PonyFall: Australia

by Thunderbug80


The Equestrians Have Been Doubled!

The Equestrians Have Been Doubled!
April 25, 2012


The morning of the 25th was the first time in as long as I could remember that I woke up feeling as if I had gotten enough sleep. My eyes opened slowly when I felt the heat of the sun warming my cheek as sunlight streamed through the tent and upon me. In the room next to mine I saw Pinkie and Fluttershy still asleep. The latter had a small, almost peaceful looking smile on her face as she slept, and I knew things were going to be different with her from here on out. A bit further away in the third room within the tent, Angel was also fully unconscious.

Knowing that this may have been the last chance we had at having a solid night’s sleep, what with three children due to arrive that very day, I used extra care as I got up and exited the tent so as not to wake them up.

The day that greeted me as I stepped outside was bright and cloudless, with only a small amount of wind. I was glad that, despite it being late Autumn in Australia, it was only a little chilly out and would likely warm up significantly around noon. It seemed like the perfect kind of day to greet John and the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the airport.

Or it would have been if not for the fact that the normally noisy Australian wildlife was suddenly silent, and the leaves in the trees seemed to slow their gentle swaying and came to a complete stop. While this was a somewhat odd occurrence, it wasn’t in itself enough to cause any great amount of concern.

The strange man waiting outside my tent was, however.

Nearly as tall as I am and shrouded in a tasteless hooded robe patterned much like one of those Hawaiian shirts that Yanks like to wear while visiting the country, the man was leaning against a tree and examining an apple. Holding his robe in place was a silver clasp fashioned into the letters F and A. The man didn’t bother to look up when I appeared from within the tent.

“Hello again, Doug,” the man greeted me from where he stood.

Again? Was this Discord in disguise?

“And before you say anything,” the man continued, “you’d think that one of these times you’d actually notice my initials and think things through before jumping to conclusions.” Though his face was almost entirely obscured by his hood, I could almost feel him grin. “Besides, Discord is currently sleeping off a week’s worth of chaos. He won’t be bothering you any time soon.”

The man’s words and attitude suggested that we had met before, but I didn’t recognize him at all. He also seemed to know what I was thinking. I thought about what he had said about his initials and looked at the robe’s clasp again. F.A. Was this the man who had...

“Yes, I left the note. And the toy with the cupcake. I trust you gave it to Pinkie already, so if there aren’t any more pointless questions floating around in your skull I assume we can just get on with this?” he asked impatiently.

Though I didn’t understand what was going on, I did understand the concept of getting to the point. I assumed my questions would be answered soon enough, and didn’t feel as if there was any immediate danger to the Equestrians. This guy knew about Pinkie Pie somehow, so it was best to just hear him out and go from there. I wasn’t in any position to try to subdue him if he turned out to be dangerous since, if he could read minds, he’d just predict my every move.

“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “Let’s get on with it, then.”

“I’d put that bow down if I were you, Doug,” the man growled without looking up.

I blinked. “I... don’t have my bow.” What was he going on about and how did he know about my bow? For whatever reason, my words seemed to get his attention.

“What?” he asked suddenly, looking up. I still couldn’t see his face but I could make out his mouth and stubbled jaw. “Oh... you are polite this time around. I see.” He half-smiled. “What changed this time, I wonder...”

“I don’t know how you know about my bow, but it would do no good to wake the girls up by trying to fight someone simply because he knows a few things about me.” It was the sad truth of the matter. There was a nagging feeling in the back of my head that this man either truly was Discord and was simply playing mind games with me, or he was someone who could become just as dangerous as the draconequus. As such, the only thing I had any small amount of control over was keeping the Equestrians asleep. Or I thought I had, anyway.

“Oh Piiiinkie! Pinkie Pie!” the man yelled. “There’s a party going on out here and we need cupcakes right now!” He grinned that god-awful grin of his again when I flinched slightly from the sudden noise. The last thing I wanted was Pinkie to wake up, and any moment she’d be rushing outside the tent and find that there was not, in fact, any party going on.

... or maybe not?

“Oh, are you wondering why Pinkie hasn’t come bursting through the tent at the mention of a little fun?” the man asked. I hadn’t noticed him put on a party hat but there one was, sitting atop his hood. “Not that it’s going to matter in a moment, but I’ll humor you. Again.” The man bent down and picked up a small rock, then opened his hand and allowed it to drop to the ground.

Only, it didn’t. It remained suspended in mid-air.

“Since I’m really not in the mood to wait for you to comprehend what has happened again,” he continued, “I’ll explain. Time has stopped for all but you and I. No, I’m not going to explain why or how. I grew weary of that after finding out that bringing Angel here didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped.” Before I knew it, he was on me, his hooded face mere inches from my own and his voice like gravel. “So what I’m going to do is have a look inside that tent, find out that Fluttershy is missing once again and then I’m going to enjoy myself as much as I can as I reset you.”

I didn’t like the way the man said reset, and had the sudden feeling that I wasn’t going to enjoy finding out what it meant. Something else he had said stood out, however.

“Fluttershy isn’t missing,” I revealed just as the man peered into the tent.

The man backed out of the tent and was silent for a moment, as if he were lost in thought. Finally, he said, “So she isn’t gone this time...” He seemed to drift off again, but then surprised me by doing a sudden fist pump. He turned to face me. “Well then,” he mused. “I guess we can forget about resetting you... for now.”

The man then withdrew some kind of small notepad from somewhere in his robes and ticked something off, muttering something that sounded like ‘Now to deal with the dragon.’ He looked up and, for once, his smile was almost pleasant. “Keep Pinkie happy, will you? Oh, and do try and not forget about Ashton,” he said. “Right in the face, as soon as you see him.” With those last tidbits of advice, he loudly clapped his hands and my vision went white before I blacked out.

When I next opened my eyes, I was in my tent with the light of the sun streaming through it and warming my face. I had to blink to clear my vision; had I been dreaming? I was certain that I had been until I rolled over and spied a small rock that had been left on the pillow beside me.


“So what’s an airport like?” Pinkie asked as the car moved slowly through the woods.

We had quickly packed up the tent and all our supplies and carried them back to the car. I didn’t tell the Equestrians about F.A. Not because I felt like I needed to hide anything from them, but because I had a strong feeling that they weren’t meant to know about it. That perhaps something terrible might occur if I were to say anything about it to them. I had never been superstitious before, but the feeling was strong enough that I decided to let it be. For now.

“It’s a surprise,” I replied. It was better than trying to explain flight without wings and I knew what her response would be.

“Oooh! I love surprises!” Right on cue.

The mud and grass eventually gave way to the dirt road that would lead us back north to Bundeena where we could get back onto a paved road and eventually take Princes Highway all the way to the airport. I had regularly picked up my mother-in-law from the international terminal the many times she had returned to Sydney from her overseas trips, so I was a bit of a pro at navigating the traffic and knew the best places to park. If all went well, finding John and the girls as they exited the airport would be easy. The only problem was that I had no idea what John looked like, and since both Sweetie and Scootaloo had dyed their hair, I’d have to rely on finding Apple Bloom.

“I think the girls will like you,” Fluttershy predicted from the back seat. “I have a feeling that you’ll do well around children.”

Her demeanor was sweet, gentle and kind, as it usually was when she was happy. I looked at her through the rear-view mirror and noticed that her face showed none of the signs of stress and worry that had once been there. The events of the previous night had ignited something within her, a kind of courage or confidence that had been lacking before. While she was still quiet and probably still quite shy, I was certain from then onwards that she wouldn't allow herself to break down again.

“Probably not as well as you do,” I responded. The flushing of her cheeks confirmed that she was indeed still quite shy. “I’ve seen episodes with you and the Crusaders. They completely adore you.”

The former pegasus remained silent but I noticed the small smile that had crept onto her lips. After nearly two weeks of being separated from everything they knew and loved, the Equestrians were finally going to be reunited with three more of their friends. Whether it was fate or sheer blind luck, I was thankful that I had found the Cutie Mark Crusaders relatively quickly and that they had been taken in by a decent individual. A pony like Applejack or Twilight Sparkle could probably handle being alone for a little while, but having the Crusaders wandering Earth scared and alone would have been awful. Even with the three of them together, they still probably wouldn’t have lasted long without intervention.

I took a moment to think about our next move as we drew closer to the airport and to the Crusaders. DragonLS had found Princess Celestia and it was crucial that she regain her magic. She and Princess Luna were probably the only two with magic powerful enough to get the Equestrians back home, but Luna was still missing in action along with Twilight Sparkle and Rarity. If my theory that friendship truly does make magic was correct, then we would need to bring every pony together in order for the princesses to regain their powers.

While the locations of Luna, Twilight and Rarity were unknown, Dragon’s email had said that Applejack and Rainbow Dash had both been found. I couldn’t remember if the email stated whether they were both in the US or not, but if they were then the next logical step would be to unite Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Celestia. Perhaps then the princess would regain a bit of her power and maybe cast some kind of tracking spell to find the others. We’d still have the problem of having groups of ponies on two or more separate continents, but maybe we’d get lucky and we could unite one of the princesses with enough Equestrians for them to cast a teleport spell.

That was a lot of maybes, and none of it would work if I was wrong about the magic.

I cleared my head and focused on the drive to the airport. One thing at a time, I thought. One thing at a time.


Our arrival at the airport went almost exactly as I thought it would. The Equestrians all stared out their car windows and gawked at the massive planes that were either arriving or taking off regularly. The only things missing were the questions I had expected to hear concerning the giant flying mechanical things. Perhaps the Equestrians had seen one flying overhead before and figured out what they were, or maybe they had simply seen enough strange things by then that they knew any questions they had about them would be answered soon enough anyway. Thinking back on it, I realized that the ponies used hot air balloons and airships, so an airplane might not have been that much of a big deal.

Whatever the reason, they were speechless.

It hadn’t taken long for me to navigate the airport and find a parking spot that had a good view of the doors that John and the girls would have to go through. Being that it was a Wednesday, there weren’t as many people bustling about as there would have been on a weekend for which I was thankful. Once we were settled, it simply became a matter of waiting to spot Apple Bloom.

“Is that her!?” Pinkie shouted almost immediately, hopping up and down in her seat and pointing towards some random little girl. She frowned and said, “Hmm. No, that can’t be her. That girl is blonde. Oooh! Is that her? Oh, no... that’s actually a boy, I think. Hmm...”

Roughly twenty minutes of increasingly disturbing guesses as to who Apple Bloom might be, including a long-haired dwarf wearing shades, Pinkie finally managed to point out a girl who looked very familiar and was accompanied by two other girls and a short, thin young man of about twenty or so. The guy had brown, unkempt hair and was wearing black-rimmed glasses. The other girls looked a bit familiar as well, especially the one with violet hair.

“Hm, I’m not completely sure,” I told Pinkie, “but that looks like it might... hey, get back here! What if it’s not them!?”

Pinkie had opened the door and jumped out, rushing towards the group completely oblivious to her surroundings.

“Don’t worry, I’ll ask them!” she called back to me before turning to address the group. “Hey you!” The little girl looked up. “I hope you’re Apple Bloom because Auntie Pinkie’s coming in for a hug attack!”

Pinkie completely ignored the traffic as she ran through the parking lot and across the road to the girl. Fluttershy, Angel and I quickly exited the car and began to make our way over before the crazy former pony could end up getting hit by a car or something.

The little girl’s eyes widened in surprise, then her mouth opened in delight. The other girls soon followed suit, but the young man seemed as if he were trying to decide whether to protect the girls from the crazy lady rushing them, or to protect Pinkie from herself as cars were honking at her as she crossed the road. Before he could make a decision, Pinkie was on them and scooping the girls up in a giant hug.

“Pinkie!” the girls called out in unison. I breathed a silent sigh of relief at that, because it meant that Pinkie hadn’t just freaked out a group of total strangers. Then the realization kicked in; we had found the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

The girl, who turned out to be Apple Bloom after all, was wearing stonewash jeans and a denim jacket over a yellow shirt that, judging by the logo on the front, had come from a GAP store. Her long red hair was done up in a ponytail and, sure enough, there was a big red bow keeping it in place.

Sweetie Belle’s hair had somehow become violet once again in the time between having her passport photo taken and arriving in Australia. She was wearing a long, sky blue dress with a white cardigan over it, as well as one of the most adorable smiles I had ever seen. Her brilliant green eyes sparkled as she returned Pinkie’s hug.

Scootaloo still had brown hair, but some purple was clearly beginning to show through at the roots. She was wearing jeans like Apple Bloom, with an orange sweatshirt. Seeing her in person, I was somewhat ashamed and appalled by the chicken jokes that were often attributed to her. She was far too adorable to be teased in such a way.

The young man seemed somewhat unsure of what to do and simply stood by their luggage as the girls began to chat up Pinkie. Nobody even seemed to notice Fluttershy, Angel, or I as we finally arrived at the scene.

“Excuse me,” I said as I moved towards the young man, “are you John?”

He jumped slightly, as if startled by my sudden appearance. I guess he had been too wrapped up in seeing Pinkie Pie in person, so I couldn’t blame the poor bloke. “Oh uh, hi... you must be Doug, right?”

I nodded and noticed John’s eyes straying toward Fluttershy and Angel. Fair enough, meeting Equestrians is far more interesting than meeting normal old humans, I suppose. I stepped back and introduced them to him.

“John, this here is Angel,” I said, beckoning to the former bunny.

“Hhhh....hi!” Angel managed to say. He looked up at John with those strange eyes of his.

“Uh, hey there... little guy?” John replied hesitantly. He seemed relieved when Angel stepped back and allowed Fluttershy to come forward.

“And this here is Fluttershy,” I said. Fluttershy remained partially hidden behind me, but stuck her head out to have a look at John.

“Nice... nice to meet you,” he stuttered. I wondered what his problem was, but then I realized that Fluttershy looked about the same age he did. Of course.

I cleared my throat in an attempt to get his attention, but the kid was spellbound. It didn’t matter, however, as Angel stepped forward and stomped on John’s foot.

“Son of a —” he exclaimed, now fully out of his stupor. He glared down at Angel, who crossed his arms and glared right back.

“John?” Scootaloo had broken free from Pinkie’s embrace and ran over to see what was going on. “Are you okay? I heard a... whoah!” She stopped and looked up at me. I guess she was noticing me for the first time, having been scooped up by Pinkie before. Her eyes had grown wide and her mouth was slightly agape as she stared up at me.

“Hello Scootaloo,” I said, smiling. She continued to look at me with some kind of mixture of awe and wonder.

“Hey, Scootaloo, are you talking to Fluttershy?” asked Sweetie as she emerged from Pinkie’s grasp. “I can’t wait to... oh!” She, like Scootaloo, had suddenly stopped talking when she saw me. It was a little unsettling.

“Hey, what’re y’all running off without me for?” Apple Bloom called out as she and Pinkie arrived. “I wanna see Fluttershy too!” She followed her friends’ gazes up to me and blinked.

“Hello,” I tried again, feeling awkward under the gaping stares of the other two Crusaders.

Apple Bloom reached over and tugged on John’s shirt. “Hey, you never told us y’all had talkin’ bears on Earth!”

John grimaced and explained. “He’s not a bear, girls. Just a little tall.”

Apple Bloom crossed her arms. “Uh huh, so how do ya explain all that hair?” She pointed to my beard, then addressed me. “Hey mister, are ya a bear or aint ya?”

“Apple Bloom! Don’t be rude,” Sweetie berated. She slowly stepped towards me and tenderly held up her hand. “Hi, I’m Sweetie Belle.”

It would likely have been one of the most heart-warming moments of my life to be greeted by Sweetie Belle in such a way had it not been for Pinkie giggling like a maniac and going on about Captain Man-Bear in the background. Despite that, it was still confirmation to me that Sweetie deserved her name as I gently took her hand and shook it.

“I’m Doug,” I offered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“That means...” Sweetie stopped and thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up and she addressed Fluttershy. “You’re Fluttershy!” she squeaked. “Wow, you look so pretty as a human! Rarity would love that dress!”

Fluttershy was taken aback by the sudden attention, but she couldn’t help herself and came forward to give the girls a warm, heartfelt hug.

“Oh, I’ve missed you all so much!” she said through joyous tears. “I’m so happy that you’re all safe. It must have been just terrible to wake up and not know where you were.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom gasped in the midst of the hug. “We were really scared.”

I stepped back and allowed the Equestrians to catch up with each other. It was great to see Pinkie, Fluttershy and Angel truly happy for the first time in days, and even better to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders all happy, healthy and in good spirits. John must have had the same idea, because we were soon standing together and watching the Equestrians tell each other stories of what they had seen and done.

I was so caught up in watching them that I didn’t notice a man splitting off from the usual airport crowd and making his way over towards us.

“Hey!” the man called, getting my attention. He quickly reached us and held out his fist.

I stared at it, then looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Brohoof, right?” he asked. “You guys going to a meetup or something? I didn’t even know there were any planned for out here.”

After an awkward pause, I extended my hand and returned the brohoof. The man, a short individual roughly John’s height, but weighing a bit more, with short brown hair and a wide smile, held out his fist to John as well. John, too, returned the gesture.

“So... you are?” I asked. Ordinarily, I would be thrilled to meet another brony, but I really didn’t have time for this right now. I just wanted to get the Equestrians somewhere safe and then figure out what to do from there.

“Oh, just call me Southern Cross, that’s what I go by online,” he replied. He was clearly enthusiastic about meeting other pony fans. “Same name on all the MLP sites. EQD, art, fan fiction...”

Fan fiction? I thought.

I interrupted him and bent close. “Did you find anypony?” I asked.

He just looked up at me inquisitively and John interjected.

“Uh Doug, I think we should get going...” he said.

But then the man, Southern Cross, laughed. It was somewhat creepy, like a forced evil villain laugh. “What is that, some sort of inside joke? Seriously, did you find anypony? Sure, yeah. I have three in my backyard!” He chuckled and slapped me on my back. “So anyway, I need to get going. I just saw you all cosplaying and had to introduce myself. Look me up online sometime!”

And with that, the man had disappeared back into the crowd just as quickly as he had appeared.

I looked at John, who looked back at me. “I... can we just go get something to eat?" he asked. "I think we’re all a little sick of airplane food and that didn’t help.”

“Yeah, let’s get going,” I agreed. “Having all of us out here in public together might draw unwanted attention, as we just saw.”

We gathered the Equestrians, who had been too busy catching up to notice the man who had approached us, and made our way to my car. Once we arrived, I took a look at what was now a small crowd of Equestrians, then back to my car. I looked up just as John caught my eye.

“So uh,” he began, “how are we all going to fit into that?