Silver Soul

Chapters

Stand Up, Scrawny Pony
The Silver Mane Character Appears!
Brilliant Ball of Flames
Just Because You Can Write And Post A Story Doesn't Mean You Should
Race To The Bottom
Why Is It That Your First Impression Of Someone Is Sometimes Completely Different From Who They Really Are?

Stand Up, Scrawny Pony

Chapter 1

Scrawny. Lanky. Small. Gangly.

Pipsqueak had been called all of that and more since he was a foal. Which was exactly the reason why ever since becoming a colt, he'd started going by the name “Pip” instead. That had been a bit easier to do since moving out of Ponyville a few years ago. Though despite his change in moniker, that didn't change the fact that he was slightly smaller than the average male at his age.

None of that mattered however, he thought. He'd make up for his lack in size with tenacity; with spirit.

“ROOKIE, YOU LITTLE BRAT!”

Unfortunately his eagerness to prove himself didn't endear him much to his superior.

While the younger brown and white pony began to struggle to keep standing still on his thin frame, fighting against the lactic burning that had been growing in his legs, the fifteen minutes of lecturing had apparently no effect on the larger, more muscled stallion pacing about before him.

“There used to be a time when ponies learned what it was like to take responsibility and do what was expected of them! When colts became stallions! Not because they wanted to...because they HAD to! But what do I find you doing? Trying to make excuses...of all the nerve...” the stallion muttered a few more things under his breath before continuing.

“I'd start callin' you a filly from now on if that didn't simply insult all the girls in the world that are tougher than you!”

It wasn't the first time the gritty-looking stallion, whose age began to gray what seemed to have once been an orange-hued mane, deigned himself a taskmaster that needed to scream and holler whatever it was that was bothering him that day. Be it something he read in the paper to a stubbed hoof. Today was a more pointed criticism of Pip's attempt to take down a serial burglar. Whether the result of breaking the sting or the subsequent chase ended in failure wasn't important, Pip thought. His intent was at least a good start, wasn't it?

There had certainly been a number of instances that Pipsqueak would be remiss to disregard the seriousness of his past mistakes. Losing the trail of a purse snatcher; accidentally breaking a shopkeeper's expensive vase; refusing to pitch an extra twenty bits to his superior so the stallion could have some “quality time” while the white-and-brown recruit had to wait awkwardly in front of a “massage parlor”.

That had Pipsqueak's first mission since enlisting.

It was a sting operation that required some undercover work, and it was up to the then-rookie Pipsqueak to be on the lookout for anyone suspicious while his superior gathered information. Well, actually now that he had time thinking about—while ignoring the cussing out currently in progress—that last one seemed a bit of a stretch...

But otherwise, there was never a time that Pip could be beaten in amount of effort to succeed. Since of course, the department of the Trottingham town watch included just him and his sergeant.

“And another thing! Where the hell is that medicine I asked you to get? It's a matter of national security that that medicine is delivered to my office by the end of today, do you understand me!?”

Pipsqueak sighed, wondering when it was ever “important to the defense of the country” to fetch the sergeant's hemorrhoid medicine. The teenaged pony let out another slow tempered exhale through his nostrils at the thought.

“Don't sigh like that, rookie!” the grizzly-looking earth pony dressed in mismatching armor admonished.

Pipsqueak's eye twitched at the name. It had already been a year since he joined the town watch, after becoming of age to serve, so there was no point to still call him a “rookie”, was there?

“Sorry sir...” Pipsqueak replied with half the enthusiasm of a foal wanting to do his chores before being able to go play with his friends.

“Tsk...” the sergeant bared his large incisors, worn and slightly crooked from time into a scowl. Glancing at his superior, Pipsqueak couldn't help but notice a garish-looking piece of parsley stuck in the gap of his teeth. “I don't like that attitude, rookie! Give me...agh...” before finishing his order, the pony rushed out of the room, leaving the only other member of the town watch to stand at attention. “S-stay there until I'm finished with this urgent...urg...business!”

“Yeah, yeah...” came a tired reply as the younger pony rolled his eyes. “He should really lay off the spicy food...” Pipsqueak felt like reciting his usually internalized mantra out loud would somehow break him out of this repetitive cycle.

Unwilling to look about the understaffed ('Why are there so many chairs in this room for anyway? There was only the two of us most of the time'), underfunded ('that calendar on the moldy wall over there is at least five years out of date'), under-appreciated ('nopony even realizes there's a town watch in this part of Trottingham') station around him, Pip's attention turned toward more idle thoughts.

While being to place of his birth, Pip never really considered it his “hometown”. No, that honor would have to go to another place in Equestria he had moved to when he was just a foal. Despite being smaller and a bit more rural, Ponyville was the place of his childhood. Where his friends were...until it became too dangerous to stay there a few years ago and he and his parents moved back to Trottingham. Just looking out the grimy windows of the town watch station would fail to show any signs of the fact that it was no less than a decade ago that a war ravaged all through Equestria.

A country of nearly unlimited space that was once a peaceful home to pegasi, unicorn and earth pony, Equestria was now a mess of vying areas that had been invaded by and dominated by foreigners.

Foreigners, who were so unlike the ponies that made use of the land, as well as both the magical and mundane wildlife and other creatures that had settled throughout the country.

With their technology, the foreigners made short work of the army and very quickly changed the landscape. Glass paneled skyscrapers of incredible heights; roads paved and grasslands and other woods developed, pushing back nature as though it were simply an irritant. What had once been the great cities of Manehattan, Stalliongrad, Trottingham, Fillydelphia and Canterlot were now just hubs within a great expanse of city. What could only now be called the megalopolis of Equestria.

But that wasn't the end. Not only had Equestria changed physically in practically every way, but the very spirit of Equestria had changed into something unrecognizable.

The disappearance of the Princesses Celestia and Luna was a shame that many ponies still to this day haven't fully accepted.

Initially terrifying was the behavior of the moon and sun, each setting and rising of its own accord without the control of the princesses or any unicorns. As though they each had a life of their own, much like the Everfree Forest. And even when unicorns had tried to take control of the celestial bodies, their magic, even when combined in great numbers, had no effect whatsoever on the pace or schedule of the day and night.

In an effort to reconcile such a traumatic event, ponies found it comforting to think of their princesses to have become the sun and moon respectfully. While their direct presence was and is sorely missed, there was a sort of false sense of security to attribute the astral bodies as their princesses. As for Pip like many ponies who had met Princess Luna or Celestia, found it a bit difficult to adapt in such a superficial way.

The scream-like creak of the wooden boards broke Pip out of his contemplations and signaled his dear sergeant's return.

“Anyways...back to where I left off...” Pip watched the stallion continue trotting up to him until they were not even an inch apart from touching snouts. “Your failure to solve these kidnappings is bringing a negative outlook onto my record, rookie.”

'Kidnappings? What happened to burglaries?' Pip clenched his jaw tight as he felt the other pony's breath uncomfortably close to his face. “Well how do you expect me to be able to solve a case like that if you never trained me in the first place?” the smaller pony snapped, causing the sergeant to falter backwards in surprise at the outburst.

A moment of quiet accompanied how unprepared the grayish-orange pony was for Pip's strong response before he resettled into a gruff demeanor. “Watch your lip, boy! That's the sort of things only rookies complain about!” He bobbed his head once like a toy balancing atop a slinky as he felt reassured in getting his groove back. “If you took some initiative, I wouldn't be on your case like this! Besides, what do you think I've been doing this past year, huh? Haven't I been taking you on missions? Showing you everything you need to know about keeping the peace?”

The parsley was brought to the center of Pipsqueak's attention once more.

“If I had half a mind I'd back-hoof you to show you your place! But you're lucky about the laws in place that prevent me from doing that! Since upholding the law is our primary function as town guard! What's more I-”

“Oh, is that so, Sarge!?” Pip exploded in an irrational rage. “Well if you had half a mind, you'd realize that those things you taught me about 'keeping the peace' was just looking out for anypony who saw you walk into brothels! Oh, I know exactly what those 'massage parlors' are`!”

The excitement from seeing the look of despair on the bigger pony's face was palpable. There was something today that was pushing Pip to finally let out what he had been bottling up for the past year and a half of being part of the town watch and admiring the-now trembling sergeant as an idol. Was it the frustration of his work being unappreciated? Was it the endless days of doing shopping runs? Was it that damn parsley that somehow still wasn't noticed? Right now, no single reason was sufficient.

“And another thing!” Pip felt empowered by his new-found confidence and even jabbed his hoof against the more muscled pony's copper breastplate. “Even when I did bring in lawbreakers you just let them go! The shoplifter from last week! That pickpocket two months ago! Even that crazy pony that dipped his tongue into jars of jelly and resealed them! I. CAN'T. TAKE. IT. ANYMORE.”

He said it. Pip finally said it and he did what he couldn't imagine doing in a while. He smiled. He flashed his own teeth toward the sergeant, who by now was too disturbed by the quiet rookie's sudden change in personality to say anything much less try to reassert any sort of authority.

By this point Pip had run out of things to say. Even if he could say more, there was nothing he wanted to say anymore. The brown and white pony backed off now and took a deep breath while smiling. Without any further hesitation, Pip reached to the band of cloth wrapped around his left leg and took it off, placing it into the stallion's hoof. That band of cloth that supposedly marked him as a member of the town guard. That band of cloth that, when Pip had ordered ponies to halt in their criminal acts, had to be explained since nopony believed him.

But that didn't matter. Not now. Pipsqueak turned toward the door of the station and walked out, not embarrassed in the least by the creaks and squeals from the poorly maintained floor boards from ever step he took toward freedom. Not once was he stopped from his walk to the other side of the room, opening the door and closing it behind him.

Looking around the City of Trottingham as a civilian once again, Pip marveled at how nopony not so much as noticed the hop in his step. Ignoring such strange behavior was the norm amongst the Trottinghamites that were too preoccupied with their own busy lives.

The raucous of cars, music and pedestrian traffic buffeted Pip who was so used to the nothing inside the Town watch station. The television advertisements on the electronic billboards high above and clamored for attention of everypony below them.

All of this cacophony of alien sights and sounds was made possible only by the technology brought by those foreigners known as Humans.

Joining the unforgiving sea of ponies and humans to head home, Pip was knocked to the ground from behind. 'I'm being mugged!?' the pony grimaced at the thought. Twisting his body to meet his attack head on, the ex-town watch found himself being confronted by a gray coated unicorn filly.

A filly with teary eyes and a panicked look in her face.

“Please!” The girl pleaded. “You have to help me!” Close to hyperventilation, the unicorn's breaths were ragged and quick and the quick movement of her wide eyes accelerated while waiting for Pip to respond. “It's an emergency! You've gotta help!”

Fortunately, on one of his many “training missions” early on in his town watch career, Pip had already been a victim of such a tactic. While it had involved a number a foals that time asking for him to play with them, Pip was sure that this was also a scheme meant to relieve him of his wallet. Using a pretty young unicorn like this one was probably the more effective strategy at this point, since he simply wasn't in the mood to deal with children at the moment. Her blonde mane and tail, the large pink bow that accentuated the contrast with her gray coat, the fragile signals of her trembling frame that just asked to be protected from harm.

“H-hey! Aren't you going to help?” But Pip had to commend the filly for her acting. He was quite moved and persuaded by her panic. Her teary pitiable eyes, after looking into his skeptical and distracted gaze for a moment, suddenly arched down from the force of her furrowed eyebrows. “HEY, BUDDY! I SAID I NEED HELP HERE!” Without warning the filly grasped his shoulders with her front hooves and shook him about with more force than could be expected from such a small pony. “Did you hit your head when you fell? Come on, work with me here!”

'Wait a minute! That demanding tone, the brash attitude toward others...that starry cutie mark...no...it couldn't be...'

Pip pulled himself out of the angered filly's hold with his own hooves and shook the dizziness out of head, ignoring the stares of the passers-by who were curious with the strange events before them.

With a gulp, Pip stared back at the amber eyes of the crazed unicorn. “...Dinky?”

The Silver Mane Character Appears!

Chapter 2

“Wha? H-how do you...?” The unicorn stuttered from Pip's question. In a flash, a four hoof gap appeared between the two ponies and the filly twirled the end of her blonde mane around her forehoof with a speed that a professional baseball player would be enviable of. “Listen, you're cute and all...b-but that doesn't mean that I appreciate being stalked...”

Her amber eyes pointed toward the space of sidewalk between them as though it were responsible for this sudden turn of events.

Seeing how there was a misunderstanding, Pip tried to explain that he wasn't a stalker. “Excuse me, but I'm no-”

“Well, unless you're like...the kind of stalker that buys tons of fancy gifts like food and stuff and not the kind that wants to stuff and mount me on some pedestal in his mom's basement...”

“Excus-”

“...unless you know, your mom's a celebrity or something...”

“Alright, this is getting ridicul-”

“...that could be kinda cool but I'd rather that if you had to kill somepony to satiate your needs that you kill my one friend who isn't really a 'friend' per se but-”

“SHUT UP ALREADY!”

“Huh?” She stopped and looked quietly at Pip for the first time in a full minute.

“Like I've been tring to say...” he cleared his throat before continuing, “Excuse me, but...what in the hay are you talking about?” Pip wondered where the girl's sense of panic from earlier had gone. But more importantly, at this point he was also unsure if he mistook this unicorn shifting uncomfortably on her haunches where she sat for a friend of his. The Dinky he knew was energetic, sure, but far from the spastic excitement that this filly seemed to be displaying.

Her mouth was open wide and her eyes were wider as a full flush of red began to appear on her face under her gray coat. Unable to sustain eye contact with the colt, her eyes cast downwards again as her hoof pawed at an arbitrary part of the sidewalk. “Uh...er...you...that is...” she now started to sound out, obviously looking for the right way to restart the whole affair without admitting the need to do so.

Pip took a steady breath in and out, waiting a bit after the girl's stammers had stopped before saying anything. Instinct immediately took hold as he tried to make sense of this strange and awk-weird situation.

“Do you want to lay down to catch your breath, miss?” He began with a question to settle the pony down a bit.

The unicorn slowly shook her head in response.

“Do you want to sit down then? Get a drink of water?”

After a moment of quiet contemplation, the filly nodded.

It was important when figuring out the situation of an emergency call to bring the distraught pony or person to a reasonable calm. Not only would it allow for a better chances of accuracy in recalling an event, but the implied security of being inside a public place would help assure a witness to reveal more information than if they were afraid of reprisal.

For all of those reasons and more, Pip took the unicorn to a diner a block down from the town watch station. The station failed all of the above in terms of calming anypony down, in helping them feel secure or even being able to provide a simple item such as a clean glass of water. That, and Pip was no longer a member of the town watch but a simple private citizen. Plus there was no way he was going to offer up the small girl to the sergeant of all ponies, not only considering how Pip had just stormed out the way he did but also the colt couldn't help but to think how unhelpful that parsley-toothed stallion would be. It had nothing to do with the fact that the unicorn admitted to thinking he was cute a few minutes ago. Nope, not at all.

The two ponies sat across from one another in a window-side booth. Pip decided that the short moment of quiet that developed between them since coming in was enough and cleared his throat. There was still some time before the waitress returned with his order of sweet-potato french fries.

“So...” she started, “Could you start by explaining...how it is you know my name? Do I know you? I'm sorry if I don't remember, by the way.”

“Oh. No problem, I guess.” Pip shrugged at the notion. Rather than any feeling of being insulted, a smile surfaced as he couldn't believe the weird coincidence. To think after all this time after leaving Ponyville the chances of running into one of his friends. That is, unless Dinky happened to be a common name among gray coated, blonde maned, unicorn fillies with starry cutie marks.

Though they weren't in the same class, Pip remembered enough occasions of playing with the filly. From his first Nightmare Night to other random get-togethers since their groups of friends overlapped.

“Hmmm...Does the name Pipsqueak...ring any bells?” he asked with some trepidation at her possible response. His anxiety grew as she simply looked at him silently. At one point, he could have sworn that she began squinted her eyes at him.

“Shut. Up.” Dinky deadpanned.

Pip blinked. “Well, that wasn't the reaction I was expe-”

“SHUT UP!” The filly's eyes had widened to the size of two small plates as her hooves slammed against the table, attracting the attention of a few of the diner patrons. After a moment, their curiosity dissipated and the several pairs of eyes that had been aimed toward their booth turned away. During this whole three-something minutes of silence between them, Pip remarked at how Dinky remained leaning close to him with mouth agape, her lips turned upward in a way that revealed two deep dimples on her face.

The sight was infectious, as Pip felt his own cheek muscles tighten simply from seeing Dinky smile. As quickly as it appeared, her face turned toward dour as her brows furrowed. “You're not messing with me, right?” her voice deepened as she asked.

She was asking herself as much as she was asking the brown and white colt. The filly's jaw had shown signs of tensing. Pip on the other hoof paused for the excitement from anticipation quickly flow through him and out of his body before making his reply.

“Dinky, it's me.”

“Heh.” the unicorn beamed again. Looking satisfied by his response, she sat back normally in the booth seat. “What are the chances, huh?”

After explaining a bit of what he was up to since leaving Ponyville, Pip learned how Dinky moved away not too long after he did. While not mentioning exactly where, or how far from Trottingham she was now living, Pip did not feel the need to prod at this point. It was enough to at least meet with somepony familiar after all.

"You're feeling a lot calmer now." Pip remarked. "Are you able to tell me what had you so spooked?"

“Alright. Well you see, Pipsqueak...about what I needed help with...” Dinky started, but before she could continue, a figure approached the booth.

“Here ya go, lovebirds, one plate of sweet-potato fries! And there's an extra helping of onion rings. On the house.” With a wink, the wide-grinning waitress pony cantered to the next table over.

“H-hold on, you're a bit mistaken!” Pip tried to explain as he caught in the corner of his eye Dinky aiming her gaze toward the plate of food on table. “What are you getting embarrassed for?” the colt exclaimed, feeling self-conscious of the situation.

“How romantic!” A hand reached through and took some of the fries. Both ponies looked as a pair of humans were standing next to their table with menacing grins on their faces.

The one who had taken a handful of fries proceeded to noisily munch and chew with his mouth open. The slightly taller, bearded man standing next to him chuckled.

“Excuse us, but you're being quite bothersome.” Pip said in a neutral tone, ignoring the one man busily eating their food.

“You're sitting in our spot.” The bearded man replied with a growl. “ 'sides, horses should be eating outside.” Laughing at their own joke, the first man reached for another handful of fries when Pip's hoof pushed the plate out of the way.

“The hell, you stupid horse?” the bearded man stepped in closer, brushing the dangling set of keys hanging off of a chain on one of his pants' belt loops against the table. “It's our spot. So it's our food.” Nudging the other man, the still-hungry human took it as a cue to grab for the fries again when a Pip's white hoof smacked at it.

Flinching more from surprise than any actual pain, the first man bared his teeth. “You wanna die, horse!?”

“No, but I have no intention of being pushed around. Even if we're in your 'spot', that's no excuse to be rude.”

The men smiled, pocketing their hands into the folds of their leather jackets. Pip noticed the slight bulge of created by the bearded man's hand within the material, leading him to think he was now grasping something. It caused him to grow tense. “What are you gonna do about it, huh? You don't have a horn...”

“...and even if you did, using magic is banned, remember?”

Pip breathing stopped for a moment at the casual way the bearded man's friend mentioned the magic ban. A decree made as a result of the humans defeating the Equestrian army and their propping of the current post-Princess Celestia and Luna government. While similar restrictive rules had been made for both earth ponies and pegasi, only unicorns suffered an outright ban. The laws put into place seemed to bolster the sense of superiority amongst the humans who chose to push their weight around. That was partly the reason why nobody who Pip caught while he was in the town watch was ever prosecuted, much less fined.

It was because they were human.

Pip regarded the rest of the diner from where he sat, noticing how the other customers and staff were quiet, trying their best to remain unnoticed. He looked across the table and saw that Dinky had turned her head away toward the window, trying her best so her face was angled so the men couldn't see her. But the bearded man had already noticed the unicorn but chose not to point out anything further before looking back at Pip.

“Well?” he asked, knowing fully how limited Pip's options were. This was probably their goal in the first place. Extort and intimidate ponies who they figured would be too scared to speak up or bait the ones that tried to defy them to throw the first punch (or kick).

Pip could only clench his jaw at the choices he was left with. Without breaking eye contact, he reached into his saddlebag and felt out the proper amount of bits for the fries. “Come on, Dinky, let's go.” He had no false thoughts that the money would never reach the owners if he simply left it on the table. Warily she stepped away from the table while the humans' focus were all on Pip.

“Running away scared, huh? Figures a stupid horse like you doesn't have the balls to stand up for yourself. Haha!”

Pip's jaw clenched tighter at the attempt to aggravate him. While embarrassing, he already knew that with Dinky present it was better to just leave. But still... “Sure takes balls to pick on kids, huh?”

“Tsk” was the last thing Pip heard before he barreled across the open floor and into the booth on the other side, breaking the table and spilling the red liquid contents of a tall glass onto himself and the floor.

“Pipsqueak!” Dinky screamed in dismay.

“That was a pretty dumb thing to say, horse.” Snacking on another handful of fries, the bearded-man's friend took a seat on the table while watching Pip groan against the broken pieces of table.

“Damn...” Pip could only smile amidst the pain. “There goes my mouth again...” His compass cutie mark was both a blessing and a curse sometimes. Why he always needed to do the right thing was something he wondered whenever he was in these sort of situations. Whenever he saw the people he apprehended let free or when he obviously didn't stand a chance in a fight like right now.

“That look is really good for ya, horse.” The bearded man growled while approaching. “How about I help you fill up the white spots, huh?” With each slow step, the man cracked his knuckles. It wasn't until he was right on top of the pony that Pip glanced up. He saw the man bend down to grab a handful of his mane to lift him off his haunches. The pony grimaced in pain as he was brought eye to eye with the bearded man. “Now...”

“Hey...”

The new voice caused the man to halt. Now noticing her, he turned his attention toward the pony that was sitting at the table that Pip had been thrown into. “What? This a friend of yours, or something?” He held Pip as though he were holding a cat by its tuft of skin, and motioned his arm so Pip could see the pony who had spoken out.

Pip didn't recognize this pony. He had a sense that he had never seen this pony in Trottingham before today. Which wasn't to say that he knew everypony that lived in the city, since it was just as possible that she could have come from one of the other cities. With the cars, high speed trains and other new forms of transportation that came along with humans, it was no longer difficult for ponies from opposite parts of Equestria to travel. Of course, to humans like the bearded man and his friend, it would seem that all ponies apparently knew each other.

“You spilled my smoothie...” the seated pony said flatly.

“Whatever...” the man dropped Pip to the floor, ignoring the blue pony and lifted his leg to stomp his foot down. A wet crunch immediately followed by another table collapsing was heard as Pip witnessed the man flying through the air and back across the aisle where his friend watched dumbfounded.

The shock of pain subsiding a bit, Pip looked up over his shoulder to see the pony who had just bucked a human in the face without hesitation. Her violet eyes were aimed forward without much interest to what she had just done. Her silvery mane seemed to reflect her coat, taking on a sky blue tint in some parts.

“A magic...wand...” Pip quietly remarked at her cutie mark as he slowly got back to his hooves.

“Tito!!” the other human had managed to jump to his feet before the bearded man crashed into the table in a bloody heap and glared at the two ponies with fire in his eyes. “Bitch, you wanna get cut!?” He had since removed his hand from his jacket pocket, brandishing a knife which he kept readily open at his side.

Stepping forward, the blue mare let out a long sigh. She leaned her head left and right before standing normally. “You want to know how many coupons I had to clip to afford that smoothie?” The mare's flat tone took on an irritated flavor

“What? No, I don't give a cr-”

“FOURTY-TWO!” the unicorn spun on her fore-hooves, throwing her back legs into the human's gut and sending him to pile atop his friend.

The panicked screams of the other customers running out of the diner went unregistered in Pip's mind. Rather, he noticed only the unicorn mare as she dealt with the humans without a care for the repercussions. It took only a few seconds after dealing with the two that she cantered past him.

She sighed again. “And I came all the way from...to get that smoothie because...is such a hardass...” Pip heard her grumble. Rather than follow her out, his eyes settled on the two unconscious humans piled on the broken table, sweet potato fries strewn all about the floor.

“...why did she...?” He asked himself softly when he heard a group of voices laughing and talking loudly enter the diner. Pip turned toward the ground, ready to leave now, when he noticed that the five or six humans were all dressed jackets like the two unconscious men.

“Oi! Tito and Dan were beat!”

“Hey you! You did that, didn't you?”

“What? No, no, no, no! I couldn't have!” Pipsqueak's voice went to a high tone while he looked around for any sort of way to escape.

“Likely story, kid.” A particularly scary looking human who tattoos all over his face stepped forward. “So how do you explain the blood on your hooves?”

“Bl-blood? I don't have any...” Pip looked at his hooves and saw how the consistency of the smoothie dripped slowly to the floor in a very disturbing hue of red. His eyes shot wide when he realized what it looked like to somepony who saw it from off the street. “Hold on, guys! No need to jump to conclusions! It's just some smoothie that dripped on me! I'd never hit your friend, I'm just an innocent bystander! You see, my friend can totally vouch for me...” Pip chuckled, hoping to turn things around by asking Dinky to settle the matter. He looked toward the spot where he last saw...

...and found it empty...

“HEY!” Pip panted heavily. “YOU OVER THERE! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! I'M BEING BLAMED FOR WHAT YOU DID!”

It was sheer luck that he hadn't gotten any cuts, but the pieces of glass caught in his coat that glistened against the sun were irritating and itchy. While uncomfortable, Pip was not hindered from chasing after the silver-maned unicorn casually walking down the street a few blocks away.

“Yeah! Slow down!” Dinky gasped as she tried to keep pace. “You're letting Pip take the fall for you!”

Looking to his left, Pip regarded the gray unicorn galloping alongside him. “YOU LOST YOUR RIGHT TO CARE ABOUT ME LIKE THAT!”

“Oh don't be so grumpy, Pip!” Dinky stuck her tongue out cutely, only eliciting an irritated scowl from the colt.

“Why'd you just ditch like that?” he barely controlled his anger at the filly.

“It's...complicated...” she panted. “Besides, I would've...just gotten in the way...right?”

Pip looked ahead. While harrowing, the fact that she looked completely unharmed gave him some relief. It wasn't like he was really hurt, either. He was sore, to be sure, but nothing was broken or bruised. While his coat was stained and sticky, he managed to escape a whole gang of humans by jumping through a window. It also didn't look like they would be going after him anytime soon. “That only works if I know you aren't there, stupid.”

“Stupid? How rude! To think I thought you were a gentlecolt, Pipsqueak!” This garnered the colt's attention again to see Dinky showing a wily smile. “It's all good, though! At least you...were worried for my safety the whole time. Anyways...you need to talk to that pony, right? Me too!”

With that, the Dinky began to gallop faster, not looking as though she was exerting too much effort to do so. While Pip wasn't running at top speed for the sake of endurance, saying that seeing the unicorn manage to speed up was amazing was the understatement of the year.

While it would have taken a minute more from where he was to catch up with the blue pony, Dinky had already managed to get close enough to perform a diving tackle.

Pip slowed as he approached closer now, eying Dinky as she sat atop the mare who was face down on the ground. “Hey...” Dinky let out a rather ragged breath. “I...got her...!”

“It's not like she was trying to escape, though...”

Brilliant Ball of Flames

Chapter 3

“Thanks for the smoothie...” The blue unicorn mumbled while juggling the straw held between her lips with her tongue. Every so often she slurped loudly at what was left of the cherry-flavored hay smoothie—with extra hay—even though what remained was mostly foam.

It was pure luck that all it took to make up for Dinky's full-speed tackle was a smoothie and a chance to hit back. Dinky didn't mind of course, since it was Pip who was currently nursing his sore gut that was grimacing. He also had to pay for the everypony's smoothies.

After a short round of introductions, it came to be known that the blue mare who had taken care of the two humans earlier was-

“You're quite welcome, Trixie.” Dinky flashed a chipper smile toward the other unicorn. Pip, though he was appreciative as well, was a bit preoccupied with the pain in his gut. “Er...Pipsqueak, too.” she spoke for the white and brown colt still reeling about.

“So...Dinky...Pipsqueak...what can I do ya for?” taking a final meaningless slurp, the silver maned pony leaned back on the bench outside of the cafe they had gone to after “run-in”.

As Dinky began from the near beginning of her own crash with Pip, the colt tried to take his mind off of his sore pain. Within the crowds of ponies—unicorn and earth pony—walking around here and there, were humans. The two-legged foreigners who, within the span of a decade of arriving, had unarguably become the ruling group in Equestria. Yet there existed surprisingly enough, a mish-mosh of diversity. Men and women. Rich and poor. Young and old. Although in terms of height, human children on average dwarfed the size of fillies and colts.

Despite the frequent occurrences of human discrimination, there were in fact kind humans that had no need to antagonize the native ponies and other magical creatures. One example of this was the human cafe owner who took pity on Pip's situation and charged for just his smoothie, citing “ladies drink free” with a smirk. At the same time while rarer, are instances of anti-human terror attacks that spring up all over Equestria.

Watching the pedestrian traffic on this Trottingham side road, Pip began to recover with every delicious slurp of his hay smoothie. While department stores, shopping districts and malls and bright television advertisements lined down the major highways and streets, where cars and trucks polluted the air with noise and the smell of exhaust, only small shops and grocery stores could be found where he and the girls currently sat. Just a few blocks from where they were, Pip spotted a high speed train blazing down the tracks high above the streets, that connected the various parts of the greater Equestrian metropolitan area.

He watched as an earth pony mother and her two foals walked casually down the sidewalk and a woman and the human male accompanying her crossed paths, each not concerned with the others' presence. While innocuous enough, the colt could sense the tension of the otherwise harmless moment.

With a final drawn out slurp of his smoothie, Pip glanced skyward and remarked at the clear blue expanse speckled with clouds. His mind went over the thought that it had been maybe a few days ago that he last remembered seeing a pony of the winged variety. Pegasi were a rare sight nowadays since they could remain relatively undisturbed by human instigation in cities like Cloudsdale and Los Pegasus. To attain that autonomy and avoid the same sort of oppression that earth ponies and unicorns go through, the pegasi had agreed to tend to Equestria's weather.

Unlike the uncertainty and harsh life in the cities, being a pegasus seemed like a cakewalk by comparison.

“I have a...friend...who's been taken by a group of human slavers...” This drew Pipsqueak back into the girls' conversation.

'Slavers...?'

Trixie sighed and scratched her chin with her hoof. “A pony isn't just 'taken' by slavers, kid...”

Pip had to agree. There had been 'slavers' since before the humans arrived. Griffons, Diamond Dogs, and even other ponies participated in the act of catching or selling members of their own or other societies. But it was frowned upon nonetheless. Nor was slavery a permanent thing. After a set number of years of labor, or being able to pay for their release, a pony or other creature could be as free as anypony else.

But under human control, the slave trade had become a regulated industry with rules and laws. A slave was now a legitimate status, with a contract and everything. However at the same time, one was not simply 'taken' by slavers anymore. A pony would either be sold to pay off somepony else's or their own debt. Those who were imprisoned for criminal acts had to perform service.

There had to be something more to this than what Dinky was willing to say.

“Isn't there anything else you can tell us?” Pip asked.

The filly's ears drooped and Dinky looked at everywhere except toward Pip. “I'm sorry...it's...complicated...”

Pip wasn't sure if he should push it. While the stories about ponies being taken against their will when humans had first arrived was unfortunately common, more recently along with the restrictive laws placed against ponykind there were also a number of things that protected them from humans.

And while those laws could be and were broken from time to time, the dangers faced by ponies had dramatically dropped. Especially with the existence of the town watch in every city and the creation of the Equestrian Guard.

“Right, right...” Trixie propped her head on the back of the bench and stared at the sky. “So you've been saying this whole time about a plan?”

“I...uh...” Dinky looked between the two ponies before continuing. “...was going to fight off the humans to get onto the ship...and rescue my...friend...”

“...that was your plan?” Pip worried at the lack of any planning in Dinky's plan.

“At least I knew that I couldn't do it alone.” the girl scrunched her eyebrows at the criticism. “That's why Trixie, I need your help.”

“Just because I'm a unicorn doesn't mean your plan's gotten any better, though...and who said I'd be a part of it anyways?”

“Well, yeah that's true, but to be honest, it's not like you'll be useless like Pipsqueak over here either!” Dinky gushed. Feeling a glare needling her, she turned toward the white and brown pony in question before turning her attention back to the other unicorn. “Which is exactly why I think it'll have a better chance of success if you do it!”

“Wait you're going to insult me in front of my face and not even follow it up with a 'no offense'!?” Pip raised his voice in amazement.

“Silly, silly, Pipsqueak. It's because I'm a girl. A cute one at that. Cute girls can get away with being mean, you know.” Whipping her blonde mane around in a playful manner, Dinky chuckled at the look on Pip's unamused face. “Come on, don't be upset. You gotta have tougher skin than that.” She punched his shoulder with her forehoof.

“I'm not upset.” He muttered while rubbing his shoulder.

“Right...”

“And it's not like you're that cute...”

“What? You think you can do better, Pipsqueak?” her lips pursed in became a thin line of a smile. “Oh, this I have to see!”

–

Finding the spot where the slavers recruited unwitting or indigent ponies was easy enough. Behind a grocery store frequent by many ponies in the hard-to-get-by neighborhood of Trottingham, three ponies had rendezvoused and sharpened their plan.

“I can't believe I'm seeing this...” Dinky grimaced.

Before the two unicorn girls stood a “filly”. Fashionably dressed in a chic pairing of a white skirt and brown halter top, and with a vibrant blue bow tying the brown tail, “her” slim yet tall frame could have been quite the example of cute that all fillies should strive for.

If only it wasn't Pipsqueak. If only if she were ignorant of the true identity of this adorable-looking pony, Dinky groaned internally...

“Well...how do I look?” the colt asked obliviously of the two female ponies looking at him with blank stares. His doe-eyed pleading only made the visual all the more impressive to Dinky that she hadn't lost herself to insanity by now.

'Why...why is he cuter looking than me...?' the gray unicorn's eye twitched.

The older blue mare's face however, refused to show any sort of emotion. Rather, she let her thoughts be known in as plain a way as possible. “It's kind of sad how girly you look.”

“Wait what? Isn't that a good thing? That way Dinky doesn't have to put herself into danger!”

“Still sad...” Trixie spoke candidly. “...but as long as it makes you happy, you're definitely passable as a girl. Now let's get this over with, I've got a soap opera that I want to watch.”

“Didn't you say you had nothing to do with us? What are you even doing here?”

“It's not like I'm being paid fifty bits, anyways. Plus this looks amusing enough.”

“What? Why are you paying her watch me make an ass out of myself? Where's my money?”

“Because I have no confidence that you'll succeed, Pipsqueak.” Dinky said with a straight face. “Alright, Pippy. You know the plan. Now get going!” ”

“Oh...okay...” Pipsqueak replied quietly. His shoulders slumped from the crumbling of his confidence in being helpful and the colt emerged from their hiding spot behind the dumpsters. A wayward can rolled under his hoof, and upon stepping on it, Pip yelped and caught the attention of the humans standing guard within the alleyway.

Nearly falling onto his haunches, the disguised colt awkwardly found his footing and approached the humans who had took notice of him.

There were some humans wearing uniforms with logos on them. Uniforms that, upon closer inspection, looked exactly like that of the gang that confronted Pipsqueak and Dinky in the diner.

“Hey...I mean...” Pip cleared his throat, “Hi...boys..”

–

Dinky facehoofed as the falsetto that “Pippy” adopted for his character was like a nail on a chalkboard.

Trixie snickered at the sight. “You sure know how to pick 'em, kid!”

“Please shut up...”

–

Warily approaching the two humans, Pip realized that neither of them were present at the diner. While they were still intimidating, he felt a bit calmer by the fact that they were less likely to recognize him, much less realize he wasn't a filly. Most humans weren't exactly perceptive about ponies.

The two humans exchanged glances before the one closest to Pip looked at the disguised pony.

“Beat it. Don't care where you heard about us, but we got a quota. And you have to at least be a unicorn. Come back when we're looking for earth ponies.” Pip froze, not realizing what to do should he ever not be able to board the ship.

“So I guess I can come along?”

Pip's face scrunched up. He tightened his jaw so his teeth were grinding against one another. He froze in the hopes that, by not moving, he wouldn't be noticed. The two humans' eyebrows furrowed and the one had drooped his cheeks so his face resembled that of a basset hound.

The three of them watched as, with slow, deliberate steps, a second pony had approached.

“Oh, like, hi, boys!” A familiar-looking blue unicorn cantered toward them, swaying her flank with every step and stopped just a few feet from one of the humans.

The unseemly looseness of her clothes created folds at the shoulders that revealed much of her chest, as the cloth dragged against the ground with every step. A painfully plastic smile was stretched on the unicorn's face as she took different postures until she was somehow pressing herself against the human standing opposite from Pip and the other one.

“I'm like, so ready for the whole slave thing. If you catch my drift.” The human took a step back from the pony.

Pip's mind raced over this unpredicted situation. 'WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE? DRESSED LIKE THAT, NO LESS!?'

“I can put on quite the show...” Trixie said in a husky voice. She drew her face close, brushing her silver tail against the man.

“Uh...no thanks...ever...” the human sneered, almost queasily so, at Trixie's advances and took another step backward.

“Oh, don't be like that!” Trixie took a step forward after him.

“Quit it.” The man took several steps back. "Get away!"

“I love a good chase!”

“Oh! Sister! There...you are!” what could be better described as a terrified gaze rather than a smile was adorning the gray unicorn's face. “I don't think you should...go...” the small pony continued in that mechanical manner. “I'll go...?”

As the blue unicorn continued pursuing her prey, Pip snuck closer to the recent arrival, taking advantage of the distraction Trixie was providing.

“Dinky, what are you doing?” Pip hissed.

“Changing the plan.” she whispered back.

It didn't take long for the second human to step in and grab at Trixie's tail. As she swung side to side like a pendulum, held up to the human's eyes, Trixie flashed an upside down smile. “Hey. What's cookin', good lookin'?”

The man visibly shuttered and dropped the pony onto her face. Ignoring Trixie, he looked at the gray pony that just arrived. “Sheesh, all of you are coming out of the woodwork...Fine. We'll discuss it first.” nodding his head to the other thug, the two walked away from the ponies. The human who had been targeted by Trixie seemed more than eager to break away from the unicorn.

After some discussion, the more authoritative human returned to the three of them. “We just needed one more unicorn. You'll do.” the gang member pointed at Dinky. “Get in the shuttle”.

“What?” Dinky and Pip simultaneously balked.

“I said you're coming.” the human made sure his finger was decidedly pointing at Dinky. He turned and the other human followed him to the nearby vehicle.

“Oh! Uh...” Dinky and Pip exchanged glances. “...right...”

Pip could only watch as the pony got into the black and red vehicle. The humans were keeping their eyes on him and Trixie, wary at any movement they made.

Getting into the rear seat, Dinky nodded through the window. 'You did a good job distracting those guys, Pip. I'll make sure to thank you!” Dinky promised as she left with the humans, the vehicle's fans screeching to life and sending blasts of air to roar throughout the alleyway.

As soon as the flying vehicle had ascended well into the sky, Pip turned his attention to the mare now sitting on her haunches after making a face plant just moments ago. “What was all that for?” He clamored for an explanation.

“I couldn't help it.” Trixie sighed. “After seeing how much attention you were getting...my show-mare instincts took over and I just had to be the center of the show...”

“Your instincts are disgusting...” Pip frowned at her behavior.

“You're disgusting.” She quickly countered as though that were a logical argument.

Instead of responding, Pip sighed and shook his head, sitting onto the ground and gazing upward at where the shuttle had flown off. He had since thrown the clothes for his disguise in a pile, not caring for the articles after they had served their use. “What am I going to do...?”

Dinky had just offered herself into slavery to find her friend. They weren't even sure where she would be taken. And now Pip wasn't sure what to do from here. How was he supposed to accomplish anything alone?

“Say...You just said that you're a showmare, right?” Pip looked at the mare as the gears in his head began to turn. “Does that mean you do requests?”

“I don't think this is the appropriate time, kid!” Trixie mumbled while tending to her nose. It had gotten slightly red for her fall. “Besides, don't you have your fillyfriend for that kind of stuff!?”

“Wha!? GEEZ STOP ASSUMING THAT KIND OF STUFF ABOUT ME!! And what do you mean by 'fillyfriend?' I don't...uh...” With a mid-stride gulp, Pipsqueak decided not to have any regrets even if it was embarrassing. “...I...don't have anypony like that!”

“Huh, well that's a surprise then...I thought you and the gal...”

“Who, Dinky? No...she's just a friend.”

“Oh.”

Without a word, Trixie stood up and began walking out of the alleyway.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Pip barely held back his anger. Was she just going to abandon Dinky like that?

“What are you talking about?” Trixie muttered without turning around. “You wanna save your friend, don't you?”

“O-of course!”

–

And so after stealing a police car and much searching, Trixie and Pip managed to find and crash into the human slavers' airship.

“...Wait, that's it? How lazy can the writer be to simply state it like that?”

“You should be glad that we skipped to this part.” Trixie shook her head and stepped carefully over the pieces of broken wood and metal that was strewn all over the floor. “Didn't you see how there were barely any new comments when chapter 2 was posted? Some new people decided to track this story, sure, but not everyone fav-ed or even bothered to rate the story. Your whole thing with Dinky was starting to drag on too much which is why we had to get to the exciting part of as quick as possible.”

“Even if that's true, please don't just casually break the story's flow for our readers...”

“Well, if you think about it,” the unicorn shrugged, “You're the one who pointed out that-”

“Alright, I learned my lesson...” Pip resigned to defeat again. “I just hope this doesn't become a pattern or anything...”

“Hey! It's that damn blue bitch of a horse that attacked us in the diner!”

As the roaring wind that flowed through the recently “renovated” space, tussling and whipping their manes and tails violently, Pip finally took note of the six humans glaring angrily toward his direction. The damage from crashing through the wall of the zeppelin had created a mess of debris that stretched inward a good ten feet, about half the floorspace.

If one were to look out, the vast expanse cityscape of the Equestrian metropolis was in plain view miles below. The puffy clouds zoomed lazily past the impromptu-made window.

The man who had screamed was bearded and tall, wearing a large white bandage that wrapped around his face over the nose. The other men, all intimidating in their own right—with tattoos, piercings, crazy haircuts, shaved heads—had all revealed weapons both blunt and sharp. Their matching though personally individualized jackets whipped about from the wind as well.

The fact that the one thug who he had an earlier run-in with would also be involved with saving Dinky was something that the universe would make happen, Pip figured.

But most interestingly was that in the middle of this gang of thugs was a well dressed man. He had no visible piercings, tattoos or a crazy haircut. In fact he looked quite opulent in the bright colors that fur linings on his coat.

The humans raised their guns and aimed at the two ponies, having superiority in both numbers and firepower.

Trixie stepped in front of Pip before he could even react.

“Stay back, foolish humans!” Her voice easily boomed over the roar of the wind. From behind the mare, Pip was unable to see what was causing the thugs to hesitate from firing, much less explain why they were even taking a step back. It wasn't long before Trixie continued, bolstered by this change in events. “Heh.”

Brushing a silver lock from her face, the pony smiled. She was in her element. “Be amazed, my audience, as you shall witness a spectacle like no other! Perfectly performed for your perusal are feats of amazing and awesome splendor! For I am the Great! The POWERFUL!”

Even Pipsqueak couldn't help but shudder in anticipation, feeling something akin to a balloon swelling with pride in Equestriankind. If he had ever felt confident in surviving a perilous situation now was the-”

“...PRINCESS CELESTIA!”

A pathetic wheeze of deflation came to mind as that balloon was popped.

“We're going to die, aren't we?” Pip struggled against the instinct to jump out of the airship. He had a better chance of surviving a fall from a few miles above the ground than a hail of bullets, right?

What greeted them was not gunfire, but laughter. “So, you're saying that you're Princess Celestia?” Peeking from behind Trixie, Pip saw the lips of the well-dressed man curl into a smile.

'Oh no!' Pip gulped.

The man shook his head. “...I don't think so...”

'I knew it!” Pip clenched his eyes shut in preparation for the imminent end.

“I mean, if that's really case...” his breath was caught in his throat. “...where's your crown?”

Even the roar of the wind had gone mute. Pipsqueak felt obliged to tumble to the floor in shock.

'THAT'S WHAT HE HAS A PROBLEM WITH!?'

“A princess isn't defined by what she wears, you ignorant dolt.” Trixie postured strongly atop the debris from their earlier crash. “Her claim to the throne is from her noble lineage!”

Pipsqueak was awed. Looking toward the blue mare, he managed to find his breath once more. Such a daft proposition could actually work. This mare definitely acted in a haughty manner, and while completely removed from Princess Celestia's personality, her words rang strongly as though she were royalty.

“Besides, I left my crown at the dry cleaners.”

“GIVE IT BACK! GIVE ME BACK THE RESPECT I ALMOST HAD FOR YOU!”

As everyone in the room ignored Pipsqueak's outburst, as the man moved his hand to stroke his chin. “Oh, that's understandable. Crowns and the like do often get messy after so much use.”

'What?'

“Yeah! And there are those who always ask 'Well why don't you just get a bunch of crowns then?' but they don't understand how ridiculous a suggestion that is.” Trixie nodded her head in agreement.

The man followed suit and nodded as well.

“If that were the case, wouldn't that mean one should have a crown for every occasion? A crown for sleeping, a crown for driving around town, a crown for buying a new crown; that would be not only a waste of money, but so unfashionable!”

“They don't understand that you have one crown for special events, and another for everyday things!”

“Totally!” Trixie rolled her eyes to exaggerate her point.

“HOLD ON, WHY ARE YOU BOTH TALKING ABOUT CROWNS LIKE YOU'RE REALLY ROYALTY, HUH!?”

“What, didn't you know?” The man arched an eyebrow and sent Pipsqueak an incredulous look. “I am royalty.”

“ROYALTY MY ASS! YOU'RE MORE LIKE A PRINCE-TURNED-INTO-SOMETHING-BY-A-CURSE!”

“It's...it's that noticeable...?” The man's lip quivered for a moment and a small tear ran down his cheek.

“D-don't tell me...”

“Hey! Stupid commoner! Don't be so insensitive you little brat!” Pipsqueak's head snapped back as a hoof shot out at his chin and sent him back a good foot away before hitting the floor.

“There, there...just ignore him, okay?” Trixie was at the man's side, comforting him with soft strokes of his head with her hoof. “He's just a peasant who doesn't know his place...”

“WHY AM I A PEASANT NOW!? WASN'T I JUST A COMMONER BEFORE!? WHAT'S WITH THE DEMOTION!?”

“Oh, Celestia!” The man babbled, teary eyed and nose runny with snot. “I knew you'd understand!”

Looking at the strange sight from where he sat, Pip could think of only one way to respond. “...what?”

–

They had since moved to another room, as the thugs were sent elsewhere on the ship, so the ponies and the gang leader were left alone.

Pip and Trixie were seated on plush silk pillows on one side of a low table while the man was sitting cross legged on the other side.

As Pip was too confused to comprehend what had just happened on what was supposed to be a rescue mission, Trixie spoke first. “Well, so this curse...what a terrible fate...”

The man sniffed. “Indeed, Celestia...” The melodramatic manner in which his tale was told aside, the fact remained that this human was apparently a prince...who had had a run-in with a creature when he first arrived in Equestria. “So in order to break the curse...I need to be kissed by a young boy...”

Pip felt a shiver run down his spine at the predatory gleam aimed at him.

“...”

He dabbed his eyes with a flowery silk handkerchief. “It can't be just any boy, mind you...” he sent a second glance. “...even after the reward I set, every boy who's tried has yet to break me out of this curse...”

“So, uh...how much is this reward of yours?” Trixie tried to hide the interest laced in her voice, but Pip felt depressed at how obvious it was in the mare's tone.

“Well as a small token of appreciation, even if they don't manage to break my curse, I'd give whoever was willing enough just a paltry five million bits.”

“You hear that, knave!?” Trixie slammed her hooves against the table before shaking them wildly about in excitement. “Get to smoochin' so I can have that $5 mil!”

Pipsqueak smiled. “That's quite a small amount for a princess to get riled up about, Celestia.”

“DON'T YOU BACKTALK ME, AMOEBA! THAT'S PRINCESS CELESTIA TO YOU!”

“You've been so helpful, Celestia, even if we don't know each other, you're willing to do so much for a stranger.”

'What are you talking about? She's not doing anything! It's my innocence that's on the line here!'

“It's a bit embarrassing, but if you could be so kind as to leave me and this gallant young colt alone with some privacy?”

One of the sliding doors opened, revealing a pair of thugs that had apparently been waiting in the hallway.

'Wait, what?'

“Oh, no problem at all, Frog Prince!”

Trixie smiled as she got to her hooves.

'What?'

Pip watched in dismay as the blue mare casually walked outside the door, flanked by the two thugs before disappearing from sight as the door slid shut.

“Heheh....who would believe that that pony is Princess Celestia?” the man's voice took a darker tone. Before he could turn back to face the man he was left alone with, Pipsqueak was pinned down and trembled at the man smiling wildly atop of him.

“Unlike most humans, I love ponies. So you have nothing to fear.” The man began saying ominously. “I was misunderstood back home, which was why I came here, to Equestria. Unlike back there, no one's been judging me for what I like here. Everyone is just so much more open minded here! Did you know? My philosophy is to 'Love and Tolerate'. And if you think about it, there are so many kinds of love in this world...why can't people simply tolerate my brand of love and let me be? I'm not hurting anyone! I'm not judging anyone else for what they like!”

“Listen pal, but...” Pip squirmed under the greater weight of the human, shaking as he drew closer and closer with a hungry look in his eyes. “...did you know? There's a process you know? Steps before we get this far? I'm not judging you, but I gotta get to know you before we get to this point, right?”

“Shhh...” Pip cringed at the feeling of the man's finger against his lips. “Our ship's just set out of port. You'll learn to love the trip...” Revealing a toothy smile, the man dragged his hand down Pip's shivering form.

“IS THIS WHAT WAS MEANT BY THE 'CROSSOVER' TAG!? THAT THE WRITER WANTED TO CROSS THE POINT OF NO RETURN!? THERE'S NOTHING NICE ABOUT THIS BOAT AT ALL!”

The groan of metal halted the prince's advance as well as prompted both him and the pony being pinned to the ground to glance at the door that Trixie had just exited through. Cracks appeared in the wall around it, before exploding to the sound of pained cries. After the dust settled, several of the thugs that had been in the hallway were lying unconscious on the ground, amidst the rubble of what was the wall between the room and the hallway. “I'm sure there are some ponies that enjoy being ganged up like that, but I'm just not that kind of gal.”

“So I was right! You're not a princess and you really did come here to steal my appetizer!”

Trixie blinked at the sight of a grown human male pinning a colt on the ground below him. “Appetizer? More like uncooked pasta.”

“No. More like al dente noodles.” The man rebutted.

“That scrawny thing is more like the food sampling at a grocery store. And you're actually just a creep.”

“He is like a succulent morsel offered to the audience at a cooking show. And I'm not a creep. I am a prince.”

“A cheap and creepy prince that goes to grocery stores just to eat free samples.”

“ENOUGH WITH THE WITTY BANTER AND RESCUE ME ALREADY, DAMN IT!”

The sound of several footsteps caught Trixie's attention. However delayed, more of the thugs were on their way responding to the blast of the wall's demolition. Down the hallway, the first few humans founded the corner armed with handguns and bats.

“Fine then!” Seeing a couple of them raising the barrels of their guns at her direction, she jumped into the room and closed the distance between herself and the prince. “For my first trick! A CURB STOMPING!” Reaching her hoof into the air, Trixie slammed it downwards toward the human atop Pip, eliciting a high shrilly scream. By the time the humans thugs had reached the breach in the wall, smoke quickly filled the corridor, and despite their superior numbers and firepower, the men were all reluctant to fire blindly out of fear of hitting each other.

“Hey boss! You ok!?”

“Don't shoot!”

“Where's that bitch!?”

Several fleshy thuds rang out within the smoke, as a few of the thugs crumpled to the ground. As confusion took hold, at the skin of the smoky cloud two ponies bounded down the hallway at full speed, rounding the corner just as shots whizzed by at their direction.

“THIS IS YOUR IDEA OF A 'CURB STOMPING', YOU CRAZY MARE!?” Pip flinched at the sound of gunfire while rushing down the corridor in a panic.

“No, this is all a part of my plan, you see?” Trixie stated with confidence as she galloped. “I call it the 'Run and Gun'!”

“Oh,” Pip noted, suddenly assuaged by what she said. “you mean like guerrilla warfa-”

“If I see a gun...I'M GONNA RUN!!”

“HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU KEEP SURPRISING ME WITH WAYS TO LOSE RESPECT FOR YOU!? IS THIS YOUR SPECIAL TALENT!? IS THAT WAND CUTIE MARK WAVING AWAY THE TRUST PONIES PUT IN YOU!?”

–

Elsewhere on the ship, a metal door squeaked as it swung slowly open. The tip of a horn first poked out, followed by the wavy locks of blonde hair of a pony looking up and down the hallway for any patrolling guards. “What a shoddy lock...” Dinky smiled as she returned her picks to within her pink bow. “And they're running a pretty shoddy operation to not even check me for things like lock picks!”

'But lucky nonetheless', she thought as she moved her hooves quickly to begin running. 'That's an advantage of being a cute, innocent-looking pony'.

Quick thumps against the metal hallway floor rang out as Dinky hastily opened every door she came across.

Several times she fumbled with the doorknobs, switching between using her hooves and her mouth. Whichever was deemed quickest at the moment.

For better or worse, each room that was unlocked was empty of anyone. Supplies, clothes, boxes, nothing at all. While each door potentially presented the danger of being caught, each room she failed to find anyone in added a new layer of anxiety as she slammed the door and moved to the next in line.

In the middle of the hallway, at an approximately equidistant from span from each end, Dinky heard movement from within. The filly pressed her ears against the door to try to discern what was going on, but could only hear muffled speech. With a quick steadying breath, the unicorn forced her way in, ready for whatever was-

“MOM!” Dinky's anxiety flushed away at the sight of the pony sitting in the middle of the room. Her anxiety now interrupted at the moment, Dinky charged into the room just as the mare turned in time to embrace her.

“Oh, hey there, Muffin!” The gray coated, blond-maned pegasus welcomed the filly while wearing a goofy smile. Receiving the other pony's tackle, the pegasus affectionately combed her hoof through the filly's own blonde mane.“What brings you here?”

Dinky reluctantly broke out of the hug to lend an incredulous glare that lacked any particular notice of her mother's misaligned eyes. “I'm here to save you, duh! What are you doing here?”

“Me? Well I've been having a lot of fun with all of these girls.” The cheery response reminded Dinky how removed her mother sometimes was from the concept of urgency when it came to dangerous situations. However, as the mare extended her hoof, Dinky was only now made aware to the many humans also present in the room. “We did each others' hair, traded cooking recipes, told stories...

About twelve to thirteen in all, the women were dressed in all manner of fine clothes in a number of styles that the young filly didn't even recognize. She could at least tell how fantastic the materials used were. “Girls, this is my daughter, Dinky, who I was telling you about! Isn't she just the sweetest thing?” Suddenly tugged closer, the filly fell onto her rump and her cheeks became flushed with red at being nuzzled. It was strange to be showed off to all of these strangers, as she was both enjoying her mother's pride and feeling embarrassment while being shifted about so everyone in the room had a chance to see her.

“Muffin, I've been telling them all about your great baking an-”

“Fine, you can tell me later.” Dinky cut off the mare with a huffy sigh. “But right now we have to get out of here.” There were times she desperately wished her mother could read the mood. Getting to her hooves, Dinky was determined not to be caught up in her mother's pace any further. Especially as said mare turned to the women and shrugged her shoulders stating “children, huh?”

“I'm serious mom, we gotta get off of this ship!”

“Alright...” Pipsqueak gasped. They had been probably been all around the ship by now, and his lungs were starting to burn and his breathing ragged. “Any...other...ideas?”

“Just keep running! I'll come...up with something!”

Pip nodded, faltering more and more behind the unicorn as they continued galloping. Looking ahead, he noticed how they were approaching a leftward T-intersection. Even amidst their own hooves pounding rapidly against the wooden floor, Pip could hear the loud stampede of feet coming from ahead.

Just as they reached the intersection, the blonde hairs of a pony's mane nearly preceded a high-speed collision. Just barely maneuvering out of each others' way, what had been two ponies running for their lives suddenly multiplied to four and several women in dresses.

“Dinky!?” Pip exclaimed

“Pipsqueak!?” Dinky returned the sentiment

“Derpy!” a second gray pony stuck her head between the two while wearing a wide smile on her face.

“Mom!” Dinky cried out in embarrassment.

“Mom!?” Pip cried out in confusion. “Why didn't you tell us...you were rescuing...your mom instead of your 'friend'!?”

“It's...complicated!” Dinky responded in gasps. Obviously exhaustion was beginning to set in the small pony.

“Fine! Never mind!” Pip gave up. He looked ahead, unsure of what to do now that they had found both Dinky and the pony she had been looking for. “Where are we running to?”

“How should I know? You're the one in front of us!”

“Yeah, but Trixie's in front of me!”

“So ask her then!”

“Fine! I will!”

“Good! You better!”

Hoping to Celestia that the mare had come up with an idea, Pip tried his best to call out without losing his pace. “Trixie!”

“What's up!?” she called back in a casual manner.

Pip was too tired to devote energy to complain. “Where are we going!?”

“No idea!” She replied simply over her shoulder.

“Oh!” While still running, Pip turned toward Dinky who was now slightly behind him. “She said 'no id-”

“I heard!”

Rounding the corner, the ponies and women found themselves at a dead end. The hallway had ended, and in the center of the room they were in was an immense metal sphere connected to the ceiling and walls by several tubes and pipes.

“I've had enough of this running around in circles!” The prince, panting heavily, announced as he and several dozen thugs appeared to seal off escape at the only obvious exit to the room.

“You and me both, mister. I'm pretty tired about all of this.” Trixie had once again stepped ahead of Pip as well as the other ponies and women. Her entire body expanded and contrasted with every heavy breath she took.

“Keh...it is tiring isn't it? To think that you ponies, with all of your magic and how you once ruled this country, are so pathetic without your precious princesses? Your lame attempt at playing the hero has failed.”

“I was never trying to be a hero in the first place.” Trixie for the first time in Pip's recollection, said in a quiet manner. Somehow, he could feel the sad smile that adorned her face through her voice. “I've already failed to protect...lost enough of my friends...to know I'm not a hero...that I'm powerless to save everyone...to hell with being a hero...to hell with saving the world...Instead, I'll spend all of my power on protecting those near me. Even if it's only those who I see in front of me that are in trouble, I'll do anything to protect them.”

“Keh, such a weak thing to say.” the man raised his gun. “Something to expect from a pony, a race that's subservient to us humans...humans that can't fly without machines, or even use magic. And yet we took your country. Doesn't that mean that we're the stronger ones? What can you possibly do against me, much less humanity, you stupid talking horse?”

“You can have the country, then...even before humans arrived we've had to learn how to live with all kinds of species. Diamond Dogs, Griffons, Buffalo, Deer...and there's been bad eggs in every group.” Trixie smiled. “So because of that...I've come up with you could call a 'philosophy'...” She flashed her teeth in a manner despite the gun pointed at her. A manic gleam appeared in her eyes despite being outnumbered by this prince and his retinue of ten-something human thugs.

Trixie spun around to face the center of the room, turning her back toward the prince and his gun. Letting out his own snarling grin, he began pulling his finger back on the trigger, only to have a hand smack at his gun. “What are you doing, fool!?” he shrieked with wide eyes.

“The hell, man? I may be just a thug, but I ain't stupid enough to fire at the ship's engine!” The gangster growled at his employer. With that everyone in the room watched in dismay as the blue pony climbed up the metal feature in the center of the room.

“F-fine! Stop her yourselves, already!” The prince exclaimed in a panic. “What am I paying you dopes for!?”

“You've got to crack a few bad eggs...!” Trixie shouted from atop the whirring, rumbling metal spheroid. “...for the omelet to be worth eating!”

“G-get those other horses as hostages! Stop her before-”

“TIME FOR THE FINALE, FILLIES AND GENTS! I HOPE YOU LIKE FIREWORKS!” Leaning onto her forehooves, Trixie's back legs lifted into the air, as though she were about to do a forehoofstand. With a simple shifting of her weight, the blue pony smashed down onto the engine, letting out a terrible clang that echoed throughout the whole room.

No one moved, as though at the precipice of a mountain prone to rock slides. The soft sizzling of the engine in the middle of the room gave way to sparks of light shoot about in arcs and spectacular short bursts. It wasn't long before a spark caught onto part of the wooden frame that decorated the otherwise metallic room. A sudden shake of the entire ship threw several people to the ground, and just as quickly the shaking stopped.

“No way!”

“WHAT!?”

The silence that followed drowned out the rest of the humans' exclamations

Looking down at his hooves, Pip felt the floor sinking while he stayed in place. Then not a moment later, he felt the familiar pull begin to drag him along with the ceiling and walls and everyone else in the room.

“Hey, where'd all the gravity go?” Trixie gasped, sounding as nauseated as she looked. Her floating form was a bit greener than Pip last remembered.

“What did you think would happen when you break the engine on an airship!” The colt felt the chill rush up his spine and the familiar tingling of excitement wash over his body whenever he went on a roller-coaster. “We'll start to CRAAAAASH!”

–

“How are we supposed to explain this?” the officer sighed as the tail end of the zeppelin jutted out of the water just a few meters from the dock. Next to him, his partner stayed silent for a moment. The smoldering flames from within luckily could not ignite the inert helium, although the dark column of smoke was a terrifying sight to behold.

“Beats me.” he brown stallion finally replied.

The two ponies shrugged and looked toward the three or four ambulances brought over for this incident. The constant flash of the rotating red lights had attracted a good number of gawkers, all of whom had to be held back by other town watch ponies who arrived later.

Apparently a “prince” and a number of his “court” had been dragged unconscious from the ocean by some local fisherponies, not to mention a number of ponies and humans claiming that they were held against their will. It took only a moment to learn from dispatch that the so-called “prince” was simply a rich human, who had hired a local gang when he started up his business in Equestria. All of which involved illegal activities.

“Mom!” Dinky rushed toward the gray mare. The pegasus wrapped her hooves around the filly in a heartwarming embrace.

“Glad to see you in one piece, kiddo.”

“Yeah. Same here.”

“Hold on a moment, Muffin.” Dinky grinned and watched the pegasus trot toward the group of women draped in blankets that had been speaking with the four-legged town watch on the scene taking notes on the incident.

“So everyone is safe and sound.” Trixie approached Dinky, rubbing a tense part of her shoulder. Dinky smiled at the thought and nodded in agreement. “Aren't you happy? Now you and your coltfriend here can finally be happy together and do it.”

“Don't say something so gross!” The younger unicorn screeched. She turned her face away, utterly concentrated on keeping her blush from being seen.

“Hey, girls, what's up?” Pip cantered toward the unicorns after speaking with one of the town guard about the whole affair.

“N-NOTHING!” Dinky blurted out in response. Unaware of Pip's baffled expression, the unicorn rushed to catch up with her mom and the human women a few meters away.

“Was it something I said?” Pip aimed a pleading look to the mare who watched as Dinky tripped on her way to the other group.

“Was there ever any doubt?” Trixie grinned, sauntering away with a grin on her face.

“Wait, what?”

“So what do we do now?” One of the human women asked with concern about their situation. While not the oldest, she was considered one of the more senior...employees of the flying airship at the time. While they had first come to Equestria to perform their service for the humans present in Equestria, it had been apparent that expanding to offer the local ponies to work was a natural progression.

The gray pegasus then, was the first pony to arrive on the ship. Having no previous exposure to the once considered mythical creatures, the women were surprised by their new friend's personality and character.

“We don't have any way of getting home...” another of the girls let out a heavy sigh.

“Hey, I've got an idea, girls!” the gray pegasus pony chirped with excitement as her wings fluttered for a moment. “Let's all head over to my place and have Dinky bake us some treats! She's really good at it!”

It wasn't that much of a stretch then, for the humans to look to Derpy as a source of comfort, in this foreign land so far away from their homes.

The women all looked around to each other in silence for a moment, before shrugging and agreeing with nods to the suggestion since they really had nothing better to do.

“Can she make salads? I'm trying to watch my figure.” One of the women tried asking as the group followed their pony friend.

Dinky shook her head and smiled at her mom's usual antics. Amidst the activity of the town watch holding back the ponies and humans attracted by the crash, she looked once more toward the direction of a certain white and brown colored pony and a blue coated unicorn where the latter was being accosted by uniformed town watch.

“Ma'am, there have been some reports that a pony fitting your description stole a police cruiser. And it just so happens that exact cruiser was last tracked to that airship crash you just happened to escape from.”

“'Ma'am'!? Who's a ma'am? Are you saying I'm old!?”

“No, I don't...” the officer sighed and softly rubbed his eyes with his hoof. “But I'm supposed to call you that because of proto-”

“Because you think I'm old, right? I'm right! How old do you think I am? And if you say I'm old I'm gonna whop you!”

“Stop trying to change the subject! I never said anything about you being old! Will you listen to what I'm trying to say here!?”

“I'm not deaf!”

“I never said you were!”

“Stop screaming!”

“Not until you shut up!

“THAT'S IT! BRING IT!”

“IT'S ALREADY BEEN BROUGHT!”

Dinky could only shake her head at the sight. After gathering her senses (and courage) she had returned to where her foalhood friend was watching the ruckus unfold.

“You know, even if she's a bit strange, she's a pretty brave pony...” Dinky paused and took note of the colt standing next to her.

"A brave pony that's fifty bits richer..."

"Will you get over that already?" Though he was a bit smaller than others his age, she knew she'd have trouble finding anypony with a bigger heart. “...maybe you could learn a thing or two from her about being more dependable!” She smiled despite herself from that thought, even chuckling a bit. While Pip continued watching the heated argument between Trixie and the pony officer, Dinky leaned her face closer, focusing intently at his cheek.

“Hmmm? Did you say something, Dinky?” Pip asked breaking away from the distraction as he turned to face the gray pony and saw her flinch backwards in surprise.

“I-I said that I'll see you around, okay, Pip?” she quickly said in a shaky voice before rushing down the pier after the group led by her mom.

Pip smiled as he watched his friend rejoin the other group. “Yeah.” Taking a deep breath, he cantered back toward the bickering adults before kicks started flying. He thought back to Dinky's suggestion. “...maybe I can.”

Author's Note: Would you believe that the first three chapters were all supposed to be one?

Thank you for reading and tracking this story, I hope you enjoy what I upload. I hope you're willing to suggest stuff. Or criticize to show you actually read the story. I hope my computer would stop having BSOD-syndrome.

Onward to the next chapter!

Just Because You Can Write And Post A Story Doesn't Mean You Should

“We can't let Davy win, you guys!”

The team huddled together. Even Smith was there, even though he was kind of a jerk.

The four teens (and Smith) were hoof-picked by Celestia herself to defend the Earth and Equestria from evil.

There was Eva, a girl with a penchant for shopping. While that wasn't a bad thing in itself, she tended to use the team credit card and never pitched in to cover the interest payments. That was sort of bitchy of her to do, but over the course of the last few episodes, it seemed to have saved the team.

You see, the thing about credit is it's an important aspect of being able to purchase cars and get a mortgage. Currently there are a lot of countries like the U****d St***s and other countries in Eur*** that are having problems paying their debts because they borrow more than they collect in taxes...oh, sorry, I kind of got into a bit of a ramble.

Anyways, back to the rest of the team:

There was T-bone, the cultral character. And everyone else.

So the team gathered in the command center in an effort to stop Davy, an evil mastermind who was an alicorn and Celestia and Luna's (who were princesses by the way) nephew. He had planned to cast all of Equestria and Earth under his control because he is evil and junk.

Smith used to be on Davy's side until he was saved by the team. At the time it was just Eva, Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the team, Davy's son, Davy (ya I know thats a bit confusing but hear me out) and Rainbow Dash. This was before T-bone joined the team and became the fifth teenaged member.

“Twilight Sparkle turned the to rest of the team. “We can do this you guys. As long as we have teamwork, we can use our friendship and defeat that evil warlord, Davidson.”

Davidson was Davy's full name. Twilight calls him Davidson while everyone else calls him Davy because she's smart and proper unicorn who was Princess Celestia's personal student since she was a small mare.

She's a purple pony with long mane and cropped bangs with a streak of pink in her mane and her tail also was well cropped with a streak of pink like her mane.

T-bone was like “I concur” in a British accent because that's how I imagine how he speaks.

Eva speaks sort of like a valley girl, if you've ever heard of the accent but if you haven't just think of a hipster or something.

So Davy's son who's full name is Davy Jr. (But everyone calls him Davy but they know he's not like his father. Back when Twilight Sparkle and rainbo Dash first appeared on Earth as a result of Daby, that is, Davy's father Davy, attacked Equestria as his first part of his plan to conquer both Equestria and Earth. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash who Pinkie also calles Dashie for short, came to Earth and were on a mission to Earth to look for help.
Davy Jr. was one of Davy's most loyal fighters but after realizing the friendship he never had as a child because his childhood was really sad (like Naruto and Sasuke) he joined Twilight Sparkle and Dashie but was taken away.

Eva and the other teens, realized that Davy wasn't so bad and went to rescue him in the base that looks like the castle that Nightmare Moon was in but it isn't damaged and there are lights.

That's when they me t Smith who was in charge of keeping Davy imprisoned because Davy ordered him to. He was trying to find his borther who had been sepearated from him when they were seperated by a fire at the orphanage they lived in as kids. But they still had parents it's just that they were placed there by their parents and they were both supposed to look for them. So Smith made a deal with Davy to help find his brother so he and his brother could find their long lost parents. They both have lockets.

After coming up with a plan, the base was attacked.

“Twilight, we're being attacked!” Dashie called out. Over the sirens and alarms of the base. Twilight's horn glowed and then she looked at T-bone.

“T-bone! We need to know what's going on!”

“I concurr” he nodded and typed on the console in front of him.

The room they were in was the meeting room for the group. There was a large screen that was 50 by 50 feet where they would receive their orders from Celestia whenever Davy attacked with his generals like Davy Jr. or Smith when he was a bad guy. There was a console that T-bone was in charge of because he is really good with computers and was made fun of for being really an expert like he knew ohow to hack other computers.

When he first met Twilight and Dashie he was working for this group that was trying to stop Davy but they didn't protect innocent civilians in their attacks. So Twilight and Dashie had to stop him by going into the internet using Twilight's magic to stop them. Then he went to jail but later on he came back and was reformed because the group was all he knew but realized he was mistaken. So he joined the group later on.

“Here, Twilight.” T-bone said after typing really fast at the speed of light on his specilized computer that he made him self. It used magnets instead of how computers use regualar drives so his computer was faster. It's called “The console” he calls it.

The large screen in the room lit up and hshowed how there were people in uniforms attacking the base.

“Let's go team!” Twilight called out and the rest of the team followed her out the door.

I got this! Rainbow dash called out and she did a rainbow nuclear explosion like from the episode when Twilight was tardy. But it was controlled and only affected the people attacking the base.

“That's only my red explosion attack!” she said with a grin and tossed her hair with a cool grin. Her red exlplosion attack was one of her colored themed attacks based on how Dashie's hair has different colors too. Each of them have different abilities depending on what she has to do. Even though she made these attacks up she still didn't become part of the Wonderbolts because she first joined this team to fight against Davy.

“Save me a spot, Spitfire.” She said to Spitfire.

“Eva, now!” Twilight called out and Eva pushed the button that closed the doors to prevent the rest of the enemies to enter the base.

“That was close.” Davy sighed. He brushed his fingers through his black hair and looked to the rest of the team. “Wait...where's Smith?”

The rest of the team furrowed his eyebrows and wondered where Smith was.

“Oh no.” Twilight said.

She looked around the room in the team room and only counted the four of them. “Was he taken?” Rainbow exclaimed with a question.

“That attack was just a distraction to get Smith back!” Twilight said angrily and slammed her hoof onto the table. “We need to get Smith back!”

“I concur.” T-bone said.

To be continued.

Author's Notes: So this is my first story please tell me how I did but don't be mean because I'm not reallly expereience with writing. I promise it will be better later on I just don't have an editor or proofreaders yet. There will be a flashback chapter later on explaining how everyone got together so this was really to get the reader's attention with the story and the rest of the chapters will come back to this point in time.

Thanks for reading!

Sitting in a window-side booth of a cafe, Trixie looked up from the manuscript in her hooves and stared at the black earth pony colt sitting across from her. Her eyes then glanced again at the three pages, flipping through them as though there were something else to find.

“So? I really don't know who else to ask, Ms. Trixie.” the colt's small voice squeaked. “There's this website based on the new show that everypony loves that lets the fans upload stories. Can you be my editor?”

Trixie coughed and sniffed. Dazzle Blaze was a pony who had been friends with one of her client's kids at a party she had performed at a few months ago. His red and black striped mane pattern was strange at best, but it paled in comparison to the strange sorts of requests he brought to her over the past few weeks. It began with things such as her autograph, then teaching him some of her mundane performance magic...but then there was the time he asked for a lock of her hair...

She silently looked at him for a moment and wondered what his tape measure cutie mark had to do with this mess of a story she had before her.

“I found out that I'm really good at guessing measurements while working at my dad's tailoring shop.” He responded in a shy manner. The black coated colt fiddled his front two hooves together as anticipation to her answer built up.

Trixie on her part tilted her head and sighed. Tailor-made was a fine and upstanding stallion. He was more than willing to repair her costume for her shows at a reasonable price. That is, at a discount.

So the fact that he sent his odd-ball of a son to her for help made a troublesome situation for the mare.

In other words, she didn't know any other tailor in the area that was even half as good as he could thread a needle.

So she sighed and tilted her head in the other direction. She sucked air between her teeth and looked at the colt who had probably not blinked since she started reading.

'So weird.'

“I'll tell you what...”

“YES!?” the colt jumped off of his chair and rushed toward the blue unicorn.

Reeling back with her eyebrows furrowed, Trixie raised her hoof and pushed the colt away from her to create some breathing space. He realized his excitement and with a nervous smile he shuffled back a good two feet or so.

“Like I was saying...” she began again. “I don't have a clue what the show's about and I understand through experience that lots of writers want somepony who can respect their...uh...artistic license...for interpretation...”

“Yeah?” his eyes grew wider with her every word. Trixie decided to continue.

“I feel that...I don't think I'd be the best pony to help you out, kid.”

His ears immediately drooped and he dropped to his haunches. The colt's eyebrows arched upward and he looked like he was about to cry.

Trixie cringed at the sight.

“I'm not saying that I'm not going to help you!” she quickly added with her hooves waving back and forth. This caught his attention and the waterworks were delayed for a few more moments. “Well...I'm saying that I can't personally help you, but I can definitely point you in the right direction. I know some ponies that can help you! Heck, they're your age, so I'm sure they'll know what to do with your...uh...story!”

“Really?” He didn't seem as excited about the prospect as she thought he'd be, but Trixie shrugged at the thought. She figured it could just be his shy nature or something...

The blue mare stood up and confidently walked around the table and sat next to the previously downtrodden pony. Wearing a smile that a seedy used car salesman would be proud of, she patted Dazzle Blaze's shoulder in an assuring manner. “I'm sure of it!”

“No.”

“Heck no.”

Trixie frowned at the record speed of the two young ponies' rejection. “What? How come?”

The three of them were on the second floor of the Ponyville library, which was the blue mare's personal residence. It didn't take very long for Pip and Scootaloo to respond to Trixie's question.

“He's kind of, uh...how do I put it...” Pip was the first to speak and placed his hoof to his temple in thought. “Dazzle Blaze is sort of a...nerd.”

“He smells like old cabbages.” Scootaloo was more blunt about her reasoning.

“What?” the white and brown colt stared in confusion at the pegasus filly's stone cold resolve over her answer but shook his head because he knew better than to follow that rhetorical argument to nowhere. “Trixie, I'll be honest. Nopony likes Dazzle Blaze because he's a spazz. He's really annoying to deal with and he's really clingy about you for some reason. I swear he has some sort of voodoo doll of me that he stabs when I'm not around.” Pip explained while absentmindedly rubbing his shoulder.

“Yeah, and what's the deal with putting Twilight and Rainbow Dash into a 'Hydro Team Human Force' fanfic? For one thing, they're not even on that show and Rainbow Dash is so out of character!”

Ignoring Pip's implication that being clingy about her was somehow a bad thing, Trixie first directed her attention to the winged pony. “How can you even say that?” She said with a frown of disapproval on her face, “you haven't even read the damn-awful thing, yet.”

“Well I bet she is.” Scotaloo quickly countered. “Look me straight in the eyes and tell me that she's somehow in character.” She drew uncomfortably close to the unicorn and glared at Trixie with wide eyes.

“Could you just do this for me?” Trixie tiredly whined. “I seriously have no clue about his Hydro Human...thing...how about if you help the kid out with his fanfic or whatever, I promise to get you two tickets to that thing that you wanted.”

“You'll take me to the Equestrialand Themepark Arcade?” Pip exclaimed first.

“You'll take me to an all-you-can-eat buffet?” Scootaloo's face lit up at the thought.

“Sure, Pip. Hell no, Scootaloo, losing at the slots costs me less money than it does to feed you.”

“Fine.” Scootaloo puffed her cheeks. “Then how about we go on a girl's day out and shop? We can get clothes, then stop by a cafe and-”

“Your stomach is starting to piss me off.” Trixie said with a straight face. But since intimidation failed to wipe the wistful look on the pegasus' face as she was lost in her thoughts, Trixie could only shake her head and roll her eyes. “Fine, fine, but we'll get the smallest and cheapest items on the menu or stick to free samples and tap water if we can help it. Tsk...so?” she asked now less enthused since she would have to actually spend money to keep on the good side of her tailor's mood.

The earth pony and pegasus glanced at each other and nodded with smiles on their faces. They both looked to the older unicorn with wide grins. They each stretched out their hooves toward her and simultaneously said

“You got a deal!”

They blinked and looked at each other again.

“Well that was weird.” Pip said.

“I know, right?” Scootaloo added.

Author's Note: So this started out as a totally one-shot April Fools joke, but I ended up coming up with an original story arc...weird how things turn out, eh?

Race To The Bottom

Chapter 4

What greeted Pip upon entering the library that morning was the sight of a six foot tall dragon butting heads with a blue unicorn less than half his size. It was a common enough occurrence that sadly, Pip had somewhat gotten used to over the past two weeks.

“When are you going to pay for your rent you good-for-nothing mare!?” the dragon growled from atop a tall rolling ladder. Though considering its size, it didn't particularly seem necessary for him to even use it. Pip would even say it was a comical sight, if not for the dragon currently baring his teeth at an unfazed blue pony. The sharp-toothed creature had no problems placing the set of books in his grasp back into their proper spots without looking.

“The heck to that! You should be paying me for attracting so many ponies to your library! I'm sexy and you know it!”

“Oh? So I have you to thank for the three ponies and a school trip of ten foals that came by yesterday? A school trip, by the way, that I helped organize? Get a real job before I kick you out!” the dragon said while hopping off the ladder.

“I do have a job!” Trixie quickly snapped back.

The skepticism practically shooting out like an optic blast, the dragon rolled his eyes while procuring the next set of books from a nearby return cart. “If that's the case where's your rent!?”

“...I fixed your table the other day, shouldn't that cover for enough?”

“You broke that table in the first place!” He sighed. “Trying out one of your 'saw a volunteer in half' tricks! And stop trying to change the subject, what was your job again?”

“Forget it...” Pipsqueak shook his head at the ongoing battle. “...forget that I ever had any hopes or dreams for the future...” Glumly taking a seat at one of the long tables set up in the library, Pip moped as the pony and dragon largely ignored the concept of being quiet in a library. His eyes wandered away from the spat before him, taking note of the surroundings.

Like any library there were shelves of books. Tall shelves that nearly reached the ceiling of the room's wooden interior (an obvious result of the library being inside a tree) and about as wide as the side of a car. As for the books themselves, there had to be quite a few hundred or more to fill up those tall and wide shelves. Fiction and non-fiction. Sci-fi, historical, fantasy, biology, romance, both human and Equestrian periodicals, drama, thrillers, adventure—there spanned a whole spectrum of genres from what he could tell. From where he sat, a few racks filled with the latest gamer guides were available for perusal.

“I am a show mare, of course! Or have all of these books pushed out your short term memory from that scaly head of yours?”

“It doesn't count if you get paid in free food and birthday cake!”

“Since when?”

“Since nobody accepts birthday cake as currency!”

“Well I accept it as currency. So that isn't 'nobody' anymore, is it? Quite the flaw in your logic.”

“You weren't even part of the equation, much less considered an exception!”

As much as he tried to avoid it, the continuing ruckus ended up drawing Pip's attention back toward the scene in front of him. His eyes first settled on the taller, meaner-looking dragon that was poking a clawed finger at Trixie's chest.

First of all, it couldn't really be said that many libraries had a dragon for a librarian. And to think that that dragon was the same Spike that was just a baby the last time Pip saw him. Unlike before though, Spike was now about twice the height of the average pony when he stood up tall, and just a head above most adult men. His arms and legs were lanky, but proportional to his long torso and prehensile tail that were bedecked with many green fins along his spine.

It was hard for Pip to determine whether dragons progressed naturally from baby to adult as quickly (or slowly?) as Spike had, or if it was the effect of having an entire library as part of his hoard. Pip didn't know much about dragons to begin with, and Spike was an atypical example when compared to the few dragons—mostly violent, greedy, brutish animals—that he had met on top of that.

Whatever the case, the scaly librarian had shown Pip so far that he was more than competent enough to be charged responsible as the custodian of literature. From coordinating field trips to helping pony scientists with research, Spike was involved in a lot of ways outside of simply lending books to the townsfolk.

Pip's eyes then settled over the blue pony that was jabbing her hoof into Spike's torso.

It was interesting to learn that Trixie was living in a library of all places. Whatever the reason the dragon had for renting the private room in the library to the apparently unemployed mare was beyond Pip's imagination.

“But it's the economy, the economy!” Trixie ended up relying on the oft-quoted explanation. “You can't just say that I'm not motivated enough! I'm not the only one without a job, you know...”

Pipsqueak would never admit it out loud—not after realizing Trixie's true persona as displayed now—but he was inspired by what she was able to do practically single hoofedly two weeks ago. What she did not just for Dinky but all of those enslaved human women on the floating airship. He never knew of anypony able to pull off such a stunt as reckless as taking on a gang of armed humans.

Unlike his short time in the Trottingham town watch, Pip didn't feel like his energy was going to waste. He also didn't know that Trixie was also technically jobless at the time, making his request to work for her moot, but it didn't take long to learn from Spike that she spent most of her time doing odd jobs around the area.

“It's not like I do it because I want to...” Pip remembered her admit with a huff at one point, “...but one must support herself in-between venues!”

'Well she is a show-mare, after all...' He thought. There weren't too many places where a performer like her could practice mundane tricks and slight-of-hoof-magic outside of variety shows and children's birthday parties. It was interesting to think what her shows were like, since he had yet to attend any. But it was even more interesting to realize once more, that by being in this library, Pip was back in Ponyville. While Trottingham would always be where he was born, Pip considered Ponyville his true hometown.

It was strange enough to see how much of Ponyville remained as much as it did when he was a kid. Following after Trixie a couple of weeks ago when he first started “working” for her, Pip noticed how the roads were still mostly dirt rather than paved, and that most homes and buildings here were still built from wood rather than steel and concrete. A set of apartment complexes nearby were of course a novel sight, but the very fact that the tree that housed the library was still here was testament enough to how human-led urban development had largely skipped this town.

It was lucky enough that the trip between Ponyville and Trottingham was no longer the arduous journey it once used to be. Cars and high-speed trains had overtaken the prominent position that steam powered (and horse-drawn) carts and trains once had. That made commuting less of a hassle.

“Then why don't you go work in a mine?” Pip heard Spike reply with a grunt. “That makes good money! Great, even. Haven't you heard? There's another planet just chock full of precious high-demand metals and minerals! You might even meet other blue creatures! Go reunite with your family on Pand*ra!”

“You makin' fun of me?” Trixie sneered at his comment. “I could make a lot of money selling dragon-skin purses! I know for a fact that B. Mak*sky would love to have a purple design next season!”

“Which reminds me, I've been meaning to get glue for the children's arts and crafts activity next week!”

“Eh? Arts and Crafts? You sure do have a lot of time on your claws! Shouldn't you be busy stopping *asty *orc?”

“Go jump off a diving board.”

“Go kidnap a princess!

Spike snarled at this and drew his face close to Trixie's, scowling all the while. “...you want to be homeless?”

“...I don't have time for this...” She snorted. Breaking eye contact, she backed away. “...I have a show to prepare for...” Without following up, Trixie turned her back to Spike and went into the adjoining room and up the stairs.

Pip waited for a moment until the other pony was out of earshot before approaching Spike. “I don't want to seem nosy, seeing how you two are always arguing but...that last one was kind of mean, Spike...”

“Meh...” his green eyes quickly observed the white and brown pony and narrowed slightly. After a moment though, the dragon shrugged and closed his eyes. As the tension in area disappeared, Spike quickly seemed more casual, quite different from his heated attitude just moments ago. “You don't have to worry. That mare is a lot tougher than she looks.” Lumbering over to a pile of books placed haphazardly on one of the long tables, he stacked and carried them easily in his arms and began to re-shelve them by memory. “Plus I could never just kick her out since I'd never get my money then.”

“Oh. I see.” Pip chuckled nervously at the dragon's reasoning. Without further ado, the colt rushed after the other pony. A bit perturbed yes, but less surprised than he thought coming from someone that was willing to give somepony like Trixie a roof to live under in the first place. No one who displayed that small look of concern like Spike did at Pip's comment could really be apathetic.

Pip had followed the blue unicorn up the stairs in the private residential area of the tree. Reaching the top landing, he looked around to see a normal-looking bedroom. A twin sized bed with blue and white blankets, a single white pillow. A chest and dresser with a vanity mirror. Windowed doors that opened to a balcony outside.

Looking around, the room was quite spacious. Both this room and the library proper were the same height, this private room had an alcove that served as a bedroom while the main floor was used as a common area. On the upper level Pip had a high view of the common area. Below, there was an all-purpose table, as well as a couch set in front of a television set. Several more shelves of books lined the walls.

Apparently Spike no longer lived in the library itself. Though the dragon lived in a nearby house, citing that the library's private space was too small for someone his size. His question about Twilight Sparkle's whereabouts were left unanswered by both the Spike and Trixie. That heavy atmosphere then was enough of an indication to Pip that that was a touchy subject. He made sure to keep that in mind.

While he was always welcome to stay at the library now that he was 'working' for Trixie, Pip was fine with commuting from Trottingham. Although he was quickly running out of the savings he had from his earnings as a town watchpony. Remaining quiet all the while, Pip watched Trixie lazily plop onto her bed. He chose to sit on the floor nearby. “So how are you going to come up with the rent?”

“I dunno.” She mumbled. “Maybe I can try gambling? I'm sure I can double or triple the money I have left so I can live comfortably for a few months.” Trixie absentmindedly swung her legs, pointed toward the ceiling, to and fro, as though walking down some imaginary upside down road.

“Even kids know they shouldn't do that with their allowances.” Pip scoffed. “Don't insult the parents of the world who give a part of their hard earned money to their children as allowances every week.”

Rolling onto her side, Trixie shot him a frustrated look, like he was saying something meaningless. “So what do you expect me to do, steal? No thanks. I already learned my lesson.”

“Eh? What? What are you saying?” Pip blinked a few times while trying to comprehend her comment. However she didn't wait his mind to catch up before continuing on.

“And I don't need my rap sheet getting any longer, either.” she shamelessly admitted. “It's tough enough that I had to report to a parole officer for a few months!”

“Children of the world, please don't look at this adult as a role model! Learn from her mistakes!” Pipsqueak felt the depression welling up, and became unable to look at the blue pony the same way. “Fine...” he started with a sigh. “...if you help me with my grocery shopping, I mean, I don't have money to pay you with...so I guess I can let you have some of the dinner I was planning to make tonight.”

“Really? You'd do that? You're so kind! Like a saint! What a kind soul you have, Pipsqueak!”

While the problem was revolving around the notion of her rent bill, and not being able to money to pay for it, Pip couldn't stop the pity he felt when he saw Trixie with such a joyous expression in her eyes. “This is so backwards...offering my so-called 'boss' work...” he said in a drawn out sigh.

The two ponies were walking along the dirt roads of Ponyville after finishing with their grocery shopping. Their saddlebags bounced as they trotted, filled with the vegetables, sauces and spices necessary for what Pip had planned for dinner.

'To think I'd end up back at Ponyville after all this time...' Pipsqeak couldn't help but think as he regarded the town they walked back to the library.

“I wonder where Dinky's living? I'd sure love to tap that flank right about now!”

“LIKE HELL I'D EVER SAY THAT, DAMNIT!” Pip could feel a vein throbbing in his head right about now as he glared daggers at the light-blue mare walking beside him, whose eyes just screamed mischief. “And stop reading my mind!”

“Oh, what is this? An admission of Pipsqueak's inner dark thoughts come to light?”

“Tsk...I'll meet you back home!” He decided to speed up to a gallop, unnerved that he took Trixie's bait and fell for her trap. Embarrassment at admitting his feelings may or may not have been a contributing factor.

“Hey Pip!” he heard her call from behind him in a mechanical tone. “Pipsqueak!!”

“I can't hear you! Lalelulelo!” Closing his eyes as he ran, he suddenly bumped into somepony in front of him and tumbled to the ground. Opening his eyes again, Pip first noticed how the contents of his saddlebag were all strewn about but luckily it seemed that nothing was broken or had slipped out of its packaging.

“I was going to tell you to watch out.” Trixie said with a bored tone as she arrived on scene.

“Well try harder, next time!” Pip angrily snapped and craned his head to see the mare approach. His attention then returned to the pony he had crashed into. “Oh no, I totally ran over her!” his voiced wavered while looking over the pony lying on the ground.

“You definitely trucked her, Pip. Such a brute. Look, she even has a bandage on already.” Trixie pointed out the white wrappings around the dark orangey-yellow pony. “Way to go.”

“What? No, that's probably an injury from somewhere else. Besides, I don't think she's really hurt. She may just be a bit shocked, that's all! Yeah, that's it...look, she's definitely ok. Excuse me, miss?” Pip spoke as though he was trying to get a waitress' attention in a busy family restaurant. “Sorry for scaring you like that...good thing that that was just a near miss, right? Miss...?”

“That's the most spectacular 'near miss' I've ever seen...”

“Shush!” He spat at the unicorn's unhelpful comment. Turning back toward the body, Pip tried nudging it softly this time with his hoof. “Excuse me...” He tried nudging again. No response. “Excuse me...you can get up now...it couldn't have been that hard a hit...” He tried using his other hoof to poke at the body. Still no response.

The colt's lip twitched.

“Hey! It's very rude of you to just sleep here on the road like that, Miss!” Pip raised his voice as though he was trying to grab the attention of a waitress who had been ignoring his attempt to make an order in an empty family restaurant, and pushed the body with heavier force. “Listen here, you get up right this instant or else-”

Then a deep red began to soak up the bandage, expanding outward from a single point, before a whole pool of red liquid appeared to spread on the ground around the body.

The colt's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. “NOOOOOOO!”

Trixie and Pip quickly dragged their victim out of sight to a nearby alleyway, as the colt kept muttering thanks to Celestia that there weren't any witnesses.

“What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?”

“How about you watch where you're going...” a voice drunkenly grumbled in irritation from behind them.

Frozen in place, the two ponies mechanically turned their heads around and saw the dark orangey-yellow pony sitting upright on her haunches, her bandages covered in splotches of red dripping to the ground.

“Zombie pony! Zombie pony out to kill us!” Pip and Trixie screamed in each other's embrace.

“I am not a zombie pony...” the purple maned filly grumbled. “This must be some kind of sauce...it totally stained my bandage...” she said after sniffing the red liquid.

That was when Pip finally took a second glance at the pony standing before them. Her bright purple mane, greyish-purple eyes, that orange-yellow coat.

Pip couldn't believe his eyes. “Scoota...loo...?”

“Try being original! You already did that sort of cliffhanger in the first chapter, remember?” Trixie decided to jump-start Pip's mind, which had frozen from recognizing the pony before them, by noogying him with her blue hoof.

“Fine...just quit it first!” Pip struggled to push the blue pony's weight off of him, as his scalp began to burn from the friction. With a final shove, the colt succeeded. “Anyways...It's been a while, hasn't it? What have you been up to, Scootaloo?”

“Pipsqueak? Wow, yeah it has! Looks to me you managed to grow up pretty well.” the filly stated with a grin. Hoping that she wouldn't notice the sudden warmth he felt grow in his cheeks, Pip shrunk a bit from Scootaloo's inspecting glance. After looking between him and Trixie a few times, Scootaloo flashed an even wider smile. “Didn't know you'd be able to score a mare at your age! Good for you.”

“I am a fetching prize, aren't I?” Trixie smiled at the girl's affirmation of her greatness. Pip however, couldn't have disagreed as strongly as he did as a matter of principle.

“No. This one? Never. Not in a million years.”

“Really?” the filly blinked at his rapid response. “So it's just a 'casual' relationship?” Scootaloo smirked and wiggled her eyebrows, finally making her joking a bit more obvious to him. However silly she was trying to be, Pip felt a strong need to create as much distance between himself and Trixie. He was embarrassed enough for ever respecting her.

“So mean, Pip...”

“Like I said before, please stop reading my thoughts.”

“All kidding aside,” Scootaloo said to cut back into the conversation, “I just got back to Equestria. Did you know you need a license to fly now? Well I sure didn't! So after signing this bogus contract, I managed to get one. I was wondering if I could get a better one, because the one I have is for racing only.”

Breaking off his icy stare at the unicorn next to him, Pip looked back at the filly, taken aback by the casual manner that Scootaloo accepted her state of affairs. He had never heard about a contract being necessary to get a license.

Flying licenses, much like the magic ban, were the end result of the human domination of Equestria. They were made as a way to control the movement of the pegasi, just as the ban on magic was made to limit the dangers that unicorns naturally posed to humans.

Unlike in their cloud cities like Cloudsdale and Los Pegasus, pegasi were restricted to only a few reasons to fly near or within city limits of the Equestrian metropolis. Reasons such as weather control, delivery services, entertainment or sports. Humans had limited control of the countryside, so they didn't both with trying to expand their enforcement zone to the rural areas. But for those few pegasi that did decide to enter city limits, they had to keep their license on them at all times whenever they flew.

“What sort of contract?” Pip cocked his head, hoping that Scootaloo had just explained wrong. “Are you on a racing team? Because you mentioned that you had a racing license...”

“Nah, nothing serious like that.” the orange-ish filly scoffed at the notion. A cocky, toothy grin appeared in a manner too similar to a certain-blue-unicorn's image of herself that couldn't be coincidental. “I race on the betting tracks for a bunch of blowhard gangsters. I'm pretty top tier, but I only get a 10-90 cut of the winnings, not to mention that it's a ten year non-negotiable...that's a pretty bad deal, if you ask me!”

Again, the casual manner that she described her situation baffled the colt. “10-90? As in you only...? Wait, forget that, why were you only able to get a contract with gangsters? And a ten year deal at that! How did you end up signing something so messed up? Didn't you read the terms?”

“Well they were offering this wicked-looking platter of soybean empanadas when we were talking about the terms, and I was really hungry and-”

“SO IT WAS YOUR STOMACH!? YOUR STOMACH GOT YOU INTO THIS MESS!?”

Scootaloo recoiled from Pip's outburst and the saddened look in her eyes betrayed the small smile and chuckle she let out. “It's not just that...” Her voice was quieter this time, and she was immediately more measured about was she was going to say. “It seems that since I got back...nopony is willing to hire...much less affiliate themselves with a pegasus these days...”

Pip realized the purpose of those bandages now. It wasn't because she was hurt, but because they hid her wings. Thinking about it, even though licenses were required to fly now, that wouldn't explain why pegasi were all but non-existent in the city.

“You remember Rainbow Dash, right?” Pip nodded, surprised how the name has slipped from his mind until Scootaloo mentioned it. “Well a few years ago when humans first started coming to Equestria, she decided to go check out the Human World. And I went along with her. But I never knew what was going on until I came back just recently. Everything looks different...I haven't seen or heard from my friends in so long, and I even got in trouble for trying to fly while looking for everypony...”

“Scootaloo...” Pip felt awkward, not knowing if there was anything that could be done to help at this point. No, even if knew, he realized, was it something he even could do?

“And that's when I met up with those humans...” After soft inhale of breath, Scootaloo continued. “At first they paid me to win races. First against birds, then griffons and moved up to other pegasi. Later on I raced cars, trains, a fighter jet and even a rocket.”

“No, you have to be exaggerating...I think the last few ones are impossible...”

“Maybe...” she said and let out a soft laugh. “But those humans...now they want to take me back to the Human world...” Scootaloo's glance drifted downward and after another pause, her voice was even quieter. “...But I just want to stay here. Try to find everypony else...and show them how I'm able to fly now...but I don't want to do it just because I have to!”

“Well them's the breaks, kid. You're the one who signed the contract. You're the one who wanted to fly 'no matter what', aren't you?”

The voice came from a middle aged man, dressed in a black cotton robe and sandals. His black hair had streaks of gray and white in it, as did his small beard. A pair of dark wide-rimmed sunglasses hid his eyes from view. On either side of the portly man was about four other humans blocking the alleyway exit.

“Now that you've had your fun, it's about time to get back to the tracks. There's a race I need you in.” The man ordered. After a short wait, the man sucked air through his teeth at seeing that the ponies would not move. He let out a loud growling exhale and walked further into the alleyway, followed by the other men. To his surprise, the man strode right up and grabbed Scootaloo by her mane.

“Scootaloo!” Pip jumped forward at the sound of Scootaloo's pained cry only to be pulled back by someone grabbing his own mane. He craned his neck and saw two other humans, including the one keeping him from reaching Scootaloo. 'There were others behind us!?'

“Settle down, hotshot.” the man in sunglasses frowned. He combed his fingers through his hair and walked confidently to the colt. “She signed a deal and she's bound by its terms. It's something called the law. You wouldn't understand, kid. Complex adult stuff and all that.”

“Well that's a bullshit law! Let her go!” Pip winced at a heavy tug from the human grabbing his mane from behind him. “Let her go or I'll kick your ass!”

To this the man raised his hand and swung his arm, backhanding Pip. The force of the hit was surprising, but didn't do more than cause him to stumble back on his hind legs. Pip managed to catch his balance, though with his mane being held, remained standing on his two legs. “Noisy little runt, aren't you?” the man grumbled.

“Say...” taking a moment to look at the colt, the man chuckled. “I can never get over the fact that I'm talkin' to a pony. Say, are you one of her friends? Don't matter much to me but I gotta ask. For curiosity's sake...Do you know what she is?”

“What are you talking about!?” Pip's eyebrows furrowed.

“No!” the filly suddenly pleaded. She squirmed desperately while being held in response to the man's question. “Don't tell him!”

“Tell me what?” Pip's eyes widened. He struggled as best as he could from the tight hold on his mane. What was it that Scootaloo was so desperate not to let him know?

“Please! I beg of you!” Scootaloo was more panicked now, against the two to three humans it now took to hold her down.

“Shut up, already!” the man shouted at Scootaloo.

“Let her go!”

“You really didn't know, kid? I'd hate to break it to you but this pony friend of yours...is a pegasus. You're angry now, right? You earth ponies hate pegasuses, don't you?”

Pip gave a blank stare. “...uh...not really?”

“Wahaha, what a dumb kid!” he turned back to Pip with a wicked smile on his face. “You totally don't get it.” The man rubbed his temples as though he was grossly misunderstood and walked back to where Scootaloo was being apprehended. “Take a look. Under these bandages, she's been hiding a pair of wings! See! She's totally different from you!”

“Please Pip, don't look!” The filly's melodramatically panicked behavior was more apparent from the way she whined. So much so that Pip was unsure how to react anymore.

Despite her protests, the human took his knife edge under the fabric and ripped it open, revealing her wings. They spread out instantaneously after being released from the constricting bandages. Her body shook in a spasm and her head jerked back from the sudden force.

“W-well, uh...ah...huh...?” Pip's eyes danced around the image of her lean frame, probably as a result of the physical demands of racing. “Wait, no!” the colt violently shook his head and with a sudden backward thrust, hit the man behind him with the back of his head, managing to escape. This took the others by surprise, but no one moved to stop him.

“But...” the colt began after recovering his composure. “I knew already...that she's a pegasus. Kind of a pre-existing condition, I guess. I've always been ok with that.”

The old man adjusted his sunglasses. “Wait, really?”

“...yeah.” Pip said cautiously and stood his ground, appreciative that the group hadn't ganged up on him yet. While focused on the older man, Pip knew for certain that there were still the two men behind him, while using his peripheral vision was able to make out the others standing nearby the one in sunglasses.

“D-doesn't matter. We have a contract.” the older man finally said. He adjusted his robes and slowly regained his confidence as the white and brown pony failed to make any further erratic actions. He had the numerical advantage as well as assured that he was dealing with an earth pony, while Scootaloo was already restrained by his other men.

“She's already an integral part of our group. Back in our world, we're entertainers, you see And our audience has already gotten bored of talking ponies. So we're going after pegasi. We had heard that they were amazing flyers, but after meeting your friend here, we'd made more money than I could have ever imagined!”

“So...she's just entertainment? Somepony for your amusement you kept in a cage whenever you wanted?” Pip could feel his jaw ache. Clenching his teeth so tightly, he wanted nothing more than to charge at the man and pound him with his hoof. “That's totally messed up!”

The man scratched his chin. “Well...I'll tell you what. If you could get some other pony to fill in for your friend, I'm sure we could arrange a deal. I'm even willing to pay you a bonus if you got a unicorn to sign up! After all, what'd be more amazing than seeing real life magic?”

“Hey Pipsqueak, I got bored with your whole flirt-fest with your friend after you stopped paying attention to me, so I went to buy some magazines and a lotto ticket with your leftover grocery money. Don't worry, I saved the change.” Sauntering obliviously into the alleyway, the blue mare with a silver mane ignored the humans and walked right up to Pip, her saddlebags full of miscellaneous items that were not magazines or lottery tickets. For example the box of a make-your-own-slurpie kit was poking out of one of the pockets.

'I was wondering where she had wandered off to...' Pip mentally groaned. His worries were not helped one bit by this change in situation. He gulped, seeing how despite her arrival, they were still outnumbered. Pip remained tense, wondering how he was going to get out of this situation

“Get a load of this! It's a real unicorn!”

“N-no way!”

The seven humans, amazed by their find, all approached the Trixie with slack-jawed looks on their faces. Even the two humans standing behind Pip moved into his line of sight to have a better view of the pony. The man in sunglasses walked closer with a cooler attitude, but the smirk on his face was noticeable nonetheless.

“Oh hello...what do we have here?” Trixie's eyes lit up at the human group moving toward her. Her excitement grew in proportion to how many eyes were aimed in her direction.

“So this is a unicorn?”

“Definitely headliner material!”

“Think she can do any good tricks?”

“Mmmm, yes boys, do go on!” Trixie reveled in the attention, practically prancing in place as the compliments continued. “Don't be afraid of getting a close look!” Her show-mare instincts kicking in, the blue pony flashed a practiced smile and began posing to the astonishment of the men around her. “Ten bucks a picture...double if you want to take one with me.”

“Hey, that's a pretty sweet deal.” One of them commented, even checking through his wallet to see if he had enough.

“Just...wow...” Pip hung his head low at their pitiful amazement.

“You know miss, I'm in the entertainment business and I must say you're quite the specim-special kind of pony I've been looking for.” The old man took off his sunglasses, revealing dark brown eyes that had weathered old age.

“I think he was about to say 'specimen' and changed halfway through!” Pip exclaimed to no one in particular.

“The name's Maury.” Squatting down so he was at eye level with the pony, the man produced a small white business card and presented it for her to see. “I'd love to be your manager. If you have any questions, we can discuss them over lunch. My treat, of course.”

“OI! HE'S TRYING THE SAME TACTIC LIKE HE DID WITH SCOOTALOO! DON'T FALL FOR IT! DON'T LET YOUR STOMACH SELL YOU OUT!”

“Oh, really?” Trixie read through the limited text provided on the card.

MAURY B.

AGENT

(XXX) XXX-XXXX

“...Maury, is it?” Trixie said as she looked back toward the man. “I've got a question...”

“Oh? Can it wait until lunch? I'm sure you must be starving.” Maury fiddled with his robes again as he stood back up.

“No, I'm just curious about something.” Manipulating her lips into a pout, Trixie tilted her head slightly while remaining in eye contact with the human. “If you could be so kind? It's just a short question.”

“Okay,” he finally sighed and shrugged. “As long as it's a quick one. Please, ask away.”

“Do you know how painful getting kicked by a pony is, Maury?” she asked darkly, her eyes suddenly emotionless but still aimed up toward the human.

His eyes furrowed and a look of confusion created several wrinkle lines in his face. “Wha-?”

Two humans flew into the air and crashed into the garbage lined up along the alleyway walls. Her silver tail following after the lightning speed of her surprise attack. With a quick spin on her front hooves, two other men were too slow to avoid being bucked out of the alleyway entirely, thrown onto the main dirt road. The final two, breaking out of the shock from the unicorn's attacks on the others, had managed to dodge and duck respectfully from her two next strikes.

Pip took advantage of their complete focus on Trixie, running head first into the back of the man who had attacked him, then jumped on his hind legs and struck the other human with his left front hoof. They crumpled to the ground, unconscious before Pip landed.

“N-no!” The bearded Maury trembled at the sight of the two ponies now facing him. With a scream, the older man ran deeper into the alleyway as fast as his portly body could carry him. Too afraid to back look over his shoulder, he soon found himself at a dead end. “Shit! No!” He stared at the wall before him and froze as the approach of steps became louder behind him. His eyes wide, Maury slowly turned to have a long dark silhouette cover his body.

He blindly grasped behind him while stepping further back only to find himself against the wall. He sank to the ground, his legs losing feeling as the blue unicorn continued closing the distance between them, walking ever so slowly. Maury tried to scramble further into the wall, clawing at it as though it would suddenly give way. “Y-you wouldn't dare...” the older man gasped. “You attacked me first! I didn't do anything illegal! You got nothin' on me!”

“That's interesting to hear.” Trixie noted quietly. Standing normally on all four of her hooves, the pony was able to look down at the human cowering on the ground before her. “...you're really going to say that when you've been carrying out illegal gambling without a permit?” Trixie countered his perplexed expression with a wily smile. “I heard enough of the filly's story to know that you've been swindling the poor girl.”

“Well she signed the contract! It's a legal document!”

“Ha! There's no way anypony would normally accept a 10-90 cut. Or even a ten year contract for that matter. Even if that pegasus was being stupid about the whole thing, no one's going to accept that such a lopsided deal is legit. Besides...I'll have you know that I've memorized every racing team in the books. And I've never even heard of your team.”

“You shouldn't be proud of that...” Pip said as he reached the end of the alleyway, shaking his head in despair.

“I doubt that you didn't know that black market racing is a punishable offense in Equestria. Which means that the only reason you would still do it would mean that some official is looking the other way in exchange for a cut. Meaning that the government is losing all of that tax revenue. I'll let you know that most ponies are pretty set against corruption, although I'm sure that some of the less scrupulous ponies would be pretty pissed that they're not getting their cut.” Trixie had brought her face close to Maury's, wearing a malicious smile. “Now...let's make a deal, shall we?”

“You brought home another mouth to feed?” the purple and green dragon growled with his face resting in his scaly palm. As part of Pip's suggestion and partly for the colt's welcoming party, Spike had closed the library early that night to try Pip's preparation of parmesan pumpkin dumplings and oven roasted sunchokes.

Spike, expecting the dinner to be just the three of them, had skipped his usual pre-dinner snack. With the sudden and unannounced addition of a fourth however, the dragon's portions had gotten decidedly smaller.

“And a 'hello' to you too, Spike.”

Spike ignored Scootaloo's quip and focused instead on staring at Trixie. “You should expect your already-late rent to rise if you decide to let her stay with you. I'm not letting you scam me out of an extra meal for yourself. There's a reason it's called 'room and board'.” Trixie ignored the stare, focusing on eating her food.

“Though I love the idea, it's kind of hard to pull off when she eats twice as much as you do.”

With a snort, Spike scratched the back of his neck and looked at the pegasus sitting next to him. “Hi, Scootaloo. Good to see you.”

“Hi!” The filly's smile beamed warmly at his delayed response before turning to her fourth serving to everyone else's first or second. “This is...really good stuff, Pip.” She garbled between her chews. “You'll make a great wife some day!”

“Ha, ha.” the colt returned a frown. After taking a bite, he found it hard to prevent the happiness exuded from his taste buds to show. “But thanks for your compliment nonetheless.”

“I aim to please!” she chimed back. Independent of the cool, snarky look on Scootaloo's face, her wings fluttered lightly before settling back to their folded position.

Watching this, a thought came to Spike. “You realize that even though you got out of that contract, without a flying-specific job you can't get a license, even if you had the money, right?”

“That's only a temporary setback.” She said while plopping a sunchoke into her mouth. “You can rest assured my new job will let me pay for rent. As for a license, I'll figure something out. No big deal.” Scootaloo shrugged. “Hey, you gonna eat that?” her hoof was like a blur reaching across the table and grabbing the last of the dumplings. Holding the plate in her mouth, the pegasus placed the food onto Trixie's plate. “Here ya go, boss.”

Spike glared at Trixie, watching her take slow deliberate bites of her recently acquired food. After eating a portion, she returned Spike's glare and feigned innocence. “It's part of her contract.” She said with a smile. “She does good work.”

Dropping his fork onto his empty plate, the dragon let out a slow, heavy sigh. “...yeah....yeah...”

Why Is It That Your First Impression Of Someone Is Sometimes Completely Different From Who They Really Are?

Seated at a table in Ponyville library's basement, a certain orange-yellow pegasus watched with suspicion the human girl walking up and down the stairs helping Spike carry boxes and equipment. It was Saturday, so the library would open at eleven o'clock instead of the usual nine o'clock during weekdays. Meaning they all still had a good two hours before the three or so usual patrons “stampeded” into the place. While still a bit rushed, Spike and this human girl were carefully pacing themselves so they didn't fall and trip down the stairs with their heavy boxes and equipment.

The basement, once used as a storage area for a number of miscellaneous things, was to be converted into what could be considered a cafe. There was even a separate entrance made to enter the basement from outside during the library's closed hours. During the day, the basement would be used as an additional study room and web cafe, while at night, there were plans to make the space more or less a hangout. A bar where food and drinks would be made had already been constructed opposite of the stairs that led up to the library, and like where Scootaloo and Pip were currently sitting and sampling the proposed menu items, several tables with chairs were set up.

The table Scootaloo was seated at had a rounded shape, but was not exactly a proper circle. It was more of a rectangle that had its edges made curved. A number of holes were strategically bored into the tabletop, which was made for cords to run through. Though at this particular table, two plates of food were currently being attended to.

“So who's the chick?” Her question receiving only an arched brow in response, Scootaloo moved closer to Pip and asked again in a hushed tone. “Who's the human chick?”

Pip in turn shifted a few centimeters to his left, as the pegasus pony was practically brushing up against him in order to ask her question. “Someone who Spike hired to help at the web cafe.” The colt said as he moved his plate in front of his new spot at the table. Before continuing however, Pip made sure to take a few bites of food. He wasn't about to let the current situation go to waste—Scootaloo's curiosity overtaking her usual habit of vacuuming up the meager provisions for lunch. “From what Spike's told me, she's apparently a college student back in the human world, who's looking to do her thesis paper on Equestria. Though I don't know the exact circumstances, she's helping out because she's apparently good with computers.”

“You mean 'Earth'.” Scootaloo admonished him.

“What?” Pip blinked. He regarded the pony next to him with the confusion worn on his face.

“Stop calling it the 'human world' like a dweeb. They're from 'Earth'.”

“Even though you lived there, I seem to recall you calling it the human worl-” before his eyes the grilled tomato that Pip was saving for last was nabbed from his plate by the ever quick pegasus. “WAITAMINUTE! NOT FAIR! Stop distracting me!”

“Hehehe, all's fair in food and war!” she haughtily announced with bits of tomato being spat out as she did so. Following this up with a villainous laugh, Scootaloo pushed on with her onslaught to take what Pip had been saving for second-last.

The earth pony engaged in a battle of wits, will, and speed, all of which he was outclassed by the purple maned girl.

“MWA-HAHAHA! Victory!”

“Not...again...” Pip groaned out on the floor. On his noggin, a single, swelling bruise began to grow.

Chapter 5

In the few days that the pegasus started living at the library, Pip had quickly learned that meals had become as much a battle as fighting crime. After nurse the bump on his head, the size of which would probably qualify him for a purple heart, Pip regarded the increasing pile of things in the equipment with half of his attention.

It reminded him of how Scootaloo had brought a surprisingly large amount of stuff when she moved in. Mostly things she had collected on her travels with Rainbow Dash, as well as trophies and ribbons from her days on the racing track.

The things that Spike and this human were bringing down were a bit more technical. Wires, cords, computer monitors, as well as glasses and other items for the recently constructed bar.

“Humans sure have an imagination...” Pip heard Scootaloo mumble under her breath. “Like, who came up with calling the internet 'the web'?” Her eyes continued following Spike and the human enter and leave the basement through the stairs—her gaze more intense for the human in particular

“I don't know.” Pip answered with a shrug. “It can't be a bad thing, considering how it's so popular with everyone these days.”

“Yeah, no question about it. I went online a bunch of times already, but...” she scrunched her face in thought, “why 'web'? Doesn't that involve spiders? I never got that while watching videos and reading stuff online.”

Again Pip could only shrug his shoulders. Unlike Scootaloo, he never had any experience with the internet to speak of, much less been on a computer. Even still, Pip couldn't help but to be a bit perplexed at the sight of the machines that Spike was setting up.

Scootaloo placed her hooves on the table and lazily rested atop of it. “Then again,” she spoke loud enough for the dragon to hear her, “I guess ponies seem to have an even better imagination from the look of those hunks of junk.”

“Hey, peanut gallery! Keep the clamor down, will you?” Spike hollered back at the sneering filly. He threw plastic bottle at her for good measure, which she easily dodged. “Tsk...” Realizing the futility of pursuing any further, Spike returned to the task at hand. “It's just a different model.” the dragon grumbled, currently busying himself with setting up the first computer station.

“Ha! 'Different' is an understatement.” Scootaloo quipped. “How do you call a bunch of typewriters with television screens attached to them computers?”

“...Real computers are expensive.” Spike muttered after a long pause.

“Oh, he admitted that what he has aren't computers...”

By this point Spike was staring at the back of the cathode-ray tube television set with a full scowl on his face. “I'm gonna get a drink.” Spike announced with a heavy exhale. Dropping the wires in his claws, he stomped over to the bar to check on the machines over there.

In the meantime, the human walked over to the table that Scootaloo and Pip were seated at, retrieving her bag put on the seat of one of the chairs and placed it atop the table. The white and brown colt didn't know whether to make it seem like he was busy or not. Pip couldn't really say he had the best of experiences with humans as of late, so he was a bit at a loss as to what to do.

“So...Rin...” Pip began, recalling that Spike said that was her name, “what brings you to this library?”

“Yeah, what's up your sleeve, chica?” Scootaloo demanded bluntly, receiving a quick shove to the floor from the pony next to her. “The hay, Pip!?” she yelped as she got back to her hooves.

All the while, Rin waited for the two ponies to settle down before responding. “It's kind of obvious that I'm not wearing sleeves, right?” the woman raised her arms to reinforce that fact.

“Hmph...I'm watching you...” Scootaloo finally said. She raised her hoof to her eyes and pointed the tip toward Rin's direction. Without anything further, she hopped off her chair and trotted to Spike at the bar.

“I'm sorry about that.” Pip offered a weak smile.

“Oh, it's no big.” Rin returned with a smile of her own. “Can't say I blame her, with all the girl's been through.”

'I don't remember telling her about that...did Spike?' Glancing over Rin's shoulder, Pip spotted Scootaloo perched at one of the stools, spinning in place with a smile. As soon as she realized she was spotted however, a scowl returned and she repeated her gesture of pointing her hoof from her eyes toward their direction.

'Watch...ing...you...' she mouthed those words expecting the human to be able to read lips.

It was too absurd a sight for Pip to take seriously.

“As to your question, I'm studying to get my Masters in English. I wanted to write on the allusion of dragons in medieval literature all over the Earth, but who would have thought I'd have the chance to meet with a living, breathing dragon?”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Pip looked back at the short haired woman. If he had to guess she couldn't be any older than her early to mid twenties, from what he knew about how humans aged. From what he gathered, dragons and really, most anything from Equestria was non-existent in the place where humans came from. Call it “Earth” or the “Human World” or whichever, ponies didn't talk and magic didn't exist for them before they came to Equestria.

“And Spike was so nice to offer me a job while I worked on my paper.” the woman shrugged her fair shoulders. “He's really a sweet guy.”

“Spike? 'Sweet'?” Pip aimed a glance to the dragon's direction once more, and spotted him trying to stop Scootaloo from meddling about behind the bar. His sharp teeth were bared while engaged in a tug-of-war with the smaller filly which sent a shiver down the colt's spine.

“Hey! We're out of food...that damn pegasus filly just won't stop...she's just a machine...a food terminator! Over.” Trixie's voice echoed around the basement through the library's speaker system.

As the whiny crackle turned to silence, Spike let go of the drink machine's extended hose, throwing Scootaloo off balance and onto her haunches with a yelp, and walked over to the basement unit. On the nearby counter, a bald and goofy-looking bird was perched in its cage, somehow managing to sleep through the ruckus. When Spike reached the console built into the wooden wall, he pressed a clawed finger on the button, initiating the 'send' function from his end. “This isn't a radio so you don't have to end with 'over', Trixie.”

“Sorry, what was that?” Trixie's voice crackled flatly, “I couldn't understand what you just said. Over.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Ignoring that...Maybe if somepony hadn't brought her here in the first place?”

“I fail to see your point. Over”

“Well, here's an idea. Maybe so there's enough food for everyone I should just start charging rent...oh...wait...” Spike leered at the speaker console as though it could be transferred through the system to the blue unicorn on the ground floor. It was a futile effort however.

“That sounds like a stupid idea. Over.”

“Ugh...” Spike pinched the bridge of his nose between his claws, just about ready to throw the blue pony into a river when the speaker crackled again.

“By the way you have visitors. Over.”

“Huh?” Spike looked at the nearby wall clock to see that it was only ten-thirty. “Visitors?”

What greeted the group when they arrived at the front door of the library was a pair of town watch ponies.

A brown and neon green coat color respectively, they each wore the distinctive town watch band around their front left leg. “Excuse me,” the green one with a brown mane bowed his head politely before stepping into the library. “There's been a number of reports of identity theft. After some investigation we've determined that the source is from this address.”

“That's a bit surprising to hear.” Spike scratched the back of his ear in surprise. “But you have nothing to worry about, officers. No one I can think of would ever-”

The shriek of tires caught everyone's attention.

A blur rushed by the open doorway. Hurrying to see what was going on, the ponies and dragon rushed outside to see Rin riding away on a scooter with a stack of the “computers” piled on the rear basket.

“Damn it, my scooter!” Spike bellowed.

“H-hold on,” Scootaloo said mid-chuckle. She failed to hold back the smirk grown on her face. “You have a scooter?”

“Only when I'm not flying around.” Spike deadpanned with an accompanying leer.

“Heh. I'd get mad at you if you weren't a crippled dragon.” Scootaloo shot back, fluttering her wings to point out what most dragons had that Spike didn't.

“Caaw?”

“Peewee!?” He screamed even louder. The sight of a befuddled and wide-eyed featherless bird perched in a cage hanging in the pile of stuff was a strange thing to behold.

“Hold on, buddy! I'm gonna-” Before Spike could give chase, Trixie had already bounded after the scooter.

Too stunned at the moment, Pip as well as the other males simply watched as Scootaloo then flared her wings and ran after Trixie. “Right behind you, boss!”

The first of the guys to break out of the stupor, Pip stumbled for a moment but managed to run past the two other ponies after the girls. “Scootaloo, what are you doing!? You don't have a flight license, remember!?”

“Don't care!” she said while galloping at full speed. With a jump and a flap of her wings, Scootaloo was airborne. She flew upwards well above the roofs of the town, then dove, using the force of gravity to boost her speed as she gained ahead of her earth pony. From her vantage point, she easily bolted toward the direction of the escaping scooter.

Looking ahead, Pip spotted Trixie and sped his legs as best he could, eventually catching up with her but found it strenuous to run alongside her. “Are you going to just completely ignore the magic ban!?” Pip cried out a gasp as he saw Trixie's horn glow.

“What are you talking about? Magic?” She answered in-between pants of breath. She was looking ahead, eyes furrowed. “It's all just smoke and mirrors! You should grow up, already!” Without stopping, Trixie grabbed a coil of rope hanging off of a storefront display with her teeth. As the glow engulfed her body, the pony instantaneously blinked from sight.

Pip slid to a stop in the dirt road, startled by her sudden disappearance. Panting, he sat on his haunches, breathing haggardly. “You don't...even know...where she's...going...” Pip shook his head and sighed.

The shrill buzz of the motor fluctuated and strained to traverse the dirt roads. Each bump was felt from the wheels through the suspension into the light chassis of the eggshell-white scooter. Especially as Rin drove through the alleyways, it took effort for her to handle the scooter. Nonethless her focus was no less a distraction as her green eyes darted to look at the scooter's rear view mirror, noticing movement.

Above the roofs of Ponyville, a pegasus appeared from the sky and was approaching close.

She drove around the corner, swerving to make her path too complicated to follow, but to no avail. In fact, this only seemed to have given the pony the chance to close the distance, as her hooves were just out of reach of the scooter's rear bumper.

Scootaloo wasn't about to let the woman get away, nor was she about to do anything as immature as spouting off some witty one-liner. No, that could wait as soon as she grabbed hold of the scoo-“WHA!?”

Because of her close distance, she barely managed to pull to the left of the scooter that suddenly screeched to a halt. Her momentum too great, the pegasus was victim to her inertia that sent her tangling into a clothesline.

“HA!” Rin smiled at the sight and drove on down a connecting alleway, seeing the bridge that led out of Ponyville. But to her surprise, there a large purple dragon blocking the way. She slowed to a stop at the mouth of the bridge, leaving it on idle.

“You of all people should know how bad an idea it is to pilfer a dragon's hoard.” he said simply.

“Heh.” Rin shot him a dirty look. It dawned on her now that a resident like him would know the most likely ways out of Ponyville. Was she simply being corralled by those ponies? “It's not everyday that a dragon just welcomes me into his den. You're too nice to strangers.”

“It's a result of my upbringing.” Spike shrugged. “...I really took you for a nice girl, too.” Spike gave the woman a tired look. “Would have been nice for the kids if you were a different kind of human. Too bad that I fell for your acting.”

“That's right. It's your fault, since you're too trusting, Spike. You should stick to your instincts, instead of taking in whoever asks for it.”

“Where would I be if I did something like that?” Spike countered. “If I were as cold and heartless as everyone thinks dragons are, then I'd never have realized...”

“I'm sorry...” The blue pony sniffled, delirious from fatigue and shivering from the cold harsh wind that carried snow onto the both of them. “I...I couldn't...” Her voice wavered for a moment. She made a trembling gasp of air. “...Twilight...she...”

His breath vaporized and was taken away by the wind. Stoic, calm, slow breaths. But shallow. Spike stroked his claw through the once silky pure-silver mane, now grimy and caked by sweat and dirt. He gently used the sharp tips of his claws to tear and break the knots that had formed, as each finger combed through the once lustrous mane.

“There, there...” Spike cooed. His words almost in danger of being carried off by the strong wind like the puffs of vapor from his mouth. He swallowed. “It's alright...”

Spike found himself lying. What he thought, what he really felt...they were completely at odds with what he was telling this pathetic pony, dirtied and bloody, scratched up and bruised, resting her head heavily in his lap. Despite being a warm blooded creature, it was as though the pony was struggling to survive by drawing upon some of his body warmth.

“N-n-no....” she started with a haggard breath. Her head's harried shake turned rapid like that of her body's shiver. “I know I said...but I...promise...”

The wind howled.

“I know you did, Trixie...” The dragon whispered. “But...please...don't just...”

“...I pro-promise...” she repeated herself, as though not hearing his words. “...pro...mise...”

Spike felt a drop of warmth against his leg. So unlike the cold wetness fluttering heavily from the sky that brushed against his scales, uncaring to the emptiness he currently felt. Ignorant to the waning heat that emanated from the curled figure on his lap. “...so...sorry, Spike...”

“Shhh...” he clenched his jaw tightly. Spike stared at his clawed hand brushing her mane, urging it not to betray his deceit. To not tremble. To stay strong. Because he had to be.

“I...I promise...you....that...”

“...even after I forgave her...” Spike looked ahead, unsurprised by the sudden materialization of the silver-maned unicorn atop a nearby rooftop. “...to think she'd still...” His lips curled upward as his brows furrowed. “...promise to never let me feel betrayed again...”

“Well...okay...” Rin scoffed and looked around, spotting another nearby bridge. “Good luck with all that.” Flicking back the kickstand with her heel, she began driving along the river to continue her escape. Trixie ran parallel, keeping up with the speed of the human on the scooter. Jumping down from the roof, Trixie easily threw a coil of rope around the woman's legs, pulling her off the scooter and sending her tumbling to the ground.

It didn't take long for the police to arrive. Even though the were in hot pursuit of a certain orange-yellow pegasus flying without a license. Of course because it was her first offense, and it was done while aiding them, the town watch let Scootaloo off with a warning. It also helped that Trixie had performed at their children's birthday parties, but that reason was unofficial.

Rin however wasn't as lucky as she was negotiated into the vehicle by a much shorter pony standing on its hind legs. The “computers” that were used in an apparent identity theft ring to spam all the surrounding networks with trojans were taken for evidence, placed tetris-style into the trunk of the police cruiser.

Casually leaning back on the bridge railings, Trixie and Spike watched in silence as Rin was escorted into the black and white cruiser.

Pip finally caught up as well, gasping desperately as his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth. “I...i...I....here...” While he had been galloping as fast as he could, it was obvious that his endurance was all but spent and he collapsed to the ground just short of stepping onto the bridge.

“Bout time you showed up, slowpoke!” Scootaloo trotted over to him with a laugh. “You're never gonna believe how close I was to stopping her! So close!” She playfully kicked at the colt, which only succeeded in making him roll over onto his back, still panting and wheezing. “Hey, listen up already! Pipsqueak!” Nudging the disoriented pony, Scootaloo let out a frustrated growl.

With a quick sharp chirp of his siren, the town watch police cruiser began heading to the Ponyville detachment to process their newly apprehended criminal.

“She said she'd cooperate with the town watch and give back the money she'd managed to take from the people and ponies' accounts she gained access to. In return for giving her a place to stay”

“That's nice of her.” Trixie replied in a bored manner. It was apparently less interesting than inspecting her hooves.

After a moment, the sirens of the police vehicle had disappeared. The creak of metal attracted Spike's eyes down to the cage set at his feet, where a featherless bird returned a blank stare at him. “Thanks. For saving Peewee and all.” The “computers” if he could call them that, were the farthest thing to worry about in his mind. Stealing Peewee, that had been resting in its cage in the basement was apparently to prevent a witness that could track her down, though that didn't seem to help her situation. “I guess I'll accept that as this month's rent.”

“That's nice of you.” she replied again in a bored voice. After tending to an itch at the back of her head, the unicorn let out a soft sigh. “Spike.”

“Yeah?”

“I'll be sure to get you that happy meal next time.”

“Forget the happy meal. Although I'd be happy with the toy, I just want the rent paid when it's due from now on.”

“Sure, sure, next next month's rent is a given.”

“Why are you skipping next month's!?”