Sunny Tendersmile took a deep breath and slowly slid the empty pie plate a few inches away from her with an orangish puff of her unicorn magic. A few crumbs that were left-over from her assault jumbled about on the surface of the plate as it scooted along. She was now satisfied and full to the brim with fresh cider and macaroni bites. She patted her plump tummy with a tired, fulvid hoof and looked around at her friends.
Shuttertwitch, the Shaky Photographer Pony, shifted closer to Sunny. The rubbing of the old stool’s legs across the wooden floor made an abrupt flatulent trumpeting noise and everyone giggled as he quickly gathered their empty plates and cups into a pile at the far end of the table. Then, resting his deep blue hooves on the polished tree-stump they were all sitting around, he prepared himself for the story to come.
Spectre, the Ghost Camera, reacted as well, after having a quiet giggle at Shutter’s expense; mechanical clicks echoed and spun about as he focused his lens to a pinpoint on Sunny and his ethereal, violet glow dimmed a bit, a result of his own pensive concentration.
Everyone was ready, so she began.
“It all started a couple days ago.”
The room fell silent, even the ever-present gusts of summertime Ponyville wind seemed to calm outside as if it were carefully tiptoeing around Shutter’s little cottage and peaking in the windows to have a listen.
“I had stopped to pet a dog.” She continued, an innocent smile on her face. “He was a little Bichon Yorkshire Terrier mix, probably stood no more than five apples high. Somepony had tied him to a post outside of the Ponyville Bookstore and left him there, I guess while they went in to get some books? I don’t know. All I know is that he was sitting there just smiling away and barking and I wanted to pet him!”
“I assume gallivanting about and assaulting strange dogs is status quo with you, isn’t it Ms. Tender?” Spectre spoke up.
“She never said she assaulted any dogs you old gearhead!” Replied Shuttertwitch with an annoyed sideways glance at the vibrating camera. “She said pet!”
“Well actually,” Piped up Sunny with a bit of an embarrassed hue to her already bright yellow cheeks. “I didn’t just want to pet him. I really wanted to play with him too. He was so cute!”
“Oh here we go!” Grumbled Spectre. “You know, Sunny, it’s not a good idea to just go about —“
“I felt bad for it!” The yellow pony squawked at Spectre, defensively raising her voice “and I figured if I untied it for just a second, we could gallop around a bit and laugh and then I’d put him back and he would be happy and I would be happy and everyone would be happy! The end!” She smiled to herself as Shutter and Spectre marveled at the simplicity of her equation.
“I have a feeling that is not how it ended…” Whispered Spectre. Shutter shushed him and they both became silent, eager to hear what happened next.
“So I moved closer to the dog and pet him. He was very nice. It seemed like a good idea, but as soon as I undid the leash, the dog just went crazy!” Sunny pantomimed an explosion with her hooves to emphasize how insane things had gotten suddenly. “He started running up the path toward the Marketplace and I chased after him because I’d just be so sad if it was my fault someone lost their dog!” Her deep green eyes quivered in a sharp pang of melancholy at the mere thought of being responsible for such a terrible act. She fell silent for a moment, as if reflecting on this.
“So?” Urged Shutter. “So what happened?”
“Well, I chased Scruffles all the way to the market place. And—”
“You knew the dog by name?” Interrupted Spectre, now very confused.
“No, I found out his name later when the owner was yelling at me as we were washing him off in the fountain, but we’ll come to that in a bit.”
“I see,” Chuckled Spectre. “Do continue.”
“He was a fast little puppy!” She laughed. “He got way ahead of me and by the time I caught up he had knocked over the honey dispensary and the flower carousel, spilling flowers and honey everywhere and he was heading toward the Apple Family’s fruit cart, where Granny Smith happened to be working that day.”
“Oh no!” Exclaimed Shutter and Spectre almost simultaneously. “Not Granny Smith!”
“IT GETS WORSE!” Exclaimed Sunny.
“How could it get any worse?” Echoed Shutter.
“My dear boy,” answered Spectre,”This is Sunny Tendersmile we are talking about here. It can always get worse!”
“It does!” She admitted with a nod. “In the process of knocking over the honey dispenser, Scruffles had covered himself in the sticky goop, and then when he destroyed the flower carousel a bunch of flowers had stuck to him! So when Granny Smith looked up from pricing her apples, do you know what she saw?”
“Oh no!” They both exclaimed again.
“Yes, the poor old mare saw a galloping bouquet of tulips coming at her, jaws gaping and paws scraping and all!” Sunny started clapping her hooves together like a chomping mouth. “He looked like a beast! And, well, as I rounded the corner, I saw the fear in old Granny Smith’s eyes! She screamed ‘The flowers are comin’ to get me! The flowers are comin’ to get me!’ And she nearly lost all her apples!”
“Oh my!” Spectre’s cogs were spinning in excitement and horror! Shutter just stared at Sunny open-mouthed, in disbelief.
“Killer flowers!” Sunny shouted, holding her hooves up. “She thought the flowers had come to life, like some evil florist’s nightmare, and were coming to eat her up! And what else was she supposed to think? That’s exactly what it looked like!”
“Poor Granny Smith!” said Shutter, biting his hooves. “For someone with such a dark history with timberwolves, I doubt she took well to being pursued by an evil flower dog!”
“She did not take it well at all, Shutter.” Sunny whined. “She up and abandoned her post at the stall and galloped toward Sweet Apple Acres, screaming about flowers the whole time she went!”
“So what did you do?” Shutter spoke up.
“Well I didn’t know what to do!” a tear was in Sunny’s eye. “Luckily one of the ponies who worked at the flower stand, who had seen the whole ordeal, took off after Granny Smith, you know, to tell her that there weren’t any flower monsters.”
“That’s good.” Said Shutter.
“And the rope selling pony, he made a lasso, caught the crazy dog and handed the reigns over to me.” She let her hooves fall to the table. “At that point I didn’t know whether to help everyone clean up or take the dog back to it’s post!” She sighed. “But everyone in the market agreed I’d already done enough, so I returned to the bookstore to find the owner standing at the post where the dog had been. She was scratching her head, confused and scared. I returned the dog to the owner, who was a bit angry at me for untying him in the first place and also for getting him all messy.”
“Well I should say so,” said Spectre, proper and dignified. “And I hope you learned a lesson here about touching other people’s dogs!”
“I did.” She looked down at her empty pie plate, ashamed at what she’d done. “So I went with the the owner and her dog to the nearby fountain to help her wash him off and it was there, as we were scrubbing Scruffles, that I overheard a couple of reporter ponies talking about a mystery the newspaper was in the process of trying to solve!”
“Ah, finally, we’ve arrived at the mystery! “ Spectre laughed. “Couldn’t you have skipped the whole part about the dog turning into a flower monster and started with the fountain?”
“Well I would have, but then you would have wondered why I was standing in the fountain with a stranger washing a honey-flowered dog, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes!” Shutter cut in before Spectre said anything else to delay the most important part of the story. “It was good to know the context. Now about that mystery?”
“Something’s lurking in the gurgling grove of the Everfree Forest!” She said bluntly. “And it’s territory is getting bigger! In fact, a couple who’d been picnicking at a park near there said they heard something rustling in the woods and it came out and apparently it stole their food!”
“I see.” Sighed Shutter. “And that’s it?”
“Well no! I mean, apparently this isn’t the first time someone’s been attacked by the Gurgler.”
“The Gurgler?” repeated Shutter and Spectre.
“Yes, that’s what they call it!” Sunny looked about with wide scared eyes. “They said it’s happened five times in the last two weeks!”
“Wow!” Exclaimed Shutter. “That is quite a bit of gurgling!”
“Yes and at this point no one knows how to catch it or even what it is! So Mayor Mare has put out a bounty for it’s acquisition, or at the very least—“ Sunny pointed at Spectre.” A PICTURE of it, so that it can be identified and properly contained!”
“I see, so if someone gets a picture of the beast, then maybe they’ll be able to figure out how to catch it!” Shutter repeated. “Just one picture.”
Sunny and Spectre could both see that familiar look of excitement come across Shutter’s azure face. He was already hooked and he didn’t even know all the details. “And that’s where we come in and save the day!” He whispered excitedly. “Yes!”
“Yes!” Whispered Sunny.
“Oh no,” sighed Spectre under his breath. “Here we go again…”