Back Corner

by MONSTERmama

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Random
Length: 5980

A collection of half-baked ideas.

Hi, my name is Nicole Jackson and my brain is full of nonsense. This is a collection of fanfiction ideas that, for whatever reason, didn't make the cut for me GIVING A BUCK. Enjoy. If you really like where they were going, you might be able to comment to me in such a manner that would make me go, HUH, THIS MAY ACTUALLY WORK.
But it's mostly a bizarre, half baked story dump.

Published 2012-11-17 15:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-03 18:52:18 UTC

Discord Revisited

Save your pity. I don't want it.

Save your support. I don't need it.

Tonight, I'm breaking free. Tonight, I shall fly once more into the night. But, weaker. Tamer. Gentler.

Falsified, if you will.

It's been so long since the bitter sting of the Elements trobbed in my chest. I suppose by now the literal child of my brain has died or has time traveled while trying to figure out where I'll pop out. I've felt her watching my, my granddaughter watching me, my hundreds of mutant children watching me.

As usual, Iron Will is angry just to be alive. He's trying to do so much good to hide the fact he's so far gone. He'll give in one day because it's in his nature and I am his father.

I am Discord, dethroned ruler of chaos. Wait though--!

Like a snake consuming his own tail, I shall be the only constant once again, soon.

My stone shell is cracking.

By the time enough has broken off for me to resume physical form, I can feel the cold. I look up into the star dotted sky and laugh. It has come to this. The unicorns are raising the stars because the sun and moon have been turned back to the wild. I don't sense Celestia or Luna any more. Those two planets must have gone rogue.

The air even tastes devoid of life. It tastes like copper and the hot end of car cigarette lighters. I sniff, then with a loud pop, Screwball appears.

"I waited, Daddy," she said miserably. She's riddled with scars and I want to grind her bones into dust for letting anyone hurt her. She is my daughter--she is the child of a god! How dare she let some mortal think they could best her.

I fix her with a stare. "I see that you have." With that, I take to flight and she levitates after me. I wonder briefly how long the stars have been in the sky. My powers are so weak now that I can't bother them if I tried.

We travel for what could have been minutes or months. There are no ponies. Dying dragons litter the land. A few sparce phoenixes caw at us before flying into the languished volcaneos below. The warmth is gone.

Cadance is dead, I assume. Have the changelins, in turn, starved with the death of love itself? I travel a while longer, Screwball resting on my back. As I arrive at the forsaken catacomb of a hive, Screwball whines.

"Father, I'm hungry."

I know for a fact that changeling honey tastes like lime jello. I tell her as much. She dives right in, eating two hoof fulls of possibly century old jelly before really thinking about how it tastes. Honey repels bacteria, though, and the world is one big freezer. She eats contently before I find the final queen of the changeling dynasty and bitterly move on.

There is soon to be nothing left to plague.

I look to Screwball. Next time, I think I will give her a proper mother. We will be more grounded and together. No one will deny that we are in fact to be respected. I will make an entire subrace to praise us!

I realize we must have been gone a century because when I come back to the dragon graveyard, they are but frozen carcasses and Screwball's body is rigid on my back.

I look around me. I am Discord, dethroned king of chaos. The universe of my creation has expanded as much as it will.

It collapses in a rush as quick as the last big bang.

Scootaloo as Naruto

This would be it. Today, Scootaloo was going to be a part of a team with three other ponies! The pegasus filly ran down the hallways to the third room. Inside the room she found two other ponies already waiting. One was Sweetie Belle, the little filly that always dyed her mane black for some odd reason, and the other was Applebloom, the prettiest filly in the school. Look at her! She had a bow! That was the peak of feminity! And, as a rule of hoof, females were always prettier than males! Thus, the girlier, the prettier!

A+ logic.

"So, where's our teacher?" Scootaloo asked ethusiastically.

Sweetie Belle looked up from whatever brooding she was doing to give Scootaloo a passive look before going back to that grumbling junk. Applebloom was entirely too focused on Sweetie Belle'es DAZZLING BISHOUJO LOOKS to really pay attention to the fact that, oh hey, Scootaloo had /spoken/.

"WHERE THE MESS IS OUR TEACH?!"

"Shut up!" Sweetie Belle all but hissed.

Somehow, Scootaloo got the feeling that Sweetie Belle was going to be infinitely more trouble than she was worth. "MAKE ME!"

"I don't make trash!" Sweetie Belle retaliated.

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"You're an idiot if you don't understand it!"

"What are you then, a nerd?!"

Applebloom apparently saw fit to interupt to defend Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo pitied this, because for the longest time, she thought Applebloom had brains and beauty. "Don't call Sweetie Belle an idiot! She got the second highest grades on our text book studies."

"Of course, you're too pretty to be a nerd, Applebloom," Scootaloo replied, hoping that Applebloom spoke up to defend the rose-maned earth pony's own honor.

"Ew," Applebloom replied, realizing the other filly was hitting on her. "Sweetie-Hon, that orange pony is hitting on me."

"So?"

Just then, the door opened. "Oh, crap, you're three fillies. Ugh, I need a drink." In the doorway was a large unicorn stallion. He had a white coat and blonde mane.

"... Blueblood?" Sweetie Belle asked, as unlethargic as she had been ever.

"Yes, it's good to see you as well, Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo, I was really hoping your file had you wrong. Applebloom, I'm still not sure you're a filly."

Applebloom bristled. "What's that?!"

"Applebloom is to pretty to be a boy!" Scootaloo stupidly blurted. "And, uh, so am I!"

Blueblood raised a brow but let it go. "Whatever. Look, as of tomorrow, you all may be members rank of Apprentices."

"Tomorrow? But, we passed our exams..." Applebloom whined. Sweetie Belle agreed for once.

"Oh, yes, you're able--but I may not want you, and with the other Aces who can teach already taken... you'd have to wait another year..."

"You wouldn't dare," Scootaloo hissed.

"Oh? But, wouldn't I?" He formed a small blade of magic, wisking it around. "Being a soldier isn't very fair. ... Get used to it." He adjusted his scarf, the thick material snuggly situated around his neck. It was too short for an earth pony to use against him and too heavily mixed with his own magic for a unicorm to manipulate without using as much energy as they would if they were holding down Blueblood himself. He turned out. "Alright, meet me here at sunrise tomorrow. If you're late, I'm disowning you."

"What?!" Scootaloo cried. "What kind of meeting was this!? All the other foals last year said that their teacher took them training and then to dinner..." She had so been looking forward a nice water cress salad.

Applebloom whimpered a bit. "That isn't fair!"

"Life isn't fair," Sweetie Belle almost sweetly said, copying Blueblood's words. With that, the artifical brunette left.

Scootaloo grinned, looking toward Applebloom. "So... are you free this afternoon?"

"No," Applebloom coolly rejected.

"Aw, why not?!"

"Helpin' my sister tend to the apples!"

Pokemon Crossover

A huge boom awoke Twilight Sparkle. The purple mare shied in her bed, whining breathlessly in a panic before calming herself. She studied her surroundings. Spike was up as well, staring at her as if she truly knew what was going on. Owlowilicious also looked toward her. She snorted before jumping down from her bed and heading to the lobby down stairs. Her walking pace seemed to go on infinitely slow. The lights outside told her that not all was well. She had not imagined that bang.

The young mare opened her front door to spy a crater. She held out a foreleg to keep Spike from hazily tumbling into the easily twenty foot abyss. She looked into the crater.

Her eyes grew large, as did every other resident who saw what she did. Inside the crater was a bubble of pink. Four ponies and a large pink rat were within the magical shield. Twilight furrowed her brow. What to do, what to do.

Well, there was no one better suited to check this out than her, was there? Fearfully, Twilight looked over to the other citizens. She shook her head as they approached closer before allowing herself to skid down the crater wall. The ground was still fairly warm. Spike slid in after her. Owlowilicious landed on her back.

"Hello?" she called out.

The black maned colt stirred first. He looked out from the shield, blinking honey brown eyes confusedly. There was a purple rapidash braying at him. He tried to stand, but ended up falling gracelessly. He looked toward the rapidash again.

"Hello?"

That prompted the black maned colt to jump into the air, this time landing on his side.

"Stop, you're hurting yourself!" the rapidash called out. She put her horn to the bubble, popping it. As glittering magical residue fell on the colt and his friends, the purple rapidash approached. He shakily looked at her, then the other rapidashes and ponytas who waited on the edge. Wait--were those ponytas with wings?!

"What's going on here?!" he yelled out in panic. He shifted one black hoof, then another. He looked down in horror. "What happened to me?!" He looked over his oreo blanket body before staring at the rapidash.

"You fell from the sky. You may have hit your head," the purple rapidash calmly explained. "What's your name? What happened to you?"

"I-I'm Ash... me and my friends were doing favors for the five sprites, when, well... something bad happened...." Ash looked down to his hooves and again tried vainly to get up. After realizing that he, too, was a ponyta, he stood begrudgingly on all fours. It worked.

Why? He looked at his sides, noticing he was a freaky ponyta with wings. How... bizarre. He didn't even have his hat or Pikachu.

Hm?! "Pikachu?!" he called out, whirling around as well as he could in his unfamiliar posture. "Pikachu!"

The purple rapidash place a hoof on Ash's shoulder. "Look, Ash, you have to calm down. How many were in your party?"

"Uh, I dunno... twenty or whatever, plus our pokemon..."

"Po-key-mon?" the purple rapidash asked.

Ash blinked. What? Had he traveled to an alternate universe? He knew pokemon didn't exist in the year 2010, but he was also sure talking purple ponyta didn't exist then either. "Is the year 2158 by chance?" he cautiously asked.

The purple rapidash seemed taken back by this. "What? No! It's just 1056!" The purple rapidahs stopped, thinking. "Well, techniquely, it's 2176 by the old Equestrian calender, but ever since the overthrow of Discord by the Princesses no one has used that calender." She looked curiously at Ash. "Are you perhaps an Othrodox Mule? You don't look like it..."

"What?" Ash asked, utterly confused.

"What?" Ash asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Never mind. Listen, my name's Twilight." With that, Twilight nodded to the other residents of Ponyville. "No need to be alarmed! They're just lost... or something," she finished quietly to herself.

/Rainbow Dash/ as Naruto [Also known as, I refuse to stop beating dead horses]

My Personal Prioriety: Comradery is Sacred

Twelve years ago, in the land of Equestria, a pony-like beast known as the Nightmare attacked Ponyville. In the night of the beast's seige, many a life was lost. That is, until suddenly, our wonderful Princess Celestia stepped in to stop the monster. Unfortunately, this act cost Celestia her life. However, she was able to seal the mare in a newborn foal...

"Wah! Spitfire, stop harassing me!" Rainbow Dash, a young filly of merely three years (or, for those of you who actually know crap about horses, this is roughly twelve--just before puberty), ran through the streets with all the haste she could muster. She tossed a look over her shoulder to see her orange furred teacher gaining on her. No! Dash did not want to have to clean stupid old Mayor Mare's house! This was an outrage!

"Let me go!" Rainbow screamed as Spitfire tackled her.

Spitfire stood fully on Rainbow Dash's body, artfully balancing herself as the blue filly struggled. "Rainbow!" More struggling. "Rainbow Dash!" Accompanied by a stomp, this got the filly's attention and garnered a decent wimper of pain. Spitfire stepped off the younger female, careful to keep a hoof on Dash's primary flight feathers. Though the blue pegasus had not yet been taught the art of flying (barely gliding) no pegasus would struggle against a primary feather hold for how painful and crippling it was. "Rainbow, you've got to stop this! I thought you said this was the year you were going to gradutate? Hm? No proper paige acts like this... no knight would want you."

"You're just a squire yourself," Dash muttered bitterly.

Spitfire narrowed her eyes. "We've discussed this--I'm a squire because it allows me to be home more with Scootaloo. You, on the other hand, have no such limits keeping you back."

"What?"

Spitfire put a hoof over her mouth. "Wait, no, Dash, I didn't..."

Dash hung her head, chuckling darkly. "No, it's alright." She lifted it, bitter smile on her face. "It's true after all, isn't it?"

"... yes," Spitfire admitted. "Us two orphans gotta stick together though, right?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever, Teach. Say, ain't I supposed to be in school?"

"... darn it, so am I! I came to find and make an example of you!" Spitfire, forgetting momentarily about the vandalized home picked Rainbow Dash up by her tail before taking off into the sky toward the Academy.

Rainbow Dash sat through the whole week's schooling without causing much of a ruckus, unwilling to be put on probation during the week of exams. Today was finally exam day. She stretched her wings as she eagerly waited, names of the other students buzzing only lightly in her ears. Finally, her own name was called. The room was exclusively pegasi. She jostled through them to the perch from which she would leap.

She puffed her chest out, grinning in excitement. She would show the world what a strong flier she was! Well, glider, anyway...

"Bombs away!" Dash called out as she thrust her wings to each side and threw herself over the edge. In a split second she realized that, while she was gliding, she was going entirely too fast. The chalk board on the other side of the room was fairly unforgiving, but certainly beat spraining an ankle by falling straight down. Dazed, the rainbow maned filly trotted over to where Spitfire and Fleetfoot proctored the test. "How'd I do?"

"You're bleeding again," Spitfire said pointedly. Fleetfoot nudged the other mare, but Spitfire made a show of ignoring it.

Rainbow Dash sighed. She spotted the line for the nurse. She trotted to stand behind Thunderlane. Feeling bored, she touched his flank, causing him to blushingly turn around and demand she stop.

But Rainbow would never stop because she did what she wanted when she wanted and because Thunderlane had the best flank she had ever seen on a colt.

Ever.

"Dash?"

The blue filly stood on a balance beam, idily watching as her friends left for home or waited on younger siblings. "Yes, Fleetfoot?"

"I noticed you're looking kind of down. Wanna joined me to go eat some carrot soup?"

Dash's eyes glittered. "Yes!" She bounded down by Fleetfoot's side, grinning like an idiot.

An hour later, the duo had left the carrot stall and were seated in the meadow of the Ponyville square. They watched the stars coming out, fairly content. Rainbow was nervous--it was so rare to hang out with anyone, let alone Fleetfoot.

"I want you to pass," Fleefoot said, almost reading Dash's mind. The pale mare looked down at the fllly. "Look, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but in the Ponyville library--there's a scroll. It has ancient pegasus flight secrets and spells. If you can get it..." Fleetfoot looked off, letting Rainbow Dash's mind fill in the blanks.

Dash, used to sneaking around for pranks, already knew what to do. "Aw, Fleetfoot, thanks for the tip!"

"Ssh," Fleetfoot chided with a wink. "You didn't hear that from me."

Rainbow giggled. "Haha, okay. See ya'." The filly turned tail and ran, excitement clearly written on her face.

Fleetfoot smirked. "Good luck. You'll need it." The pegasus mare stretched her wings before leisurely taking off into the sky. She would need to pick up her supplies and then patrol...

Dash panted as she reached the desolate shrubbery just outside of Everfree Forest. She had distracted Mayor Mare with her impressive mimicry of the male voice, which happened to be Mayor Mare's biggest weakness. Dash looked at her saddle bag, heavy laiden on one side with her treasure. She at once tore out to the scroll, looking over for a technique she figured would be useful.

"Sonic Rainboom?" she dumbly asked. "Wow... it's like it's destiny..."

Rainbow's ear twitched and she looked up from her sweaty labors to see Spitfire snorting from exertion before her.

"Rainbow Dash!" Spitfire all but screamed. "Are you out of your little pony mind?!" Spitfire snatched the scroll away, rolling it up before tucking it into one of her own saddle bags. "Why would you do this?!"

"Augh, stop, no, Spitifre I need that!" Rainbow Dash squealed. The sweaty filly lunged at Spitfire, who merely took flight and then glided away. "Fleetfoot said I could learn this in there--and then I'd pass, and then... and everyone would respect me..." Rainbow looked on the verge of crying. Was her effort all for waste? "I was going to pass..."

Spitfire's eyes widened. Fleetfoot? What?! Crap. Spitfire ran over to Rainbow Dash, wing spread over the filly. "Rainbow Dash, you listen to me very carefully. Fleetfoot tricked you. Fleetfoot is using you, you've got to understand that. However, for now, we've got to get out of here..."

"Why would you do that?" As the voice cut through the air, two blades made of timber wolf claw sailed through the air. They whizzed just over Spitfire's head and barely avoided cutting Rainbow's throat. Fleetfoot landed, armed to the teeth. "Aw, pity."

Spitfire stood protectively in front of Rainbow Dash. "Fleetfoot, get out of here."

"Mm, and let you keep protecting the little blackout?" Fleetfoot stopped talking to take out a nasty looking blade out of the scabboard at her side. The pegasus mare readied herself for battle.

Spitfire hunkered down, flaring her wings quickly to produce sparks. Finally, she began scuffing the ground until her hooves glowed with fire. Both mares ran forward at the same time. Fleetfoot cut off a few of Spitfire's flight feathers, but Spitfire kicked at just the right moment to send Fleetfoot's sword flying. The blade embedded itself into a tree.

"Why are you protecting the blackout?!" Fleetfoot angrily called out as she chased Spitfire. For her share, Spitfire stopped running to kick out with her fiery hooves. Fleetfoot avoided this, but used Spitfire's slight decrease in speed to get even with the other mare.

"You're not supposed to talk about that, Fleetfoot!"

"Why not?! So the blackout doesn't have to know that she killed Celestia?!"

Rainbow Dash, who had been previously cowering quietly at the base of a tree spoke up. "D-Don't call Spitfire a blackout! T-the Nightmare killed Celestia!"

Spitfire was so stunned by the ridiculousness of what Rainbow said that she tripped over her own hooves and came crashing down. Fleetfoot was upon the other mare in seconds, having brought out a knife. Fleetfoot cruelly slashed across the lower portion of Spitfire's throat, blood and screams of pain rushing forth. Satisfied, Fleetfoot turned to the now petrified Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, Rainbow, don't you know? You are the Nightmare."

"What? N-no!"

"Look at your cutie mark. What kind of pony has a black lightning bolt with a moon over it?"

Rainbow quivered as Fleetfoot readied her blade again. The blue filly closed her eyes, confused and afraid. As the blade was supposed to swing, however, a sickening crunch sound interupted it. When Dash opened her eyes, she saw Spitfire facing her. Blood pooled at the orange pegaus's mouth. She smiled down at Rainbow.

"Run, okay?" With that, Spitfire slumped over.

Rainbow Dash stood up, watching in wide eyes horror as Fleetfoot casually noted the damage then readied for what the pale mare probably hoped was her last swing. Rainbow Dash tensed her muscles, frowning visiously. As Fleetfoot swung again, Dash spread her wings and stepped into the air itself. She found herself propelled fifty feet into the air without trying. She glided down at first, but then dive-bombed directly onto a confused Fleetfoot.

The pale mare's back let out a distorted crunch sound but Fleetfoot thrashed. Rainbow Dash stood on Fleetfoot. "Don't ever touch Spitfire! Ever! You hear me?! Never!" Rainbow Dash grinned. "You want a nightmare? Let me show you." Dash tensed her muscles and thought again of the Sonic Rainboom. She clumsily snatched Fleetfoot's tail, dragging the mare into the air with her.

For the next five minutes, Ponyville was treated to a series of rainbow waves and sonic booms.

As Spitfire and Rainbow Dash huddled on the back of the hospital carriage, Spitfire kept a wing over Dash's exhausted body. Spitfire normally wore a denium collar with a silver tag emblazoned with the Ponyville logo. However, Rainbow now graced it in her sleep. Spitfire figured that after they both visited the medical ward, Rainbow could order her own collar. Until then, there was no harm done in letting the blue filly wear her collar.

Still, Spitfire was troubled. Though Dash mostly slept contently, every now and then she would whimper and look around blearly. When Spitifire asked why, Rainbow would merely say "it was a nightmare". Somehow, the orange pegasus doubted this would be the end of Dash's troubles concerning the wretched envy spirit.

The Human Who Killed

The first action she took was shakily breathing. The shallow, laborious breaths turned into screams of horrors leftover from another life. The newborn blindly looked around, limbs reaching out to protect things which were not there. The girl’s hands groped for a knife that was no longer with her.

“Calm down,” a voice giggled.

The girl stilled, fearfully following the sound. The puddle she lay in was warmer than the blood coursing through the girl’s body. She weakly stood up, vision fuzzy and numerous aches along her body. Her form, short but not extraordinarily good nor bad, bent over in pain. If there had been something in her stomach, she would have wretched out of instinct.

A pink, four pillared form appeared from the darkness around the creature. Humid air made the back crest of the creature prickly looking.

The girl shied back, slipping and falling, as the pink thing approached.

“Here,” the pink cooed. The massive beast touched its velvety muzzle to the girl’s eyes and her vision was suddenly so much… better. “That should do the trick! Hi, my name is Screwball!”

“I’m… Shirley,” the girl finally said. She winced, mentally reliving some horror in a white hall with gunshots and screams. “Where am I?”

“Home.” The pink thing—Shirley’s mind told her that this was a horse but it was definitely not registering as a normal horse—had a voice which betrayed no lies. Shirley would have to trust her.

“Where is home?”

“Tartus,” Screwball supplemented. She lifted a hoof in the manner a thousand pound beast shouldn’t be able to, sweepingly gesturing to the whole womb-like cavern they were in.

Shirley stood up, taking in the view. She blinked. “Oh,” she muttered. Somehow, her brain told her that this was very bad, but she accepted it. “Um… what are you?”

“Your sister!” Screwball cried out excitedly. “Well, half-sister. You were born from these rocks. My mom was a pony.”

“So, you must be a pony then.” Screwball nodded. Shirley put a finger to her lips. “Um, am I a rock, then?”

Screwball giggled. “Nope! You’re, uh, what did Daddy call you? Uh, you’re kind of a golem. But soft. You… the other you died so Daddy saved you.”

Shirley smiled. “That was nice.” Screwball floated, going forward. Shirley somehow knew that she could not float like her sister did. “Where is Daddy?”

“Oh, see, that’s the problem!” Screwball noted. “Some really selfish ponies sealed Daddy up and he can’t get out if we don’t help him!”

“No!” Shirley fearfully cried. “How?! What can I do?”

Screwball grinned, swirling eyes betraying a hint of maliciousness. “Well, I have to stay here and take care of Tartus and our doggy, Cerberus. You, though, can kill the keys keeping Daddy imprisoned.”

“Kill?” Shirley asked tremblingly. Her mind flashed the image of a hand wielding a knife (her hand?), digging into the fleshy throat of a person. A crack of thunder and light was wielded by the person she attacked and suddenly she was in reality again. “Uh…”

Screwball frowned. “Daddy saved you because you can kill.”

“But,” Shirley argued, “I don’t like to. I think.”

The pink pony snorted. “Fine. Daddy said not to force you.”

The human chewed her lip. “Aw, okay. Who are the keys?”

Screwball cheered. “You’ll feel them when you see them! However, you only need to kill one—you have a brother waiting on you who will kill the other! The one you need to kill is named Twilight Sparkle—she’s a very powerful unicorn.”

“Unicorn…?” Shirley asked. A show drifted by her eyes; she vaguely imagined the image of a protective sun over the purple blobby form she attached to the name Twilight. Not understanding, Shirley let it go. “Alright. Where are they?”

Screwball drifted up, grabbing something behind a rock. “No one else speaks like you except me, Daddy, and your brother. You’ll need this to understand everyone else,” Screwball cooed. She dropped a necklace into Shirley’s hands.

The human instinctively put the pendant around her neck. Its jewel looked like the scale of a huge fish. “Where…?”

“Patience!” Screwball shouted. The pink pony landed on the ground, hooves making a pleasant clicking sound against the stone floors. She motioned for Shirley to get on her back. The human did so, finding the motion natural. She had a flash back of life—she saw a cherry bay horse below her, English tack. The duo trotted through the dark, humid air of Tartus until a loose crescent of light appeared. The darkness in the center of the light growled.

“Cerberus!” Screwball chided in a whinny. “This is our baby! Be nice to the baby!”

The three headed monstrous dog whined before sliding out of Screwball’s way.

Screwball helped Shirley get down. The human noticed then that she was naked, almost pleasantly so. Screwball mumbled something before loose, Grecian styled robes appeared. They were short but they did the job of hiding what was normally not visible on ponies.

“Do you see the clock tower in the distance?”

Shirley scanned the endless forest of trees. “Um, yes.”

“Okay,” Screwball muttered before whirling on her sister. Shirley shielded herself. Red aura covered the girl. A dragon stood where she had been seconds previous. Screwball nickered as Shirley confusedly considered her new form. “Take off your clothes; keep them.”

The now-dragon obliged. She stretched her wings.

“Do not fly there. Go through the Everfree Forest. Don’t let anyone see you in this form. To turn back human, just eat. Your body will reset. You’ll turn into a dragon if you fear death.” The pink pony frowned. “That means be brave. If you change, they will know. And if they know, Daddy will stay stone.”

Shirley nodded, clothes tied around her neck as a kind of scarf. The dragon slithered down the side of the peak leading to Tartus. Soon, the forest engulfed her form.

Screwball returned to her work. Both halves were in place; now she had to prepare the key to Daddy’s freedom.

Her dragon form was surprisingly free. While Screwball had warned against flying, Shirley found herself gliding short distances, especially over ravines. Soon, she saw the clock tower more clearly. There were even other buildings visible between the branches of the trees.

Suddenly, the dragon slammed into something huge and heavy. Shirley slid away, skidding from her momentum. She shook her head, confused. Before her was a zebra wearing gold. Shirley was not surprised; her sister wore a beanie. However, the zebra looked dead at her. Shirley let out a huge hiss of displeasure. Screwball had warned not to be seen!

“Oh my, a dragon large and mean. Surely a meal of me would not be too keen?” the zebra asked fearfully.

Shirley fanned out her wings, pouncing toward the zebra.

As the zebra was more used to her form than Shirley was to hers, the zebra easily got away. “No how, no way—I will not be a meal this day!”

Shirley angrily coursed after the zebra, spitting weak flames. The zebra ran through the forest recklessly, knowing if she could make it to her hut she had something to fight the dragon with. The zebra could see her hut in the distance. She put on a final burst of speed, slamming the door open just as Shirley vainly snapped at her heels.

The zebra landed in a heap, but pushed herself to her hooves. She saw it, then. It was a thin, curved silver sword. She took it in her muzzle, turning to face the dragon which had slithered into her home. “Leave now or face this blade of mine! I have no desire yet to meet things divine!”

Shirley wasted no works, charging the zebra. The dragon was surprised to feel the blade pass through part of her cheek and nip her shoulder, but Shirley pushed the zebra down, claws cutting into the equine’s flesh. Shirley plunged her head down and into the zebra’s throat as the zebra sliced into her arm, down to the bone. Shirley ripped her head back and forth, causing the zebra to bleed out quickly.

The dragon fell then, spent of energy. She licked her lips, eying the body of the zebra. She needed to eat…

Applebloom cheerfully trotted through the forest to the trail which led to Zecora’s hut. She had a basket of apples. The zebra had paid for a delivery and Applebloom had begged to be the one to deliver. As the filly reached the door, she saw it slammed open.

“Zecora?” she fearfully asked. She heard an agonized grunt in return. “I’m comin’, Zecora! Don’t worry none!” Applebloom ran into the room, only to find half of Zecora’s carcass. Another injured creature was there. It looked like a hairless chimp, faceless round and more angular. Applebloom assumed it was Zecora’s new pet. Fluttershy had found one the other day, so Applebloom wasn’t ignorant about them. Applebloom cried, “Zecora!” The filly pushed on the upper half of Zecora’s body, the mare’s blue eyes disturbingly blank. The yellow filly sat down, sniffing pitifully. She looked over to Zecora’s pet.

Even if Zecora couldn’t be saved, that was no reason to let her pet starve and suffer with those injures. It looked like something fierce had come through. Applebloom looked over the ‘chimp’. There were lacerations on her arms. Zecora was eaten… what ate pony-things and not monkeys?

“Ah! Griffon attack!” Applebloom noted. She scurried in place, trying to figure out what to do. She formulated a scene. Zecora must have just gotten back from picking up her pet, which explained why she needed food dropped off and why the chimp was so well dressed. Maybe Zecora had even been preparing to show off her new creature to Applebloom—then a griffon swooped in! Maybe it was aware that it couldn’t attack a whole town and get away, but this uncultured creature still gave into urges most griffons turned away. It tracked down Zecora…

And maybe it was still here.

The filly looked around the hut, shivering in fear. “I better go…” She couldn’t carry the pet. However, a crew of ponies could come back for the creature and save it.

Shirley groaned. She tried to stretch, but cried out in pain once she did. “My arm!”

“Ah told ya’ Fluttershy told us they weren’t no animals! They’re smart!”

“But darling, dragons are the only two legged things that can talk.”

“Well, she said ‘my arm’ pretty clearly.”

“See, Twi’s got mah back, ain’t cha Twi?”

“I’m just stating facts.”

“Oh, if she’s intelligent, she going to have to pay rent.”

Shirley sat up; aware she had been laying on a large cushion and soft blanket. She looked around, then startled. In the back of her mind, the name ‘Twilight’ blazoned brightly upon glancing over the purple unicorn.

“Hi,” Applejack said, approaching Shirley. The orange mare extended a hoof in greeting. “We’ve got a visitor for ya’. Figured nothin’ would cheer a hurt patient up more than some more of their own kind. ‘Course, he’s kinda banged up, too…”

Fluttershy entered the main room of Carousel Boutique, wheeling in a human male. At once, Shirley noted the scale necklace she sported. So, this was her brother. Whereas she was had very dark features and tanned skin, he was even darker though his hair was artificially wine red.

“Hello,” he called. He had bandages over his body as well.

“Hello,” she called back.

“Well, we’ll leave you two to get acquainted,” Twilight more or less purred before herding her friends out of the room.

Frank wheeled himself over as soon as the ponies left the room. Shirley stood up, moving to meet him half way.

“Are you… Sister?”

“Yes,” she responded automatically. She frowned, wringing her hands. “I… messed up.”

“That was you?” he asked.

“That was me.”

He paused, noting. “It’s okay. We won’t be here long enough for it to matter.”

“We won’t?”

“No,” he responded. “I’ve got a plan. After I’m better, I’m going to work with Applejack. I’ll use money to gather things. You need to gather things, too.”

“I don’t have a job,” she noted.

“Rarity could use some help.”

“Okay.”

“Pinkie Pie will probably be here soon.”

“Who’s?”

“HI, EVERYPONY!” shouted the party pony. She looked over the two humans, having appeared from behind a mirror. “Well, you’re not really ponies, are you? Nope, you’re not!” She bounced over. “Well, I know his name is Happy Place! What’s your name?”

“Uh…” the girl shied away.

“Her name is Spindle Gold.”

“Okey dokey lokey!” the pink pony practical purred. “Well, I’m gonna throw you two a welcome to Ponyville party soon, okay?”

“Alright, Pinkie,” ‘Happy Place’ said. Pinkie was satisfied by this and left, earning an angered grunt from Twilight on the outside of the Boutique. “My real name is Frank. They’re coming.”

The ponies came back in, very cheerful.

“Well, if it isn’t rude of me,” Rarity began, “may I offer you a job? I’m in need of someone to sort through my orders and payments, and you look like your hands could hold a pencil. It’s pretty easy, just matching names. You can do that in exchange for room and boarding. Of course, other ponies will offer you odd jobs in exchange for actual pay…”

Shirley looked to Frank, who nodded. She grinned. “I’d be glad to work for you! I can’t wait to get better and be of help!”