The Pegasus of Fire

Well, my first stop was Carousel Boutique.

You know, I had decided to go and see what was the cause of this damn madness. I couldn't tolerate the constant changes in weather. It was worse than when Discord came over in the middle of my shift. Got only one bit that day. Right now, I knew that what I was doing would blow a lot of cash. I only have a hundred and fifty bits. And that's all. I know it's quite a large sum of of money but I earned them on rations for three weeks. Ate nothing but clouds. Now, I needed proper sewing of a few pretty big rips in my saddlebags.

As I got closer with every step, I remembered that each hole of that size was two bits, and my bags had five. And my budget was fifty bits.

Then, I saw five bits on the ground. I scooped them up and dropped them inside my right bag. I needed every bit of money I could lay my hooves on.

When I reached the door, I was ready to buck it open. But then, I remembered that it would cause property damage. And so, I reluctantly lowered my back hooves and knocked on the door.

The door came open in an instant.

Rarity had a pretty positive face. I mean, I can't really find any other words than "pretty positive". Well, apparently I didn't need to ask her the obvious, because she noticed the gaping holes in my saddlebags right off the bat. Her eyes quickly widened, her pupils shrinking. I knew what she was going to say next.

"Oh those holes! It's as if dragon claws had gotten a hold of that elegant red bag! It matches with your fur!"

Personally I didn't think my bag was elegant at all or something, I never cared a bit about how I looked or whatsoever but I guessed that the best thing I could do was to not put anything unnecessary in conversation.

"Uh... yeah, I need these holes fixed," I stammered. I opened the right bag and handed her ten whole bits.

She just stared at them blankly at first but after a few seconds insisted,"No, after all, those bags really compliment your body colour!"

"Well," I said, racking my brain for words,"I guess they do."

She took them, emptied their contents, and instantly started to sew the stitches together. After 5 whole minutes, she levitated  them to me. I was impressed. She wasn't as good as they say she is. She's better. I couldn't even tell where the holes were, they were fitted together like well oiled gears of a clock tower's clock. And I was convinced that the stitches would hold better than a section that WASN'T stitched.

"Oh," she blurted,"Those bags look just PERFECT now! I'm so happy that you can have proper ones now!"

Then she began describing it like mad, and it was pretty obvious that she would keep on going for a hour or so, so I quickly slipped outside of the posh building and bolted away. Despite her current condition, I was shocked she didn't notice anything happening.

Next stop, food. The Sugarcube Corner. I was perfectly willing to go inside now, Pinkie wasn't as obnoxious as I previously thought, and that was great. Probably the best thing that happened to me in a year or so. And that year had taught me to appreciate gifts and be more optimistic when negative results end up happening.

I had to face it that I didn't have much luck.

I stretched my wings, getting ready to take flight. I bent my knees, ready to bolt upwards. When I finally released the energy I had stored, I welcomed the cool air against my body, and burst forwards at extreme speeds. It was strange that Rarity had made no mention of the weather. Maybe she was too absorbed in her work to notice. Even though that seemed rather unlikely. And by the ways, I needed some daisy sandwiches and salt. Did I forget to mention that I LOVE salt? Its flavour just seems, well, just good to me. I'm horrible at describing a type of flavour. Who cares if it's bad for my kidneys? Well, I do ration my salty foods consumption. But there was a better usage for salt right now. I could use it to preserve my foods for longer periods of time. By the time I had arrived at the building, I could have sworn that the candy like building seemed like it had melted a little right now. Walking inside, I was warmly greeted by Pinkie's bright smile.

"Hey, Pinkie," I started,"I need three daisy sandwiches, now. And a bag of salt would be nice."

"Okie-dokey!"

She was back in only twenty seconds, with everything I had ordered.

"So, what do you need it for?" she asked.

"Uh..." I was gonna have to tell her it, luckily, she wouldn't think I'm crazy for it at least,"You know the weather? It's total MADNESS! Whatever caused this crazy screw up of the weather is what I'm trying to find! It could be anything, from a dragon to a manticore or even the Cerberus! Even though that last one was unlikely. Or more frightening, a Ursa Major!" Why was I freaking myself out by the possibilities that had popped into my head?! But the only thing that kept me from dumping this quest was that I was a free creature, and I do not approve of the insane weather pattern!

Why was I talking so much?!

"Oh!" she cried out with more enthusiasm than fear."I'll go too! It sounds fun! Or more like exciting? Just like that time I brought Gummy down to the sewers to show him where all the poo goes!" Several of the ponies eating suddenly lost their appetite due to Pinkie's random rambling ending up turning to the sewers.

"Well," I didn't want to disappoint her so I let her come,"Alright kid, come on. Lets go kick some butt!" I had to force enthusiasm into the last part. True that Pinkie was fun, but she does get annoying every once in a while.

I strode out, trying to look casual as Pinkie followed me, and at the same time, she was pretty much letting every thought that went into her head out. I decided that I could screw  my next destination, and just head right to the river for water. I pulled out a water bottle that I had found on the streets. I doubt it would last the whole journey because it only contained half a litre, but Pinkie fixed that by bringing three more bottles out of seemingly nowhere, two for each. (Duh) So right now, I was pretty much set to go.

"Well, Streakflare," Pinkie suddenly blurted,"You just hogged quite a bit back there."

"What are you talking about?! I only took three daisy sandwiches!" I replied, only I was shouting.

"I mean you used a lot of words!" she replied, her temper in perfect order, but not her over excessive cheerfulness and enthusiasm.

"Um... What are you talking about?"

"Uh... I don't really know..."

I broke off from her conversation by rather impolitely turning away. Rude, but effective. I had enough of breaking conversation the nice way. I began to start my route away from Ponyville. We were near the Town Hall, and I was crossing the bridge to a bunch of tents which none of them I have ever went into. Ever. Crossing those tents, I was on the road to the Everfree Forest.

The Everfree Forest, where animals take care of themselves, where clouds move on their own. But none of these never really freaked me out. I checked behind, me, Pinkie Pie was right behind, me, bouncing as if no danger was ahead of us at all, completely oblivious to how dangerous the Everfree was. Surprisingly, I entered the forest rather casually, despite all the facts of what was inside the forest.

When I had entered, the forest looked exactly as they described it. Tall trees suffocated the life below, and limiting your line of sight. Leaves slowly pirouetted down onto the soil below. I couldn't tell if the soil was rich or not, but again, I'm not the best pony at plants. And you would constantly get this awkward feeling that you were being watched. There were very faint lines of light littered on the ground, but they weren't very bright at all. For the Everfree, though, they were quite bright. Something told me that when I was coming out, I wouldn't be able to open my eyes for a minute at least.

At this point, we were about thirty metres into the forest. I mean, I know it was about only that far, but, it felt more like I've been strolling for half a kilometre at least. At this point, the Everfree wasn't as dangerous as portrayed, but that was probably because I hadn't encountered any monsters yet.

"I mean, there's gotta be something worse than this, right?" I thought. While I knew all I was doing was making myself further nervous, I failed to shoved it out.

After not long, I encountered several gleaming yellow eyes, which probably belonged to Timberwolves, but of course, it's the Everfree, you can't expect to go far without encountering some rampant beast or something.

I looked up, I thought maybe I could escape by flying above, but nevertheless, they had swarmed above me as well, waiting on the trees. I guess the wolves were tired of having their prey running away from them, and made massive hunting groups to make escape next to impossible.

It was at that fateful moment, I discovered that escape was futile. Flight was useless, and I had a pack of hungry, determined  wolves that would stop at my slightest error to place a part of me in it's stomach.

But letting my fear show would just guarantee death.

After just five seconds later, the first one sprung at me. I bent my front right hoof to counter its charge. It wasn't even a moment before my hoof connected with its left cheek. I pulled my rear legs together to unleash a powerful buck to its face. Sure enough, it knocked consciousness away from it.

Mere moments later, another wolf took its place, only to find two rear hooves collide with its jaw, making it fall back and wince uncontrollably at the amount of pain I had unloaded upon it. Looking in front of me, I noticed that Pinkie was nowhere in sight. I had forgot about her for the last minute. Had it really been only a minute. My rational part of my head said yes, but it seemed more like a quarter hour in hell to me.

Three more wolves took its position, and without giving me a chance to recover they charged blindly at me. Luckily, they didn't react fast enough to me leaping to evade their brutal onslaught. They ended up tackling some their own kind.

But, I was completely of guard from a air assault right after I evaded the charge, and that's what I got. Two wolves had lunged at me from above, one missed, but one got me in the stomach.

He stretched his mouth open, aiming for my neck, ready to end my life any second now. I closed my eyes and prepared to accept certain death.

Suddenly, a loud BANG boomed over the horizon, as if a cannon had been fired. Several of the wolves fell back at the force of balloons, large birthday cakes, and tables. They rest of the wolves didn't stand their ground, and just ran.

Behind all of it, was Pinkie Pie herself. In front of her was a pretty fink and white party cannon. Steam poured out of its barrel. Hard to believe such a pretty object could inflict so much pain and panic in just one shot. She stood there, a triumphant grin spread across her face.

"Where did you get that cannon?!" I asked her.

"Well, I'm not sure... Someplace called hammer space maybe?"

I didn't know how to reply to the fact that Pinkie could pull object from seemingly nowhere. In fact I thought it would come in handy.

"Thanks Pinkie," I told her,"You sure saved my butt."

"Anytime!"

I strolled ahead, the injured Timberwolves trembling in fear. I passed them with a rather menacing look, to lower the chance of a surprise attack. How embarrassing it must be, for Timberwolves to be at the mercy of two ponies.

What I didn't know was that far worse awaited me.

As I walked forward, I noticed something was wrong almost immediately, I could hear fierce roaring over the horizon.

All I knew was I probably needed to reveal the fact I could use fire to fend it off.