“Uhm, yeah I have to deliver these packages but the road doesn’t have a 123.” Derpy lamented.
Rivet brought a hoof to his mouth to stiffen a laugh. “Of course there isn’t, 123 Apple street is in the Twilight Zone,” he said. “Not Princess Twilight Zone mind you. Has she ascended yet? All these hopping around and I still get lost every so often. But anyway,” he looked at Derpy now lost expression. “Don’t worry I know where it is.”
“Oh wow really? Thanks Mister Rivet!” She happily exclaimed. “So where to?”
He chuckled moving towards a wall between 120 and 126. “Right here.” He pushed a previously unseen brick, the brick slid down like a button and immediately after the world around them grew grey, in the span of seconds the wall moved opening up like a yawning maw revealing on the other side… Manehattan, but not exactly.
“This is weird…” Derpy told herself clutching her packages more firmly.
“My dear I welcome you to Twilight Zone, where all the weirdness and the mysterious comes from. Don’t get spooked by the environment now step through so that you can see the inhabitants as well.” He said with another chuckle.
Derpy looked inside the portal, on the other side she saw the same buildings that she could see behind her but they were a bit weird, some of them were lazily floating through the sky while others clearly were built upside down. The road was not made of asphalt but from stone and wood. She hesitantly took a step forward and felt a rush of air hitting her making her close her eyes.
When she opened them again she finally saw the residents of the Twilight Zone, countless different creatures some with too many eyes and some with none, mouths were a hit that season apparently because everyone had at least two or three of them. She saw posters hanging around showing famous characters like the Slender Mare, Her and weirdly enough Pinkie.
The buildings around her now had a new light to them, many of them were covered by little creatures making repairs or creating new posters. “What is this place?” She wondered.
“The Twilight Zone, silly,” Rivet told her. She spun around only to see that he was now no stallion anymore, or at least no fleshy stallion. He showed a clearly metallic texture with a chrome colouration, his eyes were unchanged and yet they showed some kind of electronic behind them. His mane was now made out of iron clinging somehow to his metallic frame.
“You are a robot!” she shouted surprised.
“Sure am, but let’s not dwell on that you have a package to deliver so come and follow me I’ll bring you to the bosses, they live there after all,” he told her starting to walk towards a seemingly random direction. He started to jump every so often until a stone from the road shot up and worked as a stepping stone letting him walk on air. Derpy followed him fascinated.
They continued through their journey in silence with the cacophony of the streets keeping them company at one point Rivet hopped down from the floating stones and entered an underground tunnel. “Here,” he said pointing at it. “Do not fear, as long as you stay close no one will bother you.”
“Ok!” She nodded and followed closely. The tunnel was filled with little markets and even more creatures of all kind of size and shape, she looked around mesmerized by the countless amount of variety, one stook up a bit more, a seemingly completely normal mare with a cherry mane and blue coat with a filly hanging around from her neck covered in a coat.
“What a cute filly,” she said to the passing couple, then the filly replied.
“I’m not a filly! I’m a tumor!” she happily replied showing that she was indeed growing from the mare’s neck and only had her forehooves and upper body.
“Shut up…” the mare said, fed up with the filly moving away, continuing her own journey.
“What a happy family,” Derpy said to herself with blissful ignorance.
“Eeyup.” Rivet confirmed. “We are almost there, come on,” he said, he took off into a nearby smaller tunnel and started to descend a ramp down into a light. Derpy followed through until at one point she felt herself no longer having to push up to not fall and instead having to push in order to not fall. And so they started to climb instead of descending.
“What happened?” she asked her guide.
“First time doing a gravity 180? Don’t worry it’s nothing dangerous. My bosses are right here.” He pointed to a narrow building, it was squeezed between two other buildings and grew in height up to at least ten stories tall. The address was indeed, Apple Street 123. She almost teared up, she didn’t fail in her duties. She knocked on the door and waited, in seconds a mare came out of the door, she was a butter coloured mare with a carrot orange mane curled up almost like Pinkie’s. She opened the door fully showing a lot of bandages on her chest and hindquarter leaving Derpy concerned about them.
“Uhm, I have to deliver these packages to the resident of this house, are you the owner?” Derpy asked avoiding to look directly at the bandages.
“Of course dear.” The mare brightly smiled offering her hoof, the instant the packages were in her hoof the latter broke and fell on the ground with a thud. “Drat.” She said looking at her own fallen hoof like a mother to a misbehaving foal. “Honey my hoof fell down again!” she shouted inside the house.
“Coming dear!” a voice, a deep one talked back. In a minute a stallion, this one with the same butter coloured coat but a bright red straight mane came to the door, his chest was devoid of fur showing the bones underneath while his right hind leg showed a big bite mark but without any blood fortunately. In his hooves he had a bandage roll and some stitches. “You have to take more care of it dear.”
“Oh come on, not my fault it always come off,” she whined.
“Sure honey… Oh hi Rivet, there are some more requests on the table can you check them out?” the stallion asked him.
“Sure thing boss,” Rivet said with a nod. “Bye Derpy it was a pleasure to know you,” he said with a bow entering the house.
“So who are you?” Derpy asked sitting down.
“Oh please dear come in we can chat inside,” the mare replied still without her hoof. She went inside and took a left in a long narrow corridor that made out the first room of the house, they entered into a cozy living room filled with pillows and a soft smell of apples in the air.
The mare sat down on a pillow while the stallion worked on her hoof. “My name is Pear Butter dear, a pleasure,” she said.
“And ah’m Bright Mac,” the stallion finished.
“Wait, you are Applejack’s parents!” Derpy said with shock. “How can you be here?”
“Oh dear, with all the theories about us being dead don’t you think this is the fittest place to live?” Pear Butter replied with a giggle.
“Oh I see,” Derpy said. “Well here are the packages…” Immediately the Pinkie Party Planner Programmer went off and covered the room with streamers and everyone now had pointy birthday hats on. “Uuuh a hat,” Derpy said looking at the hat on top of her head.
“Oh Pinkie, always a dear whenever our anniversary comes along,” Pear said looking around the now brightly decorated room.
“Sure is, and all done,” Bright Mac said finishing up with her hoof.
“Thank you dear.”
“And this is the second-” The wall crashed down, a giant lizard with eight legs, three eyes and four mouths scattered around its body scurried inside, on its back there was a bipedal crab dressed like a server.
“And this is where you are wrong!” He said with a polished accent. “The package and its secrets are mine!” He shouted using one of his extendable claws to grab the package and as fast as he came he disappeared by climbing on buildings.
“Damn you Mr. Crab!” Pear Butter said with anger.
“My package! I have to get it back!” Derpy shouted with determination.
“And you will.” She pushed a button hidden under a pillow, the wall behind Derpy turned around showing thousands of different items from grappling hooks to tiny little guns. “Take what you need dear, we will round up the PIA and give you some help later on! Don’t let it escape!” she shouted.
Derpy looked at the wall trying to decide which one to pick and so she decided.