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.”