//------------------------------//
// Taxi, follow that Battletram! 
// Story: My Little Homie 
// by Lock Target 
//------------------------------//

SOMEWHERE, DEEP IN THE EVERFREE FOREST...! ManAnt and EagleClaw are standing around catching their breath. The trash can begins to move. 

"It's about time!" grumpped EagleClaw. The trash can opens and a female creature in a lab coat and such emerges stretching and yawning. 

"Good morning starshine" said ManAnt sarcastically, "An alternate dimension full of talking, colorful horses we somehow got stuck in with the Aquabats while you were visiting Lala Land says hello!" 

"VAS!?" cried the woman. Our heroes manage to find them. 

"What in the!?" shouted ManAnt upon their arrival. 

"Hold it right there, ManA-" The Commander stops himself after seeing the woman. "Aw come on! You guys have Eva Mudlark with you!?" Eva cackles and exits the trash can. 

"Und now" she said, "I shall create a beast to fight you zo we may escape! EAGLECLAW! ZE COMPONENTS!" 

EagleClaw looks around then asks "...You mean the garbage bag?" 

"Ja, ze garbage bag" replied Eva, "Vhy do you take zo long!?" 

EagleClaw then admits "I threw it at the Aquabats during our persuit of them" 

ManAnt then pops him on the head. "YOU NUMBSKULL! IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE THE WHEELS, I WOULDN'T HAVE CONSIDERED TEAMING UP WITH YOU!" 

Twilight then groans saying "Can we wrap up this three-ring circus anytime soon?" 

Pinkie then pops out of the trash can much to the Commander's surprise, sure she was next to him. "OOH, YOU GUYS ARE CIRCUS FOLK!?" Pinkie asked as the "Pinkie" next to the Commander falls revealing to be a cardboard cut-out, "WHERE'S THE LION TAMER!?" 

A frightened Eva pushes the can over. "We'll sort this out later" ManAnt said, "For now, RUN!" 

The three run away again. Eva grabs her trash can dumping Pinkie out of it. "EEEEEEEEAAAAGLECLAAAAAAAAAAAW!" EagleClaw shouted again. 

"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT!?" shouted ManAnt.


Zecora arrives just as the Commander tries to ask Pinkie how she performed the preceeding act she did. "Oh my, what is this? There is something here amiss" 

Fluttershy then walks up to Zecora explaining, "Um, yes, you see...I found these guys at the edge of the forest who say that they and three other people that just left came here through a strange rainbow-colored cloud" 

With a grimace, Zecora says "This is far worse then I thought, to my hut, dawdle not!" 

When they got to her hut, they notice a hole in the roof. They open the door to see the rock Crash threw earlier inside Zecora's cauldron. "So THAT'S where it landed" said Crash.

An angry Zecora then says "Look what you did, you otherworldy lout, it will take WEEKS to get it out!" She then starts yelling in her native tongue. Moments after calming her down, Zecora then says "I apologize, but in order to help you, I would need to make a special brew" 

"That's understandable, strange hermit Zebra homie" said the Commander, "I'd be mad too if something I needed was plugged by a rock" 

"Well NOW what do we do?" asked AJ, "You're the only expert on these types of things we know"

Zecora giggles saying "Fret not, there is another, he is the son of my brother" 

The Aquabats ponder this and look at Twilight who replies, "Her nephew" 

Rarity then asks, "Is he back home where you are from?" 

"Far away he is not" said Zecora, "he lives up in Canterlot" 

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked an impatient Rainbow Dash, "Let's hop on the next train and find this guy!" 

"A train?" scoffed the Commander, "No need, my impetuous rainbow-haired homie!" 

"He's right, Ms. Dash" replied Jimmy opening a screen in his hand, "Prior to our arrival here, I installed a warping mechanism to the Battletram. I'm setting it's coordinents right now" 

Finishing up, our heroes exit Zecora's hut only to find that the Battletram is not there. "...Jimmy?" asked the Commander, "Where's the Battletram?"

Jimmy looks at his screen along with Bones. Bones then looks at the Commander saying "Uh, Commander, I think Jimmy made a boo-boo" 

"Make that a fleshwound, Commander" added Jimmy, "It seems I warpped the Battletram TO this Canterlot place befoe having it come here first" 

The shagrined Commander then says "Great, next you're going to tell me the warping feature is out of range and we'll have to take the train afterall" 

Jimmy then looks at his screen again saying "Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say next" before shutting it. 

With an upset chuckle, the Commander starts ranting. "That's just great! We're stuck in Happy Silly Horsey Land with three of our greatest enemies and now we've lost the Battletram! I mean, when I woke up this morning, I was in a RADICAL mood! Now look at us! WHO DOES THAT!?" 

Spike kicks the Commander in the shins yelling "SNAP OUT OF IT!"

"You're right little homie" said the Commander recovering from the kick, "Now's not the time for freaking out, now is the time...For a train ride...Aquabats (And local homies), to the Train Station!"

He then runs off. "Does he even know WHERE the train station is, let-alone how to get to Ponyville from here?" asked AJ. 

"You'll have to excuse him" replied EagleBones, "He's not big on thinking about such things"

Just then, the villains can be heard again; 

"SCHNITZEL!" 

"EAGLECLAW!" 

"FOR PITTY SAKE, GIVE US TIME TO PLAN OUR NEXT ATTACK!" 

Moments after finding the Commander, navigating their way out of the forest and getting to the Train Station, our heroes meet the ticket booth. "How many in your...Group, ma'm?" the booth runner asked Twilight. 

"Thirteen" she answered. 

"Don't you mean how many in your-?" the Commander asked before AJ put her hoof over his mouth. 

"We should've told you about this before, but no one in Ponyville uses the P-Word willy-nilly around Pinkie Pie" AJ explained, "Not that we don't like her...You-know-whats, but in places like this, it makes it hard to get anything important done because everypony is distracted with the festivities" 

Pinkie's eyes widened before she said "Festivities?" 

"APPLEJACK!" Spike and the other girls shouted as the increasingly excited Pinkie starts jumping up and down. 

"Aw Hay Seed!" said AJ realizing her mistake moving her hoof off of the Commander's mouth, "You also have to be careful about what you say around her" 

One party later, the group finally manages to get on the train. 

"Okay, now we need to do bunking arrangements" said Twilight. 

"How about half of us go into each room?" proposed the Commander. 

"One problem" Twilight claimed, "We have thirteen members in this...gathering" She then asks "Who will be in your room along with the other Aquabats?" The Commander didn't think about this. 

"That's okay, sugar cube" started AJ, we'll draw straws for that decision" 

That night, we find the girls in their room. Zecora is with them and Pinkie is apparently in the Aquabats' room. Spike and Rarity are fast asleep with Rarity's falsies on the nightstand while she's wearing a mud mask and cucumber slices over her eyes. 

"So what are you so worked up about with the Aquabats?" asked Twilight.

Zecora sighed and began to explain. "A great war will happen soon, as foretold from many a moon. Several worlds colliding by and by, do you recall this, Fluttershy?" 

Fluttershy's wings erect in fear saying, "Y-you don't mean..." Everypony looks at her.

"What are you talking about?" asked AJ.

"Wait a minute" said Rainbow Dash, "Are you talking about those guys who took her for some weird protection deal 20 years back?"*

*This will be explained later on...In another work of fiction.

"Indeed I am, Ms. Rainbow Dash" started Zecora, "Many a warrior soon will clash. Later on I shall explain, for now let us reach the destination of this train. One of twelve leads our target group" she yawned laying her head down on her pillow. "My eyes now begin to droop" she finished falling asleep.

"One of twelve?" asked Twilight, "What does THAT mean?"

"I don't know" replied AJ, "But Zecora's right, we'd better get some shut-eye"

Everypony falls asleep except for Fluttershy. For a few seconds in that otherwise dark room with the light of the moon coming from the window, tossing and turning, Fluttershy then tries to wake Twilight up gently before the Commander opens their door turning on the light.

"Sorry to disturb you guys" said the Commander as the sound of Pinkie talking about Rainbow fills the air, "But somebody needs to either turn her off or switch places with her"

"HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS GAME!?" cried Crash.

Meanwhile back in the outskirts of Ponyville, ManAnt, EagleClaw and Eva are sitting around a Campfire. All three of them have hunger in their eyes.

"If ve have to eat zomeone here, I zuggest ve eat EagleClaw first!" shouted Eva.

"As tempting as that seems" ManAnt started, "We should think of tomarrow"

"What ABOUT tomarrow?" asked EagleClaw.

"Lets just say, when the BATS are away" snickered ManAnt slowly facing Ponyville, "The Ant, the Eagle-like man and the mad scientist will play!" All three start laughing until EagleClaw is randomly beaned with an apple knocking him backwards unconcious.

"KEEP IT DOWN!" shouted Big Mac.

What sinister plan could be brewing in ManAnt's head? Will our heroes be able to stop them? Don't ask me, keep reading!