• Published 27th Jan 2013
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Quizzical Greystone And The Basements Of Doom - JMac



A famous naturalist takes Cheerilee's class on a field trip into the Everfree Forest. This promises adventure, excitement, and other things Quiz really hates.

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Chapter 18 Villain's Monologue

Quizzical Greystone And The Basements Of Doom

Chapter 18 Villain’s Monologue

“Are we there yet?”

Bowser laughed at Cheerilee. “You sound more like one of the foals than like their pretty little teacher pony. But it is understandable. Because she is the biggest pony here she has had to pull the heaviest wagon. The pretty little teacher pony must be very tired.”

“Hrmph,” grunted Cheerilee. Bowser’s tone did not actually strike her as sympathetic, and she did not feel at all compelled to thank him for being understanding. She considered reminding Bowser yet again that her name was Cheerilee, but decided not to bother. “What am I hauling, anyway?”

“Glass jars. Many jars, made of the thickest glass the diamond dogs can get, and stacked as high as will fit in the cart.”

“Why?”

Bowser grinned. “Nothing else will hold the twittermites.”

Cheerilee started, which jerked her cart. There was a clink of glass against glass, and the color ran from Cheerilee’s face.

“Awww, the pretty little teacher pony is nervous? She does not trust the diamond dogs to pack the jars with the greatest of care?”

Bowser gave the cart a swat with his paw, and Cheerilee jumped.

The cargo glowed visibly through the heavy tarp covering it.

“The diamond dogs are quite proud of this, actually. We gathered the twittermites without the fancy gizmos little ponies use. And most of the dogs who did the gathering have stopped walking funny, and their pelts have even begun to grow back.”

Cheerilee very, very gently applied pressure to the harness to get her cart rolling smoothly again.

Bowser laughed again. “But Chief Bowser has not answered the pretty little teacher pony’s first question. How rude of him. The answer is we are almost there. We are already under the main streets of the old pony city, and we will be at our destination in a few minutes.”

“Then what?” asked Cheerilee. “What will you do with the children and myself?”

Bowser scratched his head. “Let you go. Probably. There is a market for little ponies, but it is not what Bowser has been contracted for, and the customer will not be bringing enough gems to buy you. Mind you, Bowser might be willing to extend credit if the offer is good enough…”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Actually, Bowser would dare.” He grinned, and Cheerilee shied away from him as far as the cart harness allowed. “But not tonight. Much better to set you free. This time. If you get home safely the pretty little pony princesses will get over being mad at Chief Bowser. Not so much if Bowser keeps you.”

Cheerilee almost blurted out ‘You’ll never get away with it,’ but stopped herself. Bowser’s conviction that he would get away with this was their best chance to be set free.

Bowser went on, quite enjoying having a captive audience. “Chief Bowser is untouchable. With his tunnels his pack can go anywhere under the Forest. Does the pretty little teacher pony think Bowser’s warrens are confusing now? Bowser can close old tunnels and make new ones every day! If shiny little pony soldiers enter the warrens looking for Bowser, what of it? When they become lost Bowser might just give them directions home. Eventually. For a price.”

Cheerilee once again had to stifle the urge to tell Bowser he would never get away with it.

“Bowser is King of the Everfree Forest! Everything in it belongs to Bowser now!” He wrung his hands greedily. “Bowser can afford to let the little ponies free tonight. Bowser can save them for later. After tonight, when Bowser is paid his reward and word of it spreads, diamond dogs will come running to Bowser. Not just from Bowser’s old pack, but dogs from all over Equestria will come to serve Bowser, for a small share of his pack’s wealth and power. Soon Bowser will lead the greatest pack the world has ever known! Then Bowser can do whatever Bowser wants, and no little ponies can stop him.”

“You think you’re going to become Emperor of all diamond dogs?”

Bowser considered this, then shook his head. “No, not emperor. Just king. King Bowser sounds better.”

“You’ll never get away with it,” muttered Cheerilee.

#

Rainbow Dash peeked out of a wide hole in a stone floor. Her ears twitched. She sniffed the air. The castle had been struck by lightning several times during the magic storm, and there was just enough of a glow left by the dissipating magic for Rainbow to see that the room was empty.

“Okay, the coast is clear,” called Rainbow, as she rose into the room. “Come on up.”

“Finally!” gasped Navy. He flew up to hover next to Rainbow, with Autumn close behind him. “Who builds a castle on top of a cliff, then carves a shaft all the way through the mountain, anyway?”

“The Royal Pony Sisters, apparently,” answered Infernalo as he climbed into the room. “So you might want to use a more respectful tone of voice.”

“That shaft seems to be part of the drainage system,” said Autumn. “That’s actually shows forward thinking on the part of the Princesses. Instead of run off pouring over the edge and into the environment it flows down here. It connects to the old city’s storm drains, and the water goes to the water treatment plant. I like it.”

“Fine, but who builds a spiral staircase into their drains?” grumbled Navy.

“Again, the Royal Pony Sisters,” said Infernalo. “Can I be there when you tell Princess Celestia what you think of her design?”

“Besides, a shaft like this would normally have a ladder instead of stairs, would you prefer that?” asked Stone Hoof, as he joined them. “And what are you complaining about, anyway? You flew up the stairs.”

Navy frowned. “Flying wasn’t much better than walking. We had to hover next to you guys the whole way in case you slipped.”

“And that, I admit, was appreciated,” said Infernalo. “The stairs are slick from a thousand years of running water, and it is a long way down.”

“I imagine it looks like a waterfall when it rains,” mused Mayor Mare, dreamily. “It must be lovely, especially when the water is glowing with magic.”

“‘Come to the Everfree Forest and tour our scenic drains!’” sneered Professor Coal Heart. “Your tourism promotions keep getting better and better, Madam Mayor.”

“Shut up, Professor!”

“Everypony just shut up!” ordered Rainbow. She scratched her head. “I don’t get it. This place is empty. Where is everypony?”

“Logic says the kidnappers brought children here,” said Infernalo. “It is the largest landmark in the Forest, it is the only shelter above ground, and we know this is roughly the direction they were traveling.”

“This is just the lowest level,” Autumn pointed out. “It’s a little too soon to give up on finding the kids here. We should keep looking.”

“Fine, we’ll search a few more levels,” said Rainbow. “We’re, what? Three, four floors below the ground floor?”

“Great, more stairs,” muttered Navy.

“Okay, let’s go lights out, and no more chatter,” ordered Rainbow. “If anybody’s here we want to sneak up and take ‘em by surprise.”

“Is wandering around in the dark wise?” asked the Mayor.

“Oh, yes,” replied Professor Heart. “That’s exactly what I think we should do. That’s a wonderful idea.”

#

“What’s next on the list, Madam Mayor?” Despite all the hard work ahead and the gravity of their situation, Shadow laughed and grinned ridiculously at Quiz.

“Please stop calling me that,” answered Quiz. She consulted her clipboard. Quiz had been pleasantly surprised to find it among the diamond dog’s tools; and while she wasn’t pleased with the actual quality of the clipboard (it had been made by diamond dogs, after all) she was very pleased just to have a clipboard and some useful work to do with it. She’d been working with Alexander to compile some lists - which monsters would be reasonable and helpful, which monsters would need to be kept under control, and which monsters were too mean or stupid to be safely set free.

Quiz pointed to a cage. “Open that one next. That is a naga, and she should be a great help.”

“I’ve already spoken to her,” said Alexander. “Her name is Stana, and she’s actually quite nice. She says she’ll be delighted to let the diamond dogs know just what she thinks of their ‘hospitality,’ and she promises not to harm any little ponies in the process.”

“I’m on it, Madam Mayor,” said Silver Spoon. She giggled as she took a heavy key ring and dashed over to the cage.

“Really, I would appreciate it if you would stop calling me that.” Quiz waved towards a row of eight smaller cages. “Next, all of those must be moved into place near the tunnel, with their doors aimed at the opening. Those are the jackalopes. They cannot be set free until the last minute, but when the time comes they should spearhead the charge nicely.”

“Your wish is my command, Madam Mayor.” Shadow laughed as he ran to begin pushing the cages into place.

“Bother.” Quiz sighed. “Is there anything I can say or do that will get you all to stop calling me that?”

“Not a chance, so you should just get used to it, Quiz-ik-al!” Diamond Tiara shook her head. “You’re the rightful heir to the whole lost city.”

“I am no such thing.” Quiz actually came close to stomping her hooves indignantly. “For one thing, the title ‘Mayor’ is not hereditary. Even if it were it would go to my older brother rather than myself. And I am certain that any dubious claim my family may have had would have lapsed generations ago, due to failure to maintain the property.”

“That is exactly what Miss Curiosity would have said,” mused Alexander.

“You are not helping my case, Mr. Alexander.” In the interest of moving on, and changing the subject, Quiz consulted her clipboard again. “I believe we should release the ogre next. He should be a great help with the work.”

“Oh, yes, that would be Glurg,” answered Alexander. “He’s a bit of a surly fellow, but I think he’ll cooperate with us. However, we will have to let him walk around for a bit to steady him before we can put him to work. The diamond dogs have been giving him the tainted honey to keep him quiet.”

Quiz consulted her clipboard again as she and Alexander walked towards Glurg’s cage. “I am wondering if we will have a conflict if we release both the frog people and the lizard men at the same time.”

Diamond didn’t hear Alexander’s answer as she watched the two of them walked away. She was joined by a visibly shaken Silver Spoon. Silver said, “I think Alexander’s right about Stana being a nice naga. Probably. But she sure looks scary!”

“Hmm,” mused Diamond, as she watched Quiz. “She’s really good at this, you know? At organizing stuff. Really, really good. But don’t you dare tell Quiz I said that!”

Silver laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

#

In the dungeon of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters three little ponies quietly peeked over the edge of a hole in the floor. They scanned the room for signs of life, each holding their breath so as not to make a sound.

A pegasus shot out of the hole behind them.

“Finally!” cried Sky. “I don’t think I could stand another second stuck in that shaft!”

Twilight, Mac, and Mustang glared at Sky, who did a tight lap of the room to stretch her wings.

“We’re trying to be stealthy here!” hissed Twilight.

Sky hovered over them and glared back. “What for? This place is obviously empty. And nopony but us has been up or down that shaft in years. This mission is a bust.”

“There will be other drains in the other corners of the castle, the diamond dogs could be using one of those,” said Twilight. “They’re probably just above us on another floor. So we need to be quiet!”

Sky rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Below them on the stairs Relic made an exasperated gasp. “Lovely. More stairs.”

“Eeyup,” said Big Mac. “But there’s some stairs a pony just can’t run away from.”

“I believe we still have the element of surprise,” said Mustang. “We should take advantage of that. I propose we douse the lights and continue silently upwards.”

“Is that really wise?” asked Relic. “Bumbling ahead in the dark?”

“Oh, yeah, that sounds like fun,” said one of the Chick brothers. “We should do that!”

“Well… “ began Pinkie, uncertainly. “If you think it’ll be fun…”

“Oh, yeah,” said the other Chick brother. “I think we’ll have a lot of fun!”

#

Near the center of the clearing two small squads of monsters stood glaring at each other. Between them, looking very, very small, stood Diamond Tiara.

“We feel we were missss-informed,” hissed the leader of the lizard men. “When we agreed to help the little poniessss with there plan, we were not told we would have to work with ssssslimy muck dwellers!”

“We also feel misinformed, er-upp,” croaked the head of the frog people. “When we agreed to help with the plan, nothing was said about having to cooperate with scaly rock eating cave crawlers, er-upp!”

Diamond rolled her eyes. “Fine, I get it. You don’t like each other. I don’t care. You made promises, and we had a deal. I expect you to honor that.”

Both groups responded with what was probably grumbling, though it was impossible to be sure as every word spoken in their languages sounded like grumbling.

Diamond stamped her hoof. “Oh, c’mon! Haven’t you heard the old saying… how’s it go? The enemy of my enemy is somebody I can stand to deal with for a couple of hours? So it won’t hurt any of you to call a truce and play nice until we deal with the diamond dogs. Don’t worry, it’ll be over before you know it. After that you can go back to maiming and murdering one another.”

There was more apparent grumbling as the monsters discussed this.

The leader of the lizard men nodded. “Very well. We sssshall cooperate for now.”

“We also agree, er-upp,” said the head frog person. “What does the little pony want us to do first? Er-upp.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a good question.” Diamond turned and shouted across the clearing. “Oh, Madam Mayor?!”

Despite the distance Diamond could hear a resigned sigh before Quiz answered. “What is it, Diamond?”

“What do you want these guys to do first?”

“Have them douse all the torches,” answered Quiz. “We shall need this clearing completely dark as soon as possible.”

“Okay, you heard the filly,” snapped Diamond. “Get these torches out, right now. Hurry up, we’ve already wasted enough time, alright?”

After a bit more possible grumbling, followed by laughter, the monsters dispersed and began to gathering the torches and throwing them into the nearby river.

Standing next to Quiz and Silver Spoon, Shadow cocked an ear to listen to the monsters. He began to chuckle, then turned to the girls to explain what was so funny. “I only know a smattering of their languages, but it sounds like they’re speculating about how Di would taste. The consensus seems to be that she’s probably too bitter and awful to eat.”

Silver almost fell over laughing, and Quiz allowed herself a smirk.

“I must admit, Diamond is very good at what she does,” commented Quiz. “Her skill at getting others to do what she wants is quite amazing. I am very impressed by her.”

Silver chuckled. “Are you going to tell her that?”

Quiz briefly pondered this. “No. But feel free to tell her I said as much. It will be better received coming from you than from me.”

#

Rainbow Dash stood at the top of the stairs and looked over the stair rail into the darkness. She couldn’t see a thing, but her other senses told her volumes.

Rainbow turned and whispered to her companions. “There’s definitely another group gathered on the far side of the room. They’re sneaking around, trying to be quiet, but they aren’t coming close to fooling me, naturally.”

“Hmmm,” considered Navy. “If they’re being that sneaky then they must suspect we’re here. We’ve lost the element of surprise.”

“There’s more than one way to take somepony by surprise,” said Stone Hoof. “They probably think we’ll try to creep up on them. So, we storm right at them instead. It’ll be the last thing they expect. We should be able to completely bowl them over.”

“Alright, finally some action.” Rainbow had trouble restraining her enthusiasm enough to whisper. “Hit ‘em hard and fast. My kind of plan.”

“Do we really want to charge across the dungeon completely blind?” asked the Mayor.

“Oh, please yes,” said Professor Heart. “I can’t imagine a better plan.”

#

Pinkie Pie stepped off the stairs and immediately began shuffling her legs as if her hooves itched. “We aren’t alone,” she said.

“Eeyup,” agreed Big Mac. His ears twitched. “They think they’re being quiet, but I hear them.”

Twilight frowned. “If they’re trying not to make noise then they probably expect us. We won’t take them by surprise.”

“Then perhaps we shouldn’t try,” whispered Mustang. “We could compensate for the loss of surprise with momentum and brute force. And a full charge and frontal assault would actually come as a surprise.”

“Alright, finally some action.” It took all of Skye’s limited restraint to not shout for joy. “This sneaking around has been driving me crazy.”

“Somehow, this does not sound like a good idea,” grumbled Relic.

“Are you kidding?” whispered one of the Chick brothers. “This is the perfect thing to do.”

The other brother added, under his breath, “From our point of view, that is.”

#

At opposite ends of the dungeon soft sounds that might have been light steps were replaced by the thunderous sound of charging hooves. In the dark ponies found their targets by sound, and bore down upon them. There was soon much too much momentum built up for anything to stop this encounter.

From both sides a battle cry rang out.

“For Adventure!!!”

“Wait? What?!”

#

“Shadow, have you seen the ‘Ambush Raiders’?” asked Quiz. “I have a special task for Angel.”

“I saw the kids dragging something across the park a while ago,” Shadow answered. “I think it was some nets. I haven’t seen them since.”

“Bother. One of us really should be keeping track of them. They are quite frightening when unsupervised.”

“Yeah, I can hardly wait to ask my Dad what it was like to ride herd on them all night.” Shadow grinned, but this quickly turned into a frown. “Actually, what I most want to do is make them go back to wherever they lost my Dad and get him!”

They were interrupted by a shout from Diamond Tiara. “How about this one, Madam Mayor?” She and Silver were standing near a small cage.

Alexander answered for Quiz. “You had best just leave them be, girls. They won’t be of much help. Tonight they will most likely be exhausted.”

Something in the cage must have sensed that the two fillies were near-by and called out.

“Oogie, oogie, oogie!”

“Galumpalumps!” Silver and Diamond shrieked, and bolted.

“Well, that is interesting,” noted Quiz.

#

“Just what the Hay are y’all doing?!”

From an open hall that ran around the edge of the dungeon Rarity and the other unicorns from the green team used their horns to shine light down on the dungeon floor. The ponies viewed the scene below them with a mixture of puzzlement and mirth; except for Applejack, who scowled.

Across the dungeon very embarrassed ponies picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and tried to act casual as they backed away from other very embarrassed ponies. Most avoided eye contact, especially with the witnesses above them.

“Nice moves, Sky,” said Rainbow Dash, giving the other pegasus a pat on the back. “You might have taken a less awesome pony than me. But since it was me you never had a chance.”

Sky snorted. “I was about to turn it on you and take you out, Dash. I just needed another second.”

Rainbow blew a raspberry. “In your dreams!”

“I think you two are still missing the point,” called Applejack.

“Pinkie, get off of me!” came a muffled cry. Pinkie Pie looked down to see that she had Twilight Sparkle pinned flat against the floor.

“Oopsie! Sorry, Twilight. My bad.” Pinkie moved to help her friend up.

“What were you doing, anyway? We’re on the same team!”

“We’ll, yeah, but in all fairness, Twilight, the other team is kinda on the same team as us, too!”

Twilight answered with an inarticulate grumble.

“Here, Sir,” said Stone Hoof, offering Mustang his helmet. Stone had knocked it off Mustang’s head during the short conflict. “Very sorry about that.”

“We all make mistakes, young colt.” Mustang touched the spot on his jaw where Stone had clocked him. There was going to be a bruise soon. “Actually, that was quite an impressive shot. Have you ever considered a career with the Guard?”

“Help!” cried Mayor Mare. She was tangled in some huge, metal contraption. “I’m stuck in an ancient torture device! Little help, please?”

Several ponies ran to free the Mayor. Among them was Twilight, who helpfully pointed out, “That was an exercise machine, Mayor.”

“That changes my opinion of it not at all!”

“Okay, just explain one thing to me. We came up the stairs in the storm drains. Twi’s gang must have come up a different set of stairs.” Dash glared up at the green team. “Just where did you guys come from?”

“We came in the front door, darling,” said Rarity. “We began traveling overland as soon as we were sure it was safe to leave those awful tunnels.”

“And you didn’t find anything?!” demanded Rainbow.

Applejack shook her head. “Not a hide nor hair of any pony or anything. From the look of things this castle hasn’t been entered since the night Nightmare Night returned.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow stomped her hooves and fluttered her wings in frustration. “If we didn’t find them below and you didn’t find them upstairs then where are the kids? Where are the diamond dog? Where is everybody?!”

“Well, we knew they had to be somewhere near the castle so they could use it for a landmark,” said Twilight. “It’s the only usable landmark in the Forest. But assuming they would be in the castle might have been jumping to conclusions, a bit. They could be anyplace where they can see the castle.”

“You mean like there?” Fern was standing alone in a corner of the hall. She pointed to a small window that overlooked the Forest. Several ponies ran to see what Fern was looking at.

Far below the castle mount, on the Forest floor, what seemed to be a clearing stood lit by torches.

“Yes, that’s it. Congratulations, you actually found the villain's base,” Professor Coal Heart said, his voice dripping with contempt. He stood at the top of the only stairway out of the dungeon. The Chick Brothers stood behind him.

“This knowledge will not do you any good, however.” Professor Heart reached out and with a hoof tip jauntily knocked a candle from its sconce.

Immediately a heavy iron portcullis crashed down in front of him. It completely sealed the stairway. Iron rods fell into place, blocking all the windows around the hall. The ponies were all trapped in the dungeon.

#

“How about that spot?” asked Dinky, pointing to a pile of rubble that might once have been the top of a stairway.

Before any of the other Ambush Raiders could answer her a high, squeaky voice called out, “Children, stay back!” This was followed by the gravelly cry “Timber!”

A tree fell over, landing so that it perfectly blocked the opening Dinky had been pointing to.

Three heads popped up over the edge of the hole the fallen tree’s root bole had left.

“Who needs a saw when one can just undermine, eh, children?” said Dagget.

“You came back! I knew you wouldn’t just leave us!” cried Pipsqueak. He ran to the diamond dogs and tried to hug them around the neck. He caught Alpha and Digger, but Dagget managed to jump out of Pip’s reach.

“There is no time for this silliness. You have nets to set, and you have no idea where to do it,” said Dagget. “Luckily, you have us to show you the way.”

“Most of the diamond dogs will try to flee up the largest remaining set of steps. I will show you where that is,” said Alpha.

“Just in case, we will block as many of the other exits as we can,” said Digger. “That will force even more dogs into your nets.”

“Thank you, thank you all,” cried Angel. “But… why are you helping us?”

The trio just looked at each other, unable to find the words to answer her. Finally, Dagget spoke. “We are tired of being bad dogs. It no longer makes us happy. Actually, come to think of it, following Chief Bowser never ever made us happy. We like you guys much better.”

There could be only one response to this.

“Ambush Raiders, Huzzah!!!”

#

“None of this would have been necessary if you had just once, just once, listened any of the many times I suggested we turn around and go home,” said Professor Heart.

“They wouldn’t listen to us either, Boss,” said one of the Chicks.

Professor Heart ignored him. “You left me no choice but to lead you here. But that still works for me. There is no place in all Equestria better suited for keeping you all out of my mane.”

“Errrrr!” growled Rainbow. She charged straight at the portcullis, and a fraction of a second later Sky was right behind her. They crashed into the iron bars, bounded off, and went tumbling down the stairs.

Twilight teleported, but reappeared on the wrong side of the barrier. She also bounced off the iron and tumbled down the stairs.

Professor Heart didn’t even flinch. “Really, escape is quite impossible. This trap was built by alicorn princesses with the intent of catching alicorn princesses. Sadly, the young princesses only wanted to trick each other. They were only playing. So, the dungeon has no way to flood it, or fill it with poison gas, or any other proper death trap I could use to do away with you all. It hardly counts as a dungeon at all. While I have you right where I want you, I can’t actually do anything about you. I detest leaving witnesses, but what can I do? And so you have forced me to reveal myself. Congratulations. Few ponies have managed even that.”

“Professor Heart, how could you?” cried Rarity.

“How could I? My dear, this is exactly what I do. Villainy is all that I do. And I must say, I do it very well.”

“But you write Daring Do fanfic!” yelled Rainbow. She appeared close to tears.

“Oh, I’ll probably still do that. A stallion should have a hobby, after all. I’ll just need a new pen name. But that’s hardly a bother, I’ve created so many aliases in my career it’s become a challenge to remember them all.”

“So, what exactly are you doing?” asked Applejack.

“Poaching, I employ Chief Bowser’s diamond dogs to harvest the Everfree’s forest products, and I sell them on the black market. And, let me assure you, business is good. In my time I’ve had a hoof in every conceivable criminal enterprise, and this is the most lucrative endeavor I have ever happened across. The secret is volume. I must move tremendous amounts of goods. Luckily, I’m not very concerned with conservation.”

“You’ll never get away with it!” shouted Autumn.

Professor Heart chuckled. “I knew one of you would eventually say that. But I’d have bet good bits that it was going to be the Mayor.”

“Shut up, Professor.”

“Um… boss?” said one of the Chicks. “Shouldn’t we be going?”

“Oh, give me this moment, will you? How often do you get a captive audience like this? Now I know why villains do these monologues. This is good fun. Oh, and since we’re discussing cliches you should like this one. The butler did it. My first job was as a gentlecolt’s gentlecolt to an art professor who dabbled in crime on the side. I soon took his place and surpassed him in every way.”

“What?” exclaimed Mustang. “Are you saying you are the infamous ‘Professor More Tea’?”

“Why yes, Captain Mustang, I am. And you are the only agent of the law to get this close to me and survive. Now, where was I? Oh, right, ‘my nefarious plan.’ Now, when I said that the diamond dogs harvest the Forest for me I meant that in the same sense as a plague of locusts harvests crops. They’re very productive. And it just keeps getting better and better - for me. With everything I steal or destroy I create rarity. Rarity just means the prices I can demand keep going up.”

“But it can’t last,” moaned Twilight, finally picking herself up from where she had landed at the foot of the stairs.

“No, but it’s a big forest. I can easily have the diamond dogs effectively stripmine the place until long after I’ve grown weary of it all and retired. Actually, I plan to have them do just that. I won’t be saving anything for the next generation, of course, but what of it? I don’t have any children.”

“So that’s your plan?” asked Relic. “You are going to be King of the Everfree Forest?”

“No, I think that idea shows a lack of ambition,” answered Professor Heart. “I am the Emperor of the Everfree Forest.”

“Um… now, Boss?” The Chick brothers had shuffling their feet and talons impatiently through the monologue.

“Yes, now.” Professor Heart found a flare gun in his bag, and fired it out a window. “Good night to you all. I’ve just called my ride, and I must hurry off.”

With that, the Chicks each grabbed a strap of Professor Heart’s saddle bag, and flew with him up the stairs and out of the castle.

Comments ( 20 )

Yea, new chapter!

Nice to see this again!

A few spelling errors in the villain's speech at the end, but happy to be making progress :)

“You’ll never get away with it,” muttered Cheerilee.

You can only hold back for so long before the urge to utter the most pony cliche response to a villain's monologue. In pony world she'd probably be given a medal for not blurting that line out loud. xD

Yes, "KING BOWSER" is indeed a better name. Shame you'd be sued to the ground by Nintendo if you went with it. Don't underestimate how far their legal team would go to sue someone. Pretty sure interdimensional lawsuits is just one of many new ideas and techs they're likely to be spitballing around.

Diamond stamped her hoof. “Oh, c’mon! Haven’t you heard the old saying… how’s it go? The enemy of my enemy is somebody I can stand to deal with for a couple of hours?

Probably not? But you know what? I I prefer this saying a lot more. Feels more honest. Since backstabs and all that usually tends to take place during or just after said truce ends anyhow. Leave it to Diamond for those to-the-point leadership skills. Such a smooth talker. Honor and pride before maiming and murdering each other. lol

It's been so long I can't quite get the voice back for Quizzical I had. Oh, bother. New one just feels so wrong and bland, bland in her case is good but not this sort of bland. Here's hoping I get her back before I finish reading this chapter. All hail Miss Mayor "Whinny the Pooh" Greystone. Here's hoping I find her voice again.

Galumpalumps

Why does this strike me as horribly familiar? It bothers me so that I can't recall where I've read this before. All I know is that apparently they ARE real and around the fillies. Something storm a brewing? Perhaps the diamond dogs use them for something relating to the storm? I wonder why I correlate these things to a storm in the first place. Bother.

Bother. A running pony saying in this story. lol <3

“You’ll never get away with it!” shouted Autumn.

AH HA! Though, I honestly had my bits set on Twilight for that line... I guess we both lose. Nice pun on a famous Sherlock villain btw. As history has shown, fanfic writers can be quite the villains. Why, holding a story hostage for so many months alone is cruel and unjust. Who knows how many innocent readers they've claimed. The inequinity of it all!

Now Rainbow Dash likely won't be able to see the end of her favorite fanfic...

Yay update. Glad to see one of my favorite fillies back in action!

Loving the parallelism in all the sections!

Also, I agree with Telaros on most everything here.

Quiz is back! :yay:

I like how recent series revelations were woven into the story.

I can't help but think, considering where everyone is, that there is probably some release lever at hand. Er, hoof.

And that Pinkie will probably find it. :pinkiehappy:

Is Diamond actually gaining some degree of respect for our little Quiz? :pinkiegasp:

So glad I didn't discard this link!

A nice dinner read! Good chapter. Seems like the groups are back together so some forward momentum can happen.

This has been a long time coming, but I daresay you delivered.
Now if only you could deliver the rest of the story faster than this chapter was. :scootangel:

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what he said. :yay:

We need more chapters I've already resorted to rereading all of the quiz "books" 5 times each

I hope we get another update soon, something to start tying up this whole thing. I think you have a great OC here, and an interesting story, and I'd hate for this to be some once-a-year update fic until it either finishes or gets cancelled...

So... How ya doin?

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Doing better than my lack of productivity would indicate, actually (work is kicking my butt, but I'm dealing and that's getting better). I do have plans, but I'm not going to share them because I have broken every promise I've made about finishing this story and I don't want to jinx myself again. Watch this space.

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Oh, I still very much watch this space. I still occasionally checked up on fim once in a blue over the past years in hopes of news of this amazing and most fun story.

I don't know how you managed to write as far as you did but I'm grateful for what wonderful joy each new chapter brought. Just seeing all this character growth for these fillies was a joy. So many characters to balance, too.

I can't imagine the headaches keeping track of all their actions and planning the many intertwining paths that would eventually join as one. All while trying to push the bar just a little more than the last chapter.

That said, I think I'm ready to make peace with this story. It'll certainly remain as one amongst my top favorite foalish adventures that even dared to give a little entitled pink filly some genuine character development during times where many said she deserved none.

Thank you for writing a wonderful story. I'll certainly have to see what else you've written. Best wishes to you.

Man, what a cliff hanger to leave off on...for four years.

Hopefully the muse returns!

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