Entering that 'not asleep, not quite awake' stage of the morning, Blueblood went to squeeze the mare in his hooves a little tighter, but didn’t feel her there. His eyes shot wide open in a panic as he looked to the space next to him, which was now empty. No… oh no…
He didn’t even look around the room to check where he was, jumping from the bed and running along the hall. In his haste he didn’t notice the top of the stairs, missing the first few and making loud bangs as he fell down them.
Once his impromptu fight with the house was over, he lay still to let his head stop spinning. When it did, his blurry vision was centered on the top of the stairs, where a little head was looking down at him with a grin.
“Silly daddy, you walk down the stairs,’ Dinky said with a giggle.
Blueblood laughed at his own accident as he stood up from his fall. When Dinky came downstairs, he scooped her up in his arms and nuzzled her gently. “Good morning, sweety.” He greeted his daughter, receiving more giggles from the filly.
“Morning daddy!” Dinky replied in kind as she kissed Blueblood cheek. The stallion in turn blushed a little, causing the filly to titter. “Let’s go have some breakfast!” The filly suggested as she was was placed on the ground and rushed towards the kitchen.
I’m so lucky to have a daughter like her… Blueblood mused to himself before entering the kitchen, finding Dinky seated at the table and Derpy dishing out breakfast, with her back facing him. A grin graced his muzzle as he sneaked behind the pegasus, planting his lips against her neck.
Derpy gasped as he felt the kiss on her fur with her cheeks becoming red. She turned to face Blueblood, smiling softly as she leaned to his ear. “Not in front of Dinky.”
Blueblood blinked before he turned his attention to his daughter. “Dinky, I’m gonna kiss mommy now.” The stallion stated before he looked back at Derpy and planted his lips onto hers. He opened his eye just for a moment to see the filly face covered with her hooves as she looked away and giggled shyly.
To heck with it… Derpy deepened the kiss as she wrapped her hooves around the stallion’s neck. Once they parted their muzzles from each other, the mare continued to hold onto Blueblood as she smiled demurely at him. I could get used to mornings like these. A sudden carnivorous growl caused the mare to blush furiously before letting go for the unicorn.
“Shall we eat?” Blueblood suggested as he cocked his brow, receiving a nod from Derpy. As they took their seats, the stallion took a bite of his flapjack before looking at his daughter. “So what will you be doing today, Dinky?”
Dinky shrugged at her father’s question. “Just school stuff, nothing really big planned today.” The filly answered plainly she finished her cereal. “Might spend some time with my friends.” She added in as the thought of a certain colt she liked entered her mind. “What about you, daddy?”
“Me?” Blueblood repeated Dinky’s question and received a nod from her. “Well, I still need to get feedback from a certain case involving ponies stealing money…” He mentioned casually as his eyes drifted to Derpy, who understood everything he said. “But, until then… I think I’m gonna get my stuff from Twilight’s and move them here.” His gaze fell on the pegasus mare again. “If that’s okay with mommy…”
Instead of words Derpy chose to answer with action, leaning toward him and kissing his cheek softly. “Only if you will stay…” the mare said softly as a smile emitted from her, before the stallion returned her affection in kind. Both adults heard Dinky sigh in adoration as she saw her parents displaying their love for each other. Just as the filly was beaming at what she saw, the clock struck the hour, alerting the, of the time.
“Oh no, it’s eight!” Dinky panicked as she catapulted herself from her chair, immediately grabbing her saddlebag that was resting on a table just outside the kitchen. She came back to where her parents were, having strapped the saddlebag onto her body.
“Gotta go!” The filly said before she kissed both Blueblood and Derpy on their cheeks. “I love you, mommy! I love you, daddy! Bye!” The filly shouted out as she galloped towards the front door, leaving the house to go to school.
After a moment of silence, Blueblood opted in doing the dishes for Derpy as she prepared herself for her day at the postal office. Once he was done, the stallion walked to the living room and found a pegasus mare wearing a post-pony’s hat and a saddlebag. “Ready for today’s work?” He asked her curiously as he stepped towards her and nuzzled her softly.
“All set,” Derpy winked at him before both walked out of the house and locked the door behind them. “Well, I’m off now… and stay out of trouble.”
Blueblood cocked his brow at her before he chuckled in kind as he shook his head. “Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” The stallion asked her, grinning as he got a blush from her. The cheeks burned brighter when he decided to kiss her gently. “I’ll see you later.”
“You too.” Derpy replied before taking flight, leaving Blueblood behind as he waved her goodbye. Alone on the road, the stallion set his eyes on the large tree in the centre of Ponyville, where Twilight’s residence was located. Once he reached the door, he gave it a knock impulsively before sighing in realization. It’s a public library! I don’t need to knock.
Entering the library, Blueblood’s ears perked to a strange sound. Silently closing the door, he turned around and glanced at the couches, having to cover his mouth with a hoof to stifle his giggles with what his sight beheld.
On her back, mouth wide open with drool dripping to the couch and tongue hanging out, a wing limp and falling to the floor. Her mane was a complete mess, her hooves were all tangled, and her snoring could rival that of the hoofstomps from a Royal Guard parade through the streets of Canterlot. Truly, Princess Sparkle was a perfect example of Equestria’s royalty.
“Morning…” Spike groggily said as he walked down the stairs and yawned for a moment before rubbing his eyes to clean out the dust in them.
“Hey Spike, slept well?”
Spike shrugged as he grinned weakly. “Since Mo-Twilight got me a new bed and let me have one of the spare bedrooms, been sleeping great…” The dragon trailed off when he saw the alicorn in her state, sighing in frustration. “Good thing Princess Celestia gave me a recipe for a special hot chocolate in case something like this happened. Want some?” He politely offered Blueblood some of the beverage, yet the stallion immediately shook his head.
“N-no thanks, Spike!” Blueblood answered hastily, doing his best to hide the grimace of memories that flooded his mind. Wildfire Chilli Hot Chocolate… Twilight doesn’t know what she’s in for…
Cautiously approaching her front door to see who had knocked, Derpy came face to face with a large stallion, one of the ponies that made up the Lunar Corps, and she was secretly relieved that it was not her community service supervisor, who had still not decided upon her tasks.
The stallion was was not wearing any armour, was covering his back with a black cloak, and had a pair of very dark goggles over his eyes. Derpy was a little worried, for she hadn’t seen one attied as such before, and it wasn’t until he bowed did she relax a little.
“My princess, I bring greetings from Canterlot,” the stallion said, still not getting up, but his voice made Derpy realise she had nothing to be worried about.
“Captain Deadeye, this is a surprise. Please, come in,” Derpy said as she stepped back, allowing the Katakan to enter her home. Thanks to the curtains still being drawn in the lounge, the light levels were quite low, so Deadeye reached up and pushed his goggles out of the way, revealing his face without the eyepatch, causing Derpy to gasp a little in both shock and horror when she saw the scar on the left side of his face. “Oh my…”
Deadeye cocked his head, his one eye going wide as he realised what it was, reaching into his cloak for his patch and donning it. “My apologies, princess. When I have my goggles on, I forget my patch is not needed.”
“And why do you wear the goggles, may I ask?” Derpy inquired, intrigued by the stallion’s unusual eye protection.
“The sun hurts our eyes,” Deadeye replied with a shrug. “My kind have been subterranean for nearly a millennium, and we have adapted as such. It will take many generations for us to walk the day without our goggles but until then, we will use these gifts of our Night-mistress.”
Derpy nodded, enjoying hearing more about these ponies. Whilst in Canterlot she had read what they had in their archives about the Katakans, but most of that was speculation which had yet to be updated, so she was happy to get her knowledge from the source. She led him into the lounge and pointed to the couch, wincing slightly as it creaked under his large frame.
“So, Mr Deadeye, what is your business here? Not that I mind you visiting, Dinky seems quite taken with you,” Derpy said with a small giggle. Whilst she knew where her daughter’s sights lay, she also knew that, for some reason, a lot of fillies dreamed of a stallion from the guard for their own… something which the poster in Dinky’s closet attested to. “I think… she may have a slight crush on you.”
Deadeye’s ears perked a little at that, but the rest of him chose to ignore it as he looked around the room once, then to the mare sat opposite him. “I have been assigned to inspect how secure your domicile is.” It was when he noticed the frown on the mare that his usual stoic stance changing as his ears flattened against his head. “With your permission, of course princess.”
“Well… I don’t see why anypony would do anything like that to us,” Derpy said, frown hardening a little. “But okay. Whatever it takes to keep Dinky safe.” Standing up, Derpy then proceeded to show Deadeye around her home, from the loft space down, the stallion making notes on a bit of paper, and the tour ended up in the basement. “This is the last room. We don’t use it for anything, as you can see.”
The room was indeed empty, but something else caught Deadeye’s attention, the stallion walking along one wall with his ear pressed against it. He stopped in one corner, where his eye found a crack, and upon listening closer he heard scurrying, turning back to Derpy. “Excuse me for a moment, princess.”
Derpy had heard from Blueblood about the Katakans’ unique form of magic, just like every other race of pony, but she had yet to see it until now. A smile came to her face as Deadeye’s body seemed to turn into a cloud of fine black dust, swirling around.
The cloud moved to the wall, where it slipped through the crack and the stallion disappeared from the room. Through the wall, Derpy could hear scratching, growling, and squeaking, which went on for several minutes until it went silent once more.
The mist-like shadow started to pool back into the basement, slowly building up the shape of a pony, coalescing back into the form of Deadeye. Derpy’s smile fell to an expression of disgust when she saw the long, thin tail hanging from his mouth.
Deadeye cocked his head in confusion at the mare, until he realised what her gaze was locked on, slurping the tail up like it was a strand of spaghetti, swallowing his mouthful. “My apologies, princess. We Katakans are omnivores, and you had rats soon to break through.”
“So… you ate them?” Derpy asked, backing away slightly, something that Deadeye noticed immediately.
“You have nothing to fear from me, my princess, we do not eat anything bigger than, say, a rabbit.” That seemed to do the trick as Derpy relaxed, Deadeye making a note of the crack in the wall on his paper, then pointing to the steps when he was done. “Well… our Night-mistress enjoys a little nibble.” Derpy stopped in her tracks, turning to face the stallion with a coy smile on her face. His eyes went wide when he realised he said that out loud. “Please forget I said that, princess.”
She gave a nod and made her way out of the basement with the stallion following, both a little surprised to see Blueblood in the lobby, a pile of luggage next to him. He took one look at Deadeye and nodded, then frowned at the response.
“Prince Blueblood, your aunts send their regards,” Deadeye said, his right forehoof remaining firmly pressed against his head, offering the unicorn a salute.
“Captain Deadeye, you know I don’t like that,” Blueblood said flatly, shaking his head at the grin he received as he walked over to Derpy and nuzzled her softly. “Hope your day was well.” The stallion briefly kissed her lips, receiving a giggle from her. “So what was going on in the basement?”
Derpy pursed her lips as she took a glance at the other stallion, who looked away from the pegasus’ leering eyes. “Let’s just say, I won’t need to call pest control in the near future now.” The mare grinned for a moment as she addressed the Katakan. “Deadeye, could you please pick up Dinky from school for me? I would like to have some alone time with my prince.” She asked politely, giving a wink to Blueblood.
“Huh?” Blueblood uttered out before he turned around to ask Deadeye what Derpy meant, only to be met with an empty space where the katakan stallion had stood.
Ah hope Twily’s okay… Big Macintosh mind wandered as he cantered towards the library, his memory of last night vivid when he had to escort his special somepony back to her home. Hopefully these will make her feel better. The stallion looked back at the saddlebag he was wearing that housed a packet of the alicorn’s favourite fruit; strawberries.
Big Macintosh opened the library door to give himself access, where he was greeted by the groaning of Twilight Sparkle lying on the couch with her head looking up towards the ceiling and her eyes puffy red. Once the stallion saw his mare in this condition, he proceeded towards her and stopped just close enough for his face to loom over hers.
“Biggie!” Twilight smiled briefly, before cringing in pain as she felt an immense headache taking over her mind. “What did I do last night?” The alicorn asked curiously as she looked up to her stallion. “Spike won’t say…”
“Let’s just say mah sister put ya through a test and ya passed.” Big Macintosh replied as he took a seat next to Twilight and lifted her head slightly to have her rest on his lap. As soon as the alicorn was comfortable enough, the stallion started to caress her mane. “Still, ya don’t look that bad as ya did last night.”
Twilight blew him a raspberry, only to receive another sting in her head, causing Big Macintosh to laugh at her misfortune. “Oh shutup… I’m only like this cause Spike gave me something called Wildfire Hot Chocolate.” The alicorn said as she looked to where the staircase was, where Spike disappeared to after he finished making lunch for her, Shining and Cadance. They’ve been awfully quiet…
“He just looking out for his ma,” Big Macintosh spoke sagely as he decided to nuzzle his mare. Just as he raised his head, he saw Spike walking down the stairs, albeit very slowly. “Hey Spike, how’re ya…” The stallion’s words trailed off when he noticed the dragon’s eyes were staring off into the distance, focused on nothing in particular .
When Twilight saw Big Macintosh staring at the staircase, she looked up to see Spike walking towards them and taking a seat at the opposite couch. “Hey Spike, did you tell Shiny and Cadie about… Spike?” The alicorn cocked her brow when she saw the dragon give no response to her words at all. She got up from her lying position and walked towards her baby dragon, the throbbing pain in her head forgotten. “Something wrong?” She asked him as she took a seat next to him, encasing her wing over his shoulder and pulling him in closer to her frame.
Just as Big Macintosh got up from his seat, his ears perked to the sound of hooves walking downstairs. He looked to see the guilty faces of Shining Armour Cadance, both of their features burning red. The earth pony stallion glanced at Spike and back at the married couple, who looked at the dragon with sympathetic eyes. “What did ya do?”
Shining bit his lower lip as he tried to form words to reply. “Well… Spike, he… told us that lunch was ready… but he also…” the white unicorn stuttered as he swallowed a lump in his throat. “We were busy and…”
“Shiny, what happened?”
Instead of Shining answering, Cadance cleared her throat before speaking on behalf of her husband. “What he’s trying to say is that Spike walked in when we were… busy.” She finished explaining, the last word coming out as an audible whisper.
The sound of a pin falling could be heard as the library descended into silence. Oh no! Twilight gasped when she finished processing the information she was given, immediately wrapping her hooves around Spike and nuzzling the little dragon.
“I’m just gonna show Cadance around town!” Shining quickly said as he took hold of his wife’s hoof and both were out the front door, leaving the others behind.
“Spike, what you saw there was just something… natural. You see, when a stallion finds a mare very very attractive and... ” Twilight tried to explain as best as she could, but failed miserably. Come on memories! Bring back mom’s speech!
Big Macintosh sat next to Spike as he looked down on him with caring eyes. “Spike, when a stallion and mare love each other very much and trust in each other a lot, they share that love by…”
The ringing of bell broke the peaceful silence around one of Ponyville’s buildings, preceding the happy shouts and squeals of foals finally free from that dreaded establishment known as ‘school’. Among them, although much quieter than the majority, was a young unicorn filly who was doing her best to ignore the snickers coming from behind her.
Having already arranged with her friends what their after school activity would be, Dinky made her way over to the swings and hopped onto one, not bothered by the lack of motion from it. She only had to wait a few moments for Twist, Rumble, and Pip to come around the corner of the schoolhouse, the filly blushing slightly when she saw the earth pony colt.
“My Princess Dinky,” Pip said as he bowed to her. If was the first words he had spoke to her way all day, and they made Dinky’s cheeks light up fully, causing the other two to giggle. The unicorn filly’s cheeks burned violently as the pinto colt took a hold of her hoof and kissed it, receiving more laughter from the others. Just before the group could head off to their desired location, another voice filled the air.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the fake princess and her dumb court,” Diamond Tiara sneered as she locked eyes with Dinky. Pip went to respond, but then he noticed Snips and Snails stood behind Diamond and Silver Spoon. “Tell me, has daddy been telling lies to every other pony he’s met? As if the real Prince Blueblood would ever glance at a blank flank like you!”
Diamond Tiara smirked triumphantly, thinking she’d won, but when she looked up Dinky was holding a hoof to her mouth to silence her giggling. “Hey, what’s so funny? Come on, let’s teach these losers a lesson!” Diamond took a coupled of steps forward, stopping when she noticed her friends had backed off. She followed their gazes down to her hooves, and she let out a scream when she saw her shadow, which had taken on the form of a swirling whirlpool.
From it rose a fine dark mist which encompassed the earth pony filly, who sank to the ground and covered her face with her hooves, whimpering quietly. She could sense something larger than herself standing nearby, something predatory, but she refused to look. She even curled up tightly when she heard its voice.
“It’s been so long since I had a juicy filly,” it said, followed by the sound of lips being licked. “My Princess Dinky, may I eat her?”
"No Captain Deadeye!” Dinky said quickly, watching as Diamond turned to face her, causing the unicorn to get a smirk of her own. “You'll get sick eating a spoiled pony like her!"
"I see…” said the stallion, as it was most certainly a male voice, and Diamond finally summoned the courage to turn around. She immediately regretted it, her eyes staring into the drooling jaws of a scary looking pony. The stallion snorted once, causing her to whimper once more. “In that case... get lost, brat. Go home to your parents."
From the Ponyville schoolhouse’s playground shot four different coloured blurs, all screaming about a ‘monster trying to eat them’. After watching them go, Deadeye looked to Dinky with his ears splayed back. “Night-mistress will not be happy with me for that.” He then turned his gaze to the other three foals, narrowing his eye. “And what of you? Are you here to lay false claims against Princess Dinky?”
Even though he was frightened beyond belief, Pipsqueak stepped closer until he was barely a hoofstep away, raising himself to his full height and glaring at Deadeye. “We would never do such a thing to our friend, and I should like to teach you some manners!”
Deadeye let out an amused chuckle as the colt rose to his hind hooves and raise his forehooves up, like he was at a boxing match. The stallion had to admit to himself that he was impressed, for having the ability to hold such a stance for that duration at the colt’s age was a rare thing indeed. “There is no need for that, colt, I am merely looking out for my Princess Dinky.”
“Oh,” Pip said as he dropped back to the ground. He remained silent for a moment, then looked up at Deadeye with a smile. “So… you’re a Katakan, right? Of the Lunar Corps?”
At first Deadeye was confused, wondering how the colt knew of his kind, but after seeing the happy smile on Dinky, he lay down to the floor, both so he was eye level with the foals and to seem less intimidating. “That is correct, I am a Katakan.”
That was it, a slew of rapid fire questions from Dinky’s friends were shot to the stallion, who did his best to answer, the unicorn filly giggling happily as she watched him become flustered from the surprise interrogation. It might not have been how she planned to spend her afternoon, but she wasn’t going to take her friends’ fun away.
Suddenly, an idea came to Dinky as she beckoned Deadeye who leaned downwards to her his princess’ words that were communicated to him via a whisper to his ear. When the little filly removed herself from him, a grin was present on the Katakan’s face that exposed his razor sharp teeth, intimidating the other foals present. He closed his smile and lowered his body to the ground, stretching his leathery wings wide, allowing the unicorn filly to jump onto his back.
“What are you waiting for?” Dinky gestured to her friends to climb aboard, with Pip being the first as he eagerly followed. Soon all four foals were on Deadeye’s back, which was surprisingly spacious enough for all of them.
Deadeye rose from the ground and looked over his shoulder to face the group of foals. “Hold on tight, little ponies…” He smirked as he turned back his head, crouching a little before taking flight. As soon as the Katakan was airborne, he accelerated his speed by flapping his wings a few times, receiving shrill screams from the foals on his back as though they were on a roller coaster.