"That'll be twenty bits, Williams," The farm girl said sternly.

"Twenty bits for four apples?" Ash asked with a glare. "The pony before me asked for the same thing and only paid a third of that."

"Yer point?"

"Why do I have to pay more when everyone else pays less?" Ash shouted as he gripped the bag of groceries in his metal hand.

"If ya don't like it, shop somewhere else. Yer scaring away my business!" Applejack yelled back.

"That's bullshit and you know it!"

"Go buck some trees yer self?" Applejack pointed to her family’s farm.

Ash let out a groan and stomped away. Neither he nor Applejack noticed a mop of red hair hastily shoving apples in a brown bag. The human made it ten steps from the market as he felt the weight of the bag of bits Twilight gave him. The human smiled. "I managed to save quite a bit," Ash noted as he made his way to the castle. "Even managed to haggle on some of the more expensive ingredients.”

"Mister!" a young voice called out.

Ash turned, finding an out-of-breath Apple Bloom panting heavily with her hands on her knees. "You're...Applejack's little sister." Ash scratched at his forehead before the name clicked. "Apple Bloom, right?"

"Here," Apple Bloom said, handing a brown bag to the human.

Ash looked inside and found six apples inside. "Thanks, kid," Ash said adding the apples to his back of groceries. He then reached into his sack of bits. "Six bits, right?"

"Four, actually," The young Apple smiled reassuringly. "The other two are for dealing with my unreasonable sister.”

"Honestly I kinda feel bad for you," Ash said, handing the bits to the kid.

"Apple Bloom!!" Both turned their gaze to the angry Applejack who was stomping after the two.

"Run!" Apple Bloom shouted. She ran in one direction while Ash turned tail and raced toward the castle.

Fortunately, the farm girl’s anger was directed toward her younger sister. Ash closed the door to the castle and slowly calmed down, before making his way to the castle's kitchen and putting all the perishables away.

"I'm still amazed at this world," Ash noted, closing the refrigerator door. "They have showers, fridges, and video games and yet instead of cars or guns, they got medieval-style weapons and their carriages are pulled by large wolves.”

"They're called Dire Wolves," a voice said, yanking Ash from his thoughts.

"Jesus!!" Ash fumbled with a jar of grape jam before catching it and setting it down. Ash turned and found Spike standing at the doorway of the kitchen with a plastic bag of gems in his hand. "Don't sneak up on me, man!" Ash placed a hand over his racing heart. "Nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"You fight demons and Changelings?" Spike noted, popping a gem in his mouth. "And a small dragon scared the shit out of you?"

"Keep talking, dragon," Ash said as he took off his metal hand and placed it on the counter. "I can still kick your ass with one hand."

"Fair enough," Spike conceded with a shrug. "But as I was saying, they’re called Dire Wolves: a race of wolves that grow rather large, which is quite helpful when we need a cart, wagon, or carriage that needs to be pulled. You'll hardly ever find a wild Dire Wolf, as they were at one point hunted to near extinction. At least until Celestia ordered that they should be tamed to aid in the carrying of heavy goods or ponies.”

"Huh... Neat," Ash mused, putting his metal hand back on his stump before grabbing an apple and taking a bite out of it. "That still doesn't explain why this world doesn't have a single gun.”

"Never needed them,” Spike replied with a grin. “Not until you showed up.”

"Fair enough," Ash relented. He began to walk away, only to hear something hit the ground.

The human turned, and found the young dragon curled over in pain as his scales shined like diamonds. Ash rushed to help the dragon but found the dragon too hot to touch.

"Twilight!! We've got a problem in the kitchen!!" Ash shouted before a burst of light blinded the man.

“What happened?” Twilight asked.

Ash grimaced as he rubbed the spots out of his eyes. "Next time, could you just walk in here?”

"Oh, sorry," Twilight apologized, but her focus was on her dragon. "Spike, what's wrong?"

"It… burns!"

"Ashley, bring him into the library," Twilight said, exploding in another flash of light.

Fortunately, Ash shielded his eyes this time, and avoided the blinding effects of the alicorn's spell. Using his metal hand, Jacob picked the dragon up while his other hand hooked under Spike's legs. Ash carried the dragon through the castle, and on his way, he ran into Samantha.

"Sam! Here.” Ash dumped the dragon into her arms. Sam nearly dropped him with a yelp, her arms smoking from his heat.

"Jesus, he's hot," Sam complained.

“I thought you can’t feel hot or cold,” Ash noted.

“He’s ‘that’ hot,” Sam replied.

"You’re… not my type," Spike groaned out, which caused Ash to snicker.

"I can always drop you," Sam warned.

But she kept her hold on him, as the three entered the library.

"We're here Twilight," Ash said as Sam placed the dragon down. "Any idea why Spike is in pain?”

"Not enough pain if you ask me," Sam muttered. "Smartass."

"I'm going through every anatomy book I have," Twilight said frantically, numerous books floating around her. "None of them are telling me what's happening to him!”

Twilight continued to look through the books in a frantic rush. The Alicorn was so worried for her friend that she didn’t hear the knock on the door.

"Sam, can you get that?" Ash asked the Half-Deadite.

"Why do I have to..." Sam shut her mouth, remembering that she still wasn't fully trusted. "I'll get it.”

Leaving the group behind, Sam moved through the castle. All the while Sam couldn't help but feel something bugging her.

"She's a princess, so why doesn't she have servants?" Sam mumbled.

Sighing, she opened the door, and was shocked by what she saw.

Standing in front of the castle door was a blue dragoness with brilliant red eyes, and a mess of blue hair. The Dragon's scales were a brilliant cyan with a pale turquoise underbelly and wing membrane gradient of moderate indigo to light cobalt blue. Jutting from the sides of her head were down curved Horns that had a light apple greenish gray color.

The Dragoness also wore gold armor which covered her upper chest, shoulders, wrists, legs, feet, and the tip of her tail. Brown wrappings covered her elbows, feet, and the base of her tail. The most alarming feature the dragon had that shocked Sam was that her scales were shining like Spike's.

"Please tell me you're not the Princess of Friendship," the dragoness all but begged.

"I'm not," Sam said, slightly irritated before she noticed how the dragon looked. "You look like you're in pain. Come inside.”

"Thanks," the dragon said as she made her way inside. "Please… I need to speak to a princess.”

Sam helped the dragon through the castle, grimacing all the way from the feel of the dragon's scales. Soon enough, the two made it to the library, where they found Twilight with a stack of books at her feet.

"Sam, who was at..." Ash started to say before noticing the dragon. “Oh.”

"Twilight,” Sam said, helping the dragoness approach Twilight. “Someone needs to talk to you.”

"Princess of Equestria," the dragoness said, kneeling before the Alicorn. "I am Ember, Daughter of Dragon Lord Torch." She lifted her head and looked at Twilight with pleading eyes. "I need your help in the Dragon Lands. My father is going to make a terrible mistake!”

"What kind of mistake?" Twilight asked the dragon.

"He's calling the dragons around the world to hunt down and destroy these… creatures.”

“Deadites?” Ash asked. “Or changelings?” He winced. “Or both?”

“Both,” Ember clarified. “He thinks together, we can destroy them. But he'll only be leading them into their deaths.” The dragoness shuddered. “I’ve seen what they’re capable of. These creatures have the ability to hide themselves and are strong enough to ambush and overpower ten dragons at once.”

Ash nodded, before heading out of the library. “I’ll get my guns.”

"I'll bring the car around," Sam offered.

Ash tossed the keys to his friend, all while Ember stared on in confusion.

"Guns?” she asked. “Car?”

"We'll explain everything on the way," Twilight replied, helping Spike to his feet and levitating a book with her magic.

A familiar flesh bound book that caused the dragon princess to back up with horror. "What. Is. That?" Ember whispered.

"You don't need to know," Ash replied, re-entering with his trusty boomstick in its holster. "All you need to know is that we need it.”

"I still haven't figured out the incantation to send them back where they came from," Twilight admitted, stashing the book in her satchel before admiring the bag. "It was nice that Pinkie gave me this bag.”

"Yeah not to mention it looks good on you" Ash flirted.

Twilight to blush before sighing. “Only two and a half weeks.”

Ash hummed and shrugged as well. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”

"Two and a half weeks?" Ember asked

"How long this little vacation of ours lasted," Ash explained as he picked up his chainsaw. "Now that the changelings are back… it’s back to the grindstone.”

Before Ember could react to that, a horn blared, alerting them that Samantha brought the car around.

"Let's go," Ash said, before eyeing the dragon princess's glowing scales. "Any chance you could bring Spike to the car?"

"Um... sure," Ember said. “Though… I still don’t know what a car is.”

“You’ll see,” Ash replied.

Watching him go with a hum, Ember helped Spike to his feet. "Don't worry," Ember assured the dragon as he groaned in pain. "The pain will fade the closer we get to the Dragon Lands.”

Spike grinned up at her. “Thanks.”

Ember smiled, though her smile faded into shock as they got outside… and she saw what a ‘car’ was. "What in great granddad Bahamut's name is that metal beast?!”

"This beautiful lady is the Delta," Ash replied, as he opened the trunk and pulled out a leg holster. "Glad I ask Rarity to make this for me," the human said strapping the holder to his thigh. "Made me pay a lot for it, but man is it worth it!” Ash then pulled out the Kandarian dagger before placing it into the thigh holster.

"Is that...?" Twilight asked before Ash walked up to her.

"The same dagger Chrysalis used to damage that beautiful body of yours," Ash said, tracing his finger over the scar on her left arm. "And I promise that if I come across that bug bitch, I’ll do to her what she did to you?"

"Can you two stop flirting and get in the car?" Sam asked, getting out of the driver's seat. "You’re making me gag.”

"Get over it," Ash shot back, but he got into the car all the same.

Sam started to move to the passenger seat. However a look from Ash spoke volumes, and Sam slunk to the back seat without another word, making way for Twilight to take the passenger side while Spike and Ember sat on both sides of Samantha.

Gunning the engine, Ash drove out of Ponyville with Ember giving him directions to the Dragon Lands.

---

"Subject 1K06," a blue pegasus male with blonde and white wavy hair in a white coat said, observing a caged dire wolf with a clipboard in his hand. "Birthed two cubs," the pegasus wrote down something on the clipboard before speaking again. "Testing for project War-Dog will begin within three weeks."

The pony came across a grey unicorn that had rather uncontrollable black hair and a mustache who was looking into the cage next to his. "How's Subject 1K07?"

"She birthed a total of five cubs," the unicorn said before pointing out a sickly-looking snow white cub. "The runt, however, doesn't look fit for the experiments.”

"It doesn't matter," the pegasus brushed off. "If it dies, it dies. Celestia wants these war dogs ready.”

"If I may ask… what got her to finally approve of our War-Dog initiative?" the unicorn asked.

"She wants to be prepared to take the fight to the Demon," the Pegasus said, going over the other test subjects. "Though, she didn't clarify who or what this demon is.”

“Well, it should be Chrysalis and her changelings,” the unicorn replied, using his magic to remove the runt from his mother's reach. "Either way, I'd say we start with this one. The last batch died within a matter of hours.”

"What'd you have in mind, Solid Gear?"

"We give it a full dose of the new formula and wait," Solid Gear said eyeing the weak cub. "If it lives, we can start with the others. Sound good Sky Drifter?"

"Wise course of action," Sky Drifter said, recalling the number of failed attempts. "Celestia won't be pleased if we give her another failed report.”

Both ponies move from the cages and into a lab that already had a syringe prepared for them. Solid Gear set the pup down, holding the wriggling whelp in place. Sky Drifter picked up the syringe and stabbed it into the dire wolf pup. The pegasus injected every drop of the formula into the pup which enticed a whine of pain.

"I really wish these things would stop whining," Solid Gear said coldly as he let go of the cub.

"It’ll stop if it keels over,” Sky Drifter said as he picked up the cub and threw it in its cage. “Let’s just see what happens.”

Next Chapter: The Dragon Lands Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes