Author's Note

The last part is Bright Eyes' POV

28: Flying Ponies

"Alright," began Teddy. "So, I was in the middle of rickrolling Rick Astley-"
"What?" demanded Starlight.
"Okay, so maybe I was rickrolling some random Internet dude instead. Maybe. Anyway, I was in the middle of rickrolling somepony when I heard these weird voices. I assumed my computer was acting up and ignored it. Ten minutes later those weird beige things busted the door down. So I galloped past them and went downstairs. And of course, being as amazing as I am, I used my powers of super cool to summon-"
"Teddy!" snapped Sweetheart, almost dropping the bandages she was wrapping around his neck.
"Okay, so maybe that's not exactly what happened. Anyway....remember how I made you promise not to accuse me of lying?"
They all nodded.
"So, how would you react if I told you that was when a flying pony flew in?"
"We'd probably tell you to stop messing around, you goose, and tell us what actually happened." answered Bright Eyes.
"No, I'm serious! She was pink, with blue hair, and a blue lightning Cutie Mark! You've gotta believe me-"
"Teddy," muttered Clover. "If you're going to prank us, you should at least make it funny. Right, Patch?"
Patch had been deadly silent since he mentioned the flying ponies. "He's not lying," she said simply. "Remember, Brightglow?"
Bonbon rolled her eyes. "Patch, not this again! If there were Pegasi there, I would have seen them!"
"You were too sick, remember? You weren't paying attention!"
"Wait," asked Starlight. "So you two are telling me there are flying ponies?"
They both nodded. The others looked uncertainly at each other. After a few silent seconds, Sweetheart stepped forward. "I believe you."
"Me too!" agreed Clover.
"But-" protested Bright Eyes. "Flying ponies aren't real! That's a scientific fact!
"It is!" agreed Starlight.
"There's no way I was sick enough to not notice flying ponies and magic!" snapped Bonbon.
"I-I believe them."
They all turned to Melody. It took a second for them to register it had even been her speaking. It had been hours since she had last heard anypony talking, and that was long enough to forget, especially as she couldn't hear herself. It seemd higher pitched than normal, the stess on all the wrong syllables.
"Alright, Teddy," insisted Sweetheart, ignoring the protests from Bright Eyes, Starlight and Bonbon. "Carry on."
"Alright, so the flying pony flew in and bucked down the beige things. I think they might have been dead. Then she told me to gallop and flew out. So I galloped outside and went for the woods. Then I found you three running from a tiger, for some reason."
"Duh, it chased us!" replied Patch, grinning.
Half a second later she sneezed violently, grabbing a white feather out of the air. "Eh? How did this get here?"
She instinctively looked up. White mare. Blond mane and tail, her hair poofy and messy. She couldn't see her Cutie Mark, but there was purple on her flank. And on each side of her body were feathery wings. "Look!" she yelled, pointing upwards.
The others followed her eyes and saw the pony too. "See!" Teddy snickered. "We weren't lying!"
"But-" protested Bright Eyes. "That's impossible! Flying ponies can't exist! They would need massive wings to support their weight, and that would mean they would have to go too high to breathe properly while flapping to avoid trees!"
"Well, that doesn't change the fact that they're real!"
Starlight rolled her eyes. "Patch, look around. My house was blown up. For all we know, we're the last of ponykind. We're having to steal food, for crying out loud. What the hell made you think it's appropriate to prank us now?!"
"What?" countered Patch. "How the hell would I fake that?"
"Look!" shouted Teddy, pointing to the air. Another pony was in the air, this one blue with pink hair. She flew off out of sight.
"Knock it off!" snapped Bright Eyes. "Patch, we all know this is a joke, and it's not funny!"
"Ugh!" screamed Patch. "For crying out loud! We were caught in an explosion because you assumed I was pranking you, and you haven't learned a thing! How would I make the ponies appear in the sky? How?!"
"Well I don't know!" yelled Bonbon. "What makes more sense, that everything we spent years learning was wrong and magic is real, or that a prankster pranked us?"
"Why do you blame everything on me?!"
"Why can't you just tell the truth?!" answered Bright Eyes.
"Ugh! That's it, I'm leaving!"
She angrily stomped off. Teddy bit his lip. "I'm going with her."
"Me too," agreed Sweetheart, grabbing the bandages with her mouth and moving to her boyfriend's side even though a part of her knew if she refused then Teddy would stay for her sake. The two trotted after the peach-coloured mare. A few seconds of delay, then Clover limped forward. "Wait for me!"
Patch rolled her eyes, trotting back and grabbing the purple mare onto her back before trotting away.

"Okay, that's it. I'm exhausted. You two can get food later."
Clover barely had time to stand up before she saw Patch collapsing onto the grass. She could hardly blame her. "So," muttered Teddy. "What now?"
Patch grinned. "Well, isn't it obvious? Find the flying ponies."
Teddy rolled his eyes. "Yes. Four teenagers, all of which are average in everything except a few skills that are useless in this situation. One of which can't walk. One of which is pregnant. Journeying across Ponyland to prove that flying ponies exist. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Relax!" insisted Patch. "I know a lot about life from video games!"
"Like?"
"Foxy always comes from the left door, and very rarely on the first night, so you just have to check the cameras in Pirate's Cove quickly. Golden Freddy only appears if you look at a poster of Freddy that randomly changes into Golden Freddy, he'll vanish if you just pull up the monitor quickly enough but if you don't he'll make you hallucinate and crash the game, and he comes in even if both doors are closed. Freddy only appears on the first night if you run out of power, and from the left door. You can't close the door but you can delay him slightly by staying still, which might be enough to get you to six o'clock. Bonnie and Chica-"
"How exactly will this be helpful in real life?" asked Sweetheart.
"Details, details!"
She grinned, trotting forward. "So, when shall we start?"

Alright. Everything's fine. She doesn't mean it. She'll come back in a second. Everything's fine.
"OhmygodwhathaveIdone?! ItsallmyfaultandnowPatchandSweetheartandTeddyandCloveraregone!"
I collapsed to the ground, wheezing. Starlight trotted over to me, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "Don't worry, Bright. It wasn't your fault. We all argued with Patch."
"She's probably just planning to surprise us even more when she finally 'fesses up," assured Bonbon.
I'm not so sure anymore. Why would she stomp off if it was just a prank? Why would she prank us now? How would she make the flying ponies appear? What about Teddy, is he in on it too? When did they plan it? On the other hoof......Scientists spent hundreds of years searching for any evidence of Pegasi and Unicorns and found none, and then just to prove the myths wrong they calculated how much wingpower a Pegasus would need and made sure there were no scientific things that could give the impression of being magic.
I don't know what to think anymore. I need some time to think this over, so I grabbed the brown bag Starlight had stolen. "I'm going to steal some food."
Bonbon stood up. "I'll come, for reasons that have nothing to do with stealing chocolate bars while we're there and eating them on the way back."
I sighed, trotting off. She followed. I knew the path to the store, I had been down it a hundred times. It was only a few minutes before candy wrappers were falling onto the floor and Bonbon was stuffing her face. I assumed it would be a quick trip: grab as much food (and anything else useful) as I could fit in the bag and leave.
That was when I heard the hoofsteps.
Bonbon and I both stood dead still for a few seconds, listening. After a few seconds I stepped forward, towards the door, and swung it open, looking around. Nothing. Phew, false alarm. I closed the door.
Thump.
I swung the door back open. At first I thought Sweetheart had come back: the pony sprawled out on the ground had the same white coat and pink mane. But a second later my brain caught up with my eyes and I realised her mane was messy, not like Sweetheart's curls, and her Cutie Mark was a beautiful pattern of hearts.
She awkwardly got up. "Oh thank God, you're not two-legs."
"Two-legs?" asked Bonbon.
"Yeah, you know, the beige things? Well, technically they're called humans, but I call them two-legs. Human is a funny word."
We all stared at each other. "Err, I'm Bright Eyes," I mumbled. "And, err, this is Bonbon. She's, err, the one who's meant to be introducing us, she knows I suck at social situations."
Okay, I just screwed up. That's not how you introduce yourself. God dangit, why does my brain always stop working when I'm introducing myself?
She stared at me, then rolled her eyes. "Err.....okay. I'm Sundance."
She glanced behind her uneasily. "If you're stealing food, can you hurry it up a little? I think the two-legs are after me and I don't want them to catch me before I can bring you two back to Dream Valley."
"Back to where?"
"Dream Valley. It's my home. The two-legs found us first. The survivors- Ember especially- ordered us to bring back any ponies we can find in case they have information on the one."
"The one?" Are all the Dream Valley ponies this annoyingly vague?
"Yeah, just some thing some of the others believe. Of course, they won't tell anypony else about the details, for some reason. So, you coming?"
"When did we agree to this?" asked Bonbon.
"Trust me, Dream Valley is safer than any other place. We can keep the two-legs out. Follow me."
I hurriedly grabbed a few more things and shoved them into my bag before she began to trot off. "Wait!" I called. "Our friends- we were just taking food for them- we can't leave without them-"
"Alright, we'll bring them."
"We still didn't agree to this!" snapped Bonbon.
"You're coming, whether you agree or not."