//------------------------------// // Chapter Twelve // Story: Familiar Faces // by GlitchyProductions //------------------------------// Chapter Twelve: Breaking Point Luna placed Ditzy down on the soft hay next to Fluttershy, the yellow mare didn't seem to like the alterations that the ranch owner did to the gray mare and it was scaring her beyond belief. Though in the back of her head she still had a mission to do, she and Scootaloo had to protect Dinky and keep her out of the ranch owner’s sight for some time until it was right. Dinky watched as Luna turned away from the group and stood next to the gate waiting for the ranch owner to come back. The ranch owner opened the door to the stable once again and quickly walked in to do his business with Luna, he was holding a tattered leash made out of cow’s skin with a collar attached to the end of it. He held it in both hands as he began to walk over to the stable gate and open it to walk inside the stable, kicking hay and other pieces of food out of the way. "Now... stan' still an' ah' won't hurt ya' is' that simple." The man stood right in front of Luna, now unravelling the leash so show off its prowess. A very long and almost daunting leash captured the eyes of the ponies in the room, Dinky wasn't afraid, or so she thought. The man leaned down onto his knees and began to wrap the collar round the blue mares neck, Luna only struggled for so long until she gave up. Only just moving her head from side to side to prolong the inevitable, the man smiled at his accomplishment and violently tugged on the end of the leash causing Luna to slightly jerk out a small yelp of pain. "See? Wassat' so hard princess?" He humbly chuckled to himself. From what Dinky had just seen, she noticed it looked like the man was enjoying the fact he was pulling on the leash and hurting Luna. Luna didn't look very happy, it looked like she was about to burst into a stream of tears. Luna looked up at the ranch owner, fuelling anger within so that she didn't attack him or else the strangling on her leash would become more severe. The man began to turn around and slowly walked towards the door and exited to the other side of the shack, Luna soon followed as the leash began to guide her towards the door, she squeezed through the door leaving Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Ditzy and Dinky to wait for her until she comes back. "Ditzy..." Dinky immediately kicked off the hay that surrounded her and crawled over to the gray mare; she placed her hands on her stomach and turned the mare round to see what the evil ranch owner had done to her. Feeling both scared and curious about what he had done to her she needed to know, the drain in some of her colours especially her mane was strange and it gave off the feeling that the ranch owner did something more than just hurting Ditzy to make her look like this. Ditzy sniffled as she looked up at the child leaning above her; the gray mare leaned up to see that Dinky had crawled to her rescue to see how she was. Dinky wrapped her arms around the mare in hope to make her feel better, but it was no use. Dinky looked back and forth to see if Ditzy was going to smile or not, and after a few hugs and pets of her mane it didn't seem to work. "What did he do to you?" Dinky whispered to the gray mare, she didn't reply as usual. Instead, she turned her head away from Dinky and walked away from the child to be alone from what she had just experienced. Dinky's mouth slightly dropped, that man had not only made her cry, but she had done something to make her feel terrible on the inside. Dinky immediately dropped all doubts and stood up, both Fluttershy and Scootaloo looked at each other as the child walked over to them not looking very pleased. "C'mon Scootaloo! Let's go talk to that evil man!" Dinky crossed her arms, feeling like Carrot Top when she was angry. The orange filly looked at Fluttershy and then slowly turned herself to look at Dinky, this sudden change of actions was going to jeopardize the plan completely and even Fluttershy knew what the child was going to do. "I'm not going to let hi- HEY!" Dinky began to walk over to the gate on the other side of the stable, planning to get out of the stable and go and find the ranch owner to make him stop whatever he was going to do with Luna. She didn't like what he did to her and it was starting to make her angry, but before even reaching the gate she felt a familiar tugging feeling on the back of her t-shirt. Dinky quickly turned around and saw that Fluttershy had grabbed onto her t-shirt using her mouth to stop her from walking in on Luna and the ranch owner. "Let go!" Dinky scolded Fluttershy; the child grabbed the yellow mare by the snout and tapped her directly on the nose. Fluttershy's ignored what Dinky was doing and she still kept on holding to her t-shirt, Scootaloo looked in between both the yellow mare and the child. She didn't know which side to pick, she knew about the plan, but she wasn't involved in it. Fluttershy couldn't take the slight pain on her nose for much longer, Dinky was strong and her flicking of the mares nose was starting to work. Fluttershy's grip on her t-shirt was starting to weaken and Dinky was able to walk her way towards the stable gate, Fluttershy quickly pulled back for the last time when she realized that she didn't have much grip left on the child, the t-shirt inside of her mouth quickly starting to slip out of her control and it quickly flew out of her mouth. Giving Dinky a chance to make a small getaway before Fluttershy could stop her. Scootaloo quickly ignored Fluttershy and ran after her two legged friend in an attempt to stop her from confronting the evil ranch owner, but it was no use. Scootaloo could not call her out or even stop her; she was too small to even get in the way of her feet. The orange filly kept behind Dinky and watched everything she was doing; she child got to the stable door and slowly turned the knob, resulting in a quiet creaking sound as the door opened. Dinky looked around the new room to find out that it was very dark, there wasn't much light and an orange aura filled the middle of the room. She could hear the ranch owner talking, but she didn't know what he was talking to. Candles were lit up on certain shelves giving off a very poor amount of light; Dinky could barely see where she was going. "Ah'm gonna test this fancy headband on ya' an' ah'm gonna see if it fits ya', dussat' sound good?" The man chuckled out loud; Dinky turned her head to peek over to the corner. She saw that the ranch owner had tied the leash that connected Luna to a large wooden pole, she wasn't able to freely move and was stuck in one small position while the man sat in front of her while he sat on a small box. Luna turned her head away from the ranch owner and looked like she was pouting; the man stared at the blue mare and got up from his seat. He got up from the small box and walked over to Luna, he kneeled down to the ground in front of the blue mare and reached out for her and placed his hand on her snout. "C'mon lil' princess, ah'm sure if ya' cooperate ah'll buy ya' some real good food." The patted the blue mare on the snout twice and smiled, Luna pouted once again and continued to turn her head away from the ranch owner. "If ya' don't want to put on th' fancy headband, ah'm sure that Scootaloo would like t' try it on." The man teased, Luna's pouting expression suddenly changed, she looked up at the ranch owner with an expression that he had never seen from her. She was begging; she didn't want anyone else but her getting hurt in the situation. "So are ya' gonna put it on?" The man asked Luna for the final time. Luna quickly nodded up and down, hoping to get the whole ordeal out of the way. "Good girl." He praised the mare. "Ah'll jus' have t'do one thing b'fore it all starts." He added. Dinky quickly turned her head round the corner to hide herself; she just knew that she was in trouble now. As she hid herself round the corner Dinky heard the man’s footsteps getting louder. Dinky held her breath and felt her heart beat faster and faster, sweat began to drip down her head and she was starting to feel really scared. "There's a pest in the stables..." He mumbled. "Bon-Bon... my feet hurt..." Derpy moaned; feeling tired from all the walking around the park that she had done for the past thirty minutes. She was holding onto Bon-Bon's hand so that she didn't get lost during the whole trip around the park, Bon-Bon used her spare arm and checked the time on her wrist watch and saw that it was nearly two o' clock in the morning. "It's okay sweetie, we'll just find a bench and plan what to do next." Bon-Bon reassured Derpy of her troubles, giving off a motherly smile to her friend. "We've been... what? Going around this park for at least thirty minutes or so and we haven't found Dinky, are you sure this was the best place to search for her?" Lyra asked he partner. "We still need to head to that ranch to see if that man has seen her or not, maybe he could even help on the search. He seemed friendly enough." Bon-Bon said. "The guy with those horses? Sure, he looks pretty cute but I don't think he would help us look for her." Lyra explained. "What makes you say that?" Bon-Bon asked her partner about what she just said. "Well... He doesn't look like that type of person who would help anyone from around here." Lyra said. "We never know until you ask them dear." Bon-Bon said. "Even if he did help us... where would be the next place to look for Dinky? I'm pretty sure she wouldn't leave town for anything unless Derpy was with her." Lyra said. "Let's just sit down and then we can figure out what to do next, I am pretty tired also, I'm sure you are as well." Bon-Bon yawned, using her mouth to cover it up. "I'm not tired, I've done two days in the row without sleeping once, can't be that bad." Lyra stretched her arms up into the air, trying to show to Bon-Bon that she wasn't tired. "Yet you fell asleep in my arms earlier." Bon-Bon slightly giggled at what Lyra had just said. "I was just resting..." Lyra argued. "You can stay up as long as you like, but do not wake me up when I go to bed please." Bon-Bon sighed. "By the way... I forgot to ask you... what's wrong? You don't seem very happy..." Lyra put her hand on her partners shoulder and began to rub her in an attempt to calm her down. Bon-Bon wasn't smiling, she instead looked very sad and on the verge of tears. "Oh it's nothing... Me and Derpy went to the Candy Shack just to have a quick taste of some cotton candy, but when we got there... the whole shop was ransacked by a burglar of some sort..." Bon-Bon breathed in and explained the situation to Lyra, her mouth dropped at just hearing at what she had to say. "So what? The whole entire store is empty?" Lyra quickly asked her partner, raising her voice loud enough so that Derpy could hear her. "No, some of the boxes filled with candy were placed all over the floor and certain jars on the shelves had fallen off and spilled everywhere... I cleaned it up a little for when I go back to fix everything tomorrow... even the back door leading into the stall was broken, a big massive hole with wooden debris was all over the place." Bon-Bon explained. "Dang... who would do that?" Lyra shouted, thrusting her arms into the air. "I don't know..." Bon-Bon looked up back at her partner, she looked like she was about to cry. "Why didn't you tell me this when we got together outside the park?" Lyra stopped in her tracks and grabbed Bon-Bon by the shoulders with both hands, Bon-Bon let go of Derpy and she grabbed onto Lyra's wrist's. I'm sorry Lyra..." Bon-Bon apologized. "It's okay... I can ask the Sugarcube Corner for more candy... I'm sure Pinkie Pie and the rest of the Cake family have some spare produce left in their ovens somewhere..." Lyra softened her grip on her partner and instead wrapped her arms around Bon-Bon, comforting her from what has recently happened. "Lyra... is Bon-Bon okay?" Derpy silently dropped in on the conversation between both of them and watched them hug each other. "Yeah, she's alright. We still need to find Dinky; I'll tell you later after this is all over." Lyra reached out and lightly tapped Derpy on the chest, Derpy nodded up and down and proceeded to walk down the dirt path first. "Can we just take a break for a moment and just sit down on a bench... I think we all need to rest for a second." Bon-Bon gave off a nice smile to her partner, Lyra agreed and nodded up and down. Noticing that Derpy had started to walk down the path without them, they needed to quickly catch up. "Bon-Bon, I guess you were right." Lyra smiled. "Right about what?" Bon-Bon questioned. "My legs are starting to get really cold." Lyra said. "I warned you." Bon-Bon chuckled. "Not to mention that the Maids Outfit is doing some serious damage to my chest, it's squeezing me to death." Lyra added. "That's why you aren't supposed to wear them for more than one hour or else they will start to tighten on your body." Bon-Bon said. "I had no time to change, I would have gotten into something more comfortable but we had to leave the house to find Dinky." Lyra groaned. "Question is; what would you have changed into?" Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow at her partner. "Something comfortable... mostly... and maybe some cool." Lyra said. "I wouldn't bother... just wear a green t-shirt with some denim trousers." Bon-Bon reached over for Lyra's hand and grabbed it and locked both of their fingers together. "Hey guys! Look! I found a bench!" Derpy came running back to Lyra and Bon-Bon as fast as her legs would let her and quickly pointed at a small wooden bench for them to sit on for a few minutes. Feeling extremely happy and confident of herself for helping out Bon-Bon and Lyra for such a small deed. "Good job Derpy!" Bon-Bon broke her conversation with Lyra and praised Derpy for a simple action, making her feel happy. " SCOOTALOO! HELP! " Dinky ran back down into the stables screaming her little head off as loud as she could, both Fluttershy and Scootaloo stood in front of her as she backed herself up into the stable corners. The ranch owner stood at the gate as tried his best to unlock the gate in such little time. He quickly opened the gate and rushed into the stable and pushed Fluttershy and Scootaloo out of the way to grab Dinky by the collar. "What do ya' think yer' doin in here?" The man slyly whispered to the screaming child, he had grabbed her by the back of her t-shirt collar and picked her up off the ground using one hand, Scootaloo immediately sunk her teeth into the ranch owners legs in an attempt to bite him and make him let go the of the child. But it was no use as the ranch owner used his feet to kick Scootaloo out of the way. With Dinky in one hand in the air he walked out of the stable and closed the gate so that none of the horses could follow him. Dinky tried her best to turn around and swing her fist into the man’s face in an attempt to hurt him and escape from the stable, but she wasn't able to reach him at all. He kept on leaning back after Dinky swung her arms to try and hit him in the face. As the ranch owner held the screaming child on the back of her collar, he walked into the main shack where Luna was waiting. He walked over to Luna with Dinky still in his hands and placed her down to the ground, Dinky immediately started to try and punch the ranch owner’s legs as hard as she could. Clumsily swinging her fists into his leg to at least do some damage, the man watched silently as Dinky tried her best laying punches into his legs. "Calm down lil' girl, ah'm jus' askin' what yer' doin' in this here stable." The ranch owner grabbed Dinky's frail arms and stopped her from punching, Dinky shook herself so that he would let go of her and manage to escape from his evil grasp. "Don't ya' know that lil' girlies' ain't s'posed' t'be here at this time a' night?" He chuckled. "Get away from me!" Dinky shouted, still struggling to get out of the ranch owners grip. "Either ya' calm down or ah' shut you up ma' self." The man raised his voice, causing a loud boom to echo through the stables. Dinky quickly shut her mouth and Luna stood up from her resting place to look at what was going on. For a moment, the ranch owner sat back down on the box and looked at Dinky. Crawling herself into the corner of the room feeling scared out of her little mind and soul, she wanted her mother right now to comfort her and take the evil man away from her. "Now... ah'm gonna start talkin' ... and ya' better answer up." The man crossed his arms, slightly leaning back into a relaxed state. To be continued...