//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventeen // Story: Familiar Faces // by GlitchyProductions //------------------------------// Chapter Seventeen: Rest "Th' bubbles ain't gonna hurt ya, jus' stay on Luna an' keep quiet or else he'll hear ya!" John turned to the group behind him and yelled, trying to be calm and quiet about the sudden change in events as the road that he and the rest of the group were travelling turned into a long road of soapy bubbles smelling of nice flowers. All the mares attached to the rope took very slow steps to make sure that they didn't slip over the magical bubbles, Dinky held on tight to Luna's neck hoping for her sake that she wouldn't fall down onto the mess below. "B-but it's really scary!" Dinky whimpered! Wrapping one arm around the giant blue mare to keep herself steady whilst keeping Scootaloo in perfect balance within the confines of her t-shirt, the orange filly poked her head out of Dinky's shirt to take a look at what was going on, as the little filly scanned the area she noticed the scary trees and the change in what the road is supposed to look like. "Ah'm not gonna tell ya' one more time!" John yelled, breaking his coolness and raising his voice. "We're almost there now, don' be complainin', ma' master will look after us an' he can help us figure out what were supposed t'do with th' magic headband." Dinky fell silent for a split-second, she had really angered John. He was starting to shout and she didn't like it when people shouted at her, especially when Ditzy and Scootaloo were around to hear what he was saying. She didn't really understand why John was taking her and horses to his master and why he looked really angry, but her thoughts were mostly stuck on the fact that parts of the road below her had turned to bubbles and the wind that made it's way through her hair started to calm down. "Ah'm sorry." John apologized; Dinky chimed in at the last second and managed to understand what John had said. The rancher kept on walking down the soapy path with his face unturned. "Wh-What?" Dinky wanted him to repeat what he had said. "Ah' said: sorry, ah'm jus' a lil' tired an' hungry cus' a' what has been happenin' t'day." John apologized once again. "Yer' jus' a kid', shouldn't be shoutin' at ya' like that." "It's okay, I hear shouting a lot when my Mommy tries to talk to my care-taker, and her name is Carrot Top." Dinky smiled a little, trying to make in some casual conversation, but John did not turn around to look at Dinky or the mares he was pulling along the path. "Ah' jus' wanna say, we're here now, but ya' mus' promise me one thing b'fore we go see ma' boss." John stopped dead in his tracks, causing the whole group to stop to a sudden halt. Dinky quickly scanned her surroundings and saw nothing, the forest and the rest of the soap continued to stretch on for what felt like an eternity, Dinky didn't see anything that looked like a house anywhere. She knew a house was made out of bricks and they had very bright lights so you could see them from very far away. "But I don't see a house anywhere..." Dinky whined; confused at what John was doing. "Cause it's invisible, but there ain't no house." John turned to face Dinky and the rest of the mares, all of them including Ditzy and Dinky gave John a strange stare. John focused on Luna and noticed she was frowning instead of looking surprised, he knew that Luna knew, he didn't care. "You mean your boss waiting for you in the forest?" Dinky gasped. "Ah' guess ya' could say that." John sighed, taking in deep breaths before even thinking of moving on forward. "Is he a nice person?" Dinky asked John. "Sometimes." John coughed. John managed to collect himself, taking on the big moment before entering the lair of his master, he turned back to face the mares and Dinky and collectively looked at each one before thinking to walk through the threshold. He looked at Fluttershy and saw that as usual, the mare looked very tired and scared. He then moved to look at Ditzy and noticed that she was smiling, which was unusual. Luna was typical; she was frowning and constantly glaring at him as if he had done something terribly wrong. "Right." John sighed. "Les' go." Without thinking of anything to say, Dinky felt the force that John mustered up as he pulled on the leash and watched as Fluttershy, Luna and Ditzy were pulled along by the rancher down the soapy path for a final time and the sounds of the forest had drastically changed. The light blowing of the wind had died down and the tall oak trees had stopped moving, the temperature had gotten colder and deep down, Dinky started to feel scared now that she was about to meet someone else. As they traversed down the final strip of path, a faint noise could be heard in the distance, Dinky heard this noise and quickly tapped Luna on the back of her mane, and the blue mare turned her head to face the child and waited for Dinky to speak. "Can you hear that noise Luna?" Dinky leaned over to the mares ears and whispered to her. The mare nodded and heard the noise, the mare knew what the noise was, but was unable to tell poor little Dinky what the noise was coming from, she didn't want this to happen to a small thing such as Dinky. " HAHAHAHA! This is hilarious! Celestia, look at this!" An echoed voice swept the area that everyone was in, a loud and deep voice screamed out in entertainment calling out for someone that Dinky had heard of before. Dinky quickly looked around to see where the voice was coming from and no one could be seen at all. "Who was that?" Dinky asked John, feeling scared of the loud echo; she clutched onto Luna's neck with one hand and held Scootaloo in her shirt with the other. "It was ma' master." John replied back. " Look! Look! The big red button changes the channel! This is glorious magic! " The voice immediately raised itself; sounding like a massive giant ready to rip the world apart, Dinky shuddered at the sound of the Master's deep and grizzly voice. The trees slightly swayed from side to side at the extreme volume of his voice. As John had reached the end of the journey along with Dinky and the mares, he reached a dead end in the middle of the path; the bubbles had by now, disappeared and popped away, leaving a nice bubbly scent along the way. There was a pile of thick green bushes blocking the road and stopping John and the rest of the group from continuing, the loud voice of John's master was still high in the sky and was bringing down the mood for Dinky and the rest of the mares, Luna was the only one not affected by the loud voice of the Master. John started to walk towards the bush slowly dragging the mares behind him to walk towards it, Dinky was confused at first to why John was walking into a bush, but then she noticed that John started to walk straight through it as if it were nothing, his body started to disappear as the bushes began to pull him in, after a few seconds, he was engulfed and now the rope was pulling them in. Luna tried to hold her ground but it was no use, the bush was magically pushing her in and it was starting to have an effect on little Dinky. "John?!" Dinky screamed, her breathing pattern began to break apart and the child erupted into a panic. All of her senses told her to escape from the scene and stay away from the evil bushes but something kept her glued to her seat. She watched as Ditzy was the second one to be engulfed by the bushes and Fluttershy quickly followed, the yellow winged mare struggled to stay away from the bushes as the rope still connected around her neck. Luna used all of her remaining strength to try and halt the magical powers of the bushes, yet it was no use, the blue mare was being pulled in by the bushes, she shook her backside a few times to try and shake off Dinky and Scootaloo from the instant danger, but Dinky instinctively held on for her dearest life. Luna began to feel the bushes engulf her and her hooves were stuck in the foliage as the roots of the bushes pulled her inwards. "HEEEELP!!!" Dinky screamed out as the soft leaves attached to the magical bushes began to engulf her, scared out of her wits and still trying to hold on to Luna's neck for comfort she could only just about scream and kick her legs to try and move away from the bushes, yet no one was around to hear her high pitched screams. She felt something soft right under her body, Dinky could've sworn that she was sitting on the top of Luna's back with Scootaloo embedded, hiding in her t-shirt away from the scary dark night that surrounded them. The small child opened her eyes to see something that she did not expect, iron bars. Stretched around her for unknown reasons, slowly opening her delicate eyes to reveal that she was lying on a very large pillow inside of the encasement that she found herself in. Dinky did not choose to make any noise as she began to look around to find that outside of the cage that she found herself in was a bright light, she immediately crawled over to the iron bars and looked out of the cage, yet her vision was blurred and she wasn't able to see very far out of the cage, she only saw a bright light in the distance and a shadowed shape slowly making it's way towards her. As Dinky tried to look outside to make out the shadowed shape making it's way towards her, she felt a slight nudge digging into her backside, the child quickly turned her head to reveal that Scootaloo was right behind her, the little orange filly had put a part of Dinky's t-shirt into her mouth and began to pull on her. "Scootaloo?!" Dinky quickly let go of the iron bars and grabbed the orange filly, she wrapped her arms around the filly’s neck and proceeded to hug her. The filly nudged her head towards Dinky's chest and dug her nose into her comfy t-shirt, Dinky placed her fingers under the filly and began to lift her up and hold her in her arms and comfort the little filly. "Where are we? Where is John?!" Dinky moved her mouth and moved it close to Scootaloo's ear and began to whisper. Scootaloo looked up and didn't respond, she just stared at the child and then proceeded to rest her head against Dinky's chest. Dinky quickly turned her head back to the iron bars to see that the figure had gotten closer, Dinky could barely make out someone holding something, but she didn't know what. As it got even closer, Dinky started to move backwards, the child crawled over to the other side of the cage and held Scootaloo as tight as she could so that the figure would not hurt her. "You're not going to hurt Scootaloo!" Dinky warned; her quick smile dropped to a fearsome frown as the figure now stepped into the light near the cage. "Why would ah' hurt ya'?" A familiar voice chuckled. "J-John?!" Dinky leaned forward, not believing who was walking towards her. "Why am I in a cage?" Dinky asked. "Ah' put you in it." John stopped his movement and stood in front of the cage that Dinky and Scootaloo were in. "Ah' wanted t' talk to ya' jus' b'fore y'meet ma master, is' kinda important that ya' listen." John added, leaned down onto his knees so that he could get a better look at Dinky and Scootaloo. "W-Why?" Dinky asked. "Yer' not in trouble if' thas' what yer' askin', ah'm jus' givin' ya' some food an' then I'll let ya' out." John revealed the item he was holding to Dinky to show that he was holding a dinner tray which had a fancy looking dome on the top of it to keep the food slightly preserved, Dinky slowly crawled over to the other side of the cage to take a closer look at what was inside of the dome, yet she couldn't see it. John used his free hand to lift up the dome and place it down on the ground beside the cage, revealing a small basic plate that had a very large chocolate bar and a small pile of delicious looking chocolate chip cookies right next to the chocolate bar. "Candy?" Dinky tilted her head at the strange offer that she was given. "Ya' seemed pretty hungry when we were travelin', so ah'm bein' nice for once an' ah' thought gettin' ya' some food would b' nice for a kid like you." John reached for the lock on the iron cage and twisted the lock until a quiet click came out of the lock, he opened up the cage and Dinky slowly tried to crawl out when John placed the plate of biscuits and chocolate on the pillow. "Can I ask you something Mr. John, why did you walk into that bush... and why did it grab me?" Dinky understood she leaned back into the cage and rested herself next to Scootaloo who was suspiciously eyeing up the cookies and the chocolate bar and looked at John with worry. "Is... uh... a little trick ma' master did with th' bush, ya' see, he has well... special skills where he covered up his lair with a couple'a bushes an' when anyone gets near... they grab that person and pull them in." John explained; he rested himself next to the doorway on the side of the cage, allowing him to speak with Dinky as she reluctantly picked up the cookies and began to put them in her mouth. "Is he really good at gardening? My caretaker Carrot Top, she's really good at gardening, maybe he can work with her." Dinky giggled, her voice was muffled as she stuffed the confections into her mouth. "Right." John mumbled, he rubbed his face for his sudden strange fatigue, he felt awfully tired and he did not seem to know why. "Celestia! Look! It's the Royal Parade! ... I didn't know the other you walked with such awful robes from time to time... HAHA! Look at her fur less skin! ... Is that Luna as a human? HOW UGLY! " Dinky and John immediately turned their heads as they both heard the Masters loud voice shout from the distance, John obviously knew who it was, but Dinky on the other hand was shook by it, her body started to shiver at the sound of something so loud and frightening. "Why does your boss keep on shouting?" Dinky immediately grabbed Scootaloo and proceeded to wrap her arms around the orange filly in an attempt to protect her. "He jus' has a loud voice, can't imagine him yellin' at someone though." John turned back to Dinky and Scootaloo, acting un-phased by how loud his master’s voice had gotten over the time of knowing him, he reassured Dinky by placing his hand on her should and gave a small sober smile to cheer her up. "Jus' imagine in a minute, we haft'a show him to ya', he's dyin' t'meet ya." John continued to lightly smile at the child. "Is he going to shout at me?" Dinky cowered. "Nah, he might have a loud voice, but he'll be gentle with ya' ... it's the best ah' can say." John kept his voice low for Dinky, noting that she didn't like to be shouted at. Dinky had just one cookie left, she raised it up to her mouth to eat it when she stopped for a moment and looked down to see that Scootaloo was trying to climb up onto Dinky's lap like a small dog trying to get their food early by jumping up their owners leg. The orange filly started to look at the cookie and then quickly focus her eyes back at Dinky, giving the small child the sign to give the filly the cookie. "Oh okay Scootaloo, here." Dinky lowers the cookie down onto the pillow, Scootaloo started to sniff the cookie and she starts to shove the biscuit down her throat whilst chewing on it. "Hope you like it." Dinky finished. "Now we t'get movin', he's waitin' for ya'." John shook his head and stood part to the ground; he got up on both feet and waited for both Scootaloo and Dinky to climb out of the cage. Both the filly and the child started to climb out of the iron cage together as Dinky took the first step out of the cages bounds and stood on both of her feet and stretched her arms and groaned in pain. The filly soon followed as she tailed behind John and Dinky trying her best to keep up with them, Scootaloo managed to keep up with her friends and now immediately felt scared as to when Dinky finds out who the masters true identity is. It took only but just a minute for John, Scootaloo and Dinky to make it back to where everyone else was, the voice of John's master suddenly dropped to a quieter level and the weather seemed to calm down as the wind did not cast it's chilling breeze. The clouds moved out of the way which revealed the stars that lay high in the sky, accompanied by the moon which shone it's mystical light across the land. Dinky stood next to John as he halted to a stop, she was so scared of meeting his master that she grabbed onto his trouser leg and kept her grip hard on his leg like a scared animal. John turned to face Dinky and little Scootaloo who had just managed to catch up with both of them due to her short and stubby legs. "Right..." John whispered, leaning down onto his knees to calmly speak with Dinky. "Ya' gotta promise me somethin' now." He asked. "WH-What?" Dinky stared at the rancher, feeling rather unsure of what he was going to say. "Ah' want you ta' stay calm, be quiet, an' only speak to ma' master when yer' spoken to. Okay?" John placed his hand on Dinky's shoulder and shook her a little; the child quickly nodded her head. "Ya' mus' also promise that ya' aren't gonna freak out about what he looks like." John got back up on his feet and tapped Dinky on the shoulder; he walked forward over to another small pile of bushes and waited for Dinky and Scootaloo to move on. "B-But..." Dinky quickly pointed at the bush, remembering her previous encounter on how scary they were and how they sucked her into the cage. "This one ain't gonna attack you." John replied. "H-How do you know?" Dinky asked. "It doesn’t jus' watch." John leaned towards the bush and dipped his hand into the leaves; both Dinky and Scootaloo ebbed away from the rancher as he got closer to the bush. But were both relieved when they saw John place his hand into the bush and it did not seem to attack him or magically pull him in as like the last time. "See?" John turned his head back to his audience with a small smirk on his face. "My, my, how rude, Luna seems to be naked in the picture box. How unexpected of her human self, that blue robe is seemingly very revealing, don't you agree?" "Mmph! Mmph!" "Yes, I thought you would dear. Imagine all the fun and chaos that we could do with all of those little human creatures? They look like the type of little things that would like to have fun, other than the ponies in our world where you coddle them in love and care; they seem like tiny little things that can look after themselves, especially with the powerful magic of their picture box." "Mmph!" "I'm sorry Celestia, but I don't think they would find you interesting at all, just look at you. You’re a giant white mare wrapped in chains and gagged to the throat, I don't think they would like chains, if you look at the picture box, it clearly tells that these humans would prefer me over you." "..." "Maybe we could visit your alternate self and tell her how much of a stinker you've been to me over the past few thousand years." "..." "Oh... so many ideas... do you think they'd like my chocolate rain? I sure want to make an entrance as I walk up to their version of Ponyville and shower them with wonderful chaotic gifts." "..." "Oh be like that and not say anything you grumpy old mare."