Part Three: Of Dogs and Cats.
For some reason, going back was always much easier than going away. It was as if an invisible force was always dragging her towards the little town she called home. She was still set on finding the old castle and the lost treasure, but she couldn't just ignore the current situation in order to achieve her own goals. If the treasure had been hidden for thousands of years like Twilight said, then surly it would wait for a few more hours, or even days.
Pinkie was not absolutely sure what she was going to do with the whole Diamond Dog business though. She clearly couldn’t just ignore it, and risk Rarity’s cat, Opalescence, getting hurt, but neither did it seem right to help the thugs rob her friend. Her only choice seemed to be to start with warning Opal, and then take it as it came from then on. And as usual, everything turned out better than expected; at least, it did not turn out as expected.
When Pinkie arrived back in Ponyville, the sun was already tuning the fluffy little clouds into pink cotton candy, and the lamps of the houses made the little town look like a cluster of stars in the evening twilight. All the other ponies were already inside, spending time with family or reading a book before bedtime. Rarity was probably asleep already, unless some important fashion-project was keeping her up late, and her cat was playing in the big tree outside her boutique. Pinkie trotted right up to the tree and announced her arrival by clearing her throat and addressing the cat.
“Excuse me Mr. Opalescence” she said, hoping she did not miss on the gender of the cat. “I’m sorry to bother you, but there are lots and lots of Diamond Dogs in the forest that mean to harm you. I really think you should go into hiding or something, just to be safe!”
Pinkie noticed that the cat was looking at her as if it understood her. It was standing there, apparently in deep thought for a long moment, before it jumped down from the tree and spoke in a deep serious voice.
“How many do you mean by ‘lots and lots’ exactly?”
Pinkie, who had never heard a cat talk before, was slightly taken aback by this, but decided to hide it to the best of her ability. After all, she would have been terribly insulted if anypony had been shocked that she could talk, so why wouldn’t that go both ways? Even so, it took her a moment to answer.
“Um, I’d guess a couple of hundred, maybe three hundred.”
“I see” the cat responded with no visible emotion. “Walk with me, you can tell me the details on the way.”
And so they started walking back into the forest towards the place Pinkie had met the dogs. As they walked Pinkie told Opal everything she could remember of the meeting. Opal mostly kept quiet and let her talk, but once in a while he would shoot in a comment or a question.
As they walked through the forest in the ever growing darkness, Pinkie started to notice movement in the corner of her eyes. At first she figured it was just her imagination running wild, but soon it became clear that the two companions were no longer alone. It took her a while to realize that it was a myriad of cats that were lurking trough the shadows. Some were familiar housecats owned by ponies living in Ponyville, others were stray cats she had seen in the streets and outskirts of the village, but a vast majority was strange, wild-looking cats that she could only guess that were native to the Everfree Forest.
By the time they stopped, just close enough to the dog’s camp to be able to her their barking and digging, but far enough away not to be spotted, the sea of cats covered the forest floor for as far as Pinkie could see. In the dark it was hard to make any estimates, but the overwhelming number of gleaming eyes suggested that the cats by now easily outnumbered the dogs three to one.
“Mrs. Pie, a word with you, please.” Opalescence waived Pinkie away from the flock to get a private word. “We don’t normally include ponies in our affairs. We are an ancient order, sworn to protect all good creatures against evil. We have chosen to take on the role as humble pets in order to protect ponies without raising suspicion. You have been a great help to us tonight, and we truly appreciate that, but I have a few more requests that I would like for you to consider.”
Here he paused a few seconds to allow Pinkie to reply; but this kind of formality was more than she was used to, so she just smiled and nodded.
“Firstly,” Opal continues. “I would ask you to stay here and to not interfere in our operation. If anything should go wrong, or if you get frightened, or if you don’t want to stay here for any other reason, I’d ask you to return to Ponyville and act as if you know nothing of this event. Do you understand?”
“Stand here and do nothing, or go home. Not interfere with operation. Got it!”
“Good.” The cat said. “Secondly, and this is important, I would highly appreciate it if you would keep our order a secret. As I said, we play the role of pets so ponies will keep us close and let us into their villages and homes without giving us any special notice, it would be an unimaginable setback to our order if ponies learned to much of our secrets. Do I have your word on that?”
“Of course! I’m a master at keeping secrets!” Pinkie proclaimed proudly, while preforming a rather queer miming act where she locked her mouth with a key and buried the key under a house. “But I was thinking: if your order is so old and full of secrets, maybe you could help me with a little treasure hunt of mine?”
The cat looked at her for a moment, and then, for the first time, it smiled at her. “When this situation is dealt with, we will be at your service. If there is anything we can do to help you, we will.” He then motioned the other cats to get into position, and with Pinkie as a motionless bystander they all started pouring into the dogs’ camp.
---
Pinkie did not move a muscle. The curiosity and urge to know what happened just beyond that wall of trees was filling her like a balloon ready to burst, but she was not a pony to go back on her promise; so she stood silently, tripping her hooves and listening.
The moment the cats charged there had been an immense racket, consisting mostly of loud barks, at first of surprise and fright, but then of anger and defiance. Then the sound of claws digging or running, as if the dogs were on the retreat.
Throughout the whole session she did not hear a single sound that could have come from a cat. In fact, they were so eerily quiet that Pinkie started to wonder if she had indeed traversed the forest with a group of ghosts. She then sent a quick prayer to Luna that ghosts indeed were just an old pony-tale as her granny had assured her, but it had limited effect, for the forest did suddenly feel even darker and stranger than it used to.
Pinkie did still have her mind on ghosts when, what seemed like hours later, a rustling in the bushes made her jump startled several feet into the air. It took her a moment to make out in the darkness what had made the sound, but she let out a loud sigh of relief when the form of Opalescence and two other cats became distinguishable in front of her.
“Mission accomplished” Opal smiled at her, and motioned her to follow him. “We will need a moment to go over the scene before we can leave, but as soon as that is over with I fully intend to honor my promise and see if I can help you with whatever it was you needed help with.”
“Just take your time!” Pinkie chimed while jumping around, still ecstatic that she could move again. “I'm not in a hurry.”
Opal led a small group of cats back into the recent battlefield, and Pinkie followed close behind. The cats were communicating in a silent kind of body-language that Pinkie did not understand, but she decided to be patient and not to disturb them. The cats showed Opal trough the field where other cats were busy filling up the holes dug by the dogs, and tearing down their tents. Pinkie noticed a few dogs lying wounded on the ground, but most seemed to have escaped. She also noticed that there seemed to be none hurt amongst the cats, so she concluded the element of surprise must have worked really well.
After about half an hour of surveying the area, Opal finally seemed pleased and turned once again to Pinkie.
“Thank you for your patience,” the cat said politely. “And thanks for tipping us off in the first place, without you. This could have gone much worse.”
Pinkie just smiled and bowed her head at the compliments, hoping it was time for Opal to follow through with her promise; and she didn’t have to wait long, for the cat was quick to get to the point:
“So, to what purpose was it that you would like to request our assistance?”