//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: You Spelled it Wrong 
// by Ex-Ed 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot

"Why's the sun coming up and down?"

"Why are the stars dancing?"

"Why does the moon have a picture of Sapphire Shores engraved on it?"

"Is that a Weird Alpaca song I hear playing?"

Cries of confusion from the mainly-unicorn population rang out. Elsewhere, Applejack and Rarity were in the apple-carriage, being pulled by Caramel and Noteworthy. Twilight had managed to improve her spell on the carriage, so it would last far longer until returning back into an apple. The two mares were inside the carriage in awkward silence as they sat on the floor. They both silently thought to themselves what sort of trouble they'd be up against.

To break the silence, Applejack decided to start a conversation. "Whatcha suppose the princesses are doin' right about now?"

Rarity looked out of the window. The crescent moon did a cartwheel through the Big Dipper. "Rediscovering how to use their powers..."

"Ah never did understand magic." Applejack admitted. "Tha' kinda chaos it can make is just too much fer me." The farm pony instantly recalled the last Winter Wrap Up, the Parasprite incident, and the Smarty-Pants craze.

"Admittedly, I do suppose it can get out of control." Rarity replied. "Then again, it does have the power to make things far easier."

The carriage stopped suddenly, almost tipping the ponies over. "We're here! I think..." A masculine voice called out.

Applejack got onto her hooves. "You ready partner?"

Rarity fixed her posture as well. "Yes I am, darling."

Rarity used her magic to open up the door and the ponies exited. They stood in front of the castle where the child princesses resided. Applejack turned to the stallions.

"Ah appreciate the ride Caramel. You too Noteworthy." Applejack thanked.

Rarity also offered her thanks. "We do sincerely thank your willingness to bring us all the way here."

Caramel smiled at the farm pony. "Anytime girls."

"Oh!" Applejack realized. "That reminds me, I gotta give ya somethin' fer yer troubles." She ran back into the carriage, leaving the stallions alone, as Rarity was already on her way to the castle.

Caramel turned to his blue-coated friend. "She totally likes me. Applejack's gonna give me something; and whatever that something is, it'll be from her..." Pink hearts lazily floated around the stallion.

Noteworthy refrained from replying with "Love's a lot less thrilling after mating". He didn't want to squash his friend's enthusiasm.

Applejack came out from the carriage with a small, decorative present in her mouth. She placed it next to Caramel. "From me ta' you!"

The pony was then running towards the palace, shouting "Wait up Rarity!"

Caramel beamed at his gift. Before Noteworthy could give him any comment, advice, or deadpan joke, Caramel started ripping open the box.

Inside, however, were just two red apples and a note.

Ya’ll share now, ya hear?

-Applejack

"..." Caramel stared at the opened box with a stoic stare. Noteworthy walked up to him and placed a sympathetic hoof on his shoulder.

"A blind mule would have seen that one coming from a mile away."

Back with Rarity, she had run all the way to the palace gates; although, Applejack fell a bit behind. Two unicorn guards were stationed there in front of the gates, with the usual emotionless expressions on their faces.

"Excuse us, gentlecolts," Rarity said. "But we need to get into the palace."

The guards remained expressionless.

"Umm… we are here to see the princesses, so if you would kindly-" Rarity took a step forward, only to be blocked when the guards blocked the way with their horns.

"No one sees the princesses." The first guard shouted.

"But we're here to-"

"No one."

"We just want to-"

"No one."

"Would you give me one minute to-"

"No one."

Rarity sighed. "Can't you- EEP!"

The guards, apparently annoyed, lowered their heads and got into a charging stance, sharp horns aimed right at the white pony.

"No. One." The guard repeated. "I suggest you leave. Now."

Rarity slowly backed away, giving the two guards a dirty look. She turned around, seeing that Applejack had finally caught up.

Applejack panted, trying to regain her breath. "Next time… Wait up fer me…"

"I'll keep that in mind." Rarity replied. "We have bigger problems though."

"You mean other than the fact that the sun just went down two seconds ago and is back up?"

"Indeed. Those guards won't let me in."

Applejack put a hoof to her chin. She looked at the walls. Over 6 feet tall, so there was no way either of them could go over it.

"Hmm… Ya' suppose you can try doin' that fancy teleportation spell Twi' did?"

Rarity thought for a moment. "I suppose I could. But I've never done so before."

"Well, we got no other way of gettin' in there." Applejack replied. "Jus' give it a shot."

The unicorn sighed. "Very well. Grab onto me."

Applejack nodded and grabbed her tail with her mouth. But then-

"Ow! Gently, please!"

"Just get on with it!"

She sighed. "Very well."

Rarity silently powered her horn. The blue light was surrounding it. It spread around Rarity and her partner. In a flash, they were both gone.

Rarity opened her eyes to see that she had conveniently teleported right one of the balconies of the palace. "Haha! I've done it! Applejack, I did-"

She then realized that Applejack was not with her.

"Hmm…" Rarity said to herself. "Where has that pony gone?"

"Give it back!" She heard a young filly's voice yell. "It's my turn to play with her!"

"But she's my bird!" Another filly's voice shouted back.

This was coupled by the sound of glass smashing. The moon then rattled violently. Rarity took note of that.

"That must be the princesses!" Rarity analyzed. She quickly made her way into the hallways and followed the sounds of crying and things breaking.

A few minutes later, she had found the door leading to Princess Celestia's room. Considering how it was crudely painted several colors, she assumed the fillies were in there.

She opened the door with telekinesis and stepped inside. A young Celestia and Luna were both pulling on the wings that belonged to the poor phoenix Philomena. With their teeth.

"She's mine!" Celestia insisted between closed teeth.

"Nuh-uh!" Luna replied. "Mine!"

If Philomena could talk, her response would most likely be, "Don't I get a say in this?"

"Girls! Put that poor creature down this instant!" Rarity demanded.

The two fillies looked up, letting go of the phoenix. Luna spoke first. "You're not our mom… I think." She turned to her sister. "Is she?"

"I don't know." Celestia replied. "When was the last time we even saw mom?"

The two fillies, seemingly have forgotten about the stranger that had just broke into their room, thought for a moment.

"Ahem." Rarity cleared her throat to get the princesses' attention. "Your mother is… erm… sick, so I'll be um… babysitting you. And when she shows up, so will my partner. You may call me aunt Rarity."

The princesses exchanged glances. "Can we call you auntie[ Rarity?" They both asked at once.

"Whatever you wish." Rarity replied with a smile. She just had to babysit two fillies with Applejack until Twilight found the solution to the whole problem. How hard could it be?

"EEAAAAHH!"

All three ponies looked outside, to see Applejack falling from the sky, covered in soot and broken concrete.

With a very loud thud Applejack crashed into the ground, leaving a three-foot deep pony-shaped hole at her landing spot.

"I guess I'm not cut out for being a magician…" Rarity said with a bit of embarrassment in her voice.

Everfree Forest

Fluttershy's nerves tensed. Who's wouldn't have? She was journeying into a dark, eeiry forest that had huge monsters and beasts that were scarred by an even scarier monster or beast. She barely knew where she was and heard rustling in the bushes and trees. And to top it off, she was traveling with a pony was trying to come onto her, which was also scaring her to a degree; considering that she had never had anyone else "like" her in a romantic way.

But right now wasn't the time to dwell on her thoughts of romance. Now was the time for action. She just wanted to finish her little mission and-

"Ya look a little cold." Big Macintosh commented.

Fluttershy shivered. He was right, she was cold. One thing about being in an ominous, dark forest that barely saw the sun, was that it was also unnaturally colder than anywhere else.

"A little..." Fluttershy quietly replied, not looking towards the stallion behind her. "But I'm fi-Eeek!"

At unfathomable speeds, Big Macintosh had somehow now closed the distance between his original location and Fluttershy and was next to her, no space in between the two ponies.

"A-Aren't you a bit umm... close?" Fluttershy meekly asked.

"Just makin' sure ya' don't get a cold." Big Macintosh reassured, smiling at the mare.

I need to get out of here! Fluttershy thought. He's getting a little too close for comfort.

Big Macintosh nuzzled the top of Fluttershy's head. She let a heavy blush paint her face.

...Maybe he can come a little closer... The pegasus said to herself. No! Bad Fluttershy! Just back away slowly...

Fluttershy pulled away from the stallion with an embarrassed smile. "I-I'm sorry but..."

Fluttershy took a tiny step back. "I just think that-"

The pegasus ran away from Big Macintosh faster than Pinkie to an all-you-can-eat Cupcake buffet. She disappeared into the forest, just to escape the awkwardness of the past situation.

Big Macintosh wasn't fazed by Fluttershy's rude exit. "Ah'll find her. That lil' filly can't hide from me."

And thus, the marehunt began.

Sweet Apple Acres

Not long after she and Twilight parted ways, Pinkie Pie quickly encountered Apple Bloom, who told her some kind of weird monster was eating all the apples there. Pinkie Pie decided to take a look at this monster herself.

Pinkie, wearing her "disguise" of a pair of fake glasses coupled with an equally fake mustache, peeked from inside the barn. No creature yet.

The party pony was getting impatient. She'd been waiting for twenty minutes, but no creature of unknown origin was there.

"This is soooooo boriiiing..." She complained. A rumbling noise in her tummy brought her to another problem. "And now I'm suuuuuuper hungry!" Then an idea hit her.

"Hungry!" Pinkie realized. "Apple Bloom said the monster thing was eating everything!" The party pony got up and looked around. Luckily, Granny Smith was leaving a fresh apple pie on the window of the house to cool off. Pinkie quickly stole the pie and placed it on the ground.

"Okay mister monster," Pinkie Pie said to herself. "Let's see who you really are!"

Suddenly, the pie wobbled and shook. It was being pulled away from her by a vacuum-like force, "Hey! Come back!" Pinkie shouted. She chased the pie as it started dragging away from her.

She chased after her possessed pie for a good 20 seconds until it stopped. "Huh?" She looked up and saw an pink, ball-shaped creature, no taller than her nor wider than her. It had small eyes and stubby arms. Two red shoe-like feet were at the bottom.

It looked curiously at Pinkie Pie, then at the pie. "Yours?" It asked in a high, squeaky voice. From the looks of it, it had a limited vocabulary.

"Yeah!" Pinky replied in an equally high voice. "I'm Pinkie Pie! Who are you?"

The ball creature looked down and shrugged its non-existent shoulders.

"Aww..." Pinkie sympathized. "You don't have a name?"

The creature shook itself. "No..."

"Hmm..." Pinkie thought for a moment. "I know! I'll call you... Sweet Tooth!"

The ball creature jumped up and down in happiness. "Sweet Tooth! Sweet Tooth!"

Pinky laughed along with Sweet Tooth. "Hey! We should totally throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party! It'll be a blast!"
Sweet Tooth bounced again in agreement.

"Let's go little guy!" Pinkie said. She turned and started walking, expecting the little pink ball to follow her.

"Pinkie! Pinkie!"

The pony turned around, seeing Sweet Tooth with the pie she had forgotten about in his hands. "Yours!"

"Aww... How sweet!" Pinkie smiled. "Hey! We should totally cut it in half!" She took the pie and took the tin wrapper off. She grabbed a nearby fallen stick and cut the pie in half with it. Each pink creature took their share of the delicious morsel and ate it in one bite. "Now let's go get that party started!" The two creatures left the farm.

Nearby, two ponies fell out of an apple tree, one mare and one stallion. The stallion was a pegasus who had a midnight blue coat with a black, unkempt mane, while the unicorn mare had a magenta coat with a brown, finer mane with streaks of blue. The stallion had a mask for a cutie mark and the mare had a music note for one.

"This is just great!" The colt complained. "One minute we're trying to run away from those dumb guards, the next, we find a spiraling portal that sends us here and turns us into horses!"

The mare wasn't in a good mood either. "Let's just find the dog and get out here."

The colt noticed a messy object. He picked it up with his mouth. "Whass ssis?"

"Looks to me like a tin pie wrapper." The mare replied.

"AHA!" The two ponies turned to a wrinkly, green mare. "So yer' tha ones that took mah' pie!"

"Oh no, no, no ma'ma," The colt explained. "There seems to be some mistake-"

"Ah'll say!" The cranky grandmother cried. "Ya dun goofed up and ate mah' pie! Git' outta here before ah call tha' cops on ya! Oh wait, ah already did!"

As if on cue, chariots of royal guard ponies arrived on cue.

"Un-freaking-believable..." The gray stallion complained.

Cloudsdale

"First off," Rainbow addressed. "Is getting rid of those oddly-shaped guards."

Right now, Rainbow's crew had pushed closer to the factory, but was held from actually taking the factory over because the strangely shaped rainbow guards were using some kind of weapon that created miniature rainbow bullets and sent them flying at them at insane speeds.

"I think I saw those kinda things in a book once." Derpy claimed. "They're called 'hyoo mans'. They do the weirdest things..."

"Like what?" Cloud Kicker asked, genuinely interested.

"Well, they like to start wars, commit genocide, and write stories!" Derpy said. "But some of them involve... unsanitary things..."

"Okay..." Rainbow said, attempting to ignore the gray pegasus. "How do we get past these things?"

"Oh oh! I know!" Derpy shouted. "We can lure the hyoo mans with things they like!"

"They're rainbows." Spitfire pointed.

The gray pegasus looked away from the Wonderbolt and let a frown appear on her face as a single tear fell from her face. "Nopony understands my ways..."

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment. "We can't sneak up on them, since wings aren't exactly silent... We can't charge head on..."

"Uhh... Rainbow," Soarin' interrupted. "We've got another problem..."

He pointed over to the factory. It shot out several rainbow oozes from a window. Unsurprisingly, they fell to the ground accompanied by a subtle 'splat' sound.

"Eew..." Cloud Kicker commented.

However, something very unnatural happened. The ooze puddle bubbled and made a audible "sss..." sound. Soon, the puddle reformed into what appeared to be a humming bird.

"My mind just broke a little bit..." Soarin' said.

"Wait..." Rainbow realized. "If the factory can make creatures that eat and sleep... then that means it can create anything! And if it can create anything..."

...

"WARNING. NUCLEAR RAINBOMB DETECTED."

BOOOOOOMM!

And thus, the entire world of Equestria was leveled to nothing but smothering ash, dust, and the remains of a rainbow.

...

"It could mean the end of everything!"

"Don't be silly, Rainbow." Cloud Kicker nudged Rainbow with her front leg. "I don't think the problem's going to escalate to that proportion."

As if on cue, the factory spat out another blob. This time, it animated itself into a bomb and rolled off the cloud all on its own.

"Mother of Celestia, I was so wrong." Cloud Kicker apologized.

"We gotta get Wingkins outta there." Rainbow Dash concluded. "But we can't do it with those guards in front of the factory. There's gotta be a way to distract them or something..."

Derpy would have snapped her fingers if she had any. "Idea!" She quickly flew away. Only a few seconds later, she returned with her mailmare bag. "If I'm right, these hyoo mans can't resist this!"

She shuffled through whatever was in her bag. She ran out from the safety of the barricade, despite the pleas of her teammates. She got up close to the guards. They were about to shoot her with their weapons until she put a hoof in front of them, signifying she told them to stop.

"Look what I've got..." Derpy taunted, waving a picture grasped in her hoof (who needs logic?).

The guards' jaws dropped. One of them excitedly yelled, "Oh my gosh! A picture of Fluttershy autographed by Lauren Faust!" He proceeded to let out an extremely fan-girlish squeal.

"THAT PICTURE IS MINE!" The other guard shouted.

"No, mine!"

"Mine!"

"It belongs to me!"

"LIES! I claim it to be Gregory Anderson the 3rd's! Which is me."

"Yeah? Well... Well... Cove Jackson had his scientists invent nuclear cantaloupes!"

"Who?"

"I just did an internet! Your logic can no longer comprehend the very fabrics of universal space and time."

Derpy coughed loudly to get the guards attention. She threw the picture off the cloud. It floated in the air as it slowly descended.

"MINE!" The guards both yelled in a very discorded-Rarity fashion. They both proceeded to jump off the cloud like idiots, fighting each other in a huge ball of violence in mid-air.

"You did it Ditzy!" Rainbow Dash congratulated. The rest of her Motley crew had run up to Ditzy Doo by now. "How'd you know?"

Ditzy laughed. "Everybody loves Fluttershy!"

A long pause.

“Wha, wha, whaaa…”

"That's something I'd expect from Pinkie Pie..." Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.

"Well come on guys," Soarin' called out. "Let's go save that featherbrain!" They five were now well on their way into the factory.