Takumba never thought she'd actually be stuck on a desert island.
Not that she'd put a lot of time into thinking about it. She had read Island of the Blue Dolphin, and seen a few episodes of Lost, but the whole idea of being cut off from civilization just didn't appeal to her. No electricity, no telephone, no shopping -- she was too much of a city girl.
And now here she was, as isolated from civilization as she could get.
But not alone. There were somewhere between two and three hundred girls her age, or thereabouts, stuck with her.
At least there were no wild animals. The island -- islet, probably, though she wasn't sure -- was not much bigger than a soccer pitch and was mostly rock, dirt and mudholes. Patches of scrub here and there; no trees -- the tallest structure was the guntower, with the sniper clearly visible.
There were plenty of trees (and animals, too, likely) on the sides of the mountains she could see everywhere. They were almost close enough to swim to; not that that thought occurred to Takumba -- too many logs that weren't really logs floating in that lake.
When the Snakes had grabbed her yesterday afternoon – her and a busload of other girls – she'd expected to be put in a barracks or something. Instead they stayed on that bus all night, heading out around 3 a.m. (The Snakes had taken all their phones, cameras and other electronics, but didn't bother with the few analog watches.) Several changes of direction and then a long slow slog through the mountains. By that time there were three buses. They stopped at certain points along the way, each time leaving behind a few of the Snakes. By the time they got to the lake there were only twelve left, not counting the leader, Faro Khanda himself.
Khanda extended the bridge and marched them over to their island prison. He told them if they behaved themselves and their parents paid the penalty – he never said "ransom" – for raising such disrespectful, sinful, Westernized daughters they would be seeing their families soon.
Then he left with three of his men, retracting the bridge once he'd reached the other side. He left no food, only a few tents; not nearly enough for all of them, Takumba felt , unless they slept in shifts -- which might not be a bad idea. So far the Steel Snakes were keeping their hands off their prisoners, because they didn't want to spoil their ransom (or resale) value -- but that could change.
Takumba scuffled along the dusty flat, not joining any of the groups that had sprung up to commiserate, or speculate, or just plain cry. She was beyond hope, just trying to get from one minute to the next, hoping something, some break would come their way.
My little pony, my little pony…
Was that a break? Takumba shook her head.
My little pony, my little pony…
The song was coming from a girl a few years younger than Takumba, say twelve, squatting on the ground, rocking back and forth, holding stuffed toys like Takumba had seen in the shopping centers.
My little pony, my little pony,,,
My little pony, my little pony…
Takumba had never seen the show but she felt there had to be more words to the theme song.
A couple of girls went walking by the singer, staying well away as if she were contagious. This seemed unfair to Takumba; let her hold on to her innocence as long as she can, she'll be losing it soon enough.
"Mmf! Mmf"
"Hey! I can't breathe!"
Well, that was imaginative -- she was giving her ponies voices. Takumba smiled at the singer's creativity…
Wait -- how could she make them talk while she was singing?
"Let me GO!"
A small four-legged creature, almost horse-shaped except for a very round head, exceedingly big eyes , and a big red hairbow jumped out of the singing girl's embrace and stood still, getting her bearings. She was immediately joined by an orange pony with teeny wings and a white unicorn with a pastel pink-and-blue mane.
Takumba couldn't register what her eyes were seeing. She thought she must be hallucinating from the stress.
The singing girl, however, was overjoyed. "Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo! Apple Bloom! You CAME!" she cried, clapping her hands.
"Came WHERE?" said Scootaloo. "How'd we get here?"
"Yeah, and how'd you know our names?" said Apple Bloom.
"Because I bought you! When you were dolls, that is… I'm Bolanle, by the way."
"We were DOLLS?" said Scootaloo.
"My sister wouldn't agree…" chuckled Apple Bloom.
"What IS this place, anyway?"
Takumba finally found her voice. "I'm afraid you girls are now prisoners, like the rest of us."
"PRISONERS?"
"Did you do something bad?"
"To hear the Snakes tell it, yes we did…"
"What snakes? I knew we should've gone for a cutie mark in snake charming…."
"Not real snakes. This is a, a bunch of fanatics called the Steel Snakes. They hate girls who get educated and have jobs. They want all women to stay home and make babies. There's almost three hundred girls here, and they got us all on our way to or from school."
Apple Bloom looked around -- nothing but young female humans as far as she could see. "How many of these Snakes are there, right here right now?"
"Nine."
The young earth pony blinked. "Well, can't you make them let you go? You outnumber them by, uh, lessee, three hundred divided by nine is, uh, well, it's a lot!"
Takumba shook her head. "Not that easy. They have weapons."
"What kind of weapons?"
Sweetie Belle's question was answered in the least welcome way possible – a Steel Snake walked up to the group, rifle in hand.
"Hey! What is this?" he demanded. "Put those toys away!"
"Who are you calling toys, you… you Snake!" said Scootaloo. The Snake caught his breath, aimed, and fired. Thankfully Scootaloo had excellent reflexes; even though she couldn't fly, she was quick enough to dodge the bullet.
Thankfully too she had a friend whose unicorn magic had recently kicked in. Sweetie Belle levitated the rifle out of the astounded Snake's hands while Apple Bloom circled around him and delivered a decisive buck to the back of his knee. With a sickening KLONK his head made the acquaintance of a rock and took the male supremacist out of the picture for awhile.
In a flash Takumba was on him. "You!" she said, pointing at the unicorn. "What was your name again?"
"Sweetie Belle."
"I'm Takumba. Sweetie Belle, help me take his weapons!"
"You got it." Between them they divested the Snake of his pistol, knife, baton, handcuffs and several grenades. Takumba got Sweetie to dump the explosives in a mudhole -- too dangerous to be in untrained hands, was the reasoning -- and cuffed his wrist to his ankle. Several girls had joined them by this point, tearing strips of his shirt off to bind and gag him. Last to go was his radio, which Apple Bloom crushed underhoof.
If she'd stopped to think, Takumba would've realized this was crazy -- there was no way they could defeat eight armed and dangerous zealots; no way they could get off this island; no way they could get past the three sentry points. But events had proceeded at their own (breakneck) pace, and all they could do was ride them out.
"He's just one of nine, and there's no way we can hide him," Takumba told the Crusaders. "If we're doing this at all, we have to get the rest as soon as possible."
"We're on it! Split up, Crusaders!" Apple Bloom called out.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS COUNTER TERRORISM SQUAD, YAY!" and the fillies ran off in three different directions.
"I sure hope this dream has a happy ending," said Takumba.
Scootaloo was covering a lot of ground but not finding any of the Steel Snakes -- that is, until one suddenly appeared in front of her.
"What in--?" he boggled. "SCOOTALOO?"
"That's me!" She waved her hoof at him. "Please, no autographs!"
"Autographs -- ? Wait, that's --" But Scootaloo had already reached him, landing on his ankle with both rear hooves.
Unfortunately she just didn't have the mass -- pegasi are lighter than earth ponies, after all -- and the Snake still stood, even with an angry grimace.
Both Scootaloo and the Snake were too engrossed to notice a serpentine figure creeping up on them, and then suddenly the Steel Snake found himself in the coils of a real snake! No, not really -- the bottom half was a snake, but the upper was a young girl, with light green skin, white eyes with black irises, and four smaller snakes where her hair should be.
"Stop that!" this new girl warned. The Steel Snake only grunted and managed to get his knife free, but Scootaloo was paying attention. With a flying leap she kicked the knife out of his hand. Then the snake-girl put her mind into squeezing the ragtag revanchionist until he passed out.
To say Scootaloo was impressed was understating it. "Wow! He's out cold! You did a great job, Miss… uh…"
"I'm Modest."
"You don't have to be, that was awesome!"
"No, I mean my name is Modest. Like yours is Scootaloo."
"…How does everypony know my name?"
"Oh, I watch your cartoon show every week!"
"…Okay, this just got twenty percent weirder."
Meanwhile, in an apartment that Modest would certainly recognize, a very scared girl named Osatohanmwen is explaining to a fat American man with a beard how she'd been kidnapped only to find herself somewhere in America. The man, whose name is Jake, is listening to her with bewilderment, apprehension and resignation.
But not disbelief.
Sweetie Belle was remarkably serene for being in a prison camp.
For one thing most of the locals were giving her a wide berth, which was fine by her. More time to get her bearings and understand this brave new world she found herself in.
Aside from everyone going around on their hind legs, and wearing more clothes than most Ponyvillers (Rarity would love that part), there was the fact that the natives were just not as, well, colorful as the ponies back home. Which was why it was such a shock to see three of these Steel Snakes trying to capture a girl who was… periwinkle?!?
"LETS MES GOES!"
The Snake facing her was having none of it. "How did you get here, you freak? Who sent you?"
"No ones! I just founds myselfs here!"
"You will answer me, or I'll --"
"PTOO!"
Still struggling like a wildcat, the lavender girl lobbed a juicy one right on her confronter's face. He took on a look of cold fury.
For maybe half a second.
"AAAAIIEEE! IT BURNS! IT'S ACID! THE FREAK SPITS ACID!" He fell to the ground, his hand batting against his face.
The other two Snakes froze in disbelief. The girl took the opportunity to kick one in the stomach -- sending him five feet into the copse -- then shoving an elbow into the third's midriff. She followed that with an uppercut to his chin that sent him six feet off the ground.
"Whoa," said Sweetie Belle.
"Whoa," said the new girl, just as surprised.
Unfortunately she failed to notice the Snake she'd kicked draw his pistol.
"None of that," said Sweetie Belle, grabbing his gun with her magic, and going on to take all his ordnance until the new girl woke up enough to slap him unconscious.
At this point the kidnapped girls closed in and bound and gagged the Snakes with pieces of their (non-regulation) uniforms. One, however, went right up to the periwinkle girl.
"What did you do with Modoyin?"
"With who's? I's sorry, I don't knows any Modoyins…"
"Don't give me that! I was talking to her and then she suddenly turned into you!"
"Reallys, I don'ts know anything abouts that. I was on my ways to schools and all of a suddens I finds myselfs here…"
"Hey, me too!" Sweetie Belle piped up. "Me and my friends found ourselves transported here, same as you! What's your name, miss?"
The new girl, whose skin was scaly as well as periwinkle, had brown hair, black eyes with green pupils, and teeth like a bear trap. She didn't seem all that surprised to be talking to a unicorn. "Selkie… I's Selkie Smith."
Sweetie thought about asking if she was related to Granny Smith but decided against it.
Selkie had been talking to her friend Georgie when suddenly the cosmos burped and Modoyin appeared in her place.
Georgie, unfortunately, wasn't one to take such things with aplomb and went screaming for the teacher.
Which left Modoyin alone in a strange school, in a strange country, and with no one nearby who spoke her language.
She was starting to regret skipping English.
Santino was on a personal high alert.
The whole point of keeping the girls on this island was to make it easy to see when strangers came aground. Well, according to the buzz, strangers had not only landed, they'd taken out most of the Steel Snake force. Bana was supposed to send a message to Faro Khanda, but God only knows if he managed it.
Santino and two Snakes he wasn't acquainted with were plowing through the hostages, guns drawn, looking for anyone who didn't belong. Which certainly meant the little yellow horse with the big red ribbon.
"Hi fellas!" she sang out, waving one hoof in the air.
"Who ARE you?" All things considered, it was the least Santino could ask.
"Well, let's see. I'm Applejack's sister, Cheerilee's student and I'm being mentored by Princess Twilight Sparkle herself! I'm a Cutie Mark Crusader (yay!) and a loyal subject of Princess Celestia and a proud resident of Ponyville, but I guess right now I'm mostly a distraction!"
"What?" said Santino.
Which is when the tentacles struck.
Nneka didn't know how she'd gotten from her island prison to a fast-food stand on a Japanese beach. Worse, she'd been pressed into service as a janitor by a sleepy-eyed but remarkably persistent twenty-something girl.
"If you're taking her place" -- whoever her was -- "you're doing her work."
Nneka perked up when a blonde girl in a skimpy bikini entered the shop. Maybe she spoke English.
"Are you from Yeld?" said Modest.
"Nos," said Selkie. "I'm from Wisconsins. I was lefts in a humans orphanage when I was three years olds." Selkie paused, as if seeing something in the distant past. "Nothing hurts like beings abandoneds by your mothers."
This made Modest cringe. "Actually…." she began.
Not far away two out of three CMCs were bringing each other up to speed.
"We have a cartoon?" said Sweetie Belle. "Did you know about this?"
"I like it! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CARTOON STARS! … Only shouldn't we have cutie marks that look like TV sets or something?"
"Hi girls!" Apple Bloom walked up, alongside a smallish human girl who "walked" by propelling herself with the blue tentacles that popped out from beneath her floppy white hat.
"Konnichiwa, ponies!"
"This here's Squid Girl, and she wants to help! I met her when she took out the sniper!"
"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh-- " said Modest. "I know you! You're the star of your own anime!"
"Greats," muttered Selkie. "ANOTHER shows I can't gets! When dues we sees Sues and Kathryns?"
"Squid Girl looks like a human," explained Modest, "but she really isn't! She's really a superpowerful squid who wants to take over the surface world and stop polluting the ocean!"
"Reallys?" Selkie turned thoughtful. "Soooo…. a squids, eh?"
Squid Girl gave Selkie a remarkably level look. "Don't even think it, Fish Girl."
"Whats?? You speaks English?"
"Yes, do you?"
"GIRLS!" Apple Bloom interposed herself between the two seething aquatics. "Let's focus on the job here! We've taken out all the foot soldiers, the next step should be to get off this island!"
"Unless you have a ferryboat handy," said Takumba, "the only way to get all of us off is the way we got here, on the retractable bridge."
Five minutes later the party stood on the dock, where half the bridge awaited extension.
"I saw Khanda himself push the button," said Takumba. "It's just past the edge of the trees over on that side, an aluminum box on a pole. Just hit the button and the bridge will extend from either side until the edges meet."
Scootaloo looked across the moat. "Doesn't seem that far. You could maybe swim it."
"Except the moat is full of barracuda, piranha, pike, caymans, alligators and a dyspeptic dolphin."
"Goods," said Selkie. "I skippeds lunch." She took off her hoodie, passing it to Modest, did a few stretches -- her gaping gills showing through her T-shirt -- and plunged into the water.
The Crusaders, Takumba and Squid Girl tried to follow her progress but soon gave up. Modest was occupying herself by putting on Selkie's hoodie.
"Here comes the King Cobra! Sssss, ssssss!"
Sweetie Belle turned to Takumba. "You think she'll make it?"
"Well, I ---"
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? WHAT SINFULNESS ARE YOU GIRLS UP TO?"
Takumba caught her breath. She hadn't really expected they'd get away with it; still, to be surprised by Faro Khanda himself -- as well as three of his guards, all in full dress uniform -- seemed like overkill.
Faro Khanda wasn't happy.
Not surprising, really. So many people, refusing to follow the Word of God and that of his humble servant, Faro Khanda. It was more than a righteous man could stand, really.
He'd had a thought that these girls would be obstreperous, which is why he'd seen them cross to the island and then almost immediately took his private launch to the other side, where he and his personal guard had been checking for any troublemakers. And here they were -- but what were they?
A girl in a red hood, cowering against a slightly taller (and definitely local) girl. There had been a white girl in a white hat, or so Khanda had thought, but she seemed to have blended into the crowd. That left three -- dogs? sheep? some kind of animal -- that belonged in a theme park.
As he watched, the yellow one with a pink bow came up to the guard on his left -- Deng, wasn't it? -- and stamped on his foot.
"TAG! You're it!"
Deng, cursing, started pursuing the dog-thing among the crowd.
Faro saw the plan -- divide and conquer -- but before he could say anything the white dog with a single horn -- some kind of goat? -- aimed her horn at his guard's gun and somehow grabbed it with a purple light. The guard went haring off after his gun, the remaining guard joining him -- at least until the orange dog with wings threw a dirt clod at his face.
"C'mon, you and me!" And they were off to the races.
In a matter of seconds the great Faro Khanda was alone and unprotected in a sea of his prisoners. He grabbed the girl in the hood.
"YOU! What's your name?"
"Um---- Modest, please."
'Well, Mollusk, you get your friends to come back here and ––"
"Here they come now!" said Modest. And sure enough, here came Apple Bloom, passing Faro Khanda from the right at speed.
"YEEEE HAAAAW!" trumpeted the Crusader.
"Can't catch me," sang Sweetie Belle, passing Khanda from the left.
"REMEMBER THE WINDIGOES!" yelled Scootaloo, shooting through Khanda's legs.
"Awk!" said Modest, pulling away from Khanda just as his three guards crashed into him. Undignified, certainly, but nothing the Steel Snakes couldn't shake off -- except for the tentacles which suddenly whipped out and wrapped the four men like an ungainly Christmas present.
Faro Khanda was ready to explode. "GET ME OUT OF THIS! YOU'RE FACING DISCIPLINE FOR DISRESPECTING MEN! THIS WILL NOT STAND!" His eye lit on Modest. "YOU! Mollusk, or whatever your name is! Tell your friends to let us go!"
She came over, raising herself to his eye level. "I told you, my name is Modest." She flicked back her hood, revealing four hair-snakes. "Modest Medusa."
Four hair-snakes.
Four Steel Snakes.
The math did itself.
Because of who he was, because of where he was, Faro Khanda had faced snakes before. There was the time his jeep had broken down and on the two-mile trek back to what passed for civilization he'd gotten into a staring contest with a Black Mamba. And now, as he saw the monster-girl's head snake bare his fangs at him, Faro braced himself for the fatal bite…
Which never came.
The snake closed its mouth, did a quick shufti to the left, then the right, and -- chuckled. He then retracted back to Modest's head space.
Faro let go a breath he hand't known he was holding. He hadn't been bit, but he knew his men weren't so lucky. He turned his head fractionally and saw Deng, or what had been Deng. Now it was a Deng-statue; his right-hand man had been turned to stone, even his uniform.
Khanda couldn't move his head enough to check his other guards, but flexing his muscles confirmed they shared Deng's fate. Faro Khanda was trapped like a roach in a wire puzzle.
"MONSTERS! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"Aaah, pipe down, blowhole!"
"Scootaloo, that ain't polite!" Apple Bloom noticed Modest withdrawing into herself. "Hey, Modest, what's wrong? That was great!"
"Oh -- I just never wanted to do that again. I promised myself I wouldn't after the last time."
The earth pony put her hoof on the snake-girl's flank. "Hey, they deserved it. You did a good thing, in this case."
"Really?"
"Really. And I'd hold off a bit before changing them back."
"Huh? Oh. I'm not like that chicken-snake you guys met. When I turn someone to stone, they stay that way."
"REALLY?" said Takumba.
And Modest found herself held aloft by twenty or thirty cheering girls.
The white girl with steel ribbons coming out of her hat set Khanda and his guards-turned-cage on a small hill. Khanda was still yelling at the top of his lungs, for all the good it was doing him. Finally calming down, he noticed the footing was rather uneven. With just a little effort, maybe he could get out of this.
Luckily, everyone had stopped paying attention to him; they were focused on the bridge, as if they expected it to unfold soon.
Khanda couldn't take the time to puzzle that out right now. He started rocking and almost immediately rolled off his perch, traveling several meters before coming to a stop. Now Khanda was face down in the dirt, gathering his strength for another burst of rolling. It was just too bad he couldn't see he was on the edge of a mud bog, too shallow to bother an upright human, but more than deep enough to drown someone fettered in stone.
Selkie emerged on the far side of the moat, munching on half a barracuda. What a pleasure to run into so many creatures who'd never seen a Sarnothi before, so many of whom wouldn't run into anyone else ever again.
The pathway to the bridge control was fairly well trodden. Selkie, licking her fingers, was just about to punch the big red button when she heard a throat clearing behind her.
She turned around to find herself surrounded by men in uniform.
With jeeps.
And guns.
"Oh… hellos," she said.
"Think she got there okay?" said Sweetie Belle.
"I don't know. Stop asking." Scootaloo stamped her hooves. "GAH! If only my wings worked!"
"Just be patient," said Apple Bloom. "The box may be locked, or there may be a guard, or…"
CHUNK.
WHRRR.
CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK.
Slowly, oh so slowly, the bridge on their side started to move, section after section rising up and fixing itself to the last one. The half from the other side was inching its way across too.
Word spread among the detainees until everyone was clustered at the foot of the bridge. With a last CHUNK the bridge set.
Apple Bloom stuck out a hoof. It seemed sturdy enough…
She stood up straight, beaming with confidence, and started marching across.
"We got hearts, as strong as horses…"
Now flanked by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
"We got hearts, as strong as horses…"
And now Squid Girl on the left and Modest Medusa on the right fell in.
"We got hearts, as strong as horses…"
And two hundred plus abducted schoolgirls took it up in ragged cadence.
"And we're playing to win,
As we gallop to glory
We can conquer every challenge we're in!
We've got HEART!
Hearts strong as horses!
Hearts strong as horses!"
It took another full chorus to reach the other side.
Takumba couldn't believe they'd gotten this far. But now they were stuck in the valley unless they could find transport. The smart thing would be for the cartoon contingent to head for one of the checkpoints and see if they could find one or two of the buses…
As soon as she thought, "buses," Takumba saw a couple of them take the turn in the road. With a sinking feeling she saw the jeep that was driving ahead of them, loaded with soldiers in blue uniforms, and perched on the hood of the lead jeep was ---
"SELKIE!"
"Hi guys! Looks whats I founds!"
The Crusaders, Modest and Squid Girl helped the fish girl disembark.
"Way to go, Sarnothi!" said Squid Girl.
"How did yous -- Laters. These guys says they're froms the Uniteds Nations."
"Under their auspices, actually." The speaker was a stunning redhead in a green catsuit. She stood out from the troops, both male and female, who were dressed in blue with an odd insignia, a winged medallion with the letter G.
Modest looked at her interlocutor and gasped. "Sam?"
"You know me? How --" Her ringtone interrupted that thought. "Hold on. Hello? -- Well, KP, the 'sitch' is we got here just in time to see the girls rescue themselves. Of course, we were able to mop up the checkpoints on the way in."
"We left the Snakes tied up on the island," said Apple Bloom.
"Including the big boss himself," said Sweetie.
"You've been busy," said Sam. "KP, tell G-Squared we're on the way with her exclusive. I'm out."
Sam walked over to a blonde in a red catsuit, who was busy waving the once-detained girls onto the waiting flying-G buses. "Clover, take a squad and pick up the Snakes on the island. Looks like we hit the jackpot."
A third girl, with black hair and a yellow catsuit, came over to the Crusaders and their new friends. "Hi! I'm Alex. Looks like you've come a long way."
"You could say that," said Apple Bloom.
"Hey," said Scootaloo, "anypony else feel a little -- flimsy…."
"My tummy is jumpy," said Modest, clutching her stomach.
Before Alex' disbelieving eyes, six creatures of fantasy were replaced by three more of the girls they'd come to rescue.
"What just happened?" said Modoyin, who'd been interrogated by the staff of a certain elementary school.
"I don't know," said Nneka, "but I'm glad to get out of THAT place! American Consulate my butt!"
Alex shook her head. "Okay, girls, we need to get you home now. Get on the bus."
The returnees were so eager they didn't even notice Alex bend down to scoop up three plushies.
Takumba found herself seated next to Bolanle, of all people.
"Look!" yelled Bolanle, pointing out the window at Alex. "That bitch has my ponies!"
"Bolanle, calm down. Believe me, after what we've been through, your daddy's gonna buy you new ponies."
"I guess," mumbled Bolanle. "But they won't talk!"
Takumba laughed like she never thought she would again.
In another place…
Modest finished telling her story to Jake, who shook his head and said he was just glad things were back to normal. Then he remembered, for him "normal" meant pirate weasels and chainsaw unicorns.
In another place…
Four members of the school staff saw a new girl, who looked like one of those abducted girls from the news, get replaced by Selkie Smith. The principal locked himself in his office and wouldn't come out even when the federal agents arrived.
In another place…
Squid Girl had expected to find herself back at the Lemon Beach House; instead she was someplace nearly as familiar, the underground lab-slash-torture chamber run by those dingbat technicians.
"Oh good," she said, cracking her knuckles. "New toys."
In another place…
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell found themselves surrounded by barbed wire, flashing lights and an air raid siren. A reptilian figure arose from the chaos.
"Oh hey guys," said Spike. "Welcome back."
As might have been expected, Twilight Sparkle had set up an enclosure to keep their plushy counterparts safe, after Button Mash had breathlessly informed her that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had somehow turned into stuffed dolls.
Spike got Twilight, Twilight got Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie showed up all by herself with cake and ice cream. Over snacks the fillies gave a mostly accurate if highly colored account of their time in the human world. Twilight took enough notes to fill a journal and a half.
Eventually, of course, things started to wind down. Rarity took Sweetie Bell home to the Carousel; the Apple girls, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo traveled the same direction for a bit.
"What I can't get," said Applejack, "is why you girls and your -- friends -- just showed up like that, no rhyme or reason."
"If this was a Daring Do book," said Rainbow Dash, "there'd be a buried treasure chest with a mystic amulet or something inside, and it got activated when all those girls cried out for help."
"Hmph. Sounds more like one o' Discord's tricks. Well, here's where we turn off. Say goodnight, Apple Bloom."
"Night! See ya in school tomorrow!"
"Yeah, see ya…" said a rather subdued Scootaloo.
"Why so down, squirt? You know, in one way Cheerilee's gonna love your story."
"Huh? Why's that?"
"'Cause those Steel Snake jerks were so scared of educated fillies they were willing to kidnap them! Cheerilee has to like how important that makes education!"
"I guess. It's just that… us Crusaders went to a whole other world, met fantastic creatures and beat the bad guys, and already it seems… not really real, you know? Like some kind of crazy dream--" Scootaloo, intent on expressing her thoughts, didn't notice the statue until she walked into it.
A most unusual statue, at that. Three stone humans encircling a live one.
A very wet and bedraggled Faro Khanda looked at her and said, "Hey. Next time you dream -- leave me out of it."
Author's Note
Annnnd... a Looney Tunes reference to take us out.
Modest Medusa can be found at .
Selkie is at .
Squid Girl can be found at Crunchyroll.
Let me say that I mean no disrespect, nor do I want to capitalize on a tragedy. This is pure wish fulfillment on my part. I hope that the girls in Nigeria, and their families, see an end to their troubles soon.
