This Episode of Bluey is Called: Muffin Ponies!
Normally weekends at the Heeler household were a much louder affair, filled with shrieks of laughter from Bluey and Bingo—and occasionally an outburst of “Biscuits!” from Bandit—as they acted out games of pretend.
But this weekend was almost eerily quiet, broken only by the sound of steadily falling rain. Bandit had taken Bingo, the younger of the two, to Lila’s birthday party. Normally this would have presented little trouble for Bluey, who had a fairly wide circle of friends her age she could spend time with while her sister was gone. But the stars must’ve been aligned in just the right—or rather, wrong—way, for all of them were busy with other plans. Even Muffin had a doctor’s appointment, and Chilli had nothing but sympathy for Stripe and Trixie. They would likely need one themselves by the time they were through with that.
The knowledge that her sister, cousins, and friends all had things to do without her left Bluey feeling bluer than usual. She wasn’t even in much of a mood for games with her mom. Chilli might’ve enjoyed the unexpected quiet under other circumstances but she couldn’t welcome the calm given her daughter’s state.
“Aww Bluey, are you sure you don’t want to read a story together?” Chilli offered. “Who knows? Maybe Unicorse might stop by for a visit.”
Chilli knew she was getting desperate if she was willing to resort to Unicorse. The only thing that would be worse was Chattermax, and she wasn’t nearly that desperate. Nor would she ever be.
“No.” Bluey sulked, turning away and hugging her knees to her chest. “Unicorse is probably getting his horn sharpened so he can show it off to all the other unicorns without me.”
“Sweetie…” Chilli knelt down beside her. “I promise you, no one meant to leave you out of anything. Everyone just had things come up.”
Bluey let out a harumph. “But those things don’t include me! I’m a thing too, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you most certainly are.” Chilli patted her shoulder. “Hey, wanna know a secret?”
Bluey’s ears perked up, her tail beginning to wag. “A secret, really?”
“Yeah!” Chilli nodded. “Come on, let’s go into the kitchen and I’ll show you. You can have a biscuit while I explain.”
“Okay!” Bluey chirped, scrambling to her feet and rushing into the kitchen ahead of her mother. “What’s it for?”
Chilli smiled as she followed her, giving her a biscuit before turning to the refrigerator and rifling around inside it. “Well, once upon a time when I was around your age—”
“You mean a long long long time ago?!”
Chilli gave her daughter a flat look. “…yes.” She coughed and resumed her searching. “It happened when Brandy was busy with her friends, Dad was away, and my mum wasn’t feeling too well, so I felt a bit lonely too.”
“Didn’t you have anyone to play with?”
“Not at first. I was a bit shy when I was younger and it wasn’t as easy for me to make friends as it is for you.” She pulled out a bowl of chili and put it into the microwave.
Bluey regarded her curiously. “Oh, you mean you were more like Bingo?”
“Maybe.” While she waited for the chili to reheat, she continued her search into the depths of the fridge. “Now where is that—ah, there we go!” She pulled out a muffin, bringing it over to the microwave. “I knew we had one left!”
“Mum, what’re you doing?!” Bluey shouted with confusion and disgust as Chilli opened the microwave and gently dunked the muffin into the chili, coating it. “That’s not what you do with muffins!”
Chilli laughed. “Just you wait kiddo, it’ll all make sense. Now follow me!” Carrying her gooey muffin outside, she walked to the mailbox with a very confused Bluey in tow. “Now we’re going to leave our little offering here for a very special someone.”
Bluey looked at her mom with utter bafflement and horror as she put her chili-coated muffin in the mailbox and raised the lever. “AAAAH!” Bluey shrieked. “You can’t put a yucky muffin in the mailbox! That’s not where it goes!”
“Oh is that right?” Chilli smirked as she closed the lid. “Now, let’s go back to the house and wait.”
Bluey was baffled. “Wait for what?!”
“It’s a secret!” Chilli whispered as she shepherded Bluey back inside. “Now—in you get, and just watch.”
Still as lost as Chutney Chimp in the flatlands, Bluey scampered back into the house. She took up a position by the window, pressing her face against the glass as she waited. She growled softly in anticipation of the postal worker—but to her amazement, the lever lowered itself on its own without anyone in sight. “Huh?”
Chilli smiled. “Oh good, she got it!” Chilli
Bluey hadn’t been this confused since a sleep-deprived Muffin went on a rampage. “Who has it?” She gasped. “Is it a fairy?!”
“There’s only one way to find out: let’s go see!”
Bluey felt her tail beginning to wag. “Okay!” She giggled and raced out the door back into the rain, not that she minded. She opened the mailbox to see that the Chilli-muffin was gone! In its place there was only a gray feather. “Whoa, where did this come from?!”
Chilli, who’d taken her time and fetched an umbrella she now held over the two of them, looked quite pleased. “A very special friend. Would you like to go visit her?”
“Yeah I would!” Her enthusiasm dampened when she remembered one thing. “But Dad took Bobo!”
With a setup like that, Chilli snickered. “Where we’re going, we don’t need cars, kid. Let’s go inside.”
The two made their way back into the house and had a good shake. After drying off the floor, Chilli led them to the hallway mirror. She stopped in front of it, causing Bluey to do the same. All she saw was her equally confused reflection waiting to see what her mirror-mum would do.
After waiting a really, really long time—like, a whole two seconds!—Bluey couldn’t resist asking, “Mum, what’re we doing?”
“You still got the feather?”
“Uh huh!” Bluey held it up. “What do I do with it?”
Chilli smiled. “Touch it against the mirror.”
Bluey gasped. “Is it a featherwand?!”
Chilli chuckled. “Sort of! Just touch it and see.”
With an excited giggle, Bluey brushed the feather along the mirror. To her amazement, the feather and the mirror began to glow. She absently let go and the feather sank into it, and ripples moved outwards as if it had turned into water.
Her eyes had become as wide as dinner plates, her eyebrows fairly floating above her head as she hesitantly reached out and touched the mirror with her paw, giggling as it splashed about. “Fairy magic!” she shrieked with glee.
Chilli held out her paw. “Want to go in and see for yourself?”
She might as well have asked if Bluey would’ve liked to have ice cream for dinner. “Yeah I do!”
Mother and daughter held paws, their tails wagging in unison. “Alright,” Chilli said, “we’ll go on three. One...two...three!”
Bluey felt herself being pulled and pushed and it was very confusing what was going on, but it didn’t hurt any. It was a little dizzying, like when her dad would spin her around on the swing, which was fun!
Then there was a bright light and Bluey instinctively held up her paw to block out the sun—only then realizing that they were outside! And it wasn’t raining! “Huh?!”
She whipped her head around this way and that. They weren’t home anymore, and they weren’t outside either. She couldn’t see their house, or Wendy’s house, or Lucky’s dad’s house, or the street or anything she recognized! There were houses though, but they were small and most had roofs that were made of straw, like the one the big bad wolf blew away. Mum had said they were ‘thatched’, but Bluey didn’t know what that meant and wasn’t that worried about it because everywhere she looked around she saw tons and tons of—
“HORSIES!”
Bluey’s tail was wagging a mile a minute.
There were SO many horsies around and they were all different colors! Pinks and blues and greens and reds and a whole bunch of colors horsies usually weren’t! Some even had wings and were flying in the air like birds. “Fairy-horsies!” She watched, slack-jawed, only to gasp when she spotted some of them.
Had.
Horns.
“UNICORNS!” She squealed, hopping from foot to foot. “Mum, look! There’s unicorns!” She pointed out, just in case her mom had missed it. Maybe Unicorse was getting his horned sharpened to show off to his friends!
Chilli laughed and picked her up. “Yeah there are. The ones with wings are called ‘pegasi’ and the others are called ‘earth ponies’. There’s even some with wings like a bat.”
“Fruitbat ponies?!” Bluey’s mind was overflowing as she looked around. “What’re all their names?!” Bluey’s ears flicked this way and that as her eyes darted around, trying to take in ALL THE THINGS.
“You’ll have to ask them, kiddo.” Chilli patted her head.
“But I don’t see their owners,” Bluey pointed out. “So how am I gonna—” her eyes widened even more as it sank in. “They can talk?!”
It was all Chilli could do not to laugh at her daughter’s excitement. “They sure can.”
“How do you know all this?!” Bluey asked as her mom carried her through the little pony town.
“I’ll wait until we find my friend to explain.” She stopped in front of one of the houses and gently knocked on the door. Bluey heard something galloping to the door—then into the door, leaving it shaking in the doorframe. It opened a second later as a friendly voice called out to them. “Chilli!”
“Ditzy!”
Bluey leaned out to get a better view. It was a gray pony with wings—her mum had said they were pegasi?—with pretty yellow hair. She was smiling at her mom but she wasn’t looking at her. Wait, no, she was but also wasn’t? “How’re you doing that?” Bluey asked, looking the pony in her eyes—or trying to. She found herself making a face as she tried to match what her eyes were doing. “Doesn’t this make you dizzy?”
“Bluey,” her mother’s warning tone letting her know she said something she shouldn’t.
“No, it makes me Ditzy!” The pony laughed. “Or Derpy, depending on who you talk to. Aww, you must be Chilli’s little filly?”
Bluey squealed, she was talking to a real-life pony! With wings! “Yeah I am, I’m Bluey! You know my mum?!”
The gray pony nodded, smiling broadly. “Oh you bet I do. It’s wonderful to see you, Chilli!”
Mum’s tail was wagging happily as she stepped forward to hug her, big pony wings wrapping around her. “Ooh, it’s been too long! How’ve you been, Ditzy?”
“I’ve been doing great, how about you?”
“Mum, how’d you know her?” Bluey asked, tugging on her hand. Her mother had never seemed more amazing than she did right in that moment. And that was saying a lot!
Chilli rubbed Bluey’s head. “Well sweetie, remember that day I was telling you about when I was feeling lonely?”
Bluey nodded.
“I was practicing my pony drawings, not feeling too happy about how they were looking since I couldn’t get the wings to look right. Then all of a sudden there was a loud ‘thump’ and someone knocking on the door.” Chilli lowered her voice, forcing Bluey to lean in. “And when I opened the door, there she was!”
“I was trying to deliver some mail that day, and I took a detour and got a little mixed up,” Ditzy laughed awkwardly, trying to cover her cheeks flushing. “There was a magic mirror being transported to Princess Twilight, and Discord was—well, it’s a long story, but I ended up trying to deliver mail to your mom.”
Bluey’s eyes widened. “Whoaaaaa….”
Chilli beamed. “Yep! She showed up right on my door. I was so surprised the first thing I could say was ‘Can I draw you?’” She and Ditzy both started to laugh. “And she said yes! Ditzy was so nice about it and let me practice drawing her. It really helped my art. It probably didn’t hurt that I had a muffin with me and she was famished.” Ditzy laughed, not trying to deny it. “After that we played She-Ra and Swiftwind.” Chilli smiled nostalgically. “No other girl playing She-Ra ever had a real pegasus to be their Swiftwind, I can tell you that for free.”
Ditzy nickered softly. “When you put that horn on me to complete the look, I was the one who felt like a princess! Also, remember Bluey: muffins make everything better!”
Bluey would’ve said that muffins make everything louder, though she did love her cousin very much.
“We spent the afternoon together until a friend noticed I was missing and came to get me with magic,” Ditzy continued. “But I had so much fun with your mom that I wanted to find a way so we could write to each other and even visit.”
Bluey gasped. “Is that why mum put the muffin in the mailbox?!”
“You know it!” Ditzy beamed. “My favorite food is muffin and putting chili on it—it’s like me and Chilli together. It’s our code for when she wants to come visit me!”
Magical ponies, secret codes—was there nothing her mum couldn’t do?! “Eeheeee!” Bluey wagged her tail. “That’s so cool!”
Chilli patted her daughter’s head. “Bluey, Ditzy has a daughter about your age too. Would you like to go play with her while me and Ditzy catch up?”
Bluey nodded, bouncing in place. “Yeah I would!”
Ditzy smiled widely. “Oh Dinky will love having a new playmate!” She stepped into the house and called out. “Come on down, muffin, we have guests!”
“Oooh, is it Rainbow Dash?!” Bluey heard hooves scrabbling against the floor right before a little purple-gray unicorn charged in. Derpy scooped her up and hugged her, just like how her mom would do for Bluey.
“Wait, her name is ‘Muffin’ too?” Bluey tilted her head.
Ditzy laughed. “No, sweetie. Her name is Dinky Doo. I just call her that because we really love muffins in this house, and I love her. Dinky, this is mommy’s friend Chilli Heeler and her daughter, Bluey Heeler.”
“Whoa…” Dinky gaped at her. “Hi!”
“Hi!” Bluey waved back. “Your mum is a rilly nice pony!”
“Ya-HUH she is!” Dinky hugged her mom, nuzzling her before she was set back down. “She’s the best mom in all of Equestria!”
“No way!” Bluey hugged her mom’s leg. “My mom is the best mom in all of Australia!”
“Awww, sweetie,” Chilli hugged Bluey back. “Also New Zealand.”
Dinky blinked. “What’s an Oss-trailya?”
“It’s where we’re from!” Bluey wagged her tail.
“Oooh, so you’re, um...” Dinky whispered to her mom in a loud voice that everyone heard. “Mommy, what are they?”
“Aussies,” Chilli wryly commented. “But we’re heelers, luv.”
“A’kay Mrs. Heeler!” Dinky amiably accepted. She waved to Bluey. “Hi! My name’s Dinky!” The little unicorn gave a hop.
“Yeah you are!” Bluey’s tail wagged. “My name’s Bluey!”
“Yeah you are!” Dinky repeated and the two shrieked and giggled.
Chilli couldn’t suppress a faint ‘Aww.’ “I knew you girls would hit it off. You can go have fun while me and Ditzy chat. Just stay close to town, okay?”
“You mean I can go play with a real-live talking pony?” Bluey’s wagging tail was enough of an answer on its own. “Hooray!”
Dinky’s hooves were tapping up and down on the ground. “And I can play with an Aussie!”
The two girls squealed and raced around in a circle before tearing off down the street.
After running down the street, which Bluey had been a little worried about but apparently there were no cars here, so that was neat, she thought to ask Dinky, “Where are we going?”
Dinky stopped and sat down on the ground for a moment to think about it. She put a hoof up to her chin, the way she’d seen grown-up ponies do. “Ooh, I know! Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner!”
“Okay!” Bluey said agreeable, despite not knowing anything about why this was a desirable location. But as soon as she set her eyes on it, all her questions were answered. “Whoaaaaa…” her eyes lit up at the sweetest looking building she’d ever seen. “That is the yummiest looking thing I’ve ever seen,” she said faintly, licking her chops. There was perhaps one question left: “Can we eat the walls?”
Dinky shook her head. “I’ve only ever seen Miss Pinkie do that, and she can do lotsa weird stuff, so I dun think we can. But they have SUPER-yummy things inside and Mrs. Cake likes giving free things to new faces!”
“Free?! You don’t need any moneys if you’re new?!” Bluey pumped a fist. “Oooous!”
The two children gleefully entered the shop, Bluey’s eyes taking in all the sweets they had to offer: cupcakes, cookies, pies, giant cakes that looked even bigger and fancier than duckcakes. “This is the most wonderful place I’ve ever seen,” she whispered, almost on the verge of tears.
“Ya-huh it is!” Dinky galloped over to the counter and waved. “Hiya Mistuh Cake! Guess what?!”
A tall, lanky yellow stallion behind the counter smiled fondly. “Let me guess: it’s muffin time?”
“MUFFIN Time!” Dinky hopped around in a circle. “Yaaay!”
“I thought so.” Mr. Cake chuckled, then tilted his head as he spotted Bluey. “And who’s this?”
Dinky rushed over to her new friend. “This is Bluey! She’s a Heeler, which I dunno what that means exactly, but I think Spike was looking for one last time he and Big Mac were playing their pretend game.” She stroked her chin with her hoof. “Except for some reason colts don’t like it when you call their games ‘pretend’ even if that’s what they are, they wanna call them Arpeegees or larps, which kinda sounds like if Miss Heartstrings played a lyre and a harp at the same time, but maybe they’re the same thing? It’s confusing.”
“You said it,” Mr. Cake agreed as he reached behind the counter for the prize. “Well it’s very nice to meet you, Bluey. And here’s your special muffin Dinky. What would your friend like?”
Bluey looked around. “I can have anything I want?!”
Mr. Cake chuckled. “For a first-time visitor who’s a friend of Dinky Doo? Sure!”
Bluey squealed and rushed up to the display window, pressing her snout against it. “They all look so good!” She finally pointed at a picturesque tray of chocolate chip cookies. “I’d like those biscuits please!”
“Bisc—what?” Mr. Cake looked where she was pointing. “Oh, the cookies! Pipsqueak calls them ‘biscuits’ too. Sure thing.”
As Mr. Cake pulled out the tray, Bluey turned to Dinky. “Who’s Pipsqueak?”
“He’s a friend of mine!” Dinky hopped. “He’s got spots and he talks kinda funny because his parents are from Trottingham, which is a long way away. He uses words like ‘biscuits’ and ‘chips’ and ‘rashers’ too!”
That last one surprised Bluey. “You've got rashers here too?!”
Dinky blinked. “We’ve got wut?”
“Uh…” Bluey looked around, luckily spotting a plate on the display counter, likely Mr. Cake’s lunch. She pointed at it. “Like that!”
“Oh, haybacon!” Dinky nodded once she saw. “Yeah, we got that!”
“Haybacon?” Bluey scratched her head. “I guess that's a better name than hay-rashers.”
“Yeah, that sounds like somethin’ Mommy would take me to the doctor about,” Dinky noted.
Bluey was promptly distracted by the arrival of their treats, freshly baked and smelling so good. “Thanks Mr. Cake!” She said as she took her cookie and bit into her. Her eyes widened. “This is the. Best. Biscuit. I’ve ever eaten!”
Dinky giggled. “Yeah, they’re really good! Almost as good as muffins!” She took a bite out of her own treat, making delighted noises.
“Ooh you really like muffins here!” Bluey noted, tail wagging.
“Ya-HUH we do!” Dinky proclaimed, holding it out for Bluey to see. “This one is banana-nut and it’s my favorite muffin!”
“I have a cousin named Muffin!” Dinky informed her. “And she’s kinda banana-nuts too!”
The two giggled.
After the two finished their snacks, they went back outside only to find it suddenly had gotten darker out. Bluey frowning at the culprit, a gray cloud hovering in the sky.
“Aww, is it going to rain here too?” She pouted. “No fair!”
Dinky shook her head. “Nuh-uh it’s not! Cuz here comes Rainbow Dash to save the day!”
With a multicolored whirl, a pony as blue as Bluey herself zipped through the air and broke up the cloud with a karate kick! She sped around town, having rainbows for hair that flowed behind her as she went.
“Thanks Rainbow!” Dinky called out as she sped by, waving to the fast-moving pony. “That’s my godmommy, Rainbow Dash!”
“I have a fairy godmother too!” Bluey gasped. “Her name is Frisky and she married my uncle Radley and became my godauntie!”
“That’s so cool!” Dinky gasped in reply, less out of shock and more because that just seemed the appropriate response Bluey was looking for. “Rainbow Dash is in charge of the weather. She can make it sunny or rainy or even lightningy!”
“Lightningy? Can you do that too?”
Dinky shook her head. “Nuh-uh, that’s a thing pegasuses like mommy and Rainbow Dash can do. Unicorns like me can do magic though!”
“For real life?!” Bluey gasped.
“Ya-HUH!” Dinky screwed up her face in concentration, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. The horn on her head began to glow, first in sputtering bursts but then in a consistent, brightening glow.
Bluey’s tail began to wag, her ears perked up high and her eyes wide open as she watched a nearby ball be surrounded with the same-colored glow as Dinky’s horn. It began to twitch and move before, all on its own, it began to roll to the two girls.
“Real magic!” Bluey squealed, dancing up and down on her feet.
Dinky grinned, wiping her brow as the ball bumped into her leg. “Yeah it is! I hadta study with Sparky and Miss Twilight since Mommy’s a pegasus and couldn’t teach me.”
“Oh that’s neat!” Bluey said, despite not knowing who either of those ponies were. “Did they teach you about the important thing with magic?”
Dinky thought about it. “Uh, there was kinda a lot of ‘portant stuff. Miss Twilight rilly likes to talk about magic. A lot.”
“My mum told me the most important thing was about not using magic to be cheeky.” Bluey patted Dinky’s head. “So don’t do that.”
“A’kay!” Dinky chirped. “...what’s bein’ cheeky?”
“It’s sort of hard to explain,” Bluey scratched her head. “But you probably shouldn’t do things like use your magic to make people do what you want. Or toss your family around.”
Dinky blinked, gasping. “You can do that? Wooooow! Show me, show me!”
“It isn’t magic, I mean, it is but it’s more like pretend-magic.” Bluey raised her paws. “So when I do something like THIS—” she gestured dramatically against the wall and Dinky gasped, pressing herself against the same wall.
Seeing this, Bluey grinned. “Magic duel?”
Dinky’s horn lit up. “Magic duel!”
What began was a magic duel for the ages, flash horns and dramatic gestures that put to shame any other duel in history—somewhere the Great and Powerful Trixie’s ear twitched and she felt very put out without knowing why—backdropped by a full orchestral score—Dinky explained that was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie and Bluey went with it. The battle raged for days, a whole ten minutes!
Finally there was a bright flash from Dinky’s horn and Bluey staggered backwards, stricken. “Oh no!” She gasped. “The evil queen has got meee!”
“Yeah!” Dinky cheered, then stopped abruptly. “Wait, I thought you were the evil queen?”
“Really?” Bluey blinked as she continued her backwards motion. “I thought—ooph!” Her musings, along with her travel, was cut abruptly short when she backed up into something. She looked up to see a blue-green pony staring down at her, along with a big—compared to Bluey—orange lizard with horns…and wings…!
“Whhhhhoooaaa....” Bluey turned around to look her up and down. “You’re a DRAGON!”
The dragon folded its arms. “Is that a fact?” She spoke with a sandy voice, which was Bluey’s first clue that this was a girl dragon. The dragon looked down at herself, wriggling her toe claws, stretching out her wings, and swishing her tail. “How about that?” She glanced at the pony she was walking with. “If only someone had ever bothered to tell me these things.”
“Come on, Smolder,” the pony beside her spoke up. “She’s just a—uh, I was gonna say filly but—”
“Can you breathe fire? Do you have a big treasure?” Bluey’s rapid-fire questions were out of her mouth before he could even finish. She gasped, thinking of something else. “Did you kidnap the princess?! Do we have to rescue her?”
Besides her, Dinky also gasped dramatically.
Smolder arched her brow in confusion. “Uh, yes, sort-of, and ... not today?” The pony standing next to her snickered. “Oh shuddup, Sandbar.”
“What? It’s cute.” He nudged her.
Finally noticing him, Bluey spotted something right away that made her gasp out loud once more. “You have a turtle on your BUTT!”
It was true: located on his haunches was a picture of a turtle.
Sandbar froze, his cheeks suddenly heating at the unexpected pronouncement regarding his posterior, said in a tone of voice and at a volume he wasn’t used to having applied when discussing his rear. “Uh...”
Besides him, Smolder erupted into gales of laughter at Bluey’s precocious announcement. “H-hey yeah he does!” She snickered. “How about that, Turtle-Butt?”
“Is that your name?” Without even giving him a chance to reply, Bluey eagerly waved at him excitedly from her position a meter in front of him. “Hi Turtle-Butt!”
That just set Smolder off even more. Sandbar glowered at her. This failed to have the desired effect as even by pony standards, his glowering left something to be desired under the best of circumstances. Doing so while blushing copiously did nothing to aid him. “Thanks a lot, Smolder...”
“What?” Smolder’s tooth-filled smile betrayed her saccharine tone as she echoed Sandbar’s own words back to him. “It’s cute.”
He facehooved.
Missing the byplay between the two teen friends, Bluey moved around for a closer look. “But how did the turtles get on your bum? Are they lost?”
Smolder fell back on the ground, wildly cackling, smoke starting to trickle out of her nostrils.
Dinky giggled. “That’s a cutie mark, silly! All ponies get them when they get bigger. I don’t have mine cuz I don’t know what I’m gonna be yet, but Mommy says I’m full of potential!” She tilted her head in thought. “Then Sparky said something about it being better than being full of something else, but I don’t know what she meant and Mommy told Sparkler to hush or else she’d have to wash the dishes for a week.”
Bluey, following only about half of that, thought it over. “You just get one when you know what you’re gonna be?” She looked at Sandbar. “Are you a turtle shell polisher?”
Smolder snickered and Sandbar sighed. “Nah, dude. A cutie mark displays who you really are: your special talents, your personality ... all ponies get them.”
“But not dragons?” Bluey looked at Smolder.
She snorted smoke, shaking her head. “Dragons with cutie marks? As if!”
Sandbar pretended to lower his voice while still making himself clearly heard to all: “She’s just jealous. If dragons did get cutie marks, they’d be of gems and treasure that they’d try to pillage off their own flanks.”
Bluey and Dinky giggled while Smolder shot Sandbar a look that promised retribution.
After a second Bluey turned to look at her own hip. “I wonder what cutie mark I would get if I was a pony.” She gasped. “Dinky, I got an idea! Let’s draw cutie marks!”
“Yeah!” Dinky agreed. “Then we can give them to anyone who doesn’t have one!”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works—” Sandbar started to say before being elbowed in the solar plexus by Smolder.
Bluey and Dinky got to work at drawing, soon finding themselves surrounded by stacks of coloring paper with a variety of cutie marks on them.
Dinky had drawn a piano, an otter, a bunch of muffins, a butterfly, an otter, roller skates, cookies, an otter in a hat—“‘Cuz I love otters!” she explained—and a puppy—Bluey was very confused about that one.
Bluey had drawn ones for monkey doctor, pizza salesman, business secretary—though things got derailed for a bit when she had to explain what a phone was—and a llama eating a banana—Dinky was quite confused by that one and no amount of explaining really helped there.
“Here you go!” Bluey got up and offered Smolder a picture of a treasure pile. “Do you like it?”
Smolder regarded the drawing of a gold pile with multicolored jewels and a treasure chest or two sticking out. “Huh, that's not a bad hoard. Uh, thanks?”
“Welcome!” Bluey smiled. “Now you can stick it on and you'll have a cutie mark of your own!”
“Maybe you and Gabby can form a club,” Sandbar suggested.
Smolder snorted. “The only thing clubs are good for is beating someone—”
“Where’ve you two been?” a new voice cut in. Bluey gasped upon seeing a blue-green pony but with big shining bug eyes and delicate shimmering insect wings.
“Hey Ocellus, there you are!” Smolder waved. “We were wondering where you—”
“FAIRY!” Bluey shrieked. “So pretty!”
“Oh, um, thank you?” Ocellus shyly rubbed her legs together. “My name’s Ocellus and I’m a changeling, actually. What’s your name?”
“I’m Bluey!” She paused. “What’s a changeling?”
Ocellus opened her mouth, but Dinky piped up first. “Ooh, I know! Miss Cheerilee taught us! They can change into other things, like a pony or a donkey or even a rock.”
Bluey’s eyes widened, looking at Ocellus in amazement. “You can really become animals? For real life?”
Ocellus looked questioningly at Sandbar and Smolder, who simply shrugged at her. “Yes, I can—”
With a delighted squeal, Bluey didn’t even wait for her to finish. “We need some asparagus!”
“Yeah!” Dinky cheered. “Wait, what?”
Bluey pointed the sprig of asparagus commandingly at Ocellus.
“Bunny!”
Ocellus sighed but obliged her. There was a flash of bluish fire and soon she was replaced by Angel bunny.
Dinky giggled. Once Bluey had explained this game, it sounded rilly fun! She shouted the next one. “Giraffe!”
Ocellus changed again.
“Penguin!”
“Seal!”
“Zebra!” Bluey scrunched up her snout when Ocellus changed once again. “Wait, when did zebras get mohawks and necklaces?”
“That’s Miss Zecora!” Dinky explained. “She’s real friendly.”
“Oh that’s nice.” Bluey barely missed a beat. “Turtle!”
Sandbar and Smolder stood back, watching Ocellus be put through her paces. “Think we should step in to help?” Sandbar whispered, but notably didn’t actually do anything more.
“You want to get roped back into whatever this is?” Smolder archly asked him, adjusting the faux-cutie mark now affixed to her hip. “I’m good, thanks.”
“Lion!”
“Good point,” Sandbar admitted. “Wait, what was that last one?”
“ROAR!” A loud leonine roar from right in front of them knocked the two teens on their backs, to wild giggles from Dinky and Bluey.
“That was so much fun!” Bluey exclaimed after the teens had left.
“Yeah, they’re rilly silly!” Dinky agreed. “Almost as silly as the Cutie Mark Crusaders sometimes!”
Bluey's ears perked. “The who?”
“They're fillies who spent a rilly rilly rilly long time trying to get their cutie marks by doing all sorts of crazy stuff!” Dinky rolled her eyes. “They were sooooo silly, but they’re real nice and we hang out sometimes, but they've been SUPER busy since they got their marks.”
“Don't you have other friends you can play with?” Bluey asked.
Dinky nodded. “Yeah-huh I do! But Pipsqueak’s parents are taking him sailing and Alula's visiting her mom in Canterlot, and Sparky’s doing dumb school stuff and it feels like all my friends are busy doing stuff except for me!”
Bluey blinked, gasping. “Me too! Rusty’s spending time with his dad since he's home for a bit, and Snickers is at a game with his mum, and Chloe’s at the aquarium with her dad, and all my other friends were too busy for me too!”
“Oh noes!” Dinky gasped. “We gotta do something fun too!”
“Like what?” No sooner had Bluey asked then she felt a sudden gust of wind that sent her fur rippling. She giggled. “What's that?!”
Dinky started to grin, looking past Bluey and waving. “It’s Rainbow Dash!”
Bluey turned to see a winged blue pony with a really pretty mane land next to them. “Hey squirt!” She ruffled Dinky's mane with her wing before double-taking at Bluey, who merely waved. “Uh, is your pal a diamond dog or something?”
“This is Bluey. She’s an Aussie,” Dinky explained. “And a Heeler!”
Rainbow wasn't sure if that was an answer to the question or not but decided to just roll with it. “Oh, so you were what Spike and Big Mac were looking for last week. That … explains so much, and also raises more questions.”
Bluey ooohed appreciatively as she looked at Rainbow Dash’s coat. “We almost match!” She pointed at her fur and then at Rainbow’s. “You've got rainbow hair!”
Tossing her head to shake her mane out, Rainbow smirked. “You bet! It really puts the ‘rainbow’ in Rainbow Dash!”
“What puts the dash in?” Bluey wondered. “Are you really fast?”
Rainbow snorted. “‘Am I really fast?’ … Tell you what, how about I take the two of you for a ride and then you can tell me?”
Dinky and Bluey's eyes simultaneously grew larger, shimmering with unbridled delight as squeals of joy escaped their lips and their feet danced up and down.
“...so that’s a yes?”
“WOOHOOO!” Bluey cheered, sticking her head out to the side and letting her tongue hang out, giggling as the wind made her face wobble. “I'm flyyyyyiiiiiing! This iiiiis the beeeeest thiiiiing eveeeeeeeer!”
“Ya-HUH it is!” Dinky agreed from the other side, the two clinging to Rainbow's back as she soared over Ponyville.
They passed underneath a cloud bank, Dinky and Bluey reaching up to feel it flow around them. “Wow...”
“If you think that’s amazing then you gotta see the sonic rainboom!” Dinky called out. “It’s abso-spectacu-stuperiffi-mazing!”
“Is that a word here?” Bluey asked.
“I said it so it is now!”
That made sense to Bluey, who now only had one question. “What’s a sonic rainboom?”
Before Dinky could explain, Rainbow tossed her head to look back. “I could describe it, but you wanna see it instead?”
“Uh, yes!” Bluey nodded.
Rainbow angled herself downwards, landing on a hill on the outskirts of Ponyville. “Alright, sit back and look up, you’re not gonna want to miss this!”
Dinky and Bluey hopped off Rainbow’s back, then sat back to watch as she zoomed upwards. “Whoa she really IS fast!” Bluey leaned forward, trying to watch it all. “She’s like a cheetah with a sports car!”
“Yeah!” Dinky agreed, despite her lack of familiarity with either of those things. “Nopony’s faster than Rainbow Dash! She’s the bestest flier in the whole wide world and she’s got fifty bajillion trophies and she’s got her own fanclub and she’s gonna be a Wonderbolt and AND she’s the SUPER bestest godmommy ever!”
“Oh wow.” Bluey looked back up, not wanting to miss the show.
In the air, Rainbow Dash flew faster and faster. Bluey’s eyes went wide as she saw her seemingly pushing against the very air itself until–
KRAKTHROOM!
She broke the sky! Or at least that’s what it sounded like! There was a loud noise, louder than any thunder or lightning or even a hundred Chattermaxes. It would’ve been scary except that the sky erupted into color! It was like watching a wave if it was completely round and made of all the colors of the rainbow!
Bluey’s jaw hung open. It was simply incredible.
Dinky meanwhile was hopping up and down, making enough noise to make up for both of them. “WOOOOO! GO RAINBOW DASH!”
Bluey was so distracted by the sonic rainboom itself that she only now noticed Rainbow Dash zooming around, even faster than before, trailing big, bright, beautiful rainbows wherever she went. She leaned so far back trying to see it all that she toppled over, landing on the grass and staring up into the wild blue yonder. She made no motion to get back up again. For now, there was only the endless sky, filled with rainbows.
Dinky joined her on the ground, staring up as well. “I toldja Rainbow Dash was awesome!”
“Yeah, you did,” Bluey agreed faintly, still entranced by the sky.
Delighted, Dinky nodded firmly. “Ya-HUH I did! You should meet her friends cuz they’re all awesome too!”
Bluey slowly sat up and looked at Dinky as if she’d grown a second head. “You mean there are other amazing ponies like Rainbow Dash?!”
Dinky didn’t say anything, but her big grin was answer enough.
Bluey and Dinky’s day went by in a blur. Partly that was because Rainbow Dash was really fast, but also because they had SO much fun!
Princess Celestia was almost ready to lower the sun—and Bluey’s eyes went so wide when Dinky explained that—when they scampered back to the Doo household. Ditzy and Chilli were sitting on the front porch, chatting and having boring grown-up fun when the girls returned.
“There they are!” Chilli waved. “Hi girls, did you have fun?”
“Yeah!” The two chorused, Bluey following it up by going over everything that happened, wanting to make sure her mom knew exactly how awesome her day had been.
“...and then Miss Rainbow Dash took us to a library and—Mum! You won’t believe this but their library is in a tree!—and we met Dinky’s magic teacher Miss Twilight Sparkle! She was really really smart and liked to talked a lot. I didn’t know a lot of the words she used, but neither did Dinky or Miss Rainbow Dash. I guess Twilight does that a lot.”
Dinky nodded. “She rilly does! Rainbow Dash told me it’s ‘portant to just smile and nod so Miss Twilight won’t feel bad, and it works!”
“Then Dinky showed me some of her favorite books and Miss Rainbow Dash read us some Daring Do, and we got to play library in a real library!” Bluey hopped about. “Then we went to this dress stop that looked like a merry-go-round even if it didn’t actually go around.” She stopped, considering something. “I think ponies really like it when their buildings look like things.”
“It’s true, we do,” Ditzy admitted. “So, you met Rarity?”
“Uh-huh! She was really pretty!” Bluey squealed. “Mum, she spoke very posh but was really nice and kinda reminded me of Wendy! She even made me and Dinky dresses so we could have a tea party!”
Chilli put a paw up to her heart. “Aww, that’s lovely. Was it a royal tea party?”
“Well, sort of,” Bluey explained. “I tried to act like the queen and say ‘jolly good’ a lot, but Dinky said they only have princesses and they don’t say that. I didn’t know you could be a princess and not say ‘Jolly good!’”
Dinky piped up. “It’s true though! Princess Luna doesn’t say stuff like that. Actually, she mostly talks rilly loud a lotta the time, but she’s still nice though. Pip likes her!”
“Yeah!” Bluey agreed, despite not having met Pipsqueak but enjoyed being on the same page as Dinky. “Then she took us to a little cottage right on the edge of town where we met this really, really, really nice pegasus pony named Fluttershy. Her house was like a zoo with tons of animals she takes care of and they’re all really nice and listen to her!”
“We got to see Skipper the otter!” Dinky hopped up and down. “He was really snuggly today cuz we had a guest!”
Bluey nodded. “It’s true, he was! She even had budgies who climbed over my shoulders and we got to have brunch with them! And then we went to this big apple orchard and climbed in the trees and it was even better than the monkey bars because we could get apples as we swung! There was a cowboy pony named Applejack with a neat hat that she let me try on!”
“It was a bit big though,” Dinky pointed out. “But me and Bluey got to hunt for outlaws hiding from justice! I wanted to hunt for bandits, but Bluey said bandits were big blue fellas and her dad wasn’t even here, so that got a little confusing so we went after outlaws instead.”
“We found and captured this really BIG red fella who was a nice outlaw pony, didn’t even mind when we took him to the barn—er, I mean jail,” Bluey continued. “With justice achieved, we went back to Sugarcube Corner. But, you won’t believe what happened!”
Ditzy and Chilli traded a knowing look. “I think we can guess. There was a surprise party?”
“There was a surprise party!” Bluey shrieked, bouncing up and down. “This really bouncy, silly pink pony named Pinkie Pie had a cannon filled with streamers and confetti and balloons and as soon as we walked in it went off!” She waved her hands around, adding little ‘ooof’ noises for emphasis. “She'd shown up doing some silly stuff when me and Dinky were going around town but Dinky said that was just her being Pinkie Pie and I didn’t want to interrupt her cuz who’d she even be if she wasn’t being herself?” Bluey certainly didn’t want to cause a philosophical conundrum.
For some reason both moms were fidgeting and squirming as if someone had said something really funny. Bluey wasn’t worried too much about it because she was just so excited. “She made all kinds of great stuff and most of it was blue, like me! There were blue balloons, blue streamers, blueberry pie, blueberry muffins–”
“I rilly liked those!” Dinky beamed.
“–and blue marbled cake!” Bluey hugged herself. “We both really liked that! Then there was music and games with all the ponies we met, with pinatas and bobbing for muffins and all kinds of things! I tried explaining how Lucky's Dad plays Pass the Parcel but Pinkie Pie couldn’t make up her mind which version to play with, so instead we played pin the tail on the pony.”
“Oh goodness, that is a lot of fun!” Chilli laughed. “I’m glad you girls enjoyed yourselves.”
Bluey nodded. “Yeah, we did! She even had a present wrapped for me, and the wrapping looked just like my fur!” She gestured to herself, turning around. “It even had my back spots! How’d she know?”
“That’s Miss Pinkie for ya,” Dinky nodded knowingly. Ditzy nodded as well.
“Whackadoo, sounds like you two hit it right off!” Chilli smiled. “I’m so glad to hear it.”
Dinky eagerly hopped up. “Ya-HUH we did Mrs. Heeler! I thought today was gonna be kinda blah because Sparky’s busy a lotta times, and Pip and Alula were doing things with their families too so there wasn’t anypony around to play with me.”
“All my friends were busy today too.” Bluey thought about it. “But if they hadn't all been busy, I wouldn't be here making new friends and doing new things with you.”
“Oh yeah!” Dinky realized. “That's true! And if the Cutie Mark Crusaders hadn't gotten grounded for blowing up that silo, I wouldn't have been home to meet you either!”
“Yeah–wait what?” Bluey was momentarily thrown before getting back on track. “Er, I guess so. I guess it’s a good thing that our friends were busy. Cuz now we got to go out and make new ones and try new things!”
Dinky hugged Bluey. “Yeah!”
“Awww, I love these girls.” Chilli smiled. “We’ll definitely have to come back again sometime.”
Bluey gasped. “For real life?!”
“Absolutely.” Chilli mussed her ears. “We can’t have Bingo be missing out, now can we? Or have you end up missing your new friend here.”
“Hooray!” Bluey and Dinky cheered together, throwing their paws and hooves into the air before hugging each other.
Ditzy and Chilli shared a look and smiled. It was important to not miss out on time with your friends more than you had to. Whether they were new friends, or very old ones.