"Alright. Dusty and me are just going to get ourselves a cart in-town. We're leaving you two in the capable hooves of Vanilla here so please, try not to make a mess," Torque said.

"Yessir!" Caper and Icicle both yelled, saluting the stallion.

"Don't worry you two. Everything will be fine," Vanilla reassured Torque and Featherdust with a smile.

While Torque still looked uneasily at the dynamic duo, Featherdust took comfort into knowing that her friend Vanilla was on the scene and said "Come on, Torque. You heard her! Let's just go so you can be back faster."

After spending a long time in Fillydelphia with Featherdust, Vanilla and Icicle (and occasionally Caper too), Torque decided to bring some of his stuff over to Fillydelphia. At first it had seemed more like a field trip, but it didn't look like he was leaving any time soon. The pegasus pony lived in a cottage near Ponyville where he would protect Equestria against the dangers that lurk in the Everfree forest. In doing so however, he had isolated himself from the rest of the ponies and found it hard to even make contact. That is, until he met Featherdust, a unicorn with a talent for writing, along with Caper, a young and energetic jester earth pony that travelled around Equestria, but as of late spent a lot of time in Fillydelphia too, and though even they had a troubled start, they had become more than just good friends. Featherdust then decided to take Torque with her to Fillydelphia 'for a few days perhaps' which, in the end, became a few months. While there, he had met her friends: Vanilla and Icicle. While Vanilla, an earth pony with great cooking skills, was a very responsible mare for her age, Icicle, a pegasus pony working for the Fillydelphian weather team during the winter especially, was still very young and was quick to form a close friendship with Caper. The two of them would often get excited about something silly, many of which didn't even make sense, and it often caused trouble for Torque.

"Are you sure about this, Dusty?" Torque asked nervously.

"Sure I'm sure," Featherdust said with a smile. "You know Vanilla by now, right? She can handle them." The two then walked  off to Ponyville, the place where Featherdust had been born.

"Alright. I just hope they won't discover... well you know," Torque said.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they won't," Featherdust said, winking.


Meanwhile, Icicle and Caper decided to play tag with each-other. Occasionally, Icicle would cheat by leaping in the air, but then Caper was quick to climb in a tree and still manage to tag her.

"Alright, how about I make you two something to eat? I'm sure Torque wouldn't mind if I used his stove," Vanilla yelled at the two.

They immediately stopped playing and both cheered in excitement. "Cookies!" "Cupcakes!"

"Now, you can't eat sweets all the time," Vanilla said. "I was thinking of just making you a sandwich."

"Oh, that's fine too I guess," Caper said a little disappointed.

"But... Cookies are good for your health! They cure everything!" Icicle said with a big smile.

Vanilla sighed. "Not this again," she muttered. The last thing she needed was Caper and Icicle on a sugar rush. "Dear, sandwiches are better for your health," She said with a smile. "Besides, uh... sandwiches make you strong and... you want to help out Torque by carrying some heavy stuff... right?" Vanilla felt like she was talking to two little fillies but at least it worked as the two started jumping around again.

Vanilla then went inside to look for the kitchen. The house was very quiet but it wasn't deserted for Torque didn't live here alone all this time. His roommate was called Vita Nova, a pegasus pony who, even though she was deaf, could easily take care of herself. Torque had considered her his sister and the feeling was mutual, though in reality, they weren't related whatsoever. It appeared that right now, Vita wasn't in. She was probably out in the forest to check on the creatures there.

"Ah, there we go," Vanilla said when she entered the kitchen. She opened up a few cupboards to see what ingredients there were that she could use. She was quickly startled however by the sudden appearances of Caper and Icicle right behind her saying "Hi!".

"Oh! Sorry Nilla," Icicle said, helping the earth pony get back on her hooves.

"Yeah, we just wanted to see whether you were done already," Caper said.

Vanilla uttered a giggle. "You two should really be more patient, you know. Making good food takes time," she said. "Now, I have to see what I can work with here. There's bread there but let's see what else there is."

"Oh! Oh! We can help!" The two said simultaneously and before Vanilla could say "I don't think that's such a good idea", the two were already opening up all the drawers and cupboards they could find.

"Uhm.. please sto-... would you please not... " Vanilla tried to say but the two were too busy to notice.

"Oh! I found something! A large sack!" Caper said.

"Oh! I wonder what's inside!" Icicle yelled and began to take the sack out of the cupboard, taking an edge in her mouth. It seemed to be stuck however so Icicle pulled harder.

"Icicle please, stop! It might..." Vanilla was unable to finish her sentence though as the sack was torn open, revealing lots of flour that was now going up in a cloud across the room, covering everything and making it all white.

Caper was the first one to pop her head out of the flour again. "Wow, I didn't know *cough* ponies keep snow in sacks. Icicle, why didn't you *cough* tell me?"

Icicle also popped out her head and coughed. "We don't *cough*so I wonder why *cough* Torque does," she said astonished.

The two were about to go into a discussion about this when Vanilla was finally able to regain her composure again. "Alright, that's enough of you! Look at what happened? Torque's entire kitchen is covered in flour." She couldn't bring herself to become angry but she was very close to it.

"Flower? But this doesn't even look like flowers," Icicle said confused.

"No, flour. it's used to bake things like bread, cupcakes and all kinds of things. You can even make... oh what am I saying. You two... you'd better go and wash yourselves up. I'll clean up the kitchen," she said.

Caper and Icicle, realizing they'd done something really wrong this time, said "Yes, Nilla," and proceeded to go to the bathroom in order to get all this flour off of them.

"Oh, and please don't have a water-fight in there. I don't want to have to clean that up too," Vanilla said, keeping up her polite voice. She then sighed and looked around herself. This was going to be a tough job to clean up but she'd better start soon before Torque returned.


While Caper was busy washing her tail, Icicle had been busy getting the flour out of her mane which in both cases wasn't an easy job.

When they were done, Icicle sat down on the floor and said "So what shall we do now that we're done? I mean, I don't think Vanilla wants us near the kitchen."

"Hmm, well remember what Torque said? He was here to protect all the ponies from the evil monsters in the forest! Maybe we can chase them down too! Torque will be proud," Caper said with a smile.

"Oh that's right! But... I don't wanna go into the forest. It looks scary," Icicle said.

"Well I'm not scared of course," Caper said while her eye twitched, "But we could search the cottage instead. Maybe a monster entered here without Torque knowing!"

"Oh no! Maybe it's an evil horseshoe eating monster! Those things are nasty," Icicle said, making something up yet convincing herself that it was true. Something that the two of them were very good at.

"Oh! We have to search the house now! We have to protect Torque's horseshoes!" Caper said. She then got two towels, gave one of them to Icicle and said "we can catch it with these!"

"Good thinking," Icicle replied and they were off. The sneaked out of the bathroom and crawled through the hallway. At one point, Icicle had captured something and yelled "I got it!"

Caper in the meantime yelled "Oh no! It got my tail! Let it go you evil monster! You don't want my horseshoes because... I stepped on them!" She started to try to get away from, of course, none other than Icicle who was struggling harder to keep Caper's tail under control.

This scene went on for a little bit until they heard Vanilla's voice yelling "What's going on up there?", causing the two to stop what they were doing right away.

"Nothing! We're just... playing pretend," Caper said, knowing that if Vanilla came upstairs, she might get attacked by the monster.

"Well as long as you don't break anything," Vanilla said and then continues to clean up the kitchen.

"That was close," Caper said. "Anyway, where is the monster? You said you had it."

"I did but... I was distracted by Vanilla! It got away," Icicle replied sadly and dug into the ground with her hoof.

"Oh... well never mind that. We'll catch it! At least he didn't get our horseshoes," Caper said with a smile.

"Hey, you're right! Alright, let's search on then," Icicle said and together, they searched on. Underneath the carpet, behind the bathtub, in a nearby closet and many other places that you might or might not think of to look at while searching for a monster. They searched on until they got to a closed door.

"Do you think the monster is hiding in here?" Caper asked.

"Well, only one way to find out," Icicle said and slowly, she opened the door. "A-alright, evil horseshoe eating monster, j-just surrender yourself so that you won't eat anypony's h-horseshoes again. I-I We won't hurt you."

That's when Caper just barged into the door and yelled "Yeah! Or else we will have to catch you by force! I've got a pony-in-the-box here and I'm not afraid to use it!"

No reply. The two got more anxious and they expected that at any time, the monster would leap for their hooves. They walked inside what seemed to be Torque's bedroom as there was a bed in the middle of the room. While Caper opened the closet, Icicle looked under the bed but all they could find was dust.

"Maybe it disguised itself as dust?" Icicle proposed.

"Oh, don't be silly. No-one can do that!" Caper laughed.

"Oh yeah? Well uh... we call Featherdust dusty! That's at least something right?" Icicle said.

"Oh wait, you have a point! That means he could be anywhere. He could even be hiding behind this closet!" Caper said and tried to look behind it.

"Or underneath this carpet!" Icicle yelled in excitement, lifting it up.

"Or maybe even in these drawers here! Get out of there and face us like a true monster!" Caper said opening the drawer to look for the monster. She didn't find the monster of course but what she did find was a calendar. "Wow," she said when she noticed something.

"What is it! Did you find the monster?" Icicle asked eagerly.

"No, but look at the date of today!" Caper replied, holding up the calendar for Icicle to see.

"Today... oh! He has to do some cleaning around the house! You're right, that is important to know!" Icicle said.

"No, silly! Look what it says underneath that," Caper said.

When Icicle looked again, her eyes widened. "It's..."

"... Torque's birthday!" they both said simultaneously.

"Oh my gosh! We have to throw him a party!" Caper yelled.

"We have to give him lots of presents!" Icicle yelled in return.

"But why hasn't he told us this yet?" Caper wondered.

"Maybe he forgot?" Icicle proposed.

"Ponies don't forget about their birthdays, do they?" Caper pondered.

"Hmm... oh wait! I got it! Maybe he knows that we'd throw him the bestest party and he's just shy!" Icicle exclaimed.

"Oh yes! That must be it! Well don't worry Torque! We will still make you the best party ever, even if you are shy!" Caper said and then, the two of them decided to prepare everything for the party, forgetting everything about their little monster hunt.

When they arrived downstairs again with very big smiles on their faces, Vanilla started to suspect something. She had cleaned up the entire kitchen and was now busy to clean herself up too. "What have you two been up to upstairs? Was it really such an intense game of pretend play?" she chuckled

"Oh uh... yes! We caught a monster and we showed it that you don't mess with Icicle and me!" Caper said, taking on a heroic pose as if she had just defeated Discord all by herself.

"Are you sure that's all that you've been doing?" Vanilla asked sceptically.

"Yes, Nilla. Don't worry. We've been good ponies upstairs," Icicle said. In secret though, the two couldn't wait for Torque to return home and see what they had prepared for him.