Fluttershy yawned quietly as she awoke from her pleasant dream. Rubbing her eyes gently the yellow pegasus extended her wings to aid her in hovering to the ground. Fluttershy gave a weak sigh as she leaned down to grab a book on the floor in her mouth and place it on the bed, as much as she loved reading in bed she never could remember to place it on the bedside cabinet before falling into her literature aided dreams.
As Fluttershy finished presenting breakfast to the cottage's large selection of animals she finally sat down exhausted in her kitchen, resting her still tired face against the soft wood of the table while chewing on a few leaves she took from one of her plants. Just as the quiet pegasus was thinking of what to eat for her own breakfast a loud yell broke her trail of thought, scaring the timid pony forcing her to hide behind the table's stool.
“Hey Fluttershy!” Yelled a light blue pegasus hovering in the air above the table, staring down at her quaking friend.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry.” Fluttershy responded, slowly turning around and sitting back on the stool she previously used for her defence. The shy pony looked up at her friend with an apologetic gaze. “I just wasn't expecting your voice, I'm sorry, it just scared me a little bit.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes sighing quietly to herself. “Yeah it's no big deal.” The self confident pegaus lowered herself to the stool opposite Fluttershy and leaned forward with a large smile. “So guess what I picked up this morning!” She questioned her friend, almost looking ready to burst with the answer.
“Oh I love this game!” Fluttershy happily announced. “A cute rainbow coloured scarf?”
“Err, no.” Rainbow replied abruptly.
“Oh, well how about a nice warm hat?” Fluttershy said with a smile. To which Rainbow began tapping her hoof impatiently on the soft wood. “Oh, well how about an adorable little-”
“I got this!” Rainbow interrupted her friend throwing a box of cereal onto the table. “Just look how cool this stuff looks!” Rainbow brought the box upright into Fluttershy's vision and began to run her hoof over the writing while reading it out loud. “Invader O's! How cool is that name, it's like all alieny! And look at this, there's a special surprise inside every box!”
“I don't really like surprises.” Fluttershy withdrew her face behind her long pink mane as she spoke. “They, surprise me.”
Rainbow brought a hoof to her face, sighing again. “Look, ok let's just see what it is. It will be nice.” She noticed her friend still hiding behind her mane. “Ok look, I'll open it and take a look first, and I'll tell you what it is, ok?”
“Oh yes, that would work, thank you.” Fluttershy replied with a cute smile as she brushed her mane aside. Rainbow couldn't help but mix her usual sigh with a smile as she drew her attention to the box, peeling the lid off with her mouth she opened the package and tasted one of the Invader O's. She swallowed the single bite soon after taking it in with a disgusted face. “Well, the cereal is bad. Let's see what the surprise is.” The pegasus began emptying the content of the box onto Fluttershy's table, not thinking of the mess she was making as the cereal began to litter the floor and be eaten by several of the woodland animals. Suddenly she stopped draining the box, much to Fluttershy's relief, and stared down into the container. Rainbow's face lit up as she reached down into the nearly empty box. “Heh, it's so cute.”
“CUTE?!” Fluttershy beamed with happiness as she heard her friend's words and quickly grabbed the object that only just came out from the box. “It's so adorable.” Fluttershy stated, staring down at the small bunny like toy that lay in her hooves.
“I'm HappyEars the happy Gigglepie. I'm always so happy and I never have to lie.” The little toy spoke in the yellow ponies hooves.
“Ohmygosh! It can talk, it's so cute!” Fluttershy began rubbing her beautifully soft face against the Gigglepie. “It's so adorable and cute and cuddly!” Her elegant mane brushed over the toy, and as it stopped hiding the Gigglepie's vision, Fluttershy's beautiful large watering eyes dominated it's view. Fluttershy's happiness gave off a soft, adorable 'Squee' as she smiled down at the cute toy.
--
Two Gigglepies walked side by side along a long metallic corridor. One carried a jewelled sceptre and wore a golden crown, pacing himself awkwardly fast forcing his assistant to struggle to keep up. The assistant hid her relief of being able to stop, hiding her deep breathing behind her paw as she adjusted her glasses. The crown wearing Gigglepie placed his paws on the railing, staring down at a hangar full of small cereal box shaped craft being periodically manned by countless Gigglepies. Before the next batch of creatures loaded themselves into the craft they turned around and saluted to their leader, before systematically being released down onto Ponyville.
The Overlord turned around, satisfied with the deployment of his subjects. “How is the profit to freedom working?” He asked in a demanding voice.
The assistant adjusted her glasses again before speaking. “I am afraid we have no details on that yet Sir, perhaps this 'Ponyville' is slow when it comes to trade.”
“It never takes this long.” The Overlord stated sounding concerned. “Bring up the chart!”
The assistant nodded, reaching for a button from her clipboard she lowered a screen on the wall which filled with text. '1: Commence Invader O's invasion. 2: Hypnotise the population to spread the love and cuteness over the world. 3: Sell Gigglepie toys forcing profits while destroying freedom. 4: Restock toys. 5: Destroy planet when profit is exhausted and find new target.' Out from the list of stages, only the first number was flashing as 'active.'
“I don't understand it. They haven't even began to hypnotise the populace to love them yet?!” The Overlord's ears were threatening to Steam as he failed to think of the problem. “Get me HappyEars! He was the first one down let's see what he has to say about it.”
The assistant saluted as she changed the setting on her clipboard to bring up an image of the Gigglepie. Both the assistant and Overlord were shocked to see HappyEars not only out of uniform, but dresses in a shirt reading 'I <3 Fluttershy'. “HappyEars! What is going on with the invasion?” The Overlord demanded.
“Overlord Glee Sir! You should really come down here Sir, it's amazing! Fluttershy she's just, she's so cute! It's unbelievable I never thought it was possible to be so adorable!” The Gigglepie began rolling around on the floor giggling. “Oh my, oh she's smelling flowers! That's so cute!”
“HappyEars! HAPPYEARS!” Overlord Glee shouted at the screen but it went blank. “Get me another one, now!” He demanded to his assistant. Though no matter how many Gigglepies they tried to reach, none of them would talk sense. Each one was wearing a different shirt, one reading 'Sweetie Belle is cutest pony', another reading 'Rainbow Dash makes me 20% cooler'. It seemed every Gigglepie sent down suffered from the same effects. “What sort of power are we dealing with here?” Overlord Glee asked cautiously. Almost fearing the answer.
“Sir, maybe we could bring them all back and move on to another race?” His assistant questioned.
“No, we must know what this power is that we are dealing with. Our cuteness is ineffective to it, we are becoming the very puppets we are trying to force others to be! We need to find out what is going on.” The Overlord began pacing around, spinning his sceptre in his paw as he tried to think.
“But those we send down seem to be effected by it.” The assistant replied.
“Then I shall go down myself! My powers are the strongest, I will find out what could possibly be so cute down there!” Overlord Glee leaped across the railing before his assistant could attempt to stop him, and took the next cereal box craft down to Ponyville's surface.
--
The Invader O's box landed in the outskirts of Ponyville. The box burst open throwing the Overlord outside who landed on his paws. Overlord Glee began to view his surroundings, he purposefully landed outside the town itself to spy from a distance. He looked around cautiously, the fields were filled with apple trees and there was a barn in the distance. Just as he began plotting his next move a loud voice sliced through the air. “YEEEHA!” the voice was accompanied by a loud impact, the Overlord looked up to see all the apples from the tree above him fall down with tremendous speed. He dived away barely escaping being hit by a few of the stray apples which missed the buckets below the tree. “Aww gosh dang it, why does this tree always miss the buckets?” The same voice called, but at a less elevated level. The Overlord looked back to see the being responsible for almost landing apples on him stare him back in the eyes. “Well I'll be, you must be one of those toy critters everypony's been chatterin' on about?” Applejack stated looking down at the Overlord.
“You almost crush an Overlord and this is how you reply?!” Overlord Glee shouted angrily.
Applejack laughed. “That's quite feisty for a breakfast toy, we used to just get still toys in our surprises.”
“Did somepony say SURPISE!” Overlord Glee backed away in fear as a large pink face suddenly appeared before him. “Surprise like a surprise PARTY!” Pinkie Pie bounced happily around before disappearing with the Overlord in her grasp.
Applejack stared blankly for a moment, before before returning back to work. “Always a strange pony.”
--
“Ok open your eyes!” Pinkie Pie took off a blindfold she somehow put on the Overlord's face and bounced away happily smiling. “Like it?! It's a party!” She returned her face, now upside down before her guest. “And it's just for YOU!” She finished with an overly large smile.
Overlord Glee struggled to come to his senses after the sudden inconsistent and seemingly random chain of events. “I am not here to party! We are here to invade you annoying whelp!”
“Invade?” Pinkie began laughing, snorting several times as she did so. “Oh! That reminds me of when we had Parasprites, you know that I knew they were bad but no pony else knew they were bad but I said they were but no pony else did and I had some porridge but it wasn't as good as cake so I had some porridge cake and that was brilliant!”
“What does this have to do with the invasion?” The Overlord asked, unable to even remember what was said.
“Oh that's easy!” Pinkie placed her hoof in front of her guest. “I stopped them!” She smashed her other hoof down against her flat hoof, and began making squishy noises as she rolled her hooves against each other, spreading fear into the eyes of her guest as she began licking her hooves as if they were covered in frosting. “Ah porridge cake.”
“You're insane!” Overlord Glee shouting hysterically, fearing for his safety.
“No silly billy, I'm Pinkie Pie!” She stated with an exalted smile.
A bell rung as the door of Sugar Cube Corner opened across the room from Pinkie and her guest. “Hey Pinkie Pie.” Twilight Sparkle greeted her friend as she entered the store. “Say do you know anything about these new toys ponies are finding?” Twilight gazed down at the Overlord, who still held a frightened face. “You have one! Mind if I borrow it? I'll give it back as soon as I'm done with it.” Twilight smiled happily hoping her friend would agree.
“Sure thing Twilight! Keep it for as long as you need!” Pinkie happily replied.
“Thank you!” Twilight gleefully announced, wrapping her lavender aura around the Overlord as she levitated it onto her back and began to gallop home.
Pinkie Pie sighed when her friend left with her guest. “Now I need a new playmate for the party.” Suddenly her attitude changed as she gasped for air “I'll get Applejack!” She stated as she grabbed the blindfold in her mouth and shot out through the door, leaving a blazing pink trail behind her.
--
Overlord Glee finally allowed himself the chance to relax as he lay on Twilight's back. “Thank you for saving me, pony. I promise when your time comes we shall take mercy on you.”
Twilight giggled happily. “Oh it's fine. I've been so interested by the AI of you things I can't wait to find out how it works!”
The Overlord looked up questioningly. “Wait, what AI?”
“Your artificial intelligence of course, I've never seen toys with such advanced AI before, and considering you came in cereal boxes it is really interesting, I can't wait to do tests and find out how it all works!” Twilight clapped her hooves together happily as she closed the door behind her, they were in the library basement, the floor was riddled with computer equipment and scientific devices, in the centre lay a large chair with numerous devices, dials and gauges attached to it. Overlord Glee began to panic. “Oh don't worry, I tested some of this on Pinkie Pie, and the rest won't hurt a toy.” She stated pointing at a large grinding and whirling machine which came to life.
The door of the library suddenly burst open as Overlord Glee ran for his life screaming. Twilight appeared by her door looking confused as to why her test subject was running. “Wait come back! I need to test you!”
“All these ponies are insane! Somebody help me!” Overlord Glee yelled hysterically as he fled through the streets of Ponyville. Looking backwards at the lavender unicorn chasing him down, he failed to notice the pony in front of him who he bumped into, falling backwards as a result.
“Heavens what is the rush my dear?” Rarity's beautiful voice questioned before turning into a high pitched squeal. “Oh my, you would look smashing in a new series of doll dresses I've been making! We have to have you try them on right now!” Rarity stated grabbing his paw and trying to lead him to her store.
Overlord Glee struggled while screaming, eventually managing to free himself from Rarity's touch and began to flee again, tripping over many times before finally falling to the floor in defeat, tears streamed down his eyes as he lay powerless to his adversaries. “It's just not fair. I can't, I can't fight against this.” The Overlord continued crying, not noticing the approaching pegasi.
“Don't cry, there's no reason to fight if it makes you upset.” Overlord Glee looked up to see an adorable yellow pegasus looking back down at him. He noticed HappyEars resting in her mane looking as happy as his name implied. “Come on, you can be with your little friend and you can both be happy and sweet.” Fluttershy said as she softly picked up the Overlord, and rested him against her face. Overlord Glee shut out the outside world as the previous ponies got near, all he was able to hear was Fluttershy's adorable smile, releasing an equally adorable 'squee.'
--
The owner of the toy store sat back, happily making his next batch of toys by hand in the back of the store. The bell rung, distracting his attention from his work as the old colt slowly made his way to the front of the store. He looked over the counter to see the previously named 'Overlord' Glee standing before the counter. Glee offered both his crown and his jewelled sceptre to the store keeper. “This is enough for likely every toy in here.” The store keeper truthfully admitted. But his customer only pointed at a single toy. “I can't really offer change for such items I'm afraid.” He again admitted, however Glee continued to merely point at the single toy he longed for.
Back aboard the Gigglepie vessel Glee's assistant was growing restless. She still heard no word from her leader, nor any of the others down on the surface. After pacing around the deck several more times she couldn't keep in her fears any longer. “What's happened down there?” She tried adjusting her clipboard to no avail as not even the Overlord responded to the signal. “I'm sorry Sir, I can't wait any longer.” She stated as she reached for the emergency transport switch.
The assistant returned to the hangar as all the cereal craft automatically returned, opening to reveal Gigglepies happily playing with toys of ponies. She kept calm as she waited for her master to return. Finally after what seemed like an eternity the craft Overlord Glee left on returned to the hangar. His assistant stood before the craft, and was speechless as the box opened to reveal her master. Sitting down with his face happier than she had ever seen before, gently brushing the hair of his Fluttershy toy. Several seconds past before Glee finally spoke. “FreeSpirit.”
“Glee.” FreeSpirit replied, happy to hear him finally use her name again.
“Let's go home.” Glee ordered in a quiet voice, as he held his Fluttershy toy close to his heart.
--
As the Gigglepie vessel left Ponyville's sky, Fluttershy's friends gathered around her, reassuring her as she softly cried. “They were adorable, I'll miss them.” Fluttershy admitted as she fell against Rainbow Dash who began to gently pat her back as she held her.
“There there dear, they weren't from around here, it was for the best that they got back to where they were from.” Rarity reassured her friend as Rainbow continued to make sure she was ok.
Twilight sighed, gently kicking a stone near her hooves. “It was annoying though, I really wanted to see what sort of AI they had, those toys were amazing.”
“Oh they weren't toys Twilight.” Pinkie Pie stated as she joined the group licking the remains of a cake from her lips. “They were an alien race bent on conquering Equestria starting with Ponyville by using their cuteness to control us, but it didn't work as we were so cute ourselves, then shenanigans happened and they left happily ever after!” Pinkie Pie concluded as Applejack slowly joined in from behind her carrying five slices of a cake on her back.
Twilight stared blankly at Pinkie Pie for a moment as Applejack began handing out the cake to her friends. “Really?”
“Yeppie!” Pinkie Pie happily replied, taking one of Applejack's slices and eating it in one bite. Applejack stared back at her with an annoyed gaze. “Oopsie, that wasn't mine was it?” Pinkie stated smiling awkwardly.
“It's ok Applejack, I'm not hungry you can have mine if you want to.” Fluttershy offered as she dried the last of her tears on her friend's light blue coat.
“Nah it's fine, ah had enough at the party anyway.” Applejack admitted. “But still.” She gazed at Pinkie who returned with the same awkward smile.
Pinkie Pie exhaled loudly as she jumped in the air. “I know! We should have a new cake! And a new party!” She stated happily bouncing around planning her third party of the day.
Twilight was still confused by what Pinkie said. “How exactly did you know that then Pinkie, about them not being toys?”
“Oh that's easy Twilight!” Pinkie stated as she stopped bouncing. “I just read the story description!” Pinkie Pie giggled shortly before singing as she bounced of back to Sugar Cube Corner, with her friends pursuing at their individual paces. Twilight lagged behind at the back as her friends vanished from sight, still confused to her pink friends words. But as usual Twilight decided to try to forget what she was told, knowing she wouldn't receive any answer she could truly understand.
