Lovie Dovie

by The Psychopath

Red Lifestyle

Still unsure of her position, Lovey started crawling forward after establishing that she could indeed keep her balance and walk appropriately.

"Looks like these dragons can walk on all fours or just two legs," the pink dragoness thought to herself. "That's really weird. Their spines shouldn't be capable of that, let alone the rest of their skeleton."

Lovey tried her best to avoid the other dragons while she adjusted to her new state of movement, but dragons weren't ones to sit idly by when something was available for torment. The 'second' group, still adolescents, like the first group that went to see Ember. Scarlet watched them from afar as they amused themselves with kicking Lovey around whilst she walked along the floor on all fours. The red giantess squeezed her clawed toes into the ground. Something was preventing her from rushing to aid the little dragon despite every atom of her body crashing together, creating boundless amounts of needs to help.

Being bullied didn't help Lovey get a control on her body, as evidenced by her mouth sparking up more and more as time went on. Oliver was too prideful to be pushed around without doing anything, and so he ended up doing what anyone who can't argue with words does: He tackled the dragons down and started beating them up...to the best of his abilities. It wasn't much of a surprise for Scarlet to see that he wasn't doing much winning.

"You're such a weirdo, lovie dovie," one of the dragonesses spat.

Lovey forced herself up and spat red.

"What kind of lovie dovie fights?"

"One that's going to crack open your head and use the skull as a cereal bowl!" Lovey fumed.

The dragons all laughed, enraging Oliver even further. He didn't notice the pink lava-like substance leaking from between his sharp teeth and falling to the floor in an inaudible sizzle, eating away at the black rock.

---

In the town of Ranchefort, at the border of Equestria and the dragon lands, Redflare and two accompanying guards were discreetly observing the area, trying to find any hints pointing towards Red Sun. Redflare was a sizeable pony; An abnormality, concerning his size. His fluffy red coat went well with his equally fluffy and unkempt mane and tail of a brighter red hue. His mane, however, displayed several uneven 'spikes' jutting forward whilst the back showed some elongation overlapping his shoulders slightly.

Being a pegasus, and a large one, the pony's wingspan was quite large, easily reaching to the with of three ponies from white-tipped-wing to white-tipped-wing. He had a love for a scarf, striped vertically downwards in large bands of red and black, which he wore around his neck constantly. His cutie mark represented a sun similar in design to a map's compass, underscored by a v shape stretching from both sides in a wide angle, only to shrink back around to the area between the 'East' and 'West' points and the south-west and south-east points of the sun.

The two guards next to him looked like foals in comparison. The first, a major of the Royal Guards, was quite gruff looking and paranoid. His deep blue coat was tarnished by a pale, almost white section over his left shoulder, stretching up to the base of his mane and reaching around to the right of his chest. His mane was shaved along the back of his neck, but was stylized to be shown as a tall, forward-curving wave of peppermint hair. The pony's eyes were also peppermint colored, and his cutiemark was a sheet of paper covered by a red ruler.

The second guard, a mare sporting an apathetic expression, was a unicorn of lieutenant-colonel rank. Her fur was considered a novelty, as only her face and the front of her hooves were white. The red was candy red, mixing with her candy orange mane and tail. Her cutiemark was a metallic spear whose bladed head was surrounded by electric currents. She had a bit of a height advantage over her major companion.

The town was the atypical rural assortment of houses and two-story buildings. A few taller buildings were randomly placed here and there, but they weren't numerous enough to be of any real significance to the status of Ranchefort. The buildings were built with bricks and linings of thin, wooden planks around windows and doors. Some had several window sized squares of wooden planks decorating the outer walls.

"Hm. This is definitely an old-style town," the lieutenant-colonel noted.

"Remind me why we're here again, Flossy Cotton?"

Cotton raised an eyebrow. "Going on a first name basis now, Major?" she spoke with a low and threatening tone.

"N-no, m'am."

Cotton chuckled. "At ease, Cornwell. We needn't be formal here. We're undercover. Ehhh..." she rolled her hoof. "Scouts, as it were. We need to be inconspicuous."

"INCONSPICUOUS?!" Cornwell whisper-yelled. "With that mountain?" His yell attracted Redflare's attention, making the stallion turn and looked at the 'little pony' with a raised 'brow. "We'd still see his head if we hid behind one of these buildings!"

"Well, that's not very nice," Red complained. "I'm just 'poofy', is all."

The major stared at him with in disbelief. "AND he has a sense of humor."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't try exploding against everything that present itself as a challenge," Flossy scolded.

"Right. Right. I'm sorry. I'm just not comfortable out here with a literal, walking mountain." He cleared his throat.

"So where should we start?" Red asked.

Flossy leaned to the side to see a large tavern with a large wooden sign dangling on metal hinges. Its swaying was the main thing that caught her attention.

"A tavern is always the best place to go to get local gossip."

"At this time of day? Unlikely. The sun is still out."

Flossy hummed in agreement.

"We can always walk around town, casually strolling into markets and peruse the wares," Cornwell explained. "We were given an allowance. Might as well use it to build our food supply since we'll be staying her for a while, and markets are the best place to get information when it's too early for a tavern."

"That's a great idea! Let's so that." Cotton pulled a map out of her mane and unfurled it. "This is a map of the city. This place to the west is where I'm going to. Red, you'll go north, and Corn, you'll stay in this area." She rolled the parchment back up. "I think I can hear tell of the markets you spoke of."

"We go now?" Cornwell asked.

"Yes."

The three had just turned when Cotton smacked her forehead. "Oh! Meet back here near that tavern over there."

"The Cherry Blossom?" Redflare asked.

"That's it. Now we can go."

Redflare was the first to reach a market. It was actually not as big as he would have hoped. There were, of course, the lines and lines of stalls, but only two areas were open enough for a nice circle of them. Some were the atypical wooden counter with colorful covers while others were more creative with their tent shape. The usual things sold were foods, such as vegetables for the ponies, meat for griffins and minotaurs, and candy for everyone. Others sold clothing or toys, and some of the stall owners even sold weaponry. Why, some of the book owners even sold rare books on magic and how to learn it. It was fascinating to see all the types of people who showed up here. There was just one problem: Redflare was sticking out like a sore thumb, and everyone who saw him turned their heads in disbelief; hoping that a better view might prove to their eyes that his size was just an illusion.

On occasion, Redflare would see an adult dragon flying overhead, but they didn't do anything suspicious. There was nothing so far indicating any potential threat to the ponies or any signs of Red Sun. The giant stallion overheard a griffin performing street music with the help of several pipes. He enjoyed the music for a while then went on his way. There was even a clothes salespony selling a large assortment of scarfs, something that piqued Red's interest.

It actually took a surprisingly long time before the first disturbance happened. A small group of about six ponies were walking through the streets. They appeared to be 'regular', but they didn't exactly seem happy to see things depicting dragons, as shown by one of them breaking out of her comrades' grip when she spotted another pony selling hoof-crafted statues. He was currently, carefully tracing out the shapes in a clay statue, using a single hand lens on his eye for that extra precision.

She yelled at the craftspony and shoved the clay onto the floor, turning it into a smushed clump.

"I worked on that since this morning..." the pony wallowed.

"What is that? A dragon?!" the mare yelled in disgust. "Do you know what they do? WHAT THEY ARE?!" she insisted.

"I..." The stallion couldn't focus. He was more devastated by all his hard work being destroyed in mere seconds than the pony who did it.

"Celery, don't. This isn't the time," one of the ponies called out. "Get back here and let's be on our way."

She turned to yell t them. "No! Are you serious? Nopony should be making things based on them. They...They kill for sport. They're very aggressive, and I've seen them planning to attack ponies."

"That attack on the village hasn't been linked to them yet," the stallion said.

"Are you serious?" Celery replied with an apathetic expression. "Huge claw marks and giant scorch marks?"

Loud stomps scared the ponies around, making them crouch down and look upwards in one movement.

"I would appreciate it if you apologized to that stallion then left. Nopony wants to hear your unnecessarily hateful slander here," Redflare said in a passive-aggressive tone.

"A-and what are you going to do about it, giant tomato? Spit seeds at me?" Celery said. Her attempts at bravery flushed away when the giant lowered his head to her eye level, scowled, then snorted, blowing her fur away. "I-I'm sorry, sir! I'll help you clean up!"

"I didn't say anything about cleaning. Up. You've done enough damage. Just...go." Redflare gestured with his hoof, prompting the mare to rejoin her companions and rush off.

The paladin nodded then tended to the distraught craftspony. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

The craftspony sighed and continued staring at the clay. "Hours upon hours of constant work. Thanks for the help, but let me wallow for a while. Get it out of my system."

Red nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry I couldn't help you sooner."

The craftspony waved a hoof, signaling Red to leave. The party didn't continue anything of note, but being the first group of ponies openly angry against dragons, they were worth a follow, and it paid off. Somepony wearing a blue sweater and a hoodie caught their attention and, judging by the mare's outrage, was telling them things about the dragons.

"It might not lead to the source, considering these are certainly rumors, but it will lead me to the most concentrated points of their creation," Red thought to himself.

The moment his thundering steps were noticed, the group called him out and fled. The 'rumor mill' looked at them with confusion, but did the same thing shortly thereafter. Redflare gave chase, and being his size, passer-bys dodged out of the way of the one-pony stampede. The living rumor-mill was much more adept than expected. They were very nimble and sliding under anything seen as an obstacle. The red giant was not a paladin for no reason, however, and huge stature is not an excuse for poor training and manners. In fact, his huge size was even more of a way to get around the obstacles, especially seeing as his leg muscles were stronger than they should be, allowing for sharp redirection. Noticing Redflare gaining on them, the pony smiled for some reason. The red stallion raised an eyebrow in response.

The chased pony wasn't looking where they were going and 'crashed' into a minotaur, exploding in a puff of crackling red powder that smelled of hot cinnamon. Redflare's hooves skidded on the stone streets, halting him just a mere foot from the bipedal taurus, but both were baffled about what just happened, let alone the crows that watched the chase. There were unique elements at play for the Red Sun. The spy task could prove much more effective than initially thought.

Comments

[The Psychopath]

8249121
Huh. Didn't see this response.

I didn't mean a chapter for this. I meant a story, unless you meant FiM in general.

[Paladin Redflare]

<3 Yas <3

[Mortefleur]

8252352

In general, I just see Austin Powers as a bit too divergent from MLP to work well

[The Psychopath]

8253255
You underestimate my power? FEWL!