Author's Note

at first i was just going to split this whole chapter into 2 separate ones, 3 of the 6 guys on each one. but i decided to just make it one whole thing instead, but i hope you guys & gals like this chapter, and leave a comment bellow on what you think the 6 should do?

Chapter 7: What Shall We Do Next? [Edited]

Several more days have passed since the six humans came to Ponyville to help in fixing the town up, and with their help as well as the force of royal guards that came down to help, more than half of the destroyed east and southern districts was rebuilt. It helped to have magic users among the guards, towns ponies, and Twilight herself in aiding in the re-construction of the buildings at a faster pace. During the rebuilding of the destroyed buildings some of the affected shop owners decided to do a total remodel, like the owner of Fidget Wheels Gag & Prank shop now being turned into what would be a giant wizards hat.

However while the town of Ponyville was being rebuild at a good pace and getting back on its feet, things up in Canterlot weren’t going so well. Dragonface’s treatment with a specialized doctor assigned to the task in helping the old human, which Celestia hoped will help him, has gone nowhere over the week he’s been in custody, and the constant shifting from blubbering sad man to feral wild animal has become quite hazardous. As Dragonface either came close to killing the doctor and guards assigned to him whenever he went feral, and setting the dungeons ablaze for a couple days. It also didn’t help that his bloodcurdling and horrifying roars echoed throughout the castle, making it difficult for anything in the castle to go on without having to cover their ears. Even the citizens of the city could hear the roars, and it was causing them all great unease and causing some rumors to be spread about what was really going on inside the castle.

During the days when Plasma and his friends came to Ponyville to rebuild the town, Twilight was called back to Canterlot for some kind of important test, which apparently Twilight was blowing out of apportion so her friends, and a little dragon named Spike went along for the ride. Mostly to make sure Twilight doesn’t have one of her freak out moments, from what the guys have heard, is quite a lot. So while Twilight and her friends were gone, Plasma and his friends were left alone in the mostly restored Ponyville, and instead of returning to Canterlot they actually decided to spend some time in the town, and even away from each other aside from sticking as a group or as a pair. They were starting to feel a bit more comfortable around the ponies, that they don’t need to be so guarded around them.

~~Steel~~

After leaving the inn the humans got to stay in, after Princess Celestia had a word with the owner with the assistance of a big bag of this worlds currency, Steel started walking around town after having breakfast of a vegetarian omelet with biscuits. And as he walked around the town he was getting some mixed responses from the ponies, either having some saying hello in a friendly manner, or just looked at him with unease intrigue. While walking through the town mostly wandering around aimlessly, Steel ended up leaving the town behind him and was now walking along a dirt trail, which was leading to what looked like a farm after a fifteen minute walk. With his curiosity now triggered Steel decided to investigate the area. Hopefully, the farmers there aren’t as private, or trigger happy as those on Earth.

Reaching the front gate of the property Steel started to examine the area, and whether it was because of this worlds natural cartoonish like aesthetics or some other factor, the farm looks a lot more charming then the ones back home. And it wasn’t just the buildings, the fields of crops and animal pins all had their own charms to them, and speaking of the other animals that Steel could see, there wasn’t that trade-mark barnyard animal stink floating around. If anything the property smells like freshly baked goods, and scented candles that had a fruity aroma.

Another thought came to Steel when he noticed the other animals, why do ponies have farm animals anyway? It wasn’t like they’ll eat them or anything like that. Would they? Afterall, who really knows what otherworldly alien ponies actually eat.

“Um. Excuse me?” A childish voice called out causing the young man to turn to search for the source, his dreadlocks whipping about as he looked.

That’s when Steel heard someone clearing their throat, which caught his attention and making him look down, and found three very small fillies just staring up at him. And when Steel thought small, they were really small. While most adult ponies he’s met so far would just barely reach above his, and his friends, waist line these fillies barely reached up to his knees. Deciding to kneel down so the fillies didn’t have to look so high up, the three fillies flinched away from him as he did so, but they quickly regained their confidence, and stood their ground as Steel lowered himself. Or at least the tiny yellow one with the bow in her red mane kept her confidence, while her friends stood off just behind her.

“Are you one of those humans mah sister was talking about?” the filly asked with a slight stutter in her voice. After mulling over what the filly had just said, and seeing that she had a southern twang to her accent, Steel seemed to have figured out who this filly was.

“Your Applejack’s kid sister?” Steel asked the little filly.

“Yeah.” The filly simply said. “Mah names Apple Bloom, and these are my friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.” The unicorn and pegasi peered out from behind Apple Bloom and gave a small wave.

“So are you one of those, humans?” Sweetie Belle asked as her big green eyes looked up at Steel with childish wonder and curiosity.

“That’s right little missy, names Steel.” Steel announced as he looked down to the three little foals before him. “Just a hunch Apple Bloom, but I take it this is you’re families farm, ya?” the filly nodded her head.

“Yeah. Ah live here with mah sister, mah brother & mah grand mare.” The little yellow filly said as she perked up. “But where do you come from?”

“Did you come from a faraway country?” Scootaloo immediately jumped in before Steel could answer, but the young man just chuckled slightly before shaking his head.

“Not really, but I guess in a very odd way, I guess I do come from a faraway place.”

The fillies seemed confused at Steel’s words, but they didn’t seem to mind all that much as they quickly began asking Steel a myriad of questions. Like all kids, their curiosity knew no bounds when they found something interesting to them. As the small group chatted away, Steel answering whatever questions the fillies had, and boy howdy did these fillies had some questions, ranging from if humans got something called cutie marks to whether or not humans can use magic. And while Steel said he has no magic, he did showed off a bit of his power by just transforming his hand to steel for a second, before shifting it back to being normal. Which only furthered sparked the fillies curiosity towards him.

Several minutes of talking to the fillies, another pony came along and interrupted the groups talk, and the pony was an old looking green mare who was probably the fillies grand mare she mentioned earlier. The mare introduced herself as Granny Smith, like the apple, and offered the fillies and Steel a good ol’ fresh apple pie with glasses of milk to have while talking, rather than just standing around near the entryway gate in the sunlight. Plus that pie did sound mighty tasty, so Steel followed the eager fillies & old mare to the farm house.

“So big fella, how long you’se planning to stay in Ponyville. Could probably use a strong look’n feller like you come next harvest.” Granny Smith asked as she gives Steel a second plate with another slice of pie on it.

“Not sure actually, my friends and I are just visiting for the time being.” Steel said honestly. It wasn’t like there was a way to go back to Earth cause whatever that old man did, was probably irreversible.

But would Steel even want to go back to Earth? That was something both he, and his friends thought about for the last few days. So far Equestria seemed so much better than Earth, with no normal people to try and hide from, government suits looking for them, or having to deal with any other Un-Naturals who abuse their powers. The ponies made it very clearly that they wanted to be friends, even if it was only Twilight & her friends, even the princess seemed at the moment who all appeared content to help them. But should they? How would they even live in this strange world of talking ponies, they were nothing but crooks and thieves back home, with very limited education about anything since they were forced to live on the run. How would they earn a living?

“Steel!” Sweetie Belle’s voice snapped Steel out of his thoughts.

“Huh? What, what’s going on?” the young man asked when he looked over to the filly.

“You seemed to be lost in thought their young feller, is everything alright?” Granny Smith asked as she rubbed his back, trying to comfort him. Steel didn’t answer right away but after a few seconds and letting out a sigh he spoke up.

“I’m not sure.”

~~Circus~~

“Mrs. Cake we got another order of cinnamon rolls, and a dozen of lemon cupcakes for Blossomforth!” Circus cried out to the kitchen from the front counter.

“Coming right up Circus!” Mrs. Cake called back.

When Circus woke up today, and had nothing but a small plate of toast and eggs, he was practically out the door and was blindly exploring the town. And since he left the inn to explore the town, now that it was more or less put back together, and the ponies were not as tense anymore, Circus was pleasantly surprised in how the town actually operated. Out of the group as a whole that got spirited away to Equestria, Circus was the most curious and fascinated about this new world, after all they went from a world of humans & Un-Naturals to a land of short talking ponies, which could do various forms of magic.

Although as he was venturing around the town, Circus certainly gave a few of the ponies a good fright, as seeing a human soar through the sky while his feet ran along the ground after the body was certainly strange. Especially when Circus started floating his head around to get a better look at stuff while not moving his body for the most part. But after a good ten or so minutes, Circus ceased using his powers and started to wander around normally, which helped the ponies in not gawking or being weirded out by him because of his powers. Guess even in an alternate world of talking magical colorful ponies, Circus was still looked at as a strange thing when using his powers, though not as harshly in this world. Guess there were somethings that are just universal.

Amongst his aimless wandering and meeting some of the ponies, Circus stumbled into the west district of Ponyville and came across a building that would make the witches house from Hansel Gretel jealous. The building itself was quite big, possibly around two or three stories tall, and it looked like an very elaborate birthday cake. Entering the building to see what it was about, Circus was pleasantly pleased to see it was some kind of a bakery, or something like a confectionary shop. And when he entered the shop and the two owners saw him, they were pleasantly surprised to see him as it turns out these two ponies, their names being Cupcake & Carrot Cake, were the ponies that Pinkie Pie worked for. And were the ones that cater to most of the random, sporadic, or thought out planned parties that the pink earth pony throws on a whim.

Circus soon got to know the two ponies rather well, and they were really pleasing to be around, but as he remained around the owners the more that they started to remind him of his parents, before he got his powers. But the little conversation between the three after they formally introduced themselves, was interrupted when a small crowd of ponies came into the shop, however the crowd only grew bigger as time went on, to the point that it was too much for the couple. Unfortunately, Pinkie wasn’t around as she was out at the moment making deliveries, so Mr. and Mrs. Cake were left to fend for themselves. Until Circus said he’d would help in taking orders, while the Cakes work on prepping, cooking, and packaging any orders they got.

“Here we go, one order of cinnamon rolls, and a dozen of lemon cupcakes.” Mrs. Cake announced as she places the packages on the counter, where Circus grabbed it and handed it over to Blossomforth. Who was adorably licking her lips in anticipation as she takes the package from Circus, and ever so carefully placed it on her back between her wings.

“That will be, 40bits.” Circus correlated after scouring the price sheet Mr. Cake gave him moments ago before he started helping, the mare produced a bag of bits from under one of her wings, and carefully jiggled a small pile of bits out of the bag onto the counter.

“Thank you!” Circus says happily as he slides the bits into the register.

“Thank you for the treats!” Blossomforth responded gleefully before trotting out of the now empty shop. After almost two and a half hours of non-stop work, Circus sat down on a small stool to catch his breath.

“Phew. Now that was a rush.” Circus sighs as he wiped his forehead as Mrs. Cake then comes out of the kitchen with a nice cold glass of lemonade.

“It would’ve been harder if you weren’t here to help to run the counter.” The mare said as she offered the glass to the young man who took it and down it in a few big gulps.

“I must say Circus you’re certainly a good worker. Honestly if Pinkie Pie was here, I’m sure it would’ve taken a bit longer to help out those ponies.” Mrs. Cake said in a somewhat annoyed yet apologetic tone.

“Why? Is Pinkie a bad worker?” Circus asked as he placed the glass on the counter.

“No she’s a good employee. But she can sometimes get a bit, distracted.” Circus chuckled a little at that as he could understand Mrs. Cake plight, as he has a fairly good grasp on the pink mares behaviors from his own interactions with Pinkie.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Don’t get me wrong dear, I love Pinkie. Bless her good heart. But I do wish she would be a little more focused or, mature and not get so distracted when on the clock.” The blue mare said after trying to come up with the right words to convey her feelings towards the mare in question.

“But never the less, Pinkie Pie is a hard worker when it counts.”

“Well that’s good to hear. Pinkie does seem to give off this very…”

“Yes. I know what you mean dear.” Mrs. Cake finished, knowing exactly what the young man was about to say.

While Mrs. Cake and Circus continued to talk about the excitable pink mare, Mrs. Cake told the young man how she adores Pinkie Pie and often times treats her more like a daughter, rather than an employee. Though there are times when Mrs. Cake feels like she could do with less of the pink ponies limitless bounds of energy, especially when Pinkie has one of her, moments. The pair were interrupted in their break by another group of customers trotting in, although this time there were a lot more foals than adults this time around. Time to handle another wave of customers.

~~Plasma~~

It’s been nearly three weeks since Plasma and his friends were sent to Equestria, even though they were unconscious for one week out of the three, but since then things have been a flip flop of activities. Especially the last few days, what with the conflict with a well-known Un-Natural and helping in rebuilding the town he half destroyed, while also getting used to being around the locals and having the natives of the town not fear them. For the most part over the course of the reconstruction the ponies of the town have gotten used to Plasma and his friends, and the young men have gotten used to being around so many of the ponies.

Today though Plasma was aimlessly wandering around until he left the town, and as he wandered about enjoying the peace and quiet Plasma tried to collect his thoughts on past events, and what he and his crew should do. As he wandered beyond the borders of the town, the young man took in a breath the fresh air, and listen to the sound of nothing but the pure tranquility of the wilds, with birds chirping and leaves rustling about. But even with the tranquility of his surroundings, and in his aimless walking while trying to gather his thoughts, Plasma noticed that he had walked up to and was now standing at the edge of a pretty gnarly looking forest. It kind of looked like the woods that he himself had to hide in after he had developed his powers more, and began living the life as a runaway teenager & crook.

With the woods peaking his curiosity the young man decided to take a trip into the woods. Entering the woodlands Plasma actually started to feel more at ease, as the forest was nice and cool with the added quietness of this place was really making Plasma feel more calm & collected. But the eerie silence of the forest did give the young man a slight chill, but it wasn’t too bad as he recalled his time hiding in forests when he was a pre-teen, surviving till he and his friends were able to come together and make a place for themselves at their old base.

Continuing his walking about in the woods by following a fairly treaded path, Plasma started to wonder what he and the others should do. After all they were all just a bunch of thieves and criminals by all measures of the law, with limited schooling and self-taught street smarts Plasma was unsure if he, or the others would be able to function in proper society. And even if they could and possibly make some kind of life here in Equestria, another thought came to mind. And that other thought was about finding a way to go back to Earth, or if it was even worth trying to do so. Then again if they would go back to Earth, then they would head back to a place that is basically a nightmare just waiting to happen, cause one moment you could be just fine, but one slip up and you’ll be taken away by the governments tasks force that was made to hunt down any Un-Natural. But Earth was still their home planet, and while it was un-likely, there was always a hope among the hidden Un-Naturals that things will work out.

Whilst in the midst of thinking on how to proceed in what he and his friends should do, the nice quiet atmosphere of the forest started to lose its tranquility, as various animalistic noises started to make their presence now known, some of the noises were just birds and small animals, nothing to worrisome. But there was the occasional noise that clearly belonged to something that was more, un-friendly or dangerous. Plasma was then alerted when the sound of large animals were moving in the underbrush, to which the young man mentally prepared himself for a fight, as his right hand developed a bright blue glow, with wisps of blue fire wafting from the palm and the fingers.

“So much for my little stroll.” Plasma said to himself as the forest started to become noisier and noisier, it was like somebody set of a maximum-security prison alarm.

“And I think I might have overstayed my welcome here.”

Plasma then started to make his way back to the forest entrance, which shouldn’t be too hard as he hasn’t traveled to far into the woods. However it would seem his attempt to leave the forest was going to be delayed, as something emerged from the forest and blocked his path, like they were being birthed from the very foliage of the forest itself. The creatures that now stood before the young man looked like wolves, but as stated they were made out of the various debris of the forest, and like their flesh & bone counterparts they were not exactly friendly when confronted with a stranger. And something told Plasma that these wolves weren’t just going to leave him alone, and let him walk out of the forest. In fact, the biggest one of the pack of nine wooden wolves stepped forth, snarling, and creaking as green drool and a foul moldy smell emitted from its gnashing maw.

“I’m not really in the mood for this.” Plasma spoke out as he summoned his Burn Saber, the act of doing so caused the wooden wolves to back away, yipping and yelping in fright as the area around him started to glow blue in the dimly lit forest surroundings. Even the larger pack member was barking in fright as it gnashed its wooden teeth.

“If I were you I’d run off now, unless you want to be made into kindle.” Plasma warned as he pointed his Burn Saber at the larger wooden wolf, intensifying it more which caused it to glow brighter and seem to vibrate and generate more heat.

The wooden wolves actually started to slowly began to walk away from Plasma, still snarling and growling as they kept their glowing yellow eyes on the young man. But they eventually melded back into the forest till it looked like they vanished completely. Not wanting to take any risks of being ambushed, Plasma kept his Burn Saber active, and used it as a torch to lit up the path ahead. Although the walk back out of the forest seemed to be longer than he thought, and as he was walking along the path and scanning the area, he could occasionally see the wooden wolves on the edge of the Burn Saber’s light, and they were still keeping their eyes on him the whole time, which was making him feel a little uneasy.

Then out of nowhere as Plasma continued to walk down the path, small pouches were being thrown out into the underbrush where he saw blue powder started to fill the area. That’s when he started to hear what sounded like ragged coughing from the wolves, before seeing probably the most ridiculous things ever thus far in his life, maybe. One of the wolves started to convulsively sneeze like someone with really bad allergies, but each sneeze had the wolf blow out pink bubble from its mouth and snout. Another wolf started to hiccupped so hard it was vaulted high into the trees, where Plasma heard branches break as he watched the wolf come tumbling back down, and immediately get sent back up into the trees with another hiccup. Then the big wolf probably had the most bizarre, and possible the most hilarious, thing to happen to it, which was having its huge bulky wooden frame shrink to the size of a chihuahua, while its head was still the same size. Now the off-portioned wooden wolf was stumbling around, and was knocking into everything until it tripped over an uprooted tree root, and flop onto its back. Its tiny body flailing around as it barked in a panic.

The other wolves of the pack also started to develop strange afflictions that left Plasma pretty baffled at what was happening to all of them. Before he could come to any kind of conclusions of what the hell just happened, the sound of something walking towards him caught his attention. Spinning around in the direction of the sound Plasma aimed his Burn Saber and was ready for a fight, but when he turned to face where the sound was coming from he saw what was coming towards him. Stepping into the light of his fiery weapon Plasma saw what looked like a pony version of a zebra, with a mohawk, golden rings around its neck and one of its forelegs, a saddlebag on its back, and a small smile on its rounded face where it spoke in a mature feminine voice.

“Fear not good sir, for there is nothing to be concerned.” The zebra said as she stood a foot from Plasma as he looked down at her with a curious expression.

“I take it you are the cause for, this.” Plasma suggested as he gestured to the oddly afflicted wooden wolves, to which the mare before him nodded her head. “Well then, I thank you for helping me out Miss…”

“Zecora.” The mare said as she raised a hoof which Plasma took in his other hand and shook it.

~~Snap~~

There was just something about sky & cloud watching that Snap just found so relaxing, just watching the fluffy sky mounds drift by and change shape was just therapeutic for him. Even back on Earth whenever the gang weren’t going on any jobs he loved warping up to the top of their hideout, and just cloud watch to unwind. He even wonders at times what it would be like to be a cloud, or be able to fly through the sky at times. He actually wished he was given a flying based power, granted his power does allow him to ‘soar’ through the sky by teleporting to different locations in the air, it still wasn’t really flying. But he still wished that he could fly through the air, like one of the most well-known Un-Naturals to ever be in the news, or have video footage of them spread across the web.

“I wonder how Red Hawk even gets himself dressed.” Snap mumbled to himself as he continued to gaze up at the sky.

“I mean, those wings of his are huge, how the heck does he put shirts on?” Snap stated as he thought back to the latest image that was taken of Red Hawk that he had seen by a very determined journalist.

“I hope the rumors about the guy trying to show that not all Un-Naturals are threats, and maybe one day we could—” Snap was interrupted from his personal thoughts when the sound of something falling pretty hard caught his attention.

Tilting his head back a bit, which was a little hard as he was laying on the grass in the Ponyville park, but with a little wiggle-room Snap found the source of the thud. It was a pony. A mare in fact with a coat of mint green fur, with a pale white mane, with a camera slung around her neck. The pony noticed that Snap was looking at her, and she gave a sheepish smile and a nervous chuckle before trying to pick herself up. While the mare was righting herself Snap vanished in a flash of bright yellow light, and reappeared in the same spot he was just laying on, but was now standing up instead. And when he looked back down to the pony, her face now held an expression of shock and curiosity, maybe a bit giddy as well instead of nervousness.

“Hi?” Snap said to the mare who didn’t respond right away, and just continued to look up at him with that astonished and amazed look.

“Um, miss? Are you alright?” Snap asked as he walked over to the mare, who finally snapped out of her stupor and very excitably raised a hoof.

“Hi, my name is Lyra Heartstrings!” the mare said in a VERY excitable voice while she kept her foreleg outstretched. “You’re one of the heroes that helped save Ponyville from that weird dragon thing, right?”

“Y-yeah, I’m one of those, heroes.” Snap retorted shakily while taking the mare’s hoof in his hand and then shaking it. “Names Snap, nice to meet you Lyra. So what brings you out here?”

“I wanted to see if I can take a picture of you! I’ve been trying to get one of each of the heroes, but you’re the first one I’ve come across with today. So can I?” Snap couldn’t help but mentally chortle at this mare, after all a complete stranger is acting like a fan girl and is asking for a picture of himself.

Snap agreed to the picture which Lyra quickly took after grabbing her camera. Once the mare got her picture Snap watched as she somehow pulled a book out from behind her, which confused him for a bit but just quickly passed it off as weird pony magic. The unicorn then placed the picture in the book, which afterwards Lyra then started to ask a rapid fire of questions to the young man, like what Snap is, where did he come from, and how he was able to teleport without having a horn? As for Snap himself…

‘This mare is just as inquisitive as Twilight…but maybe a bit more, enthusiastic.’

~~Burner & Wave~~

Off in the country side on the outskirts of Ponyville fire and water clashed with each other, furious flames collided with frigid waves causing steam to vent and vault from the crashing forces. In the field Burner and Wave were sparring with each other, with the former creating various fiery aberrations like snakes or humanoid shapes, while Wave had both of his arms transformed into fluid columns of water. After waking up the two friends spent some time just wandering around the town, mostly to see how the ponies were faring, but as they wandered about the two friends each started to taken in the severity of their situation. What were their lives going to be like now with them being stranded in this new world?

“—all I’m saying is that we should just stay here, that way we won’t have to hide and worry about being found out!” Burner said as he was dodging Wave’s watery punches, while constantly lobbing fireballs at his friend who either dodged them or evaporated them, which Burner would re-create more to replenish his ammo supplies.

“Not arguing on that Burner.” Wave said as he dodged another volley of fireballs, before turning into a spiraling column of water and then lunging at his friend, who surrounded himself by a swirling dome of fire, which Wave then bounced off the dome and even extinguishing a good amount of it.

“But how are we supposed to go about and live out in this world. Cause how would we even go about doing it.” Wave asked as he formed back into his human form.

“I mean for god sakes we were bank robbers Burner, and we thrifted and stole stuff that costed hundreds of dollars, and it’s pretty clear these ponies don’t look to kindly to those who did what we’ve done for years.”

“Yeah, none of them looked particularly happy when we told them what we did back home, after the fight with Dragonface.” Burner said as he remembered the very soured and disappointed expression on all of the mares faces when he and the others explained to them what they did for a living, but then their expressions shifted to one of understanding and even pity. That’s when Burner was knocked to the ground during his remembrance when Wave slammed into him as a rolling wave.

“My point still stands; what do we DO to ensure we can actually have a good decent life here?” Wave asked as he went back to human form as Burner sat up and used the fire to try and dry himself off faster.

“…I don’t know.” Burner solemnly said as he finished drying himself off, with steam wafting off of his body as he remained sitting down.

The pair have been at this debate on whether or not they should stay in Equestria, or should they find a way to go back to Earth throughout their entire sparring match. If they stay in Equestria they wouldn’t have to hide their powers, or fear of being taking away to some kind of lab to live out their lives of becoming lab rats, or simply rot away in their cells. And even with the group knowing a little about this worlds actual social structure, how would they go about trying to find actual legitimate jobs to support themselves! Would the ponies hire any of them for work, especially if the pony in questioned learn that they were crooks back home. Would they really give them a chance?

Not only that, but this world doesn’t seem able to accommodate to the six completely, like the lack of access to meat or other essential stuff that they would need to have a balanced diet. Granted they could just hunt for the meat that they would all need, they all learned how to do that before they finally made a home in New York.

There’s also the lack of modern-day convenience, plus, they know how the human world worked, so they could blend in and have some kind of an established life. But here, they would literally have to start from square one in how to integrate with pony society. The pair eventually stopped their debate on whether or not to stay or go back to Earth, when their stomachs let out some pretty loud grumbles. While the breakfast the inn keeper made was really good, especially the pancakes that were better than any of them could make, it wasn’t all that filling. Strange on how the stuff ponies make looked and are basically the same stuff they would make themselves but are not as filling. The guys then started to make their way back to town while making idle conversations as they do so, and as they were cutting through the park they found a rather amusing sight, they found Snap sitting on a bench with a mint green unicorn who was asking several questions all at once, and seemed unaware of his annoyance.

When they approached the two, Snap introduced the mare as his new, friend, Lyra Heartstrings who was now looking even more excited that Burner and Wave spoke to her as they introduced themselves. After getting to know the mare a bit, Snap and his new friend Lyra joined the pair to get something to eat. The group got even bigger when Plasma came walking into the park where they all stood, but he wasn’t alone as he was talking to a zebra, who was talking in rhyme for some reason. As the group made their way into the town they eventually came upon Steel, who had a trio of fillies trotting about around his feet, and talking about all kind of things they can do to earn something called their cutie marks. The entire gang decided to have lunch at Sugarcube Corner at the suggestion of Lyra and the fillies, where they found Circus helping the owners out with Pinkie Pie. And with all of the humans now in one place Lyra’s eyes have become wider and wider, and when Circus was added to the little get together she basically collapsed.

“Someone might want to get this mare some water.” Steel said as he carried the passed-out mare to a nearby table, where the group sat down, and started to wait for their order of cakes and other such treats.

~~Elsewhere~~

Manehatten, one of Equestria’s largest cities and is where most ponies in the nation live, other than the other major cities that boarder the edge of Equestria’s coastlines. Now amongst the major cities of Equestria, including Canterlot, Manehatten has garnered some rather unpleasant reputations for itself over the years, most of which is that the ponies of the city are not as kind or as inviting to others or even each other. As they all are to caught up in their own lives and enterprises to care about anyone else. But as of recently within the city the ponies have started to gossip, as within the past few days strange things have started to happen. Reports of ponies going missing, or being misplaced and then being found later with bite and claw marks has started popping up. There have also been reports of ponies finding scratch marks on their back doors, especially those who own or work at places that sell food and other supplies and goods. One pony even sworn that she saw what looked like a small pack of rats exit from a building, all with packets and non-packed foods in their mouths. Something weird is happening in this city.

Today though Manehatten was having a scheduled rainfall to help wash the city clean, and as the rains continue to fall down and wash over the buildings and streets all the ponies sought shelter till the showers were done. But down in the southern district of the city a stallion was running through the rain, using his suitcase to cover himself to try and keep dry. Yet the rain was the least of the stallions worries. Because as he was running through the back streets back to his apartment, running through the rain the stallion was being pestered by a small pack of rats that were nipping and biting at his legs.

“Get away from me you little pests!” The big burly stallion shouted at the small group of rats scurrying after him, while rain continued to shower down on him and his assaulters.

One of the rats actually managed to lunge at him, landing on his left haunches and started to bite at him. Upon being bitten the stallion gave a loud yelp, and actually leapt forward and tossed and rolled on the wet floor, but this just caused the other rats to swarm and started to bite him as well. The stallion continued to roll and thrash until he managed to slam into a few nearby garbage cans, causing them to fall and clatter which scared the rats to screech and scatter, giving the stallion time to knock any rats off himself and run into a nearby condemned building. Slamming the door shut before backing away the stallion leaned against a dusty counter, panting and bleeding from all the bite wounds that covered his body.

“Phew! Finally, damn things just wouldn’t quit.” The stallion grumbled as he kept leaning against the counter as he tries to catch his breath, and waiting for the rains to stop and hoping that the rats will be gone by then. But as the stallion rested he started to notice something. A foul smell was in the air.

“AH! That smell! It reeks of rotten eggs and skunk fumes!” the stallion then shambled away from the desk and headed over to a wall where there were a few chairs still stood. Taking a seat the stallion rested as he looked himself over, seeing that while the bites were indeed bad they weren’t life threatening. His attention then turned to look at the decrepit building he found himself in, seeing a few holes in the walls and ceiling, and even hearing something crumbling somewhere in the building.

“The city really needs to take down these old buildings.” The stallion commented as he waved a hoof in front of his face, trying to get rid of the smell. But as he sat in the chair the stallion did not notice that from a hole that was above his head…a pair of sharp clawed hands reached down from the ceiling. Until it was too late.

“AGGGGGH!” the stallion screamed as he yanked from his seat and into the hole, where the sound of bestial screeches echoed…accompanied by the sound of flesh being torn and blood being spilled.