Bronze Ashes

It was evening in Equestria, and the town of Ponyville prepared itself for a good night’s rest.The sound of crickets could be heard as the streets were - save from the main district - completely empty, it was in this calm scenario that Bronze Ashes found herself.Skirting on the borders of the small town, she, covered in a heavy, dusty brown cloak, trotted in silence to her destination, a small cottage in the outskirts of the town, that she had rented a week before, by letter to the Mayor, so that she didn’t need to meet anyone.

“And of course, to not scare them to Tartarus and back…”

She had left Dodge Junction not two weeks ago, the many reasons for she didn’t want to think about right then and there, the only thing on her head was getting to her new home, and as quickly and quietly as possible.

It was because of that that she didn’t notice a trio of ponies sneaking on her.

“Zecora? ‘s that you?”

The voice made her spin around, to her surprise three little fillies were staring at her with curiosity, the little group consisted of an earth pony, a pegasus and a unicorn.

“Who?”she said back trying to think about how they had got to her without being noticed.

“You ain’t her? huh, Ah didn’t expect to see a pony wearing a cloak” it was the earth pony who spoke, a yellow cream colored with a red mane and pink bow,”Ah’m Applebloom” the filly pointed at herself ”that’s Sweetie Belle” she pointed at the unicorn, who had a white coat with a two toned pink and lavender mane,”and that’s Scootaloo” she turned to the last one, a pegasus with a orange coat and purple mane ”who’re you?”

“Uhh, shouldn’t you girls be at your home? I mean, it’s almost night right now…”

“My sister keep saying that, but we were passing when we saw you,”said Sweetie Belle,”and we thought to come here and s-”

“AH! look at the time, I should go, see ya later!” and with that she trotted off, leaving behind three confused fillies.

“Huh, what a weird pony…” murmured Scotaloo,”We should be going girls.”

“Hm, hey, did’ya see that if she had a horn?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, why?”

“Cause Ah think Ah saw wings on that cloak of hers.”

“Don’t be silly, the only pony with wings and horn are the princesses” said Sweetie Belle,”And she didn’t seem to be one.”

“Hm…”

“That was too close.”

She had gotten to her new home, locked the door, shut the blinds on the windows and then laid down on the floor, panting in a cold sweat.It had been too close, and she was lucky that the sun wasn’t shining on her, because if it had then those fillies would have noticed her.

“Damnit, not only I got here just today and I already have to worry about three fillies that saw me, I knew I should’ve waited till nightfall before coming…”

She got up from the ground and looked around the room she was in, other than the couch in the far end of it, it was bare.The small house was indeed small, having only a kitchen-living room place and a bedroom with a bathroom,the only thing that could be said to cost something was the small fridge on the kitchen’s corner, there wasn’t even a furnace present.

“Perfect for me anyway.”

She took off her cloak, revealing her body.It had an ash gray colored fur, but what caught the attention of almost everyone that looked at her like that were her wings.

Gigantic, leathery dragon wings.

Bronze Ashes’ species was known as a Kirin, the offspring of a Dragon and a Pony.Because of their resemblance to the fire breathing flying murder machines they were feared throughout Equestria, legends that spoke of her kin usually came together with the destruction of villages and cities, all done by her race.The fact that the last three times that she had tried to reveal herself she had been shunned from the community spoke highly of what she felt towards most ponies.

Anger and fear.

Ponyville was a small risk that she was willing to take, the small community would surely notice her, and sooner or later she would need to escape, but that didn’t matter to her.She only needed a few weeks to gather enough bits and food to go out again, and everything would go in accord to the plan if those three fillies hadn’t met her.

‘I may be overthinking this, they couldn’t have possibly noticed me, the light outside was too dim, and I’m sure that the cloak hid my wings, at most they saw my horn, but then they could just assume that I have a slightly pointy and sharp one...’

She shook her head, it wasn’t time to think about such things now.Moving to her bathroom, she quickly got inside the small bathtub there and turned the water on, the cold liquid helping her relax.After thoroughly scrubbing her fur and washing her fiery orange mane, she set off to a good night of sleep.

‘I’ll take care of food tomorrow.’

Bronze woke up to the warm light that shone through the bedroom windows, she yawned as she stretched, getting up from the floor she had fallen asleep on.

“I should get a bed, or at least a mattress.Sleeping on top of my cloak on the floor can’t be healthy”, she thought as she went to the kitchen, opening the fridge yielded nothing but the cold stale air inside it.”And also get some hunt, at least there’s that forest nearby…” she closed the fridge’s door and went back to her bedroom, in a few seconds she had her cloak around her again.”Now, it’s probably close to midday, and the streets should be full of ponies, but if I fly through the win-”

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

“Horseapples… horseapples horseapples horseapple-”

*Knock-Knock-Knock* “Anypony home?” shouted a voice outside her home,clearly a female one, and older than those three from the day prior.

“Well there goes all my plans… unless…” she quickly made her way to the door, and opening it just barely gave her vision of what was standing in front of her house.

It was a purple colored unicorn, not what she wanted, surely she was resistant to magic, but that only went to direct attacks such as beams, if this unicorn wanted her stuck, she wouldn’t be able to do much about it.

“Hello, sorry if I’m interrupting something.My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I heard from my friend Rarity that her sister, Sweetie Belle, had seen a new pony in town.” she said, smiling, “I tought I could come here with my friends to welcome you and-”

“Not interested”

SLAM

“Alright, that may have been a bit overkill…” she didn’t want to take any chances with it, sure, slamming the door on her may have been a tad excessive, but she couldn’t let that pony inside, and if what she said was correct, there were more outside.Hopefully she wouldn’t be bothered anymore.

“Hey! what the hay was that for!?” she heard another voice, and before she could do anything she was thrown backwards by the door bursting open.She staggered to regain footing, and in front of her hovered a small, cyan colored pegasus.

So much for that.

“What was that for? if you didn’t want us coming in you should’ve just said so, not like…” her voice trailed off, and slowly she went to the ground as her eyes became wide as plates.

Bronze moved her hoof to her nose, the feeling of a warm wetness on it confirmed her suspicions about the pain that she was feeling, but that wasn’t what worried her the most, no, it was the fact that her hood had come off, showing to the world her head.Her muzzle, slightly slender than most, had a set of fangs protruding from the sides, and on top of her head there were three horns, one in the forehead and two,nearby her ears,one of the most distinct characteristics of her species.

“Rainbow?” Twilight trotted in, but before she could do anything she too became paralyzed.

“Hey, what are you all doing?” a bubbly voice, followed by a extremely pink pony entered her house, but unlike the others she didn’t stop when she looked at Bronze.

“You must be the new pony! my name’s Pinkie Pie! what’s your name - “ *gasp* “ - I should throw you a welcome to ponyville party! it will be so nice, there’ll be punch, and cake, and cupcakes, and games, and more cake!”

“Pinkie! get away from her!”

Before she could react she was forcefully levitated to the air, and her cloak was removed by the same purple aura, revealing her draconic wings.She was quickly put on the ground, hitting face first on it.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” asked Twilight, she had recovered faster than Bronze had expected, and now she was holding her down on the ground, almost crushing her with the strength of her spell.

She tried to move, but to no avail as the strength of it increased, and pain shot through her back, making her wheeze and squirm under it.

“What? you’re going to kill me now?”

The comment made Twilight snap, the moment her spell faltered Bronze shot up to the air, spreading her wings in a manner to fly away as fast as she could, but even before she could leave the house she was again stopped by the magical aura, and brought back to the ground, this time more gently.

“Nah-ah, you aren’t escaping missy, now answer me.Are you a Kirin, and what’s your name?”

“Twilight?” the one named Pinkie spoke, “why are you doing that to her?”

“Pinkie, she seems to be a Kirin, legends tell that they could burn an entire city in a night, and that they are dange-”

“Hah! as if in the last millennia there was any recorded attack” she felt the strength of the spell increase again, making her squirm on the ground.

“Then you are one?”

“I thought the multiple horns and draconic wings would give it away,” she smirked showing a set of sharp teeth “and no, a Kirin could easily burn a city in a hour, give or take.”

“Twilight,” the one named Rainbow, appropriate, considering her mane, spoke, “is this really necessary? I mean, I dunno what you’re talking about, but she doesn’t seem to be dangerous.”

“Yeah, think that.”

Twilight looked at Bronze, she tried recalling any moment where the Kirin had appeared aggressive, and other than trying to flee it had only squirmed.In fact, if one would look at the situation through other’s eyes they would think that herself was the bad one.Sighing, she spoke up, “I’ll release you as long as you don’t fly away, alright?”

“Deal.”

Bronze felt the spell give away, and slowly got up, she looked at the three mares that were in front of her.Pinkie seemed to be either unaware or didn’t care about her being a Kirin, Rainbow seemed to be wary of the situation, but didn’t show any negative feeling towards her.The only one that seemed to be bothered at all was Twilight, but now she seemed to look more guilty than angry.

“Sooo, what’s going to happen now?” she asked, hopeful that if she acted cool about it they would leave her sooner.

“Well, seeing that there’s a creature that was supposed to be extinct, or at least very rare, I’m going to inform the Princess.About you, I would suggest that you stay here, Pinkie, Rainbow, we should go.” and as simple as that, the trio left, but not before Pinkie left something and winked at her.

“A Cupcake, how quaint” she took the little treat, and in a few bites she ate it entirely, “Well, if what the purple one said, she’s contacting Princess Celestia, and well, there’s no other way out of this huh?” she closed the door, went to the bedroom and promptly fell on the floor again.

“I’m fucked.”