Title: Brohooves: Land Bridge Trap
Premise: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The Brohooves (Big Macintosh, Shining Armor, and Soarin) return from their journey out at sea to find their beautiful home of Equestria devastated by the cataclysm. Will they find their loved ones? Based on a scene from Ice Age 4.
Personal Comments: For those who don't remember, I thought up this idea of Shining Armor, Big Mac, and Soarin all making up their own little group like the Mane Six and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they would call this gang The Brohooves or something. Spike and Granny Smith are along for the ride with them for this one.
I just loved Ice Age 4. It was so massive. The scale of everything happening, done from the animation and sounds of the scenery and the music, all really gave you an idea of how big the events were. I like how it went back to Manny, Sid and Diego like in the beginning, and of course, Captain Gutt was such a kick-ass villain!
This is basically the sequel to Soarin and the Sirens from before. Equestria's been devastated by a massive earthquake and set of floods, and the brohooves have been sent out to see, and now they return.
The ship drifted into the coast of what they all knew was Equestria. Shining Armor, Big Mac, Soarin, Spike, and Granny Smith all stood at the helm's deck. The water was littered with debris, both rock and ruined architecture. Shining Armor used his magic to steer the rudder's lever and keep the ship on course. There was also a thick fog about. Only it wasn't fog. It was duskier, more like a huge cloud of dust.
"What's with all this dust?" Spike whined.
"Probably done by more earthquakes," Mac replied.
Everypony became quiet, waiting for any signs of life, but there were none.
Soarin looked over the side into the water. He could see a few destroyed houses and structures. He recognized this as Ponyville... what was left of it... this wonderful town, full of good ponies. How many of them must have lost their lives in this cataclysm.
It was a hard sight for all five of them. The beautiful land of Equestria, now reduced to this. But they all still had hope. This land was not what was important to them; it was all the ponies they shared it with.
"Cadence!" Armor cried out into the mist. "Anthym! Twily!"
His only response came from a rock wall suddenly crumbling and falling apart into the water.
"AJ!" Mac followed up. "Apple Bloom! Fluttershy! Answer me!"
"Twilight! Rarity!" Spike screamed out.
"Rainbow! Jetstream!" Soarin finished, "ANYPONY?"
Still met with only silence, the only sound coming from the waves.
"This damn mist!" Armor cursed under his breath. He turned to Big Mac. "Mac, take the rudder!" He said. "I'm gonna give us some light!"
"Eeyessir!" Mac replied as he took the rudder lever in his jaws as Armor walked up to the front of the helm's deck. he shot out a beam of light from his horn like a searchlight and made it wander aimlessly around the thick mist. No movement. No signs of life.
Soarin came up beside him and shouted out again. "Hello! Anypony there! Hello! We're here to help!" Still nothing for a full minute.
"Cadence!" Armor called out again. "Anthym!"
"Shiny," Soarin spoke up in a sad tone, "I don't see anypony here."
"No, no Soarin," Armor replied. "They have to be here! They're still around, I know it!"
"Armor, there's noone here," Spike added.
"They're here!" Armor snapped back more sternly. He called out again.
"Cadence! Anthym! Melody! ...Twily!" Each time he shouted out, and no reply came. He felt dispair breaching his mind, as the others already were.
"Please," He whispered to the empty air. "Please, still be here!"
The others all gave it a moment of silence. It did nothing except let despair cloud their minds further though. Even Granny was feeling down.
This is where they had all told their loved ones to meet them at, this land bridge. It was destroyed now though by the earthquakes.
Still trying to hold hope in his heart, Armor got an idea.
"Soarin, fly ahead," He said to the pegasus. "See if you can find somepony. Anypony!"
"Roger!" Soarin nodded. He spread his wings and flew off into the mist.
It just so happens that the majority of Equestrian ponies were all perched on the cliff that hung just before the destroyed land bridge. They were all in a panic. They didn't know what to do, and the earthquake had trapped them there.
Twilight and Cadence, who were leading the herd, just looked at each other with despair in their eyes. They didn't know what to do.
Then they turned up to the sky, and saw a shadow flying toward them through the mist.
"Wait," Twilight said, squinting, and gaining everyone's attention. "Is that... is that Soarin?"
"Soarin?" Rainbow repeated, her face and ears suddenly perched up. She looked up and saw her husband approaching the crowd.
"SOARIN!" She screamed as he landed on the cliff. Before anypony could say anything, she darted up and tackled him into the ground, then picked him up and squeezed the life out of him in a tight hug. Little Jetsream trotted up and jumped in between their arms.
"Daddy!" She cried. "Oh, Daddy I missed you so much!"
"I know honey," Soarin replied, stroking her face, wiping a tear away. "It's okay. I'm back. Every thing's going to be okay."
And then Rainbow suddenly became angry. "How dare you keep me waiting this long! I was worried sick! And Jet was..." She paused and let her joy show again. "Oh, I'm just so happy you're back! I love you Soarin!" She started mercilessly kissing his face, pecking and pecking. For a moment, he pecked her back.
But then Cadence cleared her throat, snapping them out of it.
"I'm so happy you two are okay," Soarin said at last. "I missed you so much!"
"Where's Shining Armor? Is my husband okay?" Cadence asked, her voice filled with love and concern.
"Yeah, is he?" Twilight followed. "And what about Spike?"
"And my brother and Granny?" Applejack asked coming up, Apple Bloom in tow.
Before long, the mane six and a few of their friends came up too.
"They're all fine!" Soarin nodded. "We all made it back in one piece." This earned him a few smiles and squees.
"Well, where are they?" Pinkie asked.
"They're coming. We found a ship, we can all get out of here."
"A ship?" Cadence repeated, confused.
"Yeah, long story," Soarin nodded. "We'll tell you all the whole thing later. First, we gotta get outta here." He noticed that not every pony in the crowd heard him. The Wonderbolt knew what to do.
Spreading his winds, he lifted up into the air for another moment above all of them so they could see him.
"Everypony," he shouted out in a confident, commanding voice, gaining everypony's attention, "A rescue boat is seconds away! Stay calm and sit tight!"
This earned several smiles and cheers. On that good note, he turned and headed back into the fog to find his friends, unaware of the large ship just peaking out from behind him and heading towards the cliff.
"Looks like everything turned out alright!" Soarin thought. "Everypony is safe. We just saved the day."
After just a few more minutes of flying, he returned to the deck of the boat.
"Guys," Soarin exclaimed excitedly, "I found them! They're that way!" He pointed straight ahead.
Eagerly, Armor jumped back to the rudder, and twisted it in the direction of Soarin's hoof. If this were with the Wonderbolts, Soarin would have used specific signs and signals. This wasn't the wonderbolts though, and they used normal signs and sayings and gestures. It was nice to have a simpler approach to things for once in Soarin's opinion. Same thing went for Shining Armor and the royal guards.
"Are our families okay?" Big Mac asked.
"Eeyup," Soarin replied, jokingly mimicking Mac. "Did a quick head count. Every pony's okay!"
After a few moments of sailing, they finally approached a cliff.
They each did their routine shouts out to their families, which earned some answers back.
"It's Cadence!" Armor sighed in happiness in relief. "She's here!"
"Ah heard Apple Bloom too!" Big Mac replied, giving Armor a firmslap on the back.
"Wohoo!" Spike cheered. "We did it! We made it!" He ran over to Granny Smith and smacked her a big kiss on the cheek and started dancing with the happy old mare.
Big Mac and Shining Armor hugged, and then pulled Soarin in, all of them started laughing.
As the cliff came into view, Apple Bloom was the first to walk out.
"Big Macintosh!" She called out.
"Apple Bloom!" Her big brother replied, rushing to the bow of the boat to meet her.
"Argh-har-har!" A sudden evil laugh broke into the happy atmosphere, and out from the mist, came a tall, dark, shadowy colt in a dark cloak and hat. He reached down and grabbed Apple Bloom with one hoof, and held her tight.
Captain Blackbuck!
He held a knife to Apple Bloom's throat as she cried and struggled against him, much to Mac's horror and anger.
The others all suddenly saw the horrid sight, and mouths dropped. Apple Bloom, along with several more of their loved ones, had been taken hostage aboard Blackbuck's ship.
"Ah, nice to see you boys again, finally," Blackbuck called out mockingly. "This is quite a crowd of friends you all have here, n' such lovely families!"
Gilda suddenly swooped down and landed beside Blackbuck and the rest of the crew.
"Wait, wait, hold on," Spike shouted out, waving his hands.
"What is it?" Blackbuck demanded impatiently.
"We left the harbor BEFORE you. How did you get back here before us?"
Blackbuck was about to answer, but he hesitated. He turned back to his crew. "Uh, how did we, Rover?"
"I dunno?" The Diamond Dog shrugged. He pulled up a chart to show the map and trails. "By all accounts, it doesn't make sense."
Blackbuck shrugged. "Oh well, back to the show."
