//------------------------------// // Chapter 0-2: Crash Landing // Story: My Paper Pony // by Garfield //------------------------------// Mario was falling quickly down to earth, rushing past clouds that littered the sky. He struggled to keep his eyes open as he fell to the earth, just trying to see a soft landing. But all he could see were trees, and other farmland. Bracing for impact and hoping for the best, Mario closed his eyes as tight as he could, as the ground approached ever closer. He hit the ground with a sickening thud, and blacked out soon after. "Hello? Anyone in there?" called out a high voice, with a hint of a southern accent. "Hellooooo!". Mario struggled to regain his consciousness, but the fight for it was just as futile as the one against Discord high in the castle. Giving up, he finally fell asleep, as the sound of hooves rushing towards him shook the ground, and the high pitched voice yelling "Help!". Groggily, Mario woke up, and found himself in a bed. It was hard and itchy, unlike his, but it provided comfort well enough. He looked around the room, seeing that it was sparsely decorated, with a single table with a vase holding a blue flower within it next to the bed. Other than that, there was nothing of note within the room. The door creaked open slowly, showing a small yellow filly, who had a red mane with a bow in it. Upon seeing Mario, she ran back out of the door yelling "Granny Smith, Granny Smith, that red pony that fell from the sky is awake!". Another voice rang out, this one a lot older. "Ah'm coming, ah'm coming already," it said. After what felt like forever, another pony creaked through the door, followed by the filly from earlier. "So you're awake now, huh? Gave us all a fright you did, crashing into the farm like that" said the older pony, with a voice that was slow and laboured. The pony herself was very old, had fur coloured green and had a white mane tied into a bun. "Now you're awake, you can tell us why you dropped in on us." Mario explained what had transpired at the party, from finding himself in the private chamber all the way up to him being knocked out of the window. "Well," muttered the elderly mare "It looks like Equestria is in danger. Again". Her words seemed as if she was tired of the threats of danger that often beset this world. She seemed pretty sleepy as well, as she yawned loudly and walked out of the room. She called out "You're welcome to stay here until you recover, just don’t wake me up". And with that, she could be heard snoring loudly, louder than any Ursa, or even Luigi. Slowly crawling out of bed, Mario managed to get to his hooves after a struggle and walked slowly. His legs still worked, which was certainly a lot more than he expected. A little voice piped up "If you're getting out of bed, why don'tcha visit the rest of my family." The little pony looked sad after she said that, as if saying it brought back a bad memory. Deciding against pressing further on the girl, Mario joined her as they left the farmhouse. Outside, the two ponies arrived at the barn. "Strudel, Braeburn, we have a visitor," shouted the girl. She had a tremendously loud voice for someone of such small stature, thought Mario as his head began to hurt again. Out of the barn came two ponies, both of which were stallions. The older one had a pale brown coat of fur, and a white mane, moustache and beard. He wore upon his head a green hat with a red feather protruding from it. Next to him stood a younger pony, who was a good foot taller than Mario was. He was a pale yellow colour, with a golden mane on his head. Mario had never seen either of these ponies around Ponyville, and they certainly seemed to not be from these parts. "Applebloom, have you been pestering our visitor?" asked the younger stallion. He had a kind voice, but he was very loud when he talked. "No, I promise cousin Braeburn, I'm just showing him around the place," she retorted quickly, like a child being scolded would. "Okay, but don't rush him" said the elder pony. His voice was scratchy and high, most unfitting for what seemed to be a rather manly stallion. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" he asked Applebloom. "Oh I'm sorry, uncle Strudel, cousin Braeburn, this is Mario. He was with the princess when the castle was yanked into the sky" said the yellow filly. "And these are my relatives Mario, they came recently to help with the incident we had recently". She pointed her hoof at the farmhouse, indicating the holes in the wall. "What happened?" asked Mario, with concern in his voice. "Her brother and sister got kidnapped two nights ago," said Braeburn. "We came over to help out, such as carry out their jobs on the farm and fix up the damage caused by them attackers". "Is there anything I can do?" asked the red stallion. He had to repay their hospitality some way, after all. "Well, I suppose you could go down Ponyville, see if anyone saw the kidnappers last night. Take Applebloom with you, she's a smart girl," said Strudel, pointing at the little pony standing at Mario's side. Mario nodded his head, and looked at the filly by his side. She nodded in agreement, and said to Mario "Before we leave, can you go get my encyclopaedia? It would certainly come into use on our journey." "We're only going down the road, it's not that much of a journey," said the red stallion. "I know, but it never hurts to be prepared," said Applebloom. She did have a point, thought Mario. "Where is it then?" he asked. She pointed in the direction of the orchard. "It's in my clubhouse, you can't miss it. I'm going to pack my bags". She then turned and walked back to the house, skipping as she went. Mario then trotted off to the orchards, leaving the other two stallions to work in the barn. Twenty minutes later, Mario arrived at a tree house. It was surprisingly complex, and not something you'd expect a young girl to be able to build, or even look after. It was immaculate inside too, he thought as he searched for the book. On a desk rested the 'Encyclopaedia Equestria". It had a map of Equestria on its cover, and on the inside of the cover were three names written. There was two scrawls of names written there very messily, reading 'Applebloom' and 'Scootaloo'. Underneath these was a name written with beautiful handwriting. It read 'Sweetie Belle', and had a picture of a unicorn doodled next to it. Further in the book, there were pictures of the many creatures that inhabited Equestria. Some also had tactics for removing them too. Mario picked the book up in his mouth, and left the building. Outside, he climbed down the ladder, and onto something soft. It emitted a high pitched squeak, much like a kazoo. Mario quickly turned around to see what he had trod on. It was a small doll in the shape of a pink unicorn, which was covered in expensive clothing. Unfortunately, it now had a large dent in the side from where he had trodden on it. Suddenly, something attacked him from the bushes. Struggling against the monster grabbing his head, he threw his assailant off onto the floor. Mario couldn't believe it, but his attacker was a small filly too, not much older than Applebloom. She was a small pink earth pony with a purple and white mane. She wore on her head a small tiara, now dented, and a look of sheer anger on her face. "How dare you lay a hoof on me," she screamed in an extremely bratty tone. "You first break Miss Moneypony, and then you headbutt me." "I'm sorry, but it was an accident!" Mario said, trying to plead with the crazed pony advancing on him. "My father taught me how to deal with bullies like you!" she snarled. She ran at him and pounced in an attempt to knock him down to the ground. Mario ducked and rolled away from where he was standing, and out of the way of the flying pony. With a huge thud, the filly had hit the tree and knocked herself down to the ground. With a black eye and a lump on her head, she stood up again. "Don't think this is over, jerk, I will hunt you down and have my revenge, or my name isnt Diamond Tiara," she growled at Mario. Her voice was filled with anger and hatred, and was much lower than it was before. Upon saying that, she ran off, with her broken doll in her mouth. Mario stood there for a minute, wondering what the hell had just happened. In the last day, he had been thrown through a window, fallen to earth from space and now he had just made another enemy, this time a schoolgirl. He sighed and thought "This is going to be a long day"… Returning on the route that he had come from, he arrived back at the farmhouse. Waiting for him there was Applebloom, Braeburn and Strudel. It would seem that none of them wanted to disturb Granny Smiths nap either. On the little fillies back was a small satchel, and next to her was a much larger one. "What took you so long?" she asked, dragging the bags over to where Mario stood. "You didn’t tell me you kept psychopaths on your farm!" Mario said, recalling the fight he had gotten into earlier. "Huh?" said Applebloom, with a confused look on her face. After racking her mind for a minute, she said "Oh, that’s just Diamond Tiara. Don’t worry about anything she might have said, her bark is worse than her bite. Now, put this bag on", indicating to the large bag on the floor. The yellow pony then grabbed the encyclopaedia from Mario's mouth and placed it in her bag. "Now take care you two" said Strudel, in the same scratchy voice he usually spoke with. The two said their goodbyes and began to walk down the trail towards Ponyville, with Applebloom enthusiastically running ahead, and Mario struggling to keep up. High above them, the purple pony that was at Discord's side saw the duo leave on their journey. "How did he manage to survive that fall?" she asked herself, as she floated in the air. Shaking her hooves in anger, she floated over the farm until she saw two unicorns further down the path. "Of course!" she thought, looking at the redheaded duo, "I'll enlist some help in eliminating them." Her smile spread wide across her face, as she began her flight over to her allies…