To save one’s butt is an expression for something good and noble. Only this time, there may be more to it, and the desire, the urge for something different. A gift and a transfer, aside from a different change in order to blend in.
I just recently started to write stories directly towards the FiM actively, though I have been writing for years, publishing numerous stories at Mibba and the eventual pony story, as far as to the MLP