Wonder-Colt 3: The Dragon's Trap.

by Will of Haphinea

The Escape and 'Smokey' the Pig

Regardless of how this had happened, Wonder-Colt still felt a duty to protect the orange mare. He got used to walking on his back legs after a bit of practice, and took the mare in his arms, and ran out of the room where he fought that mechanized dragon. As soon as he did though, he noticed that the castle was shaking violently and pillars were buckling and cracking...the castle was crumbling on top of him and this mare!
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him ad soon came to a door that he recalled passing on the way down, but was guarded by a cyclops. With no weapons on him, he tried to growl and intimidate the beast, but it ran faster towards both of the escaping duo. It was then, he felt a burp-like sensation, and let out a fireball, killing the cyclops, and dropping a key in its place.

I'll have to remember doing that, until I can become a pony again, he thought to himself, this fireball thing can be useful! He grabbed the key, and opened the door, hoping he still had time to make it out of the castle.

The next area was full of stray blocks, falling from the ceiling, and crashing down to the ground. It wasn't going to be easy, but he had to run across the room, and protect both himself, as well as this mare from getting hit. It was fairly straight forward, although a few cyclops were trying to stop him, he made short work of them with his fireball attack.

A problem came up at the end of the room: There was a tall wall, with a hole in the ceiling, but no way out. Thinking quickly, he ran towards the end of the hall, and tried to jump, but without a boost, there would be no way he could possibly jump up the distance, let alone with someone he was carrying. The solution, however came to him like a ton of bricks...literally! A bunch of block and bricks began falling from the intact part of the castle above, and began to for a very rough stair case he could climb out of, should he try for it. Sadly, he only realized what was happening after getting hit in the head a few times by falling bricks.

Wonder jumped out of the underground room, and ran away from the castle, as the rumbling continued to get louder, and the castle itself collapsed behind. The last thing he remembered before running into a nearby village was seeing the castle completely collapse, and huge clouds of dust blew all around, causing him to pass-out.

---

It was morning, judging by the position of the Sun above. Wonder decided that he would check to see if that orange mare was alright, but did not recall where exactly he was at the moment. He made his way out of whatever room he was in, and found he was in a small town. There wasn't much to it; the church he was walking out of was the largest building, serving as a sort of starting point in this adventure. A house, with no door was also down a ways, near what seemed to be a hospital, with no one inside, but that didn't explain where that mare had gone off to. He went to the main door to the church and was quite shocked at what he saw: a smoking pig-like creature with an eye-patch.

Not sure what to do in this situation, he calming gathered his thoughts, and just asked the creature what he was wondering, "Excuse me good sir, but have you seen an orange mare by chance?"

The pig snorted, and chuckle a bit, before hacking up some phlegm in its throat. "Sure thing sir," he said with a hint of sarcasm, *snort oink* "the mare you brought with you is in another room, sleeping soundly last I checked" *snort snort* "Why do you ask?"

"Well, to be honest, I wanted to talk with her, and ask WHY she was in the blue flame I found her in. I mean, it is highly unusual to be---" Wonder was interrupted by a loud squeal and three more snorts.

"You said she was in the blue flames hmm? And you are a dragon, which, I assume judging by your manners you are not used to being correct?" *snort oink* the pig asked

"Yes, we are both ponies from Equestria...surely you have heard of such a place correct?" Wonder started.

"Nope...can't say I have" *oink oink*

"But that's impossible..."

"Listen, this land you are in is impossible. This is Monster Land, not some Pony play-place. We have had an outsider come in and get cursed before...so you ain't the first" *snort oinky-oink*

The impact of the statement, even with the silly pig noise was not lost on the Celestia guard. He so wanted to go back to the castle after defeating that dragon, and tell his Princesses the good news, and perhaps, get the respect from the other guards. Earth ponies hadn't defeated monsters like that in at least a generation! Still, if this pig had been through this before, he would know what to do to rid himself of the curse.

"So, Smokey...tell me what I am to do now? I certainly don't want to be a dragon anymore than I have to already" he said, not wanting to be rude, but was understandably upset with this news.

"Well..." the pig started and chuckled a little at the sound of being called Smokey, "It is simple, you need to defeat the Dragons that guard this land. *snort oink* There are 5 more, and a few more blue flames you'll have to contend with, but to be honest, this sort of thing is pretty straight forward to do."*snort snort*

"I thank you...I'll be off, and if the lady should awake, please have her stay in the village. I shouldn't be long" Wonder said, before heading out the door...

"Wait, before you go...there are a few shops on the way. Mind you, most of the shops are manned by greedy swine, unlike myself, *snort oink* but it would do you well to at least have some armor on, beside the scale you are wearing."

"Thanks, I shall remember that, and I'll be back as soon as I can!" he stated as he left for the tower near the center of town.

---

The exploration of the tower lead to two doors, one locked with a strong lock that needed a key, and one unlocked. He checked the unlocked door and found an extra 'power heart' as he called them. These were strange, magical items that gave him both more health and stamina in the fights he had previously, and seeing them here, meant he could benefit from the extra power again.

The tower itself didn't have much else of use, so he left to check the door he had passed, and found a pit to jump down into. It was filled with water, and despite being a dragon, it had no impact on him, other than slowing his movement by a bit. He made his way out, and found he was near...a beach?

"Interesting I end up somewhere completely different, but only walked a bit...?" he said to himself. This land was indeed interesting, and NOT Equestria at all. If anything it made him realize how important it was to escape this so-called Monster Land.

There were crabs and giant cobras jumping along the beaches and islands that he chose to follow along, killing the few that got in his way, and collecting bits, and new magic he had before losing it all with the dragon fight. He still wasn't sure how he could use magic, but was very glad he could, as the fireballs were a bit weaker on some enemies. He soon found a building and made his way inside. Rather predictably, he found the key inside a treasure chest, and was on his way, before it had gotten too late to check on that mare.

He didn't understand why, but the mare looked familiar, and he had to ask and hopefully get her side of the story. It was indeed nagging him since he had first seen her back in the castle. Regardless of anything else, he had to get back to Equestria, and if there were more dragons to defeat before he could go back, it was a small price to pay and a duty to his Princesses to keep them safe. He made it past all the crabs and cobras, that never seemed to stay dead, and found a door that lead him directly back into town.

Rushing over to the church, he greeted Smokey and let him know he had the key. One thing he was told before going to check on the mare was that Smokey would write down everything that happened, and allow him to rest in the church, when he wasn't fighting the monsters.

He knocked on the door, and waited patiently for a response, and soon heard a country accented voice on the other side say "I told you, you smokin' disgustin' mud-lover, I DON'T want to be bothered by you! I want to go home!" Wonder knew that voice, but it couldn't be her...and not here!

"Miss Applejack?" he said as he pushed the door in. He remembered seeing the Element of Honesty was indeed here, before getting bucked in the face and passing out.

Comments

[Will of Haphinea]

Quick comment, and news about the story development so far:

This chapter went much shorter than I thought it would be, and as a result I went to check of the master copy I have on my computer, and it struck me plain as day...I seem to have been rushing through the beginning of the story to get to the characters and their interactions!

As a result, I am going through, and fixing these obvious pacing issues on future chapters. Honestly, the beginning of the game is sort of what this story describes, minus actually talking to the pig. I fully acknowledge I was eager to write and explore how the equivalent of the main character would interact with the main Six, but not having equal focus on the crossover aspect! This shall be fixed, and rest assured, I shall strive to keep a good balance.

That said, our town's internet system as of late has been even more weird than the bad 502s I usually see, and as a result of my and many others complaints, the company is checking out the system, but I'll be without high-speed internet for the time being until the issues are fixed. I shall gladly check the site via a phone or when the internet does peak up on my PC.

Other news: I placed a place-holder title image for this story today. I hated having nothing for the story, but honestly am having trouble drawing a ponyfied version of the actual game box (which is below for reference):
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/Wonder_Boy_III_-_The_Dragon%27s_Trap_boxart.jpg/250px-Wonder_Boy_III_-_The_Dragon%27s_Trap_boxart.jpg

I can draw the boxart ok, I have the "Pega Magic System", and font all good, the enemies from the game alright...but dang it all, I CANNOT DRAW PONIES! I am thinking I should come up with another scene all together, thus the idea of what the place-holder shows...and action sequence from in-game assets. Which would mean no ponies, but other creature that Wonder will eventually turn into (I shall withhold those for now, as some are going to be changed from the actual game, to pony equivalents).

Anyway long commentary on things, but I feel to those few who have read this, (and I thank each of you!) deserve to know it. By next chapter, I'll be posting some new art up in that chapter's commentary, as well as some Fimfiction groups to get their view on which cover I should stick with ultimately.

Oh, and I leave you with today's fun fact I learned: The emulator 'Meka', which is generally used as a Game Gear/Master system player on many computers and other devices, was named after the first dragon from the game this story is based on! For some reason, I never realized that myself...but anyway, the programmers are big fans, and I do love the art they found for the game on the site.

smspower.org/meka/mw2-monsters.jpg

Take care all!