The world will soon be destroyed if I don't go in search of the mystical
crystal, Callie, Tabby's pet cat, contemplated to herself as she dashed around the living
room. Over the couch, under the couch, onto the chair, hide in the crack between the two
shelves-- yes, Callie had mastered the route around the room.
You see, Callie, through her complex intelligence that all cats have, had recently
found out that there was a pack of invading creatures out to destroy the world. The only way to
stop the horde was to find the special mystical crystal.
I'd have to find the secret underground entrance, Callie yawned as she
pulled herself out of the crack and scratched her paws on the couch. How nice that felt! And
since she didn't have claws, she wouldn't get punished by Tabby for destroying the furniture. Not
that Tabby would bother to punish her, anyway.
And then fight off the hordes of evil that guard it, the fluffy cat went on,
running under the chair again and coming out on the top.
Then she laid down on the couch, pulling her tail comfortably around her.
Maybe tomorrow, she decided as her tail began to twitch. Callie began nipping at it, and
the horde of evil was the last thing on her mind.
* * *
Meanwhile, Fuzz, Friendly's cat, had also found out about the creatures out to
destroy the world. We can't let that happen! he thought to himself. And the ponies
will know about it too late to do anything.
Fuzz determinedly walked over to his nice, organized corner of the Bushwoolie
hole. There were all his toys, lined up neatly on shelves. He sighed blissfully. Many a day he had
passed away batting these old favorites around... the round stuffed pea, the roll of Christmas
ribbon, the little green pom-pom. All of these he held dear to his heart.
But, he was going on an important mission. He could only pack one. He picked
the stuffed pea, and threw it in his cat-sized backpack.
Next, he observed the bag of cat-food Friendly supplied him with. Fuzz himself
didn't eat much, but the others he was planning on taking along with him probably would. He
filled many sandwich bags with the crunchy X-shaped pieces and added them to the backpack.
With any luck, they'd be able to find fresh water along their journey; but in case of
an emergency, Fuzz added several tightly-sealed bottles of water to the pack.
Fuzz glanced once more at his shelf of toys, then turned and ran out of the
Bushwoolie hole. He had to gather up help.
* * *
Discreetly strolling through the streets of Dream Valley, Fuzz came across his first
stop: Tabby's house. Long and lean as he was, he skillfully stretched up and turned the doorknob
on the front door. Unlocking it was no problem; Tabby never remembered to lock it in the first
place.
"Callie!" Fuzz called into the house. "Where are you?"
Callie heard the voice from her seat on the couch, and momentarily forgot about her
whipping tail. She batted her eyelashes several times before she realized that they were supposed
to be enemies. She let out a low growl instead.
Fuzz came bounding into the living room. "We've got to save the world from
destruction!" he exclaimed. "You'll come along with me, won't you? I'll need all the help I can
get."
Callie turned his back to him. "What do I care if the world is destroyed?" she
sniffed.
"You wouldn't be around anymore," Fuzz suggested. "Nobody would." To
himself he thought, Hmm, Callie gone. Actually, that wouldn't be half bad...
"Exactly my point," Callie sighed. "If we'll all be long gone anyway, why
worry?"
"If you come, I'll let you play with my pea!" Digging into his backpack, he pulled
out the precious object.
Callie's eyes gleamed for a moment. She had always envied Fuzz of that pea, but
she never admitted it, being enemies and all. "A meager stuffed pea?" she laughed. "It'll take
more than that to get me to go, mister."
"It'll be fun," Fuzz coaxed. "You've hardly ever been outside this house. Wouldn't
it be nice to go on an adventure and see new lands?"
That made Callie stop and think. Actually, it was pretty boring around here. Tabby
was much to loud for her liking, always shrieking out and squeezing her until Callie thought she'd
explode. But then, since Tabby had gotten that Meowth of hers, she didn't pay as much attention
to Callie anymore, which Callie really appreciated. Still, it would be fun to get out of the house
for awhile.
"I'll go on one condition," Callie bargained. "I get to pick up the crystal first when
we find it." It was a weak condition, but she had to come up with something to make it sound
like she wasn't going willingly.
"Fine," Fuzz agreed. "Now, we head over to Sugarberry's house."
* * *
Fuzz and Callie sat on Sugarberry's porch, staring up at the door. The last member
of their team, if you could call it a team, lurked inside: Fluff.
Fluff was even worse than Fuzz, in Callie's mind. He made absolutely no acts of
kindness towards her; even Fuzz was nice to her sometimes. Plus there was the fact that he was
enormously fat. How could any cat eat that much? Callie shuddered at the thought. She ate only
a few morsels of food at every meal.
Fuzz was concentrating hard on the doorknob. Sugarberry, unfortunately, was not
scatter-brained like her friend Tabby was. The door was locked.
"Are we going to sit here all day?" Callie yawned.
Fuzz wordlessly slipped off the porch and inspected the small wire fence that
Sugarberry had up around her flower bed. He swiftly snapped off a piece of the thin wire and
bounded back up on the porch.
"A piece of wire." Callie grimaced. "It's filthy. Look at that gob of dirt on it."
"It'll do the job," Fuzz mumbled as he stretched up to the doorknob and inserted
the wire into the keyhole. He began wiggling it around. Callie stretched out in a sunbeam on the
porch and closed her eyes.
"Callie, get up!" Fuzz exclaimed a few minutes later. Callie frowned as she looked
up. The sunbeam had been so comfortable. Then she saw the open door.
"I picked the lock with that wire," Fuzz said proudly.
"Do we have to take Fluff along?" Callie complained.
"He's my brother," Fuzz reminded her. "We can't leave him out."
"Why do I have to come, then? I'm not related to your scuzzy barn-cat family."
"Like you're any higher than barn-cat-class," Fuzz snorted and he walked through
the door.
Callie began making up a fantasy world for herself. "My mother was a show cat;
she won hundreds of ribbons. I remember looking at all of them when I was a little
kitten--"
"A show cat," Fuzz smirked. "Why didn't you follow in her pawsteps? Or did she
evict you from the house for being such a spoiled brat?"
Callie bristled her fur in anger. "A spoiled brat? Don't you dare call me that!" The
truth of the matter was that Callie had been a stray. The first thing she remembered of her life
was crying pitifully outside of a large building... that building. What was it? Who were her
parents? A family had discovered and adopted her, but gave her away at a garage sale several
years later. That's when Tabby had found her.
Callie stayed on the porch with her nose stuck in the air while Fuzz went to find his
brother. Fuzz was wandering through the rooms in Sugarberry's house. Ah, there was Fluff,
sleeping comfortably in a box sitting out in the kitchen. Fuzz sighed dreamily. He wished he had
a box like that.
Anyway, he tapped on the side of the box. "Fluff! Get up!"
His fluffy gold brother just stirred in his sleep and grunted.
Fuzz reached into the box and whapped one of his paws on the fat cat's head.
"FLUFF!"
That did the trick; Fluff slowly came to. "Fuzz," he said drowsily. "What're you
doing here?"
"There's an evil horde about to destroy the world and we have to find the mystical
crystal to stop them," Fuzz quickly explained. "Callie's waiting out on the porch to go with
us."
"Callie?" Fluff's eyes shown with malice. "I've got a few things to say to that cat.
Let's get going!"
* * *
The three cats walked south, as their instincts told them that's where the evil
creatures were doing their work. They kept switching between fits of peace and fighting.
"Did you hear that Callie's mother was a show cat?" Fuzz poked his brother
playfully.
Fluff chuckled. "Ha! Any show cat would be upset to have a daughter that looked
like that!"
Callie looked down at her soft fluffy calico fur, then rolled her ears back and bared
her fangs. "If my mother were here, she'd show you a thing or two! She may have been
beautiful, but she sure had an attitude!" She paused wistfully for a moment, wishing she had
known her mother.
"So that's where you got your personality from!" Fuzz said gleefully.
"And my father wasn't that nice, either," Callie continued. Hey, if she was making
up a fantasy world, why stop?
Fuzz finally sobered up. "Now, if we meet up with anyone, we'll have to go by
aliases."
"Aliases? Why?" Fluff asked.
"Because that's the way to do things," Fuzz sighed in exasperation. "I'll be
Socrates."
"Volstagg," Fluff said after a pause.
That sure sounds like Fluff, Callie thought in annoyance. After thinking
about her alias, she finally declared, "Cassiopeia."
"Good choices," Fuzz said in approval. "Now we're all set to take out the evil
forces."
And so, the team kept going.
* * *
"I'm so tired," Fluff complained. They'd been walking south for over a day now,
after a night's sleep in a grove of trees.
Fuzz twitched his ears. "The evil horde is still a day or two's march from here.
You can't give up now, Fluff!"
Callie yawned. "My paws are so worn-out. Can't we stop to rest?"
"We'll just go on a little further," Fuzz mumbled, and shot ahead of the two others.
He stopped several yards away from them and sat on his haunches. "Look ahead," he instructed
Fluff and Callie after they caught up with him.
Callie looked ahead on the flat plain. "It looks like a tent."
"Yes," Fuzz agreed. "The occupant might be an enemy. Fluff, you go and scout it
out. Remember your alias!"
"Okay," Fluff said drowsily. "I'll be back in a little while." He strolled casually
along, up to the tent.
Fuzz and Callie sat erect as they watched Fluff's progress. "Look at him," Fuzz
groaned. "Anyone could hear those pawsteps coming."
Fluff looked right inside the tent. Callie shook her head. "He shouldn't have
looked straight inside like that."
And then Fluff disappeared totally inside. "What happened?" Callie said in
surprise.
"He went inside; anyone could see that," Fuzz mumbled. "It doesn't look like he
was taken by force. Maybe it's not an enemy. We'll see if he comes back. He is supposed to
report to us."
They waited. They waited some more. Callie yawned again. "He's not back," she
said bluntly.
Fuzz nodded. "Yes. Very interesting. I'd better go see what's up. You come with
me." He headed off, taking a more discreet route to the tent than his brother had taken. Callie
hesitated a moment, then followed after.
Sitting with his ear to the canvas tent, Fuzz listened intently. "Can you hear
anything?" Callie whispered.
"It sounds like Fluff... licking his lips!" Fuzz exclaimed. "I'm goin' in." He
stormed through the door flap. There sat Fluff, eating ravenously from... a can... of cat food?
Fuzz nearly gasped. Canned cat food! What a treat!
Sitting ahead of Fluff was a beautiful white long-haired feline, who wore a silver
heart-shaped locket around her neck, Fuzz noted. She smiled as Fuzz walked in. "Are you
Fluff's brother he told me about?" she questioned simply.
"Yes, but he was supposed to report back to us and not sit around eating all
afternoon," Fuzz answered politely. "And he's supposed to be Volstagg, not Fluff." He glared at
his brother. Even if this was a fellow cat, you never knew who would turn on them.
"Would you like something to eat, Mister..." the fluffy beauty trailed off.
"Socrates," he stated. "Just call me Socrates."
"You don't have to go by your aliases," the cat giggled. "Fluff already explained
that part to me, too. You're Fuzz, of course."
Did he tell her everything? Fuzz wondered, but nodded in response to her
question. It was too late to salvage the alias plan.
"And I'm Cataline," the new-comer declared, and graciously pulled out yet another
can of cat food and placed it in front of Fuzz.
"Hey, Callie, come in here, and meet Cataline!" he yelled outside before digging
into this fabulous treat. Fluff was still too busy eating his to have said anything, but he did look
up and mumble something incomprehensible to Fuzz, as his mouth was full of food.
Callie strolled slowly into the tent. "What's going on here?" she demanded.
"Callie... you're the third member of the team?" The white cat blinked slowly.
"I suppose you could say that," Callie sniffed. "It's not very good manners to begin
eating before me, though. I'm the lady, after all," she directed at Fuzz and Fluff.
Cataline was staring at Callie intently. "You look so much like... like..." she said
slowly.
"Like what?" Callie said impatiently. She wanted to be fed, too... canned cat
food!
"My daughter." Cataline wiped away a tear. "My only daughter. She was lost
when only a few months old." She unlatched the locket from her neck and opened it, then stared
down at one of the pictures. "Can it be possible?" she cried out joyfully.
Callie looked into the locket. On one side, there was a picture of a handsome gray
cat with white stripes, along with an elegant white cat which was obviously Cataline. Callie's
eyes opened wide when she saw the other picture. It was... her! Yes, it had to be. It
was a kitten with a scowling face, and fluffy calico fur.
"Oh, it has to be you!" Cataline embraced Callie lovingly. "Compare the picture
with yourself. There are the gray and orange patches on your head, and the white stripe that cuts
through it. Absolutely identical."
"Wow," was all Callie could say.
"What became of you after you were lost?" Cataline, now Callie's mother,
prodded.
"How'd I get lost in the first place?" Callie wanted to know. "And can I have
something to eat?"
Cataline laughed and presented her newly-found daughter with another can of cat
food. Fuzz and Fluff listened in on the conversation in rapt attention.
"Now, let's see," Cataline started. "Your father was a barn-cat."
"A barn-cat?" Callie looked horrified.
Fuzz and Fluff both rolled over laughing. "Hee hee! You're half scuzzy barn-cat
after all!" Fuzz choked out.
"Ah, but he was a dashing cat," Cataline said dreamily.
" ‘Was'?" Callie asked in alarm.
At that, Cataline sighed. "You see, he was just kidnapped--"
"Kidnapped?!" Callie's eyes flew open.
"We'll get to that part in due time; otherwise, nothing will make sense," Cataline
said reasonably. "Now, your father and I took you to a party to meet all his relatives one night, in
the barn he used to hang out in."
"A barn..." Callie said contemplatively. Was that the building she remembered?
"Unfortunately, you wandered off." Cataline wiped away another tear. "We only
realized you were gone when we got ready to leave. We looked all over, but couldn't find a trace
of you."
Callie sniffed. "It's such a heart-breaking story. What became of me? I hope I
didn't get killed by some vicious beast."
Fuzz and Fluff started laughing once again. "Callie!" Fluff roared. "If you were
killed by a vicious beast, you wouldn't be here wondering about it!"
Fuzz looked at his brother admiringly. "You actually showed some common sense
there, Fluff," he commented.
Callie blushed sheepishly. "Oh... yeah."
"We heard the next day from a friend of ours-- he was an owl, but such a dear
friend-- that he'd seen a family of ponies pick you up the previous night-- you must have gotten
out of the barn. It was too late for us to do anything. The only link we had to you up to now was
this photograph," Cataline said, showing Callie's kitten picture off again.
"It's amazing," Callie breathed.
"And that's your father, Charles-- or Charlie, that is." Cataline pointed to the other
picture, showing herself and the gray-and-white cat. "It was taken on our wedding day."
"You said he was kidnapped. What's the story behind that?" Callie demanded.
"We'd found out about an evil horde of vermin that has a mystical crystal," Cataline
explained. "They're going to use it to destroy the world."
"That's exactly what we're out wandering after!" Fuzz exclaimed.
"Really?... Ah, yes, Fluff did say you three were on a quest... well, Charlie had just
about located the secret location. Just a few nights ago, he went out scouting... I was watching
from a distance. And... he was captured by the rats."
"That's terrible," Callie said sympathetically. "Now, you said he was a barn-cat.
What's your occupation... Mom?"
Cataline smiled. "I'm a show-cat," she said happily.
Fuzz and Fluff had frozen looks on their faces. "A... show cat?" they both
stuttered.
"That is, until Charlie and I ran off to get the crystal back from those vermin,"
Cataline explained. "I do hope my owner will take us back in. It's rather fun being in
shows."
Callie shot a triumphant look at Fuzz and Fluff. "Told ya my mother was a show
cat," she said, smirking.
"Yeah," Fluff mumbled.
"Now, Callie, tell me about your background. Where do you live now? Who are
these two handsome friends of yours?"
Callie sniffed. "They're not friends, Mom. They're acquaintances. I was only
forced into knowing them because all our owners are friends."
"They look like fine gentlemen to know," Cataline chided her daughter. She turned
to the two brothers. "Were you barn-cats?"
"Originally, yes," Fuzz answered. "We found nice homes in Dream Valley, though.
I live in a Bushwoolie hole."
Cataline raised her eyes. "A hole?"
"Quite well furnished," Fuzz continued. "Bushwoolies are good at making
underground homes. I have my own shelf for toys."
Cataline nodded in satisfaction. "Are you owned by a Bushwoolie as well, Fluff?"
she asked the other brother.
"Nope, I live with a pony," Fluff said. "In a house with boxes... I love boxes." He
sighed happily.
"And Callie." Cataline looked at her daughter.
"I'm owned by a pony in Dream Valley as well-- she's a unicorn, though; not a
lowly earth pony like Fluff's is," Callie said, in a desperate attempt to sound better than Fuzz and
Fluff.
"Is she the one that found you by the barn?"
"No, actually, the ones that found me there gave me away at a garage sale a few
years later. Tabby got me then."
"Does she care for you well?"
"As long as she leaves me alone." Callie shuddered. "She's too loud for my liking.
If she keeps my food and water dishes supplied, I'm happy."
"With the background info all filled in, let's get to work on recovering the crystal,"
Cataline said briskly.
"That's right!" Fuzz said. "Where did Charlie think the entrance to the secret
tunnel was?"
Cataline ducked out of the tent and pointed further south, where the cats could
make out a grove of trees. "In there somewhere. Ever since he was kidnapped, I've been too
scared to do anything on my own. But with you three on my side now, maybe we can do
something." She smiled.
"We'll head out tomorrow," Fuzz decided. "If we hurry, we can get this thing
wrapped up by tomorrow at this time. Then we can go back home."
"Sounds good with me," Fluff said as he curled up on a pillow strewn on the floor
of the tent.
* * *
Fuzz woke up bright and early the next day-- yes, it was going to be a big day.
"Fluff! Callie! Cataline!" He roused all his friends. "We gotta head out."
"I don't wanna get up." Fluff snuggled deeper into the pillow.
"I never wanted to come on this adventure anyway," Callie mumbled drowsily. "At
least let me sleep."
"Mmmm," Cataline mumbled.
Everyone eventually got up though, and had a breakfast of more canned food.
Cataline led the way to the tree grove.
* * *
"Here we are," Cataline announced. The four cats stood at the tree grove, with
bushes on the outskirts. "Charlie was sure it was around here, but hadn't located the precise
location yet."
Fuzz was the most intelligent of the group. He twitched his ears. "Hmm..." he
mumbled to himself, poking into the bushes.
"Finding anything?" Fluff asked.
"Ahh... yes... here!" Fuzz cried out triumphantly. "Look. There's a hole leading
underground here." He pushed the bushes aside to reveal a well-concealed hole.
"Well, let's get going," Fluff said, plunging straight down into the hole.
"It's definitely where the vermin are," Cataline said. "It's giving off strong
vibes."
The rest of the group was more cautious going down than Fluff had been. Callie
distastefully wiped dirt off of her fur that was dropping down on her from the dirt tunnel.
However, they had forgotten about Fluff, who was no longer in sight.
"Look, there's a door!" Cataline exclaimed quietly. It wasn't a dead end, though;
the tunnel kept going. The door was wooden, and strangely enough, it was attached to the dirt
tunnel as well as it would have been to any other solid surface.
"What do you think is inside?" Callie questioned.
Fuzz tried the knob. "It's locked, but that isn't really a surprise," he said. "I sure
hope none of the vermin are in there; they would have heard the knob rattle."
"Maybe it's Charlie!" Cataline said hopefully. She rapped on the door. "Hello! Is
anyone in there?"
A muffled reply came, but not loudly enough to make out the words. However,
Cataline perked up. "That's Charlie, all right! I'd recognize his voice anywhere!"
"But it's still locked," Callie wailed.
"No problem." Fuzz whipped out the piece of wire that he'd used to break into
Sugarberry's house from his backpack. In just a few seconds, the door swung open.
Cataline immediately rushed in. "Charles!" she joyfully cried out. And it was him,
all right-- his paws tied together, and a cloth tied over his mouth, but it was still him. Cataline
quickly had her husband free.
"Oh, Cataline, it's wonderful to see you again," Charles declared sincerely. He
quickly sprang to his paws again. "But, first we have to attend to the vermin. We'll have to
hurry; there's not much time left." He ran out the door, only to see Callie.
"Felina!" he exclaimed. "It's you!"
"Felina?" Callie stuttered in confusion.
"That's right; I've finally found our daughter," Cataline said proudly.
"What about the Felina thing?" Callie demanded.
"That's what we named you originally," Cataline explained. "I forgot to mention
that, didn't I? Your pony owners obviously renamed you Callie, but that's fine with us."
The reunited family was getting rather sentimental, and Fuzz was feeling left-out.
"Fluff is gone!" he suddenly exclaimed.
Callie jumped back to the present quest. "That's right! We haven't seen him since
he started down the tunnel!"
"I wonder why there weren't any guards..." Cataline mused.
"There weren't any guards?" Charlie questioned. "That is strange. We'll make
introductions later," he directed at Fuzz, "but I'm assuming Fluff is on our side, so we've got to
find out what happened to him.
The four dashed down the tunnel, and they became aware of a noise, growing
louder as they went. It sounded like... music?
"I've been hearing that sort of noise a lot since I got locked up in there," Charlie
commented.
They suddenly stopped as an amazing sight met their eyes. The tunnel sloped down
slightly, and opened into a round cavern. In the middle was a pedestal with a glowing purple
crystal placed on it. But there were rats in linen tunics covering the place... some were singing,
some were playing instruments, some were sitting on the sidelines tapping their feet to the beat of
the music, and some were dancing just for the fun of it.
But that wasn't the most amazing thing. Fluff was right in the middle of the group,
swaying back and forth as if they were all old friends!
Callie and Cataline gasped. Fluff looked up to where they were and waved. "Hey,
come on down!" he shouted. "This party's fun!"
Then they saw an underground lake, and in front of it, a stone stage was set up. A
mysterious-looking fox was standing there, singing in a loud, clear voice. "Running off in search
of treasure, la la la la la la la la! Going to find it in large measure, la la la la la la la la!" The fox
was a bluish-black color, and wore a dark cloak. He looked to be having as much fun as the
rats.
The four cats looked at each other, bewildered. What in the world was going on
here?
"Ah-hem, excuse me." Charlie stepped down into the circle of merry-making rats...
and Fluff. "Would someone care to explain what's going on here?"
Fluff looked around, and blinked slowly. "Some of the rats are performing their
songs, and the rest of us are just having fun."
"What about the crystal that you're going to destroy the world with, rats?" Charlie
gestured towards the crystal.
The rats began looking at each other. "He's the one we captured, isn't he?" one of
them whispered. "Do you think he likes our music like this fat guy does?"
A darker brown rat in a green outfit stepped forward and looked at the crystal.
"Oh, that. Nobody liked our music, and we were getting fed up with it. We got the crystal with
the help of Steele over there-- he's a Marlfox, by the way--" He pointed at the fox on the stage.
"--and were going to destroy the world with it." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"You shouldn't destroy the world because somebody doesn't like your music,"
Charlie said sternly. "But why'd you take me prisoner?"
The dark rat paused. "Well, a few of the rats were above ground a few nights ago,
and ran across you. They were able to capture you easily, and locked you up in that room. The
rest of us figured, ‘Hey, why not?' "
Fuzz jumped down next to Charlie, which made the rats gasp. "There's more of
them!" some of the rats exclaimed. Cataline and Callie saw that they were spotted now, and they
both waved and smiled at the group below.
"Who were you having listen to your music, anyway?" Fuzz wondered. "It is pretty
good." He tapped his paws to the beat.
"Oh, woodland critters-- squirrels, mice, hedgehogs, that sort of thing," the rat said,
shrugging. "They just ran off after we started playing. We never did try it on cats,
though."
"I think I have an idea!" Cataline called down to the group. By this time, most of
the singing and dancing had stopped, and all eyes were on the cats. "First, promise you won't
destroy the world!"
The fox, who had been across the room before, suddenly materialized next to
Charlie and Fuzz. "Hey, if you guys like the music, we'll forget the crystal," he said
agreeably.
"Good," Cataline said. "I think the problem here is that you picked the wrong kind
of audience. Woodland critters are supposed to be scared of vermin like you... maybe you should
try out your act in Dream Valley."
"Dream Valley? That's the place up north," the Marlfox said. "It's inhabited by
ponies. Are you saying they'd like our music?"
Cataline smiled winningly at him. "It's worth a try, isn't it?"
The rats and fox all began nodding to each other and smiling. The general
consensus was, "Yeah, sure, let's do it!"
"Chuck that crystal into the lake, would you?" Steele instructed the dark rat, who
appeared to be the leader of the rats.
"Wait a sec, wait a sec!" Callie suddenly leaped down into the rats. "When we
came questing down here, Fuzz said I'd be the first to pick up the crystal. So I get to chuck it in
the lake." She made her way to the pedestal, and picked up the crystal.
"It's pretty," she said.
"The sooner it's gone into the lake the better," Fuzz warned. "It wouldn't be good
for anyone else to find it."
Callie finally consented. She tossed the crystal into the lake. It made a plop, and
disappeared into the murky depths.
"Well, that's done," Cataline said happily, who had made her way down to the other
cats.
"Umm..." Callie started. "You'll be able to talk English to the ponies, won't
you?"
Steele rolled his eyes. "What're we talking in now, miss? Of course we'll use
English."
"Just making sure," Callie justified herself. You see, all animals in Ponyland can
understand and speak English; but in the cats' cases, they never talked in it, except to fellow
animals.
The lead rat bowed low before Charlie and Cataline. "I'm known as Joseph. Steele
is the lead singer for our songs, but a lot of us do backup singing."
"Yep, I think this is gonna go real well with the ponies in Dream Valley," Fluff said
contentedly.
And the happy group went off to Dream Valley, chattering all the way.
"I never did let you play with me pea, did I?" Fuzz said, coming up to Callie's
side.
Callie sighed. "That's okay... there really wasn't enough time."
"Maybe I can visit you at Tabby's house sometime," Fuzz suggested. "Then you
can have fun with it."
Callie smiled back at him, which was definitely a change in behavior. "I'd like that,"
she said.
Then Callie went over to her parents. "Where do you live? Will you ever be able to
visit me?" she prodded.
"We're owned by someone in Friendship Gardens," Charlie said. "But we'll try to
make it over to Dream Valley whenever we can."
"We'll do anything to see our daughter," Cataline said, hugging Callie again.
* * *
"I'm so glad Fluff's back home!" Sugarberry exclaimed delightedly a few nights
later at the Satin Slipper Sweet Shoppe, while gathered there with some of her friends. "It's so
weird how he just showed up on my porch in perfect condition last night."
"Same thing with Callie," Tabby mused. "At least Tarquin didn't run off like that,"
she added, indicating her Meowth Pokèmon.
"Fuzz back too, yeah, yeah!" Friendly said happily.
"Hey, everybody! Look at this!" Clever Clover came running over to their table,
waving a flier in the air excitedly. He set it down on the table.
"The Steele Rats," Thomas read off the flier.
Tabby opened her eyes wide in alarm. "Rats are starting up singing
groups?"
"The lead singer is a Marlfox, though," Clever Clover went on. "From what I've
heard, they're not evil; that's good--"
"A Marlfox?" Tabby interrupted him. "I simply love Marlfoxes!" She sighed
happily.
"I'm going to have to see this," Sugarberry giggled. "A rat singing group, lead by a
fox."
"Are they performing somewhere or something?" Tabby prodded.
Clever Clover picked up the flier again. "They're putting on their first live
performance in Dream Valley two nights from now. Admission is three jangles for adults,
teenagers, and babies."
Tabby nodded approvingly. "Having the babies pay the full admission as well.
Good thinking on the rats' part..."
* * *
Callie crawled under Tabby's couch. Yes, she was back home. But, she actually
had something to do under the couch this time.
She looked down at the silver locket she was holding in her paw. Yes, her mother
had given the locket over to her, so she'd be able to keep a picture of her parents even if they
might not see each other for awhile.
That's why Callie was under the couch. She was hiding the locket there, so Tabby
wouldn't find it.
And Callie sighed dreamily. She hoped she'd see Fuzz again soon. He actually
wasn't that bad of a cat...