“I can’t take it anymore! We’ve never had to stay here this long! All this waiting is driving me insane!” Rarity said, feeling as though she wanted to cry but holding back so as not to cause her makeup to run.
“Tell me about it,” Rainbow Dash said. “This is so boring!” She lowered herself from where she was hovering and lay down on the ground, rolling over onto her back.
“Oh, come on!” Pinkie said, “It’s not that bad.” She was sitting on her back legs and hitting a paddleball with a paddle that was tied around her hoof.
“We’ve been here for months!” Applejack said. “Maybe you can just sit around hitting that ball or watching paint dry or whatever it is you do, but I want to get back to my apple farm!”
Twilight sighed. “Do I really have to explain this again?”
“Explain what?” Applejack asked, still feeling rather annoyed.
“We can’t just ‘go back’ from the Hiatus Zone whenever we feel like it,” Twilight said. “We’re not allowed to leave until the new season starts. While we’re here, I’m not actually sure whether your apple farm even exists! Equestria might not even exist!”
“Oh, I knew that,” Applejack said. “But I can still say that I want to go back.”
“I don’t like the Hiatus Zone very much,” Fluttershy said softly. And there really wasn’t much to like – it was a dark, featureless place, lit only dimly and with the only company being characters from other shows who were just as impatient as them. Sometimes the Mane Six and Spike would try socializing with them, but it always felt a little awkward.
“Me, neither,” Spike said.
“Be careful what you say,” Twilight warned Fluttershy and Spike. “If the TV Police hear you saying that, they might throw you in the Cancellation Zone!” Infractions that minor were almost always ignored, but they were still occasionally enforced – a few years back, one particularly overzealous member of the TV Police had forced the cancellation of a woman named Sarah Connor’s show after she had been caught complaining too much. Sure, there was going to be another movie, but with a different version of her. The show version would forever be trapped in the Cancellation Zone.
“Not the Cancellation Zone!” Rainbow Dash said. “That place is definitely not awesome. I mean, look down there!”
The Mane Six and Spike all went over to the railing at the edge of the Hiatus Zone and looked down. The Cancellation Zone was a lot bigger than the Hiatus Zone, and it was a dull, grey place in which most of the inhabitants seemed totally lethargic and depressed. It looked like a thoroughly horrible place to be, and it was far enough down that it would clearly be dangerous for anyone to fall down there (yes, anyone – not everyone in the Hiatus Zone was a pony, after all). Sure, one of the pegasi could probably fly there, but why would they want to? Besides, even if they did, the TV Police probably wouldn’t let them come back. It still had most of the same residents, of course – there wasn’t exactly anywhere for them to go – but there were some new arrivals as well.
Among the characters that the Mane Seven (Spike included) recognized from previous times when they’d been forced to stay in the Hiatus Zone were Malcolm Reynolds and his crew, as well as the crew from Planet Express. The crew of Serenity were probably some of the longest holdouts in the entire Cancellation Zone to have not given up hope. Despite nearly ten years having passed, they still believed that they might someday escape. Planet Express was a more recent addition, though they had already spent some time there in the past and managed to escape not once, but twice! Even now, some of them were holding up signs saying simply, “Avenge Us.” One of them was even holding a “Save Us, Netflix! You’re Our Only Hope!” sign. Ever since hearing that Anakin Skywalker’s show had gotten another season there, they’d been pushing to get similar treatment. The Bluths had gotten the same, but the sign clearly showed the Star Wars influence.
“Who’s that over there?” Spike asked. He was pointing at an angry man who was yelling at three other men, one of whom was clearly younger than the others. “I think he was there last time, but those others weren’t.”
“How are we supposed to know?” Applejack said, leaning over the railing to get a better look.
“Careful!” said Rainbow Dash. “You don’t want to end up as a background pony!”
“Ha, ha! Very funny!” Applejack said sarcastically. “If I fell down there, I wouldn’t just be a background pony. I’d be written out of the show entirely! But that’s not going to happen.” Suddenly, a slight breeze blew her hat off, and it quickly got out of reach.
Fluttershy briefly considered going after it, but she was too worried about what might happen if she ended up falling into the Cancellation Zone herself. Rainbow Dash wasn’t afraid, though – soaring over the railing, she sped towards the hat. She was just about to grab it when an alarm went off. “GET BACK TO YOUR ZONE. GET BACK TO YOUR ZONE,” an invisible loudspeaker repeated over and over again. Suddenly, a grid of lasers appeared just a few feet below the point at which Rainbow Dash was flying. Forgetting the hat, Rainbow Dash swerved up just in time to avoid getting vaporized. The hat wasn’t so lucky, of course.
“Well, that’s new,” Twilight said as Rainbow Dash returned to her position beside the others. Referring back to the question Rarity had asked before the hat fiasco, she said, “And if I remember correctly, that’s Charlie Harper. He’s probably angry because he’s already had to stay down there for a few years without the rest of the characters from his show, and he thought he was going to be able to come back for a little while, but it didn’t happen. He must be taking out his anger on them now that they’re finally there, too.”
“That’s horrible. I hope we never end up in the Cancellation Zone,” Fluttershy said. “The Hiatus Zone is bad enough!”
“At least right now we know that we’ll get to go back to our world eventually!” Rarity said. Now that she was once again seeing firsthand just how bad things could be, simply having to wait for a long time wasn’t feeling quite so intolerable.
“And we’ll never let ourselves end up like them, right guys?” Rainbow Dash said, pointing to another group of ponies down in the Cancellation Zone.
“Right,” everypony but Pinkie said.
“Who?” Pinkie asked. “Oh, them! I know them! Rainbow Dash always dresses in style! Rainbow Dash always dresses in style!” And she kept on singing the song, causing Rainbow Dash to instantly regret having pointed the other ponies out.
Ignoring Pinkie, Applejack said, “That movie we’ve got coming in a couple years should help keep our popularity up, so I don’t think we have to worry about it for a while.”
The Mane Seven all backed up from the railing, having seen enough depressing scenery for one day. Pinkie was still hitting the paddleball. She interrupted her singing for a moment to shout, “I’m going to break my record!” and then went right back to it, bouncing up and down but managing to keep control of the ball, anyway.
“That’s nice, darling,” Rarity said.
“Excuse me, but do any of you know where we are?” Twilight asked.
“What?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You obviously know where we…” She turned toward the voice. “Wait, what?” There was a second Twilight Sparkle there. Rainbow Dash could even see both of them at the same time. Not only that, but there were second versions of all of the rest of them as well. Their doppelgängers must have come up behind them while they were looking down at the Cancellation Zone.
“Who are you?” the Applejack from the Mane Seven we’ve already been talking about asked.
“Two of me?” our Pinkie asked.
“I guess so!” the new Pinkie said. Then, in unison, they both started singing, “Who’s a silly pony? Applejack!”
“Not that again,” the new Applejack said.
“Tell me about it,” our Rainbow Dash said.
Returning to the real question at hand, the new Rarity said, “Who are we? We could ask you the same question!”
“We’re from the TV show ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,’” our Twilight said.
“Uh…we’re from the comic ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,’” the new Twilight said.
“Oh, I’ve heard of you guys,” show Rainbow Dash said. “But why are you here? The comic doesn’t really have a hiatus, does it?”
“It’s just a short one,” comic Spike said. “Our next comic – number 28 – got delayed for some reason. But that still doesn’t explain what’s going on.”
“Are you sure you’re really in a hiatus at all? I’m not sure a delay is the same thing,” show Applejack said.
“I guess it must count,” comic Applejack said. Show Twilight quickly explained the Hiatus Zone as well as she could. Both Pinkies finally stopped singing so that everypony could pay attention.
“Okay,” comic Rainbow Dash said. “But who made us come here in the first place?”
“Nopony knows for sure,” show Rarity said. “Or at least, we don’t.”
“How come you guys are in the TV Division, anyway? This part of the Facility is supposed to be for TV show characters!” show Pinkie said. Nopony was sure how she knew this, but now that the show characters thought about it, they really never had seen anyone there who wasn’t from a TV show.
“Um…this is where they…uh…told us to go,” comic Fluttershy said, finally speaking up.
“That’s weird,” show Twilight said. “It sounds like it’s not your mistake, but you might want to turn yourselves in to the TV Police before they think you escaped from the comic area-"
"Comic Division," corrected show Pinkie.
"-on your own," finished show Twilight.
“Why? What would happen then?” comic Rainbow Dash asked.
“You could get cancelled!” show Pinkie said cheerfully. Then, in an altogether more somber tone, “But you don’t want that to happen.”
“Alright, well, thanks for the help,” comic Twilight said.
“Hey, wait! I have some advice before you go,” show Twilight said.
“What’s that?” comic Twilight said.
“Try to have a more consistent moral standing from now on,” show Twilight said.
“I guess I’ll…keep that in mind,” comic Twilight said, not entirely sure what show Twilight was talking about. The comic Mane Seven walked off to find the TV Police and turn themselves in.
“You know, I kind of envy them,” show Rainbow Dash (who can go back to just being called “Rainbow Dash” now) said.
“Why’s that?” Spike asked.
“They’ll probably just have to stay here for a week or two. But we’ve been here for months, and we still don’t know when we’re getting out!” Rainbow Dash said. “And now that I think about it, why don’t the actual background ponies have to be here this time?”
“You mean Lyra, Derpy, and everypony else? I think they’re in some kind of special training session in the Development Zone up there.” She pointed vaguely toward the sky. “Probably the Character Development section. They’re going to get to be main characters in one episode of the upcoming season, and they have to be ready,” Twilight said.
“What about the Cutie Mark Crusaders?” Fluttershy asked.
“I guess they must be there, too,” Twilight said.
“But aren’t they already sort of main characters?” Pinkie asked.
“Yes, but there's a rumor that they’ll be getting their cutie marks this season,” Twilight said. “Maybe it has something to do with that.”
“It’s about time.” Applejack said. “Apple Bloom would love that.”
“Sweetie Belle, too,” Rarity said.
“And Scootaloo,” Rainbow Dash said. “What? She’s like my honorary sister or something.”
“Hmm…well, I wish we could go to a training session instead of just sitting around here,” Applejack said.
“Actually, we did back when we were in the Development Zone, before the show even started. Remember?” Twilight said.
“Oh, yes. Back when you were named Twilight Twinkle and you were pink instead of the brilliant purple color you are now,” Rarity said. She seemed as though she was going to go on, but was interrupted by a sudden announcement.
“NEXT UP: THE MANE SIX AND SPIKE,” a voice suddenly said over the loudspeaker.
“He didn’t say the ‘Mane Seven,’” Spike said, slightly disappointed. But nopony else seemed worried about it.
“Do my ears deceive me?” Rarity asked. “That’s us!”
“YES!” Pinkie said. Then, after a pause: “I broke my record!”
“You sounded like a broken record when you were singing earlier,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
All seven of our characters started heading toward the exit door, eager to get back to Equestria now that it must be ready for them again. On the way, they passed a ledge with no railing, where a member of the TV Police seemed to be waiting for the okay to push Constantine over the edge.
“I feel sorry for him,” Fluttershy said. “I hope his show still ends up getting renewed after all.” Some students from Greendale had managed to get a reprieve from a similar situation multiple times, so it wasn't totally out of the question.
Finally, the Mane Seven arrived at the exit, chattering all at once and trying to guess what season 5 was going to be like. But as they neared the door, the TV Police cut them off. “Sorry, false alarm,” one of them said. “That alert was meant for some of your fanfic counterparts in another Division. There are a whole lot of them.”
“No!” Rarity said, crushed by this news. “This is the Worst. Possible. Thing!”
“It’ll be okay,” Pinkie said. She finally stopped hitting the paddleball, apparently satisfied with the record she’d achieved, and said, “Come on, smile! Actually, wait a minute. I know something that’ll make somepony else smile!” She pulled something out of her tail and said, “It’s your hat, Applejack!”
“How did you get this?” Applejack asked, taking it and positioning it back on her head. “I thought it got destroyed!”
“It’s a secret,” Pinkie said. Nopony thought there was much point in trying to convince her to say anything beyond that. She’d probably end up blurting it out at some point, anyway. In the meantime, they were back to the long haul, hoping they would be called soon so that season 5 could finally get into action.