//------------------------------// // Chapter Eighteen // Story: Familiar Faces // by GlitchyProductions //------------------------------// Chapter Eighteen: Meet the Monster John, Dinky and Scootaloo had finally reached their destination; they had reached the lair of the Master. The entrance to the lair was a simple and yet scary cave that went deep into the ground, John walked up to the cave entrance and reached deep within his pockets for something, both Dinky and Scootaloo took small steps towards the dark empty cave not knowing what was going to pop out of its eerie entrance. "John... what are we..." Dinky walked up to John and quickly grabbed his leg; feeling ultimately scared of the entrance to the cave as if all her nerves were telling her to run away. John stopped going through his pockets to look at the child desperately holding onto his leg. "Don' worry, we'll be alright... lemme' jus'..." John continued to reach within his pockets and grabbed out a small metal torch, he pressed on the button on the bottom of the torch and a very bright light emanated from the tip of it. He pointed the tool at the cave entrance and looked at Dinky and the little orange filly. "Stay b'hind me an' we'll be alright." John ordered; Dinky quickly positioned herself right behind John still unsure whether to continue on with her journey, she had heard about the caves outside of town, and the scary stories her friends at school used to tell about the monsters that lurked within. "C-Could you h-hold my hand?" Dinky moved out of position and stood next to John and held out her hand, he slowly grabbed her hand and locked his fingers around the child’s hand to make her feel secure. "In we go..." John began to walk towards the darkness, Dinky and Scootaloo gulped as they entered the scary cave, the light from the outside world had died away and now they were covered in darkness. The only sounds they could hear were their own footsteps and the light sound of Scootaloo's breathing and the faint drops of water falling from the top of the cave. John did not slow down for anything as he travelled through the cave, he knew where he was exactly going and he didn't slow down for anything, keeping the light steady as he walked down the dark and scary path until at the end of the tunnel he saw a bright light and heard the faint sound of static. He had found him. John had finally made it back to his master with the Element of Magic intact, along with his followers still tagging on behind as all of them reach the end of the cave. John squinted at the light to see that his master had once again changed the entrance to the depths of the cave and now added a brick wall that kept everything within the cave, the only sort of entrance he saw was a wooden door in the middle of the wall that had no window or no handle. "Finally..." John walked to the door and turned off his torch, he didn't need his tool anymore knowing that the light shining out of the cracks in-between the door was enough to help him find the switch that opened the door. He rubbed his hand along the brick wall still keeping his eyes on the door and felt a little lump in the wall; he instantly knew what it was and began to press down on the lump as if it were not supposed to be there. Only to his realization that there was a loose brick in the wall, he pressed it inwards and it perfectly connected with the rest of the wall. * Click! * The wooden door swung open and the light on the other side shined through, John and Dinky shielded their eyes from the brightness of the light, Dinky quickly hid herself behind John feeling incredibly shy and scared. She closed her eyes to relieve the pain from the light that came from the other side of the wall, the sound of static had disappeared and now Dinky could hear from a distance... something familiar, something she had heard before. It sounded like... cartoons being played on TV. Dinky was confused, John's boss watches cartoons, that couldn't be, something so childish and immature Dinky though, she didn't know what to think, but she hadn't even seen John's boss yet. "John... I'm scared..." Dinky squeaked, still holding tight to John's leg. "Ma' boss ain't frightnin', ya' jus' gotta' talk t'him a lil' an' then he'll treat ya' nicely." John calmly whispered to Dinky, he reached down and tapped her on the head to try and give her a small boost in confidence. John took the lead and began to walk into the light to meet his Master, yet Dinky didn't want to reveal herself so sudden, she kept herself hidden behind John listening in to the conversation that was about to arise. "And then the chocolate coated TNT will- ... Well, well, well. If it isn't my little servant wanting to visit little old me again, what are you doing here? I thought you dropped off those other ponies into my dungeon?" "Ah' brought th' child." John replied to his Master. "Did you now?" "Yeah." John nodded to his master. "Let me see her." John reached behind him and grabbed Dinky by the shoulder and thrusted her in front of him, she still kept her eyes closed feeling awfully scared. "Ya' can open yer' eyes now." John lightly tapped Dinky on the shoulder. Dinky was now officially scared, she didn't like it when she had to meet new people, just thinking about what could happen was starting to bring her down and shake her around. But she had to open up her eyes to meet John's boss, she slowly opened her eye lids to see that the dark ugly cave had disappeared and now it felt like they were in a different world. The open room fitted with wooden walls and soft carpeting running through her toes was a definite surprise, there was an orange glow emanating around the room which was coming from a nicely lit fireplace with a roaring fire. She was oh-so surprised, she couldn't believe that John's boss lives in such a cosy place, there was a fridge, a TV, a massive couch and a doorway with a stairwell. This place was so big, Dinky just couldn't believe it. Dinky noticed a shadow over where the giant red couch was, no, two shadows. Did the boss bring his friends round? Or was there more than two people living inside the cave? It was very strange, why would anyone put so many nice ornaments and pieces of furniture inside of a dark scary cave? "He's talkin' t'ya." John tapped Dinky on the shoulder which took Dinky out of her thoughts and back into reality. "Wh- huh?" Dinky mis-heard. "Ma' Master, he's callin' ya' t'join him watch TV on th' couch." John pointed at the giant red couch on the other side of the room, Dinky gulped as she began to depart from John and started to slowly walk towards the couch and the two large shadows. Strangely, the shadows were way bigger than her; Dinky didn't understand how something so big would hide himself away from everyone. "H-Hello..." Dinky made it to the side of the giant red couch and tried to speak to the Master, yet he didn't speak back. Dinky gulped what felt like a hard stone inside of her throat and began to shake. She didn't know whether he was going to like her or not. "Hello Dinky, I've been expecting you." One of the shadows sitting atop the couch said. "H-Hi..." Dinky gulped, she gestured a small wave towards the shadows and stood in place. "My, my. I've never seen a human so small before." The shadow laughed to itself which thrown Dinky's remaining confidence to stammer and break apart. "Uh, Wh-What is y-your name?" Dinky asked the shadow, she curiously eyed up the other shadow as it didn't seem to move or notice Dinky at all, it sat motionless sitting next to John's boss. "My name?" The shadow asked. Dinky nodded. "My names... heh, haven’t you ever heard of me before? Does my voice sound familiar to you, at all?" The shadow asked, leaning a little towards little Dinky. She had only just realized how large the shadow was, she took one step back feeling scared by the general creepiness of his voice and his ever-slowly movements towards her. Dinky shook her head in an attempt to answers the shadows question, the shadow stopped in place and lifted what seemed to be its feet and lifted them off the couch. The shadowed figure had now revealed himself, Dinky couldn't believe what she was seeing, and it was a monster! It was a very large monster mixed together with body parts of other animals that she had seen before. John's master was a giant monster that was made out of different body parts that looked like they were badly sown together, Dinky gulped and began to take steps back towards John. She ran back to John but felt like something was wrong, she was perfectly running as fast as her little legs could allow her, but she was standing in place. " JOHN! HELP ME THE MONSTER IS GOING TO EAT ME! " Dinky screamed, she extended her arms at the rancher for some immediate help. But nothing seemed to work, John stood there just staring at her while she ran on the spot, the child dared to look down to see that a strange purple aura was holding her in place. Dinky turned her head to see that the monster had used its giant disfigured hand and placed it under where Dinky was supposed to be standing, she stopped her running only to begin her panic. "Oh calm down Dinky, I'm not going to eat you. Besides, you don't look very tasty; then again, do you Humans taste like chocolate? You'd only be worth eating if you'd taste like chocolate." The monster began to talk, Dinky placed her hand over her ears trying to block out the sound of his voice and she lied down on the monsters disfigured hand. " LEAVE ME ALONE! " Dinky screamed, her voice began to break apart in the process as she tried to remove the ugly image of the monster holding her captive. The monster chuckled to himself. "Oh please, I just want to know you a little better, we've only just met." He gave a sly grin to John. " NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! " Dinky immaturely screamed out, repeating the same word over and over again. "Well... if you don't want to be my... heh, friend, then I guess we'll never be able to work out the mystery of the magical tiara." He teased. " NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Dinky continued to childishly scream at the top of her lungs, kicking and shaking herself to try and break out of the grip that the giant scary monster had gotten on her. "Oh well..." He sighed. "Dinky, it'd be more useful if you'd calm down. But I know that you're... heh, scared of little old me because I look ugly, but don't worry. How about you rest if you're tired?" The monster offered, trying his best to calm down Dinky. " NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! " Dinky wouldn't let up; she was so scared by what the monster looked like she continued to scream on as he held her tightly using his magical powers. "Sir, why don't ya' jus' use one of them fancy magic spells on her?" John appeared at the side next to his Master, looking at the poor child repeating the same word over and over again scared out of her wits. "Excellent idea servant." He gleefully cheered. And with that, he used his other disfigured hand and raised it towards the screaming child. He dabbed his finger on the back of her head and Dinky immediately stopped her shouting and began to sway from side to side, her vision started to shimmer and the world around her was blacking out. Her constant shouting began to muffle in itself and she began to spurt out gibberish that made no sense until her legs gave way, Dinky fell onto his hand, asleep before she had even fell all the way down. "There we are, take her to the cages, when she wakes up bring her back to me when she calms down, we need her to unlock the powers of the Elements for us." "Yes sir." John nodded. Dinky shot up like a speeding bullet, she opened her eyes to find nothing, darkness surrounded her in a dark room that she wasn't sure of. Feeling something soft under her legs she reached under herself to feel that she was sitting on what appeared to be hay, she could barely see what was going on around her other than the not-so bright light that was opposite from over she was. It took her moment, but she looked around and saw that metal bars were once again surrounding her as punishment for something that she didn't understand at all. There were creatures inside of the gate, but the room was so dark she wasn't able to see what was on the other side of the cage. "H-Hello? John... where are you? I-It's really d-dark in here..." Dinky began to whimper, her fear catched up with her and now she was started to become afraid of what was going on. ... No response. "I'm r-really s-scared..." Dinky cried, she put her hands up to her face and began to wipe her tears from her face feeling cold. "Ya' alright?" A familiar voice sprouted out of the darkness. Dinky quickly jolted up at the sound of his voice, she looked around to see that a large shadow was standing by the cage bars, but on the other side. "John?!" Dinky leaped for joy as she slowly walked over to the image of John's shadow on the other side of the cage. "Where are we?" "Yer' in ma' masters dungeon, seems that ya' didn't really get along with him as he'd planned." John moped. "He thought that ya' would get along with him pretty quickly." The rancher added. "Please let me out! That scary monster wants to eat me!" Dinky didn't listen to what the rancher had to say, her mind told her that was an obvious trap, she needed to get out of here and fast. "He didn't say that he wanted ta' eat ya', he wanted t'be yer' friend." John groaned, the rancher reached up for his hat and took it off, revealing long blonde hair that fell down and began to cover his face. Yet his actual face was still shadowed even without his hat. Dinky took a step back as the rancher took his hat off, she took so many steps back that she bumped into something. It wasn't part of the cage, it wasn't a metal bar and she was sure of it. She turned around to see what she had bumped into and saw a giant red stallion standing right in front of her, it's orange mane covered the top of his whole head. Dinky held her breath and began to seize up, she did not want to move, and the red stallion blew air out of his nose causing the Childs hair to fly back a little. The large red stallion got closer to Dinky and craned his head down and took a good look at the strange creature, her breathing pattern was irregular and she had no fur at all, the stallion raised an eyebrow at the strange little thing and proceeded to turn away from it and return to his post. John walked around the entirety of the cage and reached out for the light switch, he placed his hand on the switch and flipped it which caused the lights at the top of the cage to immediately light up. As the light entered the room, Dinky was suddenly blinded by how bright the light was. After a few seconds of cowering from the bright light, she opened her eyes to be shocked beyond belief. "Ditzy?!" The child opened her eyes to see that her best friend was standing right in front of her; the grey mare stood close to Dinky and shoved her face close up to the child. Causing her to take a few steps back, she broke her focus and tripped over backwards on something, she landed on her back-side and saw that she landed on another horse! "Another girl horsie?!" Dinky chirped at her sudden discovery, she took a good look at what she had tripped over. A white mare with a long and perfectly done mane was lying down on top of a pile of hay; the grown white mare lifted her head up in confusion as to what had kicked her. Dinky got up on her feet, her vision still blinded by the bright light coming from the light bulb at the top of the cage, the mare rose from her resting place and stood up and stretched. She turned her head to get a good look at Dinky, such a strange creature. "That one’s called Rarity, she's a lil' stubborn, so don't let her good looks getcha'" John called out, he watched as Rarity got closer to the child, just like what the stallion had done just a few moments again. "H-Hello..." Dinky greeted the white mare; Rarity lowered her head and took a sniff off Dinky's t-shirt, the mare instantly backed away after smelling the fur-less skin that she possessed. The small smile on Dinky's face slowly fell apart as she had thought she scared the mare away, Dinky walked up to the white mare once again to try and apologize. "I'm r-really s-sorry... I didn't mean to do anything bad horsie..." Dinky reached out for the white mare, but it was no use, Rarity backed away constantly until Dinky gave up with trying to apologize. She let out a sigh of defeat and turned to John who was leaning against the cage wall, he had his hand though the cage as he petted one of the horses that Dinky didn't notice before. The rancher had his fingers ruffled through a pink mare’s mane, Dinky had never seen anything like it before, and there was a pink horse with a fluffy mane. And above all of that, the mare was really happy to see John; all the other horses in the cage didn't seem to be that friendly at the moment. Dinky slowly crept over to John and the pink horse and watched the pink mare fell onto her back-side like a dog and waited for her belly to be rubbed. "J-John... can you let me out of the cage... I'm r-really scared..." Dinky pleaded, the rancher looked up at the child and paused what he was doing with the pink horse. "Are ya' gonna scream at ma' boss again? He wasn't too happy that ya' wasn't so calm, he don't like it when people scream cus'a his looks." John gave Dinky a cold hard stare, the child blushed and looked away from the rancher feeling scared about meeting that strange talking monster again. "I'm really sorry..." Dinky dug her foot into the hay. "I shouldn't have screamed... I was just scared... I thought he was going to eat me..." Dinky apologized. "C'mere." John snapped his fingers, he gestured for the child to come over to the bars of the cage next to the pink mare who watched the scene unfold. Dinky walked over to the bars and tried to keep no eye contact to John. The rancher put his hands through the cage and grabbed Dinky's small cold hands; she looked up at the silhouetted face and stared at it. "Now, ma' master wants ya' t'help him solve this lil' mystery with th' magical fancy whatchamacallits, and he is tryin' to look for some buried treasure around here. It th' magic in th' head band works, then me might share what he finds with ya'." John lowered his tone of voice, he seemed to be putting on his friendly tone of voice and Dinky began to understand what he was saying. "But what about all of the horsies?" Dinky asked; she turned her head to face the new horses she had met and now realised that more than just the Stallion, Rarity and Ditzy were watching her. There was a horse just like Scootaloo, only which it had blue fur on it with large wings and rainbow coloured hair. A yellow horse which was wearing a big cowboy hat, a purple unicorn with a purple mane, Luna, two little fillies that were the same size as Scootaloo but were in different colours and a small purple lizard that was bound in chains in the corner of the cage itself away from the rest of the other horses. They all looked at Dinky and John with caution, standing a great distance between them, but the pink mare didn't change, she stood up on all fours and leaned against Dinky for which she took as a nice warm hug. "See, these horses don't like it when we get th' treasure, ma' master told me to look around town a couple a' weeks ago t' try and find them an' bring 'em back t' him. He thinks that they have special powers that might help us locate th' treasure." John explained to the child, the whole plan was slowly sinking into her head. Choices and uncomfortable decisions arose within her mind, could she even trust him again after throwing her in a cage two times? She had no choice in this, she wanted to find out what the treasure with like, Dinky could be the richest little girl ever. "So what do ya' say? Ya' wanna help ma' master uncover loads of treasure?" To be continued... Authors Notes: I am terribly sorry for those who had to wait for nearly two months for another chapter of the story, this is possibly the only chapter in the whole story that I have had to re-write nearly twice due to the constant holes I was writing in the story. And the fact that I couldn't think of what to do next, some parts of the original draft's that I had for this chapter are still in here, such as the encounter with Discord. All the stuff past his part is the second re-writing. (You know, Dinky in the giant cage.) It's a huge mess, and I am terribly sorry if you have been wondering where the latest chapter has been for so long. Thank you for staying with me and keep on reading! - Glitch.