Woo! So there's some stuff about to go down! I'm gonna stop talking, before I spoil everything. Good luck! I hope I haven't oversold this chapter now...
Although, I should probably mention that my headcanon (that might actually be canon) is that Sombra's eye-leaking thing is just a result of evil magic. Just in case I give the wrong impression here. Sadly, King Sombrero won't be present. Though, I'd love to write something with him in it at one point. He's such an unexplored character in the show. I know it's different in the comics, but I haven't read them all yet. Whoops!
That is all. Enjoy!
It Begins
A group of soldiers from Celestia's Royal Guard hurried through Canterlot Castle, in search of the two Princesses. Their hooves thundered through the hallways of the castle, echoing loudly throughout. As they approached the doors to the throne room, the unicorns at the front of the group raised their horns in synchronization. The doors flew open, stopped short from banging against the wall by the guards already present inside the door.
"Princess Luna! Princess Celestia! We have grave news!" One of the stallions announced. The two Princesses sitting on their thrones did not respond as the guards had expected. They blinked calmly and exchanged a lazy glance.
"I do believe we are being disturbed, sister." Princess Luna drawled, elongating each vowel.
"Why, yes, sister. I believe we are. And here I was thinking we would get a day off." Princess Celestia sighed in disappointment, her slow words grating painfully against the anxious group of guards who were clearly in a rush.
"P-Princess... we are sorry to disturb you both, your Majesties. Fortunately, it will not be in vain. It seems that Canterlot is in great danger. Strange things have been happening, and we do not know how to prevent them. What's worse is we have no idea how far the problems have gone. It might not just be contained to Canterlot." The same guard who had spoken earlier explained, his voice fast-paced and frantic, compared to the slow drawling of the Princesses.
"Oh, dear me. Something is wrong in Canterlot." Celestia shook her head, turning it slightly to glance out of a window at the rooftops. "It looks perfectly fine from here."
"If there is nothing wrong, then these ponies are disturbing us pointlessly. And I thought we were royalty. Clearly not, since our Guard takes every opportunity to ruin our peace." Luna's face was blank. The two sisters exchanged another glance, their eyes lingering for a second longer, before Celestia's face cracked. Her blank expression turned to one of joy as she spluttered laughter into her hoof.
"I'm sorry... I tried. I couldn't keep it up. Your face was just so..." Celestia laughed even harder, doubling over on her throne.
"Ugh, you are the worst at acting. I knew we should've just been straightforward!" Luna grumbled, barely hiding a smile of her own. The two alicorns' voices had returned to a normal pace, but they were still confusing the Royal Guard.
"Very well. I suppose we'll have to break the news to them." The Princess of the Night sighed dramatically. Both sisters closed their eyes in concentration for a moment, once Celestia had calmed down. Suddenly, both sets of eyes were opened, revealing completely green eyes that leaked purple and black smoke from the edges.
"We are not your Princesses!" Celestia giggled, her grin wide. Around them, the room rippled.
o.O.o
Delta woke with a start. The first thing she did was sit up and scan her room for signs of a wake-up prank. When nothing came up straight away, Delta was instantly suspicious. It was then she noticed the lack of light coming from behind the curtains. The pegasus sighed and flopped back down onto the bed. It was still night. Either that, or very very early morning. Everypony else in the cottage was probably sleeping.
It was clear after what felt like an eternity that Delta was not getting back to sleep any time soon, so the mare got up and made her way out of her room. She wasn't hungry, but she was bored, so that meant she could probably eat a horse.
...Metaphorically.
When she reached the kitchen, Delta made herself a little collection of snacks and brought them to the living room. She lit a candle next to the sofa and set her stash down on one side.
After grabbing a book from the nearby shelf, Delta settled herself down to read and binge-eat.
What felt like roughly an hour passed and daylight had not yet come. Delta had eaten her snack pile completely and simultaniously demolished the short story. It was a tale similar to 'Rapunzel', but with ponies. The story gave her way too many fanfiction ideas, but was over very quickly.
A quick glance through her mind brought up a list of things she knew other people and ponies did when they couldn't sleep. Things like counting sheep and taking medication were on the list, but Delta avoided them. Instead, one idea appealed to her greatly. A moonlight stroll through Ponyville could wear her out enough to get back to sleep.
And so, Delta cleaned up her mess and replaced the book, before setting off into the night.
Something seemed off to Delta. The journey from Fluttershy's cottage to Ponyville made her uneasy for some reason. She kept thinking she'd seen something in the corner of her eye. A wave, or a shimmer, or something. The pegasus frowned. It happened again, and this time Delta stopped moving to stare at the spot she thought she'd seen something. Just as she was about to give up, the air before her rippled.
Delta's eyes widened.
"No..!" She gasped quietly. "It can't be!"
Something moved behind Delta. She spun around, only to see a tyre rolling past. Wait a minute... a tyre?
Delta followed the wheel's journey backwards. There, plain as day on the path in front of her, was a car. An actual, motorized car. It was banged up pretty badly, since one of its tyres had just rolled away. What really unnerved Delta was that the car had appeared without her hearing a thing.
Then, suddenly, the car began to shimmer. It looked almost invisible at one point, but stayed resolutely on the ground, solidifying at last.
Panic seizing the pegasus, Delta turned tail and galloped back along the path. Back over the little bridge. Through Fluttershy's front door. She slammed the door closed behind her, rattling some of the contents of the cottage.
Delta collapsed onto the ground, panting, completely out of breath.
Once Delta had calmed down a little, she got up off the floor and made her way into the kitchen. Luckily, Delta had saved some of Discord's chocolate milk. She downed a few glasses of the chocolatey goodness while the sky turned pink in one of the windows. It was dawn.
Her mind turned back to the things she had just seen. Air rippling, check. Strange objects not from this world, check. It was beginning to sound like Twilight was right. Interdimensional travel always has consequences.
However, the shimmering was strange. It was almost like the car knew it wasn't supposed to be there or something.
As Delta thought and re-thought about the whole experience, she chewed the inside of her cheek. It was a habbit from her human days that she hadn't yet gotten over. She supposed it wouldn't matter much if Equestria was torn apart.
o.O.o
Twilight and Zecora raced through Ponyville, past panicked ponies and petrified pets. Nearby, somepony sneezed.
The early-morning sun shone down upon strange objects dotted about the town. There was even a huge chunk of metal at the edge of Ponyville that looked like somepony had made a train with dull greyish colours.
The zebra and alicorn duo galloped shot past a bizarre sight that didn't quite register with either of them. Later, Twilight would wonder why there were two ponies that looked identical talking to one another.
Everywhere they looked, things were wrong. Huge patches of the ground were coated in sand. Others had puddles that looked like they were a few feet deep. Here and there were fallen trees that were completely out of place. Each out-of-place thing was shimmering a little around the edges.
Finally, Zecora and Twilight reached Fluttershy's cottage. The alicorn Princess knocked on the door frantically.
"Fluttershy? Delta? Discord?" Twilight called.
"Perhaps they are not all awake yet. It has only been two hours since the moon set." Zecora pointed out.
After waiting a moment or two, the door was finally answered by Delta. The mare looked a little shaken up.
"Oh, good! Um, Twilight- you were right. The things in your books... th-they've been happening! There were ripples, and cars and tyres and-" Delta blurted out, stumbling over her words a little.
"Calm down, young mare. Now please, take a breath and recall your facts with care." Zecora soothed the frantic pony.
"R-right. Uh, come in. Fluttershy and Discord are having breakfast." Delta moved out of the way to allow the alicorn and the zebra into the cottage. Once inside, she led them into the kitchen, where Fluttershy and Discord were indeed having breakfast. They both looked a little shaken themselves. Clearly Delta had told them of her experience.
"Oh, hello Twilight. Hi Zecora. Do you want something to eat?" Fluttershy greeted, her voice shaking a little. The surprisingly brave pegasus hid it pretty well.
"No thanks, Fluttershy. We're here to talk about what's happening in Ponyville, and possibly all of Equestria." Twilight explained.
"All of Equestria could be affected?" Fluttershy squeaked.
"Oh no... I can't believe it. This is all my fault!" Delta cried.
Throughout all the commotion, Discord was staying uncharacteristically quiet. He kept his eyes turned down, avoiding eye-contact with everypony.
"There's nothing we could've done to prevent it." Twilight reasoned. "Unless this was caused by somepony trying to get back to Earth." The purple Princess glanced at Delta, hoping to get an explanation.
"What- no! Of course not! After all your warnings, I couldn't be that stupid." Delta exclaimed.
Twilight's glance turned to Discord.
"You didn't try anything, did you?" She asked. The draconequus didn't answer immediatelly.
"No. I didn't." He muttered to the ground.
Twilight frowned at Discord's strange behavior, but moved on all the same.
"The things described in 'Hay, Please' are happening all around Ponyville. Strange objects from other worlds and rippling air. It's safe at this point to assume it's the same all over Equestria. I've sent a letter to Princess Celestia, just in case she didn't know already. Hopefully, if we take action soon, we might be able to fix this. I hope." Twilight said the last sentence a little quieter than the rest.
"We need to tell the girls about this!" Fluttershy spoke up. "They can help. Together, I'm sure we can make this right!"
"I wish I shared your optimistic view. I only hope we are not affected by anything new." Zecora sighed.
Just then, the door to Fluttershy's cottage burst open. The pony responsible was quickly in the doorway to the kitchen.
"So sorry to intrude, everypony." The tan stallion with a dark brown mane announced, a little out of breath. "But I need to tell you all something very important."
Ooooh! So much happened! In case you're confused about time, the bit with the Princesses happened before Zecora went to Twilight last chapter, as did Delta's night-walk.
Funny how this chapter was just me writing solidly. Usually, I pause, get distracted by the internet and generally waste time. This time, though... Phew.
Anyway, I'll see y'all next time!