"Rainbow Dash? Hello? Earth to Rainbow Dash?"
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow as she hovered on a cloud next to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash had been giving her flight lessons lately, after overhearing an incident involving some other fillies picking on Scootaloo. They'd been practicing in the skies just outside Ponyville, where nopony would be able to bother them. Things had been going great, until about five seconds ago. One moment Dash had been giving Scootaloo critical flying advice, and then the next moment she went dead silent. Her eyes were very wide and distant, and she was just staring blankly down at the ground below them.
Scootaloo looked over at Tank. The rugged little turtle was hovering on the cloud next to Rainbow Dash, wearing a pair of goggles and a small rotary flight harness. His eyes had a look of concern in them at mirror Scootaloo's.
"Um... Dash?" Scootaloo asked again. This time, she actually raised a hoof and gently poked her hero's shoulder.
"Bwuh?!" Dash recoiled slightly, clearly startled. She then began to look around frantically. "Ah, wait, what?"
"Woah, I'm sorry!" Scootaloo hovered back a bit. "Are you okay?"
Tank nodded, non-verbally echoing the filly's concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Dash shook her head. "I'm just... uh... I think I might be going insane," she said with a sheepish smile.
Scootaloo tilted her head to the side. "Insane? Why would you be going insane?"
Dash smirked, and dismissively waved a hoof. "Oh, when I looked down a second ago, I thought I saw a velociraptor."
Scootaloo chuckled. "A velociraptor? You mean like the big lizard?"
"Yeah," Dash grinned. "Pretty silly, right? My mind must be playing tricks on me, since dinosaurs are extinct and all that jazz. Oxygen deprivation from flying too high, or something like that..." she observed playfully. "I mean, there's no way-" Dash leaned over to look down off the cloud again, and froze. Her eyes went wide, and her pupils shrank. After a few seconds, she flatly stated: "Okay yeah that's a velociraptor."
"What?!" Scootaloo squawked, before darting over to the edge of the cloud. "Where?!" Tank also hovered over the edge of the cloud, and peeked down at the earth below. In unison, Tank and Scootaloo's jaws both dropped open in shock.
Less than a hundred feet below, Pinkie Pie was hopping along the road back into Ponyville. And hopping along beside her was a dinosaur, of the velociraptor variety.
"Is... what... I... huh?" Scootaloo babbled softly.
"Yeah, uh... I have no idea..." Dash muttered.
Tank just stared in silence.
The blue pegasus suddenly shook her head. "Wait, what am I doing?! I need to rescue Pinkie!" she exclaimed. "Tank, Scootaloo, stay here! No matter what, don't leave this cloud!"
"But Dash-" Scootaloo tried to protest, but was cut off with a harsh glare.
"No matter what!" Dash barked. And with that, she leaped off the cloud and went into a nose dive.
Her intention had been to drop kick the raptor while descending at terminal velocity. She didn't know if that would be enough to save Pinkie, but it would at least buy her friend some time to escape. No matter the cost, she couldn't let her friend get eaten. As she neared her target, Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and let out a feral growl. The distance between her and the raptor was closing rapidly. Impact was imminent.
And then Pinkie suddenly hopped up in front of the raptor and grinned widely up at Rainbow Dash. "Oh hey Rainbow!" she cheerfully chimed. "Meet Utah!"
The blue pegasus let out a surprised yelp, and tried to put on the brakes. Flapping her wings frantically, she attempted to slow her fall. Through sheer force of will, she managed to skid to a halt just inches from Pinkie. Her wings ached something fierce from the effort, but it was better than a breakneck collision. "Gah..." the cyan mare let out a sigh of relief. She then looked down at the pink pony she was hovering just in front of. "Wait, what?! This thing has a name!?"
The raptor glared at her. He was not a thing, he was Utah.
"He's not a thing, he's a sentient raptor who gained self-awareness through my awesome cupcakes!" Pinkie happily explained. Dash and Utah both stared at her, and the madness of what she'd just said. "Oh, and yeah, his name is Utah."
Dash slowly looked back and forth between Pinkie and the raptor. "So... let me get this straight... You... You tamed a raptor?" she asked, incredulous.
"Well I dunno if tamed is the right word," Pinkie replied thoughtfully. She looked over at Utah. "Pacified, perhaps?" Utah just shrugged.
Dash crossed her forelegs and rolled her eyes. "Close enough."
"What do ya think?" Pinkie asked with a cheerful grin. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Dash turned her gaze towards the dinosaur. She began to look him over, examining him from head to tail. "Hmmmm..." she pondered, tapping thoughtfully at her chin with her right hoof. She narrowed her eyes as she heavily scrutinized the reptile. "I think..."
"Yes...?" Pinkie smiled.
"I think..."
"Yessssssss?" Pinkie's smile widened.
"I THINK HE'S TOTALLY AWESOME!!" Dash exclaimed loudly, suddenly flying a quick circle around the confused raptor. "Seriously, he's a RAPTOR!! A freaking dinosaur! Look at those scales, those claws, that sleek build aerodynamic build..."
Utah turned his head from side to side, trying to keep up with the exuberant pegasus as she flew around him.
"But," Dash paused, "He's not as cool as Tank," she stated with a confident smirk.
"Pffft, well of course you're going to think Tank is cooler," Pinkie waved a hoof playfully.
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash?" the voice of Scootaloo suddenly called down from the sky. "Can we come down now?"
Dash looked up at the cloud where the filly and turtle were hiding. Both of their faces were peeking curiously over the silver-lined edge of the clowd. "Oh, yeah, sure," she casually replied, before waving for them to come on down. "He's harmless." Dash paused for a moment, before looking over at Pinkie and raising an eyebrow. "He is harmless, right?"
Pinkie grinned. "Oh of course! He's totally harmless, unless you're a cupcake."
Dash flashed a lopsided grin. "Oh, well, glad I'm not a cupcake then."
A low mechanical buzz heralded the arrival of Tank, who hovered in via his miniature helicopter harness. Scootaloo flew in beside him, and both of them took up a position on either side of Rainbow Dash. "Wooooaaaah..." Scootaloo said, her eyes widening as she took in the full sight of the velociraptor. "That's.... that's a real raptor!"
Utah tilted his head to the side. Why did everyone react like that? He looked over at the turtle. Tank was staring at him, but not in the awe-struck stunned way like everyone else. If anything, the turtle's expression was one of blank indifference. It seemed he was just staring because he stared naturally.
While Utah and Tank stared at each other, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash turned their attention back to Pinkie. "So where did you find him?" Scootaloo asked.
"Oh, I found him in the Everfree Forest," Pinkie replied cheerfully. "I was just hopping along, and-"
Utah wasn't listening to Pinkie. His attention was entirely on the turtle. There was something odd about it. Something odd about its stare. It wasn't a blank empty stare like most animals had, but rather it possessed depth and meaning and... understanding. Staring into the turtle's eyes was like staring into the eyes of one who possessed the wisdom of the ancients.
The turtle suddenly let out a small squawk. Utah stared for a moment, and then let out a series of low squawks in response.
Dash, Pinkie, and Scootaloo immediately stopped talking, and turned to stare at the two reptiles. "Wait, did Tank just make a noise?" Dash asked, thoroughly confused. "He never makes noise!"
"I think they're talking to each other..." Scootaloo theorized.
"Yeah, I've heard that turtles can chirp and growl and stuff," Pinkie happily informed Dash. "So, anyway, where were we?"
"Something about cupcakes?" Dash arched an eyebrow.
While the three ponies went back to their conversation, Tank and Utah began to have one of their own. The turtle would make small squeaks and growls, while Utah would chirp and growl and squawk replies. Somehow, the two reptiles seemed to be able to communicate. As they conversed, Utah made a few gestures at the contraption on Tank's back. Eventually, a smile formed on both reptiles' faces.
"So then we went by Applejack's farm, and Utah went in to say hi," Pinkie said.
Dash chuckled. "So how did AJ respond to the big reptile stomping around her house?"
"Oh, I heard lots of screams. They must have been so excited!" the pink pony grinned.
Dash and Scootaloo both shared worried looks. "Uh..." Scootaloo frowned. "Are you sure those were screams of happiness?"
"Of course, who wouldn't be happy to see Utah?" Pinkie naively replied.
The two pegasus shared looks again. Dash then turned back to Pinkie and observed: "A lot of ponies. Most ponies, in fact. Well, except Fluttershy. She might be happy to see him, teeth and talons aside. I mean, she wasn't afraid of that manticore, and-"
"You're right, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie suddenly exclaimed. "I should totally take Utah to visit Fluttershy next!"
Dash blinked. "Wait, I didn't really mean-"
It was then that Tank slowly crawled up between the trio of equines. Immediately, Dash noticed something was wrong. "Uh, Tank, where's your harness?" the blue pegasus asked. "And your goggles?"
Tank just smiled.
And a split-second later, the dinosaur equivalent of insane laughter echoed through the skies overhead. The three ponies all looked up, and beheld the glorious sight of a raptor in flight. Utah had somehow managed to don Tank's flight harness, and the small rotor blade was positioned right on his rump. The raptor had also put on Tank's goggles. With a series of cheerful barks, it began to fly circles around the clouds, its lower body raised higher than its upper body in true comedic fashion.
Dash and Scootaloo stared in shock, eyes wide and jaws dropped. Tank just smiled. And Pinkie did the only reasonable thing she could think of.
She pulled an old phonograph from behind her back, cranked it up to max volume, and put on a recording of Flight of Valkyries.