“Emerging evil is born whispering,
A forgotten word of creation.
New life boils up from the ground,
Shattering the peace of our land.”
~ “Bio-Booster Armor Guyver (OP theme)” from Bio-Booster Armor Guyver (OVA)
*ting~aling!*
“See you later, Spike!” Dinky called as she walked out the door to the Golden Oaks Library into the late afternoon sunshine. Hearing the muffled reply to her farewell from the interior of the building, the adolescent pony smiled, gently shut the door behind her, and then trotted out into the dusty town street.
Dinky had been working as a part-time helper at the library ever since she had finished her schooling not so long ago. Her original desire had been to research possible activities that might help her to obtain her cutie mark, as she had been the only filly in her class to graduate without one. And as much as she enjoyed throwing herself into various adventures as an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader, none of those pursuits had left any markings on her flank except scrapes in her fur and the occasional bruise.
It was just as well, because while Dinky did enjoy the hooves-on-approach, she found that she enjoyed learning in general far, far more. This curiosity had been actively nurtured by both her mother and her father when he was still at home, and encouraged further by Princess Twilight Sparkle as Dinky spent more and more time at the library, muzzle buried in a tome about this, that, or the other. While the alicorn had not actively taken Dinky under her wing, she had provided insight and guidance when she could, helping to point Dinky in the right direction when a question arose or new pursuit blossomed.
Over time, as the princess’s growing duties required her to spend more and more days away from Ponyville, Dinky had been recruited to helping Princess Twilight’s number-one assistant with the everyday running of the library. Dinky had been thrilled to accept the responsibility, for not only did it provide her with more time to pursue something she enjoyed, it also gave her purpose that her unmarked flank continued to withhold. There had been a level of tension between herself and the town’s resident dragon at first, but eventually they were able to settle into a comfortable working dynamic—Dinky easily falling in her role as the number-three assistant (after Spike and Owlowiscious) at Golden Oaks Library.
It had probably helped that Dinky’s presence also served to alleviate, just a little, the loneliness that Spike felt towards his surrogate mother’s more and more frequent absences.
Dinky was jerked from her musings by the sound of her name being called, and after looking around spotted two earth ponies her age, one waving a foreleg enthusiastically in the air, the other smiling from behind a fully-laden stand of apples. Grinning, Dinky trotted over in the direction of the two other ponies.
“Hey Sweets!” Dinky greeted the waving pony, who lowered her foreleg to give the grey-violet older filly a hug. The mare in question was light gold in color, with a deep saffron mane and purple eyes. Pulling out of the hug, the pony with the single pillow cutie mark matched her friend’s grin.
“Hey, Dinks!” Sweet Wheat greeted in return. “How goes the library work?” [1]
Dinky shrugged in response. “Same old, same old,” she finally said, “And what about you and your job at the spa?”
“Same old, same old,” Sweet Wheat replied, and the two ponies shared a quick laugh before turning to the third pony present—a similarly golden mare with bright red eyes and a matching bright red, braided mane that was secured at the end with a large pink bow. “I was just chatting with Apple Bloom here about how a good massage does wonders for a pony after working in the fields all day long.”
Apple Bloom snorted a chuckle, shaking her head ruefully. “Ah believe you, really ah do,” she drawled, “But like ah was sayin’ – if mah sister eva caught me gettin’ a massage from ‘Carrot Top’s’ little sister, ah wouldn’t be able to show mah face at the farm eva again.” The pony with the cutie mark resembling an apple bisected by a hammer shook her head once again for good measure, “Y’all know how our two sisters get along, being com-pet-ti-tors in the produce market, an’ all.”
Sweet Wheat rolled her eyes while Dinky laughed. “Are we really going to let our sisters stand in the way of our friendship, AB? Truly, I’m hurt,” Sweet Wheat stated with a slight pout, then ambled behind Apple Bloom while the other warily tracked her movements. The apple farmer jumped slightly as she felt Sweet Wheat’s hooves touch her just behind the withers, and then melted as the other mare began gently kneading in a circular motion.
Grinning slyly, Sweet Wheat brought her face alongside Apple Bloom’s, fully aware that her ministrations had caused the other mare’s eyes to glaze over. “Seeeeee . . .” she whispered into Apple Bloom’s ear, “This isn’t so bad. In fact, I’d be willing to offer you a discount or even a family package deal for you and your siblings! Now, if you just let me have a discount on some of those Red Delicious apples . . .”
“Surrrrre . . .” Apple Bloom purred dreamily, then blinked and shook her head, “Ah mean, no! We’re scrapped as it is this season, SW—ya’ll know that! Your sister’s havin’ the same problem!”
Sweet Wheat paused in her massaging, then smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
“Suit yourself,” she stated, lifting her hooves away from Apple Bloom after giving one last twist that caused the other pony’s entire body to shudder in a way that, given the noise that emerged involuntarily from Apple Bloom’s muzzle, was not exactly unpleasant. The apple farmer glared pitchforks at the other mare as she sauntered back around the apple stand until she was by Dinky’s side again. The grey-violet pony’s cheeks were puffed as she struggled not to laugh.
“You’re evil,” Dinky finally managed to say, which a blushing Apple Bloom seconded with a quick jerk of her head.
Sweet Wheat simply shrugged again while an only slightly cheeky smile graced her face. “Can’t help it if my talents are also useful for trade or as currency,” she stated, then glanced back at Apple Bloom, whose scowling face still carried a bit of her mane’s coloration. “Well, most of the time anyway.” [2]
Shaking her head at the two earth ponies' antics, Dinky looked around the marketplace to see if any of their other friends were around. Eventually her eyes settled on a pale yellow pegasus with a light violet mane, cobalt blue eyes, and a single feather marking her flank. The young mare was standing perfectly still in the center of the usual market hullabaloo, gaze unfocused and mouth slightly ajar as she stared upwards towards the sky.
“Hey, Alula!” Dinky exclaimed with a shake of her foreleg.
The pegasus’s ear twitched as the sound of her name reached her, and slowly she tilted her head until her eyes met Dinky’s. Gradually, a small, awkward smile made its way onto Pluto Alula’s features. [3]
“Heeeeyyyyyy . . .” she replied slowly, then turned her body to fully face Dinky, Sweet Wheat, and Apple Bloom. This motion caused her to bump her flank into a cart full of watermelons, which upended, pouring the rolling fruit onto the street. Several ponies tripped as their legs were knocked out from under them by the thundering melons, while others managed to dodge, jump out of the way, or (in the case of pegasi) take to the air. However, some of the dodging ponies failed to look before they leapt, causing them to crash into other stands lining the market square, leading several of the stands to tip over and pour their wares into the street as well.
Soon the market was in chaos. Oblivious to the screams of pain, exclamations of surprise, and crashes of wooden boards, Alula trotted over to her friends with the same vapid grin, while Dinky, Sweet Wheat, and Apple Bloom vacillated between expressions of shock, horror, dismay, and finally resignation. Noticing her friends’ expressions, Alula turned around and took in the pandemonium occurring behind her.
“Huh, wonder how that happened . . .?” she stated, and the three other mares suddenly felt the simultaneous urge to facehoof and/or fall on the ground.
“Alula, dear . . .” Sweet Wheat began cautiously, “What . . . what exactly were you doing in the middle of the market out there?”
In response to the question, Alula’s dim grin brightened by a few lumens.
“Ohhhh . . . you know those little dust spots you can sometimes see in your eyes?” she replied, and when three other ponies slowly nodded continued, “Well, I was tryin’ to decode the messages they’re tryin’ to send to me.”
The overwhelming urge to faceplant returned to the three other mares.
“So, umm . . .” Dinky started with a strained smile, trying to ignore the slow throb inside her skull, “you were trying to . . . decode ‘messages’?”
“From dust spots,” Apple Bloom stated more bluntly, the other two mares wincing at her tone.
Once again seemingly oblivious, Alula nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I noticed how they always seem to be winkin’ in and out when I’m tracking their movements? Seemed kinda like Horse Code, you know? Tap-tap-tap, rap-rap-rap, tap-tap-tap. Sooooo, I figured they must be trying to send me some kinda message!” she finished with a confident smile. The other three ponies grinned in reply, but their expressions were slightly more askew, the corners of their mouths twitching as if they had to be forced to maintain their positions. [4]
“Tha’ has to be the stupidest, most idiotic thing I eva—” Apple Bloom breathed out, Sweet Wheat and Dinky waving their forelegs and making *shushing* motions behind Alula. Luckily, whatever Apple Bloom was about to say was cut off by a haughty peal of laughter and voice that oozed self-aggrandizement and inflated ego.
“Well, well, well, look what we have here,” Diamond Tiara chortled with a smirk as she strode up to the quartet of ponies. She was followed as always by her dear friend, Silver Spoon, who, though also smirking, was not doing so as brilliantly. The two were followed by a small posse of past-school age fillies and colts—the usual bottom-feeders that latched onto the most popular pony around for pure survival’s sake.
“If it isn’t the Derp-tastic Trio,” Diamond Tiara continued, raising one hoof in Alula’s direction, “First off: Princess Erroria!” Glancing behind her, Diamond Tiara looked over the market corridor, still in disarray from the earlier watermelon stampede. “Whose talent for wanton destruction obviously has still yet to reach its peak!” she concluded, and her friends giggled around her while three of the four mares under target glared at the pink and purple pony while Alula looked back and forth confusedly.
“Heeeeeeyyyyyyyy . . .?” Alula finally replied with a rise of confused consternation. Diamond Tiara looked back at her posse with a small smile, making a ‘What can you do’ gesture with her foreleg and wagging her brows.
Turning back around, Diamond Tiara gestured at Sweet Wheat, “And next we have ‘The Noi’—noisy, nosey, obnoxious, and annoying!”
Sweet Wheat just stared deadpan at the clearly projecting pink pony. “You’ve been saying the same thing since grade school—it still doesn’t make any sense,” Sweet Wheat remarked, a logical point which Diamond Tiara covered-up with another chortle of laughter that her groupies gradually joined in on.
After a moment, Diamond Tiara turned to face Apple Bloom, who looked about ready to either upend her apple stand or leap over it so that she could throttle the prissy pseudo-princess.
“They are joined by their friend, Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara stated, and her compatriots murmured briefly in confusion at the lack of a demeaning nickname, but then quieted again when Diamond Tiara continued, “Second-place, runner-up for longest running time before figuring out the completely obvious and getting her own cutie mark!”
While the groupies broke out laughing again, Apple Bloom herself snorted steam from her nostrils.
“Charmed,” she muttered between clenched teeth, though inside she was letting loose a stream of choice words that would have earned her a beaning from both of her older siblings. Diamond Tiara simply smirked in response, and then turned to Dinky, getting ready to lay the coup-de-grace, but losing breath at the fact that the grey-violet older filly was actually smiling at her.
“And f-f-finally we have the l-leader of the trio,” Diamond Tiara stated hesitantly, slightly unnerved by the fact that Dinky was still smiling warmly at her. Coughing once, Diamond Tiara continued more steadily, “The oldest blank flank in all of Ponyville, neigh, all of Equestria!”
Diamond Tiara’s posse cheered, egging her on while Alula, Sweet Wheat, and Apple Bloom glanced at Dinky worriedly. The daughter of Ditzy Doo and sister of Amethyst Star simply continued to smile.
Inwardly frowning, Diamond Tiara took a step forwards towards Dinky, who didn’t move a muscle in response. “A filly so talentless, not even private study with an alicorn Princess can find her a proper place in life!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed, staring Dinky right in the eye.
Dinky continued to smile.
Undaunted, Diamond Tiara took another step closer to the other pony, refusing to break eye contact even as she heard a questioning murmur from her so-called “friends” behind her. Frowning more intensely, she remarked, “A daughter who is such a disgraceful failure, her own father and step-father bailed on her and her family out of Complete. Utter. Shame!”
With these words, the fillies and stallions behind Diamond Tiara grew quiet, and a small frown even settled on Silver Spoon’s face. The gathering itself had not gone unnoticed, and gradually several other ponies were beginning to make their way over to investigate the hubbub they were hearing. Dinky’s friends were all livid, their glares hot enough to spontaneously combust Diamond Tiara if properly focused.
And through it all, Dinky simply continued to smile.
Her last nerve fraying, Diamond Tiara took the final step forward, closing the distance so that she and Dinky were practically muzzle to muzzle. “Presenting, DERPY HOOVES the SECOND, Ms. Dinky Donkey Dunderhead Doo!!” Diamond Tiara nearly screamed, her twitching, somewhat mad, cornflower-blue eyes boring into Dinky’s own golden ones, daring her to make a response. Any response.
“If you really wanted to kiss me that badly, you should have just asked.”
Diamond Tiara reared up, a look of horror etched on her features as gasps of shock echoed around the now much larger crowd. Pluto Alula, Sweet Wheat, and Apple Bloom shared similar expressions of astonishment that after a moment gradually gave way to ear-splitting grins.
“W-w-w-w-w-w-what?!?!” Diamond Tiara stammered.
In response, Dinky just traced small circles in the dirt with her hoof, her eyes darting shyly between Diamond Tiara and the ground. She had the same small smile on her face, though now the smile was punctuated by a pair of rosy dots on her cheeks.
“Wellllll . . . it’s obvious from everything you just said that you’ve been paying a lot of attention to me,” Dinky stated, her eyes still flitting between glances at Diamond Tiara and the ground, “I mean, I’m kind of flattered actually. As you said, I’m really a pretty boring, ordinary filly. And to receive the express attention of one of the most popular, wealthiest, and, well, most beautiful mares in Ponyville . . .”
Dinky stopped tracing her hoof and looked up, gazing into Diamond Tiara’s eyes with an expression so worshipful that the other mare found herself frozen in place, unable to look away.
“I guess, wow, how could I say ever say no to that level of adoration?” Dinky finally remarked, taking a step closer to Diamond Tiara, who tried to back away but was blocked by the now much larger crowd that encircled them.
“Stay away!! I never meant . . . You’re twisting my . . . I’m not that kind of . . .!” Diamond Tiara stuttered haphazardly, her attention divided as her eyes darted around looking for an exit, any exit. But alas, Dinky only drew closer, nodding her head sagely.
“I know, I know, this is new for me too,” Dinky said, “But no matter what happens, I’ll always think of you as a good friend, Tiara.” Diamond Tiara’s head whipped around at this remark, and was dismayed to find Dinky has closed the distance so that she was less than a foot away. Smiling gently, Dinky placed one foreleg on Diamond Tiara’s withers, the other mare now starting the quiver and shake as sweat beaded down her face.
“After all, we share so much in common,” Dinky continued, her smile growing a little sadder, “We . . . we both know the pain of having an absent father, who disappears without warning or saying when he’ll be back, if ever.”
“MY DADDY LOVES ME!!!!” Diamond Tiara bellowed, though her words carried more desperation than anger as tears started to well up in her eyes. The pink mare then froze as Dinky pulled her into a gentle hug, patting her back with one foreleg.
“There, there, I know. My Daddy loves . . . loves me too,” Dinky said consolingly, pulling away from Diamond Tiara and holding the stunned mare by the shoulders. “My Mommy always says that as long as we keep the people we l-love in our hearts, then we’ll never have to be scared, or lonely, or s-sad ever again.” Dinky then smiled brightly, though the corners of her own eyes seemed moist as well. “I’m so glad we understand each other so well!”
“You!! You!!” Diamond Tiara stammered, then noticeably brightened when she spotted Dinky’s sister, Amethyst Star, emerging from the crowd to stand by Apple Bloom and Dinky’s other friends. Pointing a shaky foreleg at the magenta-colored mare, Diamond Tiara gazed out at the crowd of ponies who completely dwarfed her former posse, her eyes wild and a grin absolutely manic on her face. “Hah!! Aha! See! See! She’s such a little filly that she needs her Big Sister to come save her!!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed triumphantly, her smile diminishing both at the fact that the crowd was frowning hostilely at her and that Amethyst Star was smiling while shaking her head.
“Eh, nope,” Amethyst stated, floating an apple off from Apple Bloom’s cart after tossing some bits in the collection basket, “Seems to me she’s doing just fine on her own. I’m just here to watch the show so I can brag about it to Diamond Mint at work tomorrow.” Taking a bite from the apple, Amethyst stared and watched the gummed-up gears slowly turn in Diamond Tiara’s brain, and after a few moments decided to cut the frazzled filly a little slack.
“You know, my job . . . at the jewelry store,” Amethyst intoned, gazing between the dumbstruck Diamond Tiara, the cringing Silver Spoon, and the other, confused, well-to-do colts and fillies in the pink pony’s posse. “Where your parents frequently shop.”
It took nearly a minute, but eventually the mare’s words finally struck home. Glancing between Amethyst Star, Dinky, Dinky’s three friends, her own friends, and the crowd of smirking ponies around her, Diamond Tiara rapidly considered the implications of the combination of lost face, public humiliation, the likely loss of her allowance once her parents got wind, and the whole host of really confusing emotions now running through her. She chose to do the only sensible thing she could think of.
Screaming a primal noise that could have woken Discord from his stony slumber if that hadn’t already happened years before, and in a move that would have made Iron Will feeling both proud and slightly inadequate, Diamond Tiara turned and plowed her way through the crowd of ponies, sending several skyborne (to be caught by friendly pegasi) while others quickly moved aside to let the mad mare pass. Within seconds, there was naught a sign of Diamond Tiara aside from a rapidly dissipating cloud of dust.
Diamond Tiara’s groupies quickly followed in the footsteps of their leader, the crowd laughing around them as the seemingly untouchable fillies and colts turned tail. While most of the group simply kept their eyes forward trying to spot the distant speck of their Alpha Pony, Silver Spoon actually paused the briefest of moments to match gazes with Dinky. The blue-grey mare offered the smallest of apologetic smiles, then turned her head back around and exited the square as the tail of the group.
The crowd of ponies who had witnessed the spectacle continued to laugh for several minutes, the loudest chortles coming from those who either knew Diamond Tiara personally or by reputation within the village community. Eventually though the ponies parted, either returning to their businesses or deciding to end the work day on a high note.
Dinky continued to sit and stare in the direction that Diamond Tiara had fled, a mix of different emotions running across her face. Eventually, she felt a presence by her side, and looked up to see her older sister wearing a smile that was at once proud, triumphant, and comforting. After a moment, Dinky matched the expression, and raised one hoof up in the air while Amethyst did the same. Behind the duo, Pluto Alula, Sweet Wheat, and Apple Bloom watched the scene with wide-spread grins on their faces. No spoken words were necessary as the two unicorn mares solemnly tapped their hooves together.
*EPIC SISHOOF, FOR THE WIN!*
* * * * * *
Sometime later, Amethyst Star, her sister, Dinky Doo, and her sister’s two friends, Sweet Wheat and Pluto Alula could be found making their way along the dirt path out of Ponyville towards the Everfree Forest. The jeweler’s apprentice was followed on either side by Dinky and Sweet Wheat, while Alula drifted with wings outstretched in the air above. All four of the ponies wore saddlebags loaded with a combination of fruits, vegetables, and grains.
“Remind me again how we got roped into all of this!” Amethyst remarked irritably as she slowly ambled along, tripping at times as the weight of the bags caused her to make each step deeper and harder than usual
Sweet Wheat managed a strained, apologetic smile. “I know, I know, it’s my fault—I just had to bring up the fact that my sister asked me to take all these carrots out to Fluttershy’s cottage as a favor. And then AB laid a guilt trip about how “ahr little show” closed down business in the market for the day, leaving her with a surplus of apples that had to go somewhere,” she acknowledged.
Amethyst sighed in response, bowing her head and closing her eyes. “No, no, Wheatie, you couldn’t have known the other vendors with drop-offs would get the same idea once they saw us loading up,” Amethyst said, managing a soft smile for the yellow mare at her side. “Don’t mind me, I’m just being a sourpony.”
“Aw, thanks “Big Sis #2,” Sweet Wheat stated with a grin of her own. “At least you’re getting your exercise for the day,” she added, laughing lightly as the older mare groaned.
“How Mom handles this kind of thing every day, I have no idea . . .” Amethyst uttered, squirming slightly under the weight of her saddlebags and drawing another gentle chuckle from Sweet Wheat.
“It’s really not so bad . . .” Alula stated with closed eyes from above, flapping her wings once and then resuming her slow drifting glide, all four legs outstretched, “Fresh air, breeze through your fur and mane . . .”
“Saddlebags digging into my sides, dirt clogging up my hooves . . .” Amethyst grumbled between clenched teeth, and Sweet Wheat chuckled sympathetically.
“Yeah, I know this kind of physical work isn’t too typical for you unicorns,” Sweat Wheat remarked with a small smirk, then frowned and turned her gaze skyward, “Though at least you two I can understand—I have no idea how Alula is pulling off what she is . . .”
“I am Petrochelidon spilodera . . . or maybe Hirundo rustica . . . migrating north whilst carrying a pair of coconuts,” Alula replied lazily, again flapping her wings once before resuming her gentle glide. On the ground, Amethyst and Sweet Wheat winced at the sudden mutual brain freeze, then shook their heads to clear them and continued their slow trot. [5]
Noting the air of quiet on her right side, Amethyst glanced over at her younger sister, whose head was bent low, eyes focused on the ground. “You’re awfully quiet there, Squirt,” Amethyst finally stated with a grin, which weakened when her sister didn’t respond to the familiar jibe. With a gentler tone and light nuzzle, she asked, “Something on your mind?”
At the touch, Dinky’s head bobbed up as if waking from a long sleep. Blinking she glanced briefly at her sister, then back at the ground again. “Oh, it’s nothing . . .” she stated, and Amethyst raised one curious brow.
“‘No lies,’ Dinky,” Amethyst stated firmly, and at the use of the familial phrase, Dinky looked up to meet her sister’s gaze, “Tell me what’s wrong . . .” Hazarding a guess, Amethyst offered, “Is this about earlier, with Diamond Tiara?” Dinky turned away again without a word, but after a moment nodded slowly, so Amethyst gave her another quick nuzzle.
On Amethyst’s left side, Sweet Wheat snorted, “That stuck-up, prissy, pretentious, brat! Honestly, how old does she still think all of us are? Are we really still in Kindergarten?” Cantering slightly in order to get ahead of Amethyst, Sweet Wheat looked over at her distraught friend and stated with firmness, “Honey, you have nothing to feel bad about. Anything that filly gets she earned in spades from bad karma over the years.”
“The kind of girl that does nothing but bad things, and then wonders why her life sucks . . .?”
“Exactly! See, Dinks, even Alula is with me on this one,” Sweet Wheat said with a grin, and after a moment, Dinky looked up with a hard set to her eyes.
“It doesn’t make it right,” she stated, then her face fell and she looked at the ground again, “Even when a pony is mean to you, it doesn’t make it right to treat them mean back . . .”
“Dinky, you unbridled Diamond Tiara by suffocating her with kindness,” Amethyst noted, and froze when Dinky glared up at her with wavering, angry eyes.
“It wasn’t real! I just . . .” Dinky turned away again, now actively choking on a sob as she sat on her haunches. With unspoken agreement, Amethyst and Sweet Wheat also paused, lowering their saddlebags to the ground and settling beside the grey-violet adolescent. With a brief rush of air as she descended, Pluto Alula did the same and joined the gathering.
“I just . . . wanted to get under her skin a little,” Dinky finally said, tears trailing down her cheeks as looked up at Sweet Wheat and Alula. “The same way she was trying to do with all of you, I wanted to do to her. So I did. I used my brain, picked out her weak spots just like she was trying to do to me . . . and went for the jugular.” Covering her face protectively with her forelegs, Dinky shrank into herself as she continued to cry. “I’m a horrible pony,” she stated between sobs, and jumped as she felt one, then two, then three sets of forelegs encircling her.
“Sis, it’s never wrong to stand up for yourself or your friends however you can. So you don’t like the way you handled it this time, try a different way next time,” Amethyst said softly from behind her, rubbing a small patch of Dinky’s fur with her hoof. “But never, ever think that you are a bad pony.”
“The fact that you’re feeling bad about it now just shows how good your heart is, hun,” Sweet Wheat said, picking up the dialogue, “Mean ponies act mean all the time because they want everyone to hurt like they do. Good ponies act mean only when they have to, but never because they really want to. And I know that there is not one mean, nasty bone in your body, Dinks.”
“Universal Fact: Dinky Doo is a good pony, and an even better friend,” Alula stated with a nod, smiling as her words produced a brief laugh from the older filly.
Wiping her eyes, Dinky looked up into the gazes of the huddled mass around her, then smiled genuinely before adding to the group hug herself. “Thanks guys,” she whispered, and the four mares settled as they all realized their friend (and sister) was going to be okay. They stayed like that for a moment, reveling in the peaceful atmosphere and the warm comfort of each other’s’ presence. Friendship is magical . . . [6]
Or at least it is until it gets interrupted by a massiv—*BOOM!!*
At the sound of the explosion and shaking of the ground, all four ponies suddenly grabbed each other tighter, forming a protective sphere. After a minute passed, Amethyst stuck her head up and glanced around slowly. Seeing that the area around them was still intact, she loosened her hold on the three younger ponies and stood up, Dinky, Sweet Wheat, and Alula doing the same shortly afterwards.
“What the hay was that . . .?” Amethyst wondered softly, the other mares nodding as they had the same thought.
Taking to the air and looking around for any sign of where the noise had come from, Pluto Alula’s eyes alighted on a trail of smoke drifting up from somewhere within the Everfree Forest. Pointing a foreleg, the pegasus exclaimed, “Over there, guys!”
Turning around, Dinky spotted the same smoke trail above the forest treeline. Her former woes were forgotten as a spark of youthful curiosity and excitement quickly stomped the other feeling into submission. Grinning widely, Dinky broke into a gallop, tilting her head briefly to cry out, “Come on, let’s go check it out!”
While heartened by the fact that her younger sister seemed to be feeling better and more herself, a twinge of worry crept up Amethyst’s spine as she looked between the retreating forms of her sister and the light-yellow pegasus, and the mysterious smoke cloud that possibly heralded unknown danger. “Get back here, you two!” she exclaimed, breaking into a gallop herself as she made pursuit.
“Guuuuyyyysssss! What about the—” Sweet Wheat declared desperately, gesturing at the mislaid saddlebags still full of goods to deliver. The earth pony bit her lip, glancing between the bags, her retreating friends, the bags, her retreating friends, the bags . . .
“Oh, Chantenay carrots!” Sweet Wheat finally declared in exasperation, then broke into a gallop herself as she tried to close up the lead the others had gained. “Wait up for me!!”
* * {Sometime Earlier} * *
He was cornered.
At long last, the brown-coated stallion’s pursuers had caught up with him near the far edge of the Everfree Forest. They now surrounded him in a semicircle within a small clearing bordered by a rocky, moss-covered hill. The pony’s eyes darted around as he backed up to the edge of the rock, looking for any possible escape route, but his pursuers had both the low and high grounds covered; there was nowhere left to run. Sighing, he bowed his head, took a deep breath, and then looked up with rigid determination to meet the unblinking gaze of his captors.
Changelings.
A squad of at least eight of the insectoid equines now surrounded him, some standing on the ground with their perforated legs, others hovering in the air with their tattered wings loudly buzzing. Virtually indistinguishable, each of the changelings were roughly the size of a full-grown pony, covered in ebony chitin instead of fur, and possessing gnarled versions of a unicorn’s horn on their foreheads. Their eyes were all a monochromatic light blue, yet conveyed expression and malice through the aid of rigid brows and sharp, curving fangs in their sneering mouths. On their backs were blue, saddle-like mounds on which the translucent wings of grounded changelings rested, the mounds seemingly held in place by aquamarine straps that wrapped around their barrels.
And above these straps, mounted just beneath the chest of each changeling, was a shiny, deep blue, ovoid gem.
One changeling, apparently the leader given his unique, blue helmet and armored collar, took one step forward towards the pony. <You may as well drop the disguise, Doctor. You’re not fooling anypony here,> the Changeling Commander communicated through a series of clicks, hisses, and a buzzing of his wings. [7]
Sighing once again, the brown-coated stallion with the double triangle cutie mark bowed his head in defeat. It seemed time to face the inevitable.
With a roar, a circle of neon green flame erupted from the ground around the pony, growing until it formed a dome around his form. A moment passed, and then in a flash, the flames dissipated.
Where the stallion had stood now rested another changeling, wearing the same saddlebags around his middle and carrying the third in his own fanged mouth. [8]
The Changeling Commander sneered at the new sight before him, and then resumed a dead serious, almost angry expression. <Doctor Ephemero, you are charged with high treason against the Queen-Mother Chrysalis as a result of the theft of her majesty’s property, conspiracy to do the same, and breaking the fundamental laws of our kind,> the Commander intoned gravelly, <What say you?>
Softly, but with gradually increasing intensity, the captive changeling began to shake, his wings buzzing furiously as he unleashed a crazed peal of laughter that caused the assembled insects to draw back slightly in primal terror. Grinning maniacally, Doctor Ephemero lowed the satchel in his mouth to the ground, then stared directly at the Changeling Commander and spat out, <You complete. Utter. Foal!!>
Seeing the confusion in his fellow changelings’ expressions and body language, the doctor continued, <Do you have any idea, any idea, whatsoever, about what our dear, sweet, merciful Queen-Mother has done to us all?!> Pointing to the gem on his torso, which unlike his brethren was pulsing with soft, white light, he queried, <Do any of you know what these things actually do to our kind?!>
Several of the drone changelings snorted and chuckled, and one bellowed proudly, <They are our salvation! A gift from the Queen to save us all from our constant hunger; to make us stronger than we could have ever dreamed!> A withering glare from the Changeling Commander shut the lesser insectoid up, but rather than mollify the doctor, it only resulted in his laughing louder.
<As expected from a low-rank drone!> Doctor Ephemero barked, then turned to face the lead changeling. <And what of you, Commander? Do you also buy into the party line, or is there something of a brain hiding beneath that encrusted helmet?>
In response, the Changeling Commander frowned deeper. <Ours is not to question, ours is merely to obey,> he stated, then narrowed his eyes nearly to slits. <And your betrayal will mean your death.>
Again, the doctor laughed. <I’m already dead, my brother,> he stated, looking around the assembly of his fellow kind, and gesturing with one hoof, <You’re all already dead!> Moving his hoof to his chest, Doctor Ephemero pointed to the gem which was lodged there. <This is the death of our race!> he proclaimed, then pointed at the satchel on the ground, <And so are these! I’m no traitor, I’m trying to save our people!> Grinning, he looked again into the face of the Changeling Commander, whose impassivity was starting to waver. <I am in full compliance with our most sacred of trusts, for I faithfully serve ‘The Greater Good’.>
<‘The Greater Good . . .’> the assembly of drones repeated, and it took all of the Commander’s willpower not to join in the ritualistic repetition of the key phrase that was programmed into every changeling from the moment they hatched.
Shaking his head, the Commander glowered at the still grinning doctor. <You. Are. A. Traitor!> he bellowed, half for his troops’ benefit and half to convince himself of the same, <One such as you could never serve, much less begin to comprehend, ‘The Greater Good’!>
<‘The Greater Good . . .’>
<SHUT IT!> the Commander ordered with a roar of his wings, and then turned back to his prisoner, slowly drawing closer to him. <You . . . are going . . . to die, traitor.> he hissed between clenched fangs, stepping forward until he was nearly muzzle-to-muzzle with Dr. Ephemero, <Any last words?>
Again, Doctor Ephemero smiled, though this time it was a small, sad one. <‘It is a far, far better thing I do, than I ever done,’> he stated softly, and taken aback at the change in tone, the Commander slowly stepped away from his fellow changeling. Reaching down, Doctor Ephemero took the third satchel back his mouth, and on the doctor’s torso the gem embedded there began to glow an increasingly intense white. Though his speech was slightly altered by the presence of the satchel strap between his teeth, he continued the Charolais Dickens quotation, <‘It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’>
Still slowly backing away, and motioning through gesture for his troops to do the same, the Changeling Commander hesitantly stated, <Doctor . . . be reasonable . . .>
Smiling serenely, the doctor replied with difficulty, <Like I said, Commander, I’m already dead. I’m just upping the timetable.> The gem in Doctor Ephemero’s torso now blazed like a small star, small cracks of light leading outwards from it across the changeling’s ebony body. Looking the Commander dead in the eye, Doctor Ephemero said in plain Equestrian, “And not you, your drones, or the tyrant Chrysalis herself is going to get these units back over my dead body.” [9]
The changeling doctor vaguely heard something sounding like a cry to retreat before everything went white. The last conscious thought he had before the wave of warmth wiped everything away was simply, ‘Forgive me, your Highness . . .’
Elsewhere in Equestria, the final message of a faithful servant was sadly received. 'You are forgiven, Ephemero,’ was the reply that would never be heard as a single tear traced its way down a dark-colored cheek.
END CHAPTER TWO