The sun shined bright once again and the group was back on the road. It didn't take them too long to clean up all of their supplies and have a hearty breakfast of fruits and nuts. Dale slept much better than he did for the past couple of days since he didn't have a lot to worry about. The scariest part of the journey, which was just taking the first steps, was already over.

"So, you mean to tell me it's just you and your sister living there?" Dale asked Rarity. The two of them found themselves walking alongside each other since they left camp. To keep things from getting awkward, her and Dale struck up a conversation. The topic of Rarity's Carousel Boutique came up, unsurprisingly. She was very eager to explain the high-end fashion that they have up in Canterlot and how it was her goal to be one of "the greats" as she called it.

"Well not all the time, darling. Sweetie Bell only stays over when our parents go on vacation. She makes sure to not be a nuisance when I'm working on any projects. She spends a lot of time with her filly friends trying to get her cutie mark," Rarity wiggled her flank slightly to get Dale to look at her so-called cutie mark. He saw the familiar picture on her flank that he noticed when the two first met.

"So those things are called 'cutie marks' huh?" Dale replied.

"Oh, you humans don't know about those. They are what symbolize somepony's special talent. A cutie mark is the single most important piece of identity, and the day you finally get one, you'll feel like the most important pony in all of Equestria!" Rarity swayed her forehoof in a very dramatic way. Dale watched on with a look of confusion... and disappointment. All of the build-up and questions he asked himself were all for what was basically a dumb tattoo?

"Eh, sounds overrated," Dale shrugged his shoulders.

"Hmph!" Rarity turned her head up in response to him. Dale looked slightly ahead of him at Rainbow Dash's flank, trying to decipher what her cutie mark meant. Her flank tattoo was of a white cloud with a rainbow coloured lightning bolt striking out of it. Dale tried to work out in his mind what that meant.

"Obviously the colour of the lightning bolt is in reference to the colour of her mane and tail... but why a lightning bolt? is it because she's fast?" Dale was too deep in thought to notice Rarity anymore. Feeling ignored, she put on one of her classic scenes.

"Dale! Did you just do what I think you did?" Rarity gasped in shock.

"Here she goes again," Applejack groaned. She was walking just behind the two and was all too familiar with Rarities dramatic outbursts.

"What are you talking about?" Dale asked, annoyance in his voice.

"You know what you did! I saw you ogling Rainbow Dash's behind without her permission!" Rarity made sure to be loud enough for Rainbow Dash to hear. Rainbow turned around in confusion before realizing what Dale was actually doing.

"Oh, I don't care. I know my cutie mark is awesome," Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and hovered beside Rarity and Dale.

"I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding, Rarity," Twilight said, stopping in her tracks to talk to her friend. Dale groaned and rolled his eyes. He didn't do anything wrong, Rarity just wanted revenge for no reason.

"But Twilight! Look at his eyes! He's been visually undressing us for hours!" Rarity emphasised her words. At this point, Matt came over chuckling.

"I knew you were warming up to them!" Matt patted Dale on the back. These antics were interrupted by the familiar beeping of the arm braces. Dale and Matt quickly turned around to try to find whatever was causing the alarm.

"Is something wrong?" Fluttershy looked up at Matt with worry in her eyes.

"Stay with the others, Fluttershy," Matt replied. He and Dale began to cautiously walk towards the rattling bushes. Rainbow Dash and Applejack got into a defensive stance. Matt quickly summoned his new partner, the cragadile. Dale wasn't able to summon anything because his timberwolf was defeated by the alpha dog and he didn't have the item to revive it.

Matt's cragadile stomped towards the bushes without fear and began to search through it. After a few seconds of silence, the bushes began to shake violently and an unknown creature sprung out of them. This new creature had the head of a chicken with the body of a snake. The wings of the chicken were covered in dark green scales and it had sharp, red talons. The most striking part of the monster was it's bright red deathly eyes. Dale and Matt coiled back in surprise

Cockatrice

HP: 170/170

SP:100/100

Skills

(Unknown)

Actions

Fight

Talk

Run

Matt's cragadile quickly jumped out of the bushes as well, landing in front of its master in a defensive stance.

"Don't look at it!" Twilight called out, quickly shielding her eyes, "Cockatrice can use their vision to turn you into stone!" The group quickly followed Twilight's instructions and covered their eyes with their hooves.

Matt laughed lightly, "Come on, girls. It's just one Cockatrice! Nothing more than we can handle."

The Cockatrice didn't like Matt's taunting. The creature glared angrily at the young man before letting out a loud, ear-piercing chirp. The group had to shield their ears from the noise. Dale's arm brace beeped twice.

"Come, my brethren. It is time to feast!" The sharp voice of the cockatrice rang through Dale's head; His eyes widened at its harshness.

"The hell was that?" Dale thought to himself, "Was that because of the advanced translator?" Dale's thoughts were interrupted as more cockatrice began to slither out from the dense trees, causing the group to be backed into a circle. They were surrounded, to put it bluntly.

"Alright, everypony. We need to stick together to solve this issue, so get into groups now!" Twilight quickly shouted her strategy to everyone. The mares broke off into groups of two and began to attack the foes, leaving Matt and Dale by themselves.

"If you got any new tricks, now would be a great time to show me," Matt said to Dale, keeping his gaze focused on the two cockatrices in front of him. Dale was given the opportunity to show Matt what he was capable of, and he wasn't going to let that pass.

"Keep my ass covered," Dale replied, "I'm going to try to snag one of these guys for myself,"

Matt smirked and gave Dale a thumbs up, "Got it!" The two men set their plan into motion afterwards. Dale walked up to the cockatrice in front of him while Matt and his cragadile fought off any enemies that would try to sneak up from behind. Dale tried not to get distracted from the battles surrounding him.

"I want you to join my party," Dale pointed a finger at the cockatrice, trying to look intimidating. The serpent glared at the young man before speaking.

"You've certainly got guts for staring down a cockatrice like that," Its voice made Dale very uncomfortable, but he tried to not let that get to him, "How are you so sure that I won't just kill you where you stand?"

Dale had to pick his next words carefully since he wasn't sure how to gauge the creature's interest. He took notice of the cockatrice's big talk, so he may just have to call it's bluff.

"I hate to break it to you, but I'm actually taking pity on you," Dale replied in a smug tone. To prove his point, he decided to conjure up a bufu spell and rocket it towards one of the trees around the two. The ice magic exploded the tree into little woodchips that flew past the man and the monster.

"An impressive display of power, especially for a nobody creature like yourself," The cockatrice enjoyed Dale's magical ability, "I have a question. What matters more to you: power over others or equality for everyone?" Dale listened to the question intently and thought about his answer.

"If I were to answer truthfully, will this guy actually like my answer?" Dale decided that the best course of action was to lie to try to get on the cockatrice's good side, "The weak are beneath me; I should be the one calling the shots."

"You and I are in agreement, then," The cockatrice was more than pleased with Dale's answer, "I believe that you and I should make a pact."

Dale grinned at the offer, "Who would've thought that this whole negotiating thing was a lot easier when you can understand what they're saying?"

Congratulations!

You've acquired a Cockatrice as a member of your team!

Cockatrice

HP: 170/170

SP:100/100

Status

Strength: 6

Magic: 10

Vitality: 13

Agility: 8

Luck: 9

Skills

Stone Gaze (Chance of inflicting stone on one enemy) 6 MP

Mudo (Low odds of instantly killing an enemy) 6 MP

Magaru (Light wind damage to all foes) 8 MP

Learnable Skills

Garula (Medium wind damage to one foe) 6 MP

Rakunda (Temperarally decreases one target's defence) 12 MP

Dale smirked at his new summon's stats, they were much better than the timberwolf's, though the lack of any physical skills was a downgrade so it wasn't an outright replacement. Dale's thoughts were interrupted by Matt letting out a yelp in pain. Dale quickly whipped his head around to see Matt getting thrown back by a gust of wind from the Cockatrice he was fighting. Before Dale could help out Matt, the young man barked out an order

"Don't worry about me, make sure Fluttershy is okay!" Matt quickly jumped back onto his feet and charged towards his opponents.

The two cockatrices he was fighting were on their last ropes and were getting desperate. One quickly tried to use its gaze to turn Matt into stone, but he crouched behind his cragadile summon and used it as a shield against the spell.

BLOCKED

"Did you really just trying turning a creature made out of rock into stone?" Matt taunted. The cockatrices hissed at Matt, the insult cut deep. Matt laughed to himself before rolling out of his cover. He aimed his palm towards his enemies and shouted, "Maragi!" Two blisteringly hot fireballs rocketed towards his targets and slammed into them with precision. The two opponents disappeared in a flash of red

-60 HP Enemies Defeated!

Dale watched in awe at Matt's abilities. He thought that even though he found the guy a little much at times, he was good at this "game" of his. Dale knew that he had a lot to learn from Matt when it came to fighting. Dale's train of thought was broken when he heard the familiar eep of Fluttershy.

"Oh no," Dale said before running off in the direction of the sound. During the battle, Fluttershy ended up getting separated from her partner, Rarity. She was cornered by one of the cockatrices when Dale got there. He immediately noticed something was amiss about this situation as the cockatrice looked like it was quivering in fear. Dale's run slowed into a walk as his adrenaline came down. He walked past the cockatrice and looked at what he thought was going to be the normal, quiet, meek Fluttershy. Only to be greeted by the most unnerving stare he has ever seen.

This was no ordinary glare of anger that Fluttershy was giving the beast. This was a stare that felt like could tear your very soul out of your body, and her eyes were the gates of hell. It made Dale very uncomfortable just looking at Fluttershy and would hate being on the receiving end of this torture.

"Uh, Fluttershy? I think you got him," Dale never thought it would come to this, but he was terrified of Fluttershy's capabilities. Fluttershy quickly blinked twice and came back to reality, she looked a bit dazed from what she did to the cockatrice. The poor creature slithered away in fear back into the depths of the Everfree Forest.

"O-Oh... I'm sorry you saw that..." Fluttershy was very embarrassed that Dale saw her infamous stare. Unknown to him, she would only use the stare as a last resort to keep animals under control. The two quickly rejoined the rest of their party; everyone else had just finished their battles and were all sitting down to rest.

Matt took a drink out of his cantine and wiped the sweat pouring from his head, "Man, that was intense."

"You sure did hold your own there," Applejack complimented Matt.

"It was nothing," Matt chuckled while petting his cragadile that was laying down next to him.

"Those things you two are wearing never cease to amaze me," Twilight said. She was referring to the arm braces that Dale and Matt both wore. Dale never really questioned the origin of the device, nor did it really matter to him since he was impressed with its capabilities.

"Matt probably knows the most about these since it's his world after all," Dale thought to himself while looking at his arm brace. Dale looked over at Matt who was having a conversation with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The three were laughing and looked like they were having a good time, "I wonder why Matt's ideal paradise is this world anyway. Doesn't he miss his family?"

Dale decided to not ask Matt these questions out in public. Not just because the ponies would have no idea what the two were even talking about, but because Matt wasn't into the idea of talking about Earth when the topic was brought up last night.

The next few days went by like a blur for Dale. The journey quickly fell into a general routine of making some progress through the forest, fighting any monsters that crossed their path, and traversing dangerous landscapes. The group even came across a Manticore during their travels that Matt tried to recruit but to no avail. The times when the group did rest, however, were very relaxing. Dale gradually began to join in on the dumb conversations that they would have. He learned a lot about the previous adventures of the ponies, both big and small. He learned about Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom at the young fliers competition and the catastrophe at the grand galloping gala.

There were plenty of beautiful things that Dale saw throughout the journey. But nothing could beat the time when the group had to scale a small mountain and were able to get a good look at the surrounding land. It really put it into perspective how far Dale had travelled away from Ponyville when Rainbow Dash pointed out that the small spec in the distance was their starting area.

But the estimated last day of the journey to Canterlot had finally arrived and more than ever, Dale was feeling relieved.

"Alright, we just need to cut through this swamp and go through that cave and we'll be at Canterlot shortly!" Twilight said, looking up from her map.

"Thank goodness! Any more of this and I'd turn into one of those savages," Rarity proclaimed dramatically. At this point, Dale was used to her overzealous performances, but that didn't mean he found it any less annoying.

"I know the first thing I'll do is go to Donut Joe's!" Pinkie Pie bounced in place while naming everything she'll order off the menu.

"Do you know what you're going to do when we get there, Dale?" Twilight asked.

"You can all go sightseeing if you want, but I've got business there," Dale replied, walking towards the swamp.

"You sure you don't want to take a little break, partner? You've been goin on about this for days now," Applejack suggested. She was correct, Dale was very focused on just getting this over with and was constantly reminding himself of his end goal.

"I don't plan on staying here for long, remember?" Dale turned around to face the group. They all had an awkward reaction to Dale's words, "So let's just get this over with," Dale turned once again and began to advance to the murky swamp water.

The water made Dale a bit uneasy since the colour of it was unnatural. His thoughts were interrupted however as the water began to bubble violently. Dale quickly jumped backwards in surprise as something large emerged from the swamp. This, however, wasn't an average monster. What came out of the water was huge; it was taller than buildings. Everyone looked up at the creature in shock, even Dale began to shake a bit in worry at what they had just encountered.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Dale said as he took a defensive stance.

One of the beast's claws slammed onto the ground, causing the very land around it to shake violently. Swamp water poured from its scales mouths. The group didn't need an encyclopedia to know that they have just encountered the multi-headed behemoth, and what could be very well considered the boss of this dungeon, the hydra. And this hydra definitely wasn't going to just politely let the group pass by.

The hydra roared from all three of its heads, blowing huge gusts of wind around the area in the process. The trees shook violently and Dale needed to shield his face with his arms to prevent any of the dirty water from flying into his face. Dale heard a hoof step next to him, he looked over to his left and saw Twilight Sparkle, readying herself for a battle. Everyone else slowly joined her at Dale's sides. Even Rarity looked like she was ready to throw down with the beast. Her horn ignited with teal blue and her eyes narrowed.

No words needed to be exchanged by anyone to know that this battle was inevitable...