The three goblins rode through a tunnel of blue currents, and landed into what appeared to be a amusement park on an overcast summer's night. In place of the blinding array of colour in Ponyville and its coordinated chanting their three horses found themselves in a city of shining lights drowned in a cacophony of simultaneous digital music and conversations, punctuated by cheering and screaming everywhere.
The goblins dismounted from their horses. Their leader heard some beeping on a device fastened on his right wrist, and he pressed a button. A blue hologram of what appeared to be a humanoid in a uniform shot up from a screen.
"Come in, Aklaron, do you copy?" the hologram asked.
"This is Agent Aklaron, reporting for duty," the goblin leader responded. "I have extracted the three Earth horses out of that madhouse known as Equestria."
"What are our new orders, sir?" the second goblin responded. "This is Agent Tellaron reporting."
"And this is Agent Palloron reporting, too!" the third goblin joined in.
"You two be quiet when your leader is speaking!" Akloron scolded them. "Anyways, what's the plan, Commander Lochetofraitz?"
"The wrist devices that you and your squad members are wearing allow you to teleport into any nearby universe," their officer replied. "Use them, and bring the three horses to my base."
"How many jumps do we need?"
"It will take 67 jumps to reach my mothership, and you'll have to wait for around four days between every 7 jumps for your device to recharge. At least you can pillage the locals or help our allies to keep yourselves occupied, and I will reward you for any plunder you have gained."
While the very thought of more money from their optional plan delighted Akloron and Tellaron, Palloron wondered about his poor steeds' fates after capture. "And what are you going to do with the horses, anyway?" he asked. Palloron and his friend were then hushed to silence by their leader.
"I'm going to extract some hair or skin from them, use their samples find their home universe, and make it the new capital of the rebuilt Avtokratorian Empire."
"And what will you do with them afterwards?" Palloron asked again, and then his leader hushed him again.
"Use them in biological experiments, of course," Commander Lochetofriatz responded. "Inferior creatures as them and their pursuers do not even deserve an ounce of dignity. I want you three to bring them over here, and you better not lose your creatures like the incompetent clowns that you were. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir!" All three agents saluted to their officer, and his hologram subsided.
They returned to their horses, only to find that they had went missing.
"Now, where did they go?" Tellaron pondered, and his leader punched his belly.
"You ask them!" Akloron scolded. He then instructed Tellaron and Palloron, "Go and look for them yourself, you losers!"
Akloron had sighted one of the runaway steeds, Burr, who clumsily knocked over several frightened Yahoos. Their very appearance was so strange to that Houyhnhnnm, that they caused him to panic. "Where do you think you are going, fleabag?" the goblin leader cried to the frantic equine. "Come over here!"
Burr galloped behind a large green tent where visitors shot moving targets. Just as the white stallion rested his legs to drink a bottle of wine, Akloron appeared out of nowhere and tackled him, pinning the stallion to the ground.
"Now, I'll make sure that you'll never run away, bounty!" the goblin leader cackled. He whipped out a laser gun and set it to stun mode, before aiming his weapon at the horse's head. "Scream your 'goodnights' as soon as — !"
The assailant was shot in the chest, and his body tumbled behind. When Burr got himself up to investigate the source of the fiery beam of energy that saved him, he saw what appears to be a Yahoo woman wearing a black cloak that covered her face.
"I can help you, Burr," she gestured. "This way!"
Wary of the bizarre Yahoos that he encountered at his previous run, Burr walked behind as he stared nervously at the human's lavender hands. His sharp eyes also noticed the glow of her violet pupils piercing the shade of her face.
"Burr," the Yahoo woman cooed, "I'm not gonna hurt you. Trust me!"
"Th-th-those Y-yahoos here are getting weird, and you might be one of them, are you?!" the white stallion whimpered with worry.
"I am, but I'm a nice little Yahoo." She unveiled her lavender face and tidied her long purple hair. "I just want to take you back to your friends, that's all."
Burr had enough of her charades. "How could I trust you, strange Yahoo?" he asked. "You might as well be that evil purple mare, and you managed to follow me all the way to this place: perhaps you are a Ynlhmndwihlma Yahoo*, you monster!" Then Burr set off, keeping himself away from her and almost every light in the park.
"I'm not sure about that Yahoo you were saying," She focused her eyes at the fleeing horse, "but I'll get you with my tricks, and you'll not escape this time!"
Burr stepped into a wide alley, where he used the dim lights of the streetlamps, the signs, and any lighting from the food stalls and restrooms to guide his way into the growing darkness. As disgusted as he was from the stench and the litter, he felt that he had nowhere else to run to hide from the crowds of colourful Yahoos, and the goblins prowling about as they hunted him down.
"I surely hope that my friends will be safe," he muttered to himself, as he trotted down the puddle-dotted pavement. "They should find me here to avoid any more of those filthy Yahoos."
"Again, I'm willing to help." Burr stopped and saw, under the street lights several blocks ahead of him, the outline of a deformed pony. A flash of light flickered on the creature's horn, revealing her smiling face.
"You should't refuse the help of a friend," the unicorn grinned. "It will help you a lot someday."
Burr recognized who that unicorn was: she was the very same unicorn who used that strange pink fire to restrain him back in Equestria, and for this and the ridiculous antics of her herd she is never someone he could ever trust. With a stamp of his right forehoof and some dirt kicked unto her face, he turned away, but he was stopped by the same bright-eyed purple human that he encountered earlier.
"Trust me!" she cried. "I can help you, Burr, just as I saved your life!"
"I knew that it was you, Twilight Sparkle!" the Houyhnhnnm scolded. "You and your monstrous ponies always tried to keep me for some twisted purposes. Now what would they be?"
"To help you!" Twilight responded. Her eyes had been welling with tears. "All that we did in Equestria was for your own good, Burr. We're not the monsters that you think we are -- after all, we don't look like monsters, do we?"
When Burr turned again to get away from her, he found that he suddenly stopped. Something slowly turned his neck, and he saw that the human Twilight was raising her right arm, controlling his body with her magic with a serious glare. She brought the stubborn, irate Houyhnhnnm to look closely to her eyes.
"Burr, listen to me," she pleaded. "We'll find your friends, and solve your problems. I know how to -- "
Twilight got hit with a lump of green-blue slime, interrupting her talk and her magic and setting Burr free. Now that she has been reverted to being a unicorn, she turned behind and noticed that her back is starting to melt, like a lump of ice cream fried with a pan. Once she heard Burr's gallops, she struggled against her slithering body, as she gets reduced to an equine head sliding against the pavement. Even her horn has become a trail of lavender oil, to her horror.
"Burr!" the unicorn head wailed. "Come back! We nee-hee-heed you! Come baaaa -- Nooooooo ... !" Her sobs and her cries had sunk away into bubbling noises, and all the remained of Twilight was a purple splotch that stretched towards the startled Houyhnhnnm. He walked towards the puddle and sniffed its perfumed scent, as its substance mingled itself with the filthy waters on the road.
Burr heard footsteps, and he saw another Yahoo. His clothes are all as dark as the shadows around him and the white horse: his cowboy hat, his shirt, and his jeans blended with the darkness of the night. But underneath one of the streetlamps Burr can see that the Yahoo's skin has a sandy color.
"Who are you, new Yahoo?" the Houyhnhnnm asked. "At least you do not appear to be as those sickly Yahoos in this realm or Twilight in her weak disguise."
"You may call me 'Krastos'." The Yahoo loaded his gun. "My job here is to stop the crazy ponies from causing any harm. After so many years of struggling against the monsters of Discord's void," he muttered to himself.
"May you please explain?" the eavesdropping equine asked.
"Nothing," the Yahoo raised and shook his hand to refuse any further questions for the time being. "Anyways, your friends are heading towards a sort of ride into some tunnels, where they will get eaten by an enormous head."
This news shocked the Houyhnhnnm. "How can I get to the ride?" he asked. "I cannot afford any more trouble for this day!"
"Just go straight, and then turn to the right." Krastos gave his instructions, and the white horse sped off. "Thank you very much, gentle Krastos!" Burr whinnied, as he galloped into the darkness between the street lamps.
But as soon as Krastos thought that he could relax, the whole amusement park was bathed in moonlight (to the delight of the amusement park's guests from the moon's sheer beauty) that allowed him to see the alley's features more clearly. The clouds above him had scattered, as if something suddenly blew them away. Then he noticed that the purple puddle in front of him is glowing and bubbling. As it quickly receded and rose into its victim's shape, Krastos uncovered a dial on his left wrist and quickly pressed some buttons, and he vanished before Twilight could notice him. At first, she was still screaming from her bygone torment, until she realized that she has been restored.
"Twilight?" The purple pony turned around: although she recognized whoever who called her, she was still confused and troubled by her twisted turn of events.
"Princess Luna, is that you?" she asked back. "Who melted me?"
"Krastos just used a kind of slime that reduces ponies into more slime, and strangely enough, not even the most powerful magic spells can stop it." Luna appeared in front of her in the form of another Yahoo woman who wore a dress of dark blue and black. A cascade of shining blue hair flowed from her head. "For hunters like him, it was mainly used to capture ponies in darker places, but in your case he did so to stop you from retrieving Burr back to Equestria."
The purple unicorn thought for a while, and an idea flashed into her mind. "Maybe," she smirked and ruffled her wings, "if the Glue-Maker does that again, I'll call you or Princess Celestia for help!"
"Exactly. I have already said that hunters usually use the slime to catch ponies in darker places, because the sun's light and that of the moon negates the slime's powers."
"You must have been a nerd like me, Luna, for explaining so much," Twilight chuckled.
"I know a lot about Krastos and his poachers," Luna answered back. "Find Burr, and I will explain more in your adventure. Good luck!"
"I will." Twilight gave a little bow. "Oh, and thanks for saving me!" The amused blue Yahoo rubbed her mane and poked her nose, and she galloped away.
And so, she sniffed at the air for his horsey scent, and followed him, without forgetting to use her Yahoo-oid disguise first.