Chivalry Reborn

Chapter 26:

Settling In

We quickly weaved through the normally crowded marketplace street. Twilight was in front leading the group, once again moving past the other bustling ponies with little to no effort, her saddlebags lightly bouncing against her sides as she trotted. I was right behind her, moving through the tide with slight difficulty, but I was doing a lot better than when I first came. At least now I didn’t feel like I was gonna be swiped away into the other direction. The same couldn’t be said about Baking Soda, who had to clamp his teeth to my pants leg to keep from drowning in the sea of horses. His bandages that were wrapped around his back made him easy to single out whenever he let go, so he never really got lost.

As we could see the baked good shop Sugarcube Corner coming into view, I automatically tensed up and began looking around. It was always when I was passing by here that I was tackled by Pinkie Pie. Despite me always telling her that I hated being greeted that way, she would always come out of nowhere (LITERALLY nowhere) and tackle me to the ground in a hug yelling “Flashy-Washy Winston.” I was starting to grow paranoid every time I passed by this section of the town, or when I could hear a small twing that I noticed normally only Pinkie could make when she bounced about. (I have yet to see her walk around like a normal pony yet.)For whatever reason, however, she didn’t show up.

Upon reaching the steps, I immediately looked into the bushes nearby. No movement. Where the hell is she…? I wondered to myself, as Twilight opened the front door, causing a small chime to ring lightly throughout the inside of the store.

“Welcome!” A slightly thin amber colt turned around towards the door with a businessman’s grin, welcoming a new customer. “How may I serve you- oh, it’s Miss Twilight!” His grin broadened, recognizing the purple mare in front. “Good evening!”

“Hello, Mr. Cake.” Twilight returned the pleasant greeting to the experienced sweets maker, giving a warm smile.

It was Mr. Carrot Cake, co-owner of the shop and one of the main bakers. He was a rather thin guy to be a stallion, though admittedly tall (He’s probably even taller than Big Mac, and he’s literally built like a STALLION.). He had a short orange mane, with it pointing out on his back and the back of his neck, while his tail dropped down in a small arc. He also had a rather long lower jaw, giving a simple person’s look to him. He had a warm and easy flowing tone to his speech, one that would be expected of a businessman. He had a carrot cake hat, an orange bow tie with white stripes across it, and a cutie mark of three small carrot cakes. This pony LOVED his calling, and was NOT afraid to show it.

I glanced around warily, slowly stepping into the store. I was still expecting that pink, sugar-filled maniac to slam into me any minute.Where the heck is she?

“Hello to you too, Winston.” Mr. Cake turned his attention to me, still giving a big smile. “Settled into town okay?”

I turned my head, and my expression changed from a narrowed stare towards the stairway,which led to the upper level, to a normal expression toward the polite businesspony“Yeah,” I nodded, giving a small smile, “I’m pretty used to life here now, thanks for asking.”

“Good to hear.” He gave a small chuckle, turning his attention to the small tan mustang still standing at the doorway, who was examining the platter of muffins with a blank look. “Who’s your friend there?”

“Oh, him?” I looked back at Baking Soda as I said that, giving him a slight nudge to snap him out of his analyzing trance. “He’s a newcomer who’s looking for a job. Right, Soda?”

“Ah?” He looked up to me, blinking somewhat confusedly, before realizing he was in public and looked at the store owner. “Yes, that’s right.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Cake glanced down to where Soda’s vision was just trained on, looking back at the feminine stallion. “And you want to work as a baker?”

“Yeah,” Soda replied, with a nod, “I’ve been thinking about only baking since I got to this place.” He rubbed his foreleg with the other, reflecting. “I don’t remember much else before coming to this town, but I do remember the smell of fresh baked goods making me happy.”

“Is that so?” Carrot Cake gave a small smile while he listened. “And what makes you feel so glad about it?”

Baking Soda let the question swish in his mind a moment as he tapped at the tiled ground below him. Slowly, he looked up at Mr. Cake, giving him an honest answer and a faint smile. “The very concept of baking makes me feel at peace. Not to mention it’s fulfilling to seeing others enjoying what you make for them. That’s always nice.”

Carrot Cake nodded his head slightly, his smile spreading across his face as he heard Soda’s passion for seeing work’s satisfaction. “Sounds like you really do enjoy the work of a good oven.”

Soda just gave a small chuckle, nodding back.

I sniffed the air lightly, sampling the smell of all the sweet treats that surrounded the room. Out of all the scents of cakes, cookies, and other little delights, I was trying to make out the smell of cotton candy. Pinkie Pie always reeked of cotton candy for some reason, but no one seemed to be able to come up with a good reason why. I couldn’t get the faintest hint. She really isn’t here…?

“Hey, Mr. Cake,” I began to ask slowly, glancing around the empty shop, “Where’s your wife and Pinkie? It’s rare for those two to be out at the same time.”

“Ah, that.” Mr. Cake seemed to get a slightly shy look, his smile still on his face as he looked to the side. “Well, we wanted to keep a secret for a bit longer but…well, Cup Cake is expecting.”

“Expecting?” Twilight broke in, now intrigued in what he meant. “Expecting what, a new recipe of some kind?”

“No, it’s not like that.” Carrot Cake shook his head at Twilight’s guess, stifling a chuckle at how silly that sounded right now. “She’s expecting new foals, you see. She’s already eight months in. She’s gone to the hospital to get a checkup, with Pinkie going with her to make sure she’ll be fine.”

“Awwwww~!!!” Twilight gushed at the thought of baby ponies, her purple eyes going gushy and giddy. “Congratulations, Mr. Cake!”

“Yeah, congratulations.” Soda chirped.

“Oh,” I muttered, scratching the back of my head, “well, congrats, I guess.”  I wasn’t too hip to the whole idea of babies, you see.

“Oh, you’re too kind.” Mr. Cake blushed a little, rubbing the back of his neck with a bashful grin. He glanced around the shop, quickly changing the topic. “You know, it’s a little quiet around here.” He looked at Soda with a simple smile. “How about you show me how well you can make something with an oven?”

Baking Soda’s eyes flashed with joyous anticipation, suddenly smiling and nodding quickly. He quickly made his way around the counter, following Mr. Cake as he turned around and walked into the kitchen. I could faintly hear them discussing what they liked to bake, as they both walked through the swinging doors that led to the kitchen. Seriously, if it wasn’t for the fact it was a guy, I’d say he was acting like a cute girl that just got invited backstage after a concert. Oh well, I just hope he can pick up the trays without too much trouble.

I sighed, dipping my hands into my pockets as I glanced around the store, looking for something to do to pass the time. Now that I think about it, I think I noticed Mrs. Cake getting bigger in the stomach area. I just guessed she was gaining weight, and didn’t say a word. I didn’t want to get bucked in the face like that time I mentioned Rarity seemed to be bigger than before. (REALLY, dumb move. Don’t wanna talk about it.) I wouldn’t have guessed that Mrs. Cake was pregnant, andit was nice of him to be honest, when he could have just dodged the topic completely.

…He was being honest.

My eyes automatically slid over to Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting in a seat and reading a book she had probably been carrying in her bags a few moments ago. I haven’t been very honest, myself. For the past two weeks, I’ve been lying to Twilight, AJ, Dash, and the others. I’ve been claiming I didn’t know who I was or where I was, but in reality, I actually knew things most people shouldn’t even be aware of.  I felt a tad bit guilty for lying to someone who has been watching out for me for so long, but I don’t know enough about the situation to make them believe thatour bloody worlds are going to fall into madness if I don’t go out and save them. Not to mention the fact that I was actually some sort of goddamned hybrid between human and pony. It isn’t reeaaaally one of those normal confessions.

“Winston?” Twilight had looked up from her book, appearing a bit confused and a little embarrassed as she caught my attention. “Is something wrong? You won’t stop looking at me.”

“Huh?” I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts. “Nothing Twilight, just thinking a bit about my time here is all.

“Oh, alright then.” Twilight replied, turning her eyes back towards her book.

I looked over to the side, looking at the display of goods that were on sale. I hate it when I accidently just lose myself in my thoughts. I always end up staring at others without realizing I AM staring at them…

She paused, looking back up at me with a curious look in her eyes. “Hey, Winston?”

“Yeah?” I turned my head towards her to show that I was listening.

“What were you and Applejack arguing about, anyway?” Twilight wondered, putting her book down. “When Baking Soda and I were walking towards Sugarcube Corner, we saw you and Applejack just glaring horns at one another.”

“Oh, that.” I snuffed, getting a small grin on my face. “It’s nothing major, Twilight. Just a heated debate over fruit is all. I had to prove to her just why peaches are the best.”

“And you did this in the middle of the market street because…?” She raised an eyebrow, getting a small smirk on her face. She was amused by this too, I guess.

“Me and her were selling apple products.” I answered, taking a knee on the ground. (Chairs are too damned small, I just can’t take it.) “With both my and her applebucking at the same time, her family’s gotten enough supplies to go selling in the market this week.”

Twilight just rolled her eyes, giving a soft laugh as I continued.

“We were just there, slapping each other with factors of why each fruit was better, and whenever somepony asked for something, we instantly became a team to make the sale! Just like that!”  I started laughing, snapping my fingers on the statement. Now that I thought about it, that was just hilarious.

Twilight started laughing along too. “Sounds like you had fun working with her.”

“Yeah, I guess I did.” I said, easing my laughter. “But then again, some of those customers seemed kind of nervous making their orders.” I sighed lightly, getting some air into my lungs. “I’m pretty sure it’s me for some reason. They wouldn’t look away from me.”

Twilight ceased her laughing and blinked, thinking a moment. “It’s probably due to the fact that you’re a human.” Twilight suggested, “Everypony here has seen all sorts of creatures pass by the town, but we’ve never seen anypony like you before.”

“Yeah, probably.” I admitted, taking a look at my arm.

Oh my god, what’s with my arm!? It wasn’t the same as it usually was. It was no longer normal shaped, and no longer had my skin’s regular shading. Instead, it seemed cartoony like the rest of this world, drawn, and quite a bit brighter. That doesn’t look quite right…

“Maybe you should try transforming.” Twilight thought aloud, picking up her book again. “If you changed into a pony, most others would just accept you as one of us without question.”

That was very true. If I used the transformation technique, no one would really know the difference between my human shape and the form of Shadow Flare I can take. Then again, do I really wanna change my way of walking about? I do enough as a pony as is, and I wouldn’t be able to really do human things, like say wear clothes (more specifically, pants). There is also the problem that I would have to introduce myself to the others again, and probably lie a whole lot more to keep up the façade of not knowing too much while telling them that I can change.

I took another glance at my arm. The way my body seemed to have a drawn outline and a more smoothed out texture to it just plain bugged me. It didn’t seem right at all, and I don’t think I could tolerate it much longer, now that I noticed it. My face twisted slightly in slight disgust without my permission. Ta hell with it. I’d rather deal with walking around on all fours than on two knowing that I look like THIS.

I sighed deeply, closing my eyes for a moment. “Fine,” I jabbed a finger at Twilight, giving her a stern look, “but don’t tell anypony about who I am. I can only tell so many ponies about what I can do.”

“You have my word, Winston.”  Twilight put a hoof to her heart, tracing a cross, before putting it to her eye, sealing the Pinkie promise.

“Good” I shifted slightly, letting the image of a horse appear in my mind as I said that.

Release

A flash appeared in front of my eyes for a moment, as I automatically fell over on all fours.

Clop

Over the past two weeks, I’ve come to notice a few things. When I had learned how to transform with relative ease, I found that becoming each of the pony forms I could take depended on how much I focused. To get to an Earth Pony now was simple as hell. All it took was about two seconds to get the image. The wings for a pegasus, or the horn of the unicorn added about a good 5 seconds each. However, for some reason, I couldn’t turn into an Alicorn again, no matter how hard I tried. Maybe it was some kind of mistake the first time, but who knows. There’s also the problem that I have to turn human again, before changing into another pony breed. But hey, as long as I could use the technique, it was fine.

I sighed, looking at myself to check if I did it right. I was indeed a horse once again, with no horn or wings. I didn’t see pants on me anymore – or a shirt, for that matter. It must have been because my pants and shirt were connected by the suspending. FUCK. My dog tags and pendant remained, however, as did my glasses, so there’s that.

My body was quite big and muscular like this too, almost as big as Macintosh. As an Earth Pony, it seems that all of my muscles just got stronger. Whenever I became a unicorn, nothing would really change about the height, but I was not nearly as muscular; and as a pegasus, I shrunk to a more compact body frame, possibly to make myself faster and more agile. Strength, Magic, Speed, sounds like a video game concept… I mentally scoffed at the anatomy of Equestrians.

I grunted a little, rolling my now thick neck. As I did, I got a small peek at the spine of the book Twilight had just picked back up to read. In large golden letters, it read “My Little Humans: Bill’s New Game Console”

…Oh, what the fuck…?

“…..Twilight?” I slowly called for her attention again.

“Hm?”

“What in the seven hells are you reading?”

“Oh, this?” She pointed a small hoof at the page she just looked away from, as if she was confused as to what I was talking about. “I found this in one of the more ignored sections of the library, and seeing that I know a human,” She gave me a small smile, seeming a bit bashful, “I thought I would read it to see what it’s about.” She shifted in her seat, going back to the book. “You know, just for the sake of doing it.”

“…”

Yes, I knew about our world’s version of My Little Pony toys and merchandise, but I sure as hell didn’t expect something like this HERE. That’s just plain weird. I mean seriously what in the fu-

Before I could start swearing a storm in my head, the doors to the kitchen swung open, with Mr. Cake’s head poking out.

“Anything happen out here?” He asked, concerned. “I thought I saw a flash.”

“It’s was nothing, Mr. Cake.” Twilight replied coolly, keeping her muzzle in her book. “It was only my flashlight snapping on for a moment in my bag. Nothing to worry about.”Nice lie you made there.

“I see.” He looked around the store, looking for someone. “Where’d Winston go?”

Oh crap, um… I scraped my mind for a moment to make a good lie. Right before Twilight opened her mouth to vouch for me, I spoke.

“Oh, he had to go take care of some things with Rainbow Dash.” I spoke casually, hoping he wouldn’t notice I sounded the same. “He asked me to come and make sure his buddy Baking Soda made out OK while he was away.” In my mind, I crossed my fingers, praying he’d take that excuse.

“Oh, well that’s a shame.” Mr. Cake frowned a little at hearing that ‘Winston’ had left. “Baking Soda seems to be doing a great job at handling the dough and getting it ready for baking. I’m certain they’ll come out great, and he would have wanted Winston to have some. Oh well...”

He puffed lightly, before asking another question. “So, what’s your name then?”

Pull out the first pony that comes to mind. “The name’s Shadow Flare.” I answered evenly. I gave a flick of the hoof, in a salute. “Pleasure to meet you.” Again.

“Likewise. My name’s Mr. Cake by the way.” He gave a hearty smile, just like when he greeted me the first time I came into Sugarcube Corner. I know.

He turned to look at Twilight. “Would you two like to stay around and have a small meal with us?” He took a glance behind him before he continued. “It looks like your friend is going to make enough food for a good meal, and I’m sure Mrs. Cake and Pinkie are on their way back by now.”

Twilight gave a small smile, liking the sound of the offer. “Sure, that’d be great.”

I gave a quick look at the watch on my foreleg.  6:54 P.M. Damn, I killed some time with AJ then. I didn’t really have anything else to do, and I could use something else to eat for once. I’ve gotten kinda tired of only eating apples and muffins. “Count me in too.”

“Great.” Carrot Cake nodded with satisfaction at our agreement, turning back to the kitchen. “Just wait here a bit longer then. We’re about to put the goods in the oven now.”

“Okay.” Twilight nodded, turning the page in her book.

At that moment, I smelled something. It wasn’t bread, no. It was…something else.

My eyes automatically narrowed, staring ahead of myself. I took whiff at the air. Sweet…girly….reeks of sugar… My eyes snapped open. Oh hell.

I automatically moved away from in front of the door, moving beside Twilight, and taking a seat in the chair next to her.

She turned her head to look at me, confused at what I was doing.

“Wait for it.” I answered her silent question, staring at the door.

No more than two seconds after I finished that…

BAM

The door swung open, whacking into the wall beside it, making Twilight flinch and almost drop her focus to hold her book up. A pink bolt of mare flew into the room, almost going at a cannonball’s speed. It bounced against the tiled floor once, before landing square in the middle of the store, landing on all fours, and hopping around for a moment.

“We’re back~!” Pinkie Pie sang, hopping over to where Twilight and I sat. We could see Mrs. Cake slowly walk through the doorway, moving towards a stool to sit down.

“See? Told you.” I whispered to Twilight right before Pinkie bounced one last time.

“Hi Twilight!” She greeted excitedly, landing right between us.

“Hi Pinkie.” Twilight gave a small, albeit forced smile at her, still a little shocked at the dramatic entrance.

“Who’s this?” Pinkie swung her head and attention to me, getting close to my face. “A new pony? Oh, I can make another party!”

“No Pinkie, he isn’t new.” Twilight giggled slightly, correcting her. “He just doesn’t get out a lot is all.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” I followed Twilight’s lead, offering a small wave to the pink mare that was still in my face. “My name’s Shadow Flare.”

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” She grabbed me, putting me in a bone-crushing bear hug. “Nice to meet you!”

OH MY GOD THIS PONY IS FRICKING HERCULES!!! I then tried to speak nicely through the intense pain and the sound of some of my bones popping.

“Gah…Nice…to meet you…toooOOOWAAAAHHHH!** MY BACK! LEGGO, LEGGO!”  I whacked at her shoulder to make her release me from the death hold.

“Whoopsy!” She pulled away, backing up with a bubbly giggle. “Sorry!”

“It’s…fine. Don’t worry about it. Ohhh, my spine…” I gasped, slowly inching myself back down on all fours. I think she almost broke my damned spine!

I could see Twilight stifling some more laughs, while Mrs. Cake watched on with a simple smile. Don’t just watch, *HELP ME!!!***

I kept panting to myself, trying to get more back into me, when out of nowhere…

Nom

…Is my leg being chewed on?

I could feel something small chewing at my hind leg. I quickly looked down to find a small, violet-eyed baby alligator biting away at it. It didn’t really hurt at all, seeing that it had no teeth as of yet.

“…” I just stared at it with a blank expression, as it stopped to return the vacant stare with its own. I could not comprehend why this was here.

I leaned down slowly, scooping it up with my hoof. It didn’t really try to resist, it just kept looking at me (or at least I thought it was me) with a completely expressionless gaze.

Who the hell let an ALLIGATOR in here? I began questioning the idea of keeping this thing in a STORE. I don’t care if it’s a baby, what the hell? What if it becomes hostile when it GETS teeth? What if-

“Oh, I see you met Gummy!” Pinkie Pie burst me out of my thoughts with her comment.

“…Gummy?” I asked, looking towards her as I put the weird reptile on the table, it just sitting still staring ahead at basically nothing.

“Yeah!” she replied merrily,  bringing her face really close to the baby alligator. “He’s my pet gator!”

“…”

What the hell.

“…So you own him…?” I began investigating, trying to make sense of it.

“Yep!” Pinkie nodded roughly.

“And you named him Gummy…”

“Uh-huh!”

“And you have him because…?”

“He’s been my bestest animal friend in all of Equestria since he hatched on my days on the Rock Farm I used to live on when I was little!”

…A rock farm...It’d make some sense to see Pinkie as Canadian…But wait, WHAT?

“And you decided to take this baby alligator, that you found on a rock farm, near a swamp, thinking it’d be safe to keep him in the city…?” I cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah!” Pinkie squeaked, rubbing the gator’s head roughly. “Gummy wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s one of the nicest baby alligators ever!”

He was just biting at where my SHINS would be!

Gummy still didn’t react, still looking at thin air as his head rocked back and forth with Pinkie’s hoof. That thing is either too stupid to know what’s happening, or just doesn’t give a damn. It was probably the latter.

“Anyway,” Twilight spoke, ignoring us and directing her attention to Mrs. Cake, who sat at the stool behind the counter.  “Your husband is in the kitchen testing out a friend of ours for a job here.”

“Is that right?” Mrs. Cake got a curious expression on her face, turning her attention to the opening kitchen doors.

“That’s right, honey!” Mr. Cake said as he walked though the kitchen doors.  “And I have to admit, he knows how to handle some dough! Just look!”

With that, he kept walking forward, revealing the cart he was pulling with his tail.  It had an array of all sorts of breads. French bread, dinner rolls, muffins, biscuits, and I could have sworn I even smelled a few pieces of cheese bread.

Baking Soda walked out behind the cart, walking with pride and confidence to go with the triumphant smile on his face. His face had a few spots of powder sticking to his coat, and he was wearing an apron along with a cooking hat. It really did look natural on him.

“Please, try one.” Baking Soda offered a small roll to Mrs. Cake with a confident smile. “I tried my best to make it.”

“Why thank you.” Mrs. Cake put on a warm smile, taking the roll from Soda’s hoof and taking a small bite.

As she chewed, we all remained quiet and listened closely for her evaluation (With the exception of Gummy, who was now standing on his hind legs staring at nothing with no expression whatsoever.)

Slowly, Mrs. Cake’s expression went from a thoughtful judging look, to a shocked believer, her eyes slowly widening as she seemed to have experienced a miracle.

“It’s positively heavenly!” Mrs. Cake breathed, swallowing the piece of the roll, savoring the taste. “The texture is balanced enough to be eaten without any trouble, but not to the point it’s like eating the dough! The flavor of the bread is just right, leaving a small tinge of buttery melt-in-your-mouth-ness without it being overwhelming. Simply delightful!” She eagerly took another bite of the bread as she finished.

Baking Soda’s smile widened twice as large when he heard the great review of his creation, Mr. Cake smiling and tapping him on the shoulder to tell him well done.

“Whoopee!” Pinkie cheered, hopping over to Soda and giving him a big hug. “Does that mean he gets to work here? Huh, huh?”

“Of course!” Mrs. Cake exclaimed finishing her roll with a satisfied sigh.

“We’d be crazy if we didn’t let him have a job here!” Mr. Cake playfully scolded.

“Woohoo!” Pinkie hugged Soda once more, who lightly blushed while chuckling lightly.

“Way to go, Baking Soda.” Twilight chirped, closing her book with a glad smile.

“Well done, Soda” I nodded in his direction. I was simply glad that he wouldn’t be having trouble with living in and fitting in to Ponyville.

“Now then, how about we all sit down and have that dinner?” Mr. Cake offered, walking towards the kitchen to get the rest of the food. “I think we need to celebrate Soda’s new job.”

“I’m all for that… but we need balloons!” Pinkie pranced away from Soda and through the kitchen door, going to help out Carrot Cake.

“Alright then.” Twilight agreed, putting her book back into her saddlebags beside her chair.

“I’m fine with that.” I said, shifting slightly in my seat as Baking Soda set up the table for the small celebration.

Some time later, Twilight, Soda and I were all leaving Sugarcube Corner, full and content with a great feast of freshly baked bread and a small side of sweets.

The bread was just as Mrs. Cake had described it. It wasn’t too hard or soft, too bland or flavored. It was literally as if he put some of his soul into the bread. Just as I had thought, there was indeed a cheese roll in the pan. The sweets were also tasty, but that went without saying, seeing that Mr. Cake made them.

We talked about how I was getting used to life in Ponyville and how well I was getting along with the other folk. I think I’ve adapted pretty well. I could talk to others with ease, despite some mares being a little scared, I had a job where I got paid (gold coins though, not bad.) and a good lifestyle going. I think I could live in Equestria like this.

Still, my life on Earth still needs to be attended. It still bothered me that I was walking around instead of attending my college classes, and I still had my tech support job to tend to; but I can’t seem to make contact with my cell phone, and despite my internet being on for my computer, (for some godforsaken reason.) I haven’t gotten any emails from a client for some help, so in the end, I’ll just have to deal with it until I found some way back.

“Bye, you guys!” Pinkie called from the door, waving with an abnormal amount of energy despite it being so late. Gummy was standing on his shoulder, looking into the darkness with that same blank look. “See you tomorrow, Bakey-Wakey!”

“You got it!” Soda called back, laughing lightly.

“Good night!” Twilight called back.

I just gave a small wave before continuing to walk down the steps, hearing the door close behind me.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay getting home W-” Twilight changed the last word, hoping Soda didn’t notice, “Shadow?”

I looked in the direction of the park. I could make out the street and buildings. I’ve walked around the streets back on Earth in the dead of night before. I should be fine.

“Yeah,” I gave a light nod to Twilight and Baking Soda, “thanks for asking. You be careful.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment, but just conceded with a light nod. “You too.”  Her horn lit up brightly, lighting a small area around her. She turned around, starting her walk home. “Good night, Shadow Flare.”

“Night.” Soda called to me as he walked beside Twilight.

I sighed, taking a quick glance at my watch while the light was still there. 8:40 P.M. Really late now. Time to head home and get a bit of work on those scrolls done. I turned around, walking down the dark path.

As I walked, I kept glancing toward my hoofs, making sure I didn’t stumble or trip over my own footing. Whenever I transformed, I usually just became a pegasus to fly with Rainbow Dash, or a unicorn to practice magic with Twilight Sparkle. This is actually the first time I’ve ever bothered to walk the streets as a pony, so I wasn’t very used to walking a lot in this form.

Damn, it’s really dark… I narrowed my eyes ahead, making out the small bridge that led to the park. I wonder if the glove Rarity gave me can fit me in this form… I blinked. Wait…crap.

I mentally face-hoofed.I forgot to get those gothic photos to Rarity! And wasn’t I supposed to be getting milk from AJ!? Crap! Crap, crap, cra-

EEeeeeeeeee

I stopped dead in my tracks, looking around. What was that noise…? I strained my ears, looking around slowly. I know I heard something…

Crack

I swung my head in the direction the sound came from. I could see a window was opened slightly, and a shadow of a pony sneaking into it slowly. It had a feminine frame, so it was probably a mare. Was she breaking into that house!?

“Hey!” I snapped at the figure. “What the hell are you doing!?”

She swung her head towards me, before turning around and running the other way.

“Get back here, you!” I didn’t waste any time, starting into a gallop despite my inexperience with these limbs, giving chase to the thief down the path towards the residential area.