“Um…guys?” Cloudburst had asked in a hesitant voice, “Where are the pets?”
It only then dawned on Sparkler and Stonecutter that the devastated cottage was empty but for them. As if to emphasise this, the cat flap that had been hanging loose then fell off with a clatter of plastic on wood that sounded like a cannon blast in the silence of the aftermath of the pet’s rampage.
Sparkler, who was still helping her crush, Stonecutter, calm Cloudburst after her ordeal in the fallen cupboard, was at a loss. With wide eyes, she too had noted the absence of her teacher’s animals. “Oh no…” she muttered over and over again as she took in everything that had happened, “We’re going to be arrested, or imprisoned,” she trembled, “Maybe even exiled!”
“Calm down, Sparks,” Cloudburst said after she had sufficiently recovered enough to stand up, though her ultramarine blue school hoodie was considerably dirtier than it had been before, “We won’t be arrested or exiled just for this, besides, it could be worse…”
Sparkler began to tremble anew. “You don’t mean…they wouldn’t…e-expel us, would they?”
Stonecutter had to laugh at the slender unicorn’s fretting. “Girl, you really need to work on your priorities,” she giggled, even more so when Sparkler huffed and stuck her tongue out at her. ‘That said though,’ the earth pony thought to herself, ‘if we don’t find them soon, our teachers will be upset with us, especially if they’re hurt and banged up…’ she was about to voice this thought when she saw Sparkler levitate over three sturdy looking house brushes. “Um, what are you doing?”
The bright yellow unicorn paused in mid brush stroke, her brush having cleaned a path through the soot covering the floor. “What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m cleaning!” Sparkler didn’t see why she had to explain her actions, it was obvious. She sent a brush to Stonecutter and Cloudburst in turn. “I suggest you two do the same.”
“Ah…Sparks?”
Sparkler looked at the pale blue pegasus like she had three heads when she noted she wasn’t cleaning, just standing in the messed-up living room looking at her like she was mad. “What? Why aren’t you cleaning?”
“Sparks,” Stonecutter said gently, setting the brush that had been magicked over to her against the cupboard that had held Cloudburst captive, “It’s good you’re cleaning and all, but ah, don’t you think we should go and find the pets first?”
“What?” Sparkler looked like Stonecutter had just slapped her hard across the face with a wet fish. “But…the cottage…it’s…it’s a mess…” she fidgeted with the brush in her hands like leaving the mess uncleaned would cause her actual physical pain.
Cloudburst let out an exasperated snort through her nose and, marching over to the unicorn, took the brush from her and threw it on the couch. “Leave it, neat freak. We’ll sort this mess out later. The pets are more important than some dirt on the floor.”
“I am not a neat freak!”
“Oh yeah?” Cloudburst smirked and, with her hoof, scuffed the pile of soot that Sparkler had swept up over the unicorn’s left horseshoe and her socks.
“Hey!”
Cloudburst laughed when Sparkler obviously flinched. “Not a neat freak my ass!”
“Take that back!”
“Will not!”
“Will too!”
“Make me, neat freak!”
“I’ll make you, featherbrain!”
“That’s enough, you two!” Stonecutter exclaimed, stomping her hoof so hard into the wooden floorboards that she made a dent in Fluttershy’s floor. She had to step in, because Sparkler had her horn lit and cloudburst had electricity sparking at her clenched fists. The last thing they needed was a fight.
Cloudburst had heard ‘that’ tone in her best friend’s voice many times in the past. It was the tone that said enough was enough. She relaxed her hands, the lightning dissipating into the air and her wings returned to their resting state on her back. After a moment’s deep breathing, she extended her hand. “I’m sorry, Sparkler. Are we cool?”
Sparkler looked at the extended hand like it was going to zing her if she shook it. Stonecutter’s stern expression did give her reassurance though. Cancelling her spell that she had prepared, she shook the pegasus’s hand. “Yes, we are ah…as you say, cool.”
“Alright then,” Stonecutter huffed, the blunt mare not bothering to hide her annoyance with the other two, walked over to the front door and hefted her bag onto her shoulder. “Now, if you two are done pretending to be foals, we should go and see where the pets have got to.”
“Yes ma’am!” Cloudburst gave Stonecutter a mock salute that made Sparkler giggle – but only when the stocky mare’s back was turned. “It’s best not to argue with her when she’s in that mood,” she smiled and, getting her own bag, she followed her best friend out into the afternoon sun.
Sparkler, who had been admiring Stonecutter’s fat ass as it wobbled in her shorts with every firm step she took, was the last out. Like the others, she too had her backpack with her and she blinked in the sunlight after being inside. She had hoped, as it had only been thirty minutes since they had scarpered, that the pets would be easy to find.
She could tell though by the look on Stonecutter’s face that wasn’t going to be the case.
The slate grey earth pony mare had a very grim look on her round face indeed. “So, Stone, what’s the damage?” asked Cloudburst.
Snorting out a frustrated sigh, Stonecutter pointed all around them. They didn’t have to look very hard, the evidence of the six animals’ departure was everywhere, and you didn’t have to be a skilled tracker to find it. A trail of sooty bunny footprints led from the front door, down the path and, to Sparkler’s dismay, southwest into the Everfree Forest.
Alligator tracks went from the house to the bridge that spanned the fast-flowing river that ran past the cottage. Near the cottage’s garden, snagged on a bush, was a purple bow that no doubt belonged to Opalescence. Not only that, but a trail of soot left by Owlowiscious led east, also into the Everfree Forest. To add to the three mares’ misery, in the distance, deep inside the forest to the south, a cloud of smoke rose up into the sky and, to the west, they could just about hear the howl of a very sad dog.
“Ah.” Was all Cloudburst could think of to say.
“Well, come on then, lets go and get them all back.” Sparkler though didn’t move when Stonecutter and Cloudburst started to walk towards the forest. It was only after a few paces that they noticed their third wasn’t joining them. “What’s the problem, Sparks?” asked Stonecutter, who had been following Angel’s bunny prints. She had some choice words lined up for the delinquent rabbit. ‘Stew’ was at the top of her list.
“In there?” the unicorn asked, pointing a shaking hand towards the dark imposing forest, “You seriously want to go in there?” This couldn’t be happening! This was quite literally Sparkler’s worst nightmare.
“Sparks,” Cloudburst snorted, “It’s only a forest. We’ll be together, what’s the worst that can happen?”
“Only a forest!?” Sparkler squeaked, her fears getting the best of her and, as a series of strange and eerie animal noises and bird calls that grunted, squawked and screeched came from the branches and bushes, her knees knocked together. “Do you know how many forests there are in Canterlot? None! Do you know how many dark and scary forests there are in Canterlot? None! Do you know how many dark and scary forests there are with things in that screech at you and crawl on you and eat you? No…”
Stonecutter and Cloudburst were suddenly at either side of the quivering unicorn, each with an arm around her shoulder. The pegasus of all ponies had been the first to recognise the same fear in her voice that she had when thinking about enclosed spaces. With genuine concern, she nuzzled her new friend’s cheek. “Hey, it’s cool. You’re scared, I get it. I won’t take the piss, but we do need to get them back, okay?” when Sparkler nodded, she continued, besides, Stone will hold your hand.
As if prompted, Stonecutter took Sparkler’s hand and wove their fingers together in a firm hold. Purely to comfort her. Of course. That’s all it was. “We aren’t going to leave you, Sparks.” She smiled, leading her very gently towards the dark forest.
“Do-Do y-you pr-promise?” Sparkler asked nervously, to which they quickly nodded. Though her legs were wobbly as jelly, with Stonecutter holding her hand like that, she found it wasn’t so hard to take one step. The second and third were even easier. Before she knew it, she was in the forest.
Even with Stonecutter holding her hand – which, at any other time, would have made her combust from the power of her blush alone – Sparkler knew within five seconds that she would rather be anywhere else in the world than in the Everfree Forest. Everywhere she looked, there were spooky trees that looked like misshapen monsters towering above them, blocking out the sky and sunlight. It seemed that every branch was a twisted limb bearing a frighteningly clawed hand that reached out to grab her.
As they walked along, every step of their horseshoe clad hooves disturbed the dank forest floor which kicked up the stink of the damp earth and wet, rotting leaves. That wasn’t the worst of it though. One of those claw-like branches snagged on Sparkler’s orange and white striped mane and she almost fainted on the spot because ‘a monster’s got me!’
Not that Cloudburst had it any easier than her two friends. Flying along at a gentle hover above their heads she was soon forced to land and walk when the annoying cloud of insects that buzzed and droned just above them became too thick for her to see where she was going, and she ended up caught in one of those twisted ugly tree’s branches.
Even Stonecutter found some of the going hard, when her hooves were snagged in hideous black thorny vines that actually seemed to move! They crept along slowly in the undergrowth, always ready to send her face first into the dirty forest floor. She was beginning to think this wasn’t such a smoking hot idea after all.
“So, ah, hey, little miss Canterlot,” Cloudburst decided to strike up conversation, as much to distract herself from the fierce, angry red eyes that appeared in every crack and orifice than to distract the unicorn. “How come you live and go school in Ponyville if you’re better than the rest of us?” Though she was intently following Angel’s tracks, Stonecutter was very interested in the answer that might be forthcoming.
“What?” Sparkler exclaimed, “I never said I was…” she trailed off when she saw the pegasus laughing at her and she realised she had been had. Blowing her a rather large raspberry, she replied, “I didn’t want to move here. I had to. My mom and dad got divorced recently and…” she paused when she saw Cloudburst about to interrupt her with the expected follow up question, she wasn’t ready to share that just yet. “It doesn’t matter why. They just did. Anyway. Mom couldn’t afford to live in Canterlot on her own with me, so, here we are.”
When no sarcastic comment came her way, not that she expected one from Stonecutter, Sparkler took a deep breath and continued. "My dad's living in Whinnyapolis now, he didn't want to take me with him. No, I don't want to talk about it, I don't even know her name."
Cloudburst shared a look with Stonecutter, or rather, she would have, but her friend still had her eyes glued to the forest floor following Angel’s bunny prints. That left her to offer words of comfort on her own. Something she wasn’t exactly amazing at. "Ah, jeez Sparks that sucks," the pegasus landed on Sparkler’s right side and took hold of the unicorn's other hand.
Sparkler didn’t think anything of Cloudburst holding her right hand. It wasn’t hot like Stonecutter holding her left, but it still felt…nice. Like she had been accepted into these mares’ circle. "It's fine, that's the life that daddy wants, without us in it...it’s fine. Really."
The unicorn’s sad tone suggested otherwise though. As did the moist tears that were threatening to flow down her bright yellow cheeks. Seeing as Stonecutter was still silently steering them along, even the dense pegasus could tell she needed support. "Hey," Cloudburst gulped and prepared to share. "You know, ah, while we're sharing, I um, I kinda know how you feel, Canterlot."
"You do?" Sparkler’s tone went from sad to sceptical.
"Yeah, I mean, my parents aren't divorced or anything like that, but they're Wonderbolts.” Cloudburst explained, only through a massive effort did she keep her voice level. “They live up in the academy. I only really get to see them when there's a show on in town." Now it was her turn to sound sad and she visibly deflated. She hadn’t seen her parents now in three months. They’d both bailed on her last two harmonica recitals at the Friendship School, as well as her last Cloud Wrangling show up in Cloudsdale.
"Oh, um..." Sparkler went quiet and mulled it over. In truth she didn’t know what to say. What was plain though even to her was that Cloudburst wore her heart and her emotions on her sleeve. She fished for something to say that wasn’t unsupportive. "So, is that why you're here living at the school and not up in Cloudsdale?"
"yeah, kinda. I mean, I go to flight school up there on Thursdays and Fridays, but well, I wish they were around more." Cloudburst smiled then, “Oh hey, you’ll have to come along with Stone the next time I have a Cloud Wrangling competition. It’s kind of like a rodeo for pegasi.”
Recognising the offer and what making it represented, both Sparkler and Cloudburst squeezed each other’s hands and the new firm friends shared a smile as they walk along in the ever-darkening forest. With every step they took it seemed to get darker and darker, until eventually Stonecutter had to stop. "Sparkler, do you mind if you light your horn? I could use some light here."
“Of course!” happy to be of help, Sparkler lit her horn and she directed the light down at the forest floor. Three steps further and she stood on something that made a sickening squelch. With a shudder, she tried to not think about whatever it was used to be. “So,” Cloudburst added, “Tell me about Canterlot. What crazy fun things did you do up on the mountain?"
Sparkler’s eyes lit up. “Oh!” she beamed a smile so wide it could have lit up the forest on its own. “Well, after school and on weekends I used to hang out in the public library, and, if I’d been super good, mom used to take me to the observatory to study the stars!”
Cloudburst gave her a most deadpan look. “No, seriously, what did you do for fun?”
“I don’t understand,” the sarcasm was lost on Sparkler. “I just told you. The library and the observatory. I could lose hours in there, if not the whole day!”
“Really?” Cloudburst’s eyes were wide. “You aren’t kidding, are you?” when Sparkler shook her head, the pegasus asked, “Didn’t you hang out with your friends?”
“Of course, I did, silly! Dusty Tome and Stargazer were great friends!”
“They’re the librarian and the observatory pony, aren’t they?”
At the unimpressed tone in the pegasus’s voice, Sparkler hung her head. “Yes,” she admitted in a very tiny voice. “Yes, they are.”
“Oh jeez…”
“Will you two please knock it off?” Stonecutter stopped looking down and she looked up, though she carried on walking. Though she addressed them both, her stern glare was directed at her best friend. “I’m trying to follow these prints!” Alas, while she was admonishing them, she wasn’t looking where she was going. As they were still holding hands, and following the earth pony’s lead, they all blundered head first into a large patch of clinging thorns!
They didn’t realise their mistake until they were thoroughly tangled up in the thorny briars. Every direction the three tried to go in caused the multitudinous sharp thorns to cling to their manes and tails as well as tear at their clothes. They quickly discovered that they couldn’t go forwards or back without being scratched. “Ow…oow hey! Ow!” Cloudburst squealed. She was well and truly snared; the clinging thorns were all tangled in her hoodie and her wings.
Remaining calm and still, Sparkler didn’t get further tangled up, but she was no closer to getting free, either. She heard Cloudburst struggle and cry out again as the thorns scratched all along the leading edges of her wings and ripped her hoodie. “Cloudy, stop struggling!”
Thankfully, the pegasus took her friend’s advice and calmed down, though she was now as firmly stuck as Sparkler was. It would’ve been funny, were they not stuck deep in the Everfree Forest. “So, ah, now what?” Cloudburst asked somewhat nervously as she noticed those fierce red eyes had returned, staring at them from the bushes.
Stonecutter had also noticed the renewed attention they were getting, now that they were trapped like bugs on flypaper. This was not good! “Ngggggh…” she grunted with effort and, flexing her strong arms, she found she could move the clinging thorns. Concentrating her innate earth pony strength, she ripped her way out of the briars through sheer force alone.
Cloudburst tried a similar tactic, but she wasn’t going anywhere. “Hey, Stone, little help?” she asked sheepishly and, pulling bits of the vines from her mane and her top, Stonecutter ripped apart the briars that held the pegasus tight.
“Ugh, fine, I’ll get myself out.” Sparkler groused, lighting her horn. If she was being fair though, the pegasus did need help more than her. As she used her telekinetic power to slowly force the thorns and briars away from her, Stonecutter helped Cloudburst carefully pick all the thorns out of her wings. They paid particular attention to making sure her feathers were free of any impediments.
Now they were free of the thorns, they quickly picked up Angel’s trail. Unfortunately, after a few minutes’ walk, they saw where the trail lead them. “Oh jeez,” Cloudburst groaned. “We gotta go in there?” ‘There’ happened to be a very large, very dark, very foreboding cave. A gaping hole in the side of a cliff face that jutted vertically from the forest floor reaching up who knew how high. “Yeah. We’re going in there.”
Sparkler remembered her friend was scared of dark enclosed spaces. While the cave seemed spacious enough, it certainly was dark. “Hey,” she smiled at her at the mouth of the cave, “Don’t worry, I got this.” The bright yellow unicorn lit her horn like she had done before, the latent magic acting like a lantern.
“Thanks, Sparks.” Still, Cloudburst held Sparkler’s hand again as they took their first hesitant steps inside. Likewise, Stonecutter took hold of the unicorn’s other hand. As much to reassure herself than her crush. The coldness inside the cave made the three ponies shiver uncontrollably, and with every step they took they huddled closer and closer together.
The magical light emanating from Sparkler’s horn danced on the rocky walls, which gleamed wet and damp in the darkness. Their hoofsteps echoed from the stone floor, adding to the steady drip, drip, drip of water that fell from the roof of the cave somewhere they couldn’t see. The musty, damp air inside the tunnel just added to the sense of oppressive unease. Where it not for her friends being there, Cloudburst wouldn’t have made it this far and she knew it.
Eventually, after what seemed like an age of walking, the tunnel opened out into a large grotto which glowed as though it was lit by a bright starry night sky. “Woah…” Cloudburst and Stonecutter breathed, taking in the beauty, “Where’s that coming for…aaaaaah!”
“Shhhh!” Sparkler hissed, quickly clapped her hand over the pegasus’s mouth to shut her up, because she had seen what had alarmed the pale blue mare so. The light, beautiful as it was, was coming from a gigantic bear like creature with a transparent body, midnight blue in colour, that shone as though it was made up of dozens and dozens of stars, which it was.
‘We’re gonna die…we’re gonna die…’ thought Cloudburst desperately as she looked up at the huge monster.
“Wh-What the hay is that?” Stonecutter whispered hoarsely, the slate grey mare rooted to the spot in fear, and she wasn’t afraid of very much.
Sparkler looked again and saw the single white star on the massive bear’s forehead, not to mention the fierce yellow eyes and sharp, gleaming fangs. The book smart unicorn knew that this creature was, but she had only ever seen one in a book. “Th-Th-That…” she stammered quietly, “That would be an Ursa. An Ursa Minor, to be exact. It’s ah, it’s a baby.”
“A baby?” Cloudburst hissed in panic, prompting Stonecutter to wave her hands in a calming motion to get her friend to shut up, “That…thing, is a baby? It’s bucking huge!”
“That’s a baby, a girl, by the looks of it,” Sparkler confirmed. “The mother, an Ursa Major, can be three times bigger.”
“Buck. That.” Stonecutter had to agree with her best friend’s assessment. She wanted absolutely no part of this beast.
“Oh no, look!” Sparkler hissed, pointing to the Ursa. Despite its scary appearance, the bear had a kind smile on her face and, in her claws, she was cradling a small trembling white animal. Held in the bear’s arms, Angel looked absolutely terrified. Though the rabbit was trying desperately to get free, he was no match for the strength of the Ursa.
Stonecutter facepalmed. Of course, Angel would be in here. Why not? However, something caught her eye. “Hey, guys, is…Angel wearing a nappy?”
Cloudburst took a closer look, thanks to her keen eyesight and the light given from Sparkler’s horn and yes, the rabbit was wearing a nappy. Somehow, seeing that, the monstrous creature didn’t seem so scary. “And ah, um, is it me, but does that low rumbling sound she’s making sound a lot like a lullaby?”
Sparkler shared an amazed look with the other two mares. “That must be a very young Ursa. If I had to guess, I’d say she was playing with a dolly.”
“A dolly?”
“Yes, featherbrain, a dolly.” Sparkler sighed, shaking her head. “Didn’t you play Princes and Princesses with dollies when you were younger?” the pegasus’s blush was enough to answer her question.
“So, what do we do?” asked Stonecutter, “How do we get him back?”
“Well, if you tried to take my dollies from me, I’d have pitched a fit,” Sparkler commented. She had an idea the bear would be the same. She was also aware they had to do something and fast, before the mother returned. “We need to find a replacement, something to swap for the bunny.”
“Wait,” Stonecutter smiled, the gears in her head were turning, forming a plan. It was a good plan, too. Just then, Angel saw them for the first time stood at the mouth of the grotto and he squeaked ever louder, pleading for rescue. “I have an idea. Come on, we need to get outside a moment.” Smirking nastily at the struggling bunny, she led them back outside. Let the evil shit think they had left him. He deserved it for causing this crap in the first place.
Back outside the cave, Cloudburst shook out her wings, glad to be out of that tunnel. She fixed Stonecutter with a level stare. “Okay, Stone, what’s your big idea?”
Stonecutter shrugged her backpack onto the ground and, feeling around inside, she pulled out her trusty hammer and chisel. “Simple. Baby bear needs a doll, right? I’m going to make her one.” Determined, the slate grey mare began to hammer a stone block out of the cliff face for her to work on. Sparkler and Cloudburst quickly saw why they had been bought back outside. The noise of hammering was rather loud.
While she worked, the pegasus and unicorn shared a couple of apples lifted from Stonecutter’s pack. “So, Cloudburst started, “How did you know what that creature was?”
“Oh, um, I’ve seen them. In a book,” Sparkler clarified somewhat unnecessarily, “I read about them. They’re quite pretty, once you get over the whole huge, ginormous ‘grrr’ with teeth and claws thing.” Eating her own apple, the pegasus had to concede her point. “And,” she continued, “They’re what got me interested in astronomy. Did you know there really is a constellation in the shape of a bear called Ursa Major and Minor?”
“I did not know that.” Cloudburst admitted, using her wing as a shield to prevent shards of stone given off by her friend’s work from hitting them. “Is that why you bought the telescope thingy from the market?”
Sparkler nodded, though she was rapt, watching Stonecutter work. In sort order, with all the skill of a mason, the earth pony had chiselled out the vague shape of a rabbit from the two-foot block of stone. “Yes, mom and dad bought me a telescope, a big one, for my birthday two years ago. It got broken in the move.”
“Jeez Sparks that sucks, I’m sorry. Least you got a new one today though, huh?” she asked. Sparkler giggled brightly. The small one she had bought earlier that day was little more than a toy, albeit a functional one, that fit in her backpack. Still, it was hers. Something to work up from. “Hey, do you think maybe, sometime, I might have a look through it?”
That took the unicorn by surprise. “You want to look at the stars?”
“Yeah, well, maybe they aren’t so lame and boring, y’know, they are part of a big cool bear…”
“I didn’t expect that. And you played with dolls?”
Cloudburst blushed heavily, though it was Stonecutter who spoke up. “They aren’t dolls. They’re Wonderbolts action figures, right CB?” switching to a smaller, finer tool, the skilled artist began to sculpt the details on her creation, adding definition to the ears and face, even a smile.
“Yeah, right, they are action figures! Not dolls…”
“Are?” Sparkler smiled as she watched Stonecutter place two blue gems in the rabbit’s eyes, “Don’t you mean, were?” the pegasi’s renewed blush made her laugh out loud. “Oh, you totally still play with dolls!”
“Alright,” Stonecutter announced before Cloudburst could recover from her blush and fire back a retort, “I’m done. It’s not my best work, but I think it will do for what we need.” She packed away her tools in her backpack and proudly held the two foot by one foot stone rabbit.
“It looks brilliant!” Sparkler gushed, rushing over and hugging the fat earth pony, before she realised what she had done, and she broke away with a giddy smile on her face.
“Yeah, ahem, well, all we gotta do now is take it and give it baby bear in there.”
“Back?” Cloudburst spluttered, almost choking on the last bit of apple she had been about to swallow. “We’re going back in there?”
“You don’t have to come, CB. You can stay out here.” Stonecutter gave Sparkler a knowing wink full of intent.
“Yeah,” Sparkler grinned, holding Stonecutter’s hand as they walked back in the cave, “Stay out here, where the Ursa Major is. Mommy will be back soon though, okay?”
“Wait up guys!” Cloudburst, not wanting to be left outside alone, zipped inside and soon caught up with the giggling pair of mares.
The trek through the tunnel was a short and uneventful one this time around. Thanks to the light from Sparkler’s horn, they knew where they were going. The Ursa Minor hadn’t moved from it’s spot in the glowing grotto, nor had Angel managed to squirm free. Quietly, since she knew more about the creature than they, Stonecutter gave the stone rabbit to Sparkler, who took it in her telekinetic field.
Unfortunately, the further use of her magic made her horn glow brighter and, as she stepped closer to the baby Ursa, the bear at last noticed the little unicorn. With a defensive growl, she made to protect her cute little dolly. ‘Please let this work…’ Sparkler said to herself over and over again like a calming mantra as she got closer to the enormous bear. Extending her magical aura, she levitated up the carved doll and nudged the bear’s arm.
The Ursa Minor didn’t have to look too hard to see that the offered rabbit was far larger than the one she was currently holding – trying to hold – and that it wasn’t squirming around. With a shrug and a grateful snorted growl, the Ursa gladly allowed the rabbit to leave her clutches in favour of the offered replacement.
Angel, rather very glad to be set free, scampered past Sparkler and he dived into Stonecutter’s backpack so fast he was little more than a furry white blur. Since the bear’s attention was now completely taken by her new doll, the ponies completely forgotten, they deemed it best to beat a hasty retreat.
“Phew,” Cloudburst sighed once they were out of the cave and heading back to Fluttershy’s cottage, “I am so glad we didn’t encounter momma bear in there!” she then gave Sparkler a fist bump. “You are so cool, y’know, for a Canterlot.”
“You aren’t bad either, for a featherbrain,” Sparkler giggled, having never given or received a fist bump in her life. She was still holding Stonecutter’s hand though. To be safe. She did hop up onto the tips of her hooves and plant a tiny chaste kiss on her crush’s cheek, “You were amazing! That sculpture was brilliant!”
“Shucks,” Stonecutter blushed, though she wore a rather large cheesy smile as the exited the forest back into the early afternoon sunlight, “It was nothing. You should see what I can do when I have plenty of time. Um…this is a crazy idea, but um, when we’re done rescuing the pets, maybe you’ll model for me sometime?”
“I’d love to!” Sparkler beamed, both earth pony and unicorn ignoring the soppy kissing noises their friend was making as she flew alongside them. “Ah,” she pointed to the west, where they had heard the sad howl of Winona, “Let’s go that way!”
Since they had already gone south westward to rescue Angel, they didn’t have very far to go. In silence, they skirted the edge of the forest this time rather than enter it as they followed the sounds of barking and howling. The three at least knew they were heading the right way, because Winona’s desperate yelps were getting louder and louder.
Stonecutter, for one, was quite happy to walk along in silence. The chubby mare was still processing the fact that she had, in the spur of the moment perhaps, asked the mare she fancied to model for her, and she had said yes! ‘Calm down, girl, she only agreed to model for you, she didn’t agree to a date or anything…’
‘Yes,’ her horny brain answered, ‘But it’s artistic modelling. You know what that means!’
‘Bad brain! Stop it!’ Stonecutter admonished herself, though she couldn’t exactly argue with her own reasoning. She squeezed Sparkler’s hand and was heartened to feel her squeeze back. Besides, there was always the upcoming Nightmare Night to ask her out properly. Still, she was lifted by how well the ‘semi asking her out’ had gone thus far.
“Hey look!” Cloudburst exclaimed when they rounded a particularly large tree on the western edge of the forest they all saw Winona. The brown and white dog was tied to a post outside a tumbledown shack which was situated in the middle of a large clearing covered with the trunks of chopped down trees and dozens of holes dug roughly into the ground.
Howling miserably, Winona looked as sad as she sounded. Flying around the edge of the clearing, Cloudburst couldn’t see any other signs of life, a fact she reported to her ground bound friends. “Guys, I’m gonna go check out the shack, see what I can see. You two get Professor Applejack’s dog.”
“You know what those are?” Stonecutter asked Sparkler, pointing to the holes in the ground. She had shrinking feeling, one she hoped wasn’t true.
“Um, no, what are they, giant worm holes?”
Stonecutter shook her head solemnly. “This is a diamond dog patch.” She pointed to the ground where there were three sets of fresh dog prints, much larger than Winona’s. “Those are the entrances to their mines. We have to be real careful, Sparks.”
Unfortunately, the memo about being careful didn’t reach Cloudburst. The exuberant mare flew over to the rundown shack and, in her haste to explore it, she tore the rotting wooden door from its hinges. The clatter of the wood hitting the ground alerted Winona to their presence and she began to bark with joy.
Inside the – being generous, the pale blue mare called it a house – house, Cloudburst was at first appalled by the overpowering stench of wet dog. It permeated everything like a physical presence all its own. Holding her nose, which did very little to help, she took a look around. Three dirty smelly dog baskets, with Rover, Fido and Spot scrawled upon them, were scattered on the floor along with scraps of chewed up bone, a chewed slipper and a large tin full of water.
“Guys!” Cloudburst called out as she flew out of the shack to see Stonecutter and Sparkler quickly untying the happily barking dog, “We gotta bail, there’s diamond dogs…here…” No sooner had she said that than the three dogs, alerted to the intruder’s being there by the barking of their new guard dog, jumped out of the holes and surrounded them.
“Rover!” called out Spot, the smallest of the trio who looked a lot like a bulldog, addressed their medium sized leader with a vicious leer at the trapped ponies, “Pony slaves for the mines!”
Rover shared a glance with Fido and Spot, a nasty gleam in his eyes. “What ponies doing in dog land?” he asked harshly, for the moment toying with Spot’s suggestion. While they would be useful in the mines, the leader of the group was acutely aware of the last time they had tried that when the white one had cried and whined like an old mule. Especially when they had called her an old mule.
Even though they had, not that long ago, encountered an Ursa Minor and lived to talk about it, Sparkler and Cloudburst were, if anything, more scared here. The bear had been an innocent baby, but these were adult dogs with a malicious intent in their greedy yellow eyes. They huddled together and deeply wished they were somewhere else.
It was Stonecutter who found her voice and answered them, confidently, as she was as tall as Fido, the largest of the diamond dogs. “We don’t mean to intrude,” she held the freed Winona safe under her arm, thankfully the had untied her just as the diamond dogs appeared and surrounded them. “We just want our dog. She got lost in the woods.”
“Your dog, pony?” Rover sneered, “She tied to our post. She our dog.”
Stonecutter thought quickly. If this went sideways, she knew from the stories that they’d be ponynapped and forced into the gem mines. “We’re looking after her. She belongs to another pony, Applejack.” When the dogs shook their heads, she continued, “Orange mare, about this tall,” she gestured with her free hand, the one not holding Winona like a Buckball. “Her cutie mark’s three red apples and she wears a hat.”
That description gave the diamond dogs pause for thought. “Orange pony sounds like one who came before,” Fido muttered into Rover’s ear.
“Came to get the white one we took,” Spot trembled, the memory of the ‘white one’ still fresh in all their minds.
“If we anger them, they might send the white one back,” Fido shuddered.
Rover made up his mind. He had no desire to ever see the white pony with the three blue diamonds ever again, or to hear her loud whining irritating voice in his tunnels any time soon. Still, these ponies looked younger. More gullible than those others. “Pony can have dog,” he snapped at last, “If pony pay for dog.”
Sparkler and Cloudburst had no money between them, but thankfully, Stonecutter had a solution. Reaching slowly into her pack, she pulled out a bag of multicoloured gems she carried for her sculptures. She was grateful, while she looked for her gems, that the damned rabbit was still there in her bag. “Here, you can have these,” she threw the bag on the floor at Rover’s paws, the small pile of gems spilling out.
“Pony has gems!” Spot leapt for them, but at the same time, so did Fido. In the ensuing confusion, the three ponies very slowly backed away until they were on the edge of the clearing. When they judged they were far enough away, they broke and ran, galloping back the way they had come as fast as their hooves – and wings – would take them.
By the time the diamond dogs had managed to share out the pile of gems equally amongst themselves, the ponies were long gone. Not that Rover was sorry to see them go. Better they escape than the white one come again. Stonecutter, Sparkler and Cloudburst didn’t even realise they weren’t being chased. Completely out of breath, they slumped in a gasping, heaving heap on the rough path outside Fluttershy’s cottage back where they had started.
“I think…phew…I think…we…lost…them…” Sparkler gasped in between gulping down huge lungful’s of air.
“Uh…huh…we safe…now…” Stonecutter breathed, the large mare looking like she was about to pass out. She rolled on the grass beside the path and she ended up with her head in Sparkler’s lap. However, she was too exhausted from running to even blush.
Cloudburst, the fittest among them, bounced on her hooves like she had done nothing more exerting than run downstairs. “C’mon guys!” she grinned happily after the little flying workout session, “Let’s follow the trail of smoke over there!”
Still trying to recover from the run, Stonecutter and Sparkler’s middle fingers let her know what they thought of that. They were happy, for the moment, to lay together in the grass with Winona licking their tired but happy faces.