A Gremlin in the Works

By Alaborn

Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein.

The ponies on the train from the Crystal Empire to Canterlot were in high spirits. They surrounded the hero of the day, one brave and glorious dragon.

“I don’t know. Stained glass windows are nice and all, but they’re kind of passé,” Spike said. “I’m thinking a statue. A big one, of me holding the Crystal Heart. It’ll be made of crystal, and when Celestia’s sun is at its highest point in the sky, the rainbow light will shine out over all the crystal ponies!”

Rainbow Dash gave Spike a hoof bump. “Now that’s what I call a monument!”

Rarity rubbed the ridges on Spike’s head. “My brave Spikey-Wikey should get whatever reward he wants.”

But for Spike’s oldest companion, the joy she felt was tempered by the uncertainty of her return to Canterlot. Twilight Sparkle kept glancing out the window as Canterlot approached.

Applejack, noticing her behavior, took a seat next to her. “Something bothering you, sugarcube?”

“I keep thinking back to Princess Celestia’s words. It must be me and me alone,” she replied. “I didn’t do that. I failed!”

“Now hold on there. I’m sure Princess Celestia realized the important thing was kicking Sombra’s flank and saving the Crystal Empire,” Applejack said.

“I don’t know,” Twilight Sparkle responded.

“And besides, even if things go wrong, you still have all those books to study!” Pinkie Pie interjected.

“That’s right!” Twilight Sparkle said. She smiled, thinking of the crates of books in the train’s cargo compartment. All that knowledge, lost to time and Sombra’s curse, now free to be studied again. No matter what Princess Celestia might say, Twilight Sparkle still had books to study and knowledge to recover. Who knows? Maybe she’d get a paper published in a scholarly journal.

And what bigger honor could there be?

“Canterlot Station approaching,” the conductor announced. “All passengers not continuing to Ponyville must disembark.”

“Well, this is it,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“You’ll be fine,” Fluttershy said, draping a wing over her unicorn friend.

The train pulled to a stop. Twilight Sparkle lifted her head proudly. Together, they had saved the Crystal Empire, and no matter what Princess Celestia would say, it was the right thing to do.

Amidst the noise of ponies embarking and disembarking, nopony heard a skittering sound from back in the train’s cargo compartment, from somewhere within the crates of books.

The meeting in Canterlot was brief. All of Twilight Sparkle’s worst fears turned out to be a great overreaction. Like her friends had told her, Princess Celestia recognized that saving the citizens of the Crystal Empire was far too important to risk the mission’s failure, even if it meant a personal failure.

But for Twilight Sparkle, it all was distilled to one simple memory.

Princess Celestia said she passed.

On the train back to Ponyville, the thought of passing the test was in Twilight Sparkle’s thoughts. She might also have wondered how Princess Celestia had managed to have a stained glass window already crafted commemorating Spike saving the Crystal Heart, but such thoughts couldn’t ruin her good mood. But as Ponyville approached, the thoughts of everypony in the train shifted to their normal routines.

They may have saved the Crystal Empire, but they still had jobs to do.

The heroes of the day said their goodbyes and headed to their respective homes. For Twilight Sparkle, she was composing a mental checklist of the tasks she would write on a checklist once she got back to the library. For one, she needed to catalog the books she recovered from the Crystal Empire. More importantly, with both her and Spike gone, there had been nopony to shelve returned books. In fact, the entire library was probably in need of reorganizing. The thought brightened her mood.

But most important of all, there was the matter of the experiment in the basement. Twilight Sparkle had recovered several of the gems from the cavern under Canterlot, and had spent months studying them. The ancient gems showed a particular affinity for magic, and with enough study, she could finally understand what made them desirable to the unicorns of the distant past. Three gems were exposed to different kinds of magic, one each to unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony magic, and she had diligently recorded the changes in the thaumic structure of each independent gem. She was already writing in her mind the abstract for her paper in the Canterlot Journal of Theoretical Metaphysics.

Leaving Spike to do his own thing, Twilight Sparkle made a beeline for the basement, passing the crates of books from the Crystal Empire. She opened the door and activated the magical lights. She bounded down the stairs, two at a time, and went straight for her machines. The one recording the experiment had dutifully inked its readings on the paper scroll, now wrapped in a solid roll of paper.

She already had an idea of how the readings were going to develop during the time she spent in the Crystal Empire. She lifted the paper scroll with her magic.

“What? No, no, no!”

Twilight Sparkle frantically cast a spell on the three gems she had been studying, but it only confirmed what the flat lines on the scroll had suggested. All the magic in the gems was gone!

Rainbow Dash flew straight home from the train station, taking to the sky as soon as she cleared the door of the train. She was eager to see her loyal pet Tank, and maybe take a nap. Her cloud bed was calling to her.

Heroes of Equestria needed to be well-rested, after all.

The first thing Rainbow Dash noticed when she returned home was the note on her door. She grabbed it and read it. She was at first confused why the mailmare left a note on her door indicating she had a package waiting for her, but then she remembered the order she placed just before she got called to Canterlot, a fresh supply of rainbow for her fountain.

She flew inside and gave Tank a pat on the head and a juicy leaf of lettuce. “Sorry, pal, I’ve got to run to the post office. Be right back!”

Tank slowly nodded his head, and took another bite of lettuce.

Rainbow Dash zipped to the post office, note in mouth. The good thing about living in a town the size of Ponyville is that there are never long lines, and today was no exception. She walked up to the counter and passed the note to the mailmare.

Derpy smiled, gave a salute, and dove into a pile of packages. She soon returned with a cardboard box, and dropped it on the counter in front of Rainbow Dash.

“Uh, Derpy?” Rainbow Dash said, pointing to a large hole in the cardboard box.

Derpy scratched her head. “I don’t think that was there before.”

“Whatever. It’s not the box that’s important,” Rainbow Dash replied. She opened the box, lifting out the metal canister of liquid rainbow. This, too, was disturbed, its lid popped open at one edge.

Rainbow Dash pried off the lid. Red, orange, yellow, green, purple.... “Hey, what happened to the blue? That’s, like, the best color!” She fluffed her light blue wings.

Derpy just shrugged.

Then Rainbow Dash spotted a flash of rainbow blue, over in the pile of packages. It was at the tip of the muzzle of some creature, about the size of a rat—a very large rat. “Gotcha!” Rainbow Dash shouted. She flew over the counter and made a dive for the creature.

The critter was slippery, and disappeared into a hole in the wall before Rainbow Dash could get her hooves on it. The mare tried to stop, but momentum carried her into the pile of packages, jostling it.

She looked up at the precarious pile, now teetering dangerously. “Uh-oh.”

Rainbow Dash scurried backwards, and moved even faster once the pile started collapsing. She managed to avoid the falling boxes, only to run into the counter, smacking the wooden wall with her head.

“Ow,” she muttered. She heard a metallic wobbling noise. Rainbow Dash looked up, seeing her canister of rainbow tottering at the edge of the counter.

“Oh, ponyfeathers,” she uttered, just before getting doused with rainbow. Well, five-sixths of a rainbow, anyway.

Derpy surveyed the chaos that befell her post office. “I just don’t know what went wrong!”

La Maison Rouge was the finest Prench restaurant in all of Canterlot, the first restaurant to earn the coveted three-hoof rating. Anypony who was anypony wanted a table at La Maison Rouge, and here Rarity was, sharing an intimate corner table with the most important unicorn in Canterlot, Fancy Pants.

“I must say, La Maison was all that I ever hoped it would be,” Rarity said.

“Even the finest restaurant can be improved with the right company,” Fancy Pants said.

“Oh, you flatter me,” Rarity said.

“My dear, I was only telling the honest truth when we first met. You are somepony worth bumping into,” Fancy Pants replied. “And somepony worth knowing in greater detail.”

Rarity blushed as Fancy Pants picked up her hoof and kissed it. The stallion leaned in and nuzzled her.

“Right here? In the restaurant?” Rarity whispered.

Fancy Pants didn’t respond. Instead, he moved his head up, and she felt something warm and wet on her horn.

“Ooh!”

Everything faded to black...

...and Rarity stirred from sleep. She blushed as memories of a positively naughty dream lingered in her mind. But alas, she was alone in her bed back in Ponyville.

Then she realized something was, in fact, licking her horn.

She lifted her sleeping mask with one hoof and looked. There, illuminated by the moonlight, was a creature Rarity had never seen before. It resembled a mole, if a mole chose to shave off all its fur. It had six legs, all ending in blunt claws, and a long and meaty tail. It also had quite the long tongue, an appendage that was eagerly tasting Rarity’s horn.

Rarity responded as any proper lady would.

“EEEEEEK! Get it off get it off GET IT OFF!” she screamed.

Rarity scrambled to her hooves, throwing her quilt and blankets askew. She reached out for a pillow with her magic, but couldn’t focus. Not to be deterred, she picked up a pillow in one hoof and threw it at the beast.

“Get out get out GET OUT!” she screamed.

The creature dodged the pillow and scurried up the headboard.

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle yelled.

Rarity’s little sister rushed into her room, followed closely by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Rarity did promise Sweetie Belle a sleepover with her little friends in exchange for watching Opalescence, though she didn’t expect her to cash in the favor the very night she returned. Still, she was a mare of her word, and the fillies had been well-behaved, mostly.

But she never wanted them to see her like this.

Rarity tried to center her magic once more, this time maintaining her focus. Her plethora of dainty throw pillows was quickly repurposed into missiles, thrown at the foul beast. It ran from Rarity’s wrath, moving to the floor, then up the vanity, then to the windowsill, and finally fleeing through the window.

“What was that?” Scootaloo said.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Rarity said. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

“Uh, Rarity, is your rump bigger?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“What?” Rarity said, her eyes wide as saucers. She quickly pulled her blanket over herself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s the bad light. And there’s definitely no illusion spells at work. None at all! Now go. Go!”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom recognized that look, and wisely retreated. Sweetie Belle surveyed the chaos one more time, and then left as well, closing the door behind her.

Back in the guest bedroom Sweetie Belle used while staying at Rarity’s, her two friends were huddled together, whispering to each other.

“Yeah, her rump looked bigger to me,” Apple Bloom said.

“And did you see the bumps and wrinkles? They weren’t there this evening!” Scootaloo said.

“Girls! Can we please stop talking about my sister’s rump?” Sweetie Belle interrupted.

Scootaloo shrugged. “Hey, you’re the one who brought it up in the first place,” she said.

“And what else are we going to talk about?” Apple Bloom asked.

“That critter!” Sweetie Belle said. “Think about it. Rarity didn’t know what it was. Maybe nopony knows. But if we can learn about it, we’re sure to get our cutie marks!”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo said.

“So all we need to do is catch it!” Sweetie Belle said.

The three fillies each raised a hoof and brought them together. “Cutie Mark Crusader critter catchers, yay!” they shouted.

“GIRLS! This is the time for QUIET!” Rarity yelled from her room.

As mayor of Ponyville, Mayor Mare had her good days and her bad days. The good days involved cutting ribbons and giving speeches. The bad days involved monsters from the Everfree, and ponies who thought the right response to monsters from the Everfree was running around in circles or fainting in fright. Why anypony thought collapsing in the middle of a street was the right approach to dealing with a hungry hydra was still beyond Mayor Mare’s capacity to understand.

The mob of ponies gathered outside Town Hall was another all too familiar occurrence, one leaning more toward the bad day end of the spectrum. Being mayor, she did have to listen to the ponies in her town. And so, Mayor Mare stepped out of Town Hall, a Genuine Mayoral Smile™ on her face.

“Good morning, everyp—”

Immediately, she was accosted by the shouts of the assembled ponies.

“You have to stop the monsters!” Rarity said.

“They stole my blue! Right there at the post office!” Rainbow Dash said.

“They accosted me in the park and stopped me from playing,” Lyra said.

“Something drained my best magical tricks!” the pony from the joke shop said.

“They must be the ones responsible for destroying months of research!” Twilight Sparkle shouted.

“You can’t have a rainbow without blue!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“You have to do something!” another pony in the crowd said.

Mayor Mare banged her hoof on the wooden porch surrounding Town Hall. “Attention, everypony. Attention!” she yelled. The crowd’s shouts diminished to a murmur. “We’ve heard your complaints, and rest assured, the town is doing everything in its power to deal with the problem. If you have specific information, I ask you to bring it to Town Hall, but for now, I urge you to return home. Remain vigilant, and Ponyville will pull through again.”

The crowd started talking amongst themselves. Deciding this was not the right time to ask for questions, Mayor Mare instead decided to head back inside, closing the door behind her, and locking it for good measure.

“What’s going on out there?” asked her junior clerk, Lime Swirl.

“I have no idea,” Mayor Mare admitted. “But we’re going to solve the problem, whatever it is.”

“Rumors I’ve heard talk about some new creature from the Everfree, not very large and not particularly harmful,” said her senior clerk, Red Tape. “It seems to have made unicorns most upset.”

Mayor Mare nodded. The crowd outside Town Hall was largely unicorns, though Rainbow Dash certainly tried to be as loud as the unicorns all by herself. She shook her head. “I have no idea what we’re going to do.”

“So here’s what we’re going to do,” Scootaloo said. “We’re going to capture the monster ourselves!”

Sitting with Scootaloo in their clubhouse, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nodded sagely.

“But wait. How are we going to capture it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“We don’t even know where it comes from!” Apple Bloom said.

“There may be hundreds of them!” Sweetie Belle added.

Scootaloo pointed to their map of Ponyville hanging on the wall. “We don’t know where they are, but we know where they’ve been seen. Think back to what the ponies in the crowd said.”

“We know they were at Rarity’s, obviously, and Twilight was there, so the library too,” Sweetie Belle said.

“But then Rainbow Dash was there, and I don’t think the critters can fly,” Apple Bloom said.

“She said something about the post office,” Scootaloo noted.

“Oh! Like Lyra and the park,” Apple Bloom said, nodding.

“Let’s mark these off,” Sweetie Belle said. She took a pen in mouth, and started making fresh X’s on their well-loved hoof-drawn map of Ponyville as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo listed off all the ponies they could remember from the crowd outside Town Hall. When they were done, they found a rough cluster of X’s near the center of town.

“That’s where we start,” Scootaloo said.

“So how do we catch it?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Relax, I’ve done this with Rarity lots of time, when she needs to take Opalescence to the vet,” Sweetie Belle said. “All you need to do is put her favorite treat in the cat carrier and hide. It works on Opalescence, so it should work on the monster, too.”

“Yeah, cause they’re totally the same,” Apple Bloom said.

“Granted, Opalescence is greedier, and probably eviler, but I doubt the monster can resist this.”

Scootaloo looked at the mana crystal in Sweetie Belle’s hoof. “And where did you get that?”

“From Rarity’s sewing machine,” she replied. Upon seeing the others’ reactions, she continued. “Relax. She says hoof-stitched clothing is in fashion right now.”

“Well, we better catch the critter before fashions change,” Apple Bloom said.

The three fillies walked through the center of Ponyville in the faint light of early twilight. Few ponies were about, but neither were the monsters.

“If I were a naked mole monster, where would I be hiding?” Sweetie Belle mused.

The fillies looked around the familiar buildings, but this time looking past the shop facades and the windows displaying their wares. Instead, they looked under porches, in bushes, and in the alleyways between buildings.

“Maybe in there?” Apple Bloom said, looking down an alley.

Scootaloo looked, seeing dirty puddles, trash, and old cardboard boxes. “I don’t see how anypony could live there.”

“Not anypony, anymonster,” Sweetie Belle corrected her. “Now quiet!”

The three Crusaders stood still, a miraculous feat for the trio. After a while, their ears twitched as they detected a faint noise.

“I think something’s in there,” Sweetie Belle whispered.

“Then let’s do this!” Scootaloo said.

Apple Bloom placed the cat carrier, door open, against the wall of the alley, and covered it with some discarded cardboard. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle took her borrowed mana crystal, tied to a string which was threaded through the cat carrier, and cast it into the alley.

“And now, we wait,” Scootaloo said.

And wait they did. The fillies pressed themselves against the building and peered into the alley. At first, nothing happened. Then, they saw the flick of a long tongue, followed by the tip of a long pointed muzzle, pink tinged with blue.

Sweetie Belle tugged on the string, pulling the crystal closer to her. The moving crystal encouraged the monster to come out of the alley. Soon, they could see it, its six legs, its pink hide devoid of hair, its long fleshy tail with a weird paddle at its tip.

“That’s it, just a little more,” Sweetie Belle whispered. With each tug on the string, the crystal moved closer to the cat carrier. The creature cautiously followed, its beady eyes looking about, its long tongue flicking the air.

With one more tug, the crystal was pulled into the cat carrier. The creature followed.

“Now!” Sweetie Belle hissed.

Scootaloo sprung into action, slamming shut the door of the cat carrier and latching it. Apple Bloom pressed down on it with one hoof, securing it against the creature’s thrashing.

The Crusaders cheered triumphantly. Then they checked their flanks. “Aww. Still no cutie marks,” they chorused.

After a few minutes of thrashing, the creature finally calmed down. The fillies kneeled and peered into the cat carrier. The creature stared back with its beady eyes.

“Creepy,” Apple Bloom said.

The creature poked its muzzle out of the side of the cat carrier, and unfurled its long tongue. The appendage brushed Sweetie Belle’s horn. The creature then sniffed, and retreated back into the cat carrier, curling up into a ball and sucking on the mana crystal.

“Did you just snub me? Don’t snub me!” Sweetie Belle yelled, shaking the cat carrier.

“Now calm down, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said. “We caught the critter, and that’s what’s important.”

“Yeah, but now what do we do?” Scootaloo said.

Unfortunately, the Crusaders’ plan to hide the creature in Rarity’s basement was foiled when Rarity spotted them sneaking in the back door. After a brief bout of screaming and a quick rest on her fainting couch, Rarity recovered and told the fillies exactly what they were going to do. And so, they found themselves and the creature in the library, waiting for everypony to gather. For now, it was only the Crusaders, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle.

Pinkie Pie was making faces, trying to get the creature to react. Twilight Sparkle, meanwhile, was examining the creature with great interest. She tried using her normal scanning spell on it, but having seen it unraveled by the creature, she was forced to rely on books. That didn’t bother her, but not finding the answer did bother her.

“I can’t believe it! There’s nothing like this creature in Cobblestone’s Compendium of Creatures, Moonlight’s Manual of Monsters, or Ambler’s Annals of Animals!” Twilight Sparkle complained.

“If it is an animal, then maybe Fluttershy knows what it is,” Sweetie Belle said.

“But what kind of animal has six legs? I’ve seen animals with two legs, but six?”

“Then maybe it’s a monster?” Apple Bloom said.

“There are hundreds of famous monster hunters and explorers! It’s inconceivable that nopony has made mention of this creature.”

“Well, it’s not much of a monster,” Scootaloo said. She poked her hoof at the cat carrier. The creature just stared at her.

“I don’t know. It looks like a six-y monster to me,” Pinkie Pie said. “Get it?”

The others groaned.

The door to the library opened. “We’re back,” Rarity announced as she and Applejack entered. “I’d imagine Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy won’t be too far behind.”

As if on cue, Rainbow Dash flew in, fast enough to knock the hat off Applejack’s head. “Where’s that little rainbow thief?” she said.

“Whoa there, pardner,” Applejack said, replacing her hat. “That critter ain’t gonna do no harm to anypony right now.”

Rainbow Dash flew down and stared the creature in the eye. It responded by licking her muzzle.

“Hey!”

The Crusaders couldn’t help but giggle.

Finally, Fluttershy entered the library. Twilight Sparkle waved her over. “Fluttershy, have you seen an animal like this?” she asked.

Fluttershy looked at the creature held in the cat carrier. “I don’t think so,” she replied. “I’ll need to let him out, to get a better look at him.”

“No!” Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all shouted.

Fluttershy looked at the creature. “He promises not to run away,” she said.

“Guess it is an animal after all,” Apple Bloom whispered to her friends.

Everypony present trusted Fluttershy to deal with animals. That didn’t stop certain members of the group from standing vigilant as she lifted the creature out of its cage. She cradled it in her forelegs, cooing softly, and the creature burrowed into her coat.

“So? Do you know what kind of creature this is?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“I have no idea,” Fluttershy admitted. “All I know is he’s cold, and hungry, and he misses his family.”

“There are more of them?” Rarity exclaimed. She then promptly fainted. Again.

A short while later, the ponies were considerably more relaxed. The creature wasn’t running amok, eating everypony’s magic. Rather, it was content being fed by Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn repeatedly lifted a flower to the creature with her magic, and it would eat the telekinetic aura, causing the flower to float to the ground.

“Every time I see that, I’m fascinated by it,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“I’ve never seen an animal that eats magic before,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t think he’s from around here.”

“Why do you say that?” Applejack said.

“He feels lost and confused,” she replied. “The magic he normally eats is gone, so he latched onto whatever magic he could find. From the sound of it, unicorn magic is his favorite.”

“Are you sure it isn’t dangerous?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Look at him. Does he look dangerous to you?”

The creature looked at the gathered ponies.

“That animal is... is....” Rarity started.

“It’s cute, in a weird naked mole rat kind of way,” Sweetie Belle said.

“We can’t just keep calling it critter,” Apple Bloom said. “It needs a name!”

“Uh, naked mole rat okay with everypony?” Applejack said.

The creature turned up its muzzle.

“Maybe something out of fantasy?” Twilight Sparkle said. “Goblin? Grue? Gremlin?”

The creature’s ears perked up at the last name.

“I think he likes gremlin,” Fluttershy said.

“Great! Gremlin it is,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Well, this gremlin is still a danger,” Twilight Sparkle said. “A creature that eats magic is dangerous, no matter how small and cute.”

“Oh, he doesn’t need to eat that much; he’s sated now. Of course, like any animal, he’s inclined to gorge himself if he gets the chance,” Fluttershy said. She looked the creature in the eye. “We won’t do that again, now will we, Mister Gremlin?”

“Save the gorging for your welcome-to-Ponyville cake!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Oh, he doesn’t need cake,” Fluttershy said. “Just a nice warm place to live, and ponies to feed him and his family magic.”

“But what good is a creature that eats magic?” Applejack said.

“Actually, I can think of a use for a gremlin,” Apple Bloom said.

“Settle down, class,” Cheerilee said to her students, recently returned from recess. “It’s time for magic practice. All my unicorn students, form your desks into a circle. Everypony else, you have a free reading period.”

The foals had already started to move their desks. They did this every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, yet for some reason, Miss Cheerilee always gave them the same instructions.

Soon, they were ready, and Cheerilee addressed her unicorn students. “Today, you’re going to practice the spells you learned last week.”

Sweetie Belle raised her hoof. “Where’s Miss Lyra? Or Mister Pokey Pierce?”

“Our volunteer teachers will be back later, when we introduce new spells,” Cheerilee explained. “But most of the time, they were only present to deal with magical surges or spells gone awry. Now, we have this little guy.”

Cheerilee pulled out a cat carrier and opened its door. A gremlin crawled out and up Snails’s desk. It looked around and sniffed the air.

Snails patted the creature. “I’m going to call you Sniffy,” he said.

“Now, class, remember to hold your magic after you shape each step, and make sure the spell is properly formed before you move to the next step,” Cheerilee lectured. She looked to Snips, whose horn was glowing far too brightly. “Snips! What did I tell you?”

“Wha... what?” Snips’s spell surged, and the pencil he was trying to shrink instead started growing.

Cheerilee grabbed the gremlin and put it on Snips’s desk. It quickly consumed the errant spell, and the pencil clattered to the ground, back to its normal size.

“Okay. We’re going to repeat the control drills until everypony gets it right,” Cheerilee said.

“Awww,” the foals whined.

“Don’t think I can’t see through your strategy, Gummy,” Pinkie Pie said to her pet alligator. “You think that by staying in the dungeon, you’re going to win this game of Monopony? Well, think again, buster!”

Gummy blinked slowly, and then started to chew on his horseshoe token.

Pinkie Pie picked up the dice and rolled them. “Seven! That moves me past your properties and onto... hmmm.” She looked to the player sitting next to Gummy, one of the gremlins, who was for some reason wearing a top hat and a monocle. “Guess I owe you forty-two bits, Mr. Snooty.”

The gremlin lifted its head, and its tongue flicked in the air. Pinkie Pie looked up. “Gasp!” she gasped.

The crib that held the Cake twins now only held one of them. Pumpkin Cake was floating in the air above the crib, her horn glowing with a powerful magic surge.

With a quick gesture, Pinkie Pie flipped the gremlin onto her head. “Auntie Pinkie and Mr. Snooty to the rescue!” she shouted.

From its vantage point atop Pinkie Pie’s head, the gremlin was able to reach the floating foal. Its tongue reached into the magic surrounding the infant and slowly drew down the power of the surge. Pumpkin Cake drifted down, right into the waiting forelegs of Pinkie Pie.

Pumpkin Cake grabbed the gremlin as she descended, and then sleepily clutched it like a teddy bear. “Snooty,” she mumbled.

Mayor Mare looked up as the door to Town Hall opened. She recognized the visitor as Lyra Heartstrings, who had a happy smile on her face despite having what appeared to be taffy stuck in her mane and covering her muzzle. A gremlin was riding on her back, chewing on the taffy in her mane.

“Good afternoon, Mayor!” Lyra said. “I’m returning this little fellow.”

“Any problems?” Mayor Mare asked.

“Well, my spell and Bon Bon’s candy didn’t get along, just like she warned,” Lyra said. “Fortunately, your little gremlin was there to stop a repeat of the chocolate fountain incident.” She looked back at the gremlin. “Any creature that likes Bon Bon’s taffy can’t be all bad.”

“Actually, based on the description Miss Fluttershy provided, the gremlin is eating your residual magic,” Red Tape clarified.

“Same difference,” Lyra said. “Uh, a little help, Mayor?”

“Red Tape, please help Miss Heartstrings while I secure the payment,” Mayor Mare ordered.

Red Tape grimaced, but rose from his desk. He lifted the gremlin off Lyra’s back and returned it to the heated terrarium that had been added to Town Hall. It rejoined the other four gremlins that had been found around town. He then pulled out a hoofkerchief and tried to remove the sticky taffy from his hooves and fetlocks.

“And here you go, Miss Heartstrings. Two bits for feeding the gremlin,” Mayor Mare said.

Lyra took the offered coins in her magic. “As always, a pleasure getting bits from Town Hall, instead of the other way around.”

“Come back anytime!” Mayor Mare said cheerily.

Once Lyra was gone, Red Tape turned to the mayor. “I don’t like what these gremlins are doing to our budget,” he said. “Individually, the expenses are small, but the cumulative effect is....”

“I’m well aware of the cost, and we will need to factor it into next year’s budget,” Mayor Mare said. “But for now, think of these gremlins as insurance.”

“Insurance?” Lime Swirl said.

“There are, of course, magical dangers from the Everfree Forest, dangers these little guys could help defuse,” Mayor Mare said. “But the more urgent need is a contingency against another Want It, Need It incident. You recall that, right?”

Lime Swirl nodded.

“I heard of the incident,” Red Tape said. “I wasn’t personally affected, having been diligently at work. It was during working hours, after all.”

Mayor Mare gave Red Tape a dirty look. “Anyway, because we have these gremlins, we finally have a plan to deal with another magical incident.”

Mayor Mare took a key from around her neck and unlocked a drawer in her desk. She pulled out a thin folder, an angry red in color, and dropped it on Red Tape’s desk. “The plan is all there.”

Red Tape opened the folder, and was surprised to see how brief the mayor’s plan was. But he agreed the plan would work.

The plan fit on a single piece of paper, and was in fact only three words long:

RELEASE THE GREMLINS.