Sweetie Belle's horn glowed with light green magic, but it faded quickly. She gathered all her magic and tried again, the book in front of her glowing. However, the glow faded again before the book moved.
“I don't think I'm cut out for this, Dinky.” Sweetie sighed. “Maybe I should just go crusading with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom...”
“Magic takes work and time, Sweetie Belle.” Dinky explained kindly. “I'm sure you'll get it if you try your hardest.”
“But if it was my special talent, wouldn't I already have my cutie mark?” Sweetie asked.
“For it to be your special talent, you would have to be good at it.” Dinky said, “and to be good at it, you need to take the time to learn.”
“You're starting to sound like Ms. Sparkle.” Sweetie Belle muttered.
Dinky rolled her eyes. “Just keep practicing.” The gray filly's horn glowed with yellow magic as she tried to cast the spell she had been working on for the past few days. Sweetie Belle watched, amazed. The glow grew brighter and brighter, Dinky closing her eyes in concentration. Finally, she released the magic and there was a huge flash. Sweetie Belle shielded her eyes with her hoof.
The magic faded and both fillies looked at the aim of the spell; a purple bow. “Still purple.” Dinky sighed. “That spell was supposed to turn it back to orange.”
“What spell was that?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“It was an anti-illusion spell.” Dinky explained. “It's supposed to change anything back to its original form. It means that if you changed your appearance with magic, this spell could undo it. But it's complicated and powerful; I can't get it to work.” she sighed again and levitated the bow into her hair with her magic.
“Where'd you get the bow?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“I made it myself.” Dinky looked back at her book and flipped to a certain page. “I was working on a teleportation spell and somehow ended up with a random orange ribbon. I made a bow out of it when I couldn't find the owner.”
Several minutes passed, Dinky reading her book and Sweetie Belle practicing magic. Eventually, both fillies raised their heads when they heard hoofsteps behind them. Dinky almost jumped out of her seat in shock when she saw a tall unicorn guard in armor trotting over to them.
“Excuse me, little fillies.” he addressed the two. “But have you noticed any suspicious ponies around who only started to act odd at some point in the last few days?”
“Umm... no.” Dinky replied, nervous that a guard was talking to her. This was a guard, and most likely a royal guard from the armor he was wearing.
“Please inform somepony of the royal guard that are now stationed around Ponyville if you see any suspicious ponies. We have heard that there may be changeling spies in this town.”
“Really?” Dinky's eyes grew wide. Not in fear, but excitement. If she could master this spell now, she could reveal evil creatures to the royal guard. How proud would her mother be then?
“Yes.” The guard nodded and trotted away, leaving Sweetie Belle and Dinky to stare after him in silence. Finally, Dinky packed up her books quickly than ran off. Sweetie Belle ran off in the other direction.
I have to tell the others about this interesting development. the white unicorn thought.
-
Crystal and Pinkie bounced alongside each other down the road. Crystal cracked open one eye as she bounced, and spotted Sugarcube Corner coming up. “Uh... Pinkie?” she asked, “Why are we back at Sugarcube Corner?”
“We have to pass it to get to Carousel Boutique, silly.” Pinkie explained, opening her eyes so she could look at Crystal while she spoke. “Then we have to pass it again o go see Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres, then we have to pass it again to go see Fluttershy at her cottage.”
“But why don't we just visit everypony on one side of the town, then visit everypony on the other, instead of zig-zagging all over?” Crystal asked.
Pinkie Pie stopped and tapped her chin with her hoof, considering it. Crystal stopped as well, waiting for the silly pink pony to come to a conclusion.
However, Pinkie's decision wouldn't matter much because at that moment Mrs. Cake poked her head out the door of the bakery. “There you are, Pinkie!” she called, sounding relieved. “We need you to foalsit, emergency order of muffins has to go out today about three towns over!”
Pinkie looked disappointed for about... maybe two and a half seconds. “Alright, Mrs. Cake. Come on, Surprisie, we'll visit the rest of my friends later.”
-
A young pegasus colt weaved through the thick forest. “What direction should the castle be in?” he asked his microphone. Two different voices came through the speaker.
“It should be straight ahead.” the first one said. This was the colt's sister.
“Be careful out there.” a second voice warned. This was the colt's friend.
“Affirmative. And don't worry, nothing can harm me.” the colt continued walking through the thick forest. “Danger is my middle name.”
Suddenly, he heard a growling. He flipped around, seeing a huge tiger behind him. She flapped his wings, propelling himself out of the way of its claws. It growled louder and reached out with its paws to slice at the the colt again, but he swooped under it and punched it under the chin. It gave out a howl of pain and fell to the ground.
The colt nearly gasped when he saw pink hooves holding the tiger. They picked up the creature and pulled it into the sky above, out of sight of the colt. “The evil party twins.” he growled.
“The evil party twins?” the colt's sister asked through the speaker. “Have they struck?”
“Yes, but now's not the time.” the colt crouched behind a bush as he saw giant pink hooves walk by through the forest. The monstrous voice of the hooves' owner echoed through the forest.
“Where be the young colt who wishes to steal our treasure?”
Another voice echoed in response to it as huge white hooves appeared. “Maybe he passed us. Perhaps we should wait for him to appear at our castle.”
“Great idea!”
The two giant ponies raced through the forest. The colt decided to fly after them, just out of sight. Eventually, he saw a giant palace in the distance. He gasped; on top there was his prize; a beautiful crystal.
But the Evil party twins heard him.
“There he is!” the white one shouted. “Attack!”
Both leaped at the colt, who was too surprised to avoid the attack.
Crystal wrapped her hooves around Pound Cake, accidentally knocking over a few 'trees' (books and sticks standing straight up) in the process. “I've got him, Pinkie!”
“Lock him in the dungeon!” Pinkie declared, giggling afterwards.
“Got me! Got me!” Pound Cake shouted.
“We have to send in reinforcements, General Pumpkin!” Dinky declared. The two unicorn fillies raced over to the 'forest' and pounced on Crystal. The changeling fell to the ground, faking a scream of agony.
“Pinkie, help your fellow party twin!” she called.
Pinkie raced over and picked Pumpkin up in her mouth, dragging her away. Dinky raced after her. She fake-growled at Pinkie and lit up her horn with harmless magic to make it look like she was attacking her. Pinkie pretended to fall over in pain.
“No!” she squealed. “Your powerful magics have killed me!”
“We defeated the evil party twins!” Dinky declared.
“Not until you defeat me and take our crystal, Sergeant Dinky Hooves!” Crystal reminded her. While they had battled Pinkie, Crystal had taken Pound Cake and pretended to chain him up next to the palace.
Dinky used her magic to levitate Pumpkin on her back and ran towards Crystal like a war horse. Pinkie was lying on the floor behind them, giggling loudly.
“Did I ever tell you you're terrible at playing dead?” Crystal laughed at Pinkie.
Then Dinky collided with her. “No! You have struck me!” the changeling shouted out in fake pain. Pumpkin jumped onto the castle (the toy box) and grabbed the crystal (a stuffed toy) in her mouth and carried it over to Pound.
“Let's get out of here, Agent Pound and General Pumpkin!” Dinky surrounded the twin foals with her magic and carried them over to their crib.
“I have a question.” Crystal raised her hoof in the air like she was a school filly asking her teacher a question. Pinkie continued the visual metaphor.
“Yes, Miss Surprise?” she asked, sitting up.
“How did this game start again?”
All five ponies laughed uncontrollably. “I-I don't r-remember.” Pinkie responded, laughing so hard she stuttered.
And as she watched dinky and Pinkie Pie laughing hard, Crystal noticed something. She was enjoying herself. She hadn't worried about her problems in days. I guess if there were any ponies who could help me feel better, they would be Pinkie and Dinky.
“To bad you didn't get to meet the rest of my friends.” Pinkie said after they finished laughing.
“I'll visit your other friends later.” Crystal said. She stood and trotted over to the twins, who were tossing their prize back and forth in victory. She reached in and ruffled Pound's hair. He giggled then scurried away. “I never thought foals could be so much fun.” Crystal smiled.
“Yeah, they're a hoot!” Pinkie bounced over.
Crystal suddenly noticed Dinky gazing out the window, looking troubled. “What's wrong, Dinky?” she asked.
“Did you notice all the guards outside?” the filly asked, gesturing out the window. Crystal trotted outside to look. There were two guards trotting past and one way on the other side of the street.
“Yeah... why are they here?”
“They've received information about a changeling spy.”
Crystal quickly jumped back, glaring out the window at the guards. When she saw the confused looks on her friends' faces, she forced herself to calm and said, “So... they have, have they?”
“Yes...” Dinky tilted her head at Crystal in confusion, then continued speaking. “I just want to learn that spell soon so I can expose the changeling spy. It would be so nice. My mother would be so proud if I helped banish evil.”
“What do you mean evil?” Crystal asked. She immediately stuck her hoof in her mouth after saying it, internally face-hoofing for letting that slip. Still, it upset her when somepony called her race evil. She was their princess, after all.
“You don't think they're evil?” Dinky asked. “But they tried to invade Canterlot and take over Equestria! I even heard a rumor that their queen tried to kill Celestia!”
“You did?” Pinkie asked, tapping her hoof on her face. “I don't remember her trying to kill the princess. She got hurt pretty bad, though.”
“Well, maybe not everything is as you think.” Crystal said quickly. “I mean, they could have had some reason other than selfishness to invade Canterlot.”
“I don't know why you can think they're innocent after they tried to take over our home.” Dinky glared over at Crystal.
“No one is entirely innocent, Dinky.” Crystal pointed out. “But there's a good reason behind everything.” Dinky continued glaring suspiciously at Crystal, but Pinkie nodded.
“That makes sense!” Pinkie whispered to them. “Like how I stole those cupcakes from the Cakes, but it was because the twins wanted them so bad. I did something bad, but there was a reason for it!”
Crystal, eager to change the subject, pointed out the window at a yellow pegasus walking down the street. “Isn't that Fluttershy?” she asked.
Pinkie glanced out the window. “Yes! I was expecting her!”
The three of them ran down the stairs to greet Fluttershy. Pinkie was there first, flinging open the door and shoving a hoof in the pegasus's mouth before she could speak. The pink pony gestured behind her as Crystal appeared, and Fluttershy nodded. Pinkie took her hoof out of the pegasus' mouth and said, “Hiya Fluttershy!”
“Hello Pinkie.” Fluttershy responded in her usual quiet tone. “I came over with one of my animal friends to talk about... yesterday. When you... visited.”
Crystal gave Pinkie a confused glance before waving to Fluttershy. “Hello.” she greeted lamely, not really sure what else to say to this mare she barely knew.
“Hi.” Fluttershy responded.
“Well, how about we go discuss that thing and yesterday and stuff in the kitchen, Fluttershy?” Pinkie suggested. Fluttershy nodded and trotted into the kitchen. Crystal only now noticed the box tied to the yellow mare's back, breathing holes poked into it. Before she could ask anything, however, Pinkie trotted over.
“Can you go back upstairs and keep an eye on the twins for me, Surprisey?” Pinkie asked.
Crystal nodded, trotting back up the stairs, unsure of what was going on. Was it something important? Crystal didn't know, but she enjoyed herself as she played with the foals.
Downstairs in the kitchen, Dinky, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy sat. “Okay, Pinkie.” Fluttershy didn't even have a hint of her usual shyness in her voice. She was all business. Animals were involved. “I think this pet will be perfect for Surprise.”
She bit the strings that held the box to her back, safely dropping it onto the floor. She opened the top, and everypony present gazed inside. A wider smile spread across Pinkie's face.
“I know you said you want the pet to fly, but I think this one is just so cute. She'll love her.” Fluttershy reached a hoof in and petted the small animal within. It let out a quiet call, but Fluttershy just petted it kindly and it quieted down.
“It's great!” Pinkie clapped her hooves together. “Surprise will love her!”
“Isn't it dangerous to keep those as pets?” Dinky asked, concerned.
“Oh, not at all.” Fluttershy assured her. “I've raised this one and her parents and siblings as kind little animals. They wouldn't hurt anypony.”
“It's decided, then.” Pinkie stated. “The pet present portion of Surprisey's party is finished. Dinky gave me her list of ideas for the party, and I'm hoofing out invitations tomorrow. The party is only two days away.”
-
Four figures sat next to each other in almost total darkness. “Why's the light off?” one of them asked.
“I dunno.” another said.
“If you don't shut your trap and listen to me I'm marching you both to Canterlot and hoofing you over to Princess Celestia!” a third one snapped.
“Yes, Meta.” the first one sighed. No need to be a jerk about it...
“Don't call me Meta.” the third one growled. Then he cleared his throat and continued. “I've heard of something that could very well endanger our mission in Ponyville.”
“Which is?” the fourth asked.
“I was out with a pony friend when I overheard something.” the speaking figure narrowed his solid blue eyes. “Long story short, our search for the princess could run us into some complications.”
“Queen Chrysalis will have our heads if we don't find Princess Crystal!” the second figure pointed out worriedly.
“Don't you think I know that?” the third one snapped. “We just keep looking for our princess. If worst comes to worst, we just have to hope she's somewhere else. Chrysalis sent groups all over Equestria to search for her. Someone has to find her, even if we don't.”