December 7 The West Team picks up a trail not long after they leave camp and then TOMMY MCCONNEL spots one of the Diamond Dogs with a large bag filled with something. The team after some discussion decides to try and follow the dog. A sudden windstorm causes them to lose the trail just after they see him meet up with the other dogs.
Fucking Dogs. Tommy liked dogs, usually, but these weren’t really dogs, according to Firefly and Melody, or Medley, or whatever, they were Diamond Dogs. They didn’t look very dog-like to Tommy either, they looked more like angry hyenas that happened to be grey.
“Fuck,” Tommy groaned as the windstorm somehow let the dogs disappear. It didn’t make a lot of sense but it was getting late and he decided they needed rest they could get more information on the dogs in the morning.
“Let’s camp for the night,” he told the crew as he decided to take the first watch shift. Tommy wanted to think. He walked a good 20 feet away to a good vantage point and sat down taking a sip of water when he saw one of his teammates headed his way.
Of all the missions in all the worlds he had and could have gone on, one involving My Little Ponies wasn’t one Roman ever expected to see come to Atlantis. He wasn’t incredibly familiar with the old cartoon - or new, depending on who you asked - but he knew the basics. Cartoon ponies full of happiness and sunshine with the occasional mishap, misunderstanding, or evil thing trying to disrupt their pony lives.
Then there were these dogs that looks like a new sort of gremlin to him, but he made sure to keep that thought to himself. They’d lost the main trail in the windstorm, but thankfully the team was all still together and about to settle in for the night. Roman wasn’t exactly tired, so he decided to take a look around and make sure the area was clear. When he saw Tommy a few paces away, he strolled over.
“Heya, boss. Any idea where to next? That was a hell of a storm,” he said and sat down across from Tommy.
Nodding, Tommy agreed. It probably wasn’t natural. Shit in pony land or cartoon lands never were, were they? Tommy wasn’t exactly pleased with this mission so far, he hated that they lost the trail. The sooner the missing pony was rescued the sooner they could get home.
“Evil cats that don’t look like cats?” He ventured with his answer. Shaking his head he sighed and continued. “More finding the dog things and hoping our pony friends don’t drown us in optimism.”
“Some might say that all cats are evil, so that fits.” Roman liked their potential to be evil even if he was perfectly content to have any lay on top of him while he was having a lazy afternoon on the couch eating his favorite cereal. He laughed with a shake of his head. “But yeah, those two girls really do have a thing for happiness and cheer.”
As much as Roman liked a good cartoon, he hadn’t managed to get into the ponies, so he wasn’t terribly familiar with them other than the obvious. “One of them ought to be able to find the trail in the morning from the air. We’ll be able to get back going then.”
Tommy shrugged about the cats, they did have their evil moment and he wasn’t the biggest cat kinda guy. The endless cheer however was getting old to him.
“We better be, I’d like to know exactly what those things are doing and if they’ve got the horse.” He had a feeling that might not be the case though. There was a lot about all of this that didn’t feel right to him.
“The sooner we can find the horse, the better,” Roman agreed. Because that meant they could get back home. As much as he didn’t mind going out on missions, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to spend too much time in the world of friendship and happiness.
“Because you never know with this stuff,” he said, waving his hand around at their surroundings. “You never know when it might start to rub off on us.” Tommy nodded, he didn’t laugh it off as someone else might, he actually worried about the chipper little happy ponies rubbing off on them, the last thing he needed was for a bunch of grown men to go around skipping and singing songs about friendship and sharing. Fuck it, Care Bears better not show up here too.
“It might already be rubbing off on some of them,” he was serious really, but he did worry about it. “Come on, let’s walk the perimeter.”
Roman glanced over at the others a few paces away from them and gave a half nod. Yeah, he wouldn’t be surprised if some of them started to act a little more chipper than normal at some point or another. Shaking his head he stood and followed Tommy’s lead. “After you.”
December 10 After adjusting a little to their new bodies, the team continues to follow the trail of the Diamond Dogs for the next few days. They encounter a river with a broken bridge that they need to cross.
On one hand, Roman was stuck as an animated pony. On the other hand, he had wings. For all of his other normal abilities, he’d never had the ability to fly. He was probably taking advantage of it a little too much, and the two ponies that were with them, Firefly and Medley, sometimes disagreed on whether or not he should be in the air. Medley didn’t think it was the best idea, but Firefly would sometimes join him and perform a little airshow.
Now, though, Roman was back on the ground as they traversed along until they came upon a river. It wasn’t a passive river that they could walk or swim across but, thankfully, they’d located a bridge a short distance away. Once they were about halfway across, the team noticed some loose and broken boards that were going to be tricky to cross. The two experienced fliers flew above them and on up ahead a little ways to see if they could find something to help, and meanwhile, Roman lifted his head over the railing enough to look down at the water below. It wasn’t rushing but it was moving.
He started to step forward a bit but missed his footing and slipped, falling onto one of the boards that broke and sent him falling towards the water. He only thought about his newfound wings at the last minute, but it was too late. He hit the water and started to sink.
SPLASH!
The sound stirred Tommy as he ran, or one could say galloped towards the bridge he’d known Roman to be flying over. He wasn’t sure how good any of them would be in their new pony forms in danger, hell if they had to fight.
He got to the bridge quicker than he would have if he were human and found that aspect of this shit actually useful. What he didn’t like was seeing a sinking pony below.
He had wings, but his were not nearly as strong as some of the others. “Flint, Cole, Kirk!” He yelled out as he decided he was going to have to test swimming. Taking a flying leap he flapped a few times and splashed into the water a few feet away from a head that’d just popped up.
Tommy didn’t have time to think about it as he tried to dive under the water, what was he supposed to do? Bite Roman’s tail to get him back up?
Wasn't this just great. He’d survived a millennia dodging angels and demons, literally had gone to hell and back, and yet his final end was to be drowning as a cartoon pony. His wings were worthless once he was submerged in water, and swimming proved to be more difficult than it should have been since he wasn’t used to having four legs.
He landed on the river bed and looked up to see Tommy, or the pony version that was Tommy, floating down after him. He couldn’t exactly talk or even use his hands to gesture anything. They were both at the bottom of the river, and he was about to motion with his head to try to swim back towards the surface when a bubble formed around them and suddenly he could breathe.
“What the..” Roman looked around and in front of them were three ponies with only half of their bodies. No, wait. Haha. Hahahahaha. They were seahorses.
Tommy was still focused on Roman and not himself or anything to do with him that he kept charging towards, okay, it wasn’t charging at all, it was two steps in the right direction and 20 the wrong.
He was about to have to give up when his eyes blinked to focus on…. Oh hell no. Seahorses. Tommy frantically tried to point at them and Roman to get them to help, assuming they would help. He was really hoping these things were nice. Luckily it seemed like they got the message.
“Let’s get you too boys out of here!” The seahorse (seapony?) said in an extremely cheerful voice.
Roman glanced over at Tommy as he joined him in the bubble that somehow allowed the two of them to breathe. Soon, there was a hoard of seaponies all around them and the original three bumped their bubble causing them to float up in the water. They kept being bounced around by different seaponies as they floated along, and he could have sworn it sounded like they were singing.
“What the ---,” Tommy stopped himself from saying what he was thinking as he looked around at the water around them, yet, they were perfectly fine. This had to mean he’d hit his head and was dreaming right? Tommy sure hoped so.
“Are they singing?” Tommy whispered to Roman.
Roman nodded his head slowly, eyes wide, as he stared around at all of the pony things swimming around them. They were bounced a little more, and he stumbled a bit, knocking into Tommy as the bubble moved closer to the surface.
'Shoo-bee-doo, Shoo-Shoo-bee-doo!'
It was like they were dancing in some kind of pony version of synchronized swimming complete with a sing-a-long. Roman had been to literal hell, but this had to be one of the other nine circles. Dante had lied.
They were moved closer to the surface and then pushed completely out of the water landing on the riverbank. As soon as they landed, the bubble around them popped and it was just the two of them. He looked over at Tommy. “We’re never telling anyone about this.”
If Tommy could hear what Roman was thinking about another circle of hell he’d have to agree. The whole time they were trapped he blinked, simply blinked. He kept hoping it would end but somehow he felt like it was taking forever.
“Uh, thanks.” He called out to the water feeling as though he had to say thank you.
Looking back over at Roman he nodded. “Never.” He agreed.