The Mane Six and CMCs go on an adventure, 65 million years in the making.
A "Ponified" version of the classic motion picture. I've seen the other fics of this movie, but wanted to write my own.
The Mane Six are summoned to a mysterious island to sign off on a special theme park being built there by the Manehattan mogul, Applejack's Uncle Orange. With the CMCs in toe as well, they find themselves in a biological preserve where super genetic science has resurrected the great extinct creatures, the dinosaurs. The ponies are skeptical yet enthralled by the giant creatures until Derpy Hooves with schemes of her own shuts the park down, and the dinosaurs escape. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash become stranded in the park with the CMCs, while Twilight and Fluttershy struggle to turn the system back on and save their friends. It's an adventure in friendship 65 million years in the making.
A fanfic based on the movie, rather than the novel. I've added some original parts as well.
The air was heavy with humidity. Dew from the mist condensed onto the thick jungle leaves. This was not a jungle at the equatorial region of Equestria, but on a mysterious island 300 miles off of Equestria's coast. On this island, some secret operation was taking place. A large group of maintenance ponies and handler ponies in hard hats stood at the edge of a forest. They were holding shoulder rifles, and high powered electric tasers. Octavia, an earth pony was coordinating the operation. She stood motionless among the other ponies, holding her shoulder gun. They were all waiting. Waiting.
A low growl was coming from the thick jungle. The growl was in-describable to anypony. It sounded like a creature not of this planet, or even this century. A bright light began to be seen through the trees. Something was coming. Something big. The group watched and waited as the object grew closer, and closer. The object burst through the trees, revealing itself to be a large crane.
"EveryPony! Heads Up! Watch your hooves!" Called Octavia. The crane held from its cables a large metal container with slits in the side. The container was heavily armored with thick steel and titanium. It's cargo must have been extremely dangerous to sport such armor. The crane maneuvered it's way to a facility on a platform, which resembled some kind of holding cage or pen. It too has heavily fortified with steel barriers, electric fences, and a watch tower. The crane lowered the container onto guiding rails on the platform. Inside the container, the live cargo snarled and snorted, eyeing the ponies on the other side.
"Loading team ponies, move in there." said Octavia. A team of earth ponies and unicorns moved in to push the container to the gate of the holding cage.
"Make sure tasers are on full charge." A scream from inside the container scared some of the ponies back.
"It's okay. She can't get to ya. Get back in there." The team moved back in, and placed their hooves on the container's handles.
"Everypony ready?" called Octavia. "And push!" The loading ponies pushed the container into the gate. The locking mechanisms kicked in securing it.
"Loading team. Move away." The ponies moved away and a lone unicorn climbed on top of the container.
"Gatekeeper! In position! Stand by!" The creature inside snarled and watched the unicorn.
"Raise the gate!" The unicorn lit up her horn, and slowly raised the gate of the container. The creature screamed and charged the opening gate. The container violently lurched backwards from the entry gate, knocking the unicorn off the top. The loading ponies rushed in to keep the container from moving back to far. The gate on the container was half open, and the unicorn landed hard right in front of it. Suddenly, the creature inside the crate grabbed the unicorn by the legs and tried to pull her into the container. The pony screamed as the the creature tore up her legs, she held onto the side of the container for dear life. Octavia rushed in and tried to pull her out.
"Get in here! Shock the thing!" The team stuck their tasers into the holes and tried to shock the creature into submission. It didn't work. The creature hissed and snarled and them. It wouldn't let go of the screaming unicorn. Octavia was losing her grip on the pony.
"Shoot Her!!! Shoot Her!!!" The team opened fire on the crate. Octavia tried her hardest to hold on, but the unicorn slipped through her hold. The screaming pony was dragged into the container, and it was all over.
Several days later, Daisy a pink and green earth pony walked into the main hall of Princess Celestia's palace. Originally hailing from Ponyville where she ran a flower shop with her friends Lily and Junebug, Daisy left the flower business to become a lawyer. Now years later and fresh out of law school she was full of excitement about becoming one of Equestria's finest attorneys. Even more exciting, none other than the rulers of Equestria, Princesses Celestia and Luna were her very first clients. Daisy walked up to the door of the throne room. The guards stopped her.
"State thy name and business."
"Daisy Whitepetal, Attorney at Law. Princess Celestia and her sister are my clients and I have a meeting with them this morning." The guards nodded, and let her in.
"Much obliged." As she entered the throne room, Celestia and Luna turned to greet her. She bowed honoring their presence.
"Celestia. Luna. It is an honor to finally meet you both."
"The pleasure is ours Miss Daisy." Celestia replied nobly. "I trust your journey here from Manehattan was enjoyable."
"It was. Long, but very enjoyable. I must say I'm very honored to have the two of you as my first clients." Celestia smiled.
"Well I always try to give my little ponies who are starting out with their professions a chance."
"How about we get down to business." said Daisy slipping on a pair of glasses.
"Yes. Let's relocate to the balcony. We have lots to discuss."
Later the lawyer pony and the princesses were sitting at a table on the balcony outside the throne room. One of the guards brought them cups of tea on a plate.
"Thank you guard." said Celestia. She levitated sugar into her tea cup.
"Cream or sugar for your tea?"
"No thank you." said Daisy looking up from her papers. "Never cared much for either." Celestia and Luna both looked at each other, as if hesitant to discuss the matters at hand.
"Now." Luna spoke. "Sister and I have been very concerned over the nature of what Mr. Orange is doing on this island, and our concerns have only grown since the incident a few days ago."
"We both feel that this type of park is way to dangerous for the general pony public." Celestia added. "As rulers of Equestria we are considering shutting down Orange's operation all together as soon as possible." Daisy took off her glasses to face the two alicorns.
"Your concerns about the safety of the park are well founded, and I'm on your side. However, I think in all fairness we should give Orange's endeavor a fair shot. I spoke to him before coming to meet with you and he told me to offer this alternative solution. He's confident that despite the accident the park will be safe for the patronage of Equestria's ponies, and he's asked that you send a group of ponies to the island for a tour of the facilities, and to sign off on the park. Would you be open to this idea?" Celestia and Luna thought for a minute. They knew what was happening on this island, and they weren't sure about it. But they did want to be fair. Luna nodded to her sister implying that they should agree.
"Yes we would." said Celestia.
"Of course." Daisy continued. "It would have to be done by ponies whom you trust the judgement of. Perhaps Twilight Sparkle and her friends?"
"That's possible." said Celestia. "I'll message them right away. But Twilight is my best student. Orange must promise me that she and her friends will be safe there."
"I'm sure he'll have that covered." said Daisy. "It'll be a walk in the park."
Out at Sweet Apple Acres it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon. The Mane Six and Spike were having having a picnic. Twilight Sparkle laid out the blanket with her magic. Applejack and Rarity pulled out the food from the basket. Sandwiches, salads, apple fritters, and iced tea. Pinkie Pie skipped over with a basket in her mouth. Setting it down, she pulled the towel off it letting the balloons inside carry the basket away.
"Ahh," Rainbow Dash pulled out her sunglasses and splashed some sunblock onto her face.
"What perfect day for a picnic."
"It is." said Twilight. "It's just what we need after this week. After that adventure in the Crystal Empire, I'd almost be game for a vacation."
"So would I." said Rarity getting dreamy in her eyes. "Oh a nice weekend getaway where we could all stretch out and relax. On the beach, or in the mountains, or..."
"Or on a beach in the mountains or in some mountains next to beach so we can have the beach and the mountains all in one place..." Pinkie Pie ranted.
"Huh?"
"Or maybe just a day in the grass." Pinkie fell back relaxing in the soft grass.
"Wait." said Twilight. "Did I write Princess Celestia a letter this week?" The other ponies all gulped, remembering the utter insanity that happened when Twilight forgot to write to Princess Celestia.
"Oh no, not again." Rainbow murmured. Spike, trying to relieve Twilight before she lost it pulled out her portable calender to check.
"You sent her a letter yesterday Twilight."
"Oh..good." The group breathed a sigh of relief. No Twilight going insane this time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later the ponies were finishing their lunches when Applejack pulled a cake box out of her saddle bag.
"How bout some dessert Everypony." She presented a fresh steaming apple pie. The five other ponies and baby dragon got sparkly eyed over the delicious desert.
"Spent all mornin makin this pie, and by the smell of it I'd say its just about right. Who wants the first slice?" Spike eagerly stood up with a plate.
"I'll take it."
"Righeo Spike." Applejack took the pie knife in her mouth to cut Spike a piece when the dragon began to feel queasy, holding his stomach as if about to throw up.
"Goodness. You okay Spike?" asked Fluttershy. Applejack set the knife back down.
"Maybe you should hold off on the pie Spike." Spike then burped up a letter from the princess.
"A letter from Princess Celestia?" Twilight opened the letter and read it to herself.
Dear Twilight, My Faithful Student,
I once again call on the assistance of you and your friends. An important visitor of mine is developing a business venture outside the border of Equestria. He has asked you and your friends to come and sign off on it. I cannot go into details about it, but it is a quite contreversial matter of which I trust your sound judgement and yours alone. Please attend to the visitor's wishes, inspect his facilities, and report back to me on your decision. The visitor is on his way to Ponyville to meet you.
Sincerely,
Her Royal Highness,
Princess Celestia of Equestria
P.S. Sister, Luna says hello.
"What's it say sweetness?" asked Rarity.
"This is weird." said Twilight. "The princess says she wants us to inspect a business venture a visitor of hers is developing. He requested us personally. The ponies looked at each other surprised.
"Why us?" asked Rainbow.
"Who is the visitor?" asked Fluttershy.
"She didn't say." Twilight answered. "She said he's heading to Ponyville to meet us." A low rumble came through the air above Sweet Apple Acres. It was getting louder as if it was coming closer.
"Anypony hear that?" asked Spike.
"Yeah." Rainbow answered. "Sounds like a helicopter."
"Couldn't be." Said Applejack. "There's never any helicopters round here." It was a helicopter and it was landing right in the apple orchard. The loud rotors whipped up the wind through the apple trees, and blew away the ponies' picnic.
"Our picnic!" The ponies and dragon grabbed anything they could of the picnic. Plates, the basket, and the blanket were blown up into the air and scattered by the wind. Applejack's apple pie blew up and splattered in Rarity's face.
"My apple pie!"
"Ugghh! That's the last of my eye shadow." Pinkie Pie was giggling at the air blowing through her mane and tail.
"Weeeeeee! This is fun!!" Twilight and Applejack ran over to the helicopter shouting at the pilot.
"Shut off your engine! Shut it off! Shut it off!" The pilot pointed to the barn with his hoof. Applejack saw somepony going inside.
"Somepony's in ma house." She galloped down to the barn to have a word with the visitor. Whoever he was, he didn't seem to have a sense of common courtesy to show up unannounced like this. Opening the door, she found him rummaging through her kitchen cabinets.
"What the hay ya'll think yer doin!?!." He turned around holding a jug of cider in his hooves. It was a tall stallion with a yellow coat and green mane. He wore a large hat and sunglasses.
"Hey! I was aging that cider!" The visitor grinned a big smile.
"For today. I guarantee it." Applejack raised her hoof to the the stranger's muzzle.
"How dare you come bustin onto my property like this. Who in Equestria do ya'll think you are? "
"Why Applejack, don't you remember me?" The stranger took off his hat and glasses revealing himself to be Applejack's old Uncle Orange from Manehattan. Applejack was so surprised she stumbled for what to say.
"Uncle Orange! Where'd ya'll come from? Why I haven't seen ya'll since I was a little filly."
"I know." Uncle Orange chuckled. "It has been a long time. You were such a cute filly then too. I see you haven't lost your adorable country accent either." Applejack blushed. The others came in to have it out with the intruder.
"Alright!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Who's the jerk who ruined our picnic!"
"And blew an apple pie in my face, ruining a fresh coat of eye shadow."
"Everypony, this is my Uncle Orange from Manehattan. He was the one in the helicopter." Uncle Orange introduced himself to everyone.
"A pleasure to meet you all. Terribly sorry about your picnic, I admit my arrival was a little abrupt." The ponies, taken in by Orange's friendliness suddenly forgot to be angry.
"I take it you're the visitor that the princess mentioned in her letter." said Twilight.
"Yes I am, and we have lots to talk about. Let me pour you all some cider and let's get down to business." He passed them all mugs of cider.
"I'm putting together this spectacular business development that I want your input on. I have an island off the coast of Equestria. Princess Celestia allowed me to buy it and I've spent the last several years creating a kind of biological preserve and resort. It's really fabulous and we've spared no expense. And believe me when I say it, the attractions we have will blow away every pony in Equestria."
"What kind of attractions would those be." said Twilight, skeptical of Uncle Orange's boasting.
"Maybe something cool like aliens, or zombies," said Spike.
"I highly doubt that Spike."
"Or maybe it's an island of small miniature ponyworlds, and they all sing the same song everywhere you go all day long." said Pinkie.
"Whatever," Twilight continued, "Why do you need our help?"
"Well, I have this lawyer in my company. Maybe you know her. Daisy?"
"Oh yeah, Daisy Whitepetal. She used to own the flowershop in Ponyville with Lily and Junebug."
"Yes, well Celestia and Luna are her clients and they recommended you all, especially you Ms. Sparkle. The princess trusts your judgement more than any other pony." Twilight blushed.
"Well that's certainly flattering."
"Twilight! Do you know what this means?!" screamed Pinkie Pie. "A vacation to a zoo on a private island. I bet there's elephants, and rhinos, and kudus, and lions, and tigers, and bears..."
"Oh my." squeaked Flutterhsy.
"Gee, Mr. Orange." said Twilight. "It's a nice offer, but I'm not so sure."
"Darling, how can you not be sure. A weekend getaway has literally fallen out of the sky into our hooves, and you're not sure about it?!" Twilight thought for a minute. Her mentor did request them to help Uncle Orange out.
"Did I mention you'll be staying in five-star accommodations with great amenities, all expenses paid." Rarity squeezed Twilight's neck in joy.
"Did you hear that Twilight, five star accommodations! What will it take to convince you?"
"Maybe not choking me to death?" Rarity let her go.
"I can be packed in five minutes!" Pinkie got into Twilight's face, also eager to go.
"Can we go Twilight? Can we? Huh? Huh? Huh?"
"What kind of park is this anyway?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well let me put it like this. It's unlike any zoo you ever seen."
"Well I'm in." Said Rainbow.
"Me too." said Applejack.
"Try and stop me." said Pinkie Pie.
"I'll come too, if it's alright?" Fluttershy whispered. Twilight still wasn't sure, but seeing the eagerness on her friends faces, she couldn't say no.
"Well...Why not. Let's go."
"WooHooo!" Pinkie cheered blowing a party horn.
"Alright!" said Rainbow. "Weekend trip!"
"YeeHaw!"
"Yay."
"Meet me outside Ponyville tomorrow. We depart first thing in the morning." The group cheered each other with their mugs of cider toasting their upcoming trip. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't understand." Applebloom whined while watching her sister pack her saddle bags. "You said we'd be goin fishin this weekend."
"I know I promised you fishin Applebloom, but somethin important has come up that the girls and I need to do."
"What is it?"
"We gotta go and inspect this zoo resort on an island. Princess Celestia wants us to sign off on it so it can open later this year." Applebloom suddenly got excited. A trip to a zoo resort sounded like fun.
"I wanna go to! I love the zoo!"
"Sorry sis, but this ain't some two day vacation. It's important business. Big pony stuff."
"But?"
"No buts." Applebloom pouted with disappointment. She hated being left out of something exciting because she was too little.
"Now don't have a long face. We'll go fishin next week. I gotta skidadle. The other ponies are probably waiting for me. Ya'll be a good girl for Granny Smith now." While her sister headed for the door, Applebloom tried to think of a way she could go to the island too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uncle Orange's helicopter had relocated to the meadows outside Ponyville, and was waiting for the Mane Six to arrive. Twilight was already there with Spike behind her. Pinkie Pie skipped her way there as Rainbow Dash swooped down from the clouds.
"Hey girls. We all set?"
"Almost." Said Twilight. "We're still waiting for Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity."
"Oh my gosh," said Pinkie. "I'm so excited about this, I've never been so excited in all my life, except all those other times I was really excited, but I mean come on this is a zoo vacation, it's even more exciting than chocolate rain and..."
"Twilight." Said Spike. "Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?"
"Yes Spike. I'm sure. Somepony has to be here to watch the library." The baby dragon snorted a puff of smoke.
"Ahh, it sounded really fun."
"I know it does buddy, but it's really more of a business trip than a vacation. Maybe you and I will go when it's fully open. It'll be much more fun then." Spike went into full mope. He hated feeling left out of the ponies' adventures.
"Come on, you'll have the library to yourself for two days. Hey, I've been saving jewels for you in the top cabinets. You could make that jewel desert you've been dreaming about." Spike was enticed by this proposition. He did enjoy having the library to himself. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
"Well, now that you put it that way." Daisy trotted up to the group.
"Hello Twilight. I'm Daisy, the attorney representing the princesses."
"I remember you." said Twilight. "I haven't seen you since you move to Manehattan."
"Yes, we'll is the rest of the travelling party here yet."
"Here they come!" Pinkie skipped. Rarity pranced up to the copter, dressed in a big sunhat and sunglasses. Fluttershy was carrying Rarity's stack of suitcases and a trunk on her back. She strained under the weight.
"Morning girls." said Rarity cheerfully.
"Um...Rarity..." said Fluttershy. "Are you sure you have everything?"
"Gosh Rarity." said Twilight. "It's only a two day trip, do you really need so much luggage?"
"Well as any fashionable girl like me knows, whenever you go on any trip you pack their bear essentials, and make sure you have plenty of extras just in case."
"Can I put these down now?" Fluttershy whimpered.
"Of course dear." Flutters collapsed to the ground. The bags fell off her back.
"Ouch!" said a small muffled voice.
"Sorry." Fluttershy jumped.
"Who said that?"
"Hmm," Twilight looked at Rarity's trunk. She opened it with her magic and the Cutie Mark Crusaders fell out gasping for air.
"It's hot in there." said Scootaloo.
"No wonder it was so heavy." Twilight laughed. "Stowaways."
"Cutie Mark Crusaders?" said Applejack sternly. "What ya'll doin here. Yer supposed to be back home with Granny Smith."
"I know sis, but I told Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo about where ya'll were goin and they wanted to go and they talked me into stowinaway inside Rarity's trunk."
"Nice try you three but yer not comin with us, and that's final. Now march yer hides back to Sweet Apple Acres."
"You mean they're not coming?" asked Uncle Orange.
"Well no, Uncle Orange. We didn't want them to, this bein important business and all..."
"Nonsense. Of course they can come. I insist." The crusader's faces lit up with delight.
"You mean it?" said Scootaloo excitedly.
"Yes. In fact I'd love for you three to come. My special zoo is made especially for ponies like you."
"Yaayyyy!"
"Are you sure Uncle?" asked Applejack. "We wouldn't wanna trouble ya none."
"No trouble at all Applejack. Now were running late. Everypony, onboard." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Canterlot, the millionaire pony known as Filthy Rich made his way through the streets towards a cafe. Outside the cafe, Derpy Hooves was dining on muffins and some hot chocolate. She noticed Filthy and waved him over.
"Mr. Rich!" Filthy came over and sat across from her.
"We don't have much time." said Filthy. "I trust you're going to the island soon?"
"In ten minutes."
"Good, now you remember which embryos you're retrieving for me."
"Surely. You remember our deal, right?"
"Of course. You're the only pony I know who'll work for muffins." Derpy grinned her cross-eyed smile. Filthy Rich pulled out a can of shaving cream.
"You'll transport them back to me in this."
"How's it work?" Flithy unscrewed the bottom of the can revealing a holding mechanism that snapped up to hold the vials in place.
"That's so cool."
"All you have to do is get this can to the boat before it leaves for Equestria. Thanks to you I can put the plans forward on my own park, and run Mr. Orange out of business."
"Pleasure to be of service to ya."
"You better get going. And you know what to say if you get caught right?" Derpy smiled.
Uncle Orange's helicopter hovered its way over the blue expanse of the Great Equestrian Ocean. The Cutie Marked Crusaders watched in awe of the rolling waves of water beneath them. Uncle Orange's helicopter was equipped with a circular seating arrangement, with everypony sitting in a circle. All the ponies were enthralled by the luxurious interior of the helicopter, especially Rarity.
"Well I must say, this helicopter is marvelous.These movable seats are just galant."
"Oh you haven't seen the luxury I've put into my private helicopter Rarity. Take a look at this." Uncle Orange clapped his hooves twice triggering a drawer to open under Rarity's seat. Inside was fine champagne, orange juice and an ice box.
"WaHaaHaa!" Rarity wasted no time pouring herself a fine drink.
"As always, when it comes to entertaining guests, I spare no expense." Orange turned to the crusaders.
"So girls let me ask you. What do you think of dinosaurs?" The cursaders squeed with excitement.
"We love em." said Applebloom. "We've been learning all about them in school."
"Really. What can you tell me about them?" The Crusaders tried to think of something they learned about dinosaurs.
"We'll they have more in common with birds than reptiles."
"That there were many different kinds, and they ruled the earth for 150 million years."
"And they were really BIG."
"Not all of them were big Sweetie Belle." said Applebloom. "Some dinosaurs were no bigger than the chickens back at the farm."
"Well, the best ones were big." Uncle Orange was delighted with the Crusaders' enthusiasm.
"What are your favorite dinosaurs?" he asked.
"Triceratops!"
"Brontosaurus!"
"T-Rex!"
"Wait." Applejack interrupted. "Dinosaurs. You mean like them terrible lizards? What da they have to do with yer resort?"
"Oh I forgot to mention, the park has a real pre-historic theme to it."
"But aren't dinosaurs extinct?" AJ asked albeit a little confused.
"Of course they are." said Twilight. "They've been extinct for 65 million years." Applejack was still puzzled.
"Maybe they have a really cool robotic attraction like at the Manehattan zoo." Said Rainbow Dash.
"Or maybe it's a zoo of live dinosaurs." said Pinkie Pie. Uncle Orange sheepishly blushed, hoping no one would notice. The other ponies were baffled that Pinkie proposed such an outrageous idea.
"Pinkie darling." Rarity sipped her drink and lowered her sunglasses. "How in Equestria could a zoo have live dinosaurs?"
"I donknow, but maybe they brought them back to life somehow."
"Oh Pinkie." Twilight laughed. "They could never do something like that. Dinosaurs died out millions of years ago, and all that's left of them is fossilized into rock. As much as anypony would like it to be, there's no way to ever see a real live dinosaur." Uncle Orange rolled his eyes and grinned as if he was hiding something.
"Well whatever is on this island I bet it's totally awesome. I can't wait to get there." said Rainbow Dash
"You won't have to wait long Ms Dash." Said Uncle Orange, "Because there it is." The helicopter arrived at the island and flew into one of its green canyons. The island was a beautiful emerald green with enormous forested cliffs and canyons. As the copter twisted and turned its way deeper into the island, the ponies amazed themselves at the green natural beauty outside. Soon the helicopter began to slow down and hover in place.
"You all had better buckle up. Our landing pad is down below and there's a pretty steep drop to get to it. It might be a little..." The helicopter lurched downwards giving everypony on board a major jolt. They all stumbled to gain stability as the copter descended. Rarity's drink splashed in her face.
"Hey! My drink."
"Rough." Uncle Orange laughed. The ponies all buckled up their seat belts. When Twilight went to buckle hers, she had two female parts. She struggled to find the right part.
"No no. I think you got them mixed up somehow." The copter descended faster.
"We'll have landed by the time you fix them..." Twilight cleverly tied the two belts together around her waist.
"That works." The helicopter made its way down the canyon and came to a rest on the landing pad at the very bottom. The pilot came and opened the door. The ponies filed out. Rarity put her hoof on her hat to keep the rotors from blowing it away. Uncle Orange smiled at the green scenery around him. Three red and grey jeeps with driver ponies arrived at the landing pad to take them into the preserve.
The three jeeps with the ponies drove away from the helicopter pad. Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Twilight were in the first one; Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and the Crusaders were in the second; Daisy and Uncle Orange were in the last. As they left the pad, the helicopter took off again leaving them for the weekend excursion. The jeeps passed through a heavily fortified steel gate armed with extremely high voltage electricity. Whatever this park kept inside it must have been something to have this high tech security. The jeeps bumped along a muddy road. The ponies all marveled at the jungle like scenery of the island. It seemed other-worldly, almost prehistoric. Twilight seated in the passenger seat leaned out and grabbed a large leaf with her magic. In the third jeep Daisy and Uncle Orange exchanged on more serious matters.
"And your sure the high-voltage fences are online at their full capacity?"
"Yes. They're all online, and the concrete moats are in place. Daisy my dear, relax and try to enjoy yourself."
"I don't think you fully understand this situation." Daisy replied. "This isn't a weekend getaway. We are here investigating the safety of this park. These ponies along with myself have been charged with this responsibility by the rulers of Equestria. They have the authority to pull the plug on this operation. Two days from now, if we're not convinced of the park's safety, they won't be either. Uncle Orange chuckled.
"In two days, I'll be accepting your apology." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The jeeps drove into a large open grass field with a several large trees isolated in different spots, and stopped.
"Stop here. Stop." said Uncle Orange. "I want them to see it for themselves." Twilight analyzed the large leaf with amazement.
"This is amazing." Rainbow and Fluttershy looked around at the scenery.
"So beautiful here." said Fluttershy. "The trees, the meadows, the..." She and Dash looked to one side of the jeep and saw something. Something unbelievable. They climbed out the top of the jeep to get a better look.
"Is that what I think it is?" They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Twilight was still focused on the leaf.
"This plant species has been extinct for millions of years. It's amazing that it's able to grow on this island. It's almost like..." Rainbow tapped Twilight's head with her hoof.
"What. What?" Twilight's jaw dropped at what she saw. The other ponies couldn't believe what they were seeing. Uncle Orange smiled calmly. Rarity fainted. Applejack pulled her hat off her head.
"Sweet Celestia." There next to them was a real, living, breathing, moving, dinosaur! A brachiosaurus. The ponies all jumped out of the jeeps to get a close up look at the magnificent creature. The huge sauropad moved its massive bulk through the field, munching on the leaves from the trees.
"It's...It's...a dinosaur!" said Twilight, "A...a real live dinosaur!"
"OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh!" Rarity came too after fainting, and was still a little light headed.
"Pinch me. I must be dreaming."
"Oh none of you are dreaming." said Uncle Orange. "It is a real live dinosaur." Rarity fainted again.
"Can I have a glass of water?" Pinkie asked the jeep driver. He handed her one, which she drank and spat out in surprise, soaking the driver. Applejack stuttered at the sight of the dinosaur.
"Well wallop my withers, a..brontosaurus."
"A brachiosaurus." Applebloom corrected her sister. "It's got the crest on its head."
"This is incredible. A real brachiosaurs!" said Scootaloo. The brachiosaurus pulled the leaves off of the top of a very high tree. It's enormous size made the ponies feel like really little ponies.
"My gosh," said Twilight. "I'm going to have to re-write the science books back home in the library. All that stuff about these animals being cold-blooded were absolutely wrong, this is a warm blooded creature."
"How long is that neck?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"That has to be at least 30 feet." said Twilight.
"Amazing how an animal can have a neck that long." Rarity added in. The dinosaur's call echoed off the distant cliffs. Then it did something amazing. It stood up on its hind legs and reached for leaves on the tippy top of the tree. The ground shook as it landed back on all fours. Daisy watched from inside one of the jeeps. She wasn't nervous about the park anymore.
"We're gonna make a fortune." Pinkie was still inside the jeep starry eyed at the dinosaur.
"I can't believe it."
"That we have live dinosaurs?" asked the driver.
"No, that I figured out you had live dinosaurs. How was I able to know that?" Rainbow Dash was so excited she was as giddy as a school filly.
"Are there more dinosaurs?"
"Of course there are, Lots. Hadrosaurs, ankylosaurus, triceratops, T-Rex."
"Wait." Fluttershy cut him off. "Did you say T-Rex, as in Tyrannosaurus Rex? As in the largest meat-eater to walk the earth millions of years ago?" Uncle Orange nodded while Fluttershy fainted into Applejack's hooves. Twilight came up to him.
"What did you say?"
"We have one...a tyrannosaurus rex." Twilight lost the feeling to her legs and nearly fell flat onto her face.
"Take some deep breaths darling." Rarity laughed. Uncle Orange smiled with delight.
"My little ponies. Welcome to my dream creation for all of Equestria. Welcome to Jurassic Park. The ponies looked over at a lake on the other side of the field. There were three more brachiosauruses. They moved in herds and were social animals like ponies.
"They move in herds." she murmered. 'They're sociable."
"How did you do this?" Fluttershy asked Uncle Orange.
The red jeeps carrying the ponies left the brachiosaur enclosure and drove along the main road to the main command enclosure, surrounded by a large 90 foot electric fence. At last they pulled up to the visitor's center. The building was a large three story concrete and steel structure with a straw hut domed roof. It housed the park control center, genetics lab, as well as the accommodations and food service. Outside, two step fountains ran along the stairs and two apatasaurus statues greeted visitors walking inside.
Uncle Orange led the group up the stairs and into the center's rotunda, which was still partially under construction. The centerpiece of the rotunda were two bone displays of a Tyrannosaurus and a Brachiosaurus in a fight.
"This is the crown jewel of the facilities here at Jurassic Park, our visitor's center. When it is finished it will look even more glorious than right now, we've spared no expense. When opened in two months we'll be the most advanced amusement park in all of Equestria. No lame animatronics or cheap thrills on this island. No. We've made living biological attractions so astounding, they'll capture the imagination of all ponykind."
"Can you believe it girls!" Rainbow squeed. "Dinosaurs! Real live dinosaurs! This has to be the coolest thing ever, it's even cooler than the Wonderbolts!"
"We need to have a party. A dinosaurs back to life party." said Pinkie blowing a party horn The ponies were all thrilled with the park, except for Twilight and Fluttershy. Twilight was still a little shaken from seeing a live dinosaur, and also knowing that there were other ones here too, even meat eating dinosaurs.
"Now I know why Princess Celestia wanted us to come here."
"Now there is a lot to see on your stay here. You'll be touring the facilities here at the Visitor Center, and then you'll be going out into the park itself on our tour safari. But before that, I have a special film to show you about how we brought these great creatures back to life. It starts in 30 minutes, enough time for you all to settle into your rooms. I'll see you all there soon." The ponies all headed up the stairs to the second floor of the visitor's center. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bell pony opened the doors to the hotel rooms where the ponies would be staying.
"Here are your rooms ladies. Enjoy your stay." The ponies had three rooms connected to each other featuring three nice beds to a room.
"Woohoo. Nice cribs." Rainbow Dash flew in and crashed on one of the beds.
"Wow, the beds are super comfy. Better than my clould bed back home." Rarity lay on the one next to Rainbow.
"Oooohh. It's like floating on silk."
"Time to check out the bathroom." Pinkie Pie bounced into the bathroom, flipping on the light.
"Wow! Walk in shower with extendable shower head, Six Pony hot tub."
"Hot tub!!!" Rarity shrieked. She pushed Pinkie out of the way to beam at the hot tub.
"This is better than the one at the spa, and it's only ten feet away from the bed." Pinkie Pie discovered that the toilet was an automatic flushing toilet.
"Wow. The toilet flushes itself." Giggling she moved her head back and forth triggering the flushing mechanism. While the other ponies settled into the hotel, Twilight sat on her bed looking glum. Applejack came up to her.
"What's the matter sugarcube? You look worried."
"I am. It's just, I mean there are dinosaurs on this island."
"I know! Isn't that great!?" said Pinkie bouncing on her bed.
"Yeah it's cool and everything, but I just have this feeling in my stomach that there's something not quite right about it. Princess Celestia was worried about this too."
"Hold on darling," said Rarity adjusting her hat. "We've only just got here. Let's see the rest of the park first. However these splendid hotel amenities are enough to convince me." Twilight sighed.
"Come on you guys." said Rainbow Dash. "Let's see how they made the dinosaurs." The group headed from the hotel to the other side of the rotunda where Uncle Orange was waiting for them.
Uncle Orange led the ponies into a small movie theater. They all sat down while Orange remained standing at the front next to the screen.
"Wonderful. Now I bet you're all wondering how we brought dinosaurs back to life here on this island."
"No kidding." said Rainbow Dash. "How did you do it?"
"Patience Ms. Dash. This film I'm about to show you will explain everything. It's really an amazing process I don't know if I could explain it. You really have to see it for yourself. Roll the film." The lights dimmed in the theater as Orange took his seat in the back with Daisy.
"How do think they brought them back?" Rarity asked the others.
"I don't know." said Applejack. "They must be using some kind of powerful magic. Twilight, is there any kind of magic that could resurrect dinosaurs like that?"
"No. No unicorn knows how to do that. Not even Princess Celestia. Whatever they doing, it couldn't be magic."
"Shh." Rainbow hushed them. "Let's watch the film."
The film opened with an image of the Jurassic Park insignia and Uncle Orange appeared on the screen.
"Hello there, and welcome to Jurassic Park; where after 65 million years dinosaurs roam the earth once again. I'm Mosey Orange, the owner and CEP of Jurassic Park. You're probably asking yourself 'Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. How have they come back to life?"
"Um Mr. Orange," said a small voice offscreen. "Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. How have they come back to life?" Pipsqueak joined Orange on-screen
"Hey! It's Pipsqueak from Ponyville!" said Pinkie Pie.
"Why it's very simple Pip. And I'll show you how. First I need a drop of blood, your blood." Pip held out his hoof and Orange pricked it with a pin.
"Ouch." Pip squealed. "That hurts Mr. Orange."
"Oh relax son, it's all part of the miracle of cloning." Multiple Pips started appearing onscreen next to Pip.
"But how could they?" said Twilight. "Where would you find million years old dinosaur blood?" A cartoon DNA character appeared out of Pip's hoof.
"Hello there Pip." said the character. "I'm Mr. DNA."
"Where did you come from?"
"From that drop of your blood. Just one drop contains billions of stands of DNA. The building blocks of life." Mr. DNA turned to face the camera.
"Take a closer look at me." The camera rushed in onto his eyes.
"Not that close!" The camera pulled back.
"There. I'm a strand of DNA like the ones that make you the pony you are. I'm found inside every living thing on the planet, even dinosaurs. And finding DNA in dinosaur blood was the key to bringing them back to life here at Jurassic Park."
"But Mr. DNA," asked Pip. "If dinosaurs died out millions of years ago, how did you find their blood?"
"A great question Pip, and the answer is right here." Mr. DNA held up a shiny gold like rock.
"A rock?"
"Not just any rock." Mr. DNA continued. "This is amber; fossilized tree sap. And look what's inside." The camera focused in close on the amber revealing a preserved mosquito.
"Of course." said Twilight.
"Inside this amber is a preserved mosquito, and it is the key to resurrecting dinosaurs. Allow me to demonstrate. Let's go back millions and millions of years." A time travel montage of clocks took Mr. DNA back to the time of dinosaurs.
"Ahh, here we are back in the time of the dinosaurs." A mosquito buzzed around his head.
"And look, a mosquito." The mosquito landed on the back of a grazing triceratops and sucked its blood.
"Just like mosquitoes today, they fed on the blood of other animals, including dinosaurs." The mosquito buzzes away from the triceratops to a tree branch and gets stuck in the flowing sap.
"Sometimes after biting a dinosaur, the mosquito would land on a tree branch and get stuck in the tree's sap." The time montage appeared around the stuck mosquito.
"And then over millions of years, the tree sap becomes hard and turns into fossilized amber with the mosquito and the dinosaur blood preserved inside."
"The poor mosquito." said Fluttershy
"Bummer." said Rainbow Dash. The amber with the mosquito inside now appears in a laboratory, with a scientist unicorn pony drilling into it.
"And this is where our Jurassic Park scientists enter the story." The unicorn drills a hole down to the mosquito's abdomen, then inserts a tiny syringe and extracts the blood. "Using very fine scientific tools, the preserved blood from the mosquito is extracted and...Bingo. Dino DNA! The ponies all looked at each other amazed.
"So that's how they did it." said Rainbow
"Incredible." said Rarity.
"A full strand of DNA is filled with billions of genetic code." Mr. DNA appeared on a screen of A's, T's, C's and G's whizzing by behind him.
"If we looked at screens like these once a second for eight hours a day, it would take two years to look at the entire DNA strand. It's that long. But even though we have the dinosaur DNA, we can't make a dinosaur just yet."
"Why not Mr. DNA?" asked Pip.
"Well our analysis revealed holes in the genetic code, called genetic sequence gaps. If we don't fill those gaps, the genetic codes won't produce the proteins needed for life. Think of this like trying to bake a cake, but your recipe is incomplete. You can't bake the cake. And this is where our geneticists take over." The scene changed to reveal genetic scientist ponies analyzing different genetic codes on computers.
"Using high tech super computers, the genetic code is broken down in minutes, revealing the gaps. The complete DNA of a frog is now used, since it's 95 percent identical." Mr. DNA picked up the DNA from a frog and filled it into the dinosaur DNA.
"Taking the frog DNA, we fill the genetic gaps, and complete the code." Fanfare and confetti surrounds the filling of the cartoon genetic code.
"And now, we can finally hatch baby dinosaurs." A cartoon nest of eggs begins hatching, and full grown dinosaurs of many species appear and roar at the audience. The room shook as the dinosaurs on the screen roared.
"That's so cool." said the Crusaders.
"That's nothing." said Uncle Orange. "Wait till you see this." The bars in front of the seats suddenly retracted backwards, belting the ponies in their seats. The screen pulled away and the theater started turning. It was a movable theater. Behind the glass window was the real genetics lab of Jurassic Park.
"Welcome to the genetics lab of Jurassic Park." said the Voice over. "Here you can see our scientists analyzing the genetic codes of different dinosaurs, in preparation for their development."
"This is amazing Mr. Orange." said Daisy. "Is this cybernetic or some..."
"No, no. Those are not animatronics. Those are the real scientists making the miracle of Jurassic Park." The theater moved to the next room.
"This is the dinosaur hatchery. The dinosaur DNA from the previous room is implanted into un-fertilized emu and ostrich eggs, then incubated for the appropriate gestation period until ready for hatching. All of Jurassic Park's dinosaurs were hatched from this room"
"Are there dinosaur's being hatched right now?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes." Orange answered.
"Let me off! I have to see them!" Fluttershy pushed her hooves against the bars.
"I wanna see baby dinosaurs!" Pinkie Pie screeched. "I wanna see baby dinosaurs! Let me see them!!!!!"
"I have to see this too." said Twilight. They tried to push the bars off, but they wouldn't move.
"Can't you stop this thing?" asked Fluttershy."
"It's really kind of a ride." said Orange.
"Hold on." Twilight lit up her horn and pushed the bars up. The whole group vacated the moving theater, and headed for the lab.
"Wait can they do that?" said Daisy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inside the hatchery lab, ponies in lab coats monitored computers and talked to each other. Six incubator nests in the lab contained dinosaur eggs within plastic domes to keep them warm. The ponies came down the stairs into the lab. One scientist unicorn, named Whooves stood at the base of the stairs jotting down notes on a pad.
"Hello Dr. Whooves." said Uncle Orange.
"Oh, Mr. Orange. Good to see you here."
"I brought some guests with me from Equestria. They wanted to see the hatchery lab."
"Yes, well this is the hatchery." Pinkie Pie excitedly smushed her face against one of the plastic domes to look at the eggs.
"Where are the baby dinosaurs? Where are they?!"
"You won't see them in that incubator." laughed Whooves. "Those eggs are only two weeks into development."
"Ahhh."
"But the eggs in this incubator are 6 weeks old, they could hatch anytime now." The ponies hurried to the other incubator which was open. A robotic arm was turning the eggs.
"Incredible." said Twilight. They spotted one egg starting to move.
"Aha! I think we've got one."
"Perfect." said Whooves. "I was hoping they would hatch before I have to make the boat." Uncle Orange moved in.
"Gather round everypony. We should all be witness to this magical moment." The ponies all gathered round the incubator to witness the hatching of a dinosaur. Tiny cracks started to appear in the shell.
"Come on, come on, come on little one." The ponies all gasped as the tiny dinosaur hatched its way out of the shell.
"Come on now. Very good, push! Push!" Uncle Orange pulled away pieces of the broken shell revealing the newborn dinosaur.
"Here you are!" The baby dinosaur screeched a tiny screech as it emerged from the shell.
"It's so cute." said Fluttershy. "I mean all baby animals are cute, but I never imagined a baby dinosaur being cute too."
"Wow, look at it." said the Crusaders. The dinosaurs tiny little clawed hands touched onto Uncle Orange's hooves.
"They imprint on the first thing they see after they hatch. I've been present for the hatching of every animal on this island."
"Amazing." said Rainbow Dash.
"What a little cutie." said Rarity.
"Happy birthday baby dinosaur!" Pinkie Pie blew a party horn.
"How do they breed in the wild?" asked Fluttershy.
"Oh, actually they can't breed in the wild." Whooves replied. "All the breeding happens in here in a controlled environment. Our top priority is no uncontrolled breeding in Jurassic Park."
"Why can't the breed in the wild?" Twilight added into the conversation.
"Well, all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are female. We engineered them that way." All the ponies were transfixed by the dinosaur. Rarity and Twilight took a closer look at the shell. As Twilight held it up in her magic the robotic arm reached over and snatched it away from her.
"What a rude robot." said Rarity.
"But wait," said Flutterhsy. "How do you know they're all female?"
"Easy." Pinkie interjected. "Somepony went out there and looked up the dinosaurs' skirts." The ponies all stared at Pinkie.
"What? How else would you guess their all girls?"
"We control their chomosomes." Whooves continued. "It's really not that difficult. All vertebrate embryos are inherently female anyway. They just need an extra hormone at the right stage to make them male. We simply deny them that." Fluttershy felt faint and needed to sit down. She had trouble comprehending what these scientists were doing.
"You okay darling?" Rarity asked Flutterhsy.
"Yes I'm fine. It's just the thought of this attempted control over nature is a little overwhelming to me. If there's one thing that taking care of animals most of my life has taught me is that nature and life cannot be controlled like this. Nature will breakthrough any barriers it comes up against, sometimes even with frightening consequences. Nature is something to be respected, not tampered with or controlled." The other ponies didn't know how to respond to what Fluttershy just said.
"Are you suggesting that a population made up only female organisms will...breed?"
"All I'm really saying is...life finds a way." Twilight touched the baby dinosaur with her hoof looking at its small teeth and claws.
"What species is it?"
"Uh, velociraptor." A chill fell through Twilight's body.
"You...bred raptors." Whooves nodded gently. Twilight now looked at the baby raptor with a sense of fear. She read about velociraptors and what dangerous predators they were. This tiny harmless creature the size of her hoof would grow up to be a lethal killer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight headed outside the center to the holding pen where the adult velociraptors were being held. It was the same place where the incident prompting their visit had taken place. Twilight was intent on seeing the raptors, and wanted to learn more about them. Uncle Orange trailed behind Twilight with the rest of the group.
"Ms. Sparkle, we have lunch laid out for all of you before you go on the tour. Our gourmet chefs have prepared a delicious..."
"What's going on?" A large cow was being lifted up by a crane over to the cage.
"It's feeding time." The ponies watched curiously as the cow was lifted high above the cage.
"As I was saying our gourmet chefs have prepared a delicious menu, steamed daffodils with lilac sauce, shall we..." They walked up onto the deck overlooking the holding pen.
"Oh dear." said Fluttershy watching the cow be lowered into the cage. "Is that cow going to be?"
"Afraid so." said Uncle Orange. "Raptors have to eat too." The cow mooed as it was lowered into the pen and disappeared beneath the heavy bushes. The ponies watched to see what would happen. The brushes rustled beneath as the raptors sensed that dinner had been served. Suddenly hideous growls and screams burst out from the bushes below. The bushes shook violently as the raptors devoured the cow. The ponies watched the bushes intently. They couldn't see the fearsome predators, but only hear their horrific screams. Fluttershy covered her mouth in distress.
"What atrocious table manners." Rarity commented.
"I don't think etiquette was a thing 70 million years ago." said Rainbow.
"They should all be destroyed." a voice came from behind.
"This is Octavia, our game warden and animal coordinator. She's a former classical celist from Canterlot, but also has duel education in zoology and paleontology. She knows heaps about raptors too." Twilight had a mouth full of questions. Being the egghead that she was, she wanted to know everything possible.
"I have so many questions to ask about the raptors."
"Fire away."
"We just saw a baby raptor in the hatchery. I wanted to know, what's their growth rate, their metabolism?"
"They're lethal at 6 months, and I mean lethal. I studied many animals that can hunt ponies in school but these things are a whole other story."
"How fast are they for a bi-ped?"
"Very fast. Cheetah speed at least if they ever got the chance for it, and they're amazing jumpers."
"How come we can't see them?" asked Scootaloo.
"Well since they're an especially dangerous specimen, we've had to re-design their whole enclosure, which is why they're in this holding pen until it's ready. If we kept it the old way, they'd probably figure out how to escape."
"That's another thing." said Twilight. "Intelligence; there's been speculation from their brain cavity measurements..."
"They're amazingly intelligent." said Octavia. "Problem solving intelligent. If you ever put high-level trigonometry problems on a chalkboard these things would figure it out likety split. Especially the big one. We originally had eight raptors, but when we brought the big one in, she killed six of the others and took over the pride. That one, you can tell by the look in her eyes she's working things out."
"Oh my." Fluttershy squeaked. "I don't think my stare could tame these animals."
"That's why feed them like this. She had them attacking the fences when the feeding ponies came."
"But aren't the electric fences enough?" asked Twilight.
"Yes they are, but they never attacked the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically." The crane pulled out the harness that was holding the cow out of the raptor cage. It was torn to shreds by their feeding frenzy.
"Well." said Uncle Orange. "How bout lunch?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the dining area, the group sat at a large rectangular table. Waiter unicorns served them their food.
"Ahh perfect. I am starving." said Rainbow Dash as she and the others dug into their lunch.
"Hmm. Tasty." said Pinkie Pie with the food all over her face. Of all the ponies, Twilight and Fluttershy didn't touch their food. Watching the velociraptors left them deeply troubled, especially Twilight. Fluttershy leaned over to Twilight.
"After seeing what happened to that cow, I'm not really that hungry." she whispered.
"I know what you mean." Twilight replied."
"Is everypony excited to see more dinosaurs?" asked Uncle Orange.
"You bet." said Rainbow Dash, the other ponies minus the purple unicorn and yellow pegasus agreed with her.
"Great, because after lunch is the safari tour into the park itself, where you'll get to see the other dinosaurs."
"Will we get to see the T-Rex?" Scootaloo asked excitedly.
"Yes."
"Awesome!"
"And Mr. Orange," Daisy started in. "When we get back tonight I was hoping I could take some time to talk with you about other attractions and pricing for when the park opens to the public."
"Of course Daisy." Twilight finally spoke up.
"I have to agree with Fluttershy, the lack of respect toward nature surrounding this place is really profound." The other ponies looked at Twilight a little confused.
"Now Ms. Sparkle." Daisy retorted. "I think you're being a little unfair to Mr. Orange..."
"No hold on, let her talk. I want to hear what she has to say. Go ahead Ms. Sparkle." Twilight cleared her throat.
"What Fluttershy said earlier in the hatchery lab totally sums up my feelings about this place, and why Princess Celstia and Luna were worried about it too. The power of nature is the most awesome power in the universe, so much so that even Princess Celestia is humble before it. Tampering with nature opens up a range of unthinkable or even dreadful possibilities."
"I hardly see how nature has been tampered with Ms. Sparkle." said Uncle Orange.
"You brought an extinct species back to life using super science, animals that we ponies know nothing about, and we haven't the slightest idea what to expect. If that's not tampering, I don't know what is."
"Now wait, lots is known about dinosaurs."
"We only know biology from their bones, but nothing about behavior, temperament, or what these things are really capable of. And on top of resurrecting these animals back, what makes you think you can control them?"
"Well we have plenty of safety infrastructure in place..."
"That's another problem. Any effort to maintain control requires an incredibly complex system. This system is stretched so thin that slightest unpredictable force, even a tiny one, could make the whole thing go kaphlooey."
"Like a balloon." Pinkie blew up one of the balloons she packed. "Blown up the skin is stretched so thin that one little prick." Pinkie popped the balloon with Rarity's horn. "And the party's over."
"Exactly my point!" said Twilight. Uncle Orange shook his head in his hooves.
"I simply don't understand why I'm hearing this, especially from Princess Celestia's personal protege. I mean we've done something here that nopony else has ever done before."
"Yes, but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I'm sorry I'm not as enthralled you'd like. I love dinosaurs as much as the next pony, and seeing live ones is certainly cool and all, but I wish there was a little more disciplined restraint. What you call great and amazing I have my own word for...science gone haywire."
"That's three words." said Pinkie Pie. Twilight smirked with the look of 'whatever'.
Two explorer tour vehicles pulled up to the steps of the visitor's center as the ponies were coming down the stairs.
"These are the tour vehicles ponies." said Uncle Orange. "Aren't they glorious. Custom made by the Baltimare Motor Company." The tour vehicles were SUVs painted in green and brown jungle camouflage. They had beige leather interiors, plexiglass sunrooves, and computer monitors in the consoles.
"How come no drivers?." Said Applejack.
"Because there are no drivers. They're electric. They run on the track in the middle of the road. And they're controlled remotely from the control room."
"Boy, this place keeps getting 20% more cooler." The doors to the cars opened automatically.
"Welcome to the Jurassic Park safari tour. Please enter the vehicles."
"Is that Fancy Pants?" Rarity cried.
"It is. As always we've spared no expense." The cutie mark crusaders jumped in the first car and were immediately taken with the features. Sweetie Belle fiddled with the computer console.
"Interactive CD-ROM! Look, you touch one part of the screen and it talks about whatever you want."
"Cool, just the thing for a computer nerd." Scootaloo joked.
"I'm more of a hacker." The ponies all gathered into the cars. Applejack, Rarity, the Crusaders, and Daisy were in the first car; Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were in the second. Uncle Orange helped them into their seats and shut the doors.
"There are radios beneath the glove compartments so you can talk to each other or contact us in the control room. Have a great time." Orange headed back inside.
"Still worried about the park Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.
"A little, but it will be cool to see live dinosaurs."
Uncle Orange and Octavia entered the control room where all of the park's systems were monitored and controlled.
"There's a tropical storm heading this way." said Octavia. "Right now it's about 75 miles west of us."
"Let's hope that doesn't spoil the tour for the ponies."
"It doubt it, but I'll keep an eye on it. Hopefully it'll dissipate or swing south or something." A dark blue unicorn pony named Bright Bulb sat at the main computer desk.
"Bright, start up the tour program."
"Hold onto your hooves ponies." A click of the mouse initiated the tour. The cars started moving slowly down the track.
"Hey look! It's driving itself!" shrieked the crusaders, amazed by the self-driving vehicle.
"Amazin!" Applejack said in response. Rainbow Dash was also taken by the self-steering car.
"The car is driving itself!"
"Pull over you crazy driver!" Pinkie laughed. The cars made a left turn and headed down a long stretch of dirt road.
"During the tour, the appropriate information will be displayed automatically. Simply touch the icon on the screen related to the current location."
"Hey look." said Applebloom. Up ahead was the large wooden Jurassic Park gate.
"Here we go everypony." said Applejack.
"Welcome to Jurassic Park." The huge gate opened to let the cars through, then shut behind them.
"What do you think the first dinosaur will be?" Rainbow asked the others. "I hope its triceratops or stegosaurus or T-Rex."
"Oh dear, I don't know if I really want to see the T-Rex." Fluttershy squeaked.
"Don't be a scardey pony Fluttershy, It's not like the dinosaurs are roaming free in the park."
"Yeah, their behind 10,000 volt electric wires." said Pinkie "They won't come and eat you all up."
"I'm not worried about that, more about those poor dinosaurs being shocked by those fences."
"Hey!" said Twilight. "I think were coming to our first dinosaur." The cars slowed down around a curve approaching the first enclosure.
"If you look to the right of the vehicle, you'll see a herd of the first dinosaurs on our tour. Dilophosaurus."
"Dilophosaurus!"
"Cool!" The ponies leaned to the windows to get a look.
"One of the earliest therapod dinosaurs hailing from the early Jurassic period, almost 150 million years ago. Upon it's introduction into the park, we discovered that Dilophosaurus is actually poisonous. When hunting, it spits a potent venom from glands within its jaw. Aiming for the eyes, the venom causes blindness and disorientation, rendering its prey utterly helpless. With sharp accuracy, the carnivore can hit a target from a distance of 20 feet. An expanding neck cowl adds an extra frightening touch. For your safety we ask that you keep windows shut as you pass the enclosure. Dilophasurus was an efficient predator of its time, making it a beautiful but deadly addition to Jurassic Park."
The ponies looked around for the Dilophosaurus but it was nowhere to be found. There was nothing behind the fence except for thick leafy jungle.
"Where is it? I don't see anything." said Sweetie Belle. The ponies all frowned with disappointment.
"Ponyfeathers." Twilight shook her head. The cars drove away.
The cars travelled further into the park bumping their way down the dirt road. They came upon the second dinosaur enclosure.
"Ahh, coming up on the left is the second dinosaur on our safari, Ankylosaurus. From the late Cretaceous period, Ankylosaurus is famous as the armored dinosaur, with hard osteoderm plates on its head and back and tail club as its primary weapon of defense. Although it's a herbivore and can be placid when calm, this dinosaur was not one to underestimate. With poor eyesight and a very short temper, it is easily provoked into defensive behavior. One swipe of its club could deal a fatal injury to most predators. These animals live together in small herds and are very protective of their territory and each other." The ponies looked around for the armored dinosaurs, but like the Dilophosaurus, they were absent.
"What? Where is it?" Applebloom.
"What in tarnation? Said Applejack. "Where could dinosaurs be in the middle of the day?"
"Maybe it's naptime for them," said Sweetie Belle. "Just like how the elephants in the Canterlot zoo have a naptime."
"Naptime or whatever," Scootaloo grumbled. "Why can't we just see one." The cars pulled away from the Ankylosaurus enclosure, disappointed yet again.
"Gosh, what is going on with these dinosaurs?" said Rainbow Dash. "As soon as we want to see them they don't show up."
"Maybe they grew wings, turned into little birdy's and flew away. They are related to birds after all."
"It's the other way around Pinkie." Twilight looked up from a JP brochure. "Birds are related to dinosaurs."
"Really? How?" Fluttershy gasped.
"It's really quite amazing when you think about it. A lot of dinosaur skeletons are structured similar too birds, and they have similar features. Some dinosaurs have been discovered with primitive feathers like a bird."
"Oh my." Fluttershy was intrigued by what she was hearing. Twilight levitated a book out of her saddlebag, opening it to a page on compsagnathus.
"Take this guy, comsagnathus. It's a dinosaur..." Twilight used her magic to make the book into sort of a flip book showing bird evolution.
"But over millions of years it's front arms turn into wings, its snout turned into a beak, it learned how to fly, and likety split, you've got a bird in the sky."
"Amazing, so the birds I have at my cottage in my choir could be long lost dinosaur cousins?"
"Probably."
"Wow, I'll never look at birds the same way again." The tour vehicles pulled up to the T-Rex paddock. "In this large paddock is the star attraction of Jurassic Park. The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex."
"All right." said Scootaloo. "The T-Rex." The vehicles stopped in front of the fence to allow a better look.
"Let's hope we finally see something." Rainbow Dash grumbled.
"Third time's the charm!" said Pinkie. "The T-Rex was the top predator of its time in the late Cretaceous period, nearly 70 million years ago, and one of the largest carnivores ever to roam the planet. With excellent binocular vision, and banana sized teeth, any dinosaur was wise to avoid becoming its dinner. It's name literally means 'Tyrant Lizard King'. Despite its size, the T-Rex is a very capable runner, able to reach speeds of 30 miles per hour. However, it has one weakness, it's vision is based on movement...
"What does that mean?" Rainbow asked.
"It means if you remain perfectly still," Twilight answered. "and don't move a muscle, the T-Rex wouldn't see you. Thus you wouldn't get eaten." Fluttershy froze up. The other ponies looked at her.
"Just in case." However, this small handicap is more than compensated by an excellent sense of smell and strong depth perception. We've stopped here for ten minutes to allow for a good look at this magnificent animal, and Jurassic Park's main attraction. The ponies watched the paddock for the T-Rex, but like the other two it didn't show up.
"Maybe it isn't home." said Fluttershy.
"Oh it's home." said Twilight. "There's few places it can go with that fence." The T-Rex still didn't come.
"Don't tell me this one's not going to show up either." Rainbow Dash moaned. She rolled down the window.
"Come on dinosaurs! Wake up!" Pinkie Pie also stuck her head out the window blowing a party horn.
"Wakey wakey!!! Some ponies all the way from Equestria to see you!!" Nothing happened. Rarity yawned. Octavia came over the intercom.
"We'll try and tempt the Rex now. Keep your eyes on the fence." A goat tethered to a pole came of of the ground in the paddock.
"What's going to happen to him?" said Sweetie Belle. "It's gonna eat the goat!?!"
"It is a carnivore Sweetie Belle."
"What's the matter kid?" Daisy commented. "You've never heard of lamb chops?"
"Last I looked, ponies didn't eat meat." said Applejack a little annoyed.
"A T-Rex doesn't want to be fed, it wants to hunt." said Twilight. "You can't supress 65 million years of natural instincts." They waited another five minutes, but the Tyrannosaurus was a no show. The goat laid down in the grass as if to take a nap. The ponies shrugged and sighed disappointed yet again.
"This really blows." Scootaloo kicked her hooves on the back of the seat. The tour vehicles started moving again.
The tour vehicles pulled away from the T-Rex paddock, the ponies once again disappointed that another one of the extinct reptiles didn't bother to show.
"Ughh. You would think in a zoo with dinosaurs, you would actually get to see some dinosaurs." Rainbow Dash moaned. "Especially the T-Rex, he's my favorite."
"Ahh, the essence of chaos." Sighed Pinkie Pie cheerfully.
"Say what now?" Rainbow was surprised at Pinkie's utterance of a term synonymous with a certain petrified draconequus.
"Chaos." she replied. "Rexy not showing up when we wanted it to. The essence of chaos." As usual, the ponies were stumped to Pinkie's randomness, until Twilight had a brainstorm.
"You mean chaos theory, don't you Pinkie?
"Of course. What else do you think I meant?"
"Chaos what?" said Fluttershy.
"Sounds like something Discord would think of." Rainbow added in.
"Oh no," Twilight continued. "Nothing to do with Discord at all. Chaos theory is the study of unpredictability in complex systems. I read a lot about it before I moved to Ponyville. But how did you know about it Pinkie?"
"Cupcakes. Baking cupcakes gives you all sorts of perspectives on the bigger picture." The three other ponies looked dumbfounded.
"I'm still don't know what you're talking about." said Fluttershy.
"Unpredictability? Well it's really just how random occurrences shape what happens in the world around us. Come to think of it, it's not surprising Pinkie knows about it."
"But still..."
"I'll show you, the best way to know is too see." Twilight levitated one of the glasses of water over to her.
"Hold up your hoof Fluttershy we're going to do a little experiment. I'm going to let a drop of water fall on your hoof, and lets see which way it goes." Fluttershy held up her hoof. Twilight levitated a drop of water and dropped it on Fluttershy's hoof. Pinkie watched.
"Okay see, it went down straight. Now we'll let another drop fall in the same place, which way do you think it'll go?"
"Same way." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the boring egghead stuff Twilight was talking about, then saw something out in a field next to the road. It looked like one of the red jeeps. She heard a low pitched moan too. Twilight dropped another drop on Flutters' hoof.
"See look, it went a different way."
"Wow!" said Pinkie Pie. "How does it do that?"
"It changed direction because the tiny variations of the ridges and patterns on Fluttershy's hoof caused a random unpredicability in the course of the water."
"The beauty of randomness." Pinkie sighed.
"I'll never look at my hooves the same way again." said Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash suddenly bolted out of the moving tour vehicle.
"See, there's another example of chaos theory. Nopony could have anticipated Rainbow Dash jumping out of the car just now." Fluttershy followed Rainbow out of the car.
"Rainbow Dash! Where are you going? Come back!" Pinkie Pie joined them.
"WeHee! Wait for me!" Twilight was now alone in the moving car, unable to comprehend the irony of the situation.
"And now I'm alone in the car talking to myself. Oh unpredictability." In the first car, Rarity and Applejack noticed the others heading into the field. Rarity dipped down her sunglasses.
"Where are in Equestria are they all going?"
"Looks like thers somein in the field down there. I'm gunna check it out." Applejack jumped out of the car.
Back in the control room, Orange and the crew saw their pony guests were vacating the moving vehicles.
"Stop the program! Halt everything." BrightBulb hit the computer command that halted the tour vehicles.
"You'd think Baltimare Motor Co. would give us vehicles that actually had locks on them." Octavia moaned. Derpy Hooves was at her own station monitoring the park systems. At the same time, her eyes went between the clock on her desktop to the shaving cream can that Filthy Rich had given her.
The ponies made there way through the open field with Rainbow Dash at the lead. Fluttershy caught up to her.
"Rainbow Dash, where are you going?"
"I saw a jeep and heard something. Maybe there's a dinosaur down here."
"Cool." said Pinkie. "Maybe it's a big one like a stegosaurus." Fluttershy started to worry.
"Um, what if it's a meat-eater?" Daisy trailed the group down into the field. She too was nervous about what was down here.
"Is there anypony who thinks we shouldn't be down here?" Everypony kept on going.
"Hello? Anypony?" All of a sudden, a low moan came from through the tall grass. Rainbow halted the group.
"It's over there. I'm gonna see what it is." Rainbow headed off to investigate. Scootaloo followed her.
"Scootaloo? What are you doing?" said the other crusaders. She walked her way through the tall reeds to a small patch of flattened grass, and finally saw what they were after.
"Oh wow!" There among the flattened reeds was a huge full-grown triceratops. It was laying on its side moaning and groaning. It had been partially sedated and vet ponies were examining it. The other ponies came behind Scootaloo and couldn't believe what was here.
"It's alright." said Harding the vet pony. "She won't hurt you. We sedated her to examine her, she's sick."
"Sweet Celestia!" said Applejack. "A triceratops!"
"She's absolutely gorgeous." Rarity gasped. The ponies felt around the dinosaur's frill and two large horns. To actually be touching a dinosaur was the most amazing thing they had ever experienced. It was almost magical. Fluttershy was taken the most with the triceratops. Falling onto her knees she crawled up to the trike and put her hooves on its nose horn. A hot blow as the dinosaur exhaled blew threw her mane, bringing the yellow pegasus to tears.
"My gosh." said Twilight. "She was my favorite when I was a filly, and she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"It's so amazing. I could just faint." Twilight noticed the sores on the dinosaur's tongue.
"What's wrong with her?" she asked Harding
"This happens every six weeks or so. Imbalance, disorientation, trouble breathing, sores on the tongue."
"The poor thing." said Fluttershy. "She must feel terrible." Rainbow Dash and Rarity laid on the triceratops's belly feeling her breathing, rising and falling with each inhale. Rarity could hear the heart beating within its body.
"I can hear her heart!"
"Cool." Fluttershy and Twilight helped the vets examine the triceratops. Fluttershy had a hunch at what was making the dinosaur ill.
"Well with the consistency its happening it has to be from the flora around here?" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo came up.
"Look what we found."
"What do you have there girls?" Twilight levitated what Sweetie Belle had in her hooves.
"Look at these stones and how smooth they are."
"They're gizzard stones." said Twilight. "The trike must have regurgitated them."
"You mean the triceratops eats rocks?" asked Scootaloo surprised.
"Yes it does. A triceratops eats stones to break up the vegetation in its stomach." Applebloom came up.
"Look at these berries, they were along side those stones."
"East Equestrian Lilacs." said Fluttershy.
"Ick." said Twilight. "Those things will throw any pony for a loop."
"How so?" asked Applebloom.
"They're poisonous." Twilight answered the filly. She turned to Harding. "Do the animals eat these?"
"No.They don't." Suddenly a light bulb went on in Fluttershy's head.
"Hey, maybe that's what made the triceratops sick. Those are the gizzard stones from when she feeds, and there's poisonous berries right next to them. I bet when she goes to swallow the gizzard stones she eats the berries along with them."
"That's possible," said Harding "But how would we confirm that?"
"There's only one way. I need to see the dinosaur's droppings." Harding was surprised what Fluttershy had proposed to do, as were the other ponies
"Excuse me miss, but...did I hear you right?"
"Yes." she answered. "You heard me."
"Uh Fluttershy," Rainbow pulled her aside. "Are you..."
The tropical storm that Octavia was monitoring had neither dissipated or changed course. It was heading right for the island and would make landfall within the next hour.
"We're going to have to cut the tour short. The storm is going to hit us straight on. We'll pick it up tomorrow right where we left off." Uncle Orange wasn't thrilled with what he was hearing.
"Are you sure we have too..."
"We can't take that risk." Bright Bulb picked up the intercom broadcaster
"Mares and Stallions. The last shuttle for the dock leaves in five minutes. Drop whatever you are doing and leave now." Uncle Orange stood in the middle of the room not moving, then angrily stomped his hooves and snorted.
In another part of the field were four huge mounds of triceratops poop. The brown piles were the size of termite mounds, about as tall as the ponies, with flies buzzing around them and with a terrible smell.
"Phewwie! What a stench." Applejack covered her muzzle with her hat. The ponies all watched as Fluttershy pulled her hoof out of the piles of poop.
"Your friend is really quite tenacious." Harding said to Twilight. "I've never seen anypony volunteer to stick their hooves in something like this."
"This is nothing." Rainbow replied. "You should have seen her when Harry the Bear was constipated."
"Lilac berries. I knew it." said Fluttershy. "That's the only thing that could cause this."
"Good to know." said Harding. "We'll be sure to spray for those bushes once the trike recovers." A roll of thunder boomed across the sky.
"Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash "Make sure you wash your hooves."
Derpy Hooves tapped her hooves at the computer, writing out some mysterious code she hoped no one could figure out. A big red 'Execute' icon appeared on the monitor waiting to be pushed.
A big flash of thunder startled the ponies. The storm was closing in on the island. The wind was starting to pick up.
"Everypony." said Daisy in a worried tone, "For our safety, I must insist that we move along." Fluttershy got up from stroking the foot of the Triceratops.
"Um, if it's alright with everypony, I'd like to help Harding finish up with the triceratops, if that's okay with you Harding?"
"Of course its alright." he answered. "You've been a great help to us here Fluttershy. You have a great talent for helping animals."
"Thanks." Fluttershy blushed shyly. "It's my element." He turned to the other ponies.
"I have to get to the boat for Equestria soon anyway. I can drop her at the Visitor's Center before hand. We're almost finished with the trike."
"I guess that'd be alright." said Applejack. "We're headin back there anyway. What pony'd wanna be out in this weather."
"I'll stay with you Fluttershy." said Twilight.
"We better get back in the cars." Rarity tapped on their shoulders. "Don't want to ruin our manes in the rain." Rarity headed back to the tour cars taking the Cutie Mark Crusaders with her. Pinkie Pie skipped her merry way behind them.
"Come along Crusaders. Don't want to get soaked."
"We'll see you guys later." said Rainbow Dash. Rainbow and Applejack headed back to the tour vehicles, leaving Fluttershy and Twilight with the vets and the dinosaur. Lightning flashed in the sky, and the waves on the shore started to rise up violently.
"There's nothing I can do. If the captain says we gotta go, we gotta go!" Derpy was talking to an attendant on the boat going back to Equestria via a phone/webcam. The captain wanted to shove off to get ahead of the storm and the heavy seas it was causing.
"No, no. You've gotta give me more time. It's taken longer than I thought. Listen I can be down there with the cargo in 15 minutes."
"I'll talk to the captian, but can't promise anything. You better get your cutie mark down here." The attendant hung up. Derpy knew the time had come to make her move.
"All the ponies are back in the cars. They're on their way back here." Octavia said looking up from her monitor.
"So much for our first tour." Uncle Orange sighed. He wished the first tour they ever had in Jurassic Park had been more exciting.
"Three no shows, and a sick triceratops."
"We should consider ourselves fortunate Orange." said Octavia. "It could have been a lot worse."
"Anypony want a cold drink?" said Derpy. "I'm heading up to the machine for some hot chocolate. Oh and I should probably let you know that the system is going to be compiling for a few hours, so the security systems might shut off for a while, but it's nothing to worry about.
"Could you get me an iced tea?" said BrightBulb looking up from his monitor.
"Sure." Derpy sneered as she turned back to her computer. Clicking the mouse she hit the large 'Execute' button. A timer on the monitor showed up and started to count down. She grabbed the shaving cream can and headed out of the control room.
The tour vehicles bumped their way back along the main road in the heavy rain. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were in the first car with Daisy, while AJ, Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie were in the second. The ponies all lounged in their seats eager to get back to the visitor's center. Applejack sat in the driver's seat watching the rain come down.
"Lan sakes, look at all this rain."
"Boy, cept for the triceratops, this tour was a real disappointment." Rainbow grumbled.
"Quite." Said Rarity. "To think this whole day on this island we've only seen two dinosaurs, one of which was under the weather."
Derpy climbed the stairs to the embryo storage room, which had in big red letters "Restricted Area: Keep Out!" The door was also alarmed and had a security camera watching it. Derpy hid behind the door watching the camera, waiting for something to happen.
"Five, four, three, two...one." The camera shut off and the alarm deactivated. Derpy could now enter the area undetected. Back in the control room, Octavia looked over at one of the main monitors. The security systems in the visitor's center were shutting off one by one.
"That's odd."
"What?" asked Uncle Orange.
"The security systems are all shutting down."
"Well Derpy did say they would go offline for a while." said BrightBulb. "Don't worry about it." Derpy entered the embryo room and lifted the racks holding the vials out of their liquid nitrogen storage tanks. She then unscrewed the shell of the holding mechanism, and one by one took an embryo vial out of the racks: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Iguanodon, Velociraptor, Brachiosaurus, Diplodicus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Gallimimus, Triceratops, Miasaura, Carnotaurus, and Parasaurolophus. Finished, she closed the racks into the cold storage and screwed the shell back on.
Back in the cars, Applejack couldn't take her mind off of Twilight and her skepticism about the stability of the park.
"You know I can't help thinkin about Twilight."
"What about her?" Rarity asked while combing her lashes.
"You know, her skepticism. She don't seem all that confident in this place."
"What do you expect." said Rainbow Dash. "She's skeptical about a lot of stuff."
"Yeah." Pinkie jumped in. "Remember my Pinkie sense?"
"I know," AJ continued. "But she's got sound judgement on a lot of things too, like Princess Cadence bein a changeling. Maybe she's onto something about the park systems failin."
"I don't think we have to worry about that." said Rarity. "This park seems okay."
"Yeah." said Rainbow. "It's not like..." Suddenly the vehicles lurched to a halt. The ponies looked around confused as to what just happened.
"What the hay did I touch?" Applejack looked around the console.
In the control room, things were becoming more unreal. Orange watched a wall monitor showing one fence after another shutting off. Soon a warning flashed on the screen. "Massive Power Failure." Octavia and BrightBulb couldn't comprehend what was happening.
"What's going on?" asked Uncle Orange.
"Fences are failing." said BrightBulb. "One after another."
"Check the vending machines." Orange ordered Octavia. "Find Derpy." Octavia ran out to find the grey pegasus. BrightBulb continued to watch his monitor. Everything was going wrong.
"All the fences are down. I don't believe this." Octavia came running back in.
Derpy was indeed gone. In fact she wasn't even in the building. She was in a gas jeep headed for the dock. The jeep stopped at the park gate. Derpy jumped out and threw the override switch for the gate. Jumping back in, she drove through the opening gate and into the park.
BrightBulb and Uncle Orange hurried to Derpy's computer station to figure out what happened to the park's systems. BrightBulb was disgusted with the mess around the computers.
"Look at this workstation. What a slobby pony." Octavia jumped to the desk.
"Check the raptor fences! Are they out too?" BrightBulb typed up a status report on the fences surrounding the raptor cages.
With the power off all across the park, it was easy for gates and barriers to be crossed. Derpy opened a set of barrier gates underneath one of the fences and drove through. The jeep thundered through the rained out roads on the way down to the dock.
"I hope I'm not too late." she thought. Up ahead was a sign for the dock. Derpy was driving just a little too fast and skidded toward the sign. She slammed on the brakes but it was too late. The jeep crashed into the sign breaking it. Derpy got out to try and fix it. Standing it up, she tried to point the arrow sign in the right direction she thought to go. Maybe one way or maybe the other way. Frustrated she just spun the sign.
In the control room, BrightBulb had opened up the computer's code array, and tried to access the system's main program through keystroke. So far everything he'd tried wasn't working.
"Access main program." Access was denied.
"Access main security." Access was denied again.
"Access main program grid." Access was again denied. This time lines of repeating code filled the array saying 'I just don't know what went wrong.' An image of Derpy with her head bobbing up and down appeared on the screen.
"I just don't know what went wrong!"
"Then Figure It Out!!!" Brightbulb shouted. "Shoot, I hate these hacker blocks." Octavia pushed him a telephone.
"Phone Cloudsdale. Maybe they'll know how to find her." Brightbulb picked up the receiver, but there was no dial tone.
"Phones are down too." The three ponies looked at each other dumbfounded. Derpy had done something to the computer systems, and they didn't know what or how to fix it. Brightbulb shrugged and hung up the phone. Orange turned to Octavia.
The vehicles had stopped in probably the worst possible place in all of the park. The Tyrannosaur paddock. On the other side of the fence, the goat stood lonely in the pouring rain. Applejack was outside talking to Daisy in the front car. She galloped back to the second car. Jumping inside, she shook the rain off her hat and mane.
"HooWee! It's a might mess out there."
"What about their radio?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"It's out too. We ain't goin no where till the power comes back."
"The girls okay?" asked Rarity.
"I didn't ask. And why wouldn't they be. This is probably just a little hiccup in the power. I bet once the storm passes, the cars will start up again and we'll be on our way."
"Let's hope." said Rainbow Dash.
In the first car, Daisy was dosing the driver's seat while Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were daydreaming and listening to the rain. Sweetie Belle sang softly to herself.
"It's raining, it's pouring, and Daisy is snoring." Suddenly, Scootaloo jumped out from the passenger seat with a pair of night vision goggles startling the others.
"What are those?"
"Night vision goggles. I found them under the seat."
"Neato." squeaked Sweetie Belle. "Are there more?"
"No. There was only one pair."
"Careful with those. They look expensive." said Daisy. She laid her head back and went back to sleep.
"Scoots. Let me have a turn when yur done." said Applebloom.
"Me too." Sweetie added in. Scootaloo crawled into the back of the car and turned the night vision goggles on. The goggles turned everything a bright green.
"This is awesome. I can see everypony in the other car." Rainbow Dash looked up and saw Scootaloo. Scoots waved to her. Dash waved back.
"What Scootaloo got there?" said AJ.
"Night vision goggles." said Rainbow.
"Cool." Said Pinkie from the back seat.
"Hey Rainbow. Make some funny faces."
"Okay." Rainbow giggled. She stuck her tongue out at Scootaloo, then stuck her hoof in her mouth puffing out her cheeks. Scootaloo laughed. Rainbow made some more faces.
"Oh, I hope the power comes on soon." Rarity moaned. "What I wouldn't give for a long soak in that hot tub." A low rumble was felt through the car.
"Make room in that tub Rarity." said Pinkie. "The power's coming back on."
"What makes you think that Pinkie?" asked AJ.
"I heard a rumble just now." There was another rumble.
"See there's another one. The rumble of electricity through power lines."
"Pinkie darling. Electricity doesn't make a sound."
"Oh. Then maybe it's my tummy." Pinkie listened on her stomach.
"No not that either." There was another rumble.
"What in tarnation is causing that rumble?"
"Girls look." Rainbow whispered.
"Where?" said Rarity. "There's nothing here except rain."
"No, look." Rainbow pointed at the two glasses of water on the dashboard.
"Watch the water." Another low rumble made the water in the glasses to vibrate ever so slightly. They vibrated again, and again, and again. The hairs in Applejack's mane stood on there ends.
"Those sound like footsteps. Really...big...footsteps."
In the first car, Scootaloo also noticed the rumbles.
"Girls. You feel that?"
"Yeah." said Applebloom.
"Look." said Sweetie Belle. "The glasses." They trained their eyes on the glasses of water. The rumbles were making the same eery ripples. The rumbles woke up Daisy who noticed the rear-view mirror was vibrating too. She started to become scared.
"May...Maybe it's the power trying to come on." They all looked over at the fence and noticed something was different. Scootaloo turned on her goggles and peered through the rain. She looked for the goat, but the goat was gone. All that was left was a tether baying in the rain.
"Where's the goat?" Sweetie Belle asked. A bang on the sunroof answered her question. They all jumped at the site of the goats bloody severed leg.
A two clawed hand rubbed against the high voltage wire. Inside the fence, a large object growled and lifted its head above the trees. Before them was the star attraction of the park. A full grown female Tyrannosaurus Rex. She was 40 feet long, stood 15 feet tall, and weighed a full 7 tons. A mouth full of banana sized teeth clutched the dead goat. In one big gulp she swallowed the goat and peered through the fence at the two stranded cars.
Daisy panicked.
"Oh Celestia!" She opened the door of the car and bolted out into the rain.
"She left us. She left us." Sweetie Belle quivered. Daisy ran around the road like scared chicken, then ran inside a nearby outhouse shutting the door behind her.
"What the hay is she doing?" Applejack commented on the strange behavior of the lawyer pony. Pinkie Pie shrugged.
"When you gotta go, you just gotta go." They heard a noise coming from the fence, the sound of wires being overstretched. Normally the fence would give the animal a painful shock, but not this time. One by one the wires popped and snapped of their frames like guitar strings tuned to tight. In the first car, the crusaders trembled as they watched the wires pop and fall. With one tug of its massive head, the T-Rex snapped the last wire. It took a big step over the concrete barrier and onto the road, embracing its new found freedom with a roar.
"Do you ever really hate it when Twilight figures things out." Pinkie murmured. The Rex roared again and paced around the cars curious of its surroundings. The cars ground shook from her enormous steps. The four mares in the car froze in place, holding perfectly still.
"Nopony move a muscle." Rainbow whispered to the others. "Remember what Twilight said. Don't move and she won't see you."
"My knee's getting pinchy." Pinkiy whispered trough her clenched teeth.
"Not a muscle." The T-Rex circled the car.
In a panic Applebloom opened up a case in the back of their car and found a flashlight. She turned it on shining it through the windows, and unknowingly drawing the dinosaur's attention. The T-Rex walked over to the Crusaders car.
"Turn the light off." Applejack whispered intensely. "Turn the light off." In the other car Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were frantic.
"Turn the light off!!" Scoots screamed, but Applebloom was so scared she couldn't move. Right above there car, the T-Rex towered above them. Sweetie Belle carefully grabbed the open door with her hoof and shut it. But the Rex saw the movement from the corner of its eye. It growled with interest.
The three fillies were shaking with fear. Outside the car, a Tyrannosaurus, a predator that had been extinct for millions of years was looking directly at them. She sniffed around the outside of the car interested in the ponies inside.
"Where's Fluttershy when you need here." cried Sweetie Belle. The huge dinosaur peered a yellow eye into the car. Applebloom's flashlight shined into its eye causing the iris to close. The Rex winced from the light. Becoming frustrated, the Rex roared loudly at the car. The three fillies covered their ears. The creature sniffed around the aluminum shell of the car and gave it a push. The fillies screamed. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both grabbed for the flashlight, trying to pull it out of Applebloom's hooves.
"Turn it off!!" "Give it to me, I'll turn it off!" "Hey! Let Go!" "You wanna end up dinner!" But while they were fighting over the flashlight, the T-Rex licked its teeth and took aim for the glass sunroof. The three girls stopped fighting and looked up...
The T-Rex broke the sunroof off its frame and into the car. Forced onto their backs, the three girls pushed their hooves against the glass, screaming in terror at the Rex's huge teeth and hungry eyes. Growling and roaring, the T-Rex pushed back against the glass breaking it one piece at a time.
In the other car, the four mares were scared stiff watching the little ones being attacked by the prehistoric beast. The T-Rex slammed its head against the side of the car lifting it up half way. It slammed again, this time flipping the car over. Shards of glass shattered everywhere. The mares were horrified. The T-Rex put her massive foot on top of the over turned car. She sank her teeth into the metal, taking it apart piece by piece. The three fillies screamed from inside. Applejack finally snapped.
"Celestia's sake! Grab somethin!"
"What!?"
"Grab somethin! Anything! We gotta save them!" Rarity bolted into the trunk, and brushed a stack of papers off the emergency supply box. She opened it with her magic, and pulled out a road flare.
"A flare?"
"Light one! Hurry!" Rarity lit the flare with her magic. The T-Rex roared loudly as its massive foot crushed the car like a soda can. Inside, the mud was rising. The girls huddled together sobbing in terror. Pieces of shattered glass had cut their faces and limbs. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash jumped out of their car. Rarity held the flare in the air with her magic as Rainbow hovered above them. AJ screamed at the dinosaur.
"HEY!!!!" The T-Rex looked up and roared at them. Rarity and Rainbow backed up.
"Get away from them ya oversized lizard!!!"
"Come on short arms!" Rainbow shouted. "We got somethin for ya!" Using her magic, Rarity swung the flare back and forth. The beast followed the flare like a dog eying a stick.
"You want it, well go and get it!" Rarity threw the flare over concrete barrier and the Rex followed it, abandoning the overturned car.
"Sorry Rexy, but dinner's cancelled." Rainbow sneered. Suddenly, to everypony's horror, Pinkie Pie jumped out of the car with a flare in her mouth drawing the T-Rex's attention.
"Over here you giant version of Gummy!"
"Pinkie Pie! Freeze!"
"Grab the girls!"
"Get rid of the flare!" Pinkie swung her head back and forth taunting the dinosaur. The T-Rex roared and chased Pinkie.
"Come and get me!" She galloped away from the dinosaur which followed her in hot pursuit. It stepped on the front of the second car, pulling the hood off. The dinosaur chased Pinkie across the road over to the restroom shelter where Daisy was hiding. The lawyer pony was sitting on top of a toilet scared to death of the loud rumbles coming towards her.
"Sweet Celestia!" The T-Rex burst through the straw structure tearing it to pieces. Pinkie was flung to the side, hitting the ground hard. Falling debris buried her under. The outhouse collapsed all around Daisy leaving her directly exposed. The T-Rex, intrigued by this lone pony licked its teeth at the tasty opportunity. Daisy struggled to cover her face with her hooves. The T-Rex lunged and chomped the pony. Daisy screamed as the dinosaur swung its head back and forth tearing limbs apart, and ate her alive.
Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow rushed to the wrecked tour vehicle to rescue the Cutie Mark Crusaders trapped inside.
"Applejack! Rarity! Help us!"
"Hold on girls. We'll get ya'll out"
"I'm stuck!" Scootaloo cried. "The seat's got my legs." Applejack and Rainbow slowly pulled Applebloom from the wreckage.
"It's alright sis, you're okay." Rarity used her magic to pull Sweetie Belle out.
"Rarity!" Sweetie sobbed.
"I've got you Sweetie Belle." The mares pulled Applebloom and Sweetie free from the car. The two fillies were covered head to hoof in mud. Blood oozed down their faces and legs. Applejack turned to grab Scootaloo.
"Rarity, help me." The two ponies reached their hooves inside the car for Scootaloo.
"Scootaloo! Reach for us!" Scootaloo struggled to reach for the mare's but the seat pinned her down hard in the mud.
"I..I can't" Rainbow turned her head to look up behind them.
"Uhh, girls?" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked up and screamed! Rarity and AJ grabbed them, sticking their hooves in their mouths to quiet them up.
"Don't move. She can't see us if we don't move." They all huddled together not moving a muscle. A huge clawed foot slammed down in the mud. They were now nose to nose with the T-Rex. She sniffed curiously around the frozen ponies. AJ, Rarity, and Rainbow held each other tightly, keeping as still as they could in the dinosaur's awesome presence, just inches away from such enormous teeth. A snort from the dinosaur blew Applejack's hat off of her head. In a burst of anger, the T-Rex pushed the end of the wrecked vehicle with its snout. The car swung a full 360 knocking the ponies to the ground. Growing increasingly agitated, the Rex pushed car around like a toy. Scootaloo screamed from inside. The dinosaur pushed the car and the ponies against the base of the barrier. The end of the car knocked Rainbow Dash hard into the barrier, breaking her wing.
"Ouch!! My wing!!" Applejack pulled Rainbow up, her wing bleeding heavily. Snorting and growling, the angry dinosaur continued to push the car up onto the barrier, forcing the ponies closer to the edge of the cliff.
"She's pushing the car!" Rarity screamed.
"But Scootaloo's still inside!" screamed Applebloom The T-Rex pushed the car towards the edge, pushing the ponies further. Rarity nearly lost her balance and fell over the side, but the others grabbed her.
"We're gonna go off the cliff!" Rainbow shouted.
"Stop it! Stop it you terrible lizard!" cried Rarity. They were now only inches away from falling down the barrier.
"Whoa! Everypony hang on!" Applejack and Rarity swung Applebloom and Sweetie Belle onto their backs. They all grabbed broken power lines to try and repel down the barrier. Slowly the mares and fillies slid there way down the cliff on the broken wires, wrapping their legs tightly around the wires and sliding them through. The dinosaur pushed the car further to the edge. They watched in terror as the front of the car teetered on the brink. Rarity suddenly lost her grip on the wire, sliding down and falling taking Sweetie Belle with her.
"Rarity!!" Rarity grabbed the end of Rainbow's tail in her teeth.
"Oooooohhhhhhh! Rarity!!! My tail!!" Sweetie Belle hung onto her sister's back for dear life. Applebloom almost lost her hold on Applejack and grabbed her sister around the neck.
"Applebloom! Applebloom yer chokin me!" The car was pushed further over the edge. Rarity still hung on to Rainbow Dash's tail.
"Rarity! Grab the other wire! Grab it!"
"I'm trying, I can't reach it!" With one last push, the car teetered one inch to far and plunged over the side of the barrier.
"Watch out!" screamed Applejack. The ponies swung away to avoid the heavy car as it careened past them, missing them by only inches, and landed stuck in the tree tops below. The Tyrannosaurs Rex bellowed in triumph.
In the control room, the situation was becoming more maddening. BrightBulb searched through all of the computer's past actions trying to find what had caused the park systems to fail.
"I don't believe this." said BrightBulb. Twilight and Fluttershy looked over his shoulder.
"What's going on?" asked Twilight.
"Everything." responded Bright. "Look at this. Keychecks baseliners off. Keychecks off. Derpy didn't want anyone to see what she was going to do, so she turned the safety and security systems off, as well as their back ups." He scrolled down the computer's command history menu.
"Now look at this command. This ones the kicker. 'White Rabbit Object.' Whatever this command did, it did everything. Normally we could find the command and reset it easily, but with the keychecks off the computer didn't record the keystroke so the only way to find it now is to go through the system's lines of code one by one."
"How many lines of code are there?" asked Fluttershy.
"Two main."
"As in two million?" asked Twilight. Bright nodded and sighed acknowledging the enormity of this unsolvable problem, of which he had no idea how to fix. Uncle Orange stood motionless in the middle of the room like in a trance. He was dumbfounded as to how this perfect system in which he had the utmost confidence was collapsing all around him like a Jenga game. Twilight and Fluttershy approached him.
"Uncle Orange. We'd like to take one of the gas jeeps and go rescue my friends." Uncle Orange didn't say anything as he was still in shock, but nodded. The unicorn and pegasus both grabbed raincoats off the wall and exited the room. Uncle Orange still stood motionless and slightly dazed.
"Orange..." said Bright trying to get his attention.
"Orange." Bright's' voice snapped Orange out of his trance and he turned to respond him.
"There's no way to get Jurassic Park back online without Derpy Hooves." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elsewhere in the park, Derpy's jeep rolled through the heavy rain.
"I should have been at the dock by now." Since plowing into the sign, she had gotten lost and didn't know where she was. If she had missed the boat, she'd have to go back to the visitor's center, reset the system, and contact Filthy Rich. There would also be considerable heck to pay from Orange and the others in the control room. The inner turmoil of her predicament took her attention off the road. Looking up she swerved the steering wheel in a panic. The jeep skidded again, this time crashing through a muddy embankment and getting stuck at the top of a small but steep hill. Derpy got out to see the hind wheels in the grip of a fallen tree branch. When she hit the gas pedal, the wheels just spun in the air. Luckily just below the hill was the road the the dock."
"There it is." Using her teeth, Derpy pulled out the winch cable on the front bumper. There were some trees across the road. If she attached the cable to the trees, she could winch the jeep down the hill and be back on the road. As she was pulling out the cable, Derpy slipped and fell down the embankment landing flat on her face in the flooded road.
"Cable! Where's the cable?!" She found the cable and dragged it over to to the thicket of trees. A strange sound came from beside her. It sounded like giggling or laughing, but not from a pony. Whatever it was, she didn't want to be involved in it.
"Come on Derpy, you can do this." She wrapped the cable around a large tree and anchored it in the clip. A weird looking dinosaur popped its head out from behind the tree, hooting at the grey pegasus.
"Whoa!" It stuck its head out from the other side, almost in a playful manner. Derpy grinned mildly afraid.
"Yeah, that's nice, but I've gotta go." Sliding the cable through her mouth, Derpy made her way back up to the jeep. She heard more hoots from behind. Turning around, there was the dinosaur, a dilophosaurus. It was not much bigger than her and had two crests on its head. It curiously looked Derpy over making a clicking sound.
"Hey, nice dinosaur. Thought you were one of the bigger ones. You're not so bad."
"What do you want? You want to play, or food, or what? Look, I'm soaking wet and I'm in a real hurry. I don't have time to play." The dilo kinked its head and hooted. Derpy picked up a stick in her mouth.
"Or, you wanna play fetch? Want the stick? The stick? Here, the stick. Stick! Stick stupid! Fetch the stick!" Derpy tossed the stick into the bush and the dilo seemed to follow it. She picked up the cable and sniggered to herself.
"No wonder their extinct." Derpy climbed back up to the jeep thinking how clever she was. What she didn't know was that the Dilophosaurus was following her. She tripped on her way back up the hill. When she turned around she saw the dinosaur right in front of her. Derpy started to get nervous. This thing was clearly interested in her. The dinosaur sniffed around her hooves then made direct almost uneasy eye contact.
The dinosaur expanded its neck cowl and it roared a vicious raspy roar. The shaking cowl made blood curling rattle like a rattlesnake. Snapping its jaws, the dinosaur hurled black sticky venom at Derpy, which landed on her chin and shoulder, burning her skin. In a panic Derpy clambered back up to the jeep to get away from the hissing dinosaur. Just as she got to the door, the Dilo spat again hitting her straight in the eyes. Derpy screamed as her eyes burned in excruciating pain. She couldn't see. Struggling to get back inside, she wacked her head on the roof and fell backwards. The shaving cream can with the embryos fell out of her coat pocket and was washed down the hill.
Derpy came too from wacking her head on the jeep. Her vision was blury from the venom and she couldn't see where she was. She tried to get up, but a pair of clawed feet pinned her down. The dilophosaurus rattled is cowl and roared. It pounced on Derpy and tore the pony to shreds. Derpy's helpless screams filled the rainy jungle as the dilo devoured her. The shaving cream can came to rest on a muddy ledge down the hill.Two more dilos hopped up the hill to join in the feast. One of them stepped on the can crushing it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the base of the concrete wall, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash along with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were reeling from the T-Rex attack. They were soaked to the bone, covered in mud, and had nasty bleeding and bruises. Applejack dipped her face in the spill-off of a large drain pipe to wash some of the mud off.
"Ughh!! I'm an absolute mess!" Rarity wailed. "All this mud, these cuts on my face, and my mane!! Everything was going so nicely too. How could such a great weekend turn so unseemly!?"
"I'll tell ya how!" Applejack angrily retorted. "A zoo of big lizards who are supposed to be extinct! That's how! No wonder Twilight had doubts about this place. By golly my Uncle Orange's gone too far." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were shaken by being attacked by a Tyrannosaurus and could barely talk. The explorer vehicle was stuck way up in the branches a huge tree with Scootaloo trapped inside.
"Scootaloo!! Called Rainbow Dash. "Can you hear me! Scootaloo!"
"That poor filly must be hurt who knows how after going off that cliff like that. How we gonna get her down?"
"Normally I could fly up there, but with my wing broken I'll have to climb up and get her."
"Rainbow Dash, you're a pony. You can't climb trees."
"I'll figure out how! I've gotta do something!" Rarity dunk her head under the drain spill off desperate for some sense of cleanliness. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle started to panic. Seeing as everypony was on the verge of a major freakout, Applejack corralled the group together in an attempt to retain order.
"Alright everypony, listen up. I know this weekend has gone down the cadoodle, and what we just went through was pretty horrifying..."
"Horrifying?!" Rarity shrieked. "We were just thrown off a cliff by a Tyrannosaurus!!!!"
"Shut up!" Applejack snapped back. "This ain't time for spittin bits. Everypony's gotta keep their heads on. We'all don't know what were gonna do just yet, and we're all scared as we got extinct lizards runnin around with a sweet tooth for pony. But we're gonna stick together, all of us."
"She left us!" Sweetie Belle wailed until Applejack grabbed her with her hooves.
"But we won't. Okay?" Sweetie Belle nodded stiffly.
"We're all in this together." They all put their hooves together.
"I'm gonna get Scootaloo." Rainbow left to rescue the pegasus filly. Applejack and Rarity sat down with their sisters at the base of the wall, holding them respectively.
"Sorry for snappin at ya there Rarity."
"It's no trouble sweetness. Anypony could lose their mind in a situation like this."
Rainbow Dash clopped to the base of the giant tree. The car was stuck almost 100 feet up among some thick branches.
"Okay Rainbow Dash, how are you going to climb this?" She stood up on her hind hooves and started feeling around for where she could place her hooves. She found a spot and firmly placed her hoof. Like a rock climber, she felt around for other safe spots, and climbed up the trunk. After fifteen feet, she could reach the lower branches. She jumped from the trunk to a branch. Climbing with hooves was certainly a challenge. She dangled for a bit, then pulled herself up. One hoof at a time she scaled her way up the enormous tree.
"Scootaloo! I'm coming up to get ya!" Inch by inch, foot by foot, hoof by hoof, she climbed higher.
"Mother of Celestia, this tree is enormous." She reached the tour vehicle climbing up to the smashed window.
"Scoots? Scootaloo was huddled in the foot area of the front passenger side. She was soaking wet, muddy, bleeding, and bruised, but wasn't seriously hurt.
"Scootaloo." Rainbow opened the door.
"Are you okay?"
"I threw up."
"I'm sorry." Rainbow reached out her hoof.
"Just give me your hoof." Scootaloo didn't move. She just stared at Rainbow, too scared to move a muscle.
"Hey I won't tell anypony you threw up, just give me your hoof." She reached farther inside unknowingly turning the steering wheel with her other hoof. Scootaloo got up slowly and reached for Rainbow. Rainbow helped her climb over the cars console.
"Easy, I gotcha. Just go slowly."
"Don't pull me hard."
"Sorry. You're almost there." Scootaloo stepped out of the car and onto the tree branch. The ponies didn't know it but the branches were stressing under the car's weight. Any minute they could snap. Instead they were confronted by another problem, the enormous climb down to the bottom.
"How do we get down from here?"
"There's only one way down." Rainbow replied. "And trust me, it's not as bad as it looks."
"Yes it is." Rainbow had to think of something to re-assure Scoots.
"It's...uh...it's liking climbing down from your clubhouse."
"It's not this high."
"I know it's not. Most important rule about climbing, never never look down."
"This is crazy."
"I know it's crazy."
How am I going to do this?"
"We're gonna do it together, just..." A branch snapped and the car jerked.
"Oh no." Rainbow just realized the situation was getting worse.
"Go." The two started climbing down as the branches holding the car started to bend. With one snap, the car fell down about ten feet before being stopped by some thicker branches. Rainbow covered her head as the car hit the branches. When she looked up, her pupils shrank. She started climbing down faster to the lower branches. They had to get out of the tree before the car crushed them. The branches holding the car up started to bend and creak.The two pegasi looked up. Rainbow gaped at the car buckling the branches.
"Go! Scootaloo Go!" They jumped down the tree as fast as they could. The car finally snapped free and came crashing down after them. Jumping from branch to branch, they tried to outrun the car.
"Faster Scoots!"
"I'm trying!" The finally reached the tree's base with the car a few feet behind.
"Jump!" The two jumped down just as the car hit the roots at the base of the tree and stopped.
"Move Scoots." The car pivoted on its bumper and fell over onto the ponies. Rainbow grabbed hold of Scootaloo, covering her with her body as the car landed on top of them. Luckily, they went through the open frame where the sunroof had been. The car finally came to a rest at the base of the tree.
"Well, we're back in the car again." Scootaloo moaned.
"True," Rainbow replied. "But at least we're on the ground."
Twilight and Fluttershy reached the T-Rex paddock and screeched to a halt. What they saw was more terrifying than they could imagine. The fence was down, one explorer car was missing, the other was damaged, and the nearby shelter was completely demolished. Worst of all, their friends were no where to be found.
"Oh my gosh! Where is everypony?!" Twilight lit up her horn to get a better view of the scene. She aimed the beam around the paddock searching for the other ponies.
"Rainbow Dash!!" called Fluttershy. "Girls!!!" Fluttershy's hoof stepped on something. She looked down and went white with shock.
"Twilight. C...c..come look." Twilight hurried over to Fluttershy. She covered her nose at the sight.
"That looks like Daisy." Twi murmured under her nose. "Or what's left of her." The T-Rex roared in the distance. Twilight aimed her horn light at the trees searching for it.
"Is it ahead of us?" Fluttershy whispered.
"It could be anywhere. With the fences down, that animal can trample in and out of any paddock it likes." Fluttershy heard a moan.
"Listen."
"What?" Fluttershy hushed Twilight. The could hear a faint voice.
"Twilight. Fluttershy."
"Pinkie Pie!?"
"Over here." The girls rushed to where Pinkie was lying on the ground.
"Pinkie! Are you okay?"
"Remind me to thank Uncle Orange for a wonderful weekend." Twilight pulled away the pieces of the outhouse covering Pinkie. Her one leg was badly broken, and covered in dried up blood. Twilight couldn't comprehend how Pinkie was able to stay somewhat optimistic with this bad an injury. They heard the T-Rex roar again.
"Could we chance moving her?" asked Fluttershy. Pinkie looked up sarcastically.
"Please, chance it."
Twilight and Fluttershy moved Pinkie into the rear seat of the jeep, laying her down so she was comfortable. Twilight wrapped up Pinkie's leg in a tourniquet.
"That should hold the bone for a while. We'll cast it up when we get back."
"Okey Dokey Lokie!" Fluttershy was still scouring the wreckage looking for sign of the others.
"By the way?" asked Twilight. "What happened?"
"Well...the power went off and the cars stopped moving, and we were waiting patiently for it to come on, then these rumbles started happening, and would you know it, Rexy broke out of its pen, flipped over the Cutie Mark Crusaders' car, and we all got out to save them, and I got Rexy to chase me over here where she pushed me into the shelter, had a nice Daisy dinner, and that's pretty much it."
"What happened to the others?"
"How would I know? I was knocked out after that." Twilight rolled her eyes with the 'typical Pinkie' look. Fluttershy still searched.
"Fluttershy! Come on!" Twilight called. As she searched the wreckage Fluttershy noticed pattern between the dinosaurs tracks, and the skid marks in the mud obviously from the explorer. Then her hoof met something, Not metal or plastic, but fabric. She looked down finding Applejack's stetson hat squashed in the mud.
"Twilight!" Twilight galloped over to Flutters.
"Applejack's hat!"
"Look." Fluttershy pointed at the tracks and marks in the mud.
"Look at this pattern. The dinosaur tracks, and the skid marks." Twilight analyzed the pattern.
"By the looks of those marks in the road, its almost as if the T-Rex was pushing the car."
"My thoughts exactly." said Fluttershy. She went over the pattern again. "It looks as though she was pushing the car this way and over the side of..." Fluttershy bolted toward the edge of the the massive concrete cliff and peered over it. Twilight lit up her horn and aimed the light down to the trees below. The shape of a wrecked vehicle showed in the light.
"The other car!" Twilight screamed. The two mares made there way down to bottom of the cliff where the remains of the tour car lay on the side of a tree.
"AJ? Rarity? Dashie?" Twilight shined her horn into the car, but there was nothing.
"They're not here."
"Look." Twilight whispered as she aimed her horn at the ground. There were hoof prints in the mud, a filly and a mare. Their friends were alive, but were lost in the jungle of Jurassic Park.
Up in the jeep, Pinkie Pie was by herself clopping her hooves and singing a little song.
"Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark. All the dinosaurs are running wild. Somepony let T-Rex of of his cage. I am sure that they will eat me, cuz they have a taste for ponies, and they see me as their dinner not their friend..." An all too familiar rumble interrupted her song. Pinkie looked down at a puddle of water next to the jeep. The water inside was vibrating with the rumbles.
"Oh no." The rumbles got louder, and Pinkie started to get scared.
"My...knee's getting pinchy again...And there are impact tremors all around me. Getting fairly alarmed now." Pinkie flailed her hooves at Twilight and Fluttershy who were running back to the jeep.
"Come on, Come on! We gotta get out of here! Now! Now! Right Now!!!" The two jumped in the jeep with Twilight at the wheel.
"Hurry!" Twilight started the jeep, shifted it into gear, and floored the gas pedal with her hoof. Just in time as the T-Rex came crashing through the trees. The ponies sped down the road away from the giant predator. Twilight shifted into a higher gear.
"Must go faster." said Pinkie. And they really had to go faster, as the T-Rex was running after them.
"Faster Twilight!! Faster!! It's gaining on us!!" Fluttershy screamed. Twilight shifted into higher gear to increase speed.
"Fourth gear Twilight!" Pinkie shrieked. Twilight looked in the side view mirror to see a T-Rex with open jaws coming right behind them. Pinkie leaning forward from the rear of the jeep unknowingly pushed against the shift lever causing the jeep to slow down.
"Pinkie! You're on the stick! Get off the stick!" Fluttershy looked up. They were driving straight towards a huge fallen tree.
"LOOK OUT!!!!"
"DOWN!!!!!" The jeep drove under the tree smashing the windshield, while the dinosaur plowed right through it. Gaining on the jeep the dinosaur smashed its head against it almost knocking it over. Fluttershy looked back and screamed. Twilight shifted into a higher gear and floored the gas pedal. The T-Rex ran as fast as it could after the jeep, then suddenly stopped running. It was out of breath. The ponies all looked at each other surprised and relieved. They were extremely lucky to have outrun a Tyrannosaurus.
"That was truly terrifying." Fluttershy panted.
"They should have that on the tour!" said Pinkie Pie. The jeep sped away into the night leaving the exhausted T-Rex behind.
"Are you hearing this?" Sweetie Belle whispered to the other ponies. All around them, the sounds of escaped dinosaurs emanated from the thick forests. The Crusaders' eyes were wide and watery with fear. Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack were equally scared. One false step and they all could end up dinner for a dinosaur. The three of them huddled in a consultation.
"Girls, What are we going to do?" Rainbow whispered. "We're stuck out here and nopony knows where we are."
"Not to mention there are animals who shouldn't be alive running around these woods." Rarity added.
"We gotta get back to the Visitor's Center." said Applejack. "That's our only chance. If any of the others are alive, that's where they'll be."
"We can't hike back there in the dark." said Rainbow. "It's too dangerous."
"Quite." said Rarity. "And I for one don't want to be unicorn made rare with sides of earth pony and pegasi, plus three mini appetizers."
"We'll have to spend the night somewhere, but it ain't gonna be here on the ground."
"What if we lit a fire?" Rainbow asked.
"We can't. It could attract something."
"Well then where prytell are we going to sleep?" asked Rarity. Rainbow looked around the forest and saw a big tree.
"That tree. We'll sleep there." Rarity scowled at the thought of sleeping in a tree.
"A tree? We're really going to sleep in a tree?"
"We don't have a choice Rarity. Rainbow, how we gonna climb up? We don't know how to climb trees."
"I'll show you. It's not that hard." The ponies turned to the Cutie Mark Crusaders and herded the group to the tree.
"Come on girls, we gotta sleep in the tree tonight."
"Oh man," Scootaloo moaned. "I hate trees."
"They're not so bad." said Applebloom.
"You didn't come down the last one."
"Come on ya'll, it'll be just like camping." The utterance of that word made Rarity roll her eyes with a snort. Rainbow Dash climbed up first.
"Everypony follow me. Put your hooves where I go. Keep one hoof in front of the other." Rainbow climbed her way up with Applejack, Rarity, and the crusaders climbing behind her. Applebloom slipped a little but Rarity nudged her up with her muzzle.
"Careful there darling." Rainbow climbed up to a small trunk outcrop then helped the others up.
"Phew, this climbing stuff isn't easy." Applejack huffed. Rarity, Applebloom, and Scootaloo climbed in. Sweetie Belle was almost there, but was getting very tired. Rarity levitated her up with her magic. The ponies settled into the outcrop. From their viewpoint they could see the tops of the trees, and another little surprise.
"Hey look," said Applebloom. "The Brachiosauruses!" Four brachs had their heads above the trees and were calling to one another.
"They're singing." said Rarity. The ponies were entranced by the beauty of the sauropods' singing above the trees.
"Wow." said Applejack. "I knew birds and whales sang, but never thought a dinosaur could sing."
"It's beautiful." said Rarity. Rainbow Dash had an idea, and climbed up onto a higher branch.
"Rainbow, what are you doing?" whispered Applejack.
"I wanna try something. Watch." Rainbow cupped her hooves and made moans and groans like the brachs. The dinosaurs looked over at the tree, curious about the calls of a newcomer. Two more brachs raised their long necks above the trees to investigate.
"Shhh! Don't let the monsters know we're over here."
"Or maybe their having a light salad before the main course." Rainbow joked.
"Perhaps a salad is main course." Applejack laughed. The ponies huddled together for the night. Rarity sighed, disappointed she wouldn't be enjoying the silky smooth beds in the hotel.
"Never imagined I be sleeping in a tree."
"Well how bout sleepin under the stars." said Applejack. Rarity's frown turned upside down. It was a beautiful night.
"And serenaded by sauropods." Rainbow added.
"Hey Rainbow Dash." said Scootaloo. "What do you call a blind dinosaur?"
"I don't know Scootaloo, what do you call a blind dinosaur."
"A do-you-think-he-saur-us." Rainbow laughed.
"What do you call a blind dinosaur's dog Scoots?" Rainbow replied.
"What?"
"Do-you-think-he-saur-us Rex?" The all laughed.
"Applejack?" Sweetie Belle asked quietly.
"Yeah?"
"What if the dinosaurs come back while were all sleeping?" Rainbow rubbed Sweetie Belle's mane with her hoof.
"Don't you worry. I'm gonna stay awake."
"All night?"
"All night." Rainbow nodded The sounds of the brachiosaurus's singing sent the ponies off to sleep. Rainbow laid her head back on the tree and sighed, watching the moon and stars. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The visitor's center cafeteria was quiet and dark. Low lights lit up the room in a soft glow and the ceiling fans twirled slowly. In a side room toy dinosaurs, Jurassic Park t-shirts, mugs, and watercups sat on the shelves clean and unused. Fluttershy sat at one of the large tables quietly eating a dish of ice cream. Twilight, looking glum slowly clopped over and sat next to her.
"It was melting. I didn't want it to go to waste. How's Pinkie?"
"She's okay. I casted her leg up and she's sleeping in the bedroom." Twilight crossed her hooves on the table resting her head on top.
"You think they're all okay?"
"I'm sure they are." Fluttershy put her hoof around Twilight. "We've all made it through tough places before."
"I know we have." Twilight sighed. Twilight looked over at the ghostly lit dinosaur display at the cafeteria entrance.
"I was just thinking of the first time I saw dinosaur bones when I was a filly. My parents took Shining Armor and me to the natural history museum in Fillydelphia. It was the first time I had ever seen dinosaur bones. They were so big, it was amazing to think creatures that size could ever have existed. Then we saw the Tyrannosaurus skeleton. I was so scared I covered my eyes and hid behind my mother. When I finally opened my eyes and looked at the bones, I wasn't scared anymore. After that I couldn't get enough of dinosaurs. The best part of looking at those bones was bringing them too life in my imagination. Imagining how they lived, sounded, hunted, and ate. And to think how amazing would it be to see one alive."
"That's why I did it." Uncle Orange walked slowly from out of the darkness to join the mares at the table.
"I had that same feeling when I was a colt. I'd look at the bones and think, what would it be like to really see them, and to touch them. I wanted to show everypony in Equestria that imagination could become reality." Twilight looked at Uncle Orange from across the table with a glossy stare in her eyes.
"But there's one thing about when a dream becomes a reality Orange. It loses what made it magical." Uncle Orange signed.
"True." Then he perked up.
"But maybe it could be magical again. Everypony learns from their mistakes right? Hiring Derpy was the mistake, it's water under the bridge. Next time it'll be different." Twilight shook her head.
"Orange you're not getting it. Derpy wasn't the mistake, she was just the prick that popped the balloon."
"Yes, but Derpy showed what the problems were. We're over-dependent on automation. Next time everything will be correctible."
"There's nothing correctible about this."
"Once we have control of..."
"You never had control of it!!" Twilight snapped. "And you never will!! I tried to point that out to you and everypony else, you can't control something of which you know nothing about. But we all made a mistake here, were so taken in by what had been done with this place we ignored how fundamentally wrong it was! I made that mistake too!" Uncle Orange backed up at the force of Twilight's angry outburst. Twilight's eyes filled with tears and her lips quivered as she tried to talk.
"All that matters now are the ponies we love. Rainbow, AJ, Rarity, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I mean they're out there where ponies are dying." Uncle Orange stared as Fluttershy rubbed a comforting hoof on Twlight's back.
"I need some of this." Wiping the tears from her eyes she levitated a spoonful of ice cream to her muzzle and took a few licks.
"It's really good." Uncle Orange silently nodded.
"Spared no expense." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The early morning sun rose across the island. Golden rays shined through the jungle's thick foliage. All the ponies were asleep except for Rainbow who had stayed up all night. The large shadow of a brachiosaurus came over the tree as the sauropod opened its mouth to snatch up a large clump of leaves for breakfast. Rainbow smiled as she watched the dinosaur chow down on its food. The sound of the groaning and chewing woke up Applejack and Rarity, who both grinned at the surprise morning guest.
"Oh my gosh." Rarity whispered. Sweetie Belle woke up and jumped at the site of the dinosaur, waking up the other crusaders. She clambered up on a higher branch as the brach came in for another bite.
"Go Away!!!"
"It's okay." said Applejack. "It's just having breakfast." Applebloom and Scootaloo were excited by the surprise guest.
"It's a vegesaurus Sweetie Belle!" said Applebloom "Vegesaurus!" The fillies tried to bring the dinosaur closer to the tree, waving bundles of leaves to entice it.
"Come on girl. Come on. We've got food for you." Rarity broke off a branch of leaves with her horn magic holding it in front of the brach. The dinosaur eyed the floating bundle of leaves.
"Come on you long necked sweetie poo. A growing dinosaur must eat its vegetables." The brach burst out a low growl and snatched onto the branch of leaves, engaging in playful tug of war with the ponies.
"I'm not letting go!" Rarity laughed. The ponies all smiled at the gentle nature of the brachiosaurus. Sweetie Belle wasn't scared anymore. Instead she was smiling.The brach snapped the branch and chewed up the leaves, winning the tug of war.
"I guess you win." Curious of the strange creatures in the trees, the dinosaur leaned in for a closer look.
"Looks like somepony wants to make friends." Said Rainbow. They gave the brach rubs on its face and snout while it chewed on the leaves. The friendly sauropod loved the strokes over its face, groaning with enjoyment.
"What a sweet thing you are." said Rarity. "I never imagined a dinosaur being as gentle as you."
"Probably never felt hooves on its face." said Applejack. "Look how much she loves it." Applebloom noticed some snot dripping down from the brach's nose.
"She looks sniffly, like she's got a cold."
"Looks like it. From the storm." Rarity levitated a large leaf to wipe the dinosaur's nose.
"Here you go darling."
"Could I touch it?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Course you can, Sweetie Belle. She's like a big cow. Like Daisy Jo back in Ponyville." Sweetie Belle reached out a hoof the touch the brach, but the dinosaur backed away from the tree. It's eyes winced up.
"Come on girl. I won't hurt you. Come on, I just want too..." Suddenly, the brachiosaurus sneezed right on the filly, covering her head to toe in snot. The other ponies laughed thinking how cute it was. Sweetie Belle was frozen in place, almost in tears. Dinosaur snot dripped down her face and mane.
"Wow." said Rainbow Dash. "That Brachiosaurus was amazing. If only we saw something like that on the tour."
"Let's hope any dinosaurs we meet are gentle like that one. We gotta long hike back to the visitor's center."
"Applejack? How in Equestria are we going to get back?" asked Rarity. "We don't even know where we are."
"Ah was in the fillyscouts when I was a filly, and one of the fundamental things we learned was how to find your way home from the woods." Applejack looked up at the sun to orient their position to the visitor's center.
"Ah reckon it's thataway."
"All right. Let's get hoofin."
"Hold on now. We'all gotta be smart bout this. This here ain't the Everfree Forest. There's terrible lizards in these jungles."
"Let's keep the little ones in the center," said Rainbow. "And the three of us on the outside."
"Like a herd a cows." Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
"Uhh..yeah...sort of."
"And make note, give a little filly a bath along the way." said Rarity An embarassed Sweetie Belle shook the dinosaur snot off of her.
"Ughh. One dinosaur tried to eat me and another one sneezed on me."
"Cheer up Sweetie Belle." said Scootaloo. "It was cute." Sweetie Belle 'sneezed' on Scootaloo.
"Eww!"
"Settle down ya'll. We gotta get a movin back to the visitor's center. Stay with the group, keep everypony in your sight, and watch your tails. Anykinda dinosaur could be round the next corner."
"Right." said Rainbow The group all took deep breaths and headed off into the jungle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ponies hoofed their way through the park's jungles. The sun climbed higher into the sky; it was getting hot and sticky.
"How much farther?" Rarity whined. Applejack clenched her teeth in annoyance.
"We've only been walkin fifteen minutes. "
"I've never been keen on long hikes. Specially in humid jungles." Rarity swatted away a mosquito buzzing around her face.
"Shhh!" Rainbow Dash froze the group.
"What is it?" asked Applejack.
"Listen." They could hear groaning and munching on leaves.
"Something's over there. Everypony keep quiet." They moved slowly toward the sounds. Rainbow pulled away some small brush revealing a herd of Ankylosaurus grazing in a thicket.
"Wow." whispered Applebloom. "Ankylosauruses." Among the herd were four adult Ankylosaurus and two young ones.
"Check out that armor." said Rainbow Dash. "They're almost like tanks."
"And those tail clubs look pretty mean." said Applejack. "Wouldn't want to run into those."
"How do we get by them?" asked Scootaloo.
"Very carefully." Rainbow whispered. "The tour video said they can have bad tempers. Let's tip-hoof around the thicket." The ponies tiptoed their way around the dinosaurs trying to be as quiet as a they could possible be. Half way around, Applebloom slipped down a small embankment landing very close to the two young anks. Luckily they didn't notice her.
"Okay AB." she thought. "Get up very carefully." Applebloom tried to get up as slowly as possible, but she landed in an awkward position. Suddenly her hoof snapped a stick, startling the dinosaurs.
"Uh...oh." The frightened anks called for the others. One of adults looked over to the young ones and saw Applebloom, and it wasn't pleased. The angry Ankylosaur arched its back snowing its armor and scraped the ground in preparation to charge.
"Help me!!"
"Applebloom!?!"
"Help!!" The angry dinosaur charged for the small pony. Applebloom screamed.
"Applebloom!!" AJ screamed. Rarity galloped toward the charging dinosaur, grabbing Applebloom in her magic, pulling her out of the way just in time. The furious ank took a swing at the ponies with its club. Rarity and Applebloom ducked, narrowly missing the blow. Another ank was charging for them as well.
"In here!" Rarity and Applebloom crawled into a hollowed log to hide. Barely crawling inside, a huge club smashed part of the log. A clawed foot tried scraped the log trying to fish the trapped ponies out.
"Help!!!" Rarity and Applebloom shrieked.
"Hey!!! Back off!!" The anks looked up to Applejack and Rainbow Dash who hurled stones at them to scare them away.
"Go on ya Ankylodons! Get!"
"Shoo!" shouted Rainbow. "Shoo!" The dinosaurs turned tail and fled the thicket.
"Get along little dinos!" They rushed down to the log.
"You guys okay?" asked Rainbow.
"I'm okay." said Applebloom.
"Where are the dinosaurs?" asked Rarity.
"They're leavin." said Applejack. "We scared them away." She turned Applebloom.
"What happened?"
"Ah slipped down the embankment right behind the little ones!" Applebloom cried. "I tried not to scare them but stepped on a twig! I'm so sorry!" Applejack hugged her frightened sister.
"It's okay sis. It's okay." Rarity got up and brushed herself off.
"Who would have thought a plant eating dinosaur could be so vicious."
"We should get out of here." said Rainbow Dash "All that noise they were making could attract something else, like the T-Rex." Applejack and Rarity nodded.
"Let's get movin." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I never thought I'd say this, but I liked dinosaurs better as bones." said Scootaloo.
"Me too." Applebloom replied. "The bones don't try to eat ya, or trample on ya."
"Or sneeze on you." Sweetie Belle added in.
"I'm right with ya'll crusaders." Said Applejack. "This tamperin with nature stuff is just basket a brown apples. Twilight and Fluttershy were right about this from the get go."
"Well we're very fortunate they're all girls. If they were having babies that'd be..eeeee!!" Rarity tripped and fell forward landing flat on her face with a 'crunch'.
"Rarity! You okay? That fall looked...whoa." The ponies jaws dropped at what they just found.
"Girls," Rarity moaned. "I'm just as dirty as the rest of you. There's no need to gawk at this extra filth."
"Rarity...look." said a speechless Applejack. Rarity did look and was just as surprised.
"It might be the heat or my imagination," said Rainbow. "but are those...eggs." Rarity got up turning a shade whiter than usual.
"They are eggs." She had stumbled into a nest of at least seven broken eggshells.
"Those don't look like chicken eggs." said Applejack.
"No. More like dinosaur eggs." said Rarity. Large footsteps came from the distant trees and the ponies heard groan. Rarity gulped
"And it sounds like it's coming home."
"Run!!" screamed Rainbow. The ponies ran and hid behind a large tree root. The ferocious dinosaur turned out to be a sweet looking Parasaurolophus and her babies. They were returning to the nest from finding food.
"Parasaurolophus!" Applebloom gasped.
"A whatosoreolphus?"
"Parasaurolophus. One of my favorites." The group peered out from the tree root.
"She doesn't look threatening at all." said Applejack. "She looks quite gentle."
"Oh, those babies are just adorable." said Rarity. "And I love those accessories they're all wearing."
"You mean the headcrest?"
"I could use that to inspire a new line of creations. It'd look fabulous. Nice to see a dinosaur who has great taste in fashion."
"I think its for making noises."
"Wow. A functional accessory too." The mother Para regurgitated a stomach full of digested fruit into the nest which the babies immediately started eating.
"Gross!" gasped Rarity. "What kind of dinosaur does something so repulsive!"
"A mother dinosaur." Applejack answered coyley. "Like the way your mother fed you baby food when you were a youngun." Rarity smiled.
"True."
"Nothing like a good ABC fruit salad." said Rainbow Scootaloo giggled.
"ABC?"
"Already Been Chewed." Scootaloo and Rainbow clopped hooves. The mother Para lovingly nuzzled her babies, making the ponies smile and aww.
"I wish Fluttershy was here." said Rarity. "She would love to see this."
"It's amazing." said Rainbow. "We've seen how dinosaurs can be dangerous predators and viciously defensive, but also gentle giants and even good mothers."
"I don't get it." said Scootaloo.
"Don't get what?" Sweetie Belle replied.
"All the dinosaurs are girls right? How can they have babies if they're all girls?"
"You're right Scoots." said Rainbow. "There is something fishy about that."
"We should tell Twilight when we get back." said Applejack.
"Fluttershy was right." said Rarity. "Remember back in the lab when she said that 'life finds a way'?"
"Yeah?" Rarity nodded to the parasaur family as the mother lovingly settled her babies down for a nap.
"Life found a way." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No, no no! You're crazy. You've absolutely spit your bit." Uncle Orange was indignant, refusing to believe what Octavia and Bright Bulb were proposing.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Twilight.
"A calculated risk," Bright Bulb answered the purple unicorn. "And its the only option we have left. All other choices have been exhausted. We'll never find the command that Derpy used, she's covered her hooves far to well. And it's pretty obvious she's not coming back." He turned to Orange who hung his head in his hooves.
"So, we shut down the entire system."
"Just forget about it. We're not doing it."
"We have to shutdown the system. It's the only way to wipe out everything the she did. Then upon restarting, all of the park systems will come online in their original start up mode."
"Theoretically." Orange commented.
"What?" snapped Twilight.
"Theoretically that's what would happen, but the systems never been shut like that before. It might not come on at all."
"But we would get the phones back." said Fluttershy.
"Again, theoretically."
"Well, what other options do we have?" asked Twilight.
"None." said Bright Bulb.
"Wait." said Octavia. "There is the lysine contingency."
"What's that?" asked Fluttershy.
"That is not an option." snapped Uncle Orange.
"The lysine what?"
"The lysine contingency." Octavia explained. "We have it in place to prevent the spread of the dinosaurs in case any of them ever got off the island. When the animals were engineered, a genetic fault in enzyme metabolism was added in which they can't produce the amino acid, lysine. To survive they're completely supplied by us with the acid. If we cut it off, the animals all fall comatose and die."
"Goodness!" Fluttershy squeaked. "The poor dinosaurs."
"How long does the ly...whatever you call it, take to take effect?"
"A week." said Bright Bulb. "At least five days for any kind of symptoms to arise." Twilight raised an eyebrow with a look of 'seriously?'.
"So even if we did do it, it wouldn't make much difference."
"Not really."
"So really our only option is the shut down."
"Yes. It's a big risk, but it's the only one that will give us any fleeting chance of putting things right."
"Then let's do it."
"We're not doing it." said Orange. "There has to be a way to unhook Derpy's command. If we just..." Fluttershy put her hoof down hard on Orange's hooves and gave him 'the Stare'.
"Our friends are out there in this death trap you created, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them back. We are shutting down the system." Bright Bulb unlocked the circuit box with his horn magic and switched off each of the systems. The computer's shut off, one by one. Then the lights shut off plunging the control room into darkness. Twilight lit up her horn to provide some light. Fluttershy and Pinkie held onto each other in anticipation. Bright Bulb put his hoof on the main switch to turn everything back on.
"Hold onto your hooves ponies." He hit the switch. Nothing happened. The lights and computers were still off. Fluttershy noticed something blinking on one computer monitor.
"Look." Bright Bulb looked at the monitor with Uncle Orange looking over his shoulder, and he smiled.
"It's okay. See, the computer's on. It worked."
"Wait." said Pinkie Pie. "How could it have worked unless it worked in reverse and kept everything off."
"No, it did work." said Bright Bulb. "The shutdown probably tripped the main circuit breakers. All we have to do is turn them back on, then restart the computer systems in here, which will give us back the phones and security systems, but overall it worked. The systems ready."
"Where are the circuit breakers?" asked Octavia.
"The maintenance shed. On the other side of the compound. Give me five minutes and the whole park will be back online."
"I'm going with you." said Uncle Orange. "Since it is my park, I should lend a hoof in repairing it." The stallion and unicorn headed out of the control room as Octavia turned to Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy.
"Now just to be safe we should all move to the emergency bunker. Until Bright Bulb and Mr. Orange return and the whole system is online again." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Out in the park, the other ponies hiked their into a large grassy clearing. The midday sun was beating down on them. They were all tired and sweaty.
"It's so hot." Scootaloo moaned. "My hooves are killing me."
"Can't we stop for a while?" said Sweetie Belle.
"We can't be far." said Applejack. "The visitor's center's gotta be a mile or so over that rise there. Let's just keep a goin a little bit..." Up ahead on a ridge, a herd of running Gallimimus appeared.
"Applebloom, you know your dinosaurs. What are these ones?"
"They look almost like ostriches." said Rarity. "Or some kind of bird."
"Your right." said Rainbow. "Now I see how they think dinosaurs are related to birds. They way they move they look just like a flock birds on the wing." The herd suddenly changed direction, running right for the ponies. Sweetie Belle backed up nervously.
"They..seem..to be...flocking this way." Sweetie Belle turned around and galloped in the other direction. Scootaloo followed her. Then Rarity, Rainbow, Applebloom and Applejack. The gallys came up from under the ridge and were right on the ponys' tails. The group galloped as fast as they could to avoid them, but were soon in the heat of the stampede. The gallys dodged around the ponies. Up ahead, the herd jumped over an old fallen tree trunk. The ponies jumped over and took cover underneath from the stampede. They crawled behind the log through a gap and peered over at the fleeing dinosaurs.
"Lan sakes." said Applejack. "What's all the hurry?" Some familiar rumbling footsteps came from the trees.
"Three guesses." said Rainbow. The T-Rex came crashing out of the trees charging mouth open at the Gallimimuses. It caught one in its jaws. The injured Gally briefly looked toward the giant predator either begging for mercy or seeing what was hitting it, just before the Rex wreslted it to death. The ponies watched the kill from behind the log. A mix of fear and awe filled their eyes as they watched the T-Rex dig into its meal.
"Can we go?" Sweetie Belle quietly whimpered.
"Look how it eats." whispered Rainbow Dash.
"Please?"
"Bet you'll never look at birds the same way again."
"No I won't"
"Let's go." said Applejack. "We don't need to see this." Rainbow nodded.
"Okay. Everypony keep low and follow me." They ducked down below the log, except for Scootaloo who couldn't take her eyes of the scene.
"Look at how much blood." Rainbow Dash crawled back and pulled her away.
Down in the emergency bunker the four ponies waited for Uncle Orange and Bright Bulb to return. With the power back on, the fences would be electrified again, slowing the spread of the dinosaurs and they could reboot the system and call for a rescue. Pinkie Pie was laid out on the table so she could stretch her casted up leg. She was playing cards with Fluttershy during the wait. Twilight paced around the room.
"Something's not right here. Bright Bulb said the power would be back on in five minutes. How long has it been?"
"Almost an hour." Fluttershy replied.
"Gin!" said Pinkie.
"Hey. I almost had you."
"Woo hoo! That's thirty games in a row."
"Best of sixty-two?" Twilight was getting more frustrated.
"Ughhh! Enough is enough. I'll do it." Twilight opened a utility closet with her magic.
"Do what Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.
"Turn the power on."
"What! You can't go Twilight, its too dangerous."
"Do you really wanna become Twilight medium rare with light sparkle sauce?" said Pinkie Pie.
"I'm well aware of what's out there, but something has happened to Uncle Orange and Bright Bulb or else we wouldn't be standing here wondering where they are. Somepony has to do it or else we'll all be on the menu for the forseable future." Octavia opened a closet containing weapons
"I'm going with you. You won't get anywhere close to that shed without me." Octavia pulled out a shoulder rifle and several rounds of ammunition. Twilight got out two headset communicators, and slid one onto Fluttershy.
"What's this for?"
"You're going to be my guide." Twilight pulled out a schematic and laid it on the table on top of Pinkie. She paged through the plans until she found the one for the maintenance shed.
"You're going to use this schematic and guide me through here so I can reset the power. We'll talk to one another over these headsets." Twilight spoke into her headset microphone.
"Testing. 1,2. Fluttershy? Do you read?"
"Wow! I hear you."
"Ooh Ooh." said Pinkie. "I wanna say something...Squinky!" Twilight rolled her eyes. Even in the most serious of circumstances Pinkie still found ways to be random and goofy. Octavia loaded and cocked her rifle.
"Lets go Twilight."
"Now remember Fluttershy, just walk me through this step by step."
"Okay." replied Fluttershy. "Good luck." Twilight and Octavia left the bunker. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Outside the two ponies made their way around the compound to where the power shed was, which also took them past the holding pen where the velociraptors were being kept. This time they were met with a bone chilling site. There was a huge hole in the fence. The electric cables were snapped off and lay twisted in every which way. They looked down and saw tracks in the sand going out into the brush. The raptors had escaped and were now on the loose within the compound.
"The total shutdown must have turned off all the fences." Said Octavia. "Shucks even Derpy new better than to mess with the raptor fence." Twilight's confidence in turning the power on took a big dive. The situation was more dire now with velociraptors on the prowl. They could be watching them right now, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Octavia collected herself.
"Come on. This way."
The two headed down the path through the bush, and could see the doorway to the shed.
"I see the shed." Twilight whispered. "We can make it if we run." But Octavia was frozen in position, her eyes fixed on something in the thick leaves.
"No. We can't."
"Why not?"
"Because we're being hunted. In the bushes straight ahead." Twilight breathed heavily trying to keep her head together.
"It's alright."
"My hoof it is." Twilight now started to shake.
"Run. Toward the shed." Octavia took aim at her target.
"I've got her. Go. Now!" Twilight bolted, galloping as fast as her purple legs could carry her. She jumped and tripped over fallen trees. Flinging the fenced gate out of her way, she pulled the shed's door open and slammed it behind her. Twilight stood alone in the dark shed. She couldn't see or hear anything.
"Uncle Orange?!! Bright Bulb?!! Is anypony there?!" There was no sign of Uncle Orange or Bright Bulb. Twilight lit up her horn and started down into the dark corridors.
"Okay Fluttershy, I'm in. Can you hear me?"
"Yes. We can hear you." Twilight made her way down the dark stairway.
"Now." Fluttershy spoke into her headset. "Ahead of you is a metal staircase. Go down to the bottom."
"Okay. I'm going down."
"At the bottom after twenty or thirty feet you'll come to a T junction. Take a left." Pinkie was following the diagram too.
"Just tell her to follow the pipes on the ceiling."
"I know how to read a schematic." Fluttershy snapped. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elsewhere in the park, the rest of the Mane Six and the Cutie Mark Crusaders continued their way back to the Visitor's Center. They were all hot, tired, and hungry.
"Are we there yet?" moaned Rarity.
"The last dozen times you asked that, the answer was no." said Applejack. "But this time I think its yes."
"How do you know?" asked Rarity. Applejack pulled some thick brush away revealing a huge fence.
"Dat there looks like the perimeter fence. The visitor's centers on the other side of that. I reckon if we get over that fence somehow we're home free."
"Sis? How do ya guess we do that." asked Applebloom. "The fence's electrified remember?"
"Yer right Applebloom. Rarity? Can you levitate us over it with yer magic?"
"No." Rarity answered. "It's too high. I could never levitate ponies that high. Twilight could."
"I could fly us over." said Rainbow Dash. "If my wing wasn't busted."
"It's all right sugarcube." AJ realized they had few options. "Maybe we should find another way."
"Wait." said Rainbow. They listened. The fences usually made a low hum from the high voltage electricity moving through them, but now there was no hum. Up at the top, the warning lights were off. Rainbow Dash took a stick in her teeth and climbed up on the concrete base of the fence. She threw the stick onto the cables. Nothing. No sparks, no smoke.
"The power is still off." Rainbow approached the fence very slowly and raised her hooves to the cables. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Rainbow Dash, always the pony for a good joke stopped shaking the fence and looked back with a silly grin. The others stared back at her not really amused, except for Scootaloo who has trying to keep from laughing.
"That wasn't funny." said Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo giggled behind her hooves.
"That was great." The others looked at her. Rainbow looked back at the fence thinking.
"Maybe we can.." she bit down on the netting between the cables but they were to strong to bend. Suddenly the roar of the T-Rex came from the trees behind them. They all jumped up on the base and began to scale the 90 foot high fence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back in the power shed Twilight slowly clopped through the dark tunnels. Her horn light lit up the cement wall of a dead end.
"Shoot. Fluttershy, I'm at a dead end." Fluttershy retraced her steps on the diagram.
"Hold on, wait. You missed a right turn somewhere." Pinkie grabbed the microphone on Fluttershy's headset to talk to Twilight, giving Fluttershy's head a bit of a yank. Fluttershy rubbed her head a little annoyed.
"Twilight look above you. There's a large bundle of cables and pipes along the ceiling. They lead directly to the box. Follow them." Twilight aimed her horn at the ceiling and saw the cables pointing her in the right direction.
"Okay I'm following the cables." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the fence, the mares and fillies were halfway up. The fillies were above the mares in two rows of three. One hoof at a time they climbed up the fence.
"Hey crusaders." said Scootaloo. "If we scale this fence fast enough, maybe we can get fence climbing cutie marks."
"Yeah cool." squeaked Sweetie Belle.
"But there's now big fences back in Ponyville, and a fence climbing cutie mark sounds rather boring don't you think?"
"Yeah. Maybe your right." The crusaders determination under these circumstances made the three mares giggle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight had reached the electric box at the end of the corridor.
"I see the box. It says high voltage...yes." She opened up the thick gray safety door revealing the switches for the park fences and electric lines.
"Okay Fluttershy. I'm ready for the instructions." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ponies made it to the top of the fence and were climbing over to the other side. Rainbow and AJ made it over and were on their way down. Rarity was crossing over with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.
"Careful everypony." said AJ. "This is the tricky part." Scootaloo was having some trouble.
"Take it easy Scootaloo. There's no hurry. Find your footin. Find your footin." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinkie held the instruction booklet for the power box in her mouth so Fluttershy could read from it.
"Twilight. You can't throw the main switch by hoof. You have to pump the primer handle in order to create the charge. Four to five times should do it. The handle is on the front of the console. It's large, flat, and grey." Twilight placed an aura around the handle to pump it up.
"Okay here I go. One, two, three, four...five. Okay, charged." Fluttershy continued with the instructions.
"Now if you look under the words 'contact position' there's a round green button. It says 'push to close'."
"Push to close. Alright." Twilight placed her horn on the button.
"Push it." said Fluttershy. Twilight pushed the button and the switches for the park systems flashed on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suddenly out of nowhere, a warning buzzer began to blair loudly. The power was coming back on. Sweetie Belle was being helped off the fence by Rarity and everypony was safely off, except Scootaloo who was having a hard time coming down. The sound of the siren scared her, enough that she almost fell off. She grabbed a cable with her teeth and pulled herself back up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Now Twilight." Fluttershy continued. "This is the last step. The red buttons you see there turn on the individual park systems. Switch them on." Twilight opened the plastic doors with her magic and pushed the buttons with her horn. One by one the power was turned back on throughout the park. At the very bottom was the switch for the perimeter fence where the others were. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ponies were in panic. Scootaloo was stuck near the top and the power was coming on.
"Scootaloo!! Get off the fence now!!" shouted Applejack.
"Scootaloo come on! Get down!" shouted Applebloom and Sweetie. Rainbow Dash jumped in.
"You'll have to jump."
"You crazy!" she shouted. "I can't jump!"
"You're gonna get fried!!!" screamed Rainbow. "It's okay, I'll catch you! I'll count to three! One! Two! Three!" Scoots was so scared at the drop below her she couldn't move.
"Hold on. I'm coming up to get ya!" Rainbow hollered. The others looked on at Scoots holding their breath. Scootaloo go ready to jump off the fence.
"Okay I'm gonna count to three. One..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight had turned on all the switches and now took aim at the final switch...the perimeter fence. In what seemed like slow motion, the plastic door opened revealing the button, she pressed her horn on the button, applied pressure, and switched it on... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Two..." 10,000 volts of electricity surged through the cables and right through Scootaloo's little body, sparking where she was holding on. The shock blew Scootaloo off the fence with a bang and she fell straight into Rainbow Dash's open hooves. The force of catching her knocked the wind out of Rainbow, sending her into Applejack, knocking them both to the ground. Applebloom and Sweetie were hysterical.
"Scootaloo!!! Scootaloo!!!!" Scootaloo lay motionless on the ground. Applejack felt her neck; there was no pulse. She checked for breathing. Nothing. She looked up to Rarity who was holding the two other fillies and started to panic.
"She ain't breathin, and there's no pulse! I don't know what to do!" Rainbow got up still winded from catching Scootaloo.
"Let me at her." she panted. She got down and started pumping Scootaloo's chest.
"Hurry Rainbow." said a worried Applejack. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside the power shed, the lights came back on one by one up to smiling Twilight. She clopped her hooves with joy.
"Mr. Orange, Jurassic Park is back in..." A snarling velociraptor burst through the piped wall behind the unicorn. Twilight screamed and grabbed hold of the fenced door to the box. The raptor snapped at her hooves, but was stuck behind the pipes.
"No you don't!!!" Twilight forced the door open just as the raptor broke free and charged her. It jumped onto the door knocking her to the floor. Twilight pushed the door shut with her hooves locking the raptor inside. Suddenly she felt a yellow hoof land on her back.
"Uncle Orange! I'm so glad its..." Only it wasn't Uncle Orange, just his hoof. Twilight turned white as sheet at the sight of blood soaked hoof. The raptor snapped at the metal grate causing her to bolt. Lucky for her, the raptor had to bend and break off the grate which it could do easily with its enormous strength. This kept the dinosaur busy as Twilight made a break for the door. She galloped back up the stairs and out the door slamming it hard behind her. She ran to the fence surrounding the shed and stopped, brought to tears as to how close she came to becoming raptor food. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elsewhere in the bush, Octavia was tracking one of the escaped raptors. She caught site of it through the bushes. She took aim at the raptor and got ready to shoot. The raptor didn't move. It just stared at her with a look in its eye, as if it knew something that Octavia didn't. Just as Octavia got ready to take her shot, another raptor emerged from the bushes next to her. It hissed with glee at the pony who just realized she walked into to an ambush.
"Clever girl." Before she could react the raptor pounced on her and devoured her alive. The decoy raptor almost seemed to grin as Octavia's screams filled the air. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back at the fence, Scootaloo seemed all but dead. Rainbow Dash pumped her chest and forced air down her throat, trying her hardest to revive the small pegasus. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle eyes filled with tears at the thought of loosing their fellow crusader and friend. Applejack and Rarity held them close watching nervously.
"Scootaloo!" Rainbow was close to crying herself.
"Come on Scoots!" Sweetie whimpered and pressed her face into Rarity's chest, who's own eyes were watering up too. Applejack held Applebloom who was also on the verge of sobbing. Just when all seemed hopeless Scootaloo gasped and coughed. She was alive.
"Good girl! Good girl!" Rainbow cried. They all breathed a sigh of relief. Rainbow Dash happily embraced Scootaloo.
The three mares and fillies walked into the visitor's center rotunda. It was dark, shadowy, and deserted; totally different from when they first arrived. The sounds of their hooves' echoed off the walls. Rainbow carried Scootaloo on her back as the filly was too hurt to walk after being electrocuted. They had used Applebloom's bow to bandage Scoots' burned hooves.
"Hello?" called Rainbow Dash. "Anypony here?"
"Twilight?" called Applejack.
"Fluttershy?" called Rarity. They entered the dining area and set Scootaloo down on a table. She winced from her sore hooves.
"Ya'll are gonna stay here now." Applejack told the crusaders. "Rainbow, Rarity, and I gotta go find the others. Then we'll get out of this place, and get you to a hospital. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, can ya'll look after Scootaloo?" Scootaloo looked down in shame.
"Sorry I couldn't get off the fence."
"Aah come on now Sugarcube. It wasn't your fault." She turned to Rainbow and Rarity.
"Come on girls lets go."
"Wait." Said Rainbow Dash. She pushed her hoof around Scootaloo's mane.
"Your mane is all poofy. Scootaloo the ponified piece of toast." Scoots smiled. The mares turned to leave.
"We'll be back soon. We promise." Across the room was a table of food which was supposed to be eaten the night before, when the T-Rex broke out and attacked them. They hadn't eaten anything since yesterday at lunch and were starving. Scootaloo got up and limped over to the table. Applebloom and Sweetie followed her. They all got plates and silverware, and dug into the smorgasbord. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Outside Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity searched the compound looking for their friends.
"Twilight?" called Applejack. "Uncle Orange?"
"Fluttershy? Pinkie?" called Rarity. Twilight was outside too and spotted them from up on a small ridge.
"Girls?" The others turned and saw her. Twilight was so overjoyed she nearly cried. They galloped toward each other and embraced.
"Twilight!"
"Girls! Are you all okay?"
"We're quite banged up," Rainbow emphasized their injuries. "but we're all in one piece."
"Where are Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy?" Rarity asked.
"Emergency bunker on the other side of the compound. We found Pinkie when we came to look for you all. Her leg was badly broken, but she's okay. She's still Pinkie."
"Now where might my Uncle Orange be." Applejack quipped. "Pardon the pun but Ah got a real bone to pick with him."
"He's dead." said Twilight. "He got eaten." The three mares looked at each other surprised. Applejack scratched her mane not knowing what to think.
"Eaten by his own theme park." she sighed. "Now that's just plain ironic."
"How did you all get here? Fluttershy and I went to find you."
"Well," said Rarity. "The Tyrannosaurus Rex broke out of its cage and threw us off a cliff, and we had to hike our way back here through the jungle. We had a great time with a Brachiosaurus', were nearly trampled by anklesaurs..."
"Ankylosaurs." Rainbow corrected.
"Whatever...Had a sweet encounter with a parasaurolophus family, scaled an electric fence and well, HaHaHa here we are."
"And the cutie mark crusaders?" asked Twilight.
"They're all fine." said Applejack. "We almost lost Scootaloo coming over the fence. The power came on while she was climbing down and gave her quite a jolt."
"Oh dear." Twilight covered her mouth. "I was the one turning the power on. Is she okay?"
"She's fine sweetness." said Rarity. "Rainbow Dash revived her and she's with the others in the dining hall. Now how about we get ourselves out of this crazy theme park."
"We have a bigger problem. We're not safe out here."
"What do you mean Twilight?" asked Rainbow. "Were back within the compound and the fences are back on, right?"
"Believe me, it's much more serious than that. Lets get to the emergency bunker. We need to regroup." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Inside the dining hall, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were chowing down on some of the delicious food. Daisies and dandelion deserts, fresh fruits and veggies. They all smiled at each other. It was great to finally have some food. Scootaloo took a drink from a glass of milk. As she set it down she looked at Sweetie and Applebloom very confused. They were looking at something. Sweetie Belle, holding a spoonful of green jello in her horn magic started to shake. Her eyes widened. Scootaloo looked behind her. A snarling dark shadow appeared on the other side of the glass mural, and it was coming their way. The shadow's head turned and hissed at the little ponies. Scootaloo gasped.
The three fillies scrambled into the kitchen shutting the door behind them, but it had no lock. Sweetie turned off the lights and they ran to the end of a long metal counter hiding at the other end. Outside the sound of hisses and snorts became louder. A scaly toothed snout appeared in the door's small window fogging it with its hot breath. Scootaloo looked back from behind the table to see what it was. The dinosaur looked through the tiny window, and sneered at her. It made a loud snort fogging up the window. Scoots gasped and huddled with the others behind the counter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Mane Six, now regrouped inside the bunker conversed with each other.
"Now let me get this straight." said Applejack. "What are these things again?"
"They're the same dinosaurs that devoured that poor cow." Fluttershy whimpered.
"What's different about them than the other dinosaurs here?" Rainbow added in.
"Well for one thing, they are intelligent. Like solving quantum mechanics crossed with vector calculus intelligent." The ponies couldn't understand what Twilight just said, but they knew if these types of dinosaurs were that smart they were in real trouble.
"Remember the baby dinosaur we saw yesterday in the lab?"
"Sure." said Pinkie Pie. "It was adorable!"
"Well that was a baby raptor, and these are all grown up.They're not just predators like the T-Rex, these things strategize and coordinate their attacks. They know exactly what they're doing. They set a trap for Octavia and she walked right into it. She never saw it coming." The mares all looked at each other with a mix of amazement and fright realizing what they were up against.
"Not only are they intelligent. They're fast runners, incredible jumpers, and they have these." She tossed a raptor claw onto the table.
"Raptors have six inch retractable claws on the inner toes of both feet."
"Holey Wiggy! That's a sharp little piggy!"
"My!" said Rarity. "Have these things never heard of emery boards?"
"How many raptors are out there?" asked Rainbow Dash
"Three." answered Twilight.
"So how do we call for help?" asked Applejack. "Spike ain't here to message Princess Celestia."
"No." said Twilight. "But with the power on now, we can reboot the park systems which will turn the phones back on. Then we can call Spike to message the princess, and get out of here." Rainbow Dash pulled out one of the shoulder guns from the closet and loaded it up.
"Well what are we waiting for. Lets pony up."
"Fluttershy," said Twilight. "You and Pinkie stay here. We'll call you once the systems back up."
"Okay."
"Wanna play more cards?" asked Pinkie cheerfully. "Or how bout tic tac toe?"
"Twilight?" asked Rarity. "You think the cutie mark crusaders are safe where they are? What with these... ewugh...raptor things roaming about?"
"They should be, unless they figure out how to open doors." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back in the visitor's center kitchen, the knob of the door started to turn and then opened ajar with a three clawed hand behind it. The snorting dinosaur nudged the door with its snout, figuring out how it worked. Then pushed it wide open.
"Scootaloo." Applebloom whispered. "What is it?!"
"A velociraptor."
"Its inside?!" Sweetie Belle whimpered. The raptor looked around the doorway then stood straight up making a very loud noise, as if it was calling something or someone. Another raptor came in right behind it. They sniffed the air for the smell of fresh meat. Sweetie Belle looked up from the corner of the table, then pulled back and whispered to the others.
"There's two of them!"
"Follow me." Applebloom whispered. The three fillies got on their knees and crawled alongside another counter. The raptors began prowling the kitchen looking for the little ponies. They were hunting as they would have millions of years ago. As if playing their own game of hide and seek; only this time if they were found they'd be lunch. The raptors' snorts, snarls, and hisses sent chills through the fillies' blood. One raptor was on the other side of the counter with a look in its eye of 'Come out, come out, wherever you are.' Underneath the counter the girls could see the raptor's sharp toe claws, tapping the floor as it walked.
The lead raptor snorted and the fillies stopped in their tracks. It looked over the counter top to see if they were on the other side. It didn't see them. Growling in disappointment, it kept moving. The crusaders crawled in the opposite direction. The raptors were getting frustrated. Snorting, the raptor's tail knocked some cookware off the counter top. The pots and pans fell onto the Crusaders. They brushed them off and hurried to the next counter. Appleboom and Sweetie Belle got to the other side, but Scootaloo stopped among a rack of cooking utensils, just as a raptor stuck its nose through a drawer on the previous cabinet. It sniffed the floor. Finding nothing, it pulled it's head back. Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief, but a soup ladle fell off its hook and clanged on the stone floor. The raptors heard the sound. One jumped up onto the counter top and they both headed Scootaloo's way.
Scootaloo crawled halfway down the counter and stopped. Sweetie and Applebloom were down on the other end. They waved to her to crawl down, but she was too scared to move. The snorting raptors were right on top of her. Sniffing around the counter they would surely find her. Suddenly they heard a clanging noise. Using her horn magic, Sweetie Belle banged a metal spoon onto the floor. The raptors turned their attention to her and Applebloom. The two fillies crawled into an open drawer on the side of the counter. One raptor saw them crawling inside, and bared its sharp teeth. The girls tried to shut the drawer but the door was stuck. The vicious raptor reared up and screamed, charging for the ponies. The girls screamed as the snarling carnivore charged for them. The raptor crouched down and leapt toward the drawer for an ambush, but hit the front a metal cabinet, knocking it out cold. It had been fooled by the girls' reflection. Applebloom and Sweetie crawled out of the drawer and scooted away to hide.
Scootaloo peaked out from behind the counter where she was hiding. At the far end of the kitchen was a large walk-in freezer and the door was open. This gave her an idea. She got up and bolted for the freezer. The second raptor saw her and leapt off the counter in pursuit. Scootaloo limped as fast as she could toward the freezer, but the raptor was catching up. Almost in its claws the pegasus and dinosaur screamed into the freezer. Sliding on the slippery floor, the raptor crashed into a shelf of frozen vegetables. Scootaloo got up and slipped her way out of the freezer. The raptor quickly got to its feet and jumped for the door, just before Scootaloo slammed it into its face. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle ran screaming for the freezer. The snarling raptor pushed against the door trying to escape. With one final slam onto its hands and snout, the raptor let go and the door shut. Sweetie Belle slipped in the locking pin trapping it inside for good.
Scootaloo leaned on the side of a counter panting. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle grabbed her and they fled the kitchen. As they ran away, the raptor that had hit the side of the cabinet came too and spotted them. It sneered with the look of 'clever girls.' The crusaders ran back into the cafeteria where they saw Rainbow, AJ, Rarity, and Twilight.
"You girls okay?" asked Rarity.
"A velociraptor." Sweetie Belle cried. "It's in the kitchen."
The ponies hurried as fast as they could down into the control room. Twilight headed for the main computers and switched them on.
"Once we reboot the system we can get out of here. Let's hope it comes on quick." Rainbow closed the door, but the computerized lock was down.
"The doorlocks! Twilight put up the door..." She looked up to find a velociraptor menacingly fogging up the window. It had followed them down from the kitchen. The knob started to turn. Rainbow grabbed it with her teeth. The raptor burst the door open, but Rainbow Dash propped her body against it. She pushed with all her might, but she couldn't keep it shut. Twilight bolted for the door to help.
"Twilight put up the doorlocks!" Rainbow shouted.
"You can't hold it by yourself!" Both Rainbow and Twilight pushed as hard as they could. Their hooves slipped against the floor.
"It's too strong!" Applejack joined in to push against the door, propping her back legs against it.
"Let's see how 65 million years holds up against applebucking." The raptor was still coming in.
"It's still not enough!" Rainbow screamed.
"Rarity! Get over here!!" Rarity propped her body against the door, pushing with her back. Now all four mares were pushing against the door, but it was not enough. Unless the system was re-started and secured, the raptor would get inside and devour them. Sweetie Belle looked over at the computers. She worked with them all the time at home, maybe she could help. She leaped to the console and got her hooves on the keyboard and mouse. The other crusaders joined her.
"Unix system. I think I know this. Looks like each file controls a separate part of the park's systems. I've got to find the right one."
"Hurry Sweetie Belle." said Applebloom. The four mares pushed against the door with every ounce of strength they had.
"Push harder!" Rainbow screamed.
"I'm trying!" Twilight shouted. The raptor's clawed hands reached across from the other side. Twilight bit the raptor's fingers making it scream. Sweetie Belle navigated through the computer's graphical directory.
"Here, Visitor's Center main systems. I bet it's in here." Sweetie Belle clicked and followed the cursor into a subset of files. Applejack and Rarity's hooves were slipping against the floor. Rarity puffed out her cheeks and pushed with all her might.
"Of all the terrible lizards for my uncle to bring back," AJ huffed. "Why in the hay did bring back these things!" The raptor pushed even harder, getting its claws around the door again.
"Twilight?" said Rarity. "Know any spells for turning a velociraptor back into bones?"
"No!!" Twilight screamed. "I don't know any death spells!" Sweetie Belle navigated to a file that said 'Park Security Systems'.
"This file could be it" She clicked on the file, but it didn't work.
"No, this isn't the right one."
"Come on Sweetie Belle, hurry." Scootaloo whined.
"We can't hold it out forever." Rainbow shouted.
"Keep tryin girls." said Applejack. "Embrace your elements and push!!!" The mares gave it all they had against the door. The raptor screamed pushing with all of its strength. Sweetie Belle reached another file.
"System reboot. This has to be it."
"Let's hope so." said Applebloom. She clicked on the file opening the program. A system restart icon appeared on the screen awaiting an okay. The three flillies put their hooves together.
"Here goes nothing." Sweetie Belle clicked the icon with the mouse. The computer went through its cycle and one by one, they park's systems came back online.
"We did it!!" The mare's shut the door on the raptor, just before the computerized lock kicked on. The lock jack activated, locking the dinosaur out of the room.
"What happened?" said Rainbow. Twilight's eyes beemed with excitement
"The lock's on! The lock is on!!" The four of them let go of the door exhausted. A green icon flashed on the screen reading 'System Secure.'
"We did it!" cheered the Crusaders. "I can't believe we did it!" They clocked hooves in celebration. The mares came down to see what they had done.
"What'd you girls do?" asked Rarity intently.
"We got the power back on!" said Applebloom. "Sweetie Belle figured out the systems and restarted it!"
"YeeHaw!!!"
"Awesome!" Rarity gave her sister a big hug.
"I'm so proud of you Sweetie!!"
"What works?" asked Twilight.
"Everything." replied Sweetie Belle. "Phones, security systems, we're back in business!" Twilight picked up the telephone with her magic. In the bunker, Fluttershy and Pinkie were building a house of cards. Pinkie was about to put on the last card when the phone rang. The house of cards fell to pieces.
"Phoo." said Pinkie. "It always falls before I get to the top." Fluttershy hit the speaker phone button with her hoof.
"Twilight?"
"Fluttershy." said Twilight. "We got the phone's working again."
"Oh good." Flutters sighed. "I was beginning to worry."
"Stay on the line. I'm calling Spike." Twilight dialed the number for the library.
"Hey," said Applebloom. "Since the three of us saved the day." Their eyes lit up.
"Maybe..."said Scootaloo.
"Could we?" said Sweetie Belle. The three of them looked at their flanks, but once again there were no cutie marks.
"Shoot." Applebloom moped. "Hero cutie marks woulda been somethin."
"It's alright girls." said Applejack. "You'll find your marks someday."
"Though what you did was pretty awesome." Rainbow added. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Golden Oak Library, Spike was dancing to really loud music on the record player. The telephone rang, but Spike couldn't hear it.
"Come on Spike, pick up." said Twilight. Owlowicious hovered down to the phone and answered it.
"Who."
"Spike?" said Twilight.
"Who?"
"Owlowicious! Is Spike there?"
"Who."
"He is?! Put him on the phone!"
"Who."
"I have no idea how she understands that bird." said Rainbow Dash. Owlowicious took the phone in his talons and flew over to Spike.
"Oooh yeah, oooh yeah, hey hey..." The owl pulled up the needle stopping the music.
"Hey! What happened to the music?" Owlowicious handed Spike the phone.
"You."
"Oh thanks." Spike cleared his throat and held the receiver to his ear.
"Golden Oak Library, Spike speaking."
"Spike, it's Twilight."
"Hey Twilight. How is the trip?"
"Not good. You wouldn't believe it, but there's a zoo of dinosaurs on this island."
"Live dinosaurs! That's awesome."
"Believe me Spike, it's not awesome. The dinosaurs are loose and trying to eat us. They already got Uncle Orange and his helpers."
"Gosh." said Spike. "Glad I didn't come. Is everypony else okay?"
"Yes we're all fine, but we're in trouble. I need you to message Princess Celestia. Tell her to send us a helicopter and its urgent."
"Of course."
"Fluttershy, you and Pinkie grab a jeep. We're getting out of this place." Suddenly there was a loud crack in the room.
"It's gonna come through the glass!!!!!" Sweetie Belle screamed. Rainbow Dash pulled down the shoulder rifle and fired several rounds. Fluttershy and Spike heard the shots over the phone.
"Girls!?" Fluttershy hung up leaving Spike disconnected.
"Twilight?" His eyes welled up with fear.
"TWILIGHT!!!!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash fired several shots through the movie theater's glass window. The glass was too thick, and the shots cracked it even more. Abandoning the gun, Rainbow stood on Twilight's shoulders to knock out a ceiling panel. She climbed up above the ceiling while Twilight levitated everypony else up. The raptor came crashing through window, landing on the computer desk. Screaming, it pounced for Twilight, but the smart unicorn was one step ahead. She teleported away just as the raptor snapped for her. Twilight reappered above the ceiling, slamming the panel down.
"Where do we go now?" said Rainbow Dash. Twilight saw a light down an airduct.
"Down there." The raptor stood on the table eyeing the ceiling, thinking of a way to get up. A projector protected genetic code onto its skin. It saw a ceiling tile bend under the weight of a pony, and growled. The ponies crawled their way through the air tubes toward the light at the other end. Suddenly the raptor's head burst in under the loose panel, pinning Sweetie Belle to the ceiling. Sweetie Belle screamed as the raptor snapped for her. Rarity turned around clenching her teeth in anger.
"Leave my sister alone!" She kicked the raptor hard in the face until it fell back down, almost taking Sweetie Belle with it. Rarity grabbed the screaming filly with her magic and pulled her back up. The raptor recovered from its fall and took another snap at Sweetie hooves. Twilight and Applejack hurried everypony down the air duct.
"Come on girls!" said Applejack. "Let's move."
"Move Scootaloo!" said Twilight. They all headed down the duct. Reaching the end, Twilight lifted a grate off the floor and could see the dinosaur bones of the rotunda beneath them. The ponies piled down onto a scaffold next to the brachiosaur skeleton. As Rainbow Dash and Twilight helped the crusaders down they heard a snarl. The raptor was standing on the balcony.
"This thing just doesn't quit!" said Rarity. The raptor perched on the balcony ready to jump across.
"Quick!" shouted Rainbow. "Onto the skeleton!" The ponies climbed off the scaffold and onto the brachiosaur skeleton. The braces and wires creaked under the extra weight. The raptor roared and leapt from the balcony onto the skeleton, separating it into large sections. The ponies dangled above the floor on different parts of the skeleton: Applebloom and Sweetie Belle on the tail, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo on the ribs, and Twilight and Rarity on the neck and head. Scootaloo hung onto Applejack's hoof. Applejack was straining to hold onto her and the skeleton.
"Scootaloo, let go. Trust me." Scootaloo dropped off the skeleton, hitting the floor hard. Looking up, the wire holding the rib section was coming out of the wall. The tail section which Applebloom and Sweetie were hanging on sprang loose and fell down. Twilight and Rarity lost their hold on the neck bones and fell to the floor. They covered their heads as the bones crumbled ontop of them. The wire holding the rib section finally gave way, falling right onto Scootaloo and taking AJ and Rainbow Dash with it. Scootaloo screamed as the skeleton hurtled towards her. She covered her head as the skeleton shattered to pieces. Applejack and Rainbow Dash layed on the ground hurt from the fall. Twilight recovered and tried to help Rarity to her feet.
"Ouch!" cried Rarity. "I think my hoof is sprained." The unicorns looked up to the tarp in an unfinished wall section and saw a shadow on the other side. A larger velociraptor poked its head out from under the tarp, snorting as it surveyed the scene. Their eyes widened.
"Is that the big one?" Rarity whimpered.
"That's the big one." Rainbow Dash got to her feet and helped Scootaloo to hers. Sweetie Belle looked up and screamed. The ponies huddled together in a group. The big raptor snarled and blocked their exit. The second raptor cornered them from behind.
"They've got us cornered!" cried Rainbow Dash.
"Looks like this is it girls." Applejack quivered. The ponies shut their eyes. The big raptor growled and crouched down, ready to leap in for the kill, not noticing a large shadow coming behind it. The raptor pounced for the ponies but was caught for food by a loud roar. The ponies opened their eyes and looked up to see what had saved them. It was the T-Rex. It had torn through the same tarp and caught the big velociraptor in its jaws. The T-Rex shook the raptor and threw it on the ground dead. The ponies watched dumbfounded as to what had just happened. Just as the Rex was about to feast on the dead raptor, the second raptor screamed and charged the Rex, leaping onto neck. The raptor clawed and scratched the Rex's neck and face while the bigger predator snapped its jaws at it. Fluttershy opened the visitor's center doors.
"Girls! Come on!" They hurried out the door behind Fluttershy leaving the T-Rex to finish its fight. The ponies hurried down the stairs to where Fluttershy's jeep was parked. Pinkie Pie was in the back seat.
"Princess Celestia's sending us a helicopter." said Fluttershy. "It's on its way." They all climbed into the jeep. Fluttershy flew overhead and landed in the driver's seat.
"Well everypony," said Twilight. "Based on what we've experienced in the last two days, I think we can all agree that we don't endorse this park." They all looked at eachother and nodded.
"No we don't" said Fluttershy. Flutters floored the gas pedal and they sped away from the Visitor's Center. Inside, the T-Rex grabbed a hold of the raptor's tail. With one snap of its sharp teeth, it killed the raptor with a shriek. It then hurled the lifeless body into the T-Rex skeleton, smashing it to pieces. Bleeding from scratches on its mouth and neck, the T-Rex stood up in the rotunda and announced its triumph with a roar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The ponies arrived back at the helicopter pad where Princess Celestia's helicopter was waiting for them.
"Thank Celestia this is over." Sighed Applejack.
"Don't worry Rarity." Rarity panted. "Soon you'll be in your own house, in your own bed and your own bath." Applejack and Rarity opened up the cabin door and helped Applebloom and Sweetie Belle inside, and lifted Scootaloo off of Rainbow's back.
"It's okay, we gotcha." Fluttershy and Twilight helped Pinkie Pie hobble her way to the helicopter. As everypony climbed aboard, the sound of a brachiosaurus was heard across the cliffs. They all stopped and looked toward where the sound was coming from. Fluttershy clopped to the edge of the pad, listening to it. Twilight tapped her on the shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Yes." Fluttershy took a deep breath and turned around.
"Let's go home." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The helicopter hovered its way through the green cliffs of the island, leaving Jurassic Park behind. The nine ponies sat quietly onboard. They were banged up with injuries, but relieved to be alive and all together. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were asleep in the hooves of their sisters, while the Mane Six lounged back watching the scenery through the windows.
"Looks like Equestria will never see real live dinosaurs." said Rainbow Dash.
"It's better that way." said Twilight. "Ponies and dinosaurs were never meant for the same time."
"Shame we couldn't a saved my Uncle, or the others." said Applejack.
"We did save one thing." said Fluttershy. She pulled out Applejack's Stetson from her saddlebag and gave it to her. Applejack smiled and rubbed its fabric with her hoof.
"It's just as well nopony comes here again." Rainbow Dash sighed. "With the dinosaurs breeding, everything will go really crazy."
"They're breeding?" said Fluttershy.
"Yes." said Rarity. "We found a nest of eggs and babies on our travels. You were right Fluttershy." Fluttershy blushed.
"I was?"
"Yes dear. You were."
"I still don't understand how they could breed if they were all girls." said Rainbow Dash. Twilight thought for a minute.
"The amphibian DNA. Remember on the film. It said they used frog DNA to fill the gene sequence gaps, which mutated the dinosaur's genetic code and blended it with that of frogs. I remember reading that some frogs can change gender between male and female in a single sex environment."
"Like I said before." said Fluttershy. "Life finds a way." Looking outside, the girls saw a flock of pelicans flying over a golden ocean. Fluttershy leaned her head on the window and smiled. They all smiled.
"Yes." said Twilight. "Life finds a way." Applejack put her hat back on her head. The helicopter hovered across the ocean into a beautiful sunset, headed back to Equestria.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I are coming home from one of the greatest adventures we've ever had. Seeing real live dinosaurs was a life changing experience. It was awe inspiring to see how these amazing animals were really like. It was also very frightening to see how dangerous they were, and we almost didn't make it back. Our adventure in Jurassic Park has left each one of us with a renewed respect towards the natural world we ponies live in. Nature is something to be loved and cherished, never to be controlled. Animals like the dinosaurs and other prehistoric life served their purpose on Earth and deserve to belong to the ages of time; their past left for ponies to study and wonder. We ask that this island be left in peace and for nopony to travel here. Let's leave nature alone, and let life find a way.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Weeks later, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and the Crusaders visited the Natural History Museum in Canterlot. Standing below a skeleton display of a Brachiosaurus reared up on its hind legs, the six of them looked up and smiled.
