//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Falling In // by OneOverTwo //------------------------------// “COME ON!” said Minuette, “There are never before seen intelligent creatures right here!” Minuette pointed at the human Lyra, Bon Bon, and Sunny Flare. “Sorry ma’am,” said a stone faced earth pony guard, “Princess Celestia is not seeing anypony at the moment.” “Not even to deal with something like a previously unknown intelligent species?” said Moondancer, “What is she doing? Is she sick?” “She-” said the guard. “I’m back,” said Princess Celestia with a human in tow, “I’ve found-” Princess Celestia looked at the group standing at the entrance of her castle. “Hum, I see that you have found some of the creatures yourself,” said Princess Celestia. “Crystal Lullaby!” said Sunny Flare. “Oh, um, hey Sunny Flare,” said the human accompanying Princess Celestia. Sunny Flare walked up to Crystal Lullaby and put her arm around her. “I feel very sick,” said Sunny Flare, causing Crystal Lullaby to gain a slightly disgusted look. Bon Bon looked at Celestia’s crown, “Am I to guess that you’re this country’s leader?” “Yeah, you’re taller than everyone else,” said Lyra. “Heh, I am the leader,” said Princess Celestia, “though not specifically because of my size.” “Well it’s how it works for us,” said Lyra. “What?! No it isn’t,” said Sunny Flare, still leaning on Crystal Lullaby, “Don’t give the aliens the wrong idea about us!” “Or at least give them a favorable wrong idea about us,” said Crystal Lullaby. “Fine, jeez,” said Lyra, “and technically we’re the aliens…” “So… is it true that one who looks like you but with wings and a horn destroyed your universe?” said Celestia. “As far as we can tell,” said Bon Bon, “though I suppose that we should not discount the possibility that what we have seen is not what has indeed transpired.” “... I have to write to Twilight,” said Princess Celestia. The pony Scootaloo was not sure what she was looking at. “Hi,” said the human Scootaloo, “I’m Scootaloo and I got told you are too.” It was like looking in a funhouse mirror, she felt. Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash for direction. What she saw was that Rainbow Dash seemed to be getting along with her odd looking mystery creature counterpart. That and a looming floating mystery creature with wings of light that looked like she was supposed to be more important, the pony Scootaloo figured that that one was probably their princess or something. Meanwhile the pony Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle continued to be quite confused by the three new creatures. “Sup?” said the pony Scootaloo. “So,” said the human Scootaloo, suddenly realizing that she didn’t really prepare anything to talk about with, in a manner of speaking, herself, “Uh… what’s that on your butt?” Pony Scootaloo’s eyes showed excitement. The other two Crusaders were also showing a bit of pride themselves. “It’s my cutie mark!” said the pony Scootaloo as she turned to show it off better, “Isn’t it totally awesome?” Human Scootaloo took a good look at pony Scootaloo’s mark, she found herself really digging the lightning wing on a shield, “Yeah, that looks really rad and cool… What’s a cutie mark?” “What’s a cutie mark?!” said the three Cutie Mark Crusaders. “It’s a mark on yer flank that shows what makes a pony special!” said Apple Bloom. “Are all of you born with them or something?” said the human Scootaloo, “That seems like it’d be constraining.” “Ugh!” said the pony Scootaloo, “You’re not born with one!” “That’s right,” said Sunset Shimmer, “cutie marks are earned.” “And it’s not like your cutie mark has to be about everything you do!” said Sweetie Belle, “It doesn’t dictate your life!” “Yeah, Pinkie’s mark is for party planning, but her actual job is helpin’ out with bakin’!” said Apple Bloom. “Oh, what are your cutie marks for?” said the human Scootaloo. “CUTIE MARKS!” said the Crusaders. “Huh?” said the human Scootaloo. “Wow, that’s actually pretty interesting,” said Sunset Shimmer, “You know, I was surprised to find out that humans don’t have cutie marks even though from what I’ve seen they usually wear their pony counterparts’ cutie mark on their clothes.” “Really?” said Sweetie Belle. “Yes, even though our world- er- the human world doesn’t have magic, the human Twili-” Sunset Shimmer cut herself off and looked down and away, “Nevermind.” The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at each other confusedly. At that point the human Applejack came running to them, “Y’all are gonna wanna come back over to the castle.” Adagio’s eyes darted about the cell. Then she noticed something about the bars. The bars were sized so that a pony wouldn’t be able to exit through them. Adagio and her two followers were significantly skinnier than the average pony. Adagio slipped through the bars as if she were an eal sporting a poofy hairstyle. She was also just able to slip past the guards. Aria quickly caught on to what she was to do and prompted Sonata to likewise realize. They were both able to get through the bars themselves, but the two guards were fast to prevent them from getting any further. Aria, in a split second decision, ripped off the stars holding one of her ponytails in place and threw them in the nearest guards face. She grabbed Sonata’s arm and ran away as fast as she could. When the girls caught up to Adagio they started turning random corners in an attempt to lose the guards on their tail. Eventually they came to a window; the fall was not very high. The trio ran to the edge of the city and escaped into the snow. It had taken some work, but the human Pinkie Pie got most of the humans in Ponyville to come to the room the pony Pinkie Pie had set aside for her welcome party. Flash Sentry really helped convince everyone that human Pinkie wasn’t (very) dangerous. The room was dark, but that quickly changed as lights burst to life and a blast of confetti and streamers exploded outward. A large banner reading ‘Welcome to Equestria!!!!!’ with smaller text reading ‘(& Super Sorry About What Happened to Your Universe!)’ hung from the ceiling. “SURPRISE!” said the pony Pinkie Pie. Pretty much all of the humans present felt very awkward and uncomfortable about this turn of events. Many of them tried to leave, but were stopped by the intense far off stare the human Pinkie, who positioned herself right outside the exit, gave whenever anyone tried to use it. Everyone decided to enter the room and spread out. A fairly large crowd grouped around the three dimensional map showing on the table in the middle of the room. Barely anyone talked to anyone else at that point, most settling to just stand around. The pony Pinkie Pie bounced over to her human counterpart. “This party isn’t doing too great,” said the pony Pinkie Pie. “Yeah, it’s gotta be missing something,” said the human Pinkie Pie, “have any party games?” “Pin the tail on the pony is just over that way!” said the pony Pinkie Pie. “Hmmm, not really the most appealing to most of us humans,” said the human Pinkie Pie, “Not the ones teenager or older anyway.” “What do you guys play?” said the pony Pinkie Pie. “Video games mainly,” said the human Pinkie Pie. “Oh I knew I should have gotten Twilight those Arcade cabinets!” said the pony Pinkie Pie. “I’ll think of something,” said the human Pinkie Pie. A huge statue that looked like a pony version of The Statue of Liberty could be seen in the distance. A human named Watermelody was leading a group of fellow humans. Well she tried to in any case. The group consisted of eight people, Watermelody included, and they were sitting in a dark but mostly empty alley. “Why on earth would we do that?” said a girl with curly orange hair and a scarf. “We’re not on Earth, Golden Hazel,” said Watermelody, “and I am absolutely sure that these buildings are close enough to each other to jump across.” “I don’t think that I can climb up the sides of these buildings,” said another girl with a pink bow in her curly orange hair as she raised her hand. “Not with that attitude, whatever your name is!” said Watermelody. “Sherbette,” said the girl with curly orange hair and a bow in it, “It’s Orange Sherbette.” “Anyways,” said Watermelody, “I say this is what we’re doing and since I’m leading this’ll be what we do.” “Why’re ya the leader again?” said a girl with a pink bow in her red hair. “Don’t question your leader, Apple Bloom,” said Watermelody. “Question,” said boy in a beanie. “Yes Norman?” said Watermelody. “Why are we hiding from the tiny ponies?” said Norman. “Because if we’re caught we’ll be dissected or something, Norman, and I don’t trust a pony with knives,” said Watermelody, “they don’t have thumbs so they’d probably get clumsy and drop them.” “I saw one of the horned ones lift stuff with some kind of glow power,” said a girl with two toned pink and purple hair. “Do you want to get dissected, Sweetie Belle?” said Watermelody. “N-no?” said Sweetie Belle. “Good,” said Watermelody, “Does anybody else need to say anything?” “Where’s Indigo Zap?” said a girl with pink skin and purple hair. Thump! “Grah,” said a girl with blue hair and goggles as she rubbed her backside, “I lost my grip there.” “See, this person gets it!” said Watermelody. “She fell,” said Orange Sherbette. “Excellent observation, Orange Sherbette,” said Watermelody, “Fifty points.” “Huh?” said Orange Sherbette. “There are points now?” said Golden Hazel. “Minus forty points from Hazel,” said Watermelody. “Pfft, not like it matters,” said Golden Hazel, rolling her eyes. “Suri, do you know what’s with this girl?” whispered Orange Sherbette to the pink skinned purple haired girl next to her. “It’s definitely a CHS thing,” said Suri, “Crystal Prep wouldn’t even look at the likes of her.” “I don’t think now is really the time for rivalry talk,” said Orange Sherbette. Thump! “Lost my grip again!” said the girl with goggles as she was back flat on the ground. “Maybe you should stop listening to beret chick over there, Zap,” said Suri. “I’ll stop listening when she stops telling me to do fun stuff,” said Indigo Zap. “Hey, um, our universe was destroyed,” said Norman, “Shouldn’t we be, er, worried about that?” “Guh, Norman, can we at least wait to get a roof before I stop being in denial?!” said Watermelody. Orange Sherbette raised her hand, “I also think that we should talk about the whole universe destruction thing.” “Yeah, what do we do right now?” said Apple Bloom. “Right now we hide from these pony things,” said Watermelody. A door in one of the walls next to the eight humans opened. “Stupid garbage, bleh!” said a short brown pony with reddish hair and freckles as she threw a bulging plastic bag into what seemed to be a dumpster, “Need ta brush my teeth now, bluh.” The eight humans stared at the pony, totally silent. The pony stared back at them. “Uh, hey,” said the pony. “Destroy her or run away!” said a panicked Watermelody. “I’m not going to destroy the cute ponies!” said Orange Sherbette with her arm raised high in the air, “That sounds incredibly evil!” “Yeah, Watermelody,” said Golden Hazel, “Maybe we shouldn’t kill the indigenous peoples of this world.” “Sorry! Panicking!” said Watermelody trying and failing to remove her boot to use as a weapon. “Are you going to dissect us?” said Sweetie Belle. “Nah, not like I got the authority ta do that kinda thing,” said the pony. The pony caught sight of Apple Bloom, “Hey, ya look a lot like my cousin Apple Bloom.” “How didja know my name?” said Apple Bloom. “Huh?” said the pony. “Maybe the ponies have psychic powers,” said Golden Hazel. “I doubt that,” said Suri. “Me too, I was being sarcastic,” said Golden Hazel. “Oh,” said Suri. “So I really don’t know what I’m s’posed ta do at this point ‘cause you’re not really doin’ anything,” said the pony. “You should tell them to take us to the pony leader,” said Indigo Zap. Golden Hazel placed her palm on her face. Watermelody seemed to be considering it. Apple Bloom and Sweetie didn’t seem to care much about the line. Suri did not show care at all. Norman just seemed confused. “Um, can you do that?” said Orange Sherbette as she remembered that she could put her hand down. “Bah, a young hairdressa like me? Nah, I ain’t got th’ connections for doing that,” said the pony. “Oh,” said Orange Sherbette, “can I ask your name?” “Babs Seed,” said the pony. “Wait, I got a cousin with that name,” said Apple Bloom. “That’s a weird coincidence,” said Watermelody. “So, uh, wanna get a pizza?” said Babs Seed. “So,” said Starlight, “your name is also Starlight?” “I don’t know why I’m here,” said Starlight Glimmer, “I just got swept up by a pink blur.” “Yeah, Pinkie’s pretty fast,” said Starlight not Glimmer. “Hey guys! You mingling? Cool,” said the human Pinkie Pie, “Keep doing that.” The human Pinkie walked over to a cluster of untalking humans. “Hey guys, wanna have some cake? This place has super delicious food!” said the human Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, I’m not sure that we should be partying right now,” said Scribble Dee. “Uh..” said the human Pinkie Pie. “Hey! Has anybody seen Cold Forecast?!” said Lemon Zest, “One moment we were next to a glowy mirror and the next she was gone!” “Uh… pin the tail on the pony?” said the human Pinkie Pie. “I knew this was going to happen this way,” said Spike as he walked by. “Brahp!” a scroll appeared from Spike, “Well, I gotta find Twilight.” “Er…” the human Pinkie Pie walked over to Indigo Wreath and Sophisticata, “What are you guys doing?” “Worrying about what happened to our friends,” said Indigo Wreath. “You know, standard our world has been destroyed stuff,” said Sophisticata. “Sigh, I’ll never get this party started,” said the human Pinkie Pie. It was cold. They felt like they were freezing. Three girls were huddled together in an attempt to warm each other. However, they could no longer see the city they escaped from. “I hate you so much right now, Adagio,” said Aria as she glared at Adagio. “I don’t like the situation we’re in either,” said Adagio, “but we have no choice now but to move forward now.” “I see a light,” said Sonata. “Oh great,” said Aria, “now Sonata’s dying. At least we’ve solved our food problem.” “No, stupid,” said Sonata, managing to make Aria’s eye start twitch with a word, “I see a light coming towards us!” At that point Adagio looked ahead. “That’s a train!” said Adagio with panic, “We’ve got to get out of its way!” “Wait,” said Aria, “Let’s jump on to it.” “WHAT?! Are you crazy, Aria?! If we don’t do that exactly perfectly we’ll be as good as dead!” “We’re already as good as dead in this extreme winter, Adagio!” said Aria, “This train will be our salvation either by letting us live or by cutting our suffering short!” Adagio hesitated, “Fine.” “It’s a good thing that train’s a fair way away right now,” said Sonata. The trio moved out of the direct path of the train and got ready to jump onboard. “Pizza sounds nice,” said Sweetie Belle. “How would you know that she’s talking about what you think she is?” said Suri. “Uh, I guess-” Suddenly a burst of pink and blue-violet energy appeared out of thin air. The human Twilight Sparkle snapped out of the energy and into awareness. She took notice of Babs Seed. “You look interesting,” said the human Twilight Sparkle. The human Twilight Sparkle blasted the pony with a bright blue beam. Babs reappeared in another burst of pink and blue-violet energy immediately in front of the winged human, slightly disoriented, after a few tense empty seconds. The human Twilight had Babs in her dangerously unconcerned magic grip. All of the other humans were near frozen in fear. Watermelody tried taking off one of her boots again. “Who an’ what’re you?” said Babs Seed with toughness and fear. “My name is… uh… my name is…” said the human Twilight Sparkle, “Something-ight Sparkle.” “Somethin’? Ya gotta know yer own name, right?” said Babs Seed, nervousness increasing by the second. “Of course I know my own name!” said the human Twilight Sparkle, “It’s… Midnight. Midnight Sparkle.” “Twilight’s completely lost it,” whispered Watermelody. “I think that was clear by the time she destroyed our universe,” whispered Golden Hazel. “Is that what happened?” whispered Sweetie Belle, “does she have the power to just up and destroy universes?” “That’s what it looked like,” whispered Norman. “As for what I am, I am a seeker of knowledge,” said ‘Midnight’ Sparkle, “Tell me, little pony, tell me all that you can about your magic.” “Uh, I never really studied much or nothin’,” said Babs still tightly gripped in her captor’s erratic magic grasp. “Let me see, CLOSE,” said ‘Midnight’ Sparkle as she got even more uncomfortably close to who she held, “Let me see very close.” “Twilight!” said Spike as he rushed back over to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s room. “Hm?” said Twilight Sparkle. “There’s a letter for you,” said Spike. Twilight took the letter and read it. “Spike, gather the others,” said Twilight Sparkle, “and my Canterlot High friends.”