Two people wind up in Equestria as The Ant-Man and The Wasp.
What started as a fun concept turned into a living nightmare for John and Lizzie. Sure, being turned into the duo themselves, Ant-Man and The Wasp seemed cool at first, but not when they have to fix their suits first and later, have to save this world of ponies from an unknown force.
Note: This is a silly little displaced fic by MrAquino and I. This won't be as serious or dramatic as other's, just two writers doing the thing we love and not really caring about other's reactions, so just don't expect a lot from this.
The city of Manehattan: A shining example of a more modern look in the city of Equestria. Past the skyscrapers and birds that flew over it, the city was alive, bursting with energy, always moving. All of its citizens, ponies of various shapes and sizes, moved with the flow, barely having time to stop, each with their own goal. Time was money, and only the richest can be slow… at least, in public eyes. Like all cities, under its shiny exterior, there was also a nasty side that kept itself hidden.
Inside one of the many warehouses, two gangs were inside, both looking ready to fight each if something went off. On one side, the gang looked like classic 50’s Greasers, with oily hair and leather jackets. On the other side, the opposing gang looked more urban, with red and white-colored clothes that were loose, with some bandana on a few of them. Both of their leaders trotted to each other, a serious look on their faces.
“So…” The greaser stallion spoke. “Got the cash?”
“Yeah. Got the goods?” The urban stallion replied. A wave came from the greaser stallion, with one of the members pulling a briefcase from the darkness.
“Show us the cash and we'll show the goods.”
“... Rico! Get the cash.” One of the urban stallions pulled out a plastic bag, filled with bits, connected in small paper cylinders. “1000 bits as promised.”
“Hmm… not exactly presentable.”
“We work with what we got. Show us the goods!”
“Alright. I'm a stallion of my words.” He opened the briefcase. Inside was what looked like military grade explosions. “You boys sure got a lot of guts wantin' to purchase these explosions. Mind if I ask why?”
“I could ask the same on how you got them.”
“... Fair enough. Now, let's-” A flash came from one of the shadows. Someone had taken a photo of the deal. Both sides jumped back, the greasers pulling out knives while the urban gang pulled out makeshift weapons. “You dirty cops! Who gave you the scoop!?”
“Us!? I should've known something was up! You fooled us, cop, but not again!”
However, as the two sides argued, on the rooftop, both enjoying a single popcorn, were two figures.
“Think we should stop them before things get dirty?” One of them, a male, asked.
“Yeah. I always love the confusion before we enter.” The other, a woman, replied. She got up and some small, insectoid wings popped out of her back. Her partner simply got on the back of a winged ant that was nearby, similar to a horse.
“You've got ten seconds to answer, or your body's gonna be on display at the museum tomorrow!” The greaser leader shouted.
“Well, you've got five seconds before my homies drop you in an alleyway!” The urban stallion shouted back. There was a weird sound, and both turned to see a bipedal figure standing to the side. It was masculine looking, wearing a red, technological one-piece suit of sorts that looked snug on his body. He wore a helmet that looked somewhat insectoid, but covered his entire face, also looking like a gas mask of sorts.
“Woah! Guys! Chill!” He spoke. “Can't we all just get along?”
“Oh crap! It's him!” One of the greasers spoke.
“If he's here, then that means-” Before the other could finish, one of the Urban gang members was thrown into one of the sides, crashing into one of the metal pillars. His partner was quickly picked by something small before being thrown out one of the windows. Landing on the other side was the supposed attacker, a bipedal feminine creature of sorts. She wore something similar to her partner, but it was yellow, and she had some twin devices on her wrists.
“You done chatting with your friends?” She asked.
“Well, you already took out two of them.” Her partner answered.
“Get them!” The leaders ordered in unison. Both gangs turned to the pair and charged, with the greasers at the man, and the Urbans towards the woman.
Under her mask, the woman smirked, aiming her wrist and simply firing at one of them point-blank in the face, where he twitched as a surge of electricity went through his body. She sprinted to the others, being quick on her toes, grabbing one of them, jumping over them, and throwing them across, slamming into his allies. One of them swung a chain at her, prompting her to disappear in front of his eyes… only, she didn't. To him, she was gone, but in actuality, she just shrunk in milliseconds, being the size of a wasp. Her wings came out, and she flew straight at his face, delivering a punch that knocked one of his teeth out, despite being so small now. With a blink, she grew back to normal size, where one of them ran to her with a baseball bat. Her quick wits had her grab the bat from his mouth, break the weapon with her knee, and used the base as a weapon, knocking out her attacker.
The man dodged the knife swings from his attacker, but delivered a hard right hook, knocking his first attacker out. Another approached from behind but screamed in pain as something was biting him. He looked down, seeing ants were biting him. His screaming alerted the figure to deliver a quick kick.
“Thanks, fellas!” He saluted to the ants, who quickly saluted back. His focus turned to a knife that was thrown to his face. Very similar to the woman, to the naked eye, he disappeared, but in actuality, he shrunk to the size of an Ant. While he may not have wings or wrist blasters like his partner, he had his own personal army of ants that would follow him to the ends of the world and back. He ran to his confused attacker, the ants charging along with him, but a single flying ant flew next to him. With a jump, he landed on the ant’s back and held on, approach the stallion’s face. Another jump, with some quick growth, he sucker-punched his attacker, the shock and sudden punch knocking him into next week. A literal wave of ants fell onto another greaser, who ran around in pain, screaming wildly before colliding with a metal pole.
Both gang leaders ran out of the warehouse, sweating profusely, looking for a way to get out.
“I can't go back to jail!” The urban leader yelled. “My niece just got her cutie mark!”
“You think I don't have a plan?” The greaser replied, pulling out a controller and pressing a button. As he said that, the vigilante duo kicked the door open… with the guy’s door smashing against his face. His partner facepalmed with a sigh.
“Really!?” She asked. The Urban leader ran away.
“You think you can catch me that easily!?” The greaser leader asked with a cocky attitude. “You just beat my grunts! Behold! My REAL challenge!” The floor shook as something approached. Appearing around the corner was a fairly large, green dragon that, while not huge, was about the size of a bus. It let out a loud roar, shattering some of the windows around. “Now you're both screwed! None can defeat-” He stopped as the man quickly grew into the size of a building. The dragon's terrifying look quickly turned into fear, as the now giant man plucked him by its tail.
“D’aww! Ain't you the sweetest wittle dwagon?” He teased. The dragon let out some nervous squeals, squirming wildly to be free. His partner opened her helmet, revealing her face, crossed her arms, and tapped her foot impatiently.
“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” She spoke. “You stay here and make sure my partner doesn't do anything stupid, and I find your partner, got it?”
“G-got it.” He answered, nervously looking at her partner as he took a seat on the Warehouse rooftop, who petted the frightened out its mind dragon. She put her helmet back on and flew into the city, shrinking in the process.
“Who's a cute widdle dragon?” The giant asked. “Yes you is! Yes you is!”
~-~-~
It wasn't always like that. No, what was supposed to be a fun day at Comic-Con turned into a life-changing experience. Our names are John and Liz, but nowadays, we are now The Ant-Man and The Wasp. And it wasn't always fun as you saw. On the contrary, it was terrifying when we arrived to Equestria.
Crowds were made as the two of us walked through the market area at comic con. Both of us agreed to go as Ant-Man and The Wasp, having the suits ready but lacked the helmets. It wasn't a deal-breaker, with our costumes being nearly movie-accurate and people knew what we were going as. Many people took pictures of us, with some even having us pose with an ant plushie they conveniently had on them. But it changed when we stumbled upon one stand that sold various masks and helmets. The stand owner was dressed up like Yellow Jacket, nearly movie-accurate to add, similar to us. He whistled at us, impressed by our costumes.
“Very nice of you two,” He said, pointing at Liz. “Got the wrist blasters and wings.”
“Heh, thanks,” Liz replied with a slight blush. “You certainly went all out yourself. Do those wings shoot lasers?”
“If they did, I wouldn't be here.” He jokingly replied. John picked up a nearby Ant-Man helmet.
“Wow! Look at this!” He spoke, almost as excited as any kid on Christmas. “Holy crap! Did you seriously make this!?”
“With my own hands and scrap I found. I also got a Wasp helmet.” He leaned down and picked up a helmet that, similar to the Ant-Man helmet, was also nearly movie accurate.
Liz nearly snatched the helmet from his hands. “No way! These are just what we needed.” She said, even trying it on and seeing it didn’t show any sign of discomfort or strain. “Are you sure you didn’t steal this from the studio?” She asked sarcastically.
“Please, you're giving my position out.” The merchant replied, horribly acting like he's guilty. “Tell you what, I normally charge about a hundred per helmet, but for you both, it'll be fifty altogether.”
“Fifty bucks!?” John asked in shock, quickly pulling out his wallet. He pulled out two fifty dollars bills. “Keep the change, man.”
“Heh. Aren't we excited?”
“Are you sure? What if we see something else we want?” Liz asked.
“Pfft! Relax. I'm sure this is all we're gonna get.” John replied. “And if you get hungry, I got my credit card ready.” He put the helmet on, it being a perfect fit over his head. However, upon putting it on, both felt a strange, woozy feeling.
“Hey, what are you both doing?” The stall owner asked.
“I don't feel so good,” Liz spoke. The two felt like the world was growing, or them shrinking, and their vision faded to black.
~-~-~
His vision was blurry, but John regained consciousness. He found himself in what looked like a strange forest of sorts, as dirt took over the floor and some strangely shaped trees were all over the place. His head felt pretty light, but he shook it off. All he did was take his helmet off… or, at least, tried. The helmet was stuck on his head.
“Come on, stupid thing!” He grunted. The sound of some kids laughing got his attention. “Oh! Kids! Hey! Care to help a guy out!” He ran ahead, feeling pretty faster than he did before. “Woah! Gym must be finally paying-” He was distracted, looking up to see a gargantuan hoof falling down. “Oh crap!”
He turned to run away but was kicked in the air by it. All he thought was that he was going to die, but landed on something soft. His eyes opened, seeing that he was on a strange, soft cushion of sorts that was divided between light purple and pink. In front of him looked like a white cone of sorts, only, the end of the cone wasn't sharp. Whatever it was, it was moving, having him hang on. The sound of a girl laughing boomed in his ears.
“What the hell’s going on!?” He yelled, grabbing onto the cone and looking out. His jaw dropped under his helmet. Everything was either gigantic, or he was now small. And the laughing came from what looked like ponies; A yellow coated pony with a red mane with a pink bow, and an orange Pegasus (indicated by its wings) with a purple mane. Looking down, he was near the horn of a unicorn. “... What the f-!?”
“Who's there!?” The unicorn he was on asked in a squeaky voice, looking around. Its movements made him lose footing, making him fall and grab onto her horn.
“What's wrong, Sweetie Belle?” The regular pony asked in a western sounding accent.
“Yeah. You look like you just saw a ghost.” The pegasus added with a raspy sounding voice.
“I thought I heard someone just now...“ The unicorn spoke.
‘Not what I had in mind, but here goes.’ John asked. He slid down onto her muzzle and turned to the building-sized green eyes. Its eyes focused on him. “Uhh… hi. I'm lost here and would gladly like some-” He was interrupted as the unicorn let out an ear-piercing scream.
“BUGBUGBUG!!!” She repeated, shaking her head so hard, John was launched away. He screamed as he was launched to the floor. The crash was painful, but he alive, albeit, bruised. With a shake, he got up and yelled.
“I ain't a bug, horse!” He paused and realized something. “Hold on… am I… Ant-Man?” He looked at his suit and looked at the built-in screen on his right arm. The screen turned on. It showed an image of what was a male model, now small. He was relieved at one thing. “Ok. I'm small now. The world is not filled with giant, talking ponies, or creatures, that may eat me. But what about-?” He pressed the built-in button on his right hand, remembering this how Scott Lang in the movie grew back to normal. Nothing happened. “Hey! Work!” He pressed the button again. Nothing. He pressed the button multiple times. “What's wrong with this-!?” A beeping came from his wrist. Looking at it, it simply read ‘Broken regulator. Need Energy.’ “Broken!? Aw, man! Where am I gonna get some energy!?” He paced around a bit, before suddenly remembering something. “Oh crap! Liz!”
~-~-~
After her own initial shock, Liz hid in an alleyway in the small village… small to a village of giant talking horses, of course. She was nearly stepped on a couple of times, but her quick thinking and suddenly faster movements saved her from becoming a bloody stain.
She was catching her breath through the helmet, fog showing a little through the glass. Once she saw that she was safe for now, she resumed in trying to take the helmet off, not knowing if this is supposed to happen, or if it was stuck against a part of her cosplay. “Stupid helmet! No wonder it was cheap, that darn merchant.” She said in frustration.
“Is that I think it is!?” An unfamiliar woman's voice shouted in glee. Liz turned around to see a mint green unicorn looking down at her with a wide grin. The sight startled Liz, turning to run away, but was captured as a jar fell over her. Her captor picked up the jar and placed a lid on it. “I knew humans existed! They said I was insane, but I have you now! And your hands will be mine!”
‘Please let this be a nightmare of some kind.’ She thought, questions flying all over the place in her mind as she questioned why giant talking ponies were everywhere, and how this one mare saw she was a human and not some bug like the others that almost stepped on her. ‘And how do I get this dumb helmet off!?’ She thought, once again trying to take it off. Her captor’s horn glowed, picking the jar with an aura as she trotted away.
“Bon-Bon! Check what I found out!”
Since it didn’t happen for the umpteenth time, she decided that she shouldn’t try and take it off in case she might break it, John did pay fifty bucks for both of them after all. Instead, she tried to see if she could find a way out of the jar, looking up at the lid to see if there was any way she could easily slip out. She looked at her wrist guns.
‘This is not gonna work, but I might as well try.’ She pointed her wrists at the side and flicked them in a shooting position. Much to her surprise, laser came out of her wrists, making a sloppy hole, but an escape nonetheless. ‘Wait a minute! Then does that mean-!?’ She looked at her back, then outside. It was now or never. She ran out of the hole and jumped out. Her imagination took over on what was going to happen next, and it wasn't pretty.
Liz didn't feel pain. She opened her eyes to see she was a few inches from the floor, hovering. A fluttering sound was heard. Looking behind, her suit had sprouted wings, which buzzed like a bug’s.
“I-I’m the wasp?” She asked aloud. “Oh my god! I'm the Wasp!!!” Liz tried to aim to fly around. In her mind, she was going to be flying gracefully, past all the giants' faces, and grow back to normal size, showing herself to the world. But in actuality, she flew across the floor with her face dragged on it, also hitting against walls, and couldn't grow back to size.
‘Geeze, the movies made it seem like it was easy.’ She thought, it being alone a reason why movies weren’t real life. But soon enough, she was good enough to at least stop herself from hitting a wall all the time… just most times. “G-gotta find John, and avoid that weird pony.” She said out loud, making a mental to-do list while she continued to try and fly.
John made his way into what looked like a village of some sort. Different colored horses trotted around, looking much older and bigger than the trio he met. He hid inside a can as he saw the same trio of fillies running, the unicorn still screaming her head off.
Meanwhile, Liz was currently hiding from a unicorn mare, somehow following her even though she was crying that she ‘lost her hands’ while a cream coated mare with a blue and pink mane and tail comforted her. She could only assume that was the ‘Bon-Bon’ she was calling out to.
The two backed up into each other in the same alleyway, both jumping, with Liz aiming her blasters at him and John grabbing a toothpick as a sword. But they were relieved to see it was each other.
“Oh god! Liz!? You're alright!” John exclaimed.
“John! You son of a bitch!” Liz replied, the two quickly giving each other a hug.
“Man, I had a bad encounter with some unicorn.”
“Oh? Was it a mint unicorn that was crazy after finding a human?” Liz guessed.
“Uh… no… I think it was a filly. She screamed and threw me like a bug.”
“Guess that's bad. But at least you weren't captured by a unicorn who wanted your hands.”
“... What kind of world have we landed in?”
“I don't know. Looks like some little girl's dream world.” She commented, placing a hand over her forehead.
“Yeah. Talking ponies that are cute.” Liz turned to him. He looked back. “What? I'm not lying.”
“... Anyways… is your suit working?”
“Other than the ability to grow, yeah, It works. You?”
“I can fly and shoot lasers. But I also can't grow.”
“Let me guess. Low energy?”
“Eeyup.”
“Crap. And by the looks of this, these ponies live in a medieval-like village. How the heck are we going to get that type of power!?” As Liz spoke, two ponies were rushing by them.
“Come on, Sandbar!” A little pink pegasus filly with a curly mane spoke. “Twilight's about to teach us energy extraction!”
“I don't see how that ties in with friendship.” The turquoise colt spoke with a bit of a laid-back surfer vibe.
“... That was easy.” John spoke. He sprinted to the colt and jumped into his tail. Liz followed, but flew and landed in the colt’s mane.
~-~-~
After a few minutes of hiding, the pair of humans looked out, seeing that their ride ended up in a classroom of sorts. It looked similar to a university classroom, but all around were ponies, and surprisingly, a griffin, a yak, a dragon, a bird-horse thing, and a bug-horse. The sheer size of the room alone overwhelmed the two, but the fact they were surrounded by giants made it even more terrifying. The class door room opened, and entered was a lavender, unicorn-pegasus mixed pony.
“Good afternoon, class.” She introduced herself.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Twilight Sparkle.” The class replied in unison. John and Liz stood next to each other, right next to the flank of the colt they rode in on.
“Twilight Sparkle?” John asked. “Guh! Hope there's not a vampire around she's interested.”
“Shush!” Liz replied, taking a seat.
“As you know,” Twilight continued, her horn picking up some chalk and writing it down on a chalkboard. “We're learning about energy through electricity!” She drew as she began to speak. “As many of you know, electricity is made from Cloudsdale from the weather factory, who put in excess lightning into their clouds to the world below. While this is considered traditional, the Crystal Empire was the first to discover that, while it takes longer to make, certain crystals can generate electrical currents and last a REALLY long time. But thanks to some advances in both technology and magic, we've been and to capture the insects known as Twittermites and use their electricity to power. Of course, the act of doing so can only be handled by professionals, with the Twittermite farms being in certain locations around-” The door slammed open as the trio of fillies came running in.
“Princess Twilight!” All three shouted in unison. “There's something important!”
“Uh… take a five-minute breather, class.” Twilight followed the fillies.
“So… this world has the technology, but nothing modern?” John asked.
“Or this area is more traditional,” Liz replied.
“Well, at least we know what we got to do.”
“Yeah. And I doubt these ponies are going to help us.” She glanced over to where the three fillies and pegacorn went.
“Look, we gotta do this if we are going to be big again. I don't want to wind up being a stain under some horse's hoof, or be captured and experimented on.”
“Yeah… what will we do when we're big and caught?”
“Let's just focus on what's happening now instead of the future.” She sprouted her wings and flew up… well, at least tried.
“Hey! What about me!?”
“You're Ant-Man! Find a flying ant.”
“Where!?” Liz pointed at the bug horse thing. “... Oh hell no! I don't think that thing is even part ant! And look at it! Think I can control giant ants!?”
“Hank Pym did in the movie.” She crossed her arms, only to spin forward. John looked at the giant insect, then back.
“If this fails, you're giving me a ride.”
~-~-~
Stepping outside of the class, Twilight's calm demeanor turned sour.
“Girls, it's rude to interrupt my lectures.” She spoke, ears folding back with her negative emotion.
“We know, and we apologize,” Applebloom stated. “But we found somethin’ that's weird.” Twilight sighed, lowering her head a little.
“What is it?”
“We were all playing outside,” Scootaloo began. “Everything seemed normal, but Sweetie Belle swore she heard someone and-”
“A bug was on my face!” Sweetie Belle interrupted, even rubbing her muzzle thinking that something else was crawling on it.
“So… a talking bug was on your face?” Twilight asked. “Girls, I think you stumbled upon a lost Breezie. Just point me where it went and-”
“Oh no, Twilight, this wasn't a Breezie,” Applebloom spoke. “This thing didn't have any wings at all!”
“Yeah! And it had the head of an ant!” Scootaloo added.
“And it stood on its hind legs!” Sweetie Belle concluded. Twilight gave a confused look.
“Can you draw me what it looked liked?” She asked. “Maybe it's just-”
The sound of something banging on the walls was heard from inside her class. Twilight and the fillies entered back into the class, seeing their insect student flying around with no real sense of direction.
“Ocellus!? What are you doing!?” Twilight demanded.
“Coming, Master…” Ocellus spoke in a monotone voice as her eyes were spinning as if she was hypnotized.
~-~-~
John was caught off guard at how easy it was to control the giant insect. Controlling it, however, was out of the question.
“No! No! To the left! The left!” He ordered, which had it crash against the desk. “No! My left! My left!” It crashed through the window. Twilight fired a beam from her horn, which froze the giant insect in place.
“Okay, this is a bust!” Liz shouted, flying out of the broken window. John stopped controlling the insect and ran away. Much to his surprise, he was able to jump WAY higher than he thought he could do… but collided with Liz in the air, making both of them fall to the floor.
“Could you make things worse?” Liz asked, feeling rather sore to take flight once more.
“There you are!” The all too familiar voice of the unicorn spoke. Liz and John turned to see the woman's captor. “Ooh! You brought a friend! And this time, I'm keeping my eyes on you!”
“RUN!!!” The two humans got up and sprinted. Their unicorn hot on their tails.
~-~-~
Ocellus shook her head, regaining control. “Ugh… my head.” She moaned. Her eyes widened as she looked around the damaged room. “What happened!? Did I do this?”
“Ocellus! What happened!?” Twilight asked, her voice almost toned like a stern mother finding their child do something bad.
“I… I don't know. I was just talking to Yona about how Twittermites are like jellyfish, and next thing I know, someone called for me.”
“Called for you?”
“It was like I was being told what to do… but in my mind. I blanked out and that's all I remember. I swear!”
Twilight gave a skeptical look. “I'll need to see you after class.” She simply stated.
Ocellus’s pupils shrunk as her ears folded. “Am I in trouble?”
“Oh no! Not at all. I just need to ask you more in-depth questions.”
“Oh… okay…” Ocellus’s head hung low as she flew to her next class, still feeling that she was in a lot of trouble. 'But, what happened back there?'
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!” Liz screamed as she and John ran away from the crazy unicorn. Their chaser had an insane smile as she chased after them. On one hand, the idea that they were being chased by a unicorn of all creatures was hilarious to John. But on the other, being chased by said unicorn wasn't funny at all.
“What does she want with us!?” John asked, breathing heavily under his helmet.
“I don't know! And I don't want to find out!”
“Come back, humans!” Their chaser yelled. John looked to his left and saw a hole in a pile of dirt.
“This way!” He shouted, grabbing Liz and turning to the hole. His sudden change threw their chaser off, making her slide and trip on the floor. She watched as they entered a dangerous place, at least, one for their size.
“No! Don't go in there!” She pleaded. The two ignored her and dived into the hole. She ran to the small hole and stopped. If she were to smash the mound, everything would go even worse. “NOOO!!!”
~-~-~
Both John and Liz slid down the cave’s entrance, landing in an open area below. Well… Liz landed on the floor, and John landed on her.
“Ahh!!! Something's touching my butt!” He shouted.
“Yeah, your butt’s on my head!” Liz pushed him off before getting up and dusting herself off. “At least we're away from that unicorn for now. Nice thinking.”
“Heh, thanks.” John got up and dusted himself off. They looked around, and despite it being dark, they could see tunnels around, each bringing in some light. “Well, I think we found where Snow White’s Dwarves live in.”
“Really? Jokes at this time?”
“It's my defense mechanism when I'm under stress, ok?”
She rolled her eyes before catching something below her feet. It looked like an egg… a large, white, squishy egg. “... Hold on… Is this what I think it is?” Liz leaned down and poked the egg. The egg squirmed upon her touch, making the two back up. Soon, the top opened, and out came a baby ant. It was about the size of a cat to the two, pale-colored except for its black eyes. It gave a little chirp, seeing the two.
“Huh… that's creepy… and kinda cute.”
“Do you think everything is cute?” More chirps were heard. Looking around, John and Liz saw that, right along the darkened walls, was small hills of hundreds, if not, thousands of eggs, many of which were hatching, releasing baby ants.
“Not anymore!” Liz's eyes widened as she had an epiphany.
“We're in an ant colony, and we landed in the nursing chambers.” John's eyes widened as well.
“And that means…” Crawling into the chamber were full-grown, adult ants, with hardened black shells all over their body, and sharp pincers over their mouths. To the two humans, they were about the size of lions, and with so many of them, they would easily be torn to pieces. The floor shook as entering through the largest tunnel was the queen ant, is not only massive, but its abdomen was seemingly waiving on its own, like a giant worm.
“... Hold on! You're Ant-Man! Do something!”
“... I'm gonna do that… after I puke.” John pressed a button under his helmet, opening the mask area, exposing his face. His face was green, and he leaned over, dry heaving, before puking. The sight almost made Liz puke herself, but she kept it in. The baby ant that hatched near them inspected John's puke.
“Oh please don't...” The baby ant ate John's puke. It made a happy chirp, wanting more of John's ‘meal’. John complied… unwillingly, of course, as the sight made him puke again. Various baby ants began to taste the puddle, and the adult ants, along with the queen, backed up, a unique way of saying they're fine to stay.
“... Well, I guess that’s one way to get the ant’s trust.” She said, not having anything else to say as used her hand to block the area where John was puking, having done that after the first baby ate his vomit, not wanting to see the rest, but hearing him lose his lunch a second time, and then seeing the adult ants back away.
~-~-~
The sun began to set in Equestria, but in Twilight's school, Ocellus sat nervously in front of Headmare Twilight's desk. Her teacher had three drawings of the weird ‘bug' they saw but were pushed aside as Twilight had homework she needed to grade.
“I'm going to perform a memory spell, Ocellus.” Twilight informed. “If what you say is true, then I will get down to this immediately.”
“A-and if it's not?” Ocellus asked.
“We’ll talk about it, but for now, if you please, this spell works steadily if you're still.” Ocellus complied, sitting as still as a pole. Twilight fired a spell at her head. While Ocellus was not harmed, the flashback played exactly how it went. Twilight was giving her lecture, the Cutie Mark Crusaders interrupted, prompting Twilight to leave. However, the next part made Twilight jump in fear. Ocellus turned to chat with Yona, both wanting to ask the questions on the electricity gathering tactics work, but the Changeling turned after hearing a voice. Twilight paused as Ocellus turned to see who ‘whispered’ to her, and right before the vision turned black, she saw it. Standing right between a sitting Cozy Glow and Sandbar, was a bug… a bug that stood on its hind legs, had the head on an ant and didn't have wings.
“Is something wrong?” Ocellus asked, not being able to see.
“I'll… find out. You should go back to your dome.” Ocellus nodded and flew right out. Twilight, meanwhile, picked up the drawings the Cutie Mark Crusaders drew. She didn't want to criticize their drawing, but it all fitted! “Hold on… that's a human! A small human in an Ant-like suit! What was he doing, endangering MY students in MY class!?” She carefully observed the small human, writing down some notes and drawing a bit of this… Ant-Man, as she called him.
“Now who do I go for help on this?” She thought aloud. Then it hit her, and she didn't want to do it. “Oh… Lyra… why her?” (Un)Lucky for her, tomorrow was a weekend, and while the students will enjoy their free time, Twilight can chat with Lyra if she saw any humans.
~-~-~
Liz stood outside one of the many entrances to the ant colony, seeing the night sky and the village’s lights going out. She was trying to find any constellations she could recognize, hoping that perhaps this was just another part of the earth that no one has ever seen before. But much to her disappointment, nothing came up. Her wings hung limp, the tips touching the ground as she prayed that finding the power to get back to normal would also help in finding their way home.
But then her mind drifted off to other things. Since she wasn’t really caught up into the Marvel franchise, she just had to wonder. ‘If John can control ants, can I control wasps? That would be super cool if I could.’ She thought with a small smile, just thinking about no longer fearing them and instead, being a part of the hive.
John waddled right out, next to her, before falling onto his stomach with a weak wheeze. “How… can… they… do this?” He asked, with Liz unsure if it was just for himself or her. “So… hungry… need… food.”
“I’m not sure what ants eat exactly, but I guess we could go and find something… or perhaps make one of the ants get you something.” She suggested, noticing that she was feeling famished herself, but probably not as much as John.
“And where... should we get... something to eat? I think... that unicorn... is still after us.” A lone ant approached John, making a noise. “Oh come on! I got nothing in me! I'm starving!” The ant made a confused noise. It began to scoot John, pushing him out of the colony, turning to Liz, making a concerned noise. Unsure, Liz picked up John and laid him across the Ant’s back, which began to walk ahead, followed by a line of ants. Liz followed the ant train, which was leading into the village. All the lights were off, but under the moon’s light, they headed to what looked like a giant gingerbread house.
“Obviously not real,” Liz commented, knowing that if a house made out of sweets was real, it would be more gross than amazing. “But I guess this solves your hunger problem.” She added, using her wings to lazily follow him, it being easier since she was calm and not flying away from danger. Her flying did get a bit better, but she still needed some work.
She landed not so gracefully by the window and looked inside. Various baked goods were on display, and the place looked pretty tight in security… against ants, of course. Looking behind, she saw the trail of ants climbing, with John held very carefully in the mandibles of the train leader.
“Only way to do this.” As soon as the train leader ant came right up, she blasted a fairly large, yet small, uneven hole. Despite being insects, the ants made a surprised look, some opening their mandibles to look as if their jaws dropped. She gestured the opening. “Please, after you.” A confirmed click was heard as the ants entered the bakery. The aroma of sweet good assaulted Liz’s nose, making her drool a bit, but she kept her composure.
She flew right in, flying to and landing near a chocolate cake. She pressed the same location where John opened his helmet, and sure enough, her face mask opened up. All she did was grab a chunk of cake and took a bite out of it. If she didn't have diabetes then, she certainly was going to now. Her hunger took over and she began to devour the cake, as much as she could. Some annoyed clicks were heard. Turning, Liz saw the ants behind her, with John in their mandibles.
“Oh. Sorry.” She stepped aside, the ants dropping John gently as they took a chunk of the cake out and walked back. Liz hovered over to John before she decided to try and find another sweet treat for John to enjoy. “Here, let’s find something else to snack on.” She suggested, noticing a rotating shelf with an array of baked goods first. She decided to head there, picking John up and trying to fly over there, but soon realized it was harder to carry a person and fly at the same time. Her balance went off, and they both landed on a cupcake. Lizz could hear John groaning, followed by chewing.
“Am I in heaven?” He asked.
“Don’t ask and just enjoy the moment.” Liz only said, her face not directly in the cupcake, so she didn’t have to eat her way out just to talk. It took some time for her to get up, the icing feeling more like getting out of a sugary wet sand pile, but once she was able to, she took a piece of it and casually ate some. “Maybe we should stay here. There’s plenty of food, and a large building to keep us safe from any outside danger.”
“... You know we're still being hunted, right?” John replied. “Even if she thinks we're dead, I doubt we can hide forever until she figures out we're alive.”
“It’s fine. We could just keep a close eye on a green unicorn and a tan pony with pink and blue hair. The second one just in case since I feel that the two go hand in hand.” Liz said, knowing that they would have to do that no matter where they stayed.
Unfortunately for them, the lights were turned on. Standing in the hallway was a pink pony with a slightly darker, poofy mane. She had a disturbed look on her face, mostly from seeing the ants.
“NOO!!! THE GOODIES ARE RUINED!!!” She screamed, running away before returning with some spray cans. “Face my righteous might for thy cupcakes!!!” She began to spray, the ants hit by the spray immediately died. Panic broke through the other ants, letting out some frightened squeals. John saw the carnage.
“Now you think we should stay?” He asked.
“Alright, you made a good point, let’s see if I ca-” She stopped as she tried to use her wings, feeling a tug, but they wouldn’t open. Eyes widening in surprise, she turned back to see that the cupcake icing was sticky and clumpy enough to stick her wings together, and unable to open up and let her fly off. She was a good enough target like the other ants. “Oh, crap.”
“Hang on! I got us.” John tried to get up but was stuck himself. “Uh… hold on! I got us!” He closed his eyes and focused. “Ants… save us…”
Some of the panicked ants stopped and turned to where the two was at. Making some clicks, they confirmed that some should lead the others back to the colony while the rest save their new allies. Their bravery will be told through the colony’s history. A respectful salute was followed as the brave ants ventured around the counter, going past the pink pony’s blind spot, and rescue their allies.
The pink pony watched as the last of the ants went out through the small hole through the window. Curious, she looked at the small hole.
“Huh? How can ants do this!?” She asked herself. “Wait… a hole? Ants can't break through glass… unless...“ She looked back. Her eyes widened as she saw a small group of ants rescuing two weird, small bipedal creatures. “AAAHHHHHH!!! MONSTERS!!!”
“Get us out of here!” John yelled, riding on one of the ants, which let out a courageous bellow.
Even while Liz was climbing onto the other one that approached the two, she continued to try and unfurl her wings, trying as hard as she could, but not wanting to overdo it since bug wings are rather fragile, and she didn’t know if it applied to her suit as well. Their ants charged ahead, and to their surprise, these were the flying type. The ants' wings came out of the side and flapped rapidly with the noticeable buzz noises. Out of fear, John grabbed the ant’s antennas, causing it to steer out of control.
“WHOAH!!! Go straight! Go straight!” John screamed, jerking the ant’s antennas around.
“Don’t yank on the antennas!” Liz tried to tell him, the girl wrapping her arms around the ant's neck instead and even her legs latching around the ant so she wouldn’t slip and fall.
“Eek! Flying ants!!!” The Pink pony screamed. “Duck and cover!!!” Said pony jumped behind a counter before popping out with both a military helmet and a blue cannon of sorts. She fired the cannon, which shot out cupcakes. John pushed the ant’s antennas down, making the ant fly straight down. In fear, he pulled the antennas back, making it fly back.
“Hey! I think I'm getting the hang of this!” John cheered. “Sorry… uh… I'll call you Ant-ony Hopkins.”
“Really?” Liz groaned. “You're going to start using ant related puns?”
“And who bit you on the abdomen this morning?”
Liz only glared at him as she figured that they didn’t need this when they were relying on ants to save their lives. The pink pony fired away but watched as the ants flew right out of their small hole. She walked to the hole and placed a cork into it. All she could do was turn back and see the battlefield.
“All the goodies… ruined! Ruined! RUINED!!!”
“Pinkie! We're trying to sleep!” A stallion and mare shouted from above.
“Oh! Sorry, Mr. And Mrs. Cake!” She grabbed a broom and started to sweep the mess, humming to herself.
Twilight dreaded as she walked to the home of Lyra and Bon-Bon. Sure, Twilight and Lyra were old classmates, but even then, she was weird. If she had joined Twilight in her adventure to the other world, who knows what kind of chaos Lyra would've made. But asking what-if scenarios wasn't on Twilight's list, but it was if Lyra had found this ‘Ant-Man’. … And the name sounded pretty stupid in her head the more she thought of it.
“Here goes nothing.” Twilight groaned, knocking on the door to Lyra’s house. The door opened by her knock, and the sound of sad violin music can be heard inside. “Uh… hello? Lyra? You in here?” Only the sound of crying was followed by the sad violin music. Twilight walked right in, following the music. “Hello? Anypony here?”
The Alicorn stopped at a door to a room. She opened it to see the room was surrounded by lit candles, and in the center was Lyra, weeping away. Twilight wasn't sure how to approach her. Her horn glowed as she opened a curtain. Lyra hissed loudly.
“Natural light!”
“Uh… what's wrong, Lyra? Why are you so sad?” Twilight asked. Lyra closed the blinds and covered herself with a blanket.
“Wouldn't you like to know?”
“That's… why I'm here, actually.”
“... You promise not to laugh?”
“Of course I won't laugh, Lyra. I Pinkie promise.” She did the motions. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Lyra remained silent but sighed.
“I found a pair of humans yesterday.”
“A pair!?” Lyra gave a sour look. “Oh, sorry!”
“Anyways… I found a pair of humans yesterday. First a woman, and her partner, a man. They-”
“Wait a minute!” Twilight took her notes out. “Did this man wear something that looked like an ant’s?”
“Um… yes.”
“Was he wearing red?”
“Yes.”
“And was he controlling the minds of students!?” Lyra turned to her.
“No. Twilight, what are you talking about!?”
“Uh… I… just had... a weird dream. That's it. Just a dream.” Lyra frowned.
“And I thought you saw a human.”
“Nonono! I did… in my dreams. And what about the other one?”
“...Well, it was a female, wore yellow, and had the head of something similar to the man, just not as… well, large. And I'm not sure, but I think she had wings” Twilight sketched the other person and wrote above ‘Wasp-Woman?’
“What happened to them?”
“They… they died!” She fell into tears.
“Died!?”
“I tried to warn them before I could take them home safely! They ran into an anthill! They're Ant-Food now! I failed as a guardian!” Lyra fell to the floor and wept hard. Twilight thought hard during this.
‘If this Ant-Man could control Ocellus easily, then he could control ants, if not, easier’. “Lyra, it's ok. It's not your fault.” Lyra sniffled.
“It's not?”
“They didn't listen to you. You warned them, but they didn't listen. It's on them, not you. How about we go to Sugarcube Corner and get some of Pinkie's cupcakes?” Lyra smiled a bit.
“That sounds good.”
“Let's just blow out all these candles first. Can't afford a house fire, can we?”
“Yeah… I guess so.”
~-~-~
Liz did some stretching in her suit as John lead a trail of baby ants behind him. The day may have started, but they knew they had to be ready for anything. Well… mostly. All Liz did was give John an angered look as he did the Thriller dance with the baby ants trying to copy his movements.
“Are you seriously trying to make the ants dance?”
“Yeah.” John simply answered.
“We have to find a way to get back to our normal size, and if you’re fine staying like this and messing with these ants, then fine. I guess I’ll fix my suit on my own.” She said, it being clear that she hated being this small, and how much John acted as if nothing was wrong.
“Hey, I'm busy too, y’know. My new buddies actually told me about how they can help us thanks to their friends.”
“Wait, you're talking to the ants?”
“Eh, kinda. It's more like I get the gist of what they're saying.”
“... Right… and what kind of ants has friends?”
“It took me a while, but I think these are Argentine Ants.”
“Argen what ants?”
“Argentine Ants. I remember from Animal Planet's The Most Extreme that Argentine Ants are the only species that will work with its own species instead of battling it. Some of these fellows came from other colonies around the world and filled me in on the land.”
“And you didn't tell me!?”
“Hey, I was dumped a lot of exposition last night. But I still need some help.” He turned to the antlings. “Alright, break time. Be sure to teach the others what I taught you.” The little ants gave affirmative clicks before walking away. John turned to one of the drones. “Say, can you help draw what I'm saying? I got some cake if you're interested.” The ant saluted and, with some other ants, crawled onto the wall and took the shape of everything he spoke.
“Yeah, see, we're in some land called Equestria, co-ruled by the princess sisters, Celestia and Luna, but also some Disney wannabe Cadence with her husband, Shining Armor, who's, coincidentally, the brother to Celestia's personal protege, Twilight Sparkle. And from what they told me, we're in Ponyville, where Twilight lives, with her new School of Friendship. Plus, from what they tell us, we can find schematics to an electricity making device in Cloudsdale, take a piece of a powerful crystal from the Crystal Empire, and get the necessary pieces and regulators in Manehatten. We get all of this and make the device we need to charge our suits, soon we'll be normal size again. Sounds like a plan, eh?”
Liz wasn’t sure how to even respond to that, many questions flying through her head, but none of them being enough to put into words. She had her mouth open for a sec, almost as if she was about to say something, but soon shut it.
“I know, it's a lot to take in. But what are we gonna do? Ask Twilight for help at our size?”
“Well, I don’t know… no one really knows about us, so maybe she would help us. I mean, she does work at a friendship school.” Liz lightly shrugged.
“Call me crazy, but I think that giant bug was one of her students, and I don't think she's going to be thrilled.” An ant walked to him and clicked. “Wait, that thing's called a changeling?” More clicks. “It's a female named Ocellus?” A few more clicks. “And she can transform into anything!? How many of them are there? And how was I able to control her?” A series of clicks. “Huh… so I guess they're like you, but a lot more open… not sure a king will help a hive survive, but, I'm sure they'll find a way.”
“... You're so weird, you know that?”
“Hey, these ants are our allies. We have a mutual goal; survive and thrive. But if you this fails, we're going with my plan.”
She lightly rolled her eyes with that deal. “Fine. But I think it should go without question that you should explain yourself since that was all you.” She said, feeling that she had no part in that… event.
“Fair enough. Now, where is-” The same ant interrupted. “She's heading to Sugarcube Corner? … it's that bakery, right?” An affirmative click. “Sweet! Seems like we're going to meet her majesty… if only I had my tuxedo.”
~-~-~
Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings entered Sugarcube corner, only to see Pinkie spraying the corners with a weird-smelling concoction. All around the bakery were various cleaning products, meaning Pinkie woke up early and cleaned everything to a tee. Pinkie noticed the two before rushing to them.
“Sorry for the smell! Cleaning was in session.” Pinkie announced. “Just making more cupcakes right now.”
“Oh? What happened last night?” Twilight asked.
“Ants, Twilight! They ruined the baked goods! I must've been slacking off with my cleaning, and the goodies turned into baddies.” She dramatically fell as all the lights went out, except for the one she was under. “I must atone to my failure! Cleaning and sealing everything must be done! And I must find those two monsters that aided the ants!”
“Wait, monsters?” Twilight's horn glowed as she made the lights turn back on.
“Of course! Both were really small creatures that looked like wingless breezies, with one red and the other yellow.” Lyra’s eyes widened.
“Wait! My humans are alive!?” Lyra asked, her tail wagging similar to a dog's. “What happened!? Where did they go!?”
“Uh… Lyra… didn't you say humans were tall, like, I'm guessing the size of Capper?”
“I know I said that, Pinkie! I just found baby humans!” Twilight groaned.
~-~-~
John and Liz ran through the front door, edging along the walls. The smell made their noses tingle, despite both wearing their helmets. It was the smell of ant killer spray and other cleaning products. Seems the pink pony went all out last night in cleaning. Standing the middle was the pink pony, Twilight, and the crazy unicorn, Lyra.
“... Want to do this tomorrow?” John asked.
“We made the deal, you said nothing about taking it back, or if any other ponies were here.” She said, not wanting to go back on the deal just cause John was a jitterbug.
“Ugh! Fine. Hold up, something's happening.”
“Sorry,” Lyra spoke with a sheepish smile. “I've got to use the little filly’s room.” Lyra walked quickly into the restroom. The pink pony turned to Twilight.
“Alright! A fresh batch of cupcakes will be ready soon, Twilight!” She spoke cheerfully.
“Thanks, Pinkie,” Twilight replied. “Hopefully, this will help.” She turned around and sat in one of the available tables.
“... Welp… you should fly around. If anything happens, cause a distraction and we'll get out.” He cracked his neck and readied his arms. “I've always wanted to say this.”
“You better not-!” Liz yelled, but John jumped onto Twilight's table.
~-~-~
Twilight waited for the cupcakes to be made. Since it was the weekend, she had plenty of time to figure out who these people were, how they got so small, and what their intentions are. All she could hope was that Lyra didn't try to get in the way that much. With how obsessed Lyra is over them, it would be better if Twilight knocked her unconscious than trying to reason with her.
“Hello? Princess Twilight?” The voice of a man spoke. Twilight jumped and looked around, seeing no one.
“... Must've been my imagination.” She spoke to herself.
“Nope. Down here.”
“Wait! Discord! This better not be one of your-” She stopped and was left breathless. On her table, leaning against the napkin dispenser was the Ant-Man himself. Her eyes twitched, seeing him so close in some detail.
“Ya like jazz?” As he asked that, the other one, the woman, landed near him, and punched him in the back of the head.
“REALLY!?!?!? You have to use a line from the Bee movie as your greeting!?” She yelled, her wings flaring in anger.
“What!? It's just a conversation starter. What am I supposed to say? ‘Hi, I'm sorry for controlling your student like a toy, I was just experimenting with my powers’?”
“No! You-!” Twilight only watched as the two bickered on. They seemed to hate each other, not knowing anything about friendship. But, they're working together… and if that means anything…
“Oh no,” Twilight muttered to herself. Her horn glowed as she grabbed the two in her magic.
~-~-~
John and Liz’s argument was cut short as Twilight's horn grabbed them both.
“I knew it! You both want to rule Equestria using all the insects, including the changelings!” She shouted.
“... Wait, what!?” Liz yelled. “No! Wait! This is a misunderstanding! My idiot partner here just-”
“You two don't know anything about friendship, only control! You, Wasp! You seek to control your partner here, The Ant-Man, to use him as the general in your army of swarms! Trying to take me out first, knowing my friends can stop you both easily as you start a war, making the changelings seem to be the ones to start it all! It's very clever, I will say, to think I'd fall you both saying you need my help, but started your reign of terror. I've dealt with better liars, sadly.”
“... Did she get whacked by the idiot stick?” John asked.
“Seems like today the logic part of her brain shut down,” Liz added, thinking that the mare was too quick to judge. “Hey, Sparkle pony!” She called up, even cupping around her mouth as if she couldn’t hear her. “What happened was an accident and no ill intentions. We just wanted to leave the building without being stepped on, and we didn’t think anything would work on that bug horse.”
“I thought it might...” A small comment was heard from John.
“Not helping.” She said through gritted teeth. “We just want to undo this shrinking thing and we’ll be out of your… mane, I guess.”
“A likely story, but your lies won't work on me,” Twilight replied, her horn glowed brightly and a small portal appeared on the table. “Thankfully, your small size made an easier small portal. Next stop for both of you: Tartarus!” She lowered both into the said portal.
~-~-~
Lyra walked out of the bathroom but stopped as she saw the ultimate betrayal. Her humans were alive, but Twilight had both in her magic, lowering them into a portal with a smile. She reacted the only way she could do: tackle Twilight to the floor, canceling her spell, and freeing her small humans.
“HOW COULD YOU, TWILIGHT!?!?!?” She screamed with a mix of rage and sadness. “They're just babies!”
“Lyra! They're not babies!” Twilight yelled. “They're menaces! I'm banishing them to Tartarus so they don't start a war using the changelings and use insects as their army.”
“They need guidance!”
“No, they don't!” Both of their horns glowed as a beam of magic was fired. A magic duel was going to happen.
~-~-~
John and Liz got up to see the two unicorns battling each other, shooting lasers out of their horns.
“Great! They got built-in death lasers!” John spoke before turning to Liz. “Think we should start at Cloudsdale, wherever that is?”
“Fine,” Liz grumbled, opening her wings out before she picked John up and started flying off back to the anthill, it being their safe zone from these weird equines.
~-~-~
Pinkie strolled right out with a fresh batch of cupcakes but stopped upon seeing the magic duel taking place.
“Twilight! Lyra!” She yelled. “I just had this place cleaned!”
“Sorry, Pinkie,” Twilight replied, still having her stare off against Lyra. “Lyra doesn't understand we have a problem!”
“I beg to differ!” Lyra replied back. “They're innocent babies who need a loving mother figure.”
“That male had a fully grown voice! How do you explain that!?”
“Uh… did I miss something?” Pinkie asked.
“You'll see on the table.”
Pinkie trotted to the table. “Oh! Your napkins fell!”
“Pinkie! Don't you see them!?”
“See what?” Twilight and Lyra’s horns ceased their magic. They turned to see the two small people were gone.
“No!!! My babies!!!” Lyra screamed.
“... This is bad… REALLY BAD!!!” Twilight spoke in fear.
John had all the flying ants around him. As it's turned out, while a few flying ants were around the weather factory in Cloudsdale, there was no ant colony. Partly because, besides it being a pun on Clydesdale, a breed of horse, Cloudsdale was literally in the clouds. From what the two could think, it was probably for Pegasi only.
“So we enter the weather factory,” John spoke as the ants turned into small, but still large models of the factory. “Sneak past all the security, cut the power, go to the science room, find the schematics, and get out of here. You following me, Liz?”
“Wait, I still don’t understand why we have to go there, didn’t they mentioned something called the Twittermites? Shouldn’t we gather information on what that is and how we can even get it?” She asked, not recalling why they had to go to Cloudsdale in the first place.
“Because of our leads...” John gestured to a group of flying ants that waved back “Have seen the Pegasi up there making new experiments that involve using high amounts of electricity into something that's small, like, say, a piece of crystal.”
“Oh, okay. Got it.” Liz nodded, even making an ‘OK’ sign with one of her hands. “So we’re just going there to see if there’s a quick shortcut then wherever that crystal empire is that pegacorn talked about?” An ant clicked to her.
“Ah. Thank you, Sir Antsworth. The Crystal Empire is north. But for now, Cloudsdale and those blueprints.” John hopped onto an ant. “We ride!”
Liz only flared her wings out, choosing to see how far she could go before she needed a flying ant’s help. John leads the way, all the flying ants following behind John, going straight up to the clouds. It was very fortunate that their helmets made oxygen for them easily, as the way up got thinner for them. They could only guess that Pegasi were used to being high in the sky with a lack of air, along with these ants. That, or it's more likely a classic case of cartoon logic vs realistic logic.
Within a few minutes of flying, they popped out of the clouds and saw an entire city built on and with various clouds. Various buildings stood on the clouds, with Pegasi flying freely all over, with some walking along the clouds like it's a floor. In the distance, they could see what looked like a colosseum made out of clouds, and a factory of sorts with clouds popping out.
“If I have to guess, that's the weather factory, right?” John asked his ant. It made an affirmative click. “Gotcha. And can you believe ponies can walk on clouds, Liz!?”
“In a weird way, I guess pegasi would make sense since they have wings and seem to be in charge of the weather.” She shrugged, seeing it as natural.
“Hmm… I wonder…” John jumped off and fell through the cloud floor.
“John! You stupid-!” John's head popped up as another flying ant flew up.
“Hey, it's an experiment. I was testing if we could walk on clouds here or not.”
“Well, are you a magical talking pegasus? I don’t think so.” Liz said, rolling her eyes as she didn’t bother trying herself even though she was the one with wings.
“If it's possible, I might reincarnate as one.” John lead the squad into the Weather Factory.
~-~-~
“Oh no! What am I going to do!?” Twilight asked as she pranced in circles.
“You!? I think you mean ‘What are we going to do?’.” Lyra replied, sitting in the said circle.
“Lyra! Your obsession with humans has singlhoofedly ruined Equestria! They're on the loose, about to plan some world domination scheme!”
“And you jumped to conclusions! Haven’t you or your friends ever argued before?” Lyra shot back, figuring that friends tended to fight, and even that could be seen as tough love.
“We have fought, but never tried to physically hurt each other, or controlled our students! That man controlled Ocellus with his mind! That isn't natural!”
“Neither is a tiny human. We’ve never seen humans before, so how do you think they feel about getting somepony’s attention, only to be accused of being villainous cause of one event!?” She shot back. “And were changings not evil before? Last I recalled, it was your student that gave them a chance.” She said, jabbing a good at the alicorn’s chest. “And speaking of mind control, do you recall making my best friend get obsessed with that rag doll of yours when you first got here, I don’t recall Celestia sending you to Tartarus.”
“Oh, I love it when somepony uses Twilight's morals back at her!” The all too familiar cheery voice spoke. Popping out of Twilight's ear was the draconequus himself, Discord. “Indeed, she is right. If I remembered, you had a reformation spell that you wanted to use on me before I became friends with Fluttershy. I did some brainwashing, so I'm the villain, but if you did brainwashing, it's justified, is it not?”
“Discord!” Twilight growled, her horn glowing and pulling the Lord of chaos out. “What are you doing here!?” Discord snapped his talon, going back to his normal size, standing over the two.
“Is it wrong for me to simply order some cupcakes? Or add my 2 bits to your midget squared situation?”
“And what do you know about this?”
“Oh, just the usual stuff. Hilarious carnage with Ocellus, ruined meals, a shocking revelation you'll need to know. Rather unimportant stuff, not like who they are, what their plans are, when and where arrived, and why.”
“... So you're just going to bother me?”
“And Lyra!” He leaned over to Lyra’s side, wearing a tuxedo. “And between the two of us, you may want to change Bon-Bon’s briefcase code. You don't want another outbreak.”
“You wouldn't!” Lyra replied in shock.
“Maybe… maybe I won't… want to flip a bit?” Lyra backed off a bit before going into a full sprint. Twilight gave an unamused look.
“You want me to thank you for that, I presume?” She asked.
“Nope!” He simply answered. “Just for you to use that lightbulb in your head.” He reached over and pulled a rope, making a light bulb glow over the Alicorn’s head. Twilight groaned, walking away. Pinkie appeared behind the counter.
“Do you still want those cupcakes you ordered?” She asked.
“Oh yes, indeed.” Discord answered. “Fluttershy will love these!”
~-~-~
John and Liz made their way to the Weather Factory. They watched as various Pegasi entered and exited through the building’s front doors wearing white lab coats. Entering through the front door was a no go for any of the two and their ant companions. Lucky for them all, an open window was nearby, prompting them all to enter it. They found themselves in a janitor’s closet, with a spare suit hanging on a hook. The floor looked like it was made of tiles, making him jump off his ant, landing on the floor with no problem.
“Huh… we can't walk on clouds, but entire structures are no problem.” John simply commented.
“Maybe for inspectors or guests who aren’t pegasus I guess.” Liz shrugged, figuring that most factories would accommodate for those who are just visitors.
“Or this is some classic cartoon logic shenanigans… like my next idea!” He jumped to the hook and pushed the janitor’s suit, with a spare hat, and a broom. “You're the eyes, and I'll make sure we look normal.”
“John, your ridiculous. We could just slip by or even use the vents.” She suggested.
“Maybe… but what's not from saying that Twilight sent a message out to turn on the vents and squish any ant they see, including us?”
“Do you really think Twilight knows where we were going? I don’t recall telling her, do you?” She asked. “Also, seeing how pegasi only come up here, it’s clear that we wouldn’t come here unless we want to be a tiny blood splat on the cobblestone.” She said, all of that making sense.
“But she may also realize we were there to see how they gain power. She's going to be right that we're going to take some blueprints with us, but we'll prove her wrong that it's not for anything evil.”
“Look, can we just do things the ‘not stupid’ way? Every time we do, that only creates more problems and makes us look worse.” Liz said, now starting to get fed up with John acting as if none of this is important.
“We're in a world filled with Technicolor talking ponies. What is smart or stupid anymore? Besides, superheroes are always on the run from the law; Superman is still technically an illegal immigrant, Batman has killed plenty of people but says it's not HIM that did it, the Hulk is a literal ticking time bomb of rage, and Captain America renounced his citizenship to the US becoming The Nomad.”
“But that is them and this is us!” She shouted, but soon recalled just who she was even talking to. “Just forget it, you're just as thick-headed as that princess, so why waste my breath?” She huffed, flaring her wings out before she flew over to the vent, blasting a small hole through it before she flew through it, it was clear that she would rather go alone then do the silly idea he had planned.
“Hey! Come back! We're together in this!” One of the ants clicked to him. “... Yeah. Some of you follow her. The rest, we're gonna go undercover.”
Liz didn’t even look back as she heard the small sounds of ants following her, she would tell them to buzz off, to leave her alone. Mostly cause she wasn’t sure if she could talk to ants as much as John. But after some time flying, she realized that she also didn’t know where to even go. ‘Great, way to go Liz.’ She thought with an eye roll but soon came up with the plan to figure out where she was, and find a place that would most likely have blueprints or whatever John said.
As for John, all his ant allies got into place, forming a body of a pony, using the clothes around to cover the body and the broom with mops to a mustache with a mane and tail. With these ants being pretty smart, he entrusted them to lead the way as he did the voice for their ‘janitor’. If he was right, then by the laws of all cartoon logic, this should work. A push to the door and the ‘janitor’ stepped right out, everything wobbling with each step, almost as if the janitor had one too much to drink. Some steps were made, and it was off, heading to the research department, with no one batting an eye.
Liz didn’t notice as she was still in the vents until she saw what seemed to be a tourist map of the factory on one of the walls. Seeing where she was, and where the back storage was, she figured one part could be for important files and documents. Keeping a mental pattern on where she needed to go, she started heading off to find the storage department.
John continued walking in his ‘disguise’, the ants never letting go. He stopped in front of a door that looked like it had a keyboard password system needed.
“Oh great! Anyone know what the password is?” Various clicks erupted. “No one!? Not even those with Liz?” More clicks. “Just great. Alright, we'll find someone that looks important and say we need to clean in there.” The Ant-Pony turned and shuffled it's way back to the closet, putting the mop into the wheeled bucket, and strolled across the floor.
“Hey! You!” A gruff sounding voice spoke.
“Uh oh. Stay calm, guys.” The Ant-Pony turned around to see that a security guard stallion approached it. He looked similar to any security guard back on earth, wearing a uniform of sorts, had a flashlight, and was a bit large.
“What are you doing here so early!?”
‘Think John, Think!’ John cleared his throats, the ants following suit to look like the pony they formed was talking “Oh, sorry, good sir, but uh… Professor Genius asked me to come in early today to clean his lab in the… energy… room.” There was a small stare down as the guard gave a somewhat skeptical look.
“... Well, why didn't you say so!? That Professor Genius can be quite the screwball.”
“Ah! Indeed he can be.”
“Did he forgot to tell you the password?”
“Yeah. He did.”
“His mind. Very great at making inventions, not so great at telling everyone instructions.”
“Tell me about it.”
Liz stopped and looked outside, seeing John's pony-ant suit walking next to a security guard stallion.
“You have got to be kidding me!” She shouted before turning to one of the ants. “How can they fall for this!?” The ant clicked. She blinked blankly in response. “... Great, I'm trying to talk to ants…” Strangely cute ones at that, now noticing how much cuter they looked compared to ones in reality.
“8...2...9...6.” The security guard spoke to himself, typing in the password. A click came from the door. “And it's unlocked. Voila! Feel free to clean Mr…”
“Uh… Clean!” John replied. “Folks call me Mr. Clean.”
“... Wait… Mr. Clean retired a month ago.”
“Oh? Did he? Well… I think it's just a major coincidence. Like how some uh… ponies are named… Red Steed.”
“Red steed!? That's my father's name! Who are you!?”
“... Fire me!” The Ant-Pony’s ‘face’ sucked in, and like a bullet, John was fired out. He clenched his fist and, with a mix of speed and the element of surprise, delivered a right hook to the guard, knocking him out with a tooth flying out. The Ant-Pony dispersed into individual ants, a good half running into the lab while the rest stayed with John. Liz and the other ants flew down, seeing the sight.
“What did you just do!?” Liz yelled.
“I panicked, ok! I simply knocked him out!”
“No! You killed him!”
“I did not kill him! He's alive!” The stallion remained still.
“... You killed him.”
“I did not! He's just… sleeping... like a baby! That's it!”
“Yeah, no. You killed a security guard stallion. If you had joined me, then-” The stallion got up with a low moan.
“What just happened?” He asked aloud.
“AHHH!!! It's a zombie!” John yelled.
“Zombie!? Where!?” He looked down at the two. “WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE!?!?!?”
“Ants! Hammer time!” John yelled. The ants jumped onto each other and formed a giant hammer. He picked up the ant-hammer, jumped in the air, and smacked it on the guard's head, knocking him out again. “...See! Not dead. Now let's hide the body before anyone sees.”
“John, your such an idiot...” She said through clenched teeth.
“Hey! It was working well.”
“Before you now make it seem like we just murdered someone!” She said, thinking of knocking him out so he could stop his dumb and impulsive actions.
“We knocked him out! Now let's get him inside, and either bind him up with something to cover his mouth, or put him in a bathroom so he can think he ate something like Taco Bell or Chipotle.”
“Well, you and your ant friends can do that since I played no part in your plan that was obviously going to fail sooner or later.” She said, moving her hand dismissively.
“At least we're in. Now let's see here.” John grabbed the neck collar of the security guard and dragged him inside.
The laboratory was something that looked very modern, but also retro at the same time, sort of like it came from a movie. Various test tubes and machinery were around, but the thing that stuck out, standing in the near middle, was what looked like a glass cyclo that had storm clouds inside that was connected to what was essentially a battery. Liz approached the machine as John opened a nearby closet and place the security guard in there. He jumped onto the counter, seeing the machine besides Liz.
“Oh yeah… that’s what we’re going to make.” He spoke. “Just shrink it down and connect it to our suits.”
“Like it’ll be as easy as you saying that.” She lightly rolled her eyes. “I’m guessing these are what the called Twittermites.” She said, hearing a distinct buzzing sound before she took a closer look and saw blue flying bugs that had stingers in the jagged shape of a lightning.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” An ant approached to them and clicked. “No way! We’re not going to carry that tube. Pretty sure we’re only going to need a small jar, like the ones you say are in Manehatten, right?” More clicks. “Well, there’s your answer, Liz. Let’s find those blueprints first.”
‘I wonder...’ She thought staring at the Twittermites before she asked the question on her mind. “Do you think you can talk to these things? Maybe we don’t need a jar and they could just follow us. I mean, you did control that changeling creature, so maybe the same can happen here.”
“I mean… let’s see.” John approached the jar. “Yo! Wassup?” The creatures inside turned and snarled at him in unison. “Hey! No need for that language! Look, my friend and I need some help with something. If you can help us with one little thing, we can free you guys. Sound good?” More snarling. John backed up and walked to Liz. “Nope. Not at all. No way, Jose.”
“Well, it was worth a try at least.” She commented, looking away before she unfurled her wings and took off, trying to get a good viewpoint to see if she could spot anything else, perhaps the blueprints as well. John and his ants explored the lab, going into a nearby room that looked like a personal office. They began to look around, opening the various drawers, until some of the ants pulled out the blueprints.
“We found it, Liz!”
“Now hold on, let’s make sure it’s the real thing and not just blueprints to something else.” She flew down, landing beside the ants that held the rolled up parchment.
“Let’s see… tubes, cyclo, wires, a bunch of thingamajigs that look like that machine… I think that’s it. This was easier than expected.” As he said that, loud bellows came as the security alarm went off. “... I spoke too soon.”
“Quick, some of the ants should leave with the blueprint and head to the anthill. The others should hide the guard’s body, and the rest should escape and head to the anthill in any way possible.” Liz said, seeming to forget that she wasn’t the one that could talk or understand ants, but secretly hoped that they at least heard her instructions. The ants saluted, a quarter taking the blueprints with them.
“You know I hid the guard already? I think we just need to escape.” The sounds of hoofsteps came as officers arrived at the door, the ants carrying the blueprints stopping, unsure what they’re going to do. “I’m sure you’re gonna hate this, but we’re gonna either have to fight our way out or cause a distraction.”
Liz was trying to think of a quick way to somehow distract the ponies without any knowledge of their doing. ‘If this went out to that purple winged unicorn, it would all the more make it seem like we were bad guys.’ She looked around some more before her eyes landed on the jar with the Twittermites, and something clicked in her head. “We have to release those Twittermites, but the blueprints have to leave the room or else the kind of lightning energy they make might hit it and make it catch fire.” She said, not waiting for a response as she grabbed John and flew back to where the jar was, this time landing on the top of it where it seemed the lid was placed, the bottom part being connected to the machine and most likely being harder to unscrew.
“No! Wait! Don’t do it!”
“Why not!?” Liz began to unscrew the top.
“Because the Twittermites-” The top fell off. All the twittermites flew up and surrounded the two. Some of them just shoved John away, but landed, giving sultry eyes to Liz.
“Uh… what are they-?”
“They said they’ll mate with you before.”
“... What?”
“Yeah. They went into detail on how they’re gonna mate with you… you better run and lead them to the officers outside.”
“You couldn’t tell me this sooner!?” She shouted, her wings opening before she took off to try and get away from them. ‘Never mind, at least there’s one way to bring the Twittermites to distract the guards.’ She thought, soon coming up with an idea to get them away and let them do what they were released for. “Hey, Twittermites! Only the strongest bug can mate with me, so whoever pummels the most guards that come through that door will be the one.” She said, even acting a little flirtatious to convince the bugs. Her answer came as the Twittermites crashed through the wall, revealing it to be made out of clouds, making the guards outside scream.
“TWITTERMITES!!!”
“Somepony, catch the guards!”
“Where’s Mr. Clean!?”
“... Hold up.” John spoke. “If that wall is made out of clouds… should we just escape by jumping through a cloud?”
“I guess we could. But what if the blueprints get soggy cause of the bits of water in clouds?” She asked.
“... You can yell at me if that happens.” He grabbed the blueprints and ran out through one of the walls, leaving his silhouette as he fell down. The ants quickly ran out and jumped after him, flapping their wings.
Liz didn’t bother speaking as she followed suit, wings opening as she took off and even tried to hide within the crowd of ants, not wanting to take any chances of a stray Twittermite saw her leaving and figured out where she was currently staying. ‘And I am not one of those who is into bestiality.’ She thought, shaking her head.
~-~-~
Twilight thought hard about what she needed to do to stop these two figures. But with Discord’s wording, it was obvious he knew about something, but wasn’t going to tell her bluntly. Her mind came to a halt as Rainbow Dash zoomed past her, flying into Cloudsdale, and about every other pegasus flying to said city in the clouds. Lightning strikes came from inside the weather factory, prompting Twilight to fly after Dash.
“Rainbow Dash! What’s going on!?” She asked.
“There’s an outbreak of Twittermites in the Weather factory research wing!” Rainbow answered.
“Twittermite outbreak!?”
“Yeah! We’ve got to round all these bugs up, and fast!” She zoomed into the city, but Twilight though on this.
“Wait… they were in my class yesterday, as I was teaching about…” Her mind snapped. “THEY’RE GOING TO BUILD A WEAPON!!!” She flew down into her castle, flying and running through everything before taking a letter. “Shining Armor, Cadence, I hope you’re reading this, I fear if you don’t stop them, Equestria is doomed!”
~-~-~
John, Liz, and the ants landed on the floor safely. He held the blueprints, shaking the bits of cloud still on it, but opened it up, seeing nothing was ruined.
“Holy crap! We did it!” He shouted. “And nobody expects us!”
“At least that what we think,” Liz mumbled, still keeping her guard up just in case their plan had a few flaws.
“This calls for a celebration! Let's get ourselves a cake and-” before he could finish, smoke began to enter the tunnel. The ants began to cough, prompting them all to run. “Hey! Who's doing this!?”
~-~-~
“Can't risk it!” Twilight spoke, spraying a nearby with some ant killer fog machine. “If you're in there, Ant-Man and Wasp-Woman, consider this as mercy!”
Fluttershy walked past, but stopped, seeing the sight. A gasp escaped from her mouth, with her tackling Twilight to the floor.
“Twilight! What are you doing to that poor, defenseless ant colony!?” She asked as if she was betrayed.
“Fluttershy! You need to understand. I-”
~-~-~
“Everyone! Get the queen and get out of here!” John yelled. “Head to Manehatten. We'll meet you there.”
“We?” Liz asked.
“Qui.”
“Not that French word! Us!”
“Right. We’re gonna need some batteries before we get the charger.”
“Small humans here in Equestria?” Cadence asked as Shining Armor put on his armor. “Planning to take over the world with insects? Most likely going to steal a bit of the Crystal Heart? You seriously can't believe this.”
“Aww, relax, Honey.” The unicorn stallion replied after putting on his helmet. “I'm sure Twilie’s just freaking out after having a bad dream.”
“But you don't believe her?”
“I mean… she hasn't been too wrong on things, but I'm just playing along for now.”
“Oh… thank goodness. Don't want Flurry Heart to be too much like your sister. You're wearing those camera helmets, right?”
“But of course. Hard to believe the footage is in such high resolution. Twilight has nothing to worry when she sees this.”
“I sure hope so. And you're alright staying up all night?”
“I didn't drink all that coffee now, did I?” He chuckled before leaning in and giving his wife a kiss. “Sleep tight, honey.”
“And you be careful now.” Some babbles came right beside. Shining walked over to a crib, where Flurry Heart sat in. He ruffled her mane.
“If anything goes wrong, you promise to keep your mother safe?” Flurry let out a promising giggle. “That's my girl.” He gave her forehead a kiss before walking away, turning off the lights, and quietly closed the door to their bedroom. It was going to be a long night… maybe he can get himself acquainted with the night patrol guards.
~-~-~
Liz let out a small, but long yawn as she was currently sitting right beside John. It was a huge rustle, having to split with their ant allies, but John did tell her that the ants need to lay low for a bit and that the Crystal Empire was freezing. Lucky for them, they hitched a ride to the train, relaxing under the seats, right under the creatures. John had returned with a chunk of a chocolate cookie he took from the kitchen, offering a piece to Liz before relaxing himself.
“So… how are you?” John began, wanting to break the silence.
“Fine. Just starting to see how seeing that Twilight pony was a bad idea.” She mumbled arms crossed as she seemed to blame herself for letting a pony keep on meddling with their plan to get back to normal.
“Hey, you didn't know. I started all of this, technically.”
“True...” She mumbled, not saying anything else as she took the offered cookie piece and started nibbling on it.
“I bet when this is all over, we're going to laugh at this in the future. Maybe even tell our kids about it.”
At the last part, a pink hue formed on her cheeks. “O-our k-kids?” She repeated, seeming to get the idea that their kids might be the same kids. He blushed in response.
“I-I didn't mean us. I meant as in… you know, when we find our own partner and settle down on our own terms. Th-there’s nothing wrong with you, of course, we're just… working together, y’know? Like how I am with the ants. Common goal.”
“O-oh. Y-yeah! Right, of course.” She agreed at that, not wanting to think too hard on it, or even mentioned that she wasn’t going to do some other creature besides a human… and as far as she knows, they might be the only ones.
“... I mean… if we are stuck here… think you'll… experiment?” Liz choked on her cookie as the train came to a stop.
“Crystal Empire department!” The conductor announced.
“We'll get to that later. Let's go!” John ran right out, avoiding the huge feet that could easily squish him. Liz, meanwhile, had a sore throat and was taken back at what John asked.
‘N-not likely...’ She thought, trying to clear her throat without attracting any attention as she left the rest of the cookie behind and tried to catch up to John while also avoiding hooves of many different species.
The first they noticed upon entering was how cold it was. It wasn't exactly freezing, more like it's around the month of Spring, as under the afternoon sky, some force field of sort kept the kingdom away from the snow. Liz could already tell where they were going into, as guard ponies, most looking to actually be made out of living crystals, were on heavy patrol.
“Wh-where are w-we heading off t-to exactly?” Liz asked, already shivering as she hated the cold. John pointed to the castle.
“In there! That's where we're going to find the crystals needed to act as a battery for our suits. … And you're really cold?”
“O-of course I am, I hate the c-cold and snow. Even if this weird barrier in is stopping the snow, it’s still f-freezing in here.” She said, rubbing her arms with her hands to try and keep herself warm.
“... Bet there'll be some nice soup inside as well.”
“Bleh, I don’t like soup… texture thing.” She said, explaining her reason.
“... Hot cocoa?”
“Better.” She simply said, loving the idea of some cocoa more than soup. “Just as long as they use milk and not dumb water.” She grumbled.
“We should get inside then. Find what we need, and maybe get something nice to eat as well.”
“Alright, perhaps in that castle they might have some stuff we can take without them noticing.” Liz thought out loud, soon enough seeing something that looked like a crystal heart in a large spaced area under the castle, the legs being different entryways to the building. She was rather intrigued as to why the crystal heart was spinning. Sure there was a breeze here and there, but unless it was a hollowed out fake just for design, there was no way a heart-shaped rock could spin at all.
“Hope so too. Might want to get your lasers ready.” He paused as he looked carefully. Standing alone was a white unicorn stallion with a striped blue mane, wearing purple armor. “Looks like we got company.”
~-~-~
Shining Armor sipped another bit of his coffee. As it turned out, one of the guards that were supposed to guard the Crystal Heart was feeling sick and had to call off that night. He decided to take that guard's position since it'll show Twilight that nothing crazy happened. It was sometimes hard being her BBBFF. Luckily, the night didn't seem too bad. Sure it was chilly, but everyone was used to it. For a weird reason, he had the feeling that something's going to happen. His ears twitched as some buzzing flew past him.
“Hey! Shoo!” He said to the bug, blowing it away. But he stopped as he realized something. ‘Hold on… insects rarely live here… which means…’ His horn glowed as he took his sword out and pointed at the Crystal Heart. “Alright! Who's there!?”
~-~-~
“Crap! He's onto us!” John yelled as Liz landed on a side of the Crystal Heart and began to slice out a very small piece with her wrist lasers. “How long until you get a piece out!?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never cut into a freaking rock!” She whisper shouted, trying her best to cut a piece, while also staying on the spinning crystal. John turned to see that the stallion knight was approaching to them.
“... Keep doing what you got to do! I've got an idea.” He stretched his arms out before holding them out and walked around the corner. “Wait! I give up!”
~-~-~
Shining watched as some bug walked around the corner with its arms up in a surrendering position. Only… it wasn't a bug. Twilight was right! Standing at only an inch tall was the Ant-Man, as Twilight described. But… why was he surrendering? Something was up.
~-~-~
‘What the frick are you doing!?’ She thought, looking back for a moment before she resumed trying to cut a piece big enough for the two, but small enough to carry back to Manehatten… wherever that was.
“Easy, Mr… Horse…” John spoke, a bit unsure what the stallion’s name was.
~-~-~
Shining was taken back at hearing it talk, albeit, much quieter, for being so small. At least it could talk.
“The name is Shining Armor! Captain of the Royal Guard if Equestria, and Prince of the Crystal Empire.”
“Ah, excuse me, your royal highness. See, I think there's a huge mixup here; a friend of mine and I landed here after-”
“Twilight told me to not to listen to your words!”
“... Excuse me?”
“If you're here, then your partner’s here as well!” His horn glowed as he picked up a spear and aimed it just a few inches from John's face. “Tell me where she is, and I may grant you only 500 years in Tartarus.”
“5-500 years!? Might as well execute me! And I ain't-a snitch! Snitches get stitches!”
“I… what did you just say?” The Ant-Man quickly grabbed the spear, quickly throwing it to the side. To say Shining was caught off guard was an understatement as something so small was that strong and fast. His spear was tossed underneath the Crystal Heart, right on the other side.
“Aha! Didn't expect that now, did ya!? Now if you listen to me, then we can talk this out and have a nice-” Before he could finish, Shining Armor’s horn glowed and fired a blast of magic at the small attacker.
~-~-~
At that point, the laser finally cut through the crystal. But at that moment, the blast of magic hit the heart as well, causing it to spin at a much faster pace, the sudden movement making Liz yelp in shock and nearly cut her arm off. She only had the reflex to grab onto the crystal piece she needed for the suits to get power again, and the heart she was close to falling off of. Some zapping was heard, followed by John screaming.
“Hurry up, Liz! He's going crazy!”
“I’m currently in a mess of my own. This dumb rock won’t stop spinning, and… I’m losing… my grip!” She shouted, right as her painfully cold fingers couldn’t hold onto it much longer and she finally let go, all the while trying to unfurl her wings, but they seemed to get frozen stiff, it being fairly easy since they were just like the fragile wings of a wasp’s. She fell to the floor, her wings coming out at the last second, while breaking the fall, still sprained her legs. The stallion caught sight of her with the small piece of the Crystal Heart.
“No risks!” Shining ordered himself, stopped chasing John and marched to Liz. He lifted his right hoof up and held it over Liz. It became apparent what was going to happen: he was going to squish her! John quickly saw and ran back. Everything seemed to move at a snail’s pace as John sprinted to Liz as she braced herself with the hoof coming down at her.
Then… that’s when everything went quiet.
Liz opened her eyes, seeing darkness. A silhouette began to take shape within said darkness. Who was this figure? Her eyes, blurry, went back into focus, and what she saw nearly made her faint. John was the figure, but not just that, he was holding Shining Armor’s hoof over them! If he was off, she would be a bloody stain on the crystal pavement.
“G-go! Get the other piece!” John strained, using all his strength to keep the hoof at bay.
She shook her head to try and snap herself back to reality, not saying a word as she grabbed the first one she cut off and went back to the crystal heart to get another, getting one for each of them.
~-~-~
“What the-!?” Shining Armor yelled, completely appalled by the sight. The Ant-Man was strong, but holding his hoof up to keep his partner alive!? It was impossible! It was then that the Ant-Man pushed his hoof off, turning below, and grabbed the fur around his hoof, and threw him! He was not finished, as the small being jumped onto his temporary flying self and ran to his face with a closed fist!
“RULES OF NATURE!!!” The small man shouted before delivering a right hook that launched Shining Armor into one of the pillars, crashing into it and breaking a few crystals in the process. The force and sudden impact knocked Shining unconscious.
~-~-~
“... Holy crap! Did you just see that!?” John yelled. “I threw him like a ragdoll!”
“Yeah, sure, that’s cool. Can we just get going before more of them start coming!?” Liz shouted, clearly more scared of almost dying again than at John’s epic moment.
“Oh… sorry! Just excited… you still want to see if they have hot cocoa?”
Liz stayed quiet for a moment, then lightly shrugged as to say ‘meh’. “Sure, why not?”
“Heh. You REALLY want hot cocoa, don't you? Shall we?” He extended his arm to her.
She didn’t say anything, taking the offered hand and tried to stand up… only for one of her legs to give in and almost make her fall to the floor again if it wasn’t for John keeping her up.
“It's ok, I got ya.” He reassured her. “Bet some of the ants will help you out when we get back.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I can walk like this.” She admitted, not bothering in putting her injured foot on the ground.
“Lucky you, I'm here. Got that 2nd piece, by the way?”
“Y-yeah. I got it.” She nodded, moving her head towards the pieces of crystal hearts that broke off cause of the sudden hit it got while she was breaking a piece of her own. “Pick the best one. I might suggest the biggest just in case.”
“Yeah… but we should take the only right size pieces. You know, not too big or small.”
“Then just choose the middle size.” She suggested, unsure if that was the right call.
“My thoughts exactly.” John picked up the two, while small, somewhat still large shards of the Crystal Heart. He held both shards in his left hand as he carried Liz with the other. “Next stop: Hot Coco ville.”
Liz couldn’t help but break a smile from under the helmet, glad that John didn’t just take the shard and book it like any person who would think of themselves. Of course, she didn’t say anything about it since they still had a long way to go.
~-~-~
The sounds of what sounded like her father screaming made Flurry wake up in fear. She stayed in her crib, unsure if it really did happen, or if it was just a bad dream. Her mom snored lightly, only a few twitches here and there, but otherwise, she was fine. However, something caught the filly’s attention: The scent of Hot Chocolate. Even though it was wrong, she couldn't resist the smell and potential flavor. With a flap of her wings, she flew out of her crib and made her way to the kitchen.
~-~-~
Liz sat on one of the large marshmallows as John made the two of them hot chocolate. It almost looked like a scene from a Ratatouille, as John was stirring the pot with a wooden spoon much larger than himself.
“Is it almost ready? My throat is getting all dried up for this.” Liz asked, kind of exaggerating about the ‘dry throat’ thing.
“Almost,” John answered. They both paused as they heard what sounded like a baby arriving. “Uh… think if we stay still, the baby may think we're toys and leave us be?”
“Babies aren’t dinosaurs. And even if they think we’re toys, don’t you know what they do?” She said, not waiting for an answer. “They start teething.”
“I mean… what should we do? We can't exactly hit a baby.”
“Well, maybe we can distract her or something.” She suggested, recalling how easy babies get distracted.
“... And how should we do that?”
“You got some keys to jingle or something?” She asked even though it was obvious that he didn’t.
“I mean… Think we can find keys?”
~-~-~
Flurry made her way into the kitchen. The smell of hot cocoa almost overwhelmed her, but she stopped as something was off. Normally, there'd be somepony working here, and it'll be tidy, but neither of those was around. Something was off. Then some jingling was heard. Turning, Flurry saw what was some measuring cups together, dangling by a string that's connected by a stick, held by a small, male figure as another, female one, held him up with bug wings on her back.
“Look at the cups! Look at the cups!” He spoke.
“Well… it works.”
Flurry gave the two a curious look. Her horn glowed and picked the two up.
“Oh no. It's a smart baby.” The small man spoke.
“Since when are babies smart?” A small girl asked out loud.
Flurry gave a curious look at the two, babbling a bit, but in a way that sounded like she was pondering.
“Huh… look at how cute it is.” The small man simply spoke.
“Really? You're saying that again?”
“No! Really! It's a baby pony! Don't you see how adorable it is!?”
“I guess...” She mumbled, her arms crossing as her head turned away, it being clear that she didn’t want to admit it. Flurry blushed a bit.
“D’aww! She likes you!”
“Sh-shush up!” She shouted, being glad that her helmet was able to hide the blush forming on her face.
“Hey! Watch it! There's a baby right in front of us.” He turned to Flurry. “I'm so sorry about that. My friend and I just need something warm, and we made some hot chocolate. Care to join us?” Flurry let out a happy giggle, placing both down as she trotted over to her own baby chair. “... That is one smart baby. Care to get yourself acquainted with her?”
Liz didn’t give an answer, but she unfurled her wings as she started taking off to get back on the table. “For the record, the word ‘shush’ and ‘up’ aren’t curse words. So I don’t need to watch my language.” She said with a condescending smirk, even if he couldn’t see it through the helmet. Not saying another word, she made it to the table and went back to her spot on the marshmallow, it being between the cup of hot cocoa and the baby pony. ‘Let’s hope this baby won’t be like another pegacorn.’ She thought, not letting her guard down in case all alicorns sent small unknown things to Tartarus as the purple one called it.
~-~-~
Cadence’s eyes opened as she heard faint giggling. Her mind was a bit fuzzy, but it was most likely Flurry trying to have with her.
“Go back to sleep, Flurry.” She spoke. The muffled laughter didn't cease. She got up from her bed and walked to the crib. “Fine, if you want to have fun, then-” She stopped as she reached down and couldn't find Flurry in her crib. Her blanket and Whammy were still inside, but she wasn't. Flurry's laughter could be heard outside. Cadence rolled her eyes and walked out.
“Flurry, don't you know how late it is? It's-” She stopped as she saw Flurry on the kitchen floor, giggling wildly with hot chocolate spilled everywhere. But the real kicker was that the Ant-Man was on Flurry's tummy, and… rubbing it!?
“Who's a good fiwwy!? Who's a good fiwwy!?” He babied the filly. Flurry only laughed at the feeling. Cadence stared, shocked to see a small human was here. The Ant-Man was playing with her daughter. But then, that would mean…
“FLURRY!!! Get away from him!” Cadence yelled. Flurry gave her mom a confused look. “Guards! Guards!!!”
“Uh oh! Time to go!” Ant-Man shouted, jumping off Flurry Heart and ran to one of the windows. “Liz! Follow me!”
“On it. See you little filly!” Liz said, her helmet clicking into place once she slurped the last of the cocoa dewdrop, not wasting a second as she took off, grabbing John along the way and carrying him as he held the crystals they needed. And it didn’t take long for the alicorn mother and her child to lose sight of the two intruders. Guard entered the room and looked around.
“What's wrong, your highness!?” One of the guards asked.
“Th-The Ant-Man! He's real!” Cadence shivered, holding her daughter tight “And the Wap-Woman! They were here… they…” She looked to Flurry. “They didn't hurt you, did they?” Flurry let out some happy giggles, reaching to her mom. “... Oh no! Shining Armor! Somepony, check on him!”
“Yes, ma’am!” One of the guards saluted, turning to the other soldiers signaling them to move out.
“Sir, Shining Armor’s unconscious!” A guard yelled from outside. “And the Crystal Heart is destroyed!”
“Sir? Sir!? Captain!? Are you alright?” A voice spoke, sounding a bit blurry. Shining Armor opened her eyes, his head feeling lightheaded. He rose, the rush causing him to fall and crash onto the floor. Some panicked voices picked him up and set him back into the bed he laid on.
“Please, try not to move, sir.” One of his lieutenants spoke. “The Doctor said you took quite a beating. Can you tell us what happened?” Shining laid back, his mind a bit fuzzy, but he remembered.
“They came.” He answered. “The Ant-Man and The Wasp-Woman… they took a piece of the Crystal Heart.” Various murmurs were heard.
“Yes… it's a good thing they only took a small piece. Any piece larger and the Crystal Empire would become a frozen wasteland.”
“Tried to fight them… they were strong… MUCH stronger than I thought.”
“Really? So you're saying that, despite being the size of an insect, they threw you into one of the pillars, rendering you unconscious?” Shining nodded. “Incredible!”
“... Call me crazy, but I don't think they're actually a threat.” Confused murmurs broke out.
“Can you explain?”
“When I tried to squish the Wasp-Woman, her partner saved her.”
“I'm pretty sure he just wanted her to-”
“He told her to get another piece. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save her… if they really hated each other and only used each other, surely, he would've left her. But he didn't… almost as if they were friends.”
“... Sir, I'm sure there are other factors behind this. Lime maybe she had him under a spell.”
“Or they're only doing this because they have to. If they were looking out for themselves, then there would only be one ‘threat’, but something tells me they're in this together. You can watch the footage in my helmet camera and judge for yourself, I've made mine.”
“... As you say, your highness.”
“... Are Cadence and Flurry alright?”
“Flurry's alright, your wife is just shaken. She reported that the Ant-Man was on Flurry's chest and making her laugh while the Wasp-Woman was sipping hot cocoa.”
“... They didn't run away? But… why?”
“We don't know, sir. Our staff is cleaning the mess as we speak… and Flurry wanted to share you this.” A piece of paper was handed to him. Shining took the paper and looked at it. It was a childish drawing of herself, having what looked like a tea party, but on the table was a stick figure drawing of the duo, but their names were written. Above the Ant-Man was “Jon” with a backward ‘n’ and above the Wasp-Woman’s was ‘Liss’. Despite being a baby, Flurry was exceptionally intelligent, getting the names of the ‘threats’. He only smiled.
“I should hire them as a babysitter when this is over.”
~-~-~
John and Liz sat by the doors to the furnace of the train. The conductor didn't see them, too busy shoveling coal to notice them. Surprisingly, it was pretty quiet inside, and their shards, despite glowing, were well hidden.
“So… when this is all over, what should we do?” John asked. “I mean… we'll be easy to find targets.”
“Well, perhaps we should try and fix some things we caused, but if they still think we’re bad, then I guess we should travel this world and see if there’s any way we can get back home,” Liz explained, messing with her own shard as it was rather smooth, and strangely cold even though they were in the engine room of the train.
“I'm down for fixing stuff we caused, but what if we're stuck here? What if there's no way for us to get home to our friends and family back home? Not trying to sound like a pessimist, just throwing out a possibility.”
“Well, it’s just a possibility. I don't want to think of the worst, seeing what we’re going through just to be normal size again.” Liz said, not wanting to think about that yet. “Let’s just focus on what we’re trying to do now. So what’s next?”
“Actually, the ants already got that covered. They have the blueprints to the machine and have set up our new base of operations within Manehatten’s dump. They'll be getting the necessary stuff to help us charge these gems up and place them in our suits, thus, allowing us to grow and shrink at will, nearly with no need to charge.”
“Well, that’s really good to hear. Let’s hope it won’t take months for this to be finished, I just want to walk around without nearly being stepped on… fatally at least.” She mumbled, unsure if being her normal height would be a good idea.
“Relax. All we gotta do is give them a nice treat. Pretty sure anything will do… but if I say, I think we should just turn ourselves in after fixing what we made.”
“Yeah, not like we have anywhere else to go.” She shrugged, resting her head on the crystal on her lap.
“I mean… if it's possible, we can be released on good behavior… assuming the justice system isn't as messed up as back at home.” He rested on his crystal shard. “Well, whatever happens, I just hope nothing insane happens.
~-~-~
Somewhere in the bowels of Klooge Town, underneath the desert town's roads, in its sewers, a hooded figure made its way through. Rats and spiders decorated the sewer’s brick and spiders, the only light coming in through the some of the entrances. Despite the horrid smell and diseases everywhere, the figure continued, not stopping for anything… until it stood at a wall. It's clawed paw touched the wall, glowing a light blue, with the bricks parting open, revealing a secret entrance that's lit by torches. They walked in, the entrance closing immediately as they entered, and growling was heard.
The figure strolled in, the hallway soon revealing large studies of sorts with arcane signals decorating the walls, floors, and ceiling. Books laid everywhere, along with some artifacts, and jars containing small versions of plants and creatures… with some of the creatures banging on the glass jars, begging to be free. But in the middle of it all, a large, blue dragon wearing armor, with under curved horns on the side of its head, was chained up, it's mouth covered by a muzzle. Its eyes opened, seeing the figure, and attempted to roar, but only a muffled growl came out.
“Shh… don't work yourself yet, oh mighty Torch.” The figure spoke with a woman's voice, which had a slight purr to it. “You have an easy task ahead of you; Send Equestria my message on who and what can use magic. Do this, and you'll be free. Don't, and… well…” Her hand glowed green. The dragon’s eyes glowed green, as it made a painful whimper. “You wouldn't want the current dragonlord to have a bad encounter with a roc, do we?” She added, holding a jar that had a small falcon inside. The dragon shook its head, not wanting it to hurt the Dragonlord. “Purr-fect. And don't you dare try to fight back! Do that, and you'll be in Tartarus much faster. Do we have a deal?” The dragon nodded. Its muzzle came right off, followed by the rest of its chains. Despite this being its chance to attack, maybe even eating the small figure, it didn't want to risk it; she was an already powerful sorcerer.
“What is your name… master?” The dragon asked in a deep, gruff voice that had a hint of rage in it. Saying ‘master’ had disgust in his tone. The figure took her hood off. Its head was a feline of sorts with a lion's mane.
“Katrina. And be sure to attack that city, Manehatten. Do what you see to get them to listen.”
“Y-yes… master…” The ceiling broke open, allowing him to fly out. It took that chance, the local residents running away from terror from the sight of a dragon. He flew past the town, heading Northeast to the pony city.
~-~-~
Both John and Liz arrived at the dumpster, with John rolling in a hot dog stand… with the weiner being replaced by a carrot. It took the two some time to find the dumpster, with Liz leading the way as John followed with his ‘Runaway cart’. The ants were more than happy to receive more food, as the machine was nearly completed. A jar of Twittermites was connected, with the only thing needed was a few coils and their shards.
“Care to help them finish?” John asked as the ants surrounded him. “I've got to help these guys get these… carrot dogs… inside their new home.”
“Eh, might as well.” She shrugged, not saying a word as she brought the two shards close to the machine while the ants still working helped bring the cords she was tasked to help them with. “Hope these twittermites won’t want to mate with me as well.” She said, shivering a little.
An ant shook its head, pointing to the jar. The Twittermites were all focused on her, having a ravenous look in their eyes.
“I am not making the same mistake again!” She said, letting the twittermites know that she won’t let them out. “And once I get back to normal size, I don’t think even one of you could last with me.” She added, more thinking out loud than anything else.
A few minutes had passed, but the machine was functional. It wasn't exactly the best-looking thing, but considering how it was made out of trash, the presentation was the least of their worries. John walked beside Liz, seeing the device, and the Twittermites charging it. He placed a hand on her shoulder, making a hug.
“Isn't it beautiful?” He asked. “Our hard work, finally paying off.” The ants walked to him and made angry clicks. “Uh… ok, you deserve the credit, ALL of it, in fact. Your sacrifices won't be forgotten, fair Ant-Hony, Ant-Onio, Ant-itkin, Ant-”
“If you do this, we're gonna die of old age!” Liz shouted.
“Uh… sorry. You guys better stand back.” The ants scurried a few inches away. “I mean more, like… a mile, at least.” Some confirmed clicks and the ants disappeared from sight. “... Ready?”
“As I'll ever be.”
The two went to the machine, both placing their shard in a tube and closing it tightly. John went to the lever and, with some silent tension, pulled it. A huge burst of light erupted, making John and Liz cover their eyes. As soon as it ended, the Twittermites, while still alive, were sluggish and dull, but their shards glowed even brighter. Excitement filled the duo as they took their shard out.
“...How do we put it in?” Liz asked.
“Our backpacks, of course!” John answered. He walked around and pressed a button on the back of Liz, making the compartment open up. Liz felt John place the shard in her backpack area, hoping he didn't destroy her wings. “Whoo! A perfect fit!” He shut her pack and turned to her. “Put the shard in! We'll grow big together!”
“Alright, alright. Not like I know how to do that anyways.” She mumbled, taking the shard left out for him and tried to do the same thing, it being fairly easy to open the backpack and find the obvious spot to place the shard, it clicks into place before she closed the pack. “Okay, I think I did it right.”
“Oh man, I'm so excited! At the count of 3, we'll press the right button on our hands and go back to normal! You ready?” Before she could answer, he began. “One.”
Liz was affected by his excitement, joining in. “Two.”
“Three!” They shouted in unison and clicked the button on their hands at the same time.
~-~-~
Everything was calm on the streets of Manehatten. Besides the sight of a runaway Carrot Dog stand, nothing crazy happened. But a deity must've overheard somepony wishing for something exciting to happen, as in Manehatten’s dump, two giants suddenly appeared out of thin air! Both were about the size of the local skyscrapers, towering over everything below them. Mass panic broke out, as the giants looked down at them.
~-~-~
“What the-!? What's going on!? What happened!?” John asked, surprised to see that the gigantic city they were in ned into a set in a Kaiju movie. The ponies below that they avoided ran in fear, their screams sounding high pitch to the duo. Liz looked at her wrist, seeing her personal computer.
“We have too much energy!” She shouted. “We're giants now! There was a miscalculation, and this happened! You should've taken the small shard, you idiot!”
“Hey! I was being safe in case it didn't work! For all we know, either those shards would've exploded from so much energy, or we may be midgets!” Their argument came to a halt as a roar was heard. They looked up to see a huge dragon, about as big as them was flying overhead. It's maw released flames that caused several building to catch on fire.
“Perhaps we should figure how to do this before that dragon fries us.” Liz suggested, figuring to just shrink down and flee instead of fight and possibly cause more problems on their ‘reputation’.
“Yeah. We should.” He cracked his knuckles and neck, picking up a boulder (now a rock for him) and chucked it at the dragon. It missed, but the dragon turned to see the two. “Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size!?”
~-~-~
Despite Torch being considered ‘free’, Katrina watched through the eyes of the retired Dragonlord. She was taken back by the sight of the two giants, one male, and the other female. Were they the city's protectors!? Who were they!? … It didn't matter. They had to go.
“Torch!” She hissed “Change of plans! Destroy those two!!!”
~-~-~
The dragon roared at them, landing on the floor, making the floor shake. If flared it's wings and charged at them. John got into a sprinting position.
“What are you doing!?” Liz yelled. “You can't beat a dragon!”
“I know. That's why you're helping me.”
“What!?” John sprinted to the dragon, his stomps leaving a huge footprint in the floor, destroying a few wagons, luckily, with no pony on board. The sight turned into a clash between two titans, as John and the dragon were locked in arms with each other, both trying to overpower each other. Everything below ran out of the city as fast as their legs could take them.
The dragon delivered a headbutt to John, knocking him back, with it grabbing his legs and spinning in a circle. His head knocked the corner of a building clean off. Were it not for his helmet, John would most likely be in serious pain, if not, worse. He was thrown to the side, right into the city's central park, with the dragon leaping after him.
Liz watched the sight of John battling the dragon on his own, unsure if she should join or not. But her sight turned to see one of the buildings crumble, with a large crowd below it, mostly consisting of foals that looked like they were with some scouts and elderly folk. The building cracked, and it all began to tumble. Before she could even think if she could lift something huge or not, adrenaline kicked in, as she ran to the crumbling building. Before the piece of the building could fall, Liz interfered, using her back and arms to hold the falling structure up, preventing it from falling. The foals and elderly’s screams halted as they saw their giant savior, holding the architecture up with all her strength, but was obviously struggling to keep it up.
“G-go! Get… out of… here!” She winced but still kept on trying to keep the piece of building from falling on the ponies. With a final grunt, she was able to toss the chunk of building into the body of water that surrounded the city, the only way coming across being a large red bridge that looked a lot like the golden gate bridge back on earth. There were a large splash and a huge wave that most likely knocked some ponies by the edge off their hooves, but she would assume that no one got hurt. She turned to see John was still fighting the dragon but obviously struggling. It became apparent that she needed to help him.
John was running out of breath as he battled the dragon. He grabbed onto its right horn with his left hand, holding it down, right before using his right elbow to knock its head in. Needless to say, it didn't work as the dragon tripped him with its tail and got on top of John as he laid on his back. His reaction was quick when he stopped the dragon’s claws from slashing at his face, grabbing its claws with his hands. The dragon snarled at him, some drool covering his lenses.
“Ugh! Gross!” John yelled. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Liz approaching… holding a freight ship like a baseball bat. He smirked underneath, using his legs to kick the dragon off. It slid backward, roaring at John.
“Hey! Ugly!” Liz yelled. The dragon turned to Liz, only to see that she was already in a swinging position. She swung her ‘bat’ at the dragon, locking it into the ocean, though it broke upon impact. It fell into the ocean with a splash, with Liz tossing her broken piece into the water and offered a hand to John. John accepted it, with Liz helping him get back up. “What were you thinking!? You could've died!”
“I know, but I sorta knew this would happen.”
“Us becoming giants?”
“No. Heroes!” The water splashed as the dragon got up, turning to them with bloodshot eyes. John picked up some freights with his hand, crushing them a bit “Shall we? As a duo this time?” Liz nodded.
“Let's get his armor off first and see if he has a soft underbelly.”
“My thoughts exactly.” They both ran into the ocean, John using his makeshift brass knuckles to deliver a few solid punches to their opponent, all while Liz jumped onto the dragon's back and got him in a chokehold. Liz held on as the dragon tried to throw her off, using its wings to shake her off, but John used both of his hands to smack both sides of the dragon's head with his freighters. To add more insult to injury, John grabbed its horns, lurched it's head forward, right before using his right knee to knock it's front teeth out.
The dragon shook itself back, feeling it's cracked and missing teeth with its tongue, then growled loudly. It shook Liz off before throwing her at John. The two were thrown back a bit, splashing a bit, and slid back, with John’s head lightly tapping one of the columns to the bridge. Their opponent's glowed, with heat waves escaping.
“FIRE!!!” John and Liz shouted in unison, jumping out of the way as the fire hit the side of the bridge. Liz’ wings popped right out, allowing her to jump right over the beast (saddened she couldn't fly, but rather, jump higher and glide), and grabbed it in a full nelson. She used her knees to kick the dragon's back, the force of her kick causing the dragon's breastplate to fall off. Its underbelly was as it was to be expected; a different colored (it being yellow), and soft looking, but it was covered in deep scars that looked painful if touched. John could tell it was going to hurt.
“Hold still!” He shouted. John ran to the two, with Liz holding the struggling giant in place. With a jump, John drop kicked the dragon's underbelly, prompting it to bellow in pain, as old scars seemed to reopen. Liz watched as John got right up and backed up again, going for another one. She followed through, as the dragon continued to fight back. Her partner ran again delivering another dropkick, seemingly making the wounds hurt even more. Their opponent's movements dwindled, too much in pain.
“Uh… John?” Liz spoke.
“One more shall do it.” He spoke, getting ready for one more. John ran for the third one
“No! Please! No more! I surrender!” The dragon pleaded. John stopped his running but slid and fell over, landing on his bottom with a splash. Liz released the dragon, who flopped with a weak wheeze onto the walkway. The two humans stood, tired, but victorious.
“W-We did it,” Liz spoke, contemplating what happened. “John! We beat a dragon!”
“Indeed, we did!” John cheered before turning to their defeated opponent. “Alright, Mr. Dragon, what's the big deal attacking a city like that!?”
“Please… I didn't… mean to…” Their dragon huffed. Liz saw how much in pain the dragon was, helping it sit right up.
“You didn't mean to?” She asked. “Surely, you're mistaking a city for a medieval village, aren't you?”
“No… I was… forced to.”
“Forced?” John asked. “By who and what for?”
“Only did it… to protect… my daughter...she… she's watching.”
“Hey! Enough with the pronoun game! We need answers!”
“John! Shush up!” Liz yelled. The dragon’s eyes glowed green, making it sit erect. The duo stood back, unsure what was going on.
“Quite fascinating.” Their dragon spoke, a mixture of its own voice, and the voice of some woman. “You two have managed to defeat Torch, the oldest and mightiest, now retired, Dragonlord. I was going to have a roc devour his daughter, Ember, but you two have peaked my interest.” John grabbed the dragon by its shoulders.
“Alright! Who is this!?” He demanded, “Why'd you make this dragon attack innocent civilians!?”
“Ah, tsk tsk tsk. The name's Katrina, the sorcerer of sorcerers, and as for this, it was to have everyone know who I am. But it seems you will get that attention… I would normally hate it, but you have my respect. I only have one question: who are you?” Liz looked up to see small news carriages have pulled up, starting to take pictures and record the two. John smiled as this was their time to shine.
“Alright… we'll tell you Who we are. We're the Ant-Man and The Wasp! No task is too big or small for us, because together, size doesn't matter!” A ding was heard. John and Liz looked to their wrists, saying that their power was now at back to normal.
“... I will see you both soon, Ant-Man and Wasp.” Torch’s eyes went back to normal, but he fell onto his back. Liz placed her left hand on his neck, and the other on over his right claw.
“He's unconscious.” She concurred, relieved.
“Good to know,” John replied, turning to the crowd that gathered, cheering for them. “Hmm… should we join them?”
“Maybe… but maybe I’m getting really tired…” She said, starting to feel drowsy all of a sudden. Without any warning, she fell onto her back, nearly submerging under the water while Torch was still above, lying atop of her.
“Liz? You feeling… alright?” John asked, feeling lightheaded himself. That's when he remembered that being giant made them get exhausted quickly. With his remaining energy, he pushed Torch off and pressed Liz’ button for her, making her shrink back to her normal size. He picked her up before falling onto his chest, the crowd running away as his hand fell to the floor, opening with Liz inside of it. His vision became blurry, but he pressed the button on his suit, making him shrink back to his normal size. All he could see before passing out was some ponies arriving in armor, telling everyone to back away and get them out of their suits.
Liz groggily woke up from her nap. To her surprise, she was out of her suit, instead, in a simple white tank top with shorts. She looked around, seeing that they were in a cell of sorts, but in front was a huge table filled to the brim with food. Her stomach growled loudly… almost as loudly as the snoring next to her. A quick look revealed John was next to her, wearing a matching shirt, but in sweatpants.
“John.” She spoke, lightly patting his cheek. “John, wake up!” His snoring continued. She groaned, pinching his nose to shut his nostrils. It proved effective as he squirmed a bit before falling over, waking up.
“I'm not late!” He yelled.
“John, I'm right here.” He turned to Liz.
“Oh… hey, Liz! Were we having a party and-” His stomach growled. “... hold that thought. I'm starving!”
“Me too, but look!” She pointed to the table. The two got up and saw all the meals; meat, fruit, vegetables, candy, it was all there. Their mouths drooled.
“So… tasty…”
“Think it's for us?
“... Who cares! Let's dig in!” John immediately grabbed a Turkey leg and began to scarf it down.
“Hey! I want some of that!” Liz joined in.
Almost like savages, they both began to scarf everything in front of them. It took them only a few hours to finish everything, leaving only plates, bowls, bones, and scraps. Their otherwise fit physic turned was gone as they had large bellies that stuck out and under their shirts.
“Geeze, I never realized how little we ate or even rested since we got here. I feel so much better now.” She admitted, feeling as if she could go back to sleep, but figured that she had enough rest as it is. “But asking the obvious now: Where even are we? Weren’t we at some big city with a red bridge?”
“I don't care,” John admitted, trying to reach for a slice of cake. “can you hand me a piece?” The sound of a door opened, followed by Shining Armor entering with a disgusted look, and a pony in a maid outfit entering and cleaning up the mess.
“Ok, that's enough of a show.” He spoke.
“... Oh great. And I thought that was a weird dream.”
“You wish it's a dream,” The voice of Twilight Sparkle was heard, followed by the pony entering “But you'll regret doing what you did!”
“Uh… I'm lost.” Liz spoke. “Where are we, exactly?”
“Canterlot.” Shining Armor answered. “Specifically, the dungeon. It's actually amazing how long you've been asleep.”
“Oh? We've been asleep for how long?” John asked. “A day or two?”
“An entire week.” John and Liz both had surprised looks on their faces.
“Well, I would guess that made sense with how long we’ve been awake, followed by what happened at Manehatten. We honestly didn’t think the crystals would be that powerful.” Liz said, a blush on her cheeks as recalling what happened just made her embarrassed.
“Of course. We did everything we could to wake you up.” Shining replied.
“...Like?” John asked.
~-~-~
Two of the Royal Guards stood over the sleeping pair. Their job was simple: wake them up to face their charges. It was easier said than done.
“Alright… let's pull everything we got.” The left said, poking Liz. “Hey! Wake up!” Liz waved her arm at him.
“Five more minutes.” She spoke in her sleep.
“... You lucky?”
“Nope!” His partner replied, slapping John’s sleeping body. “Wake up! Wake up, lazy bones!” All John did was snore.
“Looks like we need to bring in the big guns.”
The series of misfortunes were as followed: both guards did everything in their power to wake the two up. Blasting music in their ears, holding fresh food in their faces, even splashing them did nothing. Well… the last one made John wet himself in his sleep, but that's it.
~-~-~
“Dude! You could've at least given me new pants!” John yelled.
Liz tried to cover up her laughter at the idea of John wetting the bed, but she didn’t want to be a jerk at the moment. But once she got her bearings, she took in a small breath before she spoke. “Alright, listen. Now that we can actually see eye-to-eye, you need to understand that we didn’t do any of this to gain power or take over the world or something. We just wanted to get back to normal. And since electricity is rare in this world, this way was the only way we knew how to fix our suits. Speaking of: where's our suits?”
“That's not up for you to know!” Twilight answered. “As princess, I sentence you to-”
“A thousand hours of community service.” Shining Armor interrupted. Everyone turned to him in shock.
“Shining! What the hay are you-?”
“Giving them the correct punishment. It is true they stole blueprints and some shards from the Crystal Heart, but they saved millions of lives from the rampaging ex-dragonlord, Torch. For that, I am grateful. I will see you both tonight.” Shining walked out. Twilight followed.
“Shining! Wait!”
“... Huh… that's not bad.” John spoke. “Think we'll get our suits in those hours, or after?”
“We should at least know where they are. Even if we’re facing our punishment, we deserve the right to know where our property is being held.” Liz said, not really wanting to do anything unless she knew the suits were in a safe place, recalling the marvel movies an what would happen if they fell into the wrong hands… or hooves in this case.
“Sure beats Tartarus.”
“I don’t care, we need to know where the suits are. Don’t you know what a rich business pony might do with that kind of technology? You’ve seen the movies and you know more about them than I do.” Liz said, now really concerned over knowing where they were being held. “And judging by how we were able to steal blueprints and crystal shards, I am not so trusting of this worlds ‘security’.”
“Relax, these ponies will never get close to this type of technology.”
~-~-~
“Look at the mechanisms in this, brother!” A tall and slender, yellow, bacon haired looking stallion spoke. “All of this, and anypony wearing this can shrink at will!”
“Indeed, brother!” A similar looking stallion, who had a mustache to look different, replied. “But look at the woman’s suit!” He pointed to a still picture of her firing something out of her wrists.
“Sweet Celestia! This magic is so advanced, yet, so close!”
“Why yes, of course! You thinking what I'm thinking?”
“I believe so!”
“Make this available to the highest bidder!” They spoke in unison.
“... Only… how do we get in?” The mustached one asked.
“Never fear! I've already got an idea.” His brother answered, pressing a button. A pair of hazmat suits appeared.
“Oh, genius! Genius, I say!”
“And all we need is a few pictures and some notes to get it all ready, with some willing test subjects!”
“Hmm… ten thousand bits to the one we get it right?”
“I love the way you plan.”
~-~-~
Twilight followed Shining Armor throughout the castle.
“You can't be serious!” She insisted. “They're a danger! Menaces! They-”
“You misunderstood them, Twilie.” Shining interrupted. “They're not bad. They did it because you forced them to.”
“Me!? They used Ocellus as a puppet! She-”
“It was likely an accident.”
“Why are you defending them!? They-”
“They helped each other! John protected Liz when I tried to squish her! He single-handedly beat me just so she wouldn't be harmed!” Twilight backed up.
“H-How do you know their names?”
“I didn't. Flurry did.” He gave his sister the piece of paper. Twilight observed it. “They made Flurry happy, even though they were on the run. Made hot chocolate, even if they made a mess. And they saved millions of lives in Manehatten, risking their own lives for complete strangers. If you think they're still menaces, then you're just as bad as Neighsay!” He stormed away. Twilight looked at the drawing again. She sighed.
“Maybe I should've listened.”
~-~-~
John and Liz sat together as two other guards stood in front.
“So… how's Celestia?” John began. “Is she as cake crazy as our friends say?”
“And by the way, where are we even gonna stay for community service?” Liz asked, figuring they would stay at the Crystal Empire since that stallion mentioned they would see each other again.
“You'll find out soon.” One of the guards asked.
“... And who are your friends?” The other asked.
“Oh, ants,” John answered. “A whole colony’s worth, actually.”
“I think I see some of them climbing into the prison windows,” Liz said, looking at the small window the two clearly couldn’t go through and saw a small group of ants start climbing down the wall from it. “But wait, don’t the suits control the ants? Or was it something else? They’re probably here for any leftover scraps on the floor.” She lightly shrugged.
“Eh, it can't hurt to try.” John picked up a small piece of cheese and handed it over to one of the ants. “There ya go, little fella. Gonna need a lot to survive.” The ant took the piece and saluted. John gave a blank stare.
“D-did that ant just saluted?” Liz just had to ask so she would be sure she wasn’t just seeing things.
“... I think we're experiencing a food coma, sirs.”
“But don’t food comas make us, you know, pass out. I don’t recall anyone saying they were seeing some weird stuff as well.” Liz stated, still not getting it as she figured she shouldn’t question anything at this moment. But then she had a rather interesting idea. “Hmm… perhaps if we can still understand and control them, they can figure out where our suits are since that purple pegacorn won’t tell us.” She explains the idea to him. ‘And perhaps shrink them down and bring them to us in case we really need them.’ She thought, remembering what happened in the first and second movie.
“You know we're right here.” The first guard spoke. “We can hear everything you say.”
“Didn’t your mother tell you it was impolite to eavesdrop!?” Liz snapped at them, it being one of her pet peeves that people sometimes do.
“We're paid to watch over you two.” The other replied. “Keep you both from escaping court with Princess Celestia herself.”
“But we aren’t escaping. We just want to know where are suits are. They belong to us, and your dumb princess technically stole them.” Liz said, wondering how they would go against that. “Besides, what if another dragon comes to this city? I highly doubt you two can do anything.”
“I think an entire army may be needed,” John added. “That, or a giant robot that requires two pilots to control it in synch.”
“Please, I bet the army is just for show and they don’t know the first thing to do when a national crisis happens like that.” Liz rolled her eyes, turning away from the two guards and sitting on her ‘bed’. “And there’s a very low chance they even have giant robots as well.”
“Hey! The Canterlot army is the best!” The saving guard yelled. “Captain Shining Armor trained us.”
“Oh yeah? And how was he against me?”
“Last we saw him at the Crystal Empire, he was taking a nice nap after being punched by a one-inch version of John. Just imagine when we’re normal size, or bigger.” She said, mostly acting on the ‘normal size’ part since she knew they were average at that state, with nothing but their fighting abilities to rely on. They swore they could hear a crowd go “OOOHHH!!!” after that roast.
“So, unless you two don’t want to be having an unscheduled nap time, you should at least tell us where our suits are being held?” She said, hoping the threat would be enough for the guards to spill the beans.
“Do that, and your sentence will be even longer!” The first guard yelled.
“They're in the throne room.” Shining Armor’s voice broke out, followed by the stallion entering. “No need to fight. It'll make your case worse.”
“Freaking, finally! That’s all I wanted to know. And now I’m satisfied for now.” Liz said with a small smile before she leaned against the wall on her bed and crossed her legs. “So when will we be able to leave this cell?”
“Right now. I'll do everything I can to prove you're both innocent, but you must show respect to Celestia and the other high members… even if some aren't exactly nice.”
“Uh oh, looks like you need to stay quiet.” John shrugged Liz.
“The same goes for you, Mr. ‘You like Jazz’.” She said, glaring at him as it also was a sign of no goofing around.
“What's wrong with Jazz?” Shining asked.
“Ooh! Ya like Jazz?” John asked. Liz groaned and facepalmed herself.
~-~-~
Outside of the castle, crowds of ponies gathered to take a peek inside to see the royal court case between the Thief heroes, Ant-Man and The Wasp. While a few didn't exactly trust them, the mass majority, especially those from Manehatten, were on their side, demanding their freedom. But parting through the crowd, sticking out, was a pair of ponies wearing Hazmat suits. A dozen guards guarding the main entrance saw them approach, unsure what to do. One of guards approached to the pair.
“Halt! Who goes there!?” He ordered.
“Fear not, good sir,” The left Hazmat pony spoke. “ We are from the Equestrian Research in Whinniesota.”
“Princess Celestia contacted us to see how our stranger’s suits exactly work, and if they should share it with the public, or it needs to be destroyed.” The other added.
“Hmm… care to explain why Celestia didn't care to explain your arrival?” The guard asked.
“The same reason as to how they arrived, buster! Last minute that needs answering!”
“Our scientific minds will help us all advance in more ways than one.” His partner added. “We certainly can't let it go to waste, can we?”
“Uh… I guess not.” The guard replied. “I'll tell Celestia you're here.”
“No need for that! We must see their suits, pronto!” They stormed right in.
~-~-~
John and Liz stood in the throne room, surrounded by ponies and various other creatures. Sitting on the throne was the tallest pegacorn, with a white coat and a multicolored mane that moved on its own, with no wind blowing anywhere inside. She certainly dressed up like royalty, wearing a golden tiara, necklace, and boots… despite being naked everywhere else.
“Is she really a princess, or a queen?” John asked in a whisper to Liz.
“I don’t think we have to wait long. Don’t they usually address the judge or something?” Liz said, trying to recall the Judge Judy show to figure out if that was true.
“She is the judge.” Shining Armor answered. “But she's fair. Ruling over Equestria for more than a thousand years has made her wise.”
“...She’s that old!?” John asked. “I mean… wow! She's so… young looking… for her age, of course.”
“I call plastic surgery or magic equivalent to that,” Liz said, figuring that if they didn’t have the technology, they might have the magic. Some horns were blown, as an announcer wearing royal garbs spoke up.
“Hear ye, hear ye! Court is now in session for the sentencing of Ant-Man and The Wasp! Defending them is Prince Shining Armor! Against them is Princess Twilight-”
“I stand down my case!” Twilight announced, making the grows gasp. “Princess Celestia, please, hear me out. I caused them to commit these crimes we put them on trial for. My assumptions about them wanting to take over Equestria blinded me when they actually needed help. I beg of you to not punish them harshly!” Celestia gave a curious look, but a warm smile.
“Well, Twilight, you certainly made this trial much shorter than needed.” She spoke in a motherly tone. “For you both, I sentence the both of you to-”
“OBJECTION!!!” A pair of voices yelled. The crowd gasped upon seeing a pair of ponies in Hazmat suits enter.
“Wait… they're in a medieval kingdom, but know radiation?” John asked, clearly confused.
Liz only shrugged but was more curious about why they were wearing those suits, and why they were objecting the trial to end on a good note for the two. The two trotted into the courtroom.
“With respect, your majesty,” One of the two spoke. “We need to verify if their suits are actually user-friendly and not toxic in any way.”
“Toxic?” John asked. “Uh, excuse me, but we've been in those suits for days actually… and I don't think we showered, now that I think of it.”
“YOU sir, may be immune,” The other pony spoke, putting a bag on their table “but to US ponies, you're likely to cause an epidemic!”
“Epidemic? If you want to know about the suits, wouldn’t us, the owners and only wearers of those suits give more information?” Liz said, looking back at the white pegacorn. “And you can’t mess with those, they are more dangerous in the ha-er, hooves of someone who doesn’t know how it works.” She explained.
“Please, relax,” Celestia spoke. “As much as you may not like it, I will allow them to inspect your suits to see if it has strange effects on anypony or creature.” She gestured to her staff, who trotted away before returning with their suits, folded neatly on a cart.
Liz wished that she could bite her tongue, but recalling how dangerous the suits were, she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. “I’m sorry your highness, but those suits belong to us. And as the proper owners, I disapprove of this action. And since it’s clear that we’re innocent with any crimes we might’ve done, you have no right to take something that doesn’t belong to you, or accept anyone else from taking it.” Liz said, trying to convince the princess otherwise. “Please princess, if they break or anything, then how will you be able to repair something that you don’t even know how it works. And they are linked to how we got here, so if they break, we might never get back home.” She added, knowing that any human would just break it apart, but recalling what happens in the movies, they didn’t want to be the cause of some creature’s death.
“Very likely story,” the Hazmat pony observing the suits replied. “but these were OUR SUITS!!!”
“What!?” Celestia yelled.
“What!?” Shining and Twilight yelled.
“WHAT!?!?!?” John and Liz yelled.
“What!?” An ant shouted.
“Indeed! Look!” He pulled a scanner and held it over the suits, where it made loud clicks. “You hear that, folks!? These two are slowly poisoning you with their radiation!”
“Indeed, I can see a few sick ponies among us.” The other added. “This was one of the original test suits that proved fatal to the user! We tried to dispose of them safely, but we were attacked by THEM!!!” He pointed at John and Liz accusingly. “Don't believe their lies! They may have saved you physically, but as of right now, you're all in danger and need to be cleaned, quickly!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Liz shouted, clearly upset about all these accusations. “If you two made the suits, then why were they made for our bodies and not for a pony?” She asked the obvious. “And I highly doubt humans are common here, we’re the only two here as far as we know.”
“Alas, it is true. Our higher-ups weren't exactly ethical, something we've hated seeing.”
“The used monkeys to see if it would work or not,” The other added “sadly… they all failed.”
“Not the monkeys!” A pony in the crowd screamed.
Liz stayed quiet, thinking for a moment before she came up with a plan. “Fine then. If you did so call ‘made them’, then how do you use them?” She simply asked. “And what is the source on how it works. And the simple magic trope won’t convince anyone here. Right?”
“Ah-ah-ah! We never said WE made them, only our higher-ups did.”
“WE are responsible for handling dangerous material and delivering them to specific locations.” The other added. “All of which was ruined by you two!”
Liz was now fed up with the two, but she knew she couldn’t try and stop them physically unless she wanted to seem more like a bad guy, and ruin her and John’s chances of not being sent back to the cell. All she could do was look back at John, almost pleading to him to do something that she couldn’t do herself. He noticed and stood up, the crowd gasping as he stretched.
“Alright, all of this sounds convincing and whatnot, but why would your higher-ups make suits that shrink to the size of a bug?”
“To explore areas we could never visit, of course! See minerals in closer detail, explore the body to battle diseases, even make space by building small homes for everypony to live in to avoid overpopulation.”
“See, now there's the problem; why would one of the suits be able to fly, when some ponies here obviously have wings, and it shoots lasers that can melt through steel?”
“Uh… to help earth ponies to experience being an alicorn.” The other pony hesitantly added. John walked ahead.
“Right… and does the helmet of the red suit communicate with ants?”
“Indeed it does!” The first of the Hazmat pair replied. “Cheap labor when it comes to building the new small homes!” It was then that John began to chuckle a bit, before going into a full crazed laughter.
“Oh my god! You're both so wrong!” He reached behind his ear and pulled out a small, hearing aid looking device. “The helmet does not control the ants! It just processes oxygen to the user to help them breathe so they don't suffocate! THIS influences ants to do what I say!” He placed it back on before whistling. Crawling in through the doors after a few minutes was a swarm of ants, making everypony scream as they surrounded John, who stood straight with the biggest grin he could muster. The ants shaped themselves to become a statue of him. “See? I can control these ants with my mind alone, but I tend to speak with my small friends, isn't that right guys?”
“Of course, good sir.” The ants clicked to make the voice of John as their statue of him nodded. He patted his Ant-Statue’s back.
“And that, mares and… what's the term?”
“Gentlecolts,” Celestia replied.
“Gentlecolts is why my friend and I, while guilty of stealing stuff, are in no way, guilty of this obvious fake crime made up by some greedy pair that wants to steal what's rightfully ours to market off our success on something that will doom you all!” He sat back on his seat and leaned back, his feet on the chair as the ants turned into a graduation cap on his head. “Boom, baby.” Everything was silent.
“... Uh… look at the time!” The first Hazmat pony spoke, “It's time for us to go!”
“Uh, yes, it's…” The other added, sweating underneath his helmet. “LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!!!” The two ran out of throne room.
“Told you this world’s guards and security sucked.” Liz thought out loud, crossing her arms as she knew she couldn’t trust anyone but herself and John.
“Ahem.” Celestia cleared her throat. “Well… that was quite the show there, Mr…”
“John.” He answered. “And she's Liz.”
“Hmm… interesting. But, for your crimes in stealing blueprints from the weather factory and some shards of the Crystal Heart, but heroically saving Manehatten from Ex-Dragon Lord Torch, I, Princess Celestia, sentence the two of you…” A dramatic pause was made. The two leaned forward. “Ten Thousand Hours of Community service.” The crowd was silent.
“... I guess that's fair. That's about… let's see here… six and a half years of work.”
“It’s around forty days.” Liz simply said, rolling her eyes at how dumb her partner was thinking.
“Your sentence will be shorter because both of your individual hours will be combined.” Celestia continued. “And neither of you are correct.”
“No wait, it’s not forty days, I think it’s four hundred and sixteen days.” Liz corrected herself, knowing that her math isn’t wrong.
“Are we going to get our suits back?” John asked.
“After you both complete 24 hours,” Celestia answered.”then you'll get your suits back.”
“What are we even supposed to do in those twenty-four hours?” Liz asked the obvious, kind of dreading what it could be. Shining Armor nudged her.
“I've got a few things you can do.” He insisted.
~-~-~
Both the fake scientists took a breath in the forest just outside of Canterlot.
“That… was a close one.” The mustached one spoke.
“Indeed…” His brother replied. “We were so close!”
“Ah, but we are!” He pulled the scanner out and spun a nozzle. A piece of paper came out.
“Brother! Is that-?”
“An X-Ray scan of their suits? Indeed it is!”
“Oh, just genius of you, dear brother!”
“Now all we need is to find some test subjects to see if it will work.”
John and Liz sat down inside the Crystal Empire. It was their first day on their community service routine, and both were, while not freezing, felt a bit chilly.
“Freaking hate the cold...” Liz grumbled, rubbing her arms as fast as she could as she wishes whoever gave them these clothes also made a hoodie, still being in a white shirt and black pants
“Relax, it's still morning,” John replied. “And today's gonna be easy.”
“Not exactly,” Shining spoke, walking down some stairs in a nice looking suit. “My wife and I need some time for ourselves. You two are going to be watching over Flurry Heart for the entire day.”
“Flurry Heart? You ponies have really weird names. And seriously? Babysitting?” She said, already dreading the idea of taking care of a bratty kid or a baby constantly crying.
“Hey, remember last time we were here?” John asked before turning to Shining. “Anything we should know?”
“She likes her mashed peas. If she cries, give her her Wammy; the snail toy in her room. And if you need any help, please feel free to ask the guards on anything you need help with, or to answer any questions you may have.”
“So, where is this Flurry Heart pony anyway?” Liz decided to ask, figuring that they might as well meet the pony if they’re going to take care of it.
“Right here.” The voice of a mare spoke. Walking in and holding Flurry was another pegacorn, a pink one with a mane that looked like it came from a candy factory.
“Cadence! There you are!” Shining spoke, nuzzling her before picking up Flurry. “And how you, my little princess?” Flurry giggled, blowing a raspberry at her father.
“... Why is this so cute!?” John asked.
“Wait a minute… that’s the baby pony we shared coca with!” Liz realized, surprised that she couldn’t put two and two together since they were in the same palace they found each other in.
“Well duh! I figured that.”
“How!?”
“They have the same eyes.” Flurry flapped her wings and landed on John's head, smuggling with his scalp before taking a nap.
“Seems she remembers you both,” Shining concluded. “See you both tomorrow!” He walked away. However, Cadence stood.
“Excuse me, a word with you?” She motioned to Liz.
“Hmm?” Liz was caught off guard when the mother wanted to chat with her, seeing John being distracted with Flurry, she shrugged and approached the mare. “Uhm, yeah? Is there something you want to say?”
“Listen… I'm sure my husband has good reasons for trusting you two… but I swear to Celestia, if something happens to my daughter, Tartarus is going to be considered to be Elysium with what I'll do to you! Got it!?” For being a pony that looked like they were trying to be a Disney princess, there was rage in her eyes.
Thankfully, Liz knew a thing or two about overprotective mothers. “Don’t worry, your highness. Seeing how much we left an impact on our first meeting, I’m sure that we’ll keep that smile on her muzzle the whole time you’re gone.” Liz promised. “Just… if anything weird happens to her or the castle, it’s probably a magic thing since we are basically powerless without our suits.” Cadence glared at her.
“I've got my eyes on you.” She used her wings as fingers, festering her eyes to Liz as she backed away.
Liz only rolled her eyes, figuring that she was very overprotective. She decided to go back to John and Flurry to see if the filly was just going to rest on his head all day.
“Do not provoke the baby,” John said, slowly reaching to pick up the sleeping filly. “We're just gonna deliver her to her room… wherever that is.” He picked up the filly, before starting to cradle her. “Aww. Look at her. She really sticks out with those huge wings, don't ya think?”
“Reminds me of Dumbo in a weird way,” Liz said, not having much of a choice to hide the smile as she wanted to feel the feathers, but wasn’t sure if ponies were sensitive to that. John began to pet the filly’s head, with Flurry making a relaxed, near purring noise.
“It's a kitty!”
“This cuteness… it’s too much.” Liz said, biting her knuckle as she felt that if this kept going, she might fight John for the filly’s attention and cuteness. Flurry woke up with a tired look.
“Ahh!” John began to rock Flurry. “Sing something!”
“Wh-what am I supposed to sing?” Liz said, kind feeling as if she was put on the spot for no reason.
“Oh god! Anything!”
“Three, six, nine. Dang, she’s fine. Na na na na na na na one more time,” Liz said, singing the first song in her head.
“Get low. Get low, get low, get low.” John continued.
“To the window!” The two sung, clearly not having any idea why they were singing that song instead of a lullaby. Flurry began to cry loudly.
“Ahh! It's not working!!!” John yelled. Flurry's stomach growled loudly, looking to them with the most miserable look she could muster. “Oh… Get the mashed peas! To the kitchen!”
Liz didn’t need to be told twice as she was quick to run to the kitchen, easily finding the stack of mashed peas baby food and grabbing it, taking a rubber spoon as well that was clearly meant for infants to use. Coming back, she opened the small container and put the spoon in, picking up a good amount before she brought the mush over. “Here Flurry, your favorite.” John set Flurry in a baby seat.
“Come on, here comes the airplane,” John added, making some whooshing noises… right before Flurry's horn glowed, flinging the mashed peas into his face. The sight made her laugh.
Liz couldn’t help but laugh as well, it being a moment she wished she could put on replay. “Love the face mask, John.” She jokingly said, making her laugh more since it looked just like one… only darker and lumpier. John huffed as he wiped the peas off his face.
“Let's try this again.” He grabbed another spoonful. “Here comes the airplane!” Some more whooshing noises, followed by Flurry using her magic to make John put the spoonful into his own mouth. He quickly spat it out. “THE TASTE!!! IT'S HORRIBLE!!!” He ran to the fridge and opened a can of soda, drinking it immediately, before shaking himself off. “Alright... you feed her, Liz.”
Liz placed a finger on her chin, feeling that perhaps the reason why she ‘likes’ it is cause her parents made her eat it. She snapped her fingers as she went back to the fridge, grabbing a container of applesauce and using a different spoon. “How about this Flurry? Do you want applesauce instead?” She asked, secretly having another plan up her sleeve. Flurry jumped in her seat, ready to eat it. “Ah ah, I need you to close your eyes and open your mouth.” She instructed, figuring that the filly would do anything for some sweet applesauce. Flurry followed.
“... How come I didn't think of that.” John spoke.
Going the extra mile, Liz made it seem as if she was going to feed her the applesauce, the spoon hovering over the filly’s nose so she would think she was getting it. But in a quick switcheroo, she put the spoon of mashed peas in her open muzzle instead, a rather devious smirk on her face as Flurry fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The filly made a disgusted face as she ate, but continued with it.
“Don’t worry Flurry, I promise that once you eat all of this, then you can have some applesauce for dessert. Does that sound like a fair deal?” She said, not wanting to promise the filly she would get some, and not give any at all. Flurry huffed but continued.
“And speaking of which.” John opened the refrigerator and looked inside. “Salad, salad, a cupcake, more salad… where's a burger when you need one!?”
“Did you forget that the population is mostly herbivores?” Liz asked, serving another spoonful for when Flurry finished the mashed peas in her mouth.
“Oh! Hold on!” He reached in and pulled out a corndog. “Yes!!! Food!!!”
“Don’t keep your hopes up.” Liz simply said, feeding Flurry the second spoonful.
“We shall see.” He placed the corndog in a microwave and cooked it for a minute. When it finished, he pulled it out, shook it to cool it down, and took a bite. He stopped as corn fell out of the sides. “Oh… it's a CORN dog… HA!!!” He tossed it away, sitting in from of Liz. “Think we should explore this place a bit?”
“Maybe after Flurry finishes eating,” Liz said, only going a quarter through the container of mashed peas before she started serving the applesauce, recalling how little a babies appetite was.
“I think we can take her with us. Put her in a stroller, explore both this castle and kingdom in general. See what they've got and whatnot.”
“Ugh, fine. But you're carrying the baby bag… if they have one, that is.” Liz said, serving Flurry a spoonful or two before she stopped and figured that they should get ready for when they head out.
“Fair enough.” He picked up Flurry. “You want to leave to this castle for a bit, Fwuwwy?” Flurry made a happy sound, reaching to him. “Heh, I'll take that as a yes.” He walked but stopped. “Where's the stroller at?”
“Probably in her bedroom closet.” Liz guessed, figuring that it would make sense to leave the baby stuff in the baby’s closet.
“And where is their bedroom?”
“You think I know that?” Liz asked, it being obvious that she didn’t, being in the same room as the two.
“Only one way to find out then; split up and search for clues upstairs. And yes… like Scooby-Doo.”
“Or maybe see if the little foal knows where her room is? I mean, she does understand what we’re saying.” Liz suggested kind of questioning how smart babies in this world is.
“... You're no fun. I was hoping we could find some secret room or something.”
“Well, we aren’t here to find secret rooms. We’re here to take care of a baby.” She simply said, getting up from her spot and heading off to see if she could perhaps find it easily instead of going on a wild goose chase just to get the stuff ready to leave the building. John followed, with Flurry reaching to Liz, probably wanting to pull on her hair.
“It would most likely be close to the parent’s room, and since one of them is royalty, that means the fanciest looking door that isn’t the throne room is most likely where we should start looking,” Liz explained, thinking it might work the same way as every other castle, oblivious as to what was happening behind her.
John opened a random door, which was followed by an avalanche of various cleaning equipment, some maid outfits, and shoes. “Found the closet!” He announced. “Do ponies wear these?”
“Probably.” She said, not looking back as she looked through another door and saw that it was just a guest bedroom. “Nothing in here.” Both began to open doors.
“Random Bathroom here.”
“Music room.”
“Another bathroom.”
“Storage closet.”
“A washroom.”
“Library.”
“... I think this is a dungeon of sorts.”
“Uh… keep Flurry out of there.”
Both went to the last door at the end of the hallway. As soon as they opened it, a pony was standing by the front door with an unamused look.
“GAH!!!” John jumped and grabbed onto Liz from the sudden appearance. The pony standing in the doorway was unique looking, compared to the other ponies. It was a mare, judging by its eyes, having a scar over its right eye, and a broken horn on its forehead. Said pony was wearing a rather unique armor set that looked like it was tight, having latex over its body, with some metal pieces covering important parts of its body.
“And where do you both think you're going?” The pony asked in a rather calm, but displaced tone.
“Uhm… why do we need to answer that to a complete stranger?” Liz spoke up, not seeing why they should tell a mare that seems like the definition of edgy.
“Why does she sound like Emily Blunt?” John asked.
“I appreciate the comment,” The mare replied, walking to them “but flattery won't take you anywhere. And the name's Tempest Shadow, or, just Tempest, if you'd like.”
“I don’t think your parents would name their foal something so… edgy.” Liz commented, figuring that it was a name she came up with herself cause of that moment where she became edgy.
“And how would you know that, Wasp?”
“Well, I don’t know. The only pony names I’ve heard is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, and now Flurry Heart.” She said, picking up the foal from John’s arms. “And do you think you can give this foal a super evil sounding name?” She asked that before Flurry made a cute raspberry sound with her mouth. “I don’t think so.”
“You're so naive; there's plenty of ponies with names that aren't as lovable as you think, namely, the tyrant himself, King Sombra.” The name made Flurry shiver, curling into a ball and hiding, using Liz's hair as cover.
“Bah, that’s just a name. And I think he made that name himself before he became ‘king’.” She said, making air quotes when she said it. “And since you thought that I already knew that was a fake name, mind telling us your real name?”
“No.”
“Excuse me,” John interfered. “But can we get Flurry's stroller so we can-?”
“No.”
“So you don’t want Flurry to enjoy the outside world?” Liz asked.
“I've been tasked to keep an eye on the both of you, starting with making sure you don't run outside and try to escape.”
“So, can’t you just come with us so that won’t happen?”
“I would, but Princess Cadence said otherwise.”
“So she wants to keep her own foal cooped up in the castle… great.” She said, sarcasm in her voice as she rolled her eyes as well. “Sorry Flurry, but your mother wants to keep you stuck in the castle.” She told the filly, pulling her out from under her hair.
“And you do realize she is royalty? Plenty of figures who'd want to kidnap her and demand millions of bits.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I think me and John can take care of her well enough. Even without the suits.” Liz said, seeming to let her ego do the talking.
“You sure about that? I can already come up with at least twenty-six ways to subdue you and your partner at the same time.”
“And I would suggest that doesn’t include your horn,” Liz said, lightly poking the broken horn. Tempest slapped her hand away.
“DON'T touch, or mention, about my horn.” As she said that, electricity sparked out it, crackling with her intensity, but went away as she calmed down with a deep breath.
“You know that telling someone not to do something only makes them want to do it more.” She said, poking it again once the sparks were gone.
“Flurry… get off and look away.” The baby jumped right off and turned around, using her wings to cover her sight even more. Tempest grabbed Liz's hand and threw her into the room, jumping inside and closing the door behind her. John could only hear what sounded like punching with some stuff breaking, and Liz screaming. The door opened and Tempest walked right out, panting a bit, but kept her composure. She dragged out an unconscious Liz behind her. John raised his hands to surrender.
“We'll stay! I'll clean up the room.”
“Good. And I hope your friend here learned her lesson.” She strolled right past him. John leaned down and poked Liz’s face. Flurry followed, shaking Liz's face with her hooves.
“If you can hear me, Liz, next time, don't tease a pony that looks like Kylo Ren.” He picked her up and set her on the, somehow untouched, bed, and with Flurry's help, began to clean the destroyed room. Some of the other ponies that maintained the place entered without saying a word, helping make the place clean and fixed.
After what felt like half an hour, Liz started to wake up, lightly groaning as she felt a throbbing in her head. A small wince once she tried to touch it before she asked the obvious. “What just happened? I felt like I blacked out for five seconds.”
“You got knocked the fu-!” John replied, but was interrupted by a pony.
“So sorry about that.” The pony interrupted. “Ms. Tempest is not too fond of anyone pointing out her… disability.”
“Ugh, she’s so sensitive,” Liz said with an eye-roll. “If you don’t want anyone to mess with you and your disability, she should just accept it as part of you. Kind of ruins the fun for people who really mess with her.” She said, figuring that such an ‘edgy’ mare would already know that.
“Well, she's had it rough when she was young. Lost her horn after a fatal attack by an Ursa Minor, and became the captain to the Storm King’s army.”
“Storm King?” John asked. “Sounds like a boss in a JRPG, up there with Fire Lord and Sea Ruler.”
“Well, she shouldn’t act as if her tragic backstory gives her any reason to be the way she is,” Liz said, crossing her arms. “There is always someone who has it worse than you.”
“Like you?” The pony asked.
“Worst Liz ever got was a rejection from her date,” John replied.
“To be fair, I was never searching for anyone at that time, and you convinced me to ask him out,” Liz said, feeling hurt in the inside, but didn’t want to show it.
“Only because you asked me if one of my friends was still single and you wanted to show Brittany how cool you were. I thought George was still single and didn't have the guts to ask out Tiffany.”
“I only asked out of curiosity, he wasn’t even that good looking anyway.” Liz huffed, crossing her arms. “He wasn’t my type anyway, seeing how he acts just normally.”
“Oh? And what's your type?” The pony asked out of curiosity. “Were you interested in a stallion? Maybe a griffin? I think a changeling can help; they can turn into practically anything you want!”
“Thanks, but no thanks. My kind doesn’t do bestiality since it’s rather… weird.” Liz said, not interested in any other creature that she hasn’t even seen yet. “And if you don’t know what that is, it’s like trying for a baby with your pet dog.” She explained, trying to explain it to the talking pony.
“So… you're not into Diamond Dogs?”
“What's a Diamond Dog?” John asked. “Is it like the description in that David Bowie song? Hiding in the trees and abducting you for their mine?”
“That's… pretty accurate.”
“Look, I said pet dog for a reason,” Liz said. “The animals you take care of and doesn’t talk.” She tried to explain it better.
“... But I don't have a dog. And my pet parrot does talk to me.”
“Just leave it, Liz,” John spoke. “I think they're looser in their animal laws because… well… they're animals.”
“We're not animals!”
“Then why are you all naked?” An awkward pause came.
“Maybe it’s not taboo here.” Liz simply said. “Besides, they have fur and all that, so I would assume it’s like putting layers of cloth on something you can’t really remove.”
“Not really.” The pony replied. “It's just normal. Why are you always in clothes? Not proud of your bodies?” A blush came to the human's faces, unsure how to exactly respond.
“Uhh… look at the time! It's time to read Flurry a bedtime story!” John quickly picked up the filly and ran out of the room.
“I really don’t see how that was a hard question to answer...” Liz mumbled, glancing at the mare before she decided to answer for him. “Simply put, where we come from, it’s against the law to be naked. We don’t have fur to keep us warm or to cover some more… personal parts. So that’s why clothes were made.”
“... So you're embarrassed about your body?” She asked. “Sounds like a rule a leader would make if someone commented on their body and didn't want their subjects to point it out to them.”
“No. We aren’t. Like I said, we don’t have fur to keep us warm, so clothes were made for that reason alone.” Liz said, starting to get ticked off that this mare was only listening to the stuff she wanted to hear. She patted her leg.
“It's ok. We're embarrassed about something physical about ourselves. I actually have tail extensions.”
“We aren’t embarrassed about our body!” She shouted, now getting really pissed off that this mare was assuming this.
“Uh, Liz, baby,” John spoke, peaking in with Flurry watching the scene. “We need to help her sleep.”
“Don’t call me baby, and fine,” Liz said, getting up and out of the bed as she waited for him to lead the way to the foal’s bedroom.
“I meant Flurry, not you.” He turned back to the ponies inside. “You're all really fast workers. And don't mind her, she gets cranky from time to time.” Flurry landed on his head. “Aww. Want us to wead you a bedtime stowy this afternoon?” Flurry only giggled after a yawn. “So adorable.” He turned and walked into Flurry's room.
The baby's room looked like a typical toddler’s room. Large, stuffed animals littered the place with some blocks and balls, the walls were painted pink, and overall, it looked inviting. John handed Liz Flurry as he looked in the nearby cabinet, filled with books.
“Hmm… Equestrian fairy tales?” He asked himself. “Eh, too cliche. Guide to Being A Princess? Not sure if that's reliable. Wait… Alien Alicorns vs Space Pirates!? … I'm gonna have to read that on my own spare time.” He turned to Liz. “You got any stories that you think will help Flurry fall asleep?”
“We can tell her a story back in our world,” Liz suggested, figuring that nothing here would be interesting for the little foal. “But what exactly..?” She mumbled, putting a finger to her chin as she thought on what she could tell the little filly.
“Hmm… I think I know just the solution.” John picked up Flurry and set her on his lap. “This is a story that I hope, one day, you will tell to your kids, and hopefully, not be ruined by this world's George Lucas.”
“You're seriously not going to-?”
“I am! This is the story of Star Wars! A simple, but effective story of Good vs Evil, in space!”
“Good grief.”
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
~-~-~
Shining Armor and Cadence entered their castle once again. Their day out was them relaxing with Princess Twilight, with the Alicorn getting a good look at their suits, telling her discoveries with Starlight as her assistant. It was fascinating, to say the least, and as much as Twilight wanted to, Shining insisted she didn't tamper with their suits’ technology. It took some convincing, even with the counterarguments.
“... Where is everypony?” Cadence asked, looking around the empty foyer.
“Huh… it's usually busy at this time.” Shining added. A huge collective gasp was heard from Flurry's room. The two ran up to only see practically all of the staff members and a few guards standing in the hallway, looking into Flurry's room. They could hear John telling a story inside.
“Now… go… my son.” He spoke as if he was an old man. A collective gasp and screams of “No!” came from everypony. Shining and Cadence scooted past the crowd, seeing John was holding some puppets that looked like other humans, with some monsters thrown on the side. Liz was on the floor, sleeping herself, as Flurry was sleeping on her chest.
“What's going on?” Cadence asked.
“Shh!” One of the staff shushed. John continued his story.
“With one final kiss, Luke brought his now deceased father back to Endor, as the rebels and ewoks began to celebrate the fall of the Empire. As the final act, Luke burned his father's body, an honorable warrior's burial, but he was not truly gone.”
“Does he become a ghost!?” One of the guards asked.
“Yes.” A gasp from everypony. “Just as Luke was going to back to his friends, he stopped to see the spirit of Anakin Skywalker stood beside the spirits of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda himself. Peace had been restored to the galaxy once more, and balance in the force. And that… is the end.” A huge applause came the crowd, though Shining and Cadence had a confused look on their faces.
Even with Liz's eyes still closed, she moved her hands to cover the foal’s ears, not wanting Flurry to wake up like she did cause of the loud clapping. John realized Shining Armor and Cadence were in the room.
“Oh… uh, hi.” John awkwardly introduced. “You missed out on a grand story.”
“I can see that,” Shining spoke, turning to everypony. “Alright! Back to work! All of you!” Various groans came as the ponies walked out. Cadence used her magic to pick up Flurry and laid her in bed.
“You seem to have a knack in taking care of Flurry,” Cadence spoke. “Even if your partner is… well, asleep.”
“Eh, Liz has heard the story of Star Wars so many times,” John replied.
“Not anymore.” Liz only said, opening her eyes and sitting up from her spot. “And I can see how much you trust us and your husband by inviting some edgy unicorn to keep us trapped in the castle.” She said, it being clear that she wasn’t fond of the pretty pink alicorn.
“Oh, Tempest?” Shining asked. “Yeah, sorry if she's a bit… well… mean.”
“She had me imprisoned in stone and you weren't there Shining,” Cadence spoke through gritted teeth.
“I was busy with the baby!” He turned back to the two humans. “She's not a bad mare, just had it a bit rough and takes her job very seriously. And, y’know… can't risk it, especially since Equestria seems to be attacked by an unknown force every year.”
“So, you trust a unicorn that imprisoned your wife, over two humans that only took a tiny piece of that crystal heart, only for us to save an entire city from a dragon attack?” Liz asked, not seeing how they were more untrustworthy than Tempest.
“I trust both parties equally. You both need some work. And speaking of.” He pulled out their suits. “I had to keep Twilie from tinkering your suits and helmets.”
“SUITY!!!” John squealed happily, hugging his suit and helmet. “Oh, how I miss you!”
“If she wanted to know about the suits, she could’ve just asked us… after apologizing for the accusations that we were evil.” Liz said, only taking her suit and folding it neatly to not take up so much space.
“She actually wants to apologize to you tomorrow.” Shining Armor informed Liz. “And perhaps the both of you can help out with Tempest in a field trip for her class.”
“We're gonna be teachers?” John asked.
“Supervisors,” Cadence answered.
“Another community service job?” Liz simply asked, knowing what the answer would be.
“Yep,” Shining replied.
“Great.” She said, the one word being elongated to show her ‘excitement’ at the new job they were assigned to do.
It took a while, but John, Liz, and Tempest arrived to Ponyville by train. The ride was a bit awkward, as the two humans put on their suits with the unicorn giving them the death stare.
“What are you looking at, Edgehorse?” Liz glared back at her, still not in an apologizing or forgiving mood at the unicorn.
“My job,” Tempest replied. “Make sure you both don't run off.”
“I think the only reason I’d run off is to get away from all that edge.” Liz looked away, staring out the window as one of her arms rested on the helmet on her lap.
“What is this ‘edge’ you speak of? Are you saying I'm a cliff?”
“No, I’m saying that your so dark, brooding and think you’re so cool that I want to jump off a cliff.” Liz corrected her, knowing that what she said wasn’t true, but it wasn’t like these ponies understood anything they said.
“Oh, I apologize if I'm not as bright and cheerful as everypony else. If you were as disfigured as I am and not treated as an equal, but a monster, you too would most likely be like this.”
“Oh please. Back where we come from, there are plenty of people with birth defects, or accidents that took something they never knew was important until it was gone,” Liz said, looking down at her lap. “And even though people like that are around, it doesn’t stop them from being better, being positive, and just being glad that they can be with friends and family that really care about them.” After a bit of silence, she let out a small sigh. “And this world is no different.” After another wave of silence, she spoke up again. “Listen, I’m sorry… guess I thought the power of suit get to me, and made me think I was invincible with or without it. My normal self would’ve just stayed quiet and not even mention your horn.”
“Try being abandoned by your close friends and family after losing your horn and getting scared.”
“Why not have two people of a specific race crash a plane into two large building, killing millions of people, and then let that event tarnish that specific race to never be trusted cause they think they can do it again?” She asked, summing up the nine eleven incident. “And that tragic event being a holiday to which we will never forget… or to some people, never forgive.”
John entered, hastily putting his helmet on.
“Oh man!” He breathed loudly “Sorry about that! We've got ourselves a fan fair, Liz!”
“Fan fair?” Liz only repeated questionably, unsure on what he meant by that.
“Look outside.”
Liz was unsure if she even wanted to, but did so anyway out of curiosity, turning her head to look out the window behind her. Ponies were gathered everywhere, holding up signs that read things as “Hooray for the new heroes!”, “Big Hearts in small bodies”, and “They saved my family!”. Tempest had a small smirk on her face.
“Reminds me of when the Storm King was defeated.” She only spoke.
Liz couldn’t say a word, looking away from the window as she was reminded of how even with that spark of ego she showed Tempest, she wasn’t used to being in the spotlight like this.
“Oh man, if only I had a boombox and my mixtape!” John spoke. “Make an even better impact that gets them pumped.”
“D-do you think we can go through the b-backdoor?” She asked, seeming to sunk down enough to her seat so nothing would be seen through the window.
“Heh, certainly a crowd isn't as scary as a big dragon now, is it?” Tempest mockingly asked.
“Silence!” She only had that to say, even putting on her helmet to hide the scared look on her face, even thinking about shrinking down and flying away to avoid the crowd.
“Come on, Liz,” John spoke, picking her up and dusting her off. “You just gotta be confident! Imagine them in their underwear.”
“They're naked.”
“Uh… Imagine them furless.”
Liz only stayed quiet, looking away from John as she still had the nervous feeling in her gut. But even with this feeling, she wasn’t going to abandon John, knowing from experience that John wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself. “F-fine… I’ll go out th-there.” She mumbled, it being enough approval that she would face the crowd with him.
“That's the spirit! Relax, smile, and feel free to connect with the crowd.”
“No promises.” She mumbled. John pushed Liz out of the doorway. Immediately, they were swarmed by ponies, all trying to get their attention.
“Please sign my autograph book!”
“I made some fanart of you both!”
“Do you have insurance!?”
Just as soon as the questions were being thrown at her, she only got more nervous and scared about doing or saying anything… so she didn’t do anything, only getting behind John and pushing him forward instead, as if she was telling him to ‘deal with it’.
“Hang on, one at a time,” John spoke. “Please, follow these simple instructions: ladies, to my left for make outs, dudes to my right for high fives.”
At that reaction, he only felt a blow at the back of his head. Of course, the hit bumping off of his helmet, but also bounced onto his head, feeling the back part of his helmet hit his head instead. It was clear that action said ‘that’s not what I meant!’.
“Ah. Ladies, feel free to talk to Liz.” John stepped aside.
‘This isn’t why I shoved you upfront!’ She thought, feeling that she might have to knock more sense into John after putting her in the spotlight after trying to get away from it. A gray Pegasus mare with a blonde mane and, very weirdly enough, wonky eyes approached Liz.
“Muffin?” She offered the baked treat.
“No! She wants a cupcake!” The familiar voice of the pink pony broke through, with said pony entering with a box of cupcakes.
“U-uhm…” Liz couldn’t even speak as she was a rather indecisive person with choosing something. That includes choosing between muffins or cupcakes.
“Alright! Break it up!” A raspy sounding woman's voice broke out. Pushing aside the muffin and cupcake ponies was a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. “Alright, Ms. Wasp, you may have just about everypony on your side, but I've got my eyes on you. You got that!?”
‘Okay, I was expecting some ponies to be cross with me, but I don’t even know this mare.’ Liz thought, not seeing any way she was linked to this mare. “Uhm, I have a name you know, it’s Liz. And I don’t know who you are, or why you’re giving me the stink eye… unless you’re xenophile.”
“I'm Rainbow Dash! Fastest flyer in all of Equestria! And one of the elements of harmony! And you should know why I'm like this, with what you did in Cloudsdale.”
It took a second for her to realize what she meant by that. “Oh, yeah! The blueprints, yeah, we needed to figure out how to get electric energy since it seems you didn’t know how to generate it the way my kind does.” She explained herself. “It’s probably somewhere in Manehatten… in a dumpster, I think.”
“What!? Why didn't you-!?”
“I think the ant colony has it.” John interrupted. “And I think the device is still there… or crushed, who knows.”
“We could ask them to bring it back. If that’s what you’re upset about.” Liz offered, not wanting to try anything if that would only make their situation worse.
“... Fine.” The pony replied. “But don't think it gets you off easily!”
“Figured that much.” She grumbled, feeling that she, along with miss edgy, would be hard to convince that she and John weren’t enemies.
“Alright everypony, settle down.” A western accent mare was heard. Walking through was an orange mare with a blonde mane and tail, wearing a stetson. “Howdy, Ah’m Applejack, sorry for Dash’s attitude, she doesn't take too kindly towards folks that cause problems at her old home.”
“My parents were on a tour when it happened!” Rainbow yelled. “Do you know how dangerous that is!?”
“Don’t know. But would tourists not be allowed around the area where private documents were stored? I would assume that they would only be able to see the things they want them to see.” Liz said, knowing that where she came from, they would do the same. “And if that situation seemed to be around where they were, wouldn’t the workers try and keep the innocent civilians safe before saving their own hide?” She added, also knowing that any customers or visitors would come first before anything else.
“You released ALL of the Twittermites!”
“Well, it’s not my fault that we had to do it on our own. Your ‘Princess of Friendship’ wasn’t really ‘friendly’. She was the first to assume we were evil, and then we were practically on every wanted sign for doing nothing before that.” Liz said, feeling that if it wasn’t for that Twilight mare, they would probably go the easy way, undetected, and without anyone knowing they even existed.
“Calm down, y’all!” Applejack spoke up, standing between Liz and Rainbow Dash. “Look, it was wrong of Twi to judge you both instantly, but what's done in the past can't be undone.”
“Unless we can time travel,” John spoke. Everyone turned to him with a confused look. “What? I'm only joking.”
“Whatever,” Liz waved at another one of John’s dumb ideas. “We were sent here with Miss Edgehorse for some school thing.”
“Ooh! Miss Edgehorse!?” Pinkie asked, somehow popping right out from behind Liz's head. “I need more cupcakes for the “Welcome not so bad but still broke the law” party!”
“Tempest Shadow or whatever, but I know that’s not her name, so I just call her Edgehorse from now on,” Liz explained, ignoring the blurted information about a party as well.
“... A word with the author, please.”
Wait, what!?
Are you seriously going to have Liz call Tempest “Edgehorse”? That's not even a clever name.
Pinkie! How did you-!?
You should know, silly! But really? Edgehorse?
Ugh! Look, they don't know Tempest, ok? And quite frankly, she reminds a lot of us of Kylo Ren from Star Wars. Can we get back to the story with no interruptions like this?
Okie dokie Loki! I pinky promise!
Uh… that… was something. Where was I?... oh, right.
“What the-!?” John jumped. “What are you? A Jedi?” Pinkie snickered.
“A friend to these ponies. Especially Pinkie.”
“Tempy!” Pinkie gave the Edgelord Happy pony a deep hug
“Been a long time, Pinkie. You're actually a professor now?”
“With my bestest friends in all of Equestria!”
“... This girl's a teacher?” John asked.
“I really shouldn’t be surprised,” Liz mumbled, recalling the large winged pegacorn and the giant dragon the two had to fight off a few days ago.
“And it's an Alicorn! Not a pegacorn!” Pinkie shouted out of nowhere.
“Uh… we didn't say anything.” John took a few steps back.
“Don't mind her.” Applejack spoke. “Just Pinkie being Pinkie.”
“So, are we just going to keep an idle conversation, or just get this over with. I never really liked kids… even though they liked me for some reason.” She said, recalling how she played with her young relatives and how they ‘loved’ to spend time with her, even though it would take a toll on her.
“Hey, we gotta make a good image for ourselves now,” John spoke. “Can't be like those celebrities we see on the news all the time.”
“Hey. I never said I would treat the kids as if I’m one. You already saw how good I was in making Flurry eat her mush. Something you couldn’t do.” She said, raising a brow in mockery
“But who was able to help her sleep and entertain a large crowd with some simple puppets of the characters that is Star Wars?” John had a smug look on his face.
“Touche. Guess we could help in certain ways.” Liz said, making it clear that they work better together.
“... Can we go now?” Rainbow asked.
“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses,” John replied.
“Hold our what?”
“... A figure of speech where we come from.”
“It simply telling you to be patient,” Liz explained, figuring that simply saying it’s what they say wouldn’t explain what it means.
“Yeah… patient.” Dash muttered to herself.
“So are we going to the school where the pink mare is working at, or is there another one that we were assigned to?” Liz asked, figuring that any town might have more than just one school, and she didn’t want to assume things.
“If y'all follow me, Ah can show you.” Applejack replied, taking the lead.
~-~-~
John and Liz stood in front of a class that was inside what looked to be an ideal school. The teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, a raspberry-colored earth pony with a poofy pink and white striped mane, had both stand to give a PSA on why stealing is wrong. However, the same trio of fillies John met at the beginning sat with their jaws dropped, realizing he's the bug they screamed about.
“Uh… hi.” John began. “I'm Ant-Man, here to deliver you all a message about stealing and why it's wrong.”
“And I’m the Wasp. Even before I got the title and suit, I was always a little thief. Probably a few years older than you foals is when I started. But even with my unique skill in pickpocketing,” She said, showing a yo-yo that was in the teacher’s confiscation drawer before she put it down. “Karma does find you one way or another. And it’s more of a pain when your mother talks in that disappointing tone.” She finished, also recalling the beatings she got, but she was going to keep that hidden for now.
“Uh… yeah, that. And yes, we saved the Manehattan but even today, we're paying the price of stealing those stuff needed to make us big.”
“And it’s not like we could ask for help. Even the princess of this town gave us the cold shoulder.” Liz said, now being a little dramatic.
“Uh… I'm confused.” The orange Pegasus filly spoke.
“About what?” Liz asked, figuring that there would be lots of questions.
“You're saying stealing is wrong… yes, the end justifies the meaning?”
“Well, we feel that we had no choice and had to do what we had to do, but that’s what anyone would say if they do something that seems out of place for others. Everyone feels like their own opinions and choices are right and fair.” Liz explained, crossing her arms. “And it’s kind of hard to go against the law of this world and try to not look like a villain at the same time. “So you either face the consequences or just be shunned and hated by everyone.” She leaned against the teacher’s desk, figuring that was what she was asking.
“... I don't get it.” A brown colt wearing a spinning hat spoke. The class bell rang.
“Ooh! Recess!” John spoke, running outside.
“No! Wait!” Cheerilee shouted, but the goals got up and ran after him. Liz watched as John began to show off, bouncing a soccer ball on his head, counting aloud with the students cheering.
“Show off.” She mumbled, glancing away but soon casting her eyes on the teacher. “So, is this all we were called for, or is this lesson on stealing is wrong the whole class schedule?” Liz couldn’t help but ask, feeling that if it was, it would get boring fast.
“I think you can help me clean up afterward.” The teacher replied. “Other than that, nothing else, really.” They were suddenly under a giant shadow, with some students screaming, but in a fun way. They turned to see John went Giant.
“Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum!!!”
At first, Liz was about to tear John a new one, but seeing how the kids were enjoying it instead of being scared completely, she decided to leave him be. “You’re such an idiot John.” She grumbled, a little jealous that she didn’t think of doing that herself. Cheerilee fainted and Liz was quick to catch her. ‘Forget jealousy.’ She thought, placing the mare gently in the schoolhouse, making sure that she wasn’t going to hit anything when she woke up.
Seeing that she would be fine, she was quick to pop her wings out and fly to John’s face, only to kick him right on the side of his face. “John you idiot, you might step on something that big, or worse: someone.” She scolded him.
“Relax, I know where I'm going.” The sound of a loud crunch was heard. He looked down to see he had stepped on a tree. “That doesn't count. Besides, the kids are enjoying it.”
“Oh yeah, they’ll enjoy it until you step on something that does count.” She huffed, her wings seeming to buzz in anger as well.
“Did that tree matter, kids?”
“No!!!” A collective cheer came.
“See? Nothing wrong.” He picked up the crushed tree, using his foot to cover the accident, and prepared to throw the tree. “YEET!!!” The tree went flying, flying over the mountains, vanishing.
“You idiot! What if that lands on someone!?” She shouted, knowing that even if she also got bigger, she wouldn’t be able to catch it.
“You worry too much.”
~-~-~
The sorceress Katrina made her way towards the mountain. She had a large pack on her, with magical supplies, and some jars holding some monsters. News spread of Ant-Man and the Wasp being in the town of Ponyville, right near the princess of friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle.
“They will see,” she muttered to herself. “They may have brute strength, but they're not as cunning as I am! Like all creatures, they will bow before me! No one can-!” She stopped as a shadow fell over her. The cat sorceress looked up, only to see a tree fall towards her. Her reaction was slow, as the tree crashes onto her. “... Me and my big mouth…”
~-~-~
“I only worry cause it seems your brain is still too small to think about your actions!” Liz shouted, more pissed that she had to be the ‘responsible’ one since it was clear that John didn’t care.
“And you need to relax and enjoy yourself.” He got down onto his chest, turning to the kids. “Sorry about that. Just a friendly argument.”
“Are you both married?” One of the foals asked.
“Tch! As if.” She rolled her eyes. “If I have to take care of this big idiot, then I’ll get gray hairs before I turn fifty.” She said. “Plus I won’t be able to have my own fun if I have to clean his mess.”
“Hey, you're not so clean yourself,” John replied.
“Yeah, but it seems fine that all I do is just clear or try to fix whatever you do, and when I try to do things myself, it’s as if whatever I say is meaningless unless you swoop down to fix it yourself.” She said, turning away from him, recalling how almost everything she did resulted in consequences or failures. The only part that did help in her favor was feeding Flurry, but that amounted to nothing.
“I thought that maybe here… I wouldn’t have to fix other people’s problems or live in the shadow of my big brother… but it’s clear that nothing changed, and nothing will go my way unless I had someone beside me.” She mumbled, feeling the tears swell in her eyes, but she was quick to wipe them away. “Whatever, I should just accept what I have already. I shouldn’t whine like some bratty child. Not like it’ll change anything.” She didn’t add anything else as she headed to the schoolhouse, figuring that she might as well wait until recess is over.
“... Is she your sister?” One of the foals asked. Ant-Man pressed on his button, shrinking back to normal size.
“No, she isn't.” He replied, taking his helmet off. “And I need a word with her.” He walked right into the schoolhouse, a bit peeved. “Liz! A word!”
“What now? Did I sour the mood with you and those kids? They don’t care what happens, they just want to play.” Liz said, turning to look at him while she gave him a harsh glare.
“Well thanks to you, now they're worried. They look up to us now, and so far, you're not being what we're supposed to be.”
“They should just look up to you.” She simply said, crossing her arms. “You came up with the plans. Have a whole colony of ants at your command. And what do I do? Just cut a piece of gem and let loose some twittermites that only made our reputation worse from the start.” She said, it being true that even though they were both small, she seemed to do less than him. “And when Shining attacked us, I just stayed petrified with a hoof over me, while you gave him a good knock out punch.”
“What's done is now in the past. Look, I know you may not think much of yourself, but you got wings and lasers. Freakin' Lasers! I need an ant to fly around, but otherwise, I'm grounded, unlike you. Besides, you saved those folks from that falling building and saved my skin from Torch. We're a team, you and I!”
“Yeah, like lasers are great in a world of magical talking ponies.” She huffed, turning her head away once more. “And we might be a team, but you do most of the work, and even get the upper hand. It’s proof enough in that trial when those ponies tried to take our suits. I tried to make every argument, but they just shot them all down. If it was just me by myself, they would’ve gotten away with it.”
“I beg to differ. If we get the chance to train, I'm sure your lasers are just as powerful, if not, more than a unicorn’s magical blast. And that's why I'm here, here for you.”
Liz didn’t give a response, not sure if it was cause she had no comeback, or just didn’t choose to speak over how pointless it was. She kept quiet as she made her way to the classroom door, noticing the colorful small manes protruding from the edges, it being clear the students were eavesdropping. Once she was out of the building, she flared her wings and took off, shrinking herself in the process as she felt she just wanted to be alone. John walked out and saw the students.
John made his way from the Cheerilee’s school to Twilight's school of friendship, trying to find Liz. She had shrunk and was hiding somewhere, in which he needed to find her first before someone could mistake her for a real wasp. However, navigating this school was easier said than done, as it resembled more of a university than a simple school. Of course, as he strolled by, he could see Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie teaching their classes respectfully, but tripped over somepony else, with an avalanche of clothes falling on the two.
“AHHH!!! My dresses!” The screaming of a woman came out, sounding older than the other teachers. “You better have a good explanation or I'll-!” She stopped as she took the clothing off of John’s head. Her anger quickly went away, replaced by concern. “I my, I'm dreadfully sorry for yelling at you like that, good sir.”
“Uh… nah, it's my fault.” He replied. “I should've been looking. Let me help you with those.”
“Oh nonono, these are my dresses! The students, along with Ms. Fluttershy, will need these for class.”
“... Fluttershy?”
“Another one of our teachers, darling. Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. I am Ms. Rarity.”
“John.”
“Ooh! You must come with me, darling! The students can use your help!”
“But I-”
“No buts!” Rarity's horn glowed, picking up John and dragged him away.
“Wait! Liz! HELP!!!”
~-~-~
Liz wasn’t even at the friendship school, choosing to just sit at the top part of an empty bench, still as small as a wasp. “Of course he wouldn’t understand. Like this whole freaking world is either along with him or against me.” She thought out loud. “Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and let him do everything since it all goes well for him.” She added, crossing her arms as she just wanted something good to happen cause of her own actions.
“Aww, alone now, are we?” Tempest's voice spoke to her left. Liz jumped at the sudden voice, and a bit more seeing the unicorn’s face right by her with a fake pouty face. “What's the matter? Popularity too much to handle?”
“Like you would know anything about that.” Liz huffed, turning her head away as she didn’t want to give this mare any attention.
“Oh, but I've had.”
“I highly doubt that.” She mumbled, placing a knuckle on her cheeks.
“You don't think I don't know what it's like to be mistrusted? To do something that, without context, everyone says you're evil? Trying to better yourself in ways everyone likes?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” She simply said. “But that isn’t why I’m here. I just wanted some alone time away from John...”
“He's been showing off while you feel like his shadow?”
“Seems more like I’m cleaning any mess he makes while he goes and has fun.” Liz kept her eyes on her lap, really wishing that it wasn’t true.
“Same exact feeling I had working for the Storm King, but at least your friend isn't a tyrannical ruler bent on world domination.”
“Have a feeling it would still feel the same way.” She grumbled.
“Please, from what I've seen, your friend is more than willing to sacrifice himself for your safety. The Storm King literally used me and betrayed me, all because I trusted him in bringing back my horn.”
Liz didn’t give a response, knowing that she had a bit of a point seeing how he saved her from Shining. ‘Or maybe he just didn’t want him to step on the gem shards.’ She thought.
“You know, you're cute being this small.”
“I’m not cute.” She said, glaring at her as it wasn’t intimidating at all at her size. Tempest placed her hoof on her head.
“You sure about? Look how small you are compared to me. Do you have a short temper as your size?”
All the response she got was a growl from Liz, clear that she wasn’t fond of short jokes, having to face it even when she was back in her own world.
“Aww, what's wrong? Is because I think little about you as this?”
“I swear Tempest, I won’t let you get away with this.” She said, already feeling angry from before, she felt that her fuse was getting short before she finally lets out all the bottled up rage she’s been saving her whole life.
“Why? You couldn't even measure up to me out of that suit.”
There was no warning, nor a moment for Tempest to react, but Liz was quick to flare her wings out, and give the mare a strong, but swift kick right on one of her cheeks, the impact being enough to tumble her back into a tree. Liz grew back to normal size, showing the anger and fire in her eyes. Tempest laid on the floor for a bit, but got up with a cough, cracking her neck.
“What was that?” Tempest asked with a slight chuckle. “I've received worst beatings from the Storm King.”
“I told you to knock it off, so might as well give the same reaction as you and your broken horn.” She said, really wanting to give the mare a good beating after what happened at the Crystal Empire.
“Please, I was going easy on you.” Her broken horn crackled with magic, showing how unstable it was, with some lightning surging over her body. “This is me going hard!” Tempest whipped her head back, launching a ball of lightning at Liz.
Liz shot a blast of electricity, it being enough to keep Tempest’s magic at bay. “You’re gonna need more than broken magic.” She said, a smirk on her lips as she felt she might as well get her in the heated mood as well.
“I'd say the same to you.” Tempest ran around Liz, sliding and tripping the woman, right before being picked up by Tempest’s magic and thrown into the electrical blast in a matter of seconds. Since the electricity wasn't ported into her suit, she felt the full blast, and it was painful for a lack of better words. She fell to Tempest’s hooves. “See, unlike you, I've already had years of military training and combat, unlike you and your friend. You're not even sure if you can beat me alone, can you?”
“I don’t need John. I can handle myself just as much.” She said, quick to get on her feet and even get a good distance away from Tempest. “I don’t know about him, but I got fighting experience cause I needed to learn.” She said, this time getting herself ready, keeping an eye on all four of her hooves and horn to try and figure out what move she would make.
“Well, you seem to be doing a poor job on that.” Tempest ran to Liz before jumping into the air, performing a somersault kick to Liz's face.
Liz was both quick to deflect Tempest’s kick with both her arms, but also to grab the hind leg and swing Tempest to another area of the park, it only being a few feet away from where Liz stood. Tempest reacted quickly, bouncing off the tree and use the momentum to crash into Liz, her horn glowing with her unstable magic, making herself a living missile.
Liz only smirked as she turned the buckle on her belt and shrunk down, even flying forward and making Tempest both miss her, and practically kiss the grass and dirt. Tempest shook her head, turning to find the now shrunken woman.
“Oh, Waspy!” Tempest teasingly spoke. “You better come out now! I doubt other wasps will take you in.”
“Who said I was hiding?” Tempest heard the girl’s voice right in her ear, making her think the small girl was flying by her ear. The unicorn shook her head, trying to get Liz out. “A little shaking never got the bugs away.” Liz toyed, still flying by her ear and annoying her with the buzzing of her wings as well. She regretted it as Tempest slapped her out of the way, falling to the floor.
Using her wings to soften the fall, she needed a moment to stop the minor pain in her head. But it seemed that moment was long enough for Tempest to make a comeback. Tempest saw the small human and began to stomp at the small human.
Liz was able to dodge the stomps for a moment, before she was right under Tempest, using the moment turn her belt and give Tempest a strong kick right in the center, most likely hitting her stomach, ribs, and lungs. Tempest took the blow and used the momentum to kick Liz's face, launching her into a tree.
The blow seemed enough to cause her to bleed in her mouth, spitting some of the red liquid on the floor before she charged right at her, only to shrink back down and slip into Tempest’s tight armor. Tempest felt Liz fly all over around her, and she was ticklish.
“H-hey! St-ahahaha-p that!”
“Oh, looks like even the Edgehorse has some tickle spots,” Liz said. “Now let’s see if she can still feel pain.” She smirked, charging one of her electric blasts before she released it to the exposed coat of the mare.
“Uh oh.”
That was when a large electric shock went all over her body, it being enough to even let her horn spark at the pain coursing all over her body.
“Rrr… clever move. If you're going to be like that, then I don't need this!” Tempest grabbed her own armor and tore the breastplate off, with the rest of her armor off, revealing only her body. One thing Liz didn't exactly take notice until now was the strange markings on these ponies’ flanks… or butts, as John would say. Each of their marks at least matched the pony, looks, and personality-wise, but Tempest’s Mark was an ice cream shake of sorts with some sparks around it.
“Oh yeah. Tempest Shadow really goes with that ‘dark’ butt mark.” She jokingly said, seeming to catch a hint that Tempest wasn’t who she is.
“This was my talent BEFORE I became a soldier. And face me out, out of your suits, so we may fight on equal terms.”
“Whoever said it would be a fair fight? All is fair in love and war. You should know that as a soldier.” Liz said, not giving Tempest any advantages if she didn’t have her suit. “And even if I agreed to do it, you still have your magic… if that’s what you call that stuff coming out of that broken horn.”
“Then I will not fight if you don't contemplate.”
“Then I guess that means you forfeit and I am the victor.” She smirked. “Sheesh, for a soldier you really aren’t a fighter if the odds aren’t fair or with you.”
“No, I am a soldier, but I am honor-bound. If you do not follow, then you have brought shame onto yourself, and I am the victor.”
“Meh, I’m used to bringing shame no matter where I go, so that tactic won’t work.” She said it sounds like she was boasting about it… but there really no reason to. But she did grow back to normal size as she felt tired of flying for so long and not doing anything.
“So you wish to forfeit yourself?”
“Well, since you’re such a sore loser, I guess I can keep your ‘pride’ afloat.” She said, rolling her eyes as she clicked the helmet off and dropped it to the floor, even kicking it to the side knowing without it she couldn’t use her suit. Tempest got up and cracked her neck, a deep breath.
“Focus… feel the earth…”
Liz only cracked her knuckles, it being both a way to prep herself and also ease any secret tensions she had within her.
“Feel free to strike, if you wish.”
“Yeah right. I’m not dumb enough to charge right at you.” Liz said, not taking whatever bait Tempest was offering to get her to strike at a vulnerable spot.
“Then we are at a stalemate of sorts. I will not fight, but we can discuss if you so wish.”
Liz only blew a small raspberry to the side, showing that she was nowhere interested in that. “Fine then. If you don’t want to fight after all that complaining about fighting fair, then I guess I’ll take my leave.” She said, turning to go and grab her helmet to just fly off someplace where she could be alone again… but was secretly waiting in case Tempest was gonna try anything.
“Will you be looking for your friend?”
“Tch. Yeah right. Not now, I’m still not ready to see him.” Liz said, tightly gripping her helmet. “He’s probably off enjoying himself without cleaning his mess.” She grumbled the last part.
“You sure? He seems to be in quite a pickle at Twilight's School.”
“He’ll be fine. He got his own suit and a colony of ants in his control. He doesn’t need me.” She huffed, but couldn’t help but be curious as to why he was there in the first place.
“I don't think so. He's looking quite fabulous about the last time I saw him, even if he was searching for you.”
“Fabulous?” She only repeated, turning back to the mare to show just how lost she was in what she was saying.
“You can see for yourself.”
“I’m guessing you won’t just explain yourself and make me go there,” Liz said, rolling her eyes as she figured she might as well see whatever trouble he has gotten himself into.
“Nope.”
Liz stayed quiet for some time before she finally responded. “Fine. Might as well see whatever dumb thing he’s done.”
~-~-~
John hated his life. Rarity, one of the professors at the school of friendship, had applied so much makeup on him, and had him wear so many dresses, he was unsure if he was actually becoming a drag queen. It didn't help that the students (especially Ocellus) were too busy giggling at his appearance.
And if he felt it couldn’t get any worse, Liz and Tempest came into the classroom, and it was obvious that Liz was trying hard not to laugh.
“Oh, please, laugh away,” John replied. “Let me perform Abba’s Dancing Queen for you.”
With the permission she was granted, she immediately laughed out loud at John’s predicament, the girl needing to lean on the doorframe and even started to tear up. “Oh my god! My side!” She said mid laughter. “You’re so ugly, not even RuPaul would accept you in their show!”
“And I won,” Tempest spoke with a smirk. “We'll have to do this some other time.”
“Some other time?” John asked. “What happened? And why are you bruised up, Liz?” The butter-yellow pegasus with the long pink mane and tail, professor Fluttershy, scooted Liz out of the room.
“Oh dear, you poor thing.” She cooed. “You need help, ASAP.”
“Wait, what? Who are you? And I’m fine, I don’t need any help.” Liz said, trying to get around the mare that was now trying to make her go somewhere else. “I need to see more of drag queen John.”
“It's ok, I'm sure Discord won't mind a guest.”
“I'll see you later after class!” John yelled as Liz and Fluttershy disappear. He turned to Rarity. “How long until this torture ends?”
“Another half hour, good sir.” The unicorn answered.
“Ugh… fine… let's get the 70’s, Disco inspired dress ready.”
~-~-~
When Liz was finally brought to a school nurse office, she was made to sit on the weird hospital bed while the pegasus worked on patching any wounds and constantly asking if she was okay and apologizing when she thought she was being too rough, which wasn’t rough at all.
“Oh dear, that must've been a rough fight you had.” Fluttershy continued speaking. “I hope it wasn't Rainbow Dash or any cuddly critter.”
“It was Tempest. We had a small battle, but the mare gave up as soon as I wasn’t ‘playing fair’.” She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, for a soldier, she sure doesn’t understand that in a fight, there’s no such thing as being fair.”
“Oh no, she was a soldier but follows a code. At least it was her, I don't think Harry would be happy with holding you down.”
“Harry?” She was confused about the sudden name. “Whatever, I wasn’t a part of the army she was in, so I have no reason to follow whatever rules she follows. And if she used to be in it, then why bother to follow those rules?”
“It's her own code, really. And as I said, she was a soldier, but is now more of a lone wanderer, occasionally helping us out when it's needed… for the most part.” A knock on the door was heard. “Ooh! I think that's Harry with the tea!” She flew right to the door and opened it. Standing in the doorway was a full-grown bear, holding a silver tray with a kettle and glass cups. John was in the background, wearing a disco-inspired dress, but turned and ran away upon seeing the bear.
“We got a bear on the loose!!!” he screamed.
“Why is there a bear with a tray of tea..?” Liz could only ask, hoping that if it was wild and going to attack them, Fluttershy would figure a way out cause Liz would bail on that situation.
“Thank you, Harry.” Fluttershy took the tray from the bear and flew back. “He's my assistant. Don't worry, he's much softer than he looks.” The bear gave a toothy grin, seemingly blushing.
‘I’m guessing both physically and mentally.’ She thought, crossing her arms and staring at the bear a little longer until she felt it would be too weird as if it wasn’t already.
“Care to pet, Mr. Harry?”
“N-no. I’m good.” She declined the offer, thinking that the bear’s fur might not be the softest thing or the safest thing to touch as she could only assume a wild animal would have fleas, ticks, and unbrushed fur. Harry frowned before walking away, out through another door.
“Well, I hope you enjoy the tea and get yourself acquainted with Discord.”
“Discord?” She repeated the name, only thinking of an online texting site that she barely used.
“Oh please, Everyone knows me.” A kinda elderly, but still mischievous sounding man’s voice spoke. Appearing right on the tip of her nose was a small, slender creature of sorts that was a mix of several creatures at the limbs.
“Ahh! Something’s on my nose!” She was quick to freak out, thinking it was a bug and shaking her head to get it off of her.
“Discord!” Fluttershy spoke in a stern voice.
“Relax, Fluttershy, I'm just introducing myself.” The small creature spoke in that voice. It snapped its lion paw, and in a flash, it was now an 8-foot tall version of itself, sitting in thin air, dressed up as a news reporter. “Name's Discord, here to report on some new heroes! Tell me, what's your name and what do you do?” He shoved a microphone into Liz’s face.
Liz didn’t give an answer, only scooting backward away from the mic, clear that the weird actions and appearance of the creature frightened her no matter what size he was.
“Oh? A shy one, eh? Well, this calls for some serious action!” His outfit was swapped, turning to that of a miner. With another snap, he was gone… until Liz swore she felt something enter her left ear, with the sound of a jackhammer banging everywhere inside. “Hi-ho! Hi-ho! Into your mind, we go!”
“Gethimout! Gethimout! Gethimout!” Liz shouted, shaking her head once more as she didn’t think she would feel so violated this way.
“Discord! No!” Fluttershy shouted, her calm demeanor was now replaced by anger. “Stop that! NOW!!!” Discord appeared outside, now as a puppy, making small, whimpers. John entered the room with a wave of ants.
“Alright! I'm here to take care of the bear!” He announced. “Now where did it-” He stopped. “Aww! A puppy!” John picked up the ‘puppy’ “Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy!?”
“I am the best boy.” The Discord puppy answered.
“Of course you-” John paused. “... DEMON DOG!!!” He threw Discord to the floor, who vanished in a puff of Smoke, back to his normal self, wearing a scientist outfit.
“Well, that's not very ‘heroic’ of you. Assuming a talking dog is evil instead of an innocent Diamond Dog.”
“WHAT IS THIS THING!?!?!?”
“Discord! Ruler of Chaos!”
“Somebody get rid of it!” Liz shouted, it being clear that neither of them liked the ‘Ruler of Chaos’. Discord appeared in bed next to her.
“I think the correct term is ‘somecreature’.”
“Discord! Enough!” Fluttershy shouted, making John jump. Discord teleported next to the shy pegasus.
“I'm just following what Twilight said.”
“Making friends is one thing, but this is not one of them. You need to apologize.”
“Apologize!?”
“Yes. Apologize… unless you want some secrets spoiled for you on your next session.” Discord released a dramatic gasp.
“You wouldn't!”
“Hmm, then you wouldn't mind knowing that Spike planned you all to-”
“NO!!! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to freak you both out!”
Liz just stayed quiet, not buying it from such a weird looking creature. Discord gave what looked like Bambi's eyes with a bit of a toothy grin.
“Please!? I know a fun thing we can do!”
“... I don't know…” John spoke before leaning to Liz. “What do you think?”
“I guess we can accept the apology, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let my guard down,” Liz responded, still keeping her eyes on the creature before them.
“Oh please,” Discord spoke, appearing from right behind Liz. “it's not just me you should keep your guard up around.”
“How did you-!?” John asked, turning to see how Discord vanished in mid-air, but snapped out of it and shooed him away. “Bad touch! Bad touch! Stranger danger!”
Discord scooted away and blew a raspberry at them. “Fine, but you're not invited to this session of Ogres and Oubliettes.” Discord snapped and he was gone.
“... Something felt oddly familiar with that guy.”
“Let’s hope we’ll never see that creep again.” Liz crossed her arms.
~-~-~
Climbing over the mountains that border Ponyville, Katrina, the feline sorceress, looked over the peaceful village.
“So… you both choose to hide here?” She asked herself. “Well, I hope everyone will see what will happen. NO ONE gets in the way of-!”
“Hi! You hiking as well?” Pinkie asked, appearing beside her.
“GAH!!!” Katrina stumbled down the mountain.”... Ow.”
It wasn't until sundown that John and Liz were allowed to leave the nurse’s office to head to their momentary home. Their place was Sweet Apple Acres, where professor Applejack lived in, alongside her older brother, little sister, grandma, and, recently, grandpa. Neither was willing to ask about him, since they didn't want to come off as rude, and were quite tired. Instead, they followed the Southern pony, all to where they were going to be sleeping in for a while. From what the locals spoke, they were quite lucky.
“Any of y'all know ‘bout farmin’?” Applejack asked.
“Kinda,” John answered truthfully. “My uncle had one… though, I think what he grew was illegal.”
“Nope. Only went to a country fair and it smelled like fertilizer if you know what I mean.” Liz said, looking at the many trees around them. “And those apple picking farms where the ground around it was just rotten apples left behind.”
“Hope they weren't sellin’ bad apples.” Applejack replied. “But I've got plenty of chores you both can do, and it's not just apple buckin’.”
“Oh? Like what?” John asked.
“Feed the animals, clean the house, walk Winona around, help Applebloom with her homework, that type of stuff.”
“Oh, I don’t mind some of those,” Liz said, not rejecting the tasks. “Does that also count for community service?” She just had to ask.
“Of course it does. We appreciate helping… hands around here, especially from folks who are willing to put in the hard work.”
“Well, when the opportunity shows, might as well get free labor from people with special tools,” Liz said, knowing that’s what any company would do.
“Now, now, we're a local farm ‘round these parts, and we're as fair as fair can get. Besides, we're down to earth and traditional, so keep the suit usage at a minimum. And no ants.”
“Dang it!” John yelled.
“Really? Even though it could make work easy?” Liz said, raising a brow as it was obvious that they run the farm in a backward kind of way.
“It's how our parents would want it.” Applejack replied, but quickly went silent, as if she said a swear word.
“More like what your grandmother would want it,” Liz said. “Bet she’s the kind of grandmother that thinks the right way is her way. Heh, just like mine.”
“Hey, we should try to respect her wishes,” John replied, sounding a bit pained by it. “We already got a place to sleep, let's not make them angry.”
“I’m not trying to insult her. I’m just saying trying a new way might be beneficial. I mean, I don’t think her parents would want to lose the farm either, right?” Liz said, seeming to not see what the big picture was.
“We've already had threats from folks wantin’ to take out home away,” Applejack spoke. “But we ain't gonna let some folks push us away from our place. ‘sides, we’re responsible for the supply of both fresh cider and Zap Apple Jam.”
‘But there’s always room for improvement.’ Liz thought, rolling her eyes as she figured these old fashioned farmers won’t change until it was too late.
“Hope y'all can stay and try out our famous Cider and Zap Apple Jam.”
“Just make it non-alcoholic,” Liz said.
“Please, you gotta let loose sometimes.” John nudged her. “One couldn't hurt.”
“I never had alcohol before. And I don’t intend on drinking now.” She declined the offer.
“Well you have someone who does every now and then, and will be sure to keep you alive if you do get buzzed or drunk.”
“You really want me to drink for the first time?” Liz raised a brow, not seeing how it could end in a good way.
“Not binge drink, of course. Just one will be fine.”
“Ugh, fine. But if I don’t like it, I won’t take another sip.” Liz declared, making it clear that she wanted to not like it.
“Well, it won't be for a while now,” Applejack spoke. “But I'll be sure to save you both a drink when Cider season begins.”
‘Then why bother mentioning it?’ Liz thought, having to work up the courage to even agree to that.
The group made their way to the farmhouse. It looked like any other barn, with an old but still functional wooden house that's seen better days, a red barnyard that could house other animals, and various animals around, from chickens to pigs to sheep. Walking around the farm, wearing a yoke, was a large, red stallion with a blonde mane, and the little filly that John met, Applebloom. Rocking in her chair, snoring loudly, was an elderly mare with a green coat and had a grey mane kept in a bun. The barking of a dog was heard, as Liz was tackled by a brown and white Border Collie, which licked her face.
It wasn’t a surprise that the bold and very friendly canine cracked a smile on Liz’s face, the girl able to push the dog away and also wipe the saliva that was still on her. “I’m guessing this is Winona.” She said, but more in a questionable tone as she pets the furry animal, noticing how soft the coat was, it being a little off coming from a pet owned by farmers… not saying she would be filthy or anything. Just not as pampered.
“Yep. She's mah dog.” Applejack answered.
“Aww! Cute doggy!” John added.
“She’s so soft and fluffy,” Liz said, quick to wrap her arms around Winona and bring her close, nearly burying her head in the dog’s fur.
“Easy now,” Applejack spoke “Don't want her too excited. You both need your sleep.”
Liz let out an exasperated sigh, but relented and let the dog go, she running off to another part of the farm. ‘I want her. I want Winona.’ She thought, thinking of just claiming the dog on her own and running off, but figuring that she couldn’t handle an apple farmer if she was technically ‘defeated’ by Tempest… but she’ll never admit that out loud.
“Yeah, I'm getting tired,” John replied with a yawn and a stretch. “Who knew putting on dresses was so tiring.”
“You wouldn't believe it.” Applejack admitted with a shiver.
“Seriously you two? A dress is fine, it’s the heels that make it hell.” Liz said, knowing from experience that she could care less about the dress. “Honestly, I think it would be cool wearing a long dress with boots, the dress hiding the shoes. At least, that what I wanted to do for prom.”
“Incase y'all don't know it… we don't usually wear clothes.”
“... They are nudists!” John yelled.
“What's a nudist?”
“They aren’t nude, they got fur. I mean, you never say that a dog or a cat is a nudist.” Liz said, hitting John’s chest as a way to tell him to knock it off.
“But they are naked.” Applejack replied. “You both embarrassed about your bodies?” Before Liz could lose her mind, John stepped forward.
“We'll answer your questions tomorrow. Can we see where we will be sleeping?”
“Oh, right… Big Mac!? Are the beds ready!?”
“Eeyup!” The red stallion answered.
“Alright, follow me.”
The room was kinda small, but plenty of legroom for the two. Two beds were set apart from each other, with freshly washed blankets, sheets, and pillows. A window was on the opposite wall of the doorway, where they could see the town and Twilight's castle, with the school behind it. It wasn't much, but it was likely the best the farming family could muster.
“Well, it’s much better than living in an anthill,” Liz admitted, it felt as if she was just sleeping on the ground, with the rocks hurting her back. She didn’t bother asking which one John wanted as she took the one closest to the window, laying on the comfy bed and almost falling asleep.
“And better than prison,” John added, flipping onto his bed and hugging his pillow. “So soft~...”
Liz couldn’t help but let out a small yawn, it being clear that she was starting to get sleepy.
“Heh, see y'all in the morning.” Applejack spoke, turning off the lights and closing the door. It only took both a few minutes to fall asleep.
~-~-~
Both woke up to see that they're in their regular clothes, and were in Canterlot… but it didn't exactly feel the same.
“Canterlot?” Liz was the first to speak up. “Weren’t we at that apple pony’s place?” She asked what was in both of their minds.
“Yeah,” John replied. “And how are we in our regular clothes?... Did Applejack and her family take our suits off!?”
“Don’t know.” Liz only said, being the first to get up onto her feet, being barefooted as well. “Something is definitely wrong, so we should keep our guards up.” She added, noticing that not a single pony was spotted since they woke up.
“I apologize for the inconvenience,” A wise and experienced sounding voice of a mare echoed around them. “please, take a seat.” A pair of chairs appeared right in front of the two seemingly out of thin air.
‘I swear if these chairs suddenly try and strap me down… I don’t even know what I could do after that.’ Liz told herself, choosing to just go with it as she took a seat with crossed arms and legs.
“Please, I have no intentions in harming you, Liz.”
‘Is this the Matrix?’ John thought as he took his seat.
“No, this is not the matrix.”
“Uh… o-ok! This is getting weird! Are you a mind reader!?”
“No. This is a dream.” A blue vortex appeared, and out came a dark blue Alicorn that looked like a slightly smaller version of Celestia. She wore black regalia, instead of gold like Celestia's, and had a mane that, while also blew with no wind around, had the night sky in it, decorated with stars. The pony took a seat in front of them. “Greetings. I am the princess of the night.”
“Really? I could have never guessed that.” Liz said with sarcasm, a brow raised.
“I was expecting something… showy.” John commented.
“Probably not as showy as Celestia.” Liz guessed.
“WHAT!?” The princess of the night looked offended. “You want a show!? Thouest will get a show!”
‘Not like we asked for one...’ Liz thought, rolling her eyes a bit. Everything suddenly turned pitch black, with only a spotlight on the Alicorn herself. Her horn glowed, bringing in some smaller, younger versions of herself. They heard the music from the famous “Hallelujah” chorus as the Alicorn cleared her throat, with lights going off as she sang.
Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna Hi I am Luna (Yo!) Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna Hi I am Luna Hi I am Lina. Hi I am Luna. Hi I’m Luna (Hi!) Hi I’m Luna (Hey!) Hi I’m Luna (Yo!) Hi I’m Luna (Yo!) Hi I am Luna. Hi I am Luna. (Alright!) Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Luna Hi I am Luna. Hi I am Luna. Hi I’m Luna I am Luna Hi I’m Luna Hi I’m Luna. Hi I’m Lina. Hi I am Luna. Hi I am Luna. I am Luna Hi I’m Luna!!! “In your face, Celestia!”
Everything went back to normal, with light returning everywhere. The human couple had a blank stare, unsure how to react to that. Luna blushed.
“S-sorry, it’s been a while since I performed like that.” She apologized.
“I’m guessing your name is Luna then,” Liz spoke up, figuring that she might as well be the one to respond.
“... Yes… it is.” She replied with a sour look.
“So is there a reason why me and John are in the same dream, or why you’re invading it?” Liz decided to get to the point.
“I'm here to warn you both that great threats will be arriving in your future, much sooner than expected. You will need to work together to survive.”
“Yeah, we figured that already,” John answered. “And why didn't you arrive to help us when we came here?”
“You were small, and small creatures have small dreams that I can't detect. But there will be forces that will push both of you to your limits, physically, mentally, and spiritually.”
‘Kind of figured that out as well.’ Liz thought.
“You're in the dream realm, I can hear what you think in here. And don't take this warning lightly.”
“Well it’s not like I think this place is cupcakes and rainbows after we fought a dragon, and after that, we were taken to court,” Liz said, making it clear that this world won’t be as great as the cute little ponies make it look.
“Oh no, facing a Dragon such as Torch will be the least of your worries. As we speak, Katrina, the rogue sorceress, is hunting you down.”
“Katrina… Katrina…” Liz had to think for a moment before she realized who she was talking about. “Oh, the same Katrina that made Torch attack the city… or try to?”
“Yes. Because of you both stopping her, she's hunting you both, ready to attack.”
“Uh, who is Katrina?” John asked. “I'm just imagining her to be an evil cousin of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.”
“She's far worse than a witch.” Her horn glowed, and the world changed around them, showing a different Canterlot back then. Sitting on the throne was a large Stallion what, while had a dark pink mane, looked really strong, had a scruffy beard, and wore an eye patch over his right eye. Standing next to him was a mare that looked a bit like Luna, but just had a blue mane. Everything played out as Luna spoke
“Before I was born, and when Celestia was just a foal, Equestria wasn't as open as we are today. Our father was untrusting to any of the other races, only ponies, and when news came of a sentient cat that could use magic, as you can assure, our father was paranoid. She arrived at the throne room on her own, wishing to only to work with Equestria and it's beautiful land to escape the harshness of hers. Many days had passed, with her arriving at the king, showing off impressive feats that even impressed Starswirl, but each time, our father declined. Eventually, her wish to serve with a higher power in turn for a better life dwindled, and one of the lusts for power grew inside.
“Her attacks were calculated and ferocious, and though she lost the vast majority, my parent's guards barely made it through. But one day, but didn't take account of my sister. Celestia, during these attacks, was trained by Starswirl, as she was powerful enough to move the sun on her own. Using the power of the sun, Celestia won, but at a great price. With his last breath, father apologized, and to show mercy, Celestia banished Katrina to the badlands for all of eternity.”
“So… a super old cat woman is hunting us down with powerful magic?” John asked.
“And she only turned evil cause your dad was a racist?” Liz added, kind of seeing how a more friendlier world would show her that power isn’t everything and that friendship is what she really needs… yeah right! Like that’ll ever happen!
“Our father was foolish,” Luna replied. “I knew he cared for his people, but not accepting those who wish to join our kingdom? We know it's best to keep our subjects safe, but be open for any others, to show we're open for them as well. If the rumors are true, she's capturing and holding the mightiest warriors to aid in her return to take over my kingdom, and you two are now on her list.”
“Well, we don’t have to worry too much about that. I mean, the only ones who know where we are you, your sister, Cadence, Shining Armor, Tempest, Twilight and her friends. I don’t think anyone is dumb enough to share stuff about creatures as… unique, as us.” She said, figuring that was one way to describe the two.
“It's true we don't tell everyone where you're at, but she has spies working for her, most of them are unaware that they're working for her. She's seen what everyone else sees and has learned everything that anyone has learned. The only question you need to worry is who's unintentionally working for her, and when she's going to strike.”
‘Yep. She sounds like someone that your dad should be on the opposing team.’ Liz thought with a roll of her eyes.
“Ahem! Dream world. I can hear your thoughts here. Just know that she may be arriving sooner than expected… and it seems you're surrounded by guests now.”
“Wait, guests?” John asked. Everything stretched out and shook, everything vanishes.
~-~-~
“SURPRISE!!!” A collective cheer arrived, making John and Liz wake up with a scream. They were outside, in the middle of a field, with banners that showed cute art of the two, with streamers decorating some makeshift gazebo. Party Hats were placed on their heads, with a kazoo in their mouth. Pinkie Pie appeared between the two humans.
“Like the super-duper, thank-you-for-saving-Manehatten- surprise party!?”
“... Did you literally take us and our beds outside while we were asleep?” John asked.
“Yep! And sorry for the bruises.”
“Bruises!?”
Before John could look, Liz was quick to shove John away, the surprise wake up call making Liz latch onto him out of fear, but seeing that they were fine, she pretty much just shoved him off of the one bed they were both in.
“... Ow.”
“Ooh! I almost forgot!” Pinkie spoke up “I have another guest! Be right back!” She vanished in a pink puff of smoke.
“... Should we join the party?” John asked.
“I have a feeling that even if we didn’t want to, they would make us.” She sighed, getting up from her part of the bed. To their surprise, a small, baby alligator walked to them with a tray filled with snacks to them, as some dance music played, prompting everypony around them to dance.
“I don't know what's weirder. The fact an alligator is acting like a servant and handling snacks, or music is playing from nowhere.”
“Just ignore it, we are in a land full of magical talking ponies, there’s a chance that this is normal.” Liz shrugged, taking one of the snacks and taking a small bite out of it.
“Yeah… so… shall we show them how it's done?”
“How what’s done?” She repeated, not getting what he was saying.
“Oh, you know... High school homecoming? Paula Abdul. Opposites Attract.”
“John… that was a one-time thing.”
“But don't you remember how great it felt?”
“Not really.” She bluntly answered.
“... Wow, you're such a killjoy. What do you suggest we do then? Just socialize?”
“I guess.” She lightly shrugged, figuring that they also wouldn’t need to go in their superhero attire and just wear what they were given, the black jogging pants and a white t-shirt.
“Oh come on! We should liven up the party!”
“I think our presence alone should be enough.”
“Ptthp! Just hope Pinkie's guest will be interesting.”
“In a world of magical talking ponies, I would assume yes,” Liz said, rolling her eyes before she just had to ask the obvious. “So where is this party taking place?”
“Sweet Apple Acres.” The same cross-eyed, muffin offering Pegasus answered, holding a tray of muffins. “Muffins?”
“Oh god!” Liz shouted, not seeing the mare until she spoke up. “Dang, you nearly gave me a heart attack.” She placed a hand on her chest, feeling her heart beat faster than normal.
“Oopsy! Sorry. Just answering your question.”
“... Is she ok?” John asked Liz in a whisper.
“Sorry, she just came out of nowhere.” She whispered back, calming down her heartbeat before she spoke up to the gray pegasus. “Well, thanks for the answer… and is any of them chocolate chip?” She asked, pointing at the tray of breakfast pastries.
“Yep! Also, banana, blueberry, apple, cinnamon-” The Pegasus answered before being interrupted by John
“I think that's good enough.” John took a muffin and bit it. “Mm… bananas.” He stopped as an ant was on his shoulder, clicking to him “Wait… Katrina’s here? Already? But we just got up.”
“Who's Katrina?”
“Uh…” John quickly dragged Liz away from the cross-eyed pegasus. “We gotta get everyone out of here! If Katrina is here, we can't afford to injure anyone.”
“Yeah, but how are we gonna do that without any of them knowing what’s going on? A bunch of ponies freaking out won’t help us.” Liz asked before she bit into a chocolate chip muffin she grabbed herself, enjoying the hint of sweetness.
“... Hold on, I think I got a plan.” He turned to everyone. “FREE CUPCAKES AT SUGARCUBE CORNER!!!”
“Free Cupcakes!?” Everypony yelled, then ran away in a stampede.
“I don’t even know who is dumber, you or those ponies..?” She commented, not even believing that it worked after seeing it with her own eyes.
“Hey, so far, everything has been running by cartoon logic,” John replied.
“So far, but that doesn’t mean it always will.” She said, keeping an eye out for that moment to happen.
“Don't be jealous that I know more about cartoons than you do.”
“I don’t think that’s something you should be proud of.”
“And what? You want me to continue watching those various philosophical videos that you hate me watching? Shall we discuss the philosophy of Adam Sandler again?”
“Please don't.”
It was that Pinkie returned with a bipedal figure, wearing a paper bag over its head. The figure wore what looked like large robes, various equipment and ingredients of sorts, standing about as tall as the two. Pinkie looked around with a confused look.
“Hey! Where'd everypony go!?” She asked.
“They moved the party to Sugarcube Corner,” Liz said, keeping her eyes on the two-legged creature as she wasn’t going to let her guard down now.
“Aww. That's a shame. I brought a new guest.” She removed the bag, revealing the guest to be a literal cat woman.
‘Not sure if this is that Katrina girl that the dragon mentioned, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be cautious.’ She thought, trying to figure how to get this pink pony away if things went south.
“Seriously!?” The cat woman asked in an annoyed tone. “You seriously had to blind me up like that?”
“What? It's a surprise party for you.”
“For our first villain, this is quite an embarrassing entrance,” John commented. The bipedal cat turned to them.
“Hmm… you're much smaller than the last time I saw you.” She observed. “And your armor is… not as good as I thought they were.”
‘It should be obvious that we don’t have the suits on…’ Liz thought, rolling her eyes as she figured maybe she shouldn’t be too on guard.
“So… you're Katrina?” John asked.
“Aww, glad to hear you remember me.” Katrina purred. “I will say, despite you lacking in looks, I'm glad you're not insectoid.”
“Insectoid?” Liz repeated questionably.
“You're not wearing your helmets. I thought you were a huge ant and wasp under those helmets of yours.”
“Eww, no?” She said, not wanting to imagine herself being a person with a wasp head.
“I think you're referencing Man-Ant from the Aquabats.”
“What?” Katrina asked.
“... You wouldn't understand.”
“Eh, I never really cared.” Katrina’s paws came together, forming a ball of electricity, then blasted at the two. The two humans reacted quickly, jumping out of the way as the blast made contact with a tree, causing it to explode.
“Ooh! Again! Again!” Pinkie cheered.
“Shoot! We could’ve been killed!” Liz stated the obvious, feeling that they couldn’t do this without their suit, but they were inside the barn, and Katrina was in the way.
“Oh-hohoho! This is gonna be easy!” Katrina announced, quickly doing a wave of her paws, conjuring fire.
“I knew we should've kept our suits on!” John yelled. “And Pinkie! She's a bad guy! Stop cheering her on! Only I'm allowed to do that!”
“Not helping!” Liz said through gritted teeth, right before she saw an orb of fire be aimed right at her, and she kicked back at the last second, her leg getting a little burnt and ruining the pants.
“Oh! Sorry!” Pinkie replied before turning to Katrina. “Hey! You can't be attacking our heroes!”
“You think they're heroes!?” Katrina asked in a sarcastic tone. “Anyone, good or bad, can be a hero. Why, if Lord Solaris hadn't rejected me, then-” Before she could continue, Pinkie sprayed the cat with a spray bottle.
“No! Bad! Bad kitty!” Katrina hissed at Pinkie.
“Cheese it!” John yelled, making a mad dash towards the barn.
Liz tried to follow, but with her burnt leg, she couldn’t move as fast as John. Unfortunately, John didn't notice, almost disappearing… though, there was the sound of glass breaking.
“What in tarnation!?” An elderly woman’s voice yelled.
“Sorry! I'll clean that up!” John's voice replied.
Pinkie’s spray bottle squirted only small puffs of water. She looked at her bottle and shook it, realizing it's empty. Katrina hissed at Pinkie and saw Liz running away.
“Oh, no you don't!” Katrina’s hands conjured up some magical rope, throwing it at Liz's legs, tripping the woman over.
“Fu-!” She couldn’t finish her curse as she faceplanted on the ground, feeling her legs be pulled together as the magic rope tied around her. ‘John you jerk! Way to abandon me!’ She thought with hate in her mind.
“Ah! That's no way to talk to your master!” Katrina cackled, dragging Liz towards her. “You're mine now! And your friend as well!”
“Hey! I said-!” Pinkie yelled, but Katrina flicked some glowing dust at her. The pink pony sneezed, and with each sneeze, she shrunk. A few sneezes and Pinkie was no more but the size of a small toy, one that could fit in Liz's palm.
“Now then, you can cooperate, or we'll have some fun.” Katrina had a malicious smile, approaching Liz.
“Yeah right, as if I would listen to some dirty cat!” She shot back, even with her legs tied together she tried to crawl her way to the barn.
“Then it'll be fun.” Katrina’s claws came right out. “I'm gonna enjoy making some improvements to your face. And after that, you'll appreciate me keeping you around, being a part of my personal army.” Before Katrina could lay a claw on Liz's face, the floor shook, similar to that of an Earthquake. Liz looked up, seeing John, in his suit, now a giant, running to the two. “WHAT THE-!?” Before she could finish, John kicked Katrina like a football, sending the cat lady into the air.
“GOOOAL!!!” He shouted before clicking on his suit, turning back to normal size. “You alright, Liz? Anything hurt?”
“I’m fine. But you could’ve kicked me to the next state along with her.” She said, feeling the magic rope fade away and she was able to move her legs again… but only to feel the stinging pain of the burn on her leg.
“I could've, but I'm not as clumsy as you think I am.” He knelt down and pulled out some ointment. “Here, figured you'd need this.”
Liz didn’t say anything, taking the ointment and squeezing some in her hand before putting it on the red burn mark. “Way to bail on me too. Had to listen to that weird furry go on about being my master or whatever.”
“On other days, that'd be kinky. And you know we can't battle her without our suits. Oh, and I also got your suit. Best put it on now; if my comics are right, she's gonna be back any moment, quite pissed off.” He presented Liz with her suit.
She didn’t say anything, taking the suit and changing quickly, now having yet to put the helmet on so she could use the suit entirely. Just as John predicted, Katrina teleported right back to them, clearly looking injured, but her eyes were filled with rage, as she snarled at the two.
“HOW dare you strike me!?” She roared “I am Katrina! The master sorceress! And you are nothing but worms!”
“For a master, you sure get pissed off for the minor things,” Liz commented, still holding her helmet in her hands as she was ready to knock some sense into this feline, but figured she had limited actions cause of the injury that still stung when she stood alone.
“And we're not worms,” John replied, putting on his helmet. “We've got ants!” As he said that, the local ants began to stack on each other, forming a barrier around Katrina. To say she was surprised was an understatement.
“What sorcery is this!?” She demanded.
“Just a little neat invention by Dr. Hank Pym.” He turned to Liz. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” She mumbled, getting ready in a fighting position. Katrina snarled, then pounced at the two, with her claws out. In unison, Jack and Liz delivered a hard uppercut to the feline’s jaw, sending her back, and rolling into some ants that quickly began to swarm her. Despite her being covered by ants, a blast if force fired the ants away, followed by Katrina conjuring twin blades from her paws.
“Oh crap!” John proclaimed, quickly ducking when Katrina tried to slice his head off.
Liz jumped back instead, barely missing the blade as she clicked her helmet on, getting ready to give this girl to turn tail and leave them alone.
John quickly got back up, tripping Katrina then proceeded to grab her tail, and began to spin. Katrina threw a dagger at his helmet, though, he was quick to dodge them, only getting a few scratches. The spinning went fast, with the force that made Katrina flail her arms around, having lost control.
“Combo time, Liz!”
‘I don’t think we’ve even come up with a combo move before.’ She thought, also trying to come up with what she could do. John threw Katrina at Liz, the cat woman flailing around, completely dizzy as she spun in the air.
She figured that she should to an old-fashioned kick to the skull, waiting for the right time before flexed the muscle in her legs before she swung one of her legs and made contact with the side of her head. The kick made Katrina stumble backward, right to John, delivering a hard right hook to her face. John’s punch made Katrina stumble back to Lizz, allowing her to deliver a left hook to the other side of her face.
“Happy feet! Wombo combo!!!” John cheered aloud, as the two humans began to a fast series of punches across the cat sorceress, followed by a combined uppercut that, despite it being fast, felt slow and triumphant to the two.
“I honestly don’t see how this furry was able to control a giant dragon,” Liz commented, practically playing hot potato with the said feline.
“Yeah! It's almost like she's…” John stopped, stepping to the side. “Oh crap! It's the classic surprise move she's gonna do!”
“Heh, you're smarter than you look,” Katrina spoke with a grin. Her hands glowed yellow as she delivered a punch to his gut, but made quick hand gestures that made him fall to the floor, stiff as a board, paralyzed. She turned to Liz, cracking her paws like knuckles before cracking her neck, with her yellow hand turning green, and all the wounds they inflicted on her healed in seconds. “Tell me, do you have any tricks up your sleeve, Wasp?”
“Try me.” She simply said, flaring her wings out as if she was going to attack suddenly.
“Fine then.” Katrina snapped her fingers. Liz's vision was engulfed in darkness. “Can your tricks work if you can't see?”
‘Frick!’ She thought, immediately knowing that she was just as useless as John, but still felt like she could try something as long as she listened on where Katrina was.
“I envy you both. If it were back then, King Solaris would have had both of you stripped away from your suits, and publicly executed. The ponies of now may say that you're heroes, but we know that, in reality, you're just extraordinary slaves to their rule. Your community service may be over in the next two months, but what are you both you going to do afterward? Will you continue being the so-called ‘heroes’? Or will you both take initiative and head back to your homeworld, back to your kind?”
Liz figured to calm down before answering her, knowing that she really didn’t have an answer for that. “Being honest, I have no valid answer for that. But I can’t worry about the future, nor cling to the past as you do. All I can really do is live in the moment and hope I am prepared for any challenges, this moment being one of them.” She said, unsure if her answer was even a good one.
“That's what I keep saying!” John replied. “And I'll be there! Gotta move my feet first.”
“... Anyways,” Katrina continued, approaching the blinded Liz from behind. “I will give you this one chance: kneel to your new master, or I will make you do it.”
If she could look directly at her, Liz would be glaring daggers at her. But she had a small idea as she figured to play along, starting to kneel to the ground, one of her hands close to her leg, hiding it so that she could feel for something that might make the feline blind as well, even for just a moment.
“Hey! Don't kneel to that witch!” John yelled.
“Can you just shut up!?” Katrina yelled back.
“Nope. Noda tostada. You may know more about magic, but we've got something you don't have.”
“Pfft. Yeah right. Even with those suits, all you can do is grow to the size of a mountain, something that even tires you both out. And from what I've seen, you can control ants, and she has weapons. Not exactly exciting, from my perspective.” John had an idea from that. With only his mind, a trail of ants made their way to Liz, with others to his hand.
“You know, you're kinda right on the perspective thing. But we do have one trick even you can't muster.”
“... And what can't I do?”
“Look it up.”
That seemed to give Liz enough time, quick to chuck a rock the size of a baseball at her, of course figuring it wouldn’t hit, but just distract her. And right when her confused state made her open, Liz used the foot that was still planted on the floor to kick herself forward and tackle the feline down. The squirming made it difficult, but Liz was able to wrap her legs around her and move her arms around her neck into a chokehold, feeling the fur as well so she knew she didn’t have John by mistake. Liz’ goal was to keep her in this hold until she passed out due to lack of air, flexing her muscles tight so she wouldn’t try and break out. John's ants clicked on his button, causing him to shrink immediately. His theory of being able to move again worked, as he was free. Katrina’s eyes widened in shock.
“We call this a choke hold. So why don’t we put the kitty to sleep?” Liz said, not hiding the smile she was showing as she only tightened her grip around her neck, making it harder for Katrina to breath.
“I'm way ahead of you,” John replied, delivering a right hook to the feline Sorceress’ face. The small punch had enough face to not just knock Katrina out but caused a few of her teeth to fly out.
Liz didn’t say much to that as she let Katrina go and she was now unconscious on the floor. “Some surprise guest.” Liz couldn’t help but joke.
“Damn… we beat that pu-” John joked before the now tiny Pinkie tapped his shoulder, getting his attention.
“Kids are reading this!” She yelled.
“Oh… how'd you get small?”
“Katrina hit me with a spell.”
“... Right… Hold on just a sec.” John clicked on his button, making him grow back to his normal size, before plucking the pink pony by her tail. “Hey, Liz. ♫My little pony, my little pony.♫”Liz facepalmed herself. The groan of Katrina was heard. They turned to see her getting up.
“You… may have won this feud… but I will return!” She hissed before throwing blue flowers at them.
“Flowers?” Liz asked. Before she could get an answer, Katrina jumped into a portal below her feet, disappearing as the portal went away.
“Was that… an attempt for a gift?” Liz only asked, not seeing how else a bunch of flowers would be brought into the picture. Picking up one of the flowers, she sniffed it. “Normal plant scent.”
“I think it was just a distraction,” John replied. Pinkie let out some small, quiet squeaks. “Ok, fine, we'll take you to Twilight. Hold your horses.”
“Though, we should probably go without the suits,” Liz suggested, figuring they wouldn’t need it now that Katrina fled.
“Come on! We gotta show off our victory! We just beat our first official villain! Think about it; She's just the first of many in our own Rogue's Gallery! I wouldn't be surprised if the next villain we face saw this and will ambush us.”
As he said that, looking through a pair of binoculars, another bipedal figure wearing a cloak saw it all happen in the far mountainside. It placed the binoculars down and ran into a cave, stopping at a radio of sorts with a microphone attached to it. Taking the mic out, it sent a signal out and spoke in its strange language.
“The humans have defeated Katrina. Equestria’s new champions are much stronger than we thought.”
“What!? How!? They have no magic! They're weak in just about everything we can imagine!”
“I know… for being the last of their kind, these humans are proving to be quite the problem.”
The following morning, John groaned as he got up. Turns out, battling against a magic using bipedal cat was a lot more painful than he could imagine. His entire body ached, most likely covered in bruises. Oh well, it was worth it, even if Twilight was freaking out upon seeing Pinkie being the size of a mouse. It took a while to explain why Pinkie was small, and more than likely, Twilight was going to talk to Celestia about this.
“Ugh… guess this is what all heroes feel like every morning?” John said, getting up from bed, before falling face first to the floor. “... Ow!” He got up, feeling a bit strange as well. “Liz? You awake?”
“Five more minutes…” She mumbled, curled close to herself as she was hidden under the quilt, it looking strangely bigger than normal.
“... I must be imagining things.” John shook his head, going for the door to use the bathroom. But it felt off. The doorknob wasn't near his waistline like last time, but now, it was over his head. This made him scratch his eyes and looked around now. Somehow, he had shrunk. “... Oh! Must've been the suit last night. Lets get it on and-” He stopped as he realized that, even though he was in the suit, the suit was WAY bigger than him, dragging along the floor. “... LIZ!!! LIZ!!! WAKE UP!!!”
“Huh? Wha-“ She couldn’t finish as her head hit the ceiling of all things. “Ow! What the-?” That was when she noticed that John looked kind of… off. “Did you shrink..?” She plainly asked, not realizing that he looked much smaller compared to someone else for another reason entirely.
“Yes… and no. And you're huge!”
“What? What are you talking abo-” She stopped as she finally took a look at herself and noticed some rather… obvious changes. The white t-shirt and black joggers were barely fitting her now, not only for the sudden height but also the sight of some rather noticeable muscles. This in turn made her flush pink in embarrassment and quick to try and hide her body under the quilt, it only being able to hide her torso and back while her legs were still exposed, even while crossed.
“Ok… what happened!? Why am I suddenly a dwarf and you look like you've been using steroids your entire life?”
“I-I don’t know. But it’s clear on who we should ask about this.” She said, the ‘description’ of her change hurting a little inside.
“Right… but… I think we need to hide ourselves a bit… to avoid these ponies panic by our sight, and not become laughing stocks.”
“That’s easier said than done. We are the only two humans here, so that alone draws attention.” She said, figuring that perhaps they should tell Applejack and she could be their little messenger pony.
“Or… allow me.” He snapped his fingers, and ants crawled into their room. John leaned down and whispered to them. His ants saluted, making small clicks to each other, then crawled into their suits, standing up, making themselves look like them… except for the eyes, which had a lot of ants covering it.
“I… don’t think they can tell Twilight what’s going on.” She said, it being obvious that ponies wouldn’t know any sort of ant language.
“They're just a distraction while we get Twilight's help on this.” He turned to their fakers “Alright, just go out into town, give simple friendly hand gestures and waves, make a few poses, the whole shebang.” Their suits gave a thumbs up and, very ragdoll like, walked right out of the door, with the sounds of fumbling heard. “... They're alright.”
“This is going to end badly and I just know it.” She thought out loud, a hand to her forehead as she felt it was too early to even try to make John think normally.
“It's just for today. Now come on, we gotta head to Twilight's castle and avoid anypony we see.”
She didn’t get up immediately, only huddling closer to herself. “A-are you sure we can’t tell Applejack or something..?” She asked, not really wanting to go out like… this.
“And risk them either screaming or laughing their heads off? If you want to, go right ahead, me, I'll stick to the shadows and hide before seeing Twilight herself.”
“Or… m-maybe I should just stay in the room.” She said, figuring that it would be confusing to see her suit being seen in town, only to find her in the bedroom.
“... Chicken.”
“Shush up.” She simply said, figuring that she could also get some rest while John was gone. John didn't even stay, taking action and walking out of the door. A few minutes later, a knock was heard.
“John? Liz? Wake up, y'all! You got chores to do.” The voice of Applejack was heard.
Liz tensed up a little when she heard her voice, figuring she should hide from AJ. Seeing a closet close by, she silently slipped out of the bed and went in the closet, closing it completely. The Apple pony entered their room, looking around.
“Huh… they must be out on the farm right now. Hehehe, heroes and hard workers. The perfect combination.” Liz tensed up as Applejack opened her closet, picking up and putting on a hat right next to her feet. Applejack didn't see her, closing the closet door and the guest room door.
Liz would let out a sigh of relief, but she wasn’t taking any chances in case ponies in this would had really good hearing, keeping quiet until she didn’t hear hoofsteps anymore. ‘Maybe going with John might’ve been a better idea.’ She thought, worried that one of the other residents in here would see her and most likely freak out.
~-~-~
John quickly jumped into some bushes, staying hidden among the foliage. He hated to admit, but his situation was a bit of a blessing in disguise, though, wanting to shrink and grow at will was preferable than standing at the size of a kindergartener. It was also pretty good that Liz stayed behind; with her size and build now, she could be seen as She-Hulk without the green skin or hair. He looked to see his distractions were working well, with nopony noticing anything strange about the heroes… even with them constantly leaning and flailing their arms around. If he had to guess, these ponies weren't exactly the brightest creatures around… something he and Liz should be thankful for. And speaking who, John saw Liz trying to sneak past, using the trees as cover.
“Oh, Liz is here… LIZ IS HERE!?” John shouted before covering his mouth as a brown, classy looking mare stood alongside a more wild looking white unicorn.
“Did you hear somepony?” The classy mare asked in a very fitting British accent. Her, supposedly, friend, shrugged. John quickly backtracked to Liz, trying to stand behind a tree.
“Liz!? What are you doing!?” He whispered loudly. “Someone's gonna see you!”
“I… know that. I just need to find a hiding place that isn’t in the household of some apple farmers. Applejack almost saw me.” Liz said, not knowing where else to go since she was still new to this place.
“And you decide to go to the park!? Where practically everypony is in, seeing ‘Us’ in the open!?” He pointed to their ant controlled suits.
“Hey, just because you’re the size of a gremlin doesn’t mean that you can’t be caught as well.” She huffed. “Besides, how were you supposed to know if I didn’t tell you?” She crossed her arms. “I’m not staying here anyways, I’m probably going to hide in that big forest over there.” She pointed at the forest that seemed to only be a few blocks away from the park.
“Oh? And risk getting seen by somepony? Who will think you're a monster?” He groaned, rubbing his forehead. “Alright… slight change of plans; you're my eyes, ladder, and muscle. I will be the speedy one and direct anyone's attention from you in a way that will help you run away. Got it?”
“Fine.” She grumbled, feeling that John had no plan to really hide her, and was making it feel like she was more of a problem.
“Good… but first.” He looked to the suits, making some mutters. Their suits turned to the two amd saw the situation. Both suits made a shocked reaction and ran the other way, leading a trail of ponies away to see what made the ‘heroes’ are running to. “Alright, they're on the move, and if they're right, today is a school day, so Twilight should be working.”
“So what? We have to sneak into her castle and wait for her to come back from teaching?” She guessed, figuring that was the plan.
“More like head into her office and ask what's going on, and if there's a way to get back to normal.”
“You do realize that in a school office, both students and teachers visit on a regular basis? I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Liz made a good point, of course having experience being a student for eighteen years of her life.
“Better if Twilight and some students or staff in her office to see us than the entire town and school. Besides, I know what we can use as a distraction.”
“Is it another one of your dumb ideas..?” She asked, feeling that she already knew the answer to that.
“It's only for an emergency… and if we do see that bug horse again. Come on, let's go.” John tugged at Liz's hand, a bit similar to a child with their mom.
She only sighed, not having any other option as she followed him.
~-~-~
Liz and John snuck around the School’s walls, with John hiding in some bushes and Liz placing her front on a wall, using ivy as cover. It was pretty ridiculous, but none of the students noticed either, too busy to head to their next class. Both leaned at a nearby window, looking in to see it lead to the hallway, with Twilight’s office down the right side at the end.
“I still think this is a dumb idea.” Liz grumbled, feeling that waiting in the castle would be better than this.
“Yeah, and risk the entire school to go in a mass panic because they see Bigfoot’s shaved sister roaming around? Along with Danny Devito and Peter Dinklage’s son, I doubt they’ll be accepting of us. Kinda Wish you had the earpiece I had, so you can communicate and learn from the ants… we’ll do that when we get back to our normal size.”
“That’s why I said the castle was better, not the freaking school.” She said through clenched teeth, not seeing how going into a student-filled building would make them less likely to be seen compared to a castle that most likely has no one inside.
“Shush! I see her!” They both looked inside, seeing Twilight and Spike getting out, meeting some other students… probably new ones, but still. Twilight seemed to be introducing herself to them, then leaving her office, most likely giving them a tour. “Alright, we’ll sneak into her office and wait for the princess of friendship to return. I’ll go first.” John opened the window they were looking in and tried to climb up… but being short, his legs dangled in the air. “Uh… little help?”
‘I don’t see why I let him take the reins when he’s losing brain cells every day.’ She thought, only rolling her eyes as she moved closer to him and pushed him through. But it seemed her strength was greater, as not only did she push him into the wall in front of them, but knocked down the outer wall. Both looked at each other in shock, frozen.
“Hey! What’s going on?” The voice of Rainbow Dash was heard from down the left side of the hallway.
“RUN!!!” John yelled, getting up and running to Twilight’s office.
Not wanting to be seen as well, she ran right behind him. They both quickly ran inside Twilight’s office, closing the door behind them, both taking a deep breath. John looked around, seeing that it was a bit barren, with only the office near some windows at the end, two chairs in front of the office, and a bookcase with a ladder leading to the second floor on the right, and two large doors on either side. If he had to guess, both were closets.
“... Alright… without breaking anything,” John said. “Pick a closet and hide in there. I will be on the lookout for when Twilight comes.”
She was now a little nervous on even touching anything, folding her arms tightly so that she wouldn’t use them. But hearing how she had to, and knowing that John wouldn’t be able to open it for her, she undid the crossing and went to the first closet she saw when she ran in, and went inside, this time being gentle as if she was diffusing a bomb. Lucky for her, nothing was ripped out… though, the doorknob was crushed. John didn’t see it, too focused listening outside, ready to run and hide if anyone but Twilight was outside.
‘Why is this even happening? I’m not that buff… am I?’ She thought, thinking that she wasn’t so muscular that it was weird and gross… in actually, a blush formed on her cheeks as she felt she looked good like this. But she would never admit that, right?
John listened outside, hearing the commotion outside, but with a slight opening of the door, and peeking through, he watched as the familiar, small bug-horse creature, named Ocellus, walked alongside a taller, more deer looking, bug horse. He looked like a girl’s first attempt at trying to make a bug-deer.
“Your Majesty,” Ocellus spoke. “Please, there’s no need to send Pharynx over to watch me. It was a complete accident! Really!”
“So I’ve heard,” The deer-bug replied, “but you were controlled by Ant-Man, and while it may be an accident, what if he decides to use you as a shield?”
“Thorax! Don’t be crazy! He’d never use us as puppets, not unless it was an emergency.” They both opened the door to see the midget John standing nearby.
“What the-!?”
“Sorry!” John placed his hands over his ant communicating earpiece, making Ocellus, and this ‘Thorax’ stand completely still, brainwashed. “Alright, come on, and close the doors!” The two entered the office and closed the door behind them.
‘And of course he would drag others along.’ Liz thought, hearing it when an unknown male voice was caught by surprise before John quickly apologized. John looked at the new Changeling, getting a better look of him.
“Ok… care to explain to me who you are?”
“King Thorax of the Changeling Kingdom.” The info made John stop.
“... Oh crap… Liz, I think I made us land in deeper trouble!”
“Well, no one asked you to try and overhear a conversation. You were just on lookout, if you saw them getting close to the door, then freaking hide.” She said, not wanting any part in the problem he caused on his own.
“Oh yeah? Hey, Ocellus, turn into Twilight, and Thorax, turn into Spike.” Without a reply, both burst into green flames and turned into the princess and dragon. “Ah, there we go. So if anyone comes along, I can hide, and they can make it seem like they’re here.”
“You just keep on making the rabbit hole bigger. If the real Twilight told Celestia what happened, our ‘punishment’ will be extended.” Liz said, not wanting to do community service for the rest of her life.
“Yeah, but when she sees us like this, I’m sure she’ll understand.”
‘Even so, this isn’t an excuse to mind control the king of the changelings...’ Liz thought, figuring to stay quiet since John would never listen to reason.
“Hey, Twilight? You in there?” Rainbow Dash’s voice was heard on the other side of the door. “We got a situation.” John began to mouth at the two, getting to a hiding spot, standing right beside the door
“Oh, really?” Ocellus spoke in Twilight’s voice, though it sounded robotic. “What in Equestria has happened?” The door opened and Rainbow came in.
“You didn’t hear that? A wall was broken in by something! Probably a monster that needs a good flank whooping.”
“Oh? I did not hear that. I was busy reading my books. I think it may be Yona rushing to class, or RockHoof entering.”
“... Uh, you alright, Twi? You know it’s the middle of class, right? And RockHoof is away to see the other guardians of harmony.”
“Oh! Silly me! I guess I forgot! Because I’m book smart and not social smart!”
“... Right… I’ll see you in a bit… oh, and Spike? Can you blink?” Thorax, disguised as Spike, closed his eyes, tearing up heavily.
“I thought you wanted a staring contest.” He said.
“... As much as I’d like to compete, I’m gonna have to pass.” She closed the door and trotted away.
‘Why is this world so dumb when it needs to be for us!?’ She mentally thought, lightly pulling her cheeks down as she couldn’t believe that worked.
“Alright… that worked really well. Ocellus, sit behind Twilight's Desk and act like you're busy. Thorax, find a broom and sweep around to look busy in case anyone arrives.”
“Yes, sir.” The disguised Changelings answered in unison, walking to do their stuff.
“And now, we wait.”
“And what are we going to do if the real Twilight or Spike sees this?” She just had to ask, not thinking he could give the command for them to buzz off fast enough before they reached the door.
“Then that's when we show ourselves and explain everything.”
“I… I don’t think I should show myself.” She admitted, actually really nervous on being seen like this, mostly cause all of the ‘nicknames’ John has been calling her has gotten to her, plus how she could easily damage stuff with just a flick of a finger.
“You don't have to, not until I say so. Besides, our suits will be returning to us pretty soon.”
~-~-~
The Ant controlled suits awkwardly dragged themselves to Twilight's school of Friendship, with the head mare herself watching in awkward silence.
“Is that normal around here, Ms.Twilight?” One of her new students asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Twilight replied.
~An Hour Later~
Twilight entered her office, closing the door behind her as she saw herself (albeit, with wide open eyes), and Spike spreading dust around the room with a broom. Her horn was ready to blast at the imposters until John ran out… or, what looked like John.
“Woah! Calm down, Twilight! I can explain everything!”
“Uh… did you shapeshift?” Twilight asked
“What? No! Twilight, you gotta listen, it sounds crazy, but I think Katrina did something to Liz and me before she teleported away.”
“... And where is Liz?”
“Come on out, Liz!” The door fell down with a loud bang, as Liz pushed the door open, only for her strength to overdo it.
“I-I didn’t mean to do that!” She was quick to claim, while also trying to move her clothes to hide any exposed skin, now insecure about her change. Twilight just stared, wide-eyed.
“... Are you sure that's-?” Twilight began to ask before John interrupted.
“Yes, that's Liz. And look, I know you weren't there, but Katrina threw blue flowers at us before she ran away.”
“Wait… blue flowers! You were hit by poison joke!”
“Poison what?” Liz asked.
“Oh, don't worry, the cure to this is a simple bath some plants and-” She paused “Wait… if you're both in here, then who is in your suits?”
“My ants,” John replied. “Along with Ocellus taking your spot, and that Thorax guy taking over Spike's position.”
“Wait, what!?” Twilight began to panic. “Nononono! I was supposed to have a meeting with him in regards of Ocellus having Pharynx watch over her for her protection, but not only did I had to give those students a tour, but you came along and did this to them!”
“Told you she would get mad.” Liz only said, knowing from the start it was a bad idea.
“Hey! You saw how Twilight saw you!” John replied. “And if they ran away, there would be a huge panic in this school of a pair of freaks in a school filled with kids. … Now that sounds worse when I say it aloud.”
“Do they know what's going on?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, no. They're blanked out. They follow whatever I say.”
“... Ok, we can make this work. Are your suits here?” There was a knock on the door, with it opening, as the Ant-Man and Wasp suits entered.
“There they are. Thanks for the help, fellas!” The helmets popped right off as swarms of ants came running out, with small, high pitched coughs as they ran to a window, opening it, and running out.
“... I have many questions.”
“And one of them is probably asking if John ever cleaned his suit,” Liz said, even more grossed out that he wanted to sleep in his at one point.
“I don't see a laundry machine anywhere.” John replied, “And I doubt we can even clean our suits normally.”
“Ok, focus,” Twilight said to herself “John, how far can you keep in contact with Thorax and Ocellus?”
“... Honestly, I don't know. Maybe at least 15 feet away from me?”
“Shoot! Alright… wait right here. I'll be back soon.” Her horn ignited and she teleported away.
“... A simple bath is all that's needed?” John asked. “Maybe we should have stayed and hit the showers.”
“It sounds a little too easy. What if they take baths a different way?” Liz asked, figuring to take a seat on the floor and cross her legs.
“And it confirms they are naked all the time!” Twilight teleported back.
“Sorry, was REALLY lucky to get you both a private tub at the spa, with the cure ready. Seems Pinkie ordered it ahead of time for me, even saying that something cool will happen in the next chapter… I don't know what she's on about, but I can teleport you both over there while I chat with Thorax as if nothing happened!”
“Well, I guess that’s better than sneaking around again,” Liz mumbled. Twilight tossed their suits to them.
“Alright, be sure to take your clothes off before you get in. I'm sure you don't mind seeing each other’s private areas, as you've described to Applejack.” John and Liz had bright red cheeks on their faces.
“Uh…” John was about to speak, but Twilight zapped them away. Both Ocellus and Thorax regained their control, looking all confused.
“What happened?” Thorax spoke before looking at himself. “Why am I Spike?... And why are you Twilight?”
“I... don't know.” Ocellus replied, turning back into her original self. “Twilight? What happened?”
“Um, well… you see…”
~-~-~
Both John and Liz found themselves in front of a private pool with soaps bubbling up. There was an awkward silence between the two, as John put his suit down.
“So… do you want to go first? Or me?” He asked.
“I-I don’t mind either or...” She mumbled, glancing away as she figured he would want to fix this more than she did.
“Right… If it helps, I won't look.” There was silence as the sound of John taking his clothes off was heard, followed by him entering the tub with a small splash. “Whoo! That feels good!”
She didn’t want to get undressed, but she figured wet clothes wouldn’t be any better than a suit that had ants inside. Figuring to just strip down to her panties and shirt, before she slipped inside until she went low enough to just have her head and neck out of the water. Letting out a small sigh, she relaxed in the tub with John. She could hear him giggle immaturely, though, his eyes are covered.
“Alright, what is it?” Liz asked in an annoyed tone.
“Oh, just remembering the time when we accidentally saw each other naked back at camp during high school. That was the most embarrassing moment for both of us. I’m quite surprised we still made contact with each other after that.”
“How long did it take for your black eye to heal again?” She smirked, recalling that time and him having to come up with an excuse. “You ‘hit a tree branch’, right?”
“And who was able to keep Joey quiet from telling our fellow classmates what happened?” He had a smirk “You know he could’ve told everyone, and you would be kicked out of that club.”
“Yeah, but you would be seen as a pervert, and no girl would want to date a creep.” She shot back, leaning against the tub as she started to feel more relaxed.
“Well, look where we’re at. No one certainly thinks we’re creeps. And everyone is naked, so…” He stood right up. The sudden action made Liz cover her eyes as he heard John got out, walking bare feet. “Whoo! I’m no longer a midget! Who’d think a simple bubble bath is all we needed?” The sound of him getting a towel on was heard. “When you’re ready, I’ll see you back at AJ’s farm. And, hopefully, the suit isn’t too tight, if you catch my drift.”
Liz lightly rolled her eyes relaxing more in the tub as she felt she wanted to stay in a little longer. But once she noticed her hands were getting all pruny, she started getting up from within the tub. She didn't stop to see that she was no longer huge, back to her normal size, too focused on getting her towel on so no one can see her naked body. Her wet feet made small wet splats as she walked out, ready to head back to Applejack's farm.
~-~-~
Loud beeps and whirring were heard as various Satyrs began to make a machine from advanced looking pieces of technology and metal. The silhouette of its mainframe was finished, resembling a tall, ferocious looking Satyr, with large antlers coming out from the sides, and a crown set in between them. Next to the mainframe was the head of a similar looking Satyr, encased in stone, it's eyes trapped with the expression of fear. A screen showed a drill going into stone head, with a needle following in.
“[Everything is going as planned, your majesty.]” The head scientist spoke as the needle stopped. “[Death is but a mere block away for you. With you back on the throne again, we will flourish once more.]”
Two days had passed since that misadventure. Both John and Liz spent the entire day working on the farm in normal clothing, though John kept insisting he wears his suit in an emergency. It didn't take much convincing when Applejack gave him a good buck to not dare think about using his suit to cheat off from honest work. And it didn't help that Applejack's big brother, a red stallion by the name of Big Macintosh, was able to pull more than his weight around, making John want to prove he was better. Liz was just glad that Big Mac was really a nice gentleman, even if he did seem a bit shy and… eerily silent.
Today, both were asked to help out with Twilight's school of Friendship, fixing the hole Liz made, and perhaps greet the various students while learning a bit more about Equestria and the various cultures it has.
At first, Liz was planning on trying to convince Twilight to not make her fix the hole, seeing that it was clearly an accident, but kept her mouth shut on the idea but secretly brooding since she knew it wouldn’t have ever happened if they went with her idea on them waiting in the castle than breaking into a school full of students and staffs.
Of course, John was up to it, being more of the social butterfly and wanting to know more about this land. All he hoped was that he didn't have to meet Ocellus again, finding it too weird for both sides for the controlled and controller. But other than that, it would be nice to get away from the barn, and perhaps show off with the ants around to the students.
Liz wiped her brow, about to slab more spackling paste until she saw a small ladybug, seeming to land in the wet paste and most likely got stuck. “Hmm.” She was gentle about it, but she plucked the beetle from the spot, and placed it on the center of her palm, giving it some time to recollect and most likely fly off.
“Ooh! A ladybug!” John quipped, stopping what he was doing to look at the small insect. “Is it me, or does every cute creature seem even cuter here than back at home?”
“Heh, if that’s the case, I wonder how a blobfish would look.” She lightly jokes, watching the small bug clean the paste on its tiny legs off. “Did you know that the spots on the shells are actually there to ward off birds, warning them that they are actually poisonous?” She said, knowing that small fact ever since she was a little girl.
“I… did not, actually. I thought it was used to confuse predators, similar to a zebra. After all, these little guys can be in swarms, but I doubt it's as frightening as a bee or wasp swarm.” As both looked at the small bug, the familiar voice of Twilight spoke up from behind them.
“What's going on?” She asked in a curious tone. “Did you find anything?”
“You can say that,” Liz replied, turning and showing the Ladybug. Twilight's calm demeanor quickly turned to that of a petrified look. She screamed loudly, flapping her wings wildly, as she escaped from them.
“... Is she seriously afraid of Ladybugs?” John asked.
“Maybe the common trypophobia?” She guessed, shrugging before the small ladybug flew off of her hand and someplace else. Not thinking any further about this, she went back to work. Well… would, until there was a loud crash in a room nearby, causing both to jump, as they heard loud, masculine grunts.
“Seems we've got trouble nearby,” John spoke, quickly taking off his regular clothes to show that he was in the Ant-Man suit. He put his helmet on, shaking himself then jumped in excitement. “Let's do this, Liz!”
“You do realize Applejack is going to scold you for stealing your suit… again.” Liz said, not changing since she didn’t bring her suit.
“Not unless we stop what's in there. And by the way, catch.” John threw something at Lizz, but it expanded quickly, turning into the Wasp suit.
“What the-!? How did you-?”
“Ants. Now come on, we've got something big fight.”
Liz only rolled her eyes and tried getting suited up as quickly as she could, making sure the helmet was on correctly, she let John take the lead as to find whatever was wrecking the school now. Both stood outside of the doorway, hearing a lot of loud crashes inside, the sounds of struggling, and a few students screaming.
“Crap! We gotta get in!” John yelled. He cracked his knuckles as he got a serious look on his face, taking a few steps back. “Hang on, students! The Ant-Man and The Wasp are here!!!” At full speed, John sprinted and tackled the door, breaking it down easily and falling. Liz peeked in, only to see that, while the room was trashed, the students inside were safe, and in the middle was a huge stallion with a braided beard wearing celtic-looking clothes, and had a shovel in his hooves. The much larger stallion stared at the two masked individuals.
“... Can I help ye?” He asked in a deep voice.
Liz decided to take her helmet off, figuring with the students being unharmed, she could lower her guard and take a better look around. “Uhh, yeah. Who are you? What are you doing? And why are you destroying the classroom?” She listed the three obvious questions.
“I'm RockHoof, the legend of strength, and this here is my class. Now, if I may, I'd like to ask who you are and why you're interrupting one of my stories.” John got up, dusting himself off and taking his helmet off as well.
“You haven't heard? We're The Ant-Man and The Wasp! The newest heroic duo!” Liz facepalmed herself.
“Heroes? HA!!! Don't make me laugh! You both look nothing like heroes.”
“Yona agree!” A lone yak replied in the class. “Strange creatures look nothing like heroes! Yona says they look like bugs!”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Liz only said, figuring that John would take the lead to prove that he was a hero, even if they were just two random people just taking the title and skills along with it.
“And that's kinda the point,” John added. “If you heard Ant-Man and The Wasp, do you expect us to wear anything else but looking similar to those insects?” It was then that RockHoof bursted into loud, boastful laughing.
“Ye both have a strange sense of humor!” The huge stallion replied, getting John into a shoulder hug. “But ye ain't got what it takes to be a hero like I was a thousand years ago.”
“Wait, wha-?” John couldn't speak as RockHoof looked all over him.
“Yer costume is all but laughable. Yer not intimidating looking enough to scare anyone off, nor approachable for any fans to get near you. And most of all, ye ain't got muscles on you to pull of great feats!”
“... Well… as we say, size doesn't matter.” It was then that Pinkie popped out from a trash can with a bucket of popcorn.
“Ah! He said it! He said it!” She cheered before running out, leaving a confused class.
“... Do you want to show him, or should I?” Liz only asked John, figuring that they have to prove their worth to not only this Rockhoof fellow but a class of students as well.
“Show me what?” RochHoof asked inquisitively.
“Oh, nothing… except this.” John replied, but him putting his helmet on and clicking on his hand button, disappearing to the naked eye.
“What the-!? Where'd he go!?” RockHoof looked around, then felt something land in his left ear
“Oh, I went nowhere far,” John's voice could be heard by Rockhoof in the said ear. “In fact, I'm pretty close.”
“You hear that, right class!?” The class went into confused murmurs.
“They can't hear me, but you can hear me just well. And oh boy, you seriously need to clean up in here!”
“Where are you! Show yourself!”
“I'm in your ear, buddy. For some proof.” He cleared his voice. “ECHO!!!” Rockhoof winced in pain from the loud voice, then felt something leave the ear and land on his nose. His eyes went a bit crossed, but sitting on his nose was John, in the suit, much smaller than he was before. “‘Sup?.”
“Y… you're tiny! How did you-!?”
“Pym particles. And it's not just me that can do this.” He gestured towards Lizz. RockHoof looked to the woman, a bit freaked out by what he's seeing.
“You know you’re being more of a nuisance than a hero.” She only said, putting the helmet back on and pressing the button on one of her palms, the big stallion now keeping an eye as she quickly shrunk down, and even unfurled some wasp wings to fly over to where John was.
“How did you-!?” RockHoof began to ask.
“Long story.” John interrupted. “Read the comics.” Rockhoof blinked before shaking his head (Which John held onto the stallion's fur as Liz flew momentarily).
“Ach! So you turn small! That makes you easier to squish.”
“You think so?”
~-~-~
Twilight breathed hard in a paper bag after meeting the ladybug menace. Starlight's cure for her, that was interrupted by Pinkie Pie, wore off, and she was back at the nervous track she was before. The loud noises in Rockhoof’s class went silent for a while. It was normal for the classroom to be noisy and wind up as a mess by the end of the day, with the occasional break, but this break took a bit longer than normal. Her questions came to a screeching halt as Rockhoof was thrown into her office, with his students looking in, a bit nervous looking. The headmare looked in the classroom with a peeved look.
“Alright, who did this?” She asked. John appeared again, regrowing into his normal size, wearing the Ant-Man suit.
“So, think I'm easily squishable now?” He asked. His confident smug went away as he saw Twilight looking at him with narrowed eyes. “Uh… hey, look! A ladybug!”
“WHERE!?!?!?” Twilight screamed, cowering under her desk. John quickly turned and ran out of the class.
Unlike John, instead of bailing on the potential trouble they were in, Liz flew into the office and approached the now injured Rockhoof was in, growing back to size and offering a hand to help him up. “Sorry, didn’t think he would throw you that hard.” She apologized for John. “Though I know I have more holes to fill in this school now.”
“Ugh… I deserved it.” RockHoof replied. “He might've got a good hit on me, but I'm not out.” He got up and cracked his neck. “Seems I've found a worthy challenger after all these years. Let's see how he does in this “Hero business” when he faces a real professional?”
“Well, if you really want to fight him, that also means to have to handle me as well, and we don’t play by the rules.” She smirked, knowing that a hero would do almost anything for justice and saving those in need. Rockhoof turned to Liz and looked at him.
“I don't hit women, lassy. And I think Miss Twilight would like to see you.” Twilight cleared her throat, giving her glare to Liz. The students hid away, walking out of their class.
“Please, take a seat.” Twilight gestured to an open seat.
Liz rolled her eyes but complied with her legs crossed over one another. “Don’t see why I’m here unless your gonna scold me on leaving my post.” She only said, not having any part except showing that she could do with the suit.
“That's one of them,” Twilight replied.
“Have fun you two!” Rockhoof spoke before picking up his shovel, giving it a few swings. “Time to see how your partner does against me.”
“What’s it this time?” She only said, knowing that even if she wanted to leave, nothing would stop the alicorn from magically pulling her back on the chair.
~-~-~
John ran out of the school, taking deep breaths and removing his helmet to get some fresh air. He stopped and looked as he saw the same Changeling student stare at him, alongside a fellow changeling that looked a bit similar to Thorax, but had smaller antlers, and was a bit darker in color. The new changeling glared at John, motioning Ocellus to get out. He got up and cracked his neck before slowly walking to John.
“Uh… Hello, good sir!” John spoke. “I don't mean to be a problem, but certainly, we can talk things right-” Before he could finish, he felt a hard impact on his side, followed by him flying towards and crashing through a wall.
"Ha! The first rule in being a hero!" RockHoof spoke, "Concentrate!"
"Hey! He's mine!" The changeling spoke.
"Nonsense! The bug themed human is mine."
"Yours! Don't you know who I am!? I'm King Thorax's-" He stopped as his eyes turned into spirals, quickly grabbing RockHoof and suplexing the stallion before flying away. John appeared near the stallion, growing to his normal size.
"Seems like you should concentrate there, big guy." He mocked.
"Ba! Cheater! Turning small and using others? A coward's way of fighting, I say! You're not a big man as you say you are."
"Oh? Let's test that out, actually." With another press of a button, John grew to be his giant self. "Who's the big man now!?" Every student nearby went into panic seeing a giant appear, running and hiding from the scene.
"You may be big now, but I've taken on much bigger creatures than you!" RockHoof took out his shovel and charged forward.
Twilight and Lizz watched as John and RockHoof battled outside, with some students running into the building.
"... How long do you think this is going to last?" Twilight asked.
“Not sure. Never really saw RockHoof in action. But it seems that John forgot that he gets slower when he’s bigger. It’s also rather draining on the suit’s power.” Liz said, figuring that it wouldn’t take long, but there will be a lot of damage she would be made to fix. “Out of all the people on earth, I had to end up here with him…” She thought out loud.
"Hmm? Is there something wrong? I know everyone has their differences, but you both seem to be working well together?"
“It may seem like that, but it’s clear that John does most of the fighting and doesn’t think before he acts, while I have to clean up the mess. Even now, when John fled, I had to take the bullet for his dumb action.” She huffed, even giving Twilight a small side glare.
"It's rather tough, I know. I have a few friends like that. Perhaps you should do something else together that doesn't require your suits… unless he refuses to take his off."
“This isn’t the first time he stole the suit from Applejack… and it definitely won’t be the last.” She rolled her eyes, figuring that she would also endure the punishment since she was also caught wearing her own suit.
"... I think maybe you should both spend some time out of those suits. Explore Ponyville a bit, perhaps join one of our events. Tomorrow is a show performance by the Ponytones, and it's very relaxing to see acapella performed live." The floor shook as an earthquake was felt. Both looked outside to see John shrink back to normal size, panting heavily, alongside RockHoof, also panting. It turned into a pathetic fight as John gave the stallion a weak slap, as did the stallion giving him a weak whack to the head with his shovel.
"I think… we're at… an impasse." John muttered.
"Aye…" RockHoof agreed. "Yet not bad… despite being… weak." They both passed out.
"... I'm sure a few students will want extra credit for helping out." Twilight spoke "I think you should hide his suit before he wakes up… and that device he uses to talk to ants with."
“It’s a special earpiece. It used telepathic energy to use, but the earpiece only fits our ears, and it takes effort to work it.” She explained, flying over and opening John’s helmet, only to take the earpiece and began summoning some nearby ants to help out. Removing the suits and pressing the palm button, she shrunk both his and her own suit and told the ants to take them back to the farm, and be discreet about it. Once they were out of sight, she lightly chuckled. “And to think, RockHoof is down for the count, and I didn’t have a part in it. Just imagine him taking us both on.” She thought out loud, starting to pull both John and RockHoof back inside to find a place for them to rest.
"I'm sure John had it easy. If the other Legends were here, I'm sure he'd be done in about a minute." Twilight replied as she used her magic to pick up RockHoof and put him in a large enough bed that creaked loudly under his weight. "At least RockHoof had some excitement in his life. Poor guy has been feeling down, especially when all his friends left and were able to adapt in a different world than when he once knew."
“Huh? Can’t he go back to his old home?” She asked, figuring that it might’ve just grown and adapted to the new world without him. She did recall the mention of being gone a thousand years, but she might need to know more about him and these ‘other legends’.
"Well… his home doesn't exist anymore. All its residents are gone with nothing but abandoned homes that only tell us modern ponies what life was like back then. And as much as I'd like to try to send him back in time, not only must I know the right date, but doing so might change the present in drastic ways."
“So, his home is a historic site?” She guessed, thinking a little. “But wait, if he was born and raised there, and is the only living pony that’s from that place, doesn’t that land belong to him?”
"It's… complicated. His old home is now an archeology site, historians now live there, and it's been abandoned for many moons."
“So, you're saying as long as something hasn’t been used for some time, anyone can take it?” She shot back. “If that’s the case, maybe I can take something that you haven’t used for a while.” She joked, giggling to herself.
"Strange, doesn't your kind also do that? When I visited a place very similar to yours, didn't your kind also look into old temples that once belonged to royal families?"
“You could say that, but we don’t have random magic that puts ponies into limbo, and then bring them back to the present. Also if it does so happen that we take someone else’s land unknowingly, we can take them to court, sue them, and even arrest them for theft.” She said, knowing that their world is more different then there’s. “Like I said before, his land, his shit.” She repeated.
"So if someone who was thought to be deceased for over two thousand years and suddenly came back demanding their house back, do you let them take it back?"
“Of course. But if natural causes damaged the area, we can’t do anything about it since we don’t control the weather, plants, or animals.” She said. “Of course some tests need to be made to make sure it’s real, and not some scammer trying to make a quick buck.” She added but thought of something else. “Speaking of! There was once a rumor where someone came from the year 4000 and had photo proof of how the world looked in the future. Sadly the image was blurred out, but he talked about a bunch of fictional things becoming reality.”
"Sounds like your world might be swindled easily."
"She never saw Endgame!" John quickly yelled before passing out.
“Coming from a pony filled world that gets easily swindled by two con-artists. What were their names again?” She pulled out a purple book with six gems and a hoofprint on the cover. Flipping through some pages, she found the one she was looking for. “Ah! Flim and Flam.” She smirked, raising an eyebrow. “Let’s see. The first time you met them, the second one being some all healing tonic, and the most recent being a better university being pony only. Oh! And it says a world famous ‘Starswirl’ was even fooled into thinking they’re reformed.”
"The first two were mostly with Applejack, and she's usually more stubborn than a mule. And I knew something was up with that Friendship University. Luckily, Rarity's 'Planity' disguise was much better than my… eyepatch disguise."
“Just an eyepatch, really? Couldn’t you use your magic to change your appearance? Hair, coat, even your butt-mark?” She asked, figuring that if not, there should’ve been more items she could use besides an eyepatch.
"Eh, it was Rarity's idea. I just went along with it, being a distraction."
“Wait, Rarity’s fashion pony, right? Couldn’t she make a better disguise for you? I think the princess of friendship would stand out more than a normal unicorn.” She said, figuring that an alicorn princess would be top priority. Twilight simply shrugged.
"Maybe, but it worked at the end, so no real harm done I suppose."
Liz decided not to press further, knowing that whoever worked at the scam university were out of a job, and some of the students there may not have the time or money to go to a new school. “Still don’t see why John and I have to do community service. Ninety percent of the creatures you’ve faced have done far worse.”
"I mean, you did sneak in and steal some stuff, but you were justified at least and didn't mean any harm. And think of this as a way to properly introduce yourselves to every creature around here." She looked at John. "Well… minus how he and RockHoof introduced each other."
“There are multiple ways to introduce us to everyone without trial punishment.” She said.
"That is on me. I was being overly cautious after that event with Ocellus. Poor little thing had to go home, and Pharynx is with her as a bodyguard right now. I think he had a few words to speak to John, but I haven't seen him yet."
“Didn’t we see a bug deer trying to get into the fight between John and Rockhoof? I think John controlled him for a sec.” Liz said, looking around the nursing room. “I think we left them back where they were fighting.”
"... This is not gonna end well."
~-~-~
Up in the sky, the dark green, small and red antlered changeling flew, before slowing down and regaining his control. Everything was blurry before he could finally see where he was at. Below him, he was over the Changeling Kingdom, seeing his brother's subjects maintaining the place.
"Wait a minute… how did I-?" He asked himself before finally realizing it. "Hold on! Oh no! Nononono!!!" He turned around to fly back, yelling at himself. "Stupid Pharynx! He controlled you! You were supposed to keep Ocellus safe, not be controlled like a puppet! Now look where we're at! How can you be a guard if you can't keep staying focused!?"
It took him a while, but he stopped, seeing the schoolyard was utterly destroyed, with giant holes in the shape of boots, along with some torn trees. Various students were outside, helping to fix the yard, with among them being Ocellus and her friends. Seeing Ocellus safe made him calm, along with the students, Headmare Twilight helped out, and next to her was the human dubbed "The Wasp". She didn't look like the one who would control them, especially since she wasn't in her suit. He had to find "Him", and by the looks of it, he was gone.
"Coward." He muttered to himself. "When I find you, Ant-Man, you're gonna regret using Ocellus and myself as personal slaves."
~-~-~
“If there was a way, I would put a child protective lock on his suit,” Liz mumbled, thinking that her suit could help with a pair of wings to easily bring supplies and reach spots not even she could reach on her two legs.
"Why don't you get one?" Twilight asked as she replanted a tree. "Are you planning on having children?"
“Wh-what? No! I would never have a child when I already have to take care of a man-child that isn’t even related to me?” She quickly said, feeling like she’ll get double the trouble and stress if she ever had a kid with John.
"Then… why do you need one?" She turned to the students then back to her, but leaned in for a whisper "Is it so the students don't do anything to it?"
“No. It’s for John himself. If you have short-term memory loss, he made this whole mess. I think it would be best if he had limitations so nothing else breaks.” Liz explained. “And perhaps for others as well.” She added, recalling the two unicorns that tried to take their suits for unknown reasons.
"Oh… right… well…" She was interrupted when some of the more unique, non-pony students gathered around Liz.
"Are you gonna be our substitute teacher!?" A Griffin asked.
"Do you have more of those suits!?" A Hippogriff asked.
"Is RockHoof gonna be ok?" The yak from earlier asked. "Yona need to be sure."
"Uh, guys, let's give her some space." A turquoise earth Pony with some sea turtles as his cutie mark spoke with a laid back, surfer-like vibe.
Liz was a little surprised, to say the least, not noticing the griffin or hippogriff when she and John snuck into the school. But when one of them asked if she would be the replacement for RockHoof, she felt a little guilty since John pretty much just beat their teacher for no legitimate reason. “W-well, I don’t know if I’ll be assigned to replace RockHoof, but I can assure you that he’s fine. If he’s a legendary pony as Twilight says, I think a brawl from one human wouldn’t really hurt him.” She said, trying to try and ease the student’s worries.
"But he was a giant." The griffin replied.
"RockHoof fought larger." The Yak intertwined.
“Well, like an old saying where I’m from: The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” She said, knowing that John took a bigger blow by using so much energy for a one on one battle.
"Wait… were you the one who controlled Ocellus in class that day?" The Hippogriff asked.
“No, that was John.” She said, removing the earpiece to show the hippogriff. “This earpiece is what makes us control ants, but for some reason, it also works for her kind of species.” She said, not really having an explanation as to why it worked on this Ocellus pony.
"Um, you're not gonna use that me again, are you?" The insect pony, most likely Ocellus, spoke, shivering a bit.
“Why would I need to?” She only asked, putting it in her pocket instead of back on her ear.
"Um… well… you both did use me in class… and I'm not sure if it happened two days ago, or it was just a dream."
“Oh, yeah… that. Really, I thought to wait at Twilight’s castle was a better plan, but John wanted to go into the school. We… didn’t want to be seen like that. I can only guess he thought of a plan on a whim. As for the first-first time… that was accidental. We had no idea it would react to you as well.” She explained, glancing away.
"Oh dear, Prince Pharynx is not going to be pleased as soon as he returns."
“Well, I’m sure we can explain everything. If he’s given the prince role, he must be understanding.” Liz said, figuring that once the misunderstanding was cleared up, and a vow of not using it on the bug ponies, everything would be resolved easily.
"Uh… you need to know, Pharynx is the head changeling in defense and isn't the type to talk things out per se."
“Of course he isn’t...” She mumbled, knowing it wouldn’t be that easy. “Maybe if you’re with me, he won’t go antler and horn first right into my midsection.”
"Well… you might be fine, but your friend, not so much." She pointed to the still unconscious John. He stirred, causing the changeling to squeak and turn into a boulder.
“You don’t need to be scared, I have the earpiece, remember?” She said, picking up the rock with blue eyes being definitely out of place.
"Sorry, just REALLY don't like being controlled like that."
“As I said, it won’t happen since he doesn’t have the earpiece.” She repeated, honestly surprised that she was just as heavy as a rock. The rock turned back into a changeling, being much lighter now.
"Oh, do you Pinkie promise?" She did some motions as she spoke. "Cross your heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake into your eye."
She breathed a small sigh, knowing that she would have to do this. “Yeah, I Pinkie promise.” She said, making the motion of her own swear, but instead of the motion of stabbing her hear, she just placed a hand on her eye, acting as if she was putting an imaginary cupcake in her eye. But upon saying and doing the motions, she felt like she was being watched, and not by the students, but from an unknown force.
