//------------------------------// // Rise of the Cookies: Chapter 2 — Unexpected Visitors. Six, in Fact // Story: My Little Hero: Saving is Friendship // by Pump It Up //------------------------------// Ten minutes earlier “Pinkie Pie, darling, what is the emergency? Did we really have to meet now? I was in the middle of a dress.” “Something momentous is about to happen!” “Really Pinkie,” Twilight said dryly, “and what might that be?” The pink mare pulled out a stack of papers. “Says here ‘Mane Six are pulled via teleporter to Makuhero City.’” “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Rainbow Dash. She got her answer a few seconds later. BOOM! ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ BOOM! All the Heroes coughed. “Did anything happen?” wheezed Stringer. Surge sucked some electricity from his weapon and pulled out a stack of papers. “‘Mane Six have just been transportpood. Surge sucks electricity from his weapoon —’” “Surge, what did you just pull out?” “A script.” “Wha?” Surge’s eyes then met a certain bouncy pony’s eyes. “It worked!” both exclaimed. Pinkie pie gasped. “This is so cool! I can’t believe you exist!” She stopped prancing. “What are you?” “I’m a fully dec-dec- outfitted Hero!” “What he means to say is that he is a Hero from Hero Factory,” Stormer stated as he walked over to greet the pony. “My name is Preston Stormer.” “That’s right! The script said that Hero Factory was in Makuhero City!” Pinkie pulled out the script and read it over quickly. “Which one of you is —” “YOU have one TOO?!” Surge exclaimed. “Yahoo! One of my inventions did work!” “Shouldn’t you have celebrated before?” Bulk asked. “What’s the point of doing it all over again?” “…What?” “No!” The blue armored Hero pulled out his script. “You’re supposed to say… oh, wait. You are supposed to say that.” He put it away. “My good.” “Don’t you mean…? Never mind.” The bearer of the Element of Laughter read, “‘Pinkie Pie starts to speak, but is interrupted by —’” “Stop referring to the scripts!” Breez yelled. She tossed the cheese-covered contraption she had onto the ground. “You’re irritating the readers!” Everyone stared at Breez. “Way to break the fourth wall, Breez.” The green Hero face palmed and then glared at Surge. Unlike Pinkie Pie, the other five ponies had not recovered as quickly after teleporting who-knows-how-many-light-years by a random (albeit cool-looking) box. Pinkie Pie might have known that (because of the script), but she was still surprised to see them take so long to awaken. “What took you guys so long?” “Oh, mah head… Who did Ah land on?” “That would be me,” wheezed Twilight as she got up. “Sorry sugar cube.” Fluttershy was the first of the five to see the Heroes. “Oh, oh my.” “Hey guys!” Pinkie Pie bounded over. “Meet my new bipedal friends!” “Pinkie,” Twilight asked, “how do you know these are your friends?” “Weeellll… This one here—” she pointed to Surge “—has the same script I have!” “DON’T PULL IT OUT!” screeched Breez. Furno gently coaxed her away, saying “It’s alright, it’s alright, stay calm.” “But the animals are getting irritated with Surge…” As Breez and Furno walked away, Pinkie Pie said, “So Presi, what are we going to do?” “Yeah Presi!” Surge echoed. “Surge, don’t call me Presi. If you do, there will be… no cheese or electricity for dinner.” “No! Not my sus-sus- food!” “Then don’t call me Presi.” “Yes Stormie,” Surge squeaked. Stormer resisted slapping his hand to his face. “Well, you…” “Ponies,” Twilight filled in. “You ponies should probably come with me to see Zib. He’d probably be interested in meeting you.” “Yay Zibbo!” both hyper creatures exclaimed. Stormer sighed. ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ “Well, this certainly is an interesting new species.” Zib’s assistant, Quaddle, was looking at one of the mares while Zib spoke. Quaddle pressed on Pinkie’s belly. “Hey, that tickles!” “What’s with your voice?” Rainbow Dash asked. “My voice?” Zib repeated. “His voice is switching between British and normal-ish!” Surge said happily, popping up out of nowhere. Twilight jumped. "You know, even though Pinkie does that all the time, I’m still startled when that happens.” “I’m startled too!” Pinkie Pie popped up beside Surge. “Ah!” Twilight jumped again. “Pinkie!” “Whaaat?” Twilight used Cadence’s calming technique. Breathe in, hoof to chest, hold, breathe out, hoof out. “So what do you call yourselves?” “Ponies.” “No, the scientific name.” “Oh, I should have figured… We are Equus viverra.” “I’ll have Quaddle enter that into the database. Quaddle?” The rotund robot saluted and hovered away. “Alright, so who or what are you?” Rainbow Dash asked. “We obviously aren’t in Equestria.” “We are robots,” Stormer said. “What’s a robot?” “We’re made of metal.” “Ooo! Like a train?” “Yes, except we can think and feel.” “The reason why we wanted to examine you,” Zib said, “is because there are very little organisms that are purely organic. Most are biomechanical.” The ponies stared at him. “That means it has organic and mechanical components.” All the ponies went “oooh” and nodded their heads. ‘’Now, I need one of you to come over here so that I can take an x-ray—” “Alright, this has been luvely an’ all, but Rainbow, Pinkie, can’t ya stop this prank?” Pinkie Pie looked at Applejack. “This isn’t a prank silly, this is real! Right Surgy?” She looked beside her. “Surgy?” “Disappeared again…” mumbled Stormer. “Anyways,” continued the party pony, “this is very, very, VERY real!” At each “very,” Pinkie Pie got closer and closer to Applejack’s face. “Alright sugar cube, Ah get it. Yuh don’ haft uh get in mah face.” She shoved Pinkie’s face away. “Ahem.” Zib cleared his throat. “I still need a voluntee—” “Me, me!” Pinkie Pie shouted, waving her hoof in the air. “Good, just follow me…” “Wow, that was fast! But it’s kinda hard to bounce with this clothing on.” “Pinkie, you were supposed to take it off.” “Aw.” Zib shook his head. “So much like Surge…” “Hey Fluttershy! How are you doing? Huh?” “Pinkie…” “Yeah?” “You asked me that this morning.” “Oh, yeah. Well, the answer could have changed, right?” “I would like to take x-rays or you two—” Zib pointed to Twilight and Rainbow Dash “—but I must get back to work. Stormer, could you take them to… Room O?” “Sure,” Stormer replied. “Come this way.” As they walked down the hallway to the elevator, Heroes from all teams raced by. “Hello, Unifett. Good afternoon, Cirrus.” “Hey, that’s a cool name,” whispered Rainbow Dash to Rarity. “I think I should call my foal that!” They got the end of the hall, and the elevator doors opened. None of the ponies moved. “Walk in,” Stormer said, and the mares did so. When all the ponies were inside, Stormer pressed a button, and the elevator started moving. “What is this thing?” Twilight asked. “This is an elevator. It uses pulleys to move up and down.” “Hm.” Twilight put her hoof to her chin. “Maybe I could operate this using magic…” “Please don’t.” The elevator dinged. “We’re here.” As they stepped out of the elevator, something beeped. Stormer tapped his helmet. “Stormer here. Yes. You’ve got to be kidding me… Alright, I’ll be there.” Stormer tapped his helmet again and looked at the ponies. “Sorry, I have to go deal with a problem. You’ll have to go to the room yourselves. Go down the hall and take a left. Room O should be on your right.” Then the white armored Hero went back into the elevator, muttering, “Surge, Surge, Surge…” As the elevator doors closed, Rarity remarked, “Well, that was certainly abrupt.” “Well, what are we waitin’ for? Let’s go!” Applejack said. The group started walking down the stark, whit hallway. Well, most of them did. Rainbow Dash flew and Pinkie Pie bounced. When they turned the corner, they saw Room O right away, just like Stormer had said. Twilight opened the door. “Girls?” “Yeah?” “I think I know what ‘O’ stands for.” “What?” “Organisms.”