Shutter and Sunny in the Case of the Gurgling Gurglerby shuttertwitchChapters01 - Meet Shuttertwitch02 - Sunny Side Up03 - Chasing a Wild Tail01 - Meet ShuttertwitchShuttertwitch was hunkered down in his favorite room in a little hut on the outskirts of Ponyville — his work office, reserved for all things photography and camera related. It was a sizable room, the largest in his house, in fact, and it was absolutely cluttered with polished lenses and sparkly lights and busy backdrops for every occasion. It wasn’t a mess, mind you, Shutter was a bit of a clean freak, but it was filled to the brim with all sorts of gadgetry and smelled of development chemicals, used plastics and metal. Hanging from a wire that crisscrossed the room were freshly developed pictures set to dry. Yes, it was a place where work was happily completed and there was nowhere in the world he’d rather be than giddily fiddling away in his office. Shuttertwitch had always had an interest in capturing the moment, even before the bright flashy camera mark appeared on his hindquarters. He had fond memories of running all about Ponyville, little hooves sending clouds of dust in the air, as he snapped imaginary pictures of startled old mares and confused delivery ponies with a wooden camera his father had fashioned for him from an old, knobby tree trunk he’d uprooted while landscaping their front yard. His father had been a photographer as well, you see, and his grandfather before that! In fact you could trace Shuttertwitch’s lineage all the way back to the invent of the camera obscura, and even before that they’d been a family of artisans and painters. So when he was old enough and his father had taken him on their farthest walk yet, all the way to the Everfree Forest (a place he had always been forbidden to go as a younger colt), he was told the story of their family history and how they’d forever be ponies who aspired to freeze time in an image so that others could remember and enjoy it. It was their trade and they took it very seriously. Shuttertwitch still had that wooden camera. It was one of his most loved possessions and he kept it in a glass case at the top of his camera shelf. He quickly looked up from his current work to eye it fondly, then went back to his duty, seeing flashes of a young colt with dreams of grandeur galloping about in his mind’s eye. This made him smile. He adjusted in his seat and hunched down to get a closer look at what he was polishing… or rather, WHO he was polishing. He was humming merrily as he went about the day’s chore of cleaning the lens of his most prized camera, which, by the way, was named Spectre. Yes, his favorite camera had a name, and a bit too much personality as well, if you were to ask him. He switched it on to check the power and it hummed to life with a magical violet intensity. He smiled and waited for the camera to wake up and speak. You could say that Shutter got the Paranormal Panoramic Pain-in-the-neck model — I know it’s a bit overwhelming at first, what with talking cameras and all, but it will make sense in a moment, I promise. “Do you have to rub so hard?” Buzzed the camera in a masculine, raspy, tired, old noble’s voice. Spectre the camera had no mouth, the sound just emanated from all around when he spoke, causing him to vibrate slightly between Shuttertwitch’s shaky, sky-blue hooves. “I’m a delicate piece of machinery, mind you! Take it easy on me, would you please!” If you weren’t holding Spectre, you could also tell when he was talking because he put off a modest yellow glow with each syllable. The glow lit up Shutter’s muzzle as he smiled into the camera lens and blew off one last speck of dust. He did this because he knew Spectre hated it, he pestered the old soul, but in a loving way that only old friends can manage. “Hey now!” Spectre throbbed in faux anger. “Need I remind you that I’m your elder twice over! You shouldn’t treat me with such disrespect!” The camera cleared it’s throat, or seemed to anyway, since it didn’t have a throat to clear. “Settle down you old gear head,” Shutter smiled and pushed up his glasses with his free hoof. “I know you don’t like it, but if we’re going to work together and take the best pictures Equestria has ever seen, you need to be cleaned every once in a while, otherwise our pictures might come out blurry.” The ghost-camera was silent for a moment of consideration, then sputtered “Alright, proceed if you must, but just be careful!” Shuttertwitch chuckled, and continued to polish the camera, being extra careful, as not to set him off again. Well, at this point you may be wondering to yourself how Mr. Shuttertwitch came to possess such a haunted camera and that would be a totally normal question to ask. Alas, THAT is a story for another day and we will come to it eventually, but for now let’s just say that he came upon the living artifact while poking around in a place he shouldn’t have been and the reason he was there in the first place was eighty percent his friend Sunny’s fault. (If anything weird or troublesome happened in Shutter’s otherwise mundane life, it was normally Sunny Tendersmile’s fault.) Speaking of Sunny Tendersmile, I believe she’s at the door now. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! “Hey, you in there!” Came a muffled, squeaky female voice from the other side of the door. Shutter recognized the voice and smiled, blowing a bit of his fluffy black mane out of his eyes as he carefully set Spectre on the table. “That filly is trouble…” Spectre whispered, knowing full-well it would do no good to protest. “Coming,” Shuttertwitch shouted as he turned to the entryway, waving a cloven sign of disregard in Spectre’s general direction. Spectre watched him quietly, he’d roll his eyes if he had eyes. He knew that the arrival of Sunny Tendersmile meant one thing: CHAOS! 02 - Sunny Side Up“Uh, you might want to hurry!” Squeaked a high pitched voice from the other side of the door. Shuttertwitch began the process of unlocking all 4 deadbolts of his double-sized entry, a bit much you might say, but what with all the expensive equipment in his house, he just couldn’t sleep soundly unless he knew it was well-secured. Around the click of the third lock he heard a muffled crash and a squeaky “OOPS!”. This was Sunny’s trademark, as familiar to Shutter as her bright yellow coat and her green, excited eyes. “I think I dropped something!” Whined the stridulous voice on the other side of the heavy wooden slab and Shutter quickly finished unlocking the door only to open it to a floating bag with four sunny-yellow legs peaking out from underneath. They were quivering slightly under the weight of the load they were carrying. A warm gust of summer-time Ponyville wind blew in through the doorway and carried on it the sweet smell of happiness. Shutter couldn’t help but take a quick moment to breath it all in: the blithe, fragrant floral aroma, the earthy smell of old trees and worn dirt paths, the spicy acridity of a fire stove and maybe a hint of bread baking fresh somewhere down the road. “I went shopping, heehee!” The floating bag snickered, or rather, the filly behind the sack, but Shuttertwitch couldn’t yet see her. He shook his head to clear it of the intoxicating aromas of the outside world and focused on his friend. Two giant green eyes and a tuft of orange mane peaked around the large cloth grocery pack and Shutter saw Sunny Tendersmile, his best buddy, appear there in front of him with an embarrassed grin on her face. “I think I got too much!” She snorted. “Sorry about the eggs.” Shutter looked down and saw that a cartoon of eggs had fallen from the bag and splattered all about his porch. Some egg-slime had even got on Sunny’s bright yellow hooves. “It’s OK, Sunny.” Smiled Shutter. “I’ll clean it up in a bit. Let’s get you inside before you drop anything else though.” “Okie!” Shined Sunny and she shuffled her hooves to get the egg off, then carefully stepped over the mess and made her way into Shutter’s house. Sunny and Shutter slowly inched toward the kitchen, Shutter walking backward to keep an eye on the filled-to-the-brim bag that Sunny was shakily levitating with her unpredictable magic. He didn’t want any more of Sunny’s famous “oopses” that he’d have to clean up. They finally got the sack to Shutter’s table and immediately Sunny dug in with glowing excitement. “I got your faaavorite,” She sang in a cheerful tone, hooves still deep in the cloth bag. She was waiting with wound suspense like a wide-eyed frog about to leap, ready to reveal what Shutter was already guessing to be true. His favorite? Could it be? “You don’t mean…” Shutter bit his lower lip in excitement and scooted his glasses up with a cerulean hoof. “Tadah!” She pulled out her hooves to reveal two items. A strangely decorated glass bottle in one hoof and a bundle of broccoli in the other. She was a bit too excited with her “tadahing” and accidentally knocked the grocery bag over, scattering the rest of the contents all across Shutter’s kitchen table and floor. “Ooops,” she grinned. Shuttertwitch let out a childish squeal, disregarding the mess she’d made. “Hot sauce and broccoli!! My favorite!!!” “Not just any hot sauce,” Sunny replied. “THE hot sauce!” “No way!” Shutter eagerly grabbed the bottle out of Sunny’s hoof and they both exclaimed together: “UNCLE PAPPY GRIFFIN’S GUT PUNCH!” Shutter held the bottle high above his head in excitement, emulating a certain green-clothed hero of lore he’d read about in the library. “Yep!” Sunny smiled triumphantly, her orange hair springing to life as she held her head high. “But you can only get this stuff in… how did you?…” Shutter shook with excitement, it’d been months since he’d tasted it. Sunny winked an emerald twinkle, “I got friends.” She whispered with a cool smirk. The two ponies cleaned up and put away the rest of the groceries. All the while, Shutter was eyeballing that bottle of Uncle Pappy Griffin’s Gut Punch hungrily. He put some water on the old stove and lit the wood in the belly of the kiln underneath it. He preferred his broccoli steamed, you see, so steamed that it was mushy and then he’d liberally sprinkle the hot sauce on it and gulp it down! “You knooow,” Sunny spoke up from behind him as she stuffed her face with a macaroni pie she’d picked up from the Sugar Cube Corner on her way to Shutter’s house. “I uhm, didn’t just come here to bring you some groceries—“ “I knew it!!” Exclaimed Spectre from the other room. He’d been eerily quiet, no doubt waiting for Sunny to say something about her latest discovery. “I just knew it! She’s going to get us into trouble again!” The camera whined. With the water set to boil and the broccoli suspended above it in a steaming basket, Shutter galloped into the office and picked up Spectre the camera in his teeth. He brought him into the kitchen and sat him on the table across from Sunny so he could be part of the conversation as well. He knew Spectre would have nothing but negative things to say about Sunny’s proposal, but still he didn’t feel comfortable leaving him out of the conversation since he would no doubt be going on whatever excursion Sunny was about to propose. Sunny chomped another bite of pie and then spoke, spewing crumbs from her mouth as she talked. “No no no. No trouble!” She swallowed. “It’s just a little mystery that’s all.” “A little mystery! Bah!” Spectre exclaimed in a yellow torrent of magic. “That’s how it always starts!—“ “Let her talk, Spectre.” Shutter hushed his friend and work partner. “I want to hear this.” Spectre’s violet aura grew a bit brighter, but he didn’t speak again, he kept quiet. “They call it the Mystery of the Gurgling Grove!” Sunny whispered dramatically. She scooted her butt about in her chair for a moment to get comfortable and let the tension rise, then she began to tell Shutter and his angrily quiet camera the story she’d heard during her travels. And this, friends, is how their next adventure began. 03 - Chasing a Wild TailSunny Tendersmile took a deep breath and slowly slid the empty pie plate a few inches away from her with an orangish puff of her unicorn magic. A few crumbs that were left-over from her assault jumbled about on the surface of the plate as it scooted along. She was now satisfied and full to the brim with fresh cider and macaroni bites. She patted her plump tummy with a tired, fulvid hoof and looked around at her friends. Shuttertwitch, the Shaky Photographer Pony, shifted closer to Sunny. The rubbing of the old stool’s legs across the wooden floor made an abrupt flatulent trumpeting noise and everyone giggled as he quickly gathered their empty plates and cups into a pile at the far end of the table. Then, resting his deep blue hooves on the polished tree-stump they were all sitting around, he prepared himself for the story to come. Spectre, the Ghost Camera, reacted as well, after having a quiet giggle at Shutter’s expense; mechanical clicks echoed and spun about as he focused his lens to a pinpoint on Sunny and his ethereal, violet glow dimmed a bit, a result of his own pensive concentration. Everyone was ready, so she began. “It all started a couple days ago.” The room fell silent, even the ever-present gusts of summertime Ponyville wind seemed to calm outside as if it were carefully tiptoeing around Shutter’s little cottage and peaking in the windows to have a listen. “I had stopped to pet a dog.” She continued, an innocent smile on her face. “He was a little Bichon Yorkshire Terrier mix, probably stood no more than five apples high. Somepony had tied him to a post outside of the Ponyville Bookstore and left him there, I guess while they went in to get some books? I don’t know. All I know is that he was sitting there just smiling away and barking and I wanted to pet him!” “I assume gallivanting about and assaulting strange dogs is status quo with you, isn’t it Ms. Tender?” Spectre spoke up. “She never said she assaulted any dogs you old gearhead!” Replied Shuttertwitch with an annoyed sideways glance at the vibrating camera. “She said pet!” “Well actually,” Piped up Sunny with a bit of an embarrassed hue to her already bright yellow cheeks. “I didn’t just want to pet him. I really wanted to play with him too. He was so cute!” “Oh here we go!” Grumbled Spectre. “You know, Sunny, it’s not a good idea to just go about —“ “I felt bad for it!” The yellow pony squawked at Spectre, defensively raising her voice “and I figured if I untied it for just a second, we could gallop around a bit and laugh and then I’d put him back and he would be happy and I would be happy and everyone would be happy! The end!” She smiled to herself as Shutter and Spectre marveled at the simplicity of her equation. “I have a feeling that is not how it ended…” Whispered Spectre. Shutter shushed him and they both became silent, eager to hear what happened next. “So I moved closer to the dog and pet him. He was very nice. It seemed like a good idea, but as soon as I undid the leash, the dog just went crazy!” Sunny pantomimed an explosion with her hooves to emphasize how insane things had gotten suddenly. “He started running up the path toward the Marketplace and I chased after him because I’d just be so sad if it was my fault someone lost their dog!” Her deep green eyes quivered in a sharp pang of melancholy at the mere thought of being responsible for such a terrible act. She fell silent for a moment, as if reflecting on this. “So?” Urged Shutter. “So what happened?” “Well, I chased Scruffles all the way to the market place. And—” “You knew the dog by name?” Interrupted Spectre, now very confused. “No, I found out his name later when the owner was yelling at me as we were washing him off in the fountain, but we’ll come to that in a bit.” “I see,” Chuckled Spectre. “Do continue.” “He was a fast little puppy!” She laughed. “He got way ahead of me and by the time I caught up he had knocked over the honey dispensary and the flower carousel, spilling flowers and honey everywhere and he was heading toward the Apple Family’s fruit cart, where Granny Smith happened to be working that day.” “Oh no!” Exclaimed Shutter and Spectre almost simultaneously. “Not Granny Smith!” “IT GETS WORSE!” Exclaimed Sunny. “How could it get any worse?” Echoed Shutter. “My dear boy,” answered Spectre,”This is Sunny Tendersmile we are talking about here. It can always get worse!” “It does!” She admitted with a nod. “In the process of knocking over the honey dispenser, Scruffles had covered himself in the sticky goop, and then when he destroyed the flower carousel a bunch of flowers had stuck to him! So when Granny Smith looked up from pricing her apples, do you know what she saw?” “Oh no!” They both exclaimed again. “Yes, the poor old mare saw a galloping bouquet of tulips coming at her, jaws gaping and paws scraping and all!” Sunny started clapping her hooves together like a chomping mouth. “He looked like a beast! And, well, as I rounded the corner, I saw the fear in old Granny Smith’s eyes! She screamed ‘The flowers are comin’ to get me! The flowers are comin’ to get me!’ And she nearly lost all her apples!” “Oh my!” Spectre’s cogs were spinning in excitement and horror! Shutter just stared at Sunny open-mouthed, in disbelief. “Killer flowers!” Sunny shouted, holding her hooves up. “She thought the flowers had come to life, like some evil florist’s nightmare, and were coming to eat her up! And what else was she supposed to think? That’s exactly what it looked like!” “Poor Granny Smith!” said Shutter, biting his hooves. “For someone with such a dark history with timberwolves, I doubt she took well to being pursued by an evil flower dog!” “She did not take it well at all, Shutter.” Sunny whined. “She up and abandoned her post at the stall and galloped toward Sweet Apple Acres, screaming about flowers the whole time she went!” “So what did you do?” Shutter spoke up. “Well I didn’t know what to do!” a tear was in Sunny’s eye. “Luckily one of the ponies who worked at the flower stand, who had seen the whole ordeal, took off after Granny Smith, you know, to tell her that there weren’t any flower monsters.” “That’s good.” Said Shutter. “And the rope selling pony, he made a lasso, caught the crazy dog and handed the reigns over to me.” She let her hooves fall to the table. “At that point I didn’t know whether to help everyone clean up or take the dog back to it’s post!” She sighed. “But everyone in the market agreed I’d already done enough, so I returned to the bookstore to find the owner standing at the post where the dog had been. She was scratching her head, confused and scared. I returned the dog to the owner, who was a bit angry at me for untying him in the first place and also for getting him all messy.” “Well I should say so,” said Spectre, proper and dignified. “And I hope you learned a lesson here about touching other people’s dogs!” “I did.” She looked down at her empty pie plate, ashamed at what she’d done. “So I went with the the owner and her dog to the nearby fountain to help her wash him off and it was there, as we were scrubbing Scruffles, that I overheard a couple of reporter ponies talking about a mystery the newspaper was in the process of trying to solve!” “Ah, finally, we’ve arrived at the mystery! “ Spectre laughed. “Couldn’t you have skipped the whole part about the dog turning into a flower monster and started with the fountain?” “Well I would have, but then you would have wondered why I was standing in the fountain with a stranger washing a honey-flowered dog, wouldn’t you?” “Yes!” Shutter cut in before Spectre said anything else to delay the most important part of the story. “It was good to know the context. Now about that mystery?” “Something’s lurking in the gurgling grove of the Everfree Forest!” She said bluntly. “And it’s territory is getting bigger! In fact, a couple who’d been picnicking at a park near there said they heard something rustling in the woods and it came out and apparently it stole their food!” “I see.” Sighed Shutter. “And that’s it?” “Well no! I mean, apparently this isn’t the first time someone’s been attacked by the Gurgler.” “The Gurgler?” repeated Shutter and Spectre. “Yes, that’s what they call it!” Sunny looked about with wide scared eyes. “They said it’s happened five times in the last two weeks!” “Wow!” Exclaimed Shutter. “That is quite a bit of gurgling!” “Yes and at this point no one knows how to catch it or even what it is! So Mayor Mare has put out a bounty for it’s acquisition, or at the very least—“ Sunny pointed at Spectre.” A PICTURE of it, so that it can be identified and properly contained!” “I see, so if someone gets a picture of the beast, then maybe they’ll be able to figure out how to catch it!” Shutter repeated. “Just one picture.” Sunny and Spectre could both see that familiar look of excitement come across Shutter’s azure face. He was already hooked and he didn’t even know all the details. “And that’s where we come in and save the day!” He whispered excitedly. “Yes!” “Yes!” Whispered Sunny. “Oh no,” sighed Spectre under his breath. “Here we go again…”
01 - Meet ShuttertwitchShuttertwitch was hunkered down in his favorite room in a little hut on the outskirts of Ponyville — his work office, reserved for all things photography and camera related. It was a sizable room, the largest in his house, in fact, and it was absolutely cluttered with polished lenses and sparkly lights and busy backdrops for every occasion. It wasn’t a mess, mind you, Shutter was a bit of a clean freak, but it was filled to the brim with all sorts of gadgetry and smelled of development chemicals, used plastics and metal. Hanging from a wire that crisscrossed the room were freshly developed pictures set to dry. Yes, it was a place where work was happily completed and there was nowhere in the world he’d rather be than giddily fiddling away in his office. Shuttertwitch had always had an interest in capturing the moment, even before the bright flashy camera mark appeared on his hindquarters. He had fond memories of running all about Ponyville, little hooves sending clouds of dust in the air, as he snapped imaginary pictures of startled old mares and confused delivery ponies with a wooden camera his father had fashioned for him from an old, knobby tree trunk he’d uprooted while landscaping their front yard. His father had been a photographer as well, you see, and his grandfather before that! In fact you could trace Shuttertwitch’s lineage all the way back to the invent of the camera obscura, and even before that they’d been a family of artisans and painters. So when he was old enough and his father had taken him on their farthest walk yet, all the way to the Everfree Forest (a place he had always been forbidden to go as a younger colt), he was told the story of their family history and how they’d forever be ponies who aspired to freeze time in an image so that others could remember and enjoy it. It was their trade and they took it very seriously. Shuttertwitch still had that wooden camera. It was one of his most loved possessions and he kept it in a glass case at the top of his camera shelf. He quickly looked up from his current work to eye it fondly, then went back to his duty, seeing flashes of a young colt with dreams of grandeur galloping about in his mind’s eye. This made him smile. He adjusted in his seat and hunched down to get a closer look at what he was polishing… or rather, WHO he was polishing. He was humming merrily as he went about the day’s chore of cleaning the lens of his most prized camera, which, by the way, was named Spectre. Yes, his favorite camera had a name, and a bit too much personality as well, if you were to ask him. He switched it on to check the power and it hummed to life with a magical violet intensity. He smiled and waited for the camera to wake up and speak. You could say that Shutter got the Paranormal Panoramic Pain-in-the-neck model — I know it’s a bit overwhelming at first, what with talking cameras and all, but it will make sense in a moment, I promise. “Do you have to rub so hard?” Buzzed the camera in a masculine, raspy, tired, old noble’s voice. Spectre the camera had no mouth, the sound just emanated from all around when he spoke, causing him to vibrate slightly between Shuttertwitch’s shaky, sky-blue hooves. “I’m a delicate piece of machinery, mind you! Take it easy on me, would you please!” If you weren’t holding Spectre, you could also tell when he was talking because he put off a modest yellow glow with each syllable. The glow lit up Shutter’s muzzle as he smiled into the camera lens and blew off one last speck of dust. He did this because he knew Spectre hated it, he pestered the old soul, but in a loving way that only old friends can manage. “Hey now!” Spectre throbbed in faux anger. “Need I remind you that I’m your elder twice over! You shouldn’t treat me with such disrespect!” The camera cleared it’s throat, or seemed to anyway, since it didn’t have a throat to clear. “Settle down you old gear head,” Shutter smiled and pushed up his glasses with his free hoof. “I know you don’t like it, but if we’re going to work together and take the best pictures Equestria has ever seen, you need to be cleaned every once in a while, otherwise our pictures might come out blurry.” The ghost-camera was silent for a moment of consideration, then sputtered “Alright, proceed if you must, but just be careful!” Shuttertwitch chuckled, and continued to polish the camera, being extra careful, as not to set him off again. Well, at this point you may be wondering to yourself how Mr. Shuttertwitch came to possess such a haunted camera and that would be a totally normal question to ask. Alas, THAT is a story for another day and we will come to it eventually, but for now let’s just say that he came upon the living artifact while poking around in a place he shouldn’t have been and the reason he was there in the first place was eighty percent his friend Sunny’s fault. (If anything weird or troublesome happened in Shutter’s otherwise mundane life, it was normally Sunny Tendersmile’s fault.) Speaking of Sunny Tendersmile, I believe she’s at the door now. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! “Hey, you in there!” Came a muffled, squeaky female voice from the other side of the door. Shutter recognized the voice and smiled, blowing a bit of his fluffy black mane out of his eyes as he carefully set Spectre on the table. “That filly is trouble…” Spectre whispered, knowing full-well it would do no good to protest. “Coming,” Shuttertwitch shouted as he turned to the entryway, waving a cloven sign of disregard in Spectre’s general direction. Spectre watched him quietly, he’d roll his eyes if he had eyes. He knew that the arrival of Sunny Tendersmile meant one thing: CHAOS!
02 - Sunny Side Up“Uh, you might want to hurry!” Squeaked a high pitched voice from the other side of the door. Shuttertwitch began the process of unlocking all 4 deadbolts of his double-sized entry, a bit much you might say, but what with all the expensive equipment in his house, he just couldn’t sleep soundly unless he knew it was well-secured. Around the click of the third lock he heard a muffled crash and a squeaky “OOPS!”. This was Sunny’s trademark, as familiar to Shutter as her bright yellow coat and her green, excited eyes. “I think I dropped something!” Whined the stridulous voice on the other side of the heavy wooden slab and Shutter quickly finished unlocking the door only to open it to a floating bag with four sunny-yellow legs peaking out from underneath. They were quivering slightly under the weight of the load they were carrying. A warm gust of summer-time Ponyville wind blew in through the doorway and carried on it the sweet smell of happiness. Shutter couldn’t help but take a quick moment to breath it all in: the blithe, fragrant floral aroma, the earthy smell of old trees and worn dirt paths, the spicy acridity of a fire stove and maybe a hint of bread baking fresh somewhere down the road. “I went shopping, heehee!” The floating bag snickered, or rather, the filly behind the sack, but Shuttertwitch couldn’t yet see her. He shook his head to clear it of the intoxicating aromas of the outside world and focused on his friend. Two giant green eyes and a tuft of orange mane peaked around the large cloth grocery pack and Shutter saw Sunny Tendersmile, his best buddy, appear there in front of him with an embarrassed grin on her face. “I think I got too much!” She snorted. “Sorry about the eggs.” Shutter looked down and saw that a cartoon of eggs had fallen from the bag and splattered all about his porch. Some egg-slime had even got on Sunny’s bright yellow hooves. “It’s OK, Sunny.” Smiled Shutter. “I’ll clean it up in a bit. Let’s get you inside before you drop anything else though.” “Okie!” Shined Sunny and she shuffled her hooves to get the egg off, then carefully stepped over the mess and made her way into Shutter’s house. Sunny and Shutter slowly inched toward the kitchen, Shutter walking backward to keep an eye on the filled-to-the-brim bag that Sunny was shakily levitating with her unpredictable magic. He didn’t want any more of Sunny’s famous “oopses” that he’d have to clean up. They finally got the sack to Shutter’s table and immediately Sunny dug in with glowing excitement. “I got your faaavorite,” She sang in a cheerful tone, hooves still deep in the cloth bag. She was waiting with wound suspense like a wide-eyed frog about to leap, ready to reveal what Shutter was already guessing to be true. His favorite? Could it be? “You don’t mean…” Shutter bit his lower lip in excitement and scooted his glasses up with a cerulean hoof. “Tadah!” She pulled out her hooves to reveal two items. A strangely decorated glass bottle in one hoof and a bundle of broccoli in the other. She was a bit too excited with her “tadahing” and accidentally knocked the grocery bag over, scattering the rest of the contents all across Shutter’s kitchen table and floor. “Ooops,” she grinned. Shuttertwitch let out a childish squeal, disregarding the mess she’d made. “Hot sauce and broccoli!! My favorite!!!” “Not just any hot sauce,” Sunny replied. “THE hot sauce!” “No way!” Shutter eagerly grabbed the bottle out of Sunny’s hoof and they both exclaimed together: “UNCLE PAPPY GRIFFIN’S GUT PUNCH!” Shutter held the bottle high above his head in excitement, emulating a certain green-clothed hero of lore he’d read about in the library. “Yep!” Sunny smiled triumphantly, her orange hair springing to life as she held her head high. “But you can only get this stuff in… how did you?…” Shutter shook with excitement, it’d been months since he’d tasted it. Sunny winked an emerald twinkle, “I got friends.” She whispered with a cool smirk. The two ponies cleaned up and put away the rest of the groceries. All the while, Shutter was eyeballing that bottle of Uncle Pappy Griffin’s Gut Punch hungrily. He put some water on the old stove and lit the wood in the belly of the kiln underneath it. He preferred his broccoli steamed, you see, so steamed that it was mushy and then he’d liberally sprinkle the hot sauce on it and gulp it down! “You knooow,” Sunny spoke up from behind him as she stuffed her face with a macaroni pie she’d picked up from the Sugar Cube Corner on her way to Shutter’s house. “I uhm, didn’t just come here to bring you some groceries—“ “I knew it!!” Exclaimed Spectre from the other room. He’d been eerily quiet, no doubt waiting for Sunny to say something about her latest discovery. “I just knew it! She’s going to get us into trouble again!” The camera whined. With the water set to boil and the broccoli suspended above it in a steaming basket, Shutter galloped into the office and picked up Spectre the camera in his teeth. He brought him into the kitchen and sat him on the table across from Sunny so he could be part of the conversation as well. He knew Spectre would have nothing but negative things to say about Sunny’s proposal, but still he didn’t feel comfortable leaving him out of the conversation since he would no doubt be going on whatever excursion Sunny was about to propose. Sunny chomped another bite of pie and then spoke, spewing crumbs from her mouth as she talked. “No no no. No trouble!” She swallowed. “It’s just a little mystery that’s all.” “A little mystery! Bah!” Spectre exclaimed in a yellow torrent of magic. “That’s how it always starts!—“ “Let her talk, Spectre.” Shutter hushed his friend and work partner. “I want to hear this.” Spectre’s violet aura grew a bit brighter, but he didn’t speak again, he kept quiet. “They call it the Mystery of the Gurgling Grove!” Sunny whispered dramatically. She scooted her butt about in her chair for a moment to get comfortable and let the tension rise, then she began to tell Shutter and his angrily quiet camera the story she’d heard during her travels. And this, friends, is how their next adventure began.
03 - Chasing a Wild TailSunny Tendersmile took a deep breath and slowly slid the empty pie plate a few inches away from her with an orangish puff of her unicorn magic. A few crumbs that were left-over from her assault jumbled about on the surface of the plate as it scooted along. She was now satisfied and full to the brim with fresh cider and macaroni bites. She patted her plump tummy with a tired, fulvid hoof and looked around at her friends. Shuttertwitch, the Shaky Photographer Pony, shifted closer to Sunny. The rubbing of the old stool’s legs across the wooden floor made an abrupt flatulent trumpeting noise and everyone giggled as he quickly gathered their empty plates and cups into a pile at the far end of the table. Then, resting his deep blue hooves on the polished tree-stump they were all sitting around, he prepared himself for the story to come. Spectre, the Ghost Camera, reacted as well, after having a quiet giggle at Shutter’s expense; mechanical clicks echoed and spun about as he focused his lens to a pinpoint on Sunny and his ethereal, violet glow dimmed a bit, a result of his own pensive concentration. Everyone was ready, so she began. “It all started a couple days ago.” The room fell silent, even the ever-present gusts of summertime Ponyville wind seemed to calm outside as if it were carefully tiptoeing around Shutter’s little cottage and peaking in the windows to have a listen. “I had stopped to pet a dog.” She continued, an innocent smile on her face. “He was a little Bichon Yorkshire Terrier mix, probably stood no more than five apples high. Somepony had tied him to a post outside of the Ponyville Bookstore and left him there, I guess while they went in to get some books? I don’t know. All I know is that he was sitting there just smiling away and barking and I wanted to pet him!” “I assume gallivanting about and assaulting strange dogs is status quo with you, isn’t it Ms. Tender?” Spectre spoke up. “She never said she assaulted any dogs you old gearhead!” Replied Shuttertwitch with an annoyed sideways glance at the vibrating camera. “She said pet!” “Well actually,” Piped up Sunny with a bit of an embarrassed hue to her already bright yellow cheeks. “I didn’t just want to pet him. I really wanted to play with him too. He was so cute!” “Oh here we go!” Grumbled Spectre. “You know, Sunny, it’s not a good idea to just go about —“ “I felt bad for it!” The yellow pony squawked at Spectre, defensively raising her voice “and I figured if I untied it for just a second, we could gallop around a bit and laugh and then I’d put him back and he would be happy and I would be happy and everyone would be happy! The end!” She smiled to herself as Shutter and Spectre marveled at the simplicity of her equation. “I have a feeling that is not how it ended…” Whispered Spectre. Shutter shushed him and they both became silent, eager to hear what happened next. “So I moved closer to the dog and pet him. He was very nice. It seemed like a good idea, but as soon as I undid the leash, the dog just went crazy!” Sunny pantomimed an explosion with her hooves to emphasize how insane things had gotten suddenly. “He started running up the path toward the Marketplace and I chased after him because I’d just be so sad if it was my fault someone lost their dog!” Her deep green eyes quivered in a sharp pang of melancholy at the mere thought of being responsible for such a terrible act. She fell silent for a moment, as if reflecting on this. “So?” Urged Shutter. “So what happened?” “Well, I chased Scruffles all the way to the market place. And—” “You knew the dog by name?” Interrupted Spectre, now very confused. “No, I found out his name later when the owner was yelling at me as we were washing him off in the fountain, but we’ll come to that in a bit.” “I see,” Chuckled Spectre. “Do continue.” “He was a fast little puppy!” She laughed. “He got way ahead of me and by the time I caught up he had knocked over the honey dispensary and the flower carousel, spilling flowers and honey everywhere and he was heading toward the Apple Family’s fruit cart, where Granny Smith happened to be working that day.” “Oh no!” Exclaimed Shutter and Spectre almost simultaneously. “Not Granny Smith!” “IT GETS WORSE!” Exclaimed Sunny. “How could it get any worse?” Echoed Shutter. “My dear boy,” answered Spectre,”This is Sunny Tendersmile we are talking about here. It can always get worse!” “It does!” She admitted with a nod. “In the process of knocking over the honey dispenser, Scruffles had covered himself in the sticky goop, and then when he destroyed the flower carousel a bunch of flowers had stuck to him! So when Granny Smith looked up from pricing her apples, do you know what she saw?” “Oh no!” They both exclaimed again. “Yes, the poor old mare saw a galloping bouquet of tulips coming at her, jaws gaping and paws scraping and all!” Sunny started clapping her hooves together like a chomping mouth. “He looked like a beast! And, well, as I rounded the corner, I saw the fear in old Granny Smith’s eyes! She screamed ‘The flowers are comin’ to get me! The flowers are comin’ to get me!’ And she nearly lost all her apples!” “Oh my!” Spectre’s cogs were spinning in excitement and horror! Shutter just stared at Sunny open-mouthed, in disbelief. “Killer flowers!” Sunny shouted, holding her hooves up. “She thought the flowers had come to life, like some evil florist’s nightmare, and were coming to eat her up! And what else was she supposed to think? That’s exactly what it looked like!” “Poor Granny Smith!” said Shutter, biting his hooves. “For someone with such a dark history with timberwolves, I doubt she took well to being pursued by an evil flower dog!” “She did not take it well at all, Shutter.” Sunny whined. “She up and abandoned her post at the stall and galloped toward Sweet Apple Acres, screaming about flowers the whole time she went!” “So what did you do?” Shutter spoke up. “Well I didn’t know what to do!” a tear was in Sunny’s eye. “Luckily one of the ponies who worked at the flower stand, who had seen the whole ordeal, took off after Granny Smith, you know, to tell her that there weren’t any flower monsters.” “That’s good.” Said Shutter. “And the rope selling pony, he made a lasso, caught the crazy dog and handed the reigns over to me.” She let her hooves fall to the table. “At that point I didn’t know whether to help everyone clean up or take the dog back to it’s post!” She sighed. “But everyone in the market agreed I’d already done enough, so I returned to the bookstore to find the owner standing at the post where the dog had been. She was scratching her head, confused and scared. I returned the dog to the owner, who was a bit angry at me for untying him in the first place and also for getting him all messy.” “Well I should say so,” said Spectre, proper and dignified. “And I hope you learned a lesson here about touching other people’s dogs!” “I did.” She looked down at her empty pie plate, ashamed at what she’d done. “So I went with the the owner and her dog to the nearby fountain to help her wash him off and it was there, as we were scrubbing Scruffles, that I overheard a couple of reporter ponies talking about a mystery the newspaper was in the process of trying to solve!” “Ah, finally, we’ve arrived at the mystery! “ Spectre laughed. “Couldn’t you have skipped the whole part about the dog turning into a flower monster and started with the fountain?” “Well I would have, but then you would have wondered why I was standing in the fountain with a stranger washing a honey-flowered dog, wouldn’t you?” “Yes!” Shutter cut in before Spectre said anything else to delay the most important part of the story. “It was good to know the context. Now about that mystery?” “Something’s lurking in the gurgling grove of the Everfree Forest!” She said bluntly. “And it’s territory is getting bigger! In fact, a couple who’d been picnicking at a park near there said they heard something rustling in the woods and it came out and apparently it stole their food!” “I see.” Sighed Shutter. “And that’s it?” “Well no! I mean, apparently this isn’t the first time someone’s been attacked by the Gurgler.” “The Gurgler?” repeated Shutter and Spectre. “Yes, that’s what they call it!” Sunny looked about with wide scared eyes. “They said it’s happened five times in the last two weeks!” “Wow!” Exclaimed Shutter. “That is quite a bit of gurgling!” “Yes and at this point no one knows how to catch it or even what it is! So Mayor Mare has put out a bounty for it’s acquisition, or at the very least—“ Sunny pointed at Spectre.” A PICTURE of it, so that it can be identified and properly contained!” “I see, so if someone gets a picture of the beast, then maybe they’ll be able to figure out how to catch it!” Shutter repeated. “Just one picture.” Sunny and Spectre could both see that familiar look of excitement come across Shutter’s azure face. He was already hooked and he didn’t even know all the details. “And that’s where we come in and save the day!” He whispered excitedly. “Yes!” “Yes!” Whispered Sunny. “Oh no,” sighed Spectre under his breath. “Here we go again…”
