Shining approached his home, strangers working on cleaning and fixing it while his family seemed to have vanished. As Cadence followed, it became clear to both of them something had happened. Important items had vanished, from family photos to his mother's awards, and even Spike's dog bowl!
"Hey, buddy!" He shouted to one of them, a short tubby kid in a black shirt who was sweeping broken glass from the rug. "Where is my family?" The boy turned to him and shrugged.
"I dunno, I guess they ran off after the whole "bring me Twilight Sparkle" thing happened." He explained. "I mean, we tried texting 'em but uh, since the whole "swarming to destroy their home" they and the others just ain't answering."
"Others? I assume you mean the other families."
"Well duh!" Cadence glared at him. "Er, I mean, yes sir. They uh... I dunno where they went. Maybe a motel or somethin'? Uh... We're workin' hard though! Cleaning up! D-don't worry about it!"
"Oh you better be, because if I find out something happened to my family, I'll personally make sure t-" Cadence cleared her throat, cutting him off.
"We should probably start looking for Twilight. She and her friends are probably in danger." She lead him away from Snips, shaking her head.
Back in the forest, Rainbow emerged from the pod, shaken, dazed, having been changed into hundreds of creatures and back again, and really just plain unhappy.
"Pinkie" She began. "Maybe we should stop playing with alien technology." Rainbow took off her mask and shuddered. "How about we just go back to camp and get some lunch? I don't even remember what time it is anymore." Rainbow began limping back to camp while Pinkie helped her, leaving the teleportation pod empty.
They soon arrived at camp, where Twilight was having a conversation with two Sunset Shimmers (one who was slightly hovering above the ground), an Applejack with four legs, and Fluttershy, who was trying to keep Spike away from a mask of himself.
"Hey guys!" Pinkie greeted as if nothing was wrong, Rainbow just staring at the group. The two Sunset Shimmers were visibly different, apart from the hovering. The one on the ground wore her previously seen, leather-based ensemble that made her out to be a "bad girl", while the one who was floating wore the supersuit and helmet. Her arms were sticking out in a t-pose, with her cape drawn out in full. The group turned their attention to the two of them, and looking concerned.
"Rainbow!" Said the leather-clad Sunset Shimmer in Rarity's voice. "What's happened to you?" She approached and began brushing Rainbow's hair, grabbing a brush from a pocket that didn't seem to be there.
"Rarity, how come you're-?"
"Oh, it's the mask, but this is a lot more important! We can't let your hair stay like this." Sunset Shimmer dropped her pose and fell to the ground, grabbing Twilight to keep her balance.
"We're here for Lunch," Pinkie announced. "After all it's- what time is it?" She thought, trying to look for her phone in her costume. One of Applejack's arms sprouted from Pinkie's side and dug through a pocket, pulling out the phone. "Oh, thanks!" Sunset Shimmer waved her hand, the picnic basket floated out in front of the group, and set it down gently on Twilight's lap.
"So, I'm not the only one weirded out by this, am I?" Rainbow asked, both her and Rarity sitting down by the group.
"Oh no," Fluttershy said, hiding Spike's mask in her backpack. "I certainly think all of this is a bit odd. N-no offence."
"Finally someone says it." Applejack chuckled. "I was starting to worry I was the only one." She began using her hands to make sandwiches, Twilight doing the same at a slower rate.
"You guys really got used to this quickly." Pinkie observed, taking hers and happily eating.
"Well, I used to be a unicorn so telekinetic are second nature to me, but we haven't worked out all the kinks quite yet." Sunset explained as one of Applejack's hands dropped a sandwich to the ground.
"So, what did you guys find out?" Twilight asked, offering Fluttershy one.
"Well, for one we found out that it's a teleporter out in the woods. For another, I found out that it hurts. A lot." Pinkie sheepishly turned away.
"Oh, so you got it working?" Applejack asked.
"I never said that. We know Inapan knows how to work it though." Rarity took off her mask and returned to normal while Rainbow continued. "All I know is that you press the button hard to open it. Any other instructions and it just does whatever it wants... which reminds me, do I still have feathers on me?"
"Uh, not that I saw." Rarity answered, confused.
"Well, Spike and I can look over it after lunch. I made these masks from scratch, how hard can teleportation be?" Twilight began as Shimmer rolled her eyes.
"Because it totally didn't take me three years of studying to figure it out." She chuckled. "Anyways, you do that. I'll keep researching the others. Rainbow you look pretty beat up, why don't you go take a nap?"
"Yeah, I'd like that." Rainbow took her sandwich, entered the tent, and put on her mask and dozed off in full uniform.
Sunset Shimmer took Twilight's notes to look over while the rest of the group enjoyed their lunch.
"Maybe they sent me some texts," Shining realized as he took out his phone, waiting through the slow, awkward start-up.
"Or maybe they texted me." Cadence took out her phone and it started up instantly, revealing the seventeen new messages prompt. "You need to get a new phone." She reminded him.
"Not until this one's dead." He huffed as Cadence read through the messages.
"Pick up some milk, hit send too soon, here's the rest of the grocery list, and you've been acting funny is there something you want to tell us..." She paused on that one and looked at Shining before returning to the phone. "Cadence where are you, honey please come home, and something bad is happening, honey, I can't find your father... I-I better go, these sound really important."
As Shining's phone finally powered up, the message telling him about a number of texts came up. Reading through the most recent ones, he found the most important of them at the very bottom: "hidin frm riot, com to library".
The library was actually one of the least popular locations in town, regularly. On the eve of the apocalypse, however groups had come to clean and return books and just generally gain a clean conscious as Shining spotted a familiar figure in a trenchcoat.
"Hey, dad!" he shouted, ruining his father's point of wearing a trench coat. Sighing and taking it off, his father shook his head. "What's with the get-up?"
"I was trying to be subtle. I don't want people badgering me about Twilight's whereabouts. I mean, most of them have moved onto doing better things, but still do you want to risk it?"
"Actually, where is Twilight? I need to talk to the whole family and I'd prefer she were there too."
"We told her to run to the forest, to hide with her friends until this all blows over." He whispered, looking to see if people were overhearing. "Son, I say we leave them be. If you need any advice you can just ask me."
"Well, will you get angry? Because Principal Cinch knows some things and... she wants to Blackmail me and Cadence." His father gave him a stern stare. "N-nothing illegal, I just... stuff I don't want to let out."
"Son, just tell me it will be our secret." Shining leaned over to his ear and whispered it, his father's eyes widening the longer the explanation got. "You and Cadence ar-?!" Shining covered his mouth, everyone in the Library definitely noticing them now.
"...I'd better go now." Shining said, stepping away from his upset father.
"Yes, that would be best."