The two ponies, Twilight and Flash continued to walk down the yellow brick road in silence. Each thinking of what to say to the other. After a few minutes they came to a three way fork in the road all going off in different directions.
"Where...Where do we go from here?" Twilight asked looking down each road trying to see where they lead.
"I don't know," Flash said also looking around. "Hey look theres a sign." he said pointing to a road sign. Going over to it, he only got confused at what it said.
"What's it say?" Twilight said looking over at him.
"Well..." Flash said looking at the sign with a hoof to his chin, "it says, 'That-Way'," he pointed to the right, "'This-Way'," the left "and 'Over-There'." straight ahead.
"Come on Flash," Twilight said coming over to him "What does it really say?"
"What I read out." Flash said back.
"Maybe I can help." a new voice called out.
Looking around Twilight checked to see if Flash heard it too.
"Hey! Yoo-hoo! Up here!" the voice called out again. Twilight and Flash looked up to see a pink scarecrow nailed to a post above them.
"Did that scarecrow talk?" Twilight asked Flash who was looking up at the scarecrow as well.
"Yes I did," it said smiling and waving a hoof to say hi.
"Ahhh!" Twilight screamed jumping back a little.
"Hi I'm Pinkie Pie," the scarecrow said "Scarecrow to this rock farm."
Flash was about to ask 'Why would a rock farm need a scarecrow?' when he remembered that they were lost. "Er... Pinkie," he began "Do you know how to get to the Emerald City? You see Twilight wants to ask the Princess how to get home."
"Yes I do," she said in a singing voice.
"Would you please tell us...?" Flash asked.
"Well you go down 'That-Way', then you go over the river, and though the woods... Oh wait that's how I get to Granny Pie's house. Silly me." Pinkie said laughing. "Thinking of it, it would be better if I showed you."
Flash looked over at Twilight to ask it it was alright.
"Yes fine," Twilight said, trying to get rid of the Crescent Moon Necklace again. To no avail.
"Yeah!" Pinkie screamed with joy "Can you get me down first though please?" she asked.
Flash flew up. "What do I need to do?" he asked.
"You see that bent nail holding me to the post?" Pinkie asked.
"Yeah." Flash said touching the nail in question.
"All you have to do is straighten it," Pinkie began, as Flash was straightening the nail, "and I should fall right..." 'THUD' "Off."
"Yeah right on top of me." Twilight's voice came from under Pinkie.
Flying down Flash went over to help Twilight up. "You ok?" he asked her.
"Oh sure," Pinkie said jumping up and bouncing around. "Anything that fall off or out of me I just put it right back on or in." she explained.
"Er..." Flash said looking at the bouncing scarecrow pony. "Never mind. You said you'd take us to the Emerald City so Twilight can get home?"
"I sure did," Pinkie said in her sing song voice still bouncing around. "Wait a second! Hold everything!"
"Er..." Flash and Twilight said together.
"Do you think I can ask the Princess for a brain too?"
"I don't see why not," Flash said. "What do you think Twilight?" he asked.
"I think before this is over I'll only have three hooves." she answered still trying to throw the necklace away.
"Nightmare Moon's Crescent Moon Necklace," Pinkie gasped, stopped bouncing, starring eyes wide at it.
"Err..." Twilight said looking from Flash to the necklace to Pinkie.
"Ahem..." Flash cleared his throat to get Pinkie's attention, who looked up and turned her head to the noise. "You said you'll show the way to the Emerald City Pinkie..."
"Oh yeah," she said bouncing over to the path on the left. "This way, come on come on it's This-Way."
And she zoomed off down the path, leaving a trail of dust behind her. Followed up by Flash and Twilight who was once again wearing the necklace.
After about an hour of following Pinkie Pie, listening to her constant talking, Twilight was about to snap.
"Ow wow it feels so good to be off that post." Pinkie said bouncing down the road "I mean seriously, I thought I'd never get off of it. Like what ten ponies go down that path every week and none of them have ever helped me down. It's like I say 'Hi there!' and they run away for some reason, I cant think at all why..."
"Neither can I," Twilight said a head ache starting to form. Then her stomach began o grumble. Blushing, Twilight looked around to see where Flash was to see that he looked hungry too. Looking around, Twilight saw some apple trees. Knowing that she would never have as good a chance, as her friend Applejack back home, to buck the apples off she used her magic to pick two ripe apples from the tree.
"Er... You don't want to do that Twilight." Flash said.
"Why not?" 'WHACK' Twilight had just got hit around the head by one of the trees, making her drop the apples, which another tree picked up.
"What was that for?" Twilight asked the tree.
"Well, how would it feel like if someone picked something off of you?" the tree on the right asked.
"Hey lets test it," the one on the left said moving it's branches to grip Twilight's horn. Suddenly the Crescent Moon Necklace around her neck began to glow and it shot a beam of light towards the trees, making them let go of Twilight's horn and back off.
"Twilight!" Flash cried running forward to help her up. "You ok?"
"Yeah," Twilight said checking her horn "Yeah I think so."
"That's no way to get food from trees silly," Pinkie said jumping up and down, smiling at Twilight and Flash's looks at her. "You need to annoy them long and hard enough for them to start throwing their fruit at you. Watch."
Pinkie got up in front of the trees, cleared her throat, and began talking about how boring her life was at the rock farm she was made at, how she wanted to get away from it for so long. She told them about how she would get wet every time it would rain, and nearly caught fire one summer.
"Ahh..." a tree cried. "Make it stop."
Flash ran forward and quickly covered Pinkie's still moving mouth. "You give us some food and we'll make her leave you alone," he said.
"Never," the other tree cried hands over where it's ears should be.
Flash took his hoof off of Pinkie's mouth, who continued in her one sided confiscation.
"So anyway as you probably guessed my job is scarring away crows and other birds away from the crops in the fields, but being a scarecrow on a rock farm, well there aren't that many reasons why any birds would come after the crops I was set up to protect. I got so bored up there day after day after day after day..."
"Alight!" a tree yelled shaking all it's apples off of it's self "Here take them! Just please take that thing away from us!"
"Thank you Sirs." Twilight said gripping all the apples in the telekinetic grip and walking away.
Flash flew up, and shoved an apple in to Pinkie's mouth to make her shut up. While she was enjoying it he grabbed her and they walked away, after Twilight.
***
They settled down in an open field to have their apples, munching on them happily.
After her fourth apple, Twilight took the necklace off again. This time to look at it instead of trying to get rid of it, wondering why it shot out at the tree's.
"Help," a voice called. Looking up, Twilight saw that Flash and Pinkie heard it too. "Can some-pony help me?" it called again.
Turning her head to where the voice was coming from, Twilight saw a tin Pegasus pony statue. Thinking it couldn't be that Twilight called out "Where are you?"
"Right in front of you, you dumb pony," said the tin Pegasus. "Can you get me some oil to help me move? It's by that tree stump there."
The three of them looked around, and spotted a tree stump with an oil can sitting just on top of it.
"Sure..." Twilight said putting the necklace back on and going over to the can, bringing it back. "Where do you want it first?" she asked the tin Pegasus.
"My mouth please." it said. Twilight dabbed some oil on either side of the tin Pegasus's jaw and some in the lips.
"Where next?" Twilight asked as the tin Pegasus got it's mouth working again.
"My wings please." it said shifting it's eyes to the wings that were stuck up as though it was flying. Dap, dap, dap. Squeak, squeak, squeak.
"Oh thank you I've had them up in that position for ages. Please do my legs, and my neck, and my knees." After every part of the tin Pegasus was oiled, introductions were made. "Name's Rainbow Dash." it said holding out a hoof.
"I'm Twilight," Twilight said shaking the hoof, "And that's Flash, and that's Pinkie Pie."
"Nice to meet ya," Rainbow said smiling.
"So Dashie," Pinkie said just finishing the last of the apples, "How did you get stuck like that?"
"Well, I'm a stunt flier you see," Rainbow explained "And every so often I crash into things, equaling into broken bones. But I know a sharman Zebra called Zecora who can do any type of magic. So every time I broke something, I just went to her. Anyway, eventually everything got broken, so eventually I became a full tin Pegasus. One day, when I was out flying, it started to rain, and I've been stuck like that ever since."
Jets of water were coming from Pinkie's eyes a she was holding a hankie. "That was so sad." She ran up to Rainbow still bawling her eyes out.
"Hey! Watch it Raggy!" Rainbow cried flying away from the soaking wet Pinkie.
"What happened to the whole 'share a story about you life' thing?" Flash asked flying up to meet her eye to eye.
"You want to know? Bang against my chest." she said puffing it out. "Go on. Bang it." Flash did as he was told.
"bang-bang-bang-bang." "bang-bang-bang-bang." "bang-bang-bang-bang."
"Wow!" Pinkie cried. "What a lovely echo!"
"Yeah," Rainbow said "One of the last things I broke was my rib cage. When Zecora gave me a new one, she forgot to add a heart."
"Well you know Twilight's going to the Emerald City to ask the Princess how she can get home. And I'm going to ask her for a brain."
"Can't tell why," Rainbow said sarcastically.
"Do you want to come along too then Rainbow," Twilight asked "Maybe you can ask for a heart."
"Sure. Why not?" Rainbow said as she and Flash flew back down. "Just keep the crying to a minimum, ok?" she asked Pinkie, who nodded in understanding.
After working on where to go next, the four of them continued down the yellow brick road.
Pinkie Pie was now leading them though a dark forest. It was very quiet, but every so often there was a 'SNAP' and they all turned their heads to see what it was.
"Er... what lives in here exactly?" Twilight asked walking close to Flash, seeing as he should be protecting her.
"Oh nothing much," Pinkie answered bouncing along "Just lions, and tigers, and bears."
"Lions," Flash said.
"And tiger's," Rainbow said.
"And bears," Pinkie said nodding.
"Oh my," Twilight said looking all around for any sign of movement.
After a few minutes something jumped out in front of them.
"AGHH!" they screamed.
"Eep" the creature said curling up paws over her head, trembling.
After the shock had died down, Rainbow got her anger back.
"Now just what do you think the big idea was you scarring us like that!" she asked glaring at the thing in front of her.
"I'm sorry," it said. Rising up Twilight saw it was a lioness, fear pasted in her eyes.
Seeing how scared she was Twilight walked up to the lioness slowly and put a hoof on it's back. "It's ok," she said "You just scared us that's all."
"I... I didn't mean to scare anyone," the lioness said "I... I was just trying to make friends. You see, I... I'm very shy."
"Well my mother says 'the first thing to do to make new friends is to learn their names,'" Flash said coming forward bowing to the lioness. "Hi, I'm Flash." he said.
"And I'm Pinkie Pie," Pinkie said hopping on the spot.
"The names Rainbow Dash," Rainbow said proudly.
"And I'm Twilight," Twilight said smiling. "What's your name?"
"It's... Fluttershy" the lioness whispered.
"Er..." Twilight looked to see if the others heard what she said. Everyone was shaking their heads. "Could you repeat that please?"
"It's...Fluttershy" the lioness whispered again, but still no one could hear her.
"One more time please..."
"It's Fluttershy" she yelled, covering her mouth with her paws at how loud she was. "I'm sorry!"
"It's ok," Flash said, getting out of the shock first. "At least we know your name now."
"Yeah," Pinkie called out "And now that we're friends we can do loads of fun things together. Like go to the Emerald City to see if you could ask the Princess for some courage."
"The... The Princess?" Fluttershy asked backing away. "Oh... um... I don't know."
"Come on we're all going," Pinkie explained. "I'm going for a brain, Rainbow's going for a heart, and Twilight going to ask the Princess how she can get home." then she turned to Flash. "I'm not sure what Flash wants though..."
"I'm not going to ask for anything," Flash said. "Cadence asked for me to protect Twilight from Chrysalis," he explained.
"C...Chrysalis?" Fluttershy whimpered.
"Yeah. She that mean old Wicked Witch of the West, with those bug wings and everything." Pinkie said. "Nightmare Moon was her sister, and she had a necklace that helped her be even more Wicked. That very necklace that Twilight has on right now!" Pinkie said pointing a hoof at Twilight.
"Eep..." Fluttershy jumped and backed away, trying to get away from Twilight. "That... That's Nightmare Moon's necklace? Why... Why do you have it?"she asked.
"Well..." Twilight said thinking of the best way to explain how she got it. "I landed on a tree branch... Which snapped... Then landed on Nightmare Moon... Chrysalis showed up... Went over to get her sister's necklace... Only to find it disappeared from her neck... Cadence saying it now chose me as it's new host... I tried to give it to Chrysalis... Only for it to shock her... She got mad... And... yeah,"
All three mares sat there, blinking, mouths hanging open, not believing what they just heard.
"So... You killed one witch," Rainbow began "And now the other one wants to kill you, just to get her sister's necklace back?"
"Yeah..." Twilight said rubbing the back of her neck.
"Ahh. Yeah!" Rainbow cried flying up into the air. "This just got a whole lot more exciting."
"Well should we get going then?" Flash asked a bit further down the road.
And now with their new friend Fluttershy... Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Flash, continued down the yellow brick road.
What they didn't know, was that from the very beginning, someone had been watching them.