It all started with Pinkie Pie. Of course it did. Almost all strange things were, in a way, linked to the almost always cheerful curly haired girl.
It was a normal day, and all the friends were hanging out at Rairty’s house, trying on outfits for places they had to go. Pinkie found a rock with writing on it while hanging out in the backyard. She said what was written on it out loud and the moment she did so, they were in the strangest place that either of the eight friends had ever seen. It had no real ground, just floating islands in an expanse of blue. Standing in front of them was a blue haired girl with magenta eyes, who appeared to be around their age.
“Heeeelloooooo!!!” the girl said. “My name is Sonata. Welcome to the other dimension!”
***
Flash picked at some sort of purple goop stuff on his plate. “So...why again are they throwing a party for us?”
Rarity stared at whatever it was on her plate as if it were an insult to her. “Who knows? Maybe cause we’re the the first people from our dimension here?”
Rainbow Dash leaned back in her chair, made sure Sonata wasn’t there watching, and tossed the goop under the table. “Ughhhhh!!! Who cares?! I got a soccer practice in, like, two hours!! And didn’t you have a date, Rarity?”
Rarity’s eyes slowly widened, and she put a hand to her forehead. “Oh dear...it had slipped my mind...”
“How’d a date, of all things, slip your mind?”
Rarity opened her mouth to reply, but promptly snapped it shut as Sonata returned with two other girls, one with frizzy yellow hair and one with long purple hair pulled back into two pigtails.
“The one with the bushy hair is my sister, Adagio, and the mean-looking one is my other sister, Aria!” Sonata smiled real big. “Now, everyone, enjoy the party!”
Rarity raised her hand. “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be impolite, but I have somewhere I need to be in 30 minutes. I need to leave...so if you could please send me back to my dimension?”
Aria laughed. “In 30 minutes? Well first, just eat your food, dance, do a little shopping and then you can get lost or go die for all I care.”
“Uh...what Aria means to say is first we gotta have a little fun, right?” Sonata jumped up. “I’ll show you around town and you can shop. Then you can go back. I promise it’ll take only 25 minutes.”
“But-”
“Too bad. It’s impossible to send a person back to their dimension right away. You’ll have to wait.”
So, for the next 25 minutes, Sonata gave them a quick view of town while they rode on a carriage pulled by fish-like creatures. It was strange, with unusually shaped houses and alien-like animals walking around the streets.
When it was time, Sonata had the coachman pull over to a large, white circle made out of marble on the ground in the center of town. Nothing surrounded it, and it looked like at some point it might have been the floor for a building, but the building had been removed.
Sonata led them to the center of the circle.
“Alright, we gotta say a chant to get you back to your world. Repeat after me, okay?” Sonata closed her eyes and spat out a bunch of gibberish that no one could understand, but did their best to recite anyway.
When they were finished, Sonata opened her eyes and stepped back. “It’ll will take a moment for you to disappear from this dimension. And...oh! I forgot to mention something!” She smiled. “For every five minutes you spent here, a year passed in your dimension. And you won’t be in the same place you were before you came here. You could be anywhere in your world.”
Rarity laughed. “You’re...t-that’s a joke right? Please, darling, tell me you're joking.”
Sonata just smiled, and then there was a blinding flash of light.
The mane 6, Thunderlane, and Flash stared at an ocean lapping gently at a shore in the early hours of morning.
***
On a fishing ship out of sight, a crew member leaned slightly over the railing.
“Cap’n, do you hear dat? Sounds like people are screamin’.”
The captain, a large, burly man with random red stains all over his clothes, stepped forward and leaned over the side as well. “Whaddya mean ya hear—oh wait...I think I’m hearin’ it too now...”
“Should we go an’ help ‘em?”
The captain waved his hand. “Eh, who cares? We’re probably too far to help em’ anyways.” He shrugged. “Keep going mate, keep going.”
The main 6 and Thunderlane sat with bemused stares as Flash drove the van.
“Hey dudes, this is a really boring drive.” Flash spoke up.
Twilight studied her fingernails, feeling even more annoyed than she had ever been before. “Yeah, Flash. What do want us to do about it? It was your idea to drive to Neighpon instead of taking the plane.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Well...it saves us money...”
“No, it seriously doesn’t. For one,” Twilight pointed her right index finger upwards. “Think of the money we’ll have to spend on gas. I mean, Neighpon is far away. And two, it’s not even POSSIBLE to reach Neighpon by car!”
Flash blinked. “...It isn’t?”
“No!”
“Then why did you guys let me take the car?!”
“We thought you would figure it out eventually, dude,” Rainbow said from the backseat, putting her legs up on the seat in front of her and kicking Thunderlane in the head, who turned and swatted her feet away.
Flash sighed. “Well, what am I supposed to do now?”
Twilight’s eyes caught a glimpse of a passing sign. “There’s an airport at the next exit. If we stop there, we can catch a plane to Neighpon.”
Flash gulped. “I...I can’t do that.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“...I used too much money for the gas.”
Twilight face palmed. “Okay...how much money do you have left?”
“...About $1,224…”
“That is the approximate amount of money needed for a ticket to the capital of Neighpon,” Rainbow said, looking at the details on her laptop (which had a built in wifi system). “So...only one of us can go to Neighpon.”
“How much more money do we need?” Applejack asked.
“Um…” Rainbow entered in digits on the calculator of the computer and winced. “...That would be $8,568 for the rest of us…”
Applejack rifled through her backpack and pulled out the amount of money needed.
Rainbow’s mouth dropped open. “Wha...how...what?”
“I work on a farm, sugarcube,” Applejack said, smirking. “We get a LOT o’ customers ‘round this time o’ year.”
“Alright, so when is the next exit?” Rarity asked.
Rainbow typed for a minute, then winced again. “Um...about an hour away.”
The occupants of the van sighed all at once.
“Well, what now?” Rainbow asked. “We’re already bored out of our minds! I don't know if I can wait an hour.”
Pinkie stretched. “C’mon guys, there must be something to do. There always is!”
“Oh yeah? What if you’re chained up in a room with no windows, barely any space, nothing to think about, and there’s a gag around your mouth?” Rainbow snorted. “Always something to do? Not really. The most you can probably do is roll around a little bit before the torturer comes back.”
“That’s NOT true!! You can count how many fingers you have left each time the torturer cuts one off!”
Rainbow facepalmed.
Rarity glanced up from filing her nails. “Well darlings, there must be something other than this...idle chatter to pass the hour with.”
Applejack turned from the window and looked at all of them. “How ‘bout we make a song? We are in a band after all.”
“Though I’m not, I’ll help.” Flash offered.
Everyone glared at him. “NO ONE WANTS YOUR HELP FLASH!!”
“That was fast...” He made a puppy dog face. “why does nobody love me??”
Rainbow crossed her arms. “...Ughh...that gives me shivers...that’s totally going to work.”
“Um…I think we should let him try…” Fluttershy said quietly.
“No. Way. Have you heard a single song he writes?!”
Flash scratched the back of his head. “They...they’re not that bad…”
“Wanna bet?” Rainbow leaned forward and took out a really beaten up piece of paper out of the front of her backpack. “I kept this paper just because it is so bad, that...well...it’s amusing. Anyways:”
“Today…. I had a hamburger.
It looked like you, sugar.
It was so very good.
So I walked out and put on my hood
At night
Quietly like a bird in flight
I stole more hambugers
Because they were damn good
Hell Yeah.
Burgers for life man!!”
Rairty coughed. “...Um...darling, I don’t mean to be rude...but I really must agree with Rainbow Dash. That was horrifically dreadful.”
“Come on guys. That wasn’t the worst song you’ve heard, was it?” Flash said.
Everyone in the van glanced around at each other. “Actually…it was.”
“Any other idea about what to do?” Rainbow asked leaning back.
“How about a rap battle?” Flash suggested.
Almost everyone in the van facepalmed.
