The Cutie-Marky Tales

by CrowMagnon

The CMC Conspiracy

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle made their way between the trees of Sweet Apple Acres until the old, abandoned clubhouse that the Crusaders (mostly Apple Bloom) had restored came into view. Seeing the windows and door shut tight, Sweetie Belle turned to her friend and asked, "She's gotta be in here, right? I mean, if she wasn't at her house..."

Apple Bloom looked back to the curly-maned unicorn and furrowed her brow. "Ah just hope she'll tell us why she ran off in the first place. Y'all were friends fer a while b'fore Ah joined up. Do you know what's goin' on in that filly's head?"

Cloud Kicker stood ogling the six saviors of Equestria. Without warning, Scootaloo shouted, "It's all connected!" Then, in a blur of orange and purple, she dashed out the open door without any further explanation.

Sweetie Belle pursed her lips before replying, "Last year, Carrot Top treated Rarity to a spa date and got her mane styled. That was the same day Scootaloo heard about 'The Trotford Wives.'"

When Apple Bloom tilted her head in confusion, Sweetie Belle explained, "It's some movie where there's this town, and this scientist takes all the mares and... the point is, for a whole week, she thought Rarity'd been replaced by a robot! She spent the whole time trying to splash water on her to prove it."

"Soooo, you're sayin' we should be prepared fer anything?"

When Sweetie Belle nodded, Apple Bloom said, "One o' these days, you're gonna have ta tell me how y'all became friends in the first place," and knocked on the clubhouse's door.

From inside, Scootaloo's voice called out, "Who is it?"

"It's Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle and Ah've been lookin' for ya since ya ran outta the library." After a short pause, she added, "And we ain't robots or anythin'!"

It opened, and Scootaloo poked her head out, her hat and cape hung up on a hook by the door. Arching an eyebrow at her earth pony friend, she asked, "Uhhh, yeah, I know you aren't robots. That's kinda weird, Apple Bloom. Are you feeling alright?"

"That's what we want to ask you," Sweetie Belle squeaked, pushing forward to poke a hoof against Scootaloo's chest. "Scootaloo, please tell me you're not going to try to make us all get cockatrice-hunting cutie marks!"

Seeing her oldest friend staring her right in the eye with intense concern, Scootaloo took a step back to let the others inside. "Relax, guys. This isn't about our cutie marks," she reassured them. Such assurances gave way to worry again, however, when they went in and saw what she had been working on. Scootaloo completely missed their looks of dismay and cheerfully added, "It's about theirs!"

With very little light coming in through the shuttered windows, the dim clubhouse was illuminated by a firefly lantern which shone on the fruits of Scootaloo's labor. The back wall of the clubhouse was dominated by a corkboard panel with crudely drawn crayon sketches stuck to it with tacks, lengths of string connecting each of them to at least one of the others.

Taking in the sight of their friend's handiwork, the other two Crusaders saw that the board focused on six points representing each of the Element Bearers' cutie marks. From there, they were each connected to several other sketches or notes, some of which were connected to multiple marks.

"I started to think something was fishy after hearing Fluttershy's and Rainbow Dash's story," Scootaloo explained. "Both of them hearing voices that shouldn't have been there, and having it lead them to getting their cutie marks? That's just weird. Rarity getting dragged for miles? Pinkamena blacking out? Applejack hearing a rooster in the middle of Manehattan? A cockatrice showing up in the Royal Palace without any explanation? All these things leading to six fillies getting their cutie marks on the exact same day, and those six fillies all grew up to get the Elements of Harmony, beat up Eclipse, and wake up Princess Luna. You tell me, girls, how does that happen?"

Apple Bloom immediately retorted, "Coincidence?"

"Destiny?" Sweetie Belle piped in.

Scootaloo slammed a hoof against the corkboard. "Conspiracy! Your sisters and their friends were chosen by powerful, hidden forces. Forces that worked from behind the scenes to secretly set them on the path to defeating Eclipse and restoring Princess Luna!" Seeing the dubious looks on her friends' faces, she added, "And okay, that's a good thing, but how do we know what their real agenda is if we don't know anything about them? Maybe they're friendly now, but what if they change their minds and decide to turn on Equestria? As long as they stay hidden, there's no way we can stop them if they turn out to be bad guys. That's why we need to find out who they are and what they want! And until we know that, we'll refer to them as this!"

With a dramatically hard slam, Scootaloo pinned a note to the corkboard with the letters "CMC" in sinister red letters.

Sweetie Belle let out a gasp. "Scootaloo! Are you saying we're the bad guys?!"

Scootaloo blinked and glanced back and forth between the unicorn filly and the note before facehoofing. "No... No, Sweetie Belle, just... it's short for Cutie Mark Cabal. They're the ones we need to find."

Apple Bloom interrupted by asking, "Okay... so, how're we s'pposed ta find 'em?"

Scootaloo replied, "Look, they got the Element bearers their cutie marks. I bet they've still got agents placed nearby. Infiltrators posing as ordinary Ponyville citizens. That way they can keep track of the Elements of Harmony. That means it's our duty to find out if they're friends or foes! And I'm gonna get to the bottom of it, with or without your help."

"Don't say that, Scootaloo. We're your friends," Sweetie Belle pouted. She took a minute to look over the board. "It is kind of strange. Somepony should try to find out if you're right about all this, buuuuut..."

"But what?"

Sweetie Belle pointed to the "CMC" note on the board. "Are we going to have to change our name? Because that's just confusing!"

At the same time, Dewdrop and Sunburn made their way to the Best Pony Boutique. Dewdrop waved in greeting when she saw Derpy Hooves flying overhead on her daily rounds, and the ditzy mailmare excitedly waved back without stopping until she smacked into the side of a house. Dewdrop winced, but sheepishly continued to wave as Derpy simply picked herself back up and gave them a cheery smile before continuing on her route.

"All these years, and I'm still not used to that," Sunburn mused, though after a moment's thought, added, "though I guess it's kinda like me working with Sarge every day."

Dewdrop nodded slowly. "I suppose. But Derpy's a very good friend."

"At least you can be yourself all the time. I'm always a little worried I'm gonna slip up around Sarge, somehow. You never know what those ears of hers are gonna pick up. At least we've both got a better deal than Spot," Sunburn muttered as they approached the Boutique.

They arrived just as two little fillies, Diamond Tiara and Silver spoon, were exiting. They were followed by an elderly servant who carried a tall stack of boxes and packages, balancing them on his back despite the shaking of his joints.

"Come on, Randolph, pick up the pace! We still have three more stores to get to!"

Once Randolph was out of the doorway, the proprietress stuck her head out and cheerfully called out, "Thank you for visiting (and being) the Best Pony! Feel free to come back any time you want to be your absolute best!" She kept the smile on and waved until the fillies were well out of sight, then immediately replaced it with a grimace of clenched teeth and seething anger. "Stuck up, ungrateful, snobby little..."

Sunburn walked over to the upset mare and gave the pink, white-maned mare an affectionate embrace. "Hey, babe, it's okay. It's over now, and I'm here for you."

Anger gradually gave way to a softer, sorrowful expression as Spot Light started to relax into her wife's embrace. "Sunburn? I thought you were out on patrol," she said before noticing the librarian standing nearby with a look of supportive concern. "Dewdrop too?"

"I'm sorry, I know it's a bad time, but we found something you need to see," Dewdrop replied. "I could come back later if you need some time..."

Spot Light sniffed and wiped her eyes as she shook her head. "No, no, it's alright." She scowled a bit in the direction the fillies had gone, but held the door open to invite her wife and friend inside. "I might have to deal with that Tartaros-spawned brat, but at least that last binge means I can close the shop for a while." Both of the other mares gave her supportive, understanding smiles as they stepped inside, and Spot Light set the "Closed" sign out on the door before latching it shut behind them.

Once inside, Dewdrop used her magic to close all of the curtains in the shop, then formed a small ball of light that drifted up to the ceiling and lit up the room like a tiny sun. At the same time, Sunburn was holding her wife and consoling her. "Babe, I swear, you were never that bad. Well, okay, almost never, but everypony has bad days! And sure, you had more than most fillies, but--"

"Ugh, why can't you ever just stop after the first sentence? I swear, if I didn't love you so much... you'd better just be grateful I love you so much."

Sunburn grinned and squeezed the earth pony mare in her hooves. "I am. Every day."

Spot Light lightly punched Sunburn in the shoulder. "Shut up..." she muttered, though the blushing smile that spread across her face made her true feelings clear enough.

"Umm... sorry to interrupt, but I think you should take a look at this," Dewdrop said, holding out the yellowed and tattered page with her magic.

Still snuggled into Sunburn's embrace, Spot Light peeked at the scrap of paper and looked over the words typed on it. A moment later, her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and she shoved Sunburn away so hard that the pegasus hit the wall all the way on the other side of the room while Spot Light snatched the page out of the air. "Wha...? Where...? How did you find this?!"

"Fluttershy," Dewdrop replied. "She's had it for years, apparently, but that's not even the incredible part. 'Sunburn' here heard the whole story, so she could tell you better than I can."

The pegasus walked back over, rubbing her head, but otherwise looking more miffed than hurt. As her hoof moved through her mane, the fainted sign of purple roots could be seen at the base of her bleached-blond hair. "Okay, so I was out in the woods, checking up on the Crusaders, when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy showed up..."

While Sunburn began to tell the story, Dewdrop stepped into the back of the store to find Spot Light's kitchen. Familiar as she was with the layout of her friends' home, she barely needed to think about it as she used her magic to pick up their teapot and levitated it to the sink. While it gradually filled up, she looked into the water while her thoughts drifted back into the past.

Years ago (relatively)...

"Momma...! Momma...!"

The little unicorn filly who would one day be known as Dewdrop Decimal sobbed, even as the wagon she was riding in was pulled along at a truly reckless speed.

"Are we almost there?" The pegasus pulling her and the wagon along called out to her, but she could barely hear it. She didn't want to hear anything. "Hey! Are we going the right way or not? You're the one who's met the guy!"

The unicorn tried clenching her eyes shut, but the darkness behind her eyelids only made the memory worse. Darkness.

Not blackness, but the opposite of light. An entire spectrum of darkness... an evil rainbow that twisted everything that was good and kind into mindless hatred.

The memory of a single huge, golden eye focusing on her sent a stabbing pain through the filly's chest. There was no love there. No warmth. Nothing at all but hate.

She let out a scream of agony and forced her eyes back open as her friend screeched to a stop. "Woah! Are you okay?"

The unicorn gathered herself and shook her head slowly. "No... but you were right... We can't let anypony else..." A choked whimper started to rise up in her throat, but she swallowed it back down and looked about. They were at the edge of a quarry near what what was left of their hometown. "Over there," she said quietly, her voice cracking a bit as she pointed to a boulder sitting out in the open.

The orange pegasus nodded grimly and helped her out of the wagon, letting the unicorn lean against her as the two of them made their way toward the rock. Once they were close enough, the unicorn pressed her hoof against its surface. For a moment, nothing happened, but then an accented male voice said, "Companion identity confirmed. Access granted."

With that, a rectangular seam began to form on the surface of the rock. It then started to swing open like a door, but before it opened all the way, another filly's voice cried out, "Waaaaaaait!"

Panting heavily from being weighed down by her own saddlebags, a pink earth pony ran up to them. Before she reached them, though, the pegasus put herself between the newcomer and the rock, then reared up on her hind legs and threw her forelegs out to either side. "What're you doing here? Go back home!"

The earth pony came to a stop and gasped for air, unused to so much exertion. Once she caught her breath, though, she glared and snapped, "No! I heard what you two were talking about! You aren't leaving without me!"

"And you're not coming with us! You still have family here! You didn't lose everything like we did!"

"I will if you go away," the earth pony snapped. Glancing back at her cutie mark, she asked, "Do you know what my special talent is? Accessorizing! I know when things go together, and... and we go together, or we don't go anywhere! If you leave without me, you'll just do something stupid and... and you'll never come back, and I can't let that happen!"

Dropping back down onto all fours, the pegasus opened her mouth to argue, but any counterpoints that she might have made were cut off by the earth pony's soft lips. Her eyes went wide, little wings reflexively springing straight up as she froze in a startled posture that persisted for several seconds after the other filly pulled back. "Buh... guh..."

"You tried to block... I had to show you I rock," the earth pony said, blushing despite the hard, determined look on her face as she stepped around the stunned pegasus. Looking past the unicorn, she asked, "Speaking of rocks, are we supposed to go in that thing?"

"If you wanna," the unicorn replied, stepping in through the doorway.

The earth pony followed, only to end up as gob-smacked as their pegasus friend as rough stone quickly gave way to a room of metal tiles which was far larger than the boulder outside should have been able to contain. It even had doors leading into other rooms! "It's... it's bigger on the inside..." she marveled.

Immediately after saying this, she was startled by the sudden appearance of a brown earth pony stallion wearing a green necktie smiling down at her. "Indeed it is, young guest!" While the earth pony screamed and quickly backed away, the stallion simply smiled to the unicorn and said, "Greetings, Dinky. Is this one of your companions?"

Dinky Doo nodded slowly, her eyes downcast and sullen. "... Yeah. Doc, this is Diamond Tiara. And that's Scootaloo," she murmured as the pegasus came in to join them. At the same time, Diamond Tiara pulled a thick self-help book by Iron Will out of her saddlebag and hurled it at the stallion's head.

When it passed straight through and bonked Scootaloo instead. Diamond's eyes widened. "Ahhh! Ghost!" She then darted behind Scootaloo for protection while the pegasus rubbed her sore head.

"He's not a ghost," Dinky murmured.

"Quite correct. I am Doc, the Digital Organizational Companion," the intangible stallion cheerfully replied, introducing himself to the others. "While the master is recuperating from his own battle with the enemy, I manage the operation of this vessel."

Diamond Tiara looked around until she saw a word painted on the wall above the door they'd entered. "Air...lock? That's a weird name for a ship," she replied.

"Oh, no, that is not the name of the vessel. It is this room's primary function on occasions when the external environment is inhospitable to organic life," Doc gently corrected. When Diamond Tiara simply glowered at the faux-stallion's verbosity, he cheerfully continued, "You are aboard the DALC, which is short for Dimensional Anomaly Location & Correction."

Scootaloo asked, "So... this rock'll be able to take us where that monster went, right?"

"Yes, although any who wish to be companions must--" Doc started to reply, but cut off in mid-sentence. In a literal instant, with no transition in between, its expression went from cheerful to deadly serious. "Alert! Alert! Enemy magical signature approaching rapidly!"

Diamond Tiara clutched Scootaloo tightly, her pupils shrinking in shock as she looked at Doc. "What?! But I thought the grown-ups beat him!"

"The enemy should have abandoned this timeline by now," Doc grimly agreed. "Emergency power routed to Dimensional Flux Agitators! Brace for--"

Before he could say what they should brace for, it made itself known to the fillies. The door began to close shut automatically, but couldn't finish before something hit them so hard that the room itself tilted, and the three ponies went tumbling and sliding across the smooth metal tiles toward the open door. It had been daylight when they stepped inside, but in just the minute since they had entered, that had been replaced by a darkness deeper than Luna's night.

"Evasive dimensional flux underway! Guests and companions are advised to keep all appendages inside the DALC," Doc informed the fillies over their screaming as they slid through his intangible form, and toward the waiting darkness as the "vessel" they were in was lifted up by a huge, twisted shape in the dark.

Just as suddenly as the attack began, though, there was a brief lurch of vertigo. The darkness outside flickered and changed so quickly that they were all momentarily blinded. Diamond Tiara, the closest one to open door, tumbled out onto the ground outside and felt herself roll down a slope until she hit a tree trunk hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Blinking her eyes a few times to get her bearings, she looked around to find that the dry, rocky quarry from before was now replaced with an intimidatingly dense forest.

"Wh... what? How'd we get here?!" She wheezed, confused and disoriented. Her ribs were killing her, but as she looked at the tree she'd hit, she was surprised to find that, the way it was cracked and bent, it actually seemed to have taken the worst of the impact. More likely something else had hit it first, but either way it didn't matter. She had to get back to the others, so she started looking up the incline that she had fallen down.

"Scootaloo? Scootaloo! Help me up," she demanded, hoping to see the pegasus's lovely violet eyes looking back at her, ready to swoop in and rescue her with a swift, daring maneuver.

Instead, she heard a rustling in a nearby bush. Of course, she probably wasn't the only one who'd been thrown out of the DORC, or whatever that weird Doc thing had called it. "Scootaloo? Come on, let's... let's..." She turned look and saw a pair of eyes looking back at her.

They weren't purple, though.

They were red.

Dinky and Scootaloo groaned, having avoided falling out the open door by instead smacking into the wall on either side. Scootaloo was the first to pick herself up and rubbed her head again before noticing the dimly-lit forest just outside the doorway. "Ow... huh? Did we actually... move?"

Materializing beside them, Doc's body flickered in and out of sight while his voice became slightly fuzzy and distorted. "Indeed, guest Scootaloo. We escaped by following the enemy's quantum trail. We are no longer in your native timeline. This is the one that he now currently inhabits, but... oh dear."

Dinky got her hooves under her and looked outside. "So... we can still save this one, right? We can warn ponies, and... and nopony has to..."

"Hold that thought, Dinky." Scootaloo looked at the flickering stallion and asked, "What do you mean 'oh dear?' Are we safe or not?" She then glanced around the room and asked in a growing panic, "What about Diamond Tiara? That monster didn't get her, did it?!"

Doc replied to the young pegasus, "No. Guest Diamond Tiara was ejected from the DALC after our escape, but a scan of the area confirms that we are presently located in the region known as the 'Everfree Forest.'"

Both fillies immediately shrieked, "The Everfree Forest?!"

As if punctuating their question, they heard Diamond Tiara's voice off in the distance as the earth pony let out a scream worthy of an old monster movie.

"Yes," Doc replied, showing no change in expression at the sound of Diamond Tiara crying out for help. "To ensure her safety, you must retrieve your companion as quickly as possible." Dinky and Scootaloo could hear that he was saying something more, but they were already out the door and racing as quickly as they could toward the edge of the slope their friend had fallen down.

Diamond Tiara was at the bottom, her body trembling as she stared into some brush. "H-help... help m-me..." she stammered, her usual bossy attitude replaced entirely by fear. Dinky gasped when she saw that Diamond Tiara's legs had turned grey, and that the effect was very, very slowly creeping up her body.

Scootaloo didn't wait to see that. She was already sliding down the slope and flapping her little wings in a rapid buzz that increased her descent even more, though in a more controlled manner. "I'm coming, Diamond! Are you okay?"

The earth pony let out a whimper. "Scootaloo...? No, d-don't... there's a..." The assistance of Scootaloo's wings proved to be more potent than the pegasus expected, though, and she ended up actually lifting a few inches away from the ground, tripping her up. With a yelp of her own, she tripped over herself when her hooves hit the slope moving again, and ended up tumbling into Diamond Tiara.

"Ow... Scootaloo...!"

"Oof... sorry. Call us even for the book thing," Scootaloo said with a bit of a cheeky grin. "Come on, we've gotta get you outta--"

Instead of letting her crush finish, Diamond Tiara shouted at the top of her lungs, "MONSTER! RUN!"

"Wha?" Scootaloo started to turn to look, but Diamond Tiara twisted her body to roll the pegasus away from it. "Don't look, dummy!"

That was when Scootaloo felt Diamond Tiara's legs. They hadn't simply changed color, but were completely petrified! "Wha... what happened to you?!"

Up above, Dinky shouted, "YOU HAVE TO CARRY HER! GET HER OUT OF HERE!" The sinister clucking of the creature behind them also helped Scootaloo focus, even while her heart and Diamond Tiara's both pounded so hard, the other could feel it.

Scootaloo knew that while she would have been able to climb up the slope easily on her own, the formerly-wealthy and unathletic Diamond Tiara would have had trouble even if her legs hadn't been turned into unmoving stone. The pink filly was staring into her eyes, her own wide with a fear and vulnerability that she never showed anypony. Ever.

Scootaloo decided that this was too weird to deal with.

Wrapping her legs around Diamond Tiara, which drew a surprised gasp from the other filly, Scootaloo set her jaw and turned her focus upward. "Hold on! I'm not letting go," she assured Diamond Tiara as she began flapping her wings.

There was no reason to expect it to work, but without any other way to carry a partially-petrified earth pony back to the DALC, she pushed her little wings harder than she ever had before. To her surprise as much as anypony else's, she could actually them feel them catching the air like they never had before. Even with the extra burden of Diamond Tiara and her stone limbs, she was actually starting to lift up off the ground!

Seeing that its targets were starting to get away after Scootaloo broke its gaze, the cockatrice decided that it wasn't going to allow that to happen. It leaped out into the open, flapping its own wings in order to get in front of the little pegasus, but almost as soon as it revealed itself, Dinky let out a yelp and shot her magic downward in an attempt to push it away from her companions. Her aim was off, though, and instead hit the ground between them and the cockatrice.

The ground promptly exploded.

Not all of it, but the patch that Dinky had hit blew up with enough force to knock the cockatrice back and while propelling Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara upward. The two fillies screamed, holding onto each other while Scootaloo's wings buzzed furiously to try and keep them heading on a straight course. "Try" may have been the operative word, but she did manage to keep them from hitting the slope until they rose up and tumbled back onto flatter ground.

Scootaloo blinked a few times, not comprehending what just happened as she disentangled herself from Diamond Tiara's petrified limbs. "Dinky? ... Since when was your magic that strong?"

The wide-eyed little unicorn's mouth hung open, just as surprised as her friend. "It... it isn't! ... Wasn't. I don't know! W-we should get back to the DALC. Then we can ask--"

Dinky was interrupted by the angry clucking of the cockatrice. Though disoriented by the magic blast, it was still pursuing them with both the intent and ability to turn them into statues. Its wings helped propel itself up the slope while its talons found purchase in the dirt, allowing it to climb up after the fillies.

"Pick me up! Pick me up," Diamond Tiara all but shouted, still unable to move her legs. Scootaloo was already doing so, though, and urged Dinky to help lift her up so that they could race back to the "boulder" that had brought them there.

Through the open door, the fillies could see Doc waiting for them. "You must hurry if you do not wish to be left behind," he called out. "The DALC is beginning to slip!"

With no time to ask what that meant, Scootaloo and Dinky pushed themselves as hard as they could. They could hear the crowing of the cockatrice catching up behind them. Dinky tried to turn her head in order to fire another magic bolt, if only to slow it down, but Diamond Tiara to bite down on her mane and yank her head away. "Don't look back! Don't look back," she shouted, so Dinky focused solely on what was in front of her, even as she could hear the cockatrice gradually closing the distance between them.

With one last push right at the threshold of the DALC, Scootaloo and Dinky leaped into the vessel just as they heard the harsh, grinding sound of space and time being distorted through the open door. As they and Diamond Tiara slid across the metal flooring, they felt the same lurch of vertigo as before, and the DALC vanished--

--then reappeared in Manehattan, at the very top of the Orange Hotel. Scootaloo groaned, then looked to Diamond Tiara with a worried frown. "Do you get it, now? This is why I didn't want you coming along! You're gonna get yourself hurt!"

"Companions and guests," Doc started to say, trying to talk over the pegasus.

Despite her petrification, Diamond Tiara twisted her body to point one stoney limb at Scootaloo. "And I wouldn't have if I'd stayed?! You saw that thing that hit us! If I'd left when you told me to, I'd be dead now, or... or worse!"

"It is imperative..."

Diamond Tiara looked into Scootaloo's eyes, her own uncharacteristically watery. Her cheeks flushed slightly, her voice catching as she ignored Doc to say, "But you saved me, Scootaloo. From the darkness... from that monster that tried to turn me to stone... Even if you think I'm just some spoiled brat, you still saved me! You're my hero, Scootaloo! That's why I... I..."

"Please shut your eyes," Doc shouted, his voice filled with synthetic concern.

"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!!"

The crowing of the cockatrice jolted them, and very nearly made them turn to look if not for Doc's warning. They and Dinky screamed and immediately clenched their eyes shut as the monster stalked toward them from just inside the doorway.

"Please do not panic," Doc extolled them, even as Dinky started blindly firing her magic in the general direction of the doorway. "The master has been informed, and is overriding medical safety protocols in order to provide assistance! Local space-time is unusually fragile, causing the DALC to 'slip', so it is imperative that you remain calm and follow my instructions."

The fillies were in too much of a panic to listen, however. Without being able to aim her magic, Dinky only succeeded in blasting the "I" and "C" of the "Airlock" sign above the door while the cockatrice dodged out of the way. Scootaloo stood over Diamond Tiara and blindly lashed out in every direction with her hooves while the earth pony just screamed as she found herself unable to so much as flail her stone legs.

The DALC lurched again just as freckled orange filly opened the door rooftop access door and looked around to find the area devoid of either poultry or ponies.

It reappeared in a region of barren stone. Inside, the cockatrice maneuvered around the frightened fillies. As aggressive as it was, it knew how to wait for its moment. The ponies were frightened and would open their eyes eventually. Then they would serve to mark its territory, as the sight of such dangerous creatures would surely drive away greater predators. All it had to do was keep out of their reach and either wait for a moment of weakness or create one.

It looked at the unicorn, who was still shooting her deadly magic in a direction it was no longer in. One of those bolts shot straight out the open door and off into the distance.

Far enough away that she couldn't hear the screaming, an exhausted little unicorn filly clenched her eyes shut and summoned up every last little bit of energy she had in her and focused all of her anger and magic on the rock in front of her. What came out of her horn was a wispy little ball of blue magic that lethargically flew toward the stone, and popped like a soap bubble against its surface.

The very next instant, though, a golden beam slammed into the stone and split it open with a tremendous crack. When Rarity opened them, her big blue eyes sparkledwith joyous surprise at the glittering bounty that had been waiting inside the unassuming rock.

Elsewhere, a similarly deceptive stone vanished from sight before she ever realized that it had been there in the first place.

The next lurch came faster than the last, and for those inside, the feeling lingered as if they were in an elevator which was moving in every direction simultaneously. If anypony had opened their eyes to see, the view outside would have been utter chaos; a swirling, roiling sea of places and objects that would only briefly form a coherent picture before washing away like waves. This only increased the disorientation of not being able to see anything and made them panic even more.

"Dinky! Dinky, are you still there?" Scootaloo shouted. Her little wings were spread out, instinctively trying to appear larger and more intimidating than she was. She frantically twisted her head this way and that, turning her ears in a desperate attempt to hear their attacker.

"Y-yeah," Dinky stammered. "D-d-do you know where it is? Did one of us... hit it?"

The cockatrice crept up silently behind Dinky. It knew little of ponies, but it was intelligent enough to deduce that her magic made her the most dangerous of the three. Even if it was able to begin petrifying one of the other two, she would be able to attack from a distance, so it crouched and readied itself to pounce. It didn't matter how strong Dinky was. Once it got her to look its way, she would be trapped in its gaze.

The large brown pony spoke, but the cockatrice paid it no mind. It had no smell. It had no substance. Whatever it was, it was no threat and therefore there was no reason to pay it any mind. And since the cockatrice didn't speak Equestrian, it didn't realize that what the large brown faux-pony was saying was, "Companion Dinky, please listen to me. Guest Diamond Tiara's book is directly in front of you, so please reach out for it with your magic."

Dinky whimpered faintly and did so, feeling around with her magic until it wrapped around the heavy book with a golden aura. "Very good," Doc told her while the cockatrice lowered its body, preparing itself to pounce on the unsuspecting unicorn. "Now... quickly levitate it above your back, and use it as a shield!"

Just as the cockatrice leapt toward her, talons bared, Dinky's magic roughly yanked the book up off the floor. It spread its pages open as it came up to block the cockatrice, and the surprised monster crowed angrily as it started tearing at the pages.

Dinky could hear the ripping of paper while the cockatrice attacked it, filling her mind with fearful images of what it would do to her. "Doc! What do I dooooo?!"

The voice that answered her was not Doc's, however. A door leading further into the DALC swung open, and a tinny, mechanical voice proclaimed, "DO NOT BE AFRAID, FOR I AM HERE!"

Dinky gasped, and despite the situation, she opened her eyes. "Mr. Rollypolly!"

Emerging through the doorway was what, at first glance, looked like a giant pepper shaker with a toilet plunger and an egg beater sticking out of it. Some of the armored plating of the "pepper shaker" was damaged, revealing exposed machinery, but hovered just above the surface of the floor as it moved inside and focused its eyestalk on the cockatrice. There was a moment of shocked silence as everypony but Dinky, even the cockatrice, stared at the odd sight.

Then Scootaloo realized that there was an opening, and narrowed her eyes. She then started running as hard as she could, flapping her wings to give her more speed as she threw herself toward the monster like a big orange bullet.

Not seeing the incoming pegasus, Rollypolly aimed the "egg beater" at the cockatrice. It began to vibrate, and a nearly-invisible ripple in the air shot out, striking the reptilian creature with raw force that knocked it back and sent it careening toward the DALC's exit.

Scootaloo's momentum was carrying beyond her ability to stop, though, especially when her wings unexpectedly lifted her off the floor once again, and she lacked the control to keep herself from getting caught on the edge of the blast. Unable to control herself, she also went tumbling toward the door. The cockatrice fell straight through just as the view outside briefly showed them a glimpse of marble corridors, which vanished along with the monster a moment later.

By contrast, Scootaloo was flung toward the door at an awkward angle, and instead of falling straight through, she hit the edge and wheezed as she just barely managed to hold onto the edge with the tips of her hooves. At the same time, a torn page from Diamond Tiara's book was picked up by the breeze, and flew into her face.

"Scootaloo!" Diamond Tiara shrieked, struggling to move while Rollypolly hovered toward her.

"DO NOT PANIC," the Dalek told her, despite looking and sounding like a killer robot from a low-grade science-fiction movie. He aimed his "plunger" at her in order to grab hold and pull her back in, but was thrown off when the DALC suddenly shuddered again.

"Master, the DALC is unable to find a suitable landing zone, and is beginning to fall through time into the further past," Doc informed him.

"WE MUST STABILIZE THE DALC'S COURSE UNTIL SCOOTALOO IS INSIDE! STABILIZE! STABILIZE!"

"Attempting to do so, but the DALC is approaching a bubble of space-time. Please brace for impact."

The panicking Scootaloo struggled to keep her grip and screamed, "I don't know what anypony's talking about!"

She soon found out when the swirling chaos that she had only barely avoided falling into suddenly snapped into a clear image of blue skies, fluffy clouds, and green fields sprawling out far, far below. The DALC hovered in place in the air, but not without a violent shudder that caused Scootaloo to lose her grip completely. She flailed blindly with wings and hooves as the paper fluttered off of her face.

As it turned out, a small cloud happened to be passing by beneath her. Despite her terror, her reflexes were still sharp and she just barely managed to stop her fall by grabbing hold of the cloudmass. It was soft and malleable, and felt like it could crumble apart at any moment, but the little athlete managed to hang on as tightly as she could.

"HOLD ON!" That was Dinky, calling out to her. She didn't need to shout so loudly. They weren't even that far away, only a few dozen feet.

Still, to a pegasus who had never been able to keep herself hovering for more than a second or two, it might has well have been a few dozen miles. Her grip started slipping as the cloudmass tried to flow around her hooves, but she grit her teeth and adjusted her grip. "Dinky...! Pick me up with your magic or something!"

Dinky chewed her lip. "I-I'll try, but my control isn't great!" A golden glow surounded her horn, and started to do the same to Scootaloo, but despite the power of her earlier blasts, Dinky wasn't able to lift her friend. She didn't feel any weaker, but was no more able to levitate Scootaloo than she had been in their native timeline.

While she tried, Rollypolly turned to Doc and asked, "CAN YOU MOVE US CLOSER?"

"I am sorry, master," the holo-stallion replied. "We are still not stable. If I were to attempt to do so, we would begin falling through time immediately. As it stands, I do not know how much longer I can hold us here."

From deeper inside, Diamond Tiara gasped. "No... no, we're not leaving her!" She clenched her teeth and struggled even harder than before to move her petrified legs.

With a sound like rocks grinding together, her legs actually began to move slightly as grey stone began to slowly turn pink.

At the same time, Dinky continued to strain and push her magic as hard as she could. "It was... stronger... earlier! Why... won't it... work...?"

"THIS IS NOT GOOD," Rollypolly replied. "MY MOBILITY UNIT IS STILL DAMAGED. I WOULD BE INCAPABLE OF HOVERING OUTSIDE OF THE DALC."

"Then what good are you?!" Diamond Tiara's slightly muffled voice snapped as stone hooves pattered and clanked across the metal tile. With a rope clenched tightly between her teeth, she leaped toward Rollypolly and tied one end around his eyestalk. While Dinky and Rollypolly were momentarily stunned, she then held the rope between her hooves and leaped out to into the open air.

"THIS IS ILL-ADVISED," Rollypolly called out as Diamond Tiara held onto the rope as tightly as she could with her hooves and teeth, summoning up all of her (typically unused) earth pony strength to keep her from falling.

There was a rough jerk that nearly caused her to lose her grip when the line suddenly went taut, but the sight of Scootaloo clinging to the tiny cloud drove her to hold on like never before. Instead of falling to her doom, she held on and swung in an arc toward Scootaloo.

"DON'T GIVE UP! YOU CAN DO IT!" Dinky shouted down to them at the top of her lungs, and winced moments before they collided. Instead of knocking Scootaloo off her cloud, though, Diamond Tiara was able to stretch out a hoof to scoop the pegasus up.

"Oof! What the buck?! What were you thinking?!"

"That I wanted to save your life," Diamond Tiara retorted around the rope in her mouth. As she and Scootaloo swung around, they could feel it start to rise from Rollypolly reeling them back in. Despite the frown on her face, her heart pounded in her chest, and not simply because of the adrenaline.

"But you could've fallen right out of the sky! If you had a rope, why didn't you just throw it down to me?" Scootaloo pointed out, too busy hanging on to notice.

There was a moment when Diamond Tiara's eyes widened, and her grip slipped ever so slightly before she grit her teeth again and scowled at Scootaloo. "Yeah, well... why didn't you just flap your way back to the DALC? The cloud was holding you up! All you had to do was push it!"

Scootaloo opened and closed her mouth a few times. "That's... because I... uh..."

As an embarrassed flush crept across Scootaloo's face, Diamond Tiara's scowl softened, and she started to giggle. Scootaloo looked thoroughly mortified, but as Rollypolly and Dinky pulled them back up into the DALC, she let out a snort and started giggling along with the pink filly.

"You just wanted to grab the spotlight, didn't you?" Scootaloo asked. "Risky stunts are my thing."

Diamond Tiara scoffed as she giggled at the look on Scootaloo's face. "You wanted me to come to the rescue for a change. Look at you, you're blushing so hard, you look like you've got a sunburn!"

"What? No I don't! ... Hey, why'd you even have a rope with you in the first place?"

Diamond Tiara blushed a little, herself, and leaned in to kiss Scootaloo on the cheek. "In case I had to tie you up and drag you back home."

Scootaloo snickered at that until it sank in, then immediately turned several shades paler. "Wait... seriously?" When she nodded, Scootaloo gulped nervously.

"It is good that we were able to make a successful rescue," Doc interjected, shutting the door behind them before the vessel lurched again. "Any longer, and we would have started falling through time without you."

Dinky looked up at Rollypolly and asked, "Can't you stop it? It's a time machine, isn't it? "

"ORDINARILY, YES," Rollypolly replied with grim seriousness. "BUT THESE ARE NOT ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES. THERE IS NO TELLING HOW FAR THROUGH TIME WE WILL FALL BEFORE FINDING A SUITABLY STABLE LANDING ZONE. FOLLOW ME, CHILDREN."

As Rollypolly turned toward one of the doors leading deeper into the DALC, the rope around his eyestalk untied itself and fell to the floor. Dinky followed right behind him down the quiet, sterile corridors, with Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara needing a moment to pick themselves up before doing the same.

"ACCORDING TO THE DALC'S SENSORS, THE BASIC FOUNDATION OF THIS TIMELINE IS FAR LESS STABLE THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER THAT I HAVE VISITED," Rollypolly explained. "THIS IS WHY YOUR INNATE PONY MAGIC SEEMS STRONGER, DESPITE YOUR INABILITY TO LIFT SCOOTALOO. LOCAL REALITY IS MORE MALLEABLE THAN YOUR OWN. LIKEWISE, DIAMOND TIARA'S PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES AND RESISTANCE TO MAGIC ARE GREATER BY COMPARISON. IF THAT COCKATRICE HAD BEEN FROM YOUR NATIVE TIMELINE, SHE WOULD ALREADY BE COMPLETELY PETRIFIED, AND IN NEED OF A COUNTERSPELL."

Scootaloo's eyes widened. "Woah... you mean we're like superfillies here?" She looked back at her small wings and grinned, rapidly buzzing them. "So I should be able to fly, right?" She crouched down and pushed herself up into the air, but despite straining her wings to keep aloft, she ended up falling back to the ground and tripping onto her face.

Diamond Tiara picked her up off the floor and replied, "you already did, remember? When you saved me from the cocka-whatsit."

"SHE IS CORRECT. OUTSIDE THE DALC, YOUR BASE ABILITIES WILL BE NOTICEABLY ABOVE AVERAGE, THOUGH YOU WILL STILL NEED TO NURTURE THEM FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD. I WILL DO MY BEST TO TRAIN YOU TO YOUR FULLEST POTENTIAL WHEN I SEE YOU AGAIN."

Dinky came to an abrupt stop. "Again...? Wh-what do you mean again? Where are you going?"

Rollypolly continued on a short way before coming to stop at a door marked "Lifeboat". He then turned his eyestalk toward the little unicorn and somberly told her, "NOT ME. YOU THREE MUST LEAVE THE DALC. AS I HAVE SAID, THERE IS NO TELLING HOW FAR INTO THE PAST THE DALC WILL FALL. WITH SPACE-TIME AS UNSTABLE AS IT IS, IT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TRAVEL INTO THE FUTURE. THE DALC IS DAMAGED, AND MY TECHNOLOGY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO PRESERVE YOU LONG ENOUGH TO RETURN TO THE PROPER TIME. YOU WOULD DIE..."

Dinky shook her head and backed up a step into her companions. "No... no, you can't... Momma... Scootaloo's daddy... everypony we left behind... they're gone! You're all we have left!"

The door to the lifeboat opened, and Rollypolly moved back to Dinky slowly, extending his "plunger" toward her. "DINKY... LISTEN TO ME. IT WILL BE ALRIGHT." The mechanical limb gently reached down and stroked her mane as the little unicorn's golden eyes watered. "I PROMISE THAT I WILL FIND YOU. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A VERY, VERY LONG TIME. I AM ABLE TO TAKE THE LONG ROAD, BUT FOR YOU, IT WILL HARDLY BE ANY TIME AT ALL. YOU WILL SEE."

Dinky closed her eyes, and two small tears dripped down her cheeks as she nuzzled the robotic manipulator. "But... but what if you can't find me... or... forget?"

Rollypolly tilted his body to look down at her. She looked up into his eyestalk as it looked back down at her, and even though he obviously couldn't make any sort of facial expression that she could see, she could almost feel that something inside the metal shell was smiling at her. "I HAVE TRAVELED TO MANY TIMELINES, AND MET MANY DINKYS, BUT I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN A SINGLE ONE. YOU ARE MY COMPANION, AND I WILL TREASURE THAT, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES ME TO RETURN TO YOUR SIDE."

A small hoof came to rest on Dinky's back. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw Scootaloo looking her straight in the eye with an intense gaze. "It's okay. If this is what we've gotta do to get back at the monster who killed my dad... no matter what happens, I'll watch your back."

"Me too," Diamond Tiara added with a resolute nod. "If Scootaloo's with you, then so am I!"

Dinky sniffled and lowered her head. "Where... where should we go so you can find us...?"

"PONYVILLE," Rollypolly replied. "IN ALMOST EVERY CASE, THAT IS THE AXIS POINT AROUND WHICH THE FATE OF THE WORLD TURNS. IN MANY WAYS, IT MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM THE TOWN YOU KNOW, BUT YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO--" He stopped suddenly, cut off when a tear-eyed Dinky threw herself at him and hugged herself against the cold metal shell of his mobility unit. "DINKY?"

Dinky squeezed her body tightly against Rollypolly and whispered, "You've gotta come find me... Y-you've gotta..."

"ALWAYS, DINKY DOO... AND I DO WISH THAT THIS WAS NOT NECESSARY, BUT WE DO AS WE MUST. NOW PLEASE, GET INTO THE LIFERAFT. IF WE WAIT TOO LONG, IT MAY BE TOO LATE."

The little unicorn nodded and slowly pulled away. Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara both walked beside her as they stepped into the closet-sized "liferaft," which had several seats designed for adult ponies.

From the other side, Rollypolly told them, "NOW I NEED YOU TO REMEMBER A FEW THINGS: FIRST, YOU WILL SEE CHANGES IN PLACES AND PONIES THAT WERE ONCE FAMILIAR TO YOU. SOME WILL BE FOR THE BETTER, SOME WILL BE FOR THE WORSE. LEARN WHAT YOU CAN OF THIS NEW TIMELINE, BUT WHATEVER YOU FIND, TRY NOT TO ACT SURPRISED. SECOND, REMAIN INCONSPICUOUS UNTIL I FIND YOU. THE ENEMY IS PRESENT IN THIS TIMELINE, AND I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THE RISK OF HIM FINDING YOU BEFORE I DO. THIRD, IF YOU HAPPEN TO SEE ANOTHER OF MY KIND WHO IS NOT ME... HIDE, AND GET AS FAR AWAY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN."

Diamond Tiara climbed up into a seat while he was talking, then blinked at the last instruction. "Wait, what? Hey, you haven't even told us what you are." The door began to close between them while Rollypolly and Dinky looked at each other. "Hey! Don't close that door while I'm trying to talk to you! Dinky, what kind of rude alien monster are you friends with?"

Dinky wasn't listening either, though. She placed a hoof against the door and whimpered softly. "Please... please come back soon, Mr. Rollypolly..."

The filly trio felt the lifeboat shudder as it disengaged from the DALC, and for a while after that, they drifted through the sea of chaos on waves of space-time.

"Are we there yet?"

"I don't think so."

"How'll we know?"

"I dunno. It just feels like we're still moving."

Scootaloo looked back at her wings and flapped them in a rapid buzz before letting out a sigh and slumping down in her seat. "You said it's gonna be a whole other world, right, Dinky? Like... our world, but all turned around?"

Dinky nodded. "That's how Mr. Rollypolly explained it to me. Like, in one timeline, you might even be a faster flier than Rainbow Dash."

Scootaloo scoffed at that. "No way! Rainbow Dash is the best ever!" After a moment's thought, though, she rubbed her chin. "Hmmm... but you really think so...?"

"I think so," Diamond Tiara replied. Her hooves were almost completely pink again, so she moved them around and touched everything in reach. "Rollypolly said all of our magic was super-strong here, right? I bet once she sees you fly, that lazy good-for-nothing--" She quickly cut herself off, seeing the scowl form on her crush's face, and corrected herself to say, "--I mean, the super-awesome and amazing Rainbow Dash'll be begging to teach you all her cool moves! She might even make you her honorary little sister or something!"

In an instant, Scootaloo's frown disappeared. Her eyes sparkling with glee, she zipped over to Diamond Tiara and pressed her face up close to hers. "You really think so?!"

"I... I... uh..." Diamond Tiara's face turned bright red as her field of vision was consumed by Scootaloo's smiling face and beautiful purple eyes.

Despite everything, Dinky found a small, timid smile creeping across her face while watching the other two. It had been bad enough having to leave Rollypolly behind so soon, but if it weren't for the other fillies... no, her friends, because what else could she call ponies willing to leave their entire world behind to travel with her? Without them, she knew that she simply wouldn't be able to handle it at all.

They might be lost and adrift, heading toward some dangerous, uncertain future, but at least she wouldn't be alone.

And that was when the knocking started.

All three fillies jumped, startled when they heard it. A steady, rhythmic tapping that came from all around them.

"Ack! What's that?!" Diamond Tiara frantically looked around. "Is the lifeboat falling apart?!"

Dinky listened as carefully as she could, though fear of the unknown made it difficult to focus. "I dunno! I don't... I don't think so?" She said this more out of hope that it was true than certainty, however.

Scootaloo's ears flicked around, and she hissed, "Shhh! Listen!"

All three pricked their ears, and to their horror and confusion, an ethereal filly's voice began to echo faintly inside the lifeboat, seemingly coming from all around.

As I was walking up the stair
I met someone who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh how I wish he'd stay away

For when we do meet in the flesh
"What might be" and "what is" will mesh
The trickster's trap will then be sprung
And darkness will ensnare the sun

There is nothing you can save me from
When the appointed hour comes
For if I stay here on this soil
My time will end knowing naught but toil

Dreary seconds ticking with the clock
No smiles, no laughter, only rocks
But let me meet this fate in another role
And you may lose me, but save my soul

Every word I speak is true
I shall see the end, and so shall you
There is no hope within my rhyme
Just a world made still in the death of time

As the melancholy words faded away, the three fillies looked at each other. Scootaloo was the first to speak, asking, "The buck was that?"

Neither of the others had any answer to give, nor did they have time to come up with one before the lifeboat suddenly lurched to one side, sending them tumbling together into a pile in the middle of the floor. A hiss of hydraulics pierced the air, and the door slowly cracked open, letting the bright light of the sun shine into the cramped room.

Dinky shielded her eyes with a hoof and blinked as they adjusted to the sudden brightness. Slowly, the outside world came into view, and she could see rolling green hills spreading out before her and blue skies above. And there, off in the distance, looking so familiar...

"Dinky? What's out there? We're not stuck in the middle of the Everfree again, are we...?" Diamond Tiara asked. "I don't care if I'm stronger or not, I'm not ready to see another monster!"

"... Ponyville. It's Ponyville," Dinky replied as she stepped out into the light.

Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara joined her, the former staring in awe. "Woah... it hasn't even been touched. Everything's right where it's supposed to be!" She set her jaw and added, "And we'll make sure it stays that way... right?"

Dinky and Diamond Tiara nodded. "We'll do what Mr. Rollypolly said," the little unicorn told them. "We'll find out what it's like down there, and wait for him. He'll find us... he promised."

The present day...

With a sharp whistle, the cries of the teapot snapped Dewdrop, once known as Dinky, back out of her reverie. She adjusted her glasses out of reflex and picked the kettle up and placed it on a tray along with three cups. She then headed back out just as "Sunburn" wrapped up her telling of the story.

"Spot Light" just stared, mouth agape for several seconds before shaking her head. "That freaky lizard thing... you're telling me it got booted into Canterlot Palace... and that's why Twilight Sparkle ended up a Ranger instead of a librarian? That's just..."

"A crazy coincidence? Destiny?" Dewdrop found a table to set the tray down on and began pouring the tea. "I don't know what to believe, but somehow, us just coming here pushed those six where they needed to be to so they could get the Elements of Harmony and save Princess Luna."

Dewdrop placed the teapot back down, then levitated her spectacles off her face so that she could set them down and look her friends straight in the eye. "After that, Gertrude broke out of her icy prison... then the Shangwe incident. There's no way that's a coincidence. If the pattern continues, next it'll be the Sun Dog, and then..."

"Tirek..." Sunburn seethed, her teeth clenching in anger as if trying to bite the name as it slithered out of her throat. Even when her wife put a foreleg over her shoulders, that only soothed her rage slightly.

Dewdrop nodded. "He's been locked up in Tartaros for over a thousand years, but this has his stink all over it. Somepony or something is helping him here in Harmonia, and we're running out of time to figure out what his plan is. Girls? It's time we stopped sitting on the sidelines."

Narrowing her eyes, the young librarian furrowed her brow. "Some time after Mr. Rollypolly landed in this timeline, something was done to him, keeping him from getting back to us. We did what he wanted. We made new lives for ourselves, we laid low and kept training in secret so we'd be ready to fight with him. I say we're done with that now. We're as ready as we're ever going to be, and the enemy isn't going to wait for us to be prepared. We're going to find out what happened to Mr. Rollypolly.

"And then we're going to get him back."

The other two nodded and put their hooves forward. "We're with you, Dinky," Sunburn replied.

"All the way to the end," Spot Light added, and Dewdrop extended her own hoof to join theirs.