The Strangeling

Chapter 5, Pet Ponies

*Badum* *Badum* *Badum*

Gleamings heart was beating like mad in her chest. Each pumping of it paired up with her hooves touching down on the sticky, half-wet ground. The grimy slick splashed up from whenever her hooves entered a puddle and coated her hooves and fetlocks to various amounts, matting the fur in the area and recoloring it to a disgusting mixture between green and brown.

Normally any grown mare would at least be mildly upset about such a thing, but Gleaming could not find it within herself to care about such a triviality, at this particular moment in her life.

Gleaming had to escape. She had to run. Faster than she ever did on any parcour in the past, be it in school or the royal guard barracks. She had to gain as much distance from those…those…or something really horrible might-

´No, don’t think about it to much…you´ll only freeze up!´

As she ran her flank of, and probably cracked the sprinting record for unicorns in the meantime, her ears picked up the clicker-clacker and occasional splitch-splash, as the claws of her persuers hit the same puddles Gleaming had just passed through mere seconds before. But the sounds of her persuers were still somewhat irregular, telling her that they were not in full sprint yet, which in turn allowed for her to rapidly expand her lead, even without the lucky headstart.

She did not dare to look back even once though. Not right now. For Gleaming feared she might loose her momentum if she did. Or discover something else she did not want to see.

Further there was something else to worry about beside herself at the moment.

A tiny little thing, she left behind prior, which demanded, that she preserved whatever timely advantage she could squeeze out of her sprint…

Namely, Pokey.

Gleaming had given the little guy to understand that he should wait behind the corner at the end of the alley, while she investigated the suspicious hatch further in. Which was of course the right call at the time, after all he was still a youngling and should not be exposed to any kind of danger. But now, as she was on a very hasty retreat, Gleaming would have no time to convey the problem to him with time-consuming hoofsigns, extensive bodylanguage or even wait it out for him to understand the urgency of the matter. Instead she would just have to grab him on the run and hope he would agree to come along.

The snake-people clearly thought of Gleaming as an intruder, a foodsource and a possible witness to their doing already and showed zero qualms about butchering with their bare claws. There was absolutely no tellling what they would do to Pokey, should they discover him, after the unicorn had been dealt with. Who knows, for all Gleaming knew they could even throw him in the meathouse as well.

Or if Gleaming was lucky and they would not find him.

Yea..., that was bet Gleaming would not take.

A thought struck her over her emergency pondering.

In hindsight maybe she should have taken a different route to escape, as opposed to lure her persuers right to Pokeys last known position. A clear tactical error on her part, for which she would later kick herself for in the flank, if she could.

If there even was a later to consider. First and foremost she had to reach that point in time.

Tactical matters and fatal hasty decision making aside, her pride as guard, rookie or not, along with the oath she had taken in front of Celestia and the gathered crowd with her family in it, called…no… demanded her into protecting Pokey from these carnivores. Or try whatever she could hope to achieve in her current state. At the very least she would be able to take him with her on her mad dash to a safer location…wherever that was.

Gleaming was not so sure about that topic yet. Maybe a quick rush back inside the clinic? It was just behind the wall ahead after all and shady people like the ones who were after her right now, usually tried to avoid being seen in a public space.

It was an option to consider, how uncomfortable that place made her feel.

´No it´s not…,´ Gleaming glumly thought ´it´s my only option…´

As she finally reached the corner, where Gleaming had seen the little dragon last, she slowed her gallop down to a rapid trot. She did so in preparation of doing a quick grab, throwing Pokey on her back and resume her dead sprint out of this deathtrap.

Unfortunately for Gleaming, it was not going to be so easy, as annoyingly common for her.

When the unicorn turned the corner leading to the deadend next to the clinic, no sign of Pokey was to be found. Despite his rather obvious coloration, which made him stick out like a rainbow-colored flower in a desert, there was no trace of his purple scales anywhere within Gleamings field of view. Neither on the sticky, muddy ground, nor on top of any of the overspilling wastecontainers. A few almost unnoticeable clawmarks on the ground were the only clue, that Pokey had ever even been here in the first place.

Was the little guy so afraid that his claws tightened and left those marks as he sat beneath Gleamings frame? Or were they the result of a sudden takeoff? Gleaming could not tell, but either way, Pokey was gone from the spot from where she left him.

´Didn´t I tell him to stay?´

Gleaming recalled his earlier bahavior from inside the clinic, as she was about to leave. The dragon had blown a raspberry in Aiding general direction. Maybe he did not like following instructions from adults? Or did he got bored and wandered off? It was entirely possible, since Gleaming could not claim to know him that well yet.

But did Pokey vacate the area entirely or just decided to hide behind another obstacle out of fright?

Gleaming could not make out his whereabouts from the meager clue of clawmarks before her. Yet her sense of duty and morality also did not permit her to risk leaving him in this predicament, which her investigation had created. Nor allowed her to leave on the mere assumption, that Pokey had left the general vicinity. She had make sure without being able to call out to him, and that meant she would have to search manually for the little guy.

Wary of the approaching threat, Gleaming had to make another hasty call, but with the lead gained from her sprint, she felt confident enough to sacrifice a few precious seconds on searching. The noises of her persuers were still far enough away from her position to take a small risk here.

The only problem now, was figuring out where to start.

Knowing her time was short, Gleaming cantered into the deadend, hoping to quickly locate Pokeys new hideout. Starting from the tiny scratches at the corner, Gleaming let her eyes scan every available surface in the small area as fast as possible, while keeping her head on a swivel for any other hints Pokeys vanishing might have left behind. Looking behind every bin and sack, Gleaming even ventured a little further into the deadend, than she initially wanted to, thinking that Pokey may have retreated back here out of fright and ended up not witnessing her sudden return.

`Come on, come on, come on…where are you?!´

But no matter how hard she looked, Pokeys location remained unknown. Every nook and cranny seemed just as deserted as they were before, prior to the duo arriving back here.

Minus a few worms squirming in the mud. Yuck!

By now Gleaming had checked every available spot, the whelpling could have possibly squeezed into, and was fairly certain, that he was indeed: Gone.

´Maybe he went back to his master?´

A little disheartened at her lack of success, Gleaming was about to conclude her fruitless search and turned around, intend on restarting her gallop and get back to the sea of carriages in front of the clinic. But then the corner of her eye took note of a newly formed large shadow looming over her form on the wall next to her. Before she could even register the implications of it, a splitsecond later another shadow joined the first, chasing out even more light. And just to make matters worse, Gleamings ears told her the one thing she did not want to hear right now: utter Silence.

The clicking of claws echoing out of the darker alley and chasing after her, had stopped.

Swallowing audibly and with a huge sense of dread Gleaming steeled herself and slowly turned around until she was face to face with two of the snake-people from the hatch. The red one, who had disposed of the bags earlier, to her left and a new one with shiny silvery scales on the right. Both of them had a mixture of fresh and dried caked blood on their claws, which occasionally loosened dried crumbs and mingled with the unknown substances hidden in the mud.

Both lizards towered over Gleamings small frame, breathing heavily while holding their claws at the ready on their sides. Occasionally they moved singular talons in small sequences and exchanged glances with each other, as they seemed to think about on how to approach their prey.

Were they sharpening their talons in preparation or trying to get some of the smeary substances off?

Standing side by side, they efficiently blocked the majority of the alleys width, leaving no space for even the tiniest pony to squeeze through unharmed. Thus the only path leading back to Gleamings point of origin was going right through them. She literally got herself cornered by two predators in a dead end. And the worst of it was, she had nopony to blame, but herself, for it! She practically presented herself on a silver platter to them…

Their breath was almost visible in the cool air of the backalley, as it slowly escaped through their slitted nostrils. Gleaming figured the snake-people probably had not recovered from their own sprint yet, as she observed their tongues darting out to lick their segregated lips on every second intake of air. Maybe she could make use of their exhaustion somehow?

Hissing loudly the scaly beasts exchanged another series of glances between one another and eventually set their eyes solely on Gleaming, before they started to move to close the remaining gap between themselfes and the unicorn. All the while the pair was making sure to stick together and not give her any room to get past them, by spreading out their arms and making use of their height.

´Is that hissing some kind of actual language? Where they talking like that?!´ Gleaming had never heard anything like it. Even dragons could not rely on hissing and growling alone to communicate with one another. Not to mention other species.

Regardless of the the answer to any of that, Gleaming was trapped. A fact she knew just as well as the two lizards, who apparantly took their time with reaching their prey. The only way out of the alley was behind those monsters, and Gleaming was certain they would not make it easy for her to reach that exit. As she slowly backed up in what little space remained behind her, Gleaming realized, that she would have to fight her way out of this mess… or die trying.

Gleaming had no intention of doing the latter. She would not go down without a serious fight! The Royal Equestrian Guard trained all of its members in hoof to hoof combat, just in case horns or wings were ever disabled. And as fate would have it, that just may safe her flank, as her horn did not feel like it should. She could not even produce a large enough charge for a simple bolt. Even the simple act of building up a basic charge, caused the sending of painful spikes directly into her head.

´Curse that portal!´

Fortunately, Gleaming knew she did not need to score a full victory here. All she really had to do was disable or distract one of her assailants enough to create a gap and then dash past and she would be home free!

With her mind made up Gleaming picked her target and lowered her frontal body in a battle stance, all the while trying to keep her eyes trained on both of the slowly approaching lizards, ever vigilant for the smallest hint of an opening or weakness.

As Gleaming moved into her ready state, the silver lizards scaly lips curled up and he seemed to smirk, revealing some very sharp teeth along with the action. Hissing a message to his red counterpart, both lizards then suddenly started to take in rapid gulps of air and release them just as quickly, while they crept closer still. Were they actually laughing at her now? The nerve!

´Enjoy your laugh while you can.´ Gleaming thought to herself, as the action only served in steeling her resolve to fight.

With the snake-people only a ponylength away from her now and Gleaming out of space to move back into, both parties were well within striking distance of each other. Muscles tensed in silent preparation, about to be released like springtraps, for what was coming. The stage was set.

But then something unexpected to everyone involved occurred.

A voice, familiar to Gleaming, yet oddly cold of a sudden and with a challenging undertone, echoed through the clinics sidealley from its entrance, “Pardon my intrusion, but may I ask, what you two fine gentlemen intend on doing to our national mascot there?”

Both lizards intantly froze in their tracks. Their slitted little eyes widened and their bodies whirled around in a flurry of movement while hissing angrily under their breath. Gleaming barely had time to dodge their tails as Reds and Silvers turning caused the appendages to smash in her direction, while the snakes readjusted their position, now facing the intruder on their little hunt. They did not seem pleased about a sudden interruption to their actions.

Through the tiny gaps between the snake-peoples legs Geaming could barely make out the alleys entry and the light filtering in from there. In the middle of it, the Changeling stood in a somewhat rigid pose, fitting the tense athmospshere, as he kept staring at the group of three at the far back. Gleaming could have sworn she even saw his eyes flicker blue for a second before returning to their usual dull aqua blue.

His aura seemed different from before. Something had changed about the vibes coming off of him. Gleaming could not quite put her hoof on it, but it felt like something close to fury, like barely restrained anger.

Up until this point, Gleaming only knew Aiding the changeling with his lackluster attitude and the desinterested, almost bored, gaze he sent pretty much anywhere he looked. Not counting the surprised look he had on her poor attempt at overwhelming him in the metal room on his ship.

But now…now there was something cold in his eyes, which made Gleamings fur stand on end. And by the way the lizards suddenly halted in their aggression, they must sensed something in him as well. Gleaming could tell that by the way they hissed at the changeling in an attempt to scare him off. Or was it to counter his threatening gaze? Did they see his eyes flash too?

Either way the hissing only got more intense the longer the staring match went on. And it only increased in volume and intensitiy when Aiding decided to casually walk into the Alley, closing the large distance between himself and the lizards besieging the unicorn.

Steadily approaching the group of three Aiding resumed talking, “Yes, yes. I get it you are angry. But being curious is the nature of these animals.”

He paused shortly to wait for a reply, before continuing, “Now why don´t we keep this simple? You leave the little one with me and we part ways peacefully…But should you decide to hurt her in any way or form, I can guarantee you, you wont have enough time to regret it.”, the changeling threatened the hissing snakes-people as the distance between himself and the snakes shortened further.

As the scaly predators did not respond Aiding surprisingly started hissing like they did, as it was the easiest thing in world.

´Did he just talk with them? How?!´

´And he is completely alone out here! He is not even armed or anything! Why didn´t he bring anypony else along?!´

Perplexed for a second at actually receiving a response in own tongue, the snakes exchanged a bewildered look before they send more angry messages at the changeling. Yet, he kept going. Steadily advancing on them. The hissed threats not deterring him in any meaningful way.

Aiding just kept coming closer and closer. At a closer look, each step of his almost appeared methodically planned, as if he was testing the water or feeling around with his hooves for a secure stand before placing it down. Gleaming guessed he very much expected tensions to rise further and the lizards were most likely to get creative soon, but still…he did not seem scared at all!

Seeing their attempts at discouraging the intruder fail, Gleaming observed the pair of lizards glance at each other, with a dangerours glint in their eyes. Then the silvery one parted with his red companion and went to meet the changeling halfway into the alley. More hissing inevitably followed when Aiding got close enough to spit into silvers face.

Both parties finally came to a halt next to rather disgusting looking puddle of green ooze, continuing their staring match from close up. Changling and Snake, staring each other down. Despite the changeling standing on his hindlegs, silver-scales still towered over him with at least one headsize, and the snake-man was aware of it being a clear advantage, as he flexed his muscles and a disgusting grin grew on his face.

Neither side backed down an inch as the staring duel continued and the tension in the air thickened to a point where one could literally bite a chunk out of it.

For a moment it seemed time itself came to stop. Changeling and overgrown snake standing face to face, trying to intimidate the other into surrendering and leaving the field. Nothing but the slow and steady intakes of air could be heard from either side. No blinking. No flinching. Not even the slightest movement, until…

Silver shot a quick glance back at his red friend. An almost unnoticable short nod was send back in return.

A silent message to take action.

Suddenly Gleaming saw the right arm of Silver shoot forward rapidly, with claws outstreched, aimed straight at the changelings gut. A move that was certain to wound, if not outright kill, the target and end this incursion in a short decisive action. The changeling would get killed and Gleaming was next in line. It would be the end.

But fate had other plans for Gleaming this day.

As the tip of the claws reached the exterior of Aidings vest, the Ling went into action with a speed that did not only surprise his attacker, but Gleaming as well. Simultaniously grabbing hold of the appendage with both his forehooves and sidestepping the strike with a small turn, he used the momentum of his attacker against him and proceeded to pull him further than the snake intended in the direction of the now failed attack.

The snake was clearly caught offguard by the rapid reaction and was only able to go along with the unintended reinforced forward motion. A move, which Aiding used to pull the attacker down to eye level with himself and dangerously close to his fangs. Aiding gave him a snarl of his own. after Silver came to a stop, revealing his own set of pointy teeth and the true size of his fangs.

Then he hissed through his teeth in a barely audible voice: “Wrong choice.”

Another twist. Another turn. And suddenly Aiding was standing behind the silver-scaled snake, still holding onto his arm. As the Snake tried to free himself by tugging on his arm, Aiding gave it a small twist.

Even if the tall lizard had not screamed in an earshattering cry to the heavens, the look of sheer agony, which appeared on Silvers face and the fact that he instantly stopped to struggle against the changelings hold, spoke for itself: He was trapped. Painfully so it appeared.

The turned appenadge, now situated behind Silvers backside, was bend in a rather unsual angle. A position which Gleaming figured was not very comfortable to the snake. And considering the grunting the snake gave off in short intervals, the hold in itself was probably rather painful, not to mention when the Ling put additional force into it.

In mere seconds and some fluid motion Aiding had blocked a lethal hit, switched sides with Silver and still held the upper hoof.

Every time the now captured scaly beast tried to do so much as hiss, growl or squirm, Aiding would increase the pressure he had on the snakes arm. Thus resulting in the aforementioned action to instantly stop and be replaced with pained hissing.

Gleaming could hardly believe it, but the hissing gradually became whimpering noises, which she thought the creature was not even capable of emitting.

By the way the snake tried to supress these noises, Gleaming could tell the silver snake did not enjoy to be at somepony elses mercy very much. His tone and whimpering only got more desperate and intense the longer the situation remained unchanged.

Aiding simply spoke to his captive “I did give you a fair warning,” in a voice as if he was just commenting on the weather.

Glancing at the red snake, Gleaming saw that his eyes had widened to an almost comically huge size. She could have sworn the color of his scales had even drained to a lighter shade of red as well, while he witnessed his allies demise and heard his pained cryouts. For the moment he was as frozen in his posture just as Silver was, but not out of an actual physical hold, but rather one out of shock.

With all the fancy twisting and turning the changeling did to subdue Silver, he ended up with his back towards Gleaming and red-scales as he continued his deathgrip on the former assailant. While this new standing point was of no particular interest to Gleaming directly, this new positioning of the changeling allowed for a peculiar detail to reveal itself to the unicorn.

There at Aidings backside, specifically his neck, clung a very familiar purple blob with wings.

Pokey.

The relief washing over Gleaming, at seeing the little dragon there and unharmed, let her momentarily forget, that she was still somewhat in peril, as Red had to make his move yet.

However for some unknown reason she could not explain, seeing the dragon made Gleaming feel like this turmoil would turn out to be okay. The dragon was in a way a small glimmer of reassurance on a seemingly very dark day.

In that very moment, almost as if he sensed the unicorns gaze on his backside, Pokey turned his head backwards and the very instant he spotted Gleaming staring right back at him, he left his perch and beelined over to her, coming to a halt on top of a small metal bin nearby.

Upon his landing the whelpling spread his wings wide and waved his little arms above his head in a small greeting, before starting to give applause to an unseen crowd with a big smile on his tiny face and his tail wagging behind him.

“Meheheheheheheh!”

Geaming spotted the red lizard shoot Pokey a confused glance from the corner of his eye, before returning his attention back to his distraught comrade and the changeling holding him in a deathgrip. It was clear that he was no longer in shock and started frantically searching for an option out of this situation, as his gaze kept shifting between every individual in the alley, but nothing promising seemed to come to him.

Was he going to strike at the changeling back? Was he going to finish the job with the unicorn?

His body language did not change in the slightest, leavng no clue to his internal though process to anyone outside of his mind.

Until Gleaming saw him shoot another glance Pokeys way, and Red started shuffling over to the cheerful, yet danger oblivious dragonling.

´Oh no! You don´t!´

Gleaming narrowed her eyes as she sensed his evil intend the moment Red started moving, and this time she would be able to keep the little guy safe. She was already in a perfect spot to attack due to her being backed into this corner earlier.

Now she only had to act.

As Red shuffled closer to Pokeys seat, he unknowingly moved into Gleamings path and the unicorn wasted no time in kicking herself of the backwall and tackling him into the back of his knee, causing Red to stumble forward quite a bit.

Caught offguard by the surprise attack from behind, Red had to stretch out his arm, in order to catch himself from falling over, by digging his claw into the wall closest to him. And as soon as he was stable once more, Red shot a deathglare over his shoulder towards Gleaming, which she countered with her very own glare.

Granted she had not yet mastered her mothers patented deathbeam-glare, which forced even her dad to seek shelter, but she did her best attempt at it. Also Gleaming scraped her left fronthoof on the ground and lowered her horn in preparation for use as a ram for good measure.

Turning his attention away from Gleaming, Red hissed a message to his counterpart and rose back to his full height, while giving a small grunt. The silver lizard in turn hissed his answer back without skipping a beat, almost cutting his partner off.

Apparantly following their conversation and reading their intend Aiding turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder and addressed the unbound lizard, “If you want to join your friend kneeling in the dirt, be my guest. Otherwise I suggest you take what´s left of your so called warrior pride and leave.”

Aiding then went ahead and carefully released his grip on Silver, shoving him a small ways away in the process and rightened himself back up. Keeping his eyes on both lizards ,and his back to the wall, he motioned with his head towards the alleys only exit, silently commanding the scaly pair to leave.

Getting back on his feet and glaring daggers all the while, but not objecting, both the snake-people shot one last glare in unison at Gleaming and Aiding in turn, before vacating their spots and slowly started trudging to the alleys exit. Red supported his friend, who cradled his arm like somepony would hold a newborn. Their tails snapped angrily at the containers and walls of the backalley all along their way, creating banging noises on the metal in a semi-rhythmic pattern.

Gleaming watched her former attackers marching into the direction of the clinics front and eventually disappearing around the corner to the left. Probably towards the regular front entrance of the building to whatever the hatch was the backdoor of, Gleaming assumed.

Through the entire walk of shame, the changeling did not turn around fully to watch them depart. He just stood there staring at a seemingly random spot at the wall opposite of him. But Gleaming saw his webby ears swivel around to follow the pairs every move until they were out of earshot. Only when the lizards finally went out of view, let the changeling relax his posture and the usual uninterested look in his eyes returned.

Crossing his forelegs in front of his chest and breathing a small sigh he muttered, “Unbelievable…and in broad daylight too!” in the same voice with the bored undertone, that Gleaming was familiar with by now.

“Meheheheheh!”

Turning his eyes to the ever cheerful dragon, Aiding casually addressed him, “Happy Pokey?”

“Wah-wah!”, Pokey responded in his usual fashion, by waving his arms through the air above himself.

Chuckling to himself Aiding then pressed something on his collar with a hoof before starting to speak to seemingly nothing but air, “Nem, we were lucky. Pokey found her. Come back to your place, backalley on the right.”

Gleaming glanced at the whelpling from the corner of her eye. ´Found me?´ Once again Gleaming could not believe how far off the truth Aiding actually was and could not resist rolling her eyes.

If the changeling received any response from the vet, then Gleaming could not hear it, but a mere moment later he added “…yea yea, I know I send you the other way... Look, just come here for second, then I´ ll be off, alright?”

Removing the hoof from his collar, Aiding then came a tad closer and slowly knelt down a small distance in front of Gleaming, from where he aimed his next words at her, “Now lets try this again.”

´Try what?´

He held out his hoof to Gleaming with the bottom side up, yet he did not close the gap still seperating the two on his own. Gleaming could see his blue eyes being fixed on hers for any flicker of movement or emotion.

´Whats this now? Whats he up- ohhhh, right´ The stallion from across the sea of carriages suddenly popped back into Gleamings mind. Weird as it was to watch, the stallion seemed to trust the changeling mere moments after he adopted this pose and now Aiding was trying the exact same number with her.

´Is this some kind of ritual or a trap?´ she wondered.

…

Then she deadpanned, ´I am not a dog!´

Partly to maintain her pride and not about to trust the ´ling on the other hoof, Gleaming remained standing where she was. Instead of doing what the stallion did, Gleaming decided to watch what Aiding would if she did not react the same way. Also she had to figure out, what to expect from him, when she did or did not certain things.

`If the situation was any different Twily probably would have loved to book this as an experiment.´

So far Aiding gave no indication of suspecting her of anything. Therefore Gleaming felt it a safe bet to just play dumb and keep fooling him, until she could figure out his true intentions with her. Or any other pony for that matter. And also maybe figure out what the hay was wrong with this place!

Thinking things over like this, finally steeled her resolve to go along with her earlier draft of a plan after all. Even though she still did not like it one bit.

´I´ll do whatever I need to survive, until either escape or return is possible…even if it means pretending to be a pet! I cant believe I said that last part…´

When no visible reaction came from Gleaming to answer his approach, Aiding let out a tired sounding sigh, dropped the outstretched hoof to the floor and quietly asked, “Still nothing from you?”

Gleaming barely caught herself from willing to answer with a snarky comment, but thankfully the words still would not come to her.

Just another point of her ever growing list of things to figure out, she guessed.

Seemingly accepting his lack of success for the time being, Aiding stood back up while glancing to his dragon whelpling. The tiny dragon looked back up to his master and simply tilted his head in response. They kept eye contact with each other for solid five second before Pokey broke it by turning his gaze back to Gleaming.

An unspoken conversation must have passed between dragon and ´ling at this point, or maybe they did this more often, but suddenly Aiding decided to ask, “You want to give it another shot, Pokey?”

The dragon responded in his usual cheery manner at the offer and clasped his paws together in applause before he jumped from his position and touched down in front of Gleaming.

Gleaming herself saw the whelpling in a way more positive light, than his changeling master and therefore had no problem with him invading her personal space at all. Even as the tiny lizard hobbled forward to first poke, then hug and finally wrap himself around her foreleg she did not object in any way or form.

It somehow reminded her of Spikes younger years, when he was still freshly hatched.

It was cute.

Gleaming was about to use her other foreleg to gently pet the dragon on his head, until a thought struck her and she stopped dead in her tracks, ´Do ponies around here behave different around dragons?´

As if reading her thoughts and confirming her false handling of the situation, Aiding commented Gleaming interaction, or lack therof, towards Pokey with, “Weird. Maybe she´s your lucky one Pokes.”

The whelpling overjoyed with his success at hugging the unicorn simply answered with, “Wah-wah!” and started rubbing his cheek on her upper leg.

´Crap! Cantered right into this one Gleam…´ the unicorn mentally berated herself.

Fortunately for her though, her inner turmoil was hidden from both dragon and changeling. The former had his eyes closed as he was rubbing his cheek into her fur and the latter had his eyes on the formers actions, so neither was able to discover Gleamings scrutinizing gaze on Aiding.

Or so she thought.

Was Gleaming imagining things or was there a thin smile on the changelings face, as he was observing Pokeys cuddle session with her fetlock? Nah, probably not. Also the very moment Gleaming thought she spotted the smile, it was immediatly covered by his bored expression again, which he used to wear pretty much all the time.

Gleaming eyes narrowed. What was he hiding?

Peering closer into his facial expression Gleaming noticed no further hints to the changelings thoughts, but she did see his webby ears swivel around at the same time as she felt her own locate a new source of noise within the alley. The familiar clicker-clacker of approaching claws. Gleaming was about to return to her alerted stance, but refrained from doing so as she realized just who was coming.

Recalling the thin air speech from Aiding in her mind and peering around the changelings prone form, she spotted none other than Nemora in her lab coat running towards them. As she sprinted towards them, the vets golden jewelery jingled with each large step in the groups direction, giving off the impression that a windplay was gliding through the air somewhere.

When Nemora finally reached the alleys end, she dug her claws in the dirt and came to halt right next to Aiding, who rose from his knelt down spot in front of the unicorn, to meet her at eye level. Well, almost eye level, since he was still a little shorter than the vet.

Nemoras posture shrunk a fair bit as she put her front claws on her knees and gasped at every intake of air, as she obviously tried to regain her breath from the sprint. The parts of her scaly hide, which were not covered by her coat also sparkled in a shiny sheen, hinting at her sweating profoundly while she searched in the wrong spot prior to her arrival here.

Aiding watched her take in huge gulps of air, before addressing her with a rapidly spreading smirk on his muzzle, “Out of shape, Nem?”

´Where is he coming from?´

Nemora paused her panting for a second at his remark, to glare daggers at him. Then after another round of breathing, she struck her forked tongue out at him and shot right back, “I want to see you… after you were send looking…in the absolut wrong spot…not knowing how far my patient could have gotten…and then get told…to head in the complete opposite direction!” and ended her tiny rant with a harumpf, before she resumed breathing.

Nemoras seemed to mull things over in her head, as she added, “This is revenge… for lauging at you…earlier…isn´t it?” a few seconds after.

Smirk still on his face, albeit a little smaller now, Aiding explained, “There was no way telling which way she actually took back there.” He turned his gaze downwards, “Not until Pokey arrived at least. So it was the best course of action to cover as much ground as possible. Especially the areas, which we can be sure, she remembers. Ponies have a good memory of places, due to their wandering habits after all.”

“Doesn´t make it…any more…fun…” Nemora heaved.

Turning his head around, to look over his shoulder, Aiding peered down the alley with the hatch in it, which by now probably was concealed again by the containers. Not breaking his gaze away from the vet, Aiding spoke over his shoulder, “Say Nem, do you happen to know who owns the shack next doors?”

Taking a moment to gather some much needed breath for speaking, Nemora hummed in thought and scatched at her head, “I might be wrong, but I think that’s the ambassadors fancy place…a restaurant for the high-ups. Never been there myself though… the prices are outragious!”

“Since when do places like these hire ruffians from the docks?”

“Ruffians?” After a very long pause Nemora proceeded to smack one claw into her face, before slowly dragging it back down. “Please don´t tell me you started something again!” At Aidings silence, she went on, “The Scream I heard earlier was your doing, wasn´t it?”

“I didn´t start anything, but I´m not about to be intimidated by a pack of wanna-be-warriors.”

Turning his head back, to look at his partner in the conversation again, Aiding probably spotted Nemoras aggravated face, as he quickly tried to calm her, “Nothing you need to worry about.”

His attempts were futile though.

“I honestly can´t believe it! You are back one day, one…single…day…no scratch that… Not even a full day and you are already back to this!” Nemora finished by throwing her arms into the air. Then after a while with no reaction from Aiding, other than a raised eyebrow, she dropped them back down and shook her head in defeat.

Lowering his brow and ignoring her outburst, Aiding decided to change topic, “If I were you, I´d try to get my money back for the pony-safe door, or at least sue the one who installed it. It oviously ain´t working.”

Righting herself back up to her full height, Nemora closed her eyes, took one last deep gulp of air and slowly exhaled, while stretching her neck upwards and pushing her arms down. When Gleaming heard a Pop emitt from somewhere on Nemoras spine, the vet let out the air she was holding in a satisfied sigh an reopened her eyes. Once that was done, she was back to the way Gleaming remembered her from inside the clinic, minus the occasional glistering sweat pearl on her scales.

It reminded Gleaming heavily of the breathing exercise Cadence tended to do when stressed.

“Its obviously wasted breath to talk to you again…so, what do we do now? Do you still plan on keeping her without a leash on?” Nemora asked the changeling standing next ot her, as she crossed her scaly arms over her chest and nodded Gleamings way, “She might get in trouble, if you let a wildfang roam freely.”

`A leash?! There is no way in Tartarus I´m gonna wear one of those!´

At the mentioning of trouble Aiding choked barely audible, but before Nemora could comment on it he answered her, “You know what I think of leashes. Its not an option.” Weighing his head from left to right, as he scanned Gleamings form he added, “Most of them reject the collar anyways. They bite and scratch at it, or rub it on a tree in order to get it off. Right now the risk that she injures herself is higher than the risk of her injuring someone else.”

“If you say so, but she is quite the skilled escapist and we still know next to nothing about violent tendencies. I´d be more cautious.”

“Don´t worry, she hasn´t had an episode in awhile. Also we seem to have found a method to steer her now.”

“How do you mean?”

Gleaming saw Aiding motion with his head in her direction, or rather in the drection of her leg. When she followed his gaze an excited looking dragonling was gazing back up at her.

“You can´t be serious!”, Nemora exclaimed with disbelief dripping clearly from her voice, as she followed the same path with her eyes, as Gleaming had.

“I am. Right, Pokes?”

At the mention of his name, or nickname in this case, the whelpling gave a chirp and hugged Gleamings leg again. He seemed more than just content with the idea of being an impromptu handler.

The unicorn herself had to admit, that the idea of letting a child, no matter the species, of his age bear the responsibility for the actions of a wild animal would have been scoffed at back home as well. Nevertheless in her circumstances it was the most ideal outcome she could have probably hoped for. For Gleaming had waaaaay more faith and trust in the dragon, than anypony else present at the moment.

“Well, it´s your funeral…and handlers license.” Giving Gleaming a scrutinizing look, Nemora let her arms drop, “Well for what it´s worth, she doesn´t look any worse for wear than before.”

“Glad to hear we don’t need another inspection, we ve lost enough time as it is.”

Rasing a single talon in Aiding face, Nemora sharply interjected, “…however, I would highly recomment giving her a proper bath in due time. There is no teling what the neighbors stack back here and she is covered from head to tail in the gunk!” Nemoras face took on a disgusted look and she struck out her tongue at nopony in particular “Yuck!”

Gleaming quickly glanced over the parts of her fur she could see and with a disheartened feeling in her stomach could only agree to the vets assessment of her overall state. She probably reeked too! If her mother would know about this, she´d never hear the end of it!

“Fine fine, If I can find anyone to volunteer for a wrestling match with her or put on a combat suit, I´ll be sure to let them bath her!”

“You better! Oh and be sure to let me know how she copes at your place! Tataaa!”

And with that Nemora the chatty vet turned on her heels with a small wave and marched back the way she came. Once she had reached the alleys exit, she yelled one more time in the groups general direction, “Oh and be sure to bring her around in the next few days for a complete checkup, if she hasn´t run off by then!”

Gleaming was not sure, but she could have sworn there was a smirk now present on Nemoras face. But before she could confirm it, the only snake creature, who had not tried to murder her (yet), vanished around the corner.

Shaking his head, Gleaming heard the changeling mumble something about “tables” and “luck” before he addressed Pokey, “Alright buddy, think you can get your new best friend to follow us back to the partking lot? We have to get going.”

Pokey responded to Aiding question, by finally letting go of Gleaming leg, well at least partially, and pulling on it with his tiny claws. When no reaction came from the unicorn, Pokey hobbled a bit backwards and repeated the same motion with the addition of leaning over backwards.

By itself the action would probably never get anypony moving anywhere, but Gleaming understood the whelplings intend all to well. And since she had agreed with herself to act under the guise of pet (for now!) she was more than less inclined to follow the notion and go along with it.

So it was back to the sea of carriages, that the Ling had referred to as “parking lot”, where she had to jump back up onto the backside of his so called “car”.

As she settled in for yet another bumpy ride to Celestia-knows-where, Aiding pulled the lid back up, which closed of the loading areas backside. While he did so, Gleaming caught the changeling cast a rather peculiar stare over the many carriages back to the frontside of the building the secret hatch belonged to. Nemoras was right, the fancy lettering out front clearly marked the place as restaurant.

But why was Aidings stare standing out to Gleaming? Because it seemed like he was deep in thought about something, until he suddenly turned on a dime, walked around the vehicle and entered the front part of his personal carriage, as if nothing had accurred.

But not before Gleaming caught a glimpse of his eyes, which had the same cold expression they had back in the alley as he was facing off against Red and Silver…and they flashed again… It did not bode well with her.

For the second time this day, at least the white unicorn hoped it was still one day (it surely felt like more), Gleaming Shield found herself on the loading area of the changelings weird carriage. Whereas said vehicle rumbled along the road to yet another unknown destination, Gleaming allowed herself some rest after the recent events in the literal open air backseat.

To that end she had made herself comfortable on top of the blanket, once again provided to her, tucked in her legs and leaned with her side on the right edge of the, mostly empty, loading space. It was not exactly a soft cushion, but the small metal railing helped much to stabilise her body against being thrown around like a ragdoll again. There was a mysteriously unmarked crate further to her right,which stabilised her body the other way and had initially piked her interest, but as Gleaming lacked tools or any other (mostly magical) means of looking inside of it, the contents would continue to elude her for the time being.

Maybe an opportunity would provide itself later.

True to Aidings words, Pokey had stuck with Gleaming from the moment they left the parking lot and was showing absolutely no signs of leaving. To be more precise, the whelpling was currently snuggled up against her chestfluff, like a regular young foal would, and Gleaming was quite positive at this point, that he was fast asleep. She could clearly feel his tiny chest heave up and down on every intake of air and every breath of the dragon infant lightly tickled her fur. The rhythm of Pokeys breathing had decreased considerably over the last few…minutes, hours…whatever, leading to her assumption of his status as the latest resident of the dream realm.

Why was she okay with Pokey being there? Gleaming did not fully know herself but it sure felt reassuring to have the purple lizard to hold onto. Maybe it was his faint resemblence to Spike, which put her mind at ease around him.

And besides, it would surely help to maintain her chosen cover.

Just like her trainride to Ponyville, which felt like a ages ago, the unicorn busied herself with gazing out at the passing landscape. Only this time, with the open top of the loading decks backside, she was had no window to shield herself against the wind. The unfortunate side effect was, that said wind was taking very much gusto in throwing her mane around and about.

Usually the long strands ended up flinging right into her face, and without magic there was little she could do to prevent it from happening repeatedly. Aside from brushing the loose strands out of her face via hoof, that is.

At least it was not too cold outside here. At this point Gleaming really was glad for the tiniest spark of positivity. It almost was like she was grasping for straws of light in a weird and dark alien place.

Especially after witnessing…that...

Gleaming shook her head to clear the horrifying images from it. She was fairly certain, that the pictures would encourage her mind to imagine something even more shocking for her dreams tonight.

´I hope Princess Luna isn´t too busy tonight…´

Granted, even in Equestrias history, there were times when things got really ugly. General history class in school taught every filly and colt the basics, but it was not so hard to see for even the most gullible among them, that wars with pointy sticks usually ended with more than just a few bruises.

Especially if aimed at the face or far below the waistline…

Additionally, as she got into cadet classes, Gleaming got to know more about the turbolent past of the Royal Guard, back when Equestria itself was just a mere idea the royal sisters had. The Unification Wars, Sombras Dictatorship over the Crystal Empire, the struggles with the old Gryphon Empire and Discords nasty little traps to poke fun at ponykind and its rulers, to name just a few of the past millenia.

But ever since the sisters solidified the borders of modern Equestria, not a single pony had to endure a fate as grim as the ones, Gleaming witnessed down in that basement kitchen. It just was not right.

And if she ever got out of this mess, she was sure to inform the princesses about it!

While Gleaming tried to mentally swallow the load of trouble she was in, the rumbling metal carriage moved on along the road to...Gleaming had no actual idea, what their eventual destination would look like. She faintly recalled Nemora and Aiding mentioning some sort of farm in their chat.

A farm filled with ponies.

`A pony-farm run by a changeling?´

Gleamings imagination ran wild with horrid images about ponies in chains, the cracking sounds of whips in the air and the foul stench of sweat, grime and misery in forced labour, while a mean looking changeling overseer let loose a diabolical laughter.

An uneasy chill spread across her back, as the thought struck her, that maybe the Ling was even farming ponies to sell them to those snake-people. Or at least the ones who could no longer meet their quota… Hundreds if not thousands of ponies, raised, worked into ruin and finally killed to serve as a source of food…

If so, Gleaming was in grave danger!

And she had just delivered herself on a silver plate!

But then again, why did he stop the two overgrown snakes from killing her? Would it not have been much simpler to demand up-front cash and be done with it? Why go through the trouble to intervene and save her, if he has a full farm of ponies? Why care about a single unicorn he did not even know anything about? Besides his seriously off-track guesswork, that is…

Gleamings could not wrap her head around it.

A frustrated growl escaped her throat and she rubbed a hoof rapidly through her mane in frustration, ruffling it up in the process.

´I´m not getting any anywhere like this! I´m not as good as Twily is with the analytical stuff!´

One floor further down, on her chest, Pokey stirred in his slumber at the vibrations of her growl and Gleamings movement, but quickly decided not to worry and instead snuggle back into her fluff, as the unicorn calmed herself. Gleaming observed his small form for a moment, a peaceful smile grazing her lips as she was observing him in his sleep.

Then she shook her head and narrowed her eyes.

´I have to get a grip of this crazy place and its rules, before it gobbles me up like Nightmare Moon the sweets on Nightmare Night!´

Gradually the tall manehattan style buildings of the city grew smaller in size in front of Gleaming, as the Lings vehicle left the urban area behind. With Gleaming looking out over the backend, she also took note of the traffic thinning out, the longer they went.

Then after some more time had passed, the smaller building too, got fewer and the space between them grew, eventually giving way to a green hilly terrain. A few odd, sickly looking, trees stood out here and there. but overall this type of land looked much more like the evergreen, fertile plains of Equestria, which Gleaming was used to.

More roads and occasionally a river snaked itself through the wide valleys between the mostly flat-topped hills. At the bottom of quite a few of those mounds and sometimes even on their sides, nature, and quite possibly intense labour, had formed large flat areas, limited at their ends by strange fences with long silvery poles. Various tall and bushy plantlife grew out from these fields in rows, carrying colorful fruits of different sizes. Gleaming assumed the long poles must have been made by the locals, but was unable to discern their function from a passing glance alone. A few huts and small houses completed the picture, decorating the hills and fields, scattered about liberaly like the topping on a piece of candy. Considering their proximity to the fields in general, these buildings were likely housing the individuals, who went to work on the local farms.

Gleaming idly wondered how many creatures actually lived here.

The city, they had left behind, was bigger than any metropolis she knew…okey, bigger than Canterlot at least. The whole of Canterlot City, not to mention the palace, would have fitted multiple times in that place!

And then there were individuals living out here as well!

Hills and field passed by in an almost hypnotic, repetetive sequence, until the scenery began to slowly shift again. The otherwordly trees, which were only sporadically growing out of the ground before, now covered more and more of the mounds surfaces and the areas between them. The trees on average grew in size and their foliage started to become much thicker. So thick in fact, that they started to extend over the road and blocked out parts of the light, keeping lots of illumination from reaching the ground. The very few lightstreaks, that made it through, were barely enough to brighten up the road ahead, yet made for a beautiful spectacle as the leaves shifted in the breeze and caused the lightsstreaks to follow suit, like beams in a danceclub.

Trying to gaze past the foliage and tree trunks, Gleaming could not make out any defining landmarks anymore and slowly she realised, that the road they were on, was leading them through a rather dense forest area. The air had cooled considerably and Gleaming felt the hairs of her her fur starting to stand up, to provide more of a heatshield against the drop in temperature.

Gleaming was not certain, but a pair of glowing red dots seemed to follow her as the vehicle she was on flashed past a rather thick underbrush. She tried to lean over the railing a bit and squinted back to the bush in the distance, but the red dots were gone as quickly as they appeared.

´Am I going crazy?´

Suddenly, with no warning, Aiding steered hard to the right and abandoned the mainstream of black road leading through this gloomy, green maze. The speed at which the carriage was travelleing decreased by a lot and the humming it gave of became less noisy. At the same time Gleamings ears began picking up the sound of soft sand or dirt being crushed under the vehicles wheels.

The forest appeared even more dense in this area and Gleaming saw the beginnings of a simple dirt path emerging from under the carriages backend. Guessing from the almost crawling speed, Gleaming figured that they were either nearing their destination or the path was to uneven for the this vehicle to handle it at a more rapid pace.

Gleaming really hoped the former would be the case, because the suspense was starting to get to her. Much to her growing anger, Gleamings mind restarted to bombard her with various images of ponies in distress and despite her best efforts to push them back into the dark recesses of her mind, she felt her heart beat faster.

As opposed to how the dark forest slowly enraptured them upon their entry to its foreboding domain, the entire carriage easily popped free of its grim hold without any forward warning a short while after they took this sideway. Intense light flooded back in from all directions and its warmth was more than welcomed by Gleaming in the open backseat. Lush green grass came into view on all sides, occasionally decorated by a single tree or bush ladden with fruit, but otherwise undisturbed as it formed a huge open field of grass. A few of the fruit had fallen down, and showed signs of being partially eaten, before being left behind for an unknown reason.

Had they just entered a clearing in the forest?

Gleaming felt their ride rumble on, further into the green space, for a few more moments, but eventually it slowed down to snails speed. Aiding, the presumed driver then proceeded to pull a short sharp left turn, before commanding his weird wagon to halt completely. The vehicle complied, but not without protesting via a small, drawn out, screech of metal. The constant rumbling the carriage used to emitt while moving, died off not a second later, giving way to the natural sounds of rustling leaves in the wind, singing birds and the serene calmness of nature.

Gleaming noted that Aiding had puled his carriage into a spot, where another two of similar look already stood, cold and silent. He had more than one of those!?

As she took in the new sights and sounds, Gleaming heard the changeling exit his vehicle and felt the familiar shift in weight. Presumably due to the vehicles frame adjusting to the center of its mass being moved back and forth. When the Ling came into view on her right, Gleaming made to look the other way to her left, where she spotted another identical carriage standing there, just like the one she arrived on.

Inevitably coming into her field of view over the railing from the right, Aiding then made his way to the loading areas backend. Once there, he eyed Gleaming holding Pokey securely for a moment with a small smile on the corners of his muzzle forming, before he began fumbling with the backside ramp, presumably to lower it, like he did prior to their visit at the clinic.

While he went about his task, Aiding gently informed the napping Pokey, who was still buried in Gleamings fluff, “Were home Pokes, time to wake up, buddy!” about their arrival, without looking up from his work.

Other than obey the request, all Pokey did was give a small squeal of delight, while he snuggled deeper into the safety of Gleamings hold. Finished with the railing, Aiding huffed in frustration at the whelplings antics and idly tapped his hoof on the metal of the carriage, but soon a mischievous smirk started to creep onto his face, as an idea formed in his head.

“Alrighty then, if you have already decided on your bedding for tonight, then you probably don´t need dinner anymore…”

´Dinner?´ Gleaming wondered, ´Just how late is it actually here? The sun is still up!

Both of them even!

…

Did I really just think that?´

Almost instantly when his ears picked up the message, Pokeys eyes shot open and he practically bolted from his comfy resting spot, to the ramp at the loading decks end. Once there, he squealed in what sounded like protest, up at the changeling, which only ended up increasing his smirk.

“Works every time.”

Even without the smirk dominating his features Gleaming could tell, he was not serious. The more than obvious glint in his eyes, told her everything she needed to know. It was nothing else, but the usual ruse parents apply when facing an unruly child.

´Even though it makes him look creepy, due to his fangs lightly showing, everytime he smirks like that…like a timberwolf trying to grin disarmingly.´

Changing the object of his attention from the protesting dragon in front of him to Gleaming in the far back, Aiding chose to ignore Pokeys outrage for the moment and lowered his voice, “Think you can convince her to hop off, buddy?”

Ceasing his attempts to avoid missing dinner, Pokey peered over his shoulder at Gleaming for a split- second and replied with a firm nod of his head and a pride swelled chest, “Meek!”

“Good. We should also see about getting her something to eat rather soonish I think, before she start nibbling something random,” Aiding commented as he pulled out a rectangular object from inside his vests inside. After glancing at it surface, he scowled and then lightly nodded to himself. “Its well past feeding time for the others, but we should at least see if she is hungry at all and determine some of her preferences for the future.”

“Wah-wah-dou!”

With his bits added, the whelpling turned around to face Gleaming, who had not moved an inch from her spot and hobbled over to her. She had wanted to get up and leave on her own, but wisely hesitated halfway in getting up, as the action would have likely given away a hint at her ability to understand, what was being said, if she had moved before Pokey made an attempt to move her himself.

Something she would like to keep a secret from the Ling.

Gleaming also figured, if she wanted to blend in the best way, it was necessary to wait for Pokey to give her reason to act more often from now on, rather than taking action herself. Therefore she waited patiently for Pokeys approach and the tugging sensation on her foreleg, which was the whelplings way of relaying the “come along” message to her, before she started to move.

Once “received” Gleaming wasted no time to rise and get to the edge of the carriage, where she pretended to hesitate about leaving it. Under the changelings watchful gaze it seemed most vital for Gleaming to do so, in order to maintain her cover. Gladly it was not to long of a wait, until Pokey had flown past her, sat down on the ground behind the wagons ramp and waved up to her as an encouragement to complete the final stretch.

When her hooves touched down on the sandy ground, it produced a small crunching sound and upon her landing, Gleaming found herself immediately on the receiving end of vigorous applause from the dragon sitting in front of her. It was very weird situation for the grown mare, which triggered an old memory from many years ago. Her face heated up a little, as Gleaming recalled how it felt to be complimented by her mother for successfully taking her first few shaky steps as a foal.

But luckily for her the only one who could have noticed the tint of red rushing to her face was unable to really talk about it, because as her ears informed her, Aiding had busied himself with reattaching the rear-railing of his carriage behind her, as soon as Gleaming had vacated it completely and passed by his post to meet up with Pokey. That left the tiny dragon in front of her, as the only witness to her discomfort of the situation.

Breathing a small sigh of relief and fighting to eliminate her small blush, Gleaming sat down on the ground and patiently waited to receive her next “order” from Pokey. The irony of which was not lost on the guard part of her mind. When Aiding reappeared into view on Gleamings left side this time, Pokey stopped his abundand cheering and gazed up at him while cocking his head to the side, as if asking what came next.

“Lets find out what we missed, while we were out, buddy. How does that sound?” Aiding announced while pressing his forehooves into his backside, until a soft pop was heard. Rightening himself after the small stretching exercise,a heavy sigh escaped his muzzle and he glanced far to his left, as he began stretching his forelegs over his head. “Nemoras nephew should have arrived hours ago, do me a favor and be on the lookout for him, will you?”

“Wah-Wah-dou!” the ever cheerful whelpling replied and Gleaming spotted his little purple wings twitch briefly to take off, but he seemed to reconsider an abrupt exit, as the motion stopped instantly. His vibrant blue eyes landed on Gleamings form and he cocked his head sideways, “Meek!”

“Hmm?” The Changeling aborted his observation from whatever was happening to the left, and payd attention to Pokeys squeaking, potentially reading his thoughts. “Don´t worry about your new friend, buddy. Let her roam a bit, maybe she´ll tag along on her own.”

Pokey huffed and pouted, looking thwe very image of unconvinced.

“Don´t worry, she´ll be here when you come back. She did, after all, cuddle with you, didn´t she?”

´I´ll be here alright, but no because you want me too!´ Gleaming angrily thought, while keeping her gaze solely on Pokeys little face.

Pokey weighed his scaly head from left to right, as if his life depended on his choice, between staying with Gleaming or carrying out his masters request. But eventually he rushed forward to hug Gleamings leg for a short moment, rubbed his face against her fur with a delighted squeal and then briskly flew off to an unknown place.

Gleaming was caught a little off-guard at the sudden contact, but did not reject it. Through the action, she felt fairly certain, that Pokey would not stray far away from her and keep his search radius fairly minimal.

Still… seeing the purple lizard depart was making her feel uneasy once more. Especially since she was now alone with the changeling. Who might very well be staring down at her right now…

Swallowing the lump in her throat as silently as she could, the unicorn lightly twisted her head, so that she could barely make him out on the edge of her view, standing to the left and maybe read his face.

But still…She was alone with the Ling.

A thing she would have liked to avoid. At least, until properly prepared for it, for this was most likely the moment he would surely unravel his evil plans for her!

…

Or maybe not…

Surprisingly to Gleaming, Aiding did nothing of the sorts.

After Pokeys departure, all Aiding did was spare her a short glance, as if simply reaffirming that she was there, and click his tongue, when he saw her looking back at him. Then he promptly turned around fully and followed the rest of the dirtpath leading further into the area, leaving the vehicles and the unicorn next to them behind. The crunching noise of the loose surface under his hooves, made every step he took clearly audible, so that without any problems Gleaming could tell, even without turning her head, that he slowly distanced himself from her.

But was that a good or bad sign?

He made zero effort to restrain her freedom of movement in any way. In fact, Gleaming could see now, that there was not a single fence, gate or any other obstacle blocking an escape attempt from this place. The entire area was only limited by the strange silver poles she had seen earlier from afar. But those things were far to wide apart to be of any use to stop anypony from leaving, were they not?

They did not block the carriage and all of its passengers from entering the place either.

´Whats the point of a fence if you only place the poles down and put nothing in between. It won´t stop anypony from-

…uuhmmm…are those things perhaps enchanted?´

Gleaming was not very eager to find out the hard way, and get herself zapped, if they were. Both of her last decisions, namely to attack the Ling and investigate the hatch, had played out poorly, mostly because she acted before knowing all the details about this place. This time, she would be smarter about it.

This time, she would be prepared.

Twily did not get all the brains in the family!

She could be smart too!

So instead of trying to flee the way she had come, Gleaming found her hooves carry her in the opposite direction, right in the changelings wake, following along the dirtpath roughly leading to the center of the area. An area, which she realized, just after she started walking, was indeed a giant clearing in the middle of the forest. Though there was no way to tell if it came to be naturally or was artificially created at some point in the past.

But still, her initial hunch was correct!

Yay!

As she let her head swivel from side to side, to take in the new sights, Gleaming saw that all along the edge of the clearing, where the dense forest would begin, somepony had build these strange poles in a regular rhythmic pattern. But if those contraptions were actually meant to keep somepony in or something else out, was still a mystery to her.

And, how they were supposed to actually work too.

If they worked at all…

The massive clearing in itself was very much circular in shape and had a shallow, oval shaped climb in the middle of it, where in its center, a large wooden house dominated the top. The by far and large wooden structure would not seem to much out of place in any modern day ski-resort, the kind of, which tourists would hang out to warm up and seek shelter in, from the biting chill outside. Preferably with a hot chocolate and a thick cozy blanket wrapped around them.

It even had a stone chimney on its roof, hinting at a fireplace within, even though there was no smoke coming rising from it at the moment. Was nopony home at this hour?

Looking further ahead and following the path upwards with her eyes, Gleaming noted, that the windy dirtroad Aiding was following, directly lead up to the large building in question. And as she gazed back over her shoulder, the way she had come, a thought struck her.

`If this is where he lives, why not park his carriage closer to the house?

It would have saved him some time getting there.´

When the path, they followed, started to slowly rise and slightly elevated them over the surrounding terrain, Gleaming could make out the roofs and some walls of a few other buildings, scattered behind the big central one, somewhere halfway between the edge of the clearing and the center. Oddly enough these buildings were all the same light red color and had two huge doors on their fron-

´Are those barns!? Well… even if they are, its still a far cry from chains, gurneys and cracking whips, so that’s a plus…

But didn´t a farm require more than one pony?

Speaking of ponys…

Where the buck is everypony?´

Gleamng looked around, but she could not make out any other equine, besides herself that is. The only other thing worthy of note was, that now, even further up, she could see the right side of the clearing was bordering a lake of sorts. The watery surface glittering in the light, inviting thirsty travelers to take a cool and refershing sip, free of charge, any time of the day.

But nopony was in sight there either.

Not here, not there, not anywhere.

Literally no pony.

Yet the changeling in front of her continued on his solo march unpertubed up the flat hill, seemingly unbothered about everyponys absense in this part of the world, completely ignoring the unicorn mare following him.

Granted, the slope of the path was going up at a steeper angle now, than it was a moment before, which would explain why there was nothing in their line of sight yet, except for the barn-like buildings top parts. But it was oddly silent as well! Should they not hear something by now?

Gleaming was getting anxious.

Maybe following him was the wrong choice after all.

There was no way Gleaming walked into a trap and ended up as the sole pony resident here, right?

“…ou…wou…”

“…eeeeep…”

At first Gleaming thought her mind was playing tricks on her, but focussed on her hearing, she identified the source of the noises as coming from the big houses rooftop. And when she scanned over the site once more, she could definitely make out movement on the roof of the central building, specifically around the aforementioned chimney. And jugding by the way the changelings head angled upwards for a second, he must have spotted it too. Nevertheless, Aiding kept walking without changing his step, at the same pace he started out with, even as they reached the front porch of his presumed house and the ground leveled out somewhat.

But instead of slowing and heading for the front door like Gleaming expected him to, he made a light change to his course and moved around the buildings corner on its right, where the unicorn promptly lost sight of him, as he slipped around it.

´Darn it! Did he notice me following after all? Is he trying to shake me off?´

Gleaming did not want to be left in the blue and hastened her step into a brisk trot to quickly follow after him, in case he was up to something. She had no intention to be caught off guard again today!

But as soon as she cleared said corner, the sight, she was faced with, took her breath away.

Here they were…

Ponies!

´Finally!´

Behind the massive central structure, just at the point where the hill sloped downwards again, was a huge gathering of ponies. Sitting closely hunched together in a semicircle in the soft lush grass, unicorns and earth-ponies of all colors and ages were present. Their eyes aimed forwards and ears swiveling about to pick up any stray noises.

And occasionally they bend down to chomp an a chunk of grass, tore it free and idly chewed it, before gulping it down.

´Are these ponies…grazing?! Why for Celestias sake?

Ponies haven´t had to graze in millenia!

And why is there not a single pegasus among them?!´

Gleamings felt her ire towards the changeling grow and narrowed her eyes.

´Is he not giving out enough rations to them? The bastard! I knew he was up to something!

Speaking of him where is he?´

The mainfocus of Gleamings anger had moved further behind the house, where a small group of three individuals stood, all gazing up at the roof towards the general area of the chimney. They consisted of a much skinnier version of the furless faced monkey, wearing a stetson and a similar outfit to Aiding, except much darker, and two of the bird people, Gleaming had seen in the parking lot of the clinic. These feathery bipeds almost identical to one another and were mostly colored orange with bits of yellow feathers mixed in, sporting tribal looking attires, decorated with trinkets and barbles. They even had paintings on their beaks!

All three of them had their back towards the huge pony group, arms crossed in front of their chests and their eyes peeled for any movement on the roof.

Since their attention was focussed upwards, they did not seem to take note of the Lings arrival until he was practically standing next to them and cleared his throat, “Anything good up there, Ced?”

“Welcom´ home, boss! And aye, there is indeed somethin´ up there,” the stetson wearing monkey answered him in a thick accent.

´Boss?´

Gleaming could not quite tell what was going on, but did not want to miss anything important and crept closer to the group, before sitting down and listening in. The ponies in the back did not look to be in immediate danger right about now, so Gleaming found it safe to pry.

“And, pray tell, that would be?” Aiding inquired.

This time one of the birds answered him, in a voice that clearly marked her as a female of her kind, “A little one got up there this morning and hasn´t come down since. We can see her move about and watch us, but everytime we try to approach her she hesitates and ducks behind the chimney again.”

Her beak, albeit bigger and taking a larger part of her face, moved like a gryphons when she spoke.

“At this point we have tried almost anything, we could think of, to get her to come down, from toys to food…,” the second bird, also female, chimed in. But no matter what we do, she simply stays up there looking at us, as if waiting for something. We even tried to rope some of the others in the action as well, to make her see, its okay, hence, why they are all here now.”

“At dis point we we were debatin´. If we should´a just climb up with a ladder and get ´er, but then you came around, boss.”

Pinching the bridge of his muzzle with his hoof, Ading shook his head, “And what, have I always…always told you again and again?”

“Never make pony do anything it doesn’t want to,” came the immediate reply in a unified choir from the trio.

“But we need tah do somethin´ soon, boss. Lil´ one up there is lookin mighty ´urt, the way she carries her fron´leg, and all!”

At this the Ling squinted up at the roof, “…So tell me, did any of you see her climbing up, or getting assistance from our little buggers?”

“Nope. After breakfast, me and sis´ saw something green flash behind the chimney, and once we went to check it out, we saw its head disappear behind the brickwork,” the first bird girl explained.

“Did you count through the entire herd, to make sure its none of ours?” Aiding further inquired.

“Twice, and we are fairly certain, by now, that she must be a wanderer from the forest,” the second bird filled in.

“Well then that only leaves one option,” The Ling concluded.

The trio raised one eyebrow each and questioningly stared in Aidings direction, who still kept staring up at the roof himself. After a moment he chuckled shortly, then looked each of them in the eye before resetting his gaze back up and taking a step back. “None of you saw her climb the house at any point in time, correct?”

“Aye, boss!”

Motioning for the other three to mimic him and slowly move backwards, to which they complied without any questions, Aiding continued, “…and none of our ones assisted or is missing?”

“Bingo, chief. But what´s your point?”

“Yeah we´re kinda left out here, fill us in!”

Aiding did not elaborate any furter, but instead sat down in the grass and compelled the trio to follow suit one more time, “What did I teach you to do, when you can´t figure out, why an animal is acting in a specific way?” Without waiting for an answer this time, Aiding filled the gap himself, “Imagine yourself in its spot.”

He pointed at the roof.

“Right now, she´s all alone up there, in an unfamiliar environment and to top if off, she´s hurt. Anyone in her spot would be scared and very distrustful towards any strangers. Especially if they group up and stare at her like cats under a tree, waiting for the bird to come down.”

“But that still doesn´t tell us, how she got up there in the first place!” huffed the first bird in frustration as she crossed her winglike forearms once more and puffed up her cheeks.

Aiding just smirked at her, “Be patient.”

It took some time, but eventually Gleaming heard shuffling from up top, hooves scraping on wood, then on a ceramic surface, and after a while, a green pony head appeared over the roofs rim, away from the chimney it supposedly occupied all day until now. The ponies emerald eyes shimmered with uncertainty, but it send out a small chirp in the direction of the former trio, now quartet, sitting in the grass below its position.

Visibly fighting with the decision, the pony head disappeared and reappeared for a while over the roofs rim. Only to finally reappear in a flash and followed by its entire body, as the pony jumped from the three story houses rooftop. The sunlight obscured almost all of its features, except the general vicinity of the mare and her rapid decent.

Gleaming was shocked a first to see the mare jump all of a sudden and rushed into action, to cushion her fall with her own body. But the distance combined with the speed the pony had jumped, made her misjudge the angle and landed her muzzle first in the dirt behind the house.

As she laid there, reconsidering her lifes choices, a few exchanged words from her right made her doubt her assessment of the situation entirely.

Visibly alarmed and with urgency in her voice, the first bird spoke up again. “WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING, SHE´S GONNA HURT HERSELF, CHIEF!”

Not moved at all by the outcry and remaining seated, the changeling reeled her back in, “She´ll be fine. After all she got up there on her own as well.”

At a loss for words, the bird girl gapred in abject horror at the Ling.

Also realising it was far to late to do anything to remedy the situation the bird closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable impact…

…which never came.

Just before hitting the ground, the green mare opened a pair of vibrant, lush green wings to slow her fall dramatically and graciously touched down in front of the Ling and his group. Shaking her head and refolding her wings, the mare favored her left over her right fronthoove and semilimped a small distance, before sitting down halfway between the Lings group and his wooden abode.

With a sly grin on his face, Aiding lowered his voice a bit, “…And that my dear students, is how the pony got on the roof!”

Almost in unison once more, the trio cried out, “A PEGASUS?!”

Gleaming also could not believe it. This was the first pegasus she had laid eyes on thus far.

´And why the buck are they so surprised to see a pegasus?´

The green mare in question and former roof resident, who had gathered all attention for herself and pretty much stolen the entire show, folded her fluffy wings, blinked her lively emerald eyes and then tilted her head, with the dark green mane on it, to the side, before uttering single word.

“Oowou!”