The Toymaker

by AtomicMuffin

A Challenger Approaches

TAP...TAP...TAP...

Dinky woke groggily and looked around her dark room. Where is that noise coming from, she thought to herself.

TAP...TAP...TAP...

She got out of bed and walked slowly to the window. Whenever her friends use to want to hang out with her, sometimes they would throw rocks at her window to get her attention (Especially if they wanted to sneak out in the middle of the night). But she didn't have friends anymore. She looked out into the moonlit night, but nopony was in sight. In the light of Luna's moon every bush and tree cast a shadow that turned the familiar landscape into a whole new world. Turning to go back to bed, she heard it once again.

TAP...TAP...TAP...

She turned back to the window and a glint caught her eye. Dangling from the latch on her window was a golden key hanging from a golden chain, swaying in the breeze. Her curiosity soon got the better of her; so she propped open one side of the window, leaned out, and looped the chain around her hoof. Drawing herself back into the room, she shut the window and stared at the key in the bright moonlight.

The head was shaped like a wrapped Hearth's Warming Eve present. Hey eyes roved over the magnificent object, but then she noticed something else. Engraved on one side of the shaft was her name. Finn must have left this here for me. He must really be excited about me helping in the shop, but why would he leave it here and now? And he didn't even talk to mom about it yet. She turned the key over and noticed something written on the other side. Two more words were etched there.

" 'I'm sorry.' What could that mean? Unless... Oh, no."

Panic set in as she started to contemplate the gift. If he gave me the key, that means he wanted me to have it. Why would he be sorry about that?

She paced around her room, thinking about the possible implications of the mysterious gift. At a loss, she jumped onto her bed and hugged Patchwork tightly to her chest. Tears came to her eyes as she sobbed, "I just don't know what it means, Patchwork. What can I do? What if he's in trouble? Or hurt? I need to find him!"

She leaped out of her bed and walked confidently to her bedroom door. She reached for the knob and froze. Her shoulders slumped and her head bowed in sorrow. "But I don't know where to start."

"I know where he is!"

Dinky jumped at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. "Who said that? Who's in my room?"

"I am! Come on, Dinky. Don't tell me you don't recognize your best friend."

She spun around and stared wide eyed at the toy sitting upon her bed. Patchwork climbed onto her fabric legs and fluttered her wings. With a quick bound she landed atop one of the posts on Dinky's bed and stared at her best friend.

"P-P-Patchwork. Y-You can t-talk?"

"Yup. Sure can! And I can do lots of other stuff too!" Her voice was high pitched like a young filly. Every word was spoken as if it contained the very essence of joy and laughter.

"But how can you talk and move?! You never did that before!"

"How do you think, silly? Master told you that he made me and that I was his greatest treasure. Did you think that I was just any old doll?"

"I thought that he meant you were important to him because you reminded him of being a kid or something. And why haven't you talked to me until now?"

The multicolored doll tilted her head to the side. "Well, you didn't need me until now. Master said I would be here if you got sad or mad. Just now you got really sad, so here I am! Now do you want me to help you find master, or not?"

Dinky was still having a hard time grasping the fact that the doll she held for six months, her very best friend, was alive. She felt faint from all of the new information, but she steeled herself. She slipped the chain around her neck and felt the key thump against her chest. With as much confidence she could muster she opened the door and called, "Let's go, Patchwork!"

"Yay!" The doll glided on her mismatched wings and alighted upon Dinky's head. Dinky then crept down the hall and out the back door, careful not to wake her mother. She made it outside without confrontation and softly whispered to her friend, "Where is he? Which way do I need to go?"

"Ummm, that way." She pointed a multicolored hoof towards a thickly wooded area that marked the beginning of the Everfree Forest. Dinky gulped audibly and almost lost her nerve, but she took one last look at her home and charged boldly into the dark night.

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Finn crept through the dark forest as quietly as possible. Loose limbs and burrs dug into his cloak and threatened to rip it from his body. The night was eerily still, no sign of nocturnal predators or life of any sort. There were no owls hooting, no crickets chirping, no scurrying in the underbrush, just silence and the sound of him rustling through the dense woodland.

"Alright, Klaus, I'm sure that her hut is supposed to be a little bit further along this path." Honestly he wasn't sure if they were even on the path at all anymore, but he had to simply trust his instinct and innate sense of direction. Soon he paused and spotted a faint glow in the distance.

"It's not the right color to be a will-o-the-wisp. That must be her hut. Probably the light from a window." He trotted cautiously towards the light, dead set on remaining unnoticed. As he crept closer he noticed that something wasn't quite right. The light got brighter as he approached, but it wasn't a gentle glow anymore.

He crept to the edge of a clearing and saw the hut that he was searching for, except that now it was engulfed in a towering inferno. The whole tree was being consumed by flames that reached up into the night sky, and lying on the hard ground near the tree was Zecora.

Finn rushed to her side. Her fur was singed and her mohawk definitely contained more black than it usually did. Some of the bangles around her front leg were welded together by the intense heat. Finn leaned his head down and listened for her heartbeat. It was faint, but she was alive. Then he noticed the craters scattered around her and the silver spikes impaled in the trees like needles. This wasn't an accident.

"Well done, sir. But it appears you are a bit late to the party."

Finn wheeled around and stood face to face with a face that he would recognize anywhere. Better yet, a mask he would recognize anywhere. Facing him was the informant who gave him the location of the amulet. The familiar white mask and unnerving eyes stared back at him with barely controlled glee.

"Shame on you Finishing Touch! You made me wait. I wanted to watch the two of you fight it out before I finished you both. It's a shame the zebra noticed me before you got here. I guess I should apologize for the mess."

His voice was laced with casual disinterest, as if he were inviting somepony over for dinner instead of plotting their murder. Finn just stood there in blank shock. Even his usually quick wit wouldn't respond to the horror he was witnessing.

"Who are you?"

"What a strange question. Very well, if your memory is lacking, I am the one who informed you that the Alicorn Amulet was last seen in the custody of this zebra."

"I know that much, I was there after all. What I want to know is why you did this? And what are you hiding behind that mask?"

"Oh? Well you should have asked that question in the first place. It's good communication practice to say what you mean to-"

"Enough! Just answer my questions!"

"Alright, alright. I'll tell you." With a flick of his hoof, the hood fell back to reveal sleek gunmetal grey fur and a spiky orange and white mane. He reached with the same hoof and removed the mask. His face didn't seem much different from an average pony, except for his eyes and fangs. Both of his pupils were reptilian slits, but one iris was silver while the other was sparkling gold. Two fangs jutted from mouth like a snake's. He cast an amused glance at Finn, and with a faint shimmer a horn materialized upon his head.

"Yes, shocking isn't it? To answer your second question, this is what I was hiding under my mask. A shame really, because I swear the mares wouldn't be able to get enough of me. Which brings us back to your second question. Why would I give you the information you needed only to kill you at the last minute? Come on mister genius, you're smarter than this."

Finn's frowned deepened as he glared at this new adversary. "You want the amulet for yourself."

"Close, but no cigar."

"Then you work for somepony else."

"Bingo! Come on, there's more."

"And you needed Zecora to tell you where she hid the amulet, because it wasn't here."

"You're on a roll now! Bring it on home!"

"And so you attacked her in order to get the information that you needed!"

The stranger paused and tapped one of his fangs with his hoof pensively. "You win; however, now you know the truth. That makes you a loose end. I have what I came for, but we can't leave loose ends."

His eyes narrowed and he dashed forward with incredible speed. Finn had just enough time to blast him back with a burst of magic. The stranger flew backwards and rammed straight into a large oak tree. Not wanting to give up his advantage, Finn levitated one of the silver spikes off the ground and shot it straight towards the tree. The spike impaled the cloak, sticking it into the tree, but the stallion who was wearing it was nowhere to be seen.

A sharp whistle from above drew Finn's attention to the sky. The mysterious stranger flapped giant leathery wings to keep himself aloft. Finn cried in alarm, "What are you!?"

The stranger conjured a fireball on the tip of his horn. In the light of orange flames his face looked hollow and menacing.

"Do you like them? This is just one of the perks of being in the Apocalypse Corps. That and the wicked dental plan."

Licking his fangs, he hurled the fireball down to the ground. Finn rolled to the side and managed to escape with only a few scorch marks on his cloak. Whipping off the smoldering garment, Finn launched it to distract the strange stallion. While the stranger was distracted by the fluttering cloak, Finn teleported next to the tree he had impaled earlier. Pulling Klaus out of his mane, he placed him inside an abandoned squirrel den.

"Alright, Klaus, time to earn your keep." With a quick salute, the primate hurried deep into the hole.

Turning back to face his opponent, Finn reached into a dimensional pocket and brought out his trusty green top hat. He placed it atop his head and grinned wickedly, "Now I feel whole again."

After blasting it away with a blast of magic the stranger realized the cloak was a diversion and raced after his prey. His manic grin slipped as he noticed the emerald stallion giving him an equally crazed smile. Finn called up to him, "Now we will see how you like facing off against the greatest enchanter in Equestria!"

The tree exploded and the two next to it followed suit. Limbs, splinters, bark, and leaves swirled around and slowly began to reassemble in the form of a giant gorilla. This behemoth was easily three times as big as a timber wolf, with glowing white eyes. The gargantuan primate let loose a mighty roar that shook the trees and almost managed to knocl the challenger out of the sky.

The mysterious dragon winged stallion laughed crazily, "Oh, this is going to be fun!"