(9_6)
“So… what do you wanna do now?” Dilvent asked with a heavy sigh.
“We could play a game of cards,” Carrot Top offered, taking a moment away from the bowl of chips she was cradling like a foal.
“Yeah, I’d like to keep my bits to myself for once,” Dilvent nervously chuckled as he looked back towards the room where most of the adults were playing poker. “Anything else?”
“Can I see your room?” Shooting Star asked a little timidly, drawing everyponies attention.
“Why would you want to see his room?” Derpy asked with a small chuckle.
“I just thought it would be nice to see the rest of the house is all,” Shooting Star huffed, before snapping back at the gray mare with a scowl. “I did almost miss the bathroom completely, no thanks to you!”
“I-I guess there’s nothing wrong with that,” Dilvent replied hesitantly before standing back up. “Just, uh, don’t touch anything, okay?”
“Okay?” Shooting Star replied with a slight bit of hesitance. Both Derpy and Carrot Top couldn’t help but giggle, knowing why the stallion had given the warning.
After walking down a nearby hall and up a flight of stairs, the group stopped outside of the first door to their right.
“Now remember,” Dilvent began, pulling a small key out of one of the pockets on his coat. “Don’t touch anything before asking me. Some of the things I have are a bit… dangerous?”
“Why do I get a bad feeling about this?” Shooting Star asked the two mares behind her. Each simply turned away with a slight giggle as they shrugged, neither wanting to ruin the slight surprise Shooting Star was about to receive.
“Now then,” Dilvent forcefully chuckled as he pushed the door open with a hoof. “Welcome to the armory.”
Both Derpy and Carrot Top could barely hold back their laughter at the complete look of shock on Shooting Star’s face as the group entered the surprisingly large room.
“This actually isn’t all of them,” Dilvent chuckled as he used his left hoof to draw everyponies attention to the rooms left wall. The entire structure was covered in a mass assortment of blades, swords, daggers and everything in between.
“What in the name of Celestia is all this?!” Shooting Star blurted out as she looked at the wall of weapons.
“My collection,” Dilvent said with a small blissful sigh and a gleam in his eyes. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Wonderful?!” Shooting Star blurted as she eyed a strange blade that held a strange saw like addition to the back of the blade. “It looks more like you’re preparing for war!”
“Uh… no I’m not,” Dilvent replied with a slightly worried look. “I-I mean… they’re all registered, and some have been specifically enchanted so that they couldn’t harm anypony…at least…they should be.”
“R-right,” Shooting Star stuttered as she sat down with a look of confusion and amazement.
“My dad tried to arrest, Dilvent the moment he saw this room,” Derpy chuckled, looking at a new addition to the wall. “Something about excessive… this or that.”
“Why… why do you have all these?” Shooting Star questioned as she looked over at Dilvent with a worried glace.
“Well, it’s part of my special talent,” Dilvent replied as if everypony should know. “It also could be considered my hoard… but that’s the dragon in me.”
“I-I thought your talent had something to do with dragons?” Shooting Star wondered as she pointed toward, Dilvent’s flank.
Unlike most pony cutie marks, Dilvent’s was slightly different, more like that of a zebras in its tribal like nature. It was that of a blood red dragon while it wrapped itself around a matching tribal black blade. While simple in color, it was very intricate in design.
“Well… kind of,” Dilvent replied, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I guess its part of it. But my talent is the ‘subduing’ of magical creatures…with bladed weapons… I think?”
“So what, you know how to kill things?” Shooting Star asked as she paled slightly, taking several steps back.
“Well…yes and no… I mean, there was this Alpha Timberwolf once… but it was the only time… and it was just a survival knife…” Dilvent tried to explain, his face becoming scrunched up in confusion, but it was becoming obvious that he was having slight trouble with it.
“Yes, he knows how to ‘kill’,” Carrot Top ended up replying for the incompetent stallion, moving past Shooting Star and smacking Dilvent softly in the back of the head. “But so would you if your mom was a seventh degree black belt in martial arts.”
“She’s a what?!” Shooting Star shouted, as the subject was changed for a moment.
“A seventh degree black belt,” Derpy chuckled at Shooting Star’s look of shock and confusion. “Didn’t you notice all the trophies and pictures on the bookcase downstairs?”
“Wow, that’s pretty cool,” Shooting Star said breathlessly, taking a moment to collect herself.
“Right, so you’ve seen my room, let’s head back downstairs,” Dilvent quickly said, leading everypony out of his room and locking the door behind them.
“Also,” Dilvent began to point out as he followed the others back to the living room. “You don’t kill through martial arts, it’s for defense only.”
Back downstairs, everypony was surprised to see Dinky playing with a small pile of plastic poker chips as Light Breeze kept putting them in small piles for her.
“Looks like somepony won the pot,” Dilvent chuckled as Derpy went up and scooped her daughter into a hug.
“Your father wanted me to tell you that he is now planning a trip to Las Pegasus,” Breeze chuckled slightly. “I smacked some sense into him for you.”
“Thanks, but I’m sure he’ll probably need some more,” Derpy giggled as she set Dinky down so the foal could continue to play.
“You know, for a police officer, your dad has a bit of a gambling problem,” Shooting Star commented as she took some time to inspect several photos and trophies. There were several photos showing Light Breeze in the middle of a class with other ponies wearing white garbs and black belts and mass assortment of trophies, ranging from tournaments to presentations.
“Those are from a few years back,” Breeze said as she pointed to a few photos. “I haven’t been to a class in some time actually.”
“You’ve taught, Dilvent then?” Shooting Star questioned.
“Yes,” Breeze replied with a nod. “If you want and its okay with your parents, I may not be a certified instructor, but I could teach you a few things.”
“Yeah, sorry, but that’s not my thing,” Shooting Star nervously chuckled moving as far away from the elderly mare as possible.
Derpy couldn’t help but laugh as she quickly realized that Light Breeze would have loved a chance at being allowed to ‘teach’ her son’s ex-bully some of the moves she knew.
“Why does nopony ever want to learn martial arts?” Breeze muttered as she left the room.
“At least you get to tell her no,” Dilvent grumbled as he took a seat nearby Derpy and Dinky. For several moments nopony spoke as they watched Dinky continue to play with the poker chips.
(o^o)
“I wonder what these are made out of?” Dinky thought to herself while her mother stacked them up high for her again. She was disappointed that she couldn’t continue playing with her grandfather, but she still enjoyed her time with him though.
She especially liked it when the older pony said she was mommy's friends mommy, it had made her grandpa's head go 'thunk' on the table.
“So, did you win big, Dinky?” Dilvent asked as he looked at her tower of chips that she was told several times not to eat.
“Grandpa’s planning a road trip!” Dinky crashed her hooves into the tower of chips, giggling as several hit the surrounding ponies.
“Dear sweet Celestia,” Dilvent chocked out. “My heart can’t take the cute!”
“And you call yourself a stallion,” Carrot Top replied, but even then, she seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Dinky.
“Mommy says to only use my powers for evil.” Dinky purposely made her way to Carrot Top and offered her a poker chip.
“Curse you and your cuteness,” Carrot Top chuckled as she leaned down a nuzzled Dinky with a giggle.
(6_9)
“I’m telling you honey, if you had just let me keep my bit bag, we could of been so much closer to that trip to the Fillippians.” Derpy’s father said as they made their way home.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Derpy replied with a sigh and roll of her good eye. Looking past Dinky, who slept soundly on her back between her wings, she looked at her father. Unlike most times, where the stallion would be walking beside her, he was currently laying on his back in Dinky’s small wagon, mumbling about winning bets and too much salt.
“You are the epitome of a role model, you now that dad?” Derpy asked with a quiet chuckle.
“I am a god amongst mortals!” the stallion called out to no one before his face turned slightly green and his stomach began to growl in an irregular way. “Sweetie, quick, tell the driver to pull the carriage over!”
“Just turn your head to the left dad,” Derpy called back, slowing down slightly.
“I have taught you well,” Derpy’s father responded before his evening meal greeted him once again.
“Your left dad,” Derpy replied without looking back. Normally, a pony would be scolding the stallion for going as far as he had, but Derpy knew her father barely ever had any fun of his own, plus the sounds he was making made it obvious that he was paying for it.
“Thanks, sweetie,” Derpy’s father responded as the sounds stopped and he finally pulled himself out of the wagon. “Sorry you had to pull your dad around in that wagon.”
“It’s alright, dad,” Derpy replied as she looked back at the stallion. While he still looked a little green, he had at least cleaned himself up enough to not look like a complete idiot.
“So, I almost forgot to ask,” Derpy’s father asked out of nowhere with a smirk. “How did, Shooting Star handle dragon colts ‘collection’?”
“Well, she didn’t tackle him to the ground and try to arrest him if that’s what you’re asking,” Derpy said with a slight smirk.
“I regret nothing,” the stallion replied with a smirk of his own. “But that colt really does have an unhealthy fascination with those things.”
“Yes he does,” Derpy replied blankly.
“Should I arrest him?” her father asked with a serious face.
“Maybe later,” Derpy chuckled as their house came into view. “It would be a great prank to pull on him.”
“That sounds fun,” the stallion replied with a mischievous grin.
Sharing a laugh, Derpy led the way back into the house, leaving the wagon in its usual spot. Chuckling as her father stumbled his way to his room, Derpy quietly worked her way into her own room so Dinky could rest in her foal bed.
“I guess you had a lot of fun today,” Derpy quietly giggled at the sleeping foal. She was slightly worried at how things would turn out this evening, but Dinky had fun, Shooting Star was tolerable, and her father was still conscious after spending some time with an old friend.
“Maybe I should set something up for him,” Derpy said to herself while shutting the lights off and getting into bed. She couldn’t help but worry that her father didn’t have many friends, so any time he did spend with others was good in her book.
Before she even realized it, Derpy was waking up to a bright sunny day and a giggling foal on her chest.
“Dinky, how did you get out of your bed?” Derpy asked the giggling foal. Derpy could only watch in shock as her daughter’s horn began to glow a soft amber light before the giggling foal disappeared in a flash.
“Dinky!?” Derpy shouted as she jumped out of the bed and looked all around the room.
“What is it, what happened!?” Derpy’s father shouted as he rushed into the room with a black baton in his mouth. Almost immediately he dropped his weapon and clenched his head in pain. “Too early for yelling… uhg.”
“Dinky disappeared in a flash of light!” Derpy shouted as she rushed to her closet and started throwing everything out of it in worry and fear. “What if somepony took her?”
“Did her horn glow beforehoof?” the older stallion asked as he continued to rub his head.
“Yes, why?” Derpy quickly looked at her father in hopes for an answer.
“Unicorn foals do this sort of thing all the time,” her father groaned. “You won’t believe how many calls a day we get when this stuff happens. Just calm down for a second and lets look around the house, she can’t be far.”
Then they heard the toilet flush.
“Good distance,” Derpy’s father muttered as he followed his frantic daughter to the bathroom.
“Dinky!” Derpy called as she rushed into the room, finding the young foal playing with the toilets handle. Before she could reach the foal, Dinky once again disappeared in a flash of light.
“How long is this supposed to go on for?!” Derpy yelled at her father as the worry began to take hold even more.
“I think it’s for their first few years, but I’m not certain,” her father shrugged as he drank strait from the nearby sink. “But don’t worry so much, she’s too young to be able to do much and by what I do know, it tends to focus around just one spell or whatever they call it.”
“Y-y-years…,” Derpy mumbled as she stumbled out of the room to find her teleporting daughter.
“Or was it a few days?” Derpy’s father quietly asked himself as his daughter disappeared around the corner. “Oh well, at least she doesn’t have to look in every cloud in a three block radius.”