t was going to be a perfectly normal day for Pinkie Pie; in other words, it was going to be anything but normal. Today was simply going to be a little freakier than normal.
She was happily bouncing towards Sweet Apple Acres, wondering what Applejack was doing. Hopefully nothing that was too much work, that would be boring! Although maybe she could make it less so... or maybe she could turn Applejack's work into a game! That would be so much fun! Of course, if Applejack wasn't doing anything, then she could have even more fun! But even if she didn't want to do anything with Pinkie, then maybe she could have an adventure with Apple Bloom and her friends! Oh that would be so much- twitchy tail!
Pinkie stopped. Something was about to fall, so she had to get out of the way before-
"LOOK OUT!!!"
The source of the voice was right above Pinkie, so she ran out of the way just as something big, brown, fuzzy, and vaguely Draconian, with a mass of purple hair fell where she had been just a few seconds ago. Pausing for a few minutes to catch her breath, she looked at the strange creature. She suddenly realized that the mass of purple hair was in fact her dear friend Twilight Sparkle.
"Good morning Twilight Sparkle!" she greeted, apparently oblivious to the fact that Twilight had arrived on the back of a bizarre-looking creature. "How are you doing today?"
Twilight groaned. She was clearly addled by her experience... whatever it had been.
"Of course it was going to be Pinkie Pie who I landed next to of all ponies..." she thought to herself before speaking. "Hello Pinkie Pie. I'm just... you know... handling Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, and other extinct creatures that have been brought back to life with a combination of advanced Equestrian science and complex magic."
"Ooooh, that sounds like fun!" said Pinkie Pie. "Wait, what?"
"It's... complicated," answered Twilight. "Let me show you."
She gathered magic in her horn, causing it to glow brightly, then released it, teleporting herself and Pinkie Pie, as well as the creature, to a different location. The first thing Pinkie Pie noticed was that it looked a lot like a zoo, except it was indoors, and the cages seemed to be triple-reinforced and electrified... and a lot of the animals were freakishly bizarre.
"Where are we?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"This is the Canterlot Genetics lab," answered Twilight. "They've been doing some pretty cool stuff for a while now, and I've been interning here since some time after last year's Nightmare Night."
"Twilight! Good to see you made it back! Although I didn't expect you to bring any visitors..."
The two ponies looked around to see a brown Earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark. Pinkie recognized him, as he lived in Ponyville, but she couldn't remember his name.
"Oh, hello Doctor, I got the Quetzalcoatlus that managed to escape. It's out cold right now, but it'll probably wake up soon."
"Excellent work, Twilight!" said the pony, as he gestured two of his co-workers, a pair of unicorns, to move the creature back to its cage. As it was moved away, Twilight introduced him to Pinkie.
"Pinkie Pie, I'd like you to meet Dr. David Trottant, or as we like to call him, ''Doctor Whooves.''"
"Oh!" squeaked Pinkie. "Now I remember! You're the guy who's always hanging out with Derpy!"
"Er, yes, that's me," said Whooves. "Anyway, have Twilight told you anything about what we're doing here, miss Pie?"
"Nope," said Pinkie, "I just got here by accident! See, I was on my way to see my friend Applejack, 'cause I wanted to hang out with her, but-"
"...Yes, I see." interrupted Whooves. "Now, would you like a tour of the facilities?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pinkie Pie marveled at the many creatures that were present in the laboratory; as they passed each section, Whooves taught her about the creatures inside.
"Those are Pachycephalosaurus," he explained as they passed some large, two legged, two armed reptilian creatures with large, thick skulls. "We're not quite sure what they use their thick heads for. We've come up with several theories, but we still haven't had any of them confirmed yet.
Whooves pointed at another, which had a large number of hard bony plates, and a tail that looked like a club.
"That's Ankylosaurus. It was heavily armored to fend off attacks from the large predatory dinosaurs that it co-existed with.
They then passed a large reptilian animal, which had a large number of plates on its back, and four long spikes on its tail.
"That is called Stegosaurus," explained Whooves. "The spikes on its tail are called 'thagomizers', in honor of its primary caretaker, the late Thag Simmons."
"What happened to him?" asked Pinkie.
"Oh, you don't want to know," answered Twilight."
Pinkie stared at her, wondering what could she mean by that. Fortunately, before she could say anything else, Whooves called her attention to another dinosaur; this one was somewhat smaller, though it was still larger than any pony Pinkie had ever seen, except maybe Princess Celestia, and... it had feathers like a bird?
"What is that supposed to be?" she asked.
"Deinonychus!" answered Whooves. "Or, as we like to call them, Raptors! One of my favorites! We think that modern birds descended from a creature similar to Deinonychus, although they were probably smaller, and so they probably weren't capable of ripping ponies limb from limb..."
Twilight cringed at the idea of ponies being ripped apart, but Pinkie wouldn't let that get in the way of enjoying the rest of the tour, which was fortunate, as Whooves had just brought them to a really big dinosaur... one whose puny arms did nothing to reduce the scariness of its huge jaws.
"Tyrannosaurus Rex! Or, as we like to call it, T-Rex! The Ursa Major of the Cretaceous!"
Whooves then proceeded to point at another cage, containing a large dinosaur with two long horns pointing out from above its eyes, and a large neck frill which looked almost like a shield.
"And over there, we have its mortal enemy, Triceratops. They must have had countless battles for survival, each knowing that losing would mean certain death..."
Twilight gulped, but Pinkie began to take pictures of them both, before moving on to another dinosaur... one so big that, even though its cage was two stories below the others, its neck still reached far above any of the non-pegasus ponies. Pinkie pointed her camera up, up, up... and proceeded to gasp louder than she ever had... except when she had met Twilight.
"OMIGOSH that thing is so huge! Twilight, are you excited? 'Cause I'm excited! I've never been so excited! Well, except when you came to Ponyville and I went *GASP*, but really, who could-
"PINKIE PIE!!!"
"Oh, sorry Twilight."
"Sauroposeidon, one of the biggest dinosaurs of all!" said Whooves. "Of course, I say ''one of'' the biggest, because there are some that grew even bigger, but we'd probably go over our budget building a place for something THAT big... of course, we don't have just dinosaurs! There's plenty of other animals which I think you'll enjoy!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the Steven Magnet zone (Whooves had thought it was a stupid name for a section full of sea monsters, but his superiors had insisted) Pinkie Pie was in awe as she observed the various aquarium tanks full of creatures which had been extinct for millions of years, and had now been revived through crazy- not mad, mad was bad- ooh, that rhymed, maybe she could make a Pinkie song out of that for when she met some pony who didn't want to be friends, maybe Gilda- but Gilda wasn't a pony, was she?- maybe the Flimflam brothers?- actually, the whole "every pony" or some pony" or "any pony" thing was kinda obstructive, since it excluded creatures like dragons and griffins and other non-ponies, so maybe she should've said "someone". That way, she could also think of the Diamond dogs, parasprites, or Discord- oh, wait, where was she again?- oh, that's right, science.
"One of the more recent monsters of the deep, Megalodon" said Whooves, pointing at a giant shark. "More than twice the size of the modern Great White Shark, Megalodon was an Apex predator that could devour virtually any creature it wanted to. Fish, dolphins, other sharks, even whales could be eaten by this huge creature.
He then pointed at another tank, which contained a large creature with alligator-like jaws, as well as a short pair of flippers near its head, as well as an even shorter pair near its tail. Its whole body was very long, almost snakelike, yet its skin was smooth, rather than scaly like a snake or alligator.
"Is that an alligator-snake?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Alligator-snake! That's funny, but no," answered Whooves. "It's actually called "Basilosaurus", or "King lizard. Somewhat ironic, since it's actually a primitive whale, and not a reptile..."
He pointed at the back flippers. "Those are the last remnants of its life as a land animal. Later whales would go on to lose them as they became more and more aquatic."
Twilight pointed at another creature, which was bigger, toothier, crocodile-ish, and looked utterly terrifying.
"That's... Tylosaurus..." she said. "One of the biggest and baddest sea monsters ever. If it were to get into the ocean...
"Relax, Twilight," Whooves reassured her, "we're far away from any body of water, so there's little chance that it will manage to escape. As for the others... I'm pretty confident the security protocols I've helped to implement will prevent the rest of the creatures from getting out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They went off towards the flying creature zone, where there were some bizarre animals which kind of reminded Pinkie Pie of dragons, but were fuzzy rather than scaly. Pinkie remembered the creature which Twilight had fallen from the sky on, and she realized that most of the creatures looked very similar to that thing.
"Hey, Twilight?" she asked. "Was that creature that was trying to eat you earlier part of this group?"
"Oh, yeah, it was," answered Twilight. "In fact, it's somewhere around here, if you want to see it. Of course, there are plenty of other flying reptiles, or "Pterosaurs", as they are called in the scientific community."
"Oh! There they are!" said Pinkie Pie as a few pterosaurs flew through their large cage. She recognized some of them as the same type as the one Twilight had crashed down on earlier...Ketzokowsomething...
"Quetzalcoatlus, the biggest non-magical creature ever to fly!" said Whooves. "I doubt it would want to eat ponies, but it seems to prefer a carnivorous diet, which may have primarily included fish."
He then pointed at another group of pterosaurs, which had long crests on the back of their heads.
"Those are Pteranodon," he said. "They were similar to Quetzalcoatlus, but they were smaller."
"They're so cool, Mr. Doctor!" said Pinkie Pie. "Do you think I could ride on one?"
"I... don't think so," said Whooves. "They're probably don't have the intelligence needed to understand orders from ponies, and I don't know if they can take the weight of a pony such as yourself. Furthermore, they're probably not too friendly."
Pinkie Pie thought about this for a minute, looked up at Whooves and Twilight again, then said "Oki Doki Loki!" and followed them, although she made a note to herself to try and fly on the back of one of those Ketzokowhatevers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After seeing the pterosaurs, Twilight invited Pinkie to have lunch with the Laboratory scientists, offering to explain to her a bit about the many things that they did with the prehistoric creatures. Pinkie Pie was still curious, so she happily accepted. As they walked towards the cafeteria, Pinkie suddenly had a thought, and decided to ask Twilight.
"Hey, Twilight. I don't really know if I should ask, since it seems like a kinda silly question, but why good does Princess Celestia find in reviving extinct creatures?"
"Uh... yeah?" Twilight began uneasily. "Well, it wasn't really her..."
"Oh Twilight," said Whooves, "you don't need to act that way. After all, Princess Luna may have crazy ideas, but I'm sure she knows what she's doing!"
"So this whole thing was Luna's idea?" asked Pinkie.
"Well... yeah," answered Twilight. "Princess Celestia was understandably apprehensive about the implications of reviving Dinosaurs, but she promised she'd get the best people to watch over them and..."
"AND WE HAVE CERTAINLY DONE THAT!!!" said a ridiculously loud voice which made the three ponies cringe. Sure enough, Princess Luna was walking right behind them, presumably on her way to lunch.
"Ah... good afternoon, your highness," said Whooves. "May I request that you do not use your Royal Canterlot voice indoors? It is quite painful for our ears."
"Of course, Dr. Trottant," Luna said, still somewhat loudly, but not ear-splittingly loud. "Pinkie Pie. It is good to see you. We last met at the Nightmare Night festival, and you were... Very convincing as a gallus domesticus."
"A what?"
"A chicken. We apologize. After working so long with Scientists, we tend to use scientific names somewhat more commonly than usual. Anyway, shall we talk more over lunch?"
"Sure! I'm hungry! Especially if there's cake!"
Luna smiled, and they walked towards the cafeteria. As they walked, they talked about their lives and how things had been going since Nightmare night. As they arrived, the first thing Pinkie noticed was the utter lack of a dessert aisle. She was about to complain about this culinary indignity, but she was distracted by a number of other ponies, most of which were wearing white lab coats, but some of which were simply wearing names tags, one of which was...
"FLUTTERSHY!!!"
Fluttershy looked surprised to see Pinkie Pie, and she remained silent, slowly walking towards the group. She seemed apprehensive, and kept looking anywhere other than in Pinkie's direction. Finally she reached them, but she still didn't say anything, even as Pinkie Pie showed her a huge smile. Finally, she managed a small "hi."
"Fluttershy! How are you? What are you doing here? Do you take care of the dinosaurs? Have you ever stared at one? Do you try to ride on them?"
Fluttershy squeaked in response. It was obvious she was worried about something, so Luna answered for her.
"Fluttershy has been giving us advice on how to handle the animals and prevent them from escaping. She's been a great help to us, but she doesn't say much."
At this moment, Fluttershy gave a nervous squeak. Luna looked down at her worriedly, asking Fluttershy if she was still scared of Luna after their... exciting encounter on Nightmare night.
"No, it's nothing wrong with you, Luna..." said Fluttershy. "It's just that those... things... are so big... and scary... and they could eat a pony in one bite if they wanted to... and worst of all... they... they...
"Yeeeees?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"They... THEY LOOK JUST LIKE BIG SCARY DRAGONS!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Everyone in the cafeteria looked up in surprise. It was the first time they had ever seen meek and soft-spoken Fluttershy ever raise her voice. She looked absolutely horrified.
"I'm sorry! But it's just true!" she shouted, now on the verge of tears. "I'm scared to death of dragons, and these... things look just like Dragons, so I get scared!!! I don't know how I've managed to work here so long with them creeping all over the place, and I don't know how much longer I can stand it!"
Pinkie was shocked by Fluttershy's sudden outburst, and the looks on the faces of the others told her that they were also surprised. Fortunately, Pinkie had an idea. She gestured to the other to surround Fluttershy, then proceeded to give her a big hug. The others were surprised, but they followed her example, first Twilight, then Luna, and finally, Doctor Whooves. After about a minute of hugging, Fluttershy calmed down, and even began to smile.
"Th- thanks, Pinkie, Twilight, Princess, Doctor..." she said, with a sound of relief in her voice. But... I just can't help but wonder... what if one of those creatures managed to... get... out?"
"Relax," Luna reassured her. "Dr. Trottant himself designed the security protocols in this facility! What are the chances that something can escape?"
"Please don't say that," said Twilight. "I feel like you're giving fate a lot of temptation."
"Twilight, don't be so glum!" laughed Luna. "The chances of any one creature escaping are remote, and the chances of all of the creatures escaping... well, completely impossible!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the main exhibit area, the completely impossible had just been set into motion. A unicorn scientist had just received a facefull of dust due to one of the Dinosaurs sneezing, and he was himself feeling ready to sneeze. He checked his checklist as he scratched his nose, hoping he wouldn't have to go to the doctor to deal with his desire to sneeze. However, he managed to calm down long enough to walk towards the master switch, which controlled every cage and security measure. He checked it to make sure everything was in order, and had just confirmed that all the security protocols were fully functional, and so he was about to lock it down to ensure that it would not be tampered with when he sneezed. That single sneeze was strong enough to make a surge of magic erupt from his horn towards the master switch, causing it to deactivate.
Instantly, dozens of bizarre and dangerous creatures were released.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...And then this otherworldly contraption appeared in my room. It looked like some kind of mirror or window, except that it was made of a mysterious material unlike anything in Equestria. The scientists say it's called "plastic" which sounds like a silly name for something so otherworldly. And then it showed me some sort of theatrical performance called "Jurassic Park" which showed the creation of genetically restored extinct creatures through the science of strange simian creatures. I was quite entertained by it... except for the parts where the simians were devoured by the Dinosaurs...
Twilight, Fluttershy, and Whooves stared at her silently, with fear and apprehension etched on their faces, while Pinkie Pie kept looking at her with interest.
"...So I thought, 'wouldn't it be great if we could do the same?' So I told Celestia all about it, although she was quite worried about the whole idea, so she didn't want me to do anything. Anyway, I kept asking her, so she eventually gave up and allowed me to hire a variety of intellectual ponies to assist me in this endeavor, on the condition that, if anything went horribly wrong, which I am sure will never happen, I stop trying to pursue this kind of endeavors and stick to raising the Moon. And maybe write my memoirs on being trapped on the moon for-"
"ALERT. SECURITY CODES DELETED. ALL CREATURES FREE."
Every pony in the cafeteria was silent... except Pinkie Pie, who immediately started running around screaming, before stopping and asking, "Hey, any pony want to panic with me?"
Every pony except Twilight, who facehoofed, Whooves, who was still silent, Fluttershy, who had gone into a fainting -goat position, and Luna, who was staring off into space, evidently wondering how it had managed to go wrong, began to panic with Pinkie Pie.
"Awesome! We all can have a panic party! Where did I leave my Party cannon?
"Pinkie Pie!" yelled Twilight. "This is no time for parties! We need to subdue all the creatures and prevent them from wreaking havoc on Equestria!
"Oki Doki Loki!" Pinkie answered excitedly. I'll see what I can do! Come with me Princess!"
Luna was taken by surprise as Pinkie grabbed her hoof and led her away. She was already quite speechless about the fact that the prehistoric beasts had managed to escape, and Pinkie's actions weren't exactly helping. However, she soon managed to ask "...What are you planning, Pinkie Pie?"
"Oh, I have a great idea!" she answered excitedly. "It's something I read in a fanfic!"
"A... a what, now?"
"I'll explain later! Right now we need to find some mannequins!"
"Mannequins?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight and Whooves ran off to see how they could control the escape of dozens of potentially dangerous creatures that had escaped. As they ran, they discussed what to do with each of the animals.
"Okay, the raptors are quite likely to be the biggest immediate threat, so we'd better subdue them first," said Whooves.
"Yeah?" said Twilight. "So how do we subdue them?"
"You use your magic to levitate a piece of meat, which will attract their attention, then you lead them back into their cage, which we will then close."
"Oh, okay," said Twilight. "Then how do we get the T-Rex?"
"Well, if we can get it and the Triceratops to fight, they may manage to weaken each other enough for us to capture them, or at least buy us enough time to think of something," answered Whooves.
"Okay, and what about the sea Monsters?" asked Twilight.
"Those probably won't be able to do much on dry land, so I say we deal with them last. The real problem will be the Pterosaurs. I don't quite know how we're gonna catch up to them..."
"And what about the herbivores?" asked Twilight. "Will they be easier?"
"Not likely," answered Whooves. "They're probably not gonna be too happy about us coming to re-imprison them. And some of them can be aggressive even under normal conditions... remember Simmons?"
"...Please don't remind me of that," said Twilight.
"Well, we're going to have a lot on our plate after this... I wonder what Princess Celestia is going to say about all this..."
"OH MY GOSH YOU'RE RIGHT!!!" Twilight practically screamed. "She'll probably order the whole facility burned down, and then she'll turn us into slaves, or banish us all to the moon, or force us to watch simian political debates, or make us work as slaves while banished to the moon with broadcasts of the simian political debates!!! MY LIFE IS RUINED!!!"
"Twilight, I think you're overreacting," Whooves reassured her. "Princess Celestia is far too benevolent to punish any of us so harshly. Given your closeness to her, I doubt you'll be punished at all. In fact, if we can get the situation under control quickly, we might not even need to close down this facility."
"Yeah, I hope so... she did banish her own sister though..."
"That was the absolute last option she had left. It was the hardest choice she ever had to make; either her sister, who she loved more than anything else, or the ponies of Equestria, to whom Celestia had a responsibility she could not ignore. As we both know, Celestia chose her people, and had she chosen Luna, it is likely neither of us would be alive."
"I know... I just can't shake off the ugly feeling that- Raptors!"
Twilight and Whooves came to a stop. Right in front of them were a trio of Deinonychus, their claws ready to slash, their eyes lusting for blood, their teeth hungry for their first taste of pony flesh.
Twilight and Whooves stood their ground. They knew they didn't stand much of a chance against the Raptors, but they had a plan, and they were ready to implement it. Now, if only they could find some meat to distract them with...
"Incoming!!!"
Twilight and Whooves looked towards the source of the voice, and saw Luna flying towards them, at the same time as the Raptors sped towards them. Luna swooped down and pulled them up just as the Raptors were about to pounce. Whooves and Twilight scrambled up onto the moon princess' back.
"Luna! Thanks for the save!"
"Glad to be of service, Twilight Sparkle!"
Twilight smiled, then looked down towards the chaos that was unfolding below; dozens of ponies being chased by all sorts of dinosaurs.
"Man... how are we gonna fix this mess?"
"Don't worry, Twilight, I have a plan!"
Twilight and Whooves looked up to a completely unexpected sight: Pinkie Pie was riding a Quetzalcoatlus, having used a long strip of licorice as a rope and tied it around the pterosaur's beak, then used it to steer all around the laboratory. Twilight stared, her jaw dropping as low as it could, while Whooves remarked: "Well, what do you know? You can ride a pterosaur."
"So... you've got a plan, Pinkie?" asked Twilight. She knew that her friend was... odd. But she also knew that she had a knack for finding bizarre but effective solutions to a variety of problems.
"Oh, sure. See that pony over there?"
Twilight, Whooves, and Luna looked down at the pony Pinkie was pointing at. It was a blue earth pony, although they couldn't tell if it was male or female. However, what they could see was that it was being cornered by a trio of raptors.
"Oh my gosh! We need to help that pony!" said Twilight. But to her surprise, Pinkie said "Nu-uh!"
"What do you mean?!" asked Whooves, clearly not happy. "He or she is going to be ripped apart by those beasts!"
"Exactly," said Luna. This disturbed Whooves and Twilight.
"What is wrong with you two?!" asked Twilight.
"Just watch and learn," said Luna.
Twilight and Whooves were still shocked, but they did as Luna said. As they watched, they noticed something strange: the pony was doing absolutely nothing to escape. This could have been due to it being unable to move, but it was standing up on both feet, which seemed to indicate it was perfectly fine. They then noticed that it wasn't the only one; there were at least a dozen other ponies which were completely still, as if...
"They're decoys!" exclaimed Twilight.
"Not just decoys!" said Pinkie. At that moment, the raptors pounced on the decoy... which exploded in a burst of confetti and gas. The raptors were thrown back, but got back up... only to fall back down, fast asleep.
"You... You filled that with sleeping gas!!! Oh that's just brilliant!" said Whooves.
"It was Pinkie's idea!" said Luna. "I was quite confused when she asked for mannequins, but after she explained her plan, I thought it was great, and so I offered to help her."
"Well, that certainly seems to be working out fine," said Whooves as they looked down. Several raptors had already been knocked out, as were a group of Pachycephalosaurus who had charged at one of them in what may have been a display of force to protect their territory. The same had happened to some pterosaurs who had swooped down to attack some ponies. However, there were still several who had not yet been neutralized. Even worse, there were even some ponies who were still being chased by the raging reptiles.
"We have to save them!" said Twilight.
"Got it!" said Pinkie Pie, and she proceeded to shriek a bunch of random calls that sounded vaguely like a bird's cry. Ridiculously, the Quetzalcoatlus seemed to understand her, as it proceeded to swoop down towards the ponies that were in danger, lift them up in its beak, then fly them up to higher floors, where Pinkie Pie told them to run for safety. Twilight, Luna, and Whooves watched in amazement as Pinkie did her work, slowly rescuing every pony with the help of her pterosaur.
"How does she do that?!" asked Whooves.
"I don't know," said Twilight. "She... just does."
Luna and Pinkie landed together, right next to a pair of zonked-out raptors. The four ponies looked around, watching all the dinosaurs and pterosaurs that had been knocked out by Pinkie's surprisingly clever idea. However, they weren't done yet. There were a couple of creatures that were still unaccounted for, and...
"Fluttershy!!!"
They had seen a mass of shaking pink hair, hidden away from all the dinosaurs. Evidently, Fluttershy had attempted to escape, but she had found herself unable to, and had hidden under a table in hopes that the dinosaurs and pterosaurs wouldn't see her.
"Hey Fluttershy! Are you playing Hide and Seek?"
"N-n-no Pinkie! I'm h-h-hiding from the d-d-d-dinosaurs!"
"Oh! Are they playing too? I'm it!"
"Pinkie Pie!" yelled Twilight. "This is no time for games! We need to get out of here before we get eaten by a T-Rex!"
"Speaking of which..." said Whooves.
Twilight, Pinkie, and Luna looked up to see the last thing they would have wanted to see at a moment like this; forty feet long, thirteen feet tall, and filled with razor-sharp teeth, the Tyrannosaurus was looking at them with hunger in its eyes. Pinkie was not quite sure what to do; she had never had to face off against anything like this before, although she knew that Twilight had once managed to calm down an Ursa Minor, which was like the only thing worse than this, except an Ursa Major, which really didn't count since it was kinda the same thing, and yet it wasn't, because of the name, but what was in a name? In fact, why did the baby Ursa Major even have a different name? Wouldn't it suffice to simply call it a "baby Ursa Major"? It's not like any other creature had any- oh wait, baby ponies were called foals, and baby cows were called calves, so maybe there was some sense in giving different-
"PINKIE PIE!!!"
"Oh! Sorry! What's up, Twilight?"
"Do you have any ideas on how to deal with these things?!" Twilight screamed in a strained voice, as she held the T-Rex back by pushing back with her magic. The giant predator was clearly putting up a fight, however... and it was now being accompanied by five other Tyrannosaurus, which were being held back by Luna. Pinkie began to wonder where the others came from, but she pushed the thought back to consider what to do about the T-rexes, when she realized that the had the solution.
"I know what to do!" she said as she pulled out her party cannon, seemingly out of nowhere.
"...You're not serious, are you?" asked Whooves.
"Sure I am!" said Pinkie as she increased the power to maximum, aimed for the first T-Rex, and fired... blasting it with such intensity that it was thrown back about sixty feet. After that it slowly got to its feet, shook its head in confusion, and walked away, wanting nothing to do with the crazy multicolored snack-size creatures. With the exception of Twilight, who to some extent was used to this sort of things from Pinkie Pie, the other ponies were shocked.
"Okay, now I've seen everything," said Luna.
"How did you..." said Whooves.
"Like I said, I don't know how she does it," answered Twilight. "She just does."
Pinkie gave the others a big wide smile, and then blasted another T-Rex, and then another, and another, and yet another. She then pointed at the last one, when she realized she was out of ammo.
"Oops, maybe I overdid it at the Cutie Mark Crusaders' sleepover..."
"Gee... you think?" asked Twilight as she collapsed, exhausted after defending her friends from the T-Rex. To make matters worse, Luna collapsed as well, the effort of holding back five full-grown Tyrannosaurus having taken its toll on her.
"Okay... maybe I went overboard with the T-Rex clones..."
""Maybe?!!"" said Twilight. "Great! For a moment there I was worried that you had gone totally overkill!"
The ponies stopped arguing when they heard the T-Rex roar. They looked up in horror, except Fluttershy, who was still cowering under her table. She grew even more afraid when she heard the dinosaur roar, and really, really, really wanted it all to be just a really bad dream and wake up... when she heard her friends screaming. At that moment, something deep within her changed... snapped. She looked up at the T-Rex, which was a few seconds away from pouncing, and suddenly, all her fear was gone.
"Stay... away... YOU BIG DUMB MEANIE!!!"
The other ponies looked up in surprise at Fluttershy's sudden change in attitude as she opened her wings and flew up to look at the sharp-toothed monster in the eye.
"DON'T YOU DARE COME ONE STEP CLOSER TO MY FRIENDS!!!"
The Tyrannosaurus seemed to be stunned. It seemed as though it wanted to attack Fluttershy then and there, but it seemed to be paralyzed. The other ponies were dumbfounded, with the exception of Twilight, who had heard Fluttershy speak about it, but had never seen it for herself, and yet there was no mistaking it; Fluttershy was using The Stare.
"Are you going to back off now?!!"
The T-Rex seemed unable to decide. However, after a while, it slowly began to walk backwards, away from the ponies, and finally turned away and went off to search for easier prey. Twilight, Pinkie, Luna, and Whooves watched in amazement as Fluttershy floated down to rejoin them. However, after a moment, they cheered and hugged Fluttershy. She smiled, and gave a small "yay."
"You're amazing, Fluttershy," said Twilight.
"You saved us all!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
"I've never seen anything like that!" said Whooves. "You have an extraordinary gift!"
"I knew I made a good choice of animal handler!" said Luna.
"Th- thanks, Pinkie, Twilight, Princess, Doctor..." Fluttershy felt slightly overwhelmed by happiness.
"Oki Doki Loki!" said Pinkie. "Let's catch the rest of the Dinosaurs!!"
"Agreed!" said Whooves. "Allons-y!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight and Whooves were flying on Luna's back once again, while Pinkie had mounted her Quetzalcoatlus. As for Fluttershy, she was flying alongside Luna and Pinkie. They were flying around the laboratory to find any remaining dinosaurs and re-capture them. So far, they were only seeing the dinosaurs that had been knocked out by Pinkie's traps. However, they had just spotted the Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus. They were still very close to their cages, and it seemed that they had just wandered out by accident. In fact, they seemed indifferent to the fact that they had even been in cages in the first place.
"Wow," said Pinkie Pie, "they don't seem to worried."
"Armored dinosaurs were extremely good at defending themselves, but their brains were tiny compared to other species," explained Twilight. "They gave up brains for brawn."
"Let's see how much good that does them!" shouted Whooves, as he pointed towards something large that was walking towards them; a trio of T-Rexes.
Twilight, Pinkie, Luna, and Fluttershy looked down and saw the large predators as they surrounded the two armored dinosaurs. One of them went for the Ankylosaurus, while the second and third went for the Stegosaurus. The first attempted to attack the Ankylosaurus' tail... and got whacked in the face. The other two surrounded the Stegosaurus, one roaring in its face to distract it while the other attacked from behind... and nearly had one of its eyes gouged out when it was hit by the Stegosaurus's thagomizers. After this, the other Tyrannosaurus, clearly intimidated by the strength the Stegosaurus had displayed, began to back off... right into the Ankylosaurus.
"Ohh... that's gonna leave a mark..." Pinkie commented.
"Assuming we can prevent my sister from closing down this facility, we're going to have to figure out how to treat the wounded Tyrannosaurus without getting eaten," said Luna.
"...That should be the least of our worries at the moment, your highness," said Whooves.
"Yeah," said Twilight, "we still have to find the last two Rexes!"
"There!" squeaked Fluttershy, pointing at one of the two remaining Tyrannosaurus, which was walking right towards the Triceratops.
"They're gonna fight!" said Twilight.
"Who's gonna win?!" asked Pinkie Pie.
"I don't want to know!" answered Fluttershy.
"If we're lucky, we can subdue them before we find out!" said Whooves. "Listen Twilight! Luna! I'm going to need both of you! And you too, Pinkie!"
As Whooves explained his plan, the two reptilian titans began to face off. The T-Rex roared and bared its teeth, while the Triceratops snorted and shook its head, displaying its fearful horns. Finally, the T-Rex charged towards the Triceratops, and managed to clamp its jaws onto the Triceratops' horn. The Triceratops bellowed and began to shake its head, trying to force the T-Rex to let go. It finally did, and the Triceratops began to charge towards the T-Rex's leg... only to be stopped by a mysterious force. The T-Rex was immobilized as well, unable to take a bite out of its prey. They had been prevented from doing so by Twilight and Luna, while Pinkie flew right towards them with a pair of balloons in her hoof.
"Here you go! Enjoy!"
The two dinosaurs seemed surprised as they observed the brightly colored balloons floating towards them... until they burst, dousing them with sleeping gas. They immediately fell asleep, and Twilight and Luna could finally lower them.
"Great!" said Twilight. "We've got almost all the dinosaurs!"
"Indeed," said Whooves, "the only ones unaccounted for are the last Rex, a couple of Pachycephalosaurus, and the Sauroposeidon, which I'm not quite sure how we're going to subdue... speaking of which, where did it go? Something that size can't just vanish into thin air... that would be-"
"Uh... D-D-Doctor?" interrupted Fluttershy nervously, pointing towards a small group of Pachycephalosaurs, who were running right towards them... and were being chased by the last T-Rex.
"Hi there!" Pinkie Pie greeted the thick-headed herbivores, apparently not noticing the giant flesh-eater right behind them. "Where are you going?"
"MOVE!!!"
Pinkie bounced out of the way as the others galloped aside. As the thick-skulled dinosaurs ran past them, the five ponies regrouped to face off against the giant carnivorous monster that was slowly approaching them.
"Get back!!" yelled Twilight. "I'll handle this!!"
"WE SHALL ASSIST YOU, TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!" Luna declared in her Royal Canterlot voice. Meanwhile, Fluttershy hid her face behind her hooves, Whooves stood his ground... and Pinkie's tail began twitching.
"Huh? Oh- TWILIGHT!!! TWITCH-A-TWITCH!!! TWITCH-A-TWITCH!!!"
"Not now, Pinkie!!" said Twilight, as she and Luna gathered magic energy in their horns. Mean while, the T-Rex got closer and closer. It was just fifty feet away... or forty feet... thirty... twenty... it was ten feet away... when the Sauroposeidon fell on top of it.
"HUH?!"
"WHAT?"
"But how..."
"I told you!"
The Sauroposeidon had fallen on its feet, and it seemed to be perfectly fine. The T-Rex, on the other hand, had been crushed beneath the weight of the giant Sauropod that had landed on top of it.
"Is...is it over yet?" Fluttershy quietly asked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour later, Princess Celestia had arrived to assess the damage and discuss the future of the Canterlot Genetics lab. Pinkie was excited to see Celestia again, but Twilight and Luna were nervous.
"Twilight Sparkle! It's good to see you again! And you too, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Dr. Trottant... And of course, it's great to see you, Luna!"
"...Hello sister..."
"What's wrong, Luna? You don't seem too happy."
"Of course not," answered Luna. "You told me this was a bad Idea, and you were right... I put a whole bunch of ponies in danger... if it weren't for the brave efforts of these ponies, the whole thing would've been a disaster..."
"Indeed, the idea of reviving extinct creatures was reckless," said Celestia, "But when faced with danger, you did not run away or try to place the blame on others- which, admittedly, would have been quite acceptable in this case- but you faced the problem head-on. For that, I am proud of you, sister.
Luna immediately perked up and smiled at her sister, and Twilight sighed in relief. She had been worried about the prospect of being enslaved and banished to the moon while being forced to watch broadcasts of the simian political debates over and over again.
"So, tell me, how has the recovery work been going?" asked Celestia.
"Just brilliant," answered Whooves. "We've already managed to repair most of the enclosures and re-caged the most dangerous dinosaurs. The pterosaurs' area has taken a bit longer to repair, but we've managed to keep them grounded... They apparently like T-Rex bits."
"We couldn't have done it without Pinkie Pie and her brilliant ideas," Luna finished.
"Really?" said Celestia. "Tell me, Pinkie Pie, would you like to work here? We could really use your help in case of another outbreak!"
"You mean you're not going to close down the facility?!" asked Luna excitedly.
"No, I think we'll be safe from anything that comes out of here as long as we have "Pinkie Security" to protect us," answered Celestia.
"Wow! That's so great!" said Pinkie as the other ponies cheered. "Okay, but I'm gonna need a dessert aisle in the cafeteria! How can you ponies survive without dessert?! Tell me!"
The others laughed, and Luna agreed to have a dessert aisle added.
"There's just one thing I still don't get," said Twilight. "How did that Sauroposeidon fall on top of the T-Rex?"
"Ah, I believe I can answer that," said Whooves. "You see, when the security protocols were disabled, there was a disturbance in the magic barriers which held the dinosaurs at bay. Most of the disturbances were very small, so they did not affect the dinosaurs in any way. However, an unusually large disturbance cause the Sauroposeidon to be warped into a slightly different location in time and space. As a result, it appeared a few feet above the T-Rex."
"What?" asked Pinkie.
"It got teleported," explained Twilight.
"That's not all," said Whooves. "A similar disturbance occurred in the sea monster area."
"You mean the Steven Magnet zone?" asked Luna.
"...Yes," said Whooves. "Apparently, the three sea creatures were absorbed by one of these distortions and were deposited somewhere far away."
"THEY'RE GONE?!!" screamed Twilight.
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh nononononono NO!!! This is bad! Who knows where they ended up! They could be wreaking havoc in the Equestrian seas for all we know!!! What are we gonna do?!!"
"First of all, you should stop overreacting, Twilight," Celestia reassured her. "I'm sure it's not too serious."
"But what if they-"
"Please calm down, Twilight," said Whooves. "Given the distance between here and the closest sea, it's unlikely that those sea monsters will manage to get anywhere where they could cause trouble."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several miles away, deep in the Everfree forest, a blue unicorn with a white-streaked mane was walking along a river, looking for something. Like most ponies, she didn't like the idea of going into the Everfree forest, but a pegasus friend of hers had lost her bag when flying high above this area, and she had offered to find it. After some searching, she finally managed to find her friend's bag. She opened it, and felt quite disappointed when all it had was muffins. She muttered to herself, saying something about telling her friend to not bother her about some simple muffins.
Suddenly, the river started bubbling.
The unicorn jumped in surprise, watching as something started to emerge from the water. It looked like some sort of shark, but bigger than any she'd ever seen. Even worse, a second figure began to rise from the river... a snake-ish alligator-ish figure... and then something else rose from the water; a crocodile-like monster. Finally, a snake-like creature with an orange mustache surfaced and rose its head.
The blue unicorn cowered in fear as she watched the four river monsters rise, until she noticed something that would have seemed almost comical were she not so afraid; each one was wearing a straw hat and a bow tie. She barely had time to ponder this before each one opened its mouth, and she was ready to go back to cowering when suddenly...
"Hello..."
"Helloo..."
"Hellooo..."
"Wassuuuup???"
The unicorn screamed and ran away.
"See? I told you the wassup was a bad idea," said the Megalodon.
"Yes, I suppose it was," said the purple sea serpent. "But otherwise it was ab-so-loot-ly fabulous!!!"
"Have you always wanted to form a Barbershop Quartet, Steven?" asked the Tylosaurus.
"Oh, indeed!" answered Steven Magnet. "And they you three showed up out of nowhere, and suddenly I had a fabulous team with which to fulfill my dream!"
He wiped away a tear.
"Oh, dear me... I'm getting emotional..."
"Hey, guys, do you think those ponies are gonna come looking for us?" asked the Basilosaurus."
"I doubt it," said the Megalodon. "They're probably gonna be happy that we're not there to give them nightmares."
"And that means we'll become the world's greatest Barbershop Quartet!" laughed Steven.
The other sea creatures couldn't help but laugh with him. After spending months in a cramped lab tank, it was quite satisfying to finally be able to find their place in the world.
