Taking back Ponyville
"Be quiet on your approach, girls!" Pinkie Pie told the others. "We can't let them know we're coming!"
The five mares snuck stealthily up on the 'new' Ponyville, trying their best to remain undetected. But when they all saw what their beloved town had become, they couldn't help but react.
"Oh no! This place looks terrible!" Skywishes cried softly. "Is that house a... giant gumball machine!?!"
"That's nothing! -tweet-!" Look at those houses over there!" Thistle pointed with her hoof. "They look like two giant -tweet!- desserts!"
"And the whole town has been scaled down to diminutive size!" Razaroo added. "Oh, this is awful! Yes yes yes!"
"Ohhhh, I'm gonna fix those bait ponies good, for what they did to our home!" Sunny Daze snarled, smacking her hooves together.
"We need to be careful though." Kimono cautioned them. "We'll need to take out any baits who see us!"
Pinkie Pie led the team in, replacing the now-lost Starcatcher. Thistle had agreed to accompany them, trying to supress her grief over the loss of all the other Pegasus.
The pink mare motioned the other ponies forward, leading them down toward a house that resembled a large popcorn box. It was then that a bait resembling Toola Roola came around the corner, and her eyes went wide at the sight of the regular ponies.
"Oh no! She's seen us!" Pinkie Pie squeaked. "Razaroo, take her out!"
As the bait Toola tried to gallop away, the party pony jumped in front of her with a large gift box.
"I have a present for you! Yes yes yes!" Razaroo turned the gift box towards Toola, and popped the lid off. A large explosion roared out of the box, blasting the tiny bait into shining magical shards.
"Huh, your fireworks surprise box from the last Summer nights festival!" Pinkie Pie nodded admiringly. "Good one, Razz!"
The noise of the explosion brought three more baits- Starsong, Pinkie Pie, and Cheerilee duplicates. The three stared down the real ponies, hungry looks in their eyes.
"Hi I'm Pinkie Pie!" The pink bait told them. "Wanna have a party?"
"Ugh! I am not the Party planning pony!" The real Pinkie Pie snorted. "That's Razz and Fiesta's thing, not mine!"
The three baits charged them each going after a diffrent pony. Thistle took off into the air, as bait Starsong took flight in hot pursuit. Cheerilee lunged at Sunny Daze, her fangs going straight for the mare's throat. Pinkie Pie and Bait Pinkie started circling each other, each looking for an opening.
"Razz, Skywishes! Make for the center of town!" Pinkie yelled back to them. "See if you can help the others!"
"Got it!" the two yelled back, before galloping off.
"Get off my tail -tweet!- you creepy construct!" Thistle cried out. The little monster followed her through every loop and curve she took.
"Be sure to strap yourself into the ride!" Bait Starsong replied gleefully. "In case of a disastrous crash!"
As she looked back at her pursuer, Thistle noticed the bait was just a little slower on turns than she was.
"Hey you little -tweet!- freak!" The blue Pegasus zipped ahead. "Bet you can't catch -tweet!- me!"
The other flying pony dove straight at her, and Thistle flew straight at the ground, veering off at the last second. The slightly slower Starsong bait was unable to make the turn, and smashed hard into the ground wth a mighty crash.
"That's for taking me friends away from me -tweet!-" The blue Pegasus yelled defiantly, as the bait was smashed into a thousand pieces.
Sunny Daze jumped out of the way of bait Cheerilee's fangs, and swung her hoof at the little terror.
"I'm gonna break you, you little freak!" Sunny told the little terror. "You'll pay for what you did to our home!"
Sunny kept charging at the little monster, who kept jumping out of the way. After several minutes of the little game of tag, Sunny finally stopped, and horse-kicked the spot where bait Cheerilee was going to be. The idiotic bait fell right into the trap, and shattered into a thousand crackly pieces at Sunny's kick.
"All right!" Sunny exclaimed, doing a pony air guitar for her victory. "Surf's up... and you're out!"
Pinkie Pie smirked at her tiny double. "Seems you baits really aren't that smart, are you? All you can do is follow programming!"
"Always remember to eat your vegetables, foals!" Bait pinkie exclaimed. "They're good for your brain!"
The bait launched several exploding balloons at Pinkie, who barely dodged the tiny pink bursts. Reaching into the satchel she had brought with her, and pulled out a few water balloons she had packed.
"That won't do you girls any good!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, chucking the balloons at the bait. "Cause you never had any brains to begin with!"
The balloons, filled with an anti magic solvent the unicorns had given her, hit the Pinkie bait. Animated and driven by magic, the solvent dissolved the little freak like acid.
"Hm, looks like you're not waterproof, either." The real Pinkie Pie noted.
...
"Blimey, keep it moving, girls!" Puzzlemint yelled at the four ponies on her team. "Those baits have caught sight of us, after all!"
The five ponies fled in terror from the four baits who were chasing them through the streets; duplicates of Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, and Flitter Flutter, the former mayor of Ponyville.
"These things are relentless!" Kimono gasped, trying to keep ahead of the baits. "I feel like my hooves are gonna break!"
"Well, dis wouldn't have happened, if Minty hadn't stuck her head into dat open door of dat balloon-shaped house!" Fiesta gasped. "Muy Estupido, Seniorita!
"I'm sorry, girls!" Minty cried, as one of the baits snapped at her tail. "I just got curious is all!"
"Curiosity killed the pony, Minty!" Puzzlemint called back to her. "Now hush up and KEEP RUNNING!"
After there third lap around town, the blue fashion mare had finally had enough!
"That is enough, darlings!" Rainbow Dash finally declared, stopping dead in her tracks. "I'm going to give that fake me what for!"
The rainbow-haired mare turned to face her bait duplicate, who stopped right in front of her.
"Hi, I'm Rainbow Dash, and I always dress in style!"
"No... no you do not dress in style!" Rainbow Dash spat angrily. "Your hairstyle is immature, your shoes are tacky, that hat doesn't go with your mane color at all, and are those fake eyelashes you're wearing?" She got up in the miniature Dash's face. "I am Rainbow Dash, I am Ponyville's fashionista, and you are nothing but a TASTELESS BORE, WITH NO SENSE OF STYLE!"
The bait pony stared at her for a few moments, blinked, then burst into tears crying- before finally exploding into a thousand pieces.
"And that was the latest explosion in fashion, darling!" Rainbow Dash quipped, batting her eyelashes.
"Turning thier programming back on them... very clever, Dash." Kimono said thoughtfully. "Hey! Small impostor Sweetie Bell! A question for you!"
The bait Sweetie stopped dead in her tracks, while Kimono activated the illusion spell one of the unicorns had infused into her charm bracelet.
"I hope this works..." Kimono took a deep breath...
Suddenly, Kimono was standing there in an actual kimono, her mane up in a bun. Rose petals fell all around her, as a kabuki drum played in the background.
"If the deaf pony does stamp her hoof on the soft sand, but there is no other pony around to hear it, does it make a noise?" Kimono opened a paper fan and held it in front of her face. "And furthermore, could the noise even be considered a noise, if no pony is there to perceive it?"
The complex philosophical quandary was too much for the Bait Sweetie's programming, and caused her to shudder and explode.
"Hm, it appears I blew young Sweetie Bell's mind." Kimono fanned herself, as the illusion vanished.
"Blimey, those enchantments the unicorns put into our gear are really paying off!" Puzzlemint pulled her magnifying glass out, and held it up to the light. "I wonder if..."
The light shown though the magnifying lens, creating a focused beam. The bait Scootaloo ran right into the laser, and began to shake and sputter, before exploding. The beam in the lens then returned to normal.
"Huh, it seems a unicorn's magical charge lasts only a few seconds." Puzzemint sighed. "What a pity!"
Fiesta Flair faced down the bait Flitter Flutter, who was getting ready to charge at her.
"Oy! You might look like de mare who was Ponyville's mayor when we were foals, seniorita, but you're not her!" Fiesta said in a mocking tone. "You way more scatterbrained!"
The bait mayor snorted angrily, and got ready to charge at the other pony. Fiesta pulled out a red cloth, and waved it in front of the bait Flitter Flutter. "Toro! Toro! Hey seniorita mayor! I'm voting for de other guy!"
The bait mare changed at the waving red cloth, and Fiesta pulled the cloth out of the way... to reveal the wall of a building behind her. Not looking where it was going, the little monster ran straight into the wall, smashing itself into a thousand pieces.
"Ole!" Fiesta yelled in triumph, a wide grin on her face.
....
It was long before Razaroo and and Skywishes made it to the center of town, where they ran into Minty, who had run ahead of her group, as well.
"Minty? What are you doing here?" Skywishes asked, looking around. "Where's the rest of your team?"
"They kind of got caught up with some baits!" Minty whinnied. "They told me to go on ahead!"
"Us too!" Razaroo replied. "Our group is busy fighting the little monsters too, yes yes yes!"
"Can you believe what those monsters did to our town?" Minty lamented, looking around at the now-vacant spot. "How could they just thoughtlessly tear down something that pretty!"
"We've got worse problems to worry about, yes yes yes!" Razaroo pointed her hoof skyward. "Look!"
Over their heads, the vast cracks along the dome finally gave way, shattering the artificial barrier into a million pieces. The ponies were blinded for a few moments, while their eyes adjusted to the light of the true sun.
"Ow! That hurts!" Minty cried out, squinting her eyes.
"Uh oh, girls!" Skywishes whinnied. "We've got company!"
The ground beneath the square suddenly opened up, revealing a large swirling vortex of magic. Twinkle Wish rose from the miasma, and stared down at the three ponies in front of it.
"PONIES HAVE DEFEATED BAITS, BARRIER DESTROYED!" The large star began to emit a bright glowing light. "AMUSMENT PARK TOTALLY COMPRIMISED... INITATING SELF DESTRUCT!"
Uh oh... "Minty whinnied in a worried tone. "That can't be good!"
The star continued to shake and vibrate... until both a stream of fire and a cold blast hit the star from above.
"Take that, you overgrown light bulb!" Spike called out from the sky, as he rode on Whismsy Weatherby's back. The two's draconic breath kept the star frozen in place, but couldn't seem to crack open the star's outer casing.
"DRACONIC BREATH... DISRUPTING PROGRAMMING!" The star called out, shaking and quaking as it floated in place.
"They won't be able to hold it forever!" Razaroo cried out. "When they tire, it'll follow it's programming and explode! Yes yes yes!"
"This must be what's powering it." Minty looked down, and saw the vortex of magic that it had risen from. "Wow, this stuff looks really nasty!"
"It would take something disrupting the magic, to cut Twinkle wish off from it's power source..." Skywishes added, her voice trailing off. She then thought about how she had betrayed her friends.. and how easily they had forgiven her. That, Skywishes realized, was what friendship was all about.
She then looked up at her friend. "Minty...do you know what I wish for most?"
"W-what is that?" Minty asked, suddenly getting a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"For you and all of the rest of my friends to live happy." Skywishes replied, stepping up to the edge of the vortex. "Goodbye, Minty."
"Skywishes, NO!" Minty rushed forward, but it was too late. The brave mare dove straight into the vortex, and was atomized in an instant.
"P-OWER...FAIL-ING!" Twinkle Wish sputtered out. "S-WITCHING TO BACKUP RES-ERVES!"
"SKYWISHESSSS!" Razaroo wailed, as the vortex evaporated from being disrupted. Beneath where the dark energy had been swirling, a large panel filled with several gemstones lay, each of the gems glowing with a bright light.
"Those must be the backup power." Razz sobbed, distraught by what had just happened. "Yes...yes..yes.."
Minty looked down at the panel, then looked back up at Razaroo for a second. "Razz, get clear."
"Minty, no!" She cried hysterically, tears streaming down her face. "We just lost Skywishes, you can't-"
"RAZZ, GET CLEAR!" Minty screamed, practically shoving her friend away. As Razaroo galloped away from the hole, Minty turned around and dived in.
"My whole life, I've been a klutzy and clumsy pony...always breaking stuff and messing things up!" Minty sobbed, as she began to smash all of the crystals with her hoof. "So what can I do to save everybody? MESS...STUFF...UP!"
"POWER FAILURE.... POWER FAilure...."
Twinkle Wish suddenly dropped from the sky, and fell back into the hole it emerged from, exploding in a blast of smoke and fire. Razaroo, who had run clear of the blast, galloped back up towards the pit, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"MIIIIIINNNTTYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!...."
Somewhere in Ponyville, the explosion knocked a music box from years before off a shelf. The lid accidentally knocked open, it began to play a soft and low melody.
"And that's what I love a-bout Christ-mas..."