tacobob

Yeah, the MLP/Transformer comic was adorable. And the movie. I heard it's going to flow into the new series, which will not be a reboot. Of course that's just rumors..

"Dragon's don't need to technically bathe, since we do not sweat.", she whispered back, "And when we do it's in lava, which none can be found here. For reasons.", she grunted. She did lie just a bit as she enjoyed a nice and soapy bath from time to time. And since their shared bath-tub contained an assortment of colored bits of hair, fur and other things she did not want to think about, she usually snuck into the teacher's quarters and used their tub. They rarely bothered with their little private bathrooms, so she was going them all a good favor and not wasting the really fancy soaps they had. Ooooh. Next week she'll be using the new bottle of 'Organics Volumizing Rosemary Body Wash'. Sweet Relief. Blue-boy was ALWAYS sweating. Like all the time. Smolder followed the cat-bird and kept quiet. Sneaky. Sneak Sneak Sneak. Oh primitive stone gods, she was bored already. Walking in the dark. Looking at janitor stuff. Ugh. A puddle. Was it? Water. Bored. Thankfully Gallus found their friend. "Heh..", she whispered, "Let's go sneak up on her and grab her..And then throw her into one of the many fountains we have here..That will teach her good!"

Oh for the love of Celestia. ANOTHER wedding? Why were all the ponies she knew getting married? This was probably the fifth wedding she attended this month! There was Applejacks. There was her brother Moon Walker who married a cute gal named Bunny Hop. All of her family members could dance, most of the Walkers could not. But they tried. Her second cousin's sister's aunt was remarried. Why did she attend that wedding? Her dear old friend Ilinalta tied to knot as well. Her old friend Emerald Sunrise also had her wedding. her 5th wedding. She was very sure this one was going to last. Uh-Hu. Sorry Emy, your wedding gifts are going to keep getting smaller every time you re-marry. As she presented her invitation, she could not help but feel like something was walking right next to her. Something with a long tail. Was it somepony's pet? Who knows and who cares. She needed to get to this thing before somepony else was getting married. She was sure it was Dunder. But hey! There was her beloved and HEY! It was Presteza! One of her oldest friends. One who hasn't written back in ages! What was going on with that? The fiery mare almost wanted to slap the paint-brush off her buddy's booty. But she could not. She loved her favorite gal. Fire Walker glanced over at a nearby mirror. She was looking good. Another new white dress. This was different than her others. She quickly shook off what looked like an orange scale? Huh? After she got a good look of herself, she slowly made her way over to her hubby to be and her buddy that was always to be. The artistically talented mare was one of the first she mailed to tell her she would be having a foal. And she got no response. Did she get her letter? "Hey Swifty.", she gave her favorite stallion a swift-peck on his cheek. "And hello Miss Pressey...", she smiled at the unicorn. Smolder was completely innocent. She did not crash this wedding, because she was not technically attending it. She had been asked to look for her very special and very fuzzy blue bird-pal Gallus and was allowed to amble in without causing any trouble. She was trying to find a friend, and obviously this was friend was invited so she would get his 'plus one', or did she simply walk along a rather panicked red mare? All eyes were on her. She was a special pony. Friend of many who were attending, so eyes were on her, not the smaller, oranger creature that was walking along side her. She smelled like cinnamon and the young dragon was rather found of that scent. She was also fond of some of the drinks ponies were serving. They came in small glasses, were colorful and tasted really good....Gin Martini...Whiskey Ginger...Manehattan..Cute names, but after sneaking a few with the help of her rather agile tail, she was starting to feel a bit odd. A bit funny. She even giggled at somepony's really bad joke.."Heh-Heh. A rip off.", she continued her search until she found him! Hurray! She wanted to shout, but she did not want to cause a ruckus. She needed to find him and then do what? Sweet Smolder's second aunt, she forgot! "Chancellor before the wedding?", she snuck up on her fuzzy friend, "Why would you want to see him you big fuzzy sassy dummy?", the dragon was also rather befuddled. "I think I'm supposed to find you...Or was it Silverstream? Oh wait, we did that already.", she started to lean on him.

Hurray! Smolder was best at scheming! The big beauty was now fully returned to her bed and was probably snoozing away. This all happened so quickly, she wondered if Yona would even remember any of what happened the next day. Hopefully not. She gave the stinky little griffon a bow. "I know I'm awesome. I know.", she whispered. Filled with confidence, the young dragon followed the fuzzy cat-bird and nearly jumped into ceiling when the strange noise was heard. Was that Scruffy the janitor? Was there a janitor named Scruffy? Would they find out what caused the noise? Nope? Her bluest buddy was looking at some books? Huh? "Wait, what?", the confused student whispered, "Why are you worried about some dumb book? I doubt a girl who spent most of her life swimming would need a book on swimming. That would be like you needing a book on being fuzzy and me needing a book on being awesome and perfect and such." She was pretty sure Prince Blueblood wrote that book a few years ago. "Come on, let's find out that caused that noise. Also, do we have a janitor named Scruffy?", she tried to take the lead from the griffon. She would find the missing Hippogriff and she would then...Give the pretty bird an boop on the beak and then get back to sleep.

Fire Walker had spent the earlier day running around and taking care of an assortment of tiny errands. While she was not asked to lead a squad of soldiers to chase away an enclave of Diamond Dog thieves, or to reunite warning neighbors to the north. Of course there was no warring neighbors anywhere at the moment. She had little jobs. Mush them all together and you might get one proper sized mission. She could at least feel useful for the moment. Once she returned to the purple princess' side and dropped off some needed supply, the red mare was happy to help with troop rotations. At least for the R.E.A and the many guards who roamed the busy streets of Equestria. She knew and grew up with many, and also trained a good deal of them as well. She had a good eye on what squads should go where. She stayed away from the EPIC and STAR jibber-jabber as the whole cloak and dagger stuff made her stomach turn. They had a place that they needed to go, and away they went. To the spot. Thankfully tea would be there along with little butter biscuits and scones. "Oh, Yes, of course please..". It was very very hard not to refer to Sovereign of Equestria as 'Princess', but the purple one preferred to be called Twilight. Year of training demanded it! "Thank You Twilight.." She got her leaves of choice ready. Normally it wouldn't have been her fifteenth choice, but she needed to stay away from caffeine for the next ten or so months. They were meeting somepony, but who? Prince Blueblood? Princess Cadance? Muggo' Ale? She doubted it would be the last one, but it would be fun if it was.

"Oh dear." Fire Walker groaned. She was not the only pony who was transformed. "We've been transformed into these weird monkey creatures." They weren't really monkeys, but that was as close of a creature she could consider. "As part of my job, I have used portals before, but not to an actual other world. It was either quick transportation or a very secure pocket-verse. This is all different. I can only assume the magic in the portal reverted us into the dominant species to keep things from going south." Oh Oh. Dunnie knew Fire for a few years and knew she would break into a round of unnecessary exposition when she was scared or very worried. "Monster? I was grabbed by a hand, but it did not feel like flesh and blood, but it was like being zapped over and over again with static shock. Which I hate.", Wind Walker enjoyed herself just a little too much one day when they visited the Fillydelphia Art Museum last year. It had nylon rugs and the filly would run her hooves through the rug and zap her big sister. Hmmph. "We just need to alert Miss Bevel so she does not enter the portal. We could still go back if she remains on the other side.", as she made her way towards the base of the statue, thee last thing she wanted to see appeared before her eyes. More teleporty magic. "oh poopie.", she groaned. They were probably stuck here for the moment. That's what you get for doing all the unnecessary exposition!

"Well then.", Fire Walker spoke to a audience of one. Normally when one went into a mirror, there was a good deal more broken glass and a horrible headache that would going on right about now. But she felt alright. That was until she realized she was standing on her back legs. She fought the urge to get back onto her hooves as she realized she had none. This all seemed natural. She glanced at ten little red fingers that she had attached to thin....Fur-less arms? She had talons like a dragon or griffon, but they ended with tiny little claws that probably couldn't cut butter. But what about the rest of her body? As she glanced down, she caught sight of the fact that she was now wearing clothing, she had next to no fur on her body and there were two large objects in her clothing that were blocking her view. As she started to push away the clothing, an "AHEM" voice could be heard. There was what she wanted to call a monkey, but she appeared to be similar to her own new form. Except she had light aquamarine skin and a scruffy nest of cyan hair with a white streak. She also wore clothing. She held up her arms in a look of confusion. "I dropped something in there...Miss Mindyourownbusiness!", she growled. The odd monkey girl rolled up her eyes and walked on. What the heck was going on? This world she was now in felt so different, but somewhat familiar. With Miss Busy-Body out of her way, she could continue to check out her new form. She was wearing an military officer uniform. Well, one in training. She also figured out what was blocking her view. She was a mammal. All mammals had these, but they only came out when she was had foals. And they usually don't belong up here. Was this Discord's doing? She hadn't seen him in a while, but she knew he had a custom prank waiting for her. And turning her and anypony around into hairless monkeys sounded like something he would do. Ooop! Not hairless! She had a head of hair on the top of her oddly shaped head. Some things never change! She paused to look at the statue. It was a horse. Something her pal Zelda would make, but something was going on at the base....Magic?

“I’m sure your folks won’t mind.”, the young dragon started to clean up. She was slightly curious what sort of creature he would turn into with that magic pearl. She heard horror stories from Spike that he turned into some sort of puffer-fish! Oh the horror of horrors! The poor guy mentioned he had to scratch his butt for the longest time, but couldn’t due to his useless flippers. And when he got a good look at himself via a underwater mirror, he was aghast when he found out he didn’t even have a butt! Phantom Flank! ARRRGH! Oh-Oh! She had to be somewhere! Smolder increased the speed of her cleaning. Gotta go fast “Thanks for stopping by Princess Bluebelle. It was nice to talk to an adult without getting the usual amount of judgment back." she nodded as the royal pony moved on. "And you Missy.", she gave her friend a wink. "When you get back from this little adventure with blue-bird-boy, you'll have to tell me EVERYTHING. Every little smooch, all the times he does that smooshy thing with his beak when he is perturbed. That kind of reminds me of a confounded sock-puppet." Wow! She was actually getting use out of her 'New Word A Day Calendar" Twilight got her for her birthday!

"That's why there are publishers. They're the ones who handle all the boring stuff. Making copies, selling copies, sending copies.". Library books were different than book store books. Library books were put together stronger as they were meant to be read more than a few times. Her mother spent time between updating the R.E.A. manuals and writing her cute little romance adventure stories...However with other species joining the ranks of Equestria's military might, her books needed some major rewrites. Thankfully the higher rankers gave her a team for these updates. The mare let out a chuckle, "They try not to use the table for anything other than the map.", she glanced over at the helpful little bit of magic. "One of Cutie Mark Crusaders...I forgot her name..The unicorn...Freaked out when she decided she would enjoy a book and a cookie. The table turned on, and she freaked out and fell backwards on her chair. Nearly choked on her cookie." Yep! It was time to move on. "You two will like this room.", the mare pushed open the door and lead the pair into what she called the 'Media' room. Some comfortable chairs, a film projector and a screen. Fire Walker had a fun little documentary on the history of the castle that she needed to test out. Bevel and Dunnie would be a perfect pair to test this on. As the clever unicorn would be very good at judging its storyline and logic, while Dunnie would be the best at gauging the whole entertaining factor. She wouldn't say anything, but the moment the movie got dull, she would simply snooze away. No need for a hoof up or down, when this mare was sleeping, that movie wasn't meant for peeping. "Mister Spike did a great job at narr....oh." There was a rather large mirror standing in her way. "What is this doing here?", she gasped. And what mirror was this? It was clearly magical, but there were more than a few magic mirrors in the hidden storage. There was one that showed your greatest desires. One that showed an version of its viewer from another world. One that showed the 'fairest one of them all'. One that can be used to spy on somepony, and one that could allow you to travel to another world. Which one is this? "Um. I need to go find Princess Twilight...This shouldn't be here..", there was a hint of fear in her voice. They kept some really powerful magical items hidden away here. And not just in the broom closet or second half-bath, but in another dimension. "Let's go back the way we came...I can use the thing to alert her.. I know she's not that far away..I er...oh!", she let out a yelp as a what appeared to be a magical hand appeared from the mirror and pulled the poor officer in. She vanished without a sound!

“I don’t see any issue with that.”, the dragon responded. “You can take him to experience the entire 'Three Days of Freedom Celebration', which I think would be fun. Three days of partying. And considering you missed it last year." She hated the idea of her favorite blue-buddy staying at the school alone this year...And what did SHE have planned? There was this year's 'Feast Of Fire' and she did have a really good story to tell this year. Still, three days of partying with Terramar or a pile of gems. Hmm. There was always a chance that yummy little bird was already seeing some creature. Ugh. And her brother had something he had been wanting to do this year. She could only assume he was going to tell his story via beat poetry. "There's also the other griffon cities like Rockwington. He might prefer a visit there soon...I heard it's not the prettiest of cities, but it's filled with artists and other creative types. Guy might get inspired and feel a little better about his kind." She knew Gallus was an orphan. What happened to his folks? Did they run away, or did they..er...best not to think about it. "Ah shucks.", she smiled back at the mare. "Still, would be nice to find out what happened to his folks....See why he became an orphan.", she turned to Silverstream, "Poor guy didn't even know what a cousin was when you were telling about your holidays...I don't even know who my cousins are, but I know what they are...what cousins are..." Dragons did not keep family trees! This was not good! Cousins would marry cousins! This is probably why there were some pretty odd looking dragons.

This was by far the silliest adventure she had ever been on. More so when she, Dunder, Muggo and her brother, Walk Walker were chased about the Everfree by a pack of vicious wolf fly-ders! These were Fly-ders, who in turn were a race of green-skinned multi-legged insects that fly, bite, and spin webs that were giant versions of said flying insects but also had wolf heads were reasons. Nature is weird. As the 'Ghost' broke out into song, the officer's boggled brain tried to catch up with everything, she caught sight of an old tin sign that were near the hooves. "Paradise Estate Studios", she read out-loud. Before she noticed the farmer was getting into a fight with the large what's it. But as she turned and got ready to rush over to her friend's aid, an trap door opened and she fell! This door closed, once the Pegasus was gone! At first, Applejack could not lay her hooves on the frightful fright. It dodged and weaved as it sung it song. It bopped and bobbed like a professional prize-fighter. Until its song ended, it stayed still just long enough for the feisty farmer to knab it, and she probably wish she didn't. As it felt like a very cold and very large pile of phlegm..It was basically a very large booger. "Ha Ha!", it laughed before it broke out into another song. As it sung, Applejack realized it was not it who she had caught, but It was 'it' that had caught her and was slowly pulling her into its body. "I am the meanest meanie I ever met But I'm just half as bad as I'm gonna get Why should I be humble? I'll make the mountain crumble..." Out of the corner of their eye, she noticed one of the robed guards had wandered into view who quickly shook off said robe. It was Swift Star! She appeared to have been in a trance and seeing her commanding officer in trouble was enough to shake her out. "Captain Applejack!" She was missing her uniform. She bravely charged towards the 'ghost' and pony, and gave the farmer a good nudge, breaking her free of the spirit's pull. Unfortunately she went directly into the gunky ghost's open maw. But after a quick tussle, she soon was out, and covered in a white, slimy goo. The 'Ghost' took off and floated up into the ceiling, leaving another pile of goo. As it left, it added. "You an't seen nothing yet!" Poor Swift Star curled up into a ball and groaned, "This is exactly how our last officer party went. Exactly..", she shivered.

The young dragon nodded her head as Silverstream spoke. Sirens were rather scary. They were beautiful creatures, but also terrifying at the same time. The picture, well, it was a drawing showed three standing over a wrecked ship with a few pony skeletons laying nearby. They could take over your mind to make you helpless or even attack your friends, and then when you were done, it was all over for you! The part that creeped her out the most were their eyes, so dark and evil. Smolder did not sleep well that night. "They vanished? That's good." Or was it? Evil creatures had an bad habit of going away for hundreds, if not thousands of years only to return even nastier. Imagine going through your life as air-breather only to spend years living under water. So many changes. You'd have to learn how to eat underwater. Drink underwater..How do they do that? Use the restroom....And not just the usual 'oops' in the public pool she might have done once or twice recently. "Yeah, I wouldn't recommend you marry any cousins. That's how we ended up with Crackle." This was something that bothered Smolder about her own race. Unlike just about any other race out there, dragons were all very different. Some could look like ravishing beauties with orange scales, orchid scales and the body of a rock-star, or you could look like an terrible two-pony Nightmare Night costume. One dragon she knew was mostly a tail with feet. The dragon gods were cruel creatures. "I gotta say this and when I say this, I'm saying it as quietly as possible.", she dropped her voice down rather low, "Dragon Lord Ember is a better leader than her father ever was.", to be sure, the dragon glanced up into the sky, "She is actually um, leading us and trying to make a difference. I fought her tooth and nail when she dragged me to Ponyville, but she was right." And Smolder was spoiled with comfy beds, indoor plumbing and really good friends. This would be interesting! Some mountebank pretending to be royalty to swindle bits from the birds! Why would any creature do such a thing? That would be like robbing a rat and stealing his dumpster! Gallus rarely spoke of his homeland as it was all very unpleasant for him. He grew up without a family and very few friends. She had heard the griffons there were trying to make things better. She hoped they succeed!

No worries. I just miss seeing new art from you..And Pressy and Inkbrand and all.

“Well, I don’t intend on spending my life as a pig..So I guess.” Once Applejack bolted, she quickly followed. Towards the temple of doom! While the farmer was a good deal faster than the Pegasus, Fire Walker managed to trail slightly behind her and with a gasp, she saw the weirdest battle. Pigs verses cloaked ponies! Little pink piggies rolled up into hog-balls and slammed into the heads of the ponies. She did not like seeing the weapons the guards had, but it seemed both side were fighting to stop, not to kill their opponents. Maybe the spell-touched ponies were fighting against their respective spells! Or whoever was behind the temple did not want blood outside their creepy temple. While not terribly fast, the Pegasus pony was rather agile and had little difficulty avoiding the guards, pigs and spells. “Sorry.”, she tried her very best to avoid interacting with the warring factions, but as two threatening, but still adorable piggies tried to sneak up on her, the officer sent them into slumber-land with two quick thrusts of her wings. Geez! Pig on somepony your own size! Oh no! Now there was the staple of the Daring Do books! The slowly closing temple door! And behind her, one of the larger hogs rolled up into a giant hog-ball! That’s another! It was similar to the larger boulder-trap the heroine would come across while lurking around creepy tombs! Thankfully Applejack got inside! But she was going to be late! The fleeing pony doubled her speed and quickly dropped into her stomach and slid....rather slowly under the door. which was still open. Applejack had control of the door. She could have ran and made it. Oh boy. “Uh.”, the officer grunted as she slowly got up. They were now in the temple. “Huh.” It looked all rather temply. But the closer she got, the cheaper it felt. “I think this ‘temple’ is an old movie set. She spotted a wall that was slowly rotting away and behind which was probably painted Styrofoam was a wood plank. Movie studios had a bad habit of filming on location and simply leaving their sets behind as it was more cost effective to do that instead of ripping them down. Still, while the temple was fake, the magic was real and she needed to stay on her hooves as anything could happen. What were they going to do? As she tried her best to come up with a clever voice, a creepy voice could be heard. It was SINGING? Oh I wouldn't try that if I were you You never know what I might do I'll disappear then peek-a-boo I'll hold your nose till you turn blue I'd get out fast if I were you Before you end up in a stew I'd say a'hey, say toodle-doo You've bit off more you can chew I'd get out fast if I were you You won't catch me, ever No one can match me, ever I'm simply much too clever...clever! I think it's time that you were through Or something awful may ensue Before your darkest dreams come true I'd get out fast, I'd get out fast Oh, yes, I'd get out fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast If I were you - boo! Oddly enough, Fire Walker had 'spooky singing ghost' on her bingo-card.

Fire Walker watched as the be-goggled mare gamboled about the library. She didn't want to say anything, but there wasn't really anything here that was really that special. A few 1st editions, and some very basic spell-books. They were all library-bound, which made them slightly better than what you find at a book-store. There were some books higher up that had really fancy looking bookends, but they were just old copies of Knickerless Knickleby or Rarnaby Budge. There was a new and special edition of 'The Amazing Adventures of Captain Gladys Stoutpamphlet and her Intrepid Spaniel Stig Amongst the Giant Pygmies of Beckles'. But everything was safe. Bevel was not going to find an anything of interest. Powerful magic books were kept locked away, either in Canterlot's well guarded libraries or impossible to sneak into pocket worlds. Fire Walker had the privilege of visiting one during her meeting with Princess Twilight. They had recently learned the hard way that a powerful book could easily overwhelm even the more competent unicorns. "That would not be fair to the writer or publisher.", the officer responded, "That's why we have libraries. Like a book, take it home for a few weeks, but if you really like it, that's when book-stores come in.". Then you can read a chapter and toss it the corner. Fire had a really bad habit of buying a book, getting bored with it, and then adding it to the ever-growing library in Fillydelphia. And also her personal library in her room at the castle. And also the guest-room at her parents house. And the vacation house in Las Pegasus. She had freaking books all over Equestria. Not to mention the ones 'borrowed' by Zelda, Docket and Presteza. "I'm pretty sure the table only works for Princess Twilight and her companions. Maybe Spike...", she trailed off. Crickey! Bevel could move quick for such a little pony. "Well, unless you have any further questions, we'll move on to the next room.."

“Ah.”, There was something that was bothering the young dragon. "If I recall from that one report you did awhile back.", her eyes fell upon Silverstream, "Your kind were originally straight up hippogriffs until the Storm King came to town, and then you used magic to turn yourselves into seaponies to escape his wraith. So I'm sure there are regular hippogriffs and regular sea ponies that can't transform into the other races? And what's with meremares? Is that a thing? And Kelpie and Sirens. I heard they're just really big seaponies that can use magic singing. Usually to distract lonely sailors into crashing their boats, and then they eat yah. ", She was slightly disturbed by Rockhoof's story about his encounter with the three Sirens. When he said 'eat', his eyebrows did that thing. Did he mean eat eat? Aka munch a bunch or baku baku? Or eat, eat? Like the one done best in private? Sweet Ember, her mind keeps going into one direction. Think of something not-sexy. Celestia. No....That's the opposite. Rockhoof...Nooo...Ah! Snips and Snails! Perfect! Smolder took another sip from her cup. There was a few bits of cold tea along with a small bit of harden honey that floated to the bottom of the cup. Yuck. She glanced back up and listened some more. "Nah, we're not anywhere near a ruling class. Maybe when our last dragon lord was young. But after that, we for the most part just kept to ourselves and avoided everyone..Sometimes a foolish dragon would try to pick on a pony and learn the hard way, size doesn't matter, especially when the poor soul you're picking on can use a spell to shrink you down to her size and hit you between the eyes with a hoof." Smolder managed to find some crumbs on her plate as the shape-shifting princess talked on. She nodded her head. Her future was out there and it did not involve sitting in a cave. She had far more opportunities than her parents ever did, and hoped she could find her way in this new world. She did miss her chance to see where Bluebelle's eyebrows went when she said 'cuddle'.

Ho-Boy. Now the reception had begun. Fire Walker gently wiped away her tears and hoped nopony saw her take place in one of the oldest wedding clichés ever. Now they just needed the over-drunk uncle or somepony to storm in and declare that –they- were truly in love with one of the now married ponies. The officer’s ears perked up as she heard a very familiar voice. “Oh Dunders.”, she quickly scooted over to her special friend and gave him a proper hug. She had not seen her former adventuring partner since a rather odd mishap with a magic mirror in her former place of employment. So much had changed since then. “The Twilight Guard has mostly been dissolved as the good Princess now has an whole country to rule. I’m back with the R.E.A proper.”, her voice dropped down to a whisper, “I also have an upcoming change of my own.”, she patted her stomach. “There’s nothing really there that can be seen, but I’ll be bringing a foal of my own into the world in a little over ten months. And don’t worry.”, she smiled at the stallion, “About the cake. I’m pretty sure I heard there’s a few back-ups in the kitchen in case the usual shenanigans break out. And if a larger crowd turned up.” The good Princess Bluebelle made her way over to the pair. Could she imagine as a child that she would know more than one princess personally? Being the proper sort, she gave the royal pony a proper Canterlot curtsy. "He was supposed to be here already.", she whispered with more than a hint of stress in her tone , "And yes, I believe I was with you shortly after that happened. Was it last year's Hearth's Warming Eve?" Or maybe even the previous? Time was going by so quickly. Ooh! They had that one mare..The cellist that was at every Grand Galloping Gala. She is very good! And along with Countess Coloratura. Fire's little sister Wind was a big fan.

Fire Walker was excited! This was the first time she was allowed to vote in Ponyville! She officially had a home here along with her mail, which was still going to Princess Twilight's former castle. This she needed to fix. It was a battle between the wife that was part of a family that had nearly as strong as a connection to Ponyville as the Apples. The farmers had their impressive farms, but would have not gone very fair without Filthy Rich's business. Versus a carpetbagger with an odd name. Strong Copper? Copper isn't strong, it's weak! He seemed to be a nice enough fellow, but they didn't need a nice mayor! They needed somepony who was strong! It takes nerves of steel to cut ribbons at new stores and wear those sashes. Somepony also needed to award Apple Jack her usual amount of awards for saving the village from whatever bothered it. The officer had no idea what mayors do. Call the Power Ponies? Once there was a booth available, she trotted in and thought very hard. Who would she vote? The tough mare who was a bit of a bi...grating pony. Or the likeable stallion with zero Ponyville connections? Once her mind was made up, she dipped her hoof into the ink and stamped her ballot. Once it was in the proper box, Fire Walker stopped and quickly washed her inky hoof off. A volunteer was there at the exit who hoofed over a STICKER! It informed all those nearby that she in fact voted. Yay! After placing the sticker on her blue scarf, she made her way out. She had packages waiting for her in the Crystal Castle. Also Yay! And also bills. boo.

"Thanks." Fire Walker smiled back at the mare and soon she had a glass of 'Magic Apple'.* It was good, but it was still not the same. This was going to be a very long ten and a half months. The Pegasus had just enough time to finish her drink when the magic happened. She was a little bummed as Swift was still not around. Where did he go? It was time for the wedding proper! She quickly made her way to seats, where, when it was her turn to be seated, she followed her usher to her assigned place to sit. Right next to an empty seat where Swift was supposed to be. Hmmmph. Fire had recognized some of the ponies and of course cute little Spike. And the always gorgeous Fluttershy. Everypony was just so utterly beautiful or handsome. Or both. They were beautsome. Is that a word? More ponies entered the room. Princess Twilight was also there and it was she who going to solemnize the marriage. The purple mare gave a lovely speech. Everything was perfect and lovely and while she hated to do it, there was already a good deal of tears that started to flow. Oh woe.

Okay! This is it! Fire Walker was very sure she was actually still laying in that ditch and was just dreaming this. Or maybe she had an concussion? The odd pig was not only standing, which wasn’t that odd. Wind Walker taught her corgi Gumby and how to stand up and shake his fuzzy rump. But he eventually had to get back on all four. This odd creature was now talking. Maybe they breathed in some wacky mushroom spores during their travels? Was Discord behind this? He was behind all those sea-monsters eating her ice cream! “Of course, I’m talking.”, the pig turned to Fire Walker, “Maybe I should be talking to you instead, as you look a bit more..er..” The red mare was trying her very best to register all of this. A piggy princess and her piggy army. All this wedding stress was getting to her brain. She really should have kept her original plan. A quick and cheap wedding at one of those twenty-four wedding chapels at Las Pegasus. Only 29 bits for the wedding and a coupon to one of the many questionable buffet style restaurants nearby. They would even have a pony dressed as the famous rockabilly artist, Juke Joint handle the wedding! The pig was not very happy. She spoke to a pony and she did not respond. She was being IGNORED. "PLEASE LOOK AT ME, when I talk to you.", she growled. "I am Princess Porcina and I intend on taking over that temple. I was told that there was an powerful and very large gem inside that I could use to amply my powers.", she moved her piggy hooves away from a gold necklace that she wore. The emerald attached to it oozed magic. "I've been converting all those stupid guards into pigs for my army, but for every five guards I convert, ten more replace them. I have no idea where they are coming from! I need you two ponies to break into that temple and bring me back that gem...Or I'll." she stroked the gem, "Turn you into mindless pigs and try to overwhelm those guards. Most of my pigs will probably die in the process, but as long as I get that gem, it does not matter." WHAT WILL THEY DO? Will the ponies pilfer precious stones for Princess Porcina or proceed to pair up with her peccable piggy patrol?

“Oh, right. Magic stuff.”, Fire Walker was HORRIBLE when it came to special armor. Somepony would give her a impressive suit of magic armor to wear, and the forgetful mare would almost always forgot to use the cool features, either due to the rush of battle, or maybe she felt it was cheating. But she would be of no use if some creature started to control her. She would probably end up attacking her friend or even worse be forced into poses one should never be caught dead doing, and have rude pictures taken of her and mailed to loved ones. True evil. The mare pushed her purple button and paused to let the magic do its thing. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted more of those cute little beach piggies. So cute! If Wind Walker hadn’t already owned a dog, she would have brought one of the little porkers home with her. The officer slowly walked along with the farmer of many talents. There probably wasn’t a single thing that mare couldn’t do, and if there was, it wasn’t worth doing! Still, she could not help but notice more pigs. There sure were a lot of them on this island! The red mare nodded her head as she moved along with the Earth Pony. Right a distraction, she would do one of those. Before she could think of a clever diversion, one of the pigs stepped out from the woods. Unlike the others, this one walked on two of her hooves, and held a mirror in her right front hoof. The odd creature had curly red hair and a golden crown with a emerald that oozed unpleasant energy from it. The crown was matched by a medallion of the same color and build. Her green, rather greedy looking eyes glanced away from the mirror and with an malicious grin on her face and pointed at the pair and let out an loud squeal. In moments, a small army of no longer cute piggies appeared behind her. Fire Walker really wanted to laugh at the whole spectacle. Somepony actually put lipstick on a pig! Instead she asked... "Uh, Applejack? What is that?"

Smolder could not help but smile at Bluebelle's 'droll' comment. She understood why she said it. That was a bit silly. Judging a mate on how they can burp. Still, she patiently waited for the royal pony to exchange a few words with her friend and only spoke when she had the opening. "I hadn't really noticed it until recently, but with my brother's friends have been hitting on me and all... Well, they hit me and I then I hit them until they fall over. But instead of looking defeated, they just smile. That's the old way, dragons want strong mates to produce strong whelps. But now that certain pony things are coming in like marriage, I really don't want to end up with a big lunk-head. I' want something more than 'grunt punch breath fire grunt grunt' sort of guy and if you have something unique or different, dragons tend to mock you for it instead of celebrating like the other creatures do. " The young dragon realized she was starting to repeat herself, so she asked, almost shyly. "Would I be bad if I looked to other creatures for my er. um.", A million words floated in the dragon's mind. None of them polite. A few would either get her suspended or arrested. "Aggressive cuddling? Eh?", she glanced around hoping she was safe. "Other creatures have more dimensions.", she glanced at Hippogriff, "They might be silly at times, but they're also cute and funny and know what to say to make you feel better, even if it's not positive but truthful. And also are capable of giving good cuddles. Some of my brothers friends look like they were put together by bored toddlers and are truly capable of very little. And I'm sorry I'm rambling but all of you have grown up with this experience. Families. Parents who stay with each other and do cute little things like give each other baby names or kiss each other on the snouts or beaks or whatever. Last Saturday, she purposely hung around Sugarcube Corner watching the Cakes interact with each other. After the one hundredth, 'Can we help you' ,. she told them a little white lie saying she needed to watch how a candy-store operates for her studies. Well, she need to watch how a candy-store married couple operate, and operate they did! They each knew when to support the other and how. They knew each others weakness and were able to counter them. Like some big stony bridge over rapid waters or a well oiled machine. They even knew how to handle Pinkie Pie! "My kind might have that kind of relationship in the future, but now? I'm worried that if I go for the easy route and date a griffon or pony or any creature that's not a dragon, would I be bad for not helping my kind advance just a little? Am I making any sense?", she glanced at the pair with a true look of utter wistfulness.

I will be totally offline!? Where are you going? The 1930s? Say hi to Fatty Arbuckle and Greta Garbo for me!