It was a sunny spring day in Equestria. The birds were singing and the flowers were blooming, swaying in a gentle breeze. Cottony clouds drifted lazily by, casting their shadows across the plains outside of Ponyville. All in all, it was a good day for a picnic, which is what Twilight Sparkle and her friends had settled on doing.
They had each chipped in for their outing. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had brought most of the food, while Applejack supplied the cider. Rarity had brought some plates and silverware for the occasion. Twilight had brought the blanket. Rainbow Dash had sheepishly brought the napkins.
"You picked a fine day for this, Twilight," Applejack said, raising her mug to her with a nod.
"I thought with everything that's been going on, we could use a breather and just hang out together. No problems, no worries," Twilight said. Each of her friends nodded in agreement.
"It does get pretty hard to get that kind of time with everything going on," Rainbow Dash remarked. "Like the Wonderbolts."
"And Sweet Feather Sanctuary," Fluttershy added softly, taking a bite out of her cupcake.
"And my boutiques," Rarity said.
"And Sugarcube Corner," Pinkie Pie chimed.
"And chores on the farm," Applejack said, nodding.
"Not to mention everything going on with the school. I hope Spike and Starlight can handle things while I'm gone," Twilight finished. To that, they could all agree. "I just hope nothing happens."
"Now Twilight, darling," Rarity interjected. Unnoticed by the others, Pinkie's tail began twitching, slowly at first but gaining speed. She tried her best to still it. "When one says that sort of thing, the opposite usually happens."
"I think they call it a jinx," Rainbow agreed. Pinkie was practically strangling her tail, and losing miserably in the fight to calm it.
"Um," Fluttershy muttered, noticing Pinkie's struggle.
"You might be right," Twilight huffed, taking a sip of cider. "We do make a lot of enemies in our line of work. Who knows what they could do?"
"Sugarcube, now I think you're just asking for it," Applejack said with a sigh.
Pinkie was rolling on the ground by now, muttering to her tail. Fluttershy blinked then turned to the others. "Um, what's going on with Pinkie's tail?" she asked them.
The other four ponies took notice, watching the titanic struggle Pinkie was having with her own tail in surprise. "Pinkie, what's going on?" Rainbow asked.
"Is it your Pinkie Sense again?" Twilight asked worriedly.
"I don't know!" Pinkie exclaimed over the struggle. She finally wrestled to an upright position so she was sitting on her own tail, but it was still vibrating like an earthquake. "If it is, it's never been this strong before!"
"Good heavens. What could possibly make it go off like that?" Rarity asked.
"I don't think I want to know..." Fluttershy muttered, cowering.
All of a sudden, an ominous wind whipped up, buffeting the ponies. Applejack had to hold onto her hat and Rainbow, who had been drifting above the conversation, was forced to land, lest she be blown away. A dark shadow fell upon them, and the sky seemed to turn pink.
Pinkie looked straight up and her ears drooped. "Guys, think I see the problem," she said. They all looked with her and gasped.
It was a massive machine, easily as big as a castle. The clouds blew away from it in a circle as it descended slowly. On the bottom, it had a shut aperture-like opening. The midsection was shaped similarly to an hourglass and was full of a glowing pink liquid. The top was a giant pink crystal in the shape of a heart. The machine was angled just a few yards away, allowing the ponies to back up and gawk at its size.
"What in Equestria is that?" Twilight asked.
"I was hoping you'd know," Applejack admitted. "You know more stuff than we do."
A shadowy figure appeared at the top of the crystal. They had a tall, skinny body, noodle limbs, a pair of pigtails and glowing pink eyes. She growled as she looked down on them.
"Hey!" she shouted down to them. "Do any of you know Steven Universe?"
The ponies looked between each other in surprise.
"No!" they each sounded out.
"I mean, the name sounds familiar, but no!" Pinkie called. Twilight smacked her forehead.
The figure growled, jumping down the strange machine and landing on the metal ring around the aperture opening at the bottom. Her appearance became more pronounced as she took in the ponies.
She had a pink complexion, magenta eyes, a small pointy nose, and magenta hair. She had three black lines underneath both of her eyes, reminiscent of running mascara. Her clothing consisted of a dark magenta top, puffy pointed hot pink sleeves, puffy magenta shorts, hot pink wrist-length gloves, white stockings and a pair of magenta knee-high pointy boots. In the center of her chest was a reddish-pink gemstone, cut in the style of an upside-down heart.
"Don't play games with me -- that's my job," she growled, jerking a thumb at herself. "Do you know Steven Universe or not?"
"Why do you want to find him?" Twilight asked with a frown. It was her friends' turn to smack their foreheads.
"Because I'm gonna kill him, that's what!" the being roared. "Him and his little friends. They get to be happy, get to see her till the end? Get to replace me? I don't think so! Not with the game I want to play with them."
"What is she talking about?" Applejack asked Twilight, who shrugged. This seemed to infuriate the strange being even more.
"Ya know what? Fine! I'll just take a practice run of what my Injector can do on this pathetic speck!" the being exclaimed. "That'll teach you for ruining my little game."
"Now see here! This is our home! Whatever quarrel you have with this...Steven Universe, it has nothing to do with us!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Yeah! And we won't let you hurt our world either!" Rainbow said, flapping defiantly into the air.
"Or we could just talk this all out..." Fluttershy muttered.
The being grinned. She held out her pinkie and expanded it out before coiling it into the shape of a horn. She blew into it and a resounding drone, like a foghorn, rang out. The machine seemed to come to life as the being righted her finger again.
A drill tip extended out of the aperture bottom of the machine. The being hopped down as the ring she was standing on began to spin, uncoiling into three mechanical legs. The spiral line of the drill glowed pink as the machine lowered to the ground. The ponies retreated.
The three legs stabbed into the ground, causing a small earthquake. Supported on the legs, the drill spun into the ground. The pink spiral line of the drill made a flowing sound and a few air bubbles rose to the surface in the container of pink liquid. The being grinned malevolently as she stalked towards the ponies, towering over them.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Twilight demanded, her horn glowing.
"I'm gonna do to your world what I want to do to him," the being said. "I'm gonna kill it."
"Not if we have anything to say about it," Applejack said, standing tall.
"Oh really? And what are a bunch of four-legged, multi-colored shrimps like you going to do about it?" the being said smugly, hands on her hips.
"I'll show you!" Rainbow shouted, charging at her at full speed.
"Rainbow Dash, be careful!" Twilight called.
The being just snickered. She enlarged her hands greatly and simply clamped them onto Rainbow, snatching her out of the air. She brought the squirming Pegasus up close.
"So, you gotta go fast, huh?" she asked with a manic grin. "Well, allow me!"
She rapidly began to spin her body around, her neck seemingly disjointed from it as she watched the other ponies' shocked expressions with delight.
"Whoa! Whoa! Let! Me! Go!" Rainbow shouted to the being in intervals.
"My pleasure," the being said darkly. All at once, she stopped abruptly and threw Rainbow Dash like a baseball pitch. The Pegasus turned into a blue blur trailing a rainbow streak and crashed into the canopy of a distant tree. Fluttershy gasped and quickly flew over to help her injured friend. The others turned to the being, who returned her hands to normal.
"Lady, I don't know who you are, but nobody lobs my friends like some buckball," Applejack said with a nostril flare. She tipped her cowboy hat forward, pawed at the ground, and charged the being herself.
The being laughed. "Oh, I'm so scared," she said mockingly.
At the end of her charge, Applejack abruptly turned about face and flew backwards with her hind legs extended. The being was caught square in the middle and flew back until she crashed against one of the legs of her machine with an audible "oof," slumping to the ground slowly.
Applejack turned to her and adjusted her cowboy hat with a satisfied smirk. "Had enough tree buckin'?" she asked.
The being got to her feet, her eyes shadowed. Then she broke out into a large grin and started to laugh. Applejack jumped, backing up a step.
"Oh, you actually thought that could hurt me? How pathetic," the being mocked. Her grin turned sinister, she held up one leg, extended it out and coiled it like a spring, and proceeded to inflate her boot to three times Applejack's size. "Here's how you really kick!"
"Oh dang," Applejack muttered, her ears drooping.
Like a cannonball, the being's leg shot forward and with a mighty and resounding “pow,” socked Applejack square in the face. The others jumped out of the way of the orange blur as it sped to the tree Fluttershy had just helped a battered Rainbow Dash out of. Applejack hit them in a large cloud of dust, and they turned into a dazed pile against the base of the tree.
“Applejack! Fluttershy!” Twilight called after her, before turning to the being with a growl.
The being smugly stepped forward after righting her foot. "If that's all you got, then this little test run shouldn't take long at-" She was abruptly cut off as her right foot and hand were encased in a purple aura and her left hand and foot were encased in a light blue aura. With some effort from Twilight and Rarity, they lifted the struggling being into the air, though the latter was struggling herself.
"Hah! Not so smug now are you?" Twilight asked. "Nothing more to say?"
"Yeah, actually, I got one thing," the being said. To Twilight's horror, the being extended her neck so her head slithered over to Twilight like a snake. Her voice lowered to a sinister level once they were face to face. "You should've gone for my head too."
The being used her own head to smack Twilight across the face. It only made the allicorn stumble, but it was enough to break her concentration from her magic and free the being's right half.
With a sinister grin she inflated her right hand and slithered it over to Rarity. She had her eyes shut tightly in concentration, but when she felt the shadow loom over her, she opened her eyes, and they quickly widened in horror. The being's inflated hand was poised to flick her away.
"You wouldn't dare," Rarity said hoarsely. The being answered her simply by flicking her in the chin and launching her skyward, fully freeing herself from Rarity's magic.
Rather than retaliate, Twilight quickly ran after her skyward friend, keeping one leery eye on the being as she fixed her hand. She barely caught Rarity with her magic, and the force of her descent sent her crashing into Twilight. They too wound up in a dazed pile on the ground.
All that was left was Pinkie Pie, who stepped up to the being bravely. The being seemed to be displeased at the fact.
"It's always the pink ones," the being muttered. "They're always making me the butt of the joke. So you know what? I'm gonna do my second test run. Just. On. You."
The being reached to her gemstone, which glowed briefly as she removed something: a magenta cylinder, looking like some sort of handle with a button on the side of it.
"I take it that's not supposed to be some sort of party favor?" Pinkie asked with a nervous grin.
The being chuckled. "Maybe not for you, but it'll sure be a party for me," she replied. She wound back an arm and shot a stretched punch at Pinkie with her other hand.
The pink pony leaped over it with her forward hooves and flew at the being with her rear hooves poised ready to strike in kung fu fashion. The being simply swatted her aside with the back of her extended hand as it retracted back.
Pinkie landed hoof-first on the side of one of the drill's mechanical legs and flipped herself back upright on her rear hooves. She struck a kung fu pose with one leg in the air and her front legs out from her sides.
"Oh, real cute," the being grumbled. She pressed the button on the handle with her thumb. The top of the cylinder extended into a pole with a crystal tip. A long scythe blade made of electrical pink energy took form, with a square-like edge on the other side shaped like a pair of fangs. The being grinned as she gripped it in both hands. Pinkie gulped.
"Don't suppose we could talk about this, could we?" she asked the being with a nervous chuckle.
"Sure, let's talk," the being said sarcastically, charging Pinkie with the scythe in hand.
Pinkie quickly backed up as the being twirled the scythe in one hand before slashing it diagonally at her. Pinkie narrowly dodged it by leaping out of the way, but quickly found more sweeping slashes headed her way. She dodged this way and that, usually leaping and bounding on a single hoof to do so.
"Hold still, shrimp," the being growled. As she raised the scythe to strike once again, she found it wouldn't budge - the entire pole was encased in a purple aura.
A battered but still standing Twilight approached, teeth grit. "Get away from her!" she demanded. She yanked at the scythe with her magic, but the being held firm.
"You keep out of this," the being said. She stood on one leg, coiled her other leg up, and shot her foot at Twilight, this time not enlarged. Pinkie dove in and managed to catch hold of the foot with an "oof." She began pulling on the leg to prevent it from attacking Twilight.
"You got this, Twilight," she said, holding on for dear life as the being tried to dislodge her like a bucking bull to its rider.
"Get off me!" the being roared, hobbling around on one foot as she was being jerked in two directions.
Twilight growled and pulled harder and harder on the scythe pole. The glow on her horn intensified and she jerked her head back. With a mighty tug, the scythe was pulled out of the being's hands. She was too startled to respond.
"Stay away from my friends!" Twilight bellowed.
Under normal circumstances, Twilight would've cast the weapon aside or broken it. Whether it was watching her friends get tossed around like rag dolls, or the pain in her head from getting knocked around herself, she didn't know. All she vaguely knew was: she was swinging with her magic, which still held the scythe.
She opened her eyes when she heard Pinkie gasp. The being was standing there, an unreadable look on her face. There was a glowing pink line going from her left shoulder diagonally through her middle clear to her right side. Then she began to laugh as her new upper half slid down, revealing a pink glow instead of innards, and she exploded into a cloud of pink smoke, even the foot in Pinkie’s grasp.
All that was left behind was the red gemstone that had been on the being's chest, which landed on the ground with a soft thud in the suddenly still air.