Celestia's sun was rising over Ponyville, warm rays spilling into every window. Miles away, in some ancient ruins located in a dense jungle, a long mouth filled with sharp teeth grinned. The large head covered in blue fur turned to his irate captive, who was tied to a sandstone column.
"You'll never get away with this!" Her brave voiced echoed across the chamber.
"Ahhh, but you see, Miss Do, I already have..." The figure laughed maniacally, yellow eyes flashing in the morning sun.
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Back in Ponyville, Fanta was brushing her teeth. She had been through a hectic few days and was hoping to get some time alone today. She decided to stay indoors, peeking out of her window to see what the morning was like outside. She raised an eyebrow at the crowd of ponies down the street. There was something... off about them. Something out of place. She didn't remember any parades being scheduled this time of year, so it must be a public announcement or something. She squinted and realised what every pony in the crowd had in common: they all had really poofy manes.
Mane trends were commonplace in Ponyville, but seeing everypony have the same poofy manestyle as Pinkie was unnerving. Fanta, however, preferred her own hectic and dishevelled manestyle(she liked to call it rugged). She groaned, downing the last of her coffee and stepping outside. Her curiosity was too much to fight against. She wanted to know what was going on with the crowd.
Trotting down the street, she slowed down upon nearing the crowd. Close up, they weren't acting like normal ponies. Their eyes were glazed over and their heads and ears kept twitching, as if scanning for something. As soon as Fanta drew close, their heads snapped around and locked onto her. Fanta was not comfortable near crowds and around a hundred ponies staring intently at her was much, much worse. The really scary part was when they hissed and started chasing her, shoulders chugging like pistons on a train. Turning tail, Fanta fled back to her house, slamming and locking the door behind her. What was going on? She could feel the ponies outside scratching at her door with their hooves and wailing loudly. The noise was deafening, impeding her thought processes.
"Okay... Everypony is trying to get me, they're all mad, and I apparently can't get a break." She grumped, then yelled in surprise as a mare leapt through the kitchen window, glass flying everywhere. The mare seemed unhurt and ran at Fanta as soon as she got her bearings. Her approach was abruptly discontinued as a white hoof clocked her in the side of the head, sending her spiralling into the kitchen table. Fanta grinned to herself, checking the mare was unconscious. She sighed when she heard another pony creeping up behind her. Thinking fast, she grabbed a nearby chair.
"Take a seat!" She yelled, the chair sailing straight into Big Mac's face and knocking him on his backside. Fanta decided it was time to exercise the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat upstairs. Pushing a chest of drawers to the top step, she peeked around it to see two ponies in pursuit.
"Sorry guys, this one is gonna hurt." She gave the heavy piece of furniture a solid shove, sending it tumbling down her stairway, colliding with the two unfortunate ponies and ushering them back to the bottom of the steps with an almighty CRASH.
Nodding with satisfaction, Fanta fled to her bedroom and shut and locked the door. Opening the window and clambering out, she got a firm grip on the gutter pipe and crawled up onto the roof. She carefully peeked over the edge of her thatched roof, just in time to see the poofy-maned ponies all climbing through the broken window. She sighed and looked up at the sky. Strange things had happened in Ponyville before, but this was certainly the strangest... Maybe aside from Discord's momentary reign. And the evil black vines. And-
Her train of thought was interrupted as she heard a hissing noise behind her. Spinning around, Fanta only just registered the minty green unicorn before she was tackled and sent tumbling off the roof. She frantically bucked the mare away from her and hit the ground rolling. Shaky and bruised, she took off down the street at a gallop.
"Quick - in here!" An open door with a friendly face was suddenly visible and Fanta lost no time in diving through the doorway before it closed. Panting softly, she looked up at her new surroundings.
The walls were a light blue, with pictures of really, really cute cats all over them. The furniture looked comfortable, and there was a large desk with books and scrolls piled high.
"Are you alright, Miss?" Fanta turned to look at her saviour, a blue Pegasus mare with a mane in black and yellow stripes, a pair of thin-rimmed glasses, and a grey scarf wrapped tightly around her neck. Her cutie mark was a bright red heart with a black feather on top.
"What's your name?" Fanta regarded the mare carefully.
"It's Fanta. Fanta Shock. And you?" The pegaus grinned and held out a hoof.
"Snuggle Feather, pleased to meet you, Fanta!" Fanta had to fight the sickening feeling in her throat. She'd heard some sickeningly sweet names in her life, but this one was extra... Lovely. Ugh. Why couldn't everyone have a cool name like her? She put on her friendliest smile and shook Feather's hoof.
"Yay! Now we're friends!" Fanta's heart sank as Feather adjusted her glasses. "Ooooo, you have an eyepatch!" Fanta sighed.
"Yes, don't touch it. Shouldn't we be more worried about the zombie apocalypse happening outside?" Snuggle blinked and nodded.
"Yes, yes. I'll explain what's going on." Fanta's attention was suddenly on the Pegasus. What did she know? Was she behind the whole thing?
"It's cats!"
Yeah, okay. She's innocent.
Fanta groaned and prompted Feather to explain further. She invited Fanta to look at her desk. It was probably a nice desk, but it was currently buried under books, scrolls, and cat photos. Feather pushed everything onto the floor and picked through the mess to find some select documents and objects.
"Before we start, would you like some tea? Coffee, maybe?" Feather seemed like a good hostess.
"Coffee will be fine, thanks." Fanta could feel a headache coming on. Today had been too much already. As Feather zipped off to the kitchen, Fanta looked through the documents on the desk. A map, some cat encyclopaedias, and a photo frame. Looking closer, Fanta could make out Feather, along with a blue-green unicorn mare with a hot pink mane. Before she could ponder this further, Feather returned with a tray laden with small cakes and cups of hot liquid.
After some cake, Feather explained everything she knew to Fanta.
"You've noticed how everypony in town is wearing a poofy manestyle? Well, they're hiding cats in their manes. Hey, no need for that look! Legend tells of some really smart cats who can telepathically affect ponies to do their bidding. It was believed they had all been banished to another dimension, but apparently not. And now, they're latched onto the heads of everypony in Ponyville!" Fanta mulled this over.
"Why isn't Sunlight Twinkle among the... controlled?"
Feather giggled. "You mean Twilight Sparkle? She and her friends went to Canterlot for a few days, something about a birthday?" She shrugged and sipped her tea.
"Anyway, the mind-cats have a drawback - they need someone to follow. They may be intelligent, but if they aren't receiving orders telepathically then they lose all focus and will flee until united again."
"So they become a bunch of scaredy cats? Sounds easy enough. Who's in control?"
"Well..." Feather tapped her chin. "I have a theory. Since no ordinary pony is capable of telepathic communication, you'd need to be a princess or something to control them. And since it's definitely not the princesses that leaves the 'bad guys'. And the one most obsessed with cats is…?" Fanta was still trying to compute all of this. After five minutes, Feather got bored.
"Ahuizotl! The evil mastermind in the Daring Do books?" Feather lit up as she said this. "I can tell you all about- mmmph!" She mumbled in protest through Fanta's hoof.
"I really don't need to know about your book. Just tell me where this... Cheese Burrito is, and I'll be on my way." Fanta seemed to put her hoof in people's mouths a lot. Maybe she should carry a pacifier around with her, instead.
"Cheese... Burrito...? Ohh, you mean Ahuizotl! He's in the ancient jungle, through the Badlands."
Fanta groaned. She'd heard of the Badlands, a wilderness where no friendly life grew. Strange things happened there, and explorers who went in search of adventure rarely came back. If they did somehow make it back, they would be hospitalised in the crazy ward, screaming out stories of vast metal boats and otherworldly creatures that would tell them of the end of all things. She had always actively avoided it, hoping to keep what little remains of sanity she had.
"Errr... What other routes are there?" She grinned nervously and Feather checked the map.
"Well, we could go through the swamp! It's a little longer, but probably won't kill us. We could even check out the survival training camp!" Fanta raised an eyebrow at this. "There's even a program for colts and fillies, they've built a big campus in the middle of the swamp to teach the younger generation survival techniques!" Feather looked through some news reports located on the floor. "Wow, attendance rates from the foals is pretty high this year..."
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A few days later, Fanta and Feather stood on the border to the Badlands. They were wearing saddlebags, as well as larger packs on their backs, and wide-rimmed sunhats. No way was Fanta going near kids, if she could help it.
"Fantaaaaaaa. Why did I have to coooommmee?" Feather had whined most of the way here before being threatened with a hoof. The rest of the trip, she had been silently pouting. Getting out of Ponyville had been easy, turns out that the mind-cats still love giant piles of catnip, which Feather had an abundance of. Thankfully, no other towns between the Badlands and Ponyville had been invaded by the telepathic equines, and getting travelling supplies for their venture across the wilderness had been pretty easy.
"Because you're the only cat fanatic- I mean, expert that I know of! Err, you're going to be super helpful and help me defeat Cheese Toastie!" Fanta nodded with an air of finality.
"Ahuizotl, y'mean." Feather stifled a giggle.
"Oh- just shush and come on." They started their trek across the barren wasteland.
"Fanta?"
"Yes, Feather?"
"I have to go potty."
"......"
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Miles away, under the warm canopy of jungle, Ahuizotl was staring into space. Daring had been watching him for some time, and still couldn't figure out what he was up to.
"Ahuizotl, what the hay are you doing?" The ancient beast blinked and turned to look at her.
"Miss Do, I am conversing with my minions. I require... Silence." With a distinctly evil giggle, he looked away.
"Oh? How? And why would you need minions? Are you getting weaker, dear?" Daring's favourite taunting voice seeped into Ahuizotl's ears and he growled.
"Fine, since you aren't going anywhere ever, I may as well explain. I-" A sudden, immense presence filled the throne room, and Ahuizotl's words caught in his throat. Daring frantically looked around, her bonds preventing her from fleeing. She spied a pair of pure white eyes glowing from the shadow of the main doorway.
"Now, Ahuizotl. Maybe you should keep your mouth closed, if you like remaining on this plane of existence." An eerily warm, smooth voice came from the shadow. "We wouldn't want to spill any secrets now, would we? Your previous plans always went up in flames - it would be a shame if you had to as well." Ahuizotl nodded. His posture was like that of a child who had been caught committing the most terrible of crimes. From where she was restrained, Daring could see him shaking. The eyes disappeared, and the atmosphere in the room lifted slightly, silence taking its place. Daring could not speak. Ahuizotl resumed staring into space, his paws sweaty from fear.