Dinky is an extra special character who has won the hearts and imaginations of many in the fandom. Her inclusion in this story serves both as a treat for such people, and an opportunity to create a character who is both unique and fascinating. Let's meet Dinky and find out what her role is in this story.

First, recall that Hyperion and Periapsis represent the only occurrence of two wild alicorns existing at the same time.

Long, long before Hyperion, there was a wild alicorn who took a mortal pony mate. This resulted in a son who ended up being an earth pony, but with particular gifts such as an exceedingly long life, extreme intelligence, and an aptitude toward science.

As he was born during the Calamity of Alicorns, his father eventually changed things on Equus to an unbearable situation. He created a device capable of traveling forward time to escape the destruction of his civilization.

This pony is Doctor Whooves.

As fate would have it, he ended up in contemporary Equestria and took on Derpy as a traveling companion. The two had adventures together for over a year.

They fell in love, and their time together resulted in Derpy becoming pregnant, producing Dinky.

To understand Dinky, one must first understand Derpy. She consistently held an upbeat if simple attitude toward life and others. When she had her own child, she passed those values on. Dinky's relationship with her mother is characterized by the fact that she was one of the most genuinely cherished children ever. As a result, it is somewhat foreign for Dinky to think in ways that do not involve unconditional love. She greets everyone with physical affection, whether she is close to them or not.

Naturally, Dinky's early life involved a lot of adventure. Though she doesn't speak of it, she has visited many worlds in her travels with her parents. Because the Doctor's father was a wild alicorn, he had the ability to use the Aether to visit other realms.

However, all of this happened when Dinky was quite young. During this story, fifteen years later, it all seems like a wild dream. Nopony else can corroborate the adventures except her mother, who isn't very talkative about the subject.

Around the time Nyx was created, Derpy and Dinky decided to remain in Realspace on Equus. They have simply tried their best to move on with their lives once the adventure was over. The Doctor returns on occasion, but he still spends much of his time in other realms.

The oddity of a single pegasus, mother of a unicorn, came into focus due to Derpy's profession (mailmare) and the fact that Dinky couldn't fly. The solution came when Derpy met Jet Valkyrie, who designed and built a simple sky chariot that Dinky could ride in.

Dinky first met Nyx at school shortly after Nyx arrived in Ponyville. She was only six and a half years old at the time. The youngest in her class. Their first time working together was at the school play where Dinky played Twilight, and Nyx unknowingly played herself as Nightmare Moon. After Nyx was restored to being a filly again and given a normal life, she and Dinky became easy friends. This was helped by the fact that Flitter took Rumble and Nyx on pretend adventures which reminded Dinky of the adventures she had with her parents, even if only in the imagination. The four often bonded in this way over the next few years.

As a person, Dinky is very kind and generous. She loves doing favors for others, although she has the sense to make a profit wherever she can find some good business. She's an entrepreneur, always on the lookout for little delivery jobs she can do for someone. Dinky is very polite and refined. She speaks respectfully at all times, giving honor to those whom she feels deserve it. She has an affinity for adventure, due to her time with her father, but her personal preferences have never permitted such things in her life. Life with the Doctor was always random and somewhat dangerous. So the idea of going out into the vast unknown and doing something crazy induces a degree of nostalgia in her.

This is Dinky's personal dichotomy, in that she has the youthful exuberance of an adventurer, but the intelligence, business savvy, and refined nature of a cultured pony. Dinky was, of course, not raised to be this cultured. She chose it on her own, partially to be distinctly different than her mother, and partially because of her affinity for Pipsqueak, who comes from a cultured background himself.

Dinky is a recent graduate of the Focused Talents program at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. It's the same program Nyx took, where the focus is on the specific ability that the student does the best, and to learn how to make the most of just that. Dinky is as far from multitalented as you can get. She can levitate objects as well as any unicorn, but the only other thing she can do with any degree of skill is teleportation.

Dinky's teleportation can be divided into two categories. The first is self-teleportation and is her specialty. She can teleport any distance with zero energy usage because she uses power from the Aether to fuel the jump. She is not aware of this, and the few others who are aware of her gift at all are perplexed by it. What she does would be physically impossible if she drew her power from the Lifestream and stored it internally like every other unicorn. But mortal ponies are not aware of the Aether, and so the source of Dinky's power is a mystery.

The second category of teleportation is that Dinky can move objects other than herself. The catch is that she must draw power from the Lifestream in order to teleport these objects. Small objects like her saddlebags full of scrolls and lightweight packages are of little consequence, and she can move these about Equestria all day long with no ill effect. Large objects such as machinery or other ponies takes a lot of effort, and her range is severely limited. This is demonstrated in chapter six where Dinky moves the power regulator across the room. It took considerable effort to achieve this.

Shortly after graduating, Dinky opened up a business named The Pony Express after her special talent of delivering things instantly. She services all of Equestria, and has a regular 'route' where she pops into a post office branch and exchanges incoming and outgoing high-urgency letters and packages. Her ability has allowed her to be quite successful, and she has contracts with all the major post offices and many of the minor ones. Pip manages the marketing side of the business, and many aspects of it which don't require teleporting. The couple lives in Fillydelphia.

Dinky came to Luna's attention when she graduated from school in Canterlot. Luna received a report from Dinky's professor, outlining her unusual abilities and the fact that she was clearly breaking the laws of arcane dynamics. The professors had been given instruction by the princesses to report any such occurrences within their student population. Because of this, Luna has kept a loose eye on Dinky and has employed her as a subcontractor for a large portion of deliveries related to the Palace as well as certain military deliveries. Although Dinky does not understand why, she has had unusually easy access to Luna for some time now. "The Palace has been most generous," Dinky says to Luna in chapter six.

Luna is perplexed by what is going on with Dinky, since she is apparently accessing the Aether in a very specific fashion, despite not even being an alicorn. She has shown no signs of any other aspect of alicorn development, especially the transformation which all natural alicorns go through. Dinky is not physically strong, nor does her bloodwork show signs of immortality. Luna has done her research to try and determine exacly what is up with this young mare, but she is at a loss. The best Luna can think of is to continue to keep an eye on her, and possibly help guide her to make the best use of her gift.

Enter chapter six where Dinky is delivering Luna's message to Nyx. Luna remarks how impressed she is with Dinky and subtly hints that Dinky may find a greater use for her gift in the future. Dinky does not seem too eager about that, and so Luna switches to plan B. She decides that Dinky should be put with Nyx out in the field. Luna's mind is on Nyx anyway, at this stage, and she's trying to find a good way to guide Nyx along on her journey toward her destiny. It's convenient that Dinky is already Nyx's friend anyway, so the best thing to do would be to have Dinky join Nyx's private team of potential heroes.

Over the course of the next week, while Nyx is away on her mission, Luna enters Dinky's dreams and begins to shape her thoughts toward the sort of adventures that Nyx is likely to go on. Luna suggests to Dinky's subconscious mind that she belongs in that scenario. This resonates with Dinky because of her past with her father, but when she wakes up from these dreams, she has no idea what to make of them. She doesn't know that Luna has performed an inception on her.

Meanwhile, when Luna sees Nyx again at their debriefing, she mentions to Nyx that she ought to include Dinky in the team. Naturally, Nyx is surprised because she is not aware of Dinky's adventurous early-childhood.

When Nyx and her friends invite Dinky to join their team, she is surprised to say the least. But she accepts, and the four begin working together to solve the mysteries of the plot.

Dinky's ability will come in handy for the team in several ways. Her ability to communicate with Luna at the Palace at any time will solve a lot of the team's communication problems. This means our heroes will have access to "high command" similar to a modern military unit being able to radio in and get instructions. Dinky will also be a very effective scout. She is essentially uncatchable, since she can pop to a safe location at any moment. As long as she isn't caught completely off guard and shot, she can operate with impunity in the field. This scouting talent makes her perfect to pair with Flitter, who excels at reconnaissance for a different reason. The two of them should be very interesting to explore when it comes to the infiltration mission into the zebra homelands.

Another role Dinky will have is delivery of important items. Any time the story needs to get a small object into the hooves of someone far away, Dinky can handle it. She will also be excellent as a resupply pony in case any of the characters run out of ammo or food or whatever. This will be quite handy in exchanging CAPS for the Valkyrie, since that beast uses a ton of energy. Dinky will also be able to rescue ponies who are otherwise trapped in peril.

In addition, many scenes in the story will not feature Dinky if she happens to be away at the time. Dinky still leads her normal life and lives in Fillydelphia, runs her business, spends time with Pip, etc. She doesn't need accommodations like the others do. She simply has to make sure the rest of the team doesn't take off without her while she's away.

Lastly, and most importantly, is Dinky's role in the climax of the story. In order to break into Hyperion's lair and rescue Nyx, the door must be breached. There's no way to achieve this, but Apple Bloom says that it can be opened from the inside. Dinky will teleport Apple Bloom to the other side of the steel door, allowing the rest of the team to storm the lair. She will, however, have to wait because the Blood Mist on the other side of the door prevents her from jumping in. One of her limitations is that she cannot teleport into an invalid location such as anywhere which is blocked. As it happens, the Blood Mist also blocks her ability.

Overall, Dinky is a very important character for the remainder of the story. Waiting as long as I have to include her was a good decision because it let the story build up tension in a few key areas and demonstrate why Dinky is important. Not being able to communicate with Canterlot, combined with their mobility restrictions in the bayou, have presented a lot of challenges. And now that these challenges have been explored and depicted thoroughly in the story, it's time to get past them and move on to more interesting things.

Despite her history of being unfairly looked down upon by the world

In all honesty, this is pretty cliche and doesn't really fit with what we know of Equestrian culture. I know it was stupidly popular fanon back in the day, but a lot of that has long since been ascribed to the fandom archive-dumpster. Still, if it works...w/e.

However, all of this happened when Dinky was quite young. During this story, fifteen years later, it all seems like a wild dream. Nopony else can corroborate the adventures except her mother, who isn't very talkative about the subject.

Eeeeh. This brings up the Discord problem again. If Whooves can travel through time and space, why doesn't he just go back to before the war and smack Celestia with a rolled-up newspaper while screaming STOP BEING DUMB or something? You'll need to contrive some excuse as to why he isn't doing anything.

The Doctor hasn't been seen since.

Maybe he faked his own death for no reason.

The solution came when Derpy met Jet Valkyrie

Hmm. Scandinavian mythology. Interesting.
Also, is that OC important in any way? Does he (she?) show up elsewhere?

Over the course of the next week, while Nyx is away on her mission, Luna enters Dinky's dreams and begins to shape her thoughts toward the sort of adventures that Nyx is likely to go on. Luna suggests to Dinky's subconscious mind that she belongs in that scenario. This resonates with Dinky because of her past with her father, but when she wakes up from these dreams, she has no idea what to make of them. She doesn't know that Luna has performed an inception on her.

That feels uncomfortably like a violation of both privacy and cognitive liberty, especially since the result is likely to place Dinky in danger.

She is essentially uncatchable, since she can pop to a safe location at any moment

But can she outrun boolet?

One of her limitations is that she cannot teleport into an invalid location such as anywhere which is blocked. As it happens, the Pink Cloud also blocks her ability.

Is that because it's denser than air or because of the magical properties of Pink Cloud? Can she jump into any gaseous space? What about liquids? Would rain stop her teleportation? Could she teleport to a point underwater?

Pip/Dinky is a Thing, apparently

I've noticed consistent underdevelopment of these secondary character romances. I suppose if it doesn't impact the story at all, it doesn't matter that much. *Shrug*

5343940

Is that because it's denser than air or because of the magical properties of Pink Cloud?

I imagine that this was an intentional side-effect of the Pink Cloud. Since the recipe came from the Black Book it was probably meant to counter unicorns and prevent them from escaping.

5343961
I figured as much, but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

5343896
Forgot to make my original comment a reply. :(

A few thoughts;

You've outlined *what* Dinky is.. I suggest continuing and outlining *who* she is. What makes her unique among the characters, what does she love / hate, what are her dreams and passions.. what makes her tick. Why is Pip dropped overboard the second she gets asked to go on this dangerous trip? What does he mean to her, and how does that affect what she is doing both now and in the future?
How does she react to danger? Strange things? Injury? Emotional trauma? Etc.

You've got a plan for her role at the *end* of the story, but how is she going to affect Act 2? If you've got Rumble and Flitter as psychological foils to Nyx, is Dinky going to fit in there somehow?

5343940

Derpy's downtrodden status and the fandom

True, true... I should clarify though that this will not come up in the story itself. In the Let's Meet series, I'm just trying to flesh out who and what each character is. That info may never make it into the story. Derpy is not a main character, and Dinky won't be talking about how ponies hated her mother.

Eeeeh. This brings up the Discord problem again. If Whooves can travel through time and space, why doesn't he just go back to before the war and smack Celestia with a rolled-up newspaper while screaming STOP BEING DUMB or something? You'll need to contrive some excuse as to why he isn't doing anything.

That is, of course, a very good point. And Doctor Who regularly inserts blatant contrivances in order to keep from contradicting itself. Frankly, I'm amazed they've been able to juggle things for so long without fans just throwing up their hands and saying "screw it - it makes no sense, but I love it".

On that note, I can easily excuse the Doctor's lack of alicorn-smacking by saying that the timeline got spaghettified when Spell Nexus created Nyx, pulling the Nightmare out of her banishment. I could put a dome over the entire zebra war as well, saying that the effects of Hyperion's magic being used in such a large scale as megaspells, and the accompanying influx of destructive Aether energy have made the Doctor's time navigation not able to function in that period of time.

Hmm. Scandinavian mythology. Interesting.

Hyperion is a Greek titan. Mythology is a great source of content.

According to Wikipedia,
"a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live."
Norse mythology also says they can fly. I can't think of a better name for the aerial vehicle our heroes are about to acquire. And... listening to Richard Wagner's 1870 classic Ride of the Valkyries is almost required when reading about this aircraft being powered up and taking off into battle.

Also, is that OC important in any way? Does he (she?) show up elsewhere?

Jet is the designer of the Valkyrie. It is a prototype aircraft he hopes to market to the SkyGuard. Pegasi generally don't like sky chariots because they think they slow them down. They prefer the freedom of untethered flight in battle, so earth pony soldiers get left on the ground rather than up in the air where they could be more useful. Jet's unique design solves this problem, but he's been having a hard time getting the SkyGuard's attention.

When Jet's daughter, Nipper, convinces him to sell his prototype to our heroes, it is under the condition that (a) they service the vehicle through him if it gets damaged, and (b) that they promote it to the military since they would be able to see how it performs in battle.

That feels uncomfortably like a violation of both privacy and cognitive liberty, especially since the result is likely to place Dinky in danger.

I know. But what we're going to have to trust here is that Luna's wisdom is sound. This whole "inception" idea wouldn't be quite as forceful as what the movie suggests. It's more like a subtle but steady nudging of Dinky's attention to help her realize what she probably already knows -- that joining with Nyx and her friends is something that she would want to do. She just doesn't quite realize it yet.

But can she outrun boolet?

Bahahaaa!!
No. No, she can't outrun boolet. Her reaction time is probably something along the lines of 1/2 second between when she senses danger to when she's gone.

Is that because it's denser than air or because of the magical properties of Pink Cloud? Can she jump into any gaseous space? What about liquids? Would rain stop her teleportation? Could she teleport to a point underwater?

Underwater? no.
In the rain? yes.
Regular gasses? yes.
Pink Cloud laced with alicorn magic from Hyperion? no.

In the rain works because her teleportation is not an instant popping into existence. It's a whole lot like Nightcrawler's teleportation crossed with Dr. Manhattan's teleportation. When she appears, it bends space around the point where she shows up, displacing everything around her, provided it's not a lot of material and that it can be readily moved aside. Space then blends in with the original grid in the span of perhaps a half-second, allowing for matter to get out of the way without inducing things like reality-breaking quantities of energy being released.

I've noticed consistent underdevelopment of these secondary character romances. I suppose if it doesn't impact the story at all, it doesn't matter that much. *Shrug*

Background shipping is mostly harmless. Just like the Earth. I have no intention of dwelling on Pip's side of things or even making him a character in the story. We can hear what he thinks of things via Dinky's comments from time to time if appropriate.

5345845

I suggest continuing and outlining *who* she is.

Yeah, I'll write something up. Haven't developed that yet. Usually, characterization is something I create on the fly rather than plan in advance. I'll update it when I have more to say about her. I will say, however, that Pip isn't "dropped overboard" at all. Dinky will still continue to lead the same lifestyle she has been leading. Remember that locale boundaries do not apply to Dinky. She'll go home and sleep in her own bed every night. Things like that.

5346340

Jet Valkyrie is capitalist scum

Righto. A few things -
Dude is named after a group that is exclusively female. ???
Dude names his ship after himself. No ego there. No sir.

"screw it - it makes no sense, but I love it"

Mmm. It's important to note that the reason Who has such a fan following has little to do with impressive internal consistency and planning. It has more to do with the characters, as well as the atmosphere that comes with the setting rather than the setting itself. Who writers tend to treat technology (as well as little things like internally-established physical laws) as means of creating drama, and they tend to change to suit whatever situation would create the most dramatic tension in this week's episode.

It's more like a subtle but steady nudging of Dinky's attention to help her realize what she probably already knows

That raises the question of why Luna bothered with messing around with dream magic in the first place. Why not just chat with her for a few minutes? Same result with none of the sketchy-ness.

Pip isn't "dropped overboard" at all. Dinky will still continue to lead the same lifestyle she has been leading. Remember that locale boundaries do not apply to Dinky. She'll go home and sleep in her own bed every night. Things like that.

That would be an interesting dynamic to explore.

5348169

Expanding on Luna's dreamscape interactions is more interesting. It's not a difficult concept; nudging someone along in a certain direction to help them overcome internal resistance isn't a bad thing. Teachers and coaches do this all the time, though it takes longer. If Luna can directly interact with someone's subconscious, it would help get past personal fears and barriers much more efficiently.

Dr Who. Yes, I'm aware. I've been a Dr Who fan longer than you've been alive.

Valkyrie... picky picky. Would it help if our heroes named it after him?

Dinky's lifestyle: Yeah, I think it should be really fun and different to see how she affects the story and reacts to things.

5348303

Valkyrie... picky picky. Would it help if our heroes named it after him?

If anything, the heroes would be less likely to name it after an existing pony. Rather, they'd probably name it after some concept that represents him but also can't possibly be confused for him. Having the same name is why so many people can't identify the difference between Washington State, Washington D.C., and first U.S. President Washington.

5348169
5348330

Well, if I'm going to use that name for their craft, are you guys suggesting I give the pony a different name then?

5348344
Yes.

5348344 , That would probably be a good idea.

5348303

Teachers and coaches do this all the time, though it takes longer

The problem with this comparison is that teachers and coaches pose an intellectual challenge to a conscious, aware and able-to-resist individual who is specifically looking for instruction on a particular thing. What Luna does is more akin to subtle mind manipulation. She is altering a person's mind without their permission or even their awareness, and for self-serving reasons too. A less problematic method would be a use of dreamwalking more in line with Luna's canonical demonstrations of her abilities - appearing to and interacting with a conscious and aware Dinky inside her dream.

5348545
A Princess of Equestria does not accept a peasants primitive concepts of free will! They are merely pawns to be moved and sacrificed as we see fit!

Seriously though, this greatly depends on Dinkys mindset prior to Lunas intervention. If she wanted to help some way in the war effort but couldn't think how she'd do it then Lunas little nudge is guiding her to a decision she'd sub-conciously already made.

It's a very delicate subject and I agree it could be seen as somewhat sinister if taken out of context.

I like the idea of Luna taking Celestias role in guiding ponies to their full potential. Helping them overcome their doubts and fears by using her own unique gifts to subtly aid them. As you've mentioned though this has its moral repercussions and is open to abuse.

I do concede that Luna approaching an aware Dinky in the dreamscape might be the simplist way of getting round this issue.

5348545
5348703

I have to say, Duvet is correct in his interpretation, here. Initial humor aside, it's still true. Equestria is a benevolent dictatorship run by a pair who make decisions by either consensus or non-objection. Each is nearly 5300 years old and wields immense wisdom and experience. Their very nature is to do whatever is for the benefit of ponykind. This is what benevolent means.

And if you think free will is some kind of sacred cow, I present to you everyday military structure as Exhibit A. Commanding officers, with often very few years of experience and wisdom, violate the free will of those under their command all the time. Sometimes in life, there is no choice. I know people in this age have some kind of quasi-fetish with the concept of free will, but there are plenty of examples of times when people simply have no choice. In fact, if you extrapolate it out in life, most things come down to us not having "that option" we would most prefer. This is, in a fashion, a violation of free will. That's just life.

If Luna could gain a top-down view of Dinky's psyche, and is aware that she is accessing the Aether, somehow, she is every bit within her right to take actions that would be for the greatest benefit of ponykind as a whole. As I said in the OP, keeping an eye on her would be important as it is. Pairing her with Nyx is ideal and convenient, since they are already friends. And the fact that she has a predisposition for adventure despite not having any adventure in her life presently... it is really a no-brainer that it's the right decision. And when important decisions are to be made, often permission is not required.

Why? Because giving someone a choice to opt out of what must happen is a significant risk. Sometimes, actions which may be viewed as a minor offense are necessary for the greater good. Similarly, Luna outright stole the Element of Magic from Discord, creating a powerful enemy in the process. But it was necessary because of the need to create the anti-alicorn weapon. If she had not done so, it could have meant even worse consequences.

This is known as The Needs of the Many trope, and is present in some of the greatest stories ever told. A good character takes no pleasure in restricting or violating someone's free will. They to not do it on a whim. But if it is clear that it is the right choice, then they will do it. Antagonists do this as well - even well-meaning ones like Storm Shadow, who willingly sacrifice many hundreds in the hopes of saving many millions.

[amendment]

In case the above is insufficient, there is also another thing to consider about the scenario I suggested. If Luna was using the dream world to suggest things to Dinky, it still isn't a violation of free will. It's merely marketing. It's show, don't tell. Luna is showing Dinky things which may be difficult to tell her about. And at the end of the day, it's still Nyx and friends asking Dinky to join them. She could have still said no.