The surrounding greenery of the Equestrian landscape whizzed by as Thomas flew along the rails. The wind felt great against his face, and he relished in the click clacking of his wheels against the rails; even though it hadn’t been more than an hour or so since he was roped into Aza’s game, he’d sorely missed the feeling of bliss resulting from a good run.
Inside his cab, Samus and Pikachu were working hard keeping his fire lit and systems in order. He had to say, they were doing a splendid job despite having no prior experience working with trains. But he was just a simple tank engine, working hard to always be really useful; the talents and capabilities of a bounty huntress from space and an electrical mouse were far beyond his comprehension.
Thomas felt Samus reduce steam and apply his brakes as they neared Ponyville, allowing him to come to a perfect stop just short of the platform for Ponyville Station. Such a mistake would normally infuriate him, but right now, he knew, there were bigger concerns to be addressed.
Samus and Pikachu hopped out of his cab, coming around in front so he could see them.
“Thank you very much,” he said, looking between both of them. “A good run always does wonders for my wheels.”
“Pika-pikachu!” Pikachu said with a smile.
“Happy to help,” Samus followed up. “Are you okay with us leaving your fire running? We might need to get moving very quickly and can’t afford to waste time trying to build it up again.”
“It’s okay,” Thomas replied. “It’ll go out eventually, though, so don’t take too long.”
“Understood.” Samus turned and began walking toward Ponyville, Pikachu following right alongside her. “Ryuk’s definitely at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Pika-pi.”
The two made their way across Ponyville, eyes peeled for any sign of Ryuk or otherwise anything strange and out of place. In particular, Pikachu kept his ears peeled for any seismic vibrations that would indicate the presence of the worm monster that was still around Ponyville when the group left it. Whether his electric attacks would have any effect on it, he didn’t know, but he could always resort to Iron Tail if they didn’t. And Samus had already taken out one of the worm monsters herself, so there wasn’t any need to worry about it making them its next meal.
When they finally reached Sweet Apple Acres, the two were surprised to see Ryuk standing outside the Apple family’s house, looking through a window. Confused, they made their way over to him. He turned around as they approached, having heard their footsteps, but didn’t say anything to them.
“Ryuk, what are you doing?” Samus asked.
Ryuk turned back to the window, looking inside for a moment before stepping aside and beckoning them over. Samus and Pikachu came up and peered inside, the latter hopping up onto the windowsill. Both of them reeled back a little by what they saw inside, before their expressions turned to a mix of curiosity and apprehension.
There were three gray bipedal creatures moving around inside the Apple family’s kitchen, using their extended tongues to swipe every surface, possibly searching for food. Since they lacked any eyes, that meant they had to rely on another sense to find their prey, Samus deduced.
“What are those things?” she asked. “... They kinda look like that worm monster from before.”
Ryuk shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that they ate up every single apple in the orchard, and they haven’t noticed me at all.”
Pikachu pressed his face up against the glass, studying the creatures. “Pika-chuuuu.”
At that moment, one of the creatures turned his head toward the window, almost as if in response to Pikachu. The three of them then watched as the top part of the creature’s head opened up, revealing its gory insides. It stayed like that for a moment, before retracting its skin and opening its mouth, letting loose a shrieking wail that even the window was unable to block the full intensity of.
Pikachu and Ryuk covered their ears, while Samus turned off her suit’s speaker system, in an attempt to keep their eardrums from exploding. They saw the other two creatures joining their brethren, before adding to its cacophony of sound with their own shrieks.
The creatures finally stopped after a few moments, only to immediately charge for the window.
“Out of the way!” Samus shouted, diving away from the window.
Pikachu and Ryuk followed suit just before the first creature crashed through the window. It landed on the ground straight up, heedless of having just crashed through a window, and turned around, quickly finding the group and charging straight toward Samus.
Recovering from her dive, Samus aimed her arm cannon at the creature and fired off three shots. They all hit the creature dead on the snout, to which it fell over, dead. Soon after, the second creature hopped through the window, and immediately charged Pikachu.
Pikachu responded by unleashing a devastating thunderbolt, screaming at the top of his lungs as it sailed through the air, before striking the second creature dead on. The creature let out a howl of agony as the electricity coursed through its body, before it slumped over, dead.
The third creature followed soon after, only to immediately be silenced by a second round of fire from Samus’ arm cannon.
And then they heard it; more shrieking, coming from the orchard. It started low and soft, but quickly grew in volume as it got closer. The three turned around, and Samus and Pikachu turned white at the sight of at least a couple hundred more creatures charging across the Apple family’s property right at them.
“... We’re going, now.”
“Pika-pi!”
“Sure.”
The horde of creatures was just past the front gate now, fast approaching them. Samus took a moment to put her Speed Booster online before saying, “Everyone cling onto me.”
Pikachu quickly hopped up onto Samus’ shoulder, wrapping its tail around her arm and using its digits to grab her shoulder pad. Ryuk, hesitant at first, quickly followed suit by wrapping his clawed hands around Samus’ midsection. The huntress was surprised by how light the shinigami was, but that would only make what she was about to do easier.
“Hold on tight, you two,” she said.
She shot across the farm in a flash of yellow light, straight past the oncoming horde. The front gate crashed apart from her impact, scattering wood pieces everywhere, and she continued her streak through Ponyville, whizzing through town at breakneck speed.
She arrived at the train platform in little more than a few seconds. Thomas had fallen asleep during their investigation, but the force of wind generated from Samus’ sudden halt managed to wake him up. He gave the group a tired smile upon seeing them unharmed, and with Ryuk in tow.
“Hello,” Thomas said, cheerily, coming out of his sleepy daze. “Wait, why are you two gripping Samus like that?”
Ryuk and Pikachu let go of the huntress, shaking off the resulting dizziness from Samus’ dash, and quickly scurried into Thomas’ cab. “We need to go. Now,” Samus replied, following behind them.
“Did something happen?” Thomas asked.
“Yes. There’s a horde of monsters coming this way.” While Pikachu used his tail to begin shoveling coal into Thomas’ firebox, Samus began prepping Thomas to make another, hopefully much faster, run. “We need to get moving before they come here.”
Thomas was about to ask what she meant by ‘monsters’ when a small gray blur appeared beyond Ponyville. That gray blur was accompanied by a sound ten times worse than when Gordon’s whistle jammed, steadily increasing in volume as the gray blur became a horde, and Thomas could make out the bipedal creatures charging across Ponyville towards them.
“What the bunker are those?” he asked.
His question went unanswered, as Samus finally pulled the throttle lever, and Thomas began moving backwards. Slow at first, his speed picked up as more steam began building. Thomas’ wheels pounded the rails as the creature horde gradually grew distant, eventually fading out of sight between the surrounding forests’ trees.
Ryuk stuck his head out the side window. “Looks like we lost ‘em.”
“Pika-pikachu,” Pikachu sighed with relief as he shoveled another lump of coal into Thomas’ firebox.
“They know which way we’re going, though,” Samus said, leaning against the cab, idly inspecting the various valves and gauges. “I doubt it’ll be very long before they find the clearing where everyone is.”
Pikachu tilted his head. “Pi-pi-pikachu?”
The context wasn’t lost on Samus. She took a moment to remove her helmet, before casting a hard stare at both Pikachu and Ryuk. With a hard voice, she said, “This just might be our toughest challenge yet.”
Following Twilight’s retreat to the surrounding woods for some alone time, a thick silence descended upon the clearing. While everyone else continued to stare in the direction Twilight had gone, Kirby had woken up and was curiously inspecting the can of Monster Blood now laying on its side on the ground. The lid had come slightly undone, and a little of the slimy green substance within had leaked out. It didn’t look very tasty, he decided, so he pushed the can away. It proceeded to roll across the rock before falling on the other side, right next to Palutena’s cage, which still held the amphibious monster from the nearby lake.
At last, the silence was broken by the pharaoh speaking up, drawing everyone’s attention. “I have a question, Aza.”
Aza’s puppet turned to him. ”What might that be, Spirit of the Nameless Pharaoh?”
“You said the purpose of this experiment was to see if beings from across the multiverse could get along and cooperate.” He gestured to everyone. “After everything we’ve been through, have we not already proven ourselves capable of that? Why are we still here, then? Or is there another reason why you’re gathering us all here?”
Everyone’s collective reaction to the pharaoh’s question was one of surprise. After thinking it over for a few seconds, however, they all realized that, indeed, the pharaoh had made a very strong point. Surely, there wasn’t any reason to keep them all together any longer, so Aza had to have a second reason for continuing with its experiment.
They all turned their attention to Aza’s puppet, which floated in place, unmoving. Aza was probably stunned by the pharaoh’s accusation, they all reasoned.
Eventually, Aza let out a light chuckle. “Of course the King of Games would have the logical prowess to come to that conclusion.” There was a brief moment of silence. “Well, Twilight would too, I suppose.”
“So, why are you still keeping everyone here, then?” Palutena asked.
”The main reason why I’m doing this is because I want to see how well you all can get along. But…” Aza trailed off. Everyone waited patiently for it to continue, theories flying through their heads as to what the other reason was. But a sentient universe could only have so many motivations, being the highest form of omnipotence, they all thought. Whatever Aza’s other reason was, they were more interested in hearing what it could be than in being angry at Aza for continuing to keep them all there because of it.
Finally, Aza continued. “... Another part of me believes it’s my destiny to do so.”
Everyone stared, blankly. They blinked, unsure how to accept Aza’s answer. It was its destiny to do so? Sentient universes believed in such abstract concepts? Their confusion slowly turned to annoyance, collectively deciding Aza’s answer was stupid.
”I can see you’re not taking my answer very well,” Aza said, apparently having read their expressions. ”But it’s the truth. Like you, Nameless Pharaoh, my memories are non-existent, but I have this inexplicable feeling that I’m supposed to bring together peoples from across the multiverse. To what end, I don’t know, but it’s not like I have many other ways of biding my time.”
Finally, James spoke up. “Admittedly, I’ve never bothered to study up on such fantastical subjects before in my life, but I do know this: to have a preset destiny indicates the existence of a higher power.” He arched a brow. “What higher power could there be than a sentient universe?”
“Yeah, he’s right!” Pit said, pointing his bow at Aza’s puppet accusingly. “That’s ridiculous!”
”I will admit you have a good point there,” Aza replied, calmly. ”Regardless, the fact of the matter is that you’re not going anywhere unless I decide so.”
Everyone narrowed their eyes at it, but said nothing else.
”Anything else you wanted to know?”
The pharaoh shook his head.
”In that case, I suggest you make your way to the train tracks, ‘cause they’re coming back with some important news.”
Everyone shared a curious look at that, before they began making their way toward the treeline, beyond which lay the tracks. Some of them thought about fetching Twilight, but decided against it, sure that she’d heard Aza for herself. Palutena also thought about bringing the creature along with her, but decided it might be better to leave it so she could concentrate on keeping everyone else safe should trouble be coming.
The group made their way through the forest and to the tracks just as Thomas came into view from around a bend down the line. The blue tank engine continued down the line before coming to a slow, controlled stop just past the group. Everyone took notice of Thomas’ anxious expression, before switching to Pikachu, Samus, and Ryuk, with the latter two’s expressions being unreadable. Pikachu’s own, however, held deep concern behind his red-faced exhaustion, adding to his already red cheeks; the former no doubt resulting from a heavy workload acting as Thomas’ fireman.
“We have another problem,” Samus said, stepping up to the group. She pointed down the line. “We got company coming this way.”
“What kind of company?” Palutena asked.
“They look like miniature versions of that worm monster from before,” Ryuk said. “Except they’re above ground, there’s an entire army of them, and they’ve got one hell of an appetite; they ate up every last apple from the trees at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“You think they’re somehow related to the worm?” James asked.
Samus shrugged. “Maybe, unless Aza’s to blame.” Everyone turned to look up.
”I’m not telling!” Aza sing-songed.
“In any case,” Palutena said, completely unresponsive to Aza’s reply; a notion that everyone else followed, “if these creatures are hostile, we’ll need a battle plan for when they get here.”
“I can help with that,” came a familiar voice from behind the group.
Everyone turned to see Twilight Sparkle stepping from the tree line. Every hint of her previous sorrow was gone, her face now brimming with confidence and iron-clad resolve. She stepped up to the group, casting her gaze at the four who’d just returned. “How many are there, specifically?” she asked.
Ryuk shrugged. “At least two hundred,” he said. “But what does it matter how many there are? They’ve got us outnumbered by at least ten to one.”
“It matters a lot as far as strategy is concerned,” Twilight replied, sounding a little indignant. ”I’ve read up a lot on military strategy, and numbers are a huge factor to consider when planning a counterattack.”
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Twilight?” The pharaoh asked her.
Twilight nodded. “Celestia was right; we’ll all be just fine as long as we work together.” She cast a heartfelt glance at everyone. “So I need to do my part to help.”
Everyone nodded their agreement.
“With that settled…” Palutena beckoned everyone to crowd around her, which they did. She knelt down and, using the end of her staff, began drawing a diagram in the dirt. “Here’s what I have in mind…”
Yeah, you do that, everyone. You’re gonna need all of your combined brainpower to fight back against that Shrieker horde.
… It sure took them a long time to question why I’m still bringing them all together. Nothing to be said about it, though. I'd go insane from boredom if I wasn't doing this.
... Why do I exist?