//------------------------------//
// The Henchman 
// Story: Ask Chatterjoy 
// by Chatterjoy 
//------------------------------//

	Chatterjoy looked around Princess Twilight's lab. She had come to ask the Princess about something but she couldn't remember what it was. Twilight had left a few minutes prior to take care of ponies coming in for some friendship counseling. She had also given specific directions that Chatterjoy was to not touch anything with her hooves.

Chatterjoy never said she wouldn't touch with anything else. Oh for example, let's say one of those toy things that let's you pick things up. The moment the princess had left; Chatterjoy had pulled out her contraption with a devilish grin. She began to lift up vials with liquids that were different colors and began to mix them.

"This is so much fun! No wonder the princess loves to work down here!" Chatterjoy exclaimed excitedly. The beaker that she had been pouring the liquids in finally filled to the top. It was now a dark black color, and it began to squirm and rise to the top. "Oh dear. I think this is why my science teacher, Ms. Foamy, told me to not do this."

Chatterjoy heard Twilight coming down the stairs. Panicking, the pegasus grabbed a lid and put it on top of the growing black mass. She quickly hid herself in a box, seeing as the only way out was up the stairs.

"Chatterjoy?" Twilight called. She peeked her head in to see that the pegasus was not there. The black mass gurgled something, and Twilight looked down to see a box next to her hooves. "Chatterjoy? Is that you? I don't have time to play hide n' seek today."

Chatterjoy bit her lip and put more force behind her hoof. Twilight was growing more and more  impatient. She ignited her horn and lifted the box above her head to find no pony there. "Huh?" Twilight snorted, "I could have sworn..."

The pegasus held her breath. She had grabbed onto the box with all her might so that she would be lifted up along with it. The beaker that held the black mass was clamped tightly in her jaws. Sweat threatened to drop from her and onto the princess below her, until fate decided to be kind, and Twilight gently laid the box down on the ground. 

"She must have gotten bored and left. Goodness, that mare has as short an attention span as Pinkie Pie."

The black mass gurgled again, and Twilight swiftly turned her head to the box. Chatterjoy was a sweating mess. "Princess! I've come to seek your aid!" a stallion called from the upper floor.

"I'll be right there!" Twilight answered back. She gave the box one last suspicious look before trotting up to see the newcomer. Chatterjoy sighed in relief at the fact that the princess was leaving. Still within her box disguise she made her way upstairs. She stopped every so often when she saw a guard walk past.

"Great Sun Goddess!" a guard said as he almost tripped over the box that had mysteriously shown up in his path. "That dragon must be more careful where he puts his stuff. I could have bashed my head in," the guard complained, rubbing his helmet. As he walked past, he gave a mighty buck to the box to get it out of the way.

Chatterjoy tried with all her might not to utter a sound. When the guard had left she let out a sigh of relief, however she was not out of the woods yet, when two more guards rounded the corner.

"So I said 'Sir, you are obviously drunk. I don't know what the hay made you think that you could drive a cart at this hour. Do you realize how many apples you bruised!' "

"Wait. Apples? Are you serious. You got all worked up over apples?"

"Yeah it was Apple Gala and some other Apples."

"What?"

"You know the Apple family?"

"I don't follow."

"Like the element of honesty's extended family?"

"Oh."

During the guards' conversation, Chatterjoy took this moment to go inside the room she had been kicked by. It turned out to be the library. Fortunately no one really came in here. Partly because of the fact that most of the books had been incinerated before the castle was made here, and the Princess was still recovering and replacing books.

Chatterjoy shed her box costume and looked at the oozy mass. "Ok. I created you so I need to give you a name. How about...Henchy!" The mass growled in discontent, "Oozy? Gooey? Cream Pie? Frosting? Cream? Oh oh I know! It will be the most wonderful of names you ever heard!" Chatterjoy then leaned down and whispered the idea to the living goo. He purred happily in acknowledgement. 

"Well, first order of business my little henchgoo. We need to get out of the castle before Princess Twilight learns of your creation, but before we leave we must do what evil ponies do, as only evil ponies have henchgoos! Borrow books without permission and not turning them in on their due date!"

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"