The convoy stopped and Twilight opened her eyes again, the fear still ever present as she heard the doors open and she quickly followed the people out and kissed the sandy ground. Scootaloo was out next and kept a hand on Twilight’s neck as the ponies looked around. “Well, I wasn’t expecting this,” Amber said openly.
“Welcome to what’s left of New York,” the captain said gesturing to the city in the distance with a rolling sandstorm holding place, blowing sand like a light rain from the east while the buildings moved independently, swaying in cross breezes in a way that looked more like jelly than than steel. The street lights moved, the people were dressed to defend from the change in weather, and the city was alive, literally, all around them.
As the street rolled and rippled under them, Zecora and Applejack climbed from the back of one of the humvees and joined the other ponies and girl. “Yer world sure is strange.”
“I do not think this is their home, Discord’s game comes from his throne,” Zecora rhymed as she pointed to the top of the Empire State Building, which was twisting instead of swaying; a glowing light held at the point. “He has made his claim to this land of man, may they offer all the help we can.”
The soldiers widened their stance as they adapted to the land and watched as the pegasi lowered to a hover at eye level. “Oh my gosh! This place is like a super jelly wonderland surprise,” Rainbow squealed in glee as she looked at the buildings and landed on the sandy street. “The floor’s like cobblestone mixed with a snake, this’ so cool.”
“Focus, Dash. We have to get home to stop Discord and-”
“Home? Why, my little pony,” Discord chuckled, “home is where the heart is,” he held a beating heart in his talons and one of the soldiers grunted, falling to the ground clutching his chest as he died painfully, “and the heart grows fonder as time passes,” with a flash the heart vanished and the man gasped in relief.
Weapons of gummies raised to Discord as the people squeezed the soft triggers and the weapons disintegrated in their hands and curses were sent to the monster’s ears.
“My goodness, humans are such verbose creatures,” Discord hummed next to a man as he took a bite of a rifle. The man grunted and stood still as Discord wrapped his elongated body around him, “it seems the military of this world is trained to use certain words every sentence, am I correct?”
“Get off my planet!” A voice shouted as a bullet tore into Discord and sprayed a multicolored hue of blood from the draconequus. With a screech, Discord vanished in a flash as a lone figure dressed head to toe in wrags and wraps landed from above two yards away. A nondescript bladed weapon slung on its back and a rifle hand painted black slung to its front.
“Stay out of the city and don’t encourage the scurge,” the voice said in a synthetic tone. It stopped as it took in the ponies for a moment then looked back to the soldiers. “And don’t let them do anything too smart.” The figure turned and began to walk away before it stopped and looked back with blank eyes. “The name is Noname Three, see ya.” Without effort it entered a steady sprint through the sand as though it weren’t there and turned a corner.
“Well,” Night said looking to the others, “that happened. Should I follow it?”
“No,” Twilight said as she walked to the spilt blood and leaned closer to it, inspecting it closer. She yelped as the blood reached for her, forming a basic four fingered yellow hand, before stopping and sealing itself into a real form, falling to its side and turning to dust before them. “Luna poop, that was scary.”
“...Luna poop?” Rainbow asked as she snickered into her hooves, “I don’t know if that’s a bad word or not, but it’s funny!”
“Okay, let’s get our heads on right,” Applejack said firmly looking to her friends and then back to the people who were taking inventory and talking amongst themselves about the recent events; often glancing to the ponies and girl. “We know something can hurt Discord, that’s a good thing. We have the elements of harmony, right?” she asked looking to Twilight.
“Yes, they’re in the barrel with… Oh no! We haven’t fed him for a whole day!” Twilight shouted as she cantered to the back of one of the humvees and unlatched it with her magic. She took out a barrel, laid it on its side, and opened the top. A baby manticore stumbled to the edge before falling to its belly and coughing quietly.
“Oh no!” Fluttershy shouted as she dove to the tiny, thin, starving creature and scooped it up into her forelimbs and cradled it gently. “We need to get it food, quickly!”
“What’s it gonna eat?!” Twilight asked loudly as she looked around the nearly deserted street full of sand drifts, “wait! A shop,” she pointed then blinked. The others looked while Scootaloo ran to the door and pulled the door open, running inside. The mares followed quickly with Fluttershy in the lead to the door as it opened and Scootaloo was pushed out.
“And stay out, ya crazy kid. Ain’t no… What the hell?!” A large woman shouted as she looked at the pegasi and unicorn then jumped back with a level of grace that defied her shape and size as Fluttershy burst in through the door.
“We need food, meat or vegetables! Please, before he dies,” she asked loudly with tears in her eyes. She looked at the few people in the shop and then to the counter where deli meats were displayed. She didn’t wait longer than it took for her wings to flap before she was behind the counter. The clerk shouted and jumped the counter, keeping distance from the pegasi as Rainbow flew between Fluttershy and the large woman who had rushed to the counter with an obvious disgruntled expression. “You’re not gonna hurt Fluttershy!” Rainbow shouted as the woman stopped.
“You’re gonna pay for everything she touches?!” She countered.
“We’ll pay twice that,” Applejack said as she entered the deli and turned her head to her saddlebags. She pulled out a mouthful of bits and tossed them to the woman’s feet and smiled, “bit’s aren’t much of a problem ta me.”
“A bit?!” the woman looked to her feet and leaned over to pick one up and enspected it. “...Is this, gold?”
“Eeyup, with a gem in the center. Minted in Phillydelphia fresh last year.”
There was a silence in the room as the woman picked up the others and inspected them. “Wait here while I check that out. Gorgie, ya got the deli, I’m goin’ to Herman’s down the block for a bit.”
“Wait, you want me to watch these horses eat our food?!”
“We don’t eat meat,” Twilight said, “we’re ponies and we’re herbivores. The manticore we saved is more of an omnivorous monster, so with a diet of vegetables that we had, which wasn’t much, wasn’t enough to satiate-”
The woman walked away and pulled a thin shawl from a hat rack and wrapped it around her head before leaving while Twilight lectured. Several minutes later the woman returned with a grin and sparkle in her eyes. “My babies! It’s so nice to have you here, please, eat all you want. I called my friend, Kyle, he’ll be here in a few minutes with a cart of vegetables. They’re the freshest we have left so eat up!” she practically skipped to the counter as she took off her shawl and tossed it to George.
“How’s the little thing doing?” she asked in concern as Fluttershy fed the creature slowly. “Is that the roast beef? Bah, no big deal,” she dismissively said, “I can…” she paused and looked at Applejack, “that’ll be ten more coins.”
“Sounds fair enough. We did kinda bust in your business and start a mess,” she said as she looked around at the stunned people at their tables. Twilight was talking with two of them about unicorn magic while she moves some silverware around, commenting on the similarities between Equestrian and human dining wares.
“Okay, deal,” the woman held her hand out and gladly took the bits. “And I’ll be in the back. These horses get whatever they want! I’m Sandy, nice to meet you.”
“Yeah!” Rainbow shouted and pumped a hoof in triumph, “Cake and cookie party!”
“No!” Twilight shouted as she left the table she was at, “we have to stop Discord before he damages or destroys this world, then we have to get back to our earth. We have to get to that tower of crazy and blast him with the elements and turn him to stone again.”
“Then he will be banished to the darkest hole, none shall he bother again, not even the deepest mole.”
“What she said,” Scootaloo said from the doorway beside Zecora, “now, can we go get my body back? I’m starting to get used to this one and I miss my wings.”
“These things don’t even work,” Amber said from beneath Zecora. The door closed and a wave of dust and sand blew across the floor.
“Hey, they would if you exercised them right,” Scootaloo challenged the filly who stuck her tongue out. Scootaloo copied her and their attitude towards each other soured slightly.
“Anyway, we’re thankful for your help and Fluttershy might need to stay here to take care of our little friend, but we need to go and stop Discord. How long has he been here bothering you?” Applejack asked.
“About a week, the soldiers said,” Twilight said as she walked to the door and opened it, “let’s get out there and stop that monster before he destroys another world.”
“Another? Sugarcube, he didn’t destroy ours,” Applejack started as she followed Twilight out with the others in line, “reckon he didn’t put much effort into our world compared to this one.”
Fluttershy stayed behind with Rainbow Dash to watch over the Manticore baby’s recovery and with little more than a wave from Rainbow Dash they were left inside the deli.
Twilight coughed lightly as she took in the dry air to fill her lungs. “Okay, we have to get to the top of that building,” she pointed to the tallest building, “and get… what’re you doing here?” she asked Amber.
“Coming with you. Like it or not, this’ my world and I’d like to have my body back,” she pointed to Scootaloo who was taking a moment to look down her dress, “and get out of this thing. Much as I like it, I can’t stand to piss and feel natural.”
The mares looked at the filly and scoffed in unison before looking to Scootaloo. “Well,” Scootaloo said starting to lift her dress but stopped as the thought of every human staying clothed crossed her mind, “this thing sucks, too! If I don’t bend over it gets all over my legs and I haven’t even told you about pooping!”
“We know, Scootaloo,” Amber said wincing, “I had to teach you how to clean up with sand of all things. That isn’t right.”
“Well as a pony I didn’t have to worry about it!”
“As a pony all I eat is grass and hay!”
“It’s better than meat!”
“Nothing’s better than meat!”
“Girls!” Twilight shouted, “Stop acting like a couple of foals and get it together! You want to get your cutie mark in arguing?!” They both fell silent and looked to the ground. “I didn’t think so. Now, let’s get back in the humvee and get to the building. Night can fly to the top and get us some recon, or whatever.”
Night landed and snorted. “Maybe the air’s cleaner up there. I’ll go ahead then-”
“Hold it,” the Captain said as he approached, “you can’t fly up there because there’s a shield around the tower and we can’t take you. We’re at a rally point right now and our friends aren’t here. We can’t communicate with them so we don’t know where they are and we have to move on to our next waypoint before we lost satellite coverage.
“We’re sorry, but we got you to civilization and now,” he shrugged, “you’re on your own. Don’t do anything wrong and we won’t have to come back here unless it’s to help, or worse. Stay vigilant, uh, ponies,” he saluted Night who returned the gesture before he turned and returned to the humvees. They pulled away quickly and turned another corner, then were gone.
“Well, that was fast and anticlimactic, like my last few stallions,” Night mused before she started to hover. “Let’s get going, that looks to be a couple hour trot from here and I bet we can make it before we get too hungry.”
“Speaking of hungry, wasn’t there supposed to be a meal delivery for us soon?” Applejack said, rubbing her bloated side and smiling.
“Ugh, we can’t wait forever! I need Trixie,” Twilight sighed as Night landed and draped a wing over the purple mare's withers.
“Listen, I give you a hard time, but I want you to know that we’re gonna do our best to get you home to your mare, and everything back to the way it was.” Twilight whimpered and lowered her head, moving to nuzzle Night who pulled back. “Sorry, I’m not…”
Twilight sighed and turned back to the deli. “C’mon, let’s rest up. We’ve been pushing ourselves hard and need to recover… and maybe take a nice shower.”
“I call Applejack!” Scootaloo shouted with a hop as she turned to Applejack who smiled back. “I’d take a bath with the manticore at this point, no offense.”
Scootaloo started walking back to the deli and stopped as she felt a drop. Then another and another. She looked up and screamed as a downpour of orange soda began, making them all scramble to get into the deli. “What the hay? Orange soda rain?!”
“It got in my eyes, I don’t have soda proof eyes,” Scootaloo whined as the deli patrons chose to ignore the group this time and continue their conversations. “I need a bath, shower, and spa day.”
Rainbow hopped to the countertop and gasped. “Oh my gosh! Orange soda rain?! I’ll be right back,” she shouted as she flew to the door and pushed it open, stuck her head out, and took her time enjoying the moment.
“Okay, so the happy mare is going to drink the rain… we need to clean up and rest before we beat the unliving rainbow tar from Discord.”
“Night’s right, is there a spa around?”
There were chuckles at Twilight’s question while Sandy came over and greeted them with a warm hug before she noticed their muddy coats. “Eeyuck, okay, bath time for the babes. Come, come, upstairs is the bath and I can get whatever else you need. Do we need horse brushes?”
“Any brushes will do, we can take care of each others’ grooming, we just need to get clean.”