While Pipp, Zipp and Sunny took their fight with Allura and Twitch to the air, to try and buy the rest of their friends a little more time, Mr. Millet continued to drive down the road toward town, fixing himself some lunch with the components in his truck, including a chocolate milkshake, burgers and fries.
However, as the group was still chasing the truck, they found themselves growing tired. “Man!” Hitch panted. “I’ve… never… had to run… this long… of a distance before!”
“Well, I know I needed a good run for my bits!” Gentle Rain panted before looking up at the kids and dragons riding on Agnes. “How are you kids holding up?”
“Uh, we’re fine! Ooh, I think…” Bat lurched from all the bouncing. “It’s… actually… not that bad when you tri not to focus on how much your bouncing!” Ripper giggled. “But do you guys know where that truck is heading?”
“It looks like he’s headed back toward Merrivale,” Misty noticed, “but the Apple Festival festivities are supposed to be starting soon! We can’t lose the egg in all that chaos!”
“And we won’t! Hyah!” Cody shouted to Agnes, causing the group to speed up toward the Apple Festival in the center of Merrivale.
XXXXXXXX
Back at the festival, the parade was underway, and Baby Bop (who failed in finding her blankie at the barn) tried to get the attention of the parade cast to see if they could help her. “Excuse me?” she called out, but when she didn’t get their attention right away, she knew she would have to get louder… MUCH louder. “EXCUSE MEEEEEEE!!!!!”
At this loud call, everyone in the parade and on the street stopped what they were doing and faced her. “Oh, heh. That’s better,” Baby Bop said before clearing her throat and speaking once again. “I'm looking for my blankie. It's this big. And it's really, really soft, and it's yellow. Do you know where my blankie is?”
“No,” the crowd called, “we don’t!”
“Oh,” Baby Bop said as she sighed in disappointment. “Well… thank you! Okay, you can go on now!”
The crowd cheered as the parade resumed its course, unaware of what was happening just a little further down the road.
XXXXXXXX
Pipp, Zipp and Sunny continued to battle Allura and Twitch in the sky for a few moments, but Allura was slowly regaining her ground, and it wouldn't be long before she would overpower them and win.
But, when Sunny saw the sisters' cutie marks glowing during the fight, alongside her own, she had another idea. “Pipp, Zipp! Fly beside of me now!”
“Right beside you, Sunny!” Zipp said as she and her sister flew beside Sunny, and once she saw that all three were an easy target, Allura chuckled to herself. “Now to play ‘Flying Ponies Come Falling Down’... one of my favorite hunting methods. Hold on, Twitch!”
Allura snarled and flew toward the sisters and Sunny, with Twitch holding on for dear life. Then, as their cutie marks glowed brightly again, Sunny turned to the sisters with her next orders. “We need to flap our wings together in three… two… one… NOW!!”
Then, with three mighty flaps of their wings, they were able to send some huge gusts of wind to send Allura and Twitch off their course and plummeting toward the ground… right into a lake.
Once Allura had resurfaced, she knew that it would take time in order for her wings to try out, causing her to growl at the smirking ponies. “I’ll get you next time, you little horse brats! Just you wait!”
“And wait we shall!” Zipp taunted back. “Come on,” Sunny urged. “We better catch up with the others-- and get a head start before Allura’s wings dry up.”
And so, the three of them flew off, leaving Allura and Twitch temporarily defeated... but they wouldn't stay defeated for long.
One way or another, they would get that egg... and those meddling ponies would be the first to pay.
XXXXXXXX
Unfortunately, with the others, they were having no luck catching up to Mr. Millet, even though they were running really fast and calling out to him at the top of their lungs.
And with Mr. Millet driving and fixing his lunch, he didn't notice he was heading straight for the parade route!
Hitch yelped as soon as he saw this. “That’s the reason why parade routes are blocked off, so no other trucks can get into the parade and crash!”
“If we don’t stop Mr. Millet, not only could the egg end up in more trouble,” Abby panicked, “but someone could get hurt!”
“Then it’s a good thing we’re all here to stop that from happening!” Zipp said as the pegasi and Sunny flew down to them and landed. “Allura’s out of the way for now,” Sunny told the rest of the group, “so let’s catch that truck while we still can!”
XXXXXXXX
Mr. Millet continued making his lunch while driving toward the parade route... and didn't realize it until he looked up and saw that he was heading toward a policeman creating the barricade!
The policeman blew his whistle to get Mr. Millet to stop, and he did... while his food went flying all over and the barrel of birdseed, with the egg on top, went flying out of the truck, sliding against the ground.
Luckily, the Mane 6 and all their new friends were just arriving when this happened. “There it is!” Misty shouted. “After it!”
But, as they ran past the police officer, suddenly, Agnes' harness became unhinged from the chariot, and while Agnes continued running with the kids and dragons on her back, Barney was rolling right toward the egg! “Pipp, Zipp! You and I are gonna stop Agnes and help the Night Lights and the kids!” Sunny told the pegasus sisters. “The rest of you help Barney get the egg!”
“On it!”
So, they all set off to do their duties. Hitch, Misty and Izzy made sure the road ahead of them was clear, and then, Gentle Rain used her magic to pick up the barrel as she ran beside the chariot. “Barney, quick! Get the egg!”
Barney got the barrel and reached inside it, but when he looked inside, the egg, not to mention the whole bottom of the barrel, was gone! “Huh?!”
“Oh no!” Gentle Rain cried as she and the ponies screeched to a halt. “Don’t worry, Barney!” Misty reassured. “We’ll get it!”
But as the two unicorns, the kirin and the earth pony stallion tried to go back and get the egg, many parade goers blocked their path and knocked them off to the side.
Cody, Abby, Marcella, the baby dragons and the rest of the ponies rushed to their side to help them, but just then, Barney looked and saw that the chariot, with him on it, was about to collide with one of the costumed parade participants!
Everyone flinched and squeezed their eyes shut when they heard the crash, but when they slowly opened their eyes, the barrel was now around the man’s waist, as if it was part of the routine… but Barney was nowhere to be seen!
Turns out, he had grabbed the balloons that the man was holding and was able to get away safely, but unfortunately, the others did not know that, so they began to call for him repeatedly.
“BARNEY!!”
“Barney, where are you?!”
“Oh, please be okay!”
“BARNEY!!”
XXXXXXXX
At the same time, Barney got off the chariot, putting it in an alley so no one would see it, before beginning to run back to his friends. “Oh, I gotta get some driving lessons!”
“Hey, Barney!” said someone in a giraffe costume. “Long time no see!”
“Hey, good to see you!” Barney told her before trying to nudge his way through the crowd. “Oh, my. Excuse me. Pardon me!”
XXXXXXXX
The kids, ponies, Gentle Rain and the dragons continued to call Barney’s name repeatedly, beginning to fear the worst until they saw the large purple dinosaur approaching them. “BARNEY!!”
“Oh, there you are!” Barney said as he let everyone else hug him out of relief. “Oh, I’m fine!”
Zipp inwardly sighed to herself-- she hated to admit it, but hugging that large purple dinosaur felt somewhat comforting… and the others felt the same way. “Okay…” the white pegasus then said, preparing to step out into the street, “...let’s go get that egg!”
Unfortunately, Barney stopped her before she could step out into the street. “Oh, wait a minute…”
“What is it, Barney?” Noir asked curiously, tilting his head to the side. “What are the rules about crossing the street?” Barney then asked, and Abby looked at Marcella before answering. “Always look both ways?”
“That’s right!”
“Oh, heh… right,” Sunny chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. “I guess since we don’t have cars in Equestria, we kinda forget that rule.”
“Okay…” Cody sighed, internally not believing that he was actually doing this before turning his head to the left. “First, we look this way.”
The rest of the parade seemed to be moving on about that point, so there wasn’t any kind of danger coming from that direction. “And what do you know?” Cody said sarcastically. “There’s nothing coming.”
“And then,” Izzy said, turning her head to look the other way, “we look that way and… WHOA!!”
Before the eyes of the entire group, a marching band was advancing right around where the egg was, with Gentle Rain becoming nervous, even going as far as covering her eyes with her hooves. “They’re gonna fancy dance right on top of the egg!”
“And,” Zipp said after getting a good look from in the air, “Pipp and I won’t be able to swoop in and get it! The band and the dancers are moving way too much!”
“We’ll just have to wait for an opening!” Abby told the group, although she herself was nervous. As the band continued to play, the dancers began to perform an intricate routine around the egg, but no matter where the ponies and their new friends glanced, they just couldn't find an opening big enough for them to swoop in and grab the egg.
And the more they danced, the more nervous the group was becoming. “Oh,” Ripper covered his eyes with his paws, “I can’t look!”
“Tell me when it’s over!” Marcella nervously spoke, doing the same thing as the dancing continued, which was… honestly very impressive, as was the egg being able to roll itself around the dancers’ moving feet. “Hey!” Cody shouted. “Please don’t scramble our egg!”
In that moment, the third ring on the egg began to glow a bright green, causing Pipp to immediately gasp. “OMP, look! It’s glowing green!”
“That’s number three!” Abby realized. “Only two more to go!” Noir realized. “We need to get that egg fast!”
The dancers kept narrowly avoiding the egg, making the ponies realize that maybe things were going to be okay… until the tuba player tripped and fell to the ground, with the egg getting stuck right in the tuba! “Hey,” Cody looked around, “where’d it go?”
“I-I don’t know!” Zipp said as she scanned around the area with her visor. “It just disappeared!”
“Look!” Bat pointed to the tuba player and the egg stuck in the tuba. “There it is!”
“If he blows the egg out of the tuba,” Misty cried out, “it might break when it hits the ground!”
“We’ll try to get in his way and get the egg! You guys stay here!” Sunny told the others while the Mane 6 galloped out into the street. “No, mister!” Marcella cried as the ponies tried to block the tuba player from going through. “Don’t do it!”
“No no no!”
“Please, don’t!”
However, despite the ponies trying to block him and his tuba seemingly clogged, the tuba player managed to blow into his tuba after a moment, sending the egg rocketing into the air... and just past Zipp and Pipp's waiting hooves! “Oh no!” Pipp cried. “I missed it!”
“After it, ponies!” Sunny shouted to her friends, and they galloped off in the direction of the egg’s flight path, with Barney, the kids, Gentle Rain and the dragons following immediately afterwards. They ran after the flying egg as fast as they could, away from the parade…
…and right into the hands of a small yellow hadrosaur wearing a white and red football jersey. “Wide open! Touchdown!” he cheered. “Yeah!”
The group screeched to a halt, with the Mane 6 sighing in relief, while Abby, the Night Lights and Marcella recognized him from their long talks with Barney. “BJ?!”
“BJ makes the play of the game!” BJ continued to shout as the group raced toward him. “The world's greatest football player, BJ! Yeah!”
“Great catch, BJ!” Abby said as they all gathered around. “Oh thank the moon,” Misty sighed, “that was too close!”
“BJ, we actually need that egg,” said Sunny, trying to calm herself down, “if you don’t mind--”
“You should see me throw!”
Suddenly, before anyone could stop him, BJ threw the egg as if it were a football, causing the ponies to shriek as it sailed through the air again. “I got it, I got it, I got it!” Izzy said, trying to catch the egg in her aura before tripping over her own hooves and landing on the ground. “...I don’t got it…”
The egg landed on a nearby rooftop and rolled down, landing on the fancy hat of a woman entering a restaurant nearby. “I see it!” Hitch pointed out. “It’s on that woman’s hat!”
“Well, she's going into that restaurant!” Barney cried. “Well, what are we waiting for?!” Zipp cried. “Let’s go go go!”
As everyone else raced toward the restaurant, Barney and Gentle Rain found themselves trying to comfort a distressed BJ. “Oh, man,” BJ was saying, “I'm really, really sorry.”
“Oh, that’s okay, BJ,” Gentle Rain said comfortingly. “You didn't mean to do anything wrong.”
“Guys, hurry up!” Bat cried. “We’re gonna lose the egg!”
“But, Barney--” BJ tried to say. “Uh… we gotta go. Bye! Wait for us!” Barney cried to the others as he and Gentle Rain tried to follow, leaving BJ alone once again.
XXXXXXXX
The ponies and their new friends were panting tiredly as they finally got inside the restaurant, which appeared to be French and full of fancy people, fancy food and fancy music.
Something Pipp would normally appreciate, if they weren’t under these circumstances.
Right now, they were more focused on finding the egg before Allura than anything else. “Okay, guys, keep an eye out for that woman,” Misty said as their eyes scanned the room. “The egg is on her hat, so we’ll have to be smart about how we get it.”
Marcella looked around with extreme caution until she spotted the egg on the woman’s hat, sitting at a table not too far away. “There it is!”
The egg was now rolling off the woman’s hat and landed on a plate, which the waiter put a cover on and was preparing to roll it away. “That’s great!” Hitch smiled. “We’ll just trot over there and get it!”
But before they could move, however, a posh-looking waiter stood in their path, causing the dragons to hide on Zipp, Sunny and Izzy's backs. “Welcome to Chez Snobbe,” he greeted with an expressionless face before he gestured off to the side. “Come right this way please.”
As the waiter moved out of the way, the others looked to see that the tray with the egg on it had disappeared, probably because another waiter wheeled it away while they were distracted. “Oh, brother…” Zipp sighed quietly as they walked behind the waiter. “Where’s the egg?!”
“We're just gonna have to look,” Marcella told the pegasus, trying to be reassuring… just as Barney got an idea of his own. “Maybe I can create a little distraction to get everyone's attention.”
At this, Pipp immediately halted, smiling. “Barney, you literally read my mind! Come on, I have an idea!”
With that, the pink pegasus led Barney off to the side while the others kept walking and looking for the egg. “Man, they are gonna throw us out of here for sure,” Cody muttered under his breath. “We just have to be as discreet as we can, and maybe they won’t notice us. At least… I hope not,” Sunny said with a nervous look. “So, what exactly are we gonna do, Barney?”
But when the others had turned, Barney and Pipp had mysteriously disappeared. “Barney?” Bat looked around. “Where’d he go?”
“Speaking of disappearing acts,” Zipp said, “has anypony seen my sister? She was just here a few seconds ago.”
“Pipp and Barney are gone?” Hitch said, clearly panicked. “Oy vey…”
Suddenly, a tapping sound came from the stage, causing Noir to gasp and immediately point. “Look!”
Everyone turned at where the little dragon was pointing, and they were surprised to see Barney and Pipp on the stage in front of the quartet, both dressed in format attire. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Barney began, causing many of the patrons to look at him in complete shock. “On behalf of Chez Snobbe, my friend Pipp Petals and I would like to invite you to sing along with one of the all-time great musical masterpieces. Ahem, Pipp?”
“Coming right up!” Pipp tossed him a long cane with a twirl before beginning to conduct the quartet into an upbeat tune, to which Barney happily sang along to.
Barney: If all the raindrops
Were lemon drops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be
“What are they doing up there?” Cody asked, honestly a little impressed.
Barney: Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah-ah-ah-ah…
Suddenly, what Pipp and Barney were doing was suddenly making sense. “I get it now!” Gentle Rain spoke. “They’re making a distraction for us to search!”
“Okay, everypony, split up and spread out!” Sunny told the others, and they all divided into pairs and began to search as the song progressed.
Barney: If all the raindrops
Were lemon drops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be
Do do ba do do
Do do do ba do do
If all the snowflakes
Were candy bars and milkshakes…
Bat eagerly lifted the cover on a woman’s plate, revealing the strange item that… even SHE wasn’t sure what it was.
“Eww…” she gagged. “Not there…”
Luckily, Cody was able to pick her up off the table and took her away. “Enjoy your thing!” he told the woman before walking off with the baby dragon.
Barney: Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
If all the snowflakes
Were candy bars and milkshakes
Oh, what a snow that would be
The more Barney began to sing and dance in place, the more the patrons (and the waiters as well) were beginning to enjoy themselves. However, the others kept searching cover under cover, but were having no luck finding the egg.
Marcella, Izzy and Noir even found snails under one of those covers. “Eww!!” Noir gagged. “Snails?!”
“You really eat this stuff?” Marcella asked while Izzy slurped one of the snails. “Mmm… meaty!” she chirped. “I could do with a little mess slime though.”
Noir tried his best not to puke at this, and the group continued their search.
Barney: If all the raindrops
Were lemon drops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
If all the raindrops
Were lemon drops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would...
Oh, what a rain that would...
Oh, what a rain that would... be!
By the time the song was finally over, Pipp and Barney recieved a wild round of applause... at least, until their friends approached, clearly panicked. “We’ve looked everywhere,” Misty told the others, “and there’s no egg in sight!”
Suddenly, the platter that the egg was on wheeled into sight, causing Pipp to gasp. “Oh my glitter, there it is!”
“Out of the way please! Friends on a mission here!” Ripper told many patrons… just before the platter was rolled into the kitchen and one of the waiters began speaking to Barney in French. “Mon ami, du fond de mon coeur, tu es pourpre et magnifique!”
“Ah. Monsieur, vous êtes trop gentil,” Barney said in reply. “Le plaisir est tout à nous.”
“There it is!” Cody said as the platter with the egg on it rolled out again. “May I?” Sunny asked, and as soon as the waiter nodded, she removed the cover, only to reveal a disgusting looking fish underneath. “Salmon?!” Gentle Rain cried. “Oh, where’s the egg?!”
“Oh, that great big colorful thing?” the waiter then asked. “YES!!” everyone cried out in unison. “It’s really important that we find it!” Zipp said desperately. “Do you know where it is?”
“We put it in a to-go sack,” the waiter responded. “We sent it back to the clowns at the circus.”
“The circus?!” everyone cried out, and Zipp and Cody slapped their faces in frustration. “They have been playing tricks on us ever since they got to town,” the waiter then explained. “It's one of their take-out orders. Wait until they crack it open.”
“WHAT?!”
“Oh, I do NOT like the sound of that!” Gentle Rain shrieked before everyone began running toward the exit. “Come on, everybody!” Barney cried. “Bye bye!”
As soon as they got out of the restaurant, Sunny looked around them but didn’t see any clear sign of the circus. “Any idea as to where we’re going?”
Bat lifted her nose to the air and sniffed for a moment before a familiar scent hit her nose. “Cotton candy! I know that smell anywhere! Follow me!”
The baby female Night Light flapped her wings and took to the air with her brothers and friends following her down the street… unaware that Twitch was hiding and had heard everything, hopping back to Allura (who was behind the restaurant) to tell her the news. “Ahhh… the circus, huh?” Allura smirked. “Come, Twitch, we must follow them. Those innocent little fools will lead us straight to our destiny!”
And then, with a cackle, Allura took Twitch onto her back and flew in the direction of the circus to claim what would soon be hers.