"The answer is no, Dinky," Ditzy said with amazement, not believing that her daughter had even considered asking her that.
"Aw come on, he could handle it," Dinky complained while Berry watched the two argue, downing the rest of the booze she had packed. "Why don't you ever think I have good ideas?"
"Dinky, you can be an intelligent filly at times, but what you're asking right now is foolish," Ditzy said with a look. "Mr. Bubbles cannot go with you to your school tomorrow. He might scare the foals, but more importantly he might attack the students there if they are mean to you. I know about the bullying you go through and I know what would happen if they tried it with him around."
"But he listens to me now! And tomorrow is really important! Plus, I already went to school once with him following me and he didn't do anything then, even though Tiara bugged me," Dinky argued, gaining her a look of shock from her mother.
"You let him near other foals? And you didn't tell any of us about him before you did so?!" she asked in pure disbelief as she sat down. "What were you thinking?"
"Well...at the time I was thinking that I had finally found a friend," Dinky said softly. "And he didn't seem dangerous and he spent time with me, so I thought he was nice...which he still is, he just has issues."
"That foolish talk, Dinky and you know it," Ditzy replied with a sigh. "I still can't believe that you want to bring him to your school."
"Why not let him go, I'd love to see this Tiara's face when Bubbles came charging at her," Berry said with a laugh and a hiccup, getting her a glare from Ditzy. "Besides, she has to go back to school eventually and I'm not going to be the one to tell Mr. Bubbles that he can't go with her."
"The point I'm trying to make is that he's too dangerous to allow around other students," Ditzy said with a growl as she placed a hoof to her head. "It's just too dangerous."
"Well, why not let one of the princesses go with her to school that day as well and let them get keep an eye on him while Dinky's in class?" Berry suggested. "That way he has somepony keeping an eye on him and there's a pony whose presence will keep the foals in check as well. It's a win-win." Ditzy lowered her head as she thought about what Berry was saying while Dinky went back over to Mr. Bubbles, who had been standing there watching them.
"I still don't think that it's a good idea, but it might be the best option," Ditzy said sadly as she looked at Bubbles, who had picked Dinky up so she could get into the branches of the tree above them. Ditzy could hear her daughter laughing in the branches above before a sharp snapping sound could be heard. But Dinky had barely begun to fall before a gloved hand grabbed her out of the air, gently placing her to the ground as she shook her head.
"Plus, you can see that Mr. Bubbles had nothing but the safety of your daughter in his mind," Berry said, causing Ditzy to sigh in frustration. She shook her head again and began to pack up the blanket for the picnic, not feeling like being outside right now. Dinky ran over to her, followed by Mr. Bubbles as Berry got up as well. "So, we done for today then or are we going someplace else?"
"I need to go back home and head into work," Ditzy said with a sigh. "I only took half the day off."
"Okay then, guess I’ll look out for Dinky the rest of the day then," Berry Punch said with a smile as she walked over to the filly, but Bubbles put himself between the two of them. "Or not. Welp, since I can't be here, time to go grace the local breweries with my presence." Berry waved goodbye to the three of them before she staggered back into town.
"Okay Dinky, I need to head to work so I want you to go right home," she said in her most serious tone. "No stopping at any stores, okay?"
"I promise that I won't head to any stores," Dinky said as she placed a hoof on her heart. Ditzy nodded before she gave the basket to her daughter before shooting off into the sky. Dinky waited until she was out of sight before she tossed the basket to Bubbles before running towards the town. "Come on Mr. Bubble, I got a few bits that I want to spend and I know the places I want to go spend them." She took a few steps forwards before she realized that Bubbles wasn't following her. "What's the matter Mr. B.?" Mr. Bubbles let out a small groan before he made the cross symbol on his heart that Dinky had made just a moment ago.
"What? I'm going to keep my promise," she said with a sly smile. "I'm not going to any store. I'm heading to the arcade. See, they're not the same thing." Bubbles let out a moan and for a moment Dinky believed that he was shaking his head at her before he began to lumber after her, both of them heading into the town. They reached the arcade half an hour later, mostly due to the fact that Bubbles had trashed a carriage that had almost hit Dinky.
"Okay, here is the game I've been wanting to play," she said as she ran over to a game that had a blue pony that fought against the evil Dr. Willy. "This is one of the harder games to play, so I'm going to need a lot of tokens for this one." She ran over to the token machine as she said this and put five bits inside, waiting for the tokens to come out. "Oh come on, the stupid machine ate my bits!" she growled as she started pounding on the machine. "Stupid crummy...give me back my-!" She yelped as Bubbles drill slammed into the machine, ripping it open so that all of the bits and tokens inside the machine came pouring out. He then bent over and picked up five bits, which he then offered to Dinky.
"Oh...thanks Mr. B., but you didn't have to go that far," she said with a worried look at the machine as the sound of a door being slammed could be heard.
"What in the Faust is going on out here?!" the manager pony said as he came running out, stopping when he saw the destroyed machine. "What did you do?! You..." His words died in his throat when he saw the figure that was standing next to Dinky, his eyes shrinking as they looked from his eight eyes to his giant drill. "Um, miss. I am sorry to tell you this, but I am going to have to ask you to leave." Mr. Bubbles let out a moan and took a step towards the pony, but Dinky grabbed his leg to stop him.
"Come on Mr. B., I think we should leave," she said with a look that said sorry as she and Bubbles left, leaving the pony to look at the destroyed machine with a sigh. "Let's see, next on my list was that cool glass making store down the road, but I think bulls would be less destructive in there then you would be. Soooo...next is the library then." The library wasn't that far, but Dinky wasn't too keen on bringing Mr. Bubbles to Twilight. She knocked on the door once she had gotten there and waited for somepony to answer.
"Oh, hey there Dinky," Spike said as he opened the door. "What brings you to...so that's what Twilight has been talking about," Spike said as he looked up at the giant metal man standing behind her.
"You're not afraid of him?" Dinky asked as Spike ushered the both of them inside.
"Of course I am, but Twilight told me what to do and what not to do to keep him from attacking me," he said as he stood a good ten feet away from Dinky. "So, you here looking for a particular book or are you looking for some spell?"
"The newest issue of Mare-vels' newest series please," Dinky said as she began to look around the room. "So I take it Twilight isn't in?"
"Nope, she's out with the princess," Spike said as he walked over to the comic section, something he had begged Twilight to add to the library. He fished out the issue Dinky was talking about and slid it across the table to her, staying as far away from Bubbles as he could. "That will be three bits."
"I swear the prices are going up," she muttered as she placed three bits on the table, waving to Spike as she went to leave but stopped once she realized that Bubbles was looking at something. "Bubbles, what's the matter?" she asked as she walked over to him. She found him looking at a poster on the wall, the poster talking about the Wondetbolts doing a show that night at the Apple orchard with fireworks.
"I wish I could go to that, but I've got to watch the library," Spike said with a groan as he saw where they were looking. "Of course it wouldn't matter, place is going to be packed so I doubt I could get in." Dinky looked at the flier to the bits in her pocket with a smile before she ran out of the library, Mr. Bubbles following her this time. "Come on Mr. B; let's see if we can get to the place later tonight. Mr. Bubbles let out a groan and followed her out of the library.
===K>
Dinky had spent the rest of the day reading her series to herself, occasionally showing the characters to Mr. Bubbles and joking about how some of them looked while she waited for when she'd head to the show.
"Okay Mr. Bubbles, I think it's about time for us to head out," she said with a smile, looking at the clock as she placed her book on the couch. "Let's get going before all the good seats are taken." Mr. Bubbles followed her out of the house and towards the Apple farms. But only once they were halfway there did Dinky realize that it was going to be a lot harder to get in than she thought.
"Man that's a lot of ponies," Dinky muttered as she saw the massive crowd in front of them. "I don't think that we're going to be able to get through all of that in time. Might as well turn back and-" Mr. Bubbles let out a moan and picked her up, placing her on his head before he began to wade his way through the crowd, pushing ponies out of the way as he made his way closer to the entrance to the farms. Occasionally a pony would yell at them only to be roared down by the Big Daddy. Once they were at the front for the tickets, Dinky hopped off Bubbles and looked up at the stunned sales pony.
"Two please," she said with a smile. The ticket pony slowly gave her the tickets, never taking his fear filled eyes off Bubbles who also kept his eyes on the pony. "Come on Mr. B., the shows about to start," she said as she picked their spot for them, two seats that a pair of ponies had donated when they saw Bubbles approach. Bubbles towered over all the other ponies, allowing him to look across the crowd. He spotted the rainbow pony at the front of the crowd looking like she was about to fall over, while the purple one with the wings and horn sat beside her.
"The show's about to begin!" a pony from the front of the crowd yelled. Sure enough, a moment after they said this three blur's flew over crowd. The ponies in the crowd cheered as the Wonderbolts flew overhead, trails of different colored smoke following behind them as they flew by.
"This is so cool!" Dinky said with a huge smile as she watched the ponies, flying overhead. The Wonderbolts did a particularly cool trick that caused the ponies in the crowd to stand up and cheer, blocking Dinky's view. "Um, could you please move?" she asked the pony in front of her, not getting a response. Bubbles saw this and picked her up, placing her on top of his head so that she could see the whole show. Dinky sat upon his head with a huge smile as the crowd continued to cheer, Mr. Bubbles watching them with cautious eyes during the entire performance.
"Hey Bubbles, you see anything to eat?" she asked him a thirty minutes later when the group was taking a break. Bubbles spied a pony about to eat a carrot dog and he grabbed the dog out of his hooves, roaring at him when he turned to yell at Bubbles. He then offered the food to Dinky, who ate it with a huge smile on her face as soon as the Wonderbolts came back out.
"And now for the fireworks!" a pony yelled before a number of colored missiles shot into the sky, exploding into a multitude of color once they were in the now night sky. "Isn’t this cool Mr. Bubbles?!" she yelled over the explosions, cheering along with the rest of the ponies. "Thanks for taking me to see this! You're the best!" Mr. Bubbles said nothing in reply and he didn't really care about the explosions, but there was only one thing that bothered him. And that was the other explosions. And the screaming. The screaming that never seemed to leave his mind.
===K>
"Something troubling you sister?" Luna asked once she was done raising the moon and watching the fireworks off in the distance. Celestia was sitting on her sister's bed reading a letter, her face telling nothing.
"It is a letter from our most recent associate Ditzy," Celestia said as she finished the letter.
"Who did Bubbles kill this time?" Luna asked with a sigh as she levitated the letter over to her and began to read it.
"Nopony, but Ditzy asked one of us to come watch over him while he's with Dinky at her school tomorrow," she said. "She states that Dinky has to go back to school eventually but she also knows that Bubbles will follow her there. So she's wants one of us to be there in case something happens."
"Should we really be getting involved in something like this?" Luna asked as she floated the letter back to Celestia. "I mean, keeping an eye on the Daddy is important, but following a filly to school?"
"This is the beast that tore three ponies apart and gave us a run for our bits," Celestia reminded her. "So yes, I'd say that this is something we should concern ourselves with. Unless you would rather stay here and do more interesting activities like paperwork and meetings with our tax representatives?"
"Point taken. Very well, I will go down to Ponyville tomorrow and watch over Mr. Bubbles," Luna said as she pulled some parchment off of her table and began to write a return letter to Ditzy. "I just wish that we could figure out what those humans did to Bubbles to make him act this way...and if possible, how to reverse it."
"Well, wishing won't get us anywhere," Celestia said as she stood up to leave. "I will retire for the evening, but I will talk to you tomorrow before you leave. Goodnight sister." Luna waved to Celestia as she left before looking back at the fireworks, thinking again about what she had seen in Bubbles mind. She knew that his actions were not entirely his own, but that didn't make it any less worrisome. "At the very least I wish we could reverse what makes him attack others. Then we might be able to relax a bit." Luna went back to thinking as she said this, never noticing the silver outline that listened to her every word.
'They are so different here, not like the ones I remember,' the silver outline said to itself before vanishing. 'But I wonder if Tenebaum will know how to fix what has been done to the Bouncer.'