G5 Adventures in Wakko's Wish

by ponydog127

Into Acme Falls

The bleak landscape stretched out many miles, a blanket of white enveloping the world around the small village of Acme Falls, which lay in the kingdom of Warnerstock.

One singular fire lit up the village, fueled by a sled called Rosebud… and this fire belonged to three orphaned siblings-- Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner.

The three of them were on the street and on their own ever since the Acme Falls Orphanage had to shut down, but they didn't realize that they wouldn't be on their own for very long.

As the three orphans struggled to keep warm by this fire in the midst of a desolate and cold night, a bright flash resonated from the nearby forest, earning middle Warner sibling, Wakko's attention. "Hey… did anyone else see that?" he asked. "Either a flashlight was left on too long and exploded in the forest, or someone's out there!"

"Wakko, there can't be anyone in these parts, especially at this time of night" Dot told her brother with a skeptic look. "I mean, this place is definitely not Las Vegas."

"Uh… let's just go and see what it is anyway. Maybe we can make this fire melt the ice tips around here," Yakko said, rising to his feet and lighting a branch nearby with fire before leading his siblings toward the forest, Dot occasionally coughing as they did so.

Dot had come down with an illness a couple weeks before, and Yakko and Wakko just didn't have enough money right then to pay for an operation that could save her. Dot was holding on okay for now, but… who knows how long that would last.

After hiking in the woods for some time, the Warners eventually stumbled upon where the light had emitted from, and were stunned by what they saw in the fresh fallen snow-- six horse-like creatures and one scaly dragon, all different colors and some of the horses having horns and some having wings.

Wakko was the first to approach the unconscious creatures, doing such silently in case they were just sleeping. His eyes fell on Misty first, since she was the closest, and ran his gloved fingers through her bushy mane.

And as he did such, the blue unicorn servant to the evil Opaline began to stir. A groan escaped from Misty's lips as her teal eyes began to open. And when she saw the Warners staring down at the ponies with wide eyes, she yelped and backed up in alarm. "Easy there," Yakko tried to calm her. "We just wanna help."

"...Misty…?" Zipp's voice rang out, and the rest of the ponies began to stir as well. "Where in Equestria are we?" Hitch asked, being unfamiliar with the area. "Equestria?" Dot questioned. "Then you're really off your kilter, buddy-- there's no Equestria around these parts."

"No… no Equestria?" Pipp fainted dramatically in the snow before yelping and fluttering up. "GAH!!! Cold snow, cold snow!!"

"Awww, what cuties!" Izzy cooed, patting Wakko on the head. "My name's Izzy, and these are my friends. What are your names, cute black-and-white dog things?"

"We're the Warner Brothers!" Yakko and Wakko said in unison. "And the Warner Sister!" Dot chirped cutely. "Heh… flower in hair, wears pink… finally, someone who gets personal cuteness!" Pipp said, wrapping a foreleg around Dot. "I like you already, Warner Sister."

"My actual name is Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca III," Dot shrugged. "But everyone around here calls me Dot."

Just then, she let a few coughs come out, making Yakko frown and put his hands on her shoulders. "Come on, we better get you home and to bed," he said gently. "It isn't good for you to be out in this weather."

“What about these horses?” Wakko pointed out. “We can’t leave them on their own out here-- they’re lost and on their own!”

“Listen to the red-hatted dog-thing!” Hitch shuddered from the cold, trying to keep Sparky as warm as possible. “I promise, we won’t take up that much room in your home,” Sunny said, “but we do need a place to rest for now, until we can find our way back to our home. And… maybe you three would like some company?”

The Warners looked at each other for a few moments before huddling together and whispering about what they should do. “We barely have enough room for the three of us-- who knows what would happen if we took seven more in?” Yakko asked. “Come on, Yakko,” Dot begged. “I finally met someone or… something that respects me for my cuteness! Let ‘em stay, at least for a little while.”

“Please? Pretty pretty please?” Wakko looked up with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster. Yakko had to admit, his siblings’ cute eyes were pretty unbearable, and if Wakko was doing it, then Dot was sure to follow. So, he made a risky decision and sighed inwardly to himself. “All right… they can stay for a while, just until we can figure out how they got here and get ‘em home.”

“You’re in!” Wakko hugged Misty around the neck, catching her off guard, but soon she melted into the tenderness of Wakko’s hug. “Just follow us back to our humble abode,” Yakko said. “And… don’t be expecting too much-- especially with the town the way it is.”

XXXXXXXXX

Needless to say, the group was quite surprised when they discovered what the Warners ‘home’ was… a wooden water tower on the far side of the village.

It looked like it needed a couple of repairs… a lot like everything in this village. Zipp took note of it and decided to ask the Warners about that. “Hey, Yakko? Does this town need a handypony or something? A lot of the businesses look boarded up and nearly ready to fall to the floor in heaps.”

“Well… it’s been that way ever since that tight-wad Baron von Plotz showed up around these parts,” Yakko grumbled, arms crossed. “Didn’t you guys do your research on towns like this before you dropped in from nowhere?”

“Weeeeee didn’t exactly have a choice,” Sunny chuckled, scratching the back of her neck with her hoof. “Some sort of magic just brought us here without any explanation. But if you tell us more about what’s going on, maybe we can help figure out what we can do about it.”

“They are the first… uh, ponies to come in without screaming and seeing how bent-out-of-shape the place is,” Wakko shrugged. “Yeah,” Dot nodded with a cough. “Maybe we should tell them what’s going--”

But before Dot could say anything else, the Mane 5’s cutie marks started glowing again, if not brighter than before. “Whoa, what’s going on with your rear ends?” Yakko asked. “That’s one thing we’re still trying to figure out,” Zipp said. “But it is new-- it’s like our cutie marks wanna do the explaining.”

The swirls of magic from their cutie marks formed sort of a looking-glass type image from many years ago, prompting the group to sit down and listen (and for Misty to try and keep her drawn-on cutie mark a secret). "Over a century ago, in the foothills of the old river valley," a male voice narrated, "there stood the village of Acme Falls. It was a town filled with happy inhabitants-- including the butcher... the baker... and the candlestick maker. And a mime."

"Well, no place is perfect," Yakko shrugged. "That's true," the voice agreed, "but Acme Falls was as close to perfect as possible... except for the mime, that is. Now, this village was part of a peace-loving picturesque little country called Warnerstock, which was ruled by a benevolent king... Sir William the Good. Everyone loved King William. Peace and prosperity covered the land. But then King William passed away... and there was a struggle for control of the kingdom."

"A struggle, huh? Interesting..." Zipp took a video of the story to study later. "And the struggle ended with Warnerstock being overthrown in a hostile takeover by the nation of Tictockia," the narrator went on. "Now, the new leader of Warnerstock was King Salazar the Pushy, a ruthless corporate raider who vowed to rule with a tight fist. But the international community didn't support his regime, and the country's fortunes plummeted. Salazar's treasury grew dangerously low. So he sent out an edict for the country to start turning a profit... or perish."

"P-P-Perish...?" Misty's eyes widened as she gulped... this guy was almost as bad as Opaline! "To fill the royal coffers, all cities and towns were to be taxed, and this included Acme Falls. There, the king sent his tax collector, Baron von Plotz, who was taxing to the extreme. The baron squeezed the life out of Acme Falls... until the once prosperous town was crushed."

With that, the story ended, and the magic flowed back into the cutie marks of the group. "Oh... my... hoofness," Pipp said, breathless and shocked. "I had no idea you all had it so rough..."

“We can’t all be mega-popular pop princesses, Pipp,” Zipp told her sister sternly. “A lot of ponies back home have those kind of struggles too, but they’re not as serious as this one. As soon as we get back home, I’ll ask Mom to put out a message to stop things like this.”

“And with Dot needing an operation, we just… can’t afford things right now,” Wakko said with a frown, obviously worried. “We’re sorry things have turned out so roughly,” Hitch said sadly. “Is there anything we can do?”

"Not unless you got a boat loaded with cash under your wings," Yakko said with a sigh. "We do appreciate it though. It's just hard to think people are wanting to help us after all this time."

"What about your parents? Do you think they might be able to help us in someway?" Zipp asked curiously, and the tense in the room doubled after that. "We, um..." Dot coughed. "We're orphans..."

The group's eyes widened and some quietly gasped... they had no idea. "I'm so sorry..." Sunny said quietly. "I-I had no idea, and... I know how it feels... my dad passed away a few years ago, and I've been on my own since."

"Oh... sorry to hear about that, Sunny," Wakko rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. "But... don't worry about us. We're getting along okay-- besides, Yakko is the only one who really remembers Mom and Dad anyway."

"But he reminds us about them every chance he gets," Dot added with a small smile. "...come on, sibs... and new guys," Yakko yawned. "We'll take you around town and introduce you to folks tomorrow."

XXXXXXXXX

As dawn began to rise over Acme Falls, Hitch and Sunny surprised the Warners by using their earth pony magic to make some fruits and veggies for breakfast, and the Warners downed them hungrily.

Who knows how long it had been since they had eaten a full meal?

After breakfast was over, Izzy knitted the group some swiftly-made winter gear (since their regular gear was back home in Equestria) and the Warners took them out into the village to introduce them to a majority of friends and townsfolk:

• Dr. Scratchinsniff and Hello Nurse were the resident medical staff who had diagonosed Dot with her illness, and often tried to make elixers for money at the markets.
• Rita and Runt were a stray cat and dog team who often slept in the snowy alleyways.
• Slappy Squirrel and her nephew Skippy lived in a giant acorn tree in town, but during the winter months, they got so hungry they often ate their acorn supply too quickly.

The last ones they met were Pinky and the Brain, a pair of mice who lived in the nearby church. Needless to say, Pinky was wide eyed in amazement once he saw them. “Look, Brain! Narf!” he exclaimed, hugging Izzy’s leg. “It’s like me fantasies have been made real!”

“We’re in a movie musical fantasy, Pinky,” Brain rolled his eyes, looking at no one in particular. “Of course there’d be ponies and such. Now come along-- our mousey bodies are going to freeze from this coming age.”

The ponies really didn’t understand what Brain was so sour about, but Pinky seemed really nice, so they knew that they could trust him.

The other townsfolk were a little surprised to see magical talking ponies with wings, horns and a unique plant-growing power around them, but they soon adapted well with the ponies... much better than Zipp and Sunny thought they would.

All throughout the tour, Misty noticed how sad and depressing everything looked… and hoped that Opaline wouldn’t cause ponies back in Equestria to fall into this sort of despair. If she did… Misty would never be able to forgive herself.

A little while later, the Warners had once again built a successful fire, and as they sat around, warming their frigid bodies, the Warners began to sing about their hardships, completely catching the ponies offguard, but soon got used to it.

Yakko: Some folks say that life is cruel

Wakko: At the orphanage they fed us inedible gruel

Dot: We slept on beds with springs that hurt

Yakko: The faucets have hot and cold running dirt

Wakko: The windows were broken, the roof was leaky

Dot: The walls were cracked, the floors were creaky

Yakko: They shut down the orphanage
And now we know…

Warners: Ah…
Those were the days, we miss it so

Dot: And ever since then…
(low voice) I’ve been feeling low (coughs)

Yakko: Another subzero morning

Dot: And still, there's nothing to eat

Yakko: My feet couldn't get much colder

Dot: Our breath is our main source of heat

Misty: They’re so far below the poverty line
We're off the graph

Wakko: But don't fret, sibs
Cause things'll get better in time
Then you're gonna laugh

Dot: HA!!

Some of the townsfolk, who have been listening to the Warners sing, decided to join in the song, making the group realize that Warnerstock was probably some sort of musically-cultured country.

Rita: Poverty and hunger are bound here

Runt: Yeah, looks like a city dump

Pipp: There's only one job to be found here

Yakko: The town needs a new speed bump

Dr. Scratchinsniff: Acme Falls was a paradise

Hello Nurse: Happiest place on earth

All: But the tax collector’s avarice
Took us for all we’re worth

However, Baron von Plotz’s tune, up in his house, sounded very different from the tune that the townspeople sang.

Baron von Plotz: My coffers are overflowing

Shopkeepers: All of our shelves are bare

Baron von Plotz: My profit margin is growing

Shopkeepers: We’re broke
It seems so unfair

All: Life’s so lousy
We can no longer cope

Wakko: Ya gotta cheer up
And never ever give up hope!

The song continued as Sunny, Misty and their friends took another look around town, realizing that things seemed even worse than they had previously assumed.

Sunny: All of the shops are closin’

Izzy: Things couldn’t get much worse

Skippy: Even my nuts are frozen

Slappy: Be careful with that last verse

Dr. Scratchinsniff: Hey, step up und try our elixir!
It's good for what hurts!

Hello Nurse: Whatever ails you, it can fix her

Dr. Scratchinsniff: And it’s great on desserts

Brain: Drat, the temperature's falling

Pinky: I love when the weather is cool

Brain: A new ice age is calling

Pinky: Look, I can freeze my drool!

Brain: I have hopes and dreams of ruling the Earth
But here I sit
Watching Pinky make ice sculptures…

Pinky: Out of spit! NARF!!

Slappy: This old tree is finished!

Skippy: Our acorn supply’s gone too

Slappy: So for dinner, we're havin' creamed spinach

Skippy: All I can say is, "Spew!"

Hitch, Zipp, Dot and Yakko: As a town, we're so down
So we mope

Wakko: Ya gotta cheer up
And never give up hope

All: We can’t cope!

Sunny and Wakko: Ya gotta cheer up
And never give up hope

All: Are you a dope?

Sunny: Nope!

All: Just cheer up
And never ever give up hope
Hope hope hope hope! Yeah!

And just like that, the town went back to their normal lives as if the song hadn’t happened but left in a better mood. “You’re right, Wakko,” Sunny nodded. “As long as we keep hope, we’ll never have a reason to lose it.”

“Speaking of losing it… Wakko, we gotta get to the train station, or you’ll miss your train!” Yakko exclaimed. "Come on, slowpokes!"

The Warners and their friends rushed toward the station, though the ponies were slightly confused about where Wakko could be going. And soon, they made it to the station with a few minutes to spare. “Phew… good thing we got here before the train did,” Dot sighed. "But... where is Wakko going?" Zipp asked. "Even after that elaborate hope-rising sketch?"

“Wakko’s stepping up in the family,” Yakko proudly said, “and is going a couple towns over to do some work and earn enough for Dot’s operation.”

“Wow, Wakko… that is, like, so sweet of you!” Pipp said. "I am so adding that to my ponygram feed when we get back to Equestria. "The problem with that is, we don’t know how long he’ll be gone working,” Dot sighed, "and we're gonna miss him while he's... cough, cough... gone."

The ponies felt their hearts sink at this... they just met Wakko and his siblings the previous night, and already they were gonna start missing him, just like his siblings would. "Hey..." Wakko whispered to Sunny and her friends. "You think for as long as you're here, you can keep an eye on my brother and sister for me?"

"You can count on it, Wakko," Sunny nodded, giving him a hug. "Be safe out there."

Soon, the train pulled in, and Wakko hugged his siblings and new friends one more time before going to step aboard... right after Izzy gave him one of her friendship bracelets, hoping for some good luck. Soon, the train with Wakko aboard soon pulled out from the station, and the ponies, Yakko and Dot watched it go out of sight. "You think Wakko will be okay, Sunny?" Misty asked as Sparky hugged Yakko and Dot for comfort. "I think so, Misty," Sunny nodded, still focused on the direction the train was heading. "We just have to keep hope. We'll wait here for him to come back... no matter how long it takes."

"But won't ponies back home be worrying about us?" Hitch asked. "Yeah!" Pipp nodded. "I trust Jazz and Rocky with my life, but they'll get worried if I'm not at Mane Melody."

"I think the Unity Crystals sensed the Warners and their town needed help, and that's why they sent us here," Sunny said quietly. "We just need to be patient... they'll bring us back home in good time. I can feel it."

Comments

[Toonwriter]

Glad to see the Ponies join along in the musical!

[Omegamorph]

Good we're retaining the series humor here.