Most pets are rather submissive, lazy folks. They live a sheltered life where food and board are provided with only affection expected in return. It’s an easy lifestyle, one with little pride but even less stress. Opalescence wasn’t like that though. She prided herself on the fact she hardly ever took any help from her “owners”. She had no moral qualms with it; she was a cat whose beauty and intellect deserved the servitude of others. No, her problem was that no pony could ever handle the tasks in a way that she deemed adequate. If she let Rarity pet her there would always be at least one hair out of place. If she made a meal you could be assured it would be at least a degree of of perfect room temperature. And that was the competent one. If she was unlucky enough to have the little one come over...

That is why Opalescence created the Ponyville council, a group of enlightened individuals who could be trusted to deal with the problems Ponyville faces everyday that the hoofed residents were to stupid to solve.It was supposed to be a three animal council, each member fulfilling a crucial duty to the team. Opal would be the leader, in charge of running the meetings, creating the agenda and voting on the decisions. Alowishus was to be the second member and was in charge of providing advice to the chaircat. Alowishus held the dubious honour of being the only animal that Opal actually respected. Being the student of the student to Celestia, his credentials were impressive. However, he never did rest on his laurels. Owlishus was a brilliant mind, with the knowledge of an encyclopedia and the wisdom of a philosopher. He also was smart enough to never disagree with Opal after his first cat scratch.

The council was supposed to be rounded out with Angel, the most hilariously named bunny Opal had ever met. Opal’s official reasoning for adding Angel to the council was as an ambassador to the pets at Fluttershy’s cottage, but in reality he was the muscle to the group. Tiny though he may be, that rabbit packed a punch. However, even the best laid plans of mice and cats can fall apart, and after one meeting Opal’s council was nothing like it should have been. 

It took about ten minutes into the first assembly for Angel to realize he was basically a hired goon. Angel got mad, Opal got frustrated and Alowishus hid in the corner. Al had seen this coming the moment Opal had told him what she was doing, but he knew she wouldn’t have listened. Angel never liked being told what to do, but Opal had never even seen somebody who hadn’t done what she wanted.A tense shouting match later and several cute little chairs thrown later, the meeting was adjourned. Surprisingly, Angel had agreed to come back as the muscle of the group next meeting. Opal didn’t stop grinning for the entire week.

The grin fell flat when Angel arrived to the next meeting with the three most useless animals in Ponyville surrounding him. Winona, the yappity mutt with an attention span smaller than her brain, Tank, the slowest to speak yet fastest to fly into her, and Gummy. Gummy, the crocodile that was as incomprehensible to her as she was to Rarity. Opal didn’t understand him, Fluttershy didn’t understand him, other crocodiles probably didn’t even understand him. There was no way that anyone would want any of these nitwits on the council for any reason other than annoying Opal. But from Angel’s villainous smirk it was apparently clear that was his intention. If alowishus was allowed snide comments, he would have remarked “checkmate”. Instead, the only sound heard was the inane chattering of Winona.

“Oh dear, this hall is so nice! Is this tree Mahogany? I love it! I love you to Opal! A hall in a tree? Its like I’m at the library. I love this!” Winona said in pure joy as she sniffed the walls, tail wagging up a storm.

Completely ignoring her canine companion, Opal begrudgingly added her three new members to the council. Since these three were so, unique, they were given the job of co-treasurers. The council had no funds, but it was always smart to plan for the future. Winona and Tank never realized they had no responsibilities, and Gummy never realized he wasn’t asleep.

Regardless of her initial plans, Opal’s council was immensely successful in solving Ponyville’s pressing problems as they arose. The yarn bandit was caught in days, the bird seed shortage nullified by the end of the week, and in a month a treaty with the raccoons had been finalized and ratified. Tonight however was most likely the biggest problem yet. Tonight, a sleepwalking manticore was walking down Main street.

Opal didn’t know a lot about Manticores. From Alowishus’ research, they were known primarily for “viciously ripping ponies apart”. An interesting tidbit, but she was a cat and therefore the creature’s opinion of ponies held little merit. Still, Opal had a saying in her family. If it has a scorpion tail, avoid without fail. But as the leader of the only team in Ponyville who could deal with this threat, she had no choice but to stand steadfast. The Manticore itself was a towering colossus to the housecat, several hundred times her mass. It seemed to have the head of a lion, and the body of some other things that were not of a feline nature.

“Alright darlings, what we have here is a simple misunderstanding. This majestic goliath has stumbled into our neighbourhood and we need to remind him that he lives in the forest. Does anybody have any ideas?”  Opal said, pacing in front of her assembled team.

“Brute force.” Angel said, cracking his cute little knuckles.

“Anybody besides Angel?” Opal said with a sigh, bored of Angel’s so predictable violence. Angel however wasn’t asking for permission.

“Brute Force, princess.” Angel said as he walked towards the mythical lion. “I think we all know that I’m the only one who even has enough courage to talk to this thing, and I’m feeling angry today. If I’m wrong, please stop me.” All Opal could utter in response was a dismissive scoff. 

With a threatening bunny-hop, Angel approached the Manticore. Spitting into both of his palms, he began to wind up his left hook. With a flying leap he jumped and delivered a colossal upper cut to the sleeping manticore. If this had been committed on another bunny he would have been knocked out instantly. Traditionally however Manticores are built of sterner stuff, and the blow did nothing more than slightly wake up the manticore.

“Uggh, how did I get here?” Said the manticore as he took in his surroundings. The trees he had fallen asleep next too had been replaced by huts, and in front of him were six random animals. He soon realized he must have been sleepwalking. No big deal, he had a problem with that all the time. Usually though when he woke up he was alone in a field. And why was that bunny cradling his fist? “Hey, you guys didn’t wake me up did you?”

“Oh, we’re terribly sorry about that Mr. Manticore sir, we were just trying to make sur-” but Alowishus was cut off by the furious Manticore (from here on to be referred to as Mitch.)

“Hasn’t anybody ever told you how dangerous it is to wake up a sleepwalker? I could have killed you!” Mitch said angrily.

“But you won’t?” Opal said, calmly pondering how to handle the situation.

“Well, no. You guys all look to bony for my tastes. But I’ll do something. Like, I don’t know, eat every other pony? Ooh, I think I’ll wreck the town.” Mitch said casually. Angel was about to leap at him, but Alowishus held him back.Amazingly, this scenario wasn’t going to be won by brute force.

Seeing her opportunity, to make a new friend, Winona jumped forward. As she leaped she realized that her farm was also most likely considered part of the town, and decided to herd to sheep with one stone.

“Hi Mister Manticore! You don’t want to do that to this town! Because this town isn’t full of ponies. Ponyville is actually a place where Dragons live! Big scary Dragons!” Winona lied.

“What? Really? Dragons live here?”

“Huh? No, this is where ponies live. I love you by the way.” Winona replied. In between talking she had become enraptured with a rock she had seen and lost focus.
“Oh, well that was close. Anyway,” Mitch said as he ripped off a root from a tree to use as a club,” Can you guys point me too the Town Hall?” Winona quickly pointed that way, before Alowishus reprimanded her.

Two plans down, the pressure was building for the remaining pets. Opal seemed lost in thought, and Tank was panicking. Pressure and stakes were not things a tortoise handled well. Luckily Gummy took a step forward.

The world seemed to slow down as Gummy clamped onto the Manticore’s leg. Turning to see the croc attacking him, Mitch prepared to “remove” him. However, he stopped when he saw the baby alligator's eyes. So innocent, so unfocused, and so tainted by the singular tear falling down his pristine face. It was tragedy in reptilian skin. There wasn’t a dry eye in the town that saw that sight, save for Opal who was still thinking. Even her icy resolve was touched however.

“Aww, is something wrong buddy?” Mitch said as he petted the clamped alligator. Mitch was a manticore, not a monster and as such couldn’t help but try and help the little alligator. Gummy had him tied around his claw. “Are you hungry?” Gummy silently nodded. “Would you like me to go pick you up some food from the houses I destroy?” Gummy nodded again. “Okay, just let go and I’ll get you a nice little snack.”

With a small pop, Gummy detached himself and wandered off in a direction only he knew why. Opal, let out a sigh, to which Gummy smiled at her in a toothy grin. Gummy didn’t care. All eyes now though were on Tank (Except for one of Gummy’s). This was it, sink or swim. Or more actually fight or flight. Because he flew away. Like, really fast.

With a sigh, Opal turned toward the beast, and then back to the rest of her group. “You guys give me ten minutes. Thats all I need. If you can do that, then you aren’t completely useless buffoons.”

“I’ll do it in ten seconds.” Angel said boldly.

“That doesn’t even make sense, but I’ll count on you.” Opal said before casually trotting off into the night towards the Carousel Boutique. When she came back, she was happy to find that Angel had kept the Mantiocre distracted by being juggled by the monster. She was even happier to know that that was obviously not his intention.

“What’s the plan Opal! And why is she here?” Alowishus said nervously as he cowered under a bush with Winona and Gummy. 

“Let me explain Al. The plan is we do the one thing that’s ever gotten anything done in the history of Equestria. We use the elements of harmony.” Opal said matter of factly.

“But, they’re all over town!” Winona said happily. It looked like she was getting two runs today!

“Oh, dearie no.” Opal said as she patted Winona’s head. “We’re not going to wear those gaudie things. What we’re going to do is  use the actual traits. The reason nothing worked tonight is because we couldn’t have done a worse job following the elements of harmony if we tried.” She looked over to Angel, who was cursing up a storm as he flew helplessly from paw to paw. “Angel kicked the manticore in the face before he did anything. Not exactly kind if you ask me. You, Winona tried deception, horribly, but still not honesty. Gummy tried pity through sadness, and Tank fled. Neither outcome was funny or loyal.”

“Okay, but why is she here?” Alowishus said, pointing to Sweetie Belle who Opal had dragged from the boutique. “Also, how is she still asleep?”

“First of all, this lump’s only talent is being a deep sleeper. Secondly, she’s our solution. Generosity.”

“As in she’s the sister of the element of Generosity?” Winona asked. Opal ignored her though as she dragged Sweetie Belle to the Manticore.

“Ahem.” She meowed, startling the Manticore enough to drop Angel. Angel landed on his face, making Opal smirk before she returned to the business at hand. “We are very sorry for waking you, Mister Manticore. In acknowledgement of our wrong doing, I offer to you this foal. I can assure you she is equally talented in being a meal as she is a pillow, so you will have the best breakfast of your life.”

“Are you serious? You’re going to give me that pony?” Mitch asked in amazement.

“Yes, we admit we were wrong. Can you give us the honour of forgiveness?” Opal said, batting her eyes.

“Well, ok. But I hope you guys have learned a lesson about sleepwalking. It’s dangerous.” Mitch said half heartedly, too busy eyeing his new breakfast. With a flick of his scorpion tail, Sweetie Belle was on his back being taken back to the Everfree.

It was silent for a moment back in Ponyville as everyone stared at Opal as she wandered back home. Before she reached the door however, she took a second and turned around to the staring eyes.

Sighing, she said “Alright, ask me how we’ll save Sweetie Belle.”

“How are we going to save her?!” Alowishus asked in a panic.

“We’re not.” Opal said as she slithered in through the cat door chuckling to herself. Ponyville was safe now from the most klutzy of threats. And no more Manticore. The Ponyville Council wasn’t so bad after all.

However, the Ponyville council disagreed with that Decision. In the following weeks every member of the union disbanded save for Gummy. By that point Opal had stopped showing up, so all that remained of the glorious union was that once every week Gummy went and stayed in a tree for an hour, then wandered home. Alowishus still met weekly with Opal, but t was now in a friendly manner. Opal no longer felt the need to protect others, competent now that she could handle herself and that anyone else of any merit should do the same. The disbanding of the great club came with setbacks, and for months Ponyville’s garbage was eaten relentlessly by Raccoons.  Angel eventually stepped in and helped steer the town in the right direction with his special brand of cute badflankery, but to the rest of the town it wasn’t much of an issue.

Ponyville never knew about that night. All they knew was that they were safe. And that somehow Sweetie Belle had woken up in a barn next to Winona.