Just A Cartoon

It was a bright and sunny morning in Ponyville. The birds were chirping, the wind was subtle and the fillies of the village were enjoying their Saturday free of schoolwork.

Also, the air held a very strong burnt tree smell.

The Element bearers and a few other ponies were clearing up the parts of the forest that had suffered severely. Each pony had creases under their drooped eyes; they had worked a good few hours putting the fire out and had just awoken again to help clear the area of blackened trees.

“How‘d this fire even start?” Applejack asked, rubbing her eyes.

“It was probably that weird pony over there.” Rainbow directed her hoof towards a pegasus in a red fire-proof suit, gas mask and sombrero standing in the distance. “He creeps me out.” The others nodded in agreement.

The only ponies there not helping were having their own discussion further along the edge of the forest. They were lying in a line facing the forest: Evan, still covered in bandages, sat on the far left; Rhys sat to his right, then Callum and finally Jack. Callum had slept in Rarity's boutique, Jack and Rhys in Fluttershy's cottage and Evan stayed in the hospital overnight. Despite this, all four stallions were sleep deprived from working against the fire. Callum was napping for the seventh time after being woken by the loud, snoring Evan six times earlier.

“You managed to set an entire forest on fire?” Jack asked.

“No… only the edge.” Rhys turned his eyes towards the sky, holding back a smirk.

“Knowing him, he probably did it on purpose.” Callum interrupted, having just woken up again and motioning a hoof towards Rhys.

“Oh, it was tempting.”

Their attention was snapped to the pegasus tomboy verbally signaling them. “Hey, could we get some more- you!” Rainbow dashed towards the white-covered burgundy pegasus who snored as she stopped in front of him. The feeling of breath against his now sensitive nose caused it to twitch and forced him to open his grumpy, heavy eyes. “I ought a squash you into moron soup!” Cried Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” Pinkie galloped towards her friend and shot her a stern look. “What are you doing to Brute?”

“You know this guy?” Rainbow’s gaze switched between Pinkie and Brute several times before finally landing on Brute. “What did you call her, huh?”

Pinkie stepped between the two pegasi and looked up at a hovering Rainbow. “Leave him alone, Rainbow. He’s a friend of mine.”

“Well he isn’t one of mine. He said I thought he was a… zeenofile or something like that.”

“Xenophile.” Evan slurred, still slightly drained.

“What the buck is that, anyway?” Rainbow was on the verge of knocking his teeth out.

“Rainbow! One of the trees is covered in horrible black ash.” Rarity’s voice sounded whiny, “Would you kindly stop chatting and get it cleared up?”

Rainbow shot daggers at Evan and motioned her hoof towards her eyes, then pointed at him. She turned her attention back to the fashionista in ‘dire’ need of help, and flew off.

Pinkie stood before the four stallions in front of her and posed an extremely important question. “What flavour milkshake do you guys like?”

Callum, Jack, Rhys and Evan were sitting around a table in Sugarcube Corner, sipping milkshakes of different colour. Pinkie was conversing with the four stallions, discussing matters of great importance. That’s the way Pinkie saw it, anyway. Jack, Evan, and Rhys were enduring a famous ‘Pinkie rant’. Callum had actually resorted to pushing his headphones over his ears and quietly playing music.

Pinkie quickly turned her attention to the object she’d never seen before resting on the table. “Oh, what’s that?” She looked over the bright device and poked at it.

“That’s called an iPod, Pinkie. It’s plays music through these.” Callum lifted the headphones off of his head and put them on Pinkie’s, “I think you’ll like this song.” He demonstrated how it worked by tapping his hoof against the ‘play’ button.

Just then, a wave of drumming rang through the headphones.

Pinkie jumped onto her back hooves and started banging her head and fore-legs. “Something tells me she likes metal.” Rhys commented.

After several minutes, Callum walked over to Pinkie Pie who was air-guitaring like a mad-mare. “Pinkie?” Callum bumped a hoof against her leg, getting no response.

“Pinkie…” Callum spoke in a parental tone, as if she had done something wrong, but failed to get her attention.

Callum began to get annoyed. He focused incredibly hard on the headphones, engulfing them in a blood red aura and lifting them off of her head. “As I was trying to say…” Callum paused the song and rested the headphones on the table, “…Do you have any speakers or anything I can plug this into?”

“I’m not sure, lemme check.” She hopped off the table and bounced off, disappearing behind the counter.

Callum was met by an annoyed Evan. “Idiot, how is she supposed to find an amplifier for a thing she’s never heard of?”

“Here it is!” Pinkie emerged from behind the counter holding a speaker half her size. “It has a socket here that allows vibrations to be amplified from your device through the speaker, increasing the volume of the music file selected.”

The four stared for a couple of seconds before Rhys tried to speak up. Jack put a hoof to Rhys’ muzzle and slowly shook his head. Rhys disregarded his curiosity and pushed it to the back of his mind.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Pinkie demanded, “Plug in it!”

The five mares had just finished cleaning up the mess around the Everfree and were now having drinks and relaxing their achy muscles in Twilight’s Library. Usually, they’d be chatting with each other and Rarity was not about to break that habit. “So, does anypony know who those four stallions were?”

Twilight set down her teacup, replying “I remember catching that red one with my magic before he crashed, but he didn't really talk to me. Rainbow, weren’t you conversing with them?” She looked towards Rainbow, who had forgone tea and decided to grab a mug of coffee.

“Yeah, with that dumb red pegasus. I don’t know the other three.” Rainbow flared her wings. “If that Brute guy ever hurts any of you-”

“I know who they were!” Applejack perked up suddenly. “They’re them stallions I found in the east field. Poor guys… they learned about alcohol abuse the hard way.” She pushed up the Stetson that was falling over her eyes. “…Wait a minute, did you say something bad about ma’ Brute?” She glared at Rainbow.

“He said something about me first! What else was I supposed to do?” Rainbow argued.

“What did he say?” Twilight interrupted.

“He said I was an excuse of a creature and shouldn’t exist!” There were several audible gasps, “And then he went on to say something about a zenophile or something, then jumped out a window!”

“He addressed you in such a way?! That monster!” Rarity was clearly disgusted by the thought, wrinkling her nose primly as she took another sip of her tea.

“He jumped out a window?” Fluttershy questioned. She’d been listening quietly to the exchange, her tea left untouched on the table.

“Uh, Rainbow?” Twilight interjected, “What word did he use again? Xenophile was it?”

“Yeah, he said he wasn’t… one of those things and then jumped through a window.” Rainbow pulled off a puzzled look. “What does that even mean?”

“I’ve heard it before somewhere…” Twilight’s horn illuminated with a purple glow and locked onto a book titled ‘Equestipedia: Volume III’. She levitated it down from a shelf filled with similar books and began flicking through it. “Xenolith… Xenon… ah, here it is. Xenophile: An individual who is attracted to foreign ponies, manners, or cultures.” Twilight looked up from her book and pondered silently.

“So, he’s like, from another part of Equestria?” Rainbow suggested.

“He had a Canterlot accent… is Canterlot foreign?” Applejack cut in.

“No, Canterlot is quite close, geographically. For him to use a word like 'Xenophile', he must have been from outside of Equestria, or, at least, on the edge of it.”

“The stallion with the extreme hairstyle said he was from Canterlot and had the accent.” Rarity intervened, “Poor thing. He was broke and homeless so I generously invited him in.”

“That's odd. The other pegasus said that he was homeless as well. And the two stallions that stayed with me after the fire had a Canterlot accent too.” Fluttershy added, “It's like they're all friends.”

Twilight’s curiosity had been piqued. These stallions presented a mystery which she didn’t have the answer for. Unconsciously scratching her chin in thought, Twilight mused. Hmmm… Their Canterlot accents tell me that they are from close by, and one of them stated as much, but then why would the red one… ‘Brute’ was it? Why would he state that Rainbow was a xenophile?

In full on think mode now, Twilight continued. So, maybe they are from farther away and don't want people to know, but why wouldn't they? Two of them said that they were homeless... with nowhere to stay. If they are from Canterlot, why would they come here for a place to stay? Heh... this is ridiculous...surely they would just be trying to hide something constantly rather than actually interact with us. “I'm still thinking that these guys are actually from Canterlot.” Here Twilight paused to sip at her tea thoughtfully.

“I did find all of 'em in the acres acting funny.” Applejack brought up again, “Say Twilight, you ever heard of a stallion so drunk he ended up in another city?”

“I don‘t think so. What if they're just-”

“ Aliens?” Rainbow said.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Rainbow spoke up again. “Yea, none of us have seen them around here before. What if they are aliens? It's like 'Daring Doo and the Alien Staff' where all of these aliens invade, disguised aliens, and try to destroy the world! Uh...I wish I could have finished it before I was called out to... put out the fire that mysteriously appeared.”

“May I add that my guest had some sort of musical device smaller than a brick?” Rarity once again interrupted.

“That's not unusual.” Twilight stated apprehensively, “Compact music players are quite common in rich parts of Equestria.”

“But this device had over two hundred songs in it.” Everypony's eyes went wide.

The gears turning in Twilight's head were almost visible. “Well...”

“Ah heard an explosion in mah field the night ah found 'em! Tell me that ain't suspicious!” Applejack almost shouted.

“Come on, girls, this is ridiculous.” Twilight argued, “There is no possible way these guys are from another planet; they look exactly like us.”

“W-what if they’re shape shifters?” Rainbow suggested, “You know, they can change shape and stuff. We all agree we’ve never seen them before, maybe that’s why.”

Everypony looked at each other, waiting for somepony to speak up, their drinks left forgotten on the table.

Twilight sighed. “I… I think Rainbow might be right.”

He did have that mysterious music device...“…Well, if Twilight and Rainbow think that these stallions are invaders from another world, then so do I.” Rarity finished by putting a hoof to her chest.

They probably crash landed in ma' field! “Ah vote for alien.”

Light Speed did seem quite nervous...“I think so too.”

“So, what are we waiting for?” Rainbow held out her left hoof and hit her right hoof against it, “Let’s go get ‘em!”

The windows of Sugarcube Corner threatened to crack as the entire store shook with the sounds of instruments, singing, and strange electrical sounds Pinkie had never heard before.

At this point, the five ponies at said store were, in short, going mental.

Pinkie stood on her hind-legs, waving her fore-hooves as if they were on fire, Evan and Rhys were jumping on the spot, thrashing their heads back and forth and Callum and Jack were miming Evan and Rhys, except on tables.

Their party was abruptly interrupted by four mares bursting through the front door, cutting off the music via magic. Fluttershy trailed behind quietly. The hyper ponies turned and began to protest, only to have Rainbow Dash cut them off: “Grab ‘em!”

In an instant, the four stallions were plucked from the ground and levitated in front of the party crashers. “We’re looking for some answers.” Twilight shot a smug grin at each of the visitors, “And I think that Princess Celestia will be very interested in them as well.”

They all gulped.