Operation S.T.A.R.T.I.N.G (Part 2)
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Apple Bloom’s head was ringing. This was not the mere ringing of a little dinner bell, or a cowbell, or even the bell over at the school. No. This was the ringing of the bell that brought forth the apocalypse. The bell whose echoes reverberated in the corners of the deepest fathoms of the universe. The ultimate symbol of the end of days. In short, her head hurt. A lot.
The simple act of opening her eyes was a laborious struggle as her face simply did not want to cooperate. Eventually they relented and allowed her a crack to peer into the world outside her eyelids. The first thing she saw were the golden eyes of a purple unicorn. She recognized the pony vaguely. She knew she was her classmate but she couldn’t put her hoof on a name. The pony moved her mouth and ran off yet she could hear no words. She figured her ears still weren’t working.
A moment later the filly returned with a strange brown bar wrapped in foil. She waved it front of what Apple Bloom assumed was her nose in an attempt to help… Her senses were beginning to sense once again as her sight and hearing returned to focus.
Little Dinky scrambled to her hooves and grabbed a candy bar from the nearby first aid kit and began to waft its sweet aroma towards her incapacitated leader.
Apple Bloom’s ears twitched as her blinking quickened. She released a slight groan as her body started to move once more. She felt different somehow. Stronger, leaner and more quick-witted. She started to wonder how long she’d been out and how much had-
“Numbuh 1!” shouted Dinky as she scooped Apple Bloom into a surprisingly strong bear hug.
“Uhhh,” began Apple Bloom.
“Oh thank goodness.” Dinky released her leader and brushed off her shoulders a bit before smiling right at her. “For a second there I thought you’d been cutied or something, but nope! Flank’s still as blank as ever!”
Apple Bloom frowned. She didn’t have to rub it it. Spelunking may not have been her special talent but that didn’t mean that… This was not Ponyville, not was it the cave or anywhere Apple Bloom recognized. It looked like they were in a carriage of some kind. A really big one, she noted, as she started to look around.
Dinky wasn’t the only pony there. There were other foals with them and from the looks of things, apparently packaging was the latest fashion trend. Beside her, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were still unconscious and were wearing a simpler version of the apparent box suit. She looked down and was shocked to find she herself was wearing something similar.
Her face scrunched up as the symphony of pain began their encore in her head. She turned around and found herself staring right into the sapphire eyes of the last pony she expected—or wanted—to see.
“And just what do you have to say for yourself, Numbuh 1?!”
The symphony of pain had caused a slight traffic jam along Apple Bloom’s thoughtways causing her to take an uncomfortably long while in recognizing just what exactly was the source of the shrill yelling. “D-diamond Tiara?” She hoped she was wrong.
The aforementioned rolled her eyes and groaned—though groaning with her voice produced a sound not unlike that of pulling the cord to start a motor boat. “Well congratulations! You’ve managed to say my name.”
“Wh-what’s going on?” she managed to say.
Without any effort whatsoever, Dinky knocked Diamond Tiara aside and looked into Apple Bloom’s disoriented, tangerine eyes. “Numbuh 1, are you okay?”
“Number wha’?” Apple Bloom did her best effort at twisting her face in confusion. “What chu talkin’ about?” She watched as Dinky’s eyes grew to uncomfortably large sizes.
“Oh no.” Her expression melted into a sherbet of despair, pain, confusion and worry. It tasted terrible. “Numbuh 1, do you know who I am?”
“Uhm.” Apple Bloom put on the best apologetic grin she could manage—she would find out later that it came off more as psychotic/disoriented. “You’re name is...Dinky, right?”
“Anything else?” she asked hopefully.
A few uncomfortable moments had begun to pile up and throw a rambunctious party before being cut-off by words emerging from Apple Bloom’s mouth. “Sorry.”
“It’s worse than I thought,” Numbuh 2 said as she turned to the seething 86. “You’ve gotta get us back to our sector now. Maybe seeing the old fort’ll help Numbuh 1.”
“Fine,” said Numbuh 86 as she gave a signaling sneer to the pilot. “As long as it gets you out of my mane.”
The three carriages redoubled their speed and went towards a town that sat neatly on the horizon. Behind them, the red-tinted rocks of the Equestrian badlands began to shrink away. They were unremarkable for the most part and possibly toxic as nopony really went near them. Of course, it had yet to be proven whether or not unremarkability truly was lethal. Considering the events that had just occurred there, it was likely that the theory would be shot down.
They were soon out of the badlands and were cruising neatly above green pastures and lush forests. They had passed the occasional cabin with a few ponies in them—all with cutie marks.
Apple Bloom had regained enough sense to approach the nearest window. Walking in her state was comparable to using ten-foot high stilts to ride a unicycle with marbles and beads scattered all over a buttered floor. She managed to smack her face on the nearest window. The next thing she did was involuntarily gape at the sight outside.
There was a massive tree whose leafy section alone was about as large as town hall and was supported by an appropriately large trunk. But what she found most fascinating was the presence of various other vehicles like boats and train cars embedded in the foliage all connected by wooden walkways and catwalks. She saw two other blank flank foals crossing one of the pathways conversing with each other. They were dressed much more sensibly than those on the carriage—that is to say, they weren’t.
“This is Sector D,” said Dinky. “Jogging any memories down there?”
Apple Bloom looked to her before shaking her head.
Dinky sighed before looking ahead at the approaching town. As they got closer, Apple Bloom began to recognize the familiar silhouette of her hometown, Ponyville. They began to approach the western borders wherein lie Sweet Apple Acres, the apple orchard that literally began the town and her home.
She squinted at a section in the north-west where a large figure loomed over. She could have sworn that that was where her tree...house...was.
Her eyes widened to the size of saucer plates. Then went on to becoming dinner plates and would have gone full serving platter had Dinky- Numbuh 2 not slapped her on the back of her head. She glared with relatively smaller eyes at the offending unicorn.
Dinky shrugged. “Sorry, you got me kinda worried with your eyes.”
Apple Bloom directed her eyes to something more important than glaring, namely rolling.
The hodge-podge of a flying carriage approached a pink painted and oversized wagon that jutted out of the tree. Inside of it was a large hangar with a number of strange looking ships landed and awaiting deployment., supply boxes stuffed with...candy? and gas tanks filled with...cheese?
Apple Bloom was starting to get a weird feeling in her gut about this place. It could just be she was hungry, though, she considered.
The carriage containing her and her friends hovered just above the deck and allowed for her to step off. Dinky and the grey pegasus foal—that she was certain was named ‘Grumble,’ probably due to the fact that he tended to do his namesake a lot—carried her two friends out before Diamond Tiara yelled some more.
Thankfully, just as the process was wearing thin on her already weary ears, Tiara harrumphed and yelled at the carriage crew to take off. In just a moment the cobbled carriage was gone. She saw the Dinky and Grumble carrying her two friends who were wearing similar battledress as the other fillies and colts. Considering this, she looked down and found herself wearing the same strange battle dress as well.
Her mind tried its darndest to piece together the events that led to this moment. She remembered getting up and being excited for something. Right. She and her friends were going to try yet another attempt at gaining their ever elusive Cutie Marks. After successfully sneaking her way into the Everfree she and her friends found the cave that was neatly marked on Applejack’s latest map of the area.
They began their spelunking when they got lost amongst its stony, labyrinthine walls just before they came across a—
The mirror.
Her eyes widened as the pieces snapped into place. Whatever that artifact was it must have been what brought her to this place. Her eyes widened as her knees felt themselves buckle once more under the stress and shock of realization. She swallowed a lump of despair and worry as she saw a last glimpse of her still unconscious friends as they were taken away by some of this world’s natives
Rationality, though, had decided to return to her thoughts as she took a calming breath. Now was definitely no time for something like panic. She had to act fast. There was no telling what other insanities lie in wait for them in this world. But the question now was who could they trust with their situation. From Dinky and Grumble’s point-of-views they had basically stolen the bodies of ponies close to them.
The next thing that came to her mind seemd like the most obvious: Applejack. The only problem was whether or not she would even believe her claims that she was a different Apple Bloom from another dimension. Still, a sister was a sister no matter the dimension, and considering what happened during the Cutie Pox incident, she’d likely go to Twilight for assistance who was much more likely to understand her situation. That meant that her only problem now was finding a way out of new titanic version of the crusader clubhouse.
She looked at the wall ahead of her which had five relatively similar wooden walkways with large numerals plastered above each. They ranged from ‘1’ to ‘5.’ The two other foals took her friends through hall number three. There was no helping them in her current state and judging from how they were talking about them, as long as Dinky and Grumble thought they were ‘Numbuh 3’ and ‘Numbuh 5,’ they’d be fine.
They had called her ‘Numbuh 1,’ and seeing as how there was no other way out of the hangar, she might as well walk the same path her doppleganger normally did.
She entered the hallway to find something quite surprising on the other side.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the treehouse, an orange pegasus and white unicorn were laid upon neighboring beds. A short ways away, a different unicorn and pegasus were discussing them.
“What do you think Princess did to them?” asked Rumble.
“No idea,” said Dinky. “But don’t you think it’s kinda weird that it was just the three of them that got affected? One moment, that creepy hand mirror flashes like some spotlight. the next Numbuh’s 1, 3, and 5 are unconscious.” She looked to him with raised brows. “Why them specifically?”
He shrugged in response “All I know is that we just got our flanks whooped. Bad.” He glanced momentarily at the sleeping fillies. “Shouldn’t we have brought Numbuh 1 in for a check-up too?”
Dinky nearly snorted. “Ha. The only pony who could ever get her to cooperate for something like that is Numbuh 3 and she’s pretty busy right now.”
“I guess. Knowing her, she’s probably really upset that Princess beat us.” He paused with his face scrunched up. “She must be taking it out on that gauntlet she set up in her hallway.”
“You ever think she takes this a bit too seriously? I mean, I get the whole preparedness thing, but I don’t think I’d like to pass some psycho obstacle course whenever I have to go to my room…”
“AHHHHHHHH!”
Apple Bloom jumped, then ducked, then sidestepped, then rolled, still completely surprised how her body managed to do all that within seconds of each other. Five steps into the hallway marked “1” she regretted her choice. It had shut and left her in pitch blackness for a moment before a wall of flame emerged behind her. Following her instincts, she ran away from the searing plasma, following the hall until a speck of light at the end grew larger and larger. Her hopes were shaken when she realized the light was coming from a hole that looked to be just her size in a guillotine-like contraption.
She took a breath and with suicidal confidence jumped. She made it through the hole relatively unscathed. Except, perhaps, for her jaw as it had immediately stretched to worrisome lengths as she saw what came next in the hallway of doom. At the very least, it had a clear end. The only problem were the lasers, weird swirly vortexes, moving saw blades, pool with vicious (jumping) piranha, giant clapping hooves, and banana peel that stood between her and it. She glanced back and found the tiny hole had sealed shut leaving the only way to her counterpart’s room the death trap.
“That’s it,” she said to herself. “Ah must be completely insane in this world.”
She looked around and tried to figure out a rational solution to this. Then she realized that rational thinking simply did not allow for such a place to exist. It was then that she decided to stop thinking for a moment. She wondered if she would live to regret that mental pause. Without question, her body, as if on autopilot, jumped straight into the fray. Driven by some internal need, with some help from muscle memory and absolute fear, she managed to dodge the lasers, endure the vortex, slide past the blades, punch the piranha, and evade the closing hooves. Sadly, she slipped on the banana peel.
She rubbed at her slightly sore flank as her eyes stared blankly in bewilderment. Her focuse shifted to her front limbs, then back limbs, hindquarters, barrel, neck and finally head. She was okay. Somehow she managed to survive that.
“Well, there’s that,” she said simply as she entered her counterparts room. Her jaw decided to perform another record stretch as she beheld what her counterpart did in her spare time. On one side of the room was an entire wall with all sorts of bizarre, yet oddly compelling, devices. On closer inspection, they looked like those blaster weapons she’d seen in various sci-fi movies. Other’s looked like ths swords and polearms that the Royal Guard in her dimension used. She didn’t even know what to make of the others, but she had a pretty good idea that they were all weapons of some type.
On the other side of the room was a giant computer not unlike the one in her Twilight’s basement. This one, though, had a giant screen in the center that proudly displayed the acronym of her and her friend’s club: CMC.
Curiosity beckoned her to it and she obliged it. She looked at the keyboard and pressed the big red button, feeling like it was the most obvious choice. Suddenly, an umbrella with its handle missing and being held by a thin metallic arm from the top popped from the top of the computer and opened up just above her head. Thick, green light came down upon her as words appeared on the screen.
A robotic, feminine voice spoke, “C.M.C. operative: Numbuh 1, Apple Bloom. Identity verified. Computer unlocking.”
The screen now displayed three folders: Operatives, Missions, Villains. Her eyebrows raised as she read the last one. Her hooves, once again guided by muscle memory, selected the third folder. What came up was a long list. She selected the first entry labeled, ‘Delightful Fillies From The Tree House.’
He jaw, it seemed, really wanted to limber up and was succeeding for it was merely centimeters away from the floor.
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Is it ironic that I started playing Operation V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E. today when this chapter was released?
Also, yes it is weird at times, but it's also damn awesome.
4345948 you know, Numbuh 86 and Seabreeze have a lot in common.
Just look closely at the both of them, see if you can find the similarities.
This feels like Operation P.O.O.L.. Hmm, the delightful children from down the lane should be Diamond Tiara, but I guess it could be some other obnoxious kids related to Numbuh 1... Babs Seed! Babs Seed is one of them! I cannot wait for the DCFDTL to speak in a thick Brooklyn accent.
4705760 Who knows where it will go from here? We'll just have to wait and see.
Also, I consider The Delightful Children and Father to be the Archvillains of the series. By that I mean, they've had the most episodes and the most screen time. Heck, the Delightful Children are even the final boss in Operation V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E.
4707791 Indeed. They also had several occassions where they came close to trimuphing over their enemies.
4705760 You are right in that one of the Delightful Fillies is related to Apple Bloom. But the relation is much closer than you think.
4712356
BIG MAC.
Wait, no. Applejack?
This is a cool concept. a wonderful collab between two of my favorite shows ever
OMG!! I THINK I KNOW HOW YOU GOT THIS IDEA!!!!!
