My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

Chapters

Preface: The Highest Level Unicorn
Chapter One: Where, What, Why?
Chapter Two: Paranormal Activity
Chapter Three: The Library
Chapter Four: Tales and Transformation
Chapter Five: Improvising
Chapter Six: Guilty
Chapter Seven: Fashion Designers at Work
Chapter Eight: Arrangements
Chapter Nine: Z&B Circus
Chapter Ten: History Lesson
Chapter Eleven: Tea and Biskits
Chapter Twelve: The Hunt
Chapter Thirteen: High Up
Chapter Fifteen: The First Move
Chapter Sixteen: Investigation
Chapter Seventeen: Double-0 Hedgehog
Chapter Eighteen: Circus Preperations
Chapter Nineteen: Why Aren't They Home Yet?
Chapter Twenty: Rodeo Clown
Chapter Twenty-One: Breaking Blythe, Broken Biskits
Chapter Twenty-Two: Broken Snowglobes
Chapter Fourteen: Spotlight

Preface: The Highest Level Unicorn

Written by Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Preface
The Highest Level Unicorn

She was humble; she was apologetic. But she was still determined to learn new spells; new ways to prove herself in the world of unicorns. Just because she had lost the magic duel against Twilight Sparkle didn’t mean that she couldn’t continue to practice her unicorn ways, did it?

The pale blue unicorn steadied herself on top of the box she was perched precariously atop and first narrowed her eyes before proceeding to close them. Her horn sparked with a pale pink energy, which flickered for a heartbeat and then died down. The unicorn opened one eye and sighed.

She leapt off of the box and trotted a few steps further, looking up at the dark blue sky. It was a full moon, a night many claimed full of magic. If that was so, why could she not complete even a simple spell? It was as if the Alicorn Amulet had drained all of her energy magical-wise, and now she was left as defenseless as a filly.

Her silver mane seemed to glow in the moonlight as she stared up at the sky. So many stars sparkled above, taunting her with their magical glow. The unicorn sighed; she would just have to keep trying to make magic.

Suddenly her horn flared with a pink glow, a glow unlike any that had ever come out of her horn before. The unicorn’s eyes widened as a large spiraling vortex appeared out of seemingly nowhere, her eyes flashing to a bright red, as if she still had the Alicorn Amulet on. The unicorn yelped and darted backwards as the portal expanded in front of her.

When she finally got over her initial shock, the pale blue unicorn took a few careful steps forward, squinting from the pale light disseminated from the vortex. It really was very beautiful, all swirled with blues and purples and deep, deep greens. Small sparks flew from it every heartbeat or so. The unicorn took a few hoof steps backwards nervously as a bright yellow spark landed in front of her.

Her ears lowered backwards warily, the unicorn continued her cautious advancement forward and, when about three feet in front of the portal, peered at it carefully, trying to see something, anything, that could tell her what she had created.

Nothing but darkness and swirling, beautiful colors.

The pale blue unicorn tossed her silver mane, a smug smirk creeping up the side of her face. “I suppose Trixie is the highest level unicorn,” she whispered to herself, pulling her hat up over her brow and grinning. “But of course, she is still the most humble in all of Equestria.”

Trixie Lulamoon watched the portal for a few more heartbeats, to see if it would do anything. Nothing. The unicorn sighed; perhaps she had hoped too high of herself. Perhaps this was just an illusion, a trick of her mind and horn.

“Very funny,” she mumbled under her breath. “Very funny indeed.” Irritation creeping throughout her tone, Trixie tapped her horn and sighed, her silver tail flicking as she turned away from her creation.

“The Great and Apologetic Trixie must be on her way now,” she conceived, turning one last time to glance wistfully over her shoulder at the portal. It was, by far, the most beautiful thing she had created, but there was no way to take it with her. It had to be left here, on the outskirts of Ponyville, until it shriveled up and disappeared. It would be for the best.

Lowering her hat once more over her brow in shame, Trixie sighed and galloped away towards the direction of Fillydelphia, her next location in the practicing of magic.

But unbeknownst to her, the portal didn’t disappear. It stayed right where it was, swirling in its sparks of reds, blues, greens, purples, oranges, yellows, aquamarines, any color one could imagine. And, unlike Trixie’s belief, it didn’t lead to nowhere.

It lead to the place where nopony would ever believe, not in a thousand years, it could ever go…

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Blythe Baxter hadn’t had a very exciting day so far.

She had failed her history test (she had never liked that subject much anyways, so it wasn’t too much of a loss) and her dad wasn’t very pleased with that. She had unintentionally knocked over one of Mrs. Twombly’s shelves while trying to catch a robotic toy mouse.

The only place Blythe could go was down to the back of Littlest Pet Shop to escape with her animal friends: Zoe Trent, Russell Ferguson, Minka Mark, Vinnie Terrio, Penny Ling, Pepper Clark, and Sunil Nevla. Sometimes it was the only place she felt she could really think. Of course that was silly, as there was always some kind of crazy going on. But Blythe didn’t really care.

On this particular day she was leaning up against the windowsill, looking out at the passing people, while the pets played around her. She didn’t bother to look to see what they were doing—she could guess without even thinking about it.

“Blythe?” The concerned voice of Russell broke into her thoughts. The girl looked down in surprise to see the hedgehog standing next to her, tapping his paws together anxiously.

“Yeah, Russell?”

“Well…you seemed a little preoccupied, so I thought I’d ask what’s going on.” Russell tapped two of his tiny fingers together in almost a nervous fashion. Blythe couldn’t hold back her smile. That was Russell. Always looking out for everyone.

“Aw, Rusty. I’ve just had a tough day at school, is all.” The girl turned back to the window. “Nothing much.”

“Oh.” They both turned and stared out at the surrounding area. Slowly the other pets crept up to join them—Penny’s ribbon dancing coming to a complete halt, Minka slowly swinging above the others, Vinnie tapping his feet in place, Zoe humming a song under her breath, Sunil waving his magic wand, Pepper juggling a few bowling pins, and Russell just sitting there. They all looked out at the world around them, so large but so small.

None of them could explain what happened next.

Blues and greens, lilacs and reds, oranges and aquamarines, all of these colors and more, burst in front of their eyes like an explosion of fireworks. Where the colors touched it burned the pets’ and Blythe’s eyes like a strong fire. As they screeched and struggled, it felt as if a magnetic pull was tugging them into the vortex of beautiful, burning colors.

Blythe squinted, still emitting a shriek that blended with the pets’ perfectly. At first all she could see was the colors, swirling and twisting around them like rainbows of energy.

And then the world went black.
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Author's Note

Well, hi! This story is quite popular on Fanfiction.net, so I figured I'd try publishing it here! I hope you all enjoy it! : )

Chapter One: Where, What, Why?

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter One
Where, What, Why?

________________________________________

When Blythe opened her eyes warily, at first the shimmering magical colors that had overwhelmed her and the pets remained, dancing in front of her eyes playfully, teasingly, tantalizingly out of reach. But slowly these colors folded backwards to reveal a lush, green meadow dotted with multi-colored wildflowers.

A blue sky filled with oddly twisted clouds danced above her head, dotted with occasional looping birds. The breeze smelled good, like baking pastries, and excited chatter filled the air, although who was talking Blythe couldn’t figure out.

Upon looking at her feet she saw sprawled out in different directions all around her the seven Littlest Pet Shop pets, all looking dazed, tired, and as confused as she felt.

“W-where are we?” groaned Vinnie, twisting around and peering out around them like it was some kind of scientific lab.

“I don’t know,” answered Blythe, getting shakily to her feet. “Sure doesn’t look like Downtown City, that’s for sure.”

“That’s an understatement.” That was Zoe, pawing at the ground with one delicate little purple furred paw. “This is nowhere near any of the cities I’ve ever known! I’m entered in dog shows all around Downtown City, and even in outside cities—of course, I’ve won them all—”

“No need to brag, Zo,” Pepper cut in, an annoyed look on the skunk’s face.

Zoe looked momentarily flustered, and then sighed. “Well, as I was getting to,” she muttered through clenched teeth, “I’ve not seen anywhere quite like this…” The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who was usually quite cool, calm, and content in dangerous situations, actually looked nerved and worried. Blythe pitied her and almost reached out to cuddle Zoe into her arms, but knew that the little dog would never stand to be hugged in public.

A sudden screech from Sunil, the almost-always-nervous mongoose, startled everyone into staring at him, seeing what the commotion was about. The blue banded magician was pointing nervously at a village that had been right behind them this whole time.

“Yeah, a town,” Penny the panda said, rolling her blue-grey eyes. “We’ve all seen plenty of those before, Sunil.”

“No, no, no!” The mongoose was visibly shaking, his amber eyes wide as he squeaked in his heavy Indian accent. “T-those are not people!” Now Sunil was pointing at something specific, Blythe noticed, not actually the village, but the things she had originally thought were just far off people.

But now she noticed they weren’t.

“What the what?” she managed to croak out as all seven pets gathered around her, staring anxiously and nervously at the creatures wandering the village.

They appeared to be large horses, maybe three and a half feet tall, give or take a few inches, with plush, candy-colored fur, and long, multi-colored manes and tails. A few had large horns spurting out of the top of their heads, and others had wings coming out of their sides. Some had no wings or horns, but looked like average candy-colored horses.

“What are those things?” Vinnie asked, crawling up onto Penny’s head, seemingly to get a better view. The panda’s ear twitched, but she didn’t push him off.

“Horses, of some kind?” Pepper asked nervously. Zoe nodded in agreement.

“But why do some have horn—oh.” When Blythe realized what the creatures were, she couldn’t quite believe it herself. But it had to be true. There was no other possibility that made sense—not like this one did. “Unicorns.”

“Unicorns?” Russell spoke for the first time, snorting with laughter. “Come on, Blythe, be reasonable! We must have just hit our heads really hard and this is all some super complex dream—”

“Unicorns?!” Minka interrupted, her light blue eyes lighting up with glee. “And those winged ones…pegasusususus…pegasi? Like in those old stories you told us, Blythe!” The spider monkey wrapped her long tail around her human friend’s arm and pulled herself up, scampering along the girl’s shoulders and squealing, “Isn’t this fun? One big huge adventure!”

“No, Minka, it’s not fun!” Russell yelled, but no one appeared to be listening to him. “Either this is all a terrible dream—but if it’s not, how are we going to get back to LPS—”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

Sunil had screamed once again. Pepper rolled her eyes and poked him once with her long, fluffy tail. “Geez, Sunil, why so jumpy today? We’re a long way away from any of those horse things, and they won’t be able to find us out here…”

“No, no, no, please don’t eat me…” the mongoose mumbled, clutching his tail and twisting it back and forth, his eyes fixed on something looming up behind the skunk. Pepper blinked in confusion.

“Why would I eat…?” She trailed off as she noticed the shadow stretching over her, and leaned over backwards. Rose-colored eyes hit violet ones, and Pepper shrieked, darting over to huddle beside Blythe. The girl grabbed the skunk close and stared at the creature that had just made its appearance.

It was another one of the horses, with lavender colored fur, a navy blue, pink, and purple mane and tail, and one of the large horns seemingly growing out of its head. On closer inspection, Blythe could infer that it was female, from the seemingly feminine shape of its body, not like the bulkier stallions she had observed from afar.

“Oh. My. Gosh,” the horse—unicorn?—squealed in a disbelieving tone. “I knew that we were picking up weird signals from around this area, but I would never imagine anything like this! Oooh, everypony is going to love this—a major discovery in the land of science! And the books! The books I could write on this topic alone—”

“Excuse me?” Zoe burst in. “Could you tell me where we a—oh my goodness.”

Blythe looked down at the little dog in confusion. She was about to ask what was wrong, but then she saw it. The horse had almost the exact same color scheme as Zoe, minus the dog’s decorative black beret, which was always perched on her head.

The unicorn leaned down until she was eye to eye with Zo. “You are so cute,” she said, delighted excitement creeping into her voice. “I have to take you all back to the library to study.”

“Hey,” Blythe interrupted, standing up until she was taller than the unicorn, who blinked her violet eyes in surprise. “No one’s studying me and my friends until you tell me where we are and who you are.”

“Well, that’s easy! You’re in Equestria, home of the unicorns—” The horse tapped the purple horn on her head and grinned, “—the Pegasi, and the Earth Ponies. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss…”

“Blythe.” The girl’s voice was steely, unsure if she should yet trust this so-called ‘Twilight Sparkle.’ “Blythe Baxter.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Blythe,” Twilight dipped her head and then, out of the blue, clapped her hooves together. “Oh, this will be so, so wonderful! You—” she dipped her head at Blythe respectively, “are supposed to just be one of Celestia’s legends. And all of your little friends can talk—that’s incredible!”

“Wait,” Russell interrupted. “You can understand us? I have so many questions—”

“As do I!” Twilight burst in, looking warily over her shoulder. “But we can’t stay here. Let me take you back to the library.”

“I am not going through that town,” Sunil protested, but the unicorn only laughed as a pinkish-purple light emitted from her horn, sparking and flickering next to the girl and her seven friends. Blythe wanted to ask what she was doing, but before she knew it, there was a flash of purple light and, for the second time in less than an hour, the world went black.

________________________________________

In the shadows of the Everfree forest, a dark creature snickered as it watched the pony and eight newcomers disappear in a flash of purple-pink light. This would be too fun.

'But you have to wait,' it told itself sternly, melting back into the shadows again. 'But you have to wait until the perfect time to strike…'

Chapter Two: Paranormal Activity

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Two
Paranormal Activity

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Twilight was so excited she felt like she could burst.

It had started that morning when she, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were in the library, helping Spike find one of Twilight’s lost books. She had been in an overall frenzy—it had been a wonderful read while it was there, and now it was just…gone!

“Star Swirl the Bearded’s Guide to Advanced and Complex Magic, Star Swirl the Bearded’s Guide to Advanced and Complex Magic…where are you?” the purple unicorn had wailed, using her horn’s magic to levitate about fifty books at a time. “Oh…no, no, no!” In frustration, Twilight had thrown herself onto a pile of books that had proven themselves to not be the one she was looking for.

“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash broke in. The Pegasus flicked her tail to one side. “Why so serious? It’s one stinkin’ book, and you’ve got, like, thousands!” A smirk appeared on Rainbow’s face. “At least it wasn’t the seventh Daring Do. I’m almost done with the sixth.”

About two seconds later the Pegasus had backed up nervously as Twilight threw herself in front of Rainbow, eyes wild. “THIS IS NOT JUST ‘ONE STINKIN’ BOOK!’”

“Um, T-Twilight? Is this your book?” Fluttershy murmured softly in the corner, holding up a large book with a bright red cover. But Twilight didn’t hear her, as she was still too busy yelling at Rainbow Dash about the importance of unicorn’s magic, all that she had learned from Star Swirl the Bearded’s Guide to Advanced and Complex Magic.

“Ooh, ooh! Is this it? Is this it? Is this it?” Pinkie Pie chirped, bouncing around the room and snatching books at random from the shelves. Fluttershy swooped out of the way to avoid the pink Earth Pony and held up the red book again.

“Twilight, this book says ‘Star Swirl the Bearded—‘”

“AND DID YOU HAPPEN TO KNOW THAT STAR SWIRL THE BEARDED IS HIGHLY CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL UNICORNS OF ALL TIME?” Twilight screamed at Rainbow Dash, who opened up her wings and zoomed to the ceiling, magenta eyes wide—

—and bumped straight into Fluttershy, who dropped the book with a loud thud in front of Twilight.

The unicorn blinked and levitated the red-covered book with her magic. With a loud squeal of excitement, she chirped, “This is it! Thank you, Rainbow Dash! I had no idea it was on one of the top shelves!”

“But—” Fluttershy said in an indignant tone, when she was interrupted by Spike, who had run in from the other room in the library, the room that Twilight used for putting her telescopes and charts reading paranormal activity in Ponyville.

“T-Twilight! You’re never going to believe this, but…” he trailed off, panting, rested one clawed hand on his knee, and pointed with effusive energy at the room.

The lavender unicorn cocked her head to one side and trotted into the room, Spike following wearily, his tongue still partway sticking out of his mouth. As soon as she reached her paranormal chart, Twilight shrieked and leapt backward. “SPIKE…what is that?”

For the chart was spiking and looping like it had never done before—picking up signals of who knows what. But the lavender unicorn knew, with a wild thrill of excitement, that she would be the first to discover whatever it is.

Using her magic to pull out a quill and a map of Ponyville and the surrounding areas, Twilight carefully began to study the patterns, copying them onto the map as she did. This wouldn’t have made sense to any other pony except for maybe Princess Celestia, who had taught most of what Twilight knew.

Finally, after some advanced study and magic, Twilight pinpointed that the signal was coming from right around the northeast outskirts of Ponyville. Shivering with excitement, she turned to Spike. “You want to come see what it is?”

The little dragon yelped, allowing a small green burst of flame to appear in front of him. “Uh…uh…I think I’ll stay here. What if it’s some dangerous creature from a new planet? What if it can’t understand me, and decides, ‘Oh, yum, a tasty little dragon to eat!’ Yuck, no thanks!”

Twilight’s violet eyes lit up. “I forgot about that! I need to cast a spell so that every unfamiliar creature—that is, not from Equestria—can understand us! That way we can talk about their alternate planet…oh my gosh, this will be so wonderful!”

“You know a spell like that?” Spike asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Well, it’s in Star Swirl the Bearded’s Guide to Advanced and Complex Magic,” Twilight admitted. “Not that I’d ever had any reason to do it before, but there’s no time like today, right?”

The dragon sighed. “Right…well, I can’t go anyways because I promised I’d help Rarity with her newest outfits.” His eyes lit up at the thought of his crush, who also happened to be one of Twilight’s best friends. The unicorn rolled her eyes.

“I guess it’s just me, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie…” she said, trotting out into the main section of the library. But immediately Twilight noticed the two pegasi soaring out the door. Fluttershy turned back and waved before flapping her wings as fast as she could to catch up with her rainbow-maned companion.

“What the…where did they go?” Spike said, hopping out after Twilight with a little broom he was using to sweep up all of the books.

“They went to go see Applejack, silly Spikey!” Pinkie burst in, bouncing around the two with joy in her bright blue eyes. “They said they were going to help her make apple cider today…or was it apple fritters? Ooh, maybe caramel apples, those are the best…but I get to go with you, Spike! I’m Rarity’s model today!”

“Are you guys telling me,” Twilight started slowly, “that I’m going alone to face paranormal activity and possible, very probable dangerous creatures from another planet?”

“That sounds about right!” the Earth Pony squealed, using her fluffy tail to lift Spike onto her back. “Let’s go, Spikey! Good luck, Twilight!” Pinkie bounced out of the door, Spike on her back, and just like that, Twilight was alone again.

The lavender unicorn rolled her violet eyes. “Well, it’s just me and my magic, then,” she murmured to herself. Lazily levitating the red-covered book up in front of her, she flipped through the pages until she discovered the “audible” spell.

“Ah, here we go…” Twilight grinned as she read the instructions. “Looks really tough…but who doesn’t love a good challenge?” Lowering her head slightly, she concentrated as her horn began to glow with a pinkish purple light. Suddenly a ripple of clear magic shot out all around her in a vibrating, rapidly growing circle. Sweating slightly, the unicorn raised her head and grinned. “That should do it. All creatures not native to Equestria can now talk to us ponies.”

Placing the book down carefully on its shelf, Twilight looked back once more at the spiking chart and smirked. “Paranormal activity, here I come.”

________________________________________
“Wait,” the little creature—was it a hedgehog, or a porcupine? It looked so different from the creatures of Equestria Twilight wasn’t really sure—broke in. “You can understand us? I have so many questions—”

Twilight felt a puff of pride that her spell had worked, but now wasn’t the time. Something, somewhere, didn’t feel right. She had to get out of there. Now. “As do I,” she interrupted, looking around. Where was that presence? “But we can’t stay here. I have to get you back to the library.”

“I am not going through that town,” one of the other animals protested, but Twilight only grinned and prepared to use her teleporting spell. There would be a lot more creatures then she was used to teleporting, so it would be difficult, but she thought that she could pull it off. Lowering her head, a pinkish-purple light emitted from her horn, flickering and sparking next to the eight newcomers. Out of the corner of her eye Twilight noticed the—oh, what had Celestia called them? Humans?—the girl open her mouth, as if to say something, but then the light of the teleportation overtook them and the world was consumed by darkness.

Twilight’s last thought was: ]Paranormal activity indeed.'

Author's Note

I thought you guys might be hoping for a chapter with the Mane Six. Well, there you go! :D

Chapter Three: The Library

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Three
The Library

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Blythe was inside of a tree.

It had taken a few heartbeats for the dancing violet light to fade from her vision and her blurry sight to clear up, but once she could see clearly, she was certain of it. She was in a library—that she could tell from the multiple bookshelves lining the walls, decked with what must have been thousands of books—but the wood walls that couldn’t be faked even by the best wallpaper designer told her that yes, she was inside of a tree.

“W-where are we now?” Zoe groaned, staggering to her paws and looking around her with wide ice blue colored eyes.

Twilight shook out her navy-blue mane—cut in a bowl style, Blythe noticed—and grinned. “This is my home—the Ponyville library. Isn’t it just wonderful?” The unicorn seemed over-excited, and this fact was partially making Blythe nervous.

“Lots of books,” Vinnie commented. The gecko’s eyes were half closed, and he appeared to be bored by it all. It was almost funny—indeed, Blythe noticed Pepper seemingly holding back a loud laugh.

The lavender unicorn stared at the green lizard, open mouthed. “That’s…all you have to say? About this place?”

The lizard looked around, his eyes still half closed. Shrugging, Vinnie commented, “And we’re in some big tree.” His voice was so indifferent Blythe had to stifle a laugh; Pepper actually laughed out loud.

Twilight looked like she was going to blow a fuse.

To avoid an all out war between the unknowing gecko and the lavender unicorn, Blythe stepped in the way and turned to Twilight. “Now, we all have questions. Do you have any answers for us?”

Still staring at Vinnie as if her looks could kill, the unicorn responded, “I can try my best, but I can’t guarantee everything that you know will be answered.”

“Okay, then…what’s the square root of 628?” Pepper challenged, the skunk’s rose colored eyes narrowed playfully, her tail bushed up over her head.

She probably thought that Twilight couldn’t get it. Blythe was thinking the same thing. But in about two seconds flat, the unicorn responded, almost in a bored tone, “25.059928172283335576990729631506.”

Everyone stared at her, their eyes wide in amazement. Vinnie’s jaw actually dropped. “Y-you’re like a genius horse!” he commented, eyes still wide. Twilight grinned, a rosy pink blush forming at her cheeks.

“Now, on to more serious questions,” Zoe interrupted, glaring at Pepper. “How can you understand us? Where we come from, Blythe is the only one who’s not an animal that can tell what we’re saying. Why can you, all of a sudden?”

“Simple,” the unicorn responded. Her horn lit up with a pinkish glow and a red book sitting next to her was levitated so that Zoe could see it clearly. “This is Star Swirl the Bearded’s Guide to Advanced and Complex Magic. One of the first spells he was able to create was one that enabled us ponies to communicate with creatures that weren’t native to the land of Equestria.”

Penny lifted one eyebrow, clearly doubting this. “If we’re the first non-native creatures you’ve seen, then why would that spell be invented in the first place?” The panda’s voice was rising in volume, getting louder and louder, and almost a bit shrill, telling Blythe that she was either very angry or very nervous. Maybe she was a mixture of both.

Twilight smiled knowingly, as if hoping that someone would ask that question. “That’s a fascinating story, and I’d be happy to tell you. But later—some ponies might try to come to the library. If they see you…” The unicorn’s violet eyes flashed over to Blythe, making the girl confused, “…they’d freak out. Who knows if they’d try to capture you, use you for experiments…no, this won’t do. I have to do something, but what?”

Russell looked as if he was about to say something again in protest but Minka interrupted him. “Do you know how we got here?” the monkey asked, wrapping her tail around Twilight’s neck and pulling herself up to rest on the unicorn’s neck. “Because all I remember was a bunch of pretty colors, like flash, and then blues and greens and pinks and oranges…ooh, oranges…that makes me hungry…but then the world was like BOOM! And we woke up here!”

The unicorn blinked, twisting her head slightly to peer out of the corner of one eye at the spider monkey, who grinned in response. Twilight laughed. “You have to meet Pinkie,” she murmured, almost to herself, but the whisper was audible for Blythe; the unicorn used her magic to begin flipping through the pages of the large red book again, apparently searching for something.

“…let’s see, we have shrinking spells…”

“I’d like to be small,” Minka chirped. “I could be like a bug, like an ant, or a bumblebee, or a wasp…but then I’d be all mean and no one would like me…”

Twilight ignored her this time and continued flipping. “…hmm…don’t think we can do anything with love potions…”

Zoe poked Sunil at this point, and the mongoose yelped. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel whispered something in the magician’s ear and a cherry red tint appeared on his cheeks. Pushing Zoe away, he turned back to Twilight. Blythe wondered what that little exchange could have meant.

“…here’s the spell I used for all of you guys to understand me, and communicate…”

“Don’t need that anymore,” Vinnie said loudly, his stomach rumbling. “Hey, say…do you have any grub? I could really go for some—”

Penny whacked him on the back of the head. “Drop it, Vinnie. We’re trying to get home, remember? Then you can eat all of the dried flies you want, and watch the season premier of Shake-A-Leg.”

Twilight seemed to hear none of this; she just kept on flipping through the book, murmuring to herself. Blythe sat there, feeling a little awkward; the unicorn seemed to notice how the girl was rocking back and forth, looking uncomfortable and said in an indifferent tone, “You can look around the library if you want. Just don’t let anypony other than me see you.”

“Will do,” Blythe nodded and got to her feet. The seven pets looked up at her, confused expressions on their faces, and the girl sighed, leaning down on one knee. “You guys look around too,” she murmured.

“This place is weird,” Russell noted, looking around nervously. “I’m not sure if we should trust this weird unicorn…”

“If she’s the only way we can get home, then we have to trust her,” Blythe murmured. “Come on, Rusty, give it a shot…” The girl’s eyes softened, and she grasped the hedgehog’s shoulders. “Let that small side of Fun Russell come out, just until we can find our way back to Downtown City…”

The brown and tan hedgehog looked over at the rest of the pets, who were running around looking at books and investigating the strange building. He sighed, his green eyes turning to the floor. “Okay…just for now, though. If this all turns out to be a fraud, don’t blame me for not trying, because I did…”

A sudden yelp from Twilight alerted everybody. Turning to look at the lavender unicorn, Blythe noticed that her eyes were narrowed in excitement. “This is going to be a fun spell…if I do it right,” she murmured, half to herself. Then turning to Blythe, she grinned, almost maliciously.

“What?” the girl asked, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

Twilight Sparkle placed the red-covered book, now open, on the ground, and then looked up at Blythe with a mischievous grin. “I’ll tell you the story of your kind in Equestria…and then I’m turning you into a pony.”

Author's Note

Seriously, people? Someone has already downvoted this? Just because it's an LPS crossover doesn't mean it's terrible. Please read it before you judge. I'm not saying you have to like it, but again, seriously?

Chapter Four: Tales and Transformation

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Four
Tales and Transformation

Twilight knew she was acting somewhat insane.

She had been hyped up about things before, but never quite like this. She had been somewhat crazy before (“HIIIIII, GIRLS!”) but not quite like this. She couldn’t help it. This had to be one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to her, hooves down.

“What the what?” the girl gasped, backing up into a shelf of books and knocking a few to the ground. Twilight winced but resisted the urge to yell. Instead she sat down, sighed, tracing her hoof in a circular pattern on the wooden floor.

“If anypony else saw you, Blythe,” the lavender unicorn said, still tracing, “they’d try to send you back right away. They’d be scared, they’d be worried, they’d be nervous, but they wouldn’t be curious. That makes sense. I am the only pony who knows Celestia’s legend. The legend of your kind…humans.”

“You’ve…heard of us before?” Blythe seemed confused, and Twilight wanted to facehoof but resisted. The pets actually stopped doing what they were doing and looked at her, with wide, wide eyes.

“You’ll have to learn of the legend first,” the unicorn said calmly, lying down. “Luckily I have it right here…” Using her pinkish colored magic, Twilight made a weathered scroll appear right in front of her and opened it, cracking the seal. “Let’s see here…”

The pets gathered in front of the unicorn, their eyes wide as they placed themselves down. The dog curled herself in Blythe’s lap, almost in a comforting gesture. The girl stroked her fingers along the violet fur and watched. They were all waiting on Twilight.

The lavender unicorn coughed once to clear her throat, and then began to read.

“Before the time of Equestria, when the Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and Unicorns were still divided by their leaders, Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead…”

“What kind of a name is that?” gasped the little dog, looking slightly repulsed as she lifted her head to stare at the unicorn. “Not proper, is what it is…”

Sighing, Twilight continued. “…there was an unsteady peace. This was before the coming of the Great War that eventually resulted in the founding of our magical land, Equestria.

Star Swirl the Bearded, the most powerful unicorn of his time, had been working on a book of magical spells, ones that would be more powerful and advanced, yet more feared and dangerous than the rest. At about this time, he was attempting to create a spell for turning other creatures into ponies, but couldn’t seem to find a test subject that would work. He couldn’t get any simple animals to stay in one place long enough. It seemed as if all hope was lost.

Suddenly an amazing discovery was made. There was a race of other creatures living on the outskirts of Equestria, the creatures that had once been the primal species that populated the world. Their kind had been reduced to a very small amount. Star Swirl was fascinated by their kind and wished to use them as his test subjects. The unknowing humans agreed.

After they had been turned into ponies and knew just what they had agreed to, the humans became angry. They waged war on the pony tribes; indeed, this was what killed Princess Platinum’s father, the king of the unicorns. This was the first real pony civil war, but was not recorded in the history books, as the tribes didn’t want to admit this terrible revelation. Eventually the human-ponies were destroyed and banished to the far out north, somewhere near King Sombra had his lair back in that day.

Although the humans are not remembered by any pony other than the Princesses and those they have chosen to inform, Star Swirl the Bearded’s remarkable spells used to turn the humans into ponies and make them audible to pony ears have remained in his rare and divine book Star Swirl the Bearded’s Guide to Advanced and Complex Magic.”

Twilight used her magic to roll up the scroll; she looked around at all of the gaping faces. “That’s it,” the lavender unicorn informed the gaping animals and girl. “That’s all that is here, and all that Princess Celestia chose to share with me.”

The little dog stood up on the edge of Blythe’s leg, staring at Twilight in absolute disbelief. “You’re…you’re sure this is true, then?”

“If the princesses are to be believed, and trust me, they are,” the unicorn nodded seriously. She finally felt like she was slipping back into her old skin; egghead Twilight, bookworm Twilight, not crazy-and-practically-insane Twilight. Not that she had ever meant to be in the latter, but it just sort of…happened.

“If no other ponies know of this story,” Blythe said cautiously and slowly, like she was contemplating every word she spoke, “then why do you have to turn me into a pony?” The girl shuddered, and Twilight felt bad at her obvious reluctance.

“See, there’s never been a species such as yours in modern day Ponyville,” the unicorn sighed, placing the scroll carefully back into its little niche in the wall using her levitation magic. “Like I said before, if other ponies saw you, they would capture you and run tests on you—not in a bad way, I mean, but purely out of curiosity.”

Blythe sighed and looked at the ground. She mumbled something under her breath not audible to Twilight, but the pets around her gasped.

“A-are you serious, Bly?” the hedgehog almost shrieked. “But…”

“I’m sure, Russell. Until we can find a way to get home, I need to fit in with the regular populace around here.” The girl’s blue eyes shone with sadness, and…was that regret? Then she stood up, looking straight at Twilight. Blue eyes hit violet as Blythe spoke. “Use the spell now.”

“R-right now? Are you sure?” the unicorn asked nervously.

“Yes, quickly! Do it, before I change my mind.”

Twilight sighed and leaned down to study her book. Leaning down towards Blythe, the unicorn touched her horn-tip to the girl’s forehead and immediately it began to glow with a pinkish aura, swirling around the human like a twister, or a tornado. Small beads of sweat appeared along Twilight’s head, dripping down a little bit at a time.

A sudden screech from Blythe made Twilight look up slightly to see that the girl’s skin was twisting, changing into a lighter blue color. Her eyes widened in shock as her hands and feet visibly disappeared, replaced by large hooves. The girl screamed as large wings suddenly burst out of her back.

“Is it supposed to hurt her?” the dog shrieked as the hedgehog yelped, “BLYTHE!”

Twilight couldn’t answer; beads of sweat were now collecting in a puddle on the floor, and her horn had been enveloped in a lavender and blue light. All of a sudden, a beam of light and multicolored sparkles shot out of her horn and enveloped Blythe. One final shriek pierced the air.

And then it was over.

As the light faded away, the animals gathered around, nervously grasping one another, waiting to see how their friend had turned out. The monkey saw it first. Her blue eyes widened, and she gasped with delight. “Blythe, look at you!”

“Y-yes,” came her shaky voice. “L-look at me.”

And look at her Twilight did, though she was so weak that she felt she could hardly stand. Pride coursed through the unicorn’s body as she saw what she had created.

Blythe was now a light blue Pegasus, almost the same color as Rainbow Dash, but a little bit darker. Her mane and tail were the same dark brown color of her hair, and her eyes were the same light blue they had previously been. Her cutie mark was a pencil and a spool of thread. She stared down at her body, gasping as she ran her hoof over her body. “L-look at me,” she stammered. “I-I’m a Pegasus.”

The pets all seemed to be having different reactions—the dog, hedgehog, and mongoose seemed equally shocked, while the skunk, gecko, monkey, and panda seemed somewhere in-between shocked and impressed.

Twilight wanted to say something, but at precisely that moment the door creaked open, letting in the outside light. Blythe flinched, her wings spreading open, and pressed against the wall. The pets gathered around her, their eyes wide.

“Twilight?” came the weary voice that the unicorn knew by heart as her assistant.

Spike’s figure appeared in the doorway. “I’m back.”

Author's Note

If anyone is curious about how the human timeline fits in with the timeline of ponies, I have one all written out. Just ask, and I will comply~!

Chapter Five: Improvising

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Five
Improvising

“Twilight? Twi, where are you? I finished helping Rarity.” As the little purple and green dragon wandered further into the library, he seemingly didn’t notice the blue Pegasus and her seven animal companions pressed up against the wall, breathing heavily. “She said I was absolutely perfect!”

Minka opened her mouth to say something but Blythe whacked her hoof against the little monkey’s mouth, wincing slightly. She didn’t know who this dragon was, but she needed the okay from Twilight before she could reveal herself.

Not that she was exactly invisible, a blue Pegasus pressed into the wall of a drab brown and tan library, but still…

The lavender unicorn’s head jerked up as the dragon wandered towards her, a large goofy grin on his face. Twilight nodded. “Sounds great, Spike…now, there are some friends I’d like you to meet.”

“Friends?” For the first time the so-called “Spike” turned around and noticed Blythe and the pets pressed up against the wall. His eyes went wide, and he stumbled backwards over a pile of books. “T-Twi! Who…?”

“Spike?” The lavender unicorn’s voice sounded like forced cheerfulness; she grinned nervously and quickly beckoned Blythe forward. The Pegasus moved slowly to face the shocked looking dragon.

“H-hi,” she mumbled under her breath, folding her cyan-blue wings against her side and scuffling one hoof against the other. She was still getting used to the feel of being in the body of an equine. “M-my name is Blythe.”

Instantly Twilight’s face looked horrified, and deep inside Blythe knew she had done something wrong. But what?

Spike looked confused as he stood up, dusting himself off. “T…that’s not a regular name for a pony,” he said, slowly brushing a book off of his spines. “And what’re you doing with all of those animals? Twilight, I thought you didn’t like animals in the library.”

For a heartbeat Blythe thought it was all over. Twilight looked so nervous one of her hooves was literally shaking with fear. The Pegasus had to do something…

“I come from a place far away from here…on the outskirts of…” What had Twilight called it before? Ekkistria…Equestrika? Oh, now I know! “…Equestria. What ponies are named here are different from what we’re named there—over there we have names like…like Youngmee, Sue, Jasper, and Josh,” Blythe announced. Feeling more comfortable now, she continued. “And our unicorns use amazing magic to make our animals talk, and…”

Spike was now staring at her with confused green eyes, and the Pegasus trailed off, seeing that she had probably rambled on enough. She stopped talking and looked at the ground, poking it with one of her hooves.

Zoe began to talk next—the little dog had been looking quite irritated for a while and seemed relieved at finally having a chance to say something. “Yes, but the thing is, we have to get home an—”

She was cut over by Twilight, who gritted her teeth and said, “What this little puppy means is that after staying here for a couple days, they will be heading home, right?” The unicorn looked so annoyed that Zoe sighed and nodded weakly.

Spike still looked utterly shocked, and for a second it appeared that he couldn’t say anything, but finally he nodded his head. “So…who’s showing them around Ponyville? I’d be happy to take a few of them out…”

Minka nodded, grinning. “Yeah, I’d like to see what this place is all about!” The spider monkey whooped and leapt on top of the bookshelf, peering down at Spike with excited pale blue eyes, squealing under her breath as she did so.

“And I can get the others to come help us!” the dragon said, clearly getting excited now. “I bet Pinkie would throw these guys a huge party…”

“Yes,” Twilight interrupted quickly. “The others…we’ll have to show them. Now.” Whipping her tail around as she turned in a circle to face Blythe, she said, “You can take the pets outside—I can handle how they’re welcomed.” Then, in a softer whisper, she hissed, “What were you doing, making up that story? It sounds unbelievable—the only one who’d ever believe it is Spike! And he’s the most gullible creature I know!”

Blythe smirked; it seemed she had finally one-upped the egghead unicorn. “Well, in the world I come from…we call it improvising.”

________________________________________

“Everypony, this is Blythe. She comes from a faraway land that we have not yet explored, where the unicorns place spells on their animals to talk, so if one of her seven critters starts speaking to you, do not be alarmed. Their names are…” Twilight looked down at the animals in confusion, and the Pegasus realized that the unicorn had never really asked the names of her pets.

“Zoe Treeeeeent,” the dog sang in her melodious voice, stretching the “eh” part of her name out and holding it.

“I’m Pepper Clark.”

“M-my name is S-Sunil Nevla.”

“You can call me Minka Mark! Ooh, can I have your watch? It’s so shiiiny…”

“I’m Penny Ling, nice to meet you all.”

“Hey, I’m Vinnie Terrio, and I’m a dancer.”

Everypony turned to look expectantly at Russell, who sighed and looked at the ground. Blythe felt a pang of sadness; the hedgehog hadn’t really been able to fit in so far, and he didn’t seem like he wanted to give out his real name, but finally, he gritted his teeth and mumbled, “And I’m Russell Ferguson.”

“You all are just the cutest things ever!” came a soft, excited voice from near the back of the crowd, and the blue Pegasus lifted her head curiously, looking over to see who had spoken.

It was another Pegasus, a butter-yellow one, zooming to the front with aqua eyes as wide and as excited as they could be. She rubbed Sunil behind his ears, right where he liked it, and the mongoose looked surprised but content, before the new pony stroked Zoe’s back, carefully making sure that she didn’t rub her fur the wrong way.

Blythe blinked. How did she know that they like to be rubbed that way?

“My name is Fluttershy,” the Pegasus mused as she playfully scratched Minka under the chin. “I love taking care of little adorable critters just like you!”

“You’re certainly good at it,” Zoe mused, stretching her legs and sighing contentedly under the lemon yellow hoof-massage.

A pink tint came into Fluttershy’s cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered meaningfully, flying up to look at Blythe with a curious but also nervous glint in her eyes.

Twilight stepped forward now, smiling as she did so. “Blythe, this is Fluttershy, as she’s already said. She’s one of my very best friends. The others are…horsefeathers, where are they?”

“I’m here!”

A streak of rainbow and suddenly another sky blue Pegasus had appeared in front of them. She had a rainbow mane and tail, and the tattoo thing on her flank (Blythe hadn’t been able to figure those things out) was a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it. Her voice sounded somewhat cocky, yet familiar at the same time…

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” she chirped before Twilight could say anything. “Element of Loyalty and future Wonderbolt member, thank you for asking.” Puffing out her chest proudly, Rainbow Dash looked over to see Fluttershy smiling her way and nodded, grinning. “My best buds are Fluttershy here, Twi, and…the others.”

“About the others,” Twilight mused, “Where are they?”

“Sweet Apple Acres,” the Pegasus replied immediately. “Why, want them to meet Blythey here?” She elbowed the other Pegasus playfully, and Blythe winced, taking a few steps backwards.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Twilight said with a steely tint to her tone of voice. “We’d better head off, then.”

With the pets running ahead, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash talking as they flew together in the sky, and Twilight trotting in front of them all, looking incredibly content, Blythe couldn’t help feeling like somewhere, someway, there would be trouble. Her danger sense was tingling.

And she couldn’t ignore it.

Author's Note

Thanks to anony-mouse for telling me to post more! That pleases me, that someone likes it so far! ;) Trust me, there's much more to come.

Chapter Six: Guilty

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Six
Guilty

Twilight was nervous.

Blythe had already been cheeky and somewhat rude when she’d one-upped her earlier in the library, but all of her friends (so far, anyways) seemed to think she was a great pony. If only they knew the truth…

…oh, Celestia. She hadn’t told her friends the truth.

A feeling of something she couldn’t quite place a hoof on crept into the lavender unicorn’s stomach and she sighed, letting the other pass her as she dropped her head. She was a better pony than this. She couldn’t keep such a secret from them.

But what will they do if they know the truth? Twilight wondered silently, her mind racing. Will they be scared of Blythe, not accept her in as a normal pony? I need them to work with her if I’m going to figure out how to send her and the pets home.

“Twilight?” Fluttershy called tentatively from about ten feet away. “Are you coming?”

“Yep, just give me a little time to catch my breath,” she yelled back, not really panting at all, though the Pegasus seemed to buy it, as she simply smiled and flew off to catch up with her rainbow-maned companion.

Her pure innocence, not seeing how much Twilight was hiding from her, made the sick feeling in the unicorn’s stomach multiply times 3,567,921.7. She could tell.

And now she could finally trace what that sick feeling was.

Twilight sighed and started running to catch up with Blythe, the pets, and her two friends.

It was guilt.

________________________________________

“Twilight?”

Blythe’s voice was so full of concern that the lavender unicorn stopped walking and turned around to face her. When looked at questioningly by the two hovering Pegasi, Twilight gestured for them to go on. “We’ll meet you there,” she yelled.

Rainbow Dash nodded and zipped ahead; Fluttershy let out a tiny squeak as she flapped her wings in earnest, trying to keep up with her faster friend.

“Now, Blythe,” Twilight said. “What’s up?”

The Pegasus sighed and looked at the ground. “Will you please not tell any of your friends where I come from? I know they’re completely trustworthy and you would trust your life to them, but I don’t know them yet. Can I please make the decision of when they get to know? I think it would be better that way. Russell certainly would agree with me.”

The feeling of guilt began to throb in the unicorn’s stomach; panicked, she smiled. “Of course I won’t tell them! I will respect your comfortableness, I promise.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” Before Blythe walked away, she smiled and said, “I could tell I could count on you.”

The guilt was pounding now, but all the unicorn did was smile as she trotted after them.

________________________________________

Sweet Apple Acres was as beautiful as a muddy apple farm could be during the summer. The air smelled of fresh apple cider (which made Twilight’s mouth water at the thought of it) and the still air was split by the sound of hooves thudding against trees, and the loud yell of a farm-pony’s heavy Southern accent.

“Yee-haw!”

THUD!

The sound of several apples falling into their respective baskets pierced the air, along with the excited chatter of a pink Earth Pony and the melodramatic, drawling voice of a white unicorn. Seeing her other friends made Twilight calm down a little, but it didn’t stop the guilt from collecting in her stomach.

“Hey, girls!” she called out cheerfully; they blinked and looked over in her direction. The pink pony that Twilight had known as Pinkie Pie grinned and bounced over in her usual way, instead of walking like most ponies normally did.

“Hey, Twi! Who’re your new buddies? Wait, if I don’t know them then nopony else knows them which means I need to meet them and OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO THROW A PARTY AND THIS IS GONNA BE GREA—”

“I’m glad to see you too, Pinkie,” the unicorn interrupted, smiling sheepishly as she cut the pink Earth Pony off. “And these are my new friends, Blythe and her pets, um…Zoe, Penny…Vinnie? Pepsi…?”

The skunk huffed in annoyance. “Pepper, thank you very much.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “THEY CAN TALK!” she shrieked in excitement. “OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMY—”

“Pinkie Pie!” cut in the stern, Southerly accent of the pony Twilight knew as Applejack. Said Applejack trotted over and stuffed her hoof over the other Earth Pony’s mouth. Turning to face the stunned Blythe and the seven pets, she apologized, saying, “Ah’m a mite sorry about Pinkie here. She can get a little…overexcited at times.”

Blythe shrugged, but Twilight saw that her eyes had momentarily gone wide and distracted. She didn’t know why, but this almost made her want to laugh. Great job, Pinkie. You can show her that Equestria isn’t all butterflies and rainbows.

Then she looked up at the two pegasi fluttering above her, and the unicorn burst out laughing. Well, in some cases it is.

“Twilight, darling? What’s so funny? I don’t seem to get the joke.” That was Rarity, the white unicorn trotting up, flipping her mane backwards, and looking at Twilight with not amused sapphire colored eyes.

“Nothing,” Twi answered, still grinning despite herself. “It’s nothing, really.” Still snickering, however, she turned to face the pets. “Okay, girl—guys,” she started, remembering that not all of the pets were female at the last moment, “this is Pinkie Pie, that’s Applejack, and this is Rarity. They’re my other best friends.”

Applejack took her hoof down from Pinkie’s mouth and grinned, extending it to the shocked pets and Blythe. “Pleasure to meet y’all,” she grinned. “I reckon, where do you come from?”

“A country far away that is not Equestria,” Blythe immediately responded, and Twilight couldn’t stop the guilt from snowballing inside of her until she felt for sure that it was actually wearing her down. How can I not tell my very best friends?

“Ohmygoshweshouldthrowyouabigpartyandallofyourlittlepetstoo!!!” Pinkie squealed, bouncing around Blythe with an expression of pure glee on her face. “See, there haven’t been any new ponies in Ponyville since Cranky came, and so I’ve thrown a party for everything but it just hasn’t been enough, and I can’t wait to—”

“PINKIE!” the other ponies yelled at the same time (except for Fluttershy, who let out a soft, “Um…Pinkie?”), glaring at their pink companion. She giggled and shrunk backwards, hiding behind the group of pets; in turn the monkey, whose name Twilight couldn’t remember at the moment, snickered and said, “Hi, Pinkie! I’m Minka, nice to meet you!”

“Hi, Minky Monkey Minka!” chirped the pink Earth Pony. “How are you today with the sun shining and the birds chirping and…”

“It’s probably best to ignore her now,” Rarity cut in as the pink Earth Pony continued to mindlessly babble, her eyes sparkling as she leapt around the uncontrollable monkey.

“Yuuup,” said Blythe, watching them as well. “Minks too.”

The white unicorn turned to face the brown-maned Pegasus, a weary smile upon her face. “Well, Blythe, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope that you have a wonderful time staying here in Ponyville. I say, what do you like to do in your free time? Perhaps we can direct you to a place where you can practice your special talent…?”

“Oh,” the blue Pegasus stammered, clearly surprised at being spoken to so boldly. Twilight resisted a chuckle; that was Rarity for her. “Well, I like to design clothes…”

In an instant Rainbow Dash alighted beside Applejack and rolled her eyes. The lavender unicorn was just close enough to hear what the rainbow maned pony whispered. “Oh great…Rarity’s going to have a blast.”

Indeed, right away, Rarity’s eyes had widened. “You mean…you’re a fashion designer too?” she squealed, her blue eyes brimming with delight. “Oh, how wonderful this will be! You can come and stay with me at the Carousel Boutique!”

“The what in the what now?” Blythe asked, confusion in her tone. Somehow, the voice in which she said these words sounded familiar to Twilight, but she couldn’t quite place where she had heard somepony talk just like that.

The violet maned unicorn squealed, wrapping one hoof across Blythe’s shoulders and turning her around so that they were walking back towards Ponyville. “Well, it’s like this…”

Pinkie and Minka bounced along next to them, giggling about who-knows-what and Twilight found herself rolling her eyes as the rest of the pets chased after their friends, as if they couldn’t be separated for more than five seconds.

“I wonder where that place is that Blythe is from,” Applejack muttered, breaking into her thoughts. “I’ve not heard of a place outside of Equestria’s boundaries, except for Granny’s filly-tales, but then again, those were just filly-tales...Twi? Are you okay?”

The reason she had said those last words was because the unicorn had sighed and looked at the ground, a tear forming in the corner of one of her eyes. Closing them, she sighed and gritted her teeth.

Oh, girls! I have to tell you!

But you promised Blythe you wouldn’t!

She doesn’t have to know, does she?

…

No, she doesn’t!

“Alright,” the unicorn choked out, sighing. “I’ll tell Rare and Pinkie later…but girls?” She looked up at the concerned face of Fluttershy, the confused face of Rainbow Dash, and the steadfast face of Applejack, knowing what she was about to do would betray Blythe’s trust—but how could she not tell them?

A single teardrop fell from the lavender unicorn’s eye as the guilt bubbled inside of her, finally bursting out.

“Well, see…it’s like this...”

Chapter Seven: Fashion Designers at Work

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Seven
Fashion Designers at Work

Blythe was having trouble containing her excitement.

For the first time she was actually feeling safe in this strange new world, where she was a new kind of creature entirely, surrounded by candy-colored horses with magical powers. At least she still could do her special talent.

Designing and making clothes.

Apparently she wasn’t alone in liking it – and now she was hard at work.

Rarity was having her help with many things; first, she had to measure out the length for the new dress, made for small fillies, apparently. Then Blythe had to pick out matching colors of fabric and thread for the dress, and put it all in the sewing machine.

She was a whole lot more at home, and a whole lot happier. The only downside was that it was hard trying to work a sewing machine with hooves.

“Bly-ythe, dear,” the white unicorn called as she worked with a sewing machine, several pieces of fabric hovering around her. “Could you be a darling and fetch me that mannequin?”

The blue pegasus stopped measuring her lavender fabric and saluted. “On it!” With a few flaps of her freshly-made wings, she soared across the room and grasped the said mannequin, flapping back over to Rarity, who nodded in approval, her eyes looking at it through a pair of red-rimmed glasses.

“Ah, this gown shall be the crème de la crème when it goes viral in Canterlot, no?” the white unicorn said merrily as she levitated her newly sewn dress onto the white pony-shaped figure. It was a deep azure, matching Rarity’s eyes perfectly, and it was woven with small designs of silver spirals and swirls.

Blythe nodded. “That’s a beauty,” she agreed cheerily. “What do you think of mine?” The pegasus lifted a lavender gown with golden stars lining the edges and a long tail that curled at the end.

The unicorn’s eyes went wide. “That…that is simply gorgeous!” she squealed. “And you made it for a filly…how perfect! My little model can test it for us!”

Blythe wasn’t quite sure she had heard her right. “Your…model?”

“Oh, yes,” Rarity nodded as she continued to activate her sewing machine by use of her pale blue magic. “She’s actually my sister, but she’s such a dear that she’d love to try on your gorgeous dress.”

The pegasus shrugged. “If it’s okay with her, I would like to see somepony actually wearing it…”

“SWEETIE BELLE!!!” Rarity yelled loudly.

For a moment, the words echoed around the large open space, dispersing and sounding as if it was some sort of haunting melody from a horror movie. Blythe would know—Pepper had accidentally convinced her to watch one once, and it hadn’t been a very fun experience.

A few seconds passed, and for a minute the pegasus worried Rarity had gone slightly crazy, thinking there was another in the house. But then one word, in a high-pitched, almost squeaky tone, bounced back at them.

“WHAT?”

The unicorn grinned and winked at Blythe, revealing her ice blue eye-shadow. “CAN YOU COME HERE? A FRIEND OF MINE WANTS YOU TO TRY ON HER OUTFIT!”

“COMING!” the voice replied.

About a minute later, a small white filly with the same unicorn horn as Rarity and a cotton-candy style mane and tale scampered into the room, her green eyes filled with pleasure. “I’m here, big sis! And…oh my gosh, look at that cute little puppy dog!”

An indignant yelp followed as Zoe was promptly scooped out of her resting spot next to Rarity’s cat, Opal, where she had been snoozing, along with all of the other pets, who didn’t have as much endurance as the older creatures and had been very tired, save Minka, who had already gotten permission from Blythe to go back to Pinkie Pie’s residence, Sugarcube Corner.

The little filly, who Blythe assumed was Sweetie Belle, rubbed her cheek against Zoe’s. “Where did you find her, Rarity?” Her voice cracked a little when she talked fast, and Blythe thought it was kind of cute. “Is she ours? Can we keep her, can we, can we, can we?”

Rarity stifled a laugh and sighed, putting on her “no-nonsense” face again. “No, we can’t. She belongs to my friend Blythe over there. Blythe, this is Sweetie, Sweetie, Blythe. Now that the introductions have been made—” the designer’s eyes lit up as she said the next phrase, “—let’s have you try on the dress!”

“Wait, what dress?” Sweetie asked, dropping Zoe, who landed on the floor with a loud thud and another yelp.

“Why, this one, of course!” Rarity levitated said dress in front of her younger sister, whose eyes began to sparkle.

“It’s so beautiful!” the filly murmured, reaching out to stroke one pure white hoof along the lavender fabric. “Can I try it on now, can I, can I, can I?” Every time she said the letter “I” her voice went up another octave, and Blythe tried to stifle a laugh.

“Of course you can,” the pegasus said before Rarity could get a word in. “It’s lovely to meet you, Sweetie Belle. You can change right over there.” Blythe nodded at a curtain in the corner, and the filly eagerly snatched the dress with her teeth and darted off, mumbling something that sounded like “Cuphmie Mark Cuphmsaders Dress Mopdelers!”

Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes. “She’s always been an excited little filly, that one.”

Blythe walked over to a new piece of fabric and took it off, smiling at the unicorn. “I think she’s cute.”

“Cute is one way to describe her,” the unicorn sighed, rolling her azure eyes. “Dangerous and crazy is the other. You should have been here when she sold my secret diary and placed it in a school newspaper—”

Two things then happened at once.

The door to the shop burst open, and Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack burst in. Fluttershy’s expression was horrified; Rainbow looked like she was about to squish something; Applejack just looked nervous. Blythe thought Twilight’s expression was the queerest of all, though – her eyes were puffy and red, as if she had just been crying.

At that same moment, Sweetie Belle jumped out from behind the curtain, showing off the lavender and gold dress with extreme excitement. “Big sis, big si—what’s going on?”

“Twilight just told us some very interesting news,” Rainbow grunted, glaring at Blythe accusingly.

Immediately the pegasus knew what had happened. She whipped around and turned on Twilight. “Twi, what did you do! I told you you couldn’t tell them, remember?”

“I told them not to tell anyone! I’m so, so sorry…they won’t tell, I promise,” the lavender unicorn choked out the words.

Rage filled Blythe’s mind. “You…I thought I could trust you! What happened?”

Twilight said nothing more, tears flooding the corners of her violet eyes as Blythe whipped around to face Rainbow. “And as for you…what’s wrong with being dragged here? It’s not like it was our fault!”

“But you’re still like, a whole different breed! How do we know that you’re not a spy?” the rainbow-maned pegasus shot back, zipping up to Blythe and going nose-to-nose with her, still flapping in the air.

“Rainbow, Blythe, please don’t fight,” came the tentative voice of Fluttershy from the background, but no one could hear her over the commotion.

“Why would I even want to spy on a place like this one?” Blythe howled back. She had never felt so riled up before, except maybe when her dad wished to spend too much time with her, and she had kind of snapped.

“Because we know things!” Rainbow shot back at her. “We know things beyond your wildest drea—”

“EVERYPONY STOP!”

Fluttershy stood in the middle of Carousel Boutique, glaring at them all with angry teal colored eyes. “Why should we all be fighting? Blythe is very nice, and you know that, Dashie!” The yellow pegasus looked so upset that tears were starting to come to her eyes. “Blythe will obviously have to stay here a little bit longer before Twilight can figure out how to send her back, and do you really have a problem with that? Right now, she’s a pony just like us! So just QUIT IT!”

Blythe sighed and nodded, although rage still bubbled inside of her. Rainbow alighted on the ground and muttered something under her breath like, “For you, I guess,” which didn’t make sense to the girl-turned-pony, but she didn’t care about it now.

“Twilight,” she murmured to the still-crying unicorn. “I guess I can understand your concern. But I trusted you, you know. I trusted you.”

Twilight sniffled and continued to sob. Rarity slowly levitated a handkerchief over, and the lavender unicorn took it, wiping her eyes.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a few minutes. Each pony avoided looking at the other, and the pets, who had watched the whole exchange silently, were whispering, but Blythe couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Finally the silence was broken by Sweetie Belle, who piped up in her cute little high-pitched voice.

“Sooooo…how do I look?”

Author's Note

Sweetie Belle is best Cutie Mark Crusader. 'nuff said.

Chapter Eight: Arrangements

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle117
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Eight
Arrangements

Twilight felt like she could sob so much she’d flood the Boutique.

She had betrayed a friend’s trust, and now Blythe would probably want nothing to do with her. It was awful – the worst thing that had ever happened to her; well, other than the time when they were protecting the Crystal Empire, or were attacked by Nightmare Moon, or…

…forget it. She had betrayed a friend’s trust. Wasn’t that bad enough?

Sweetie Belle’s easy smile lasted a few seconds before she realized that no one was answering, and it began to droop. Her jade green eyes lowered to the ground, and the little filly too, said nothing.

Then the musical chimes of Carousel Boutique reverberated merrily around the whole shop; all of the frozen members instantly flinched at the sudden noise. Excited chatter filled the air of two pink animals that were having a splendid old time.

“And so I said ‘oatmeal? Are you crazy?’ and they all looked at me like I was crazy, and…”

“…so there was the time I was hiding under a bowl with my best-friend-forever pretending I was a tortoise…”

Pinkie Pie merrily bounced through the entrance to the Boutique, her eyes lighting up as she spotted her downcast-looking friends. “Well howdy-do, guys!” she chirped. “Minka and I are just having a beautiful little conversation!”

Pink hands grabbed at the earth pony’s mane, and Minka pulled herself up, grinning from ear to ear. “Isn’t this place great, guys? I just visited a candy shop! A candy shop!”

The monkey’s smile soon faded when she saw the sorrowful looks that her friends were giving her. “…guys? Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing, Minks.” Blythe spread one of her wings and motioned for the monkey to jump on it. “Just a bit of…trouble, that’s all.” The pegasus’ voice was stiff, flat, and emotionless, devoid of all feelings whatsoever.

Twilight let out a loud sniffle, and looked away, feeling as if her stomach was going to die of emptiness. She hadn’t meant to hurt Blythe’s feelings so badly, and she certainly hadn’t expected Rainbow to act the terrible way she did! It wasn’t her fault, but how could she get Blythe to see that?

Minka leapt, and with one bound, scampered up the teal wing of her once-human friend. “Sooooooo, what amazing-awesomeriffic stuff did I miss while we were gone?” she tweeted, bouncing around Blythe’s shoulders like an out-of-control bouncy ball. On instinct, Pinkie also started to bounce, laughing and cheering as she did so.

No one said anything. No one dared.

Except Rarity.

“Um…Twilight? Fluttershy – Applejack? I feel like I’m missing something here…what exactly were you told?” The white unicorn’s eyes were confused, and she stopped her sewing machine to listen carefully to what she was about to hear.

For a moment you could have heard a pin drop. Then Twilight sighed. “Well, see…Rare, Pinkie…Blythe isn’t actually a pony.”

“Why, whatever are you talking about?” Rarity used her pale blue magic to levitate one of the teal pegasus’ wings and stroked it calmly. “These are the real feathers of pegasi. It is not possible to duplicate them.”

“No,” the lavender unicorn nodded her head slowly. “But…but see, that was my magic. I transformed her from a human girl into an Equestrian pegasus.”

“What’s a human?” piped up Sweetie Belle, trotting over to Blythe and sniffing at one of her feathers curiously, as if it might smell different because of this realization.

“A human,” Twilight said, feeling slightly better as she wiped a lingering tear out of the corner of her eye, “is a tall, tan creature that only has a mane, but no tail, and walks on two legs. They wear clothing all of the time.”

Sweetie’s green eyes looked up at Twilight, wide and confused. “Two legs?” she murmured, like she couldn’t believe it. “Then how do they walk around without falling over all of the time?” The small white filly grabbed onto a nearby mannequin and stumbled onto two legs. She took a few shaky steps forward and tumbled over, yelping as she knocked over one of her sister’s sewing machines, causing Rarity to shriek in panic and stop the chaos with her pale blue magic.

Blythe laughed for the first time in at least ten minutes, and Twilight felt a small smile come on to her face. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all…maybe it was just Rainbow being overly suspicious.

The once-human’s laugh seemed to wake everyone else from their dazed stupor, and they all grinned too. The pets, who had been watching the whole exchange in silence, looked at each other and smiled. Finally Penny Ling stood up, her blue-grey eyes shining.

“Can we all just be friends and respect one another?” she asked quietly.

“I think Blythe is cool! She came from another dimension!” Sweetie Belle chirped merrily, pressing her small body against the teal pegasus’. Blythe looked down at her with surprise in her blue eyes, and then understanding.

“And Rainbow here was bein’ a bit too judgmental,” Applejack snarled, glaring at the rainbow-maned pegasus, who shrugged nervously, an awkward smile on her face.

“It was a fair assumption, right, guys? …right?”

When no one answered, Dash simply looked away, and quickly stammered, “W-well…Twi, how long do you think it’ll take you to tap back into Blythe’s world? I mean, not like it wouldn’t be cool having her around, but…y’know, how long ‘till ponies start getting suspicious of this ‘other world’ she speaks of?”

“You’re right, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight nodded, noting that the often lazy pegasus could make some awfully good points sometimes. “Ponies will get suspicious – if we act like she’s something she’s not. Until I find a way to bring a portal back to her world, Blythe and her animals will have to live among us.”

“You can stay with us at the Boutique, Blythe!” Sweetie chirped, and then anxiously turned to face her older sister. “That’s okay, right?”

“An aspiring designer such as myself? Why, I see it a crime not to let her stay!” Rarity grinned, nuzzling Blythe affectionately, as she did to all of her friends. “Even if she is a…human…she is pleasant, kind, and sweet, and shall fit in amazingly here. But her animals…” The unicorn turned to look at the seven curious pets and stuck out her tongue quickly. “The dog can stay, maybe…she looks as if she has a little taste in fashion. But the others…they’ll have to go.”

“Go?” Blythe’s voice was at a panicked yelp. “But they’re my best friends! I won’t be separated from them!”

“It’s okay, Blythe,” Pepper spoke up from the pets, her rose colored eyes showing compassion. “We’ll just stay with whoever will take us. As long as we know we can trust them, we’ll be okay, right guys?”

There were massive nods all around, and all of the animals smiled at their nervous friend. Even Russell, who appeared to be putting on some sort of a brave face – Twi could tell he had been worried about this place all along.

“I’d like to take at least one of them, if that’s okay with you,” Fluttershy murmured quietly. She glanced at Sunil, smiled, and then looked back at her rainbow maned friend, who was now talking.

“And it’d be cool having someone to hang with other than Tank,” Rainbow nodded, her magenta eyes sweeping the cast of pets. It landed on Pepper, and the pegasus grinned, pointing at the skunk quickly before whipping around to see what her orange earth-pony friend was saying.

“Shucks, y’all are so cute. How can Ah not take one of ya home?” Applejack rubbed Penny under the chin and the panda let out soft noises of appreciation. “Granny, ‘Bloom, Mac, and Winona are gonna love these little guys.”

“It’d be totally awesome-riffic if I got to hang with these little cutie-patooties all the time!” Pinkie cheered, leaping up and down on the spot. Minka cheered and hopped onto her new friend’s shoulders, scampering around excitedly.

“And…and I’d be happy to care for a few of them myself,” Twilight finally spoke, her eyes puffy but a smile upon her face. “I hope that’s okay with you, Blythe?” Her last word hung suspended in the air, waiting to see what the once-human’s reaction would be.

The pegasus bit her lip, obviously contemplating her choices. Finally she let out a long sigh. “It’s fine with me. You’ve proven that you all are nice enough.” The last word was emphasized as Blythe glared at Rainbow, who put on a nervous grin. “I’m putting my complete trust in you six, though.”

“We ain’t the Elements of Harmony for nothin’, sugahcube,” Applejack assured her, placing one hoof over Blythe’s shoulder. “There’s nopony in Ponyville – heck, all of Equestria! – that’s better suited to take care of you and your critters then us ponyfolk.”

The teal pegasus smiled and leaned her head against Applejack’s shoulder. “Okay, then. It’s all good?”

Twilight felt her heart could burst with pride as she grinned. “It’s all good.”

Author's Note

Next chapter is our OC villain's grand debut!

Chapter Nine: Z&B Circus

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Nine
Z&B Circus

Far away, in the Everfree Forest, a zebra named Zelda was sitting at a table with a cup of hot, spicy tea, and fuming.

She was reading a book, which she usually didn’t do unless she was terribly upset, because her long black-and-white mane always got in the way. Zelda blew it back now, her aquamarine eyes still glaring, her tea starting to go cold. She knew that most zebras preferred to wear their mane up, Mohawk style, but she preferred it down.

The book she was reading wasn’t helping with her anger. It was a book of old spells by an old unicorn…Star Swirl the Bearded, and that just worsened her pain. But she continued to read. It was something to do that kept her mind off of business and money, anyways.

There was a sudden clatter of hooves, and a pure white mountain goat darted up to the reading zebra, his black eyes wide as he panted for breath. “Zelda, Zelda!”

“Shut up, Biff,” the zebra snarled, turning a page in her book and taking a wary sip of her cold tea. The mountain goat glared at her.

“Someone’s in a mood,” he bleated coldly.

“And you aren’t?” With a final humph, Zelda slammed her book and whipped around to face him, turquoise eyes flared with anger. “We just lost our jobs. We just lost our money. We lost everything that we’ve ever had since we ran away from our homes! And you’re telling me I’m in a mood?”

Biff rolled his eyes. “Sure, I’m a little grumpy too, but you’re just plain out awful. We get kicked out of Fillydelphia’s grocery store, big deal. Then you come into this messed up forest and sit around sulking and reading spell books!”

Zelda took a deep breath. She didn’t quite know how she could put up with the goat some days. But she had to. The zebra exhaled, causing the long golden necklace looped around her neck to flutter outward. “Okay, maybe I was just a little bit rough.”

Biff nodded, his frown turning into a smile. “Glad we’re seeing eye-to-eye again.”

The zebra rolled her eyes and returned to her tea. The goat might be a little dense at times, but he had a big heart. Honestly, they were polar opposites, and she didn’t quite know how she put up with him at times.

The day she had met him rolled around her mind, and Zelda dove into it. Anything to forget her recent let-down at work…

“Cuz, what’ll happen if I don’t wanna be a real Tribe Zebra? What if I don’t wanna learn magic without a horn, or if I don’t wanna live in the Everfree, or I don’t wanna talk in rhymes all the time like you do?”

A small zebra, her mane up in a short, spiky Mohawk, blinked her turquoise eyes up at her older cousin, awaiting the answers. Zelda had only been nine back then, but was a lot more intuitive about the world than any of the other zebras her age.

Her cousin, a much older zebra known as Zecora, sighed and touched one golden-ringed hoof to Zelda’s nose. “I am sorry, my cousin dear. All of these questions I find most queer. A zebra you are, a zebra you’ll be, or one day you shall pay a terrible fee.”

Zelda narrowed her eyes and turned, spitting on the ground in anger. “I don’t wanna be a Tribe Zebra like you are! I don’t wan—”

She yelped as Zecora waved her hoof soundly and the younger zebra’s mouth was instantly closed. Zelda shook her head and glared at her cousin, tears forming in the corner of her eyes as she struggled to say what her mouth could not process. She had always hated the magic the Tribe Zebras could perform, although that was mainly because she had never been very good at it. Most young zebras could perform a simple spell by the age of three. Zelda had only learned her first spell three months before.

Stupid Zecora! Stupid Tribe Zebras! Stupid, stupid, stupid! she screamed in her mind, all of the words she could not say exploding like a fireworks show. I don’t wanna live here anymore!

Tears flying from her eyes, Zelda whipped around to face away from Zecora and took off running as fast as her little hooves could take her. The older zebra did not try to stop her, but instead smiled and waved her hoof, allowing her younger cousin to speak again. Zecora bowed her head and nodded, seemingly at nothing. “If a Tribe Zebra she will not be, she shall face her true destiny, be it good or bad, I doubt she will be glad. But it is not up to me, so we shall see…we shall see…”

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

Zelda had been running for what felt like hours. She didn’t know quite how long she had been going, but she wasn’t sure it was long enough to get away from those terrible zebras that wanted to control her life. She wanted to live it her way, not theirs!

All of a sudden she slammed into a large white wall of fur and muscle and went flying backwards, slamming into a tree with a terrible THUD.

“I’m so sorry!” yelped a deep voice in front of her. “I didn’t mean to get in your way…actually, that was my job, but…”

Zelda’s turquoise eyes flickered open to see concerned black ones staring at her. The zebra shrieked and scrambled backwards to see the full body of the animal who was looking at her intently. Upon further notice, he was a fully-grown mountain goat.

“Hi,” he said slowly.

“…um…hi?” Zelda whispered softly.

“I’m so sorry I slammed into you just then,” the goat apologized, bowing his head. Zelda shook her head.

“No, it was my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“And where were you going, anyways?” the goat asked with incredible interest that made every bone in the zebra’s body quiver with fear. How could she even have thought for a heartbeat he could be a new ally?

“That depends,” the zebra said sharply.”Where were you headed?”

The white goat looked up at the sky, extreme discomfort showing clearly on his face. “Uh…actually, I’m not quite sure where I was going.”

“Really?” Zelda closed her mouth, cursing herself for sounding so outgoing. “I mean…really? Nowhere at all? Nowhere in mind you’ve always wanted to go, somewhere you’ve always wanted to see?”

The goat looked at her, his jet black eyes intense. “Well, I suppose that I’ve always wanted to go see the mysterious zebra tribe…Iron Will always has talked about them, and how magical they are…”

“Trust me, they’re nothing special,” Zelda interrupted him, rolling her eyes. “I was part of that tribe and—”

“You were part of the Zebra Tribe?” The goat’s eyes lit up, and despite his large appearance, he almost appeared innocent and cute, in a way. “Does that mean you know magic? Can you show me, oh can you, can you, Miss…uh…”

Before replying, mixed thoughts ran through Zelda’s head as fast as lightning. The first was: if he is a runaway too, that means he could be helpful to have on my side… The second: If he thinks I can do magic, and I can just show him a simple spell to win him over, then I’ll have a powerful ally. The third: What would I need an ally for? The forth: Oh…he’s waiting for my name.

“Zelda,” the zebra stammered, smirking and bowing her head playfully. “Zelda the Zebra, a fine spell-caster, and a wonderful ally for any…needy…soul.”

“Zelda,” the goat nodded, rolling the name off of his tongue. “My name is Biff, by the way. Not a very appealing name, but that was what Iron Will wanted…and what Iron Will wants is what Iron Will gets.” Biff rolled his eyes and smiled.

Zelda grinned. Something told her she would have a very satisfying life, away from her tribe…

…and she had. Up until yesterday, when they had been fired.

Now they were out of money, out of home, and they were forced to huddle in the Everfree Forest, just a few miles away from where her cousin Zecora lived. Zelda took a sip of her tea and spat it out – it was ice cold now, after she had been reliving her memories for such a long while. And she couldn’t even re-heat it with her magic – she could try, but it probably wouldn’t do any good at all.

Biff lived in fear of her – sometimes her accomplice, sometimes her hesitant friend – but whenever Zelda needed to keep the large goat under her control, she just threatened him with her magic. And it worked. He never doubted her.

It was a satisfying life indeed, if only she had a way to make some bits…

“Zelda!”

The sudden yell made the zebra’s head jerk up, and she whipped around to face Biff, who was panting. “I’ve got an idea on how we can make a living!” he cheered, clapping his hooves together.

Zelda cocked an eyebrow. “What is it?” she asked coolly, fully aware that some of Biff’s plans could be rather…interesting.

The mountain goat grinned, his beady black eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “Come to the edge of the forest, and I’ll tell you,” he grinned, his voice actually rising a few octaves with excitement, which only happened when he was very thrilled about something.

The zebra rolled her eyes, shrugged, and left her cold tea and book on the ground to follow her accomplice to the edge of the Everfree.

“…and so we could set up a circus for all of the ponies everywhere to see, with your magic, and my…um, skills…and we could find performers, and get tons of bits! We could be the…Z&B Circus! What do you think of that, Zelda?”

Zelda nodded; she had to admit that for Biff, it was a very good idea. But there were a few holes in the plan that she had to point out, even if it meant crushing the large mountain goat’s heart. “First of all, where will this circus be?”

“On the outskirts of Ponyville, maybe?”

The zebra nodded in approval, but she wasn’t done yet. “What kind of performers are we going to use?” Her ear flicked as she heard faint talking in the background, and loud, crashing footsteps. Someone was coming near – two someones, by the sound – and they were going to be discovered soon.

“Well…” Biff stuttered, obviously at a loss for words. “…maybe some talking animals that could do different, incredible talents…”

He was cut off abruptly as Zelda grabbed his tail with her teeth and yanked him into the undergrowth. “Be quiet!” she hissed. “Someone is coming, and we need to see who!”

And, just for emphasis, the zebra rolled her turquoise eyes. “Anyways, who’s ever heard of talking animals with special talents?”

Author's Note

I'm assuming people are downvoting this because it's an LPS crossover -_- That irritates me. Thank you, kind ones who have upvoted! :D Anywho, do you like our new antagonists? There's much more to come of them soon...

Chapter Ten: History Lesson

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Ten
History Lesson

“Hello there, young zebras. Welcome to your history lesson. My name is Zila, but you will refer to me as Ms. Zila, is that clear?”

A slightly younger version of Zelda groaned and rested her head on the desk which had been placed in front of her. Moaning, she traced the circular patterns engraved into the wood and sighed. She hadn’t wanted to go to this dumb history class thing. But, of course, it was Zecora’s decision. What happened to her having her own choices?

“Yes, Ms. Zila,” the class chanted as one – except for Zelda.

Zila was a very tall zebra – even taller than Zecora. Her eyes were not the regular piercing blue, but rather, a very light emerald green, and she wore three earrings in her left ear but not in her right. She, like all other members of the Zebra Tribe, was adorned in golden rings – two around her back right leg and one around her left foreleg. Her mane was in a Mohawk but was curled slightly at the top.

“Now, does anyone have any idea why you are in this class?” she asked, a sharp tone always present in her voice.

Zelda groaned and rolled over, while another zebra, a male known as Zilf who was about her age, raised his hoof tentatively. When Zila nodded at him, Zilf said uncertainly, “Um…to learn about the history of the Zebra Tribe?”

Some of the brattier zebra mares in the back snickered. Zelda just rolled her aquamarine eyes and let out a low moan.

The teacher passed one hoof over the chalkboard she had set up, and turned back to Zilf. “That is one of the reasons.”

As she said this, words began to appear on the board, as if written in chalk. Zelda finally sat up, staring in awe as the words clearly wrote in neat printed writing, “1. Learn about Tribe.”

“There are some other reasons as well,” Zila said, turning back to the board. Once again she passed her hoof over it and turned back to her class, her light green eyes glowing. “We will learn about how this Tribe came to live in the Everfree, when most zebras once lived in a hot, desert-like plain…”

The words appeared, plain as day: “2. Zebra’s actual climate, and how we adjusted.”

The other students were looking a bit more interested now too, sitting up and gazing at the letters in awe. One of them, a mare in the back that Zelda didn’t know the name of, raised her hoof and yelled, “Ms. Zila, Ms. Zila!”

Zila looked at her with an air of annoyance. “In a moment, Zipal. I’m almost done.” With a final move back towards the chalkboard, she said without turning back to her students, “Now, the last thing we will learn about is something that is incredibly secret. The zebras and the zebras alone were trusted with this great burden of knowledge, and were to pass it on to the younger generation.”

Whispers arose from the class; Zila glared at them all until they were silent, and then smiled. “That’s better. Now, where was I? Oh yes, see, this is a story that you will never have leave your mind. It tells of creatures that once roamed Equestria, millions of years ago, before Equestria was even called by that name. They were known as—”

Zelda leaned forward, her attention actually sparked. Zila was a very effective speaker, and she was thoroughly entranced.

The word that came out of the teacher’s mouth was utterly foreign to all of the young zebras. Some of them forgot it within seconds; others kept the memory so they could graduate later. But Zelda remembered it for the rest of her life. She cherished the description of the creatures, their personality, everything Zila knew.

The word was simple – only two syllables long.

“Humans.”

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

Humans.

Zelda snapped out of the memory, her aquamarine eyes panicked and almost terrified. She leaned a bit farther out of the bush, just to make sure that her eyes weren’t failing her. They weren’t. Utterly, without a doubt, she was looking at her old teacher’s creatures of legend.

Biff’s black eyes were confused. “What are—?”

The zebra placed one hoof over his mouth. “Shh!”

The humans had been the one making the noise. They were the ones who had been talking so loudly, and in such painful, drawling tones! How they had gotten here she had no idea – according to Zila they had all been banished years ago – but they were here.

It was her history lesson all over again.

“Eww,” one of them said – they were both female, one with white hair and the other with black. It was the white haired one who was speaking now. “Eww, Whitney. I think I just stepped in a puddle of mud.”

“Barf,” the other said, still in that unenthusiastic tone. “Gross. Why are we even here?”

“How should I, like, know?” the white haired girl said, rolling her red eyes. “All I remember is that we were walking by, like, that loser shop of Blythe’s, and then there was a rainbow, and then we were, like, in this forest.”

They were transported here? Zelda wondered, her curiosity spiked. She started to clamber out of the bush but restrained herself and continued to watch, while Biff stared in confusion.

“Yeah, and now we have to, like, get home,” the one that had earlier been referred to as Whitney said, pulling a small device out of her pocket. “I’m going to text Daddy, tell him that we’re lost in a strange land and might, like, not be home in time for dinner.”

A few clicks and beeps and Whitney yelped in frustration. “What the—” She held up her small device, repeatedly clicking a button, though the screen remained black as night. “We’ve got no signal!”

“That’s ridiculous!” the white-haired girl shrieked. “How are we going to get, like, home?”

Biff, who had been watching in steady silence for a while, calmly and unexpectedly stepped out of the bush. “You can come with us, if you’d like.”

Both girls looked up, saw the mountain goat, and openly shrieked.

Zelda did a facehoof and stormed out of the bush. “Biff, you idiot!” she screamed, voice full of absolute unintentional rage. “We weren’t supposed to let them see us!”

Biff turned around, confusion reflecting in his beady black eyes. “But they looked so lonely…and sad…didn’t you want to help them too, Zelda?”

The zebra cursed under her breath at the incompetence of her companion. “Don’t you see, Biff? They’re humans, the things of legend. We never should have revealed ourselves…we shouldn’t be able to understand them!” Zelda paused for a second, thoughts running wildly throughout her head. “No…we shouldn’t be able to know what you’re saying…unless someone’s casted Star Swirl’s spell…but that’s impossible!”

Her head reeling, the zebra placed one hoof to her forehead and groaned, staggering against the tree. It was all too much…too much to comprehend…

…and we’re still broke…

“TELL YOU WHAT?” she finally screamed, taking one hoof and linking it with the black haired girl’s arm, who shrieked again and leapt backward in surprise. “They’re coming with us!”

And then I’ll be able to figure out what to do. I’ll figure it all out…all of it.

“But…but Zelda…” Biff stuttered.

“Do not question me!” the zebra howled. “I know what I’m doing!”

The goat looked appalled, but he bowed his head nervously and slowly backed away, pushing the white haired girl, who began to shriek, “HELP! WE’RE BEING KIDNAPPED BY, LIKE, ANIMALS! TALKING ANIMALS!”

“Shut up,” Zelda snapped at her. “We’re going to help you get home.”

“We are?” Biff asked nervously. Zelda glared at him, and he silently seemed to shrink backwards. “…forget that I asked…”

“How are you, like, going to help us get home?” the black-haired girl asked indignantly. “I mean, you’re just animals. Like Blythe’s animals.” She rolled her red eyes and flipped her hair, exchanging a glance with the other girl, who had to be her twin sister.

“Zelda knows magic,” Biff piped up. “She can transport you home.”

All panic erupted in the zebra’s mind.

She had never thought that duping her goat partner would bring her trouble – in fact, it had only brought her good fortune thus far. But now…but now…

She had no magic. She couldn’t send them back.

“Like, really?” the white-haired girl asked, glancing at Zelda almost disapprovingly. “Can you really send us back to our home?”

“Yeah, because Daddy will be mad at us if we, like, are late again,” the other girl said with another continuous eye-roll.

Zelda wasn’t listening. Her mind was going through several stages of full blown panic all at once. Jumbled, crazed, terrified. What’ll I do? I don’t have the magic to send them back. What’ll I do, what’ll I do, what’ll I do…wait a minute. These are humans. We need business. What if…what if…

A wide grin spread across her face. She could study the mysterious creatures and make money with Biff at the same time. All she had to do was say a few simple words.

“I can send you back, but it’ll take some time. In the meantime, can you help my friend Biff and I with a little…project we’re working on?” Zelda gave her most convincing smile, which was something she hadn’t done in a very long time. “We need your help.”

“Are you sure you can, like, get us home?” one of the girls (Zelda was too busy looking at the ground and running over her plan to look) said.

“Yes…” the zebra said, still thinking wildly. “Just come on back to our place…we’ll fix you right up.”

Author's Note

Thanks to all who have favorited and upvoted this story! It really means a lot. My next story, a twoshot, should be coming out pretty soon for all who are interested.

Chapter Eleven: Tea and Biskits

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill

With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Eleven
Tea and Biskits

“My name is, like, Whitney Biskit, and this is my sister, Brittany Biskit. We’re, like, twins.”

It was the black-haired girl who was speaking, slowly stirring her tea with one finger as she did so. Zelda had asked the girls what they would like to drink, and they had said “root beer.” What in the name of Celestia was a “root beer?” So the zebra had gotten them tea, and they hadn’t complained yet, which was fine by her.

“Whitney, maybe we’re dreaming,” Brittany said, looking at her twin with an odd hopefulness in her pinkish colored eyes which Zelda hadn’t seen before. “Maybe we’re, like, still in bed.”

“That would be cool,” the black-haired girl said nonchalantly, and the zebra had to admit she was impressed with how the girls could keep calm and talk normally without panicking at the fact that they were surrounded by giant, talking animals. “Goat thing, is this a dream?”

“Good question.” Biff looked with worried black eyes in Zelda’s direction. “Zelda, are we secretly in a dream?”

The zebra facehoofed. “No…just no. Biff, you are not in a dream. Biskits, I’m not sure if you are or aren’t. We’ll see. It’ll be part of my…” She waved her hooves mysteriously. “…magical powers.”

I hope they fall for this…or maybe I can convince them they’re in a dream so that they can help us! Later, though…later.

The twins looked at each other skeptically, and then turned back to Zelda without saying anything more, leaving the grey zebra to hope desperately that they had been pleased. She needed them so badly. If she could have humans in her show, forget Biff’s stupid idea about talking animals! These were legends!

“Um, Whitney? Brittany?” Biff asked tentatively, glancing back at Zelda to see if it was okay to speak. She gave a quick nod of the head and the mountain goat continued. “I…if you don’t mind, I’d really like to know how you guys came to Equestria.”

“You mean, this, like, forest-thing?” Brittany asked, sipping her tea, which she still evidently thought was a “root beer.”

“Yes and no,” Biff answered. “Some of it is forest land, but most of our land are cities. Ponyville, which is the closest, then we have Cloudsdale, Manehatten, Seaddle, Fillydelphia…”

The girls were looking incredibly bored now, so Zelda poked her mountain goat accomplice and hissed, “Shut up, we’re losing them!”

Biff looked slightly hurt, but he nodded nonetheless.

“So, you were, like, asking us about how we came here?” Whitney asked coolly, now poking at the same device they had been trying to activate earlier in vain. “Well, I’m really not quite sure.”

Brittany took off the story here; Zelda assumed that they would just be switching off, and that that was somewhat normal for them. She took a sip of her tea and listened to what the girls had to say. This could be very important.

“So this morning, we were, like, texting, and walking past Blythe’s pet shop because Daddy was telling us to get up and do some chores if we wanted our allowance, which was totally, like, not fair. Whitney was talking to me about how she really wanted a root beer because she was tired from all the, like, walking.”

“All of a sudden,” Whitney said with eyes wide, “we felt like we were being sucked into this, like, vacuum thing, and there were colors all around us, floating and, like, wrapping us in them, and I was so, like, terrified that I couldn’t scream, and then I felt something hairy, and I realized…”

“…it was BLYTHE’S head! She was screaming and panicking, and all of her animals were, like, barking and doing their crazy noises, and all of a sudden we were on a hilltop. Blythe and her animals were all, um…” Brittany looked at her sister with an almost sheepish expression. “Whit, what do you call it…?”

“Sleeping for a really long time, duh,” Whitney rolled her eyes as if it was the easiest thing in the world to say. Biff looked at Zelda, a confused look on his face.

‘I thought the term was knocked out, or passed out,’ he mouthed.

‘They clearly aren’t the smartest in the room,’ Zelda mouthed back, priding herself upon that role; quickly she formed the words for ‘Shut up, or they’ll think we’re not listening!’

Biff was confused by this, as he wasn’t truly making any words; therefore he could not ‘shut up’ but he refused to tell Zelda this, because she was the smart one with the magical powers and he was not.

“Oh, yeah,” Brittany nodded her head and smiled. “So, they were, like, sleeping for a really long time because they had landed on their heads, and we landed on our feet. Then we saw giant horses and started to run, but then we found a river that we couldn’t swim across.” She rolled her eyes. “So we started to walk, like, along the river.”

“It took forever because we kept, like, stopping to rest our tired feet,” Whitney continued, still fussing with her small object. “But finally we found you guys, and you said you would, like, get us home.” She stared at Zelda with oddly unnerving eyes. “So, can you?”

Zelda felt herself beginning to laugh. “Um…yeah! Of course I can!” It was nervous laughter, but the girls didn’t seem to pick up on it.

“Great,” Brittany said lazily, taking another sip of her tea.

The twins proceeded to whisper in low tones – at times they giggled maniacally, and Zelda had no idea why, but it was starting to annoy her. What if they were talking about her? What could they say about her?

Maybe they were talking about Biff. He could be rather strange, and had weird looking eyes. That had to be it.

“Zelda?”

The zebra looked over at her white companion and rolled her eyes when she saw him looking at her with absolute sincerity and nervousness. “What is it now, Biff?”

“…do you think we can get them to help with the circus while you try to figure out how to send them home?” the mountain goat asked hopefully. “We really need some bits to get back on our hooves…”

“That’s what I was planning, idiot!” Zelda snapped, necklace banging against her neck as she hissed in his ear. “They said they have another human friend around – Bike, or something like that – and if we can get her, we can have another addition to the circus!”

“Wow.” The mountain goat nodded, black eyes full of awe. “You’re really smart, Zelda.”

The zebra smirked, aquamarine eyes flashing. “You don’t have to tell me. I know.”

“I just have one question, though,” Biff asked, eyes suddenly full of worry. “What about my idea about the talking animals with the special talents? I thought that was a great idea!”

“If we can find talking animals with special talents,” Zelda sighed, just to humor the poor goat, “then we’ll ask them to come too. If they don’t come, we’ll take them.” She really didn’t think there were these kind of animals anywhere in Equestria, but she had to keep her level of respect steady. The last thing she needed right now was for Biff to drop out and take the humans with him.

“Tomorrow,” continued Zelda, “we will go and find that human they talked about. Let’s get them ready for be—”

“Aaah!” Brittany suddenly shrieked; Zelda leapt up, preparing to see some danger about, maybe another zebra?

“What is it?” Biff asked nervously, also glancing around quickly.

“This…this stuff isn’t root beer!”

The zebra sighed. The human hunt in the morning couldn’t come soon enough. It was going to be a very, very long night.

Chapter Twelve: The Hunt

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Twelve
The Hunt

Zelda wished she could get the Biskit twins out of her mane.

For the last few hours she had been forced to put up with their endless drawling, whining, screeching, argh, you name it, they did it. Oh, when will we get home? Oh, when will we see Daddy? Oh, when will we get to a real bathroom?

The last one had been too much. The zebra had simply snapped that they just had to make the best of their situation, and that was that. They hadn’t said anything to her out loud since then. Zelda almost believed that they might be scared of her.

They liked to talk with Biff, though. He didn’t seem to mind how strange they were – it was part of that strange calm personality of his that made her both hate and put up with him. Sometimes they would whisper with each other, sometimes with the mountain goat – whoever they talked to, they always left her out.

And although she hated to admit it, Zelda missed having Biff to talk to.

Sure, for months she had dreamed of ditching him and being on her own, but now that she was experiencing a form of this first-hoof, it was a bit…nerving how much she, the one who always hated company, hated being alone.

Maybe it was because she had never truly been alone before.

Sappy feelings! I’m a cold block of ice…a lone zebra… Zelda shook her mane out and stared at the ground. In the background, Biff laughed at something Whitney had said, and the zebra grimaced.

My emotions are getting in the way of all of this…time to make our move.

“Biskits, Biff,” she barked sharply, not looking up from where she stood. “Come. It’s time to go find this ‘Blythe’ and see if we can get her to…help with our circus, and then with getting you two home.”

________________________________________

“Haha! Okay, Minks, pass the ball this way!”

Thud!

“Oops! Sorry, Blythe! I didn’t mean to hit you…” a high-pitched voice that Zelda had never heard before chirped excitedly and uncontrollably. She could almost picture the speaker bouncing around, up and down.

But that didn’t matter. What mattered was the name she had heard come out of that voice.

Blythe.

Blythe was here, another human to add to the circus. With three humans, ponies would pour in from all corners of Equestria to see the amazing phenomenon…and she and Biff would never have to be begging for help or living in the forest again.

We could have a condo in Canterlot…maybe a flashy mansion in Las Pegasus, with lots of lights all over it…black and white lights, those are always the best kind…

“OH MY, LIKE, GOSH!” Brittany screeched all of a sudden – Zelda whapped her hoof across the girl’s mouth to prevent her from screaming any more. She almost screeched with annoyance herself when Whitney yelled the exact same thing. Biff took care of the black-haired girl, whispering in her ear to be quiet while slowly covering her mouth to prevent the noise.

“What is it?” the zebra hissed.

“T-t-that f-f-flying pony! Th-th-that’s Blythe!” Whitney stammered nervously, biting her lip as if making sure she wasn’t in a dream. “H-how did she get to be a p-pony?”

Zelda peered out behind the bushes to see a sight that sparked her curiosity greatly, though she didn’t show any hint of it in her blue eyes.

A dark blue pegasus with a long brown mane and bright blue eyes laughed while she tossed a ball back and forth with a pink monkey. A dog many different shades of purple sat nearby, rolling her eyes, while a white unicorn with a plum purple mane sat chatting with a pink earth pony with bright blue eyes.

It wasn’t the ponies that interested Zelda, however.

It was the animals.

The monkey had clearly been talking to the darker blue pegasus, and she could hear them, and she could understand them.

Biff stared at her, beady eyes wide, and Zelda knew that he had heard them too. It was amazing. It was spectacular. It was almost better than the humans – almost. The zebra bit her lip to contain her excitement.

Talking animals. Talking animals that aren’t stupid sheep or cows!

The Biskit twins were still staring at the pegasus in obvious horror. Whitney was holding back another screech of horror. “B-B-Blythe, what did they do to you?” she whispered, barely audible.

All of a sudden the monkey spoke again, and Zelda trained her ears intently on what she was saying in the same high-pitched voice she had heard earlier.

“So, Blythe, where are all of the others right ‘bout now?”

The pegasus stopped hovering and landed, smiling, blue eyes sparkling. “Well, Peps and Sunil are with Rainbow and Flutters – I think the pegasi took them to visit some city…Cloudspale, Cloudsnail…”

“Cloudsdale, Blythe, darling,” the white unicorn called out. “It’s where Rainbow and Fluttershy used to live. It doesn’t surprise me they’d want to take their new pets out flying right away…”

Blythe nodded in the unicorn’s direction. “Thanks, Rarity. Anywho…”

The monkey and the dog both laughed, but their laughs sounded forced, like they were trying to make light of a situation that really wasn’t so funny. Blythe laughed too, her laugh sounding the most fake of all. The two ponies sitting next to them looked confused.

“…Russell and Vinnie are doing…something…at Twilight’s library, and I think Penny is getting a tour around the farm,” the dark blue pegasus finished off with a last flap of her wings. “She seemed to really like it there; lots of open space to practice her ribbon dancing.”

One of the animals ribbon-danced?

Zelda felt her heart light up like a firework. Talking animals…talking animals with special talents…talking animals with special talents performing at our circus!

Biff started to whisper something in her ear; in pure desperation the zebra waved her hoof slightly, hoping that the silencing spell that had worked on her all those years ago would work now…

…but it didn’t. Biff continued to talk, simply thinking that her hoof gesture had been a signal to stop where he was and whisper from there.

“For the circus!” he murmured excitedly. “You told me there was no such thing as talking animals with special talents…but ha!”

The last ‘ha’ echoed throughout the woods, making a couple birds take flight. The lavender dog’s ears pricked slightly; she tilted her head upwards. “Did anyone else hear that?” she asked suspiciously.

“That barking is so annoying,” Brittany snapped in Zelda’s ear. “Can someone get the dog to shut up?”

But nothing was comprehending anymore. They had been spotted…they had to runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun…

Zelda whipped around and tore through the undergrowth, calling back in a loud tone – she didn’t care who heard her now, they were already discovered – “Quickly, back home!” Then, under her breath, she murmured, “We’ll have a lot of planning to do before we make our move.”

Author's Note

Thanks to all who have upvoted, followed, and favorited this so far! It's truly appreciated. Reviews are always welcome ;)

Chapter Thirteen: High Up

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Thirteen
High Up

“Aah-ah-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!”

“Aw, Sunil, you big baby! Isn’t this amazing? Go faster, Dash!”

The sight of two pegasi soaring up to the cloud-city Cloudsdale was never an unusual sight for members of Ponyville, but what made them stop in their hoofsteps and stare was the fact that an animal was clinging to each of the pony’s manes.

On the light blue pegasus all knew as Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Ponyville (as well as Equestria, or so she claimed), was a pale grey and white skunk, who was currently yelling excitedly and clearly insisting her steed to go faster.

On the butter-yellow pegasus known as Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash’s best friend and nervous, skittish Element of Kindness, was a blue mongoose, who was currently clutching to his steed’s ears and insisting he had to close his eyes or else he would plummet to his death.

Ponies stood still in their tracks, watching in amazement as Rainbow and her skunk soared higher and higher at faster and faster speeds, until finally the skunk was clinging on just barely to the pegasus’ mane, lips blown back by the wind. The Element of Loyalty playfully cocked one eyebrow at her rider. “Faster?”

“I-I-I-I think that’s g-g-g-good,” Pepper stuttered as her body was bounced up and down by Rainbow’s flashing wings. Laughing, the pegasus quickly slowed the beating and waited until her companion caught up.

“A-are we on the ground yet?” Sunil whimpered from Fluttershy’s neck, where he had currently buried his head in her pale pink mane and was trembling violently.

Pepper, seemingly recovered from her initial shock, laughed and leapt aboard Fluttershy, poking her mongoose friend in the back. “Nah, we’ve got some way to go. Shouldn’t take too long, though.”

She was met with a bunch of repeated stuttering, including, “N-N-Not until I can f-f-feel my paws on s-s-solid ground!”

Rolling her rose colored eyes, the skunk leapt back about Rainbow Dash, muttering teasingly, “Sure, okay. You’ll miss all the fun.”

Fluttershy smiled as she began to flap her wings, soaring higher. “Don’t worry, Sunil…we’ll be there in no time.” Rainbow also began to fly, darting up to the city of the clouds, Pepper excitedly watching from her back.

________________________________________

“Well, this is our old home,” the pink-maned pegasus murmured to an eager skunk, who climbed all over the backs of the two pegasi to get a better view. “Cloudsdale Flight Camp.”

“It’s up…high,” Sunil pointed out, shooting a quick glance down at the ground and then shuddering, proceeding to hug Fluttershy’s neck again. “Everything is oh-so-high!”

“Well, it is a cloud city,” Rainbow remarked, rolling her magenta eyes as she casually rested against a completely cloud-crafted fence. “It’s not that bad when you get used to it, like I have.” Rolling a piece of cloud off of the fence she began to toss it back and forth between her hooves.

“…I guess I’m not used to it, then,” Fluttershy squeaked, glancing down at the far-down earth and letting out a tiny scream. “It’s still so high!”

Sunil’s amber eyes opened, and he pulled himself up until he was sitting atop his steed’s head. “S-so…is this where they make the clouds?”

“And the rain, and the thunder, and the lightning,” Rainbow listed, not looking up once. “Also the rainbows, and the—”

“Can we see where they’re made?” Pepper burst in, eyes lighting up. She jumped up and down on the pegasus’ head. “Oh, can we, can we, can we?”

Glancing over at Fluttershy, Rainbow blinked. “I guess it wouldn’t be too much trouble…”

“YES! Oh, this is gonna be great! And I have just the joke for the occasion!” Looking around at her eager audience, the skunk mimed a microphone between her paws. “Okay…what kind of cloud is so lazy, it won’t get up?”

When there were blank stares and confused looks, she burst out laughing, and in-between giggles choked out, “Fog!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, while Fluttershy let out a small giggle and Sunil snorted with laughter, used to hearing Pepper’s jokes. “Where’d you get that one from?” he asked curiously, fear seemingly forgotten.

“Heard it from Blythe’s friend Sue,” the skunk snickered, before tugging on the rainbow mane of her pegasus. “Now come on, Rainbow Dash! Let’s get going! I want to see where the weather is made!”

________________________________________

“Rainbow Dash, what’re you doing? Letting a mongoose and a skunk run wild over the snowflakes…that’s ridiculous!”

A large stallion rolled his eyes as he examined the two pegasi standing at the door, staring at him with wide eyes. “And you dragged poor Flutters into it too. Don’t know why she still hangs around you…well, anyways, as long as you have those animals, you can’t come into the snowflake room.” Without further ado, the stallion slammed the door, causing a gust of wind to blow back the manes of the ponies and the fur of the pets.

Pepper glared at Rainbow. “You told us we could look around!”

The pegasus narrowed her magenta eyes. “I said you could look around, not take out that stupid rubber chicken and start whacking things.” Rainbow looked the skunk up and down and a look of confusion flashed over her face. “Where do you keep that thing, anyways?”

Pepper shrugged, smirking. “One of my many mysteries,” she teased in a joking voice.

Fluttershy sighed, slowly stroking Sunil with one hoof. “There, there, sweetie. Pepper didn’t mean to hit you with the chicken, did you, Pepper?”

“Of course not!” the skunk burst out, a horrified look plastered on her face. “What do you take me for, some sort of monster who goes around hitting others for fun?” Once again pulling the earlier mentioned chicken out of seemingly nowhere, she playfully tapped Sunil on the back.

Not expecting this, the mongoose shrieked and took off running across the clouds – Twilight had cast a spell on Pepper and Sunil earlier so they had the pegasus ability of cloud walking – and disappeared from view.

The skunk’s face fell. “Sunil? …dang it, Russell’s going to be maaaaad…” As fast as her paws could take her, Pepper sprinted after her friend.

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, who looked back. “You know where they’re headed, don’t you?” the pink maned pegasus sighed.

“Yeah.” The light blue pony sighed and opened her wings. “Get ready to chase ‘em – they’re going to the pool where all rainbows are made.”

It didn’t take Dash very long to catch up with Pepper, who was now panting as she ran. Sunil was just ahead, still darting forward. Extending one hoof, Rainbow helped her skunk companion up onto her back before heading off at top speed and catching up with the mongoose in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately, Rainbow’s landing was horribly timed, and she landed with a thud right in a pool of rainbow liquid. Her nose wrinkling, she started to clamber out when Pepper announced, “Whoa, is that what you guys make rainbows from?” She curiously dipped one paw in and licked it, eyes lighting up as the spiciness registered. “Heh…not so bad…um…does anyone happen to have any water?”

“Wow, Pepper,” Fluttershy remarked, casually flying up. “That’s amazing – not even Pinkie was able to try that without screaming! The only other one I’ve ever known who could do that was Dashie!” She blinked shyly at her rainbow-maned friend.

“Yeah, well, I’m not the best pony in the weather business for nothing,” Rainbow bragged mercilessly.

Sunil looked at her, one paw still on his chest in a soothing matter. “Then why did the snowflake-maker say ‘not again, Rainbow Dash?’”

Ears lowering, Rainbow smiled nervously at the ground. “Well, I’ve gotten into a few spats here and there, but nothing terrible, I can say that much for sure!”

“But what about the time the cloud machine was broken and—”

“Enough, Fluttershy!”

As Sunil watched the conversation, fascinated, Pepper was engrossed in the rainbow-colored liquid. She watched ripples go throughout the multi-colored surface when she poked it, rose-colored eyes widening.

“Hey Rainbow,” she burst out, eyes not moving from the ironically-colored fluid.

The pegasus stopped denying her acts and looked up, blinking. “Yeah, Peps?”

“I was wondering if you’d be up for a challenge – who can lick rainbows and not scream for the longest amount of time?” the skunk asked, finally looking up with a bright, challenging look flashing in her gaze.

Rainbow Dash blinked for a few seconds, taking it in, and then grinned. “You’re on!” Plunging her hoof into the substance, she looked at the skunk teasingly. “Ready?”

Pepper did the same, glaring back. “Set?”

Both of them yelled at the same time, “GO!”

________________________________________

It had been five minutes, and Sunil and Fluttershy could clearly tell that both of their friends were fighting back terrible screams. Pepper’s face had turned a bright scarlet, while Rainbow had her hoof in her mouth, tears in the corner of her eyes.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy cheered feebly. “Woo-hoo!”

“Pepper, you’ll succeed!” Sunil countered, cheering loudly for the skunk comedian and then looking at Fluttershy curiously. “Would you like to bet…” He looked around wildly, and then held up a small piece of cloud. “…this piece of cloud that Pepper wins?”

“Okay,” the pegasus murmured softly. “But I have to warn you, Rainbow is amazing at this sort of stuff.”

“Pepper’s the most daring of us all,” Sunil replied, watching as tears began to stream down the skunk’s face. “…well, maybe besides Vinnie, but most of what he does is brash, and he never really thinks about it.”

Fluttershy nodded. “That reminds me of Dashie. She’s that way most of the time also.”

“It’s really quite shocking how much our friends have in common,” the mongoose commented, causing the pegasus’ head to bob up and down yet again.

“Yes, I agree—oh!”

She was cut off by a loud screech. “I CAN’T HANDLE IT! WATER, WATER, WATER!!!”

The scream was given by none other than Pepper, who was circling, panting madly. “I-can’t-handle-this! WATER!”

Rainbow burst out panting also. “Oh, Celestia, that was tough! Come on, Peps, I’ll take you down to the pool in the Everfree – it’s closest!” Lowering so that the panicked skunk could clamber onto her back, the rainbow maned pegasus sped off at her top speed, making Fluttershy’s mane blow backwards, along with Sunil’s fur.

There was a short pause, in which both the pegasus and the mongoose looked at each other awkwardly.

Sunil slowly opened his mouth to say something. “…I believe this is yours?”

Slowly he passed to the pegasus the small piece of cloud, making her smile. “Thank you, Sunil. This has been lovely.”

“Yes, I think so too,” Sunil agreed. “It’s good to forget about…home…for a while…”

All of a sudden there was a cry from somewhere under them; Fluttershy’s ears pricked. “Did you hear that?” Not waiting for an answer, she flapped her way over to the edge of Cloudsdale, just in time to see a mountain goat disappear into the Everfree Forest. Confusion in her gaze, she flew back to Sunil. “Well, that was strange. I haven’t seen a mountain goat outside of Iron Will’s before.”

“Was it a danger? Something to worry about?” the mongoose asked nervously, always one to jump to conclusions.

After thinking it over for a few moments, Fluttershy shook her head no. “It’s just a silly mountain goat…they’re harmless. What kind of danger could a mountain goat cause?”

Author's Note

My two OTPs from the shows together, and I showed no shipping hints whatsoever! I'm so proud of myself!

Chapter Fifteen: The First Move

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Fifteen
The First Move

Vinnie Terrio was in a rather good mood.

He was surrounded in books, which could be interpreted as a good or bad thing, but they were dancing books, and he was learning how to dance better. Spike, his companion in all of this, had already told him he had seen tremendous improvement. Everything was going well, just as expected.

The gecko proceeded to flip another page in his book. He was disappointed to see a large wall of text before him, filled to the brink with large, hard-to-read words. Vinnie hated large, hard-to-read words. He decided to read it out loud, just to try.

“To perform the most deli-cattee…how do you…anyways, the most deli-cattee of dance moves, one must have a consid-er-atte knowledge of the specific steps performed in the lower joint of one’s leg…”

Vinnie groaned. “This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to read big letters…and stuff…like this?” Slamming the book closed, he stood up and looked around.

Spike was in the next room over sorting books, while Russell and Twilight were up in the top level, discussing the next friendly competition “Are YOU Smarter than a Unicorn” they would have. Vinnie was utterly bored, and had nothing whatsoever to do.

He sighed. What to do, what to do…

Suddenly there was a knock on the door; Vinnie peeked out the window to see a very disgruntled Cavalier King Charles Spaniel plastered with various food items; he stifled a laugh and opened the wooden door. “Hey, Zo.”

Zoe sauntered in, head held high. “That was disgraceful,” she sniffed.

“How’d you get covered in food like that?” Vinnie asked, giggling as he followed. She turned back with a resentful glare.

“Turns out Rarity already has a pet,” she barked in annoyance. “The most…despicable of creatures, almost as vile as that creep Madame Pom!”

Vinnie whistled. “You must hate this new gal a lot, then.”

“She’s a cat!” Zoe screeched, as if that would suddenly make everything clear. “She’s a puffy white-and-purple ball of stuck-up fuzz, that’s what she is!” Her nose wrinkled. “And she wears a bow.”

The gecko tried to sustain his laughter by seeming sincere. “Wow, a bow…terrifying,” he snickered, looking away so she couldn’t see his expression.

“Yes! I have my beret, and she has her bow…and I’m the only pet allowed to wear a beautiful accessory, don’t you see?” Zoe pleaded, ice blue eyes going wide.

Vinnie, honestly, did not see. “Um…well, then…”

Zoe seemed not to hear and continued to ramble. “We were in the kitchen, dressed up in the most fashionable suits, and the war raged for one thousand nights and years.” Her eyes hardened as she ranted, waving around her paws for dramatic effect. “The food was flying, the words were raging, and Opalescence—” she spat the name out like it was a curse word under her tongue, “—hit me with an egg. An egg!” Zoe sighed. “So I left.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Vinnie rolled his eyes. “Wow, Zo.” He wasn’t quite sure what to say after that, so followed up with, “Cool.”

“And now I need to go walking to get the stench out of my fur,” the spaniel continued, evidentially not done with what she had been saying earlier. “All the others are busy, so will you come with me, Vinnie?” She made puppy dog eyes. “Please?”

The gecko looked at her. “You want me to walk with you so you can get eggs out of your fur?”

“Yes,” Zoe replied confidently.

Vinnie snorted. “Forget about it.” Waving his hand, he started to walk off when he felt tiny paws grab his tail, making him freeze. Ever since his tail had fallen off in an accident involving cans of cat food, he had been very protective of it. Turning, he saw Zoe’s bottom lip quivering.

“Puh-lease!” the violet spaniel whimpered.

Sighing, the gecko pushed her off. “Fine, fine. Just get off of me, m’kay?”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Zoe squealed, bouncing in circles. “I don’t want to have to be alone in such a…strange place.” She shuddered and turned away, lowering her head.

“Spike, I’m going on a walk,” Vinnie called, ignoring his often melodramatic companion. The baby dragon’s head poked out of the next room, and he gave Vinnie a thumb’s up, signaling he had it under control.

Together, Vinnie and Zoe headed out into the town of Ponyville, on their own for the very first time.

Vinnie covered his ears and winced as, for the fifth time at least, Zoe burst out into a random song. She had been doing this for quite a while now, and it was causing ponies to stare, dropping whatever they were doing as they continued on their daily routine. “Zo,” he hissed, elbowing her in the side. “Can you stop that?”

“The morning is bright and the eggs are near gone, I’m dancing about while singing this here song~”

“Zoe!” Vinnie snapped. “Can you just be quiet?” He glanced around nervously. “I think ponies are starting to stare.” Indeed, several of the citizens were looking at them curiously, evidentially wondering what was going on, and why two animals were roaming in the streets alone.

“They’re admiring my singing,” Zoe reminded the gecko for the millionth time. “Now, why don’t you be quiet so they can hear some more!” It was really more of an order than a question, and Vinnie sighed, preparing to cover his small ears again.

It was nearing summertime, and the weather was perfect – not too warm but not too cold, either. The dusty roads felt weird on Vinnie’s scales, but he imagined he would get used to that. However, it was making the bottom of his feet feel weird, and he didn’t like it.

“Zoe?” Vinnie poked his spaniel companion, and she blinked at him. “Can we go to the grassy forest over there?” He pointed at the woods he had noticed only a second ago.

Zoe looked confused. “What’s wrong with walking here?” She put one paw to her chest and swooned. “Everyone can admire my gorgeous singing!”

Vinnie rolled his eyes. “The dirt feels wrong on my foot scales.” He stopped walking. That didn’t sound right. “My feet scales.” That sounded even weirder. “My…foots?”

“Enough!” Zoe covered her ears and sighed. “Let’s go.”

They trotted over to the grass, and when it was reached, Vinnie was glad for the comfort it brought to his dust-ridden feet. It was soft and plush, unlike grass back at Downtown City, which was often brittle and dry, and the gecko collapsed back with a loud sigh, flapping his arms up and down in the grass. “Now this is nice.”

The spaniel sniffed. “I suppose so.” Upon sniffing, her eyes suddenly lit up like a lightbulb. “Oh! The smell of the eggs is gone!”

“Probably ‘cause you’ve been trotting around in the sun and dirt for, like, half an hour,” Vinnie pointed out, though Zoe pretended not to notice and proceeded to sing loudly her incredible success.

So it was Vinnie who heard the voice first.

Calm and smooth, it was like a cat’s purr mixed with honey, and sent shivers throughout all of his body.

“Hello, little gecko. How are you?”

Vinnie whipped around. “W-Who’s there? I…I know karate!” He feigned making random chops with his hands but ended up spinning around and landing flat on his face. Pushing himself up, the owner of the voice made herself clear, and his eyes widened.

It was a zebra.

A zebra with a long black-and-white mane and turquoise eyes that looked both wise and cunning. A zebra with golden rings around her neck and grey and black fur that looked incredibly soft. A zebra that was heading right towards him.

Zoe turned and screamed. “Who are you?”

The zebra ignored the question. “You have a lovely voice,” she remarked to Zoe. The spaniel blushed and turned away. Vinnie lifted one eyebrow.

“Do you think you can mess with the Vinnie Terrio?” he growled, instantly on the defense, but before he could continue, he was shoved to the right by Zoe, who had darted forward, tail wagging eagerly and ice blue eyes excited.

“You really mean I have a lovely voice?” she squealed.

“Of course.” The zebra’s eyes glinted. Vinnie noticed this and narrowed his own. He wasn’t the smartest one in the world, but he could tell when his friends were possibly in danger (an example was Esteban the parrot, but that was another story). “Such a shame you’re not working in the circus.”

“The circus?” Zoe asked, head cocked to one side.

“Oh, yes,” the zebra replied, smiling. “My friend and I are starting a grand circus that will gain popularity all over Equestria…and we need the best of singers to pull it off.”

“Like me?”

“Like you.”

Vinnie couldn’t take this anymore. He stomped in. “Hey, Zo, look, I know I’m not the brightest guy, but can’t you see what’s going on he—”

He stopped as the zebra trained those eyes on him next. “And what can you do, little gecko?” She looked so genuinely interested, for a second Vinnie forgot to be irritated. His violet eyes widened.

“I…I dance…”

“Then you could join too!” The zebra’s eyes sparkled; she wrapped one hoof around Vinnie, lifting him into the air. “Can’t you see it now – you dancing while all of Equestria applauds…”

“All of them? Because wouldn’t that be a lot?”

The zebra groaned. “Most of them! And—”

“Would there be clowns?” Zoe asked nervously. “Because, darling, I’ve always hated clowns.”

“No. No clowns—”

“Except Pepper! Pepper would have to be in it,” Vinnie replied, suspicions forgotten for the moment. “She could do her comedy act while Sunil does magic and Penny dances…” He turned back to the zebra, eyes now flashing. “When would we start?”

“You’ll come to the meeting?” The zebra seemed surprised that they had agreed so quickly; she even took a step back in surprise.

“Of course, darling!” Zoe cheered, bouncing around. “If all of Equestria gets to hear my voice—”

“—and see me dance!”

“Then we’d love to come! When is it?”

The zebra smirked. “How about tomorrow, at noon, right under this bush? I’ll bring my partner, and we can see if we can set up some deals, m’kay?”

Zoe grabbed her hoof. “Okay!” she cheered, shaking it rapidly. “We’ll be there!”

Vinnie smiled, though something in the back of his mind was telling him danger, danger, danger! Pushing the feeling away, he let a large grin cover his face. He was going to be seen dancing by millions of ponies. He would be famous!

And life in this twisted world of talking genius horses would be good.

Chapter Sixteen: Investigation

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Sixteen
Investigation

Rarity hummed as she worked with her intricate fabric, weaving it in and out, through and around, in ways many ponies (namely Applejack or Rainbow Dash) would find strange and confusing; however, it all made sense to the unicorn. It was her hobby, her talent, and she would continue to work with it until the end.

For the first time in a few hours, the boutique was quiet. One white ear flicked slightly; too quiet. Where was the ruckus previously caused by Opal and their new canine companion, Zoe?

“Opalescence?” she called loudly, waiting for the response and frowning when there was none. “Zoe?”

No answer.

Rarity blinked and slowly set her fabric down, trotting into the kitchen where she had seen the two pets last. “Where are you two? Opal? Zoe? Are you in here?”

“Mraow.”

The unicorn jumped as her fluffy cat wrapped herself around her legs and looked up, eyes unexpressive, as usual. “Mraow,” she mewed again, as if trying to tell her owner something. “Mraow.”

“I’m afraid I don’t speak Cat, Opal, dearest,” Rarity mused, attempting to pry her feline companion off of her leg; it was a simple task, as Opal leapt away and hissed, swiping at her owner’s mane and grumbling as she stalked off into a corner. “But I have to find where Zoe has gone.”

There was no sign of Zoe in the kitchen except a huge mess; Rarity shrieked with horror and immediately levitated her mop towards her, missing dog forgotten.

Opal rolled her eyes, let out another “Mraow,” and began to groom herself, waiting.

After about ten minutes of frantic scrubbing, washing, drying, cleansing, and anything of the sort, Rarity came to a halt and inspected her work, eyes alight with pleasure. “There! Opal, sweetie-pie, how does it look?”

To Opal, the kitchen looked the same as ever – a clammy mess for cat eyes – but she said nothing, though Rarity would have been unable to understand her anyways. Instead she trotted over to the door and let out a long wail. Why her owner would be looking for that despicable dog she had no idea, but she might as well help her out.

“Huh?” Rarity turned, violet mane flipping. As she spotted Opalescence sitting by the door, yawning and waiting, she gasped. “Oh, Zoe! She must have gone out in the world!”

The unicorn whipped past her cat, causing Opal to spin in place and land in a frazzled frenzy, fur blown and spiked all over, eyes wide and bow displaced. “I have to go find her!”

Opal sighed, let out another “Mraow,” and closed the door.

xxx

“Zoe! Oh Zo~oe!”

The ponies of Ponyville had seen Rarity the unicorn doing many strange things before. They’d seen her hunting gems, they’d seen her kidnapped by a giant rampaging dragon (and soon defeat that same dragon after), and they’d even seen her with wings!

But they had never seen her digging throughout the entire town looking for a puppy. For all they knew, she didn’t even have a puppy! But here she was, levitating every bush, peeking around every corner, calling for a dog.

“What if I run into Blythe…how could I tell her I lost her pet so quickly? No, no, that simply will not do…” Rarity gritted her teeth. “Zoe!”

“Why, hello, Rarity,” came a quiet voice from behind the frantic unicorn, causing her to jump in the air.

“Fluttershy, darling!” she squeaked, saying the name before she confirmed it was indeed the shy pegasus who was one of her best friends – she would know that voice anywhere. “That was…indeed, frightening!”

“Oh, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Fluttershy replied, alighting on the ground from her hovering spot in the sky. From on her back poked out a curious blue head which Rarity recognized as belonging to Sunil the mongoose.

“No, it’s alright, I promise.” Rarity laughed shakily and looked at Sunil, who was still quivering, presumably from the flight. “Hello, there! How did you enjoy Cloudsdale?”

Sunil blinked, as if he hadn’t expected to be addressed. “…Interesting?” he choked out weakly, hopping to the ground.

“We watched Rainbow Dash and Pepper in a contest to see who could drink the most rainbows for the longest amount of time,” the pegasus intervened. “Rainbow Dash won.” She smiled and let out a weak, “Yay!”

Rarity blinked and smiled. At least Fluttershy is having better luck with her animals than I am…

“Have you seen Zoe recently?” she asked mindlessly, lost in thought.

Fluttershy cocked her head to one side. “I thought you were supposed to be watching her, Rarity. Shouldn’t you know where she is?” Sunil also looked at Rarity curiously, wondering, watching, and waiting.

“Ah-heh-heh…about that…see…I think I kind of…” The last two words were hardly audible, but Fluttershy, ears adjusted to whisper-speak, heard Rarity mutter very ungraciously, “…lost her.”

“You’ve lost Zoe?” Sunil squeaked, leaping up with spiked fur in panic and causing both Rarity and Fluttershy to leap up in shock. “Do you know how easy it is for her to get lost out here? She gets into a daze with her singing and cannot get out! Oh, this is bad. You’ll – we’ll be in trouble!” He placed his paws against his head and shook back and forth slightly.

A bead of sweat trickled down the back of Rarity’s white-furred head, something she rarely allowed to happen and usually tried to avoid. “Y-You really think Blythe will be cross with me?” she asked worriedly.

Fluttershy blinked and looked down at Sunil. “Well…”

“Perhaps not cross,” the mongoose replied. “Just a little upset, is all.”

Rarity sighed. “We still have to find Zoe – I can’t believe I have abused my new responsibility so quickly…I feel like I’m a failure.” She looked down in shame, feeling guilt course throughout her whole body.

“Nonsense, Rarity. We just need to go find her, is all,” Fluttershy replied, pushing her long pink mane out of her eyes and smiling at her friend.

Rarity straightened up, allowing a small smile to twinge at the corners of her mouth. “You’re right, darling. I shouldn’t be surprised – you always are – but, nonetheless, you are absolutely correct.” Grinning now, she looked first at the pegasus and then at the mongoose. “Soooo…who’s ready to go find that dog?”

xxx

“Zoe! Zoe, are you out around here?”

“Zoe, please come out. Rarity misses you very much.”

“Zoe? Please, I need you!”

It seemed as if they had searched all over Ponyville for the violet-furred spaniel, but she was nowhere to be seen, and Rarity was reaching the end of her patience. She wanted Zoe to show up and she needed her now.

Perhaps there are too many of us in one place? We should split up, she thought desperately, trying any method her mind could create, even if they seemed destined to fail. However, she voiced the idea in a desperate hope that they would agree, and to her pleasure, they did, Sunil clinging to Fluttershy’s mane as they flapped off towards the center of Ponyville, leaving Rarity to sweep the edges of the Everfree Forest, dark, dingy, and damp.

She hadn’t really wanted to patrol the Everfree, the unicorn realized as she felt her hoof squelch into something sticky and wet, sending shudders throughout her body. However, she knew that Fluttershy was easily scared, and she couldn’t bear to force the poor pegasus to face her fears just for one dog who was surely lingering somewhere.

Rarity travelled along for about three or four minutes more, whisper-calling Zoe’s name in a soft voice, as if something might come out of the forest and harm her, when she heard it.

Soft voices. Soft voices from unfamiliar ponies.

Ears pricking in curiosity, Rarity crept closer and peered through the bushes, eyes straining to see the sources of the voices.

“…so I’ve got the stupid dog and gecko convinced they’re going to be superstars – HA! Everything is falling right into place. Everything.”

Stupid dog? Rarity leaned in closer, trying to both listen in and keep her hooves out of the mud at the same time, which was actually quite a difficult task.

The next voice laughed, but the laugh seemed forced, and it was undoubtedly male, unlike the first, honey-sweet, snake voice, which had been female. “You think they’ll tell their other friends and have them come to the meeting then, Zelda?”

Zelda, Rarity mused. She had never heard of a pony with a name quite like that before…and were they talking about Zoe? Was Zoe there?

“Of course! Did you see those fools? You could run ‘em into trees and they wouldn’t notice ‘till five minutes later!” There was a short pause, as if the speaker was rolling her eyes, and Rarity let out a low growl under her breath. “Then we’ll swipe ‘em all up, and our fate will be back in the bag. It’ll be the best circus ever…but for us, not for them!”

Rarity had heard enough. Lifting her white-furred head high, she pranced into the clearing, ready to confront these devilish ponies, when she saw the creatures who had been talking.

There were two, as indicated by the voices. But they weren’t ponies.

One was a certainly ugly mountain goat; his eyes were like beady black buttons and his horns were twisted and scraped. Rarity shuddered as she looked him over, the spiky fur, the slight buckteeth…this was not somepony she would become friends with through the fashion business, for sure.

But the second creature took Rarity’s breath away.

She was a zebra, much in the same as Zecora, but in some ways not the same. Her mane was not spiked in a garish Mohawk, but instead was lying in rippling waves around her face. Her aquamarine eyes shimmered, and her stripes were dark and bold on the bland grey of her fur.

Needless to say, Rarity was stunned.

Visions of dresses pranced into her head, presenting themselves on zebra mannequins, with extensive wardrobes all around. Hats and floral slippers, scarves and designs, all simply beautiful for this particular zebra…

…who was one of the baddies. Focus, Rarity, focus. You have to confront them.

“Ex-cuse me, but may I ask what you were so rudely saying about the pe—” Rarity cut off when she realized she had no audience. The zebra and the mountain goat had turned and fled into the bushes at the first sign of her speaking. Shocked, the unicorn yelped, “Hey! That was rude!” and took off after them.

The chase was long and hard – how far could such a fashionable zebra run, anyways? – and Rarity found herself slipping multiple times, dirt getting matted in her fur and leaves tangled in her mane, though for once she simply didn’t care; the thieves were getting away, and she, the Element of Generosity and caretaker of one of the animals they were speaking of, was not about to let them get away so easily.

There were some panicked shouts up ahead, and Rarity strained her ears to hear what was being said.

“Biskits! Come on, we’ve got to run! Get out of the hut and stop drinking my tea NOW!”

Two more flashes burst through the undergrowth; one burst out screaming as she tripped and fell, but the other quickly pulled her back up and they continued to sprint. Rarity’s eyes narrowed. So there are four of them at this game, huh? They think they’re so great!

She burst ahead in a flash of speed, feeling the wind projected from the lagging creature’s movements – but something was wrong. That wasn’t how an equine ran! It was upright on two legs – how could anypony run upright on two legs?

Rarity blinked in surprise and stopped in her tracks, staring as the creature looked back, saw her pursuer, screeched, and darted into the bushes again. The last thing Rarity saw was the shaking bushes and then all four were gone, too far away for her to catch up.

The unicorn stood up, eyes wide at her new discovery.

Whatever those two things were, they weren’t ponies. And they were working with the zebra and the mountain goat on their twisted plan.

Rarity inhaled a deep breath, heart pounding in her chest so rapidly she thought it would explode, leaving her lying in the forest, dead and dirty.

But there was no time for that…

…she had to find Twilight.

Author's Note

Rarity chapter! :3

Chapter Seventeen: Double-0 Hedgehog

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Seventeen
Double- 0 Hedgehog

Russell Ferguson picked up the book, carried it to the shelf, and slid it on. Repeating the procedure, he turned to the next book, checked to make sure the title was alphabetical, carried it to the shelf, and slid it on. Over and over, again and again. Book after book after book after book. He hadn’t even known there were so many books!

“Rusty, you doing alright?” called Twilight from the other room over, where she was sorting her stack of books with Spike.

“Yeah! Twilight, you have so many books,” the hedgehog replied, almost squealing with glee as he read the cover of yet another. “The Extremely Advanced Guide to All Natives of Equestria. Are hedgehogs in here?”

Spike’s scaly purple head popped out from the next room over. One glance at the cover of the book and he seemed to instantly know what was in it. “I’m pretty sure the rodents are on page 39.”

“Rodents?” Russell repeated, feeling his temper flare up; quickly he shoved it back down and turned to said page to see how his cousins looked. To his surprise, Equestrian hedgehogs looked in no way slightly similar to him whatsoever! Fuming silently, he slammed the cover of the book back down again, only to remember there were probably geckos in here. “Vinnie! Hey, Vinnie, where are you?”

“He went for a walk with Zoe,” came the voice of the baby dragon distantly.

Russell blinked his green eyes, shrugged, and went back to placing books on the shelf. What his friends did was none of his concern.

Just then, a panicked unicorn slammed through the door, screeched as it slammed back on its hinges, darted up the stairs, levitated Russell using blue aura, looked around as if looking for someone, dropped the hedgehog, darted into the other room, and yelled, “TWILIGHT!” just seconds before there was an enormous crash, and the sound of books thudding on the ground, one after another.

Russell, still somewhat shell-shocked, managed to scramble to his paws and dart to the other room. Spike also looked startled, though he recovered quickly. With a slight bow, he announced, “Hello, M’Lady—”

But Rarity ignored him and slammed into the violet unicorn, breathing harsh and heavily and blue eyes wide. “TWILIGHT! Twiiii~light!” she wailed, shaking her friend back and forth.

Twilight blinked, clearly frazzled. “Ye-ye-yeah, R-R-Rarity?” she stuttered, being forced to begin a new syllable each time her head leaned in a new direction.

Rarity seemed not to notice. “Twi-light! Twi-light! Twiiiiiiliiiig—”

One of the lavender unicorn’s ears flicked in annoyance. “Rarity…”

“Twiiiiiliiiiig—”

“RARITY!”

Rarity stopped shaking; Spike blinked a few times, and Russell actually stumbled backwards into a wall at the librarian’s admittedly unexpected outburst. “What is it?” she flared. “You knocked over my books! There had better be a good reason for this, Rarity!”

The white unicorn put one hoof to her forehead and swooned; Spike whipped up behind her and winced as she landed dramatically on top of him, instead of landing neatly in his arms as he had seemingly assumed. “Oh, Twilight! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is THE! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!”

Twilight’s gaze softened, though an air of nervousness went up around her; Russell could feel it hovering in the air. “What’s wrong, Rarity?”

Rarity gazed up at her as if in some sort of a dream. “I’ve come across a horrible discovery!” Turning to Russell, she sighed and lowered her head. “I believe some cruel ruffians intend to take your friends!”

The whole story was explained rather quickly, though that might have been because Rarity was speaking so fast it was hard to understand her in some sections of the tale. But the general point was taken, and it wasn’t good. Not at all.

“So let me get this straight,” Twilight steadied Rarity’s shaky breathing again. “A zebra and a mountain goat and two other creatures – could they have been Diamond Dogs, you think?” Before Rarity could reply, she shook her head, clearly speaking to herself alone now. “No, Diamond Dogs have never worked openly with ponies, and if they have, only for a certain reward of gems, and it sounds like these two were after bits. So that makes me wonder…what could they be?”

Rarity coughed, as a way to say, Continue? Twilight blushed and continued to speak, Spike and Russell hanging on to her every word.

“So that would mean that they’re trying to…maybe lure…your friends into their circus and use them for bits…but why couldn’t they just ask you? Why do they have to take you?”

They were all quiet for a moment after that, presumably trying to figure it out, though no one seemed to come up with any results. Once or twice someone would open their mouth and go, “Ah-ha!” but would soon go silent again.

Finally Spike couldn’t seem to take it anymore. “So why don’t we just infiltrate them and see what they’re really up to?”

Everyone stared at him; violet eyes, sapphire eyes, and green eyes alike.

Spike blinked. “What?”

Slowly the violet and sapphire gaze turned to Russell, who felt his heartbeat rapidly quicken under their stares. “Oh, no. Please don’t tell me…”

“I’ve never designed a hedgehog’s outfit before?” Rarity squealed, jumping up and beginning to bounce up and down excitedly, much like Minka when she had had too many treats. “And a spy outfit? For a hedgehog?” She squealed and giggled, causing Spike to sigh. “C’est magnifique!”

“He won’t need a spy outfit, Rarity,” Twilight pointed out, rolling her eyes as she used her magic to levitate a stray book back into its place. “He would just need to go with Zoe and Vinnie tomorrow and figure out what the plan is.” She looked back at the hedgehog, a small smile playing on her face. “You would do that, wouldn’t you, Rusty?”

They were all staring at him. Again. Russell gulped. He definitely wasn’t the “do a lot of stupid and dangerous things” kind of guy – that would be Pepper for sure, or maybe even Vinnie.

But if his friends were counting on him for this one act…

Russell sighed and looked down, wondering if he was making the right choice. Remember what happened with Scout. You can be a spy.

“…I’ll do it.”

The next day had come very, very quickly. It was making Russell awfully nervous, and when he set out to find Zoe and Vinnie (who had left about five minutes earlier) about fifteen minutes before twelve, Rarity, Twilight, and Spike all gathered around to wish him luck.

“You can do this!” Twilight gave him an energetic grin.

“Blast the plans of those ruffians and report back!” Rarity nodded.

“Make sure you three get away safely!” Spike gave him a thumbs-up, which Russell reluctantly returned, feeling like he was going to throw up. Why had he ever agreed to do something dangerous like this?

He knew the answer, even if he didn’t want to face it. It was all for his friends. Everything was for his friends.

Russell nodded and let out a shaky grin. “I’ll do my best,” he murmured, causing the others to begin cheering as he headed out to face dangers unknown and perils unplaced…

It was very, very easy to find Vinnie and Zoe. All he had to do was follow the sound of the familiar singing voice he knew belonged to the spaniel and the trail was simple. Strolling up to them like nothing else was going on, the hedgehog smiled as he caught up, trying to make it look convincing. “Hey, guys!” he panted, placing one arm on a surprised Vinnie’s shoulder. “Where’re you going?”

Vinnie blinked. “Oh, hey, Rusty! We’re going to be in a circus.”

Russell’s spines bristled at the mention of the circus, but he forced himself to stay calm. “A circus, huh? Is that where you’re going now?”

“Oh, yes! It shall be positively fa-bu-lous,” Zoe trilled, doing a little twirl and letting out a sharp woof as her beret fell off; quickly she snatched it back up again and continued to hum to herself. Russell nodded.

“Can I come see this…this circus as well?” he asked curiously. Just keep it together, Russell. I know it’s hard to lie to them, but you have to keep it together.

Vinnie shrugged his green shoulders, knocking Russell’s paw off. “Meh, why not. The zebra, she shouldn’t care.”

The zebra! Russell recalled Rarity’s words and felt a shudder pass throughout his entire body. However, he couldn’t let it show on his face that he knew who they were speaking of, or at least had a vague idea. “Fun,” he smiled nervously. “I’ll come along, then.”

They walked for a while without speaking; Zoe hummed a tune to herself but seemed to pick up on the others’ irritation with it and stopped quickly. Vinnie walked straight ahead, seemingly thinking (that could be dangerous!), and Russell simply followed.

Finally they reached the edge of Ponyville. Ahead lay a large, thick, dark green forest swamped with cobwebs and shadows. The hedgehog shivered as Zoe and Vinnie continued forward with no hesitation. This had to be the forest Rarity had spoken of, Russell remembered. The Everfree Forest.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Okay, scratch that. It was a terrible idea. But he couldn’t quit now. Not as he was feeling the squelch of mud in his paws as they headed towards where the zebra would surely be waiting.

“I don’t see anyone,” Russell noted as they approached the bushes.

“Shh!” Zoe snapped.

“She’ll be here,” Vinnie replied with confidence.

Russell took in a deep breath and waited, forcing his paws to stay in place.

And soon he heard the voice. The sickly sweet, golden-honey voice that wove its way in and out of his ears, almost making him fall asleep; in fact he literally had to struggle to open his eyelids.

“Hello, friends. And who is this?”

“Hi!” Vinnie waved and grinned like this zebra was his new best pal. “This is Rusty—”

He couldn’t help himself; slapping the gecko’s hand away, he snapped, “Russell.” True, sometimes he liked the playful nickname, but right now didn’t seem to be the right time to use it. “I’m here as Zoe and Vinnie’s guest to hear about your so-called ‘circus?’”

The zebra blinked her aqua eyes and batted her eyelashes. “Why of course! Come right this way, all three of you. Zoe, Vinnie, go ahead and find my co-worker, Biff the mountain goat. You’ll know him when you see him – not a pretty sight for the eyes. Russell, since I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting you yesterday, can we stay behind and have a little…chat?”

A tingle of displeasure rippled down Russell’s back, but he shook it off. Perfect. A way to get more information. “Of course!”

Zoe and Vinnie chatted aimlessly as they padded on ahead, leaving the spy hedgehog with the bad zebra. Things didn’t seem to be turning out well. However, that was always how it worked in the spy novels; Russell should know, as he had read enough of them. “Soo…what’s your name again?” he asked calmly. Deep breath in, deep breath out. In, out. In, out.

“Zelda.” Her voice wove itself in and out of its ears. In and out. In and out.

“Zelda. A nice name for a…nice zebra.”

Zelda laughed, a deep laugh that somehow seemed changed from her normal voice. “Oh, I’m far from nice, Russell. But something tells me you already knew that. Didn’t you?”

Panic flashed throughout his mind. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard about you before five minutes ago.”

Her breath brushed past his small ear. “I know there was a unicorn on our trail yesterday, Russell. I know that she would have gone and tattled straight to the Element of Magic. And I know that’s who you happen to be staying with.”

Russell forgot his spy cover for a moment; he was too panicked to move. “But…but how?” was the only thing he could weakly stutter out. “How did you…?”

“Tut, tut, Russell. A lady never reveals her secrets.”

Turquoise eyes flashed in front of him; Russell had a brief vision of a hoof rising up to hit him, but before he could scream, there was a blinding pain and the world went dark.

Author's Note

Equestria Girls was good. No judging. No arguing. No flame-warring. Just the author's opinion.

Chapter Eighteen: Circus Preperations

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Eighteen
Circus Preparations

Zoe loved the smell of the fresh grass and large, leafy trees. She loved the scent of the crisp air swirling around her. And she loved the smell of bright, new, exciting things, like the prospect of being in a circus, singing in front of others that could actually hear her song…

A rancid stench suddenly filled her nostrils; wrinkling her nose, the spaniel opened her eyes to see a large white goat staring down at her with beady black eyes like buttons.

“Hello,” he said cheerfully.

Zoe yelped in surprise and jumped backwards, cowering behind Vinnie, who rolled his eyes and began to shove her back in front of him. “Who are…what are…?”

“I’m Biff,” the goat announced happily.

“Are you the zebra’s assistant?” the gecko asked, stepping forward and lifting one eyebrow in curiosity, to which the goat nodded, grinning.

“I’m here to help you guys prepare for the circus,” Biff said, turning towards a den made of leaves and turning back, beckoning for them to follow by tipping his head to the side. With an excited little squeal, Vinnie charged after him, and, after a little reluctance, Zoe followed.

The cave was dark, and it gave the spaniel shivers. Once, her beret slipped off of her head, and when she picked it up again, it was wet and cold. She gave a yelp, but a glare from Biff’s beady black eyes made her whimper and place it on her head, sending a shudder down her spine.

Suddenly there was light; it was a light so brilliant that both Zoe and Vinnie squinted, looking away. The light seemed to come from a lantern, one hanging from the front of the cave, though there was no way to tell who had illuminated it.

“Welcome to the circus training!” Biff announced, eyes bright, yet there was something in his expression that seemed unnatural…like he was nervous. Or possibly confused. Zoe narrowed her gaze, trying to figure it out.

“So what are we going to do first?” Vinnie whipped his head back and forth, looking and searching. “Where’s the circus?”

“Being set up.” Biff began to push some makeshift stools against each other, precariously placing one hoof onto them and wobbling up.

“What are we going to do to prepare?” Vinnie was relentless with his questions.

“When Zelda comes back, we’re going to split into two rooms. She’ll take you, Zoe, and I’ll be taking Vinnie!” The mountain goat yelped as he wobbled back and forth atop the stools but luckily managed to keep his balance.

The gecko grinned, purple eyes accurately reflecting his excitement. Zoe rolled her eyes, suddenly wondering if this was a good idea. How long would they be here? What if Rarity got worried?

“Where’s Russell?” she asked all of a sudden, realizing that their hedgehog friend had not returned.

Biff looked away. Now she knew there was something up; when he spoke, his voice was hesitant and nervous. “Z-Zelda hasn’t finished with him yet. You’ll see him when you go to practice, Zoe.”

The spaniel was a little uncertain, but she nodded, gazing around the cave and drinking in the scents surrounding her like water sliding down her throat. Herbs and plants were easy to identify, while there was a more familiar smell lingering in the background. Zoe wrinkled her nose, trying to decipher it, when she head hoofsteps outside of the cave.

Zelda pushed her way through the fronds of grass and trotted into the den, beautiful aquamarine eyes bright and shiny, like freshly polished buttons. “Russell is already in the room,” she told Biff, who, for whatever reason, looked as if he was going to be sick.

Then the zebra trained her brilliant gaze on Zoe. “Come on, little doggie. Let’s go practice, shall we?”

Suddenly wondering if this had all been a huge mistake, Zoe thought about saying no. It would be so easy – two letters, one syllable, one phrase. And then she could leave without a second thought.

But then she remembered the fact that here, everyone could understand her…

…and her singing…her singing would finally be heard and loved and admired all around the country, even if it wasn’t her country.

Taking a deep breath in and releasing it out, Zoe put on a grin like a mask, nodded, and followed Zelda into the bushes.

As soon as the cave was out of sight, Zelda smirked, whispered in her ear, “Time to start training. Don’t worry – it won’t hurt.” She rolled her eyes and added, “…too much.”

That was the last thing Zoe heard before feeling a weight slam into her head; too weak to let out even a soft yip, she collapsed to the ground, tongue lolling out of her mouth as the world slowly faded into an eerie blackness.

The first thing she saw was light. Bright, bright light. It made her squint and look away, where she saw the pale green of the grass. Zoe struggled, trying to figure out where she was, and what had just happened. As she shifted slightly in her place, she felt something move against her body; it was something tight and itchy. A rope…am I tied up?

Turning her head to one side, Zoe, through still-dazed eyes, saw another shape, orange in color and resting against a tree, head drooped against his chest.

She would recognize that fur color anywhere.

“Russell!” she said to him, attempting to get out of the ropes. “Russell, wake u—”

A bright light flared in front of her, cutting her off. It came from another lantern, this one much bigger than the one inside of the cave. Zoe squinted and looked away as two shadows suddenly rose up in front of the light, twin in the way that they moved, grinned, and snickered in two high-pitched voices Zoe knew all too well…

“The Biskits,” she hissed, baring her teeth and letting out a ferocious yap. “How did they get here?”

That was when Zelda approached, heading in-between the two girls, who obediently stepped to one side as the zebra passed through. “Hello, Zoe,” she grinned. “Looks like poor Russell hasn’t woken up yet, hrm? Did I hit him too hard? Hope he doesn’t get a bruise.”

“What are you doing to us? Why are you doing this?” Zoe barked frantically, struggling to get free, but was stopped as Zelda reached out and placed one hoof on her chest.

“We need the bits,” she hissed in the dog’s ear. “We need the performance to be its very best. Not some sort of play-thing you do in your free time.”

The zebra withdrew, trotting around. She tipped her head at one of the twins – Whitney – and spoke without addressing the now growling dog, still watching the girl run to grab something from a nearby shelf. “We knew that you wouldn’t spend all of your time working for us. So we had to come up with an alternative.”

As Whitney approached with a small cup of tea in her hands, Zelda took it and sipped a delicate sip before turning back to meet Zoe’s furious ice blue eyes straight on. “You will work for us now, until we have enough bits.” Her aquamarine eyes flashed. “That might not be for a very, very long time.”

“You kidnapped us,” Zoe growled.

“Ah! Such a harsh way to put it. Could we use the term...borrowed, perhaps?” Zelda finished her tea with a flourish and placed it back down upon the stool. “After all, we will only need you for the performances. And you will need to shed blood, sweat, and tears before you are perfect.”

Liquid, warm and salty, bubbled in the corners of Zoe’s ice blue eyes; glancing towards the ground, she blinked them away. “But…but why isn’t Vinnie here?”

“He’s with Biff. See, we need one of you to tell your friends to come here, right?” Zelda’s smile was so eerie and strangely beautiful it was simply terrifying. “Biff is training him to dance on a tightrope. He’ll have so much fun he’ll tell some of your friends to come back here tomorrow…and the next day…and the next…”

Zoe’s next words were a breath of a whisper. “…and he’s just dumb enough to fall for it.”

“Ha-ha! I knew you were smart, Zoe,” Zelda cheered, clapping her hooves on the side of the table. Brittany appeared, smirked at the dog and the unconscious hedgehog, and handed the zebra a rolled up scroll, which Zelda took and placed next to her, smiling. “You see, that’s why we had to take you now. Biff didn’t realize it, but he was going to start giving everything away. We knew you would be starstruck, but not too starstruck to realize what was going on.”

The spaniel stared in disbelief, feeling her chest heave in and out as she realized what was going on.

She had been duped.

“You are going to let us go, or I’m going to call Vinnie, now,” she snarled, wrinkling her nose in preparation of letting out the loudest bark she had ever managed.

But Zoe was stopped by a hoof covering her mouth, a black and grey hoof that smelled like herbs and spices. A voice, silky sweet as honey, whispered in her ear, “Quiet now, Zoe. Quiet. Let’s watch Vinnie practice, shall we?”

Zelda cautiously folded down a few blades of grass directly in front of them, revealing the entrance to the cave. There the spaniel could see her gecko friend, laughing with the mountain goat as he hopped and twirled upon a tightrope.

“You’ll bring some of your friends next time?” Biff asked.

Vinnie skidded to a halt and drew one arm across his brow. “Phew! Yeah, yeah, I will! Pepper will love this! And Sunil too! Would a clown and a magician add to your act?”

Biff grinned, showing yellowed teeth. “Perfectly! That would be great!”

At the thought of poor Pepper tied up beside her, being forced to make others laugh…and Sunil, who would be so scared out of his wits he might just die of fright tied up next to her, unconscious against the tree, Zoe’s eyes widened and she began to thrash wildly in her ropes, causing Zelda to squeeze her tighter.

“Zoe and Russell will take a little longer,” the mountain goat called as Vinnie headed out of the cave door. “They’ll be here a little early, too. When you get selected for Zelda’s training, you train hard. So don’t look for them at their homes, alright?”

“Okay! Bye!” Vinnie replied, waving his small green hand as he vanished into the distance.

Tears were already flowing down the spaniel’s cheeks, wetting her fur and making it appear darker than it was. “You…you…you…” she sputtered as Zelda let her go, grinning. “You…monster. How could you do this?”

“Monster, me?” the zebra mocked, looking away. “We just need your help. However long it takes.”

Zoe’s ice blue eyes went wide as she pictured slaving away, never getting home to Littlest Pet Shop, stuck in this monstrosity of a circus forever…

Russell was unconscious next to her, and when he awoke, he would be in such a frazzle it was unlikely he would be an incredible help.

The other pets were sitting at home, unaware of the current situation, and when they actually got to the rescue, led by an unsuspecting Vinnie, it would be much, much too late, and no one, not even Blythe, would know of their horrible fate…

Zoe stared with a whimper, when Zelda turned to her and said in a bright, cheery voice much unlike her other, harder, honey-sweet tone, “Come now, Zo! Time for circus practicing! Need to get that beautiful voice up and running, right?”

That was it. That was all Zoe needed to hear. Combined with everything else that had just happened…it was too much.

The tears began to fall.

Chapter Nineteen: Why Aren't They Home Yet?

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Nineteen
Why Aren’t They Home Yet?

“I’m telling you, Rainbow Dash, he hasn’t come home yet! This is bad, very bad. Something is wrong!”

“Chill, Twi! He’s probably just going overboard at that circus thing. He’ll probably be here when you wake up in the morning.”

“But still…Vinnie?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as her navy-maned companion turned to the reptile scurrying in and out of books, running from Pepper in some sort of game they must have been playing. Vinnie stopped and looked up at Twilight Sparkle, eyes confused. “What?”

“Do you know why Russell hasn’t come home yet?” Rainbow could almost taste the panic in Twilight’s voice, prompting her to roll her eyes again. That probably wasn’t a good idea, as her sockets began to ache, causing her to rapidly shake her head back and forth.

“Biff said that pets in Zelda’s class take longer to return because they have ‘more intense training,’” Vinnie answered, and then following with a sharp yelp as Pepper pounced on him from behind.

Rainbow flipped a page of the Daring Do book cradled in her lap and nodded. “See, Twi? Just like I said. A little overboard.”

Twilight turned back, relief clearly showing in her violet eyes. “Yeah…maybe I got a little worked up. Just a little.” She levitated a few books in front of her, inspected them, and placed them atop her desk, having them land with a loud THUNK.

The pegasus nodded, content with this answer, and turned back to her book, practically touching the excitement arising around her as she read word after word. Daring Do was trapped in a quicksand pit with giant yellow jackets rapidly descending all around her, and her wings were still recovering, not quite strong enough to pull her out. Rainbow read faster and faster, feeling her own wings subconsciously flutter in excitement as Daring grabbed one of the yellow jackets and allowed it to pull her upwards, far enough for her wings to pull her to safety…but it wasn’t over yet, because the jackets were still hot on her tail…

To her disapproval, Pepper and Vinnie began talking loudly and interrupting her train of thought. One ear flicked in irritation; Rainbow lowered her book and watched them, listening. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do while waiting for them to shut up.

“So what did you do in that circus practice?” Pepper asked, using her tail as a recliner to rest on while she looked at Vinnie with inquisitive rose colored eyes.

The gecko shrugged, also reclining, but on a stack of books instead. “Messed around on a high wire. Practiced dancing up in the sky. It was actually really cool.”

“Sounds cool!” The skunk looked up, eyes shining. “Do you know if they need a clown?”

“Actually…Biff told me to bring my friends there, so yeah, I guess they’d like a clown.”

“Yee-haw!” Pepper leapt up, letting out a wild whoop of success. “I’d love to be in a circus with you and Zo and the others! When would we go?”

One of Rainbow’s ears flicked. When Pepper vanished tomorrow, at least she would know that the skunk was okay. But did they have to talk so loud? Daring was in yet another life-threatening situation and she had to know if she got out okay!

“Well, we usually meet them at around lunchtime,” Vinnie thought out loud.

“Noon? Twelve?” Pepper asked sarcastically.

“Yes!” The gecko grinned, revelation obvious in his eyes. “Twelve! Noon! Whatever time those are!”

“They’re the same time.”

Rainbow automatically rolled her eyes again. Even she knew that, and sometimes her friends told her she could be a little slow to catch on to things, as she was usually all action, action, action all the time.

“Great! Can’t wait for you to go.” Vinnie looked up, like he was thinking very hard about something. “I want the others to come too.”

“All of them?” Pepper expressed her surprise with a shocked, even panicked look in her eyes that was clear to see. “Really?”

“Well, Zo and Rusty are already going, and if I bring you, is it really fair to leave Sunil, Minka and Penny behind?” Vinnie’s logic went through one of Rainbow’s ears and out the other. She wanted to read. Was that so difficult for their little animal minds to understand? Even if they could talk and all…that was all because of some spell Twilight had done.

Then what they were talking about processed. They were going to talk to the others! Rainbow bolted upright, surprising everyone in the room except Twilight, who remained deeply buried in her books. “Can I come with you guys?” she asked, all annoyance vansished from her voice.

Pepper and Vinnie exchanged startled glances before the skunk shrugged. “How would we know where everyone’s staying otherwise?” she asked.

That was an awfully good point. “Great!” Rainbow was so overjoyed she did a little loop-de-loop in the air. “Twi, we’re heading out. Bye.”

As the three headed out the door, Twilight looked up, violet eyes startled, and blinked. “What?” After a few seconds of no one answering, she shrugged and looked down, gaze trained back on the paper.

“Bye, Dashie!”

Rainbow winced at the last few syllables of that high-pitched screech, but forced a sincere smile onto her face. “Bye, Pinks! Maybe we can hang out sometime?”

Pinkie Pie’s smile grew from ear to ear. “That would be totally terrific! But I have to go now. Gummy needs his meals and he can’t get them himself! Byeeee!” With a last little wave of her pink hoof, the earth pony vanished behind the door of Sugarcube Corner.

Rainbow chuckled nervously and looked down at the skunk and gecko atop her back. “Can Minka come?”

“Yup,” Pepper answered, lazily entangling herself in the pegasus’ mane. Rainbow Dash glared at her but decided to ignore it for now.

“So that’s two down, one to go?” she asked.

Vinnie nodded. “All we have left is Sunil. Man, I haven’t seen him in ages! Best friends aren’t supposed to be separated for a long time, you know.”

Rainbow Dash knew that for a fact. Finally they were heading off to see the pet of the pony she had been wanting to talk to: Fluttershy. She hadn’t spent some real time with Flutters for ages, not without one of the others intruding upon their conversation, anyways, and she intended to end that today. Like Vinnie had just mentioned, best friends weren’t supposed to be separated for too long of a time.

“You guys up for a wild ride?” she called over her shoulder, making her wings spring out from her sides and wiggling each individual feather in preparation.

“Ready!” Pepper and Vinnie called together, and Rainbow Dash took off.

Zooming throughout Ponyville was something she had done most of her life, and so she found it easy to navigate through the streets without knocking over carts, startled ponies, or stray miscellaneous objects. But that wasn’t enough; with a wild whoop of exhilaration she tipped her nose upward and zipped into the sky. Feeling the clouds brush her wings sent a tingling feeling throughout her entire body, and she loved it.

Magenta eyes flicked downwards as a steady spiral of smoke swirled up around them. She knew where that was coming from: their destination, Fluttershy’s cottage. With a grin, she alighted atop the small bridge that lead to the doorway and trotted the rest of the way. “Flutters? You there?”

“Oh!” she heard a small squeak of surprise from inside, and then the door creaked open, revealing the butter-yellow pegasus Rainbow had been hoping to see.

Her face cracked into a wide grin. “Hey, Fluttershy! What’s up…? Rarity?”

For indeed, sitting in the corner, atop the red couch the pegasus owned, was Rarity herself, violet mane, sapphire gaze and all. She glared at Rainbow through narrowed eyes, like she wasn’t too happy to see her either.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said softly, teal gaze diverting to Pepper and Vinnie, both of which were trying to get off of Rainbow’s back and into the cottage. “Rarity is here resting. I hope you don’t mind.”

A forced smile appeared on the pegasus’ face for the second time that day. “Not at all! Yeah, it’s totally fine. Totally. T-O-T-A-L-L-Y. Yup. Yeah…I’m good.”

On the couch behind them, Rarity snorted and lifted one eyebrow doubtfully.

Heat rose to Rainbow’s cheeks; whipping around so as to hide her face, she muttered, “Listen, the pets have something to ask Sunil, m’kay? Then we’ll be on our way.”

“Oh! But they have to play for a little bit! I’m sure they missed each other very much,” Fluttershy cooed, stroking Pepper along her back and smiling sincerely as the skunk moaned in pleasure. “Why don’t you come in, and we can talk for a little bit? Rarity was just about to tell me about something that is…distressing her.”

“And it should distress you too! They’re after them! They’re after them!” Rarity wailed from her position on the couch.

Rainbow ignored her and shrugged. “That’s cool, I guess.” Allowing the pets to leap down on the ground, she trotted inside and took her place on a stool nearby Rarity. “So, what’s up, Rare?”

“Evil is up,” Rarity muttered ominously.

The two pegasi exchanged confused glances and turned back to the unicorn, who was now mumbling under her breath. “Rarity?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you what I mean! Oh-ho, yes, I’ll tell you!” The unicorn leaned in closer, dark blue eyes afire. “Your friends are going to be kidnapped! It’s already happened with my Zoe, and Twilight’s Russell! And Blythe has no idea!”

“Where is Blythe?” Rainbow asked, now realizing that she hadn’t seen the human-turned-pegasus in a while.

“She’s been trying to adjust to Equestria back at the Boutique by making dresses and talking with Sweetie and her friends,” Rarity replied. “But that’s not important now! I need to tell you!”

She leaned in, as if she was going to tell them a huge secret. Rainbow and Fluttershy leaned in too, anxiety bubbling to the surface.

Rarity took a deep breath.

And she let it all out.

You can’t do that, Rainbow! I was there! It was dangerous!

Rainbow Dash, I really don’t think that’s a good idea…

The words echoed in the pegasus’ head, but she shook them out like debris in her mane. She was going to do this, and she needed to see what exactly was going on. She just hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake.

Meh, I’m Rainbow Dash! I never make mistakes!

It was the next morning, about five minutes before noon. Rainbow was inside Twilight’s library yet again, and watched as Vinnie left the library, waving goodbye to Spike before he took off, presumably to go and get the others.

Twilight was frantic: Russell still had not returned, and based on the story Rarity had told them both, Zoe hadn’t either. Things looked back. But Rainbow knew she was going to fix that.

It really wasn’t a very hard decision to make. She was Rainbow Dash and she was going to do what was right: do what Rarity had done and follow the pets to the so-called circus. Something deeper had to be up.

“Rainbow Dash, are you sure this is a good idea?” Twilight asked, looking up from her book, violet eyes worried.

“Twi, this is me. Rainbow Dash. Of course it’s a good idea!”

“But are you sure—”

“Bye!”

A heartbeat later, there was nothing but a multicolored streak left behind in the library. Twilight bit her lip, a shudder passing throughout her body, and forced herself to keep on reading. It was, after all, what Rainbow would want her to do. Not worry.

It hadn’t taken Rainbow Dash very long to find where the pets were – they weren’t exactly hard to miss, what with their brilliant multi-colors and such. Their shades of fur were almost as vibrant as Rainbow’s own mane. Alighting swiftly on the ground, she watched as Vinnie led them into a darker part of the forest, beckoning eagerly with one webbed finger. “Come on, you guys!”

Rainbow crept behind a bush and slowly began to stalk, watching as the pets raced along the undergrowth so fast that she had to change her creeping to a swift trot.

Pretty soon they stopped, quite suddenly, so the pegasus stopped too.

“Why aren’t we moving?” came the quiet, female voice of Penny.

“She’ll be here soon,” Vinnie’s deeper voice replied.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. Who?

All of a sudden there was a noise. Not in front of her, near the pets, but behind her. A whimpering noise. A whimpering, tragic song. Someone was singing. Someone was singing and crying.

And the voice suddenly sounded incredibly familiar.

Pets forgotten, Rainbow whipped around and, extending her wings with a quick pop, she dove through the bushes towards the voice, feeling the thorns and bushes and leaves tear at her fur and tangle themselves in her mane, but the voice was getting louder so she began to run quicker and all of a sudden, like somepony had pulled the plug on a radio, it stopped.

Whipping her head up, Rainbow Dash looked around, trying to remember where that hauntingly familiar voice had come from. But it had seemed like it had come from all around her, that it was the very presence of the air itself that had been singing.

Her quest lost, Rainbow headed back to where the other pets were slowly, with her head down, when she realized that she couldn’t hear their voices anymore. Panic bubbled up in her throat; with a horrified yell she zoomed off, not caring about not being heard. Where were they…where were they?

She searched for at least an hour longer, but it was as if the pets had simply vanished into the undergrowth.

And that night, when she came home with her job a failure, none of the pets came home.

Chapter Twenty: Rodeo Clown

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Twenty
Rodeo Clown

As soon as Pepper Clark heard the heartbroken song in the distance, she knew who it was, and instantly she knew it had been a bad idea to come. Zoe…her best friend Zoe…would not have been crying if there wasn’t danger.

“Vinnie,” she hissed, elbowing the gecko in the arm. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Vinnie was obviously entranced whilst waiting for the mountain goat. “Shh, Pepper, be quiet! He’ll be here soon – he’s a real charmer; you’ll love him!”

Maybe it wasn’t Zoe. Maybe Pepper was just a little nervous. She took in a few deep breaths and released them. Yeah, she was just being silly. After all, it was time for her to go be a circus clown, and what could be wrong about that?

The other pets also seemed to be excited: Sunil and Penny were whispering, while Minka bounced up and down in one place, blue eyes sparking with thrill and joy. “This’ll be so fun! Painting for a circus!” she squeaked in her high-pitched voice.

They were all ready to have fun, so she should have fun too. After all, it was a circus, and the main comedic performers in circuses were always clowns. Rodeo clown-land! Pepper recalled the event that had happened not a month ago, but it felt like years had passed since then.

All of a sudden there was a voice coming out of the bushes, and Sunil leapt straight up, yelping. “Hello, new friends!” the voice said, but Pepper was too busy snickering at the mongoose’s reaction to really listen. “My name is Biff, and I’ll be taking you to the circus. Today all of you will be in Zelda’s class. She says you’ll have a blast!”

That was when Biff appeared out of the bushes. Pepper looked up at him, a little confused, to see that he was a large, scruffy white mountain goat with bright black eyes and a toothy grin. She smiled. He didn’t seem to care about his appearance – but then again, neither did she. He had a nice voice, too; she liked him automatically. I can see why Vinnie enjoyed this guy.

Penny frowned and blinked up at Biff with those huge blue-grey eyes. “Why is no one with you, then? Vinnie said he was in your class yesterday.”

“And where are Russell and Zoe?” Minka asked, narrowing one eyebrow and lifting the other in a confused expression.

“All questions will be – heh! – answered when we get there,” Biff said, turning and padding into the bushes. The pets all scurried behind him, Pepper included, making sure she wouldn’t be left behind. “Zelda is over here, I think.” He turned a sharp right and headed along the ground, Pepper and the others following with heads high and minds excited, when Biff suddenly made a swift leap about four feet across the ground.

The pets all blinked at him, and Pepper tried to hold back her snorts. “What was that?” she asked between minor giggles.

“Oh.” Biff seemed embarrassed; his ears lowered and eyes diverted. “Just…was happy about getting new recruits for our circus, I guess. This will really help us – all of us – out quite a bit.”

The pets all looked at each other and shrugged, their strange little way of saying if you say so. So they continued to walk – without jumping, of course – excited ideas reeling through their minds. Pepper was right with them, envisioning face paint and bouncing on balls and cheering crowds…

…when suddenly the ground fell out from under her. It just vanished, and now she and the other pets were screaming, flailing their paws, voices all intertwining into one huge scream. Pepper grabbed onto the nearest pet for support – she thought it was Penny but wasn’t quite sure – before her head slammed into something and the whole world went black.

Pepper opened her eyes and squinted at the sudden bright light right in front of her face. It appeared to be coming from a lantern, a lantern with etched designs on it. Blinking a few times to get adjusted, she slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She was frozen – unable to move, and she didn’t like it.

“Hello?” she called.

Her voice echoed back around her, hauntingly, dizzyingly. Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? She appeared to be in a kind of rock cavern.

Pepper grit her teeth. “This isn’t funny!”

Funny…funny…funny…

The skunk struggled with the ropes binding her paws to her body and screamed, “Somebody!”

The only thing that came back to her was that one word, changed and twisted to become haunting and disturbing. Somebody! Somebody! Somebody! Somebody! Somebody!

Finally she stopped struggling and hung her head low. Where am I? What happened? Oh, yes! The circus. We all fell into a hole, and…were we caught by something? Why didn’t Biff fight off whoever caught us?

That was when the voice spoke. Pepper’s ears pricked as she heard it, weaving in and out of her mind as if in a dream. Honey sweet and silky soft, it purred like a kitten but seemed as fierce as a bee. “Pepper Clark…awake, I see?”

“Who are you?” The voice saying her name gave Pepper newfound energy; she struggled with her bindings and glared in all directions, focusing on one that seemed it could be where the voice was coming from. “What do you want?”

“You’re so boring. That’s exactly what your friend Zoe said. Oh, and Penny just said the same thing. And Russell too, when he woke up.” The voice laughed. “With you, we’re going to skip the questions. It’s time to practice for the circus.”

Suddenly there were hands – actual fingers! – untying Pepper’s ropes. She tried to look behind her, tried to see who was there that had hands, but failed, and when the ropes were gone, so was the mysterious person.

The skunk leapt to her paws, wasting no time. “What do you want me to do? I don’t understand! Is this part of the circus test?”

The voice made a clicking sound, like it was tsk tsking. “Well, you’re a clown, right? Comedy, no?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, it’s face-paint time.”

All of a sudden, something fell from the sky; Pepper yelped, her large tail bushing out in surprise and leapt backwards. It came to the ground with a clunk and she advanced slowly, suspicious of what she might find.

When she saw what it was, her eyes went wide. It was a full face-paint set, with little brushes just the right size for a skunk. Something she’d always dreamed of having but never
realized she would actually possess. She actually found herself crying, just a little bit.

“What are you waiting for?” the voice purred. “Put it on.”

Pepper stared at it, knowing this was too good to be true. “Is it poisoned?” she asked suspiciously.

The voice seemed almost offended. “Pepper, my darling! Of course not. I can’t have you poisoned for the circus, now can I?”

She had a point. In a few quick dabs the skunk effectively applied a few dabs of perfect clown face-paint. Lips were smeared in red and orange while blue eyeshadow and rainbow-dyed hair topped off the perfect effect. Pepper stared at herself in the little mirror that had been added into the packet. She looked perfect. Almost too perfect. So why did she have to be kidnapped? What sense did that make?

“Are you ready?” The voice sounded somewhat impatient.

Pepper nodded, forcing herself to gulp. “Y-Yeah…”

“Then let’s make some laughs.”

Suddenly a ball appeared, and it was a big ball, a proper ball for a clown to balance upon whilst juggling. Pepper stared at it, wondering if this whole thing was just a huge dream.

It couldn’t be, though. The pain was real.

“What are you waiting for?” the voice snapped impatiently. “Get up there and make people laugh!”

Pepper nodded shakily and slowly began to clamber onto the ball, shaking a little as she tried not to slip and fall. The rubber dug into her paws, making her clench her little paws tighter together to get a better grip. She worried that she would fall, but didn’t dare to tell the voice that. In more ways than one, that voice scared the lights out of her. Finally she was atop the ball, wobbling while trying to keep her balance.

“Well?” The voice sounded bored. “Tell a joke.”

That was easy. Pepper cleared her throat, preparing her comedic smirk, and grinned at her pretend audience. “So, ladies and gentlemen, why did the rubber chicken cross the road?”

There was silence; Pepper took this as her opportunity. “Because it wanted to stretch its legs!”

This was the part where the pets either stared at her, disgusted by the pure corniness of the joke, or burst out laughing so hard they could have started crying. But her pretend audience did neither.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, the voice spoke, still with the same amount of clarity and reason.

“Whip.”

A shadow loomed up behind her; Pepper yelped as she turned back and saw the last person – yes, person – she had expected to see.

Brittany Biskit.

Brittany Biskit holding a whip and advancing towards her. The skunk wanted to scream but her voice caught in her throat; instead she leapt off of the ball and began running away but quickly found herself backed up against the wall of her strange prison.

“Like, this won’t hurt a bit. Well, I guess that’s, like, not true, but…you know…”

Her hand snapped down.

Pain rippled along Pepper’s spine as she let out a horrid shriek. It was like fire, fire burning bright and horrible, and she wanted to make it go away but wasn’t quite sure how, so instead she made a crude attempt to cover herself with one of her arms but she couldn’t quite stop the whip from coming down again. When it hit her she screamed again and tried to use her tail as a furry grey shield this time around.

The voice suddenly screamed. “STOP!”

Brittany did so, and Pepper saw the last thing she would have expected on the girl’s face. Was that…regret?

“Take her to the cave.”

A few seconds later Pepper felt warm fingertips grab her body, smoothly wrapping her into a tight embrace where she could not struggle away. Fingers clamped around her muzzle. “Like, no biting,” Brittany’s voice drawled in her ear.

Pepper, still stinging from the whip, closed her eyes and tried to forget where she was. Maybe…maybe then she would be able to leave, be with her friends, and everything would be alright again.

Suddenly the slow, rocking movement of Brittany walking stopped, and Pepper was placed onto the ground. She felt cold dirt on her paws, and slowly she opened her rose colored eyes.

The sight in front of her was enough to make her scream.

Zoe’s beret was sliced; a long scratch had cut her shoulder, and though it didn’t look too deep, she was whining enough to make it seem like it hurt like crazy. Sunil and Vinnie were both laced with red whip-burns, and Pepper realized she must have the same burns all over her body. Penny’s eyes were red and puffy from crying, while Russell looked shaken but not too badly harmed. Minka sat in the corner, staring at nothing, chest heaving slightly – but only slightly.

Brittany walked away towards the entrance of the cave, lit by one single lantern, to join another figure – Whitney. How had they gotten there? Pepper didn’t have time to care; she lay down, placed her paws over her head, and tried to block out the pain.

“Are you guys alright?” Russell’s voice was soft, but comforting.

“It hurts,” the skunk whispered breathlessly.

“Congratulations. You all discovered what it’s like to be a wonderful part of the Z and B Circus!”

It was that voice again. That stupid, horrible voice. Pepper grit her teeth and stood up shakily, preparing to yell something, before she realized that she couldn’t. That was when she heard the sobs.

They were coming from Vinnie; the gecko was hunched over with his knees curled up against his chest, head lowered and back shuddering. “I-I-It’s all my fault,” he moaned. “I was the one who brought you guys here. It’s my fault.”

“It’s okay, Vinnie.” Penny placed a comforting paw on his shoulder. “You didn’t expect this.”

“None of us did,” Sunil agreed, voice as quiet as a whisper.

The voice interrupted the moment again. “So, how did you like your first session of training? It really didn’t have to be so difficult. Zoe, if you had sung better, you wouldn’t have had to go through what you did. Sunil, Vinnie, Pepper – could you actually do a good job at your supposed talents? Penny – sitting down and crying about your situation is not a good idea. And Minka…were those blobs supposed to be the background for the circus? Please.”

Pepper snarled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, red hot and angry.

“However, this all could have been avoided if you didn’t make this so hard for me. So I guess my assistants and I will continue to discipline you and—”

“No, like, way.”

The voices that spoke in unison surprised all of them; Minka got up from her corner and turned, while the other pets simply turned their heads. Standing in front of the entranceway, the Biskits shook their heads.

“We didn’t sign up for this,” Whitney snapped.

“We thought we would just, like, make Blythe feel bad,” Brittany agreed in the same snappy tone.

“But to actually hurt the pets? That’s, like, awful. If we whipped the pets in Daddy’s store, he would, like, totally ground us.”

The voice seemed to stutter a bit. “B-but what about helping us?”

The twins narrowed their eyes, shocking the pets. “We quit.”

Without a second glance, they turned away and stormed out of the cave, letting in the sunlight and causing the pets to blink at each other in horror, before Zoe screeched in a dry throated voice, “Get out! NOW!”

Pepper wasted no time; she pushed off and began scampering rapidly towards the daylight. She could see it…she was so close…she could feel the nice cold air on her snout…

Then it was all blocked by the owner of the voice: a grey and black zebra with turquoise eyes and a long mane falling in her eyes. The skunk leapt backwards as the zebra advanced towards her with eyes power-hungry and mouth in a wicked grin.

“Well…that was a minor setback,” she hissed, glaring around at each one of the pets in turn and grinning wickedly. “But you know what they say…”

Pepper didn’t want to know what they said. But she was clearly going to get it anyways.

The zebra snickered maniacally, and in that moment, Pepper wondered how she would ever get out.

“The show must go on!”

Chapter Twenty-One: Breaking Blythe, Broken Biskits

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Twenty-One
Breaking Blythe, Broken Biskits

When Zoe didn’t come home that night, Blythe knew the ponies were hiding secrets from her.

Zoe wasn’t home the night before; Rarity had blamed that on a sleepover in the clouds with Pepper but had refused to elaborate on the subject. Blythe, who had been tired from wandering Ponyville, had accepted that. But she hadn’t seen the spaniel for at least two days, and she knew Zoe would come and tell her about her escapades. Sure, she had been busy. But she needed to confront Rarity now. Zoe was too important.

So when the elegant white unicorn trotted through the door, triggering the bells in the entranceway and yelling, “Bly~ythe! I’m home,” Blythe trotted down the stairs and wrinkled her muzzle.

“Alright, Rarity. I know something is going on, and I want to know what.”

Rarity’s ears flattened against her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, darling. I’m sorry. Now can you please get out of my way?”

“No.” Blythe remained firm, wings flared in what she hoped was an intimating sort of way – she didn’t know if pegasi normally used their wings for intimidation but she would, and that was that. “Where is Zoe? Where are all the pets? I haven’t seen them for a few days at least.”

“Oh. That.” Rarity’s eyes nervously flickered to the floor.

Blythe smirked. Got you.

“They’ve been having…a mass sleepover at Sugarcube Corner each night.”

“Each night? I think I would have heard about that,” Blythe snorted.

Rarity teased at the ground with one hoof, breathing heavily. The human-turned-pegasus could tell that she was lying, but decided to humor her. She wasn’t a mean person – pony – and although she was unhappy Rarity was lying to her, she knew it must be for a good reason. “Please, Rarity. I just want to know what happened to my friends.”

“I know, dearie. But at the same time…” The unicorn winced. “You don’t want to know.”

Now Blythe wasn’t sure whether to be scared or nervous. Maybe a little bit of both? “Yes, I do want to know. We’ve been through thick and thin together…”

Rarity bowed her head, clearly showing she could not fight the urge. “Oh, Twilight and Rainbow are going to kill me for this, but…you do need to know.” When she looked up again, her gaze was solemn.

“We think they’ve been captured by a zebra and a mountain goat.”

Blythe couldn’t quite process this yet. She blinked – once, and then twice – and then just sat there in a dazed stupor, not quite sure whether she should laugh or cry. Rarity visibly winced.

“I told you it was bad,” she whispered hoarsely, before adding hastily, “We’re trying to get them back, though. Don’t worry!”

“I don’t understand.” Blythe muttered, causing the unicorn to look up, shocked. “Captured? What for?”

“We think it’s a circus…but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.”

“A circus?” Red hot panic flashed through the mare, making her spread her wings in alarm. “The pets aren’t meant for a circus! They have owners! They have lives! Is it…is it because they can talk? Oh, who cares?” As fast as lightning she grabbed Rarity’s shoulder’s, muzzles less than an inch apart in pure panic. “We’re going to get them back soon, right?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to do—”

“We? Who’s we?” Blythe nearly screamed.

Rarity opened her mouth awkwardly before closing it again and staring nonchalantly off to the side. “My friends have been helping out on this. You know, Twilight, Applejack…”

After that, the words didn’t really compute. All Blythe could hear was a soft buzzing, a buzzing of anger, a buzzing of hope and loss, a buzzing like a time bomb ready to explode. Why hadn’t they told her this before? The pets could be hurt. The pets could be in danger. And they had chosen to keep her, the one closest to them, in the dark?

“Yes, I do know your friends.” She cut Rarity off, and then continued while the unicorn sputtered in horror at being interrupted like that. “But you wanna know what I don’t get? Why did I have to be kept alone, in the dark?”

“We didn’t want you to have to face it,” the unicorn whispered.

“I know the pets better than anybody – anypony – argh, forget it!” The tears were coming now, quick and salty, running down the side of her face and falling onto the floor of Carousel Boutique.

Rarity lifted one hoof, chest heaving, looking like she was on the brink of tears as well. “Blythe, darling…”

“Don’t ‘darling’ me!”

She hadn’t meant that to come out. She really, really hadn’t. It wasn’t something Blythe would say back in Downtown City. In Downtown City she would take a deep breath, realize Rarity was trying to help her, and work out a solution. But here in Equestria she was more on edge, ready to scream if the slightest thing went wrong. After all, she was already a pony.

“Blythe…we’re just trying to help,” Rarity stuttered, clearly quite taken aback.

The pegasus forced a deep breath, and for a moment, Blythe – the real Blythe, not the pony Blythe – spoke. “I know you are, Rarity. And I’m really, really, grateful for that. TSC that you’re trying to help me…oh, yeah…I mean, That’s So Cool, but I know the pets really well, and I think that I can help.” She smiled, a little nervously. “So can I, please?”

Rarity also smiled, but her smile was one of pure relief. “Of course you can…darling.”

She opened her mouth, and Blythe leaned in, ready to listen…

When the door swung open, the chimes signaling a new entry ringing like mad. In darted the pink form of Pinkie Pie, blue eyes wide and shocked. “Rarity! Rarity! Blythe! Blythe! You have to come quickly! To the library!” She took a deep breath and then continued. “Mrs. Cake found more of whatever-you-were, Blythe!”

“Humans?” Blythe choked out, voice hardly more than a whisper.

“Yeah! Hoo-mans! Two of them!” Pinkie’s voice was high pitched as ever, but fear was clear and present. “So we need to go! Now!”

Blythe and Rarity needed no more convincing; one spread her wings and the other began to run, and together, the three of them raced to the library.

We didn’t expect this. We didn’t expect to be sucked up into a portal. We didn’t expect to be spat out in a world full of colorful horses. We didn’t expect to get looped into some sort of scheme involving Blythe and her pets, where we had to totally go against Daddy’s orders.

We had to leave. We agreed on it once the dog and the porcupine were caught. The perfect chance arose when Zelda had us guard the entranceway. We said we would not, and we left.

We had never thought about what would happen next.

It was just like that first day we arrived – we began to wander, looking around, wondering who would find us, where we would be taken this time. Some of the horses stared. Some of them screamed. All of them fled. We were alone.

Again.

That was when they came. Two little horses, one with a horn and the other with wings. They weren’t scared. They giggled and clung to us, and said things, garbled things, things we couldn’t quite understand. But it was nice to be accepted.

That was when their mother came, and when she saw us, she screamed, and fell to the ground, right in the middle of the dusty walkway. We weren’t quite sure what to do then, and luckily, a purple horse with a horn on her head walked out, stared at us for quite some time, and then the world went violet.

Next thing we knew, we were in a tree. And there was Blythe, as a pony, sitting in front of us, her eyes as wide as the moon. We were never the smartest, but we could tell it was her. No girl has ever had a hairstyle like Blythe, or eyes such as hers. There was no way that couldn’t be Blythe Baxter, just as a colorful equine with wings, sitting in front of us.

That was when we knew things wouldn’t turn out so well.

Blythe wasn’t sure whether to scream or continue to stare.

Maybe it was true, what Russell had suggested the very first time that they had landed in Equestria. Maybe they were in some sort of extremely complex dream.

Because there was no way the Biskit twins were standing in front of her now.

“Do you know them?” Twilight asked again as Spike poked Brittany’s arm, eyes as wide as moons, breaking Blythe out of her sudden stupor and snapping her back to reality, causing her wings to flutter nervously against her side.

“Yes.” The mare forced her face to stay straight. “Yes, I do.”

“Who are they, then?”

“We can, like, speak for ourselves,” Whitney offered, shooting Blythe a strange look out of the corner of one eye, but Blythe shook her head, gesturing not to speak.

“Some girls that I know from Downtown City…I don’t know why they’re here, though. How did they even get here?” The pegasus mare placed a hoof on Brittany’s shoulder, as if making sure she was actually there. She was.

Twilight looked curious, and more than a bit fascinated. “Is that so, huh? Then that means…” Her eyes stretched wide and her face visibly fell; with horn aglow a large red book flew to her side, enveloped in that same magenta light. “I’ll have to…”

Blythe’s eyes also went wide as she realized exactly what the unicorn was talking about. “Seriously? Well, of course, seriously…I mean, we can’t just keep them locked up in here…”

“What? What are you, like, talking about?” Whitney snapped, but was ignored as Twilight and Blythe continued to talk.

“You sure we won’t be getting home soon? If we find a way to go back to our world, then we wouldn’t have to do this.”

“Blythe, darling?” Rarity tentatively peeped up from the corner, where she had been sitting. “Remember? …the pets?”

Blythe sighed, folding her wings against her side. She hadn’t even realized they had been extended until now. Maybe pegasi did use them for different mood changes. “…alright. I don’t know how the hay they got here…”

“But we can tell you—”

“…or what we’re going to do with them…”

“We can, like, help—”

“But we can’t just leave them out somewhere to get ravaged by some sort of crazy Equestrian monster.” Blythe sighed and looked towards the ground. “Alright, Twilight, you win. Cast the spell.”

The unicorn smiled and flipped open the book to a weathered and dog-eared page. “Spike!” she called, and the dragon whipped over from staring at the twins to holding the book in place for her. Twilight’s horn began to glow with that same magenta light…

…and the Biskits yelled simultaneously.

“We know where the pets are!”

Chapter Twenty-Two: Broken Snowglobes

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

Written by Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter 22
Broken Snowglobes

In the depths of the Everfree Forest, the long-dreaded realm of mystery, adventure, and danger, where the trees grew a dark, sickly green and the swamps bubbled with rancid smelling scents, there was a lone song laced among all the horror and despair. It was the voice of a young female, clearly very talented but very exhausted, and the song she sang was thick with a melancholy fog. Though the lyrics of the song spoke of joy and wonder, excitement and happiness, the tone of the singer made it sound dreary and dark, tired and grim. But she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t risk stopping. Because the show had to go on. So Zoe Trent continued to sing.

The back of her throat burned, and her eyes watered with tears not yet shed, but she had to keep singing. She had to keep singing. Just don’t stop. Just don’t stop. They won’t hurt me if I keep singing.

It was a terrible mindset, one she hated living by, despised with every bit of her body, even, but couldn’t abandon. Slowly that was what her friends had learned. Just don’t stop, and the whip will slow down. Just sound good, and there’ll be no more bruises, no more pain.

She had many scars already, though the most noticeable was the one across her shoulder, pink and rising like a tiny mountain ridge. Her gorgeous beret had been sliced clean in two, causing her to go without for the time being, and her legs shook, knees knocking together, as she tried to support her suddenly far-too-heavy body.

This was no way for her to live. She was Zoe Trent, for goodness sake! She didn’t deserve this!

But Zelda seemed to think she did, and Zelda was the boss around here. Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. Disobey Zelda and you were as good as dead.

“So welcome to this circus, this fabulous, funny show! You’ll laugh and cry and soon know why you ever wanted to go.”

Short pause. Deep breath in. Short cough, to try and clear her scratchy throat.

“Come buckle up and enjoy the ride, it’ll be going fast. Zip, zip, zip, but quick, quick, quick, your memories of this here circus will forever last!”

Zoe stopped, leaned over, and began to hack. Finally she allowed the tears to fall; her voice hurt so bad…so bad…but she had to stay strong. Avoid the whip and obey Zelda, and she might have a chance of escaping. Escaping with her voice still intact, however, was a different story. The tears flew even faster. Oh, her voice! Her beautiful voice which she treasured so!

“Great job, Zoe.”

She turned her head to see Biff smiling at her, those friendly beady black eyes seeming to carry warmth of their own. Turning up her snout, she turned away, fur matted with moisture. Biff was Zelda’s second-in-command; she had no reason to be interacting with him. “No, it wasn’t,” she snapped. “The second phrase was too sharp and the last note’s vibrato wasn’t long enough.” Not to mention the whole thing is squeaky and scratchy.

“It still sounded great,” he attempted for the second time.

Zoe sniffled, coughing and hacking, wincing at the pain that emanated from her horribly sore throat. “You don’t have to say that. I know it sounded bad.”

“It didn’t,” Biff protested.

She didn’t reply, and eventually he left with a sigh and a little mountain-goat bleat of defeat. Relieved, Zoe got to her paws, wobbling slightly, and headed off to go see if she could find the others. Apparently Biff leaving meant she had free time for a little while, which was a relief.

“A-and what’s a ghost’s favorite breakfast? Scream of wheat!”

Pepper’s voice, coming from an area just a little bit ahead of her, sounded on the borderline of pure panic. “N-now watch as I juggle these bowling pins, while riding on this u-unicycle!”

Thunk, thunk, thunk!

Zoe quickened her pace as she heard the three sharp clatters against the ground, ignoring how the pressure on her delicate paws stung like little bees. When Zelda saw that performance, she could only imagine what horrors the whip could do to Pepper’s poor back. She had seen the bloodied gashes already. She didn’t want to see more.

“Heh…that was supposed to happen, I promise! P-promise!” Another loud thunk, presumably from Pepper tumbling off of the ball, and then sudden, loud sobs. Zoe sprinted around the corner, prepared to fight for her friend, but only to see the skunk performing in front of…nobody. Her audience was simply a bunch of rocks and leaves and grass, and Pepper was curled up in the middle of them, tail wrapped around her nose, rocking back and forth rapidly.

Zoe cautiously walked up to her side, and, painfully aware of how terrible her voice sounded, asked, “Pepper, dear…are you alright?”

“No!” A loud snort. “No, I’m not alright! My back hurts from being whipped and now my everywhere hurts from getting three freaking bowling pins slammed on my head! Three, Zoe! I never mess up that much; you know me!”

That was true. Zoe bit her lip and tried to press up against her, as Pepper continued to ramble, stuttering and borderline screaming. It wasn’t a pretty sound.

“This circus is d-doing things to me, Zo! It’s doing things to my h-head! How long have we been doing this? I d-don’t even know, but it f-feels like forever! Hundreds of performances I’ve screwed up! Millions of times I’ve failed! And every time, even if nobody’s watching, I just feel like I need to fix it, but it keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse and –”

Pepper’s tears were contagious; Zoe hadn’t even noticed she was crying until she felt the wet sink into her fur. Sobbing, she clung to the shivering grey skunk and sobbed.

“I’m the strongest of us all, Zo,” Pepper muttered softly. “You know it’s true.”

Zoe admittedly didn’t disagree, so she said nothing.

“And if this place has broken us so fast, then…oh, Zo, what about Penny? Or Sunil? Even Russell could be reduced to a shivering, shaking mess! Just like…me!” Pepper blew her nose in her tail, and only when it came out red did Zoe notice her nose was bleeding.

“We’re just here to be pawns in their stupid game, Zo. They want us to be frozen in the perfect circus positions, so that we can stay that way forever. It’s like one of those snowglobes Blythe showed us that time…” Pepper’s rose colored irises shrunk. “Oh God, Zoe…Blythe…”

The realization sunk into Zoe like a bullet to the heart. Blythe would be so worried. Blythe, who was scared when they were missing from the daycamp and ended up being right next door, eating sweets until they all went insane. Blythe, who combed them and brushed them and fed them and loved them. Blythe…

“We’re nothing but broken snowglobes now,” Zoe murmured, in her scratchy, shattered voice. “And Zelda and Biff want to fix us.”

They both paused a moment, to let that fully sink in. The pause only lasted a few seconds, but for Zoe, it seemed to last a lifetime and a day. And then came the smallest of squeaks, the softest Pepper Clark had ever spoken in her life.

“I don’t want to be a snowglobe, Zo,” she whispered.

“I know,” the spaniel replied, trying desperately to swallow the lump in her throat. “Neither do I.”

xxx

Free time. Something that Russell relished more than anything else in the world. He finally had free time, and during that time he could continue to sketch out his ideas. The ideas he had to keep a secret, the ideas he couldn’t tell the others about, in fear of causing a riot. The ideas that could break them all out of here, if he just stayed sane and had enough free time to do it.

His friends weren’t faring well. To be honest, neither was he. But he hadn’t had to feel the lash of the whip yet; he didn’t know the pain of being sliced across the back by a brutal leather tentacle. His job didn’t involve technically failing. His job was to boss the others around, and organize everything so it was perfect. So the circus was perfect.

And oh, how he hated it.

Russell’s mind whirred with ideas, each one more brilliant than the next, yet too complicated, too difficult, too something-or-other to ever work. But it was okay, because he had free time to think about it. Soon he would come up with an idea that would work. Sooner or later.

Preferably sooner.

As he headed past Pepper’s designated work area, he heard her sobbing, heard her speak in a voice thick with panic and despair. He heard her talk of snowglobes. Broken snowglobes.

That’s all we are to them, he realized. And I’m the one in charge of making sure all the figurines are in the right places. The thought made his stomach drop like a stone.

Zoe, Pepper…Sunil, Vinnie…Penny, Minka…I promise I’ll do my best to help you. I promise I’ll try to get us out of here. I promise I won’t let us become forever trapped in a snowglobe. I promise, I promise, I promise.

So many promises. So many. He had to keep them all. He had to.

Sighing, Russell turned away from the sobbing skunk and dog, closed his eyes, and continued to think.

He would get them out of there, sooner or later.

Preferably sooner.

Author's Note

IT'S ALIVE. IT'S ALIIIIVE.

Chapter Fourteen: Spotlight

My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

By Drizzle Quill
With much help from nyc2dragon

Chapter Fourteen
Spotlight

Penny Ling was in blissful heaven.

She twirled like the graceful dancer she was, around and around the wide open fields, weaving in and out, ribbons never breaking rhythm. Back and forth, back and forth they went, as she twirled and leapt off of the ground, feeling her paws touch the soft grass. She was one with the rhythm, she was one with the ribbons, she was one with her sou—

BANG

Penny blinked; tears delicately forming in the corners of her eyes, she turned to see what she had fallen into. When she saw what it was, the panda literally snarled.

It was a tree.

Another tree.

The rage filtering through her mind was topped off with three apples landing in perfect procession – bop bop bop – right on top of her head.

Penny groaned and plopped down on the ground, feeling the cool grass rub into her skin. It was comfortable and cold, perfectly contrasting the warm rays of the sun beating down on her from above. Noticing a perfectly grown apple next to her, the panda snatched it up and began to take large, wolfing bites. She loved fruit quite a bit, if she didn’t say so herself.

For a few more minutes she lay there, enveloped in her own fantasy land, when all of a sudden a loud noise came from right over her head.

“Well, hi there!”

Penny yelped and jumped a few feet in the air, whipping around to see another animal looking at her, eyes alight with curiosity. She was a brown-and-white dog, with expressive emotions and a long, panting tongue; her mouth curved in a seemingly never-ending smile. “I’m Winona,” the dog grinned, voice a little high-pitched. “Who’re you?”

The panda stepped forward, still clutching her chest although she was less frightened now, and managed to choke out, “Penny Ling.”

“That’s a pretty name,” Winona remarked, sniffing Penny’s belly and causing her to laugh. “I like my name too, though. The others say it’s a very pretty name.”

“It is,” the violet-and-white panda replied, trying to dodge the dog’s frantically twitching nose and giggling as it brushed against her fur. “Do you live here?”

Winona stood erect and cocked her head. “Well, of course! I’m the guardian of Sweet Apple Acres.” Sighing, she looked down at the ground, dark eyes wistful. “…well, I think I’m the guardian, anyways.”

Penny, surprised at seeing her new friend so downcast, placed one paw on Winona’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why do you only think you’re the guardian?” Smiling, she whispered, “You would make a great guardian.”

Winona looked up. “See, my owners can’t hear what I’m saying. They think I’m just a common pet – but I want to be more, y’know? I want them to know I would die for them if I had to. They’ve all been so wonderful to me…they found me as a pup and took me in when no one else would!”

The panda nodded. Usually back at the pet shop she was good at cheering her friends up. Maybe there was a way she could brighten up Winona’s day as well?

Suddenly it hit her. It was so obvious Penny wondered how she hadn’t thought of it before. “I can talk with your owners!” she cried, jumping up and down in excitement.

Winona’s brown ear pricked in curiosity, and her eyes shone with a glimmer of hope. “You…you can?”

“Yeah! When I came here, Twilight put a spell on me and my friends so that we could talk to the ponies!” Penny was hopping like her friend Buttercream, violet-grey eyes alight with joy. “I can tell them what you’re saying!”

“Twilight,” Winona grinned thoughtfully. “Always knew she was special…she’d make a good princess, really.” After a few seconds of hesitation, she leapt up and yelped, “Well, what’re you waiting for? Come on, let’s go!”

The two darted off towards the big barn in the distance, Penny’s thoughts vibrating with, Maybe this – life in a new country – won’t be as bad as I thought!

________________________________________

“We can actually talk to Winona?”

Penny flinched and covered her ears as the little yellow filly standing in front of her squealed loudly and leapt up and down. “We can talk to the cutest lil’ puppy-dog in all of Equestria, AJ, isn’t this great?!”

The larger, orange-furred, pony, the one Penny knew was Applejack, smiled, freckles almost disappearing under a grin. “Ah sure hope this’ll work, Apple Bloom,” she agreed. “Ah’d love to give a few bits to hear what Winona has to say? Ain’t that right, girl?” Applejack rubbed her dog under the chin and Winona gasped, panting.

“Ah, yes, right under the chin…oh, yes! Thank you thank you thank you!” the brown and white herding dog remarked, but Penny knew that all the ponies could hear was a series of high-pitched yips. That was why she was here: to be the translator!

At long last Penny finally felt important. It was always the other pets taking the spotlight, and whenever she tried to do something right – like talk to Zoe’s crush Digby for her – she always ended up doing something wrong. Now she could help out and be a good friend! It was just so perfect the panda couldn’t help letting out a few excited giggles.”

Apple Bloom looked at Penny, large amber eyes filled with joy. “Can you ask her…what her favorite thing to do is?”

The violet and white panda looked at Winona for translation, and the dog yipped in reply, “I love to herd the sheep and the cows and be with my owners and my other pet friends! But I think I love being with my owners most of all! Speaking of which, where have Mac and Granny gone?”

Head spinning as she tried to keep up with it all, Penny repeated the information to the two sisters slowly and carefully, to make sure she didn’t leave any part out. Apple Bloom’s eyes widened with shock and excitement while Applejack, after looking momentarily startled, chuckled her accented chuckle of hers. “Well, Mac’s out with Cheerilee, an’ Granny’s preparing the kitchen for the next Zap Apple harvest.”

“An’ y’all will be mighty fine in helpin’ me when you’re done!” an elderly voice called from the next room over; Apple Bloom tried to hold back her laugher and failed.

“We’ll help ya later, Granny Smith,” AJ called back, before turning towards Penny and Winona again. Her features illuminated in the firelight, the farmer pony asked quietly, “Now, Ah have a serious question for ya, Winona. Will ya answer mah ramblin’ truthfully?”

The herding dog gave one sharp bark – “Yes!” – which Penny translated.

Applejack nodded, and, voice lower than before, she said calmly and evenly, green eyes steadfast and serious, “Winona…what was yer life like when we found you as a mite little puppy dog?”

Winona stiffened and flinched ever so slightly. Penny noticed the movement and placed one paw on her new friend’s back. “…are you okay?” she whispered gingerly, but the only response she got was a stiff, frozen dog.

Apple Bloom gasped. “Is she alright?” the little red-maned filly demanded, pushing her muzzle against Penny’s nose and making the panda jump backwards, shock clearly reflected on her face and in her violet-grey eyes.

“Apple Bloom!” AJ barked strictly. “Let ‘nona do her thinking…” Here the mare’s green eyes softened, and she looked away. “I’m sure she’s bringing back much she regrets.”

Narrowing her eyes at her big sister, the filly grumbled something under her breath and trotted off, probably to go help her grandmother in the kitchen, Penny presumed.

It took a few minutes more, but finally Winona spoke. “My mother abandoned me on the streets of Fillydelphia for being the smallest out of my brothers, as well as the only female. I wandered for months, alone, hungry, not quite knowing how to survive. Then…then you found me.” The herding dog let out a small whimper in the back of her throat.

Tears already in the corners of her eyes, Penny explained the story, and Applejack pulled the brim of her hat over in front of her eyes, shading the rest of her face.

“Ah knew it was somethin’ like that, but still…’nona, are you okay?”

Winona looked up at her owner and wagged her tail feebly. “Yeah,” she yipped, and Penny didn’t even have to translate. The orange earth pony nuzzled her dog and stood up.

“Well, Ah better go help Granny and AB in the kitchen. You two hang around and talk for a little bit, m’kay?”

Both Penny and Winona agreed, and Applejack took her leave.

There was silence for a bit longer, and then Winona, dark eyes bittersweet, looked towards Penny. “…can you tell me about Littlest Pet Shop?” the brown-and-white dog asked quietly.

The panda brightened up almost immediately. “Of course! Well, there are eight of us who are regulars, and our human friend Blythe…”

________________________________________

The flickering fireplace kept Penny warm as she talked for hours more about the many adventures she and her friends had had back at LPS. She talked of the fashion show that had saved the shop, the time they had infiltrated Largest Ever Pet Shop to rescue Zoe’s “sister,” “Gail,” and even the time when they had gone crazy after getting locked in the pantry of Sweet Delights. Her voice did not waver once as she explained in great detail the wonderful anniversary party that had been put on for her, and the troubles they had gone through to get there. Finally she spoke of the squirrel with a hoarding problem, Shivers, and how Blythe and Pepper had helped him to find who he really was.

“…and then we got sucked up here,” Penny finished, voice not quivering one bit. “And although we’re trying to get back home…” The panda looked around at her new friends, all of which had gathered sometime during the story, “it’s kinda nice here.”

Kinda nice here. That was the truth, Penny knew. She enjoyed being in Equestria – she was a translator, a good friend, and was able to tell others about her stories. Sure, if her other friends were here it would be even better.

But whenever they were here, they stole all of the glory.

It was Penny Ling’s – the panda’s – time to shine.

And she was loving every minute of it.