Twilight Sparkle looked in awe at the crater, and more importantly, at the hole in the fabric of space and time that Rainbow Dash left behind.
Just a few minutes ago, Rainbow Dash took, without Twilight’s permission, an untested potion that was supposed to enhance somepony’s talent. Obviously, it enhanced the pegasus’ speed, and she got in her mind to try to do a Double Rainboom.
She succeeded, but the result was the destruction of Ponyville, and the disappearance of Rainbow Dash into this hole.
Yes, Rainbow Dash went so fast that she broke reality.
And now, as the hole closed before Twilight, only one question came to mind: “Where did she go?”
The unicorn quickly thought. The effects of the potion will soon wear off, meaning that Rainbow Dash will not be able to repeat her performance to return home. Even if the potion lasted long enough that she could do another Double Rainboom, the chances of finding the right dimension were extremely low. And most of all, Rainbow Dash could have ended up anywhere, including somewhere dangerous. She was potentially in danger, with no way to return home.
Silently cursing Rainbow Dash’s recklessness, Twilight returned to Ponyville and searched for her friends, trying not to pay attention to the desolation around her.
She found Applejack near what remained of her stand.
“Ah, Twilight, where’s Rainbow? Ah’ve two words for her,” the earth pony said when she saw Twilight approach.
“She may be in danger! Help me gather the girls!”
Applejack groaned. “What’s going on with her now?”
“She broke reality and ended up in another dimension.”
Applejack gave the unicorn a flat look. “Say what now?”
“She is trapped in another, potentially dangerous world.”
…
Applejack facehooved. “Consarn it. Pinkie’s supposed ta be the one doing stuff like that. Ah’m getting Fluttershy, ya get Pinkie and Rare.”
Twilight nodded, then ran toward what remained of Sugarcube Corner.
Soon enough, the five mares were gathered, with Pinkie jumping around excitedly.
“We are going to another world! We are going to another world! We are going to another world!”
Rarity sighed. “Pinkie, I don’t want to ruin your fun, but how will we even go to whichever world Rainbow Dash ended up in?”
Twilight raised a hoof and opened her mouth, but no word came out. “Uh… That’s actually a good question.”
“Easy! We ask Discord!” Pinkie said. “With a snap of his paw, he can send us to Dashie!”
“She is right, I can do that,” they suddenly heard.
A few meters away, where nothing had been present a few seconds earlier, Discord was now there, taking photos of the ruined Ponyville.
“Mmh… Not bad. Not bad at all. I’m not a fan of destruction, but that’s still chaos. For a mare that yells at me so much, she is very good.”
He was suddenly hugged by Fluttershy. “Discord! I’m so happy to see you. What are you doing here?”
Discord awkwardly patted back the pegasus, not used to being hugged. “Well, you know, I felt a disturbance in the Magic, then reality broke and for once it didn’t seem to be your pink friend, so I got curious.”
Pinkie giggled. “Yeah! Dashie was going SUUUUPER fast, and then, BOOM!!! And she was gone!”
Fluttershy broke the hug and looked at Discord with pleading eyes. “Do you know where Rainbow is? Is she safe?”
Discord looked at the eyes, and his heart melted. He opened his chest and put in a new heart.
“Yes, I saw where she landed, right in the middle of a city. So, plus: she is in a civilized world. Minus: it is a human world, and these beings can be quite… trigger happy toward what they don’t understand. Plus: this particular city is used to strange things, so she would feel right at home. Minus: that’s because this city is regularly attacked by monsters and giant robots and aliens and even a demon. She actually arrived right in the middle of a monster attack. Plus: there are superheroes, yay. Minus: they are female kindergarteners, and over there, most female kindergarteners want the same thing: a pet pony. Yep, your rainbow friend must be flying, not for her life, but for her freedom as we speak, and she must be losing.”
“Seriously, superhero kindergarteners?” Applejack asked.
Discord shrugged. “That’s not the strangest thing over there. Their main nemesis is a monkey. He is the one who builds giant robots most of the time. And let’s not talk about that time they were invaded by alien broccolis that they had to eat alive with all the children of the city. Strangest way to convince the children to eat their greens.”
Twilight seemed to have difficulty coming to terms with “alien broccolis”, so it was up to Rarity to clear her throat and say, “You just said that Rainbow Dash is probably being chased to be turned into a pet, so what are we still doing here?”
“Yes, please, send us there so we can rescue Rainbow,” Fluttershy asked.
“Of course, of course.”
At that, Discord zipped open a hole in the fabric of space and time.
“Call my name once you want me to open another rift back to Equestria.”
Applejack lightly knocked Twilight on the head to bring her back to her senses. “Come on, Twilight, time ta go.”
Twilight shook her head. “O-of course.”
“I can’t wait to play with the superhero kindergarteners!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
“Pinkie Pie, dear, our goal is to avoid them so we don’t become their pets,” Rarity said.
“I’m sure that we can talk to them,” the pink mare countered before she jumped into the hole with a “Geronimo!”
Rarity sighed, then followed her friend. Applejack was just after her.
“Thank you so much, Discord,” Fluttershy said before she hesitantly jumped into the hole.
“Yes, thank you for your help,” Twilight said before she jumped too.
“HEEEELP MEEEEEE!!!” Rainbow Dash yelled.
And as if a superior entity answered her call, a hole opened just beside her, out of which came Pinkie Pie, then Rarity, then Applejack, then Fluttershy, and finally Twilight Sparkle.
Rainbow looked at her friends, then put her forehooves together, looked at the sky, and said, “Thank you, whoever listened to me.” Then, she jumped at Twilight’s hooves. “I’m so sorry I promise to never take your potion ever again now please get me out of here!”
She was suddenly hugged from all sides by the five mares.
“Rainbow! You’re alright,” Fluttershy said.
“I’m glad we found you,” Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash began to panic. “Uh, yeah yeah, I’m happy to see you girls, you have no idea. Now, can we return home, like, RIGHT NOW?!”
“Hey, look! Now there are six ponies!” she then heard, and her fur stood on end.
“Oh my gosh! Now we can each have two!”
“Oh! There are unicorns among them! I want one!”
Slowly, the mares looked in the direction of the voices, and there, they saw three beings that they presumed were humans floating in the air, probably girls. One was a redhead with her hair in a ponytail with a red bow and pink eyes, another was blond with two pigtails and blue eyes, and the last one had black hair with green eyes. The three were also wearing dresses of the same colors as their eyes with a horizontal black stripe in the middle.
While five of the mares began to panic, Pinkie Pie grinned and walked toward the three girls.
“Hey! I’m Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you! So you want to catch me? Then let’s play tag! Let me warn you, I’m very good at that game. Nopony ever beat me. So try to catch me!”
At that, she jumped into a nearby trash can.
“Ah! It will be easy!” the green girl accepted the challenge before she flew to the trash can and opened it, only to not find the pink mare in it. “What? Where did she go?”
Suddenly, Pinkie came out of another trash can, shouted, “I’m right here!” and returned inside the can as the girl flew toward her.
She lifted the lid only to find the trash can empty. “What the heck?”
Pinkie then waved from behind the corner of a building. “Yoohoo!”
The girl flew toward her, but Pinkie disappeared behind the building, and when the girl rounded the corner, there was nothing. She threw her arms in the air. “How does she do that?!” She then looked at the other girls. “Come on girls! Help me!”
“Uh, right! Come on, Bubbles,” the pink one said before she and the blue one began to chase Pinkie too, failing miserably.
Seeing her tormentors being played around by Pinkie, Rainbow burst into laughter. “You go, Pinkie!”
Rainbow Dash’s laugh prompted Twilight to look at her instead of at the flying girls, and she gasped. “Your wings!”
This made the pegasus stop laughing as she looked at her wings which were in a… very bad state. “Yeah… I think that this is the secondary effect of the potion…”
Twilight groaned. “So I presume that you can’t fly.”
“I tried, I fell flat on my face.”
“Yer wings will be the last of yer worry once we return home, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Yer Double Rainboom blew up most of Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash stared at Applejack in shock. “No way.”
“Yes way, so once we’re back, ya’re gonna help us rebuild, understood?”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Alright.”
“And seriously, breaking reality? What, ya want ta become like Pinkie Pie now?
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Ah! No! After what I went through, I will not repeat that!”
“I hope so. We can only rebuild Ponyville so many times before we run out of resources,” Rarity said. “Leave that to whatever craziness happens weekly.”
Applejack snorted. “Ah think that Rainbow’s stunt counts as our weekly craziness.”
“I thought that it was the fish rain that happened yesterday,” Fluttershy said.
“That’s what Ah thought, but Ah think that Rainbow blowing up Ponyville and us going ta another world ta search for her has beaten that.”
“So you have that kind of problem too?” they suddenly heard, and there, floating right beside them, was the orange-haired girl.
Rainbow Dash screamed and went to hide behind Fluttershy before she said, “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to play with Pinkie!”
The girl giggled. “I understood that it was no use to try to catch your friend, so I returned here to see what you were doing, and I heard your discussion. So, you have to deal with regular craziness too, uh? Monster rampage? Alien invasions? Giant robots and mechas built by a mad genius?”
“Check on the monster rampage. Alien invasions and mad genius with robots haven’t happened yet, but Ah wouldn’t bet mah hat that it won’t happen,” Applejack said. “Instead, we got evil tyrants and even an incarnation of Chaos turning the kingdom into his playground.”
“Is it true that you were invaded by alien broccolis?” Twilight asked.
The girl was surprised. “How do you know that?”
“The incarnation of Chaos in question told us before sending us here,” Rarity said. “And that alone beats anything we went through, and probably what we will go through in the future.”
“I don’t know, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get invaded by apples,” Pinkie said.
Rainbow Dash waved at her. “Pfff, really? What, apples would suddenly become alive and decide to invade Ponyville? No way.” She blinked. “Wait a minute.” She looked at Pinkie in horror. “What are you doing here?! You’re supposed to distract these monsters!”
The girl glared at her. “These are my sisters that you call monsters.”
“After you chased me through most of this city to turn me into your pet, I have the right to call you monsters! Anyway, Pinkie?”
The pink mare giggled. “The other two are on the other side of the city. They will search for a while before they understand that I’m not there anymore.”
“Good job, Pinkie. Now, we can return home,” Twilight said.
The girl looked sad. “Aww… Leaving already? We really wanted to have you with us. We always wished to have a pony. We would have brushed you and taken good care of you.”
Fluttershy gently rubbed her hair. “I understand that ponies in this world aren’t as smart as us if you consider them as pets, but as you can see, we are civilized beings with a home and families. It wouldn’t be right to keep us trapped here.”
The girl sighed. “You are right. I’m sorry.” She extended her right arm. “I’m Blossom. It was nice to meet you.”
The mares bumped her arm one by one and presented themselves, Rainbow after some hesitation.
“But… before you go…” Blossom began, rubbing the back of her head. “Can you… give us… a ride?” She looked at them pleadingly. “Please?”
The mares exchanged looks, then Twilight sighed. “I guess that I can give you one. I always give one to Spike.”
“And of course I can give you a ride! It’s always fun to give rides to children!” Pinkie Pie said.
“Um… I guess that I can give one,” Fluttershy said.
“Yaaay!” Blossom yelled before she turned away from the mares. Then, she screamed, “GIRLS!!!”
The mares winced at the powerful shout, rubbing their ears.
A few seconds later, the other two girls arrived.
“What is it, Blossom?” the green one asked before she saw the ponies, more exactly, Pinkie. “Hey! She’s here? Since when?! This explains why we couldn’t find her anymore!”
The blue one, Bubbles, as they heard her being called, flew toward Pinkie and hugged her neck. “Got you!”
Pinkie giggled. “Sorry, it doesn’t count, I wasn’t playing anymore.”
“Aww…”
“Listen girls,” Blossom began. “The ponies are returning to their home, but they agreed to give us a ride before they go.”
Bubbles gasped, then shouted, “Yay!” only to get sad. “Wait, they are going? But… I want a pony.”
Blossom patted her. “Sorry, Bubbles, but it wouldn’t be right to keep them trapped away from their home.”
“Aww… Ok.”
“I still don’t understand how the pink one managed to avoid us. One moment, she was there, and the next, she wasn’t anymore. What, she can teleport?”
“I’m not teleporting, silly, I’m just moving from one place to another,” Pinkie Pie said.
The girl gave her a flat look. “Yeah, it’s called ‘teleporting’.”
“If this is what you want to think.”
The girl groaned.
“Anyway, let me present to you my sisters, Bubbles, and Buttercup,” Blossom said as she pointed respectively at the blue one and at the green one.
In return, the mares presented themselves again.
Twilight then advanced out of the group, followed by Pinkie and Fluttershy.
“So, who wants to ride who?” she asked.
“I want the unicorn!” Bubbles immediately exclaimed.
“I guess that I will take the pegasus,” Buttercup said.
“Then I’m taking Pinkie,” Blossom said.
And suddenly, the three girls were on the back of the ponies they chose. Pinkie Pie began to bounce around right away, making Blossom laugh. Fluttershy began to fly, eliciting a “Aw yeah!” from her charge. Finally, Twilight began to trot.
“Can you go faster, please?” Bubbles asked.
“Of course,” Twilight answered before she galloped, and the young girl on her back began to laugh and cheer.
“Wheeeeeee! Can you shoot rainbows from your horn too?”
“Uh, no? But I do magic!”
Bubbles gasped. “Show me!”
Twilight did it with pleasure.
Meanwhile, Buttercup wasn’t having as much fun.
“Uh… Can’t you go faster and higher? Your rainbow friend could go very fast.”
“Oh… I’m s-sorry. I’m not as good at flying as her…”
Buttercup shrugged. “Alright. I’m flying on the back of a pony pegasus. That’s already very good in my book.”
“If… If we come back, you can ask Rainbow if she will let you ride her. I don’t think she will mind.”
“Ok.”
Fluttershy still decided to try to put more effort into her flying, much to Buttercup’s joy.
And meanwhile.
“Doesn’t it get tiring to constantly bounce?” Blossom asked.
“I have a LOT of energy!”
“Even after we chased you through most of the city?”
“Yupperoni! I need a LOT of energy to host parties and to take care of two adorable but very hoofful babies.”
“You have babies?”
“They are not mine. They are my bosses’, so I’m like their auntie.”
“Baby ponies must be so adorable.”
“The most adorable ever! But like I said, a hoofful.”
“Yeah, babies are a lot of responsibility.”
“But so worth it. It really makes me want to have a little one of my own one day.”
“Well, I’m sure that the stork will bring you one one day.”
“I can’t wait for that day to arrive, but it probably won’t be for a while. I don’t have a coltfriend yet. The stork brings babies only to couples.”
“Right.”
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack observed.
“Eh. It reminds me of when I gave rides ta Apple Bloom,” Applejack said.
Rarity giggled. “Sweetie Belle would always ask me for rides too.” She then sighed. “But I refused most of the time because of my work. Maybe I should give one to her once Ponyville is repaired.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “And Scootaloo loves it when I give a ride to her, especially when I fly very fast and do my stunts. That filly sure loves her thrills.” She looked at Fluttershy, more exactly, at the girl riding her. “And that Buttercup seems to be similar. If they hadn’t chased me to make me their pet, I wouldn’t have minded giving one to her before my wings became-”
“Oh my gosh!” a shout suddenly interrupted Rainbow Dash. Then, a girl flying with a jetpack was just before the mares, staring excitedly at them. “Ponies! I want you as my pets!”
Rainbow groaned. “Not again! Who are you? Another sister of these girls?” she asked as she pointed at the superheroes riding her friends.
The girl, who had orange hair into curly poofs at the sides of her head because of a tiara and who was wearing a yellow dress with a black belt, black boots, and black gauntlets, however, glared at the girls before she smiled back at the mares. “My name is Princess Morbucks.”
Rarity gasped. “”Princess”? You are a princess?”
Princess looked at Rarity, then gasped in turn. “Woah! You are so beautiful!”
At that, Rarity showed off her mane. “Why, thank you.”
She was then hugged by Princess who said, “I’m taking you to my home!”
Applejack immediately pulled her away from her friend. “Back off. Nopony’ll become a pet.”
At that, Princess took out a bunch of money from her dress. “Not even if I give you all that?”
Rarity gasped again. “That looks like a lot of money.”
Rainbow Dash and Applejack gave her a flat look, the pegasus saying, “That money will be useless if you become her pet, and even more once we return home.”
Rarity huffed. “I was just saying that it was a lot of money, I wasn’t planning to sell myself for it.”
Princess turned very angry at that. “You will come with me, or else!”
“Or else what? What could a spoiled brat like you do?” Rainbow Dash mocked.
Princess smirked, then took out a device and pressed a button before she spoke to it. “Bring one to me!”
The mares exchanged glances, getting worried.
Then, four helicopters approached, transporting a tank. Once they were above them, the helicopters released the tank, letting it drop behind Princess who then entered it.
“Or else, I will blow you up!” they then heard her say from inside the tank. “Come on! I’m counting from three! Three! Two! One!”
Applejack suddenly jumped and bucked the cannon upward just as it fired. The shell flew above the buildings.
Mojo Jojo was sitting on his favorite chair, looking at the Mad Genius Magazine in his hands. He turned a page, then another, and pointed at something in the magazine. “Oooh! I like this one.”
Unbeknown to him, the shell from Princess’ tank was dropping toward his HQ. When it hit, it caused a huge explosion that blew up a huge part of the HQ.
Mojo Jojo, who was still on his chair without a scratch, had a very annoyed look.
“CAN’T WE BROWSE OUR FAVORITE MAGAZINE IN PEACE IN THIS CITY?!!” he then yelled at the sky.
“What? How did you do that?!” Princess asked.
Applejack grinned. “I’m just that strong.”
“I will not let you make a mockery of me!” the girl yelled before she pointed the cannon back toward the ponies.
Only for Rarity to plug it with trash found in several trash cans around them.
“Seriously?” Princess deadpanned.
“A lady like you should know that attacking ponies in the street is not proper,” Rarity said.
“I can attack who I want!” Princess yelled back.
“Ahem!”
The ponies swore they saw the tank turn pale. The cannon then turned around until it was face to face with Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, floating side by side and glaring.
“Not as long as we have something to say about that,” Blossom said.
“You just ruined our fun! Twilight was showing magic to me!” Bubbles said.
“Time for us to ruin your fun. Although, it seems that our help wasn’t needed,” Buttercup said with a chuckle as she saw the plugged cannon.
“Ah yeah? Well, guess what! This tank is actually a secret weapon developed by the military to fight supervillains! It’s not a plugged cannon that will stop it! Let me show you!” Princess shouted.
Then, the tank shook before it began to shift, its pieces moving.
Before everyone’s eyes, the tank turned into a giant mecha, the cannon on its back. It also had more cannons on the torso, on the fingers, and even in the mouth. It also had rocket launchers on the shoulders, and even a giant chainsaw-sword in its right hand.
The ponies, who were together again, stepped back, Applejack letting out a “Woah nelly!”
“Ah! What do you think of that! Now, let’s see how you will fare against-”
“YOU!!!” someone suddenly interrupted her.
The mecha turned around, facing… another mecha that was quickly approaching.
The new mecha had a cockpit instead of a head, inside of which a green monkey could be seen.
“You are the one who destroyed my HQ, right?!” the monkey yelled.
“Mojo Jojo, now is not the time, I’m about to kick some butts here,” Princess said.
“That voice… Princess?” Mojo Jojo groaned. “Of course it’s you. Well, prepare to receive a good spanking from Mojo Jojo for destroying my HQ, brat!”
“I didn’t destroy your stupid HQ!”
“You are the one that fired that shell, right?”
“Uh… Yes, but…”
Mojo Jojo suddenly punched her, stopping her from saying more.
Princess growled. “Alright! That’s it! If you want a fight, you’re gonna have it, monkey!” Then, she punched back, then swung her chainsaw-sword only for Mojo to hold her fist.
Thus began a fight between the two mechas.
And the heroes were left to watch.
“Uh. Villain fighting villain. I think it’s a first,” Buttercup said.
“No, there was that time Mojo, Fuzzy, and HIM beat up the Gangreen Gang for making these prank calls,” Bubbles said.
“To think that it wasn’t a prank call this time,” Blossom said.
At this moment, Pinkie Pie presented popcorn to them. The girls looked at each other, then shrugged.
“We should as well enjoy the show,” Blossom said.
The others agreed, and they took the popcorn.
“We will deal with whoever remains up at the end,” Buttercup said as she ate her first popcorn.
“Agreed,” Blossom and Bubbles said.
“How I wish villains would beat each other up at home too,” Twilight said. “The changelings against Sombra would have been nice to watch.”
“I bet on the monkey,” Pinkie said.
“Me too,” Applejack said.
“I bet on the spoiled brat,” Rainbow Dash said.
“We can’t watch the whole fight,” Twilight said. “We must return home to help rebuild Ponyville.”
“Right,” the three ponies said.
“I guess it’s time to say goodbye then,” Blossom said.
“Will you come back one day?” Bubbles asked with pleading eyes.
“Maybe. Despite that whole pet thing, it wasn’t bad here,” Twilight said. “Right girls?”
All the mares agreed, except Rainbow Dash who thought for a bit. Then, the pegasus shrugged. “Yeah, despite everything, it was fun here. And I wouldn’t mind beating up a bad guy alongside you one of these days.”
“Yeah, the way you beat up that monster wasn’t bad,” Buttercup said. “Even if you were letting it go.”
“That monster had understood its lesson and promised to not rampage again, there was no reason to continue to beat it up.”
“What? Really? It was giving up?” Blossom asked.
“Uhuh. See? Sometimes, you don’t need to beat up the villain to unconsciousness. If you see that they don’t have the will to fight anymore, then let them go with a warning to not try again.”
“We will think about it,” Blossom said.
At that, Rainbow Dash nodded at Twilight who smiled and shouted, “Discord!”
The next instant, a rift opened beside her.
The ponies said goodbye to the girls, then jumped into the rift, leaving the girls to their show.
