Twilight let out a groan as she sat up, tenderly rubbing her head. She opened her eyes to see that the basket was in complete disarray--boxes had been overturned, their contents strewn about all over the floor. Immediately her OCD began to kick in, and the unicorn soon found herself arranging similar items into piles next to their corresponding boxes. But it was quickly overridden by the sight of Pinkie pie, lying in a heap in the corner. The unicorn rushed over to the unconscious equine and shook her by the shoulders.
“Pinkie!” she cried, “Wake up! Pinkie, are you okay?!”
“I’m super-duper fantastic, Twilight,” grinned the pink earth pony as her eyes suddenly snapped open. Twilight jumped, causing a nearby pile of maps to scatter about.
“Oh… good,” she sighed as she looked about the basket, “Now then, where’s Trixie?”
“Over here…” came a quiet reply. Both ponies looked over to see a tired-looking shape curled up in the corner, her mane disheveled and frizzled. The unicorn slowly rose up, looking as wet and miserable as could be.
“Trixie!” cried Twilight as she scooted over to the soaked unicorn, “Are you--?”
“I’m fine,” muttered the dripping mare, “C-can we please just land now?” At the mention of landing, the previous night’s exploits returned to Twilight’s memory. The purple unicorn suddenly recalled how the balloon had been tossed about by the gales. This would explain the sorry condition it appeared to be in. The unicorn was just now realizing that the basket was tilting to one side, as if weighted down. Twilight looked over to see the remains of her sailing apparatus, which had been reduced to broken dowels and tattered cloth suspended from a tangle of ropes. She grimaced as she surveyed the damage, hoping there was some possible way of repairing it.
“Pinkie,” said Twilight, “Make sure Trixie’s okay. I’m going to try and land us.”
“Okie Dokie lokie!” quipped the cheerful mare as she moved next to the shivering magician. Twilight reached up to pull on the cord to shut off the flame. The mare’s eyes suddenly went wide as she pulled down, for as she did she heard a distinctive snap. They moved to the left to see the broken cord dangling from her hoof.
“Uh-oh…”
A loud growl sounded out from the beast. The bone chilling noise did not originate in its throat, but rather it came from its stomach. The creature was hungry, as it had not eaten since it had left its ancient home. It simply had not yet come across something that would sate its hunger. The beast wasn’t hungry often, but when it was, it was absolutely ravenous. The creature’s hideous head surveyed the landscape, looking for something to feast upon. It quickly spotted something that would provide nourishment. The beast lurched forward, the ground quaking beneath its might. Wood splintered beneath its scaly, saurian foot as it stepped on a large, obnoxiously painted sign that up until that point had read ‘FlimFlam Farms’.
Flim awoke with a start, shaking his tools from the wooden work bench that he had been uncomfortably slumbering upon. The resulting metallic clatter awoke his brother, who had been resting in a small pile of hay.
“Ya hear that, brother?” Flim muttered.
“Yep…” replied Flam as he rose to his hooves. There was no possible way he could have not heard it, as it sounded like somepony was tearing up their property with an army of bulldozers.
“What do ya ’spose it is?” Flim asked.
“I’m not too keen on finding out,” answered Flam. The two unicorns stood in silence for a moment. Finally, Flim cleared his throat and stood up from the table.
“I think it’d be best for the business if we examined this a little more,” he suggested.
“Indeed,” agreed Flam. Both stood still, waiting for the other to take the lead. When it became clear to them that neither would move first, they simultaneously took a silent step toward the window.
Outside in the small orchard the twins had recently acquired was an enormous beast they both recognized from their foal-hood nightmares: The Jabberwock. It crouched down over their crop, snorting powerful jets of steam in the chilly morning air. The brothers watched wide-eyed as the creature’s snaking neck shot down, clamped its horrid jaws around an apple tree, and uprooted it from the earth with a loud ripping noise, sending enormous chunks of dirt everywhere. The hideous beast whipped its neck back and forth, shaking loose any dirt that remained in its roots. Flim and Flam stared in horror as it stood up to its full height, tossed its head back, and swallowed the arboreal organism whole. It then proceeded to move on to the next tree in the row, repeating the terrifying process.
They watched this for about five minutes, during which the beast consumed a total of eight trees.
“…Hey Flam?…”
“…Yeah?”
“You think we should do anything about this?”
“I don’t think we can do anything about this.” Flim had to agree with his brother. There was little two unicorns could do against a creature of such great size and fearsome disposition. However, even in the face of terror itself, Flim had to realize that with every tree it ate, the Jabberwock was eating a chunk of their profit. The pale unicorn hoped the beast would soon finish and continue on its merry way, leaving them with at least a few bushels of apples to convert into cider. These hopes were dashed in another moment, when a sorry-looking balloon hovered into view, catching the attention of the beast. The basket was level with its horrible head, growing closer by the minute.
There were no words to describe the terror felt by Twilight, Pinkie, and Trixie as they helplessly floated towards the scaly abomination. Twilight, always the first to come up with a plan of action, stared into the creature’s soulless eyes, her mind drawing a blank. Pinkie, so light-hearted and never known for being serious, stood as solemn and emotionless as a statue as the monster’s mouth drew into a sneer. Trixie, the self-proclaimed greatest, most heroic unicorn in all of Equestria, stood frozen in unimaginable fear. The three mares felt the creature’s hot breath as it let out a stench of burnt wood and black earth from its gullet. Its infamous incisors were barred menacingly at them, shining with oily saliva.
The silence was inevitably broken by a thunderous roar. The very air around Twilight seemed to waver from the sheer amount of decibels emitted from the monster’s maw. The force of the gale was so great that it pushed the balloon upwards, throwing it up into the sky. The mares screamed as their craft spun wildly out of control. They each searched for something, anything, to grab on to. Their ride at last came to an end when the balloon became lodged in a large cloud.
The Tele-noculars fell from Flim’s face, revealing his astonished expression to Flam. The mustachioed unicorn frowned nervously.
“What’s the situation?” he muttered. It took a moment for Flim to reply.
“You’re not going to believe this,” he said, still staring at the balloon, “But Lulamoon’s up there.” Flam’s jaw dropped.
“Lulamoon?” he echoed, “Trixie Lulamoon?”
“Yep,” gulped Flim, “And that’s not all…” Flam’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
“More?!” he cried, “I’d understand Lulamoon, but there’s no way there’s anypony else crazy enough to go after that thing!”
“There is,” said Flim, “It’s those Sparkle and Pie characters.” Flam couldn’t believe it, and from the look on Flim’s face, neither could he. They suddenly heard a loud snapping noise, like the sound of a ship’s sails being set. A jagged shadow grew across the barnyard as the reptilian beast opened its wings. The brothers’ mouths opened in horror as they traced the creature’s furious gaze up to the balloon. For a moment they stood helpless, struck frozen by the impending tragedy. An eternity seemed to pass until Flim snapped out of the trance and grabbed Flam by the shoulders.
“Flam,” he cried, “We gotta do something.” The mustachioed stallion grimaced despairingly.
“I know,” he said hoarsely, “But what? What can we do against that thing?”
“You know perfectly well what we can do,” snapped Flim. A look of realization washed across Flam’s face. He glanced over across the barn, then back at his brother.
“Flim…” he breathed, “It’ll never work…” Flim raced over the other side of the barn.
“It’s gonna have to,” he grunted as he threw a tarp the floor, “Flam, we have to do something about this.”
Twilight coughed out a chunk of cloud as she sat up. She looked down to see a length of rope tangled up in her back-legs, and immediately set about freeing herself. As she worked her hooves loose of the ragged knots, she looked over to see Pinkie and Trixie coming out of similar situations. Pinkie was crawling out of a pile of sandbags, while Trixie pushed a mound of canvas off of her body. They all froze in their struggles as a tremendous roar sounded off beneath them, cringing at the sheer level of fury it conveyed. This only strengthened their resolve to get loose of their predicaments.
Trixie was the first to free herself, and immediately rushed over to the peer over the side of the basket. She grimaced as she spotted the writhing form of the monster, its enormous eyes staring directly at her. Though it was at least a good five-hundred feet below them, Trixie did not feel safe, especially when she saw two scaly, membranous wings unfurl from its back.
“T…T-Twilight…” sputtered the mortified unicorn as she pointed a trembling hoof towards the snarling creature. By this time Twilight had pulled herself free of the ropes, and the purple mare ran to the magician’s side. She looked down to see the Jabberwock leering at her balloon, exposing its teeth in a frightful sneer. Like Trixie, she noted that it had spread out its wings. But unlike the azure mare, Twilight was able to spot several factors that put her mind at rest. A relieved smile slowly took place of her horrified frown. Trixie looked at the librarian as if she had lost her mind.
“What?” she demanded, “What is it?”
“It can’t get us,” Twilight said joyously as she pointed a hoof towards the beast, “Look at the wings. They don’t provide an adequate surface area for it to get airborne!” Her comment was lost on Trixie and Pinkie, as they both raised their eyebrows. The librarian cleared her throat.
“The wings are too small for it to fly,” she rephrased, “We’re safe!” Moments after the words left her mouth, an enormous shape rocketed past them up into the sky, causing the basket to lurch wildly back and forth. The three mares looked about wildly as they latched onto the basket’s edge, just as a monstrous shadow blotted out the sun. Twilight’s mouth dropped open as she gazed up at the Jabberwock. Its long, lithe body seemed to slither up into the sky as it flew upon its outstretched wings. At last it turned in a dive, aiming its cavernous jaws right for the pathetic little balloon. The dark maw grew closer and closer as the creature gained momentum in its descent. Twilight closed her eyes in preparation for her imminent doom.
A series of unfamiliar noises suddenly reached her ears. One of them sounded like a buzzing engine of some sort. The other was a hollow puff, as if something was firing a blast of compressed air. Both of them were promptly drowned out by a furious bellow, after which Twilight felt a great gale tug at her mane. The mare’s eyes snapped open as the basket heaved, sending her off balance. As she tumbled to the floor, she managed to catch glimpses of the Jabberwock snaking through the sky, twirling and dodging while screeching in anger. She hurriedly righted herself to see what was happening.
When she saw what had saved them from certain destruction, she fell back on her haunches in amazement. Circling the draconic creature was a craft of Equine design. It sped through the air like a sparrow, made of wood, tarp, and metal. Twilight saw two ponies piloting it, but due to the erratic motion of the airborne vehicle, was unable to properly identify them.
“Hey Flim?” Flam called over the roar of the engine as he glanced back at the monstrous set of jaws snapping loudly at them, “What were we to do once we got the Jabberwock’s attention?”
“No clue,” Flim replied as he yanked on the controls, “Mind blasting it again?”
“Not at all, brother,” Flam replied courteously as he held up a device that resembled a pipe covered in fanciful hoses. The unicorn took careful aim right between the beast’s fiery eyes, his mustache twitching as he pulled the weapon’s trigger. With a mechanical wheeze, a bright red apple was sent flying towards the Jabberwock, striking it on the forehead. The apple merely bounced harmlessly off of the ridged bumps upon its head, but all the same it seemed to infuriate the creature beyond all reason. Flam hesitantly sent a barrage of apples into its horrific face, his grimace growing wider with each shot.
“It’s not working, Flim,” he cried nervously.
“I know,” responded the equally worried unicorn as he maneuvered their Aero-plane into a stretching cluster of clouds, “I’m working on it.” Their craft suddenly disappeared into the stretch of condensed moisture, followed by the raging beast, its serpentine body twisting and looping madly.
Flim and Flam squinted as the world around them became blindingly white. Neither could see anything else beyond the bright clouds or the blue sky, but both heard the angry roars of the Jabberwock somewhere close behind.
“Brother,” Flam said as he scanned the clouds for the monster, “Do you remember the last time we saw Trixie?” Despite the situation at hand requiring his full attention, Flim was able to recall the event with vivid detail.
“Why yes I do,” said the stallion, “Last year’s Show-Ponies convention, wasn’t it?”
“Do you remember that trick she used to help us escape when she started the local schoolhouse on fire?” Flam said as he fired an apple into a patch of clouds that he thought might contain the Jabberwock. Flim turned and raised a nervous eyebrow at his mustachioed brother.
“Of course you recall, dear brother, that we had a Zap apple at the time.”
“Indeed I do,” said Flam, “And I’m aware that we don’t have one. But we do have these nice Gala Apples on hoof.” He held up a glistening apple to Flim, who looked at it with skepticism.
“It won’t work,” said the bare-faced stallion.
“We never tried it with a regular apple,” Flam interjected, “We don’t know what will happen.” Both stiffened up as there was a thunderous bellow only a few yards away.
“When you put it that way,” Flim gulped, “Let’s give it a whirl.”
Twilight, Trixie, and Pinkie all collectively jumped as a massive explosion of red and green light suddenly emanated from somewhere within the mass of clouds their saviors had disappeared into. Following the main detonation of crackling flashes was the ghastly wail of the Jabberwock, which chilled the three mares to their bones.
“Look!” cried Pinkie, pointing a hoof to an object that was emerging from the billowing clouds. A wild grin spread across the mare’s face. “It’s them!” Twilight looked to see that it was indeed the two ponies who had drawn the Jabberwock away from the balloon, their craft zooming towards the balloon. Unfortunately, Twilight also took note that the back end of the vehicle was on fire, and leaving a trail of thick, black smoke as it spun unsteadily through the air. The relieved look on the lavender mare’s face quickly became one of panic.
“DUCK!” she screeched as she pushed her friends to the floor of the basket. She dove just as she heard the sputtering aircraft crash into the balloon, dislodging it from the cloud. What followed next was the most thrillingly terrifying experience of Twilight’s life: The balloon, the vehicle, and five very frightened ponies went tumbling down to earth.