Dinky woke up from her slumber, the sun beaming on to her from her window. She shielded her eyes from the light as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Looking to her right she saw blue day-time sky along with her nightstand. On it stood five books, looking at them reminded her of how she finished the series the books offer, and how it saddened her to be done with such a great novel. But it also reminded her of the fun she had the other day. Using her imagination as she read the journey of fictional, or in her mind non-fictional characters was fun, but being the main character in her own thought up fictional journey was a new layer her imagination never used before.
"Dinky are you up? Todays a school day, your gonna miss breakfast." Said Ditsy from below the stairs.
Dinky's eyes go wide as her mom told her that. Looking back at the nightstand were her clock was, she saw that she only had a few minutes until school begun. She rushed out of the bed, the blanket wrapping around her back hooves, causing her to trip on her way down. Ditsy along with sparkler heard the thud of Dinky's fall, followed by the sound of frantic hoof steps down the stairs. When dinky appeared at the bottom of the steps, ditsy saw that her mane was a mess, and worry was etched over her face; It looked like she was in a hurry.
"Dinky, are you-"
Ditsy didn't get the chance to finish as Dinky interrupted her. "Not much time, late, eat on go!"
Dinky said as she rushed to the table, taking one of the two French toast on sparklers plate. "Hey?!" Sparkler said in confusion. Running to the door, dinky struggled with the doorknob, eventually opening it.
"Bye." She said muffled by the toast before she ran off, the door closing behind her.
Ditsy stared at the door were dinky left in confusion, hearing a chuckle from sparkler causing her to turn her view towards her. "Did you mess with her clock again?" Ditsy said in the most serious tone she can muster.
Sparkler turned to her, surprised she caught on so fast. She gave a nervous smile. "Only a little." Sparkler said, putting her hooves slightly apart in a jester of a little.
Dinky rushed to the school house, all while eating the toast and using her magic to get her mane straightened. She nearly ran into multiple things and ponies as she struggled to multitask. She managed to finish off the toast, in the way of eating half and dropping the rest, but she couldn't get some of the strand hairs in her mane from sticking straight up. She just ignored it and walked into the building, hoping she wasn't late.
She was hoping she didn't get too many stares as she walked in, and fortunate for her there weren't, from the looks of it nearly no one was there. only Ms.Cheerilee, Twist, and Featherweight seem to be there. They all gave her confused stares, but all shrugged it off.
"Good morning Dinky." Cheerilee said, waving a hoof to her. Dinky returned the jester.
Dinky was going to go to her seat, but preferred wanting to talk with twist, taking a desk next to her.
"Morning Twist." Dinky said.
"Morning, why are you here so early?" Twist questioned with her usual wispy voice.
Dinky gave twist a look of confusion. "Early? But my clock-"
Then it dawned on her that her sister may have switched the time on her clock again.
Dang it, is that the only reason she gets up early. She though to herself.
She continued chatting with twist, not bothering to explain to her or finish her sentence. They continued chatting until Featherweight brought their attention to him with a wave of his hoof.
"Hey, umm... Wanna see something cool?" He asked, putting both hooves on a polaroid photo.
They both knew what he meant by something cool, it rather being another one of his well took shots, or something that would make a good story in the papers. The latter catching their curiosity. They stood next to him, waiting for him to present what he had.
"This better not be another landscape pic." Dinky said with un-interest.
Turning the photo in his hooves, he presented to them something that looked to be the location of the Everfree Forest. In a clearing, they saw someone was in the forest, light casting a shadow of their form. It was looking away from the shot, but from the shape and size, it looked to be a filly, and seemed to be wearing a hat of some sort. The filly seemed to be looking up at the ray of light being casted down through the trees foliage.
"Who's that?" Twist asked.
"I don't know, I happened to take it on my way to school." He said, putting a hoof on the camera around his neck.
"Have you shown it to anyone else yet?" Dinky asked.
"Not yet." He said.
"You should probably inform someone, what if she was lost."
"Well, I don't think she was lost."
"Why would you think that?" Twist asked confused.
Featherweight turned in his seat, as if he was a little worried of answering that question. "Well, w-when I took the photo, she began to stare at me." He said, slight fear in his voice.
"Well she probably heard the snap of your camera." Dinky said.
"But it wasn't because of her staring, it was how she was staring."
"Huh?" Was what came from both the fillies mouths.
He pointed to his eye. "Her eyes were glowing, as if lit by something inside. And what's more crazy about it was her eyes had a strange shape to them, them being swirls in the middle." He finished with a swirl of his hoof.
"It does sound crazy, because it sounds made up." Dinky said.
"It's not! I would show you a picture, but I was to afraid to take another."
"No proof, no pudding." Twist said with a shrug.
"From the stuff we've seen, would you guys really not believe me?" Featherweight asked.
This question left them silent. Truth be told from the experiences they all experienced they had as a whole, would one swirled eyed filly be an oddity? Dinky thought about it hard, and came with a solution to end this mystery.
"We should go find her."
With that, both Featherweight and Twist stared at Dinky with wide eyes. They all knew the dangers that the Everfree brought upon those who enter.
"Are you crazy, I know the idea of a filly with spiral eyes was crazy, but don't try compete with it." Featherweight said surprised.
Dinky gave them a hard look." I'm serious, lets go see If she's still there, unless she's not real and you just made it up."
Featherweight wasn't much the dangerous adventurous type, but he did feel like proving he wasn't making it up. But risking life and limb to do so seemed like a fools game, though perhaps she was a lost filly in the forest, though shouldn't he tell an adult?
"Come on, she probably wont be that deep in the forest anyways, we can just travel the edge and call it a day." Dinky said.
He lightened up to the Idea. If its just the rim of the forest, at least if it was a monster they could get a cleaner getaway not being lost. Plus from what Applebloom says, it doesn't sound dangerous at all. He looked over to Cheerilee to see if she was listening onto them, only to see her organizing her desk utensils.
"Ok, I'll go, but only If pipsqueak comes with us." Featherweight said.
"Why do you want pipsqueak to go?" Dinky asked
"He's always wanted to explore the forest, just felt worried. Probably if he came with us, he would feel more confident about it."
"Well ok. What about you Twist?"
"I'll go, but first I'll have to go home to put away my stuff." Twist said, pointing a hoof at her saddlebag." Where will me meet?"
"Well, featherweight is the one that knows the location were he took the picture. So Featherweight, where will we meet?"
"Well, since Twist will be going home, And I'll be doing the same after informing pipsqueak. I'd say we all meet at sugar cube corner, get something to eat and go on our little exploration." He purposed.
"Sounds like a plan."
They continued to talk until ponies started coming in, as school was about to start. They took their usual seat as Ms.Cheerilee started taking attendance. Dinky stared ahead as another casual day of school begun for her. She really wished she could go back to what she did the other day. Then she came to the realization that she could continue what she was doing. It was her imagination after all, and she could use it anywhere. She began to imagine the school house as a dungeon, the wooden walls turning into brick walls, The windows where light came through being more dungeon-like with bars while any other light source became torches. She kept most of everything else the same, if not a little gloomy.
She imagined Ms.Cheerilee as being more menacing, her duty being to have them solve puzzles and answer questions in order for them to earn their freedom. She didn't feel as if she was like this nor felt she did anything wrong as a teacher, but there had to always be a villain in a story, one to halt their progress. Student stared ahead as Cheerilee spouted her teachi... Chantings. Some of the student looked as if they wanted to leave, others passed out from the test on their minds Ms.Cheerilee power influenced. Dinky was however too strong to let Ms.Cheerilee's powers get to her, and only came here on her own free will compared to these defenseless ponies. She was here on one mission, collect needed information, and after that report back to Ditsy. This was her second step to becoming a great mage.
"Dinky." Ms.Cheerilee called out.
Dinky shook out of her daze, looking back toward her teacher." Huh?"
"What is the name of the plant that is said to inflict a practical joke on its host?" Ms.Cheerilee repeated.
She could feel it, gnawing at her back. She knew she was being watched, they waited for her to get this wrong so in her weaken state they may tear her apart. Dinky took a deep breath and proceeded to answer.
"Poison joke?"
"Yes, correct. Poison joke is said to turn the afflicted pony structure in many ways. It onc-"
Dinky gets to live another day. She can slowly feel the eyes of her stalkers trail off, as they know they cannot attack her with succession. Dinky puts on a brave face as she puffs out her chest in courage, having once again escape Ms.Cheerillee wrath.
School goes on while Dinky continues her fantasy quest, and soon enough ends, Dinky waiving to Cheerilee before leaving through the school house doors along with the other students. Dinky saw that Featherweight and Pipsqueak were walking together, and walked over to talk to them.
"Hey guys, are you guys headed to sugar cube corner?" Dinky asked.
"Yeah, but first we have to give a good reason for pipsqueak to be able to leave." Featherweight said.
"Just say were gonna hang out"
"That's not good enough. But when we're done we'll meet you there." Pipsqueak said.
"Ok, see ya then." Dinky said with a wave of a hoof.
Dinky walks away from the two as they both head back to their homes, both them and dinky unaware of how their actions of that day will change their lives for the best, or worse.
