A Vignette of Equestrialand 2.0

by Draxonos135

#TestingTheories

Back where we left off, Vignette and Princess Twilight walked side by side, checking the surrounding stands at Equestrialand.

"So, what's Spike doing, by the way?" Vignette asked. "I noticed he didn't come with you and your friends."

"He stayed behind to help Starlight recover from her last visit here," Princess Twilight scratched her head. "She hasn't yet absorbed everything that happened."

"I guess I can see where she's coming from," Vignette shrugged. "I was very freaked out when I first went to Equestria. The fact I was basically naked and on all fours..."

"Let's not think about that," Princess Twilight waved her hand. "For now, let's keep looking around. Maybe we'll find a clue as to what's going on here."

"Or just have some fun showing you all the games and entertainment exclusive to the Human world."

"Eh..."

Vignette raised an eyebrow. "What's that "Eh..." supposed to mean?"

"I mean, don't get me wrong, Vignette, this world and Equestria share many differences that makes them both unique," Princess Twilight scratched her head. "But there are just many things in both worlds that stay the same, no matter what."

"Wait, are you implying Equestria has the same games and entertainment as the human world?"

"Most of them, yeah, but not all of them."

Vignette smiled. "Well, how about we go see which games in here are exactly the same as in Equestria?"

"Hmm... now that you mention it, both dimensions have similar things, but they're not supposed to be copies of each other. Therefore, if we check the games, and fail to find any that's unique to this dimension, we could take that as a sign that there's something more going on behind the scenes."

Vignette blinked twice. "Sure, let's assume that's the first thing that came to my mind-"

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Princess Twilight grabbed Vignette's hand. "Let's go!"

The princess dragged Vignette with her... or at least tried to: Vignette stood in place as she kept her arm in place. The princess tried to pull Vignette towards her, but no matter what she did, the woman stayed in place.

By contrast, when Vignette pulled her arm back, the princess was sent sliding forward, barely catching herself before she hit the ground.

"Hmm, from the looks of it, your arm strength isn't as strong as the average human," Vignette remarked. "And since you're from Equestria, where everybody's a Pony, maybe you have greater leg strength compared to humans?"

"One theory at a time, Vignette," Princess Twilight sighed. "Anyway, since I can't drag you, how about you lead the way?"

"Sure, we don't need to take a long trek anyway."

"We don't?"

Vignette pointed at a peculiar stand: one where a girl sat on top of a chair with a bullseye next to it, suspended on a pool of water.

"Well, I can tell you that we got that game on Equestria," Princess Twilight said as she and Vignette walked towards the pool. "They usually have a line of ponies waiting to play it, though."

"Hey, was this game just setup?" Vignette asked.

"No, I set it up over an hour ago," the person on the chair sighed. "But nobody even bats an eye at it."

Vignette hummed... and got an idea.

"Swap places with me, please."

The person raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and obliged, hopping off the chair while Vignette got on it.

And as soon as she sat down, a massive line formed in front of her, stunning everybody speechless...

---

If there was any positive about the situation, it was that Vignette wouldn't need to take a bath when she got home. The dunking gave her over a dozen baths for free.

"How... did you know that would happen?" Princess Twilight asked as Vignette shook off the water like a dog. "I mean, why would changing the person being dunked change anything?"

"It's simple, really: the point of the game is to dunk people in water," Vignette squeezed her hair dry, and shook it, causing it to take its original form. "And it's a lot more enticing when the person being dunked is someone people dislike."

Twilight frowned sympathetically. "Vignette-"

"But that's besides the point, let's keep going: this right here is... I don't really know what it's called, but you get on the cars and then try to ram into other people's cars."

Princess Twilight lowered her eyelids. "Yeah, we got that in Equestria too."

"Dang it!"

"But let's play a round anyway."

"Huh?"

"I wanna test a theory I got from the last game."

So, the princess and the vignette paid for a go at the cars, and as soon as they both sat on their seats, every other person began ramming themselves at Vignette's car, the woman barely having a time to breath before yet another car rammed into her.

---

After another game, Princess Twilight and Vignette sat at the ferris wheel, the latter overlooking all of the new Equestrialand while the former compiled all the information she had gathered this far.

"Okay, Vignette, I think I got something: what's the one thing all the games we've played before have in common?"

"They're all present in Equestria too?"

"Yeah, but besides that, every time you specifically play the game, everybody's attention is turned to you, and they start attacking you: everybody forming a line to dunk you in the water, every car ramming into yours repeatedly, you see where I'm going with this?"

"Yeah..."

Princess Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What are you looking at?"

The humanized pony turned to the window, and was completely entranced by what she saw: a clear view of Equestrialand, with a look at all the games, people playing the games, and even the city of Other-Questria in the horizon.

"Wow..."

"Yeah, sights like these have to be seen to be believed," Vignette sighed. "They're quite a spectacle, aren't they?"

Twilight smiled. "Yeah... they are..."

Vignette glanced at the princess' smile, and a hint of guilt appeared on her face as she spoke:

"Your Highness, there's something I'd like to ask you... about the Pony of Shadows."

Twilight's smile faltered. "What is it?"

"It... doesn't leave behind a piece of itself whenever it uses a host, right?"

Twilight's eyes widened, and she diverted her stare back to the window.

"Yeah, I figured you'd be speechless. Sorry I bring it up, but I honestly have been worried about that thing ever since it was sealed. The idea that even if it's sealed, that it could still have a presence on this world sends shivers down my spine faster than-"

"A rollercoaster!"

Vignette blinked twice. "Odd analogy, but Y.D.Y."

"No, Vignette! The rollercoaster!"

The woman turned to the side, and saw the massive rollercoaster at the edges of the park.

"Yeah, I can see it, what about it? I mean, I can tell you it's smaller than the previous one, but-"

"Vignette, the rollercoaster might be the final piece we need! I mean, every other game we played, people had the option to attack you!"

Vignette's eyes widened. "But in a rollercoaster there's no such option, people just sit down for a joy ride."

"If something happens or people attack you when you get on it, that confirms that there's something more going on here!"

"Something that's targetting me specifically!"

The princess and the woman high-fived while exclaiming in unison:

"That's it!"

---

Once the ferris wheel was done with, Vignette and the princess got in the line to wait for their turn, with the Rainbooms and their Equestrian counterparts standing nearby.

"Man, this stinks," Equestrian Rainbow Dash pouted. "Why do we have to wait here while Twilight and the rookie get to have fun?"

"Twilight already explained it, Rainbow Dash," Sunset said. "They're gonna test a theory, and if something happens that endangers people, we need to get ready to save as many of them as possible."

"I got that part," Applejack frowned. "But who's gonna help Vignette and the princess?"

"Twilight's a tough cookie t' crack," Equestrian Applejack said, patting her human self's back. "She'll save 'erself and Vignette ta first chance she gets!"

"I hope so..."

And so, Vignette and Twilight's turn came, and they got on the rollercoaster alongside several other people, a fact that worried the duo.

"We should've requested a ride just for ourselves," Twilight grimaced. "With all these other people here-"

"It's too late to change our minds, I'm afraid," Vignette grabbed the car's handle tightly. "Now we just gotta hope for the best."

And with those words spoken, the rollercoaster began to move. And for the first part of the ride, with the vehicle going up and up slowly but surely, nothing seemed out of the ordinary...

But then, Vignette and the princess heard something underneath then...

Something that the Rainbooms got to witness from below.

"Hey, are those screws..." Fluttershy shivered. "Coming loose?"

Sunset cracked her knuckles, a magical aura surrounding her. "Everybody get ready, this could get rough."

The rollercoaster slowed down as it reached the top... and once it did, several bolts flew off, the people screaming as their handles suddenly lifted, and they began to lose balance.

"W.T.T., the handles lifted?!" Vignette exclaimed.

"That's not all!" Princess Twilight added, looking back. "The rollercoaster's coming apart!"

And eventually, some people fell off, just as the rollercoaster began to speed down the disassembling mountain of metal.

"Now!"

The Rainbooms and their counterparts quickly got to work: the Fluttershies and Rainbow Dashes sprouted wings and caught people, the Rarities generated crystal shields to soften their falls, and the Applejacks, Pinkie Pies, and Sunset and Sci-Twi ran as fast as they could to the coaster, the former pairs summoning a trampoline while the latter two exclaimed:

"You gotta jump!"

"On a speeding vehicle!?" Princess Twilight exclaimed. "Are you crazy?!"

But before she could listen the reasons why this was so crazy, Vignette grabbed Princess Twilight's waist, lifted her with slight difficulty, and threw her at the trampoline, the car speeding as soon as the princess hit the ground.

"Vignette!"

The woman fell back on her seat as the car speed up, and when it encountered a rising spot, it went too fast and flew off the tracks, which kept disassembling as Vignette was thrown out of the car.

The Rainbow Dashes quickly began to fly towards the woman... until they saw something.

A faint light covering Vignette's body as she screamed, and a pair of appendages sprouting on her back.

Wings.

Without realizing it, Vignette began gliding, still screaming as she crash landed on a popcorn stand nearby.

"Hey, you just saw that, didn't you?" Rainbow Dash asked, her Equestrian counterpart quickly replying, "I saw something, that's for sure."

The winged humanoids flew to Vignette's crash spot, but when they arrived, Vignette was back to normal: no sign of wings anywhere.

"Ugh, my head," the woman groaned. "Oh hi, Rainbow... which one is Dash and which one is Dab again?"

"Dang it, the crash didn't hit her hard enough," Rainbow Dash groaned.

"Dude!"

"I'm sorry, okay?! I was just really hoping she'd forget that stupid nickname! Let's just help her get up already-"

"No, it's fine, I'm fine," Vignette said as she stood up. "Thanks for saving me."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't remember what you just did?"

"Throw Her Highness off the car, right?"

The Dashes exchanged raised eyebrows before Vignette bolted past them, quickly heading back to the rollercoaster to find the Rainbooms tending to the people they just saved.

"Is everybody okay?!" Vignette exclaimed as she ran to Sunset's side.

"Yeah, we managed to get everybody out before the rollercoaster collapsed!" Sunset stated as she faced Vignette. "And besides a little shock at what happened, nobody seems to be hurt."

"But it's rather strange, don't you think?" the Equestrian Pinkie Pie remarked. "Why would the rollercoaster just suddenly collapse?"

Vignette looked back at the mess of rubble and metal that used to be the rollercoaster, and as the princess walked to her side, she came to a conclusion:

"Whoever made this park wants me dead..."

Author's Note:

So sorry for taking so long to update this story again, but hey, you got a longer chapter out of the wait, so that's a good thing, right?

And yeah, Vignette did Ponify near the end. The first chapter was set in Equestria for a reason, and here's why.

But now that one question's answered, another soon follows: why does the one who made the park wants Vignette dead?

Comments

[X equals Friendship]

Vignette Valencia vs Equestrialand?