Above an ocean in a world unknown, the sky suddenly exploded with a brilliant light before the very air had a hole torn in it, and out of that hole flew the Halberd, which was glowing blue and smoking for a while before it readjusted to its world's atmosphere and the glow faded.
“We're back home,” Meta Knight said as he set the controls to autopilot and turned around to Dark Pit.
“Good,” Dark Pit said as he turned around to Twilight, who was still a trophy. “Then let's get this one back to base so we can-”
Dark Pit was cut off when an alarm suddenly went off. “Impossible,” Meta Knight said as he flew over to one of the monitors and checked it. “There's an intruder near the stern of the ship. It's the rainbow pony that chased us before!”
“What?” Dark Pit asked. “How could she have followed us?”
“She is more resilient than previously thought,” Meta Knight replied. “Perhaps we should have tried to capture her instead of the Princess.”
“I'm starting to think you're right,” Dark Pit said. “But even still, her presence could prove advantageous somehow.”
“You could be right, but that doesn't mean I'll make an exception to my rule regarding stowaways,” Meta Knight said as he activated a switch on his console. “She can stay in this world, but she's getting off my ship. Now.”
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was making her way through the ship that had just flung her across dimensions. “Those whatever-they-ares are going to pay for this,” she said to herself as she continued walking, stopping every so often to massage her head, which was slammed forcefully into a wall just moments before. “Kidnapping Twilight, turning her into a statue of some kind... what else have they done?”
“Flung the both of us into a completely new dimension neither of us are familiar with?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Yeah, that too,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Wait a second, WHAT?” The pegasus stopped in her tracks and whirled around quickly to find her friend Pinkie Pie standing there with a grin on her face. “P-Pinkie Pie? What-? How-? When-? I don't... WHAT?”
“You already asked that question, silly,” Pinkie said with a giggle.
“What I'm trying to say is... how did you get here?” Rainbow finally asked. “And what are you even doing here?”
“I'll answer your last question first,” Pinkie replied. “I saw you, Twilight, and some other ponies having a race earlier, but I didn't recognize the ponies you were racing with, so I wanted to follow you all and meet those guys once you all finally landed. Then I saw you all make your way into a huge ship, which made me think to myself, 'Ooh, these guys have an airship? A bit odd if they can already fly, but an airship is the telltale sign that these guys are awesome!' So I walked in through a door near the back of the ship, walked around for a moment, and next thing I know, I bump into you! Pretty neat, huh?”
Rainbow Dash was completely dumbfounded by Pinkie Pie's story. “Okay, let me take this one thing at a time,” the pegasus said. “First off, those guys weren't ponies.”
“Well duh,” Pinkie said. “I kinda figured that when one of them had bat wings. But I didn't know what exactly they were, so I went with a default name for them.”
“Okay then...” Rainbow said. “Next, how do you know we've been flung into another dimension? And for that matter... WE'RE IN ANOTHER DIMENSION?”
“I suppose that one's a little less obvious,” Pinkie said while rubbing her chin. “As for how I know we're in another dimension, have you bothered to look down at your hooves since you got on this ship?”
“Not really,” Rainbow Dash replied as she looked down at her hooves. “I don't see anything different.”
“You don't?” Pinkie asked with a puzzled expression. “Take a reeeeeeally good look at them.”
Rainbow Dash kept looking at her hoof for a while before finally responding. “I don't see anything wrong with my hoof, Pinkie Pie,” she said.
“Seriously?” Pinkie asked. “It's so obvious! Back in our world, we were 2-dimensional, but here we're 3-dimensional. You can tell because your hoof isn't flat anymore. It has... depth, for lack of a better word.”
Rainbow Dash just stared at her friend with a confused expression. “I don't follow.”
“How can you not-?” Pinkie started, but she stopped and looked past Rainbow with an expression that was somewhere between shock, confusion, and befuddlement. “Hey, look at those over there.”
“What?” Rainbow asked as she looked behind her to see a bunch of small black and purple orbs advancing towards the two ponies. “What the heck are those things?”
“I think I know, actually,” Pinkie Pie said as her eyes began to go wide. “But they couldn't possibly be...”
While Pinkie was saying this, the orbs began to surround the ponies. Before long, the orbs began rising and piling on top of each other, quickly fading from existence to reveal strange bipedal creatures who were partially green, had perfectly cylindrical torsos, black arms and legs, brown hands and feet, no mouths, empty red eyes, and a hat-like body part that looked like a smaller version of their torsos but with a leaf on top.
“Impossible!” Pinkie said as she took a step back from the creatures that were taking form, her expression completely shocked.
“Pinkie, you told me you know what these things are,” Rainbow Dash said as she readied herself for battle. “Now would be a great time to enlighten me.”
“These things are called Primids,” Pinkie replied. “The primary foot soldiers of the Subspace Army. But the reason that's so shocking is the fact that the Subspace Army was defeated years ago by the combined efforts of a couple dozen heroes and villains that were brought together by a common enemy that wanted to rule the world we're currently in.”
“I'm going to ignore the fact that you know about that somehow and ask you later,” Rainbow Dash said. “For now, get behind me. If what you're saying is true, these things aren't very friendly.”
“Rainbow, wait!” Pinkie said. “You don't know-”
Rainbow Dash ignored her friend's warning, instead opting to fly at one of the Primids with full force. It was knocked backwards from the hit, but it didn't fall over. At that, Rainbow decided to take a different approach. She grabbed the Primid and threw it into another one. However, the minute it left her hooves, it began glowing slightly and tumbling towards the other Primid at high speed, hitting the other one and ricocheting off of it to hit two others before suddenly vanishing from existence. “That was weird,” Rainbow said to herself. However, she shook off this thought and flew forward at the first Primid that got hit, which suddenly went flying in the same way that the other one did upon impact with her hooves, ricocheting off the walls and other Primids a couple times before vanishing. “These guys don't take much to- OOF!” Rainbow was cut off when one of the Primids lunged forward and gave her a powerful punch to her side. This attack was quickly followed up by two other Primids attacking Dash in similar manners.
“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie shouted. She couldn't just stand there and watch the Primids swarm her friend. The party pony had to do something.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was doing her best to endure the volley of strikes coming from the Primids, trying to think of a way to get out of her situation. It was at that moment that she heard some type of explosion, followed by one of the Primids going flying. The other two Primids, as well as Rainbow Dash, turned around to see Pinkie Pie there with her party cannon in front of her. “Wha...?” Rainbow Dash tried to ask.
“And you wanted me to get behind you so you could have all the fun,” Pinkie said with a smug look as she aimed the party cannon at another Primid and fired, launching a cupcake that hit the Primid in the face and sent it flying. The defeated Primid flew back, hit the wall, and ricocheted back to hit the other Primid, which fell off its feet and disappeared without flying.
“How do you have that with you right now?” Rainbow Dash asked Pinkie.
“You know I never leave home without the party cannon, silly,” Pinkie replied as though the answer were obvious.
“Uh-huh...” Rainbow Dash said. She turned around to see several more Primids advancing on the two. “Alright, if you can fight, then help me-”
“No problem,” Pinkie said as she stepped forward and assumed a combative pose, her party cannon having completely vanished. “Pranking isn't the only thing you and I share a gift and a love for. Now let's take these things down and get to the bottom of their very existence!”
“Sure...” Rainbow Dash said. “I dunno if you remember that we're trying to save Twilight, here, but whatever it takes to get you fighting.”
“Well duh, I'm here for that too,” Pinkie replied. “Now come on!” The party pony then charged into battle, followed by Rainbow Dash.
Surprisingly enough, Pinkie Pie turned out to be as much of a threat to the Primids as Rainbow was. She might not have been able to get off attacks as quickly as her winged friend, but they packed more punch... as well as flair. Pinkie charged towards one Primid and cartwheeled into it, striking the monster hard enough to send it flying. The pony then turned around to see two more Primids appear and charge towards her. Thinking quickly, she reached into her mane and pulled out her yellow foam finger, proceeding to use it to strike the Primids with two strikes before hitting each one with one more powerful blow to knock them out. Pinkie then put the foam finger away and bucked two more Primids that were advancing behind her before leaning forward towards a Primid coming at her from the front and giving it a lick that was somehow powerful enough to send it flying.
Back on the bridge, Meta Knight and Dark Pit were watching the battle from a security camera.
“That rainbow one is a pretty good fighter,” Dark Pit commented. “But the pink one, her combat style is... strange to say the least.”
“Indeed,” Meta Knight replied. “There's something off about her, and it's not just in how she fights. She seems almost familiar to me somehow...”
“But it's obvious that they're both here to save Twilight Sparkle,” Dark Pit said. “So we need to get rid of them as soon as possible. Are we over land yet?”
“Yes,” Meta Knight replied as he flew over to another console. “They should be in for a more pleasant fall here.”
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had just finished off the remainder of the Primids.
“That looks like the last of them,” Rainbow Dash said. “Now on to the real question, how did you know about those things in the first place, Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie was about to respond, but she stopped suddenly and her face gained a confused expression. “I... don't know,” she finally said. “I legitimately don't know. I mean, I saw the Primids and instantly recognized them, but I have no idea how, nor where I recognize them from. I just... knew. I swear, this isn't just me being my usual crazy self. It's scaring me a little, too.”
Rainbow Dash stared at her friend skeptically for the longest time. “Okay...” the pegasus finally said. “If... if you say so.” Right then, Rainbow Dash heard the door behind her shut. She turned around to see a blast-proof door blocking the doorway. The pegasus turned around again to see another blast-proof door closing the other doorway off, leaving the two ponies trapped in the room they were in. “Stay close to me, Pinkie Pie. I think we're about to-” Rainbow was cut off suddenly when the floor below the two ponies flew open, dropping the two ponies out of the ship, screaming and plummeting towards the ground below. “Hold on, Pinkie!” Dash shouted as she flew over, grabbed Pinkie Pie, and tried to use her wings to overcome the force of gravity and slow their decent to a manageable speed. However, the combined weight of both ponies, as well as how close they were to the ground as it was, was too much for even Rainbow Dash to overcome, and the two crashed into the ground.
Fortunately, they had crashed on a sandy beach, so the fall wasn't as painful as it could have been. Rainbow Dash was the first to climb out of the crater the two ponies made in the sand. “Ow...” she said as she rubbed her head. The pegasus looked up to see the Halberd closing the trap door it dropped the ponies from before flying away. “They're getting away!” Rainbow tried to take off after the airship, but she didn't get very far off the ground before her wing buckled and she fell back down into the sand. The pegasus got up and looked behind her to see that her wing looked injured. It wasn't broken, fortunately, but she still wasn't getting off the ground for a while. “Great. Those guys have Twilight and I can't fly after them to get her back. And to make matters worse, we're stuck on a beach in a world far away from our own.”
It was here that Pinkie Pie walked over to her friend. “Uh... try to look on the bright side, Dash,” the party pony said. “We have a general idea of where they're going, so we might be able to go after them by hoof.” Pinkie then looked around the beach they were on. “But first, let's look around this beach so we can get our bearings. This is a totally alien dimension to us, after all, and we might need to find somepony to act as our guide.”
“Fine,” Rainbow Dash said. “We'll look around.”
“Yay!” Pinkie cheered as she began hopping off. “Time to look for a good spot to hold a beach party!”
“Pinkie!” Rainbow called, though the party pony was already on her way. With a sigh, Rainbow Dash followed her friend at a canter pace.