Hello once again!
Glad to see at least SOME reaction to the fic! Didn't expect much, considering...well, it's a crossover between FiM and Rio...I didn't envision it to gain any huge amounts of reviews. PLEASE prove me wrong!
Anyways, BACK TO THE STORY!
...
Chapter 2
Not in Rio Anymore...
"So, you ready to admit I was right?"
This came right from the mouth of a very cocky Spike – he knew he seemed one-hundred percent right on his bet that nothing wrong happened as a result of Twilight's spell.
"Yeah yeah, don't rub it in," Twilight Sparkle grumbled, sounding much closer to her sane self than a few minutes before. Spike smiled contently, knowing he'd been right all along (as he usually did). Not a single pony was out-of-whack, and not a single tree or bush was moved or even poked.
"So, now that yer whole ordeal is over, you doin' anythin', Twi?" Applejack asked, which sparked a small silence among the group. After all, Twilight Sparkle hadn't exactly even had anything planned for the day. Rainbow Dash was busy maintaining her normal job of clearing the skies (and, as usual, was doing a fine job at it), Rarity was likely busy over-working herself again, Fluttershy was off somewhere with her animal friends; Twilight couldn't believe that it seemed nothing was happening today.
"I don't know. Is there anything we can even do?" Twilight Sparkle asked rather confused, to which Pinkie Pie's expression brightened, apparently concocting an idea the entire time, and quickly popped into the conversation.
"I know! I know! We can-"
"We're notmaking cupcakes..." Twilight Sparkle said with an annoyed tone, obviously objectionable to the idea of baking treats. Especially considering something was strange about Pinkie Pie and cupcakes...but it didn't matter. There was still nothing to do. Spike thought intensely, trying to think up something to do.
"Maybe Apple Bloom and her friends are doing something? They're always trying something hair-brained," Twilight Sparkle noted with a resolving voice. Before she could decide this was their official plan, Applejack interjected.
"No can do, Twi. Apple Bloom is with Rarity and the girls for the whole day," Applejack replied.
"Ugh! This is so boring! There's nothing to do!" Spike whined in a child-like tone.
"Come on, Spike. We must be able to find something. It's not like something will fall right out of the sky-" Twilight Sparkle was suddenly cut off by this thought, when suddenly the familiar rainbow-colored mane of a certain cyan Pegasus smashed into Twilight Sparkle, sending both of them flying through the air and then landing into a group of shrubs.
"Twilight! You okay?" Spike yelped, him and the other ponies with him running over to the crash site in the shrubs and gathering around it, when Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash both poked their heads out from the brush.
"Oww... Rainbow Dash, what in the world of Equestria is wrong with you?" Twilight asked rather irritated. Rainbow Dash formed a frown, ready to respond, when something else popped its head out from the bushes.
"What in the name of Celestia is that?" Applejack exclaimed, confused by the strange...thing they were looking at.
Before this strange occurrence had happened, Rainbow Dash was happily flying throughout Cloudsdale. While this was the case, work wasn't exactly expected of her today. After all, she'd already done that the very morning in only 10 seconds flat (or at least according to her it was).
The usual rush of bursting across the sky was particularly exhilarating today for Rainbow Dash. In fact...she felt like she almost couldn't stop. Before she could even think of stopping, she already had zoomed past several Pegasi as she thundered across the clear sky she had made for herself this very morning.
Rainbow Dash had normally thought how boring life must've been for Earth ponies, or any being without wings for that matter. All they could do was walk around while she could tear the skies and do anything she wanted. After all, wings offered a lot more than just airborne capabilities. It offered what many describe as 'freedom' and not having to rely on anypony. It was a feeling Rainbow Dash had grown accustomed to, and frankly she felt the need to have that today. So much so, she barely missed a few more Pegasi, one who was gray and looked on with a walled expression in confusion.
Before Rainbow Dash could relax and enjoy the freedom even more, she suddenly heard yelling for help echoing from somewhere nearby. While Dash was usually the lazy type, she wouldn't ignore cries for help or anything near that degree. However, this seemed to be coming from absolutely nowhere. In fact, it sounded more like a bird call than yelling.
"I must've spent too much time with Fluttershy. Now I'm imagining birds," Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself, shaking off the tweeting as her imagination. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case, as suddenly a small figure suddenly landed on top of the cyan-colored pegasus, adding an extra hue of blue to the pegasus as she quickly spiraled downwards towards Ponyville - more specifically, the body of Twilight Sparkle as the two ponies (along with whatever landed on Rainbow Dash) smashed together and went flying into the bushes.
Frankly, Rainbow Dash was having a great day to this point. While this did put a damper on it, she couldn't have possibly imagined what she crashed into would turn this damper into a river.
"Guhh...What happened last night?"
These low groans came from a small, blue bird that raised his head slowly, completely unaware of anything that had happened just before. Of course, this was one of the only two Spix macaws on Earth, Blu. Blu slowly raised his head as he rubbed it in its current sore state. The macaw finally opened his eyes rather tiredly, but they quickly sprang open like a set of doors. In front of him wasn't the familiar landscape of the dense Rio de Janiero jungle. No, it wasn't that at all. In fact, it didn't even look like reality. Rather, it looked almost like a dreamlike landscape. The lush trees were instead tall, strangely minimal-dimsensional looking. It was almost as if he was in a cartoon world of some sorts, like those strange Tex Avery cartoons he'd seen back in Minnesota.
A stream stood nearby Blu, and as the Spix quickly stood up to investigate, a flock of birds whizzed by. Instead of the color patterns, however, they looked smaller and much more cheery. Everything was too perfect and colorful. Blu looked into the reflection of the stream, and quickly noticed he was completely unchanged. Features and all were still intact, which he responded to with a sigh of relief. Though, he wouldn't be surprised if he been turned into a mouse by now with how little logic this all calculated to. After all, one second he'd been flying after Jewel, trying to figure out-
"Wait..." Blu said, stopping mid-thought. He finally remembered - he was trying to save Jewel from whatever it was that Pedro and Nico were telling him about. Blu remembered something of a confrontation, and then a huge, bursting light, and then he was suddenly here.
"I've got to be dreaming. There's got to be a part where I wake up, right?" Blu asked with a nervous smile, hoping his thoughts were correct. After all, this couldn't possibly be happening. There was no logical explanation, and frankly Blu was used to getting a logical explanation. After all, he was a bookworm (or bookbird, rather).
Before his train of thought could continue, it was brought to a screeching halt when the sound of a voice suddenly made him jump.
"Hello there..."
Blu gasped in shock, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the river. Before he could even think about what had surprised him, he was quickly flopping around and yelling in the stream.
"Ah! Help me!" Blu screamed loudly, to which he suddenly felt himself get picked up rather daintily and then dropped down slowly. Blu was even more confused after this, but he first focused on regrouping himself.
"There you go..." The same, soft-sounding voice said to Blu, which piqued his confusion up once again. Blu admittedly felt some embarrassment at the fact that he had to be rescued from a stream, but it sounded like this person who saved him was good; it was a person, right?
"You should really be more careful around water. Celestia didn't give us wings to swim..."
Blu suddenly perked his eyebrow at the mention of something called 'Celestia'. Suddenly, something made him think this person wasn't so normal after all. In fact, maybe it was a bird! Someone he could relate with and be helped by! After all, it did mention it having wings, so it had to be!
Blu spun around, expecting to see the feathers and beak of a bird, and instead was met with a sight that terrified Blu, as well as left him completely dumbfounded, complete with a gaping beak.
In front of him was a pony.
Blu's mind was blown. Sure, birds traditionally didn't have large brains, but Blu knew there was no explanation to accompany this. He was in a colorful, cartoon-like world with strange-looking birds and ponies. Even worse, the pony had wings. So, this was a Pegasus?
"...I have to be dreaming," Blu muttered to himself, his dumbfounded glance still fixated on the pink and yellow-colored Pegasus. She seemed rather kind from her cyan eyes and position, but this couldn't be right.
"Wait a minute, are you a Pegasus?" Blu asked clean out of the blue.
"Well...of course I am." She answered back, her tone still stuck in the shy-sound it had stuck to since she first said a word to him.
"...but, how is that possible? Pegasi don't exist! Are you sure you aren't just one of those hoaxes me and Linda would always see on TV like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster?" Blu asked as if he was interrogating a criminal. The Pegasus was clearly nervous to react to him, but she slowly answered back with an even more feeble-sounding tone.
"Of course we exist. How do you think the sky gets cleared every day?" The Pegasus offered in rebuttal. "...It's okay if you don't know, though..." Blu slapped himself in the face with his wing, trying to knock some sense into himself, his jaw now hanging even wider than before.
"T-that doesn't make a single bit of sense! What kind of science do you things run on? What rotates your planet? What raises the sun?" Blu asked madly, his mind racing into insanity every second, his eyes twitching madly.
"Oh, that's easy little friend. Princess Celestia does, and has done it for as long as I know," The pony answered shyly once again. Blu stared at the Pegasus with a completely bewildered look. In fact, it was beyond bewildered. It was complete shock and stupefaction. Blu suddenly felt his eye twitch once, and before he could even offer another reaction, he fell to the ground, passing out from the sheer logical breakdown his mind was going through.
"Oh my...Maybe I was too assertive..."
"Ay caramba..."
These were the first words spoken out of the strange bird that three particular fillies found lying in front of Carousel Boutique.
"It's dead, right?" Scootaloo, the orange and purple-colored Pegasus filly asked.
"It's talkin', ain't it? I don't think it's dead if it's talkin'," Apple Bloom, the filly with the Southern drawl responded back skeptically. Before they could wonder any more about the strange bird in front of them, Sweetie Belle suddenly decided it was a good idea to kick the bird.
"Sweetie Belle! Don't kick it!" Scootaloo scolded the white filly as she glanced at her fellow crusader with a surprised expression.
"But you said it was dead!" Sweetie Belle objected, the three not noticing the bird was now alive and well, standing up and staring at the group of fillies with an amused look.
"No I didn't! I asked if it was dead!" Scootaloo answered back.
"Would you two stop arguin'?" Apple Bloom yelled, pushing her way in between the two arguing fillies while the strange bird watching them just sat and watched them go on.
"Why? Maybe that's our special talent?" Sweetie Belle suggested naively.
"Didn't we talk about this before? Who wants their special talent to be arguin'?" Apple Bloom responded, now sounding annoyed by the ensuing argument.
"Maybe we can give the bird CPR? We could be CPR-givers!" Scootaloo exclaimed, the same usual motion of ideas flowing through the little fillies' minds like clockwork. This was the normal commencing of each day for the group of fillies exhibited here, known as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Unlike many of the school fillies they knew, the three had not yet earned their 'cutie marks', or symbols of what they're most skilled at or love to do. This later sparked them to create their current group, known as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'. Every day, they'd try their hooves at something new, whether it be chiropractic actions, skydiving or the general practice of angering local animals in an attempt to befriend them.
"Is that what they're called? 'CPR-givers'?" Apple Bloom questioned.
"Of course they are! Now let's go, Cutie Mark Crusaders, and save this bird!" Scootaloo exclaimed in the most dramatic and heroic tone possible for a little filly like her.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CPR-GIVERS! YAY!" The three exclaimed loudly together. This loud exclamation came at no extra charge with their antics that would follow after it, but it provided a display that absolutely drew attention.
"Woah, woah! Ladies, there's enough Rafael to go around!" A voice said from behind the Crusaders, surprising the heck out of them. The three fillies spun around quickly to come face-to-beak with the same bird they planned to give CPR to just three seconds ago. The "crusaders" simply gave confused glances at each other, then back at the bird, who simply smiled.
"...Did that bird just talk?" Scootaloo said with an arched brow, finally breaking the silence.
"Of course I talked, meninas," The toucan answered back nonchalantly. The three fillies still sat in shock, surprised that a bird was talking to them in the first place. Rafael glanced at the three young ponies with a confused expression, and then chuckled to try and lighten the mood.
"Are you girls okay?" Rafael asked with an uneasy tone, waving his wing in front of the three, expecting a reaction.
"How are you talkin'?" Apple Bloom suddenly asked in a interrogative voice. Apple Bloom wasn't familiar with every type of animal, but the Sweet Apple Acres had enough for Apple Bloom to be able to tell a bird talking wasn't normal. Rafael was suddenly confused by this pony's confusion. Rafael decided to have a bit of fun with the young ones in front of him.
"I use my beak, open and close it and speak." Rafael said with a laugh, seeming to annoy the yellow filly rather than entertain her.
"Maybe birds can talk to us and we just didn't know? Fluttershy seems to do it pretty well," Sweetie Belle suggested. Scootaloo rolled her eyes in response to this suggestion, while Apple Bloom seemed to buy into it the idea a bit.
"You reckon? Maybe that's our special talent?" Apple Bloom said with building excitement in her voice and spirit, but was dashed quickly by Scootaloo.
"I wouldn't count on it. Still no Cutie Mark." Scootaloo groaned, the same process going the same way for the Crusaders as always. Trying something new led to a possible skill, and then led to nothing more than the same blank flank that met their gaze after every attempt.
"Well, why don't we try cattle wranglin'? Big Sis seems real good at that." Apple Bloom said rather excitedly, apparently looking forward to jump to this suggestion.
"Sounds good to me! Better than talking to birds. Who wants a Cutie Mark of a bird anyway?" Scootaloo responded with the same tone as she began to take off.
"Hey, what's with all the dissin'? I didn't say anything bad about ponies." Rafael replied back, feeling rather offended by the discussion unfolding that seemed focused on his unimportance.
"Pardon me, Mr. Bird, but we just ain't interested in talkin' to birds," Apple Bloom said tersely to the Toco Toucan.
"Hey, do I look boring? I've got a million different stories to tell. We may not look like much, but I can tell you we're more interesting than we look," Rafael countered with a laugh.
"Maybe he can help us get our Cutie Marks?" Sweetie Belle suggested with her usual, innocent smile. Apple Bloom glanced at Sweetie Belle with a perplexed expression, and then decided on what to do.
"Huddle!" Apple Bloom suddenly said, grabbing the two Crusaders and forming themselves into a huddle while Rafael just looked on with an odd expression.
"These girls sure are loco..." Rafael muttered as he awaited the girls' response.
"You really reckon he could help us get our Cutie Marks?" Apple Bloom asked, sounding half-suspicious and oddly half-excited.
"I don't think so. How can we trust a bird for our Cutie Marks?" Scootaloo objected rather in an annoyed tone, obviously wanting to move onto something else.
"Scoot, you thought giving a bird CPR was going to get us a Cutie Mark," Apple Bloom said with a furrowed brow. Scootaloo suddenly realized she was beaten in this discussion, and laughed embarrassingly in response.
"Let's just go with your plan," Scootaloo said with a fake grin plastered onto a feeling of embarrassment.
"'Right then!" Apple Bloom turned towards Rafael. "Wadda ya say, little guy? Can you help us get our Cutie Marks?" She seemed to put a lot of trust into her tone towards Rafael. Rafael glanced at Apple Bloom with an amused grin and then leaned over to glance at the other two fillies.
"Well, I'd love to help, amiga, but I have no clue what a Cutie Mark is," Rafael said with a laugh, thinking of the situation as hilarious. Now, the embarrassed grin quickly flip-flopped to Apple Bloom's face, and a groan and frown escaping from Scootaloo.
"What was that about him helping us get our Cutie Marks?" Scootaloo groaned. Apple Bloom frowned at this remark and then began to walk away.
"Hey ladies, I'll still help! After all, Rafael won't leave anyone behind! Birds of a feather stick together. Or...things that are animals...stick together?" Rafael suggested, fumbling with his word choice to a point where he clearly gave up as his voice trailed off.
"Pardon me kindly Mister, but how will you be able to help us when you don't have a darn clue of what a Cutie Mark is?" Apple Bloom asked, turning around with a bit of hope forming in her.
"We can teach him about Cutie Marks!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. Rafael simply responded with a shrug of his wings and a rash smile. He obviously wanted to help, whether stripped of prior knowledge or non-understanding of what was going on or where he was. The toucan figured he'd find his way around if he stuck with these little ponies.
"Teach about what we don't have? Is that even possible?" Scootaloo asked skeptically.
"Look, it's all we got. You got any better ideas, Scoot?" Apple Bloom asked, rather annoyed by her friend's constant arguing.
"So Mister-" Sweetie Belle began, ready to introduce herself before the self-proclaimed 'lady's bird' interrupted her.
"The name is Rafael, ladies. At your service for any...'Cutesy Mark' issues you have!" Rafael exclaimed, attempting to get their trust in full circle. After all, he'd probably be sticking with them for a while.
"Good to meet ya, Mr. Rafael. Name's Apple Bloom!" Apple Bloom greeted. The yellow filly did mentally note to herself that Rafael was an unusual name for a creature in Equestria, especially a bird.
"My name's Sweetie Belle!" The white-colored filly said in her usual cheerful tone and adorable green eyes to accompany it.
"And my name is Scootaloo!" Scootaloo piped-in loudly.
"WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" The three fillies cheered loudly in their normal fashion as they did before undertaking another attempt at gaining what they looked for most, their Cutie Marks.
Rafael simply snickered at the cuteness of this group of girls. They seemed innocent and youthful; a lot like his kids. That reminded him of something, however.
"Okay, nice to meet you girls. Now, can we get going? I'd love to help, but I've got a family to take care of back where I'm from," Rafael said with a nervous laugh, realizing how mad Eva would be discovering he was far off in wherever this place was. In fact, where was Blu? Or Jewel? Or Pedro and Nico? Where was any of the birds he knew, for that matter?
"Maybe we can find Twilight Sparkle and she can teach you all about Cutie Marks?" Sweetie Belle suggested.
"...Twilight Sparkle?" Rafael asked with a absolutely-confused expression. He couldn't understand who could have a name that strange. Before he could wonder anymore about this matter, however, another matter arose with the one shout from a certain nearby mare.
"Girls!"
The group of four quickly took attention to this shout, which sounded as if it came from inside the Carousel Boutique. All of the fillies were easily able to identify it by the unmistakable English accent.
"Macacos me mordam! She sounds madder than Eva when I'm late to the nest!" Rafael remarked with a terrified expression. The Cutie Mark Crusaders simply responded with this remark with confused looks.
"What's an Eva?" Scootaloo immediately asked.
"Ehh, you don't wanna know..." Rafael said with a sly smile. They'll probably learn what an 'Eva' is once they get older, Rafael figured. It happened to every lady eventually.
"Whoever Eva is, it can't be as bad as my sister Rarity when she's mad," Sweetie Belle said with a look of fear plastered onto her green eyes. Rafael was about to inquire who Rarity was, before his answer was given as soon as the door to the boutique swung open.
...
Meanwhile, across Ponyville, a loud noise erupted from Sugarcube Square, which was currently unoccupied - aside for two small birds and a certain alligator.
"AHH! RUN MAN!" A shout echoed from inside as two shapes of birds fired past the window. These birds quickly ducked behind a small bathtub and held their position, both huffing and puffing to catch their breaths.
"Dude, what was that thing?" The yellow bird piped-out, the familiar voice of Nico escaping between inhales of breath and his glances back in a terrified state.
"It looked like a dragon or somethin'! I ain't going back out there, man!" Pedro shrieked, his face plastered with the same expression of horror on his beak.
"I don't blame ya! That thing is ganna eat us alive! Me for an appetizer, and then you for the main course!" Nico said in fright, suddenly fueling the burning fire called "hysteria" in Pedro's mind.
"Nuh uh! I'm getting my tail outta here!" Pedro answered back matter-of-factly. As soon as he turned, however, he was suddenly met with what looked like huge, purple marbles...however, Pedro quickly realized what they really were as soon as they blinked.
"AHH! MONSTER!" Pedro shrieked like a little girl as he thundered past Nico in a blur of red and black, leaving his canary bud staring straight at the supposed 'monster', which oddly looked like a cute alligator to an eye beside a bird's.
"Uhhh...don't eat me, man! I'm not too chewy! These wings have got all bone and no meat! You don't wanna eat me!" Nico said between nervous laughs, backing up slowly at every word. The alligator, however, only reacted with a simple blink of his eyes.
"Dang! There's some kinda wall of energy keepin' us in here!" Pedro yelled from across the room, continuously smacking into a window in an attempt to break the 'wall of energy'.
"Look, bud, I don't know what we did to you reptile guys, but I'm sorry if we did anything! If we stole any of ya fruit or somethin', we didn't mean it!" Nico said with pure fears striking his tone. In response, the alligator once again blinked with the same stare from his purple eyes.
"He ain't lettin' us leave! We're stuck in his yellow dungeon of doom!" Pedro yelled in an extremely uncharacteristic tone for the cardinal as he began to desperately pound on the window. Now that Pedro had mentioned, the room certainly was yellow. In fact, it was almost downright girly. Nico almost started to wonder if they were in the wrong here, before the alligator began waddling over towards them.
"Ah! Get us out of here, amigo!" Nico shrieked to Pedro as he attempted to get higher off the ground to keep distance from the 'beast' below them. However, the alligator held his stoic, cold expression. Nico's terrified expression suddenly stopped in its tracks, and began to bend into a confused look.
"Hey Pedro, how come he ain't chasing us?" Nico asked as he fluttered down to the wooden floor along with Pedro, who held a similar expression on his beak.
"I dunno... Yo reptilian dude! How come you ain't trying to eat us?" Pedro exclaimed, waving his wing in front of the alligator wildly, trying to attract its attention.
"Huh, maybe this guy is cool after all." Nico said with a positive tone forming in his voice. Pedro was about to object, but his canary friend continued, and moved closer to the alligator to the point where he was literally resting on the small gator's body.
"That such a good idea, Nico?" Pedro asked, still mentally confused to the fact that the alligator seemed completely uninterested in...anything, apparently.
"C'mon, man! Alligators can't be cool?" Nico asked with a smile as he leaned on the alligator, the same blank expression stuck to his face.
"Just don't let him near me – I'm allergic to weird crocodile stuff," Pedro said with a skeptical tone.
"He's an alligator, amigo. Different snout," Nico said with a smirk. Pedro stared blankly at Nico with the feelings of punching his friend in the face, but he held back knowing that somehow he'd probably already had the croco- alligator on his side.
"So...where are we?" Pedro asked, glancing around the yellow-colored bathroom.
"It looks like a bathroom," Nico joked with a smirk.
"Man, you're on fire today," Pedro laughed, which Nico couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not.
"So, where the heck are we anyway?" Nico asked, glancing around the room curiously. As he previously stated, it was definitely a bathroom. The walls were graced with an odd mix of yellow and earth-coloring, and the tub in the middle of the room seemed oddly placed to a person like you or me, but Nico couldn't bother to note. He was a bird, after all. There were two windows, and a small sink that was oddly pink.
"I dunno man, but I wanna get out and find...JEWEL!" Pedro suddenly exclaimed, realizing their proceeding situation before being stuck here.
"Ah! You're right! Jewel was nabbed by that...thing!" Nico yelled, suddenly back into panic mode as the two birds sped around madly, while the alligator simply stared at the two, completely uninterested apparently.
"Look, it's still Rio! Blu and Rafael are still out there, probably looking for her and that...whatever that bird thing was," Nico reasoned, acting an emotion of calmness and failing miserably at it.
"Bird? That wasn't a bird, amigo!" Pedro exclaimed, grabbing his canary bud by the wings and shaking him madly, obviously scared to even mention the creature they'd been graced with the image of.
"Bird, airplane or plant thing, whatever ya wanna call it! Let's go find some birds to help us out!" Nico responded as he took off towards the window, before realizing the window would likely not open from the force of two birds, let alone a small bird like himself.
"That psychic wall ain't breakin', man. I'll try going through the walls!" Pedro exclaimed confidently, before facing a wall and rushing towards it, and bouncing off like a rubber ball off a brick wall.
"Ow! That hurt," Pedro whined as he rubbed his beak, before trying it again, coming up with the same results.
"A few more of those and maybe it'll knock some sense into ya!" Nico exclaimed with a clever grin as he attempted to budge the window open.
"Very funny, bird! Now help me with the walls!" Pedro yelled as he smacked into the wall again, still not coming up with results. Obviously, Pedro's logic led him to try the next wall.
"Nah. Looks fun though!" Nico laughed with sarcasm streaming his voice.
"Hey, what are we gonna name our gator bud?"
Pedro glanced back at the alligator, who still sat stone-still in the middle of the room, before suddenly opening his mouth and chomping down on a small piece of candy on the ground.
"How about 'Tick Tock'?" Pedro suggested, to which his canary buddy gave him a look of confusion.
"Amigo, that was a crocodile," Nico responded, his beak graced with the still-confused expression.
"What are you talkin' about, amigo? I'm talkin' about that song!" Pedro quipped, before ramming himself back into the wall.
"Yeah, but buddy, that's the name of a-" Nico started, before getting cut off by another smack into the wall by the cardinal. "Never mind. I wanna name him Louie, though."
"Why?" Pedro called back, making his way to yet another wall, this being his fourth wall for breaking attempts.
"I dunno, just sounds good," Nico said with a grin, before his eyes jumped open when a smash echoed through the room, catching Nico's attention. As he could suddenly see, Pedro was successful at this attempt.
"Check it out! I broke the fourth wall!" Pedro exclaimed with self-accomplishment in his tone as he then began his attempt to break free of the wall he'd gotten stuck in.
"You sure did, amigo," Nico said, holding back a snicker as he watched his cardinal buddy struggle to pry himself out of the wall. After a bit of struggling and position-tweaking, Pedro easily slipped out of the hole, leaving a circle-shaped indent behind on the wall.
"You think the alligator has house insurance?" Pedro asked nervously as he observed the mark he let on the wall.
"I dunno, but I'm findin' out where we are," Nico said with a laugh as he popped his head into the hole and saw...something.
"Uh, Pedro..." Nico said, his voice stifled thanks to his head being on the other side of the wall, which made Pedro have to desperately hold back a laugh.
"What's wrong amigo?"
"I don't think we're in Rio anymore."
"What makes ya say that?" Pedro asked back, now rather confused by his friend's sudden conclusion. Then again, this room looked a bit too colorful for any normal human's taste, Pedro theorized quietly.
"Pink ponies. That's what."
...
The odd sensation of gaining consciousness was indeed new to Jewel. Of course, as she imagined, it wasn't enjoyable at all. As the haze cleared from the Spix macaw's head, Jewel raised her head shakily, suddenly feeling the sting of the mid-day sun – but that couldn't be possible, Jewel thought. It was just about twilight when Blu and her had head out, before she was attacked by that [i]thing[/i].
Jewel finally popped her head out of the bushes, to quickly meet the gaze of two huge, round, green eyes.
"...What in the name of Celestia is that?"
Jewel's eyes and ears perked open in sudden shock all at once as soon as she realized that this pair of eyes didn't belong to a bird. In fact, it wasn't even human. It was a pony.
"It's a bird, Applejack, duh," a cyan pony right beside Jewel said in the same bush she was in. Jewel, given some time to observe, hazily glanced around to see the entire bush she and this cyan pony were in was surrounded by a group of different-colored ponies. Jewel suddenly questioned whether she should've accepted that offer of a drink out of a Styrofoam cup from those seagulls.
"I know that, Dash. I just never seen anythin' like it," The green-eyed pony responded, eying Jewel with a clear look of suspicion in her round eyes.
"Ever heard of a thing called personal space? You're invading it right now," Jewel stated with a lack of emotion, thanks to the facts she'd been knocked out only minutes before. Suddenly, all the ponies surrounding them gasped in shock after she spoke, as if she suddenly grew a second head that spoke French.
"That bird just talked, right?" The cyan pony piped out after a good few seconds of shocked silence.
"How in the hay are you talkin', little critter?" The southern-drawled pony staring in front of her asked. Jewel groaned in annoyed tone. One moment she'd been minding her business, wanting to have a nice time with her mate, when suddenly a weird creature captured here and suddenly she was sitting in the middle of a group of ponies. What else could possibly break her understanding of things in the last 10 minutes?
"First of all, don't call me 'little critter'," Jewel stated sternly, attempting to regain her balance, which her legs greeted her with a feeling of movement, which was a good sign at least. "Second, where am I? I know for a fact I'm not in Rio." She didn't care to answer any question posed by some pony and more intent to find answers to her problem.
"Is that bird talking?" a purple-hued pony asked suddenly, apparently late to the news of this as she got up from the ground after the initial crash with the cyan pony.
"No, someone's performing a magic trick," Jewel piped back sarcastically. The purple pony frowned in response to her joke and then walked nearer to the Spix macaw.
"Well, Applejack, judging from color and size, it looks like a species called the 'Spix macaw'," the purple pony stated matter-of-factually.
"Spix? Shoot, never heard of that kinda bird," The Southern-drawled pony stated tersely.
"That's why we have Fluttershy, right?" The cyan pony said with a grin and a snicker. Jewel, however, was now extremely irritated by all of this. No one was giving her any answers to anything, and an explanation was absolutely needed after the Spix macaw had already seen unicorns and Pegasi talking to her.
"Would you mind telling me the fastest way to get out this place?" Jewel asked the green-eyed pony, her emotion returning to the worst state possible - annoyance.
"First of all, name's Applejack. Second, what's the rush?" Applejack replied, getting annoyed herself by how this strange bird was acting.
"Look, I'd love to chit-chat with the residents of a one-horse town, but I need to get back to where I belong, in Rio. Like nature intended..." Jewel replied sternly as she attempted to open her wings to take off into the sky, but the still-lurking feeling of numbness stopped her short, and sent her beak smacking back to the dirt ground in front of all the ponies.
"Hey! What are you callin' a one-horse town?" The cyan pony replied with a sound of offense in her voice. As she left the bush, it suddenly became apparent to Jewel that this cyan pony was actually a Pegasus. Just more fun to the party.
"Now now, Rainbow Dash. The poor thing is probably confused about where it is. This is probably the thing I teleported," the purple-colored unicorn stated with relief in her voice as she gazed down at Jewel, her look of observation and understanding seeming to sink into Jewel's thoughts. It was odd, Jewel thought, that a pony had such power in an expression. Then again, it made about as much sense as anything else that had occurred in the past couple moments, Jewel thought to herself.
"This is going to be a long day," Jewel groaned with an annoyed tone.
That may have been the biggest understatement of the year...
...
A/N:
I HAVE to thank my best bud Travis or editing this chapter! Hope you enjoyed this hard work, Happy Thanksgiving and like always...
READ, ENJOY, REVIEW!