Hello once again, faithful and new!
I'm incredibly happy to see some attention focused to the story, as I honestly wouldn't BEGIN to imagine a crossover, ESPECIALLY a FiM/Rio crossover to get much attention. Keep reading and keep up the comments! Thank you and enjoy this third chapter!
...
Chapter 3
Odds and Ends
Blu didn't welcome the feeling of complete unconsciousness. In fact, it felt like being a ghost. His whole abdomen was numb, his wings were sore from minimal usage for a long while, and his head beat like a relentless drum, his ears ringing every second.
The sound of some sort was recoiling his ears as well. It sounded like a patter of feet that wound every once in a while in Blu's ears like a worn tape. The sensation of sound was a nice welcome and good sign, but Blu was so confused as to where he was he couldn't bother to be thankful for it.
Finally, the sound of a door lightly shutting ironically convinced Blu that he should check what his current situation was. However, before he could attempt to raise his head any more than a few precious inches, the knocking in his head beat it down back to a surprisingly-soft pillow cushion.
"Don't worry, little bird. You'll be better in no time...just get some rest..."
Blu was strangely hypnotized by this soft voice that suddenly took up residence near him, from what he could interpret. Blu suddenly began hoping that maybe this was a person who worked at the bird sanctuary? Maybe that pony thing was just a dream? Maybe even...it was Jewel...
"I had this horrible dream...I was in some other place where nothing made sense, and there was a Pegasus..." Blu groaned out, taking a second shot before the pain stung him back.
"Well, it's alright now. You're back in good old Equestria..."
Wait...that doesn't sound right, Blu thought to himself urgently.
"Equestria?" Blu yelped, his tone magnifying loudly as he reared his head up and ripped his eyelids open. Next to his bed was none other than the same Pegasus that greeted him before. The Pegasus gave a bashful expression back as Blu only gawked in a glued look of surprise. After a good 3 seconds of awkward silence, Blu did the only thing he could think of at this point – Run.
Blu, without thinking, burst out of the bed and quickly toppled onto the floor. The Spix macaw then beat his wings once to test, and was quickly off into the air, heading straight to the door with the Pegasus daintily trailing behind him.
"Oh my! Where are you going?"
Blu, ignoring any words from the insane Pegasus behind him, was about to grace the door, when he realized the sudden ache in his wings as he began to lose altitude, and without any more hesitation, the macaw somersaulted onto the wooden floor and rolled into the door, adding insult to injury in his attempt.
"Oh dear. Are you okay?" The Pegasus asked, her voice still plastered with the constant kind and gentle tone.
"I was until you kidnapped me!" Blu piped in response as he quickly tried to get up to try to open the door to get out. However, he tripped before he could even take two rapid steps.
"Kidnap?" She asked in surprise as she landed besides Blu. With a groan and an expression of defeat, Blu picked himself off the floor and was finally able to get a decent look at the Pegasus, as the first time he was too dumbfounded she was there to observe. The Pegasus was rather a delicate-looking one, white coat to couple with a pink mane and the tiniest, most innocent blue eyes Blu had ever seen. The long gazing between the two seemed to take its awkward toll, until finally Blu responded back.
"Yes, kidnap! I have no idea where I am," Blu said, as if he'd been violated in some way, which in his little mind he felt he was.
"Oh, I wasn't trying to hurt you...I was only trying to take care of you after you fainted...If that's okay..." The Pegasus offered timidly in response, her ears folding back as she retreated physically ever-so-slightly. Blu quickly took notice of this, and realize he was indeed pushing it a bit. After all, she'd only shown him hospitality and nothing less of it. Perhaps he did have the capacity to understand?
"A-alright, sorry. Can you just please tell me who you are and why I'm here?" Blu asked, his tone filled with annoyance but his mind equating to some understanding. The Pegasus lightly nodded, her position of fear unfurling slightly.
"I'm sorry little bird. I only wanted to help..." She said, her tone barely above a whisper. This struck Blu as unusual, but he didn't mind for the fact that he'd lived in a library for fifteen years in Minnesota. It wasn't like he wasn't used to such an idea of quiet voices.
"It's fine. My name's Blu," Blu said, his beak bending into a small, greeting smile.
"I'm Fluttershy..." The pony said with the sweetest smile Blu had ever seen forming on her face. Blu had to admit, he'd never seen a more timid and cute thing in his life. Animal Planet really didn't serve ponies justice, Blu noted to himself.
"So where exactly am I, again?" Blu asked as his gaze roved around the cottage he was in, which was organized in a neat fashion, which many different animals staring at the Spix macaw, which brought uneasy feelings upon Blu.
"Oh, you must be a Southern bird. You're in Ponyville," Fluttershy responded kindly, which was not taken into account by the macaw for the fact that he was baffled by two facts, one being the fact there could be a town called that, and two that it was likely not in any considerable range of Rio de Janeiro, wherever 'Ponyville' was, exactly.
"Look, I'm real grateful for all your caring, but I'm a bit lost. One second I was happily living in Rio, and now I'm stuck in...?" Blu hesitated, not exactly remembering the name of this town word-for-word, but Fluttershy was more than happy to correct.
"Ponyville?" Fluttershy said with a sweet smile that looked smooth as silk.
"Yeah. Now excuse me, I need to get going," Blu continued as he prepared to take off before the door closed, confusing the Spix macaw slightly.
"Why such a hurry?" Fluttershy asked with her whisper-like tone and a cheery smile. Blu rolled his eyes, the cheerful attitude now starting to get on his nerves.
"Well, the last thing I remember was being attacked by a monster, so I have good reason to be in a hurry," Blu stated back rather skeptically with a frown. At the mention of 'monster', Fluttershy quickly let out a small shriek and ducked under the bed Blu had just been residing in. Blu cocked his head lightly, confused as to what offended the Pegasus.
"...D...did you say...m-monster?" Fluttershy asked with a shivering tone, her trembling eyes the only visible part of her from the macaw's standpoint.
"...Uhh, I guess?" Blu answered in a confused tone.
"Oh my...sounds serious." The timid Pegasus sighed as she began to crawl out from under the bed.
"You're telling me...Look, thanks for everything! I'm going to try and figure out where I am," Blu said with a cheery tone and smile faked perfectly. Before the Spix could make it to the door, however, Fluttershy was able to fly in front of him.
"Wait! You don't have to leave. After all, you are a guest...If that's alright with you..." Fluttershy offered lightly, when oddly enough a group of birds crowded around Blu, which left him in a sea of beaked smiles staring at him. Blu glanced around at all the birds, a look of confusion, then fear, and finally a small smile formed as he reached out his claw to greet these birds.
"Look, I'd love to stay, but I'm trying to find my friends." Blu responded with a slightly annoyed tone. This Pegasus was starting to get on his last nerves...
"You lost your friends? Oh my..." Fluttershy gasped in a concerned tone. Blu nodded slowly in return, trying to mask his annoyed feelings.
"Well, I'm going to try and find them. See ya!" Blu said with a smile as he attempted to navigate himself around Fluttershy. However, the Pegasus wasn't fact, she seemed to be hesitating a bit, as if...
"Uh oh...don't tell me you're going to sing a song..." Blu sighed, knowing the signs of Fluttershy's expression changing was a sure sign of...
"Can't you stay a while? There's things for me to show..."
Blu sighed, clearly aware he was going to have to play along with the timid Pegasus. After all, if it got him out of here, it was fine by him.
"I can't stay much longer, I really have to goooooooo," Blu sang in a slightly out-of tune voice – he wasn't prepared to sing today.
"A few more minutes, no more than four?" continued Fluttershy.
"All this flying and confusion are making my wings sore!"
"Please, be our guest! Friendship and caring, we are best!"
"I'm not staying; give it a rest,
"Because while I'm not the one for complaining,
"My friends' fates, I'm still awaiting!" sang Blu.
"You don't have to stay for a while,
"we'll bend that beak into a smile!" smiled Fluttershy.
"There's so much time, but yet so little,
"Only time to find my friends, no time for drivel!" noted Blu.
"I have so many friends for you to meet!" offered Fluttershy.
"This is a catastrophe for me, not a meet and greet!"
"Birds of a feather stick together!"
"Please, that's a tired phrase!"
"You are the guest, and I am the host-"
"Then let me out, that's what I want the most!
"Because I was kidnapped, and you're the one to blame!
"I don't know why, don't know how, but I'm really not tame!" complained Blu.
"Stop denying, it's as clear as the bell that rings!
"I just keep telling you, I didn't kidnap a thing!" denied Fluttershy.
"Even then, you're MAKING! ME! SING!" pointed out Blu, as he concluded the song.
"Oh, was I making you sing?...Sorry..." Fluttershy whimpered, her ears folding back to her head as she lowered her head in self-apparent shame. Blu groaned in response, but then softened his expression a bit.
"It's fine. Can I just leave now? I really need to find my friends...and my mate," Blu muttered as he thought of what could've happened to his friends, Jewel the most. He loved her dearly, and if anything were to happen to her... Blu couldn't imagine what he'd do.
"Oh dear, you lost your mate?" Fluttershy asked, her expression quickly flipping to panic.
"Yes," Blu said in response with a roll of his eyes. Blu couldn't help but feel that this conversation was grating.
"Then we should go find her! No creature should be separated from their mate!" Fluttershy exclaimed, or at least what was an exclamation in her mind. To Blu, it was a simple statement, which also happened to be the obvious sort to the Spix macaw.
"Yeah, way ahead of you..." Blu answered in a bored tone, attempting to take the conversation into a direction of his favor, as in finding Jewel, and then getting the heck out of this place.
"Then let's go find her! We can't let you two be apart for another second!" Fluttershy said urgently as she fluttered past Blu quickly, leaving Blu's expression to turn to annoyance.
"It took a song for you to figure that out?" Blu asked with a single flap of his wings as he took off after the timid Pegasus.
The door to the Carousel Boutique swung wide open, glowing with a blue aurora, as Rafael watched with a confused expression as the formerly-energetic fillies near him seemed to be cowering from the aggrevated-looking, dripping-wet white mare that now stood before the group. This was Rarity...probably, Rafael deduced.
"Girls, would any of you like to tell me who thought it'd be hilarious to prank me?" Rarity asked, her face full of steaming anger, as if ready to explode open. It was only clear after a second that Scootaloo was now sporting an incredibly-wide and nervous grin.
"Uhh...Pinkie Pie?" The orange filly suggested, her tone shaky and obvious of her disguising of her action. Rafael let out a small chuckle as soon as he realized what was about to happen.
"You girls really do need to learn when you're caught red-hooved," Rarity stated with a motherly tone to her voice, as if scolding children. Then again, she technically was.
"But I didn't do it! It was all Scootaloo's idea!" Sweetie Belle whined objectionably. The two other fillies then exchanged dumbfounded expressions and then turned to Sweetie Belle of looks of disbelief.
"That's a load'a hay if I've ever known one! You were totally part of it, Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. As the three fillies argued, Rarity simply watched with a plain expression, simply wondering when the three would realize they were all to blame, while the toucan simply sat and watched with the same beaked grin graced across his face.
"I'm not sure whether to be confused, or to be entertained!" Rafael piped over to Rarity, expecting a casual response. Instead, however, Rarity's eyes flung open as she quickly spun her head to meet Rafael's gaze.
"...Did that bird just talk?" Rarity asked, her voice lined with a familiar sound of shock and fear.
"Pelo amor de Deus, why does everyone keep asking that?" Rafael asked with an annoyed tone.
"Maybe it's because birds don't talk? ...not in these parts, at least," Apple Bloom offered, as the three fillies had suddenly taken back their attention to Rarity and Rafael.
"How is this even possible! Birds aren't supposed to talk!" Rarity suddenly exclaimed, sounding more immature now than the fillies she'd been scolding a moment ago.
"Well, apparently we can talk!" Rafael said with a laugh as he lifted himself off the ground and landed on Rarity's back, before she quickly shook the toucan off frantically.
"Get away! Who knows what kind of...things made you talk?" Rarity said with an odd sound of fear streaking her voice; at least, what Rafael could think was fear, considering her accent was so odd to him he could make out about half of her words. However, his mind was more focused on the fact of the confusion over him talking.
"Eita! Is it suddenly so wrong for a bird to have a perfectly handsome set of vocal chords?" Rafael asked, his voice sounding in a huff but graced with a hint of a chuckle. Frankly, Rarity was so baffled at this point she couldn't respond properly for a few solid seconds.
"It is when that bird starts talking. I don't know where you came from, but in Equestria it isn't exactly normal for a bird to talk," Rarity explained rather in a lecture-like tone.
"Equestria? What kind of place is named 'Equestria'?" Rafael asked, his voice frazzled with confusion and a touch of baffled feel.
"A place where birds don't talk," Rarity responded rather quickly with a knowing smile that usually graced her pretty young face.
"Aye caramba! You amigas are loco!" Rafael exclaimed, clearly annoyed by the cynical mare speaking to him at this point. Quickly, Rarity then turned her attention back to the three fillies, who were just as confused as her.
"Girls, would you mind telling me where you found this thing?" Rarity eeked out, putting extra emphasis on 'thing'.
"Hey, I'm a bird!" Rafael corrected, obviously a bit peeved by the comment.
"...Bird..." Rarity said with a groan escaping her mouth soon after this forced correction.
"Well, we found him just layin' here a bit ago." Apple Bloom started, oddly pointing to the spot where they indeed found the toucan a few moments ago, or, at least close to it.
"Yeah, and he's going to help us get our Cutie Marks!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed cheerfully and excitedly. However, Rarity was a bit more skeptical of this.
"Really? Pardon me for asking, but how exactly is a bird going to help you get your Cutie Marks?" Rarity asked, the aforementioned skeptical tone gracing her accent like a seasoning over steak.
"Well...it seemed like a good idea..." Sweetie Belle muttered quietly, kicking at the dirt with her hoof realizing it sounded a lot dumber when her sister put it that way.
"We were going to bring him to Twilight and have her tell him all about Cutie Marks!" Scootaloo exclaimed, looking ready to carry out this plan.
"Really girls? Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for something you're going to get eventually, besides the fact that you're trusting...well, a bird for advice on getting your Cutie Marks," Rarity explained rather diligently. The three Crusaders rolled their eyes in near unison at the disapproval of their genius idea, while Rafael was planted with an annoyed expression.
"You have something against birds?" Rafael asked, rather annoyed by the patronizing he was being blasted with by this pony.
"I do when they start talking. Come to think of it, how can you talk?" Rarity asked.
"...Do I have to run through the whole 'opening mouth' logic again?" Rafael said with a roll of his eyes and a chuckle.
"I'm not going to stand by and let myself get smart-talked by a bird." Rarity fired back with a stern expression, suddenly heated into the conversation.
"It's not my fault you don't get it," Rafael said with a smile, perfectly, one hundred-percent aware he was annoying the unicorn. Clearly, Rarity was blowing her top.
"What was that? Is this your idea of talking to a lady?" Rarity asked, now breaking out a rare glare from her arsenal of expressions.
"Nothing, mi señora bonita," Rafael responded with a smirk and a laugh.
"I don't even know what that means!" Rarity said with a frown as she stomped her hoof down in apparent anger. However, she couldn't help but wonder what the toucan had even said to her anyway. Fancier talk, perhaps.
"Guh, this is pointless! Can't we just go to Twilight and get this over with?" The always easily-annoyed Scootaloo groaned. All of the arguing was clearly going nowhere in the Cutie Mark Crusader's tasks. After all, they were an important group, right?
"Why? This is too much fun!" Rafael said with a laugh and a wide grin only capable of a toucan. Rarity, now simply annoyed by the toucan, simply let her expression deflate into a resounding groan combined with an extremely annoyed expression.
"...Let's just get this over with." Rarity said with a sigh as she began to walk off in the direction of the tree that Twilight Sparkle resided in.
"You heard my sis! Let's go!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed excitedly as she headed off after Rarity, followed by the other Crusaders.
"...This is the last time I agree to drink something out of a Styrofoam cup from the seagulls..." Rafael mumbled as he opened up his wings and flew after the 'crazy horses'.
Meanwhile, Sugarcube Corner was finally peaceful once more after the odd occurrence of a bird crash-landing into a Pegasus had passed. However, this quiet was quickly ended as soon as two small figures flew down into the street and began wailing wildly.
"AH! EVERYTHING'S ALL GIRLY!"
"RUN, AMIGO!"
Everypony's attention was quickly drawn to the two insane birds that suddenly fired through the middle of Sugarcube Corner like firecrackers into the sky.
As you may have been able to decipher, this was Pedro and Nico, reacting to the 'girly' place they'd realized they were in.
"Look man, I don't know how we got here, but I wanna get out!" Pedro exclaimed with clear terror in his voice as he grabbed his canary bud, who shared a mutual expression of terror.
"You think I wanna stay? Everything's all pink and stuff! It's like some bubblegum nightmare!" Nico chimed-in as the two buds clung to each other, sharing the same look of terror as they watched random ponies simply pass by, some shooting confused glances at the two birds.
"Look, we ain't ganna get anywhere sittin' here! Let's get our tails outta here!" Pedro exclaimed, trying to mask his terror by pasting a determined expression and tone on.
"Amigo, we don't know where to go. We're stuck in...in...Girlytown!" Nico said, his voice teeming with fear far surpassing fear he'd felt before as he grabbed Pedro by the wings and tugged him back and forth at every word to emphasis his point. Pedro shook his head with a fake grin, and then turned to look around at the town in front of them. Of course, as Nico had stated, the place looked like a girl designed it. Everything was cutesy, colorful, and frankly too adorable for Pedro's tastes. Heck, even the ponies looked too cute for their own good; at least, Pedro thought they were ponies.
"C'mon, let's ask for directions! Ain't reliable as GPS, but they're just as weird!" Pedro said with a laugh as he motioned one wing towards a random direction, the other embracing Nico, who glanced at his cardinal friend with a confused expression.
"...What are we looking at?" Nico asked, to which Pedro groaned and then more specifically pointed his wing tip towards a pony not too far away from them. In fact, it was a group of ponies. One was a delightfully-pink pony with a pink hide and a puffed-out mane to match, another was a purple-hued one, and seemed to have a horn on their head, and the last was an Earth-colored pony, who oddly enough was wearing a cowboy hat.
"...Weird sense of fashion..." Pedro muttered with a confused expression. Of course, the bottle cap-wearing canary quickly shot a glare towards Pedro, who then smiled sheepishly.
"Oh...right..." Pedro said with an embarrassed smile directed towards the insulted Nico.
"Yeah...right..." Nico stated, first with an aggravated tone, but then quickly flipping to a laugh as a grin formed on the canary's beak.
"C'mon! Let's get out of this horse town," Nico said as he made his way over to the group of ponies Pedro had pointed out. Without making a sound, the two small birds landed down on the back of the pink mare with innocent expressions, and then slowly began to whistle.
"So, you know how to speak horse?" Pedro whispered over with a confused expression. Nico glanced at his cardinal buddy in equal confusion.
"What? Horse is a dialect?" Nico asked with bewilderment clear in his voice.
"Of course it is, man! Horses don't speak bird! Now talk to her!" Pedro urged, pushing Nico toward what he could only assume was this pony's head.
"But I can't speak horse, amigo! I'm a bird!" Nico exclaimed with a look of terror gracing his expression. Pedro simply snickered at his friend's stage-fright.
"C'mon, bud! Scared of a little, pink horsie? Can't you speak a bit of pony-ish?" Pedro asked as he hesitated to think of what language ponies would speak.
"I can speak Pony-ish!" A loud voice suddenly rang into Pedro's ear drums, when he suddenly turned around to see the bright, blue, beaming eyes of the exact pink pony they were standing on. Pedro and Nico would've thought about how she could've possibly spun around so that her head was on the end Pedro was on, but the two chose instead to, of course-
"AHH!"
-shriek in terror.
The initial shock quickly knocked the birds off the pink pony, and both landed in the dirt on the ground, both grabbing each other like some men and their dogs.
"Hey! Are you two okay?" The same pink shape asked quickly and energetically with a wide grin.
"H-h-how did you did that?" Pedro asked in shock, while Nico still sat frozen with wide eyes.
"Oh, that's easy! I just turned around!" The pony giggled in response. Both birds couldn't help but notice the pure glow of energy this pony seemed to be omitting. All the energy and laughter that seemed to reek off the pony was ridiculous. Frankly, this procession of confusing events caused by this pony left both birds stuttering, trying to figure out a suitable response.
"...So uh, what are you ponies doin' right here?" Pedro asked half-casually, still shaken by the fact he was talking to a pink pony...
"Oh, we were just talking to some crazy bird!" The pink pony responded cheerfully with a laugh. However, it seemed Pedro and Nico took offense to that.
"Hey! Who you callin' 'crazy'?" Nico asked with a half-glare, his expression still traced with terror. Instead of reacting any other way but happy, however, the pony giggled in response.
"...Well you are talkin' to a pony," Pedro muttered with a sly grin which he thought was under his breath, but the death glare on Nico's face assured the canary heard loud and clear.
"I'm not talking about you, silly! There's this other bird here that's talking about coming from another universe! Ha, crazy," The pink pony giggled and laughed out as she motioned with her hoof in circles, a symbolic representation of 'cuckoo'.
"Yeah, funny you say that," Nico chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck as if embarrassed to admit to the same situation as this 'crazy bird'.
"Ooh! Lemme guess! You're from another universe too!" The mare exclaimed excitedly with a wide, cheery grin. Nico and Pedro, still confused and somewhat frightened by this pink pony, both glanced bug-eyed at each other and then glanced back at the pony and nodded slowly.
"This is great! I get to throw three parties now!" She cheered as she suddenly pulled a balloon out of nowhere and blew it up until it fired off the pony's mouth and zoomed into the air. Both birds sat amazed, unsure at how to respond to any of what was just said by the pony. However, something in the head of both birds' heads clicked when the word 'party' was spoken. In fact, this seemed to be the case most times a party was involved. However, the two birds didn't want to tempt anything with a pink pony that was anything but normal.
"Yeah...that's kinda our problem," Nico muttered, rubbing the back of his head nervously. After all, talking to a pink pony wasn't exactly easy in any sense of the word. Nico suddenly jumped when he felt something on the back of his head, and then realized it was his nerves getting the best of him, as it was simply his bottle cap. Pedro, meanwhile, chuckled at his friend's nervousness.
"Good start, Casanova. C'mon, ya ain't askin' her to the prom!" Pedro exclaimed with a witty tone and grin to boot. Nico, trying hard not to lose his cool, then spun back around to glancing at the mare in front of them.
"Excuse us a sec..." Nico said with a well-made smile and his tone sticking.
"Okey-dokey-lokey!" The pony responded cheerfully with a smile sweeter than honey. Nico spun back around to face Pedro, his face now a glare. The canary then grabbed the cardinal and brought the two into an odd two bird-huddle.
"Look, let's just play our cards right here. This is a pony! We can tell her we're kings or somethin'!" Nico started, refraining from smacking Pedro from his comment earlier. Something held him back, perhaps the need to just seem cute and charming.
"...But we ain't playin' poker!" Pedro objected. Nico groaned in annoyance, and then broke the huddle.
"Look, just follow my lead," Nico whispered with a straight expression. Somehow, that line seemed familiar to Pedro.
Nico fluttered back up to eye-level with the mare, and then plastered his best smile across his face.
"Back!" The canary exclaimed, the smile becoming tight on his small beak.
"Oh, hiya! I kind of figured you'd be back after you said you could tell me you're kings! Are you two kings, by the way?" She asked, full cheerfulness intact throughout along with a sweet smile. Nico almost dropped his wings and fell to the ground in shock, but he only managed out a wide-eyed expression, and turned around to face Pedro, who had a similar expression already occupying his beak. In response, Pedro only mustered a shrug.
"Well uh.. yeah!" Pedro piped-up, then receiving an expression from Nico that clearly read as 'SHUT UP'. However, Nico had already been dug into a hole, and it was time to dig out...
"Y-yeah! We're the most respected birds in all of our...kingdom!" Nico stuttered, trying to maintain a non-nervous expression and tone. Pedro then flapped up to Nico and decided to follow it up.
"Yeah, we fight the fight!" Pedro exclaimed, having suddenly armed himself with a stick and smacking Nico on the head, the impact with his bottle cap hat resounding with a rather noticeable clink.
"Ow!...I mean, yeah! We walk the walk!" Nico responded back, a wide grin forming as he quickly responded back by swiping his bottle cap off his head and smacking Pedro back. The two suddenly delved into a fight between bottle cap and stick, as they dueled with precision and...some sort of grace. The pink pony simply watched with the same huge smile, enjoying the show she was suddenly being provided with.
Quickly, Nico jabbed his bottle cap forward towards Pedro like it was Excalibur itself, and it made solid contact into the red cardinal's...rather buxom gut. Pedro was quickly dis-armed thanks to the impact, and before he could react in any shape or form, Pedro found himself pinned to the ground by Nico and his bottle cap, a grin across both of their faces.
"And we always, uhh...eat the food like a celery stalk?" Pedro said, his tone diminishing in its normalcy once he realized how lame he'd made the whole rhyme. Instead of pointing this out however, the two simply made rather cheesy stances to conclude their act. The pony, who'd watched the whole time contently, was already on the ground in stitches laughing.
"That was hilarious! It was almost like you were actually acting out a bad sword duel!" She exclaimed in laughter. The two birds, now just plain wanting explanation, simply took the comment in stride and kept their grins tight.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Nico the Great." Nico said with a grin, and his best attempt at a dignified tone, which would come off as bad to a bird or pony who was familiar with acting.
"I'm Pedro the...Pedro the...Oh, Pedro the Greater!" Pedro said with wide grin and extra emphasis on his apparent 'higher status' to Nico.
"Hey! That ain't fair!" Nico objected, whining like a spoiled little kid.
"Then you can be my butler, Whimpy!" Pedro responded with a chuckle at his own brand of humor. Nico growled angrily, now losing his patience with his 'best bud', if he still could be considered such after this ordeal.
"If we're still playing, can I be Princess Celestia?" The mare offered suddenly, dropping her head down to ground with a grin.
"Wait...what?" Pedro asked, his expression filled with confusion (His expression had been filled to the brim with that today).
"She's a great princess, right?"
"Look, I'll come clean! We're just normal birds, from this place called Rio de Janeiro! We wanna get home. Can you PLEASE help us?" Nico shrieked, his voice filled with clear insanity and his expression broken wide-open into a crazed, wild look.
"Of course I'll help! I knew you were normal birds the whole time!" The puffy-haired pony responded with a smile. It was now Pedro's turn to don a wild-eyed expression, only this one focused in shock.
"Wait, you knew we were normal birds?" Pedro asked in shock.
"Of course, silly! The author just wanted to see how long he could drag the scene out!" The mare giggled, the same pink pony that'd be receiving a note about her contract later that day...
"Wait, what?" Nico asked (or rather, screamed), with such a hoarse tone that he sounded unlike his normal, smooth self. This had been so mind-grating that he was losing his literally losing his mind and all sanity from this conversation.
"By the way, I'm Pinkie Pie!" The pony said with the same, mind-numbing, ear-sticking, cheery tone that gobbed through the two birds' brains the last 5 minutes as she reached out a welcoming hoof. Nico, who's left eye was wildly twitching, finally reached out a wing and then smiled with a smile that resembled one by a man by the name of 'Fred'.
"H-h-hi Pinkie Pie! I'm Nico!" Nico whispered with his still-hoarse voice as he slapped his wing on Pinkie's hoof . Pedro, however, somehow kept his sanity through this and slowly reached his wing and did the same with enthusiasm.
"Still Pedro right here!" Pedro exclaimed. Before the three could become any more acquainted, however, a voice from behind Pinkie Pie made itself heard to the two birds.
"Pinkie? What in the wide world of Equestria are you talking to?" The voice asked, the tone sounding quite knowledge and calm compared to the cheery and energy-filled one of this pink pony that had baffled the minds of Nico and Pedro.
"Oh, I'm just talking to my new friends!" Pinkie Pie responded, turning around and speaking to whoever the voice had belonged to. Pedro and Nico, already baffled by a good number of things in the last minute, weren't very surprised to then see a purple unicorn walk into view.
"Pinkie, those are birds. Normal birds," The purple pony said in a intellectual tone as she focused her glance on the two.
"Oh no, Twilight! They were just talking to me now! Honest!" Pinkie Pie objected, pointing her hoof over to Pedro and Nico, who both smiled awkwardly as their gazes met with the unicorn's.
"What is Pinkie rambling on about now?" Another voice piped-in from behind the two ponies, this one sounding much more brash and scratchy. This pony revealed herself to be a Pegasus, colored in a cyan, or cerulean of sorts, with eyes that looked to be filled with the color of a dark pink. The most noticeable attribute about this pony, however, was the color of her mane. As far as Nico and Pedro could see, this particular mare's mane was colored in a dazzling pattern of a rainbow.
"Woah, too cool!" Pedro exclaimed as he flapped up to eye level with the rainbow-maned Pegasus as he observed the cool-looking pony, who watched him with a confused expression the entire time.
"...Pinkie wasn't lying. That bird is talking too," The unicorn said in bewilderment, her mind obviously racing in-thought judging by her thoughtful expression. Meanwhile, the rainbow-maned pony was busy...being weirded out by the talking birds eying her. It oddly made her feel uncomfortable for some reason or another.
"Uh, Twilight, these guys are creeping me out," The Pegasus finally stated the obvious as the two birds then landed, with perplexed expressions.
"We're weirding you out? You're the blue pony with wings and a rainbow mane!" Pedro said with a wide grin, before his eyes quickly meet with the dilated and fiery glare of two pink eyes.
"And what's that supposed to mean, chump?" She fired back, now suddenly deep into the conflict as if Pedro and her had been enemies for decades.
"Who you callin' chump, chump?" Pedro responded back with a cocky grin as he came dangerously close to poking the pony with his beak. The Pegasus was about ready to show the cardinal a thing or two, but luckily for the two birds a certain purple pony intervened.
"Break it up, Rainbow Dash, and talking bird." The unicorn spoke up, and without warning Pedro felt himself being tugged backwards, likely by Nico. Pedro was about ready to turn around and shove Nico away from him, when he suddenly met with an odd sight.
Nico was a good 5 feet behind him.
"What the? AHH! I'm bein' possessed!" Pedro shrieked in terror, as he quickly began trying to flap his wings in desperation and fear at his levitation.
"Relax! It's only Twilight!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a laugh, nodding her head over towards the purple pony, who's horn was oddly glowing in a purple aurora.
"Uhh, what does vampires got to do with this?" Nico asked, rather confused by the notion.
"Vampire nothin'! How's she doin' that!" Pedro said, his voice still clearly marked with terror, the pony in question then shooting him a confused glance.
"What do you mean? Haven't you ever seen a unicorn before?" Twilight asked, her tone not much interrogative, but rather a "matter-of-factually" tone.
"No, but I've seen three talking ponies talkin' crazy talk," Pedro mumbled what he believed was under his breath. Unfortunate for him however, a certain unicorn heard him and he quickly dropped to the ground like a lead weight. The cyan pony then let out a laugh at the cardinal's expense.
"So, mind tellin' us where the heck we are?" Nico asked, staring off across the dozens of paths that crossed through the center of Ponyville that surrounded them. However, the canary received confused expressions all around, including yet another pony that appeared from behind the three, this one being the one donning the cowboy hat.
"What the hay is a 'heck'?" The blue Pegasus asked with a confused expression as she slowly hovered off the ground. This expression was shared along with the rest of the ponies.
"Look, we'd love to stay in Freakietown, but we gotta get back to Rio de Janeiro-" Nico muttered with a rash smile, ready to soar off to search for where he and Pedro came from, even though he had no idea if they'd be able to find Rio at this point. However, the purple-hued pony quickly cut him short.
"Wait, did you say 'Rio de Janeiro'?" She asked with a thoughtful tone with a matched expression. Both Pedro and Nico glanced at each other with odd expressions, and then stared back at the unicorn with terrified looks.
"Uh...yeah?" Pedro said hesitantly. They were afraid something was about to be revealed. It always turned out that way, the two figured.
"Well that's odd. We just found another talking bird a minute ago who said the same thing," Twilight Sparkle said, her expression twisted into confusion. It was all too coincidental, she figured. Then again, that's what she thought about the Pinkie Sense a while back.
"Wait, is that the crazy bird Big Pink was talkin' about?" Pedro quickly asked, his tone brightening. The cardinal was always up to see some insane-bird action.
"Big Pink?" The Pegasus muttered, her tone patched with a 'weirded-out' tone clear.
"...Uh, sure. If that's what Pinkie calls it." Twilight Sparkle answered, with a mutual confused expression shared with the Pegasus.
"I wanna see! I wanna see!" Pedro exclaimed excitedly as he quickly sped up to see beyond the ponies in front to see the 'crazy bird' he'd been craving to see. In the heat of his excitement, he quickly landed on the brim of the earth-colored pony and shoved it off in a frenzy of movement.
"Excuse me?" The pony spoke up, her voice marked with a Southern-drawl. Of course, Pedro could tell thanks to the many movies he'd seen with characters of such an accent...or rather, how Blu would point such stereotypes out.
"You're excused, valley girl!" Pedro answered back cheerfully with an excited grin on his face as he clamored up the cowpony's hat. As anypony would suspect, this small comment prompted a large frown on the pony's face.
"Man, I can't wait to see this crazy bird! She's probably all mangled and frothin' at the mouth!" Nico said with a big grin on his face as he fluttered up next to Pedro atop the pony's hat. As soon as they peered their little peepers over, however, both of their eyes were shot back like a cannonball in shock.
After all, who would've expected that 'crazy bird' to be a cerulean macaw?
"...JEWEL?" Both small birds yelped in shock. This received a clod of dirt to the face of both birds, courtesy of the aforementioned macaw.
"That's for calling me crazy," Jewel stated rather bluntly. However, the situation was quickly lightened as soon as Pedro jumped down to Jewel and hugged her with crushing force.
"Jewel! You're alive!" Pedro cheered gleefully as he continued his hug, this one being one of the bigger hugs he'd given. Given his size, that was saying quite a bit.
"Yeah! We thought you were dead!" Nico followed-up with a equally-large grin to Pedro's.
"Seriously. He ain't jokin'," Pedro stated rather seriously with a grim expression to boot. Meanwhile, the ponies were busy looking on with confused spirits and expressions to boot.
"Wait, you two know her?" Twilight quickly asked, now more confused than before.
"Unfortunately, yes," Jewel mumbled under her breath as the hugs continued to be handed out by the canary and cardinal.
"Yeah! We all come from Rio, land of...well, where we came from!" Pedro exclaimed, now running out of catchphrases to spout out.
"Pardon me, but is this 'Rio' some sort of snow country?" The southern-accented pony asked with a confused look. Nico quickly popped a smile on and went on with his schtick, one that always included his charm to it.
"It's the place where we came from! Land of sun, sand, and all the paradise a bird - or horse - could want!" Nico beamed with a smile wide across his rather small head. However, the 'horses' seemed less convinced.
"...We're ponies..." The cyan-colored Pegasus said with a hardened expression. Of course, that was hard to do with rosey eyes, but it usually worked anyways.
"Besides, you forgot the part about poachers and killer cockatoos," Jewel said with a sarcastic smirk. Nico glanced back with a look of confusion of why his friend was bringing his ship down.
"'Sides that, it's a pretty cool place," Nico added, trying to salvage his point best he could.
"Where exactly is this Rio place anyway?" The cyan-colored pony asked, still continuing to flap above the other ponies.
"Well...that was kinda what we were ganna ask," Nico said with a embarrassed laugh as he tugged on his wing in the same tense.
"Like I already told Jewel, I have no idea where this place called 'Rio' is. None of it shows up in any geographical records of Equestria." Twilight Sparkle fired out, her intellectual tone drowning Nico and Pedro's intellect by a country mile, both of them exchanging baffled expressions. Finally, Jewel let out a groan.
"That means that it isn't on any maps of wherever we are..." Jewel explained, feeling like a college professor speaking to monkeys as she explained. Quickly, the two smaller birds' expressions flipped to concern.
"Isn't on maps? Does that mean, Rio de Janeiro doesn't exist anymore?" Nico shouted, his expression and tone showing pure terror.
"Not exactly," Twilight said with a confused expression as she witnessed the canary meltdown.
"Yeah!...Wait, then what does it mean?" The pink pony asked, her expression then flipping from cheerful to pure confused. However, this inquiry was interrupted by a call from a ways away.
"Twilight!"
The purple unicorn turned in the direction of the call in response, to clearly see the figure of Rarity running towards the huge group already-formed, only this time there could be seen the three 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' trailing behind, and a passing toucan, oddly enough. Twilight noted this was odd for Ponyville, as the closest toucans nearby resided in the Canterlot Gardens,and Fluttershy's residence.
"Oh, hi Rarity! Why are you in such a hurry?" Twilight Sparkle asked with a pondering expression. It was indeed odd for Rarity to be in such a hurry to talk to Twilight, unless it was for something fashion-related. This was not often, obviously.
"I was just finishing up some dresses when the girls here found this very odd toucan in front of my boutique," Rarity said with a hesitation, trying to not call the toucan by any other name.
"Toucan...wait a minute..." Jewel stated aloud, her tone quickly showing her annoyance and realization of who this mysterious bird was.
Before the fillies could point out the other talking bird, the toucan aforementioned appeared as it flapped out from behind Rarity, and looked around with a confused expression.
"Wait, so there's more of you?" The toucan asked, his tone rather puzzled.
"Is that...Raf?" Nico quickly said with a lightening expression as he glanced over at the toucan, realizing the looks were all too apparent to ignore. It was indeed-
"Rafy! You're alive!"
Both Nico and Pedro bolted over to Rafael with huge smiles gracing their face as they pounced onto the toucan, prompting a laugh from Rafael as he accepted the huge hugs from the canary and cardinal.
"Wait...ya'll tellin' me you birds know that there toucan too?" The southern-toned pony asked with a expression well-used throughout the last few minutes; confusion.
"Know 'em? We've known 'em for years!" Nico said with a laugh, overjoyed with the reappearance of all of their friends. However, he couldn't help but feel that someone was missing.
"This is uncanny! How can all you birds, all talking birds no less, know each other?" Twilight asked with bewilderment and surprise gracing her tone. This happened often, and clearly this conversation took part in that percentage.
"Birds of a feather stick together, don't ya know?" Pedro answered simply, not realizing his explanation...well, was not one at all.
"That doesn't exactly explain why ya'll can talk, or why you know each other, for that matter," the southern pony (her name was Applejack, so now you know) noted.
"The same can be said for you ponies," Jewel piped-in, her monotone and bored tone still present.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" The Pegasus asked quickly and rather obnoxiously as she pushed her face right into the blue macaw's.
"From where we come from, you guys don't exactly talk or exist," Jewel fired back, her tone sounding more competitive now.
"I'll show you who doesn't exist!" The pony fired back, shoving her face into the macaw's.
"Dash, you're arguin' with a bird," Applejack said with a small smirk. 'Dash' then groaned with an annoyed expression at Jewel, and then folded her hooves in defeat.
"...Fine."
"Is anypony else here as confused as I am?" Twilight asked rather bluntly.
"I got lost after one bird talked. Now there's four?" Rarity said with a weirded-out expression across her face.
"I hate to break up the reunion, but aren't me minus one amigo?" Nico stated rather confused, when all four birds finally realized after a quick second of thinking.
"BLU!" All four said in unison.
"Quick! We gotta find Blu, pronto!" Pedro exclaimed as the four birds quickly scattered around in a frantic search of their friend.
Meanwhile, the ponies just sat, watching the birds in confusion as they scurried around like frightened ants.
"What are they looking for?" The cyan Pegasus asked, a more annoyed look on her face than a confused one at this point.
"Ay think they said somethin' 'bout the color blue," Applejack offered, her face just about the same degree of confusion as everypony else.
"What about the sky? That's blue!" The cheery, bubble gum-colored pony suggested.
"No no, you got it all wrong. Blu's my mate," Jewel said with clear annoyance with the ponies clear in her expression and voice.
"You lost your mate?" Twilight Sparkle asked with an odd expression.
"Yes, didn't I tell you this a minute ago?" Jewel responded.
"Yeah, but we were kinda still getting over the 'talking bird' thing," The Pegasus responded with a clever grin.
"What's there to get over? I don't know what planet you ponies come from, but it sure ain't ours," Pedro remarked, still finding it hard to get around the fact that he was talking to neon-colored ponies (who could talk back, no less).
"Right back at you. Now, let's find this bird's mate before-" Twilight began to try and rally her friends, old or rather new, before another pony came into the fray.
"Twilight! Twilight!"
Into view came yet another Pegasus, this one sporting a yellow coat and a pink mane, with blue eyes that astounded even Jewel in how bright they were. Then again, stress contributed to eye color fading, but she had yet to care.
"What is it, Fluttershy?" Twilight Sparkle asked, her voice filled to the brim in concern.
"Something awful has happened! Just awful!" Fluttershy said with a same degree of concern. The Pegasus turned around, revealing on her back a rather familiar bird, in fact, even Jewel was close to realizing it.
"My poor friend Blu here lost his mate. We need to find her before the poor little bird feels worse," Fluttershy stated with all emotions showing concern. After all, it was in her spirit to love and care for her animal friends.
"This is really unnecessary. I'm sure I'll be able to find her by flying around wherever this-" Blu stopped dead in his tracks, as he suddenly caught his gaze onto a blue bird. In fact, it was a particular blue bird. It was-
"JEWEL!" Blu exclaimed, his usually-timid eyes bursting open into a joyous glow.
"Blu!" Jewel said back, her eyes widening in surprise and relief at seeing her loveable mate.
"Blu!" Both Pedro and Nico shouted as the four quickly flapped towards each other and embraced. Somehow, across a whole different universe, they had ended up back together. Problem was, there was ponies that somehow got involved.
"What just happened?" The cyan Pegasus asked with a confused expression, matching the other five ponies had.
"Seems like all these birds know each other," Twilight Sparkle suggested, her confused expression turning to a tad admirable for the cute display in front of the mares.
"Of course! We've known each other for quite a while!" Rafael said with a laugh, the memories of last Carnival still clear in his mind, the same time that Blu arrived and ended up bringing the five birds together as good friends.
"Pardon me Mr. Bird, but why aren't you joinin' in on that there group hug?" Applejack asked, to which the toucan grinned back.
"Amiga, I've had way too much of that stuff from my ninos to feel it again..." Rafael grinned.
"Either that, or he knows how powerful a hug from Pedro over here is," Nico commented, to which Pedro frowned at his smaller friend.
"Hey, no fat jokes!"
"I suppose talking birds aren't exactly abnormal from where you come from?" Rarity asked, her eyebrow perked.
"Look, you aren't exactly normal to us either. Let's please look past that so we can have an actual conversation," Jewel groaned, quickly tossing a confused Blu off her to answer the white unicorn's proposal.
"How's about some small talk? Let's throw some names around!" Pedro exclaimed, apparently excited to make himself known to everyone (or everypony, whichever one you want to use).
"Oh, that's Nico the Great and Pedro the Greater! Kings of their kingdom!" The pink mare exclaimed proudly. This received two looks of nervousness from a cardinal and canary, and a glare from two macaws.
"Kings, huh?" Jewel asked skeptically, sharing a glare with her mate at the two.
"I ain't doubtin' it, but it doesn't sound like that's too true," Applejack commented.
"You're telling me. I'm Jewel." Jewel said, slapping a welcome smile on.
"Hi, I'm Blu!" Blu chimed-in, his tone clearly as warm and welcoming as it used to be.
"Oh, is that like a codename? Can I be Mr. Pink! Or is it Miss Pink?" The energetic, pink-colored pony said with excitement. This received a very frightened expression from Blu, along with a few grins from Rafael and Pedro.
"I'm guessing you know Pinkie Pie already." Twilight Sparkle said with a smile as she watched the pink pony bounce around. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."
"I'm Rainbow Dash! The fastest pony out of Cloudsdale!" The cyan Pegasus said with a smirk and a smug expression.
"Applejack's the name!" Applejack greeted.
"..my name's Fluttershy..." whispered Fluttershy.
"I'm Rarity, if you must know," said Rarity.
"Mi nombre es Rafael," said Rafael.
"...uh, can somepony tell me what that there bird said?" asked Applejack.
"That is to say, my name is Rafael," corrected Rafael, chuckling at the pony's confusion.
"So now that we have the introductions out of the way," started Blu, "can someone please point us to where Brazil might be?"
There was an awkward silence. Up to that point, everyone there but Blu knew that "Brazil" or "Rio de Janeiro" did not exist. Applejack broke the silence.
"Hate to break it to ya, pardner, but I never heard of Brazil," said Applejack.
"Ooh!" Pinkie Pie chimed in. "Isn't that the country that was in that one book with the bear? I heard someone's making a new one, with me and Twilight and-"
"It isn't in any geographical records, at any rate," said Twilight, sadly.
That did it. Blu had lost any sense of direction in wherever he was; Ponyland, was it? First, he found himself out of his paradise, then he saw that talking ponies, pegasi, and unicorns existed and talked, and now Brazil isn't even on the maps. It was too much for him. He started to tear up – something he hadn't done since he was a baby blue bird.
Noticing this, Pedro and Nico flew over to Blu's side and smiled.
"Aw, cheer up, Blu," said Nico. "We'll get through this...somehow."
"I'm- I'm alright," said Blu, nervously. "It's just – it's just that there's been so much to take in today. I don't know if I can handle it, especially considering that we're with colorful, talking equestrians."
"If we're going to handle it, we'll handle it together," suggested Nico. "It's not like we have anything else planned today."
Blu sighed, and said, "Alright. But we'll only stay as long as we need to."
He then flew up to the group of ponies, and said, "We'll stay in Ponyville for a while, but only until we can find a way back to Rio de Janiero."
"...but don't you want to stay...?" asked Fluttershy.
"As appealing as this place is, this isn't home," said Jewel, sadly.
"Alright," nodded Twilight. "We'll find a way to get you home, one way or another."
That day, no one was sure about what would happen with talking birds in Equestria, or with talking ponies with birds from another universe. Would they have many arguments, or would they remain calm? Where did Blu and his friends come from? This confusion was best summed up in Twilight Sparkle's latest letter to Princess Celestia:
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today, we encountered a group of talking birds who claim to be from another world. We're as confused as you may be, but we plan to get to the bottom of this. It sounds like they want to return to wherever they came from, but it'll be hard getting them back.
I will do some research as to where they came from and how to get them back. There may be some lessons in friendship to be had with our new acquaintances around.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle.
A/N: PHEW! FINALLY got this out!
Hope you enjoyed! I poured a ton of heart and soul into this, and after 2-3 months, I got this to you guys! I can only do this because you guys keep reading and showing your support! Keep commenting and reading, and I'll keep writing this story! Perhaps with even better pace next chapter around...xD
READ, COMMENT, REVIEW!
P.S.
Also must credit my best bud and Editor/Co-writer of this story Travis for finishing off the last bit of my story and editing the heck outta the story! Couldn't have done it without him, and I advise you to check some of his stories (TNelson711).