Ranma Saotome wakes up deep in the Everfree Forest one day and ends up as a pony shortly afterwards. Clearly, Ranma was not ready for Equestria, but is Equestria ready to face its latest resident?
Can Equestria handle the impact caused by Wild Pony, who is actually the somewhat scrambled and ponified martial arts prodigy and weirdness magnet otherwise known as Ranma Saotome?
Set after the failed wedding at the end of Ranma ½ and approximately three years before the return of Nightmare Moon, then rapidly skips ahead to just a few months prior.
On a side note, like MLP:FiM itself, the story will mainly be Slice of Life, with the occasional sections of Action/Adventure popping up now and then. I mention this because I couldn't choose both tags, and of the two, this story weighs in more on the Slice of Life side.
Prelude: A Wild Pony Arrives in the Everfree Forest
A Ranma ½ - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossover fanfict by Tangent
Pre-reading and editing assistance by:
Lord Talon;
Nevrmore;
And some guy named Steve
DISCLAIMER: ‘Ranma ½’ and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty and Viz Video. ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ and all characters therein belong to Hasbro. This fanfict has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfict may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even *GASP* American comic books!).
PRELUDE: A Wild Pony Arrives in the Everfree Forest…
Ranma wasn't sure exactly where he was. He had awoken some time ago in an unfamiliar forest, with no supplies, and no clear recollection of the previous days events or how he got here. About the only thing going in his favor was the fact that he was wearing his usual Chinese outfit, so he was neither naked nor wandering around in his underwear.
Even his rather extensive knowledge of flora and fauna, gained over ten years of roughing it during the training trip his father, Genma, had taken him on was failing him. Despite being able to recognize several varieties of plants and animals as being either safe or unsafe due to previous experience with them, there were also quite a few that he had never encountered before.
Granted, the encounter with the pack of wolves made of sticks had actually been kind of fun. They may have acted a lot like real wolves, but he just couldn’t bring himself to feel threatened by animate bundles of sticks. Especially since they were so easily knocked to pieces by what Ranma considered to be moderate blows from his hands or feet. Well… he did have to admit that their ability to reassemble themselves was kinda worrisome, and he was sorta nervous for a moment there when they finally decided to form up into a giant super stick wolf…
Until both Ranma and the giant wooden wolf realized the tactical blunder it had made by becoming so big while surrounded by trees. It might have taken longer to destroy than before, but with its mobility hampered, Ranma had no difficulties dodging it while taking it apart in detail. After which, the separated wood made a half hearted attempt to assemble again, only to settle to the forest floor in apparent exhaustion.
Good times…
Distinctly less fun had been running from the lion-thing with the bat wings and scorpion tail that he had encountered later, which his cat-fist training rendered him unable to fight directly. Ranma had finally gotten away from it by sheer chance when he discovered that it wouldn't follow him into a field of blue plants. While this led him to be somewhat suspicious of whatever the plant was, pure terror kept him dead center in the field until the cat-thing not only left, but he couldn't sense it stalking him anymore. And even then he remained extremely cautious as he left the field.
As tempting as it was to just leave it go in case it was something as innocuous as an unpalatable scent keeping bat-kitty away, Ranma knew better than to leave himself exposed to strange plant oils any longer than absolutely necessary. So, following his ears, he eventually found a stream large enough to bathe in, and thoroughly washed both himself and his clothing as best as he could, becoming a girl once again in the process.
Better that than have to deal with the results of being exposed to a potentially poisonous plant.
Given that the sun was beginning to set by the time Ranma had her bath, she hung her clothes where she figured they would best catch the morning sun and finish drying, then proceeded to set up camp by collecting rocks, twigs, sticks, and leaves that she knew were safe. First setting up the stone circle for a campfire, then assembling a makeshift lean-to from the greener plant debris and stockpiling the drier tinder for a decent fire, which she didn't bother to start until she actually had a couple of fish and crayfish from the stream to cook.
Ranma's opinions on Chinese Amazons were many and varied, ranging from being perplexing, annoying, stubborn, annoying, good cooks, and annoying, but he certainly never faulted the usefulness of their fighting techniques.
The chestnut-fist, for example, was not only a great rapid repetitive striking technique, it was also a highly useful for non-combative purposes requiring speed and accuracy, such as catching fish barehanded or starting a fire one handed with a fist full of dry twigs and leaves.
Somewhat satiated for the moment, the nude redhead looked up at the darkening sky to try to get her bearings from the emerging stars.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me…"
With a sense of dread, Ranma nimbly hopped up the branches until her head cleared to forest canopy and she got a better look at the moon and stars.
While the stars themselves were damning enough, given that the few constellations that she recognized were in completely different positions in relation to each other than should even be possible no matter where you viewed them from, it was the moon itself that confirmed just how lost Ranma was.
For on the face of the moon was a distinct pattern of craters and shadows that created a silhouette of a unicorn's head…
Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, official fiancé in at least three mutually exclusive arranged marriage contracts, and supposed runaway husband according to Chinese Amazon law, was now, to the best of his knowledge, no longer on planet Earth.
Quite frankly, while waking up the next morning as a pony was definitely yet another problem she neither needed nor wanted, it was nowhere near as surprising as it should have been…
“Aw, man! What now?” Then Ranma blinked in surprise. “Huh? Cool! I can still talk!”
While Ranma was more aggravated than alarmed to discover she had become some sort of midget horse some time during the night (she was judging her scale as compared to the clothes she had left hanging - if she was a horse, she was a small one), it was just one more strange thing that had happened to him over the past year or so. And hardly the worst.
In fact, on the off chance that becoming a mini-horse had simply replaced the girl-type form, Ranma was willing to call this change a net gain. She didn’t care anywhere near as much about being a female horse as she did about becoming a human girl. For one thing, horses of either gender were neither weak nor defenseless. For another, female horses were more physically discrete than human girls, not having obvious breasts and all. That, and should some asshole actually manage to catch her off guard as a mini-horse, nobody bothered to geld mares when trying to break them.
Yeah - if Ranma had to be a horse of any size, for the time being she was perfectly fine with being a mare.
So Ranma was actually relatively calm as she examined her new body.
Hooves instead of hands or feet, legs somewhat thick in proportion to the body size (which was a good thing - sturdy legs were less likely to break, which was a bad thing for a horse), chestnut fur with a scarlet mane and tail, weird shield and sword pattern in the fur on her flanks…
Yeah, that was a pattern in her fur, rather than a brand, sticker, or paint.
Shield with a sword on it, huh…
Maybe she had become some sort of guardian beast? That’d be kinda cool actually. Fighting monsters to defend the world, no fiancées, earning a better afterlife, no fiancées, and best of all - no fiancées!
Well, first thing was first - make sure that the new body worked!
Um… Actually, first thing was to make sure the campfire was all the way out - then go have fun with new training…
Okay, walk, canter, trot, gallop, leap, flip, rebound off tree, land on a branch, back-flip onto another branch on hind legs, assume a kata stance…
The new body was proving to be quite a bit more flexible than Ranma expected it to be so she could definitely work with this!
Ranma worked through the more basic kata sets she knew until she became more sure of her balance on two legs. Then she moved onto the intermediate sets and finally the advanced forms, and was happy to note that she could actually do all of the ones she tried with only minimal alterations due to her form. As far as horses went, her joints were freakishly flexible.
Ranma sat by the stream once she was done testing what her new body could do, taking a long drink to cool off before sitting down and idly skipping stones across the water as she pondered what to do next. While her new body had proven to be flexible enough to be able to stand upright and even assume most of the combat stances she knew, it did have its own limitations. Hooves lacked fingers, after all, and without those…
…
How the hell was she picking up stones and skipping them across the water without fingers?
Picking up another stone, Ranma attempted to analyze just how she was able to do so, but for the life of her it just seemed to be a matter of intent rather than a case of hidden fingers. Press or touch with the underside of the hoof with intent to pick up or hold, and she did. Worked with the rear hooves as well, if not quite to the same extent.
Hmm…
Ranma looked at her hooves, then at a tree, then at her hooves again before getting up and trotting over to the tree in question…
And then continued trotting right up the trunk!
For about three whole steps before falling to the ground, having lost her ‘grip.’
“Owww…”
Heh… She’d have to work on that. At least she knew that she had actually been sticking to the tree, as she had been careful enough to not be going fast enough to have done it by inertia. That was an old trick anyway. Being able to actually stay put on a vertical surface without something for her toes to grip (or, in this case, without even actual toes to grip with) was going to take some practice.
“Ewww… what’s that smell?” Ranma shook her head to clear the odd acrid scent of rotting wood and leaves, mixed with the cloying scent of aged tree sap and the almost overpowering aroma of pine tar. Granted, they were forest smells, but oversaturated well past the point of being pleasantly outdoorsy and well into ‘who shoved a compost heap up my nose?’ It was an oddly familiar scent too.
One she had encountered just the day before.
The stick dogs were back.
Spinning around, Ranma was startled to discover that she did not see them right away.
“Oh, right. Better sense of smell in this form. Gotta remember that.”
With a small (for her, anyway) bound into the overhead branches, Ranma made her way, tree by tree, back up stream to the small camp she had wandered away from.
Where she found a somewhat larger pack of wooden canines tearing up her lean-to (no real loss there), the circle of rocks surrounding the campfire ashes (Ranma experienced a brief mental image of the stick wolves setting themselves, and then the forest, on fire, and found herself relieved to have remembered to make sure the fire was all the way out before she wandered off to practice), and her clothes. Which were now shredded and scattered into several tiny pieces.
Irritating, but it wasn’t like she had any way to heat water to change back anyway, and she currently didn’t actually need clothes.
Ranma studied the pack from the safety of the branches, contemplating on whether or not it was worth attacking the wooden wolves for destroying her stuff. It was obvious that they had lost her scent, which wasn’t particularly surprising considering that she had bathed here last night and had taken to the trees here early on in her self-discovery of her new body. There were only three more of them than in the previous encounter, but given that Ranma wasn’t that familiar with the limits of her new body just yet…
Best to just cut her losses and leave before the noise they were making attracted the cat-bat thingy again.
O O O
Sometime later, Ranma dropped to the ground again to… take care of a call of nature. The trees were thinning out a bit, and the underbrush was thicker and more robust, providing plenty of opportunities for privacy, and she had stayed near enough to the stream, so she was able be able to wash up afterwards as well, which was always a plus.
Deciding to stay on the ground afterwards as she continued heading west, Ranma tried to remember what kind of plants horses were supposed to eat. Was it only grasses? Or could she eat other stuff as well?
She’d have to chance something soon, regardless, as having a new body certainly hadn’t stopped her from needing to eat.
Hearing rustling in some nearby underbrush, Ranma turned towards the noise and prepared to face a… chicken poking its head out of a cluster of ferns?
“Heh… Guess I’m feeling jumpy,” Ranma chuckled to herself over having worried about encountering a wild chicken. “Nothing to see here, chicken, I’m just trying to find something to…” Ranma watched as the red-eyed chicken head rose up, revealing a long, reptilian neck. “Now that’s just wro-”
Fluttershy made her way cautiously through the underbrush of the Everfree Forest, as she had done numerous times since she first moved into her home on the far South Eastern edge of Ponyville. Usually, these forays into the untamed wild were to rescue some poor critter that was either injured or orphaned by the harsh lifestyle inherent in the uncontrolled wilderness. Those particular expeditions never went any farther into the woods than absolutely necessary to perform the rescue, and considering the fact that she first had to become aware of the need for a critter to be rescued, generally tended to stay close to the nearby edge of the forest.
On rarer occasions, her reason for daring the depths of the Everfree Forest was to rescue a particular white hen. Elisabeak was the main reason her chicken coop had a surrounding fence in the first place. Normally, she'd simply let such a willful hen roam free, but unlike the other free range chickens in the village, Elisabeak did not have the sense not to wander into the forest. Heck, Elisabeak didn't even have enough sense to stay near the edge of the forest. Or go in straight lines, or follow landmarks…
Fluttershy shook her head clear of the unkind thoughts about Elisabeak, drew a deep breath, and bravely continued to exhibit extreme caution as she crept through the underbrush, following the tracks of her errant hen as they went even deeper into the woods, concern for the missing chicken warring with nervous fear. She did manage to take at least some solace that Elisabeak had gone missing during the day, as the Everfree Forest was even spookier when it was dark out.
Then she finally spotted Elisabeak up ahead, sitting on a grey pony near one of the creeks running through the forest.
"Oh, thank you ever so much for looking out for Elisabeak," the butter yellow Pegasus gushed quietly as she trotted towards the unfamiliar mare. "I do hope that Elisabeak wasn't any trou…ble…"
Stone.
The mare Elisabeak was sitting on was made of stone.
She was really quite lovely, with seemingly caught in mid-motion with an expression that suggested puzzled curiosity. Fluttershy wondered for a moment where the statue had come from, before remembering that the ruins were supposed to be somewhere in this direction.
"Look, Elizabeak," the pale yellow Pegasus said as she gathered up the white chicken in her forelimbs. "This must be a statue commemorating some brave hero or daring explorer of the past, set out to inspire those traveling to visit the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It's a shame no pony goes there anymore - she must be really lonely now with no pony to encourage…"
O O O
Ranma was only vaguely aware of the world around her for the most part. Her thoughts had been sluggish and confused ever since she encountered the lizard-chicken thing, and she had a really hard time focusing her attention on anything.
She couldn't move for whatever reason, although she wasn't sure whether it was because she was drugged, poisoned, or under yet another curse. She felt really stiff, but not in the painful manner of muscle cramps. Just… rigid and unmoving.
Unblinking too, although that apparently didn't cause any more physical discomfort than anything else did at the moment.
Even Ranma's sense of time was kinda trippy. If nothing was going on around her, the sun seemed to speed across the sky, as did the moon and stars during the night.
The cycle of night and day sped by a few more times, getting faster and faster, and then a blurring, continuous streak that suddenly STOPPED!
...As something landed on her back, clucking like a chicken.
Not too long after that, she heard a gentle voice calling out. "Oh, thank you ever so much for looking out for Elisabeak." It took Ranma a moment to figure out what the voice was saying, as it had been a while since she last spoke English. The next sentence was more clearly understood, if incomplete. "I do hope that Elisabeak wasn't any trou…ble…"
A moment later, a pale yellow midget horse with a long flowing pink mane and tail wandered around Ranma and into her limited field of view. Granted, since her visual focus was centered on where the chicken-lizard had been, the pony was sort of doubled up and overlapped with itself, and the entire image was grainy, as if looking through a gritty filter, but it was better than nothing.
Then the visitor spoke again as she left her field of view and presumably took the chicken off of her back. "Look, Elizabeak, this must be a statue commemorating some brave hero or daring explorer of the past, set out to inspire those traveling to visit the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It's a shame no pony goes there anymore - she must be really lonely now with no pony to encourage…"
And then the voice was gone, and time seemed to speed up once more…
O O O
Two more days zipped by before Ranma became aware of voices approaching once again. It was nice in a way, even if they didn't seem to realize that she wasn't actually a statue.
"Ooh, she is a beauty, Fluttershy!" a cultured feminine voice sang out. Ranma couldn't quite understand the muffled response, but the other voice did sound the same as the one from a few days ago. She must be a real quiet one, Ranma assumed. A shy type, just like her name implied. The next voice was more rough, but still female in nature.
"So this here's the statue y'all found. Sure looks nice enough. Ah kin see why you'd want t' have it in yer front yard."
"That stance…" the first voice began as the owner started moving around Ranma's unmoving form. "It's as if the sculptor caught her just as she paused to look at something. Such grace and poise, and dare I say confidence?" Ranma could now tell that the speaker was a white midget horse with blue eyes, blue diamond markings on her flanks, a horn on her head, and a styled purple mane and tail. "And that expression! You can just see that she is intrigued by something new and unexpected! Such detail… and yet the artist never etched her cutie mark… This just might be an unfinished masterwork, lost during the move from the old castle."
"Do you really think so, Rarity?" the little horse that Ranma now knew as Fluttershy looked down at the ground and started tracing circles in the dirt with her hooves as her… were those wings? As her wings briefly fluttered nervously. "You don't suppose that they will want it back, do you?"
"Oh, don't you fret now, dear," Rarity assured her friend, "We'll look for an artist's mark once we get it back to your place. If there is one, we'll write a letter to the Chamber of Arts in Canterlot and let them know that we found a lost work. If it does prove to be a lost work of a master sculptor, then I'm sure that the reward for finding it will be enough to commission a picture of it for you to serve in its place."
"Wouldn't they want this here statue, even without a maker's mark?" The owner of the third voice moved into Ranma's field of view, proving herself to be another, slightly larger mini-horse. This one with an orange coat, green eyes, a blonde mane and tail, and a set of three apples depicted on each flank. She was also, for some strange reason, wearing a cowboy hat.
"Possibly, Applejack, but without one there is no proof of origin, and without that could have been made at any time by anypony. If that is the case, then the Royal Historical Society won't touch it, nor would the Chamber of Arts be able to claim it. At the very least, not without having it officially appraised first and then compensating the pony who actually found it for fair value. And that pony is Fluttershy."
"T'aint arguing' that. Ah just wanted to be sure we're on the up an' up is all…"
"I don't want to cause any trouble…"
"Now now, there shouldn't be any trouble at all, but if you are both that worried, then we shall simply check for the artisan's mark before we move it. The most likely places for the mark are the base, if it has one, or if it has no base, then either in or behind an ear, on or under a hoof, or somewhere along the ventral torso."
"The what now?"
"The underside of the main body. Most likely between either the fore or rear legs, although the ears or hooves are more common choices for statues lacking bases."
"Yeah… Why don't we check those areas first. Statue or not, Ah ain't checkin' another filly's nethers if'n Ah don't have to."
"It's unlikely that a mark would have been placed there anyway, but if it makes you that uncomfortable, I'll check that location if there's no mark anywhere else. Now be dears and help me check the hooves to see if any of them are anchored to a base. I don't think they are, given that they line up with the ground so well, but I'd rather not give myself a horn-ache trying to lift it if it happens to be anchored down."
"Oh, yes, of course."
"On it, Sugarcube!"
O O O
Ranma felt vaguely mortified as the three midget horses… or ponies as they seemed to refer to themselves… thoroughly examined her rigid body for a mark that she knew wasn't there for them to find. Not that they weren't making an honest effort to check everywhere else first though, and she appreciated that. In fact, after checking (and digging a little) around her hooves, Ranma had the unique experience of being lifted by nothing, although from what had been said earlier, she suspected that it might have something to do with the glow around Rarity's horn.
Oddly, Ranma felt as if a thick fog was being lifted from her mind, and she realized that she had been experiencing some difficulty even thinking, despite being nominally aware of her situation.
And then she was tilted sideways.
"Quickly now, check the undersides of the hooves. I cannot hold something as heavy as this up indefinitely!"
"Got'cha."
"Okay…"
"Nothin' on these two, 'ceptin' some dirt…"
"I'll just clean that off. Any better?"
"Yeah, but still nothin'."
"There isn't any mark on these hooves either…"
"Then I suppose it falls to me to follow my word and check the last place."
Ranma, now able to feel fully mortified, was righted in mid air and held in place for a moment.
"Well, whoever sculpted her paid an extraordinary amount of attention to detail."
And then Ranma found herself moving toward a cart, which she was gently set down in.
"Ah take it y'found nothin' there either."
"No, I did not. Not that I was really expecting to, considering the sheer amount of attention to detail that was given to the rest of the body. For this level of work, and no base, the mark should have been in or behind one of the ears. But you were right - we had to check."
"Fair'nuff. Mind helpin' me strap 'er down nice 'n' tight like? Be a raht shame t' go through all this trouble just t' have Fluttershy's new statue fall over an' break if'n the cart rolls over a rock or somethin'."
"Here, tell me were you want the ropes to go, and I'll set these pads between the ropes and the statue to prevent accidental wear…"
"Ah'right. Then the first rope should go…"
O O O
Rarity levitated the stone pony out of the cart as Applejack undid the last of the ropes.
"Now, Fluttershy dear, where did you want-"
"Hi there!" Ranma almost dropped to the ground as a bright pink mini-horse with blue eyes, balloon marks on her flanks, and somewhat darker curly mane and tail practically popped up in middle of the group, obviously startling Rarity and Applejack and sending Fluttershy hiding under the cart with a quiet "eep!"
Next thing Ranma knew, the hyper pink bundle of cheerfulness was bouncing around her and occasionally looking her right in the eyes. "Oooh! Who is this supposed to be? Wait, don't tell me… Chip Stoneheart! No, no… I know! Hmmm… Stoneface McBoulderpony? Nah, too silly… Besides, McBoulderpony was a stallion. So was Chip Stoneheart for that matter… Maybe she's Jacky Appleseed! Is she one of your ancestors, Applejack? Wait, was Jacky Appleseed an Apple?"
Before the orange mare could do more than take a closer look at Ranma and begin to open her mouth, Pinkie was racing off at the mouth again. "Oh! Oh! I got it! Mesa the Explorer! No no no! Wrong hairstyle!"
"Pinkie…" Rarity started.
"Marble Livingstone the Third! I wonder what she was the third of?"
"Pinkie…" Rarity tried again.
"Aha! Coral Loft, Ruin Explorer and Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire! Am I right? I'm right, aren't I? She's got the braided mane and everything!"
"Pinkamina Diane Pie!"
"What? Oh… I got carried away again, didn't I?"
"Yeah, y' kin say that again."
"What? Oh… I got carried away again, didn't I?"
Applejack hoof-palmed her face. "Ah walked raht inta that one…"
"Yes… Yes, you did." Rarity replied dryly as she carefully set the statue down on the walkway leading to the front door to Fluttershy's cottage. "Now, let's see… where best to display this marvelous statue…"
"How 'bout near th' bridge, by th' inside of th' bend in th' path? That way she kin greet Fluttershy first thing when she comes home, or give her a raht proper send off as she leaves."
"Or how about over here, next to the outside bend near the front door? That way she can guard the door at night, and greet Fluttershy as soon as she comes outside!"
"Oh my…" Fluttershy responded in quiet indecisiveness. "I'm not sure… Those both sound like wonderful locations…"
"Hmm…" Rarity pondered. "Aesthetics wise, both locations are pretty good. We could always try it in one spot and then move it again later."
"Maht as well plunk 'er raht here then," Applejack concluded, gesturing with her right fore-hoof.
"Okay, if you really thing that's a good spot…" Fluttershy murmured in quiet agreement.
O O O
Ranma was somewhat bemused to find out that she had become a lawn ornament of sorts. While it was kind of frustrating being unable to move, at least she wasn't alone anymore.
A large portion of time still seemed to zip by, with nights and a good chunk of each day flashing by in moments as far as her hazy awareness could register the world around her. She couldn't even think clearly during those periods, barely forming even a single coherent thought before the next time somepony interacted with her.
In most cases, this pony was Fluttershy.
Each day, after Fluttershy took care of her animal friends (some of which, such as the bear, came as a big surprise to the petrified pony), the shy pony would check to see if she needed cleaning and tell her a bit about herself, or what her hopes and dreams were before heading out for the day, and then tell her about the day after taking care of her animal friends again once she returned to her home.
Ranma came to know Fluttershy rather well. For one, she was very kindhearted, if more than a little shy. She was also very fond of all sorts of animals, relating to them better than she did with most other ponies, who tended to intimidate her whether they meant to or not. She seemed to only have a few friends who came over with any sort of frequency, such as the elegant Rarity and a brash blue mare with a rainbow mane named (oddly enough) Rainbow Dash. Both of whose visits apparently having the admirable goal of getting Fluttershy out of her house more. Other ponies she had more or less friendly working relationships with, such as Dr. Pawheart the veterinarian, and the Apples.
According to various conversations Ranma overheard, Fluttershy had ongoing issues with anxiety, and there were all too many days when she was even afraid of her own shadow. Still, more often than not, she just came across as shy and a bit timid, and even on her worse days, she made sure to take care of her beloved animals and tried to spend some time with Ranma.
It was odd, Ranma decided, to be somepony's inspiration when she couldn't do anything herself. Odd, and yet strangely fulfilling, even if the support she gave the timid yellow Pegasus was largely indirect.
Another pony Ranma became somewhat familiar with was Ditzy Doo, the mail pony. Mostly because the grey Pegasus with yellow eyes, mane, and tail occasionally flew into her while delivering a package of birdseed or animal feed for Fluttershy. The cross-eyed mare would always get back up, apologize for bumping into her, and then start babbling for a few moments before becoming aware that she was talking to a statue.
The first few times Ditzy Doo did this, she ended up giggling awkwardly, apologizing again before laughing at herself and then going on her way. After that, apparently having heard somewhere that Fluttershy spoke to the statue in her yard for inspiration, she started doing so herself deliberately whenever she came by. Never staying long, but always saying something either about herself, her daughter (Dinky Doo - a unicorn filly), how her day was going, what plans she might have, and on rare occasion, her troubles as well.
No, not many ponies came to this sparsely populated neighborhood on the Southeast corner of Ponyville, and other than those few times whenever Rarity came by and did whatever it was her horn did to clean her off, Ranma's thoughts remained cloudy and muddled most of the time. While not exactly happy with her situation, Ranma had difficulty bringing herself to be more than sort of frustrated about it either.
The snows came and went twice, and had returned again by the time the next big event in what passed as Ranma's life happened.
The winter had apparently been unusually harsh this year, in part due to the wild weather resonating from the Everfree Forest. Most of Fluttershy's animal friends were now hibernating or otherwise gone until spring returned, and the shy pony was all bundled up muzzle to tail as she tried to clear the path from the cottage door to the nearby road.
The winter was apparently very bad in the forest itself this year, as fear spiked in Ranma's stone heart.
The bat-cat had had become hungry enough to leave its territory in the woods in hopes of better hunting.
If Fluttershy spotted it now, she'd be able to make it to the safety of her cottage in time.
But the bundled up Pegasus couldn't hear it as she continued to shovel the path clear.
Maybe it wouldn't notice her friend...
Fear became terror as the bat-cat paused and looked towards Ranma, and therefore Fluttershy as well.
Ranma tried in vain to warn her friend somehow. ‘Fluttershy, run! Run now! Get to the cottage! Get to safety!’
But, of course, her voice didn't work.
Terror mounted as the bat-cat silently stalked closer…
*crrk* a hairline crack formed along the left foreleg of the stone pony.
Terror mixed with anger as Ranma realized that her friend's life was in danger and there…
…was…
*crk-crack* a stone chip fell from Ranma's right shoulder. Anger became rage as the hungry beast drew ever closer.
…absolutely nothing…
*crack-crrk-crumble* cracks rapidly spread all across the petrified pony. Rage became helpless fury as death stalked the kindest, gentlest being Ranma ever knew.
…she could do about it!
*KA-BOOOOM!* Stone shards and granite dust flew everywhere as a shadowy silhouette crouched menacingly within and hissed territorially.
Little Mother was in danger. The intruder had to either be driven off…
…or die.
Twin roars echoed over Ponyville as Ranma and the manticore leapt at each other with death in their eyes…
The winter had apparently been unusually harsh this year, in part due to the wild weather resonating from the Everfree Forest. Most of Fluttershy’s animal friends were now hibernating or otherwise gone until spring returned, and the shy pony was all bundled up muzzle to tail as she tried to clear the path from the cottage door to the nearby road.
The winter had been particularly bad in the forest itself this year, causing the overall temperature to drop really low and making the snow in nearby areas to become exceptionally deep. After bundling up as best she could, Fluttershy ended up having to leave her cottage through the living room window in order to clear her walkway and make sure her front door could open.
Her chickens were currently over at Sweet Apple Acres, sharing warmth and safety in the farm’s larger coop, along with many of Ponyville’s other free range chickens, ducks and geese that were either not able or disinclined to travel south for the winter. It simply hadn’t been plausible for her to keep them in their own coop this year as the snow kept drifting right up and over the short chicken-wire fence, effectively removing any security her hens had from the foxes, weasels, and other small predators that lived in the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy might get along with all sorts of animals, but even she had difficulty convincing non-hibernating predators to not eat her chickens when their normal prey had become abnormally scarce.
So while she was sad that she had to send her chickens away this winter, she was happy that they would be warm and safe on Applejack’s farm. And it wasn’t as if she couldn’t visit them any time she liked. In fact, after she was done clearing the walk way, she’d have a nice little chat with Wild Pony as she brushed the statue off, and then go right over to Sweet Apple Acres to visit her chickens and help out with the extra animals the Apples were taking care of this winter.
*Chff-chff*
Between the thick insulating blanket of snow and the bundle of layers the shy pony had wrapped herself in, she could barely even hear the shovel in the preternaturally silent winter air.
*Chff-chff*
The bundled up Pegasus couldn’t hear the manticore as it left the cover of the all too near Everfree Forest.
*Chff-chff*
Nor could Fluttershy hear the sound of the chips and cracks rapidly spreading across the statue she had long since dubbed Wild Pony.
*KA-BOOOOM!*
That, Fluttershy heard, as stone shards and granite dust flew everywhere as a shadowy silhouette crouched menacingly within and hissed territorially. She stared as a pair of eyes seemed to glow menacingly in the haze of the dust before a brief gust of wind cleared it away, revealing a brown mare with angry blue eyes, red mane and tail, and a grey sword-on-shield cutie mark on her flank. The stance the former statue took was eerily reminiscent of a cat trying to make itself look bigger in order to scare off a threat…
Whipping around, the pale yellow Pegasus saw the hunger maddened manticore that had been stalking her, and her heart nearly stopped as she let out an involuntary (if barely audible) squeak.
Fluttershy collapsed in a faint as twin roars echoed over Ponyville as Wild Pony and the manticore leapt at each other with death in their eyes…
O O O
“That sounded mighty close!” Applejack stated as she got up from the table. “Apple Bloom, stay here and mind Granny, y‘hear?”
“Aww…”
“None of that now! If’n hunger’s driven one ’r more of th’ big critters out of th’ Everfree, then it aint safe out there. Ah’ll be meetin’ up with Big Mac at least, an’ maybe some of th’ other farmers too so we can drive whatever came outa th’ woods raht back in. Ah know y’ want t’ help, but it just aint safe for a little filly out there raht now.”
“Okay…” Apple Bloom kicked the floor with a fore hoof. “Ah’ll stay with Granny…”
“Good. Ah’ll be back soon ‘nuff.” And with that, Applejack grabbed a rope and headed out the door. As it shut behind her, she couldn’t help but mutter to herself, “Ah hope…”
O O O
Big Mac left the snow plow where it was as he thundered down the half-cleared roads of Ponyville. It would take too long to turn it around, and that set of roars sounded entirely too close to be wasting any time trying to bring it along.
Other stallions that had been out clearing the lanes joined up with the big red stallion as he passed by at a full gallop, barely slowed at all by the portions that had yet to be cleared. Those that hadn’t joined right away were teaming up with those whose plows happened to be facing the right direction so that a sort of mobile barricade could be brought into play sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, whatever was fighting had remained in the Everfree Forest itself, and everypony would just be in for a long day maintaining watch where the forest met the town. However that hope was faint at best, as the roars had sounded far too close for either critter to remain in the woods, assuming they hadn’t entered one of the outlaying neighborhoods already.
O O O
The Ponyville Weather Team was not officially part of any of the Equestrian military forces, air or otherwise. Ponyville was too far from any of the nation’s borders and at the same time too close to the capital to merit a dedicated military post of its own. Technically, the town didn’t even have much in the way of a local militia either. Not currently at any rate, as there hadn’t been call for maintaining one in recent years. Just a handful of volunteers consisting mainly of retired soldiers trying to stay active and young idealists not quite old enough to actually enlist in the military yet. And, by default mostly, the Weather Team.
Largely unarmed and unarmored, the militia could fight fires, perform rescue and scouting duties, and assist in setting up or moving barricades if needed. The Weather Team added the ability to respond quickly to emergency situations, and if need be, bring weather magic to bear. They also acted as swift couriers, alerting the staff of Ponyville General Hospital to get ready, or summoning aid from the Air Brigade in Canterlot.
Rainbow Dash was new to the post of Captain of the Weather Team this year, hoof-picked by her immediate predecessor, Rolling Thunder, who had retired and gone off to Los Pegasus to be with his family, who had moved there last year, and spoil his grand foals. He picked Rainbow Dash to replace him because, while she was admittedly young, relatively inexperienced, and a bit lazy, she was also capable of completing her responsibilities quickly and efficiently once she was motivated to do so, and she had yet to leave anyone who counted on her hanging.
Which is why she was up and out of her cloud-house the moment she heard the twin roars echoing over Ponyville, when she’d much rather be sleeping in.
She was quickly joined by some of the other Weather Team Pegasi as she flew towards the Southeast corner of Ponyville.
“Whoa…” Raindow Dash took in the devastation she found as she and her team got close enough to see what was going on. A clash of titans was happening, for all that one of them was no bigger than she was. A chestnut mare with crimson mane and tail fought in single combat and equal savagery against a monster five times her size, and for the life of her, Rainbow Dash could not tell who was winning, for both of them were bleeding from several sets of gashes!
“Wild manticore attack! Thunderlane! Go to the hospital and tell them to get ready for a medical emergency! You guys! Go help the road crews bring the snow plows over to form a barrier! Teams of at least four to a plow if you want to carry it, otherwise just help push! The rest of you, harassing tactics only! Do not engage directly if you can help it - not even to pull that pony out of combat. Don’t give me that look, did you even see what she did to that rock?”
O O O
Two wild, feline based, creatures faced off against one another. One, the smaller of the two by far, was actually a former human boy now turned pony mare. Oddly enough, despite having hooves instead of hands, this change actually worked in the Neko-Ken’s favor as the body it was using was now properly four legged. Her ‘claws’ did not require paws after all, and not having to contort the body as much to better fit cat-like postures and stances just meant that she could bring more speed and power to bear.
Her ‘natural’ weapons were few but formidable. Chi claws that could shred hard wood into strips as fine as excelsior paper or carve stone into smooth slices, albeit their effect against living flesh seemed to be muted in comparison. A menacing feline aura that just screamed out ‘Hey! MY territory! Hear MY roar and Fear ME!’ Cat-like grace, reflexes, and battle instinct. And a near complete disregard for the comparative size of the opponent.
The other, a manticore. A mythical powerhouse of super-leonine might and draconic constitution, with sharp teeth and claws and a scorpion-like tail ending in a poisonous stinger. Few things, even in its own size range, were considered to be much of a threat to one of these majestic monsters. Fewer still were those that were smaller that could cause it much concern unless there were many of them. A prey creature such as a pony acting like a rival apex predator defending its territory might have given this one pause just from the sheer absurdity of the situation.
In truth, this particular manticore was too maddened by starvation to really care. It was small, it was edible, and as soon as he could kill it, it was meat.
Coincidentally, what passed as their thoughts as the two titans battled amounted to pretty much the same thing, consisting mostly of the emotions of rage and terror, the sensation of unfamiliar pain, and one shared perplexing question:
‘How is this thing even hurting me?’
O O O
Applejack and Big Mac arrived on the scene at roughly the same time and quickly paired up to approach the ongoing battle more cautiously.
“Well dang… Outa all th’ things Ah excpected when Ah hear this here commotion all th’ way back at th’ farm, I never expected the likes o’ this. Y’ever see the likes, Big Mac?”
“Enope…”
“Like watchin’ two wildcat’s fight, fer all that one’s a monster and the other’s a pony less’n half his mass. Wonder how she’s doin’ that - Ah don’t see no weapons on her…”
“Prob’ly specialized Earth Pony magic,” the normally laconic stallion observed. “Pretty rare ability though. Th’ only pony that Ah ever heard of that could do anythin’ close these days is an Earth Pony from Neighpony that goes by th’ name Spruce Tree. And he don‘t fight nothin’ like this from what Ah seen…”
O O O
Deep in the Neko-Ken, Ranma wanted to do little more now except run away. Her opponent was proving to be especially resilient despite the harm she had already inflicted upon him, and the fight had already lasted far longer than any other she could recall. She was faring far worse than usual as well, having been raked several times by vicious claw swipes, and stung more than once on top of that, and she was in more pain than she could ever remember being in since she first emerged to protect the Other.
Ever before, she had come to shield the Other. To become that which he feared the most and assert her dominance so that they would know that she was Dangerous and not to be trifled with. But now, for the first time she had ever known, she wasn’t enough.
The enemy was too strong, too determined. It wouldn’t give up or run away.
She wanted to run. To get away and hide. To lick her wounds and take comfort in the safety of a Warm Lap.
But she couldn’t run.
If she ran, the monster would eat Little Mother.
Little Mother, who had found her in the woods and brought her Home…
Little Mother, who cleaned her, took care of her, and kept her company…
Little Mother, who now needed a defender, a protector, a warrior…
She needed to be more, like the Other could be. To be able to reach deep inside and find what was needed to win the fight. To find that special something, whatever it may be, that had let the Other overcome impossible odds.
To power through Prince Toma’s illusions, so authentic that they caused real damage…
To defeat Prince Kirin and shatter his tower…
To fight off Prince Herb and destroy Treasure Mountain…
To kill Saffron, the Pheonix King, who could recover instantly from all injuries, no matter how severe…
Power that the Other could call on in times of great need. She didn’t understand it. She was incapable of comprehending the combination of intuitive tactics and desperate determination that allowed the Other to reach deep and pull victory from the jaws of defeat. She just knew that the Other did so.
So, for the first time ever, she did so herself, despite not knowing what to do. Reaching deep into herself, she found the Other, but he would not be enough. Reaching deeper still, she found the Power, but there was something more. Some connection that was not there before, so she reached even farther and caught hold of it and everything else, pulling it all up in one tangled mess in hopes that it would sort itself out and help her protect Little Mother…
O O O
Those who live in Equestria and the world it is located on were familiar with the phenomenon of Heart Songs. Times of great emotion in somepony’s life that somehow caused appropriate music to play as he or she sang about whatever was inspiring them at the moment. Occasionally, these Heart Songs were powerful enough to draw other ponies into them, leading them to dance, march, or sing as required. They were almost always beautiful spectacles to behold, uplifting and awe inspiring.
So the gathered ponies of Ponyville were a little taken aback by the harsh, beating rhythm that suddenly carried over the battlefield.
And then, the strange brown pony who was fighting the manticore like a mare possessed began to sing…
“Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!”
And then Applejack and Rainbow Dash joined in the odd chorus, followed shortly by the rest of the gathered mares.
“Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!”
At which point Big Mac and the other stallions joined in all at once!
“OI! OI! OI! OI! OI!”
And then everypony fell silent once again as the crimson maned mare sang and fought on…
“When I was stone, and all alone, “She found me in the Everfree, “She brought me home and talked to me, “So I could help her dream…”
The manticore paused briefly in confusion, as this particular situation had simply never happened to it before.
“Then hunger drove you from the woods, “And then she caught your sight, “Ain’t got no sword, ain’t got no knife, “Don’t you start no fight…”
And then the mare and the manticore were back at it again, tooth and fang, claws and hooves, even more violent than before. And against all odds, the savage fury of the pony was now beginning to actually force the monster back…
“Cause I’m Wild Pony, I’m dynamite! “Wild Pony, and I’ll win the fight! “Wild Pony, I’m a power load! “Wild Pony, watch me EXPLODE!"
Again the two combatant’s paused, the larger breathing heavy, ragged breaths as the smaller sang on…
“I’m dirty, mean, and mighty unclean, “I’m an untamed mare… “Martial Artist Number One, “Understand?”
The fight started up again as the two took careful measure of the other. Both were bleeding heavily, even more so from the last exchange than at any point prior, but this time it was the monster who took the greater amount of damage.
“I’m tough as a boulder, sharp as a knife, “Go back to the forest, and run for your life! “The mare is back in town, “Don’t you mess around…”
Probing attacks once again burst into a frenzy of hoof, tooth, fang, and claw as the two ripped wildly into each other!
“Cause I’m Wild Pony, I’m dynamite! “Wild Pony, and I’ll win the fight! “Wild Pony, I’m a power load! “Wild Pony, watch me EXPLODE!”
All the ponies watching the fight started stomping their hooves aggressively as they sang the next stanza.
And then, as the fight was winding down and the manticore started backing away towards the Everfree Forest, his opponent gathered up for the final rush as she once again sang out, each line followed by the crowd shouting out three short syllables…
“Wild Pony, I’m dynamite (Oi! Oi! Oi!) “Wild Pony, and I’ll win the fight! (Oi! Oi! Oi!) “Wild Pony, I’m a power load! (Oi! Oi! Oi!) “Wild Pony, watch me EXPLODE~!”
And then the manticore broke and turned, sprinting as fast as it could back into the Everfree Forest, where it continued to run long and hard, until it eventually collapsed from exhaustion.
The chestnut mare with the crimson mane stood there and watched as it disappeared from her sight, waited a moment or two longer before turning and heading back to where a certain path had been left half cleared of snow.
Her gate was slow, almost stumbling, easily allowing the surrounding ponies to cautiously approach her as she reached her destination. Once there, she carefully nuzzled Fluttershy’s unconscious body until the pale yellow Pegasus stirred.
“Hey, you okay? I drove the bat-kitty away before he could hurt you…”
“Umm… I’m fine, I guess…”
“That’s good. Thanks for finding me in the woods and keeping me company and all.”
“You’re welcome?” Fluttershy replied, confused for a moment before suddenly realizing that this pony had been her lawn statue. “Eep! Sorry…”
“Hey, none of that now. It really meant a lot to me, you taking care of me when I couldn’t do anything at all. I was glad to help by giving you somepony to talk to.”
“Umm… alright…”
“Anyway… Sorry about this…” and then the strange brown mare simply collapsed on the spot in a dead feint.
Fluttershy looked over the unconscious pony, taking in all the blood oozing from numerous gaping wounds and the shallow, stuttering breaths that grew weaker and weaker until they gasped to a shuddering stop…
Checking as well as she could, terror gripped the Pegasus’s heart as she could find no signs of life in the fallen pony…
“MEDIC! SOMEPONY! ANYPONY! HELP HER! SHE’S DYING!”
Ow… Not a fun time to be awake… Better to check again later…
“How can we be out of manticore antivenin already? Ponyville is right next to the freaking Everfree Forest! We should have barrels of the stuff on hoof! WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘THE REST WAS SHIPPED TO CANTERLOT CENTRAL?’ Who authorized that?”
Well, that didn’t sound good… Wonder who was poisoned? Or had Akane tried to cook again? Bah… too tired… sleep sounds good…
“Damn it, not again! BREATH! BREATH, DAMN YOU! DON’T YOU WANT TO LIVE? Then BREATH! Oh thank Celestia her heart kept beating that time…”
Pushy doctors, always ordering her around… Heh, she’d show them…
“NO! NO! NO! CLEAR!”
Ow… Okay, no playing with the doctors… they don’t play fair…sleepy…
“Where is that courier! We NEED more antivenin!”
O O O
Rainbow Dash trotted in place as she waited impatiently at the pharmacy counter in Canterlot Central Hospital. She had made record time on her way here, completing a normally one hour rush flight in just under half the time, but she took no pride in that, as she feared that she hadn’t been anywhere near fast enough.
Poor Wild Pony had lost a lot of blood by the time they got her to Ponyville General Hospital, having gotten raked by the manticore’s sharp claws several times before she had driven it off, and had been stung two or three times during the fight as well. The doctors were having a lot of trouble keeping her alive, having apparently run out of the special antivenin that Wild Pony needed to clear the manticore venom from her system.
The jerk behind the pharmacy counter wasn’t helping much either, having skimmed over the order before calling in a nurse to handle it, and then just sitting there looking bored, reading the packet of papers that came with it before placing them in a fresh folder, scribbling something on it, and filing in in a cubby on the wall behind him.
“Hate to break it to you, Honeypot, but you may as well relax and catch your breath. According to the doctors working on her, the patient had already been resuscitated at least twice by the time they sent for you. If they were able to keep her going, they probably had to do so at least twice more in the time it took you to get here in the first place, what with the flight taking a whole hour even for a fast courier. Sorry to say this, but with the amount of manticore venom in your friend, it would have been kinder just to let her die…”
POW! The clerk was knocked out of his chair, having been struck in the face by the sky blue Pegasus
“I dare you to say that again!” the furious, rainbow maned pony was practically climbing over the counter while shouting. “What kind of medical professional are you! Wild Pony is a hero, and I’ll be damned if I don’t do my best to save her after what she did! I cut your so-called fastest time in half on the way here, and with Celestia as my witness, I’ll cut that by half again on the way back if I can! Rainbow Dash doesn’t leave anypony hanging, not like some creepy, uncaring jerk like you!”
“GUARDS! GUARDS! Crazy pony! Crazy pony! Save me! GUARDS!”
“Yeah, you better call for help, jerk!”
Just then, a unicorn nurse returned carrying a packet. “Here’s the rush manticore antivenin order for Ponyville General…”
“‘Kay, thanks! Love you! Buh-bye!” And with that, Rainbow Dash snatched the packet from where it had been floating in the air and zipped out the door right between the arriving guards.
“I want to report an assault!”
“What happened?” one of the guard Pegasi asked as his partner took off after the apparent perpetrator.
“That bubble-brained courier hit me!”
“What happened,” the nurse clarified, “was Mister Sensitivity here telling a high strung pony that her friend, who she was picking up an order for, was probably better off dead. I would have hit him after that!”
“What! But I…”
“I don’t want to hear it, jerk! And don’t think that I won’t report this!”
“Okay,” The guard pony stepped between the two. “If you can both calm down, I think I really need to get the whole story here…”
O O O
How dare he? How dare he? HOW DARE HE?
Rainbow Dash flew on, accelerating faster, ever faster, ignoring the guard pony she was rapidly leaving behind.
Bitter tears poured from her eyes as she flew faster than she ever had in years. Even faster than she had only a few, impossibly long, minutes ago…
So much for her dream of joining the Wonderbolts. Not with an assault and running from the law on her record. She’d be lucky if she managed to keep any position at all on the Weather Team after this stunt.
Faster and faster still, she flew, her wings bluring as a friction cone formed before her…
But how dare he say that Wild Pony was better off dead? She was a hero! Like one of the epic legends, right out of the freaking ancient past, able to fight off monsters all by herself and saving the day! She saved Fluttershy’s life, damn it!
The friction cone sharpened as Rainbow Dash she flew faster than almost any time she ever had before…
Wild Pony deserved better than to die in pain on the operating table! And Rainbow Dash would be damned herself if she didn’t give her all in doing her part to save a hero’s life!
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
O O O
“Whoa…” Thunderlane gawked in awe at the multicolored shockwave originating in the sky between Ponyville and Canterlot. “That was a Sonic Rainboom! She’s been trying to do that again for years!”
“YEAH!” Bulk Bicepts hoof-pumped. The over-muscled white Pegasus stallion ducked his head into the hospital lobby to check the clock there. “Rainbow Dash is making great time! She’ll make it there with over a quarter hour to spare! That. Is. AWSOME!”
Cloudchaser tilted her head. “Wait… I see her contrail… She’s not on her way to Canterlot, she’s on her way back already!”
“By Celestia! At that speed…” Thunderlane did some quick mental calculations. “Quick! Form a Cloud Crash Cushion! She’s coming in too fast to stop! Cloudchaser, keep an eye on Rainbow Dash! If she drops or tosses the package, go for it and take it in for her! Move, ponies! Move, move MOVE!”
The Weather Team barely had time to finish forming a serviceably large Cloud Crash Cushion in front of the hospital when the rainbow streak hit it at nearly full speed, tossing a small blur to the side at the last second before she hit, practically obliterating the emergency crash structure.
*Thwap-WHUMPH!*
Cloudchaser didn’t even take the time to check, as she had spun in place the very instant she caught the package and flew into the hospital with her precious cargo.
“Clear the clouds!” Thunderlane yelled “We need to find the captain now!”
The remaining bits of condensed cloud were swiftly dispersed, revealing a short, shallow impact trench in the snow, at the end of which lay their unconscious Weather Captain, a bit scraped and bruised, and with her right wing twisted at wrong angles.
Fortunately, a pair of paramedic ponies had already come galloping out of the hospital with a stretcher…
“Less than three quarters of an hour there and back…” Thunderlane muttered in awe. “Captain, you’re something else!”
O O O
Rarity entered the waiting room and quickly made her way to where Fluttershy and Applejack were sitting. She and Applejack had grown somewhat closer in the past few years since they day Fluttershy had found that statue in the woods. Where they had been mere acquaintances before with a mutual connection through their friendship with Fluttershy, the events of that day had been the start of an awkward but valued friendship.
They still didn’t quite understand each other’s chosen lifestyles, but they respected one another enough to keep their occasional quibbles about each other’s perceived faults more or less at the level of playful banter, rather than hurtful sniping. Most of the time.
“Fluttershy, Applejack, darlings, I came over as soon as I heard! What’s this about Fluttershy’s statue coming to life and fighting off a manticore?”
“S’all true,” Applejack stated, placing a hoof over her heart. “Turns out she was somepony by th’ name of Wild Pony who’d been turned ta stone sometime before Fluttershy here found her.”
“I didn’t know," the pale yellow Pegasus murmured, her quiet voice laden with guilt. “It never occurred to be that she might have been petrified. I should have suspected… tried to get help for her…”
“Don’t you fret none, Fluttershy. T’weren’t none of us caught on to that possibility. Even the pony Rarity called in from Canterlot thought Wild Pony was just a statue, an’ she was an art expert.”
“Applejack is right, Fluttershy,” Rarity responded dryly, “If even an expert fails to suspect that Wild pony was not actually a sculpture, then none of us, least of all you, can be held accountable for also failing to consider that the statue you found might have been a victim of petrification.”
“Point is, Fluttershy, there weren’t any way for you to know, so don’t you go beatin’ yerself up over it. ‘Sides, y’ heard what she said to y’ after th’ fight. She was raht grateful that y’ found her and kept her company an’ all.”
“By Celestia!” Rarity gasped, “she was aware?”
“Apparently so. Can’t really ‘magin what that must have been lahk, bein’ unable to move all those years. Unable to even blink. An’ all alone with no pony to keep her company until Fluttershy came along…”
The three mares sat quietly for a while before one of the hospital nurses entered the waiting room.
“Is there a Fluttershy here?”
“…”
“Over hear,” Applejack waved. Turning back to the shy pony, she lay a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Now buck up some, Sugarcube. The nurse pro’lly just has some news, is all. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, or nothin.’”
“Is Wild Pony okay?” Fluttershy asked as the nurse approached.
“Wild Pony was in post-op under observation while we waited to make sure she’s stable. We just moved her to her assigned room, and came to see if you wanted to visit her, since she was asking after you.”
“Okay… umm… If it isn’t any bother, do you suppose that Rarity and Applejack can come along? To visit Wild Pony, I mean… If that’s alright…”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” The nurse assured Fluttershy. “Now, if you’ll just follow me, I’ll take you straight to her room…”
O O O
Wild Pony was vaguely aware that her thoughts were muddled. In part, she had no doubt, due to the timed painkiller feed connected to the tube leading from her main I.V. bag. There was a button at the end of a wired remote left next to her right fore hoof if she wanted a dose early, and she had been assured that it had been set up so that she couldn’t activate it any sooner than the minimum interval allotted so that she couldn’t overdose. Still, she tried to hold off as long as possible, letting the timer take care of it on its own just so long as the pain wasn’t unbearable.
It was hard enough dealing with the jumbled mess the Cat-Hoof left of her psyche when it… Well… Wild Pony still wasn’t sure just what it had done. Just that it had reached deep and pulled everything it could up to the surface in hopes that something would enable it to win the fight and save Little Mother from the bat-cat thingy. Being drugged further out of her mind wasn’t helping matters any.
For one thing, despite the evidence of her body, Wild Pony had the strangest feeling that she was actually supposed to be another species. Some sort of nearly hairless monkey or ape. And… male? But somehow sometimes female instead? And water was involved somehow.
Better to ignore that feeling for now.
It was easy enough to do, considering that she was quite used to ignoring the part of her that thought she was a cat.
~Mew mew mew mew meow mew mew mew~
Usually, anyway. Wild Pony suppressed a shudder as the mental image of a red furred kitty rolled across her mindscape, playfully batting at loose strands of thoughts, memories, and who knew what else…
…And then it batted a connection that lead elsewhere…
“Is there anypony out there?”
Wild Pony’s eyes went wide as she slowly looked left, then right, but failed to find anypony else in the room with her…
And then music started from everywhere and nowhere at all. A slow, almost hypnotic rhythm…
“Hello… (hello… hello…), “Is there anypony in there? “Just nod if you can hear me, “Is there anypony home?”
Who was singing? Who? Who? And where was that music coming from? There was literally nopony else in the room at all!
“Come on (come on)… now, “I am hearing music in my… head. “While I‘m singing out loud in this… bed, “Why is this happening to me?”
Wild Pony’s eyes widened again in shock, as she realized that she was the one singing!
“Relax (relax, relax)… “I just need some basic information… first, “Such as where and how much it… hurts. “What does this button do?”
She honestly had no idea why she pressed the button she had found at the end of a cord near one of her hooves as soon as she had seen it
“There is no pain, I am receding… “I guess that released the Happy-Juice… “I feel my mind is drifting loose… “My lips move, but I’m not sure of what I say…”
And then a chorus of Wild Pony’s own voice joined her own, freaking her out even more!
“When I arrived I was not a pony… “I stood upright and had arms and hands… “Then I transformed once again… “I can’t explain, you would not understand, “This is not how I am!”
Well that cleared things up a bit. Maybe. Actually no, it didn’t. As muddled as her memories were, that last refrain just confused the issue further…
“I~I~I have become… Comfortably numb…”
Ooooh, That felt niiiiiiiiiice! And the accompanying guitar solo was kind of trippy in a good way…
“I~I~I have become… Comfortably numb…”
“Okay (okay, okay)… “I think that I can feel my stomach churning, “And the room is tilting while its turning, “And its making me feel a little sick!”
And she did feel a bit nauseous as the painkiller flowed through her system.
“Can I stand up (stand up, stand up)? “I do believe it’s working… good! “That’ll keep me going for the trip, “Come on it’s time to go.”
Wait… what trip? Where was she going? Why had she gotten up? The nice comfy hospital bed was back that way!
“There is no pain, I am receding… “This medication is really good… “My wobbling stride resembles dancing… “I‘m fairly certain I‘ve gone insane…”
Oh, look, the hallway had other ponies! There was Little Mommy, and Hat Pony, And Marshmallow, and… Wild Pony had no idea who the forth pony was, but she was sure that she was nice too…
“When I was a foal, I had a fleeting wish, “Made upon the first star in the sky… “Time went by, but hope lived on, “I cannot put my fore hoof on it now, “The Foal has grown, the dream is gone.”
The new filly was trying to guide Wild Pony gently back into her room, but her own hooves skidded backwards on the floor as the heavily bandaged mare kept trotting aimlessly forward.
“I~I~I have become… Comfortably numb…”
And there was that strange, trippy instrumental section again! At least it looked like she wasn’t the only pony who hear it. Wild Pony felt better about that. Hat Pony had taken the new pony’s place in trying to guide the singing pony back into her assigned room.
O O O
The music faded away about the same time Applejack got Wild Pony back to her bed.
“Hi~i!” the heavily medicated pony greeted. “I’m feeling mush better now! I think I’ll go for a walk! Walk… walk, walky walk…”
“Uhuh,” the farm pony snorted. “Ah think y’ should put a rain check on that thought ‘till y’ actually are better, Sugarcube.”
“Ooooh… dizzy. Maybe I should lay down…”
“Now there’s a thought,” Applejack agreed. “Now if’n you’d just get in th’ bed behind ya… No, no! The. Bed! Not the floor! Rarity, Nurse Redheart, could y’ give me a hoof here? She’s gone as limp as a cat…”
WHAP!
“How the Hay?” Applejack looked up into the corner of the room where a now very apparently terrified Wild Pony had wedged herself against the ceiling.
“Cat? Where? Bad kitties! Evil kitties! There’s one, in my head, playing with things it shouldn’t, but I don’t know how to make it go to sleep again. No no no, kitty! Mustn’t play with the~”
Loud music once again emerged from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“Heyaaaaaah! The Magical Musical Thing! “Heyaaaaaah! The Magical Musical Thing!
“The Magical Musical Thing, that makes a pony just want to sing…”
And then the music came to a sudden, almost screeching halt as Wild Pony shoved both of her fore hooves into her mouth. At which point she fell, as she was no longer bracing herself in place.
Fortunately, Rarity caught the falling filly with her magic and placed her gently into the hospital bed, tucking her in. “There you go, Dear, nice and snug. Now do take your hooves out of your mouth. It’s rather unsightly…”
Wild Pony shook her head.
“Oh you poor dear…” Fluttershy came over and started stroking the bandaged pony’s crimson mane. “Are you afraid that the Heart Song will start up again if you take your hooves out?” At the chestnut mare’s frightened nod, she gently continued. “Oh, you silly filly… No pony has to sing a Heart Song if they really don’t want to. Now please take your hooves out of your mouth… there you go!”
“Little Mommy?” Wild Pony looked at Fluttershy with wide, pleading eyes.
The Pegasus grew wide eyed herself and looked at the other three mares in the room, who just stared, equally shocked at the childlike tone of the plea. Then Applejack shook her head, stood firm, and waved a hoof encouragingly toward Fluttershy.
“Yes Dear?”
“Will you stay with me to keep the kitties away?”
“Of… Of course, Dear. I’ll keep the mean nasty kitties away. Why don’t you get some sleep?”
“Okay…” Wild Pony yawned, her heavy lidded eyes almost closed already. “Little Mommy?”
“Yea Dear?”
“You’re much better than my real mommy… she never came to save me from the kitties when Daddy kept throwing me into The Pit…”
“There there,” Fluttershy kept stroking the resting pony’s crimson locks, her own hear breaking at the revelation. “You’re safe now… I’m here… No pony is going to hurt you…”
“I love you, Little Mommy…” Wild Pony murmured, almost asleep already. “I wish my real Mommy was like you…”
The four other mares in the room just looked at each other as the bandaged filly drifted off to sleep, still being stroked by Fluttershy.
“I know it ain’t raht an’ all,” Applejack fought to keep the fury she was feeling out of her voice, “but raht now Ah hope Wild Pony spent a passel o’ years as a statue! ‘Cause if’n what she just said has any bearin’ on her actual life, then there are two ponies Ah reckon are better off back in the distant past!”
“She… she sounded so young… she must have only been a little filly when it happened… and her own parents! I simply cannot imagine!”
“It’s… it’s… probably just the medication,” Nurse Redheart stated shakily, as she checked the machine and gathered the separated I.V. tubing from the floor. “She was just dosed right before we arrived.” Checking the patient, she nodded. “Good, the needle stayed in. I’ll be back shortly with fresh tubing and a new bag, but I’ll have to let one of the doctors know that she may be reacting poorly to the pain-killer.”
“It’s not dangerous or nothin’ is it?”
“Oh no, not at all. It should be quite safe at these doses. She just seems to be unusually susceptible to the side effects. Although I never heard of it causing anypony the break out into a Heart Song before.”
“Least th’ tune was easier on th’ ears than her last one.”
“It would almost have to be,” Rarity commented, “the theme was entirely different.”
“Ah thought y’ said y’ came as soon as y’ heard? Fluttershy’s call for a medic afterwards was a maht bit louder than even that Heart Song…”
“…” Rarity pouted for a moment, then sighed and, in a resigned tone admitted, “I was hiding under the bed covers with Sweetie Bell, okay? She… We… were quite frightened, and took a while to calm down, even after it was all over.” The things she did for her sister. Not that she hadn’t been a bit unnerved herself, but better to let them think that they were both scared completely out of their wits than let them know that her younger sister had become so terrified that she had lost control of her bladder. On Rarity’s favorite bed sheets too, but she couldn’t blame the poor dear for that, anymore than she could blame Wild Pony for her… episode.
“Ah understand,” Applejack replied, and said nothing more on the matter.
O O O
Cloud Eastwind was exhausted by the time he reached Ponyville. He had flown as fast and as hard as he could while chasing the Courier all the way from Canterlot Central Hospital, and had managed to do so in just over an hour, which was pretty darn impressive for an armored pony who wasn’t a rush delivery courier. However, any pride Eastwind may have had in his personal accomplishment was overshadowed by the fact that the particular courier he was chasing has crossed the same distance in mere minutes! A mere fraction of the time the best couriers usually took to do so!
Fortunately, the destination of the mare he had been chasing was pretty obvious, and hadn’t deviated in the slightest from what her supposed mission was.
Ponyville General Hospital.
Which was pretty damn convenient for the courier as it was readily apparent that she had crashed on arrival.
Not particularly surprising, given the sheer speed she had been traveling, Eastwind mused as he landed as gently as his exhaustion allowed and tried to catch his breath. She wouldn’t have had enough time to slow down after accelerating that much.
Once the Guard pony had caught his breath, he took a few more moments to study the scene. Something had managed to bleed off the courier’s speed considerably before she hit the ground, as the impact trench was short, shallow, and (most importantly) not bloody. Most likely a Cloud Crash Cushion had been set up by the local Weather Team, either before hand, or after they had noticed the speed that their courier was returning at.
Damn fine job either way.
From the hoof prints and wheel tracks, it looked like she had been taken into the hospital.
As he went into the building, Eastwind hoped that the pony was okay, because he had little interest in actually arresting the courier despite having gone through all that effort chasing her all the way from Canterlot. He understood that she was under the pressure of having to complete a time-sensitive turn-around due to some sort of medical emergency. One which the curier herself felt worth the risk of injuring herself in order to complete it in the shortest amount of time possible.
While it was likely that the clerk she had struck would press charges (he seemed the type: self-important, insensitive, and petty), Eastwind doubted that the charges would stick as long as the courier’s mission had been due to an authentic medical emergency.
No, he was here to get the facts first, find out what had happened, who was involved, and… well… everything!
Traversing the lobby and passing a small crowd of ponies that seemed more anxious and worried than injured, Eastwind approached the check-in station. “Excuse me, but was a blue mare with a rainbow mane and tail brought in about an hour ago?”
O O O
“Well, she seems to be sleeping peacefully enough,” the Doctor Stable commented as Nurse Redheart got the patient set up with a new I.V. drip. “Now, I have to ask, are any of you willing to house wild Pony and help her with her bandages once she’s let out of the hospital?
“But of course.”
“Not a problem.”
“…I would like to…”
“Good, then we’ll discuss who she will be staying with later, once she’s both conscious and clear headed enough to actually make a choice. In the meantime, since you are all potential volunteers, please clean up in the bathroom right over there, then watch as Nurse Redheart assists me in changing Wild Pony’s bandages and show you how to check and take care of her wounds and what to watch for.”
The three ponies quickly washed up, then took their positions around Wild Pony’s bed as indicated.
“I have to warn you,” Doctor Stable began as he and Nurse Redheart carefully undid a section of bandages, “it is almost certain that she popped some stitches with her antics earlier. This will be a risk for a while, but it shouldn’t happen as long as she’s careful to restrict her normal range of movement until she’s healed enough stitches and sutures are ready to come out. At that time, there will be a regimen of stretching exercises for her to follow to help her regain as much range of movement as possible. I highly recommend making use of the Ponyville Day Spa. Lotus Blossom and Aloe are accredited physical therapists as well as beauticians and should be able to help keep the visible signs of scaring to a minimum.”
“Oh dear…” Rarity’s face took on a pale greenish hue as she gazed on the ruin that had lain hidden beneath the bandages. Applejack and Fluttershy, both used to taking care of injured animals, only showed minimal distress.
“Old bandages should not be reused,” Nurse Redheart stated as she carefully disposed to the ribbons of yellow and brown stained material in the appropriate bin. “Always change her bandages in a clean environment if possible, and always, always apply fresh, clean bandages. Never reuse the old ones. This is to help keep the risk of infection to a minimum.” The three fillies nodded.
“How extraordinary!” Doctor Stable exclaimed, drawing everypony’s attention. “She’s much further along in her healing already that I would have thought possible! Some of the most minor wounds have disappeared already - I can only find where they are by the stitches we closed them with! And the other wounds look like they’ve been healing for days or even weeks already instead of merely hours!”
“That’s good, raht?”
“Good? I dare say yes indeed,” the doctor declared. “Almost impossibly so. It’s almost as if… yes… yes… That is almost certainly it! It is most probable that Wild Pony’s magic has inverted itself somehow! This is extremely rare, but not unheard of. However, it does mean we will be strapping her to her bed except during in hospital therapy until she is ready to be released.”
“But why?” Fluttershy asked.
“Because, with the rate her metabolism is forcing itself to heal her body, any other pain killer than what we had her on will burn right out of her system far too soon to be any use at all. On the other hand, at this rate, she should be past the need of it by late tomorrow morning, dinnertime at the latest, and any scarring should be very minor indeed.”
The rest of the process went by very quickly and efficiently, with each new section of Wild Pony’s body uncovered revealing similar signs of rapid healing.
“There, all finished, and looking much, much better than anticipated! Now, as her potential hosts and caregivers, would any of you be willing to stay here with her for a while? While the medicine we’re using right now to kill the pain is safe enough for her, we are going to have to strap her down while she is under its effects. Unfortunately, as I said before, anything else we could use would also be less effective as a pain killer because she would burn it out of her system too quickly. Your main job would be to comfort her and assure her that the restrainsts are for her own good, not to keep her prisoner or anything. So, please assure her that the restraints will be off during therapy, and off for good once she’s weaned off of the medicine and clear headed.”
“I… I’ll stay here. And keep her company, I mean. I think she needs… I mean, I think she would want me to…”
“Y’ know… Ah reckon you’re raht,” Applejack nodded at Fluttershy. “Listen, Ah need to check in with Granny Smith an’ Apple Bloom, an’ let ‘em know Ahm alraht, just in case Big Mac hasn’t had a chance to get home himself yet. Then Ah have t’ get caught up on takin’ care of th’ animals ‘n’ all. Ah’ll try an’ be back later with a care package, but it’ll be a while. Maht even have t’ be tomorrow.”
“I can stay with them for a bit,” Rarity assured Applejack.
And, with that, Applejack nodded, then followed the medical staff out the door.
O O O
Cloud Eastwind checked to see if the report he had prepared was secure in the satchel he had procured from the town hall. No sense in having taken the opportunity get it done while resting up before the flight back to Canterlot only to risk losing it during the trip.
The guard Pegasus had talked to the Ponyville Weather Team, the medical staff, and even went out of the way to talk with some of the more notable witnesses, so he was pretty sure he had a fairly comprehensive report about what was turning out to be a bigger incident than he had originally thought.
Whoever the strange new Earth Pony, Wild Pony, was, she sounded like she had come straight out of the distant Age of Legends. And given that she had been found as a statue in the Everfree Forest, she may well have been originally born in that bygone era. Her name didn’t seem at all familiar, but then again, from what Eastwind heard from the locals, Wild Pony seemed to be a young adult, so she might have disappeared before getting her chance to make a lasting impression on history.
This investigation was getting past his pay grade, so now it was time to turn in his initial findings and pass it up the chain. He could only hope that things turned out well for the Ponyville Weather Team captain, Rainbow Dash.
O O O
The door opened, and a gurney was rolled in by a pair of orderlies. On it lay a barely conscious Rainbow Dash.
“Oh my goodness! What happened?” Fluttershy asked quietly as the injured Pegasus was helped into the other bed.
“Heh… I’m alright. Mostly,” Rainbow Dash tried to wave off her friend’s concerns. “Got a bit dinged up when I got back from Canterlot. Nothing too serious. Just some bumps and bruises…”
“Cracked ribs, mild concussion, multiple fractures and dislocated joints in your right wing…” Nurse Redheart read off the chart, used to Rainbow Dash’s antics by now. “What in Celestia’s name did you do this time?”
“Nothing much,” Rainbow Dash replied, the pride in her voice belying her modestly. “Only ran into the biggest Cloud Crash Cushion ever at just under the speed of sound is all. Didn’t exactly have time to slow down after doing that Sonic Rainboom on the way back from Canterlot.”
“So you’re the reason we got the antivenin order from Canterlot Central so fast,” Nurse Redheart commented. “You saved her life, you know.”
“Good.”
“Now you should know the drill already,” the nurse addressed the bedridden Pegasus sternly. “You’re grounded until your injuries are cleared up. All of your injuries! No flying until a doctor clears you this time!”
“Yeah, yeah…” Rainbow Dash waved a fore hoof dismissively. “I gotcha. No flying until I’m all better.” Putting on her ‘cool-face’, she looked out the window and muttered quietly to herself as the nurse left the room, “Not like I’m going to have much of a reason to fly after what I did today anyway…”
Turning her head back, the Pegasus sniffed and tried to keep tears from forming in her eyes as she looked at the scarlet maned mare resting peacefully. “Totally worth it.”
Fluttershy came over to see what was upsetting her friend. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, Fluttershy…” the blue Pegasus sniffed again, failing to hold back her tears this time. “My dream is over!” Wrapping her arms around Fluttershy tightly, she bawled openly, “I’m never going to be a Wonderbolt!”
Fluttershy hugged her friend back and comforted Rainbow Dash as she told her story. Rarity, after a moment’s thought, came over and sat on the other side of the friend of her friend, and hugged her as well. They continued holding Rainbow Dash as the heartbroken mare cried herself to sleep…
Wild Pony… No, that was just how her name translated in the local tongue. Ranma… Her name was Ranma. Or was it Ranko? No, Ranma was good enough. Or maybe just use the translation? After all, she had already sort of introduced herself by that version of her name already. What had she been thinking about anyway?
Oh. Yeah…
Wild Pony gradually became hazily aware of her own consciousness once again. Unfortunately, the happy-happy juice was still playing merry havoc with her mind, which wasn’t helping with whatever it was the Neko-Ken had done when it… No, stop, that way lies madness.
And the kitty, but mostly madness.
Okay, not so much the madness as the kitty, but still better to leave the Neko-Ken alone and hope that it’ll finally settle down and stop playing with random bits of whatever as if it where all yarn and string.
Human. Her memories told her that she had been human before she had been a pony, regardless of what her body was currently telling her. She had been male as well. Most of the time, anyway. Jusenkyo had changed that, giving him a part-time gender change any time he came into contact with cold water.
And now, between the Neko-Ken not going back to wherever it usually went when it was no longer needed, and the trippy medication, she was now apparently having difficulties keeping track of what she actually was, if not exactly who. After all, boy, girl, or pony, they were all Ranma in the end, just under different labels.
It was bad enough that her earlier drug induced ramblings probably had them thinking she was a little crazy. Kitty living in her head indeed…
Mew!
Stop that! Imaginary kitty is not real! The Neko-Ken can’t be active while Ranma was Ranma! Otherwise she’d never be able to get away!
Meow!
Little Mommy! Little Mommy! Make the kitty go away!
What. The. HELL? Since when was there a little filly in her head? At least the cat, as wrong as that was, made some sort of sense given the way the Neko-Ken had broken her mind…
Mew! Mew! Mew!
Waaaaaaah! Little Mommy! The kitty is chasing meeeeeeee!
Oh Hell no!
Responding to protective instincts she was only vaguely aware that she even had, Ranma’s mental self-image shifted form and gender, towering over the other two mental aspects as they skidded to a halt before his rage. Without thought, Ranma picked up the filly in his arms and glared at the representation of the Neko-Ken.
LEAVE. HER. ALONE!
The Neko-Ken, ever before assured of his dominance due to his role in defending the Other, stared back and wondered just when the balance of power had shifted. Then his baleful eyes narrowed and it leapt at the Other, claws wide. It was time to remind the Other why he needed a defender!
The core self fragmented slightly at the Neko-Ken‘s first strike, forming a triple overlapping self image of Ranma, Ranko, and Wild Pony who curled their body as best as they could around Little Filly, whose shrieks of terror became their own as the massive walls of The Pit shot up around them, and the eyes of hundreds of evil, nasty kitties appeared in the darkness of their despair…
The War for Dominance had only just begun, and the Neko-Ken fully intended to come out on top of the heap!
O O O
Fluttershy watched as Wild Pony started to fidget and whimper in her sleep, moving to stroking her mane and attempt to calm her down from what looked like the onset of a particularly nasty nightmare. The sturdy metal side-rails of the hospital bed audibly groaned, testimony to the strength the injured pony could bring to bear even in her sleep.
Fluttershy hesitated as the metal safety rails bent visibly, if ever so slightly, under the strain Wild Pony was exerting.
“No, Daddy! I don’ wanna go in The Pit again! The kitties are mean! It hurts Daddy! The biting, the scratching hurts! I wanna get out! Why did you throw me in The Pit, Daddy?”
That… That wasn’t the voice of the brave young mare who had collapsed in front of Fluttershy after driving the manticore away. That wasn’t even the rambling babbling voice of the disoriented filly who had met them in the hall.
“Daddy! Mommy! Save me! It hurts! They’re hurting me! Why won’t you save me, Daddy? Why do you keep throwing me into The Pit? Mommy! Mommy! Where are you! Don’t you love me? No… no, Mommy, I didn’t mean it! Not the sword, Mommy! MOMMY!”
This was the voice of a terrified little filly, barely more than a foal, scared, alone, and horrifically betrayed by those who should have protected her above all else!
Fluttershy ignored the frantic, violent thrashing as she cradled Wild Pony’s head in her forelegs and gently stroked her mane. She ignored the loud snapping of bolts and screeching metal as one of the safety rails tore partially loose, bending like taffy even as she gathered Wild Pony more fully into her embrace and began to rock gently back and forth, singing into the side of her tear streaked face. The beginnings of an aura seemed to spark between the two, and then expanded into a golden-pink corona outlining the pair.
Rarity, who had only just began to gather her magic to try to keep Fluttershy safe, and Rainbow Dash, who was half out of her own bed, watched, in shock, then awe, as the berserk bundle of bandages calmed down in Fluttershy’s embrace, sobbing in relief into the gentle Pegasus’s shoulder. The straps on her forelimbs finally snapped free, permitting the crying filly to hug her savior back.
The gold and pink corona continued to outline the two as the quiet sobs relaxed into gentle snores, and then the glow was gone as if it had never been.
It had been awe inspiring, terrifying, and yet strikingly poignant to witness, and by the time the orderlies arrived, Wild Pony was once again sleeping as peacefully as if it had never happened in the first place.
Rainbow Dash looked on incredulously as her shy, timid, foalhood friend continued to gently stroke the formerly mad mare in her forelimbs. “Uh… What the buck just happened?”
O O O
The glow, whatever it had been, receded from Ranma’s consciousness.
Ranma’s core selves relaxed. The Neko-Ken finally having retreated back to wherever it was currently hiding in their shattered psyche. The little filly pranced joyfully around the three overlapping perceptions of self that had tried their best to protect the innocence she represented.
Little Mommy had come!
Little Mommy had saved her from The Pit!
Little Mommy had done what her real mother never had…
The first battle in the War for Dominance was over as Ranma/Ranko/Wild Pony felt something profound. Something that brought unfettered Joy to Little Filly.
They felt the pure, unconditional Love of Little Mommy…
O O O
“That was a very brave, and yet incredibly dangerous thing you have done,” Doctor Stable praised and admonished Fluttershy at the same time. “It is very fortunate that you were able to calm her down, but at the same time, she could have easily hurt, or even killed you without even meaning to.”
“She needed me,” Fluttershy stated simply and quietly. “I could not do anything less.”
The doctor sighed as he shook his head. “As much as I want to disagree with you, I dare say that you could not have done otherwise. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to cut the feed of her pain medication immediately. This last reaction was far too extreme to be anything resembling safe. And we are going to have to strap her down more securely until the rest of the medication has burned out of her system.”
“She’ll be fine as long as I’m holding her,” Fluttershy stated in quiet confidence.
“Be that as it may, you can’t be expected to hold her for the entire time it will take for the pain killer to completely wear off.”
“No.”
“Good. Now I’m sure that once the medi- Wait, what?”
“Wild Pony does not need to be strapped down like some mad mare. All she needs is some simple love and kindness.”
“If I may point out exhibit A, the bed?” the flustered doctor argued, waving a hoof at the mangled safety rails and twisted bed frame.
“Which I am sure would not have happened if she had not been strapped to it in the first place.”
“She’s got a point, Doc,” Rainbow Dash remarked, flippantly.
“But as she is, she’s a danger to-” the doctor sputtered to silence as Fluttershy simply gave him The Stare. “Um… ah… That is to say…”
“At some point in this mare’s past,” Fluttershy began in a quiet yet stern tone, “she was betrayed horrifically by the very ponies she should have been able to trust most of all. Something that might have turned anypony into a monster, and yet she has not become one herself. She needs to be treated with dignity, kindness, and respect, not tied down with straps and buckles!”
“Very well,” Doctor Stable gave in in a resigned tone. “I’ll have the orderlies bring in a new bed, but they won’t strap her down. I trust you’ll remain here to watch over her?”
“Of course.”
And with that, Doctor Stable and the orderlies left the room, and Nurse Redheart checked Wild Pony’s bandages and I.V. tubes, removing the connecting pain killer feed in the process.
O O O
Applejack returned from checking in with her family. Big Mac had sent her back so she could be with Fluttershy and Rarity as they watched over Wild Pony, assuring her that he’d take care of her chores for the day, and maybe for tomorrow as well.
“Ah stopped by yer cottage an’ picked up Angle Bunny on mah was back t’ Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy, since y’ maht be stayin’ here an’ watchin’ over Wild Pony for the night ‘n’ all.”
“Did you check on Mr. and Mrs. Mouse while you were there?”
“No, Fluttershy, Ah did no such thing. Ah keep telling’ y’ that mice indoors are pests to most folk. Yer the only pony I know who managed to convince any not to raid food stores and leave their droppin’s everywhere.”
“They do that?” Rainbow Dash asked, curiously. Living in a cloud as she did, the only household pests she had to deal with was the occasional bird trying to fly through it.
“Oh, yes! And they chew things constantly! I am ever so grateful to Opalescence for…” Rarity glanced at Fluttershy and quickly rephrased what she was about to say, “keeping them out of The Carousel Boutique for me, or my stock would run the risk of being ruined!”
“Woah… sounds nasty!”
“The Mouse family is very clean, tidy, and well behaved!”
“Ah’m sure they are,” Applejack reluctantly conceded. “Fer you, anyhow. Ah ain’t seen any mouse anywhere behave for anypony else, no matter how nice a pony they are. That knack y’ have with animals is beyond anythin’ Ah have ever seen, and as a farm pony, Ah’ve seen plenty of ponies with some talent fer handlin‘ animals. You plum blow ‘em all clear outta th’ water, Sugarcube. Whatever y’ got, it’s a raht true Gift.”
Fluttershy blushed, not unhappily, but a little embarrassed by the praise never the less.
Seeing her friend’s discomfort at being the center of attention, Applejack decided to change the topic. “Hay, Rainbow. What ‘r’ you in fer?”
O O O
Wild Pony murmured in discomfort, and stirred for a moment.
Fortunately, this time the injured pony merely seemed to be shifting peacefully in her sleep rather than trying to get away from any sort of unfathomable terrors. Fluttershy started stroking Wild Pony’s crimson mane anyway. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had both gone over what they saw of the fight with the manticore with her and Rarity. The weather captain elaborating mainly on the epic violence of the no blows barred battle, while the farm pony had focused on… other bits.
“When I was stone, and all alone, “She found me in the Everfree, “She brought me home and talked to me, “So I could help her dream…”
Wild Pony had been aware all this time. Aware of being found. Aware of being taken out of the Everfree Forest and set up in Fluttershy’s yard. Aware of all of those intimate conversations she had had when Fluttershy was merely pretending that she wasn’t actually a statue…
“Then hunger drove you from the woods, “And then she caught your sight, “Ain’t got no sword, ain’t got no knife, “Don’t you start no fight…”
Aware, as Fluttershy had not been, of the impending danger of the manticore coming out of the forest. And willing to fight that manticore in order to defend her, despite being unarmed!
Fluttershy had no illusions about what would most likely would have happened if Wild Pony had not managed to drive off the manticore. As harsh as this winter had been, the only reason it would have left the forest would have been if the beast’s usual prey had become too scarce or too hard to find to support it.
She would not have been able to talk her way out of being eaten, just as she had been unable to convince the smaller predators to leave her chickens alone this winter. It would have been too hungry to listen to her.
And somehow, as impossible as it seemed, Wild Pony had broken free of her stone prison specifically to defend Fluttershy from the starving manticore.
Wild Pony who, if her earlier medication induced ramblings and nightmares were any indication, was deathly afraid of even the smallest of kitties, had fought the king of the big cats one on one, without any weapon at all, to defend her!
Fluttershy didn’t quite know what to think of it all, other than to marvel at the power of a friendship she had made with a mare whom she had unjustly assumed to have been a simple stone ornament…
O O O
Groaning slightly, Wild Pony woke up feeling dull, throbbing aches all over her body. She could tell from how much easier it was to think that at some point the doctors must have decided to stop feeding happy-juice into her system. Good, pretty soon she’d be able to concentrate on really speeding up her healing processes now.
Good Gods, what a nightmare though! She hadn’t experienced any so extreme since she was a little filly, right after the Neko… Ken…
Stop. Don’t think about it. Ignore the problem, and maybe it will go away!
Granted, that bit of advice never seemed to work ever since she and Pop settled down in Nerima. Instead, all the problems that had supposedly went away eventually caught up with them again. Pop’s more than her own, but all too many of his troubles ended up turning into hers somehow regardless. Who came up with that bit of wisdom anyway?
Oh yeah…
Shit-Daddy had. It was pretty much his standard operating procedure, interchangeable with his other two usual options of ‘don’t bother thinking a plan all the way through,’ and ‘pass the buck.’ None of which turned out to be long term solutions after they had settled down long enough for their troubles to find them again. And just how long had she been following that doctrine herself anyway? Besides the ‘pass the buck’ bit anyway, since Pops had never let her do that one…
Wait… Why was Pop a panda? His name was Dark Pony, wasn’t it? No… That was the translation again, it was actually Genma… and he was human, and only turned into a panda.
And she was actually Ranma, and not really a pony at all!
Well, except for the minor detail of her current situation, which pretty much meant that she was, in fact, a pony. And female, but she pretty sure she had already convinced herself that if she had to be a pony, she’d prefer to be a mare than risk being gelded by some idiot who wanted to tame her.
Hmm… Somepony was sitting on her bed, stroking her mane…
Felt… nice, actually. Like she was cared for. How long had it been? Sadly, she still had only the vaguest recollections of her life prior to the Neko-Ken. Had Mom ever been like that at all?
Her heart wanted the answer to be ‘yes, of course your mother cared for you, you silly filly,’ and part of her did still believe that it had to be true, even if she couldn‘t remember it. At least back then, before the stupid ‘Man among Men’ honor pledge Shit-Daddy had come up with as an excuse to separate them so that Mom would stop coddling her and interfering with her training.
Dammit, why was she having trouble remembering that her past self was male? And human at that? Why were her memories so screwed up that she kept inserting herself as a girl or a pony where a boy should be?
Oh, yeah, the Neko-Ken again. The stupid imaginary kitty in her head had played merry havoc with her head since refusing to go back into whatever dark recesses of her psyche it usually hid in when it wasn’t active. And what little she recalled of her most recent nightmare implied that it was now taking to actively attacking her itself for whatever reason. And had somehow caused her core self to shatter just a bit more.
Well, wasn’t that just going to make going to sleep all kinds of awkward…
Feeling a bit disgruntled, and perhaps becoming a little obstinate because of it, her core personas gathered themselves and tried to pull their self image into a more coherent whole. Wild Child still felt like she was overlapping herself… No no no! Disorderly Horse was a guy, not… wait, what?
NO!
No new names! Ranma was RANMA! Wild Pony was how her name translated here, and was how she had introduced herself to the locals, so it could stay. The kitty was Neko-Ken because is wasn’t Ranma. And…
Alright, Little Filly could keep her name too. Taking that away just felt cruel and evil…
Great…
Get a shot at a whole new life and a chance to earn a better afterlife, and now is when the mental breakdown begins?
Somebody call Rod Sterling, one of the plots to The Twilight Zone got loose…
Okay, enough introspection.
Time to wake up!
O O O
Sitting up, Ranma casually set Little Mother… er… Fluttershy aside, stretched, and scratched the back of her head with a hoof as she blinked blearily and smacked her lips. “Bleh… thirsty,” she stated in a horse whisper.
Rainbow Dash watched from the other bed as Fluttershy quickly got off of the bed and poured a glass of ice water for the heavily bandaged Earth Pony from the pitcher on the nightstand next to her bed. “Here you go. Just sips now… you don’t want to make yourself sick…”
“I dunno… already being in a hospital would make it very convenient…” the bedridden pony quipped as she accepted the glass and raised it to her lips. Still, she did listen, and only took small sips for now.
“True, but don’t you think it would be defeating the purpose of a facility intended to help you get better?” Rarity chided as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash giggled.
“Oh, hey, you are here,” Wild turned her head to look at the white unicorn. “Argh… Please tell me I didn‘t actually start wandering about while singing earlier…”
“Sorry, but as much as I’d love to assuage your psyche, we did find you in the hall, singing.”
“Then the other stuff I remember probably happened as well… Dammit. Sorry about that,” the bedridden pony grumbled, then apologized.
“It’s alright,” Fluttershy murmured as she traced circles on the floor with a fore hoof. “I didn’t mind…”
“Oh, don‘t worry,” Rarity assured the recovering filly. “Nothing too terrible happened. You just got up and had a little sing while you were medicated.”
“I wasn’t here for that,” the pony in the other bed added. “About an hour and forever after I was rolled in here and A.J. got back, you had this really awesome nightmare where you were thrashing about so much you totally wrecked your hospital bed! You were crying and screaming and everything, and bending the safety rails like they were nothing! But good ol’ Fluttershy, she just trotted right up to you like a champ, gave you a hug and a lullaby, and you calmed down like nothing ever happened!”
About ten seconds later, Rainbow Dash’s smile faltered as she realized that everypony else in the room was staring at her, aghast. “Well, I thought it was awesome…” she meekly tried to defend her point of view even as she felt ashamed by her lack of tact.
“So…” a somewhat more then merely mortified Wild Pony began after several awkward minutes had passed, “did I happen to say anything… specific… while I was ‘screaming, crying’ and making origami out of my bed frame?”
The other ponies hesitated for a moment, then Applejack huffed and approached Wild Pony. “Ah shoot. Y’ may not want to hear some o’ this, but y’ asked plain an’ fair. ‘Sides, it wouldn’t be raht if’n we didn’t tell y’ what we overheard. Although for your sake, Ah pray t’ Celestia that none of it is true…”
“Okay, now I’m worried, but please tell me. I have to know…”
“Yeah… Ah reckon y’ do at that,” the farm pony nodded, agreeing in principle but still uncomfortable with the subject matter. “Keep in mind that yer voice had gone all… tiny-lahk, lahk a little filly, barely older than a foal, so Ah reckon that whatever was knawin’ at yer dreams happened… or supposedly happened… way back when you were little…”
“Yes. Yes it did,” Wild Pony sighed. “Please continue. I need to know what you know.”
“Well… Y’ were cryin an’ hollerin’ about yer poppa tossin y’ into a pit full o’ cats. Over an’ over again. And then y’ were callin’ out fer yer momma, askin’ why she didn’t save you… why she didn’t… love… you. An’ then she apparently attacked you with a sword. Raht ‘bout then was when Fluttershy stepped in y’ settled down raht calm an’ peaceful-lahk.”
“Wild Pony, dear, Please tell us none of that was true,” Rarity pleaded. “The thought of anypony’s parents being that… cruel…”
Wild sighed as Little Mother… (Fluttershy, dammit! Little Mothers name is Fluttershy!)… sat on the bed next to her again, and began stroking her mane comfortingly.
“It’s alright if you don’t want to talk about it,” Little (FLUTTERSHY!) assured the embarrassed pony in a quiet and calm tone. “We understand…”
“No, no, it’s not that… Well it sorta is… but not really…”
“Wild, dear, you’re being about as clear as mud.”
“Yeah, really thick mud,”
“Look, Pops isn’t… evil or nothing. He’s just… really really short sighted sometimes, and doesn’t think things all the way through. Or read things all the way through either. And Mom didn’t know at the time, as it happened about a year or so after Pop took me away on a training trip for about ten years or so…”
“A ten year training trip? Good Heavens! Whatever for?”
“Martial Arts,” Wild answered in an off-hoofed manner, as if it were obvious, earning some raised eyebrows from the others. Especially Doctor Stable and Nurse Redheart, who had just come in, but had decided to wait quietly and listen for a bit. “Pop didn’t want Mom to coddle me, and apparently she was reluctant to let him take me away until he made the most stupid promise in the history of ever, and… well, that’s another long and awkward story I’d rather not get into that bit right now.”
Taking a deep breath, Wild regathered her thoughts and started over.
“Point is, about a year or so into the training trip, Pop got his hooves on a training manual for an Ultimate Technique called the Neko-Ken.”
“The Neko-what, now?” Applejack tilted her head, not recognizing the foreign words. None of the others were much better off, from their expressions.
“You’d probably call it the Cat-Hoof. It’s the closest translation, anyway. The goal of the technique is to impart cat-like combat abilities, reflexes, and instincts through direct exposure to the source…” Wild Pony trailed off, actually beginning to remember the pit consciously for the first time in what felt like forever. She usually repressed the memory, and for very good reasons.
“That, doesn’t sound very plausible as a training method,” Doctor Stable pointed out dubiously. “It sounds incredibly dangerous and irresponsible, for one thing.”
“Yeah, that’s my Pop for you. To him, labeling a training technique as being forbidden just meant that it had to be exceptionally powerful and effective. Never mind any warnings, not that he read that far into the manual anyway...”
“Warnings?” Rarity prompted when it looked like Wild’s attention was drifting off again.
“Turns out the Neko-Ken was forbidden as a technique for more than just the usual reasons Ultimate Techniques ended up being banned. Most are just incredibly dangerous to learn, but you usually have to be at least an advanced student or even a master before you can even attempt to do so, meaning only the most capable Martial Artists ever get a chance to study them and decide if the risk is worth the reward. The Neko-Ken is not like that at all.”
“I thought so,” Doctor Stable agreed. “From what you said earlier, the student would have to be young enough to actually still be able to learn by… imprinting… Oh, sweet Celestia! Your father made you watch…”
“Not… watch…” Wild Pony interrupted in a strained voice, her body trembling like a leaf in the wind.
“There there…” Fluttershy assured Wild gently. “It’s all in the past. There aren’t any kitties here to hurt you.”
This seemed to work, as the heavily bandaged pony seemed to calm down. “Heh… Thanks.” Taking a deep breath, Wild steadied herself, her overlapping self-images drawing themselves into a more or less cohesive whole binding itself together with stubborn tenacity and obstinance. Deciding to assert her image as a tough pony, she sat on the edge of her bed and started unwinding the bandages on her torso. “Okay, enough of that. Time to see what the damage is…”
“Now hold on, Sally, Ah think yer gettin’ a maht ahead of yerself there.”
“Um… I think you should leave your bandages alone…”
“Nah, I’ll be fine.”
“No… Really… it’s for your own good…”
“Yeah… No. Really, I’ll be okay.”
“…But you could get infected…”
“And I’m telling you, I’ll be okay.”
“You will stop right now, young lady!”
O O O
Ranma dropped the end of the bandage she had been unwinding from her torso and scooted back in her bed away from those EYES…
The protective EYES of a caring mother disciplining a disobedient filly that had been caught doing something recklessly dangerous.
Those horrible, terrifying, beautiful EYES that glared in concerned disapproval at her.
Ranma’s splintered core self huddled next to the Neko-Ken as the little filly pranced joyfully around the pair in the knowledge that Little Mommy was looking out for her.
The War for Dominance had reached a temporary ceasefire on account of Little Mommy…
O O O
Fluttershy gently took up the end of the bandage that Wild Pony had dropped and carefully continued unwinding it from the injured pony‘s torso. “There there, I’m sure you think you may be fine, but you were terribly injured when you defended me from that manticore. You have a lot of cuts and gashes that could get infected if they are improperly exposed before they are healed. Rarity, if you could get a replacement bandage roll from the cupboard?”
“Of course.”
The next morning, the medical staff of Ponyville General Hospital were very much relieved to sign Wild Pony out under Fluttershy’s care. They were pretty sure that some time in a calm, peaceful, caring environment would do the filly a world of good.
And if that time just happened to be spent as far from the hospital as it was feasible to get while still technically remaining in Ponyville? Well, that was just a happy coincidence…
Admittedly, this question was at the top of many lists among members of a certain population in Nerima. The boy had been missing for the better part of four days now, which might have been taken for a training trip, as he had taken several of similar duration since he first move in with the Tendo family with his father.
The only problem with that assumption was that he usually left a note and at least tried to take his camping gear if he could. Granted, sometimes if there was a big fight or an adventure, he wouldn’t have time, but such events seldom effected Ranma in isolation to anyone else, and nobody else had heard of anything else going on.
The Amazon contingent didn’t have Ranma, or they would have been long gone, as he was the only one tying the three to Nerima in the first place. Not that suspicion didn’t fall on them anyway, but there was plenty of suspicion to go around, what with the other rivals for Ranma’s affections and general animosity among those objecting to those goals.
There was one person did have a rough idea what had happened to the boy. Largely because he was the cause of Ranma’s disappearance, but he had honestly thought that the boy would have made it back by now if it were possible to return. Then again, Happosai never had told Ranma where he was sending him.
Or that he was sending Ranma anywhere at all…
But really, catching the boy napping peacefully on a random rooftop had been such a stroke of luck that Happosai simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity! And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t tucked the instructions on how to get back in one of the lad’s pockets. The boy should have found and read the note by now, especially since it was folded in such a way as to make it noticeably bulky, just like that piece of litter over there…
…
Happosai took note of where he was, and grew agitated when he realized that he was in the alley next to the building he had found Ranma on. Picking up the folded notepaper, he opened it up and realized that, yes, it was the same note he had tried to send with Ranma.
Oh, Hells. The poor boy probably had no idea what had happened to him during his nap. Given the description Happosai had found on the strange set of scrolls he had… liberated… during one of his excursions, the boy most likely believed he had died and ascended to a happy afterlife!
Dammit! How was Happosai supposed to find out if the spell he had found that would send someone to the Everfree, a mystical land where clothing was entirely optional, was a trap or not if Ranma didn’t know how to come back? He knew that Ranma would at least try to come back to Nerima (which was the primary reason Happosai had chosen him to test the spell in the first place). The boy was too stupidly tied to his commitments in Nerima to stay away.
If only Happosai could remember exactly where he had liberated the scrolls from in the first place. Then it would be a simple matter of going back and either finding additional records for a more complete picture, or terrorizing the original owner until he had enough information to work with. The main problem with this solution was that he was pretty sure that he had picked it up sometime during the time he had spent overseas after the oni incident.
The American authorities were far less tolerant of his leisure activities, far more willing to share information about him among different jurisdictions, and far too ready to express their displeasure with him at gunpoint. And, as it turned out, all too happy to dump their problem with him on the F.B.I. once he had jumped state borders.
So, no, Happosai wasn’t quite desperate enough to try sneaking back into a foreign country that willing to put a stop to an old man’s harmless fun. Which was why he had used Ranma to test the portal spell in the first place. That, and he thought that the boy could use a brief vacation from the poisonous relationships he had with his so-called friends and family in Nerima.
Perhaps Happosai should leave the boy in the land of the Everfree? He’s likely live longer that way, or at least pick up a proper appreciation for the pretty ladies…
Dammit, no! Happosai was not about to let Genma’s stubborn whelp get what should rightfully be his reward! At least, not without confirming that the pretty ladies were actually there in the first place, and that they actually considered clothing to be optional.
Besides, while Ranma might be too much of a stick in the mud for his tastes, he was actually the best option for an heir that Happosai currently had for the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. He was getting too old to want to wait for his idiot students to train up another one to worthwhile levels.
Especially since Genma’s success with Ranma had to be a fluke! Really, a ten year training trip away from a doting wife, or any chance for his son to actually get to know Soun’s daughters? Sure, training trips were important, but ten years? Away from civilization, pretty ladies, and public bathhouses?
At least Soun had the sense to stay home, even if he had done a half-assed job training his youngest daughter. Genma had moved Ranma around so much that the poor boy hadn’t even known that the only friend he had managed to make during the trip had been a girl! And even worse, had failed to pick up on the fact that Ukyo was a girl when she found him as a teenager? How had Ranma become the martial arts prodigy he was without being able to pick up on important things like that? Chest binding only hid so much after all, no matter how familiar Ukyo was with the role. Mid to late teens was pushing the limits of her ability to successfully pull off her ‘boy’ act without specialized training. Ranma should have been able to pick up on any number of little clues, such as how Ukyo had to suppress the sway of her hips when she moved, or the lower center of balance revealed in her combat stance.
How could Ranma read combat intent well enough to avoid attacks as well as the lad could without picking up more about the rest of how body language worked?
Okay, maybe the boy did deserve a bit of a vacation in order to get away from his idiot father. Hopefully, four days in the land of barely clad Pretty Ladies would be enough to loosen him up some. And even if it wasn’t, Happosai had no intention of leaving his only viable heir behind when he left this world.
Genma?
Perhaps, but Happosai have to make sure that the man knew not to turn this into another sorry excuse for a training trip. Happosai had no desire to wait around ten more years for that to happen.
Ultimately, Happosai just needed someone who would stay focused on actually bringing his heir back to Nerima. Actual skill in the art was secondary, or perhaps even unnecessary as the Everfree sounded pretty much like an iconic example of a peaceful paradise without any significant dangers. After all, why else would the whole realm consider clothing to be entirely optional unless their were no dangers, and thus no violence?
Great, now Happosai had to think of someone who would choose to send his heir back, even if they ultimately decided to stay themselves. That shortened the list considerably, but he still had some candidates in mind.
Maybe?
Yes… Yes, Happosai had just the person in mind for the mission…
O O O
After breakfast, which had been a nice, steaming bowl of oatmeal mixed with apples and cinnamon, buttered toast, and orange juice, Doctor Stable came in, along with Nurse Redheart and an orderly with a wheelchair.
“Since you showed signs of rapid healing yesterday, we are going to go ahead and examine her injuries again this morning to give us an idea of how to schedule her appointments. We may even be able to remove some of the stitches already. Afterwards, Nurse Redheart here will be giving you a sponge bath with warm, soapy water.”
“I can bathe myself, you know.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’m also positive that being the tough filly that you are, you will run the water as hot as you can stand, scrub harder than you should, and otherwise do yourself more harm than good. Trust me, we’ve plenty of experience with your type, what with Rainbow Dash over there being one of them.”
“Just go with it, Wild,” the afore mentioned pony confirmed from her own bed. “They aren’t going to change their minds on this one, trust me. Besides, it’ll only be until the stitches are out.”
“And the staples as well,” Doctor Stable agreed before turning to Fluttershy. “Now, since you are going to be Wild Pony’s primary caretaker during her recovery, we would like you to at least be present for the sponge bath so that Nurse Redheart can show you what to do. Things like recommended water temperature, what to check for while her bandages are off, how much pressure to use when sponging her down. Things like that. If she behaves, Wild can even help, but if you spot her scrubbing too hard or picking at her injuries, stop her immediately.”
“Of course,” Fluttershy nodded, having had to do this sort of thing before in her role as an animal care specialist.
“Fine, fine,” Wild groused. “Let’s just get this over with already.” Getting up, she started heading for the door, only to be intercepted by the orderly with the wheelchair. “Oh, come on! I can walk myself, you know!”
“Sorry, ma’am, hospital policy.”
“Okay, fine.” And with that, Wild situated herself on the chair, crossed her forelegs in front of her chest, and slouched, grumbling under her breath as she was wheeled out.
Back in the room, Rainbow Dash watched the door close, looked around at the empty room for a moment, and sighed. “I’m bored.”
Whereupon she started playing with the switch on her bedside lamp…
O O O
To Wild Pony’s relief, while quite warm, the soapy water wasn’t hot enough to trigger the change. Which was good, as Wild had no idea how the issue of having stitches and staples in her hide would resolve itself. Some injuries went away, or at least were healed a lot faster, whenever the curse was triggered, while most stayed more or less the same. She knew that there was at least the potential for them to actually get worse instead, but that particular problem had yet to happen due to the curse alone.
She hadn’t been pretty to look at, what with having entire sections of her chestnut coat shaved bare so that the doctors could work on her. Although this did allow her to discover that the emblem on each of her flanks was more than just a colored pattern in her fur, as it was still present on her left flank, crossed by two of a set of four long gouges that had been stapled shut.
Sure enough, the doctor had decided to go ahead and remove some of the stitches already, but only those for which the injuries appeared to be sufficiently healed or proved to be otherwise impossible to find, which still left her with several sets.
After being sponged down by Nurse Redheart and Fluttershy (an awkward experience to be sure, she was gently rubbed down with an antiseptic ointment intended to help sooth the itching caused by both the stitches and staples, as well as her fur stubble as her coat grew back in. Being a topical ointment rather than an internal one, the effect was much longer lasting for her as her metabolism couldn’t burn through it like it did with most medications.
Once all that was done, Wild Pony found herself bandaged up again, bundled in several nice, thick, comfy blankets, then arbitrarily rolled right out the front door in a wheelchair!
“Well, that was rather abrupt,” Wild commented dryly. “Middle of winter too. I hope you live close by.”
“Um… On the far side of Ponyville, actually,” Fluttershy admitted quietly before noticing a familiar pair of farm ponies coming up the lane, the larger of the two hauling a large cart. “Oh, hello, Applejack, Big Macintosh! Are you helping somepony move today?”
“Y’ maht say that, Sugarcube,” Applejack nodded. “We figured y’d need a ride sometime today, since th’ doctor said Wild maht be let out today, so we came to pick y’all up.”
“Thank you…”
O O O
A pale green unicorn with a purple mane and tail that had green highlights, sighed as she poked at her remaining glazed Baltimare crème donut sitting next to a cooling cup of coffee as she stared out the window of Donut Joe’s. Her Cutey Mark depicted a red and gold quill writing on a sheet of paper with a stylized vine wrapped lightly around them that had small clusters of three purple grapes at either end. She was Grapevine, and she was a freelance columnist of moderate note. At the moment, she was seriously debating moving back to Manehattan.
Her public interest journal, You Heard it on the Grapevine, had been ever so slowly devolving into a socialite gossip column ever since she moved to Canterlot. Mainly due to the fact that most of the well to do high society types that she had once so admired turned out to be shallow minded elitists more interested in either showing each other up or putting each other down than being the high-minded socially conscious leaders she had once thought they were.
The less said about Prince Blueblood the better. While hardly the most reprehensible of the lot, the dichotomy between his public persona and how he actually behaved once you met him was so severe that she didn’t dare try to publish any articles about him until her own reputation rose high enough to be unassailable, otherwise she’d have a hard time finding a periodical willing to print her work.
No, what Grapevine needed was a public interest story with a big draw, facts that could be verified, and reputable sources she could site for confirmation. Not that she’d drop the You Heard it on the Grapevine tag, as it did sell well, but she wanted it to be known as being more than just a gossip and editorial column!
Sure, there was the Rainboom that had happened yesterday, but other reporters had already gotten to all the credible witnesses she could think to interview, so unless someone more directly involved happened to drop into her lap, her story wouldn’t be much different from any of the other accounts already being published.
“Hey, Cloud!” one of a pair of Guard ponies called out as they came in the door. “How are you doing? Still stiff from trying to chase down that courier yesterday?” The two walked over to the table next to the one where Grapevine was sitting, and taking seats next to the stallion already there.
“Why don’t you try chasing after somepony capable of breaking the sound barrier, and see how good your wings feel the next day?”
“So, can you tell us the official time on that flight?”
“Officially, they’re still comparing log transcripts, but what I can tell you is that her total round trip between the Ponyville General and Canterlot Central Hospitals was just under three quarters of an hour, and she had to wait at Canterlot Central for the order to be filled.”
“Whoa!”
“Impressive! So, who was she? All we heard so far was that she was a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane.”
“Not too surprising, that’s part of her name right there. Our little speedster is none other than Ponyville’s latest Weather Captain, and the youngest yet to ever fill that post, Rainbow Dash! She not only broke all known records by a wide margin, she actually delivered the antivenin quickly enough for it to be effective in saving the patient’s life!”
Grapevine could not believe her good fortune. Here she was, sitting at Donut Joe’s, and what could be the story of the century dropped right in her lap! This was her big break! Her chance to launch her career to the stars themselves! Opportunity had come knocking, and she was going to answer it‘s call! Taking a deep breath, she tried to steady her nerves and settle into a professional demeanor. She most likely only had one shot at this, so she was going to have to aim high and give it all she was worth.
“Excuse me, Gentlecolts,” the unicorn mare interjected as she turned to address the Guards. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. My name is Grapevine, and I’m a freelance journalist. Would you mind if I conducted an interview?”
O O O
Oddly enough, Wild Pony and Fluttershy ended up spending the rest of winter as guests of the Apple family. Nopony knew if the manticore would return or not, or if the harsh winter would drive another large beast out of the Everfree Forest in search of food, so the few ponies who lived in the sparsely populated neighborhood where the southeastern corner of Ponyville met the untamable woodland had been vacated for the duration for safety reasons.
Fluttershy didn’t mind, since most of the animals normally under her care were already temporarily staying at Sweet Apple Acres anyway.
Wild Pony didn’t really care where she was staying as long as someone was willing to put a roof over her head. Well, right up until the Apples started moving all of Apple Bloom’s things into Applejack’s room so that Wild and Shy could share the little filly’s bed.
“No, really, I’m perfectly fine sleeping on the floor…”
“Now see here, Missy!” Applejack all but hollered in the bandaged pony’s face as Wild retreated until she bumped into a wall. “Ain’t no guest of the Apple Family goin’ ta sleep on the floor when we got room in a proper bed! Especially not if’n she’s injured lahk you are! Ah don’t care how tough y’ think y’ are, yer goin’ ta get proper rest in a proper bed, and y’ better darn well get used ta it, ‘cause that’s where yer sleepin’ while yer our guest!”
“Okay! Okay! I get it! I’ll sleep in a bed until my bandages come off…” Seeing a lot of disapproving faces, Wild tried again. “Until I’m all better?”
“Eenope,” Big Mac shook his head briefly as Applejack gave Wild a pointed stare.
“Try again, Young’n,” Granny Smith suggested, not unkindly.
“For as long as I’m a guest of your family?”
“There y’ go,” Granny nodded with a smile. “Ah know y’ got pride and all, but yer too stubborn fer yer own good. When th’ time comes for you and Fluttershy t’ move back inta her cottage, Ah’ll send Big Mac and A.J. to help set up a room fer ya.”
“Oh yes, that would be ever so nice,” Fluttershy thanked Granny Smith in a soft tone. “Thank you.”
“Eh? What was that, Deary? You want rice fer supper?”
“Um… no. Well, I wouldn’t mind, really. If you want to make rice that is. I was just trying to say that we really appreciate your offer.” The quiet pony’s voice was imperceptibly louder than before. Or, quite possibly, even more quiet…
“Yer mice? Well, if’n y’ insist. But they’ll have ta stay in a cage for as long as they’re here. This is a farm, and loose mice are a pest risk Ah’m not willin’ ta put up with, no matter how well mannered y‘ got ‘em trained them up.”
“Um…” Fluttershy almost squeeked as her voice became even harder to hear, causing everypony but her and Granny Smith to hoof their faces… "... ... ... ..."
"This is going to take a while..." Wild Pony observed drily, eliciting an affirmative nod from Big Mac, Applejack, and Apple Bloom.
O O O
“Hi, Rarity!” Rainbow Dash waved at her new friend she entered her room.
“Hello to you to, Dear,” the white unicorn replied with a smile. “And how are you doing today?”
“Bored, mostly. There’s nothing to do here! The stupid doctors won’t let me do anything fun…”
“Well, you could always try reading a book or magazine. While the hospital’s selection is neither as wide nor varied as that of the library, I’m sure you could find something to interest you.”
“Feh… None of it covers the Wonderbolts. Or the weather. Or even just the sky.”
“You should broaden your interests more, Rainbow,” Rarity chided the bedridden Pegasus teasingly, “then, perhaps, I could visit you without the doctors reminding me to ask you not to play with the lights.”
“Oh, sure, take away the one toy they have that is even vaguely interesting,” Rainbow quipped. “So… What’d you bring today?”
It had been almost a week now, and Rainbow Dash had grown to appreciate Rarity’s daily visits. Not that Fluttershy hadn’t tried to visit whenever she could herself, but Rainbow understood that her foalhood friend was bound to be busy taking care of Wild Pony and helping the Apples take care of all the extra animals temporarily housed on their farm for the winter. Fortunately, being a Pegasus, even one who preferred not to fly very high kept the trip from actually being terribly inconvenient, but it had become an every other day thing once everyone noticed that Fluttershy was becoming a little frazzled by everything she tried to fit into one day. However, the same could not be said for Rarity, who (like nearly else in Equestria) reduced her work hours during the winter months.
Rarity, knowing that Rainbow had potentially sacrificed her hopes and dreams to save the life of another, had stepped up and made sure to visit her every single day. And every day, she tried to find out more about the Pegasus she had only known as the friend of a friend before, to try to get a better understanding of how to comfort her new friend and help her through her difficult times. Mostly, they talked about little of actual consequence, chatting idly about this or that bit of gossip Rarity had heard, or discussing some random subject as the two sounded each other out for common interests. On a more serious note, Rarity had offered an option for Rainbow Dash to consider in the event that the weather pony did indeed end up losing her job.
“I think you’ll like these designs,” the fashion pony stated as she levitated some scrolls from her saddlebags and unfurled them on the Pegasus’s lap. “I think you’ll find them more suited to your brash personality than the ones I showed you yesterday.”
Rainbow Dash was still a bit dubious about becoming a model, but Rarity was proving to be so enthusiastically supportive that she had decided to at least consider the option seriously instead of blowing it off. At the very least, she’d have a job…
O O O
It started slowly at first, but even then it eclipsed the event that had caused it, if only because of the initial primary interests of those spreading the tale.
It had been the talk of all the Pegasi in Ponyville and Canterlot within the first couple of days just from word of mouth, but interest peaked for the public at large once the periodicals started reporting about it
From there, the story spread by Pegasus Express to Manehatten and Baltemare, and even places as far off as Los Pegasus and Van Hoover.
O O O
Ranma, mostly out of boredom and a need to do something, had taken to helping out with some of the lighter household chores at Sweet Apple Acres. What few chores they would let her do anyway, since she was supposed to be resting. So Wild kept herself busy learning how to do small tasks in ways that she never really had to do them before.
Such as learning to sew. With her lips. Mainly because the muscle control involved intrigued her after she had watched Applejack and Granny Smith sew that way.
Apparently, many Ponies did any sort of delicate task, or work that required a firm grip, with their mouths instead of their hooves. Not that it was impossible to do them with their hooves so much as it was easier for most ponies as they had learned how to do these tasks with their mouths first at a very young age before their internal magic settled enough for hoof work to become reliable for those efforts. Most ponies simply never bothered putting that much effort into getting the dexterity and strength of their hoof magic up to the same level, and even those that did tended to specialize in what they were good at.
Wild Pony was already astonishingly skilled with using her hoof-grip with speed, strength, and precision, easily mentally associating the attendant magic field with the fingers she used to have, but had never learned to use her lips and tongue to quite this extent. Not that she was ready to admit to once having had hands to her new friends just yet, fearing that they’d reject her as a pony riding demon of some sort.
Of course with Wild Pony being who she was, couldn’t leave it at just learning to do what everypony else could do, and went the extra mile simply because she was Ranma, training her lips and tongue until she could thread a needle and tie a knot at a specific location on a piece of string with her mouth closed.
“Well now yer just showin’ off,” Applejack commented in mild irritation as Wild spat said needle across the room, hitting the dead center of the dartboard hanging on the wall.
“What?” Wild Pony asked, wondering what everypony was staring at her. Again. It wasn’t like she’d done anything really difficult after all.
“Maybe we should go back to teaching you how to play poker and go fish,” Granny Smith suggested.
“But I’m no good at card games…”
“Well, it’s either that or board games. Last time we left y’ alone ta read, y’ ended up three chapters in before anypony noticed that y’ were balancin’ on yer fool head.”
“And your point is?”
“Yer supposed to be relaxin’!” Applejack pointed out, not for the first time.
“Eyup!”
“But that is relaxing!" Wild Pony insisted. "For me, anyway…”
“Did yer dang fool pa drop y’ on yer head when y’ were little?” Granny Smith retorted. Wild Pony didn’t talk much about her so-called family and friends from before she had been petrified, but so far, what little they had learned had left the Apples less than impressed. Not to mention distressing Fluttershy to the point where Wild had become even less willing to talk about her past than before if she happened to be nearby.
“Lots of times, actually,” Wild Pony responded dryly, deliberately yanking their chains. “Never really stopped doing that in one form or another. Why do you ask?”
O O O
Rainbow Dash had moved in with Rarity for a few weeks, before being cleared to fly again, even if just for short distances for the next week or so. Her next appointment would determine if the doctors would let her return to her job as a weather pony, but for now she at least had a temporary job helping Rarity out.
So far, since she wasn’t able to return to work anyway due to injuries and recovery time, she had yet to be officially suspended. Naturally, the jerk back in Canterlot had decided to go ahead and press charges, but fortunately the court date was set before her next medical appointment, so she and Rarity were going to make a weekend trip of it and rent rooms at a hotel, taking a flying cab both ways. Sure, doing it that way ate a little into their savings, but Rarity had assured her that not having the stress of having to make a rush trip on the day of her hearing would be well worth the added expense.
For now though, she was getting ready to attend a party being held at the Town Hall in the honor of Wild Pony and herself! Pinkie Pie had been planning it ever since that eventful day, and since Wild Pony had finally had the last of her staples removed, she was now permitted to wander about Ponyville, so the go ahead had been given to finally schedule the event.
O O O
“Are you sure you don‘t want any help?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Wild Pony confirmed. “The Doc said there was no further risk of infection, so as much as I appreciated the help, I’d really like to start bathing myself now.”
“Okay, but don’t hesitate to call if you need anything.”
“I’ll do that,” Wild assured Fluttershy as she shut the bathroom door. The two had developed a sisterly relationship, with the pale yellow Pegasus acting as the shy but caring older sibling while the chestnut mare took the role of the rambunctious and physically active younger sister. Which they both viewed as being a healthier relationship than Wild viewing Fluttershy as a surrogate mother figure, no matter how flattering Fluttershy found the situation.
Not that the occasional “Little Mommy” didn’t slip out during one of Wild’s more and more infrequent nightmares, but they both took it as a good sign when “Big Sister” had started replacing it recently while calling out for help in her sleep.
Wild sighed as she reflected on how Fluttershy and the Apples felt more like family to her than her own parents ever had. This was what she had unknowingly longed for in her previous life. True bonds of family and friendship that she had never been given the chance to develop in the world she had come from.
And now it was time to test those newfound bonds.
So Wild Pony walked over to the porcelain tub and ran the water as hot as she could before sticking a hoof under the tap…
O O O
“Okay, we’re all here,” Applejack stated as she set the steaming tea kettle and pitcher of cold water Wild had asked for on the coffee table. Besides herself, her immediate family, Fluttershy, and Wild, a few other ponies were also present in the Apple family living room at Wild’s request.
Granny Smith was in her rocking chair, of course, with Big Mac sitting on the floor next to her. Ditzy Doo sat on the sofa, next to Rarity and Rainbow Dash, while Dinky Doo sat at their hooves with Apple Bloom, and Fluttershy stood near an obviously nervous Wild Pony.
Even Pinkie Pie was there at Wild’s request, despite not having had a chance to interact much with Ponyville’s latest resident after the Manticore attack. She was obviously excited and had a hard time sitting still, but sit she did since this was a chance to make a new friend! “So, what are we all here for? Is Wild going to tell us a story? Ooh! Ooh! Maybe Wild is going to tell us about once of her adventures! Is that it? That’s it, isn’t it? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
Wild Pony just tilted her head, cocked an eyebrow, and stared at the pink pony as she rambled, shaking her head with a chuckle as Pinky finally wound down. “You could say that,” she admitted. “I called you all here because you are all the ponies I know best since Fluttershy found me in the Everfree Forest three years ago. Fluttershy, obviously, since I was her lawn ornament,” Wild quipped lightly as she gestured towards the embarrassed yellow Pegasus.
“Ditzy Doo, who like Fluttershy would sit by me and tell me about her day, her hopes and dreams, and whatever troubles she had. And most of all, about her precious Muffin, Dinky Doo.” Mother and daughter both beamed as they were mentioned, not in the least bothered by the revelation that Wild had been able to listen to Ditzy while she had still been petrified.
“Pinkie Pie, who would tell me stories whenever she came by to visit Fluttershy, even if I wasn’t able to understand most of them.” the pink party pony grinned broadly, happy that Wild remembered her stories.
“Rarity, who would take a moment to ‘spruce me up’ whenever she came over to visit Fluttershy.”
“Think nothing of it, Wild, I live for helping everypony look their best!”
“Heh. Maybe, but even so, I don’t know how to even begin thanking you for using your magic on me, because every time you did, my thoughts became clearer for a while, allowing me to remember what Fluttershy, Ditzy, and Pinkie were telling me!”
“Oh! Well… You are welcome, of course, and I am happy if I helped comfort you in any way while you were petrified.”
“Believe me, Rarity, I really do appreciate the help. I still have no idea how long I spent as a statue before Fluttershy found me, and even the past three years pretty much zipped by from my point of view, but whatever it was that the touch of your magic did to me allowed me to realize that I was helping those around me by being there to listen to them. I needed that sense of purpose while I couldn’t move, otherwise the frustration and boredome would have driven me crazy!” Wild paused and put a hoof under her chin as she mused. “Or would that be crazier? I don’t think anypony who learns the Cat-Hoof would qualify as being exactly sane afterwards…”
“Yeah yeah, you’re the crazy-awesome pony with a cat in her head,” Rainbow Dash snarked impatiently. “Get on with it already!”
“And of course there’s Rainbow Dash, who saved my life and ended up sharing a hospital room with me for about a day because of it.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Rainbow stated smugly as she stood up and bowed, basking in the attention. “I am awesome, I know!”
“Right, sure, whatever,” Wild waved Rainbow back into her seat, but the multi-colored pony still had a wide smile plastered on her face.
“And then there are the Apples, who took Fluttershy and me in and treated us as family, as one of their own.”
“‘Tweren’t nothin’,” Applejack stated as she and the rest of her family smiled and nodded at their honorary family members.
“No, it is not ‘nothing,’” Wild stated in disagreement. “I know I haven’t said much about my life from before I saw the lizard-chicken thingy…”
“Cockatrice,” Fluttershy corrected gently, before flinching from the attention this brought to her.
“Lizard-chicken thingy,” Wild repeated, her tone indicating that she was teasing her ‘older sister’ by happily ignoring the correction. This seemed to do Fluttershy some good as she stood straight again and accepted the gentile teasing with a giggle instead of withdrawing further as she might have otherwise done. Really, everyone who had met the pair so far thought that the two were good for each other, as Wild helped bring Fluttershy out of her shell and, well… Wild had barely qualified as civilized before Fluttershy started helping her out.
“Anyhow, Granny Smith, Big Mac, Applejack, and Apple Bloom showed me what being part of a family was really like. Really, all of you are like the family I never had. Like my own family never was…”
“Well,” Granny Smith stated in a welcoming tone, “You’ll always have a place at our table as an honorary member of th’ Apple family, Young’n.”
“That’s for sure!” Applejack agreed.
“Eyup!”
“Yay! I get another big sister!”
Wild Pony smiled sadly at the scene, the sudden shift in her expression and mood settling everypony down again as she continued. “Really, everyone here has shown me what friends and family are all about. And I’m still learning from you all. Now I can see that I only ever had one real friend in my old life, and I find myself ashamed to have to admit that I wasn’t a real friend in return. I took her for granted more often than not, and left her and others hanging, waiting for me to get my act together, which never happened. The only thing I can say in my defense is that I didn’t know how to be a friend back then.”
Wild sighed, waving down any interruptions at this point. “I had a chance at making another friend once. Pop and I had just finished our big training journey, and he wanted to introduce me to the daughters of a friend of his. The youngest, I guess Scarlet Skyway would be the closest translation of her name? Anyway, she was being trained as a martial artist like me, and had challenged me to a friendly spar. I won, of course…”
“Because you are awesome!” Rainbow Dash interjected.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, I won, but I had kept something from her because I was afraid of losing the new friend I had just made. And because I didn’t come clean when I had the chance, it came out in the worst possible way, destroying that friendship before it ever had a chance.”
“It has something to do with th’ water ya had me prepare for you, doesn’t it?” Applejack concluded. “And y’ c’n show us all now ‘cause yer no longer injured ‘n’ all.”
“Yes, exactly. The very last place Pop took me to on purpose during our training journey was the Cursed Pools of Sorrow, a training ground in a valley covered in springs, each one with one or more bamboo poles set in them, and most of them with a tragic tale of drowning associated with them.”
“I’ve said it before, Wild,” Granny Smith put in her two bits, “and I’ll no doubt end up sayin’ it again, but yer pa was a dang fool!”
“You’re still not getting any argument from me,” Wild stated dryly.
“You got cursed, didn’t you?” Pinkie asked in concern.
“Yeah,” Wild admitted. “We both did. Not that Pop’s curse seemed to bother him too much unless a shot at a cure came around. Not that any of them ever worked… Anyhow, we both got cursed to change form whenever we came in contact with water. Hot water triggers the change one way…” And with that, Wild picked up the steaming tea kettle and poured the water inside over her head.
Everyone gawked are the crimson maned pony before them swiftly grew from a mare about the same size as Rainbow Dash into a giant black maned stallion!
“My name,” the towering stallion stated in an embarrassed tone as he set the kettle back on the coffee table. “My untranslated name that is, is Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this.”
O O O
Everyone stared in awe at the giant in the room with them. Wild Pony, or rather Ranma, was tall. Really tall. As in bigger than Big Mac, tall. As in bigger than a Saddle Arabian tall. As in quite possibly as big or even bigger than Princess Celestia tall! He was still the same chestnut brown over all, although his mane and tail had become raven black and the rough patches where his coat was still growing back in had evened out quite a bit.. His sword-on-shield Cutey Mark remained unchanged, and his bright blue eyes were also the same, if somewhat sad at the moment.
“Gosh, yer big!” Apple Bloom stated the obvious, earning a giggle from Dinky Doo and Pinkie Pie, and a blush from Ranma.
“Eyup, yer a long drink of water all raht,” Big Mac agreed in a calm, measured tone intended to be reassuring. It seemed to work, as everypony released their tension.
“Ooh! Ooh! I bet cold water changes you back! Am I right? I’m right, right?”
Ranma actually laughed at Pinkie’s excitement, relieved that his new friends seemed to be accepting his transformation. “Ya got it in one, Pinkie,” he confirmed as he picked up the pitcher and poured it over his head, reversing the transformation.
O O O
Fluttershy looked at the pony she had come to view as a sister, and quite possibly a brother now as well, and saw past the brave front she was putting up. Wild was scared, terrified really, of losing the friends and family she had acquired in Ponyville. Moving closer to Ranma, she gave her sister a brief hug. “I’m still your friend, Ranma. Thank you for trusting us with your burden.”
“Yeah, this don’t change a thing,” Applejack agreed firmly.
“Eyup!” Big Mac put in laconically.
“Agreed, Darling,” Rarity stated, getting over her own shock and picking up many of the signs that Fluttershy already had.
“You can count on Rainbow Dash!”
“I’m happy to be your friend,” Ditzy stated.
“Do you know what this calls for?” Pinkie announce rhetorically. “A PARTY!”
“That’s your answer to everything,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.
Princess Celestia took a moment to organize her thoughts while she waited for Twilight Sparkle to arrive for the day's lessons. Twilight was a truly gifted student in many respects: well read, studious in nature, good research habits, and an extraordinarily potent capacity for magic in general. Which wasn't to say that she didn't have her own flaws. Everypony did after all, even Princess Celestia herself would admit to not being perfect if anypony bothered to ask.
For example, having lived as long as she had gave Princess Celestia a tendency towards gentile manipulation as she took the long view and planned ahead while still trying to let everypony have as much free agency as possible to live their own lives. While a certain amount of this was necessary for a variety of reasons, one of which being that it helped her to avoid the trap of gradually micromanaging everything and becoming a tyrant, she tended to overlook times when more direct and upfront approaches would be more appropriate than long term plans or contingency scenarios. She was, after all, a sovereign ruler, and her preference towards hands-off guidance didn't always produce the best results for somepony in her position.
Fortunately, recent events caused Princess Celestia to ponder whether or not to try to fit them into her plans, which in turn reminded her to examine her own motivations and realize that she was perhaps once again being too subtle when being more direct would probably be better.
Especially since Twilight Sparkle showed none of the hunger for inappropriate power that she had once hoped that Sunset Shimmer would grow out of.
And, as if summoned by the thought, the lavender unicorn with purple main, tail, and eyes entered the room and approached Princess Celestia, bowing as she drew near.
"Rise, Twilight Sparkle. We have much to discuss today." Waiting a moment for her student to compose herself, the Princess continued. "Tell me, are you aware of the events occurring in Ponyville?"
"Um… No?" Twilight suddenly became nervous. "Should I be?" Was this a test? Did she miss something important? What if she failed? What if…
"Relax, Twilight," Celetia admonished lightly. "You are not in any trouble. Although this is perhaps a sign that you should broaden your studies a bit to account for current events. Great things are happening, and events that are greater still draw nigh, and it is best we prepare for them."
"What do you mean, Princess?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Recently, I have received reports regarding certain events occurring in Ponyville that I believe may have great significance in the times to come. One pony, a Pegasus by the name of Rainbow Dash, has been confirmed to have performed a sonic rainboom."
"A sonic what?"
"A sonic rainboom, perhaps more properly noted as a transonic aura wavefront, supposedly occurs whenever a pegasus breaches the speed of sound, causing an explosion of sound and color. Only two have ever been officially documented, although there are unconfirmed tales of an unknown pegasus having performed one at least once in ancient times. Pegasi, and indeed many flyers regardless of their species, hold the sonic rainboom to be a great achievement and an ideal to strive for."
"That does sound very impressive, Princess Celestia," Twilight conceded politely, "but what does that have to do with me?"
"You are a student of magic, are you not?" the Princess asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yes! Of course!" Twilight responded automatically, wondering what that had to do with anything.
"Then you should be aware that pegasi have their own magic, expressed in their own way."
"Such as their ability to walk on clouds and manipulate the weather," Twilight nodded.
"As well as their ability to fly. Pegasi, griffons, most dragons… indeed many of the larger winged creatures, such as manticores and sphinxes, do not share the trait of hollow bones that birds have, instead compensating for this and other aerodynamic aspects as needed through magical means. This is mostly done on the subconscious level, but some of the best flyers can purposely tap into this effect in order to improve their performance."
"Making it a form of directed magic!" Twilight exclaimed. "Oh, and I bet that their weather magic is much the same, mostly subconscious but occasionally directed through skill and training?"
"Precisely!" Princess Celestia agreed in a congratulatory tone.
"And as a student of magic, you would like me to study what Rainbow Dash has done in order to not only improve the understanding of pegasus magic, but magic in general!" Twilight Sparkle concluded adroitly.
"Yes, and earth pony magic as well."
"Earth ponies have magic?" Twilight asked, flummoxed at the concept, as she had never thought about the possibility before.
"Yes, they do," Celestia confirmed. "Although I cannot say that I am entirely surprised that you had not yet learned of their capacity for magic in your independent studies as general awareness of earth pony magic tends towards specialized interests and documentation is sparse..."
"I'm sorry, Princess," Twilight started to apologize for her shameful transgression, only to be interrupted by Princess Celestia holding up a hoof.
"There is nothing to apologize for, Twilight. Your studies are proceeding apace, and I'm positive that you would have eventually come across the subject in your own time. To be truthful, earth pony magic tends to be fairly subtle in nature, and is rarely performed on a conscious level. For the most part, it typically expresses itself through improved physical attributes and perhaps a greater tie to the land, which is why a great many of the best farmers around happen to be earth ponies."
"And I bet that was how Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie could tell how fertile the soil in Equestria was when they discovered it," Twilight guessed, thinking of two of the six leaders that founded the nation.
"Perhaps," the princess conceded, "although earth ponies were well versed in agricultural sciences even then, albeit they did not call it such. So it may have just been knowledge, skill, and a good eye instead. It's hard to say since neither of them recorded the reasoning behind their conclusion. Or, if it had been written down, the record has since been lost to time."
"Oh…"
"The more relevant reason I bring this up is that an earth pony by the name of Wild Pony recently fought off a manticore on the outskirts of Ponyville."
"I hope he's alright," Twilight interjected. "I don't remember my brother ever mentioning him by name though… Is he retired or from another division?"
"I rather doubt that Shining Armor would have heard about Wild Pony before today, Twilight, as she had been petrified for a considerable length of time prior to that fight. In fact, according to the report I read, she had allegedly been mistaken for a statue and had been in somepony's front lawn for the past three years. No one knows how long she has been stone prior to when she was first found in the Everfree Forest."
"That's horrible!"
"Indeed it is, and I am currently having auditors go over all records of documented statuary, while also discretely having experts in petrification recovery check all realistic statues just in case." Celestia did not mention that a certain statue of a rather… chaotic… nature was being purposely left out of this survey.
"That's good to know," Twilight nodded, relieved that something was being done now that the possibility of a problem has been brought to light.
"In any event, what makes Wild Pony's petrification so remarkable is that she reported being at least partially aware of her surroundings while she was a statue, albeit her sense of time was greatly distorted and she had complained of having had difficulty even forming thoughts unless other ponies were around."
"That's…" Twilight stopped herself before saying that it was impossible, since apparently it wasn't since it had happened. "That's unprecedented! As far as I know, anyway…"
"Indeed it is, Twilight. And even more impressive is the fact that even as a statue, Wild Pony was able to form bonds of friendship powerful enough to enable her to break out of her petrified state without assistance in order to save the life of the pony who found her!"
Twilight was flummoxed yet again. Even so, she started drawing ties between the two ponies she had just been informed of, each uniquely powerful in magic in their own right despite not being unicorns, and then drew a possible comparison from her own past. "You want me to meet them…"
"Very good, Twilight," Celetia nodded approvingly. "May I ask what reasoning led you to this conclusion?"
"Well, you mentioned two ponies with very strong, and presumably untrained, magic who just happened to not be unicorns, so I started comparing them and wondered if there might be a similar example among unicorns, and… well…" Twilight scraped at the floor with one of her front hooves in embarrassment. "While I don't think of myself as being particularly powerful, I couldn't help but think back on my entrance exam, when I accidentally aged Spike all the way from his egg into a full sized wyrm…" Her voice dropped to low, almost inaudible levels as she miserably mumbled the next part, "and turned my parents into plants…"
Princess Celestia sighed, then nuzzled her student comfortingly. She had recently become worried about this. While she was happy that Twilight Sparkle was not driven to power for its own sake like Sunset Shimmer had been, she had lately started to suspect that there was something holding her latest student back, as her practical application seemed to lag inordinately behind her theoretical knowledge. Not enough that her other instructors had caught onto the matter, as such gaps between knowledge and ability were actually common in spell casters, and even Celestia herself had failed to make the connection until recent events in Ponyville reminded her of Twilight's initial bout of undirected excessive thaumatic expression. Twilight had demonstrated such tremendous potential as a filly that said gap should have been in the other direction, at least until she had learned to control it.
Instead, what Celestia had once taken as Twilight's rapid development in bringing her magical reserves under manageable control was probably her student holding herself back subconsciously from fear of being overwhelmed by her own power.
So instead of telling Twilight Sparkle about Princess Luna and the Elements of Harmony as she had intended, she changed her plans yet again in order to help her beloved student.
"I am sending you to Ponyville to meet them. I would also like you to talk with them, and find out how they are dealing with their abilities and recent events, as I believe they may have some insights that you may find helpful. And more importantly, while you are continuing your studies in Ponyville, I would like you to make some friends."
"Friends?" Twilight tilted her head to one side in incomprehension.
"Yes, friends. Everypony needs friends, Twilight. You and I are no exceptions, and your brother has expressed his worries about your lack of a social life outside of studies."
"But my studies are important!"
"Indeed they are, Twilight. But so is setting aside time to be yourself and discover who you, Twilight Sparkle, are as a pony, for it is our connections with others that define us, and friends are among the best connections a pony can have."
"I'll try."
"That's all I ask. There is more to tell you, but there is still plenty of time yet in which to do so, so I'm going to give you some time to adjust to life in Ponyville first. Having something in common, however tenuous it may be, with Rainbow Dash and Wild Pony may provide an opportunity to make friends with them, but actually doing so isn't required. It is better to let friendships happen than to force the issue after all. Still, I would like you to at least try to make some friends, even if it is not with either or both of those two."
"Okay." Nevertheless, Twilight decided that she should at least make an honest attempt at befriending those two specific ponies. Not actually being required to do so took a lot of the pressure off since she didn't have to worry about failure or negative results.
"And on that note, I believe today may be a good time to go over the Principles of Ancillary Sympathetic Connections and How they Relate to Thaumatic Energies, by Rosetta Stone. While a great many scholars consider this to be the definitive practical study of why translation and transformation spells work the way they do, I believe that they may be too dismissive of the theories concerning other potential applications…"
O O O
The award ceremony honoring Wild Pony and Rainbow Dash, originally planned to be held inside the Town Hall due to the cold winter weather, had changed venues to the surrounding veranda at the last minute. Apparently, not only had most of Ponyville’s residents wanted to attend the event, the cause of the occasion had drawn enough attention from certain circles that the town’s population had almost doubled for the day. The bulk of the visitors were composed of pegasi and griffons, most of which being either racers, couriers, or stunt flyers interested in seeing the pony who had done the impossible for themselves.
Pinkie Pie was, naturally, super excited about the increase in attendance, as it meant that their were a great many new ponies (and griffons, hippogriffs, and even a winged sphinx or two) for her to meet and entertain. There were, in fact, so many visitors that Pinkie was running herself ragged trying to meet as many of them as possible so she could be a good party host. In her wake were a great many visitors who were left with an impression of a hyper, blue eyed, frizzy maned, pink mare who babbled cheerful incoherence at them and left them wondering what had just happened.
Oh, and where their drink and cupcake had come from.
Somewhat less expected had been the small contingent from the Wonderbolts, the premier elite flying unit of the Equestrian Sky Guard. However, once the mayor had spotted them during the last minute set-up, she just had to ask them deliver the awards, a fact that had thrilled a certain multi-colored pegasus to no end when she was informed...
O O O
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!”
“Excited much, Skittles?” Ranma asked, amused at her multicolored friend’s excitement.
“Buck yeah, I’m excited! I can’t believe the Wonder… Wait… What did you call me?” Rainbow Dash’s tone indicated that she wasn’t sure whether or not she should feel insulted.
“Skittles,” Ranma answered, blithely ignoring the warning signs. “It’s a type of candy that comes in a variety of colors and flavors.”
Rainbow Dash relaxed a bit, seeing the apparent relevance of the comparison and deciding that Ranma’s teasing wasn’t meant to be deliberately provocative.
“In fact, I believe their main slogan was ‘Taste the Rainbow.’” And on that note, Ranma leaned over and licked Rainbow’s cheek.
“Whu.. Buh…Uh… HEY!”
Applejack sighed in exasperation as Rainbow Dash started chasing the madly grinning chestnut mare around the room they were waiting in. As in all around the room they were waiting in, as one could fly and the other was demonstrating a general lack of respect for gravity by running along the walls and ceiling as much as she was the floor. Getting up, Applejack waited for the pair to pass her again and caught a polychrome tail in her mouth, stopping the chase.
“Ow!”
“Now hold on, Sally,” the orange mare admonished without letting go of the tail in her teeth. “Y’know Wild’s jus’ yankin’ yer chain, raht?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Rainbow grumbled as she settled her hooves to the floor again.
“An’ you,” Applejack let go of the tail as she faced the instigator, who had just dropped to her hooves from where she had stopped on the wall (unable as yet to support her full weight with her ‘grip’ for very long while not moving). “Would it kill ya ta behave? Y’ know darn well that bein’ civil is for more than jus’ when yer around Granny Smith ‘r Fluttershy.”
“If you say so,” Ranma replied in an off-hoof manner as she got up and shook her legs one at a time to make sure she hadn‘t inadvertently strained something. Still, Applejack took what she could get.
“Now, if’n y’ two ‘ve burnt up enough energy, do y’ think y’ c’n stand still fer five minutes ‘n’ git through th’ award ceremony?”
“Maaaaaaaaaaaybe,” Rainbow Dash shrugged
After a few moments of no other answer, Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at Ranma.
“What? I‘ll be good!”
“Ah c’n only hope,” Applejack replied under her breath.
O O O
Twilight waited patiently for the award ceremony to start. She was very glad that she had come to Ponyville the previous evening, as Princess Celestia had arranged for her to be staying at the Golden Oaks Library as the head (and as far as she could tell, only) librarian. Quite frankly, she was glad for the break since she had spent most of the remainder of the evening and a good portion of the night reorganizing all the books in a sensible manner. Frighteningly enough, the previous method had apparently been fairly haphazard, with no separation between fact and fiction and only a few groupings by author. And even then, they hadn’t been consistent about it. A prime example of this had been the various Daring Do novels filed variously under ‘A’ for adventure, ‘B’ for biography, ‘D’ for Daring Do, ‘F’ for fiction, and ‘Y’ for Yearling, A.K.
In any event, the shelves were now properly sorted (mostly by her), the room she and Spike shared had been set up (mostly by Spike), and there were plans to convert part of the basement into a lab. Sure, that’s where the extra copies and accumulated out of date periodicals were currently being stored, but the library already had a volume expansion spell array in place, so all Twilight had to do was file the request to modify it and present her credentials so she could do apply the modifications herself. She had yet to find out what kind of budget she’d be working with, and she’d hate to contract for work only to later find out that she couldn’t pay for it.
“How much longer before the ceremony, Twilight?” Spike asked from where he sat on Twilight’s saddle. The young dragon wasn’t particularly bothered by the freezing temperatures. He rarely even noticed such things, as opposed to his difficulty seeing the veranda of the Town hall, where the ceremony was to take place. Which was one of the reasons Twilight even had a winter saddle to begin with, as opposed to a simple woolen cloak. Spike was just a baby dragon after all, and still a bit too small to have to deal with trudging through deep snow over any real distance.
“It shouldn’t be much longer. Apparently the mayor made a last minute decision to have Spitfire speak, since the Wonderbolts are in attendance. You know how hard it is to come up with a speech on short notice.”
“Twilight, some ponies have thesis papers shorter than your speeches.”
“Hey! I’m not that bad!” the lavender pony huffed before reconsidering her response. “Am I?”
“Maybe not, but you did put most of the class and Professor Omnibus to sleep during your presentation last year on the subject of Thaumatic Effects Relating to Suspended Consciousness.”
“I don’t remember… HEY! I never wrote any such report!” Twilight complained, causing the tiny dragon to chuckle. Ruefully, she decided to retaliate. “Although, now that you mention it, that does sound like a neglected field of study.”
“Sounds dreamy.”
“Smart ass,” Twilight shot back, deciding that she had lost this round. All of a sudden, all of the pair’s attention was focused on a hyperactive pink pony who rattled off what sounded like a somewhat rambling general greeting as might be performed by an auctioneer.
“What just happened?” Twilight asked as the pink pony somehow moved through the crowd to pester somepony else.
“I have no idea,” Spike replied, just before taking a bite out of the chocolate, frosted, confection he had found in one of his hands. “Good cupcake though…”
O O O
“Y’ know, if’n y’ really want ta go, Ah c’n look after myself,” Granny Smith stated encouragingly. “Been doin’ that jus’ fine fer years now. Ah aint quite that old yet.”
“Well… um… if you’re sure…” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves hesitantly. She had wanted to go to the ceremony to support Ranma and Rainbow Dash initially, and had originally left the farm with them, Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Big Mac, but had gotten intimidated by the sheer size of the gathering crowd and turned back. Ranma and Rainbow had both said that they understood, and perhaps they did, but she could tell that they were disappointed and that had been eating at her ever since she had gotten back to the farm.
“Ahm sure,” Granny Smith nodded. “Now git yerself movin’! If’n y’ head out now, y’ c’n still make it over ta th’ Town Hall in plenty of time ta give ‘em a nice surprise!”
O O O
Spitfire was a bit annoyed with Ponyville’s mayor, as she, Soarin, Blaze, and High Wind had only come to the award ceremony to check out one of the young mares being honored. She certainly hadn’t expected to be called upon to deliver a speech, and hadn’t had much time to sort out what she was asked to say, what she wanted to say, and what she couldn’t say.
The truth of the matter, and what she couldn’t announce publicly, was that Rainbow Dash was one of several pegasi who had caught the eyes of various interests and had been under discrete observation ever since she was a young filly. Pretty much right after her first sonic rainboom in fact, although the lack of adult witnesses had kept that feat from being confirmed until very recently. Had she stayed in Cloudsdale, Spitfire expected that Rainbow Dash would have become either a racer, stunt flyer, or a courier before eventually being approached by either the Equestrian Sky Guard or even directly by the Wonderbolts.
As it was, Rainbow dash had inexplicably moved to Ponyville for reasons unknown once she was old enough to live on her own, and had joined the local Weather Team. Granted, given Ponyville’s proximity to the Everfree Forest, which had an untamable wild weather system all its own, the local weather service merited a higher rate of pay than would be normal for a relatively small community. And Rainbow Dash had quickly proven herself to be one of the best weather ponies Ponyville had ever had, and was among the youngest in all of Equestria to have become a Weather Captain.
At the same time, Rainbow Dash was hot-headed, immature, reckless, full of herself, and a bit lazy when she wasn’t pushing herself. All traits that Spitfire hoped would be at least somewhat tempered before she applied to the Wonderbolts Accademy. Hmm… Lightning Dust seemed to be pretty much the same, and she and Rainbow Dash would both be reaching service age at about the same time, were known to have expressed an active interest in trying out…
Spitfire sent of a heartfelt prayer for whichever poor Wonderbolts officer ended up in rotation as an instructor if those two hit the academy at the same time.
Wild Pony, on the other hoof, was a bit of an enigma. All that was actually known about the earth pony mare was that she had been found in the Everfree Forest roughly three years ago by one of the local residents, a pegasus by the name of Fluttershy (who was an animal caretaker of some sort - an unusual occupation for a pegasus), and had been mistaken for a decorative statue. A condition she had remained in for at least three years prior to somehow breaking free of her petrified state and fighting off a manticore in single combat!
Granted, Wild Pony had almost died as a result, but that kind of fighting ability did not just come from nowhere. Spitfire was actually glad that Wild Pony wasn’t a Pegasus, because she heard several complaints from archivists searching new and progressively older and older rosters and census data for anypony at all matching her name, description, and cutie mark. Sure the name and cutie mark popped up from time to time, as well as brown earth pony mares with blue eyes and red manes and tails, but the closest match so far had been a green-eyed mare who otherwise had the same name and rough details who had died of old age some twenty years ago, except her Cutie Mark had been a orchid in bloom rather than a sword on a shield.
As far as Spitfire knew, the search for any records at all on Wild Pony had currently reached some sixty or so years into the past, and had yet to produce any valid matches…
And none of this was helping Spitfire think of a suitable speech on short notice! Oh well, may as well wing it and hope for the best…
O O O
Rainbow Dash could hardly contain herself! The Wonderbolts were here! In Ponyville! Giving a speech in her honor!
Well, okay, not all of them. But Spitfire, Soarin, Blaze, and High Wind were here, and Spitfire was giving the speech!
And Wild Pony was being honored too, mustn’t forget that. Only the coolest, bravest, most awesome earth pony ever! And she was into martial arts too, so Rainbow Dash would finally have someone she could regularly spar with once they were both fully healed! That was going to be awesome!
“…so, without further ado, I present Rainbow Dash and Wild Pony, Heroes of Ponyville!”
Wait, what? Spitfire’s speech was over already? When had it started? Had Rainbow Dash missed it all already? Yes, dammit, she had. Still, it was oh so very cool to be here, standing beside Wild Pony as Spitfire presented her, and then Wild, their medals before saluting them and resuming her station with the other Wonderbolts.
Oh yeah… Rainbow Dash was supposed to say something now.
Stepping up to the podium, the polychrome pegasus began to speak. “I’d like to say something about how awesome I was, or that I had practiced for years trying to repeat the achievement I performed so long ago as a filly, but while both of those are true, they never even entered my mind that morning as I raced death itself to get that precious antivenin from Canterlot in time to save the life of a hero…”
At that point, Rainbow Dash saw a familiar yellow Pegasus timidly approaching the back of the crowd, and waved. “Hey, Fluttershy! Glad you could make it!” And then the polychromic mare winced as her now distracted friend stumbled and bumped into a griffon…
O O O
Gilda grumbled as she found herself at the back of the crowd. Ordinarily, she might have just bulled through to a better spot, but there were enough older griffons in the crowd who were pointedly not causing a ruckus that younger hotheads such as herself were catching a clue and behaving themselves for the most part. That, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself by causing a scene on Rainbow Dash’s big day.
Sure, it sucked that she hadn’t gotten a good spot, but unlike all the other out-of-towners who would most likely be gone again by tomorrow, Gilda figured she could stay in Ponyville a few days in order to catch up with her old friend and congratulate her personally for her accomplishment. However, that did not mean that she wasn’t grumpy or frustrated from being stuck way in the back of the crowd.
Still, Gilda tried to reign her temper in and be proud for her friend. And she was! Rainbow Dash had not only performed a Sonic Rainboom, incidentally making it more likely that her claims of doing one back in flight school where valid, she was now also officially the fastest known long distance flyer period! Heck, Gilda herself had stopped by Canterlot first, and found that she could only push her flight time from there to Ponyville to just under an hour. According to the papers, Rainbow Dash has completed that part of her roundtrip flight in minutes!
Gilda could also respect the other pony being awarded as well. Wild Pony, or whatever she was called. Going hoof to claw with a starvation maddened manticore was something that a fully armed and battle hardened griffon would find daunting. And somehow breaking herself out of being literally petrified in order to fight the beast was just plain nuts! Still, she had figured that Wild Pony would be a giant bruiser of a mare rather than being sleek and petite like Rainbow Dash.
Dammit! Gilda could barely hear the speech over the crowd from way back here! Not that she had cared what the mayor had to say, but she had barely heard Spitfire, and was now missing out on Rainbow’s acceptance speech! Holding her temper in, the griffon leaned forward and tried to focus on what Rainbow Dash was saying. Oh, cool! Rainbow had apparently spotted Gilda and was waving in her direction!
And then some inconsiderate buffoon had to spoil the moment and bump into her from behind!
O O O
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy apologized meekly as the scary griffon spun around and glared at her. “You see I… um… was in a hurry to get here… and tripped…”
“Sorry, huh?” the griffon replied angrily. “You’re sorry alright!” And then she roared, causing Fluttershy to run away in tears.
O O O
Gilda huffed at the fleeing Pegasus and turned back around to find herself beak to muzzle with a set of the angriest sapphire blue eyes she had ever seen. It took her a moment to register that those eyes belonged to a pony, and another moment for her to realize that this particular pony was the same one that had just been up on the stage next to Rainbow Dash. On the far side of the same crowd that Gilda had found too dense to force her way through. The same crowd that pointedly did not have a path suddenly cleared in it, leaving the griffon wondering how the heck the earth pony had gotten through it. Gilda couldn’t help but scurry backwards as she remembered that Wild Pony was being awarded for fighting off a manticore.
It did not help the griffon’s nerves any when Wild Pony stalked after her. Not like an angry pony at all, but more like a griffon would, or another big, cat-like predator. Literally! The pony stalked like a cat! Hooves all in a line and not making any sound at all (and Gilda could tell, as the crowd had fallen into an eerie hush), and it was freaking Gilda out big time!
The griffon kept backing up nervously, every instinct screaming at her to run, but knowing from hard won experience that turning her back while this close to an apex predator would be a bad thing. And despite the fact that her foe was, at best, half her size, there was no doubt at all in Gilda’s mind that she was facing an apex predator in pony form.
“Whoa whoa whoa! Chill out you two!” Rainbow Dash called out as she dropped between the two, breaking their eye contact. “Wild, I know what Gilda did was uncool, but I think you should let me handle it, okay? Why don’t you go check on Fluttershy?”
“I…” Wild struggled to reign in her anger, then huffed. “Fine. I’ll go find Fluttershy. But she,” the chestnut mare pointed a hoof at Gilda, “had better be ready to apologize to Fluttershy when we get back!” And with that, Wild Pony galloped off in the direction Fluttershy had fled, her hoof beats still eerily much quieter than they should be.
“Whew! Thanks, Dash, I…” Gilda trailed off as she saw her friends irate expression.
“Yeah, you better be thanking me, Gilda!” Rainbow Dash stated angrily. “It’s great to see you again and all, but what you did was seriously uncool and nearly got you a world of hurt! I’ve seen Wild Pony fight! Trust me, you do not want to piss her off!”
O O O
Twilight Sparkle could only gape as the award ceremony suddenly devolved into a confrontation between one of the speakers and some griffon in the back of the crowd. The first pony being awarded, Rainbow Dash, had been in the midst of her own somewhat self-aggrandizing speech, during which she had started waving to somepony named Fluttershy in the back of the crowd that she had ostensibly just spotted. Followed by one of the attending griffons roaring in anger for who knew what reason, and Wild Pony launching herself from the stage and crossing the crowd in a series of impressive bounds.
“Wow, That was awesome…” Spike declared breathlessly as he watched the red maned earth pony finish her series of leaps. Then he seamed to realize something, and rather huffily called out, “HEY! Why don’t you watch who you jump off of!”
All and all, Twilight was surprised that she didn’t have a concussion as the chestnut mare had used her head as one of her leaping platforms, but other than a somewhat forceful shove from above, the unicorn had hardly felt even a fraction of the impact that she should have experienced. If anything, Spike was more upset about it than she was, though he seemed to be equally torn between being outraged and awestruck.
“Oh, Darling, are you all right?” Twilight suddenly found herself being fussed over by a gleaming white unicorn mare with blue eyes and a meticulously styled purple mane and tail.
“I’m fine, really,” the purple unicorn straightened herself out and shook her head lightly. “I’m more surprised than anything else. That felt more like a sudden shove than an impact.”
“Well, even so, she should know better. Still, I can hardly say I’m surprised she leapt to Fluttershy’s defense so readily. The two have practically adopted each other as sisters, the dears…” Then the white mare blinked and shook her head. “Oh, where are my manners? I am Rarity, seamstress, fashion designer, and owner of the Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!”
“Pleased to meet you. I am Twilight Sparkle, the new administrator of the Golden Oaks Library, and this is my number one assistant, Spike!”
“Beautiful…”
Both mares glanced at the young dragon and giggled at his dreamy expression.
O O O
Wild Pony trotted fairly quickly in the direction that Fluttershy had run, keeping an eye on the snow on either side of the cleared street in case the pony she had come to see as a sort of older sister had found a ‘good’ spot to hide. While she had great respect for the pale yellow Pegasus, it wasn’t because of her tactical thinking abilities.
Case in point: One frightened Pegasus with a preference to stay on the ground and hoof tracks leading down the bank from the street to under a sturdy stone bridge.
Sure, it might not be Fluttershy, but Wild Pony checked anyway.
“Hey, Fluttershy, you down there?” the chestnut brown mare called over the railing.
“Umm… yes?” a barely audible but familiar voice squeaked adorably. That was Fluttershy alright. Wild Pony flipped herself over the railing, landing gracefully in the deep snow - where her hooves found the ice covered creek and promptly went in four different directions.
*WHUMP*
“Oh my! Are you alright, Wild Pony?” Fluttershy asked as she tentatively made her way out onto the snow covered ice.
“I’m fine. Nothing hurt besides my dignity. Stupid ice…”
“Oh dear, we can’t have that…” Fluttershy gently helped Wild regain her footing. “After all, it’s such a little thing to get hurt…”
Wild Pony blinked, hardly believing that the mild pony beside her had delivered a zinger like that. Then, just as Fluttershy was having second thoughts and building up the courage to apologize, Wild broke out laughing, causing herself to lose her own footing again.
“Hehe… Good one, Fluttershy. Feeling better?”
“I think so…”
“Wanna go back?”
“Not really, but…”
“But nothing. I already have my medal, and Rainbow has hers. Let’s just head home.”
“Okay…”
O O O
“Um… How much longer do you think it’s going to be before the little monster hunter gets back?” Gilda asked as the crowd surrounding the Town Hall started to thin out.
“I dunno,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “So… Just here for the day, or will you be in town for a while?”
“I was planning on staying for a few days at least, so we could catch up.”
“That’s cool. Got a place to stay yet?”
“Not yet, no.”
“Well, with this many visitors, it’s a safe bet all the hotel rooms, inns, and apartments are booked solid. Why don’t you stay at my place until a vacancy opens up?”
“Really? Even after scaring that mare and all?”
“Hey, if we drove away everypony who ever scared Fluttershy, Ponyville would be a ghost town. Don’t worry about it.”
“What about Wild Pony?”
“Okay, maybe you can worry a little. All the more reason for you to stay at my place though, since she can’t cloud walk…”
Ranma woke up gradually as she felt the body she was snuggled up to gently stirring. Back in Nerima, when she had been human, predominantly male, and had a life full of unwanted complications, this would have been cause for alarm. Now it just meant that Big Sister Fluttershy was also in the process of waking up.
Big Sister…
Ranma, or rather, Wild Pony as she had inadvertently renamed herself while fighting the bat-cat-thing, just lay there for a moment as she wondered at the incongruity of her current situation. Here she was on another world, no longer human in either form, and even further separated from her old life by however long she had been trapped as a statue, and yet she felt closer to her new friends, to Fluttershy, the Apples, and everyone… no, everypony else she had met here than she ever had with anypony else from before except perhaps Uchan. Heck, the Apples and especially Fluttershy felt more like family than her own parents ever did.
Stupid panda…
Wild idly wondered if her father… if anyone… from her old life was even still alive. How long had she been a statue anyway? Three years at least as a minimum, just going from when Fluttershy had first found her in the forest. Before that? Wild vaguely recalled several days going by faster and faster until the cycle of day and night just fused together one gigantic mind-numbing blur. So maybe a month or so, or perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years. There just wasn’t anyway of knowing.
Well, Fluttershy was now attempting to discretely slip out of bed without disturbing her, so Wild cast aside her morning musings, stretched, and yawned before hopping out of bed herself.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Wild” Fluttershy apologized in her normal quiet manner. “I didn’t mean to wake you…”
“Don’t worry about it, Flutterchan. I was already waking up anyway.”
“Oh. Alright.”
Nothing more was said as the two helped each other make the bed before leaving the room. Then, as they entered the hallway, a thought occurred to Fluttershy…
“Flutterchan?”
O O O
Twilight Sparkle looked at her meager checklist, being far more used to a structured schedule, set deadlines, and access to the research resources of both the Royal Palace and the Canterlot Academy for Gifted Unicorns. Back in Canterlot, she had been able to set a personal schedule up to a month in advance without having to worry too much about having to make any adjustments to which classes she would be attending on any particular day.
Unfortunately, being Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, her academy schedule had born little resemblance to those of her fellow students, as her studies had to fit in with the Princess’s itinerary. The final result of which had been a labyrinthine academic record of ever changing classes, semi-independent studies, and seemingly random tests that had ultimately ended up hiding the fact that she had technically exceeded the requirements for graduating (with high honors) slightly more than a year and a half ago.
All that was missing, really, was the ceremony and the diploma, although she had been informed that one would be written up for her just as soon as they tracked down every study course for which she qualified as having completed.
Twilight took some comfort in the fact that she retained her place as Princess Celestia’s personal student, although she had been informed that she was now technically a journeyman mage rather than her previous classification as an apprentice.
This had come as some surprise to Twilight as she hadn’t really given much thought to what her studies were leading her towards as far as her eventual career was concerned.
Although…
Now that she thought about it, she was now a mage, journeyman or otherwise, living in a tree that had a library in it.
Twilight face-hoofed as she realized that she had become a living cliché.
A knock at the door interrupted her train of thought, and Twilight headed for the library’s entrance, grateful for the interruption to her introspection. “Oh, hello, Rarity! What brings you by today? Looking for a good book?”
“Actually, Twilight, I just happened to be passing by your tree on the way to the spa and thought it would be polite to ask if you wanted to come along. My treat!”
“Sure!” Twilight agreed cheerfully, happy for the first time that her schedule for the day was wide open. “Can Spike come along?”
“Certainly, if he wishes to,” Rarity agreed readily. “I’m sure Aloe and Lotus will just adore the little cutie!”
“Spike!” Twilight called out back into the library. “We’ve been invited to go along to the spa with Rarity! Would you like to come along?”
“Sure thing!” the tiny purple dragon replied from upstairs. “I’ll be right down!”
In short order, the group was heading down the street.
O O O
“Now Ranma,” Fluttershy addressed the flopping, vaguely pony-shaped bundle of rope in the back of the apple cart, “you know we’re only doing this because we care for you and want you to make a full recovery, right?”
“Mpsa spa! Grrli! Lmme go!”
“Ah wouldn’t o’ had ta bind ya up lahk a catapiller if’n ya just stayed hog-tied,” Applejack teased the bouncing bundle of rope with the red tail sticking out of it. “And we wouldn’t o’ had ta do that neither if’n ya hadn’t run off the moment Granny reminded ya of yer appointment! Big Mac an’ Ah missed breakfast ‘cause o’ you!”
“Eyup!” the somewhat disgruntled large red stallion agreed as he hauled the cart.
“Srri…”
“Ya better be sorry, Makin’ yer big sister worry about ya like that. Now Ah ain’t inta any o’ that frau frau stuff neither, but if’n it’ll make ya feel better, Ah’ll go in with you an’ Fluttershy, then we c’n git something’ ta eat in town.”
“ky…”
O O O
“Thanks again for letting me hang at your place, Dash,” Gilda commented as she helped clean up after breakfast.
“Not a problem, Gilda,” the polychrome pegasus waved her off as she checked her icebox. “Though if you plan to stay for more than a few days, I might have to ask you to pitch in for supplies. Ponyville has a good stock of general pony staples, what with all three tribes living here, but most of our protein products are plant based.
“Bleh. I’ve tried beans, Dash. I’d rather eat vermin if beans are my only other choice.”
“There are other types of protein producing plants besides beans, Gilda. Knowing you though, I bet you’d like something more challenging. If that’s the case, Ghastly Gorge has a colony of Quarry Eels, if you’re willing to fly that far.”
“Yerg… I think I’d rather try the bean thing again. Or maybe those other plants you were talking about. Quarry Eels may be a good fight, but they taste horrible if they aren’t prepped right. What about regular hunting?”
“Heck if I know. Just check in with the Town Hall and ask there. Even if they say no, you can always look up the township charter and restrict your hunting to past the borders. It’s not like Ponyville has any neighboring towns close by. Just try to avoid hunting anywhere near Fluttershy’s place. She really cares about animals.”
“Gotcha,” Gilda nodded. “Fluttershy… She’s that timid one I made an ass of myself roaring at yesterday, isn’t she? She and that Wild character never did show back up.”
“At least Applejack let us know that Pinkie Pie saw them heading back to Sweet Apple Acres, so we didn’t get stuck waiting out in the cold for them for hours. That would’ve been so uncool.”
“Eh, I was fine with the no-show, actually. Facing down that Wild Pony character was kinda unnerving, if you know what I mean. I don’t mean any disrespect, but I ain’t never seen a pony give off vibes like a freaking apex predator before! For a while there, I thought I was done for!”
“Wild’s… Well, I guess saying that she’s different is fair enough. At least she and Fluttershy are good for each other.” At Gilda’s raised brow, Rainbow Dash continued. “They’ve been sort of like sisters since Wild got out of the hospital. Fluttershy’s the kind and gentle older one, while Wild is the rough and tumble younger one - they kinda balance each other out, y’know?”
“I get ya. So… What‘re we goin‘ to do today?”
“I have an early morning therapy session at the spa. I’m still on minimum flight restriction until my next doctor appointment. Rarity says I should try their full treatment at least once, if only to see if I like it. I’m not sure if I like the idea of someone else filing my hooves though…”
“Is this Rarity pony cool?”
“She offered me a job if I end up losing my place on the local weather team.”
“Eh, cool enough for me, I guess. What kind of job is she offering?”
“Model, actually,” Rainbow admitted hesitantly. “She designs and makes clothes.”
Gilda snerked, barely holding back a giggling fit (and not all that well either). “Hoo… Sorry ‘bout that, Dash. I’m just having trouble seeing you as the type of pony who’s ‘always in fashion.’”
“Yeah, It’s not something I ever saw myself getting into, but she did offer, so I want to at least consider it seriously.”
“I hear ya.”
O O O
Rarity gave her new friend’s outfit a critical eye as they made their way to the spa. It was essentially the same as the ensemble the lavender unicorn had worn the previous day: a scarf with alternating bands of salmon and pink, a cerulean saddle lined with white fleece, and yellow boots. The scarf and the saddle went well enough together, and both would have complimented Twilight‘s lavender coat and purple mane much better if worn separately, but together it just looked a tad amateurish. Like she had simply bought them in a store and never considered the overall effect when taken all together.
The yellow boots weren’t helping the ensemble either, but Rarity supposed that few pony tailors knew enough about cobbling to make more than complimentary dress shoes, if even that much. It certainly wasn’t something she herself had given much thought to, even though she was one of those rare few tailors who had bothered expanding her repertoire of complimentary skills that far. After all, it would be rather presumptuous to try to aspire to become one of Equestria’s Premiere Fashionistas without bothering acquiring the entire minutia of abilities that would enable her to handle anything a complete ensemble might need from head to hoof. Why, she even knew how to craft slippers out of glass and crystal!*
*not that there was much call for hoofwear made from either material, but it was still a handy skill to have available and Rarity didn’t regret having taken the time and effort it took to acquire the ability.**
**At least until some months later, as she was leaving the Grand galloping Galla. Rarity would change her mind again later, once she got over her crushed dreams of a whirlwind romance with Prince Blueblood.
Perhaps a set of paisley or periwinkle boots were in order to tie Twilight’s current ensemble together better. They would certainly make a suitable housewarming gift without unduly embarrassing her new friend.
Now… How to get Twilight in for a fitting without being overly overt about it?
“Twilight, darling…”
“Actually, it’s Sparkle. Twilight Darling is my cousin. Unless you meant our Great Grandmother, whom she was named after…”
“I think she meant the darling as a form of address,” Spike commented dryly from his seat on Twilight’s saddle.
“Oh…” Twilight blushed.
“Tut tut, none of that now,” Rarity gently admonished before noticing Applejack and Fluttershy riding up in a cart being pulled by an impressively large stallion with a red coat and strawberry-blond mane. “Anyway, I’d like to introduce you to some friends of mine before we head into the spa, if you don’t mind?”
“Certainly!” Twilight agreed readily, as this dovetailed nicely with Princess Celestia’s request that she try to make some friends while in Ponyville.
“Hey, Rarity,” Applejack called out as she hopped off of the cart and began helping Big Mac unhitch himself. “Who’s yer new friend?”
“This is Twilight Sparkle, our new resident librarian and archivist. She just moved into the Golden Oak Library yesterday. Twilight, these are Applejack and her brother, Big Mac, of the Apple family. They own and run Sweet Apple Acres just south of Ponyville.”
“Raht pleased t’ meet you!” Applejack stated as she started shaking one of the newcomer’s fore hooves enthusiastically.
“Eyup,” Big Mac agreed in his usual laconic manner.
“Fancy meeting you guys here!” Rainbow Dash called out as she and Gilda glided down for a landing, eliciting a nearly silent squeak of terror from Fluttershy, who had only just then worked up the nerve to peek over the edge of the cart to look at the new pony.
Gilda, for her part, felt an impending sense of doom as she spotted the mare she had vented her temper on the previous day, and looked around franticly for any sign of Wild Pony. Then she became aware of a barely perceptible weight on her back and turned her head to see the mare in question perched there, looming there with the same piercing stare cats sometimes had right before tearing something into a bazillion pieces…
“Um… Before we start anything,” Gilda choked out as she tried not to panic. Or make any sudden movements that might result in spontaneously trigger her imminent messy and painful demise at the hooves of the diminutive pony already within casual striking distance. “I would like to sincerely apologize for yelling at your friend yesterday! I was grumpy and lost my temper when I should have held it, butIwouldn’thavedoneanything! Honest!”
“Wild Pony, leave the poor griffon alone,” Fluttershy admonished her ‘little sister’ mildly. “She said she was sorry, and that’s good enough for me.”
“Okay, okay,” Wild rolled her eyes even as she lightly hopped to the ground.
Applejack checked the back of the cart and saw the rope haphazardly wrapped around a cord of fire logs, complete with an obviously fake ‘tail’ made of dry straw.
“Think it’ll get away, A.J?” Wild quipped as she trotted up next to the cart.
“How? Ergh… Y’know what? Nevermind, Ah reckon th’ explanation would make mah head hurt more’n just not knowin’. Anyways, seein’ as y’ made yer peace with Gilda, How aboy y’ go over and greet Rarity’s new friend?”
“Okay,” Wild agreed readily enough as she approached the new unicorn. “Hello, strange pony I have never met before!” she greeted as she enthusiastically shook Twilight’s other fore-hoof and watched as it too kept shaking for a short while once she let it go.
“Um… Hello to you too, I guess?” Twilight responded as she tried to get her forelimb under control.
“Now now, let’s do this properly dears,” Rarity interjected. “Twilight, Spike, this is Fluttershy, Wild Pony, Rainbow Dash, and… Gilda was it?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” the griffon confirmed distractedly, more than a little bemused at how completely the sense of dread she had been feeling just moments ago had just vanished.
“Everypony,” Rarity continued, “I am quite pleased to introduce Twilight Sparkle, our new resident librarian and archivist, and her assistant, Spike the Dragon.”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Fluttershy let out an enthusiastic squeal as she inadvertently bowled over Twilight, Rarity, and Wild pony in her eagerness to get to the source of her excitement. “A baby dragon! How wonderful! And you talk too!”
“Don’t mind us,” a chestnut hoof poked out of the pile of ponies behind Fluttershy. “We’re okay.”
“Speak for yourself, Wild. Although I don’t seem to have suffered any injuries other than to my dignity. Are you alright, Twilight?”
“I think so…”
“Then do you think you can get off of me, so I can get off of Wild? She is still recovering from her altercation with theaaAAAAAAGH!” Rarity’s request was interrupted when she found herself flung into a nearby snow bank.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Wild! I didn’t mean to knock you over!” Fluttershy fussed over her ’little sister.’ “Much less leave you under a pile… of…eep!”
“I’m fine,” Rarity called out from her pony shaped hole in the snow.
“I okay too,” Twilight put in as she woozily emerged from her own pony shaped impact crater next to Rarity’s.
“Huh… I wonder if the spa can handle us all…” Rainbow commented, correctly concluding that they had all arrived here for the same purpose.
“Of course they can,” Rarity assured everypony. “Lotus Blossom and Aloe have handled even larger groups than this by themselves easily, and they at least should be on hand. I’ll just pay the group rate for the full treatment for all of us and we’ll let them take their time.”
“Hold on now,” Applejack protested. “We were already set to pay our own way for Wild and us…”
“Tut tut,” Rarity interrupted. “It’ll be cheaper and far more convenient for them to handle us as a single group. Rainbow, you and your friend are invited too, of course.”
“Thanks!” Rainbow piped in cheerfully.
“Yeah, what she said,” Gilda agreed in an off-talon manner.
“Well then, Ah suppose we c’n invaht y’all t’ brunch afterwards,” Applejack insisted. “Hayburgers okay with everypony?”
“Could we try Barley’s Diner* instead?” Rainbow Dash asked. “They serve to a mixed diet, and are about the same price range as Hayburgers.”
*Barley's Diner, more properly known as Barley's Diner and Delicatessen, is a small, family run business located just off of Market Square in Ponyville. Not too far from the Hayburger, actually. It is owned by Barley of course, although he is now semi-retired and his three grandchildren, Oats, Hops, and Rye pretty much run the place currently. While not exactly as fast nor as cheep as Hayburger, Barley's Diner has the distinction of being one of the few places in Ponyville capable of serving to the dietary needs of every resident and most visitors.
Barley even distributes a few local brews. Most notably Zapapplejack Whiskey** and Barley's Own.
**Granny Smith has assured Applejack several times that neither she, nor Zapapplejack Whiskey, were named after the other.
Applejack glanced at Gilda and realized that Rainbow was making a reasonable request. “Ah reckon y’ got a point there, Dash. Barley’s it is then, unless anypony has any objections?”
Seeing that there were no further objections, the group entered Lotus Blossom & Aloe’s Spa…
O O O
Lotus Blossom poured more water over the heated rocks as the large party arranged themselves on the wooden benches of the sauna. At nine members, the group was almost too large for the room. Sure, the dragon being about colt size balanced out either the huge stallion or the griffon, but even so the patrons barely had enough room to settle themselves comfortably.
As good and generous a customer as Rarity was, perhaps it was time to have a discrete discussion about appropriate party sizes and compositions for future sessions. Fortunately, all of the spa’s staff had decided to at least show up for the morning shift out of a desire to meet either Wild Pony or Rainbow Dash, both of whom actually having had scheduled appointments before they had gotten subsumed by Rarity’s hospitality.
Speaking of which. “Excuse me. Miss Rainbow Dash?”
“That’s me!”
“Feather Light will be handling your wing preening later due to your recent injuries. Is that okay, or would you rather either Aloe or I to take care of your wings?”
“Nah, that’s okay,” Dash waved off the question, unconcerned. “I’m fine with whoever you pick.”
“Very good,” Lotus nodded happily before turning her head towards the red maned chestnut mare in the group. “And you are Miss Wild Pony, no?”
“I am Wild Pony, yes,” came the cheeky reply, earning Wild a mild nudge in the side from Applejack.
“Aloe will be personally attending you during you during most of your first visit with us, and will be making frequent cross-references with the medical file Ponyville General Hospital sent us so we can properly gauge your rate of recovery. I am given to understand that, due to your unusual healing rate, the hospital would appreciate feedback on this matter. It is unusual, but not unheard of, for the Hospital to request feedback from us once a patient has left their care, but ultimately the decision to permit us to do so is yours.”
“Sure, go ahead. I’m fine with it.”
“Very good! I’ll have a form prepared for you to sign later.”
After their attendant left, Applejack addressed Wild Pony, “Y’ had best read whatever paperwork yer given before y’ sign anythin’, Wild.”
“Oh my, you don’t think that…” Fluttershy started before trailing off.
“Nah, Ah reckon Aloe and Lotus Blossom are fair dealers, seein’ as y’ ‘n’ Rarity are regular customers an’ all. It’s the ponies that run th’ administration end o' Ponyville General that Ah don’t trust. We Apples have been burned more'n a few times over th’ years because we didn’t read th’ fine print they gave us.”
“Eyup!”
“A fair point,” Rarity agreed, although this was the first time she had head of such a problem stemming from the hospital. “I’ll help Rainbow Dash go over the paperwork she’s already done to make sure everything is on the up and up.”
“Um, Applejack?”
“Yes, Twahlaht?”
“If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to go over the records of the Apple family’s dealings with the local hospital.”
“That’s nice an’ all, but why would y’ want t’ do somethin’ lahk that?”
“Well, being that I’m a journeyman mage assigned a billet in Ponyville, as well as being the resident librarian and archivist, I’m technically part of the local government. If there’s a problem, I can call for a review board to go over their practices and policies.”
“Why Twilight, I didn’t know you were a mage!” Rarity perked up. Sure, she knew that her new friend had a government job, what with her becoming the resident librarian and archivist, but those were both fairly minor positions. Not something prestigious like being a registered mage! Not that Rarity had decided to befriend Twilight for such superficial reasons as social climbing, as she hadn’t known any of this at the time, but serendipity was serendipity!
“Ah, don’t let her modesty fool you,” Spike piped up proudly. “Twilight Sparkle is Princess Celestia’s personal student!”
“SHE IS?” Rarity exclaimed, just before fainting with a silly grin on her face.
“SPIKE!”
“Oops…”
“Now, don’t y’ fret none about Rarity,” Applejack assured Twilight. “She was already yer friend before she knew any o’ that, an’ she’s a good friend t’ have, despite her aspirations.”
“Well, Celestia did want me to try to make some friends while I was in Ponyville…” Twilight admitted, rubbing her right hoof against her upper left foreleg.
“Well, shoot Twahlaht! Ah reckon y’ aint got any problems there! Why Ah bet that not one of us in this room wouldn’t lahk to be yer friend, Princess Celestia or no.”
“Eyup!” Big Mac nodded briefly.
“Sure thing!” Rainbow Dash agreed readily.
“Ah, whatever,” Gilda put her two bits in. “If Dash is your friend, then I am too, got it?”
“I’d like to be your friend…” Fluttershy added quietly, “if you don’t mind, that is…”
“What Big sis means is that it’s unanimous!” Wild piped up
Twilight Sparkle could hardly contain herself for the rest of the session. This was turning out to be one of the best days ever!
“So let me get this straight,” Nabiki spoke as she glanced over the page Happosai had given her. “You sent Ranma to some place called ‘The Everfree’ something or other, a mystical land where clothing is supposedly entirely optional, which may or may not be in another world, and he lost the instructions on how to return. Even though you sent him over there while he was sleeping, without bothering to tell either him or anyone else what you were doing.”
“Okay, okay,” the diminutive old man grumbled. “when you say it like that, I guess I can’t really blame Ranma too much for being irresponsible enough to lose the instructions.”
“That you so thoughtfully tucked loosely into his pocket without waking him up,” Nabiki commented as she neatly folded and refolded the paper until it was roughly the size of an index card.
“Exactly! He’s the irresponsible one for losing it in the first place!”
“The mind boggles…” Nabiki pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration as she used her other hand to discretely tuck the note down the front of her sleeveless blouse and into something she normally considered to be just a bit more secure than a pocket. “And now you want to send me after him. By myself. Unprotected.”
“How dangerous can the place be if they don’t wear clothes all that often?” Happosai countered.
“Oh, I don’t know. Ranma hasn’t returned, or even contacted us, after four days. Sounds plenty iffy to me.”
“Take your camera! I bet you’ll make tons of money from the pictures you’d be able to sell!”
“Well, there is that,” Nabiki admitted, pulling her camera out of her desk drawer and checking the film counter before setting it and a couple of extra rolls of film on top of her desk. “I still want a bodyguard or some way to defend myself before I agree to be sent over. I am out of practice after all.”
“Okay, fine,” Happosai grumbled as he reached into his shirt and pulled something out, tossing it to Nabiki.
The skeptical girl caught the object easily and started examining it. Whatever it was, it was made of stone, attached to a leather cord, and was mostly feline shaped. “It’s a cat. With boobs. And a sort of human face.” The eyes of which appeared to be made from some sort of green gems. Not that Nabiki said anything about those. “What’s this supposed to do?” Nabiki asked dubiously. “Trigger Kitty-Boy’s Nekoken?”
“Of course not!” Happosai huffed in irritation. “It’s an Amulet of the Guardian. Hold it tight whenever you’re in trouble and a sphinx is supposed to appear to guide you away from danger. I‘ve never been in enough danger to be able to trigger the darn thing myself of course,” he grumbled. “I’m just too damn good at defending myself to ever really need it. Ranma would also probably have some difficulty activating it, as skilled as he is. But it should be just the thing for someone like you.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so. How about you get out of my room and find another patsy?” Nabiki waved a hand towards the door in a shooing motion, not bothering to hand back the talisman. Happosai had probably stolen the thing, and there might be a reward for returning it. Or it could prove valuable in its own right. Just how valuable depended on whether or not it was fake or authentic, and if it actually was enchanted.
“Who said anything about your having any choice?” Happosai narrowed his eyes dangerously as he nudged the door shut. “Like it or not, you, Nabiki Tendo, are my best shot at either getting my heir back, or at least confirming what’s on the other side. So I’m sending you over now, before you cause any trouble!” The light in Nabiki’s room somehow got dimmer even though neither of them had touched the switch, and Nabiki could swear that she could just barely perceive a sort of negative aura seeming to boil off of the tiny old man.
“Wait, what? You can’t!” Nabiki made a dash for her door, only to end up being poked in a few seemingly random spots as she attempted to dodge past him. “What… did… you… do?” she gasped weakly as the old man casually redirected her momentum so that she fell limply across her own bed.
“Oh, nothing too serious,” Hopposai commented as he nonchalantly twirled the bra and panties he had just acquired for a moment, before tucking them into his shirt and pulling out a scroll. “Not even enough to trigger the talisman I gave you. Just a few pressure points to keep you complacent enough while I read the incantation. It’ll wear off shortly, but by that time, you’ll already be there.”
“You’ll… never… get… away… with… this…” Nabiki struggled to get her body to do more than twitch here and there as Happosai read words aloud that she could only hear and promptly forget. Just barely, her left hand managed to close completely around the tiny stone sphinx as her room began to fade out of view.
The last words she heard from Happosai before he and the world around him disappeared into formless mist was: “I already have, Nabiki. I already have…”
O O O
“Ugh…” Rarity groaned as she sat back upright. “I would like to apologize, Twilight, for any implication I may have given you just now that my previous offer of friendship may have been based on anything so shallow as social climbing. Please forgive me.”
“We already done covered that for ya, Sugarcube,” Applejack piped up. “We all know yer hearts in th’ raht place, even if’n y’ have aspirations.”
“Yeah, Rarity,” Spike assured her. “They were just telling Twilight and I how you’re helping Rainbow Dash with her upcoming court date in Canterlot.”
“Not to mention your offer of helping me start out as a model if I end up losing my job,” the chromatic pegasus added. “That’s all kinds of awesome right there!”
“Speaking of which,” Twilight interjected, “Would you mind if I contacted Princess Celestia and asked her for permission to loan you the use of my suite in Canterlot? If she says yes, then that should save you two a lot of bits. Especially since you’re planning on being there for a week or so before your court date.”
“Hehbehbehbehbeh… Ow!” Rarity glared at Rainbow Dash, who had flicked her with a hoof to restart her cognitive functions. Then she turned her attention to Twilight with a grateful smile. “Why that would be delightful! Do let me know her response when it comes, would you?”
“I can ask right now,” Twilight replied cheerfully. “Spike-”
“You mean you can ask once we’re out of the sauna,” Spike interrupted Twilight with half-lidded eyes. “I can’t write anything in a room full of steam.”
“Oh, right, haha…” Twilight winced ruefully.
“Eh,” the little dragon shrugged. “The steams not really doing anything for me anyway. I may as well go out, dry off, and get a quill and scroll ready.”
“Thank you, Spike,” Twilight smiled as Spike headed for the sauna’s door.
Unfortunately, Lotus Blossom tripped over Spike as she came through the door in the other direction with a pitcher of water.
Wild Apple watched in horrified fascination as a once familiar scenario played out. Said scenario being a chain of barely plausible events involving big Mac stumbling as he caught Lotus Blossom, somehow causing the water that was already being heated by the hot rocks to launch into the air and onto her.
Twilight Sparkle gaped as the petite, red maned mare, swiftly expanded into a giant of a stallion with raven-black mane and tail. Almost absently, she noted that he was easily taller than Princess Celestia (horn included!) and that his sudden increase in mass had caused the bench to collapse under him (and the ponies on either side to slid into him).
“That was amazing! How did you do that!? Tell me! I want to know everything-OW! SPIKE!”
Spike just cocked a brow as he readied the wet towel he had snapped at Twilight for use once more if need be. “You could try giving him a moment to recover and gather his thoughts first before you bombard him with questions,” he suggested.
“Oh. Right,” Twilight winced sheepishly.
Um… Thanks?” Wild Apple was a bit confused about how well everypony had been taking his curse so far. Especially when only Uchan had any sort of positive response to discovering it during his previous life. The excessive size difference was going to get old fast though. Especially if he kept breaking things as a horse.
O O O
Hapossai shrugged as he turned and left Nabiki’s room. While it had sounded cool, last minute gloating just wasn’t as fun if you weren’t sure the other person even heard you gloating.
He idly wondered if Nabiki would manage to trigger the talisman to summon the cat-lady guardian spirit he had found out about shortly before deciding to… liberate… it into his possession all those years ago. As he had told the girl, he was just too damn good at defending himself to be able to trigger the darn thing himself under most circumstances, and the few times when it might have worked despite his being a martial arts grandmaster, he hadn’t had it with him.
He never did notice the folded up sheet of paper, about the size of an index card, that had fallen to the floor as he had stolen Nabiki’s undergarments.
In fact, it wouldn’t be until several hours later before the eldest Tendo sister, Kasumi, found it still laying there as she entered the room to put away Nabiki’s laundry.
“Oh? What’s this?” she wondered out loud as she picked it up and unfolded it. If it was one of Nabiki’s homework assignments, she’d tuck it into the appropriate book. If it was something she felt that Nabiki was better off not getting into, she’d simply dispose of it discretely. Seeing that the paper was covered in Happosai’s illegible chicken-scratch handwriting, her decision was easy. “Into the burn pile with you!”
Shortly thereafter, the paper met it’s fate in one of Soun Tendo’s ashtrays.
Nabiki herself wasn’t missed by anyone until she failed to show up for dinner that evening.
O O O
Wild Apple, with the aid of a pitcher and kettle of water supplied by the spa’s staff, explained the peculiarities of Jusenkyo and the effect that the Nyanniicuan had on him. He once again neglected to tell anypony that he (and she) used to be human, as there was still no apparent way to prove such a claim. Although it was looking more and more unlikely that it would really be an issue if it ever came out.
“Wow…” Twilight pondered over what she had been told. “So you’re original form was male, right?”
“Yes,” Wild replied, although she was once again female because nothing in the spa could support her weight as a stallion. She was somewhat bemused by how readily everypony accepted that she had originally been male and could now change back and forth with (relative) ease.
“I take it that your male form used to be much smaller than it currently is?”
“Yeah,” Wild admitted as she gave it some thought. “Probably just under Big Mac’s mass, as a rough estimate. And the size difference between both forms changed somehow, shortly before I turned to stone. Now I get even smaller for some reason.”
“Well, I could ask Princess Celestia to look into it if you want,” Twilight offered.
Wild was about to respond when Spike coughed up a scroll.
“Oh! This must be Princess Celestia’s response to the letter we sent earlier!” Twilight grabbed the scroll with her aura and unfurled it.
“Dear Twilight,
“I would be delighted to host Rainbow Dash and Rarity in a guest suite for the duration of their stay in Canterlot. It gladdens my heart to hear that you have already made several friends, even in so brief a time. I am especially looking forward to meeting Rainbow Dash and Wild Pony Apple, and would also like to meet the ponies that took them in and supported them in their difficulties. Enclosed, you will find a voucher reserving a round trip in such a car for private use on the Friendship Express. Please extend further invitations as appropriate, but do not exceed the capacity provided by a single passenger car.
“Your Mentor, “Princess Celestia.”
“Y’ reckon she means Granny Smith and Apple Bloom too?” Applejack asked.
Wild Apple merely checked ‘small trip inexplicably becoming larger’ off of her mental checklist and hoped that this one would turn out to be one of the better ones.
O O O
“It sure is nice of the Princess to offer us a place to stay for the weekend,” Rainbow Dash commented as she settled into the green cushioned passenger bench across from Rarity. The train car was somewhat crowded, as several ponies and Gilda had wanted to come along, but Twilight Sparkle had managed to keep the number of guests to within the requested limits by running the growing list of hopefuls past Applejack and Rarity (she had originally intended to use Ranbow Dash and Wild Apple for this, but neither one proved to be much of a filter, so they were both replaced).
“In deed it is,” Rarity agreed readily before sighing.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, I’ve always dreamed of visiting Canterlot and seeing the sights, perhaps rubbing shoulders with the high society and making a big impression, but the time was never right. Big orders would come up, my assets would be tied up, or Mother and Father would saddle me with foal-sitting Sweetie Bell again as they ran off to do whatever it is that they do on their trips. Much like thiy did this time, actually. I’m glad I could bring her along, and that she has some fillies her own age to play with on this trip.”
Sweetie Belle was currently sitting happily with Applebloom and Dinky Doo as Pinkie Pie entertained them.
“Yeah… I see where you’re coming from. I guess this isn’t exactly the way you thought your visit would happen, is it?”
“Certainly not. Don’t get me wrong, of course - I’m always glad to help out a dear friend.”
“You do realize that before Wild and I ended up in the hospital, we barely knew each other, right?”
“Yes, yes, of course. And that was mostly through Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Still, I like to think that we hit it off.”
“I guess we did, didn’t we? Y’know what, we a week or so. After we get settled in, why don’t we see some of those sights and shoulder-check some of those high society types.”
“Oooh! Can we?” Rarity was practically beside herself before a thought occurred to her. “Wait… What do you mean by ‘shoulder-check’?”
“I wanna shoulder-check high society types too!” Wild Apple piped up as she leaned over the back of Rainbow Dash’s seat. “Sounds like fun!”
“Please don’t do that,” Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting with Spike across from Wild Apple, asked as she placed a hoof to her face.
O O O
Nabiki ran for all her worth, ignoring both the bitter cold of the deep snow and the effects of branches and thorns on her poor abused bare skin as she bobbed and weaved through the narrowest gaps she could find between the rocks and trees of this monstrous forest Happosai had sent her to.
She knew that she had been right in second-guessing his proposition. Just go through the portal with the instructions on how to return, fetch Ranma, and take as many pictures of the pretty pretty barely clad locals as she wanted, to either sell or blackmail Ranma with. It had seemed way too good to be true, and her gut feeling had been to try to back out of the deal, but the old pervert had sent her through anyway! He even stole her bra and panties in the process while he was at it.
The very first thing that had gone wrong upon arrival (other than the fact that she had effectively been banished into another world in the first place) was finding out that it was apparently in the middle of winter wherever she had ended up. And she was only wearing shorts and a sleeveless top. Checking for the note so she could send herself right back to her nice warm room proved to be fruitless, as it was missing. Not that it wouldn’t have taken Nabiki a good long while to read Happosai’s chicken-scratch handwriting anyway, but as far as she knew, it had been her only ticket home. And then some badly scarred lion-thing with bat wings and a scorpion tail had started chasing her.
Fortunately, its injuries were slowing it down enough to allow Nabiki to stay ahead of it, if only just barely.
Unfortunately, the threat was more than sufficient to trigger the amulet that Happosai had given her for her protection. This was bad because said protection took the form of turning her into a wingless sphinx, which really did a number on her remaining clothes. On the other hand, she was no longer freezing and she was much faster now.
A bit clumsy, perhaps, but definitely faster as she loped forward in an awkward series of four legged bounds. Annoyingly enough, on top of everything else, her now bare boobs jiggled and bounced painfully between her forelegs, brushing against the deep snow and the occasionally thorny underbrush that it lay hidden beneath its cold, powdery surface.
“Dammit!” Nabiki cursed as she burst out of the underbrush and into an open field overlooking rolling hills and no further cover to be seen, the sounds of the monster crashing through the same underbrush no where near far enough behind her. “Dammitdammitdammitdammit!”
She sprinted across the field and down the hill for all she was worth, hoping to gain a little distance between her and the beast before it broke out of the forest as well.
She ran…
She tripped…
She rolled over in a panic, expecting her very last sight to be the gaping jaws of the beast closing over her head.
Except that never happened.
Instead, the heavily scarred manticore paced back and forth at the edge of the tree line, pacing back and forth at it looked about, but refusing to come out of the forest. Every now and then it would look at her in confusion, but never for very long. Eventually, it apparently gave up and wandered back into the forest.
Nabiki was safe…
And she finally collapsed, physically and emotionally exhausted, her bare and tender bosom heaving in the frigid air…
