//------------------------------//
// Rise of the Tomato Alien! Derpy's Sister Comes to Visit! 
// Story: The Adventures of Derpy, Lyra, and Octavia 
// by IsabellaAmoreSirenix 
//------------------------------//

"What do you think it is?" Octavia whispered.

"An alien," Lyra answered.  "Definitely an alien."

"Oh come now, that's your answer to everything.  It's clearly a grapefruit, it has to be."

"Nah, too lumpy for that," Lyra commented.  "If the alien's disguising itself, it's doing a poor impression of a flowerpot."

Octavia pressed a hoof to her forehead.  "I honestly don't know why I bother asking you anything.  Although," she added, tilting her head sideways, "from this angle, it sort of looks like a firehydrant."

"Now that's ridiculous," Lyra said.  "Why in the wide world of Equestria would our Derpy bring home an alien fire hydrant?  There are much better, nicer looking aliens to choose from!"

"Hi, girls!" Derpy said.  "This is my little sister, Dinky!"

Both mares' eyes widened.

"It's a filly?" Octavia asked.

"Ha, likely story," Lyra answered.  "Alien brainwashing technology has improved far more over the years, you know, but their database is still lacking in the finer details of equine culture."

"You know," Octavia said, "I sometimes lie awake at night and think to myself whether you might actually be an alien.  It's the perfect cover story for you, you see?  Send ponies off looking for aliens so they don't notice what's right under their noses.  Of course, then I get terrified that your influence has been so strong to prompt me to even think about that sort of thing.  And then I start thinking about turning back the clock, but we all know how well that train of thought turned out--"

"I wike twains!" Dinky exclaimed.

Octavia gasped.  "It talks, too?"

"This requires a much more thorough study," Lyra decided before walking up to Derpy and tentatively poking the strange alien-grapefruit-flowerpot-fire hydrant sitting on Derpy's back.

"Hewwo!"

"Quick, Octavia, get me a quill and pen!"

Derpy laughed.  "Have you two honestly never seen a foal before?"

"Quartz Clarity was born two years before me," Octavia said in her own defense.  "And living on a rock farm doesn't exactly provide the best environment for encountering young ponies."

"I'm Mommy and Daddy's only princess," announced Lyra proudly.  "And I already knew the aristocrats carried around aliens.  It's the only logical explanation when it comes to them."

Derpy shook her head.  "I guess we have a long day ahead of us, don't we?  Mother is visiting my aunt while she's in town for the Moon Festival, but Dinky's too scared of the dog there.  We only have to watch her until Mom gets back at..." Derpy squinted to make out the time on her sparkly clock. "...six o'clock!  So, just three hours!"

"Fantastic!" Lyra said, her forelegs overflowing with parchment.  "It'll essentially be a mini-Derpy, correct?  It's a great case study opportunity, with comparing data, finding correlative traits..."

Octavia just shrugged, focusing entirely on Dinky as she did a hoofstand to stare at the foal from upside-down.  "I swear," she mumbled, "somehow, for some reason, that lamp stand is going to explode."

Derpy looked between the two and nervously chuckled, not quite knowing what to do. "You will try to be careful with her, right?  She is only three years old, after all."

"Of course!" they both exclaimed.

"You know where the emergency red button is, right?"

"Of course!"

"And you know my mother's insurance is only 50,000 bits?"

"Of course!" answered Octavia.

"50,000?" Lyra asked.  "Alright, I can work with that."

"Well okay then!" said Derpy. "I'm sure everything will work out just fine!"





"Hey girls, I'm going to make a salad," Octavia called across the room.  "Anypony want some?"

After receiving two appreciative sounds in reply, Octavia set to work, pulling various greens and vegetables out of a magic box that kept things cool and was-not-a-magical-refrigerator-why-would-you-ask.  She rummaged through the cabinet to return triumphant with a bright yellow bowl, then she set to work.

Just then, Dinky tottered into the pseudo-kitchen. "Dewpy said dere was fud here!" the three-year-old exclaimed.

"Um, yes," Octavia answered. "Do you eat salad, Dinky?"

"Yay!  I wike salad!"

"Alright," said Octavia with a smile.  "Give a minute or two, and the four of us can eat, okay?"

"Okie dokey!" Then Dinky sat down on the floor with a plop.

Shrugging, Octavia turned around and began to open the bag of fresh lettuce.

Dinky blinked.

Octavia placed the lettuce in the bowl.

Dinky blinked.

Octavia swallowed a lump in her throat.  In went the chopped carrots.

Dinky blinked. 

Octavia began to feel beads of sweat trickle down the nape of her neck. What is it doing? Octavia thought to herself.  Is it scanning my brain for information on the equine race?

Dinky blinked.

Plop.  In went the shredded cheese.  Its eyes, Octavia thought to herself with growing horror.  So... big... so... sparkly...

Finally, the last ingredient to put in the salad was a tomato. Octavia picked it up, looked at it, and then looked at Dinky.

Dinky blinked.

Octavia held out the tomato so that it was parallel to Dinky.  Then she squinted, tilted her head, and suddenly, everything clicked into place.

"Alright then!" Octavia exclaimed happily as she tossed the salad.  "That makes perfect sense!"




"Wal Domunashun!"

"No, no, let's try it again," Lyra said.  "World domination."

"Wal Domunashun!"

"No, Dinky," Lyra insisted.  "Repeat after me.  Wor-l-d."

"Woorrld."

"Dom."

"Dom."

"I."

"I."

"Na."

"Na."

"Shun."

"Shun."

"Good!" Lyra praised.  "Now, let's put it all together.  World domination."

Dinky nodded and exclaimed, "Wal Domunashun!"

Lyra sighed.  "Close enough.  Here, Dinky, let's try this one.  'Take me to your leader.'  It's simple, see?"

"Tack me ta ya leedar!"

Lyra snickered.  "Hey, Octavia," she called, "I think her speech takes after you!"

"Ha, ha, ha," said Octavia, not even raising her eyes from her book.  "Don't make fun of the tomato, Lyra."

"What?"

"Um, nevermind," Octavia said before suffocating herself in the safety of her pages.

Lyra shrugged and turned back to Dinky.  "Okay, how about 'we come in...'  No, that's too boring.  How about 'we have come to conquer this planet'?  Do you think you can manage that?"

"Uh-huh!" said Dinky.

"Such a good alien overlord," praised Lyra, her face glowing as she gently squeezed Dinky's cheeks.

"Wa hav cum tooo kon-currr thi panet!"

Suddenly, Lyra gasped. "I get it now!" she cried, her magic aura violently tearing a quill and a piece of parchment from Octavia's hooves, much to the latter's disgruntlement. "You're not speaking in English!  It's your own alien language!  Haha!  Everything makes perfect sense!"





"And so," said Derpy, smiling at a blank white wall, "we never even had to use the emergency button!"

Lyra and Octavia each raised an eyebrow at Derpy.  "And you say I'm crazy," Lyra muttered.

"Aww, are we leaving already?" asked Dinky as her sister helped her into her winter boots.  "Where was the part you were talking about, sis, with the fighting and the action and the explosions?"

"What is she talking about, Derpy?" Octavia asked.

"Err, nothing!" said Derpy hastily.  "Hehe, kids, you know..." Then the pegasus glanced down at Dinky, wearing a sad little pout.  "Hey," she said, bending down to lift the foal's chin, "we can still have an explosion."  She rummaged through her saddlebags to pull out a little remote control with a bright red button.  "Here you go, Dinky!"

"It was awful knowing you, Octavia," said Lyra as she watched what may have been the fate of the world tumble into the hooves of one little foal.

"Of all the things," Octavia whispered in awe, "of all the things that could have ended us, it was a tomato."

"Meh," Lyra said with a shrug.  "I suppose it's all the same in the end.  Tomato, tomato, and all."

Octavia facehoofed.  "Press the button, Dinky, please."

Dinky did just as Octavia asked.

Suddenly, a great stream of confetti rained down from the ceiling while a banner saying 'Emergency Party!' unfurled.

Dinky grinned from ear to ear.  "Wow, that was amazing!  Do it again, do it again!"

Lyra burst out laughing. "Mares and gentle colts," she announced, "presenting our resident Pinkie Pie."