//------------------------------//
// Maximum Overdrive 
// Story: The Longest Day 
// by Nazkan 
//------------------------------//

Pinkie hopped through the park happily, avoiding any of the creatures that got in her way. She smiled the whole way, and spun her head around randomly to look at everything in awe. Every few seconds she would stop, and Dash, who was trying her best to look like she wasn't associated the crazy pink jumping randomly through the park, caught up to her. During one of these stops, Rainbow managed to get a few words in before Pinkie dashed off again.
"Pinkie, could you please stop running around? It's getting hard to keep up with you." Dash said.
Pinkie stopped in mid air, and looked down at Rainbow, "But Dashie, how can I just walk when there's all this fun stuff to do!" Pinkie asked.
Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie, and pulled her back down to earth. Here hat inexplicably stayed stuck in the air. "You can still have fun, just be more normal while you do it."
Pinkie sat down. Her eye's expanded and filled with tears while she did. Creating the saddest looking face she could, she looked up at Rainbow Dash and asked, "You don't think I'm normal?"
Rainbow shook her head, and rubbed her mane, annoyed. "No, what I mean is, just, stop bouncing everywhere, and try to calm down a bit."
Pinkie sprung back up into her bowler hat, smiling. "Okey Dokey Lokey, Dashie."
Rainbow Dash moved closer, and lightly punched Pinkie in the side. Pinkie gave her a slight push back, and continued. "So what should we do first Dashie? Buy some candy? Ride the roller coaster? See a show? Befriend a struggling performer? Get into lovable mischief? Uncover a secret plot involving robots? Foil a plan for world domination? Annoy the other guests?" Pinkie continued through the list of all the things they could do, as Dash silently listened. When Rainbow remembered that Pinkie would probably never stop talking, she cut in hastily, voicing her opinion.
"How about we go over to the flight stadium, and wait for the Wonderbolt show to start?"
Pinkie kicked her off impatiently, "No way, It won't start for hours and there's still plenty of things we haven't done yet. We can't go until we've done everything!"
"Well, you can go do everything, but I'm going to go wait for the Wonderbolts." Rainbow retorted.
Pinkie's grin disappeared, and she stopped Rainbow Dash from moving forward. Looking her in the eye, she said seriously, "You can't do that. You need a separate ticket to get into the Wonderbolt show and I have it hidden in a place only I know."
Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Are these tickets also written in crayon?" She teased sarcastically.
Pinkie shook her head, and Dash pushed past her. She prepared to take off, but stopped when the news Pinkie told her finally sunk in. If she wanted to see the Wonderbolt show, she needed to stick with Pinkie, regardless of how much she didn't want to. With a sigh, she curled up her wings and turned around.
"Alright Pinkie, what do you want to do first?"
Pinkie thought for a moment, and jumped into the air. "I want to buy candy!" She landed, thought some more and jumped back into the air, "No wait, I want to go on the rides!" She landed again, then immediately flew back into the air, "No, I want to see the performances." Landing back on the ground, she stopped herself from jumping again, and merely shook excitedly. "I don't know, there's just so much."
"Well, make up your mind, the sooner the bet...." Dash stopped, as she heard something that was vaguely familiar. "No, it can't be." She thought to herself.
Leaving Pinkie behind, Rainbow sped off through the park, chasing the familiar sound.

"That's right, cry you foolish foal! That's what happens when you doubt the power of the great and powerful Trixie!" A powerful voice shouted out from behind one of the multicoloured booths. Rainbow Dash turned a corner quickly, and nearly collided with a small filly running in the opposite direction. The young pony was fighting back tears, and pushed past Rainbow roughly.
"Yes, you better flee. None can match Trixies power!" The voice called out again.
Rainbow Dash moved closer, but the booth was placed into a groove in the ground, and all Dash could see was the roof of the structure. The voice called out confidently, asking a question, "Does anypony else wish to test their measly strength against the great and powerful Trixie? Trixie scoffs at your futile attempts. Come and just try to beat me!"
Rainbow slid down the groove, and stood at the window of the booth. Inside, a dark blue unicorn with a white mane was laughing manically. She was wearing a large wizards hat, and her cutie mark was hidden by the purple cape she was wearing. Her horn poked out from underneath the hat, splitting her mane to one side of her head and out of her face. She stopped laughing as Rainbow watched her, and with a sneer, she asked, "So, does another pony wish to try and beat the great and powerful Trixie?"
Rainbow pointed her hoof at Trixie, and shouted, "Yea, I demand a rematch. What you did last time was a nasty trick!"
Trixie chuckled, "Rematch? Have we met before? You see, I have a rare medical condition where it's impossible for me to remember losers such as yourself." She taunted.
Rainbow took a step back, and snapped back, "Loser? I could beat you any day!"
"You couldn't beat me the last time." The unicorn said slyly.
The pegasis clenched her teeth, and an anger rose in her stomach. This smart-mouth was going down! Rainbow tensed her muscles, and prepared to tackle Trixie through the booth. Trixie simply leaned backwards, and chuckled again. Rainbow Dash spread her wings, and leapt forward. Just before she entered the booth, Trixies horn glowed a dark pink and a similar coloured aura surrounded Dashs tail. With a squeak, Rainbow was pulled backwards and went flying backwards onto the ground. Pushing herself back to her feet, her breath came out in heavy pants. She tried again, faster than before. Trixie watched intently, and did the same thing again. Through clenched teeth, she sneered, "That's not fair! How can we fight if you keep throwing me out of the booth?"
Trixie smiled, "Fight? What ever gave you that idea? Trixie's boss would fire her if she fought, and that simply won't do." She said.
Rainbow Dash's confidence wavered, and she asked angerly, "But what about matching your power?"
Trixie laughed again, and her horn glowed. As it did, an mist of magic surrounded her whole booth. The wall behind her shimmered and faded, revealing a line of oddly sized, multi-coloured circles. They looked old and worn out, and a few were dripping with what Dash assumed was water. From the window side, four small devices rose from the wood. They looked like a black soda can with an oversized straw sticking in the front. Attached to the things side was two handles, also dripping wet with water. Finally, an assortment of multi-coloured lights pushed through from the sides of the booth, and flashed randomly, showering the show in a river of ever changing lights. A sign descended from the ceiling, and Rainbow Dash couldn't help but read it.
'Trixie's Terrifically Tricky Trapezoid Tracking Tins', it read.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her head, and looked over the entire booth. After much thought, she pointed out, "Now, I may not know much,"
"Good to hear you admit it." Trixie cut in.
"But I know my shapes, I worked on the weather team, and I'm pretty sure that those are circles." Dash continued, pointing at the red and black circles behind Trixie.
Trixie turned around, and examined the targets. After a quick moment, she retaliated, "No, those are trapezoids."
"No, they're not. See trapezoids usually,"
"Nope, shut up."
"have two parallel lines,"
"Shut up, they're trapezoids."
"and are kind of square shaped,"
"Trixie demands you stop talking!"
"cause they have four sides,"
"SHUT UP!"
"where these circles have no sides, or one if you want to get all egg head about it." Sitting down, Rainbow finished, smiling smugly.
Trixie shook her head harder, and tried to compose herself. She failed, and snapped at Rainbow, "I am the owner here! I think I know what my shapes are!" She shouted.
"Whatever," Rainbow replied, "Let's play your game than. How do we do that?"
Trixie tried again to calm down, and said begrudgingly, "Trixie will use small words so you can understand. See those things in front of you? They are called 'water guns'. By squeezing the handle, they shoot out a small stream of water. See these trapezoids behind me? They are called 'targets'. To win, you need to hit all the targets before Trixie can fill and throw this bucket of water at you, which Trixie will enjoy greatly."
Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin, and listened carefully. When Trixie was done with the instructions, she asked curiously, "What do I get when I win?"
Trixie sighed, and adjusted her hat to hide her eyes, "If, somehow, you do win, Trixie will give you one compliment, and will be as sincere as she can be about it."
Dash yawned, and walked towards the booth. Placing her hooves on the strange device, she started to develop a feel for it. It could swing in all directions, and the line of water was strong and accurate. Grinning, Dash decided to give it a quick test. She pointed it at Trixie and squeezed on the handles as hard as she could.
Trixie closed her eyes as the water ran down her face, and she sighed. She removed her hat and cloak and placed them on a small table that appeared out of the side of the booth. She spun to face Rainbow, and water hit her in the nose. She couldn't care less. With the calmest voice she could muster while getting shot in the face with water, she said, "Are we really going to do this? Trixie thought we could at least pretend to be....passing acquaintances...while the two of us played."
Rainbow Dash loosened her grip, and the stream slowly dried up and went back into the cylinder. Trixie shook the water out of her mane, and her horn lit up again. This time, a trapdoor above Rainbow opened up, and a bucket of water fell onto her head. The two ponies stared at each other, and Trixie smiled, "Now we're even." She said.
Rainbow grunted, and stared at the circles in front of her. Trixie noticed this, and asked sneakily, "Are you ready to lose?"
Dash focused her vision, and nodded.
Trixie's horn glowed, slowly the circles started to move. Up, down, left, right, occasionally passing over one another and Dash swore she saw two small ones combine into one hug circle. Trixie's horn lit up more. Dash prepared to start, when suddenly, someone grabbed the water gun next to her. Rainbow Dash looked over quickly, and grinned as she recognized her.

Pinkie released one of her hooves, and pointed at Dash. "If you wanted to go play some cool games, you didn't need to rush off. What is this anyway? Do we need to hit Trixie?" The pony asked, shooting a thin stream of water towards Trixie.
Trixie stopped her spell, and the circles started to slow down, "No, you do not need to hit the great and powerful Trixie! You need to hit the trapezoids." She shouted.
Pinkie looked over the booth, and asked, confused, "Are the trapezoids behind the circles? That seems like a mean trick to pull."
Trixie's eye twitched, and she exploded her voice to Pinkie, "NO! THE CIRCLES ARE THE TRAPEZOIDS!"
"Don't trapezoids usually have two parallel lines?"
Trixie pointed at Pinkie, and motioned to her eyes. She then pointed at Pinkie. She repeated this for a while, before finishing with, "Don't you start too! I will personally kick you out of this park." She said, strangely calm.
"No need to be a meany mane! Please continue with the magic spell." Pinkie replied, smiling.
Trixie nodded and a pink mist covered her horn. The circles started to increase in speed, the smaller ones moving at a blinding pace, while the bigger ones raced the snails. Above the field of circles, a small stream of water drizzled down from the roof. It rushed along the top of the field, and poured down the side, landing in a large metal bucket.
With a shout, Trixie yelled at the top of her lungs, "GO NOW!"

Dash reacted quickly, squeezing on the handles. A stream of water shot out of the barrel quickly. It travelled through the air, leaving a faint rainbow in it's path, before suddenly stopping when it hit Trixie in the eye. Trixie flinched, and Dash gave a smile, before aiming at the quickly moving targets. She noticed that a few had already been hit, the clear substance running down the front of the larger circles. Dash kept her eye on the targets, and fired. She picked of a few of the faster circles, then eyed the next shot carefully. It was the smallest circle that she was after. It zipped around the field, turning at random intervals, disappearing and reappearing in different places and occasionally splitting into two halves, which would run around the back wall on their own accord. Dash's eyes raced around the box, chasing the circle and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The circle slowed for a split second, and Dash took her chance. She fired, squeezing and pushing down as hard as she could. However, something else appeared in the path of Dash's shot. A second stream of water flew ahead of her water, and splattered against the target. Rainbow's water hit the same target a split-second later, but the effect wasn't the same. Choosing a new target, and keeping her eyes focused, she called out to the pony next to her.
"Pinkie! That was my target." She said menacingly.
Pinkie turned to Dash, and smiled, "It was? I'm sorry Dashie, you can have the next one." 
Dash shook her head, and fired randomly at the targets, "There won't be next one, that was the only one."
"Was it? I could of sworn there was two." Pinkie thought aloud, confused.
"Listen Pinkie, I know you love games and stuff like this, but me and Trixie need to battle this out. I need to win this alone, and I can't have you messing up my chances." Dash said plainly.
"I won't mess up your game, I can help!" Pinkie shouted.
Dash shook her head, "Just let me do this alone." She asked, motioning for Pinkie to step away from the water-spraying device.
She did, and took a few steps back. "I could help." She said quietly, while kicking her hoof nervously.
Dash refocused on the game, and fired hastily. One by one, the targets were hit by the stream of water. The large ones were the easiest, most likely by design, while the smaller ones gave Dash some trouble, causing her to miss every second shot. The bucket lying on the ground next to the field slowly filled, and Trixie's smile grew wider as it did.
Eventually, there was only three circles left. Trixie focused her head, and sped them to eye blinding speeds. Dash tried to follow their paths, and get a clean shot, but they moved so fast all she could do was stare at the blurred colours. The sheer speed of them made Rainbow dizzy, and she resorted to firing randomly, hoping to get one of them with a lucky shot. After a brief moment, Trixie looked up at her.
"Hey Rainbow," She teased, "What's soaking wet and clueless?"
With a practised movement, Trixie grabbed the bucket in her magic and threw it towards Rainbow. The rainbow mare tried to dodge the projectile, but was too slow. The metal bucket flew above her head and emptied it's contents. The torrent of water pushed Dash to the ground and thoroughly soaked her to the bone. After the monsoon of water stopped, Dash pulled herself back to her feet. Her mane was clinging to her face, and half of it covered her eyes, stopping her from seeing.
Wiping away the hair, she was meet with the over confident smile of the great and powerful Trixie.
"Well, well, well, now we know who the better mare is. Again." She sneered.

Dash shook the water out of her fur. A few drops ran into her eyes, but her anger kept them from doing any harm. Her legs ached from the water crashing onto her and she clenched her teeth together. She swore she could see steam rising off of her, heated simply by her restrained fury. She stared at mare in front of her, and wiped the water from her eyes.
"Again!" She shouted, lunging forward onto the gun, "Lets do this again. This time, I'll win!"
A flash of light erupted from Trixies forehead. Dash closed her eyes to block the sudden flash, and when she reopened them, the booth was dry. Not a single drop of water remained inside the booth, outside it though, Rainbow remained soaked to the bone. Trixie took a few steps back, and focused her magic. The now dry circles started to move again, and Rainbow gave them a moment to speed up. Nothing was going to stop her from winning this.
Pinkie appeared next to her, probably to get a better view, but Dash ignored her. The circles sped up, crossing over each other and moving around like the surface of a disturbed lake. "Pretty appropriate." Dash thought, before shaking the thought out of her head and staring at the board intently. The water started to drip down from the roof again, and Dash prepared to fire the harmless weapon.
Trixie raised herself onto her back legs, and smashed into the ground with her front. An explosion of smoke appeared around her, and she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Begin!"

Dash fired instantaneously, spraying one of the larger targets. This time, her anger forced her to focus, and the targets fell faster. A little one, a big one, another smaller one, it didn't matter, Rainbow Dash hit each one with the same force. Her hooves started to ache from the strength she was putting into her shots, but she ignored the pain, and redoubled her efforts. Trixie's face fell as the targets did, and she also increased her power. With a shock, she realised that there was only three targets left, and the bucket was only half filled. With a scowl, she put all her might into the circles. They moved at the same blinding speed, and Dash fired at them. She missed every shot. She tried again, and again, missing every time. Eventually, Trixie smiled, as she released she had won yet again.
Or did, as a trickle of water, moving as fast as the targets, smashed into one of them. Trixie faulted as the circle exploded, showering her in faulty wood.
Dash jumped back from the gun, and turned to the pony next to her. Pinkie was sitting at the small device, a look of deadly seriousness on her face, a view of implacability between her and the targets. Her head moved at the speed of the targets, giving her the impression of a constantly moving piece of smoke.
"Rainbow! Get back on the gun and lets win this thing!" She shouted.
Dash stared at her confused, and cautiously walked back to the device. She grabbed it slowly, but kept her attention on Pinkie's constantly moving head.
"Give up, Pony! None can beat the great and powerful Trixie!" Trixie yelled, moving the circles even faster.
Pinkie, amazingly, kept up with the new changes. It started with her head, already moving impossibly fast, and travelled down from there into her arms, which moved with the same speed. From there it spread again, moving to her gun. It moved in all directions, but always remained focused on one of the blurry lines. Dash completely ignored her own gun, and focused on Pinkie. Finally, she fired.
The water flew through the air, graceful yet extremely fast. Time seemed to slow down as the water travelled through the air, a faint trail behind it. It seemed for a moment that the water would miss, until the last moment, when the circle turned suddenly, and moved directly into the path of the shot. The circle turned a dark red as the water sunk into it, and Trixie looked shocked at the development.

A drop of water and sweat ran down her face, as she pushed all her magical energy into making the final circle move. The magical aura around it was so strong it turned the whole target pink. Through her ragged breaths, Trixie managed to choke out, "What now, pony? No one can stop me when I go into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!"
Pinkie's gun remained locked on the circle, but no matter how many times she tried, the target was always one step ahead. The time ticked down quickly, and Dash realised that it was nearly extinguished. She turned her gun on the board, and fired a few times, not even coming close to the final target. With a crushing realisation, she accepted that the final target was impossible. Her attention drifted between Pinkie, the board, and Trixie.
Then it hit her. Trixie. Rainbow Dash aimed her gun at the unicorn instead. The magician was to busy focusing on the game to see her, and Dash fired reluctantly. The water hit her in the eye again. This time though, she was so focused that the water came as a complete surprise. Her magic wavered for a split second, and Pinkie took over, firing the final shot of the game.
The water hit the target, and there was an explosion of noise. Confetti and streamers came flying out of the roof, and a siren blared their victory to all the ponies in the park. Trixie's mouth hung open in shock, but she quickly regained her composure. Levitating her hat and cape back onto her self, she trotted over to the front of the booth.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie smiled victoriously, and exchanged glances. Rainbow raised her hoof into the air, and Pinkie did the same. They both slammed their hooves into each other, and turned to Trixie.
"Alright Trixie, pay up. I want a good compliment, maybe about how I'm the fastest flier ever, or how much better than you I am." Dash said confidently.
Trixie smiled at her, and opened her mouth. Dash leaned forward expectantly, and let out a confused look when Trixie turned to the pink pony next to her.
"Congratulations, pink pony, you have beaten Trixie. As a reward, Trixie would like you to know that your hat is one of the fanciest and well kept hats she has ever seen. Again, congratulations, now please leave while Trixie fixes the damages you did."
Dash pulled herself onto the front of the booth, and stared down at unicorn, "What are you doing?" She shouted, "I won this, compliment me!"
Trixie glanced up at Rainbow Dash, and calmly turned away from her. "Really? I seem to recall that it was the other pony who hit the last target. Ergo, she won."
Dash leapt into the booth, and grabbed Trixie's cloak. "No, I won. I did this! IT WAS ALL ME!" She shouted.
Dash found herself surrounded by a pink aura, and she was shot backwards, like she was fired from a cannon. She crashed into the hill roughly, and stared up at the two ponies.
"The pink pony won. Trixie's word is final, now leave." She said, using her magic to float a large curtain over the front of the booth. The words, 'Closed', were printed on the front in dark blue, standing out against the curtains dark red. With an exasperated groan, Rainbow threw herself backwards and lay on the ground.

Minutes passed as she lay there, and she didn't even notice when Pinkie lay down on the ground next to her. Pinkie's presence made Rainbow feel slightly better, and she sighed happily. There was still a faint voice at the back of her head, telling her to break down the curtain, and take her prize, but it was easier to ignore with Pinkie next to her. More minutes passed, and the two received strange looks from the passing customers, but they didn't care. Eventually, Pinkie spoke up, breaking the silence.
"I didn't even want the compliment. You should have taken it." She said sadly.
Dash rolled over from her back, and stared at Pinkie. Pinkie was staring at the sky, and doing her best to ignore Dash's gaze. "I didn't mean what I said Pinkie." Dash replied.
When the pony lying next to her didn't reply, she continued, "I was angry. It wasn't all me. If you weren't there, I would of gotten soaked again. You hit the targets, you deserved that reward."
Pinkie rolled over, and stared deep into Dash's eyes. "Can I ask you a super secret question Dashie?" She asked.
"Go ahead."
"Why have you been so angry lately?" Pinkie asked, maintaining eye contact.
Dash broke away quickly, "You already know why, don't you? Isn't that the reason you dragged me here?" Dash said, annoyed.
Pinkie shook her head, and responded, "I brought you here because my bestest friend was being a grumpy pants, and grumpy pants are no fun to party with."
Dash stared at the sky, and noticed there was several other pegasi in the sky. She stared at them for brief moment, before responding to Pinkies question. "It's because.....maybe I'm not the best flier."
Pinkie's mouth dropped open, "That's crazy Dashie. You're the fastest pony I've ever seen. What about that race through Gastly Gorge, or the time you created that whirly wind, or the time we cooked cupcakes together?"
"We've never cooked cupcakes together."
"Really? I'm pretty sure we did."
Dash turned to Pinkie yet again, "Pinkie, look at my butt."
Pinkie looked around uncomfortably, and responded, "Now isn't really the place for that, Dashie."
Dash threw her hoof into her face, and rubbed her nose, "No, I mean, look at my cutie mark."
A wave of comprehension washed over Pinkie, and she looked down at the small cloud with the rainbow lightning bolt that made up Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. "What about it?"
"Three times. That's how many times I've done a sonic rainboom. My only talent is doing a sonic rainboom, and I've only done it three times in my entire life." Dash said honestly, hiding her face from Pinkie.
"What's the problem? Most ponies can't do any sonic rainbooms." Pinkie responded.
Dash sat up, "You don't get it. How would you feel if you only threw three parties in your whole life? Or if Rarity only made three dresses, or Applejack only bucked three trees? Everything says I should be able to do this easily, but I can't. It's infuriating!"
Pinkie struggled to find the words that would make her friend feel better, but nothing came up. For the brief moment, she felt scared. Why couldn't she say something? They were there somewhere, why couldn't she find them? Pinkie tried to force the words out, but there was no words to say. Eventually, Dash pulled herself to her feet, and extended a hoof to Pinkie. "Come on Pinkie. Lets go do something you want to do."
Pinkie uneasily grabbed Dash's hoof, and pulled herself up. The ponies released each other, and worked their way up the hill, and away from Trixie's booth. Right into the face of a monster.

It had two gigantic eyes, each a dark purple, protruding out the side of it's head. It's muzzle, or maybe it was a snout, extended far out of it's face. It's mouth was stuck into a permanent smile, and it's oversized ears stretched into the sky. A multicoloured mane, all the colours of the rainbow, ran down the back of it's head, and it was styled into a tomboyish spike. The mane stood out against it's light blue coat, and Dash could just see two undersized wings sticking out of it's back. With a mechanical crackle, it enthusiastically greeted the terrified pony.
"Hello, I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest pony in all of Equestria!"
Dash took a step backwards in fear, and fought the urge to flee, and never return, but she couldn't leave Pinkie to face this thing. Dash managed to chatter out a few words, not even realising she was shaking. "Pi...Pinkie, keep that...thing away from me!"
To her surprise, Pinkie was rolling around on the floor laughing. In between laughter, she managed to choke out, "Hehehehe, Dashie, the mascot is you! Hehehe, it's you!"
The mascot moved closer, and Dash took a few more steps back. Getting a closer look, the thing did have a huge resemblance to herself. However, this was one time Rainbow Dash didn't want to see herself. She took a few more steps back, and bumped into something behind her. She turned and realised with a shock it was another mascot.
This one was in the likeness of Applejack, except she was missing her signature hat, and the amount of freckles on her face was greatly exaggerated.
Dash, not knowing what to do, curled into a little ball. "Oh Luna, there's two of them." She repeated to herself. She would occasionally peek out, only to see that the two mascots were still there, staring into her soul, their mouths never moving as they talked. Shivers shot down her spine, and she was overcome by unstoppable shaking. She wondered briefly whether Pinkie would sweep in to save her, but remembered quickly that Pinkie was probably still laughing on the ground. Soon, she resorted to talking to herself, repeating the same line over and over again. "Two of them. Two of them. Two of them."
It wasn't until something picked her up by the neck roughly that she snapped out of her fear induced coma. She was pulled into the air hastily. The two mascots continued to stare at her, and she grasped whatever was holding her harder in fear. She clenched her eyes shut, and someone spoke to her. "Excuse me, can you come with me please?"
Dash clenched her eyes shut tighter, "Are the monsters still there?" She asked nervously.
What ever was holding her swung around quickly, probably searching for whatever Rainbow Dash was talking about, it quickly stopped, and spoke to Rainbow, "Yes?"
Rainbow opened her eyes, and searched around. She could see a large blue blob in the distance, and assumed the mascots had left. They really were deceptively fast. She felt a huge wave of relief splash over her, and she realised that her breath was coming out in ragged pants. She faced her had forward to see who she was clinging to.

It was another large cyclops, or, from Dash's perspective, the first cyclops she'd seen. He was wearing a thick cloth jacket, with the sleeves ripped off to show his powerful muscles. His pants were made out of a material Dash couldn't put her hoof on, but it shined brightly in the bright sunlight. It was well kept, and there wasn't a single crease on either the jacket or the pants. Hanging around his neck was a bright silver whistle, standing out against the pale yellow of his body. Squirming around in the beasts grip, Dash got a glance of some writing on the back of the jacket. 'Arges, Security'. Struggling to turn around, Dash faced the one eyed monster. "I'm sorry, what?"
Arges the cyclops shrugged, and repeated himself. "I believe we have evidence that you entered this park without paying. I just want to ask you a few questions."
A drop of sweat ran down Rainbow's cheek. "I would prefer we stay here."
The large creature nodded, "That is acceptable." He replied, trying to place Rainbow carefully on the ground, but failing, and sending her flying across the road. He let out a gasp, and picked her back up. "I am so sorry ma-am, please forgive me."
Trying again, he placed Rainbow on the ground. Rainbow stood up roughly, and stared up at Arges. "What happens if I fail the questions?"
Arges raised his eyebrow in an attempt to look smart, "I will escort you out of the park."
Dash nodded, and tried her hand at lying, "Good thing I paid, right? If you could find my friend Pinkie, she can explain everything."
As if from the sheer magic of hearing her name called, Pinkie appeared behind Arges, clinging to his back. She poked her head over his shoulder, "Another cyclops? Can we just stop for a moment?" She asked, annoyed.
Pinkie hopped down from the cyclops back, and stood in front of the two confused creatures. Taking in a deep breath, she exclaimed, "Just how many of you are there? I need to know this! How can I throw a party for each of you at the end of this story if more of you keep appearing? Just tell me how many cakes I need to make before we're done."
The large security guard scratched his head, and adjusted his jacket, "Have you met my brothers? Do you know why one is missing and the other is throwing streamers over the back fence?"
Pinkie nodded her head, "It's because I threw one off the train, and convinced the other to throw a party!" She replied, smiling. She spun around and nodded to Rainbow Dash, who was giving her a look of total confusion. Rainbow raised her hooves and opened her mouth, but she couldn't form the words, so all she did was wave her arms around stupidly. Pinkie spun back to face the cyclops, and realised her mistake. The security guard in front of her was preparing to reach out and grab her. Through his angry breaths, he voiced his mind, "Please sit still while I CALMLY and CAREFULLY escort you out of the park."
Pinkie responded by calmly spinning around, and facing Rainbow. "Well Dashie, It seems I screwed up," She said, "I am going to run, meet me up at the roller-coaster if you don't get thrown out." With that, Pinkie vanished, inexplicably leaving a pony shaped cloud where she was standing.
Dash took one look at the angry cyclops in front of her, and raised her hoofs. She inched closer, leading him into a false sense of security. When he blinked, blocking his view from the outside world, Dash took her chance, flying away from him in a random direction.

Arges watched her go, and grabbed the whistle around his neck. He blew into it, releasing a long, high-pitched noise. The two winged mascots, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, moved through the crowd quickly to reach him, and when they did, he pointed at the quick moving blur.
"Mascots, attack mode! Bring me that pegasus!" He shouted over the roar of the crowd.
The mascots, hearing this command, started to change. The wings on their backs spun forward, revealing a small hollow tube. Their feet exploded in flames, pushing them into the air, and their faces bent backwards, making them more streamlined and causing their eyes to glow a bright red. One of them screamed through their mouths, blasting a loud police siren. The two of them fired a couple of small metal pellets from their wings, making sure everything worked right. Then, the two mascots hasitly rose into the air, and gave chase to the rainbow mare.