Demonponys are an old legend ponys tell their fillys to scare them, but what if the legend becomes reality. Manic Moon and his daughter Zelda will put the tolerance of Twilight and her friends on the test.
Manic Moon is a demonpony. All he wants is to start a new life in Ponyville, together with his cute daughter Zelda. But how will Twilight Sparkle and all the other ponys in the small village react to the dynamic duo.
Can love and tolerance overcome old prejudices or will everthing end in one big disaster? Only time can tell.
It was a normal sunny day in Ponyville. The sky was blue and everypony was enjoying their day.
No, strike that, not everypony. Twilight Sparkle was at wits end. 3 little fillies were currently running wild in her library and crusading for new opportunities to get their Cutie Marks. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were sitting on a big pile of books and browsing through page after page to find a new way to end their lives as so called ‘Blank Flanks.’
Twilight did her best to restore some order back in her home, but the odds were three to one (Spike was no help, since he was still sleeping in his basket rather soundly). She tried using her magic to reorganize the mess, but for every book she put back in its shelf, the fillies were already throwing around two other ones.
"What did I do to deserve such a punishment?" she said, when suddenly the voice of Scootaloo came out of the pile of books.
“Twilight! What´s a ‘demon pony?’ ”
“WHAT?!?” Twilights scream echoed through the whole library, when she realized how loud she just said this simple question. She shook her head and went to the 3 little fillies, who looked at her in unison, pretty nervous because of her sudden outburst.
"I´m sorry, what was your question again Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo held an old black book in her hooves. The cover read ‘Monsters & Myths of Equestria.’ On the open page was a picture of a pitch black pony with sharp teeth and eyes without irises. It holds an evil grin and stands above a frightened pony.
"The book says this thing is called a demon pony. What kind of ponies are they and why don't they have a Cutie Mark?" Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were looking over her shoulder to see the scary picture too.
Twilight sat herself down next to the Cutie Mark Crusaders and thought for a minute, then she remembered the old story of the demon ponies.
"The legend of the Demon Ponies is as old as Celestia herself. They are evil creatures without a soul. It´s said that they are stronger than a Minotaur and fireproof like a dragon. Demon Ponies can´t get Cutie Marks because they have only one talent. "
"Which one? Which one?" the 3 fillies said in union.
"EATING BAD FILLIES!!!" Twilight shouted, rising her hooves in a dramatic gesture. The girls fell over in surprise.
"AAAAAAAAH! What was that for, Twilight?" Sweetie Belle asked, slowly getting back on her hooves.
Twilight giggled "Sorry. I couldn't resist. But thats what my mother always told me about the demon ponies, when I was a little filly. You shouldn't worry about these creatures. It´s just an old fairy tale to scare fillies.”
"Too bad. We could have been Cutie Mark Crusaders Demon Pony hunters... Maybe we could still try to find a evil pony and pretend it´s a demon pony!" Scootaloo said.
"That´s a great idea Scootaloo! Let´s go and find a big net and everything else we need!" Apple Bloom said.
All 3 fillies ran out of the library, happy to finally got a new crusading goal. Twilight shut the door behind them and sighed. Because of the loud screaming Spike, having finally awoken, came down the stairs of the bedroom.
"What's all this noise? You know I love to sleep long time on Saturdays. " Spike mumbled incoherently.
"Spike! Finally awake? Just in time to help me reorganize the library. Those three little hurricanes sure made a big mess around here." Twilight smiled warmly.
The complaining of the little dragon could be heard around the whole neighborhood of the tree-library, almost to the road skirting the Everfree Forest, where a big carriage slowly made his way to Ponyville.
In another part of Ponyville, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were enjoying a little brunch. Both were sitting outdoors and waiting for their orders. Like always, Rarity was sipping on her tea while Pinkie explained her plans for the day at speeds even Rainbow Dash couldn't keep up with.
"... And then I'll go to Fluttershy’s, because she’s giving Gummy his weekly scale massage! She is always so happy to care for Gummy. She says he is so quiet and easy to satisfy. And then....." Pinkie Pie was going on and on like this, when suddenly Rarity caught some movement from the corner of her eye. It was Mayor Mare, and she was taking the 'For Sale' sign off from a house right across the street.
"Look Pinkie, it seems somepony new is moving to Ponyville. Perhaps someone famous from Canterlot or..."
"A new villager! This is so awesome! I've got to do a Welcome party for him! Or her! Or maybe it´s an entire family, with a colt, a mare, some fillies and maybe even a pet! " Pinkie said. She was bouncing around the table gleefully, much to the annoyance of Rarity.
"I've got to go and set everything up for the party! See you later Rarity!" She was speeding away in no time, leaving a trail of multicolored balloons and party favors in her wake.
"But your order...? Pinkie?” She sighed. “Looks like I have to dine alone today. " Her look got a little bit darker." And I have to pay alone, too... Though at least these new ponies can be sure to receive a nice welcome in Ponyville." Rarity took another sip from her cup of tea and kept on enjoying the day.
The day went on and with every waking hour the sky was getting darker and darker - the Pegasus ponies were planning a rainy night. When the last ray of sunlight disappeared, Derpy gave a the central rain cloud one big buck and the rain began. Everypony hustled into their houses and only now and then you could see a single pony running to get home and out of his wet misery.
Soon, the clocktower of the village showed nearly midnight. Just a small couple of houses still had lights on. One of these houses was that of Twilight Sparkle. She was reading the last chapter of the new Daring Do book (Daring Do and the Prince of Chaos). She knew that Rainbow Dash would visit her in the morning to get it and she had to know how the story ended. Twilight was absorbed in the epic battle between Daring Do, Discord, and Discords son, when a big carriage came to a halt right next to the library.
A dark figure made its way to Twilights frontdoor. A loud knock goes through the library and Twilight turned her face away from the book.
"Who could that be? In the middle of the night and with this weather outside it must be something important." She made her way down the stairs and to the frontdoor. Slowly the purple unicorn opened the door and peered at the figure out in the rain. At first she thought that Zecora was standing before her, because the pony was wearing the some hooded cloak like her zebra friend. But it also had a scarf on and his eyes couldn't be seen in the dark of the night. The pony before her was as big as Big Macintosh too. She has to admit, that she was a little bit intimidated by this stranger, but she didn't back away.
"Good evening, Sir! How can I help you at this hour?" she said.
"I'm really sorry to bother you in the middle of the night Ms, but I saw that there was still some light in this house and I hoped that you maybe could tell me the way to the Flower Street Nr. 11. I'm new around Ponyville and can't find it in the dark. " the stallion said.
For a moment Twilight could have sworn, that she saw a completely blank and white eye in the face of the stranger, but she quickly put this thought to the side. Probably just her imagination, reminding her of the tale she had told the crusaders earlier.
"Of course. It´s not too far away from here. Just go down the street to the village well and turn left. Should be the second house on the right side." Twilight saw the carriage behind the pony. "May I ask who you are and where you're coming from?"
"Ah, Where are my manners? I am Manic Moon and I lived in Manehattan. My daughter and I hope to start a new and more peaceful life here in Ponyville. "
"Nice to meet you, Manic Moon. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I moved here from Canterlot some time ago and I can guarantee you, that this is a wonderful place to live. You and your daughter will love it here."
"Thank you Ms. Sparkle! I indeed hope so." He turned around and went back to his carriage, mumbling to himself, "I should hope so indeed..." Manic Moon disappeared in the night and Twilight closed the front door.
"Manic Moon. That´s an interesting name for a pony. I wonder what his special talent is." Suddenly the picture of his white eye came back into her head, but she shook it off quickly. "I really should got to bed now. My mind is starting to play tricks on me." Twilight whispered to herself. She climbed in her bed and with the sound of the rain outside she soon drifted off to sleep.
Manic stopped at the house with the Nr. 11. He opened the door of the carriage and turned the light on.
"Wake up Zelda... We're in Ponyville. The rest of the night we can sleep in our new house." he said quietly to the pony in the back, voice brimming with love.
A little unicorn filly crawled out from under a well-worn blanket, rubbing her sleepy eyes. A tired, but happy "Yay!" came from her mouth. Manic smiled and gave her a kiss on her head, before gently picking her up and walking them to their new lives in Ponyville.
Slowly the rain subsided, and the first rays of the sun appeared as pegasus ponies started to clear the sky. The streets were getting crowded with ponies doing their jobs or just enjoying the day. Some of them noticed the carriage in front of house Nr. 11 on Flower Street and were wondering themselves who the new ponies could be, but nopony really felt the need to knock on the front door and ask. They would get to know them soon enough. They all just had to wait for the Pinkie Pie’s welcome party. The pink mare sped through the village the whole morning and invited everypony in town. A big party in the town hall. Since it was the first party in 3 weeks, Pinkie Pie was planning something big and wanted to make sure the 2 new villagers would get the right impression of the Ponyville ponies.
Pinkie Pie happily jumped to the front door and rang the doorbell. A muffled noise could be heard in the house, and after a minute a small unicorn filly with a grey coat, black mane with a blue stripe, and beautiful blue eyes opened the door.
"Hello?" The small filly said, a little bit nervous.
"Hello little one. I’m Pinkie Pie and I wanted to welcome you and your parents in Ponyville." Out of nowhere Pinkie set a party hat on Zeldas head and threw some confetti in the air.
"And for this I’m hosting a big welcome party at the town hall at midday today. Everypony in Ponyville will be there and you will make a lot of new friends. There is cake, punch, balloons and some ponies surely will bring some presents too. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Well I am totally excited! Hi hi hi hi hi hi!" With every word that Pinkie Pie said, Zelda’s eyes grew bigger and bigger. What filly wouldn’t be happy to get a party with free food and presents?
"A party with cake and presents? Do you have muffins with honey? I love muffins with honey!" the little filly said excitedly.
"Why not? I could make some before the party begins." Pinkie answered.
"That would be so awesome! Thank you Ms. Pie!" Zelda said, excited.
"Please call me just Pinkie. Everypony does. Ha ha ha ha!" Pinkie Pie said.
"OK Pinkie. My name is Zelda. I promise my dad and I will come to your party."
"Oki doki loki! See you later Zelda!" Pinkie turned around and happily jumped away. She had an order to bake and if the little filly loves muffins with honey, she would make enough for her and Derpy Hooves together. Zelda closed the door and dashed to her father.
"Daddy! Daddy! There was a pink pony at the front door and she is going to host a party just for us and everypony will be there!" Manic Moon nearly choked on his breakfast apple.
"They did what? Zelda! I thought we wanted to go slow with this? I don’t think the ponies around here are ready to know...." he was searching for the right words "... what we are. We would be the center of the attention at this party, and I can´t hide my true race as easily as you. What would we do if they didn’t accept us? They could send us fleeing out of town or even get us arrested." Manic said while he walked up and down the kitchen.
"But.... but..... but daddy. They will bring present and candy and muffins with honey! Muffins with honey daddy!" she begged.
"No Zelda! The risk is too high." he replied.
"Pretty please!" Zelda said, her eyes getting bigger and she made a cute face.
"N-No Zelda! Don’t do this!" he tried his best to look away from her.
"Please, please, please, pleeeeeeaaaaase!" she said with her best puppy face and little tears in her eyes.
"Oh Luna forgive me! I can’t stand this any more. You win! We’re going to this damn party." The moment he ended his sentence Zelda jumped into his arms and hugged him as tightly as the little filly could.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You are the best daddy in the whole world!" Manic sighed and returned the hug.
"Yes, I know. But you aren´t bad as cute little daughter too. Ha ha ha ha!" he rumpled up her mane and they both started to laugh. After that they finished their breakfast and made some preparations for the party.
Soon enough the clocktower of Ponyville struck noon and most of the ponies made their way to the town hall. Some of them also brought some presents for the new neighbors. For example, Mr. and Mrs Cake made a giant cake for everypony to enjoy, Derpy Hooves and the other mail ponies donated a new postbox and the Spa twins brought a coupon for a " Feel Well " program. Even Twilight couldn’t resist and laid a Daring Doo book ( " Daring Do and the Albino Changeling " ) on the table with the other presents.
"Now that’s what I call a good welcome party." Pinkie Pie said, bouncing to her friends.
"You sure can say so Pinkie Pie. These two new ponies will get one hell of a good first impression of Ponyville." Applejack said.
"Say Twilight, is it true that the new stallion in town already visited you last night?" Rarity asked rather interested.
"Well, yes. Actually he only asked me for directions to his house. Can’t blame him for not finding it in the middle of the night, and with this bad weather too." Twilight replied.
"And how does he look? Is he an handsome gentlecolt or more of a working stallion?" Rarity asked.
"Sorry Rarity. I didn’t see much of him. He was wearing a hooded cloak and a scarf up to his nose. All I could see is was that he had a black coat and mane. That and that he is as big as your brother Applejack. But he seems to have realy good manners and he moved here with his little daughter." Twilight answered.
"Oh yes! Oh yes! I met his daughter this morning when I invited them to the party. Her name is Zelda and she is a unicorn just like Rarity and Twilight. She loves muffins with honey and is soooooooo cute! You will love to meet her girls!" Pinkie Pie added.
"A unicorn. Does this mean her father is a unicorn too, Twilight? I was hoping on a pegasus pony, ‘cause our weather team could use a strong colt. Since Road Rage started his Wonderbolt training he rarely has time to help us with moving the big clouds." Rainbow Dash said.
"I don’t think he’s a unicorn too. I couldn’t spot anything like a horn last night, and that would’ve been easy to see under his hood. He could be a pegasus, since his back was covered with the cloak." Twilight answered.
"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough. They should arrive any second now." Rarity said.
Not long after this Manic Moon and Zelda entered the town hall. Every eye in the room was turned towards them. Most of the ponies wore a confused expression on their face, because Manic was not only wearing the same hooded cloak and scarf as last night, when he knocked on Twilights door. No, he also had a big pair of sunglasses resting on his nose, so nopony could see his eyes.
"Oh my!" Fluttershy whispered.
"He definitely has no sense for fashion." Rarity said. Manic Moon looked into the crowd, obviously nervous. Zelda shyly stood behind him, not knowing what to say.
"Hello everypony! Nice to meet you all. Before we start this party, there is something we need to show you all and we both really hope this place is as tolerant as I was told." Manic finally said. He and Zelda slowly made their way to the big stage on the other end of the hall. He took the microphone and everypony looked at him eagerly.
"Well... first of all, thank you everypony for making this awesome welcome party for my daughter and I. We would really love to be a part of this nice community, but at first, we must show you what we really are." He took a step back from the microphone, and with one last sigh, took off his clothes.
At first nopony knew how they should react, but then the first of them realized what stood before the crowd. Manic Moon was a pitch black pegasus with a shock-headed, black mane and completely white eyes, without any iris. He didn´t have a Cutie Mark, but instead he had really sharp teeth. A picture perfect example of a demon pony. Twilight was one of the first who got it.
"He’s a demon pony!" When she said this out loud, nearly every filly in the town hall ( and Fluttershy ) shooed behind their parents ( FS behind Pinkie Pie ) or started crying. Rarity and some other mares fainted and most ponies made eye contact with the exit. Quickly Manic took the microphone again and started speaking.
"Yes, I’m a demon pony, but I don’t want to harm you ..." he looked to the scared fillies "... and I never ever ate a filly in my whole life, not even the bad ones. So please don’t run away or call for the royal guards. I just want to live in Ponyville like everypony else." No pony ran out of the building, but they all hesitated to say something or move any closer to him. All but one. A grey earthpony mare with a long mane, a pink bow-tie, and a clef note for a Cutie Mark made her way through the crowd and walked on stage.
"Long time no see Manic Moon. You still know how to get all the attention." she laughed.
"Octavia? Is that you?" Manic asked.
"The one and only." she said.
Twilight watched all this with an open mouth. Slowly but surely, everypony in the hall relaxed when they saw how friendly the pony and the demon talked on stage. Even Fluttershy seemed to come out of her shell.
"I didn’t know you lived here, Octavia. The last time we met was after your big concert in Manehatten 2 years ago." Manic said.
"I just moved to Ponyville seven months ago. I’m living in a flat shared with Vinyl Scratch. Nice to see you and Zelda again." she bent down to Zelda "Hello little one! You’ve really grown up since the last time I saw you." she stroked Zeldas head. Zelda hugged her and looked up.
"Hello Octavia! I’m so happy to see you. Thank you for helping my daddy." she said happily.
"He helped me often enough. It´s great that I can finally pay him back a little bit." she took the microphone from Manic Moon and addressed to the crowd.
"Listen everypony! I know how hard this may be to believe, but Manic Moon is one of the most kind ponies I’ve ever met and there is no reason to be afraid of him. He helped me in a time of my life when I hit rock bottom and thought I couldn’t go on anymore. To tell you the truth, without his help I wouldn’t be one of the most famous musicians of Equestria I am today." When she said this, Manic got a little red and bashfully looked away. After Octavia’s speech, Twilight and her friends walked on stage and one after another greeted Manic Moon.
"You sure do know how to make an unforgettable first impression Manic." Applejack said.
"Uhm... hello!" Fluttershy quietly said.
"Looks like we all believed too much in this old mare’s tale. I’m really sorry if we seemed intolerant to you, but strange and dangerous thing happen quite often around here and we’re all a little oversensitive with these things. " Twilight apologizing.
"It´s no big deal, but there is one more thing you all have to know before this party really can start. I heard about the big attack of changelings at your brother’s wedding and I could totally understand, if everypony around here has something against them..." He looked to Zelda and nodded.
Zelda didn’t really seem comfortable, but she closed her eyes anyways, and out of nowhere a green flame appeared under her hooves. Everypony in the hall gasped for air. When the green flame disappeared, there was still Zelda standing on the stage, but her horn got a little bit sharper and on her back everypony could see a beautiful pair of changeling wings.
"Tada!" Zelda said and made an great and powerful pose.
Twilight’s mouth nearly hit the ground this time. She never expected such a cute little filly to be a changeling. She thought every changeling’s only goal was to get as much love as possible, no matter the costs. On the other hoof, she never expected to ever meet a demon pony either.
"Zelda’s mother was a changeling princess, so that makes Zelda a half demon pony, half changeling hybrid. As you all can see, she is still a nice little filly and will do you no harm. I hope that you all could accept her the same way you accepted me a minute ago." Manic said as he lay his hoof on the filly’s shoulder.
This time, it was Pinkie Pie who reacted first by jumping in front of Zelda and happily poking her nose.
"You’re still a cute filly and I still made a lot of honey muffins for you. I’ve never had a changeling friend and this is soooo exciting!" Pinkie said. Zelda’s eyes changed their size from normal to big in no time. She euphorically jumped in tune to Pinkie Pie.
"You made some? Really? That is so awesome! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she said happily.
Most of the ponies in the hall started laughing at the show they saw at the stage and soon everypony came up and greeted Manic Moon and Zelda face-to-face. When the last "Hello!" was said Pinkie Pie took the microphone.
"Ok everypony! Now let´s get this party started!" Behind her Vinyl Scratch switched on her DJ pult and the townhall became one big party stage. Some time later Zelda sat together with Derpy, Dinky, Pinkie Pie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders at a table and enjoyed the muffins with honey Pinkie had baked.
"They are so delicious!" Zelda said with a full mouth.
"You’ve got a good point there little one. Never say no to a muffin! Ha ha ha!" Derpy said.
"Do you wanna join our club Zelda? You could crusade with us and to find your Cutie Mark. You would be the first crusading changeling in all of Equestria." Sweetie Belle asked.
"That´s a nice offer, but my dad says neither demon ponies nor changelings get Cutie Marks, so I will never get one either. Still, thank you for the invitation. If you ever need help with your crusading, I´m happy to help." Zelda answered.
In another corner of the hall, Manic chatted with Octavia, Rarity, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh.
"I’m so happy you showed up today Octavia. I don’t think this would have ended so well without you." Manic said.
"Like I told you before. I still owe you a lot. So it was my pleasure to help you out this time." Octavia answered.
"Now Mr. Moon...." Rarity was about to say, when Manic interrupted her.
"Please, just Manic." he said.
"Ok. Now Manic, what does a nice demon pony like you do for work anyway?" she asked.
"Well. Back in Manehatten I worked as a bartender in a club called " Last Light ". As far as I know Ponyville doesn´t has anything like that, so I guess I’ve got to find something new. But there’s not a huge rush, there are some Bits left from my old job to live off of for a while." Manic said with a smile.
"Well, maybe you could help at the apple farm. There is always a lot of work to do. I mean, if that´s ok with you and if Big Mac and Applejack want help on the farm too." Fluttershy suggested shyly.
"Eeyup!" Big Mac said with a friendly smile.
"Maybe I will come back on that offer, but first Zelda and I want to settle in a little bit. I´ve never expected to be find new friend so fast. Seems like Ponyville was a good choice after all." Manic replied.
"That´s exactly what I thought, when I moved here too. For Ponyville!" Octavia raised her jar of apple cider.
"For starting a new life!" Manic Moon followed her example.
After such an awesome party, Manic Moon and Zelda spent most of the next day unpacking their belongings and buying some goods they still needed for the house. Manic was more than happy they didn´t have to hide anymore. Just two days in town and they were already being treated like normal ponies. It was like a dream come true for him. Now all he needed was a new job, but a bartender was nothing Ponyville was looking for, since there was no bar in this town. On the other side, Zelda had completely different problems. Today was Monday, and Monday is a schoolday; her first schoolday in the new town. She was running through the living room, not knowing what to think first.
"OMG! OMG! OMG!.......My first schoolday.......But what if I´m not smart enough?.........And there are so many new fillies.....But what if they don't like me?.......I heard my teacher's name is Ms. Cherilee.......But what if she doesn´t like me either?..........And..." she was zipping from one place in the room to another. Manic was following her the entire time, holding down a giggle. Suddenly he was putting his hoof on the ground, pinning Zeldas tail down and stopping her from running around any longer.
"Calm down Zelda! You had a lot of friends in your old class and you will find even more in your new one." he said.
"But what if I don´t? The Cutie Mark Crusaders asked me to join their club, but I refused. What if they hate me now and start to bully me?" she said nervously. Manic put his hoof on her head and laughed.
" If they do, I'll visit you class and eat all the mean fillies. 'Cause I´m the big and evil demon-pony! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Manic chuckled. She punched him playfully.
"Daddy! I am serious about this. He he he he!" Zelda started to laugh too.
"Now go and get your saddle bag! You don´t want to be late on your first day, do you?" he said. Zelda ran off and collected her school things. In the meantime, Manic made a banana sandwich for her. Together with an apple and a little bottle of milk he packed Zelda's lunch box and waited at the frontdoor. Soon enough Zelda ran down the stairs and met him there. He laid the lunch box in her bag and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Have fun my little angel." Manic said with a smile.
"I'll do my best daddy." Zelda answered and run of in the direction of her school.
A short time later, every foal in Ponyville was sitting in Cherilee's classroom and waiting for the lesson to begin. The teaching mare stood before her class, like always, but next to her stood a very nervous little filly with changeling wings. Cherilee felt this and gave Zelda a comforting smile.
"Good morning my beloved pupils. Today we´ve got a new filly in class. Maybe you already know her from Pinkie Pie's party last Saturday. Zelda and her father just moved to Ponyville, and I hope you all will help her to feel comfortable in this class soon." the teacher said with her kindest voice.
"Hello. I'm Zelda" Zelda said, still a little nervous.
"Does anypony have a question for Zelda?" Cherilee asked. The first foal to raise a hoof was Rumble, the little brother of Thunderlane.
"Can you fly with those wings? They look so.....fragile." he asked. Zelda looked at her insect-like wings. They shimmered a little in the light of the classroom.
"Well, thats true. They are not as strong as pegasus wings, but it´s easier to fly with them too." she said and started to beat her wings until a buzzing noise could be heared. With that she slowly rose off the ground. A chorus of "Os and A´s " resonated through the room when she started to fly above the heads of her class mates. Most of the pegasus foals couldn´t fly at this age. Most of them put their hopes in this summer's " Flight Camp ", but to see a filly of their age just flying through the room raised their will to learn it even faster. Soon Zelda landed at her starting spot and smiled at the class. Cherilee was about to say something, when suddenly another hoof was raised.
"Yes, Diamond Tiara. Do you have a question too?" Cherilee asked.
"Miss Cherilee! Isn´t it dangerous for us to sit next to a changeling? She could feed on our emotions or use mind control on us." Tiara said with a scornful look at Zelda. Once again Cherilee couldn´t say a word, since Zelda was responding too fast.
"I would never steal love from a pony! The only love I feed off is the love my daddy gives me, but most of the time I eat normal food like everypony else. And I can´t use mind control, because only fully grown changeling queens can use that kind of magic." Zelda said, glaring daggers at Diamond Tiara. Cherilee stepped next to Zelda and soothed her.
"It´s okay, Zelda. I´m sure Diamond Tiara just wanted to make certain nopony would be afraid of you. Right, Diamond Tiara? the teacher said.
"Of course Miss Cherilee." Tiara answered with her best plastic smile.
"Good. Now let´s finish this question round and start with today's lesson. Zelda, there is a free place behind Rumble. Just sit down and we can begin." Cherilee pointed on the only free desk in the room. Zelda took her saddle bag and sat down at her new place. Like Cherilee said, Rumble was right in front of her, and behind her sat Dinky, the daughter of Derpy Hooves. Zelda already met her at the party and even if she was not much of a big talker, Dinky seams to be a realy nice filly. When Zelda turned around, she happily waved at her. Since Zelda was sitting at the left window of the classroom there was only one more filly in her close proximity. On her right side sat a red pegasus filly with a long blond mane and some white freckles on her face. She looked at Zelda with big yellow eyes and smiled.
"Hello. I´m Autumn Skies. Nice to meet you!" she said.
"Nice to meet you too!" Zelda said and smiled back.
After a long lesson about the great sky war between the pegasus ponies and griffons, the pause bell finally rang and everypony ran outside. Quickly the garden behind the school house was filled with little groups of laughing foals, who were playing games, eating their lunchs or just chatting about silly things. Zelda was standing in the middle of all this, unsure where to go, when suddenly a voice caught her ears.
"What´s the problem bug-wing? Having problems finding somepony to hang out with a full life blank flank? I can´t wait for the first holes to appear in your legs, so we can call you cheese-leg too. Ha ha ha ha ha!" Tiara said with her nastiest face. Before Zelda could say anything in reply, Diamond Tiara and her only friend Silver Spoon walked away, still laughing at her. The little half blood looked sadly at her hooves. She still hoped that the typical changeling holes would never appear on her legs. She never liked them, and she was afraid of being bullied for them too. Then she heard another voice calling her name.
"Zelda! Wanna eat with us? the voice called. She looked over her shoulder and saw Autumn Skies, Dinky and Rumble sitting on one of the big tables in the garden, happily waving at her. Zelda smiled from one end of her face to the other and sat herself next to Rumble, Autumn and Dinky sat opposite to them.
"Thank you for letting me eat with you. I wasn´t sure if anypony wanted anything to do with me after what Tiara said." Zelda said while she unpacked her lunch box.
"Don´t you worry about them. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are the bullies in town. They try everything to show us how much better they are, just because their parents are rich and both already got their cutie marks." Rumble said.
"Yeah! They always mock me for my freckles. Like it´s my fault I´ve got them." Autumn said angrily.
"Sometimes they call my mother retarded just because she has this little problem with her eyes. It's so mean, but my mother says if she doesn´t worry herself about it, I shouldn´t either." Dinky said while she ate her muffin.
"And they keep on calling me a Dodo, only cuz I once tried to fly and ended up in the hospital with both wings broken." Rumble answered and looked sad at his wings. After that it was quiet for a while. The four fillies ate their lunches, all while wishing the worst for Tiara and Spoon. When Zelda was done with her banana sandwich, a wicked but funny idea crossed her mind. She jumped out of her seat.
"Watch this guys!" she called to the three confused foals. Zelda rushed behind a nearby tree and a green flame appeared. Suddenly Diamond Tiara trotted from behind the tree. The mouths of Autumn, Dinky and Rumble hung wide open. Zelda looked around but the real Diamond Tiara was nowhere to be seen. She snuck into one of the open windows to the classroom and looked inside. There sat Cherilee at her teacher's desk and corrected some of the tests, sighing at all the mistakes Snails once again made on his. Zelda took some dirt into her hoof and aimed precisely. The dirt landed in the middle of the table and succeeded in it's purpose; the table was one big mess. Every test was ruined and Cherilee was boiling. But now came the brilliant part of Zelda's masterplan. Just when her teacher was looking towards the window to find the pony who was responsible for this attack, Zelda peeked into the room. But all Cherilee saw was the face of Diamond Tiara.
"Diamond Tiara! What do you think you´re doing?" Cherilee said angry. Now everything had to go fast. Zelda crouched herself out of view and around a corner. When she was shore nopony could see her, she changed back to her normal form and went back to the lunch table. All three fillies still looking at her with open mouths. Cherilee angrily walked into the garden and called for Diamond Tiara and soon enough the real Tiara appeared again and was quickly grabbed by her ear.
"Come with me young lady. There is quiet a mess in my classroom and since you are responsible for it, you will clean it up too. And for throwing around dirt and ruining last week's test I guess I´ve got to have a little talk with you father. I really expected better behavior from you, Diamond Tiara." Cherilee said while walking to the school house with the confused little filly.
"What? But I didn´t do anything Miss Cherilee. This must be a mistake!" Diamond Tiara insisted.
"Don´t you dare lie to me too. I saw you in the window young lady. Now go to the broom closet and get yourself a bucket with water and a cloth! Your lunch break is over." the teacher said in a voice that didn't allow for any objections. When the door to the classroom closed behind them, Zelda looked at her three spectators. Autumn was the first who got control over her mouth back.
"That was soooo awesome!" she said with a high-pitched voice.
"I´ve never seen a pony outsmart Diamond Tiara like that! Finally she got the punishment she deserves. You are the best new classmate ever!" Rumble said.
"Thank you, but it´s just a simple change. Nothing special." Zelda said with red cheeks.
"Maybe for a changeling, but for normal ponys like us this was an amazing show. Can change yourself in anypony? Dinky asked excited.
"Technically yes, but I´m still a beginner with the art of change. I can´t change my age, so if I try to change into an adult pony, I only change into a foal version of that pony. And I can´t keep the form for longer than one day. My daddy said a full grown changeling can change as long as they wants and even can change his age and size, whatever they want. The best of them can create new looks too, without needing a living creature as a template." Zelda answered.
"Wow! Having a changeling as parent sure is cool. I wish I could change into other ponies too." Dinky said with a dreamy look on her face. Autumn whispered something to Dinky and Rumble and both nodded in agreement.
"Zelda, would you like to be our friend?" Autumn Skies asked. Zeldas face nearly exploded with excitement.
"Yes, of couse I want to be your friend? Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she said. All four foals brought their hooves together and screamed: "BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!!!"
The rest of the day went on pretty eventless, except for the fact that most of the foals in class were happy when they heard that Zeldas little attack resulted into the total destruction of last week's test. This meant no bad grades and no trouble with their parents, and more time for fun! Besides Diamond Tiara of couse, who sat pretty mad at her place, asking herself who could have played this prank on her and how she could get her revenge. When school finally ended, Zelda and her new found friends ran out of the school house and chatted about how awesome the pegasus warriors looked in their antique armor.
"Did you girl see the claw-glove that black pegasus had? I wish I had such a thing." Rumble said and shook his hoof like he had one.
"Yeah, or that beautiful silver armor this general wore. I bet he was invulnerable in it." Dinky said, daydreaming. During this Zelda looked around, searching for something.
"What are you looking for Zelda? Did you forget something in the classroom?" Autumn asked.
"No. It´s just... *she still looked from side to side* ...my dad said he would pick me up after my first schoolday, but I can´t see him anywhere." Zelda answered with a sad face.
"Mayby he´s just a little late. I´m sure he will come any second now." Autumn said. At that exact moment a big, black creature landed behind the four foals. Slowly getting closer to them he moved his face right behind them and screamed.
"BEWARE!!! A DEMONPONY!!!" he screamed. Autumn Skies, Dinky and Rumble nearly jumped out of their skin by surprise. Only Zelda turned around and jumped at Manic Moon's chest to hug him.
"Daddy! You made it!" Zelda said happily. Manic stoped laughing and hugged his daughter too.
"Of course I'm here. I would never break a promise to my little angel." he turned his head to the three scared foals, who slowly rose back to their hooves.
"Sorry kids, I couldn´t resist. I hope I didn't scare you too much." he said, still holding back some more giggles.
"Well..I wasn´t scared at all. I totaly know there was no danger." Rumble said a little embarrassed.
"Yeah. Totally." Zelda said with a smirk. Manic Moon looked at him with a big grin, showing his sharp theet.
"I guess you must be the strong and manly colt in this group, if not even a big and scary demonpony can intimidate you. Am I right little man?" Manic said with a deep voice.
"Sir, yes Sir!" Rumble said proud. Autumn and Dinky giggled behind his back.
"Good to know that my little angel is in good hoofs during her school time. Now why don´t you introduce me to your bodyguard and friends? Manic said.
"My bodyguard's name... * she had to hold down some giggles * ...is Rumble and this is Dinky and Autumn Skies. They are my new BFF." Zelda said while she pointed at them.
"Nice to meet you Mr Moon." Autumn said with a big smile.
"Hello." Dinky said. Rumble just saluted, when she said his name.
"It´s nice to meet you all too." Manic answered. Suddenly the town clock started to toll.
"I guess you all should go home now, or your parents may start to wonder where you are and than they might think I really ate you. ha ha ha ha!" Manic said while looking at the clock.
"You´re right Mr. Moon. My mom always worries herself half to dead when I´m late. We´ve got to go guys!" Dinky said. All three foals ran off, waving at Zelda and Mani cas they went. Both started to walk home too. When they were near their house, the demon pony gave his daughter a little push in her side.
"And you said you wouldn't find a new friend. Three in one day seems like pretty good results to me." Manic said with a matter of fact voice.
"Maybe. Looks like I´ve got the same talent with finding new friends as mom had." Zelda answered with a cookie grin at her father.
"Hey! Who said you didn´t get that talent from me?" Manic asked.
"I do." Zelda said, sticking out her tongue at him as she flew off to their home laughing.
"What? Just wait until I get you young lady. Then we see who´s had the last laugh." Manic screamed while chasing after her, laughing too.
Slowly but surely, the first rays of the sun reached house Nr. 11 in the still sleepy and peaceful town of Ponyville. Most ponies were still sleeping in their soft beds on this beautiful Tuesday morning. Just like Manic Moon, who was buried deep in his blanket. Snoring rather loudly, he didn't notice the little filly sneak into his bedroom. Without any warning, she jumped on the end of the bed, right on his tail. Shocked by the sudden pain, Manic nearly fell out of the bed.
"I didn't eat them!" he screamed. Still more sleepy than anything else, he looked for what had caused this rude awakening and found Zelda.
"Good morning daddy! Today is my second schoolday and I´m so excited to see my new friends again." she said while happily jumping up and down on his bed. Manic looked with tired eyes to his alarm clock.
"Zelda! It´s only five in the morning. That´s still three hours till your class starts." he said with his eyes half closed.
"But I can´t sleep anymore. I´m too excited." Zelda whined with a puppy face. But Manic stayed unimpressed.
"You know your big eyes don´t work on me until I´ve got my first cup of coffee." Manic said in respond and wrapped himself into his blanket again.
"But.....but...." Zelda whined again.
"No BUTS Zelda! You know I´m a morning grouch." her father answered half asleep. Zelda was disappointed and just about to leave Manic Moon in bed, when an idea came to her mind. With an evil grin she crawled under the blanket and started to tickle the back hooves of her father.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Stop it Zelda! He he he he he he he! Please! That´s not fair! Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!" Manic laughed. But his daughter was far from ending his torture.
"Will you get up? Will you get up?" she asked with a demanding voice.
"He he he he he he he! Ok! Ok! I give up! Ho ho ho ho ho! I will wake up, but stop this! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" he screamed through his laughs. Zelda was satisfied with this answer and stopped the tickling. Manic was laying on his bed, completely out of breath. His daughter took off into the air and landed at the door, once again smiling at him.
"I´ll see you in the kitchen then. Hi hi hi!" she giggled and walked of. Manic Moon lay in his bed and put one foot up.
"Luna have mercy with me! This filly will break me one day." he whispered. Zelda was already in the kitchen and started to set the table for a healthy breakfast. After not even five minutes, everything was on its place and she was about to look for her father again, when suddenly he arrived in the kitchen. His mane was even bigger mass than usual as he slid over the floor, dragging his front hooves behind him.
"Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!" he said in hypnotically voice. Zelda suppressed a giggle and watched how her still half asleep father reached for the coffee pot and emptied it in ten seconds flat.
"Black gold! What would I do without you?" he said.
"I don´t know. Walk around funny all day." Zelda answered, no longer able to hold back her giggles. Slowly Manic stood up and took a seat at the table next to his daughter.
"Just wait. I will get you for this one. Don´t come to me when the next thunderstorm hits in the night and ask to sleep in my bed young lady." he said grumpily. Zelda snuggled herself up to him.
"You wouldn´t really send me away, would you? You know that I´m afraid of thunderstorms." Zelda said with a sad face. Manic Moon looked in her face and couldn´t resist. He gave her a small kiss on her forehead.
"No. I would never do that." he answered with a warm smile on his face. Zelda smiled back and gave him a kiss on his cheek in return.
"That´s why you are the best daddy in the whole world." Zelda said.
"Toady!" Manic answered and ruffled her mane. Zelda giggled again and they both started to eat.
Later that day, when Zelda had left for school, Manic Moon was walking through the streets of Ponyville, searching for a job. The problem was that he had never done anything besides being a bartender. He still got the offer to help on the apple farm on the edge of town, but he only could think of this as a temporary solution. There was also this rainbow-maned pony he met at the party. She said they still needed some strong pegasus ponies for the weather team. Manic didn´t like the thought of pushing clouds around all day. He wanted to do something creative, something where he could interact with other ponies. Suddenly he found himself in the middle of the market place. Looking around he found a lot of town folk happyly chatting with venders and buying their good.
"Hmmm. Maybe I should start my own kiosk. But I doubt that anypony would buy alcoholic drinks in public. That means I'd have to open my own bar and I totaly lack the bits for something like that.*sigh* What should I do?" Manic said to himself.
Out of nowhere a little baby dragon bumped into Manic Moon. The big demon pony hardly even felt the impact, but the little dragon was slow to come back to his feet. Then he looked around in pure panic, like he was afraid somepony would see him.
"Are you alright little one? You really should watch where you are going." Manic said.
"I´m sorry, but I´ve got to hide. These bullies are trying to get their claws on me." he answered, still looking around in pure panic.
"What do you mean? Who are you and who wants to get you?" Manic asked confused. The little dragon took a deep breath and started talking.
"I´m Spike the Dragon and I live with Twilight Sparkle in the tree library...." he started.
"Twilight Sparkle! The purple unicorn?" Manic interjected.
"...Yes. That´s her. I once met this teenage dragon and tried to get into their group, but soon enough I found out they were real jerks and it all ended with them crashing into a tree. I thought that was it, but they came to Ponyville to try and beat the hell out of me and Twilight and her friends are in Canterloth to help Princess Celestia with something, so they can´t help me. And now..." Spike's speech was interrupted by a loud scream. The little dragon and the demon pony both turned around to see a gang of three dragons destroying every food stand in their way on the search for the baby dragon. They even set some of them on fire or snapped after ponies, who ran off in pure terror.
"Come out Spike! Come out or we burn down this whole town and all your little pony friends will have to pay instead." a big red dragon sceamed. He clearly was the leader of the group. There were two other attackers. One was a pretty skinny purple dragon with blonde hair on his head, the other one was brown and probadly weighed more than his two friends together. Neither seemed to be the brightest candles in the night, but the leader, this red dragon was the real problem. With his instructions they would burn down all of Ponyville just to get Spike. Before Manic Moon could think more about the situation the little baby dragon slowly walked to the group.
"Ok! Y-You win! But please d-don´t hurt these ponies any m-more." Spike said with a shaking voice.
"Now look who finally came out to get what he deserves. Little Spike wants to protect his pretty and girly horse friends. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" the red dragon laughed and grabbed Spike by his head spikes and lifted him in the air.
"Just....just make it quick, please." the baby dragon said, little tears forming in his eyes. The group of dragons looked at each other and evil grins appeared on their faces.
"You know what Spike? We first will beat you up, than we will burn down this entire town, and when we are done, we will finish you. Just for fun. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" the red one said.
"What? No! You said you would stop if I delivered myself up to you guys." Spike cried in pure horror. The teenage dragons just grinned.
"Well, we lied." the leader said. He lifted his right fist and was ready to punch Spike, who he still held in the air with his left, right into his face. Spike closed his eyes out of fear, when suddenly something rammed into the red dragon's stomach. The attack came with so much force that he was lifted of his feet and the other two had to catch him, to prevent him from landing in the dirt. When all three of them looked up to see who was stupid enough to attack a dragon, they saw a pitch black pony with pure white eyes and extremely sharp teeth. Slowly, Spike opened his eyes to find himself on the back of his savior.
"You.... you saved me. Thank you, but now they will rip you apart." Spike said, with a worried look towards the angry dragons. Manic sat him back on the ground and smiled at him.
"I don´t think so, but you should step back. This could get ugly." Manic said, and pushed Spike back with his wing. The leader dragon got back on his feet and glared at Manic.
"Who the hell do you think you are to attack a dragon? Do you have a death wish or something?" he barked. Manic Moon took some steps towards the group.
"If you stinking little wall lizzards think that I will let you burn down this town and destroy the lives of all this ponies and this baby dragon, then you are even more stupid than you look like. Do you really think just because you are dragons means that you are invincible? I bet you guys have no idea what you are talking to right now right now." Manic said with a stern face.
"Who cares? You are just a very ugly pony. Beat the hell out of him guys!" the leader sceamed. His two companions charged at Manic. The chubby brown one jumped over him and tried to hit his black target with his spiked, mace-like tail, but Manic simply blocked the move with his front hooves. In the same motion he sunk his sharp teeth deep in the dragon's tail. This one screamed in pain as he was dragged around by Manic Moon, who started to spin in a circular motion. Like this, the brown dragon impacted with the purple one and both slammed into the ground. Manic let go of the dragon's tail and turned around. With one swift buck into the flank of the brown dragon, both slid across the ground until they crashed into the water-well of the Ponyville market. The red dragon, Spike and every pony hiding nearby, watched with an open mouth while Manic beat down two teenage dragon like it was nothing.
"By the way, I´m a demon pony and if I were you, I would go now and never ever show my face in a pony town again." Manic said while landing in front of the red dragon. The angry dragon was still looking at his two knocked out friends and then back to his opponent. He seemed to think really fast, and within a few seconds he got an idea.
"I guess you are right. I should go and never come back." he said and spread his wings to fly away.
"Or I could just try THIS!" he screamed and spat one giant flame at Manic, who had no time to react. The deadly flame covered his whole body.
"NOOOOO!" screamed Spike. Most of the ponies around gasped in shock and some mares even fainted. Just the red dragon laughed.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That´s what you´re got for messing with the invincible Gramble. Burn in hell loser. Ha ha ha...ha!" his face went blank as he saw the picture before him. When the flames slowly subsided, everypony could not only see that Manic Moon was still standing on his hooves, he also was completely untouched by them. Only the tips of his hair were glowing a little bit. He had a big, evil smile on his face. With one quick move he punched Gramble in the face and sent him into the air. He jumped after him and flew right above the red dragon, just to smack his back hooves right into the stomach of his victim. Gramble crashed into the ground with Manic Moon landing on him to pin him down.
"Maybe I´ve forgot to tell you that demon ponies are just as fireproof as any dragon." Manic said with a cookie-cutter grin. Then he looked the red dragon right into his eyes, just one inch away from his face.
"Now let me make one thing absolutely clear. If I ever see your stupid face ever again, I will kill you and eat you for lunch. Take you friends and go back into the Bad Lands, before I decide to end this right here right now and Celestia bless you if I ever hear something negative about you again. Clear?" Manic said with a wicked grin on his face. Gramble spit out some broken teeth and watched at the demon pony with fear on his face.
"Crystal clear." he answered. Manic let him go, and he grabbed his still knocked out friends and flew off in no time. Once they were out of sight, everypony on the market started to cheer for their savior. The first one who reached him was Spike.
"I can´t believe it. You did it! You beat them like it was nothing! I can´t thank you enough." he said, and hugged Manic.
"You don´t need to thank me. I couldn´t let them destroy everything or beat you up. I´m just a normal demon pony, we all can do this stuff." Manic said and got a little red. Other ponies came to thank him for saving their kiosk or to guarantee him a discount whenever he was shoping by them. Then finally the Mayor mare herself stepped to his side.
"Mr. Moon, may I ask you to visit me tomorrow in my office in the town hall? I´ve got an offer for you, that could get your interrest." she said with her best diplomatic smile.
"Well, sure, I guess." Manic answered, a little bit confused.
"Wonderful! Just come by at 11 o´clock. Now excuse me please. I´ve got some letters to send. This teenage dragon still did a lot of damage to the town, and it´s up to me to get the repairs started." the Mayor said and walked away. After that the crowd slowly dissolved, and Manic walked back to his house. He sat himself into his favorite armchair and started to read the book he got from Twilight Sparkle.
"Daring Do and the Albino Changeling" he read aloud. Suddenly a picture of Zelda with a white body and shining red eyes crossed his mind and he chuckled.
"I guess she is already special enough for a little changeling, but it still would be funny." he said to himself and started to read the first chapter.
The book's plot was so compelling that Manic lost his sense of time and only looked up when Zelda opened the frontdoor. He was already in the middle of chapter 6 as his daughter ran into the living room.
"Hello daddy! How was your day?" she said full of energy.
"Quite eventful I would say. I meet this little dragon...." he was about to say, but Zelda already jumped on his lap and cut him off.
"That´s great! Can I ask you something?" she said with her best angel-like face. He sighed and looked into her big blue eyes, that could melt his heart in no time.
"Ok. What is it?" Manic asked.
"Autumn Skies is hosting a big sleepover party this Friday night. Rumble and Dinky are going too. Please, can I go to this sleepover? Please! Please! Please!" Zelda asked with big eyes. Manic thought for a moment.
"Will there be adult ponies in the house too?" he asked back.
"Yes. Her mother and her big sister and the new baby. They will cook something for us and the next day we even get a breakfast. We only need to bring a bedroll." Zelda answered, still with a begging face.
"I don´t know Zelda. One adult mare alone with four fillies, a baby and a teenage pony." her father said much to her disappointment. But she still had an ace she could play out.
"If I go to the sleepover you would be alone the entire Saturday morning, with nopony to wake you." she said with a crooked grin.
"Do you think your friend could have these parties every Friday?" Manic answered hopefully.
"Is that a yes?" Zelda asked happy.
"It is." he said, and started to tickle his daughter without mercy.
"He he he he he he he he! No daddy! Don´t! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Zelda laughed.
"I said I would get my revenge. No mercy for early birds!" Manic answered and tickled her even more.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Please forgive me! Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi! Stop it! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Zelda pleaded.
"Never!" her father said. The laughing of the little family could be heard in the whole neighborhood. But nopony minded it even a little bit, because most of them knew since that Ponyville had gotten two wonderful new citizens, and they couldn´t be more happy about it.
On this bright Wednesday midmorning Manic Moon was walking through town on his way to Town Hall. He was asking himself what the Mayor Mare could possibly want from him. She already thanked him yesterday, and a public celebration wouldn´t require a meeting between the two of them. Maybe she would give him some kind of gift for his actions against the dragons. Some extra bits would be pretty helpful. He could buy a second property in Ponyville and start his own bar, maybe hire some ponies as waiters and a cook. He would call it "The Moonlight Bar " and everypony in town would come to taste his awesome drinks, eat delicious food and chat with their friends. He would be both the owner and bartender. And with the money he would make he could ensure Zelda would have a opportunistic future. Manic kept on daydreaming, until he noticed he already passed the town hall and had to walk back.
"Stop with the day dreaming and concentrate, Manic! Whatever it is the Mayor Mare wants from you must be good. You just saved the town and beat down a group of rampaging teenage dragons! Hmm... doesn't sound quite as impressive when I say it out loud." he said to himself. After a little walk back he finally arrived at Town Hall. Manic Moon entered the big building in the center of Ponyville and quickly found what he was looking for. In the front room sat a pale green mare with and orange mane and a court hammer for a cutie mark.
"Welcome Mr. Moon. My mother is already awaiting you." Swift Justice said with a smile.
"Thank you. I hope I´m not too late. I got a little bit sidetracked by my thoughts, and lost track of time." Manic said while he scratched the back of his head.
"No, you are just in time. My mother has been looking forward to this meeting the whole day. You can enter right away." she said with a comforting voice.
"Ok, I will." Manic answered and entered the office. The first thing he noticed were the big shelves full of book, scrolls and other documents. Seems like being the mayor of a town was a lot of work, but Manic would bet that it was payed pretty well too. He saw the Mayor Mare behind a big antique desk, writing down a letter. She noticed the sound of the door and looked up to see the demon pony and smiled.
"Hello Mr Moon. How wonderful that you could manage to come. Have a seat, please." she said happily and pointed to a chair in front of her desk.
"No big deal. It´s not like I´ve got much to do right now. I´m still searching for a job in town. So free time is the last problem I´ve got right now." Manic answered and sat himself on the chair. She laid the letter to the side and looked at him in an understanding way.
"I see Mr. Moon, and to get straight to the point, that is exactly why I asked you to come by today." the Mayor Mare said. Manic looked confused at her. He imagined a lot on his way to the town hall, but this took him totally aback.
"Ahm.... I´m sorry, but I don´t think I fit into an office job. But I....." he was about to say, but she cut him off.
"No, no, no, no! Mr. Moon, I don´t want to offer you a job in my office or anything like that. My family and I are able to manage Ponyville pretty well on our own." she said and chuckled. Manic was blushing a little bit.
"Oh. Ha ha ha! I´m sorry. I should have let you finish speaking first." Manic said.
"It´s okay. Not everypony is made for a job in bureaucracy. Hi hi hi! But there are ponies who are made to protect other ponies, just like you did yesterday. The next time Ponyville is under attack, I wish for there to be a group of ponies to protect the inhabitants of this town." she said and looked hopefully at him.
"I can´t imagine that things like this happen very often in a little town like Ponyville." he said, hesitating.
"You would be suppriesed. In the past year alone we were attacked by a big purple dragon, a swarm of ravenous bugs, and an Ursa Minor. Not to mention the other crazy things that happen around here nearly every week. It started with crazy unicorn, who terrorized the whole city, followed by pony-napping diamond dogs, and then there was that one time with the God of Chaos himself, mashing around with the reality like we know it. Most of the time the Elements of Harmony take care of these things." she wanted to go on, but Manic Moon had to ask.
"Who?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The Elements of Harmony. That´s Twilight Spakle and her friends. They are some kind of protecters, chosen by destiny to represent the different parts of friendship." she answered.
"Aha. Very interesting." Manic said and nodded, but in truth he didn´t understand anything of this.
"Well, most of the time they fix this problems in town, but they are often on journeys for Princess Celestia and out of reach, too far away to know about our problems. So I was hoping to build something like a town police. Ponies who could help in moments of need, ponies who everypony in Ponyville could talk to if there are problems. But to start something like this we first need a leader. Somepony who can show the other members of the team how to fight and teach them what they should do in dangerous situations." she said and her eyes were once again fixed on him. He knew what was coming next.
"I was hoping that you would be this leader." she finally said.
"What? Me? But I´ve never done something like that before. I´m just a normal bartender." he answered.
"I´m sorry if I say so, but you´re far from normal Mr. Moon. The way you beat these dragons was better than any royal guard could have done. With you as Sheriff, everypony in Ponyville could sleep peacefully at night." she said.
"I don´t know. It´s a damn lot of responsibility. This would put the safety of every pony in town in my hooves." he said.
"Of course you would get outstanding wage, everything needed would be payed by the town and you could also choose the other members of the town police by yourself." she offered in her best seller voice. Manic was thinking about it for a while. Finally he made his decision.
"Ok, I´m doing it." Manic said with a grin. Mayor Mare couldn´t hold back her delight about this. She shook his hoof and smiled from ear to ear.
"I´m so happy to hear this. We´ve already built a little police station at the edge of the town. Like I said, I was hoping to find somepony for this job for quite a while now. There should be everything you need to keep Ponyville safe. Uniforms, weapons, cells and much more. You can talk to my daughter outside. She will give you everything you need for now." she said, still smiling.
"Wow! Looks like you ponies were pretty desperite for a leader." Manic said a little overwhelmed.
"You could see it that way. Yes. Once again thank you for doing this Mr. Moon." she said and shoke his hoof again.
"It´s an honor. I promise I will give my best to protect this town." Manic said. He turned around and left the office. Back in the anteroom Swift Justice gave him everthing he needs.
"These are the keys for the police station and every room in it. And here are the profiles of every pony in town who would be willing to work as a police pony." she said and gave him big key ring and some papers.
"Thanks miss. I will do my best to make some good police ponies out of them." Manic said and put everything in his sattle bag.
"I´m sure you will. Right now Ponyville is able to pay you and 3 more ponies on a weekly basis. So you should choose wisely. Oh, I nearly forgot. There is something more I´ve got for you." she said and opened a drawer of her desk.
"This is a present for the first police officer of Ponyville." Swift Justice said and gave him a shiny, new golden star. The word " SHERIFF " was written in gold letters on it. Manic looked at it in awe for a moment than packed it in his bag with everything else.
"Thank you again. Now I´m even more convinced to do this than before. This town will be the safest place in all of Equestia." Manic Moon said and saluted. Swift saluted back and smiled.
"There is no doubt about that. He he he!" she said. Manic left the town hall and walked right to the police station.
The last building at the town edge, just like the mayor said. It really looked completly new and untouched. Manic took the keys and opened the front door. He entered the police station and not for the first time this day he could only watch with big eyes at his new workplace. In the center of the building was a big room with desks for every police pony and separate room for the sheriff. But that wasn´t all. In the back of the station was also a shower room, a locker room, an interrogation room, four cells and a giant stockroom.
In the stockroom he found some interesting tools and weapons. For example, a nightstick with an attachment for front hoof or a powder that burns in the eyes. Even something that looked like a ring for the horn of a unicorn. Probably to stop the use of magic. He also found a carriage with a built-in cell for the transport of prisoners. And finally he got to the unifroms he and his team members would wear. Pitch black vests, with matching hoove gloves and saddle bags. He tried on one of them, and it fit perfectly. He could move without any limitations, even flying was no problem. He took his sheriff star and pinned it on the left chest of the vest and looked at himself in one of the mirrors in the locker room.
"WOW! Look at me! I´m a picture perfect example of authority. I can´t wait to see Zelda's face when she sees me like this." he said with a proud smile, but suddenly it vanished and he looked pretty sad.
"I wish you could have seen me like that too. I..... wish you could have seen all of this. This is all we ever dreamed of." Manic said with a sobby voice. The picture of a beautiful female changeling princess with sparkling blue eyes and a wonderful, light blue mane appeared in his mind. He pressed his forehead against the mirror and tears ran down his face.
"You..... you would be so proud of us. They accepted us here. They treat us like one of them, like..... like normal ponies. Zelda found 3 new friend on her first day of school.....She reminds me of you every day. How she can get the best out of everypony......how she can make your day shine by just smiling at you.......just......like.......you........ I miss you Light.......I miss you so much." he sobbed and sank down the mirror, burying his face into his hooves.
Later that day, Zelda was walking back home from school. She couldn´t wait to hear what her father had to say. The whole day she was wondering what great present he might get for defeating those mean dragons. Maybe their own castle or free muffins with honey. That would be so awesome. When she finally arrived at home she just threw her saddle bag in a corner and ran through the house, searching for her father. She found Manic Moon in the kitchen, sitting at the dinner table and studying some documents. He looked up as he heard the sound of her hoof steps.
"Hello my little angel. How was your school day?" Manic said with a weak smile. Zelda could see how tired he was.
"Good, but.... what´s wrong daddy?" she asked concerned. He layed his hoof on Zeldas shoulder.
"It´s nothing really. Just a long and tiring day. I´ve got great new. The Mayor Mare gave me a job." he said with a warm smile.
"Uh! Uh! What is it? Are you the new sport teacher of the school or the bodyguard of the mayor? No, I know! You are the new new mayor of Ponyville right?" Zelda said while she jumped up and down.
"Oh hell no! I would never work as mayor, but the bodyguard idea was pretty close. I´m the new sheriff of Ponyville." he said, striking a heroic pose.
"Wow! That´s so cool. Where do you work? Do you get weapons? How are your colleagues?" she asked with big eyes.
"Slow down a little bit Zelda! One question at a time. First of all, there is a new police station at the edge of Ponyville, maybe we can visit it tomorow after your school is over. Second, yes there are weapons, but you're not allowed to play with them. About your last question, that´s what I´m trying to decide right now. This are the candidates of my future team members. I´ve got to decide which three of them are the best for the job." Manic said and pointed at the papers on the table.
"Can I help you?" she asked and looked at the all the documents.
"Aren´t you just looking at the pictures and picking the ponies who look nice to you?" her father asked back.
"And how were you doing it before I arrived?" she answered and looked at him with an all-knowing smile. Manic Moon looked away a little bit embarrassed.
"Good point. You win. We can look together for who will be the best for this job." he answered. Zelda sat on herself on the chair next to him. Together they searched for hours, but at the end they found three good ponies for the Ponyville Police.
"Looks like we´ve got some winners. Lavender Shine, Crimson Tide and Caliber Ballistics. Looks like a good team to me." Manic said and stretched his back.
"And what are you doing now?" Zelda asked.
"I´ll send a letter to everyone of them. If they are ready to work everything else will be set up by the Mayor Mare." he said and stand up.
"But I guess first we deserve a little reward for our hard work. How about some ice cream?" Manic asked. After that Zelda zoomed into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
"Looks like a YES to me. Ha ha ha ha!" he laughed and followed her.
Manic Moon stood in the middle of the office of the new Ponyville Police station. In front of him were the three new members of the team. There was an earthpony stallion with a brown coat and a grey/black mane. He was nearly as big as Manic Moon, a little bit skinny and had a scar over his left eye. His name was Caliber Ballistics. Next to him was Lavender Shine, a young pegasus colt with a white coat and long grey mane. He had a purple streak in his tail. The third pony was a blue unicorn mare with a wavy red mane, named Crimson Tide. Next to Manic Moon was the Mayor Mare with a wooden casket and a big black book.
"Welcome everypony! Like I'm sure you all know, my name is Manic Moon. And I chose you three as the future members of the Ponyville Police Department. I will now give you your shields and the Mayor Mare will consolidate you." Manic said and stepped in front of Crimson Tide. She looked at him with pure excitement.
"Crimson Tide! I chose you, because of all the female candidates you were the toughest one and you seem to have a talent for captivation spells. That shoud come in handy for our work." he said and gave Crimson her shield.
"Not only on that sugar cube!" she sayed with a wink to the three stallions in the room. Manic blushed a little. He shook his head and went on to Lavender Shine.
"Lavender Shine! Your special talent is acting, which mean you're good at geting into the character of other ponies and befriending them. Since you´re a pegasus you can also help me to keep the sky safe." he said and gave him his shield.
"I won´t let you down Manic... I mean boss... I mean chief... or is it sheriff?" Lavender asked confused.
"Manic is absolutly perfect." Manic Moon answered and stepped in front of the last member.
"Caliber Ballistics! You´re a strong earthpony and the only pony in Ponyville who already has experience in the security area. You've worked a long time in Canterlot as a bodyguard. You should know most of the weapons and objects we will use at work, and I hope the other team members will benefit from your knowledge." Manic said, and handed the last shield to him.
"I love challenges." he said and looked at Lavender and Crimson.
"And this is for sure one of the big ones. Oh and please call me Cal. Everypony does." he said. Now the Mayor Mare took a step towards the group and layed the book on the table before them.
"Now that you all have your shields, please speak the honor oath of the royal guard with me. Therefor, put your right hoof on your heart, rise the left one in the air and repeat what I say." she said. All four ponies followed her lead and put a hoof on their heart and one in the air.
"I hereby declare that I will always act by the laws the Royal Sisters set. I will protect the weak, help the beggars and hunt the criminals. May Luna and Celestia protect me on my way and guide me in my behavior." Mayor Mare said.
"I hereby declare that I will always act by the laws the Royal Sisters set. I will pretect the weak, help the beggars and hunt the criminals. May Luna and Celestia protect me on my way and guide me in my behavior." the four ponies repeated in chorus. Then Mayor Mare started clapping.
"Congratulations! You´re all now official police officers. With that I´ll put the safety of Ponyville and all of it´s inhabitants into your hooves." she said. All four saluted.
"We will not disappoint you Ma'am!" Manic said.
"Very well. Now excuse me. I´ll have a talk with Twilight Sparkle and she will send a letter to the princess. Then everything will be official." she was about to leave the room, but turned around again.
"And Pinkie Pie will give a big party in the town hall this Sunday to celebrate the new police of Ponyville. I hope you will all come." she said and left the police station. Manic Moon looked to the rest of the team.
"I guess for the rest of the day you guys should settle in. There is a desk for everypony."
"I call this one!" Crimson cried, and laid herself on the desk near the frontdoor. Cal started to laugh.
"Yes! Maybe it´s better that the female member of the team welcomes everypony who comes in." he laughed and Lavender gave him a disapproving look. She stuck out her tongue to him while he took the desk next to the cells.
"I guess that leaves this one for me. As good as any." Lavender said, and took a seat at the desk in front of Manic Moon's office.
"Now that this is decided, we should look what Manic Moon wants to show us in the stockroom." Cal said. All three came in and the first thing they saw was Manic in his uniform.
"Like you all can see this uniform comes with matching hoofgloves, a protection vest and a saddle bag. We also have enough weapons to stop a rabid hydra. You should know most of this stuff Cal. Maybe you could show Lavender and Crimson how to use it later." Manic said and threw a nightstick to him. He caught it and grinned.
"Sure. Why not?" Cal answered. Lavender took one of the black caps and sat it on his head.
"Are we going to wear these too?" he asked.
"I´m not a fan of caps, but if you want to wear them you´re free to do so. But the rest of the unifrom is required." Manic answered. Out of nowhere a zapping sound occurred, followed by a scream.
"AAAAAAAH!" Crimson screamed. She stood at the weapon cupboard and her hair stood straight in the air.
"Looks like Red-head found the taser. Ha ha ha ha ha!" Cal laughed again. Manic and Lavender had to hold down their giggles. Crimson glared at them.
"That´s not funny! I nearly had a heart attack." she said angrily. Lavender walked to her and laid a hoof on her shoulder.
"You´re right! It´s not funny Crimson! It´s hilarious! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" All three stallions broke down laughing, and after a while even Crimson started to laugh too. When the laughing subsided Manic whisked a tear away.
"We had better start with the weapon training, before somepony hurts themselves." Manic said and grabbed another taser.
"This is a taser, Crimson Tide, and the end with the lightning goes into the enemy." he said with a silly teacher face. Crimson got a little bit red in her face.
"HA HA HA! That´s so funny I forgot to laugh." she answered and laid her weapon back in the cupboard. Then she started to use her magic to get her mane back in it´s old shape.
"We even get blinding powder? This stuff is pretty mean." Cal said when he saw the little bags on a table.
"Let me guess! We just have to throw this into the face of an attacker and he is blinded for a while." Lavender said.
"You can believe that boy. I once got this stuff in my face. Burned like hell, and I couldn´t see straight for the rest of the day." Cal said, and grimaced when the memory came back.
"What did you do to get blinding powder thrown into your face? Failed attempt at hitting on a mare?" Lavender asked and prodded Cal in his side. Cal glared at him.
"No! I did my job as a good bodyguard and protected my client. The lug was about to hit him right in his face and all I could do was put myself in the flight path." Cal answered.
"And what is this thing for?" Crimson asked. In her hoof she held the blue ring Manic Moon found on his first visit too. He walked to her and placed the ring on her horn.
"What? Is it some kind of fashion trend for police ponies or something?" she asked.
"No, it blocks the magic of unicorns. Try to use your magic and you will see." Manic answered. She did as told, but her horn didn´t even start to glow. The ring on her horn just sparkled a little, but nothing happend.
"It´s made for the detention of unicorns. With this ring over their horn, they can´t use any kind of spell and are not a threat to other ponies. Everyone of you should always have one of them, in case you have to fight a unicorn." Manic said and took the ring off of Crimson's horn and into his chest pocket. Like that they went on for quite some time, when Manic finaly looked at the clock over the door.
"I think that is enough for today. You all know the basics by now and the rest will come with the time. This weekend is free for everyone and on Monday we will start with our work. Meet me right here at 6 o´clock in the morning and we will discuss the duty roster for the week." Manic said. All four took of their uniforms and laid the weapons back on their places.
"I can´t wait for the party. We will be the center of attention." Lavender said with sparkling eyes.
"Every ony will look up to us." Cal said and daydreamed a little bit.
"Only if you two don´t mess it up." Crimson said and giggled. Cal and Lavender snapped out of their dreams and looked at her.
"We are not the ones who shocked ourselves." Cal said with a grin.
"Bla bla bla! You guys will never let me forget this, will you?" she whined.
"At least not your new hairstyle. He he he he!" Lavender said and brohoofed with Cal. They left the police station and Manic locked the frontdoor. Then he walked back home. Zelda should be back from school soon too. He walked into the kitchen and mixed himself his favorite drink.
"Mmh! The Black Venom drink. Always good to get yourself back together." he said with a big grin and nearly took the whole cup in one sip. About a half hour later Zelda walked into the living room.
"Daddy! I´m home!" she screamed through the house.
"How could I be expected to hear that?" her father screamed back.
"You better go straight into your room and pack everything for the sleepover. Should I cook something for you before you go?" Manic asked.
"No thanks. Autumns mother is making hay fries for the whole party." Zelda said on her way upstairs.
"Remember to leave some fries for the other fillies too. You´re a bottomless pit when it comes to hay fries." he answered while he walked into the living room.
"I can't promise anything. Hi hi hi!" she laughed and disappeared in her room. Manic just shook his head and sat himself on the couch. He used the time to read another chapter of his Daring Do book. Some time later he heard the buzzing sound of Zeldas wings and soon enough she flew downstairs and landed next to the couch. On her back was her saddle bag, full with all kinds of stuff, like wax crayons and board games. In her front hooves she held a little purple sleeping bag.
"I´m ready!" she said, full of anticipation.
"You´re sure you´ve got everything?" he asked.
"Yes. Everything for the most awesome night of my life." Zelda answered.
"Is that so? Well I guess in this case I´ve got to sleep with Miss Bug Pants this night." Manic said with a big grin and lifted the doll with his left hoof. Miss Bug Pants was a special version of Miss Smarty Pants, who looked like a changeling. She was the first toy he bought for Zelda, when she still was a little foal, and it meant the world to her.
"Miss Bug Pants! How could I forget you? I´m so sorry." Zelda said and grabbed the doll.
"Too bad! Now I have to sleep alone again tonight." Manic said with a mock sad face.
"I don´t care it´s my doll." Zelda replied in an also faked cold tone.
"Just wait you little stone cold bug of a daughter! I´ll get this doll!" Manic said and started to chase Zelda through the whole house.
"Hi hi hi hi! That´s my Miss Bug Pants! Get your own! Hi hi hi hi!" she laughed while she flew away from him. When they ended their little hunt through every room of the house, both walked off to the house of Autumn Skie's family.
"Remember to be polite and do what Autumn's parents say. I don´t want to hear any complains when I fetch you tomorrow." Manic said.
"I´ll do my best. I promise." his daughter answered. Soon they arrived and Manic pushed the door bell. A young unicorn with a pink mane and grey coat opened the door.
"Hello?" she shyly said.
"Hello! I´m Manic Moon. My daughter Zelda was invited to a sleepover party tonight. I hope we didn´t ring at the wrong house." Manic said.
"No. No. No. That´s the right house. I´m.... I´m just a little bit nervous around new ponies. I´m Shiner, Autumn's big sister." she said, still pretty nervous. Suddenly a voice came from behind her.
"Who´s at the door Shiner? Another one of Autumn's friends?" a female voice asked.
"Yes mom. It´s Zelda and her dad." Shiner answered. With that said a tall earthpony mare appeared in at the front door. She had a light blue coat and a beautiful long, pale pink mane.
"Hello Mr. Moon! Hello Zelda! I´m Mariposa." she said with a warm smile.
"Hello Shiner and Miss Mariposa! Are the others already there?" Zelda asked.
"Yes! They are just waiting for you. Shiner! Please show Zelda the way to Autumns room." Mariposa said. Her oldest daughter nodded and gave Zelda a signal to follow her.
"Thank you Miss!" she huged her father good bye and walked off with Shiner. Manic followed her with his eyes until she disappeared, than he looked at Mariposa.
"Are you sure you can handle so many fillies. It´s not that I don't trust you, but Zelda alone can be a pretty big challenge." he asked.
"Don´t you worry Mr. Moon. I´m good with little fillies, and Shiner will help me wherever she can. Thanks to you my husband also can help us, if anything were to happen." she answered and smiled at him.
"I´m sorry, but I don´t think I understand that. How did I help you husband?" Manic asked confused.
"Well, thanks to you he has a new job here in Ponyville and no longer has to work in Canterlot. He only could visit us every other weekend." she answered and smiled even more at him. Manic thought for a moment, but finally he understood.
"Is the name of you husband Caliber Ballistics?" he asked.
"Yes! But he prefers to be called Cal." Mariposa answered. With a perfect timing, he appeared behind his wife and grinned at Manic Moon.
"Hey Manic! Long time no see." Cal said. Both started laughing.
"It´s truth what they say. The world is small sometimes." Manic laughed.
"At least I can sleep peacefully now, knowing my daughter is under the watch of a former bodyguard." Manic said.
"Don´t you worry yourself. I even would take another bag of blinding powder into my face to protect my family and all of our friends." Cal said with a proud face and gave Mariposa a kiss on her cheek.
"Good to know. I will come by tomomrrow at half past nine to collect Zelda. I wish you a nice day!" Manic said and walked off.
"Have a good day too Manic." Mariposa answered and waved him good bye.
Zelda was nearly exploding with pure joy. Her first ever sleep-over party. She would fly circles around the house, but her father had taught her not to do such things when visiting a new place for the first time. So she simply followed Shiner into Autumn Skies' room, where all three of her friends were already waiting for her. Dinky, Rumble and Autumn were sitting together and looked up as they heard the door open.
"Zelda! We've been waiting for you." Autumn greeted her.
"Hello Zelda!" said Dinky with a happy smile.
"We were just thinking about what we should do first" Rumble said over his shoulder.
"Hey guys!" she answered. Zelda sat herself between Rumble and Autumn. She took off her bag and laid it next to her, along with her bedroll and her doll. Shiner still stood in the door frame.
"I will leave the door open, so we can hear you. Just call if there is anything you need or something happens. Mom will bring you supper later. Have fun!" Shiner said and turned around.
"So, what is the plan?" Zelda asked.
"Well first we wanted to see what everyone brought, to know all the options." Autumn answered.
"Sounds like a good plan." Zelda said and emptied her saddle bag.
"I've got these wax crayons, paper, some cookies and my favorite doll, Ms. Bug Pants." Zelda said.
"Ms. Bug Pants? I've never heard of that version of Ms. Smarty Pants. Where did you get her?" Dinky asked.
"I don´t know. My dad bought her for me when I still was a baby. She is my favorite toy ever." Zelda explained proudly. The next one to show his toys was Rumble.
"I've brought my Soarin Wonderbolt action figure and a board game called "Chaos in Equestria". Maybe we can play it later." he said and laid the game in the center of the circle.
"I've never played that game. Is it hard?" Autumn asked.
"No. I've been playing it a lot with my brother, but he´s pretty good at it. Most of the time he wins." Rumble said with an angry face, remembering how his brother mocked him for losing.
"We definitely have to play this. Sounds like a fun game to me, and I love to do some chaos. Hi hi hi!" Zelda laughed. Now it was Dinky's turn.
"I've got my princess Luna doll, a picture book and some muffins my mother made for us." Dinky said and pulled out a bag with fresh muffins.
"Mmm! They smell delicious." Rumble said with a watering mouth.
"I don't know how you guys feel, but I would love to play Rumble's game and eat some muffins. What do you think?" Autumn asked everypony.
"I'm in." Rumble answered, while still staring at the muffins.
"Me too." Zelda said.
"Me three." Dinky tuned in.
"Perfect! Now how is this game played?" Autumn asked.
"It's pretty simple. Every player chooses a character who just landed in Equestria. Then we start from different ends of the board and roll the dice. We can work together or against each other to find objects, defeat monsters, help other ponies or terrorize them. The winner is who ever has the most points at the end of the game." Rumble explained.
"Sound easy to me." Zelda said. Rumble set up the board game.
"Ok, time to choose a character. Who do you want?" Rumble asked. The fillies looked into the game box at the different figures.
"I'll take this female blue pegasus pony. She looks nice to me." Dinky said.
"That's a star pony. They live in outer space and control meteorites." Rumble explained.
"Then I choose this pony with the sword, shield and armor." Zelda said and set the figure on the board.
"That's the leader of the royal army. His name is Firedasher." Rumble said.
"I guess I'll take this pegasus with bat wings. Should be pretty helpful in fights." Autumn said and looked at the red and black figure.
"That's a dragon and pony hybrid." Rumble said as he saw the figure that Autumn picked.
"Ok! Then I'll play with the ghost pony." Rumble said. Once everypony was ready they started to play. Despite the fact that they where beginners, the fillies could hold up pretty well against Rumble. In no time, two hours had passed. They all were equal in points.
"Ok Dinky! If you manage to roll a five, you win the game." Rumble said.
"I'll do my best. This is for the little kitty I couldn't safe from the tree four rounds ago." Dinky answered, and was about to roll her dice.
"WAAAAAAH!" Zelda screamed out of nowhere. Everypony winced at the shrill sound.
"What's the problem Zelda?" Autumn asked, while holding her chest to calm down her heart. Zelda was sitting at her place, bolted upright like a stone.
"T-there is something chewing on my tail." Zelda answered with a shaking voice.
"Chewing on your tail?" Rumble asked confused. Suddenly Autumn started to laugh.
"What's so funny about that?" Zelda asked with a glare at Autumn.
"Ha ha ha! I know what the problem is." she answered. Autumn stood up, walked behind Zelda and lifted up a little blue-gray baby filly with a dark mane with a purple and grey streak in it.
"That's my little sister, Lily Bloom. She loves to do that." Autumn said with a smile, while the baby still chewed on Zelda's tail.
"AWWWW! She is so cute!" Dinky said.
"I guess she heard us playing and crawled through the open door. She is chewing on everything she can get into her tiny hooves." Autumn explained.
"That's really cute and all, but could you please make her stop? It's sending chills down my spine." Zelda pleaded.
"That shouldn't be too hard. Give me one of the cookies from Dinky's mom, please." Autumn said to Rumble. He did as told and handed her one. She waved it in front of Lily's face. The baby filly grabbed it without hesitation and started to chew on it instead of Zelda's tail. Autumn went back to her place and sat Lily down next to her.
"That should keep her busy for a while." Autumn said and stroked Lily Bloom over her head.
"Miam! Miam!" was all the baby said. Mariposa's head appeared in the door.
"Is everything alright? We heard a scream from in here." she asked with a worried face.
"Hi hi hi! It's nothing! Lily Bloom just scared the hell out of Zelda, by sneaking up on her and chewing on her tail." Autumn answered giggling.
"I wasn't scared! Just.....unprepared." Zelda protested, blushing. Everypony in the room, except for Zelda and Lily Bloom, who still nibbled on her cookie, started to laugh.
"Well, I guess I know the best way to repay Zelda for this little attack on her tail." Autumns mother said and walked into the room with a big plate of hay fries on her back. All four foals jumped up.
"YAY! HAY FRIES!" they screamed together.
"I hope this makes it up for you." Mariposa said with a warm, motherly smile.
"Absolutely! Everything is forgiven." Zelda replied happily. Mariposa laid the plate on the ground and picked up Lily.
"Come on my little flower. Let your sister play in peace with her friends. It's time for your bath anyways." She said and poked the baby filly on her nose.
"Bathy! hi hi hi hi!" Lily Bloom giggled. Mariposa left the room and carried her youngest daughter into the bathroom.
"Let's delay the epic finale of our world changing game." Rumble said.
"Totally! Even the world must wait, when it comes to hay fries." Zelda answered.
So the fight for Equestria ended, but the even bigger war for the hay fries just began. Worthy to be mentioned in the history book of Equestria. At least that´s what it felt like for the four friends.
In the mean time, Manic Moon was on his way to visit somepony in town. He had planned this for a quiet a while, but tonight was perfect. Zelda wouldn't be home until tomorrow.
"I hope it's not too late already. Maybe I should hurry. She could easily be scared if I appear on her doorstep in the dark." he thought aloud, and jumped into the air to fly as fast as he could to the edge of Ponyville. Fluttershy was laying on her couch in the middle of her cottage and enjoying a cup of tea after a long day of taking care of all her animals. Angel bunny was sitting next to her and gnawing on a carrot. Suddenly a knock came from the front door and she nearly dropped her cup out of fright.
"Huh? Who could that be?" Fluttershy asked herself. Slowly she walked to the door and opened it just enough to see who stood outside.
"H-Hello?" she said with a nervous voice.
"Hello Fluttershy! It's me, Manic Moon. Would you mind if I come in?" he asked with his best smile to help the shy pegasus relax.
"No!...I mean yes.....I mean...only if you want.....I.....I....OK!" she answered, still nervous, and opened the door more to let him in.
"I'm really sorry to bother you at such a time Fluttershy, but I couldn't come by earlier." Manic said, awkwardly touched by the shy pony.
"N-No! It's fine. I was just sitting on my couch with Angel and drinking some tea. It's no big deal, r-really." Fluttershy answered.
"It's like this, I was hoping to get a pet for my daughter. Since she is at a sleep over tonight, it would be a perfect surprise for Zelda." He could visibly see Fluttershy;s mood rise with every word of his sentence.
"I would love to help you with this, but most of my animals are already asleep and they don't like to be waked up so late." she answered; her face falling a bit.
"Well, how about you show me some of the animals in you house? We don't have to wake them up." he offered to her.
"We could try, but there are a lot more animals outside than in my small cottage. I hope that's ok with you." Fluttershy said and hid her face behind her mane.
"That's perfectly fine with me. I'm looking for a pet that's comfortable with being inside anyway. Show me what you got!" Manic said. Fluttershy nodded and led him around.
"I've got rabbits, cats, birds, mice and squirrels. They are all so cute and fluffy and full of energy." Fluttershy said, while she carefully flew over the sleeping pets.
"Pass! I've already got a cute, fluffy and energetic creature in my house. What else do you got?" he said.
"Not much. Like I said before, most of my animals live outside. I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy answered with a sad face.
"There is nothing to apologize for Fluttershy. Maybe I'm just too picky for somepony who comes over at such an hour. I guess I should come back another day." Manic Moon said and tried to cheer her up.
"I promise, if you come back by day, we'll find the perfect pet for you and your daughter." she said with a weak smile. While Fluttershy spoke, her mane seamed to move all by herself. Nearly like a living being.
"Ahem...Fluttershy? I don't want to worry you, but there seamed to be something in your mane." Manic said as calm as possible to not freak her out more than necessary. She looked up at her moving mane, but stayed completely calm.
"That's nothing to worry about. Hi hi hi! It's just Whisper." Fluttershy explained.
"Whisper? What's a Whisper?" the demon pony asked confused. She giggled in response.
"Whisper! Come out my little friend. There is somepony who want's to get to know you." Fluttershy said in a sweet voice. Her mane stopped moving and right over her left ear a little, light blue snake head appeared.
"Now take a look at that! Hello little guy! That's a pretty good hideout I've got to say." Manic said and pet Whisper on the head.
"He loves to hide in the manes of ponies. That's why I called him Whisper. Most of the time I just hear his soft whispers in my ears." Fluttershy said, while the little reptile watched Manic Moon with interested eyes.
"I've never seen a snake do something like that." Manic said and thought for a moment.
"Is he for sale Fluttershy? I think he could be a good pet for Zelda." he finally asked.
"No! He;s not for sale!" she replied with a serious face. After a moment it softened again.
"But if you promise to take good care of him, you can get him for free." Fluttershy said with a big smile. Out of nowhere he grabbed Fluttershy and hugged her tight. The face of the shy pegasus got completely red.
"Fluttershy, you;re the greatest!" he said.
"Uhm.....ok." she replied silently. Just in this moment Manic realized what he did and especially who he did it to. He let go of her and took a step back, blushing.
"Sorry! I guess I overdid it a little bit." he said apologetically.
"It's....it's quiet alright. I'm just not....used to such things." Fluttershy said blushing too.
"But still, thank you for your generosity. I promise we will give him a nice home." Manic said.
"That's all I could ask for. I never take Bits from a pony, when they adopt one of my animals. I'm sure Whisper will love his new family. Right Whisper?........Whisper?" Fluttershy asked and looked up into her mane, but the little snake was nowhere to be seen.
"I hope I didn't scare him off, when...." in the middle of his sentence Whisper appeared in Manic Moons mane and looked down on Fluttershy.
"I guess he likes the idea of of being your new pet. Ha ha ha!" Fluttershy giggled.
"I think so too. He he he!" Manic replied and laughed. When they both got themselves together again, Fluttershy walked into a small chamber at the end of her cottage and came back with a sack on her back.
"Here is a sack with snake food. Whisper only needs a cup full every second day. He is still growing. So when he's bigger you can raise the portions. Most of the time he starts to tickle you ears when he's hungry. If you need more food, the vet Dr. Flummox in Ponyville. She can sell you more of it." Fluttershy explains. Manic Moon took the sack.
"Thanks again Fluttershy. If there is anything I can ever do for you in return, don't hesitate to ask." he said happily.
"It´s nothing. Really. I just want the best for my little friends." she said, shy again.
"He will. I promise." Manic said. He walked out of the cottage and waved good bye to Fluttershy. She waved back and closed the door, happy that she once again found a good home for one of her animal friends.
Manic Moon didn't fly back home. He enjoyed the walk in the light of the moon. Little Whisper was watching out of his mane.
"I can't wait to see Zelda's face when she sees you for the very first time. You will love her little one. But I guess even more importantly, you will love her mane. Her's is way more fluffy than mine. Ha ha ha ha!" he laughed. Manic could hear a tiny hissing sound in his left ear and interpreted it as agreement.
"There is no such thing as too much hay fries!" Zelda contradicted, until a loud burp came out of her mouth.
"On the other hoof, I guess my stomach is on your side Dinky." Zelda corrected.
"What are we doing next?" asked Rumble.
"I don't care! As long as I don't have to move for it." Autumn answered from the edge of her bed.
"How about a little role play?" Dinky asked.
"What do you mean with role play?" Rumble asked back.
"Everypony brought a figure or a doll to this sleep over. We could play all together with them." Dinky explained to the group.
"Sounds good to me." Zelda said and grabbed her Ms. Bug Pants.
"I could play with my crystal pony figure." Autumn answered.
"And I brought my Wonderbolt figure." Rumble said and lifted the little lookalike of Soarin.
"Great! Then Rumble plays the hero of the adventure and I princess Luna send him out to..to...uhm..." Dinky said and took her Luna doll.
"To save the beautiful crystal pony lady." Autumn finished the sentence in a high girly voice.
"Who was hijacked by the evil changeling queen." Zelda said with an evil voice and jumped between Rumble and Autumn to separate their characters.
"I, the fast and strong Soarin of the Wonderbolts, will save you. No matter what it takes." Rumble said in a heroic voice and raised his figure over his head.
They played like this for a long time, but all good things have to come to an end, and soon enough, Mariposa appeared in Autumn's room again.
"It's getting late my little ponies. Time to go to bed." Mariposa said, well aware of what would follow her statement.
"Awww! But we're not even tired yet." Rumble protested.
"Please mom. Just a bit longer." Autumn pleaded.
"No, Autumn. I promised the parents of your friends that their foals would be in bed on time. Also you still need to roll out your sleeping bags. I will be back in 10 minutes to check on you. Please be good little foals and do as told." Mariposa said with a smile.
"Ok mom." Autumn answered, defeated. Her mother took the empty plate of hay fries and left the room.
"Too bad the party is already over." Dinky said and walked to her saddle bag to get her sleeping bag.
"Yeah. I wish tonight would last forever." Zelda said.
"We could play some more tomorrow, before your parents pick you up." Autumn offered.
"That's a great idea Autumn. The first of us who opens his eyes tomorrow morning should wake up the rest and we can play on until breakfast." Zelda answered while she rolled out her sleeping bag.
"Together we can outsmart every adult pony." Rumble said smiling. A short time after that Mariposa came back. She looked into the room. Autumn lay in her bed and her three friend all had their sleeping bags next to her.
"Now that's what I call four good little ponies. I'll tell all your parents how proud I am. Good night you four!" Mariposa said.
"Good night mom!" Autumn replied.
"Good night Ms Mariposa!" answered the other three. Mariposa smiled at them, turned the light off and closed the door. Only now and then a little whisper between the friends could be heard and about a half hour later, all of them were fallen asleep.
Manic Moon was on his way to Mariposa's house to pick up Zelda. Maybe a little bit early, but he was sure with Whisper as her new pet his daughter wouldn't mind if she was the first one to go home. He could feel how the little snake moved in his mane and he had to admit that he like it. It felt like somepony was giving him a small head massage. He still had the coupon for the spa in Ponyville, but he thought it would be better to hold off on using it, because working as the leader of the town police would be a pretty tiring job and he could use the free massage after a very hard day of work. Soon enough, he reached the right house and rang the bell. After a moment the door opened.
"Oh! Hello Mr. Moon. We weren't expecting you until 9 o'clock." Mariposa greeted him.
"Hello! I know, I'm a little bit early. I hope that's not a problem." Manic said with a hoof behind his head.
"Of course not, but the kids just got back up stairs to play some more. We finished breakfast about 5 minutes ago and Zelda won't be to excited if she has to go already." she answered.
"Hmm. That's a good point. I know how she can be if she gets pulled out in the middle of something. Maybe I should have a little walk around Ponyville and come back later." he said.
"You don't have to. Dinky's mother wanted to come over and drink some coffee before she picked up her daughter. Do you want to join us?" Mariposa asked.
"If I don't bother you, I would like that." the demon pony answered.
"Not in the slightest. Be my guest!" she said and let him in. Both walked into the living room and Manic sat himself on the couch. Next to him was a little play pen where Lily Bloom was once again chewing on something. Manic looked around in the room.
"Isn't Cal at home?" he asked.
"No, he left pretty early this morning. He's gone fishing with a friend. He always says the fish bite the best in the morning hours." Mariposa said and walked into the kitchen to get the coffee ready. Manic used this time to take a closer look at the little filly in the play pen. Lily Bloom still chewed at her plushie, but you could see that she was nodding off to sleep. Manic giggled at the sight.
"That's my youngest daughter Lily Bloom." Mariposa said with a smile as she came back into the living room.
"She's really cute, but I guess we just lost her to the dream land. He he he!" Manic Moon said. She looked inside the play pen too and found her daughter sleeping peacefully, still holding the plushie in her mouth.
"She once again has chewed herself to sleep. Hi hi hi!" Mariposa said with a smile at her daughter.
"Just like Zelda at that age." Manic stated.
"Was she also chewing on everything she found?" she asked and sat herself into the chair next to him.
"Not exactly, but in her first months she didn't sleep one minute if she didn't have my hoof to chew on it." Manic explained.
"Aww! That sounds so cute." Mariposa said.
"Yes, it was. And Celestia save me if I dared to move my hoof away after she was asleep. As soon as I moved one inch Zelda woke up and started to scream. The first 3 months I was sleeping on a chair beside her crib." Manic said.
"Why didn't you use a pacifier?" she asked.
"Well, I wasn't realy prepared for beeing a father, so I had no idea about of all this baby stuff. It was complete chaos for awhile." Manic answered and scratched the back of his head. Mariposa was about to say something, but was cut off by the bell.
"That must be Derpy. I'll be right back!" she said and walked of. Manic could feel as Whisper again moved in his mane.
"Don't you worry yourself my little friend. You'll have your big moment yet." Manic said and heard a little hissing behind his left ear. Right after that Mariposa and Derpy Hooves arrived in the living room.
"Hello Manic! I heard you're joining our little brunch." Derpy said.
"Hello Derpy! I hope that's OK with you." he said back.
"Sure! Our daughters are best friends, so why shouldn't we become good friends and have a fun time together too?" Derpy answered and set a basket on the table before them.
"I see you brought some muffins." Mariposa said while she poured some coffee into the cups.
"Of course! There is no fun without some muffins. Hi hi hi!" Derpy answered and sat herself on the couch next to Manic.
"They smell delicious Derpy!" Manic said and took one.
"We were just talking about how tricky it is to raise little fillies." Mariposa said at gave everypony a cup of coffee.
"Tell me about it. My little muffin outsmarted me the day she found out how to open the latch on her crib on her own." Derpy said and laughed.
"Yeah! There is nothing that can prepair youself for the task of raising a foal. When it comes to Zelda the whole thing hit me pretty cold blooded." Manic said and took a bite of his muffin.
"What do you mean by that? Did you know Zelda's mother was pregnant?" Mariposa asked.
"Believe me! It was impossible for me to see it coming. But it's a long story." Manic answered.
"I've got time." Mariposa said with a smile.
"Me too. I love a good story!" Derpy said and made herself more confortable on the couch.
"Fine. You win! I'll tell you the story. But I have to go back pretty far. It all began when I still was a foal. We demon ponies live deep under the earth, even deeper than the diamond dogs. Most of us never see the light of the sun in our whole lives. But I was one of the lucky ones." Manic Moon began.
A little Manic Moon was walking through a dark tunnel. He was not even as old as Zelda and his mane was an even bigger mess than today. The only light in the tunnel came from the grown up demon pony, which was walking in front of him. It was carrying a lantern on it's back. He was about the size of Manic today, but his mane was cut short and he had a little grey beard.
"Where are we going grandpa?" little Manic asked.
"To a very special place. We're making a little trip to the surface." the old pony said with a smile to his grandson.
"REALLY?" Manic asked aloud and jumped up. His grandpa whirled around and put a hoof on his mouth.
"Not so loud little one! Most demon ponies don't approve of the surface world. We could get in real trouble for this. It has to be our little secret." he said
"OK grandpa! I promise not to say anything. Not even to mom and dad." Manic said still excited.
"I knew I could count on you. Now follow me! We're almost there." the old demon pony said and walked on. Soon enough they reached a dead-end.
"What now? We can't go any further." Manic asked.
"Yes, we can! Now we go up." his grandpa said and pointed to a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel.
"But....I can't fly." Manic said sadly. His grandpa picked him up and sat him on his back.
"Don't you worry. I'll give you a lift." he said, and took off. After a short flight the hole ended and Manic saw the surface for the very first time. But what he saw wasn't what he expected.
"But didn't you say it's bright on the surface grandpa? It's nearly as dark as in the tunnels." Manic asked disappointed. His grandpa simply laughted.
"Ha ha ha! That's because it's night. During the day the sun is shining and and you can see everything without any torches or lamps." the old demon pony said.
"But why are we going out by night then? Wouldn't it be much better at day?" Manic asked.
"I don't think so. There are things you can only see at night." he answered and took off in the sky. As soon as they broke through the cloud cover, Manic saw something he would never forget for the rest of his life. The night sky, the stars and, most importantly, the moon. He had never seen something so beautiful.
"Wow! What is that grandpa?" Manic asked with big eyes. You could see the reflection of the moon in his eyes while he looked in awe.
"That's the moon. Princess Luna created it and the stars. The ponies here on the surface can see them every night." he answered.
"Really? Then I want to live here too." Manic said, still looking at the sky.
"If you really want to, then one day you will." his grandpa said. They sat down on a cloud and watched the stars and the moon for hours.
"That's when it all began. My grandpa showed me the world beyond the tunnels, and I loved it." Manic said.
"But if your grandpa knew a way to the surface, why didn't he live here too?" Derpy asked.
"He would have, but when he found the passage he was already married and my grandma was pregnant with my father. He couldn't take them to the surface with him, because starting a new life up there was nothing he wanted to bother his wife and child with. That's why he showed me the way, so I could live his dream on." he explained.
"And what happened next?" Mariposa asked.
"As soon as I was old enough I took everything I had and moved to the surface. It didn't take too long to find out what fairy tales the ponies told each other about demon ponies. So I decided to move to a big city. Filly Delphia has a population of over one million ponies, I didn't think one demon pony would cause too much of a fuss. And I was right." Manic explained.
"What do you mean by that?" Mariposa asked.
"I got myself a job in a bar at the "darker" part of the city. I worked as a bartender and most of my customers were criminals or ponies that had nothing to lose. Sometimes I would meet some interesting ponies, like Octavia. When ever I found such ponies I tried my best to get them to return, and most of the time I succeeded." he said.
"And then?" Derpy asked. Both mares were hanging completely on his words.
"Well, time went on and I wasn't sure if I made the right decision. But then she came into my life." Manic said with a dreaming face.
Manic Moon was standing behind the bar, polishing some glasses. The bar was pretty empty, but happy hour hadn't even started yet. There was only a group of four ponies sitting on a table and playing poker together. Manic was about to go in the kitchen, when the door to the bar opened and a beautiful unicorn walked in. She had a long and slim body, a blue coat and wavy light blue mane. Her cutie mark was two connected hearts, one was red, the other one black. She sat herself on a bar stool and looked shyly on the bar.
"A cup of milk please." she said without looking up. Manic raised an eyebrow.
"I'm terribly sorry Ma'am, but we don't serve milk here. How about a coffee or a cider? I can mix you whatever you want." he said with a smile.
"Uhm...then just a glass of water please. I don't drink hard stuff." she said and avoided Manic Moon's sight.
"That's laudable, but then a bar maybe is the wrong place for you." Manic answered and turned around to prepare her order. When he turned back the four ponies from the poker table were standing around the mare.
"Hey there, missy! What brings a beautiful mare like you do into such a dirty bar?" one of them asked and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"I....I just want to drink something. That's all." she said and shoved the hoof off her shoulder. Another stallion sat himself next to her.
"How about we leave this place, and go to my house to have some fun together?" he said. He and his friend got closer to her. She was shaking on her stool.
"Please, just leave me alone. I don't want trouble." she said fearfully. But they didn't back off, and the one next to her grabbed her mane and smelt it.
"I guess it's to late for that. Ha ha ha!" he said and his friend started to laugh with him. Manic Moon slamed the glass with the water on the bar. All four ponies and Light jerked and looked towards him.
"Didn't you guys hear the lady? She just wants to drink a glass of water in peace. Why don't you got back to your table and play poker again?" he said with a clear voice.
"That's none of your business! Piss off or we'll beat the hell out of you!" the one next to the Light said. Before he could say anything more, Manic grabbed his head and smashed it on the bar. Little splinters of wood went flying through the air. Manic let go of him and he sank down on the ground. Manic Moon stared angry at his friends, showing his sharp teeth.
"Take you friend and go or I'll shove your heads somewhere where you guys can never find them back!" Manic barked at them. They did as told and ran out of the bar, carrying their knocked out friend. He looked to the mare.
"I'm so sorry for that. Maybe you should...." before he could go on, she hugged him over the bar and started sobbing.
"Thank you!......Thank you so much!....I....I thought they would......Thank you." she said while she cried in his shoulder. Manic was taken aback by this, but he hugged her back and stroked her mane to help her calm down.
"When she finally calmed down, she told me her name and that she was new in the city. I took her to my appartment and offered to let her sleep there until she found something on her own." he said.
"Let me guess. Over the next months you two got closer and friendship became love. Right?" Derpy asked.
"Months? Ha! It only took us 2 weeks to completely fall in love with each other." Manic said once again daydreaming.
"That sounds so romantic." Mariposa said.
"It was. Even when I found out that she was a changeling princess, I just loved her even more. We went on dates, celebrated Hearts and Hooves days together and....well, you know....loved each other." Manic said with a blush.
"I know how it is. It was the same thing with me and Cal." Mariposa said and took a sip from her coffee.
"Yes, it was a wonderful time. I was the happiest demon pony in all of Equestria, but all good things had to come to an end." Manic stated and his face became a little bit sad.
"I guess now comes the sad part of the story." Derpy said and gave Manic another muffin to cheer him up.
"Thanks Derpy!" he said and took the muffin.
"One day I came home and found her on my bed, crying. She got a message from her hive and had to go back. She didn't know why, but it sounded like something important. I asked her to stay, but she had a obligation toward her people. She had to go. I promised to wait for her and that was exactly what I did. I waited for days, weeks, months, but nothing came. Until that one night." Manic said.
It was a rainy night in Filly Delphia. Nopony was on the street, most of them were already in their beds. Manic Moon was sitting in his apartment reading a book. He looked at his clock.
"Damn! It's already midnight. I should go to bed. It's not like anything is going to happen anyway." he said and stood up. Just as the words escaped his mouth, somepony knocked at his front door.
"I just had to ask for it, didn't I?" Manic said and walked for the door. He opened it, but nothing could prepare him for what happened next. Before him stood a changeling in heavy armor.
"Uhm.....Hello?" Manic said confused. Then an idea came to his mind. Mayby this changeling had a message from Light.
"Is their anything you've got for me?" Manic asked. The changeling saluted before him and gave him a letter and a basket. Manic's mood was lightening. A letter and a present from Light. He saluted for the changeling and the armored creature flew away. Manic took the basket and walked back into his living room. He sat himself on the couch and opened the letter.
" Dear Manic Moon,
I'm sure you're hoping for a letter from your beloved Light, but the changeling who wrote this was Queen Chrysalis. My daughter was send\t out to gain some experience under ponies. She should have been my successor, but all she managed to do was fall in love with you. Some of my spies told me everything about you two. That's why I ordered her back.
But that's not the reason I wrote this letter for you. My daughter is dead."
Manic's world shattered when he read this. The letter slipped out of his hooves and tears ran down his face. He couldn't believe it. The love of his life, his beloved Light was dead. For about half an hour he was just sitting on his couch, silently crying. Manic wanted to scream, but it was like every drop of life was taken away from him. All he could think of was Light and that he would never see her again. His gaze moved back to the letter. There has to be more. Something.....anything in this letter. He picked up the piece of paper and read on.
"My daughter is dead. She died because of her love to you. She died while giving birth to your child. Light didn't know she was pregnant when she left you. That's the reason why I sent you this letter. Before my beloved daughter died I had to promise that I would give the foal to you. I kept my promise. I hate you and this cross breed! You took my child from me and you two should never come to my sight again."
With that the letter ended. This time Manic didn't know how he should react. Slowly he looked at the basket. He removed the blanket and there she was. A little sleeping foal was laying in it.
"Oh my...." Manic said and carefully lifted his daughter. Once again tears ran down his face, but this time he wasn't sad. He had a daughter, and for his beloved Light he would do all in his power to give her the live she deserves.
"I will always be there for you. My little Zelda." Manic said while he cried. The foal shifted a bit in his hooves and yawned before she kept on sleeping. Manics heart nearly broke when he saw this. He sat there holding his daughter the whole night.
"I know it's not the best life, but as long as I've got Zelda I wouldn't trade it for the world." Manic answered.
"It's the same with me and Dinky. I wouldn't give her away for all the muffins in Equestria." Derpy said and ate the last muffin. Mariposa nodded with her head.
"It's always the same. They can cause as much trouble as they want, but one look into their eyes and you forgive them for everything." she said and drank the rest of her coffee.
"Now look where the time went. We should go check on our little treasures." Derpy said and stood up.
"You're right. I can't wait to show Zelda her present." Manic said and stood up too.
"A present? Where is it? I didn't see you carrying anything when you came in." Mariposa asked.
"Yes, because her present is good at hiding. Ha ha ha! Right Whisper?" Manic laughed. Out of his mane came the little snake and smiled at Derpy and Mariposa.
The high pitched scream of Mariposa could be heard through the whole house, followed by the laughs of Derpy and Manic Moon.
Autumn Skies jumped up when she heard her mother's scream. Every other foal in her room looked in the direction the noise came from.
"What was that?" Rumble asked.
"That's my mom! Quick! Maybe something happened to her!" Autumn said and rushed out of the room. Zelda, Rumble and Dinky followed her. When the group reached the living room they all crashed into Shiner, who had already made her way to the scene. The pile of ponies slowly rose back up and looked at the three parents in front of them.
"What was that scream for mom?" Shiner asked, confused. The adults looked at each other. Manic Moon and Derpy Hooves started to laugh again. Mariposa blushed and glared at Manic, then she looked at her two daughters.
"Everything is alright! I got scared by Manic Moon." Mariposa explained. Manic scratched the back of his head.
"Ha ha ha! Don't forget that you two asked for it." Manic answered.
"I still don't get it. How did Mr. Moon scare you Ms. Mariposa?" Dinky asked. Derpy answered her daughter's question before Mariposa could respond.
"He showed us the present for Zelda.....Oops!" she said and put a hoof over her mouth. Before anypony could say something else, Zelda rushed to her father.
"You got a present for me? Where? Where is it? Show me! Show me! Show me!" she begged in front of her father.
"Sorry Manic! I didn't mean to ruin the surprise." Derpy excused herself.
"Don't you worry yourself. It's not like Zelda wasn't surprised this way." he said. Manic turned back to his daughter.
"Yes, I've got a present for you. Now close your eyes and I'll give it to you." he said. Zelda did as told and closed her eyes, while her friends looked curiously at her and her father.
"Ok! Now open them again." Manic said. When she did so the little snake was sitting on the ground before her, smiling at her and hissing happily. Zelda's mouth nearly dropped on the floor.
"It that a snake daddy?" she asked, totally overwhelmed.
"It's your own little pet snake. His name is Whisper." Manic answered with a wide smile.
"Oh my Luna! This is so awesome. Thank you daddy!" she said and carefully petted Whisper. Her friends formed a circle around the snake.
"Wow! This must be the coolest pet ever." Rumble stated with big eyes.
"Now this is really the best sleep over in all of Equestria." Autumn said aloud and stroked the little snake. Everypony in the room wanted to touch Whisper at least once. Everypony, but Mariposa. She took some steps back and tried to not even look at the snake in her house. Manic Moon looked at her and smiled.
"I'd never have guessed you were afraid of snakes." he said. Mariposa glared at him and got a little bit red.
"It's because of my aunt. She bred snakes on her farm and when I was a little filly once I fell into one of her nests. It was a complete nightmare. All these small, scaly worms on my body and in my mane. Since that I hate snakes." she answered and a chill ran down her back.
"Ha ha ha ha! Aren't you overreacting a bit. It's not like Whisper could do you any harm. Fluttershy told me that he doesn't have any fangs." Manic said and laid a hoof on her shoulder. Zelda heard the conversation between her father and Ms. Mariposa.
"Sound like your fear of bees, daddy." she called. Manic Moon started to blush, while Mariposa grinned at him.
"That's...Ahm!...That's something completely different!" he said with an embarrassed smile. Everypony in the room started to laugh. After some more fun they left and walked back home. Manic took a seat in his favorite armchair and looked at Zelda. She was playing with Whisper, who already made himself comfortable in her mane. He flitted from Zelda's head to the tip of her tail and back again in no time and tickled her with his little tongue. She was laying on the ground and laughed her heart out.
"Ha ha ha ha! Stop Whisper! Hi hi hi hi hi! I can't take it anymore. He he he he he!" Zelda laughed with tears in her eyes. Manic Moon watched the whole show. He was proud; he knew he had chosen the right pet for her.
Like this the time went on and soon enough the big party for the new police unit in Ponyville was about to start. Once again, every pony in town came and they were all watching the stage. The Mayor Mare was standing at the microphone and the three police officers together with their leader were directly behind her. All of them in the new uniforms, complete with black vest, hoof gloves and saddle bag. Lavender was also wearing one of the black caps and had bound his long mane up in a ponytail. He, Cal and Crimson all had their shield pinned on their vest; just Manic wore his sheriff star.
"Ladies and gentlecolts, please give a big applause for the new police force of Ponyville. Caliber Ballistics, Lavender Shine, Crimson Tide and the leader of the team, Sheriff Manic Moon!" she said aloud. Everypony started to clap their hooves together, when the members of the team stepped to the front of the stage. Once the cheering in the hall calmed down, the Mayor gave the microphone to Manic Moon.
"Hello, and thank you everypony for coming to this party. I'm not a pony of many words, but let me say just a few things. First of all, let me introduce you to the new distress call system." he said and took a piece of paper out of one of his vest pockets. He showed it to the crowd. Nothing was written on it and some of the ponies seemed to be very confused about it.
"By tomorrow morning every one of you will find some of these papers in your mail box. They are made to contact us when you need to report a crime or an emergency. It's a very simple system, just write your name and location on the paper and rip them in two." Manic explained and did just that. When he tore it apart the paper puffed into green smoke and flew to Cal. In his hooves the smoke turned back into the paper.
"This magic paper will fly to the nearest police pony and turn back into it's normal state. This will let us know which pony is in trouble and where we have to search for it. If you ever run out of them go to the police station, we will give you new ones for free." he said. The ponies in the crowd were nodding to show they understood.
"In case you are on the road and don't have a paper with you, the building company of Ponyville will install emergency pillars on different places all around the town. Just activate them and we will come as fast as we can." Manic explained and pointed to the builder ponies in the crowd.
"During the day, there will always be two police ponies who patrol around the city. A third pony will be stationed at the police station. If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us on the street or go to the police station. At night the fourth member of our team will be in the police station, every magic paper will be sent to him and he will initiate the needful actions." Manic said and looked in the crowd.
"That's all I've got to say. If there are no questions I guess we can start this party." he finally said. Before anypony could respond, Twilight Sparkle walked on the stage and levitated the microphone out of Manic Moons hoof and to her mouth.
"Actually, there is something more to announce. I sent a letter to Princess Celestia about everything that has happened in the last weeks. She was very interested in the new police unit in Ponyville and in you and Zelda too. That's why she invited you and the rest of the team to this year's Grand Galloping Gala." she announced. They all looked at her with big eyes. Lavender Shine was the first to find his voice again.
"You mean we are invited to the biggest social event of the year. Only the high society and famous ponies are on the guest list. This....this is just....Wow! Such a big honor." he said.
"Each of you gets a ticket, plus a ticket for a pony of your choice as company. Only Manic Moon will get three tickets, because the Princess wants to get to know Zelda too." Twilight explained. Zelda's voice could be heard in the crowd.
"JUHU! I'm gonna meet the Princess. This is so awesome!" she screamed and jumped up and down. Manic looked at Twilight.
"And you are sure she doesn't want to send me back in the underground to the other demon ponies? I mean, if the stories of my grandpa are right she was already alive when my race was still living above ground. There is a good chance that she likes me as much as my people like ponies." Manic said a little bit nervous. Twilight shook her head.
"No, she seemed to be pretty interested in meeting one of the demon ponies after such a long time and when I told her about Zelda, she absolutely insisted to get to know her. She is unique in Equestria." she answered with a smile. Manic whispered to her.
"Don't say that so loud! Such things could go right to Zelda's ego." he said to her. She giggled and turned back to the rest of the team.
"Anyways! You will get the tickets in the next week. I hope you will enjoy the Gala as much as my friends and I did." Twilight said with a weak smile at them. The other members of the Mane 6 looked away or took a fake smile like the purple unicorn.
"You can bet on that. I've always wanted to go to this gala. It's the dream of every little filly." Crimson said dreamily.
"I guess I've got to go too. Mariposa would skin me alive if I turned down a chance like this." Cal said with a quick glance at his wife. Suddenly Pinkie Pie appeared between Twilight and Manic and took the microphone.
"Enough of the talking! Let's get this party started!" she screamed. With that the music started and the party pony did a stage dive into the crowd, which parted before Pinkie could stop. She took a hard landing on the floor and everypony started to laugh. The pink mare quickly recovered and the party could begin. After half an hour Rarity walked to Manic, who was just talking with Octavia and Lavender Shine.
"....and then he dumped the whole bottle over her head and asked "Better?" and she answered "Better!"" Octavia said and laughed.
"Ha ha ha ha! I can't believe you did that Manic." Lavender said.
"It was either that or slapping her. I didn't wanted to risk hurting her. Ha ha ha ha!" Manic answered. Rarity tapped on his shoulder.
"Excuse me if I am interrupting your little conversation, but there is an offer I would like to present to you and your team." she said.
"Let me guess. You want to make the dresses for the gala for every member of the Ponyville Police Department?" Lavender said with a smile.
"Every member, plus their dates of course." Rarity said, a bit insulted for being seen through so easily.
"Oh! Right! Dates. Looks like we've got to find some for the gala." Manic said and looked at Octavia.
"Don't look at me Manic! I've already got a ticket for the gala. This year I'm the solo performer for the entertainment. You've got to ask another mare." she said with a wink.
"I was afraid that you would say that. I haven't dated a mare since I met Light, and with taking care of Zelda there was hardly any time for things like that." Manic said with a sad face.
"Come on boss. You´re the leader of a police force and a single father with a lovely little daughter. The mares will line up to go on a date with you." Lavender said and nudged him in the side.
"He's got a point." Octavia said and Rarity nodded too.
"That's a very interesting point of view. Maybe it's time to step up my game." Manic said and started to think.
In the mean time Zelda was talking with her friends.
"Did you bring Whisper with you Zelda?" Dinky asked.
"No. My dad said that there are lots of ponies in town who are afraid of snakes, and he didn't want to risk a panic during the party. We built him a little nest in my room. He should be fine and deep asleep by now." Zelda answered.
"I wish I had a pet too, but my mom said our family is already big enough." Autumn said.
"Well my brother always says...." Rumble started, but suddenly his brother appeared behind him.
"You were saying?" Thunderlane said and his little brother made a jump into the air.
"WAAAAH!" Rumble screamed. His big brother laughed together with Zelda, Autumn, Dinky and a young pegasus mare next to Thunderlane. She had a yellow coat and a pink and green mane. Her cutie mark was a pixel cherry, and she had a black and violet striped sock over her left front hoof.
"Ha ha ha! Look like I got you again little bro." Thunderlane said.
"That's not funny Thunderlane!" Rumble said angrily.
"Yes it is! Hi hi hi hi!" Zelda giggled.
"Don't be mad at him Rumble. You know how your brother is." the mare said and smiled at him. Then she looked at his friends.
"I don't believe we've met before. My name is Pixel Gum." she said.
"Nice to meet you all." Pixel said. Zelda saw the sock on Pixel Gum's hoof.
"Where is the sock for your right hoof? Did you lose it? she asked. Pixel looked her hooves and smiled.
"No, I didn't lose it. There is no second sock. I made this sock all by myself and never made one for my other hoof. It's something like my trademark." she explained.
"Wow! You made yourself a sock. Does that mean you're a fashion mare like Ms. Rarity?" Dinky asked.
"Not exactly. I'm not really into making dresses. I prefer to make dolls." Pixel said with a hoof on the back of her head. As soon as she finished her sentence, three little fillies were directly in front of her.
"You make dolls?" Zelda, Autumn and Dinky said together. Pixel backed off a little bit, while Rumble and Thunderlane looked at each other thinking "girls".
"Yes, I make dolls." she answered with a nervous look.
"Could you make some for us? Please! Please! Please!" Zelda asked with big eyes and Autumn and Dinky followed her. Pixel looked down at them and sighed.
"How could I say no to fillies with such big eyes. He he he!" she laughed and stroked Autumn over her head.
"Yay!" Dinky yelled and jumped up.
"Awesome!" Zelda screamed and bro-hooved with Autumn.
"Just come by with your parents and tell me how your dolls should look. Since you're friends of Rumble, I only need the Bits for the material." she explained.
"Looks like it's always good to have me as a friend right?" Rumble said proudly.
"Oh yes, it is!" Autumn said and with a sign to Zelda and Dinky all three girls jumped on him for a group hug. Pixel Gum and Thunderlane watched this and she winked at her coltfriend.
"Wow! He is already better with the girls than you are." she said. He glared back at her.
"That's just beginner's luck....I guess." he said, unconfident. Pixel gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"You're good enough to get me. That's something, right?" she said while he got red.
"That's all I need." he said and kissed her back.
The party went on and everypony had a good time. Nopony noticed the brown stallion with the long green mane, who left the party first. He walked into a dark corner of a street. After he was sure that he was alone, his body was engulfed in a green flame and a changeling in heavy armor took his place. He took off and flew back to the hive with an important message for his queen. He had finally found her granddaughter.
It was in the early morning the Manic Moon, Cal and Crimson met at the police station. All three of them look still pretty tired. Manic opened the front door and they walked inside.
"Okey guys. Cal and I take will patrol around the town and you Crimson will stay here in case any pony will show up here." Manic said.
"Sir. Yes Sir!" she answered and saluted with a giggle. Cal just shoke his head and walked into the locker room.
"Didn´t I tell you to just call me Manic? I´m maybe your boss, but this doesn´t make me anything special." Manic said while he walked to the locker room too.
"Yes, beeing a demon pony and having a changeling daughter makes you special. hi hi hi!" Crimson said and prodded Manic into the side.
"Go on like that and you are the first pony to end up into on of the new prison cell." he said and both started to dress up their uniforms. Like before all of the were wearing black vests with matching hoof gloves and sattle bags. Only Manic was also wearing a his golden sheriff star. When everything was in place they met in the entrance hall.
"Cal and I will start our route around the town and you get youself comfortable. If there is any problem just send us a magic paper and we will be on our way." Manic said. Crimson was about to salute again, when he interrupted her.
"Do the "Yes Sir!" thing again and you will do the night shift for the next month!" he said with a stern face. Quickly she stoped her action and nodded instead. Cal and Manic Moon walked outside.
"I would say I´ll take the route over the north side of the town and you the one to the south side. Around midday I will fly a little round over Sweet Apple Acres and the Everfree Forrest." Manic explained.
"Sound like a good plan to me. I woun´t think there will be much problems on our first day." Cal answered. Manic let his look curve over Ponyville.
"I do hope so. If the reports I´ve got from Major Mare are correct everything can happen in this town and from now on it´s our part to keep everypony save. Just stay vigilant and don´t do anything risky, if it isn´t necessary." Manic said. Cal nodded and walked of. Manic turned around and was about to start his route too he heared Cal scream.
"Sir. Yes Sir!" he screamed and run of laughting before Manic could say something. Manic let his teeth crunch in anger and walked of too.
Slowly but shore the little town woke up. The streets filled themself with ponies on their way to work or other goals. The booths opened everywhere Manic Moon was greated with happy faces and who waved a good morning to him. Suddenly he heared his name.
"Mr. Moon! Mr. Moon! Manic Moon! Over here!" the voise called. He turned around and saw a white unicorn calling for him.
"Rarity?" he asked and walked to her. She was standing before her boutique and was very excited.
"Excuse me Ms Rarity, but you don´t look like you´ve got an emergency. What can I do for you?" he asked confused.
"Don´t you worry Manic. I just wanted to give you something. You can call it a present for you first day of work, if you want." Rarity said with a wink.
"But aren´t you already making the gala outfits for free. I don´t feel got, if you give me all this things without taking any Bit for it." Manic said unconfortable.
"Oh, but it´s nothing realy. The gala dresses are good promotion for my shop and this present only exists because you inspired me." she said and levitated a box to him. Slowly he opened it and found a pitch black cowboy hat with silver lines as decoration on it.
"Is this what I think it is?" Manic asked and looked at Rarity.
"Your very own sheriff hat. When I saw you at the party in your uniforms I simply got to make it for you." she said with a smile. Manic did as told and carefully lifted the hat out of the box and put it on his head. Rarity used her magic to levitat a mirrow in front of him. At first Manic wasn´t shore about it, but now that he looked at himself he got to say that it matched perfect with the rest of his uniform.
"I...I don´t know what to say. Thank you Rarity! He looks perfect." Manic said still looking at himself in the mirrow. She just giggled and waved of.
"That´s all I gonna need to hear. The best about my job are the happy faces of my costumers." Rarity said.
"I know what you mean. When I was a bartender I loved this smiles too. They showed me that I did my job right and lighten up the day of somepony." he said. Rarity was about to respond to this, when suddenly a paper appeared between them. Manic Moon quickly took it and read aloud.
"Need help at the market. Big crush of ponies is starting a riot. Cal!" he read.
"This sounds important. I´ve got to go. Thanks again for the hat Rarity." Manic said and took of.
"Good luck Manic Moon." she called and waved after him.
Manic Moon flyed as fast as he could and soon enough he saw the market and the pony crowed Cal talked of. They all seamed to stand around a little carriage with built-in stage. He landed next to Cal, who stood a little bit aside from the crowd of ponies.
"Good that you´re here Manic. This is getting worse with every minute." Cal said. He already held a taser in his hooves.
"What is going on? They look like they are ready to kill somepony." Manic said and looked at the crow, who screamed and threw things on stage. Cal pointed at the pony on stage.
"It´s Trixie. She came back to Ponyville to perform her new show, but most of the ponies around here seams to still be mad at her for the last two times she came in town. If we don´t do something quickly this could end pretty ugly.
On stage a desperate Trixie tryed everything to change the mood of the crowd.
"Please everypony! Listen to me! The Great and Powerful Trixie has changed. I´m no longer searching for revenge on Twilight Sparkle. I just want to show my new show and....." she tryed to explain, when a little rock hit her right on her nose. She turned away from the crowd and made herself as small as possible. Tears started to run down her face.
"Everytime you come to Ponyville something terrible is happening." one pony screamed.
"We don´t want you here any more." an other one said. A big working pony with a yellow helmet climed on stage.
"Time to get out the trash." he said and lifted a hoof. When he was about to hit Trixie, something stoped his motion. He looked to his side and found Manic Moon blocking the hoof with his own.
"I don´t think so." Manic said and shoved the working pony away. Cal did his best and brought some distance between the stage and the other ponies.
"What the buck is wrong with you? The mare is a criminal. You are suppost to help the good and honest ponies." the worker pony said angry.
"I´m suppost to help the ponies, who can´t protect themself and if a crowed of over fourty ponies trys to beat a single one, who just wanted to entertain them I know where I´ve got to stand." Manic said back and stood himself protecting in front of the still sobbing Trixie.
"You can´t be serious about this. Don´t you know, what she did to this town?" the helmed pony screamed at him.
"I know everything. I´ve read every report and I know the nothing was realy her fault. The ursa minor came to town because two fillies interrupted his sleep and at the second time she was under the control of this magic amulet. So the next pony, who throws something on this stage or at her will sleep in a cell tonight. Did I made myself clear?" Manic said aloud, so that every pony could hear him. Most of the ponies in the crowd started to think about, what Manic said. Some nodded and began to walk of or looked at Trixie with true regrets. Only the worker pony didn´t seamed to back down.
"I know we couldn´t trust a demon pony. It´s your first day and you already protecting criminals. We should expel you and this little wanna be mage out of Ponyville right now." he said and made a step closer to Manic.
"Realy! I would love to see that. Why don´t you try it RIGHT NOW!" Manic said and screamed the last two words at the pony in front of him. He once again had his demonic smile on his face was just one step away from his opponent. The working pony looked over his shoulder to find some sopport, but most of the ponies in the crowd seamed to change their mind and just shoke their head. Nopony wanted to lose their new sheriff at the very first day. He looked back to Manic Moon.
"Fine. We will settle this on a other day." he said and was about to leave the stage.
"Cal! Did you see, who threw the rock at Trixie?" Manic asked aloud. Cal turned around and smiled at Manic Moon.
"Take a wild guess." he said and pointed at the worker pony. Before this one could say something Manic gave him a piece of paper.
"And what is this?" he asked. Manic Moon grined at him.
"Your ticket over 500 Bits for attacking an other pony wilfully. You´ve got one week to pay it at the police station or the town hall. If you cross the dead line we will arrest you instead." Manic said.
"WHAT? You...AAAAAH!" the worker pony screamed and was about to attack Manic, when he suddenly got an electric shock and fell to the ground. Behind him stood Cal with his taser.
"I love this thing you know. Works every time, no matter how big they are." he said and put the taser back into his saddle bag.
"This will be 350 Bits more for attacking a police pony." Manic said and laid a second ticket to the stunned pony. Cal turned back to the crowd.
"Okey everypony. The show is over! Please go back to your own business." Cal said aloud and helped the crowd to disappear. Manic Moon walked to the still crying Trixie, who was holding her bleeding nose. She was shivering very hard and now that he could see her from close up he noticed the she was pretty thin. Her ribs could be seen through her fur and her clothers looked terrible dirty and torn appart. He wanted to lay a hoof on Trixies shoulder, but she backed away.
"It´s alright. I won´t hurt you." Manic said and sat himself next to her. Before he could say anything else Trixie jumped at his chest, holding him tight and cried even more.
"Thank you!......Thank you so much!" the mare sobbed. When Trixie said this Manic Moons eyes dilated. This words where nearly the same as his beloved Light said as he once saved her in this bar.
"Thank you!......Thank you so much!....I....I thought they would......Thank you." Lights voise echoed in his head while he saw the old image before his eyes. When he got back to his mind he didn´t know what to do. So he just stroked her mane.
"It´s ok! You´re save now." he just said. Manic held her like this for some minutes until her sobbing stoped. Cal walked back on the stage to see, what took his boss so long.
"Can I help you or do you two need some more privacy?" he said with a grin. Manic got red and look at him.
"N-No! I think we... I mean she is fine. Right Ms Trixie?" he said and looked back at the mare in his hooves just to see that she was unconscious.
"I guess this was a little bit to much for her. Must have gone trough terrible time for a while now." Manic said.
"Maybe you should bring her to the hospital. They can fix her nose and give her something to eat too." Cal answered.
"I guess you´re right. Keep on your route, I will go back to mine as sone as I brought her to the hospital." Manic replied and laid Trixie on his back. Cal was about to do something, when Manic interrupted him.
"and if you do this "Yes Sir!" thing again you´ll end up next to this guy." he said and pointed at the still knocked out worker pony.
"Damn! You´re good Manic." Cal laught.
"That´s my job Cal." Manic answered and took of. After a quick flight he landed in front of the Ponyville hospital. He walked inside and soon enough found nurse Red Heart.
"Hello Mr Manic Moon. What can we do for the town sheriff today?" she asked with a smile.
"Hello nurse Red Heart. I need some medical aid for this pony." Manic answered and showed her the mare on his back.
"Is this Trixie? What happened to her?" Red Heart asked concerned and brought a stretcher for her.
"An angry pony threw a rock at her nose and I do believe she hasn´t ate anything in the last days. She is pretty weak." he answered and laid her carefully on the stretcher.
"Don´t you worry Mr. Moon. We will take good care of her." the nurse answered and quickly shoved Trixie in an other room.
Manic Moon watched until both were out of sight. Then he slowly walked out of the hospital and back on his route trough the town. The whole time he was thinking about what happened on the stage. He felt so much pity for this mare. When he and Zelda started their new live in Ponyville it was Octavia, who sticked up for them. Trixie had nopony, who helped her against this angry crowd. If it wasn´t for Cal and him they would have done even more terrible things to her. Manic stoped in his tracks and looked at the happy ponies everywhere. Ponyville was a perfect place to life.
"And I will help Trixie to be accepted be this ponies just like they accepted me." Manic said aloud and continued his route.
Crimson was sitting in the police station on her desk, waiting for ponies who need help. She was bored out of her fur. Not a single pony came today and since there were no prisoners or open cases she had nothing to do. She was looking around and her sight stoped at the desk of Cal and Lavender. Even if it was their first working day, Manic Moon gave all of them some time to get themself confortable. Crimson stood up and walked to Cals desk and looked at all the things that laid on it.
"Let´s see what this hard pony has on his table." she said. The first thing that caught her attention were the magazines about fishing. Seams to be his hobby. There was also a pretty big cup for coffee and buzzer. But the most interresting thing on his desk was the big photo in the left corner. It showed Cal, Mariposa and their three daughters. All of the smiled into the camera, even Cal did so.
"Awww! Isn´t this sweet. I would have never gave him credit to be such a family colt." Crimson said and took a closer look at the photo. After a while her face got sad and she put it back on it´s place.
"How can such a rough back of a pony find a beautiful mare like her and I´m still single. I don´t even got somepony I could ask to come with me to the Grand Galloping Gala." she nearly screamed. She decided to take a look at Lavenders desk. Maybe this would help to cheer her up some more. Sadly there was not much to find. Crimson found a book with the name "the art of the acting".
"This boy is so much into this whole acting thing, I wonder why he´s still in Ponyville. Most ponies like him go to Fillywood and try their luck on the big stages." she said when her loom moved to the next object. It was a piece of paper with a list on it.
"Looks like a "to do" list. I wonder what he´s planning in the next time." she said.
1. do a good job at work 2. find a date for the gala 3. find an idea for a musical 4. find some good actors 5. create the best musical Equestria has ever seen
"Wait a minute! He doesn´t has a date for the gala too? Such a lovely and handsome pony has no marefriend? Such a shame. I wonder if...." she said when a pony came into the station and interrupted her. It was Pinkie Pie.
"Hello Crimson Tide! How´s your day?" the pink party pony said while she happily jumped into the police station.
"Oh... Hello Pinkie Pie! What brings you here. Do you need any help or is there an emergency in Ponyville?" she asked and quickly walked back to her own desk.
"Oh no! Don´t you worry yourself. I´ve just found this wizzard hat in the middle of the town." she said and showed Crimson Trixies blue hat with the yellow stars and moons on it.
"Okey Pinkie. We will keep the hat here until a pony comes and ask for it." the police mare answered and placed it on her table.
"Silly filly! I know who owns this hat. It´s Trixies great and powerful wizzard hat. hi hi hi hi!" Pinkie Pie said and looked at Crimson like it was completly obvious.
"But if you know this, why do you bring the hat to us and not to Trixie?" Crimson asked with a doubting look.
"Because it´s more fun like that and my Pinkie Sense told me to do so." Pinkie Pie said and before Crimson Tide could say anything the energetic mare jumped out of the station. Crimson took an other look at the hat and sighed.
"Why do I even try to make sense out of this pony? At least this killed some time." she said and placed the hat on her desk. Then she got herself confortable and kept on waiting for the end of her shift.
3 days have past since Manic Moons first day as Ponyvillys new sheriff. Not much happened happend after he saved Trixie before the angry crowd. Most of the time he and his team mediated dispute between salesponies and their costumers or brought a drunk Berry Punch back home. Now he used his free day to visite somepony and of course he was not alone.
"Be careful with this hat Zelda! Ms Trixie is still in the hospital and we want to spare her the trip to the police station and give it back to her." Manic said while his daughter jumped around with the wizzard hat on her head.
"But it´s so funny daddy. I feel like one of the mighty magicians in the fairy tales. Nopony can defete the mighty and... and.... the mighty and awesome Zelda!" she said and took a heroic pose. Manic Moon walked past her and shoved the hat over her eyes.
"Maybe the mighty and awesome Zelda forgot that she still hardly can lift something with her magic." he said with a smile. The little filly blow up her cheeks and started to get a little bit red on them. Then they continued their way. As soon as they arrived in the hospital nurse Red Heart waved at them.
"Hello Mr. Moon! What can I do for you today?" she asked.
"Nothing special. We´re just here to bring Trixie her hat back. She lost it, when I brought her here." Manic Moon answered and pointed at the wizzard hat on his daughter.
"Awww! That´s pretty nice of you. But the doctor makes a last check up on her, because she will leave us by tomorrow. This shouldn´t take longer than 15 minutes. Why don´t you have a seat and I call you when she´s ready?" Red Heart said while looking over her papers.
"Okey. We´re not in a hurry. Let´s go to the waiting room Zelda!" he said and both walked of. Zelda opend the door and the first thing she saw was a table with paper and crayons.
"I could draw a picture for Ms Trixie." she said and ran to the table. Manic was about to enter the room to, but out of nowhere somepony jumped at him and pined him at the ground.
"Ufff!......What the....?" he asked as he was knocked of his hooves. Before he could get a closer look at the blue mare on his chest, she started to lick his face. Zelda turned around to see what happened and found her father on the ground with a strange blue mare in a medical dress and ruffled grey hair on his chest, licking his face.
"Daddy? Why is she doing this with you?" Zelda asked confused. Manic Moon did his best to keep the mare away from his face.
"I don´t know. Natural charm?" he said and turned his face to the mare.
"I´m flattered, but I don´t even know your name." Manic said. The mare lookes at him, her tongue still hanging out of her mouth.
"Wuff!" was all she answered. Manic and Zelda both looked confused at her, while she did nothing else but barking at him. Nurse Red Heart came to help.
"No Screwloose! Stop it! Bad girl!" she said and pulled the blue mare of him. Screwloose slowly obeyed and made site next to Red Heart, waging with her tail.
"I´m so sorry Mr. Moon. I hope she didn´t hurt you." she said. Manic got back on his hooves and wiped the saliva out of his face.
"It´s alright. She just showed me how much she liked me. Why is she behaving like a dog?" he asked.
"We don´t know. Some ponies found her like this in the Everfree Forest and since that we try everything to get her back to normal, but nothing seams to work." Red Heart turned to look at her, but she was already gone.
"Oh Celestia! Where is she now?" the nurse said and looked around in panic. Manic Moon taped her on the shoulder and pointed into the waiting room. Screwloose was laying peacefully on her back, while Zelda was tickling her stomach.
"I guess she just found another friend." he said and chuckled. Nurse Red Heart smiled when she saw this.
"She realy seams to like both of you. Most of the time Screwloose is pretty shy or even agressiv to new ponies.You should be honored!" she said and walked off. Manic took a seat on one of the chairs and Zelda started her picture for Trixie. Screwloose was peacefully laying next to her.
Manic was about to sleep in on his chair, when finaly nurse Red Heart opened the door to the waiting room.
"It took a little bit longer than expected, but she is now back in her room. She is in room number 204. Take yourself as much time as you like. You´re her first visiters since she is here. I´m shore Ms. Lulamoon will be happy to see you." she said. Apparently she didn´t expected any visitors.
Manic Moon and Zelda left the room as quiet as possible to not wake up Screwloose, who was deep asleep. They reached room Nr. 204 and Ponyvillys sheriff opened the door. Trixie was laying in a bed, her cape hung over a chair next to her. She was looking at them with a confused face.
"Ähm....Hello?" she said.
"Hello Ms. Trixie! We´re here to bring your hat back." Zelda said and showed Trixie her wizzard hat. The eyes of the mare went and she grabe it.
"My hat! I tought I´ve lost it forever this time. Thank you. You don´t know how much this means to me." Trixie said and tears formed in her eyes.
"Wow! If I had known that he is so important to you I would have brought him back sooner." Manic Moon said as he saw her tears of joy.
"It´s just.... This hat was a present of my father. He gave him to me together with the cape when I´ve got my cutie mark." she answered and wiped away some tears.
"He was so proude of me. His little daughter became a showmare just like him. Thank Luna he passed away before he could see how deep I´ve sunk." Trixie said sad and pressed her face into the hat. Manic Moon walked next to her bed and laid a hoof on her shoulder.
"If I learned anything during my time with Zelda, than that a father is always proud on his daughter. He loves you no mather what you do." Manic said. Trixie took the hat out of her face.
"Even if she tryed to conquer a whole town?" Trixie asked with a sad face.
"Which father wouldn´t want a daughter with high leadership qualities?" Manic answered and smiled at her. Trixie started to giggle a little bit and smiled at him.
"Thank you so much! You did so much for me and I don´t even know your name." Trixie said.
"No big deal. It´s my job. And my name is Manic Moon and this is my daughter Zelda." he said and pointed to his right side. But there was no Zelda. She was standing on a chair, wearing Trixies cape.
"Beware! The mighty and awesome Zelda now has a cape too." Zelda said and took another heroic pose.
"Zelda! What did I told you about taking thing without asking?" Manic asked with a stern face. Trixie giggled and waved him off.
"It´s okey! hi hi hi! She realy looks cute in it." she said and put her hat on her head.
"You´re good mighty and awesome Zelda, but nopony can outmatch the great and powerful Trixie!" Trixie said aloud and raised her hooves into the air. Her horn started to glow and a little firework started in the room. Zeldas eyes doubled their size.
"Coool! You can do firework with your magic? This is like the best spell ever!" Zelda stated.
"Looks like the great and powerful Trixie just found a new fan in the mighty and awesome Zelda. ha ha ha ha!" Manic said and rumpled up the hair of his daughter.
"Can you teach me this spell?" Zelda asked and climbed on Trixies bed.
"You´ve got problems with an easy levitation spell and now you want to learn one with little explosions from your horn. I guess that´s not a good idea." Manic said. Trixie thought for a moment.
"How about I teach her the spell and some more magic?" Trixie asked finaly.
"What?" Manic Moon asked.
"Realy?" Zelda screamed.
"I would love to do that for you. I own you so much and I would love to work with such a sweet little filly." she answered and sat her hat on Zeldas head to complete the outfit.
"Oh please daddy! Can Ms. Trixie teach me real magic?" Zelda begged.
"Well...I was thinking about searching a teacher for you for quiet some time. But I insist on paying you for your work." Manic said, but Trixie shook her head.
"No! That´s the least I can do. You saved my life and brought back my beloved hat. How could I ever take money from you." Trixie said in a matter of fact tone.
"Fine, but than you will have dinner with us every day you teach Zelda." Manic offered.
"Deal!" Trixie said both shook hooves to seal the deal.
"Yay! I´ll get a magic teacher. Best hospital visit ever!" Zelda said and jumped up and down on the bed.
"Didn´t you forget something Zelda?" her father asked.
"Oh! Right! I´ve got something for you." she replayed, jumped of the bed and run to chair. Then she came back to Trixie and showed her the picture she had drawn. On the picture were Manic Moon, Zelda and Trixie. All of them donned a wizzard hat. Trixie saw it and chuckled.
"You´re not the typ for magic hats Manic Moon. ha ha ha ha! But you still got you´re cowpony hat." she said.
"That´s a sheriff hat and it´s hoof-made for me." Manic answered with a fake pride. All started to laugh and than Trixie huged Zelda.
"Thank you for the picture Zelda. I will pinit at my fridge as soon as I´m back in my caravan." Trixie said.
"By the way. Your caravan is standing at the police station right now. We couldn´t let it stand in the centre of the market like it was. Some ponies could have tryed to steal something or damage it. Now we can have an eye on it until you´re back." Manic explained.
"I guess I´ve got to thank you again. I´ll come by tomorrow and pick up my caravan and visit you in the evening." Trixie answered.
"Sounds good to me. I will cook something special for you to celebrate our deal." Manic said.
"Then you can show me this awesome firework spell again." Zelda said full of anticipation.
"I´m shore you will be a wonderful pupil." Trixie said with a warm smile.
"Be careful Trixie! Statements like this will go straight to her ego." Manic whispered.
"I know that pretty well." Trixie giggled. Manic Moon and Zelda went to the door.
"Okey Trixie! We will see you tomorrow. Bye!" Manic said and opened the door.
"Bye Ms. Trixie! See you tomorrow!" Zelda said happpy and run out of the room.
"Good bye you two!" Trixie said and waved with her left hoof. When Manic closed the door behind them Trixie took the picture back into her hooves and smiled.
"I can hardly wait for it." she said and closed her eyes.
At the evening of the next day Trixie was walking through Ponyvilly. Her caravan behind her, she was very excided to visit Manic Moon and Zelda for the very first time. From time to time she was looking to the side to see how the other ponies react to her. Most of the ignored her or gave her an mad look. She expected that, they would never forgive her so fast. She brought to much trubble over them. But she would do all she can to change that. Never again her ego would control her decision. She wanted to find peace in her life and make friend, just like Twilight Sparkle and her friend. Before she realised it, she reached Manic Moons house and knocked at the front door.
"Door is open." came Manics voise from inside. Trixie opened the door and walked inside. Zelda and her father were waiting in the living room.
"Hello Trixie! Ready for your first day as teacher?" Manic ask.
"You can bet on that! I was looking forward to it since you two visited me yesterday. Is my pupil ready too?" Trixie asked, knowing pretty well, what would come next.
"YES! I hardly could concentrate on school today. What do I learn today? The firework spell, the age spell or the gender swap spell." Zelda said aloud and dashed to Trixies side.
"We start with the levitation spell." Trixie stated. Zeldas face froze.
"What? But I already know that one." she whined.
"Realy? Then how about you show me your amazing levitation spells?" Trixie said in a challenging way. Manic set himself on the couch.
"Uuuh! This will be good!" he stated and watched interested. Trixie pointed at an apple on the table in the living room.
"Levitat this apple from the table into my hoof!" Trixie commanded.
"Fine! I´ll show you and then you will teach me the firework spell." Zelda said and looked at the apple. Her horn started to glow green and the apple started to float through the room. Beads of sweat formed on her face and with her last power the apple landed on Trixies hoof. Zelda was out of breath, but looked at Trixie with a triumphing smile.
"Ha! I said I can do this spell." she said. Trixie shoke her head.
"That was terrible!" she simply said. Manic Moon had to hold a hoof on his mouth to not start laughing, while Zeldas mouth nearly hit the floor.
"But...but I did exectly as you said. What did I do wrong?" Zelda asked confused.
"Look at yourself! You´re completly out of power by only levitating an apple over a distance of 3 metre. If I would realy teach you a stronger spell it could have terrible consequences for your health." Trixie explained.
"But..." Zelda started, but Trixie interrupted her.
"No Buts! The problem is, that you try to force your magic. Your horn is like a muscle in your leg. If you over-stretch it, all you will get is pain. I will teach you the real way to levitat thing." Trixie said.
"I´m not shore if I understand everything, but thank you Ms. Trixie." Zelda said with a weak smile. The showmare layed a hoof on Zeldas shoulder and smiled.
"There is no need to be sad Zelda. You never had somepony to teach you the right way. With my help you will become one of the best magician in all of Equestria. After all I´m the great and powerful Trixie and you are..." Trixie said.
"...I´m...the mighty and awesome Zelda!" the little filly said aloud and both took another heroic pose. Manic Moon stood up and walked to the kitchen.
"I will let you two keep on your training to become almighty, while I go into the kitchen and prepare our great and awesome meal." he said and walked of. Trixie become a little bit red in her face, when she realiced how childish she behaved in front of Manic.
"Soooo...What comes next?" Zelda asked and looked up to her mentor.
"Now I´ll teach you the real way of levitating things. You´ve got to know, this spell is the most important spell in magic." Trixie stated.
"Realy? But why?" Zelda asked confused.
"Just think about it! Every unicorn you´ll ever met knows this spell. It´s the basic for most of the higher spells. When we´re done with the training you will be able to cast this spell in your sleep. Then and only then I will teach you other spells." Trixie explained.
"Okey, Ms. Trixie!" Zelda replayed.
"Good. Now sit down and force a little bit of magic into your horn! Just a little bit!" Trixie commanded. Zelda did as told and sat down. Her horn began to glow.
"Very well. And now close your eyes and try to let the apple flow again, but this time don´t try to force it! See it with your inner eye." Trixie said and put the apple in front of Zelda. The little filly sat completly quiet on her place and for a second Trixie wasn´t shore, if she even heard what her mentor told her. But then a green aura appeard around the apple and it started not only to flow through the living room, no it flew through it. Trixie followed it totaly aback. Finaly the apple landed on the table and Zelda opened her eyes.
"Did it work? Was this right?" she asked unshore. Trixie walked to her.
"No, this wasn´t right!" she said and Zeldas face froze again. But then she picked her up and huged Zelda.
"This....was...perfect!!!" she said aloud.
"Realy?" Zelda asked with big eyes.
"Realy!" Trixie answered and held her in the air. Both started to laugh, not knowing that Manic Moon was watching them from the kitchen door. He couldn´t help himself, but he had to smile, when he saw his beloved daughter laughting and celebrating with the mare that reminded him so much of the changeling princess he once loved more than everything. He turned around and walked back into the kitchen.
"Maybe!....Maybe!" he whispered and prepared a dinner for the three of them.
One week has past since Trixie became the new magic teacher of Zelda. Everything happend the same way every day. Manic Moon went to work, Zelda to the Ponyville school and in the late evening hours Trixie teached her in the living room of the house. After that, all 3 sat together for a delicious meal. They chatted, they laughted and for everypony who watched them, they must have locked like a happy family. How should they know better?
Tonight was no difference. Trixie, Zelda and Manic Moon were sitting at the table in the kitchen and ate some muffins for dessert.
"How was todays lesson? Did you made some progress?" Manic asked.
"Oh yes! I´m still supprised how talented she is. We are doing this for barely a week and she already can levitate thing like an adult unicorn." Trixie explained.
"Only because I´ve got the best magic teacher in the whole wide world." Zelda said aloud. Trixie started to blush.
"Awww! Thanks Zelda! You´re pretty good as pupil too. ha ha ha!"
"Good to see that you two come along so nicely. You´re a realy big help Trixie." Manic said to stop them from prising each other.
"It´s the last I can do after you did so much for me. I only wish there would be more I could do in exchange." the great and powerful mare replyed.
"When you help my daughter to use her magic the right way that´s more than enough. I don´t want burn marks at the wall of this house too." Manic Moon said and gave his daughter a much saying smile.
"This happened just one time. You will use this against me for the rest of my life or what?" Zelda asked abashed. Her father and teacher started to laught and after some time she started too. They were interrupted by a little flame that flew trough the kitchen and stoped in front of Manic Moon. The flame transformed into a piece of paper and he captured it.
"Most come from the police station. I wonder what´s the problem." the demon pony explained and started to read.
"And? What is it daddy?" Zelda asked with awaiting eyes.
"Looks like Screwloose disappeared out of the hospital. One of the nurses forgot to close her door and she run of. They are starting a searching party and need me as the leader." Manic answered.
"Who is Screwloose?" Trixie asked.
"She is a patient of the hospital. A mare, who acts like she is a dog. I don´t thinks she is a danger for other ponies, but if she runs of into the Everfree Forrest it could end bad for her." he said.
"Oh no! Please help them find her daddy." Zelda said and looked at him with big eyes.
"Of course I will Zelda. Trixie! Could you do me a favor and stay with Zelda as long as I´m outside." he asked, while he stood up.
"Shore. We will stay here and practise some more until you come back. I think Zelda is ready to try a small version of my firework spell." Trixie answered with a smile.
"Realy? That´s so cool. And I promise this time nothing will get bourned." Zelda said happy and jumped around the table.
"I will hold you on that promise. Stay safe you two!" he said and left the house.
An hour later a big group of ponies assembled at the Ponyville hospital. Manic Moon stood in front of them, in his complete uniform. Half of the town and the whole police team listened to his words.
"First of all, thank you all for coming. Nurse Red Heart showed you all the picture of the mare we are looking for. Screwloose acts like a dog, so be careful with her, when you find her. Since we don´t know where she ran of, we´ve got to search everywhere for her. We put you in teams of two ponies. Each team with a unicorn and an earth pony. When you find her the unicorn in the team will shoot green sparkles into the night sky. If you´re in danger or any need of help shoot red sparkles in the air. While the team will search the ground all pegasus will be in the sky. Make shore to always keep eye contact with at least one other pony. Major Mare will now give you your directions. If you don´t find her until sunrise, we will met again right here. Are there any questions left? No? Good! We will start in 3 minutes. Good luck for all of you." Manic explained and turned to his team.
"Cal! You will be in a team with Rarity. Crimson! You´re going with Big Macintosh. Lavender! I want you up in the sky with the other pegasus. I will go with Lyra. Be careful, cause you´re in the teams who will search the Everfree Forrest. If she realy run of into it we don´t know what happens, when she meet any wild animals." he said and all other members saluted.
"Yes Sir!" Lavender Shine said and took of.
"All right Manic!" Cal answered and walked to Rarity.
"Don´t you worry boss! We will find her soon." Crimson Tide said and went to Big Mac.
"I shore hope so." Manic said and looked at the forrest. "I shore hope so."
Big Macintosh and Crimson Tide walked trough the forrest. The big red colt followed a small path with the red maned unicorn right behind him.
"Have you seen anything yet?" the mare asked.
"Nope!" he simply answered.
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"Nope!" Big Mac replyed.
"Do you even listening to what I´m saying?" she asked anoyed.
"Eeyup!" was all he said in return. Crimson Tide started to get angry.
"I hope we find this mare soon or there will be another pony to be missing soon." she said more to herself, than to Big Macintosh. Suddenly a loud barking came from the left. Both ponies followed the voise and found Screwloose digging a hole under an old tree.
"We found her! We´re the number on team!.....But what is she doing?" Crimson asked.
"Well, I guess she´s trying to dig something out. Pretty typical for a dog." Big Mac replied.
"I know, but.....WAIT! Now you finaly start to speak in complete sentences to me?" the blue mare asked.
"Eeyup!" he answered and Crimsons Eye started to twitch.
"I´m sending the green sparkles into the air, before I do something I´ll regret later." she said and shoot them in the night sky. While they waited for the others to arrive Screwloose kept on digging an big hole under the tree. A sudden yelp from the dog like mare made them turn around. Screwloose was backing away from her hole, a little bit of blood was dripping from her nose.
"What just..." before Crimson Tide could finish her question four changelings jumped out of the hole and hissed at them.
"Changelinge!" she screamed and took her taser in one hoof, while Big Mac stood himself protective in front of Screwloose.
"Stay away or you´re going to regret it!" Crimson said with a harsh voise, but the changelings just came closer to her.
"New food! We will take ponies for queen." one of the changelings hissed. All four of them jumped at once and tryed to get their prey. Crimson Tide managed to chain one with her magic in mid-air and a second one got hit by the full power of her taser. Both changelings fall to the ground, one unable to move because of the magical chains, the other one unbridled jerking. The remaining two changeling jumped with full force at the young mare and slamed her hard at the ground.
"AAAAAH!" was a she could scream out, when the pain of the attack run trough her body. One changeling pined her at the ground, while the other one was about to tough Crimson with his green shining horn. He was only a couple of centimeters away from her, when Big Macintosh tackled them away. They rolled over the dirty ground, but came back to their hooves pretty fast.
"Nope!" was all the big red stallion said, while he stood over Crimson Tide. Screwloose was standing next to him, snarling at the changelings. Crimson tryed to stand back up, but she couldn´t.
"Aaah! Buck! These stinking bugs broke my ribs. I can´t fight like this. I can´t even..." right in this moment a changeling attacked Big Macintosh from behind. Since Crimson was hurt her magic chains had disappeart and the third changeling used his new freedom for a supprise attack. He locked jaw in Big Macs neck. The strong farm pony did his best to get rid of the changeling by jumping up and down and shacking like crazy, but before his effort could lead to any success the other two changelings jumped at him too. Big Macintosh was strong, but with 3 raging pony bugs on him, he hardly could hold himself on his hooves.
"Big Macintosh! No!" Crimson screamed. She once again tryed to stand up, but the pain in her side was just to big. In the mean time Big Mac slowly lost his power. While one changeling was still on his back the other two attacked him from every side. Everytime he managed to blog one the other hit him from the other side. Screwloose wasn´t a help too. All she did was jumping around the fighters and barking like crazy. Big Mac was sinking to his knees and the changeling on his back used this to jump of and took of into the air. He made a turn and dashed back to the earth like a comet in green flames. His friends backed away, but Big Mac was to weak to make a move. A second before the changeling hit his target a black shadow hit him and both crashed into the scrub. Crimson looked to the side and saw multiple of team running to them.
"Thanks Celestia! The other teams." she said. Rainbow Dash, Lavender Shine and Road Rage came down from the sky and attacked one of the remaining changeling. Before Cal, Rarity, Lyra, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch could even make a step in the direction of the last changeling he started to scream in a very high tone. The ponies looked at each other confused and Cal shocked him with his taser. Out of the corner of her eyes Crimson could see how Manic Moon came back out of the scrub with a knocked out changeling on his back. He laid him to the other defeated bug ponies. Cal was helping Big Mac back on his hooves, while Lavender and Rarity stood by Crimson Tide.
"Oh darling! What did this ruffians to you?" Rarity asked with a worried look on her face.
"I´m pretty sure my ribs are broken. What about Big Macintosh? Is he all right?" Crimson answered. Big Mac came to her side, braced by Cal.
"Eeyup!" was all he answered.
"Please make him stop or I´m going to end him right here, right now!" she said at the top of her lungs.
"All right! Rarity! Use your magic to levitate Crimson Tide and bring her to the hospital. Cal! Keep on bracing Big Mac and bring him to the hospital too. Rainbow Dash, Lyra and Road Rage will escort you in case you meet any animals on your way out. Cal, as soon as your at the hospital go back to the police station and get the caravan with the cell. I want this changelings inprisoned before sun set." Manic ordered.
"On our way Manic." Cal answered and they walked out of the forrest.
"Manic! Could you come over? We found something interresting." Lavender said. He, Octavia and Vinyl were standing by Screwloose, who was sitting by her hole like a dog, who found the lost wallet of his master. She happily wagged her tail.
"Looks like Screwloose found a secret outpost of the changelings. What should we do new boss?" Lavender asked. Manic Moon looked into the hole and could see some green lights in the dark.
"I guess it´s best to check what´s inside this hole. We must know if this is in any way a threat for Ponyville. Vinyl! Could you stay outside with Screwloose and watch these changelings. If they look like they wake up, do what needs to be done to change that." Manic said.
"Oh yeah! There is nothing that can stop me!" Vinyl Scratch answered and used her magic to levitate 4 big sticks over the heads of the changelings.
"If they try something funny, I will wub their world the hard way." she said.
"Good! The rest of us will go down and see what´s inside. If you need our help just scream and we´ll come back as fast as we can." Manic explained. With that said he, Lavender Shine and Octavia climbed into to changeling hideout.
The hole leaded into a small cave. The only light came from little green crystals at the ceiling. Manic liked this. It remembered him at his old home. Since demon ponies live so deep under the earth they only get light be crystals and torches too. The fealing of cold stone all around him waked up memories of his childhood. How he played with the other fillies in the dark, the trips through the nearly endless tunnels with his parents. He missed them, but he knew all to well that he could never go back again. They would call him a traitor for living with ponies surface. Before he could think more about it, Octavias voise brought him back to reality.
"Guys! I found something. You´ve got to see this!" she said. The young mare was at the other end of the cave. In the corner before her were some kind of cocoon. Realy big cocoons. And inside them were ponies. Octavia stood before one with a blue pegasus mare inside.
"That´s Cloud Chaser." she said.
"They must have captured ponies all over Ponyville and took their places." Manic said.
"Wow! This must be over ten cocoons. How could they replace so many ponies without somepony noticing it?" Lavender asked.
"I don´t knew, but we´ve got to find out which ponies are in this cocoons. If they realy took their places we´ve got to know, who we can trust." Manic said with a serious face.
"That´s impossible!" Octavia said with horrified look on her face.
"No! All we´ve got to do is look in all these cocoons and...." Lavender started, but she cut him off.
"That´s not what I meant. Look at this cocoon! It´s Rose Luck. But that´s impossible! I´ve met her before I went to this searching party and we talked about something when we still were fillies. A changeling, who took her place could never know what she know." Octavia explained.
"That´s a realy good point Octavia. Do you got any ideas Manic?" Lavender asked.
"What? How should I know?" Manic Moon asked confused.
"Well. I just thought that you maybe know one or two things about changelings, since you had one as girlfriend." Lavender stated.
"Light never changed into other ponies and tryed to replace them. She only walked around in her pony form, so nopony found out what she is. She had never done such things to anypony!" Manic said angry.
"Sorry boss! I shoundn´t had said that. It was pretty stupid of me." Lavender apologized. Manic calmed down and shoke his head.
"No! No! No! It´s okey! I overreacted. I´m a little bit sensitiv, if it comes to Light." Manic answered.
"You realy loved her from the bottom of your heart right?" Octavia asked and laid a hoof on his shoulder.
"Yes!....But we´re geting of the topic. Let´s see who´s in this cocoons!" Manic said.
"Of course boss. Let´s go to work!" Lavender answered. They watched cocoon after cocoon.
"Okey! I´ve got Bon Bon, Lucky and the Spa Twins." Octavia stated.
"Here are Rose Luck, Raindrops, Twinklshine, Berry Punch and this worker pony you and Cal meet a while ago." Lavender said and pointed at a pretty big cocoon.
"I wonder who Cal shocked? The real one or the changeling. Ha ha ha! Now let´s see! In these cocoons are Matilda, Caramel, Cloud Chaser and Sea Swirl. We´ve got to find these ponies in town and lock them up." Manic said.
"And we should inform Princess Celestia about it. She will know what to do next." Octavia stated.
"Yes! Maybe there are other towns with replaced ponies. I guess it´s the best we tell Twilight Sparkle and she send a letter to Canterlot." Manic answered.
"Hey! Look! There is another cocoon over there." Lavender said an pointed at a green mass in a small seperate chamber of the cave.
"Hmm! That´s strange! Why is this one seperated from the others. Let´s see who´s in it!" Manic replayed and took a closer look. The next thing Octavia and Lavender could see was a demon pony, who lost all of his fur colour. He went completly pale.
"No!....Oh Luna! Please no! No! No! No! NO! NO! NO!" Manic screamed in pure panic. He turned around stormed through the cave, jumped out of the hole flew back to Ponyville as fast as he could. Lavender Shine and Octavia looked at each other in a mix of confussion and fear. What could be in this cocoon to frighten him so much. They steped closer to it and soon understood what Manic Moon feared.
The stars hung high over Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. Most ponies, who helped at the searching party regrouped at the hospital after they saw the green sparkles in the air. They all were happy that the party was successful, but this changed quickly, when they saw Big Macintosh and Crimson Tide. While Cal was on his way to get the caravan for the changelings, Rarity and Rainbow Dash explained what happened in the woods.
"And so Manic Moon, Lavender Shine, Octavia, Screwloose and Vinyl Scratch stayed at this tree to find out whats inside. It´s obvious that these changelings are up to no good." Rarity explained.
Major Mare and the rest of the Mane 6 listened to the story with growing concern.
"I´ve never thought about changelings in Ponyville. After this whole wedding fiasco I though they would stay in the Bad Lands. How could they get so close without us noticing it?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
"Don´t you worry about it Twi! We beat them. They won´t try something like this again. I´m pretty sure they´re finishing the problem, while we are..." Rainbow started as suddenly a black flash zoomed over their heads. A loud "No, no, no, no, no!" was all they could hear before the he disappeart.
"Oh my..." whispered Fluttershy.
"Was that Manic Moon? What happened to him?" Twilight asked.
"I don´t know, but if it´s able to make a demon pony panic it´s probadly a big problem for all of us." Apple Jack said with a worried look.
Manic Moon flew as fast as he could. Every second was counting. They´ve got Trixie. The pony who trained Zelda for the last days was now sitting in a dark hole traped in a cocoon. And this means his daughter was alone with a changeling. The same race, who´s queen threatened him to never cross her path or she would end him and his daughter.
"No, no, no, no, no! Please. Everything but that! Not my daughter!" he screamed. In a record time Manic landed at the front side of his house. The door was wide open.
"No! This door shouldn´t be open." Manic Moon said with pure terror on his face. He stormed inside.
"Zelda!...... Zelda! Please answere me. Where are you.....ZELDA!" he screamed, but nopony answered him. The desperate father run into the kitchen, where he saw both, Zelda and Trixie, for the last time. The table was flipped over and the remains of their dinner scattered over the whole room. For Manic is was like a nightmare became reality. Tears started to form in his eyes. He´d know very well, what happened. The changeling in the forest warned his comrades in Ponyville and the one, who played the role of Trixie, not only ran off, he also took Zelda with him. For a while Manic Moon just sat in the kitchen, tears silently running down his face. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He just wanted to wallow in his sadness. But out of nowhere came a new emotion over him. Rage. Pure and uncontrolable rage. He would find this changeling and get his daughter back. And if he must end the life of every damn changeling in Equestria and the Bad Lands to get her, he wouldn´t hesitate one second. He walked to the front door, looking at the night sky. He would show this changelings, how close a real demon pony could get to the old pony legends. But first he needs to find out, where the real hive is. And he´d know four little changelings, who would surely love to tell him the exact coordinates. With a mad smile on his face, he took of into the air again.
Deep in the Everfree Forest Cal just laid the last changeling into the cell caravan. Two of them were still knocked out, a third one was about to wake up when he slowly opened his eyes and the last one was sitting in a dark corner of the cell angryly staring at the ponies outside.
"And he just flew of." Cal asked the others.
"Yes! He saw Trixie in this last cocoon and was gone. Who could blame him? He left his daughter alone with a changeling." Lavender explained.
"I hope Zelda is safe. She is the center of his world. Nopony could say what he will do, if something happens to her." Octavia said and looked sad on the ground.
"Don´t you worry to much Octi! I´m sure everything will be fine." Vinyl said to cheer Octavia up. She was about to say something else, but was cut of by a dark shadow who landed next to the caravan. Dirt and mud was flying around from the strong impact.
"Manic? Your back already? Is Zelda safe?" Octavia asked and run to him, but he simply walked past her without even looking at her. She turned around and wanted to put her hoof on his shoulder, but stoped. Something about him was off, Like a dark aura on his skin. For the first time in her life she was afraid of her good friend.
"Manic. What´s wrong with you?" Cal asked confused. He ignored him too. The demon pony stoped in front of the cell caravan.
"Are they inside the cell?" Manic asked with an emotionless voise. Cal nodded.
"Yes! They are locked away and I´ve got the only key to open the door. Why do you..." Cal explained before he had to jump aside. The big, iron door of the cell just missed him by an inch and slammed hard on the ground. The force of the impact wreaked her deep into the earthy ground of the Everfree Forest. All ponies looked at Manic Moon, who just a second ago ripped a iron door out of her anchoring like she was made out of paper.
"Are you crazy? You could have hurt Cal, if he hadn´t jumped away in time. What´s the matter with you Manic?" Lavender asked and run to Cal´s side. But the enraged pony still wasn´t listening. He concentrated himself on the four changelings in front of him. Manic simply walked over the two sleeping changelings and kicked away the other one laying in his way. The still weak bug pony hit the iron bars of the cell with it´s head and was knocked out cold again. The last remaining changeling pressed himself against the bars in his back, but he couldn´t escape the angry father. Manic snapped the changeling, lifted him up and hammered the creature so hard against the iron bars that he screamed in pain.
"Where is she? Where is my daughter you stinking abomination?" he said with er stern voise. The changeling looked at him and Manic could have sworn that a weak smile formed on his face.
"She gone........never see again......now part of hive...ki ki ki ki!" was all her replayed. Rage overtook the demon pony again and he slammed his opponent against the bars three more times. The bars already started to bent to the outside.
"Tell me where this hive is or you´ll have more holes in your body than in your legs." Manic said with his face only millimeters away from the changelings face.
"Will not speak.....hive is secret....you´ll never find!" the creature answered with pain in his face. Manic took the changeling and clashed him with full force on the ground. The bug pony was laying on his side with Manic Moon over him. He stepped with one hoof on the head of the changeling and slowly heightened the pressure on it.
"Answer my question! This is your last chance. I´m pretty sure your friends are more willing to help me when they see your headless body." Manic said with an crazy face. The changeling thought for a moment and finaly started to talk.
"Hive in Badlands......in shadow of mountain.....in the west." the changeling said nervously. Manic took his hoof away and walked out of the cell. He was about to take off, when suddenly a magical aura pinned him on the ground. Manic looked over his shoulder and saw all members of the Mane 6, nurse Red Heart and the Major Mare.
"What is going on?" asked Twilight Sparkle while she pinned Manic Moon down with her magic.
"We just came here to help you guys and find out, whats the problem and the first thing we all see is like you´re torturing a changling. What in tarnation is wrong with you Manic?" Apple Jack said. The demon pony did his best to fight the magic aura, but couldn´t break free. He took a deep breath and started to calm down.
"Okey Twilight! Let me go. I promise I won´t fly away." he said and Celestias student did as told. Manic stood up and sat himself on the ground.
"I´m so sorry everypony. I guess I´ve just lost the control over myself. They´ve got Zelda and when I saw my empty home I saw red." Manic explained.
"Oh no! They realy kidnaped Zelda. But why would they do that?" Octavia asked.
"I don´t know. Maybe the changeling, who disguised himself as Trixie paniced when he heard the warning of his friend and thought a hostage who´d make sure nopony would stop him on his way home." Manic Moon said.
"Well, if that´s the case we´ve got luck, cause this would mean he can´t risk his only defence against royal guard and little Zelda is safe for now." Cal stated, but Manic shook his head.
"No! No! No! No! No! You guys don´t understand. We´re running out of time. Zelda must not reach the hive!" he said.
"Why? asked Lavender Shine.
"Chrysalis once wrote in her letter that she never wants to see me or my daughter again or she would end us for shore. Nopony knows, what will happen when she sees Zelda. What if.....What if..." he explained until Octavia cut him of by taking his hoof and holding him with her two front hooves.
"She would never hurt her own granddaughter Manic. I´m shore Zelda is absolutly safe." the music mare said and smiled at him. He raised his head and smiled back.
"I hope you´re right Octavia.....I hope you´re right." he answered.
"Don´t you worry too much Manic Moon. As soon as we are back in Ponyville, I´ll write a letter to princess Celestia. I´m sure she will know what to do. Til then we all should get some rest. There is a lot of work to do for us in the next time." Twilight Sparkle said.
"I guess she´s right. The night is almost over and we all could use some sleep." Red Heart answered.
"All right. Lavender Shine,Pinkie Pie, Red Heart and I will stay here and get this ponies out of the cocoons." Apple Jack said.
"Oh yes! The ponies in the cave. I´ve nearly forget them. We better get them out of these cocoons." Twilight said with a week smile and scratched the back of her head.
The group of ponies left the Everfree Forest and split up. Twilight Sparkle went to the library to contact the princess of the sun. Rarity, Fluttershy and Screwloose went back to the hospital, while Cal and Vinyl Scratch brough the caravan with the changelings to the police station. Octavia and Manic Moon stood at the front door of his house.
"Are you shore that I shoudn´t come in with you? I could stay over night if you want." Octavia offert.
"No, but thanks for the offer. I need some time alone to clear my mind and think about everything. I´ll see you tomorrow Octavia. Good night!" he answered and without waiting for her answer he closed the door. She turned around and started to walk back home.
"Please don´t do something stupid Manic." the mare said more to herself then to anypony else.
There was no sleep for Manic Moon in this night and he knew that very well. At first he was just walking trough the house without any real destination. He wasn´t sure, why he did it. Maybe he was still hoping to find Zelda. That she just hide herself in a dark corner, to affraid to say something. Soon enough he gave up and sat himself on the couch. After a while he looked at the shelf over the fireplace. A lot of pictures were standing on it.
The first one on the left was the oldest too. The picture showed his grandpa and a very young Manic Moon. He was sitting on his back and both smiled. Manic was always proud that he could life his grandpa´s dream for him. The next picture was cut out of a newspaper. On it was Manic and two other ponies. One was an earthpony mare with a white mane and a light orange fur. She was wearing a brown hat and had a candy corn cutie mark. The other one was a colt with a long grey mane and light blue fur. He had two burning aces for a cutie mark. All three stood in front of a bar. Manic remembered that day pretty well. It was the great opening of the Red Aces club. For Candy Corn and Ashes, a dream come truth and for Manic, it was his first real job since he lifed on the surface.
He moved on to the next one. On this picture stood Manic behind the bar. On the stools in front of the bar sat 3 ponies. A brown colt with dark/brown mane and a black beard, holding a wine glas. A mare with a light purple mane and orange fur. She wore a black necklace and had a beer glass in her hoof. The last one had a dark blue fur and a light blue mane. The mare had a big cup with a black liquid inside. All three were waving at the camera and smiling. His best costumers and good friends of Manic Moon. He was still hoping to see them again one day.
The next picture showed Manic Moon and Light holding each other. His first and only Hearts and Hooves day with the love of his life. He would give all his bits for one more day like this with her. If Light was still alive, all of this might never have happened. Zelda would still be here and he would now lay in his bed, peacefully sleeping next to her. But this would never happen. Light was dead and Zelda was abducted.
What brought him to the last picture. On this one you could see Manic Moon holding baby Zelda in his hooves. She was laughting and Manic was looking at her with the unbreakable love of a father to his daughter. Octavia took the picture for him just 3 weeks after Zelda was brought to him. Most of the time he loved to look at all these pictures. They showed him all he archived in his life and all the ponies he met. But right now none of them could light his mood.
He stood up and walked upstairs in Zeldas room. The room was a complete mess, but not because of the changeling. His daughter wasn´t very fussy and before he got her, Manic wasn´t either. He was sitting on her bed and looked around. He saw all the toys he bought for her, all the pictures she drew for him, everything was full of memories. Finally he saw Ms Bugg Pants, "Zeldas" most favorite toy. Manic would never forget how happy she was when he suprised her with the doll. He took the doll and pressed it against his heart. Tear started to run down his face.
"I´m sorry! I´m so sorry Light! I promised you to protect our daughter and failed." he whispered. He sat there for a long time silently crying. But then he stood up, laid down Ms Bug Pants and walked back downstairs to the front door.
"I´m sorry everypony, but this is family business. If anypony dies because Chrysalis hates me and my daughter I would never forgive myself. I will save her alone or die trying!" he said and opened the door. Carefuly he looked around, if anypony was watching him and than flew away. He knew his destiny. The changeling hive in the Badlands.
Zelda woke up with a deep pain in her head. The last thing she remembered was a strange cry she heard and how Ms. Trixie started to panic after it. Then everything went dark. She looked around, but the room was very gloomy. All Zelda could see were four greyish walls, some sort of green mushroom, who glowed in the dark and the big green pillow she was laying on. The young filly took a closer look. This pillow didn´t felt like a pillow. More like something liquid was inside.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Zelda screamed and jump of.
"It´s a cocoon! It´s a cocoon! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!" she said while running around in circles.
"What is this place? Where am I? Daddy? Ms. Trixie?" Zelda asked and looked around. As if to answer her question a hidden door behind her opened and the queen of the changelings, Chrysalis herself, entered the room. Zelda turned around and her eyes grow double in size.
"Who...who are you? Where am I?" she asked and slowly backed away. Chrysalis looked down on her and grinned devilish.
"Poor little thing! There is so much you´ve got to learn. But don´t you worry my child! The hive mind will teach you everything you´ve got to know. You maybe can´t hear it now, because you´re only a half blood and grown up so far away from us, but the longer your here, the clearer the voises in your head will become." Chrysalis explains.
Tears started to form in Zeldas eyes.
"W-w-what?...I...I don´t understand.....I wanna go home!" she whispered between sobs. Chrysalis reached out to stroke Zelda over her head, but the little filly turned away in pure fear. The queen of the changelings looked sad for a moment, but shook it of pretty fast.
"Fine! Have it your way! You should rest. You will learn to love the hive and every changeling in it soon enough." Chrysalis said cold like stone. She turned around and left the room, sealing the door behind her. Zelda laid herself in one of the dark corners of the room. Tears still running down her face.
"Daddy. Where are you?" she whispered in the dark, ignoring the voises in her head, which grow louder by every passing minute.
Manic Moon flew as fast as he could. He had to. The Time wasn´t on his side. He had to find out, what happened to his daughter. Nopony could guess what the changelings had planned for his beloved child. But there was another fact that made him move so fast. The longer it took him to get this problem solved, the higher was the risk that his friends in Ponyville would start their own move against the changeling hive and he could risk that. He would never forgive himself if one of them would get hurt or even killen, just because this bug ponies hate him and his daughter.
"There it is! Finaly!" he said as the gigantic hive appeared. He landed behind a little hill in the near of the main entrance, making sure none of the changelings around could see him.
"Bigger than I expected. Impossible to say how many of them are inside. How should I find Zelda in this thing. I need a realy good plan or this will end in a complete disaster." he thought aloud. For a few seconds he just stared at the hive. Then he suddenly jumped up.
"BUCK IT!!! I´ll just take the front door." he screamed and stormed to the main entrance. He charged with full force at the gigantic gate, simply overrunning every changeling, who dared to get in his way. After he crashed trough the gate, he came to a sudden stop. He never saw something like this. If the hive looked big on the outside, it seemed small compared to the inside. Not only was the main room bigger than Ponyville, the ceiling was nearly as high as one of the smoky mountains. But what worried him the most were the thousands of eyes, that looked at him right now.
"Not one of my best ideas I guess. Maybe we can talk this...." he started, but was cut off by a changeling, who tried to tackle him to the ground. Manic Moon crouched under the attack and bucked two other changelings behind him. Then he jumped into the air, doing his best to avoid the changelings, which came down like burning meteorites.
"I´m fireproofed, but if they hit me it will hurt like hell." Manic said to himself. Just when he dodged another sky attack, something collided with his left side and blared him hard on the ground. Manic slowly stood up again.
"Argh! This is going to hurt even more by tomorrow. What hit me there? A train?" Manic asked. What he saw next was much worse than a train. In front of him stood a small group oversized changelings. Each of them easely as big as a buffalo, with thick armor plates on their back and an extrem long horn on the head, but without any wings.
"Great! Changelings! Now even available in bigger sizes. Just to make sure they crush your bones even better." Manic said with a silly voise. When he spread his wing to fly away and get out of the reach of the giants, a sharp pain hit him. His left wing was out of action for sure and at least two of his ribs were broken.
"So much for the flying. Okey! You guys wanna do this the hard way? Let´s do this the hard way!" Manic Moon screamed and stormed at the group of giant changelings. Manic gave his best. He even managed to take out a good dozen of changelings and three of the giant ones, but soon enough the numbers game was to much for the demon pony. Just when he was about to knock out another changeling, one of the giants swung his horn directly into Manic Moons face. The next thing he remembered was darkness.
Manic Moon slowly opened his eyes. At first he saw nothing but a grey fog, so he closed them again to focus his mind and re-opened them. To his big surprise Manic Moon was standing in his living room.
"What?......But how?" he asked confused and looked around. Anything was normal. A fire was burning in the chimney, bringing warmness and light into the room. Anything was on it´s place. His favoring reading-chair, the little table next to it. The rack with the pictures over the fireplace and the old green couch in front of it. He looked over his shoulder und saw the dark kitchen behind him. Everything seamed in place. The next thing that catched his attention was an all to familiar voise.
"Oh no! The evil dragon has come to kidnap me. Save me Ms. Bugg Pants!" called the voise. He knew all to well, who that was. Zelda was once again playing on the carpet in front of the chimney. He couldn´t see her because the couch was covering her up. Manic made a step in her direction, when a new voise reached his ears.
"Not so loud Zelda! Your daddy will come home any second and we don´t want him to sneak up on us again. Right?" the voise said as lovely as possible. He quickly walked to the couch and looked over the backrest. And there she was.
"Octavia?" Manic asked confused and happy at the same time. The music mare was laying on his couch and peacefully watched over his daughter.
"What are you doing here? Are you sitting Zelda?" he asked, but both, Zelda and Octavia, didn´t respond to his questions. They didn´t seamed to notice him at all. Like he wasn´t realy there. He was waggling with his hooves and flapping with his wings, but they still ignored him.
"What the...?" he was about to ask, when Manic heared a voise behind him, he didn´t heared for years.
"You´ve got to save her! For me." she said. Manic Moons eyes went wide and he whirled around, but nopony was behind him.
"Light?" he asked. He looked around anywhere, but no sign of her.
"What is this all about?" the demon pony asked and turned back to the couch, just to receive a hard hit to the face. Octavia was standing in front of him, staring daggers at him.
"Wake up you stupid mistake of nature!" she screamed at him and slaped Manic again.
This second punch brought Manic Moon back to life. Still a little bit dizzy, the first thing he saw was a changeling before him. Probably the one, who hit him. Manic tryed to attack him, but soon find himself traped in a cocoon made of green goo. Only his head was free. He had a terrible headache, his left wing still hurts like hell and he could fell like a little river of blood run down his right cheek.
"Look at me or I let them snap off your head!" an angry was screamed trough the room. Manic looked up, while the changeling stepped aside. In front of him, sitting on a big stone throne, was Queen Chrysalis. She looked down on the demon pony with pure hate in her face.
"Nice to finaly meet you Chrysalis. Even if the circumstances could be better, I guess." Manic said weak, with a fake smile on his face.
"QUIET! The only reason, why you´re still alive, is so that I can see the pain in your face when me minions rip you appart." she barked at him.
"Why?....Why are you doing all this to me? I´ve never came in the near of you or any of your changelings, just like you ordered in this letter. The only reason I´m here right now is, because one of your stupid bugs kidnaped my daughter. Is this some kind of revenge for finding your hideout and the hostages in the Everfree Forest?" Manic asked. For the first time, since Manic Moon woke up, Chrysalis started to smile.
"You fool! You still didn´t get it. The hideout in the forest, the replacing of the Ponyville ponies, even the return of Trixie, all this had only one goal. Capturing Zelda and bringing her back to the hive." she answered with an evil smile on her face. Manic looked at her in disbelieve.
"What? But...but why? I thought you hate her." he asked confused. Chrysalis stood up and walked down to Manic. She placed her hoof under Manic Moons chin, so he had to look up to her.
"Well, I guess it wouldn´t hurt to tell you the truth before you die." she answered and let go of his chin. Then she started to walk around him.
"I´m sure you´ll remember the time when I called my daughter back to the hive." she asked him. Manic nodded.
"Of course. It was the last time I saw her. She said there was an emergency in the hive and you would need her back home as soon as possible." he answered.
"That was a lie! She lied to you. But don´t be sad. She only did it to protect you. The real message said that she should return to me or I would send out me minions to kill you and take her back to me. She know if she would refuse it would mean your certain dead." Chrysalis explained.
"You monster! How could you do this to your own daughter?" Manic asked. He received a hard hit to his face from her as reward.
"What I did to her? WHAT I DID TO HER? I´ve send her out in the world to gather experience, not to fall in love with the first idiot, who gave her some love. When my spies told me about you two I just wanted to burn down all of Equestria." she said with an angry voise. She was now standing behind him and took a deep breath to calm herself down. Then Chrysalis continued.
"I forbade her to leave the hive ever again. We ended up in a big fight, but she knew better than to simply ran off. The first thing I would have done was to send out me changelings to find kill you. So she stayed in the hive. Two weeks later she found out that she was pregnant. She waited 2 more months until she found the courage to tell me about it. I told her to get rid of the egg as soon as she layed it, but she was stubborn. She said if I would do anything to the egg she would kill herself. But if I would let her keep it, she would do what I want for the rest of her life." she explained.
"So you took the opportunity and used unborn child of your daughter to get full control over her." Manic continued for her. This time his face was full of hate. Chrysalis looked like she wanted to hit him again, but stopped herself.
"Believe me, if I had known what would follow, I had never made this deal with her. Normaly a female changeling needs only one month to produce a kindle of ten male drones. Female changelings and future queens need more than 8 months. Since her child would be a cross-breed I wasn´t surprised that her pregnancy took the full 9 months. But she wasn´t laying an egg. She gave birth to a full grown foal." Chrysalis said. She was now standing with her back to Manic. Her voise was calm and sad.
"Changelings aren´t made to give birth like this. The pain and the high stress were to much for her budy. She died before she could see her daughter for the very first time." the queen of the changelings explained with a shaking voise. But anger was rising up in her again.
"You are right. I hated Zelda and at this day I was about to kill her for what she did to my daughter, but I promised Light to never hurt her child and I´m a queen of my word. So I send her to you. Making sure to never see her and you ever again." she said and turned back to Manic Moon. He could see that she just wiped of some tears.
"Over the next years I concentrated myself on my plan to role over Canterlot and all of Equestria. But when they failed last year at this stupid wedding, my life was in complete shards. My daughter was dead and every pony was aware of our existence. Royal guards searching for changelings all over the land. It would take year, maybe even centuries until this hunt would slow down any bit. By the time this would happen I would be to old to try such an attack again. So what to do? I needed a younger queen. But hatching a new daughter would simply take to much time." she explained, now face to face with Manic Moon.
"And that was the moment I remembered of my granddaughter. At first I wasn´t sure, if she was enough of a changeling to role the hive. So I took the role of her new magic teacher. And what she showed me was more than impressive. Half-blood or not, Zelda show more potential than Light ever did. With the right training she will one day be an even greater queen than I´m." Chrysalis stated with a big grin. Manic shoke his head.
"My daughter would never do such things like you did." he screamed at her.
"Yes. Right now she still believes that ponies are her friends, but the hive mind will change this very soon. Since we brought her into the colony, the voises in her head started to show her the changeling way of life. I told all my minions to use the hive mind on her. Sooner or later she will give in to them and her mind will be broken. After that the hive will be the centre of her world and she will love me like the mother she never had. You on the other side will be totaly meaningless to her." she said and sat herself back on her throne.
"Since you cost me my beloved daughter it´s only fair, when your daughter takes her place." she finaly stated. Manic Moons head hung low. His face was covered be his mane.
"So....that´s it?" he asked.
"What?....What do you mean?" she asked confused. Manic Moon looked up, tears in his eyes.
"After all this year, in which you hate her, you just change your mind and realy believe this gives you the right to take her away from her real family? All her friends, the ponies she grow up with. What kind of a cruel mother are you?" he asked enraged. Chrysalis was taken aback by his words.
"You don´t know anything about. her. How coud you? You´ve never been a part of her life. Tell me! Where did you´ve been when she was only 7 months old and got this terrible fever? he asked.
"What?...I...was.." she started, but was cute of by the demon pony.
"You were not there! I was the one who brought her into the hospital in the middle of the night. I was the one who was sitting at her bed for two long days, without any sleep, until the fever finaly went down. Or the day when she changed for the very first time. Where were you?" he asked on.
"I...ähm..." Chrysalis stammered.
"I was there! She was nearly three years old. I was waking up from a nap and she was sitting on my belly, looking like a filly version of me." Manic explained. Chrysalis was sitting on her throne like on a electric chair.
"Do you even know anything about your granddaughter? What she loves? What she hates? Her fears, favorite food or her dreams for the future." Manic asked her directly.
"I DON´T KNOW IT!!! I don´t know anything about her. That´s what you want to hear right? That I´m a terrible queen, mother and grandmother. I failed at everything I tryed. My folk is hunted all over Equestria, my daughter hated me untill she died and my granddaughter will be no difference." Chrysalis screamed, while tears formed in her eyes. She buried her face in her hooves. The moment he saw this, all of Manics rage turned into pity for Chrysalis. Maybe she wasn´t the heartless monster everypony thought she was.
Then he remembered something his grandfather told him a long time ago. Back then a single diamond dog attacked two filly demon ponies in a tunnel near the mushroom farms. He hurt them pretty bad, but the older demon ponies managed to hunt him down and kill him before he could do any more harm. Most of the adults called him a monster, who deserved his destiny. But my grandpa said he was probadly just an outsider of his tribe and nearly starved to dead when he attacked them.
"Always remember this Manic! Monsters shall made, not born. Nopony is evil by nature. There is always a cause for it." his voise echoed in Manic Moons head. He sighted.
"She never hated you." Manic said.
"W-what?" Chrysalis asked between sobs.
"I said she never hated you. I know you and your daughter had different oppinions in life, but I also know for sure that she loved you as much as she loved me." Manic stated. Chrysalis looked at him, still tears running down her face.
"Realy? She loved me?" she asked. Manic Moon nodded.
"Yes, she realy loved you. Maybe not as much as she loved me, but pretty close to it. She always told me what a great queen you are and that she hoped to be at least half as good as you one day. That you would always care for the best of the hive. She also told me how you read her the stories of the little, toothless changeling everytime she was sad as little filly." he explained. Chrysalis remembered this peaceful days. They seamed so far away. New tears formed in her eyes.
"I....I...I don´t know what to say. I....Oh Light! What have I done?" she cryed and fell on her knees.
"Look Chrysalis, I think this all don´t has to end bad. Light wouldn´t want us to fight each other. How about you get me out of this strange green gloo and give me back my daughter. And then we start new." Manic overed. Chrysalis just layed on the ground silently sobing, but after some seconds two changelings landed next to Manic Moon and released him. He walked over to her and this time he place his hoof under her chin and lifted her face up.
"Come on! It´s time to meet your granddaughter. And this time we show her your real face." Manic said with a smile. Chrysalis started to smile too.
"Now I know why my beloved daughter fell in love with you." she answered and stood up.
"Yes, I´m a real charmer. He he he he!" Manic said with a wink and punched her in the side.
"Don´t push your luck or you´re back in the goo-ball quicker than you think." Chrysalis answered with with fake anger and punched him in return.
"AU! Be careful! I´ve still got a damaged wing and some broken ribs." he said while holding his left side.
"Well, what do you expect? Who is so stupid and attacks a whole changeling hive all alone?" she asked in return.
"It´s the result that matters. Ha ha ha ha!" Manic replied.
Zelda was still laying in a dark corner of her room. She pressed her hooves on her ears, but the voises in her mind didn´t stop talking. She didn´t knew what they were saying, she didn´t listened to them anyway.
"Leave me alone! I won´t listen! I WON´T LISTEN!" she screamed. As soon as she screamed this words the voises disappeared. There was only silence left. Zelda looked up confused.
"Can´t believe that actualy worked." she said. In this very moment the door to her room opened again. Zelda looked afraid to the door. What if the voises only went silent because the scary lady was about to come back. But when she saw, who realy stood in the door, her heart screamed of joy.
"DADDY!" was all she could say before she jumped at her father and huged him as strong as she could. Tears run down her face.
"I was so scared daddy. When I woke up in this dark room, I was all alone. I...I...daddy!" she explained before she started to cry in his arms. Manic was stroking her mane.
"Ssssh! It´s okey! Nopony will hurt you. We´re going back home." he explained in a calm voise. His daughter looked up at him.
"Realy? We can go back home?" she asked, smiling over her whole face.
"Yes, but first....there is somepony you´ve got to meet." Manic said. Zeldas smile faded a bit.
"Who?" she asked.
"She told me you´ve seen her before, but I promise she will be much more nice this time. Her name is Chrysalis and she is your grandma." Manic said with a big smile to comfort his daughter.
"I´ve got a grandma? Zelda asked confused. Manic had to hold back a laugh.
"Yes. And she realy wants to meet you and apologise for her behavior." he answered and stood up. Then he turned to the door, while Zelda hid under his belly.
"Right Chrysalis?" he asked aloud to give her a sign to come in. Chrysalis slowly walked in. Carefully to not scare of her granddaughter. She sat down in front of Manic, unsure what to do next. Zelda peeked up from her spot under Manic Moon.
"Are....are you realy my grandma?" she asked. Chysalis nodded.
"Yes. I´m your....grandma. I´m....I´m so sorry! What I nearly done to you. I can never make this up to you and your daddy." Chrysalis answered and and let her head hang down. Again tears formed in her eyes. Before she could say anything more, Chrysalis felt a tiny body started to hug her. She opened her eyes and Zelda looked up to her with a big smile on her face.
"I´ve always wanted a grandma! That´s so awesome!" the little filly stated and huged her grandma even more. A new wave of tears ran down Chrysalis face. She closed her arms around Zelda and returned the hug.
"Thank you!.....Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" the queen of the changelings repeated again and again. Manic Moon just sat there and wached them, smiling while he did so. Looks like their family had grown once again. This time they had won a grandma for Zelda.......and a couple of thousand minions too.
