The Plot Trap
By Scootaloo 009
“You’re doing great, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“If you say so,” Twilight replied. She shifted her wings a bit and began to hover next to Rainbow Dash. Her daily lessons were helping her get accustomed to the feathery limbs on her back.
“Now try a dive,” Rainbow Dash ordered.
“Okay,” Twilight agreed nervously. She angled her wings and began falling downwards. She flapped them a bit to make sure she stayed on course. The streets of Ponyville loomed below. “Now I have to... do I pull them back or forwards? One each way?” she wondered as the ground got closer.
Rainbow Dash watched from above. “Come on, pull up,” she muttered. Twilight was just a few yards from the street now. Rainbow Dash partially looked away as the collision seemed imminent, but at the last second she changed direction and flew off level with the ground. She vanished around a building, and Rainbow Dash flew down to follow.
Twilight was in a trance. She was only dimly aware she had managed to avoid crashing into the ground. She still couldn’t exactly control her flight and so a second later she slammed into what felt like a bag full of pudding. She tried to back away but it was pulling her in. Her wings were still free and she flapped them as hard as she could.
It did nothing. Whatever she was stuck in, it was like bubblegum colored quicksand. More and more of her body was being drawn into the mass. She pulled with all her strength but she could barely slow the process down. First her head was in, then her neck and torso. Her wings started to bend at a bad angle so she quickly folded them in so they wouldn’t break. This allowed her to slip inside more easily.
She felt a slight breeze blow through her tail and that was it. She was utterly trapped. She let out a scream but the mass around her muffled it to nothing. She tried to remember just how long a pony could stay awake without oxygen, but her vision faded to black before she could recall.
“Silver Spoon, did you hear something?” the rather portly Diamond Tiara asked.
“Nope,” her grey companion replied. They were seated outside Sugar Cube Corner, sharing a small cake. Though sharing was fairly subjective as Silver Spoon had only had tiny sliver and had given the rest to her friend.
“I could have sworn I just heard something,” Diamond Tiara said. “Oh well. Maybe it was the wind. Or my thighs.”
“Hey!” came a voice from above them. They both looked up to see Rainbow Dash flying overhead. “Have either of you seen Twilight?”
“No,” Silver Spoon replied.
“Huh, I thought she flew this way,” Rainbow Dash said, mostly to herself.
“It’s just us here,” Diamond Tiara said. “And this really good cake.”
“Yeah like you need more of that,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. “Maybe she went home.”
Rainbow Dash flew off, leaving the pair alone again.
“Huh,” Diamond Tiara said. “I wonder where Princess Twilight could have gone.”
“Maybe she’s in the cake and you should look for her by eating,” Silver Spoon suggested.
“I’m not that gullible,” Diamond Tiara said, frowning. “But I can’t argue with- OW!”
“What?!”
Diamond Tiara rubbed her rump with her hoof. “I don’t know. It felt like a bug bite.”
Twilight’s head pounded furiously. Her quick wit reminded her that she had recently passed out from oxygen deprivation and this was a side effect. The loud voices didn’t help either. She tried to shut them out, keep her world quiet to make the pain go away, but she was instantly woken up by a splash of cold water hitting her.
“Aaahhh!” Twilight shrieked, leaping into the air.
She looked around for the culprit and saw three familiar fillies, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom looking at her, though they looked odd. Their manes were not as well kept as they normally were, and they were sheared off crudely. Their coats were raty and filthy.
She looked around and saw they were in some sort of pink chamber. The walls were smooth and the room was fairly spherical. The floor was made of the same soft pink material. It gave a little under her hooves but supported most of her weight. It could have been the fillies or the room, but something smelled foul, like they were standing in a shallow pool of sweat.
“Uh... where are we?” Twilight asked.
“You don’t know?” Scootaloo asked.
“We thought yah came tah rescue us,” Apple Bloom added.
“Trapped,” Sweetie Belle said simply.
“We’ve been stuck in here for so long, Princess Twilight,” Scootaloo said.
“But where is here?” Twilight asked. “And please don’t call me Princess,” she groaned.
“Sorry,” Scootaloo said.
“Don’t know,” Sweetie Belle said.
“We were just riding around when we crashed into something and were pulled into here,” Scootaloo explained.
“We’ve been trapped ever since,” Apple Bloom said.
“Nopony noticed you were gone. Just how long were you in here for?” Twilight asked.
“Forever. Always,” Sweetie Belle sputtered.
“We didn’t find a clock for a few days, but since then we’ve been keeping track,” Apple Bloom said. “Where’s the journal?”
“Right here,” Scootaloo said. She pulled out a heavily weathered and flipped it open. The pages were covered in tally marks. “What did we agree each mark meant?”
“Two marks is one day cause a clock only has twelve hours,” Apple Bloom replied.
“Right.” Scootaloo nodded. She began flipping through page after page. Twilight’s heart sank with each one. Finally Scootaloo finished and began drawing invisible figures with her hooves. “Um... in years...”
“But.. you’re still fillies. You haven’t aged at all,” Twilight exclaimed.
“Yeah, we noticed,” Apple Bloom grunted.
“Huh, we’re older than you now, Princess,” Scootaloo said finally.
“Look, there’s no way you’ve been in here more than a few hours,” Twilight said. “I just saw you three two days ago and Applejack or Rarity would have said something if you had gone missing between then and now.”
“Clocks don’t lie,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I don’t see any clock,” Twilight pointed out.
“Oh, we don’t live here, we live deeper inside. We just come out here to grab anything that gets sucked in too,” Scootaloo said.
“Deeper?”
“See?” Apple Bloom said. She walked over to the far wall and parted it. The substance easily gave way to her hoof, creating a small passage. She let go and the hole slowly closed.
“Well then,” Twilight said. She turned around and faced the wall that had presumably brought them in there. She raised a hoof to it and pushed. It did move but no opening appeared. It really was like pudding in a bag from the way it flowed back into shape when Twilight put her hoof down. She tried again, this time pushing with all her might, but the wall only deformed slightly, it didn’t give way.
“No way out,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I haven’t tried everything!” Twilight shouted. She summoned up her magic, and fired it at the wall. The pink material rippled at the impact but it didn’t leave a lasting mark. “Okay, what about this!”
Twilight vanished in a flash of purple energy. Faster than the fillies could see, the energy zoomed towards the wall, bounced off, and returned to where it had originated. There was another flash and Twilight was back.
“I can’t teleport out?!” Twilight cried.
“No way out,” Sweetie Belle repeated, shaking her head.
“Come on, we’ve got food,” Scootaloo said.
Twilight reluctantly followed the trio as they led her from chamber to chamber. Some were big, some were small, but they were basically the same. They were well lit too, though Twilight couldn’t make out any light source. Suddenly a wave of darkness blanketed the room they were in.
“Oh. Is it... night?” Twilight asked.
“No, that just sorta happens randomly,” Apple Bloom said.
“Dark!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. She bowed low to the floor and quivered. “Don’t like dark.”
“Uh...” Twilight said.
“She hasn’t taken this so well,” Scootaloo whispered.
“Here,” Twilight said. She cast a simple light spell, brightening the area. At once Sweetie Belle perked up. She stood back up and continued walking like nothing had happened.
It was only a few more minutes before they reached a chamber with something in it. The light had returned, so Twilight was able to drop the light spell. This one was by far the largest. Twilight’s jaw dropped at the colossal piles of miscellaneous stuff lying about in piles.
There were mountains of books, towers of toys, and mounds of furniture. It seemed like half the stuff in Ponyville was there. In the center was a cleared out area with three tents. Two were dark while the third was white.
“Since it’s never nighttime we have to block out the light to sleep,” Scootaloo explained.
“You can guess which hers is,” Apple Bloom said, nodding towards Sweetie Belle.
“Here, have an apple,” Scootaloo said, tossing a red fruit to Twilight. She caught it but looked confused. “Food falls in here all the time. It’s mostly candy and sweets but one day some dirt and some seeds fell in, so we’ve made a little garden.”
“Yah mean Ah made it,” Apple Bloom corrected.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Girls, this makes no sense. There’s no way you could have been in... wherever we are for that long,” Twilight said.
“Twilight, I’ve had so much time here, I’ve memorized every last Daring Do book. Every. Last. Word,” Scootaloo said. “Really, ask me what’s on any page.”
“Um, what’s the second to last word in the fifth chapter in Daring Do Gets a Fixed Rate Mortgage?” Twilight asked.
“An,” Scootaloo said. “The whole sentence is “First you’ll need to get an appraisal.””
“Huh. I’d have to check on that, I’m not positive.”
“I am,” Scootaloo grunted.
“We probably have enough material for another tent right now,” Apple Bloom said. She was busily rummaging through one of the piles, digging out scraps of fabric.
“I’m not going to stay here, we need to create a way out,” Twilight said.
“No way out,” Sweetie Belle said. She glared at Twilight then went inside her tent.
“There is, I just need to figure out where we are,” Twilight said.
“Good luck, we’ve explored every inch of the place and there’s no way to see outside,” Scootaloo said.
“Do you have any maps?”
Apple Bloom nodded. She sauntered into the middle tent and returned with a large scroll. She unrolled it, revealing a detailed illustration of a mass of bubbles connected with lines. Some of the lines, mostly those in the middle, were dotted lines.
“This is really well done, Apple Bloom,” Twilight said.
“It took me four months,” Apple Bloom said dully. “And it wasn’t easy. It’s strange, some of the room change location,” Apple Bloom said. “These ones over here.”
“Change location?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah. They move up and down so they don’t always connect to the same ones. There’s a definite line but beyond that we don’t know why,” Apple Bloom explained.
“Hmm...” Twilight said. “No, that doesn’t really tell me more about why we’re trapped. Obviously the material around us prevents our escape, but what dragged us in here. Gravity, obviously... but what has this much pull.
“A black hole would, but that can’t be it. It would have sucked in all of Ponyville, and how could a black hole spontaneously form in Equestria anyway. And then there’s the time difference. Wait... I know what this is!” Twilight is. “We’re trapped inside a pocket dimension!”
“A what?” Scootaloo said, stonefaced.
Apple Bloom scratched her head for a moment, then nodded. “Oh. Huh.”
Scootaloo looked at them both, and they stared back. A memory clicked in her mind and she let it carry her back. Back all those years ago when she was just a filly in school.
“Scootaloo!” shouted Miss. Cheerilee. Scootaloo lowered her textbook and the Daring Do book behind it. “One day you’re going to need to know what a pocket dimension is, and then you’ll be sorry.”
“Yeah, right,” Scootaloo mumbled, returning to her book.
Back in the present, Scootaloo lowered the day counting journal she had open in front of her face.
“You don’t know what a pocket dimension is do you?” Twilight asked rhetorically. “It’s kind of like a magic box thats bigger on the inside.”
Scootaloo nodded dumbly. “Is that bad?”
“Well it means we’re in a sort of mini universe inside the universe we came from. That’s why it so big in here, when out there it could be very small. And because it’s a mini universe, different rules apply. That’s why time is different in here.”
“But can we get out?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Maybe. With a normal pocket dimension you can just pass in and out, but that material in the way is stopping us. It’s clearly permeable because we can breathe.”
“Uh huh,” Scootaloo said.
“We need to find a weak spot. Here, in the center,” Twilight said, pointing at the map. “This room here is the closest to the middle and is right on the edge of the movement line.”
“But we’ve tried every wall and never gotten through,” Apple Bloom said.
“That’s the sticking point. We need a way to get going fast enough,” Twilight replied. “It does give way, we just can’t apply enough force by pushing.”
“If Rainbow Dash were here, she could do it,” Scootaloo said. “Hey, could you do a sonic rainboom?”
Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, I’m not that good at flying.”
“Yah have plenty of time to practice,” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“Maybe we can find something in all the trash,” Twilight said, changing the subject. “Do you have a list of what you have?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “No. It takes more time to find stuff and anything that wastes time is nice.”
“We have a pretty good idea of what we have though,” Apple Bloom added.
Twilight spread her wings and leapt onto one of the piles. She began turning the junk over with her magic. “How about sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal?” Twilight asked.
“What?” Scootaloo said.
“Hey, is this soda?” Twilight asked, levitating a bottle out of the mass.
“Oh yeah, we have a lot,” Scootaloo said.
“Only Scoots likes it so we have a whole bunch,” Apple Bloom explained.
“This is perfect!” Twilight exclaimed. “When I was little, my brother taught me a spell that made this stuff get super fizzy.”
“How is fizzy soda going to help?” Scootaloo asked.
“The fizz is actually trapped gas. If we get enough soda and make it fizzy enough then open the container, it might have enough thrust to get us out of here!” Twilight said. “We’ll need all the soda, and a sealed container to put it in.”
“I keep all the good stuff in a separate room,” Scootaloo said, walking off.
“How about this?” Apple Bloom asked. She galloped to one of the other piles and began tugging out a hot air balloon.
Twilight glided over but missed and skidded to a halt yard away. She shuffled over, blushing slightly. “Hmm, we can’t ride it out, but maybe if we force the pressure at us, we can be pushed out,” Twilight said.
Scootaloo had come back, holding a bottle in her mouth. “Hmm hmmt,” she mumbled before placing the bottle on the floor. “I’ve got about a hundred bottles.”
Twilight smiled. “Girls, let’s get out of here.
“Ow!” Diamond Tiara cried suddenly.
“Are you okay?” asked Silver Spoon.
Diamond Tiara rubbed a hoof over her back. “I don’t know, somethings really pinching me.”
“How about if I give you a massage? Will that help?” Silver Spoon suggested, pushing her chair away from the table.
“May-” Diamond Tiara stopped, and doubled over. “Oh it hurts!” she groaned.
Silver Spoon rushed to her side. “What?”
Diamond Tiara’s face was scrunched up in pain. “I’m gonna-”
“There, the balloon is secure,” Scootaloo announced.
To ensure the balloon stayed in place, they’d run ropes around it and tied it to various points on the wall, mostly on the outside wall. There was barely enough space for them to fit between the wall and the balloon. They had used a row of lockers from the school as a platform so the mouth of the balloon was raised.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were there now, emptying the bottles into the balloon. Twilight was focused, levitating the empty bottles away, giving them fresh one, and maintaining a forcefield around the opening in the hot air balloon so the soda could go in while the gas stayed trapped.
It had taken nearly two days to bring all the supplies to the location and set it up. While they were working it had gotten dark again, but Twilight cast some light spells that brightened everything up. The hot air balloon was heavily swollen with liquid, and it noticeably swished around as each bottle was dumped into it.
“You ever notice how Mr Piff and Dr Peppy don’t use a period after their abbreviation,” Sweetie Belle said suddenly.
“So?” Scootaloo asked, joining the other two crusaders.
“And they both start with P. That can’t be a coincidence. I’m pretty sure it’s a conspiracy,” Sweetie Belle continued.
“A conspiracy by who?” Apple Bloom asked, rolling her eyes.
Sweetie Belle stared at her. She didn’t blink, she just looked at Apple Bloom for a full minute before responding. “By THEM.” She then returned to her work and acted like nothing had happened.
“Okay, that’s all the soda you had,” Twilight called. She flew up and joined them on their platform.
“Let’s get out of here!” Scootaloo declared.
“Won’t work,” Sweetie Belle said glumly, shaking her head.
Twilight ignored her and instead extended the force field into a ball around them. She cast her magic on one of the ropes binding the balloon and severed it. This forced the balloon to push them off the platform and to prop them against the wall itself. The edge of the hot air balloon was now flush with the wall and it would stay there. “Hold on, I’m going to cast the fizzy spell now.”
Two of the fillies looked into the depths of the balloon expectantly. Twilight’s horn glowed, then the sugary liquid did too. The reaction was immediate. It began foaming up, filling the remaining space in just seconds. Twilight focused all her magic into the bubble around them. If it failed, they’d be crushed by the pressure, though she hadn’t told the fillies about the danger.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom watched as the wall began to deform around the bubble. A little at first, then more and more. The foam was slowly but surely forcing them into the barrier that had kept them trapped for so long.
“Look, look!” Scootaloo squealed, shaking Sweetie Belle as the wall was now passed the bubble entirely. Only the pressure from the foam kept it from closing.
“No, look here!” Apple Bloom shouted. She was staring at the other side. The pink was getting lighter and lighter. But the bubble was moving more slowly now. The foam was dissipating. Then all at once they stopped and began moving back. The pink was getting darker again.
“Come on, just a little more,” Scootaloo urged. “Twilight, cast it again!”
Twilight was barely paying attention, but nodded. That did it. From behind they heard an enormous bang, but they hardly paid attention because a second later the bubble lurched forward the last few feet.
Diamond Tiara groaned. “I’m gonna-”
*PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!*
The noise from the sudden release of gas rattled all the nearby windows and turned every head within a block. It was immediately followed up by four thumps and four ponies hit the ground.
“Freedom!” Apple Bloom cheered, rubbing her face against the cobblestone street.
“Fresh air!” Scootaloo sighed, sitting up.
Sweetie Belle looked around rapidly, then curled up into a ball. “Don’t like. Want to go back. Too big. Too open.”
“Where did you weirdos come from?” Diamond Tiara demanded.
“None of your business, fatty!” Apple Bloom shouted.
“Yeah. It doesn’t involve food or eating so why would you care!” Scootaloo added.
“Don’t make me sit on you,” Diamond Tiara threatened.
“Girls!” Twilight shouted. She stepped in between them. “I think you should take Sweetie Belle home. I’ll explain to Rarity later what happened. She’ll probably need weeks of therapy to get over what happened.”
“Okay,” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said together. They picked up Sweetie Belle and slunk off.
“And as for you,” Twilight said.
“Yes, Princess?” Diamond Tiara asked sweetly.
Twilight stared at the overweight pony for several seconds before she realized what was so familiar about her. “I think there’s only one thing I can do.”
“And that’s why I have to wear all this,” Diamond Tiara finished. “The flashing lights, the caution tape, the pants, all because apparently my butt is a black hole.”
“Uh huh,” Filthy Rich said. He was reading the paper while soaking in their bit bathtub. “Now go get ready for dinner. We’re having some nobles over and I want you to look presentable.” He lowered the paper for a second. “And take off those lights. They’re an eyesore.”
“Father, I just told you, I have to or Princess Twilight will send me to the moon. Or the sun. Or somewhere, she didn’t really say where.”
“Uh huh. Just go do it,” Filthy Rich said, waving her off.
“Fine, I will,” Diamond Tiara groaned. She left him and headed down the hall. “After a quick stop in the kitchen.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Author's Note
My other stuff:
My main tumblr, an alternate universe mixing MLP and Cyborg 009.
My second tumblr, a continuation of my story Forever a Changeling.
My third tumblr, where Fluttershy has been cursed so anytime she sneezes, she turns into a stallion, or back into a mare.
The Seven Tribes, a rather long fanfic that, like many stories, tries to explain the past.
Forever a Changeling, my latest story starring Rainbow Dash as a changeling.
Samurai Applejack, a drastically different kind of story. It’s rated mature for violence and some suggestive lines.
Night of the Werepony, what I consider to be my worst story, but it’s rather popular. It’s just one chapter long.
