//------------------------------// // Ch.5 - Across The In-Universe // Story: Sparky // by Listie The Scribe Maid //------------------------------// SPARKY Ch.5 - Across The In-Universe Written by That Gamer! On the other side of the rock, Rachel and Felicia found themselves in a dark forest, that you and I know as the Everfree Forest. However, to them, it was just some place in the middle of nowhere. So let's check up on them, eh? "This isn't... T-too bad," Felicia commented, sticking close to Rachel and looking around. "I know," Rachel agreed. "I know it looks kinda dark, but we could've ended up in whatever violent video games Rene likes to play." "Portal is not violent!" Rene exclaimed. "Not what I'm referring to," Rachel, in a singsong way, told Rene. "Then what were you?" Rene asked. "Ah don't think that should be our top concern," AJ deadpanned. "Well, I did ask..." "Of course... So does anybody know where we are?" AJ asked. "And where's Tara?" "You're standing on me," Tara mumbled from the ground, face down in the dirt. AJ looked down then and saw that she was, indeed, standing on her friend. "Oh! Ah'm sorry, sugarcube," AJ said quickly stepping off to the left. "And ah can guess that everybody ran over yah." "Yeah, you did," Tara grumbled, getting up and rubbing her head. "So can anybody tell me where we are?" "The Everfree Forest!" Pinkie replied almost instantly. "...So how do you know that?" Tara asked slowly. "This voice in my head told me!" Pinkie answered. "Y'see, the moment we arrived here, this voice starting narrating every single thing we do! I know, it's weird but it's true! It's telling me exactly what I'm saying right now." Tara blinked and exchanged confused glances with the five that weren't apparently crazy. "Hey, I'm not crazy!" Pinkie argued. "I just have a lot of energy!" "Are you sure?" Rene asked. "I'm very sure!" Pinkie huffed, crossing her arms. "And that wasn't a huff!" Whatever. So, anyways, after a little less conversation, the six went off through the dark, evil forest- "OK, so this is a dark and evil forest," Pinkie told the others. Thank you. Moving on, they- "Hey! I found something dark and evil!" Pinkie cried from behind a tree. "Oh, dear, would you stop getting distracted?" Rachel sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. "No, but really, I did!" Pinkie said. "It's this hardcover book called... Past something or other?" Tara snatched the book from Pinkie and said something along the lines of, "I'll read this later..." ANYWAYS, they went along their way, passing many thing they cared about until they reached, naturally the end, seeing a cartoon-looking town in the distance. In fact, the entire place looked like a cartoon. Not to say the Humane 6 didn't, but, y'know, considering where they were from. "Ooo! We're called the Humane 6!" Pinkie. "I can agree with that," Felicia commented. "But it only applies to you!" Rene said. "So you don't care about animals?" Felicia enquired, very concerned. "No, no, that's not what I'm saying," Rene told Felicia very quickly. "That's not what I'm @&*#ing saying at @&*#ing all." "Adding '@&*#" doesn't make you sorry," Felicia mumbled. "Then I'm @&*#ing sorry for saying '@&*#'!" Rene exclaimed. "That's even worse!" Felicia said. "Now you're really not sorry!" "Just say yer sorry," AJ mumbled to Rene. "If we know Felicia the way we know here, then she won't budge unless you apologize completely." Rene took a deep breath and AJ added, "No swearing." Rene sighed deeply and said, "I'm sorry I said those words you don't like. I realize you're sensitive and all and I'm sorry..." "Oh, well, thank you for-" "BUT!" Rene continued, making AJ facepalm. "It's just a word and you shouldn't be such a baby about it!" "B-b-b-but-" Felicia stammered. She didn't get to say much, however, 'cause Rachel stepped in then, slapping Rene in the face and started berating her. the rest of them backing off then, making a run for the cartoon town, 'cause things were getting ugly. "Still think we're high?" Tara asked AJ. "No, but ah think Rene's gonna need some medical help," answered AJ. "Dumb question, but do yah think they got human hospitals here?" "Probably not..." Tara shrugged. "Well, maybe if you see my friend Lyra, but, y'know, she's kinda crazy..." said a voice that sounded a lot like Bonnie's. The four looked around for a few seconds and then down, seeing a pony who, yes, looked like Bonnie. "What? Never seen a talking pony before? Name's Bonbon, FYI." "I've seen them," Tara said. "In flashes, but it's the same thing." "We haven't," Felicia muttered. "A-a-and you're not shocked to see humans? S-s-s-since I presume there aren't a whole lot of them here." "Try none," Bonbon deadpanned. "However, Lyra likes to slip LSD into my bonbons, so I kinda see them on a regular basis... BTW, Lyra's obsessed with you guys. As I said previously, she's kinda out of her mind. And in a wheelchair. Actually, now that I think about it, Humans In Equestria stories make them really common, so buck what I said earlier." "Say, you remind me of somebody!" Diane commented. "...Oh, wait, Bonnie Swinton! The voice in my head told me so!" "Fascinating." And with that, Bonbon went to the town in the distance, the four deciding to follow, because they had nobody... Er, nopony better. After a little while, Rachel and Rene caught up with them, the latter looking a little beat up. "She slapped me in places she shouldn't have," Rene remarked flatly. "I was just defending Felicia," Rachel replied, crossing her arms. "What you need is somebody to defend you, since that, really, was kind of pathetic." "Where'd you even get the whip?" Rene demanded. "It's confidential," Rachel snapped, walking away faster. When she caught up to Tara, she naturally asked, "Who's the pony we're following?" "Bonbon," responded Bonbon. "And, y'know, none of you have to follow me. I'm going straight home!" "Well, I presume we'd kinda need a place to stay..." Tara started. "ah just realized, none of these ponies are noticing us," AJ pointed out. "Again, Human In Equestria stories," Bonbon explained. "The Brony union has made us do so many of them, it doesn't even affect us anymore. You can't tell, but we like to deliver our lines as sarcastically and snarky as possibly whenever those happen. I mean buck... Though I do admit you guys look kind familiar." "Brony union?" AJ repeated. "Ah, @&*#, does that mean this place is controlled by that group of idiots back in our world? @&*#..." "So idiocy is multi-universal." Bonbon shook her head and groaned at the thought, proceeding to say, "Yeah, they can be pretty stupid some times. I mean, there can be a decent story every now and then... I can't mention them by name, of course, but, believe me, they're out there." "Why can't you?" Felicia asked. "Two words: Shock collar," Bonbon deadpanned. "Oh! T-that's horrible!" Felicia gasped. "They really do that to you?" "You get used to it," Bonbon groaned. "I'm home. You guys go do something else." "B-but-" SLAM! "I'm so confused," Felicia said. "Yeah, do any of you know what she was talking about?" Tara enquired. "No, I-I don't," Rachel replied. "I don't remember Bonnie ever being that... What's the word I'm looking for?" "Hateful?" Sweetie Belle suggested. "Probably," Rachel agreed with a head nod. Pause. "Wait, Sandra? What the @&*# are you doing here?" "Sandra? No, I'm Sweetie Belle," Sweetie Belle reminded Rachel. "What made you forget?" Tara was staring in disbelief. "So... She... Doesn't look odd to you?" she asked. "Well, she's a little whiter then normal," Sweetie observed slowly. "And a little taller. You, on the other hand, are clearly not Twilight. Not to be rude or anything, but what's with the leg warmers?" "I told her they were out of season," Rachel added. "Anyways, I have a more important question," Tara said. Even though it had been four months, three weeks and one day, oddly enough, Tara was still defending her leg warmers. While awesome, yes, they starting fusing to her body. "...Sorry, your leg warmers distracted me," Sweetie admitted. "Look, where's..." Just then, a gray pegasus crashed into Rene. "Ah, @&*#!" Rene shouted. "The @&*# was that @&*# for, you @&*#ing @&*#?!" "Rene, you're swearing again..." Rachel said in a somewhat threatening voice. "Urgh... What was that for?!" Rene demanded, forcing the gray pegasus off of her. "I... I just don't know what went-" The gray pegasus started. "You went into me, that's what!" Rene interrupted. "Now scram before I beat your @&* in ten seconds flat!" "I'm sorry, Rainbow!" the gray pegasus said quickly before flying away... And straight into a tree. "Now that was rude," Rachel commented. "Honestly, yah could've been a little nicer," AJ agreed. "She ran right into me!" Rene argued. "I had the right of way!" "Girls," Tara spoke up. "Can I finish?" "Go ahead," AJ told Tara. "We'll just be back here discussing nothing... Like where the @&*# Pinkie is." "You're swearing!" "Anyways... We're looking for our alternate universe selves," Tara continued. "Since you know who we look like, can you tell us where they are?" "Somewhere over there, I guess," answered Sweetie, pointing over in the general direction of Sugarcube Corner. "Why do you want to know? Wait, no, forget that, how did you get here?" "Rock," Tara was quick to reply. "Really? I thought pop or jazz would get somepony like you here," Sweetie said. "First of all, we're not ponies," Tara reminded Sweetie. "Sorry. Got my nouns mixed up." "Second," Tara went on, "not the musical genre, the other kind. You know, the naturally occurring solid aggregate of one or more mineral or mineraloid?" "Oh... Is that all?" "Yeah, I think so." "Good, I gotta go. I'm supposed to be on set of this new fanfiction with my friends about me being a robot." "What's it called?" "A.S. Artificial Sweetener." So, after saying probably the most fitting Sweetie Bot story name ever, Sweetie trotted off to bigger and better memes. "Hey, guys, howzit goin'?" Pinkie asked, coming back while chewing on a cupcake. "Where have you been?" Rachel demanded. "We've spent zero hours looking for you!" "Oh, I was over there," Pinkie said coolly, pointing in the same direction Sweetie did. "Apparently it was called Sugarcube Corner! It makes really good cupcakes! Almost like mine..." "It's bleeding," Felicia pointed out. "Again, almost like mine." Pinkie took another bite of her pastry and Felicia HURK'd. "There were a bunch of ponies out front that looked like us. You think we should check it out?" "Of course!" Tara exclaimed. "That's why we came here!" "We came here because you fell into the rock portal," AJ reminded Tara. "Same difference," Tara mumbled, going off to Sugarcube Corner. With nothing else better to do, the others followed. Two or so minutes later, they arrived, as expected, Tara stopping short, making the others crash into the back of her. "Could give us a warning first," AJ muttered. "OK, see over there? Those are the ponies from my flashes," Tara told the group, disregarding AJ. Rachel looked over and asked, "I don't think we're males." "No, no, I mean-" Tara was cut short from her explanation when she noticed there were, in fact, male versions of those ponies... And there were also some that looked remarkably Japanese... And some that looked nothing like them. "...OK, NOW I'M REALLY CONFUSED!"