"Okay! I have all the information we need," Gadget said, joining everyone in the middle of the park. "Now all we need..."
"Is to meet da boss!"
A loud voice shouted, and before anyone knew it, something dark and rough had snatched them all in, except Zipper, who managed to fly out of the sack just as it was being closed.
Shaking his head to clear it, he followed the cats and lizard that had captured his friends, already trying to figure out who to go for help.
o.0.o
"You're all toys!" Vinyl Scratch squealed. "Isn't this awesome, Lyra?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool," Lyra replied. "We're still not where we're supposed to be. Twilight and the others were at that park, and we are in... 'Bonnie's Room', wherever that is. But I can tell you, it's not a park." She rolled her eyes and trotted up to Woody and Buzz.
"I'm Lyra Heartstrings, and this is Vinyl Scratch," she explained. "And this will sound really weird, but we were not toys before."
Woody and Buzz exchanged glances. "Uh, uh."
"Listen," Woody smiled. "We've met toys before that didn't realize they were toys until later on... but, I promise you, you're toys."
Buzz nodded.
"Well, yeah," Vinyl nodded. "Now we are, but we weren't before Twilight let Foxfire cast that spell." She turned to look at Lyra. "Any idea why it didn't work?"
"Hmm?" Lyra looked up from closely examining Buzz's hands. "Oh, uh... no. I imagine it was probably on the wording of the spell if anything."
"Well, we'd better find a way to contact Twilight so we can... why is there a portal of light appearing in the middle of the room?"
"Whatever it is, it's going to wake up Bonnie!" Buzz said urgently.
The light faded away and they all could see something with four legs and a white coat of fur standing next to the bed. Above them, Bonnie mumbled and turned in her bed, clearly making all the toys nervous.
Vinyl took a step towards the creature.
"Wait! Are you crazy!" Buzz stopped her, planting himself in front of her. "We can't let anyone see us! We have to pretend to be inanimate!"
"Uh... why?" Lyra asked trying to get past Woody to take a look herself.
"Because! It's how things work!"
"So, you're going to let this Bonnie face whatever it is that just appeared in her room on her own?" Vinyl asked, aghast. "But, what if it's dangerous?"
It was then that the creature outside spoke. "Hm... this is odd. That one isn't even a pony..."
Vinyl Scratch and Lyra looked at each other in amazement.
"I know that voice!" Lyra said, eyes wide.
Woody and Buzz had to scramble to tackle her before she ran out from under the bed, but they were unable to catch Vinyl, who ran out from under it and tapped the nearest hoof. "No! Stop! Don't reveal yourself to—"
"Sweetie Belle!" Vinyl Scratch shouted, "Down here!"
"Let me go!" Lyra growled, horn glowing as she levitated both toys off of her and tossed them to the floor. "What the hay was that for?"
"Vinyl?" Sweetie Belle gasped, lowering down to look at the toy pony. "What happened to you? Lyra? Is that you?"
"Shh!" Woody hushed all of them, running up to them behind Lyra. "Don't make too much noise! You'll wake up Bonnie!"
Sweetie smiled. "She won't, I cast a sleep spell on her when I noticed I was in somepony's room in the middle of the night. I didn't want whoever it was to wake up and start screaming."
Woody fell back in relief and was barely caught by Buzz. "Oh, thank God."
"So, it's okay to come out for now?" another voice asked, and soon several toys of all shapes and forms emerged from different parts of the room.
Woody quickly shook himself up and stood. "Okay everyone, it's fine, it's fine, since... Sweetie Belle... is not a human, we're not breaking any rules."
"But, what about animals? We usually pretend to be inanimate for them as well! She's not a toy!" Mr. Potato head complained.
"Guys, guys!" Jessie spoke up from one of the drawers. "Calm down! Since when have Woody and Buzz failed us? We all know how reliable they are!"
A series of mutters followed her statement.
"Calm down! Calm down! I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement with the alien!" Buzz called out.
"Alien?" Woody whispered.
"She's a unicorn. They don't exist," Buzz pointed out. "So she's obviously an alien."
"But unicorns aren't aliens!"
"Technically, he's right," Sweetie interceded. "I'm an inter-dimensional traveler that ended up in your world from a completely different universe. By definition that makes me alien to this world."
"Wow, Sweetie, that was pretty smart!" Lyra blinked in awe. "You're usually—" she cut herself short when the gigantic filly glared down at her. "Uh... less... verbose."
"Anyway," Sweetie rolled her eyes. "Why are you two here? And why are you toys?"
"We let a bat cast a spell on us to make smaller so we could join a group of mice and chipmunks and go to a bar," Vinyl explained.
Sweetie blinked. "Do they serve chocolate martinis at that bar?"
Lyra and Vinyl looked at each other before looking back at her. "I... uh, guess? Since when do you drink?"
Sweetie grinned. "Since Blueblood took me out bar-hopping with Soarin' and Spitfire!"
Vinyl looked at Lyra. "Kill Blueblood?"
"Kill Blueblood." Lyra nodded.
Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to kill my older brother?"
"...SO!" Lyra said loudly. "We need to find Twilight and the others. Do you have a way to get us there?"
"I don't even know where they are," Sweetie pointed out.
"We don't either," Vinyl sighed. "Other than being in this huge park."
"We need a guide..." Lyra's eyes narrowed. "Somepony reliable." She turned to look at Buzz and Woody.
"Oh, uh..."
o.0.o
"How is that you can see so well in the dark?" Lyra whispered, sitting on top of Sweetie's head along with Vinyl Scratch, Woody and Buzz.
"Empress Nightmare Moon taught me a spell to see in absolute darkness," Sweetie Belle explained. "It works very well in normal darkness."
"And why is it that you're not making any noise even on the hard surface of the road the humans made?" Vinyl asked.
"Queen Chrysalis' Spy Master taught me to be light on my hooves."
Woody whistled, and turned to look at the two toy unicorns. "Empress and a Queen? Your filly here has some interesting connections!"
"Sweetie," Lyra spoke after a moment. "I might not be Rarity, and I cannot speak for her... but, I don't think she would appreciate you hanging out with the two most evil beings she's had the misfortune of meeting."
"Oh, they're not that bad!" Sweetie giggled. "In fact, I just learned that in another dimension I'm Queen Chrysalis' niece!"
She had to stop and pick up Lyra.
"Sweetie," Lyra said once she had regained her senses, "Rarity is going to kill you."
Sweetie chuckled and shook her head. "Which way now, Buzz?"
The toy turned the map around trying to find their location. "Well, we're in the middle of New York, so we're close."
"It's too bad we have to stick to the alleys," Woody muttered. "It'd be easier if we could just go down the street. Even at this time of night, New York never sleeps."
"That's right, little guy!" A new, smooth voice chuckled. "It never sleeps, and it never, ever ceases to amaze!"
The group turned to look at dog that shook himself out of the trashcan. The mutt was white and brown, with a red bandanna tied around his neck, and had sunglasses covering his eyes even at night time.
Woody covered his face with his hands. "I'm so dead. Once the others find out that we've broken silence we're going to be melted into plastic. What are we going to do, Buzz?"
He looked at Buzz, who had gone rigid and with a blank expression on his face. Woody growled and elbowed him. "Come on, he saw us already!"
"Hey, hey, hey... little guys, don't worry!" the mutt chuckled. "Good ol' Dodger won't tell a soul! I promise! Cross my heart and hope to die!" he grinned. "And all that. I'm just curious, y'see, it ain't always that you see a filly such as this," he lifted Sweetie's hoof and kissed it. "All classy, well spoken and seemingly lost, in the alleys of ol' New York!"
Sweetie giggled.
"Hey buster!" Lyra growled. "Leave Sweetie alone! She's just a filly!"
Dodger chuckled. "Of course she is, which is why I'm offering to help!" he grinned at Sweetie. "So, tell me, little lady, how may this humble, lowly, ever-so-charming good-fer-nothin' help you?"
"I don't know if we can trust him..." Lyra grumbled. "He talks too smoothly."
"What are you talking about?" Vinyl grinned. "He's cool! I dig the shades!"
"I wonder why," Lyra grumbled.
"We're looking to get to Central Park," Woody explained. "But we have to do it without being seen. I'm sure you've noticed that Sweetie here is a unicorn, and humans would... well, it wouldn't be nice."
"I miss Babylon 5," Vinyl groaned. "We could do whatever we wanted there, go to bars, talk to humans, sing with aliens, but no, we had to end up in a world where we'd be used as experiments."
"Hey, hey." Dodge shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Ol' Dodger can take you there without being caught. Come on, follow me."
With little choice in the matter, Woody nodded to Sweetie, who ventured deeper into the city.
o.0.o
Zipper flew back to the Rescue Rangers HQ in desperation. The whole group had been captured by Fat Cat and he didn't know who to call for help. Twilight was apparently drained of most of her magic after the spell... either that or it had diminished in size with her... if he could only find Lyra and Vinyl, the other two unicorns might be able to help.
Zipper buzzed in frustration. Where to start looking?
"Are you sure this is the place?" a voice from outside asked, making Zipper blink and raise his head. It had sounded like a young girl, but it was too late at night for a little girl to be running around. Curious, he flew out of the headquarters and stared at yet another unicorn standing next to a mutt and with four toys in her head.
"Yep, that's the place Sweetie!" One of the toys spoke.
Zipper flew down to stare in undisguised awe at Lyra and Vinyl Scratch, who had been turned into toys! He started buzzing and gesticulating wildly.
"Hey, get off!" Sweetie complained, waving a hoof and trying to bat Zipper away.
"No! Wait!" Lyra called. "That's Zipper! He's one of the Rescue Rangers!"
Sweetie stopped in surprise while Buzz, Woody and Dodger blinked.
"That's one of the Rescue Rangers?" Dodger asked after a moment. "Wow. I had heard you fellows were small but not that small..."
"So..." Woody spoke up after a few moments of watching Zipper buzz and gesture manically. "Does anyone here understand what is going on?"
The gathered toys, ponies and dog looked at each other and shook their heads.
Zipper slapped his face with a tiny hand and flew up to the tree. After a few moments he flew down and gave Woody a piece of paper. He was a sheriff, so he had authority.
"Let's see," Woody cleared his throat, but Buzz Lightyear snapped the paper out of his hands.
"It says: Rescue Rangers and unicorns captured by Fat Cat!" He looked up from the paper with a stern expression. "Oh, no! We have to rescue them!" he declared, standing up and raising his fist to the air, before looking down at the piece of paper again. "I know where they are, just follow me."
"Follow the fly!" he ordered.
Sweetie sighed. "Sure, whatever." She looked at Zipper. "Lead the way!"
"Hold on!" Dodger barked, drawing everyone's attention to him. "I've heard of this 'Fat Cat' before, he has a gang, doesn't he?"
Zipper flew in front of Dodger and nodded.
Dodger grinned. "Then we can't just barge in," he said, rising one eyebrow. "But... I have an idea."
o.0.o
The horn sputtered with only a few sparkles of magic materializing. "Ugh, I'm sorry everypony," Twilight said, shaking her head. "My magic is not back yet."
"It's okay, Twilight," Octavia patted Twilight's back. "We'll get out, somehow."
"Too right!" Monterrey Jack said firmly. "Good ol' Zipper's got it."
"But he's a fly!" Twilight protested.
"Don't worry," Chip said confidently. "He's never failed us before!"
There was a knock on the door and a mangy cat and the reptile that Fat Cat had left behind to watch his guests looked at each other before opening it. A younger, much cleaner tabby walked in, holding in his mouth a tied-up Zipper.
"You were saying?" Twilight Sparkle groaned while Gadget, the chipmunks and Monterrey Jack stared in horror.
"And who's this?" the reptile asked.
The cat held Zipper in a claw and looked at them. "I caught this guy creeping around and I thought capturing him would be a good way to get a job with Mr. Fat Cat!" he said enthusiastically. Then he turned and revealed an old-style cowboy toy. "I also found this outside, is it yours?"
The grunts shook their heads, and shrugging, the new arrival left the toy next to the locked door.
"What is this now?" Fat Cat's smug voice echoed down to them. The cat himself sauntered around a box, dressed in his purple suit and sporting a purple gem of some sort on a chain around his neck. He approached the younger cat. "A new recruit? And he comes bearing gifts! The last Rescue Ranger, no less!" He grinned and tossed Zipper into an empty glass bottle, putting a cork on it. "What is your name, youngster?"
"O-oliver, sir," the newly identified cat stammered.
"And do you have any experience with crime, other than capturing would-be-heroes?"
"I worked for Mr. Sykes," Oliver said quickly. "A-along with Roscoe and DeSoto..."
"Pah," Fat Cat grimaced. "I am glad those three are gone, never work with dogs, although Mr. Sykes was... interesting."
Oliver nodded.
"Well then, at least you have some experience," the fat cat mused. "Welcome to the gang. These are Wart;" he pointed to the lizard. "And Mepps," he said, pointing at the cat. "You'll meet Snout and Mole later on."
Fat Cat then seemed to forget about them as he turned to face the rangers. "Ah, my dear Chip and Dale, I'm so sorry we haven't had time to talk at all!"
"You won't get away with this, Fat Cat!" Chip threatened, shaking his fist at the gray tabby. "You'll see!"
"Why, such a violent little rodent, aren't you?" Fat Cat chuckled venomously. "But I am far more interested in your little friends. Miniature horses! And one of them with a horn!"
"We're ponies!" Octavia snapped. "Not horses!"
"Whatever, my equine friend," Fat Cat waved her complaint away. "We're taking you to the Siamese Twins tomorrow. For now, I suggest you rest."
o.0.o
The lights had been turned off and everyone seemed to be asleep when Twilight's ear twitched. She slowly opened her eyes to see two familiar, if oddly... plastic-looking unicorns trying to magic the lock to their cage open with no success.
"I told you it wouldn't work," Vinyl hissed, and Twilight realized that's what had woken her up.
"How did you know that?" Lyra growled.
"Simple: that spell you used? It's for opening unlocked doors!" Vinyl whispered angrily.
"I should just—"
"Girls!" Twilight whispered urgently, getting up and close to the cage's lid. "You're talking too loud! You're going to—" she stopped and looked up in horror at the orange tabby that rose behind the two distracted mares. "Oh no! WAT-mmmph!"
Vinyl put her hoof on Twilight's mouth, shaking her head. "Be quiet!" She hissed, not aware of Oliver leaning down, ready to swipe them in his claws.
Twilight stepped back and away from Vinly's horn.
"Oliver, you think you can use your claw to get the lock?" Lyra whispered over her shoulder.
Twilight's jaw hung open, while behind her the Rescue Rangers and Octavia stirred awake in confusion.
"Ca-haha-ah..." Monterrey Jack was about to sneeze, but Chip's quick actions managed to get his nose and mouth covered. "Try not to sneeze, Monterrey!" Chip whispered furiously, watching warily as Oliver studied the lock.
"I'm afraid not, Miss Lyra," Oliver sighed after a moment. "My claws won't work on it, the lock is too tight."
"Great," Lyra muttered.
"Well, well, well," Fat Cat's voice echoed around them as the lights were suddenly turned on. Everyone cried out as the flash of light hurt their eyes, and they had to blink several times before they could make out the shapes of Fat Cat and his four cronies. "I knew I couldn't trust a cat that had worked with dogs," Fat Cat sneered.
"How about a cat that still works with dogs, then?" Dodger asked, grinning as he entered the warehouse followed by several other dogs of all breeds.
Monterrey Jack elbowed Twilight. "See, toldja Zipper would come through!"
"How did you get in?!" Wart exclaimed, looking wildly around. "I kept an eye on this traitor! He never got close to the door!"
"Heh, that's a secret!" Dodger said, grinning.
"Hey, hey! Dis looks fun! Let's get the gang war on!" a chihuahua barked happily.
"What are you waiting for?!" Fat Cat shouted, pushing his grunts at the dogs. "Attack!"
That was all the dogs needed for a signal, and soon the whole group was in a free for all fight.
"Wait! Fat Cat is getting away!" Twilight shouted, looking up and following the fat feline with her eyes. "Oh, if I only had my magic!"
Suddenly fat cat was enveloped in a white and purple aura, and pulled away from the boxes he had been climbing. The cat struggled in the air, trying to get free. "And where do you think you're going?"
Twilight and Spike stared. "Sweetie Belle?"
The unicorn filly, who now that Twilight noticed, had an eerily familiar cutie mark on her flank looked down, at the cage. "Oh, hi Twilight!"
"Let me go!" Fat Cat snarled, struggling in the air.
"Let me think about it..." Sweetie said ponderously. "No." Her eyes settled on the purple crystal he had on his chain. "I'll also be taking that," she said, and a burst of magic snapped the chain off of his neck.
"Hey! Give it back!"
"Nope, it's not yours anyway." Sweetie's magic conjured up a rope and used it to hogtie Fat Cat, following suit with his subdued cronies.
A freezing cold spell broke the lock on the cage and soon all ponies, dragon, dogs, mice, fly, chipmunks and cat were together.
"Well, that was it," Dodger chuckled. "We'll be taking these guys to the pound," he motioned with his head towards Fat Cat and co.
"Thank you so much for your help, Dodger!" Sweetie said. "And you too Oliver!"
"It was my pleasure, Miss Sweetie Belle," Oliver replied with a small blush. "Now, I'm afraid we must go," he looked at the gang of dogs. "Jenny knows I'm with you but I'm sure she'll be worried by now."
"Right you are, kiddo," Dodger nodded, turning to face the Rescue Rangers. "Hey, uh, listen. If you guys need help you know where to find us... uh," he scratched the back of his head. "We had a rough start, so if you hear some things from the police dogs... give us the benefit of the doubt."
Chip nodded. "After your help tonight? We'll be sure to put in a good word for you!"
"Hey!" Dodger chuckled. "Don't go that far! I have an image to maintain!" he seemed to wink behind his sunglasses. "I'm a rascal, after all!"
With that, he barked an order and the group marched Fat Cat and his gang out of the warehouse.
"Well, that's it," Sweetie sighed. "Anyway, everypony, it was fun but I have to go," she said, looking at everyone. "I'm sure you have everything under control now."
"We do, kiddo!" Monterrey Jack nodded.
Sweetie smiled. "Good. I'll be seeing you around!"
Her eyes turned to the purple crystal that had been part of Fat Cat's chain and suddenly both she and it faded away.
o.0.o Votes for the next chapter will be up at some point o.0.o