Petty Officer Branson, the military policeman the gang had encountered earlier, stared at the group of civilians. “Where did these others come from?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Daphne.
Branson pointed at the three, somewhat lumpy, people. “Them. They weren’t here earlier.”
“You should know about assexual reproduction,” Twight said. Balanced on Fluttershy’s shoulders and wrapped in extra clothing for a disguise, it was hard to keep her balance and say smart-sounding things at the same time.
Branson crossed his arms. “Are you saying that you budded from someone else?”
“Got a problem with that?” said Rainbow. Although no one could see Applejack hidden beneath her, she was rolling her eyes.
“That doesn’t make any sense!” protested Branson.
“I feel like that all the time,” Shaggy said. “Maybe if we solve this mystery, we’ll do a big reveal for your benefit. That’s kind of what we do.”
“I like big reveals,” said Rarity. She glanced downward at the hastily assembled outfit that she wore in conjunction with Pinkie. She thought about including a snide comment about the garishness of it, but decided that it went without saying.
“I think we should be more concerned with the strange plane that overflew the airfield,” Goose pointed out.
“It could be communist,” added Maverick ominously.
Branson looked at them all, skepticism clear on his face. He reached for his radio. “I think I need to call my boss.”
“Great,” said Shaggy, “We’ll see you after lunch.”
“Lunch?” said Rarity’s lower half.
“What was that?” Branson asked, looking away from his radio.
“It was Scooby, the dog,” replied Velma quickly. “He talks.”
Branson snorted. “Yeah, right.” He turned away.
The rest made their getaway. The only place to go on the tiny island was the beach, out of sight of the military installation.
Applejack threw Rainbow off her shoulders, gasping for air. The other ponies also disrobed.
Pinkie laid out a huge blanket on the sand and already had food set out and ready to serve by the time the rest were ready to sit down. “So I thought it would be great if we had a little party so we could say hello and everyone could meet everyone!”
“Sounds great,” Shaggy said. “We’ll eat and then we can talk.” He and Scooby were the first to attack the bounty.
“I don’t know where all this came from,” said Fred, staring at the huge party picnic.
“It does smell good, though,” said Velma.
The gang sat down. Maverick and Goose had a little trouble, doing their best to sit cross legged while still wearing flight gear and g-suits.
“Thank you for the refreshments, Pinkie,” said Twilight, around her own snack. Addressing the rest, she said, “I suppose formal introductions are in order. I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship in Equestria.”
“I understood some of that,” Velma deadpanned. The rest said nothing, not wishing to reveal that they had understood even less.
“My friends and I-” Twilight pointed to them each in turn “-Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, have come to your world recover a trans-dimensional aircraft that was stolen.”
“So you want it in one piece,” Goose said. Maverick gave him an unhappy look.
“Indeed. We have to use it to get home,” Twilight replied.
“Isn’t it a little unwise of you to go through a mysterious wormhole without having a backup system of return?” Velma asked.
“Princess Celestia was confident that we would succeed,” Twilight said.
“She sounds like she doesn’t care about you,” Maverick told her.
“She cares about everypony!” Twilight argued. “Not only that, she’s my mentor and taught me most of what I know.”
“My statement stands.”
“Like, what if you never get that airplane back?” Shaggy asked, briefly coming up for air.
Twilight stuttered, “Well, I guess...um, we might be stuck.” Fluttershy burst into tears.
“But think about all the new friends we’ll have time to make!” Pinkie said.
“...who will want to dissect you for being aliens,” Velma added.
“Well gang, it looks like we have a mystery to solve,” commented Fred. “And boy is it a headscratcher.”
“That’s not very helpful,” observed Maverick.
“That’s not unusual,” Velma told him.
“But seriously, what are we going to do?” Shaggy asked around a mouthful of sandwich. “It’s not like they can just stay here.”
“And why not?” demanded Rainbow. “What if we want to, huh?”
“We don’t want to!” Applejack countered.
“That and the dissection,” Fluttershy whispered.
Maverick waved his hand. “Let’s not talk about who’s an alien here and instead focus on what we’re going to do. What’s our first step?”
“Typically, we’d start by looking for clues,” Velma put in. “I doubt we’re going to find many around here from an airplane that didn’t even land, so we’ll have to settle for reconstructing first contact. I bet there’s equipment somewhere around the airfield to play your mission tapes from the fight.”
“That could work,” agreed Maverick.
“Wait, what about our visitors?” Goose said. “And the…sensitive nature of the data on the tapes?”
“Oh yeah, we probably can’t give secret material to aliens,” Maverick acknowledged.
“Or random civilians,” Goose added. He glanced at the gang. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Shaggy said.
“Some taken,” Daphne disagreed.
“Well that’s too bad, princess,” Maverick replied.
Goose glanced at Twilight’s crown and added, “No offense.”
“Some taken,” said Twilight.