The Vengeance Trilogy: Needed

POV: Rainbow Dash

Chapter Five

“Surprise!”

Ten ponies walked out of the library. Nine of them were walking, but of those, only three managed to walk down the road without falling every few steps. The one pony who was not walking hovered over their heads, barely containing her snickers. Man, these ponies have to be the least coordinated bunch I have ever seen in my life! I’d be crying if the pegesai tried any flight at all. They’d probably make Fluttershy look like a Wonderbolt!  Rainbow Dash giggled at the thought. She looked down at the stumblers, and her grin grew to almost Pinkie-like proportions. The ridiculousness of their gait was just too much for her.

The stallion named Sticks seemed to be walking the best, but just as Rainbow thought this, he managed to forget to lift his front right leg on time. This caused him to fall over, knocking green mare that was walking next to him over. Rainbow couldn’t stifle her laughter this time, and neither could Twilight. Rainbow’s unicorn friend tried to cover her laugh with a cough, but she couldn’t hide her snort from her friends.

Really, what is with that mare anyways? She’s acting really weird. Rainbow wasn’t distracted by her friend for long, as the show below her continued to unfold.

Nick the joker managed to trip on the same rock three times, Penn the egghead was so busy looking at everything around him that he stepped on Cyrus the crybaby’s tail.

Cyrus jumped into the air with a cry of pain. But rather than coming back down to the ground like a normal pony would, his wings began flapping, which caused him to remain airborne. Penn and the pony with the red hair gaped at him. Cyrus and Rainbow Dash gasped simultaneously, but a second later, Cyrus fell to the ground with a resounding THUMP! as his rump hit the ground. All the ponies gasped, even the two who were barely managing to pull themselves onto their hooves.

“Did you see that? I flew!” Cyrus jumped back to his feet, showing a level of coordination Rainbow hadn’t expected. “I bet I can do it again. Someone step on my tail so I can try!”

Nick chuckled. “You don’t have to ask me that twice.” He pounced on Cyrus’s tail in a way that would have put Opal to shame, which caused Cyrus to leap into the air once more. His wings flapped weakly, but he didn’t stay in the air for long at all, and this time he didn’t have the advantage of having remained stationary above the ground for any length of time. He rapidly fell to the earth, face first. The smack that resulted as he nosedived back to the ground was even louder than the thump from before.

Rainbow snickered. “Silly pony, you can’t fly like that. It takes a while for a baby pegasus to get a hang of her wings… and you’re pretty much a baby pegasus.” Cyrus glared up at her, his face a deep purple as he mumbled something about a self-assured doggie.

Penn glaced at him. “Rainbow is correct. Everything I’ve read or ascertained seems to indicate that control of a pegasus’s wings or a unicorn’s magic beyond a purely instinctive level takes a considerable amount of time. That’s why some baby pegasai or unicorn can achieve feats that most young members of the same type would struggle to reproduce. There are many examples of this on the… thing.” He stumbled over the last words. What are those ponies hiding? I get that they’re all super special kinds of ponies back wherever they’re from, but that doesn’t mean that they have to not tell us stuff. Especially me! I love knowing stuff!

Penn looked at Gwen. “You have any idea what they’re talking about?”

Gwen shook her head. “Nope, I’m clueless about this.”

The group continued walking down main street, but Twilight looked pensive. She turned to Applejack and Rarity. “Hey girls, did you happen to notice that the streets were completely empty when you came to the library?”

Applejack shook her head, her braided mane almost hitting Rarity in the face. This caused the prissy mare to frown disapprovingly, but Applejack didn’t notice. “Naw, we didn’. Why do ya ask?”

Twilight replied, “Because, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re the only ponies on the street! Where is everypony?”

Rainbow Dash looked around. Upon seeing that Twilight was correct, she felt her jaw drop. How did I not notice that nopony was looking at me? Man, I must be losing my touch… Wait, why isn’t anypony looking at me? Don’t they know that I’m awesome and deserve to be watched all the time? I’ll just have to show them! Maybe I can get a sonic rainboom to work again… Rainbow’s thoughts continued along these lines, and she barely payed the rest of the group any mind.

“Oh my, you are quite correct Twilight! I wonder, why would everypony would be inside on such a lovely day?” Rarity inquired. “There were many ponies out on the street when we arrived at the library. Why, many of them were gathered right here! I believe Vinyl Scratch was preparing an impromptu performance. Why would they all have left?”

Penn cocked his head to the side as if considering something. He suddenly gasped and turned to Nick and Cyrus. “Guys! What happens when there are new ponies in town?”

Nick tried to scratch his head with his hoof but failed. “Umm… if it’s a zebra everyone runs away…”

Cyrus shrugged, no mean feat for a pony who was still lying on the ground. “The mayor makes a big speech?”

Penn sighed, his head hanging down. “No, what does PINKIE do when there are new ponies in town?”

Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Nick, and Cyrus simultaneously exclaimed, “A party!”

Rainbow grinned, “When Pinkie throws a party, I’m SOOO there!”

“Rainbow, when Pinkie Pie throws a party, EVERYPONY’S there!” Penn cried.

“Hey, how do you know so much about Pinkie Pie’s parties? I thought you weren't from around here?” Rainbow glared Penn suspiciously.

“Rainbow! Remember, we can’t risk a paradox!” Twilight practically yelled at the pegasus.

Suddenly, Nick seemed to realize something, and his face contorted in fear. “Penn! If we could break the space-time-whatsit just by saying one wrong thing, how will we answer all the questions everypony will be asking when we meet them? What do we say when we’re asked where we’re from? What happens when they ask what our cutie marks mean? What if we say one wrong thing and we blink out of existence?” He fell to the ground and covered his eyes in fear.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “What a drama queen.”

Penn looked at the cowering pony. “Obviously, we aren’t going to blink out of existence just by saying something. If we could, we already would have. At least Twilight has figured out part of where we’re from because of the context of our discussions.” Twilight nodded her agreement. “But it doesn’t make sense to take any unnecessary risks. We should all just agree on a cover story and try to avoid any personal questions.”

Cyrus nodded from on the ground. Why doesn’t that silly pony get up already? What is he, a newborn colt? “Hey, we should all say we’re from Manehattan!”

Penn considered this. “No, because some ponies here have been to Manehattan before, and they’d know our accents are fake. Any other ideas?”

Nick had one apparently. “Las Pegasus?”

“Do we look like we all have wings?”

“Oh, hadn’t thought of that. Fillydelphia?”

“Well, that might work. How much do you know about it?”

“Umm, it’s a city?”

“Not good enough. You have any ideas Sticks?” Everypony looked at Sticks. Kinda getting sick of this Sticks dude. He’s such an attention hog.

“Hey, don’t look at me! I don’t know anything about this place!”

Gwen nodded her head. “Me either. It’s up to you guys.”

Red-mane shrugged. "All all the cities named after pun versions of Earth cities?"

The ponies continued naming cities, but every time, Penn shot them down.

“Uhh, Baltimare?”

“No, I think Octavia has a cousin there.”

“Well, how about Oaklahomah?

“No, Fluttershy’s friends have probably been there before.” How the hay does he know Fluttershy too? How does he know everyone here if he’s not from here?

“Ooh-ooh, what about Stallionsberg?”

“Is that even a city?”

Rainbow Dash sighed and stopped listening about then. She looked at her friends, and they too were looking quite bored. Well, this is so much more fun than what I could be doing right now. Like, for instance, napping…

Twilight finally had enough, and she interrupted the three stallions. “Hey, how about I say that you six are old friends who are visiting from Canterlot? That way, you can avoid any awkward questions, since I could answer them for you. I do agree that not everypony needs to know that you aren’t really ponies, but you guys are making WAY too big a deal out of it.” She began walking toward Sugarcube Corner, with Applejack and Rarity hot on her heels.

Sticks grinned, “We should listen to her. She seems to know what she’s talking about with basically everything.” He loped happily after Twilight.

The red-maned stallion laughed. Rainbow looked at him quizzically. “What’s so funny?”

Red-mane snorted. “Uhh, nothing really. I’ll tell you later.” He smiled sweetly. Yeah, smile all pretty-like if you want, but you’re not fooling me. I’ve got my eye on all of you. Not that that's a hard thing to do for you, you do have a very nice flank...

Cyrus looked at red. “What’s your name anyways, dude? Everyone else shared theirs, but you were too busy sobbing.”

Red looked kind of sheepish. “It’s Rod. And I couldn’t help myself.” Rod looked down at the ground and slowly began following Stick’s trail. He looked… happy as he watched his hooves. Too happy. There’s something fishy going on here. And I’m going to get to the bottom of it, space-time-whatsit or no space-time-whatsit.

When the group arrived at Sugarcube Corner’s doorway, Nick turned to face the group. “No matter what happens in there, remember why we’re here. THE FOOD!” Nick suddenly opened the door and ran inside. After a moment his voice rang from inside. “Hey, I thought there was going to be a party in here!”

The rest of the group entered the sweetshop and were met by a great shock. Pinkie was nowhere in sight.

Rainbow Dash smirked. “Well, aren’t you guys glad that you made that amazing cover story?”