Legends of The 7

Our first story begins with a Mr. Golden Rich. He is the proud owner of a successful company in Manehattan but is still humble. So he keeps telling himself.

Golden Rich punched out his card and stepped out of his office.

"Another fine day of work." he said to himself.

He began walking to his home, an extravagant apartment building in Upper Manehattan. Unfortunately, he'd have to walk through the less extravagant Hooflyn, to get to it. Golden Rich didn't hate the town, far from it. He just hated being around the ponies in the town. Every time he walked through, the ponies stared at him as if they'd seen an alien. However, Golden Rich would never stoop so low as to call them 'Commoners'. He was just as common as them, but with a bit more money. Ok, a lot more money. Rich didn't know why but, for some reason, he loved money. He was never vocal about it though, he wanted to be humble so ponies won't view all rich ponies as stuck up jerks. As he was making his usual route, he happened upon a ragged and frail old pony. They were dressed in a worn out brown jacket and a matching hat. Their pants were full of holes and their shoes ripped open in some areas. Their eyes were sunken and miserable. The pony was waving a cup around.

"Bits? Ya got spare bits, sir?" the pony asked Golden Rich.

Golden Rich didn't know what to do. Of course he had bits on him, they were in his bit pouch. However, he wasn't in the mood to just throw them out.

"I'm sorry, I don't seem to have any on me." he lied.

"Are you sure?" the homeless pony asked, their voice sounding like they had just gotten over a terrible cold.

"Positive, now I must be on my way." Golden Rich responded, turning to trot away.

"I'd watch out Golden Rich" the homeless pony said, their rasp gone.

"What do you mean?" Golden Rich asked. "How do you know my name?"

"I know many things about you." the pony replied. "The most important thing I now is this, your Greed is growing stronger every day. Abandon it or be consumed by it."

"That's ridiculous." Golden Rich scoffed. "I'm not greedy." With that he set off for his home.

Golden Rich walked into the door of his home and soaked it in. The floors were cobblestone and the stairs marble with iron rails.

Truly a home befitting of someone as rich as me Golden Rich thought. Wait, where did that come from? I don't think I'm entitled to things.

i'm not greedy Golden Rich's words echoed in his mind.

"I must be going nuts." Golden Rich reassured himself. "I need to get my mind off of things." With that, Golden Rich played Ponyopoly with himself, ate some dinner, and went to bed.

That night, Golden Rich dreamt a strange dream. He was in a black void and he thought he saw something in the distance, but is was too hard to see. All he could see were two blotches of something red.

When Golden Rich woke up the next morning, he was feeling refreshed and ready to go. He quickly got dressed in his suit and began his walk to work. While on his way, he passed by the homeless pony again.

"Spare bits? Spare bits?" the pony begged, their regular, raspy voice back.

"Sorry, I don't have any spare bits at the moment." Golden Rich lied again

"You and I both know that you do, Golden Rich." the homeless pony said, their voice once again changing.

"I don't know what you mean." Golden Rich said, trotting faster to get away from the pony.

"Abandon your greed or be consumed by it." the pony shouted to him.

Golden Riches was running now. I'm not greedy, I'm not greedy, I'M NOT GREEDY! he repeated to himself over and over again.

When Golden Rich arrived at his office, he decided he would prove that he can be charitable. He personally gave an employee the day off and assured them he'd file their papers for them. Sure it was hard, but it was worth it to see his employees happy. Suddenly, a pony came into the cubicle he was occupying and told him he had to be present for a meeting. He hated to to leave his work undone, but his employees needed him.

"As you can see, our company has made 900 bits in the past month alone." an employee reported.

"This is preposterous! We need to make more! We're way behind!" Golden Rich blurted out.

"Uh, sir?" another employee interjected. "We're actually 400 bits above our quota for the month."

Golden Rich blinked. "Right, of course." he said sheepishly. "I must of done the math wrong."

"No problem, sir." the employee reporting said. "We all screw up math every once in a while. Anyways..."

After the meeting, Golden Rich returned to his desk and started working once more.

What's going on?! Golden Rich thought to himself as he was walking home. I'm usually not like this. Sure, I have money, but, I never want more of it. I don't even know how to spend what I do earn!

"Your greed is consuming you." the homeless pony said, somehow reading Golden Rich's thoughts.

Golden Rich didn't think about that though. This was the third time that this stupid homeless pony had stopped him to call him greedy and he'd had enough!

"Listen here you washed up piece of trash!" Golden Rich yelled, getting up in the pony's face. "I won't give you a single bit for all grief you've given me! I don't even care if your homeless or not, leave me alone!"

"My word! Such greed!" a mare who happened to be walking by commented.

Golden Rich stepped back while the homeless pony smiled triumphantly. Other ponies were staring at him and murmuring to each other.

No he thought No! I'm not greedy!!! With that, he ran the rest of the way to his home, slammed the door, and locked it shut.

"I gotta get some sleep!" Golden Rich said. He took off his suit, washed his face, and went to bed, even though it was only 7:30

That night, Golden Rich had the same dream. Only this time, it was different. The red blotches now became clear. As soon as they were though, Golden Rich wished they weren't. The shapes formed two blood red eyes with tiny black slits for irises. It was like a dragon had just woken up and was glaring at him for entering its cave. Then, something white appeared beneath the eyes. It was a smile. A hideous and evil smile. The kind of smile that meant bad things are going to happen to you. The teeth the smile were made of looked sharper than a dragon's scales. Then, the face laughed. It's laughter echoed off of the imaginary walls of Golden Rich's subconscious. The most terrifying thing about the dream though?The face laughing had Golden Rich's voice.

Golden Rich woke up in a cold sweat. What was that face? What was it laughing about? Why did it have his voice? He had so many questions. He didn't have time to answer them however as he had to get to work. As he was putting on his suit, he noticed something strange in his peripheral vision. Looking at his hoof, he saw that it had lime green spots on it!

Am I coming down with the Pony Pox? Golden Rich worried. Still, he had promised the employee he'd get their work done. Instead of calling in sick, he simply put on a extra long-sleeved suit and began his commute.

Golden Rich was working on filing the papers when an employee came in.

"Mr. Rich, sir?" they said.

"What is it?" Golden Rich asked.

"Are you feeling ok?" the employee asked.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" he said, wondering if the employee had seen his hooves.

"Well, it's just that you have those green spots on your face and..."

"What do you mean?!" Golden Rich shouted.

"See for yourself." the employee said, holding up a hand mirror she kept in her purse.

The employee had spoken the truth. The green spots on Golden Rich's hooves had spread to his chest and to his face!

"I have no idea what could be causing this." Golden Rich said trying to maintain his composure. "I'll go home for the day and get some bed rest just in case." he assured the employee.

"Ok, sir. I hope you get better." she said as he was walking out of the office.

"Thank you." he called back.

As Golden Rich was walking home, he tried his best to cover his face, but ponies still stared at him and avoided close quarters with him.

"It's happening." the homeless pony said as Golden Rich passed by him.

"I don't have time for you. I'm sick!" Golden Rich replied. Yeah, I'm sick. he assured himself. I'll go home, lie in bed, make a hopefully quick recovery, and go back to business as usual.

Golden Rich got home after what felt like the longest walk of his life. He took off the suit to see his entire body was covered in the green spots.

Yikes! Golden Rich thought, unusually calm. I'd better see if I can borrow that book Super Naturals so I can see what the cure for whatever this is. Still under the illusion that this was a simple ailment, Golden Rich started for the stairs. However, all of a sudden he felt an extraordinarily stabbing pain. It felt like a Bug Bear was trying to rip out his spine and pull out his teeth at the same time! He needed help! Gathering what little strength he had, he made his way over to the phone.

"Manehattan Emergency Operators, what's your emergency?" the pony on the other line said.

"Hello." Golden Rich said, his voice reflecting the pain he was in. "I need a doctor over here now."

"Ok sir, we'll send one right away." the pony responded. "What's your address?"

Fighting through another wave of pain, Golden Rich managed to choke out "555 Golden Oats Road"

"Don't worry sir, help is on the way." the operator assured him before hanging up.

Just then, another shockwave of pain coursed through him. His body just couldn't take it anymore and, in an instant, the world went dark.

There was a knock on the door.

"Hello? Mr. Rich?" the doctor called. "Are you in there?"

No answer.

Taking drastic measures, the doctor busted down the door to find Golden Rich on the floor.

"Boys, come in here and look at this!" the doctor called for two ponies carrying a stretcher.

"What's the problem, doctor?" one of the ponies asked.

"I think the better question is what is that?" the other pony said, pointing to Golden Rich.

"It's a patient in need!" the doctor said in a commanding voice. "Stop horsing around and get him in the ambulance!"

Complying with the doctor's order, the medics loaded Golden Rich onto the stretcher and took him to the hospital.

Golden Rich woke up expecting another wave of pain but, to his surprise, nothing happened.

Ha! I knew I would get over that illness eventually! he thought to himself triumphantly. Opening his eyes, he found himself on a hospital bed connected to a heart monitor.

Yikes, I must've been more sick than I thought!. Looking around the room, he spotted a pony in a doctor's gown.

"Excuse me doctor." he asked. "What happened to me?"

The doctor turned around revealing their face. They were a frail and ragged pony with sunken eyes and tattered clothes. "See for yourself." the homeless pony said, holding up a mirror.

What Golden Rich saw would haunt his memory forever. His coat had become entirely lime green. His mane had gone from a short fluffy mane on top of his head to a straight and sleek mane on the side of his head. The color had turned from brown to lime green, like his coat. He noticed his teeth, sharp as nails and pure white. His eyes had turned into pools of color with thin black slits for irises. The worst thing of all,there were two dragon-like wings protruding from his back.

"What happened to me?!!" Golden Rich yelled at the homeless pony for answers.

"It's as I said." the homeless pony smirked. "Your greed will consume you."

"Please! I'm sorry I didn't spare you some bits! I promise I'll be generous! I promise!!!" Golden Rich yelled in desperation.

"It's too late for you." the homeless pony said. "It's already happening."

The last thing Golden Rich noticed were his eyes, if he could even call them his eyes anymore, turning blood red. Just like the ones in his dream. One eye turned, and then the other.

Golden Rich was no more.

"So." the homeless pony said, unfazed by the horrific transformation that had just taken place. "Do you feel like donating some bits to a poor old homeless pony?"

The creature eyed the homeless pony and blinked.

"No." its voice bearing no resemblance to the pony it used to be. "If ponies don't have money, that's there fault."

"And why is that?" the homeless pony asked with fake interest.

The creature got out of the hospital bed, landed on the ground, and folded its new wings to its sides.

"Because money is everything." the creature said.