Stepping out onto the porch of the house, Midnight shook his mane and he took a deep inhale of morning, sighing in satisfaction of that crisp fresh air. Then he went over the side of the porch, lifted his left rear leg, and leaked last night’s apple juice onto a patch of weeds.
“Whoo, much better.”
Before long, Midnight was walking through Ponyville, seeing ponies already getting up and ready for the day, going to their jobs, mares kissing their foals before they trotted off to school, the pegasus ponies clearing the sky for the morning rays. It was just bright and dandy today!
“I hope Twilight’s in a good mood,” he muttered to himself. “I’m certainly looking forward to our first magic session since that incident with that doll.”
He was so excited and feeling like today was a good day he failed to notice the flashing lights coming from the windows of the Golden Oak Library just up ahead. He stepped inside, calling out, “Good morning, Twilight! Ready for our session?”
“Midnight! Thank Celestia you’re here!” Twilight grabbed him by the horn as she ran out, yelling, “Come on!”
“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow, the horn, the horn!” Midnight whined.
In town, ponies were going to and fro and about their business, and nopony paid any attention to Pinkie, whose barrel was tied with balloons, causing her to float just enough so that her hooves couldn’t touch the ground. Which was odd because she continued to move them as if she were walking, moving at an ever so slight pace.
“C’mon guys! The party can’t start until the party supplies get there!”
Behind her were Big Mac and Fluttershy, both of them carrying bags of various party supplies, although Big Mac had insisted on carrying the lion’s share.
“Happy to help, aren’t we, Mac?”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac said as he and Fluttershy shared a loving nuzzle, only for Big Mac to grunt, “Oomph!”
Pinkie and Fluttershy looked to see Twilight, whilst dragging Midnight behind her, had crashed into Big Mac. Thankfully the hulking red farmer was sturdy enough to stay on his hooves although he did drop a few supplies, among them a funny pair of joke glasses with a fake nose and mustache falling just perfectly onto Twilight’s face. She got up and zipped over onto a pedestal, declaring, “Listen everypony, I’ve got something really important to say!”
Her declaration was met with laughter at how silly she looked mixed with the conflicting statement.
“Uh, Twilight?” Midnight stifled a chuckle, while pointing to his muzzle, “Ya got a little…”
He finally let it out and Twilight realized what she was wearing. She growled and shook off the glasses.
“This is no laughing matter, we have a crisis on our hooves!”
That one got everypony’s attention, at least until Twilight said, “I’ve just been visited by myself from the future!”
“And just like that, folks, the crazy’s back,” Midnight cracked, spurring an even more guffawing uproar.
“Midnight, this isn’t a joke!” Twilight insisted as she hopped down. “My future self tried to warn me about a horrible disaster that’s gonna occur sometime before next Tuesday morning!”
“Wha’ kinda disaster?” Big Mac asked.
“I don’t know! My future self got whisked back into the future before she could explain!”
“RUN FOR YOUR LI-I-I-I-I-VES!” Pinkie screamed as she slowly drifted while her scurrying hooves got her nowhere fast because of the balloons keeping her aloft.
“What ever shall we do, Twilight?” Rarity worried as she Blueblood approached.
“How can we avert a disaster if we haven’t a clue as to what it is!” Blueblood pointed out.
“We’ll just have to work together to ensure our safety,” Twilight quickly took leadership. “Rainbow, Thunder, Soarin! Split all the pegasi in town into three teams and spread out over Equestria. Look for any kind of problem that could lead to a disaster! And I mean anything!”
“We’re on it, come on boys!” Rainbow streaked off, followed by Thunderlane and Soarin.
Twilight turned to the crowd, saying, “Everypony else-”
But she was interrupted by a screaming Pinkie, still not getting anywhere aside from light drifting. She stopped and addressed them, “Anypony else wanna panic with me? No? AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
Twilight gave the party pony a look before resuming, “Everypony else… time to disaster-proof Equestria!”
Over the next few hours, the ponies of Ponyville got busy. They sealed up the cracks in Hoofer Dam, made sure the local watertower was full, made sure no screw was loose, cleaned up the streets, spruced every home, not a single hair was left out of place. Literally!
“Done, and done, and… done!” Twilight checked off a very long list before asking, "Applejack, what about the Everfree Forest?”
“Th’ perimeter’s clear.”
“Great! Thunder, how did the pegasus patrols go?”
“Just spoke with Dash and Soar, everything’s clear from Fillydelphia to Las Pegasus!”
“Excellent. Well, we’ve done everything on the list,” Twilight said warily, “but still… Future Twilight looked like she’d been through a horrible ordeal! I just have this nagging feeling we should be looking for something bigger than loose bolts or leaky pipes.”
“Twilight, relax,” Midnight said. “No matter what, you cannot be prepared for absolutely every possible outcome. That’s the way life is, sometimes it throws at you what you least expect.”
As if to punctuate Midnight’s statement, a loud ROAR ripped through the tension and it quickly revealed itself in the form of a humongous black three-headed dog! Ferocious and scary, each head let out a vicious roar.
“Okay everypony, follow my lead,” Pinkie said with a straight face before letting out an ear-piercing scream and panic ensued.
“Me and my big mouth…” Midnight facehooved as he hid in an alley, as did other ponies start hiding.
“What is that thing?!” Spike yelled.
“That’s Cerberus, he’s supposed to be guarding the gates of Tartarus,” Twilight explained as Cerberus started using a building for a chewtoy. “But if he’s here, then all the ancient evil creatures that have been imprisoned there can escape and destroy Equestria!”
“Destroy Equestria?!” Spike and Midnight echoed fearfully.
“Yeah, isn’t it great?” Twilight said with an inappropriately happy tone. “Hey Cerberus!”
Cerberus stopped, his left rear leg risen up, and Midnight had a sudden flash of déjà vu while the beast looked at Twilight.
“You look like you could use some obedience training! Magic obedience training…”
Twilight flared her horn, ready for a tussle when…
“Who’s the cute little three-headed dog?” Fluttershy was rubbing the big behemoth’s belly, all three heads panting happily.
“Wow…!” Midnight walked up cautiously. “I knew you were good with animals but this blows my mind!”
“Aww, he’s just a big furry guy who got out of his yard, that’s all,” Fluttershy waved it off as she continued to baby-talk the hellhound. “Right, Cerberus? Whooza good boy? Whooza good boy?”
“AAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
“Pinkie!”
“Yes, Midnight?”
“I don’t suppose you have a ball I could borrow, would you?”
“I have balls stashed all over Ponyville,” Pinkie reached into a hollow tree and pulled one out, “In case of ball emergencies.”
"Of course," Midnight deadpanned while Twilight took the ball in her aura.
“Hey Cerberus!”
All six eyes were on the ball, tongues lagging, as Twilight said, “Look what I have!”
She started galloping, carrying the ball in her aura, Cerberus following.
“I’ll be back as soon as I’ve returned him to the gates of Tartarus. Once he’s back home there’ll be no disaster!”
Pinkie, Midnight, and Spike all shared a look.