Chapter 1
“Thanks Derpy. At last, with these books my studies on the Concordian Mysteries can really pick up. This is hugely appreciated” Twilight Sparkle sighed with relief “And thanks for the candied daffodil muffin. And the rhinestone muffin, Spike loves those. We’ll be there tomorrow morning”
“Aha! My star-cut gems! Finally! My designs will shake the land itself! Thank you tremendously, dear Derpy! Please take a coupon” Rarity trilled with delight. “And thank you kindly for the black cherry muffin. I’ll be there tomorrow morning”
“Well thankee’ kindly, Derpy! We got this chicken-wire just in time, ah reckon! Timber-Wolves come out at this time of year. Have an apple for the road!” Applejack brayed “And thanks for the apple-crunch muffin. Ah’ll be there tomorrow morning”
“Oh...thank you, Derpy. Angel Bunny’s birthday’s coming up and these are his favourite cherries. Say thank you, Angel” Fluttershy cooed as the rabbit emerged. He was normally apprehensive of newcomers but, upon seeing the box of cherries, he hopped up and hugged the deliverer fondly on the hoof, rapidly tapping his paw in glee. “And thank you for the zucchini muffin. I’ll be there tomorrow morning”
“Oh my gosh, Derps! Signed Wonderbolt biographies with autographs! Awesome! Thanks so much!” Rainbow Dash cried excitedly, hugging her tight “And thanks for the lime zest muffin! I’ll be there tomorrow morning!”
“I’m very sorry, Miss Doo...” Mrs Cake said, bewildered as she stared at the receipt she’d been hoofed “But I don’t think either of us ordered a mini-trampoline, a tricycle, a roll of twinkling lights, three wheels of cheese, a box of rubber ducks of various colours and a clockwork monkey so unless...”
“Hi, Derpy! Thank you so much!” Pinkie Pie’s head appeared from above them as she dropped down, grinning as always, and took her delivery behind Sugarcube Corner “This little filly’s gonna’ get the Best Birthday Party Surprise EVER! And thanks for the triple-chocolate, candy-frosty muffin! I’ll be there tomorrow!”
“Well...there’s the answer to that question. We’d better keep an eye on this one. Anyway, thanks for coming round and thanks for the candied carrot and fondant crème muffins. We’ll be there tomorrow” Mr Cake said, rolling his eyes as they went to check on their adopted daughter.
Thanks for the mail. Thanks for the muffins.
Two sentences that always made Derpy Doo feel so lucky to have the life she lived.
Ponyville’s best mail-pony and muffin-maker.
Along with the companion to the most fantastic stallion anypony could ever know and mother to the most precious foal in all the world.
Derpy Doo had a great deal to be thankful for and she did all she could to repay the town that had treated her so well.
The second to last delivery was a letter to Zecora, the mysterious zebra hermit living on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. The letter was stamped with a seal depicting a shield with black and white stripes all over manned by a zebra at the left of it and an alicorn at the right. It looked expensive, whatever it was, not at all like what most ponies would assume Zecora was used to.
But then Zecora wasn’t all she seemed. Ponyville had learnt that once she’d introduced herself but Derpy had always had a gut feeling.
After all, she of all ponies knew that appearances weren’t everything.
She had taken time during the week the zebra came to stay to memorise the way to and back from her hut. She’d been nervous the first time got a little lost on the way back but now, after all this time, she’d gotten used to it.
She found the kindly hermit hanging up a new wooden wind-chime, the chimes decorated with intricate paints and patterns. The zebra smiled upon seeing her.
“Letter for Miss Zecora!” Derpy piped up.
“Aha. Neither snow nor heat nor dew - Can stop the mail-mare, Derpy Doo” Zecora’s way of speech was, most agreed, a little bizarre but Derpy found it quite endearing. Upon taking the letter, there was a flicker of suspicion in Zecora’s teal eyes but she kept smiling as she accepted the muffin that came with the mail and took a bite, licking her lips.
“Mmm, passion-fruit cream, how delicious. Your skill in your craft is most ambitious”
It was a golden rule in the Doo family that with the mail came a muffin and she’d spent months learning the favourite muffin flavour of everypony she sent mail to on a regular basis. Zecora’s was tricky but, perhaps fortunately, she didn’t often get mail.
“Glad you like it. Everything okay in the letter?”
“Ah...matters from my far-off dwelling. There wouldn’t be much point in telling” Zecora shrugged, hiding her anxiety “Updates and figures most of the time. Now I must finish hanging my chime”
“Okie-dokie, Miss Zecora. Buh-bye!” Derpy took to her wings and flew off back to Ponyville.
The last delivery was meant for the Doo family household.
But not for Derpy herself.
This was one of the most important deliveries the muddle-headed mail-mare made every year and it couldn’t be messed up in any way.
Everything would need to be perfect.
She found him waiting outside. He appeared to be catching his breath.
“Hi, Doctor”
“Hey, love. Got what I needed. You wouldn’t believe where I got it from and who I cheesed off taking it...but its gonna’ be worth it”
“That’s my stallion” She kissed him multiple times on the lips before checking her watch.
“Just half an hour. Everypony ready?”
“All present and correct”
“Okay...” Derpy took a deep breath “I think we’re ready”
Dinky Doo, having just reached her seventh year of age, took a bow as the audience of mothers and fathers stomped their hooves in applause at the school’s Rejuvenation Theatre Play. The viewers seemed to agree she made an excellent Dandelion, none more so than her parents.
“Yay, Dinky! Whoo!” Derpy Doo cheered, standing on her hind legs briefly before falling over backwards, caught by Doctor Whooves in a, more or less, romantic embrace.
Dinky beamed as she noticed her parents, never too hard even in a crowd, as she held the frail hoof of her dear friend Pipsqueak, who blushed prominently in his role as Woodwork, his eyes never leaving her.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, cast as Clover, Smart Cookie and Pansy, all performed one last encore before the curtains fell.
“Well done, foals! Very well done indeed!” Cheerilee said, proud beyond words “Now let’s just take five minutes for everypony to power-down a little and you can go out and meet your mums and dads!”
There was collective cheer from the foals before they conversed among themselves.
“That was great work, Dinky!” Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle piped up, crowding around the little unicorn “You’re bound to get your cutie mark in acting!”
Dinky gave a small sigh. Since acquiring their cutie marks, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had devoted their time to helping others find theirs. It was truly noble of them and spoke volumes about what sort of ponies they were. But Dinky wasn’t so fussed about her cutie mark. She knew it would come out in time later in her life, quite possibly when she least expected it.
As it had done for her mother.
“Its okay, girls. Thanks for helping out”
“You were...you were really good out there, Dinky...just saying” Behind them, little Pipsqueak was managing to get his word out, twiddling his hooves on the floor “Thanks so much, Crusaders, for helping me learn the lines. I...I wouldn’t have gotten the part if it weren’t for you”
“You’re welcome, Pip. I can see why you wanted the part so badly” Scootaloo said, winking coyly, causing Pip to hush her frantically.
“I still think we should have got Flurry Heart to play baby Laurelore” Sweetie Belle whined.
“We only had a couple of weeks to prepare, Sweetie. Going to the Crystal Empire, taking their princess and coming back would be a bit difficult” Rumble pointed out, taking off Commander Hurricane’s helmet and shaking his mane.
“Thtill, Dinky did a really convinthing birthing thcene” Twist added, her curly scarlet mane partly hidden by Chancellor Puddinghead’s massive headdress.
“Yeah, me and her saw the video of the Rejuvenation Town Play seven years ago” Tootsie Flute explained, resplendent in Princess Platinum’s luxurious robe and shimmering crown “She just took lessons from how Derpy did it”
“But...Derpy was actually giving birth in that video” Ruby Pinch said with concern, dressed in the apron and hat of the innkeeper.
“Yup! Learn from the real thing! Tha’s proper actin’ prowess right there” Applebloom chuckled.
“I still think I should have provided the voice for Tirek” Snips pointed out, the back of Tirek.
“You did. We swapped over at the intermission. That was the deal. Besides, you don’t have the right pitch” Snails retorted, the front of Tirek, his scrawny head weighed down by the massive horns.
“You don’t have the right tone!”
“You were very good, both of you” Noi and Pina Colada helped the two out of their costume as the parents drew in.
“When I get my hooves on those two stupid foals who threw pies at me...” Diamond Tiara grumbled, her witch's hat and cloak as sodden with cream and pastry as her face had been on stage.
“It wasn’t so bad” Silver Spoon said gingerly “I mean, the Cakes make some really good stuff after all...” she turned to Featherweight, fitted with grey gargoyle wings and half-mask, who gave her the glasses he’d been keeping safe “Thanks...for holding onto these...With my stage-fright...it was better I didn’t see all too well. You were great learning that big speech”
“No problem...thanks” Featherweight said softly, biting his lip awkwardly.
“Okay everypony, they’re all in here. Don’t crowd now, but show them how proud you are”
At Cheerilee’s guidance, parents, siblings and guardians swarmed in and congratulated their offspring.
“Dinky! Oh my little muffin, you were so amazing out there!” Derpy picked up her previous filly and hugged her tightly. Dinky hugged her back.
“You were fantastic, Dinky, better than the real thing” the Doctor joined in the hug.
“As good as mama?”
The Doctor looked between his wife and daughter.
“I’d say on the same level, yeah. And Pip, you were splendid. Very convincing. I knew at once that your character wanted to protect Dandelion more than anything else in the world”
“Um...yes...that was...right” Pipsqueak mumbled uneasily.
Around her, Dinky heard the cooing compliments towards the cast and crew.
“Yer did good, lil’ Bloom, yer did real good. Come ‘ere, sis”
“My dear little Sweetie, your talents never cease to amaze”
“Way to go, Scoots, you rocked the crowds like I knew you would”
A crowd parted slightly as Filthy Rich found his daughter with a smile, followed by his wife, Spoiled, missing that same smile.
“Little Diamond Tiara, you were the best little witch the realm’s ever seen” He craned down and gave his daughter a fond nuzzle. Diamond Tiara’s anger from earlier melting in an instant as she enjoyed her father’s approval.
“Don’t be mendacious, Filthy” Spoiled sneered “I did not stand outside here for an hour to watch my daughter humiliate herself”
“I...its okay, mom...” the filly mumbled, shamefaced “I...we all had fun, really”
“That’s hardly important. A Diamond does not sully its surface...ever” she snapped, turning on her hooves “Now, I have to be on a train to Manehattan. While I’m out, Filthy, if you must go to this hardly-significant gathering, try not to make a fool of yourself”
Filthy sighed.
“Yes, darling...Don’t worry”
“Good. That goes for you too, Diamond Tiara” And with that, she exited the way she had come, nose high in the air.
“Don’t worry, Diamond, I think you were really good out there” Silver Spoon said gingerly in the midst of a hug from her big sister, Octavia Melody, catching sight of her best friend’s bashful smile.
“Hey Pip! Really good acting out there!” one of Pipsqueak’s friends approached, a lively blue colt, older by about five years, who’d grown up in Trottingham “And...good luck tomorrow morning” he whispered.
“Thanks, Tungsten” Pipsqueak shuddered on his hooves “I think I’ll be alright” He gave one last smile to Dinky Doo, who was being picked up in her mother’s hooves and taken home, waving good-bye to all her friends.
“C’mon, Muffin. I’m sure you’re very tired after all that and it’s getting late. You have a big day tomorrow”
*
Dinky awoke to a mild Saturday morning in Ponyville It had been a busy day at school yesterday and she hadn’t really gotten time to properly enjoy it with that wonderful mare she called ‘Mama’. She promised she’d make it up to her. She’d help her make the muffins and check the stamps and make sure the house was all cleaned up and everything she needed.
Mama worked very hard to keep her happy.
And Dinky always made sure to pay her back with the most precious of currency.
The love of her child.
Something Mama always had and always treasured more than anything.
Perhaps closely tied with the love of her partner and dear friend.
Dinky still didn’t know his name, other than ‘Doctor Whooves’.
But whatever his name was, it wouldn’t make him any less than her favourite Daddy in all the world.
Yawning, she found herself a little puzzled. She was very used to waking up to the smell of breakfast muffins at this time of day. Intrigued and, perhaps, a little worried, Dinky tottered into the living room of the Doo family flat.
The lights were all off, which was odd. Mama and Daddy always waited for Dinky to get up except on very rare occasions when they left Sparkler, her guardian and unofficial big sister, to take care of her. And even if Sparkler wasn’t up, she knew her younger sister, Tootsie Flute, would be at this hour. She was often up early and sometimes greeted the sun with a tune on her treasured musical namesake.
“Hello?” she called out to the shadows and silence “Is...Is anypony here?”
“SURPRISE!!!”
The little unicorn jumped back in alarm as lights of many colours turned on all over the room revealing, in turn, ponies of many colours.
Almost everypony she knew in Ponyville, in fact, and even a few she didn’t. All of them smiling and cheering as they revealed the room to be adorned with party decorations of all kinds. At a glance, Dinky could see it immediately as the work of-
“Pinkie Pie!” Up jumped the pony in question “Super-Duper Happy-Fun Birthday, Dinky! Were you excited?! Were you?! Were you?! Were you?! Were you?! I remember your birthday because I was there on your first birthday! Actually I was there your actual birth-day, like day of birth! Everypony was so happy that day and I wanted to make sure everypony was just as happy today, maybe even a little extra happy like your day of birth but now you can talk and you can say how happy you are and-”
“Yes, yes, thanks a bunch, Pinkie, remember to come up for air” The Doctor appeared behind his perplexed daughter and hoisted her up on his shoulder “You didn’t forget about your birthday, did you, Dinky?”
“I guess in all the excitement of the play for the last week...” Dinky said breathlessly “So...everypony’s here?”
“As many as we could fit in the flat, at least”
Dinky’s beloved Mama, Derpy Doo, appeared through the kitchen, looking tired and relieved but bright and merry as a set of Hearth’s Warming lights.
“Happy Birthday, my little muffin!” she cooed “Come right this way, come open your presents!”
“Uh...Derpy?” Rainbow Dash began as she and the Bearers of Harmony looked over a slight flaw in the décor “That is a Hearth’s Warming Tree”
Derpy blinked and stared at the great pine tree she’d placed in the corner of the living-room, decorated and lit up as best as she could manage and shielding the great collection of wrapped birthday gifts.
“I didn’t want to make a fuss but, now that you mention it...” the Doctor mumbled.
“Oh, I knew I did something wrong! I just didn’t know what!” she groaned, propping her back against the wall as she began to cry “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Muffin! I just wanted today to be just right but I always find a way to-”
She was cut off by a hug from her precious little filly, smiling brightly.
“It’s okay, Mama. I love it. It looks great. And it makes it extra special” she chimed “And Hearth’s Warming isn’t that far away”
Derpy sniffed and managed to smile as Dinky brushed away her tear.
“Thanks, little Muffin. If you like it, that’s okay. Now, whose present to want to open first?”
“Ours! Open ours first!” the Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered, bouncing merrily.
“Sorry squirts, but she’s opening mine first” Rainbow Dash chuckled.
“Um...would it be alright if you opened mine just before?” Fluttershy piped up.
“I’m sorry everypony but...I’d quite like to open Mama and Daddy’s present first” Dinky said firmly.
“Well...they got everypony together. I guess it’s only fair” the Bearer of Loyalty admitted “Go ahead, Dinks. I bet it’s great!”
Dinky found her parent’s present, wrapped in shimmery blue paper. It was flat and hard. A book perhaps? Or art supplies? Dinky had shown great interest in both recently. With great curiosity, she carefully undid the red ribbons and unravelled the paper.
She’d never been able to damage anything her parents had made, even if it was made to be damaged.
Throwing off the paper, she took in the sight.
It was a small hoof-mirror. The frame was porcelain and encrusted with tiny jewels without colour.
Dinky blinked at her own reflection. She was a little confused. The present was clearly quite an expensive and delicate object but she’d expected this to be something a pony like Rarity would get for her.
This was quite unlike her parents.
“You feel a little muddled, my little Muffin?” Derpy asked knowingly “Let me show what it does. This is a very special mirror from very long ago. It’s meant to show you things. Things you need to know”
“No fair!” Scootaloo snapped “You can’t use that in the school tests! That’s cheating!”
“No, no, I mean really important things” Derpy added “Like...Where’s Daddy?”
At her words, the mirror’s glass and the gems around it flashed as gold as her eyes. Dinky stared with wonder as a completely different image appeared in the mirror.
It was her father, standing in the kitchen, with his back to them, waving.
“Hello Dinky” he called out.
There was a pause.
“Er...turn around, Doctor” Twilight advised. The Doctor turned to his right “No, 180 degrees...No, no, from where you were standing before...Okay, now you got it”
“Are we good now?” the Doctor asked, now facing the mirror. Twilight gave him a nod as he waved through the mirror.
“You see, Dinky. Take good care of this. I had to travel a long way to get it. If somepony passes their hooves across every gem around the mirror, you can ask where they are whenever you need to...But I don’t want to catch you spying on anypony in the bath, understand?”
Dinky gave a giggle.
“I won’t, Daddy. Thank you so much” She leapt up and gave her Mama a hug, a gift Derpy always treasured.
“You’re welcome, Muffin. Doc, come in and get a hug from Dinky”
As the Doctor received his own hug, the door flew open as Sparkler and Tootsie Flute practically fell upon each other getting inside.
“I’m so sorry we’re late, everypony” Sparkler puffed “We had to get the...er...the Super-Special-Stunt ready”
“Alright!” Pinkie Pie hopped up and down as was her habit “We’re ready to go. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! This is gonna’ be super-duper amazing!”
“Pinkie, I thought I told you it was dangerous” Twilight groaned.
“It’s only dangerous if you think about too much!” the pink pony retorted, standing on two legs and shaking her hoof in the air “Dinky deserves the best birthday Super-Special-Pinky-Stunt and by Celestia, she’s gonna’ get it!”
“Um...can she open my present first?” Little Tootsie Flute piped up, holding out a carefully-wrapped rod-shaped present before noticing the blue paper around the mirror “Oh...somepony got there before me...never mind...”
“No, Tootsie, its fine” Dinky gave her a hug “I always open Mama and Daddy’s presents first. You know that”
Sparkler and Tootsie Flute and came to Ponyville after falling on hard times. Derpy had met the elder unicorn taking home her little sister, who was Dinky’s first friend at school. When she’d invited them over, she’d been puzzled by Tootsie’s curiosity and wonder, as if their humble little flat was a palace. Sparkler hadn’t said anything and so Dinky had ended up following them back home in secret.
They’d been living alone, in a shack outside of Ponyville, in run-down, squalid conditions. Sparkler always made certain her little sister was provided for, given enough food and learning equipment, often economising on herself, but it was no fit conditions to live. Dinky had never worked out why they were living there but she didn’t feel she needed to, though Tootsie kept saying their parents had lived there.
Once.
The Doo family had put an end to that. With a little funding from her grandfather and some help from her friends, they’d completely renovated the house and made it more than liveable. They’d even secured Sparkler a job as a lantern-maker. Lights around the town at night, lights on the path in the Everfree, lights for festivals. It all had to be done and Sparkler had accomplished it well.
The two sisters had grown very close to the Doo family and, at this stage, they were practically cousins to little Dinky, perhaps even as close as sisters.
Smiling, Dinky unwrapped the present.
It was a flute, much like Tootsie’s own. But where Tootsie’s was amethyst-purple, Dinky’s was bright amber, much like their eye colour.
"N-now we can play together...I'll teach you if you like"
The little periwinkle unicorn’s face lit up as she hugged Tootsie Flute tightly.
“I love it, Tootsie! Thank you! Thank you Sparkler!”
“You’re very welcome, Dinky” Sparkler said smiling “Now I think we’d better let Pinkie do her stunt, the way she’s hopping around. That or she needs to visit the little filly’s room”
Pinkie pouted at Sparkler’s jest before looking at the parents with puppy-eyes.
“Oh alright, Pinkie, let’s see your stunt” Derpy sighed.
“WOO-HOO! Watch closely everypony!” A restless Pinkie zipped off to get ready.
“Erm, sir, ma’am, I really wouldn’t, please” Twilight pleaded “I really don’t think it’ll work”
The Doctor chuckled.
“Come on, Twiley. Whatever happens, it’s bound to be worth watching”
*
Almost surrounded by the darkness but for a few dull lanterns, a lone tactician sipped at a mug of tea and surveyed the notice-board in his workshop. The board was scattered with names, photos and profiles of notable ponies across Equestria along with information and deductions he’d written himself.
Information he had spent years gathering.
In the centre were six photos arranged in a circle which he was going over one more time.
The Elements of Harmony had found new bearers.
This new turn of events was distinctly inconvenient. Until as early as two years ago, Canterlot was the foremost priority to his plans.
Ponyville would fall at the whim of his employer. Nothing too drastic.
Two crossed-wires, one wayward pinch of Diablite Powder, one errant twitch and it would be all taken care of.
Now, it seemed, a far greater threat loomed over him from that wholesome little town.
He massaged his temples with one hoof.
It wouldn’t be that difficult dealing with them.
It wouldn’t even be the first time.
Still, this lot were different. One had even ascended to alicornhood in recent months.
He gritted his teeth.
There was a sight too many alicorns cropping up over Equestria. Five at once would be more than he could have dreamed of.
If we was ever to pull this off...
“Sir?”
“Shadowplay” He'd said the newcomer’s name before he swivelled round in his chair “What news?”
“The Mistress has agreed to see you” The enigmatic batpony said, bowing “You really shouldn’t work in the dark, sir, it can’t be good for your eyes”
“I need to focus, Shadow. The success or failure of our operations depends on this” He got to his hooves “When can she meet me?”
“Now, sir. She is already here”
The batpony parted for a tall, lithe, sleek, pearl-white Changeling with golden serpentine eyes. A Glamourling from the Crystalline Raj. She was swathed in dark green, blue and purple silks but wore no jewellery. Her mane was crimson and hung freely across her scalp and neck rather than adorned by silks and bands as was the custom in the Raj. Her curved hooves made no sound upon the floor and her shimmering, transparent wings made no motion.
“Najiva, Antaheen-Guptata Sri” Shadowplay introduced her with proper titles, in perfect Kristali “Mentor of Unending Silence”
The stallion before her bowed low and smiled.
“Najiva, old friend” he said warmly “It’s been a very long time”
The Glamourling smiled, blue lips parting bare millimetres as something came out her mouth.
The clean, spiny skeleton of a Ghoran Cobra trailing limply out between her lips, one segment of spine at a time.
Her eyes flashed every shade of gold and, slowly, the cobra’s skull rose and its body started to dance in front of them. With a tiny crack, its jawbones moved like a ventriloquist’s puppet, fangs gleaming as two voices spoke out its mouth at once. One a deep, booming, grim baritone of an aged stallion, the other the sweet, melodious, sultry symphony of a young mare.
“Dear Cascadius” the two voices said at once “Time has few ways to separate us”
The two looked each other in the eyes and hugged. At her whim, the skeletal serpent left the mouth of his mistress and coiled around her shoulders, allowing her to kiss the old paymaster on the cheek.
“So, have your colleagues gathered?” he asked.
“The squad is assembled, the most talented hoof-picked and awaiting your instructions” the cobra answered, wrapping itself round Najiva’s forehead and acting as a makeshift coronet. Najiva said nothing. She could not. Though she was still possessed of a tongue, as Glamourlings could regrow them once severed, she could not use it to communicate. Like all Grand Masters of the Echo Squad, she had sworn an eternal vow of silence, using any means necessary to prevent herself from breaking it. So, like many Grand Masters, she relied on a mouthpiece, in this case a zombified cobra.
Najiva and Cascadius, both peerless mercenary leaders feared across the Known World by all who knew them, had met many times in the past, sometimes working with each other, sometimes working against each other.
Nonetheless, they’d come to see each other as equals and helped each other whenever it was convenient.
“Baby, you're the best. I knew I could count on you” Cascadius chuckled “How many have you brought over?”
“Twenty-Six Master Assassins. And many more trainees”
Cascadius grinned and bowed.
“My organisation is indebted. Your graduates will be useful in many ways”
“I hope this makes up for the poor performance of the pretender that shamed our order those seven years ago” Najiva scowled at the memory “Had we found him, a Coldwater Leech would have seemed like a precious gift”
“I do not doubt it. All forgiven and forgotten, dear” Cascadius nuzzled her slender neck, causing her to purr slightly “You know I can’t stay angry at you”
“Oy’ mates! We got a bit of a sitch!” Balisong appeared “Crystal Room. One of her lot says there’s something shonky”
Cascadius and Najiva followed the grim-faced mare to the crystal communications room.
Across the room, crystals were set up on clockwork magic-conducting platforms, tilted and angled in every direction so as to send and intercept transmissions and project images from across the Known World. Wherever they’d left their mark, they kept an eye open and an ear up.
A silver crystal stallion with bright red eyes and a light-blue ponytail was pointing to one of the platforms, detailing various goings-on in the metropolis of Boulette City. Balisong shook her head.
“There’s nothing wrong with the workings but he’s positive there’s something rotten going on”
Najiva approached her subordinate, who bowed low and closed his eyes. The cobra edged across and slowly and gently slid itself down his forehead, onto his nose, trailed the tip of its tail across the motionless stallion’s lips and turned to them.
“My lieutenant, Agravain, says you may want to closely check that area. He doesn’t refer to a breach in security, transmission-wise. Rather in security as a whole”
“What the scudding hay?!” Balisong snapped to the platforms, adjusting the dials to hone in on where and how this information was being transmitted. She blinked and edged back, speaking calmly.
“Our friend, Senator Royal Flush. It seems he’s been gathering information”
“On what?” Cascadius asked.
“Us”
Cascadius’s pupils shrunk in rage but his posture, expression and voice did not change in the slightest.
“I see...” he sighed “It seems I haven’t been clear with him. His election’s gone to his head a lot quicker than I expected”
“We’ve waited on him hoof and tail! It’s thanks to us he’s not in prison!” Shadowplay snarled “Does a mercenary get any respect nowadays?”
“It seems we’ll have to teach him a little” Cascadius turned his back to them, his voice showing slightly more anger “Find him. Find him now. Find out who he was going to send that information to and then bring him to me. Is that understood?”
“Who are you sending, sir?” Balisong asked.
“Tybalt for his speed, Miura for her strength, Gringore because I’m a heartless son of a nag and...Who would you recommend?” he turned to Najiva who pursed her lips.
“Lambasar” the cobra answered “You know him to be very capable” The cobra gave an echoing hiss and a tall, dark-green-coated, silver-maned and bearded unicorn marched in, smiled in a grandfatherly manner and bowed before his Mistress.
Cascadius smiled, heartened and awed by the familiar face.
“Lambasar the Veilmaker. Good to have you on the team. My friends will enjoy working with you” Cascadius said “You have your orders. Carry them out. Bring Royal Flush to me, kill or capture everypony you meet and...Have fun”
*
“See, I told you it wouldn’t work” Twilight tutted.
“Actually, ah’d say it turned out better than ah expected” Applejack pointed out.
“It’s only a flesh-wound...” the Bearer of Laughter mumbled groggily in a vague Trottingham accent “And now for something completely different...He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy...Right, stop this sketch, its silly!”
Nurse Redheart was on hoof to bandage a dazed Pinkie Pie’s head, the results of Dinky’s Birthday Super-Surprise-Stunt gone somewhat awry. Though it could have been completely intentional, knowing Pinky.
“Again! Again!” Several youngsters piped up, shushed by their worried parents.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you home, Pinkie?” a worried Mrs Cake asked, placing a gentle hoof on her adopted daughter’s shoulder.
“Of course I’m fine, talking cotton-candy machine. Just give me a few minutes to gather up my Axolotls” Pinkie said with a dizzy grin before singing an odd jingle in monotone.
“Ice-Cream Bunny. That Ice-Cream Bunny. He’s made of Ice-Cream. And he’s a Wampa”
“That’s...rarely a good sign” Rarity muttered.
“She’ll be fine. She’s had a lot worse” Rainbow Dash chuckled “Though I gotta’ say, that stunt was awesome! It would be crazy for anyone to describe it!”
“Ooh, I don’t know, Rainbow Dash, it looks like a mild concussion. We don’t want Pinkie to get hurt, maybe she should-”
“Do I smell birthday cake?!” The pink pony’s face instantly became focussed again as she zoomed off to the dining table, the bandage from her head floating down over a perplexed Nurse Redheart’s nose.
The colts, fillies and Pinkie Pie fidgeted nervously in their seats as the birthday cake was brought in by Raindrops and Parasol to the tune of ‘Happy Birthday to Dinky’. Derpy had gotten help from the Cakes and the Apples for baking what was, essentially, a giant muffin-cake hybrid, a five-layered muffin with plenty of frosting and mixed with every one of Dinky’s favourite ingredients.
Dinky made a wish and blew out the seven candles in one before the cake was cut and everypony present was given a slice.
If there were two things everypony knew Derpy could do, it was deliver the mail and make muffins.
All around the tables were other dishes and treats. Cakes from Sugarcube Corner, fruit and pastries from Sweet Apple Acres, sweets from the House of Fudge, ice cream from the Crème de la Crème. The guests were in no shortage of food, that was for certain.
Even while they enjoyed the cake, some of the guests were still insistent that Dinky open the presents they’d given her quickly.
Dinky’s great-grandfather, was next. Old Stained Glass was seventy-two this year and though he’d taken to walking with a stick, the aged noblestallion was still in good health. The climate in Ponyville had suited him greatly, he was making regular visits and so enjoyed seeing his granddaughter and great-granddaughter.
Unwrapping the present, Dinky gave a whoop of delight as she held up a pair of comically-sized glasses with a variety of kaleidoscopic effects, colour-changing, refraction, even googly eye effects.
“Do you know, these were one of the things I really loved to make back in the glass-making business” Stained Glass chuckled “In fact, these were how I got my wife. You enjoy them, little Dinky” He patted her head.
“I will, great-grandpa! I will!”
“Now us! Now our present! Pleeeaaase?!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders were practically begging on their knees as they offered up their gift.
Dinky unwrapped a burgundy felt cape with a blue shield and gold emblem of a joyous foal.
“Consider yourself an Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader!” Sweetie Belle chirruped.
“Ya’ll can help us out whenever and however you wish!” Applebloom said proudly.
“And Cutie Mark or not, you’ll always be one of us!” Scootaloo assured.
“Aw...thank all you so much, Crusaders! This means so much to me!” Dinky brought all three of them into a hug.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Gift Givers! Yay!”
“Just pipe down and hug her back” Twilight sighed, betraying a heartened smile.
“Excuse me...Dinky...w-w-would you like to open mine?” A nervous little Pipsqueak piped up, offering his box-shaped present “Tungsten gave me some help but...I thought very hard and...Well...just tell me what you think...”
Beside him, Tungsten gave him an encouraging wink as Dinky unwrapped it.
It was a small action figure still in its display box. A golden-furred doe with wide green eyes and a dress of bright amber. Also in the box were, Dinky supposed, the equivalent of accessories; a bronze chest-plate, shoulder pads, an intricate helmet and a long curved sabre with a hilt that could be fitted in her mouth.
Dinky gazed at it and looked up at Pip, who sat twiddling his hooves as he explained, stammering.
“I-I-It’s Lady Alwyn Gildensong of the Elkwood Realms. From...Ogres and Oubliettes. I just wondered...You were always saying how much you wanted to play with me and Tungsten and...Now you can...”
“Pip...” Dinky said.
“I...I’m sorry. I-I-I don’t know if you...like Ogres and Oubliettes but I think you’d like Lady Alwyn...she’s not weak because she’s a girl or anything, she...she’s very tough. She’s got a lot of magic. She’s very quick. She can call upon tree spirits and...She sort of reminds me of you. B-b-because she’s really brave...and kind...and she only fights when she needs to...a-and she’s always helping others...She gets the Elks to help the Ponies against the Armies of Gloom at the Battle of Highdale, e-even though her father tries to forbid it. B-but if you don’t like it, that’s okay...I mean, Ogres and Oubliettes isn’t for everypony and-”
He was cut off by a tender hug from Dinky Doo. Around him, the young ones that knew him stifled giggles.
“I love it, Pip. I can’t wait to play with it with you. Thank you so much, you’re a really nice colt” She gave him a tiny peck on the cheek which sent him falling back in his chair, pinker than the Bearer of Laughter herself.
“Ew! Gross” Scootaloo groaned, sticking out her tongue.
“Aw, how cute!” Sweetie Belle cooed.
“Dinky and Pipsqueak – Sitting in a...”
“Come on, you two. Not on her birthday” Noi said firmly to a mocking Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The rich fillies weighed her words and reluctantly conceded.
“Lady Alwyn secretly loves Dobbyn Dawnblade and Pip always plays as him” Tungsten pointed out “I think you might really like Ogres and Oubliettes, Dinky”
“I’m sure I will”
“Mine next!”
“Then mine!”
“Then can you open mine?!”
Derpy and the Doctor smiled, highly content and certain that, thanks to the combined efforts of all who loved her, Dinky was enjoying one of the best birthdays ever.
*
The butler knocked on the bedroom door.
“Milady” he asked in a quiet, undemanding tone. He knew no other tone to be safe.
“What is it?!” came the reply, harsh and aggressive.
“Are you coming to see your parole officers?”
“What do you think, you idiot?!”
“Are you ready, milady?”
“I’m ready when I say I am!”
There was another dull, drawn-out combination of a scratch and a squeak. A noise that was occurring often from the bedroom in recent years. The butler waited patiently, no stranger to this behaviour though by no means comfortable with it.
It took about four minutes before Countess Magnifying Glass of Invitro Hall emerged, clammy-skinned, wild-maned and sunken-eyed.
“The parole officers?” she asked, her speech impeded by her frantic breathing patterns “Where are they?”
“Downstairs in the lobby” the butler said “Milady...is something wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong” she said robotically.
“Of course, milady, forgive my-”
“THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” she suddenly bellowed, her eyes blazing.
Those eyes had once been an icy-blue. The centres of the irises were turning noticeably yellow.
“Replace my bedroom mirror” she ordered “Then get out of my sight”
“Yes, milady” he bowed and left his employer to make her way, quite precariously, down the stairs, taking each step slowly and cautiously as if it were booby-trapped.
Entering the bedroom he took note of the torn blankets, smashed liquor bottles and magic blast marks upon the walls and curtains.
Nothing new there then.
Removing the mirror from its stand, he would take it down into the storeroom.
The family had no shortage of mirrors.
He looked over the glass with unease.
There was one word scrawled with brutality into the surface, so crude and hard one could positively feel the hatred and hunger for vengeance that dripped from it like blood from a wound.
‘Irregular’
Hi fellas! 
I just couldn't stand to put it off.
I'd like to thank my watchers and trackers for getting me this far, particularly 6samuelb for putting me up on TV Tropes!
Recognition!!! 
Hopefully I'll have 'Noodle Implements' put up from Pinkie's Super-Surprise-Stunt.
Really, it works better if you try to work out what she did for yourself.
So here's the next part. I hope you've been looking forward to this 'cause I sure have.
References to Beauty and the Beast, TF2, Rifftrax and Monty Python.
In case you haven't already guessed, huge D&D and Tolkien fan.
You didn't really think I was going to forget about the Echo Squad, did you?
The Glamourling is a creation by Prince Staghorn, head the Known World Forum as are the countries of Haissan and the Crystalline Raj. An extensive work that I am intent on contributing to later on.
And yeah...the Countess has lost it, big-time. 
Hope I can count on you to like and comment. Thanks so much for reading. 
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Dinky's becoming a crusader
and is a friend of the CMC, flute and Noi
Nice!
As stupid as it sounds, it reminds me of my two fics staring Dinky and my fic about Noi and two fics I'm working on it at the moment, staring Ruby Pinch and Flute
7826125 It's fine. Don't worry. I'll have to look into those.
And the true battle has begun.
And NOT that I won't be glad to see him finally taken down a peg or two (or a few million), but I really think that dear old Cascadius (and by extension a certain withered old nag (we all know who I mean) is going to be biting off WAY more than he can chew if he (and his crew) mess with the Element Bearers.
But that's just me.
7826427 Wait and see.
7826224 All of them?
7827050 As many as I can.
7827099 Well, you get informed when the 2 fics are up thanks to following me. Looking foward your comments on the chapters, because I got barely any, mostly only on the first and last chapters unlike you
Tungsten, as in Blue Murder's son Tungsten?
Oh dear...
7827123 Okay. Let me know.
I'm looking forward to reading them and I'll let you know what I think.
7827145 Yeah...
7827145 Also, thanks so much for the TV Tropes updates.
Really means a lot.
7827157 Glad to hear it
If you want I can give you some infomations that Ruby's and Flute's fics in a PM unless you want to be surprised
7827163 It's fine, I'd like to see it.
7827165 okay, i send a pm in a few minutes
7826965 Oh, rest assured that I'm awaiting all the upcoming developments with a great amount of very (evilly) gleeful anticipation, my friend.
And IF our "dear" Cascadius gets his sorry behind kicked somewhere along the way by six certain mares?
Well, let's just say..........
So much ther better.
And that goes for his merry little band of cutthroats, as well.
I love me a good TF2 reference :D
10305806
Yeah. That was too good to pass off.
Still, I've been trying to do more research lately for stuff like crystal technology and it's taking me down weird paths.
I am genuinely having to consult Crystal Magic sites and Online Homeopathic Glossaries to find out which crystals are believed to do what so I can give them their Equestrian abilities.
I am that committed to world-building.
Magnifying has surely gone crazy...