The Elements of Pure Energy

by The Collective

Chapter 3: Through the Threshold (Part 3)

Scipio was bored. Twilight had been going on with theorems and postulates for hours. Pinkie Pie was still gone, as was Fluttershy. No idea what they’re doing... But it’s probably better than this. What exactly is going on?

Well. Good question. Mostly, it’s Twilight babbling as she tries to come to terms with the fact that we are from a different dimension and that there is something that the Elements of Harmony can’t stop.

Fun. So essentially the only useful thing we’ve heard is that Celestia wants us to head over to Canterlot as soon as all six of us aliens are here.

Yep. Pretty much. This is boring.

This is the type of thing Jonathan or Javi would enjoy. Not my thing.

Well at least you have me. And I have you. We have each other.

I have me and you have me and we have ourselves. This is trippy. Sweet Luna, why can’t something happen? When is another pony gonna show up?

As if to answer his prayers, Pinkie Pie burst through the door with a dull greyish-blue pegasus in tow.

Thank Celestia.

~~~

Things were dark for a long time. Rufus slowly began regaining his senses, it felt cold where he was. He opened his eyes and tried to focus them. He was in a dark room, the light shone from a dim light bulb and barely lit up the room. Rufus sat up and rubbed his head. “What...happened?” His confusion was only worsened when he realized that it wasn’t a hand that rubbed his head, “Wh-what?! Hooves?” He looked at himself through the dim light, “I-I’m a small horse?” He was more shocked than scared, scanning the room. The floor and walls were stained with red, there was a banner hung across the wall that said, “Life is a party” Scrawled in red, with some of the red paint on the letters dripping down. There was a dress of many colors, poorly stitched together. There were strange patterns on the individual pieces of the dress, one had three apples on it, another three diamonds, a blue one had a red blue and yellow thunderbolt coming out of a cloud. The place he was in was so surreal, like a horribly written horror story. Suddenly he heard footsteps, and turned around. clop...clop...clop...clop...slow methodical steps sounded off in the distance. Rufus was positively terrified at this point, sweating bullets. As the steps drew nearer, Rufus hid behind a chest, shuddering and wishing he were somewhere, anywhere else. The door opened, and a pink pony walked in.

Her hooves were stained red, and her mane was flat and dripping wet. She carried a huge knife in her mouth, and had two sacks draped over her back. Oh gravy, Rufus thought, I wound up in the basement of some psychotic pony murderer! The pink pony began walking towards the chest he was hiding behind, ohbuckohbuckohbuckohbuckohbuck. She opened a drawer, and placed the knife in there. Rufus held his breath, petrified with fright. The pink pony moved to a far corner, and placed the sack in the corner with many others. I...figured it out, she cuts up her victims and puts them in flour sacks, she takes their skins and makes that dress! I bet she even cooks her victims... The pink pony walked over towards the dress and sighed, “It’s just not the same...” Rufus realised that now she was distracted, it was his chance to escape through the door! In a flash, he bolted out from his hiding spot, knocking over the chest and making a lot of noise. The pink pony jumped up and turned around, yelping in surprise.

“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO KILL ME, YOU CRAZY PONY!” Rufus yelled and dashed for the door. Rufus was making good way until he almost reached the door. His hooves slipped and he tumbled into the wall. The force knocked over some furniture which now pinned him against the wall. He struggled in vain to free himself as the pink pony began to...skip towards him? Great, now I know she’s psychotic. Well this is the end, it’s over!

“Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie and I’ve never seen you before! I know everyone here in Ponyville, which means you aren’t from Ponyville, and do you know what that means?” The pink pony was talking at an insane speed, her overly happy smile and big eyes making quite the impression on Rufus. He remained silent, staring fearfully into the eyes of his captor. “It’s time for a party, silly!” She pulled out a party blower and threw some confetti around the place. Now Rufus was unsure what to feel.

“P-p-please d-don’t hurt me” he was shivering violently. The pink pony stopped skipping around and came back to him.

“Why do you think I would do that?” She looked very intrigued sitting down in front of him.

“The knife, the bloody hooves, the flour sacks, the dress, the red walls, it’s too scary!” He said all this as fast as he could turning his face away and shut his eyes.

“Oh you silly!” the pink pony began reorganizing the room, putting all the knives back in the drawer. “I don’t know how you got here, but this is the basement storage room for sugar cube corner!” she opened up one of the flour sacks and pulled out a light bulb, she replaced the dim one and the room lit up. “Oh silly me, you’re still trapped there!” She pulled away the furniture and Rufus breathed easy. He noticed that her hooves smelled oddly like...berries? “I was mashing berries to make jam for the pastries I bake, It kinda looks like blood doesn’t it?” She licked a hoof, before screaming, “I’m a vampire, I’m gonna drink your bloooooooooooooooooood!” Rufus flinched and Pinkie Pie giggled, “Sorry, I guess you’re really shy. What’s your name?”

“I’m Rufus...” he said quietly, slowly calming himself.

“Well hello Rufus! I’m sure we’ll be great friends!” She walked towards the dress again, “I have a friend named Rarity, she loves to sew and make dresses!” She turned around and looked sheepishly towards Rufus, “I thought I would try out sewing a dress together out of patches of cloth with the cutie marks of all my friends embroidered on them, I call it my friendship dress! It’s just...” she paused and allowed Rufus to see all the uneven stitches, “well Rarity is much better at it anyways. It’s pretty cold because of all the rain we have been having, the moisture is causing the paint to run! Except that’s not paint, I thought it would be nice to paint the walls with the berry jam, but...” Rufus already knew what that would lead to: ants, ants everywhere. “Well come on upstairs! I can make a mean hot cocoa, it’ll warm you right up!” Rufus was more than happy to leave the storage room.

Upstairs was much brighter, a fire crackled in the fireplace and the room was quite warm. Rufus looked around and saw the cash register and counter where the baked goods could be sold. “Here you go Rufus!” A warm mug of hot chocolate awaited him. He reached out to drink it, but then remembered that he didn’t have any hands...He stood there staring at the drink, while Pinkie Pie watched in amusement. “Aren’t you gonna drink it?” He turned around to see how Pinkie Pie had done it. Somehow her hoof fit through the grip on the drink, and she was enjoying it. Rufus tried to fit his hoof through the grip- it worked rather well to his surprise. He brought the drink to his mouth and began imbibing the warm drink. It felt so good inside him, warming up his cold body.

“Thanks Pinkie Pie...” he looked away feeling like he was intruding. He did pop into her basement somehow, and he had trashed the place and called her a murderer...

“Aww you’re like my friend Fluttershy! She really likes animals too! I don’t know about snakes though...” She said, motioning towards the armlet adorning his fore hoof. Rufus brushed his hooves against the ground uneasily, not sure how to answer that, or even how to explain. Pinkie changed the subject after she brought up Fluttershy. “OOH! We have to go!” She bounced up and down and grabbed Rufus. “There’s a meeting at Fluttershy’s house, and there are cakes, cookies, apple fritters, apple pie...” She kept going as the two exited the bakery.

The rain had stopped, leaving a nice cool and damp feel to the air. Rufus breathed deeply as Pinkie continued her rant. Why was he doing this? Rufus couldn’t really have refused her if he wanted to. He felt bad for suddenly imposing himself on her like so. So the two continued until they saw a little house built into the side of a hill. “...and candied apples! Those are my favorite! Well, maybe not my favorite because brownies are my favorite, but they’re still really good!” Pinkie skipped up towards the door, knocking a fine beat. The door opened and a purple pony greeted Pinkie.

“Is he here?” She asked, seeing Rufus she shifted her attention, “Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle, we’ve been waiting for you!” She opened the door wider and beckoned Rufus to enter. Pinkie bounced in first, with Rufus slowly entering in behind her. Rufus could suddenly hear jovial talking. Four other ponies sat around the table, while Pinkie and Twilight stood near them. Rufus kind of watched as they continued conversing, Twilight’s group inquiring the other group, and vice versa.

“Aren’t you going to join them?” Rufus heard a soft voice speak out. A yellow pegasus with a pink mane stood beside him. At his turning toward her, the yellow mare shrunk back a little before regaining her composure.

“Well...” Rufus began casting his eyes down. Fluttershy cocked her head at first, but then smiled and said,

“Oh I see. There is no need to be shy around these ponies, they are my friends! My name is Fluttershy,” Rufus was a bit taken aback. This pony was quiet, soft spoken, and even had shy in her name. It fit too damn well.

“My name is Rufus,” Rufus began, at this everything was suddenly quiet as both groups stared at Fluttershy and Rufus. Rufus was at a loss for words when all of a sudden one of the ponies called out his name.

“Ay, did you say Rufus!” Oh no...was this? “It’s me, Gabe!” Horse apples...might as well get this over with. Rufus took a deep breath,

“My name is Rufus, I have no idea who most of you are, or how we even got here...” He took a step forward, “but whatever it is that I need to do, I’ll do it.” Rufus didn’t have moments like that often, but when he did...it felt so good. Several of the ponies nodded silently, but Gabe started laughing quietly.

“Alright Mr. Hero, sit your flank down and listen.”

~~~

Scipio rolled his eyes and groaned inwardly. With the arrival of Rufus, Twilight decided to begin all over again. He tried to escape the table but she made him sit down again.

Goodness. This is worse than Mrs. Grant’s class.

Who’s that?

Dude. You’re me. Check my memories. She was a crazy literature teacher. Hated every moment of that class.

Oh. Ew. Well I don’t think that Twilight is that bad. These memories suck.

Fine. I was exaggerating. But its still bad.

You’re right. I’m bored.

Me too. Watch. With our (my?) luck, as soon as she finishes the last pony is gonna show up.

Oh buck. You’re right, Murphy’s stinking law.

Scipio continued to converse with himself for the next hour. Just as Twilight wrapped up her presentation for Rufus, Scipio heard a squeal outside. Going outside to check out the noise, he saw a spring green unicorn trying to talk to Fluttershy. He heard the name “Jonathan” said in a British accent.

Dude! It’s my friend Jon!

Cool. You know this means that Twilight is gonna start all over again, right?

Will the quest fail if I kill myself?

~~~

Bloody HELL. What happened to my head? Jonathan opened his eyes. Looking around him, he saw a forest on one side, a cottage on the other. The cottage was rather mismatched, it looked like something out of a cartoon. Figures. The equines I saw were oddly colored and shaped... Jonathan decided he would have better luck looking for somepony at the hut than in the woods. Slowly getting to his feet, Jonathan looked at himself. He was, indeed, an equine. A brightly colored equine. His body was an interesting spring green, and his mane was blonde and wavy. “Well, this is interesting...” Looking up at the cottage again, Jonathan noticed a horn protruding from his forehead. “Even more interesting. It seems I am a unicorn.” Obvious though this statement might be, it helped Jonathan come to terms with reality. Jonathan continued his list of knowns: “What do I know? Let me see... I was reading in the library. Then two idiots hit me with a bookcase. Knocked my lights out. Woke up in a dark place called the Nexus. Some hooded bloke started talking to me about saving a world. He gave me a pipe, which he said had special powers. Oh wait, where in the blazes is my pipe?” Jonathan started looking around him for his pipe. It was nowhere to be found. Jonathan tossed his mane in frustration. The pipe flew out from where it was tucked behind his ear like a pencil. “Well. That is an odd place for a pipe. Ok. Pipe, check. Lets see, where was I? Right. Hooded bloke. He told me that the pipe has special powers. I guess I’ll have to wait to see. Started reading a book. What did it say? Oh. Yes. This land is called Equestria. Fitting name for a land of equines. It is ruled over by two sisters. Apparently they are the source of harmony in the land. I appeared here, at the edge of a forest. In front of me is a cottage. I am assuming that the indigenous people of the land are peaceful, which means I should not have to worry about getting attacked. Do I have a weapon in case I get that’s false?” Jonathan searched himself. “No I do not. I suppose that I could always use the pipe...”

With his list of knowns completed, Jonathan trotted towards the cottage. As he neared the cottage, he noticed a variety of wildlife climbing on and around the cottage. He stopped and observed the animals. After he decided that the various small life forms posed no threat, Jonathan trotted towards the cottage. He inspected the door. Deciding not to knock for the time being, he listened through the crack. He could hear many voices. Trotting around the cottage, Jonathan saw a chicken coop. Close to the chicken coop he saw a yellow and pink pegasus tending chickens. He quickly analyzed the situation, his procedure almost robotic. Subject is a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. Appears to be female. Assumed to be non-hostile. Jonathan quietly walked up to the yellow pegasus. She was occupied by a an unruly chicken, so she did not notice his presence until he spoke up.

“Good day. Pray tell, what is the name of this place?”

Fluttershy screamed and jumped into the air.

“Oh. My apologies. I am Jonathan, but you can call me Jon.” Fluttershy shrunk from his gaze and mumbled off a few words that Jonathan could not make out. “Excuse me, but what did you say?” More mumbling. Well this is daft. “Could you repeat that one more time?”

“Her name is Fluttershy.” Now it was Jonathan’s turn to yell and jump. From behind him materialized a black pony with green hair and purple headphones. “Yo, whassup Jon. Its Skippy.”

“Scipio? No way... How did you hear me out here?”

“Apparently my special talent is hearing and stuff. Sick, right?”

“Indeed. I wonder what mine is...”

“Probably something all smartical and such. Hence the wizard eyes cutie mark over there. Oh and Fluttershy scares easily, don’t you, Fluttershy?”

Jonathan looked over for the yellow pegasus, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“I think she has disappeared...”

“Yep. Probably inside. Speaking of inside, we should probably go inside. Everypony is probably waiting for us.”

“Roight then Skip, lead the way.” Scipio didn’t move. He had started staring off into space with an absent look on his face. “Skip? Skippy? Scipio?” Jonathan knocked Scipio on the head with his hoof.

“Ow! Why did you... Oh. Nevermind.”

“Care to explain what that was about?”

“Um... No. Maybe later.”

“Whatever you say. Now, shall we go inside?”

“Yeah.” Scipio lead Jonathan inside the cottage. In it was an assortment of ten other ponies, four male and six female, sitting around a large round table. Makes me think of King Arthur... Jonathan spotted Fluttershy, but did not recognize any of the other ponies. Scipio started rattling off names and pointing.

“Ok. Now that the introductions are out of the way, would you please take a seat?” Twilight gestured to an empty chair. Jonathan sat. He had the urge to start asking questions but, before he could begin, Twilight silenced everyone with a hoof.

“Ok everypony, I’m going to recap what I told all of you to Jonathan here...”

Multiple heads slammed the table.

Comments

[Ivellios]

The ultimate facedesk heard around the world.

[The Collective]

1337745 Ikr? Twas my idea, and I'm quite proud of it.

~spu313

EDIT:
Shut up spu. You're stupid and no one loves you.