1 (Welcome to Kitiville)

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"The date is October Tenth. I have been taken hostage, and I'm already talking to myself."
Twilight reported, looking out the window of the silver convertible she was being transported inside. She had been adopted today, by her new owner. Luckily, her teacher had reminded her that there were worse humans to be adopted by. Her teacher had also reminded that there were friends to make before Twilight was taken away. Twilight thought about her teacher as she waited for the car to reach it's destination. The back of their car was rather uncomfortable. The seats were all busted up. She could tell that her catnapper (as she described them) was a rather poor human.

"I don't know where I'm going, but I'm pretty certain of where I am."
Twilight meowed to herself. She placed her paws onto the door rest to hoist herself up high enough to look out the window once more. They had already driven into the residential area. A neighborhood with lots of surprisingly identical houses. They were all very quaint things. Not too big, yet not too small. Just the right sized houses.

The houses were not the things that interested Twilight. Rather, it was what was on the sidewalks. In normal areas, there would just be humans walking around on the sidewalks. This place was not normal in the slightest. Twilight had heard the mewls about this place. Its name was embedded into her mind. Kitiville was the name of this place. The cat crazy people lived here, as everything revolved around cats here.

"If I'm right about my location, something tells me that things aren't going to go very smoothly once I get out of this car."
Twilight sighed, continuing to eye what was on the sidewalk. Cats walked freely upon the sidewalk. Collars upon their necks. Each collar had a different tag symbol. Some had a musical tag, others having something to do with fish, so on, so forth. Twilight attempted to look down on her neck. She had a collar too. It was purple, when she had noticed it way back when they had put it on.

Twilight pushed off the door rest, and back onto the brown seats. She stared up at the gray ceiling of the car. Her catnapper had only said a couple words when they had bought her. Other than that, not a single word was shared between them. She had wondered what type of person her supposed owner was, but at the moment, all Twilight cared about was getting some peace and quiet.

Twilight wasn't a real social kitten. She thought it was better to learn about people, and what they do in their daily lives. The real juicy information. Even though they treated her like a baby, (despite her five months of human time) she still got some pretty interesting stuff memorized. Even the stupidest sounding humans still provided something new to listen about.

The car stopped. Twilight could tell because the human was getting out of the car. They slammed the front door behind them and opened up the back door. They grabbed the small cardboard box Twilight was supposed to be inside. Twilight had gotten out of it, when it had flopped over onto its side.

Her owner sighed, and grabbed the box, along with the cat who was supposed to be inside of said box. She was picked up from her belly. Twilight was mature enough to not scratch her owner all across their wrist and hand. Her owner closed the door with their foot, and started to head out of the driveway.

Twilight observed her surroundings. The home she was headed to had a tan wooden paneling on the garage. The garage door itself was white. The roof of the building had gray shingles. This was all she could see at the current moment. When they turned the corner, there was more to see.

The yard was well tended a couple bushes around the pathway leading up to the patio. Some more shrubbery was in front of the patio, which had a white fencing to separate itself from the shrubs. The patio itself looked pretty, to Twilight at least. There was a small brick staircase (which her owner was going up at the moment) which lead to the also brick entrance. A door was placed right in the middle.

Her owner opened the door, with the flash of their keys. The ebony door opened, and the insides of the house exposed to Twilight. Twilight looked in awe. That car set up a false image for her owner.

When the door had opened, it had exposed a living room, straight ahead. A beige wallpaper along with dark wood flooring. The couch had it's back faced to the door. The couch had a twin that sat next to it that was basically identical. The couch itself was tan and seemed pretty new. On the wall, ahead of the couch, was a large television screen. Flat-screen, it seemed. Below the television, was a rack. Filled with different gizmos that Twilight had never seen before. They all hooked up to the television's backside though.

There were multiple different doorways in the room. One being right next to the television, which lead into a white tiled kitchen. The other two doorways had a sort of baby-proof fencing. That humans could walk over, but baby humans couldn't. Twilight gathered that those fences were to keep her out of the other parts of the house.

Her owner placed her down onto the floor, as they closed the door behind them. Twilight saw them slip off their shoes, and walk off down one of the inaccessible hallways. Twilight shrugged in her mind. What her new owner was doing, she had no idea. She wandered off, going into the kitchen. It was pretty basic kitchen, not very interesting. It was limited, to say the least. But, along the south wall, there were two bowls. Those bowls had been placed upon a small black plastic mat, which had a white cartoon cat on it.

Twilight examined the bowls. One held food, while the other held water. The food was dry food, obviously. Twilight was of the age where she could eat dry food. There was a generous amount of food inside the bowl, same with the water. Twilight wasn't exactly hungry or parched. She had some water to quench her thirst, and some food to silence her tummy rumbles before she had been adopted.

Twilight looked around the room. Twilight examined the window above the metal sink. She could tell that this was a way out. Now, Twilight was smart. She knew not to run off without a collar tag on. Or else, her new owner would spasm at her, and probably yell at her as well. A quick peek out the window wouldn't hurt, would it?

Twilight climbed up the very conveniently placed pet food bag, that was leaning against the counter. She had punched a couple holes into the food bag as she scaled upwards. When she had clambered onto the counter, she moved herself over to the white framed open window.

Outside the window, was a very small yard. Fenced off by a tightly packed fence. The fence was very classic, all white. The yard was slightly overgrown. Who knows what was in that thing. Twilight's gaze of the yard was suddenly cut off by a bright pink face. This scared Twilight enough to make her fall backwards into the (luckily not filled up) metal sink.

That bright pink face was followed by a bright pink, fluffy body. A darker pink tail followed the end of the body, as the bright pink kitty jumped to the edge of the sink. Twilight stared at the cat. This cat was no doubt a Norwegian Forest Cat; she could tell. Twilight was very educated on cats. Maybe because she was one, who knows.

"Hey! I saw you in that car going to this house, and I've never seen you before and-."
This cat was talking much too fast for Twilight to process. Twilight noticed the collar tag that hung onto the cat's collar. The collar tag itself was gold, but it surrounded three balloons. Two balloons being blue with yellow strings, and the third balloon being yellow with a blue string.

"Could you believe that? Anywaaaaays, you need an official welcoming party! Come with me- oh wait! You don't have a collar tag! I guess I could wait! I'll wait around the block! Okay, see yah!"
The pink cat jumped back out the window. Twilight sighed. What a chatterbox. She wiped her brow with her paw. Just then, the pink cat stuck her head back in the window.

"My name is Pinkie Pie! Okay, bye for real now!"
Pinkie ran off after that. Twilight was rather relieved. That cat was a mental overload to say the least.

When Twilight had managed to scramble out of the metal sink, and off of the counter, she noticed her owner looking around for her. They had a small golden object in their hand. Twilight could only guess that the golden object was the collar tag, specially made for her.

Twilight scampered over to the human as quickly as her legs could take her. She skidded to a halt in front of the human, who smiled at her appearance in the room. They then kneeled down, fiddling around with her collar. The collar tag was placed onto the hook of the collar, and the hook snapped into place, and closed the tag into a small u shaped cell of sorts.

"You're looking good. You can go outside now, go ahead and explore."
Her owner explained, in a gentle sounding voice. Twilight smiled at this. She ran off, back to the kitchen. Quickly tailed by her owner. She was grabbed from her belly and brought upwards. She was restrained by her owner's hands. Her still moving paws canceled out their movements as they moved her onto the counter. How nice.

Her owner then promptly walked out of the kitchen as Twilight was busy stepping onto the window sill. She looked off the side of the house. A small, cat-sized staircase lead down to the backyard. Twilight pounced onto the first step, nearly stumbling over her own paws in the process. She was lucky enough to not fall down the stairs as she kept her balance.

She walked down the rest of the steps, eventually reaching the grassy turf of the backyard. The backyard was a rather barren place; she wouldn't lie. There was nothing out here. Except for the fence and grass, there was nothing here. How boring.

Twilight had noticed a small door, on one of the fence pickets. It was big enough for an adult cat to fit through. It was a small, glass door, that could be pushed by the head of a cat. Or paw. Whichever worked. It was held by a sturdy metal frame. Twilight pushed through the door, and found herself in a grassy alleyway between her home, and another. The alleyway was rather friendly looking. Rows of nice looking fences, along with the same exact door that she had come out of.

Twilight looked either way, figuring that the left side was a little less ways away.

As Twilight traveled, she noticed all of the yards through the glass doors had looked the same. Rather barren, save for a couple that had gardens and such. All in all, these humans were pretty boring. What else would she expect, really. Twilight reached the end of the alley and was now out onto the sidewalk.

Twilight was happy to get a decent amount of silence as she trekked down the sidewalk.

That silence was quickly disrupted by the sound of her stomach grumbling. Strange, she wasn't hungry just a second ago. She could go for whatever was making that delicious smell. It smelt like nothing she had ever smelt before. She had never smelled this sort of thing before.

Twilight followed her nose down the street, where she ended up following the smell half-way across town, to an isolated barn. The smell had intensified. That glorious, heavenly smell. Twilight squeezed her way through the tiny crack in the door. Finding herself inside a cat party, full of somehow still warm pastries. Cats wandered everywhere, all seemingly apart of the same family. Seeing as how they were all Tabby cats.

Twilight noticed a large, cat-height dinner table, which held all different sorts of human food. Twilight was starving at this point, and she couldn't wait to chow down. Before she could, an orange tabby cat approached her. This tabby wore a brown cowgirl hat and had a yellow hay-colored tail.

"Hmm? Oh. Howdy there! Who might you be?"
The tabby questioned, quizzical. Twilight was more focused on the pies and other things, rather than the cat right in front of her face. Twilight snapped back to reality when the tabby waved their paw in front of her face. The tabby cat wore a green collar, with a tag of three bright red apples.

"I'm uh.. Twilight Sparkle! The health inspector! I'm here to inspect-."
"Well, howdy-doo, Miss Twilight, a pleasure makin' your acquaintance."
The tabby took Twilight's paw and shook it rapidly, making Twilight feel like she was stuck in an earthquake. When the tabby had finished shaking paws with Twilight, it still felt like she was caught in a lesser quaking of the earth. As Twilight regained her balance, the tabby had started to introduce herself.

"Ah'm Applejack! You'll feel right at home here; we've got plenty of food to spare!"
Applejack just welcomed Twilight to a free buffet. How they had managed to cook so much food, Twilight did not question. How they had managed to cook food, Twilight also did not question. What she did question is why she couldn't fit the whole pie into her mouth.

"Ya'll come back now!"
Applejack called out to the leaving family members, and Twilight. That was a good lunch. She would come back, no doubt about it. Where was she off to now? Maybe she would visit some of the upper-class districts of the town. See all the snobs who lived up there. They were such joys, weren't they?

As Twilight traveled, she swore that something was watching her. It was a bit unnerving to say the least. She kept picking up sounds of paws pattering, but she could never tell where from. This only started happening once she had gotten back to the regular ol' residential area.

Twilight's ears flicked. What was that noise? It sounded like-
"AHHHHHHH!"
A cat fell directly onto Twilight, from what seemed to be from out of the sky. Dazed, Twilight attempted to get herself back up. She pushed the other cat onto the ground. Twilight turned to see who had landed on her, scanning over the body of a getting up cat.

"Hey, thanks for the soft landing."
The cyan furred Ocicat thanked, with a smirk. Twilight looked back at this Ocicat's tail. It was an assortment of colors, all colors of the rainbow, to be precise. Twilight glanced over at the collar tag. It was a cloud, with a lightning bolt of the (arguably) three primary colors.

"It won't happen again, I can promise you that. My name is Rainbow Dash, what's yours newbie?"
Rainbow Dash introduced herself. Twilight usually only talked to herself. But since she was invited to talk, well, she had to.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight made a simple introduction. She didn't know what else to say. Neither did she want to say anything else. She was a feline of few words, to be honest.

"Well, Twilight, I'll be seeing you around. Can’t wait to hang out some more!”
Rainbow Dash laughed as she jumped directly onto the wall of the nearest house. She was wall jumping, all the way up to the roof of the other house. Twilight rolled her eyes. What show offs, those pegasus cats. They were cats that could sort of fly, by jumping onto roofs of houses.

Twilight walked off, with her scuffed up tail and fur. She looked a bit unhygienic, to say the least. She would change that when she got back home. Maybe her owner would do it for her, that would be pretty nice of them. She had heard that all humans in Kitiville were forced, by law, to groom their cats with brushes.

As Twilight moved into the upper-class part of town, she longed to have another bite of apple pie. Human food tasted good, despite it being a bit unhealthy. Well, really unhealthy. Like, kill a cat unhealthy. Luckily, she didn't have enough pie to completely poison her system. Though, she wished she had more pie at the moment.

"WHAT IS THAT!?"
Screeched a voice from behind her. Twilight reckoned it was probably just a human, or something. Twilight was suddenly stopped in her tracks by the tugging on her tail. With a quick turn of her head, Twilight could see a white Savannah cat tugging at her purple tail. This white cat had a brighter purple tail of her own, all curled and fancily done. She also had a blue collar, with three-diamond shape cut sapphires as her collar tag.

"You're coming with me, dear! We need to get you cleaned up!"
The white cat exclaimed, dragging Twilight by her tail. This cat was surprisingly strong for her size, as she had managed to pull Twilight all the way into one of the yards of a glorious Victorian mansion. The mansion itself was stunning, without the gigantic garden out in front. Though, the nicely tended red poppies were a nice touch.

"Wait, where are you taking me?"
Twilight asked, as she was pushed through the cat door of the mansion, which happened to be apart of the double door entrance. Twilight was greeted by a large staircase, which had a long red carpet on each step. The staircase seemed to have a second floor all to itself. The landing, as it was better known, had two alternate staircases leading up to the second floor. Above the landing, were multiple large portraits. Who they were made for, or who they were of, Twilight did not know.

"No time to stall! You cannot be seen in public with that GROTESQUE THING that you call a tail. MAID ANNE!"
The cat screeched. A human, dressed in a maid outfit rushed down the stairs. She was obviously old, by the amount of wrinkles she had on her face. Her hair was grayer than a raining cloud, and her expression was rather worried. She had these small glasses on the bridge of her nose, that seemed more like an accessory than actual things you use to read.

Maid Anne kneeled down on her frail bones, and faced the white cat.

"Yes, miss Rarity?"
She asked in her almost stereotypical old woman voice. So, Rarity had a maid? How rich was this cat anyways? How could this maid understand her, anyways? No normal human could do this. Rarity motioned over to Twilight with a glance, and a motion of her tail.

Maid Anne picked Twilight up with her probably arthritic hands. Maid Anne brought Twilight upstairs, and into a new area. Another lobby. Circular. There were two ways to go, one way going off to the left, and the other to the right. Maid Anne brought Twilight off into the right hall. Entering the first door on the left.

The room she had entered was a bathroom. Not for humans, but for cats. Twilight could tell it was for cats by that sign over the door frame saying 'Cat only bathroom' in bold silver letters. The room had a multitude of litter boxes, along with a chair that had a gem-decorated purple brush.

"I didn't even mean to get into your fur, just let me go, and I'll get out of it."
Twilight bargained, as the still following Rarity shook her head. Maid Anne sat down on a small wooden stool, picking up the brush beforehand.

"Out of my fur? What about your fur? Trust me dear, my Maid will fix you right up!"
Rarity promised as Twilight could already feel the brush ripping the tangles in her fur.

"Oh, do feel free to come back! I do ever so enjoy your company!"
Rarity called out, as Twilight bolted out of the mansion, and off into the distance. She had just been freed from that torture device known as a bathtub, and she was hightailing in out of here. She ran so far that she was halfway home before she went into a simple walk, instead of a full sprint.

She huffed. Where was she? It seemed like a park. She was so fearful of getting inside of that soapy water again that she hadn't even payed attention to where she been going. She was sure of something, however. She was grateful that she had taken a turn into this park because the birds were singing a lovely tune.

Twilight jumped onto a nearby park bench, listening to the melody that the birds sung. She was about to drift asleep to the angelic tune, when a bird squawked so loudly that it jolted Twilight awake.

"Oh, Mister Bird. You're singing a little bit too loudly. Could you maybe.. Tone it down a little bit?"
A gentle sounding voice requested, as the bird who was previously mentioned, hushed. Twilight was curious to who was controlling these birds, because even humans have a hard time controlling birds. It couldn't have been a cat, could it?

Twilight jumped off her yellow park bench, and marched to the middle of the park, where a large oak tree stood proudly. It was so big, that it could hold a whole choir of birds. Guess what that tree held? A whole choir of birds, along with a cat. Twilight noticed that the cat was paying no attention to her, and was just focusing on the birds. This yellow Ragdoll was making swaying motions with their pink tail, as if they were conducting the bird's singing.

"Now follow me please. A one, two, a one two three-."
"Hello?"
Twilight interrupted loudly, louder than she had anticipated. This had scared both the birds, and the cat she was communicating with. The birds made a hasty retreat into the sky as the yellow cat gasped.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to scare away your birds. I just wanted to say that the music sounded beautiful."
Twilight apologized. The yellow Ragdoll (who Twilight assumed was a female by her voice) jumped off the small brick wall (that was one of four that held the tree in a large brick pot) and approached Twilight. Twilight noticed that she had a blue collar, along with three pink butterflies as her collar tag.

Her head was down, and her ears were back. She was even looking the opposite direction, to not make eye contact.

"Uh.. My name is Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight stated. An awkward silence was reached between the two cats as Twilight shuffled her paws.

"What's your name?"
Twilight asked, putting on a nervous smile.

"Um.. I'm.."
The rest of the sentence was so quiet that even her super sensitive cat ears couldn't pick up the rest of what this shy cat said.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"
Twilight asked, as the cat backed up. The yellow Ragdoll talked once more.

"I'm.."
The last part of the sentence faded into silence.

"Didn't quite catch that."
Twilight stated, approaching slowly. The yellow Ragdoll made a weird whimpering noise, which made Twilight back up. Seems like this cat did not enjoy her company.

All the birds suddenly returned to the tree, out of seemingly nowhere.

"Well, it seems like your birds are back, so I guess everything is fine."
Twilight pulled at her collar to loosen the tension she had around her neck. The Ragdoll made another whimpering noise, making Twilight more anxious to leave.

"Oooookay."
Twilight felt something tickling her ear. Probably just a tick, or something. She turned, and started to head off. She should probably be getting home soon. It was getting rather late.

"A baby flea!"
The shy cat found her confidence and sprinted over to Twilight. Twilight looked over at the yellow cat, who was in pure wonderment.

"I've never seen a baby flea before! I thought they were only on dogs! He's so cute!"
She squeed with delight.

"Well well well, looks like someone finally noticed me."
Another voice chimed. Was there a talking flea on Twilight's ear?

"He talks too! I didn't know fleas could talk. That's so incredibly wonderful.."
Twilight would hate to interrupt the happiness of this timid kitty, but the sun was going down.

"Well, I think we should probably get going then."
Twilight laughed, as she attempted to walk off.

"Wait! What's his name?"
The cat requested as Twilight could hear a weird sounding laugh from the flea on her ear.

"Sweetie, my name is Percy."
Percy introduced himself. Twilight had no idea about this flea before now.

"Hi Percy, I'm Fluttershy."
Fluttershy happily greeted. Twilight and Fluttershy walked side by side, as Fluttershy chatted with Percy. Something about where he came from, blah blah. It was a flea.

When Twilight had arrived at her home, she waved goodbye to her acquaintance and Percy (because he had decided to be Fluttershy's flea). Twilight entered her back yard.

Silence. Oh, how wonderful. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she started to walk up the white plastic cat staircase. She jumped onto the window sill and entered the kitchen once more. The lights of the kitchen were off. Strange.

"SURPRISE!"
A number of voices screeched as party streamers flew from every which-way. The lights flashed on, showing off the party of cats that were inside the house.

"Were you surprised? Huh, huh?"
Pinkie Pie rushed up to meet Twilight on the counter. Pinkie had somehow gotten a bunch of cat treats to this party. A whole array of them were laid out in the counter, and cats were taking them as they pleased.

"Sorry for rushing off so fast before, I had to plan this party and everycat needs to be invited to a party because is your welcome to Kitiville party because your new and-."
This cat when on and on in a run-on sentence. She never stopped talking, did she? Well, it was nice to see her optimism. That's something that the world needed more of.

"It's supposed to be quiet at sunset.."
Twilight grumbled.

"What kind of party would it be if it were quiet? I'm Pinkie Pie, by the way! I don't remember if I introduced myself before because I was in such a rush to get all the cats and things I needed and-."
Pinkie Pie just continued to run her mouth.

Twilight simply pushed past all the cats she could, as she made her way onto the floor.

"I threw this party just so you could meet everycat in Kitiville! I mean, everycat needs friends and to do that you need to meet cats because they can be your friend-."
Pinkie Pie followed after Twilight as Twilight started drinking up some of the provided liquids that Pinkie had brought. Twilight did not pay attention to the labels of what she was drinking.

"So I invited every single cat I could! So you can have lots and lots of friends."
Pinkie Pie finally ended her chattering, as Twilight could feel something burning her throat. Her eyes widened in terror, as tears streamed down her face. She had just drank pure hot sauce.

"Ya'll right, Twi?"

She ran over to her water bowl (which was luckily, still full) and slammed her face into it. That was the answer to the suddenly here Applejack's question. When Twilight had relieved the burning sensation in her mouth, she stomped off to the living room. Not even bothering to take notice that all of her acquaintances were here, all five of them.

Luckily, they did not follow her into the not-as-loud living room, and they kept the party contained to the kitchen. By now, they were probably extending the party out to the yard. Good.

Twilight had flopped onto her back, as she laid on the couch. She had laid on a rectangular device, with many buttons. She was unsure of what it did, but as long as it was quiet enough for her to sleep, she was content.

"Breaking news, a panther has escaped from the local zoo. We advise that everycat in Kitiville be on the lookout for this feline. She is not to be fought. Injuries recorded so far are fatal. Her name is Nightmare for a reason, folks. Stay safe tonight. Animal control is already working to find the Panther, and send her back to the zoo."
A reporter chimed. The television had just been turned on, and luckily enough, was on the news. Twilight had heard that name before. Nightmare.. Nightmare Moon? Twilight stared at the television screen.

Nightmare Moon was a threat to the entire country at one point. She promised eternal night, as all cats would be left in the shadows, without their owners. Without food, in the cold loneliness of the rainy night.

It was said that on the longest day, on the thousandth month, that the guards would aid in her escape. The thing that had kept her away for so long was..

Twilight had thought it was just a fable. She had to report this to the authorities. Well, her owner, to be precise. Twilight dashed over to the fence that separated herself from one of the hallways. She would suspect her owner was there. She mewed as loudly as could to get her owner's attention.

It had been a good five minutes, and Twilight had no success. Twilight sighed.

"Hey Twilight! We're going to go see the sunrise, you've gotta come! Everycat is going! Celestia is going to raise the sun in Kitiville this year!"
Rainbow Dash called from the doorway. Twilight was about to say otherwise, but was cut off short by the overwhelming pleas from her five cohorts. Twilight knew it was complete hogwash that a cat could raise a celestial body, but, she was not to question Celestia. Cats who did that were never seen again.

Twilight was brought to what seemed to be the town hall. It was rather grand, she wouldn't lie. It was the summer sun celebration, after all. The townhall was packed to the brim with cats.

"Have you ever been so excited? I mean-."
Pinkie ran her mouth off some more. She was silenced by a tune of royalty, sung by birds.

"Kittens and Gentlecats!"
A brown and gray American shorthair announced from the podium, on the stage that everycat was facing.

"As the mayor's cat, I am pleased to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!"
This cat was Mayor Mare. Twilight had heard of her before, mostly due to her name referring to a female horse. She was very strangely and awkwardly named.

Nevertheless, the crowd of cats mewed in happiness at her announcement.

"In just a moment, our town will bare witness to the sun rising on the longest day of the year. So without further ado,"
The mayor moved from her podium. Twilight was not focused on her, though. She was more focused on one of the many windows that she could look out of. The moon had turned from white to a foreboding yellow.

"the one who gives us the sun and moon every day, the good, the wise, the one who brings harmony to our land.. President Celestia!"
The mayor announced as the birds squawked in a harmonic announcement. The curtain to the stage was pulled, as there stood the..

Nothing.

Gasps of concern and fear could be heard from the crowd as Twilight's ears flattened. Not because she was disappointed about Celestia not showing up, but because of this awful feeling in her gut.

"This can't be good.."
Twilight mewed underneath her breath.

"Do not panic everycat, there must be a reasonable explanation for this.."
Mayor Mare put a paw to her chin, as Rarity (the one who was in charge of curtains) entered backstage.

"She must be hiding. I love hiding! Let's see-."
"She's gone!"
Rarity exclaimed, in a worried tone. The crowd's worried mutters grew into full on conversations.

"Oh she's good. AHHHH!"
Pinkie puffed up into a big Fluffle Puff of fur. She was startled by the blue, star-like smoke making its way onto the stage. There weren't any smoke generators nearby.

"Oh no.."

The mayor and Rarity jumped off the stage, as a black figure appeared within the smoke.

"Nightmare Moon.."

The smoke parted, as Nightmare Moon, in all of her glory, appeared on the stage. She pushed the podium directly off of the stage, so she could fully be viewed.

Like panthers were, she was pure black. The smoke that was right behind her looked like it was her tail of sorts, despite the fact she still had her long and thin black tail. The smoke flowed about behind her, as if she controlled it. She wore what seemed to be a helmet, and chest plate. She had these large metal glove things around her paws that had holes for claws to stick out of. They were all color coordinated as they were all a sort of soft blue. She was a cat made to go to war.

"Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious sun-loving faces."
Nightmare sneered with a toothed grin. She was much more dangerous than anycat here, that was for sure.

"What did you do with our president?!"
Rainbow Dash called, about to pounce onto the enormous black cat. Luckily for Rainbow, she was pulled back by Applejack. Nightmare chuckled at Rainbow's statement.

"Am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"
Nightmare Moon questioned, her smile fading at the realization that nocat here was smart enough to watch the news, or realize she was real.

"OOOH! Guessing games! How about Black Smoke? Toothy Cat? Queen Mean-."
Applejack shoved her free paw into Pinkie's mouth.

"Does my crown no longer count since that I have been imprisoned for a thousand months?"
Nightmare Moon spat as she approached the bird choir. Causing the birds to fly into the rafters. Fluttershy hid underneath the stage as soon as Nightmare looked at her.

"Did you not recall the legends?"
Nightmare centered herself onstage, as her smoke poked at Rarity's chin.

"Did you not see the signs?"
Nightmare continued, as Twilight knew what to do next.

"I did,"
Twilight objected, catching Nightmare off guard for a millisecond.

"and I know who you are. You're the cat in the moon. Nightmare Moon."
Twilight stated. This pleased Nightmare, obviously. Though, this did not please the audience. Audible gasps were heard.

"Well well well. Looks like somecat remembers me. Then you also know why I am here."
Nightmare drew closer to the front of the stage. Twilight could see her claws becoming unsheathed. Those things were gigantic.

"You're here.. To.. To.."
Twilight stumbled over her words, gulping as she looked at the other members of the audience. Nightmare chuckled as she stopped her approach.

"Remember this day, kitties. It will be your last. From this point on, the night will last.."
Nightmare's smoke flurried into that of a tornado.

"FOREVER!"
Lightning appeared from the town hall's ceiling as Nightmare cackled maliciously.

2 (A Nightmarish Ordeal)

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"Seize her!"
The mayor shouted to the barrage of guards who had waited for Nightmare Moon to finish her monologue, instead of attacking her when she was talking.

"She obviously knows where the president is!"
The mayor pointed her paw at the fiend known as Nightmare Moon, as the army trained cats launched themselves blindly at her. A pretty dumb idea, in all honesty.

"Stand back, you kits!"
She warned, her eyes glowing at a rapidly increasingly luminosity. She was able to whack all of the guards out of the air with the back of her paw.

Guards slammed into the walls and floor, their armor scattering as they became dazed.

Nightmare's smoke seemed to absorb the large black feline, as the smoke itself wormed its way through the door, and out into the night.

"How is she able to do that?"
Applejack wondered, mouth agape as Rainbow was freed from Applejack's restraint. As quick as a bolt of electricity, Rainbow was out the door, and watching that blue smoke fly off.

"Night.. Forever?"
Rainbow Dash stared at the sickly looking yellow moon, that was probably a Halloween cliché. While she was busy staring upwards, Twilight was busy running off. Rainbow raised her eyebrow at this.

"Where is Twilight going..?"
Rainbow Dash wondered out loud, as she hopped onto a nearby building, in order to follow Twilight back to her own home.

"Books, Books.. I need some books.."
Twilight muttered as she shoved a bunch of books off a nearby shelf. Down onto the floor of the living room, books flipped open to random pages when they landed. They were mostly just cookbooks, and nothing about the stuff Twilight needed to know. Or the stuff she wanted to know.

"Elements, elements.. Elements.."
Twilight paced about, jumping onto the floor. She glanced over the pages, quickly. She had heard tales of the Elements of Harmony. They were magical things that infused into the mark of one's being. Allowing the cat who is a part of the elements to have super-hero like abilities.

There was nothing inside of these books. Nothing. Twilight had only her mind to go off of.

"Oooh! Where are the elements!? Its not like some ancient relic that's been used for years can just disappear! I'll just use the glossary for every single one of the books. Elements of Harmony.."
Twilight talked to herself, as she flipped through the massive amounts of books around her. She was stopped by Rainbow Dash tackling her to the ground.

"And what are these 'Elements of Harmony'?! Also, how did you know about Nightmare Moon?! Are you a spy?!"
Rainbow hissed as Applejack pulled Rainbow back by her tail, allowing Twilight her personal space once more. Rainbow looked like she was about to beat Applejack up for that.

"Calm down, Rainbow. I'm pretty sure she ain't no spy, but it seems like she knows what's goin on.
Applejack stated as the rest of Twilight's acquaintances appeared around her. Twilight took this time to get up off the floor, as the multi-colored cats surrounded her.

"Don'tcha, Twilight?"
Applejack questioned as the five pastel colored cats looked at Twilight. Their eyes full of curiosity, while their faces showed concern. Curiosity was a dangerous thing, especially for cats.

"I remembered the legend of Nightmare Moon, and some.. things known as the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can put her back where she belongs."
Twilight stated, shaking her head. She still had no idea where to find these elements, or where they were. Chances are that they weren't in this town. They could be anywhere in the world. Heck, they could be at the bottom of the ocean, for all she knew.

"I don't know where they are, or how to find them. Much less how to activate them, and stop Nightmare Moon.."
Twilight shook her head. Perhaps they were all doomed to eternal night? Not on her watch. If there was the smallest chance of the elements of harmony were in this town, then she would take it.

"Hey, does this help?"
Pinkie Pie pulled out a large red book, from heaven knows where. Probably from her tail, who knew. That was Twilight's best guess, honestly. Twilight was quick to rip it from Pinkie's paws, and throw it onto the floor. Her feline companions crowded around her as she flipped through the pages. She stopped at page ninety-two.

"There are six elements of harmony, but only five are recorded. Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, and Loyalty."
Twilight explained. Apparently, she was the only cat here that could read, because the other five were not understanding the written word on the page.

"The last element is a completely unknown mystery, as not even the oldest ponies can remember what it is called. It is rumored, that the elements of harmony rest within the deepest parts of an ancient forest, once ruled over by the gods themselves."
Twilight's ears picked up the whisking of the wind outside. Maybe she should shut the window. Nevermind. That would be a very bad idea, and she wouldn't be doing that anytime soon, actually.

"The forest is thought to be called-."

"Tiny Woods!?"
Five out of the six cats mewed in fear, as they approached a large, extremely overgrown forest. Trees higher than houses, made of the thickest wood. Not even woodpeckers could pierce the shells that these willows grew. Since it was night time, it was going to be even harder to see in here.

"I can see it definitely lives up to its name."
Twilight sarcastically muttered, as the five cats (save for Twilight) shuddered in fear at the very entrance of this place. The entrance being a large, man-made oval gate, that vines had grown on. The gate was conveniently unlocked, so they could just push the gates open to get into the forest.

"Let's go!"
Pinkie happily started to walk towards the gates of the forest (because the forest is so densely packed there is no other way in), but she was stopped in her tracks by Twilight interrupting.

"Thank you for the offer, but I think I'd rather do this.. On my own."
Twilight stated, as Pinkie turned back to look at her. A rather sad look on her face.

"No can do sugar. We ain't lettin you go in that spooky ol' place without some help from yer friends."
Applejack objected, with a nod. Twilight cringed. Friends? She had friends? Where? Who?

"Twilight, I know you're new here, but Tiny Woods is a place you do NOT want to go in alone. The last that cat went in there by themselves was never seen again. So we'll be coming with you, no matter what."
Rainbow Dash agreed as Twilight made a barely audible 'ugh'. Twilight followed after the now somehow extremely brave group of cats, who were busy pushing open the overgrown castle-like gate. Which was decently heavy, which wasn't very surprising. It was human sized, after all. Once it was open enough, they all entered. Twilight loitered in the back, sighing once more before she had moved to the front of the group.

When the group was about five minutes into the place, Twilight started getting the chills. The canopy barely let any light in, despite the moon being a gigantic beacon of light, that was glowing especially large tonight. You could be walking right off a cliff, and not even know it.

"So, uh.. None of you have been in here before?"
Twilight asked. She thought that cats would be running around this place at a constant rate. Mainly because it was the only forest around this place. The only one that she had seen, anyways.

"N-no.. It's really.. Scary.. Most c-cats d-don't come out."
Fluttershy sheepishly squeaked out. Twilight's ears folded back, as the forest's canopy covered up more of the sky as they moved further and further into the forest. Making it even harder to see.

"You know why?"
Rainbow asked, a devilish sneer crossing her face, as she found this to be a good idea.

"Because this forest has a mind of its own, and it can control any tree, and gobble up any cat that enters it! MOOHAHAHA!"
Rainbow cackled, as there was an obvious squeak of despair from Fluttershy. Twilight could feel her footing suddenly cut off, as her front half started to plummet. Apparently, everycat else also felt this sensation, because there were a bunch of screams from five of the six cats.

"Pull me up! Pull me up! Pull me up!"
Twilight frantically requested, flailing her front paws in the suspended air. Her request was mixed in by the requests of the other four cats who had fallen downwards, as they were all looking straight down to what seemed to be a crevice.

"Y'all need to listen to me. It's a two-foot drop."
Applejack nearly facepawed herself, because everycat else was busy screaming their brains out. She was already at the bottom of the supposed crevice, which was more like a really steep ditch.

"AHHHHHH-oh."
Twilight, embarrassed, dropped down into the ditch. The other four cats dropped down into the ditch as well. With an awkward apology from the others, they continued on their way. They got out of the ditch before moving on, though. They had about two minutes of complete and awkward silence, before Rainbow decided to break it.

"I was totally not screaming, by the way."
Rainbow Dash laughed, and she would be scratching the back of her head, if she was able to. Twilight rolled her eyes, as the nearby echo of a roar put her on the edge. Twilight felt extremely uneasy after that roar had shook then entire forest. It sounded like a combination of two cats, smashed together to make a deadly combo.

"W-what was that?"
Twilight asked, looking back at the other cats who were following her. No one else knew. The light was dwindling faster and faster. Cats couldn't see in pure blackness. By now, there was only the slightest bit of light to aid their sight. They were delving deeper into the place.

"I-I don't know.. But don't let it get near me, w-whatever it is.."
Rarity requested. Twilight could tell Rarity was a clean freak, by how white and constantly groomed she was. Twilight had no problem with getting her paws dirty. Rarity? Not so much.

The group stopped in its tracks when there was the sound of trees cracking, off to the left. They were paralyzed by terror as two large, yellow eyes appeared from the shadows. Rarity's first instinct was to scream. She was right to do so, as whatever had made that roar, jumped out of its shadowy camouflage.

"IT'S A LIGER!"
Twilight yelled as a combination of both lion and tiger roared in front of the cats. Angered, it swatted at them with it's humongous claws. Twilight recollected herself as she ducked underneath the Liger's swinging paws.

"We've got to get past him!"
Twilight declared as Rarity suddenly jumped into action. She jumped onto the Liger's face, and attempted to claw the everliving life out of it, but was stopped when the Liger slurped her tail up like a noodle, and spat her back at the rest of the group like a bullet. Making the majority of the group incapable of doing anything.

"Wait.."
A small voice attempted to stop the fighting.

Applejack pounced onto the Liger's head, which was a very bad idea as well. She was backhanded off, and thrown into one of the trees. Rainbow shoved Rarity off, and noticed how Applejack was busy seeing stars.

"All yours."
Applejack saluted Rainbow, before putting her head up against the tree to rest.

"Wait."

"I'm on it."
Rainbow confirmed as she started to run around the overgrown house cat at extremely quick speeds. The Liger span around in hopes to keep up with the faster than average cat, but eventually found that futile. The Liger found a simpler solution. They stuck their large tail out, tripping Rainbow. She slammed into a nearby tree as well.

"Rainbow!"
Twilight called out to the cyan cat, who seemed to be knocked out for a moment. Twilight turned her attention back to the threat at hand. Her fur puffed up, making her look even more intimidating, in nature's books. Twilight was about to go haywire on this thing. She wasn't going to hold back.

She took the rest of the still capable cats, and started to charge-

"I SAID WAIT!"
A loud voice interrupted. That loud voice had a body. It was.. Fluttershy. She stopped the charge in it's tracks. She turned to the Liger, in a calm demeanor. The Liger snarled at Fluttershy, about to swat her with its paw before she sniffed the Liger's face. She closed her eyes while she did this.

The Liger craned its neck, as a wound of indescribable disgustingness could be seen.

"Oh, you poor baby.. Here, I'll help you."
Fluttershy parted the mane around the red wound, and started to poke around inside of that mess.

"This will only hurt for a moment.."
Fluttershy pulled out a large metal ball, covered in red liquids. The Liger roared in pain, as Twilight was about to yell out for Fluttershy to get out of there. The Liger groomed Fluttershy, out of appreciation, she only giggled as she dropped the mysterious metal ball. Which seemed to roll off into the bushes as soon as it was dropped onto the ground.

The Liger purred as it cuddled with Fluttershy. Fluttershy whispered sweetness into one of it's ears, as the rest of the cats started to move on. Pinkie carried Rainbow Dash, while Applejack regained the balance on her paws. She walked like a drunkard. It was a little funny. Fluttershy said her goodbyes to the Liger, as it bounced back off into the shadows.

"How did you know about the injury?"
Twilight asked Fluttershy, as soon as she was close enough.

"I didn't. Sometimes, we just need to show a little more kindness."
Fluttershy replied as she returned to the rest of the group. Twilight smiled at this, before following after Fluttershy, and the rest of her acquaintances.

It had been another minute of travel, and the forest was now pitch black. They had traveled this way for a little while, before stopping when Twilight voiced her opinion about not even knowing which direction they were going.

"We could be at the Elements right now, and we wouldn't even know it!"
Twilight pointed out to the pitch blackness around her. The group went into a full debate on whether to turn back or to keep going. The wind blew softly, as the canopy gave a quick flash of moonlight onto the group. That quick flash of moonlight shone onto the trees, and they did something most peculiar. They glowed, a soft red.

"Has anyone seen Pinki- AHHH!"
Fluttershy screamed, looking at one of the trees as she nearly fainted at the sight of the trees. The trees had morphed into monsters, each having razor sharp blades as fangs. The entire group ending up screaming, running around. These trees had scared the logic out of them as something interrupted their panic.

Laughter.

"Pinkie?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Twilight, still startled, stared at the pink fluff ball known as Pinkie Pie. She was busy climbing INSIDE OF THE MOUTH OF ONE OF THE TREES.

"Oh girls, don't you see? When I was a little kitty and-."
"Pinkie, we're on a tight schedule. We don't really have time for a song."
Rainbow interrupted the musical number Pinkie was about to break out into. Pinkie wore a grimace, as she pulled out a television remote. She pressed a button that re-winds time, and she started again.

"When I was a little kitty and-."
Pinkie decided since they were on a tight schedule, that she would just fast-forward through this part. Nevertheless, it ended up with the trees reverting back to their regular forms, and a couple splinters getting stuck in paws. Basically, what she had predicted would happen.

The group fell over laughing, tears nearly coming out of their eyes. When they had recollected themselves, Pinkie threw the remote back into her storage dimension known as fluff. The remote was absorbed into the fluff's being. The fluff hungered for more sacrifices, but Pinkie silenced it.

The next roadblock wasn't very far away. They had nearly fallen into it because they were still reminiscing on the fun times they had with laughing in the face of fear itself. That was something that would have major repercussions in the future.

"How are we going to cross this?!"
Pinkie Pie questioned, looking down at the grand chasm that was directly in front of them. It led down to pitch darkness. Luckily enough, the trees were not big enough to cover up the chasm with their canopies, and the light of the moon shone brightly on the chasm.

From within the chasm, there was the sound of a very soft, and surprisingly disturbing crying. It even creeped Pinkie out, who was trying to giggle at it. It did not work. Twilight took a quick peak over the edge of the crevice, to see a large bird sitting on a nest. A nest that was precariously balanced on a natural rock platform that hung off the side of the canyon.

"Excuse me, why are you crying?"
Twilight yelled down into the canyon. Still trying to be as polite as possible. The bird took to the air, flying up from its nest. Twilight made sure to pull her head back from the bird's path as it traveled upwards towards them.

When it had landed, it sure made a show of itself. Twilight wasn't too educated on birds, but Fluttershy was.

"Hello there, Miss Condor."
Fluttershy greeted the Condor, as the Condor waved with its ten foot long wing. It then folded that wing, before turning its attention back to the one who was questioning what was wrong.

"I'm crying because my husband is going to be coming home soon, and I haven't finished repairing the nest for him. I haven't been able to find the materials to patch up the children's room carpet."
The Condor explained. Twilight thought birds couldn't talk. Turns out bigger birds could talk, it seemed. Who knew? Fluttershy did.

"My children are off at a pageant, and they're coming home in an hour."
That one sentence seemed to activate something in Rarity's mind. For Twilight, it did absolutely nothing.

"Without building materials for their carpet, they simply won't be able to get a good night's sleep, and be able to model off one of my new lines to the judges next week.."
The Condor continued, as Rarity's eye twitched. She simply could not let have fashion be prevented from being shown off. That is something that simply would not do.

Rarity brought out her claws and raised her paw high up into the air. Before anycat could register what was going on, Rarity cut off a whole chunk of her pure white, fluffy fur. The Condor gasped at Rarity's generosity, and nearly fainted at the sight of that beautiful fur being torn off by its own owner.

"Rarity, your beautiful fur.."
Twilight looked at the bald spot on Rarity's side.
"My fur grows back extra quick, darling. No need to worry. I simply cannot allow fashion to stop spreading. Go ahead and take my fur for your carpet materials."
Rarity declared as the Condor glanced down at the fur, and back at Rarity. She grabbed the fur with one of her talons.

"Thank you so much, you have no idea how grateful I am. I'll do anything to repay you! What do you need?"
The Condor questioned as Rarity looked at her friends. That answer was decently clear.

"Could you help us across the canyon? None of us exactly have such beautiful wings like you do."
Rarity requested as the Condor took a quick second to put the white fur into the nest. That carpet was to be built after this one simple task. The Condor grabbed two of the six cats with her talons, as she flapped across the canyon a good three times, making sure they all got across safely.

"Good luck with your pageant!"
Rarity yelled across the canyon, as the Condor gave another wave to the now departing group of friends. Thus, they continued their walk through Tiny Woods, which was more than defiantly living up to its name.

"I think we're almost there, girls."
Twilight commented, looking up above. It had been another five minutes. What Nightmare was doing within all this free time, Twilight had no idea. She was probably busy preparing for Twilight's arrival, setting up traps. Who knows what Nightmare was doing at this very moment.

"How can you tell?"
Rainbow questioned, looking around at the visually changing woods. The trees seemed to be a different sort of plant entirely. Trees became two large spires wrapped around each other, with leaves on top. They weren't natural, to say the least. They weren't natural anymore, anyways. They seemed to have roots because those roots were showing.

"Oh, just something in my gut."
Twilight looked on, as the densely packed forest soon became more organized. A path of perfectly aligned trees lead on to what seemed to be a cave, covered with vines of all sorts. The vines were very thick, and there was a multitude of them. It was just a couple paw steps away. A couple meant a lot.

"Hey.. Rainbow.. Dash.."
A familiar whisper on the wind caught Rainbow's attention. Rainbow didn't know who it was, but she felt extreme envy when she heard that voice. It's like she was jealous of the voice. Rainbow looked left and right.

"Pinkie, do you hear that?"
Rainbow asked the pink cat to her right. Maybe she was just going insane.

"You must be crazy Dashie, because all I can hear is you talking! Do you have a fly in your ear that's talking to you? Is his name Daniel?"
Pinkie questioned, like she was requesting that Rainbow had a fly in her ear.

"I have a flea named Percy."
Fluttershy added as Percy showed up on Fluttershy's ear.

"Eyyy."
Percy greeted, with a wave of his insect appendage. With that, Percy was back into Fluttershy's fur. Disappearing for a possible eternity, or until he became relevant to the situation at hand again.

"Rainboooww..."
The voice called out again, as Rainbow sighed. She would have to make up an excuse to scoot away from the group, to see who in the name of Bastet was calling her name.

"I'll be right back. I gotta uh.. Use the bathroom."
Rainbow thought this would be a decently clever explanation to go explore whoever was talking to her. Twilight pointed her tail off to the left. So, Rainbow quickly scampered over to the left side of the path, behind a couple trees.

"Raaainbow..."
The voice continued to taunt Rainbow, as she scampered off to wherever the voice's source was coming from. That was probably not the smartest idea in the world, but Rainbow did not exactly care at the moment. She just wanted that voice to shut up, and go away.
After a good thirty seconds of walking, and jumping from tree to tree, Rainbow eventually found the source. A single cat, whom she recognized instantly.

"S-spitfire.. Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh!"
Rainbow sprinted over to her idol. The fire colored Abyssinian looked upon Rainbow with a smile. She was even more awesome in person! Spitfire was the leader of the Wonderbolts, and the cat who trained Wonderbolt trainees. The Wonderbolts? They were an elite racing team, who traveled all over the country, and beyond. For free, naturally.

"I am your biggest fan! Ohmygosh I can't believe this is happening!"
Rainbow purred as she jumped up and down. Spitfire watched with a gentle, accepting gaze, as she placed a paw on Rainbow's muzzle.

"I know. That's why I'm letting you join us."
Spitfire stated. Rainbow swore she was going to explode with joy, right then and there. Which, in fact, she did. She jumped on trees, yelling out her joy as she flipped in mid-air, and did many a trick.

"All you have to do, is leave them, and follow me."
Spitfire bargained. This stopped Rainbow's joy. She could see her friends. They were already at the vines. They were clawing away at the thick, durable plant life. Plant life apparently was unable to be cut by how durable it was being.

"Oh.. Um.. Sorry to burst your bubble, best pony in the whole world, but I can't abandon my friends. Maybe I could just go through the training program and-."
"It's either them or me."
Spitfire interrupted. Oh man.. What should she do? She went with the first thing that came into her mind, naturally.

"I still can't do that. You're awesome and all, but I can't leave my friends hanging like this."
With that, Rainbow dashed off to go help her friends out with the vines. When she had looked back at her missed opportunity, that opportunity was completely gone. Spitfire had vanished, completely. Rainbow sighed.

Twilight had been watching on with what Rainbow had been doing, in silence. She had hid herself behind a tree to eavesdrop. Twilight knew something was up, by the way Rainbow had talked. Twilight wasn't that dumb.
Nevertheless, she was surprised. So, without further delay, she joined the group with Rainbow, and started to slash away at the vines.

"These things are as hard as steel. How are we going to get past them?"
Rarity asked as Applejack shrugged.

"Oh! Oh! Give it Applejack's hat!"
Pinkie suggested as Applejack shot Pinkie a soul-piercing stare. No one touches the hat. No cat touches the hat. Not unless you wanted to get beat up, nothing was to touch her hat. NOTHING WAS TO TOUCH THE HAT.

"I don't think that'll do much.."
Twilight rejected Pinkie's suggestion. How ever so lucky of them. Applejack would've kicked their donkeys into the next dimension if they touched her hat.

"Let's just claw our way through. Slash at it, all at once."
Rainbow suggested a much better suggestion. Twilight figured this had a chance of working much better than Pinkie's plan. No offense to her.

"All right, on my count, we all slash at the vines. Horizontally, from right to left."
Twilight stated, as they got into a positioning where this plan could be fulfilled. Which, in reality, was actually just a line of six pastel cats.

"Three.. Two.. One.. Go!"
Twilight started clawing at the vines, along with her companions. They clawed ruthlessly, going from right to left, in an attempt to rid the cave of the vines. This had gone on for a good two minutes before they got exhausted.

"I know this place. I grew up 'ere. Let me open up the door for ya."
Percy, who suddenly jumped out of Fluttershy's fur, was small enough to fit through the vines. He was just a tiny little flea, after all. Looks like he was important for this quest after all. How not-useless of him!

After Percy had vanished underneath the vines, it took five seconds before the vines cracked straight through the middle. Sliding open, as if they were made of stone, and were decorated in hyper-realistic paint.

"Aight babes, get your tushes movin."
Percy commanded as he jumped back into Fluttershy's fur.

With that, they were inside the cave. The vine-door closed behind them with a clack of the two ancient stone doors meeting each other once more. Turns out, the vines were made of stone. They were painted with hyper-realistic paint after all. How Percy had opened the door, was still a mystery. A mystery they would never bother to solve.

The inside of the cave was lit up by wall torches that were still somehow burning. They burned very dimly, however. There wasn't a lot of oxygen in this cave because of that door. It was still more than enough light, to see the gigantic opening up ahead.

Without wasting any time, they ran to said opening. What they were greeted with, was an old, crumbling ruin. Something reminiscent of a temple. It was a very, very big temple, at one point. Filled with a hundred different rooms. Of course, there was only but five rooms left of this temple. The other ninety-five had crumbled onto the moss-covered ground.

"We're here."
Twilight declared, looking down at the ruin, which had a long staircase leading down to it from where she currently stood. She started to jog down the stairs. She was still a bit tired of all that slashing at stone vines.
"We've got to find the elements!"

"Twilight, we've been here for hours. Maybe the Elements are in another castle?"
Rainbow returned from searching what could be called a praying room, or shrine, to put it simply. Twilight was busy searching the main room, one of the better looking rooms. The main room had a large statue of some cat in the middle that Twilight was currently climbing about on. Trying to find a button.

"Rainbow, we've been here for five minutes."
Twilight reminded. Rainbow wasn't a very patient kitten, was she? That, Twilight would learn the very hard way.

"But there's nothing here!"
Rainbow shouted, just to get her point across. Just at that moment, the others were starting to come out of the rooms that they had been tasked to explore. Pinkie came out with multiple vases on her limbs, and Rarity came out of her room with some old banners on her back.

"There's plenty of antiques. Which I think I will be coming back for."
Rarity looked at the nice looking banners on her back. Applejack eyed the banners that Rarity carried.

"I also found this nifty lookin' trinket."
Applejack spat out a small red gem that was inside her mouth. That was more than just a nifty looking trinket, that was probably a thousand-year old gem! Who knows how long it has been here for?

"Applejack, could I borrow your gem for a second?"
Twilight requested as Applejack handed over the gem onto the statue's platform. Twilight plucked the gem with her mouth, as she climbed to the top of the statue. Right onto the top of the statue cat's head. She looked into the face of the statue and had a realization. The statue was missing an eye.

Twilight spat the gem onto her paw and forced it into the statue's eye socket.

The ground rumbled as the statue's platform slowly slid open a small door that was embedded in its stone. How cool. Before walking down the staircase that was hidden behind the door, Rarity shed the banners, and Pinkie shed her vase armor.

After a good couple minutes of time wasted walking down a spiral staircase, they reached the bottom. Slowly pushing open a small and frail wooden door, a new room was sighted. It seemed like a basement of sorts.

This basement was rather bare, save for the six differently colored pillars (Green, Blue, Orange, Pink, Purple and Red, in that respective order.). On top of each pillar (save for the pink one) there was a circular stone, each being the same color as the pillar they rested on.

"Everycat grab a stone, please."
Twilight requested as she looked around the room some more. She could tell that these stones were important, but she didn't know exactly what they were.

When the stones were placed on the ground, each cat stood by the stone that they had picked. Fluttershy by Green, Pinkie Pie by Blue, Applejack by Orange, Rarity by Purple, and Rainbow Dash by Red.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that these'd be the elements. They're kind of different looking than I thought they would be."
Applejack poked at the circular stone she stood behind with her paw. To be honest, Twilight was thinking the same thing. These didn't look like superpower-granting objects. They looked like rocks. Then Twilight remembered something about the elements. Something about a spark, that would bring things together. Something along those lines.

Twilight was busy thinking about what to do that she did not hear the sudden sounds of wind passing through the room. A tornado of blue smoke whisked through the room, picking the elements of harmony up, and started to take them away. Without a second thought, Twilight jumped into said tornado, and was taken away with the Elements, in a quick poof.
Twilight's acquaintances were frantic as they searched the room for her.

"There's only one place she coulda gone."

Twilight was poofed into a new location. It was much like the ruin. The same style, with gray moss-covered bricks everywhere. Except, this time, there was a large window at the front of the room. In front of that window were the elements of harmony. They were all on the platform, each one inserted into a half circle indent in the platform.

More importantly, the one who stood in front of that window was none other than the beast herself. Nightmare Moon. She put one of her large paws onto the blue circles. Another onto the green. Twilight puffed herself up, and was about to launch herself at Nightmare, but..

"Don't even think about it. Take a single step, and I'll destroy the elements you worked so hard to find."
Nightmare threatened with a hiss. Her large, predatory fangs were showing off. All the cards played in Nightmare's favor. It was night time, she had the elements, and she was an even more powerful species than Twilight was. That couldn't stop her from trying. Twilight launched herself at Nightmare. Claws unsheathed.

Nightmare back-handed Twilight into a wall, before crushing the blue and green spheres underneath her mighty paws. Then, she destroyed the orange and purple. The last one, the red, was so easily destroyed, it wasn't even funny.

"You little kit, thinking you could defeat me..!"
Nightmare hissed as she started to approach the still recovering Twilight. Being smacked against a solid stone wall isn't something you can exactly recover quickly from. Twilight coughed as she endured her recovery process. The tall black figure known as Nightmare towered over her.

With a single paw raised, this was Twilight's end.

"Now you will never live to see your president, or your sun!"
Twilight's eyes closed tightly, as she expected the foul sound of deathly silence to follow afterwards. Instead, she heard the familiar voices of her friends, calling her name. She opened her eyes once more, to see Nightmare being distracted by something.

Twilight looked in the same direction, to see shadows of her friends ascending the staircase that lead to this room. She saw a spark of hope, for her ending life, and she bolted through Nightmare's legs, and to the shattered elements.

"You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that, huh?"
Twilight spoke, as she stepped onto the platform that held the element's shattered bits. It was like they were made of glass, or some sort of weird material. Nevertheless, Nightmare was shocked to see Twilight up and about so quickly.

"Well, I hate to break it to you Nightmare. You may be able to destroy objects and bring about night eternal, but you will never be able to break the very spirit of cats!"
Twilight continued as her friends filed into the room. The element bits started to shake, glowing in different colors, all colors of an Aurora. They lifted from the half circles they had been destroyed in, and floated around Twilight.

"What?!"
Nightmare roared in confusion, as she ran towards Twilight. Claws were shining as she collided with an invisible forcefield, and was tossed backwards.

"Applejack, who reassured me that I was not in danger, represents the spirit of Honesty!"
Twilight stared at the orange cat, who proudly stuck out her chest. The shattered pieces of orange flew to the honest hat-wearing cat. Floating around her in a circular pattern.

"Fluttershy, who helped tend to the wounded Liger, represents the spirit of Kindness!"
Fluttershy, humbled, blushed as her name was mentioned. The shattered pieces of green floated around her, in a circular pattern.

"Pinkie, who laughed in the very face of danger itself, represents the spirit of Laughter!"
Pinkie jumped up and down as the shattered pieces of blue floated around her. They, of course, circled around her, in a circular pattern.

"Rarity, who offered up the own fur on her back to a Condor who needed it, represents the spirit of Generosity!"
Rarity smiled at this, as the purple bits flew around her. In what other motion, then circular. Nightmare figured that she should cut this little fiasco short. She pounced at Rainbow, the only pony who had not been entitled to an element yet. That invisible force field flung Nightmare back once more.
She was helpless.

"Rainbow, who rejected her idol if it meant giving up her friends, represents the spirit of Loyalty!"
Rainbow glowered at Nightmare, as the shattered red pieces floated around her in the best possible way. Circular.

"The very spirits of these cats that I have come to know got through every single challenge that you and this forest threw at us!"
Twilight declared, as she stared over at the panther, who was smacking at the forcefield with her sparkling blue smoke. Each time the smoke banged against the shield, it would always be bounced backwards.

"You fool! You still do not have the sixth element! You didn't even have a spark!"
Nightmare roared as Twilight shook her head.

"That's where you're wrong. They needed a different kind of spark, not an electrical one! I felt this spark the very moment I heard them, to see you girls coming to my aid in the face of death. The spark ignited inside of me, when I realized that you were all.. My friends!"
With that one word spoken, a light appeared from above. Like a bright disco ball, only reflecting off the whiteness. As a pink ball, with the symbol of a star, floated down to meet Twilight. Nightmare was blinded by the amount of light the element gave off.

"You see, Nightmare. When the elements are ignited by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, yes, even you, it creates the sixth element. The element of.. Magic!"
Twilight exclaimed the final part, as the light of the element of magic flooded the entire room. The elements of harmony combined with each and every of their spirits.

The elemental shards were absorbed as magic flowed through each and every single one of them. Fluttershy glowed with a bright green as vines twisted around her paws, while wings unfurled on her back.

Rainbow shone a bright blue, as bright as the clearest sky. Her claws were becoming one with the lightning of a thunderstorm, as large wings stretched out upon her back.

Pinkie's light was a bright blue, as electric currents flowed through her entire body, from her nose to her tail tip. Her paws shooting off electricity wherever they pointed.

Applejack glowed a bright brown as her fur became as tough as stone, as her teeth became as sharp as the sharpest mountain.

Rarity shone a fantastic purple, as water spurted from her paws in super-pressurized blast at her very first will. Her fur became as soft and as serene as the calmest ocean. A horn was placed upon her head.

Twilight's light switched between pink and white, as her eyes shone with the brightest light that could rival the sun's summer rays. Her very soul and being surged with magic, as lasers burst from her paw pads. A horn was placed upon her head.

The six hyper-powered brightly-colored friends joined together, as a large beam of blues, greens, reds, and yellows shot from the elements of harmony, and latched themselves onto their victim.

Nightmare Moon screamed as auroras dug into her flesh. They were like meat hooks, ripping her apart as more and more dug into her skin. They surrounded her, and they destroyed her. Of course, no blood was spilled. Or at least, no visible blood.
Twilight and her friends were dropped to the ground. Their lights had faded, and their wings and horns had disappeared off of their bodies. They had fainted. They awoke several seconds later, with extremely bad headaches from all the flashing lights.

"Ugh.. My head.."
Rainbow grumbled as she rubbed the side of her head with her paw.

"Is everycat all right?"
Rarity asked as she felt slightly dizzy.

"I'm good."
Applejack answered as Fluttershy had the same answer.

"Oh, thank goodness."
Rarity sighed a breath of relief, as she looked back at her fur. Her bald patch had regrown from that super flashy light whatever thing that had just happened.
"Oh, Rarity, it's so lovely."
Fluttershy commented.

"I know! I'm never going to give it up ever again!"
"No, I mean your collar, it looks really pretty."
Fluttershy pointed to Rarity's collar. Which indeed, had changed. It had been be-dazzled. Multiple blue and white gemstones had been perfectly put into her collar.

"So does yours!"
Rarity replied. Fluttershy had her collar be-dazzled out as well, as a multitude of green and yellow.

"Look at mine! Look at mine!"
Pinkie shouted. All of their collars had been be-dazzled, apparently. Pinkie's gemstones were cyan and pink.

"Aww yeah. I think I got the best color combination."
Rainbow smiled, as she had a cyan and rainbow. What a bloody cheat that was.

"Twilight, I'll trade you."
Rarity offered, staring at Twilight's new accessory. A golden tiara, that had a large pink star as its centerpiece. Twilight's color combination was pink, purple, and magenta. What a special snowflake.

"Gee Twilight, I thought you were just spoutin' nonsense. But maybe we do really represent the element's of harmony."
Applejack laughed as her collar was pimped out with orange and.. brown. Well, it was just some colors, it didn't matter that much.

"Indeed you do."
A voice echoed through the room, as the sun rose. Bringing a wide variety of soft pink hues to the sky, that could be seen from outside the window. The moon had set, and the blinding rays of the sun beamed through the old ruins glass window.

As a regal cat appeared, through the beams of light. She was as white as freshly fallen snow. Her tail waved in the air, even though there was a severe lack of wind in this place. Twilight's eyes widened at the sight of this cat. She recognized her instantly. A fully grown white Egyptian Mau?

There was only one that had the name that was one letter off from Celestia, and was an Egyptian Mau. President Celestia.
Twilight's friends bowed within her presence, as they obviously recognized her as well. Twilight smiled and gasped with happiness as she made her way over to her mentor and teacher.

"President Celestia!"
She called out happily as she approached the adult cat.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it with my little push."
Twilight would have questioned Celestia's intelligence on Nightmare's return. But right now, that didn't exactly matter, did it? They poked each other's noses together for a quick second, before returning back to regular standing.

"But.. You told me it was just a legend."
"I told you that you needed to stop being anti-social, and go out and make some friends."
Celestia laughed, looking over at Twilight's companions through her journey.

"I saw that Nightmare Moon was going to return, and I knew that you had the ability and capability to stop her."
Under normal circumstance, Twilight would have asked her why Celestia didn't ask her owner, (THE PRESIDENT OF THIS ENTIRE CONTINENT) to just call the FBI and put Nightmare down herself, but she just got super awesome superpowers, so Twilight wasn't complaining.

"But you could not stop her until you had realized the magic powers that friendship has."
Celestia moved herself from the platform that had been previously used by Twilight, and approached another.

The auroras had left Nightmare Moon as only a couple broke pieces of armor, that still smoked. The auroras were content with their sacrifice, and their hunger for flesh was contained for the moment. There were many more morsels to devour in the future, and the auroras contained within the Elements of Harmony, could not wait for that time to come.

Nevertheless, no cat knew of the sadistic and twisted nature such a powerful and pure looking weapon had. Not even Celestia.

"Now if only another could do the same."
Celestia sighed as another cat formed from the smoke of Nightmare Moon's remains. This cat seemed to be the same breed as Celestia. Only smaller, and younger. Also, darker in tone. She was not Nightmare; that was for sure.

"Vice President Luna."
Celestia spoke as she towered over the now just awakening cat. Luna quivered in fear of Celestia.

"It has been a thousand months since I have seen you like this."
Celestia continued as she laid down. Her intimidating stature was depleting to nothing within a fracture of a second.

"It is time to put our differences behind us. It is time that we rule together, little sister."
Celestia mewed. As every single cat in the room that was not a part of an extremely powerful family that could command armies and make cities fall, gasped.

"Sister?!"
The elements of harmony exclaimed at the same time, jaws hanging open. Not even Twilight saw that one coming. Wow.

"Will you accept my friendship, and return home with me?"
Celestia offered. Luna was hesitating. She looked pained. Only one answer could be reached.

"The sisters have returned to bring the Harmony and Economy back to our country!"
The citizens of Kitiville rejoiced as they danced about in the streets. With not a single care in the world. Even though cats couldn't dance, they danced. The secret service's van had already arrived to take the two politically involved cats back to their owner, but Celestia and Luna took their time before climbing up the stairs, and getting into the transport.

Luna had multiple flower necklaces placed around her neck. She felt happy, for once in over a thousand months.
Everycat in Kitiville was happy, except for one. One outlier to rule them all. Twilight Sparkle was the only one who wore a sad face on this day of the economy being promised to rise more rapidly than before.

"Why so glum, my faithful student?"
Celestia questioned, stepping away from the van to approach her favorite purple colored feline, who was also an important part of her plan.

"It's just.. I don't know what to do now. I mean, I have friends, I have these weird gems around my neck. I don't know what to do next."
"Do you remember what I said just before you got adopted?"
Celestia asked. Twilight recalled that day.

"Yes. You said to make as many friends I could, and to try to solve as many mysteries regarding the magic of friendship as I could."
Twilight worded it differently then how Celestia had originally said it. All Celestia had said to do before Twilight had gotten adopted was "Study friendship, and write to me on what sort of mysteries you solve." if she remembered correctly.

"Start with that."
Celestia winked, before walking off back to the pure black van. Celestia glanced over at her sister. The two of them nodded, and entered the van. The stairs folded up behind them, and the door sliding closed.
With that, Celestia and Luna wheeled off into the distance, as the cat-like citizens of Kitiville continued to rejoice.

"Sister, thank you."
"Huh?"
"If you had waited for those thousand months to be up, I don't think Twilight would even be the Element of Magic."
"Uh.. You're welcome sis."
"Now, I need to make sure she's ready."
"Ready? For what?"
"In due time, Luna, in due time."
"Can't you just tell me now? We are in this car together. I mean, the driver can't understand us. We're basically alone, and no cat-."
"In due time."
"So you're not going to tell me?"
"Nope."

3 (A New Arrival)

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It was a rather peaceful day. The sun was shining ever so brightly after it had been threatened to never to rise again. For Twilight, she was not enjoying sunbathing like the majority of the others. Relaxing, after she had put in all that work to hide her tiara in a place where no one but herself could find it. She was just reading.

After she had knocked a bunch of books off of their shelves yesterday, she had now taken an interest in reading them. Even though they were mostly cool books, they still interested Twilight. She was especially interested in pastries, like pies and such. She licked her lips as she stared at the illustration of a cherry pie. She longed to have some more of that apple pie Applejack made. Maybe she would go over for another visit, and ask for some more. That was a good idea.

Either that or she could cook the pie herself. Twilight was not very sure if she could actually cook the pie. Maybe she could check if she had all the required things, first.

Twilight closed the cookbook, and headed to the kitchen. Her owner was not yet awake, as it was at least one PM. Twilight didn't judge, though. She was a cat, a creature notorious for sleeping all hours of the day.

Twilight scaled her food-bag ladder she had been using to reach the counter. She was not able to reach the window, though. As a rushing Rainbow Dash literally flew through her window, and smacked head first into Twilight.

"Twilight! You have to hide me!"
Rainbow pleaded. Rainbow looked rather shaken up. Her fur puffed up, and her pupils constricted to slits.

"What? What's wrong?"
Twilight asked. Rainbow seemed to have this habit of not explaining things fully. Hopefully, Twilight could get a concise answer out of her.

"They're taking me to the vet!"
Rainbow cried, curling into a ball out of fear. The vet? Twilight remembered going to the vet once. It wasn't very fun, she could tell you that much. She'd prefer not to go back.

"Uh, why?"
Twilight continued to ask. Rainbow didn't seem sick.

"They think I have a condition, and.. And.. I'm going to dieeeeee!"
Rainbow exaggerated. Twilight rolled her eyes.

"What condition would that be?"
Twilight quizzed, with a look of 'Yeah, right' on her face. She could tell Rainbow wasn't going to die. Nothing seemed wrong.

"My fur is getting really poofy, and I can't put it down."
Rainbow explained, uncurling from her ball. Twilight internally face pawed. Rainbow was probably just going to a barber shop, or something. Getting long hair was not a strange abnormality. Although Rainbow was a short hair cat, which was rather strange.

"There's nothing to worry about, I'm pretty sure they're just taking you to the barber, Rainbow."
Twilight confirmed. Rainbow didn't seem convinced. She was not not convinced whatsoever. She threw herself into the metal sink. What was she planning to do? Whatever it was, it didn't seem smart.

"Twilight, turn on the water. I need to get my fluff down. I can't really fly through the air being all puffy like this."
Rainbow requested. Twilight moved herself over the sink's faucet. The place that made tiny rivers flow into a drain. Twilight put her paw on the warm water valve.

"Rainbow, you can't even fly."
Twilight pointed out. Rainbow jumped on buildings, and fell off them. Apparently, that was her equivalent of flying. Rainbow shot Twilight a glare. A nasty thing. That glare had forced Twilight to hurry up with the valve turning.

All at once, a blast of warm water sprayed onto the cyan and multi-colored cat. Her fur getting soaked, and being pushed down by the force of said water. Twilight quickly stopped the harsh spray of the small waterfall, as she looked down at the now wet Rainbow. She had all her fluff down, which was her end goal.

"Thanks."
Rainbow mewed, as she jumped out of the sink. Nearly slipping on the counter as she did so.

"Anyways, Pinkie is going to be throwing another party today."
Rainbow informed. Another one? There was just a party yesterday. Two parties, actually. How many parties can this gal throw? Twilight was going to find out.

"Another one? I don't think I'll be making it this time.. I have some reading to catch up on."
Twilight lied. Rainbow shrugged, as if to say 'You're missing out.' with her simple movement. Rainbow jumped out the window, and just like that, she was gone.

What was Twilight going to do today? Oh yes. Cook. Twilight had memorized the recipe that the cookbook had told her about. She wanted to create an apple pie. First, she needed to get the ingredients. Along with the needed pans and such. First, she needed some apples. Huh.

Twilight looked around the room. Where would the apples be? Apples aren't normally in cupboards, because they rot faster in there. So, Twilight guessed she wasn't going to be making apple pie after all. She also doubted that she could actually cook a pie without an oven.

Twilight thought of what she could cook with the limited things she had available at the time. Which wasn't very much, in all honesty. It seemed like her owner ordered take out more than they cooked for them self. Considering the only thing that could heat up food was a microwave, she wouldn't blame them for not cooking their own food.

Speaking about her owner, she could hear their footsteps against the hardwood floor. Twilight scampered off of the counter, and ran off to go see her human. She wanted some human food to eat. Maybe some of that fabled cereal that she had heard of only a paw-full of times.

The human who she called her owner, and was legally responsible to take care of her, walked down one of the fenced hallways. The hallway that was closer to the kitchen. Maybe they had chosen that hallway to have their bedroom so that way they could easily get food, or something. Twilight didn't know, neither did bother to care.

"Hey Twilight, what're you doing up so early?"
Her owner asked, as they stepped over the fence that kept her away from the hallway. Twilight was given a quick pat on the head, before her owner went to lounge on the couch.

"Watching the news?"
Her owner quizzed, looking at the still on television. Twilight had not turned it off, mostly due to the fact she had no idea how to turn it off. Twilight jumped onto the couch with her owner, as she was scooped up in one arm. She was placed onto her owner's stomach.

"What happened with your collar? Did someone pimp it out while I was asleep?"
Her owner was a really lonely sod, talking to cat that couldn't talk back to them. Her owner picked up the contraption Twilight had used to turn the television on, and pressed some of the numbers on the number pad. The same numbers appeared on the screen.

"In other news, the goat's mutation is almost complete and will be-."
The reporter was cut off in mid-sentence, as the television switched it's pictures over to something else. Twilight stared at the screen, as a cartoon of sorts appeared on the screen. It appeared to be about humans fighting gigantic titan humans, or something like that. Lots of images, at a really fast speed.

"That was really nice of whoever did that, but I'm going to have to take some of those off.."
Her owner's piano fingers tried to pull off one of the magenta gemstones that was shoved into Twilight's purple collar. Her fingers were zapped by a strange, purple electricity. Her owner immediately flung her hand backwards as soon as those sparks appeared.

"Twilight, tell your collar to stop spazzing."
Her owner demanded, obviously knowing it would do no good. Twilight jumped off of her owner's chest, and onto the softness of the brown couch. Her owner rolled over onto their side, to watch some of the television. All the while, trying to take off the electrically charged gems.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to get those things off. I need whatever those things are worth."
Her owner got up, and walked themselves into the kitchen. Twilight patiently waited for them on the couch. Watching the television flash with fast-paced action filling the entire screen. Twilight was rather intrigued by whatever was showing on the television. Her owner was busy rustling through one of the drawers. The sound of silverware being moved around could be heard.

Her owner returned to the room, setting down a wide variety of sharp, metal objects. Usually used to eat stuff with. Usually. They also had two bright yellow plastic gloves on their hands. Her owner picked up the long, ridged metal object first. That being the knife. Her owner stuck the knife in between the gem and the silver outline that kept it in place. That was basically like sticking the knife into the toaster, while the toaster was still plugged in.

Just like sticking a knife into a toaster while it was still turned on, her owner suffered major electrical surges going through their body. Nearly killing themselves if Twilight hadn't moved her collar to take the knife out from the jewel's touch. Her owner flopped down onto the floor.

Twilight gasped, and jumped onto her fried owner. Twilight slapped her owners face repetitively, until she got a reaction. Twilight didn't know what to do with this situation!

"Twilight! Can you turn on the water?"
Twilight could hear Rainbow's request. There was no way that she was going to leave her owner to help Rainbow with her fluff problem. In fact, Rainbow would be getting over here to help her.

"Rainbow! I need your help! My owner just electrocuted themselves!"
Twilight screeched, as Rainbow, in all of her now atomically fluffy glory, waddled into the living room. It took her a bit before she managed to get to Twilight and her crispy owner. Twilight was rather concerned. Her owner was still tightly gripping onto that knife.

"Rainbow!"
Twilight yelled for the fluff ball, who was now standing right beside Twilight's scorched owner.

"I'm right here."
Rainbow pointed herself out. Twilight picked up the fluff formally known as Rainbow Dash by her collar. Pulling her onto the knife holding human's chest. Twilight had no idea what she was doing. She read it in a book. Twilight pushed Rainbow over, making her land directly on her face.

With the muffled sounds of hisses and angered yelling of what Twilight was doing, Twilight started to rub Rainbow along her owner's stomach at extreme speeds. Something called shocking the heart into working. Unfortunately, Twilight's strategy was not working, and she was only making Rainbow even more annoyed.

After a good fifteen seconds of her plan completely falling on it's face, Twilight allowed Rainbow to break out of Twilight's tool of revival. Rainbow was about to scratch at Twilight, but she managed to contain her rage. Twilight slapped her owner's face again.

"Could you go get your owners? Please?"
Twilight begged. She didn't know what to do with her owner's currently unknown status. She wasn't sure if her owner was already gone, or just going through shock from that shocking shock. More forced electricity puns were not needed at this moment, so Twilight decided to quit with the horrid puns.

".. Alright."
Rainbow agreed, and proceeded to waddle back off to the kitchen. Twilight was already ahead of Rainbow, and was impatiently waiting at the top of the counter. She rushed over to the faucet, and had her paw on the warm water's valve.

It took Rainbow a good two minutes to get up the food bag ramp, as Twilight's encouragement ushered her into the sink. Within a couple seconds, Rainbow's fluff was repressed for the time being, and she was reduced to just a simple, wet cat. With a thank you exchanged, Rainbow was off.

Twilight could have sworn that she saw the gems on Rainbow's collar glowing. Perhaps it was just the water, or something. Twilight heard some noises from the living room. The jangling of metal items. This shot a chill up Twilight's spine. What was that? Her owner was on the ground, she was sure.

Hesitant, Twilight wandered back into the living room, only to watch her owner walk out the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?!"
Twilight mewed to her on-the-move human. She scrambled over to her owner, biting onto the back of their pant leg. She tugged back, as her owner was much too strong for her.

Twilight released her grip on the ankle-height bite. Her owner was gone. They walked down the patio steps, and was heading for the driveway. Twilight's small legs couldn't carry her as fast as her human's longer legs.

Her owner had already gotten them self inside the grey car. The car roared to a start, as Twilight could only watch from the sidelines of the driveway. She didn't want to be ran over.

As fast as that, the car was backing up, and was speeding down the street. Where it was going, Twilight had no idea. Neither did she want to know. It would be horrible if her owner was going to crash their car. Or do something illegal.

"Hey Twilight! Are you going to come to my party today? We're celebrating Spectral Song's birthday! I've known Spectral Song for a really long time, and I bet he would love to meet you! I mean, you both-"
A sudden Pinkie came into Twilight's view. She had just happened to be walking down the street. Twilight really didn't have anything else to do right now. She couldn't exactly get back inside the house. The front door was closed. She would have to go around to the alleyway.

Anyways, it would give her something to do while waiting for her owner to get back.

Twilight approached the pink fluff. Twilight then papped Pinkie with her paw. This made Pinkie stop her face movements, and vocal cord usage.

"I'll come. I just can't be out too late."
Twilight stated. Pinkie nearly burst with happiness. Pinkie bounced down the street, in the way she had been coming from.

"C'mon! The party is starting in like, ten minutes!"
Pinkie called to the slow Twilight, who was now speeding up to follow after her.

"I mean, can you believe it?!"
Pinkie giggled along with Twilight's extremely loud laughter. Twilight wiped the laughing induced tears out of her eyes as she approached the glass door that lead into her home's yard.

"I gotta go. Seeya Pinkie!"
Twilight bid farewell as she passed through the glass cat-door. Pinkie said a simple goodbye, as she walked off down the alleyway. Twilight took a quick glance upwards.

It was about sunset. How she had wasted so much time, Twilight had no idea. Her owner was going to be so mad.

Twilight made her way up the stairs especially designed for her, and entered the empty kitchen once more. Twilight noticed something peculiar about the kitchen, this time around. There was another bowl pair right beside hers.

There was also another bag of food leaned up against the counter. It was different compared to her food bag, that had a large silver cat on it. Twilight made her way to the floor of the kitchen to further examine the changes.

Twilight stared at the new food bag. Instead of it having a cat on it, it had a different creature. Twilight had never seen this sort of creature before. It had a big nose, a long tongue, and a tail that seemed to wag by the way the drawing was drawn.

Twilight then moved herself over to the new pair of bowls. Unlike hers, they were metal. Larger, and had a different plastic mat under them. The plastic mat had the same creature from the food bag.

Twilight was rather worried at this point. Her ears flicked in suspicion of an unknown beast within her place of living.

Cautious, Twilight crept into the living room. Just to see her owner laying on the couch. Her owner no longer had their yellow gloves, or metal knife. Those were just gone. Though, her owner's still charred status did not concern Twilight at the moment. It was what was sitting at the foot of the couch. A thing.

The thing was purple. It was not a cat, Twilight could tell. Her owner was watching some sort of cartoon, the same one as before. The thing was watching it with them. It stuck out it's tongue, and wagged its tail back and forth.

Twilight couldn't help but feel unsafe with that thing within her view. Her fur puffed up, instinctively. This gave off her location to the thing. It got up, and started to approach her. It was about her size, so it wasn't a gigantic nerve paralyzing threat.

"I didn't know I was going to be in a house with a cat!"
The thing exclaimed, happily. Twilight needed to calm down, she really did. This thing didn't seem to have any intention to harm her. Not at the moment, at least.

"What's your name?"
The thing asked. Twilight calculated what to say. First, she examined the thing talking to her. It had a collar, a green one. It also had a collar tag. A green bone, with the words 'Spike' engraved into it.

"My name is Twilight. What are you, Spike?"
Twilight asked. Spike sat down, and looked at his paw. It looked like he was trying to remember.

"The people at the adoption place called me a Labrador puppy. I don't know what Labrador means, but I guess that's what I am. I know I'm a dog, though."
Spike barked, happily. Twilight wasn't too knowledgeable on dogs. She had heard of them before, but she had never really seen them. They were talked about in older cats stories as this huge beast that could do unspeakable things to a cat.

Spike didn't seem like a huge beast.

"Okay.. Well.. Spike. Since we're going to be living together, lets set up some rules. When I'm reading, don't talk to me. When I go out with my friends and I let you come with, don't scare them."
Twilight mewed. Really, that was it. Spike tilted his head. Seems like he didn't understand one of the things.

"Books?"
Spike asked. How could somecat be so.. Never mind.

"I'll tell you about them when I get the chance."
Twilight sighed, as she pushed past Spike, and went over to her owner. Jumping onto the couch, she snuggled up to her human. Spike stayed on the floor.

Twilight had wondered why or how her owner had gotten Spike. Perhaps the electricity (or whatever it was) had changed the way they had thought. Twilight didn't bother to think about it. She was busy getting snuggled, and blocked the thought out of her mind. Twilight couldn't help but feel something.

Twilight felt as if she had forgotten something.

Rainbow shivered. It was so cold, despite it being fall. Her fur, it was cut. Horribly. She looked like a mess. She refused to leave the house, or else Rarity would make a huge rant over it. Calling Rainbow out. Rainbow didn't want that.

So, for now, until her fur grew back, she would wait. Alone. Underneath her owner's couch, watching television, until her fur grew back. She felt a bit naked. Like a Sphinx.

Most cats didn't know, but Rainbow was very conscious about her image, and how she appeared to others. She wanted to be the awesome cat, who ran as fast as a cheetah.

She did not want to be the lame looking cat, with no fur.

So, for now, Rainbow waited.

4 (Spikedemic : Not a Lot of Shock and Terror)

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It had been a couple minutes of waiting. Twilight was rather anxious about this announcement she had to make for her friends. It was a bit important, and all. Concerning the new thing within her home, and why it was there. She needed find out what to do with him, and so far, she was coming up with nothing. She figured her friends had some ideas, once she had explained the situation to them. She had to wait a while before she could call them all here. Rainbow Dash refused to come to the meeting, for some reason.

Twilight had sent out a message to the five of her friends and told them to meet her in the park. Fluttershy was already here. She was inside that big tree in the middle of the park, when Twilight had arrived. It's like she lived here. Twilight looked around, noticing the four cats entering the park. Heading in her general direction, and when they got close enough, Twilight spoke.

"I've called you all here for one reason-."
"Wait! Don't tell us! Let us guess first! Is Nightmare Moon back again? She's only been gone for two days!"
Pinkie guessed what Twilight was going to say. Nightmare Moon, indeed, was only gone for a good two days. If she were already back, then that would be Celestia's problem. Twilight was not going to go on another gigantic adventure of self-discovery and friendship. Mostly because she did not have another monologue prepared.

"No, luckily enough."
Twilight smiled, as she was glad that Nightmare was done and over with. Hopefully, forever. Twilight was not going to go through that again.

"We've got a monster on our paws. He was brought to Kitiville yesterday, and he's living inside my home."
Twilight announced, as her friends gasped. Mostly due to the fact she had said monster. They wondered what sort of monster she had. Perhaps a goat? A wolf? What was it? They were already on the edges of their seats with that one word.

"I still don't know why my owner brought him home, or why he is even here. He seems peaceful enough, but, he's just a baby. I have no idea what he will be like in the future."
Twilight continued. Fluttershy seemed a bit shaken by this whole thing. A monster, living with Twilight? A possible danger? A mysterious reason for even being in Kitiville? She did not like this, to say the least. But, the part about him being a baby did put part of her mind at ease.

"His name is Spike. He's a-."
"WAIT! Is he a.. FISH!? He's a shark, isn't he-."
Pinkie's mouth was filled with Applejack's orange paw.

"He's a dog."
Twilight announced. It seemed like the entire world was silent at that very moment. As her friends looked at each other with these wide-eyed expressions. Even Pinkie was surprised. It was good five seconds of silence before someone else talked.

"Twilight, dear, do you know the laws of this town?"
Rarity questioned, looking rather worried. Twilight had read a couple of the town's laws, but still wasn't fully confident in reciting them or anything like that. Twilight did not have them all memorized, but she could remember the basic laws that this place had.

"Dogs are a threat to the entire community, Twilight. They're illegal."
Rarity continued. It's not like Twilight had brought the dog! It was her owner, who was empty in the head! If she was arrested because of that air-head for a human, Twilight was going to be hearing her owner in court.

"We could teach him to be like us."
Fluttershy offered. That was a good idea. With her limited knowledge about dogs, Twilight knew that dogs could learn things much faster than a cat could. Mostly tricks and that sort. Everything else? Not so much. Twilight wasn't willing to gamble, and she didn't know how fast a dog could learn to be a cat. It seemed impossible.

"How do yah reckon to do that?"
Applejack asked, taking her paw out of Pinkie's mouth. Twilight was thinking the same thing. She had no idea.

"Maybe we could all take turns teaching him cat stuff! Do a training session!"
Pinkie suggested. For once, that didn't sound incredibly ridiculous. Twilight considered it. Spike could visit each one of their homes, and they could teach him some feline attitudes? Maybe. Twilight would only hope that Spike would not get multiple personalities from this.

"That sounds like a good idea. I've had him for a day already, so I've basically already done my part. So, who wants him first?"
Twilight asked. Everycat looked between each other, waiting for someone to perk up. Twilight knew that nocat was going to offer themselves up as a tribute. This indeed was a dog she was talking about. Of course, Twilight was going to have to pick the tributes herself, it seemed. Twilight was just going to pick them from left to right, if somecat didn't offer themselves up.

"Okay.. Nocat wants to volunteer?"
Twilight gazed over the small crowd. Turns out she was going to have to pick the cats taking care of Spike after all.

"I guess I'll just pick, then. Fluttershy gets him first, and then Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie gets him last."
Twilight picked. Fluttershy looked visually distressed, to say the least.

"Fluttershy, the training session will only last one hour. It's not that long."
Twilight promised as she hopped off her perch known as the park bench. Down onto the stone path. Fluttershy followed after her. A rather scared looking frown was upon Fluttershys worrying face.

"Good luck, Flutters!"
Rainbow wished out loud, as Fluttershy and Twilight made their way behind the park's tree. There was a very audible scream, followed by the startled falling of Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy! Are you alright?"
Twilight asked the fallen cat, who had stomach up to the sky. Her paws straight up, and her face frozen with that same look.

"He's.. so.."
Fluttershy stuttered, looking at the purple puppy who now stood by Twilight. Even he had a face of concern. Fluttershy felt something.

"CUTE!"
She shot up from her fallen state and wrapped around the small puppy. Spike looked over at Twilight, and a slight hint of embarrassment could be seen in his cheeks. Seems like he didn't like to be called cute. How cute.

"I'll leave you two to your lessons."
Twilight smiled and walked back to the rest of her friends. With a quick exchange of 'Let's not disturb them' and 'Let's go do something', they headed out. Leaving only Fluttershy and Spike in the park.

"So, you just.. Sit here and do nothing?"
Spike asked, looking down at the large gray rock they were laying down on. Fluttershy was rolling around to get into a comfortable position while Spike was just stationary. He looked upon Fluttershy with confusion. This seemed rather boring, in his opinion. It was literally sitting in the sun, and sleeping.

"Yes, it's called sunbathing."
Fluttershy purred at the sun warming her up. Even though it was fall, it was still rather warm. The warmth was always appreciated by the cats, obviously. Sunbathing was a rather fun hobby of almost everycat here.

"Don't you guys do other things?"
Spike asked, looking around the park. For a park, it was a bit boring. Spike had heard the grand and epic tales of parks. They were a place that everyone wanted to go to. A place of freedom, where you could feel the wind through your coat as you ran through the grass.

"Well, I usually go out to talk to some of my bird and mice friends."
Fluttershy stretched out further upon the rock, letting her legs stretch out as far as they could reach. Spike was still rather confused about the sleeping position that Fluttershy had chosen, but he wasn't a cat. Cats were extremely weird, as he had heard. They were not to be questioned. So, Spike was going to question one.

"Don't cats eat birds and mice?"
Spike asked, looking at the generally calm yellow cat. Who put her head up as soon as Spike had asked the question. Spike knew that he had asked the wrong thing.

"We can eat other things too."
Fluttershy explained. putting her head back down. Spike sighed a mental sigh, relieved that he wouldn't get a lecture from a cat today. Fluttershy was a really nice cat, even though she was a tad bit boring. Spike put his chin onto the rock. Maybe he wasn't enjoying this because he wasn't sitting right?

Spike eyed Fluttershy and attempted to copy her position. Even though he had done a decently bad job at doing so, he could feel the warmness of the rock on his side. Kinda felt nice. This was not as bad as Twilight had said it would be. She had said 'My friends are going to put you through a bunch of trials today, so you can learn to be a cat. That way, you can come with us to parties and stuff.' or something like that.

Loosening up his muscles, the rest of the hour went by in relaxing silence. Fluttershy could barely get him up in time. He had rolled off the rock and landed on his face when she eventually did get him up. After exiting the park, they walked up the street. Chatting about animals. Fluttershy had brought up a Liger she had tamed back in Tiny Woods, and how Rarity had helped out a Condor in Tiny Woods. Spike didn't know what those animals were, but he took a wild guess that they were fish, or something.

The walk had lasted for a good fifteen minutes before they had reached their destination. A large, white mansion. A well-tended garden of flowers sat outside of the home.

"Whose house is this?"
Spike asked. He hadn't heard the conversation between Twilight and her friends. He had basically no idea who he was going to go to next. Whoever owned this mansion was probably some rich stuck up snob. That was usually the case.

"This my friend Rarity lives here. Try not to get on her bad side, or get her dirty. She's a bit of a cat who obsesses about everything being clean."
Fluttershy advised, trying not to sound rude. Spike got it. Rarity was a clean freak and don't touch her. That's some good advice right there. Spike strutted forward to the mansion. Just in case Rarity happened to be watching from one of the windows of said mansion.

Spike had finally managed to get through the cat-sized door. He was a tad bit bigger than it, and he couldn't really fit his head in without twisting his whole body sideways. Once he had squished himself through; he was greeted with a polished marble floor. Along with a long red carpet that reached to an even larger staircase.

It was really quiet in here. Really, really quiet. A bit too quiet. Spike crept onto the carpet and started up the stairs. A slow creep, just enough to see if there was anyone or anything here. Sure enough, there was something here. Another cat. It was a white cat, with a purple tail.

"Oh! I've been waiting for you!"
The cat bounded over to Spike. Spike couldn't help but stop in his tracks as soon as the cat had run over to him. She pushed her muzzle right into his, as she seemed to be staring straight into his eyes. Like she was examining him. Spike looked both ways, in an awkward pause.

"Uh.. Hello."
Spike smiled as the white cat started to circle Spike. What was she looking for? Spike raised an eyebrow as he followed her with his head. He couldn't spin his head around in a full circle, so it was rather hard to see what she was doing. Nevertheless, he was pushed up to the landing of the stairs.

"What did Fluttershy teach you?"
She questioned, circling back to the front of Spike's body. She plopped down and sat like a regular cat. Spike figured he should do that too. So, that's what he did. He nearly flipped down an entire staircase (because he was at the edge of the last step) when doing so, but he did it. He was barely paying attention to what he was doing; he was fixated on something else.

"She taught me how to sunbathe, I think. Really, I just sat on a rock. She did say I was supposed to meet a cat named Rarity, though."
Spike informed. Staring at the stunning pair of blue eyes that this cat possessed. Maybe cats weren't as ugly and evil as his adoption-mates had made them out to be.

"Oh, good! That cat would be me. Let's get straight to the lesson. Since I doubt anycat else is going to teach you about manners, I guess I should be the one to do it."
Rarity exclaimed, proudly sticking out her chest. She got up and started to head up the second flight of stairs. Spike followed after her, making sure to keep his eyes on the path ahead. When they had reached the second floor, a human appeared, off to the left. It was a woman, in a maid outfit.

"That is Maid Anne. I told her all about you. Now, repeat after me."
Rarity commanded softly, as she approached the maid. Rarity rubbed her head all over the maid's foot area, purring. Maid Anne gave her a nice pap on the head. Rarity re-approached Spike and pointed over to Maid Anne with her tail.

"Now you try."
Rarity requested. Spike gave a nod as something snapped in Spike's mind. He took his aim and dashed over to Maid Anne. He ran around her feet, completely rejecting what Rarity had requested him to do. Maid Anne kneeled down, and Spike tackled her to the ground. She laughed as Spike kissed her face.

"Ugh. We've got a lot of work to do.."
Rarity mumbled.

"Come back again, Spike! We still have lots of work to do!"
Rarity called as Spike walked from the mansion. He hadn't really gotten an A+ in manners, which he was a bit disappointed about. He couldn't help it, something had snapped. Whatever had snapped, he had glued the two parts back together. Hopefully, he wouldn't snap again today.

"See you later, Rarity!"
Spike called back. Rarity had given the directions to Rainbow Dash's location. Or a place where Rainbow hung out the most. Apparently, it was out in the shopping district, where all the humans hung out. They bought food and other stuff there. Spike was just itching to see it. Or maybe it was just the fleas, who knew.

Speaking of fleas, he had been one flea short. Not like that was a problem.

After a good half hour of walking, Spike was within the market strip. No, not that kind of strip. Get your mind out of the gutter. There was a multitude of different places to visit. A pizza place, a pet place, some exotic food place with an unpronounceable name, there was almost everything here. Spike wasn't going shopping, however.

Spike was supposed to meet Rainbow behind the Italian place, or something. Wasn't pizza Italian? Apparently it was a specific Italian place. Spike continued down the market strip, and eventually found the place he suspected he was supposed to meet Rainbow behind.

"Italian Place, huh? I wonder if this is it."
Spike looked up at the logo of the restaurant. It was literally called Italian Place. Huh. Spike shrugged off the stereotype decorated restaurant and headed down the alleyway next to it. Making his way to the backside of the establishment. The entire back of the place was covered with tediously placed boxes. All of them lead up to the roof of the place.

Spike looked about silently. Perhaps Rainbow wasn't here yet? That could be the case. Spike jumped onto one of the boxes and looked about. Rarity said that Rainbow liked to make grand entrances. Grand entrances being jumping out of nowhere. Maybe she was just taking her time.

Or not. Spike had taken a glance over to his right, to notice the bright blue cat sitting right next to him on a higher up box. It did take him by surprise to say the least. She had been so quiet. It just gave him a quick jolt and a wide-eyed look.

"Spike, right?"
Rainbow asked, folding her paws underneath her stomach as she laid down on the cardboard box that was perched above him. Spike gave a quick nod to answer her question.

"Nice to meet ya. I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest cat on the planet."
Rainbow proudly raised her head up to the sky. Spike kind of doubted her brag, considering she looked like a regular house cat. She didn't look like one of those bigger cats that were actually proven to be pretty fast, like the ones he had heard about

"So, let's cut to the chase. What makes a cat a cat? Well, we can usually climb up anything there is to climb. I used to use this place to practice my climbing skills when I was a little kit. So, I guess I could let you in to the secrets of climbing. Even though you aren't really a Pegasus material."
Rainbow went on and gestured with her paw.

"Pegasus material?"
Spike questioned. What exactly was a Pegasus? What was Pegasus material? Was it a sort of thing you build houses with? Spike didn't want to be a house.

"It's a category that cats fall under. Pegasus cats can climb onto rooftops and other tall things, Unicorn cats have extra long claws, and Earth cats are physically stronger, taller, and buffer than the Unicorn or Pegasus combined. You'll get used to hearing it."
Rainbow explained, getting up from her laying position as she started to climb the boxes. This seemed pretty easy; it was just a staircase of cardboard boxes!

Before Spike could even get on to his paws, Rainbow was on the roof of the restaurant. She had this evil looking grin on her face, as she held her paw on the final box stair that lead up to the rooftop. With just a simple push, the entire step had been demolished and left on the ground.

"Lets start with something easy. Climb up to the roof, using the boxes. You have to climb up the rest of the way using your claws."
Rainbow advised, looking over the edge of the roof. Down at the confused Spike. Was he supposed to climb up an entire box length? Using only himself? How did Rainbow managed to do this when she was a 'kit'? Whatever kit means. He figured it meant kitten.

Spike clambered up the faulty stairs, up to the now last step. It didn't seem too far up, in all honesty. If he was just double his size, he could just reach up there, and pull himself up. He wasn't that old yet, so he didn't have that luxury. He put his paws on the wall and pushed off the box. Attempting to latch onto the wall, and climb up. Since it was a brick wall, it seemed like he would have an advantage here.

Instead, from pushing off the boxes, he managed to push the entire staircase down. How he had done that, it was a mystery. With nothing to support him, he tumbled down into the pile of boxes.

"I guess I should have actually told you how to climb up walls."

"See you later, Spike!"
Rainbow bid farewell, as Spike limply walked from the back of the restaurant. He swore his back was broken. It ached so much, and he could barely stand it. Hopefully, Applejack wouldn't push him that hard. Climbing up walls was definitely not his talent.

"Oh yeah, by the way, Applejack lives on the farm outside town! You'll know it when you see it!"
Rainbow informed as Spike didn't even bother to look back at the blue cat. He was off for the next lesson. These lessons they were a bit.. Strange, to say the least. It was like they didn't want him to be himself, for some odd reason. Why couldn't he just be a dog?

Before Spike got too deep into psychological questioning, He had already found himself at a large, red barn. It was isolated, not surrounded by any other buildings. There were large fields of apple trees around the place, each separated into different orchards, depending on the color of apple.

Spike did not pay attention to the apples, rather, he paid attention to the barn. At this point, his back had quit it's wretched aching, and he was feeling much better. With a deep breath, he poked his head through the barn doors. Inside of the barn was a rather large table, about his height. Along the walls were large bales of hay, gone unused for a decent while, it seemed.

"Anyone in here?"
Spike questioned the empty barn, as he timidly entered the building. It was eerily quiet in here, and he didn't like it a single bit. His ears folded backwards, as he swore he just saw a pile of hay move slightly. Maybe he should come back later, when it wasn't so isolated. Maybe Applejack was just out somewhere else? Out on the town? Catching a movie, maybe?

This was obviously not the case, as the orange tabby suddenly launched herself from one of the nearby hay piles, tailing a small rodent, who was heading directly towards the purple dog. Spike let his instinct take over, and he ducked as Applejack flew over him. Her speed was astounding, as she had pounced onto the small rodent. Pinning it underneath her paw.

"Oh, howdy Spike! Ya got here just in time!"
Applejack greeted, turning to look at her guest. Her paw was nearly crushing the small mouse as she did so. She had a tight grip on the thing.

"I was just going to teach ya how to hunt. Remember, hunting isn't all about the chase. But in this case, there's going to be lot's a chasing."
Applejack looked down at the mouse she had caught, and Spike had a pretty good idea of what she meant. She was going to release that mouse, and he was probably going to have to chase after it.

"When I let go of this mouse, try to catch it. Don't let it out of your sight."
Applejack advised as Spike readied himself. Getting up nice and close to the mouse, and Applejack's paw. He stuck his butt up in the air, as he pushed down on his front paws. His shoulder blades were sticking up in the air. He wagged his tail, as the mouse was freed from the mighty grip of those claws.

The bolt of brown fur shot off, as Spike nearly tripped over his paws. He barely started off in time and was way behind the smaller, yet faster little vermin. Applejack had jumped up onto the local table, to watch Spike attempt to speed up and catch the nasty little thing.

Unfortunately, Spike was not counting on the mouse to fling itself into a hay pile. Without a second thought, Spike had tossed himself into the golden hay and made the entire hay pile explode. Not explode as in flames and such, rather, hay just went everywhere. Spike had somehow managed to launch the mouse out of the hay, and into the air.

Where it then landed directly onto the belly of the laying down belly-up Spike, looking rather confused. It took a couple of seconds to wave its tongue out at him, as a taunt, before running off into a small crack in the walls. Spike sighed as he attempted to get the mouse out of the purgatory for walls with his paw. He received a bite on the paw, and the squeaky laugh of a victorious mouse.

"We've got a long road ahead of us. Spike, let's start with the basics."

Spike was seriously wondering what all these lessons were about. As he was leaving the barn, he wondered. Why couldn't he just be a dog? Why did they want him to be a cat? Why was he purple? How come these cats were a bunch of unnatural colors? Well, some of them had regular colors, but most of them were orange, grey, brown, black, blue, and white. Like, what sort of colors were those? So unnatural and alien.

Spike had said his goodbyes to Applejack, before walking off to his next destination. It was getting rather late, at this point. The sun was just now starting to set, so he'd better hurry up and get to Pinkie's place. Wherever that was. Applejack didn't really specify on where Pinkie lived. She just simply said "Follow the lights.", whatever that was supposed to mean.

Sure enough, he was going to find out sooner or later.

Sooner, to be precise.

As Spike was walking down the street, he had the feeling of being followed. Followed by what, he had no idea. He had looked at the surrounding area, only to see the complete lack of thing staring at him. Most of the things around him were inanimate objects, like fences, sidewalks, and road. There was also grass, but grass didn't have eyes.

Spike hurried down the street, as quickly as he could. He was feeling rather uneasy. He soon made it back to the residential district of the town, where sure enough, there was party going on. It was rather loud and obnoxious. Humans, so loud and weird with their parties.

He ignored the human's parties and decided to go home.

He was absolutely exhausted, and really couldn't go on with another lesson that probably had him running laps around an entire orchard. His paws throbbed at the very thought of doing that again. He was never going to walk again after he got home. No one was going to move him, even if the world ended.

He just wanted to sleep for a couple hours, wake up, go outside, do some things, maybe go on some adventures, and then come back home. He didn't want to be a cat, he really didn't. He was going to skip Pinkie's lesson, no offense to her. He was just way too tired from this entire fiasco.

It only took a couple minutes of walking to get back home. He jumped up those small stairs leading to the windowsill, and entered the kitchen. He walked down the bag of food and entered the living room. Not even bothering having something to eat or drink.

He just moved himself into the living room, jumped onto the couch, not even bothering to ask Twilight's permission to go on the couch, and fell asleep. While Twilight was rather confused to why Spike had returned so early, he was already asleep as soon as he had closed his eyes.

"Uh.. Sweet dreams, Spike."
Twilight wished the purple dog.

His dreams consisted of an endless amount of Pinkie Pies, wondering why he did not come to her party.

4.5 (???)

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"So, he thinks my parties aren't good enough for him, huh? He goes to everycat's lesson but mine. Mine was just a big party! Who would want to miss that?! That party was for him, too! He just thinks I'm not good enough, I bet. Well, I'll show him. He'll be coming to every single one of my parties. He will. I'll make sure of it."

5 (Mark of Misfortune)

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Rainbow Dash batted at one of the clouds. The clouds she couldn't reach, because they were thousands of feet in the air. Rainbow really didn't have anything else to do. Today had been especially boring, which was exceptionally strange because usually Pinkie would be around, and the two would pull some pranks together.

Rainbow was just laying back down on Ms. Robinson's roof, looking at the clouds. Nothing more, nothing less. Rainbow really wondered what clouds were made out of. Were they just made of cotton? Maybe they were just big smears of white? Rainbow hadn't gotten the chance to touch clouds, neither had any other cat she had known.

Well, it seemed as if she was out of luck. Cats couldn't really fly. So, she was just stuck on the ground. Just like everycat else.

Rainbow's attention was caught by an airplane. The loud whirs of the metallic flying machine high above had just begged for attention. Rainbow would love to go on a plane. That would be a dream. Unfortunately, she didn't really have a human to go with. Well, her humans didn't really go anywhere. Also, they weren't really her owners.

They were just her temporary care takers, despite having a collar on her neck. Okay, her thoughts were getting off topic. How had she gone from planes to owners? Whatever. It really didn't matter.

Rainbow suddenly got an itch in her nose, sneezing loudly. Closing her eyes as she did so. When the short flinch had ended, she had noticed that the clouds were in a completely different position. Strange.

"My sneezes control the clouds?"
Rainbow wondered out loud at the phenomenon, eyes pacing back in forth as she looked at the clear blue sky. Her sneezes controlled clouds. Of course, they did. Why wouldn't they? She smirked at the thought. Rainbow Dash, a cat who controlled the weather. Sounded crazy, but pretty awesome too.

So many prank opportunities would open up! Rainbow needed to double check her facts. She waggled her tail over to her right side, so that it slipped out from underneath her. She tickled her nose once more, in hopes of getting another sneeze. She did successfully sneeze again, but this time, the clouds refused to move.

Rainbow's smirk went away. Cats couldn't really control the weather anyways. What a silly and ridiculous thought. So, with a puff, Rainbow stood herself up, and made her way down the row of residential homes. The thought of controlling clouds still wandered about in her mind, as she ignored the sounds of the plane overhead.

Eventually, Rainbow found herself over at Pinkie's home. A two story home with a blue wooden exterior. It had a black chain link fence around the home, with an opening for the driveway. Rainbow just moseyed into the home, heading around to the backyard. She was kind of just doing whatever, looking for Pinkie.

She hadn't seen Pinkie in a couple days, and neither had any of Rainbows friends had either. Rainbow had checked Pinkies home, but Pinkie was never there. Not even in the tree that she would almost always be inside of. That tree being a lemon tree that stood in the backyard of Pinkies house.

There was something in that tree, however. Something that stood out, like a black cat in a lemon tree. There was a black cat in Pinkie's lemon tree.

Rainbow had never seen such a strangely colored cat. Just pure black. She wasn't trying to be a colourist, but black cats were more than strange. They were incredibly abnormal. Normally, cats were bright pastel colors. Seeing a black cat was more than just a rarity, it was so much worse.

Rainbow glowered at the black cat, who sat discreetly on one of the branches of the lemon tree. Rainbow poofed up, her whole body becoming covered in fluff. Great. This again. She would deal with it later.

"Who are you, and what did you do to Pinkie?"
Rainbow hissed as she drew closer to the tree, the black cat not even moving an inch from their spot. Rainbow felt a slight unease from the cat's silence. It didn't really help Rainbow's confidence that she was this gigantic puff ball for some reason. Why she had become this big thing of fur was still unexplained to her.

"I know you did something to her, you can't fool me!"
Rainbow growled, just now acknowledging that she couldn't really go up the tree to face the fiend. She was a gigantic puff, and she had tried to climb this way before. Long story short, it didn't work, and Rainbow almost broke all of her legs.

The black cat stayed silent as it rose to it's paws. Rainbow slowly started to back up. She didn't really want to get into a tussle with a black cat. They were said to be able to slay anything that crossed them. Also, they could place a mark of misfortune on those who even so much as looked at them.

Luckily enough for Rainbow, the black cat decided to head the other way. Jumping from the tree and over the chain link fence. Out into the nearby neighbors yard. Then, with a blink, the black cat had just completely disappeared. Creepy..

Rainbow headed into Pinkie's home. In hopes that she could find the pink cat just being lazy. Perhaps stuffing her face with treats and such. Though, it was never like Pinkie to just sit at home for a good week.

...

Rainbow had checked every last nook and cranny of Pinkie's house. Her owners were noticeably absent, along with the cat. Rainbow could only draw one conclusion. They went on vacation. No, they couldn't have gone on vacation. Rainbow knew when they went on vacation. They usually took their bags and stuff.

Their bags were still where they regularly were, in one of the bedroom closets. Which was closed at first, but Rainbow had managed to open from some miracle.

Nevertheless, Pinkie wasn't here, and her owners weren't here. This was a certainly strange situation.

Rainbow headed back out to the backyard. She had slicked her mane back before doing so. It took at least an hour to do and got Rainbow a gigantic hairball. Definitely not the most pleasant experience. She just hoped her fur wouldn't just continuing growing like it did last time.

Rainbow sighed. She would check back tomorrow, again.

Rainbow didn't really have much to do today. She had already visited with her temporary owners and most of her friends. She hadn't been over to Fluttershy's park in a while. Maybe it would be a good time to go there? It was just a five minute walk from the current rooftop Rainbow was on.

Well, it was actually a five minute walk on the sidewalks. If she were to travel by roof to get there, it would take much longer. Rainbow would just have to cut through a couple roads, and she would be over at Fluttershy's in no time. Without further delay, Rainbow jumped down from her perch (using nearby telephone poles and such), and strutted down the sidewalk.

It was peaceful, just like earlier today. Quiet, just like earlier today. Lonely, just like earlier today. Yeah, the loneliness was actually new. The sidewalks were surprisingly barren of any other cats, save for Rainbow. It made Rainbow feel slightly uneasy. Was she missing out on something important? Usually the only times that the sidewalks were this empty was when there was an emergency.

Rainbow, the loser who was just walking by herself on empty sidewalks, eventually arrived at the road she had to cross. Rainbow looked to the left. Nothing was coming from that side. She looked to the right. Nothing was coming from that side either. Rainbow checked again. Nothing was coming from either side.

Rainbow placed one paw on the road's asphalt, closing her eyes as she did so.

Nothing. Why would there be something? Huh. Maybe she was just worried. All this silence and stuff was just getting to her; she guessed. So, Rainbow crossed the road. The road that seemed a bit wider than she remembered. Or maybe it was just her imagination.

In the middle of the road, Rainbow suddenly stopped. Her ears flicked. There was a rrrring noise, quickly approaching. She couldn't detect which way it was coming from, but she knew one thing. Get off the road.

Rainbow sprinted to the other side of the road, as an entire squad of motorcycles flew down the asphalt, and would have run over Rainbow if she had not moved. Rainbow watched wide-eyed on the sidewalk as a large and threatening truck drove after them.

Rainbow shivered, thinking of what would have happened if she had not heard the noise of the vehicles before they had speeded down the road. Rainbow was relieved that she had not met her end on a road. That would be the most horrible place to kick the bucket.

So, still a bit tense, Rainbow entered the park. It was serene, as usual. Empty, except for the yellow cat who sat on the branches on the big oak tree in the middle of the park. The park was a nice, relaxing place, and as Rainbow approached the tree, she felt herself loosen up. Dropping her guard.

"Hey Flutters."
Rainbow greeted softly, a new for her. Fluttershy, who was laying down laxly on one of the larger branches, opened one of her eyes. The bird who had been previously perched on Fluttershy's head flew off to one of the other branches to visit with the other birds. Flutters stretched out her body, before sitting up on a branch.

"Hello Rainbow, is there something wrong?"
Fluttershy inquired, looking at Rainbow with a slightly confused look. Rainbow looked back at Fluttershy with even a more confused look.

"You're all puffed up."
Oh, great. Rainbow looked back at herself. Her fur was up on it's ends. She had been a bit scared from that whole cars and bikes almost killing her. Rainbow sighed as she smoothed back as much fur as she could. What this whole puffing up thing was about, she still had no idea.

"Um.. Rainbow..?"
Fluttershy spoke up, starting to climb down from her tree perch. She didn't really like to jump or just fall down from high places. Fluttershy was a pegasus cat with a fear of heights and jumping. Kind of strange.

"Yeah Flutters?"
Rainbow questioned, still smoothing back her fur. She hated this stuff sometimes. Was it just her with this problem? It couldn't be. Pinkie probably had this problem too, because she had such long fur.

"Your collar is glowing."
Fluttershy pointed out, staring directly at Rainbow's collar. There was a dim glow that radiated from Rainbow's collar. It glowed with all collars of the rainbow, and the cyan stuck out more than the other six colors.

"Uh..?"
Rainbow poked at one of the gemstones on her collar, and received a small cyan shock that went directly into her paw. It didn't hurt, it was just a bit of a shock. Rainbow's fur puffed up once more. The glow of the collar started to fade down to nothing.

"What was that all about?"
Rainbow asked, her voice having a bit of irritated tone from her fur puffing up again. Fluttershy shrugged as she looked up into the sky. Fluttershy went pale, as her eyes widened, and her pupils constricted. Rainbow stared at the distressed form of Fluttershy, as the ground started to become a bit dark.

"Flutters..?"
Rainbow rose an eyebrow, as she looked upwards.

Oh.

That was a uh.. Plane.. Yeah. That was a plane. That was definitely a plane. Falling directly down. Bottom first. Its nose was the thing casting the shadow upon the two cats. Rainbow felt an entire rush of adrenaline shoot into her, as her collar started to glow once more.

Rainbow pushed Fluttershy out of the shadow, as to not get squished.

Then, the plane's nose came down.

Rainbow held out her paw right before she was squished, as a flash of bright light was all Rainbow could see even though she had her eyes closed. Everything was quiet and still. Rainbow felt like she was walking on air.

Rainbow's eye opened.

"Oh my Celestia.."
Rainbow gasped, looking at the sight just a hair above her. The metal nose of the plane was just above her. It was frozen in the air. The tail and body of the plane had already smashed through multiple houses. Sure enough, the humans were unharmed, but they were poking their heads out from the wreckage known as houses.

Rainbow looked around frantically. There was a plane, basically right on top of her head. Was she dead? Was this something that happened when you died? Rainbow didn't know! She had never done this before! SOMECAT NEEDED TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING TO HER RIGHT NOW!

"WHAT IS GOING ON!?"
Rainbow yelped as she refused to move, scared that she would squish herself if she did. Rainbow was panicking, and Fluttershy was obviously taking note of that. Fluttershy shakily walked underneath the plane with Rainbow. Fluttershy was slightly bigger than Rainbow, and she hoped she could use that to her advantage.

"T-try n-not to-to mo-move.."
Fluttershy was absolutely terrified as she grabbed onto the scruff of Rainbow's neck. Rainbow stiffened her paws and body, as Flutters was having a decently hard time picking up Rainbow. Maybe if she were older, this would work. Fluttershy huffed and puffed as she just attempted to push Rainbow.

Fluttershy had no choice but to decide to just ask Rainbow to move herself.

"R-rainbow.. C-could y-you try t-to move your p-paw..?"
Fluttershy requested as Rainbow looked down at her paw. She just now noticing that there was a soft white glow on her paw pad. Rainbow was magical; that's what she concurred. Rainbow focused on moving the plane upwards, and out of the houses it had previously crushed.

The plane, sure enough, started to rise. How the ever-loving Tartarus it had done so, Rainbow was not informed. Nor was anycat else. Rainbow stared at the plane. Focusing on the plane, and only the plane. Nothing else, other than the plane. She decided to place it off onto the road, where it could cause the least damage.

The plane had landed, without any landing gear out, in the middle of the street. Its wing's had gone between the spaced out houses, cutting into some walls of the houses they were in between.

Once it had landed, Rainbow stared off into space, as the glow in her paw pad slowly started to fade, along with the glow of her collar.

Rainbow slowly turned her head over to Fluttershy, who was right beside her. Rainbow's jaw slowly lowered as there was a glint in her eye.

"Fluttershy..?"
Rainbow stared at her friend, as her face slowly started to shift to an expression of pure joy.

"Y-yes..?"
Fluttershy answered, and she could tell what Rainbow was going to do next.

"FLUTTERSHY. I. HAVE. SUPERPOWERS!"
Rainbow was bursting with happiness, twitching as a gigantic smile was upon her face. How had she gotten her superpowers? When had she gotten them? Rainbow cared not. She was just so happy she had randomly gotten superpowers. This was her dream, having superpowers, whatever they may be.

The two danced out, with what limited range of dance abilities they had. Fluttershy didn't question why Rainbow had superpowers. Rainbow had saved her and even some humans. Okay, make that a lot of humans. That was an entire airliner. Maybe a couple hundred, who knows.

Maybe a whole neighborhood.

Nevertheless, the humans were just now leaving the airliner. Yellow plastic slides had popped out from the two sides of the plane, and humans had slid down them and onto the roads. The ones who had been inside their homes had pulled out their phones and were holding their phones to the side.

Rainbow didn't care about the humans at the moment. She just wanted to know how to do that again! That was so awesome! She was the best! This was the best!

"Did that cat use the Force to save us?"
"I don't care. Look at our house!"
"Bro, we've got insurance."

Twilight purred as her owner scratched behind her ear. The two were watching some new cartoon with an entirely different premise. It looked a lot realer than the last cartoon that her owner had watched. This cartoon, if she could even call it that, was about some Doctor who had a blue box that he flew around in.

Her owner suddenly pulled out their phone, which had a new message on it. It was from a contact named 'Beerdog', and they had said 'Check the news, I think you're going to freak.', Twilight was interested in Beerdog's message, as her owner rolled their eyes, a smirk on their face.

"This is a rerun anyways."
Her owner said, before retrieving the remote from Twilight. Her owner poked at the numbered buttons on the remote, as the television changed to a different image.

"-e are multiple residents who have commented on the miracle."
The tux wearing man reported, holding a large amount of paper in his hands. The screen then shifted over to a new image, another person. This guy had a hat on, with some strange symbol on the front. They were pale and had brown hair. They also had on what seemed to be a t-shirt with some sort of slogan on it.

"Yeah, I was just sitting at home, when I started to hear something. I just thought it was my housemate, but this plane crashed through the middle of my house. We were really lucky to have not been killed."
The person stated, as the image changed to show off the house, in which was now barely standing. It was split down the middle, as debris and rubble littered the center.

"Multiple reports have been coming in from earlier today of a plane suspended in mid-air by some strange force. This plane has been identified as the same plane."
The picture changed to show off a new person. This person was a girl, and she wore some sort of dress, or something like that. She had red hair that went up in a bun.

"We were up there for I think four hours or so, and when the plane started to plummet, everyone had started to panic. I think I'm going to quit my job because that was one of the most scary things I have ever been apart of."
She smiled this 'I almost got killed' sort of smile, before the image changed back over to the tux wearing man from before.

"There are multiple videos filmed of the plane halting in mid-air, and each has currently surpassed ten views. Congratulations. There have only been two known videos of the plane after plummeting. One of them being in vertical mode and the other being in horizontal mode. The real tragedy here is that someone would actually record something in horizontal mode. Nevertheless, we will show the better quality video of what happened after the plane had plummeted from its perch in the sky."
The image transitioned into a new one, as the video was currently playing. The camera view was from underneath the plane, and was pointed directly at two small cat-shaped blobs across the street and inside the park. Twilight recognized that park and the colors of the blobs.

The camera panned upwards, as the plane started to rise upwards as well. Out from the mess the plane itself had made and onto the road nearby. As it was moved, it destroyed multiple walls in the way of it's wings. The person who was taking the video then got up and turned off the video.

"The current comments on the video have stated that this video is fake, and we do not blame them for thinking so. More on this story will be coming up soon."
Her owner changed the channel before the logo of the news station could even so much pop up on the screen, back to the other show they had been previously watching. Twilight could tell that her owner was astonished, by the look on their face. Her owner picked up their phone and proceeded to text back.

Twilight wondered about what that was all about. If she was right, those two blobs were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Twilight needed to go confirm this with them. So, Twilight got herself up, stretching while she did so. She jumped off of the couch, much to her owner's asks for her to come back.

Those two were in for an interrogation, they were.

"Then, right before the plane hit us, I held out my paw, and the plane stopped in mid-air! Then, I dropped it onto the street. That's when all the humans came out."
Rainbow boasted as she sat upon her box perch. Her story had attracted quite the crowd. Mostly of kids younger than herself. The sort of kids that were still in the Academy. Scootaloo scooted up to Rainbow, pushing her way through the crowd. Rainbow was uncertain if Scootaloo had a thing for her or not, but Rainbow considered them two to be friends.

"That's awesome, Rainbow Dash! Can you teach us how?"
Scootaloo asked as mewls of agreement came from the other cats in the crowd. Rainbow gave a nervous smile, before putting out her paw. She really didn't know how to do this stuff. It just happened, no reason behind it whatsoever. She just stared at her paw, hoping that something would happen.

"Uh, sorry kids, but I think I'm all out."
Rainbow made up a quick excuse. Scootaloo and the other kids looked pretty disappointed in this new fact as they all collectively sighed.

"Could you show us tomorrow?"
One of the other kids spoke up, as the crowd collectively mewed. They did want to see Rainbow's unexplained superpowers in action more than anything at the moment.

"Y'know what? If my powers start acting up again, you guys will be the first cats to know."
Rainbow offered as the kids were obviously pleased by this. After a small bit of chit chat, the kids waddled off, whispering praise about Rainbow Dash to each other. With a satisfied smirk, Rainbow put her chin on her paws. Was her spot back here always going to be this popular now? I mean, she is basically the coolest cat in town now with her superpowers and what not.

Suddenly, two new cats turned the corner and entered Rainbow's line of sight. Twilight and Fluttershy. Fluttershy looking a bit distressed, and Twilight looking either shocked or disgusted, Rainbow couldn't tell. Sure enough, it seemed like Twilight had something on her mind.

"Okay, Rainbow, please tell me you have an explanation for what you did with that plane because Fluttershy has no idea how you did it, and I'm worried."
Twilight quickly stated, her face now shifting to show concern instead of whatever she was trying to show just a couple seconds ago. Rainbow looked over and Fluttershy, who was nervously shuffling her paws around on the cement floor.

"Also, I would like an explanation as to why we're inside of an abandoned toy factory."
Twilight requested. Yeah, Rainbow came to this factory an awful lot. She didn't know why she came here so often, but she just did. Maybe she liked the smell in the air, or the mystery of why the second floor of the factory is off limits and barricaded. Nevertheless, she hung out her a decent lot when she wanted some time away from everycat else, but was bored with the sky.

"I like to come here a lot."
Rainbow answered the second question that Twilight had with ease. The first one might be a bit harder to answer.

"And uh.. I don't really have a real answer to your first question."
Rainbow mewed with a smile, as Twilight frowned and gave a loud 'UGH' in return. It wasn't Rainbows fault she was given these powers out of ACTUAL NOWHERE.

"This doesn't make any sense whatsoever! First a plane halts in mid-air, and then it plummets and you stop it from crushing you! That shouldn't be possible!"
Twilight began to pace in a circle. Talking to herself, as Rainbow just looked over at Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked like she had a lot on her mind. Something seemed wrong.

"Hey Flutters, is there something wrong?"
Rainbow asked as Fluttershy looked up at the cyan cat. Fluttershy had an extreme amount of sadness within her blue eyes, it was astonishing. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Flutters! What's wrong!?"
Rainbow exclaimed, as soon as she saw how sad Fluttershy was.

"This place.. I don't like it."
Fluttershy whimpered, backing up as she looked around the factory's ground floor. It was littered with boxes and toy making machines.

"Uh.. That's alright Fluttershy, you can leave if you want."
Rainbow offered as Fluttershy quickly took the offer. Fluttershy bolted out of the factory as quickly as she could. What was that all about? Maybe Flutters would talk about it later today, or tomorrow. Who knows.

"Did you see any sort of magical anomaly?"
Twilight asked, not acknowledging Fluttershy's sudden rushing off.

"Anomaly meaning..?"
"A strange, out of place thing."
Rainbow thought back. Well, she did see one thing that could be called out of place. Actually, no, there were multiple.

"Well, I saw a black cat with no collar, and a plane fall from the sky."
Twilight froze at Rainbow's statement. Just, in mid-pace, frozen. Twilight's entire body turned to look at Rainbow.

"You saw a what."
"A black cat and a plane..?"
"Dash. You saw a black cat. With no collar."
"Yes."
"YOU SAW A BLACK CAT WITH NO COLLAR!?"
"Uh.. yeah."
Twilight went ballistic. She was talking so quickly, it rivaled Pinkie. Rainbow could hardly keep up with what sort of nonsense Twilight was talking about. Something about the world ending and two thousand and twelve disasters, or something like that. Also, something about going underneath ladders.

"So, whatever you do, do NOT go outside. You need to get home, and stay at home."
Twilight finished, finally. Wait, no going outside? Twilight was telling her, the Rainbow Dash, not to go outside? What? Excuse her? That was like, the one thing that Rainbow could do to pass the time!

Before Rainbow could object, Twilight had scrambled off. Rainbow sighed and looked around the old factory. Why was Flutters so afraid of this place anyways? Who knows. Maybe Rainbow could do some more exploring today? Perhaps try to break into the second floor? That would be fun.

...

Okay, maybe not. Still, it would be something to do. So, Rainbow got herself up and started up one of the nearby metal staircases that wrapped around the walls. Every single one of these staircases leads to the same thing. A door, barricaded with wooden planks and chains.

Well, there was nothing else to do. Besides, Rainbow had always been curious as to what was smelling so weird behind those doors. Every single door had the same smell that came from underneath that small crack in the door. You know, that small space imbetween the door and floor.

Two hours, it felt like. No success. Rainbow sat up against the door. She was thinking of what to do. She could go outside, and just spit metaphorically directly into Twilight's face. That would be an extremely rude thing to do, however. So, Rainbow wasn't going to be doing that anytime soon.

"Bored, hm?"
A voice asked. It was a sleek sounding voice, like the voice of ninja cat.

"Yeah."
Rainbow replied to the voice without thinking.

"Why's that?"
The voice asked.

"Well, I can't go outside because Twilight said that I got cursed or something."
Rainbow sighed. That was the one and singular thing she had gotten from Twilight's ramble. That she had been cursed because she had saw a black cat with no collar.

"That's unfortunate."

"Yeah, and it really sucks. I mean, I'm stuck here until Twilight gets back from doing whatever she is doing. I mean, she wouldn't leave me hanging like this for any reason."
Rainbow sighed, as she felt something beside her. Rainbow turned her head just slightly, and was directly facing a..

Black cat with no collar.

A very familiar black cat with no collar.

Rainbow nearly had a heart attack. She had not seen this cat come up the stairs, or even make any noise while sitting beside her.

"GAH!"
Rainbow shouted, jumping up from her strange human sitting position.

"Calm down. We are not here to harm you."
The black cat spoke gently. Rainbow acknowledged the use of 'we' instead of 'I'.

"WE?"
Rainbow looked down the stairway, to notice a literal gang of cats (who were not rhythmically snapping their fingers) on the steps. How did they get there!?

"Okay, okay. What do you want?"
Rainbow tried to calm down. Even though she thought she was in the presence of demon cats, or something. These cats were not well, if they could be that silent and invisible.

"We've come to talk."
The black cat beside Rainbow stated, with a nod of their head. It sounded like a girl.

"Okay.. About what?"
Rainbow questioned.

"About the plane. About what you did to it."
Rainbow gulped at this. What was wrong with what she did to the plane? She saved a bunch of people!

"We want to tell you about that power. The ability you used."
The black cat continued. Wait a second, they knew about the superpower's origin? Oh, awesome! She needed some explanation. It didn't matter who it came from.

"We know about the Elements of Harmony, more than any person or cat. We are the second best to Celestia herself. You are the Element of Loyalty, and we can tell."
How did they know? Rainbow would ask them about how they got their knowledge afterwards.

"You see, the Elements of Harmony are not of our world. They are powerful weapons not meant to be used by humans. They can only be used by specifically chosen cats who appeal to the characteristic of an Element. You see, when you first used them, you allowed them to embed themselves into your collars. Those gemstones in your collar are basically the Element you represent."
The cat continued. Okay, this brought up some major questions. Rainbow would wait, however.

"So, you always have an Element of Harmony with you, no matter what. As long as no one removes your collar, you always have an Element. When you do something that is relevant to your Element, like doing a great act of Loyalty in your case, the Element reacts and-"

"We've got purple cat, turning corner."
A different black cat interrupted. As the female black cat's eyes widened.

"I am sorry, but we will be cutting this exposition short."
Then, with a blink, they were gone. Just vanished. How? Why? Who knows?

"Rainbow! I need to see you! I think I might have some explanation to what's going on!"
Twilight shouted from the entrance of the factory, as Rainbow scampered down to the purple feline.

"Uh, Twilight.. I think I might have gotten an answer too."
Rainbow stated as she approached Twilight. Twilight raised a cat eyebrow at this.

"Really? What did you find out?"
Twilight asked.

"Okay, you might want to sit down for this.."
Twilight sat down for this.
...
After a decently long explanation of what Rainbow had interpreted from the black cat's exposition, Rainbow just started to finish her explanation.

"and then you yelled at me to come down here, and here we are now."
Rainbow finished. Twilight put her own paw on her chin.

"That certainly is interesting, but I represent the Element of Magic. Something people say doesn't exist for cats. How would that theory work? Ugh. Dash, I'll be at my house. If you see a black cat twice, the curse is lifted. So, you should be safe. I have some theorizing to do. I'll see you later."
Twilight bid farewell before exiting the factory.

"You are in grave danger, Rainbow Dash. Carry on with your daily life with caution."
Rainbow heard a whisper in her ear. She looked both ways, even behind her. Nothing.

"Great. Just what I needed. More things to worry about. I mean with Pinkie gone, there's enough to worry about.."

My Little Kitty

by ChingKittyCat

1 (Welcome to Kitiville)

2 (A Nightmarish Ordeal)

3 (A New Arrival)

4 (Spikedemic : Not a Lot of Shock and Terror)

4.5 (???)

5 (Mark of Misfortune)

5.5 (???)