My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

by Drizzle Quill

Chapter Nineteen: Why Aren't They Home Yet?

“I’m telling you, Rainbow Dash, he hasn’t come home yet! This is bad, very bad. Something is wrong!”

“Chill, Twi! He’s probably just going overboard at that circus thing. He’ll probably be here when you wake up in the morning.”

“But still…Vinnie?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as her navy-maned companion turned to the reptile scurrying in and out of books, running from Pepper in some sort of game they must have been playing. Vinnie stopped and looked up at Twilight Sparkle, eyes confused. “What?”

“Do you know why Russell hasn’t come home yet?” Rainbow could almost taste the panic in Twilight’s voice, prompting her to roll her eyes again. That probably wasn’t a good idea, as her sockets began to ache, causing her to rapidly shake her head back and forth.

“Biff said that pets in Zelda’s class take longer to return because they have ‘more intense training,’” Vinnie answered, and then following with a sharp yelp as Pepper pounced on him from behind.

Rainbow flipped a page of the Daring Do book cradled in her lap and nodded. “See, Twi? Just like I said. A little overboard.”

Twilight turned back, relief clearly showing in her violet eyes. “Yeah…maybe I got a little worked up. Just a little.” She levitated a few books in front of her, inspected them, and placed them atop her desk, having them land with a loud THUNK.

The pegasus nodded, content with this answer, and turned back to her book, practically touching the excitement arising around her as she read word after word. Daring Do was trapped in a quicksand pit with giant yellow jackets rapidly descending all around her, and her wings were still recovering, not quite strong enough to pull her out. Rainbow read faster and faster, feeling her own wings subconsciously flutter in excitement as Daring grabbed one of the yellow jackets and allowed it to pull her upwards, far enough for her wings to pull her to safety…but it wasn’t over yet, because the jackets were still hot on her tail…

To her disapproval, Pepper and Vinnie began talking loudly and interrupting her train of thought. One ear flicked in irritation; Rainbow lowered her book and watched them, listening. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do while waiting for them to shut up.

“So what did you do in that circus practice?” Pepper asked, using her tail as a recliner to rest on while she looked at Vinnie with inquisitive rose colored eyes.

The gecko shrugged, also reclining, but on a stack of books instead. “Messed around on a high wire. Practiced dancing up in the sky. It was actually really cool.”

“Sounds cool!” The skunk looked up, eyes shining. “Do you know if they need a clown?”

“Actually…Biff told me to bring my friends there, so yeah, I guess they’d like a clown.”

“Yee-haw!” Pepper leapt up, letting out a wild whoop of success. “I’d love to be in a circus with you and Zo and the others! When would we go?”

One of Rainbow’s ears flicked. When Pepper vanished tomorrow, at least she would know that the skunk was okay. But did they have to talk so loud? Daring was in yet another life-threatening situation and she had to know if she got out okay!

“Well, we usually meet them at around lunchtime,” Vinnie thought out loud.

“Noon? Twelve?” Pepper asked sarcastically.

“Yes!” The gecko grinned, revelation obvious in his eyes. “Twelve! Noon! Whatever time those are!”

“They’re the same time.”

Rainbow automatically rolled her eyes again. Even she knew that, and sometimes her friends told her she could be a little slow to catch on to things, as she was usually all action, action, action all the time.

“Great! Can’t wait for you to go.” Vinnie looked up, like he was thinking very hard about something. “I want the others to come too.”

“All of them?” Pepper expressed her surprise with a shocked, even panicked look in her eyes that was clear to see. “Really?”

“Well, Zo and Rusty are already going, and if I bring you, is it really fair to leave Sunil, Minka and Penny behind?” Vinnie’s logic went through one of Rainbow’s ears and out the other. She wanted to read. Was that so difficult for their little animal minds to understand? Even if they could talk and all…that was all because of some spell Twilight had done.

Then what they were talking about processed. They were going to talk to the others! Rainbow bolted upright, surprising everyone in the room except Twilight, who remained deeply buried in her books. “Can I come with you guys?” she asked, all annoyance vansished from her voice.

Pepper and Vinnie exchanged startled glances before the skunk shrugged. “How would we know where everyone’s staying otherwise?” she asked.

That was an awfully good point. “Great!” Rainbow was so overjoyed she did a little loop-de-loop in the air. “Twi, we’re heading out. Bye.”

As the three headed out the door, Twilight looked up, violet eyes startled, and blinked. “What?” After a few seconds of no one answering, she shrugged and looked down, gaze trained back on the paper.

“Bye, Dashie!”

Rainbow winced at the last few syllables of that high-pitched screech, but forced a sincere smile onto her face. “Bye, Pinks! Maybe we can hang out sometime?”

Pinkie Pie’s smile grew from ear to ear. “That would be totally terrific! But I have to go now. Gummy needs his meals and he can’t get them himself! Byeeee!” With a last little wave of her pink hoof, the earth pony vanished behind the door of Sugarcube Corner.

Rainbow chuckled nervously and looked down at the skunk and gecko atop her back. “Can Minka come?”

“Yup,” Pepper answered, lazily entangling herself in the pegasus’ mane. Rainbow Dash glared at her but decided to ignore it for now.

“So that’s two down, one to go?” she asked.

Vinnie nodded. “All we have left is Sunil. Man, I haven’t seen him in ages! Best friends aren’t supposed to be separated for a long time, you know.”

Rainbow Dash knew that for a fact. Finally they were heading off to see the pet of the pony she had been wanting to talk to: Fluttershy. She hadn’t spent some real time with Flutters for ages, not without one of the others intruding upon their conversation, anyways, and she intended to end that today. Like Vinnie had just mentioned, best friends weren’t supposed to be separated for too long of a time.

“You guys up for a wild ride?” she called over her shoulder, making her wings spring out from her sides and wiggling each individual feather in preparation.

“Ready!” Pepper and Vinnie called together, and Rainbow Dash took off.

Zooming throughout Ponyville was something she had done most of her life, and so she found it easy to navigate through the streets without knocking over carts, startled ponies, or stray miscellaneous objects. But that wasn’t enough; with a wild whoop of exhilaration she tipped her nose upward and zipped into the sky. Feeling the clouds brush her wings sent a tingling feeling throughout her entire body, and she loved it.

Magenta eyes flicked downwards as a steady spiral of smoke swirled up around them. She knew where that was coming from: their destination, Fluttershy’s cottage. With a grin, she alighted atop the small bridge that lead to the doorway and trotted the rest of the way. “Flutters? You there?”

“Oh!” she heard a small squeak of surprise from inside, and then the door creaked open, revealing the butter-yellow pegasus Rainbow had been hoping to see.

Her face cracked into a wide grin. “Hey, Fluttershy! What’s up…? Rarity?”

For indeed, sitting in the corner, atop the red couch the pegasus owned, was Rarity herself, violet mane, sapphire gaze and all. She glared at Rainbow through narrowed eyes, like she wasn’t too happy to see her either.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said softly, teal gaze diverting to Pepper and Vinnie, both of which were trying to get off of Rainbow’s back and into the cottage. “Rarity is here resting. I hope you don’t mind.”

A forced smile appeared on the pegasus’ face for the second time that day. “Not at all! Yeah, it’s totally fine. Totally. T-O-T-A-L-L-Y. Yup. Yeah…I’m good.”

On the couch behind them, Rarity snorted and lifted one eyebrow doubtfully.

Heat rose to Rainbow’s cheeks; whipping around so as to hide her face, she muttered, “Listen, the pets have something to ask Sunil, m’kay? Then we’ll be on our way.”

“Oh! But they have to play for a little bit! I’m sure they missed each other very much,” Fluttershy cooed, stroking Pepper along her back and smiling sincerely as the skunk moaned in pleasure. “Why don’t you come in, and we can talk for a little bit? Rarity was just about to tell me about something that is…distressing her.”

“And it should distress you too! They’re after them! They’re after them!” Rarity wailed from her position on the couch.

Rainbow ignored her and shrugged. “That’s cool, I guess.” Allowing the pets to leap down on the ground, she trotted inside and took her place on a stool nearby Rarity. “So, what’s up, Rare?”

“Evil is up,” Rarity muttered ominously.

The two pegasi exchanged confused glances and turned back to the unicorn, who was now mumbling under her breath. “Rarity?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you what I mean! Oh-ho, yes, I’ll tell you!” The unicorn leaned in closer, dark blue eyes afire. “Your friends are going to be kidnapped! It’s already happened with my Zoe, and Twilight’s Russell! And Blythe has no idea!”

“Where is Blythe?” Rainbow asked, now realizing that she hadn’t seen the human-turned-pegasus in a while.

“She’s been trying to adjust to Equestria back at the Boutique by making dresses and talking with Sweetie and her friends,” Rarity replied. “But that’s not important now! I need to tell you!”

She leaned in, as if she was going to tell them a huge secret. Rainbow and Fluttershy leaned in too, anxiety bubbling to the surface.

Rarity took a deep breath.

And she let it all out.

You can’t do that, Rainbow! I was there! It was dangerous!

Rainbow Dash, I really don’t think that’s a good idea…

The words echoed in the pegasus’ head, but she shook them out like debris in her mane. She was going to do this, and she needed to see what exactly was going on. She just hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake.

Meh, I’m Rainbow Dash! I never make mistakes!

It was the next morning, about five minutes before noon. Rainbow was inside Twilight’s library yet again, and watched as Vinnie left the library, waving goodbye to Spike before he took off, presumably to go and get the others.

Twilight was frantic: Russell still had not returned, and based on the story Rarity had told them both, Zoe hadn’t either. Things looked back. But Rainbow knew she was going to fix that.

It really wasn’t a very hard decision to make. She was Rainbow Dash and she was going to do what was right: do what Rarity had done and follow the pets to the so-called circus. Something deeper had to be up.

“Rainbow Dash, are you sure this is a good idea?” Twilight asked, looking up from her book, violet eyes worried.

“Twi, this is me. Rainbow Dash. Of course it’s a good idea!”

“But are you sure—”

“Bye!”

A heartbeat later, there was nothing but a multicolored streak left behind in the library. Twilight bit her lip, a shudder passing throughout her body, and forced herself to keep on reading. It was, after all, what Rainbow would want her to do. Not worry.

It hadn’t taken Rainbow Dash very long to find where the pets were – they weren’t exactly hard to miss, what with their brilliant multi-colors and such. Their shades of fur were almost as vibrant as Rainbow’s own mane. Alighting swiftly on the ground, she watched as Vinnie led them into a darker part of the forest, beckoning eagerly with one webbed finger. “Come on, you guys!”

Rainbow crept behind a bush and slowly began to stalk, watching as the pets raced along the undergrowth so fast that she had to change her creeping to a swift trot.

Pretty soon they stopped, quite suddenly, so the pegasus stopped too.

“Why aren’t we moving?” came the quiet, female voice of Penny.

“She’ll be here soon,” Vinnie’s deeper voice replied.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. Who?

All of a sudden there was a noise. Not in front of her, near the pets, but behind her. A whimpering noise. A whimpering, tragic song. Someone was singing. Someone was singing and crying.

And the voice suddenly sounded incredibly familiar.

Pets forgotten, Rainbow whipped around and, extending her wings with a quick pop, she dove through the bushes towards the voice, feeling the thorns and bushes and leaves tear at her fur and tangle themselves in her mane, but the voice was getting louder so she began to run quicker and all of a sudden, like somepony had pulled the plug on a radio, it stopped.

Whipping her head up, Rainbow Dash looked around, trying to remember where that hauntingly familiar voice had come from. But it had seemed like it had come from all around her, that it was the very presence of the air itself that had been singing.

Her quest lost, Rainbow headed back to where the other pets were slowly, with her head down, when she realized that she couldn’t hear their voices anymore. Panic bubbled up in her throat; with a horrified yell she zoomed off, not caring about not being heard. Where were they…where were they?

She searched for at least an hour longer, but it was as if the pets had simply vanished into the undergrowth.

And that night, when she came home with her job a failure, none of the pets came home.