//------------------------------// // Site B Revealed // Story: The Lost World: Jurassic Pony // by mistercokehold8 //------------------------------// The subway of the downtown Manehatten area shrieks down the tracks past the many, many pedestrians. Two of these pedestrians are very well known, for more reasons that one, and stand by a mural of a tropical getaway as they wait for their ride to arrive. They had gotten up a bit earlier than normal to catch this train; them along with the rest of their friends are on their way to the estate of Scorch Firefly for an important meeting. Naturally they're both a bit drowsy, though they show it quite differently. In the case of Pinkie Pie it shows in the form of her usual demeanor, that being a pink living incarnation of rubber on an all-sugar diet. "And so I said 'Oatmeal? Are you CRAZY?!' Hehe!" She giggles as she bounces in place, looking to the farm pony for a reaction. Applejack only could rub her eyes, the trip beginning to take its toll on the southern pony. "Heh, good one Pinkie." The pony said as the train came screaming in to a halt. Pinkie bounces twice into the train before coming to a rest in her seat. "I know right?! I mean I love oatmeal cookies as much as the next baker, but that's best when you have raisins on hoof! If you wanna make chocolate chips into cookies you always…" She trails off as she looks down at her hind right ankle. Then she gasps as she leans in to whisper to Applejack. "Pinchy ankle... We're being waaaaaaaatched..." Her eyes narrow as her eyes move back and forth conspiratorially. "Not another one.....just ignore them Pinkie." Applejack said, keeping an eye out, hoping whoever was bothering them would just go away. One curious pony just kept staring at the two with an all know smirk on his face. Much to the irritation of the farmer pony the stallion trotted over and sat across from the two. "Buck...." Applejack muttered to herself. "You're them arent you?" The pony asked, his smirk not leaving his face. "Excuse us?" Applejack had no choice but to answer now. "You're two of the ponies." He said once more. "I'll let you know.....I believed you." Pinkie tilts her head, "About the cookies? It's just commons sense, but it's still not polite to eavesdrop you know..." "The feller is talkin' about 'you know what' Pinkie Pie." Applejack explained. The pony chuckled before he leaned in closer to the two mares. "Rooaarrr." The stallion said, mimicking he had claws on his hooves. "Ok we're movin Pinkie." Applejack said, getting up from her seat. Sadly this treatment for the two wasnt out of the ordinary ever since the incident of the island two years prior. Pinkie skips along beside her. "Awww don't let that get you down AJ, it's good some ponies believe the truth. Your element is Honesty after all so why so glum my chummy chum?" "That pony wasnt being honest Pinkie. More like callin us crazy." The mare took a seat at the far end of the train. "Ah dont know how the others put up with this. How do you put up with it?" She asked the party pony. Pinkie taps her chin with a hoof. "Not sure what cha mean really. I mean if I needed to count how many times ponies thought I was loco in the cocoa I'd need more hooves to count them off." She smiles widely with an adorable "squee" sound. "So I just think of it as a game! One where no one wins and no one loses, the best kind cuz everypony is happy!" The southern pony couldnt help but grin at her friend. "At the rate its goin, I'm surprise nopony's tried to get us certified yet." the subway went on its track for several miles, and the two ponies had to deal with the stares of others all the way there. "Any idea what Firefly wants with us?" Applejack asked, interrupting the staring contest Pinkie was having with the other ponies watching. "Not a clue," Pinkie replies. "Ha! I win again! Twenty for twenty!" "How's that leg of your holdin up?" Applejack peeked down at the pony’s back hind leg, seeing the faint scars. "Oh it's done a great job of holding me up, thanks for asking," Pinkie responds brightly. "And I think our stop is this next one." True to the pony's words, the train came skidding to a stop at the next Station. One by one the passengers began to clear out, including the two bearers of the Elements. "Bout high noon." Applejack said, looking at Celestia's golden sun, high in the sky. "The others should be there by now." Pinkie rears up on her hind legs, cupping her hooves around her mouth as she shrieked loudly. "TAXI!!!" A taxi carriage came to a halt in front of the two mares. Applejack climbed aboard, giving the pony pulling the cart a hooveful of bits. "Park Avenue Apartment Complex." She instructed. Pinkie hops in beside Applejack singing softly under her breath as the cart pulls away. For a while now she's been trying to rewrite her Evil Enchantress song about Zecora, and recently has made a hobby of it. The lead pony pulled the cart along for several blocks. Applejack tried to drown out the noise of the hustle and bustle of the large city. After what had to be close to twenty minutes, the carriage came to a stop. "You have reached your destination." The pony said. Applejack tipped her hat and exited the cart. Pinkie bounces out after her, pausing only long enough to tip the taxi with a cupcake. The driver gave Pinkie a weird look before pulling away. "Come on." Applejack trotted up the stairs, stopping at the door. "Pull the doorbell." She told Pinkie, motioning to the rope. Pinkie trots up, and smiles as she pulls it with her teeth a few times, liking the sound it makes. After several moments of loud city noise, a figure trotted to the door from the inside. Applejack watched as a butler pony pulled the door open for the mares. "Who do I alert Master Firefly has arrived?" He asked with a thick accent. "Applejack and Pinkie Pie of Ponyville." The butler nodded, and moved aside for the two mares. "Please wait in the foyer." "Will do." Pinkie sits on the foyer floor, and looks around with wide curious eyes. "...Charming enchantress... Spellbinding dances... Hm..." The southern pony was eyeballing at the foyer. "Ah never could figure out how that pony got so much wealth." She said quietly. From upstairs the two mares hear a door open, followed by the sounds of hooves clopping against the floor. Applejack turned up the stairs, and found a few familiar sets of faces greeting them. "There you two are." Twilight Sparkle said, relieved the two finally made it. "It so good you again," Rarity agrees as they trot down the stairs, save for the Pegasai who flutter down. Pinkie bounces back to her hooves, "Hey girls, what's new?" "Little of this, little of that." Twilight elaborated. "Princesshood still isnt all thats cracked to be." "Does anypony here know why Firefly summoned for us?" The southern pony asked. The others in the room minus the newcomers shared a concerned look. "Well....um about that." Fluttershy said quietly as a group of ponies came trotting down the stairs behind them, all dressed in business suits. The large stallion of the group didnt bother to look at the mares as he paused at the bottom to sign a few more important documents. "If it isnt the commoners." The stallion greeted, not turning to the mares behind him. "Blueblood." Twilight greeted with slight distain. Rarity has her nose turned in the air as if there is an unpleasant odor in the air. Rainbow Dash glares openly at him with her forelegs crossed over her chest as she hovers overhead. "Here to swap tales with the lunatic upstairs?" Blueblood asked, signing a few more papers for his lawyers present. Twilight turned to Pinkie and Applejack. "Blueblood here was one of the......investors.....of the park. Now he's assumed ownership of Scorch's company." The alicorn explained. "You say it like its a bad thing." "Ah remember you now...." Applejack said. "The one who covered everything we said about the island up." "You're lucky we didnt sue for everything you owned." The stallion said, still not giving the ponies his attention. You signed a non-disclosure agreement before you went to the island that expressly forbid you from discussing anything you saw. You six violated that agreement." "When the lives of several ponies are lost excuse us for thinking the world outta know." Fluttershy said, not backing down from the stallion. Blueblood turned and faced the shy pegasus, sending the mare cowering once more. Rainbow swoops in to meet his gaze head on. "You really think you can get away with anything just because you're Celestia's nephew? Listen good Blueblood, you listen real good, because you're no Celestia. The world doesn't exist just to spin on your hoof!" "Couldn't have said it better myself," Rarity says sourly. Blueblood actually smirked before dusting off the cyan mares hoof. "Give it a few more weeks and all our problems about the island will be forgotten, and you can go back on with your lives.." The egotistical pony turned and trotted out the door, until Applejack caught him with her hoof. "Not by us it won’t." The stallion glared at the mare before shaking her loose. The butler trotted back down then stares, coming to a stop where the Mane Six stood. "Master Firefly will see you now." He lead the ponies back up the stairs, before leading into the master bedroom. The shades had been drawn so the bright sun wouldnt leak into the room. Medical equipment was cleverly disguised in the room, but if one looked hard enough, one could see whatever was ailing Scorch would win this battle, but the millionaire wasn't one go out quietly. The pony in question lay in his bed, an oxygen mask covering his snot. Smiling bright at the mares, he removed it at once. "You wouldnt believe how great it is to see you all again." Scorch said, smiling for the first time in days. Pinkie bounced on over to the stallion. "Wow Scorch, you don't look so good... This isn't going to be one of those sappy goodbye scenes is it cuz I hate sad goodbye scenes cuz no one ever throws a goodbye party! Oh, is that why you called us? You want a goodbye party?" Scorch pressed his hoof against the party ponies lips. "Not helping." "What's wrong with you anyhow?" Applejack asked. "Severe stress and lawyers, that’s what." Scorch said, lifting himself out of bed. "We didnt know you werent well, but why did you call for us?" Twilight asked. "You said it was urgent." Scorch grabbed his trusty can before turning to the alicorn and her friends. "You were right...and I was wrong.” The stallion began, swallowing his pride. “There! Did you ever think you'd hear me say that? Spectacularly wrong. Instead of observing those animals, I tried to control them. I squandered an opportunity and well still know next to nothing about their lives. Not their lives as man would have them, behind electric fences, but in the wild. Behavior in their natural habitat, the impossible dream of any pony. I could have had it, but I let it slip away." "You called us here.....to apologize?" Applejack asked confused. Rarity raises an eyebrow as Pinkie looks over her shoulder at her scarred leg. "Pinkie darling what is it?" "My scars feel burny," Pinkie replies. "That usually means dinosaurs are going to get involved somehow. I figured that out when they started burning whenever ponies wanted to talk about the island." Rainbow Dash lands softly, turning her attention back to Scorch. "Well if you wanna apologize we won't stop you. But we kinda already forgave you remember? We said as much on the helicopter home from Isla Zebra." Scorch chuckled at the party ponies comment. "Pinkie, everything on the island was quarantined off. Nothing could get on or off the island." Twilight said. "I doubt dinosaurs are involved right?" She expected Scorch to answer immediately, but froze when no answer came. "Right....." She turned to the stallion who had the biggest 'I know something you dont grin.' Time for him to drop his bombshell. "Thank goodness for Site B.” The silence in the room expanded tenfold, the mares staring at him like they misheard the stallion. "Oh no," Rainbow Dash says as the implications of that one sentence sinks in. "No no no nonononono! NO! Celestia's mercy, NO!" Rarity looks aghast, "Darling are you meaning to tell us you had dinosaurs someplace other than that island?" Scorch had that glint in his eye. "Well? Didn't it all seem a trifle compact to you? The hatchery, in particular?" "Go on....." Fluttershy said. "You know my initial yields had to be low, far less than one percent, that's a thousand embryos for every single live birth. Genetic engineering on that scale implies a giant operation, not that spotless little laboratory I showed you." "Ah dont believe you!" Applejack said in disbelief. "Isla Zebra was just a showroom, something for the tourists, Site B was the factory floor. It was on Isla Pegasus, eighty some miles from Zebra. We bred the animals there, nursed them until they were a few months old, then moved them to the park." Twilight was getting some really bad flashbacks right now. Pinkie has produced popcorn from somewhere, listening adamantly with wide eyes. Rainbow Dash is rubbing her temples, as Rarity began to speak softly. "And... The chance you mentioned to... study them? Through observation? Scorch darling please tell me you're not going with this where I think you're going..." "Allow me to explain. About twenty-four months ago a hurricane wiped out Site B. Call it an act of divine intervention." The stallion joked, but no one was laughing. "We had to evacuate and the animals were released to mature on their own in the wild. Life found a way, as you once so eloquently put it." He said turning to Fluttershy. "For two years now I've fought to keep them safe from meddling." "Then it's the first thing you've done right!" Twilight said. “That island has to be quarantined and contained, immediately! Even the airspace over it needs to be restricted! Get the Department of Biological Preserves to seal off the island. These two species were never meant to share Equestria. We're living proof that pony cannot compete in their world, and they would never make it in ours. Civilization would kill them." After the alicorn finished her rant, Fluttershy had a thought. "If they're not dead already. You bred them lysine-deficient, didn't you? They should've died after seven days without supplemental enzymes." "They're flourishing! I don't know how, it's only one of a thousand questions I want the team to answer. I've been putting this together for over a year. But now something's come up that's made it imperative the expedition happen now. If we hesitate, all will be lost." "You had to be right!" Applejack said to Rarity. Rainbow looked beyond angry. "If you think any of us are setting hoof on an island with dinosaurs again you've lost your last marble Scorch! No way no how!" Scorch's smile finally died down. "I take it you already met Blueblood." "What does he have to do with any of this?" "About a week ago, a few vacation ponies landed on Site B. There…..was an accident with the two little fillies they had there. They’re both fine mind you.” Scorch said, taking the tension off that. “But Blueblood used the incident to take control. He owns my company now. It's only a matter of time before he discovered this lost world and pillages it. That's the last thing anypony wants. I simply ask for a group to go in and document them, to make the most spectacular living fossil record the world has ever seen. Show those creatures in their natural habitat." The stallion trotted over and pulled out several infrared images. "Our satellite infrareds show the carnivores on the island are fiercely territorial, they demarcate and defend specific areas and stay in them. The carnivores are isolated in the interior of the island, so the team will stay on the outer rim." Scorch looked back at the mares. "I'm not making the same mistake again." "No, now you're making all new ones." Twilight argued. "If you want to protect those animals, do the ground work, get legislation passed! If you want to observe them, you do it safely, by satellite, or helicopter, but you don't just barge in there with a camcorder! Who are these ponies? What are their names?" Scorch pulled out several large folders with pony information within them. "We have our Tech Savey, our field technology expert. We have....well, your brother Applejack." The southern pony pushed the sick pony aside and looked at the file. "How in Equestria did you convince Big Mac to go along on this suicide mission?!" Scorch shrugged. "We needed a tough pony who could handle himself, and oddly enough he's good with a camera." The stallion turned back to the files. "We have our naturalist.....and lastly...." He turned back to the mares. "I was hoping.....three of you would go?" Rainbow snapped. "I already said n-" "I'll go," Rarity said softly, earning her several shocked looks. The unicorn turned to Twilight before continuing. “You need to stay here. Whatever Blueblood is planning with the dinosaurs I think it's safe to assume no good can come of it." "Ah just cant let my brother go off and do this. He needs me there." Applejack said. Twilight frowned at a thought. "You never did say who the naturalist was." Scorch looked nervous. "He he....I'll have you know she came to me first!" "Who?" Fluttershy wasnt liking where this was going. "She was the best naturalist I could find so I couldnt say no." "You're not talking about Tree Hugger are you?" The shy pegasus desperately looked for a phone, knowing full well her friend didnt have one regardless. "It's too late..." The mares turned back to Scorch. "....she's already there." Fluttershy had the look of horror on her face. "The others will meet her there in three days." "You sent one of my closest friends to an island full of dinosaurs all alone?" "Sent" is hardly the word, she couldn't be restrained! She was adamant about making the initial foray by herself. "Observation without interference," she said, went on and on about it." To Scorch's surprise the pegasus trotted forward and stared him dead in the eyes. "You want to leave your name on something, fine, but stop putting it on other pony’s graves!" Fluttershy said, now furious at the stallion. Pinkie folded her ears down. "You're scary when mad Flutters..." "She's gonna be fine Fluttershy." Scorch tried to convince the mare. "She spent years studying predators she knows what she doing." Fluttershy held a hoof up to cut the pony off. "This is no longer an expedition. It's a rescue mission and it’s leaving now!" The mare turned and stormed out the door, Rarity and Applejack following quickly behind. Rainbow could only sigh. "I'd do anything for those guys, really I would... I just..." Slowly she hangs her head as words fail her. "…I'm sorry..." Scorch patted the mare on the back, before smiling at the thought he had all the members he needed for this task.