Chapter 2: Brownies.
Derpy yawned as she rolled out of bed falling flat on her face again causing her eyes to go spinning slightly. She straightened her eyes out immediately and took a step towards the stairs only to set her front hoof down on the skate she left there last week causing her to tumble down the stairs and end up on her wings. Her mail bag fell on top of her from its post like it always did in the morning. She was clumsy and not the air of professionalism she tended to show, she wasn't a morning pony and she needed her sugar intake via muffin.
Smiling to herself Derpy made her way to the bathroom that was on the first floor for a reason she would not go into. After getting a shower, drying off and putting her mail bag around herself she thought about what to take with her on the mission of importance that involved danger and intrigue.
Too bad Dixie wasn't going, it was going to be a lot of fun and scary at the same time but most importantly she would finally know what Dolly does in her spare time when she wasn't busy. Hopefully her secrets would hold out as long as Dolly's would, she knew they wanted to know things about each other. They both must have had rough pasts behind them.
After finally having a list of things to put into her mail bag, Derpy picked up a several things placing them into it. A hoof file, a bit of string, one golf ball, a solitary paper clip, a single can of instant five second tornado and a pouch of normal blue marbles she finally found after they went missing for the last three months. Now all she had to do was figure out how to stuff enough muffins in the bag to last her a month, maybe that instant mix stuff that you just had to add water to.
She hummed as she made her way out the door to see Dolly, who said they would have breakfast today at her place when she bade them farewell and Dixie was going to be there with muffins! Muffins always cheered her up wonderfully and maybe; with Dolly's help plus the additive of a homemade muffin filled with love, Trixie would be a better pony just like Luna. All she needed was a good friend and it would be a large step in the right direction especially if she had a sordid past she didn't like to talk about like they did.
The way Derpy figured it; they were all compensating for the loss of something and had hidden untold stories. She was not far from the truth and she knew it, it was just getting all the truth out into the open was the problem not to mention keeping it between the three of them. Maybe four if Luna was looking for more friends, Dolly sure hasn't met her and Trixie would be humbled to meet someone who is actually great and powerful without the boasting.
As she was just upon Dolly's house she crossed paths with a rather somber Dixie who tossed her a muffin from the basket she was toting around and gave her a cheery "hello" but it still seemed rather subdued for the mothering, kind and sweet pony.
"Are you alright Dixie?" Derpy wondered if the dreamy look on the mares face meant something interesting, said mare turned and gave her a simple response. "I'm fine and I was having an idea for something. I'll bring it up when the rest of our mailing team is having a get together I want to run the idea by all of you when I can get the chance. How's Candy Horn been doing lately? I heard she came down with something dreadful."
They started talking about average things and eventually they walked into Dolly's house to a wonderful smell; Dixie was a great teacher judging by the smell alone. Pancakes not made from grass this time, frying pan made vegetable mix with potato's and some odd circular brown things that were obviously made from bean curd and mushrooms.
Trixie slowly trotted into the room with her magician's hat floppily on her head and sniffing the air, she saw that there were two grey ponies that looked like twins sitting at the table and Dolly was wearing a protective apron while she finished stacking up more food. Whatever that smell was, she was eager to explore it and she felt like eating muffin all of the sudden.
Derpy got her attention by asking Dixie to throw Trixie a homemade muffin, with or without muffin mix Dixie could make an excellent muffin with the right ingredients from scratch.
Then a hoof at the door was heard and Dolly just yelled for them to come in. Both Zecora and Twilight entered without pause and Zecora took one sniff as she walked in before her face lit up with a smile.
Dolly invited them to pull up a chair and start grazing on the spread, it was all going very fast.
"What is that heavenly smell, I wish to know the recipe as well." Zecora was soon introduced to the premiere cooking instructor herself, who could do just about anything you could ask of her within reason. Zecora and Dixie hit it off immediately with a strong bond over talk of cooking and medicine, Dixie wasn't much of an herbalist but she could still mix medicine for sore throats. Medicine was more like Ditzy's thing as she camped outside of Ponyville constantly and knew what plants did what.
It wasn't useful for a pony that never got sick like Ditzy, but it was good information to know to help others.
"Ditzy's cooking is just horrible tasting, but very healthy for anyone who wants to survive out in the wild, by the way Dolly what do you think Ditzy is doing right now?" Dixie was enjoying her morning get together meeting new people, this was all exciting for her and she was going to be dragged through another day of Cutie Mark shenanigans and maybe poor homeless Dinky could join them as she didn't have her cutie mark either.
"Oh, I'm sure she's being a menace as always and someone's taking more aspirin then they need too right about now. Maybe I shouldn't have put her on freelance to that construction crew." As Dolly mentioned freelancing, Twilight perked up and decided to question whether it was legal or not to let mail ponies freelance like Dolly did.
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"We need a doctor quickly, also there's a mare having a foal over there!" The mare of the construction crew with a pink coat and blonde mane had just pulled one of their own from Ditzy's latest wreckage; they really needed to mark wider safe zones.
The mare having a baby was the wife of the colt that was just slightly injured in her recent accident, the mare in question was on her way to visit her husband when her water broke not ten feet from the experimental construction site. Ditzy had a creepy smile cross her face with her crossed eyes as she stumbled from the latest wreckage; this looked like a job for nurse Ditzy.
"I'm a licensed nurse! Get me a med kit, a mattress, hot water and a warm blanket!" Everyone on the construction crew screamed in fear when they heard that Ditzy had a license to do medical stuff and all of them were pulling out medicine bottles and ingested a pill. But after that they quickly carried out her orders, soon a crying foal was had and the colt was able to stand but he would have to lay off his left hind leg for a few days. The bright side is that he would get to enjoy time with his newly born daughter named "Flue", the Stack's family thanked Ditzy for all she did and she even got to hold the foal.
This was all despite the fact that the Ditzy scared the snot out of everyone in the construction crew and their relatives with all the horror stories surrounding her.
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"And that's why I'm allowed to hire my girls out to do freelancing; I used to freelance all the time and it helps build skills that could be useful in delivering the mail and if we ever were to be out of a job we have other abilities to fall back on. Plus the proceeds from freelancing go in part to paying some charities to help ponies everywhere, another small part to our mailing office and finally us the ponies in the mailing business who work hard to make the future a brighter place." Dolly had fascinated not only Twilight, but the silent and intrigued Trixie as well with stories of how her ponies did freelance stuff all around Ponyville.
What was really interesting was that Dolly taught Rainbow Dash a few hoof-to-hoof combat maneuvers and held classes for any pony that was willing to learn to defend themselves especially if they wanted to be travelers. The short story of a mare with a compass cutie mark after that was just as enthralling, even Zecora commented that there were ancient zebra civilizations that were like what Dolly described.
"Well I guess that was a good breakfast. Hope you got packed and that everything you packed was essential Twilight, no books that you aren't willing to lose. Trixie don't worry I'm already planning to provide you with some general provisions. Derpy it looks like you're all prepared except you don't have any muffins in your bag. I'm well aware Zecora that you tend to rely on the land for sustenance but you're going to at least need a canteen. Dixie it's been nice to have you over, now if we can all get going to the hospital to see Spaniel only then can I plan my own supplies from a specialist." With that Dolly clapped her hooves together and they were off, Twilight had to detour to drop a lot of books out of her satchel only leaving the most useful books for which she had copies of already.
When they saw the colt in his bed he looked horrible for a pony wrapped in multiple bandages, it was hard to describe what he looked like under the bandage except for his cutie mark being that of a bird. Derpy tried to smile but at this moment she couldn't but she did offer a bushel of flowers from out nowhere.
"When did you have time to get flowers? Do you have some silly powers?" Zecora looked all the more confused but the collection of flowers did promote health, kinship and get well. Derpy shrugged not really wanting to explain herself while placing them in a vase that wasn't there a second ago to keep them fresh until he could eat them.
"What happened to you sir, if you're not in too much pain?" Twilight had never seen a pony this bad off since herself and she healed ridiculously well for a pony that had a piano dropped on her, Dolly walked up next to her and expressed her own concerns. "Can you even remember what happened?"
"It's fuzzy, but I think I recall suddenly being unable to fly for some reason. I glided into a landing and then I was running for my life, but then it's all blurry I remember arrows… the forest…" Spaniel was in pretty bad shape but the healers were at least working their magic and gave him some very nice looking visitors, considering they were all pretty mares. One looked rather familiar, and then he remembered who she was and his eyes widened in a panic.
"Dolly! Did you… get the letter, please tell me I didn't lose it." He started coughing up blood and he had excited his wounds to much on recognizing Dolly. A unicorn nurse quickly rushed in and magically scanned him to assess the problem while letting Dolly continue to talk to him.
"Yeah, I got it and you didn't lose it Spaniel... you did a good job. Now tell me where you went down; I need a place to start looking!" Dolly already had an idea of what happened to this Pegasus. Now Dolly needed a place to start looking for trouble, she already knew what supplies to pick up.
"Around… Fetlock Forest and Mangora Mountain… be careful out there Doll-face. Use… the mountain… to form a… circle." Spaniel wheezed out before leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
Dolly knew he wasn't dead and what he meant when he said Doll-face, she just had to take the diameter of the area surrounding area using Mangora Mountain as the center and Fetlock Forest for how big the circle is by spinning the radius around the mountain.
The mountain was a commonly traveled thoroughfare for mailing ponies to fly over but it was treacherous to even fly close to the ground as there are tons of dangerous creatures in that region, mostly the magic orb spiders who are sometimes sought out for the magical spheres they can produce that could let you see anywhere within a limited range, you didn't even need magic to use them either as they work for the one in contact with the orb. The only reason why more beings don't try to get these orbs is because the spiders that make them can see someone coming with them.
Thus it's near impossible to sneak into an orb weaver's warren without having your organs liquefied and sucked out by the giant eight legged monsters.
Fetlock Forest was tamer in comparison but still deadly, usually the denizens ignore the trail that the ponies use leading through the area but the fact that Spaniel was assaulted there meant something was up and that's where they'd go first before checking out the mountain as that's where he became flightless in the first place.
"Is he…" Twilight started slowly ears tilted in fear only for the nurse to salve her nerves. "He lost a lot of blood yesterday and he's still recovering, please leave in a calm and respectable manner while I see to it that the patient is perfectly fine."
As they left the hospital Derpy looked back at it sadly, poor Mr. Arro was so badly off and he was one of the best long distance flyers. While she and the rest of team forty might need to make a junction or two to make deliveries he flies directly to a place without stopping anywhere in between and he was someone to truly look up to, only he wasn't looking so good right now.
After stopping at several shops to pick up a canteen for both Trixie and Zecora with a small amount of travelling supplies, Dolly led them all to the one place that Derpy spent a lot of time going to when Applejack wasn't around to ruin it for her. It was the Sugar Cube Corner shop and Dolly turned to address all of them.
"Excuse me I have some special supplies to pick up and there's only one pony in all of Ponyville that can make them, I won't be long." Dolly marched into the shop looking around at all the pastries, baked goods and assorted food items. She wondered where Pinkie was at this time, because she was posed to be right here.
From Derpy's perspective as well as the other three members of DERP, they watched as Pinkie appeared from out of nowhere behind Dolly and yelled something. Dolly shot into the ceiling causing small amounts of dust, wood and debris to fall to the floor.
"How does she do that?" Twilight asked rhetorically because even she couldn't put a scientific explanation to Pinkie being able to teleport like that, she wasn't a unicorn. So it made no sense like her "Pinkie Sense" and as Pinkie has mentioned before she knew every pony in Ponyville including not surprisingly Dolly herself, but what did Dolly need from Pinkie?
"She is like an amazing little child; her tricks are always really wild." Zecora watched as Pinkie started bouncing around Dolly apparently singing something excitedly, only to get a hoof in the mouth stopping her from continuing her antics. That was the same thing Rainbow Dash does to Pinkie on occasions, was the first thought that came to Twilight's mind.
"I have to say, I've never actually seen an earth pony do that." Trixie actually joined in on the conversations since they first started touring Ponyville, usually to pick a fight with Twilight. As her canteen hung loosely against her chest she felt a beat of friendship in her heart. It would become something Trixie cherished as much as her recently cleaned clothing and being clean not to mention having her mane refreshed.
"PIE-FACE! Settle down I need a special order." Dolly received a mock salute from her substitute dispatcher who giggled with glee.
"Okay what do you need Dolly? I've got everything and more, from my special interest store! Would you like some jumping juice or maybe something like power persimmon punch? I've got all kinds of stuff, just hanging around and I'm willing to sell to one of my dearest oldest friends whose going on an adventure out of town. Because I'm Pinkie, your one stop shop for it all. Special today on invisibility ink, if you're going to be running into danger and especially your fears! You'll find my anti gravity shakes, one sip may make you fly if not fall! I've got poppers that will make you laugh as you disappear! So what is it that you think you need Dolly? Cause I've always got everything and more, especially in my special super secret hidden store. Don't you know I'm always here for you and if you think I'm leaving you with empty hooves why the thought of it could just make me… LAUGH!" Pinkie was an excitable fun loving scamp that actually got Dolly to smile before it fell when she decided to make a special order that she knew might or might not upset Pinkie, who was in a fit of giggles.
"Special number four and I'm not kidding, I'm going to need it." Dolly said simply with as blank a face as she could muster to prove she was serious, Pinkie gave a disheartening laugh which soon turned into a frown.
"You're not serious are you, but that's dangerous! I mean the Streamers and the Poppers are fine, but the BB's and the C Four! Are you crazy? That stuff is dangerous and it could hurt some pony! Why not just take some Gummiberry Juice while you're at it, at least that stuff will make you all happy and bouncy as I am." Pinkie didn't have a nice look on her face from what everyone outside the store had seen; in fact she didn't seem as happy as she was a second ago.
This was rather disconcerting to Twilight who had never seen Pinkie get angry; in fact it looked like Dolly didn't seem to be flinching in the slightest from Pinkies puffy pout. After a few more words were shared between Dolly and Pinkie, Pinkie was apparently trying to make some kind of compromise. But the pink pony sulked when it became apparent that there was no compromise with the blank faced grey eyed mare. Whatever Dolly asked of her it certainly was serious, to get Pinkie to stop acting hyperactive.
"Dolly I don't like giving these things to you, but you better not hurt Twilight or Derpy with this stuff. By the way is that Trixie out there? Is she going to not be a boastful mcboaster pants? I really want to be her friend like I am with Gilda she's been a lot nicer lately and…" Pinkie might be sore with Dolly for a while but she'd still talk to her. All Dolly did was simply move a hoof across her chest and tapped the left side of her head while giving Pinkie a wink but no smile crossed her face.
"Pinkie no distractions, hoof it over." Listening to what Dolly was saying Pinkie frowned and ducked behind the counter.
In her secret special interest shop that only a few ponies knew about and she had to keep under wraps, Pinkie started pulling stuff from what she had stocked away a while ago. After she got all the stuff Dolly needed she looked at a particular small bottle of red liquid and then reached up with her hoof when she felt a twitch come over her. Only Celestia and a small gaggle of freelancers knew she even had stuff like this.
She came back up with a satchel minutes later and shoved it to Dolly who put it around herself before pulling out a large amount of cash and placing it on the counter which Pinkie simple took without question or exuberance.
"Hopefully I won't have to use any of this, but if we're going into danger and I find out that you didn't pack the maximum number of C Fours. It'll be on you whether I come back from this mission or not, make sure to visit Dixie everyday something is making her feel sad and she needs cheering up. Good day Pinkie, I hope I come back from this alive as I know you never say good bye unless you mean to say hello again." Dolly watched as Pinkie gave her a brave smile, the poor pony knew what kind of stuff Dolly was carrying now and it broke her heart that that kind of stuff was being used again.
"Okay Dolly, I'll watch the office while you're away and make sure Dixie gets a cheer up party or whatever it is she needs. Don't worry I packed exactly ten poppers, twenty special five feet streamers, fifty BB's and four C Fours." Dolly noticed Pinkie was trying to put cheer in her voice but it was obvious she couldn't do it and just sounded like she was straining against herself. Especially when it came to the most dastardly weapon ever devised by the pink pony actually coming into use, the C Four stuff was not to be taken lightly, in comparison the BB's were less lethal but still pretty dangerous if having multiple different uses.
"Good, see you later pinkie, if there is a later Pie-face." Dolly gave Pinkie a determined look before she was outside and addressing the others on what they should do next. Pinkie's hair almost went straight, a few tears came to her eyes and she wished hopefully that Dolly would be back.
"Okay we are officially ready; you are all members of DERP and volunteers you can drop out at any time if you're uncomfortable, but know this… I'm not the leader of this expedition." Dolly caused them all to blink; they thought she was leading them through all this.
"But, I thought you would tell us what to do ma'am." Derpy gave Dolly a mail pony salute which caused her to smile a little that Derpy was still a trooper she could count on. Even if Derpy were battered, bruised or slammed through a brick wall she'd promptly get up, deliver the mail and then proceed to pass out.
"No we're all equal in this; no pony is above another we each have our differences and strengths, whether we take advice from each other or not, we're doing this. If anyone has anything to say they speak up and offer to advise our course of action, right now I'm suggesting we head straight for Fetlock Forest and a start our search there for any strange happenings." Not getting any response Dolly turned and trotted off with Derpy following her immediately at her left side. Trixie thought for a moment and went next and stayed on her right side. While Zecora and Twilight brought up the rear.
"Into danger I be walking, I just hope all we do is a lot of talking." Zecora's voice was heard loud and clear and thus they chatted about everyday random things as they exited Ponyville.
Dolly brought up how her days in the past week or so had been slow because of this incident messing up all the mail deliveries; it was just a surprise no delivery pony went missing yet. So far the closest to going missing was Spaniel Arro laid up in Ponyville. Trying to steer the topic away from such trying thoughts Twilight brought up a discussion of edible flora and fauna. It wasn't long before Trixie actually snapped at Twilight when she said daisies were the best tasting flower around and complained that it was sunflowers. It was surprising that Derpy put her hoof down and became voice of reason for the two as she settled their argument, then started talking about how many kinds of fruit flavored muffins there were and the power of muffin being a religious practice for her. Dolly rolled her eyes; she was going to need the extra bottle of aspirin she packed.
Soon they were standing outside of Fetlock Forest. Trixie and Twilight got on each other's nerves constantly but at least Trixie wasn't being a braggart, she already learned her lesson the hard way but she was still combative where Twilight was concerned. Zecora was being rather quiet never having spent too much time in the company of others like this before.
Derpy just fluttered around Dolly playfully flitting about in the air with her wings flapping constantly until she was over the trees of the forest, that's when things started going downhill for DERP. Dolly stopped flying forward above the other ponies as she felt an odd twitch that there was danger ahead and stopped to hover outside the edge of the not very thick forest, but it was thick enough to hide its dangers from the unwary. She watched as Derpy flew over the forest and saw that Derpy's wings snapped to her side immediately against her will and she fell into a tree on the outer edge of the forest before finally flopping onto her face as she hit the ground with a few leaves sticking out of her mouth. Dolly was about to fly forward to help Derpy up only to pull back as she felt a very wild cold twitch go down her spine again causing her to stop and settle on the ground.
Trixie was first to Derpy's side asking what happened, Derpy tried to work her wings to fly but they wouldn't move at all. Dolly who was hanging back looked in the distance between her and Derpy before she trotted forward slightly and felt her wings lock up as soon as she stepped within the forest, she moved back slightly and her wings were back under her control.
"Now that… is rather interesting. Trixie, Twilight, tell me if you can feel something in the air!" Trixie and Twilight both responded to Dolly's urgent voice, with haste as their horns glowed. They both felt something and their eyes widened as they were feeling an immense pressure of magic blanketing the forest causing them to back out of the forest, but not without dragging a dizzy Derpy along silently chewing on the leaves in her mouth.
"What is this? It feels like the entire forest is out to get me." Trixie stammered out as she started to cower slightly. Why was she cowering? She was the above average and moderately talented Trixie! She still wasn't quite back into the bragging business yet.
"I think I might have a headache, how can some pony use this much magic to cover a whole forest and what does it even do?" Twilight was curious whereas Trixie reacted with fear; they both had the right idea about what Dolly certainly felt. Kneeling down next to Derpy she had the pony flare her wings out and she did so. Dolly had Derpy get up and trot a few steps towards the forest until her wings snapped themselves closed.
"Does that answer your question? Anti flight magic, potent too. It'd bring down any Pegasus that flies right into it unless they had the same sensing abilities I do. Spaniel must have been high enough from the magic that it didn't immediately close his wings so he had enough time glide to safety until his wings cut out over the forest. Falling a great distance he was still able to drag himself out of the forest where he was assaulted by unknown assailants with purpose to stop the mail from getting through, the big question is who is causing all this? Not who is helping the cause, which we will probably find in there." Dolly got a strange look from Twilight as she wandered over.
"Sensing abilities?" Twilight asked in a questioning tone as her face showed the curiosity it always did; she loved studying and experiencing new things. Frankly friendship was one of the best things to happen to her as it got her to stop being a shut in and now she had to try and be friends with Trixie; it was just that the mare was making it so hard to get along.
"Do you know about the Pinkie sense? Because that's similar to what I have, I've tried to teach Pinkie, but she doesn't have the same flare for detecting danger that I do. Instead her sense is more geared toward sensing humorous outcomes, just watch out when she has an itchy twitchy nose." Dolly saw the skeptical look on Twilights face and decided to give her a history on sensing abilities as she herself saw it.
"Are you always skeptical about abilities outside your ability to comprehend? Well then let me tell you, the ability to sense things occurs in Earth Ponies at a high rate, some winged ponies pick it up as well but it's more uncommon and finally unicorns never get the ability because it ends up being broken down and thrust into their magical ability giving them a little more raw power than usual. Winged ponies that get it, only get it because they have at least one earth pony in their ancestry and it doesn't matter if said pony had the ability or not. The ability to sense things is quite random at what you can exactly sense; my ability is the 'danger sense' which is why it became a nickname of mine. I know when something dangerous is about to occur, from what direction, the size of the danger and who it might affect. " Dolly didn't feel threatened by any danger until she stepped close to the forest and once inside the boundaries of it her sense went slightly haywire as her wings snapped to her sides, her ability to sense danger would be useless as she'd be in constant danger the second she stepped into it. The danger was positively too massive to tell where smaller dangers would be coming from.
"That's rather incredible and fascinating but how does it work? Pinkie couldn't explain how hers worked except what certain twitches mean and even that didn't explain much!" Twilight threw here hooves in the air agitated that someone knew all about 'Pinkie Sense' thing and could have told her ahead of time before she got humorously injured multiple times.
"Quite frankly it just does, that is all you need to know. Some would say heightened senses but that's not entirely true except maybe in some cases for a few ponies that can sense things by even the faintest of sounds. It's better that you don't try to understand because seeing what you can do, you were possibly born with a powerful sensing ability that got turned into raw power. Meaning if you weren't born as a unicorn you just might have been one of the unlucky few to have a future sensing ability and those are the worst kinds to get because that kind of ability is never safe to have and has drove some ponies to complete and utter madness if they couldn't control it. Now calm down and let's start up a round of suggestions for how we go about this, because obviously me and Derpy aren't going t be flying anywhere once we're in that forest and my ability to sense things will be next to useless from the constant danger I feel just standing outside of it." Dolly watched as Twilight slowly calmed down and they sat down and started to graze outside the forest while coming up with ideas for what to do from here.
"I feel that this won't end well, but that is only something that time could tell." Zecora was staring at the forest as she bit into another flower and chewed.
"Must you always rhyme?" Trixie was getting annoyed that the zebra couldn't stop speaking almost perfectly in rhyme, there were a few times but that wasn't near enough and she was feeling very wary about the forest already. Most of all she was wondering if she was born with a sense that got dumped into improving her magical ability because there was a few times she could do some really weird things when she focused hard enough. To know Twilight might have been born with something that translated into the raw power she saw that night with the Ursa Minor did explain a few things about the purple unicorn mare and how she could be so powerful in magical ability.
"Sorry I can't stop it I say, for I will most likely always talk this way." Zecora shrugged at that and continued to stare at the forest, she actually felt at home in the Everfree Forest with all its dangers, but Fetlock Forest is making her nervous despite looking entirely peaceful. It was a small gallop away from Mangora Mountain after all and that's why it was making her nervous, she never wanted to see one of the giant orb weavers personally.
"As Ditzy would say, "no flying is content to grape juice about" whatever she meant when she said it." Derpy's wandering eye problem tended to make Twilight feel awkward for staring and it was becoming more and more noticeable as time went on. Derpy was a fully functional mail delivery pony and she shouldn't be staring like she was.
"Well I think we should stick together and keep a look out for anything suspicious while we go in and search around. It's not overly big forest so we shouldn't get lost." Nobody had a better plan or idea, so they went with Twilights. Dolly organized them into a pentagon formation where she was at the front Derpy and Zecora were at the back. Trixie and Twilight were far left and right respectively, they were told to stop anything from coming at them too fast if they could by using levitation magic. They all started trotting at the same speed while keeping their eyes wary of their surroundings while the sun was still high in the sky filtering through the trees in spots along their way.
The further along they moved the more Dolly started to sweat and feel a burning pain in her head; her danger sense was flaring brighter and brighter all the time. They had to be getting close to something at this point. It was also noticeable that there were no birds around and her skull was on practically on fire with warning her about her surroundings.
Dolly had to stop, causing the others to watch as took a pill of aspirin dry, followed by a swallow of water from her canteen. Some pony considered the dangers of her overdosing on aspirin, but when it was found out it was impossible for her to overdose or get any harmful side effects from the medicine she took it as freely as she needed too. She did however regulate herself to one dosage followed by a three hour limit before taking another.
"Dolly, Ms. Verance is everything okay." Trixie watched as Dolly put a hoof to her head before nodding. Trixie wasn't as reassured as her... well she didn't know what Dolly happened to be to her. Though seeing Dolly looking severely uncomfortable and sweating a lot, had her worried.
"I just have a bad migraine of a headache, there's so much danger around me it's actually causing me to feel pain. But whatever the danger is we're getting close to it, but I'll be fine enough to fight no worries there. Though eventually my ability to sense might overload if this keeps up and then I won't have it for a while, happens to those who can sense the future quite often as a coping mechanism." Gritting her teeth Dolly kept moving forward while Twilight watched her, feeling as if she wanted to do something to make it easier on Dolly but there was nothing she could think of.
Derpy has never seen Dolly this poor off before, then again she had never seen Dolly do much outside being a mail dispatcher, weather pony or any other odd job she had like teaching hoof-to-hoof basics.
"Dolly… didn't Mr. Arro mentioned arrows after he fell?" Derpy's wandering eye caught the sight of something the tree's around them. Her head swiftly swiveled towards it whereas nobody else noticed it, but a shadow could be seen leaping through the tree's disappearing into the backdrop.
"Yes he did… why do you see something, Derpy?" Twilight was concentrating on her surroundings and the shameless and humble Trixie was on high alert as she was nowhere near Twilights caliber of pure power. What Twilight had in power, Trixie made up in having finesse and control.
"I saw something moving in the tree's when my eye was wandering; it ran away as soon as I tried to look towards it." As soon as Derpy had finished saying that Dolly was immediately on high alert; as was everyone else, they were being observed. Right now Dolly was too stressed to concentrate on any particular danger as the entire surrounding area was swamped with the feeling and it was only getting worse by the second.
"We're not alone I feel, soon that danger will be real." Zecora was moved to the center of the group calmly by Dolly whose eyes were jittering about the shaded area looking through the trees for whatever threat may come. She put her hoof down in irritation and she almost didn't see the arrow before it was stopped in front of her eyes. Trixie was glad she caught the speeding object when she did and with a flick of magic she flung it back in the direction it came causing something to scream out slightly, but then all was quiet.
"Brownies." Dolly said under her breath. While Derpy kept perfectly still her wandering eye problem was actually being useful for once, as her eye wandered she could see shadows moving quickly all around them. Zecora shifted back a step, they all heard the subtle crunch of leaves. Derpy saw one shadow stop with a shine of metal pointing at...
Derpy turned around and threw herself bodily onto Zecora and an arrow whizzed through the air where her body would have been. It was quickly caught by Twilight and magically flung back at the thing that shot it causing it squeak as it took a blow to the head from the shaft of its own projectile falling into some bushes which shuffled as it ran away.
"Now is not the time to be thinking of snacks Dolly we're under attack by whatever it is that's shooting those arrows at us!" Twilight evenly said keeping her concentration in a half circle area in front of her stopping a few arrows that shot her way with levitation magic and then dropped them carefully on the ground ready to launch them once she could see a target.
"I was not asking for a snack, what we're dealing with right now is a group of creatures called "Brownies" and usually "Brownies" are not violent like this. Something has them agitated enough to attack us." You could positively hear the air quotes in Dolly's quiet, sardonic voice as she put a hoof to her head and then randomly rammed into Trixie to get an arrow in her flank below her left symbol.
Dolly hissed in pain as the arrow that was sticking out of her was bobbing up and down with each step, causing no end to any agony as she tried to keep her eyes out for any more, backing up with every pony into a tight cross formation. Trixie got up and looked at Dolly, but she wasn't seeing Dolly at the moment she was seeing something else as the flash of a bloody visage crossed her vision.
It was replaced with Dolly getting her attention as Zecora carefully pried the arrow out of her flank causing the blood to flow more freely and she quickly placed on some odd looking gunk she had scooped up from the ground. It was followed by Zecora slapping a leaf over it where it got stuck to Dolly's hind quarters like a bandage. Dolly only grunted slightly and kept any sound of being in pain to a minimum at the arrow being removed. Zecora had to dodge a few arrows to get at some of the soothing moss, arrows littered the ground where her hooves had struck before Twilight levitated them and flung them back into the brush.
"Trixie I respectfully ask that you please do get back to saving my butt anytime now. Anyway Twilight, Brownies are brown fox like creatures that can walk on their hind legs; they aren't very dangerous unless they are disturbed. They are sometimes said to become invisible but that's not true, as they're name suggests they are very much brown and thus indiscernible from tree bark making them hard to see in forests. " Well at least Twilight knew what was shooting at them now, but not how to deal with it and Dolly was being very quiet right now.
"Well do you know why they're attacking us?" Despite previous reactions to movement Twilight was understandably surprised that no more arrows followed as she whispered back to Dolly.
"One something's clearly got them upset like I already said, two they react to quick movement and loud noises poorly. Like the twig Trixie stepped on." Dolly said quietly, looking at the ground they noticed a snapped twig. Her reaction speed had to be amazing enough that she knocked Trixie out of the way just as the twig snapped.
"So if we stay quiet they won't shoot at us?" The scared and somewhat hopeful Trixie stated.
"Not exactly, I just said they reacted to loud noises poorly. Not that they were deaf or dumb. Any pony got an idea? We really need to find what's disturbing everything that ends up causing stuff like this to happen, lucky no pony has traversed this forest in a while." They all stood there thinking quietly how they were going to get out of this mess.
"Any chance we can reason with them?" Twilight said trying to always mediate a fight where plausible.
"Do you speak Brownie? If not, that suggestion is immediately shot down." Dolly said eyes slowly scanning the tree's around them.
"Is there any chance we can out run them or for one of us to lead them away?" The mildly wary and planning Trixie stated with her glowing horn held aloft at the trees in front of her.
"Make it plan B, what we need is a plan A… one that doesn't involve any more pony perforation." Dolly silently hoofed at the leaf covered her flank where the arrow had hit her.
"I have an idea that seems clear, what if we try and lure one near? We can show we mean no harm, the plan could work like a charm." Zecora was looking at one of the Brownies they were hard to pick out against the trees but she could see its outline and Dolly looked at Zecora behind her.
"Is any pony against that course of action? Because it sounds like a plan to me, I don't mind taking a hostage in a friendly manner, but whose going to do the luring." Dolly watched as Derpy slowly raised a hoof shaking her head that she had something against it.
The wall eyed pony then lowered herself to the ground and crawled quietly away from them into the nearby brush; with the other four watching curiously wondering what she was up to.
"What is she doing?" As far as Twilight could tell they were still not raising their voices for the fact that they didn't want to die because a curious bunch of forest folk got jumpy about strangers in their forest, also the arrows look like they hurt from the look on Dolly's face.
"I think she has her own plan." The forlorn and distraught Trixie stated, she actually liked Derpy's muffin ramblings and was started to feel a bond with her and her oddly alluring cheery smile. After a few minutes of quietly waiting around Twilight had a grimace on her face as she thought that something bad might have happened to Derpy.
They were all sweating making sure to not make any sudden moves when suddenly a bunch of Brownies just dropped out of the tree's making squeaking noises as they did with their tails waving in the air as they surrounded them completely. But the short fox people weren't notching any arrows in their bows or making any aggressive actions toward them.
Still not making any sudden movements they watched as Derpy trot back up to them with a cute little brown and green furred Brownie curled up on her back making cute noises. The quiver carrying brown foxes with homemade bows jump up and down excitedly at seeing the tiny injured fox snuggled into Derpy's back between her wings.
"The little kit was trapped under a large rock; I'm surprised they let me help her. Can I keep her Dolly?" Derpy spoke with a normal tone of voice and despite how agitated the Brownies seemed Dolly relaxed a little, despite the fact that they notched arrows but didn't fire almost instantaneously the second they did was generally some good news that at least they weren't on the offensive anymore.
"No Derpy, besides it belongs with its parents" Dolly said edgily, not trying to get any more arrows shot at her as even if they were small, they hurt a lot.
Looking at the fox creature Zecora strode off without a word, the Brownies watched as she moved around the area looking at and picking up a few plants.
"The little one is very well hurt; if we help her maybe this meeting will be harmlessly curt." The Brownies were curious about the four legged creatures or mostly the odd looking black and white one. Zecora started mashing bits of plant into a fine paste to make the swelling go down and heal some of the injuries the kit incurred from what had happened to it.
They were sure now that the equines weren't exactly hostile or dangerous, they were protecting the kit from the threat that has recently invaded the forest when it got trapped and the threat has already eaten a few winged ones from their hunting grounds.
Besides the winged ones of the hunt staying on the ground, the Brownies also didn't like that the flying beauty speakers were also flightless. It was a bad omen that the creature that invaded their forest was the cause and these strange creatures weren't involved with that. In fact these look like the creatures that wandered by their areas every now and then, apparently they were curious of the flightless singers as well.
The Brownies watched silently as the Zecora took care of the poor little Brownie kit; it leapt up and licked Zecora in the face when she was done before going over to the others and squeaking something to its own kind. It was making gestures at the ponies with its paws, but it didn't seem to be talking in any hostile manner.
What they did next was rather strange, the ponies and the resident zebra watched as the Brownies started to draw something on the ground in great detail combining their efforts to ask for outside help and they were praying to the vixen goddess of the clouds that these creatures would help solve the dilemma.
Trixie and Twilight immediately knew what it was but the others didn't. The Brownies were looking at them expectantly; they had banded together and decided to draw images on the ground to relay their desire for help, along with using sad facial expressions to help the thinking process along of why they took to drawing the picture. The kit said they were nice and not hostile or even meat eaters, but they were large plant eaters and some of them were made flightless as well judging by the fact that two of them had wings and weren't enjoying the use of them.
"What is it?" Derpy wanted to know, next to Dolly who looked at the picture with a quirked eye.
Apparently Trixie and Twilight knew what it was or they wouldn't be looking so pale, it must have something to do with magic then.
"I think that they want us to help them with it, but who could possibly summon one of those? I mean I've seen a picture like that in my book of magical monstrosities, but every story I've heard about them has them eating the unicorn that tries to summon one for whatever reason they'd need a carnivorous beast like that. " Twilight turned to Dolly who gave an empathetic shrug. What this news implied was that this mess was caused by a magical being that wasn't a pony, plus it was causing the Brownies to act the way they did. They were rather cute when they weren't lobbing arrows at you and the way their triangular ears twitched in rhythm was kind of adorable.
"I can think of a few good reasons, but that would be me just being petty. I've read a thing or two about these creatures myself, never thought I would actually see one personally. I'm most certain that even I a unique and intelligent Unicorn can handle one." Trixie's false bravado didn't exactly shine through as the other mares stared at her, she was almost bragging but it was true that she was intelligent in her own way and that she was a unique a unicorn as any other with her own talents.
"Yes, but neither of you two are stating what this image of the thing they etched into the ground exactly is… so out with it!" Dolly saw the pensive look on Twilight's face and mildly scolded look on Trixie's.
The Brownies were waiting patiently watching as the creatures made neighing noises to each other, obviously the language was hard to understand for them. The kit that had been caught by a large rock was bouncing around cheerfully as she yipped about how the creatures understood what they were trying to get across. One male Brownie in particular wagged his tail in indecision, was it really wise to invite the powerful looking horned ones that glow as the circles in the sky to deal with their problems?
Derpy wondered how everyone else's day was going, so far nothing seriously scary happened other than having arrows shot at her friends and ending up in one of them without too much harm by the chocolate foxes that were actually pretty friendly. She really wanted a pet, but Dolly was right the Brownie did belong with its own kind.
()
Ditzy and the construction crew were getting a lot closer to finding a solution to the age old problem of how do you keep a Ditzy from knocking a wall down? Rubber cement wouldn't work because of structural integrity issues and so far as they could tell, there was no wall Ditzy couldn't bring down. This just left them with the option to have the support structure strengthened to the point it was still standing even if it didn't have any walls left.
The results were a bit better after that.
()
Dixie pined as she watched the little unicorn struggled to read, it tore at her heart strings that the poor little thing was being raised randomly by volunteers and it didn't have a stable home life except for maybe Cheerilee the school teacher who couldn't always be around to take care of the poor thing as she was busy with looking over school work or life kept getting in the way.
Slowly Dixie wandered to the child and carefully looked over her shoulder, the little unicorn looked up at her with those cute big eyes of hers from her reading and slowly Dixie started to form a bond by asking what she was reading. The Cutie Mark Crusaders wandered over looking into a new prospective unmarked member and soon all five of them were sitting in a small circle while the little filly known as Dinky tried to read the story to all them with minor supportive help from Dixie, she was letting the little foal read for herself unless she needed help. Obviously Cheerilee had a hoof in teaching the foal to read.
It was heart meltingly quiet in Ponyville, compared to what was happening somewhere else in the world involving Vamponies on this particular day.
()
Dipsy ducked a fireball as it melted the snow in the surrounding area. Ponies were running and taking shelter everywhere around her or trying to knock the wyverns from the sky.
Just how screwed up could her life keep getting? Now it was the high intellect wyverns that had hired the Griffon Assassins and saying these wyverns had some intellect was something because most of their species were crude and full of idiots that could be led to fly into walls.
Dragons usually were fine with anyone as long as you didn't touch their treasure, you left them alone and you didn't disturb them. But a wyvern actively hunted out fresh pony meat and other beings heads to munch on; they were quite nasty to deal with. They were also the exceptionally rare fire breathing kind of wyvern which was an awful prospect to Dipsy that her luck wasn't getting any better.
They had two large wings brimming with muscles, snake like head, two powerful clawed feet and a vicious tail ending in spikes, they were the reason why Wonderbolts existed in the first place. It roared angrily as Dipsy took cover behind a heavy fire proofed table that was knocked over in the ensuing chaos.
"Mighty fine day for a tousle yah bonny lass, I be seeing if I can knock a few from disturbing ye' if you don't be given a hoot about having all them smart beasties yourself. Otherwise I'd be saying you be hogging all the fun for yourself and they don't be looking that tough." The earth pony that spoke to Ditzy was a rather unusual Celtic pony by the unusual name of Sham Wrecked Rocky who had apparently recently colored her whole coat to a really ugly shade of plaid from its normal forest green color.
She had bright orange eyes, a messy red mane pulled into a loose wide braid and she was a rough in tumble kind of pony who Ditzy met at a lemonade drinking contest after the thing with the griffons and continually wished that she hadn't. She was the most oddest Earth pony anyone could imagine especially when she could get drunk by just consuming lemonade, not to mention she goes through all the signs of truly being drunk including the entire barfing portion afterwards. Lemonade was truly unbelievably alcoholic to her and her flank mark was a shamrock with a portion of the shamrock being pink noticeably forming a heart within, representing pride in her clan or something about pride in being tough that she rambled on about when they met.
Apparently Sham thought they were good friends after the fierce fruit juice drinking competition and being drunk under her own table while singing songs about how brave ponies died for the future of their clans with strength and honor.
Quite frankly Dipsy Duh wished she never had met the loony, at least her friend was more normal earth pony that was a salon manager named Goldenrod Brunecutte who did all the work by herself and had the questionable symbol of two pink cross symbols with circles at the ends. They latched together overlapping twice at the circle portions.
Goldie had chocolate colored eyes and a wondrous shiny gold coat with a brown stripe running down her back and long light brown straight hair flowing to the floor on both sides of her head and her tail was slightly curled inward towards her body at the tip. Apparently Goldie had a thing for brushing and styling mare manes and from what Dipsy saw she had something of a great friendship with that blithering wreck of a pony currently about to get herself killed.
Just why couldn't she get sleep for more than three hours, was that too much to ask? Was following the trail of evil behind evil leading her back home worth it? For some reason she was getting closer and closer to ponyville after the last three days she just hoped things were okay there, Snoneigh Heights wasn't far off from home.
Fire licked at her cheeks as she watched Sham ducked from around the table and charged yelling at the wyvern that was on the ground throwing fireballs around like candy at a Pony Clause day parade, this was the worst possible freelance mission she had ever been on and it just couldn't get worse then fire breathing wyverns.
()
As soon as Dipsy was finished defeating the wyverns she learned what was behind the intelligent creatures as they dispersed into thin air. It had been four long insane days, but at last the being behind all of this was at Mangora Mountain and currently all she wanted was some sleep the world could wait another few days without her messing up whoever has plans this time. She promptly fell asleep as a singed and burnt, but somehow victorious mess if barely stark raving mad by this point with want for nothing but to sleep.
Her dreams were haunted with what happened the past few days. Day one curing wereponies and vamponies, day two ninja ponies with annoyingly squeaky voices who were much nicer after she was done with them, day three Griffon Assassins were she picked up some really interesting equipment but they all them escaped in the ensuing chaos she caused and finally today's run about with intelligent fire breathing wyverns that were specifically targeting her and the mailing office in Snoneigh Heights.
In the background Sham was excitedly exclaiming her victory over the two magically summoned intelligent wyverns she dispelled, despite her hair being a total unbound mess and being a walking bruise, she was yelling her acclaims to the sky for being a powerful member of the 'Rocky Expectations' clan.
Soon Sham was yelling angrily as Goldie pounced on her with a brush exclaiming that she should take care of her mane better and Sham was responding violently by trying to put up a fight and failing to do so as she fell drunkenly into the clutches of the salon manager being too tired to put up a fight with her.
Eventually they or more to the point Goldie managed to get a cart that could bear Dipsy's dead weight having befriended the narcoleptic and wanting to help her since she didn't do anything during the fight as she watched her tartan friend get tarred left and right while managing to put up a decent fight for someone who couldn't fly like Dipsy could.
While Dipsy slept they moved her into Sham's living arrangements, Sham wasn't happy about having her mane forcefully mane-tained by her friend who was always creepily eager to put a hoof on another mare's hair and she always liked long hair for some reason. Oh she does her job well, it's just that Sham can't stand all the hair care talk or all the fussing over her mane and trying to force her to be a smidge more pretty.
Sham knew she was a lost cause and she didn't want Goldie to bother her about it, but the dumb poor mane loving mare wouldn't drop it no matter how hard she complained that she was part of a rough housing non girly clan of warriors.
At least it gave Sham an excuse to drink more lemonade and so did fighting two wyverns into the ground; it was time for the clan to hold a celebration in the honor of a battle well fought.
Hopefully Sham's thirteenth cousin wouldn't drink all the pomegranate lemonade before she could get any of it, it was the good stuff!
(End Chapter)
Note: Dipsy will appear again much later as she is now currently in the future compared to everyone else. So the story will have to catch up to her with Dolly's group whose story has yet to reach that point.