> The Equestrian Flower Garden
>  by RoyalStar709
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Ch.1 - Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	*Crunch* 

Lyra’s head shot back towards the source of the noise, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She shut her eyes tightly, hoping beyond hope that it was just a passing tree branch or a maybe a just a one of the more harmless animals in the island. She hesitantly opened one eye, squinting, allowing only a fine line of vision to remain among the surrounding blindness. 

She wished she could use one of her hooves to shield her vision, and further diminishing the chances of seeing one of things they were running from. But she couldn’t. 

She was the only one left after what happened at the camp. The captain, the doctor, everypony, all gone. 

She had been running for hours, at least that’s what it felt like, the ache in her hooves, the tightening of her chest with every breath, the burning thirst. Every single fiber of her body pleading her to stop. But she couldn’t stop, not right now. 

Perhaps not ever.

Lyra mostly worried about the others that made it out. She wondered how they were holding out as the day grew closer to an end. She knew though that they must’ve been tired as well. 

But that was alright, she kept telling herself over and over again.

As long as they were still alive, and make it out of this island, then everything is alright. 

It didn’t matter if they lost someponies in this trip, as long as the research was still legible and some pony made it, then they’ll never have to come back here again. And everything will be alright. 

*Crunch* 

Her head snapped towards the source, cursing herself for her bad luck. She saw something wobbling out of the bushes. Bracing herself for whatever creature came out of there, she visibly relaxed when she saw the creature coming out. The creature reminded her of a loaf of bread, it had two small legs, and two small beady eyes. It was just a Breadbug. 

The Breadbug sniffed the area around it, it’s head snapped up towards the sky. Lyra followed the creature’s gaze and stiffened in fear. The sun was setting. The creature howled, wobbling back towards it’s nest. 

Lyra shook, she almost collapsed under her own weight. “No. No. No. Not now, please!” Sadly her pleas fell on deaf ears. She cursed Celestia’s name for a brief second. Turning back, she ran as quickly as possible, already seeing some of the more harmless creatures retreating back to their nest. Tears threaten to escape, as she heard a loud yawn, followed by a thunderous footsteps. 

She shut her eyes tightly, whimpering. She continued to run, despite having her eyes closed. 

Suddenly she tripped over something, hearing a small whine. Shaking her head, she looked back and stared at the thing she tripped over. The creature was small, it had a long pointy nose, the shape of the body reminded her of a carrot. The red carrot like creature tilted it’s head at her. Suddenly it let out a small whine, pointing at something under her. 

Lyra stood up, looking at what it was pointing at, the object was a large red shaped pellet, it was almost as big as her! Strangely, it also had a the number one on it. She picked up the object with her magic and presented it to the creature. “Is this what you wanted?” 

The red creature nodded. Grabbing the large pellet and making a run for it when it remembered the time of day. 

Lyra stared at the spot the creature was at before, suddenly it occurred to her. The creature nodded at her! It understood her! It even made attempts to communicate with her. It was sentient! It must have a home! And if it has a home, then she can hide there until the night ends! One problem though… the being was running, running farther away as she continued to just sit there. 

“HEY! WAIT UP!” She yelled, running after it. 

After a long while of running, the carrot like creature stopped running in front of a large tree trunk, the thing was even bigger than a building! 

She watched the tree in amazement. She noticed that there was a small hole in it, too small for her to fit through, she watched in fear as her only hope slipped through the hole. “HEY! WAIT PLEASE!” She yelled, diving into the hole, only for her to crash into it, not being able to fit through. Her pleas were ignored, and the stomping grew nearer and nearer. 

Lyra panicked, she looked around the area, trying to find the best possible hiding place. 

“*Growl*” 

She stiffened hearing the hungry growl, she slowly turned behind her and paled. 

“*Growl*”

“AAAAHHHH!!!!!”





Celestia stood at her window, looking over to the direction of the land and the place where she sent her little ponies. Each passing day she worries more and more about their faiths and if she was the cause of the end of their lives.

“Your majesty.” A guard’s voice interrupted her train of thought, “It has been a week, and the the expedition team is overdue for their weekly report.”

She sighed, “Yes, I’m well aware of their tardiness.” She looked back, seeing Luna raising her moon. 

The guard shifted nervously, “Your highness, perhaps something happened to the research team on the island?”

Celestia stern expression cracked, “Although as much as I dread to believe that, we cannot afford to rule out that possibility.” She walked towards the balcony, watching the full moon rise. For some reason seeing the moon brought a sense of unease.  

“Captain, I need you to contact Twilight, I’m afraid that the we might be in need of her services once again.”	




Twilight hums quietly as her eyes scan and memorized the contents of the book she is reading. Her horn glowed as she flipped the pages of the book. “Hmm….interesting.” She sighed closing the book, she looked back towards the center of the room, eyeing the large crystal map. She huffed, using her horn to place the book back onto the pile of books she already read. 

It had been weeks since the map had last activated and it had yet to inform them of any other friendship quest they needed to make, so far everypony but her had been called up to perform in a friendship quest, and she was starting to get impatient. 

Twilight paced around the map, eyeing it to see if it would activate. “Come on!” She whined, “You sent everypony but me on a adventure! When is it going to be my turn!” She yelled at the map, glaring at it. After a few seconds of nothing happening, she groaned and trotted back towards the pile of books, picking one up and starting to read it. 

“TWILIGHT!”

The alicorn’s head snapped towards the direction of the screaming. “Yes?” She asked, excitement in her eyes as she saw her assistant running towards her. Not giving him a time to breath, Twilight scooped up the small drake, “Is it finally my turn?! Did the map finally choose me for something?!”

The small purple drake stood there awkwardly, “Umm, no…” He saw Twilight visibly deflate at the news, causing him to laugh nervously, “But you did get this letter!” Spike said, holding up the scroll in an attempt to cheer her up. “It’s from….. Princess Celestia!” 

“It is?” She asked, tilting her head and taking the scroll with her magic. “It’s been awhile since I’ve received a letter from her….” She unrolled the scroll. “Dear ‘Princess’ Twilight….” She read through the scroll silently, her expression changing from confusion to surprise, and finally to shock.

“SPIKE! GO GET THE REST OF THE GIRLS!” 

> Ch.2- The Awakening 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a busy day at the convention center, the hustle and bustle of the crowd filling the halls. Alex walked rather slowly compared to his fellow con goers, not really sure what to do with himself. This was the first time he had ever been to a con so he felt rather lost. He adjusted the large transparent bowl covering his head, moving the red antenna away from his vision.  

He sighed, deciding to head to the showroom floor. After a few minutes of just wandering around, he found himself drawn to a stall run by a man dressed as the merchant from the Resident Evil series. 

“Welcome stranger! I've got rare things on sale!” he said, looking at Alex with a smile, his accent surprisingly spot on.

“I see....” Alex nodded, looking over the man’s wares. His eyes stopped, his gaze landing on a replica of the S.S Dolphin. He had always wanted one, ever since he had seen the complete version of the ship after finding all the 30 pieces in Pikmin 1. He picked it up, looking it over, noting the high quality of the trophy. 

“So, how much for it?” he asked, shifting his gaze from the ship to the merchant. 

“Hmm...." The merchant stroked his chin, "Lets say... a hundred dollars.” 

“Deal.” Alex said with a nod, taking out his wallet from the space suit's pockets. He pulled out several twenty dollar bills before passing it over to the merchant. "Thank you." He said, grabbing the model and looking it over happily. 

“Enjoy yourself,” the man said with a nod, putting the money away.

Alex smiled, waving goodbye , "Thanks again!" Suddenly a bright light engulfed him, blinding him. "Hey! What's going on?!" He yelled, before the floor around him disappeared, as he felt himself falling. 





I groaned, feeling my body constantly shifting around as if someone was carrying it. "Hey...." I call a bit lazily, "Knock it off..." I said, waving my arm around. I felt my hand make contact to something, the thing had also made a whining noise. 

My eyes snapped wide open, instantly my upper body shot forwards, strangely enough everything around me was still moving, but the strangest part is, I'm surrounded by trees, grass, and dirt. "Wha...?" 

I slowly turned my head back to see what was carrying me. Carrying me were a group of small red carrot shaped creatures, all of them had a leaf on their head. "No way...." I whispered, my eyes widening even farther as I recognized the creatures, they were Pikmin, red Pikmin to be more specifically. "Umm....." The Pikmin turned their heads towards me. "Hi?" 

The Pikmin let out a high pitched whine, dropping me onto the floor and scattering around the area. "Hey! Wait!" I called after them, hoping they would come back. 

After several minutes of nothing but silence, I sighed. “Great…” I muttered sarcastically. I looked around me, still seeing nothing but trees and dirt. “..Well, it’s not the strangest dream I’ve had.” I walked towards to where the Pikmin had run off to, immediately noticing the large body of water, I licked my lips, just realizing how thirsty I was. “I suppose I could get a drink.” I sprinted towards the small pond, grinning, as I slowly started to remove the helmet. 

A sudden hiss caught my attention, as I noticed air start leaking in the suit. I was about to ignore it…. until it became harder to breath, and I mean like I couldn’t breath at all, I was suffocating. I gasp for air, not realizing the problem until I looked towards the helmet, I frantically reached towards it and forced it back towards its proper place, the inside of the suit suddenly became much more easier to breath. 

I gasped for air, breathing heavily. “The hell was that?!” I asked, suddenly not believing this was a dream anymore. I fixed the helmet, making sure it was tightly secured. I shivered as realization slowly started to creep in. “Oh no…..Please no..” I scurried towards the body of water, and gazed upon the reflection. “No…” Staring right back at me was not the handsome face I was accustomed too, it was Olimar's face. “No!” I yelled, backpedaling. 

I shook violently, as I realized the situation I was in. I wasn’t back home, this isn’t the con, this isn’t California. Which only meant one thing. I was turned into Captain Olimar, and transported into the Pikmin world, but the worst part is, I’m not 17 anymore, I’m around 30 years old with a wife, two kids, a terrible boss, and a terrible job! “NO!” I screamed, “I can’t be 30! I can’t have kids! I’m too young! I can’t even take care of myself!” I sobbed quietly, lamenting over the fact that now I’m a middle aged man with financial problems and gets paid even less than minimum wage. “It’s over….my life is over.” I rocked myself back and forth, not hearing the thunderous stomping. 

“*Growl*”

My eyes snapped wide open as I heard the loud growl. Slowly, I turned towards the sound of the growl and saw a large yellow being with a red back with white polka dots, the creature had a pair of snail like eyes. The creature in front of me, was a Bulborb.  “Umm...you wouldn’t happen to be Bulbie..would you?” I laughed nervously. 

I was answered with a loud roar from the Bulborb. “Yeah… I thought so.” Immediately I grabbed a handful of dirt and tossed it towards the Bulborb’s eyes. “POCKET SAND!” Seeing the creature flinch, I ran towards the woods and away from the clearing. 

“I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die!” I cried, running as fast as I could, the Bulborb slowly was catching up to me. I screamed as I ran towards a tree, climbing it with speed I wasn’t aware I had. I panted, chuckling as I saw the Bulborb growl. “HA! How do you like that?!” I yelled at him, throwing a stick at his eye. “Looks like someone won’t be getting dinner tonight! HAHA!” I laughed, taunting him from above. 

The Bulborb huffed, laying down in front of the tree, glaring at me. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to say here watching me..” The monster’s eyes narrowed, glaring at me. I sighed, knowing I was most likely going to be stuck here for a while. 





“Hmm…..Swooping Snitchbug…..Honeywisp.” I called out, naming all of the creatures that flew by me this past hour. “Spectralids!” I yelled, pointing at a large red butterfly. The insect flew down, landing ontop of the Bulborb’s back. 

I sighed, getting tired of the small game I made. “Well... I guess I really am in the Pikmin world.” I looked back at my only source of company this past hour, noticing that he was asleep. I grinned, climbing down the tree and slowly walked away. “Finally.” I muttered to myself. “I thought he’d never go back to sleep.” I snickered, carefully making sure to not make any loud noises. 





Twilight stared at the endless body of water in front of her, watching as everything seem to move back and forth slowly. She sighed, wondering if she really was prepared for this as the princess believed. “What if I fail…?” She whispered to herself. 

Suddenly Twilight felt herself get pulled into a hug. “Worry not Twilight!” The lavender pony looked up and saw Luna was the one who pulled her into a hug. “With mine help thee art sure to succeed!” 

Twilight felt herself smile. “Thanks Luna….but you’re slipping back to your old way of speaking again.” She pointed out. 

“Ah yes.” Luna frowned, “My most humble apology, tis a hard habit to breaketh.” She said before frowning. “Even now I have difficulty breaking this habit.” 

Twilight rested her head between her hooves, staring at the ocean again. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” Luna asked, seeing her go back to moping. 

She sighed, “It’s just…. what if I fail, what if I can’t save them?! What if whatever got to them, gets us?!” She asked. “I’m just worried that I won't be able to protect them.” 

Luna trotted to Twilight’s side and put a hoof on her shoulder, “Twilight, I understand your fear… but you don’t have to worry.” She said, trying to comfort her. “Your friends are strong enough to protect herself, not only that but now you have us as well.” She said, gesturing towards the group of guards exercising on the deck, Rarity and Pinkie were watching the sweat covered stallions work out with a small blush, “We will be by your side, protecting you and your friends from any danger that may come in our way.”

Twilight smiled, “Thanks Princess.” 

“Please, we are equals now, just call us Luna.” 

She nodded, “Thank you… Luna.”





“Ow!” 

“Stop moving so much!”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t be moving so much if ya moved your wings out of my face!” 

The barrel shook violently as a trio of voices were heard echoing out of it. Luckily for the voices no one was around to hear them. 

“Well how about you get your face out of my wings!” 

“And just how do you expect me to do that?!”

“Guys! Not so loud! Somepony will hear us!” 

The barrel stop shaking, suddenly a pair of orange hooves shot out of the barrel, soon the rest of the body slowly crawled out of it. 

“Do you see anything Scoots?”

The orange pegasus scanned the area around them before smiling, “Nope! Nopony here!”

Soon two more fillies jumped out of the barrel, a yellow earth pony and a white unicorn. “Looks like operation: Get Cutie Marks is a go!” The yellow pony said, making the other two grin. 

“I wonder what our Cutie Marks will look like!” Sweetie Belle wondered. ‘

“It’ll probably be something cool! Like a explorer’s hat with a whip!” Scootaloo guessed. 

“Or maybe a map?!” 

“Whatever it’ll be I’m sure that it will be so cool, that it will make Diamond Tiara jealous!” Applebloom said proudly. 

The three huddled up together, grinning widely. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ISLAND EXPLORERS!!! YAY!!!” The trio cheered loudly. 

“Huh?! Hey did you hear that?” A sudden voice said. 

“Hear that? I felt it!” The three fillies looked up and paled as they realized that someone had heard them. 

“Quick hide!” Applebloom yelled, panicking. The three quickly ran towards the opened barrel and jumped in, making sure to close the lid tightly. 





Alex carefully wondered around the forest, already seeing over half of all the animals already start crawling back into their homes. Alex eyed the creatures suspiciously, wondering why they were in such a hurry to leave. 

Alex flinched, the sunlight’s glare reflected from the clear helmet, causing his eyes to burn a little. “Ow! What is it with this world loving to screw around with me!” Alex looked up towards the sky, watching as the sun started to set. “Huh… the sun is setting….” He looked at it with a bored look, before realization started to set in. “The sun is setting.” If this world really was the Pikmin world, then when the sun sets you know it’s time to go. “Aww man.” He sprinted farther into the woods, avoiding some of the other creatures.

Running for his life, looking around, he spotted a hollowed tree, the tree seemed big enough to house him for the night. He quickly sprinted towards the hollow tree, grabbing one of large leaves that were on the floor, and set the leaf up to cover up the entrance. “Made it.” He whispered to himself, his heart beating rapidly. Turning towards the tree’s entrance, he frowned when he saw the last rays of sunshine leave. “Might as well get some shut eye, don’t want to be awake when those monsters wake up.” He grabbed one of the large leaves and covered himself with it, as if it was a blanket. Hesitantly, he looked outside, only being able to see the stars outside. He shivered hearing a loud roar, already tired from today's events he quickly fell asleep. 




	
> Ch.3- Day 1(part 1) Tropical Wilds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a relaxing day at the anime convention, one which my two friends had invited me to attend. After driving for two hours, we got out of the car in front of the Pasadena Convention Center. I adjusted my small amount of hair and put on my transparent glass bowl as I entered the convention center with my friends in tow. Just after entering the building early in the day, we noticed there were more police officers than the first day. Wyatt – a friend of mine dressed as Harima Kenji – looked around, confused, and asked, “What caused all of these officers to show up? There weren’t this many yesterday.” Michael, having seen the news from last night, was quick to pipe up.

“Haven’t you heard? Someone went missing yesterday right here, and some wackjob is going nuts about how it’s going to happen again,” he calmly informed us both.

“Well, who was the poor sap?” I asked, somewhat curious about the rather random event, and secretly dreading the idea that the convention would be cancelled from one chance disappearance.

“You’re going to think I’m just trying to scare you,” Michael warned me, seemingly wanting to avoid the subject entirely. However, I wouldn’t stop with only half of an answer, so I pressed for more pieces to the puzzle, while we were getting our entry passes.

“Try me,” I dared, eager to finally hear what Michael thought would scare-

“It was some guy cosplaying as Olimar, he went into the convention yesterday and no one saw him come out,” he said matter-of-factly, and I felt my stomach drop a bit. Now I wasn’t concerned about the convention’s safety; I was concerned for myself. Hundreds of thoughts rapidly raced through my head, many of them ending in me being the next victim to these ‘disappearances’.

After the others calmed me down, we obtained our passes, and then headed towards the vendor’s hall since this was our first convention. Wondering around the huge room filled with stalls ranging from video games to t-shirts. As we walked, I noticed a strange stall, with no one walking up to it, out of the corner of my eye.

“You guys go on ahead to the food court and try to meet up with whoever else arrived, I’m going to check something else out at this stall,” I told them. They nodded their agreement, and then went off to do who-knows-what.

Walking towards the stall, I looked around, admiring all the merchandise available, including things like a high-quality Poltergust from that old Luigi’s Mansion game and a Bakugan launcher with a Hydranoid and Doom card attached to it. Oddly enough, there were even oddly abstract items, like a yellow spray can that I noticed was from Jet Set Radio Future, along with what seemed to be a rather realistic-looking purple duck. The one item that took my attention was a rather realistic S.S. Drake model from Pikmin 3.

The merchant running the stand noticed I was intently staring at the model and asked “You have a good Alph costume, is there anything that you are interested in that I have for sale?”

I nodded, pointing at the S.S. Drake. “Yes, how much for that?” I asked. 

The merchant grinned, rubbing his chin. “I’ll say right about… thirty dollars.” 

Confused, I replied, “Are you sure that this model is only worth thirty dollars? It looks to be in excellent condition.”

I could tell that the merchant was sporting a frown. “I am selling these products so I have control over them, regardless if they are worth more or less than what I’m selling them at. Unless… you are willing to haggle.”

Knowing a I have been offered a great deal and not being good at haggling, I frowned a bit, but decided that it was worth it. “Alright.” Taking out the thirty dollars I paid the man and grabbed the six legged ship. 

The merchant smiled, chuckling a bit. “Pleasure doing business with you… and one last thing.” I turned back, raising an eyebrow at him. “Be sure to find shelter before sunset...” 

Before I could question him, I blacked out with my last thought being ‘There goes my chance at relaxing with friends and seeing cool costumes.’

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I later regained consciousness to the feeling of wind rushing around my body. Thinking I was still at home, I ignored the feeling to get some more sleep. After my brain realized that there was light shining into my face, I opened my eyes with a start and noticed the sky was slowly starting to get bigger.

“Please let this be one of those cool lucid dreams I have every once in awhile,” I heard nearby. Having heard a younger voice I tried to look around, only succeeding in facing the fast approaching large tree leaves, trying to figure out where it came from. Hitting the nearest leaf to slow my descent, I felt pain throughout my entire body.

‘Wait a second, I don’t remember being able to experience pain in dreams, unless… Oh no,’ I contemplated while hitting a few more leaves.

Nature decided to remind me of the present when I hit the ground hard feeling more of the dreaded pain. “Ouch!” said the young voice. Still looking around for whomever was speaking, I started making the connections about the voice. Noticing that dark clouds have appeared all of a sudden and rain was pouring, I walked over to a puddle to hopefully deny what was on my mind.

Looking into the puddle I saw Alph’s face being protected by the transparent helmet on top of his space suit. Reaching out towards his helmet I see his arm touching the helmet. All I could do was sit against a tree and fail at coming to terms with what just happened. “This can’t be happening to me, I can’t be Alph. This is just a joke, there is no way I am no longer 18 and instead some boy from the Pikmin world.” I regarded my current situation. There is no way I am supposed to be someone who collects fruit for his planet to survive, I’m a highschool student. I’m not cut out for being a botanist or adventurer. “I guess this is the end. It’s funny I end up on an unknown planet as a captain from Pikmin, and no one will know what happened to me.” Tears fell from my eyes, knowing that no one will know…

*Growl*

Completely stopping my body from moving, I started to dread what I just heard. With adrenaline rushing through my body, boosted by the fear of hearing that kind of creature, I heard it again, this time much closer. Hearing an alarm buzzing in my suit indicating that the temperature was rising, I slowly turned around, hoping I will be right for once. When I looked back to see what caused the alarm to sound I saw the biggest Bulborb I had ever laid eyes upon. Taking note of the fire raging on his backside and it’s lopsided eyes, I just had to ask “Can you please tell me that you are an illusion?”

His only response was a roar so strong that I got sent back a couple of yards. I sprinted away in a random direction. “Leave it to me to get the crazy Bulborb!” I yelled, and the offended creature gave chase.

After sprinting for a couple of minutes with the Fiery Bulblax slowly starting to get closer, I noticed a lake in the distance. Seeing that lake, I started to get new hope for surviving, and made a mad dash for the safety of water. With the apex predator right behind me, I dove into the water and saw my pursuer was contemplating whether to chase after me or not.

Feeling relief I survived my first encounter, I taunted him “What’s the matter, you too scared to get a little wet?”

Squinting his eyes and staring at me, to my complete surprise, it started to make his way towards me. With panic starting to rise once again, I took a closer look and noticed it was moving a lot slower than before and was shivering. With the Bulblax noticing its mistake, it promptly headed back to the shore and was content with trapping me. With no other way out besides becoming a snack, I chose to explore the lake for anything useful.

After an hour exploring the bay, I realized the lake led out to the endless blue ocean, but I noticed something strange the ground a couple of yards away. Upon reaching the object, I realized it was the blue onion. “So I really wasn’t going hysterical! Now I have a chance to survive this forest and find a way out,” I exclaimed with joy. When I reached the onion, it popped up and shot out one blue pikmin seed.

Pulling the blue plant out of the ground and confirming it was indeed a blue pikmin, I was filled with confidence. Noticing some Water Dumples, Wogpoles, and a variety of Blue Pellet Posies around, I declared, “It's time to get serious and raise an army of pikmin!”

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Luna stared at the dark clouds above them with a glare. She remained motionless as the boat constantly rocked back and forth, causing the other crew members to stumble and grab onto something to keep their balance. 

She gritted her teeth as she felt the force of a wave crashing into the ship. “Captain!” she yelled, calling for the ship’s captain’s attention. “Can you navigate us through this weather?!”

The elderly pony grabbed on to his sailor hat and yelled back, “I can try! I never faced a storm this powerful before!” The brown stallion lunged towards the ship’s wheel and began to spin it around, trying to navigate them through the roaring waters. 

“WHAT IS IT WITH THIS CRAZY WEATHER?!” Rainbow Dash asked, holding onto the ship for dear life. 

“CAN’T YOU DO SOMETHING?!” Spike asked, “WEATHER IS YOUR EXPERTISE!”

Rainbow shook her head. “Sorry! But the wind is too strong! Even I can’t fly through this!” 

Luna glared at the ocean, having not moved a single inch since the storm started. Twilight, finding this a bit odd, struggled to get to her. “Luna!” she yelled, “Do you have any idea what’s wrong?! I’ve never seen weather this bad before!” 

Luna didn’t respond, simply glaring at the ocean. Suddenly her horn glowed as she fired a beam of magic into the ocean, causing a large clear watery being to emerge from the spot where it was fired. The being roared, startling everypony around it. 

“WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT THING?!” Twilight yelled fearfully. 

Luna didn’t respond, her eyes widening at the sight of the thing. Finally she answered, “I-I don’t know...” 

The being roared once again, causing the water to crash onto the ship more violently, then the being slowly began to descend back into the ocean. Everypony in the ship screamed as the ship slowly started to get ripped apart. 

“Twilight!” Spike yelled, trying to grab on to something. 

“Spike!” Twilight called back, flapping her wings desperately. “Hang on!” She grabbed onto a wooden plank, watching tiredly as everyone around her slowly started to drift away, and her vision began to darken. “S-Spike….” she muttered, finally blacking out from exhaustion. Oddly enough, nopony noticed the lone barrel with voices emanating from it, shaking and floating away towards the mysterious island.

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“Do you think everypony made it out okay?” the yellow earth pony sniffed. 

“Of course everypony’s okay!” Scootaloo reassured her friend, “A small storm won’t keep them down! They took on a giant magic eating monster and survived!” 

Sweetie Belle nodded, fighting the tears that were threatening to escape. “Y-yeah!” her voice cracked, “I’m sure Sc-Scoot’s right! They probably al-already made it to sho-shore!” She patted Apple Bloom’s back trying to comfort her. 

“Are you okay, Sweetie? You’re stuttering a lot,” Scootaloo asked with concern in her eyes.

“I’m fi-fine, just a li-little cold is-is all,” Sweetie Belle replied, trying to keep their spirits up.

“Yeah! We should just concentrate on getting our explorer’s cutie marks!” Scootaloo said, “Just like we planned!” She took off the top part of the barrel and scanned the area, gasping at the sight of the beach. “Girls, look!” she called out excitedly. The other two crusaders poked their heads out of the barrel and gasped at the sight of the beach. “We’re going to be okay!” The three fillies cheered, grabbing their damp saddlebags and preparing to reach the shore. 

The wooden barrel rocked back and forth, the waves pushing it towards the beach. Once the barrel made it onto shore, the top part shot off and the three fillies jumped out, examining the area around them.  

Sweetie looked at the beach around them, slowly trotting towards the water. Stopping in front of it, she picked up a seashell and smiled, shivering slightly. “It’s so pr-pretty.” 

Apple Bloom reached into her saddlebag, looking over all of the supplies she brought for their journey. “Well, if we ration our food properly, then we should have enough to last us a few days.” 

Sweetie Belle looked over her bags as well. “With the s-stuff I bought maybe we c-can have enough to-to last us more th-than a whole week!” She smiled, sneezing. 

“Maybe we can find more food in the forest?” Scootaloo suggested. 

Apple Bloom nodded, grabbing her things. “We should get going then, hopefully we can find something before it gets dark.” The three nodded, trotting towards the woods, walking a bit more slowly so Sweetie Belle could keep up. 

After thirty minutes of walking, the three decided to take a small break, drinking from a juice box that Apple Bloom had given them. 

Scootaloo sighed, resting under the shade of a large leaf had provided from the rain. “I’m tired…” she whinned. “When are we going to find some food or shelter on this crummy island?” 

Apple Bloom frowned. “It’s only been thirty minutes Scoots, you can’t expect it to be that easy.” The orange pegasus huffed. “We should keep moving,” she said, getting up and strapping on her saddlebags. “Come on girls! Let’s go-!” She broke into a yell as she suddenly started flying up in the air, and the other two fillies cried out to her.

Looking at what was carrying her, she saw a large blue bug like creature, which had two large antennae that were keeping it up in the air. The bug looked back at her with its beady red eyes, then briefly scratched its tan stomach. 

Apple Bloom screamed fearfully, but the Bumbling Snitchbug ignored her cries as it carried her away. 

“HANG ON APPLE BLOOM!” Scootaloo yelled, using her wings to give her a extra speed boost for her scooter, with Sweetie Belle grabbing on to her. The two followed the large bug, determined to not let it get away.


Sweetie looked up in the sky, seeing the bug flying further away from them. “HEY! COME BACK HERE WITH MY FRIEND!” she yelled, her voice cracking.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I was commanding my slowly growing blue pikmin army depleting the current pellet posies and allowing a few Wogpoles to escape for next time, and having a brutal conflict with the Water Dumples; I noticed a stray blue pikmin near by. As I was about to call him over, he was alerted and started running off.

“Come back here pikmin!” I yelled calling the 24 other blue pikmin and gave chase to the fleeing pikmin. As I was pondering I noticed the one creature every captain dreads crossing, the Snitchbug. Seeing that the Snitchbug was a Bumbling Snitchbug wavered my confidence, which made me lose sight of the runaway pikmin. Oddly, the creature flew over me without even bothering to grab me, I noticed it had its hands full trying to hold onto a strange yellow creature.

Multiple thoughts ran through my head as I started to prepare for attack. Seeing my 24 leaf pikmin behind me, I grabbed ahold of one and waited for the opportunity to bring it down. Strangely the yellow creature started to struggle forcing the Bumbling Snitchbug to slow down and lower itself to get a better grip.

“NOW!” as soon as I yelled I was throwing pikmin as fast as I could in a perfect arc towards the bug. When five pikmin latched on and started beating on the bug, it fell like a rock, dropping the yellow creature with a yelp. The snitchbug started struggling but I gave another whistle blow and the rest of my pikmin swarmed the creature, killing it instantly. Ordering the pikmin to carry the snitchbug back to the onion, I took a closer look at the yellow creature. On a closer inspection it was a small yellow equine. ‘A pony foal,’ I thought to myself while observing it. Seeing that it was still alive, but unconscious due to the fall, I ordered some pikmin to bring it near a cave I found close to the blue onion.

Looking up at the sky and seeing that it was almost sunset, I remembered the nocturnal predators and what the merchant told me, so I decided to go looking for some food since my lunch never came with me into this strange pikmin world. I never noticed two other small creatures stalking behind me as I headed towards my makeshift home.

> Ch.4-Day1(part 2) A Forest full of Hope....and Fear
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	*Growl*

Alex clutched his stomach in hunger while walking around a small pond, as he glared at the Wogpole splashing in front of him. “...You’re so lucky I can’t eat without suffocating…. I bet you would make great fish sticks,” he grumbled, kicking the Wogpole away and back towards the pond. “Stupid planet.” He angrily walked away from the pond, making sure to avoid any Bulborbs that may be nearby. 

He walked back towards the tree he slept in the previous night. “How am I supposed to survive on this rock if I can’t eat!” he yelled angrily, kicking a small pebble. Alex sat down, bringing his knees closer to his chest. “I’m gonna die here, alone and hungry,” he said miserably, rocking himself back and forth while dreading what might happen if he doesn’t find a way to eat. 

“No, I can’t give up yet!” Alex got up, clenching is fist, “There has to be some way to make surviving here easier!” He begun to think back to his first day in the island. “If only those blasted Bulborbs weren’t around, surviving this place would be a lot easier!” he growled. Suddenly, his eyes lit up in realization. “Wait… yesterday when I woke up, there were Pikmin carrying me...” he recalled. “If I can find those Pikmin, then surviving this place will be so much easier!” He grinned excitedly, running back outside. “Mark my words mother nature, I will survive!” he yelled, before beginning to run towards a random direction, hoping to run into the red Pikmin from yesterday. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight awoke with a groan, she rubbed her forehead, trying to ease her headache. “Spike… Spike!” she yelled, bolting straight up. She looked around frantically, trying to locate her assistant. “...Rainbow!...” Only silence greeted her. “Rarity?! Applejack! Pinkie?! Fluttershy?!” She screamed loudly. “Anypony?!” 

Twilight paced back and forth, debating if she should stay put or go look for them. “All the survival guides say to stay put and wait for help.” She shook her head, “But what if they’re in danger? They might need my help!” She moaned, “I wish Spike was here, he always manages to keep calm in these types of situations.”

“Maybe they are further along the beach,” Twilight tried to reassure herself. “But what if I go out and they come to where I landed? I know! I could make an arrow pointing where I went, that way the others will have an idea for where to go,” she said, feeling a little better about her great idea. Heading into the tree line she cut off a dozen thick branches and started to make an arrow.. Looking at both possible directions she should take, she placed the arrow facing right and started walking.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After walking for about 10 minutes, Twilight noticed something on the horizon. “Could that be the ship?” she asked herself. “It sure doesn’t look natural,” she thought out loud. Walking closer to the wreckage, she gasped as she spotted what was left of the ship. 

Arriving at the ship left Twilight amazed at all the ponies still there making small camps on the beach. When she got closer she heard, “Twilight you're alright!” Looking for the source, she spotted Spike running towards her with arms spread out wide along with her friends galloping towards her. Meeting Spike halfway she embraced him and shed a few tears seeing that her friends and her ‘little brother’ were alright.

“Why are you crying, you silly billy? Everypony is okay except for a few cuts and bruises!” Pinkie’s mane slightly deflated, thinking that her friend was distressed.

“These are tears of joy knowing that my friends are unharmed,” Twilight responded

“Twilight!” Everyone turned towards the source of the yelling, seeing Luna fly towards them. “‘Tis a relief to observe thy well-being this day.” 

“What happened? All I remember was blacking out on the ship during the storm,” Twilight confusingly asked.

“Well you see-” Applejack began.

“Your majesty, sorry to interrupt but we have a problem!” a guard reported.

“We are glad that thou art safe and sound, but more important matters need to be attended to,” Luna said. Facing the guard she asked, “What seems to be the problem?”

“During the storm some water-like arm tore through a portion of the store room. There was also a commotion coming from inside the room while I was guarding it.”

“Dost thou think a stowaway decided to join our expedition?” Luna asked, focusing on the guard.

“Possibly but before the storm happened we heard a loud yell involving something about Cutie Marks? It gave my companion and I a headache shortly after we heard that,” the guard replied.

“Cutie marks?” Rarity asked, “But what do-!” She stiffened, her eyes widening in realization. “Cutie Mark Crusaders….” 

Applejack and Rainbow and stood stiff at what Rarity was implying. “You don’t think…..?” Applejack began, dreading the answer. 

“Knowing those three…. I’m sure it was them,” Rainbow answered nervously. 

“Oh those poor fillies, I hope they are alright,” Fluttershy voiced her concern.

Noticing that it was mid-day, Twilight was thinking of a way to save them when her train of thought got interrupted. “I told those crusaders to leave me alone while I prepared for the trip, but they didn’t listen to me,” Spike gloomily said. “If only-”

*Growl*

“What in tarnation could make that sound!” Applejack nearly shouted in fright.

“I don’t know but it sounds like a big creature is coming. Maybe I could ask it if it has seen the fillies,” Fluttershy near whispered.

A creature, about as tall as Celestia and Luna on top of each other, leaped out of the woods and surprised everypony. The creature had a red rounded backside with big white dots scattered around. Tan leathery skin covered what appeared to be its snout. It also stood on two feet while it scanned the crowd of ponies staring at the creature they have never seen before. The two stalks with big blue predatory eyes scanning around were not the factor that made the ponies shiver in fear; it was the two large fangs sticking out of the mouth that frightened the group. The giant animal stood still, deciding on what it should next do.

Slowly, Fluttershy approached the creature and asked “Um… Excuse me, have you seen three fillies anywhere in the forest, if you don’t mind answering?”

The Bulborb focused both eyes onto the yellow pegasus before roaring. Once it finished its loud call, it dove towards Fluttershy with its mouth open, intent on gobbling her up. Right when it was about to eat her, a guard jumped in and pushed the pegasus away, yelling “LOOK OUT!” A split second later the guard was eaten up and a faint cry was heard from within the mouth, then there was a deathly silence. A gulp was heard from the now threatening Bulborb before it licked its mouth and charged at the Equestrians, wanting some more tasty snacks.

After seeing its reaction, ponies went into their basic fight or flight mode running all over camp in disarray while the Bulborb moved about. When a few more ponies were sent into the belly of the beast, officers started barking orders to quell the panic.

“GUARDS, ATTACK THE FOUL BEAST!” Luna raised her voice to the Royal Canterlot Voice, while shooting a volley of magical bolts. Angered from missing another pony, the Bulborb soon found itself at the end of countless magical missiles, spear heads, and swords.

Sensing that this would not be an easy feeding, the Bulborb gave one last roar before retreating back into the forest. Seeing that the creature was gone, ponies tried to get a grip about what just happened and rebuild their damaged campsite. A shocked and scared Twilight walked up to Fluttershy and asked, “What did the creature say before attacking?”

“I-I di-dn’t hear h-him sa-y an-nyt-hing,” Fluttershy replied, sobbing into Twilight’s coat; trying to get rid of the memory of her rescuer’s face before he got eaten.

Luna solemnly looked at the damage done, saw ponies grieving over their lost comrades and friends, and spoke barely above a whisper to herself, “If this is just one of the creatures that inhabits this forest, I dare not think of the fate that befell the research team.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After wandering around the forest for several hours, and going into a battle with a Dwarf Red Bulborb, Alex laid down, resting against a tree. “Where could they be…?” he moaned, “I’ve been searching this place for hours and haven’t found a single trace of them!” Getting up, he dusted off a small bug that was resting on his shoulders. “I can’t give up now, if I do then might as well be signing my own death certificate.” 

Going back to exploring the area around him, Alex stopped in front of a large tree stump with a small hole in it. Alex stared at the tree in awe. “This thing is huge! It’s larger than my house!” Looking back into the hole, Alex walked in front of it, and slipped inside. 

Seeing a bright light at the other side of the tree stump, Alex ran towards it, ignoring the large mushrooms around the area. A loud beeping was heard at the other side, along with a couple of high pitched whines. 

Finally running out of the large tree trunk, his eyes widened at the sight of the source of the beeping, there stood the S.S. Dolphin in perfect condition, not a single piece was missing. Alex walked towards the Dolphin, admiring it, not noticing the Pikmin gathering around him. 

Taking his eyes off the ship, he stared at the Pikmin around him, neither of them moving an inch. Taking a deep breath, Alex blew the built in whistle that was a part of his helmet. The whistle caused the Pikmin to jump and crowd around him. 

Alex smiled excitedly. “I found them… I finally found them!” He cheered. “Now I have a better chance to survive this death trap! Take that mother nature!” Alex yelled at the top of his lungs. Noticing the Red Onion and the pellets that were littered around it, he grinned, blowing his whistle and causing the Pikmin to grab the pellets and take them to the Onion. 

After plucking several seeds and slowly growing a plant army, Alex walked towards the ship, then a bright light emitted from the ship. Blinking, Alex found himself inside it. “So this is how it looks… it’s bigger on the inside…” he commented. 

Taking a deep breathe, Alex hesitantly grabbed his helmet, and slowly started to remove it. Hearing the familiar hiss, he braced himself. Finally removing the helmet completely, he sighed in relief as the air around him was breathable. Noticing a refrigerator right next to him, Alex bolted towards it, nearly devouring everything inside. “Finally…” He let out a satisfied burp. 

Hearing the beeping once again, he walked towards the ship’s controls, noticing how low the ship’s fuel was. “There’s only enough to fly me around to other parts in the island… but not enough to get me off of it…” he muttered sadly before shaking his head. “I guess that’s okay, as long as I have some way to breathe and eat.” Noticing the sun going down, he went back outside and recalled the Pikmin back inside their Onion. 

Ignoring the loud roars of the nocturnal predators, he jumped inside the ship and took off, the Red Onion following closely behind. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------	

Day 1

It’s been a whole day since I woke up on this island after buying an item from some mysterious merchant. I thought for sure that this place was going to be my resting place, luckily however I had found the Pikmin and my beloved S.S. Dolphin. Using the ship to my advantage, I was able to get something to eat without suffocating. Strangely enough, the Onion really does follow you, I’m just glad that I won’t have to go exploring to find the Pikmin again. 

Even stranger, the ship seems to be picking up two other signals… could it be that others were sent here as well? I will begin my search for others tomorrow… hopefully the two signals will prove to be other humans…

With everything that has happened so far… and with everything that might happen… I have decided to name this area the Forest of Hope, as it fills me with a great amount of hope towards potentially meeting other possible humans. 

-Alex-	
…Olimar

> Ch.5- Day 2 (part 1) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once I woke up all I saw was darkness like every morning before school started. Thinking I was still in my room and remembering what I thought was a pleasant dream, I went back to sleep to try and get into that dream again. What prevented me from having any sort of sleep was the snores of someone nearby. Looking over I saw the small foal I saved yesterday, sleeping on a makeshift bed with a wooden splint on her broken leg. “So I really wasn’t dreaming about yesterday. I really am Alph.” I mumbled to myself, watching the foal’s ears twitch from my voice.

Realizing that I possibly will never again see my family or friends, I started back down the path of depression. Looking down at the ground, I started to cry, already missing my family. Crawling to the side of the cave, I wrapped my arms around my knees and just lost hope of returning back to my normal life. Spending an unknown amount of time, I remembered something about Alph. “Wait a second, Alph’s ship was the S.S. Drake, all I need to do is find that and hopefully find the cosmic drive key and I could try my luck out in space,” I argued in my head, trying to fill myself with hope.

Noticing that she was still sleeping I pondered what that creature was doing since I have never seen one like it during any Pikmin gameplay. “Maybe she is a local to the island,” I thought aloud. Seeing that the foal was starting to wake up, I cursed under my breath for waking her up. Once it was up I noticed a somewhat faded yellow coat and a red mane with a red bow.

After realizing we were both staring at each other I saw that the snout was short and there were big intelligent eyes. I barely registered a young country voice when I noticed she was backing away with a noticeable limp. I slowly moved closer to try to get her to stop moving with the injured leg.

“I wouldn’t move too much if I were you. You need to let that leg of yours heal up after falling from that Snitchbug. That is, if you can understand me,” I calmly said, noticing that she stopped moving, which was a relief.

“So you're not gonna eat me?” the foal asked, with fear and a hint of confusion in her voice.

My eyes widen, shocked that this foal had just spoke. “Y-you can talk?!” I asked, taking a step back from the pony. 

The small filly tilted her head in confusion, “Well of course I can talk, why wouldn’t I be able to?” 

“Alright, someone must have spiked that water I drank... it must have been something real good for the effects to last this long,” I said with a dazed look, finding the wall more important than the filly that just talked in front of me.

“Are you alright Mr. Alien?” the filly asked, taking a step forward, a bit worried from my reaction. 

“Well, I may be on the brink of being mentally unstable, but nature forgives no one in this cruel world, and it's time to explore ... and find some food,” I replied, hearing my stomach grumble from the lack of food.

“Are you sure, mister? The critters are scary out there,” the filly frighteningly proclaimed.

“Just leave them to me. Say, do you by chance have a name?” I asked while preparing myself for another day of exploring, getting tired of calling my newest companion filly.

“Yeah I do, my name’s Apple Bloom. What about you?” the now named Apple Bloom curiously questioned.

“You can call me Chris,” I replied, walking out into a whole new day.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Sco... p.”

“...Aloo... wak...”

“SCOOTALOO! WAKE UP!!” 

Scootaloo jumped, startled from being woken up in such a way. “Sweetie Belle!” She glared at the giggling unicorn. “What was that for?!” 

Sweetie quickly shushed the pegasus, “Scoots, not so loud!” she lightly scolded. Quickly, she checked the area around them to see if the weird alien or any other monster was around. “Come, this way!” She ran, gesturing Scootaloo to follow.

“Sweetie Belle, wait up!” Scootaloo yelled, quickly getting up and running after her. 

After a few minutes of running, the two stopped in front of a tall onion shaped object with a few blue carrot shaped creatures standing in front of it. 

Sweetie Belle smiled at the small group waving at them. “Hey guys!” she yelled at them, her voice cracking when she called for them. The blue plants jumped, turning towards Sweetie, then they all immediately crowded around her, letting out a small whine. 

Sweetie’s smile grew as she turned back towards Scoots, who stared at them a bit uneasily. “Aren’t they cute?” she said, her voice slightly cracking again. 

“Yeah... cute.” She backed away slightly, not taking her eyes off them. 

Sweetie’s ear began to twitch and she looked back towards the cave. “Quick hide!” she yelled, quickly grabbing Scootaloo and ducking behind the bushes. A few of the Pikmin hid with them.

“...So you’re saying we should start looking for your friends that you got seperated from when the Snitchbug grabbed you?” Chris looked down towards Apple Bloom, making sure he got that right.

“Eeyup!” Apple Bloom nodded. “We should probably hurry too, before one of those monsters manage to get one of them!” she yelled fearfully. 

“Okay, let me go and get some-” Chris started to form a reply before being interrupted.

“APPLE BLOOM!” the two fillies yelled, jumping out of the bushes, a large group of Pikmin jumping out with them, all of them gathering behind Sweetie Belle. Seeing their friend, the two tackled her into a hug. 

“Girls! You’re alright!” Apple Bloom yelled happily, hugging them back. 

“Well that was easier than I thought it would be,” Chris said in relief that the three friends were reunited. “Wait a second, where did you get all those blue Pikmin at?” Chris focused on the one named Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie pointed at the Onion. “I got them from there. A bright blue screen appeared in front of me, and when I pushed down a button, a bunch of these blue guys came out,” Sweetie explained, nuzzling one of them, “And they’re so cute!”

“Well that looks like all of them.” Attempting to whistle them to me resulted in them not moving. “Do you mind disbanding them so I can look for my ship?” Chris asked Sweetie.

“Disbanding them...?” Sweetie looked at him confused. “Uhh... how do I do that?”

“Umm...” Chris tried to think of a way to disband them, “How about... Huh, how do you disband them...?” 

Sweetie frowned, trying to think of a way to help.

“Well what about that sound spell we used to try and get our cutie marks for being a band? Could you, I dunno, alter it to make a lower sound?” Scootaloo offered.

Sweetie Belle nodded, “Yeah, that could work!” Taking a deep breath, her horn began to glow a greenish hue, a high pitch noise began to come out of her horn, slowly the noise began to get deeper, until finally a the noise coming out of the horn became deep, causing the Pikmin to jump and disband, crowding around each other. “It worked!” She cheered. 

“Okay, well, that’s one problem solved.” Chris sighed in relief while whistling the Pikmin over. “Would you three like to help me find my ship, if she is still in one piece?”

All three of them nodded, Scootaloo jumped up eagerly, “Maybe we’ll be able to get our Cutie Marks in ship tracking!” The other two cheered, both of them equally as excited at the idea of getting their Cutie Marks.

With the Pikmin following Chris, and the CMC bouncing along, the group moved into the dark forest, hoping that they could find the ship within.





Luna stared at the wooden boards in front of her, watching silently as two guards finished up the makeshift graves. “It has only been a day since we got here and we have already lost five ponies...” she sighed, levitating one of the fallen guard’s helmets and setting it on top of the wooden tombstone. “I’m sorry that your lives ended so suddenly... I can only hope that your sacrifice won't be in vain.” 

“Princess Luna...” 

Luna turned towards the source of the quiet voice, “Good morrow, Fluttershy.” She nodded at the  shy pegasus, noticing the bundle of flowers she held in her hooves. “I assume that you brought an offering for them?”

Fluttershy sniffed, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to escape. “Y-yes...” She stepped closer and sobbed as she read the names of the deceased guards. “Princess... do you know the name of the pony who...” She choked back on a sob. “The pony who saved my life?” 

Luna nodded. Using her wing, she pointed at a lone tombstone to the left. The two trotted in silence, reaching the tombstone. 

The two remained silent, staring at the guard’s grave. Fluttershy gripped the flowers in her hooves and planted them in front of the wooden tomb, quietly sobbing. “Thank you... for saving me...” 





After everypony gave the fallen guards a moment of silence, Twilight looked up and noticed they had plenty of time to look for the stowaway fillies and make a fortified camp. Noticing that half of the supplies have been lost to the storm or the beast from the day before, a few squads of guards were ordered to start scavenging near the forest’s edge for edible food.

Twilight turned to Luna and asked, “Do you think we should move further into the forest and make shelter or stick to the beach?”

Luna pondered over the question and thought about the fillies lost out in the forest with who knows what lurking in the shadows. Looking at the rest of the ponies, she realized that morale had dropped since the previous evening. “We shall send Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike with three squads of guards to look for the fillies. While Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, and myself shall stay here and improve camp conditions.”

The ponies nodded, accepting their princess’ plan. Twilight walked towards Fluttershy, putting a hoof on her withers, “Fluttershy, do you think you’re okay to go...? You don’t have to go if you don’t think you’re well enough to do it.” 

She shook her head, “No Twilight... I owe it to him to go out there.” Fluttershy hugged Twilight, sniffing. 

Twilight hugged her back, taking a step back, she turned towards Spike. “Spike... you don’t have to go if you don’t want to... if you want to stay that’s perfectly fine, no one is going to think any less of you.” 

Spike smiled. “Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll be fine! Besides, I can still send letters to you guys in case anything goes wrong,” he said, trying to comfort her. 

Twilight frowned, giving Spike a quick hug. “Just make sure to stay out of trouble, and listen to whatever they tell you, alright?” 

Luna looked at Spike. “Let me alter the spell Tia used on you so that we receive the letters your flames burn.” A faint blue glow could be seen on her horn before quickly fading.

“There, now we can keep in touch should anything go wrong,” Luna reassured Twilight. Then looking at the other element bearers she continued, “Best of luck to you four. Come, we have work to do around here while the day is still young.”

They nodded, giving each other one last look before separating to complete their assigned tasks. 



 

Applejack sat down on top of the large log, panting from exhaustion. The ponies had left the camp hours ago to start searching for the fillies, and so far hadn't made any progress. Turning towards the others in her group, she noticed the squadron of guards sitting next to each other in the shade, Rainbow Dash seemed to be digging into her saddlebags for something, and Spike along with Fluttershy were just observing the large pony sized butterfly landing near them. 

“AHA! I knew I packed an extra case!” Rainbow yelled, destroying the silence. 

“Packed an extra case of what exactly, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Rainbow grinned, taking out a pack of six cider bottles. “Some of your family’s famous apple cider!” Taking out a bottle from the box, she yanked off the cap and began to drink from the bottle. Seeing some of the envious looks she got from the guards, she offered them the rest. “You guys want some? It’s still cold!” 

After passing around the bottles of cider, one of the guards felt a little uneasy after drinking. Looking around to try and figure out what the case was, he started to feel vibrations under his feet. “Uh... is anypony else feeling the ground shake a bit?” he asked confusingly to his comrades.

“I’m starting to feel it too.” another guard replied, looking at the ground to figure out what is going on.

*Rumble*

Just to the side of the large group of ponies and drake, a fat and short worm dug itself out of the ground. Its two black beady eyes started at the intruders before wiggling its pink body, and more of its kin popped out of the ground. Shortly afterwards, another set appeared from behind them but they were dark purple with two mandibles slightly opening then closing. This third set charged towards the group. Several of the guards realized this was a fight and pulled out their swords and spears, aiming them at the group of insects.

Spike recoiled in fear, backing away from the Sheargrubs. Seeing that the purples looked like they were going after the guards and the pinks had no mouths he yelled, “Go for the purple bugs, their mandibles are make them more dangerous than the white ones!”

Voices of confirmation and agreements rung out in the squads and they waited for the bugs to come at them. Unicorns were shooting bolts of fire to drive them off which caused a few purples and pinks to burrow underground in fright. When the creatures got close, there were sounds of metal cutting exoskeleton, until a shout of alarm was heard. After forcing the rest of the Sheargrubs to flee, one of the guards was found to have a bite that went past his leg armor.

Seeing the wounded guard, Fluttershy walked over and asked “Are you okay?” Letting out a sigh of relief that the bite was only slightly bleeding, she pulled out some bandages from her saddlebags and tended to the wound.

“Thank you so much,” the guard replied, feeling grateful for her help.

*Rumble*

“Not another wave of those insects,” Rainbow Dash muttered, getting a few grunts of approval.

“Nope, if you’d stop drinking that cider and pay attention, you can see that a hole just opened up in the ground,” Applejack lightly scolded, approaching said hole. Looking down, all that could be seen was pitch darkness, suddenly a pair of blue eyes opened up, startling her. 

The ponies quickly darted towards the bushes, trying to avoid further confrontation with the native wildlife. Seconds later, a large brown creature wobbled out of the hole. The creature’s body reminded them of a loaf of bread, two small legs supporting its weight, its small beady blue eyes scanning its surroundings. The bread-like creature sniffed the area around it. Seeing the Sheargrubs’ remains on the ground, the Breadbug grabbed a body with its teeth, pulling it closer to the hole and dropping it in, then the creature repeated this several times. Finally it stopped and narrowed its eyes at Rainbow’s saddlebag, the Breadbug sniffed the bag and grabbed it, carrying back to its den. 

“Hey! That’s mine!” Rainbow yelled. Realizing her mistake, she quickly covered her mouth, glancing at the Breadbug fearfully. 

The creature stared at her, making eye contact for a full minute before barking and going back to carrying its stolen goods. 

The ponies gazed at the creature oddly, shocked that it had decided to not attack them. 

“It’s... harmless?” a guard asked. 

“Maybe it’s trying to lure us into a false sense of security, then attack us when we least expect it!... What a cunning, diabolical beast,” another muttered, glaring at the Breadbug, his spear already firmly gripped in his hooves. 

“I don’t think it’s trying to lure us into a trap,” Fluttershy said uneasily. “Its behavior doesn’t show any signs of being a natural predator... it’s more like a scavenger, trying to collect whatever leftover food there is.” 

“But then why did it take Rainbow’s stuff?” Spike asked. 

Fluttershy tapped her chin, trying to think off an answer. “Maybe it’s using it to build a nest...? That or it could be that it is just likes to collect things,” she answered.

“Well I’m not letting some stupid loaf of bread take my stuff. C’mon, let’s go get my bag back!” Rainbow nearly roared as she charged towards the hole the Breadbug entered.

Some of the guards who were drinking the cider agreed and pulled out some rope to begin rappelling those without wings down towards the unknown depths, hoping there was still some left over.

“Now just hold on a minute! We can’t go in there!” Applejack yelled, “We don’t know what’s down there!” She growled when she noticed that they were ignoring her. 

“Um... Applejack.” Fluttershy whispered, “Perhaps we should follow them? They could probably use the help,” she suggested. 

Applejack growled, stomping her hoof. “I suppose so, those boneheads will need someone to reel them out of trouble.” The two trotted towards the hole, jumping in along with the guards. 


> Ch.6- Day 2 (part 2) Glutton's Cavern 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Applejack screamed, gripping her hat tightly, not letting the wind take it away. Looking around, she saw the rest of the non-pegasus ponies flailing and screaming like she was. Taking out some rope from her saddlebags, she twirled the lasso and threw the rope onto an edge of the rocky wall. Acting quickly, she grabbed two other ponies, and held onto the rope tightly. 

“You two alright?” Applejack asked the two guards, her eyes filled with concern.

The shorter guard smiled gratefully, and nodded. “Yeah, thanks.” 

Applejack smiled. “That’s good to hear, so what’s your name?”

“Tiger Lily,” the short one, a mare, replied. 

“Officer Might,” the gruff stallion responded. 

“Well greetings Officer, Tiger,” Applejack said, tipping her hat a bit. “Hope you don’t mind, but it seems like we’re going to stuck here for a while.” She laughed dryly. The other two grumbled. 

“It would appear so,” Might said. 

“Applejack!” 

The three looked down and saw Rainbow Dash, along with two other pegasi flying behind her. 

“Rainbow, up here!” she yelled, waving her hooves. 

"Hey AJ! So, how's it hanging?" Rainbow asked, chuckling.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Oh ha, ha, ha. Just get us down from here!"

Rainbow flew up towards the three, grabbing Applejack while the other two pegasi grabbed the two other ponies. 

Reaching the cavern’s floor, the three pegasi placed the ponies on the ground. Applejack sighed in relief, seeing everypony from her group alright. “Is everypony alright? Nopony’s hurt?” Everypony around shook their head, saying they were alright. 

“Well that’s good.” Applejack smiled, then briefly paused and scanned the area around them. “This place is pretty big for one critter.” 

Fluttershy looked around the cave and frowned, “Maybe he has some friends living here as well?” 

“Well I’m not going to stick around and find out,” Rainbow declared. “Just because this thing didn’t attack us doesn’t mean the others won’t! Let’s just grab my stuff and leave!” 

The others nodded in agreement. Slowly the group started walking deeper into the cavern, all of them dreading what they might meet at the creature’s nest. 

Applejack stopped, looking at the group of ponies, her eyes widening when she noticed one of them missing. “Where’s Willow?” 

The group stopped, all of them looking around to find the missing pony. 

“Um… right here!” Everyone turned around, finding the missing pony hiding behind a rock. “You guys don’t have to wait for me… I’ll just wait here until you guys come back!” 

“Willow, get over here!” Might yelled, stomping his hoof. 

“B-but!” she stuttered, poking her head from behind the rock. Seeing the look on Might’s face, she hesitantly complied, walking away from the rock. Applejack trotted closer to her, seeing if she was hurt, she sighed in relief seeing that she was alright. 

Willow was a short, green unicorn mare. She wore an old dirty lab coat that only partially covered her magnifying glass cutie mark. The coat held a notebook and a pencil in one pocket, and in her other pocket was a case for the glasses she wore and a bottle of water. Her black mane was tied up into a ponytail. 

Willow’s legs shook as she stood next to the group, Applejack, seeing this, decided to go comfort the researcher. 

“Hey, it’s alright.” She patted the unicorn’s back. “I know you’re scared, but don’t worry, if anything tries to come after you, these guys will be sure to get them off your back,” Applejack said, trying to comfort her. “Just stay close to us and we’ll be sure to keep you safe, okay?”

Willow nodded nervously, following the group deeper into the cave. 





Alex grunted, plucking some of the new sprouts the Onion spat out. He sighed, taking a small break from plucking the sprouts. Reaching behind him, Alex took out the Koppad he found on the ship. Tapping the screen, he checked the area around him, noticing the red dots moving around the map. 

Alex stood up, plucking a few more sprouts and heading towards the area where he left the Pikmin to build the bridge. Noticing that the ground was starting to shake, he took a step back and grabbed the nearest Pikmin. 

Bursting from the ground, a swarm of Sheargrubs crawled out, immediately heading towards him. Alex threw the Pikmin at the nearest male Sheargrub, crushing its back and killing it instantly. Dispatching the Sheargurbs with no Pikmin deaths, Alex sent five Pikmin with the carcasses back to the Onion while he crossed the stone bridge deeper into the forest.

Spotting some Pellet Posies, Alex threw some Pikmin at them to bring back some nectar. Feeling that one more would be sufficient for his army of Pikmin, Alex went to grab one when he noticed it was not there any more. Seeing some drag marks on the grass, he started following them to find out where the nectar vanished to. Alex’s short walk led him to a Breadbug carrying the pellet towards what looked like a mound of dirt.

Seeing the Breadbug crawl into the dirt pile, Alex took a closer look and realized it was a hole in the ground. Looking down he saw the two blue eyes quickly vanish into the inky darkness of the cave. Alex gave some thought to it. Circling the cave, he looked back to his squad of Pikmin. Returning his gaze to the cave, he shook his head. Before he could take another step, the Koppad started beeping. When he pulled out and looked at it, his eyes widened.

“There’s a signal coming from that cave…” Alex whispered in shock. He immediately thought back to yesterday, when the ship had picked up two signals coming from the island. “Maybe this was a signal the ship picked up on?” Alex asked himself, debating whether he should risk going in there. “There could be a chance that the signal could be another human…” Taking a deep breath, he called the fifty-five Pikmin over and jumped into the hole.





“I really wish I’d brought a better flashlight…” Alex grumbled, shaking the flashlight violently in an attempt to get it to work. After a few seconds, Alex gritted his teeth in frustration, throwing the flashlight ahead of him. 

“Moo!” 

Looking down, he noticed a red pikmin trying to get his attention. “Hi?” The Pikmin pointed towards the a small patch of grass, pulling on his suit to get him to go there. 

“Mmm!” 

Alex stared at the Pikmin with a confused look. Walking towards the patch of grass, he spotted a bright yellow file. “Huh?” He picked up the file, examining it. “What’s this…?” His eyes widened. Reaching onto the small backpack the suit had, he pulled out a handheld device with a screen on the middle of it. “Hopefully the Koppad will be able to read this data file.” Inserting the file onto the Koppad, he waited patiently for it to load.

“Pikmin Habits:

Walking near a patch of grass will cause them to start plucking it, this grass may also contain nectar which will aid them in maturing into flower Pikmin.”     

“A patch of grass?” Alex stared at the screen. Seeing the Pikmin begin to drink some of the yellow liquid that came out of the grass, his eyes widened when he saw the leaf in his head turn into a flower. “That’s right! With nectar, leaf Pikmin will turn into flowers!” Alex gripped the whistle, signaling the Pikmin to charge at the grass and drink any nectar there was. A few seconds later, Alex smiled at the sight of his whole army having flowers instead of leaves. 

Looking back at the Koppad’s screen, Alex continued to walk towards the narrow tunnel, following the flashing light in the middle of the screen. As he kept walking with his Pikmin, he noticed a light at the end. Seeing that his Koppad was alerting him the signal was nearby, he started sprinting, his Pikmin picking up speed as well. When he reached the end of the tunnel, the surroundings opened up and he stood shocked at what he saw.

“Hmm… wooden floors, wooden train tracks, and wooden toys. So their nests really are built this way…” Alex thought aloud, impressed at the size of his surroundings. He looked at the large wooden toy train with a sense of unease, his thoughts drifting to the reason to why there would be an oversized children’s toy in this island. “Now why would someone come here?” Alex pondered to himself while looking for the origin of the signal.

Seeing a few Anode Beetles blocking the fastest path, Alex launched a few Pikmin to flip them over and ordered a swarm to finish them off. Just when he started to move forward, he heard a loud hissing sound from above. He quickly looked up just in time to see a Volatile Dweevil fall from the roof, and dodged out of the way. Getting up from the close call, he watched the bomb rocks, meant for the Pikmin and himself, obliterate the Dweevils instead. Checking to see if the Pikmin were alright, Alex carried on, exploring the area. Even though he was starting to shiver in fear, he never once looked back at the Anode Dweevil carrying what looked like the Shock Therapist.

Carefully avoiding the wooden train tracks and the occasional Dwarf Bulbear, Alex did not expect what was happening before his eyes. All over the floor were scores of Dweevils and Breadbugs stealing remains of bugs, treasures, and fallen bugs of the opposite side. Noticing a Volatile Dweevil to his right, Alex started rounding up Pikmin in preparation to retreat when it exploded right next to a Breadbug. Alex looked on, confused, when he saw another Dweevil take the carcass and scurry the same way it came from. Looking to his left allowed him to see a Caustic Dweevil flail around as two Breadbugs dragged it into their nest.

“Well… this is certainly new.” Alex accidentally said aloud before covering the helmet part in front of his mouth.

These few words that slipped caused every creature to stop dead silent, and look over towards Alex and his merry Pikmin. Even the Breadbugs carrying live Dweevils stopped and stared at the human. Seeing Dweevils of all colors charge at him replaced the fear with adrenalin, and he started to sprint away, hopefully to find the entrance to a sublevel.

“I just had to open my big mouth!” Alex cursed while running. He heard a high pitched whine before hearing a soft thud.

An explosion rang out not too far behind him and a Pikmin death was heard from the body of the tripped Pikmin. When Alex was in sight of the entrance to the next sublevel, a screech of distress was heard. Turning around confused, he noticed that the Breadbugs started stealing the items the Dweevils had ‘obtained’. None of the greedy Dweevils payed attention to either the captain or the Pikmin as they escaped deeper into the dungeon. Falling into the darkness towards the next sublevel, the sounds of explosions and cries were starting to be drowned out by the whines of Pikmin.



 

Looking at his Koppad, Chris, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and thirty blue Pikmin trudged along through the forest, the signal getting stronger the further they moved. Seeing that the signal was close he put the Koppad away and started to look around. With a confused expression, Sweetie looked towards Chris as he was moving bushes and searching the few clearings narby.

“So what exactly are we looking for, Mister Chris?” she asked in confusion.

“Well I don’t see a big metal rocket ship here,” Apple Bloom said, looking behind a boulder.

“I don’t see anything over here either,” Scootaloo shouted, slightly hovering out of some nearby bushes.

Seeing that no work was getting accomplished, Chris found some nearby weeds and decided to let the Pikmin have a break. Dismissing them over towards the weeds, he called the trio of fillies over to discuss what they are going to do. Hearing some whining from the Pikmin, Chris dismissed it as them having fun and focused back onto the topic.

“So… how are we going to find this ship? The Koppad is saying there is a signal nearby and I’ve got a feeling that it’s the ship. Without the ship I will be unable to eat or drink anything before I suffocate,” he stated, gloomily looking at the ground.

“Well, let's not worry about it, we will find your ship. If not, then we can ask Twilight to help out, since she can fix anything!” Sweetie tried reassuring Chris.

“Yeah, if we asked Twilight, I’m sure she’d help you out,” Scootaloo nodded, agreeing with her friend.

“Moo!” a Blue Pikmin hollered next to Chris, trying to get his attention. Chris turned and looked at the Pikmin carrying a small shiny object. Becoming more interested in the shiny object, Chris thanked the Pikmin and looked closely at it. Seeing a zigzag of an ‘s’, he instantly recognized the symbol and started to feel better.

“What is that thing?” Sweetie Belle confusingly asked, her own attention being drawn towards the device.

“Well, this thing is the symbol of the main character in a game series called Metroid.” Chris replied confidently. “Though I do wonder what such an object is doing all the way out here?” he pondered, looking at it more. Remembering what the small expedition was about, Chris changed his focus back to the three fillies, still trying to figure out where the ship could be.

“Okay, so according to the Koppad, the ship is in our general area. Let’s head north since-” Chris was interrupted by a voice while trying to stop the three fillies from fighting.

“I am a bounty hunter, known throughout all of space.
I have done jobs deemed impossible.
I have slain dragons, and wiped out entire species, all to save innocents.
I have killed, and I have saved.
Call upon me if you wish for a powerful ally, but be warned, I will not tolerate unnecessary bloodshed.

My name is Samus Aran. And I am the Hunter.”

	Hearing the random robotic voice the group jumped from being shocked and started, eyeing the treeline. With Blue Pikmin surrounding the group, each member started backing up until they were facing each direction, not knowing where the voice came from or if they were being stalked. With the tension increasing every second, Chris and Sweetie Belle each grabbed a Pikmin. Unable to withstand the pressure any longer, Chris shouted, “Show yourself!”

Not hearing anything after shouting, Chris felt a vibration in his suit pocket. Pulling out the item distracting him, the source was the Metroid medallion glowing with a faint light and shaking. Unable to hear anything else except the voice he heard from before, all Chris could say was “Hello?”

Chris heard a sound of something humming behind his head. “Turn around slowly, and no funny business,” the same robotic voice spoke.

Hearing this, everyone felt a chill go down their spine as Chris slowly turned around, remembering that in all horror movies he has seen before; the character who faced the monster died off first. The whines of his Pikmin comrades brought him out of the fear, giving him enough courage to grab a Pikmin and comply with the voice. All he could see was something that looked like long yellow and orange armored legs connecting to a thin, almost hourglass shaped waist. Tilting his head further up showed a rounded triangular chest piece with glowing green lines. On top of the chest was a red helmet with a ‘v’ shaped green visor staring back menacingly. To the right was a bluish-green hand-held cannon glowing bright yellow at the end.

The figure lowered the cannon, it’s energy disappearing. “I thought so. Care to tell me who you are? Is it Alph, or someone else?”

Shocked and with Chris’ brain trying to comprehend the figure before him, all he could manage to whisper was “It’s really Samus. Is she really standing before my eyes, or am I hallucinating from lack of nutrients?”

The figure rolled its helmet slightly, as if rolling their eyes. “Yep. I’m clearly not real. How can someone from a game series ever exist? I mean, a bounty hunter who fights aliens? Impossible. Plant-like beings that you can pull out of the ground? Impossible. Talking anthro animals that pilot ships to take down a monkey’s floating head in space? Impossible. And don’t get me started on the angels and plumbers who eat shrooms.”

“Oh… well my character’s name is Alph. Even though you look like a character from my favorite video game, I don’t quite trust you just yet. Although I thought this was a pleasant dream, until I found a Fiery Bulblax chasing me, nasty creatures,” replied Chris, having conflicting feelings towards Samus.

“Of course you don’t trust me. You ever hear of a story where a person instantly trusts someone they just met? Neither have I, and I’ve lived for about half a century!” the figure retorted.

“Well we are not getting anywhere with increasing tensions, so what is your name?” Sweetie Belle asked.

The figure looked over at the small unicorn. “Well, I go by many different names. The Hunter, the Chosen One, that one person who keeps blowing up my evil bases, Hero, but I usually go by Samus, so you can just call me that.”

“Okay Samus, do you think you can help us look for Alph’s ship?” asked an awed Scootaloo.

Samus shrugged. “Meh, I got nothing better to do. But I don’t really know what it looks like. And my ship is being repaired so we can’t rely on its weird yet useful timing.”

“That’s fine. My Koppad has given us the general area and we have yet to explore the northern section,” Chris replied.

“Is this northern area cold? Like ice everywhere? Because I just had to deal with a planet of ice, and that was really annoying,” Samus asked.

“Not that I know of, my friends and I just washed up on this island yesterday. Then we met Alph after he saved me. Right Scoots and Sweetie?” Apple Bloom reassured.

“Right!” they both yelled with excitement, remembering the moment they were reunited.

“Actually this whole area is one large forest, so there should not be any change in the weather,” Chris stated matter-of-factly.

Samus thought about it for a moment. “Can’t wait to see how everything goes wrong on this little adventure. The forests in games like these are never pleasant. In Legend of Zelda it’s always a forest temple, and those skull kids are annoying, my forests are usually being destroyed by poisons, and Kirby gets attacked by a tree.”

Noticing that the sun was slowly starting to lower, Chris turned towards Samus and CMC with worry starting to show. “We better get moving before the sun sets, I’d rather be in the safety of my ship as soon as possible than be out here.”

“Can you even survive at night? I hear that night’s pretty brutal in Pikmin. And with Olimar’s Final Smash in Smash Bros, I’m not sure if I want to be out here at night either.” Samus asked.

“Well knowing the game is more realistic now, I do not want to be wandering out here. Every Pikmin left behind in that game was never seen again, regardless if they can fly or swim… Let’s get moving.” Chris stated, starting to move north along with Samus, CMC, and the Pikmin.

Traveling through the forest, many creatures were seen scurrying about towards shelter while the rain started to fall. Groups of Honeywisps were seen carrying nectar off, their bodies shining in the rain. Passing under a group of plants caused multiple Spectralids to fly away, leaving the three fillies awestruck at their beauty. Traveling deeper into the forest, a group of Dwarf Bulborbs were spotted searching for food around a sleeping Bulborb. Passing by a lone Dwarf Bulborb spotted the Blue Pikmin and started approaching, hoping for a quick snack. As it was getting closer, Chris grabbed a Pikmin and aimed for its back, when a red hot ball of magma splatted against the ground a foot in front of its face.

“I suggest you find your snack elsewhere. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be burned.” Sam suggested, pointing the arm cannon at the Dwarf Bulborb.

Seeing a predator much bigger than itself, the Dwarf Bulborb promptly started running back towards its kin. “Thanks for that, though they aren’t much of a problem alone,” Chris replied, looking at Samus. “How exactly did you get here?” he asked, not remembering where Samus was before.


“My token. The Metroid symbol?” Samus pointed out.


“I’ve never heard of a token that could do that.” Chris said, watching a pretty Iridescent Glint Beetle pass by.


Samus was silent for a moment. “Have you ever heard of the term, Displaced?”


Chris pondered over the word walking “I have heard of it before, but I don’t think either of us are thinking of the same meaning.”


“Well, Displaced, that’s displaced with a capital ‘D,’ is basically what I am a part of. Since you found a token, you’re most likely like me, a human who was sent to a world filled with ponies, along with the powers of a certain character, in your case, Alph from Pikmin. I hear that it happens in different ways, like for me, I bought something from a merchant, and woke up in Twilight Sparkle’s house, as Samus Aran.” Samus spoke, while still walking.


Thinking back to his first day on this dreaded island “That’s interesting, was this merchant cosplaying as some guy with a dark hood and a scratchy voice?”


Samus’s head shook. “No, the merchant I came across looked relatively normal. I think they were wearing some cosplay from some other video game, but they didn’t look like how you described.”


Chris was thinking of a response when he felt the ground start to shake. Remembering which creature made these small tremors, all he was able to get out was “Sheargrubs!” Just after saying their name, a multitude of Sheargrubs of different genders burst out of the ground and approached the Pikmin. Chris and Sweetie both grabbed Pikmin, preparing for a fight. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both had looks of determination to help their newest friends.


Samus walked forward, taking a position between the Sheargrubs and the Pikmin. The arm cannon was brought forward, and was pointed at the creatures. “I can’t scan them. Care to tell me any useful info?”


Throwing Pikmin at the dark colored ones, Chris calmly replied, “Go for the males. They are dark colored and have mandibles. The females are the lighter colored ones and can’t hurt Pikmin.”


Samus nodded, and with one swift movement was running forward, then jumped into the air. The second Samus jumped into the air, they flipped, pointing the arm cannon at the group of Sheargrubs before firing several precise shots at each of the males. Samus landed on the other side of the group of Sheargrubs before turning around and making sure all males were destroyed.


Seeing that their attack was fruitless, the remaining Sheargrubs retreated back into the ground. Chris looked at Samus, impressed with how quick she destroyed the bugs. Noticing the sun was slowly going towards the horizon, Chris thanked Samus and the group continued on.


Looking at the Koppad, Chris could see that his ship was in the clearing just ahead of them and relayed the information to the rest. Stepping into the clearing, there was nothing but grass and two large trees on each side. Looking around then back at the Koppad, Chris looked to Samus. “Ok, so my Koppad says the ship is in this clearing, but I don’t see it anywhere.”


Samus sighed. “You ever play Legend of Zelda?”


“Only Hyrule Warriors, other than that. Nope,” replied Chris.


“Because whenever there’s a situation like this, it’s usually solved by looking up, at the huge spider hanging on the ceiling.” Samus looked up, to indeed see a huge spider.


Looking up and following the two large trees, all Chris could do from showing his fear was to grab a Pikmin. Pointing towards the bug all he could say was “That’s one big Arachnode, and there’s my ship! Along with an Onion!”


As everyone looked to where he was pointing, seeing the huge black spider and yellow stripes, they all knew this would be a long fight. Next to the spider was what looked like a large metal oval with four windows and a satellite on top. Below the oval were four legs slightly moving along with a sputtering engine. On the other side of the web was the pink Onion surrounded in webbing, slightly twitching to get free.


“So that’s what your ship looks like. It looks cool,” Scootaloo said, staring at the metal ship.


“I’m more worried about that big critter sitting on that web,” Apple Bloom fearfully voiced.


“What about those poor Pikmin that could be trapped in that Onion?” Sweetie Belle asked with concern.


Chris grabbed a Pikmin and aimed at the spider. While throwing it, he explained the creature. “This thing is an Arachnode, they build webs on trees and trap anything in them. The only way to remove the web is to kill the spider.” Seeing that the first Pikmin did not even get close, Chris tried a few more times only to get the same results. Turning towards Samus, he said, “I can’t even get a Pikmin on the web. Do you think you can get him down?”


Samus looked down at Chris. “I have lots of ways to get it down, I think I’ll go easy on it.” A small panel opened up on Samus’s back, and Samus pulled out two pieces of metal. Quickly firing a plasma shot at each tree, Samus then threw the metal pieces at the trees, and fired an ice beam to freeze them to the tree. “Now watch this.” Samus’s arm cannon made a whirring sound as it morphed into a green arm, and Samus quickly thrust both arms at the metal panels. The second that happened, twin grapple beams flew out, and latched onto the metal.


“Time to look cool.” Samus jumped backwards, causing the grapple beams to pull Samus at the spider at high speeds. Samus deactivated the grapples, and reactivated the arm in time to kick both legs into the spider, knocking it off the web, sending both of them flying to the ground. While in midair, Samus fired super missile after super missile into the spider, until it slammed into the ground, and curled up, seemingly dead.


“Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would,” Chris said, never thinking one of those bugs would go down that fast.


“What do you mean?” Apple Bloom asked, confused. “It is twitching, see?”


Samus, who was walking back over to the group, turned around. “Figures, Nintendo never makes a boss that goes down that easily.”


“Who’s Nintendo?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking to Samus for help.


“Nintendo is the company that made both Metroid, where I’m from, and Pikmin, where he’s from.” Samus pointed at Chris. “It also made games like Mario and Pokemon.”


*SCREEEEEEE*


“There’s the sound I was waiting for,” Chris proclaimed, throwing Pikmin onto the advancing spider.


Having never fought an Arachnode on the ground before, Chris used the one successful strategy that never fails, throwing Pikmin. Sweetie Belle joined in on throwing Pikmin, but their efforts backfired when the large spider started eating the Pikmin coming at it. Hoping to salvage something from the situation, both called the remaining Pikmin off the Arachnode.


“Don’t worry, I got this,” Samus said, running back at the spider and jumping into the air. Once in the air, Samus charged up the arm cannon and was about to fire, but was quickly gobbled out of midair.


Chris and the CMC both looked on in horror as they heard an audible gulp from the Arachnode. Trying to think of a way to kill the creature and save their newfound friend, they failed to see a faint light come from the creature.


A huge explosion ruptured the spider’s stomach as an orange figure jumped out, landing on the spider’s head. “NO ONE EATS ME! NOW TASTE PHAZON!” Samus’s suit glowed blue and black, as she fired huge beams of Phazon directly into the spider’s brain. The spider couldn’t handle the mutagenic substance and let out a scream of agony.


Before too long, the spider curled up, and Samus jumped off, the suit turning back to its normal colors while walking up to the group. “Yuck, this suit takes forever to clean.” Samus wiped the stomach acid and Pikmin body parts of the visor.


“Wow… Remind me to never get on your bad side,” Chris replied, trying to forget the brutal death of the large spider.


Two loud crashes were heard shortly after along with several thuds. Chris looked over and was filled with joy when his ship landed itself on the ground along with the Pink Onion. Walking over, a single seed was shot out of the Onion and a sprout started to grow. Chris walked up to the sprout and tugged on it. A Winged Pikmin flew out and started flying around Chris. Several ‘daww’s were heard from the trio of fillies and the curious Pikmin flew around them as well.


Samus ignored this and walked up to the Phazon pooling around the giant spider’s body, pulling it back into the suit. “There you go, wouldn’t want Phazon left in a world like this.”


After informing Sweetie Belle on what to do with the new Winged Pikmin, and pointing over to the Pellets that came out of the beast, Chris turned to Samus.“Thanks for that save, I thought you were a goner for a second.”


“I’ve been in worse situations,” Samus said, wiping more of the stomach gunk off the suit.


Chris looked over the CMC working together to produce more Winged Pikmin and shaking Samus’ hand. “Well Samus, you have earned my trust. My name’s Chris.” 


Samus shook it back. “My real name’s just Sam. I go by Samus more often than not, though.”


Noticing that the sun was setting, Chris blew his whistle and all the Pikmin started returning back to their respective Onions. Sweetie Belle came over to Chris and asked, “Will the Blue Pikmin make it back to their Onion safely?”


“They should, we didn’t go too far away from where we started. Would you guys join me in my ship before the locals find us?”


“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, SPACESHIP PILOTS, YAY!!!!” the fillies shouted with surprising volume.


Samus looked at the interior clock of the suit and responded. “I have to get back home soon, Fluffles is probably getting hungry. I can stay for a bit longer if you need me to help repair anything wrong with your ship.”


Chris pondered about problems the ship could have, then he remembered. “You think we could fix up some space in the ship to allow oxygen? I know I can’t breathe it, and I don’t want to leave the fillies out here compared how I first met them.”


“I have some oxygen tanks.” Samus pulled three small boxes out of a hidden compartment on the suit’s side. “Should be good for about a day's worth of oxygen each.”


“Thanks for the help. How do I make my own token?” Chris replied, not knowing how to do that either.


“Well, you take something important to you. For me it was a Metroid medallion I bought. For you, it can be about anything,” Samus answered.


Chris gave some thought about what the token should be. Reaching into his pocket he took out a copy of the Koppad, identical to the one on his waist. Facing Samus he asked, “Okay, what is the next part?”


“It’s kinda hard to explain, and I doubt I’m the best one to explain it,” Samus pointed out. “But, if I remember correctly, it’s like you push some innate magic that we all have into it, and speak a phrase that others will hear from the token.”


“Okay, here goes. I am Space Explorer Alph. If you need some help with technical devices, or just want to hang out, send me a message,” Chris spoke into the Koppad, thinking of what to say.


Samus nodded. “Good, now, hand it to me, and I’ll send it into the multiverse. I figured out how to do this a while back.”


Chris nodded and handed his Koppad copy to Samus, unsure of what would happen next. Samus’s armored hand glowed purple, and the token disappeared in a flash.


“That’s taken care of, now how do I send you back?” a confused Chris asked.


“Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve done this… I think it was something along the lines of ‘Our contract is complete.’” Samus tried to remember.


Looking up at Samus and waving, Chris said, “Good luck on your adventures, maybe we can hang out another time when the both of us aren’t busy. Our contract is complete.”


A tear in reality appeared behind Samus and the armored hunter walked over to it. “Sure, that’d be nice. Maybe next time it’ll be in my universe. See ya.” Samus waved goodbye while walking through the portal and it closed off, reforming back into the Metroid medallion.


Chris grabbed the medallion before it could hit the grass and looked at it. The sunlight rays disappearing brought him back to reality and each of the CMC opened the boxes, curious as for what is inside. Upon trying to open the boxes, a robotic voice spoke up.


“To use these specially designed oxygen tanks, place them upon your back, and the science will come to life.”


Realization dawned on each filly as they each put the box on their back. After each box was placed, a mechanical buzz was heard before the boxes grew and covered each face, leaving a visor to see out of. Each filly felt a relaxing burst of oxygen flow over their face before looking at Chris and yawning.


“Okay, let’s get on the ship and sleep,” Chris answered, feeling drowsy as well.


Chis and the CMC each approached the ship and a beam sucked them inside. Once inside, the fillies were amazed at what the ship was like. Windows looking outside of the dark landscape, quickly replaced by the canopy line, then further up until they were seeing stars and the whole island. Chris’ stomach decided it was hungry and he noticed a fridge to the left of the ship. Taking off the suit and helmet and hanging it next to a bed, he realized he was wearing a plain white shirt and shorts. Looking inside showed two shelves full with bottles of juice.

“I don’t think you three had anything to eat, so enjoy a bottle of juice.” Chris said before downing an entire bottle. Seeing a drawer with a sink nearby, he opened it up and found dozens of empty bottles, Chris cleaned the bottles and stored them.

Chris laid each filly onto the bed and tucked them in before heading to the last bed and pulling out his Koppad before ignoring the sounds of the engine and noticing both Blue and Pink Onions following.





Day 2

Well today has been an interesting day so far, these ponies are helpful and caring compared to some people I have interacted with back on Earth. Oh, how I miss my family already, if only I could fly into space and search for my home planet. It’s best not to think about that, I feel like I will go into a depression I may never come out of if I dwell on those thoughts. The problem with that idea is that the ship doesn’t seem to have a cosmic drive key slot so I am trapped on this planet. If the locals are like these three fillies, then I think I won’t have too many problems.

I finally figured out that me being here was no accident, that someone, or something that I have dubbed ‘The Merchant’, until someone corrects me, has sent me here. More than likely for an entertainment purpose. Though I found some great help in the most unlikely ways ever. Accidentally summoning Sam proved to be very helpful with finding the Drake. I think I would be spending another night hungry inside that cave with that giant Arachnode guarding my ship.

Seeing the two Onions merge is fascinating. Remembering that Sam said others are Displaced gives me hope that someone else actually got sent to this… Equestria. With only having about two weeks worth of food left, I will have to start collecting fruit.

Remembering the crazy adventures I had in this area, I shall name it… Tropical Wilds. For some very odd reason my ship has detected two strange life signals moving about on the island. I should begin the search for at least one of the signals, and since I have to conserve food supplies, maybe I could even find where these three fillies came from? Possibly they could have come from the light source I can see on the edge of the island? Wherever they came from, there is no point in worrying about it now.

-Chris-
Alph...



> Ch.7- Day 2 (part 3) Glutton's Cavern (Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Applejack trotted ahead, the two guards from before had offered to keep her company in case of any dangerous creature came along. “Ya’ll see anything up ahead?” Applejack asked the two in front of her. 

The smaller one, Tiger Lily, looked back, shaking her head. “Sorry, it’s nothing but dirt and darkness ahead.” 

Sighing, the farm mare looked back, signaling the rest of the group to come along. “Come on, it’s safe!” 

Coming out of their hiding spot, the group of ten ponies and one dragon quickly ran towards the other three, making sure they stayed in a protective circle. 

“Is this really necessary?” Spike asked, a bit annoyed at the process they had to repeat for the fifth time. 

“Completely!” Might said, “What happens if we were to be ambushed by a swarm of those bugs again? We got lucky last time, but we may not get so lucky again, all of us would be overwhelmed, at least this way we can give the others a chance to escape.” Might stomped his hoof, causing all the guards to stand up straight. “Now MARCH!” Standing up straight with their legs out, they began slowly marching deeper to the cave. 

Spike groaned, but he began to walk along slowly, due to the guards’ slow march. Looking around, Spike found Fluttershy and Willow having a conversation about the giant animals in the area, Applejack was talking to Lily about the type of plants she grew when she wasn’t working, and Rainbow was making faces at a guard, trying to break his stony expression. Seeing everyone he knew talking to someone else, he turned towards the guard marching close to him. “So… uh…. what do you do for fun…?” He asked with a forced smile. The guard kept his stone like expression, ignoring the drake and counting his steps along with the others. He sighed, “Figures you wouldn’t talk.” In frustration, Spike kicked a nearby pebble, which hit the cavern wall and bounced back, hitting him right in the nose. “ARGH! Dumb cave!” he hissed, grabbing another rock and throwing it at the wall.

“*YIP!*”

Stopping, everypony turned towards the sound of the of the bark. Wobbling out of the shadows was a black and orange miniature version of the creature that attacked them the day before. Like the creature, this one had the same body shape, only smaller, it had yellow eyes with a black brownish head, and a orange back with black polka dots. 

Some of the guards paled upon seeing a creature so similar to the one that devoured their comrades, others gritted their teeth, eager for a battle with it. The Dwarf Bulborb saw the group of equines and barked, wobbling straight towards them. The guards shouted, both in fear and in anger determined to get revenge on the creature. 

“*Growl*” 

Both parties stopped, the guards paled even further seeing a larger version of the small Bulborb standing behind it. Willow rushed towards the creature, using a flash spell to blind the creature. “RUN!” The equines quickly ran away from the Bulborb. Shaking their heads to get rid of the blindness, the Bulborbs ran after their meal, eventually trapping them in a dead end.

Might ran in front of the group, pointing his spear towards the pair of Bulborbs. “Stay back!” 

The Bulborb snorted stomping towards the terrified ponies. The large bulborb stopped, scanning the area around him, the smaller one doing the same. 

The ponies looked at them confused, “W-Why did they stop?” Willow asked, her knees shaking, still not believing she used a flash spell on the monster. 

Fluttershy shook her head, “I don’t know… the only logical reason would be because...” She gulped. “Because there might be a much more dangerous predator around.” The ponies grew more worried, and some of the guards even dropped their weapons in fear. 

The Bulborbs turned towards the path they came from, hearing a familiar clicking of a insect’s mandibles. Crawling out of the dark were a group of tall yellow spiders with a large rock containing cracks on their back. The Bulborbs cried out in fear, trying to find a way out. The spiders hissed, the rocks on their backs jumped and started glowing and getting bigger, charging towards the pair of Bulborbs. They jumped onto the big one’s back as their bodies began to glow and sizzle. 

*BOOM*

The ponies ears folded, only being able to hear a ringing sound and seeing a large explosion. After feeling a heat wave pass over, the Bulborbs both gave their final cry and collapsed on the ground.

Spike hesitantly opened his eyes, he gasped when he saw the burnt bodies of the bulborbs. “...Whoa…”

The ponies all stood there shocked, some not being able to process the situation before them. Their heads shot towards the sound of more insects approaching. The guards got into a protective half circle, waiting for more spiders to come. 

Coming from the exit were two spiders, one red and the other yellow, they looked similar to the ones carrying the rocks, only they weren’t carrying anything. The group became tensed, afraid that these two might explode on them as well. 

The two spiders walked towards the burnt bodies, the red one crawled under the large Bulborb and rose up with the body on its back, ignoring the ponies. The yellow spider just looked at the group of ponies, contemplating what to do. Before the yellow spider could move, a bark caught their attention, and a Breadbug emerged from the darkness. The bread like creature wobbled and quickly started to drag the small Bulborb towards its nest. The Anode Dweevil screeched, running after the Breadbug, the Fiery Dweevil lagging behind. Both were interrupted when a second bark was heard announcing yet another Breadbug, but this one looked like it was dragging something.

A confused guard looked towards Fluttershy for an answer about what was transpiring. “I... don’t know either,” she admitted.

When the second Breadbug wobbled towards the Anode Dweevil, it dropped a saddlebag. Barking once again and helping the first Breadbug carry the small Bulborb, the Anode Dweevil picked up the saddlebag and moved back into the darkness. Neither creature saw a fuming Rainbow Dash not believing what just happened.

“I think they’re exchanging things..?” Fluttershy said, thinking about what the creatures had done. “The second one traded that bag so its friend could take the dead creature back to its nest… that way the spiders won’t attack them for taking away its food....” The guards turned back to where the group of creatures stood, a bit amazed at the creatures, both of them ignoring the sound of Willow scribbling in her notebook. 

“I can’t believe it….” Rainbow whispered. “That dumb bug just took my stuff! First that big guy, and now this spider!” she yelled, fuming, “COME BACK HERE!” she yelled, shooting towards the path the Dweevils took.

“Rainbow Dash! Hold up!” Applejack yelled, seeing the mare continuing to fly away, ignoring her. “That pony is going to get us all killed!” she yelled, tossing her hat to the floor. 

Might nodded, regretting volunteering for this mission. “We should keep going, if we leave her to try to get her stuff alone, who knows what type of trouble she might get into.”  

“Yeah…” Grabbing her hat, she set it back on top of her head, narrowing her eyes at the road ahead of them. “Alright, come on everypony! Let’s move!” She galloped towards the path Rainbow took, the others following shortly after.





Twilight nervously paced around the newly built hut,inspecting every single detail, “Looks good…” she muttered, tapping the wooden building with her hoof. “It’s sturdy, unlike the first two huts.” Twilight turned toward the labcoat wearing unicorn, “Are you taking notes, Gizmo?” She asked the orange pony who was currently levitating a clipboard and several other items above himself, looking quite bored. 

The unicorn jumped at the sound of his name, dropping all of the levitated items onto the floor, then he quickly turned towards Twilight with a sheepish grin. “Uhhhh, could you repeat that?” 

Twilight groaned. “Gizmo, you were supposed to take notes about the hut’s condition!” she scolded, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re the researcher Princess Celestia had recommended for this trip.” 

“When I signed up for this trip, I thought I was going to be studying the wildlife… not some makeshift huts that the guards constructed,” Gizmo muttered looking at Twilight.

Twilight glared at the unicorn. “Well if it wasn’t for that large bug eyed monster, we probably would be!” 

“Which is why we should go and study it!” He looked outside towards the forest. “As well as to prevent another disaster like that from happening again.” 

She sighed, turning back towards the hut and levitating the checklist to herself. “I know what you mean Gizmo… but we have already lost five ponies to those creatures, and possibly three fillies. On what grounds would you possibly want to interact with them again!?”

Gizmo stopped on the task he was completing to spend time and stared at Twilight directly into her eyes. “The reason is because that bug eyed freak gobbled up my childhood friend in one chomp! I want to get payback and figure out how to kill them quickly the next time one comes barging in!”

The two ponies jumped when they heard a loud crash in the middle of the camp. The two ran towards the camp, seeing a large number of burnt treats fall from the sky. The large tent in the middle of the camp had a large hole in its roof, with dark smoke rising higher and higher. 

“Princess Luna!” Twilight yelled, running up towards her. “What happened here?! Are we under attack?!” she yelled frantically. 

The alicorn shook her head, “Nay Twilight, it was simply the Pink One,” she answered, pointing at the large tent. A large brown stallion wearing a chef’s hat was pushing Pinkie away from the tent, scowling. 

“Pinkie?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “What did she do?”

“She was trying to help prepare food for tonight’s dinner, but of course Lemon Souffle hates having to share a kitchen,” Luna answered. “Naturally, Pinkamina still tried to help.”

Twilight watched as the chef yelled at Pinkie, but the pink mare didn’t really seem bothered by it as she kept on smiling. Using her magic, she picked up one of the burnt muffins. “Well, what are we going to do with these?”

Luna glanced at the muffin and shrugged. “I suppose we can just throw them away.” 

Gizmo levitated the muffin towards himself and smiled. “Why don’t we use it as bait?” He suggested. 

“Bait?” Luna questioned. “Bait for what?” 

“For those monsters that attacked us yesterday!” Gizmo answered, almost jumping in excitement. “When we capture them, we can study them to find out what their weaknesses are, that way we won't have an incident like yesterday happen again!” 

Twilight frowned, turning towards the stallion. ”Gizmo, it’s way too risky capturing one of those things. If we bring one here into the camp, we could just end up repeating the same disaster that happened yesterday.”

“Not if we create a trap for it!” the unicorn suggested. 

" trap?” Luna questioned. “What do you have in mind, Gizmo?”





Willow trotted slowly, keeping her gaze onto her notebook, her quill scribbling onto the pages. Her mind kept replaying the events of the creature’s interactions with the insects. ‘Based on how the two creatures interacted, they must have some degree of intelligence… they were able to create deals with each other and exchange items…’ The mare frowned, nearly stomping her hoof in frustration. “I don’t get it…” she whispered, “Why didn’t those spiders just kill the other creatures? Why did they exchange items?” 

“Okay everypony, we need to stay alert. I think I hear something coming this way.” Applejack called out, seeing her companions paying more attention to their surroundings.

As soon as the sentence was finished, a Volatile Dweevil dropped from the ceiling in front of the farm pony. Once it noticed a target, the creature started glowing and increasing its body temperature to start the explosion. The other members noticed this and the guards started moving to fend off the creature when a blue bolt slammed into the creature causing the dweevil to fall backwards and blow up a safe distance away. Everypony looked back to see who fired the bolt and saw a blue unicorn stallion sporting a white mane with smoke trailing from the tip of his horn.

Applejack looked back towards the pony who saved her when a loud explosion rocked the whole room. With the guards more alert and prepared than before, they surrounded the group and continued forwards to an opening not too far. Once exiting the small room, they all stood still and were dead silent watching the chaos unfold in front of them. The style of the room reminded them of a little foal’s room; big blocks with numbers and letters were stacked, large wooden railroad tracks and bridges looped around everywhere, and the ground changed from rocks to a soft striped carpet. Even though this was all over the underground opening, the most shocking aspect was the multitude of Breadbug and Dweevil carcases littering the floor. Most had bite marks while others had burns and scorch marks littering the bodies. Upon closer inspection, they noticed a few remaining bugs wobble and crawl away and disappear into the darkness of the caves.

Once the shock passed, the group of ponies and one dragon paid closer attention to their surroundings in order to find a way out of this carnage. Willow was barely able to stop herself from bolting towards the wooden buildings, but she carefully trotted towards them, trying her best to ignore the bodies around her. “Just what happened here?” The guards looked around a bit nervously, wondering if it was something else that got to the creatures. 

“I don’t know,” Applejack answered, “But I’m pretty sure we’re better off not finding out.” She carefully avoided touching the creatures, following Willow to the wooden block house.

Spike looked around the area, noticing how everything looked like they belonged to a foal. “Hey, you don’t think giants live here? Do you?” he asked fearfully. 

Everyone immediately looked around the room, trying to spot any giant monsters. Might snorted and walked a bit faster. “I’m sure that there are no giants here, maybe this is an abandoned town.” 

“Then why does everything in this room look like it would belong to a foal?” Spike questioned.

“It’s just an abandoned town!” Might yelled, “End of discussion!” 

Once they were all inside, Willow immediately started making notes on the house and the area around them. “Icicle! Come here and take a look at that!” Willow called over to the blue stallion who saved Applejack. “They have a train here that’s made from the same material as this house! Maybe Spike was on to something when he suggested that this this place could be the home of a giant.” 

Icicle Chill looked over to the train and the train tracks. “I think you’re right Willow, it would explain why the place looks the way it does.”

Fluttershy shook with fear. “Does that mean we’re going to have to fight giants?” 

Applejack went to comfort her. “Now I’m sure we’re not going to be fighting any giants.” 

Might reached into his armor and pulled out a golden pocket watch. “It’s getting late, we should set up camp here.” The others nodded, putting their stuff to the side and trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep on. 

Spike looked around nervously, then walked outside the building and pulled out a blank sheet of paper and a quill.

“Dear Twilight,  


Well, we explored the forest today, covered a lot of ground, fought against the local wildlife, and saw some huge bugs and spiders. Willow, the green research pony from Canterlot University, wrote down a lot of notes regarding the animals here, she said she’d share some of the notes with you once we come back. Rainbow Dash got her stuff stolen by a huge bread like creature, then it got stolen by a tall red spider, it was kinda funny seeing how mad she was. The biggest discovery we made here was when we found this small toy town! There’s a toy train, houses made from blocks and everything! Willow and her assistant Icicle, you know, that researcher who came to Ponyville five days ago? The one who always blushed and stuttered when he talked to Applejack? Yeah, they think that this used to be the home to giants, Might doesn’t, but I think he’s just scared that there might still be some around. The guards are still expressionless as ever, I think Tiger Lily might be the only one who ever shows any emotion… Honestly I just want to go back to Ponyville, I don’t know how you girls handle all these monsters. I hope everything back at the camp is going well, hope to see you soon!


Sincerely,

Spike.”

Spike read the letter over twice before rolling it up and setting it on fire. Once he was sure the letter would reach her, he walked back inside and curled himself up next to the three ponies he was most familiar with.