//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5- Throwing Up in a Fetal Position 
// Story: Of Arms, Legs, and Hooves 
// by TheHouseholdWarrior 
//------------------------------//

"The f*ck is that?"

I can sense Hanako quickly hide behind Lilly as Lilly stares holes into me. I immediately regret my earlier outburst.

And for a while, an awkward silence begins. Who would've thought that such a thing could happen in a place with both Miki AND Emi in it?

But then again, this is no normal circumstance, is it?

I try to think rationally. What would a pink, spray-painted horse with a darker pink, curled mane and tail be doing in the middle of a crater in the middle of the forest in the middle of early morn?

No ideas. At all.

Maybe a horse from a circus somewhere found its way here, thought it was a good place to rest, and slept?

A circus somewhere... in Russia? To hell with that idea. Too unrealistic, too unrealistic...

Maybe this was a horse that came from... ANOTHER WORLD? ANOTHER DIMENSION? Probably from some village called 'Ponyville' in the 'magical land' of 'Equestria'?

I wanted to kick myself in the balls for thinking that. There is no place in the world that could be that stupidly punny. Equestria. Equines. Heh.

But is there a LOGICAL explanation?

None come to mind.

"If what is inside that crater caused out dear Hisao to swear with no restraint, then it must be something very amazing indeed." said Lilly, with a hint of a smirk amidst her disapproving look.

As soon as Lilly says that, I begin to walk slowly towards the lifeless horse.

I peer closer at it. It's chest was still moving, pumping up and down very slowly. It was still alive.

Naturally, I go even closer. This horse was definitely smaller than the horses you'd normally see in ranches and petting zoos,  but it was still big. If it stood up, it'd probably be as tall as me. Maybe shorter.

I lean closer with a hand outstretched.

"Hisao, wait!'

I quickly feel two hands wrap around my body, pulling me backwards with great force. It was Emi.

As soon as I get pulled back, I turn around with a defiant look on my face.

"What?"

"We still don't know what that is, Hisao!" said Emi. "We should wait, o-or call someone!"

Strange.

"This... this isn't like you, Emi." I said, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing!" said Emi, with quite an obvious blush on her face. "If you want to touch that... horse so badly, then do it!"

I chuckle to myself, and ruffle Emi's hair.

"Hey!" she said.

"You're so cute when you're worried." I say, making Emi pout and cross her arms angrily. I then turn to the others.

"A pink horse lying still in the middle of a crater most probably caused by the explosion." I said. "I don't know what to think of it, and I don't dare to. For the time being, what should we do?"

Lilly raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, but everyone else was deep in thought. Even the still red-faced Emi seemed to be thinking about what to do.

"I think we should leave it here." said Emi. "We're only a group of high school students. Even if we find out about some things, what are we going to do about it?"

No answer.

Until, of course, Lilly spoke up.

"She may have a point." said Lilly. "If what Hisao said is true, and that there really is a pink pony lying there in the middle of a large crater, then perhaps it is something we shouldn't meddle with."

All of us nod in agreement.

"However..." said Lilly, before putting on an expression I could never have imagined Lilly using. Doubt. "I feel that the right thing to do is to take it with us."

"WHAT?" asked Emi. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Hanako go even further behind Lilly.

"I think... it's the right thing to do. For now." concluded Lilly.

"I-I agree." said Hanako.

"You can't be serious!" said Emi.

"I think it'll be a lot of fun." said Miki, clearly not sensing the atmosphere. Emi said that she's usually a very perceptive girl, but...

"Emi..." I whisper. "Remember what you said... about an hour ago?"

Emi didn't answer. No, she seemed shocked. She understood what I was talking about before I even said it.

"It... might have something to do with Rin's disappearance."

For a while, Emi didn't say anything. All of us looked at her with worry, waiting for her final verdict to be passed down. Emi can't deny that this... all of it... is mysterious. There's something wrong here. And it might not be out place to know what, but that's beside the point. We have to know.

"Okay." said Emi, softly. "Let's do it."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah!" said Emi, her usual cheerfulness coming back. "If it's for Rin... then yeah!"

I gave her an involuntary smile.

Me, Emi, Lilly, Hanako, and Miki. Five high school students on summer break, suddenly finding themselves in the middle of the forest one morning, and agreeing to work together to solve a problem. It's just like the story of a book, the one where five high school students find themselves in the middle of the forest and agreeing to work together. Were we a team now?

What defines a team, anyway? A group of people working together for a common aim? A group of people who would do and sacrifice anything for each other? I don't really know, but I think... I think that we're a team now. And everyone else seemed to agree with this silently, even though we don't know each other too well. Whichever the case, the shock of finding the unconscious horse is almost gone now, lifting the atmosphere a little bit.

"Okay." I said, clapping my hands once. "Now, all of you have to remember that there's no turning back from here."

"W-what?" asked Hanako.

"There's obviously something strange going on here." I said. "That much is clear. The explosion, the pink horse, Rin's disappearance... I can't help but feel that it's connected in a way. And I don't think we should talk to anyone about this."

"Alright!" said Emi and Miki at the same time. Lilly and Hanako simply smiled and nodded. I couldn't help but grin as well.

"I'm not sure if you all agree, but I think that we're a team now, guys. Comrades. And from here on, our main priority is to find out what happened to Rin, and what happened to this horse. If we can find that out, everything should start piecing itself together." I said.

"We are a team, aren't we?" asked Miki. I nodded, and everyone else followed suit. It's agreed, then.

"So, the first step is to take care of the pink pony, right?." asked Lilly. I found it strange that she used the word 'pony'. "To do that, we have to bring the pony back to the school."

"Oh, yeah..." I mumbled. I immediately squeeze my fist in frustration. It's not even a few seconds since the resolution is made, and we already came across such a huge landmine. How do we bring the po- no, the horse home?

I feel everyone turn their gaze to me, their stares drilling holes into my bare neck.

Ah, sh*t.





"This is a nice place."

Rin was still walking behind Twilight under the 'cloak', hiding her from the rest of the town. Not that anyone would've seen her, of course. Ponyville's always secluded at night.

Of course, they had planned to go earlier, but we couldn't discuss anything as long as Big Macintosh and Granny Smith were there. This whole business has to be top secret, and they couldn't allow anypony to know anything about Pinkie Pie's disappearance.

Because we're going to find Pinkie Pie as soon as possible.

She'd always thought like that. But when exactly was 'as soon as possible'...? She shook her head to free herself from that thought.

"It is, isn't it?" Twilight replied. "It's the second largest building in all of Ponyville, and the land here is the largest amount of land to be owned by one name."

Rin doesn't reply anymore, making Twilight blush furiously. Soon enough, though (but not as soon as Twilight could've hoped), they finally reached the huge barn in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack's home.

"Applejack?" said Twilight.

As soon as the word came out, the door swung open, revealing the inside of the barn to both Twilight and Rin.

Of course, everything looked the same to Twilight. The orange walls, the huge dinner table, the wooden, rickety stairs to the second floor, old pictures of the family, even Winona. But Rin, however, looked absolutely dumbfounded.

She was staring at every little detail inside Applejack's barn, much unlike how she was in the Library. Her sharp eyes shifted from left to right, as if taking everything and imprinting it inside her brain. Her mouth hung open during that whole time. It was kinda cute.

"Twi!" said Applejack, grinning. "Yer finally here. Everypony's inside already."

"Thanks, Applejack." said Twilight, returning Applejack's grin. "Oh, and if you don't mind, I brought a friend."

"A friend?" asked Applejack, looking at Twilight incredulously. "I thought ya said-"

At that time, Rin took off the 'cloak', revealing herself to Applejack. Applejack's face immediately dropped.

"Hello."

"Oh, Celestia..." said Applejack. "Come in, come in..."

With that, both Twilight and Rin entered the barn, with Applejack following behind them right after closing the door. 

When they entered the living room, they discovered that what Applejack was said was true- everypony was there. And it looked as if they had been waiting for a long time as well.

"THERE you are, Twilight!" said Rainbow Dash, throwing her head up and sighing. "Do you KNOW who long we've been waiting for you?"

"Please don't shout..." said Fluttershy.

"Anyway, now that Twilight's here, let's get down to-"

Rarity swallowed the rest of her sentence as soon as Rin walked in the room.

"What is she doing here?" hissed Rarity in a voice that Rin (who was still loitering around the door and looking at the room in amazement) couldn't possible hear. In fact, it was most likely that only Twilight heard it. Rarity might have learned how to do that in her years of secretly telling gossip behind ponies' backs. Not that Twilight would point it out, though.

"Just let her stay." said Twilight. She, however, held her tongue about her suspicions about Rin being in related to Pinkie's disappearance in some way, because it might just as well be useless conjecture. "I promise that she won't be a nuisance."

"Anyway, back ta business." said Applejack. "Twi, you've got everythin' ready with ya, right?"

"Right." said Twilight, taking out a few pieces of paper from her saddle pack. "If we're going to bring back Pinkie Pie, the obvious thing we have to find out is where she went in the first place, and how she got there. So I'm going to propose a series of experiments."

Everypony else glanced nervously at each other. Rin, however, was busy lying down on the carpet, staring into the sky for no particular reason. Perhaps she has 'Lost in Another World Syndrome'? Does such a thing even exist?

"Anyway..." said Twilight, trying to force herself off stupid thoughts. "Here's a list of the things I need to recreate the experiment."

Twilight took out a two-paper list from her neat stack and laid it out on the table for everypony to see. Of course, it's filled edge to edge with small letters. 'Cause that's Twilight's style.

"Forty 30 centimeter beams of wood..." read Rarity.

"Twenty bits of silver or steel..." read Rainbow Dash.

"Two magic amplifiers..." read Fluttershy.

"Seven small electromagnifiers..." read Applejack.

"Just a few things I need." said Twilight, before they managed to complete reading the whole list.

"A few, huh..." mumbled Rainbow Dash, turning over the pages. Twilight ignored it, for the sake of the group.

"And when do ya need all this, Twi?" asked Applejack, with the same look of disbelief on her face which Rainbow Dash had on. In fact, all of her friends seemed to have the same look about them. 

"I told you already, as soon as possible." said Twilight. "We have to get Pinkie out of there as quickly as possible, before she progresses too far in that timeline, making us lose her... Making us lose her forever."

Twilight bit her lip and looked up. For a few moments, no more words were said. There was only silence.

Twilight had almost never thought about what life would be like without Pinkie Pie. And the times she did, she had never imagined that it would turn out like this. 

Twilight had always found Pinkie to be spontaneous, annoying, hyperactive, and idiotic to an extent, but Pinkie had tons of good qualities as well. She was caring, surprisingly perceptive, and fun. Without Pinkie Pie around, the atmosphere around the Elements of Harmony was darker, and more tense. It was as if laughter had disappeared right before their eyes.

Then again, Laughter did disappear right before their eyes.

Letting out a big sigh, Twilight looked down to face her anxious-looking friends again.

"Anyway, until we get everything on the list, we won't be able to start experiments to try and bring Pinkie Pie back." said Twilight. "So until then, I'll be going out to find anything and everything that could give us a clue as to where Pinkie had gone in the first place."

"All right, then." said Rarity, For a few seconds, Twilight turned to face her with an expression akin to surprise, as she almost couldn't believe that they would accept it so easily. But it seemed that once again, she had underestimated her friends.

"Do you, um...  Do you have a lead?" asked Fluttershy.

"I think so." said Twilight. All of her friends' ears immediately perked up, eagerness and excitement filling up their eyes and faces.

"R-really?" asked Rainbow Dash. "What is it?"

"Erm..." said Twilight, biting her lip again. She then subconsciously shifted her eyes towards the tall figure to her right.

"I... I think that Rin's sudden appearance has something to do with all this." said Twilight.

"Are you saying that the reason Pinkie Pie disappeared is because Rin appeared?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"No, no..." said Twilight. "I think it might be the opposite."

"That is?" asked Rarity.

"I think... that the reason Rin appeared is because Pinkie Pie disappeared."

"Isn't it the same darn thing, Twi?" asked Applejack.

"No... not at all." said Twilight. "It's two very different things. Anyway. we have to get as much information as possible out of Rin at this stage."

"That's gonna be hard..." said Rainbow Dash.

Twilight sighed.

"You bet."