The Reception's Been Canceled

by sister_mike

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie and Inkie put Rarity on Inkie's bed. Blinkie bolted the door shut and went to check on the rest of the house, to make sure no changelings had broken in, and to keep watch that none were heading towards the house.

"Rarity, ohmygosh, what happened? How did you get down there?" Pinkie asked. She began to wipe away some of the blood from Rarity's face, as Inkie worked on her hind legs.

"It's where Celestia sent me," Rarity said, wincing as she spoke.

"We should get this bag off," Inkie said. She put one hoof on the dusty bag on Rarity's back. Rarity jumped off the bed, ignoring the pain in her legs.

"Don't. Touch. This. Bag," she said, looking darkly at Inkie. Inkie gave a confused look to Pinkie, and looked a bit hurt. Pinkie stood between the two, putting her hooves up to calm Rarity.

"Rarity, it's ok," Pinkie said softly. She must have gone through a lot.

"I'm sorry, that was rude of me," Inkie said softly. Inkie stood beside Pinkie Pie and extended her hoof, "We should have introduced ourselves. My name is Inka, Inka Josephine Pie. Most ponies call me Inkie. I'm Pinkie's younger sister."

Rarity relaxed slightly. Blinkie stepped into the room, looking from Rarity to Pinkie and Inkie. She stomped something, giving Inkie a quizzical look.

"That's Bellamina Marie—Blinkie for short. She's our middle sister. She had an accident and can't speak, but she can still hear. She uses systematic hoof stomping to communicate with me," Inkie said.

"Ohmygosh, I'm so sorry, I should have introduced you guys; we were just so worried about you Rarity, that it slipped my mind," Pinkie said. She took another step towards Rarity. "These are my younger sisters Rarity, and this is the house I grew up in."

"The cave we found you in is one that Blinkie and I mine gems in, to add to the family's rock business," Inkie said.

Rarity took a deep breath and exhaled. She extended a shaky hoof and shook Inkie's.

"Please forgive me for my rudeness; I'm Rarity," she said. She then looked at Pinkie. "You'll all have to forgive me for being touchy about the bag; Pinkie, you'll understand why."

Slowly, her hooves still shaking, Rarity took the bag off her back. She did a bit of magic and the bag opened. Inside something shiny sparkled.

"Ohmygosh! You found the Elements of Harmony!? Where in the world did you find them!?" Pinkie said. She couldn't believe it. Rarity had found the Elements. All they had to do now was clean Rarity up and regroup with the others in Ponyville.

"In the Diamond Dogs' caves. That's where I was sent. I don't know how they got there, but I'm not letting anyone—and I mean anyone—else other than me hold onto them," Rarity said.

"Ok, that's understandable; you've just been through a lot. Celestia must have sent you to find them. Maybe just for now hold onto them so we can clean you up, and then you can wear the bag again," Pinkie said. Rarity nodded.

Rarity walked over and settled back onto the bed, holding the bag close to her chest.

Rarity told Pinkie what had happened to her since entering the portal, while she and Inkie bandaged Rarity up. Pinkie then recounted what had happened to her over the past few hours.

Is that all it's been? A few hours? Feels a lifetime has gone by...

"It was nice of Celestia to send you to your family," Rarity said quietly. There was no malice in her voice, but there was some hurt. Pinkie could see the pain of Sweetie Belle reflecting in Rarity's eyes.

"They're meant to join our team," Pinkie said, looking at her sisters.

"Plus, if Pinkie weren't sent here, we wouldn't have gone outside when we did and we wouldn't have saved you," Inkie said quietly. Blinkie nodded in agreement.

"That's true! Maybe part of my mission here was to save you Rarity; you were meant to find the Elements because of your gem-finding abilities—and I was meant to save you once you found them," Pinkie said.

Blinkie clomped something. Inkie nodded her head.

"Blinkie says everything happens for a reason."

"Especially when it comes to Celestia," Rarity said. She slowly stood, wincing slightly.

"How does that feel?" Inkie asked, tightening the bandages on her hind legs.

"Much better, though a trip to the spa would help immensely," Rarity said. Pinkie laughed. She helped Rarity fasten the bag back on her back. Rarity did her magic spell again.

"What are you doing?" Pinkie asked.

"It's so that the seams and flap don't open, no matter what happens. If we're attacked and I'm thrown to the ground again, none of the Elements will fly out accidentally," Rarity said.

"You know, maybe we should move the Elements into a double saddle bag, instead of just that backpack; that way you can have the Elements in one bag on one side, and food and weapons in the other," Inkie suggested.

"That's a good idea," Rarity said.

Blinkie and Inkie set Rarity up with a spare bag. Rarity carefully moved the Elements onto one side of the bags, while Blinkie and Inkie stocked up the other with bombs and food. Blinkie, through Inkie, explained to Rarity how to use the grenades if she needed to. Blinkie then left the room to check the front of the house for any signs of changelings.

"Thank you so much for your kindness; I'm sorry I snapped at you like that in the beginning," Rarity said to Inkie.

"It's ok, no hard feelings; you had just been through a lot to protect those Elements. I completely understand where you were coming from," Inkie said.

Blinkie came back a few minutes later and communicated with Inkie. Pinkie wished she knew what her sister was saying, wished she could talk with her.

"Blinkie says the coast is clear. From the vantage points we have available right now, it looks like there aren't any in sight, which is odd; they must know you have the Elements. You'd think they'd be teeming out there," Inkie said.

"Well let's take advantage of the moment and start heading towards Ponyville; I'm not sure how fast I can walk right now, but if the coast is clear, let's get moving," Rarity said.

Blinkie led the way outside. Inkie took up the rear and let Rarity and Pinkie walk together.

"How long of a walk is it to Ponyville from your farm?" Rarity asked.

"Hour and a half to two, on foot. The changelings trashed our wagon when they first attacked the property," Inkie said.

It was daylight now, probably mid-morning. It was harder to tell without the sun.

"I wonder what happened to Princess Celestia," Rarity said. Pinkie nodded.

"It's so gloomy and grey, and green, without the sun," Pinkie said.

"I can't believe this is happening everywhere," Inkie said, staring up at the thick streams of green flowing from all directions, all heading towards Canterlot. "So many trapped ponies."

They chit-chatted about the sky, the green, the terrible horribleness of what was going on in their dear Equestria. It seemed peaceful; almost too peaceful.

"Blinkie says this is really weird, it being so quiet. Usually she sees a few changelings from a distance on her raids to the other town; sometimes she has to fight with them. That's why she's so good at it," Inkie said.

"I was surprised to find some down in the caves as well; Rover said that they had killed all of the Diamond Dogs, didn't bother harvesting them, and then they left the caves. I wonder if Chrysalis knew that the Elements were down there..." Rarity said.

"But Blinkie's right, it's weird right now; they know you have the Elements, they know we've all escaped and that we're planning to use them; why aren't they attacking us right now?" Pinkie said.

"It's like they were called away or something..." Inkie said quietly. She shook her head and changed the conversation. "You seemed really sad when you mentioned family; do you have family trapped somewhere Rarity?"

"Yes; I have a much younger sister, just a filly. She was at the wedding in Canterlot, and now she's trapped in—"

They had spoken too soon. Without warning, six changelings burst out of the ground. They had been following them from below, underneath, in the tunnels and caves.

The changelings immediately went after Rarity. Blinkie sent a few swift kicks towards the first few that tried to approach, but three of them flew overhead and landed behind her, surrounding Rarity. They began to try and lift her up, carry her away.

Pinkie charged at them, knocking them off of Rarity.

"Run Rarity! Run!" Pinkie shouted.

"I can't just leave you," Rarity said, shaking the other changelings off.

"Go to Ponyville, we'll meet you there!" Inkie said.

Just as Rarity turned to run towards Ponyville, a swarm of changelings appeared in the sky. There had to be at least thirty of them. Half of them landed, blocking the way to Ponyville, while the others stayed in the air.

"Just run Rarity! We'll find each other again! Go!" Pinkie shouted. Rarity nodded and began to run in the opposite direction, further away from Ponyville. The flying changelings began to fly after her.

Blinkie whipped out a grenade and launched it at the flying swarm.

"Get down!" Inkie shouted on Blinkie's behalf. Inkie jumped and pushed Pinkie to the ground. The grenade went off, taking down half of the flying fleet. Rarity had a good jump start on them. Pinkie could see her still running in the distance, not letting her injuries get in the way. Rarity jumped off of the path and into the thick wood that lined it. She was gone and out of sight, a few changelings still on her tail.

I hope she'll be ok.

The rest of the flying team turned angrily towards Blinkie, who had another set grenade in her mouth and launched it. The ground team charged at them.

There was so much going on, that Pinkie wasn't quite sure what had happened. Blinkie had taken care of the rest of the flying squad and was ripping a changeling off of Inkie. Pinkie was being knocked around, black hooves flying everywhere. She managed to set a grenade herself and threw it into the thick of the crowd.

"Watch out girls!" she shouted over the commotion.

Inkie and Blinkie jumped out of the way, in opposite directions. The grenade flew into one of the holes that the underground changelings had come out of. It went off, making the hole bigger. It revealed a tunnel below, just as Pinkie had suspected. But the whole ground suddenly became unstable. The tunnels were beginning to collapse.

The explosion had caused most of the changelings to fall into the hole, knocking many of them unconscious and making them dizzy.

The ground began to crumble, causing the hole to become bigger and bigger, and it began to bury the changelings underneath.

"Blinkie!" Inkie shouted, "Blinkie! Hurry, jump across!"

A huge gap had formed in the middle of the path, separating Blinkie from her sisters. Any changelings remaining on the ground jumped up and began to fly away. It felt like an earthquake.

Blinkie stepped back from the edge of the gap and took a running charge. She leapt across and landed on the other side.

"Hurry, we need to get out of here!" Pinkie said. Inkie turned and began to run towards Ponyville. Pinkie turned to do the same, when something caught her eye.

"Blinkie, watch out!" she said.

But it was too late. A changeling from underground grabbed onto Blinkie's hind leg and began to drag her into the collapsing tunnel. Blinkie dug her front hooves into the ground, trying to stay above. Pinkie began to run towards her, tears in her eyes.

"Blinkie!" she screamed. Inkie turned around and began to run back as well, just realizing what was going on.

Blinkie looked sadly at Pinkie. She stopped forcing her hooves into the ground and the changeling slowly began to drag her in, as the ground continued to collapse around them. She stared Pinkie in the eyes, and slowly took out a grenade from her bag. She pulled the pin, did the combo, and mouthed something to Pinkie.

Blinkie then let go of the ground and fell into the hole. Pinkie made a move towards the hole.

"Watch out!" Inkie screamed. She dove on top of Pinkie, away from the hole. The hole exploded.

There was a loud shudder and a crack. When the ground stopped shaking, Inkie finally got off of Pinkie, and the two of them stood up.

The hole was gone. It was covered in dirt, almost like it had never been there. A few surrounding trees had fallen over.

"Blinkie!" Inkie cried. She ran over to where the hole had been and began to dig furiously. She cried, calling Blinkie's name over and over.

Pinkie walked over and put her hoof on Inkie's shoulder. Be serious. Maybe it didn't just mean don't laugh at everything; maybe it meant being the oldest sister too.

"She's gone Inkie," Pinkie whispered, tears streaming down her face. Inkie shuddered and sobbed. She collapsed on the hole and pounded the packed dirt.

After a few moments of hysteria, Inkie sniffed and looked over at Pinkie.

"Wh-what did she m-m-mouth to you?" Inkie asked.

"Ponyville."

Comments

[sister_mike]

Remember what the movies have taught you: they're not dead unless you see them die.

Please don't forget to rate this story if you like it!

[Isshiki Kotonashi]

Ssssssscootaloooooooo

[Perteks]

Most liked chars ([bad joke]or black [/bad joke]) die first :D

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

blinkie is going to take the tunnel to ponyville!

[mbpony 512]

Dang it and I was just starting to enjoy Blinkie.

What a short reunion between friends.

Now I wonder what else can happen in this story and who else will the girls meet up with next in their journey home?

Please do keep up the good work on such a great story .

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

What have fluttershy, applebloom and zecora been up too.

[ctzmsc3]

1416491
Does that mean Scootaloo's not dead?