This story is a sequel to The First Adventure
The entire city of Canterlot is on edge after the changeling invasion. Buildings are damaged, the royal wedding delayed, and some ponies are missing. One of those is a handypony named Tinker Cob. His employers and friends hire a private investigator to try and find him. However, this missing pony has a terrible secret. He may just disappear forever.
This story is part of The Quicksilver Chronicles, a series of stories that follow the adventures of Quicksilver and Misty as they make their way through whatever fate throws at them. While it would be good to read the series in order, knowledge of the prequels is not required to understand and enjoy this story.
Cover art by Calena.
Thanks to my pre-readers OConnerGT-R, mikemeiers, and FionaF. With a special thanks to my editor EverfreePony.
This was the third story from bkc that I worked on, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. There were some larger issues in the early drafts of the later chapters, but all of them were eventually fixed. (I’m sure the author will tell you more about that in his blogs.
) This chapter, however, required just some smaller touch-ups, and I admit I fell in love with Tinker almost immediately with how well-written he is.
I also suggest clicking on the cover art and taking a closer look at it. Calena did a great job.
Awesome so far, I can't wait for more
That was easier than I thought it was going to be, good chapter though
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You may be interested in the next story that's the Chapter 3 search from Dark Steel's perspective. Classic film noir style.
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As bkc56 said, an upcoming story focuses more on how "easy" it was. And, I hope the author will forgive me for hinting at what's about to happen, but don't forget that the story doesn't end with them finding Tinker.
Delightful read! A neat take on the power of friendship through the most troubling of times. I think the exiles and their Everfree hive have a lot of storytelling potential.
My only criticism is that Tinker has a very flat personality.
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I touch on them again in a future one-shot story. But you're right, there is some interesting story potential exploring this other hive.
I almost got a heart attack when I reading the nightmare part, and this is exactly what I want. You get excited while you face a crisis. (Does that make sense?) Anyway, it's a good adventure story to me. Now I shall see what's Dark Steel perspective is about this event.
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Thanks for commenting. I'm glad that sequence provided a little cardio to your day.
Cute stories all around. One suggestion for the future though is that when you make a time jump, you indicate it either in words or using the
tool. As it's kind of confusing when one second we're in Canterlot and the next in Appleloosa for example.
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My editor will regularly have me add a break for that same reason. Perhaps I need a few more.
Critique for the possible improvement of future writings:
moments before the E.U.P. showed up. Unless it was SO surprising and out of context that their minds just didn't really register it??
They seemed to forget Tinker existed from the Shields blast up until those last few paragraphs. Seems like the sort of thing that would draw attention. Granted, pure logic would suggest they had more pressing concerns, but I think even professional soldiers in their situation would have had a few
More critique:
Again, you seem to have glossed over a detail that the CHARACTERS would find important.
Wouldn't he have been needing to plan for continued trips in and out of Canterlot lot to keep his hive fed? Isn't he their major source of food? I know that isn't how it ended up working out, but THEY couldn't have known that.
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He was already going to the hive on a regular basis. And after the invasion, he was give a "pass" in/out of the city. So it's all good. I suppose there was a window of time where he might have thought about it, but we didn't see that.
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It is just that a non-trivial amount of the story takes place in that window of time, so not seeing it strikes me as a bit odd. There is a bit of dramatic tension about the plans to sneak him back into Canterlot, but nothing about the fact that, as far as our three protagonists know, this would NOT be a one-time problem, but a risky task that would need to be repeated on a regular basis.
I am figuring out the perks of this comments section. Either way, I enjoyed this chapter so far. I must know what happened to Tinker, even if he's a morally grey character at this point.
Dude, after all that chaos and adventure, I loved how the story ended off with a somewhat friendship lesson. It's almost as if you're watching the Episode itself but from another perspective of two great heroes. I loved this story, and I say it's worthy of reading more than once. I can't wait to check out the other great tales bkc56 left for us; more adventure, more emotions, and more awesome storylines.
You can has review!
Tinker is a solid guy.
Ah, convenient avoidance of the squish problem.
Too bad the spell didn't differentiate.
Ten days and he was... Huh, wondering if the math is adding up...
Any real changeling would never harm their livestock, the whole invasion in and of itself is a blatant slap in the face against the Masquerade Protocol, and would never have worked long term. It's just too bad the lings and Chrysalis especially forgot what it means to be a changeling.
So he was attempting to resume his prior vagabond style gathering? Clearly unsuccessful. 🤔
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I tried to make sure everything worked out correctly. But perhaps I missed something....
One of us, one of us. We will make him one of us.!