Fluttershy's House of Villains

by Soundslikeponies

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mayor Mare, Comedy, King Sombra, Gilda, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure
Length: 9731

Deciding that Fluttershy did such a great job with Discord, Celestia sends three more villains to her cottage to be cured of their villainous ways.

Deciding that Fluttershy did such a great job with Discord, Celestia sends King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, and Gilda to Ponyville to be cured of their villainous ways. All of this as Ponyville runs to win 'nicest village of the year' award for the thirteenth time running, while trying not to win the 'most disaster prone village of the year' award. Discord couldn't be more amused.

It's a hectic time for the mane six and a terrible time to be the mayor of Ponyville.

Published 2014-03-20 17:00:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-20 17:00:03 UTC

Chapter 1: Fluttershy's House of Villains

Chapter 1: Fluttershy’s House of Villains

Fluttershy’s House of Villains, by soundslikeponies

Disaster was never more than an applebuck away in Ponyville—though at most times the village was quite nice and friendly. It was truly the worst, and best, of places. In fact, Ponyville had won the “nicest village of the year” award for more than twelve years running, enough times that for the last few years all the other villages hadn’t even bothered to show up. Yet despite this, few dared to live there as it had also won “most disaster-prone village of the year” award every year since the award’s conception.

Dragons and hydras lived nearby, various nefarious villains seeking to destroy the town popped up bi-monthly, and there were a group of six friends which almost all bad happenings in town seemed centered around.

Today, one of them came to another’s doorstep with news that was anything but friendly.

“Um, c-c-could you repeat that?” Fluttershy asked Twilight, in hopes she had misheard her.

“I said that Princess Celestia was so impressed by how you managed to change Discord, that she’s sending three more villains to receive your help.”

“Th-three?!” Fluttershy squeaked, covering her mouth.

Twilight nodded and smiled. “She didn’t give me any names, but she seemed confident that we would be able to handle them with the Elements of Harmony.”

“But last time she sent Discord here, I almost didn’t handle it, and Ponyville was nearly destroyed.” Fluttershy bit her lip and began pacing back and forth in her doorway, mumbling. “Oh dear, oh dear...”

Twilight couldn’t help the small giggle that came out at the expense of her friend’s anxiety. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy! I’m sure the Princess wouldn’t send us anyone we can’t handle.”

Fluttershy halted her pacing, looking at her friend with large, beady, and hopeful eyes. “Are you sure?”

Twilight nodded and gave her a smile. “Positive!”

Fluttershy stared down at the ground, twiddling her hooves. Eventually, she looked back up at Twilight and took a deep breath. “So, um, when will they be arriving?”

“Today!” Twilight answered cheerfully.

Fluttershy’s eyes shrank to dots. “I-I-I-I—” She fumbled with her words, her chest heaving in hyperventilation. “Today?” she wheezed.

“Um, yeah...” Twilight rubbed the back of her head and blushed. “Sorry about the short notice. Sometimes when Spike receives a letter, he burps a bit of normal dragon breath right after.” Twilight’s mouth curved into a frown as she brought a hoof to her chin. “It’s actually been happening a lot. We’re thinking of switching to a more fire retardant paper, but then we don’t know how we’d send them in the first place...”

Fluttershy was standing frozen like a statue, her eyes glazed over and staring into the distance.

Noticing her, Twilight cleared her throat and returned to a smile. “Anyway! They should be by sometime later today. The other girls and I all have our elements—” Twilight lifted the Element of Magic so that it poked slightly out of her bag “—and the Mayor has already been informed of their visit, so everything’s in order for when they arrive.” She paused, waiting to see if her friend had anything to say.

“Oh...” was the only thing to come from her.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy, you’ll do great!” Twilight said, trying to give her a confidence-boosting smile. From Fluttershy’s vacant expression, it wasn’t working. “Well... if that’s everything...”

“Um, well, actually, I—” Fluttershy cut off, biting her lip. She couldn’t think of any excuse to make Twilight stay, not without sounding scared and feeble. She let out a sigh and hung her shoulders. “Yes, that’s everything.”

“I’ll stop by to check up on you after they arrive.”

Fluttershy sighed again. “Okay.”

“Great.” Twilight rummaged through her saddlebag, pulling out the Element of Kindness. “You’re probably going to need this. Well, not probably, but...” Twilight paused for a moment, thinking. “Yeah, probably.”

Fluttershy took the necklace with a grim expression and fastened it around her neck. It felt like she was putting on a noose.

“Good luck!” Twilight turned to leave. “I know if anypony will be able to help reform the three that Celestia’s sending, it’ll be you!”

Fluttershy waved goodbye, swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat. “I hope so,” she said more to herself than Twilight.

Once Twilight had set back off down the path away from her cottage, Fluttershy closed her door and turned back inside, falling down onto her rump. “Three?” she asked, shoulders slumping. Her cottage had barely fit one villain when Discord had stayed there, she couldn’t imagine three.

She began to get to work, starting off by setting extra placemats at the table.

Meanwhile, en route to Ponyville, a carriage transporting three villains was being pulled by two of the royal kingdom’s dimmer light bulbs: a tall, gangly pony named Scout, and a short, rotund one named Smart—who was anything but.

“Do you ever fink that maybe we gets sent on these delivery trips because the captain finks we’s inadequable?” Scout asked as they flew along. He was the tall one.

“It’s inadequate—and I told you to stop trying to ‘fink’; you’re terrible at it,” the shorter of the two replied, giving an aggravated sigh and putting his hoof to his forehead. “Why do I always get stuck with you? I never did anything to deserve this.”

“Well, there was that time you gave the captain spoiled milk wif his breakfast.”

Smart’s lip curled at the memory as he shuddered with irritation. “I had asked you to get sour cream, not sour cream.”

“What’sa difference?”

Smart clenched his eyes shut, resisting the urge to smack his partner while they were pulling a carriage. “Do you even remember what we’re doing right now?”

“Of course!”

“And do you remember the instructions I gave you?”

“Yep. ‘Put the villains in the carriage, take the villains to Ponyville, and then let the villains out of the carriage.’”

Smart counted on his hoof how many directions Scout had recited. “Three instructions?”

“Yessir.”

“But there were four instructions,” Smart said. “You missed the second step. The second step was lock the carriage door...”

As Smart trailed off, they shared a look, a pit forming in both their stomachs. Slowly, the two of them glanced back over their shoulders at the carriage. The doors were shut, and it didn’t seem like anyone had made a break for it.

Sweating bullets, Scout turned back to Smart. “Do ya fink they heard us talking?”

“Shh! Shut up!” Smart hissed. “You keep pulling the carriage, and I’ll swoop back around to check on the prisoners.”

Scout gave him a nod and began to pump his wings, readying to pull the carriage by himself.

Smart swung around to the back of the carriage. He flew just below the windows of it, biting his lip and checking to see that the doors were indeed unlocked. Slowly, whilst still trying to seem casual so as not to arouse suspicion should the prisoners still be there, he peeked in through the window.

Their passengers were gone.

White faced as a sheet, Smart returned to the front of the carriage, relieving the panting Scout.

“Well?” Scout asked between gulps of air. “Were they there?”

Smart swallowed the lump in his throat. “We’re going to be on stable duty for a long time after this.” He pointed down. “Come on, we better find someplace to park this thing, so we can start looking for the prisoners.”

Scout’s ears flattened to his head as he followed Smart, his mouth forming a grim line. “So who was it we was transportin’ again?”

Down in the Everfree Forest were three newly-freed villains, feeling quite at home in the dark forest. There was Queen Chrysalis, who had been jailed after her and her kingdom of changelings had attempted to conquer the Equestrian Kingdom and enslave its ponies; King Sombra, who had been jailed after attempting to violently take over the Crystal Kingdom and enslave its ponies; and Gilda, who had been charged with jaywalking and—later—for punching the guardpony who charged her with said jaywalking in the nose.

“Remind me, why are you here, again?” Sombra asked, glancing over his shoulder at Gilda.

“Because if it weren’t for me, you two would have never broken out of those magic-restricting bonds they put on you,” Gilda answered, holding up a sharp, gleaming talon.

“Aaarg!” Chrysalis shouted, stomping the ground. “Nothing! My hive is completely scattered! My whole kingdom gone!”

“Tch,” Sombra scoffed, watching Chrysalis with no small degree of disdain as she stomped about, cursing the ponies who led to her capture. He turned back to the forest, glaring daggers at an innocent bystanding tree. “The Crystal Heart was returned to the ponies of the Crystal Kingdom. I’m powerless to take it back now.”

“Ugh! It was all because of that purple one, Twilight Sparkle! She was the one who sniffed me out and freed the little Princess!” Chrysalis spat the name like it was acid.

“And her dragon who placed the Crystal Heart,” Sombra added.

“And that whole group of friends, being complete lamewads,” Gilda chimed in.

The three of them stopped and looked at one another.

“You know...” Chrysalis began with a serpentine hiss. “I wouldn’t mind getting revenge on that particular group of sniveling lovebags.”

A wicked smirk spread across Gilda’s beak. “I have a score to settle with the pink one and Rainbow Dash.”

Sombra licked his fangs. “I have always wanted to taste dragon.”

“So it’s settled then,” Chrysalis said, a smile like a snake making its way to her lips. “All we need to do is find where they are hiding.”

Gilda spread her wings, performing two powerful thrusts. “I can help you two with that,” she said, pointing a thumb to herself. “On one condition. You two leave the pink and blue one to me.”

Chrysalis and Sombra looked at each other for a moment. Seeing no harm in it, Sombra turned back to Gilda and offered her—somewhat begrudgingly—a hoof.

As Gilda shook it, Sombra began to let out an evil chuckle. Gilda and Chrysalis soon joined him, and together, their chuckling grew to a maniacal laughter that sent a chill down the spine of every vertebrate living in the Everfree.

Fluttershy sat at home, alone, in the dark. Beside her, a table set for four had been left unoccupied for some hours, its intended occupants having still not yet arrived even at such a late hour. Forcing herself to stay awake, Fluttershy glanced at the clock hanging from her wall. It read 11:59 p.m., but as she looked at it, the minute hand ticked to midnight, and the old wooden clock let out a deep gong.

A white puff of magic burst into her living room, forcing her to throw her hooves over her eyes. When she set them down, Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle of the room, already pacing back and forth.

“Do you know what time it is?” Twilight asked, squinting and keeping her nose to the floor as she paced.

Fluttershy double checked the clock to be sure. “Um... midnight?”

“Exactly.” Twilight stopped pacing and faced Fluttershy. “The letter I got from the Princess said they’d arrive—” Twilight cut off, looking at the clock “—yesterday. And as of one minute ago, it is officially today.”

“Uh, okay?” Fluttershy said in a small voice.

“That means something must have gone wrong while they were being transported here,” Twilight said, nodding to herself in agreement.

Fluttershy watched her friend pace, her anxiety steadily growing. “S-so what do we do?”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, only to freeze with it open, and then close it and bring a hoof to her chin. “That’s a good question. I already sent a letter to Princess Celestia, but without having any idea what happened to the transport, there isn’t anything to do but wait.”

Smart and Scout had been on stable duty once before, for a whole month. That was when they had been giving a school class the full tour of the castle, and upon reaching the trebuchet, accidentally set it off with one of the little ones inside. In Smart’s defense, the trebuchet mechanism was finicky at the best of times and, in all probability, should not have been left ready to fire when they were expecting civilian visitors.

After having to lead the snot-nosed gerbils around for half an hour though, there was hardly a sweeter sound to his ears than hearing the fading scream as one of them was launched clear over Canterlot Gardens.

But back on the subject of stable duty. Most recruits were given stable duty once, six months into their training, as a breaking-in ritual. It was considered the worst of the worst of all the various mundane and boring jobs guardsponies wound up doing around the castle.

The job had you smelling manure, day-in, day-out, until the smell was so fixated up your nostrils, that you could no longer smell anything else. Then, the smell began to seep into your coat until you smelled of it, too. Any attempt to go outside would be social suicide and you becoming the new butt end of every schoolcolt’s joke.

Smart was currently sitting with Scout outside Fluttershy’s cottage in a bush, weighing desertion as an option. His train of thought was interrupted when Scout nudged his shoulder.

“Are we going to go in and talk to them?” he whispered.

“What?” Smart hissed. “No! We can’t just go up to the Princess’ student and say that we lost them.”

Scout put a hoof to his chin, and furrowed his brows in thought. “We could say we were attacked?” he suggested after some time, but Smart quickly waved his hoof and scrumpled his nose.

“No, no, no. We don’t even look like we’ve been in a fight,” Smart said. But almost as soon as he finished, his eyes lit up with an idea. “I’ve got it!” he hissed.

Scout crouched down more to his height and turned an ear towards him.

“We’ll rough each other up a bit, and then tell them we were attacked!”

“Hey, that’s really smart! So how do we—” Scout was interrupted by Smart doing a quick ninety degree turn and bucking him in the side of the head. The force of the blow knocked him over into the bush. Smart had to hide a satisfied grin as Scout stood back up with scratches all over his side and twigs in his mane.

“Great, now do me,” Smart said, excitedly.

Fluttershy’s door burst open, two haggard looking guards tumbling in, the taller of the two nursing a sore jaw and the shorter of the two sporting a black eye and swollen lip.

“W-we were attacked! Th-the prisoners broke free!”

Twilight rushed over to the two of them, her horn glowing as she pulled them to their feet. “Quick! Tell me what happened!”

“There were, uh, two... three?” Smart glanced at Scout, receiving a nod. “Yes, three of them.”

Twilight had to refrain from rolling her eyes. “Yes, and where are they now?”

Smart scratched his chin. “Well, they escaped.”

Scout nodded along with Smart’s answer.

“And where are they now?” Twilight ground out.

“Oh! They, um... They... uh...” Smart glanced helplessly at Scout.

“They was there in the carriage before we went over the Everfree forest. I heards them conspickering.”

“Wait, you heard them conspiring and you didn’t tell me?” Smart asked, glaring at him.

Scout scratched his head cluelessly. “Well conspirering’s what prisoners do, don’t they?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“Excuse me, you two,” Twilight interrupted. “But why was the last time you saw them at the edge of the Everfree forest, if they attacked you two?”

“Well, ma’am, they got the jump on us. We never got a chance to see them coming,” Smart said. After a moment of silence, he nudged Scout’s ribs with his elbow.

“O-oh yeah! That they did!”

“You see, neither of us can really remember what happened.”

“But if you two were flying at the time they attacked, how did you—” Twilight stopped mid sentence, shaking her head. “Oh, nevermind. We need to be thinking about how to find them. Quick, Fluttershy, we need to go gather the girls. You go wake Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and I’ll get Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Spike.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said, poking her hooves together. “But it’s really late and they’re probably sleeping, I wouldn’t want to disturb them.”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said in a deadpan voice. “There are some highly dangerous villains on the outskirts of Ponyville that could be plotting against the town as we speak.”

“Well, I suppose I could try waking them gently,” Fluttershy said after a moment of reconsideration.

“Good, let’s go get them right away and meet at the edge of the forest.”

Fluttershy nodded and opened a window, flying out it to complete her assigned task. Twilight ran across the living room to the front door, kicking it open before turning back to the two guards. “You two stay right here. Something smells fishy about your story, and I don’t want you going anywhere until I get back,” she said, before kicking the door shut behind her.

Scout swallowed a knot caught in his throat as he turned to Smart. “Well, now whatta we do?”

Fluttershy flew up to Rainbow’s cloud home and in through her bedroom window, landing quietly on the soft, forgiving cloud. She spotted Rainbow Dash lying in bed at the opposite end of the room, sprawled out and snoring thunderously.

Fluttershy gave Rainbow’s shoulder a soft poke with her nose. “Um, Rainbow? C-can you wake up, please?” she whispered.

Rainbow rolled her head over in Fluttershy’s direction and let out a loud yawn. Smacking her lips, she reached up and rubbed her eyes, sleepily opening them at Fluttershy.

Something not many ponies knew about Rainbow Dash, was that she was virtually night blind, so when she woke, what she saw was the dark figure of a pegasus with its wings spread, standing over her as she slept.

“Aaah!” Her eyes open and wide awake, she fumbled backwards off her bed, pulling her bedsheets with her and wrapping them around her as though they were some kind of shield. “No! I’ll never join the Shadowbolts!”

“Rainbow, I—”

“Never!”

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy walked around the bed, poking her shaking friend with her nose. “It’s me.”

Rainbow suddenly stopped shaking. Slowly, she stood up, letting her bedsheets fall around her. She stretched her neck side to side with a forced nonchalance, flicking her ears. “Oh, uh, hey, Fluttershy... What’s up?”

Villains, except on rare occasions, are not known for their teamwork and group skills. To most of them, the concept of being equals with someone is an absurd and insulting concept at best. And so, the temporary camaraderie that the three had found, born from their mutual hate for Twilight and her friends, was beginning to quickly wear off.

“—And why should you of all persons be leader?” Sombra asked, a sneer plastered across his muzzle.

“Because if it weren’t for me, the two of you never would have gotten out of your magical bonds,” Gilda answered. “And, I’m the one who knows the town best, so it’s an obvious choice for who should be leader.

Chrysalis hissed, stepping towards Gilda aggressively. Her eyes and horn flickered with magic, but then dwindled to nothing. “If my magic weren’t still recovering...” she said, leaving the threat to hang in the air.

“But it is, so the two of you can’t just muscle your way into Ponyville,” Gilda replied, matching Chrysalis’ glare. “What we need is a plan.”

The two of them fell silent and looked at each other to see if the opposite party had a plan. When neither did, they turned to Sombra, who was standing apart from them, brooding whilst staring off into the forest.

“No doubt they’ve noticed we’re missing by now, which means they’re looking for us, maybe right now, even.” A terrible smirk made its way across his lips. “That means the ball is in our court.”

Gilda crossed her arms, unimpressed. “And that means?”

Sombra remained silent. All he did was lift a hoof and point, in the direction he had been looking.

Gilda and Chrysalis flew over to where he stood, staring out in the direction he pointed. The gigantic mouth of a cavern sat ahead of them, leading under the cliff, deep into the dark. Crystals protruded from the cave walls like glimmering teeth, giving the cave the appearance of a gigantic beast, mouth open and ready to swallow ponies whole.

Sombra’s eyes and horn flickered green with magic, but unlike Chrysalis he managed to make his magic hold, giving off a dim, green light. The crystals surrounding the cliff began to glow green with his magic, turning to a more sickly hue.

“We lure them in there?” Gilda asked, pointing a talon at the cave.

Sombra nodded. “All that’s left to do is bait the trap.”

As he finished those words, the cave’s crystals began to resonate a low hum and glow with newfound strength.

At half an hour past midnight, all four of the ponies Fluttershy dragged out of bed had been brought to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Most of them were still half asleep from being woken up at such a Celestia-forbidden hour, with the exception of Pinkie, who could barely stand still.

“Now, you all know why you’ve been brought here—”

“No I don’t,” Rarity interrupted. “You knocked violently on my door at twelve in the morning, woke me up, and dragged me from bed before I could so much as take my curlers out.”

“Well, if she just told you that would ruin the surprise,” Pinkie said, grinning and shaking her tail. “So come on, what’s the surprise?”

Twilight stamped her forehead. “No, there is no surprise.”

“Aw…” Pinkie’s ears flopped down in disappointment. Her brow furrowed. “So wait, why are we out here, then?”

“A couple hours ago, three villains that were being escorted by the Princess’ royal guard to Ponyville managed to break free, and are now hiding somewhere in the Everfree Forest. I need your girls’ help to activate the Elements of Harmony, if we need them.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Rainbow Dash said, hovering in front of Twilight. “You mean you want us to go into the Everfree at night? You know that’s crazy, right?”

“Oh please, the six of us had no problem doing it before when Nightmare Moon showed up.”

“Uh, yeah, but that wasn’t the deep part of the Everfree. The deep part of the Everfree isn’t just what nightmares are made of, it’s what nightmares are afraid of.”

“Uh, sugarcube?” Applejack butted in, taking a step forward. “Rainbow Dash has a point. Now Ah’ve been livin’ here a might bit longer than you, and let me tell you: these woods aren’t nothin’ to take lightly, and there ain’t no one that they take kindly.”

“I, um, think this may not be such a good idea, Twilight,” Fluttershy chipped in.

“I’m a bit inclined to agree with them,” Spike said.

“If we don’t start looking for them now, it will only be that much harder when we—” A low, resonating hum reached Twilight’s ears, breaking her train of thought. The noise saturated the air, making it thick, and seemingly coming from all directions at once “Do you girls hear that?”

The five of them nodded, all swiveling their ears to try and pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

“Oh, hey! Look!” Pinkie shouted, pointing towards the Everfree. Deep in the heart of the Everfree forest, there was a bright green glow, stark against the night sky.

“That must be where they are!” Twilight shouted. “Come on, quick! Before the glow disappears!”

With that, Twilight sprinted into the trees, leaving the rest of them standing by the edge of the forest.

“So, uh...” Spike said, glancing around at them. “Should we follow her?”

Applejack tipped her hat down and let out a sigh as she walked into the trees. “After she ran off like that, I guess we have to.”

Spike hopped on Pinkie’s back and the five of them ran after Twilight. They caught up to her and then continued to stay close as she walked deeper into the forest, a spell lighting the dark around them.

As they went deeper and deeper, the woods became darker and darker, even stifling the light from Twilight’s magic until it hardly managed to light the ground under them. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Sounds, from the animals and monsters living in the forest, began to come from all around them. Bright, yellow and red eyes watched their every step from the darkness. All six of them could feel the hunger of the beasts unseen around them.

“Oh I really shouldn’t have worn my perfume to bed,” Rarity whimpered.

“Shh!” everyone replied at once.

Fluttershy moved over next to Twilight. “Um, do you know how much further it is?” she whispered.

“It should be just up ahead. The glow wasn’t very far in,” Twilight said.

“It’s just that these animals don’t seem very friendly. I’m pretty sure they’re looking at us like food.”

Twilight glanced around, the light from her horn reflecting off several dozen eyes hiding in the dark. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“Eeek!” Rarity suddenly screamed. All six of them jumped, their hairs standing on end, as the spun around to see Rarity with her hoof deep in a puddle of mud. She saw them all looking at her and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” she whispered.

There came a rustle from one of the trees in front of them. Hopping down silently from the tree, a giant black cat faced them down. Its eyes narrowed at their party and its throat rumbled. Whatever the domestic house cat was to a panther, panthers were to this cat. Its fur bristled like quills as it pulled its lips back, showing off a set of dripping fangs. For a moment, all them stood frozen in terror, staring at it.

“Run!” Twilight shouted.

At Twilight’s voice, they snapped out of their daze. Turning, the six of them began sprinting away from the beast, sensibly trying to put as much distance between them and it as possible. Heavy thuds of its paws came from behind them as it gave chase, but none of them dared to look back and see how close it was.

“Quick!” Rainbow Dash shouted, from the head of the group. “There’s a clearing up ahead!”

The five of them redoubled their sprint, forcing their legs to run faster.

“It’s gaining on us!” Spike shouted from Pinkie’s back, his face pale as a ghost.

The six of them ran, trying not to think about the giant, hungry cat hot on their hooves.

They broke into the clearing. The light from Twilight’s horn grew to fill the area. They didn’t see the beast follow them out into the open, but they kept running anyway, just to be safe. They stopped once they reached the center of the field and saw the beast still wasn’t following them.

Spike got off Pinkie Pie as she and Fluttershy collapsed in a heap on top of each other, panting.

Applejack walked up to Fluttershy and gave her a queer look, having a slight chuckle at the worn-out pegasus. “Uh, Fluttershy? Heck, why didn’t ya just fly?”

Fluttershy continued taking gulping breaths as she replied. “My wings froze up,” she answered.

“It’s not time to rest yet, girls,” Twilight said, intruding on their conversation. “That thing could still be out there.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie said, waving her hoof out from under Fluttershy, like a schoolfilly wanting to be picked. She pointed off to the other end of the field. “There’s an ominous looking cave full of crystals over there that we can hide in!”

From the edge of the clearing, there came a distinctly feline growl.

“Everypony, into the cave!” Rainbow shouted, whisking Pinkie and Fluttershy off the ground and speeding for the cavern’s entrance.

Spike hopped on Twilight’s back, and Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack all ran into the cave after Rainbow Dash, never once looking back as they ran into the dark.

Outside the cave, the large cat stepped out into the clearing, wearing a triumphant smirk. A bonfire of green flame enveloped it. The flame shrunk and then quickly died, leaving a haughty and victorious Chrysalis in the cat’s place. “Meow,” Chrysalis said, covering her lips as a dark chuckle escaped them.

Her task done, she walked inside the cave to meet up with the others.

Pinkie Pie had grown up living on a small rock farm out in the near-deserted hills of Clopton. The thing most ponies think of when they hear the term “rock farm” is “really? that exists?”, but the second thing they think is “so what, is it like mining?”

As most rock farmers could tell you, it was most definitely not like mining. In fact, the mere mention of mining to rock farmers will send even the nicest ones into a sudden, foul mood. Rock farmers harbored such a grudge against miners, that they often told their kids horror stories about mines. Collapses, floods, gigantic carnivorous fruit bats, they told them anything, and as a result, most children of rock farmers grew up with a crippling fear of caves and tunnels.

But, being anything but normal, Pinkie stared around the supposed death trap with fascination.

“Uh, hey, Pinkie?” Dash asked, flying down and trotting alongside her. “Are you alright? You’ve had this look on your face for a couple minutes now...”

“Oh, yep!” she answered with a far-too-wide grin. “I’m just thinking about how this cave could collapse at any given moment or any given noise! Isn’t that exciting?!” Realization dawned on her of what she had just said. She slapped a hoof over her mouth, covering a giggle.

“What?” Dash asked with a small chuckle. “Oh, come on, Pinkie. You’d have to be some batty paranoid schizowhosit to think this old cave could collapse at any moment.”

“Bats!?” Pinkie Pie shouted into the cave, her voice echoing all around them. “Hellooooo! Any bats home?”

“Pinkie Pie!” the rest of them scolded.

Twilight surrounded Pinkie in magic, lifting her off the ground and zipping her mouth shut.

“We’re supposed to be quiet, we’re still looking for the escaped villains, and if they’re nearby, we don’t want to alert them that we’re here.”

Seeing Pinkie calm down noticeably, Twilight let out a sigh and put her down, dispelling her magic so she could talk again.

“Sorry, Twilight,” she whispered, looking at the walls of the cave around her. “I guess I might be a teensie weensie bit nervous about being here.”

“Duly noted.”

Just then, a great crystal landed and split the earth between them. Everyone stared at it for a moment, before craning their heads back to look up. The ceiling let out a low rumble.

“Cave-in!” Twilight shouted.

Crystals fell one after the other behind them, quickly blocking off the exit. With nowhere else to turn, they ran deeper into the cave—except Pinkie, who sat frozen, staring up at the ceiling with a terrified expression on her face. “The legends are true…”

“Pinkie!” Dash shouted, turning back around for her. She swooped in between her friend’s legs and picked her up, pumping her wings to catch up with the rest of the group.

Staying close to the ceiling, she looked at which crystals were falling up ahead and subsequently wove around them. A large crystal detached right in the path of her friends. Her eyes widened and she yelled, “Twilight! Rarity! Heads up!”

Twilight and Rarity snapped their heads up to see a crystal falling directly on top of them. They leapt away from Fluttershy and Applejack, dodging the stalactite by the hair of their coats.

Two smaller tunnels led out from the main cavern, the way up to them split by shards of fallen crystal. “Fluttershy, you go with Applejack down that tunnel, we’ll meet up once the cave-in stops!”

“O-okay!” Fluttershy shouted back to her, as the two of them took a turn left down their tunnel. A giant crystal fell in front of the entrance once they were through, sealing it off.

Up above, Rainbow Dash spotted another crystal coming loose in front of the tunnel Twilight and Rarity were heading towards. “Twilight! Book it!”

Twilight and Rarity looked up, spotting the crystal as it began to fall. As it fell, they ran at the tunnel and dove, getting inside just as the crystal shook the ground behind them and blocked off their exit.

Outside, Rainbow Dash was looking for another way to escape, seeing the only two available tunnels blocked off by giant slabs of crystal. It was dark, and without Twilight’s spell, she was blind as a bat.

Pinkie squeezed her neck, choking her slightly. “Look, Dash! A light!”

Dash spun to her side, spotting a crack in the cave wall a little ways below them that had light pouring out of it; it looked just big enough to fit through. “Hold on!” she told Pinkie, feeling the hooves around her neck tighten as she dove towards the exit.

She burst through the opening, hitting the ground in what could only be described as one of her worse landings, or better crashes.

The two of them tumbled head over hooves across the cavern floor, eventually coming to an abrupt stop against the cave wall.

Dash sat there for a while, with her rear legs in the air above her head, and her neck bent horribly against the ground, groaning in pain. Pinkie Pie was a short ways away, her eyes still spinning.

“Oooh...” Rainbow Dash moaned when she finally got up. “My everything hurts.”

“Yeah, well you did manage to fall flat on your face. I thought you were a better flyer than that,” a familiar voice said, stepping out into the light.

“G-g-gilda?”

Fluttershy and Applejack stared at the blocked off exit, a frown marring both their faces.

“Well, Ah guess we aren’t gonna be gettin’ out the way we came in,” Applejack said.

“Do you think the others made it out okay?” Fluttershy asked, shuffling her hooves together.

“Of course they did. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about them,” Applejack said with a smile that looked much more confident than she felt at that moment. Somepony had to be strong for the group, and considering the group was only her and Fluttershy, that responsibility fell to her. “What we need to be worrying about is getting ourselves out of this mess, before we go n’ start lookin’ for the others.”

“R-right.” Fluttershy nodded, giving her a weak smile. “Maybe we’ll even find them on the way out.”

“Now there’s some optimistic thinkin’ I’d like to hear,” Applejack said with a bigger smile than before. “Now come on, if we keep followin’ this tunnel, maybe it’ll hook up somewhere else, or even lead to an exit on the other side.”

“You can try,” a feminine voice hissed. Stepping into the dim light emitted by the crystalline walls, a tall, lithe shape took form, its serpentine eyes flashing in the dark. “But you wouldn’t make it very far.”

“Darling, maybe you should give up. That thing looks much heavier than the ursa minor—and it’s embedded in the ground.”

Twilight let her magic aura fade from around the crystal blocking the entrance of their tunnel. She sighed, letting her shoulders slump. “You’re right. I could try for a million years and this thing wouldn’t budge an inch.”

“There, there, dear. We’ll find another way out of this Celestia forsaken tunnel, and meet up with the others.”

“You’re right,” Twilight said, turning around. “We—”

She cut herself off once she noticed what Rarity was doing over by the cave wall.

“Are you collecting gems at a time like this?!”

“Oh, well, I...” Rarity trailed off, staring at the floating bundle of gems she had collected, adding a freshly picked one to it. “I mean, I figured I might as well keep my hooves busy while I waited for you.”

Twilight shook her head. “Whatever,” she said, trotting past her. “We need to keep going down this tunnel. It might lead to an exit, or another chamber where we can meet up with the others.”

“Alright, dear, just one moment...” Rarity said, beginning to pluck an emerald from the wall.

“Now, Rarity.”

“Alright, alright,” she grumbled, letting the emerald go and following alongside Twilight. “A few seconds wouldn’t have hurt anybody.”

Spike looked at the pile of gems hungrily, licking his lips. “Hey, uh, Rarity, you don’t suppose I—” Rarity cut him off by offering him one of the sapphires she’d picked. “Aw, a sapphire? You shouldn’t have,” he said, taking it from her magical grip and dropping it down his throat in one giant gulp. Lying down on Twilight’s back, he let out a satisfied burp.

“Spike, that’s disgusting,” Twilight said.

Spike gave her a half-hearted shrug.

They weren’t walking for long before they came across a giant cavern. A chandelier made of crystals hung from the center of its roof, lit with an eerie green magic, similar to the one they had followed into the forest.

“I have been waiting for for you three,” a suave voice sang.

Twilight and Rarity glanced to their side, spotting a crystal staircase that traveled up roughly twenty steps to a throne made of gems. Sitting in the throne, was King Sombra.

“It was almost disappointingly easy to get you into this room. Did it even pass through your heads that this was a trap?”

Spike, Rarity, and Twilight tensed, crouching down and preparing to make a run for it if need be.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter anymore whether you realized it or not. What matters is that it worked.” Sombra rose from his throne, staring down at them. “And now that you’re here, your fates are sealed. Your demise is at hoof. Your pain and suffering shall reach an apex the likes of which you can’t possibly imagine. An apex as high as the peaks of the tallest mountain, only, a little bit taller. Your tears will taste bitter and yet sweet, the way cranberries do. Your . . .”

Sombra was, unfortunately for a villain, rather terrible at evil monologues. However, even more unfortunately, he never knew when to stop.

“Woah, it really is you!” Dash said with a laugh, trotting over to Gilda. “What in equestria are you doing out in this cave?”

Pinkie Pie sat up, rubbing her head, and saw Dash walking over to her. “Um, Dashie...”

Rainbow Dash looked at Gilda from head to toe. “I haven’t seen you since you crashed that party a couple years back.”

“Rainbow Dash...”

“So, listen, we should probably stick together until we find a way out of this cave-in. Twilight and the others got separated and—”

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Huh?” Dash turned around to look at Pinkie. “What, Pinkie? I was in the middle of explaining the situation.”

Gilda raised a clawed hand while Dash’s head was turned, its talons gleaming in the dark.

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Dash, look out!”

Rainbow Dash spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and ducked, narrowly avoiding a razor sharp claw swipe that managed to take off a few hairs from mane.

Dash leaped away and landed at safe distance. She spun to face Gilda. “Hey! What the heck, Gilda? That could’ve hit me!”

Gilda set her claw back on the ground and rolled her eyes. “Well, duh.”

“Jeez, you’re so much more of a jerk than I remember.”

“You’re so much more of a dweeb than I remember.”

“Jerk.”

“Dweeb.”

“Hey!” Pinkie cried, grabbing their attention. “I think surprises are super and everything, but what in Equestria are you doing here?”

Gilda sighed as Dash looked around. “You know,” Dash said. “She’s got a point. You weren’t exactly someone I expected to bump into out in the middle of the Everfree Forest.”

“And who were you expecting to bump into?” Gilda asked, tapping a talon against the cave floor.

“Well, we were looking for these three villains that were being sent to Ponyville for—” Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

Gilda pinched the bridge of her beak. “I can’t believe I cheated off your tests at flight school.” She spread her wings and crouched low to the ground, her tail swishing in the air behind her. “But enough catching up, let’s fight.”

“Let’s see how strong your friendship truly is,” Chrysalis hissed.

Before Applejack or Fluttershy could react, Chrysalis dove at Fluttershy, tackling her and tumbling into a dark corner of the tunnel with her.

Applejack whipped around. “Fluttershy!”

Two identical copies of Fluttershy sat, each with an element of harmony, rubbing their heads. They both stood, mirroring each other’s actions perfectly.

“I think I’m alright,” they said at the same time. Both their eyes widened, and they both turned to face each other, throwing a hoof up to cover their mouth. “Eep!” they both squeaked.

Applejack looked back and forth between them, unable to tell a single difference that set them apart. “Ah... Well, Ah... Um, Fluttershy, is that you?” she asked.

“Oh, yes?” they both answered.

The one on the left turned to the one on the right and glared. “Stop imitating me! You’re not really me!”

“I’m not imitating anyone,” the second one replied. “You’re imitating me.”

The first sat down and folded her hooves in front of her chest. “You shouldn’t accuse ponies of things that aren’t true.”

“No, you shouldn’t accuse ponies of things that aren’t true.”

“I’m just not going to bother talking to you anymore.”

The second one folded her hooves in front of her chest, mirroring the first. “Hmph! How rude!” She turned to face Applejack, looking up at her with large, beady eyes. “Applejack, surely you know that I’m the real me.”

The first Fluttershy snapped out of her pout and flew over to her. “No, wait, Applejack! I’m the real me!”

Applejack looked between them, sweating bullets under her stetson. “Oh, boy, this is a doozy.”

The second Fluttershy flew over beside the first, landing in front of Applejack. “Ask me anything that only the real Fluttershy would know! She won’t be able to answer!”

“Uh, well, alright,” Applejack said. “What’s your bunny’s name?”

“Oh, why, it’s Angel!” the second Fluttershy answered.

“What? How did you know that?” The first Fluttershy demanded, getting in the second one’s face.

“Hey, hey!” Applejack interrupted, pointing to the first Fluttershy and glaring at her. “Alright you, who taught you to be too assertive?”

“Iron Will, but I quickly learned that was not the proper way to act,” the first Fluttershy answered, holding her nose up in the air.

Applejack looked between the two of them, scratching her head. “Well this is just downright weird...”

The first Fluttershy clasped her hooves together in front of Applejack. “I’m the real Fluttershy. You believe me, don’t you, Applejack?”

“Uh, well I—”

“What? How dare you stoop so low to trick my friends!”

Applejack held her hooves up. “Listen, girls, I—”

“They aren’t your friends, they’re my friends.”

“Are not!”

“Girls—”

“Are too!”

“Girls!” Applejack yelled, but it was too late. The two had jumped at each other, kicking and swinging their hooves. Applejack bit her lip as she watched them bite and pull each others hair, not knowing who to help.

“Rarity! Behind me!” Twilight shouted, erecting a magic barrier just as a green fireball struck it.

“So you have some magical talent after all. I guess the Princess didn’t pick you for nothing,” Sombra said, smirking down at them.

Twilight let her barrier drop, already panting at the effort it took just to block one spell from him. “Rarity.”

“Yes, Twilight?”

“I’m going to try and make an opening. When I do, take Spike and run.”

On Twilight's back, Spike stood up. “What? I am not just going to leave you here.”

"I'm inclined to agree with Spike, here," Rarity said.

Sombra fired a second fireball at them. Twilight barely raised a shield in time to block it. “I’ll catch up with you two in a bit. Just do as I say!”

Rarity puffed up her cheeks. “Fine,” she eventually bit out. “But I don’t like the idea of leaving you behind. You and I are going to have a long talk about bossing ponies around after this is all over.”

Sombra’s horn glowed as he prepared to let loose another fireball.

“Go, now!” Twilight shouted.

Before Spike could protest, Rarity lifted him from Twilight’s back and placed him on her own. She ran, heading towards another tunnel on the opposite side of the room.

Sombra turned as she ran, spotting a clear chance to exact his revenge. His mouth crawled up into a smirk as he aimed his spell. The explosive ball of green flame fired, sailing towards Rarity and Spike, who glanced fearfully at it as it drew near.

Twilight’s eyes shut in concentration, her horn pulsing brightly. The fireball met a magic barrier, bursting on its surface a split second before it would have hit them. Rarity and Spike escaped into the tunnel, getting away safely.

“A barrier that completely stopped one of my spells at that distance? You aren’t just some normal unicorn pony after all, I see.” Sombra narrowed his eyes, glowering at her. “But you helped the dragon get away, and that, I can’t forgive. Your body will be turned into the finest of ash. A powder so fine it would be... it would be...” He struggled for a moment, running his forked tongue over his fangs. “Blast, I know had something for this...” Sombra eventually shrugged, hurling another green fireball at her.

Twilight raised her shield again to block, but as the fireball met it, it became clear this one was stronger than the others had been. It burst against the barrier, bending it, and forming a tear in its center. A lash of green flame struck out, hitting Twilight and leaving a burn around her midsection.

Twilight cried out, hitting the floor. The smell of burnt hair made its way to her nose.

Sombra’s eyes lit up and he clapped his hooves. “‘A powder so fine I would drink it in my morning coffee!’ Damnation, I’d been saving that one for months!” He scowled, his attention turning back to Twilight. His horn glowed and a new fireball shimmered beside him. “No matter. I’ll be able to use it again after this next spell kills you,” he spat, his eyes glowing green with malevolence.

Gilda’s beak drove deep into Dash’s shoulder, near the base of her wing. The second the hit made contact, Dash knew it was bad. Somewhere amidst the pain, she recognized that she was falling out of the air. Her whole wing flared up with pain, and despite her commands to make it move, it trailed limply as she fell.

With her good wing, she managed to slow her fall, spiraling toward the ground like a maple seed. She landed, limping on the hoof whose shoulder had been hit. Hobbling on three hooves, she turned to face Gilda.

“Dash! Are you alright?!” Pinkie asked, rushing over.

“Stay back, Pinkie!” Dash said, holding out her injured hoof with a noticeable flinch. “This is between me and Gilda. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Pinkie glanced between the two of them, biting her lip as her eyes began to water up. “Sorry, Dash!”

“Pinkie, what—?” Dash was cut off as Pinkie rushed past her, charging at Gilda. “No!”

Gilda smirked, seeing Pinkie run at her. She wasn’t made of the same stuff Dash and her were made of. As Pinkie tackled her, she rolled onto her back with the motion, sending Pinkie Flying over her with a hard kick to her stomach, launching her into the air.

“Pinkie!”

The two Fluttershy’s were both scratched and bleeding, Fluttershy wasn’t truly a fighter, but still, it hadn’t stopped her from trying to protect her friends.

Knowing that one of the two beaten up ponies was her friend, and not knowing which, formed a knot in Applejack’s stomach.

Twilight weakly looked up at Sombra as he prepared another fireball. A tear rolled down her face, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to fulfill her promise to Rarity. She thought of Spike and what it would have been like seeing him grow up. Green flames began to take form in front of Sombra.

“Don’t touch my friend!” Rarity cried, as she and Spike charged back into the room. The gems she’d picked up were spread out above her head and covered in Spike's green flame, their tips pointing at Sombra. She let out a cry as she launched them like a rain of quills at the evil king.

Sombra closed his eyes and canceled his spell, forced to form a shield against the spray of needles. Meanwhile, Rarity helped her friend up. She flinched as she saw the burn mark around Twilight’s saddle.

Spike jumped down from Rarity's back, leaping up and hugging Twilight around her neck. "Are you alright?"

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Twilight said, seeing her concern. Her chest stung when it moved to breathe, but her legs were fine. “We have to get back to the others. Do you have any idea which way they went?”

“Their tunnels seemed to move deeper into the cave, same as ours,” Spike answered.

“They might be nearby then...” She looked around the chamber they were in.

“Hold on. The Elements of Harmony have gemstones, do they not?” Rarity asked.

Twilight glanced up at the star embedded in her Element of Harmony. “Yes?” she answered, seeing little good the fact would do them.

Rarity closed her eyes, her horn glowing. “Let’s see, Fluttershy and Applejack are just a short ways over there,” she said, pointing toward a stone wall of the cavern. She then pointed to the ceiling. “And Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are directly above us, if I’m sensing this correctly.”

“Then all we have to do is find a way to break through to them. Then we can...” Twilight paused mid thought.

King Sombra sat across the chamber from them, staring at a pocket watch he pulled from who-knows-where with a rather bored expression.

“Um...” Twilight gave him a sidelong look. “Aren’t you going to stop us?”

Sombra looked up from his watch, raising his eyebrows. “Oh no, you still have thirty seconds left.”

Rarity blinked. “Beg pardon?”

Sombra summoned a thick, brown leather-bound tome out of the air, letting it slap against the stone floor. Flipping through the pages with his magic, he stopped on one nearly a third of the way through. He cleared his throat. “On the subject of conferences: any valiant, righteous, or heroic group, numbering two or more, may be allowed up to two minutes of conference per life-threatening encounter with them. This conference ends should they choose to run or attack you or any of your underlings.” He closed the book with a loud thwump. “Book of Villainy, chapter eight. You have ten seconds left.”

“Are you... really being serious right now?” Rarity asked.

“Of course. My father and his father before him were traditionalists. I was raised as a villain with a certain decorum, you see.” He flipped the cover of his pocket watch closed and made it disappear in a blink of magic. “Time’s up,” he said, his horn beginning to glow.

Twilight began running. “Rarity, Spike, quick! Get over by the wall near where Applejack and Fluttershy are!”

Spike jumped on Twilight's back, but Rarity stood there, arguing. “But I mean, honestly, how can you expect to conquer anything as a villain if all you do is play by the rules which benefit your adversaries? Considering as a villain you’re bound to be reviled and hated, honor doesn’t seem all that—”

“Rarity, Now!” Twilight shouted.

Rarity jumped, dropping her train of thought as she noticed the increasingly angry, pulsing energy around Sombra’s horn. She ran and hid behind Twilight. The three of them waited there, facing Sombra as he continued to focus more and more power into his spell. “Um, Twilight? Are you sure you’ll be able to stop this spell?”

“There’s no way I’ll be able to.”

“What?!” Rarity exclaimed.

As the magic at the tip of Sombra’s horn shimmered with heat, a ball of green flame erupted in the air in front of him, hissing and sucking in the air around it. Instantly, it shot across the cavern.

“Dodge!” Twilight yelled, blinking out of the fireball’s path.

Rarity, with Spike still on her back, did exactly as she was told, escaping the fireball’s path in a fumbling, panicked sprint. It exploded against the wall behind her with a crack, its flames splashing out and licking her heels.

Then came a low rumble from the stone above. Everyone in the chamber froze, staring at the long line snaking its way up the wall from where the fireball had hit, traveling up to the roof to where it stopped, suddenly.

Well, at least for a moment or two. Before held breaths could be let go, the line fractured and spread across the ceiling and wall, turning the rock into a disgruntled spiderweb of complaints, moaning under the weight they held up.

What happened next, was absolutely nothing.

“It didn’t work?” Rarity said.

Sombra let loose a deep, villainy chuckle. “Bwahaha! Your efforts have failed you!”

Applejack looked at the newly crack-riddled wall in front of her with puzzlement. The two Fluttershy’s to her left had stopped fighting and now stared at it.

“Ya reckon the cave’s unstable?” Applejack asked.

The two Fluttershy’s glanced at one another, only managing to come up with an uncertain shrug in reply.

She turned her rear towards the wall and crouched down. “Hmm... It looks like it could use a little nudge, is all.”

The cracked rock collapsed all at once and with a surprising amount of neatness, forming a pile of rubble between the now connected chambers and tunnel.

Twilight and Rarity craned their necks up to see Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Gilda, flying above them, with Pinkie Pie being loosely slung over Rainbow Dash’s back. In the tunnel were Applejack, Fluttershy, and Fluttershy, the second Fluttershy causing Twilight, Spike, and Rarity to double take, one for each Fluttershy.

“Just like buckin’ a tree,” Applejack said as she straightened her hat, facing the two Fluttershys. Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted Twilight and Rarity. “Twilight! Spike! Rarity! Boy am I glad to see you three.”

“Um...” Twilight was still staring at the two Fluttershys. “Fluttershy is...?”

“One of them’s Chrysalis an’ I can’t tell which.”

“It’s her!” both Fluttershys shouted, pointing at each other.

Twilight looked back up. “And why on earth is Gilda here?”

“My identical twin broke into a museum after hours,” Gilda answered.

Dash wrinkled her nose at her. “I never knew you had a twin.”

“Enough!” Sombra shouted, stomping the ground so hard his hooves split the rock. “Now that you’re all together, you can die together!” His horn began to glow with another spell.

Twilight cleared her throat, loudly. “I think you’re forgetting something.”

“And that is?” Sombra asked.

Twilight’s horn began to glow, and the gemstone in her Element of Harmony resonated with her Magic. Matching the Element of Magic, all the other Elements of Harmony began to glow, which in turn revealed which Fluttershy was real.

Her disguise foiled, Chrysalis turned back into herself. She backed away from Applejack and Fluttershy’s glares with a placating smile.

Dash was the one who smirked and said, “Play time’s over, guys.”

Chrysalis, Sombra, and Gilda all groaned and grumbled.

Sombra scoffed. “I knew we shouldn’t have listened to the damned bird.”

Gilda gave him a sharp smack upside the head.

Six ponies, one dragon, one griffon, one dark phantasmal pony king, and one changeling queen, sat around Fluttershy’s cottage table, sipping tea.

Twilight cleared her throat and set her cup down. “Now, what do you all have to say about running off and putting everypony in danger?”

Gilda, Chrysalis, and Sombra all looked down at their teacups. “We’re sorry,” they mumbled with great reluctance, grimacing as the words left a bad taste in their mouths.

“Well, just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Twilight said. She gestured towards Fluttershy, turning all eyes on her. “Now, with our help, Fluttershy here is going to be making sure none of you cause any more trouble from now on.”

They all turned to face Fluttershy, staring daggers at her.

Fluttershy gulped and lifted her teacup a slight bit more, trying to hide behind it. “Um... hello.”

“Ya know,” Applejack said, drinking her tea and giving odd looks towards the three sitting on the opposite side of the table. “You gotta admit, seeing them just sitting down and drinking tea like this is strange.”

“Quite,” Rarity agreed.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I never thought Gilda drank tea.”

Twilight took a sip of her chai, before setting her cup and saucer down to look around. She wrinkled her nose. “What happened to those two guards?”

“Fruit bats, the size of rinocerosuses. My uncle Shale says he once saw one when he was walking by the entrance of a mine.” The old stallion shook his head. “But I’ll tell you two that one some other time. So, you say you’re looking for work on a rock farm?”

Smart and Scout nodded.

Author's Note

Chapter 1 of 4. Bit of an introduction chapter; future chapters will involve the mane 6 dealing with the mischief the villains cause while in Ponyville. I was sorely tempted to name this first chapter "A 'Miscarriage' of Sorts" but decided it might be in bad taste.
Some things mentioned in the synopsis are only going to come in now that the villains are actually in Ponyville.