Pinkie Pie awoke to the sound of Rarity screaming. Her eyes popped open and she sprung out of her tent that she somehow managed to hide withing her hair and ran over to Rarity's tent, also hidden in her hair, and with speeds unimaginable, she burst into the tent to see what was wrong, only to see a little grasshopper lying in the middle of the tent, while Rarity was huddled in the corner, shivering.
"Oh Rarity~" Pinkie said rolling her eyes.
She picked up the grasshopper lightly and let it hop off into the forest. Turning back, she saw that Rarity was calmed down now that the insect had left.
"You should have seen the look on your face~" Pinkie pie giggled, while Rarity stared daggers into her.
"YOU may take the infectious diseases that those insects carry lightly, but i prefer NOT to catch Ebola from a grasshopper! What if it hopped into my ear?! What if-" Rarity stuttered in a panic
Pinkie put her finger to Rarity's lips and shushed her lightly. "We have more important things to worry about besides a little grasshopper. How's your ankle?"
"It's better..." Rarity said looking down at her broken ankle.
'
"Can you walk?" Pinkie asked.
"I'll try..." Rarity said.
She stood up with her good leg and tried to put pressure on the other, but as soon as she began to, she cried out and fell over. Pinkie was quick enough to catch her before she hit the ground.
"I'll take that as a no~" Pinkie said, trying to cheer Rarity up with a smile.
It seemed to slightly work and Rarity gave a slight smile and nodded. Pinkie lifted Rarity up over her shoulder and carried her out of the tent. The two walked over to the bonfire Pinkie had lit the night before. Somehow it still managed to stay lit, and while Rarity wondered how she managed to keep it lit, she learned to stop questioning the actions of Pinkie, because really......
"Now it's not gourmet, but wait here and i'll go over to the river and catch us some breakfast." Pinkie said as she set Rarity down and threw a few more logs into the fire.
"It's OK dear, i don't really mind the quality THAT much...." Rarity said, though she could KILL for a Chicken Parmesan, she could deal with unseasoned fish for now.
Rarity Sighed in relief as the pain started to fade away from her ankle. She looked around at her surroundings and pondered her thoughts. The everfree forest wasn't as bad as she though, but she would still rather be at home in her bed....... That was when Rarity noticed the woman in red and gold armor walking through the forest roughly 30 feet away. Admittedly, the first thought in her head when she saw the woman was 'obviously SOMEBODY has no sense in fashion....' But this thought left her as soon as she saw the bag she was carrying over her shoulder. It was roughly the size of a human being, and she could have sworn she saw the outline of a body in it.
Rarity quickly shook this thought from her mind, not wanting to get into anything that would put her or her friends in any further harm. But then she saw something drop from the bag. It was small, but shimmery. Rarity tried to go and see what it was, but soon she was reminded of her broken ankle in a very harsh way. After roughly 10 more minutes, Pinkie Pie returned with a string of fish in each hand, and one string hanging in her mouth.
She spat out the string of fish in her mouth and beamed with a smile. "Hope you're hungry~!"
"Pinkie darling...." Rarity said, pointing to where she saw the small object fall. "Do you think you could carry me over there real quick?"
"Mhm!" Pinkie said, setting the fish down and picking up Rarity.
The two staggered over to where Rarity could have sworn the item was dropped. Much to her disgust, Rarity searched the ground for the item. After searching around for a couple of minutes, her fingers hit something metal. Rarity dug up the item held it up for her and Pinkie to see. Pinkie Pie gasped and Rarity dropped the item in disbelief. Now, on the ground in front of them, lay Fluttershy's necklace, that held her element of harmony.....
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As consciousness came back to Fluttershy, she felt the shackles that were hooked around her hands. She opened her eyes and tried to look around, only to see darkness all around her, pure pitch blackness. She swung her feet but couldn't find any ground. Fluttershy tried to sprout her wing, but when she tried, she felt the hold of chains on her back. She began to cry, she was scared as hell and didn't know where she was. She tried to call out for help, only to hear her voice echo through the darkness.
"Hello?! Anybody?! Please answer me!" Fluttershy begged.
She shackles weren't extremely tight. In fact, if she could twist her wrists and swing just right, she could get out. She learned how from Rainbow Dash when they-
"THEY DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT!" Fluttershy screamed in embarrassment, breaking the fourth wall.
"Sorry, sorry~" The narrator responded.
Fluttershy would be able to escape, but with the total darkness around her she couldn't know how high she was. She kept swinging her feet lower, seeing if she could hit some ground. After swinging desperately for about 5 minutes, she remembered a few math facts she learned from Twilight. After remembering the full formula for a falling object and the speed of sound, she removed her shoe and let it drop down. After she heard her shoe hit ground she did the math and found that she was hanging roughly 15 feet in the air. It wouldn't be fatal but due to her fragile bone structure, she might break a leg.
"C'mon Fluttershy, you can do it....!" Fluttershy said, trying to give herself confidence.
Fluttershy twisted and turned her wrists until she slipped out of them and fell to the ground. She yelped out loud in pain at impact, but surprisingly she didn't break any bones, though she did walk with a limp. Fluttershy felt her way around, to see if she could find her way out. She could feel large metal crates, and smooth metal surfaces. She guessed she was in some kind of warehouse, and felt along the wall for some kind of switch or door. After roughly an hour of feeling the wall continuously, she came upon a switch, and when pressed, two elevator door open, providing a bit of light. Before she stepped into the elevator, she looked back into the room and was shocked to see that she was indeed in a warehouse, but it was filled with large nuclear missiles.
"What is this place?" Fluttershy wondered, before stepping into the elevator and closing the door.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beep....
Twilight groaned, her gut aching and her head felt like she had just gone 10 rounds with a semi.
Beep....
Twilight opened her eyes, and the hospital lamp felt a hell of a lot like she was staring into the sun.
Beep....
Groaning, Twilight sat up and took a look around, taking her time to fully open her eyes, like a newborn kitten.
Beep....
Twilight look towards the source of the beeping and saw the hospital machine hooked up to her.
Beep...
The beeping was getting on her nerves, so she pulled all of the equipment off of her, only making the machine even more annoying.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
Twilight got out from her bed and collapsed next to it. She must have been out for a while. As the blood flowed back into her legs, Twilight grabbed a couple of crutches and stood herself up. She could already tell something was wrong, since no nurses or doctors had bothered to come and check why one of their machines had suddenly gone off. Twilight opened her hospital door and made her way out into the hall where she saw that clearly, something had unfolded.
There was a crashed hospital cart of one end of the hall, a small blood splatter (probably from somebody getting hit in the nose) There were dents in the wall and some fully destroyed, and just a few feet away, she could see....
"Applejack?!" Twilight shouted, making her way to her fallen friend as quickly as she could.
When Twilight reached Applejack, she dropped her crutches and knealed down next to her.
"Applejack! Open your eyes! What happened?!" Twilight said, trying to shake her friend awake.
Applejack groaned in pain. She slowly opened her eyes and awoke to see Twilight just inches from her.
"Applejack!" Twilight sighed in relief, giving Applejack as strong of a hug as she could muster.
"Hey there now Twi, simmer down. What are ya'll doing out of yer bed?" Applejack questioned.
"First, how about you explain to me what happened here?" Twilight said with more worry than demand.
"Well, I was in the waiting room after Rainbow Dash had woken up, after she got attacked by a couple of creaps who were trying to search your house for something, when i saw two girls who said they were looking for ya. Ah was kinda suspicious so ah admit i followed them. But, just as we got to your room, they turned around and attacked me outa nowhere!" Applejack explained.
"Did you get their names?" Twilight questioned.
Applejack shook her head no, but described the two beings to Twilight. Twilights eyes widened as she realized that the very being Applejack was describing were two of the riders of the Apocalypse. Before she could tell Applejack that she knew who the two were, Applejack gasped and jumped up.
"Fluttershy! They've got Fluttershy!" Applejack yelled as she picked up Twilight and ran to Rainbow Dash's room.
Applejack threw open the door and was surprised to see Zecora rubbing some sort of green lotion on Rainbow Dash's legs.
"Twilight!" Rainbow dash yelled in excitement.
Zecora turned around and smiled at the two. "Applejack, i can see from the hallway your battle held much heat, please, relax and take a seat."
Applejack nodded and set Twilight down in a seat next to her, taking her own seat. Zecora turned back to covering Rainbow Dash's legs until she was finished. Zecora stood up and turned towards Applejack and Twilight and sighed.
"A fight against War you fought... But unfortunately, it was for naught." Zecora said to Applejack, peeking Twilight's interest.
"W-War?! As in, the Rider!?" Twilight shouted.
Zecora responded with a nod.
"So it's true.... They've come to...." Twilight started, until Zecora interrupted.
"Bring our world to and end... But perhaps the chains of Fate, you can bend~" Zecora said with a smile filled with hope.
"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned. "You're not REALLY suggesting we FIGHT the Four Riders of the Apocalypse!"
Zecora nodded to Twilight. "The Four Riders offer a test, for our world to send out it's best.... If the Four riders you can beat, Then our worlds will not taste defeat!"
"Hold on now..." Applejack said, a bit lost. "Just what in Tartarus is going on here!?"
Twilight did her best to explain everything to Applejack, about everything she read about the Four Riders in her book. She told Applejack about War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. As Twilight went on and on, she could see Applejack's eyes widening, either from fear, shock, or both. After Twilight got done explaining everything to Applejack, she waited for a response. But Applejack said nothing, she just stood up and walked out of the room.
Twilight sighed and looked over to Zecora and Rainbow Dash. "So what's that stuff supposed to do anyway?"
"Zecora said that it would help me to be able to walk again. Guess she figured i'd need to if i was gonna fight the Four Riders of the Apocalypse!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"F-Fight?" Twilight said, surprised.
"Well yeah! I'm not about to give our whole world up to some stupid Riders who think they can just come in and destroy everything! Those Riders want a fight? I'm gonna give it to them!" Rainbow Dash said confidently.
"But.... Rainbow Dash... We can't just-" Twilight Started, but Rainbow Dash interrupted before Twilight could officially give up.
"Of course we can! We've faced gods of chaos, powerful kings, hordes of shapeshifting bug people, even a magic-sucking overlord! Do you really think a few women on motorcycles are gonna take us down? Hell no! I don't care if i gotta go it alone, i will NOT give up our world without a fight!" Rainbow Dash said, trying to see if she could raise Twilight confidence.
Rainbow's attempts seemed to work. Twilight smiled and stood up. "You're right Rainbow. We've protected Equestria numerous times! No reason this should be any different! I'm gonna go find Applejack. If we're gonna take on the four Riders, we'll need her, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy!"
Twilight ran out of the room in a dash, while Rainbow cheered her on from her room, "Yeah! The Elements of Harmony never give up!"