“You’re Sly Hoof, right?”
Sly Hoof raised his head up from his dinner of hay and vegetables to get a look at the questioner. Having just taken the seat across from him at the long wooden table was an off-duty guard. He removed his helmet to reveal a shock of blue hair. He looked at Sly with curiosity, who groaned with annoyance; he really didn’t want to talk to any of these Canterlot ponies.
“And what makes you think that?”
“My buddy Jasper was on duty outside the throne room and said some pony named Sly Hoof brought a message about Equestria being attacked. You’re not a guard, but you’re in the guard quarter. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know if I should…”
“Oh come on!” the guard insisted, his eyes lighting up, “If it’s true we’re going to hear about it anyway, so just tell us.”
Sly looked around to see they were the only two in the vicinity. The guard did have a point – rumors were about to spread like wildfire, anyway. Nopony would know that he contributed to them. The least he could do was ensure they had accurate information.
“Alright, fine. The Crystal Empire’s been attacked.”
The guard eyes widened, “Really? How bad?”
Sly shrugged, “I don’t know. I left as soon as it happened.”
The guard leaned over onto the table and rested his head on his crossed forelegs.
“Holy hay. My brother’s in the empire right now. He’s a guard at the castle. I hope he’s alright.”
Sly raised his eyebrows, “Really? So was I. What’s his name?”
“Flash Sentry.”
He racked his brain. The name was definitely familiar…
“Pegasus? Blue hair? Kind of dull?”
“Yeah, that’s the guy,” the guard said emphatically, “You know him? Is he alright?”
“I don’t know. I never really knew him; I just know of him.”
“Well, tell me what you know. Chances are we’re all about to head up there, anyway. Oh, the name’s Bolt, by the way.”
Sly lazily returned Bolt’s hoof-bump, “The only thing I really remember about the guy is that he was court martialed once for inappropriately flirting with every mare in the castle, including the princesses. He was exonerated for being so damn bad at it.”
Bolt smiled slightly, “Yeah, that sounds like him. I actually just got a letter from him. He said big things were in the works, that he was going to come across a lot of bits soon. I have no idea what he was talking about, probably another of his stupid get-rich-quick schemes or something.”
Sly frowned. Not that was interesting. A castle guard was going to come into a lot of money right before his castle was invaded? He wondered what was going on there. Maybe he should tell somepony…
“I better get to bed, I’ve had a long day,” Sly said, still frowning.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” responded Bolt, “You can use my bunk; I’m about to go on watch. It’s right over there.”
Sly went to the bed indicated and threw himself onto it, exhausting seeping from his tired bones. Something was definitely strange about all of this…
Before he could think further about it, he was asleep.
***
Applejack rolled restlessly in her bed, desperately trying to achieve the restful sleep that she hadn’t gotten that night. Sure, her eyes were closed, and she dreamed, but her brain would jolt awake what seemed like every few minutes, and thoughts of how horrible she had treated Rainbow Dash permeated both her dreams, thoughts, and emotions.
There was a great rumbling outside her window, causing her to sleepily blink her eyes and mumble something even she couldn’t understand. It sounded like a huge engine, even bigger than Applejack’s truck. She wondered for a moment where it was going. Ugh. Stupid sun, why did it have to shine straight into her eyes?
Wait…
Applejack jumped out of bed, panic suddenly taking her heart. She overslept! Not even bothering to change out of her pajamas, she threw open the bedroom door and bounded down the stairs, almost falling over her awkward two feet. Someone was in the kitchen. She leapt through the doorway, momentarily forgetting about the linoleum floor.
Human-AJ was in there alone at the sink. Her eyes went wide as Applejack tried skidding to a halt, but only ending up sliding across the floor in her socks. Her feet gave out from under her, and she fell back, slamming into the floor with a resounding thud.
“Woah there, sugarcube,” Human-AJ laughed as she helped AJ up, “Don’t they got friction in that pony world o’ yours?”
“Rainbow Dash? Did she leave yet?!”
“Ya just missed her. Rainbow just came and got her. Why do ya ask?”
Applejack hung her head. She was too late.
“Now don’t get all down like that,” Human-AJ said as she turned back to the dishes, “She’ll be back. Pinkie’s got that party tonight, remember?”
“Yeah, Ah know, but…”
“You’re worried about her and Rainbow?” she asked wisely, turning around and wiping her hands on a dishtowel. AJ nodded silently, still looking dejectedly down at the floor. “It’ll be alright, they’re just gone for the afternoon. Ah’m sure mah Rainbow’ll be too busy flyin’ the plane ta worry too much about your Rainbow. Before ya know it, she’ll be back here and you can say whatever it is ya need ta say.”
“That’s not all,” Applejack said sadly, “We… well, we kinda had a fight last night. Actually, it’s probably closer ta say Ah was…”
“A giant horse’s ass?” suggested Human-AJ with a slight smile.
“Ah don’ know if Ah should take offense ta that or not, but yeah.”
“Don’t worry too much, sugarcube. Rainbow… yeah, she can get emotional, but Ah don’ know of a more loyal friend on planet Earth – or where ever you’re from. She may be sore at ya, but if you’re really sorry, she’ll forgive you.”
“Thanks, AJ,” Applejack smiled at her new friend, “Yer the best.”
“Ah shucks,” Human-AJ waved her off, “It’s nothin’. Ah just hate ta see a pretty face like yours lookin’ so down.”
Applejack blushed slightly, “Are ya sure it’s Rainbow that’s full of herself?”
Her counterpart gave a mischievous look, “All Ah’m sayin’ is if you were a horse, Ah’d ride you.”
AJ groaned, “Alright, seriously, y’all need ta stop with that… weird – thing – you do.”
She laughed, “Ah’ll stop as soon as you stop makin’ it so easy. Anyway, we don’ have a lot ta do this mornin’. Why don’tcha go watch some TV while Ah call Fluttershy?”
“TV? No thanks. Ah don’ think Ah rightly trust it. How do Ah know it’s not watchin’ me back?”
“Because… Ah don’ know. Ah’ll watch it with you in a sec, let me give ‘Shy a call real quick.”
She took out her cell phone, made the call, and held it up to her ear.
“Hey, Fluttershy, it’s Applejack… Yeah… Didya ever get a chance ta talk to Sunset Shimmer?... Ya didn’t?... Well why don’t ya come over and we can go talk to her together… Oh… oh… Well, you’re comin’ tonight, aren’t ya?... Well you can tell that asshole… Fluttershy, listen ta me… He’s a bastard, ‘Shy… Fine, fine. Yeah, go ahead… I got it. You know Ah’m worried about you… Okay. Good bye.”
Human-AJ put the phone back in her pocket and sat heavily down on a kitchen chair with a great sigh.
“What’s the matter, sugarcube?” AJ asked.
“It’s Fluttershy. Well, it’s that damn boyfriend of hers.”
“Fluttershy’s got a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, and well... he's not a good person. Ah don' know if Ah feel right talkin' about it - it's kinda personal. He treats her bad, and she defends him."
"Why?"
"Ah'll... Ah'll talk about it later. It's a real tender point for us - meaning me and 'Shy's friends."
"It's alright," AJ responded, although she was deep in thought. She briefly wondered if every girl on Earth had to deal with this kind of trouble, or maybe it was just every human in general. Maybe this was why it was such a messed up place. She never missed home quite so much.
She missed her farm. She missed her friends. She missed her family. And... she missed her Rainbow.
***
Rainbow Dash was flying. Well, maybe she was still on the ground, but she was going faster than she ever had in this world, and there was even less to support her than when she was in the bed of Applejack’s truck.
She sat on the back of the motorcycle, leaning into Human-Dash and clutching her waist in her arms. She was wearing Human-Dash’s helmet – the human girl had insisted on it. It didn’t seem very cool, but then again, if anybody knew cool, it would be Human-Dash, right?
The human girl turned around and shouted something to her through the force of the wind. She didn’t understand a word of it, but she nodded anyway. After a minute, they pulled into a gas station and stopped next to a pump. Rainbow pulled her helmet off with enthusiasm.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you had such an awesome… bicycle-ey thing? Man, and I thought the truck was cool. Does your flying machine look like this, too?”
“Nah,” her companion responded, “But man, if plane-cycles existed, I’d get one in a heartbeat. I was so freaking excited when I got those blue wings when Twilight was here; I thought I was going to be flying everywhere. It must be awesome…”
“You have no idea. There’s this one move – the sonic rainboom – I’m the only pony in the world that can do it. It’s so awesome, in this one competition all my other moves were… well, I got nervous. Anyway, I did the sonic rainboom and that won me the competition. I got to spend an entire day with the Wonderbolts!”
“Sweet,” responded Human-Dash distractedly as she went to fill up her tank, “Why don’t you go inside and get some snacks or something. Here, take my credit card.”
Rainbow hesitantly took the card. It was made out of some sort of plastic. Stupid human world and their stupid plasticky things. Shrugging, she headed inside.
It was a place unlike any she’d seen in Ponyville. Normally, if you wanted food, you had to either pay big bits at a restaurant or go to the market and pick up some fresh produce from one of the farmers’ stands there. Then, you had to fly all that stuff all the way home and cook it. It was really boring, and boring meant uncool. Here, everything was already made. Potatoes were fried and put into little bags for you. Cakes were cooked and encased in plastic. And… dear Celestia, what was that?
Beef jerky.
Rainbow’s knees went weak. You mean you could buy meat already cooked and ready to eat? She didn’t have to wait for Applejack to make dinner? Holy hay. And so many different kinds – original, sweet & spicy, teriyaki, habanero, garlic, pepper, nirvana… She got two of each. No, three. Well, she didn’t know how much this ‘credit card’ thing was worth… Okay, two.
Three.
She gathered them all up in her arms and took them to the register. Huh, the clerk wasn’t there, she must have gone to the restroom or something. Seeing a basket filled with coins like at AJ’s cider stand, Rainbow deposited her payment and giddily ran out of the store.
“Christ, girl… like jerky much?” Human-Dash quipped as her counterpart deposited an armful into the motorcycle’s saddlebag.
“Nopony… I mean, nobody told me they sold meat in packages,” Rainbow said, flinching slightly at her mistake. It’s not cool to say ‘pony’ here, Dash, got to make a good impression.
“Yeah, they sell all kinds of packages here. Hop on.”
Rainbow put her helmet on and jumped behind her, grabbing her around the midsection. For some reason, she felt Human-Dash stiffen up, and she stopped the action of starting the ignition. With a very curious look on her face, she turned around and faced Rainbow.
“Uhm… Why aren’t you holding my waist like before?”
Rainbow let go of the girl in front of her and took off her helmet.
“I don’t know… Why does it matter?”
“Well, if you’re going to start being frisky, then you should probably wait until we’re not… in public.”
Rainbow simply responded with a confused look, turning her head to the side.
“You really don’t get it, do you?”
Rainbow shook her head.
“You were grabbing my tits.”
“Yeah, I thought they seemed like pretty good handles. So?”
Human-Dash facepalmed. “Alright, I can see you don’t know anything about this. Look, on Earth, you don’t just up and grab a girl’s tits, okay?”
“Why not?”
“Because… god damn it, just don’t. Ask Applejack about it, okay? She’s the motherly type.”
She reached over toward the key, glad to be finished this dumb conversation. Before she could start the bike, however, Pony-Dash bombarded her with another question.
“What about a boy’s tits?”
“Ugh. Boy’s don’t… well, I guess if they’re fat… I mean… Just don’t grab anyone’s tits!” she sighed, rubbing her temples wearily, “Look, hot stuff, I get that you don’t understand human anatomy yet, but you can’t go around groping girls like that. I’ll tell you all about human birds and the bees later, alright?”
Rainbow nodded back, sheepishly. She had thought that was a perfectly reasonable question. Now she went and made a fool out of herself. You’re such an dunderhead, Dash. She made a note to never mention that subject in front of her counterpart again. Putting her helmet back on, Rainbow reached around with trepidation and gingerly placed her hands on Human-Dash’s waist. Just as she was about to start the bike, she turned around –
“Hey, can I get my credit card back?”
“Huh? I spent it, remember?”
***
“Will ‘til you see this plane. She’s awesome,” Human-Dash said as she fiddled with the lock of the hanger. Rainbow looked around at the small municipal airport. There were only about half a dozen hangers and one runway. Apparently the air field wasn’t that busy in the morning on a weekday; they were the only ones there besides the air traffic controller. Human-Dash had said he was in charge of making sure ‘planes don’t crash into each other’. She didn’t see why they needed one – in Equestria, if she was about to crash into another pegasus, that pegasus would swerve out of the way. It should be the same here.
“Got it,” Human-Dash said finally, pulling off the lock and opening the door, “Check it out!”
Inside the hanger was a cyan recreational aircraft, big enough to seat two people. Rainbow Dash was enthralled. It was bigger than Applejack’s truck, with a spinning blade on the front and little wheels to get it across the ground.
“This is yours?” she asked with wide eyes.
“Nah, it’s my dad’s. But he lets me fly it.”
“All by yourself? Then why's there two seats?”
Human-Dash suddenly looked very unsure, looking down at her feet as she drew shapes into the concrete with them.
“You can keep a secret, right?”
“Yeah…” Rainbow answered, curious.
“Alright. You see, you probably don’t know this, but you can’t fly without a license. The thing is - I don’t have one, so I’m not technically allowed to fly unless Spitfire’s here.”
“So when does she get here? I’m kind of interested in talking to her, too.”
“She’ s not coming,” Human-Dash said flatly.
“She’s not?”
“No. But don’t worry, I’ve flown this plane by myself plenty of times. Old Barney up in the control tower overdoses on his meds every day, and he’s usually out cold in the mornings. All I have to do is make sure to get the plane back with no scratches and fill the tank back up, and no one’s the wiser. So what do you say - you in? You cool enough?”
“Hay yeah, I’m cool enough!” Rainbow responded brashly, making sure no one got the impression that she was possibly… uncool.
“Alright, then. Climb in while I do some preflight checks.”
She did as she was told and got into the plane’s passenger seat. There were a vast amount of lights and dials and meters and levers in front of her. And she had thought the tractor was complicated. Human-Dash walked around the plane, looking at certain parts for reasons Dash wasn’t sure of. After a few minutes, she hopped in beside her counterpart.
“Alright, sexy, you ready to get this show on the road?”
“Totally!”
“Let’s go then.”
She flipped a few switches in front of her, bringing the small plane to life. The lights turned on, the needles on the meters spun around until they reached their appropriate positions, and after a moment, the engine sputtered and churned into action.
Human-Dash shut the door on her side, and Rainbow followed suit. Operating controls various controls the pony girl didn’t understand, she eased the plane expertly out of the hanger and lined up on the runway.
“Control, N136BF – Request permission for takeoff, over.” she said into the radio.
No response. Human-Dash smiled.
“Control, N136BF – Your mother has large genitals, over.”
“What did you say that for?” Rainbow asked.
“Barney’s asleep again. Normally, Spitfire has to take the plane off the runway before she goes up to the tower to yell at him, but I find it’s usually more efficient to insult his mom and go anyway. It’s fine. If he wakes up and sees we’re gone, he’ll just check to see that I’ve filed a flight plan and then go back to sleep. You ready for takeoff?”
“Hay yes. Let’s go.”
Human-Dash pulled out the throttle carefully as the engine revved and the propeller spun so fast that it couldn’t be seen anymore. They pulled forward along the runway, excitement welling forth from Rainbow’s chest. The human girl pulled out the throttle as far as it would go and both girls were thrown back into their seats as the plane lurched forward. She operated some more controls, adjusting the elevators and the plane slowly began to leave the ground.
The plane quickly gained altitude as Rainbow looked out toward the ground below her. It was the feeling she’d been missing ever since she got here – the weightless feeling, the amazing view, the high speeds – everything but the wind in her hair. The plane leveled out as Human-Dash turned to her companion.
“I’m going to get away from the city, then we’ll do some tricks. How does that sound?”
“Totally awesome.”
“Cool.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes as Rainbow looked out the window toward the ground below. The lull gave her time to think. There was so much to think about – how things were going back home in Equestria, what had happened to Twilight, whether her human self really was cooler than her… As much as there was to think about, however, she found her mind kept going back to what had happened the previous night.
Why had Applejack been so hostile? It was so unlike her. The Applejack she was used to was calm, honest, friendly. Certainly not above getting frustrated every once in a while, but she had never taken it out on her friends so… meanly before. And it came absolutely out of nowhere. One minute she was trying to talk to her to make her feel better, the next Applejack was saying some really nasty stuff, and accusing her of… things.
“Something the matter?”
Rainbow turned to her counterpart, who was looking at her in concern. Maybe she just needed an outside opinion, somebody who knew AJ. Or knew an AJ.
“It’s just… has Applejack ever gotten really mad at you?” Rainbow started uncertainly.
Human-Dash rubbed her chin thoughtfully, “I guess. I never really gave it much thought, though.”
“What kind of stuff did she get mad at you for?”
“For being a mischievous bitch, mostly,” she smiled, “Although I’ve never seen her so mad as that one time when I was going out with Lightning Dust…”
“Lightning Dust?” Rainbow shouted, amazed, “That’s what my AJ was mad at me about… I think. What happened?”
“Applejack was mad at you, huh? It happens. Anyway, she caught me and Lightning making out at one of Pinkie Pie’s parties and got in a hissy fit. Really, I should have been the one who got pissed off – we were about to have some awesome kinky bathroom sex before she interrupted.”
“What!?”
“What?” Human-Dash asked innocently.
“You had… sex with her?”
“Yeah, didn’t you?”
“NO!” she shouted, before lowering her voice with a sheepish look, “I mean, no. I kissed her once, but I would never have sex with her. She was kind of… mean.”
“So?” Suddenly, a look of realization came upon Human-Dash’s face, “Wait a minute, are you a virgin?”
“No,” Dash responded quickly.
“You are, aren’t you?”
“I’m not! And besides, ponies don’t have sex that much, not like you humans do, apparently.”
“If you’re not a virgin, then who have you had sex with?”
“gasdhsdfkj…”
“What was that? You said Big Mac?”
“No! I said Gilda!” Rainbow quickly covered her mouth in horror – she had never told anyone about that before.
“Gilda, huh? Yeah, I did her too. Why her and not anyone else?”
“Well, I was kind of dating her in junior flight camp,” Dash explained, resigned, “She pressured me into it. I was kind of so wowed by her coolness and confidence, I never saw what a jerk she was.”
“Gilda’s alright. She just gets jealous really easy.”
“She’s alright?” she asked incredulously, “Didn’t you see what she did to Pinkie?”
“Did to Pinkie? I mean yeah, Gilda was kind of a dick to her at first, but then Pinkie threw a big party for her and they got drunk together and became the best of friends. What, that didn’t happen in pony-world?”
“No. Gilda kept getting pranked by... well, it was by me, but it was an accident. Then she yelled at Pinkie and I got mad at her. Ponies usually don't drink that much, either. It sounds like your Pinkie likes to get drunk a lot.”
“Oh, yeah,” Human-Dash laughed, “She’s a real party animal. Gotta love her, though.”
“Yeah…”
“So anyway, what are you going to do with Applejack?”
“I don’t know,” Rainbow responded at the change of subject, “This has never really happened to me before.”
“Do you want my advice?”
“Duh.”
“Be a loyal friend. When we get back, give her a chance to explain herself. She probably had a reason to be angry, even if it's a dumb one.”
She thought about this for a second, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Of course I am. What do you say we do a couple of flips to get your mind off of it?”
Rainbow’s eyes lit up, “Awesome!”
***
Fluttershy stared in horror through the translucent blue magic at the shapes of the four ponies on the other side. She felt a thud as Pinkie Pie tried fruitlessly to slam through the force field, a very unPinkie-like frown on her face. Fluttershy simply sat in shock.
Agister ran up to the blue aura and shouted something indecipherable, placing a forehoof against it. She cautiously walked up and put her ear up to it to try to hear what he was saying.
“Go to the train station!”
Right, the train station. There should still be ponies there, and maybe a train will arrive to take her back to Ponyville so she could hide under her bed.
No, Fluttershy. Your friends need help. You need to be brave.
Rarity and Pinkie Pie sadly came up to either side of Agister and placed their hooves on the dome next to his (Dartmoor just started walking away). Fluttershy gulped and placed her hoof on top of their's on her side. A tear started sliding down her cheek, as emotion started welling up in them all. Pulling up every ounce of determination inside of her, she plastered a resolute look on her face and turned around, heading toward the train station. The three ponies inside the city watched her go before turning around to catch up to Dartmoor.
As she reached the train station, she saw a small group of ponies all staring at the orb around the city in shock. They were commuters, tourists, businessponies. All were as frightened and startled by the sudden change in the city as Fluttershy was. Not one of them knew what the cause of the protective shield was, and only Fluttershy knew the city was under attack. As soon as they saw her approach, they all ran up to her.
“What happened!?”
“Did you come from the city?”
“Is there something wrong with the princess?”
Fluttershy shrank under the attention. She instinctively looked back for her friends, but they were already on their way towards the city on the other side of the shield. Trying her best not to run away in fear, she turned toward the crowd of ponies.
“Uhm… I don’t know what that is. I’m t-trapped here too.”
Seeing that this newcomer didn’t know anything, the crowd turned back to talk amongst themselves. Fluttershy didn’t join them, but instead went to sit upon a bench. What was she going to do now? She pulled into herself, shivering against the northern autumn cold. She wasn’t as warmly dressed as a lot of other ponies here. If a train comes, she might have to get on it just to keep from freezing to death.
A shout from the crowd drew her attention. The eyes of all the ponies were drawn to the blue bubble. It rippled and shook as a hole opened up in the shield. Three rough looking crystal stallions passed through, the hole closing behind them. They approached the train station, the crowd moving toward them, poised to ask further questions. Fluttershy had a bad feeling about these ponies, and quickly hid in the ticket booth.
“Alright, all of you get onto the platform!” one of them called with an authoritative voice. The commuter ponies did as they were told while eying each other nervously. The three stallions encircled them and directed them roughly toward the station as Fluttershy watched through a crack in the door of the ticket booth.
The crystal stallions laughed as they closed the door of the station, locking it with chains and a padlock. All the ponies that were at the station when the shield was erected were now locked inside, except Fluttershy.
“Hey, Shade, what’re we gonna do with ‘em when we’re done here?”
The pony called Shade shrugged. “Beats me. Probably let ‘em starve, or Grimm’ll enslave ‘em. I don't really care. Come on, we got work to do.”
Fluttershy watched as they made their way toward the train tracks, pulling something out of one of the pony’s saddlebag. Working quickly, they distributed it over the tracks and galloped quickly back to the station. Fluttershy flinched in fear as they kneeled right next to the ticket booth where she hid.
BOOOM!
An explosion rang out, shaking the station and everypony in it. Rocks and dirt were ejected up from the destroyed tracks, showering the entire area. Fluttershy dived under the counter the cash register was on where she continued to hide, shaking.
“Why’d we do that, boss?”
“I already told you idiots,” Shade said, “Grimm expects the army to arrive here. He’s having us blow up all the tracks from here to the gorge to slow ‘em down.”
“Is that it, then?”
“Yeah, the other team’ll get the rest. We were mainly sent to take care of anypony still at the station. Speaking of which…”
“I like what you’re thinking.”
Fluttershy heard hoofsteps approach her. The door of the ticket booth opened. Three sets of hooves clopped across the floor, drawing nearer to her hiding spot.
“Empty the register,” Shade said, “Just remember not to tell anypony about this; this is the king’s property, after all.”
The other two stallions chuckled greedily as the register opened over Fluttershy’s head. A trinkle of coins could be heard as bits were poured into saddle bags. That’s when the stallion closest to Fluttershy called out, freezing her heart with fear -
“Hey, what the crap is this?”
Shade walked over to the stallion who had made the statement. Apparently they were looking at something out of her view.
“‘In God We Trust, 2012’,” read Shade, “And there’s some kind of monkey in a wig on it. I have no clue. What’s it say on the back… Oh, of course. A damn buffalo. Those prairie dwellers are counterfeiting. Sombra damn it.”
He threw the nickel on the floor where it landed next to Fluttershy’s hoof.
“Just throw that crap away. Let’s get out of here. We need to stash our loot before I report back to Grimm.”
“I don’t know…” one of the ponies said stupidly, “I kind of like it.”
“Then knock yourself out,” Shade shook his head, “Just hurry up.”
A set of hooves approached Fluttershy’s hiding spot. She shrunk back as much as she could as the stallion’s knees bent as he reached down to pick up the discarded nickel. Please don’t see me. Please don’t see me. Please don’t…
His eyes went wide as he looked straight into hers! A pair of hooves grabbed her and threw her out onto the floor of the ticket booth!
“Hey boss! I found another one!”
The pony known as Shade walked back into the booth and looked down at her with a wide, crooked smile.
“Well, well. Looks like she thought she could hide from the Black Crystal Diciples. Throw her in with the rest of… wait.”
Shade’s pupil’s shrank and his mouth fell open as his eyes settled on Fluttershy’s cutie mark.
“Holy crap. This is one of them ‘elements’ Grimm was talking about!”
“Huh?” his henchman asked dumbly.
“Yellow fur, pink mane, butterfly cutie mark… this is one of the Elements of Harmony! Grimm Shado is offering a five thousand bit reward for one of these!”
The two other stallions grabbed her brusquely, their eyes full of greed. Shade led them out of the ticket booth as they turned toward the Crystal Empire.
“Screw the small change,” Shade said, “We’re taking this bitch straight to Grimm!”
***
This seemed to be the place. Flash Sentry snuck up to a large crystal building and crept around it through the shadows. The street lanterns lit the crystal ponies traversing the streets on either side of the alleyway, and the great blue aura of the magic shield above them twisted and warped the starry sky as if they were in a giant, domed aquarium. There was an open window hatch above him. He spread his wings, and effortlessly flew up into the windowsill.
He was glad he had left his armor in the barracks. As useful as it might be in a fight, there was no way he could have made it up here without being heard. He peered down into the dark of the warehouse inside, at first not making out anything other than the faint outline of rows of crates.
Then he heard a snore. It was coming from beyond a high row of crates several yards in front of him. He chanced making a little noise and flew as quietly as he could into the building. Landing softly on top of the crates, he peered down toward the source of the noise.
Three figures. One very small. And in one of them…
The Kīla of Gothmog.
Flash could have kissed himself. Well, maybe not, but if he were a woman he would accidentally repeatedly bump into himself.
He snuck quietly out of the warehouse, smiling. He finally found them.
***
Applejack had no idea what to make of this television thingy. She had thought that maybe it would involve movies of people bucking apples, or maybe a good western novel. It seems that she underestimated the sheer inclination of humanity for strangeness.
“Here we go! It's the lean, green, ninja team. On the scene, cool teens doing ninja things. So extreme, out the sewers like laser beams. Get rocked with the shell-shocked pizza kings…”
“Ah don’ get it…” AJ started, “So they’re kinda like me - they’re other critters that turned human… but why are they all deformed and green and whatnot?”
“Don’ try ta understand it, sugarcube. It don’ make a whole lotta sense. Actually, this is supposed ta be a boys show, but apparently all the girls around Applebloom’s age watch it instead. It’s her favorite show.”
“Really? Then what do the boys watch?”
“A girl’s show.”
“What? Which one?”
“That one cartoon, the one with the colorful female hooved critters goin’ around savin’ the world and whatnot… Ah can’t seem ta remember what it’s called…”
“‘Animal Farm’?” AJ guessed.
“Yeah, I think so. Anyway, it’s getting’ ta be evenin’. Fluttershy told me ta call Sunset about now, so let me get on that. Enjoy your Kung-fu Frogs.”
“Ah think they’re turtles.”
“Whatever. Ah’ll be right back.”
AJ continued to watch the show as Human-AJ went to the kitchen to make the call. She turned the TV volume up so she could hear it over the sound of the conversation (a skill she had just learned, and was getting very good at, if she did say so herself). Now the turtles were fighting a giant talking fish with metal legs. Now they were talking to a rat wearing a robe. This was way too weird. If anypony in Equestria ever invented the television, she would have to remind herself to ask Celestia to send them to the moon. She switched the TV off as the human girl came back into the room.
“Sunset’s comin’ to the party tonight,” she announced as she looked down at her watch, “Which is gonna be in about two hours. Speakin’ of which, Rainbow Dash said she was gonna be back bah now. Ah’m gonna have…”
As if in answer, a ring erupted from the phone in her hand. She looked curiously at it, which quickly turned to confusion.
“Unknown number. Hold on, sugarcube. Ah’m gonna take this.”
“Hello?... Yeah, this is Applejack… Oh, hey, Spitfire. Ah suppose ya landed… SHE DID WHAT?... You’re kiddin’ me… Yeah, Ah will. Ah’ll let the other girls know. Thanks for tellin’ me… Bye.”
Human-AJ looked toward Applejack with wide eyes, shock etched in every feature of her face. When she spoke, it was as if even she didn’t believe what she was saying –
“They lost contact with Rainbow’s plane. They’re missing.”