Congratulations! It's a Pilot!
"Come along, class!" Miss Cheerilee called. "Let's all keep together! We don't want anypony getting lost!"
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked together as they followed the rest of the class through Ponyville. Field trips weren't exactly fun but anything to break up the monotony of the school week was welcome. Even if they were just going down the street to Fluttershy's cottage, the three were happy enough just to be out of the classroom. Listening to a teacher lecture can be so tedious sometimes.
"You know, I don't think I've ever been to Fluttershy's cottage before," Apple Bloom commented.
"Yeah, me neither," Sweetie Belle said.
"It's nice to get outside," Scootaloo said. "But I wish we could go on a real field trip."
"What do you mean by that?" Miss Cheerilee asked, walking up beside them. Being a teacher, she had practiced keeping an eye and ear on her class.
"Oh, uh... nothing, it's just-" Scootaloo's brain scrambled for an excuse.
"Fluttershy is nice and all but I was wanting to maybe go see some place a little further away," Apple Bloom interjected.
Sweetie Belle agreed. "There was that one time we went to see the Crystal Empire but we didn't stay long. I was really hoping we could go see some place exotic!"
The teacher smiled at her enthusiastic students. "Well, Fluttershy's house may be a little close to home but I assure you, some of the animals she cares for come from very far away places."
That perked up their interests a bit. "What kinds a creatures?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Oh, probably ones you've never seen before! Fluttershy is an expert on keeping all sorts of strange creatures. There's no telling what we'll see!" She enjoyed encouraging curiosity this way.
"Really?" the three asked almost in unison.
"You'll just have to wait and find out!" Miss Cheerilee said. The trio of fillies picked up their pace a little, having more of a reason to continue on than before. Maybe this field trip wouldn't be so boring after all?
Meanwhile, in a far-away place, a different kind of expert prepared to unveil another strange creature...
"Good news, everyone!" Professor Hubert Farnsworth announced as he entered the meeting room carrying a small, brown box.
"What is it Professor?" asked Phillip J. Fry, the enthusiastic delivery boy from the past who sat at the round meeting table with the others.
"I've just created a new lifeform combining the best traits of organic and synthetic beings!" the professor said, setting the box down on the table in front of them.
"Just like at the end of Mass Effect 3?" Fry questioned, leaning forward.
"No," replied Farnsworth. "Nothing like that video game where the same exact thing happens that I've never played."
The box shook as it sat there. The occupants at the table all leaned closer, curious about what the brown box contained.
"Psssh," remarked the robot Bender, folding his arms, unimpressed. "Best traits of organics... it's probably just a robot with an organic robo-Halloween mask on. Seen that before. On robo-Halloween." he said, mocking the contents of the box.
Leela, the purple-haired cyclops and captain of Planet Express' starship stood at her seat, poised to strike. "Is whatever's in that box dangerous, professor?" she asked.
"Of course not!" the professor declared, patting the box. It shook more rapidly in response. "It's a brand-new form of life! It's capable of an entirely new thought process, able to learn and adapt at rates unthinkable! It can coalesce the fabric of thought into new forms of ideas transcending our current theories and philosophies, changing our entire perception of the universe!."
As if on cue, a hand ripped through the top of the box and grasped Farnsworth's neck. It strangled the professor in a vice-like grip, the professor choked and made gargling noises as his hands reached for the thing choking him. Bender sat back in his chair and laughed as the professor gasped for air.
Fry and Leela moved immediately to aide the professor. Together, the two pried the hand off Farnsworth's neck and shoved it back into the box. Leela then turned the box upside down and put a chair on top of it. The box continued to shake under the weight of the chair.
"Are you okay professor?" Fry asked, helping Farnsworth to his feet.
"Okay... okay? Why didn't you just let it strangle me?" Farnsworth asked in a depressed tone. "That new lifeform represented a breakthrough I'd been working on for decades! That life was literally MY life's work!"
"You still created a new lifeform professor. That's something to be proud of," Fry said, trying to console him.
"Yeah, you really made a killer jack-in-the-box. Great job," Bender said sarcastically, still sitting at the table. This was nothing new to him.
"That was my life's work. I spent so much time... so much money on that research. I meant for it to change the world," the professor continued mournfully. "And it was supposed to strangle Wernstrom!" he declared, shaking a fist in the air, revealing the intent behind the miracle breathrough of a new race of super-beings was a plot to kill his rival.
"Why does everything I love try to kill me?" the professor questioned, hanging his head low.
"I haven't tried to kill you professor," Bender said, he had gotten up and now placed a hand on Farnsworth's back.
"Everything I love..." the professor reiterated, crushing Bender's support. Bender's face turned from one of attempt at comforting to a sad frown of his own.
Professor Farnsworth walked over to the upside-down box, took the chair off of it and lifted it up off the floor. Underneath the box was a small hole in the floor.
"Wonderful," the professor commented sarcastically. "Now it's escaped."
"Escaped?!" the group gasped.
"It's tunneled right through the floor. It must be all the way to Old New York by now," the professor said, looking through the hole. "There's nothing more we can do now..." Farnsworth dropped the box and started walking back to the office with his head hung low.
Fry put a hand on the professor's shoulder. "There, there, professor. We'll go down to the pet store tomorrow and get you a new lifeform."
"I've given up on life," Farnsworth said back.
"You've said that before," Bender commented.
The professor turned back to the robot, angered by the crude robot's remark and also frustrated at the turn of events, evidence of his own incompetence. "Fine. I'll go to the pet store tomorrow and find something else that tries to murder everything."
"Professor," Leela stopped him. "You need to start taking responsibility for the horrible creations you've already released into the world. Probably including your son but starting with that thing that just dug through the floor."
"Oh all right!" the professor shouted, furious and frustrated. "Just once, I'd like to unleash a monstrosity of nature that I don't have take care of!"
"Which reminds me, the plumbing's been acting up lately. We're going to have to get Scruffy to take a look at it later."
The professor walked over to a switch on the wall. "I've got your plumbing right here," he said, flipping the switch. The floor beath them shook, the entire room began to shake. The wall and doorway to the office behind the professor rose up to the ceiling. Light from the windows was blocked as the half of the entire Planet Express building began to sink into the ground.
Stepping out of the doorway, Dr. John Zoidberg, the crustacean medical expert of Planet Express, nearly stepped out into thin air. His eyes went wide as he watched the other half of the building he was in descend into the Earth, leaving an empty space in its wake.
"You're taking half of everything and leaving me? I didn't even know we were married!" Zoidberg said, breaking down to tears in the doorway.
Fry, Bender and Leela tried to maintain their equilibrium as the floor shook around them. The professor had no trouble at all standing in spite of the vibrations. The room became pitch-black and then the shaking abruptly stopped. A loud bell-noise rang out.
"I didn't know you converted the hanger into an elevator, professor," Fry said.
"I didn't; I converted an elevator into a hanger. It's amazing what you can do with enough old chewing gum." The doorway that connected the hangervator to the office now led out into the streets of Old New York, the ancient metropolis that Fry had originally grown up in. New New York had been built right on top of the old one, covering the lower city in darkness. Now a home for mutants and castoffs from New New York, the city's crumbling buildings, rivers of toxic chemicals and lack of light made it a very dangerous place. The crew casually walked out of the hanger and into the street.
Fry, Bender and Leela followed the professor down the sidewalk of the ruined city. "Fortunately, I created the creature with a built-in tracking device," the professor said, pulling out a small keychain with a remote car alarm attatched to it. Hey clicked the remote once and then listened for a response. Two beeps quickly answered the remote, echoing from close by.
The crew followed the professor as he continued clicking and getting a response. Eventually, it led them to an ancient building just down the street from the hangervator. A huge structure, matte-gray and dark, an impressive staircase led up to an entrance surrounded by rows of columns on either side. It resembled something out of ancient Greece rather than America.
"Manehattan Museum of My Little Pony?" Bender said, reading the heading of the building atop the doorway.
"It's the old brony museum. My lifeform must've sought shelter inside," the professor said, ascending the staircase.
"What's a 'brony'?" Fry asked. He'd never heard the term, being frozen in 2000.
The professor adjusted his glasses. "They were a group of artists long ago that tried to save the world by spreading a message of love, tolerance, understanding and peace. They were known for being open-minded and acceptant of peoples' opinions and tried to promote harmony across the Earth."
"I thought those were called hippies," Bender said.
"No," Farnsworth replied. "These people showered."
The Leela found herself touched by the sentiment. "Well, I think they sound wonderful. The universe could use more people like that."
"Especially when we run out of hippies to shoot," Bender added. Leela responded to the mouthy robot's remark by bashing his head into his chassis with a balled-up fist. Bender spent a silent minute yanking his head out of his chest as the group walked up to the entrance.
"What happened to them, professor?" Leela asked.
"Who cares?" Bender interrupted before the professor could answer. "Let's find your little monster and get outta here," the robot said, charging past.
The four of them entered the museum, Farnsworth still clicked the remote occaisonally as they walked. They passed statues and displays as they walked through the hall to the main chamber. All of the artwork was ruined, only rubble rested on the pedestals. Empty picture frames hung on the walls and were scattered across the floor. This place had been ransacked by looters a long time ago, anything of value was already long gone. Naturally, Bender found it boring without something to steal.
They walked through an open pair of double doors into the main chamber. Six seperate doors, two on each side of the room and two in the back led to deeper into the museum. Like the hallway they just exited, the room was vacant except for one very impressive display in the center: a pillar in the center of the room made of crystal. The crew gasped as the stunning gem caught their eye. Professor Farnsworth gasped for another reason.
"My lifeform! There you are!" the professor said, running over to the foot of the jewel, ignoring its opulance in favor of his creation that lay in front of it. The creature looked more like a toy than a sort of advanced being. Two arms, two legs and a short, neckless trapezoidal head rested on a blocky, chrome-polished frame.
"Farnsworth," the creature spoke, its voice rang with a wet, mechanical tone. The sound of it speaking made the professor stop in his tracks. "Your world..." the being was exhausted, it gasp for each breath. The professor could hear it as he approached. His creation was hurt; it had been exposed to this world too early.
"Don't just stand there you idiots! Someone bring me a towel!" the professor instructed.
"Farnsworth, there is no time. Your world... lost. Must... restore..."
"Restore what? What's he saying?" Leela asked.
"Must... see..." the creature spoke, its voice almost a whisper now. It placed a flat hand on the surface of the crystal and something happened. Electricity surged from the small, toy-like being into the crystal itself. With in seconds, the sparks surged through the pillar. The crystal began to glow bright, shining and illuminating the room. The crew stood in awe of the shining jewel, unsure of what was going to happen next. The professor turned his back to the crystal.
"Did anyone hear what he just said?" he asked.
MEANWHILE, backin Equestria...
Miss Cheerilee's class was assembled in the living room of Fluttershy's cottage. The teacher had arranged for Fluttershy to give the class a short ten minute presentation on how to care for some of her animals. Well over two hours later, Fluttershy had spent the majority of the time going around the room from animal to animal trying to determine which one was indeed the most huggable. In that time, most of the class, including Cheerilee had fallen asleep. Three fillies in particular however, had snuck out of Fluttershy's house, taking the opportunity to do some extra-curricular activities.
"Finally! Fresh air,' Scootaloo said, happy to be outside. Apple Bloom and Sweetiebelle followed, closing the backdoor to the cottage quietly.
"Fluttershy sure likes animals," Sweetiebelle commented.
"I think we understood that after she hugged all the animals in the house the first time," Apple Bloom said.
Scootaloo's eyes lowered. "Yeah... I think it started getting weird when she got to her ant farm." The other two nodded in agreement, their own heads lowered as well as they pondered Fluttershy's presentation. And wondered how much longer it would be until it ended.
A gust of wind hit the cottage. The three fillies' manes were blown by the strong breeze. They waited for the breeze to stop but it didn't. The gail continued, whipping the branches of trees and blowing leaves through the air. Apple Bloom looked up to the sky. There were no clouds, no sign of what was responsible for the sudden gust.
Out in the field near the edge of the Everfree Forest, a hole appeared. Not a hole in the ground but a hole in thin air. A hole in the fabric of space and time, of existance itself. A rift emerged in the middle of the plain, the hole expanded outward. Apple Bloom, Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo were frozen, to overcome to speak, their mouths hung open and their gazes were transfixed on the void in front of them. It spilled fourth light as it expanded. When the hole was the size of the door to the Apple Family Barn, it stopped.
The three fillies stared awe-struck at the white block of light before them.
"Wha-what is it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I... I dunno," Apple Bloom answered. As the trio continued to watch, several figures spilled fourth from the opening.
Fry, Leela, Bender and the professor all tumbled through the portal and onto the ground.
"What just happened?" Fry asked, picking himself up.
"That thing... it must've been a portal of some kind," Leela said, looking around. "But to where?"
"Hey," Bender said, grasping his knees. He pointed over to three small creatures that appeared to be watching them. "What the hell is wrong with those dogs?"
