Burnt Offerings

by Spike the Scribe

Act One Chapter Four

Unknown forest, Date unknown, (Presumably 24 September, 1000 SR), Hours after midnight

Many things could be said about Pinkie Pie: that she was energetic, random, excitable, random, easy to amuse, random, fun to be around… did I mention she was random? Well, that day I discovered another of her many talents, and this time it appeared to be the ability to traverse foreign woods unhindered by using leaps, skips and jumps.

At first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Here was Pinkie Pie, changed into this bipedal thing with a way to wide mouth for it to be normal, hopping and skipping merrily trough the thick underbrush of the forest, humming and giggling to herself without a care in the world. If it wasn’t for the fact that I actually knew Pinkie to an extent, I would probably be questioning her (or my) sanity at this point. I mean we were in an unfamiliar forest in the middle of the night, surrounded by Celestia knows what monstrosities, in bodies not our own, and she was practically singing to herself, ignoring the undergrowth that should at least slow her down considerably? However as I said before, I knew her to an extent and the only thing that was boggling my mind was the last bit. Well, that and how she was able to see where she was going; the night was so dark that I could barely see my own outstretched ‘claws’.

I really miss my dragon eyes.

So here we are, traveling through this thick pine forest, keeping our eyes peeled in search for our friends and in the same time trying not to get lost. To assure just that I even considered marking the trunks of the trees we were passing by with my claws, but then I remembered I didn’t have those anymore. The best I could do in this situation was to follow Pinkie’s lead and hope for the best. We continued on our journey for quite a while before something finally happened.

Amongst the quiet rustling of grass under our feet and the low moaning of trees I was able to pick up a faint sound. It wasn’t more than a soft creak of wood, barely audible amongst the gentle noises the forest was making yet still possible to pick up. I stopped the moment I've heard it, looking around in search for the source of that sound, trying to figure out whether the thing that made this noise was friendly or not. Pinkie Pie however was none the wiser and she continued along the nonexistent path she took, still skipping and humming.

“Pinkie!” I whispered loudly, trying to gain her attention. Fortunately, that was enough to make her stop and look at me. I noticed a slightly surprised look on her face once she noticed I was so far away from her, but she quickly covered that up with a cheerful smile and she began hopping in my direction. Once she was close enough for us to have a relatively comfortable whispered conversation I said to her: “Try to keep quiet for a moment, it’s very important.”

“Okay.” She answered in a whisper of her own. I was mildly surprised that she actually followed through with my request; something in my voice must have tipped her off that I wasn’t joking. “What’s going on?”

“Dunno, I thought I heard something. Listen.” I told her, and she complied in a quite exaggerated manner. She cocked her head to the side slightly like a dog confronted with something unexpected, and I actually think I saw her ears twitch slightly. What was important however was the fact that once the weird sound repeated itself (I was actually quite surprised by that but as well), Pinkie did hear it, if her eyes widening was anything to go by. “You hear that?”

“Yeah.” She muttered in response. “It sounded like it was coming from above.” At that she looked upwards. Following her gaze I looked at a rather large pine tree, it’s top branches high enough to be clouded in darkness, making it impossible for me to see what was up there.

“You see anything up there?” I asked, squinting my eyes in hopes of seeing better. In response Pinkie shook her head enthusiastically.

“Nope, can’t see a thing.” She grinned and I had to force myself not to groan out loud. Leave it to Pinkie Pie to turn a serious situation into a comedy. “Maybe we should ask if anypony’s there?” She suggested. Momentarily I shook my head no.

“No way! We can’t be sure if whatever’s up there isn’t hostile. For all we know it might be a cockatrice or something like that.”

“Or it might be one of our friends stuck up there.” She countered, leaving me with my mouth agape. It was the first time I actually have seen Pinkie Pie apply logic to anything. I had to shake my head furiously to try and regain composure, but my mind was still overwhelmed by what I just witnessed. Nonetheless I answered, to the best of my abilities at least.

“I… suppose you may be right.” I didn’t believe that I actually said that. “Okay, just… keep an eye out and if it isn’t any of our friends let’s just go away, okay?”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!”

I had a bad feeling about this.

Pinkie Pie looked up again and keeping her eyes fixed on the top parts of the tree she took a few steps back. Initially I was confused by what she was doing, but then I figured, that she wanted to be seen from all the way up there, and some of the lower branches could've easily concealed her from view. I wasn’t exactly ecstatic about that, she was basically giving out her position, but if it really was one of the girls then it could help immensely. Finally, after taking a few more steps back and inhaling a large mouthful of air she cupped her mouth and shouted:

“Hello! Is anypony up there!?” …she really wants the whole forest to know where we are, doesn’t she?

At first we didn’t get any response. The air was filled with the soft sounds of the wind and trees and noting suggested we were going to get any answer. I was slowly beginning to sweat. What if what we heard was really a predator and now it was preparing to leap on Pinkie Pie and do horrible things to her, not to mention me? I was about to suggest that we get a move on and leave this cursed place when we finally got a response.

“Pinkie Pie? Is that you? I can’t see you, where are you?” The voice was definitely a familiar one. A bit tomboyish, it could only belong to one pony.

“I’m down here Dashie!” Pinkie replied, waving her arms wildly, trying to get Rainbow to see her. “Can you see me now?!”

“No, I can’t, branches are in the way.” Rainbow responded. “Listen, can you help me? I’m kind of stuck up here and I can’t get down.” Okay, that was new. Why would Rainbow Dash have problems with getting down from a tree? Couldn’t she just fly down? Unless she too had changed and her new form didn’t have any means of flying. That would kind of suck for her I imagine.

“Don't worry Dashie, I’ll be up there in a jiffy!” Pinkie shouted back reassuringly. Moments later she was speeding in the direction of the tree, running like if she wanted to tackle the poor tree to the ground rather than scale it. I was beginning to wonder if I should do something to at least try and stop her from getting hurt on her own request, but it was already too late: the pink mare was but a few hooves from the tree and she wouldn’t be able to stop in time.

I was expecting Pinkie to crash into the tree trunk with a loud thud, maybe comically implanting herself in the large pine. What I wasn’t prepared however, tough I should be in hindsight, was for her to once more defy the laws of physics. Once Pinkie was no more than maybe two hoofs from the trunk she raised her arms and using her own ‘claws’ she got a hold of the tree, in the mean time rising one of her hind legs and planting it in the tree like if it was a ladder she was about to begin climbing. The odd thing however was that it actually worked. The energetic mare, using her own momentum began scaling the tree like if it actually was a ladder, and in about a second or two she was a good twenty hoofs up, reaching for the lowest branches.

Once the lowest branches were in her reach, Pinkie made a grab for them, using them as makeshift rungs. The branches in question creaked a bit under her weight and shook a little, but they seemed to be able to support the extra weight. Looking satisfied with that, Pinkie began scaling the tree, supporting herself on the branches and slowly disappearing amongst the thick needles, obscured from my view. One thing was for sure however –if she kept that up, she would be with Rainbow Dash in a manner of seconds.

As I predicted, Pinkie Pie reached the stranded mare after but a few moments of climbing. I didn’t actually see where she was, but the surprised ‘what the buck are you?!’ was enough of a giveaway. It appeared that Rainbow Dash was as surprised by Pinkie’s new look as I was, tough regretfully, she didn’t scream her head of like I did the first time I saw her. Pinkie in turn did what she usually did in situations like this –she laughed, her voice echoing in the night.

“Hey Dashie, love the new look!” Pinkie exclaimed after a few moments of giggling. There was a prominent moment of silence that ended with the sound of Rainbow’s uncertain voice:

“Pinkie Pie? Is that you? What happened?” Her question was met with a thoughtful ‘hm’ from the pink mare and a cheerful ‘dunno’. I almost heard Dash facehoof at that. “Seriously, you look beyond weird, not to mention creepy with that wide mouth. What happened to you?”

Well, at least I wasn’t the only one that was finding Pinkie’s wide, toothy grin disturbing.

“Oh, you know Dashie, the usual.” Pinkie stated, as if it was the most obvious thing under Celestia’s sun. “You wake up in the middle of nowhere with a new body. Just like that time I threw a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party for the whole Doctor pony and wandered inside this funny looking blue box. Only this time, I’m not the only one changed! Isn’t that just great?!”

“Yeah, just peachy.” Dash responded sarcastically, clearly not seeing what was just so great about that. After a moment however she asked something, that she initially overlooked. “By saying that you’re not the only one changed you mean only me or…”

“Down here Dash!” I shouted, giving her a wave even though she couldn’t see me.

“Spike, that you? Are the others with you too?”

“Nah, we’re the only two… well, tree now. Ain't that right Spike?!” Pinkie responded before I could, the last bit shouting on the top of her lungs, even though we could hear each other just fine by just rising our voices a little bit. I probably wasn’t the only one annoyed by that particular mannerism of the party pony.

“Could you please stop yelling into my ear?” There you go, RD has the same sentiment as I do. “I bet Spike can hear you just fine, isn’t that right?”

“Loud and clear!”

“There you go, no reason to yell.” There was a brief moment of silence after which Dash changed the subject to a more pressing matter. “So are you going to help me unstuck myself or are we gonna stare at each other all night?”

“Aw… and here I thought we would spend the night together.” I… don’t even want to know what that was supposed to mean. And apparently neither was Rainbow, if the sudden rustling sounds were to indicate anything.

“Just… just help me out of this mess, okay?” Was that panic I heard in RD’s voice? Well, even if I was right she would most probably deny it the moment I mentioned it.

“Okie-dokie!” Was the cheerful response Pinkie gave her and what followed was the noises of moving branches, two ponies-turned-weird-creatures-I-don’t-know-the-name-of grunting and general struggling to get free.

The noises lasted for about a minute or two, a few nonsensical comments by Pinkie Pie thrown in between grunts here and there. If somepony was to wander nearby he would most probably be freaked out by some of those things, not to mention that the grunting noises might as well belong to a duo of ponies doing things way different than trying to free one of them, like hauling a heavy sofa up the stair or something… Yes, definitely hauling a sofa, up at least a flight of stairs. Well, aside from that all I was able to discern was that apparently Rainbow looked a bit different from how Pinkie looked, and apparently she wasn’t looking all that much similar to me too. I already figured out that the two of us (that is Pinkie and me) weren’t exactly the same species (both now and before all this), and that whatever creatures we were turned into, they were like the different kinds of ponies: at base similar, but in the same time different on many accounts. I actually began wondering how a pegasus would look like turned into whatever this kind of creature was called.

Suddenly I heard a rather loud snapping noise coming from up the tree. At first I ignored it, figuring that RD was being held back by whatever odd branch that just got snapped, and that Pinkie just broke it off to help her. Then I heard a rather frightened sounding ‘oh-oh’ from the cyan pegasus and some kind of commotion, followed by more rustling, a fearful yelp and more sounds of snapping branches, and then and there I knew one thing.

This was not going to end well.

I looked up just in time to notice that there was a rain of pine needles falling on my head. I momentarily added two plus two and deduced that Rainbow was falling somewhere above me, slowed down only by all the branches she must have been hitting on the way down. My initial reaction was to jump for safety less I would get crushed by the falling mare. Then I thought: ‘Wait a second. If Rainbow Dash is falling and she can’t fly, then that means that she might get hurt hitting the ground. It’s entirely possible, that her new body isn’t used to falling long distances like a pegasus body, and if that’s the case then you should at least try and help her.’ Well… actually it was more like ‘stay put and catch her you dolt’, but I like the more sophisticated sound of my own thoughts better. Besides, if Pinkie and my example was anything to go by, than RD must've been around our height as well, catching her probably wouldn’t be that much of an issue. Reassured by the thought I began running around with my outstretched claws, trying to guess where exactly would Rainbow be falling from.

A few moments later I saw from the corner of my eye a number of broken off branches falling a few hoofs from my current location. Deducing that Rainbow was falling somewhere there I began speeding in that direction, adamant on catching her before she fell. I was almost there when I managed to spot a figure plummeting rapidly to the ground and grunting in pain every now and then while hitting branches on its way. Figuring that this was Dash I gave it my best to make it in time to catch her. I was almost there, all I needed was to take a few more steps and I would be able to… wait, why is Dash suddenly so big…

Aw horseapples.

*smash*

For a moment I was completely unaware of what just happened, too dazed by the sudden impact. I felt a rather heavy burden on my chest and stomach, almost preventing me from breathing, and all I could see was darkness and bright flashes of light, just as if stars were dancing around my head. After a moment tough I was able to shake of the daze and take stock of what just happened.

“Uh… did anypony wrote down the license number of that hurricane that hit me?” A tomboyish voice resonated on top of me as the weight on my body shifted. Well, at least now I know how AJ usually feels when Rainbow Dash falls on her.

I grunted in pain and shifted a bit under RD, making her freeze up for a moment. She probably didn’t notice that she was lying on somepony until just now.

“Gerroff me!” I managed to utter, and just moments later Rainbow scrambled to her feet, letting me finally take a deep breath. I sat after a few moments, blinking rapidly and trying to get the spots in front of my eyes to stop appearing and swallowing down mouthfuls of air. Sheesh, and to think that catching, or rather breaking the fall of one cyan pegasus pony could do that to you. I definitely don’t envy Applejack.

After I finally managed to get rid of the dancing lights from my eyes I looked around in search of the rainbow maned mare. It wasn’t that difficult to be honest, she was standing not tree hoofs from me, looking either surprised or confused, I couldn’t tell. It was probably both: the shock of finding out how freaky I was looking now and confusion as to how exactly was she able to stand on only her hind legs and not fall down. To be honest however, I was probably exactly as surprised as she was, if not more, by her current appearance.

I was able to discern that this was in fact Rainbow Dash only thanks to three things: her violet eyes, now staring at me wide as dinner plates; her messy, shortish hair styled in a rainbow pattern, the normally vibrant colors only slightly duller in the darkness of the night; and thanks to her voice that I already heard and easily recognized. The rest was, again, weird looking. As in my and Pinkie’s case, Rainbow was now a bipedal creature with long arms ending with five-fingered ‘claws’. Her face twisted in a confused frown was littered with small scratches due to her fall. The general built of her changed frame was similar to my own, as well as to Pinkie’s to an extent, and she too was clad in simple yet durable looking clothes, that is apart from a few rips due to her rather large fall, but there was one thing in which she differed significantly from the two of us.

She was trice as tall as I was.

While normally that wouldn’t disturb me that much, seeing that in my normal form I was about two times shorter than Twilight and the rest, once I stumbled upon Pinkie (or rather she creeped in on my) I assumed that whatever we were turned into was approximately our current stature. Rainbow however proved that concept to be worth less than my weekly allowance. She was, as I already stated, about trice our size, while at the same time she kept mostly the same proportions of her body parts and her facial features. She didn’t however had a mouth as wide as Pinkie’s, which suggested that it was a characteristic that only the pink mare had, as well as she didn’t have pointy ears like I and Pinkie had, sporting smaller, rounder ones. All in all however, she didn’t look that much different from how the two of us looked. Oh, and she didn’t in fact have wings, so that much was explained.

We stared at one another, both of us taking in the new looks of each other and trying to come to terms with them. Only after a few moments did Rainbow snap out of it, never one to dwell too much on one thing, and decided to say something.

“Lemme guess: you’re Spike?” I rolled my eyes at that and rose to my feet. For some odd reason now I felt rather small and insignificant, especially compared to RD.

“That obvious?” I asked jokingly, brushing the stray dirt and pine needles from my clothes. My weak attempt at humor seemed to work, ‘cause I think I saw Rainbow smirk a bit. As quick as the smirk appeared however it vanished, replaced by a serious looking frown.

“Just so we’re clear on this –all this didn’t happen. I may look different, but I still have a reputation to uphold.” Typical Rainbow Dash behavior: always trying to look cool, no matter what. Just so she doesn’t pester me about that I nodded halfheartedly. At about that moment Pinkie Pie appeared on one of the lowest branches of the pine tree Dash was stuck on, crouching on it like a cat, and looked at us sheepishly.

“Sorry, my bad.” She apologized, looking genuinely sorry for what had happened. I myself wasn’t about to complain or hold a grudge, I mean I don’t even know how did Pinkie mess up to make all this happen, so I was in no position to do so. Rainbow on the other hoof had every right to get annoyed; I probably over-dramatize by saying this, but the normally cyan mare could get seriously hurt by falling in such a manner, possibly even permanently. Still, she glared at Pinkie only for a second or two, after which she sighed and muttered something to herself, something along the lines of ‘how does she do that’.

“It’s alright Pinkie, I’m okay. Nothing to worry about, I’m too awesome to get hurt by a small fall like that.”

“You fell over eighty hoofs.” I muttered so that only Rainbow could hear.

“More like a hundred.” Dash corrected, and if I’m not mistaken, I picked up a slight tone of pride in that statement. However she quickly shook her head and shot me a quick glare. “Not helping.”

I shrugged and decided to stay silent from now on.

“Phew, for a teeny-tiny moment you scared me there Dashie.” Pinkie replied, wiping imaginary sweat from her brow.

“Yeah, well, if you’ll ever have to do something like that again Pinkie, try not to break off the branch a pony is hanging on, will ya?” Rainbow said, and thanks to that small bit information I knew what went wrong up there. Leave it to Pinkie Pie to literally saw of the branch she (or Dash for that matter) is sitting on.

“Okie-dokie-lo…” Pinkie started up her usual reply with a happy smile, but she faltered at some point, looking from her branch with a rather surprised expression. The surprise quickly morphed into a rather nervous look, which I and Rainbow picked up momentarily as something being definitely not right, and her voice turned to a more shaky one. “Um… guys? I-I think you should take a look behind…”

“Why, what’s behind… us?” Rainbow asked turning around, trailing off once she actually looked at where Pinkie was telling us to look. I turned around as well, only to be met by something that I definitely didn’t want to ever look at again.

It was a wild boar. While normally that wouldn’t scare my all that much, especially considering Equestrian boars were rather tame animals, like most of our wildlife, this one didn’t look all that friendly. The wild hog was glaring at me and Rainbow with his small, shining eyes, and it snorted angrily, burying its hooves in the ground as if preparing to charge us. What was even more prominent however was its tusks. Equestrian wild boars had dulled tusks and generally smooth fur, this one however looked like if it was a mass of bristles as scratchy as sandpaper, adorned with two razor-sharp tusks on both sides of its snout. Add to that the size of the thing (it was about my height in its shoulders) and you have a truly terrifying picture I was just staring at.

The hog snorted again, grunting afterwards in a threatening manner, and I admit, I was scared senseless by that. It sounded like a mix between a pig’s snort and a low rumbling roar, and if I was to guess, it was the sound of a pig-like monstrosity preparing to shred me to pieces with its sharp tusks. It shouldn’t be then that much of a surprise that I all but ran in the direction of the tree, trying to climb it up and join Pinkie in the relative safety of the branches.

I don’t even know how or when did it happen, but in less than a few seconds I was already on the same branch as Pinkie Pie, clutching at it like at a life line. I guess that Pinkie must've helped me up seeing me running from the wild pig or something. She probably would do that again and helped Rainbow Dash get to safety, but the pegasus stubbornly stood her ground, glaring back at the boar.

“What, you wanna peace of me, chump?!” Rainbow taunted the animal taking a fighting stance, probably thinking that animals in this place understood the spoken language as well as the ones back home. Something however told me that this wasn’t the case with the local fauna, especially remembering the feral look the hog was giving us.

As I suspected, the boar was unaffected by Dash’s taunting attempt, yet it let out a loud grunt before it charged her nonetheless, probably planning this either way. It run straight at her, trying to gore her with its tusks by jerking its head upwards once she was in reach. The slash would probably leave a nasty gash on Rainbow’s leg, but fortunately the pegasus mare saw that coming and avoided the attack by jumping to the side.

“Dashie, what are you doing!? Leave the pig alone and get up here!” I heard Pinkie yell at Rainbow, trying to get her to get out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, Dash’s cockiness got the best of her.

“Come on Pinkie, it’s just a large, hairy pig, I’m not about to run from something like that!” She shouted back while preparing to kick the tusked monster for what it’s worth.

The boar turned around to face her, it’s features twisted in rage, and it seemed like it was going to try and gore her again. Dash was however quicker and managed to kick the gray animal square in its snout. The wild pig recoiled a bit at the touch, however it was clear that it didn’t find it all that harmful and it only served to anger the creature more. The wild hog let out a loud and angry squeal and tried to gore Rainbow again.

The furious pig jerked its ugly head in RD’s direction, trying to slash at her legs with its sharp tusks, but the brave pony was too nimble for the animal to hit. Once she noticed what the creature was planning she took a step back, making it fling its head aimlessly in the air, goring at nothing. Rainbow looked extremely smug about that, a confident grin plastered on her face, yet that same grin escaped her features once she felt her balance faltering. In the heat of the moment and canceled by the shadows of the night, Dash didn’t notice the number of broken off branches lying in her way. Suffice to say, it didn’t end well for her.

I watched from my perch on the tree with my mouth agape as Rainbow lost her balance and ended up on her back. This was definitely not good. Now she probably didn’t have any way to effectively defend herself, save maybe for bucking, or rather kicking at the incoming boar. In other words, she needed our help, my and Pinkie’s. I shot a quick glance at the pink maned mare, meeting her own large, blue eyes looking at me with a fiery resolve, and we nodded at each other. We knew what we had to do.

I looked quickly around in search of anything that could be used as a weapon, but all I could find was more branches and some pine cones. Not much, considering what we were about to be facing. Making a split-second decision I reached out for a few of the cones and picked them, after which I began hurling them at the back of the wild boar, trying to turn its attention from Rainbow. Pinkie seemed to think in the same way as I did –she had an armful of pine cones of her own and was lobbing them at the angry pig while shouting:

“Hey you, big, mean and ugly! Leave Dashie alone!” Pinkie’s shouts went along those lines as the two of us assaulted the furious animal. Unfortunately, the boar was more interested with RD at the moment than with the rain of pine cones hitting its back time and again. The bristly pig closed the distance between itself and Rainbow and it was rather obvious by the way it lowered its head as to what it was going to do, even for the prone mare in question.

Dash wasn’t going to go down without a fight it seemed. Once the attacking pig was close enough, she tried to kick it with all her might in the snout again. This time however, the effects of her attack were way more devastating than last time. One of her feet connected with the boar’s snout quite soundly, and a resounding crunching sound could be heard right before a pain-filled squeal courtesy of the wild pig. The hit itself apparently was so powerful that it shattered bones or at the very least broken the creature’s snout, making it recoil in both surprise and pain. It wasn’t however enough to drive the beast off. Instead, the anger of the boar was doubled now thanks to the pain Rainbow dealt it, and it was almost painfully clear now that it wasn’t going to go easy on the her.

With a furious half-roar the boar leaped at Dash, taking advantage of her prone state, and once again tried to gore her, this time however more mindful of its injured snout. Its sharp tusks made quick work of the clothes she was wearing and tore right trough the fabric, reaching her flesh. A pain filled scream escaped Rainbow’s lips as the animal trust one of its tusks into her side, and even more pained shrieks once the wild hog began trashing its head and tearing her flesh, trying to get its tusk loose. This was definitely not going too end well.

Pinkie and I stared in silent horror at what was happening, both of us wanting to somehow help Rainbow get out of this mess. We needed to do something, anything to help save her. If not, the wild pig would shred her to pieces in its enraged state. And that’s when the whole mess got a lot more complicated.

Pinkie and I were shaking on our branch, trying to calm ourselves down enough to do something most would consider as insanely stupid –we planned on jumping on the boar and try and subdue it somehow, or at the very least give Rainbow Dash enough time to get on her feet and try and find a safe place on a tree or somewhere else out of the animals reach. However, once the two of us stood on said branch, we both heard a loud cracking sound. We looked behind us fearfully and noticed that the offshoot we were standing on was beginning to give way, breaking at its base. We were able to only utter a quick ‘oh-oh’ before the branch completely broke off.

Pinkie Pie somehow managed to leap off the branch quickly enough to avoid falling with it and simultaneously grab at another one, climbing it in a manner of seconds. I however weren’t so lucky. Once the branch broken off I lost my footing and I thought I was going to fall down with it. I was about to begin shrieking like a schoolfilly, expecting to hit the hard ground with a loud thud or even worse –land on the boar completely unprepared and get shredded by the feral animal. Instead however I felt something pulling at the shirt I was wearing and stop me from falling further. I was confused as to what exactly happened, but I quickly realized that I must've been hung by the scruff of my shirt on a offshoot higher up. And in the end, the branch breaking off was more of a boon than Pinkie’s and my assault could ever hope to be.

The piece of broken off wood fell directly at the two combatants trashing on the ground. Rainbow, who was busy with the wild boar slashing at her side was still pinned down to the ground by the animal, but in that moment it was actually more of a good thing than bad. The bulk of the angry wild pig was enough to shield her from the piece of wood that came their way, and as the branch slammed at the back of the boar it bounced off its head, leaving the prismatic-maned mare relatively unscathed while at the same time making the animal once more recoil in surprise at the sudden pain.

The tusk of the wild hog retracted from Rainbow’s side, leaving a gaping, bloody wound, yet at the same time it was enough for the downed mare to try and retaliate against the crazed animal. Figuring out that the pig was too far from her legs to try and kick at it again she made use of her arms and ‘claws’. She tightened one her ‘claws’ into a fist and punched at the already wounded snout of the crazed pig, and then elbowed it for good measure. The shock of something contacting with its wounded snout made the boar let out a pained squeal and once again focus on his victim, and considering what it already did to Dash I doubted that she would be able to keep on fighting much longer.

The wild hog neared the side of the downed mare once more, lowering its head menacingly, bearing its sharp and bloodied tusks in preparation for dealing another hefty blow. I can’t really be sure, but from the place I was hanging from I believe I saw a panicked, fearful even gleam in Rainbow’s eyes, and to be frank, I didn’t blame her for that. She probably knew as well as I knew and Pinkie , who was shouting her head off and preparing to jump on the pig to try and stop it knew, that the next slash of the tusks could very well be the last in her life. Bracing herself for the inevitable pain Dash closed her eyes and bit her lips, waiting.

The hog’s tusks were inches from Rainbow’s flesh. It just needed to jerk its ugly head to pierce her skin and deal the fatal blow. I couldn’t watch, I couldn’t just hang there and witness with my own eyes how one of the bravest mares I knew was being skewered by a feral animal. I…

“Waaaiiiit!!!” …did not expect somepony to shout something like that.

I looked around in search for the source of the voice, as did everypony else. I believe that even the boar was taken by surprise by that scream, as it backed a bit from Rainbow and raised its head, its beady eyes scanning the surroundings closely. Only after a few moments did I realize that the voice we heard was eerily familiar, although it normally didn’t escalate to such volume.

A small ways away from the three of us one of the bushes shook a bit and a rather tall looking figure emerged from behind it. It was at the verge of my field of vision, the shadows obscuring the finer features of its face and blanching the colors into a scale of grays and blackness. All that I could say at the moment was that the figure was again one of the bipedal creatures Pinkie, Dash, and I were changed into and that it was around Rainbow's size, if not a little bit taller. I could also make out that the newly arrived figure had long, flowing hair (or mane; not sure what form is correct), and that in contrast to myself and the two mares I was with it didn’t exactly wear pants, instead opting for a one-piece simple dress, obscuring most of the legs of the newcomer.

All eyes were focused on the stranger, even the small, beady ones that belonged to the bloodthirsty boar. The newcomer in turn walked swiftly towards the wild pig and its would-be victim, possessing a sort of grace I have never seen before combined with a strongly enraged gait of a mother about to scold her children. With each passing step the features of the newly arrived individual were becoming more and more noticeable: ears poking out of the newcomer’s hair, their ends pointed; large, shining, elegant blue eyes staring at the pig and the downed mare in anger and disappointment; finally the color of her hair was evident once he stepped into a spot of moonlight –a familiar, light pink. There was no doubt about who it was now.

It was Fluttershy.

“What do you think you are doing?! Do you have any idea what you just did?!” I take it back. It was not Fluttershy. It was a really, really angry Fluttershy. The way she glared at the wild hog was enough to make it back up fearfully, staring in her expressive eyes, and I was kind of glad I was hanging on this tree rather than being down there, facing the famous Stare. I almost pitied the hog now… almost being the key word.

“You just attacked an innocent creature that was just on its way through the forest, that’s what you did! It didn’t do anything to you, it just happened to be wandering through your territory, and you attacked it for no apparent reason like a big bully! I have half the mind to go find your mother and tell her what kind of antisocial delinquent she helped rise. Not to mention that the creature you attacked is my friend, and nobody, I repeat! Nobody hurts my friends! You got that?”

The mighty boar, the tusked, bristly mass of muscles and rage was now cowering in front of an angry Fluttershy, reduced to a shaky ball of rough fur. It was truly a site to behold. I knew that the butter-yellow pegasus mare was good with animals, I even heard stories from some of the residents of Ponyville that she could face a full grown bear and survive, but witnessing something like that live was infinitely more awesome then I would ever imagine. The usually quiet and horribly shy mare now stood in front of the animal, her ‘claws’ on her hips and a disapproving scowl on her face, looking so intimidating that I think even Princess Celestia herself would think twice before trying to go against her.

The wild hog looked like it wanted to sink into the ground when it opened its ugly, bloodied snout. It grunted and squealed something that could probably be called as a wild pig’s way of speech, for the first time showing some of the more natural from the Equestrian point of view behavior as it probably was trying to come up with an explanation to why it did what it did. Fluttershy however only crossed her arms on her chest and looked even more disapprovingly at the animal. Finally the mare had enough and interrupted the hog, still looking angrily at it:

“What you did speaks for itself, and none of your excuses will change what happened here. You did horrible, horrible things to one of my friends, and quite frankly, I have a hard time even thinking about forgiving you.” She intensified her glare a bit more, and the pig let out a horrified yelp, but stood rooted to its spot. Fluttershy’s glare however vanished after a few moments, replaced by a soft, considerate smile as she kneeled before the terrified animal and touched its head with one of her ‘claws’ gently, stroking its bristles affectionately. “Now, now, I may be a bit harsh, but you were really mean, you know? Now, I want you to promise me, that you will never try to hurt anypony again for no reason. I know that you aren’t exactly on the top of the food chain, so I’m not preventing you from fighting for your life and the like, just don’t try and start up a new fight, okay? Oh, and try not to use your snout too excessively for the next few days, okay? It does seem to be bruised quite a fair bit, it may hurt for a while, but it should be alright on its own. Now run along, and don’t let me catch you on beating up innocent animals for no reason, ‘kay?”

The wild boar squealed in response and took off into the night, disappearing in a manner of seconds in the shadows. Of course, a retreating creature was too tempting for Rainbow Dash too just leave it alone, so it wasn’t a great surprise to hear her boastful voice as she yelled at it:

“Yeah, that’ll teach ya to mess with us! And if you try that again I’m so going to trash your hide, you overgrown… pig…” She trailed off once she noticed Fluttershy looking at her not that much differently than she was looking moments ago at the hog. RD’s ‘claws’ found their way to her injured side and began pressing her wound, as the cyan mare twisted her face into an expression somewhere between panic and sheepishness.

“Uh… *gulp*… I’m hurt so go easy on me, please?”

Author's Note:

Okay, so I see they added a specific place for author’s notes. Cool, might as well put it too good use.

First of all, I wanted to thank everybody that took their time to read trough to this point. I appreciate each and every view I get. Also thanks for the positive feedback, it makes me all the more eager to work on the next chapters.

Okay, having that out of the way, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is there are only two more chapters before we get to the actual crossover part (I know, the mane cast turning into ‘humans’ is already crossover-ish enough, but whoever played Rise of the Runelords knows what I’m talking about). The bad news is… well, I’ll won’t be able to get to work on those chapters right away. Suffice to say I have some non-pony related work I really need to get a start on with.

Also before anyone points this out –the reason I gave the ponies rather good control over their new physical forms will be addressed in the future chapters. I can already imagine a hefty dose of you guys agreeing with Pinkie Pie on the ‘it’s lazy writing’ point, but I at least have an explanation prepared. Just wait for the next update.

Spike the Scribe

Comments

[Scar The Dragon]

. good job now I