Sandstallion

by Hydkore

Chapters

• Prologue
• Misjudgement
• Storm the Oven Fortress!
• ABC On Nightmares

Prologue

Sandstallion

By: Hydkore

Cover: Stalin The Stallion

Editors: NATOstrike

Pre-readers: ARBPW, Azu and darthrex

Special thanks to Hawkysu

Let me tell you about a certain pony...

A weak breeze swept over me as I trotted down my routine path on the streets. Occasionally, some ponies greeted me and I politely responded, though I knew beforehoof that not even half of the ponies knew my name and those who knew, didn't use it.

Personally, this didn't bother me, seeing that I had moved into this town only about a month ago. True, somepony had held a 'surprise' party for me but by now I had become part of the general population.

Too bad my job prevents much social contact. Not that it matters.

Honestly, it doesn't! I couldn't be a happier stallion in this fine example of the Equestrian countryside. Of course, it just can’t compare to Trottingham. Still...

I dunno. Maybe I just miss the proper Trottingham breakfast. Oh, and let’s not forget real hoofball, the monarch of sports! And how could I have forgotten about our dear Cadance? Haven't heard any 'rumours' about her misadventures in a long time. Cannot really say that the local paper is that much into anything else but-

Wait... is there a point in this tangent of mine?

"Oh well, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung..."        

~~~~~~~~

Who's awake, whenever we're sleeping...

*Tick, tick, ti-, tick*

"Isn't this a peculiar one..."

"Can you fix it?"

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully as my right eye examined the depths of the clockwork mechanisms of this mahogany box.

Then, a certain loose cog caught my attention.

"Aha!" I exclaimed. I took one of the toothpicks from the bottle next to the box. Carefully, I inserted the tiny stick inside, trying my best to avoid any further complications with the constant, delicate flow of movement.

Thankfully, my hoofwork is of the utmost quality!

*Tick, ti-, ti-, tick*

Or not.

"He he, seems like you're going to need to get this fixed in Canterlot, Big Mac." I laughed nervously and tucked the panel shut.

"Eeyup," replied the crimson red stallion next to me. He didn't lay a gaze on me whilst he grabbed the string bound to the musical box and began to trot away slowly, the box swinging back and forth in his teeth.

Me? I allowed my nervous laughter act to play out until I was absolutely sure he had gotten far away and clear from hearing my distressed breath. It felt sort of bad, not having been able to help out that fine lad get his music box fixed. Not to mention the fact that he also hadn’t been the first one...

This was... wait! Blast, I've totally forgotten! Just some big number; above ten and less than hundred.

Yet as all this went through my head in just a matter of seconds, I couldn't help but to be amused on my own reaction about something as simple as a two digit number.

Oh well, I've seen worse Nightmares than this!

It's an inside joke...

And not even a tiny funny either, so never mind.

"Mm, this egg's yummy!"

~~~~~~~~

The one that keeps watches over for our slumber...

You could say that my current dwelling wasn't anything to bolster with, though the competition wasn't even slightly close to what it's like back at home. Last time I’d heard news, the nobles had started yet another ‘Improve Our Elegant District’ campaign, but at least my family...

Lets just say that the Trottingham nobles love their huge manors, that outshine even the most elegant ones of Canterlot. Not to mention cities like Fillydelphia or Manehattan with their sky-high skyscrapers that block out the starry night sky.

So my home wasn't anything fancy.

No, it was just one cottage in a line with others; same timber-framed with distinct thatched roofs and overhanging upper floors everywhere one's eyes could look.

Though there were a couple of advantages to mine: First, it was located near the largest hub of houses this town had.

And second; it had a very large cellar.

~~~~~~~~

That who's ever so vigilant...

"Okay, let’s check again shall we?" I said as I eyed my reflection in the mirror.

"Pajamas?"

The red-black checkerboard blouse and pants felt warm against my coat.

"Teeth cleaned?"

My tongue ran against the white row, making it brightly shine.

"Toilet session?"

A flush echoed from the depths of the porcelain bowl.

"And finally..."

I took the small bottle from inside the medicine cabinet and dropped one purple pill down my throat.

The effect was, like always, almost instant. I was barely able to get the bottle back to its place on the shelf and trot out of the bathroom directly connected to my bedroom.

Ugh, how I hate this feeling!

Yet, it's so... calming-

Time froze.

The only thing I could see was the pillow near me along with the bed.

Then, everything went black.

Utterly black...

~~~~~~~~

Without whom there wouldn't be any dreams...

*Beep, Beep, Beep*

"Oh for the love of..."

 I rolled over onto my back, watching as the shadows upon the ceiling danced in otherwise dimly lit room.

For a while, I just lay there and followed them before in silence. Then I turned to look at the balcony door. A single strand of light shot through the glass panels, shining through my dark bedroom and breaking apart on the mirror.

Grumpily, I stood up and headed directly into the bathroom. It didn't take me long to get out of the nasty sleep suit of mine, which I honestly only wore out of habit, and walk under the nozzle of the stall shower.

Why does this need to happen every single night? Oh silly me, I'm talking to myself again. Seriously, I've got to lay off those psychology books.

Without thinking, I turned the water valve as far as possible to cold. After a minute of loud screaming and swearing for Celestia's holy mercy, I exited the bathroom fully clean.

But as I turned back to my bedroom, after having had my coat and mane dried of course, I noticed that the light from before had been dissolved and the shadows had ceased their dancing.

My hooves slowly took me to the balcony door, only to make me wonder how I had missed the setting sun. I’d only been gone for a couple of minutes.

Come to think of it, how many times have I actually watched the sun set?

...No, you fool, Trottingham doesn't count.

I gazed out over the rest of this idyllic village through the glass for a while, imagining just how many ponies were about to turn over for this day. Soon all of the of the lights would shimmer until the next day began.

Finally, my stare fell away from the town's lights and now back to the side table, where my alarm clock kept ticking.

11:47

And if it wasn't bad enough, I had less than a quarter of a hour left. My stomach grumbled loud and clear.

"Looks like trash food it is then," I mumbled and headed out of the room.

~~~~~~~~

Yet few have seen the guardian itself...

"There, that will be thirty bits," recounted the orange coated unicorn at the door, reading from the receipt floating just at her eye level.

I gave her a couple notes, which seemed to totally amaze her

"Wow,I haven't seen paper bits, like, ever!" she exclaimed while putting them away in a small satchel and walking off in a hurry, her courier hat almost falling off her bright yellow mane that...

That mane... did it actually drip down her? All... cheesy, eww!

I just closed the door and placed the three pizza cartons on top of my head, carefully balancing them. Slowly, I made my way past the meager living room, which only had a sofa that had been there since I'd moved in, and through the narrow corridor which led back inside the kitchen.

"Aaa! By Celestia, these boxes are burning hot!"

The three pizzas fell down to the kitchen table. I proceeded to open the top one. After having confirmed that it was indeed a 'Midnight Blue' variant, I took the knife from the side and cut it down to perfect slices.

Next, I did same to the two other pizzas. Then, I threw all of the slices into the same carton tray to carry them around easier.

After all, I'd hate go up and down every couple of minutes...

As the two boxes fell into the kitchen bin, I took the kind of heavy one in my mouth and turned round back to the narrow corridor. From there, I moved to the right, where the corridor went on for a little before coming to a dead end.

This would have been the place where normally, at least according to the real estate agent, the door to the back yard would be, but that wasn't the case here.

Instead, there was a bulky hatch, which descended underground.

~~~~~~~~

But everypony knows that he’s there somewhere, keeping an eye out for us...

A single light bulb shone upon the top of the stairs, descending down and onwards to the endless depths of the basement. Actually, this wasn’t completely true; the way to the bottom was quite a short one, but the shadows and the straightness of the stairs created an illusion of continuum.

The only thing that filled the deafening silence was the lingering hoof steps I shakily took. The carton tray waved in my mouth while I attempted to function past the pressing sleep deficit, though it had been already some fifteen min-

Oh horseapples...

I quickened my pace , jumping two steps at once and nearing the bottom. It was actually a pretty careless thing to do, as one slice fell off from the tray and down to the steps, but I knew I couldn't be late, not even a minute or...

Well...

I dunno.

Then, the walls disappeared. Not that it was a bad thing or something that caught me off guard.  I've done it every night since having moved in. Although I later had needed couple bandages for the bruises.

I stopped at the end of the steps, at the compact frame between the light and dark, before leering at the depths of the room ahead.

"Ffflights pfease," I mumbled out.

Instantly, a small source of light above came to life.

~~~~~~~~

He who looks that our dreams stay clean from horrors...

The carton tray dropped down to the free space on top of the metal machine. Incidentally, I sat down on my chair and gave it a good spin round before finally turning to stare at the front.

"Evening," I greeted out loud.

A static hiss filled the air as the large monitor in the front went bright white in colour, some grey flickering or waving up and down in irregular pattern. But soon enough, the monitor settled and black text formed on the upper left corner.

/Evening Doctor*/

A deep chuckle came from the deep in my lungs.

"Can you give me tonight's statistics?"

 /Please Stand By*/

Long rows of numbers and equations filled the screen from the bottom to the top, passing by at immense speed and making me feel a bit dizzy and sick whilst I leaned my back on the padding.

/Current Stand In*/

/86.38 % Dreaming Or In A State Of Sleep*/

"Hmm, well isn't that an oddity?" I questioned while eagerly gulping down the pizza slice.

/Do You Request For A Re-Check*/

"Nah, what’s there to gain? If that's what your perimeters tell, then that's the fact," I responded, making a large check mark appear on the screen tagged with an affirmative ping sound.

"So, has the bureau sent any new reports?"

/Negative*/

/0 New Reports For The Past 30 Days*/

A sigh echoed around the room as I finished off my slice and reached out for another one.

"Isn't this just odd?"

/?/

"You know it's been... Never mind"

/✓/

"Oh, that reminds me. 'It' happened once again today."

The screen flickered for a bit, making me feel even sicker.

/The Times Confused To Being A Watchmaker*/

/0017-----> 0018/

I grinned at the sight of my 'Indicator' doing the humour for me and actually not objecting a bit.

"What would I do without you, my friend?" I joked while taking a sip from the half-full soda bottle that happened to lie on the side, probably remainders from the last night's shift, and taking a random book from the stack besides my office chair.

/Error*/

/Cannot Comprehend*/

~~~~~~~~

For centuries he has been alive...

Defeating the Nightmares lurking for our dreams with his sparkling dust...

So whenever you're afraid and cannot get a sleep...

Close your eyes, whisper out his name and he'll come; no matter what.

Tsk, tsk...

Oh Whooves, you silly pony, pretending to act like everything is fine even when the reality is clear to everyone. He thinks he's so fine and so clever with his joyful act, but that's already starting to show signs of cracking.

Dreams... something so simple, yet so magnificent.

Every one of you know perfectly well know what I'm talking about.

So in a sense, Whooves has a very important position in society, even if very few know about him . It's through the work of these ponies like him, that the land of Equestria became what it is today.

And moreover, stays like that in future.

But life has such an awful tendency to throw the cookie jar down on the floor...

Who am I, you ask?

Why, I’m the one who'll tell you this story.

This story of a simple stallion, whose life is hidden out of plain sight. His only companion, the black words on the screen that come from a thing that isn't alive. Spending the few hours of light trotting down the streets of his town, his territory, apart from everypony else.

Hardly a life of glory and fame, one could say...

After all, this is his choice...

Or is it?

Misjudgement

Sandstallion

Misjudgement

- Only trust your radar, and never your guts -

From Sandstallion -manual

"Hmm hmm hmm..."

Whooves continued with his humming as his hooves continued to hit the wide dirt road beneath him. Other ponies, mostly earth ponies like him, did the same on this perfect spring afternoon, trotting past the many shop windows that presented their goods out. Many moved in pairs or small cliques, chatting about their daily lives and casually window shopping. Some worked, of course, like the one orange coated mare who sold apples at her stand.

"Howdy! Care for some apples, pardner?" chirped the mare to the trotting Whooves, who turned to look at her. He gave a warming smile from hearing the silly sounding accent of hers. He knew his answer to this question immediately.

"Sorry, but I'm in a hurry."

Before the cowpony could respond, the chestnut stallion turned and calmly went off. Whooves heard a tiny huff, soon followed by louder shouts of an argument with somepony else over the price rate. But in all honesty, Whooves didn’t hear much, as his mind fixed onto the one thing that needed to be done during today's limited time.

After all, it's Friday and the start of the weekend.

And By Celestia's glittering flank, I hate it!

His eyes looked over his shoulder to check on the old grey saddlebag, making sure the couple of books sticking out from the top were still there. He turned back to see the street open up to a small park-looking area.

Oh my, you silly head! We're here and I didn't even need the map at all.

On the other side, from where he stood, was a peculiar tree-like building that rose up high above any nearby house - and from its appearance, probably much older than them, too. It had a real charm on its side, but sadly almost nopony besides Whooves visited it as often they ought to.

Whooves stopped at the main door with the large candle painted on it, only to see it was already slightly ajar. Keeping quiet, he gently pushed it fully open and inched inside the the main hall of the town’s library.

"...and then the wolf snapped its mouth shut with a loud snap!"

Now the chestnut stallion's attention focused onto the stairs, whence loud gasps erupted.

"W-w-what h-happened then?" asked one of the frightened fillies in the large group that dominated the steps from top to bottom. But the old mare in middle of them smirked and calmly shook her head.

"That you shall hear next time," she answered softly. She then closed the book on her lap and put it back onto the shelf next to her.

"Aawww!" was the reaction from her young crowd, yet everypony smiled as they got up and descended down the steps, passing by Whooves who stood at the bottom of the stairs. Even the old mare giggled, though she stopped immediately when she noticed the stallion at the door.

"Oh, back for some more, I see?"

"Yes, ma'am," Whooves responded as he took the books from his saddlebag.

The old mare unfurled her light pink wings and gliding down next to him. "Please dear,” she said, still keeping her reading glasses over her forehead and on top of the short, fuzzy white mane. “Just call me Love Page like everypony else. There's no need for formalities." Her teal eyes looked down at the books Whooves gave to her. Her wings began to flap once more and she turned around, revealing her Cutie Mark of an open book with a red heart over it. Without hesitation, she placed the books back to their places and looked over her shoulder. "Now what do you want to read next?"

Hmm, now that's a hard one.

Whooves nervously rubbed the back of his head before answering, "Well, can you recommend anything else in the same category?"

Love Page turned back to the shelf, her hoof running along the long lines until picking out one book. After throwing it down to the waiting stallion, who fumbled to catch it, she flew along the shelf to her left, passing by the two certain sections Whooves himself despised so much.

Romance novels and cooking books.

However, the old librarian knew better and stopped above a shelf marked ‘Thrillers’.

"Well,” Love Page said, pulling out a book. “Pot Lance’s “The Cultivation for Blue April” just came back from loan," She flew down beside the stallion and dropped the paperback book into his saddlebag, next to the book from earlier.

"Excellent! I've always enjoyed a good thriller every once in a while," Whooves said as he took out the small card, which the old mare eagerly took and quickly wrote the dates.

"Now that Lance book I need back by next Friday, but that other one you can bring back whenever you want."

Odd... How com- Oh, why of course!

"Heh, my taste is kind of a peculiar one," he nervously added and flung shut his saddlebag.

Love Page could only look in amazement as the chestnut pony calmly walked out of the front door and waved goodbye to her - like every other Friday afternoon the past month. "Indeed, a very peculiar one... Oh my, time for the medicine!"

~~~~~~~~

Now what I should do for the rest of the day? Maybe a new tour over the rather unknown parts. Then again, I basically have wandered through every possible block there is.

"Hmm hmm hmm..."

Oh, then there's the park I haven't had a chance to explore; wonder how comfy the benches are and if the outdoor bands are rehearsing just yet.

"Oh."

His sapphire eyes narrowed down to thin lines, only leaving the tiny black dots on view.

A minute passed.

Then another.

But on the third, the chestnut stallion turned his look down upon his hooves. "And where do you think you're leading me?"

Of course, no answer came and so the pony sighed and returned back onto the street opening. It lead back into the largest concentration of houses in all of Ponyville - and surprisingly enough, onto the exact same street where he lived.

Had I been anypony else, I'd be running around screaming about demonic possesion. However, I know the only demons running around are only in our-

*Crash*

His world came to a screeching halt as he dropped down stomach first, his current train of thought rudely coming to a screeching halt in the middle of its journey. His eyes rolled couple of full circles in their sockets until the dizziness left him.

What the hay happ- Hey, I can’t move!

As he tried to get back up, he found it to be currently out of the question. He tried to squirm around as much as possible, hooves digging into the dirt beneath him, yet it was in vain.

Calm down Whooves! Now think logically, what is holding you still?

He turned to look behind onto his back where he felt something on top of him, uncomfortably rubbing against his saddlebag.

Okay, now that's unexpected.

On top of him lay a pegasus, a mare or a filly from the look of her smallish frame, and the sounds of quiet squeaky mumbling. Her wings curled down, revealing a grey body relatively small - even by his knowledge on anatomy - and her Cutie Mark.

Kinda odd looking one indeed. Pegasi are usually more . . . colorful.

"Uuhhh... My head..." the unknown grey pegasus groaned, her voice sounding chirpier than most voices Whooves had heard before.

Almost childlike.

"Umm, pardon me?"

Her eyes slowly cracked open, revealing the yellow irises and-

Gah! What peculiar pair of eyes!

Suddenly, the mare inhaled deeply and quickly jumped off of the earth ponies’s back. As he got up on all fours, Whooves saw the grey pegasus nervously rubbing her forehoof against the dirt under her while her eyes attempted to concentrate on him.

"I... umm..." the mare stammered, red painted across her face.

Whooves just brushed his mane clean from the dust and made sure his pack was okay.

"I'm sor- *yawn* -ry "His eyes darted open and the sapphire ovals turned to stare at the open mouth of the drowsy pegasus.

W-w-wait what! She's sleepy!?

The odd pony shut her mouth and laughed timidly in response to Whooves's reaction. Yet she was soon suffering from an expression very similar to his. "Look, I'm really sorry!” the mare begged, obviously frightened. “I must have dozed off in mid-air and... Please, don't tell my boss, please!" The mare was starting to sob as she frantically kept turning around where she stood.

Luckily for her, the Sandstallion had more important matters on his complex mind than a mere lawsuit, though his expression stayed the same.

But that can only mean one thing!

The stallion gently smiled.

"Look, it's alright, really! Accidents happen all the time," he explained in timid tone, soothing the anxious mare as she had now begun openly crying. Her tears trickled down her face, and she meagerly lifted her gaze onto him. Whooves simply smiled. “It’s OK.”

Tears no longer falling, and mood somewhat brightened, the grey pegasus returned a faint smile before trotting up beside Whooves.  His eyes followed hers. She quickly lifted up her brown saddlebag, which had a symbol of a letter that had two wings and a tiara on top of it.

The pack read “R.E.M” in golden letters.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" the mare exclaimed while jumping around in joy and relief.

But she was, however, interrupted by a loud grumble. Both of the ponies turned to look at the earth pony’s stomach

Oh blast it! I totally forgot dinner...

And on that note, also breakfast! Silly me!

"Heh, sorry," he said.

The grey pegasus giggled and pointed her hoof down at his stomach. "Tell you what,” she said, a smirk on her face. “How about I repay you with a lunch?"

"Don't you have work to do?"

"No, I'm actually off-duty now and I was just heading home. In fact, it's right there."

        Whooves’s eyes followed the grey hoof and his face immediately gleamed, making the pegasus look at him with confusion. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh nothing!" the stallion responded and looked back at her. "Ah, onto the formalities, my name is Whooves," he said as he presented his hoof to the mare, who eagerly took it for a shake.

"Nice to meet you Whooves. I'm Derpy."

~~~~~~~~

How is she able to do that?

Whooves could only watch in curiosity, and with a little disgust, as his dinner partner quickly bit a large portion out of her hay sandwich and began to chew it, occasionally giving a glimpse inside her wide mouth.

"Mmhh, tasty!" she exclaimed and small bits of the bread flew into the air.

The waitress snorted in contempt and placed the other tray in front of Whooves before leaving for another table, leaving him to wonder that he wasn't the only one that depicted table manners as a standard.

Well, at least in public that is.

His attention soon turned onto the actual matter of why he had agreed upon this, besides of course the free food and possibly time killing activity.

"So, Derpy, what's your work like? You deliver letters, am I right?" he politely inquired while breaking the fragile shell on his egg with his spoon. Derpy on the other side finished with the chewing and gulped down the brown mess in her mouth.

"Pretty basic really; I just drop the letters into the boxes attached to the houses, but sometimes I need to also personally deliver small packages to ponies."

"Now, don't be offended, but that sounds really boring," Whooves stated as he ate the innards of the egg.

Derpy, on the other hoof, giggled in response.

"Yeah, it can get pretty boring when you repeat that six days a week. But I get to meet ponies all day long, so it isn't that bad in the end."

She then took another huge bite along with a healthy gulp from the glass of apple juice, while he himself had finished with his egg and now had taken hold of the steaming cup of tea.

"But I must say that it has to be bad for your health, seeing that you fell a sleep in middle of flight. Don't you have unions to fight against bad work hours?"

Derpy looked at him with one eye whilst the other was turned up. Soon, she burst into laughter and she fell down onto her back from the stool, her front hooves banging down onto the tile floor and making many heads inside the cafe turn towards their direction.

Not... the sought after expression, to say the least.

 Soon though, the grey mare inhaled deep couple of times and returned back to the seat with a smirk on her otherwise friendly face.

"Heh, you're a funny pony, but a wrong pony. What happened wasn't caused by my work."

Bingo!

"Oh, you mean that something else has caused your crash?" the stallion continued on along with a surprised expression to back up his statement.

Derpy yawned out loud like many times since the two bumped to each other, making his patience grow thinner and thinner.

Come on; just spill the beans!

Thinking of food, this tea's amazing! Have to ask from the waitress what sorta leaves they've used.

"It's... kinda weird actually."

Whooves sighed, not even needing to act it, and leaned over the table towards her. He looked to the sides, making sure nopony else was close enough to listen in, and coughed a bit, knowing what was likely going to happen after these next faithful words.

Just remember the basic rules of persuasion. This mare should be a piece of cake, judging by her characteristics and personality.

"Look, I know what happened to you so you can tell me."

After those words, Derpy kept staring back onto him, now with both of her yellow eyes firmly locked on the sapphire counterparts. Her mouth had dropped the smirk, which he knew was going to happen.

Taking her silence as a cue, he continued on, "I've once been in the same position as you."

Now the mare gasped. "Really?" she whispered, and oddly both her wall eyes had focused onto him, as he nodded and smirked.

"Yes dear. Exactly the same, so I know what you feel like."

Then Whooves placed his hoof onto Derpy's own. "I want to help you, Lerpy."

"Derpy."

"Whatever," Whooves mumbled, and inside cursed heavily enough that it had to be against some old law, before quickly returning to soothing her.

"But in order for me to help, I need to hear exactly what has caused it."

But as he finished, the grey pegasus began to giggle. "Oh, sorry," Derpy started and tilted her head towards rest of the cafe. As Whooves gave a look, he saw that all activity inside had halted and everypony had their eyes locked on them. Some even held their food inches away from their mouth and by the counter the waitress had let her coffee pot overfill one customer’s cup.

"What?" the frustrated earth pony asked loudly to nopony in particular, and now everypony returned back to themselves, too ashamed to look at the shouting stallion.

Derpy shrugged. "Guess they didn't think I'd ever have a stallion with me; especially a stallion that would put his hoof over mine.”

"How come?" he inquired after having turned his eyes back onto her.

"Heh, well you see-"

*Cling, cling*

Whooves turned his attention almost reflexively at the source of the voice that seemed to have been the cafe door bell. But then, he saw how the waitress pony suddenly seemed to have struck into something, nearly dropping the round tray of hers.

"Hey watch it!" the mare exclaimed and shook her hoof.

Huh?

And then he saw what had caused the near accident and his seriousness faded off a bit.

Near the centre of the oval room, narrowly dodging between passing pony’s hooves and tables, Whooves saw a little filly unicorn galloping in a haste, her pale purple coat covered in sweat. As she came closer, he could hear her heavy panting along with seeing her gleaming yellow eyes.

Aww! what a cute filly!

...Hey hang on a second, she's-

And just then, the little unicorn leaped into the air and crash landed onto the grey mare’s neck.

"Mom!" the little filly cried and wrapped her tiny hooves around her mother.

...What?

Derpy gently stroked her short blond mane and smiled to her, while Whooves’s right eye twitched  frantically.

"Heh, how come you're already out?" the grey pegasus asked and the little filly backed off, although still staying on the grey lap as she reached out to her lemon green saddlebag

"Ms. Cheerilee let us out early  to do some 'Grown-Up' stuff," the filly explained, her voice muffled by her pack before pulling a piece of paper out and placing it to the table. "Look Mom, I made this for you!"

Derpy smiled and patted the filly while taking a look at it.

Could it....

She be the one...

It was a simple crayon picture that you could expect from a young pony; the sky was blue, the earth was green and sun was a yellow half ball over at the left corner. On the centre of it was two stick ponies, one purple with a horn and one grey with wings, who both were smiling under a tree.

"Aww, it's great!" Derpy exclaimed and hugged the filly who grinned.

"Uh, Mom. You're embarrassing me in front of everypony..."

Derpy chuckled "Heh, it didn't seem to bother you the first time, my little muffin!"

"Mom!"

The grey pegasus laughed and turned around, but then she was met with a surprise.

"Huh, where did he go?"

The little unicorn looked confused. "What is it Mom?"

However, the little filly went unheard as Derpy's attention focused onto another scrap of paper, but this one had been left under the tea cup on the opposite side of the table.

Dear Ms. Derpy,

I cannot express how rueful I am for having left you and your wonderful filly so suddenly.

However, I'm not going to leave you utterly alone to deal with this trouble; here's a list of certain tea varieties which have known aspects of helping one to sleep.

I had a lovely time.

From your grateful dinner companion, Whooves

"Mom?" asked the worried filly, yet her mother hastily folded the paper and put it away.

"Umm... Nothing Dinky. Nothing at all. Come on, I know two ponies that need to *yawn* go shopping."

But unbeknownst to her, a pair of blue eyes followed the two of them leaving the cafe from a distance. They were especially interested in the purple unicorn who hung on the back of the pegasus, seemingly trying to catch a nap while her mother fought hard against drooping eyelids.

Looks like I found my patient. And of course it has to be a child...

~~~~~~~~

"Come on, come on..." Whooves mumbled while tapping his hoof down to the metal panel and staring at the the bright monitor, eyes narrowed down to thin lines and an odd flame burning behind his sapphire irises..

/---------/

He audibly groaned and flung over in his chair to reach over to the side where his saddlebag lay. From there he took out the two borrowed books and placed them over next to a half-empty soda bottle, bubbles still making their way to the surface.

/---------Done*/

"Well come on, spill the beans," he said while turning back at the screen.

/INFO LOAD.exe*/

/Complete*/

A second passed until more text began to appear in a rhythm and soon filled the screen.

/Profile*/

/Name--- Dinky Hooves*/

/Race--- Unicorn*/

/Age--- 3 years*/

/Cutie Mark--- Not Yet Acquired*/

/Dream History--- Clean*/

The stallion sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Now display her current status."

/Current Status--- Dreaming*/

"And no... infringement whatsoever?

/100% Positive*/

"Then tell me this," he started and slammed his hooves down to the panel. "How by Celestia’s royal plot has this then slipped by your sensors? It's supposed to be impossible for a Nightmare to hide from you!"

/?/

/Error*/

/Not Possible*/

/Sensors Are Clear*/

Whooves continued to stare at the words for a minute before dropping back onto his chair, retrieving deep into his thoughts.

"Indicator, what's the current stand-in?"

/Approximately 97,68% dreaming*/

/No Other Notices*/

No other voice but the faint humming that the machine made filled the room, as his eyes traced along the ceiling lines while his front hooves were wrapped around himself.

Is the risk worth taking? I would be abandoning my post...

He couldn't help but to smile when these thoughts ran through him.

I tend to think too much, don't I?

Whooves's attention turned to the two books, which he swiped down onto the floor. The Pot Lance book was the first and the other fell over it and revealing the cover.

'Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime' the title read out.

But he couldn't care less of the books, not when he was about to go directly against the Code he had sworn to follow until the final end. His right hoof reached under the panel and began to fiddle around. Soon enough, he heard a faint 'click' ring out and then the metal panel ahead opened up.

But then again, what's a life without risks?

And especially without tea, I mean for Celestia's sake!

Storm the Oven Fortress!

Sandstallion

Storm the Oven Fortress!

- The utmost important ability of us is to be able to keep one’s self hidden even in friendship -

Old Sandstallion dictum

Dark...

That's the only possible word that could describe Ponyville during the late hours.

Of course there were many different light sources; street lamps that illuminated long rows along the streets now empty of their busy daily activity. In the distance there were dots of light up and down the town, where the lights were still on in few of the houses and food places that operated at late hours, like the pizzeria.

It seemed really off to see a country town so wonderful and colourful in day swathed in darkness, when a pony could barely see a hoof in front of their face.

Moreover, there was this nighttime peace.

On one particular street, right in the middle of the largest hub of apartments under the few street lights, this peace was to be broken by a single wanderer. A brown cloak covered the figure completely. His head was covered by a hood, which hid everything except his brown muzzle and the steam of his breath.

Despite the fact it was freezing out in the dark, the stallion kept its eyes firmly forward and fixed on the house that stood in between another apartment and a corner shop, which was one of those that kept open even in these hours. A clear silhouette of a pony was visible at the window, which happened to open right at the shadowy figure, who now moved out of the lamp light as the clerk turned away.

No sound rang out as the cloaked pony ran up to the door of the small house, leaning close to it as much as possible to get away from the street light.

This, however, only lasted a couple of seconds, before the figure flung around and faced the door to see a 'Welcome' doormat beneath and a red mailbox attached directly onto the wall.

Derpy Hooves

Nevertheless, the figure turned its attention onto the lock, which obviously was tightly locked and wouldn't budge despite its rusty look.

The pony raised its chestnut hoof from under the cloak and at the lock, only inches away. Around it was wrapped what looked like a glove, except it didn’t stretch far up his hoof like you’d expect and from the tip of it stuck out a rod, dark like iron yet light enough to be carried around with ease.

Without any warning, a spark escaped from the end of the rod and hit the lock in a blink of an eye.

*Click*

Without further thought, the figure tucked the door open and entered the house, leaving the door behind open. Some of the street lights shone inside and lit up what seemed to be the main living room. From  there, the room opened up into two sections; a frame that led into a kitchen area with a tile floor and stairs that led upwards

The cloaked pony quickly darted past the sofa and leaped up the steps until he hit the second floor, which was only a tiny corridor with three doors. Directly opposite to the stairs laid one that had the letters WC painted on it. The one on the left had been painted grey and had bubbles on the sides. Loud snores echoed from behind it, despite the fact that it was closed and looked bulky.

The pony didn't stop there, instead moving on to the last door and finding it already ajar.

As the purple door fully opened, the sight was enough to have the pony stop dead in its place.

The room itself looked decent; there was a chest filled with toys at one corner, a small work desk at another with a bookcase next to it, filled with many fairy tale books and a couple of school books. The walls were filled with many pictures, some painted with watercolours but most drawn in crayon.

But it wasn't this that caught the intruder’s attention.

Under the window, which was opposite to the door, laid a simple single bed. On it was a sleeping unicorn filly, her head resting on a pure white pillow while the rest of the pale body laid beneath a Wonderbolts blanket. Around her pillow laid couple of plush animals, each unique in look, and one which looked a like a brown bunny that the little filly hugged with her tiny hooves as if her life hinged on it.

As the stranger stopped next to the bed, the unicorn rolled over in her sleep and some sweat had already dripped down from her forehead and onto the sheet.

But then, the chestnut hoof rose once more and now the rod neared the little filly, specifically her horn.

The spark escaped from the tip...

And the world literally froze for Whooves.

~~~~~~~~

Shallow...

That's the only possible word that could describe how Whooves felt when his senses came back to him.

Argh, has it been this long?

He rolled over from his back, evoking a loud groan, and shakily stood up, which proved to be difficult as there literally wasn't much space to move one's hoof without hitting... a broom?

Hang on a second. That's a bucket and that's a brush and a....

Seconds later, Whooves smacked a hoof over his forehead.

Out of all places to be transferred, it had to be a cleaning closet. This is definitely not going to be included in the report.

But then, he quickly fell over at the bucket and with one disgusting wretch, emptied his stomach into it.

"Ugh, the pleasures of entering a dream," the earth pony groaned afterwards when the bucket fell from his grasp. Yet he felt a lot more better than at first and his steps were firm as he reached out for the doorknob.

Time to see where I am.

Luckily, the door pushed open without any problem, opening on a wide hallway. As it closed behind him he looked over the white limestone walls. They were mostly covered by rows of large curtains, bearing colours of purple and grey, that stretched up to a ceiling that itself wasn't visible.

Still, Whooves was impressed.

Simply fascinating! How a young filly could-

His thoughts, however, were interrupted as a voice rang out.

"This way your Highness!" somepony shouted around the corridor and then Whooves heard steps rapidly near him. Panic crept up to him, as he saw that the other end of the hall was too far away to gallop. So instead, he swooped behind one of the curtains just in time as the steps grew louder and louder every second that passed by.

Odd...

Those sound more like-

"Awful, just awful..." the voice faintly mumbled. "You two, check ahead and secure the way. I will stay here with Her Royal Highness."

-thumps.

Whooves heard faint 'cling' sounds, like arms being presented, followed by more of those weird ‘thump’s.

"Are we safe here?"

Now his ears perked up when he heard that new, chirping voice and he turned to smirk.

Aha! Found her, and this has to be a new record.

Without further ado, he grabbed the curtain and swept it away.

The sight he was presented with would have been enough to drive anypony else to the point of collapsing from the lack of oxygen, due to the amount of hysterical laughter that would have followed.

However, Whooves had seen far more sillier stuff in his years.

"What?! Who are you?"

There, in front of the chestnut stallion, stood a salt shaker. However, this one stood at same height as himself and it was ‘wearing’ a full-tuxedo outfit over its ceramic surface. But as Whooves noticed, the shaker didn’t bear any facial features, just begging the question how it let out any voice.

Next to it stood the filly alicorn Dinky, his patient.

Heh, every little filly's dream come true...

Over her head, and behind her horn was a small silver tiara that had an orange opal in the middle of it. Around her neck hung a silver necklace that bore same kind of gem. However the biggest difference was the two tiny wings that stuck out of her back.

"Oh, who are you mister?" Dinky asked and took a step forward, but the elegant shaker came in between them.

"Stay back Your highness! Guards!"

"Calm down, I mean no harm," Whooves calmly expressed as he saw two other kitchen utensils appeared from around the corner; a knife and a fork both wearing military insignia.

"Now now, don't be a sil- Augh!"

"Stop!"

Both of the guards retreated from the stallion, who rubbed his flank where the fork had struck. They and the salt shaker bowed as Dinky passed them.

"But-"

"Quiet, Sir Too-Much," Dinky ordered, making the butler shaker blush, and turned back at the chestnut pony.

"Now, who are you mister and what are you doing in here?"

Whooves grinned and presented his hoof her

"Greetings, I'm the..."

"GRAAAAAAARGH!!!"

In an instant, he swung around to look down the corridor.

A cupcake.

Why of course.

Indeed, a huge sprinkled, cyan cupcake stood at the entrance. However this certain cupcake had a wide row of razor sharp teeth alongside fangs resembling long stakes and two demonic eyes.

He could hear Dinky's scream when the baked bad began to move towards them.

"Quickly Your Highness, run! We'll hold it off!" the shaker spoke and bowed along with the knife and fork. Then the three utensils charged at the monster, which responded with a deep growl.

But the stallion acted fast, and threw the still stunned Dinky over to his back.

"Hold on tight."

~~~~~~~~

*Crash*

"I think... we can hide in here... for a moment," Whooves slammed the door shut, panting, while Dinky leaped off of him.

"Geez mister, how can you be tired?" the filly asked honestly, but the stallion grunted as he leaned against the door and continued to inhale the sweet air. He did in fact taste a hint of sugar with every breath taken.

"What are you talking about? I'm at my fittest, I’ll have you know!" he exclaimed out loud and Dinky could only giggle as the two began to walk into the room, which appeared to be a some sort of storage facility from the looks of the many cardboard boxes that littered the floor.

"Anyways," the stallion began as he sat down on one box, "can you tell me what's going on?"

Dinky sat down beside him and gave him a stern look.

"Not until you tell me who you are and what you are doing in my mother's Oven?"

He snickered and quickly covered his mouth with a hoof so as not to upset the little filly.

"I beg your pardon, but did you just say an oven?"

Dinky looked confused. "Yeah, you're inside the Oven Fortress where my mother, Princess Derpy The Bubbly, She Who Wears the Sacred Mittens and the Holder of The Egg Clock That Yak, resides and rules over the land."

"The Egg Clock That Yak?"

But Dinky didn't seem to hear his question as she looked away.

"Well, at least she used to rule..."

Whooves knew how she must have felt, even if all this wasn't actually real and only happened deep inside her mind, fueled by dreams reflecting the real world. However, now those dreams were at risk, and the Sandstallion knew this perfectly well.

"Dinky, I'm here to help," the stallion assured her and gave her a comforting hug. "You can talk to me."

The little unicorn buried her head into the brown stallion’s chest and stayed quiet for a bit before speaking. “This morning, I was awakened by Sir Too-Much and he told me that we needed to escape from the Fortress as soon as possible. When I asked why, he said that the Princess had gone missing and that the Evil Pastry had taken control."

Though he found it hilarious, he knew better than to laugh at the situation.

"It was a mess; everypony was fighting one another, but in the end the Royal Guards were overwhelmed and taken captive. Worse, the Evil Pastry had taken a hold of the hatch-gate, so we were basically prisoners in here."

"Hmm... Typical of a weak Nightmare, using the actual dream world against-" the stallion mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"Oh nothing,"Whooves lied to the filly, whose only response was to raise an eyebrow to him. As the stallion dropped down from the box, he faced the door from where they had just barged in only moments ago.

"Well come on, what are you waiting for?" he pointed out. However, Dinky stayed put.

"Not until you finally tell me who you are!" she replied and the stallion knew his moment had come.

He sighed in defeat, before staring at her round eyes.

"I'm the Doctor and I'm here to save this dream."

*Crack*

Suddenly, the wooden door snapped off its hinges and flew directly at Whooves, who was just barely able to dodge it by diving onto the floor. As he recovered from the sudden drop, his eyes locked onto the door frame from which four chocolate doughnuts rolled in. As the stallion stood up, he noticed that Dinky now stood beside him.

Whooves also noticed that the doughnuts had turned their middle sections towards the pair.

"I think we should-"

Before the earth pony could finish, four blasts of icing shot at them, missing only by an inch.

"RUN!" he finished while taking Dinky by the tail and quickly galloping to the left, down a narrow path between the boxes. He could hear how the boxes behind were trundled over and so he paced himself, now taking a turn to the right while the purple filly flung back and forth below him.

The path he had taken led nowhere except to a large balcony.

"Oh horseapples," he mumbled as he gave a quick gaze over his shoulder, only to hear the rolling voices growing nearer and see boxes being thrown off to the sides.

Dinky had now escaped from his grasp by hitting his hoof and before he got to shout anything else, the filly began to gallop towards the balcony.

Just when he was about to yell to her, the first of the killer doughnuts appeared and began to shoot more icing at them, one shot actually partially hitting Whooves when it struck a box next to him and splattered.

"Mmh, banana! I love ban-"

"Doctor!"

"Oh yes."

He quickly flipped over and ran up to the filly, who now stood over the white hoof railing, though still eagerly licking his face clean from the 'collateral damage'. As he heard another shot ring out, the stallion briefly turned his head to catch one whole blast, however he quickly spit it out.

"Yuck, pearAAAAAHHHH!"

Without noticing it himself, he had been sent off the balcony by the recoil. He was heading directly towards the ground beneath, which was painted in a similar colour to Dinky's coat while the sky above shared her blond mane's colour from horizon to horizon.

However, Whooves couldn't find himself to be amused by this. One, he knew already that they were going to be like that and two, he now looked up as Dinky leaped off from the balcony and soared after him. It took her only a second to catch up to him, thanks to her light build, and take him by the hoof, drastically slowing the fall and soon coming to a stop.

All this, and without shedding a single drop of sweat.

"Hehe, thanks," he laughed and the little ‘dreamer' replied with a smile, though it soon dropped as they heard sound of breaking rock.

At the balcony, the three doughnuts had rolled down onto it at the same time while not slowing down. The hoof railing couldn't support their force and had been broken on the first impact.

Whooves and Dinky could only watch as their pursuers fell down until disappearing out of the sight.

Sandstallion grinned as he watched three blobs of brown pop up below him. However, Dinky had by then pushed her wings down and up, slowly but firmly making her way upwards.

~~~~~~~~

Simply fascinating! This kind of dream world inside a three year old filly that has lived in a countryside town her whole life; an adorable achievement.

*Whump, whump, whump*

Whooves hung upside down in the middle of the air, enjoying the view offered by the unique vantage point.

And just look at that Oven! If real world ovens looked anything like that, I'd be cooking every single day.

The Oven Fortress indeed lived up to its name; its outer appearance resembled an oven, but it also had many aspects that castles had like a moat filled with lemonade, a drawbridge made out of a gingerbread slice and more. At the top of the fortress stood five towers, four of which stood at the spots where the burners would have laid. Between them, directly on the centre, rose the last one; its shadow engulfing the other four.

*Whump, whump, whump*

"We’ll be there soon," Dinky cried out, now pacing her speed and beginning to glide in order to save strength like a proper pegasus flier that had flown for years. Although their speed drastically fell, and nearly to the point of being in place, he still couldn’t feel the wind pushing against himself.

That's actually one thing that has always bugged. How come natural elements never, ever, appear in dreams? Not that it really matters but when even your side knows so little...

But in the end, he shrugged and instead looked to his left, where the tallest of the towers now stood. For the past minute or so, they'd been in the air, searching for any clues pointing to Princess Derpy and the throne room seemed to be the best place to start.

For Dinky that is.

Okay, let's wrap this case up.

"There! Can you land on that balcony?"

"Sure mister. Just hold on, this’ll be a bit rough."

Dinky let herself drop down, sending the stallion’s stomach up to his throat, and partially spread her wings in order to lower their speed and regain some form of maneuverability whilst they approached the stone tower.

The landing was perfect.

"I hope you enjoyed the ride, mister."

But then, Dinky saw the stallion looking down upon her and he had a serious look on his face. He wore an otherwise overall bland look, expect for his narrowed down eyes that shone brightly.

"Dinky, I need you to listen to me very carefully."

Dinky nodded, so Whooves went on.

"Don't. Do. Anything. I repeat, don't do anything. And whatever I might do, don't panic or we're doomed, got that?"

Honestly, Dinky was shaking due to the sudden mood change and didn't respond, instead staring up to him with awe and fear.

Sandstallion sighed, and kneeled down in front of her.

"Don't be scared; I'm an expert on this stuff and I can assure you nothing bad is going to happen to either of us."

Dinky gulped. "P-promise?"

"Heh, I’ll tell you what. I promise to repay your bravery afterwards. Does that sound good?"

The filly's face began to gleam and she rushed up to the glass door that led inside. Behind, Whooves couldn't help but to smile at the enthusiastic unicorn, who waved at him to follow.

Yet, the stallion did sigh deep as he took the first shakily step.

"Stand back," he ordered and soon bucked the door into tiny shards that broke even more as they hit the stone floor.

Ah, this has to be the lair.

From where they now stood, just at the door frame, opened a magnificent view of the throne room. Or that’s what Whooves suspected it to be; many spiral pillars formed a grand hallway, on which a long purple carpet had been laid onto the path to the throne. Attached to each pillar was a sconce that held a lit torch, burning with a bright cyan flame like a firework.

And that was everything that there was to see; the sides along the path laid in utter darkness, not a single shred of light penetrating its depths.

Whooves could see Dinky weakly lean onto him and whimper out of fear.

"Shush now. I won't let the boogie monster eat you."

"I'm scared..."

He sighed and lifted the purple unicorn to his back. Her tiny hooves wrapped around his neck while she planted her head down, trying to hide behind the earth pony whilst he placed his first hoof over the carpet, soon followed by the others and the distance between the throne and them grew shorter.

All the while, he would occasionally glance to the darkness at the sides of the room, only to confirm that there indeed was something else here besides them.

And in vast numbers...

Yet he timidly kept going on, trying to focus his head onto the matter on the hoof.

"Bung bung bung bung..."

"Umm, what are you humming mister?"

He didn't answer, knowing this one trick worked perfectly well; do something utterly pointless in dangerous situations to get your head to finally snap.

That, and they had gotten just couple of feet away from the throne.

Utter silence filled the void, the only voices being the raspy breathing over at Whooves's neck and the faint clopping of hooves as he took the final steps up to the dais where the throne, made out of single huge muffin, stood in its full glory.

This filly sure does like sweets. Wouldn't want to be her dentist.

But he stopped, as he felt movement across his back. He looked up to see Dinky resting herself atop his head.

"Huh?" the filly murmured in utter confusion.

"What is it, Dinky?"

"That throne..."

"What of it? Has somepony taken a bite out of it?"

"It’s not the same."

A second passed.

Then another rather quickly.

Whooves's gaze slowly dropped down to the 'throne' while he also began to back track quickly. Just as he planted first hoof down, a single large eye dead-centre on the muffin opened up, its dark red pupil reflecting his image.

"Aaah! Muffin-Munster!"

Quickly, Whooves stumbled around, only see that his route had been cut-off.

The whole outer area around the throne stand was filled with pastries; from those killer doughnuts to the cyan cupcake, from tiny chip cookies holding long spears to cream puffs ready to fling themselves at them.

Yet none of them moved in the slightest.

"Hehehehe..."

As the chestnut stallion turned back, he saw that the Muffin-Munster sat at its place while the humongous eye stared forward at his general direction.

"One of you..."

Whooves groaned. "Yes yes; 'har har, oh I finally caught you and now I'm going to exterminate you, like you've done to my many comrades."

"Heheheh... Wait, was that an insult?"

"Anyways, lets get down to business, shall we?"

"Indeed."

Sandstallion could feel Dinky tuck in closer to him as the wave of pastry had begun to move.

"Tsk,tsk,tsk; honestly, if I were you, I'd call those things back." he smirked while the large red eye narrowed, yet he could hear how the voices on the sides faded away.

"Entertain me..."

He chuckled. "Cause I've already cracked this case," he said before pointing his hoof at the nervous eye that had darted open in the instant Whooves had finished his last sentence. "Face it, it's over. But I'll let you go if you'll leave peacefully."

"You’re merely bluffing!"

"Oh really?" the stallion laughed before looking to his side where Dinky was staring at him, her jaw hitting the floor and eyes shining from awe.

"No...Please, I beg you!"

"Say Dinky, how's your Mommy's cooking been for the last couple of days?"

"Quiet! Please keep her quiet!"

Whooves laughed and pointed his hoof at the muffin chair, that literally chewed itself due to all of the sudden tension.

"You know what I want."

"Fine, you win," the giant muffin stated quietly, as red eye's lid closed.

In the silence that followed, the Nightmare was engulfed in a dark azure glow, followed by the rest of the pastries surrounding it. In matter of seconds, the minions crowding the room started to vanish into dust, however they flowed through the air and massed together in mid-air, directly opposite to him.

As the last of the humongous cupcakes vanished, the mass of pastry dust  finally began to push itself together. The same glow from the chair moved onto the dust, which began to take its form. As the seconds ticked by, the dust and glow merged together and solidified to form what resembled a chunk of gem.

"You know...your kind is doomed, Sandstallion..."

Whooves tilted his head down. "So is yours, Nightmare. So is yours..."

"Doctor..."

The gem blew up in a bright flash, engulfing everything and everyone.

~~~~~~~~

"Whew," rang the light breath of relief and Whooves smirked as he checked his hoof to see that the tiny azurite gem was safe and sound.

As the wrapped hoof fell back down under the cloak, so did the hood to reveal the smiling stallion. His eyes looked down upon the little filly, now sleeping calmly on her place.

She even had a tiny smile.

The earth pony couldn't help but to gently pat her and even give her a small kiss on the forehead.

"Sweet dreams, Ms. Dinky Hooves."

~~~~~~~~

*Ding*

"Ah, finally ready."

The light brown hoof reached out from the table and to the toaster on top of the counter. At the same time, his other hoof took a plate from the left and soon he had two crispy slices of hay-toast ready, both covered in butter and on top each was a slice of a cheese accompanied by delicious strawberry jam.

A basic Trottingham breakfast at its finest and the only proper meal he ever managed to deliver.

Without any burns, that is...

Whooves took from the caddy his favourite green tea pot and started the tea water heating up, so that it would be ready by the dessert pudding. With that in mind, he also took the ready-pudding from the freezer before grabbing the hay slices and walking over to the table.

"Heh, I deserve a treat."

Although visible bags hung loose under his eyes, the chestnut pony otherwise seemed fine, both in flesh and spirit. As he placed the dish onto the table, he couldn't help but to feel satisfaction as he eyed his food.

Alongside the hay-toast, he served himself buttery mashed potatoes with a tiny amount of bean sauce on top. In a row next to them laid three deep boiled eggs, ready to be smashed and their innards to be eaten out. And to top it off, there was already a glass of fresh orange juice ready and also a free teacup for when the water was ready.

In a sense, the perfect dish to kick start the upcoming day, especially if you happened to be awake seventeen hours each day.

Drops of drool dripped over from his muzzle and down his cranked neck, as a low grumble echoed from his stomach while Whooves sat himself down, still staring down at his breakfast.

Quite fascinating indeed. Already I had forgotten how much energy this work needs.

He didn't even wait to tie a napkin around his neck and instead hastily took the first jam toast in his hooves.

His mouth eagerly opened up and his eyes closed, ready to savour the taste in peace.

*Knock knock knock*

His eyes darted open.

"Oh bollocks..."

*Knock knock knock*

"Honest to Goddess, during my break-"

*KnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnock*

Whooves groaned as he got up from his seat, of course leaving the delicious bread behind and untasted. It was in fact really quite odd; during the whole month Whooves had been in Ponyville, this was the first time anypony had come by.

Also, the fact it was Saturday and eight in the morning made it even more weird.

*KnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnockKnock*

"Geez, hold onto your hoof! I'm co-"

The rest of the words didn't come out as the opening door revealed very distressed looking grey pegasus. "OhpleasepleaseWhoovesIneedafavourOhpleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"

Unfortunately he didn't understand even the slightest thing Derpy was saying. In the end, he just stood there dumbfounded and could only rub the back of his brown mane.

"Uhh. Well-"

He didn't get to say anything else, as the earth pony soon found himself buried in a firm embrace of grey feathers and fur.

"Ohthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyousomuch."

Then Derpy planted a kiss on the cheek of the stallion and backed off, fastening the straps over her mail saddlebag and bending her wings out.

"ThanksagainI'llbebackbytheafternoonanddon'tworryI'llrepaythisbyeeeeeee!"

And with that, Derpy shot up in the air. As her wings pumped faster and faster, her speed gradually increased and it didn't take long for the pegasus to disappear out of view into the horizon.

The only thing Whooves managed to do was to raise his left hoof and to feel the wet spot over his cheek.

"Mister?"

The hoof fell down and so did his gaze, it landed on-

Somehow his eyes shot even wider, eyes now nearly bulging out of their sockets and even his breathing savaged, as he saw the little purple unicorn filly staring up at him with her large yellow eyes. The earth pony even had his mouth partially open and gag sounds come in deep.

"Why are you red like a tomato, mister? Are you sick or what?"

"Oh, umm..."

Whooves turned over and gave a brief look at the vestibule mirror, to see his outrageously blushing face, looking very much like a... a tomato.

"Well, you see... I..."

However, Dinky giggled and turned around, to reveal the small Wonderbolt saddlebag on her back.

"Heh, I'm just playing with you. Well, aren't you gonna come?"

But he just stood there, ashamed by both the random blush over a stranger pony, a filly no less, and how he still had not a single clue over what the hay was happening.

In the end, however, he regained some form of self control as his mind gave an awful mental jolt.

"Y-yeah; hang on just a minute."

The hay’s going on?

That question dominated inside him as he locked the front door to his house, and placed the key under the front mat. Checking the straps of his old saddlebag for the second time, he turned around to see the unicorn filly impatiently tapping her hoof down.

"Come on, we'll be late."

"Now hold on a minute!" Whooves exclaimed out loud, generating a tiny squeal from over Dinky, and trotted over to her. "Nopony is going anywhere until you explain to me why you're here and your mother isn't."

Dinky rolled her eyes.

"Urgh, didn't you listen to Mommy?"

"Well Mommy didn't, to be honest, really make much sense. Care to explain once more?"

~~~~~~~~

"So let me get this straight... Your mommy is on a special delivery mission over to Canterlot for the whole morning and she won't be returning until late afternoon. And until she gets back, you're under my supervision?"

The little filly smiled and nodded her head, not stopping with her tiny hops.

"Heh, you pretty much summed it up!"

Whooves nervously chuckled as the two of them turned around the corner and only to arrive to yet another empty stretch of a road, it's emptiness only fueling his current downer mood.

And I was having such a fine morning...

"So Dinky, do you have any idea how I came to be picked for this job?” he sincerely asked the bouncing filly.

"Well... I dunno really. Mommy just said that you told her how you were good at taking care of young foals and seeing that you also basically live right next to us."

Note; from now on never, ever, under any circumstance leave your assertive speech unfinished.

Whooves nervously chuckled, to which Dinky responded with an adorable giggle.

"So... you haven't yet told me where we are going," the stallion pointed out to the excited filly.

"Oh, I got a club meeting at the school," Dinky told him while reaching out to her saddlebag and taking out, not to his surprise, a crayon picture.

"Want to take a look? I drew it this morning."

Whooves shrugged and took a look of the picture.

A second passed.

Then another.

A rather slow third...

"Are you feeling well mister? You look very pale," Dinky worriedly asked while slowly moving closer to the stallion.

All four of the chestnut hooves began to violently shake and it didn't take long for him to fall down onto his haunches, while the piece of paper flew away from his grasp and onto ground beneath.

"H-h-h-how..."

Black colour filled all of the corners and it faded down into the white background as it neared the center, forming an oval circle. Occasionally, a pair of red eyes stuck out from the dark.

"I-i-it isn't..."

Inside this circle were three different figures.

The first one, and also the smallest, was a purple alicorn wearing a tiara and a necklace that both were grey in colour. The figure was crouching down, however its look laid upwards.

The second one, and the largest, was a darkish brown chair that had a large open eye in middle of it, its red pupil staring forwards and onto a piece of glowing azure gem that floated in mid-air.

However, it wasn't either of these that Whooves reacted to.

Oh no...

In between these other two, stood a brown pony with a stern look over its face and a hourglass on its flank. It reached out towards the bright gem with its head hung low.

"...possible."

Dinky leaned over to get a look of his face. "What isn't possible, mister?" she asked and the stallion leered at her.

"Dinky... I need you to think very, very carefully."

Dinky laughed and nodded, so Whooves took the picture and waved it in front of her.

"What does this depict?"

Dinky continued to laugh until pointing her hoof at him. "Shouldn't you know?" She leaned closer to the fearful pony. "Doctor."

At that point, the clock bell over in the distance rang out.

*Klong, klong, klong, klong, klong, klong, klong, klong*

Dinky gasped loudly as she practically pushed herself away from Whooves.

"Oh no, I'm going to be lat-"

Yet as she tried to gallop off, she found herself staying put. As she gazed back, she saw the gloomy stallion holding her by the tail. And he had that stern look from last night. Without saying anything, Whooves himself turned around and slowly started to make his way, dragging the little resister along with him.

"Hey, what are you doing?! Auh! Let me go! I'm going to be late!"

However, at this point he couldn't care a donkey’s ass about some Saturday morning club. He was going to find out the truth of this little unicorn right there, right now.

"Stop resisting, I just want to clear some things up."

~~~~~~~~

For many ponies, Saturday morning was the longest one as rather nopony got up until before the sun had made its way over from the horizon and over to the top of the town. Of course there were some ponies that already moved around. However, most of them consisted of night shift workers that somberly trembled their way to their homes, not caring much about the dawning day.

Frosty Treat wasn't one of those and he continued to set up his ice cream stand on his regular spot. It was actually a very sought after place, especially on sunny days and weekends. To make sure his business lasted, he got up very early to check on his equipment and materials before dragging his wagon down to his spot in Ponyville’s park.

It was the most perfect spot; on the side of the road that led out through the park and just before it crossed into three other paths, making this a traffic stop. Making this location even more desirable was the fact that the dance floor, the center fountain and the playground all lay only seconds away.

As the cote flung up, Frosty saw something very unusual, enough to get him to gasp.

Some ten feet away, and steadily nearing him, was somepony else.

Instantly, Frosty put on his normal social smile while lifting his paper hat to the brown pony.

"Greetings. Fine morning, isn't it?" Frosty politely greeted him.

The strange stallion smiled back and glanced over to the list stuck onto the cart side.

"I'll have... I’ll have two vanilla ice creams with as much butterscotch as possible."

"Right on, sir," Frosty responded, scooping up the first of the balls while thinking why the customer was getting two when he was alone. In the end, he decided not to question this and instead eagerly took the bits from the stallion, who then turned around carrying one of the cones in his mouth and the other in his hoof.

As his customer slowly walked away, Frosty shrugged and returned back to his work, mainly just checking out the daily paper.

The totally opposite thing was going to happen with Whooves, who now made his way forward while eating one of the ice creams and staying quiet. He continued to make his way up and down the dirt road.

The sapphire eyes stared forward, occasionally glancing over to the bench close to the park fountain where the purple unicorn sat down, hooves crossed on her lap and yellow eyes turned downwards onto the dirt beneath, not moving in the slightest even when he sat next to her.

"Hey, I brought ice cream."

This didn't dazzle the filly at all. Even when she took the cone and began to lick it in long strokes. Whooves continued to eye her a bit, until turning to look at the fountain that hadn't yet began to pump water.

"Look, I'm sorry," the earth pony apologized to Dinky. She leered at him from the corner of an eye, finally letting out a snort and putting on a tiny smirk.

"It's okay Doc'."

Whooves shivered a bit when he heard 'that' word being said by her.

Now Whooves; you're mortified. I'm mortified so let's just get down to the point, shall we?

"I'd... I’d like if you would call me Whooves instead of... you know," the stallion said to Dinky and she shrugged to him while licking the frosty treat, now a bit more enthusiastic.

"If that's what you wish, mister. Though I don't see what's so bad with the Do-"

Whooves put his hoof over the filly's mouth and shook his head.

"Understand that it's important that nopony hears that and I cannot risk for that name to be said out loud."

As his hoof fell down, so did his gaze and away from the small filly.

For Celestia's sake! How in the hay it is even possible that I'm in a tight spot like this?

"How come, mister Whooves? Why can’t other ponies know that you're 'you-know-what'?" Dinky asked. He faintly smirked to her, his eyes closing and leaving him in the calmness of the dark void.

A minute passed.

It was a very long minute for Whooves, while his mind pondered his current situation and grasped for an acceptable answer to the filly’s question.

There he was, a middle-aged male pony, sitting next to a foal who wasn't only less than quarter to his age, but who was able to recall his interference in her dream. Something that was supposed to be impossible for anypony to achieve.

And she was a filly, no less...

A tiny part inside him found it extremely amusing for some odd reason.

So he decided to give a honest answer.

"Dinky, do you know the tale about the... 'Sandstallion'?"

Dinky's face gleamed and she fiercely nodded.

"Oh yes! He's the pony that watches over everypony's dreams when they sleep. Mommy used to tell me about how if I couldn’t sleep, I'd need to close my eyes, whisper out his name and he'll come to sprinkle his magic dust that makes everypony sleepy, however haven’t done that in a long time cause I’m a big filly."

His eyes opened and turned at the excited filly.

"How would you react if I told you I am that stallion?"

A giggle broke out as Dinky pointed her pale hoof at the chestnut stallion.

"I'd call you crazy and to prove it."

Whooves smiled as he reached into his saddlebag. Soon, a tied napkin came out and he laid it over between them. As Dinky continued to look, Whooves with one shift pull opened it.

Dinky's eyes popped open.

On top of the napkin, laid a tiny azure gem.

"Do you recall this?" Sandstallion asked from her and Dinky nodded, her eyes locked onto the shining gem. Then her hoof reached out, however he shiftily took the napkin and tucked it away to the saddlebag.

"I guess I don't need to ask if you believe me now, do I?"

Suddenly, he felt an impact on his side. As he gazed down, he saw the little filly hugging him with all of her might while her smiling face stared up at him in obvious awe.

"Thanks for defeating that awful monster, Mister Whooves!"

Something clicked deep inside the stallion.

It was an idea. A very dangerous and risky one. Something that could effectively ruin the rest of his life if anypony were to find out.

Heheh. Whooves, you silly pony, you're over thinking once again. And besides, wouldn’t you wanna slap those bureau fellows for once?

A brown hoof fell over Dinky and it brushed her gently, making her giggle a bit.

"Say Dinky, isn't it time for you to leave for the club?"

Dinky rolled her eyes, much to his amusement and he tried to holster his laughter.

"What, really mister?"

Whooves nodded as he lifted up the filly and placed her down to the ground, laughing as she looked back at him with a hint of frustration.

"Now don't you worry. As soon as you get back, I promise to tell you everything you want to know."

The filly’s mouth dropped open.

"Wow, really?" Dinky gasped, and as soon as he nodded, she checked over her Wonderbolt saddlebag straps and kneeled over, taking a gallop posture. Soon, she shot out leaving behind a wavering cloud of dust.

"I'll be back by dinner!" she shouted as the dust cloud passed the fountain.

It didn't take long for Dinky to gallop out of view, and Whooves waved to her all the way.

Did I make the right decision?

A cocky smirk rose to his face

Most likely not...

.......Bollocks, I left the tea water on!

ABC On Nightmares

Sandstallion

ABC On Nightmares

- What is a dream? You’re better off asking ‘What is a Nightmare?’ -

From an old Classical-Era philosophical text

“Alright, settle down everypony,” the excited looking brown unicorn with a short horn spoke out from front of the artist’s studio. He lowered his paint brush and wiped his sweaty, red mane. He then watched as the same thing occurred with the small group of ponies, packed tightly inside the room, interested in the world of painted art. He stood up from the work stool and carefully moved the painting—a landscape of a beautiful summer meadow, which still glittered from fresh paint—off of the stand before setting it to the side to dry. It was an unfinished work of his imagination; however, Sketch Scrapper knew Canterlotians loved these sort of oil paintings.

“Now then...” he continued whilst removing his work apron, turning back to look at his audience. They were shifting on their own small stools. “Let’s begin then. Now, what have I asked you to depict?”

“Ourselves in the near future!” all of the little ponies shouted in a mess of excitement, boredom and unwillingness or just because everypony else shouted.

Sketch Scrapper laughed. “Very good! Very good indeed! So, let’s see what you’re going to do as adults. Who knows, perhaps this will help you discover your cutie marks.”

The brown pony then pointed his hoof to one of the front row stands and lifted the canvas up, at the same time revealing a very nervous looking earth pony colt, who was trying to hide behind the stand.

“Now, why don’t you tell us what you did here?” Scrapper asked gently, while showcasing the watercolor picture for the rest of ponies. All of them collectively gasped, as they witnessed the very well painted picture of an earth pony holding a pose in front a burning building.

The colt blushed “Uhh... I-It’s me...putting out a fire as a firefighter!” he hastily mumbled out “B-but it’s nothing spe-special...”

“Are you kidding me?! Your painting is waaaay better than what I drew!” a pegasus filly exclaimed before showing her crude pastel picture of a pegasus flying above a rainbow vat. “Look! It’s me working in the Cloudsdale Rainbow Factory, but I think it looks more like a fuzzy ball taking a dive into a pool of colors.” 

The colt furiously blushed at the praise he received, but then he felt the older stallion place a hoof over his head.

“You ought to listen to your cute friend there and have more faith in your skills,” Sketch Scrapper explained in a compassionate tone “I mean, even I can’t do this with watercolours and I have studied at the Manehattan Art Centrum. Perhaps you might even impress the Princess herself!” 

“T-T-The Princess?” The small earth pony’s eyes shrunk, but then he broke into a smile along with Scrapper, who gave the laughing colt’s mane a light brush before backing off. The stallion then saw the time, which made him curse inside.

“Looks like our time’s nearly up. We’ll have one more picture, and then I’ll let you out. Would anypony like to volunteer?”

“Oh oh oh, me me me me me!”

Sketch Scrapper turned towards the outburst and his smile widened as he saw his most enthusiastic student, a pale purple unicorn filly with golden mane. She was hopping up and down out of pure excitement and holding a piece of paper, which he presumed to be her art.

Sketch Scrapper smirked and used his magic to grab it. “Well then Dinky, lets see what you’ve done.”

The paper stopped above his muzzle. It stayed there for a long while as his eyes widened with the reveal of crayon picture. But in a minute, he turned to look back at the wide smile that the little unicorn gave to him and blinked couple of times.

“Umm... great work, Dinky. Very good as usual.” He coughed.

Dinky’s mouth formed a frown. “You don’t really mean that.”

“Umm, well...” Sketch Scrapper mumbled, and then saw the clock above the doorway. ”Oh, look at the time! You all should already be out and enjoying the rest of this wonderful summer’s day!”

Instantly, every colt and filly cheered from joy. Amongst the raucous shouting, Dinky was by far the loudest. She snatched the picture from the air, with Scrapper’s magic fading away, and went to pick up her saddlepack before racing out of the room after everyone else.

Nopony was left, except the artist, who sighed as he pulled his studio’s door closed. He shut his eyes for a moment, leaning against the cold wood.

“Guess we all have dreams that are impossible,” he said quietly, while pushing himself away and heading back to his unfinished painting.

Outside of the building, the mass of youngsters poured from the building to the outside, chatting to one another as they greeted the blazing sun.

Especially in the little group of three youngsters that exited at the same time “Aww yeah! Saturday, here I come!” first of them, the filly pegasus, cheered.

Second of them, an earth pony filly, nodded “I totally agree with you. Sometimes these art courses get soooo boring!”

“But... umm... I l-like them and Mister Sketcher. Papa says he’s got talents of great Da Pici.”

The two fillies simultaneously turned to look at him “Who's that?” they asked in unison, but the colt blushed furiously and his ears fell down.

The pegasus snorted “Ugh, who cares about some boring artist on a day like this!”

“Uhuh, I know. Lets go play with our skipping ropes!”

The two fillies smiled and nodded “Sounds great!” Then they turned at the colt, frozen on his spot “You coming too, Pixels?”

“Umm... sure, I guess I have some time—”

The nervous colt was interrupted with a sudden bump, which made him yelp and take cover behind the other two fillies. They turned to give an irritated look at the flash of purple.

“Hey, watch it!” one of them shouted whilst the other helped the colt to stand.

However, those words went unheard as the excited young unicorn continued to gallop like a maniac. Her yellow-blue saddle pack strapped onto her back, she made her way down the road and around the corners with a steady pace. As she started to near the center of town, the streets started to show signs of life, with other ponies trotting around doing whatever they pleased. She smirked comfortably while dodging the grown-up ponies with agility and firm belief in that whatever applied to the Wonderbolt’s shows also applied to real life.

Unfortunately...

“Oops, sorry!”

Dinky’s speed didn’t lower a bit, not even as she accidentally hit a mare that had a large bag of carrots on her back. The filly briefly glanced over her shoulder, only to see how the yellow mare shake a hoof at her and shout bad words- the ones that Mommy had told her not to use unless she wanted to have fun time with ‘Mr. Soap-In-Your-Mouth’. She recalled how Ms. Cheerilee had cleaned one colt’s mouth after he had shouted the h-word in class, and it did not look pleasant in the slightest.

But she knew she was getting distracted, so she scrapped that thought from her mind and leaped over pile of boxes, galloping away from the centrum. Her hooves clopped fast as ever; inside her mind, she was conducting one of the vast array of aerial moves she had seen at the Wonderbolt’s shows. One of those techniques was from when she had seen Captain Spitfire perform on an annual tours across the lands. Up and down the little unicorn ran, occasionally doing a spin in mid-air, while she became ever so closer to where she was headed.

To Mr. Whooves’s house.

~~~~~~~~

“Oh, my bloody hoof!” cried the chestnut stallion, after having accidentally dropped a heavy wooden box on his hoof.

Always to me.

Always to freak-AH!

Whooves grimaced as he put some weight onto the hoof. It was a little red from where the box struck, but the wave of pain quickly passed by in seconds. Without further ado, the earth pony trotted over to the dark blue box, which had luckily enough fallen onto his bed. The distance between the top of cupboard and floor was quite long, so he was thankful that no damages had occurred outside of some dust falling on the sheets. After giving it a quick check, to be extra sure no scratch had come, he lifted the thing on his back and proceeded to exit his bedroom.

Gotta get everything set up, he thought while descending down the stairs and in no time hit the bottom floor that opened straight into his living room. And with a relief he lowered the box down, close to the center table before himself walking over to the couch.

He dropped straight on it like a sack of potatoes. He couldn’t help with it, he felt so exhausted after having set up the necessary equipment. With that, he lazily looked through rest of the open room; seeing the blank whiteboard ready to be written on, straight from the cellar, and of course the wood box he had just hauled from upstairs. Hefty heavy stuff, as he had sadly noticed.

Then they turned to look at the wall clock, that showed it was just merely past twelve, approximately ten minutes. “I guess I’ve got some to relax before she gets back.”

And with that his eyelids shut.

A minute.

Then they shot wide open.

His mouth formed a weak smirk and he turned to sit up. “Heh, oh right. Foolish Whooves, you silly moron. How could you forget—”

Knocks interrupted his train of thoughts.

“—that somepony’s at your door?” The puzzled stallion turned to view the door and indeed, there was somepony banging it down. Literally. Whooves was more surprised that the poor door could handle such ferocious blow after another. So he jumped off and began to head towards it.

He had pretty much guessed who was there and tried to hide his tiredness behind a smile as he grabbed the handle.

“Ah, there you are! Now if—” the stallion began out but stopped as an yellow-coated mare stormed inside his house instead of a pale purple filly he was expecting to greet.

The mare plew her orange locks away from her face “Where is she?!” she then shouted in a bitter tone whilst Whooves took a step backwards. He managed to caught the triple carrots on her flank.

“Umm, pardon me miss but-”

“Don’t you play fool on me! I saw that little non-good rucker ran here,” the clearly enraged earth pony continued off to shove her hoof up to the stallion’s chest “So be a kind pony and just give her over to me and we’ll be on our way.”

By now both her tone and attitude had gotten even Whooves frustrated “Now look, I don’t know why the buck you’re here, inside my own my house, and yelling straight to my face subject of matter I don’t even know about. So if you’d be kind enough to haul your plot out of my house, I’d really appreciate that,” he then pushed the mare away from his face and pointed his hoof at the door “The door’s there. Be sure to close it after you.”

The mare gave a one look over Whooves shoulder before turning round “Must have been my eyes... should probably go and gather my carrots.”

Whooves narrowed his eyes “I’m sure that’s the best thing to do.” the yellow pony huffed at the words and the stallion stared back until finally the door closed with a loud bang.

“Someone's just have the nerve...”

“You said it, Doc!”

The Sandstallion continued to calmly stare at the door for a short while, face exposed from any visible expression and life whatsoever. Even his eyes kept stayed half-open. In the end he let out a weak wheeze whilst his eyes made the contact with what looked a like a black fuzz ball.

“How did you get in?”

“Chimney.” he heard the voice of Dinky spoke underneath the shell of coal.

~~~~~~~~

“T-t-that tickles. S-stop i-it!”

But the stallion in question didn’t listen and instead bushed more intensively the freshly bathed filly, who tried to squirm her way out of the blue towel.

“Just stay still, will you?” said Whooves in a frustrated tone. What had seemed like an eternity and two full shampoo bottles later, he had finally managed to clean the filly’s coat from all traces of ash and coal. But by Celestia, he hadn’t enjoyed it at all. But in the end it didn’t really even matter, as he was finally done cleaning her.

“There we go.” he said whilst folding the towel.

Dinky honestly glittered due to the sheer amount of shampoo used. But still she was happy and couldn’t help but to laugh as she stood onto the stool to see herself on the cabin mirror. However, she soon heard clops and saw Whooves standing by the doorway.

“Dinky, how about you go and wait downstairs in the living room. You know, the small area with sofas and chairs.” the unicorn filly nodded and he smiled whilst lifting up a small saddlepack “I’ll be right with you. Just need to put this into the washer.”

“Okay.” and without further saying she was off and before the stallion got to utter a single word of protest at her running, she had exited both the bathroom and his bedroom, now leaping down the wide steps that led down. But the fun didn’t last for long and soon she hit the bottom floor with a creak.

Dinky kneeled down, trying to mimic the starting stance that Spitfire took before races, and confidently licked her lips.

She then jumped.

“Weeee!” she squealed and bodyslammed the poor sofa. On direct impact the springs of it made the little pony jump back over a hoof in air. This happened for a while, until she finally landed on a pillow, which in turn let out a cloud of fuzz. It rained down like a snow around the open room and left a white shell over the sofa.

Dinky puffed out some of it that had gotten in her mouth and laughed.

A sigh echoed over from the stairs “Really? Honest to Goddess, really?!” grumbled the voice over and Dinky turned to see Whooves leaning against the step railings, his hoof pressing against his face.

“Umm... ehh...” she mumbled, unable to form an answer.

So in turn she did something else. The most destructive weapon every good filly knew to use whenever dealing with grownups or when caught stealing from the cookie jar.

An adorable smile and moist puppy eyes.

“Sowwy.”

Whooves took one glimpse at her and instantly turned away. “N-no, everything’s fine. I can clean that up later.” He ended up sighing again and walked down the remaining steps. However he couldn’t help but to notice that Dinky’s expression had changed back to the happy one. Perhaps a bit happier than usual as she rolled in the white innings.

To be honest, the old stallion felt jealous. How did he crave to be once again young and act dumb. Yet he felt an idiot for thinking something like that. It isn’t like time machines exists. Nevertheless he was still happy to see such an enthusiastic individual full of life.

It brought back memories.

Whooves trotted over to one of the two padded chairs, that was coincidentally next to the whiteboard, and sat down. He took a quick glance to see that the box was still safe by the centre table.

This is it.

Time has come to pass down the knowledge.

The stallion tilted his head over to the couch “Dinky,” the pale purple filly stopped fooling around and in turn stared at the stallion “I need you to listen to me very carefully and I mean it. Dead serious.”

Dinky continued to stare at the narrowed sapphire eyes and nodded. He then rested his hooves on sides of the chairs and took a comfortable position.

“First and foremost, are you absolutely sure you’re up to this? Don’t bluntly say yes, instead you have to understand the responsibility that’ll come if I tell you about ‘you-know-what’.”

Whooves leaned to same level as Dinky and they were face to face.

“So, miss Dinky Doo, what is your answer?”

“Sure!”

“... what?” the chestnut stallion said, as he saw her smile to him “Didn’t you just listen to what I just said?!”

Dinky nodded “Well, yeah I did and I said ‘sure’. Maybe you’re the one who should get his ears checked out.” she laughed innocently at look of his face “But still, I’m super-duper-extra-super sure that I wanna hear about real life Sandstallions.  Who wouldn’t wanna?”

The chestnut earth pony kept staring at the yellow eyes, but found nothing that would have hinted a lie or uncertainty. Ultimately he let his head drop with a breath.

Indeed... who wouldn’t want to?

He laid back over to his chair and folded his front legs over his chest. Like he was an old pony, about to tell an epic and long tale about adventures in faraway lands.

Except what he was about to tell was anything but made up children’s stories, and he most certainly wasn't old.

He cleared his throat “Dinky, am I right to believe you already know the story of Sandstallion?” he saw her nod “Well, as you already know, the story is about a legendary pony that’s said to bring forth dreams to all ponies of the land every night.”

“With his magic dust, yes yes, I know already about that.” Dinky impatiently noted.

“Yes, with a magic dust that’s said to keep any form of Nightmare away,” after he finished, his eyes fixed onto the little unicorn, who herself was laying over the pillow “This tale is as old as Equestria herself, passed down to each new generation of ponies. It’s even well known outside of her realm.”

He sighed. This stroke Dinky’s interest as she watched mister Whooves’s face change to a grim grimace. She continued to watch as Whooves leaned forward over towards the chest she had seen earlier. He flipped it open and now she too leaned over to see what was it about.

When she got a look inside, she squealed.

Whooves snickered and took out one of the many dolls “Ah, you too like these things?” he asked curiously as he placed the two legged figurine over to the table.

The unicorn squealed yet again “Ohyesyesyesyesyesy, My Little Humans!” Instantly she stuck her head inside the box and grabbed single of the odd two legged, fully clothed toys. She took a closer look at the ‘human’ figurine, one that was dark shaded and wore a lavender outfit, and moved around the limbs that were referred to as ‘arms’. She was so excited that she without any thought reached out at to it for—

“I hate to interrupt your playtime, Dinky, but could you place it on the table?”

The filly snapped off from dreaming and innocently smiled before lowering the doll to the table. But then she thought of something.

“Umm... mister?”

“Yes, what is it?” the earth pony replied whilst taking out couple more of the toys.

Dinky rubbed back of her head. “Umm... nevermind,” she said, not wanting to possibly hurt the stallion’s feelings by asking stupid questions and importantly jeopardize her plans to play with them later. She patiently watched as Whooves put down one more doll, that wore a business outfit, and then closed the chest.

“Now then,” Whooves announced as he sat down next to the table and started to place the dolls in various positions. “Lets say these toys here represent normal ponies. They’re all living happily in the wondrous place known as Ponyville, trotting around day after day with wide smiles and bright laughter. Everypony is happy and there’s nothing to worry about.”

He moved around one of the figurines, one the ‘women’ that happened to wear something that resembled a cowpony outfit.

“Let’s say that this ‘filly’ here has had especially good day. She has been with her other friends and had some delicious ice-cream in a clear summer day with no school.”

“Kinda like me!” Dinky cried out, but then pressed back down. Whooves didn’t seem the slightest angry and instead put the doll to lay down.

“Indeed... now, the day has come to an end and everypony has had quite the day. From elders to foals, nobles to poors, everypony waits for our Princess to lower the sun and for the moon to rise, to mark start time for dreams.”

The earth pony smiled and turned to the filly. “Here’s your first question: what will happen to everypony as they fall asleep?”

Dinky tapped her chin with a hoof and thought about it very hard, as Whooves kindly noted from her silly expression. He stayed quiet for the minute it took for her to come up with an answer, fiddling with the marker between his hooves.

 “They... have dreams?” she shyly asked and was relieved as the stallion nodded whilst turning over the empty whiteboard, to which he quickly wrote the word Dreams and circled it.

“Correct. When you go to sleep, you’ll have dreams no matter what. Nopony really knows why, but the legend says that they’re gifts given by the princess of the moon, who watches over us every night from dark sky,” his tone was mysterious as Dinky noted, but then he lazily shrugged “But scientists say it’s due to the natural magic flowing in our bodies and I’m more profound to believe that over fairy-tales.”

 “Wait, fairytales?” Dinky stared back at Whooves, who was still writing something on the board. “But didn’t you say that the Sandstallion is real and that’s like a really old story. Or that’s at least what Mommy says.”

Whooves continued to write on the board and then underlined the sentence:

What are dreams?

He then leaned at the board and touched the end of his muzzle with the marker “I never said that the tale itself is true. I merely said that I’m the Sandstallion.” The earth pony tapped on the board with his red marker. “Now then, here’s another good riddle: what are these dreams we have, where we experience our greatest imaginations and let our thoughts take over, leaving this dull existence behind our backs?

The filly, already overwhelmed by the information on the story part, remained quiet as she stared at the words. Nevertheless, Whooves warmly smiled, as he knew she possibly couldn’t have known the answer, and instead turned yet again over the board. He drew a line from the question and wrote a single word.

Magic

“One wise pony once said that dreams are magic that even non-unicorns can conjure. Indeed, our dreams are merely nothing more than projections of our inner magic. One that resides in every sentient being.” He then laughed weakly “It’s actually one thing that makes us different from normal animals. Anyways, it isn’t very well known why this happens except for once again referring to the princess of dreams. Maybe it’s just a way to keep our magic reserve balanced out, so that no harm comes forth.”

“But... but... w-what about nightmares? A-are they magic too?” Dinky weakly asked.

She instantly regretted it. She saw how mister Whoove’s face went through a complete change as every feature of relaxation vanished and was replaced what she could describe as... nothing. There was no word Dinky knew that could describe the bland look of his.

But Whooves knew one.

Depression.

The stallion turned back at the board with a disheartening sigh. “No, Dinky, no... Nightmares are anything else but dreams.” He began to write on the board underneath rest of the words. “ Dinky, you need to listen very carefully as this is the cornerstone for the foundation of Sandstallions.”

Dinky gulped “Y-y-yes, sir! I will!”

Whooves didn’t answer back. Dinky watched him write something, but it was hidden behind his back and it didn’t matter how much she tried to get a glimpse over the shoulders. But it didn’t matter, as in no time Whooves moved out of the way.

Dinky now saw what he had written and she let out a gasp.

Nightmares are REAL!

“What?!”

Back by the padded chair, the chestnut pony looked serious “Dinky, even though it may sound absolutely crazy, this is the solid truth here,” he let his eyelids fall down “Nightmares are, in fact, sentient creatures. Well, spirits if you wanna get technical with it.”

The filly stayed quiet. Her mind was filled so many questions that craved for an answer but refused to come out from her open mouth that hung loose. However the stallion quickly caught onto her and smiled.

Well, you cannot really blame her, can you Whooves? Remember how you acted to... him.

He coughed and the yellow eyes of Dinky’s darted at him“I understand how you feel. How about I tell you a little bit more, then we can call it quits for today? How does that sound?” he calmly explained and was pleased as Dinky nodded, even if quite meekly. So Whooves adjusted his position and then looked back to her.

“Now, what are Nightmares? It may sound odd, but a best word to describe them is a leech.”

“Leech?” Dinky asked and the stallion nodded before continuing.

“Leech; they’re beings that feed on other beings for magic, kinda like how we eat and drink everyday. But our magic value is normally very low, outside of course when unicorns perform magic but on those are more of magical spikes and Nightmares need time to consume their dinner. That’s why they seek for dreams; unaware sleepers are basically served dishes for them.”

“Do-do they hurt ponies?” she whispered.

The stallion shook his head “Thankfully not. Think about it; a leech doesn’t gain anything good if it’s host dies,” the already pale purple coat of Dinky’s got even lighter “Uhh... look, Nightmares aren’t frankly that powerful as they might sound. You do remember how I beat that ugly mug with an ease.” he laughed, trying to calm her down.

But Dinky stayed quiet. Her mind was still overwhelmed by all this; false tales, dreams, Nightmares...

Yet there was one last question left.

“Umm... can I ask something?” Dinky was finally able to talk and aimed her words to curious Whooves “You said ‘Sandstallions’. You mean...you're not alone?”

“Hmm? Oh, of course I’m not alone. Our organizations is quite large.”

“H-how many?”

Whooves rubbed his chin “Uhh... hmm... say, maybe some couple hundred stallions both in field and at the Bureau.” he then shrugged “Not that it really matters much, because you won’t be seeing anypony else.”

Dinky’s confusion rose “Huh, what do you mean? Why cannot I see other Sandstallions?”

“Umm... well, you see,” Whooves paused for a moment “You see, you’re not yet a fully-fledged member. Even if you’re my apprentice, our regulations are very strict on who are allowed to know about us.”

“Then who knows about you?” Dinky continued to stare at him in awe.

“That’s actually quite few. All I know is that the Commander of the Royal Guards and Princess herself are the only ones outside of course the immediate families from which Sandstallions mostly come out from. I for myself come from such a family...”

He left the end trailing, swearing deep inside he had opened his big mouth.

Don’t ask about it, don’t ask about it, don’t-

“So was your family too-”

“Oh look at the time!” Whooves interrupted the filly and pointed his hoof at the wall clock “Goddess me, time really flies by when you’re talking about my family- I mean, about relatives- I mean my work. Yes, that’s it!”

Dinky too looked at the time, however she viewed it in disbelief before looking at the frantic stallion “Uhh, are you sure, mister? It’s only past two.”

But by the time she looked back, she saw that Whooves had already stood up “Nonsense, dear Dinky!” he said warmly and headed over towards the opening “Now come on Dinky, how about we have our own little tea party? Wouldn’t that sound great, hmm?”

“I don’t drink tea...”

“Then I’ll fix up something else. Now come on, time’s wasting!”

But Dinky looked back and forth between him and the clock, however in the end she jumped off from the couch and approached him with head held low. To which Whooves responded with a hymn of approval.

“Perfect, except we’re missing something... Oh right! Dinky, would you be kind enough to grab our little friends from there and-”

The chestnut stallion didn’t get to finish before he watched the happy flash of purple disappear back into the living room. Nevertheless he smiled faintly whilst hearing her go through the dolls, searching for just the right one.

“Heh kids. So easily predictable.” Whooves laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Colours of dark red already painted the skies of Equestria when Derpy finally caught first building of Ponyville in her view. She smiled confidently as her wings guided her way, gliding smoothly past layers of clouds like they weren’t there. in the first place.

Derpy sighed “Oh what a day this has been.” With an ease of a natural born flier like she was, even if some folks doubted it due to the many accidents, it was only in matter of seconds that it took for her to reach the so-called flying zone of the town. One that all of the local pegasi, expect for that one reckless cyan one, used normally in order to keep an eye contact with the surface. But for her it didn’t matter that much as she already knew where she needed to head.

Therefore it didn't take too much for her to land on her homestreet and onto the porch of her apartment. Derpy merely dropped off her mail saddle, all dirty and mushy from the day long flight to Canterlot.

Her eyes, or at least one of them, turned to stare to other end of the street. To where Derpy trotted off and headed directly towards Whooves’s door. Similar to rest, but it was recognizable from a little adornment on the door shaped on the form of hourglass.

I just hope Dinky hasn’t caused much trouble. Well, at least not as much as her energetic attitude usually causes, the pegasus poundered. Yet she took a calming breath and faintly knocked three times on the door. As she stood there, she noticed some odd scratches on it however she instantly forgot them when she heard the lock click.

It opened and a stallion poke his head outside, smile forming on instant he saw her. “Ah, you’re back. I trust your trip went well?”

The grey pegasus yawned and rubbed her yellow eyes. “Exhausting, but nothing too unusual; weather was beautiful, birds flew along with me, no random dragon attack anywhere close by,” her words slurred as the pegasus felt how her bed was calling back at home “Anyways, is Dinky...”

Whooves smiled and pulled the door open for the mailmare “Oh yes. Just keep it down will you? I just got her to sleep.”

To that Derpy cocked her eyebrows “Sleep? Her? But-” yet as the living room ahead was revealed to her, it shocked the pegasus to see he was telling her the honest truth. Over by the broad couch laid the curled up young pony, sleeping away unbeknownst to of her mother trotting over to her. She saw that on the table next to furniture were laid a set of cups with a dark brown liquid within.

Her amazement was still visible “Just... how...” Derpy stuttered, finding hard to utter proper words. To that the stallion, who now had walked beside her, replied with gently grabbing the little sleeper by the neck and dropping her off the pegasus’s back.

“Hot chocolate, completed by secret family ingredient,” Whooves whispered with same levelled laughter, to which Derpy responded with an unsure smirk as she gave a glimpse on her back. Rather more towards at what the filly was firmly hugging against herself.

A ‘human’ doll that wore a purple dress.

“Oh, umm... here, let me just-” but just as Derpy was about to pull the toy away, she was stopped by the brown hoof of the stallion. She turned to look at him with a questioning look and watched Whooves shake his head.

“Nah, it’s fine. She can keep that,”

“I-I see...” the mare whispered and rested her wings over Dinky, like an enclosing bloom of a flower, before turning directly towards the stallion who had just managed to do a miracle.

“Thanks... and "sorry if she caused you any trouble.”

Whooves tried to muffle his laughter but failed miserably “Oh sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Dinky here has been nothing but a terrific fun. After all, I do tend to get lonely from time to time so I do appreciate any sort of company,” he then tilted his muzzle at the still open front door “Now if you really wouldn’t mind, I’ve gotta start to prepare for upcoming night.”

Derpy stared at his deep blue eyes for a short moment until she broke to a smile and her hooves began to trot away from the stallion. As she got to the door, she turned to give one last smile to the caretaker.

I think I like this pony, she thought while closing the door after her and made a steady journey down to her own apartment.

Back inside, the chest stallion puffed in relief as the door closed and thanked Celestia she hadn’t taken a closer look at the doll. Otherwise... no, he didn’t even want to think what she would have thought of him.

The things I did when I was a young colt... But weren't those the times!

Sandstallion yawned loudly and stretched his back “Guess I’ll grab the pills and hit the bed for quick nap.” with that he was off to upstairs and in no time got inside his bedroom. But as he got there, he smacked himself on forehead.

 “Ahh! Stupid Whooves!” he muttered in the instant he saw the now dry saddlepack of Dinky’s on his bed. He had totally forgotten about it and now it was all but too late to return it.

He sighed and lifted it, making a mental note to return it in tomorrow morning and possibly apologize for the inconvenience. Whooves he then headed over to the side, where a pile of random objects laid on a neat pile. All were from inside of Dinky’s bag. With a grumble, he started to put them back inside and also making sure to balance the weight between the two sides. Luckily most of the stuff were light and therefore easy to place. Stuff like crayons, clean papers, plastic scissors and-

Nevertheless there was something that caught his attention. It was a paper piece, however substantially larger than the rest and also folded down. He could see how colours shined through the paper.

Whooves grabbed it and weighed on his hoof “She must have done this on the art course -thingy she mentioned.”

The stallion looked to his sides, like excepting somepony to be around, before folding the paper open. If there was one thing he hated, that was curiosity. Even if it was wrong for him to look at someone else’s stuff.

Oh what are you worrying about, old bugger? It’s just a picture! Nothing else or-

He was wrong.

Utterly wrong. In the first second he saw it, he felt something hit him. Not physically, but inside of him. He felt... he felt... anguished.

“What in...” he quietly uttered.

The picture was nothing more than a simple crayon picture, like the ones he had seen earlier today. That in mind, they were well made, considering how young the artist was. But that was not what mattered.

What mattered was what it had in, and that was two pegasus flying side by side. and giving happy looks.

One grey and other smaller purple, both with identical blond manes and large postal saddle packs filled with letters.

~~~~~~~~

It was quiet in the room, more specifically inside the office. On it’s sides were planted top to bottom large windows that bathed the room with the lights of the never sleeping city, Canterlot. The helm of all Equestria and her culture, unlike the dirty industrial Manehattan or the near countryside Fillydelphia. The lights of its tall buildings came through the glass panels and in at an angle, highlighting the luxurious furniture that littered the room. Something you could expect to see in the CEO -offices of vast equine enterprises. Nevertheless in the middle of all this stood a beautifully engraved work desk of sorts, theme of it being the nightsky. However there was no chair by it. Instead there was one opposite to it, turned towards the window.

On it, sat a unicorn.

Knocks rang from over the door.

Followed by these, the door into the offices carefully opens up and in walks a light red unicorn stallion with a buzzy snow white mane with a pair of reading glasses over his forehead. Otherwise the colt wore a simple checkered vest that left his typewriter Cutie Mark clear for sight.

The door closed behind him “You called me, sir?” he asked in rather shyly while walking further inside. The colt then saw how the hoof at the chair pointed towards the table. So he walked over there.

There was nothing else expect a single piece of paper with couple of lines on it. But the vest wearing pony instantly recognized what it was about as he saw the purple stamp on it. He chuckled weakly while levitating the paper up to air.

“So somepony has taken an assistant,” he muttered while waiting for it to come to him. At the same time a timid huff of approval sounded from over the chair. But the other unicorn shrugged whilst dropping the glasses to his muzzle and grabbing the paper with his hoof.

“Now then lets see what this is all ab-”

A silence fell into the room yet again. By the chair, the imperial purple unicorn stallion stood up. He was wearing a full set of a black tuxedo with a same coloured tie as his long mane and beard, light blonde with streaks of white by the end. His horn was slightly curved near to the tip and it had a golden ring with a large star strapped on. It gave to him an appearance of old-times, but at the same time also that of authority.

But at the desk, the piece of paper fell from the grasp of the stallion “N-n-nonono, th-this cannot be true! You must be joking, right sir?”

Nevertheless the old stallion proceeded to take out from his jacket pocket a pipe and began to fill it with tobacco powder while still staring down onto the lively night streets.

“Since when I have ever lied to you, my dear secretary?” his soothing tone spoke out.

By now the red unicorn had started to get bad vibes “But it cannot be, sir! I-it’s an impossibility! There’s no way this is a really happening... right?”

The elderly pony closed the small powder pouch and put it away while taking out a box of matches. All this occurred with his horn blared in oddly gloom colour of crimson.

Yellows eyes behind the pair of glasses darted fully open “Oh Stars, you’re being serious aren’t you?”

With a simple nod, the purple unicorn placed the pipe between his lips and took an experimental inhale to keep the flame burning steadily.

“It’s indeed true what it reads.”

He inhaled the smoke to his lungs before releasing to trail towards the ceiling that was completely covered in symbols of the Moon.

“The Doctor has finally taken an assistant.”