//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: Out of the Frying Pan // Story: You Wouldn't Believe Me if I Told You // by PinkiePiedPiper //------------------------------// I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro. You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You Chapter 19: Out of the Frying Pan “That’s weird…” Pinkie said and scrunched her face into a puzzled look. She stopped moving, relatively speaking. She and Cherry Topper were floating in what seemed to be just another section of trans-dimensional space. Pinkie looked around quickly and grew more confused. “What is weird, Miss Pinkie?” he inquired. “Why have we stopped? You really should not do this in the middle of-” “That’s just it, Grapeydoo… this shouldn’t be the middle of nothing.” She paused and rubbed a hoof against her forehead, closing her eyes to concentrate. “I followed his signature here. This should be the realm he and my friends are in.” “But there is no realm here, Miss Pinkie,” Cherry pointed out. She looked at him derisively. “Thanks, Grapes. Good thing you’re here to tell me things I already know.” He grinned trollishly, “Anytime, Miss Pinkie.” “Grapes?” “Yes, Miss Pinkie?” “Stop that!” “Stop what, Miss Pinkie?” he asked with feigned innocence. “How many times have I told you to stop calling me that?” “At least once more, Miss Pinkie.” Pinkie glared at him in a remarkably similar fashion as he does to her when she called him Grapes. Cherry looked off into the void to dodge her icy gaze. “Miss Pinkie?” She sighed in exasperation, “What now, Grapes?” He extended a purple hoof and pointed in the direction he had been looking. “What do you suppose is the significance of that cluster of rocks over there?” She shrugged. “Worth a shot, I suppose. Good spying!” “Anytime, Miss Pinkie.” Pinkie twisted to face the debris formation and glided in its direction, Cherry Topper still in tow. In barely anytime at all, they had reached the cluster. Pinkie noticed Cherry reach out and grab something. She turned around to get a better look at it. “Looks like a belt or collar of some sort, Grapes. We should hang on to it; it could be important.” It was indeed a collar; a collar adorned with nine golden stars. Cherry puzzled over its significance as Pinkie continued piloting them through the dirt and stones. “He-hello?” a voice called out weakly. Pinkie halted immediately, her ears perked at the familiarity of the sounds. Cherry swung in front of her due to his inertia, almost losing the collar in the effort to hang on to her hoof. “Twily?” Pinkie called out, whipping her head about and frantically searching for her lost friend. “Twily, is that you? Where are you?!” “Pinkie Pie? Is that really you?” Twilight’s voice grew stronger as her hopes of rescue increased. “I’m over here!” Some distance away, on the other side of the debris field, Pinkie spotted the lavender unicorn on a small circular ring of grass and dirt. She was waving her front hooves emphatically. Pinkie sped towards her friend with as much speed as she could muster while still safely maneuvering the debris. As she got closer, she began to see just how distressed she looked. Twilight’s mane was a mess, out of place and riddled with various twigs and leaves throughout. It was not until she had landed on the patch of turf that she noticed the stained wetness on her face and the spatters of blood on her coat. Setting Cherry Topper on his feet, Pinkie raced to her friend and embraced her with all of her might. “Twilight…” Pinkie said slowly and quietly, “what happened to you? Are you alright? What’s going on?” Twilight began crying again as she explained her experiences: the wall, Sauron, Discord, the game, death, pain, and sadness. She could barely bring herself to tell Pinkie about what had happened to their friends; to Rarity, to Applejack, to Fluttershy, and all the other ponies. But she did. She told her everything she knew, even about Steve and how he had sacrificed himself for her. To Twilight’s surprise, Pinkie seemed to take it all in stride. Breaking from their prolonged hug, she grabbed the collar from Cherry and handed it to Twilight. “Was this Steve’s?” “Yes, yes it was! It has his nine stars on it!” She held it close to herself, remembering how he had saved her several times near the end of the game. As she did so, the stars rubbed against her chest. The collar immediately dissolved, and hers reached a total of 13 stars. She looked back to Pinkie. Pinkie had her back to her, regarding the still-drifting collar and saddlebag that Trixie had left behind, and the embattled tower beyond that. “Umm… Pinkie?” “We have to get that collar and get to that tower.” She was speaking uncharacteristically calmly for somepony of her… well, for her. “Pinkie?” “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” “PINKIE!” “What is it, Twilight?” she said cheerily as she turned about. “Who’s your friend?” she asked, extending a hoof to the silent purple stallion. “Oh, hello! Miss…Twilight Sparkle, was it?” he responded in a friendly manner as he shook her hoof. “Do forgive me! Where are my manners? My real name is Cherry Topper, but everypony calls me Grapes for… obvious reasons.” He gestured to his purple coat and his cutie mark of a bunch of green and purple grapes in a golden goblet. He puffed his chest out proudly and continued. “I am the owner of the best vineyards and maker of the finest wines in the realm. I am also the official-” Pinkie interrupted him unceremoniously. “No time for chit-chat. We have got to move now!” “Why’s that, Pinkie?” “Something’s happening here… something sinister. My Pinkie sense is going crazy. It’s gonna be a doozy. No, a doozy of a doozy! Not the good kind, either. Grab hold of my back legs, you two! We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and not much time!” Twilight and Cherry looked at each other, both understanding the implications of the Pinkie sense. They latched themselves on to Pinkie’s legs just as she took off. Soon after they left the ground, it, and all the rest of the debris, disappeared. * * * * * Sauron’s flaming corona had shrunken considerably in the last few hours. Removing the physical aspects of his game realm had not helped him quite as much as he had originally hoped. All that was left for him to do now was to wait for him to regain the Ring. Only It could save him now. Discord paused with his next attack. “Good luck with that,” he snickered. Sauron was taken aback. “Are you reading my thoughts? That is not in accordance with the rules of engagement!” “Oh, on the contrary!” Discord laughed. “I don’t need to be a mind reader to know you want that ring of yours back, thereby regaining your full power; not to mention a body to go with that eye of yours! I got the basic backstory from that human, Steve, hours ago!” “And yet you did nothing to keep it from coming to my domain?” Discord guffawed heartily “Wrong again, bucky! I am the reason it got there! Did you honestly think that two little hobbits would get there way deep into the most forbidding landscape without the help of a little chaos? I guided them! I gave them strength! I helped them get into Mt. Doom, and now they will destroy your precious Ring, and you along with it! As we speak, it is sitting on a small patch of cooled lava in the fires of Mt. Doom! The fires from whence it came!” “I know you did…” Sauron said slowly, “I let you, I wanted you to.” This time it was Discord’s turn to be taken aback. Stroking his beard, he puzzled aloud in a deriding tone, “Now why would you want me to destroy your Ring? That’s how the rumour goes, right? Chuck it in the volcano and you burn along with it?” “And who do you suppose started that rumour?” Discord froze, breaking out in a cold sweat. “What are you saying?” he asked with a newfound nervousness. “I have no physical form anymore, and therefore a physical Ring is no use to me. Melting down the Ring will release its essence, and it and I shall reunite as essences.” He flared brighter in elation. “Destroying the Ring is exactly how I planned to regain my power! Thank you ever so much for hand delivering your head to me on a platter!” Discord readied his attack once more, drawing on as much power as he could muster and depleting his reserves. He fired off a gigantic ball of glowing chaos sprinkled with subspace. This attack alone was nearly as powerful as the rest of his projectiles had been added together. Sauron raised his shields just in time to block the massive orb of unstable energy. The entire tower erupted into a smoking fireball, shattering it to pieces. The force of the explosion blasted Discord backwards some distance, past the three ponies. Twilight had already claimed Trixie’s stars. She now had all 23. And Discord had all of the other ponies’ full essences. Discord regarded them with a triumphant air, and looked back to the devastation wreaked by his latest attack. As the dust and smoke cleared, what they saw caused them to drop their jaws in awed silence, Discord included. “I-is that y-your doozy, P-pinkie?” Twilight stuttered. “Y-yup,” she replied shakily. “Nice try… bucky!”