The Pied Piper

by The Psychopath

Rating: teen
Tags: Berry Punch, Human, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 5355

A human comes from a world infested with hi-tech technology and demons, and is the only hope to save Equestria...unfortuntely for them.

There are many worlds that exist besides Equestria. Many dimensions as well, but not all of them are great places. While Ponyville is celebrating the Day of Colors, the day when the first rainbow was created, something happens, and only a human who arrives from that disturbance can save the Elements of Harmony targeted by demons-turned-pony wishing to get out of Equestria...The problem? Despite his kindness, he's extremely direct, shameless, and an alcoholic. In fact, he is such a drunkard that he drunk the demon of alcohol under the table, and this was after several hours of drinking, and he asked for more! What will happen to the elements when a super drunkard bounty-hunter armed to the teeth with hi-tech weaponry and battle armor is its only hope?...Equestria is doomed.

Published 2013-09-13 18:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-15 18:06:59 UTC

Colored trains

The whole of Ponyville was covered in a large assortment of decorative bands and lanterns. Ponies all around town were hustling and bustling to get all the decorations up. Colorful flags were hung on the walls, and all of these were varied in appearance as each pony made their own. The pegasi were moving some clouds to put fake rainbows on them and prepare for the pegasi race at the same time. The fake-bows served as both a decoration and a ring. Twilight was busy organizing everything with the mayor, while Pinkie Pie was decorating everything on her own.

"Pinkie; put some red and yellow ribbons on the house over there. They'll fit with its already present coloring."

The pink pony put on her goggles, turned her party cannon, changed its elevation, then fired it, the rear part of her body jumping in the air as she did so. The ribbons all landed perfectly on the roof, the window ledges, and the balcony "pillars".

"What next?"

"We need banners hanging from the first two houses of the town all the way to the mayor's building."

The pink pony saluted her organizer. She then took two balloons out of her tail, inflated them, then flew away with them, despite them not being filled with helium and her being too heavy to be lifted by that kind of quantity. Despite this, Twilight simply sighed at her friend's bizarre abilities and just walked away to meet with Applejack and see how the treats were coming along. The stands were all being built in the middle of town but all the treats were being stored in Sugarcube Corner for the time being. The second Twilight entered the bakery, her nostrils were assaulted by the sugary scent of cinnamon and apples.

"Twilight! Yer comin' ta check up on what we're doin'?" Applejack slammed a hoof on her friend's back as she asked this.

"Ow! Huh? Oh! Yeah! How have you been doing?"

"Look fer yerself."

"Wow."

That was all Twilight could muster. Sitting behind the counter of the bakery sat immense amounts of pastries. Pies, cakes, waffles, cookies, everything! Their golden brown hue illuminated Twilight's eyes and made her tongue leak with viscous fluids. Applejack noticed and showed a nervous smile. She closed her friend's mouth for her.

"Careful there, Twi. We need these pastries for the celebration."

"Oh! I'm sorry. You know how much I love your apple pies." Twilight smiled sheepishly.

"Ah know. You aren't the only one. Now get outta here. Everythin's goin' smoothly. Why don't ya check up on Rarity with her costumes?"

"Good idea. See you during the celebration."

The door swung close agitating the bell near it. Applejack sighed and just thought:

"That Twilight. Always caught up in her work. I wonder what we should make this time, though?"

In the mean time, the lavender unicorn raced through the town, her checklist floating right next to her. She dodged and swept between a long crowd of ponies talking and going about their business. Many of them had tainted their fur with various colors, while others wore costumes comprised of many hundred types of different cloths, reminiscent of a quilt. Most notable were the tiny foals wearing simple costumes, like rainbows, which many of them hated and whined about wearing. Twilight winced at the sights.

"Yeesh. Rarity must be over head with all these demands...And she must be suffering with them, too. She never liked this sort of thing."

The mare finally arrived at Carousel Boutique with its unique and strange design. The white building was packed to the brim with ponies coming and going with their new costumes. The entrance was pretty much blocked, so Twilight put her checklist onto her back, then concentrated and let her horn sparkle a bit. In a flash, which caused a bird to look at the flash and smash into a tree, the mare found herself in Rarity's shop, startling her cat into jumping onto the white unicorn's rear. The unicorn yelped in pain as she felt the claws sink in.

"OPAL! Get off!"

The cat took a while to decide itself before jumping off the mare, who resumed her work. The room was the same as ever, with a designers table and rolls of cloth scattered here and there, with mountains of torn cloths of various colors and quality sitting in various areas of the room. Pieces would occasionally be levitated towards one of the dolls, would be quickly sewn together, then taken off and put in another pile of "clothes"..

"Hey, Rarity."

"Twilight? What are you do...Oh! Coming to make sure everything is going as planned?"

"Yup. I was worried that you might be feeling awful creating these costumes."

"Not at all. In fact-" Rarity leaned closer to her friend."I've been making quite a lot of bits today and I get rid of these abhorrent cloths that were given to me by mistake."

"You couldn't give them back?"

"No. Unfortunately, and with these new bits, I can get even better material to create masterpieces later. OH! I can't wait. Now shoo! I still have much more to do."

Twilight was pushed away by Rarity's magic as she continued to create. The lavender pony simply scrunched up her lower lip and teleported back outside and began to walk around to look at the progress. Judging by the way Rainbow Dash was leading her group, and the decorations on the clouds, everything was going well, except for the occasional slip-up, such as nearly dropping one of the false rainbows. Pinkie had also gone very far in the decorative department. Banners and flags were everywhere, and so were balloons...that some pegasi were unfortunate enough to slam into. They were excessively huge and extremely shiny. Perfect air mines!

As the lavender mare was on her way to go find Fluttershy, she caught a peek at the stereos, mics, amplifiers, and other material that was going to be used for the dance concert later in the evening. A white mare with a dark blue mane and tail, with rather sharp at the edges, and with a light blue streak going through them, was placing everything herself at the town square. She was rather jovial and her sunglasses prevented anypony from seeing her eyes.

"Vinyl, how's the music for the dances coming along?"

"Great! I can't wait to start pumping up music in here. You all need it."

"Thanks again for coming to Ponyville just for this celebration."

"It's my pleasure. I'm all about parties!"

Vinyl's last shout somehow blasted out of the speakers and tossed those near them far away into the bushes. Twilight frowned and just looked at the mare with discontent. The dj pony gave a nervous smile and would have been twiddling her thumbs, had she any.

Later on, the mare arrived at Fluttershy's home, hoping to peek in on what the shy pony had planned. The sight caught Twilight off guard. She was looking at what looked like an army of various birds. They all had different shapes and sizes and were all standing in a perfect row to look like, you guessed it, a rainbow, but this one sparkled somehow. Fluttershy had probably covered them with a watery substance that they could most certainly wash off themselves. The yellow pegasus was trying her best to teach them what to do and how to do it. Twilight couldn't understand herself, so she quietly left to deal with other matters herself. She could send her report to the mayor now, and wait at least an hour before checking by everypony again.

It was late at night, and the sky was filled with Luna's stars and bright, white moon. Everything was almost quiet, except Ponyville, which was as bright as ever and filled the air with beating music, flashing lights, and fireworks. The day had been very eventful. Everypony got their fair share of pastries and candies, others preferred normal meals, the foals all had games to play, and the race, supervised by the Wonder Bolts, came out as a close finish between Rainbow Dash and another stallion. All that was left now was the dancing. Twilight, performing her...special dance moves, was pretty much ignored for Pinkie Pie dancing on a giant ball. Even Vinyl Scratch, with a hoof on her headphones and bopping her head, was practically fixated on the mare's bizarre antics. The music was a mixture of soft and violent beats along with electronic instruments that no pony had ever heard of or seen before. Vinyl did always come back with the strangest things. Fluttershy had even just released her birds, making way for a beautiful, sparkling rainbow flowing overhead everypony. Many awwed while others just resumed their work.

However, not everypony wanted to dance, and many just sat at the nearby pub to drink some fine, alcoholic beverages. Berry Punch was one of them. It surprised many that she hadn't simply become red after drinking so much alcohol in her life. She was simply sitting at one of the tables with her forelegs and head flopped onto its surface.

"Bleh. Why d'ya...Why's ya'll has ta move about la that. Yer makin' me sick..."

"Hahaha! You're drunk again!" one of the nearby stallions laughed.

"Wut? Come 'ere 'n say that again. Ah'll bop ya...in the shnozz."

The purple mare stood up on her hind legs and began to sway from side to side as she moved her forelegs like she was a boxer. Before she could get her "dukes" up, the music suddenly stopped, leaving room for a brouhaha of confusion. Vinyl was scratching her head in confusion and moving every switch and lock on her studio to try and make everything work, but even her disks had stopped moving.

"Hey, Vinyl, what's the big idea?" one of the former dancers asked.

"Yeah. Did you break the records or something?"

"I...I don't know! I had everything working perfectly! I even triple-checked everything. Just...give me a moment."

Some of the ponies were patient, but others just complained and spoke of the dj's "incompetence". Suddenly, however, an unknown kind of music began blasting through the stereos as the sky suddenly brightened with orange and red patches whilst a huge yellow crack stretched itself all across it, getting wider as it lengthened. The cracking sound was also very audible, and the event startled the birds and caused them to fly in every direction.

"Oh no! Come back everypony! It's okay! It's just the sky...crackling..." Fluttershy yiped in the air as she tried to catch her birds.

Before anypony could understand, the sound of an extremely loud train whistle echoed through the air, catching everypony off-guard, then the sound of a steam-train's gears could be heard pumping and turning, along with other bizarre noises still unknown. The whole of Ponyville tried to find the source of the noise until a colt pointed in the sky and said:

"Mommy, look! A giant train flying in the air!"

Looking towards the mountains, where Canterlot was, there was indeed a gigantic train flying there, and was circling the rocky mass. There was a long amount of silence as everypony simply watched this bizarre event, until it smashed into the top of Canterlot castle, tearing off the higher towers. The crowd gasped in horror at the sight, hoping the princesses weren't harmed. This sadness lasted for a few moments until it started coming towards them. Fireballs flung forth from it in a silent streak, then smashed into Ponyville, creating small explosions and the beginning of a large fire.

"FIRE! QUICKLY! GET TO THE EQUIPMENT AND EXTINGUISH ALL OF THIS!" one stallion roared to his firefighting comrades.

Twilight and her friends thought that this thing was attacking them, and were about to get the elements until they noticed something peculiar going on. This train had a demonic face, with horns strutting from a forehead, and mouth double jointed at the lower jaw, letting it open its mouth somewhat like a snake, only larger. Its four fangs were quite enormous as well, and its yellow eyes showed themselves to be the two most prominent features of this monstrosity. In fact, the face was of a vanilla-esque color, and its body was akin to red metal. The face showed anger and rage as it blew its whistle again. However, the peculiar thing was not of its features and immense size, but a small black object floating right next to it. It was a very flat object that seemed to have wheels and windows in it. It looked like some sort of carriage, but its function was still unknown to Twilight.

One thing was for sure: there were creatures standing atop the train just as there was a single, blue one standing on the black object. While the mayor and other ponies evacuated the premises, Twilight was taken by her friends. She was in a trance as she stared at the events.

The blue object was holding something in what looked like hands, if her magnifying spell was working right. She didn't recognize it, but it had "G37" written on it. It belched out sparks which hit the other creatures atop the train and made them fall. What was going on?

The creature seemed to be wearing full body armor of a dark blue color. Going through several creases on its body were cyan lights, and these glowed brightly through areas like the knees, the elbows, the hands and finger, and the face. Each converged into the shape of a blue circle, such as the back of the hands or the front of the helmet. The helmet, though, had "Pied Piper" written in white on the forehead. Whatever it was, it was having fun shooting down the creatures standing on the train. Said creatures wore black, spiked armor with no real, distinguishable features, except for them having back-kneed legs.

The blue one fired off at them, making the creatures flinch back in fear, allowing the invader to hook onto the train wagon and climb aboard it. It then caught one off-guard and blasted a hole in its head, promptly ducking shortly afterwards to let the other two shoot each other in the head, to which the blue one jump kicked both of them off the moving vehicle. More of these beings appeared further ahead. To this, the blue one ran head first towards them, avoiding some projectiles whilst letting others skid off its armor. It turned something on its weapon, then jumped in the air and let fire come out of its boots, allowing it to spin around and create a tornado of bullets. Some of the creatures weren't hit, but were hanging onto the edge of the wagon. To this, the blue one dropped something on the ground before running further forward and taking something of its back.

The creatures who climbed up were immediately blown up by the object, tossing them down to their doom. The blue one, however, simply stood on one knee while the other leg stood arched on the surface of the wagon. This new weapon was extending itself and deployed a weird "monocle" in front of the Pied Piper's helmet. It then launched a blue projectile that burnt through several of the climbing creatures before hitting the locomotive with a massively violent, blue explosion. The face morphed to represent pain as the train began to list to the left whilst belching smoke from the left wheels.

The Pied Piper was then swiped off the vehicle by what looked like a gigantic beast with blades for arms, but it was too dark to properly distinguish it. The blue one called in its weird vehicle to catch it, which the object did. However, the Piper couldn't seem to control it properly and plummeted towards the outskirts of Ponyville whilst groans of agony could now be heard from the train. The strange black contraption then fell down hard and skid along the ground, tearing up the surface and creating a long, ugly trail of upturned soil. Those who didn't hide in their homes galloped towards the object, curiosity holding them tightly. Some foals tried to touch it, but their parents pulled them back with protests. After a bit of inspection, the vehicle sddenly opened from the side, causing everypony to gasp in panic. The door moved upwards as the blue creature inside placed a hand on it to get the thing to open faster. It put one leg in front of the other, then got out and stood up, clearly showing that it was at least a head higher than Celestia.

Slammed the door back down to close its vehicle, then groaned as it stretched and looked off into the horizon as the train floated away in an erratic fashion.

"Dang. I almost had them. Stupid giants. They always ruin all the fun."

It sounded male, but when it turned around, it didn't look like anything, until it pressed a button on its helmet which lift the visor up to show what looked like an ape without hair.

"Anybody got a keg of beer? I'm a little thirsty. That should sate me for an hour."

The ponies simply stared at him with their mouths wide open.

E'ery...single one of ya...No...not you...

"So...wait...why am I seeing...weird little colorful...things."

The being in armor looked at the tiny creatures near him with bewilderment. He had never seen such bizarre little things. Sure, he saw lots of mutated creatures back at home, such as the prous, the helmut, and the chickenfrogcrab, although that last one did weird out even the enemies...not sure where those ones came from. Despite this, the biped looked down at his welcoming group and scratched his head.

"They must be pets."

"PETS?!" the crowd thought and showed their anger at such a thought.

"Where are your owners, or masters, or whatever the hell owns you." he asked with a chin scratch.

There was simple fidgeting, but far away, behind the creature, an immense explosion occurred, illuminating the horizon and belching out steal. Whilst everypony tilted to the side to see the awful effect produced, the biped ignored it and simply stared at the crowd with boredom. Somewhat annoyed by their sheepish attitude, the creature walked into the crowd and randomly grabbed a pony. It was Fluttershy. He was surprisingly strong enough to lift her up with just one hand. She became so frightened that she bunched herself into a ball and let her eyes grow in size and become watery.

"What's wrong? Why aren't these things moving? Robots?" he wondered as he shook the mare around a bit.

Fluttershy simply whimpered in response, but the biped simply scratched his chin and gave a smirk.

"They must be scared of me. I wonder why. I haven't done anything exceptional. Well...maybe destroy a demon train, but that's basic stuff." he shrugged.

Meanwhile, Twilight and the others remained quiet but were ready to attack at any moment. In fact, Twilight was already thinking of a plan to strike it down and rescue Fluttershy.

"Come on, Twilight. If you don't think of anything, I'll just tackle it to the ground." Rainbow Dash fidgeted as she whispered to her friend.

"Don't. You saw what it was capable of. It managed to destroy a magical locomotive all by itself, then jumped back down and walked away like nothing had happened." Twilight answered.

"But, Twi. We can't just let it shake her about and yell at her. Look." Applejack pointed towards the creature slowly rotating Fluttershy in its hands.

The ponies simply stared in pure confusion as they didn't understand what it was trying to do.

"Well...If you aren't going to direct me to your leaders or masters or whatever, I'll find them on my own."

He placed Fluttershy surprisingly gently on the ground, then looked around. Looking into the distance, he saw a little town. Although it looked reminiscent to that of medieval constructs, it was still a village. He ignored his vehicle and walked towards it, intent on finding the owners of this bizarre place. The ponies just looked at him, still, and simply followed him with their eyes...still.

"Twilight. Let's follow him. I don't feel good about that creature." Rarity proposed.

The lavender unicorn nodded, and the six elements followed...after Pinkie Pie got Fluttershy back on her hooves with a smile and back patting.

As he walked around, the biped found that the emptiness of the town was peculiar indeed. There were banners and confetti everywhere. Heck, there were speakers and boom boxes right in the middle of it all. It didn't seem like it was abandoned. In-fact, everything there was still on, save for the lack of music. The biped walked towards the studio and analyzed it, looking from top to bottom and even pressing various buttons to make it perform various actions, such as creating different laser effects or spotlight patterns. The biped scratched his head in confusion. This place seemed so primitive yet it had such a technology? He stepped down from the podium and continued to look around. To his surprise, he noticed a bar and hurried towards it.

He was unaware that those who didn't run towards the vehicle were peeking from behind their curtains and staring at him. The mane six were doing the same thing, but from around the corner. He had broken into the building, literally kicking down the door, and had gone into the storage. One of the ponies from the crowd was clearly the owner, and he cursed silently as he was stopped by others preventing him from going and defending his merchandise. The creature came out with several crates of hard apple cider, tossed them on the ground next to a table, and sat down on one of the chairs...he broke it the second he did that, though, and groaned in pain as he rubbed his rear. Pinkie muffled a laugh.

"Man. That hurt. Now. Let's see what treasures we have here. Apple cider? It could be rich."

The creature took a bottle opener that was placed in the hip of his suit and peeled the cap off. He then took a swig at the drink and smacked his lips as he twisted and turned the brownish bottle.

"Hmmmm. Bleh. Only fifteen percent alcohol? I wanted to drink beer, not water!"

"WATER?!" something yelled from afar.

It was the bar owner, but he was quickly swiped away by everypony else and hidden behind a building while they muffled him and held him in place.

"Hello? Anyone there? I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to know where I--"

"Yer in mah turf...goy..." a clearly drunk person said.

"Hm?"

The biped looked under the table to see a purple mare redder than a tomato sit up and look at him whilst tilting from left to right. Instead of wondering if she spoke, the visitor smiled and put an elbow on the table.

"And what are you?"

"Ah'm the one...who's better den yu..."

"In what category?"

"...Drinking."

"HA!"

"Is that a...a challenge?"

"You're seriously challenging me into drinking? Alright, then. Your death."

The creature chuckled as he finished his bottle, tossed it to the side, then took two more and uncapped them. The crowd watching from afar all showed the same faces of worry.

"Berry is the worst drinker in Equestria. He doesn't stand a chance." one of the ponies thought.

Berry's excessive resistance to alcohol was a feat indeed, but it wasn't unknown where the Pied Piper came from that he had challenged the demon of alcohol, literally. Nobody had come up top since its birth, and it was several million years old. Somehow, the creature had survived the encounter and had become infamous in the demon world for still drinking more alcohol afterwards. So, half an hour had passed, and both sides had drunk fifty bottles of hard cider. Berry felt herself becoming faint, whilst the Piper simply smiled and took another swig before tossing his now empty bottle back onto the pile, producing clinking noises.

"Feeling woozy, small-fry? Here. Take. Another. Sip." he grinned as he tossed another bottle at the mare.

As the Pied Piper watched, the mare struggled to get the bottle to her face, and, as a drop was about to reach her tongue, she passed out and fell to the ground, allowing the Piper to grab her bottle and his and drink from both of them at once, letting the beverage pour on his armor a bit. He then got up and sighed in joy.

"Quite a weak alcohol. Now, how was she talking? I wasn't even drunk yet. Hmmmmmmm-GAH!"

The man jumped back after a pink pony suddenly popped up right in front of him. She was smiling wildly and it seemed like there was a thin line from her starting to wag her tail.

"Pinkie, no!" Twilight whispered from afar.

The pony opened her mouth and was about to say something until she was picked up by the back of her neck just like Fluttershy. She weirdly just floated upwards like she was still standing on the ground, making the Pied Piper throw his head back in surprise.

"How are you doing that?"

Once more, Pinkie was interrupted by a small explosion that occurred right next to Pied Piper. It was very tiny and only real gave off a bright flash of light and tossed dirt into the air. Pinkie frowned as she got mud in her mane, but suddenly smiled as she looked upwards at it. She closed her eyes and inhaled once before holding her breath. The mud all slowly sunk into her mane, making the creature get closer to try and understood what it was seeing. Suddenly, the mare opened her mouth with a "bleeeeh!" sound, and stuck out her tongue. There was a solidified mud ball on it.

"EW!" the creature shouted as he dropped the pink pony."That's sick! How the heck is that even possible?!"

Another one of the explosions occurred, but closer to him, followed by:

"Step away from my subject."

It was a very authoritarian voice, but the Piper paid no attention to it and continued to speak aloud on his thoughts of what just happened.

"I mean, unless you're a demon, you can't possibly absorb things through your flesh."

"YOU DARE IGNORE ME WHEN I GIVE YOU A WARNING?!"

An additional flash of light was created, but this time, it hit the creature on the back. The only problem? It may have hit its target and flashed, but nothing occurred. Instead, the creature took something out of its hip, that somehow opened up with clicking noises, the brought its arm back and caused an incredibly loud noise. This all happened in barely a second.

"Now where was I?"

The ponies from afar watched as a group of Luna's guards were quietly seeking onto their target. Some were on the roofs, others were simply in the shadows of the buildings. Once more, it seemed instantaneous once the creature jumped out of the way and tossed a strange, yellow ball at the six guards. They just looked at what looked like a pineapple, then all screamed in pain as they were blinded by a sudden flash of light and burnt, then tossed around.

"Oh no." a voice clamored.

The creature put whatever it had in hand back into its hip then took the longer weapon off his back and aimed at a white alicorn. He kept his eye on the target and through the scope, but the alicorn was very bright and bothering. To remedy this, he lowered his helmet visor back down.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed with joy.

Celestia gestured for her and the other ponies who were starting to come out to stay back.

"I saw what you did to the sky, and what you brought. You think you can take over Equestria, demon?"

"Demon? Already, you're a talking form of equidae, but you call ME a demon? I was pretty sure you were demons."

"What are you?"

Celestia asked, her guards standing behind her with aggressivity.

"Hmph. I'm the Pied Piper. I'm a bounty hunter who hunts demons. Apparently, I'm one of the best, but I don't know why..."

The creature rubbed the chin of his armor, then suddenly shot one of the pegasi guards diving at him, making the poor guard bounce off the ground and scream in pain. Celestia frowned furiously after this action.

"What do you want?"

"To get back home. I apparently got dragged with that demon train in one of its dimensional vortexes."

"So...you are not a demon?"

"No. Like I said, I hunt them. I'd like to know where I am, what you are, who you are, and what's with these things constantly attacking me."

"YOU SHOULD TALK! You attacked Fluttershy!" yelled Twilight.

"Huh? What was that?" the creature asked as he looked behind himself in confusion.

"Down here."

"Hm?"

"If you don't remove your weapons now, I'll make you feel what Fluttershy felt."

Twilight was in a ready-to-attack position with her head lowered and her legs spread out slightly. Pure rage seethed through her eyes and every inch of her body wanted to tackle this creature. This all disappeared like alcohol in the Piper's presence the second he began to pat her on the head.

"Awwww. How adorable. The little thing wants to act tough. She's so cute."

Twilight became red and her cheeks puffed up in embarrassment.

"Is she your kid?" Piper asked as he turned to face Celestia and pointed downwards towards the mare.

"Wh-No. She's a full-grown mare."

"A what?"

"She's an adult."

"Wow. Then you must be different species."

"TWILIGHT! That's enough." Celestia shouted.

"But--"

"NO! There are no buts. This is very serious. Whatever this creature brought with it, I can sense a change in magic. I'm expecting my scouts to return with more information on whatever else came here. AS for you, I need you to tell me everything you know.

"Well, I don't know how to say this, but, do you have some form of super energy or element that is the basis for your protection or weapons or something?"

"Something all-powerful?...The Elements of Harmony."

"Then you need to hide them and cover them with barrier to prevent demonic incursion, or else they'll steal those to return to my dimension. Where are these exactly?"

"They're standing right behind you."

The creature turned around to see six, multi-colored equine creatures standing right behind him, namely the creepy pink one and the silent yellow one from earlier, along with the other ponies of Ponyville looking at the unfolding events from afar.

"They're holding the elements?"

"They ARE the elements." Celestia frowned.

"Ooooooooo...That's bad."

"I can see why?"

"Why? What's going on? And who is this ruffian?" Rarity asked.

"We'll have to talk someplace private. Perhaps your library, Twilight Sparkle?"

"Sure."

"We're gon' have a long talk." Pied Piper chuckled as he flicked some armor chunks off his gun.

The wounded guards were taken away by field medics, although Celestia noticed his action and its purpose and looked at him dead in the eyes, at least where she thought they were, and said:

"We'll make a temporary truce, but I do not like what you did to my guards. If you do anything, anything at all, I'll crush you."

Celestia glared at the bipedal creature with all her might, even going so far as to impose her presence with intimidation magic, causing her eyes to glow a burning white and her outlines to become more prominent and bright, literally making her seem like the living embodiment of the sun. There was a long pause as others around began to quiver and shake, but the Piper simply tilted his head slightly, then patted the alicorn on the muzzle.

"That's nice. Now we have stuff to do, so let's go. Lead the way, Twili Speckle."

"It's...It's TWILIGHT SPARKLE."

"Well excuuuuse me, princess."

"No. She's the princess."

"You people are so confusing."

"What's a 'people'?"

"Ugh."