CHAPTER ONE: Introductions
It was a day unlike any other, but if you had lived in Ponyville all your life, you would never have guessed that.
For example: Fluttershy, the bright yellow pegasus with pink hair, didn't see anything different about the day just as some other normal pony wouldn't. The skies were clear of everything but clouds, gentle breezes would sway past her house so calmly, and the sun was illuminating everything in such a magnificent manner. The plants of her backyard garden and indoor flower pots beamed with their healthy petals and untouched elegance, the product of months of good care from the pegasus. Her animals were just as wonderfully cheerful as they were any other day and perhaps a bit livelier this morning. Maybe she was too, even if she didn't notice it.
"Good morning...Good morning...Good morning...Good morning…" Fluttershy walked through her living room with different breakfast treats, which was filled with most of her most beloved and cared for animals. If the room were bigger, than she could definitely add in a few more critters. "Good morning...Good morning...Good morning...Good morning…"
A familiar white rabbit scooted to a halt in front of her, panting to catch the breath he wasted. Fluttershy used her signature 'cutified good morning' smile on him. "Oh, Good morning Angel Bunny! How are you this fin-"
He suddenly jumped up and down while pointing one of his paws in specific direction; his movements when he wished to show her something important. Fluttershy followed the hare curiously until she ended in front of a small coffee table with a fishbowl on it. The fish inside was a bit unfamiliar to her: it was slightly flat, dark blue with black lines and yellow spots near the end of the tail…not to mention it freckles across it's imaginary nose.
But the Pegasus didn't think top much of the strange looking fish and merely shrugged at Angel Bunny. The rabbit facepawed and coughed loudly. The fish, who had looking off into space, suddenly turned around to face them.
"...oh! Hi! Were you standing there for a while? Huh." Fluttershy's jaw went limp at hearing the fish actually talk to her. It sounded distorted unlike a regular voice, because the water seemed to be pushing itself onto the sound waves. Thusly, it created a true 'water voice'. "Did not see you there if you were...that white thing with the big ears is familiar…"
Fluttershy managed to close her jaw after several seconds worth of just staring at the fish. This was obviously some kind of magic, right? There was no other way that this could be happening, unless it was a dream...What a pleasant dream this would be.
"Um...H-Hi…" She stammered and raised her hoof, about to wave. For some reason, she put it back down. "I-I'm...uh...I-I'm Fluttershy…"
The fish nodded, still smiling as friendly as it had just seconds ago. "Fluttershy...that is such a nice name! I thought I heard it somewhere but I just can't remember where. I'm Dory!"
"Dory? Nice to,um, meet you." Fluttershy glanced down at Angel Bunny, who was chewing on a carrot and watching with interest. But he wasn't talking in any way like the fish was. "Um...I-If you don't mind me asking, when did you get here…?"
"Well I...that is actually a very good question. Huh...When did I get here?" Dory poked her nonexistent chin and turned to the side, trying to discern what had caused her to appear in the fish bowl. Fluttershy patiently waited, spotting the fish lose her frustrated expression suddenly and then turn back to her. "Oh, Hi! I'm Dory! How long were you standing there?"
The pony was confused to say the least and expressed this with a raised eyebrow. "You...j-just said that."
"I did?" The fish suddenly looked apologetic. "Oh, I-Im sorry...You see, one thing you should know about me is...I suffer from Short Term memory loss."
"Oh you poor thing!"
"Yep. I get by though. What was your name again? Fluttershee?"
"Close. It's-"
The muffled sound of a bell ringing caught her attention and caused her to look at the door briefly. Her mail had arrived just now. "Um, It's Fluttershy. C-could you excuse me for a moment, Miss Dory?"
Dory nodded politely, and soon the pegasus was traveling down her steps towards the mailbox. This day was proving to be quite interesting so far, and thankfully not bad. Perhaps later on she would visit Twilight with the fish so that they could make sense of it all. Maybe it was a magical, forgetful fish?
Her thoughts were so focused on the day ahead of her that she didn't hear loud snoring coming from thin air the closer she got to the mailbox. Just as she was within two feet of the mailbox her body, nose first, bumped into something thick. Fluttershy blinked rapidly; nothing was there to have blocked her, so it seemed. She raised a hoof and pressed into the invisible, apparently fuzzy force that blocked her before gasping.
A hum that sounded eerily like 'Excuse Me' was heard, just before a face materialized several feet above her head.
"Pretty decent morning, eh Tank?"
The turtle grinned very,very,very slowly.
Rainbow Dash stifled a chuckle at this and looked back up at the ceiling. For the moment, this pegasus wasn't gonna do anything but relax in bed with her old pal. Perhaps later she would feel the breeze on her coat by flying around aimlessly or just make shapes out of clouds by flying into them. Maybe she could visit one of her friends today. With her, the possibilities were endless and growing all the time.
She sighed; Cloudsdale probably had the best beds in Equestria, given the percentage they had made up of actual clouds. Anyone could be trapped in a bed like this, not wanting to get up at all. "This perfect...Just you, me and a day with no problems."
Rainbow knew she was jinxing things, but she was so confident that things were going great that she didn't think anything would happen. And for the next ten comfortable minutes, nothing did happen. It was as quiet as it had ever been and it didn't look like things would change for the two.
A distant sound didn't reach their ears until it was just outside their window for the briefest of seconds.
"...aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…."
Rainbow blinked in surprise and slowly got out of bed to peek down from her window, only to gasp. She couldn't clearly identify who was falling to their certain demise, but she could tell that they had red hair flapping crazily. The pegasus told her pet that she'd be back before bursting out of the cloud-walls of her home and zooming downwards at tremendously fast speeds. The wind ripped through her coat as if it were water, and her eyes narrowed thanks to the wind's slight irritation. She closed in on the figure within half a minute and hooked her hooves under the figure's underarms in a heartbeat.
The pegasus flapped upwards while gritting her teeth; this thing was definitely not a light weight object. It took a few more seconds for their falling to slow to a crawl ten feet above ground and for the screams to finally stop being made. Rainbow landed on the ground beside the figure and finally took notice of it.
It was some kind of creature. It had skin that was a light shade of peach-sprinkled with a few freckles here and there, some kind of mane as bright red as a fresh apple hanging from it's head, a tight fitting purple seashell top and the lower half of a turqouise fish. The smell of seawater danced around the creature, like the twinkles of sunlight that bounced off its fish scales. The creature shared the exact same look of shock that the pegasus had, even grimacing slightly.
"What...the hay...are you?!" Rainbow Dash finally inquired, narrowing her eyes at the large blue eyes of the rescued creature. In return, she received a quizzical look that was almost insulting.
"A mermaid." So it was a she, or so the voice made it look like. That was interesting and helpful, since the pony wouldn't have known the difference beforehand. "What kind of a creature are you? Are you some kind of...mutated seahorse?"
"Heeey!" Rainbow Dash glared with a slight pout to boot. "That's some gratitude for the pegasus who just saved your life!"
She cringed and looked up for a few moments, before looking down again with a shy smile. "Um, sorry about that. And thanks for saving me."
"No problem." The mare still looked skeptical, but at least this creature wasn't hostile. Hostility on such a fine morning would be absolutely dreadful. "Now, Who are you? And how would a 'fish' like you end up falling out of the sky?!"
"Hmmm...how to begin? Well, I'm Ariel. Technically, it's Princess Ariel but I hate that name." The little mermaid introduced herself and moved her body to where she was sitting up, resting her elbows on her...knee. "I'm not entirely sure how I fell out of the sky...I remember swimming and then... I'm right here. Where is here, by the way?"
Rainbow Dash seated herself, because this would clearly take a while. "Well, we were in Cloudsdale for a second there. Now we're on the outskirts of ponyville...Lemme guess, you have no idea what this places are?"
"Nope. How'd you know?"
"Had a hunch. If I haven't seen or heard of you before, then I figured you weren't from here." She explained, then hesitantly raised a hoof towards the newcomer. " Name's Rainbow Dash."
Ariel shook her hoof gingerly. "That's... Quite the name you have."
"Was that sarcasm?"
"Nope."
"Oh." Rainbow Dash shrugged off her assumption by finding something to say. "So, a mermaid? What is that half fish and half...hairless monkey?"
"No silly!" Ariel giggled into her palm, much to the annoyance of the pony. "It's full mermaid! No halves!"
"...well anyways, I'm not sure how to get you back to whatever watery place you live in. Buuut, I think I know somepony who might."
Ariel's expression gushed with pure interest. "Who?"
Twilight Sparkle had stayed up the entire night, reading the final chapter of an extra long book involving warlocks.
She'd intended to leave the book at the end of chapter one, but they threw a cliff hanger at her and she hated cliff hangers, so the princess went on to look at the next chapter. But that one had a cliff hanger too, as well as the next one, and the next one and one after. She finished the whole book and ironically, the last chapter had a cliffhanger there too. Twilight growled in frustration with the turn of events because the book was soooo good. Now she wait for the next stupid book to come around in a few months time; what could she do during those long days?!
She hissed at the sudden light streaming in through the window and reluctantly left her bed to move to the dresser of hers on the opposite wall of her room. The huge mirror the dresser had gave the pony a glimpse of her natural beauty even though she was awake the whole time. Sighing at the tangled mess of hair that she more this morning, Twilight raised a hoof with the intent to scoot her brush over to her and poked something squishy instead.
"Ow."
"Sorry."
Before she could open her drawer to look for another brush, her eyes shot wide open. Since when did inanimate objects express pain?
Twilight looked down at the brush again, only to see an uncamoflauged octopus rubbing his hurt eye gingerly. She shrieked horrifically loud at the sudden sight, which caused the red sea creature to scream in surprise and leap off of the dresser to scramble through the doorway. She blinked rapidly to process what was going on, and promptly rushed after the disappearing animal as fast as she could. "Hey wait! Come back!"
This made the octopus crawl faster and eventually slide down the railing of the stairs, where it of slithered off into a specific hallway. She finally reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded the corner into the hallway, where she officially lost track of the octopus but did spot Spike in the kitchen. He was standing on a stool in front of the stove and sprinkling blueberries into a sizzling pan.
"Hey Spike!" Twilight called him curiously. "Did you see a-"
"Okay!" Spike interrupted and looked towards someone that hidden behind him. "Now I've got the blueberries in. What do I do next?"
An unfamiliar, feminine voice made itself known just seconds after he spoke. "Well, it says that you need to make sure that the blueberries don't stick to the pan. But the butter should have taken care of that. "
"Eh?" Twilight frowned. The pony trotted into the kitchen soundlessly and immediately focused her attention on the source of the voice. Soon after, her eyes widened in shock. "Uh...Spike?
Sitting at the kitchen table is a woman with an elegantly tall, rather slender frame. Her head was adorned with lengthy platinum blonde hair leaning into a shade of silver, blue eyes as rich as salvia, a small curved nose, skin so pale with red tints to her nose as well as ears and served with a light dusting of freckles on her hands are tiny and delicate, with a slight blue hue to the palms. The woman's hair was in a large French braid that was swept over her left shoulder, tied with a hair-band with a crystal-like snowflake on it. It was woven delicately with snowflake incrustations, and wisps of her bangs slicked back on top of her head with a smaller piece resting down on her forehead kinda like Elvis Presley. She wore a crystal-blue, off-the-shoulder dress with a right knee-high slit, a crystallized bodice and translucent, powder blue sleeves. She also wears sparkling heels and, attached to the back of her bodice is a long, transparent floor-sweeping cape of sheer ice which is decorated with large snowflakes.
Spike finally looks up from his busy work and places the spatula he had on the counter, before turning around on the stool. He looked at Twilight first, then at the woman she was staring at with a grin. "Oh Hey Twilight! This is a friend of mine! I met her yesterday!"
The woman looked up from the cookbook she was reading and took in the sight of the Alicorn with obvious shock. She somehow managed to push that shock away to calmly smile. "Hello! I assume you're this Twilight I've heard quite a lot about from Spike? I am Elsa."
"...Spike!" Twilight glared softly at the dragon and gestured to the human in the room. "There's a human here...no offense...and you didn't think to wake me up?!"
"Wake you up? You were reading a book."
She ignored him and rushed over the woman to eye her suspiciously, while the human uncomfortably watched the pony. "A human in Equestria--When does that happen? You shouldn't be human at all! You should be a pony or something! How did you even get here?"
"I'm still a little fuzzy on that part. And part of me still thinks this is all a dream." Elsa explained, fiddling with her hands and leaning back from the Alicorn's stare. Twilight noticed her demeanor and gave her a bit more space to be comfortable. "Heck, I'm surprised I haven't fainted...yet."
"And I'll bet that you don't know how you got here too, huh?" Twilight turned to stare at the wall, which at first elicited strange stares from the others in the room. But the octopus revealed itself to have camouflaged on the wall, creeping towards the doorway inch by inch." That's right, you...you octopus you! I can see you!"
The animal rolled his strangely large blue eyes. "Actually, Lady, I'm a septopus. It's very different, trust me."
"No, you're an obviously an octopus." Elsa furrowed her brow as she pointed that out. The accused animal blankly stared at her, but the pony smirked triumphantly.
"Thank you!"
Spike turned around with a plate full of blueberry pancakes in his claws, studying the sea creature curiously until he discovered what he was looking for. "Actually, that random octopus on the wall is in fact a Septopus. He's missing an arm."
"HA! IN YOUR WEIRDLY SHAPED FACES!"
"But he...whatever!" Twilight tapped her chin, thoughts formulating over the two guests in her kitchen and homes that she had to get them back to somehow. But first, it would be necessary to find a way to figure out where their homes were and then map it out. "There's no time to discuss missing limbs. Clearly now we need to assess and determine which part of...anywhere that you came from! This will require expirements and assistance with the expirements."
Elsa smirked at Spike while crossing her arms. "You were right, she IS a thinker."
The septopus slithered down onto the floor before the Alicorn and coughed to get her attention. "Uh, yeeeah--name's Hank by the way--how are we going to do all of what you just said? Does that ice cream cone on your head double as a compass or what?"
Twilight glared down at him, clearly annoyed. "Excuse me, Hank, but this is my horn! It helps me conduct magic."
The woman and the septopus exchanged indescribable glances with each other. "Magic?"
"Yes, indeed. For it can only be magic that brought you here! Or science...And it will be magic that gets you back!" The Alicorn raised a hoof to emphasize her words, then turned towards the doorway. "Come on everypon...er, everybody! We have work to do and possibly little time to do it!"
"Ahem."
"...Sorry Spike. We will do what I just said AFTER breakfast!"
THUNK!
"Applejack?"
The orange mare referenced halted in the middle of bucking a stubborn tree for the sixth time in a row and opened her eyes. She'd been so focused on getting the clingy apples out of the tree that she hadn't noticed a certain little sister of hers scooting to a halt next to her. Oddly, her sibling seemed just slightly fidgety and nervous.
"Applebloom! Haven't seen ya all morning, Lil' sister!" Applejack, with Applebloom's presence in mind, began to buck the tree again. Her hooves only rattled the apples, much to her displeasure. "What's on yer mind?"
"Uh yeah...Hi." Applebloom swallowed nervously and looked around. "Sooo, there's this weird...creature in our fields that ah saw."
"Creature?" Applejack hit the trees a little harder, causing the apples to rattle an little harder. She frowned. "What kinda creature?"
" ...'s kinda hard to explain. Well, it's really tall and it's wearing a poofy hat and it's got a weird stick too...Doesn't really look like a pony, and maybe it's wrong to judge based on appearance...but he doesn't look very friendly."
The orange mare paused her work to tirelessly scan her sister's face. Moments later, she could tell that this wasn't some halfbrained prank thought up by the filly, and was in fact a true account of events. "Okay. Where did you last see the...creature?"
Applebloom wasn't staring directly at her, but more so at something behind her. Applejack turned around and came pretty much face to face with the towering creature that she described. It had on a thick black robe with red underlining and huge shoulder garments, along with puffy black sleeves of satin and leather shoes with points. It was wearing a kind of obsidian turban, although a lone red feather was pronounced near the center of it and the creature's skin was a bit dark in color too. The cobra designed staff he bore had an odd resemblance with his own calculating eyes.
His gaze fell upon them as if barely interested, but Applejack could clearly see why her sister had been worried about it; the demeanor of the figue screamed villainy. However, even as her sister rushed to hide behind her leg, the mare decided not to jump to conclusions based on looks alone. Even so, she could see why the filly was a bit worried.
"Greetings, Equine denizens..." The creature bowed slightly to them, and Applejack furrowed her brow slightly. His expression hardly changed to suit his greeting. "My most sincere apologies if I am interrupting anything between you?"
"...Ah don't reckon you are, Mister..." She responded hesitantly. She wasn't sure what to do with him; Twilight was the one who would have a single clue. The mare wasn't sure if she was supposed to capture the creature for Twilight, talk like she was doing now or nothing at all.
"Hmm. Very good. I am Jafar, a humble visitor from foreign lands. " He waved a hand dismissively as he explained who he was, using his other hand to keep his staff steady. "Might I have your names, perchance?"
She glanced down at her little sister for the briefest of seconds, forcing a smile when she looked back up at Jafar. "Ah'm Applejack...this here's mah little sister, Applebloom."
"Charmed." He responded, even though he didn't look like he was at all. "I was about to make my way into town, as I'd like to take a look at the sights and such things. I assume that it will be down the dirt road behind me, yes?"
"That's about right."
"Very nice, Very nice indeed...Thank you for your assistance my dears. I have one more question before I bid you adieu and begin my vacation...Have you seen a young boy flying around on a carpet?"
Applejack narrowed her eyes suspiciously at such a strange question as that. "What do you mean, boy flying on a carpet?"
"...Perhaps you both need a moment to think over your answers." Jafar absentmindedly twisted his cobra-staff slightly to where it was facing them. Applejack frowned at the menacing stare it gave her and wondered just how someone could craft such an expression, especially to the point where it looked like the eyes were glowing. "I'm nothing if not patient."
She was about to look back at Jafar's face again, but winced suddenly; she felt lightheaded whenever she looked away from the bronze cobra and yet normal enough when she stared at it. For some reason, she also felt a lot more calm and less skeptical of Jafar...perhaps he wasn't as bad as he looked? "Uh...N-No...Ah don't r-reckon seeing anything lahk that..."
"...Hmm." He abruptly straightened himself, and Applejack found that she had been leaning forward towards the cobra-staff inch by inch the whole time. Confused at this, her cheeks flushed while she blinked at him. "Thank you for that, Dear Applejack. Applebloom."
Jafar dipped his head towards them and traveled a short distance to the gates of Sweet Aple Acres, where he then began to travel down the dirt road to had been narrowing her eyes at this suspicious character when she recieved a light poke from the filly behind her. "Er, A-Ahm gonna get ready for my Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting."
"...heh heh..." She forced a laugh and nodded to boot. "Alright. You three take care of yourselves..."
Applebloom started to walk away from her towards the barn, but stopped completely to look over her shoulder at the earth pony. "Uh...does your head feel kinda funny raght now?"
"...yeah. It does."
They didn't say anymore about it, but their thoughts for the next couple hours was a completely different story.
Something unatural, yet plainly fishy was going on.