A Knight in Saddle Arabia

by Nocturn Dreamwrite

Chapter 3: The Wildest Ride Ever

A Knight in Saddle Arabia

By: Nocturn Dreamwrite

Chapter 3: The Wildest Ride Ever

The carriage rolled faster and faster. Princess Felicity was frightened. She knew there was a good chance that her life was in danger. The carriage was soon on flat ground, but it didn’t slow, and it was heading directly toward the city gates. Although the carriage was following the road, it was very possible it could turn just a little to the left or the right and hit the edge of the gate if not the wall.

“Great Heavens Above!” cried Felicity, “Help!” Unfortunately, no one was there, and it was unlikely that anyone could have gotten there in time.

Felicity was quite certain that the carriage was going to crash one way or another, so she repositioned herself in the front of the carriage (since it was rolling backwards) to try to get as far away from the crash as possible. It was too dangerous to jump, so she held on to the edge of the carriage as tightly as she could. She held her breath, closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Amazingly the carriage rolled right through the city gate without hitting either edge. Felicity opened her eyes just in time to see ponies jumping out of the runaway carriage’s path. “Look out!” she called. Then she saw it, the water trough the carriage was headed for. The carriage was going to crash! Felicity closed her eyes and held on tighter than ever before, but when the back of the carriage rammed the trough, because she was in the front, she was flung out as if she had been sitting on a catapult. She felt this happen and when she opened her eyes she was airborne.

Felicity shrieked with fight. She hit the ground with a bump. Thankfully, since the ground was sandy, it wasn’t as bad at it could have been, but Felicity kept tumbling forward. A good part of the city was on a steady incline (High Street being at the top, and the Low Side being on the bottom), and so she was heading in the direction of the Low Side. Felicity tried to stop, but she couldn’t. She was rolling too fast. “Help!,” she whinnied, but every pony was trying to dodge the pony tumbling over herself as if she was a ball, so everyone was too afraid to help. Many were not even sure what they were seeing. All the while, Felicity kept tumbling down the incline. The actual crash had knocked her royal sash off, but while she was rolling she hit a bump in the road and two of her golden slippers came off of her hooves. A rather sharp stone caught hold of her pearl necklace. The string stretched then snapped. Pearls went bouncing everywhere, but a post got hold of her muzzle veil and ripped it right off her face, and her diamond plume hairpin also came out of her mane. Further down she ran into a barrel. Here she lost another one of her slippers, and her gold bracelet came off. Somewhere in all of this her gold anklet flew off, and with all the bouncing her gold collar unattached itself in the back and came off, and so did the other plume hairpin on her tail. Finally, with another bump, her last slipper came off, but she didn’t stop rolling until she herself crashed into a row of baskets in front of a brick wall at the end of a road, and there she finally came to rest.

Felicity opened her eyes and finally allowed herself a chance to breathe. She was thankful that she had finally stopped. After her terrifying and traumatic experience, she stared up at the sky, and said the only word she could say “Ow.” She laid there for a while, before she finally rolled back over and took a look where she was. She was in the low side. She had never been here before. She began to feel herself all over. Every part of her body hurt. She was covered in cuts, scratches and bruises, and she noticed that she had lost all her royal regalia. She immediately felt her neck for her collar, but it was gone. Her heart skipped a beat. She was more fearful now than ever before. When her father found out that she’d lost her collar, he’d really roar at her with anger. Felicity soon returned to her senses though, because she realized that she had bigger problems she needed medical attention. She tried to stand but her left hind leg gave a shooting pain which caused her to cry out in pain and fall again. She tried again, and this time balanced on three legs. Her left hind leg hurt too much to walk on.

“I’ve got to make it back to the palace,” Felicity said to herself. “They’ll help me.” She began to hobble slowly back up the incline. It wasn’t very hard for her to find her way; all she had to do was remember to keep walking on the road that went up.

It took a long time, but at last she finally made it to High Street. The palace gates were closed as usual so she went to talk to the royal guards.

“Please open the gate. I need to get through,” Felicity asked one of the guards.

The guard took one look at Felicity and asked, “And who are you?”

Felicity stood as straight and tall as she could, and answered, “I am Princess Felicity of Saddle Arabia. Let me in please.”

The two guards looked at Felicity, then at each other, and then they burst out in peals of laughter.

Felicity was confused. “What is so humorous?” she asked. “Have I missed something?”

One of the guards finally stopped laughing. “Oh, just that you claimed to be the Princess. That’s all.”

“But I am,” said Felicity.

“Seriously?” said the other guard, “A beggar filly who can barely walk comes up to us claiming to be the princess, and expects her to just let her in? Pl-ease! You’ve got to be kidding me. What do you take us for? Fools?”

“But I am the princess,” answered Felicity. “I’m not joking. My father is the Maharaja Sphinx.”

“Yeah right,” said the first guard, “And I’m the Maharani. Be off beggar.”

“Now see hear,” said Felicity, “I am not a beggar. I live here, and if the Maharaja hears that you didn’t let me in you’ll both be in a great deal of trouble.”

“The Maharaja isn’t going to hear anything about this,” said the first guard becoming serious. Then, a little harshly, he said “Now be off beggar, and I’ll forget that this ever happened.”

Felicity couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The guards weren’t playing around with her, they really didn’t believe that she was the princess. She was becoming desperate, and her voice began to show it. “But I am Princess Felicity,” she said.

“All right,” said the guard, “Come close.” Felicity did so, and leaned her ear close to hear what he said. “If you’re a princess, then why don’t you look like one?”

Felicity gaped. She looked back up at the guard. He mouth opened to speak but no words came out. Tears began to form in her eyes.

“Now, as I said before,” said the guard. “Be off, and don’t come back.”

Felicity quietly turned away and hobbled down the street. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She just couldn’t believe it. She had been turned away from her own home. As she walked through the merchant sector she looked at her reflection in a window. The guards were right. She didn’t look like a princess at all. She wasn’t wearing any of her royal regalia, and with all the cuts and bruises she did look like she lived on the streets. Her coat was covered in dirt, and her main and tail were both in an unruly mess. It was quite clear now to Felicity. If a pony didn’t look like royalty, then they weren’t, and she didn’t look like a princess.

“I guess I’m not a princess anymore,” said Felicity sadly. She sighed and continued to hobble down the street. Felicity walked aimlessly through the city. Her mind was a jumble of questions. Where could she go? What should she do? What would happen to her now? She didn’t have anywhere else to go. She was afraid.

After she had had walked for a long time, she found herself back down in the low side. She still hobbled on three legs, and she was beginning to feel hungry, but she didn’t have any bits to buy food. The shops here were smaller, and not well kept. The ponies who lived here didn’t have many bits and some of them seemed a bit shadowy. She rounded a corner and found herself in an alley way. The passage was littered with garbage. Halfway through the alley was dog licking a bone. He stood up when he saw her. Felicity stopped and they stared at each other for a moment. The dog was taking note of all her cuts and scratches. Suddenly the dog threw back his head and howled. Moments later a pack of dogs appeared behind him. The first dog, who was obviously the leader, licked his chops. Felicity’s eyes widened. The dogs were all looking at her, because they thought she was dinner. “Oh... my... goodness!” said Felicity. At that moment the dogs charged at her. Felicity turned around and ran as fast as she could on three legs out of the alley and on to the road. The dogs weren’t far behind. Felicity had never before had to really run, and now she was running for her life, but she only had three legs to run on and as badly bruised as they were they began to hurt and she was tiring quickly. She could barely run at all. This was even worse than being in a runaway carriage. There was a chance that she would be eaten alive. “Help!” she cried as she ran past ponies in their shops, but no pony came out to help her. They just watched as she ran by with a pack of dogs in close pursuit. Felicity was running out of energy. She was out of adrenalin, and her strength was giving out. She rounded a corner and found herself in another alley, and then it happened. She collapsed. She could hear the dogs closing in, but she was helpless. She had nothing left. This was the end. All sorts of memories flooded into her mind, and she began to weep.

The dogs were almost upon Felicity when suddenly, a pony jumped over her from the opposite direction. The pony was a young, brown, earth pony, stallion. He stood tall over her and bravely stood between her and the charging dogs, blocking their way. The dogs decided to attack the stallion who stood in their path, but he wheeled around and with one kick of his hind legs sent the first two flying over the others. He turned around again and fought the rest of the dogs head on with his hooves. He punched, sliced, and kicked at every attacker until they fled and he didn’t stop until the last dog ran out of the alley way in fear. The stallion had won. He had saved Felicity.

The stallion walked back quickly to Felicity and crouched down beside her.

“Are you all right miss?” he asked.

But Felicity was exhausted, and she only had just enough breath to say, “Help me… please,” before she passed out.