Aliens have been sent to take over Equestria. Whats left of the mane 6 and friends must stop them.
A decade has passed since The War. Many of Equestria's military forces have already taken a huge blow and Equestria is now in a recession. The Aliens, a group of outsiders from another planet, sees this opportunity and attacks. On the alien home world, Fanzith, all forms of magic have been reduced to a minimum rate due to The Fragments, crystals kept by the Alien military to disable all uses of magic due to fear of rebellion. And now, they've created Fragments on Equestria, limiting all forces of magic to near minimal rates. The only thing close to magic left, is the power of cutie marks. The Elements of Harmony are no longer active, and whats left of the Mane 6 must gain and destroy every fragment in Equestria before the Mists come and destroy all of ponykind.
"Ah said ah don't know!" Applebloom cried, nearly passing out from the bloodloss from the nail inside her hoof keeping her supported onto the wall.
"She's useless, throw it in there like the others!" the other figure said, leaving to torture the next unlucky pony. Applebloom turned to her left to see another blank flank filly just beside her backed near the wall.
"I NEED MORE CANTALOUPE FOR MY FRENCHFRIES, PLEASE! EHEHEHEHEH" yelled the seemingly insane, white coated pony.
The bloodloss finally got to Applebloom and she passed out. It seemed to be a good 3-4 hours before she woke up from a new voice.
"Here's your slop, maggot." dumping the greenish-brown slop into the bowls.
"OH MY MY MY I'M SO HUNGRY I COULD EAT A HORSE!" yelled the white coated, insane pony.
"Uh, Ah'm not too hungry.." Applebloom said to the other. The other pony then took the food and started digging in.
Later that night, everypony was asleep, except Applebloom. She couldn't sleep with all of the screaming from the other side of the wall. All of the sudden, the sirens were wailing, everypony still asleep from the slop.
"Freeze alien scum!" was yelled, from a familiar voice. A blue pegasus flying through the hallway with pistol in hoof, shooting all of the guards.
"Rainbow Dash!" Applebloom yelled. Out from the door ran in a new alien.
"F'WASHTH VUR QUATHILTH" it screeched, leaping onto Rainbow Dash, stabbing all of her hooves and wings into the ground with its 6 legs. The pistol was then sliding across the ground into Applebloom's cell. Applebloom grabbed the gun and aimed. She shot the 6 legged alien into the brain at least 8 times before it died.
"Applebloom!" Rainbow Dash yelled, approching her. "Oh sweet Celestia, I'm sure glad to see a familiar face. From the looks of it, it looks like you didn't eat the slop." Applebloom shook her head. "Good, if you eat too much of it, you won't wake up. Come on, lets get the fragment and get out of here."
"Wait, a fragment of what?" Applebloom questioned.
"No time to explain. Lets just get it and get the hell out of here."
"Here." said Applebloom, handing Rainbow her gun back.
"No its fine I have a spare" she enclined, pulling out another from her army vest.
After minutes of picking the lock on the door, they entered the cafeteria. There was no aliens in site at least, as far as they saw. They were hiding under the cafeteria tables when suddenly they heard talking.
"Fqua'th sad clar'tel Celestia varzz kelthisz fran." one said to the other, pulling out the chairs to sit down at the table the ponies were hiding under.
"Van quew?" it said, seeing the ponies.
"Run!" Rainbow Dash yelled, attempting to fly with her cut-up wings. Applebloom didn't know what to do. "Just go on without me, you get out of here and send help!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed to Applebloom. "Here!" Rainbow Dash threw her extra gun and her lock picks "I'm not gonna need them anymore."
"Fw'th qu'eth fran swelth?" asked one alien to the other.
"Fran vas walth queth."
"Mmhpmhphmh!!" Rainbow Dash attempted to yell, but couldn't because of the gag in her mouth.
In the other hall, all Applebloom could hear was the muffled screams of Rainbow Dash. She was walking through the hallway, fearing her death approaching soon. As she was going past the cells, she saw a couple familiar faces. She stopped when she saw her long-time friend, Twist.
"psst, Twist! Are you awake!" Applebloom attempted to wake her.
"Of courth I'm awake!"
"Oh good, hold on Ah'll get ya out of there!". Applebloom attempted lock picking, and failed the only 3 picks she had left. She didn't quite know how to use a lock pick.
"Oh Celestia that ain't good!" Applebloom pulled out her pistol, luckily enough she had exactly 1 bullet left. She shot the lock. The lock fell off of the cell door and opened.
"Oh thank you, Applebloom! I just have one quethtion."
"Shoot."
"Where are we going?"
"To get help."
"Y-you mean.. O-Out THERE?!" Twist exclaimed.
"We have to if we want any chance to live."
"F-fine, I thure hope you know what your doing."
The two ponies left the hallway, into the outside world. Seeing nothing but the mere shell of what Ponyville used to be. There were dead bodies everywhere. Not all seemed lifeless out here however.
"QUAK'TH FRAN QUAL'TH ZANZS!" they heard from the sky. It was what appeared to be a metalic worm-like vehicle with helicopter wings and 2 machine guns equiped. Applebloom and Twist ran for their lives away from the bullets flying at them, grazing their tails.
"Quick! Into the water!" Applebloom exclaimed to Twist. They entered the green, goopy water to hopefully lose sight from the war machine. Inside the water they found a hatch. They surfaced into the air to breathe and went back down under to knock. They saw a purple eye under the lens of the door. The door opened.
"Oh thank Celestia its you guys."
The two fillies went through a water-draining contraption and entered the room. It was Twilight Sparkle. "So I take it you guys somehow escaped Jail Sector B, the one in Ponyville. Well, whats left of Ponyville at least. Do any of you know what happened to Rainbow Dash?"
"Uhm Ah think Ah can explain..." Applebloom said hesitantly. "So uhm. Ah was just sitting in mah cell, and here comes Rainbow Dash with a gun and well.. she got attacked by some bug thingy. And then.. uhm, her gun slided across the ground, Ah picked it up and killed the bug thing, she shot the lock and we escaped. Then we got into a cafeteria but we got caught and she told me to get help."
"Oh no no no no, this is NOT good news, not good news at ALL. Hold on let me contact Princess Celestia, we have a tracking chip on Rainbow Dash." Twilight hopped to her computer and attempted to contact Princess Celestia. "What?Celestia's asleep? Already? Fine, put Luna on the phone." There was an awkward silence for a moment or two. "Luna, bad news. We need immediate details on Rainbow Dash's whereabouts." she said into the communication device. Twilight's computer then showed a screen showing all of the information on Rainbow Dash possible at the time.
Name: Rainbow Dash
Sex: Female
Race: Pegasus
Age: 19 (DECEASED)
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Weather Patrol
Coat Colour: Blue
Mane Colour: Rainbow
Cutie Mark: Rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud
"Oh no.. no no no no no no no no!" Twilight began to panic. "You guys don't know what this means do you?!" The fillies shook their heads. "Not only did we lose one of our most powerful soldiers, we also lost one of my best friends. Not only does this ruin my life, but it also means we're lacking one of the 6 elements of harmony!" "Without Rainbow Dash, our only hope to defeat this alien threat is gone!" Twilight began to raise her voice to exponentially high levels. "THATS GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER. WE LOSE GUYS, PONYVILLE'S GONE! ALL OF EQUESTRIA IS GONE!" the fillies were backing into the wall out of fear of the shouting purple mare.Not soon after they all heard a loud crash. Twilight immediately stopped talking altogether. The door broke and 7 tentacles came through where the door once was, goop flying out of the hole. The tentacles grabbed the 3 ponies. None of them could see with all the goop in their eyes. After wiping their eyes clear they saw the flashing underside of what seemed to be an alien jellyfish.
"Ha ha ha, don't think I couldn't hear you Twilight Sparkle!" Said a dark, evil voice.The fish then brought them near the top of the head so they could see the one controlling it. Much to their disbelief, it was a pony like them! "Oh, Twilight you haven't changed a bit, getting so overhyped over such a small deal..! No reason to miss your old little Rainbow Dash, especially when your looking right at her! hahaha!"
"No! what have you done with the real Rainbow Dash!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Nothing at all my little pony, I just took your friend and gave her a 'makeover' if you will! heh heh.. and I most certainly will!" "Now why don't you all get out of OUR city before something bad happens, okay? Wouldn't want any of you to get hurt~ ha ha ha." The jellyfish then threw them far, far away into the Everfree forest.
"Well what do we do now?" Applebloom questioned.
"Well we're in the Everfree forest, theres no hope of coming back to Ponyville. The only safe haven for us is Canterlot. I would have contacted Luna on my computer but thats a bit out of the question now. Canterlot is miles away from here, too far to walk it. We're going to have to ask Zecora to give us us some sort of transportation, since we're already here." Twilight explained.
"Mhhmm Thith ith one pretty flower~" Twist said, not paying attention to the other two ponies.
"No! don't touch that!" Twilight exclaimed. It was too late. "Do you know what you just did?!"
"Um I just touched a pretty blue flower?" Twist said In a confused manner.
"Wait.. what happened to your lisp?" Applebloom butted in.
"Maybe the flower made my voice normal!"
"Sorry Twist, don't get used to it. We need to get to Zecora to remove the curse right away. Nopony knows what the negative side to that curse is. And I'd really rather not find out. Zecora probably has some herbs for an herbal bath for you. If she doesn't then, well we'll have to find them for her."
The ponies began to walk down the only trail they could find, Twist bugging Twilight the whole way. ---------------------- Meanwhile in Canterlot castle
"Twilight do you read me!? Twilight! Twilight! Come in Twilight! Its no use.. I've been trying for hours now." Luna began to give up. "Oh sweet celestia what happened to Twilight?! Should I wake Celestia? No no I musn't! I've learned that waking Celestia during her nightly rest isn't a good idea.." Luna began to open the door to leave the castle. "I will find Twilight myself! Now where could she be?" Luna began to fly off to search the once hiding spot of Twilight Sparkle. ----------------------- "Zecora! Zecora wake up!" Twilight yelled, pushing Zecora off of her balance pole.
"My my, ponies its 3 in the morning, could you not have given me a warning?"
"Yeah sorry about that. We kind of need help pretty bad." Zecora's eyes widened a bit. "Look, we need an herbal bath for Twist pronto. She kind of went too close to the poison joke."
"I'm fresh out of herbs I must say, I've used all of the rations today."
"Don't worry we can find some, just tell us where to look."
"North east of Everfree is where you need be. Be careful of the zombies, at night they feed."
"Excuse me? I don't follow.." Twilight questioned.
"Here is a book explaining where the zombies reside and what time. Now please leave me alone for a bit, I'm having trouble thinking of rhymes."
"Ok, Twist and Applebloom, you two get some sleep. I'll get to reading this book." The two fillies ran to the beds Zecora had made for them. ----------------------- Luna approached the lake where Twilight resided. She entered the lake, pushing the water away from her with her magic, much like Twilight had done. Much to her suprise the entire room was flooded.
"Oh no this can't be good!" Luna exclaimed. After leaving the room she began to look all around the remains of Ponyville. When she entered the remains of Sugarcube Corner she noticed the dead bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Cake on the floor, but no Pinkie Pie. She galloped upstairs to see if she could find Pinkie.
"Would you like to try one of my delicious cupcakes?" Pinkie asked from behind the door excitedly. When Luna opened the door she saw the terrible fate of Pinkie Pie. Her young, beautiful pink coat had become a dark pinkish-brown colour. Her only eye completely red, the other was missing. Blood flowing out of the empty socket. 7 sharp spider-like arms came out of her back, attaching her to the walls. "Try my cupcakes! They're to die for!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"No!" Luna made a run for it. She fell down the stairs.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cake~ Luna won't try any of my cupcakes~!" Pinkie told her dead employers. Luna got up as fast as she could, dodging what seemed to be, acidic cupcakes. After running out the door Luna began to fly off as fast as she could until she escaped Pinkie. ---------------------- The fillies woke from their nap. "Good morning." Twilight told them. "The sun will be rising in 36 minutes. I hope your all ready for it." The fillies gulped. "Here take some of Zecora's poison darts. Just in case something bad happens. The zombies should be back underground, dead, by sunrise. What we're gonna do is go down there, get the herbs we need and run the hell back to Zecora's. Got it?" The fillies nodded. Twilight began to explain how zombies worked to the fillies for the next few minutes. ---------------------- "Celestia! Celestia!!" Luna yelled as she barged into Celestia's royal bedroom.
"Oh no what is it this time, Luna? Another casualty?" Celestia said, drowsily waking from her bed.
"Sadly." Luna said. "Not only have we lost Rainbow Dash-"
"WHAT?! WE LOST RAINBOW DASH?!?" Celestia screamed.
"You didn't know?"
"None of the guards told me..."
"Well we also lost Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie" Luna said nervously.
"Luna I really hope your joking."
"I'm so sorry, but its true.." Luna's muscles began to harden, expecting the worst.
"NO NO NO. THIS IS NOT GOOD! THE ENTIRE FATE OF EQUESTRIA IS DOOMED, MAN! WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO MAKE A NEW EQUESTRIA ON THE MOON OR SOMETHING!.. Wait!" Celestia interrupted herself. "The fragments! We need the fragments! Of course WE can't use the fragments. We need somepony who has one of the Elements of Harmony. Who's left alive?" Celestia questioned Luna.
"I'm not sure, hold on let me look them up on our computer."
"Heh heh Convenient that I put those tracking chips on them afterall Luna?" Celestia began to brag.
Name: Applejack
Sex: Female
Race: Earth Pony
Age: 22
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Farmer
Coat Colour: Orange
Mane Colour: Blonde
Cutie Mark: 3 Apples
Name: Fluttershy
Sex: Female
Race: Pegasus
Age: 17
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Animal Caretaker
Coat Colour: Yellow
Mane Colour: Pink
Cutie Mark: 3 Butterflies
Name: Pinkie Pie
Sex: Female
Race: Earth Pony
Age: 18
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Confectioner
Coat Colour: Pink
Mane Colour: Pink
Cutie Mark: 3 Balloons
Name: Rainbow Dash
Sex: Female
Race: Pegasus
Age: 19 (DECEASED)
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Weather Patrol
Coat Colour: Blue
Mane Colour: Rainbow
Cutie Mark: Rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud
Name: Rarity
Sex: Female
Race: Unicorn
Age: 22
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Dress Designer
Coat Colour: White
Mane Colour: Purple
Cutie Mark: 3 Diamonds
Name: Twilight Sparkle
Sex: Female
Race: Unicorn
Age: 20
Spouse: N/A
Occupation: Librarian
Coat Colour: Purple
Mane Colour: Purple, pink stripe
Cutie Mark: 5 magic shines around one big one
"So we have Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, and Twilight.I thought you said Pinkie and Twilight were dead?" Celestia asked Luna.
"Well I can't find Twilight.."
"Did you check the bunker I stationed her at?" Celestia doubted Luna's knowledge.
"Yes, I checked all over Ponyville."
"Hmm maybe she ran off? No, Twilight would never do that. She's my loyal student. I know she's better than that. Maybe she's being held prisoner?" "That means either she's going to die soon or give up vital information. I'll send in reinforcements to look for her. What of Pinkie Pie? You said she was dead too."
"Well.." Luna was a bit hesitent. "When I checked Sugarcube Corner I saw the remains of the Cakes. I went upstairs and saw Pinkie- but she was like.. this weird 7 legged, one eyed mutant creature." Luna began to cringe at the terrible memory of the creature.
"Oh my.. She caught The Virus. She consumed the green slime somehow. The other ponies are still alright though, right?"
"We've yet to receive any bad news from any of the other ponies, so I would assume yes."
"Fine I'll send more reinforcements to Jail Sector A, B, and C. Manehattan, Ponyville, and Fillydelphia respectively to look for Twilight. I'll station you back to the computer. Maybe we'll get contact with her again." Luna left the room and went back to her computer. ------------------
"Alright my little ponies, are you ready to get those herbs?" the fillies cringed a bit.
"Well Ah'm not too sure I know how to kill hordes and hordes of zombies..." Applebloom said nervously.
"First of all, I've explained how to like, 5 times already-"
"But Ah don't get all those fancy words your usin'!"
"Dont worry about it Applebloom, The zombies won't even come out in the day time." Twist said to break the argument. After a few moments the silence was broken by a voice.
"Won't you get going soon? The joke won't cure itself you buffoons."
"Hey! Ah ain't no 'buffoon'!" Applebloom argued.
"She's right, lets get going guys, you both have the darts in case of emergency, right?" The fillies nodded. "Well lets get going then."
The ponies left Zecora's and started moving North East toward the ruins where the herbs resided.After reaching their destination they started looking around for the blue and orange herbs they needed.
"Oh lookie lookie I think I found them!" Twist yelled from across the meadow.
"Mmphagragueaghpmm" said a voice from underneath Twist. A hoof grabbed at Twist and pulled her under the ground.
"Twist!" Twilight and Applebloom both yelled at once, running after her.
"Mmpmmphragrrhammph" said more voices. There were zombies rising from the ground.
"Hold on Ah'll get em!" Applebloom yelled to Twilight. She started shooting darts at the zombies.
"AH!" Twilight exclaimed as a zombie grabbed her right hind hoof. It was dragging her down underground.
"Twilight! Twist! nooo! Ah'll go get help" Applebloom ran back through the Everfree forest back to Zecora's hutt.
Applebloom knocked on the door frantically. Zecora answered the door. "My my, back so soon? Where are your friends and herbs?"
"Wait why ain't ya rhymin'?" Applebloom paused to ask.
"Oh sorry, dear I have trouble making up rhymes on the fly."
"Oh.. well Ah need help real bad."
"What has happened my dear Applebloom?"
"My friends! Zombies! Grabbing! Underground! Bad Guys! Help!!"
"Oh my it sounds bad I fear. Oh my zombies are coming near!" Zecora pointed to the zombies coming near the house.
"Fu chaua kooma lama tara." Zecora said to the zombies, attempting to calm them. It was no use. They kept coming. Zecora got her blow darts and started shooting them in the heads. After shooting all of the zombies, Zecora and Applebloom started walking back to the meadow where Twist and Twilight were captured. "My dear Applebloom, please don't tell the others about my rhyming problem." Applebloom nodded.
After approaching the meadow they saw the holes where Twilight and Twist were dragged under. "Come on lets go in this one, my dear." Zecora said, pointing at the hole Twilight had been drug under.
After falling through the long tunnel they fell face first onto the dirt of what seemed to be an underground tribal city. All of the people living there were zebras just like Zecora, except they were rotting zombies. As they fell right dead-center in the middle of the dirt street all of the zombie zebras looked at them.
"Fana waana sutra kcama." said a bigger, more clothed zebra, presumably the leader due to the golden skull crown on his head. "Arthus gama sutra lama.." he said approaching the pony and zebra.
"Zanena farquata sutra lama." Zecora said to the king. The king had a somewhat suprised look on his face.
"Hoona igna chowa neha." he said as he and his guards took the pony and zebra to his prison incampment.
As they were walking through the hall, there were 10 cages, however only 3 were occupied. "Pony! Little pony!" Applebloom heard from one of the cages. It was a blue pony with a white mane and pink eyes. "You must get me out of here! Zey abducted me and I've been here eating zis terrible food for veeks now!" The two talked as the leader got to know the situation at hand by Zecora translating for Twilight and Twist.
"Applebloom! Get over here!" Twilight yelled.
"Yeah, Twilight?"
"This whole thing was a big misunderstanding! Zecora was translating everything their leader was saying. The only reason they tried abducting us was because of Twist's voice. They sensed some weird 'evil' in it. But after explaining it, They're gonna give us the herbs we need!"
"But what about the other pony over there?" Applebloom questioned.
"Theres another pony here?" Twilight questioned, walking toward the cage.
"Hmm you look a bit familiar.." The blue pony said to the purple.
"Photo Finish? How did you get here?"
"I am not zo sure I remember."
"Come my little ponies we must leave at once." Zecora said to the other ponies.
"You didn't rhyme!?" said all of the ponies in shock, including Photo Finish.
"Oh I give up.." Zecora said. "Rhyming is just too hard nowadays.."
"Oh its fine Zecora, my speech impediment went away too!" Twist said.
"And it will be coming back very soon." Twilight added.
"Come on guys lets get out of here." Twilight said to everyone.
"Even me?" Photo Finish was surprised.
"Of course you can come with us."
Photo Finish grabbed the only scraps of clothing she had left and ran out the unlocked cell. Zecora grabbed all the herbs she needed, and a bit extra.
After arriving at Zecora's, Twist had a bubble bath and her impediment was back to normal. Everything seemed happy..too happy. They completely forgot that the entire fate of Equestria was in their hooves. And that the world would be ending soon if they couldn't get the fragments in time.
"Yeah uh guys this is great and all but.. aren't we forgetting something?" Twilight proclaimed.
"Oh yeah Ah remember! We gotta get to Canterlot to talk to Princess Celestia!" Applebloom remembered out loud.
"Hmm.. does anyone have a way to get to Canterlot Castle? We need to get there ASAP and we're running out of time." Twilight began.
"Hmm I sink I might know a vey." Said the newly rescued Photo Finish.
"Really now?" Twilight questioned.
"Of course! It might still be intact. Ve must go through Ponyville however.. und it can only fit 4 ponies.."
"If anyone is going to have to, may I stay? I'm afraid I would just get in the way." Zecora interrupted.
"Aww we can't take auntie Zecora?" Applebloom started to frown.
"It will be fine, Applebloom. We can visit her later." said Twilight.
"Yeah at leatht you thtill have me!" Twist proclaimed.
"Zen its settled. Ve vill go into Ponyville and I vill handle it from zere."
"Ah'm gonna miss you, Zecora!" Applebloom said, hugging Zecora.
"Alright everypony lets get going." Twilight said as they all left Zecora's. ---------------- "Luna! Luna! Princess Luna! We're running low on reinforcements." Celestia said to Luna, barging into her room.
"What do you mean?"
"We've already had 37 casualties today. Better than last week, but we really can't afford to lose troops looking for somepony that might already be dead."
"Well what are we going to do?"
"Sorry to do this Luna, but we're sending you." Luna began to look quite wide-eyed. "Don't worry, its already late at night. There shouldn't be too many aliens out there. And besides, your an alicorn. They can't just 'kill you' or anything." Luna got out of her computer chair and left the room. She flew off to Manehattan to start searching for Twilight. ----------------- "Zere she is!" yelled Photo Finish as the 4 ponies were walking through Ponyville.
"There what is?" Twilight questioned.
"Down here!" Photo Finish grabbed the key out of her ragged dress' pocket and stuck it into the door of the house.
"Come, come it is down here!" she said, guiding the ponies into the basement of her barely intact basement hideout.
"Und zats it!" She said pointing to the vehicle.
"Not much to be proud of.." Applebloom protested. "Its barely intact!"
"At least it vill get us zere! Now, Ve go!" she then hopped into the car. The car was once one of the most expensive vehicles in Equestria, but after all the years of never using it, keeping it locked in her basement, along with the radioactive air from the outside world, it wasn't the best looking vehicle. With scratched up paint, worn tires, and a bad muffler. Once everypony was in the car, Photo Finish pulled out a remote control and pushed a button to open the side of the building to reveal a ramp onto what used to be the road of Ponyville. They drove at full speed down the road, making sure that they weren't being followed.
After passing by the river that was once Twilight's underwater base they heard a rusty clanging noise. Followed by another and another. ":ZANZEN: :ZANZEN: VERIN WAN FRAN QUELTH" said a metalic voice followed by loud sirens. Not far down the river of Twilight's old base was a mechanical arm coming out of the goopy river. And then another arm. And out rose its head. The creature looked like a combination of a robot and a mosquito.Its wings came out of the river and it started to lift into the air. Out from its forelegs came rocket launchers. ":ZANZEN: :ZANZEN: VERIN WAN FRAN QUELTH" it yelled again, with sirens wailing louder before. The 7 legged creature started to fly. They attempted to drive faster and faster away from the mosquito. Dodging the rockets.
"Twilight what the hell is that?!" Applebloom yelled to Twilight.
"I have no idea!"
Photo Finish, scared for her life, ejected herself from the seat, at least 15 feet into the air. She then pulled out two katanas and dive bombed onto the mosquito's head. "Who ist in zere?!"
"Heh heh heh..I'm not sure YOU know who I am, but I can guarentee Twilight does."
"Enough talk!" Photo Finish attempted to stab through the mosquito's eye and hit the pony inside the machine.The machine took a leg and threw Photo Finish back ontop of her car, caving its roof in slightly. The head of the mosquito opened and out came a familiar pony. Rainbow Dash- except she was a dull blue, her rainbow mane was gray, black and white. She was wearing a skull coated vest and skull shoulderpads along with skull bracers and kneepads. All complete with horns on top of her head above her ears. She lowered herself next to the passenger seat of the car. The pony looked at Twilight.
"Ha ha~ Long time no see, isn't it Twilight? Your friend Rainbow Dash sure missed you ha ha~"
"Your NOT the real Rainbow Dash!"
"Sure I am!" The 'imposter' pulled out her Element of Harmony. It was a gray lightning bolt necklace with no glow to it. "Now now, I'm sure you all just want to get to Canterlot to talk to your friend Celestia. Well go ahead, I'm not stopping you. After all I AM your best friend, right~? ha ha ha~" The 'imposter' flew back into the mosquito's head. "And remember, its Darkness Dash now~ ha ha~~" She said before she flew off inside the mosquito.
"Vat vas zat?" Photo Finish asked everypony.
"I'm not sure. But now we need to get to Celestia even more. So step on it". Said the purple mare. The two fillies remained speechless the entire trip.
On the highway to Canterlot there was a pony in the middle of the road. "H-help me.!" he attempted to yell, failing due to coughing up blood. It was a brown pony with a dark brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark.
"Vat happened to you?" Photo Finish asked the man.
"Can you just give me a lift back to Canterlot? I'll explain in the car." The two fillies scooted over to make room for the new guy. "Well aren't you two adorable?" he said petting the fillies on the heads.
"So what happened?" Twilight asked the man. The man remained quiet and said nothing. Bloody tears coming from his eyes.
"Stop the car!" he yelled, and Photo Finish did. The man opened the door and began to vomit blood along with a different assortment of half-digested foodstuffs. "AGHGAHG" he screamed with new, spider-like legs protruding from his brown back. Blood was spurting everywhere, the fillies crying in fear of what was happening. Both of his eyes fell from their sockets, with blood oozing from what used to be his tear spouts. His coat went from what used to be a light brown colour to an almost black colour. "DaMnIt MaRthA ThE kIdS aRe At iT aGaIn!" he yelled nonsensically.
"Oh no, it ist too late to save him." Photo Finish said, pulling out her two katanas. She ran toward the mutant and cut off his head and all 7 of his new legs. He fell to the ground, dead. Oozing out green acid as he died. "Hurry lets get ze hell out of here!" Photo Finish got back into the car and drove off as fast as possible. Everypony being very quiet the entire trip.
They finally got to Canterlot. It was covered in a near indestructable clear bubble to protect the folk living there from the radioactive air that was known to be covering the land in a couple days. "Halt! No trespassing." yelled one guard to the ponies.
"Uh, excuse us we kind of need to get into Canterlot." Twilight began.
"Oh yeah? You and all the others." he said pointing to the line of ponies attempting to convince the other guards to come in.
"We just can't let any more ponies inside. We're already at the verge of overpopulation ever since the other cities of Equestria became uninhabitable."
"But we need to talk to Princess Celestia." said Twilight.
"Bwahahaahahaa~" laughed both the guards. "Your kidding! Your kidding, right?" said one of them.
"Listen buddy!" exclaimed Photo Finish. "You give us contact to Celestia right zis instant! Zis is more important zan you could imagine!"
"Pfft.. yeah right." scoffed one of the guards. "Fine we'll let you in, but your only allowed to talk to Celestia and then you get the hell out of here."
"Fine." said Photo Finish.
The city was huge. There were apartments everywhere just to station all of the ponies living there. There was even a miniature Cloudsdale in the sky housing a good few pegasi. The guards took them straight through all of the streets to Canterlot Castle. They knocked on the door and said to the guards inside.
"Yeah these 4 mules need to talk to Princess Celestia."
"Bwaahaaahaaa your kidding! Your kidding right?"
"Sadly, no. They say its 'important'."
"Alright 'important ponies'. ha ha ha" The castle guards left for a moment. "Alright your 'important' appointment is three days from now at 6:35 PM." said a castle guard, handing them a ticket to remind them.
"Three days!?" the 4 ponies exclaimed.
"Three days?!" the outside guards questioned.
"We told them they can go see Celestia and leave. Where are we supposed to get room to hold them?"
"Just kick them out for a few days, no biggie."
"Alright then, come on guys you can come back here later."
"NO! I'm Twilight Sparkle! I KNOW the princess! We need to talk to Celestia this instant!!!" Twilight screamed, all kinds of ponies staring at her.
"Don't make us get out our nightsticks" one guard said.
Twilight sighed and the 4 ponies left to wait a few days.
The ponies were sitting on the outside road waiting and complaining. -------------------- "Celestia! Celestia!" Luna yelled while knocking on the castle door.
"Look we told you, you can't get in until three days- oh I'm so sorry, Your Highness. Please come in." said the castle guards.
"Celestia! bad news!!" Luna was yelling while flying to the second story of the foyer. "Celestia! Celestia!" she yelled while knocking on Celestia's bedroom door.
"Yes, What is it, sister?"
"I tried looking, I can't find Twilight Sparkle anywhere. Not in Ponyville, Not in the Everfree forest, Not in Manehattan, not in Fillydelphia.."
One of the guards heard her yelling "Twilight Sparkle.. Twilight Sparkle.. hmm.. does that name ring a bell to you?" one guard asked the other. "Uhh wasn't she that one crazy purple unicorn we saw a few minutes ago?" said the other.The first guard ran up the foyer stairs and knocked on Celestia's door. "Uhh ma'ams excuse me ma'ams, about this 'Twilight Sparkle', could you describe her for me?" the guard asked.
"Well she's a purple unicorn. Dark purple, long mane with a pink stripe. Shiny cutie mark." Celestia began to describe.
"Uhh I think I might know who your talking about..." the guard said nervously.
"Uhh, yes. Really." said the guard going down the stairs. "I sure hope I can find her..." he said to the other guard.
The guard went outside and went to the entrance the 4 ponies originally came from. He asked the guards there. "Uhh.. yeah.. You know those ponies we had to schedule for the Princess with?"
"Uhh yeah? Why?"
"Yeah.. We kind of need them ASAP.."
"Well good news, buddy. They're right over there!" he said pointing to the 4 ponies. ------------------- "And then she said: Oatmeal!? Are you crazy!?" Twilight said to the other 3 ponies. The other 3 were laughing and enjoying themselves, however Twilight was saddened by the fact that she hasn't seen Pinkie Pie in weeks.
The guard approached the 4 mares. "Yes I'm so sorry for the confusion.." he said to the ponies. "We had no idea you were THE Twilight Sparkle.."
"But I TOLD you my name.." said Twilight said spitefully.
"I sure hope we haven't caused you ponies too much trouble."
"Oh trust me, you did." Twilight said under her breath.
"Come, follow me. I'll take you to Celestia."
They went back to the castle. Twilight immediatly knew where Celestia's room was. Twilight knocked on the door. "Who is it?" Celestia asked.
"Its me, Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight responded. The door flew open.
"Oh thank goodness you're alive!" Celestia began to hug on Twilight tightly.
"I won't be alive much longer if you hug me so tight.." Twilight said under her breath.
"Where were you, Twilight? We've missed you sooo much~" Celestia said cuddling Twilight tightly.
"Uh, sister.. Isn't there some important questions you have for Twilight?" Luna asked her sister.
"Oh.. ahem.. right." "Well lets start with the first question: tell me everything that happened ever since the aliens invaded."
"Well it all started when you called the 6 of us to Canterlot Castle and told us to get into our respective bunkers in the 3 cities. Me and Pinkie Pie in Ponyville, Applejack and Fluttershy in Manehattan, and Rarity in Fillydelphia. Rainbow Dash was a mercenary. Traveling between the cities to make sure everything is intact."
"Why'd ya split all of 'em up?" Applebloom interrupted.
"Because we needed to make sure everything was safe in the city before we sent in our mercenaries to destroy the Fragments. We need all of the Fragments destroyed so we can use magic again. Without magic, the Elements of Harmony are all inactive. We couldn't store the 6 ponies in Canterlot. If we did then they'd invade Canterlot first. You know, our only safe haven at the moment? And since Rainbow Dash is dead, either Twilight or Pinkie Pie didn't do their job.."
"Well I never got a signal. It must've been Pinkie Pie who wasn't doing her job." Twilight began.
"Pinkie Pie must've been corrupted with The Virus sooner than we thought then." said Luna.
"What?! Pinkie has The Virus!?" Twilight yelled to the two princesses.
"Uhh yeah... about that.." Luna began nervously. "When I was out looking for you, I went into Sugarcube Corner. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were dead. Pinkie Pie was upstairs.. well.. what was left of her. She was missing an eye and had 7 legs-"
"Vait vone second!" Photo Finish interrupted. "Ze Virus makes you lose both of ze eyes. Not vone. Zat must mean zat ze virus has yet to fully develop."
"Her tracking chip isn't flatlined yet. So its still possible for her to be alive." said Celestia.
"Zen ve need to rescue her!"
"Not yet. We still don't know what happened to Rainbow Dash.." said Celestia.
"Ah know what happened to Rainbow Dash!" Applebloom began.
"Care to explain?" Celestia responded.
"Well Ah woke up in mah cell from loud sirens and Ah saw Rainbow Dash flyin' through the hall tryna get a fragment and-"
"WHAT?! What was Rainbow Dash trying to get the fragment all by herself for!? We had troops assigned for that, not her." Celestia questioned loudly.
"Ah don't know. Anyway she got me out of the cell since Ah was the only one not asleep and we tried to get the fragment. We were sneakin' through the cafeteria and we got caught by alien guards. They took her and Ah ran to get help."
"So they took Rainbow Dash.. Either she's dead or she gave away vital information." Said Luna
"She's the Element of Loyalty. She wouldn't give in. She's most likely dead now." said Celestia.
"But she's not." Twilight interrupted. "We've seen her multiple times. She wasn't normal either. She was dark blue, with a black, gray, and white mane. She had horns and skull armour.
"And did she try to kill you?" asked Celestia
"No. Every time she let us live. First she threw us into the Everfree forest. The other she just let us go to talk to you." explained Twilight.
"What about you, Twist. Do you know anything?" Luna asked.
"Uhh not really. I wath jutht in my prithon thell and Applebloom came and got me out and I followed her all the way to where I am now."
"Well, whats your story Photo Finish?" Celestia began to ask.
"Vell most of it iz a bit hazy. All I know iz zat I vas kicked out of Canterlot for zome reason. And I vas kicked into ze Everfree forest."
"Wait? Why would you be kicked out?" Celestia asked.
"Were you eating at McHoofers?" Luna asked.
"Vat vould zat have to do vith anysing?"
"Yeah why would someone get kicked out of our safe haven for having bad food tastes?" Celestia asked her sister.
"You don't remember? The plagued celery burgers?" Luna asked her sister.
"Plagued celery..?" Celestia questioned her sister flatly.
"They had a terrible incident when we imported celery from Appleloosa, just like the town itself, the celery had The Virus in it." Luna responded.
"Vait. But I don't have Ze Virus. Vouldn't I be dead if i did?"
"The outbreak was 6 days ago. You SHOULD be dead right now. What did you do after you were kicked out?" Luna asked.
"Zome tribal zebra zombies abducted me for a few days. I even learned a bit of zeir language."
"So what your saying, is that there's a tribe somewhere in the Everfree forest who has a cure to The Virus?" Celestia asked.
"Potentially." Photo Finish responded.
"So what we need to do is find Pinkie Pie, and get the tribal zebras to make her better, right?" Twilight asked everypony.
"Except Pinkie Pie doesn't have free will anymore." Luna said.
"Then we'll have to do it by force." said Twilight.
"But Twilight. You never explained the rest of your story." Celestia added.
Twilight began to explain all of the events that took place after she left the bunker. ---------------- Meanwhile at the ruins of the Canterlot Hedge Maze there were aliens creating a mine. The two dark, spikey creatures were
accompanied by their drill machine. The machine was pure black with a red lens for a windshield. They were shoveling the dirt around the hedge maze to prepare for the digging when they came across a stone paw in the ground.
"Vas wan fran quelth?" one asked the other.
"Quen fran?" it responded. One of them started pulling the paw out of the ground. It was a chimera statue.
"Varnas wan fran quelth!" one yelled to the other.
"Farnas wan fran quelth?"
"Barnas wan fran quelth!"
"Garnas wan fran quelth?"
"Harnas wan fran quelth!" they began to argue. The statue began to crack open to reveal Discord, God of Chaos.
"Woo-wee it feels SO good to be back!" Discord shouted both excitedly and maniacally. The two aliens confused at what they were seeing. Discord looked at the aliens in a confused way back at them. "So what are you supposed to be?" Discord asked the aliens.
"Farnas quan welth gach fazs?"
"Ra." The aliens leaped at Discord attempting to stab him with their blade-like limbs.
"Alright, little guys! I think thats enough!" Discord exclaimed. Discord began flying into the air with both of his mismatched wings. "Prepare for CHAOS! ha ha ha~" Discord snapped his fingers, attempting to create some form of chaos. "Hmm? why won't it work?" Discord attempted making all sorts of chaos, and failing. "Why isn't it working!? Agh!" He became stressed from the lack of chaos and flew away to attempt to make chaos in Ponyville. Leaving the aliens even more confused as to what just happened. ---------------- "So" began Celestia. "We need you 4 to go back to Ponyville and try to save Pinkie. Any questions?" The 4 ponies shook their heads. "Well alright then! Off to go save Pinkie!" Celestia said to the 4 ponies as they left the castle.
The 4 ponies left the castle and went outside to Photo Finish's car. Once everypony was situated and ready they drove off. "Ok, so vats ze plan?" Photo Finish asked the other 3 mares.
"Well." began Twilight. "I was thinking that you could pin some over her 'extra legs' onto the wall while I attempt to speak with her. If that fails then we'll have to fight back. Also, dodge any acidic foodstuffs." Twilight added.
After arriving at Ponyville they drove next to the entrance of Sugarcube Corner. "Ok.. Is everypony ready?" Twilight asked before opening the door. Everypony nodded.
"Eewww whath that thmell?" Twist asked as the door creaked open. All 4 mares were shocked and frightened at the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Cake's dead corpses lying on the floor. Especially Twist and Applebloom. The two fillies ran outside for a moment to ensure that they wouldn't vomit.
"Vell.. Let's get zis over vith." said Photo Finish holding her breath. The 4 mares began to slowly walk up the stairs into the hallway.
"Oh~ I wonder who came to visit!" the mares heard from the other side of the door down the hall. The 4 mares looked at the door and saw that it was covered in what appeared to be a greenish yellow hard skin. There was no doorknob. Twilight attempted to open the door, pushing several times.
"Enough of zis!" Photo Finish yelled to the door, stabbing the door multiple times until it was able to be opened. The door bled all over the bright pink carpet. Photo Finish pushed the door open, disregarding the blood soaking her blue hooves.
The 4 mares were shocked in disbelief of what was before their eyes. What was left of pinkie was nothing more than mottled brown fur inside of a gooey casing of blood, serving as its cocoon. The entirety of the walls, floor and ceiling were all covered in greenish yellow skin. As they slowly stepped into the room, the door closed shut, skin growing back onto the door, trapping Twist out of the room. "Oh visitors~ Lookie wookie its Twilight and Applebloom!" Pinkie exclaimed talking out of the mouth of the creature.
"Pinkie, are you there?" Twilight asked the creature.
"Of course you silly-willy, I was never gone!" Pinkie began to reach for Twilight with sharp arms growing from the ceiling.
"Vat is it doing?!" yelled Photo Finish. Photo Finish then unsheathed her katanas and attempted to leap toward the arm. It was too high up.
After the limb carried Twilight to its face. "Oh Twilight~ Would you like to try one of my cupcakes~?" Pinkie asked.
"I'll pass." Twilight responded.
"What about one of my cakes? pies? cheesecakes? burritos?" Pinkie asked.
"No! Listen Pinkie." Twilight began. " We need you to come with us outside for a bit." said Twilight.
"Zo maybe ve could cure your problem." Photo Finish yelled from across the room.
"HOW ABOUT NO!" the creature yelled in a demonic voice, throwing Twilight against the wall. Multiple scythe-like arms began to emerge from the ground and attempted to swipe at the ponies.
"Run! Everypony run!" Applebloom began to panic. Photo Finish leaped toward the door stabbing it multiple times until there was little to no skin left. She barged the door open and the 3 mares ran out into the hallway, down the stairs. The 3 mares left the house and got in the car. "Were's Twist at?!" Applebloom yelled. The door they had recently ran out of suddenly got covered in the hard skin, making it near impossible to re-enter. Not like they would want to anyway. The 3 ponies drove off to Canterlot sadly. Especially Applebloom who had just lost one of her best friends. ------------------ "I never get to have any fun.." Twist sighed. Twist was outside behind Sugarcube Corner.
"Oh ho ho~" said a voice from the sky.
"Woah who are you?" Twist asked.
"Why, I'm Discord, GOD OF CHAOS"
"Really? I think I've heard of you before. Thouldn't you be making, you know, Chaoth?" The two began to talk to one another. ------------------ "Celestia! Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed, running up the foyer stairs.
"Any luck?" Celestia asked the 3 mares.
"I wished I could say yes."
"So how did it go?" Luna asked from the other side of the room. Twilight began to explain everything that happened. ------------------ "And thats how I invented chocolate rain!" Discord said to the filly.
"Wooow! I thure withed I wath ath cool ath you!"
"I sure wished I could still make chaos.." Discord lowered his head.
"Well why can't you?" Twist asked.
"Well you know those alien guys?" Twist nodded."Appearently ever since they landed in Equestria, all sorts of magical abilities don't work anymore. So says the news channel in that house over there." Discord pointed at the house far away.
"So what are we thuppothed to do?" Twist asked the chimera.
"Well, After doing my research I learned that what we need to do is destroy these Fragment thingies to restore magic to Equestria."
Well then we thould get moving!" Twist exclaimed. Twist hopped onto Discord's shoulder and they flew off to search for the fragments. ------------------ "So not only do we not have Pinkie anymore, but we also lost Twist?" Celestia asked.
"Potentially." said Photo Finish.
"So what do we do now?" Twilight asked the princess.
"Well, you said earlier that you don't know the current situation with Rarity, Applejack, or Fluttershy, right?"
"Correct." said Twilight
"Well, your best bet would be to go to Fillydelphia and check Rarity's bunker, since I'm sure Applejack and Fluttershy can handle themselves in Manehattan for now." Celestia handed Twilight a map to Fillydelphia.
"What bout Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?" Applebloom added while wiping a tear from her face.
"We have no tracking chips on your little friends, however since Sweetie Belle is the sister of Rarity, if you can find Rarity, she might know where Sweetie Belle is at." said the princess.
Applebloom wiped another tear from her face and smiled a bit.
"Vell zen! Lets get going!" Photo Finish broke the mood.
"Uh, I'm not sure about you, Photo Finish, but I'm hungry... and tired." said Twilight.
"Hmm.. I'm quite hungry too." added Luna
"Well, why don't we all get some food and get some sleep?" said Celestia.
The 5 mares walked out of the castle to go get some food. ----------------- "Where are we going?" Twist asked the chimera.
"I told you, I have no idea where the fragments are." Discord and Twist began to search for the Fragments.
"Shouldn't ve be getting some sleep?" said Photo Finish.
"But its only 9 pm!" responded Applebloom.
"Ze early bird catches ze worm.. or in zis case, Ze early sleepers vake up soon enough to rescue Rarity before she is killed, yes?"
"I'm not sure that's a good analogy to be saying towards children.." said Luna. Applebloom lowered her head.
"Ok vatever, lets just get some sleep."
"Party pooper." said the dissapointed Celestia.
The 2 princesses walked back toward their castle while Twilight, Photo Finish, and Applebloom walked toward their hotel room the princesses bought them.
They entered the hotel and gave the employer their card. "Ok room's upstairs, 3rd floor, 9th room to the right room number 515" The three mares went up two floors, down the hall to the right. Twilight stuck the key into the hole and twisted. The door creaked open. It was a mess. There was no TV, faulty lights that didn't want to stay on, and only one bed. The three mares had to share the bed, Twilight on the right side, Photo Finish on the left and Applebloom in between the two. Photo Finish fell asleep instantly.
"Oh Twilight, Ah can't fall asleep."
"Well, you can try can't you?"
"Its hard to sleep when both mah friends AND mah sister could be dead right as we speak.." Twilight began to cuddle with Applebloom to hopefully cheer her up some. ------------------- "What do you mean you can't let uth in?" Twist became angry with the outside Canterlot guards.
"Look, even if we DID allow dragonekyoos, we can't except anymore ponies either. We can't except any more ANYTHINGS."
"Jerk." said Discord rudely. ------------------ It was a rainy morning. "Rise und shine my little ponies!" yelled Photo Finish to the two sleeping mares.
"But Ah didn't get any sleep at all!" Applebloom began to complain.
"Yes, vell, do you VANT Rarity und Zveetie Belle to be dead?" Applebloom sighed while jumping out of the bed.
"Alright lets get going." Twilight said while leaving the room. The other two mares followed.
After the mares left Canterlot, they all got in Photo Finish's car. Photo Finish and Twilight began to check their goods before leaving.
"Map?" questioned Photo Finish.
"Check." Twilight said, pulling out the map.
"Veapons?.. Check." Photo Finish looked at her sheathed katanas.
"Magic?" questioned Photo Finish.
"Check." said Twilight, making a purple aura glow around herself.
"Graham crackers?" Applebloom questioned. There was an awkward silence for a moment.
"..Check." Twilight sighed, magically pulling out a box of graham crackers.
They got into the vehicle, put on their seatbelts and drove down the interstate. "Oh Sweetie, AJ, and Scoot.. Ah sure do miss you.." Applebloom shed a single tear and began to look out the window while slowly munching on her graham crackers. She attempted to make little pictures of her friends out of the dew on the car window. The three mares drove off to Fillydelphia.
They arrived at the nearly abandoned city. The entire sky was polluted with a musky, brown air. Most of the skyscrapers were destroyed and the ones that were left standing were turned into alien bases. The bases were armed with anti-air cannons and plenty of search lights on the ground checking for any ponies that dare enter. "Vell... here ve are.." Photo Finish said nervously. Applebloom's pupils began to shrink at the sight. Twilight pulled out the map and started to think of a route to take.
"Ok, what we need to do is-"
"Nein!" "I am ze vone vith experience in zis field." interrupted Photo Finish.
"Really now? What does fashion photography have to do with military positioning?" Twilight asked somewhat sarcastically.
"Look, Tvilight, zere iz alot about me you do not know. Zings nopony vould expect from somepony like me." Photo Finish began to explain the route they would be taking.
"Zen it iz settled, iz everypony ready?" The two ponies nodded. "Ok zen, ve go!" Photo Finish began to gallop towards the northern entrance to ensure they wouldn't be spotted by the search lights.
The three mares were walking through the old abandoned alleys. "Vat vas zat?" Photo Finish stopped in her place."I can hear somezing." Photo Finish took a look down the alley to the right of them. She unsheathed her katanas and leapt into the darkness. "Take zat!" she yelled in a softer tone, slicing the dark figure into two. "It vas just an alien." Both Applebloom and Twilight were left dumbfounded.
"Vell here ve are." Photo Finish said while pointing at an unsuspiscious manehole. She attempted to lift the manehole, failing at doing so. Twilight began to knock on the manehole.
"Rarity! We're here to save you!" she yelled into the manehole. "Rarity! Rarityyy!" when all of a sudden an alien came from behind them.
"Get back you horrible freak!" yelled Photo Finish as she unsheathed her katanas.
"No stop!" yelled the alien.
"Vat...?" All of the ponies left dumbfounded.
"Follow me" the alien said, opening up the manehole. The 3 mares and alien went inside.
"Twilight! Applebloom! Photo Finish! I've missed you guys so much!" said the creature.
"Who are you?" asked Twilight.
"Oh ha ha~ I guess it IS about time I took this ugly thing off isn't it?" The creature began to phase out in static, leaving nothing behind but a white pony.
"Rarity!?" Twilight and Applebloom questioned loudly.
"Oh, yes it is me Twilight, it would be so hard to hide in that manehole for so long all day wouldn't it? I need some outside air to keep my coat all extra white, yes?"
"B-but how?" questioned Twilight.
"Well, you see, over the long period of being trapped in here, I was studying magic online. I needed some sort of disguise to try to destroy the fragments all by myself. Because lets be honest here, darling, those mercenaries haven't got those fragments yet, and I doubt they ever will at this rate."
"But how did you learn a disguise like that? Especially with the Fragments making all magic near impossible unless you have a cutie mark for it."
"Well first of all, my cutie mark is 3 gems. Second of all, I've learned that to make a disguise you need 3 things: a horn, willpower, and lots and lots of gems!" Rarity began to get out of her seat and began walking through another door that had originally been her closet for extra computer parts. The other 3 ponies followed her into the door. Rarity pointed at a mine she had built. "You see all of that? I've been mining all of that for almost 5 days now. Just to see my sister. Isn't that thoughtful of me?"
"Wait, you mean Sweetie Belle's okay!?" Applebloom started to become ecstatic.
"Of course, darling, do you honestly think I would just let them take my sister like that? I visit my sister daily! Every day I go into her holding cell and feed her some of the gems I find!"
"Y-you feed her gems...?" Applebloom questioned.
"Well, I think it would be easier to explain in the form of a picture, yes?" She pulled out a photo she had taken with her phone. It didn't look anything like Sweetie Belle. In fact, she was a metal, black machine. One with one red eye and 5 legs.
"Th-thats Sweetie Belle!?" asked the the 3 mares.
"Why, yes, it took me quite a while to accept her fate as a robot, but over the few weeks I've embraced the fact."
"Well.. it is awfully generous of you to give some of your findings to you sister like that." Twilight complemented.
"Vell vat are ve vaiting for? Ve need to save Zveetie Belle!" declared Photo Finish. "Vell vere iz she?"
"She's in the holding cell of the second highest skyscraper to the south east."
Rarity began to search on her computer for possible ideas on how to save Sweetie Belle. "I've got it! What we need is a Star Ruby! One for each of us. Says here they're found only in bright areas in the moonlight.." Rarity looked out of the holes of the manehole. It was in the middle of the day. "Well, what do you want to do while you wait?"
"Us? What are you going to do?" Twilight asked.
"Why I'm going to go feed Sweetie Belle, it is around that time afterall. You 3 can play a card game, I have plenty in my closet for just the occasion." Twilight pulled out Uno from Rarity's closet and Twilight, Photo Finish, and Applebloom started to play. "Well, you three have fun I have to go feed my death machine." Rarity grabbed her gems from her closet and began to head off. ----------------- Rarity disguised herself as an alien worker and began to walk to the south eastern skyscraper.
"Fwa'th quelth fran zasz?" an alien guard asked her.
"Ga fran tahz." Rarity explained as she walked into the door. She began to walk up the stairs into the highest room. The more floors she went up, the more alien-like the building began to be. The walls were a hardened, black skin-like substance. The lights were all shining red. She went into the highest room.
"Fwar getnacha var fran?" a guard asked her.
"Ra. Sweetie Belle getnacha." said the disguised Rarity. The guard nodded and let her in the room. She pulled out some gems and fed them to the machine. It said nothing. Rarity then quietly walked off to leave. ---------------- "Go fish?" Applebloom questioned Twilight. Rarity entered the manehole once again. She took off her disguise and looked at the clock.
"We have about 26 minutes left.. mind if I join?" said Rarity, grabbing some cards. ---------------- " 'Let's go look for the fragments ourselves!' you said! Well we did. And look what happened!" Discord yelled at the filly. They were in a dark cell.
"Well I thought thince you were a god and all, you'd be able to defend uth!" Twist began to argue. (I've thure done it thith time..) Twist began to think to herself. (The thecond time I've been in one of thethe thells.. maybe we'll think of thome way to get out, I don't think Applebloom will be her to thave me thith time around..)"Dithcord, do you think you know a way out of all of thith?" Twist asked the chimera.
"Oh ho ho~ looks like you guys really want out of here~!" said a familiar voice. It was Darkness Dash.
"Oh no I'm not truthting you!" said Twist towards the dark blue pony.
"Now now, Twist. This pony might actually know what she's talking about." said Discord, trusting the dull blue pony.
"B-but the tried to kill me!" Twist began to argue.
"Oh did I now~?" Darkness Dash began to question. "But did I actually ever harm any of you?"
"Uh.. not really.."
"Well, then. I guess its settled. You guys want out of here, right?" Darkness Dash asked the pony and chimera.
"Yes! Yes we do!" Discord began to beg. Darkness Dash began to chuckle a bit under her breath. ---------------- "Vell zen, it iz time." Photo Finish said, looking at the clock. "Vere vill ve go?" she asked Rarity.
"We'd have to go to a place with plenty of fresh dirt, of course. And a place with moonlight. Too bad the air is a bit too musky to find any moonlight in the city. We'd have to go out of town for it."
"Like where?" Twilight questioned.
"Well, the only place I know of with both fresh dirt and clean air is the alien base south west of here. So I'd imagine I'd have to go by myself. But I only have enough gems for a good 16 minutes of disguising right now. I'll have to hurry." Rarity left the manehole and began walking south west. ------------------ "So.. is it a 'yes'?"
"Of course its a yes!" Discord said to the skull-wearing pony.
"B-but-!"
"No buts!" Darkness Dash put her hooves up to Twist and Discord's heads. Their coats and manes became duller. Twist's eyes went from a light pink colour to a dark red. They were becoming evil. "Yes yes, now as I've promised here are your new powers!"
"Really?! I can make chaos again?!" Discord attempted to make a chocolate rain cloud and failed.
"No, Discord. You have newer, better powers. You have them too, Twist. Instead of making chaos, you can now make Darkness! a haha haha~!" laughed the blue pony maniacally. "Now get out there and make some darkness- oh wait. One more thing. Here." Darkness Dash handed the pony and chimera their suits. They were black and covered in skulls. "NOW get out there and make some darkness! a ha ha ha~" The pony and chimera flew off to go cause trouble. ----------------- "There." Rarity dropped the Star Rubies on the table where the ponies were playing Uno.
"Vell zen, lets get going." said the usually rushed Photo Finish. The 4 mares left the manehole and went south east.
"We're getting close." said Rarity, pointing toward the building. "Hnnnnnnng!" Rarity casted the spell. The 4 mares turned into aliens. "Ok, everypony, remember don't talk at all. Let me handle all of it." The 4 aliens walked toward the building.
"Fwa'th quelth fran zasz?" an alien guard asked her.
"Ga fran tahz." Rarity explained as she and her fellow aliens walked into the door. The 4 aliens then proceeded to walk up all of the flights of stairs, each floor more alien-like than the last.
Once they reached the final floor, Rarity and the guard began to speak. "Fwar getnacha var fran...dazj?" a guard asked her.
"Ba. Qwer fen ra Sweetie Belle garna fwan fran." Rarity corrected the alien.
"Ra." The guard agreed, letting the 4 aliens inside Sweetie Belle's holding cell.
"Sweetie Belle! Oh sweet Celestia your safe! Ah missed you so so so so much!" Applebloom began to get excited at seeing her long-lost friend. All of the disguised ponies looking at her wide-eyed. As wide-eyed as an alien could be at least.
"Uhh, Applebloom..." Sweetie Belle whispered. "You gave it away..."
"Excuse me?"
"Y-you just blew your cover..."
The sirens began to wail. ":ZANZEN: :ZANZEN: VERIN WAN FRAN QUELTH"
"Vell good job Applebloom." remarked Photo Finish sarcastically.
"Everypony run!" yelled Rarity. Applebloom got on top of Sweetie Belle and began to ride her. The 4 ponies and robot began to run down the stairs.
There were aliens coming through the doors. They began to shoot at the ponies and robot. Sweetie Belle began to fire at the aliens with her plasma cannon, taking out multiple aliens. "Hurry! ve must get out of here!" yelled Photo Finish busting open the red, glowing window. The 5 ponies jumped out of the window and fell at least 15 stories. Right before a harsh landing, Twilight used her magic to safely land all of them.
"Lets get the hell out of here!" Twilight yelled while running back to Photo Finish's car. They all followed.
The 4 ponies got inside the car. "Uhh, Vat are ve going to do with ze Zveetie Belle?" Sweetie Belle's legs began to fold up to become treads. Applebloom got on top of Sweetie Belle to ride her.
"Oh ho ho ho~" they heard a voice from the sky. They stopped the car and looked out of the windows. It was a dark, monsterous figure flying in the sky. Next to him, flying was a small pony. Both were a gray-ish colour with near black manes and red eyes, coated in skulls. "Well if it isn't you, little ponies." said the figure.
"Discord!" exclaimed Twilight.
"..and..Twist?!" Applebloom questioned aloud.
"Yes, yes we all kno-"
"Hmph! Twitht ith dead now!" Discord was interrupted by the dark pony.
"What are you guys doing here?!" Twilight yelled to make sure they could hear her from all the way down on the ground.
"Well, actually we're he-"
"We won't tell you." Discord was interrupted again. Twist then threw spheres of red electricity onto the highway, cracking it in two.
The highway the ponies were on began to fall into the green, goopy water below."Toodaloo~" Said Twist as her and Discord phased out of existance, leaving static-like shadow behind before ultimately disappearing.
The 5 ponies fell into the water, making a loud splash. "Mrmmrpmh!" yelled Applebloom under the water. "Ah can't swim in thi-!" she managed to yell before sinking under the water again. The other 4 ponies began to swim as fast as they could to the drowning filly. Sweetie Belle transformed into a submarine-like machine and began to move as quickly as she could to the sinking pony, catching her as she sunk. Sweetie Belle rose to the surface as quickly as she could to ensure Applebloom didn't drown. The 3 mares gathered around Applebloom's passed out body.
"Breathe damn you!" Photo Finish began to pump air into the filly's body.
"Vell.." Photo Finish began. "It looks like ve are now minus vone vehicle..." she said, looking down into the water, pointing toward the now destroyed vehicle.
"Not yet." said Twilight as she began to lift the vehicle out of the water with her magic. "If we can get to Canterlot fast enough, I think we can get it fixed." Twilight began to swim with the vehicle hovering above her.
"Oh, darling do you think you could help me out here? I'm soaking wet in the most disgusting filth ever.." Rarity began to her sister. Sweetie Belle emerged farther out of the water to open up her windshield to let Rarity in. Sweetie Belle then lowered herself
back into the water, but not low enough to get Applebloom wet. The 5 ponies began to swim toward the shore of Canterlot, it was quite far away.
After finally reaching the shore of Canterlot mountain, they began to walk up the steep hill until they got to the familiar entrance to Canterlot that they have seen multiple times. Except for Sweetie Belle, who has yet to visit Canterlot. "Halt!" The guards exclaimed as they pulled out their guns and began to aim them at Sweetie Belle and company.
"Wait, wait wait!" Rarity began to explain to the guards.
"I think its all a bunch of hooey!" one guard told the other.
"Yeah, how do we know you won't just go and shoot the place up?"
"But I swear I won't!" Sweetie Belle interrupted.
"Oh look the thing can talk too." scoffed one of the guards.
"Look, can't you just get the princess down here, she'll understand." Twilight said.
"Pfft, yeah right whatever." One guard pulled out a phone to call the princess. "Yeah, you know that 'Twilight' pony? Yeah well appearently she thinks she can smuggle in some alien tank thing." he began to laugh it off. Celestia barged out of her castle and flew as fast as she could out of the city and out of the gates. She took a long, hard, cold stare at the guards and let the ponies in.
After letting the ponies into her castle, Twilight began to explain the situation.
"And thats why we need you to fix this car for us." Twilight ended her long winded statement.
"Alright." The princess began. "I'll take it to the finest mechanics in the city. It should be done by tomorrow evening. You 5 ponies get ready for your big adventure to Manehattan tomorrow. You still have that card to your hotel room, right?" Celestia questioned the mare. Twilight nodded. "Good." Celestia took the recently beat up vehicle from Twilight and began to walk out of the castle.
The 5 ponies left the castle to make their way to the hotel.
As they were moving down the sidewalk they got quite a few stares from all kinds of different ponies, due to Sweetie Belle's disposition. When they took a turn down the sidewalk they saw a familiar face. At least, it was familiar to Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Rarity, and Twilight. "S-spare some change?" said the purple mare.
"Miss Cheerilee!?" they gasped.
"Oh, Applebloom, Twilight, Rarity. Its nice to see you guys around here."
"What happened to you?" Twilight questioned.
"Well, lets just say, there isn't many job applications for a teacher in Canterlot. And well, its hard to make a living when you have two mouths to feed..." Cheerilee began.
"Two? You live with somepony else?" Twilight asked the former teacher.
"Well, yes. You all know Scootaloo right? Well.. lets just say her parents were killed during her time inside 'Jail Sector B' as they call it on the news..."
"T-thats terrible.." said Twilight. The other mares were a bit shocked.
"And well, after all of that she escaped to Canterlot apparently . And then well, I guess I adopted her." she began to chuckle sadly.
"Hold on, I can contact the princess to give you two a place to stay. Wait, where's Scootaloo at?"
"She's at our cardboard house down the alleyway." She began to point to it.
"Alright, I'll contact the princess right away." Twilight began to walk off back to the castle.
"Uhh, Miss Cheerilee.." Applebloom began. "This here is Sweetie Belle.." She pointed to the black tank. Cheerilee was a bit shocked in disbelief.
"Uhh..hi.." Sweetie Belle was a bit nervous.
"W-what happened to you, Sweetie?"
"Lets just say.. this is my new body after what the aliens did to me..." Cheerilee gasped.
"Well at least we have all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders still with us, right? You two can go talk to Scootaloo, just be careful. She's not way too stable after what happened to her.." The two fillies began to walk into the alleyway to the boxes.
"Scootaloo!!" Applebloom began to shout, galloping to Scootaloo and her boxes. Scootaloo just stared at them. Applebloom stared at Scootaloo. Scootaloo stared at her. She stared at Scootaloo. Scootaloo stared at her. All Scootaloo did was stare. She stared. And stared. And stared. And stared. "Uhh.. you alright Scoot?" Applebloom questioned the orange pony. She stared. Sweetie Belle began to walk up to the pony. Scootaloo began to sweat and her pupils grew smaller.
"AAAAAAAGHHGH" She screamed, running away from the tank. "G-get away!!!" She yelled, hiding behind a dumpster.
"Its alright, Scoot! Its Sweetie Belle!" Applebloom began to explain to the purple maned filly.
After explaining the entire situation Scootaloo was understanding, for the most part.
"Here." Twilight said from the sidewalk, handing Cheerilee her newly created card for her and Scootaloo's hotel room.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Cheerilee began to kiss Twilight's hoof. Twilight blushed a bit.
"Well alright. Let's get to our hotel. We have a very important day tomorrow." said Twilight. Twilight, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Photo Finish began to walk down the sidewalk.
"Scootaloo!" Cheerilee began to her adopted daughter excitedly. "We have a place to stay now! And we have enough money here to afford 3 weeks worth of food!" Cheerilee began to hug on Scootaloo. Scootaloo smiled.
The mother and daughter began to walk towards the hotel.
Early the next morning there was a loud crashing noise coming from outside the bubble of Canterlot. "Vat vas zat!?" Photo Finish sprung up from her bed. The other 5 mares were still asleep. "Vake up everypony!" She started to nudge on Twilight.
"But mom its saturday theres no school today...!" Twilight mumbled, half asleep.
"I said vake u-" An even louder crash interrupted her. Followed by loud explosions from atop the Canterlot bubble and citizens running outside, screaming in terror. By this time, everypony was well awake.
"Whats going on?" said Twilight as she opened the door and began to gallop down the stairs. The other ponies followed. Except Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. They went to the other side of the hallway to check on Scootaloo and Cheerilee to see if they were still there. Applebloom began to knock on the door, and then Sweetie Belle joined in. Except when she knocked, her sharp legs pierced the a door a bit.
"Y-yes...?" They heard from the other side of the door, with a purple eye looking through the looking glass. "Oh thank goodness its you." Scootaloo began.
"Come on, Scoot lets get out of here!" Applebloom yanked her by the hoof and ran her down the stairs. "Where's Miss Cheerilee?" Applebloom asked the orange filly.
"Well, she went grocery shopping a few hours ago..." The Cutie Mark Crusaders galloped out of the building to catch up to the other ponies.
"The horror! The horror!" a pink coated, blonde maned mare yelled whilst pointing at what seemed to be a hurricane flying slowly around Canterlot. Rain was pouring, pouring all over the hard, clear bubble around Canterlot. There were trees from the Everfree forest uprooted and flying at the clear bubble, making loud banging noises.
"Come on, ponies. We need to see Celestia right away!" Twilight commanded the other 5 mares as she began to gallop to Canterlot Castle.
"Celestia!" Twilight began knocking on her door furiously. "Celestiaaaaa!"
"Yes..?" Celestia opened the door slowly, not even the slightest bit nervous.
"What are you still doing in here? Shouldn't you be outside calming the citizens or something?"
"For what? What's going on?" Celestia questioned the purple mare.
"Didn't you hear the loud crashing noises?"
"Um... I may have had my music too loud.." Celestia pointed at her music player. Twilight raised her hoof to her own face. "So, may I ask, what's going on out there?"
"Zere is a hurricane out zere, a big vone at zat. Und ze citizens do not know vat to do." Photo Finish started.
"Hmm.." Celestia took a look out of her window.
"Celestia! Celestiaaaa!" started a yell from across the foyer hallway. "Celestia! Your finally awake?" Luna questioned her.
"..I was listening to music..." Celestia said under her breath.
"Look, that isn't just any ordinary hurricane out there, from what the scanners say, its at least 3 times as big as an average hurricane. And we can sense increased heat signals from inside of it." Celestia looked a bit dumbfounded. "Meaning there's some kind of living creatures within the eye of the hurricane."
"Well then!" Celestia began. "Looks like you 6 ponies get to postpone your little date with Fluttershy and Applejack for now! We need you to figure out what's with that hurricane!"
"Look." Luna started. "Your going to need to go in from the eye of the storm. You'll need to leave the safety of Canterlot for now, go down to the Everfree forest and find a way in. From what we can tell, there seems to be a stairway of clouds from the bottom of the eye to where the heat signals are coming from. Luckily for you, we have a shortcut into the Everfree forest. Follow me." Luna began to walk down the stairs, the other 6 mares followed. She went right next to the left side of the stairs. She lifted a painting to reveal a hole inside the wall. She stuck her horn inside the hole to open a large, mechanical elevator. The 7 ponies went inside of the large elevator. While going down the elevator, they could see a large military base filled with all kinds of weaponry, destructive vehicles, and large buildings towering to the ceiling. "Mk." Luna started to move towards a large door on the wall. "Alright, here we are. Is everypony ready?" The 6 ponies nodded. She pressed the button and the door opened. Behind that door opened another door. Then another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another. It revealed a long pathway into the rain. "Wait here for when the eye comes close enough." said Luna.
When the eye came close enough, the ponies ran for it. Once they got inside the eye of the storm, they looked up and saw blackened clouds. They made somewhat of a stairway up to an extremely large cloud, surrounded by other clouds. The ponies began to jump from cloud to cloud going up and up to the top of the hurricane. "Agh!" Applebloom tripped off of a cloud. Sweetie Belle gained propellers and began to fly after her, barely catching her. "Nice catch, there Sweetie. Looks like you saved me again." Applebloom began. The ponies kept climbing up.
After reaching the top, they saw a blackened Cloudsdale. There was a huge, black tower built on top of where the main town used to be. It towered so high, it was at least a couple meters above the storm itself. There were trees and other objects such as rocks flying around them due to the hurricane.
"What's that!?" Scootaloo began to cower in fear, pointing at a pitiful creature on another cloud. It was a yellow pegasus with an orange mane. She was missing one eye. She had two sharp spider-like legs dragging her across the black cloud, blood from her eye socket staining the cloud with red.
"S-spencer? Spencer is that you?" She began to quesion the 6 mares.
"Uhh... who's Spencer?" Rarity asked the pegasus.
"Spencer I'm so glad you came back to save me!" She attempted to flutter to the cloud the other ponies were on, failing due to the weight of her newly developed legs, that or her wings weren't working correctly. "Spencer no! Save me please, Spencer! Speeenceeer!" She yelled, falling down the eye. There was a faint splat noise to be heard from atop the clouds. All of the mares looked both horrified and puzzled. Scootaloo more of the former.
"Come on everypony... Lets get into that castle and figure out what exactly is going on here." Twilight commanded the other 5 mares. They began walking across a black, white, and gray rainbow from cloud to cloud to get to the castle.
On the middle of the final rainbow bridge sirens began to wail loudly. They all began to panic. A black, white, and gray rainbow crashed through the bridge, breaking half of it apart. The 6 ponies were now stranded. "Heh heh heh." Chuckled the pony responsible for this. It was a light blue pegasus with a dark rainbow mane and tail inside of a black and purple suit.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled to the pegasus angrily.
"Excuse me?" the pegasus questioned in a deeper, manlier voice than Rainbow Dash could ever even attempt. Upon closer inspection, this wasn't a mare, it was a stallion. "Excuse me lady?! First of all, its 'Lord Darkness Dash'. And no, as much as I envy her awesomeness, I am not Lord Darkness Dash. Oh and by the way, have fun trying to get into the castle. Muahahaha-" He began to cough from his downright horrible attempt at maniacal laughter as he flew away. The 6 mares began to look for a way to get to the castle.
"Hey!" shouted another supposed Shadow Bolt. "What the hell was that?" He became angry at the pegasus that had just recently broke the bridge. "Why the hell aren't you following orders?"
"Uhh.. my bad I didn't know that they were.. you know... them.."
"I call BS. Anyway.." He turned toward the 6 mares that were watching them argue just moments ago. "Look, dudes. That guy TOTALLY was NOT following orders alright? You guys can come on in." The ponies watching were a bit confused. The Shadow Bolt then repaired the dark rainbow bridge and the ponies crossed.
"Halt Trespassers, nopony allowed in here." Started one of the guards.
"Wait, dudes." the other Shadow Bolt interrupted. He began to whisper into the guard's ear.
"Ooooohh... Ok. I'm so sincerely sorry ma'ams, you can all come inside." The two guards began to heave the door open and let the mares inside the completely blackened castle. "Here." the guard flipped the switch and the lights all came on for them. "Since you're gonna need to get to the top floor, I might as well take you ladies to the elevator I assume, yes?" The mares nodded, still confused of the current situation. "Follow me." He began to walk through the eastern-most hallway, with the ponies following closely. After arriving at the elevator door he picked a key out of his black, metallic pocket and put it inside the keyhole and the door opened. "Ladies first." He nodded slightly, letting the mares in. Inside of the elevator was a screen showing multiple different buttons with unreadable text on them, although the text seemed quite familiar to most of the ponies. As the elevator rose higher and higher and higher he reached into his left-flank pocket and pulled out a long distance communication device. *Bzzt* "Yes, hello Lord Darkness Dash?" He began to speak into the device. "Yeah.. we have them. We're coming up the elevator as we speak." He had to raise his voice a bit to talk over the overly loud rock music playing from within the elevator, serving as a replacement for elevator music.
The elevator had finally reached the top floor after a good half of a minute. The doors slid open and all of the ponies left the elevator. The guard slowly approached the over exaggeratingly large door and pulled out another key and twisted it inside. He pushed the left door open slightly, but didn't look inside. "There you are, ladies. Go on in." He pointed to the inside of the door, still not looking inside. The 6 mares slowly walked inside the door, nervous of what was on the other side.
"My, my, my" started Darkness Dash, sitting on her throne adorned with skulls. "Why if it isn't Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Photo Finish and..." Darkness Dash looked a bit puzzlingly at the black spider-tank standing next to Applebloom and Scootaloo.
"..Sweetie Belle.." The black machine said a bit nervously, lowering her torso/head down a bit.
"Right!" Darkness Dash pretended she knew all along. "Look, guys. I'm totally sorry for doing what I did, alright?" The 6 ponies didn't believe her. "Look, we only have roughly 142 hours left, roughly 6 days, before the mists come in and our God, Fqua'th, comes and takes over Equestria forever."
"Vhy ze hell are you suddenly so nice to us?!" Photo Finish yelled to the dark blue pony.
"Chillax, Hitzkopf. You didn't even let me finish explaining. Now, as I was saying, Once our all-powerful God, Fqua'th comes there's gonna be a huuuuge mist coming all over Equestria. When that happens, all of ponykind will be dead. All of the one's that don't have the virus that is. That and the ponies kept inside of their underground holding cells, forced to mate in order to make more slaves to inject the viruses into, regulating the virus for slavery of course. Now, due to popular request, I'm now going to tell you WHY exactly I'm telling you all this." She started sarcastically, looking at Photo Finish. "Look, You guys are still my friends and all that jazz, right?" The 6 ponies looked a bit uncaring, thinking it was nothing more than a lie. "Well, since you all love me sooooo much, I decided that if you all joined The Shadow Bolts, a group of ponies working for Fqua'th, instead of you all dying after the mists come, you all can be spared and sent onto the alien homeworld, Fanzith, where you all would be living among royalty, much as I and the other Shadow Bolts will be. What do ya say, friends?" Darkness Dash said with a possibly fake smile on her face. The 6 ponies were looking at eachother for a bit, thinking of the outcomes.
"I'll think I'll pass..." Twilight said in a low, monotonous voice.
"Wh-wha..?" Darkness Dash was in shock. The other 5 ponies nodded their heads in agreement to Twilight's idea.
"We-well if any of you change your minds, you can.. uhh find me to the far south... of uhh.. Jail Sector B.." Darkness Dash flew to them, handing them directions to Jail Sector B, despite the fact that most of them already knew where it was. "And uhh, here's the job applications..." Darkness Dash made another fly-around to the ponies, handing them the papers. She began to cry a little bit. The 6 ponies weren't sure if they were truely real, full fledged tears, or she was faking it all. "You all can... go.. I guess.. I'll be here still if you change your minds..." Darkness Dash sat on her throne with a sad look on her face. The 6 ponies left the dark, skull adorned castle and left the eye of the hurricane. The hurricane seemed to have died down from since they went inside it. It was nolonger that violent anymore. It was spinning. Quite slowly at that. It was also far enough from Canterlot to not be making any possible damage to the bubble.
After climbing up Canterlot mountain, the ponies went inside Canterlot castle to explain everything to the princesses.
-------------- "I just don't get it. How could they say no to their best friend.." Darkness Dash slammed her hoof on the table and wiped a tear from her face. She was at a long table with Twist and Discord sitting there, discussing their plans with eachother.
"Geeth, quit the fake tearth bullcrap already." Twist said in an angry tone.
"Oh, yes of course. Heh heh." Darkness Dash lifted her head up, wiping another tear from her face.
"Look, guyth. We NEED at leatht one pony with an Element of Harmony." started Twist.
"Not to mention we can't let anypony get any of our fragments." Discord added. Twist began to laugh.
"Oh trutht me, nopony will be able to find ALL of the fragmentth. Hell, I'd be thuprithed if they could find even one!" Twist began to pull out a map pointing at all the locations of the fragments. "Thinthe we obviouthly can't jutht recruit them, we're gonna have to uthe forthe. Darkneth Dath do you have any idea where they're at right now?"
"Canterlot. Although they were missing Fluttershy and Applejack. Meaning they're most likely heading for Manehattan soon.
"Hmm... we're going to have to be very careful." Twist began to think out loud. -------------
"Don't trust her, she's lying. I know it." said Celestia.
"Don't give into her lies, thats what they want." Luna added.
"A bit off topic but may I ask a question, dear?" Rarity began to Celestia."Do you perhaps happen to know a 'Spencer' by chance?"
"...Oh my..." Celestia was a bit shocked. "Where did you hear of this 'Spencer' fellow?"
"We saw a yellow pegasus with the virus earlier in Cloudsdale. She mentioned somepony named Spencer."
"Yellow pegasus.. hmm.. what colour mane?"
"Orange."
"Hmm.. what was her cutie mark?"
"I'm not so sure.. All I know is that its yellow and orange at the top."
"Sp-Spitfire? Spitfire knows Spencer..?" Celestia began to ask Luna.
"Look, we'll look into this later, okay? You 6 just get back to the hotel and tomorrow you can all go save Fluttershy and Applejack." Celestia acted as though they shouldn't know about it.
"Scootaloo!" Cheerilee was angry at her daughter. "Where were you? I was worried sick!"
"S-sorry mom.. I was out with my friends." Scootaloo was dissapointed in herself.
"I-In that hurricane?! You could've been killed!" Cheerilee began to raise her voice. The purple pony sighed. "Come here.."
Cheerilee began to hug her daughter to cheer her up.
It was early morning. And yet, the clouds were so dense it felt as though it was night. There was a light rain. "Vake up everypony!"
Photo Finish exlcaimed to Twilight Sparkle, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Rarity. "Ve don't have much time. Ve need to rescue Fluttershy und Applejack immediately!" The 4 ponies began to get out of their beds.
"We're gonna bring Scootaloo with us, right?" Applebloom questioned the blue pony with the tattered dress.
"Vell, of course. Ve could use all ze help ve could get, yes?" Applebloom began to gallop to the room Scootaloo and Cheerilee resided. Sweetie Belle followed.
"Miss Cheerilee can we please bring Scootaloo with us?" Applebloom questioned the former teacher.
"NO! No way in hell!" Applebloom lowered her head. Sweetie Belle lowered her torso. Scootaloo began to rub up against Cheerilee's leg. "I-I mean yes of course, how silly of me! You three have fun in Manehattan!" said Cheerilee sheepishly. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were off-put by her odd demeanor.
The 6 ponies began to leave Canterlot and travel to Manehattan. Not before picking up Photo Finish's new car of course. The 6 ponies stopped by Celestia's to speak to Celestia about the newly fixed car. "Celestia!" Twilight said knocking upon Celestia's door.
"Celestiaaa!!" she began to pound on the door.
"Yes..?" Celestia answered, peaking out of the crack in the door.
"Can we have that car now?"
"Oh yes, yes of course haha. Can you talk to Luna about that? I'm kind of busy right now." the white mare seemed to be hiding something.
"Doing what?" the purple mare questioned her.
"Oh nothing. Just, uhhh, watching a TV show. hehe.." Twilight looked at her for a moment before leaving to talk to Luna.
"Luna can we please have Photo Finish's car back now?" Twilight seemed a bit annoyed.
"Why of course." Luna took them down to the underground military base they were in just yesterday. She guided them to a heavily reinforced vehicle. "There she is!" Luna said, pointing at the vehicle. The 6 ponies were in shock. "Well..?" Luna said, handing Photo Finish the keys. Luna took out a device and pressed a button. The doors on the wall opened to reveal a secret street that connected to the main highway leading to Manehattan. The 6 ponies got inside, put on their seat belts, and drove off.
The entire trip was devoid of any odd occurances. Nopony trying to stop them. No one trying to stop them. No thing trying to stop them. The only thing the ponies could hear was the loud noise of explosions from the far distance. This filled the ponies with uneasiness.
After finally arriving at Manehattan is was not what they had in mind. It was unlike most of the abandoned cities they've been to before, it wasn't abandoned. There were war machines, explosions, and tons of aliens. Half of the city was, for the most part, intact. While the other half was brown and the sky was musky, much like Fillydelphia had been. It even had the black alien skyscrapers.
"V-Vere do ve go?" Photo Finish was a bit nervous when saying that.
"Uhh.. How about over there?" Twilight said pointing at the biggest skyscraper on the intact side of the city. It was shaped like a large T, with yellow, glowing windows.
"Wait." Rarity began. "Sweetie Belle come here, deary." She held her sister's hoof and Sweetie Belle then turned into a pony via her gem disguise. "There." Rarity was somewhat pleased with herself. The ponies then took the back entrance into the building, to avoid any fire from the soldiers.
"Who is this?" the guards said, raising their guns.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, do you know where I could find an Applejack or a Fluttershy?" The guards paused for a moment and looked at each other.
"We don't have your Applejack, however we do have a Fluttershy. Why do you need her?"
"We were sent from Canterlot to speak with Fluttershy." The guard pulled out a long distance communication device.
*Bzzt* "Yes is Fluttershy there? Alright. We have a bunch of ponies here to see you." The guards opened the door and followed them closely, while taking them into the room Fluttershy resided in. They went up at least twelve floors via elevator before reaching Fluttershy's room. The room was huge, and had lots of yellow tinted windows, with plenty of computer screens holding valuable information about the war happening in this city. Fluttershy was in a green army jacket and hat. She had a cigar in her mouth. Right beside her was a dark purple insect. "Fluttershy! These ponies are here to see you." The guard said to her, while she stood atop a platform raised above the floor, not even looking behind herself.
"Tell them I'm busy." Fluttershy said in a somewhat deeper, raspier voice than what the ponies were used to.
"But ma'am they say they're from Canterlot."
"Send them in then." Twilight rushed over to Fluttershy.
"Oh Fluttershy, I've missed you so much!" Twilight began to jump around her. Fluttershy was not amused.
"Follow me." said the yellow pony, somewhat uninterested. The 7 ponies went down a far hallway, and down 2 flights of stairs into her room. Right as she closed the door she threw her cigar away and became excited. "Ohmygoshomygoshohmygosh! Twilight! Rarity! Applebloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!.. Photo Finish..? I've missed you all sooo much. " She said, possibly overreacting while at the same time a bit confused at Photo Finish's presence. "What are you all doing here?" she said in a less excited tone.
"Well-" Twilight began before getting interrupted by a somewhat loud noise. Everypony looked at Sweetie Belle as she began to glow. The disguise wore off.
"Eeek!" Fluttershy began to panic and back into the wall, knocking over a table. "Y-you snuck in alien technology!?"
"No! No its not like that at all!" Twilight began.
"Let me explain." Rarity interrupted the two. Rarity began to explain Sweetie Belle's disposition.
"Oh alright, Let me notify the soldiers that we have a non-hostile alien tank with us." She began to pull out a communication device.
"But what if they dont believe you!?" Twilight attempted to interrupt her but she was too late. Fluttershy had already told them.
"Don't worry." Fluttershy began. "They HAVE to believe me. I'm the highest rung, the leader if you will." The other 6 ponies were in shock for a while before Scootaloo broke the silence.
"Well can somepony tell me, what is that cool thing?" she said, pointing to the purple insect that had been following Fluttershy.
"This, is Sandy, a silithid. She's from Appleloosa. I named her that because she likes digging in the sand, as do all silithids." She said in a serious tone.
"Wait." Applebloom started. "So you're saying, that Appleloosa is filled with those things?" Fluttershy nodded.
"Its uninhabitable at Appleloosa ever since the invasion because of them."
"B-but Granny Smith... Big Mac... Braeburn... They all went to Appleloosa over the summer before the invasion while Applejack was foalsitting me! D-does that mean they're..." Applebloom began to cry.
"Don't worry Applebloom. There were plenty of reports of people escaping and making it into Canterlot." said Fluttershy.
Applebloom continued to cry, but it was pretty obvious that she was trying to remain hopeful. There was a moment of silence.
"So vhere's ze Applejack?" Photo Finish broke the silence.
"Hmm.." Fluttershy began search on her computer. "Well she's not in the vicinity of the intact part of the city. So that must mean she's being held prisoner." Fluttershy quickly came to the realization. "We're going to have to go to Jail Sector A." All of the ponies' eyes had widened, other than Fluttershy's. "Don't worry, I know of a safe route via the sewers." Fluttershy handed Twilight a map through the sewers.
"Wait you're not coming with us?" Twilight quickly realized.
"I can't. I have an entire army to be guiding. I'm so terribly sorry." Fluttershy reached into her pocket, pulled out a cigar, lit it, and left the room.
The 6 ponies looked for the manehole into the sewers.
"There it is!" Applebloom said, pointing to the manehole. The 6 ponies climbed down the latter and into the sewers.
"Oh my!" Rarity saw the goopy waters flowing below. "Sweetie deary! May I please ride on your back again?" Sweetie Belle lowered herself underneath Rarity and began to hold her as they went down the sewers. The sewers were a dark gray colour, with the water a clearish green, with plenty of used cans, wet toilet paper, among plenty of other used house-held products. The disgusting water sloshing up and down the ponies' legs. The hallway seemed to go on forever until there was a split. Twilight began to look at her map to choose which direction to go. The map only showed one, long hallway leading to the base, with only one sharp turn near the end of it.
"This isn't right.." Twilight began to think out loud. "This map isn't right." She began to all of the ponies. "Well which way should we go?" the ponies' pondered as they slowly walked forward down the tunnel. After approaching the split they heard a faint piano coming from the right. It was playing a slow, somewhat creepy song.
"Please do not tell me I'm not the only one hearing that." Rarity began to the other ponies.
"Well do you want to go that way?" Twilight asked her, along with the other ponies. Most of them nodded, except for Scootaloo. She knew this song from before. It was very familiar. She remained silent and followed them closely. The music became louder and louder.
"Uhh guys? Are you sure this is a good idea?" Scootaloo finally spoke up. Right as she said that, the music became nearly unhearable. The water became darker and darker.
"Scootaloo, could you please quit poking my leg?" Twilight began.
"I-I'm not poking your leg.."
"Really then what is- AAGH!" Twilight shrieked in terror. It was a bloody, disembodied leg passing by. All of the ponies were becoming a bit paranoid by now. The music became louder again. The water became darker and darker.
"Uhh, guys." Scootaloo began. "L-look behind us." There was a face following them. All that was visible was its eyes and smiling, crooked teeth. It was getting slightly closer and closer every moment.
"AHH!" All of the ponies began to run from it. The music became louder and louder. Although it was louder, it was still playing the slow-paced, creepy music. The water became darker and darker and darker until it was a dark red. It was blood. The ponies began to freak out from what they were seeing. There were dead ponies hanging from the ceiling from their necks. The hallway was becoming darker and darker until nothing was able to be seen.
------ "Ha ha, Good shot, princess! Ya made the touchdown again!" said a male voice.
"We're so proud of you!" a female voice began.
"I sure am glad we had such a wonderful daughter like you!" the male voice overpowered the female's a little bit. They began to laugh happily while pinching Scootaloo's cute little orange cheeks.
"Oh you guys, not so rough heh heh heh." Scootaloo tried not to gloat.
"Ha ha! Yes, your little Scootaloo might someday be able to qualify for the National Hoofball League!" said coach, laughing hartily.
"Oh trust me I sure do plan to sign her up when she's old enough!" said dad, happily laughing. "Alright, princess lets go buy you a Foal's Meal from McHoofers! We'll be sure to ask for the colt's toys this time!" said dad as they walked off into the car.
They all went inside McHoofers together and they were first in line. "Yeah we'll have a-" dad got cut off. The employee at the cash register was confused.
"S-scootaloo?" mom was confused. "What's wrong with you Scootaloo?" mom, dad, and the employee backed into the wall.
"Help! help! Somepony call 911!" the employee started to shout. All of the ponies eating at the restaraunt began to run. Cries were heard from outside, ambulances and sirens wailing.
"Hello? Scootaloo are you awake?" said doctor.
"Y-yeah.." Scootaloo could barely speak.
"She's alive!" doctor yelled to the parents excitedly. "I can't believe she's alive after all of that!"
"All of what?" Scootaloo asked the doctor. He was ignoring her as he explained all of the odd 'problems' she had had.
"..Cyroids, Massive head trauma, fatal Cratischism, Blerogniphism.." as he talked and talked, he became more and more muffled. "..Hmrm, Mrhrhrmrhr, Mrrahrra...." he continued.
"Well she better be sorry for what she did!" dad was angry at her.
"Yeah I'm never gonna take her into another restaraunt again!" mom was angrier than dad even.
It was the middle of the night. "Mom, Dad can I get some milk?" Scootaloo asked her parents while approaching the fridge. Inside the fridge there were containers. There was a white salt inside of all of the containers. All labeled 'MQD255M2ZO' "Mom.. Dad..?"
Scootaloo questioned her parents. They were asleep on the couch. "Ma?" Scootaloo put her hoof on her mom. There was no pulse. "D-dad..?" Scootaloo put her hoof on her dad. No pulse. There were no pulses. ------ "Alright, lady. Time's up." said the guard, opening the jail cell. "And next time, leave them poor Diamond Dogs alone. Maybe then you won't break any laws, eh?" Rarity left to the main room to see her little sister there.
"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle called to her sister excitedly.
"Oh, I've missed you over the past few months, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity began to hug her sister tightly.
"B-But what are you gonna do for money?" Sweetie Belle asked her sister.
"I don't know yet, dear...I don't know.."
"So.. how much?" The brown stallion in the car asked the white mare.
"70 bits."
"70 bits!? Thats outragious!" The brown stallion drove off angrily.
"B-but!" Rarity was willing to haggle. Rarity sighed and sat on the pavement. (I'll never be able to make enough money to feed both me and Sweetie Belle..) She begun to think to herself.
Down the road came a big truck. "Well howdy!" The stallion said, tipping his trucker hat to her. "How much?"
"Uhh.. 50 bits..?" She hesitated.
"Well dayum thats a deal!" He opened the door and Rarity squeezed inside the 2 seater Mack truck.
"So...What are we...?" Rarity was hesistent in asking the trucker.
"Well.." the trucker began. ------ "Do I make myself clear!?" he said.
"Sir yes sir!"
"I said DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"
"SIR YES SIR!"
"Private PF! What the hell are you doing!? Sleeping while on duty!? 150 push-ups now!" said the general.
"Sir yes sir!" Photo Finish responded, getting onto the ground.
"One one-hundred, two one-hundred, three one-hundred, four one-hundred, five one-hundred!" he went on and on. After a good 70 or so push-ups Photo Finish lost her balance and fell onto the floor. "What the hell was that?! What are you a pansy? A little pansy fashion pony?! I don't think so! Do it again from the start! One one-hundred, two one-hundred, three one-hundred!" he began again.
It was the middle of the night. "Private PF, you're a failure did you know that?" Photo Finish was hanging from a wall. Her once-beautiful blue coat was stained with red. "You can't even defend yourself, just look at you!"
"Please, General, take me to ze medic."
"Why? You're a waste of effort! Those medics could use their resources for better! Besides, you're so much hotter when you're all bloodied up!"
"Please, General, I need ze medic."
"Nonsense! Quit thinking you can't do it! I know you can!! Oh wait, no I lied haha! You can't! You can't amount to anything!" General lowered the table Photo Finish was nailed on. "Now come here, sweetheart.." General pulled out a knife. "Now c'mere..." General began to slice away at her fur, and some of her skin. Blood was dripping everywhere. Everything faded black.
"Yo, PF, you alright?" said the blue poofy maned mare.
"Nein. Nein I don't think so.." Photo Finish took off her big, thick rimmed glasses usually worn by the typical nerd and began to cry into her friend's arms.
------ It was a dark room. There were multi-coloured objects floating through the sky above. "Twilight..? Twilight...?" a childish voice could be heard from far away.
"S-Spike?!" The purple mare exclaimed, rapidly looking around for the dragon. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Come here Twilight..." Twilight began to follow the voice coming from the right of her. The room seemed to go on forever. She passed by different floating objects. Objects like a gun, a rope, a bath tub, razors, and so on. Bonk! Twilight was so busy looking at the objects that she ran head first into a door. "Twilight! Come on in.." The door opened itself. Twilight hesitated, looking into the door. "Come on Twilight!" the voice of Spike yelled at her a bit annoyed. A gap opened right behind Twilight. Out of the gap came a purple dragon's claw. It pushed her into the door.
"Aaagh!" Twilight screamed as she fell down a seemingly endless shaft. The shaft was a gray, metallic texture. Twilight eventually hit the floor with a loud thump. There was another door.
"Come on in~" said Spike as the door creaked open. Twilight immediately walked into the door.
The room was flashing all kinds of colours. Even colours she didn't even know the names of. There were even more objects floating throughout the sky. Balloons, cars, bunny rabbits, turtles, trees, houses, among other things. There were 6 little fillies staring at her. Twilight immediately began to run from them. The fillies were all floating, keeping up with her. Twilight attempted to teleport as far away as she could, much to no avail. "What do you want from me?!" Twilight exclaimed toward the 6 fillies. -------- "Applebloom!" said a faint, but familiar, voice. It was a pinkish red, organic room. Applebloom began to follow the voice from afar. With every step she took, a wet liquid splashed out of the room, seemingly made out of innards. "Applebloom!" she heard again, coming from a split in the blood vessel-like hallway. She followed the voice once more. The voice became more and more louder every step she took. The hallway began to rumble and out came a burst of blood flowing through out the hallway. She was taken away with the sanguine currents. She went through what seemed to be miles and miles before the blood pushed her out into a giant room.
The blood was flowing like a waterfall out of the vessel and into the bloody lake below. Applebloom fell right into the bloody water. She couldn't swim. There seemed to be no floor as she continued to be pushed lower and lower by the blood. And out right from above her came an orange hoof. She grabbed onto it for dear life. The hoof slowly pulled her out of the blood.
After surfacing, Applebloom was gasping air. She looked up and saw that the pony that had helped her, was none other than her dear sister, Applejack. Applejack gave her a big smile. "Now why don't ya'll come back home?" She began as she walked off into the distance. Applebloom followed. There was a door at the end of the room. Applejack opened the door and walked through. Applebloom went in right away. They were at Sweet Apple Acres. Except all of the trees were dead. The farm animals were all dead too, rotting corpse and all. "It sure is a wreck, ain't it?" said Applejack. She opened the barn door to reveal Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Braeburn. They said nothing. Their mouths agape. Just staring. Staring. Staring. Staring forever.
"Uhh... Whats wrong with em?" Applebloom questioned her sister. Applejack said nothing. She just stared. Her mouth was agape too. Applebloom's entire family was just staring. Staring forever.
And there the chrome, black spider-like tank sat in the foggy, wet sewer hallway. 3/4ths of its body under the green, goopy liquid. Its visor a dull red barely glowing from beneath the water. A can was slowly making its way down the sewer system, scraping at the tank.
(System restoration sequence enabled. Rebooting memory banks and restoring armor.)
A few minutes had passed until the machine had turned itself back on. Its visor glowing a more brighter, vermilion colour. The machine's 5 legs had fidgeted around until it regained its balance. There it was. Standing in a river of greenish yellow liquid sloshing up and down its black scythe-like legs. It turned around and began to walk against the current.
It walked down the hall until it saw a white unicorn floating atop the water. The machine had took its front two legs and wrapped them around the mare, attempting to pick her up, much to no avail. It slowly retracted the mare back into the water, afraid if it were any more rough at attempting the act, it might cut her. The machine had took its right foreleg and opened the mare's eyes, making sure to use the side of its leg to insure she didn't get cut any.
"S-Sis? Sis wake up!" The machine began to beg for her sister. It was no use. Her azure eyes were rolled into the back of her head. The machine looked around, seeing all of the other ponies' in a similar disposition. She checked one by one, all of the mares had their eyes at the back over their heads too. "Somepony please wake up!" Sweetie Belle shouted,doubting there would be a response. And just then, her sister, Rarity, had begun to levitate out of the water.
"Hello Sweetie Belle!" said her 'sister' in a falsetto. As she spoke she was shaking around like a rag doll, shifting to the left and right. Her head bobbing back and forth from side to side. "So.uhh.. What's up?" she was stammering around saying.
"You aren't my sister!" Sweetie Belle had interjected her manly voiced sister. "Who are you! Show yourself!" The top of her torso had two plates, much like a door, that had slid apart to reveal a cannon. She began to aim around looking for the creature causing this to happen.
"My, my, my. You're no fun now are you?" Said a voice coming from above Rarity's levitating body. Lo and behold. It was Discord.
"Let my sister go!" said Sweetie Belle, in angry, metallic voice attempting to not sound at all cute.
"If you insist." Discord had dropped Rarity into the water with a loud splash.
"Now leave my friends alone!"
"If only it was that simple." Discord began. "Everypony nowadays always thinks everything can be solved by talking of this and that. That and this. This and that. Ugh It makes me sick. All that 'friendship' hooha and crap, all of that 'We can find a way to agree on everything'. Its all bullcrap. Everyone knows the only true way to settle on something is by a fight."
"Well if its fight you want, its a fight you'll get!" Sweetie Belle began to charge her plasma cannon.
"Well alrighty then. Just don't expect me to play fair!" Discord waved his index claw and winked.
Sweetie Belle fired her cannon at the chimera. Just as it hit him, he disappeared a puff of gray smoke. The 5 ponies that had been passed out, floating on top of the water began to levitate in midair.
"Join us." They all said in unison, slowly floating towards the black machine. "Join us." they said again. They kept coming closer and closer and closer.
Sweetie Belle refused to hurt her friends. She looked above them and saw faint strings attached to all of them. She took a shot of faith and fired a full force shot at the general vicinity of where the strings were.
"Agh! Good shot, kid." Discord said, becoming visible. He had a few pairs of horizontal control bars levitating around him, controlling the 5 ponies. Sweetie Belle shot every single one of them down one by one. Discord growled at her and disappeared again. Sweetie Belle now had no idea where Discord had went.
"Boo~!" Discord had teleported right behind Sweetie Belle. In shock, the machine had fired her cannon right at the wall, making her have to charge for another blast. Discord had picked her up off of the ground and threw her at the wall. The harsh landing had made her shields overload. She had had an electricity discharge right there and then. Electricity pulsating through out the entire sewer. The electricity had went through everyone in the water at the time. That being, the 5 unconcious ponies and Discord.
"No!" Sweetie Belle ran towards her friends. Discord had been holding his paw to his chest, groaning in pain. Right then Sweetie Belle aimed her cannon right at Discord's chest, charged, and fired.
"Agh!" Discord's fur and skin began to phase out of existence, leaving a static-like frame of what his body was. There was one single, red orb where his heart should have been. It had veins connecting to where his legs, arms, head, and wings were. Sweetie Belle leaped on top of the heart and began to claw at it with all 5 dagger-like legs.
*Shhk Shhk Shhk*
Blood began to overflow from the orb heart. Discord began to phase back into existence. "Heh. I guess you won fair and square. Well, here you go then." Discord snapped his fingers and the ponies began to regain consciousness. "Arrivederci." Discord faded out of existence in a puff of gray smoke again. Sweetie Belle had done one last look around the sewer to make sure he wasn't going to ambush her again. Sweetie Belle ran up to her friends as fast as her sharp, little legs could go.
"Are you all alright?" Sweetie Belle began to shake her sister awake gently, making sure not to cut her.
"Yeah.. I think I am." Rarity begun.
"Ugh, Where am I?" Twilight pondered aloud.
"Are you sure you're all alright?" Sweetie Belle was self conscious and worried that she had hurt one of them during her electric discharge. The ponies nodded. There was awkward silence.
"Well.. I guess we should get going, right?" Twilight begun. She had lost the map from earlier, but it barely mattered seeing as it was just one long hallway from here on out. The ponies kept silent for a long while until Applebloom broke the silence.
"So... Did anypony else have a weird dream?"
The ponies' had not said a thing back to her. Mostly due to the dreams being a bit too personal to disclose to each other. It was a long, awkward trip the entire way.
"Well here we are.." Twilight began, looking up the ladder that led up into wherever Applejack was. She hesitated for a moment before climbing up the ladder. The other ponies' followed closely. Twilight peaked her head out of the manehole to see a large corn farm surrounded in a dome. Like most alien structures, the walls were all a dark black colour. There were no windows or any other way to see the outside world from within.The dome's interior had artificial sunlight via giant light fixtures on the ceiling to keep the crops alive. There were small, but still recognizable pipes sticking out of the ceiling, most likely to water the plants. There were plenty of Earth ponies all walking around the place, surveying the crops to make sure they were all growing properly. The ponies began to search for Applejack.
"Hello-" Twilight attempted to ask one of the Earth ponies. The white mare just stared at her as if she was frightened. "H-Have you seen an orange pony with a yellow mane around these parts? Goes by Applejack?" The pony just stared at her.
"Ma'am we aren't to disclose information to the public." She began. "He's watching us."
"Who's watching us?"
"Him."
"Who's 'Him'?"
"Ma'am please leave me alone before I report you."
Twilight and company just walked away slowly, not making eye contact to the white mare. The ponies had searched high and low for Applejack. They hid in the bushes of the crops in order to not be seen by any security cameras.
"Now, ya'll get growin' don't ya hear?" The ponies could hear Applejack far in the distance, presumably talking to the crops, since crops were known to grow better when somepony talked to them.
"Applejack!" Applebloom began to get ecstatic, and attempted to run towards her sister. But Twilight and Photo Finish grabbed her, making sure she didn't get them caught like last time.
"Psst! Applejack!" Twilight attempted to call for her loud enough for her to hear, but soft enough for nopony else to hear.
"Huh? Who's there?" Applejack began to look around for whoever called her. She looked into the nearby corn stalks and saw 6 ponies huddled together in between the corn. "Oh my." Applejack came closer to and began to speak to them. "Ya'll came to rescue me?"
"Well of course, AJ. We couldn't destroy all the fragments by ourselves." Twilight began.
"Ya'll still actually got hope for Equestria at this point?" She questioned her long lost friend.
"Well, yeah. We still have 6 days left. If we hurry we can do it. I know we can." Twilight was hopeful.
"Well, Ah guess it don't hurt to try. Where's Rainbow and Pinkie Pie at?"
"Lets just say, Pinkie is, for the most part, dead. And Rainbow Dash is a leader of a cult working for the aliens."
"Gonna take it they ain't too well. How'd ya'll know where Ah was?"
"Fluttershy told us."
"Ah."
"Now do you want to get out of here or what?" Twilight became a bit impatient.
"Wait." Applejack looked back and forth rapidly. "He's comin'!"
"Who's co-" Twilight was interrupted by Photo Finish shoving her hoof in her mouth in order to shut her up. The 6 ponies all backed into the crops to hopefully remain undetected. Applejack went back to growing plants. There was a big, muscular alien walking down the path, making sure everypony was doing their job. He was completely black with white, glowing lines through out his body with glowing, white, flaming eyes. He looked like he could pick up an entire car with relative ease.
"Number AE323. You're doing a good job Number AE323!" He said to Applejack, in a very dumb manner. Applejack took a quick look at the 6 ponies hiding in the crops and winked. She then bucked the guard inside the area with the corn stalks that the ponies were hiding in. Out from the ground, roots came and grasped at all of his limbs, and one for his mouth making him unable to call for help.
"Now! Somepony finish him off!" yelled Applejack, but not loud enough for any other guards to hear. Photo Finish then pulled out both of her katanas and stabbed him in both of his eyes. He attempted to scream in pain, but couldn't due to the vine covering his mouth. After a moment he stopped struggling. He died.
"Woah, AJ. When'd you learn how to do that?" Twilight asked the farmer pony.
"The same way the rest of us here do it. They give us a potion. Then we're forced to grow crops for them."
"But I thought magic other than Cutie Marks didn't work anymore?"
"Nah. The aliens have a different kind of magic. All alien officials, and some servants like us, are given a special magic that surpasses anything the Fragments could do. And since Ah'm a farmer pony, they gave me, along with every other Earth pony here, the ability to use chloromancy.Ah can use plant magics."
"Applejack?" Rarity begun. "Why do they have you making corn for them? Do aliens eat corn?"
A yellow pegasus was flying toward the mountain. Her purple pet riding atop her back. It was a bit hard to see due to all of the smoke within the mountainous air. The pegasus landed in front of the cave. Inside of the cave was a golden glow coming from all of the treasure inside the mountain.
"You stay here, alright Sandy? We don't want him to become angered at the sight of a silithid." Said the pegasus to her pet. She then tied her pet's leash to a nearby rock, insuring that it wouldn't run away for any reason. The pegasus walked into the cave.
There was a loud roar.
"Calm down, buddy!" She began to the dragon a bit angrily, although there was sincerity in her voice. "We need your help. And we need-"
She was interrupted by another roar. The dragon attempted at swiping at her, but she dodged.
"Look, we need your help. And we need it bad. Don't make me have to give you The Stare!"
The dragon attempted another swipe at the pegasus, and failed at that. The pony began to fly into the air to give the dragon her world famous stare.
-----
"So. Any ideas?" Applejack began.
The seven ponies sat in between the crops contemplating on how to remove Applejack's hoof monitor. They were completely silent until somepony spoke up.
"I think I may know a vey." Photo Finish began. "Although it has been many years since I have deactivated a hoof monitor. And I am not quite so sure I know how to deactivate an alien one, although I'd assume its almost the same..... Is everypony ready? I cannot guarantee it vill verk." They all nodded slowly. Photo Finish pulled out her katana, which had already had alien blood on it from moments ago, and quickly jabbed it into the hoof monitor. The monitor's lightbulb began to glow a bright red. It signaled an alarm coming from within all of the base.
":ZANZEN: :ZANZEN: VERIN WAN FRAN QUELTH. AE323 BORZEN FAUN WAL." could be heard extremely loud from the speakers on the ceiling. The lights that had recently been keeping the room lit were now flashing on and off. All of the earth ponies who had been farming were now panicking. Alien aerotroopers were now flying all over the place looking for Number AE323, ie Applejack. The seven ponies began to panic and run for the manehole they had recently came through. Much to their dismay, it was locked shut. The seven ponies were panicking more than ever now. They ran and hid in between the crops in hopes that the aliens wouldn't find them, although they doubted it would work for long.
Just then, there was a loud banging on the top of the dome wall. The banging caused the lights to crack and stop working. It became nearly unseeable for a moment. That is, until the ceiling cracked open, letting the sunlight in. There were dark purple claws slipping through the cracks. A few moments passed before the entire ceiling caved inward. Due to this recklessness, some ponies and aliens had rubble landing atop them, nearly crushing some of them.
"S-Spike!?" Twilight had exclaimed, looking upward with tears in her eyes. The other 6 ponies could tell that she had missed her long-lost friend. Spike began to fly down to the ground, carelessly crushing a large majority of the crops. He was enraged, crushing all of the aliens he could see. He knew better than to breathe fire, which would cause the crops to catch fire, then leading to catching innocent ponies on fire. Atop the giant, hulking purple dragon was Fluttershy. She had seen the 7 ponies, turned to them, dismounted the beast, and flew towards them.
"Hurry and leave while you can." She had warned them.
"Tell me what's going on here!" Twilight began. "How did you know to come here? Where did you find Spike? Why did you bring him here?"
"Look, I've had you all tracked down this whole time. I knew you were in danger. The only thing I knew to do was to get Spike to get you all out. I know you're feeling a bit emotional right now, but we don't have time for a family reunion. Hurry and get out while you can before this entire place blows."
"Blows?! What do you mean?! The entire place is going to explode?! Whats going to happen to you and Spike?!" Twilight became shocked.
"Look, Twilight. We'll both be fine, alright? Just trust me on this. Just hurry and get out while you can." She began to point to a large hole Spike had created for the ponies to leave from. The 7 ponies ran out of the hole, Twilight taking one last look inside, to see Spike for possibly the last time in her life.
The 7 ponies had ran all the way back to where they had parked their car. The sun was setting. The ponies knew they had to get back to Canterlot immediately, as they only had 5 and a half days left before the mists settled in. They all got inside of the car, except for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. Applebloom had rode inside of Sweetie Belle as she had done before. Photo Finish was driving and Twilight was in the passengers seat. Rarity and Applejack had been in the back two seats, with Scootaloo scrunched between the two. It had been a very silent trip, that is until they heard a loud explosion coming from Jail Sector A, Manehattan. Twilight began to cry softly, thinking something bad had happened to Spike and Fluttershy. All of the other ponies began to cry a bit too, except for Photo Finish, who had just lowered her head, attempting to show some sympathy and Sweetie Belle, who was obviously incapable of crying.
After a while of driving down the interstate they had finally reached Canterlot once again to deliver the news to The Princesses. They had gone into Canterlot, and into Canterlot Castle, as they have done plenty of times before, other than Applejack, who this had been the first time for.
After entering the castle, Celestia had acted quite proud and happy for the 7 ponies.
"Good job!" She begun. "You destroyed the first fragment AND rescued Applejack and Fluttersh-" She suddenly stopped talking for a moment. "Where's Fluttershy?"
Twilight and company began to explain everything that happened.
"So you're saying Fluttershy somehow got Spike to destroy the entire Jail Sector A, in which they had destroyed the fragment but both have died?"
"Potentially." Photo Finish responded.
"But wait." Luna had been on the computer in the room the whole time. "Says here that Fluttershy is still alive." She said, pointing to the computer screen.
"I'm sure she can handle herself for now." said Celestia. "Afterall, she IS one of Equestria's highest military commanders now." There was a moment of silence before Celestia had brought up another topic entirely. "So. You all remember that Spencer guy, right?"
All of the ponies nodded, other than Applejack.
"Well appearently, after doing some research, I found out that Spitfire and Spencer had been long time friends back in their highschool. But thats not the part thats going to suprise you. It seems Spencer had eventually graduated and became a Hoofington Warden. You know what those are, right?"
The ponies shook their heads.
"Let me start off by saying I'm so dearly sorry I never signed you up, Twilight. The Hoofington Wardens are a scrying circle in, you guessed it, Hoofington. You all remember Trixie right?"
Most of the ponies nodded.
"Well, she was an exile of the Hoofington Wardens. She was kicked out because she used her scrying powers for bad instead of good. I signed you all up for an appointment to go see them tomorrow, as they have a clue on where to find the rest of the fragments. So I'd suggest you all get some sleep for tomorrow." Celestia began to walk back to her computer.
The 7 ponies began to walk back to their hotel. Applejack had to sleep on the floor that night, due to a lack of bed space.