Dinky and the Blanks

by GrassAndClouds2

Ponyville

Dinky woke up the next day to the faces of her mother, Cherilee, and several of the foals. “Momma!”

Ditzy embraced her daughter. “Hush. Relax, dear. We’ve got good food for you, and Nurse Redheart’s already been in to bandage your wounds.”

Dinky remembered the scrapes she’d gotten fleeing Grey Hoof. Looking at her coat, she saw that it had been cleaned up, and the cuts treated. “Thanks…” she managed.
“Thank you, Momma. I’m sorry I got lost.” She turned her gaze to Cherilee. “And I’m sorry I ran off, Mis Cherilee. I was trying to help Ruby, but then I got split up, and…”

“Ruby?”

Dinky paused, realizing that she didn’t have any real proof of her story. Her mother would believe her, but what if Cherilee thought she was making it all up so she didn’t get in trouble? Cherilee was really nice… but she knew that Snips and Snails did that kind of thing all the time, and…

Ditzy seemed to pick up on Dinky’s problem. “Can we talk about that later?”

“Of course,” Cherilee said. “I’m just happy that you’re okay. I was so worried about you—“

“It’s not your fault,” said Dinky, quickly. “I’m sorry if I made you look all night…”
Cherilee smiled at Dinky. “You’re safe and sound now. That’s what matters.”

Scootaloo put a big basket on Dinky’s nightstand. “We were really worried about you, so we got you some treats from The Sugar Cube.” She smiled weakly. “We weren’t sure what else to get you, so…”

“Thank you!” Dinky opened the box and looked at the donuts and the piece of cake. “They look great!”

Ditzy plucked the box away. “Let’s not spoil her appetite, now,” she said, but she was still smiling brightly.

Sweetie Belle put a little basket of apples on the nightstand too. “Apple Bloom’s still helping harvest, but she sent these.”

Dinky nodded. She would have to remember to thank her later.

Then Snips and Snails pushed a big box onto the nightstand. Dinky opened it to see a huge worm.

“It was my pet, but I thought maybe you could borrow him until you felt better!” said Snails. “He’s really fun! He even wiggles funny!”

“Uh… thanks, guys.” Dinky managed a smile at that. “That’s really thoughtful.”

Ditzy coughed. “I think we’d best let Dinky rest now. Thank you all for coming by; we really appreciate the well-wishes.”

The foals and Cherilee began to leave, although Snips paused to ask Dinky, “Did you see any cool bugs in the Everfree?”

“Maybe a few.” Dinky didn’t really remember the bugs. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Awesome!”

Then all the others were gone, and Dinky looked at her mother. “I’m really, really sorry Momma.”

“I know you wouldn’t have wandered off without a good reason,” said Ditzy. She settled down next to Dinky’s bed. “Do you feel up for telling me what happened?”

“Uh huh.” Dinky nodded. “I was with the class, and we were going back, when I saw this grey pony running into the woods…”

Dinky talked for over an hour, telling her mother everything.

“I really wanna help Ruby and the others, Momma. Ruby was really nice to me, and a lot of the others tried to help protect me from Grey Hoof. And I know it’s gonna be real hard to get them to believe me, but…”

Ditzy embraced Dinky. “I believe you, dear.” She made it sound like it was obvious, like she knew that her daughter would never tell a lie to her, especially about something this important. Dinky smiled, remembering again that she had the greatest mother in the world.

“But what about the others?” She asked after a moment. “They’re really nice, but what if they think I made it up so I didn’t get in trouble for getting lost?”

“You let me worry about that. You just eat, and rest. You’ve been through a lot.” Ditzy smiled. “And I’m very proud of you. For being brave, and for being kind to the ponies you met.”

Dinky blushed from head to toe.

Dinky woke up again much later. It was night out, she noticed. A big bowl of soup had been set out for her – and it was still hot! – so she eagerly drank it down. It was rich and filling and delicious.

When she finished eating the soup (and the apple which had been left by it, and the big brownie which, according to the note, had been snuck into her room by Scootaloo), she became aware of voices from the kitchen. Her body was stiff, but she managed to get herself out of the bed and make her way to the door.

“No pony here is calling Dinky a liar, Ditzy,” said Raindrops. “You know that. All we’re saying is that it’s a lot more plausible that Dinky got lost and hit her head, or got sunstroke, and imagined that story.”

“We’re not trying to take anything away from her,” added Carrot Top. “But if there was really a pony village in the Everfree, wouldn’t some other pony have noticed in the past century?”

“Not if none of them came back,” said Ditzy. “My daughter is not crazy.”

“We aren’t saying she is. But you have to admit that it’s a hard story to swallow,” said Raindrops. “Why don’t we wait a few days for her to recover and then ask her again? Maybe she’ll realize it was a dream or something.”

“Or,” said Trixie, “We could go check.”

“Check how? We can’t go to 'Moonville', because Dinky’s the only pony who knows where it is,” said Carrot Top. “And I don’t think we should take her with us.”

“We know you’re friends with her, but that’s no reason to indulge her… story,” said Raindrops. It was obvious that she’d meant something stronger, and meaner, than ‘story.’

Trixie laughed. “There’s other ways to look it up, and it’s not like it’d be all that hard. No pony in town knew about Moonville before this, right? She couldn’t have heard of it, or this ‘Star Land,’ from any other pony? As far as we know?”

“Right,” said Lyra.

“Carrot Top, tomorrow, go find Pokey and look up the old town records. Go back a few hundred years. Might need to message Canterlot if we don’t have them, but I’m pretty sure we do. See if there’s any mention of either of the towns, or of Star Land being destroyed. Cherilee, what do you know about furniture and architecture from two centuries ago?”

“Well, I have a few books on historic architecture, but—“

“Great. You and Lyra, also tomorrow, get those books and see if the houses and furniture that Dinky described match what’s in the books. If the Moonville ponies really can’t change anything, the styles should be right out of the past.”

“And what will you be doing?” asked Lyra.

“Oh, I have to supervise the town. If there’s really monsters out there, we need a pony at the front lines, making sure we don’t get invaded or… uh…” She trailed off. “What?”

“Why don’t you come with Raindrops and I to examine the other piece of evidence?” asked Ditzy. Dinky smiled to hear her mother defending her again.

“You mean, Dinky’s lunch?” Raindrop’s voice sounded slightly annoyed. “I thought we agreed that didn’t prove anything?”

“She had a cupcake that I certainly didn’t give her,” said Ditzy, with a tone of repeating herself. “None of the foals brought lunch into the Everfree, and there’s no cupcake stands there. She had to have gotten it from that party.”

Dinky grinned. She remembered taking Grey Hoof’s cupcake and packing it into her saddlebag. She’d completely forgotten about it in all the chaos, but now she was glad she’d managed to get the bag back.

“So what?” asked Trixie. “It’s just a cupcake.”

“But cupcakes were baked differently two hundred years ago,” said Cherilee. “And I know just the pony who could—“

Dinky leaned against the door to hear better, and it swung open – apparently her mother hadn’t had the latch fixed yet. She fell. “Ow!” And then she looked up to see the six Elements staring at her. “Uh…”

Ditzy laughed and gathered her daughter up. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, Momma.”

“Wonderful.” She beamed at the others. “Anyway, I think it’s settled. Carrot Top, you will go with Pokey and search the old town records. Cherilee and Lyra, you will look in your books on old furniture and houses. And the rest of us will go examine this cupcake.”

Raindrops sighed, but said, “Alright, fine. Guess it can’t hurt.”

“Wait a minute.” Trixie looked annoyed – probably, Dinky guessed, at being made to do extra work. “Examine it how? Who in town’s an expert on two hundred year old cupcakes?” asked Trixie.

Ditzy smiled.

"Remind me again why you know all this?" asked Trixie.

Pinkie was examining the cupcake with a big magnifying glass. "Well, duh!" she said, looking up at the group. The magnifying glass made her eye look huge. "What if a time traveler shows up in Ponyville? I'll have to throw a big Time Travel Party! But if it's not historically accurate, she might not like it!"

"Oh. Of course."

Raindrops nudged her. Dinky saw her mother grin, and smiled as well. It felt so nice to be safe again, and with her mother, who would protect her from anything.

"Alright. So, as we can clearly see, this dough wasn't mixed nearly as long as most modern bakeries would do it. And it was mixed by hoof! You can tell because of the crumbs." Pinkie grabbed two cupcakes from a neighboring shelf, ate one, and then smashed a bit of the other on the table. "See? The crumbs from this one are much smoother!"

It all looked the same to Dinky. "Okay...?"

"Now, I taste a much higher egg and milk content. Also some berries, which were often used by ponies in wooded sections of Equestria way back when to add sweetness -- chocolate was harder to get then." Pinkie looked sad. "Life was really sad back then. Now, moving on to the flour..."

And so she talked for several minutes. Dinky was intrigued. She had no idea how many different ways there were to make cupcakes.

"And finally, taste how the frosting is a little bit sour.” Pinkie shoved dabs of frosting into Trixie’s and Ditzy’s mouths. “We have better preservatives now, that keep the cupcake tasting fresh for up to a full day after baking! But this one tastes sour after only a few hours, and there's definitely a hint of FrostingFreeze in there -- that's an old-timey sweetener that also preserved the frosting, but not for very long." Pinkie nodded sagely. "No doubt about it. This cupcake was baked with a two-hundred year old recipe!”

“Fascinating,” drawled a clearly-bored Trixie. “This is truly the greatest advent in forensic science since hoofprints.”

“Let’s show it to Bon Bon too, maybe he’ll know more,” said Raindrops. But when Dinky looked over, the cupcake was gone.

“Yummy!” Pinkie chewed furiously. “It’s like eating a piece of history!”

“Next time, I’m going on the library team,” muttered Trixie.

“The town records are… surprising,” said Carrot Top, showing the others a few scrolls. “There really was a Moonville, and a Star Land.”

Dinky grinned. They were all back in the Doo apartment. Trixie and Carrot Top had brought over some food, and Lyra had made a big salad. They had eaten, and now were discussing what they’d found out.

“It’s just like Dinky said,” Carrot Top continued. “Star Land was destroyed three hundred years ago, and then Moonville vanished a hundred years after that. And there were, uh, random disappearances of foals in the Everfree for a hundred years to follow.” Carrot Top blushed. “Um. And there were also a few reports of a mysterious grey foal, with an orange mane and yellow eyes. It sounds like Ruby.”

“The furniture and architecture matches Dinky’s descriptions perfectly,” said Cherilee. “It’s amazing. Even if there were no ponies there, I’d love to go and visit just so I could see everything. Can you believe that there’s perfectly preserved examples of early Ponyville architecture just a short walk into the Everfree?” She was grinning happily.

“So you all believe my daughter now?” Ditzy asked.

Dinky extended a hoof in a futile attempt to reach a distant carrot on the table. She was happy, and also still a little hungry. “Yeah! You all believe me, right!”

“Of course we do,” said Trixie, levitating the carrot and dipping it in a pot of caramel sauce. “I never doubted you for a second.”

Raindrops rolled her eyes.

Dinky eagerly accepted the carrot. Trixie’s unusual tastes were growing on her. “So you can help them, right? You’re the Elements of Harmony!”

Lyra leaned back in her chair, thinking. “What can we do, though?”

“We have to do something,” said Cherilee. “We can’t risk another pony not being as brave and clever as Dinky and getting trapped there.” Dinky smiled at the compliment. “Trixie, is there any precedent for this?”

“Sure, but it depends how we define what they are. That’ll determine what kind of help Luna and the Night Court will be willing to send.”

“For example?” asked Raindrops.

Trixie had a few papers in front of her; Pokey had brought them over. “Let’s say we call them ‘monsters’. Then I can petition the Night Court for a few powerful unicorns from the Shadowbolts, and they can teleport them all to Tartarus. Problem solved.”

“What? No, we can’t!” The caramel carrot fell from Dinky’s mouth. “That’d be really mean to them.”

“I’m not saying we will do that, I’m just laying out the options,” said Trixie. “Now, if we call them ‘ponies, with some magical curse or disease’, we can have Moonville quarantined. Luna’s mages can build a magical wall so that no more foals, or any other ponies, can approach that town.” She sipped from her glass of bourbon.

“It’s not a bad idea,” mused Raindrops. “Keeps us safe.”

Lyra sighed. “Yeah, but it doesn’t really solve the problem… just delays it until the barrier wears off. Anything else?”

“Sure. We can call them ‘normal criminals’ and call in the Night Guards. They’ll,” her gaze fell on Dinky, and she paused. “They’ll, uh… end the problem.”

“How? From what Dinky said,” Carrot Top began, “They already tried that method themselves. Riots and stuff.”

“They aren’t unicorns. The Night Guard has mages. They could rip the curse off and have the kelpies all arrested and punished.”

“But wouldn’t the Moonville ponies get hurt?” asked Dinky.

All the others looked at her, and Dinky felt momentarily annoyed. “I’m not just a little foal,” she said. “I know what the Night Guard does.”

“We know, dear.” Ditzy hugged her daughter, and Dinky smiled again.

“I just don’t want them to get hurt,” said Dinky. “I wanna help them.”

“Why are you so set on that?” Trixie frowned. “I mean, didn’t most of them try to kill you?”

“I promised Ruby and Mitta that I’d try to help them. I said that I’d tell the Elements of Harmony and that I’d ask them not to build a wall or teleport them away but to try lifting the curse.”

Trixie nodded. “Okay, I get it. You promised them that you’d tell us to use a ‘nice’ solution instead of a ‘mean’ one.”

“Yeah!”

“But then you’ve already fulfilled your promise! You only promised to tell us to be nice, and you already told us. So you don’t need to worry!” said Trixie, in a cheerful tone indicating that Dinky could relax. “Anything we do from here on out, you’re covered!”

“But… I… wait, what?” Dinky was baffled. Judging from their expressions, so were most of the other Elements, except for Raindrops, who was thumping her head against the table, and Lyra, who seemed amused. “Momma, I don’t understand. What does that mean?”

“It means that, when Miss Cherilee has a representative of the Night Court in her class to teach you all about the government, you are going to be home sick that day.” Ditzy gathered Dinky into a protective hug.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” said Cherilee.

Ditzy looked back at the blue unicorn. “Trixie, please. That isn’t what she meant, and you know it.”

“What? That's how things worked at the Court…” Trixie didn’t seem to be making fun of her, Dinky thought. She seemed confused herself.

“We’re not at the Court. We’re in Ponvyille,” said Ditzy, kindly, but firmly. “We are going to help Dinky fulfill not just the letter but the spirit of her promise, because that’s what she meant, and because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Okay, but how?” Trixie asked. “Those are the only options I can think of that let us actually call in the heavy magicians. Without them, it’s just us six, and we have no idea how to lift the curse.”

“They have to understand what they did was wrong, and be willing to accept forgiveness,” said Cherilee. “I’m a teacher. This shouldn’t be too hard…”

“I don’t think they’ll be in a lecturing mood,” said Raindrops.

They argued for a while, but none of them could come up with a really good idea. Eventually, Trixie said, “Look, we’re not getting anywhere. Let’s all go home and sleep on it. I’ll have Ivory Scrolls prohibit any Ponyville ponies from entering the Everfree. Tomorrow, maybe we’ll have another idea.”

After the others had left, Dinky was still nibbling at her caramel carrot – she wanted to savor it. “Momma?” she asked. “Was Miss Trixie making fun of me?”

“No, she wasn’t. She grew up in a place where… where it mattered more what you said than what you meant.” Ditzy smiled. “But she’s a lot better about it now. I think you’re a good influence on her.”

“Me?”

Ditzy grinned. “Yes, you.” She poked her daughter’s nose. “Now, back to bed. Nurse Redheart says that you still need plenty of rest.”

Dinky couldn’t sleep.

“There’s gotta be a way to save them,” she mused. “There’s gotta!”

But she couldn’t think of how. Ruby had said that the ponies needed to admit that what they’d done was wrong and want to be released from the curse. But it had been two hundred years, and they hadn’t reconsidered. Dinky didn’t know how she could convince them, especially with Grey Hoof working against her.

“It’s probably been so long they don’t even remember it,” she muttered. “Grey Hoof probably told them for the last two hundred years that Ruby was a big meanie monster who needed to be kicked out.” She sighed. If it wasn’t for him, she might be able to talk to them – or, more likely, her mother or Cherilee might be able to talk to them – but Grey Hoof was really good with ‘patter’ and might be able to defend against any speech the Elements gave.

But what did that leave? She didn’t want to just have Raindrops and Carrot Top start bucking them. A big wall wouldn’t help them, and neither would sending them to Tartarus. Having the Shadowbolts or Night Guard blow up the town was even worse. But if they couldn’t talk to the Moonville ponies and wouldn’t use force, what was left?

Cherilee always says that it’s better to show a lesson to somepony than to just talk about it. That’s why we went looking for herbs instead of just reading about them in a book. Wish there was a way to show them what they did to Ruby, maybe that would show them they did a bad thing. But she was pretty sure they hadn’t taken pictures of it. Besides, the only other pony there was Ruby herself, and the Moonville ponies couldn’t even see her. As far as she knew, Dinky was the only one who could.

I wish there was some way to just make the kelpies see all the things she did. I bet then they’d understand. Dinky nodded. She believed in the fundamental goodness of all ponies, even ones like the Moonville ponies (well, maybe not Grey Hoof). She was certain that, if they could just see what they’d really done, they’d know it was wrong—

Dinky blinked.

She had it. She knew what to do. She knew how they could save all the Moonville ponies, and do it without getting Luna’s military or mages.

She grinned and quickly scribbled it down on a piece of paper by her bed to make sure she didn’t forget it overnight. All she had to do now was wait until morning. Then she could tell the others, and they could rescue Moonville.

Raindrops sipped her drink. “It’s… it’s not impossible, but do we really think it will work on every pony there?”

They were at an outdoor café. Dinky had just finished recounting her plan and was waiting for them all to tell her it was great. Her mother, for example had immediately pronounced it a wonderful plan, and Dinky could hear the sincerity in her voice. She smiled in delight; it was always good when she could impress her mother. Now she just had to wait for the rest of them to agree.

Lyra looked at Raindrops. “I see no reason not to try.”

“That reason would be getting stuck there and killed or turned into kelpies.”

Lyra shrugged. “I mean, no reason not to try that over any other plan, then. It’s the best idea we’ve had, and it doesn’t involve burning the whole place, or building a big wall and hoping the problem goes away.”

“I liked the wall idea,” said Trixie, but none of the others listened to her.

Raindrops frowned. “Look. Frankly, it shouldn’t entirely be up to Dinky what we do. No offense, but apparently these ponies killed one of their own foals, and a bunch of others for a hundred years. They should be punished. I still vote that we tell the Night Court that they’re criminals and have them arrested.”

Cherilee shook her head. “I vote for Dinky’s idea. The best lessons are those that are shown, not just read out of a book,” she said. “Besides. That Ruby foal deserves to have her story told.”

“Agreed,” said Ditzy.

“Aren’t you even a little mad at them?” asked Raindrops. “I mean, they almost hurt Dinky!”

“I know,” said Ditzy, quietly. “But that doesn’t mean that I can hate them. I try not to hate any pony.” She hugged Dinky again. “And what I want, more than anything, isn’t for them to suffer. It’s for Dinky to be able to grow up safely, and the other foals… and for Ruby to be helped too. That’s the important thing.”

“If you don’t want to help—“ began Carrot Top.

“Who said anything about that? Of course I’ll help. Even if I’m not sold on it… that’s what friends do.” Raindrops nodded. “We’re all in, right? Whatever we decide?”

Every pony at the table nodded.

“Then let’s vote,” said Raindrops.

“Vote? Aren’t I in charge?” asked Trixie. “As Night Court representative, it’s I who—“

They all stared at her.

Trixie sighed. “Okay, fine. We’ll vote.”

Raindrops voted for having the Moonville ponies arrested. Carrot Top and Trixie voted for the wall. Lyra, Cherilee, and Ditzy voted for Dinky’s plan.

Raindrops hesitated. “Then I’m changing my vote to the wall idea.” She looked at Lyra, Cherilee, and then Ditzy directly. “They’re murderers. They don’t deserve the risk we’d have to go through for this.”

Ditzy coughed. “Well, then. For a tiebreaker, I think we should ask the one pony who was most recently affected by Moonville. Dinky, dear, what do you want to do?”

Dinky looked squarely at her mother. “I wanna help them, Momma.”

“Then it’s settled.”

Raindrops sighed, but nodded. “Alright, then.”

Trixie looked unhappy. “Fine. Off to save the monsters we go.”

“There’s no reason to wait,” said Ditzy. “Let’s all head out now. Unless you need props, Trixie?”

“I’ll grab a few on the way.” Trixie sighed. “If we’re doing this, we should do it right. Meet you at the edge of the Everfree?”

“I’ll be right there, after I drop Dinky off,” said Ditzy.

“But, Momma—“

“Dinky, I’m sorry, but you can’t come with us. It might be dangerous.”

Raindrops coughed. “Um. Dinky is the only pony who knows where Moonville is.”

There was silence for a moment.

“The ghost can lead us there,” said Ditzy.

“But Dinky’s the only pony that can see the ghost, right? Besides, we need Dinky to talk to Ruby for the plan.”

Dinky nodded. “Ruby told me that only a few ponies can see her. She doesn’t know why. But none of them ever have cutie marks.”

Ditzy paused. “But… no.” She took a deep breath. “I just got you back and I’m not letting you go there again. We’ll find some other way. We’ll look at the old maps that Pokey found, or…”

“Momma,” whispered Dinky. “I wanna help.”

“You’re too young!”

“But Ruby and Mitta and the others need help! And to help them, you all need to be able to go there, and I’m the only pony who knows where it is or can talk to Ruby! And I can’t just let them all keep being hurt when we can help them!”

“But…”

“I mean,” said Dinky, talking without thinking, “If it were you in my place, wouldn’t you want to do it? Cause you’re the kindest pony in Ponyville and—“

And then Ditzy was hugging her again. Cherilee wiped something from her eye. The others all seemed touched as well, even Trixie, though she looked away and pretended to be annoyed.

“I’m really scared,” whispered Ditzy to Dinky. “I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt.”

“I won’t get hurt. I’m tough.” Dinky smiled. “And I can’t ignore some pony that’s in trouble because I’m scared. You wouldn’t do that.”

“Mmm…”

Raindrops said, “Dinky will stay in the middle of us. We’ll surround her at all times. She’ll be as safe as possible.”

“No. She rides on my back. I’m her mother, and I’ll protect her.” Ditzy closed her eyes, then opened them. Unusually, they were both focused in the same direction – squarely at the distant forest. “And if any of them lay a hoof on my daughter, I’ll make sure they regret it.”

Trixie got to her hooves. “Alright. Let’s get supplies. Meet up at Fluttershy’s in fifteen.”

And just like that, the meeting was over. Dinky smiled as the others began to talk amongst themselves. She’d convinced them!

“Wait, who put you in charge?” asked Raindrops.

“Princess Luna?”

“Of Ponyville, not of… whatever it is we’re calling this. I think Ditzy should be in charge.”

Meanwhile, Cherilee said, “We should figure out what we’ll say. Work out the speeches in advance. An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of improvisation, and all that.”

Carrot Top nodded. “I’ll get parchment, ink, and a quill.”

“Wonderful! I’ll…”

Dinky tuned the conversations out and hugged close to her mother. “I’m not that scared,” she said. “Because I’m with you this time.”

“I love you, Dinky Doo,” said Ditzy. Her eyes looked almost teary. "I love you and I won't let anything happen to you."

“I love you too, Momma.”

Comments

[GrassAndClouds2]

Back in Ponyville! But not for long. Once they all agree on a plan, it'll be back into the woods for them for the ultimate showdown. (Of Ultimate Destiny).

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to fit Grey Hoof into this chapter. Ah well. He'll be making a big appearance in the next one.

My favorite scenes in this chapter were all Trixie being Trixie -- both the Pinkie Pie scene, since those two just bounce so well off each other, and then later when Trixie is trying to explain to Dinky how to get out of a promise. I just love the idea of Trixie being all, "Wait, so nopony taught Dinky how to get out of promises?" And Ditzy says, "No." Trixie: "Then I'll teach her!" Ditzy: "NO!"

I debated having a couple scenes involving Apple Bloom, but I couldn't find a good place to stick her in that didn't make her look like a jerk. Hopefully Scootaloo and Sweetie will make up for it.

[DreadedCandiru2]

743738
Why not just have Apple Bloom be the same in-your-face personality she is in the Celestiaverse? She doesn't have to act like a mob princess to be a thoughtless goof who says just the wrong thing without knowing how she blew it.

[GrassAndClouds2]

743867: That's kind of how I'd write her, but I meant that I didn't actually have anything for her to do. I had considered having Dinky learn that AB had also been to Moonville and escaped, but unlike Dinky had backed out on her promise to tell the other ponies/try to save Moonville because she was scared or embarassed. But that's kind of mean, and as annoying as AB was in Boast Busted and such, I don't think she'd endanger the whole town out of cowardice.

[DreadedCandiru2]

743878
Perhaps she could come away with the impression that while Dinky did find the ruins of an abandoned village, the ghosts and monsters were the result of a hallucination.

[Crisis]

743878

I think that cutting that was probably the best choice. If Applebloom had made such a promise in this verse, there is no way to reveal it without making her look really bad after how much trouble Dinky went through to keep it.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

Personally, I like that Applebloom was cut. There seems to be a thing amongst the readers and writers of the Lunaverse, that Applebloom is somehow a bully or otherwise not a very nice pony. I never intended her to become that, though. So by having her just send a "get better!" apple basket here, she'll hopefully come across as a nicer pony in the future.

[GrassAndClouds2]

744580, 744360: My thoughts exactly. Apple Bloom's not mean, and I didn't want to make her look like she was. Sending the basket was, I thought, a gesture that would indicate that she's fundamentally decent. And she'll be thanked for it later in the story, so AB fans, no worries. :-)

744016: Well, if there were no ghosts or monsters, it would be even weirder that the town was so perfectly preserved to the point where Dinky could describe 200-year old furniture in detail (indicating that it hadn't rotted from neglect).

[GrassAndClouds2]

746960: re: cutie pox is not well understood in the main verse, but I figured that, as the Lunaverse seems to have a more competent central beaurecracy than that verse, the medicine might be a little more advanced. Luna seems the type to want to actively explore things like curses and diseases, as opposed to the more hands-off approach of Celestia.

As for the Elements of Fix Everything, that will come up next chapter. But the reason why they aren't sure that will work is this: it worked on Corona, who was evil at the time. But, even though Grey Hoof is evil and the town is doing evil things, the 6 aren't trying to fight the town, they're trying to lift the curse. They have no way of knowing if the Fix Everything magic can work on a spell that could have been cast as some sort of 'justice' response.

In other words, the Elements might be able to stop a murderer, but they very well might not be able to break the murderer out of jail, because the jail's not evil and so might not be amenable to that sort of magic. And the Moonville ponies, while arguably evil themselves, are also jailed, and the 6 care mostly about breaking the jail of the curse. Sure, Raindrops and (a little) Ditzy want to get back at Grey Hoof, but that's not the main reason for going.

[Xerzes]

Cheerilee, not Cherilee. Also Bon-Bon's a girl. Far as I've seen thus far, you called Bon-Bon a male two out of three times it's come up.

Yes I know I'm late on this.