S-so Twilight, w-w-what do you w-want to ask m-m-me?" Fluttershy really stands up for her name. Her mane is still blocking half of her face as she avoids eye contact with me. She was mostly looking at Twilight but she would glance over at me occasionally. Although the white bunny that’s standing next to her, wouldn't stop staring at me and seemed to not even blink.

“Dragon and I have had, you could say, a very interesting day yesterday and this morning. We came to ask you if you happened to have seen anypony in town that seemed suspicious or somepony doing anything out of the ordinary.”

“U-um… well, I did see somepony I hadn’t seen before. He looked a lot like Dragon, same color coat, mane, eyes, and even the same cutie mark.” Fluttershy looks at Twilight with a small nervous smile.

“So Fluttershy, you’re saying that this pony looked exactly like Dragon?” Twilight raises an eyebrow at her pegasus friend.

“Y-yes, only this pony was a stallion, and Dragon’s a mare.” Fluttershy looks at me when she says this as if to confirm she was correct.

“That’s exactly why we’re here. The stallion that you saw yesterday was actually Dragon.” Fluttershy looks back and forth between Twilight and I with a confused look on her face. “Last night, Dragon somehow swapped genders, which is impossible unless you get surgery or use magic. And I doubt Dragon can do either especially since he doesn't have a horn.” Twilight jokingly waves a hoof over my forehead where a horn would be if I had one. She drops her hoof back down to the ground and looks over at Fluttershy.

“That’s why we’re here, now besides Dragon; did you see anything else strange?”

“Um… no, I don’t think I saw anything all that out of the ordinary. But, um, Twilight, can I, um, ask you a question?”

“Sure Fluttershy, what is it?”

“Uh, do you know how Dragon turned into a mare? Because I think I might know who could have done that.” Fluttershy continues to look at the ground with her mane still covering half of her face over one of her eyes.

“We don’t really know how it happened but we think the Trixie might have been the one who committed this trick.” Fluttershy surprisingly looks up at Twilight and her hair is whipped away from her face showing me both of her eyes.

“Oh! That’s exactly who I was thinking! I had seen Trixie last night when I was feeding my chickens.” Wait, did she say she was feeding her chickens at night? I looked at her with a confused look.

“I feed my chickens twice a day. One’s at noon, and one’s at night around ten.” Well that explains it, I guess? Twilight asked the next question.

“Did you see where Trixie was?” Turning her head back to Twilight, Fluttershy continued.

“I remember that Trixie was walking into the E-Everfree F-F-Forest. S-She had a pretty scary evil grin that scared me so I hid behind a bush until she was gone.” She had begun to shake a little. I think that she must be easily scared if just by remembering something like that has got her to begin to shutter.

“Thank you Fluttershy now did you…” Twilight was cut off by a wooden cuckoo going off on the wall showing that it was 9 o’clock.

“Oh wow, it’s already nine? We should get going; we need to meet that “friend” of yours Dragon. Goodbye Fluttershy! I’ll see you when we have tea on Friday okay?”

“Okay Twilight, I’ll see you later. Oh and, um, bye to you too Dragon.” We were at the door, Twilight and I waved to Fluttershy before closing her cottage door closed behind us.