//------------------------------// // 04: Elsewhere // Story: Crashlander // by MasterKusojs //------------------------------// Crashlander Chapter Four: Elsewhere ----- Pinkie Pie had been busy all day. First she had to get up early so she could help Mr. and Mrs. Cake bake all the treats they were going to sell that day. Sure, a lot of ponies would grumble if they had to get up when it was still dark, but this way Pinkie got to see the sunrise every day, and especially the smiles of the people who came early for something sweet to start of their day, which were even brighter. After all, everypony in Ponyville was Pinkie’s friend, and Pinkie loved to see her friends smile. But today, something had been distracting her. Shortly before her lunch break, she heard customers talking about something falling in the Everfree Forest. Pinkie paid it no mind, but then something started niggling at her scalp—her Pinkie Sense was acting up again, but she had no idea what this feeling meant. Then, just before closing time, an explosion sounded far off. Pinkie wasn’t about to walk out on the Cakes, but she was itching to see what had caused it. Why was it that when you wanted something more, the second hand on a clock turned into the minute hand, and the minute hand turned into the hour hand, and the hour hand may as well have been the day hand? Not that clocks normally had a day hand. As it was, the minute hand (cleverly imitating the hour hand) slowly crawled to closing time. Almost before the permission to leave was out of Mrs. Cake’s mouth, Pinkie had dashed out the door and was bouncing down the street. As she passed the Carousel Boutique, she spotted the baby dragon Spike heaving a full garbage bag out to Rarity’s bins. He was grunting with effort, but waved when he noticed Pinkie hopping by. “Hey, Pinkie!” he called. “How’s it going?” “Just great!” Pinkie beamed and came to a stop next to him. “Hey, have you seen Twilight?” “She went to Fluttershy’s a few hours ago, but I haven’t seen her since. Why?” “Just wondering!” Pinkie beamed and continued to where her Itchy Scalp led her, along the edge of the Everfree Forest until she stumbled upon a handful of other ponies standing near a wide, deep black crater in the ground where a hill used to be. She remembered there was a hill there because that was where she and her bestest friends had held their “Listen to Twilight talk about the constellations” party a month before, but there was certainly no crater there. “What’s this?” Pinkie asked the nearest pony she found, who by an alarming chance happened to be Mayor Mare. The Mayor shrugged hopelessly and gestured at the other ponies. “Your guess is as good as mine, Pinkie,” the Mayor said. “A few ponies heard an explosion, but when they got here, this is all they found.” Pinkie “hmm’ed” for such a long time that the Mayor started to wonder how she was breathing. “You haven’t seen Twilight, have you?” Pinkie finally asked. Mayor Mare shook her head. “Thanks anyway. Bye!” With that, Pinkie bounced away. She would have hopped all the way back to Sugarcube Corner had her finely-tuned detective instincts not spotted a set of hoof-shaped tracks in the grass that she would never have found if those same instincts had not sent her tripping over her own hooves and landed her nose right in the middle of one. Pinkie sprung back up and stared at the tracks intently. She could make out two sets of pony hooves, and one set of longer, flatter tracks—well, half a set. It wasn’t like it could walk on two legs. Unless it was a bird! Or a dragon like Spike! Pinkie beamed to herself at her brilliant deduction and looked around her carefully. Without anything else planned for the day, she decided to follow the tracks and see where they ended. ----- Applejack had been busy all day. She woke at the crack of dawn, and after a quick breakfast and making sure Applebloom headed off for school, she and Big Mac got to work on the farm. After a hard morning of chores, they had a break for lunch, and then got back to work for the rest of the day. Almost as soon as she had finished her work, she heard a faint explosion and craned her neck towards the Everfree forest, where she saw a plume of smoke and dust rise like an oversized mushroom. “Hey Big Mac,” she said to her brother. “I’m gonna go see what that was.” The thought that she should worry more about the farm crossed her mind, but what kind of pony would she be if she didn’t make sure somepony wasn’t hurt? ----- Rainbow Dash had been busy all day. She had to wake up early—ten o’clock!—to get to work. They had a storm scheduled for that evening, and Rainbow had to work double-time to get all the clouds positioned and still have time to work on her stunts. She had perfected her Super Speed Strut, but the Spectral Corkscrew was going to need a lot more work before it was ready for the Wonderbolts. The same with her Lazy Backstroke, though that was a pretty awesome trick—of course it would take a lot of practice to get it just right before showing it to the best fliers of all Equestria. Her duties had kept her far away from the Everfree forest, and her eagerness to practice kept her focused only on her next trick. It was late in the afternoon when she was taking a well-deserved nap on a particularly fluffy cloud. She had just gotten to sleep when the bass boom of some explosion jarred her awake. “Ugh!” she grunted. “Can’t a mare get any sleep around here!?” Growling in frustration, she stuffed wads of cloud in her ears to act as plugs, and buried her face as deep into the cloud as she could without poking out the bottom of it. ----- Rarity had been busy all day. She had to finish three separate orders for very particular customers that completely drained her stock of gems. She would have to spend all of tomorrow and possibly the next day hunting for more. Perhaps that darling little Spike would help her like the last few times. He was always eager to help her, and that crush of his was just adorable! Rarity wondered if she was being a tease by not acknowledging it, then decided that if he was willing to do those favors for her, who was she to argue? It’s not like she was taking advantage of him. The little dragon was always well-compensated with first pick of the collected gems, though she did have to remind him to leave enough for her to practice her Art. Today, however, the little dear was being so helpful at her Boutique by helping her clean up the scraps that were too small to do anything with, along with the other refuse a lady produced as a side-effect of living and working in modern times. Rarity glanced out the window and saw Spike talking with Pinkie Pie outside. There was a pony that grated on the nerves. Rarity loved a good soiree as much as anypony, but such things were meant to have class and decorum—a sort of modest grace. Pinkie’s attitude was to have things be as loud and raucous as equinely possible, with garish colors and thumping electronic music. Rarity would take a nice dinner party with soft classics in the background any day. “I took the trash out, Rarity,” Spike said as he entered the Boutique. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” “Hmm? Oh, thank you ever so much, Spike,” Rarity said with a slight smile. Seeing him gush over her filled her with a guilty pride. “I daresay I’ve taken up enough of your time, though. Why don’t you run along? I’m sure you have better things to do than cater to little old me.” “Gosh, no,” Spike said, a dreamy look in his eyes. Rarity had to restrain a giggle at his expense. “I mean, Twilight went over to Fluttershy’s earlier, so I don’t need to do anything at the—oh! I completely forgot! I need to go get some more food for Peewee!” “You’d better go, then. It wouldn’t do to let your first pet go hungry,” Rarity smiled and opened the door with her magic. Spike rushed past, but she was still able to brush her silky tail over his side. He stumbled as his legs turned to jelly for a moment, and he cast a longing glance back as he rushed down to the market. Rarity’s elegant smile turned to a self-satisfied smirk as she closed her door and flipped her sign to “closed.” Rarity could live with being a tease if it left her feeling this good about herself. ----- Spike burst through the door of the library, a heavy bag of feed almost bigger than he was nearly sending him crashing to the floor. “I’m back, Peewee!” he shouted as he flipped the door closed with his tail. “I got that new food you really liked last time.” Silence was the only response. Spike dropped the bag of feed and looked at Peewee’s perch only to find it empty. “Peewee? Where are you, buddy?” Not in the main room. Not in the kitchen, or any in the upstairs rooms. The tiny phoenix chick wasn’t anywhere in the building. This was terrible! Peewee was Spike’s first pet—what would Twilight say if she found out he had lost the little guy? She might never let him eat ice cream again! No. No, this was more important than ice cream. Fluttershy was good with animals—maybe she’d be able to help! “Hang on, Peewee! Poppa’s coming!”