Slowly but surely, the first rays of the sun reached house Nr. 11 in the still sleepy and peaceful town of Ponyville. Most ponies were still sleeping in their soft beds on this beautiful Tuesday morning. Just like Manic Moon, who was buried deep in his blanket. Snoring rather loudly, he didn't notice the little filly sneak into his bedroom. Without any warning, she jumped on the end of the bed, right on his tail. Shocked by the sudden pain, Manic nearly fell out of the bed.
"I didn't eat them!" he screamed. Still more sleepy than anything else, he looked for what had caused this rude awakening and found Zelda.
"Good morning daddy! Today is my second schoolday and I´m so excited to see my new friends again." she said while happily jumping up and down on his bed. Manic looked with tired eyes to his alarm clock.
"Zelda! It´s only five in the morning. That´s still three hours till your class starts." he said with his eyes half closed.
"But I can´t sleep anymore. I´m too excited." Zelda whined with a puppy face. But Manic stayed unimpressed.
"You know your big eyes don´t work on me until I´ve got my first cup of coffee." Manic said in respond and wrapped himself into his blanket again.
"But.....but...." Zelda whined again.
"No BUTS Zelda! You know I´m a morning grouch." her father answered half asleep. Zelda was disappointed and just about to leave Manic Moon in bed, when an idea came to her mind. With an evil grin she crawled under the blanket and started to tickle the back hooves of her father.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Stop it Zelda! He he he he he he he! Please! That´s not fair! Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!" Manic laughed. But his daughter was far from ending his torture.
"Will you get up? Will you get up?" she asked with a demanding voice.
"He he he he he he he! Ok! Ok! I give up! Ho ho ho ho ho! I will wake up, but stop this! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" he screamed through his laughs. Zelda was satisfied with this answer and stopped the tickling. Manic was laying on his bed, completely out of breath. His daughter took off into the air and landed at the door, once again smiling at him.
"I´ll see you in the kitchen then. Hi hi hi!" she giggled and walked of. Manic Moon lay in his bed and put one foot up.
"Luna have mercy with me! This filly will break me one day." he whispered. Zelda was already in the kitchen and started to set the table for a healthy breakfast. After not even five minutes, everything was on its place and she was about to look for her father again, when suddenly he arrived in the kitchen. His mane was even bigger mass than usual as he slid over the floor, dragging his front hooves behind him.
"Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!" he said in hypnotically voice. Zelda suppressed a giggle and watched how her still half asleep father reached for the coffee pot and emptied it in ten seconds flat.
"Black gold! What would I do without you?" he said.
"I don´t know. Walk around funny all day." Zelda answered, no longer able to hold back her giggles. Slowly Manic stood up and took a seat at the table next to his daughter.
"Just wait. I will get you for this one. Don´t come to me when the next thunderstorm hits in the night and ask to sleep in my bed young lady." he said grumpily. Zelda snuggled herself up to him.
"You wouldn´t really send me away, would you? You know that I´m afraid of thunderstorms." Zelda said with a sad face. Manic Moon looked in her face and couldn´t resist. He gave her a small kiss on her forehead.
"No. I would never do that." he answered with a warm smile on his face. Zelda smiled back and gave him a kiss on his cheek in return.
"That´s why you are the best daddy in the whole world." Zelda said.
"Toady!" Manic answered and ruffled her mane. Zelda giggled again and they both started to eat.
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Later that day, when Zelda had left for school, Manic Moon was walking through the streets of Ponyville, searching for a job. The problem was that he had never done anything besides being a bartender. He still got the offer to help on the apple farm on the edge of town, but he only could think of this as a temporary solution. There was also this rainbow-maned pony he met at the party. She said they still needed some strong pegasus ponies for the weather team. Manic didn´t like the thought of pushing clouds around all day. He wanted to do something creative, something where he could interact with other ponies. Suddenly he found himself in the middle of the market place. Looking around he found a lot of town folk happyly chatting with venders and buying their good.
"Hmmm. Maybe I should start my own kiosk. But I doubt that anypony would buy alcoholic drinks in public. That means I'd have to open my own bar and I totaly lack the bits for something like that.*sigh* What should I do?" Manic said to himself.
Out of nowhere a little baby dragon bumped into Manic Moon. The big demon pony hardly even felt the impact, but the little dragon was slow to come back to his feet. Then he looked around in pure panic, like he was afraid somepony would see him.
"Are you alright little one? You really should watch where you are going." Manic said.
"I´m sorry, but I´ve got to hide. These bullies are trying to get their claws on me." he answered, still looking around in pure panic.
"What do you mean? Who are you and who wants to get you?" Manic asked confused. The little dragon took a deep breath and started talking.
"I´m Spike the Dragon and I live with Twilight Sparkle in the tree library...." he started.
"Twilight Sparkle! The purple unicorn?" Manic interjected.
"...Yes. That´s her. I once met this teenage dragon and tried to get into their group, but soon enough I found out they were real jerks and it all ended with them crashing into a tree. I thought that was it, but they came to Ponyville to try and beat the hell out of me and Twilight and her friends are in Canterloth to help Princess Celestia with something, so they can´t help me. And now..." Spike's speech was interrupted by a loud scream. The little dragon and the demon pony both turned around to see a gang of three dragons destroying every food stand in their way on the search for the baby dragon. They even set some of them on fire or snapped after ponies, who ran off in pure terror.
"Come out Spike! Come out or we burn down this whole town and all your little pony friends will have to pay instead." a big red dragon sceamed. He clearly was the leader of the group. There were two other attackers. One was a pretty skinny purple dragon with blonde hair on his head, the other one was brown and probadly weighed more than his two friends together. Neither seemed to be the brightest candles in the night, but the leader, this red dragon was the real problem. With his instructions they would burn down all of Ponyville just to get Spike. Before Manic Moon could think more about the situation the little baby dragon slowly walked to the group.
"Ok! Y-You win! But please d-don´t hurt these ponies any m-more." Spike said with a shaking voice.
"Now look who finally came out to get what he deserves. Little Spike wants to protect his pretty and girly horse friends. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" the red dragon laughed and grabbed Spike by his head spikes and lifted him in the air.
"Just....just make it quick, please." the baby dragon said, little tears forming in his eyes. The group of dragons looked at each other and evil grins appeared on their faces.
"You know what Spike? We first will beat you up, than we will burn down this entire town, and when we are done, we will finish you. Just for fun. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" the red one said.
"What? No! You said you would stop if I delivered myself up to you guys." Spike cried in pure horror. The teenage dragons just grinned.
"Well, we lied." the leader said. He lifted his right fist and was ready to punch Spike, who he still held in the air with his left, right into his face. Spike closed his eyes out of fear, when suddenly something rammed into the red dragon's stomach. The attack came with so much force that he was lifted of his feet and the other two had to catch him, to prevent him from landing in the dirt. When all three of them looked up to see who was stupid enough to attack a dragon, they saw a pitch black pony with pure white eyes and extremely sharp teeth. Slowly, Spike opened his eyes to find himself on the back of his savior.
"You.... you saved me. Thank you, but now they will rip you apart." Spike said, with a worried look towards the angry dragons. Manic sat him back on the ground and smiled at him.
"I don´t think so, but you should step back. This could get ugly." Manic said, and pushed Spike back with his wing. The leader dragon got back on his feet and glared at Manic.
"Who the hell do you think you are to attack a dragon? Do you have a death wish or something?" he barked. Manic Moon took some steps towards the group.
"If you stinking little wall lizzards think that I will let you burn down this town and destroy the lives of all this ponies and this baby dragon, then you are even more stupid than you look like. Do you really think just because you are dragons means that you are invincible? I bet you guys have no idea what you are talking to right now right now." Manic said with a stern face.
"Who cares? You are just a very ugly pony. Beat the hell out of him guys!" the leader sceamed. His two companions charged at Manic. The chubby brown one jumped over him and tried to hit his black target with his spiked, mace-like tail, but Manic simply blocked the move with his front hooves. In the same motion he sunk his sharp teeth deep in the dragon's tail. This one screamed in pain as he was dragged around by Manic Moon, who started to spin in a circular motion. Like this, the brown dragon impacted with the purple one and both slammed into the ground. Manic let go of the dragon's tail and turned around. With one swift buck into the flank of the brown dragon, both slid across the ground until they crashed into the water-well of the Ponyville market. The red dragon, Spike and every pony hiding nearby, watched with an open mouth while Manic beat down two teenage dragon like it was nothing.
"By the way, I´m a demon pony and if I were you, I would go now and never ever show my face in a pony town again." Manic said while landing in front of the red dragon. The angry dragon was still looking at his two knocked out friends and then back to his opponent. He seemed to think really fast, and within a few seconds he got an idea.
"I guess you are right. I should go and never come back." he said and spread his wings to fly away.
"Or I could just try THIS!" he screamed and spat one giant flame at Manic, who had no time to react. The deadly flame covered his whole body.
"NOOOOO!" screamed Spike. Most of the ponies around gasped in shock and some mares even fainted. Just the red dragon laughed.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That´s what you´re got for messing with the invincible Gramble. Burn in hell loser. Ha ha ha...ha!" his face went blank as he saw the picture before him. When the flames slowly subsided, everypony could not only see that Manic Moon was still standing on his hooves, he also was completely untouched by them. Only the tips of his hair were glowing a little bit. He had a big, evil smile on his face. With one quick move he punched Gramble in the face and sent him into the air. He jumped after him and flew right above the red dragon, just to smack his back hooves right into the stomach of his victim. Gramble crashed into the ground with Manic Moon landing on him to pin him down.
"Maybe I´ve forgot to tell you that demon ponies are just as fireproof as any dragon." Manic said with a cookie-cutter grin. Then he looked the red dragon right into his eyes, just one inch away from his face.
"Now let me make one thing absolutely clear. If I ever see your stupid face ever again, I will kill you and eat you for lunch. Take you friends and go back into the Bad Lands, before I decide to end this right here right now and Celestia bless you if I ever hear something negative about you again. Clear?" Manic said with a wicked grin on his face. Gramble spit out some broken teeth and watched at the demon pony with fear on his face.
"Crystal clear." he answered. Manic let him go, and he grabbed his still knocked out friends and flew off in no time. Once they were out of sight, everypony on the market started to cheer for their savior. The first one who reached him was Spike.
"I can´t believe it. You did it! You beat them like it was nothing! I can´t thank you enough." he said, and hugged Manic.
"You don´t need to thank me. I couldn´t let them destroy everything or beat you up. I´m just a normal demon pony, we all can do this stuff." Manic said and got a little red. Other ponies came to thank him for saving their kiosk or to guarantee him a discount whenever he was shoping by them. Then finally the Mayor mare herself stepped to his side.
"Mr. Moon, may I ask you to visit me tomorrow in my office in the town hall? I´ve got an offer for you, that could get your interrest." she said with her best diplomatic smile.
"Well, sure, I guess." Manic answered, a little bit confused.
"Wonderful! Just come by at 11 o´clock. Now excuse me please. I´ve got some letters to send. This teenage dragon still did a lot of damage to the town, and it´s up to me to get the repairs started." the Mayor said and walked away. After that the crowd slowly dissolved, and Manic walked back to his house. He sat himself into his favorite armchair and started to read the book he got from Twilight Sparkle.
"Daring Do and the Albino Changeling" he read aloud. Suddenly a picture of Zelda with a white body and shining red eyes crossed his mind and he chuckled.
"I guess she is already special enough for a little changeling, but it still would be funny." he said to himself and started to read the first chapter.
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The book's plot was so compelling that Manic lost his sense of time and only looked up when Zelda opened the frontdoor. He was already in the middle of chapter 6 as his daughter ran into the living room.
"Hello daddy! How was your day?" she said full of energy.
"Quite eventful I would say. I meet this little dragon...." he was about to say, but Zelda already jumped on his lap and cut him off.
"That´s great! Can I ask you something?" she said with her best angel-like face. He sighed and looked into her big blue eyes, that could melt his heart in no time.
"Ok. What is it?" Manic asked.
"Autumn Skies is hosting a big sleepover party this Friday night. Rumble and Dinky are going too. Please, can I go to this sleepover? Please! Please! Please!" Zelda asked with big eyes. Manic thought for a moment.
"Will there be adult ponies in the house too?" he asked back.
"Yes. Her mother and her big sister and the new baby. They will cook something for us and the next day we even get a breakfast. We only need to bring a bedroll." Zelda answered, still with a begging face.
"I don´t know Zelda. One adult mare alone with four fillies, a baby and a teenage pony." her father said much to her disappointment. But she still had an ace she could play out.
"If I go to the sleepover you would be alone the entire Saturday morning, with nopony to wake you." she said with a crooked grin.
"Do you think your friend could have these parties every Friday?" Manic answered hopefully.
"Is that a yes?" Zelda asked happy.
"It is." he said, and started to tickle his daughter without mercy.
"He he he he he he he he! No daddy! Don´t! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Zelda laughed.
"I said I would get my revenge. No mercy for early birds!" Manic answered and tickled her even more.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Please forgive me! Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi! Stop it! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Zelda pleaded.
"Never!" her father said. The laughing of the little family could be heard in the whole neighborhood. But nopony minded it even a little bit, because most of them knew since that Ponyville had gotten two wonderful new citizens, and they couldn´t be more happy about it.