An All Blue Tale

Hooves are just awful, because you couldn't do a thing with them. He fidgeted then grimaced, and not simply because his “rump” and “hind" legs felt off, neither was it because he was bound by “hoof-cuffs” or seated like a dog. He was absolutely sure the “guard” poking him with a stick wasn't the cause.

"Knock it off!" Marco snapped. However, it came close.

The answer to paragraph one's previous written conundrum was simple, if not infuriating, because Marco tried once more to defy nature only to fail. He tried again, and found an improvement, only to snort disapprovingly when the feeling he sought after vanished within a moment.

Still, he thought, I'm not worried, I can't be... Yes, he couldn't be, even if his reasons were justified. Unable to calm himself he was left to ponder on his own thoughts. What made a devil fruit user? The obvious answer was power, of course. But where had his gone, Marco wondered. The cuffs around his hooves weren't made of sea stone.

Hooves.....

God.

"Once more." He murmured as he struggled against his bonds. There were two other "horses" with him, both coloured white and dressed in Armour. Expensive armour he liked very much. One pulled the the cart Marco sat in, while the other had taken it upon himself to jab our protagonist with a spear whenever he so much as twitched.

"Who paints Armour in gold-yoi?" Marco huffed. His chains were beginning to chaff. He stared uneasily at the sword that hung on the ponies' flanks. He wasn't afraid, far from it. Marco the phoenix feared no mortal wound. A cautious man is a living one, as Teach used to say. He wouldn't forget that.

"Where are we going you horses?"

The guard's ear twitched and the other spared him a glance.

"Why was I arrested-yoi?" Marco eyed him and sat back, his lips set into a thin line. Neither of the two guards had had so much as blinked this time round. It didn't matter though whether they answered him or not. He didn't plan on staying.

Then he flinched but the guards took no notice.

"Sonova..." Marco swore. The horse pulling the cart had a horn. He looked to the side and barely bit back another curse. The other one had a horn as well. Were they both mythical fruit users? No, He chastised himself. That would mean every other horse he'd seen thus far had eaten an..

Uma Uma no mi? Pfffft.

He definitely hadn't eaten one. Not that he could have in the first place.

This wall all natural then, their specie had grown like this. "At least some of them," he shrugged. Why was he different then. He didn't have a horn. Come to think of it, he didn't even have wings like the others in the sky. He was very plain, in spite of his blue coat of feathers.

Fur?

No.

Marco, better than most could claim, knew how it felt to have feathers. He was definitely covered in them. The guards however had fur, he was sure of it. While he pondered a familiar feeling traveled up his spine, telling him he could once more defy the law. As the cart drew nearer to a castle-were he would face a sentence. Marco huffed and stood slowly. The cart pulled to a stop.

"Please remain seated." The guard stared at him sharply.

Marco's coat was lively and It seemed to move on its own. The guard did not take notice.

When Marco took a step away from him the guard yanked hard on his captive's chains. The guard was shocked when the cuffs promptly flew through Marco's hooves, with the latter of the two smiling. "Don't worry too much, eh." The blonde said, "I'll be gone before you know it so.."

He jumped out and walked away, only to turn his head.

"And about catching me...just forget it-yoi."
________________________________________

He left the horses in the dust, as his body was now something extraordinary. Marco the phoenix wouldn't die for a crime as petty as stealing. He was a grown ass pirate and he wouldn't have needed to do so if his situation was different.

"I never thought I'd turn into a horse, a phoenix sure but this is too much."

Transformation wasn't a strange topic to him. The body was.

Preview:

"Wait." Celestia declared. Her royal guards, as per her word, froze in mid step. She looked to Marco and spoke."Should freedom mean to you that much then I propose a deal: a test of ability."

She eyed him, judging him, and smiled when he only he did so as well. "Young..Marco, was it?" She received a nod, "Thou, as well as my most trusted soldier claims you to have flown away when my Captain of the Knights confronted thee, yes?" She hadn't looked at him this time- no. Rather her distrusting gaze fell on the supposed Captain that had assaulted him.

The guard withered beneath it.

Just as any lesser man would have under the stare she now gave Marco. "My proposal is simple then." She raised a wing to his side towards the window. "Simply escape again." She commanded. Marco however, was not a lesser man. He looked his side and at Celestia's guard then took careful steps towards the window. When they didn't move he took more and more till a foot or two stood between him and it.

"No one will stop me-yoi?"

She nodded.

Marco pushed the glass outwards and smiled, The sun was till up. "All I have to do is fly right? No takesies-backsies."

A guard snickered.

Celestia nodded.

Marco leapt.

"By Celestia's sun...," a guard muttered. The throne room was still for a second, then two and three, before any of the ponies moved at all. The princess flared her wings and stood quickly and a trio of guards rushed to the window. Amongst them the lone pegasus made to save Marco's life.

But he was late.

A bright light of blue was seen- it was brilliant. Stunned and awestruck, neither Celestia nor her guards spoke as fire leapt into the sky and flew away. Strangely the fire was blue, even birdlike some would say and that was even stranger.

"What'd I say." the Captain of the guard whispered to himself.

Princess Celestia only stared. She sat down quickly and addressed her guard, her orders were simple. " Begin a man hunt."

The Captain stumbled,"I beg your pardon, Princess?"

"Do not main or injure him." She waved the Captain off, "I want him before me by the 'morrow's moon, unbound and willing to speak. You are however, permitted to use whatever means necessary- by force even, if only in defense. As always I forbid any needless aggression." No not really But it had to be recorded that she had said so, politics and all.

....

She eyed him,"Is that clear, my little pony?"

"It is noted." He saluted, "Shall I deliver further details to the barracks,your Highness?"

She hummed.

"Your target is a Blue pony, one with a shaggy mane and a coat of feathers. Be off then lest you forget his name as well." She pointed out. He turned and galloped out the room.