This strange world

by SwarmLordAbdonis

What the hell kind of name is Pinkie Pie?

When Craig had first gone over some of the details of Ponyville to the remaining members of the group, they weren't entirely sure what to expect, other than what they could see from standing outside the fairly sized town. They pretty much pictured it like every other town they had ever seen. Small, quiet yet full of all sorts of colourful characters. They were right in more than one way as they figured out themselves. Upon seeing the first actual lifeform of this strange and bizarre world, which happened to be a unicorn stepping out of what seemed to be some sort of jewellery shop, the gang couldn't help but stare, including Craig. He personally still had trouble believing that all of this was real, yet the evidence was presented right there before him. A real life pony in the cartoon flesh! Despite being the most prepared, the griffon was the last of the three to stop staring. Thankfully the unicorn had not noticed the extra attention and carried on with her day. Ash soon broke the silence.

"Holy... fuck." He near whispered.

"That's not something you see every day." Jason added in almost the exact same tone, not exactly realising at that moment that he was the exact same creature.

Craig quickly snapped back to his thoughts and cleared his throat. "Okay guys, let's perhaps stop staring before it gets creepy. You remember what we're here to do, right?"

Jason nodded while Ash shook his head, much to the annoyance of the other.

"Really Ash? We went over it thirty minutes ago!" Jason snapped.

"Come on man, you know me. I'm a talker, not a listener."

"We're here to find out any information that may list or hint how we ended up in this world and through that, a way we may be able to escape. We also need to check on the most recent major events so that I can establish what season of the show we're in." Craig pointed out quietly.

"For Mike, yeah?"

"Well that and each season had its own dangers so if we can figure out 'when' we are then I may be able to predict and steer us round the more serious events so that we don't get caught up in them."

"Right, got it. Mostly."

"Come on then, let's get moving before-"

"GAAAAAASSSSSSP! OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH!" Somepony quickly and suddenly yelled out not so far away, making the three jump. Whoever it was seemed to have a sweet, if not loud voice. Upon seeking the sudden commotion all three creatures found themselves staring at a pink mare with an even pinker mane and tail staring at them with a smile so large it covered most of her face. The enormous blue eyes covered the rest. As they stared in worry, neither the green unicorn or the blue dragon noticed as their red griffon friend mouthed the words 'aw shit'. This... pony, who was standing perhaps more than thirty feet away from the group wasted no time in running over at an unnaturally fast pace until she was right in their faces. Normally the group would have said something at this point, especially Ash who would have probably made a comment about personal space, but none of them could. The sudden interaction mixed with the insane speed of this pink thing had caught them all off guard. Instead, they waited for the mare to speak.

"You wouldn't happen to be new here, would you...?" She asked in a suspicious yet playful manner. Craig, knowing all too well who this was and what she would do was about to explain that they were just passing through, least until Ash collected himself and spoke first.

"What gave it away? The fact that we're the only non-pony creatures out and about?" He challenged, ignoring the griffon as he furiously shook his head and signalled for him to shut up, but it was too late. The damage was done. Right away the mare beamed happily yet again, emitting a short yet loud 'EEEEE' noise before running off, leaving the group in a cloud of dust. After a small coughing fit, they collected themselves.

"Uh... What the fuck just happened?" Jason asked after a brief pause.

"Riiight…" Craig painfully smiled. "... So, turns out I may have forgotten about one small thing."

"Oh really Craig?" The dragon hissed. "Did it by any chance have something to do with the pony on cocaine we just met? Just a hunch! Correct me if I'm wrong, please."

The griffon sighed. "Her name's Pinkie Pie. Shes-"

"Pinkie pie? What the hell kind of name is Pinkie Pie? That's rather on the nose. Do all ponies have such ridiculous names?" Ash then pointed to a green pony. "Oh oh, hold on, let me guess! That one's name is greeny sundae, isn't it?" He mocked with a smile.

"Actually that's lyra Heartst-"

"Craig?" Jason cut in. "Let's just cut to the chase here. Is she going to be a problem for us?"

"Oh no she won't. At least not intentionally. Although now thanks to Ash and his fat trap it won't be the last we'll see of her either."

"Eh, don't worry about it. If she tries anything I can always just set her tail on fire. Hell, I might do that anyway. Could you imagine how funny that would be?"

"Dude, that's kind of fucked up." Jason cringed.

"Come on, just think about it for a few seconds, you won't regret it." Ash pushed on.

"No!"

"Pft. Your loss dude."

"Craig, which direction are we heading anyway?"

"The other end of the town. If my hunch is correct, reaching it should give me all the information we need."

Craig urged the group to keep on moving right away, despite their commotion on the town. Craig would have thought that scouting out the area would have been far more important to focus on the task at hand rather than merely gawk at the scenery, no matter how bright and colourful it may have been compared to the dullness of earth. Something that Ash did anyway and occasionally brought up every minute or so, complaining about it over and over again, with Jason actually agreeing saying that everything looked as though his eyes had been dipped in sugar. As the two moaned and groaned, Craig sighed. He was sure that Jack and Mike didn't have to worry about arguing over something so pointless and pathetic.

././././././././././././.

"Really!? Again? There's no way you're not cheating at this game!" Mike snapped at a calm and amused Jack.

"Oh really? Then tell me Mike, how exactly does one cheat at noughts and crosses?"

"You tell me! You obviously found a way to! Seriously, how have I not won a single game yet?"

"Maybe because you have no strategy."

"Strategy? It's a game where you draw O's and X's! Who the hell is sad enough to come up with a strategy for something so simple?!"

"What, sadder than loosing fourteen games in a row?"

"Oh my god... At least Craig and the others don't have to put up with this bullshit..."

././././././././././././.

Then again, he could be wrong. Jack and Mike were usually great friends, but boy do they like to annoy the hell out of each other every now and then. Thankfully the walk to the other side of town only took them nearly fifteen minutes, though for the poor griffon it felt like so much longer thanks to his companions still pointing and complaining about every single thing they could find. However his aching ears turned out to be worth it as he looked past the edge of town to find what he had hoped to find. An enormous purple and golden castle with an interesting design. It looked as though it was being held up by an equally enormous crystal tree. However it was more the building slightly to the right of it that put many of Craig's fears to rest This one looked to be partially merged with the hills that sat behind it, while several streams of water shot down from a handful of the buildings sections and into a stream which surrounded the front of it. While there looked to be several entrances, the most noticeable and unique one was a pathway that parted the stream and led to the main door.

"Well, at least we've got something to be happy about." Craig said to himself, loudly enough for the others to hear him.

"Yeah, I guess we found the castle but... now what?" Jason added. "From the looks of it, someone very important lives there. Probably the ruler of the town. Should we just... knock on the door, introduce ourselves and hope they're in?"

Craig shook his head sternly. "No, that's the last thing we want to do."

"Why? Couldn't they help us out?"

"Let me put it for you this way Jason." Ash spoke up, apparently siding with Craig. "Say we do it your way, we knock on the door and just ask the mayor-"

"Princess."

"Tomato tomatoh! Point is, what do you think they're going to do? Just openly agree to help us after we inform them that we're from another world or universe or dimension or whatever the fuck this place is? We'll be lucky if they don't lock us up for sounding insane!"

Jason slowly turned to Craig. "Will they?"

"I'll admit a lot of weird shit happens from time to time here. However saying we're from another universe will most likely be a stretch too far. For now we keep that information to ourselves unless we have no choice."

The dragon and unicorn both nodded.

"Now our next step is to head back to the others and inform them that they're in the clear."

"Because we saw a random castle?" Ash deadpanned.

"Well technically it's because of the school. I'll explain once we get back to the others. Come on."

The three did not wait around to head back to the rest of the group. They passed through the town a second time, thankfully without being suddenly harassed by a crazy pink pony, though Craig kept his eyes out just to be on the safe side. Still, he managed to keep handing out plenty of tips about Ponyville and even its history, just in case of the extremely rare possibility that somepony happened to stop and bring something up about it. The griffon was not taking any chances. He had forgotten about Pinkie Pie funnily enough so it was up to him to make sure that they weren't caught off-guard a second time. Once they were finally out and away from the town it took them a long forty five minutes before they met back up with their changeling and yak friends. Only, there was one minor complication upon seeing them, or rather upon seeing Jack. For some strange reason he had a small pink rectangular piece of paper impaled on one of his horns.

"The hell happened to you guys?" Jason asked.

The two looked at each other. Mike nodded and Jack turned back to the group.

"We're not entirely sure but... I think we got attacked by a pony made of cotton candy."

Craig paled a little.

"Well, not exactly attacked... but more like she just appeared out of nowhere and stuck one of these on our horns." Mike corrected showing off another pink piece of paper, which Ash took and silently read.

"Why does Jack still have one on his horn?" Jason couldn't help but ask.

"Because my legs are too short to reach my face and SOMEONE is too sore a loser to do it for me!" Jack glared at Mike who merely stuck out his tongue at the yak.

"What does it say Ash?" Craig asked, ignoring the others as they bickered.

"This is going to sound weird but... it seems like we've been invited to a party...?" Ash's face screwed up into a confused stare.

"Craig? Any idea what this is about?" Jack turned to the griffon who nodded reluctantly. It seemed that the castle would have to wait just a bit longer.

"I do. You lot might want to sit down. This is going to take a while to explain..."

Comments

[Sozmioi]

> However saying we're from another universe will most likely be a stretch too far.

Why? She's BEEN to a different universe. She'd even know what humans are. Unless you're concerned that EQG isn't canon…

Dude. You're making this much harder than it needs to be.