//------------------------------// // Parted // Story: I Spy With My Little Eye // by Theorak //------------------------------// Why so early? Why boxboard? Why alone? Because it's a sunRISE celebration. Because I don't have a tent. Because mum is, somewhere, somewhere else, busy, don't know. Dinky's thoughts were coming quickly and confused. “Wakey, wakey!” said a bright voice, loudly waking everypony who wasn't awake by now, “EEEverypony up now! We got some FUNNY sun to raise!” Pinky Pie's voice was the best to wake up an entire class, and Cheerilee is surely having fun being supported by such a loud assistant. Dinky got up, her mane was muddled and her legs cold. The boxboard that should replace her tent turned out to be a total flaw, it was soaking wet from mornings dew. By the way, Dinky thought to herself, what's so funny about the sun? It is just the annual Summer Sun Celebration, where the Princess will raise the sun and everypony cheers and then we go back home. Home, lots of miles away from Fillydelphia, a three-day trip with the school class. Three days away from my mother, Derpy, and I don't know what she might be doing now. A filly with a yellow coat appeared beside Dinky and said, “Hey there, your box is wet – sort of.” “I know Apple Bloom, want to help me to fold the next one?” Dinky picked up a bag with unfolded boxboards and gave one to her friend. She started to rip the old, wet box apart. It did help to calm her troubled mind. “These boxes are stupid,” said Apple Bloom, “We should make them water proof somehow! Ah know! Do you have lots of glue?” “I got 'lots' of strong tape, this should do it. Thanks Apple Bloom!” Dinky replied, happier now. “You're welcome!” the yellow filly yelled, suddenly dropping her boxboard “Sorry, I nearly forgot, I must go back to Applejack now! She wants to prepare breakfast for everypony. Yo coming to pick up some of our apple treats later, right?” she said, running off. “Sure, see you later.” Dinky mumbled sadly. Well, she got somepony to be with on this trip. Dinky had noticed that, nearly everpony had somepony with them. Apple Bloom had Applejack, Sweetie Belle had her parents and Scootaloo some distant relative who lived in Fillydelphia. Even Diamond Tiara's dad, Filthy Rich, found time to come along with his daughter. The purple filly looked up to the sky, questioning. “Why is mum not here?” “Is something the matter, Dinky?” Cheerilee said suddenly behind her. Dinky wondered if she spoke her last thoughts out loud. “No, Miss Cheerilee. Thanks. I just finished here. Are we going to the celebration stage now?” “Not yet.” replied Cheerilee, “We'll be having breakfast first, the Apple's have prepared a wonderful meal for everypony.” “Sounds nice, I'm coming.” Dinky walked with her teacher, stopping at various tents, gathering more foals from her class to take to breakfast. Finally, they all arrived for breakfast at Applejack's cart, where the orange pony would later sell apple treats and baked goods during the celebration. The Summer Sun Celebration was a big event that drew merchants and craftspony from all over Equestria, even more when held in such a big city as Fillydelphia. Dinky find mobile kiosks for almost everything, flowers, Princess merchandise, sunglasses, sunblocks, sunbeds and another cart from Ponyville, Zecoras Potions. After breakfast, Cheerilee announced the schedule for the day. First the grown-up would have to sign up their for the positions in front of the celebration stage that their families or groups would occupy, then, before the sun rose, they would all gather in front of the stage, to watch the Princess to carry out the main event. After the celebration the stores would open and various games and activities would being. A big lunch would be provided to everypony for free. Then, at last, they would prepare and leave for their trip back to Ponyville. Pinky insisted nopony will leave without having lunch! “We got some time now!” shouted Apple Bloom. “You want to prank the Princess?” suggested Scootaloo. “Yeah, we got free time now!” replied Sweetie Belle. Dinky sighed, “There isn't much to do with the stores still closed.”. “You're missin' your mom, right, aren't you?” asked Apple Bloom. “I bet Derpy would have some great ideas for Pranks!” guessed Scootaloo. “Where is she anyway?” asked Sweetie Belle. “I don't know,” replied Dinky, “I wish I could say, but she didn't say anything reasonable when she dropped me off before we started.” Dinky looked up to the sky again, “I wish I could, … just see what she is doing now.” Only a little bulb shed it's light from the ceiling, the room was small, but still dark in the corners. Between piles of random electric parts, wires and arcane artefacts with no known source, there was a box. It was made of solid steel, had two small windows, made of strong glass and barricaded from inside. Some of the wires lead into the box, others were ripped out of the wall, loosing a liquid and did not glow, like those attached to the machine. A lightning shock illuminated the room, going trough open parts and over monitors. A black mane arose out of the piles of parts, revealing the enervated face of a brown pony with an hourglass on his flank. At first he didn't notice the knocking sounds from the door, until something hit hard enough to nearly break it. He shook off all the wires and parts he was hiding under, trotted to the door and opened it. “Hey there!” said a voice under the blonde mane, jiggling in mid-air, still trying to knock against the already open door. “Hello, Derpy, you …” “you're awake!” Derpy interrupted. “I have some mail for you, and mpf, mpf, tfu” the last words where mumbled badly, as Derpy sunk her head into her giant mail bag. She passed him some letters and packages. “Thanks. I've waited long for these.” “You’re welcome, Muffin Doc! I just want to fix the thingies I've been crashed into, so …” “Please don't call me that, my name is Doctor Whooves. And I'm still mad at you.” said he while was going through the mail. One must always check the mail brought by Derpy Hooves, it might not be yours. Derpy's face went down to the floor, and nervously pawed it with her front hoof. “I'm sorry, I don't know what …” “Don't worry!” he said, soothing the upset pegasus, ”With these plans here, I can fix this much quicker now.” The Doctor began opening his letters and returned to his workplace. Derpy however, continued to mumble and stare at the ground. The brown stallion turned around, hoping that Derpy would return to her mail route. She did not look like she would, however. In fact, she had thrown her mail bag on the ground and looked up, right at him, with an expression of a rare seriousness. Suddenly Derpy threw herself at him and wrapped her forelegs around his neck, hugging all air out of him. “I'll make it up to you!” she yelled, and then instantly turned around and rushed out of the door, her bag trailing carelessly behind her. A bottle of punch, some muffins and mail. Derpy was glad beeing invited to the laboratory again. She needed to take this chance, even if it meant missing the trip with Dinky. She really hated disappointing her daughter like that, but this was too important. The doctor needed an assistant, one who could fly, was trustworthy, and … Dr. Whooves could have fixed the broken wires and energy input tubes, just exchange the supply parts with an on-ground system, get rid of controls hanging from the ceiling and make the whole machine approachable from the ground. Anyhow, he didn't want to do that. “Didn't you want to turn up and down and all that with the machine?” his only assistant asked. Whooves turned around, “It is not that simple, it would be to complicated, since …“ he stopped, “I've constructed that machine from start to be operated from whatever side it lies on, just plain providence.” “Pro-vieh-dance what? Will it turn around sometimes?” “Once it runs, yes maybe.” the doctor smiled, “That's why you're still on board, you can fly – well other pegasi can too – but … I can trust you, to keep things to yourself that's …“ he wasn't sure how to continue, ”Um, why don't you give me another muffin?” “Sure! Have some punch too!” a bright smile was on Derpy's face, “Does that mean I can work for you again?” “Yea! Yes you can!” the Doctor replied. The grey pegasus was actually pretty helpful and, besides, he still cared for her. “And you know what?” he continued, “Maybe we can run some test launches today!” “That's cool and well, that too,” said Derpy. Dinky' face lightened up, “You can do that?” “You bet!” Apple Bloom said confidently, “We've made some fierce ones before, right girls?” “Yeah, Apple Bloom here is our master of mixing!” confirmed Scootaloo. “Well, mostly it's just mashing plants together at random, but yeah, we just need the receipt.” admitted Sweetie Belle. “And where do we find that?” asked Dinky. “Don't be silly, it'll be together with the other mixing stuff!” said Apple Bloom. “And where is THAT?” asked Dinky nearly bursting with curiosity. A meaningful smile crossed Apple Bloom's face as she looked at Zecora's market stand. “Girls, we got a cart to raid.” “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS – POTION BREWERS, YAY!” The cheer was joined by a fourth hoof today. And with the enthusiastic of four fillies they build a hideout fitting for their crusade, in the middle of the campsite. Their recently named paperboard-fortress was almost entirely made of paperboard, reinforced with strong tape and blankets. No sound could escape the fortress, they added a little cut in the top side to let in fresh air and a small hatch was the only access into their hideout. A little candle lit the four faces, scheming over a book and an iron cauldron. “Potion of Insight,” read Apple Bloom out loud, “use an gram of garlic, some of that, a bit of yadda, yadda, yadda,…, Stuff, thingy, hey!” the filly looked up. “The last thing seems to be selected.” Dinky turned to their mixture, “What was the last thing we added Sweetie?” “Let's see... Hearts Desire, Fair Flower and Poison Joke!” she answered happily, but, suddenly, she became uncertain as she taught about what she just said. “Darn it!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, “We only should have used one of those. The book says this will decide the effects of the potion.” Scootaloo turned towards the yellow filly, “Well, why didn't you say so earlier?! What kind of potion did we just make?!” “I-I-don't know,” stammered Apple Bloom, as she looked through the book, “Look here.” She turned it to her friends, “These notes were written by Zecora, I can't read her mambo-jumbo-writing very well!” “Forget it, a lot helps a lot! And we don't have time for another mix.” Dinky dipped a glass into the brew. “Anything not-readable I should know before I drink it?” Apple Bloom flipped through the book again, “Well, you better lay down first. You may fall asleep, lose consciousness and … you will be able 'to see what the subject sees you have caught watching at you before'.” “What?” asked Scootaloo. “Wait, I need to see her before I can see like her?” inquired Dinky. “I'm afraid so. Sorry Dinky, missed that somehow,” Apple Bloom apologized. Dinky's expression turned serious now, she reached into her bag, pulling out a picture of her mum. “Oh, how sweet, you got a photo of her with you!” said Sweetie Belle. The purple Filly didn't seem to hear. She had already hold the picture in her stretched foreleg. She quickly swallowed the whole glass of their promising potion, bringing her face closer to the picture. The Crusaders looked nervously, wondering what was going to happen to their friend. Dinky fell like a tree. “I told her to lay down first! Didn't I?”